USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Historical Sketches and Eary Reminiscences of Hamilton County, Ohio > Part 6
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This station is noted as being the place where General St. Clair organized his army. He moved
* Thomas Goudy was a native of Pennsylvania, a lawyer by profession. IIe came to Cincinnati as early as 1789, and was, it is said, the first lawyer in the town. In 1793 he married Sarah Wallace, sister of John S. Wallace. He was the father of Mrs. Sarah Clark, who is still living with her son, Alexander C. Clark, north of Reading, in Sycamore township.
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his command from Fort Washington on the 7th day of August, 1791, and encamped at Ludlow station, where he remained until the 17th day of September following, when he took up his march for the Indian villages. After his defeat, and while the remnant of his forces were returning to Fort Washington, they again encamped at this station. On arriving there they found the settlement entirely deserted, not a settler remained. The soldiers found shelter in the cabins and block-house over night, and next morning, in a forlorn condition, moved down to Fort Washington.
The station was soon afterwards re-occupied by a few families, among whom was Abner Boston .*
It does not appear that Mr. Ludlow resided at the station until after peace was established with the Indians in 1795. His interest and his business were at Cincinnati, and there he lived until after the treaty of Greeneville, when he built a dwelling house some distance north of the block-house, which he made his permanent residence. A portion of this building is said to be still standing, and is crrone- ously called the "station house."
* Boston was a native of Virginia, and married the widow of William Risk, her maiden name was Magaret . Wilkinson. James Risk, now of Cumminsville, is the grandson of Mrs. Boston.
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CUNNINGHAM'S SETTLEMENT.
James Cunningham was a native of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. About the year 1785, being then a young man, he emigrated to Kentucky, where for a time he was engaged, with four other young men, about twenty miles back of where Covington now is, in building log cabins for emigrant settlers. They had not been long employed in that business when they were attacked by Indians, and one of their number killed, after which the other four, including Mr. Cunningham, left that neighborhood and settled upon Beargrass Creek, in Jefferson county, near the present city of Louisville. There Mr. Cunningham made the acquaintance of Miss Janette Park, whose father formerly lived near Pottsville, in Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania; and in the year 1787 they were married. In the spring of 1789 Mr. Cunning- ham moved up to the town of Losantiville, and on the 26th day of May of that year he entered in the register's office at North Bend, land warrant No. 139, which he located on the west half of section 28, T. 4, E. R. 1, about a mile and a half north of the present village of Reading, and was the first to break the forest in what is now Sycamore township. In improving his land he was assisted by his brothers-in-law Arthur, Andrew, and Culbertson Park, who were afterwards among the first settlers of the village of Reading.
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Cunningham's settlement was not a regular station in the proper sense of that term. No block-house or other defensive works were erected, and there was no organized community. That he commenced im- provements soon after locating his land, and kept up at least a constructive and continued occupancy, is quite probable, as otherwise a portion of his lands would have been subject to forfeiture to any actual settler, according to the terms of settlement published by Judge Symmes, at Trenton, New Jersey, on the 26th day of November, 1787.
The precise time when Mr. Cunningham took up his actual residence at the settlement is not known, but it is evident that he had made improvements prior to 1792, as at that time we find him joining with IIenry Runyan and others in a petition to the Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace for the laying and opening of a road from Cincinnati to White's station, thence through Cunningham's im- provement and on to Runyan's settlement. John Wallace was appointed surveyor, and John Vance and David Griffin viewers of the road, and the notes of the survey represent it as "beginning at the north-east corner of the meeting house in Cincinnati," which was near the present site of the First Presby- terian church, or at the north-west corner of Fourth and Main streets.
At the time Mr. Cunningham made entry of his
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warrant and located his land (1789) peaceful relations existed between the Indians and the White settlers. Some depredations and a few murders had been committed by the savages, but they were friendly disposed generally, and there was no great alarm or apprehension of danger. It is not improbable, there- fore, that he moved his family out upon his improve- ments, and had an actual residence there until open hostilities began the following winter, and then removed to Cincinnati, where it is known that he purchased a lot and built a cabin near the corner of Walnut and Columbia streets, and was for a year or more in the government employ as teamster.
In the fall of 1793 Mr. Cunningham made the settlement his permanent residence, where he spent the remainder of life. He built the first saw and grist mills in that section of the country, and a few years afterwards, about 1808, attached a distillery to the grist mill .*
The brothers Arthur, Andrew, and Culbertson Park, and James and John S. Wallace, were among the first settlers in the neighborhood.
* Francis Cunningham, now living a mile and a half above Sharon, is the son of James Cunningham above named; James F. Cunningham, of Glendale, and Elmore W. Cunningham, of Cincinnati, are his grand-sons ; and Mrs. Andrew Erkenbrecher, of Cincinnati, is a grand-daughter.
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RUNYAN'S SETTLEMENT.
Henry Runyan was a native of Virginia, emi- grated to Kentucky about the year 1784, and was married to Mrs. Mary Bush, of Bourbon county. On the 9th day of May, 1790, he entered in the register's office, warrants Nos. 21 and 22, each for 160 acres, and located the west half of section 19, T. 3, E. of R. 2, M. P., being the 14th mile north of the Ohio. There is evidence that Mr. Runyan was not an actual settler for a year or more after locating his warrants, as on the 31st day of August, 1791, Andrew Round, an actual settler, applied for entry of Runyan's half section, and claimed the benefit of fifty-three acres in the north-east corner of the tract, which became forfeited according to the terms of settlement, by reason of the non-settlement of Runyan or his representative.'
In 1792, or probably the year previous, Mr. Runyan built a cabin and made a clearing upon his lands, and it is claimed by his son Isaac Runyan, who is still living, that he moved upon his farm in 1/92, and made it his permanent residence.
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* The terms of settlement required that all persons locating lands in the Miami purchase should become actual settlers, either in person or by a representative, and failing in this, the one-sixth part of the same, to be taken out of the north-east corner of the tract, should be forfeited to any volunteer settler.
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Mr. Isaac Runyan, who is now in his 92d year, says he was four years old when his father moved to the settlement. He remembers living in the old cabin his father first built, but has no recollection of their having any immediate neighbors. Thinks James and John Wallace, James Cunningham, and the Park brothers were the nearest early settlers, who all lived in the same neighborhood, about two miles south of his father's settlement. Cunningham and the Park brothers lived on section 28, and the Wallaces on section 21, now known as the Cooper farm. John Goldtrap came afterwards and lived on what is now called the Jacob Shuff place, in section 22.
Mr. Runyan remembers the first school house in the neighborhood. It was built of buckeye logs, and stood in the field south of Mr. John Rick's present residence. It was a rude cabin, with the ground for a floor. The benches were made of slabs, with wooden pins for legs. A few openings were left in the sides of the cabin, which, being covered with greased paper, served for windows. There Mr. Runyan took his first lesson in Dilworth's Speller and Reader.
The first religious meetings were held in the woods, where the people seated themselves upon logs or on the ground, as they found most convenient. The first preacher that came to the settlement was a Mr. Cobb.
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The men dressed in the hunting shirt and knee brecches, and the women wore the petticoat and short gown, all made of linsey-woolsey or homespun cloth.
The principal sports or recreation among the men were had at the log rollings, and cabin and barn raisings, and consisted chiefly in wrestling, jumping, pitching quoits, and target shooting. Spinning and sewing parties, and apple bees, and corn huskings, after the country had been settled a few years, were frequent, where not only the young of both sexes but often the old and middle aged were brought together, when, after completing the work which the company had been invited to perform, and partaking of a bountiful supper, they all joined and spent the remainder of the evening, and often the entire night, in plays and dances that formed the social glee. The dance consisted of
"Nae cotillion brent new frae France."
But the genuine old Virginia reel. And those who joined in the dance paid the fiddler, whose charges were fixed and well established at a fi'penny-bit, or six and a fourth cents, a reel.
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WHITE'S STATION.
The settlement known as White's station was established, as mentioned on page 41 .* Its particular location, as near as can be described, was where the ice pond now is, north-east of Carthage.
Jacob White, the proprietor of the station, was from Redstone, Pennsylvania. He came to Cincin- nati the previous year, and soon afterwards pur- chased what is now section 1, in Springfield township, and began his improvements as above mentioned. He built a small block-house, which he occupied with his family.
David Flinn and Andrew Goble each built cabins near the station-house, and the whole were inclosed with a rough log fence. Some time afterwards, perhaps in 1792, Andrew Pryor, Lewis Winans, and · John S. Wallace, built cabins on the opposite bank of the creek, within the present limits of the village of Hartwell. And during the same year Moses Pryor and John Reilyt settled upon a tract of land
* Traditionary accounts fix the time of establishing this station in 1790, but this is probably a mistake, as Capt. White did not locate his land until the 23d day of July, 1792.
+ The late Col. Robert Reily, of the 75th Ohio Infantry, who lost his life at the battle of Chancelorville, in the war of the Rebellion, and who, previous to his death, was a prominent citizen of Wyoming, was the son of John. Reily above mentioned.
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adjoining White's station on the south. Pryor's tract embraced what is now the County Infirmary farm, in section 6, Millcreek township, and Mr. Reily's was adjoining on the west, in what is now the north-east corner of section 28, and embraced the site where Carthage was afterwards laid out.
For their mutual interest and safety Pryor and Reily agreed to clear and improve their lands jointly. They began by building a cabin and digging a well on Mr. Pryor's tract, at a point about one hundred and fifty yards north-east from the present County Infirmary building. As late as 1875 this old well was yet to be seen, but soon afterwards a few feet of the upper part of the wall was removed, and the well filled up. The land having since been plowed over and cultivated, no traces of it are now left. During the same season Pryor and Reily cleared up and planted a few acres of land.
In the following autumn Mr. Pryor engaged his services to the government in packing stores and provisions from Fort Washington to Fort Hamilton, then the usual mode of transportation. Two other men were employed with him in the same business, one of whom was David Flinn, of White's station. Upon one occasion, after making the trip to Fort Hamilton in safety, and without molestation, they started quite early next morning on their return. On arriving at a little stream, since known as
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Pleasant run, four miles south of Fort Hamilton, they stopped to refresh themselves and horses. When about to resume their journey they received a fire from a body of Indians concealed in the woods. Mr. Pryor was killed, and the other two men mounted their horses and made their escape back to Fort IIamilton. That evening, while Mrs. Pryor was anxiously waiting her husband's return to supper, she received the sad news of his death.
Thus bereaved and left alone with the care of two small children, she determined to abandon, for a time at least, the improvements her husband had made, and went to reside in the family of her brother- in-law, Andrew Pryor. Mr. Reily also gave up his enterprise, returned to Columbia, and resumed his former occupation of school teaching.
Nothing further of an unusual character occurred to disturb the quiet of this little settlement until the 19th day of October, 1793, when the station was attacked by a band of Indians. Early in the morn- ing of that day a courier stopped at the station, while on his way from Fort St. Clair to Fort Washington, bearing the news of the defeat of Lieutenant Lowry's command, near the former fort. General Wayne, who was then at Fort Jefferson, had sent a small force back to Fort St. Clair, to guard and escort a train of wagons loaded with stores and provisions on its way to Fort Jefferson, and on the 17th day
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of October, when about seven miles north of Fort St. Clair, the train was attacked by a large body of Indians. The charge was so sudden and furious that the soldiers became panic stricken and fled without firing a gun, except Lieutenant Lowry and Ensign Boyd, with thirteen non-commissioned officers and privates, who, after a desperate resistance, were all killed. The train was plundered, and sixty-four horses were taken, but the wagons were left standing in the road.
Of this disaster General Wayne thought best to advise the settlements and warn them of danger, and for this purpose the messenger that came to White's station was sent.
A general feeling of security had prevailed through- out the settlements, based upon the supposition that the whole force of the enemy was required to defend their villages along the Maumee and St. Mary's against the invasion of General Wayne. And not even the knowledge that a large band of Indians had thrown themselves in the rear of his army, and were free to advance upon the settlements, was suffi- cient to fully advise the people of White's station of immediate and imminent danger. The women, it is true, were somewhat alarmed, which caused the men to be more watchful, and remain more closely about the station during the day, thus happily pre- venting a surprise, and it may be a massacre.
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Many traditionary accounts have been handed down through the families then belonging to the station concerning the events about to be related, differing, as might be expected, as to the details, but the principal facts are well substantiated and may be relied upon as true.
The whole male force about the station at the time consisted of seven men and a boy, viz .: Capt. Jacob White, Andrew Goble, David Flinn, and his two sons Stephen and Benjamin, both full grown men, Andrew Pryor, Lewis Winans, and Providence, the son of Capt. White, then but ten years of age. John S. Wallace, who resided in a cabin on the north bank of the creek, was at the time on a visit with his family at Cincinnati. The widow of Moses Pryor, with her three children, were residing in the family of her brother-in-law, Andrew Pryor, opposite the station, as before stated.
About five o'clock in the evening the dogs belong- ing to the station kept up a continuous barking on the hill, not far from the present residence of William R. Morris. Andrew Goble, supposing the dogs had treed a coon proposed to go into the woods and get it, but Capt. White, thinking it possible that there were Indians about, forbade any one going out. Goble, however, persisted, and finally went alone. He had gone but a few hundred yards from the station when he was fired upon and he fell, pierced,
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as it was afterwards discovered, by a number of balls. The Indians then emerged from their cover (some say, behind the second bank of the creek, others assert that they were concealed in the little ravine, south of where Mr. Morris' residence now stands). They came down the hill with their accustomed war- whoop, and as they approached the station they observed Mrs. Pryor's little girl, a child of little more than four years old, playing upon the opposite bank of the creek. They at once fired upon it, and it fell mortally wounded. The mother, who with her three children were then the only occupants of the cabins on the north side of the creek, all the other inmates having gone over to the station on a visit, heard the firing, and went to the door of the cabin just in time to witness the fatal shot that struck her child. Her second child, a boy between two and three years old, being sick, she was holding in her arms, while her babe was lying asleep in the cradle. On seeing her little girl fall she put down the boy and went out, under the fire of the Indians, and bore the child into the house, only, however, to find it silent in death.
The savages then opened fire upon the little block- house, which was promptly returned, and the crack of the rifle was incessant for some half hour. There were a number of surplus guns in the station, and the women were kept busy loading, while the men
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were thus enabled to keep up an almost constant fire, making their number appear much greater. Capt. White ordered the women to place his hat upon a pole and run it through the roof of the block- house. This ruse was quite successful for a time in drawing the fire of the enemy.
The Indians, who numbered about thirty, and up to this time were sheltered behind trees at some distance away, now came down the hill upon the station with furious yells, as if to carry it by storm. They were led on by a large and powerful chief, who approached the block-house, and while in the act of scaling the fence, received a fatal shot and fell within the inclosure. The rest of the band seeing their leader fall, retreated back into the woods, where they kept up an occasional fire for an hour or more, and then withdrew and was heard of no more.
In the carly part of the engagement several Indians detached themselves from the main body, and, cross- ing the creek some distance above, came down in the rear of the three cabins on the opposite bank from the station, in one of which Mrs. Pryor and her children resided.
On finding her little girl dead beyond hope, Mrs. Pryor became so distressed over her bereavement that for a time she lost sight of all danger and gave herself up to grief. But the peril was too imminent
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to allow much time for sorrow. On going to the door of the cabin she saw an Indian approaching but a few hundred yards away, and at once her mind reverted to her surviving children. Her first thought was to grasp both and fly for safety, but a second glance at the Indian warned her that time was precious, and, with a gleam of hope that the savage might spare her babe, she caught up the sick boy and ran with all speed for the station, with the Indian in full pursuit. Without regard to road or ford, she took the most direct course to the block-house, and on coming to the creek sprang into the water up to her waist, crossed the stream, and reached the station in safety, where she was com- pelled to remain in her wet garments during the night .*
Soon after the attack began Andrew Pryor was dispatched to Fort Washington for aid. He reached the Fort about midnight, and obtained ten dragoons, each bearing an infantryman behind his saddle,
* Mrs. Pryor was married in 1704 to Samuel Dunn, and immediately returned to the improvements made by her former husband, on what is now the county infirmary farm. There she and her husband resided for many years and raised a family of six children. Her maiden name was Elizabeth Willis, and was a native of New Jersey. She died on the 2d day of Jan- uary, 1843, in the 74th year of her age, and was buried in the old Baptist burying ground, at Duckcreek. The late Jeremiah Dunn, who resided north of Lockland, was her oldest son.
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who hastened to the relief of the little station, which they reached about daylight, but found that the Indians had left during the night.
On going to the cabins over the way it was dis- covered that the savages had taken Mrs. Pryor's babe from the cradle and dashed out its brains against a stump near the cabin door, where its body was found.
They had entered all three of the cabins, ripped open the feather beds, turned out the feathers and filled the ticks with clothing, coverlets, blankets, household goods, and other valuables, and carried all away. The soldiers followed the trail for several miles, but failed to overtake them .*
During the autumn of 1794, William Moore, who was a great hunter, and who made his home at Covalt's station, on the Little Miami river, while
* The writer has recently made some inquiry and search for the graves of Andrew Goble and the children of Mrs. Pryor, but there is nothing to mark the tomb of either. Goble, it is said, was buried near the spot where he fell, and the remains of the children were probably placed near his, and this no doubt formed the burial place for the dead of that neighborhood for many years afterwards. A number of tombstones may yet be seen there on the elevated piece of ground east of the canal, a short distance below the aqueduct.
The Indian who fell in the conflict was refused, it is alleged, a christian burial. Ilis body was taken into the woods and given to the fowls of the air, and his bones left to bleach and decay upon the ground.
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out on one of his hunting excursions, wandered to the Great lick, as it was then called, about a mile and a half east of White's station, and on the lands now owned by John Hamel, in the south - east quarter of section 32. He there killed a deer, which he skinned, and had prepared the saddle for packing, and while in the act of washing his hands in the brook, and at the same time amusing himself by singing an Indian song he had learned while a captive among the Shawnecs, he was suddenly alarmed by a voice joining in the song in the Indian tongue. He instantly sprang to his feet and ran for the thick wood on the west, closely pursued by several Indians. As they did not fire they evidently intended capturing him. The foremost in the pursuit was quite a small Indian, but very fleet on foot. He was gaining rapidly upon Moore, when, fortu- nately, they came to a large fallen tree, the body of which was some four feet in diameter. Moore placed his hand upon the log and leaped it at one bound. The Indian, being unable to perform this feat, was compelled to go round the tree. This gave Moore a fresh start, and after a long and closely contested race he reached White's station, with the loss of his gun and coat, and also his game.
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GRIFFIN'S STATION.
On the 23d day of July, 1792, Lieutenant Daniel Griffin entered, in the register's office, warrant No. 147, and located section 7, T. 3, E. R. 1, now in Springfield township, and established a station or settlement at a point where the Carthage and Spring- dale turnpike now crosses Millcreek, south-west of the village of Hartwell, and about a half mile west of White's station .* Robert Griffin, Daniel and Jacob Vorhis, Daniel Seward, James McCashen, and Robert Caldwell and his two sons, Samuel and James, were among the first settlers.t
* At the time of the attack on White's station by the Indians, October 19, 1793, no one resided at Griffin's settlement, at least no mention is made of any of the settlers or even of the name of the station in any account or tradition that has been given of that event. The two stations, measuring in a direct line, were less than a half mile apart, and it would seem improbable that persons could have resided within so short a distance while a battle was in progress without a knowledge of it, and, in those days, without going to the relief of their friends. From this it appears quite probable that Griffin's station was not established until the fail of 1793.
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