USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > The Cincinnati miscellany, or, Antiquities of the West, and pioneer history and general and local statistics, Volume I > Part 26
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In this city on the 6th inst., of Inflammatory Rheuma- tism, CHRISTOPHER MARSHALL, son of Mr. C. M. Bax- ter, aged 18 months.
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Indian Warfare -- The Whetzels.
Among the early settlers, who have figured in the pioneer history of the west, one entire fa mily, that of the Whetzels, figures conspicuously. I have devoted some time to the comparison of various notices of the four brothers, who con- stituted that family, and re-writing many inci- dents in their history, to correspond with the corrections of Major Jacob Fowler, still survi- ving, and a resident of Covington, Kentucky, who was in early days an associate of Lewis and Jacob, two of these brothers. Some of the ex- isting accounts represent old Whetzel,'with his wife and small children, to have been killed, tomahawked, and scalped by the Indians. This was true only as respects the old man, but the wife survived and married again, and the chil- dren escaped by being providentially absent.
Major Fowler states that the family lived on a farm on the road from Catfishtown-now Washington, Pennsylvania, and Wheeling, Vir- ginia, so close to the line that it was a matter of doubt in those days,which Whetzel belonged to, Pennsylvania or Virginia. Old Whetzel was a Maryland or Pennsylvania German, but had been one of the earliest settlers on the frontiers, and disdaining the usual precaution of placing his family on one of the stations or forts, which were to be found at convenient distances thro'- out that region of the country, had erected a cabin on his plantation, and occupied it while cultivating the farm. The family consisted of himself and wife, with his sons, Martin, Lewis, Jacob, and John. respectively 15, 13, 11, and 9 years of age. There were three or four small children besides, who had been left with some friends, that day, in the adjacent fort, to which John had also been despatched on an errand, when a party of savages surrounded the house forced open the temporary defences, killing and scalping the old man, and carrying off as prison- ers, according to their custom with children o that age, the boys, Lewis and Jacob. The mo- ther made her escape in the confusion of the scene. Martin, the oldest son, had been out hunting, at the time. All three of these boys were stout and active for their age, the training on the frontiers, at that date, being such as to call out boys to do much of men's work, as soon as they were able to handle an axe, or steady a rifle.
In the attack on their house, Lewis received a slight wound from a bullet, which carried a- way a small piece of the breast bone. The second night after their capture, the Indians en- camped at the Biglick, twenty miles from the river, in what isnow Ohio, and upon the waters of McMahon's Creek. The extreme youth of the boys induced the savages to neglect their usual precautions, of tying their prisoners at
night. After the Indians had fallen asleep, Lewig whispered to his brother to get up, and they would make their way home. They started,and and after going a few hundred yards, sat down on a log. "Well," said Lewis, "we can't go home barefooted. You stay here, and I will go back and get a pair of moccasins for each of us." He did so, and returned. After sitting a little lon- ger; "Now," said he, "I will go back and get one of their guns and we will then start." This was accordingly done. Young as they were, the boys were sufficiently expert with tracking paths in the woods, to trace their course home, the moon enabling them, by her occasiona glimpses, to find the trail which they had fol- lowed from the river. The Indians soon disco- vered their escape,and were heard by them hard on their heels. When the party in pursuit had almost overtaken them, they stepped aside in the bushes and let them pass, then fell into the rear and travelled on. On the return of their pursuers, they did the same. They were then- followed by two Indians on horseback, whom they eluded in the same manner. The next day" they reached Wheeling in safety, crossing the river on a raft of their own making; Lewis, by this time, being nearly exhausted by his wound. When they got to the Virginia side, and ascer- tained thei father's death, they vowed to shoot every Indian that fell in their way, as long as they lived ; and fearfully was this vow kept, as might be expected from the energy and activity displayed at so early an age.
The following narrative goes to show how much has been effected by the skill, bravery, and activity of single individuals, in the parti- zan warfare, carried on against the Indians, on the western frontier. Lewis Whetzel's educa- tisn, like that of his cotemporaries, was that of a hunter and a warrior. When a boy he adopted the mode of loading and frring his rifle as he ran . This was a means of making him very destructive to the Indians afterwards.
In the year 1782, after Crawford's defeat, Lewis Whetzel, then only eighteen years of age, went with Thomas Mills, who had been in the campaign, to get a horse, which he had left near the place where St. Clairsville now stands. At the Indian Spring, two miles above St.Clairs- ville, on the Wheeling road, they were met by about forty Indians, who were in pursuit of the stragglers from the campaign. The Indians and the white men discovered each other about the same time. Lewis fired first and killed an In- dian; the fire from the Indians wounded Mr. Mills, and he was soon overtaken and killed .- Four of the Indians selected out Whetzel, drop- ped their guns and pursued him. Whetzel load- ed his rifle as he ran. After running about half a mile, one of the Indians having got within
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ight or ten steps of him Whetzel wheeled round and shot him down; ran on, and loaded as be- fore. After going about three quarters of a mile further, a second Indian came so close to him, that whon he turned to fire, the savage caught the muzzle of his gun, and, as he expressed it, he and the Indian had a pretty severe wring for it; he succeeded, however, in bringing the muzzle to the Indian's breast, and killed him on the spot. By this time he as well as the Indians were pretty well tired: but the pursuit was con- tinued by the two remaining Indians; Whetzel, as before, loading his gun, and stopping several times during the latter chase. When he did so, the Indians treed themselves. After going some- thing more than a mile, Whetzel took advantage of a little open piece of ground, over which the Indians were passing. a short distance behind him, to make a sudden stop for the purpose of shooting the foremost, who got behind a little sapling which was too small to protect his body. Whitzel shot, and broke his thigh, the wound, in the issue, proving fatal. The last of the In- dians then gave a little yell and said : 'No catch dat man-gun always loaded,' and gave up the chase, glad, no doubt, to get off with his life. This was a frightful and well managed fight.
These Indians, in succession, were near enough to have despatched Whetzel with toma- hawks, but their determination to take him a- live, for burning at the stake, blinded their judg- ment, and enabled him to effect his escape. It is said that Lewis Whitzel, in the course of the Indian wars in the neighborhood of Wheeling alone, killed twenty-seven Indians, besides a number more, along the frontier settlements of Kentucky.
The United States Navy.
I observe in an Eastern print, the following project, which it is therein alleged to be the purpose of the Navy Department, to recommend to Congress as an improvement in our naval ser- vice. If adopted it would carry us in that de- partment, fifty years forward in one single move- ment :
"Of all the rumors the most gratifying is, that the contemplated lines of steamers from Boston, Philadelphia, and New York to London, Liver- pool and Havre, and from New Orleans to the West Indies and Spanish America, are to be set in motion as soon as possible.
The United States is to man completely and constantly, with officers, seamen and apprentices, some say ten years, others indefinitely; and al- low them to carry the mails for their own bene- fit, and on these cheap terms, a company or companies of ship builders and merchants are ready to construct suitable steamers and keep up monthly returns.
The national character of these vessels, and their perpetual presence in the principal foreign ports will give valuable and efficient protection so our seamen.
It is said that whenever capitalists are willing to provide suitable vessels to run at stated and regular intervals, the United States will, under the new naval system, furnish as ample a com- plement of men, and as many guns as the owners are willing to provision and support.
We have 6000 men now under government pay in the naval service. These would man a couple of frigates, the revenue vessels, and near- ly, or quite one hundred steamers.
One hundred steamers passing at stated in- tervals to foreign ports carrying every where, in honor and usefulness, the United States flag, would do infinitely more credit to the national character, and would cost the Union less than the Mediteranean squadron managed as now; only occupied in cruising from one point to the other, their officers making parties, dancing, gambling, and carousing in harbor, and expend- ing their ennui at sea, in acts of cruelty to their sailors.
The navy as now constituted, does not earn its salt; it has nothing to do, and naught is al- ways in mischief. Yet its annual expenditure is equal to the whole expenses of our govern- ment, when administered with honesty and economy."
Commerce with the East.
They are beginning Eastward gradually to appreciate the value of the Western business .- By the time light on this subject spreads from Buffalo to Boston, we shall have the railroads finished which is now making to connect Cin- cinnati with the Lake Erie.
Railroad from Sandusky to Cincinnati.
An effort is now making to raise the necessa- funds, $500,000, to complete this important work. The evidence that the stock will be ve- ry productive, is so abundant and so conclusive that we do not doubt it will be speedily taken by capitalists in New York, Boston and other cities.
The distance by `this route is but 200 miles from Lake Erie to Cincinnati. 'Two companies are engaged in the enterprise. One, the Mad River and Lake Erie, is building the road from Sandusky City to Springfield, on the National Road, 40 milos west of Columbus-a distance of 132 miles. The other is called the little Miami Co., and is constructing a railway from Spring- field to Cincinnati-a distance of 88 miles .--- The latter company will have 64 miles of their road completed by the first of July, 1845, 40 of which, from Cincinnati Northward, are now in oparation.
On the Mad River and Lake Erie road, 40 miles are also completec and doing a profitable business, and 40 more are so tar advanced that $70,000 will finish the road. Within the limit of ten miles on either side of the line of the road, there are 350,000 inhabitants, mostly cultivating as fine a soil as the sun shines upon. Cincin- nati already contains 70,000 inhabitants, and for the first 100 miles north of that city, there is an average of one factory or mill every mile on the line of the road.
This great improvement once completed, and we can go from this city to the Queen City of the Ohio valley in 36 hours, and to Louisville in a little over two days. The travel between the Southwest and the north and east by this route is quite incalculable. The country is admira-
123
bly adapted to the construction of a railway from Sandusky to Cincinnati, and the distance can easily be made in 10 or 12 hours- Below Cincinnati, the Ohio river is always navigable for steamers, except a few weeks in the winter.
The travel from the lower and upper Missis- sippi, Missouri, Southern Illinois, Indiana, and from the valleys of the Cumberland and Tennes- see rivers, the latter of which runs into north- ern Alabama and Georgia, will all come north to the Atlantic cities by this route.
The intercourse between the northern and southern portions of the Union, will be much in- creased by the the opening of this easy and cheap thoroughfare between the great lakes and the 20,000 miles of navigable rivers at the south- west.
If the owners of the railway from this to Boston have any spare capital, they can hardly invest it better than to take stock in the road from Sandusky to Cincinnati. We speak advi. sedly on this subject when we say that a large portion of the immense valley of the Ohio, up that river to Wheeling, and thence to Baltimore, and still farther up to Pittsburgh and thence to Philadelphia, will turn north at Cincinnati, when a railway will take them to Lake Erie in twelve hours. That this travel would add largely to the present income of the railroad between this and Boston no one can doubt .- Buffalo Com .. Ad vertiser
Relics of the Past.
To His Excellency, Arthur St. Clair, Esq., Gov ernor of the north western Territory of the U States.
The humble petition of Francis Desruisseaux Bellecour, most humbly sheweth, that your pe- titioner hath for many years past acted at Detroit by appointment of the former government, as Public Notary for a number of years to the uni- versal satisfaction of the individuals,, and the then government. After or immediately on the government of the United States taking place herc, I was appointed to the same office of pub- lic Notary by Col. Sargent. But still, notwith- standing, I am deprived of the benefit of that office by individuals, having their notarial acts performed before the present proto notary and clerk of the court, which deprives me of the means of supporting a helpless family.
I therefore pray your excellency, to grant me the said office for the county of Wayne, exclu- sively of any other persons.
And your petitioner, as in duty bound, will pray. Being of your Excellency,
The most obedient, and humble servant,
F. D. BELLECOUR, Notary Public
DETROIT, 7th January, 1799.
To the Hon. Arthur St. Clair, Esq., Governor of the north western Territory.
January 10, 1799.
DEAR SIE :- We., a number of inhabitants sit- uated in the aforesaid Territory and county of Hamilton, between the waters of Eagle and | 38 church do
Strait Creeks, and thereabouts, being at a great distance from a Magistrate, or Justice of the Peace-a greivance which we consider ourselves to labor under, we therefore have thought proper to petition your Honour for Alexander Martin, to be commissioned in such an office, as we look upon him to be an honest, well meaning man, and a citizen here amongst us, whom we have selected far that purpose. This, dear sir, being our grievance, a removal of which we, your petitioners, humbly pray.
Matthew Davidson. Wm Woodruff.
Thos. M'Connell. Geo J Jennings.
Joseph Lacock. Ichabod Tweed.
Isaac Ellis.
Amos Ellis.
Wm M'Kinney. Jas Henry.
Wm Forbes.
Wm Moore.
Geo M'Kinney.
Isaac Prickett.
Jacob Miller.
Tom Rogers.
John Mefford.
Wm Long.
John Caryon.
Joseph Moore.
Wm Lewis. Benjamin Evans,
Fergus M'Clain. Jacob Nagle.
Richard Robison.
Lewis Sheek.
Henry Rogers.
John Philips.
Thomas Ark.
James Prickitt.
Valentine M'Daniel.
James Young.
Uriah Springer.
Bell and Brass Foundry.
This is an important item of manufacturing industry in Cincinnati, and of increasing value. Its importance consists not more in the amount of industry which it stimulates, than in the in- cidental aid it supplies to other business, by concentrating to this point, the entire demand for bells north, south, and west of us. In 1840 there were eight of these establishments, with sixty-two hands, which have been increased at this date to twelve foundries, with one hundred and six hands, all engaged in the various opera- tions of casting and finishing of articles in brass, of which the article of bells is of the greatest magnitude', affording an aggregate value of $135,000 for the past year. As an example of its character and operations, I select the busi- ness, for the last two years, of G. W. COFFIN, at the Buckeye Foundry, on Columbia street, whose bell business is of greater magnitude than all the other establishments combined, but whose brass business, generally, would not constitute more than an average of the general aggregate. In 1843. Mr. Coffin made, all to order,
36 steamboat bells, from $150 to 706 each.
8 plantation do 50 to 360 do.
3 foundry do 150 to 350 do.
11 college academy, and school house bells, 50 to 350 do.
1 court house, 350 do.
I engine house, 326 do.
80 3,363 do
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Besides 206 of lighter sizes of which no regis- ter has been kept. The whole weighing 40647 pounds, including the iron works connected therewith-worth more than twenty thousand dollars. The entire operations in brass, in this foundry reached the value of $31.000.
During the year 1844, there have been made bells here for steamboats
S. B. Maria, [500.
Charlotte, 326.
L. Flinn, 150.
Paul Pry, 82.
Mendota, 325.
Isaac Shelby, 200.
Lynx, 150.
Princess, 450.
Gov. Jones, 500
Lowndes,
326.
B. Franklin, 7, 327.
New World,
450.
Dan'l Boone, 150.
Superb,
450.
Harkaway, 326.
Hamer,
326.
Fashion, 200.
Belle Zane, 150.
Reindeer, 326.
Lama, 182.
Red Rover, 500.
Pike, No. 7,
550.
Gazelle, 150.
Juniata,
110.
Little Rock, 200.
Wave(Kanawha) 110
Meteor,
326.
Arkansas No 4, 525.
Fort Wayne, 426.
326.
Yorktown, 500.
Alex. Scott, 500.
St. Mary, 325.
Hard Times, 500.
Cincinnati, 326.
J. E. Roberts, 100.
37 steamboat bells, weighing 11,598.
2 for barges. 62.
31 PLANTATION AND FARM BELLS.
150
82 326 80 50 336 25.
200 50 150 50 50 220 25.
I10 82 110
82 50 326 82.
150 60 100 60 82 200
100 60 100 150 3,406.
6 Foundry, Factory, Turner and Engine Shop Bells.
82
110 120 31
50. 82 375.
9 School House and College.
50
80 50 200 25.
80
326
100
80
1001.
8 Court House and Fire Engine House.
326
326
500 750.
326
750
326 326
3630.
57 Churches.
150
60 150 200 150 110 450.
450
50 450
356
110 220
150,
150
50 200 450 110
200
326.
200
82 150 326 750 450
326
700 450
150
350
450
450
82 326 100 450
200
110 1800
110 200
750
326
500
200
200
700 110 82
326 500
200 110 2000 1000 19,758.
21 Hotels.
31
31 31
25
50
31
25
31
31
31
31
31
50,
50
31
60 31
50
694.
The value of bells made in the BUCKEYE Brass und Bell Foundry for the past year was 31,000
dollars; of all manufactured articles of brass and bell metal, 39,000 dollars, being an increase of 25 per cent in the business of 1843. I pre- sume there is a proportionate increase in the oth- er establishments, Mr. Coffin being in bells, and theirs in brass foundry . generally. He is about to put up a new Foundry, where bells only will be madc.
I note two or three remarkable facts in con- nection with these statistics.
One of the bells cast this season was for the Roman Catholic Church at Mobile, a large share of its raw material, being the old bell, perhaps the oldest in the United States, which was cast at Toledo, in Spain. One eighth part of this bell was made of pure silver, fourteen hundred and seventy Spanish dollars being employed for that purpose. The whole of this precious article went into the new bell also. Mr. Coffin consid- ers it one of the finest toned ones he ever heard rang.
Another singular fact connected with this Statement is, that the bell which had been made for the Fulton Bagging Factory in 1842, was consumed, or at least so far destroyed, in the fire of October last, that not a vestige of it was to be found. The only reasonable conjecture respecting its fate, is that as the cupola, with the roof below, were burnt before the rest of the building, that the bell in melting spread out upon the sheeting and remaining roof, among the ashes into particles so minute as to be abso- lutely lost.
Early Annals.
To the Honorable Arthur St. Clair, Governor of the north western Territory.
January 10, 1799.
DEAR SIR :-- We, a number of inhabitants, situated between the waters of Eagle and Strait Creeks, and thereabouts, in the aforesaid Terri- tory and county of Hamilton, being destitute of malitia officers, such as Captain, Lieutenant, and Ensign, we therefore have thought proper to petition your Honour for such, and have selected Thomas M'Connell for Captain, John Mefford, Lieutenant, and Amos Ellis, Ensign, if your Honour shall think proper to commission them in that office; This, dear sir, being the desires for which we, your petitioners, do hnmbly pray Abel Martin. Tom Ash.
George M'Kinney. Wm Moore.
William M'Kinney. Ben
F orgy MClure. Isaac Ellis.
Henry Rogers. Jacob Nagle.
N McDaniel.
Geo J Jennings.
Jno Henry.
Uriah Springer.
John Redmon. Samuel Tweed.
William Forbes. William Lewcas.
Jas Pricket.
Jacob Miller.
John Caryon. Walter Wall.
Thomas Rogers.
31. Thomas Dougherty.
Joseph Jacobs.
Lady Madison, 326.
Lodi,
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The Last of the Girtys. BY CHARLES CIST.
THE early commerce of the Ohio river for some years was confined to the transportation of Wes- tern produce on flat-boats, which were built at va- rious points from Cincinnati to Elizabethtown, on the Monongahela. The high rates of wagonage across the mountains, led many persons early to contemplate and some of them to engage in the taking up in keel-boats and subsequently by barges, various articles, groceries especially, which could be bought to good advantage at New Or- leans, at that period the only outlet for the whisky, flour and tobacco of the West.
From 1800 to 1817, and occasionally even at a later date, the barges or bargees, as they were termed by the French of the Mississippi country, performed so far as they could the services ren- dered afterwards by steamboats. They were built like the keel-boats which our low water season brings down still from Pittsburgh and Wheeling, but much broader as well as longer, being 75 to 120 feet in length, with a breadth of beam from 15 to 20 feet, sufficing to carry from 60 to 100 tons. A cargo box served to protect the mer- chandize from the weather, and a space in the stern of about 8 feet in length, partitioned off from the rest of the boat, and called by courtesy a cabin, afforded some degree of privilege in sleep- ing hours to the captain and his patroon, by whichi name the steersman of the boat was known. The roof of the cabin sloped slightly to the stern, and was the station by day of that officer in steering the barge. These vessels carried generally two masts, occasionally but one, their principal depen- dence being in a large square sail forward, to enable them, when the wind was in the right di- rection, and of sufficient force to make more rapid progress as well as to ease the hands, in the labo- rious process of rowing in such a current as that of the Mississippi. A barge usually carricd from thirty to fifty men, with as many oars, suitable spaces being left in stowing the cargo, principally towards the bow, for their employment. Where the shore or beach permitted, the cordelle was also resorted to. This was a stout rope, which being fas- tened to the mast, was carried along the beach, on the shoulders of the whole boat's crew, stationed at regular distances. Where the shore was lined with trees, as was often the case, and a beach did not present the opportunity of cordelling, and the current bore hard on the rowers, the yawl, with which these boats were always provided, was sent out ahead with a coil of rope, one end of which was made fast to a tree, or even a snag in the river, and while the boat was pulling up to the fast, a fresh coil was started ahead, to be secured to some new object for the same purpose. This was called warping. Lastly, these barges, like the keel-boats, had setting poles, which being brought to the shoulders of the men, and resting on the bed of the river, afforded ample purchase in pro- pelling boats. Poles, however, were generally em- ployed on the Ohio, the bolder shores and yield- ing bed of the Mississippi rarely rendering their use in that river expedient. It must be ob served that these various changes in the mod of working the barges up greatly relieved th
crew, on the physical principle of resting one set of muscles by the employment of another set. All these various contrivances, however, were an immense expenditure of labor as compared with results, the usual rate of progress up the Missis- sippi, unless aided by a breeze, being hardly three miles an hour running time. It might naturally be supposed that the severe and protracted toil of propelling boats under such circumstances particu- larly against the current and along the shores of a river like the Mississippi, would disgust those whose curiosity or ignorance led them to engage in it, and render it difficult even under high wages to secure a constant supply of hands. On the contrary, however, allurements of a roving life, freedom from the restraints of civilized society and settled employment,-in short, what in the West is expressively termed "range," are tempta- tions which are irresistible to a certain class of minds to be found every where. Nor was the picture without its lights as well as shades. If they had hard work and protracted confinement,. they had regular resting places on the route when they relaxed in the dance or in drinking frolics from their habitual toils, debasing them- selves in excesses which served voyage by voyage to sink them nearer and nearer to the level of brutes. Of course there were exceptions, but the general tendency as well as effect was to the ruin of the morals still more even than the health of those who led this kind of life.
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