History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley, Part 21

Author: Caldwell, J. A. (John Alexander) 1n; Newton, J. H., ed; Ohio Genealogical Society. 1n
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Wheeling, W. Va. : Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 728

USA > Ohio > Jefferson County > History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley > Part 21
USA > Ohio > Belmont County > History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley > Part 21

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28th. Left our encampment about seven o'clock. Two miles below a small run comes in on the east side, through a piece of land that has a very good appearance, the bottom beginning above our encampment, and continuing in appearance wide for four miles down, where we found Kiyashuta and his hunt- ing party encamped. Here we were under the necessity of paying our compliments, as this person was one of the Six Nation chiefs, and the head of those upon this river.

In the person of Kiyashuta I found an old acquaintance, he being one of the Indians that went with me to the French, in 1753. He expressed a satisfaction at seeing me, and treated me with great kindness, giving us a quarter of a very fine buffalo. He insisted upon our spending that night with him, and, in order to retard us as little as possible, moved his camp down the river just below the mouth of a creek, the name of which I could not learn. At this place we encamped. After much counselling over night, they all came to my fire next morning with great formality; when Kiyashuta, rehearsing what had passed between me and the Sachems at Col. Croghan's, thanked me for saying that peace and friendship with them was the wish of the people of Virginia, and for recommending it to the traders to deal with them upon a fair and equitable footing ; and then again expressed their desire of having a trade opened with Virginia, and that the governor thereof might not only be made acquainted therewith, but with their friendly disposi- tion toward the white people. This I promised to do.

29th. The tedious ceremony, which the Indians observe in their counsellings and speeches, detained us until nine o'clock. Opposite to the creek, just below which we encamped, is a pretty long bottom, and I believe tolerably wide; but about eight or nine miles below the afore-mentioned creek, and just below a pavement of rocks on the west side, comes in a ereek, with fallen timber at the mouth, on which the Indians say there are wide bottoms and good land. The river bottoms above, for some distance, are very good, and continue so for near half a mile below the creek. The pavement of rocks is only to be seen at low water. About a mile below the mouth of the creek there is another pavement of rocks on the east side, in a kind of sedgy ground. On this creek are many buf- faloes, according to the Indians' account.

Six miles below this comes in a small ereek on the west side, at the end of a small naked island, and just above another pave- ment of rocks. This creek comes through a bottom of fine land, and opposite to it, on the east side of the river, appears to be a large body of fine land also. At this place begins what they call Great Bend. Two miles below, on the east side, comes in another creek, just below an island, on the upper point of which are some dead standing trees, and a parcel of white- bodied sycamore; in the mouth of this creek lies a sycamore blown down by the wind. From hence an east line may be run three or four miles; thence a north line till it strikes the river, which I apprehend would include about three or four thousand acres of valuable land. At the mouth of this creek is the war- rior's path to the Cherokee country. For two miles and a half below this the Ohio runs a northeast course, and finishes what they call the Great Bend.

30th. We set out about fifty minutes past seven, the weather being windy and cloudy, after a night of rain. After about two miles, we eame to the head of a bottom, in the shape of a horse- shoe, which I judge to be about six miles round ; the beginning of the bottom appeared to be very good land, but the lower part did not seem so friendly. The upper part of the bottom we en- camped on, was exceedingly good, but the lower part rather thin land, covered with beech. In it is some clear meadow land, and a pond or lake. This bottom begins just below the rapid at the point of the Great Bend. The river from this 8-B. & J. COS.

place narrows very considerably, and for five or six miles is scarcely more than one hundred and fifty or two hundred yards over. The water yesterday, except the rapid at the Great Bend, and some swift places about the islands, was quite dead, and as easily passed one way as the otlier; the land in general ap- peared level and good.

About ten miles below our eneampment, and a little lower down than the bottom deseribed to lie in the shape of a horse- shoe, comes in a small creek on the west side, and opposite to this on the east, begins a body of flat land, which the Indians tell us runs quite across the fork to the falls in the Kanawha, and must at least be three days' walk across ; if so, the flat land contained therein, must be very considerable. A mile or two below this, we landed, and after getting a little distance from the river, we came, without rising, to a pretty lively kind of land, grown up with hickory and oak of different kinds, in- termingled with walnut. We also found many shallow ponds, the sides of which, abounding with grass, invited innumerable quantities of wild fowl, among which I saw a couple of birds in size between a swan and a goose, and in color somewhat be- tween the two, being darker than the younger swan, and of a more sooty color. The cry of these birds was as singular as the birds themselves ; I never heard any noise resembling it before. About five miles below this, we encamped in a bottom of good land, which holds tolerably flat and rich for some distance.

31st. I sent the canoe down about five miles, to the junction of the two rivers, that is, the Kanawha with the Ohio, and set out upon a hunting party to view the land. We steered nearly east for about eight or nine miles, then bore southwardly and westwardly, till we came to our camp at the confluence of the rivers. The land from the rivers appeared but indifferent, and very broken ; whether these ridges may not be those that divide the waters of the Ohio from the Kanawha, is not certain, but I believe they are; if so, the lands may yet be good ; if not, that which lies beyond the river bottoms, is worth but litttle.

November Ist. Before eight o'clock we set off with our canoe up the river, to discover what kind of lands lay upon the Ka- nawha. The land on both sides of this river, just at the mouth, is very fine; but on the east side, when you get towards the hills, which I judge to be about six or seven hundred yards from the river, it appears to be wet, and better adapted for meadow than tillage. This bottom continues up the east side for about two miles; and by going up the Ohio, a good traet might be got of bottom land, including the Old Shawanee Town. which is about three miles up the Ohio, just above the mouth of a creek. We judged we went up the Kanawha about ten miles to-day. On the east side, appear to be some good bottoms, but small, neither long nor wide, and the hills baek of them rather steep and poor.

2nd. We proceeded up the river with the eanoe about four miles farther, and then encamped, and went a hunting ; killed five buffaloes, and wounded some others, three deer, de. This country abounds in buffalo, and wild game of all kinds. as also in all kinds of wild fowl, there being in the bottom a great many small, grassy ponds, or lakes, which are full of swans geese, and ducks of different kinds.

Some of our people went up the river four or five miles higher, and found the same kind of bottom on the west side : and we are told by the Indians, that it continued to the falls. which they judged to be fifty or sixty miles higher up. This bottom, next the water, in most places is very rich ; as you ap- proaeh to the hills, you come to a thin white-oak land, and poor. The hills, as far as we could judge, were from half a mile to a mile from the river, poor and steep in the parts we saw, with pine growing on them. Whether they are generally so or not. we cannot tell, but I fear they are.

Brd. We set off down the river, on our return homewards, and eneamped at the mouth. At the beginning of the bottom, above the junction of the rivers, and at the mouth of a branch of the east side, I marked two maples, an elm, and a hoop-wood tree, as a corner of soldiers' land, if we can get it, intending to take all the bottom from hence to the rapids in the Great Bend in one survey. I also marked at the mouth of another run, lower down the west side, at the lower end of the long bottom, an ash and hoop-wood, for the beginning of another of the soldiers' surveys, to extend up so as to include all the bottom in a body on the west side. In coming from our last encampment up the Kanawha, I endeavored to take the courses and distances of the river by my pocket compass, and by guessing.

Ith. After passing these hills, which may run on the river near a mile, there appears to be another pretty good bottom on the east side. At this place we met a canoe going to Ilinois with sheep; and at this place also, that is, at the end of the

HISTORY OF BELMONT AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES, OHIO.

bottom from the Kanawha, just as we came to the hills, we met with a sycamore about sixty yards from the river, of a most extraordinary size ; it measuring three feet from the ground, forty-five feet round, lacking two inches; and not fifty yards from it was another, thirty-one feet round. After passing this bottom, and about a mile of hills, we entered another bot- tom and encamped. This bottom reaches within about a half mile of the rapid, at the point of the Great Bend.

5th. I sent off the canoe with our baggage, and walked across the neck on foot, with Captain Crawford; the distance, ac- eording to our walking, about eight miles, as we kept a straight eourse under the foot of the hills, which run about south-east, and we were two hours and a half in walking it. This is a good neck, the soil being generally good, and in places rieh. There is a large proportion of meadow ground, and the land as high, dry, and level as one could wish; the growth in most places, beech intermixed with walnut, but more especially with poplar, of which there are numbers very large. The land to- wards the upper end is a black oak, and very good. Upon the whole, a valuable tract might be had here, and I judge the quantity to be about four thousand acres. After passing this bottom and the rapid, as also some hills, which jut pretty close to the river, we came to that bottom before remarked on the 29th ultimo. A little above this bottom we encamped ; the afternoon being rainy, and the night wet.

6th. We left our encampment a little after daylight, and after about five miles we came to Kiyashuta's hunting eamp, which was now removed to the mouth of the creek, noted Oc- tober 29th, for having fallen timber at the mouth of it, in a bottom of good land. By the kindness and idle eeremony of the Indians, I was detained at Kiyashuta's camp all the remain- ing part of the day; and having a good deal of conversation with him on the subject of land, he informed me that it was further from the mouth of the Great Kanawha to the fall of the river, than it was between the two Kanawhas; that the bottom on the west side, which begins near the mouth of the Kanawha, continues all the way to the falls without the interposition of hills, and widens as it goes, especially from a pretty large creek that comes in about ten or fifteen miles higher up than where we were; that in the fork there is a body of good land, and at a considerable distance above this, the river forks again at an island, and there begins the reed, or cane to grow; that the bottoms on the east side of the river are also very good, but broken with hills; and that the river is easily passed with eanoes to the falls, which cannot be less than one hundred miles, but further, it is not possible to go with them; that there is but one ridge from thence to the settlements upon the river above, on which it is possible for a man to travel, the country between being so much broken with steep hills and precipices. -[Here, for the want of the legibility of the MISS. Journal, a hiatus of ten days occurs.]

17th. By this morning the river had fallen in the whole, twenty-two or twenty-three feet, and was still lowering. About eight o'clock we set out, and passing the lower Cross creek, we eame to a pretty long and tolerably wide and good bottom, on the east side of the river; then came in the hill, just above which is Buffalo ereek. About three o'clock we came to the Mingo town, without seeing our horses, the Indian who was sent express for them, having passed through only the morn- ing before; being detained by the creeks, which were too high to ford.

Here we resolved to wait their arrival, which was expected to-morrow; and here then will end our water voyage along a river, the general course of which from Beaver creek to the Kanawha is about southwest, or near as I could determine; but, in its windings through a narrow vale, extremely serpentine; forming on both sides of the river alternately necks of very good bottoms, some exceedingly fine, lying for the most part in the shape of a half moon, and of various sizes.

There is very little difference in the general width of the river from Fort Pitt to Kanawha; but in the depth I believe the odds are considered in favor of the lower parts, as we found no shallows below the Mingo town, except in one or two places, where the river was broad, and there I do not know but there might have been a deep channel in some parts of it. Every here and there are islands, some larger and some smaller, which, operating in the nature of locks or steps, occasions pretty still water above, but for the most part strong and rapid water along- side of them. However, none of these so swift but that a ves- sel may be rowed or sent up with poles.

When the river is in its natural state, large eanoes, that will carry five or six thousand weight or more, may be worked against the stream by four hands, twenty or twenty-five mil 's

a day ; and down a good deal more. The Indians who are very dexterous, even their women, in the management of canoes, have their hunting camps and cabins all along the river, for the convenience of transporting their skins to market. In the fall, so soon as the hunting season comes on, they set out with their families for this purpose; and in hunting will move their eamps from place to place, till by the spring they get two or three hundred or more miles from their towns; then catch beaver on their way up, which frequently brings them into the month of May, when the women are employed in planting. The men are at market, and in idleness, till the autumn again, when they pursue the same course. During the summer months they live a poor and perishing life.

The Indians who reside upon the Ohio, the upper parts of it at least, are composed of Shawanese, Delawares, and some of the Mingoes, who, getting but little part of the consideration that was given for the lands eastward of the Ohio, view the settle- ments of the people upon their river with an uneasy and jeal- ous eye, and do not scruple to say, that they must be compensa- ted for their right if the people settle thereon, notwithstanding the cession of the Six Nations. On the other hand, the people of Virginia and elsewhere are exploring and marking all the lands that are valuable, not only on the Redstone and other waters on the Monongahela, but along the Ohio as low as the Little Kanawha ; and by next summer I suppose they will get to the Great Kanawha, at least.

How difficult it may be to eontend with these people after- wards, is easy to be judged, from every day's experience of lands actually settled, supposing these settlements to be made; than which nothing is more' probable, if the Indians permit them, from the disposition of the people at present. A few set- tlements in the midst of some of the large bottoms, would ren- der it impracticable to get any large quantity of land together; as the hills all the way down the river, as low as I went, come pretty close, or steep and broken, and incapable of settlement, though some of them are rieh, and only fit to support the bot- toms with timber and wood. The land back of the bottoms, as far as I have been able to judge, either from my own obser- vations or from information, is nearly the same, that is, ex- ceedingly uneven and hilly ; and I presume there are no bodies of flat, rich land to be found till one gets far enough from the river to head the little runs and drains that come through the hills, and the sources of the creeks and their branehes. This, it seems, is the case with the lands upon the Monongahela and Youhiogheny, and I fancy holds good upon this river, till you get into the flat lands, below the falls. The bottom land dif- fers a good deal in quality. That highest up the river in general, is richest, though the bottoms are neither so wide nor so long, as those below. Walnut, cherry, and some other kinds of wood, neither tall nor large, but covered with grape-vines, with the fruit of which this country at this instant abounds, are the growth of the richest bottoms; but on the other hand, these bottoms appear to me to be the lowest and most subject to floods. The soil of this is good, but inferior to either of the other kinds; and beech bottoms are objectionable on account of the difficulty of clearing them, as their roots spread over a large surface of ground, and are hard to kill.

18th. Agreed with two Delaware Indians to take up our canoe to Fort Pitt, for the doing of which I was to pay six dol- lars, and give them a quart tin ean.

19th. The Delawares set off with the canoe, and our horses not arriving, the day appeared exceedingly long and tedious. Upon conversing with Nicholson, I found he had been two or three times to Fort Chartres, on the Illinois, and I got front him an account of the lands between this place and that, and upon the Shawanese river, on which he had been hunting.

20th. About one o'clock our horses arrived, having been pre- vented from getting to Fort Pitt by the freshets. At two we set out and got about ten miles; the Indians traveling with us.

21st. Reached Fort Pitt in the afternoon; distance from our last encampment, about twenty-five miles, and as near as I can guess, thirty-five from the Mingo town. The land between the Mingo town and Pittsburgh, is of different kinds. For four or five miles after leaving the first mentioned place, we passed over steep, hilly ground, covered with white oak, and a thin shallow soil. This was succeeded by a lively white oak land, less broken; and this again by rich land, the growth of which was ehiefly white and red oak, mixed; which lasted with some interval of different ridges, all the way to Pittsburgh. It was very observable, that as we left the river, the land grew better, which is a confirmation of the accounts I had before received, that the good bodies of land lie upon the heads of the runs and creeks; but in all my travels through this country, I have seen

HISTORY OF BELMONT AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES, OHIO.

no large body of level land. On the branches of Raccoon creek, there appears to be good meadow ground; and on Chartier's creek, over both of which we passed, the land looks well. The country between the Mingo town and Fort Pitt, appears to be well supplied with springs.

22d. Stayed at Pittsburgh all day. Invited the officers and some other gentlemen to dinner with me at Semple's among whom was one Dr. Connelly, nephew to Col. Croghan, a very sensible and intelligent man, who had traveled over a good deal of this western country both by land and water, and who confirms Nicholson's account of the Shawanee river, up which he had been near four hundred miles. This country, I mean on the Shawanee river, according to Dr. Connelly's description, must be exceeding desirable on many accounts. The climate is fine, the soil remarkably good; the lands well watered with good streams, and level enough for any kind of cultivation. Besides these advantages from nature, it has others not less im- portant to a new settlement, particularly game, which is so plentiful as to render the transportation of provisions thither, bread only excepted, altogether unnecessary. Dr. Connelly is so much delighted with the lands and climate on that river that he wishes for nothing more, than to induce one hundred families to go there and live. that he might be among them. A new and most desirable government might be established there, to be bounded, according to his account, by the Ohio northward and westward, by the ridge that divides the waters of the Ten- nessee or Cherokee river southward and westward, and by aline to run from the Falls of the Ohio, or above, so as to cross the Shawanee river above the fork of it. Dr. Connelly gives much the same account of the land between Fort Chartres, in the Illi- nois country, and Post St. Vincent, that Nicholson does, except in the article of water, which the Doctor says is bad, and in the summer scarce, there being little else than stagnant water to be met with.

23d. After settling with the Indians and people that attended me down the river, and defraying the sundry ex- penses aecruing at Pittsburgh, I set off on my return home; and, after dining at the widow Mier's, on Turtle creek, reached Mr. John Stephenson's in the night.

24th. When we came to Stewart's crossing at Crawford's, the river was too high to ford, and his canoe gone adrift. How- ever, after waiting two or three hours, a canoe was got, in which we crossed and swam our horses. The remainder of this day I spent at Capt. Crawford's; it either raining or snowing hard all day.

25th. I set out early in order to see Lund Washington's land; but the ground and trees being covered with snow, I was able to form but an indistinct opinion of it; though, upon the whole, it appeared to be a good tract of land. From this I went to Mr. Thomas Gist's and dined, and then proceeded to the Great Crossings at Hogland's, where I arrived about eight o'clock.

26th. Reached Killman's, on George's creek, where we met several families going over the mountain to live ; some without having any places provided. The snow upon the Allegheny mountains was near knee deep.

27th. We got to Col. Cresap's at the Old Town, after calling at Fort Cumberland and breakfasting, with one Innis, at the new store opposite.

28th. The Old Town creek was so high as to wet us in cross- ing it, and when we came to Cox's the river was impassable ; we were obliged, therefore, to cross in a canoe, and swim our horses. At Henry Enoch's, at the forks of Cacapehon, we dined, and lodged at Kinker's.

29th. Set out early, and reached my brother's by one o'clock. Dr. Craik, having business at Winchester, went that way, and was to meet me at Snicker's the next morning by ten o'clock. 30th. According to appointment the Doctor and I met, and after breakfast at Snicker's, we proceeded to West's where we arrived at or about sunset.

December 1st. Reached home; having been absent nine weeks and one day.

CHAPTER XI.

1764-1774.

TRANQUILITY SUCCEEDS THE TREATY OF 1764 -INDUCES EMI- GRATION-MOVEMENTS FOR SETTLEMENT ON THE MONONGAHELA BY CRESAP AND OTHERS, AND ON THE OHIO BY EBENEZER ZANE, IN 1767-FINAL SETTLEMENT AT WHEELING BY COL. ZANE IN 1769-EMIGRATION OF DAVID SHEPPARD, M'COLLOCHS AND OTHERS IN 1770-SETTLEMENTS AT SHORT CREEK, WEST LIBERTY, YELLOW CREEK, BAKER'S BOTTOM, BUFFALO, GRAVE CREEK AND CAPTINA-GOSPEL PREACHED ON WHEELING CREEK IN 1772-GROWTH OF SETTLEMENT AT WHEELING-EMIGRA- TION OF JOHN CALDWELL AND CAPT. MICHAEL CRESAP IN 1774 - PRECURSORY EVENTS OF THE DUNMORE WAR-INDIANS KILLED NEAR WHEELING-MASSACRE OF INDIANS AT BAKER'S BOTTOM BY GREATHOUSE, INCLUDING LOGAN'S FAMILY-CRAW- FORD'S LETTER TO WASHINGTON CONCERNING THESE EVENTS- MURDER OF BALD EAGLE-CONTEMPORANEOUS ACCOUNTS-EX- PECTATIONS OF WAR-SETTLERS FLY FROM THE BORDER.

RIOR to the treaty concluded by Col. Boquet in 1764, with the Indian tribes then inhabiting those portions of Vir- ginia and Pennsylvania west of the Alleghenies, these mountains had formed a sort of boundary line between the white and the red man. The comparative tranquility which succeeded the treaty, for a few years, afforded the opportunity which was promptly seized by some of the more adventurous and enterprising settlers of Virginia and Maryland, to pene- trate the defiles of the mountains, and attempt the hazardous venture of establishing settlements on the borders of the Ohio and Monongahela rivers. These efforts proved successful, and thence forward the Ohio became the boundary line between the civilized and savage races. But it was only after long years of bloody and bitter struggle, and amid privations and hardships unnumbered that the land was finally rescued from its savage possessors.

The men by whom these results were achieved belonged to a class striking and peculiar in its character. While the frontiers- men of our American civilization have always been remarkable for qualities that seemed to fit them specially for the duties which fell to their lot, it is conceded that, in a pre-eminent de- gree, "the best examples have perhaps been among the settlers of Western Virginia, and the hardy progeny who have sprung from that generous stock."* With courage to undertake the most hazardous and daring enterprises; fortitude to sustain fatigue, and hunger, and-pain; bravery to face danger and death in their most forbidding aspects ; a mind naturally quick, vigorous and penetrating ; futile in expedient, self-reliant, ac- curate in judgment, the Virginia pioneer united the virtues of frankness, generosity, hospitality, and a straight forward honesty of purpose which was without disguise. "He was, as occasion called, a farmer, a hunter, and a warrior by turns."t "His fringed and fanciful hunting shirt, his deerskin leggins, his gaily embroidered moccasins, his tomahawk and scalping- knife, his bullet-pouch, powder-horn and ready rifle, made up his personal equipment of comfort and defence."; "From him have sprung those hardy men whose struggles and sufferings on the bloody ground of Kentucky will always form a striking page in American history, and that band of adventurers before whose headlong charge, in the valley of Chihuahua, neither breastworks nor batteries, nor five fold odds could avail for a moment."S

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History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley, Part 21

Author: Caldwell, J. A. (John Alexander) 1n; Newton, J. H., ed; Ohio Genealogical Society. 1n Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Wheeling, W. Va. : Historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 728

Author: Caldwell, J. A. (John Alexander) 1n; Newton, J. H., ed; Ohio Genealogical Society. 1n
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Wheeling, W. Va. : Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 728