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 55

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 55
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 55

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There ever rankled in his bosom a most deadly hatred of his country. He seemed to revel in the very excess of malignity toward his old associates. So horrid was his wild ferocity and savageness, that the least relenting seemed to be acts of positive goodness-luminious sparks in the very blackness of darkness! "I have fully glutted my vengeance," said the Mingo Logan, when he had taken a scalp for each of his rela- tions murdered; but the revenge of Simon Girty was gorged with numberless victims, of all ages and of either sex! It seemed as insatiable as the grave itself. And what is the more astonishing is, that such insatiety could arise in any human breast upon a mere faneied negleet !- for it will be re- membered that he deserted to the enemy because of not being promoted to the command of a company !

Of Girty's fool-hardiness, there is ample testimony. He got into a quarrel at one time with a Shawanese, caused by some misunderstanding in a trade. While bandying hard words to cach other, the Indian, by an innuendo, questioned his oppo- nent's courage. Girty instantly produced a half-keg of pow- der, and snatching a fire-brand, called upon the savage to stand

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HISTORY OF BELMONT AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES, OHIO.

by him. The latter, not deeming this a legitimate mode of settling disputes, hastily evacuated the premises !

Upon one subjeet, however, Girty seemed to be ill at ease. He was curious to know of prisoners what was in store for him should he be captured by the Americans. The idea of falling into the hands of his outraged countrymen, was, in short, a terror to him. In the summer of 1796, when the British sur- rendered the posts of the northwest to the United States, Girty was at Detroit. When the boats laden with our troops came in sight, he became so inuch alarmed that he could not wait for the return of the ferry-boat, but plunged his horse into the river, at the risk of drowning, and made for the Canada shore, which he reached in saftey ; pouring out a volley of maledictions as he rode up the opposite bank upon the United States govern- ment and troops mingled with all the diabolical oaths his imagination could coin.

The grandfather of Rev. J. B. Johnston, of St. Clairsville, O., who, during the Revolution, had command of a block-house in Westmoreland county, Pa., on one occasion held Simon Girty as a prisoner, but the date of the event we are unable to obtain. He effected his release by pretending to be friendly to the Americans.

Simon Girty was little, if any, less cruel and bloodthirsty than his brothers, but his restless activity and audacity, and his conduct in first pretending friendship for the American cause, and afterwards deserting to the British, made him the most notorious and hated of the family. He was cunning, un- scrupulous, and almost constantly engaged, after his desertion from Fort Pitt, in some raid, or murdering, or plundering expe- dition. His shrewdness and daring, well fitted him for a leader in such enterprises.

There are many localities that have become historical by some tragic scene, or other notable event in this man's career, some of which bear his name. There is, near the Ohio, on the north side of Short creek, an abrupt termination of one of the river ridges, known as "Girty's Point." It was his favorite place for striking into the interior. The path first used by the Indians is still used by the people of the neighborhood.

He left a family with a name execrated wherever he was known.

THOMAS GIRTY,

alone, of the four brothers, returned to civilized life. He was one of Brady's spies in the Indian wars after the revolution, and died, perhaps, in Butler county, Pa., in 1820.

GEORGE GIRTY

was adopted by the Delawares, became a member of their tribe, and continued with them until his death. In all respects he became a perfect savage, rose to prominence among the Dela- ware tribes, and adopted entirely the manners and customs of the Indians. To consummate cunning he added the most fear- less intrepidity. He led the Indians in their attack on Fort Henry, at Wheeling, in September, 1782. There were two hun- dred and thirty-eight Indians in this attack on the garrison at Wheeling, and, although unsuccessful against the small band of defenders, the event shows the prominent position he occu- pied among his adopted race. He demanded the surrender of the fort, but was promptly refused. Some historians have stated that Simon Girty led the attack against Fort Henry in 1777, but as he did not join the British forces until March, 1778, he eould not have taken part in the attack on Wheeling at the time given. Considerable tradition also exists among the descendants of the old settlers, in which it is claimed the voice of Simon Girty was recognized by some of the defenders of the fort during its siege. but in this the name of George Girty may have got mixed with Simon, and the sieges of 1777 and 1782 may have become confused. Again the two brothers may have resembled each other, both in appearance and voice, and as Simon's desertion and open espousal of the British cause brought him into such great notoriety, the settlers may have been misled to believe that he was the person who had led the attack on the fort. George Girty was doubtless as prominent among the savages as his brother Simon, but the latter became more notorious among the people along the frontier, in conse- quence of circumstances. George Girty fought with the In- dians at the battles of Point Pleasant, Blue Licks, and San- dusky, in all of which he gained much distinction for skill and bravery. In his latter years he gave himself up to intemper-

ance and died drunk about the year 1813, on the Miami of the Lake.

JAMES GIRTY

fell into the hands of the Shawanese, who adopted him as a son. As he approached manhood he became dexterous in all the arts of savage life. To the most sanguinary spirit he added all the vices of the frontier men, with whom he frequently as- sociated. It is represented that he often visited Kentucky at the time of its first settlement, and many of the inhabitants felt the effects of his courage and cruelty. Neither age or sex found mercy at his hand. His delight was in carnage. When unable to walk, in consequence of disease, he laid low with his hatchet captive women and children who came within his reach. Traders who were acquainted with him say, so furious was he that he would not have turned on his heel to save a prisoner from the flames. His pleasure was to see new and re- fined tortures, and to perfect this gratification he frequently gave directions. To this barbarian are to be attributed many of the cruelties charged on his brother Simon. Yet this mon- ster was caressed by Elliott and Proctor.

SKETCH OF ISAAC WILLIAMS.

[From the American Pioneer.]

He was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, the 16th day of July, 1737. While he was quite a boy his parents removed to Winchester, Virginia, then a frontier town. Soon after this event his father died, and his mother married Mr. Buckley. When he was about eighteen years old, the colonial govern- ment employed him as a ranger, or spy, to watch and observe the movements of the Indians, for which his early acquaint- ance with a hunter's life eminently fitted him. In this capacity he served in the army under General Braddock. He also formed one of the party who guarded the first convoy of provis- ions to Fort Duquesne, after its surrender to General Forbes in 1758. The stores were carried on pack-horses over the rough declivities of the mountains, continually exposed to the attack of the Indians, for which the deep ravines and narrow ridges of the mountain ranges afforded every facility. After the peace made with the Indians in 1765, by Colonel Bouquet, the country on the waters of the Monongahela began to be settled by the people cast of the mountains. Among the early emigrants to this region were the parents of Mr. Williams, whom he con- ducted across the mountains in 1768, but did not finally locate himself in the west till the following year, when he settled on the waters of Buffalo creek, near the present town of West Liberty. He accompanied Ebenezer and Jonathan Zane, when they explored and located the country about Wheeling in 1769. Previous to this period, however, he made several hunting ex- cursions to the waters of the Ohio.

In returning from one of these adventurous expeditions, in company with two other men in the winter of 1767, the follow- ing incident befell him. Early in December, as they were crossing the glades of the Allegheny mountains, they were overtaken by a violent snow storm. This is always a stormy, cold region, but on the present occasion, the snow fell to the depth of five or six feet, and put a stop to their further progress. It was followed by intensely cold weather. While confined in this manner to their camp, with a scanty supply of food, and no chance of procuring more by hunting, one of his compan- ions was taken sick and died, partly from disease, and partly by having no food but the tough indigestible skins of their peltry, from which the hair had been singed off at the camp fire and boiled in the kettle. Soon after the death of this man, his remaining companion, from the difficulty of procuring fuel, became so much frozen in the feet that he could render Mr. Williams no further assistance. He contrived, however, to bury the dead man in the snow. The feet of this man were so badly frosted, that he lost all his toes and a part of each foot, thus rendering him entirely unable to travel for a period of nearly two months. During this time, their food consisted of the remnant of their skins, and their drink of melted snow. The kind heart of Mr. Williams would not allow him to leave his friend in this suffering condition while he went to the nearest settlement for aid, lest he should be attacked by wild beasts, or perish for the want of sustenanee. With a patience and fortitude that would have awarded him a civic crown in the best days of the chivalric Romans, he remained with his helpless friend until he was so far restored to health as to ena- ble him to accompany him in his return to his home. So much

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reduced was his own strength, from starvation and cold, that it was many months before his usual health was restored.

In 1669, he became a resident of the western wilds, and made his home on the waters of Buffalo creek. Here he found him- self in a wide field for the exercise of his darling passion, hunting. From his boyhood he had displayed a great relish for a hunter's life, and in this employment he for several years ex- plored the recesses of the western wilds, and followed the water courses of the great valley to the mouth of the Ohio ; and from thence along the shores of the Mississippi to the turbid Mis- souri. As early as the year 1770 he trapped the beaver on the tributaries of this river, and returned in safety with a rich load of furs.

During the prime of his life he was occupied in hunting and in making entries of lands. This was done by girdling a few trees and planting a small patch of corn. This operation en- titled the person to four hundred acres of land. Entries of this kind were very aptly called "Tomahawk improvements." An enterprising man could make a number of these in a season, and sell them to persons who, coming late into the country, had not so good an opportunity to select prime lands as the first adventurers. Mr. Williams sold many of these "rights" for a few dollars, or the value of a rifle gun, which was then thought a fair equivalent, of so little account was the land then con- sidered; and besides, like other hunters of his day, thought wild lands of little value except as hunting grounds. There was, however, another advantage attached to these simple claims; it gave the possessor the right of entering one thousand acres of land adjoining the improvement, on condition of his paying a small sum per acre into the treasury of the State of Virginia. These entires were denominated "pre-emption rights," and many of the richest lands on the left bank of the Ohio river are now held under these early titles. As Virginia then claimed all the lands on the northwest side of the Ohio, many similar entrics were made at this early day on the right bank, and also on the rich alluvials of the Muskingum, as high up as the falls-one tract, a few miles above Marietta, is still known as "Wiseman's bottom," after the man who made a " tomahawk entry " at that place. After the cession of the lands or the ter- ritory northwest of the river Ohio to the United States, these early claims were forfeited.

While occupied in these pursuits he became acquainted with Rebecca Martin, the daughter of Mr. Joseph Tomlinson, of Grave creek, then a young widow, and married her in October, 1775. Her former husband, John Martin, had been a trader among the Indians, and was killed on the Big Hockhocking in the year 1770. A man by the name of Hartness, her uncle on the mother's side, was killed with him at the same time by the Shawanese Indians. As a striking proof of the veneration of the Indians for William Penn and the people of his colony, two men from Pennsylvania, who were with them, were spared. The two killed were from Virginia. The fact is referred to by Lord Dunmore, in his speech at the Indian treaty near Chilli- cothe, in the year 1774. Mr. Williams accompanied Dunmore in this campaign, and acted as a ranger until its close.

By this marriage, Mr. Williams beeame united to a woman whose spirit was eongenial to his own. She was born the 14th of February, 1754, at Will's creek, on the Potomac, in the prov- ince of Maryland, and had removed with her father's family to Grave creek in 1771. Since her residence in the western coun- try she had lived with her brothers, Samuel and Joseph, as their housekeeper, near the mouth of Grave creek, and for weeks together, while they were absent on tours of hunting, she was left entirely alone. She was now in her twenty-first year; full of life and activity, and as fearless of danger as the man who had chosen her for his companion. One proof of her courageous spirit is related by her nieee, Mrs. Bukey. In the spring of the year 1774, she made a visit to a sister, who was married to a Mr. Baker, then living on the Ohio river opposite the mouth of Yellow creek. It was soon after the time of the massacre of Logan's relatives at Baker's Station. Having fin- ished her visit, she prepared to return home in a canoe by her- self, the traveling being chiefly done by water. The distance from her sister's to Grave ercek was about fifty miles. She left there in the afternoon and paddled her light canoe rapidly along until dark. Knowing that the moon would rise at a cer- tain hour she landed, and, fastening the slender craft to the willows, she leaped on shore, and, lying down in a thick clump of bushes, waited patiently the rising of the moon. As soon as it had cleared the tops of the trees and began to shed its cheerful rays over the dark bosom of the Ohio, she prepared to cmbark. The water being shallow near the shore she had to wade a few paces before reaching the canoe, when, just in the

act of stepping on board, her naked foot rested on the cold dead body of an Indian, who had been killed a short time before, and which, in the gloom of the night, she had not discovered in landing. Without flinching or screaming, she stepped lightly into the canoe with the reflection she was thankful he was not alive. Resuming the paddle she reached the mouth of Grave creek in safety early the next morning.

Walter Scott's Rebecca, the Jewess, was not more celebrated for her cures and skill in treating wounds, than Rebecca Wil- liams amongst the honest borderers of the Ohio river. About the year 1785, while living a short time at Wheeling, on account of Indian depredations, she, with the assistance of Mrs. Zane, dressed the wounds of Thomas Mills, who was wounded in four- teen places by rifle shots. He with three other men were spearing fish by torch light about a mile above the garrison when they were fired on by a party of Indians secreted on the shore. Mills stood in the bow of the canoe holding a torch, and, as he was a fair mark, received most of the shots-the others escaped unhurt-one arm and one leg were broken in addition to the flesh wounds. Had he been in the regular service with plenty of surgeons, he probably would have lost one or both limbs by amputation. But this being out of the question here, where no surgeons could be procured, these women, with their fomentations, and simple applications of slippery elm bark, not only cured his wounds, at the time deemed impossible, and re- stored him to health, but saved both his limbs. Many years after this, while the writer of this article was attending on a man with a compound fracture of the leg from the kick of a horse, and who was lying near her residence, she was present at one of the dressings, and related several of her cures in border times. She said her principal dressings were made of slippery elm, the leaves of stramonium, or "jimson," and daily ablutions with warm water.

Their marriage was as unostentatious and as simple as the manners and habits of the party. A traveling preacher happen- ing to come into the settlement, as they sometimes did, though rarely, they were married without any previous preparation of nice dresses, bride eakes, or bride-maids-he standing up in a hunting dress, and she in a short gown and petticoat of home- spun, the common wear of the country.

In the summer of 1774, the year before her marriage, she was one morning busily occupied in kindling a fire preparatory to the breakfast, with her back to the door on her knees, puffing away at the coals. Hearing some one step cautiously on the floor, she looked around and beheld a tall Indian close to her side. He made a motion of silence to her, at the same time shaking his tomahawk in a threatening manner if she made any alarm. He however, did not offer her harm; but looking carefully round the cabin he espied her brother Samuel's rifle hanging on the hooks over the fire place. This he seized upon, and fearing the arrival of some of the men, hastened his departure without any further damage. While he was with her in the house, she preserved her presence of mind and betrayed no marks of fear ; but no sooner was he gone, however, than she left the cabin and secreted herself in the corn till her brother came in. Samuel was lame at the time, but happened to be out of the way ; so that it is probable his life might have been saved from this circumstance. It was but seldom that the In- dians killed unresisting, women or children, except in the ex- citement of an attack and when they had met with opposition from the men. In 1777, two years after their marriage, the depredations and massacres of the Indians were so frequent that the settlement of Grave creek was broken up. It was the fron- tier station, and lower on the Ohio than any other, above the mouth of Big Kanawha. It was in this year that the Indians made their great attack on the fort at Wheeling. Mr. Williams and his wife, with her father's family, Mr. Joseph Tomlinson, moved on the Monongahela river above Redstone, old fort. Here he remained until the spring of 1783, when he returned with his wife and Mr. Tomlinson to their plantations on Grave creek.

In the year 1785, he had to remove again from his farm with the garrison at Wheeling.

It was sometime in the spring of the succeeding year that Mr. Williams, in company with Hamilton Carr and a Dutch- man, had the adventure with the Indians at the mouth of Grave creek, in which three of the savages were killed, and John Wet- zel, their prisoner, was rescued. This event is fully recorded elsewhere in this volume.

It has been stated that Rebecca Martin, before her marriage to Mr. Williams, acted as house-keeper for her brothers for several years. In consideration for which service, Joseph and Samuel, made an entry of four hundred acres of land on the

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HISTORY OF BELMONT AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES, OHIO.

Virginia shore of the Ohio river, directly opposite the mouth of the Muskingum, for their sister; girdling the trees, building a cabin, and planting and feneing four aeres of corn, on the high second bottom, in the spring of the year 1773. They spent the summer on the spot, occupying their time with hunting, dur- ing the growth of the erop. In this time they had exhausted their small stoek of salt and breadstuff, and lived for two or three months altogether on boiled turkies, which were eaten without salt. So aecustomed had Samuel become to eating his meat without this condiment, that it was some time before he could again relish the taste of it. The following winter the two brothers hunted on the Big Kanawha. Some time in March, 1774, they reached the mouth of the river on their re- turn. They were detained here a few days by a remarkably high freshet in the Ohio river, which from certain fixed marks on Wheeling ereek, is supposed to have been fully equal to that February, 1832. That year was long known as that of Dun- more's war, and noted for Indian depredations. The renewed and oft repeated inroads of the Indians, led Mr. Williams to

turn his thoughts towards a more quiet retreat than that at Grave ereek. Fort Harmar, at the mouth of the Muskingum, having been ereeted in 1786, and garrisoned by United States troops; he came to the eonelusion that he would now oeeupy the land belonging to his wife, and located by her brothers as before noted. This traet contained four hundred aeres, and em- braeed a large share of rich alluvians. The pieee opened by the Tomlinsons in 1773, had grown up with young saplings, but could be easily reclaimed. Having previously visited the spot and put up log cabins, he finally removed his family and effeets thither, the 26th of March, 1787, being the year before the Ohio company took possession of their purehase at the mouth of the Muskingum.

Mr. Williams was a great hunter and trapper, but in later years turned his attention especially to elearing and eultivat- ing his farm. He was a very benevolent man and a highly re- spected eitizen. He died September 25, 1820. His daughter and only child, married a Mr. John Henderson, but died at the age of twenty, leaving no issue.

THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.

CHAPTER XVIII.

ORGANIZATION OF ILLINOIS COUNTY-TRADING POSTS-MORAVI- AN MISSIONS-FORTS-CESSION BY VIRGINIA TO THE UNITED STATES - FIRST WHITE BIRTHS-PREMATURE SETTLEMENTS- 1779-1785-PREVENTED BY THE GOVERNMENT-SURVEY OF THE PUBLIC LANDS-FIRST LAND SALES-INDIAN WARS-CIV- IL GOVERNMENT-FIRST OFFICERS-TERRITORIAL LEGISLATION -FIRST COURTS-ORGANIZATION OF COUNTIES-FIRST TOWNS -ORGANIZATION OF THE STATE.

We have recited in the chapters devoted to the ontlines of early American history in the first part of this work, that Vir- ginia acquired title to the great Northwest territory by its sev- eral charters, granted by James I., bearing dates respectively April 10, 1606; May 23, 1609; March 12, 1611.

The colony of Virginia first attempted to exercise anthority over the "Territory Northwest of the River Ohio," in 1769, when the House of Burgesses passed an act establishing the county of Botetourt, with the Mississippi river as its eastern boundary. This act recited that : " Whereas, the people situ- ated on the Mississippi, in the said county of Botetourt, will be very remote from the court-honse, and must necessarily become a separate county, as soon as their numbers are sufficient, which, probably, will happen in a short time, be it therefore enacted, by the authority aforesaid, that the inhabitants of that part of the said county of Botetourt which lies on the said waters, shall be exempt from the payment of any levies to be laid by the said county court for the purpose of building a court-house and prison for the said county."

ORGANIZATION OF ILLINOIS COUNTY.

On the 2d of January, 1778, Colonel George Rogers Clark re- ceived a commission from Virginia to make his famous campaign against Kaskaskia, in the Illinois country, and descended the Ohio from Fort Pitt the following spring with his forces on this expedition. His campaign was one of the boldest and most successful of the Revolutionary war, and he captured all the English posts in the Illinois country and made a complete con- quest of the territory. The House of Burgesses of Virginia, then, in October, 1778, erected the " County of Illinois, " out of the western part of Botetourt county, "for the purpose of more effectually organizing civil government northwest of the Ohio river. " Illinois county was bounded on the east by Pennsylva- nia, on the southeast and south by the Ohio river, on the west by the Mississippi river, and on the north by the northern lakes, embracing all the territory claimed by Virginia within these bounds, and making what now constitutes the great state of Ohio an integral portion of it. John Todd, Esq., was appointed County Lieutenant and Civil Commandant of Illinois county. He was killed in the battle of Blue Licks, August 19, 1782, and was succeeded by Timothy de Montbrun. The Moravian mis- sionaries on the Tuscarawas, a few scores of Indian traders, and a small number of French settlers on the Maumee, made the sum total of white men at that time in what is now Ohio.

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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 55

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