History of Ashland County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 15

Author: Hill, George William, b. 1823; Williams Bros
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: [Cleveland] Williams
Number of Pages: 896

USA > Ohio > Ashland County > History of Ashland County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 15

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).

From Camp Mercer, General Beall sent forward twenty pioneers, well guarded, to cut a road along the old Huron or Wyandot trail, through the north part of Vermillion, the south part of Montgomery, and across Milton, in a northwesterly direction, into Richland county, which, afterwards, was known as "Beall's trail," and was used for many years as a common highway by the settlers. In about one month, the road was com- pleted through the present site of Olivesburgh to Shen- andoah, in Richland county.

In the meantime, General Beall moved forward, and erected a camp on a small stream, a short distance froma the present site of Olivesburgh, which he called Camp . Whetstone, owing to the quality of the stone found there, which made excellent whetstones. There he re- mained about one week, and then moved forward to the present site of Shenandoah. From thence, he turned southwest about one and a half miles, and erected a camp on a small stream. This he called Camp Council. Here he awaited further orders from General Wads- worth, who had rendezvoused at Cleveland. The army had remained at Camp Council about six weeks, when one evening a strange officer and his guard rode into the. camp. One of the guard, a Mr. Hackathorn, at first refused to let him jass ; but, on further examination, the

. Knapp's History, page 250. ,

+ The weight of pioneer tradition sus Captain Douglas Femme jerome's wife and daughter with the theentown Indians, some werk. prior to the arrival of General Beal !.

----- -----

HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.

stranger turning out to be General Harrison, let him and his guard pass in. His arrival was timely, for the soldiers of General Beall were in open revolt. Their rations were about exhausted, and the means of obtain- ing more, precarious; besides, the time of heir enlist- ment was about to expire. Many of them were making arrangements to return home. Some of them had already packed their knapsacks with clothing and a few rations, and were ready to march away! General Har- rison, the next morning, ordered a parade of the army. A hollow square was formed, around a huge stump, upon which the general mounted, and addressed the dis- affected troops. He told them the dangers that environed the border settlers and their helpless families, painted in vivid colors the horrors of invasion by the savages, and deprecated the conduct of the soldiers who would abandon the settlements to the tomahawks of the ruth- less foe. One by one. the knapsacks disappeared from the backs of the discontented soldiers; and, by the time he had concluded his address, the army of General Beall was ready to move forward, and endure all manner of hardships, to shield the border settlements from im- pending ruin.

From Camp Council General Beall proceeded with his ariny to Camp Avery, which was located about six miles above the mouth of the Huron river. Here he was tried by court-martial for disobeying the orders of General Wadsworth. This was about the first of January, 1813. It seems that General Wadsworth out- ranked General Beall, and had ordered him to rendez- vous at Cleveland instead of going the route he did. General Beall believed he could render the settlements on the branches of the Mohican more secure by cutting his trail. Hence he refused to obey the order of Gen- eral Wadsworth, and for this he was court-martialed. Upon a fuli hearing of the charges, General Beall was acquitted. He was then ordered to reinforce General Winchester who was then in the neighborhood of the river Raisin, but only succeeded in reaching Lower San- dusky,. where he was ordered to return to Camp Avery and disband his army. The soldiers made their way along the route of bis advance to their homes about Wooster, Canton, New Lisbon, and along the Sandy and . Tuscarawas rivers .*

EXPEDITION OF GENERAL ROBERT CROOKS.

While Governor Meigs was exerting himself to obtain troops to reinforce General Harrison in the northwest, the war department at Washington eity ordered the gov- ernors of Pennsylvania and Virginia, each to dispatch two thousand men to aid General Harrison. The order was promptly obeyed, and the Pennsylvanians were placed under the command of Brigadier General Robert Crooks, and ordered to rendezvous at Pittsburgh, and, as soon as equipped, to hasten to the relief of General Harrison. The artillery and army stores not being ready, General Crooks was ordered to move as rapidly as possi

ble by way of New Lisbon, Canton, and Wooster, to Mansfield, and there remain until the artillery and ariny stores should arrive, under the direction of the quarter- master. The brigade under the command of General Crooks numbered about two thousand men-western Pennsylvanians, The brigade moved slowly down the west bank of the Ohio, from Allegheny City, some forty miles, thence, turning westward, moved on through New. Lisbon, Canton, and Wooster. In the meantime its movements were much impeded by the rough roads, then mere paths cut through the forest. The army was put in motion about the middle of October, 1812, and arrived in Wooster about three weeks after the departure of General Beall to Jerome's place. The train of wagons connected with General Crooks' brigade numbered, as near as can be remembered, some twenty-five or thirty six-horse teams, the wagons being covered by canvas, and filled with aniny stores of all kinds ..

After halting a day or two at Wooster to repair broken wagons and allow the jaded teams to rest, the brigade was again put in motion. It reached the block-house and log cabin, afterwards known as Jerometown, in one day. Here the army of General Crooks passed the Jerome fork and turned to the southwest. The brigade passed up a small stream, by what was afterwards known as the site of Goudy's mill, and commenced to cut a path, now known as the "old Portage road." The pio- neers cut the road along an old Indian trail, as far as the Quaker springs, the first day, where General Crooks and his brigade encamped for the night. The next day the pioneers continued along the old trail, in a south- west direction, cutting a path laige enough for the teams to pass, reaching the deserted village of Greentown in the evening, and the brigade coming up, encamped there for the night. Nearly all the Indian huts had been burned prior to this time, by order of another command. At Greentown the brigade crossed the Black fork, and proceeding southwest a short distance, struck a new blazed road leading to the west. The pioneers again kept in advance of the brigade, cutting the road, Alling up gulches, and preparing the crossings over small streams until they reached the cabin of David Hill, on the present site of Lucas, where the brigade again en- camped for the night. The next morning the piongers continued to penetrate the forest, and in the afternoon reached the present site of Mansfield, where they found two block-houses, and a few cabins and dwelling houses. In the evening General Crooks and his men eneamped on what is now the public square of Mansfield, where he remained some weeks awaiting the arrival of the quartermaster's train. About the fifteenth of Decem- ber General Crooks was ordered to proceed to Upper Sandusky to assist in fortifying that point. The quarter- master had as yet failed to reach Mansfield. General Crooks moved forward under the guidance of Jacob Newman, an old hunter and a citizen of the village, to Upper Sandusky.

About three weeks after the departure of General Crooks and his brigade from Allegheny City, Colonel James Anderson, acting quartermaster, was ready to

*We are indebted for these details to Patrick Marty, John C'in, Henry Gamble, Thomas Howey and Samuel White, fall d'cases, who were soldiers under General Realt; and an interesting history of Richland county now being published by General R. Brinkerhoff

-----.

ฟ้า

هر ..

HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.

march en route to Mansfield and Upper Sandusky. His ominand was composed of the following officers: Cap- tain Gratiot, engineer of equipments; Captain Paul An- derson, forage-master; Captain Wheaton, pay-master; Captain Johnston and ninety men, and Lieutenant Walker,* with forty men, as a guard.

Colonel Anderson had, for conveyance to Upper San- dusky, twenty-five iron cannon, mostly four and six pounders. They, and the balls fitting them, were placed in covered road wagons, and drawn by six horses to each. The cannon carriages, twenty-five in number, empty, were each drawn by four horses. The cartridges, canister, and other necessary ammunition, were put in large cov- ered wagons.' There were fifty covered road wagons, drawn by six horses each. They were loaded with such amy stores as would be serviceable in the expedition.

Equipped in this manner, Colonel Anderson left Alle- gheny City about the first day of November, 1812, and camped nine miles down the west side of the Ohio, the first night. The second night, be reached General Wayne's Legionville. The third night, encamped thirty miles down the river from Allegheny. The fourth night at Greersburgh, forty-two miles from Pittsburgh. The fifth night, fifteen miles further on their journey. The sixth night, at New Lisbon, seventy-five miles from Pitts- burgh, where he stayed three days to repair broken wheels and wagons. The tenth night, the command had advanced fifteen miles further. The eleventh night, Colonel Anderson reached the village of Canton. Here he tarried ten days, repairing wagons, shoeing horses, and obtaining provisions. On the twenty-first night he reached Hahn's swamps, and was three or four days in passing over the same, to Wooster, owing to the fact that Beall and Crooks' road was badly cut up with their wagons. Part of the route from the swamps to Wooster, Colonel Anderson had a new road cut. At Wooster, Col- onel Anderson's men beheld an object of curiosity in the new block-house, the first they had seen. About the tenth of December, Colonel Anderson left the village of Wooster, pursuing the route of Beall and Crooks, and the first evening reached a block-house and cabin on the east side of the Jerome fork of the Mohican, where he ercamped for the night. On the eleventh he crossed the Jerome fork, taking the trail of General Crooks, which he followed through the forest, crossed the Black fork, and encamped for the night on the present site of Lucas. On the twelfth he reached the village of Mansfield, where they found two block-houses, a tavern, and one store.

General Crooks and his brigade had left before the arrival of Colonel Anderson. The teamsters being vol- unteers, at twenty dollars per month, and their time hav- ing expired, desired to return home. Colonel Anderson being ordered to follow General Crooks to Upper San- dusky, offered to pay the teamsters one dollar per day, if they would continue in the expedition until he arrived at Upper Sandusky. These terms were accepted, and each teamster was finished a gun to be kept in the feed -

trough, to defend himself against an apprehended attack of the Indians. The command had scarcely got out of sight of the village of Mansfield when it commenced to snow, and continued to do so until it was two feet deep. The ground being unfrozen, the situation became very embarrassing. The heavy wagons cut into the soft earth, and the horses were unable to draw them. A council was held, and fifteen gun carriages were sent ahead to. break the path, and let it freeze, so that the heavy teams could pass without crushing through. By this means they made a few miles a day; and when one team gave out, it turned aside and another took its place. At night the soldiers were compelled to work two or three hours shoveling off a suitable place to pitch their tents, build fires to cook their food and keep them from freezing. The soldiers cut brush and threw their blankets over it, and by that means, while sleeping, were raised above the mud, water and snow. After some two weeks of such travel and hardships, the command reached Upper San- dusky (New Year's Day), January 1, 1813. After a brief. rest the teamsters, under a guard, took the horses of the expedition to Franklinton, one mile west of the present city of Columbus, to be fed and kept until spring .*

* We are indebted for the items of this sketch to the excellent mem- ory of Captain Robert Brer, now eighty-three years of age (1876), a resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who accompanied Colonel James Anderson as teamster, and took charge of one of the cannon carriages. This sketch never having appeared before in print, is very valuable as a personal and historic reminiscence, and we know the reader will thank Captain-Beer for-it, although it is somewhat foreign to an exact home history of Ashiland county. Mr. Beer died in Alleghany City, Penn: sylvania, May 4, 1880, aged about eighty-seven years.

CHAPTER XXV.

VICTORY BRINGS JOY.

Adventures of the Pioneers. and Life in the Block-honses. - The Collyer Affair .- Cultivating the soil under a Guard .-- The Heroic Defence of Fort Meigs .-- The Gallantry of Major Croghan at Fort Stevenson .-. The Naval Victory of Perry.

THE commands of Generals Crooks and Beall, that passed through this region in the fall of 1812, as re lated in a former chapter, were left in the vicinity of Upper Sandusky about the first of January, 18:3. The time of service of General Beall's troops having expired, most of them returned and dispersed. Genera! Win- chester having advanced with his forces to the river Raisin, and the position at Upper Sandusky being re- garded as critical, the brigade of General Crooks was induced to volunteer one more month to defend the borders of the northwest. His brigade, after finishing the intrenchients at Upper Sandusky, was ordered to Fort Meigs, with an artillery train and stones, which were dragged through the mud and some w by the soldiers. In doing so, they had to endure the most incredible hard. ship, port of the time wading through mud and water two or three feet deep, and being compelled to cut brush

" Lieutenant Walker was unfortunately killed, when out haunting. In an Indian, while tieneral Crooks was quartered at Upper Sandusky.

HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.

and logs to lift them above the water when they encamp- ed at night. General Winchester had advanced with his army, about one thousand strong, to within eighteen miles of Malden, where he was surprised by General Proctor, with his British and Indians, and a battle ensu- ing on the twenty-second of January, 1813, Winchester was defeated with great slaughter. The loss of the Americans was about four hundred in wounded, killed and missing, being fully one-third of all the force en- gaged in the battle! General Winchester was taken prisoner in the commencement of the engagement; and many of his soldiers, after having surrendered, were butchered by the savages in the most wanton manner, without the interference of the British . commander to prevent it! This misfortune disconcerted all the plans of General Harrison for the spring campaign; and compelled him to fall back to Fort Meigs, until the troops ordered into the field by Governor Meigs, should arrive. While these bloody scenes were transpiring, the people of Richland, Wayne and Knox counties were again compelled to seek safety in the block-houses, not know- ing what moment the infuriated savages, led on by Tecumseh, might appear in their midst. Along the Black fork and Clear fork the fugitives that found safety at Clinton, the fall before, had returned to their homes in the vicinity of- Coulter's block-house, and that of Samuel Lewis, on the Clear fork ; though they had spent most of the winter at their own cabins. Their corn crops, though small, had been secured and safely stored; their cattle and swine were under their control. The mills in Knox county, and below Wooster, had been visited and a stock of corn meal laid in for the winter. So that they bad an abundance of corn-bread and meat ; and by the aid of hominy-blocks, there was no imminent danger of starvation, though the situation was rather exciting.

Along the Jerome fork, the majority of the fugitives remained in the block-house during the winter. In the fall of 1812, when Captain Nicholas Murray, with a company of sixty men, was ordered by General Beall to advance to Jerome's piace, to build a block-house, just after he had crossed the Killbuck, he met the fugitive families of John Carr, Christopher Trickle, Matthew Williams, Robert Newell, Ezra Warner, Daniel Carter, Jacob Fry, and. Benjamin Cuppy. Captain Murray offered all these families protection, and they all returned with him to Jerome's place, except Mr. Carter and fant- ily, who continued their flight to New Philadelphia, Tuscarawas county. These families remained in and around the block-house during the winter. About the middle of February, 1813, Daniel Carter and family returned from New Philadelphia, and again occupied his old cabin, one mile northeast of the present site of Ashland, where he found everything as he had left it the fall before. His corn was yet standing in the field un- distmbed, except what had been devoured by deer, wild turkeys, and small animals.

A pioneer gives the following version of the Collyer affair :

"About the first of March, 1:13, in the morning, four strange

Indians appeared at the cabin of James Collyer, then residing about two miles above the junction of the Jerome and Muddy forks of Mohi- can, a short distance from Finley's bridge, and asked for something to eat. They appeared to be well armed, and his suspicions were eveited. There had not been an Indian seen in that neighborhood for several months, the last of the Mohican John Indians having been sent away by or ler of General Beall, when he eut bis trail the fall before. Putting on an air of confidence and calmness, he invited them into his cabin. entering which, they leaned their guns against the wall near the door. and were seated. Mr. Collyer tofd his wife, who was mach alarmed, to set some cold victuals on the table for them to eat. She did so, putting on a lot of meat, corn-bread and such other articles as she had at hand. Mr. Collyer metioned fer them to sit down and eat. They went to the table and were seated, and began to eat heartily of the food. While they were enting Collyer moved cautiously to the point where he kept his gan, which was always loaded, and securing it. placed bimselt, unobserved, betwere the Indians and the door, and enrefully raising his gun so as to get a range on two of them, prepared to fire, seeing which. Mrs. Collyer shrieked out, and fainting. fell to the floor. This alarmed the Indians, and they sprang to their feet . but seeing the threatening attitude of Collyer, raised their hands and begged him to spare their lives, saving. "me Goshen Injin, me no harm you." Thereupon Collyer witheld his fire, still keeping his gna pointed at them- his intention having been after killing or wounding two of them at the table, to club it over the other two, and thus secure them all-he being a powerful man and having had a good deal of experience as a hunter, and in Indian warfare. They continued to protest their innocence of any intended harm to him and his family, when he told them he would spare them on conditon of rething from the cabin and leaving their guns within, when he would remove the flints and priming, and hand them the balance of the food on the table, out at the window, when they should immediately leave the neighborhood and not return again. They acceptel these conditions and retired at once from the cabin After securing the door. Mr. Collyer placed his wife on a bed, and proceeded to remove the priming and flints from the guns of the Indiaus, and having done which, he passed them out at a small window : after doing so, he handed them the balance of the food, and they disappeared in the forest. After waiting until he was satisfied they had gone, and were not intending to attack him, he took his wife and such valuables as he possessed, anct hastened to the "Eagle" block-house, a strong cabin prepared by Thomas Fagie for himself and neighbors.

The news of this exploit soon reached the block- house at Jerome's place, and word of it being sent to Daniel Carter, he again took leave of his cabin, never to return to it, for he was compelled to remain at the block-house until the spring of 1814. A few days after this, a number of Indians appeared in view of Eagle fort, and made some hostile demonstrations, but owing to the strength of Eagle's force, they retired in the direc- tion of Jerome's place, killing a number of hogs on their way, and finally disappeared from the neighbor- hood without doing further mischief. This added to the excitement produced by Winchester's defeat, the particulars of which were now understood at the block- house.

On the approach of the season for planting corn, a few fields were put out by the pioneers of the block- house. John Carr had about twenty acres cleared ; Ezra Warner had about the same number of acres ready ; and Jerome had some thirty acres, on the bottom beyond the block-house. Mr. Carter had four or five acres near the old Indian village, across the Jerome fork. These fields were plowed, and the planting was done, by the residents of the block-house, as a community. While part of them planted and cultivated the con, darmig the summer, the others patrolled the forests in the them ity of the fort, to prevent surprise and capture by the Indians. When the corn had become sufficiently m ...

HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.

tured for use, the same vigilance prevailed in and about the neighborhood, to prevent surprise. When the crop was gathered, it proved to be quite large.

The summer months, in this way, seemed to pass slowly. The inmates could rarely get news from the frontiers. The defence of Fort Meigs by General Har- rison, and his victory of the fifth of May, 1813, sent joy to the block-houses along both forks of Mohican. Har- rison and his army had endured, in the most heroic manner, the fierce assaults and cannonading of the Brit- ish army, and finally compelled them to march down the Maumee, river. In August, the monotony of the block-house was again removed by the reception of the intelligence of the splendid defence of Fort Stevenson (Lower Sandusky) by the heroic Major Croghan and his men. The signal repulse of the British, under Proctor, and their hasty retreat from that locality, gave renewed hope and confidence. On the tenth of September, Commodore Perry captured the whole British fleet on Lake Erie, and by that great achievement the territory of Michigan passed into the possession of the American forres. So great was the joy of the people of this re- gion over the victory on Lake Erie, that a pioneer (Mr. John Greenlee) now seventy-five years of age, who was then a boy, assures us he thinks he could hear the echo of Perry's guns during the conflict, amid the forests of what is now Lake township, in this county!

In the month of June, Mrs. Anna Carter, wife of Daniel Carter, and his son James, a lad of six years of age, died in the block-house at Jerome place, and were buried in the Carr cemetery near the fort. In Septem- ber, Christopher Trickle also died in the block-house, and was buried in the same cemetery. These deaths were occasioned from malaria and want of proper med- ical attendance, there being no physicians within the present limits of the county, at that time.

Upon the recurrence of autumn, the pioneers along the Black fork, the Clear fork, the Lake fork and the Jerome fork, busied themselves in storing their meagie crops for winter. Stibbs' mill, and one or two other mills on the Vernon river, each running one set of buhrs, some of which were "nigger-head," were visited by pio- neers with pack-horses and small canoes, loaded with shelled corn, to be converted into meal. Their food consisted of corn-bread, journey-cake, mush and milk. potatoes, vegetables, and principally wild rieat, cattle and swine being very scarce. "Store tea" and coffee, were exceedingly rare and very costly. "Store goods" were a thing of note; and the calicoes of that day were a luxury few could afford. Home-spun and woven lin- sey-woolsey, and flax or linen garments were the best to be seen; and many a daring, whole-souled pioneer felt proud, clothed in such garments. Salt and flour were luxuries that few could use profusely. Salt was purchased at Zanesville and Pittsburgh, and from its price had to be used sparingly. Ammunition, such as lead and pow. der, was obtained from the supplies furnished the 36 !- diers left to guard the block-houses, So far, then, as food was concerned, the immates of the block houses "fued sumptuously"-to use an expression of an oldl

gentleman who was quartered in one about two years. Nothing happened in the fall of Isis to materially dis- turb the quiet of the pioneers of this region.

CHAPTER XXVI.

ORGANIZATION OF WAYNE AND RICHLAND COUNTIES.

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.

History of Ashland County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 15

Author: Hill, George William, b. 1823; Williams Bros Publication date: 1880 Publisher: [Cleveland] Williams Number of Pages: 896

Author: Hill, George William, b. 1823; Williams Bros
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: [Cleveland] Williams
Number of Pages: 896