USA > Ohio > Historical collections of Ohio, containing a collection of the most interesting facts, traditions, biographical sketches, anecdotes, etc., relating to its general and local history : with descriptions of its counties, principal towns, and villages > Part 38
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91
Davis and Campbell were securely fastened with tugs, and placed in their own canoe. Their rifles, traps, and the proceeds of their successful hunt, all fell into the hands of the Indians. The Indians made no delay, but immediately set off down the river in their canoes with their prisoners, while their main force went by land, keeping along the river bottoms with the horses they had taken from the station-keeping near the canoes, so as to be able to support each other in case of pursuit or attack. Early the next day, they reached the Ohio. The wounded and prisoners were first taken across the Ohio, and placed under
261
JACKSON COUNTY.
a guard. They returned with the canoes, (leaving their arms stacked against a tree,) to assist in getting the horses across the river. It was very cold, and as soon as the horses would find themselves swimming, they would turn round and land on the same shore. The Indians had a great deal of trouble before they got the horses across the Ohio. The guard who watched Davis and his companions, were anxious, impatient spectators of the restive disposition of the horses to take the water. Upon one occasion, the guard left the prisoners twenty or thirty yards, to have a better view of the difficulty with the horses. Davis and his fellow-prisoners were as near to where the arms were stacked as were the Indian guard. Davis, who possessed courage and presence of mind in an eminent degree, urged his fellow- prisoners to embrace the auspicious moment, seize the arms, and kill the guard. His com- panions faltered-they thought the attempt too perilous-should they fail of success, nothing but instant death would be the consequence. While the prisoners were hesitating to adopt the bold plan of Davis, their guard returned to their arms, to the chagrin of Davis. This opportunity of escape was permitted to pass by without being used. Davis ever after affirmed, that if the opportunity which then presented itself for their escape had been boldly seized, their escape was certain. He frequently averred to the writer of this narrative, that if Duncan M'Arthur, Nat Beasly, or Sam. M'Dowel, had been with him upon this occasion, similarly situated, that he had no doubt they would not only have made their escape, but killed the guard and the wounded Indians, and carried off or destroyed the Indians' arms. He said, if it had not been for the pusillanimity of his fellow-prisoners, they might have promptly and boldly snatched themselves from captivity, and done something worth talking about. The opportunity, once let slip, could not again be recalled. The Indians, after a great deal of exertion, at length got the horses across the Ohio, and hastily fixed litters to carry their wounded They destroyed their canoes, and went ahead for their own country. This body of Indians was commanded by a Shawnee chief, who called himself Captain Charles Wilkey. After Wayne's treaty, in 1795, when peace blessed our frontiers, the writer of this sketch became well acquainted with this Captain Wilky. He was a short, thick, strong, active man, with a very agreeable and intelligent countenance. He was communicative and social in his manners. The first three or four years after Chillicothe was settled, this Indian mixed freely with the whites, and upon no occasion did he show a disposition to be troublesome. He was admitted by the other Indians who spoke of him, to be a warrior of the first order -- fertile in expedients, and bold to carry his plans into execu- tion. Davis always spoke of him as being kind and humane to him.
The Indians left the Ohio, and pushed across the country in the direction of Sandusky ; and as they were encumbered with several wounded, and a good deal of baggage, without road or path, they travelled very slow, not more than ten or twelve miles a day. As many of the prisoners, taken by the Indians, were burned with slow fires, or otherwise tortured to death, Davis brooded over his captivity in sullen silence, and determined to effect his escape the first opportunity that would offer, that would not look like madness to embrace. At all events, he determined to effect his escape or die a fighting. The Indians moved on till they came to Salt Creek, in what is now Jackson county, O., and there camped for the night. Their manner of securing their prisoners for the night, was as follows: They took a strong tug, made from the raw hide of the buffalo or elk. This tug they tied tight around the prisoner's waist. Each end of the tug was fastened around an Indian's waist. Thus, with the same tug fastened to two Indians, he could not turn to the one side or the other, without drawing an Indian with him. In this uncomfortable manner, the prisoner had to lay on his back till the Indians thought proper to rise. If the Indians discovered the pris- oner making the least stir, they would quiet him with a few blows. In this painful situation, the prisoners must lay till light in the morning, when they would be unconfined. As the company of Indians was numerous, the prisoners were unconfined in daylight, but were told that instant death would be the consequence of any movement to leave the line of march, upon any occasion whatever, unless accompanied by an Indian.
One morning, just before day began to appear, as Davis lay in his uncomfortable situa- tion, he hunched one of the Indians, to whom he was fastened, and requested to be untied. The Indian raised up his head and looked round, and found it was still dark, and no In- dians up about the fires, He gave Davis a severe dig with his fist, and bid him lay still. Davis's mind was now in a state of desperation. Fire and faggot, sleeping or awake, were constantly floating before his mind's eye. This torturing suspense would chill his soul with horror. After sometime, a number of Indians rose - and made their fires. It was grow- ing light, but not light enough to draw a bead. Davis again jogged one of the Indians to whom he was fastened, and said the tug hurt his middle, and again requested the Indian to untie him. The Indian raised up his head and looked round, and saw it was getting light, and a number of Indians about the fires, he untied him. Davis rose to his feet, and was
262
JACKSON COUNTY.
determined, as soon as he could look round and see the most probable direction of making his escape, to make the attempt, at all hazards. He " screwed his courage to the sticking point." It was a most desperate undertaking. Should he fail to effect his escape, death, instant, cruel death, was his certain doom. As he rose up to his feet, with this deter- mined intention, his heart fluttered with tremors-his sight grew dim at the thought of the perilous plinge he was about to make. He rose up to liis feet-stood a minute between the two Indians to whom he had been fastened, and took a quick glance at the Indians who were standing around him. In the evening, the Indians had cut two forks, which were stuck. into the ground ; a pole was laid across these forks, and all their rifles were leaned against the pole. If he made his start back from the Indian camp, the rifles of the Indians, who were standing round the fires, and who, he knew, would pursue him, would be before them ; and as they started after him, they would have nothing to do but pick up a rifle as they ran. On the contrary, if he made his plunge through the midst of them, they would have to run back for their guns, and by that time, as it was only twilight in the morning, he could be so far from them that their aim would be very uncertain. All this passed through his mind in a moment. As he determined to make his dash through the midst of the Indians who were standing around the fires, he prepared his mind and body for the dreadful attempt. The success of his daring enterprise depended on the swiftness of his heels. He knew his bottom was good. A large, active Indian was standing between Davis and the fire. He drew back his fist and struck that Indian with all his force, and dropped him into the fire ; and with the agility of a buck, he sprang over his body, and took to the woods with all the speed that was in his power. The Indians pursued, yelling and screaming like demons ; but, as Davis anticipated, not a gun was fired at him. Several Indians pursued him for some distance, and for some time it was a doubtful race. The foremost Indian was so close to him, that he sometimes fancied that he felt his clutch. However, at length Davis began to gain ground upon his pursuers-the breaking and rust- ling of brush was still farther and farther off. He took up a long, sloping ridge; when he reached the top, he, for the first time, looked back, and, to his infinite pleasure, saw no person in pursuit. He now slackened his pace, and went a mile or two further, when he be- gan to find his feet gashed and bruised by the sharp stones over which he had run, without picking his way, in his rapid flight. He now stopped, pulled off his waistcoat, tore it in two pieces, and wrapped them around his feet, instead of moccasons. He now pushed his way for the Ohio. He crossed the Scioto river, not far from where Piketon, in Pike county, now stands. He then marched over the rugged hills of Sunfish, Camp creek, Scioto Brush creek, and Turkey creek, and struck the Ohio river eight or ten miles below the mouth of Scioto. It was about the first of January. He was nearly three days and two nights with- out food, fire, or covering, exposed to the winter storms. Hardy as he undoubtedly was, these exposures and privations were almost too severe for human nature to sustain. But as Davis was an unwavering believer in that All-seeing eye, whose providence prepares means to guard and protect those who put their trust in him, his confidence and courage never forsook him for a moment, during this trying and fatiguing march.
When he arrived at the Ohio, he began to look about for some dry logs to make a kind of raft, on which to float down the stream. Before he began to make his raft, he looked up the Ohio, and to his infinite gratification, he saw a Kentucky boat come floating down the stream. He now thought his deliverance sure. Our fondest hopes are frequently blasted in disappointment. As soon as the boat floated opposite to him, he called to the people in the boat-told them of his lamentable captivity, and fortunate escape. The boatmen heard
his tale of distress with suspicion. Many boats, about this time, had been decoyed to shore by similar talcs of woe ; and as soon as landed, their inmates cruelly massacred. The boat- men heard his story, but refused to land. They said they had heard too much about such prisoners, and escapes, to be deceived in his case. As the Ohio was low, he kept pace with the boat as it slowly glided along. The more pitiably he described his forlorn situ- ation, the more determined were the boat crew not to land for him. He at length request- ed them to row the boat a little nearer the shore, and he would swim to them. To this proposition the boatmen consented. They commenced rowing the boat towards the shore, when Davis plunged into the freezing water and swam for the boat. The boatmen, seeing lim swimming towards them, their suspicions gave way, and they rowed the boat with all their force to meet him. He was at length lifted into the boat, almost exhausted. (Our old boatmen, though they had rough exteriors, had Samaritan hearts.) The boatmen were not to blame for their suspicion. They now administered to his relief and comfort every thing that was in their power. That night, or the next morning, he was landed at Massie's station, (Manchester,) among his former friends and associates, where he soon recovered his asual health and activity.
263
JACKSON COUNTY.
Jackson, the county seat, was laid out in 1817, and is 73 miles SE. of Columbus, and 28 from Chillicothe. It contains 1 Presbyterian, 1 Baptist, 1 Episcopal Methodist and 1 Protestant Methodist church, 6 or 8 stores, 1 newspaper printing office, and, in 1840, had 297 in- habitants ; since which, the town has rapidly improved, and is now judged to contain a population of 500. In this vicinity are several valuable mineral springs, and also remains of ancient fortifications.
The famous "old Scioto salt-works" are in this region, on the banks of Salt creek, a tributary of the Scioto. The wells were sunk to the depth of about 30 feet, but the water was very weak, requir- ing ten or fifteen gallons to make a pound of salt. It was first made by the whites about the year 1798, and transferred from the kettles to pack-horses of the salt purchasers, who carried it to the various settlements, and sold it to the inhabitants for three or four dollars per bushel, as late as 1808. This saline was thought to be so important to the country, that, when Ohio was formed into a state, a tract of six miles square was set apart by Congress, for the use of the state, embracing this saline. In 1804, an act was passed by the legislature, regulating its management, and appointing an agent to rent out small lots on the borders of the creek, where the salt water was most abundant to the manufacturers .* As better and more accessible saline springs have been discovered, these are now abandoned.
The expression, very common in this region, " shooting one with a pack-saddle," is said to have originated, in early days, in this way. A person, who had come on horseback, from some distance, to the salt-works to purchase salt, had his pack-saddle stolen by the boilers, who were a rough, coarse set, thrown into the salt furnace, and destroyed. He made little or no complaint, but determined to have revenge for the trick played upon him. On the next errand of this nature, he partly filled his pack-saddle with gunpowder, and gave the boilers another opportunity to steal and burn it, which they embraced -- when, lo! much to their consternation, a terrific explosion ensued, and they narrowly escaped serious injury.
These old salt-works were among the first worked by the whites in Ohio. They had long been known, and have been indicated on maps, published as early as 1755. The Indians, prior to the settle- ment of the country, used to come from long distances to make salt at this place; and it was not uncommon for them to be accompanied by whites, whom they had taken captive and adopted. Daniel Boone, when a prisoner, spent some time at these works. Jonathan Alder, a sketch of whom is under the head of Madison county, was taken prisoner, when a boy, by the Indians, in 1782, in Virginia, and adopted into one of their families, near the head waters of Mad river. He had been with them about a year, when they took him with them to the salt-works, where he met a Mrs. Martin, likewise a prisoner. The meeting between them was affecting. We give the particulars in his own simple and artless language.
It was now better than a year after I was taken prisoner, when the Indians started off to the Scioto salt-springs, near Chillicothe, to make salt, and took me along with them. Here I got to see Mrs. Martin, that was taken prisoner at the same time I was, and this was the first time that I had seen her since we were separated, at the council-house. When she
* Dr. Hildreth on the " Saliferous Rock formation in the valley of the Ohio ;" Silliman's Journal, Vol. XXIV, Na. 1, pp. 48, 49.
ยท
-
264
JEFFERSON COUNTY.
saw me, she came smiling and asked me if it was me. I told her it was. She asked me how I had been. I told her I had been very unwell, for I had had the fever and ague for a long time. So she took me off to a log, and there we sat down ; and she combed my head, and asked me a great many questions about how I lived, and if I didn't want to see my mother and little brothers. I told her that I should be glad to see them, but never ex- pected to again. She then pulled out some pieces of her daughter's scalp, that she said were some trimmings they had trimmed off the night after she was killed, and that she meant to keep them as long as she lived. She then talked and cried about her family, that was all destroyed and gone, except the remaining bits of her daughter's scalp. We staid here a considerable time, and, meanwhile, took many a cry together ; and when we parted again, took our last and final farewell, for I never saw her again.
There was found in this county, about ten years since, the re- mains of a mastodon, described in the public prints of the time. Near the southern line of the county, is the iron furnace of Ellison, Tewksbury & Co., called " the Jackson Furnace." Allensville, Mid- dleton, Oak Hill and Charleston, are small post villages.
JEFFERSON.
JEFFERSON, named from President Jefferson, was the fifth county established in Ohio : it was created by proclamation of Gov. St. Clair, July 29th, 1797 : its original limits included the country west of Pennsylvania and Ohio; and east and north of a line from the mouth of the Cuyahoga; southwardly to the Muskingum, and east to the Ohio : within those boundaries is Cleveland, Canton, Steuben- ville, Warren and many other large towns and populous counties. The surface is hilly and the soil fertile. It is one of the greatest manufacturing counties in the state, and abounds in excellent coal. The principal crops are wheat, Indian corn and oats. The follow- ing is a list of its townships in 1840, with their population.
Brush Creek, 757
Ross,
927
Steubenville, 5203
Cross Creek, 1702
Salem,
2044
Warren, 1945
Island Creek, 1867
Saline,
963
Wayne, 1746
Knox,
1529
Smithfield,
2095
Wells, 1492
Mount Pleasant, 1676
Springfield, 1077
The population of Jefferson, in 1820, was 18,531 ; in 1830, 22,489, and in 1840, 25,031, or 62 inhabitants to a square mile.
The old Mingo town, three miles below Steubenville, now the site of the farms of Jeremiah H. Hallock, Esq. and Mr. Daniel Potter, was a place of note prior to the settlement of the country. It was the point where the troops of Col. Williamson rendezvoused in the infamous Moravian campaign, and those of Col. Crawford, in his unfortunate expedition against the Sandusky Indians. It was also, at one time, the residence of Logan, the celebrated Mingo chief, whose form was striking and manly, and whose magnanimity and eloquence has seldom been equalled. He was a son of the Cayuga chief Skikellimus, who dwelt at Shamokin, Pa., in 1742, and was converted to Christianity, under the preaching of the Moravian missionaries. Skikellimus highly esteemed James Logan, the secre-
265
JEFFERSON COUNTY.
tary of the province, named his son from him, and probably had him baptized by the missionaries.
In early life, Logan for a while dwelt in Pennsylvania : and in Day's Historical Collections of that state, is a view in Mifflin county, of Logan's spring, which will long remain a memorial of this dis- tinguished chief. The letter below, gives an incident which oc- curred there, that speaks in praise of Logan. It was written by the Hon. R. P. Maclay, a member of the state senate, and son of the gentleman alluded to in the anecdote, and published in the Pitts- burg Daily American.
Senate Chamber, March 21, 1842.
To GEORGE DARSIE, Esq., of the Senate of Pennsylvania.
DEAR SIR-Allow me to correct a few inaccuracies as to place and names, in the anec- dote of Logan, the celebrated Mingo chief, as published in the Pittsburg Daily American of March 17th, 1842, to which you called my attention. The person surprised at the spring now called the Big spring, and about six [four] miles west of Logan's spring, was William Brown-the first actual settler in a Kishacoquillas valley, and one of the associate judges in Mifflin county, from its organization till his death, at the age of ninety-one or two-and not Samuel Maclay, as stated by Dr. Hildreth. I will give you the anecdote as I heard it related by Judge Brown himself, while on a visit to my brother, who then owned and occupied the Big Spring farm .*
" The first time I ever saw that spring," said the old gentleman, " my brother, James Reed and myself, had wandered out of the valley in search of land, and finding it very good, we were looking about for springs. About a mile from this we started a bear, and separated to get a shot at him. I was travelling along, looking about on the rising ground for the bear, when I came suddenly upon the spring ; and being dry, and more rejoiced to find so fine a spring than to have killed a dozen bears, I set my rifle against a bush and rushed down the bank and laid down to drink. Upon putting my head down, I saw re- flected in the water, on the opposite side, the shadow of a tall Indian. I sprang to my rifle, when the Indian gave a yell, whether for peace or war I was not just then sufficiently master of my faculties to determine ; but upon my seizing my rifle, and facing him, he knocked up the pan of his gun, threw out the priming, and extended his open palm toward me in token of friendship. After putting down our guns, we again met at the spring, and shook hands. This was Logan-the best specimen of humanity I ever met with, either white or red. He could speak a little English, and told me there was another white hunter a little way down the stream, and offered to guide me to his camp. There I first met your father. We remained together in the valley a week, looking for springs and selecting lands, and laid the foundation of a friendship which never has had the slightest inter- ruption.
We visited Logan at his camp, at Logan's spring, and your father and he shot at a mark for a dollar a shot. Logan .lost four or five rounds, and acknowledged himself beaten. When we were about to leave him, he went into his hut, and brought out as many deer- skins as he had lost dollars, and handed them to Mr. Maclay-who refused to take them, alledging that we had been his guests, and did not come to rob him-that the shooting had been only a trial of skill, and the bet merely nominal. Logan drew himself up with great dignity, and said, ' Me bet to make you shoot your best-me gentleman, and me take your dollar if me beat.' So he was obliged to take the skins, or affront our friend, whose nice sense of honor would not permit him to receive even a horn of powder in return.
" The next year," said the old gentleman, "I brought my wife up and camped under a big walnut tree, on the bank of Tea creek, until I had built a cabin near where the mill now stands, and have lived in the valley ever since. Poor Logan" (and the big tears coursed each other down his cheeks) " soon after went into the Alleghany, and I never saw him again."
Yours, R. P. MACLAY.
Mrs. Norris, who lives near the site of Logan's spring, is a daugh- ter of Judge Brown : she confirmed the above, and gave Mr. Day
* This spring is a few rods south of the Huntington road, in the rear of a blacksmith's shop, four miles west of Reedville.
34
.
266
JEFFERSON COUNTY.
the following additional incidents, highly characteristic of the be- nevolent chief, which we take from that gentleman's work.
Logan supported his family by killing deer, dressing the skins, and selling them to the whites. He had sold quite a parcel to one De Yong, a tailor, who lived in Ferguson's valley, below the gap. Tailors in those days dealt extensively in buckskin breeches. Logan received his pay, according to stipulation, in wheat. The wheat, on being taken to the mill, was found so worthless that the miller refused to grind it. Logan was much cha- grined, and attempted in vain to obtain redress from the tailor. He then took the matter before his friend Brown, then a magistrate ; and on the judge's questioning him as to the character of the wheat, and what was in it, Logan sought in vain to find words to express the precise nature of the article with which the wheat was adulterated, but said that it resembled in appearance the wheat itself, "It must have been cheat," said the judge. " Yoh !" said Logan, " that very good name for him." A decision was awarded in Logan's favor, and a writ given to Logan to hand to the constable, which, he was told, would bring him the money for his skins. But the untutored Indian-too uncivilized to be dishonest -- could not comprehend by what magic this little paper would force the tailor, against his will, to pay for the skins. The judge took down his own commission, with the arms of the king upon it, and explained to him the first principles and operations of civil law. " Law good," said Logan ; " make rogues pay." But how much more simple and efficient was the law which the Great Spirit had impressed upon his heart-to do as he would be done by !
When a sister of Mrs. Norris (afterwards Mrs. Gen. Potter) was just beginning to learn to walk, her mother happened to express her regret that she could not get a pair of shoes to give more firmness to her little step. Logan stood by, but said nothing. He soon after asked Mrs. Brown to let the little girl go up and spend the day at his cabin. The cautious heart of the mother was alarmed at such a proposition; but she knew the delicacy of an Indian's feelings-and she knew Logan, too-and with secret reluctance, but apparent cheerfulness, she complied with his request. The hours of the day wore very slowly away, and it was nearly night, when her little one had not returned. But just as the sun was going down, the trusty chief was seen coming down the path with his charge ; and in a moment more the little one trotted into her mother's arms, proudly exhibiting a beautiful pair of moccasons on her little feet-the product of Logan's skill.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.