History of Marietta and Washington County, Ohio, and representative citizens, Part 12

Author: Andrews, Martin Register, 1842-; Hathaway, Seymour J
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1490

USA > Ohio > Washington County > Marietta > History of Marietta and Washington County, Ohio, and representative citizens > Part 12

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indulge and after that he experienced nothing of the fever and ague.

Our settlements so far as I recollect were considered healthy, and nothing like an epi- demic prevailed ( the fever and ague excepted ) until that of 1807, of which you are acquainted.

The reasons : It is the opinion of most peo- ple with whom I have conversed on the sub- ject, that our winters, generally, were more moist and mild before the land was cleared than they have been since, and our summers more humid and sultry. I never knew the ground to freeze in the bottoms in winter. where it was covered with leaves. All the allu- vial lands were covered with a dense forest which kept off the wind and sun. The moisture was retained much longer than in cleared land. .An exhalation was generally seen rising from those forests in winter, when not prevented by hard frosts or snow. These vapors, when it was not too cold, seemed to ameliorate the air. and render it more mild. The banks of the streams being lined with a heavy forest of trees prevented the wind from sweeping over the bottom's and carrying off the warm vapors. There were, uniformly, more or less back of the bottoms, strips of wet land called slashes or swamps, which were kept open the greater part of the winter, and which retained the warmth of the earth or gave it out moderately and prevented those sudden and violent changes sitch as we have experienced within a month past. We had very cold weather and deep snows, but they were steadier and lasted longer. In the fore part of January, 1796, we had a severe cold turn, the ice froze nine inches, and immediately the snow fell two feet deep. We had a good solid road over the Muskingum. over which we hauled walnut logs to General Putnam's mill for two or three weeks (as we could make a team) and, as there were no roads without crossing the river at every bend, the snow path was improved from Waterford to Marietta for nearly a month, and in 1799 we had a similar winter. The cold set in and the snow fell early in January, and we had good sledding across the waters until the 23rd of Febinary. On the 22nd. the late Governor

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.

Meigs delivered an oration on the death of Washington ( who died the December before ), and nearly all of the people along the river, from Waterford down, passed down and up, across the river, on sleds and sleighs.

But we had an early spring. In the winter of 1801-02, Captain Devol finished the ship "Muskingum." On the Ist of November the snow fell three inches, and there was a very hard frost; after that the winter was so open, that a frost hard enough to bear a man was rarely seen through the winter and spring. When the earth is cloaked with a forest, the sun and wind are measurably shut out from the surface and prevented from carrying off the warm vapors that arise, which diminish the tendency to sudden and violent changes. While nishes material for snow and rain, the show falls more copious and lays longer upon the ground, and keeps the temperature steadier. milder, and free from so many vicissitudes.

The black cat and the pike were the larg- the constant exhalation from the valley fur- "est, fish, the yellow cat next, the salmon, the

This has been the case in New England : they have but but about half as much good sled- dling now as they had 50 years ago. It is said that it was so in Italy, when the Romans first re- leemed that country from the barbarians, and before the earth was scoured of its forests, that they had deep snows and steady winters : now they have little snow and much changeable weather. They are a little north of us.

I have attributed our former warm and sultry weather in summer to the great humid- ity of the atmosphere, which was occasioned by the moisture retained by the trees, shrubs and high weeds in the night and given out in the daytime, along the bottoms. Not so on the hills, there being little or no underbrush, the air had a free passage. but so soon as the field got up in the range, the dews were heavy and retained until about 10 o'clock. My theory may be very erroneous, but it probably will be very harmless, except giving you the trouble to read the reasons.

The first flood after I came was in March. 1790. It was about six feet deep in my house. where the Post Office now stands. There was no other high flood for several years. It

was not until 1804 that the water came over my bottom land.

Our rivers were plentifully stored with fish, while the banks were covered with trees, and perishing vegetables, and insects, and were easily caught by a proper mode, the sin- gle hook and trot-line in deep water, or the spear in clear shoal water. Judge Gilbert De- vol, of Waterford, late in the fall, when the water had got very cold and clear, found a deep hole in the river, in which he judged there must be fish. He made some very long gig poles, and went to the place and by strik- ing down promiscuously, soon loaded his ca- noe. This was practiced with some success in after years.

buffalo, the perch and sturgeon, next, the sucker, last. I saw a black cat. caught by James Patterson, in 1790, which weighed 96 pounds. He fished for a living. He anchored his canoe out in the river, in the evening. threw out his hooks, and wrapped his blanket and laid down and slept. This fish got fast to his line, and had power to drag his light anchor down into deep water, and then floated down to near the island, where he found him- self when he awoke. The yellow cat attains the size of 50 pounds, but a 20-pounder is the best size for cating. They were very fat, and if a little corned and smoked were almost equal to salmon and would keep dry a long time. The sturgeon, which were plenty, if cured a little were esteemed a good fish.

But the pike is the king of fish in our wat- ers. Judge Gilbert Devol took a pike from the Muskingum which weighed 96 pounds, on the 2nd of July. 1790. He was a tall man, and when he had the pike on his gig pole and the pole on his shoulder, the pike dragged on the ground. This fish was cooked for the Fourth of July dinner ( 1790), which was celebrated with an oration by Judge Varnum and attended by all the inhabitants and Gen- eral Harmar and many of his garrison. This large fish was taken with a gig, or spear. The Ohio Company's boat "Mayflower" was lying

HISTORY OF MARIETTA AND WASHINGTON COUNTY,

in the mouth of the Muskingum, and was used as a sort of store boat, and particularly for keeping fish. The offal being thrown over alongside, the fish were seen to come and feed on the offal of the small fish-shy at first, but becoming more tame and accustomed to seeing and hearing people about the boat. Judge Devol and his son Gilbert prepared themselves with a proper canoe and gigs and. when informed. started the pike up the Mus- kingum and pursued him by his wake (mean- ing to tire him down) above the Campus Mar- tius ; they then got above him and drove him back, as the fish are very short-winded and soon tire when pursued. They were able to press him and, before he could reach deep water in the Ohio, he flagged and they came up and got him.

This practice is followed by all our lads who understand gigging fish. In New Jersey they ride the fish down in shoal water and gig them. Most of our fish were caught upon the trot-line. I have known half a barrel to be caught of a night. They baited with all kinds of worms, fresh meat, crawfish, minnows and small fish kept in a gourd in which they had asafetida, tobacco or any strongly scented sub- stance, which would be carried down with the stream and induce the fish to follow up to the bait.

The Indians had a mode of catching large : pike, which is now practiced by our sportsman along the banks on both sides of the Ohio. They catch small fish, say of one or two ! in garrison, and brought all the deer in. pounds ; then they fasten with a stick a strong hook-with a line that can not easily be bitten off-into the mouth and through the body and out near the tail. They go to the mouth of a creek, where the pike are waiting for small fish to come out, and throw this bait as far as possible out into the river. and haul it in sud- denly so as keep the bait jumping on top of the water, as if in the act of running from an en- emy. If there is a pike near, he will dart out and swallow the small fish and is sure to be hooked.

Previous to the landing of the Ohio Com- pany, wild game had been very plenty in the

neighborhood of Marietta: deer and turkeys, and occasionally elk and buffalo. In the winter of 1792, Mr. Kerr and Mir. Neiswanger killed six or seven buffaloes on Duck Creek about Cedar Narrows. They were fat and a fine quality of beef, Judge Gilman said, better than any beef he ever ate.

It is admitted by beef-eaters that beef fat- ted on the range is higher flavored and jucier than if fatted in a pasture, and beef fatted on our pastures is much better than that raised upon the prairies of the West. The Indians who were in at the treaty concluded on the 9th of January, 1789, had destroyed, wasted and drove back the deer so that they were very scarce for a year or two.

But in the fall of 1790, the beech and other mast were plenty on the bottoms, which brought in turkeys in abundance, so many that people were obliged to secure their corn be- fore it was ripe, and, if there were any shocks of oats or wheat, they were obliged to cover them thick with brush, to prevent their being destroyed. The turkeys were killed in all ways. One man killed 40 with a rifle one day. They were trapped, killed with clubs and dogs until a turkey would not sell for a fip, because the people were cloyed and they could not be used. In the winter of 1792-93 Messrs. Kerr, Hen- derson and Neiswanger started from Marietta, went to the White Oak settlement, and killed 45 deer and hung them up; they came home next morning and got some horses they kept

In a few years the deer got back to our neighborhood and I presume we have been better supplied with venison in the hills than in the more level country.

That the turkeys should beat in in search of beech mast, is not surprising ; but that the squirrels by millions should. simultaneously. become itinerant, taking their course, swim- ming large waters, without apparently seeking for food. but, like the losust in Africa, stopping long enough to destroy everything they could eat. which fell in their way, and perhaps he- fore cold weather would turn and come back is not so easy for me to account for.

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.

They would get in, and before people were aware the side of the cornfields west of the woods would be destroyed, and the field must be immediately gathered. When I was at Bel- pre. Captain Dana had got about two bushels of uncleaned hemp seed and wheat a few rods from the house: when we came back from din- ner it was so completely covered with squirrels that nothing could be seen of the hemp seed. No one who had not seen them could have any correct idea of the numbers.

There were bears and panthers through the hills, but not so plenty, daring, or impudent as the wolves and wild cats. They all liked hogs and pigs, but the bears and panthers were more shy and did not repeat their visits like the wolves.

A panther killed a hog belonging to Isaac Barker, at the Upper Settlement, Belpre, and carried him 60 rods through a snow nine inches deep, leaving the trail of the hog, and buried him by the side of a log. The panther was fol- lowed in the morning about two or three miles. found on a hill and killed.

The wolves were very troublesome, where they became well acquainted. To preserve your hogs a fence must be built, so high they could not get over, or you must cover your pen with logs, so large as not to be thrown off. Large lots of hogs could defend them- selves.

There were some few beaver, after the In- (lian left their waters; Isaac Williams used to go trapping for them up the Muskingum and Duck Creek. There were a few small families, after we came up the Muskingum, one at Cap- tain Devol's Island, and some at the mouth of the Rainbow, opposite me.

THE INDIANS IN OHIO.

From the letters and reports of the soldiers and pioneers, it appears there were two sources of trouble with the Indians-the lawless char- acter of many of the hunters on the frontier. and the constant plotting of British agents from Detroit.

In 1787 John Mathews, the commissary at Fort Steuben ( Steubenville), wrote to his brother-in-law, Captain Stone, of Massachu- setts :

"I am as much enamoured with this coun- try as ever. I have watched vegetation with considerable attention and have observed everything flourish with the greatest luxuri- ance. I still entertain some hope of seeing you agreeably settled in this country. Should a number of families form a compact settle- ment, I do not apprehend any danger from the Indians.

"The Indians have lately murdered two families in this quarter, one family about 20 miles below this, the other, 40. From the best accounts I can get this action was the result of personal resentment.

"The present inhabitants of this country and the Indians will ever be at variance. The truth is, they are both savages. Though there are many good people, yet the number of worth- less fellows that flock to the frontiers, and who live by hunting, will ever keep them in a broil. These will kill an Indian if they can get the advantage, will steal his horses and phm- der his camp. The Indians will always retali- ate without discrimination and an innocent family fall victims to their revenge.

"The troops at this garrison are mostly gone to the month of the Muskingum, and the remainder are to go soon. It is supposed they are going further down, but their destination is not known."

The Delawares who lived on the upper part of the Muskingum were at first regarded as friends by the pioneers. General Harmar had quite a high opinion of their chief, Captain Pipe. Some other officers seem to have formed a very different opinion about this noble sav- age, even before he took part in the war of 1791. The following letter, written by Gen. Rufus Putnam to Fisher Ames, who was the first member of Congress from the Boston dis- triet of Massachusetts, after the adoption of the Constitution, gives a vivid picture of the bloxxdly beginning of that war:

HISTORY OF MARIETTA AND WASHINGTON COUNTY,

MARIETTA, Jan. 6th, 1791.

DEAR SIR :

Our prospects are much changed. Instead of peace and friendship with our Indian neighbors, a horrid savage war stares us in the face. The Indians, instead of being humbled by the destruction of the Shawnee towns and brought to beg for peace, appear determined on a general war in which our settlements are already involved. On the evening of the 2nd inst. they fell on a new settlement about 40 miles up the Muskingum. surprised a block-house, killed 12 persons and carried off three others. The persons killed are John and Philip Stacy, sons of Col. Wm. Stacy, from New Salem. Ezra Putnam, son of Major Ezra Putnam, from Middletown. in Massachusetts, John Camp from the same place, Jonathan Farewell from N. Hampshire, Zebulon Troop from Berne, William James from Con- nectieut, Joseph Clark from Rhode Island, a man by the name of Meeks with his wife and 2 children from Virginia; these were all killed in and at the block- house.

What number of Indians were concerned in this mischief or from what tribes we know not, but from those Indians who till lately used to visit our settle- ments every day withdrawing themselves entirely from our sight ever since the expedition against the Shaw- nees, there is little reason to doubt but the Delawares and Wyandots as well as others have had a hand in the business.

It is impossible for me to give you a just idea of the distress into which the, event has thrown the in- habitants, especiall those of the settlements.

For my own part I have for some time been of the opinion that the spring would open with a general at- tack on the frontier, in which event I did not expect we should escape unless government should timely send troops for our protection.

We purchased our lands under an idea that they had been fairly obtained from the natives, for gov- ernment told us so by their public acts. This, how- ever, the Indians on our own arrival in the country told us was not true. and if the treaties with them prior to our coming are consulted, I believe it will ap- pear the Indians are right, and that the lands were rather wrested than fairly purchased from them-at least the Indians considered it in this light. The treaty made by Governor St. Clair at Ft. Harmar wears a different form and by it the business seems pretty well patched up and I had hope that we should have had little or no trouble with them on that account, notwith- standing that some of their chiefs discovered that they were not very well satisfied and that several chiefs among the tribes who treated with Governor St. Clair were not present and never consented to what was done.

It was afterward learned that Philip Stacy had been captured by the Indians, and not killed.

Letter to General Putnam from Fisher Ames.

PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 22. 1791.

DEAR SIR: It was impossible to read your letter giving an account of the attack of the savages on the settlement at Big Bottom without feeling a strong sympathy with you under the peculiar distress of your situation. However your fears may have interpreted the sense of the country towards you. I am happy to preceive that they are not indisposed to giving you effectual protection, though it will cost money. That circumstance too often throws cold water on the nat- mural emotions of the public towards their distressed brethren.

You know that my opinion of the proper policy of Congress is, to manifest a fixed resolution to protect the most remote parts of the Union, to nurse the weak and to console the suffering remote settlements with a degree of tender solicitude proportioned to their defenseless condition. Congress lias little oc- casion to make itself known to them except by acts of protection.

The most successful way to banish the ruinous idea of the future independence of the Western coun- try is by doing good to the settlers, to gain their hearts. Our sin will set whenever the Union shall be divided. But it is not necessary to notice the idea further. The measures of the present session of Con- gress. I think, will satisfy you that because you are remote you are not forgotten, and will not be abandoned to the savages. I enclose a letter to my old school- fellow and townsman, Mr. Battelle. Will you please to convey it to him?

Please to accept my sincere wishes for your health and prosperity.

Samuel H. Parsons, in December. 1785, wrote from "Fort Finney," at the mouth of the Miami, to Capt. Jonathan Hart, in which he made this report about Indian affairs :

"The Miami is a large fine river on which the Shawnees and other nations live.

"Since we have been here every means has been taken to bring in the Indians. The Wy- andots and Delawares are here: the other na- tions were coming.

"The British agents, our own traders, and the inhabitants of Kentucky, I am convinced, are all opposed to a treaty and are using every means to prevent it. Strange as this may seem, I have very convincing proof of its reality.

"Parties of Cherokees are now out to war. These Cherokees are but a name for all rascals of every tribe. We are informed by the Shawanese that they have driven these peo- ple from among them and they have settled on

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.

Paint Creek up to the Scioto and are about one hundred in number."

At a later date General Putnam expressed the same opinion as Judge Parsons of the In- dians on the Scioto, and urged the government to build a fort and station a small garrison near the mouth of that river.

In these letters there is abundant evidence of the conscious weakness of the general gov- ernment. The administration was beset with dangers not only from the Indians and the almost open hostility of British and Spaniards, but also from the indiscreet zeal of the set- tlers south of the Ohio. In 1787 General llar- mar made this report to the Secretary of War: "It is a mortifying circumstance that, while under the sanction of the Federal authority, negotiations and treaties are holding with the Indians, there should be such presumption in the people of Kentucky as to be forming ex- peditions against them.

Even after the adoption of the Constitution and the inauguration of Washington, there was doubt and perplexity in dealing with the In- dians. In 1792 General Putnam was sent to Vincennes on a mission which is explained in his private notes of a letter written to General Knox from Fort Washington, July 22nd :

[It is] "highly probable that the principal chiefs from nearly all the western tribes with a great number of warriors and others may be collected at Vincennes. ** By a proper management they may be detached from the tribes which have originated the war."

A few days later he wrote from the same place: "I am in some hopes of being ad- mitted to speak with their high mightinesses, the Shawanese and other hostile tribes." With the Western tribes he concluded a treaty, but the Indians within the present limits of Ohio were bent on war. On his return from Vin- cennes to Marietta he made this report to General Wayne:

"On the 7th of October I sent a speech to the Dellawares and other hostile tribes inviting them to send some of their wise men to this place to speak with me on the subject of peace, but I hear nothing from them yet nor have I

ever had much expectatian that they would hearken to the invitation. I shall however wait to the ioth or 15th of January [1793] and then set out for Philadelphia and endeavor to convince, as far as my opinion and influence extends, all the advocates for treaties that noth- ing but a severe whipping will bring these proud savages to a sense of their interest."

From these letters it is evident that the officers of the general government were con- scious of their weakness. The States, no less than hostile British, Spaniards or Indians, re- sented any display of Federal power. Hence it was impossible to act with vigor in repress- ing the Indians in Ohio. Even after the attack on the settlement at Big Bottom, January 2, 1791. General Putnam complains that they had received no assistance from the United States forces "until the middle of July." Even when the troops were sent, the poverty of the gov- ernment so restricted their numbers that the war dragged on for many years. If we bear in mind the position of Washington and his cabinet we can more easily understand the fol- , lowing letter of the Secretary of War, General Knox to General Putnam :

WAR DEPARTMENT. Feb. II. 1793. SIR :- I beg leave to request to be informed by you in what sense the Fourth Article of the Treaty inade by you with the Wabash Indians, on the 27th day of September, 1792, was understood by you and by them at the time of forming the same .- That is, whether it was understood that any other power than the United States had the right of purchasing when the Indians should be disposed to sell their lands?

The same question arose with reference to treaties made with the Cherokees. Can we conceive it possible that a Secretary of War within the last 40 years would seriously ask whether the Sioux or Dakotas, for example. had reserved any right to sell their lands to the British government, or whether the Utes could sell to Mexico? Indeed our general gov- ernment, through the personal influence of Washington and the genius of Hamilton, grew from such small beginnings that it is hard for 1is to realize how weak and almost helpless it was in those carly years.

HISTORY OF MARIETTA AND WASHINGTON COUNTY,

To the above letter General Putnam sent the following answer :

PHILADELPHIA, February 11th, 1793.

SIR :- In answer to your question of this day, I reply that it was never contemplated hy me nor the Inchians who met me in council at Vincennes that the United States conceded to them the right to sell their lands to any other power than the Government of the Umion, under whose protection they then freely ac- knowledged themselves to be.

Even after many defeats the executive was eager to lessen the military force and thus reduce expenses, as is shown by an extract of a letter written by Secretary Pickering to Gov- ernor St. Clair :

WAR OFFICE, March 26th, 1795. * Upon the whole, considering the change of disposition in the Indian tribes and that in consequence of our negotiations with Great Britain. they will no longer be stimulated by British Agents to continue their hostilities, I am inclined to think the services of your militia may be dispensed with.

LETTERS OF GENERAL PUTNAM.

Gen. Rufus Putnam, to General Know.

MARIETTA, March 14th, 1791.

SIR: My last letter was of the 5th instant. On the fith carly in the morning, the Indians fired on two lads near Lieut. Gray's post (20 miles up the Muskin- gum), one of which is badly wounded. Twenty-five of the enemy appeared in view and in insulting manner invited the people to come out and fight them-they killed eleven cattle and drove off as many more-the same morning two men were fired on near the post at Belleprie but they made their escape unhurt.

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History of Marietta and Washington County, Ohio, and representative citizens, Part 12

Author: Andrews, Martin Register, 1842-; Hathaway, Seymour J Publication date: 1902 Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1490

Author: Andrews, Martin Register, 1842-; Hathaway, Seymour J
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1490