USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > History of Hamilton County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 97
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A smaller mound, of about forty feet in base-diameter and six feet high, is found on section four, upon the Noah Bab's place. Several others exist upon the estate of Mr. John L. Riddle, in the northwest part of the township, and some elsewhere in Springfield, but none of so marked a character as to call for further descrip- tion. We do not learn that any enclosures or fortified works have ever been discovered in the township.
THE BEGINNINGS OF SETTLEMENT.
In 1792, Mr. Henry Tucker, who had come from New Jersey to Columbia the same year with his relative, John Tucker; Henry Weaver, who came to the same place from New York, two years before; Luke and Zebulon Foster, Jonathan Pittman and James McCasken, formed a company to push up the valley of Mill creek, establish a station and improve a farm. They found a suitable tract on what is now section four of this township, on the west branch of Mill creek, a little below Glendale, half a mile north of the site of the well-known tavern, afterwards kept by Mr. Pittman, and about as far east of the tracks of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad. . 'The site known as Foster's Hill transmits the memory of their occupation here. It was then on the military trace cut through between Forts Washington and Hamilton. East of this, and at a point about a mile and a half northwest of the present Lochland, the party began the erection of a block-house. Mr. Olden says: "The old station-house stood on the east side of the road, immediately opposite the late residence of Manning Tucker, now owned by Mr. Horace Bugher." The farm owned by Mr. Bugher is identical, in part, with the location made by the Tuck- ers and their company. Cabins were also commenced; but the settlement, although unmolested by the Indians, was presently disturbed by a dissension between Henry Tucker and Luke Foster, the former alleging that Foster, in making the lines of his own division (for the settlers were not to hold in common), had encroached upon the site Tucker had selected for his home. The trouble was serious, and the complainant, unable to obtain satisfac- tion, seceded from the colony and returned to Columbia. During the winter of 1793-4, however, the difficulty was composed, Luke Foster accepting an offer of ten acres in the southwest corner of the section, and Zebulon Foster five acres next north of it, as compensation for their im- provements made on section four. This was now divided again between the two Tuckers and Pittman, while the Fosters, with Weaver and McCashen, and two new men named James Seaward and Ziba Wingent, agreed to
settle on sections nine and ten, next on the west and southwest. Under this arrangement Henry Tucker, with the rest, who had also returned to Columbia on the ad- vice of Captain Wells, an experienced Indian fighter, to await the advent of Wayne's army, went out again in the spring of 1794 and recommenced their improvements.
Henry Tucker's son, the Manning R. Tucker men- tioned above, resided long after upon the tract, and the place continued to be known as Tucker's station, being mentioned by that name in the notes of early travellers, and in other accounts. But the new station-house, made necessary by the division of the original party into the settlements, thus calling for a location central and con- venient to both, was called
PLEASANT VALLEY STATION.
It took its name from the beautiful grove in pictur- esque surroundings, amid which it was situated. A spring near still bears the name of "Station spring," and tra- ditionally marks the site as on the line between sections four and ten, on the west bank of Mill creek, and di- rectly on the present Hamilton turnpike, near Woodlawn station. Late in the fall, about two months after Wayne had marched his protecting and avenging "legion" north- ward, the station-house and cabins being sufficiently near completion, the settlers felt it safe to remove their families to the station. Mr. Olden says:
. Neither Tucker's nor Pleasant Valley stations suffered any serious trouble with the Indians. No murders or other depredations were committed, and, save one single incident, nothing occurred to cause alarm or apprehension of danger. The event referred to happened one morning during the winter of 1793-4. Mr. James Seward, while down at the spring getting water, heard what he supposed to be tur- keys calling some distance beyond the creek, and on going into the station-house spoke to a Mr. Mahan, who had been about the station several days, saying: "If you would like to have a turkey, Mahan, I think you can get one if you hurry ont. I heard them calling over on the hill." Mahan at once caught up his gun and started in the direc- tion pointed out by Seaward. He had gone but a short distance when he heard the peculiar calling of turkeys, and followed on in the direc- tion until he was led away near a mile from the station, when suddenly a large Indian stepped from behind a tree not more than twenty yards from him, and said in broken English, "How do?" At the same time he saw a gun pointing towards him from a cluster of spice bushes. The surprise was so great and sudden that he dropped his gun and ran with superhuman speed for the station, followed closely by the Indians. They no doubt intended capturing him withont alarming the settlement, and therefore did not fire upon and kill him at once, as they could easily have done. . . He ontstripped his pursuers and reached the station, but so overcome that his eyes were protruding and blood- shot. He swooned from exhaustion, and lay for an hour or more in a complete stupor. When reaction came a fever set in, and for several days his life was despaired of.
Mr. Henry Weaver, of this settlement, was appointed by Governor St. Clair, in 1794, one of the justices of the peace for Hamilton county, with a very large jurisdic- tion, in point of territory, considering the extent of the country at that time. He pushed further to the north- ward after the treaty of Greenville, settling near the pres- ent Middletown, in Butler county, and afterwards on Elk creek, Madison township, where he lived the rest of his days, filling honorably, a part of the time, the post of associate judge of the court of common pleas, and many lesser offices.
Luke Foster, one of the Columbia pioneers and a lieutenant under appointment of Governor St. Clair, was
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HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.
the patriot who made the offer of a hundred bushels of corn to relieve the garrison at Fort Washington in 1789, as is related elsewhere. He remained with the Pleasant Valley settlement; also became an associate judge of the court of common pleas, and was killed August 28, 1857, at the great age of eighty-eight years, by a gravel train on the Cincinnati Hamilton & Dayton railroad, which passed through his farm.
Foster Hill, in the south part of section four, midway between Glendale and Lockland, is named after this family.
FORTIFIED STATIONS.
The territory now covered by Springfield township in- . cluded a greater number of these than any other tract of equal size in the county. The vigorous pushing of en- terprising colonists up the Mill Creek valley, while the necessity for special protection against Indian attacks still existed, sufficiently accounts for this. The most im- portant of these simple fortifications was probably
I. White's Station .- This was formed under the lead- ership of Captain Jacob White, of Redstone, Pennsyl- vania, by a number of families, among the heads of whom were Messrs. David Flinn, Andrew and Moses Pryor, Andrew Goble, and Lewis Winans. The exact date is unknown. Local traditions fix the year as 1790; but as Captain White did not locate his land until July 23, 1792, it is believed that he did not go upon it with his settlement until after that date. His location was upon section one in this township, and the block-house was built near the present canal aqueduct, northeast of Carthage, on the southeast bank of Mill creek, at what was then called "the third crossing." Mr. Olden says: "Its particular location, as near as can be described, was where the ice-pond now is, northeast of Carthage." The block-house was a small and feeble defence, and was oc- cupied by White's family alone. Goble and Flinn built cabins for their families near, and a heavy, rough log- fence surrounded all the buildings. It was made, how- ever, rather to turn cattle and hogs, then for protection against Indians.
Mr. Thomas M. Dill, of Carthage, in a narative pre- pared for the History of Mill Creek Township, gives the following description of this humble fortification:
The station stood on the south bank of Mill creek, where the Cin- cinnati & Springfield railroad bridge now crosses. It was a strong doubled log structure, with a middle hall through between the inner apatments, in the upper projecting stories of which were holes through which to hire. Barricade doors effectually barred all entrance from without, while a palisade strengthened an outer enclosure, into which horses were placed in time of danger. The creek prevented approach from the north and northeast, the bank here being high, and the ford below being within range of the guns in the station. The front of the block-house was towards the southeast, fifty yards from which, along the edge of the bottom, ran a low fence, extending from the great road on the west around east and north to the bank of the creek, where the Miami aqueduct now stands. On the bank of the creek, above and below the station-house, were the cabins of Andrew Goble and Mr. Flinn, with whom lived his sons, Stephen and Benjamin. On the north side of the creek were the houses of Andrew Pryor, John S. Wallace, and Mr. Winans, and that of Mrs. Moses Pryor, whose husband was killed the year before in the well.
Andrew Pryor, Mr. Winans, and Colonel John S. Wallace afterwards built cabins on the other side of
the creek, within what are now the limits of Hartwell, but not distant from the station. The tract owned formerly by Moses Pryor was in section six, Mill Creek township, including what are now the county infirmary firm, and his residence, in his lifetime, was more distant from the sta- tion, as was that of Mr. John Reily, a school teacher from Columbia, who was on the northeast corner of sec- tion twelve, the original site of Carthage. Their history belongs to the annals of Mill Creek township.
The principal event at White's station, or elsewhere in the early history of Springfield township, was the des- perate attack made by a party of Indians upon the station on the evening of October, 1793, closely following the defeat of an escort to one of Wayne's wagon-trains, a few miles north of Fort St. Clair. The station had been warned of the disaster, and probable consequent danger to it, by a courier from Wayne on the morning of the same day. Mr. Olden thus tells the sad story:
Many traditionary accounts have been handed down through the families then belonging to the station concerning the events about to be related, differing, as might be expected, as to the details; but the principal facts are well substantiated, and may be relied upon as true.
The whole male force about the station at the time consisted of seven men and a boy, viz .: Captain Jacob White, Andrew Goble, David Flinn and his two sons Stephen and Benjamin, both full-grown men, Andrew Pryor, Lewis Winans, and Providence, the son of Caplain White, then but ten years of age. John S. Wallace, who resided in a cabin on the north bank of the creek, was at the time on a visit with his family at Cincinnati. The widow of Moses Pryor, with her three children, was residing in the family of her brother-in-law, Andrew Pry- or, opposite the station, as before stated.
About five o'clock in the evening the dogs belonging to the station kept up a continuous barking on the hill, not far from the present res- idence of William R. Morris. Andrew Goble, supposing the dogs had treed a coon, proposed to go into the woods and get it; but Captain White, thinking it possible that there were Indians about, forbade any one going out. Goble, however, persisted, and finally went alone. He had gone but a few hundred yards from the station when he was fired upon and fell, pierced, as it was afterwards discovered, by a num- ber of balls. The Indians then emerged from their cover (some say behind the second bank of the creek ; others assert that they were con- cealed in the little ravine south of where Mr. Morris' residence now stands). They came down the hill with their accustomed war-whoop, and as they approached the station they observed Mrs. Pryor's little girl, a child of little more than four years old, playing upon the oppo- site bank of the creek. They at once fired upon it, and it fell mortally wounded. The mother, who and her three children were then the only occupants of the cabins on the north side of the creek-all the other inmates having gone over to the station on a visit-heard the fir- ing, and went to the door of the cabin just in time to witness the fatal shot that struck her child. Her second child, a boy between two and three yeaas old, being sick, she was holding him in her arms, while her babe was lying asleep in the cradle, On seeing her little girl fall she put down the boy and went out, under the fire of the Indians, and bore the child into the house, only, however, to find it silent in death.
The savages then opened fire upon the little block-house, which was promptly returned, and the crack of the rifle was incessant for some half-hour. There were a number of surplus guns in the station, and the women were kept busy loading, while the men were thus enabled to keep up an almost constant fire, making their number appear much greater. Captain White ordered the women to place his hat upon a pole and run it through the roof of the block-house. This ruse was quite successful for a time in drawing the fire of the enemy.
The Indians, who numbered about thirty, and up to this time were sheltered behind trees at some distance away, now came down the hill upon the station with furious yells, as if to carry it by storm. They were led on by a large and powerful chief, who approached the block- house and, while in the act of scaling the fence, received a fatal shot and fell within the enclosure. The rest of the band, seeing their leader fall, retreated back into the woods, where they kept up an occasional fire for an hour or more, and then withdrew and were heard of no more.
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HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.
In the early part of the engagement several Indians detached them- selves from the main body, and, crossing the creek some distance above came down in the rear of the three cabins on the opposite bank from the station, in one of which Mrs. Pryor and her children resided. On find- ing her little girl dead beyond hope, Mrs. Pryor became so distressed over her bereavement that for a time she lost sight of all danger and gave herself up to grief. But the peril was too imminent to allow much time for sorrow. On going to the door of the cabin she saw an Indian approaching but a few hundred yards away, and once her mind reverted to her surviving children. Her first thought was to grasp both and fly for safety, but a second glance at the Indian warned her that time was precious, and, with a gleam of hope that the savage might spare her babe, she caugh up the sick boy and ran with all speed for the station, with the Indian in full pursuit. Without any regard to road or ford, she took the most direct course to the block-house, and on coming to the creek sprang into the water up to her waist, crossed the stream, and reached the station in safety, where she was compelled to remain in her wet garments during the night .*
Soon after the attack began Andrew Pryor was dispatched to Fort Washington for aid. He reached the fort about midnight, and ob- tained ten dragoons, each bearing an infantryman behind his saddle, who hastened to the relief of the little station, which they reached about daylight, but found that the Indians had left during the night.
On going to the cabins over the way it was discovered that the sav- ages had taken Mrs. Pryor's babe from the cradle and dashed out its brains against a stump near the cabin door, where its body was found. + They had entered all three of the cabins, ripped open the feather beds, turned out the feathers, and filled the ticks with clothing, coverlets, blankets, household goods and other valuables, and carried all away. The soldiers followed the trail for several miles but failed to overtake them.
Some additional particulars of interest and value are supplied by Mr. Dill's relative, which we subjoin in full, notwithstanding some slight and unimportant discrepan- cies with Mr. Olden's account :
Of the White family it appears that only Captain Jacob White and his son, Providence, a boy of twelve, together with the female portion of the family, were at home on that day. John S. Wallace and wife were away at Cincinnati; so that but six men and a boy comprised the strength of the station. During the day the dogs, in the woods east of the station, had barked a good deal, and Andrew Goble, thinking they had treed a coon, started out about sunset, saying he would have the coon, "Indians or no Indians." The Indians were in the ravine, which ran towards the station on the north side of the graveyard, and along the hilltop (near the aqueduct) overlooking the cabins of Pryor, Winans, and Wallace. On nearing the woods, where the dogs had been noticed barking, Andrew Goble was fired upon by the Indians, and fell, with eight balls through him. The Indians above, on the bluff, immediately fired across the creek, killing one of the Widow Pryor's children. The other child ran for its mother, at Andrew Pryor's. The mother ran to the child, which was shot before her eyes, and with the other endeav- ored to reach the cabin. A second volley from the Indians on the bluff struck the other child, and when Mrs. Pryor entered the cabin both children were dead in her arms. It was supposed by Captain White and those in the station that it was one of his own children that was first shot, until some time after the attack, when the little ones came out from under the bed, where they had taken refuge from the balls of the enemy.
Fire was opened effectively upon every Indian who exposed himself, from the cabins of Pryor and Winans, over the creek, and from the rifles of Captain White and the Flinns, in the station. The women put the children under the beds, and, themselves being protected by the strength of the lower rooms and the bullet proof palisades outside, as- sisted in loading the guns and passing them up to White and the Flinns
above, who, firing rapidly from under the roof, not only did considera- ble execution, but impressed the savages with the belief that the post contained a greater force than it did.
About dark, and after the firing had continued sharply for over an hour, the Indians prepared to charge on the station and break their way through; but the deadly fire from well directed rifles caused them to hesitate. The chief was recognized by his great stature, his orders, and his dodging continually from tree to tree, working his way towards the fence which extended across the cleared yard, sixty yards from the station. At last he issued his last command, and with a whoop started in advance of the rest to clear the fence. He reached the top of it, when White's rifle cracked, and the Indian fell heavily within the en- closure, dead. The attacking party kept under cover of the trees and the banks of the ravine until darkness prevented further hope of suc- cess. No sooner had darkness made it impossible to see the rifle-sights, than those of the Whites beyond the creek came over with their families into the station. Andrew Pryor immediately mounted a horse and started-most probably by way of Ludlow's station-to Cincinnati for aid. He, with Colonel Wallace and twenty men, got to the station be- fore daylight on the twentieth, but found the Indians had withdrawn.
Providence White, the boy, long afterwards related that his father, Captain White, "switched one of the horses well to make him lively, and as soon as it was dark put him on the horse's back and started him out of the station gate, telling him to whoop at the brow of the hill, to let them know he was still safe on the horse's back, and go quick for help." The boy went, taking the road or trace in the direction of Bonnell's run, Duck creek, and thence to Columbia. The Indians fired at the horse and rider, in the darkness, but did no injury other than to scalp one of Provy's big toes.
It has been frequently stated in print that in this attack on White's station the Indians left but one dead --- the chief, who was too heavy to be carried off under fire of the station; but this is incorrect. Twenty- five years ago William D. Ludlow stated to the writer of this narrative that he was at White's soon after the occurrence, and saw some of the dead Indians within a half-mile of the station. They were covered but slightly with earth, stalks, and weeds; the weather was warm and their bodies were much swollen, and one of them had on a sort of cotton shirt, and by his side a new rifle. His head was pillowed on the root of a tree, and on his bosom was tipped up a piece of looking-glass, re- flecting the ugly features of his dead face. Some years ago some la- borers in the vicinity of this site disinterred the parts of several skele- tons; and these were, most probably, the remains of the Indians who fell in the attack.
2. Griffin's Station .- This was but about half a mile west of White's, and was probably established in the fall of 1793, or soon afterwards. Lieutenant Daniel Griffin, upon a land warrant, July 23, 1792, entered the entire section seven, now in this township, and some time after sold three hundred and forty-eight acres of it to James Caldwell. James was one of the sons (the other being Samuel) of Robert Caldwell, who were all among the earliest settlers about this station, together with Robert Griffin, Daniel and Jacob Vorhis, James McCashen, and Daniel Seward. Their main station building was on the present Hamilton, Springfield and Carthage turnpike, where it crosses Mill creek southwest of Hartwell. It seems to have had no particular history. The cabins of the Griffin and Vorhis brothers, and that of Robert Cald- well, were on the south side of the stream; those of Daniel Seward and James McCashen on the north. Seward's is said to have been near the present dwelling of Mr. Cormany, in Hartwell ; McCashen's at the inter- section of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad and the turnpike. John Winans is also known to have been an early immigrant near the station, but just where he located is uncertain. A little way below it the Cald- wells early built a saw- and grist-mill, with which a little distillery was afterwards connected. Their business was ruined in 1806 by a sudden and unusual freshet in Mill
* Mrs. Pryor was married in 1794 to Samnel Dunn, and immediately returned to the improvements made by her former husband, on what is now the county infirmary farm. There she and her husband resided for many years and raised a family of six children. Her maiden name was Elizabeth Willis, and was a na- tive of New Jersey. She died on the second day of January, 1843, in the seventy-fourth year of her age, and was buried in the old Baptist burying-ground at Duck creek. The late Jeremiah Dunn, who resided north of Lockland, was her eldest son.
t Mrs. Pryor was thus trebly bereaved by the Indian maranders. Her hus- band had been killed by the Indians at Pleasant run, near Fort Hamilton, while engaged in conducting pack-trains for the army.
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HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.
creek, which swept off their works ; and it was not found worth while to rebuild them.
NOTES OF SETTLEMENT.
Luke Foster was born on Long Island in the year 1761, and came to Hamilton county in 1788, where he first made settlement of the farm now occupied by the widow of Algernon Foster. His occupation was that of a farmer, although for a time he served as judge of the court of common pleas of Hamilton county. As he prospered he kept constantly adding to his first purchase, until he became finally one of the most prominent land holders in the county. He died at the advanced age of ninety- four, being run over by the cars. His companion died nine years previously, and they both are buried near each other in the cemetery at Reading. Further notices of this veteran pioneer appear elsewhere.
Algernon Sidney Foster, the subject of the following sketch, was born in the year 1805, on the farm now occu- pied by his widow, at the age of sixty-one. He married Miss Laura T. Rudebock, a native of New Jersey. At about the age of twenty-three he graduated at Oxford school, and afterwards sought the legal profession as his choice, but owing to the indisposition of his parents to have him from home, he was compelled to yield to their wishes, and ever after followed the occupation of farming. He was a gentleman of remarkable ability and intelli- gence, esteemed and respected wherever known. He was an industrious and hard-working man, although highly cultivated and refined. He died in the year 1880, after having lived a life of usefulness. He left a com- panion who was ever ready to share alike with him all the cares and disappointments that are so common in life, and his loss to her was irreparable. His remains were interred in the Spring Grove cemetery. Few are they whose names may grace the pages of this volume that were so well worthy as Algernon Foster.
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