USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > History of Hamilton County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 94
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Judge William Goforth came in the early part of 1789. He is mentioned so often in the course of this history, as associated with affairs here and at Cincinnati, that a biographical sketch of him here seems unnecessary. The judge builded better than he knew in keeping a diary of his journey hither and of events for some time after- wards. It is an interesting old document, and the public owes access to it to Mr. Charles Cist, who pub- lished it nearly forty years ago in his Cincinnati Miscel- lany. We correct one or two patent blunders in the yearly dates :
EXTRACTS FROM MEMORANDUM MADE BY JUDGE GOFORTH, IN HIS
DAY-BOOK.
1789.
Jan. 2 left our camp and put down the Ohio and on the 8th arrived at Limestone and thence to Washington which is in 38 degrees some minutes North, and had at that time 119 horses.
12th left Washington (Mason Co., Ky.,) on the 12th and ar- rived on the 18th at Miami (Columbia).
= 23 the first four horses were stolen-by the Indians ---
April
+ two of Mills' men were killed.
=
5 a bark canoe passed the town and five more horses were stolen.
16 Baily and party returned from pursuing after the Indians.
May 3 Met in the shade to worship.
II A cat-fish was taken-four feet long, eight inches between the eyes, and weighed 58 pounds.
Judge Symmes arrived on the 2nd of February, 1789, as he in- formed Major Stites at his own post.
April 21 traded with the first Indian.
28 Capt. Samondawat-an Indian, arrived and traded.
Aug.
3 Named the Fort "Miami."
5 Col. Henry Lee arrived and 53 volunteers.
.€
27 Went to North Bend with Col. Lee.
3 Captain Flinn retook the horses.
Sep.
25 Major Stites, old Mr. Bealer and myself took the depth of the Ohio River when we found there was 57 feet water in the channel, and that the river was 55 feet lower at that
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HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.
time than it was at that uncommonly high fresh last winter. The water at the high flood was 112 feet. +
Oct. 9 Mr. White set out for the Tiber.
Aug. 16 Major Doughty went down the river.
Dec. 28 Genl. Harmar passed this post down the River.
1790.
Jan. 2 The Governor passed this post down the River.
3 received a line desiring my attendance with others.
4 Attended his excellency when the Civil and Military offi- cers were nominated.
6 The officers were sworn in.
= 13 Doctor David Johns preached.
=
18 Doctor Gano and Thomaa Sloo came here.
20 The church was constituted-Baptist church at Columbia. +
21 Three persons were baptized.
=
24 called a church meeting and took unanimous lo call the Rev. Stephen Gano to the pastoral charge of the church at Columbia.
April
15 General Harmar went on the campaign past this post.
=
I9 The Governor went up the River.
Aug. 30 Worked at clearing the minister's lot.
2 Mr. Sargent left this post to go up the River together with Judge Turner.
Sep.
12 The Mason county militia past this post on their way to headquarters.
19 200 Militia from Pennsylvania past this post on their way to Cincinnati.
=
23 The Governor went down to Cincinnati.
25 Major Doughty and Judge Turner also.
30 The main body of the troops marched.
1791.
Jan. 2 begun to thaw.
Mch. I Indians fired at Lt. Baily's boat.
Mrs. Abel Cook was found dead in the Round Bottom.
4 Mrs. Bowman was fired at in the night through a crack in the house.
22 Mr. Strong returned from up the River; had 24 men killed and wounded on the 19th March.
27 Mr. Plasket arrived-the 24th in the morning fought the Indians just after daybreak, about 8 miles above Scioto- this the same battle mentioned in Hubble's narative.
July 7 Col. Spencer's son taken prisoner.
14 Francis Beadles, Jonathan Coleman, a soldier killed. 1792.
Jan. 7 In the evening Samuel Welch was taken.
Nov. 2 Last Monday night met at my house to consult on the expediency of founding an academy-Rev. John Smith, Major Gano, Mr. Dunlevy,-afterward Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and myself-Wednesday night met at Mr. Reily's school-house-Mr. Reily then the teacher was for many years Clerk of Butler Common Pleas and Supreme Court-to digest matters respecting the academy, the night being bad, and but few people attending postponed till next night which was Ist of November, met at Mr. Reily's to appoint a committee.
Dec. 6 Fall of snow 7 inches on a level.
.
1793.
Sep. 24 The first and fourth Sub-Legions march under General Wayne. The 27th or rather the 30th the army march.
Daniel Doty, of Essex county, New Jersey, was one of the immigrants of 1790. He came on the twenty-third of October, in a flat-boat, from Pittsburgh. He then found, according to his recollections long after, but two hewed-log buildings in the place, one of them occupied by Major Stites, the other by Captain John S. Gano. He enlisted promptly in Captain Gano's company of militia, which every able-bodied man in the settlement had to join, and which now mustered about seventy-a strong and efficient company. He turned out with the parties
marching to the relief of Covalt's and Dunlap's stations, when the Indian attacks were made upon them; and was secured by the Cincinnati Presbyterians, together with a man named French, to bring their first pastor, the Rev. James Kemper, and his family, through the wilderness from near Danville to his new home. In 1792 Mr. Doty returned to New Jersey, by way of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and by sea, but came back to the Miami country in 1796, with his wife and children, and removed to the vicinity of Middletown, Butler county, where the rest of his life was spent. He was the first collector of taxes for that part of the country, which was then in Hamilton county. McBride's Pioneer Biography says :
His district was twelve miles wide from north to south, comprising two ranges of townships, extending from the Great Miami to the Little Miami rivers, comprehending the sites where the towns of Franklin and Waynesville have been laid out, and the immediate country and settle- ments. The whole amount of the duplicate committed to him for col- lection was two hundred and forty-four dollars, of which he collected every dollar and paid it over to Jacob Burnet of Cincinnati, who was the treasurer for the county of Hamilton. Mr. Doty's own tax, for some years previous to his death, was upwards of one hundred and thirty- five dollars-more than half of the amount which he then collected from the whole district of which he had been collector. In the discharge of the duties of his office as collector, he must have ridden over more than one thousand miles. For these services, including his time and ex- penses, he received one per cent. on the amount of the duplicate, two dollars and forty-four cents, and no more. This appears to have satis- fied Mr. Doty with public office, as he never afterward, during his whole life, was a candidate for any office.
Francis Dunlevy emigrated from Kentucky to Colum- bia in 1791, and at first was engaged in teaching, in con- pany with Mr. John Reily. He was then less than thirty years old, having been born near Winchester, Virginia, December 31, 1761. When but a boy he was engaged in Indian, and afterwards in the Revolutionary warfare, and helped to build up Fort McIntosh, the first regular mili- tary work within the present bounds of Ohio. He was at Crawford's defeat on the plains of Sandusky, and in the retreat was cut off from the main body of the army, and had to make his way through the wilderness to Pitts- burgh. In 1787 he removed with his father's family to Kentucky, and ten years afterwards, having resided six years in Columbia, he removed to the vicinity of Lehan- on, where he died, November 6, 1839. He was fourteen years presiding judge of the court of common pleas of the first circuit, which included Hamilton county, and was a member of the first Constitutional convention, also of the first legislature that assembled under the State gov- ernment.
The following notice of perhaps the most renowned citizen that Columbia ever had, is extracted from the Life of Senator Morris, by his son, Mr. B. F. Morris:
In Į795 Thomas Morris, a young and enterprising adventurer, nine- teen years of age, from the mountains of western Virginia, arrived in Columbia. He was immediately employed as a clerk in the store of Rev. John Smith, and became a great favorite with him. During this time his mind became deeply exercised on the subject of personal relig- ion, and his feelings found utterance in frequent poetic effusions, which are all lost. Rev. John Smith and others regarded these productions as of great merit for a youth of his age and limited education. For several years he continued in the employ of Smith, improving, as he could, his mind by reading, and preparing for a wider sphere of action.
The plat of ground on which the great commercial city of Cincinnati
* Cist's foot-note : "This seems an unaccountable mistake. The flood of 1832 was but 64 feet above low water, and the highest flood ever known at the settlement of the country was but 12 feet higher."
t Another mistake, as will appear hereafter.
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HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.
now stands, was frequently traversed by Morris. His feet threaded the forest, then in the wild magnificence of nature, and the crack of his rifle brought down many a wild turkey from the tops of lofty trees which covered the very spot on which now is erected and established that noble building and institution, the Young Men's Mercantile Li- brary association. How wonderful the change in fifty years' Now commerce, arts, sciences, education, Christian institutions, and the highest forms of a refined social civilization, and a prosperous indus- trial population of over two hundred thousand people, cover with their peaceful and noble triumphs, and their monuments of taste and civiliza- tion, and happiness, the same forest where young Morris was accus- tomed to shoot his wild game.
Mr. Morris married Rachel, daughter of Benjamin Davis, a Columbian who came from Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, to Mason county, Kentucky, and thence here. He was of Welsh stock and had a fine family of five sons and two daughters. Morris removed to Williams- burgh, and then to Bethel, Clermont county, and became greatly distinguished as a lawyer, legislator, United States Senator, and anti-slavery agitator.
From another settler named John Morris, at the time the most prominent man in the settlement, a cluster of houses on the hillside took the name Morristown.
By the close of 1790 Columbia contained about fifty- cabins. Wickerham's mill, upon floating boats, had been established upon the Little Miami, and yielded supplies of coarse corn meal, but wheat flour was still so scarce that what could be had was generally reserved for the sick. Before Wickerham started his small run of stones, the corn had been pounded by the colonists into hominy or laboriously ground in a hand-mill.
The post at Columbia was evidently regarded as of considerable importance, since as many as two hundred soldiers were stationed here in 1794. The need of mili- tary protection, however, was then mostly over. There had been demand enough for it before, as the record of Indian murders, captures and robberies in this region abundantly shows. But the first approaches of the In- dians to the settlers here, soon after their arrival were thoroughly friendly. The savages came often to the block-houses, expressing great friendship, and calling for Judge Symmes, toward whom they were very favorably disposed, on account of his having saved one of their small camps from the Kentuckians during the surveying expedition the year before. They had seen Stites' boats on the banks of the river, opposite the block-house, and held a council at their hunting camp six miles from the Ohio, at which it was concluded to take the attitude of friends rather than enemies toward the newcomers. A white man named George had been ten or twelve years a prisoner with them, and could speak both English and Indian. At first he accompanied a single savage as near to the block-house as they dared go, and hallooed to the settlers who were at work upon it. He called for some of the whites to go to him, but they took no heed of him, mistaking him for one of their own people. Presently one of them asked "in a blackguarding manner," as the old account puts it, why he didn't come to them, if he had anything to say. Discouraged at this, George went with the Indian back to their camp. He afterwards started out again with a party of five Indians, armed and mounted, for the block-house. They came upon a
trail of a surveyor's party, numbering three, who were hunting, and followed it until the men were overtaken. The latter fled, but could not escape, and prepared for resistence. Two of the three were Robert Hanson and Joseph Cox, from Sussex county, New Jersey. Hanson aimed his gun at the foremost Indian, but the red man took off his cap, trailed his gun, and held out his right hand as a token of friendship. George called out to the other party not to fire, as the Indians were their friends, and did not wish to hurt them, and they would like to be led to the block-house. Affairs were speedily arranged, and all went amicably together to meet Major Stites. Their joint arrival very much surprised the people at the settlement, some of whom were disposed to think them spies, there only to observe the strength of the colony for defence, others thinking them sincere in their peaceful professions. Both sides, however, as the story runs, "began to form a sociatle neighbor- hood," and there was for a while considerable fraternity between the whites and reds, the former frequently visit- ing and even spending nights at the Indian camps, while the savages with their squaws frequented the settlement, spending days and nights there, principally occupied in drinking whiskey.
The messages of Stites to Symmes, in regard to the Indians' professions, and their desire to see him, with his action, were sufficiently set forth in previous chapter.
In a very few weeks, however, the status changed, and a war period set in. The journal of Judge Goforth shows that, so early as January 23, 1789, four horses were stolen by the Indians; that two men were killed Aprll 4th; the next day five more horses were stolen, and outrages were frequent thereafter, and the feeling between the hostiles became so envenomed that both sides engaged in killing and scalping with apparently equal activity. Some in- cidents related of the Columbia scalpers will be found in our chapter on "The Miamese and the Indians.""
The news of the attack on Dunlap's station greatly ex- cited the settlers at Columbia, who quickly mounted a volunteer party, armed with rifles, under Lieutenant Luke Foster, marched to Cincinnati the same night, and joined the regular and volunteer force there forming for the re- lief of the station. Before daylight the next morning all were on the move, through several inches of snow, and arrived near the scene of action between ten and eleven o'clock in the forenoon, only to find that the Indians had mostly departed.
A relief party was also promptly turned out when the attack near Covall's station was made, and two men murdered.
The following is the detailed account of one of the . more thrilling events briefly noticed in the Goforth jour- nal:
On the night of the fourth of March, 1791, the cabin of Mr. Jonas Bowman, which was further down the river than any other in Columbia, was approached by indians, and an attack made. Mr. Bowman had been up the Licking hunting wild turkeys with Mr. John Reily; and, returning chilled and tired, a large fire was built in the open fireplace, which made the house a conspicuous object in the dark night, as it was not chinked between the logs, and the fire was plainly visible a long distance. The Indians fired through the cracks, but happily without effect, when Mr. Bowman, who was sitting by the fire, instantly threw
45
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HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.
a bucket of water on the flames, thus darkening the room and confusing the Indians, who made off, vainly pursued and fired at by Bowman. Mrs. Bowman afterwards found a flattened bullet in the bosom of her dress, which had probably glanced and spent its force by the time it reached her. A messenger was dispatched to Fort Washington, with news of the attack, and a party of regulars and volunteers was made up at once, reaching Columbia before daylight; but a thorough scout for many miles into the country failed to discover any Indians.
The subjoined narrative, taken from Cist's Miscel- lany, is a fuller and more interesting account than that previously given in this work of the capture of young Oliver Spencer:
Spencer, then a boy of eleven, had been on a visit to Cincinnati, from Columbia where he then lived, to spend the Fourth of July (1791) here, and having stayed until the seventh set out in a canoe with four other persons who were going to Columbia. About a mile above Deer creek, one of the men, much intoxicated, made so many lurches in the canoe as to endanger its safety, and Spencer, who could not swim, becoming alarmed, was at his earnest request set ashore, as was also the drunken man, who was unable to proceed on foot and was accordingly left where landed. The three in the canoe and Spencer on shore proceeded on, but had hardly progressed a few rods when they were fired on by two Indians. A Mr. Jacob Light was wounded in the arm, and another man, name unknown, killed on the spot, both falling overboard, the man left on shore tomahawked and scalped. and Spencer, after a vain attempt to escape, was carried off by the savages and taken out to an Indian village, at the mouth of Auglaize, where he remained several months in captivity. Tidings of these events were taken by Light, who swam ashore a short distance below by the aid of his remaining arm, and Mrs. Coleman, the other passenger, who, though an old woman of sixty and of course encumbered with the apparel of her sex, was unable to make any efforts to save herself, but whose clothes floating to the top of the river, probably buoyed her up in safety. It is certain at any rate, incredible as it may be thought by some, that she floated down to Cincinnati where she was assisted to shore by some of the residents here.
Spencer, after remaining nearly a year among the Indians, was taken to Detroit, where he was ransomed and finally sent home, after an absence in various places of three years, two of which he passed among his relatives in New Jersey. He resided subsequently in the city, where he held various offices of trust and honor, and died on May 31, 1838.
Upon the occurrence of this exciting event the follow- ing dispatch was sent by the commandant at Fort Wash- ington to the chief officer at Fort Hamilton:
FORT WASHINGTON, July 7, 1792.
JOHN ARMSTRONG, ESQ. :
Dear Sir-I send out to apprise you that, this day about noon, a party of savages fired on a party, consisting of two men, a woman, and Colonel Spencer's son-about one and a half miles above this and on this side of the river-one man killed, the other wounded, but not mortally, and poor little Spencer carried off a prisoner. I sent out a party who fell in with their trail in General Harmar's trace, about six miles from this, and followed it on the path about two miles farther, when the men failing with fatigue, the sergeant was obliged to return. Master Spencer's trail was upon the path. This is a further answer to the pacific overtures, and makes me tremble for your boy. I pray you if possible to redouble your vigilance, and on Monday morning early Captain Peters will march with his company and six wagons to your assistance. Send me twenty horses the moment Peters reaches you, and I will be with you next day-in the meantime your cavalry should scout on both sides of the river, and your riflemen be kept con- stantly in motion. Adieu.
Yours,
TAS. WILKINSON, Brig. Gen.
The first church organized and the first sermon preach- ed anywhere in the Miami purchase, were at Columbia. So early as December, 1789, the Rev. David Jones, a Baptist clergyman from Chester county, Pennsylvania, while on a visit down the Ohio valley, stopped at Colum- bia and pronounced his first sermon in one of the block- houses at the fort. This place was then larger than
Losantiville, and more likely to attract the attention of a visiting stranger. There was a larger Baptist element here, too .* Another early preacher to the Columbians, Elder Stephen Gano, had further reasons for interest in the colony, since he had ties of blood connecting him with the Stiteses and the Ganos. Before he came, how- ever, the people had ministerial visits from the Rev. David Rice, a Presbyterian divine of some note from Kentucky, and Elder John Mason, a Virginia Baptist and brother-in-law of Eider John Smith, who soon afterwards became the first settled pastor among the Little Miamese. Elder Gano came in March, 1790, making one of his many visits to his relatives, and after preaching several sermons organized a Baptist church in Columbia-prob- ably on Saturday, March 31, 1790, though Hon. A. H. Dunlevy, descendant of Judge Dunlevy, and author of a History of the Miami Baptist Association, names the twentieth of January, 1790, as the time. Mr. Dunlevy rests upon the diary of Dr. Goforth, then a resident of Columbia, which we published on another page; but that is believed to have been made up, in part at least, many years after the occurrence narrated, and to be somewhat unreliable. The distinct recollection of persons present at the organization of the church, that it was on the last Saturday of March, is considered better testimony.
The place of meeting was no longer a block-house, but the dwelling of Benjamin Davis. After appropriate services, the church was formally constituted by the aid of Elder Gano; Mr. Thomas Sloo, a member of his church in New York city, also being present. Nine per- sons joined at the time, whose names are given by Mr. Dunlevy as follows:
Benjamin Davis,
John Ferris, Isaac Ferris,
Mary Davis,
Jonah Reynolds,
Elizabeth Ferris,
Amy Reynolds,
Thomas C. Wade,
John S. Gano.
Such was the little band that formed the first organiza- tion of Christian institutions in the Miami valleys, from which a thousand church spires now point heavenward.
Isaac Ferris was appointed deacon, and John S. Gano, clerk, of the infant church. Elijah Stites, Rhoda Stites, and Sarah Ferris, were received upon experience, and were baptized in the river the next day (Sunday), after a preaching service at the house of Major William Goforth. Three other members, Mrs. Meeks, and Messrs. Smith and Baily, soon afterwards joined by letter; so that the church now numbered fifteen. Elder Gano was unani- mously chosen pastor; but he was too strongly bound to his work in the older communities of the east, and re- turned thither. He seems to have been a man of un- common ability and power, and certainly, as organizer of the first Christian church in the Miami country, demands some further notice here. He was born in New York city December 25, 1762, and was a brother of John S. Gano, of Cloumbia. His father was a clegyman, and
* Mr. Dunlevy, in his History of the Miami Baptist Association, says of the first Columbia colony: "Among this little band of some twenty-five persons, there were six Baptists. There names were Benjamin Stites, John S. Gano, Thomas C. Wade, Greenbright Baily, Mrs. Baily his wife, and Edmund Buxton."
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HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.
his mother of one of the Stites families. In his twenty- fourth year he was ordained, and served as pastor in the city, in Hillsdale and Hudson, New York, and finally for thirty-six years in Providence, Rhode Island, where he attained considerable distinction, and where he died Au- gust 18, 1828. During one of his western tours he preached at Lexington, Kentucky, having in his audience the eloquent Henry Clay, who thus testified of him: "He was a remarkably fervent preacher, and distinguish- ed for a simple, effective manner. And of all preachers I ever listened to, he made me feel the most that religion was a divine reality."*
Very soon, however, the church had its pastor-one who also was destined to attain distinction, but in a dif- ferent field, and at last to end in poverty and obscurity. Elder John Smith, a Virginian by birth and education, now in the prime of his manhoood-"a man," says the volume cited above, "whose personal appearance was noble and commanding, and who was possessed of very popular manners and a remarkably fascinating address-" visited Columbia in June and preached several times so acceptably that a unanimous call was given him to settle as pastor. This he accepted, and returned home to ar- range his business, which took longer than was expected ; and he did not arrive until the spring of 1791; the church meanwhile being served acceptably by Daniel Clark, a licentiate from Whiteley church, Pennsylvania, who had removed to Columbia with his own and other Baptist families. He was afterwards fully ordained by Elders Smith and John Gano, a venerable Baptist clergyman from near Lexington, on the twenty-first (or twenty-third) of September, 1793, after a preaching service by Elder Gano in a grove of elms near the village. It was the first ordination among the Miamese, or in the North- west Territory, of a Protestant clergyman.
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