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 31
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Also, Isaac Barker, wife, and eight children, from near New Bedford, Massachusetts. Michael, Isaac, Joseph, Wil- liam, and Timothy ; Anna, Rhoda, and Nancy. All of whom subsequently married and raised families, in Athens county, where Mr. Barker settled after the war.
382
NAMES OF FAMILIES AT THE "CASTLE."
Also, Daniel Cogswell, wife, and five children. John, Abigail, Peleg, Job, and Daniel. He was noticed for his eccentricity and love of fun. Settled after the war, below Little Hockhocking, where the children now live.
No. 3. Captain Jonathan Stone, wife, and three children, from Massachusetts, viz : Benjamin Franklin,'Samuel, and Rufus Putnam -two others born after the war. He lived in the upper room, while the lower was used for a work shop. Benjamin Franklin settled in Belpre, where the children now live ; Samuel in Licking county, and Rufus Putnam near McConnellsville, on a farm, where his chil- dren now reside.
No. 4. Colonel Nathaniel Cushing, wife and six chil- dren, from Boston, Massachusetts, viz : Nathaniel, Henry, Varnum, Thomas, Sally and Elizabeth. These all married and settled in Ohio. Three other daughters were born after the war.
Also, Captain Jonathan Devoll, wife, and six children, lived in the upper room of the same building, from How- land's ferry, Rhode Island, viz : Henry, Charles, Barker, Francis, Sally and Nancy, with a nephew, Christopher Devoll, whom he adopted when a child. He was the son of Silas Devoll, captain of marines on board the ship Al- fred, under Commodore Abraham Whipple. He was taken prisoner, and died in the prison ship, at New York. Chris- topher acted as a spy for some months near the close of the war. After the peace, he returned to Rhode Island, and followed the sea.
No. 5, contained three families, viz: Isaac Pierce, wife, and three children, Samuel, Joseph, and Phebe. Joseph settled in Dayton, Ohio, and held some of the most respon- sible stations ; Samuel became a sailor; Phebe married and settled also in Dayton. Nathaniel Little, wife, and one child; he settled in Newport, where some of the children now live. Joseph Barker, wife, and one child; Joseph, born in Belpre ; after the war he settled on a farm, six miles up
383
NAMES OF FAMILIES AT THE "CASTLE."
the Muskingum. He held some of the highest offices in the county ; raised a numerous family of children, who rank among the most useful and intelligent citizens in the country.
No. 6. Major Nathan Goodale, wife, and seven children, Betsy, Cynthia, Sally, Susan, Henrietta, Timothy, and Lin- coln. Henrietta died of the small pox; Timothy was a young man, and served a part of the time as a ranger. He died soon after the war. The daughters all married and settled in Ohio. Lincoln studied medicine, but afterwards entered into trade and settled in Columbus, where he became distinguished for his wealth, many amiable qualities, and especially his affectionate kindness to his more dependent relatives.
No. 7, in the south-west corner of the garrison, contained three families, viz: A. W. Putnam, wife, and one child. William Pitt, born in the garrison ; he married the daughter of Daniel Loring, Esq. Also, D. Loring, wife, and seven children, Israel, Rice, and Jesse, Luba, Bathsheba, Charlotte, and Polly; Israel was a young man, and after the war set- tled near Gibson's Fort, Miss., where he became very wealthy in lands; Rice and Jesse settled in Belpre, on farms; Rice held the office of associate judge of the court of common pleas, and Jesse was sheriff of the county several years. The daughters all married and settled in Ohio, where their descendants now live. Major Oliver Rice lived in the family of Mr. Loring. Captain Benjamin Miles, wife, and five children, lived in the same block house, from Rutland, Mass., viz: Benjamin Buckminster and Hubbard, twin brothers, William, Tappan, and Polly. Benjamin Buckminster settled in Athens, and followed merchandise, Tappan became a preacher of the gospel; Hubbard settled in Illinois ; and William and Polly lived in Belpre, all married, with nume- rous descendants.
No. 8, contained Griffin Green, Esq., wife, and four children, from Rhode Island; Richard, Philip, Griffin, and
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384
NAMES OF FAMILIES AT THE " CASTLE."
Susan, all married and settled in Ohio, but the younger son. Phebe Green, a niece, lived with them, and married Captain Jonathan Haskell, of the army, and settled in Belpre, on a farm. Their descendants live in this county.
No. 9, contained two families, viz: John Rouse, wife, and eight children, from Rochester, Mass .; Michael, Bath- sheba, Cynthia, Betsy, Ruth, Stephen, Robert, and Barker. The latter were twins. Robert died of the scarlet fever. These children married and settled in this county ; Cynthia to the Honorable Paul Fearing, and Betsy to Colonel Levi Barber. These men were highly respected, and held some of the most honorable posts, both of them having been members of congress. Their descendants are among the most respectable citizens of the state. Also, Major Robert Bradford, wife, and three or four children, from Plymouth, Mass. Several of these children died of scarlet fever; others were born after the war and now live in Ohio.
No. 10. Captain John Levins, wife, and six children, from Killingly, Connecticut, viz : Joseph, a young man, and John, a boy of ten years, Nancy, Fanny, Esther, and Matilda. Nancy married to Jonathan Plumer; Betsy, to Dr. Mathews, of Putnam, Ohio ; Esther, to Mr. Sandford, of Alexandria, D. C .; Fanny, to Joseph Lincoln, while in garrison-he was for many years a merchant in Marietta, and an excellent man-and Matilda to John White. Also, Captain William Dana, wife, and eight children, from Watertown, Mass .; Luther and William were young men, Edmond, Stephen, John, Charles, and Augustus, Betsy, Mary and Fanny ; Au- gustus and Fanny were born in the garrison; all these married and settled in Washington County, some in Belpre, and some in Newport, which was a colony from Belpre ; Charles and John settled in Mississippi.
1
Between No. 10 and No. 11, there was a long, low build- . ing, called the barrack, in which a small detachment of United States troops was quartered.
In No. 11, Mrs. Dunham, the widow of Daniel Dunham,
385
NAMES OF FAMILIES AT THE "CASTLE."
who died in 1791, with one son and two daughters. Simeon Wright married one of the girls, and lived with her. She was the mother of Persis, killed by the Indians. Also, Captain Israel Stone, wife, and ten children, from Rutland, Massachusetts, viz: Sardine, a young man, Israel, Jasper, Augustus, B. Franklin, and Columbus; Betsy married to T. Guthrie, of Newbury ; Matilda to Stephen Smith, of Rain- bow; Lydia to Ezra Hoit, mouth of Big Hockhocking; Polly to John Dodge, of Waterford; and Harriet, born in the castle, to James Noles of Newbury. The sons and their descendants settled and live in Washington county.
In No. 12, lived Benjamin Patterson, wife, and six child- ren; three of the rangers, or spies, who were single men, boarded with him, viz: John Shepherd, George Kerr and Mathew Kerr. This man, Patterson, served as a spy three years for the settlements at Belpre, and then moved down the river. He came from Wyoming, in Pennsylvania.
" At the period of the controversy between the states of Pennsylvania and Connecticut, relative to their conflicting claims to land on the Susquehanna river, Congress ap- pointed Timothy Pickering, of Salem, Massachusetts, a man of Spartan integrity, to go upon the ground and, with others, try to adjust the difficulty. While there, this same B. Pat- terson, with two other men, took Mr. Pickering from his bed at night, and conveyed him three or four miles into the woods, and bound him fast to a white oak sapling, and left him there to die of starvation. After two or three days, Patterson's conscience so worried him that he relented, and, unknown to his companions, he went and unbound him, setting him at liberty. For this outrage he left Wyoming, and fled to the state of New York; and from thence, after a time, to Marietta. It was not uncommon for such persons to visit the new settlements, but finding their characters after a time following on after them, they proceeded further down the river." (MSS. notes of Judge Barker.)
Benoni Hurlburt, wife, and four children, lived in the same 25
386
NAMES OF FAMILIES AT THE "CASTLE."
house at the time of his death. His family settled in Ames- town, Athens county, where his descendants now live.
No. 13. Colonel Alexander Oliver, wife, and eleven child- ren, from the west part of Massachusetts, viz: Launcelot, a young man, Alexander, John and David. They settled in Ohio. Two of Alexander's sons are now preachers of the gospel in the Methodist church. David studied medicine, and settled in the western part of Ohio. The daughters were named, and married, as follows, viz: Lucretia, to Levi Munsel, and lived several years in Marietta; his son, Lean- der, was the first man, born in Ohio, who held a seat in the legislature. Betsy, to Honorable Daniel Symmes, of Cin- cinnati; he was the first register in the United States land office at that place. Sally, married to Major Austin, of the United States army, and settled in Cincinnati. Lucretia, to George Putnam, son of Colonel Israel Putnam. Mehala, to Calvin Shepherd, son of Colonel Shepherd, of Marietta. Electa, to O. M. Spencer, of Cincinnati. He was cashier of the Miami Exporting Company Bank, and his son, R. O. Spencer, is said to be the first preacher in the Methodist church who was born in Ohio. He is now an elder. Mary, to Oliver Wing, of Adams, in this county. The descend- ants of Colonel Oliver rank with the most active, useful, and wealthy citizens of Ohio.
In No. 13, also lived Colonel Daniel Bent, wife, and four children, from Rutland, Massachusetts, viz : Nahum, Daniel, Dorcas, and one daughter married to Joel Oaks of Newbury. Dorcas married William Dana of Newport. Some of their descendants are living in this county, and some in Mis- souri. Silas Bent, Esq., the oldest son of the colonel, and wife, also lived there with two or three children. He was one of the judges of the court of common pleas, ap- pointed by Governor St. Clair. After the purchase of Louisiana, he moved to St. Louis, and was employed in surveying the United States lands. One of his sons became the head of a fur trader's company, and established a fort
387
UNMARRIED MEN AT THE "CASTLE."
high up on the Arkansas river. Elijah Pixly, wife, and two children, from Wyoming. He served a part of the time as drummer for the garrison, and was a celebrated maker of drums, using for this purpose a block of sassafras wood, which made a very light and neat article.
Several other families lived in Farmers' Castle for a short time and then proceeded down the river ; but the above list contains nearly all the permanent and substantial heads of families who settled in Belpre in 1789 and 1790.
Joshua Fleehart, wife, and four children, lived in a small cabin east of block house No. 3. He was a noted hunter, and supplied the garrison with fresh meat. Soon after the war closed, he moved nearer to the frontiers, where he could follow trapping and hunting to better advantage. One of his hunting adventures is related in the transactions of the year 1794.
A list of the unmarried men at Farmers' Castle.
Jonathan Waldo, from Pomfret in Connecticut ; Daniel Mayo from Boston, Massachusetts ; Jonathan Baldwin, libe- ral education, from New England, kept a school in block house No. 3; settled at Waterford. Cornelius Delano, from Massachusetts ; acted as a spy two or three years, and married a daughter of Major Goodale. Joel Oaks, from Con- necticut, acted as a spy. James Caldwell, from Wheeling, Virginia, also acted as a spy. Wanton Casey, married Betsy Goodale, and returned after the war to Bristol, Rhode Island. Stephen Guthrie and Truman Guthrie settled in Newbury. Captain Ingersol, from Boston, to which place he returned at the close of the war. Ezra Philips, Stephen Smith, Howell Bull, from New England, an active intelli- gent man. After the war he settled in Natchez, Mississippi, and engaged in trade. Samuel Cushing, from New Bedford, Massachusetts, settled near Natchez and became a rich cotton planter. William and John Smith, brothers, from Rhode Island. William settled on a farm below Marietta,
388
KITT PUTNAM.
and was living in 1845. Jonas Davis, from New England, was killed by the Indians. Doctor Samuel Barnes, a phy- sician, from Massachusetts. Married a daughter of Major Goodale, and settled near Athens, where he died. His widow subsequently married to J. Kilburn of Worthington, and is still living.
Within the walls of Farmers' Castle, there were assem- bled about two hundred and twenty souls. Twenty-eight of these were heads of families. A number of those enu- merated as children were males above sixteen years, and enrolled for military duty. Others were young women from sixteen to twenty years of age. Among the other inmates of the garrison the name of Christopher Putnam, or " Kitt," as he was familiarly called, must not be forgotten. He was a colored boy, of sixteen or eighteen years of age, who had been the personal or body servant of General Israel Put- nam, during the latter years of his life, and after his death lived with his son, Colonel Israel Putnam. In the fall of 1789, Colonel Putnam came out to Marietta with his son, Aaron Waldo, and brought Kitt with him. In the autumn of 1790, the Colonel returned to Connecticut for his family. That winter the war broke out, and he did not move them on until 1795. Kitt remained at Belpre with Mr. Putnam, in the garrison, and was a great favorite with the boys. He was their chosen leader in all their athletic sports for his wonderful activity, and much beloved for his kind and cheerful disposition. When abroad in the fields cultivating or planting their crops, he was one of their best hands, either for work or to stand as a sentry. On these occasions he sometimes took his station in the lower branches of a tree, where he could have a wider range of vision, and give early notice of the approach of danger.
Under the watchful vigilance of Kitt, all felt safe at their work. After he was twenty one years old and became a free man, he lived with Captain Devoll, on the Muskingum, and assisted in tending the floating mill, and clearing the
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389
SPIES OR RANGERS.
land on the farm. At the election for delegates, under the territory, to form a constitution for Ohio, Kitt was a voter ; and was probably the first and only black who ever exer- cised the elective franchise in Washington county, as after the adoption of that article, all colored men were disfran- chised. He died about the year 1802, much lamented for his many personal good qualities and industrious habits.
Some readers may be led to ask of what use, or what profit, can there be in reciting the above long list of settlers ? It may be answered, that to most inquiring minds, it will be a subject of deep interest to know the names and read a brief description of the persons who braved the dangers of the savages, and the privations of the wilderness; who first opened the forest of Ohio to the light of the sun ; and led the way in the cultivation and civilization of the fair valleys of the Muskingum and Ohio, now peopled by more than a million of souls. In the absence of all notices of births, or the names of emigrants, in our township or county records, these names may be highly useful to the future biographer or historian, in tracing out the origin and pedigree of some worthy citizens, or the date of their an- cestors' settlement in Ohio ; and although the world is full of books, it is to be hoped that this one will not be the least interesting among them, especially to the people of the south-east portion of Ohio.
Of the spies or rangers.
To the vigilance and courage of the men engaged in this service, may in part be attributed the fact, that so few losses were sustained by the inhabitants, during the Indian war, compared with that of most other border settlements. This species of troops were early employed by the Ohio company, at the suggestion of General Rufus Putnam, who had been familiar with their use in the old French war, and subsequently taken into the service of the United States. The duty of the spies was to scour the country every day
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SPIES OR RANGERS.
the distance of eight or ten miles around the garrisons, making a circuit of twenty five or thirty miles, and ac- complishing their task generally by three or four o'clock in the afternoon. They left the garrison at day light, always two in company, traveling rapidly over the hills, and stopping to examine more carefully such places as it was probable the Indians would pass over, in making their approach to the settlements, guided in this respect by the direction of the ridges, or the water courses. Their circuit in Belpre was over the hills on to the waters of the Little Hockhocking river, and up the easterly branches across to the Ohio, striking this stream a few miles above the entrance of the Little Kenawha, and thence by the deserted farms down to the garrison. The spies from Waterford made a traverse, that intersected or joined their trail, forming a cordon, across which the enemy could rarely pass without their signs being discovered. While they were abroad the inhabitants, at work in their fields or traveling between the stations, felt a degree of safety they could not have done, but for their confidence in the sagacity and faithfulness of the spies. They were gen- erally men in the prime of life, of active, powerful frames, and tried courage. Their dress in summer was similar to that worn by the Indians. Their pay was five shillings, or eighty four cents, a day, as appears from the old pay rolls. They were amenable to the commanding officer of the sta- tion, but under the direct control of Colonel Sproat, who was employed by the United States. They had signs known to themselves, by which they recognized a ranger from an Indian, even when painted like one.
Their watchfulness, no doubt, saved numbers of the in- habitants from the rifle of the savage, while several of them lost their own lives in this hazardous employment. At cer- tain seasons of the year, when their services were not con- stantly required in the woods, as during a spell of severe cold weather, they sometimes all met together from the
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391
SMALL POX.
different stations, and amused themselves for a few days, at one of the garrisons, especially at Christmas or new year, playing at foot-ball, wrestling, and running, in all of which they could display their activity and vast muscular powers to advantage. Shooting at a mark was another pastime in which they took great pleasure, and showed wonderful skill. The men who served at Belpre, but not all at one time, two or three being the proportion for one garrison, were Corne- lius Delano, Joel Oaks, Benjamin Patterson, Joshua Flee- hart, George Kerr, John Shepherd, and James Caldwell. The two first were New England men ; the other five had been brought up on the frontiers.
Small pox.
In September, 1793, the small pox was introduced within Farmers' Castle, whose walls could not protect them from this insidious foe, by B. Patterson, one of the spies. He was at Marietta, where it prevailed, and thinking himself exposed to the contagion, was inoculated by Dr. Barnes, who was then there, and engaged him to inoculate the rest of his family.
Great was the consternation of the married females and children, when the news of the small pox being among them was made known. Their sufferings and losses from the scarlatina were still fresh in their minds, and the dreaded name of small pox seemed like the final sealing of their calamities. Few if any of the inhabitants, except the old officers and soldiers of the army, had gone through with the disease. A meeting was directly called of the inhabitants, and it was voted, as there was now no chance of escaping it, cooped up as they were in the narrow walls of a garrison, to send to Marietta for Dr. True, to come down and inoculate them in their own dwellings. The doctor accepted of the invitation, and Farmers' Castle be- came one great hospital, containing beneath each roof more or less persons sick with this loathsome disease. The treat-
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DOMESTIC MANUFACTURES.
ment of Doctor True was very successful, and out of nearly a hundred patients not one died. A few years after this period, that blessed prophylactic, vaccination, was discov- ered by Jenner, and no one now need to die with small pox. Of those under the care of Dr. Barnes, in Major Goodale's garrison, a colony which moved out of Farmers' Castle in the spring, two or three died; among them was a child of Patterson. The cause of its fatality was the failure of those first inoculated to take the disease, probably from deterio- rated matter; and several took it the natural way, so that on the whole they got through with this pest very favorably.
Domestic manufactures.
Many families who had been brought up on the frontiers, depended entirely on the skins of animals killed in the chase, for clothing. Whole households from the oldest to the youngest, were clad in dressed deer skins. Some of them possessed great skill in making them soft and pliable, equal to the finest cloth. Before the introduction of sheep, buck- skin pantaloons were in general use by all the farmers' boys. The New England settlers, with most of the frontier inhabi- tants, made cloth of various materials. For the first two or three years, hemp was raised in small quantities ; water rotted, and manufactured into cloth by the industrious females of the garrison. Flax was also raised. "In the spring of 1790, Captain Dana sowed a piece of flax, pulled it early in June, while it was in the blossom, water rotted it in a swamp near the river, had it dressed out and spun in the family, and wove into substantial cloth by his son Wil- liam. It was made into shirts and trowsers for the boys, and worn at the celebration of the 4th of July, in Belpre ; showing an activity and dispatch which few at this day can equal."* Nearly every family had their spinning-wheels and loom. With these the girls and young women used to
(*MSS. notes of Judge Barker.)
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DOMESTIC MANUFACTURES.
congregate in companies of ten or fifteen, in the spacious rooms of the block houses, and cheer each other at their labors, with the song and sprightly conversation.
They used also to stir up their ambition with trials of skill, in spinning the largest number of skeins in a given period of time.
For the first few years cotton was raised in small quan- tities and manufactured into stockings, or cloth, with hemp or flax. The rich, virgin soil of the bottoms, and the long, warm summer of this climate, caused it to flourish and be nearly as productive as it now is in Tennessee. After a few years, the early frosts of autumn destroyed much of it before the floss was formed, and taught them that this was not the proper climate for cotton. Captain Devoll invented a machine with rollers which separated the seeds from the cotton in quite an admirable manner, but not quite equal to Whitney's celebrated gin. He also constructed a mill, with wooden rollers, worked by oxen, for crushing the green stalks of Indian corn, from the juice of which a rich syrup or molasses was made in considerable quantities. When carefully purified it answered well for the sweetening of puddings, pies, &c.
About the year 1800, Dr. Spencer, of Vienna, Wood county, Virginia, raised in his garden cotton, the stems of which were eight or ten feet high, and produced forty pounds of long, fine cotton in the seed on three square rods of ground. It was planted early in April, by a colored woman who had been familiar with its culture in the south. It must be recollected that cotton at this period was worth from forty to fifty cents a pound, and was just coming into culti- vation as a staple of the southern states.
Rice, of the variety called "upland," was also raised in small quantities, during the early years of the settlements ; showing that this climate could produce several articles now brought from abroad, should the necessities of the peo- ple ever require it.
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DOMESTIC MANUFACTURES.
Silk worms were raised by the females in General Put- nam's family, and the cocoons reeled and spun into strong sewing thread as early as the year 1800. They were fed on the leaves of the white mulberry, raised from seeds brought from Connecticut. Some of the trees are yet standing.
Sheep were not introduced until after the war, in the year 1797, or '98; the first came from Pennsylvania. For more than twenty years, nearly all the cloth worn in the families of farmers, and many in town, for every day dresses, was made in the houses of the wearers, by their wives and daughters. Necessity, as well as economy, led to this do- mestic manufacture. Foreign cloth was too dear for common use, and only worn for nice dresses. This kind of employ- ment conduced greatly to the health of the females, and such diseases as curved spine, dyspepsia, or consumption, were very rare, and almost unknown.
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