USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Extracts from the history of Cincinnati and the territory of Ohio, showing the trials and hardships of the pioneers in the early settlement of Cincinnati and the West > Part 5
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Captain Furguson
13
30 0
Uriah Gates
307
James Dument
25
37 6
John Terry
109
25 0
James Dument
50
37 6
Isaac Bates.
264
37 6
Daniel Kitchell
205
40 0
Isaac Bates.
265
30 0
Daniel Kitchell
206
30 0
Francis Kennedy
112
30 0
Robt. Moore 207
40 0
Daniel Bates.
195
30 0
Robt. Moore
208
40 0
Samuel Martin
41
30 0
Samuel Kitchel
209
Samuel Martin.
42
35 0
Judge Turner 183
37 6
John Coulson 261
30 0
Judge Turner
184
37 6
John Cummings
237
37 6
Robert Benham
62
John Gaston.
238
37 6
John Covert
85
J. Turner.
163
37 6
Robert Benham 126
- Heooleson
107
30 0
John Cummings
263
37 6
John Blanchard
16
45 0
James Lowry.
45
37 6
Casper Sheets
17
45 0
Ben. Voluntine
46
37 6
Nehemiah Hunt
68
Moses Burd.
170
37 6
Jonathan Davis.
288
Moses Burd.
171
60 0
Benjamin Flinn 289
John Adams
145
37 6
Benjamin Flinn 99
232
35 0
Nathan Danalds
97
37 6
William Hole
233
Nathan Danalds
98
37 6
Jonathan Davis.
235
Nathan Danalds.
72
37 6
Zebba Stibbins
194
40 0
Nathan Danalds
73
57 6
Daniel Hole. 231
60 0
Nicholas Johnston 122
37 6
Wm. McClure 13
Nicholas Johnston 123
37 6
John McClure.
14
George Murfey 47
37 6
Daniel McClure. 15
James Colwell
21
37 6
George McClure 16
Stephen Reeder
20
37 6
James McClure 17
Ben. Voluntine. 20
Mary McClure 18
John Adams
146
37 6
Darius Hole.
Jacob Tapping
130
35 0
Wm. McMillan 143
52 6
50
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI.
Price.
Price.
No.
S. P.
No.
S. P.
Robert Benham
3
60 0
John Riddle.
61
30 0
Joel Williams
2
60 0
James Wallace ..
60
30 0
James Dument
25
37 6
Henry Taylor
64
30 0
William Harris.
262
45 0
Mun Mcknight.
65
30 0
Nicholas Jones
149
30 0
Luther Kitchell
58
30 0
Nicholas Jones
150
30 0
Doctor Hole. 62
25 0
William Harris
ยท259
37 6
Doctor Hole .. 63
25 0
William Harris.
286
28 0
Doctor Hole.
66
30 0
William Harris.
229
60 0
Doctor Hole
67
30 0
Dr. Morrel ..
7
Robert Benham
17
Jonathan Davis.
256
35 0
Robert Benham
18
Jonathan Davis.
257
60 0
Robert Benham 39
25 0
Enos Terry.
121
80 0
Samuel Freeman
59
30 0
Jonathan Davis.
258
60 0
Daniel Hole.
233
60 0
Daniel Hole.
234
60 0
J. Phillips
10
4 00 0
William Harris.
285
John Hole
12
4 00 0
Uriah Gates
284
Niles Shaw.
178
6 15 0
Henry Mclaughlin ..
352
Captain John Munn.
201
Rev. James Kemper
19
4 00 0
Benj. Vancleave
63
$10
Henry Taylor, frac. range .. 7
4 00 0
Abraham Garrison
64
Samuel Freeman
228
Elijah Davis
358
$16
Captain Strong.
38
25 0
Jonathan Davis. 383
$16
Captain Pratt.
44
25 0
John Cheeck
288
William McClure
45
25 0
Elijah Davis.
356
60 0
George McClure
46
25 0
Jonathan Davis 381
60 0
Daniel McClure
50
25 0
William Beedle 279
7 00 9
John McClure.
51
25 0
John Dorough. 376
James Scott
52
25 0
A soldier. 267
Ziba Stibbins.
196
60 0
Levi Woodward.
22
35 0
Ziba Stibbins.
169
60 0
Seth Cutter
40
25 0
Samuel Freeman. 203
52 6
James Blackburn.
41
25 0
Bethuel Kitchel
156
37 6
Samuel Freeman.
42
30 0
William Beedle.
277
60 0
Lieutentent Ford.
36
25 0
Elijah Davis ..
224
75 0
Henry Reed.
43
30 0
James Pursley.
289
$ 9
Colonel W. Sargent.
37
25 0
David Scott
315
17
James Burns
35
30 0
Adam Funk.
317
17
John Riddle.
47
25 0
William Hedger.
339
9
Isaacs Bates.
35
25 0
Abraham Ritcheson
292
10
Samuel & Matthias Pierson
15
Henry Atcheson.
213
14
John Cumming.
54
5 25 0
William Diven
160
4
Daniel Shoemaker
48
25 0
Isaac Bates .. 58
28 6
Benjamin Van Cleave
56
25 0
Jonathan Mercer 264
$20
John Riddle.
55
25 0
Jonathan Mercer 265
20
Samuel Kitchell.
49
25 0
Richard Benham 268
16
Lieutentent Kingsbury.
57
25 0
Richard Benham. 269
16
60 0
William Beedle
53
25
William Harris .. 262
Frances Kennedy
5
51
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI.
Price.
Price.
No.
S. P.
No.
S. P.
Garret Carvender
376
10
James Wallace
301
50 0
Dr. John Hole
227
50 0
John Riddle.
302
80 0
James Millan.
71
$10
Seth Cutter
64
80 0
Richard Benham
244
16
Thomas Persons
268
60 0
John Adams
146
12
John Ludlow
118
John Adams.
145
10
Jonathan Davis
380
James Campbell
154
45 0
Elyajah Davis.
355
52
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI.
CHAPTER XI.
JUDGE JOHN CLEVES SYMMES DETERMINES TO BEGIN THE SETTLEMENTS AT THE MOUTH OF THE GREAT MIAMI-ADDRESSES A FRIENDLY LETTER TO THE WYANDOTTES AND SHAWNEES-HIS REASONS FOR SELECTING THE LAND AT THE MOUTH OF THE MIAMI FOR HIS CONTEMPLATED GREAT CITY-PREVAILS UPON CAPTAIN KEARSEY TO SEND TROOPS TO ESCORT AND PROTECT SETTLERS-THEY ARRIVE SAFELY AT COLUMBIA, WHERE THEIR BOATS ARE CRUSHED BY THE ICE AND NEARLY ALL OF THEIR ANIMALS ARE DROWNED, AND MOST OF THEIR PROVISIONS LOST-JUDGE SYMMES LEAVES LIMESTONE WITH HIS FAMILY JANUARY 29, 1789, ACCOMPANIED BY CAPTAIN KEARSEY AND THE REST OF HIS SOLDIERS.
F ROM several messages received from Major Stites that the Indians were friendly and anxious to see him he determined to begin the settlement at the mouth of the Big Miami, and prevailed upon Captain Kearsey, who at that time commanded the United States troops at Limestone, to detail a sergeant and twelve men to escort some settlers who had arrived at that place on their way to settle at the mouth of the Great Miami. The weather became intensely cold and the river was filled with heavy floating ice. The party, however, arrived safely at Columbia, where they landed, intending to pro- ceed to the old fort at the mouth of the Miami without delay, but the ice soon forced their boats from the shore, staving in the sides of one of them, and it was with great difficulty that any of their stock was saved, many of their animals being drowned and most of their provisions lost entirely. This defeated for a time the design of settling at the Old Fort.
He had on the 3d of January addressed the following friendly letter to the Wyandottes and Shawnee Indians :
" Brothers of the Wyandottes and Shawnees, Hearken to your brother who is coming to live at the Great Miami. He was on the Great Miami last summer, when the deer was yet red and met with one of your camps; he did no harm to anything which you had in your camp; he held back his young men from hurting you or your horses, and would not let them take your skins or meat, though your brothers were very hungry. All this he did because he was your brother, and would live in peace with the red people. If the red people will live in friendship with him and his young
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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI.
men who came from the Great Salt Ocean to plant corn and build cabins on the land between the Great and Little Miami, then the white and red people shall be brothers and live together, and we will buy your furs and skins and sell you blankets and rifles and powder and lead and rum, and everything that our red brothers may want in hunting and in their towns.
"Brothers! A treaty is holding at Muskingum. Great men from the thirteen fires are there to meet the chiefs and head men of all the nations of the red people. May the great spirit direct all their councils for peace! But the great men and the wise men of the red and white people cannot keep peace and friendship long unless we, who are their sons and warriors, will also bury the hatchet and live in peace. Brothers! I send you a string of white beads, write to you with my own hands that you may believe what I say. I am your brother and will be kind to you while you remain in peace. Farewell! JOHN C. SYMMES."
January 3d, 1789.
By adopting this course he followed very closely the example of William Penn, but he must have differed very materially from Penn on the temper- ance question. Penn, in his letter to the Pennsylvania Indians, says : " Nor will I ever allow any of my people to sell rum to make your people drunk." Whereas Symmes says he will sell his red brothers rum. But whether his intention was to make them drunk is not stated. Be that as it may, it is certain he did supply them bountifully afterwards with fire water, with what results may appear hereafter.
From the hasty examination Judge Symmes had made of his purchase in September, 1788, when John Filson was lost, he had selected the point between the Ohio and Great Miami Rivers as the site on which he would lay out and found his great city.
His reasons, as given in his letter to Colonel Dayton for the selection of this location, were (1) that there would be a large number of towns located on the Ohio above and below the Great Miami from Pittsburg to the falls, and even lower down the Ohio, and the trade would be divided between them; and (2) that the extent of country along the Miami, spreading for many miles on both sides, has superior qualities in point of soil, water and timber to any tract of equal area to be found in the United States, as he believed. From this " Egypt of the Miami," as he styled it, the produce of the country would be poured down that stream for two hundred miles above its mouth, which would be collected there if the city was built at that
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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI.
point ; whereas, if built above, at North Bend, the settlers could not work their boats eight or nine miles up the Ohio above the mouth, and the produce would pass down the Ohio to towns below.
As already stated, several expresses had been sent Judge Symmes by Major Stites assuring him that the Indians were friendly and were anxious to see him, and as the settlements at Columbia and Losantiville had been so far successful, he determined to begin his settlement at the mouth of the Great Miami; and accordingly on the 29th day of January, 1789, he left Limestone with his family and Captain Kearsey and the remainder of his troops, having previously collected what flour and salt he could, and that at enormous prices.
The river at that time was higher than it had ever been known by the whites, and when they arrived at Columbia they found it submerged, but barely one cabin situated on high ground out of the water. The soldiers, in the block house they had built near where the toll-gate on the California pike is located, were driven to the loft, then to the roof and escaped in a boat they had fortunately preserved from destruction.
Judge Symmes and his family remained but one night at Columbia, when they proceeded to Losantiville, which had not been entirely submerged by the raging waters of the Ohio. Here they remained until the 2d day of February, when the waters, having rapidly receded, they went on to North Bend, where they arrived safely, as Judge Symmes says in one of his letters, "at 3 of the o'clock on the afternoon of the second day of February, 1789," all of Captain Kearsey's men having joined the party at Columbia. Imme- diately on landing they erected what was then called in the West " a camp," by placing two forked saplings in the ground at such distance as required, connecting by a ridge pole, against which boards were leaned. One end was closed, the other left open for an entrance where the fire was built. The weather was intensely cold, and Judge Symmes says in this camp he lived six weeks before he could build a log house so as to get into it with his family and property.
Captain Kearsey, it seems, was not pleased with the place, and insisted on going on to the old fort at the mouth of the Miami, and was ever after displeased because the party did not go there.
From the fact that Columbia was submerged, Judge Symmes became fearful that the land he had selected for the site of his magnificent city might
55
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI.
be subjected to the same inundations; and in a few days after landing, accompanied by Captain Kearsey and Captain Henry, they went down in a small boat to examine it, and found by the ice on the trees that the water had fallen about fifteen feet, and still the site was several feet under water.
Disappointed, he was compelled to abandon his project of founding a great city at that point, and returned to North Bend, resolved to lay out a number of house lots at that place to form a village. Forty-eight lots of one acre each were laid off, every alternate one of which was given away on condition that the recipient would immediately build thereon. These donation lots were soon taken, and he increased the number of lots to one hundred, the whole extending a mile and a half up and down the river. This town was called North Bend from the fact that it was the most northerly bend in the Ohio River from the Muskingum to the Mississippi. The encouragement he met with by the lots being so promptly taken at North Bend, and the number of cabins being erected, and the applica- tions multiplying for more, induced him to lay out another town seven miles further up the Ohio River, at Muddy Creek, which he called South Bend, as it was the most southerly point of land in the Miami purchase. South Bend had a frontage of one mile on the Ohio.
In the meantime he continued prospecting for a suitable site for the magnificent city he contemplated would yet be built on his purchase, but does not appear to have thought that there was a suitable location any- where else than in the immediate vicinity of the confluence of the Ohio and Great Miami Rivers. At this point he found it impracticable, but urged the propriety of founding the city a short distance up the Miami, where it would be safe from the high waters of the Ohio, and urged it for the same reasons given for the location at the mouth.
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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI.
CHAPTER XII.
INDIAN DEPREDATIONS, AND MURDER OF CITIZENS-REMINISCENCES OF MRS. JOSEPH JONES.
A S has already been stated Major Stites found no Indians at the mouth of the Miami when he and his party landed, and but very few were seen either about Columbia, Losantiville, or North Bend for some time, and they appeared friendly until the next spring after the conclusion of the con- ference at the Muskingum, where the greater part of the tribes had been congregated at the solicitation of Governor St. Clair and the citizens, with the hope of concluding a lasting peace with them. But as they dispersed from Fort Harmar during the winter, the settlements lower down the river, at Columbia, Losantiville, and North Bend, but principally at Columbia, became much annoyed by straggling parties encamping in the vicinity, and mingling with the whites on the pretense of trading, but soon developed their intentions by petty thefts; clothes hung out to dry were stolen, axes and tools, bridles and saddles left in insecure places disap- peared. A short time after some Wyandottes, who had been encamped early in the spring of 1789 near Columbia, left their encampment, several horses were suddenly and mysteriously missing. Entertaining the opinion of an Indian then prevalent among the settlers, it was very natural that they should attribute the disappearance of their horses to their agency. In a short time afterwards another attempt was made to steal horses, but failed. A third attempt was more successful, and several more horses were spirited away by a party of Shawnees, who had been on a visit to Judge Symmes, at North Bend. This so enraged the settlers that a company was organized to pursue them, to recapture the horses, under the command of Lieu- tenant Bailey, then in command of the troops stationed at the block house, in Columbia. Among the number who volunteered was Captain James Flinn, a brave and powerful man.
The party followed their trail some eighty miles, when they discovered that they were in the immediate vicinity of Indians. Captain Flinn went forward to reconnoitre, and whilst on this duty, found himself suddenly
57
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI.
surrounded by a party of savages. Seeing that resistance would be vain, he surrendered with the best grace possible under the circumstances, and was quietly led to their encampment, but a short distance from where he had been captured.
He was treated kindly by them, but seeing a warrior preparing some tugs or strings, and from other indications, he became convinced that he was to suffer personal violence, and, having great confidence in his agility and endurance, he determined to escape. Watching a favorable opportunity he sprang from among them, darted into the forest and was soon out of their reach, and continued on his course until he found his companions. They took some of the horses belonging to the Indians and made their way with all possible speed to the block house at Columbia. In a few days after their return some Wyandottes, who were among those previously encamped around Columbia, came to the block house with their squaws, bringing Captain Flinn's gun, protesting that they were not the Indians or tribe who had stolen the horses, and begging Major Stites to give them their horses which the men had taken from them. After considerable parleying their horses were given up and friendly relations were restored, and they left seem- ingly well pleased with their white brothers, vowing everlasting friendship.
Judge Symmes in a letter to his associate, Colonel Dayton, of New Jersey, dated at North Bend, May 20, 1789, attributes the cause of the depredations to a spirit of retaliation for the injuries inflicted by worthless traders, who occasionally moored their boats at Columbia, and most villainously cheated the Indians in trading with them. In one instance, he says, they sold them whisky which froze in the casks before they reached their camp; in another, these traders compelled them to pay forty buck skins and a horse worth seventy-five dollars for a single rifle. A gunsmith at Columbia required an Indian to leave two bucks before he would agree to repair his gun lock by putting on a chop to hold the flint, worth at most 1834 cents, and when it was done compelled the Indian who came after it to give him two more bucks before he would give it up. The Indians complained bitterly to Judge Symmes of this treatment, and it may have been the exciting cause of those depredations at Columbia, as an Indian believed what one white man does all are responsible for.
But it will be seen that this was only the outcropping of that spirit which very soon devastated, and stained with the blood of pioneers, the hills and
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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI.
vales of Ohio. There still remained that jealousy which had ever existed against the white man occupying their hunting grounds. So far the savages had confined their depredations to stealing horses and other property, but every day they were becoming more troublesome, and on the 9th day of April, 1789, a party of Judge Symmes' surveyors, headed by John Mills, were fired upon as they were leaving camp early in the morning. Holman and Wells, of Kentucky, were killed and scalped; Mills and three others made their escape.
In a memorandum kept by John Dunlop, a surveyor employed by Judge Symmes, the following record of farther Indian depredations appears :
"May 21, 1789: Ensign Luce, with eight soldiers and some citizens, going up from North Bend to a place called South Bend (Riverside), was fired upon by a party of Indians ; the tribe they belonged to we never could learn. There were six soldiers killed and wounded, of which one died on the spot, another died of his wounds after going to the Falls of the Ohio for the doctor. There was a young man named John R. Mills in this boat who was shot through the shoulder, but by management and care of some squaws he recovered entirely."
"September 20th: The Indians visiting Columbia, at the confluence of the Little Miami and Ohio, tomahawked one boy and took another prisoner. They were sons of a Mr. Seward, lately from New Jersey."
"On the 30th of the same month they took another prisoner from the same place."
"On the 12th of December following, a young man, son of John Hilliers, of North Bend, going out in the morning to bring home the cows, about half a mile from the garrison, the Indians came upon him. They tomahawked and scalped him in a most cruel manner, took away his gun and hat and left him lying on his back."
" On the 17th inst. following, two young men, one named Andrew Vaneman, the other James Lafferty, went on a hunting excursion across the river. When they encamped at night and had made a fire they were sur- prised by Indians and fell a sacrifice into the hands of the savages, being killed by the first fire. They were both shot through the back, between the shoulders, the bullets coming out under their right arms. The Indians tomahawked and scalped them in a most barbarous manner, stripped them of their clothes and left them lying on their backs, quite naked, without as
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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI.
much as one thread on them. Next day myself and six others went out and buried them in one grave."
The Seward boys spoken of, Obadiah about twenty-one and John fifteen, were sons of James Seward, who resided on the hillside at Columbia. He had leased a part of the six hundred and forty acres in Turkey Bottom of Captain Stites, which the whites found cleared when they arrived. They were going unarmed from their father's house in Columbia to work on their land, no danger being apprehended; and when in the act of jumping over a large hickory tree, which Abel Cook had cut down to procure the nuts, they were attacked by two Indians who had concealed themselves in the tree top. Obadiah at once surrendered, and was fastened with thongs, but John made a desperate effort to reach home. The Indian on his side of the tree gained on him, and when within striking distance hurled his tomahawk, cleaving his skull behind the ear, and ran up and struck him again on the head, scalped and left him for dead, part of his brains oozing from his wound. But he was found by neighbors and lifted on the back of John Clawson, and carried home, where he lived thirty-nine days, becoming con- scious at times and reciting all the circumstances.
Obadiah was carried off a prisoner to their towns near Sandusky, where he was held captive for some months. The Indians becoming tired of holding their prisoner, started with him and others to Fort Pitt, where they hoped to get them ransomed; but on the way, whilst Obadiah was driving some pack-horses, he accidentally took the wrong trail, whereupon a drunken Indian became very angry and shot him dead. His head was cut off, with a part of the skin of the breast adhering, and stuck upon a stake on the side of the road.
The other spoken of by John Dunlop as captured the same week at Columbia was a hired man of John Phillips, captured while topping corn. Mr. Seward heard nothing of his son until the return of this man, who was one of the party on the way to Fort Pitt, and witnessed the barbarous murder of Obadiah Seward.
The same year, 1789, Abel Cook, who had been on a visit to his friends at Columbia, when on his return home to Covalt Station, near Milford, was attacked by Indians and killed. His body was found immediately after- wards and interred at Covalt Station.
About the same time a party of men were out on a hunting expedition
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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI.
from Covalt Station, composed of A. Covalt, Jr., R. Fletcher, Levi Buck- ingham, Jacob Beagle, and Mr. Clemmons. They had gone but a short distance from the station, when Covalt discovered signs of Indians, and so apprised his companions, and advised a return to the fort to warn the inmates of their danger. They started back, but as yet had seen no Indians. Beagle and Clemmons had separated from the others. When they came to Shawnee Run they saw two Indians sitting on the bank, taking off their moccasins to walk across.
Clemmons objected to Beagle shooting at them, as he was old and clumsy, and would surely fall a prey to them. The Indians did not go more than twenty rods up the river when they came in contact with the other three men. They fired upon them before the whites saw them. Covalt was wounded; he and Fletcher ran together for about a hundred yards, when he told Fletcher to make his escape, as he was shot through the breast and must fall. He fought them as long as he had strength, but soon the tomahawk did its deadly work. They scalped him, and took his rifle and powder horn, but threw his tomahawk away, which was found twenty years after by Levi Buckingham, and identified by the initials of his name upon it, and is still said to be in possession of his descendants in Illinois.
The other four got safely to the fort, and rallying their little band, went and recovered Covalt's mutilated body. Captain Abraham Covalt soon fell a victim to the bloodthirsty savages. He had determined to build a house for his family outside the station, and while he, two of his sons, and Joseph Hinkle, were making shingles near the fort they were attacked by the Indians. Hinkle's head was nearly severed from his body. Captain Covalt was shot, and ran some distance, when he fell across a log with his arm under his head, and was soon despatched by the hatchet, and his scalp taken. At the same time Mr. Newal, another of the party, was killed. The bodies were brought to the fort and buried, where their graves may still be seen.
Mrs. Joseph Jones, a daughter of Abraham Covalt, who was in the fort at the time, then fifteen years old, died some years since; before her death she left the following interesting reminiscences of Captain Covalt's family and the station, corroborating the above statement.
Although differing as to dates with other publications, it is the most complete history of Covalt's Station ever given to the public. It will be
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