USA > Ohio > Champaign County > The history of Champaign and Logan counties : from their first settlement > Part 6
USA > Ohio > Logan County > The history of Champaign and Logan counties : from their first settlement > Part 6
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I can not extend this notice, but will say that during the war of 1812, he took an active part whenever the settlements were men- aced with hostile attacks. Although old, he still had the courage to face all dangers. My acquaintance with him reached through all the years from 1811 to his death in 1836, and taken as a whole, his life was a model in many respects worthy of imitation. He was one of nature's noblemen, and well deserves the eulogy which closes the inscription on the slab at his grave in Oak Dale Cemetery: "His fellow citizens of the West, will long remember him as the skillful pioneer of certy times, the brave soldier, and the honest
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CHAPTER X.
JOHN HAMILTON.
In connecting Urbana with the incidents of the war of 1812, some mention should be made of one of her citizens who came, as has been elsewhere intimated, at a very early day, raised a large family and at one time seemed very prosperous in his affairs, but reverses cane, and John Hamilton died in 1868, dependent upon his children for the necessary comforts at the close his life.
The writer of this, knowing the facts that Mr. Hamilton, when a young man, had volunteered in the service of his country in the war of 1812, taken a very active part, and been prisoner among the Indians for one year, thought in view of his dependent condi- tion, that the Government, upon proper showing would make special provision for him, and he waited upon Mr. Hamilton a short time before his death, and proposed to prepare a narrative of his service and wild adventures, coupled with a memorial of the old citizens who knew him, asking Congress to grant him a special pension for life. He being then in hisseventy-sixth year, and being a very modest man rather declined at first, but upon weighing the matter consented. It was drawn up, and through Hon. Wmt. Lawrence, was introduced in the beginning of the year 1868, and a bill to make such provision passed its second reading in the House, but before it could be finally acted on his death occurred.
Since I commenced these sketches, by accident I have found a rough draft of all hisstatements, which were verified at the time by him, and that will enable me to do him an a . » justice, and perpetuate facts that would soon have passed out of l.nowledge. I shall not attempt to publish his whole narrative of the events, but will merely condense in as small a compass as possible the sub- stance.
He begins by telling that his father about 1793, emigrated to Kentucky from Maryland before he was a year old, that he contin- ued with his father until about 1811, having in the meantime learned the saddlers trade, and went to Winchester, and worked as a jour-
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neyman with one Robert Griffin until the breaking out of the war of 1812. The enthusiasm that animated the young men of that day reached young Hamilton, and under the call of Governor Scott, he volunteered and attached himself to Capt. Brasfield's Company which was attached to the regiment commanded by Col. Lewis, of Jessamine county, which moved on to Georgetown the latter part of June, thence to Newport where they were equipped and ordered to Fort Wayne via Dayton, Piqua, and St. Mary's. From Fort Wayne they were ordered westward in the direction of Tippeea- noe, to drive away and destroy the supplies and burn the village of a hostile tribe, which was accomplished, and they returned to the place of their last departure.
From Fort Wayne, Colonel Lewis' Regiment was ordered by General Winchester to march to Defiance on short rations about November 1; thence down the Maumee River to Camp, No. 1, 2, and 3. Here they had no Hour, and very little meat for about three weeks. He recites the fact, that near this place while on a scout, Logan being in company with Captain Johnny and Comstock, was shot through the body some seventeen miles from camp, and rode in behind the latter and died soon after his arrival in camp. He further says, that about the time they left their camp, a little port was furnished, but that they were still on short rations. Great afflictions were here endured from fevers and other diseases incident to camp life, and many died. On the 25th of De- cember 1812, they left this encampment, and it commenced snow- ing. continuing all day, and fell two feet deep. They reached & point on the bank of the river, and pitched their tents with much difficulty in the deep snow, and enjoyed themselves that night in all the sweets of soldier life. The next day they marched in a body to the head of the Rapids, and encamped and remained there a few days. General Winchester ordered Colonel Lewis to detach about six hundred of his regiment, and move them immediately to the river Raisin, to dislodge the British and Indian forces there encamped, and on the 18th of January, 1813, Colonel Lewis com- menced the assault and drove them from their quarters into the woods, both boligerents suffering great loss in the skermish. Col- onel Lewis returned and occupied the enemy's position within pickets enclosing a Catholic Church, sufficiently large to contain his forces, when he immediately sent a courier to General Winches- ter reporting the victory, which induced the General to order
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another detachment of three hundred to support Col. Lewis, of which Mr. Hamilton was one, and these were cotumandied by the General himself, who arrived and oneamped outside of the pickets.
On the morning of the 22d of January, 1813, the British forces with their Indian allies, were discovered in line of battle; the long roll was soanded, and the American lines were formed, the battle commenced, and was fought with desperation, the enemy having. the vantage ground ; at this juncture Major Graves ordered the second detachment to retreat, and it retreated into the woods, When Col. Lewis role up and requested it to make a stand, that perhaps the fores of the enemy might be broken. The request was complied with ; but before mmy rounds had been fire l, he ex- claimed, "Brother soldiers, wo are surrounded; it is useless to stand any longer ; each take care of himself as best he can."
Here was the beginning of the troubles of John Hamilton, and in my further extract-, I will let him speak for himself, and he says : "I immediately shaped my course southward, and soon discovered I had been singled out by an Indian; I kept about sixty yards ahead of him-so near that we could converse. I was still armed and held him in check, and when I stopped I would tree, he using the same precaution. He could use enough English to say with a beckoning hand, "Come here !" I responded "No !" We remained in this position until I could see an opportunity to make another effort to escape. Then I would prosent my gun in shooting posi- tion as though I would shoot ; this would drive him again to his tree, when I would spring forward and gain another tore. Sprad- ing some time in this way, I discovered I had another pursuer who fired upon me from a western position, and I at once was sat- isfied I could not dodge two-one north and one west-so I made up my mind to surrender to the first to avoid being instantly killed. I leaned my gun against my covert tree and beckoned to the first, and gave myself up to him; the other arriving immedi- ately, demanded a division of spoils, which was settled by No. 2 taking my long knife and overcoat, and he left me the prisoner of No. 1, after showing me his power to scalp me, by the flourish of his knife over my head.
My captor then took me to the rear of the British lines, where we remained by some camp-fires, it being a very cold day, and while at the fire the same Indian that got my over-coat and knife made further claim, which was not so easily settled this time. In
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this controversy between the two, my friend being an Ottawa and theother a Potawatamie they had much difficulty. The Indian No. 2, the Potawatamie, manifested a determination to take my life by actually cocking his gun and presenting it to shoot, when it was again settled by an agreement to take my remaining coat and relinquish all further claim, which was complied with, and I be- came the undisputed prisoner of No. 1, the Ottawa.
At this point a Canadian Frenchman, who was a camp-suttler, beckoned me one side and said if I had any money or other valua- bles that I wished saved he would take charge of them, and at the end of my captivity he would be at Detroit and restore them to me; and if I did not I would be rifled of them; not knowing what to do I yielded. I had a small sum of money, and some other valuables, which I handed to him, but never realized any return. I could not find him at Detroit after my release.
While we remained at the fire, General Winchester and other prisoners passed by, stripped of their honors and apparel, which was the last I saw of my suffering comrades-in-arms; and at this point I also discovered the fight was not over, but the defense within the pickets was still continued by Major Matison, under several repeated charges of the British forces, demanding surren- der; finally, after consultation, he agreed to surrender on the terms that the British would treat all as prisoners of war, protect them from their savage allies, and remove our wounded to Am- herstburg to be properly cared for; but the history of the sequel must supply this part of my narrative.
On the evening of the battle, I as a prisoner with the Indians re- tired to Stony Creek, about four miles eastward; there I was in- formed by an interpreter that I would not be sold or exchanged, but must go with my adopted father, who was the natural father of my captor, to his wigwam, where we arrived after abont nine days' walk in about & northwestern direction, and with whom I remained up to the ist day of January, 1814.
In brevity, I would say I lived with them nearly one year, and endured all the privations and hardships of savage life. And this is saying a great deal in my case, as all the warriors were absent preparing for the intended siege of Fort Meigs, which left the old men, women and children, including myself, without the supply generally provided by hunters, and we were reduced almost to
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starvation much of the time I was with them. I became so re- duced that many times I was almost too weak to walk, by reason of short supplies. My condition really was worse than that of my friends, as I may call them, for they resorted to horse flesh, and even to dog meat, which I could not eat. I do not design to spin out this narrative, or I could present many diversified incidents, that might be considered very interesting."
At this point Mr. Hamilton made some statements which were merely intended as episodes, not intending to add them to this narrative, which I will, however, from memory, try to give in his own language, and it was abont to this effect:
" The family belonging to our wigwam at a time when starva- tion stared them in the face was very agreeably surprised one day, when my old adopted father drew forth from a secret place he had a small sack, and required his whole family then in camp to form a circle around him, myself among them, when he began by open- ing his sack to distribute in equal quantities to each a small meas- ure full of parched corn, and as small as this relief may seem, it was received by us all with great thankfulness, and seemed to ap- pease our hunger. We appreciated it as a feast of fat things.
" This old Indian Patriarch had traits of moral character that would adorn our best civilized and christianized communities ; he was strictly impartial in distributing favors and in dispensing jus- tice to those around him, and was in all respects unquestionably an honest man. His moral sense was of a higher order: he could not tolerate in others any willful obliquity in the shape of decep- tion or prevarication, as I can very readily testify; on one occasion, I had attempted to hold back a fact which I knew affected one of his natural children that he was about to punish for some disobe- dience, and as soon as he became -atisfied of the guilt of theeul- prit and my prevarication, he procured a hickory and applied it upon both of us in equal measure of stripes. This was character- istic of that man of nature's mould."
Here his written narrative is resumed; "Some time in the lat- ter part of November, 1813, the commanding officers at Detroit sent a deputation to our little Indian town, offering terms of peace to the Ottawa Nation or tribe, on condition that they would bring into Detroit their prisoners and horses, which they had captured, and that if these terms were not accepted and complied with in a
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reasonable time, measures would be a lopted to compel a com- pliance.
"A council was shortly afterward called and convened, and the terms proposed were accepted, and complied with, and I was de- livered at Detroit on the first day of January, 1814, to the com- manding officer of the Fort, and there I met with other prisoners and we were all provided for."
Here Mr. Hamilton's captivity ended, and in the continuation of his narrative, he says be found himself three hundred miles from home in the middle of a cold northern winter, thinly elad, and without money. He was here furnished with an order for ra- tions to Urbana, to which place he came andt remained a few days with friends and then left for Winchester, Kentucky; where he ar- rived without any further government aid about the middle of February, 1814, after an absence of nearly twenty months. He fur- ther says, he remained at Winchester a few days, arranged his lit- tle affairs and returned to Urbaniand mod, it his home. Mr. Hamiton's exemplary and religious life is well known to this com- snunity, and here this narrative ends.
LOGAN COUNTIES.
CHAPTER XI.
ADDITIONAL PIONEER SETTLERS.
As so much has been said in regard to the Indians in connection with early pioneer life, during the war of 1812, it might in contin- uation be noted, that soon after the war, our border tribes, the Shaw- nees, Wyandotts and some other remnant tribes, made Urbana a great trading point. In the early Spring, after their hunting sea- son, they might be seen with their squaws and pappooses every few days coming in on North Main Street in large numbers in single file, riding ponies laden with the various pelts-deer skins, both dressed and raw, bear and wolf skins, moccasins highly orna- mented with little beads and porcupine quills; with some times manle sugar cakes and other marketable commodities, all of which they would barter to our merchants for such articles of merchan- dise as they needed for the summer season, or that would please their fancy. And in the fall months the same scenes would be pre- sented in bringing in other commodities, such as cranberries, and such other articles as they hud to dispose of, to barter for powder and lead, preparatory for their hunting season; blankets, hand- kerchiefs, &c., would also be purchased as necessaries for the ap- proaching winter. It was then a com non practice to encamp near town, and as Indians as a general rule were very fond of whisky, they would some times give trouble, and would have to be watched closely. Restraints, from selling or giving them whisky or other intoxicating liquors, were at that day provided by law, and had to be enforced against those who kept them for sale. In that way the Indians could be kept from over indulgence, and by that means the citizens were secured from drunken depre- dations from them.
There might many more pioneer scenes be presented in relation to Urbana and Champaign county, but it is difficult to weave them into the narrative of events in the order in which they occurred, and I will leave them for other pens. The same general remarks that I have delineated in these sketches, in regard to the disposi-
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tion to aid each other, may be applied to the old settlers of this whole community ; the same wild adventures are also equally ap- plicable, and older settlers than myself will be more competent to portray them. I will, however, here state that some other o.d set- tlers' names should be mentioned in connection with early pioneer life in Urbana. Thomas Pearce, father of Harvey, as I am in- formed, before Urbana was located, built and occupied a log cabin on what is now known as market space, and opened a field north of Scioto Street, and cultivated it for some years.
The following additional names may be noted as very early set- tlers in this town : William Bridge, James McGill, James Hulse, Folsom Ford, Joseph Gordon, William Mellon, Samuel Gibbs, Hugh Gibbs, Benjamin Sweet, Martin Hitt, A. R. Colwell, Will- iam McCulloch, William Parkison, Curtis M. Thompson, George Moore, Alexander Allen, and others. At this point it may be noted that Harvey Pearce and Jacob Harris Patrick are believed to be the oldest male settlers now here who were born in Urbana, both of whom are over sixty years old.
Through the kind assistance of Col. Douglas Luce, who has been in Urbana from 1807 to this time, I am enabled to present the following list of old settlers of the township of Urbana. It is to be regretted that it will be impossible to extend to them indi- vidually anything more than the mere names, which will divest them of much interest, as each one of them might be made the subject of interesting pioneer experience. It may be here noted that as other persons who live in the other townships of the county are engaged in presenting the names of old settlers in them, it will supercede the necessity of my extending them be- yond the limits of Urbina township: Samuel Powell, Abraham Powell, John Fitzpatrick, Joseph Knox, James Largent, John Wiley, Joseph Pence, Jacob Pence, William Rhodes, John Thomas, Joseph Ford, Ezekiel Thomas, John Trewitt, George Sanders, Jessie Johnson, Benjamin Nichols, William Cummings, John White, Robert Noe, Robert Barr, Alexander MeBeth, Isaac Shockey, Major Thomas Moore, Thomas M. Pendleton, Elisha Tabor, Bennett Tabor, Tabian Eagle, Job Clevenger, James Dal- las, John Winn, S. T. ITedyes, Jonas Hedges, Rev. James Dunlap, John Pearce, John Da won, Charles Stuart, Christopher Kenaga, Minney Voorhees, Jacob Arney, John G. and Robert Caldwell, Richard D. George, - Wise, (near the pond bearing his name,)
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Thomas Donlin, Isaac Turman, William McRoberts, - Logan, Andrew Richards and Thomas Watt. Many of the above settled in Urbana Township as early as 1801, and all of them before 1820.
These fragmentary and desultory sketches have almost entirely been grouped together from memory, and if some errors as to ex- act dates, and even as to matters of fact, should have crept into them, they must be imputed to that common frailty that is in- separable from humanity. It is believed, however, that as a whole, the statements are all substantially warranted by the facts and circumstances from which they are delineated.
Many things perhaps might have been omitted, and supplied to advantage by others that have been left out. This would be true if the Pioneer Association depended upou the pen of only one in- dividual. But as I understand it, the object is to solicit contribu- tions detailing pioneer life from many writers, and throw them to- gether in such order as to make one collection of facts and inci- dents in relation to the whole subject-matter; the versatility thus united contributing matters of interest to all classes of readers.
I need not therefore continue these sketches, but leave to more proficient pens the task of filling out omissions, and will in that view make this summary remark, that in the sixty-six years, since my first acquaintance with Ohio, great changes have taken place. She had then been recently carved out of a wilderness of limitless extent, called the North Western Territory, and still more recently merged into an infant State Government, containing nine counties, with less population than is now contained in one of our present towns. It was then a wilderness, with here and there a small set- tlement, with a few scattered cabins, surrounded by new openings or clearings, without roads or other conveniences. At a few points small towns were laid off, and a few rustic cabins built; such was Ohio in 1802. Seventy years later, and she presents the panorama now unfurled to our view, and which needs no pen painting sketch, as it is all before us. What a contrast ! And pursuing the thought, let us bring it home, and apply it to Urbana and Champaign county, in 1802, when all the territory from Hamilton county north, to the Michigan territory line, was a vast, unorganized wilderness, abounding with wild game, and the hunting grounds of the In- dians interspersed here and there with small cabins, surrounded with clearings of white adventurers. In 1803, Butler, Warren, Montgomery and Green counties were organized. In 1805 Cham-
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paign county was formed, embracing the territory north from Green county including what are now Clark, Champaign, Logan, Hardin, &c., and the same year Urbana was located as the seat of justice. But extending it six years forward to 1811, we find Urbana as heretofore described containing forty-five rustic log cabin family residences, surrounded with a few hardy adventurers, widely scattered upon wild lands, erecting cabins and opening up clear- ings, and throwing around them brush or pole fences to ward off stock running at large, as a beginning point to farms without any of the facilities of travel or transit. Such was the picture then : What do we behold now ?
This same Champaign county, subdivided into new organiza- tions containing populous towns, and all over dotted with large cultivated farms, upon which fine family residences and conmo- dions barns stand out in bold relief, all over its original limits; and rustic Urbana, advanced from its rude beginning, without any im- provements upon her streets, to a second class city, with well gra- ded and ballasted streets, bordered on each side with substantial pavements, end side walks, and being behind no town of her pop- ulation in railroad faciliti. ; being in telegraphie connection with all the outside world ; and in the midst of a county fully developed in an agricultural point of view ; with a net-work of free pikes in all directions, leading to her marts of trade, and traffic, as an in- ·land commercial center; such is Urbana in 1872, under her present extended area, claiming a population of 5,000 inhabitants, with her public buildings, churches, school edifices, superb business em- poriums, palatial family residences, and surrounded as already in- dicated, by highly cultivated farms, teeming with the products of the soil, in return for the toil and indomitable industry of her first- class citizen farmers.
And now, finally, dear Doctor, I will close these sketches, pre- pared by a nervous hand with a pencil, and which were full of blurs. erasures, and interlineations, abounding in orthographical and other errors, resulting from hasty preparation, by the single ro- mark, that they could not have been presented as they are, had not my grand-daughter, Miss Minnie M., kindly tendered her services in transcribing, correcting and revising them to my acceptance. Therefore if they have any merit in their present dress, she is en- titled to her share of the awards. This deserved tribute she deli- cately declines, and asks to be excused from copying, and for that reason this closing paragraph appears in my own hand writing.
January 22, 1872.
WILLIAM PATRICK.
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HULL'S TRACE.
The following facts in regard to Hull's Trace I obtained from several pioneers that were here and saw Hull when he passed through with his army. I will give the names of some of my in- formants : Judge Vance, of Urbana, John Enoch, Wm. Henry, and Henry McPherson. It was in the year 1812 he took up his line of march from Urbana. Their route was very near the present road from Urbana to West Liberty, a few rods east until they reached King's Creek. About two miles beyond this they crossed the present road and continued on the west until they arrived at Mac- a-cheek, crossing that stream at Capt. Black's old farm. Coming to Mad River, they crossed it about five rods west of the present bridge at West Liberty. Passing through Main street, they con- tinued on the road leading from the latter place to Zanesfield un- til they reached the farm now owned by Charles Hildebrand. Here they turned a little to the left, taking up a valley near his farm. Arriving at Mckees Creek, they crossed it very near where the present Railroad bridge is; thence to Blue Jacket, crossing it about one mile west of Bellefontaine on the farm now owned by Henry Good. They continued their line of march on or near the present road from Bellefontaine to Huntsville. They halted some time at Judge McPherson's farm, now the county infirmary, passing through what is now Cherokee, on Main street, to an Indian village called Solomon's Town, where they encamped on the farm now owned by David Wallace. The trace is yet plain to be seen in many places. Judge Vance informs me there is no timber grow- ing in the track in many places in Champaign county.
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