USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio > Part 24
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In the morning while Kenton was stand- ing some distance from his comrades, he ob- served three Indians and a white man ap- preaching him on horseback. His rifle was
at once to his eye, and, aiming at the breast of the foremost Indian he pulled the trigger : but the gun missed fire. Kenton made good use of his legs, but was soon caught, bound, and brought back. The Indians were very angry at the loss of their horses, and mani- fested their displeasure in no gentle way, by seizing Kenton by the hair, and shaking him "till his teeth rattled:" scourging him over the head with their ramrods, at every blow hissing through their teeth, "Steel Indian hoss, hey!" At this juncture Montgomery came bravely to his assistance, when two savages emptied their rifles into his breast. and he fell on the spot, and in a moment his bloody scalp was shaken in the captive's face, with threats of a similar fate. In the meantime Clarke, unobserved by the In- dians, who were giving Kenton their sole attention, slipped away and escaped.
Kenton was thrown upon his back, his face to the sun, his neck fastened to a sap- ling by a halter, his arms stretched to their full extent and pinned to the ground by stakes, his legs forced apart and secured in the same way. A stick was placed across his breast and each end fastened to the ground, so that he could not move his bedy. This was done, too, in the most accom- plished style of savage cruelty-kicks, cuffs and blows, accompanied with imprecations of "a tief." "a hoss steal." "a rascal." "a squaw." etc .. prefixed always with "damm." In this uncomfortable condition Kenton re- mained all day and the next night. In the morning, the Indians having collected their scattered horses, selected one of the wildest and most vicions colts, placed Kenton upon it. tied his hands behind him, and his feet under its belly, and started him ahead of them, through the thick woods and bram- bles, on their return. At night they halted
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and untying their prisoner, who was now blockly and scarred from the scratches of the brush and brambles, placed him in the same uncomfortable position as the night before.
"Again the horse was brought : 'Twas but a day he had been caught : And snorting, with erected mane. And struggling fiercely, but in vain. In the full foam of wrath and dread, To me the desert born was led; They bound ine on, that menial throng. Then lossed him, with a sudden lash- Away! Away! And on we dash."
The following day they reached the In- dian village of Chillicothe-now Old Town, in this county-on the Little Miami. In the meantime a courier had preceded them and informed the village of their arrival, every member of which came running to look at the illustrious captive. One of the chiefs. Blackfish, with a stout hickory in his hand approached Kenton and accosted him thus: "You have been stealing our horses, have you?" "Yes," was Kenton's boll reply. "Did Colonel Boone tell you to steal our horses ?" "No" answered Kenton "1 did it of my own accord." Blackfish then ap- plicel the hickory so vigorously over the bare head and shoulders of the captive as to cause the rapid flow of blood accom- panied with the acutest pain. The whole motley crew, consisting of nearly two hun- dren men, women and children, new sur- rounded him. yelling, hooting and scream- ing like the stygian offspring of the hadean guard, stopping often to beat and kick him. and calling loudly for his immediate ex- ecution at the stake, that their savage eyes might behold the pleasing spectacle.
stake was driven in the ground and Kenton was firmly lashed to it with rawhide thongs. Piece by piece the demoniac hags. stripped his ch thing off, and danced, yelling fiend- ishly around till midnight, when he was re- leased to run the gauntlet next morning. Nearly three hundred savages of all ages and of both sexes were assembled for the occasion. Stretching away in two par- allel lines about six feet apart the Indians stood, armed with axes, clubs, hickorys and all sorts of weapons. Between these lines the unfortunate victim. naked and already bleeding, was compelled to run. with the glimmering prospect of safety in the council house. With his arms above his head he swiftly flies down the line, receiving at each step, kicks, blows, stripes and wounds, until, at the lower extremity. he observes two warriors with knives to take his life. Breaking through the lines, he rushes for the council house, pursued by the howling redskins. Just as he had reached the town. and the council house was within his reach. he was confronted by an Indian with his blanket around him, walking leisurely ent of the same. Flinging off his covering he sprang upon Kenton who, exhausted, and wounded, could but feebly resist, and was sCon surrounded by the enraged crowd, who kicked and see urged him until he was near- ly dead. When he had partially recovered. they brought him food and water and as soon as he was able they took him to the council house to decide upon his fate. The warriors disposed themselves in a circle, with an old chief in the center. Many speeches were made, some for burning, and sixine for mercy, but Kenton soon learned from the ferocious glances cast upon him that his fate was sealed. After the delibera- tions andl speeches, the old chief passed the
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war club to the nearest warrior, and with a knife and a stick prepared to register the votes. Those who were in favor of death struck the ground violently with the club, these to the contrary passed it on; a notch was cut on one side for death, and on the opposite side for mercy. It was scon de- cided in favor of death at which one pro- longed shout arose.
The next question was, when and where should the execution take place. Some were in favor of immediate action, and some de- sired to make it a "solemn national sacri- fice." It was finally decided, however, that the place should be Waughcotomoco ( nos Zanesville, Logan county ).
On the way to this place Kenton de- termined to make an effort to escape, know- ing his fate could be no worse. At a favor- able opportunity he rushed into the woods with such desperate swiftness that had he not stumbled upon a party of redskins on horseback he would have escaped. All hope now left him, and he felt deserted by God and man. At Piqua he was mockingly tied to a stake. At Waughcotoméco he ran the gauntlet again and was severely hurt.
While sitting in gloom among his en- emies in the council house, the door was opened and Girty, with his prisoners and scalps, appeared. The anxious gaze of Ken- ton was met by scowls of savage hatred. Previous to this it is related that Kenton, after his attempted escape, had been given up to the boys and women, who rolled him in the mud and water until he was nearly suffocated, then he was taken out and his face painted black signifying his fate. In this condition Girty, who had formerly been his besem companion. did not recognize him, until in conversation he revealed his name: when the hardened wretch, who had
murdered men, women and children, threw himself in his arms, and with tears in his eyes promised to use every effort to save his life. He immediately called a council. and earnestly pleaded for the life of his friend. Speeches for and against were made and the scale hung doubtful, until the fiery eloquence of Girty prevailed, and Ken- ton was saved.
He remained with his liberator for some time. until the return of a disappointed war party, which took possession of him again, and despite the appeals of Girty, condemned him to the stake and compelled him again to run the gauntlet. Girty came to him and told him he must die. A halter was then placed around his neck and he was led toward the place of execution. On the road they passed an Indian sitting and smoking on a log, directing his wife in her efforts in chopping, who on sight of Kenton seized the ax and struck him a severe blow. He was sharply rebuked by the Indian guards for trying to destroy their material for torture.
On their journey they stopped at the village of the humane Logan, who inmedi- ately sent runners to Sandusky (his in- tended place of execution ). to intercede for his life, but on their return Logan informed him that he must go instantly to Sandusky. Thus was the poor soul harrowed with hope and fear. On his arrival an Indian agent named Druyer, at the instigation of Logan, purchased him from the Indians, and in a speech pursuaded them to let him go to Detroit, where he remained until the fol- lewing June, when he, with others escaped from the British. In this perilous adven- ture, he was forced to run the gauntlet eight time, tied to the stake three times, beaten and kicked, and struck with an ax, rolled
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and wallowed in the mud, and yet his pow- erful constitution resumed its wonted vigor when released, and he lived to the age of eighty-one.
ANDREW GALLOWAY.
My father. James Galloway. Sr., emi- grated from Bourbon county, Kentucky, in company with two other families, Adam McPherson and James M. Galloway (black- smith ), early in the spring. March 20, 1798, and settled on the west side of the Little Miami river, five miles north of where Xenia now is, having formed an acquaint- ance with Colonel Richard Anderson in the army of the United States, during the Rev- olutionary war, who was appointed by the state of Virginia surveyor general of the military land in this state lying between the Scioto and Little Miami river, and who had established Louisville, Kentucky, and ap- pointed a number of deputies to locate and survey lands in his district. My brother. James Galloway, being well versed in the science of surveying. wished to engage in the business as a regular deputy under Col- onel Anderson. In the year 1802 or 1803 my father and brother James went to see Colonel Anderson at Louisville and on their way called for several days on my uncle. Samuel Galloway, who lived on McCon- nell's run. near where Mr. Armstrong preached, and was about to dispense the Lord's Supper. They became acquainted. and united with him in communion of the Lord's Supper, after which they went on to Louisville, and my brother, through the influence of my father and uncle, George Pomeroy, succeeded in getting the appoint- ment he sought.
On their return they stayed a day or 12
two with my uncle, Samuel Galloway, and waited on the ministry of Mr. Armstrong. and invited and insisted on him to come to Ohio and preach in our neighbor- hood; George Galloway was urgent in this request, he agreed if they and the people wished it he would come. After their re- turn they consulted with all the people around, for they were few in numbers, but were anxious for preaching and delegated my brother James for him to go to Ken- tucky.
Ile went, and shortly afterward wrote to George Galloway to meet him in Dayton to pilot him to our settlement, there being no roads but the one General Wayne had made from Cincinnati to Hamilton, and a "trace" to where Dayton now is. His re- quest was fulfilled. Mr. AArmstrong came and preached at my father's home to the following families : Mathew Quinn, Alex- ander Forbes. William Junkin, Elias Brom- agen, Widow Creswell, who united with his congregation in Kentucky and came to Ohio in 1801, Alexander McCoy and sons, James and John Stevenson, Thomas and John Townsley, brothers. George Galloway and James Galloway ( blacksmith ) and after- ward soon, Joseph Kyle, Sr., and his two sons, Joseph and Samuel. Colonel James Morrow, David Langhead, Sr .. and his fam- ily, William and Robert Kendall and per- haps a few others. He also preached at Sugarcreek, in the llouse of James Clency, who resided where Bellbrook is now situ- ated, to a number of families, of whom the following are recollected : John and Joseph McKnight, Joseph C. Vance, father of Gov- ernor Vance, and his brother John, Captain Nathan Lamme and family. William Tan- ner, James and Jacob Snowden, three Snod- grass families. James. William and Robert.
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Abraham Van Eaton and perhaps a few others: none named were members of the associate church, but were members of the Associate Reform and Presbyterian churches, and were glad to hear Mr. Arm- streng preach.
At Dayton, at the time of Mr. Arm- strong's first coming. he was insisted upon by Mr. James Lowry, who lived some four miles west of where the town of Enon is now situated, to preach in his house, in a neighborhood west of Mad river, and was piloted to Mr. Lowry's by James McCoy. George Galloway and my father. During his stay among us a number solicited him to come and take the oversight of them as their pastor. This he did not refuse or promise to do, but stated that he was dis- satisfied with Kentucky on account of slay- ery. He said that slave holders were buy- ing large tracts of land in branches of his congregation, that there was no chance nor probability of increasing. He said if he could get his congregation, or part of thein to come to Ohio, he would agree to come, if called. The people took his statements as encouragement and forthwith agreed to petition to the presbytery for the modera- tion of a call. My brother James presented the petition to the presbytery as a delegate from the congregation. They granted the petition, and oppointed Rev. Andrew Ful- ton to moderate in the call. A short time after this appointment he preached in my father's barn, and baptized my sister Ann and brother .Anthony. it being the first bap- tism ever administered in Greene county by the Associate church, and took place about the ist of September, 1804. The call was made cat in due form and John McKnight « f Sugarcreek anxl my father were appoint- ed commissioners by the people to meet with
the presbytery of Kentucky and urge the acceptance of the call. This they did and Mr. Armstrong accepted it.
MR. ARMSTRONG'S SECOND COMING.
In the same month Mr. Armstrong went to Tennessee and was married to Miss Nancy Andrew and in October left Tennes- see with his wife and her brother Hugh An- drew, who all arrived safely at my father's house and lived in his family all winter and spring, until he got a cabin built and a stone chimney in it. for he was afraid of a wooden one. Mr. Hugh Andrew in later years gives an account of that event as fol- lows: "Mr. Armstrong had been married to my sister Nancy two years. Previous to his coming to Xenia he and his wife set out on horseback to visit her father's people. who lived near Nashville, Tennessee. In October they again started for their old home in Kentucky and their new home in Ohio, it being arranged to take Mrs. Arm- strong's young brother Hugh with them. then a lad of some ten years of age. . \ small saddle was placed on the horse behind Mr. AArmstrong, on which young Hugh rode to Kentucky. On their arrival at Mr. Arnt- strong's home in Kentucky they were met by William Gowdy-an uncle of Alexander Gowdy, yet ( 1899) living in Xenia, who lived at that time near what is now known as Alpha, who had been sent with a four- horse team to bring Mr. Armstrong's house- hold goods and books.
Mr. Armstrong and wife made the jour- ney on horseback, while young Hugh was assigned to the wagon. On their arrival at the end of their journey they stopped at Mr. Galloway's, as has been stated. On the arrival of the wagon, young Hugh, not
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exactly liking the looks of things, asked and obtained leave to return with Mr. Gowdy to his residence. Mr. Gowdy was a young married man at this time, and his father lived near."
My father entered and paid in the land office at Cincinnati, fractional section No. 29, town 4, range 7, between the Great and Little Miami rivers, containing four hun- dred and sixty-one acres, and sold to Mlr. Armstrong three hundred and one acres for the sum of six hundred and twenty dollars, and deeded the same to him in 1812, which can be seen in the recorder's office, Greene county, in book C, volume 3, page 70, ex- ecuted by George Galloway Esquire. Mr. Armstrong lived on said section to the year 1813. when he sold and deeded to Samuel Goe for the sum of two hundred and ninety dollars, and bought again on Clark's run forty-eight and three-fourths acres of land from John Hunter, of Ross county, for which he paid one hundred and seventy dol- lars, and two hundred acres from James Galloway, Jr., for which he paid three hun- dred dollars. The deeds of these tracts of land can be seen on record, book C, page 377, and book C, page 417. This sale and purchase left Mr. Armstrong sixteen hun- dred and thirty dollars, no trifling sum in those days, and taking in his personal prop- erty and proceeds of his farm he might be considered a rich man. On this farm he lived until his death, which occurred Oc- tober 14, 1821.
It is true that his congregation in Ken- tucky sent a delegation to Ohio of sixteen or eighteen to view the lands in the neigh- borhood where Mr. Armstrong was to settle, and were well pleased with it and reported accordingly. In the spring and fall of 180.4 and 1805 all, or nearly all, of his congre-
gation followed him to Ohio and settled un- der his ministry,
The first church edifice of the Associate congregation of Massiescreek was built on three acres of land donated by James Ste- vensen for church and cemetery. It was built of round hickory logs with the bark peeled off, thirty feet square, covered with clapboards, the spaces between the logs be- ing filled with clay. It was without a gal- lery or loft of any kind, and the floor was of earth. In it were neither stoves nor chimney, and there was but one door in the center of one end of the house. There was an aisle running through the center. The pulpit was composed of clapboards on a wooden structure, with a window on each side. It was seated with two rows of puncheons split from poplar, the upper side smoothed off, and in each end as an up- right ; from two to three slabs were pinned and formed quite a comfortable back. This edifice was on the north side of Massies- creek, about three miles from where it emptied into the Litle Miami river. Men and women would ride or walk twelve or fifteen iniles to this church and sit and listen to two sermons without seeing fire in the coldest weather.
About the year 1812 or 1813 the second church at Massiescreek was built, of hewed logs, one hundred and fifty feet distant from the first one. At this date the country had improved and several mills had been built. It was about fifty feet wide, was floored and ceiled over head with one-half-inch pop- lar boards. In it were placed four pews, the balance of the seats being those that had been in the first church. This church be- came too small for the congregation, and one side was taken out and its width in- creased about twelve feet. This building
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was used until the stone one was built and . only child. He is supposed to have been occupied by Rev. James P. Smart, about two miles north from the first site. The old site is now used as a cemetery; in it are the remains of Mr. Armstrong and a large majority of the congregation. Out of Massiescreek, Sugarcreek and Xenia con- gregations of the Associate church, and Xenia Associate Reformed congregation has sprung the nucleus of all the congregations in the United Presbyterian church in the west.
Mr. Armstrong became dissatisfied with his location west of the Miami, on account of its frequent floods, that cut him off from his house of worship and disappointed his congregation. He was a great walker and frequently walked from his home to Sugarcreek, a distance of thirteen miles, to preach to that branch of his charge, and to Massiescreek, a distance of four miles. At the crossing of the Miami he had a pair of stilts some two feet high, upon which he would mount, and with great care and cir- cumspection cross the river, but would at times get a ducking.
REV. ROBERT ARMSTRONG.
The name of Robert Armstrong will long be held in honorable remembrance in that branch of the church to which he be- longed. If talents devoted to the service of religion and a life of more than common usefulness constitutes a claim to it both con- spire to place him in the front rank of those who have planted, watered and extended the Secession church in western America.
Mr. Armstrong was a native of Scot- land, and but little is known of his parent- age. His mother was a widow at the time of his coming to America, and he was an
about fifty-five years old at the time of his death. He received a classical education at the University of Edinburg and studied the- olegy at Whitburn under the Rev. Archi- bald Bruce, professor at that time under the General Associate Synod. the certificate of his ordination to the ministry is dated 15th of June, 1797. He had been licensed to preach some time in the winter preceding by the presbytery of Kelso. Ile was one of those students who make their professional life by dint of their own resources, and the ardor and enterprise of character which it implies were prominent parts of his. His parents not possessing much worldly afflu- ence were unable to help him. He taught a country school or acted as a private tutor in the families of gentlemen, and by that means, made himself master of very exten- sive acquirements, both as a scholar and di- vine. He was licensed and ordained with a view to his coming to America, the cause of which was as follows: Four members of the church having settled in the same neigh- borhood in the vicinity of Lexington, Ken- tucky, namely: James Bain, Adam Good- lett, Thomas Robinson and James Pringle. took council together in a prayer meeting. on the best means for obtaining a dispensa- tion of the Gospel among them. This was in the year 1796, at which time the above named branch of the church in America was small. The Presbytery of New York and Pennsylvania was the only church court, ex- cept sessions in the country. And there was but one number of it settled west of the Al- legheny mountains, viz. : the Rev. Mathew Henderson, in the vicinity of Pittsburg. It was certain that it would be a long time be- fore this small fountain in the east woukl rise high enough to extend its waters so far
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west. The brethren therefore resolved to apply to the synod of Scotland for assist- ance. From prudential motives, Synod in complying with the petition ( in which they asked for but one ) appointed two ministers to go to the country, Mr. Armstrong and the worthy Andrew Fulton ( who also about four years since rested from his labors). "You might be startled," says a member of synod in a letter to a friend in this country, some years afterward, "at the idea of two ministers coming at once, but we thought, as the synod defrayed all expenses, if any disappointment as to success should follow. we, not you, would bear the blame. It was a venture in a noble cause, and kind provi- dence has crowned it with success." At the time of receiving the petition and synods making choice of persons for the mission, Mr. Armstrong had not yet left the ranks of the students, which would imply that they thought him particularly qualified to undertake the appointment. In an address to the brethren in Kentucky accompanying the mission, they say: "Had you wit- nessed, dear brethren, our anxious solici- tude to have you provided with able and faithful laborers, had you beheld our en- tire unanimity, and had you heard the ex- pressions of our unfeigned joy, when the two brethren appointed tor you modestly sig- nified their acquiescence in our choice, you would assuredly gather that you are very dear to the church here, and that these two servants of Christ are called by their Master to preach the Gospel to you." And in no instance has the discrimination and confi- dence of that synod, in the appointment of foreign missionaries, been more happily ex- ercised or better placed, as the subsequent character and conduct of these two minis- ters evinced, and in few instances, we are
willing to believe, has such extensive lib- erality been more gratefully received. At their appointment they were commissioned by the synod to constitute themselves on their arrival, into a court, by the name of Associate Presbytery of Kentucky. They arrived in the summer of 1798, and after casting the net in new waters, in which they were not unsuccessful, on the 28th day of November, following, constituted the court. At this presbytery Mr. Armstrong received a unanimous call to act as pastor to the united congregation of the Dales Fork, Millars Run and Cane Run, and was installed in the charge April 23, 1799, and continued his labors in it until the fall of the year 1804. This year the three congregations, with very few exceptions, emigrated to the state of Ohio, on account of slavery in Kentucky. If Mr. Armstrong was not the projector of it he took an early interest. A few years observation of its horrors gave experimental force to an opinion, which he doubtless ad- mitted before in theory, namely : That slav- ery is unfavorable to religion. Its effects in America seem to warrant the belief that it is incompatible with the existence of the churches of the reformation. They settled together in Greene county in the confi- dent expectation of his being resettled among them as soon as it could be done in an orderly way. They were organized under the name of the united congregation of Massiescreek and Sugar- creek, and on the 2nd day of Septem- ber, the same year, he was ordered by the presbytery to rejoin his charge. Here he labored seventeen years and the handful of corn in the earth appeared with prosperous fruits. His charge was shortly afterward divided and another minister called to pre- side over one-half of it, from which time
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