USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > The Cincinnati miscellany, or, Antiquities of the West, and pioneer history and general and local statistics, Volume I > Part 49
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58
Those who were insured in New York at the period of the fire of 1835 lost all in the insolven- cy of the N. Y. Insurance Companies, which re- sulted from that event. Those who were insur- ed in Boston were safe. So it will be found now, as respects Pittsburgh, all the insurance recov- erable there, will be that effected at foreign of- fices.
Bear Adventure.
I published last week a panther fight in which my old pioneer friend Williams was engaged some fifty years ago. One or two adventures willi bears, which occurred to him about the same time, will serve at once to diversify this narrative, and afford additional light on the modes of living, in early days of the West. 1 give the story almost in his own words.
"My wife was lying at home in her confine- ment with her second child, and to lighten our cares, the older one about two years of age had been taken home to her grandmother's, who liv- ed a matter of two miles off. When my wife was able to be stirring about once more, I went over to fetch the little one, and was returning with it in my arms when it began to cry, and I was so busy trying to quiet it, that I hardly no- ticed at first the sound of steps and a savage growling behind me. Turning my head around, I saw a great he bear, one of the largest I ever saw. He was then within a rod of me. As I turned, my dog, a large and powerful brute, part bull, part grey hound, turned also; and springing at the bear seized him by the hind leg, to check his progress and favor my escape. I made tracks with all the speed I could. The bear would turn on the dog, when the dog would break his hold, and the bear put off again after me. Again the dog would lay hold, and the bear again turn on him compelling him to let go. In this way I was gaining on him, although excessively tired, being obliged to carry the child at arms length, and a very heavy one it was. The child cried the more from being held in so awkward a position, which made the bear more and more savage on my tracks. At last I came in where a path led off through the brush to my home, and the bear being intent on keep- ing off the dog, passed it without notice and I got home safe. I gave the child to its mother,
Told cuss. I had hardly got to the road when I
227
met my dog Tery, as I called him, breathless and bloody, having received some pretty severe bruises from the bear. He refused to follow me, and I was obliged to give up the bear hunt for that time.
Some time afterwards one of the neighbors reporting he had seen the bear fasten on a large hog, a constant lookout was kept for him in the settlement. 1 was out one evening after deer, when I discovered by the smell that carrion was in the neighborhood; I watched the crows to see where they would light, and as I got nearer I heard the bear growl, having been absent for water, and on his way back to the carcass. As soon as I saw him I took aim and fired, hit him on the skull, tore off a large stripe over the eye brow, and while he lay stunned ran up to him within a few feet, fired again and killed him on the spot. This bear had been a nuisance to the neighborhood for three years, having killed in that space of time between 75 and 100 head of hogs, big and little, besides other domestic an- imals, some fine calves among the rest.
At another time I was out hunting one day, and came on the tracks of a large bear. A light snow on the ground enabled me to follow it up readily, which I did for half a mile to a large oak, up which at about thirty-five feet high there was a hole sizeable enough to let the bear in. As it was winter I knew that it would stay there some time if undisturbed, and went home to gather some of the neighbors for the hunt. So a few days after I got two of them, Alexander Herrington and Richard Shorit with their dogs. One of the men had a rifle and the other an axe. We found the tree too large and otherwise difficult to climb, being the 35 feet without a limb, and we concluded finally to fell a small beech tree against it, by which we could climb up to the hole. This was accordingly
I done, and it lodged safely against the oak. built a fire to make chunks to throw in the hole, and proposed to the men to go up and get the bear out, which they both refused to attempt. I was unwilling to go up myself having no confi- dence in their knowledge of hunting, and fear- ed they would miss the bear, but seeing there was no other way I took off my moccasins for fear of slipping. and tying a string to a chunk of fire, I gave my rifle to Herrington and climb- ed the beech which lay very steep against the hollow tree. When I got to the hole I looked in very cautiously, and after waving the chunk backwards and forwards in the air, to make it burn, held it there as a light. to judge the depth of the bear's retreat. Seeing nothing however, I dropped the chunk, which by the sound appear- ed to fall twelve or fifteen feet before I heard it strike. Presently the bear started up with a
grunt like an old sow roused from her lair, and growling awfully, clambered up, snorting at a great rate, while I let myself down as fast as possible on the tree by which I came up. The bear, on getting to the hole, began to poke her head in every direction to ascertain who and how many were disturbing her. I called out to Shorit to shoot her in the sticking place, but he having no experience hit her on the nose which only enraged her the more, and down she came butt foremost winding the tree round like a squirrel, and nearly as fast, letting go her hold when within a few feet of the earth. As soon as she came to the ground, two of the dogs seiz- ed her, but she soon crippled both. Herrington had run off with my rifle as soon as she began to come down. I had to run some distance before I could get it out of his hands, and when I did, the priming had got wet by his carelessness, and the gun would not go off. I then seized a dcad limb by way of handspike and banged a- way at the bear to make her let go one of the dogs which she was killing as fast as possible. Two or three blows made her let go. The crea- ture was so fat and cramped up in the tree that she could hardly move over the ground at first, and giving the crippled dogs to the others to car- ry home, seven or eight miles, I run to where I had hung my powder horn, and after wiping out the damp powder, and priming afresh, I put on my moccasins and set out after the bear, which had by this time got considerable of a start. I run it ten or twelve miles, before I caught up, which I did, by finding the bear which was fat and heavy, had taken to a large hollow beech tree to rest herself where she lay in the crotch. One crack of the rifle brought her down life- less. I then butchered her, took the entrails out and left the bear on its belly, spreading out the legs, well knowing that in this position, noth - ing in the shape of wild beasts would molest it in the woods. I went home very tired. Next morning my brother and I took horses on which we carried the carcass home. It weighed three hundred and eighty-seven pounds when dressed.
I have killed in the course of my hunting scrapes rising of twenty bears, of which these were the two largest.
The next time I saw Herrington and Shorit, I told them never to go hunting with me or I might be tempted to serve them as I had done the bear, and upbraided them with their cowar- dice, which might have cost me my life. Shorit was from Pomfret,Connecticut, the neighborhood where Putnam killed the wolf, and excused him- self by saying, he would far rather have gone in after that wolf, than risk the hug of a bear thir- ty or forty feet from the ground.
228
Relics of the Past.
FORT WASHINGTON, Dec. 2nd, 1791.
Sık :
I received your favour of the 29th, since which Mr. Hodgdon has been endeavoring to procure a boat, which would have been the best and easiest way of sending money to your post, but by some accident or other he has been con- stantly disappointed, and now they go on horse- back. I hope the little delay may not have been very inconvenient-that the men sent for your trunk be met with. Could Mr. Hartshorne have gone by water, it would have been casier and safer forthem to have taken that route also- they will return with him except the armourer who is wanted here.
Should you have an opportunity to send to Fort Jefferson be pleased to forward the enclosed Letter, but I little expect that you will, before th'e escort goes with provision in about a week hence.
The old contractors have a large quantity of flour at Fort Hamilton, and the new ones are also sending forward a considerable supply .- What will be done for store houses I know not -- is it not possible yet to raise a building for the purpose-if it can be done you will not think much of the trouble I know, and tho' you may have some just prejudices against the persons of the men who have the control at present-they are in some sense public servants, and in the posts have a right to have the provisions they buy in, secured from damage. At the same time it would be very hard on the old contractors to have what was laid in by them, in the just ex- pectation that it would be wanted, turned out to destruction at a season when they cannot re- move it to a place of safety. Do what you can to accommodate both.
I am sir,
your humble ser'vt., A. ST. CLAIR. CAPT. ARMSTRONG.
Fort Steuben at the Falls of Ohio.
I publish this letter simply as a testimony of the name in 1790 of the Fort at the Falls of Ohio, now Jeffersonville Ind. The station at that place had borne originally the name, Fort Finney.
FORT WASHINGTON, Jan. 12th, 1790. DEAR SIR :
I find by a letter of Mr. Robt. Moore, in whose hands I left your two notes for £72, 1,3 to D. Britt & Co-that they have not yet been paid, I will thank you to send, either to me or Mr. Robt. Moore, near Philadelphia, Cap- tain Beatty's orders, that these notes may be set- tled out of the first or second instalment for the pay of the regiment.
I enclose you a state of your account with D. Britt & Co., at Pittsburgh, by which you will find that a number of articles have been omitted in the account 1 settled with you at Fort Vincen- nes. Please examine the same and inform me if any errors.
I am sir, yours,
D. BRITT.
CAPT. ARMSTRONG.
Fort Steuben, Rapids of Ohio.
Valuable Hint.
I copy the following article from the Boston Chronicle.
There is no reason why a manure of such con- centiated strength, and of course cheap trans- portation might not be advantageously made in Cincinnati, where the raw material abounds, and charcoal could be procured at a low price, while blood is suffered to run absolutely to waste .- Probably also the charcoal which is thrown out by the whiskey rectifiers might be used to ad- vantage. It will cost nothing to make an ex- periment, which I doubt not will be attended with complete success.
"The guano mania, by which whole islands are being transported across oceans, and sold out by the pound, has excited great attention to the subject of manures. As to guano itself, it is of exceedingly variable value, and in its best quality is interior to manures which may be pro- cured at less expense, This had been scien- tifically proved on the model farms of France, before the rage commenced.
It is within my recollection, that when the present century commenced, the great mass of the writing paper consumed in the United States was of English manufacture. It was made en- The best sugar manufactories of France have given rise to a species of manure which is little if at all known in this country, and which we think our agriculture might avail itself of to great advantage. In the clarification of sugar, blood and animal carbon are used. The carbon charged with the animal matter and impurities of the sugar, was at first thrown away as use- less. But it was ere long observed, by the sharp- sighted French, that the vegetation about the heaps where it lay, was exceedingly luxuriant and prolific. It was directly proved to be a val- tirely of linen rags, and compared with what is now used, a coarse and thick article, and rough in surface. I have a specimen in the subjoin- ed letter, in which the water mark or stamp is GR, surmounted with a crown. When I ex- amine the texture and substance of the letter which has been written more than half a cen- tury, and the creases of which have not injured in the slightest degree its strength, I feel dispo- quable manure, and commanded such a price as sed to wonder how much more careful handling to form a considerable portion of the income of the beet sugar manufactories, and in fact to in- sure the permanence of that branch of national industry. among posterity the cotton fabric paper of our time will require.
200
By careful experiment it was discovered that the stimuleting effect on vegetation was not due in any degree to the residuum of sugar contain- ed in the noir animal, as the substance is called, nor to the carbon or blood alone, but to the proper combination of the two last. From this grew a new business of manufacturing manure, called noir animalise. This is an intimate mix- ture of carbon, the charcoal of wood, peat, straw, &c., and blood, butcher's offal, dead carcasses, or other animal matter. The mixture is made as perfect as possible, when the charcoal is in its driest state; it is then perfectly dried and sold in a powdered or granulated form.
This manure producos the most extraordinary effects upon the fructification of plants, especial- ly the grains. Being sowed along with the seed, the charcoal has the effect so to retard the de- composition of the animal matter, that it pro- ·ceeds at about an even pace with the develop- ment of the plant, and is about at its height, while the fructification takes place, instead of having exhausted itself in the production of leaves, as is too much the case with other ma- nures. By the use of this manure in France, it appears that the wheat crops have been increas- ed =early one third on an average in the dis- tricts where it is used : taking into view the ex- pense, the results are considerably more satis- factory than those of any other manure, guano not excepted.
It is manufactured on an immense scale near the slaughter-houses of Paris, and thus benefits not only the agriculture of the country but the health of the city. Why could not the same thing be done in this country, where immense quantities of animal matter are now wasted, and where charcoal is probably cheaper than in France? Why should not even our western farmers avail themselves of such an aid, if they can add a third to their crop without adding a third to their expenses? Those who would try this manure have only to pour upen dry pulver- ised charcoal, recently heated, as much blood as it will absorb, and they have the manure .-- There is no danger of sowing or planting the seed immediately upon it. The closer the con- tact the better. It is excellent for all sorts of garden and house plants."
The First Court in Ohio.
The first court held northwest of the river Ohio, under the forms of civil jurisprudence, was opened at Campus Martius, (Marietta,) Sep- tember 2d, 1788.
I have obtained the substance of the following. The procession was formed at the Point (where most of the settlers resided,) in the following or- der :- Ist. The High Sheriff, with his drawn sword; 2d, the Citizens; 3d, the Officers of the Garrison at Fort Harmar; 4th, the members of the Bar; 5th, the Supreme Judges; 6th, the Gov- ernor and Clergyman ; 7th, the newly appointed Judges of the Court of Common Pleas, General RUFUS PUTNAM and BENJ. TUPPER.
They marched up a path that had been cut and cleared through the forest to Campus Marti- us Hall, [Stockade, ] when the whole counter- marched, and the Judges Putnam and Tupper, took their seats . The Clergyman, Rev. Dr. Cut- ter, then invoked the divine blessing. The Sheriff, Col. Ebenezer Sproat, (one of nature's nobles) proclaimed with his solemn "O Yes," that "a court is opened for the administration of even-handed justice to the poor and the rich, to the guilty and the innocent, without respect of persons, none to be punished without a trial by their peers, and then in pursuance of the laws and evidence in the case. Although this scene was exhibited thus early in the settlement of the State, few ever equaled it in the dignity and exalted character of its principat participators. Many of them belong to the history of our ceun- try, in the darkest as well as the most splen- did periods of the Revolutionary war. To wit- ness this spectacle, a large body of Indians was collected, from the most powerful tribes then occupying the almost entire West. They had assembled for the purpose of making a treaty .-- Whether any of them entered the Hall of Jus- tice, or what were their impressions, we are not told.
A Fragment of Recollections.
The first approach of actual settlement or population, to the Ohio river, followed in Brad- dock's trace, from Fort Cumberland to Red Stone Old Fort. And from Red Stone to Wheel- ing, Buffalo, Cross creek on one hand-to Pitts- burgh on another, and on a third, up to the Mo- nongahela in the line of Morgantown and Clarksburg. The settlements advanced most rapidly and most directly through the tract of country that now constitutes Washington coun- ty, Pennsylvania, to the Ohio, in the compass from Wheeling to Brown's Island or Holliday's cove, Fifty years ago this tract of country sus- tained a numerous population, and was to a con- siderable extent improved. There were open farms, bearing orchards, substantial houses of hewn logs, with shingle roofs, and stone chim- nies. And there were occasional school houses sparsely scattered through the settlements, in which urchins were taught their A B abs, and the spelling and reading lessons of Dilworth's spelling book. The inhabitants were of the same men who slaughtered the Moravian Indians, and among them there was as yet no place of pub- lic worship, no ministers of the Gospel.
It will be remembered that on the preceeding 7th of April, Gen . Rufus Putnam, with 47 men had landed and commenced the first settlemen, in what is now the State of Ohio. Gen. Har- mar, with his regulars, occupied Fort Harmar. Gov. St. Clair, and also Gen. Samuel Helden Parsons and Gen. James Mitchell Varnum, Judg- es of the Supreme Court. arrived in July. The Governor and Judges had been employed from their arrival in examining and adopting such of the statutes of the States, as in their opinion It is fifty years ago-nay , in exact accuracy, it is fifty eight years ago, since a first movement was made among these people to found a place of public worship. would be appropriate to the situation of this new colony. The Government had made ap- pointments of civil officers for the administra- tion of justice, and to carry into effect the laws In the month of June, 1787, an arrangement was completed for organizing a religious con- gregation thirty miles in advance of any exis- ting organization. Preparations was made in the depths of the forest. A rough wooden erec- tion was constructed, as a pulpit, and felled tim- adopted. Somo idea may he obtained of the character of the early settlers of Ohio, by dosori- bing the order with which this important event, the establishment of civil authority and the laws, was conducted. From a manuscript writ- ten by an eye witness, now in my possession, I bers were arranged for seats. Thursday was
230
'the day of the week selected for the first meet- ing, and the sun never shone upon a more gen- ial day in the month of June. For miles around the whole population was collected together .- The minister came to make his trial sermon .- A young licentiate with his young wife in com- pany.
In the tract of country I have described, the Presbyterian clergy were the religious pioneers. At that day, their most western location was east of the new towns of Washington and Can- onsburgh. JAMES McMILLEN, ROBERT PATTER- SON, JOSEPH SMITH. If there was another, I do not remember him. Young men studied divin- ity in the private establishments of these pio- neers. More than this, they acquired all the elements of such education as they possessed, in those same family establishments. From these beginnings the college at Canonsburgh arose. The founders were the clergymen I named and their few friends and associates.
The minister who presented himself to make his trial sermon, was the pupil and son-in-law of the Rev. Joseph Smith. The Rev. James Hughes has since been well known as a faith- ful and unpretending preacher of the Gospel, in the Presbyterian Church-
The School-mistress Abroad.
.Now close your book, Bob,' said the mother, 'and Alec give me yours. Put your hands down, turn from the fire, and look up at me, dears,'
"What is the capital of Russia ?'
"The Birman empire,' said Alec, with unhes- itating confidence.
"The Baltic sea,' cried Bob quickly, emulous and ardent.
·Wait-not so fast, let me see, my dears, which of you is right.'
'Mrs. Thompson appealed immediately to her book, after a long private communication with which, she emphatically pronounced them both wrong.
'Give us a chance, mother,' said Bob, in a wheedling tone, (Bob knew his mother's weak- ness.) 'them's such hard words, I don't know how it is, but I never can remember them .- Just tell us half the syllable -- oh, do now, please !"
"Oh, I know now!" cried Alec, "it's some- thing with a G in it."
"Think of the apostles, dears. What are the names of the apostles !"
"Why, there's Moses," began Bob, counting on his fingers' "and there's Sammywell, and there's Aaron, and -
"Stop, my dear," said Mrs. Thompson, you must begin again. I said who was Peter -- 'tis not that -- who was an apostle ?"
"Oh, I know now!" cried Alec again-(Alec was the bright boy of the family,) It's Peter,- Peter's the capital of Russia ."
"No, not quite, my dear, try again."
"Paul," half murmured Robert, with a reck- less hope of proving right.
"No, Peter's right, but there's something else. What has your futher been taking down the beds for ?"
There was a solemn silence, and three indus- trious sisters blushed the slightest blush that could be raised on a maiden's cheek.
"To rub that snuff off the walls," said the ready Alec.
"Yes, but what was it to kill!" asked the in- structress.
"The fleas," said Bob.
" Worse than that, dear."
"Oh, I know now," shrieked Alec for the third time; "Petersbug's the capitol of Russia."
Primitve Times.
Our neighbors in the west-(say 600 or 700- miles distant, and this of course does not in- clude the great west, which is somewhere in the neighborhood of sundown, nor the Far West, which is towards sunrise of to-morrow)-our neighbors in the West, we say, were formerly blessed with the large church of out-doors-but the Gospel had no better quarters than the Law.
.Mr. Sheriff,' said the Judge, who was seated on a stump, 'have you empaneled the Jury ?'
"Nearly, sir. I have eleven of them secured in the ravine, tied with a grape vine; and the constables are running down the twelfth.'
-- So goes an anecdote of thirty years ago in Ohio -- which is now No. 3 of the confederacy, and will probably be only second to New York in the census of 1850.
-- Whoever has reached the twenties, can re- member how far Ohio was distant when he was a boy. We marvelled that any should think of going so far away. And yet the settlers soon surrounded themselves with attractions, and home proved the centre of the universe to each family of the content and industrious. Is there not instruction in the remark of the borderer's wife? She and all hers were located on a pra- irie somewhere in the depths of the Great West. A cosmopolite and amateur hunter saw her cab- in and entered. In the course of conversation she inquired where he came from ?
' My home is in Boston,' said he.
"Where is Boston, I pray ?'
It is little short of two thousand miles towards sunrise,' was the answer.
'La me" said the simple-hearted, home-lov- ing woman -- 'La me! I wonder how any body can live so far away !'
-- O brother -- O sister! consider, and be wise. Is home the centre of the Universe to thee? If it be, thy soul hath attained the blessedness of primitime times, ere fashion and shame perver- ted the true uses of Life.
CITIZENS' BANK, NO. 4.
MR. CIST .- The rates at this Bank will not be thought excessive when it is considered that a loan may be obtained for a single day, if re- quired, and that the price in many cases barely compensates the labor alone of the transaction, and further, that a liberal deduction is always made when large sums are borrowed for a month or longer.
$50, for example, is wanted for a single day : here it is necessary to count the money twice, draw up a note, enter the transaction in several books-and all for the sum of 62 cents; for the Bank never in any case, however small the loan, charges more than one-eighth of one per cent. per day, even for the shortest periods .-- Again it should be borne in mind that the Bank seeks no profit from the issue of Bills for circulation, and that it pays interest on all its deposites .- That to be ready for the demands of borrowers aud depositors, it is obliged to keep on hand at
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.