USA > Ohio > The history of the state of Ohio; from the discovery of the great valley, to the present time > Part 35
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Major Goodale united with the Belpre colony. He was esteemed as one of the most valuable members of the community. When the war with the Indians broke out in 1791, he was one of the most active in planning and erecting Farmer's Castle, and was
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unanimously elected commandant of the garrison. Notwithstand- ing the war which mainly raged far away on the banks of the Maumee, and the Miamis, the colony at Belprè so increased that in the Winter of 1793 more families were assembled there than could be conveniently congregated within the walls of the fort in case of an assault. It was therefore decided to build two additional stock- ades; one a mile and a half below Farmers' Castle, on Major Goodale's farm, and another a little distance above, on Colonel Stone's land, nearly opposite the little Kanawha.
MICH. ENG. CO.
CAPTURE OF MAJOR GOODALE.
Major Goodale removed his family to his new garrison. It was not known that there were any hostile Indians around, and there was no special occasion for watchfulness. But he had been but one week in his new home, when, on the morning of the first day of March, 1793, he went out to work, clearing his farm. A hired laborer, an Irishman by the name of John McGee, accompanied him. They were at work but about forty rods from the house. While John was grubbing up the bushes and small trees, Major Goodale with a yoke of oxen was at a little distance, hauling tim- ber for rails. Suddenly he seemed to vanish, nobody knew how
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or where. No gun was heard, no savage yell was uttered, no In- dians were seen, no marks of a struggle could be found. Major Goodale had disappeared; that was all that was known. No clue whatever could be found. The first intimation that was had of the disaster was by some one in the garrison observing that the oxen were standing idle in the field, with no one near them. An hour passed and still there they stood. This excited surprise and some little alarm. John was still quietly at work, unconscious that anything unusual had happened.
A search was immediately instituted. In the woods, at some little distance from the clearing, there was a light layer of snow which the sun had not yet melted. Here at length was found the imprint of several moccasined feet. This indicated that Indians had been there. But no blood could be seen on the ground, and therefore they inferred that Major Goodale had been very strangely captured, but not killed. A small body of armed men followed the trail for a short distance, but soon lost it. The next day a larger party set out, but returned in discouragement, having learned nothing. Terrible was the distress of Mrs. Goodale and the children. The imagination brooded over the probable fate of the lost man. A deep gloom was thrown over the whole com- munity; for Major Goodale had won the affection and confidence of them all. For six years not the slightest information could be obtained respecting his fate. It seemed as if an awful mystery hung over his destiny, which would never be revealed.
At the treaty of Greenville, when all the captives held by the Indians were given up, no intelligence whatever could be obtained respecting Major Goodale. At length, in the year 1799, Colonel Forest, who was an intimate friend of the Goodale family, was in Detroit, where he fell in with three Indians. They related to him the particulars of their capture of Major Goodale in the Spring of 1793. They said that a party of eight were out on the war-path, watching the settlements for an opportunity to make some attack. They had concealed themselves behind a small ridge in the vicin- ity of Belprè, when they heard a man calling to his oxen.
Cautiously they crept along when his back was turned to them, until they reached a point near which they knew he must soon come, and where he would be out of sight of the man who was work- ing with him. When Major Goodale arrived at that spot, which was just in the edge of the wood, they rushed upon him, seized
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him, and with the uplifted tomahawk, threatened him with instant death should he make the slightest noise. They bound his hands firmly behind him and commenced a rapid retreat. It was their intention to take him to Detroit, where they expected to obtain a large sum for his ransom.
When they reached the Valley of the Sandusky, their captive, exhausted by the hurried journey and mental agitation, fell sick. He was so utterly prostrated that he could travel no farther. They left him at the house of the wife of an Indian trader, a Mrs. Whitaker, where he almost immediately died of pleurisy. Mrs. Whitaker subsequently confirmed this statement. She said that the Indians left him at her house without inflicting any cruelty upon their captive. They had merely adopted such measures as were necessary to prevent his escape. Sad as was the fate of Major Goodale, it was a great relief to his friends to learn that he had not perished beneath the horrors of Indian torture. His memory was for many years affectionately cherished by his asso- ciates, who have now all passed away, and their descendants still honor the many virtues which adorned his character.
Dr. Jabez True was born in Hampstead, New Hampshire, in the year 1762, where his father, a highly educated man and a fine classical scholar, was pastor of the church. Jabez, having been thoroughly instructed by his father, entered upon the study of medicine, and commenced practice in Gilmanton, New Hampshire. Glowing descriptions had reached him, of the new earthly paradise to be found on the banks of the Ohio. He accordingly joined a party of emigrants from Newburyport, Massachusetts, and reached the mouth of the Muskingum early in the Summer of 1788. The country then presented the aspect of quite an unbro- ken wilderness But few white men had as yet entered that region of hostile savages. There was more employment for strong arms to fell the forest and build log cabins than for medical practitioners.
The next year several young men from Boston, came to Mari- etta. They had heard much of the beauty and fertility of the Ohio Valley, and determined to see for themselves. Putting up a log cabin, they commenced clearing the land. But city young men are not often accustomed to swing the ax with sufficient per- severance to be good woodsmen. It is not strange that these laborious employments discouraged some of them, and when the
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wars with the Indians threatened them with the scalping knife, they thought discretion the better part of valor, and returned to Boston.
Dr. True was of a more persevering nature. He had gone to the West with the deliberate intention of spending his life there, and from that purpose he could not easily be turned. His intelli- gence, energy and upright character, soon won for him the confi- dence of the community, and he was appointed assistant surgeon to the Ohio Company's troops. 'As there were several small sta- tions in the vicinity of Marietta, it was necessary that he should be occasionally called from one post to another. These excur- sions, when hostile Indians were prowling about, watching from ambuscades to fire upon every unwary traveler, were at times extremely hazardous. As all these stations at that time were either upon the banks of the Muskingum or the Ohio, Dr. True generally made his trips in a birch canoe, well armed himself, and accompanied by two well armed soldiers.
Early in the Spring of 1792, one of the settlers of Belpre, Mr. Stephen Sherwood, went out one morning, soon after sunrise, to his field at a little distance from the house, but upon the banks of the river. At the same time his wife went to milk a cow which was standing about twenty yards from the gate of the upper block- house. Mr. Sherwood having reached his field, stepped into a thicket to cut an ox goad, intending to plow that day among the young corn. As he was cutting his stick, ten Indians who were waiting in ambush sprang upon him, overpowered him, and made him prisoner. Having bound him firmly, two of them remained to watch their captive, while the other eight stealthily crept down towards his cabin to capture his wife and plunder the dwelling. As Mrs. Sherwood was absorbed in milking, the noise of the milk falling into the pail preventing her from hearing the approach of moccasined footsteps, two of the Indians crept up behind and seized her. She was a strong, muscular woman, fifty years of age, who had always resided on the frontiers. She made such frantic struggles to escape that the savages became alarmed, and relin- quishing their plan of taking her captive, struck her down with the tomahawk, and instantly commenced the operation of taking off her scalp. It was the work of but a moment. Two men, Peter Anderson and Joel Dewey, had just risen from their beds in the block-house, and were putting their rifles in order for a hunt.
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Anderson's gun lay across his knee, and having taken off the lock, cleaned and oiled it, he was about to replace it when he heard the screams of Mrs. Sherwood, and rightly judged the cause.
He clapped on the lock without fastening it with the screws, and sprang up the staircase to fire through a port-hole, should any savage be in sight. He had taken deliberate aim at an Indian, and was just upon the point of firing when the lock dropped from his gun.
At this instant Joel Dewey, whose gun was in good condition, sprang to his side, took deliberate aim at the savage who was scalping Mrs. Sherwood, and shattered with his bullet the arm which was wielding the scalping knife, before the operation was accomplished. The Indians seeing the effect of this shot, and knowing not how soon others might follow it, precipitately fled.
Anderson and Dewey, though there were eight Indians to be encountered, heroically rushed from the block-house, seized the prostrate and insensible Mrs. Sherwood by the shoulders and feet, and brought her in at the gate. The Indians turned and dis- charged a volley of bullets, which fortunately did not strike either of them. The morning was foggy, the Indians were at quite a distance, and the movements of the pioneers were very rapid. Many of the bullets, however, pierced the logs on each side of the doorway.
Mrs. Sherwood remained for some time without any signs of life, having been thoroughly stunned by the dreadful blow. Her head was gashed in the most frightful manner, and the blood had flowed all over her person. At length there were some signs of returning sensibility. A young man took a birch canoe, and with his rifle as his only protection, paddled up the stream to Marietta, which place he reached before nightfall. Immediately Dr. True, ever ready to listen to the call of the distressed, embarked with him, and rapidly through the night they paddled down the stream, reaching the wounded woman in the early dawn of the morning. Under the doctor's kind and skillful care Mrs. Sherwood entirely recovered. Her husband soon after escaped from his captivity, and they lived many years happily together. Dr. True was a sincere Christian, a member of the Congregational Church in Marietta, and for many years one of its honored deacons.
In the year 1792, when the Indians were becoming very trouble- some, and a general war with the savages seemed inevitable, Cap-
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tain William Hubbell, with his family and two or three other families, nine of whom were men, were on the route across the mountains to find a new home somewhere on the banks of the beautiful river. Having reached the Alleghany River in their wagons some forty or fifty miles above Pittsburgh, they purchased one of the large flat-bottomed boats then in vogue for that purpose, and commenced floating down the stream. Rumors had reached them of many hostile acts of the Indians, and they deemed it necessary to practice the utmost caution. Their whole party numbered twenty, there being in addition to the nine men three women and eight children. It was the latter part of March-a lovely season in that genial clime. The streams were swollen by the Spring floods, and swept along with calm, majestic placidity to their final destination in the Gulf of Mexico. The buds were bursting into leaf on the luxuriant hill-sides, and the flowers were beginning to expand in great profusion. Hardly anything can be conceived of as more delightful for one who had the soul to enjoy it, than such a voyage through the luxuriance, silence and sublim- ity of the primeval forest. Water-fowl of varied plumage floated upon the unruffled surface of the stream; turkeys, often in im- mense flocks, were seen in the groves, while buffalo, deer, and other game, were browsing in the distant glades.
They passed by the little cluster of huts beneath the shelter of Fort Pitt, and entered the broad Ohio without encountering any alarm. They were careful to keep in the middle of the stream, and never to land for wood or game except at points where it was manifest that no Indians could lie in ambush. Thus they floated on day after day, enjoying ease and abundance, and feasting their eyes with the scenery opening around them. They made a short tarry at Fort Harmar; another at Gallipolis, where they heard alarming reports of the increasing hostility of the Indians, and of emigrant boats attacked and captured by savages in fleets of birch canoes.
Captain Hubbell, who had been appointed commander of the boat, made every preparation in his power to repel an attack should one be made. All the guns were put in perfect order, loaded and placed in the best position for immediate service. The nine men were divided into three watches for the night. They were to be on vigilant look-out alternately two hours at a time.
We have often had occasion to allude to the utter recklessness
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sometimes practiced by the pioneers, which led to the most awful disasters which might easily have been averted by the exercise of a little prudence. There were now two very distinct classes of emigrants crowding into the boundless fields of the far West. The one class consisted of intelligent, industrious, Christian men and women, such as laid the foundations of Marietta and Cincinnati, and all the other thriving settlements in the Territory of the North- west. Another class consisted of fugitives from justice, broken- down gamblers - profane, lazy and drunken.
On the evening of the 23d of March, Captain Hubbell overtook six boats laden with passengers of the latter description. When he first came in sight of these boats he was greatly rejoiced, thinking that by descending the river in their company, they could easily repel any force which the savages could bring against them. But he soon found to his great disappointment that he had fallen in with a gang with whom he could have no sym- pathies. They were a reckless set of desperadoes, upon whom no reliance could be placed in the hour of danger. They were fiddling, dancing, drinking, swearing, having adopted no precau- tions to repel an attack. Captain Hubbell therefore wisely con- sidered it more hazardous to remain in such company than to be alone. He accordingly ordered his men vigorously to ply their oars, and the midnight revelers were soon left far behind.
One of the boats of this disgraceful fleet, commanded by Cap- tain Greathouse, seemed to have adopted the same opinion with Captain Hubbell. He also left the reckless carousers, and for several miles followed closely in company with Captain Hubbell. But about midnight his crew became weary and fell asleep, and his boat also was left behind in the gloom.
Early in the morning, Captain Hubbell saw far in the distance down the river, a single birch canoe. It was unquestionably occupied by keen-eyed savages, who were on the watch to give notice to a war party of the approach of a boat.
Though no force whatever was to be seen, Captain Hubbell made immediate and vigorous preparations for battle. The force of the current would soon sweep him down to the point where the canoe had been seen, and from which it had disappeared. He ordered the boat to be kept well over on the left side of the river, so as to be out of gun-shot from the shore. Every man had his position, with his gun loaded, and a second one loaded by his
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side. The women and children were directed, as soon as the action should commence, to lie flat on the cabin-floor. Trunks and other baggage were piled up around them, to prevent their being struck by bullets, which might pierce the plank sides of the boat. Scarcely were these preparations completed when a voice from the shore was heard, calling loudly, and in most piteous tones, to come to the shore, and take on board a white man who had escaped from the Indians. No attention whatever was paid to these supplications, for such attempts of the wily Indians to decoy boats were now well known. When the savages perceived that this strategem had failed, the wailing voice of entreaty was changed into the coarsest language of vituperation and insult.
Quite a dense morning mist now covered the stream. But the plash of many distant paddles was heard, and soon three large Indian canoes, each filled with about twenty-five warriors, came rapidly upon the boat through the fog. Every man was in posi- tion. Captain Hubbell seemed as calm as though nothing unusual were occurring.
"Let not a gun," said he, "be fired till the savage is near enough for the flash to singe his eye-brows. Take deliberate aim, and be sure that every bullet shall kill an Indian. Try not to fire simultaneously, but endeavor to keep up such success in discharges that there shall be no interval between them."
Fearful were the odds of seventy-five savage warriors, well armed with rifles, against nine white men. As soon as the canoes arrived within musket shot, a general fire from one of them was given. The bullets fell upon and around the assailed like hail- stones. One bullet struck Mr. Tucker upon the hip, shattering the bone so that the limb hung only by the flesh. Another passed through the side of Mr. Light. With military precision the canoes were brought into action, by placing one at the bows, one at the stern, and the third at the right side of the barge they were assailing. The valiant little crew, now reduced to seven, kept up an incessant fire, every bullet killing a warrior, and sometimes wounding two or three more, as they were crowded closely to- gether in their birch canoes. The Indians seemed to be staggered by this tremendous and unexpected slaughter, every moment costing them the lives of several warriors. Though they kept up a frenzied fire, they were far less deliberate in their aim, and many of their bullets were thrown away.
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Captain Hubbell, having shot an Indian threw down his gun and immediately caught up another, which had fallen from the hands of a wounded man. He was just raising it to his shoulder to throw another bullet into the heart of a foe, when a ball struck the lock of his own gun and carried it away. Very coolly he seized a brand of fire from the caboose and still taking unerring aim applied it to the powder in the pan, and another fell dead in his blood.
In the midst of such awful scenes, minutes are as hours. The Indians for a moment seemed to rally, and on both sides the firing was very vigorous. Captain Hubbell rapidly reloaded his gun, and was for a third time taking aim, when a bullet passed through his right arm. Scarcely had he recovered from the shock, when he saw the Indians from one of the canoes, endeavoring to board the boat at the bows. Here the horses were placed. Some of the Indians in the endeavor to clamber into the boat had actually clasped its side with their hands. Captain Hubbell forgetting his wound, drew a pair of horse pistols in his belt, fired and the foremost Indian was shot dead, crimsoning the water with his blood. Quick as thought the other pistol was discharged, and another warrior fell back in the canoe a corpse. The captain was now left unarmed ; but it so chanced that there was a massive club lying by, which had been brought on board for firewood. He seized it, and in the frenzied strength which the occasion gave, rained down such a tempest of blows upon the head and hands of the Indian, crush- ing some skulls, and breaking some bones, that with yells they gave way, and withdrew the canoe from their terrible assailant.
In the meantime, the deadly fire was continued. Every dis- charge of the musket was the death knell of the Indian. The savages had no protection whatever, but the white men had so barricaded themselves, behind the gunwale of the boat, and were so protected by the baggage, that but a small portion of their bodies was exposed. The Indians having been terribly whipped, and uttering hideous yells of hatred and defiance, gave up the con- test.
But just at that moment the boat of Captain Greathouse hove in sight. The Indians with a simultaneous war whoop turned upon them. They had made no preparation for the fight. In utter consternation, as they viewed the disparity of numbers, and saw the impossibility of resistance, they surrendered without striking a
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blow, undoubtedly thinking, that if taken captive without having slain any of the warriors, they would be spared death by torture. They consequently all fled into the cabin and the Indians making the shores echo with their yells of triumph, with rapid paddles took the boat to land. They immediately tomahawked and scalped the captain and a boy of fourteen.
There were three or four women on board. The savages took these women, placed them in one of their large canoes, which they manned with picked warriors, and again advanced to attack Captain Hubbell's boat. They thought the white man would not venture to fire upon them, when they stood behind a barricade of their country women. A melancholy alternative now presented itself to these brave men. But Captain Hubbell very justly re- marked, that the law of self preservation made duty plain; and that it might not be a calamity to the women, to be rescued by sudden death, from all the cruelties of captivity among the savages.
There were now but four men left on board Captain Hubbell's boat capable of offering any serious resistance. The captain himself had received two severe wounds. But they were all pre- pared for a renewal of the fight. Every gun was loaded, so that the discharges could be more rapid, and the barricades were repaired, so that the Indians could scarcely catch a glimpse of their foes. The battle was short and bloody for the assailants. The bottom of the canoe was soon covered with the bodies of the slain, and they could see no evidence that they were making any impression on the assailed.
With another yell of rage the savages retired, probably to wreak their vengeance upon the captives whom they held. Just then the current swept the boat near the Ohio shore. Again the hopes of the Indians were revived. Four or five hundred were seen rushing down the banks shouting like so many fiends, as the boat was brought within easy rifle shot. There were only two men in the boat, Ray and Plasent, who remained unwounded. They were placed at the oars. The current swept the boat within twenty yards of these howling savages. All on board, except the two rowers, threw themselves flat on their faces, under protection of the gun- wale, and such other articles as they could find. Bullets like hail stones struck the boat. The rowers were so carefully barricaded that they were not hit; but during the short time while the boat was thus exposed, nine bullets were shot into one oar and ten
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into the other. It was about twenty minutes before the rowers suc- ceeded in pushing the boat beyond the reach of the enemy's fire.
In the very midst of this appalling scene one of the wounded. men, Mr. Kilpatrick, saw a powerful Indian chieftain running so near, that he could not resist the temptation to seize his rifle and shoot him. Mr. Kilpatrick was lying by the side of Captain Hub -. bell. The latter warned him of the imprudence of exposing him- self to so terrific a fire. But Kilpatrick, maddened by his wound, rose to shoot; instantly two bullets struck him; one, entered his mouth and passed out at the back of his head, the, other pieced his heart. He dropped a dead man. His two daughters were near by to gaze upon the awful spectacle of their, dead father bathed in blood, lying among the dead horses; for nearly every horse was struck by the bullets, and their convulsive struggles added to the tumult and terror of the scene.
The current again aided the rowers and the boat was borne rapidly down the stream, near the Kentucky shore, beyond the reach of the enemy's balls. The little band assembled to ascer- tain the damages which they had received, and to repair them as far as possible. Under such circumstances it is not a little remark- able that these men of indomitable pluck should, as one of their first acts, have sent back three cheers of defiance upon their maddened and baffled foes. Thus ended the awful conflict. Two men were killed outright, Kilpatrick and Tucker. A third, Stoner, was mortally wounded. Four others had received wounds more or less severe. Two only were uninjured. The women and children had been so carefully protected that none of them had been touched by the bullets, except the son of Mr. Plasket, a lad ten or twelve years of age. The brave little fellow, after the battle was over, came to the captain and very coolly asked him to take a ball out of his head. It was even so. A bullet had passed through the side of the boat, and had struck the boy on the head, with sufficient force to bury itself beneath the skin. It was speedily removed, and then the brave boy said, "This is not all;" and raising his arm, showed where a ball had struck his elbow, splin- tering off a piece of bone which hung only by the flesh. His mother exclaimed, "My son, why did you not tell me of this?" The heroic child replied, "Because the captain directed us to be perfectly silent during the action, and I was afraid if I told you you would make a noise about it."
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