USA > Ohio > Pioneer history : being an account of the first examinations of the Ohio valley, and the early settlement of the Northwest territory ; chiefly from original manuscripts > Part 27
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No. 2. Captain Prince, wife and two children. He was a hatter by trade, from Boston, Massachusetts ; a well edu- cated man. Moved to Cincinnati, after the war.
No. 3. Moses Morse and wife. He owned four log houses standing side by side, and called " Morse's row," which he rented to transient families. He was a painter of signs and various other callings, styling himself doctor. His tavern signs were all noted for having the device of a black horse on them, painted from a design cut in paste board. It was said that his road out, from New England to the Ohio river, could be traced all the way, by the tavern signs he had painted, paying all his traveling expenses by his skill in painting. These emblems of the publican's calling, the law required, much more strictly than at present, should be suspended at every inn side, as well as in well painted, fair letters over the retailer's door ; as may be seen by examin- ing the long obsolete territorial law, regulating taverns and retail stores.
No. 4. Peter Nyghswonger, wife, and two or three chil- dren. Married Jane Kerr, the sister of Hamilton. He was of German descent, and born in Frederick county, Virginia. During the revolutionary war himself and John, an older brother, came over the mountains, and lived in Wheeling, following the occupation of hunting. Peter was a stout built man, over six feet high, very muscular, and erect in his movements. Dark skin and hair, with coal black eyes ; high cheek bones, with an immense roman nose knocked a little to one side, by some unlucky blow received in his amusements at fisty-cuffs, at which every hunter and back- woodsman was expected to be proficient. He was coarse and rough in his address, but possessed a kind heart. The costume worn by the rangers, to which class Peter belonged, was similar to that of the Indians, as being better adapted to a woodsman's life. To this he usually added the painting
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NAMES OF FAMILIES AT "THE POINT." 1
of the face, to make the resemblance more striking, when out on a tour of duty. His courage was of that cool, de- liberate kind that never fails in the hour of peril. While he was living at Wheeling, the Indians made their last attack on that place, in great force. During the midst of the seige a large palisade gave way, and greatly elated the Indians, as it afforded an opening by which they could enter, or fire through it at their enemies within. Peter volunteered to go out and set it up, while those on the in- side secured it with a chain. This service he performed, amidst a shower of bullets from the Indians, without a single wound, and returned through the sally gate to the admiration of the savages, and with the plaudits of his companions. After the war he settled at " Old Town bot- tom," a little below Buffington's island. As the game be- ยท came scarce he moved further west on to the frontiers, where he could pursue his favorite vocation of hunting, unmolested by neighbors. His house stood on the west side of the street, near the Muskingum, but his range of duty lay on the Fort Harmer side, where he was employed as a spy, usually in company with John Warth.
No. 5. William Skinner and J. Mckinley kept a retail store in this building during the war. After its close Mr. Skinner moved over to the Fort Harmer side.
No. 6. R. J. Meigs, jr., wife and one child. Charles Green and himself were in company in a store of goods, kept in a part of this building.
No. 7. Hon. Dudley Woodbridge, wife, and children. This building was a small block house, a portion of which is still standing, inclosed in a frame dwelling house, now owned by J. Preston.
No. 8. A two story frame building, built by Judge Wood- bridge, and occupied for a retail store by him for several years during and after the war. Muskingum street was then the " cheap side," or "merchant's row," of Marietta, where all the business was done. Time, and the alteration
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NAMES OF FAMILIES AT "THE POINT."
of circumstances, make many changes in the affairs of men, as well as in the streets of a city.
No. 9. Captain Josiah Munroe, wife and two children, adults. He was a talented and useful man ; and appointed the first postmaster in Marietta, in 1794.
No. 10. Captain William Mills, wife and one child. He was an officer in the United States service ; died soon after the close of the war. His widow was well known to the inhabitants as a most excellent and pious woman ; and subsequently the wife of Dr. True.
No. 13. Captain Jonathan Haskell commanded a com- pany of United States troops, for the defense of the settle- ments, and made this house his head quarters. He was one of the Belpre associates, and lived there on his farm a number of years after the war.
No. 14. Hamilton Kerr. This should have been a small block house. His mother lived with him after the death of his father, and a younger brother. He was one of the most active and useful of the spies. A biographical sketch will be given of him in the sequel.
No. 15. Colonel Ebenezer Sproat, wife and daughter. Commodore Abraham Whipple, wife and son, lived with him in the same house. The colonel's wife was a daughter of Commodore Whipple. Soon after the peace he built the house where Captain D. Green now lives, and occupied it at the time of his death, in 1805. A biography of both these hardy pioneers will be given. The house stood on the ground now covered by Lewis's hotel.
No. 16. Joseph Buell, wife and two children, with Levi Munsell and wife. This was the first frame building in the Northwest territory, and in it Buell and Munsell kept a tavern and boarding-house. The corner of Holden's block of stores covers the ground occupied by this building. These two men had been sergeants in Colonel Harmer's regiment, and were greatly attached to each other. It was one of the earliest public houses kept in Marietta. Stephen Pearce kept a
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NAMES OF FAMILIES AT "THE POINT."
house of entertainment in Campus Martius, in the year 1792, but this was opened in 1790.
No. 17. William Stacey, son of Colonel Stacey, wife and two or three children. Settled in Rainbow, or Union town- ship, on the Muskingum, after the war.
No. 18. Joseph Stacey, son of Colonel Stacey, wife and two or three children. Also a resident of Union.
No. 19. James Patterson, wife and children. A cele- brated fisherman, and supported his family chiefly by this employment.
No. 20. Nathaniel Patterson, wife and children. He died with the small pox.
No. 21. Captain Abel Matthews, from Hartford county, Connecticut, wife and six children. He was the father of John and Philo. John acted as drummer to the garrison. Settled in Rainbow or Union.
No. 22. Thomas Stanley, wife and three or four children, from Farmington, Connecticut. Served several years in the continental army, and was a constable of Marietta, and sergeant of the Ohio company troops during the Indian war; subsequently built mills on Duck creek. He was a public spirited, useful man, and one of the first settlers in Fearing township.
No. 23. Eleazar Curtis, wife, and a number of chil- dren. He was from Massachusetts, and settled in New- . bury, at the lower end of Belpre township. Several of his sons live in that vicinity, and are prominent and valuable citizens.
No. 24. A range of log cabins, built for the use of the Ohio company's laborers, and afterwards appropriated as barracks for the soldiers and the occupancy of emigrant families. They stood near the edge of the bank, opposite to Loomis's and Johnson's stores. Simeon Tuttle and family lived in block house, No. 1.
All these tenements have long since passed away, like the people who dwelt within them, and their places are
334
SUFFERINGS OF INHABITANTS.
supplied with substantial brick buildings. It is, neverthe- less, pleasant to look upon the likeness of what has been before our own times, and to dwell upon the remembrance of our hardy ancestors, who struggled long and manfully with famine, poverty, and the red men of the forest, to pro- vide a home, not only for themselves, but for their children. This little spot was the germ from whence has sprung the great state of Ohio, with its millions of inhabitants, and shall not its remembrance be preserved ?
The inhabitants of this garrison suffered a good deal with sickness from small pox and scarlet fever. One of their most annoying and continual troubles was the difficulty they had in procuring meal and flour after they had raised the grain at the hazard of their lives. Their meal was made in hand mills, two only of which were owned in the garrison -one by Colonel Stacey, the other by Ham. Kerr. There was a large, old coffee mill, that once belonged to a ship of war, owned by Captain Mathews, the hopper of which would hold a peck of corn. This was in great demand. The finest of the meal was separated with a sieve, for bread, and the coarser boiled up with a piece of venison or bear meat, like hominy, making a rich and nourishing diet, well suited to the tastes and stomachs of the hungry pioneers. Licenses for taverns and retailing merchandise were given out by Colonel Meigs, who was the commissioner for this purpose. The applicant had first to get a recommendation from the judges of the court of quarter sessions, and pay fifteen dollars for the license to the use of the county, and one dollar to the commissioner.
The materials from which the sketch of the garrison and ancient town was drafted were procured from five indi- viduals, who lived there during the war, three of whom are now living. Four of these persons made separate plans of the situation of the buildings, and wrote down the names of the families who occupied them. The compiler, from these several drafts, which were strikingly uniform in detail, was
335
SCHOOLS.
himself familiar with the early appearance of the town, log cabins and block houses. From these data, the present view of " the garrison at the point" has been made, and is doubtless as correct as the circumstances would permit.
Schools.
Notwithstanding the poverty and privations of the inhab- itants of the garrison, schools were kept up for the instruc- tion of their children, in reading, writing, and arithmetic, nearly all the time of the war. The funds were partly provided by the Ohio company, and the balance furnished from their own lank pockets. The teachers of these schools could not employ their time profitably in any other busi- ness, as there was nothing to do, and served for low wages. Jonathan Baldwin, from Massachusetts, liberally educated, kept nearly two years in the block house on the Muskin- gum, and settled in Waterford. Mr. Curtis, single man, and brother of Eleazar Curtis, taught in a cooper's shop. He afterwards settled in Charleston, Virginia. Dr. Jabez True kept, also, in the block house; so that there was no lack of effort in this important matter, on the part of the people of Marietta. In Campus Martius, a school was kept in the north-west block house, in the winter of 1789, by Major Anselm Tupper, and every winter after that by several different teachers, among whom was Benjamin Slo- comb, a well educated, but rather dissipated man, of quaker parentage.
Doings of the Ohio company in 1793.
At a meeting of the directors of the company, who were the trustees of the donation tract, in May, 1793, the boun- daries of the one hundred thousand acres were defined as follows, viz : " south, on a tract of seven hundred and fifty thousand acres of land mentioned in the first section of said act; east, on the seventh range townships mentioned in the said first section ; west, on a tract of two hundred and
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DONATION LANDS.
fourteen thousand two hundred and eighty-five acres of land mentioned in the second section of said act; and north, on a certain line surveyed by Israel Ludlow, as the northern boundary line of one million five hundred thousand acres of land, mentioned in the fourth section of the said act." In making their grants to individuals the trustees were guided by these rules. The grantee must be a male not under eighteen years of age, and at the time an actual settler residing at some of the stations of defense, or settlement, within the aforesaid three tracts of land, granted for the benefit of the Ohio company associates. The present set- tlers within those tracts were to be first provided with lots. All contracts heretofore made with persons to settle on any part of the one hundred thousand acres to be carried into effect, as far as may be in the power of the trustees. This referred to the settlements at Waterford, Wolf creek mills, and Duck creek, which were within the boundaries of the donation land; and as these lands'were given by the United States partly to assist the Ohio company in fulfilling their contracts with settlers, heretofore made at their own ex- pense, it was decided that the donation lots at Belpre, sixty-
. eight in number, must be covered by a fifth division, or one hundred acre lot, drawn in the company lands, before the occupier could receive a lot in the donation tract, otherwise they would have two donation lots instead of one. As a large proportion of these men were proprietors in the com- pany, the arrangement was easily made. General R. Putnam was appointed the superintendent for surveying and deeding the above lands, for which service he was allowed to charge five dollars, to be paid by the person receiving the deed. By the 17th of July, nine allotments had been surveyed in those portions of the tract most contiguous to the Mus- kingum river and Wolf creek mills, as settlements for asso- ciations of individuals, from ten to thirty-two in .number, amounting to one hundred and seventy lots, or seventeen thousand acres; leaving only sixteen then in the colony,
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AN INDIAN KILLED.
unprovided for. These drew lots soon after. The names of all these men are recorded in the journal of the company, showing as a historical fact, that in July, 1793, there were only one hundred and eighty-six males, able to bear arms, within the three settlements of Marietta, Belpre, and Waterford.
The winter of 1793 was, in general, mild, especially the month of January; on the 30th of which there fell a snow of eighteen inches in depth, which exceeded that of any other since the settlement. The 1st of March following, the river Ohio was two feet higher than ever known before, overflowing all the low grounds, and the streets in the " garrison at the point."
In August the inhabitants suffered much from an epi- demic scarlet fever, that carried off quite a number persons, chiefly children. The small pox also made its appearance early in the same month, breaking out among the soldiers of Captain Haskel's command. The court of quarter ses- sion met on the 7th of August, and ordered the infected persons to be removed to a cabin near Mixer's spring. On the 9th they had a special session, at the request of the inhabitants, and with the consent of the captain, directed the sick to be removed to Devol's island. Several of the inhabitants took the disease, and some died. Since that year the small pox has not prevailed in Marietta.
An Indian killed on the south side of the Ohio.
This event, although not transacted in the territory of the Ohio company, is intimately connected with its history, and is related by John Wiser, who was well acquainted with the party, and received the narrative from his own mouth. In the autumn of the year 1793, Isaac Williams, who lived opposite to the mouth of the Muskingum, had been sick, but was now recovering. Feeling a returning appetite, he thought if he could get some venison (a favorite meat with the backwoodsmen), he should recover much more
22
338
BIRD LOCKHART.
rapidly. Bird Lockhart, with his wife and eight children, together with several other families, lived in his garrison, and was a celebrated hunter, as well as a man of undaunted courage. Mr. Williams applied to him to go out into the woods and kill a deer. Bird readily consented, although in the midst of the Indian war, and very hazardous.
Taking his old horse, which was afflicted with the pole- evil, and of so poor and homely an appearance that there was no danger of the Indians stealing him, he went out on to the heads of Worthington's run, a small branch that falls into Hews's river, about six miles distant from the garrison. He soon killed two fine deer, dressed the meat, and packed it on to the old horse. Late in the afternoon he started on his return home. As he was winding along on the top of a ridge which divides the waters that fall into the Ohio from those of Worthington, in a curve of the old Indian path, made by the head of a hollow, as the sinuosities on the sides of the ridges, worn by the small branches, are called, he suddenly and quite unexpectedly met two Indian warriors in the trace, only a few rods before him. The Indians were as much surprised as himself. Both parties instantly sprang behind trees. One of his foes, in his haste, took a tree too small to cover him, so that the side of his hip presented a fair mark to the keen eye of Lockhart, who instantly fired and shot him through the hips, entirely dis- abling him. The other Indian, who was behind a larger tree and considerably further off, seeing that Bird's rifle was now empty, rushed up to shoot him. As he approached, Lockhart was in the act of drawing out his ramrod from his rifle, after hastily pushing down a ball on to the powder, poured without measure from the horn. The rifles of the old hunters were generally of a large bore, and constructed so as to prime themselves. The Indian seeing this ran back to the tree he had left. Here they stood for a long time, watching each other until near the approach of night, both being too cautious and wary to uncover any part of
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BIRD LOCKHART.
his body from behind the tree of sufficient size for an effec- tive shot.
Lockhart began to feel a little uneasy, as he saw the sun declining, lest he should keep close under cover until dark, and steal off undiscovered, and he should loose the chance of a shot at him. Being of a shrewd turn of mind and fruitful in expedients, he took his old low crowned beaver hat, and placing it on his wiping stick, slowly pushed it round the side of the tree ; imitating as closely as he could the motions of a human head looking cautiously from be- hind the trunk, to get sight of the enemy. The Indian in- stantly caught a glimpse of the hat, and fired. Bird still further to deceive him, let the hat fall to the ground, which completed the delusion ; as he instantly rushed forward with a yell to secure the scalp of his fallen foe. Lockhart suf- fered him to approach within a few yards of him, when he stepped out from behind his covert and deliberately shot him through the body. Both his enemies were now " hors de combat;" but deeming it imprudent to approach the wounded Indian, who had crawled further away, but still had his loaded rifle, he took a circuit round in search of his horse. But he had wandered out of sight; and as it was now nearly dark he returned to the garrison without him. The story of his day's adventures were soon related. The next morning a party went out conducted by Lockhart, where they found the Indian dead whom he last shot, but the wounded one was missing. The old horse was found by the same party on Carpenter's run, about six miles above Marietta, near the Ohio river. It was supposed that the wounded Indian had contrived to catch the horse, as it was very gentle, and rode to this place. Here he either crossed the river, aided by some other Indians who belonged to the war party, or hid himself in the rocks. No trace of him could be found, and the men returned with the scalp of only one Indian.
During this year General Wayne, was busily engaged in
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ROBERT WARTH KILLED.
collecting troops, magazines of provisions and erecting forts, preparatory to invading the Indian country. These movements occupied the attention of the western tribes, and in some measure checked the frequency and number of their war parties into the settlements of the Ohio com- pany, so that they were not much molested, but pursued their agricultural improvements, and were for the first time enabled to procure more grain than they needed for their own consumption. In the autumn of this year, two or three boats were loaded with corn, grown at Belpre and Waterford, and sold to the army contractors, at forty cents a bushel, and taken to Fort Washington. This market was of great service to the poor settlers, as it enabled them to purchase clothing and other articles, for the comfort of their families, which for the last three years many of them could not do. The distribution of the donation lots brought quite a number of young men into the country, and some new clearings were made during the winter months, as the In- dians seldom left their villages for war at that season of the year. There was, therefore, less danger in the winter, and the settlers went abroad and visited each other much more frequently than in the summer.
Robert Warth killed.
On the 10th of May, 1794, Robert Warth, who lived in Fort Harmer, was engaged at work, chopping on a log, to make rails for a fence in a new clearing, about three hun- dred yards from the garrison, and near the spot where Judge Fearing built his dwelling house. Two Indians had secreted themselves behind some brush, near the outer edge of the field, in the margin of the woods, and had probably seen him at work from the hill side. He had been chop- ping but a short time, when they rose up from their ambush, and shot him through the body. B. J. Gilman was only a few rods from him, but nearer to the river, over- seeing the work. The Indians did not see him until both
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PACKET MAIL BOATS.
had fired at Warth, otherwise they might have shot him. They now gave chase to Gilman, trying to cut off his retreat to the fort, but being swift of foot escaped. John Warth, one of the spies, and brother to Robert, hearing the firing, rushed out of the fort with his rifle, as the Indians were ascending the steep side of the hill that overlooks the gar- rison, swinging the bloody scalp, and uttering their cries of victory. He sprang on to a log, which gave him a better view of them, and fired. The distance was more than two hundred yards, and yet it is supposed he hit one of them, as they ceased their shouts, while one was seen to falter, and with difficulty ascended the hill. A few years after, the bones of an Indian were found walled up in a small grotto, under a rock, about two miles from this place, near the path by which they retreated, which there was good rea- son to think were those of the wounded Indian. Mr. Warth was the last victim to savage hatred near Marietta.
Packet mail boats.
Since the establishment of military posts on the Ohio river, by Congress, no regular intercourse was kept up with them by the government. Mail routes could not be con- ducted beyond Pittsburgh. All communications of impor- tance were made through expresses, either on land through the wilderness, by way of Virginia and Kentucky, or by transient boats on the Ohio river. As this mode was slow, uncertain, and expensive, Colonel Timothy Pickering, the postmaster general, deemed it advisable to establish a more regular and certain mode, by which to communicate with General Wayne, and the army on the western fron- tier. The first mail route across the Alleghany mountains was ordered by Congress, in September, 1786, from Alexandria, in Virginia, to Pittsburgh, by way of Leesburgh, Winchester, Fort Cumberland and Bedford; also from Philadelphia to the town of Bedford, and thence to Pitts- burgh. On the 20th of May, 1788, Congress resolved that
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PACKET MAIL BOATS.
the postmaster general be directed to employ posts, for the regular transport of the mail, between the city of Philadel- phia and the town of Pittsburgh, by the way of Lancaster, York, Carlisle, Chambersburgh, and Bedford, and that the mail be dispatched once in each fortnight, from the post offices, respectively. (Journal of Congress.)
In April, 1794, with the aid and advise of Colonel O'Hara, army contractor, and Major Isaac Craig of Pittsburgh, a plan was devised of transporting the mail in light, strong boats, on the Ohio river; and put into operation early in the following June. These boats were about twenty-four feet in length, built after the model of a whale boat, and steered with a rudder. They were manned by five boatmen, viz. a coxswain and four oarsmen. The men were all armed, and their pieces kept dry in snug boxes along side their seats. The whole could be covered with a tarpaulin in wet weather, which each boat carried for that purpose. For cooking and sleeping, they generally landed on the beach at the head of an island, where they would be less exposed to a surprise, or attack by the Indians. In ascen- ding, as well as in descending, the boat was kept nearly in the middle of the river. The distance traveled against the current averaged about thirty miles a day, and double that down stream.
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