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 32
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395
DIVISION OF THE " CASTLE."
CHAPTER XIX.
Captivity of Major Goodale; his death .- Amusements in Farmers' Castle. - Perpetual motion .- First wheat in Ohio .- Adventure of Joshua Fleehart. - Value of salt .- Scioto salines discovered .- Griffin Greene .- Caution of Ohio company, as to salt lands. - Progress of the settlement .- Murder of Armstrong's family .- Jonas Davis killed .- Pursuit of the Indians. - John James .- Peace. - Leave their garrisons .- First orchards .- Character of the settlers.
Division of the inmates of Farmers' Castle.
EARLY in the spring of 1793, the large community in Far- mer's Castle found themselves so much straitened for room, and withal so inconvenient cultivating their lands at such a distance from their dwellings, that they concluded to divide their forces and erect two additional garrisons, to be occu- pied by the families whose lands lay in their vicinity. Ac- cordingly one containing two block houses was built, half a mile below, inclosed with palisades, and called " Goodale's garrison," and one on the bank of the Ohio, two miles above, called " Stone's garrison," and the families moved into them that spring. The upper one contained four block houses, a school house, and several log cabins, accommo- dating about ten families, and the lower one six. Wayne's army was now beginning to assemble on the frontiers, and the sight of numerous boats, almost daily descending the river with provisions and detachments of troops, whose martial music enlivened the solitary banks of the Ohio, re- moved their apprehensions of a general attack from the Indians, so depressing after the defeat of General St. Clair.
396
CAPTIVITY OF MAJOR GOODALE.
Captivity of Major Goodale.
On the 1st day of March, 1793, the colony met with the most serious loss it had yet felt from their Indian enemies, in the captivity and ultimate death of Major Goodale. On that day he was at work in a new clearing on his farm, distant about forty or fifty rods from the garrison, hauling rail timber with a yoke of oxen from the edge of the woods which bordered the new field. It lay back of the first bot- tom on the edge of the plain, in open view of the station. An Irishman, named John Magee, was at work grubbing or digging out the roots of the bushes and small saplings on the slope of the plain as it descends on to the bottom, but out of sight of Major Goodale. The Indians made so little noise in their assault, that John did not hear them. The first notice of the disaster was the view of the oxen seen from the garrison, standing quietly in the field with no one near them. After an hour or more, they were observed still in the same place, when suspicion arose that some disaster had happened to Mr. Goodale. One of the men was called, and sent up to learn what had happened.
John was still busy at his work, unconscious of any alarm. In the edge of the woods there was a thin layer of snow, on which he soon saw moccasin tracks. It was now evident that Indians had been there, and had taken him prisoner, as no blood was seen on the ground. They followed the trail some distance but soon lost it. The next day a party of rangers went out, but returned after a fruitless search. The river at this time was nearly at full bank, and less dan- ger was apprehended on that account; it was also early in the season for Indians to approach the settlements. The uncertainty of his condition left room for the imagination to fancy every thing horrible in his fate; more terrible to bear than the actual knowledge of his death. Great was the distress of Mrs. Goodale and the children, overwhelmed with this unexpected calamity. His loss threw a deep gloom
397
CAPTIVITY OF MAJOR GOODALE.
over the whole community, as no man was more highly valued; neither was there any one whose councils and in- fluence were equally prized by the settlement. He was in fact the life and soul of this isolated community, and left a vacancy that no other man could fill. " His memory was for many years fresh and green in the hearts of his cotem- porary pioneers, now all passed away, and is still cherish- ed with respect and affection by their descendants."
At the treaty of 1795, when the captives were given up by the Indians, some intelligence was obtained of nearly all the persons taken prisoners from this part of Ohio, but none of the fate of Major Goodale. About the year 1799, Colonel Forrest Meeker, since a citizen of Delaware county, and well acquainted with the family of Major Goodale, and the circumstances of this event, when at Detroit, on business, fell in company with three Indians, who related to him the particulars of their taking a man prisoner, at Belpre, in the spring of 1793. Their description of his personal appear- ance left no doubt on the mind of Colonel Meeker of its be- ing Major Goodale.
They stated that a party of eight Indians were watching the settlement for mischief; and as they lay concealed on the side of the hill back of the plain, they heard a man driv- ing or " talking to his oxen," as they expressed it. After carefully examining his movements, they saw him leave his work, and go to the garrison, in the middle of the day. Know- ing that he would return soon, they secreted themselves in the edge of the woods, and while he was occupied with his work, sprang out and seized upon him before he was aware of their presence, or could make any defense, threatening him with death, if he made a noise or resisted. After se- curing him with thongs, they commenced a hasty retreat, intending to take him to Detroit, and get a large ransom. Somewhere on the Miami, or at Sundusky, he fell sick, and could not travel; and that he finally died of this sickness.
A Mrs. Whittaker, the wife of a man who had a store,
39S
AMUSEMENTS IN FARMERS' CASTLE.
and traded with the Indians at Sandusky, has since related the same account. That the Indians left him at her house, where he died of a disease like a pleurisy, without having received any very ill usage from his captors, other than the means necessary to prevent his escape. This is probably a correct account of his fate; and although his death was a melancholy one, among strangers, and far away from the sympathy and care of his friends, yet it is a relief to know that he did not perish at the stake, or by the tomahawk of the savages.
Amusements in Farmers' Castle.
During the long and tedious confinement of the inhabit- ants to their garrison, various were the modes sought out to make the time pass as happily as their circumstances would allow. The sports of the young men and boys con- sisted of games at ball, foot races, wrestling, and leaping, at all which the larger number were adepts. Foot races were especially encouraged, that it might give them an ad- vantage in their contests with the Indians. Those of a more refined character, in which both sexes could partici- pate, consisted chiefly in dancing. Parties of young people from Campus Martius and Fort Harmer used to come down as often as four or five times a year, and join in their festi- vities. These visits were made by water, in a barge or large row boat, attended by a guard of soldiers from the fort. They brought musicians with them, who were attached to the military service. A player on the violin, from Gallipolis, named Vansan, one of the French emigrants, was celebrated for his musical talents, and always accompanied the young men from that place in their visits to Farmers' Castle, where they were very welcome visitors. It is true, they did not abound in nice cakes and rich wines ; but they treated their guests with the best they had, while the hilarity and cheer- ful looks of the company made amends for all besides.
The garrison at Belpre contained about twenty young
399
AMUSEMENTS IN FARMERS' CASTLE.
females in the prime of life, with fine persons, agreeable manners, and cultivated minds. A dangerous recreation of the younger girls was, to steal out of the castle in the pleasant moonlight evenings of summer, and taking pos- session of a canoe, push it silently up the shore of the Ohio, for a mile or more ; then paddle out into the middle of the river, and float gently down with the current. Some favorite singer then struck up a lively song, in which they all joined their voices, making sweet melody on the calm waters of the " Belle riviere," greatly to the delight of the young men and guards on the watch towers, but much to the alarm of their mothers, who were always in fear of the Indians. But their young and cheerful hearts thought little of the danger, but much of the amusement on the water, and a brief escape from the confinement within the walls of the garrison.
Promenading up and down the smooth broad avenue be- tween the rows of block houses, about eighty rods in extent, was also another favorite summer evening recreation for the young people, while the elder ones gathered in cheerful groups at each other's dwellings, to chat on their own affairs, or the news of the day, collected as it might be from the passing boats, or the rangers in their visits to the other gar- risons. Newspapers they had few or none of, until some years after the war, the first printed in Marietta being in 1802, with the exception of a chance one sent out from a friend east of the mountains, by some moving family. After a mail route was established in 1794, they were more common. Early in autumn, parties of the young folks visited the island, on which several families resided, for the purpose of gathering grapes, papaws, nuts, &c. On the heads of the islands, at that day, there grew a very fine, rich, red grape, said to have been scattered there from seeds left by the early French voyagers; it is, however, probable they were a native variety, fitted to grow in a sandy soil. The ground beneath the lofty trees was but little encum-
400
PERPETUAL MOTION.
bered with bushes, and afforded beautiful walks, where there was no danger from the lurking savages, whose swarthy visages were mingled more or less with the thoughts of their most cheerful hours.
The 4th of July was regularly celebrated in a bowery within the walls of the garrison, where the old officers and soldiers of the revolution again recounted the trials and hardships of that eventful period, over a flowing bowl of whisky punch, while the report of their little noisy howitz awoke the echoes among the neighboring hills, at the anouncement of each patriotic toast. A celebration of this glorious day without gun powder or punch, would at that time have been called a burlesque.
Perpetual motion.
This desideratum in mechanics, so long the study and perplexity of many ingenious minds, has long since been abandoned as untenable by the true philosophers of science. Nevertheless, it still continues to have its advocates, and sincere believers in its practicability. During the early period of the confinement of the settlers to their garrison, Griffin Green, Esq., a man of great ingenuity and inventive powers, undertook to build a machine which should possess the principle of perpetual motion. He supposed it might be applied to the propelling of boats on the western rivers, and to the turning of mills. It consisted of a large wheel, with projecting arms ; along the side of each was a groove or bog, containing a leaden ball of one or two pounds weight. As the wheel rotated on its axis, the balls rolled out to the extremity of the descending arms, while on the opposite side, as they rose, the balls descended to the foot of the arms, thus lessening the weight on the ascending side, and increasing it on the descending. When put in motion, it revolved on its axis very beautifully, and con- tinued to move for some time; and could all the friction have been avoided, and the resistance of the atmosphere, it
401
FIRST WHEAT IN OHIO.
might have been applied to some useful purpose; but with these two impediments it after a while ceased to move, and consequently was very reluctantly abandoned.
The inventor, however, had this to console him, that it approached as near to perpetual motion as it was in the power of man to create. The machinery was constructed by Captain Devoll, and was greatly admired for the perfec- tion and beauty of its workmanship. It was several months in building, and served as a fruitful source of conversation for the wise and knowing ones of the garrison.
First wheat in Ohio.
Captain Trueman Guthrie, from Connecticut, sowed the first wheat ever committed to the earth in Ohio. He came to Marietta late in the fall of 1788, and brought with him a small parcel of wheat. Soon after his arrival, a piece of land of a few square rods, near Campus Martius, was inclosed with a brush fence, sowed with wheat, and covered with the hoe. It produced a fair crop, and proved that the soil and climate of the new purchase were congenial to its nature. Very little wheat was raised until after the close of the war.
Adventure of Joshua Flechart with the Indians, in the winter of 1793-4.
This man was born on the frontiers of Pennsylvania, and from his boyhood had been brought up in the woods, know- ing as little of letters as the red man of the forest, whom he greatly resembled in habits and instincts. His frame was of the largest size, over six feet in hight, with stout, muscu- lar limbs. His face was broad, with high cheek bones; eyes small, deep set, and shaded with thick, bushy brows. He had three brothers, equally gigantic with himself, and two sisters, full six feet in hight. Among all the back- woodsmen, he was most noted for his tact in following the trail of an Indian, or a wild beast, through the pathless
26
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402
FLEEHART'S ADVENTURES.
forest. By long practice and patient observation, aided by a natural intuition, he had arrived at a degree of skill in this hunter's art that seemed almost superhuman. His dress was very similar to that of the Indians, with mocca- sins and leather leggins. The rifle he carried was of the largest caliber and, like himself, unusually long, and so heavy that few men could hold it steadily at arm's length. In his powerful grasp this gave it great steadiness, and en- abled him to strike a small object, at a hundred yards dis- tance, with wonderful accuracy. At the breaking out of the war, he was living, with a wife and four children, on the island, since called Blennerhasset's.
Being favorably known as an expert hunter, he was invited to come and live at Farmers' Castle, and supply them with meat from the woods. He accordingly came over, and lived in a small cabin, preferring it to the larger block houses. In the most dangerous times, he would hunt fearlessly in the adjacent forest; and if there was an alarm given, while he was inside the garrison, that Indians had been seen near, or were expected to attack it, he would take his trusty rifle and sally out into the woods, to watch their motions and get a chance to kill some of them; saying that he could do more service there, and felt more free and courageous when behind a tree, fighting the Indians in their own way, than when confined to the shelter of a block house. He was also a thorough adept in the art of trapping, know- ing, as if by instinct, the haunts of the beaver, and familiar with its habits, as well as with all the baits and essences most likely to lure it within the jaws of his traps.
Having became tired of the sameness of garrison life, and panting for that freedom among the woods and hills to which he had always been accustomed, late in the fall of 1793, he took his canoe, rifle, traps, and blanket, with no one to accompany him, leaving even his faithful dog in the garrison with his family. As he was going into a danger- ous neighborhood, he was fearful lest the voice of his dog
403
FLEEHART'S ADVENTURES.
might betray him. With a daring and intrepidity which few men possess, he pushed his canoe up the Scioto river a distance of fifteen or twenty miles, into the Indian country, amidst their best hunting grounds for the bear and the bea- ver, where no white man had dared to venture. These two were the main object of his pursuit, and the hills of Brush creek were said to abound in bear, and the small streams that fell into the Scioto were well suited to the haunts of the beaver.
The spot chosen for his winter's residence was within twenty-five or thirty miles of the Indian town of Chillicothe, but as they seldom go out far to hunt in the winter, he had little to fear from their interruption. For ten or twelve weeks he trapped and hunted in this solitary region unmo- lested ; luxuriating on the roasted tails of the beaver, and drinking the oil of the bear, an article of diet which is con- sidered by the children of the forest as giving health to the body, with strength and activity to the limbs. His success had equalled his most sanguine expectations, and the winter passed away so quietly and so pleasantly, that he was hardly aware of its progress. About the middle of Febru- ary, he began to make up the peltry he had captured into packages, and to load his canoe with the proceeds of his winter's hunt, which for safety had been secreted in the willows, a few miles below the little bark hut in which he had lived. The day before that which he had fixed on for his departure, as he was returning to his camp, just at eve- ning, Fleehart's acute ear caught the report of a rifle in the direction of the Indian towns, but at so remote a distance, that none but a backwoodsman could have distinguished the sound. This hastened his preparations for decamping. Nevertheless he slept quietly, but rose the following morn- ing before the dawn; cooked and ate his last meal in the little hut to which he had become quite attached.
The sun had just risen, while he was sitting on the trunk of a fallen tree, examining the priming and lock of his gun,
404
FLEEHART'S ADVENTURES.
casually casting a look up the river bank, he saw an Indian slowly approaching with his eyes intently fixed on the ground, carefully inspecting the tracks of his moccasins, left in the soft earth as he returned to his hut the evening before. He instantly cocked his gun, stepped behind a tree, and waited until the Indian came within the sure range of his shot. He then fired, and the Indian fell. Rushing from his cover on his prostrate foe, he was about to apply the scalping knife; but seeing the shining silver broaches, and broad bands on his arms, he fell to cutting them loose, and tucking them into the bosom of his hunting shirt. While busily occupied in securing the spoils, the sharp crack of a rifle and the passage of the ball through the bullet pouch at his side, caused him to look up, when he saw three Indi- ans within a hundred yards of him. They being too numerous for him to encounter, he seized his rifle and took to flight. The other two, as he ran, fired at him without effect. The chase was continued for several miles by two of the Indians, who were the swiftest runners. He often stopped and " treed," hoping to get a shot and kill or dis- able one of them, and then overcome the other at his leisure. His pursuers also " treed," and by flanking to the right and left, forced him to uncover or stand the chance of a shot.
He finally concluded to leave the level grounds, on which the contest had thus far been held, and take to the high hills which lie back of the bottoms. His strong, muscular limbs here gave him the advantage, as he could ascend the steep hill sides more rapidly than his pursuers. The In- dians, seeing they could not overtake him, as a last effort stopped and fired. One of their balls cut away the handle of his hunting knife, jerking it so violently against his side, that for a moment he thought he was wounded. He immediately returned the fire, and, with a yell of vexation, they gave up the chase.
Fleehart made a circuit among the hills, and just at dark
:
405
SCARCITY AND VALUE OF SALT.
came in to the river, near where the canoe lay hid. Springing lightly on board, he paddled down stream. Being greatly fatigued with the the efforts of the day, he lay down in the canoe, and when he awoke in the morning was just entering the Ohio river. Crossing over to the southern shore, he, in a few days, pushed his canoe up to Farmers' Castle, without further adventure, where he showed the rich packages of peltry, as the proceeds of his winter's hunt, and displayed the brilliant silver ornaments, as trophies of his victory, to the envy and admiration of his less venturous companions. It was no uncommon occur- rence for the western hunters to spend months all alone in the woods, although they generally preferred one or two comrades.
Scarcity and value of salt in Farmers' Castle, with the first visit of the whites to the Scioto salines.
Among the other privations and trials of the early settlers in the Ohio company's lands, was the dearness and scar- city of marine salt. From 1788 to some years after the close of the war, their salt was all brought over the moun- tains on pack horses, at an expense to the consumer of from six to ten dollars a bushel. The salt was of the coarse, Isle of May variety, of an excellent quality, and measured instead of weighed as it now is. A bushel of this salt weighs about eighty pounds, while one of our present bushels weighs only fifty pounds. It was as late as the year 1806, when the change took place in the mode of vending this article, after salt was made in considerable quantities at the new salines on the Big Kenawha.
Its great scarcity was a serious drawback on the pros- perity of the country, and a source of annoyance to the people. The domestic animals suffered from its want, as well as man; and when ranging in the woods, visited the the clay banks, that sometimes contained saline particles, licking and gnawing them into large holes. The deer licks,
406
DISCOVERY OF THE SCIOTO SALINES.
so common at that day, were seldom anything more than holes made in the clay by wild animals, and filled with water, sometimes of a brackish quality. Nearly all the salines since worked were first pointed out to man by the deer and buffaloes. This was the fact at Salt creek and at Kenawha. It was hoped that as the country was opened and cultivated, salt springs would be found sufficient for the wants of the inhabitants ; but it was a dark and doubt- ful feature in the future prosperity of the country.
In the autumn of the year 1794, Griffin Greene, Esq., whose fertile mind was always full of projects for the bene- fit of the country, had heard from the report of some white man, who had been a prisoner with the Indians, that while he was with them, they had made salt from a spring on a tributary branch of the Scioto river, afterwards known as Salt creek. He described the spot as somewhere near the present location of the town of Jackson; and although it was in the midst of the Indian war, and in the vicinity of their towns, so great was the anxiety to ascertain its truth, that a company was formed to visit and search out the spring.
Mr. Green associated with him in the enterprise Major Robert Bradford and Joel Oaks; he paying one half the expense, and his two partners the other. A large pirogue was provided, with provisions for twelve men for ten or twelve days, the period supposed necessary to accomplish the journey. They hired some of the most experienced woodsmen and hunters from Bellville, as guides and guards. Among them was Peter Anderson, Joshua Dewey, and John Coleman, all noted for their bravery, and knowledge of the woods.
They left Farmer's Castle in the fall of the year, at a time when the water in the Ohio was quite high; accompanied with the good wishes of their neighbors for their success, but damped with many fears and evil forebodings from the dangers that attended the enterprise. The Indians had for
407
DISCOVERY OF THE SCIOTO SALINES.
many years kept with jealous care the knowledge of the ยท locality from the whites, viewing the spring as a valuable gift from the Great Spirit to the red men, and with the game and fish, as perquisites to which the pale faces had no right. It was not known that any white man had ever been at the salines, except when visited by some prisoner, in company with the Indians, and who even then did not let him actu- ally see the spot, but only the salt made by them at the time of the visit.
At the mouth of Leading creek the adventurers landed their boat, secreting it among the trees and bushes as well as they could. This point is about forty miles from Jack- son, and probably about thirty miles from the heads of the south branch of Salt creek ; but of the actual distance they were ignorant, only knowing that it lay some distance be- yond the west boundary line of the Ohio company lands. After several days travel, and making examinations, they fell upon a stream which led in the right direction, and fol- lowing it down, soon met with paths leading, as they sup- posed, to the spring. They soon discovered where fires had recently been made, and searching carefully in the bed of the creek, found a hole which had been scooped out by the Indians in the sand rock, and filled with brackish water. A small brass kettle which they had with them for cooking, when filled with the water and boiled away, made about a table spoonfull of salt.
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