USA > Ohio > Historical collections of Ohio in three volumes ; an encyclopedia of the state : with notes of a tour over it in 1886 contrasting the Ohio of 1846 with 1886-90, Vol. III > Part 15
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At Eaton I was pleased to find my old friend Judge John V. Campbell, a large, heavy man of sweet and gentle spirit, who had aided me on my original visit and all through a long life has been doing good. He took me toward evening on a ride in his buggy to the Preble County Children's Home, about a mile southwest from the town, of which in- stitution he was the principal trustee.
The Judge's Crust .- In a few minutes after starting my attention was arrested by an old mill and tool shop in ruins on the margin of "Seven Mile Creek " and near an old bridge.
"What a fine picture," I said, "that would make if it only had some big, old trees around it.'
"Yes," replied the Judge, "and I must tell you a story.
" When I was a boy about fifteen years old, a missionary, one Sunday morning, preached a charity discourse in our church. Ilis eloquence so moved me that I felt it my duty to contribute. I had a quarter in my pocket. I hated to part with it; it was all the money I had in the world, and money was hard for me to get ; but I dropped it in the box all the same. That afternoon I was wandering about that old tool shop, when my eye was attracted by something shiny ; stoop- ing down I picked it up; when, rubbing off the dirt, I found it to be half-a-dollar."
Thus the Judge's crust cast upon the waters went ahead of the Scripture promise, it being doubly returned, and that too before sundown.
The Children's Home has about forty chil- dren. This place contains about twenty-five acres. The Home building was originally a hotel, a health resort called St. Clair's Springs. Here are several flowing mineral springs, said to be good for many diseases. It is on the line of St. Clair's Military Trace, and near the site of old Fort St. Clair. There are six springs at the Home, and more can be inade anywhere there by driving gas pipes down a few feet.
These Children's Homes are one of the inost commendable features of the State. They originated in Washington county, under which heading is given a sketch and portrait of Mrs. Ewing, the noble woman who origi- nated them.
As we drove out to the gate to leave, a little midget in the form of a four-year-old boy stood in waiting. He looked up at the Judge with a reverential air, thumb in mouth.
"Well, Tommy," asked the Judge, "what do you want ? "
"Some new shoes," timidly replied he.
We looked down at his feet ; he seemed well, but coarsely shod, the toes well pro- tected with shining, metallic tips.
" You shall have a new pair soon, Tommy," rejoined the Judge. Then as we drove along he told me this incident :
"A group of the children were chatting among themselves about their mothers, say- ing how much they would like to have visits from their mothers, when one little fellow, who had been silent, added, 'I don't care ever to see my mother no more, since she has forsaken me and left me alone in this place.'"
About a year after this ride with me, the Judge illustrated in his history the text that points to the finale for each of us in turn, " We have here no continuing city."
Eaton in 1846 .- Eaton, the county-seat, is twenty-four miles west of Dayton, ninety-four west of Columbus, and nine cast of the State line. It was laid ont in 1806 by William Bruce, then proprietor of the soil. It was named from Gen. William Eaton, who was born in Woodstock, Ct., in 1764, served in the war of the revolution, was graduated at Dartmouth in 1790, was appointed a captain under Wayne, in 1792, also consul at Tunis in 1798 ; in April, 1804, he was ap- pointed navy agent of the United States with the Barbary powers, to co-operate
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with Hamet, bashaw, in the war against Tripoli, in which he evinced great energy of character : he died in 1811. He was brave, patriotic and generous.
The turnpike from Dayton west leads through Eaton, and one also connects the place with Hamilton. The village contains 1 Presbyterian, 1 Methodist and 1 Public church, 1 book, 2 grocery and 4 dry-goods stores, 1 or 2 newspaper printing offices, 1 woollen factory, I saw mill and about 1,000 inhabitants. Near the town is an overflowing well of strong sulphur water, possessing medicinal prop- erties. About two miles south is Halderman's quarry, from which is obtained a beautiful grey clouded stone : at the village is a limestone quarry, and the county abounds in fine building stone .- Old Edition.
Among the earlier settlers of the town were: Samuel Hawkins, Cornelius Vanausdal, David E. Hendricks, Alexander Mitehell, Alexander C. Lanier and Paul Larsh. Cornelius Vanausdal kept the first store and David E. Hendricks the first tavern.
EATON, county-seat of Preble, is fifty-three miles north of Cincinnati, on the C. R. & C. R. R. It is the centre of a great tobacco and grain-growing section. Cigar manufacturing is a large industry.
County officers, 1888 : Auditor, Hiram L. Robbins ; Clerk, Leander D. Lesh ; Commissioners, William Mills, John C. Riner, Werter D. Pugh ; Coroner, Philip M. Small ; Infirmary Directors, Frank Ridenour, Nathaniel B. Stephens, Joseph W. Coffman ; Probate Judge, William A. Neal ; Poseeuting Attorney, John Risinger ; Recorder, Peter S. Eikenberry ; Sheriff, William Watters ; Sur- veyor, Robert E. Lowry ; Treasurer, Silas Laird. City officers, 1888 : W. B. Marsh, Mayor; J. N. Sliver, Clerk ; Geo. W. Nelson, Treasurer ; Court Corwin,
Marshal. Newspapers : Democrat, Democratie, L. G. Gould, editor and pub- lisher ; Register, Republican, W. F. Albright & Sons, editors and publishers. Churches : 1 Lutheran, 2 Methodist, 1 Presbyterian, 1 Catholic, 1 Baptist, and 1 Disciples. Banks : Farmers' and Citizens', Abner Dunlap, president, C. F. Brooke, Jr., cashier ; Preble County, H. C. Hiestand & Co.
Manufactures and Employees .- F. P. Filbert, cigars, 35 hands ; Coovert & Cooper, cigars, 29; G. A. & J. F. Lugar, builders' wood-work, 11; Frank Rhinchart, builders' wood-work, 4; H. Sanders, flour, etc., 3; W. F. Jones, cigars, 13 ; Straw Bros., cigar boxes, 5 .- State Report, 1887.
Population in 1880, 2,143. School census, 1888, 730 ; J. P. Sharkey, school superintendent. Capital invested in industrial establishments, $51,000. Value of annual product, $100,000 .- Ohio Labor Statistics, 1887. Census, 1890, 2,996.
"At Eaton are mineral springs and flowing wells," writes Dr. F. M. Michael. "Artesian Wells are obtained in the north part of the town by boring thirty or thirty-five feet in the carth. The waters are strongly impregnated with iron, bi- carbonate of sodium, potassium, with traces of lithium ; very little lime salts enter into the composition ; in fact, the water is much softer than the surface wells.
"One of these wells has been flowing for many years. Several new wells have been flowing for eight years ; the water rises several feet above the ground.
"A well at the court-house, over one hundred feet in depth, affords white sulphur waters. Has been in use many years for its medicinal qualities."
Eaton is a healthy town, but in 1849 few places in the State suffered so severely from Asiatic Cholera ; about one hundred and twenty deaths in the course of the summer out of a population of about six hundred who remained behind, while of the other half of the population who fled, not one died.
The first male person born in this county was Col. George D. Hendricks. This was on the site of Camden, October 3, 1805. He had a varied experience ; was a soldier under Sam Houston, in the war between Texas and Mexico, and then returned and
settled at Eaton, where he became a most useful citizen ; served in the Legislature ; was County Auditor, County Sheriff and Village Postmaster. This child of the wilderness remembered many interesting things.
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Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.
THE COURT-HOUSE, ETC., EATON.
O. O. Harlan, Photo., Eaton, 1890.
THE COURT-HOUSE, ETC., EATON.
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THE ONE-EYED OX.
This was an animal that roamed through the woods when he was a boy. This historic ox was a noble animal, with large and stately horns of a dark brindle color, and a grand type of the bovine race, whom the first set- tlers found here on their arrival. It was sup- posed he had strayed from Wayne's army on his march into the Indian country. They caught him and reduced him to their service. When a boy Hendricks rode "One-Eyed " to mill on several occasions, and his father harnessed him and employed him to haul logs in the clearing. He was quite celebrated among the early settlers and lived for several years among them as common property, and when he died they largely turned out to his funeral and buried him in honor on Garrison Branch.
NETTLE SHIRTS.
Another of Mr. Hendrick's experiences was the wearing a nettle shirt. Nettles were found wild in the woods, and before they could break up the country and grow flax for
linen, the settlers resorted to it as a material for underelothing. This shirt so irritated his back, he was frequently compelled to lean against the trees and rub it to allay the irrita- tion. Scott, in his History of Fairfield County, says :
" The pioneers in some parts manufactured fine linen from the fibre of wild nettles, but it was not known to all even of them. It grew in great abundance in some sections and always on the low and richest soil. It re- sembled boneset or ague weed, and grew about four feet in height. Its fibre was fine as the finest flax and was treated in the same way, by rotting, breaking, scutching and spinning ; but unlike flax, it was mowed down and not pulled up by the root. The nettle has entirely disappeared from the country and is never seen except in remote and wild spots. It has on its stem a prickly beard that, upon touching with the hands, inserts itself into the skin, producing a most intolerable itching, almost unendurable ; hence, everybody soon learned to go round ' the nettle patch.'
GIRLS STOLEN BY INDIANS.
A year or two before the war of 1812, two little girls were stolen from Harrison township by Indians. One was named Tharp and the other Harper. The incidents connected with this affair were related by Mr. G. D. Hendricks, January 18, 1885, at which time he was a resident of Hiawatha, Kansas.
Mr. Harper Finds His Child .- When the children were first missed, they were sup- posed to be lost ; but their captivity was as- sured by the discovery of Indian tracks. All efforts to find their whereabouts were of no avail, until many years after the elose of the . war, when Mr. Harper learned from an Indian that a white woman was at Kaskaskia, Illinois, whence the father sought and found his long- lost child, but so changed by time and associ- ation that she was past recognition. But through the kind offices of a French inter- preter. it became self-evident as to her identity. Notwithstanding this, she seented unable to realize that she was other than one of the tribe, and refused to converse with her father, or return with him to civiliza- tion.
Wife of an Indian Chief .- Years rolled on without any tidings of the daughter of Mr. Tharp, until about the year 1837 or 1838, when he received word from a friend and Indian trader, that the wife of an Indian chief, named Captain Dixon, was a white woman. Dixon was a younger brother of the Miami chief Shinglemacy, whose Indian name was Meto-Sina. This tribe were on their Reservation, a few miles below where Marion, Grant county, Indiana, is located. The fond father sped his way to the vicinity of the village, and ealled on my brother, William E. Hendricks, who had a traditional knowledge of the abduction of the Tharp and Harper children. As his farm was adjoining the Reservation, and he knew personally
Captain Dixon and the tribe generally, the meeting of father and daughter was at my brother's house.
Refused to Leave .- The result of the eon- ference was disheartening to the father ; for this child of misfortune persistently refused to leave her Indian home, arguing that with the whites she would be an object of sport or ridicule, on account of her Indian habits and training, and was too old to learn the habits and customs of civilized life : and, in fact, she had but a faint recollection of her childhood home and kindred. The meeting and parting, as described by my nephew, were heartrending to the bereaved father ; and the more so, because of the cold indifference of his alienated daughter, who, in a few years after, committed suicide, by drowning, at " Hog-back," in the Mississinewa, four miles below the village, because her liege lord re- turned home from a drunken spree with another wife. Captain Dixon, though a fair scholar, and speaking good English, was a drunken desperado, as were two of his brothers, who were killed at an Indian pow- wow, by a Pottawatomie brave ; his oldest brother, Meto-Sina, was temperate.
VANAUSDAL'S STORZ.
When the county of Preble was organized there was not a store in the county. The necessity for one induced Cornelius Vanaus- dal, a young man of 25, to leave his father's
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farm and start the enterprise at Eaton. He and his store soon became known throughout the surrounding country, and his venture proved a profitable one. Started in 1808, he conducted it either alone or in partnership with others until 1863. Among his familiar acquaintances were Tecumseh, his brother, the Prophet, Honest John, Indian John, and others.
It is related of Indian John, that he brought furs to the store to swap for salt. The old- fashioned steelyards with long and short, or light and heavy slides, were used in weighing the artieles involved in the trade. John had never seen steelyards before, and watched the weighing closely. The light side was used in weighing the furs. When the salt was to be weighed the steelyards were turned over so as to use the heavy side. John watched this operation with suspicion, and
when he saw the yard fly up when the pea was not so far from the fulcrum as when his furs were weighed, he was convinced that there was something wrong, and seizing the steelyards with an exclamation pronouncing them a lic, ran to the door and threw them as far as he could into the weeds and brush. Mr. Vanausdal, in his dealings with Indians, would never give them credit, although he freely trusted white men. Mr. Vanausdal was born in Virginia, October 2, 1783; in 1805 came with his father to what is now Lanier township, Preble county. In 1810 he took the first census of Preble county. Dur- ing the war of 1812, he was assistant paymas- ter in the United States army, and engaged in furnishing supplies to the army operating between the Ohio river and Lake Erie. In 1819 he represented Preble county in the Legislature. His death occurred in 1870.
About a mile west of Eaton is the site of Fort St. Clair, erected in the severe winter of 1791-2. At this time Fort Jefferson was the farthest-advanced post, being forty-four miles from Fort Hamilton. This spot was chosen as a place of security, and to guard the communication between them. Gen. Wilkinson sent Major John S. Gano, belonging to the militia of the Territory, with a party to build the work. Gen. Harrison, then an ensign, commanded a guard every other night for about three weeks, during the building of the fort. They had neither fire nor covering of any kind, and suffered much from the intense cold. It was a stockade, and had about twenty acres cleared around it. The outline can yet be distinctly traced.
On the 6th of November, 1792, a severe battle was fought almost under cover of the guns of Fort St. Clair, between a corps of riffemen and a body of Indians. Judge Joel Collins, of Oxford, who was in the action, gives the following facts respecting it in a letter to James McBride, dated June 20, 1843 :
Indians Led by Little Turtle .- The parties engaged were a band of 250 Mingo and Wy- andot warriors, under the command of the celebrated chief Little Turtle, and an eseort of 100 mounted riflemen of the Kentucky militia, commanded by Capt. John Adair, subsequently governor of Kentucky. These men had been called out to escort a brigade of pack-horses, under an order from Gen. Wilkinson. They could then make a trip from Fort Washington, past Fort St. Clair, to Fort Jefferson, and return in six days, en- camping each night under the walls of one of these military posts for protection. The Indians being elated by the ehcek they had given our army the previous year, in defeat- ing St. Clair, determined to make a descent upon a settlement then forming at Columbia, at the mouth of the Little Miami. Some time in September 250 warriors struck the war pole, and took up their line of march. Fortunately for the infant settlement, in pass- ing Fort Hamilton they discovered a fatigue party, with a small guard, chopping firewood, east of the fort. While the men were gone to dinner the Indians formed an ambuscade, and on their return captured two of the men. The prisoners informed the Indians that on the morning previous-which must have been on Friday-a brigade of some fifty or 100
pack-horses, loaded with supplies for the two military posts in advance, had left Fort Ham- ilton, escorted by a company of riflemen, mounted on fine horses, and that if they made their trip in the usual time, they would be at Fort Hamilton, on their return, Monday night.
Ambuscade .- Upon this information, Little Turtle abandoned his design of breaking up the settlement above Cincinnati, and fell back some twelve or fifteen miles, with a view of intercepting the brigade on its return. Ile formed an ambuscade on the trace, at a well- selected position, which he occupied through the day that he expected the return of the eseort. But as Capt. Adair arrived at Fort Jefferson on Saturday night, he permitted his men and horses to rest themselves over Sunday, and thus escaped the ambuscade. On Monday night, when on their return, they encamped within a short distance of Fort St. Clair. The judge says :
"The chief of the band of Indians being informed of our position by his runners, eon- cluded that by a night attack he could drive us out of our encampment. Accordingly, he left his ambush, and a short time before day- break, on Tuesday morning, the Indians, by a discharge of rifles and raising the hideous yells for which they were distinguished, made
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a simultaneous attack on three sides of the encampment, leaving that open next to the fort. The horses became frightened, and numbers of them broke from their fastenings. The camp, in consequence of this, being thrown into some confusion, Capt. Adair re- tired with his men and formed them in three divisions, just beyond the shine of the fires, on the side next the fort ; and while the en- emy were endeavoring to secure the horses and plunder the camp-which seemed to be their main object-they were in turn attacked by us, on their right, by the captain and his division ; on the left by Lieut. George Madi- son, and in the centre by Lieut. Job Hale, with their respective divisions. The enemy, however, were sufficiently strong to detail a fighting party, double our numbers, to pro- tect those plundering the camp and driving off the horses, and as we had left the side from the fort open to them, they soon began to move off, taking all with them.
"Close Fighting .- As soon as the day-dawn afforded light sufficient to distinguish a white man from an Indian, there ensued some pretty sharp fighting, so close in some in- stances as to bring in use the war-club and tomahawk. Here Lieut. Hale was killed and Lieut. Madison wounded. As soon as the Indians retreated the white men hung on their rear, but when we pressed them too close, they would turn and drive us back. In this way a kind of running fight was kept up until after sun-rising, when we lost sight of the enemy and nearly all our horses, somewhere about where the town of Eaton now stands. On returning from the pursuit our camp pre- sented rather a discouraging appearance. Not more than six or eight horses were saved ; some twenty or thirty lay dead on the ground. The loss of the enemy remains unknown ; the bodies of two Indians were found among the dead horses. We gathered up our wounded, six in number, took them to the fort, where a room was assigned them as a hospital, and their wounds dressed by Sur-
geon Boyd of the regular army. The wound of one man, John James, consisted of little more than the loss of his sealp. It appeared from his statement that in the heat of the action he received a blow on the side of his head with a war-club, which stunned so as to barely knock him down, when two or three Indians fell to skinning his head, and in a very short time took from him an unusually large scalp, and in the harry of the operation a piece of one of his ears. He recovered, and I understood some years afterwards that he was then living. Another of the wounded, Luke Vores, was a few years since living in Preble county.
"Melancholy Duty .- By sunset on the day of the action we had some kind of rough coffins prepared for the slain. For the satis- faction of surviving friends I will name them, and state that in one grave, some fifty paces west of the site of Fort St. Clair, are the remains of Lieut. Job Hale ; next to him, on his left, we laid our orderly sergeant, Matthew English ; then followed the four privates, Robert Bowling, Joseph Clinton, Isaac Jett and John Williams. Dejection and even sorrow hung on the countenances of every member of the escort as we stood around or assisted in the interment of these, our fellow-comrades. Hale was a noble and brave man, fascinating in his appearance and deportment as an officer. It was dusk in the evening before we completed the performance of this melancholy duty. What a change ! The evening before nothing within the en- campment was to be seen or heard but life and animation. Of those not on duty, some were measuring their strength and dexterity at athletic exercises ; some nursing, rubbing and feeding their horses; others cooking, etc. But look at us now, and behold the ways, chances and uncertainties of war. I saw and felt the contrast then, and feel it still, but am unable further to describe it here ! "
Between the site of Fort St. Clair and Eaton is the village graveyard. This cemetery is adorned with several beautiful monuments. Among them is one to the memory of Fergus Holderman, who died in 1838. Upon it are some ex- quisitely beautiful devices, carved by " the lamented Clevenger," which are among his first attempts at sculpture. The principal object of attraction, however, is the monument to the memory of Lieut. Lowry and others who fell with him in an engagement with a party of Indians commanded by Little Turtle, at Ludlow's Spring, near the Forty-foot Pitch, in this county, on the 17th of October, 1793. This monument has recently been constructed by La Dow & Hamilton, of Dayton, at an expense of about $300, contributed by public-spirited individuals of this vicinity. It is composed of the elegant Rutland marble, is about twelve feet in height, and stands upon one of those small artificial mounds common in this re- gion. The view was taken from the east, beyond which, in the extreme distance, in the forest on the left, is the site of Fort St. Clair.
This Lieut. Lowry was a brave man. His last words were : "My brave boys, all you that can fight, now display your activity and let your balls fly !" The slain in the engagement were buried at the fort. On the 4th of July, 1822, the remains of Lowry were taken up and reinterred with the honors of war in this
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graveyard, twelve military officers acting as pall-bearers, followed by the orator, chaplain and physicians, under whose direction the removal was made, with a large concourse of citizens and two military companies. The remains of the slain commander and soldiers have been recently removed to the mound, which, with the monument, will " mark their resting-place, and be a memento of their glory for ages to come."
E. D. Mansfield, in his Personal Memoirs, published by Robert Clarke & Co., in 1879, speaks of meeting Little Turtle at his father's house, then Ludlow's Station, now Cumminsville, Cincinnati.
One day a dark man, with swarthy counte- nance, riding a very fine horse, dismounted at our house and went into my father's office. I wanted to go in and see him, but for some reason or other was not allowed to. After some time-it was in the forenoon, I think- I saw him come out, mount his horse and ride rapidly away. I was struck by the man, and asked, "Who is that, Ma?" She said it was "LITTLE TURTLE," the great Indian chief.
The last Indian Confederacy had been founded by Brandt, but the figure which stands out on the historical canvas in bold relief is that of MECHE CUNNAQUA, the Little Turtle, chief of the Miamis. This most acute and sagacious of Indian statesmen,
was, it is said, even a polished gentleman. He had wit, humor and intelligence.
Thirty years after the treaty of Greenville he died at Fort Wayne, of the gout (!), which would seem a marvellous fact, did we not remember that the Turtle was a high liver and a gentleman ; equally remarkable was it that his body was borne to the grave with the highest honors by his great enemy, the white man.
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