Paint Township (part 6 of 14)

Early Settlement Of The Ohio Valley

The spirit of adventure with which nature has endowed the human species, nowhere manifests itself so conspicuously as in those men of iron muscle, resolute will and indomitable energy, who left forever the abode of peace and plenty, and encountered all the dangers aud endured the privations incident to the opening new homes in the solitudes of the untrodden wilderness.

A strange infatuation seems to impel man to seek new iields of adventure, andthe greater the danger the stronger the impulse spems to be to meet and conquer it. This, in conjunction with seductive hope, though so often realizing the words of Pope, "that man never is but always to be blessed," conduces very materially to the advancement of civilization, and when we take into consideration the cosmopolitan nature of man, we need not wonder that no part of the world, how wild and uninviting soever, remains inviolate. It was this, coupled with cupiditj^, that led the cruel Pizarro to the subjugation of the Incas of l^eru, Cortez to the bloody struggles with the Aztecs, the conquest of Mexico and the extinction of the Montezumas.

The beautiful scenery, fertility of soil and many other advantages with Avhich nature had unsparingly endowed this charming locality, early attracted the eye of the speculator; in addition to which the country had been previously traversed by the soldiers in tlic early Indian campaigns, who, ol^scrving the hixnriant gl-o^vth of vegetation and many natural advantages here presented, related tabnlous accounts of the picturesfpie features offthe Indian possessions. All kinds of fish abounded in the streams, along whose banks many fur bearing animals made their homes, while the forests teemed with deer, and the gobble of the wild turkey blending inharmoniously with the drum of the pheasant and the shrill whistle of the partridge might be heard in the woods from morning till night. Here the hunter and trapper found a paradise. Here he built his cabin and set his traps, and fished in the streams, and hunted in the forests. Ilere^lie roasted his venison, broiled his fish and baked liis Johnny-cake. For all his pelts and furs, he found a ready market at the English .trading house on the Great Miami, and after its destruction in 1752, at Laramie's Store o;i the creek of the same name, which was the emporium of trade throughout the surrounding country until its destruction in 1782, by General G. R. Clarke.

From the records of history it appears that in the settlement of almost all countries the order seems to be : Fir«t, the soldier; second, the hunter and trapper, tlie squatter, surveyor, and finally the permanent settler.

The marks of edged tools on the trees in the Ohio Valley, give evidence that this region, calculating from the subsequent growth of rings, was visited by white men as early as IGGO, nine years prior to the supposed discovery of the Ohio by LaSalle. Tradition also imforms us that in the year 1742, one John Howard sailed down the Ohio in a canoe made of a butfalo skin, and was captured* on the Mississippi by the French. The French, however, as early as 1749, controlled the trade of this- country and sought to establish their title by planting plates of metal at the mouth of every principal stream emptying into the Ohio; one of which was found at the mouth of the Muskingum, bearing date August 16, 1749, a l>articular acecnint of which, by DeWitt C-linton, may l)e found in Am. Ant. Soc, 535. But this puerile attempt utterly tailed; and in the same year the English built a trading house on the Great Miami at the mouth of Laramie's Creek, called Pickawillany. The French, jealous of English intrusion, erected a line of fortifications along the Ohio and towards the lakes, and in 1752 demanded of the Twigtwees the surrender of the trading post mentioned above, which being refused, they, in conjunction with the Ottawas and

Chippewas, captured and destroyed it, killed fourteen Indians and carried the English to Canada, and even burned some at the stake. These traders wePe supposed to have been froni Pennsylvania, from the fact that in Dr. Franklin's history of the same he mentions that this State sent the Twigtwees a gift of condolence for those slain in defense of Pickawillany. Although this battle was participated in by two nationalities, no more serious results flowed from it than a series of diplomatic maneuverings with a view to securing the permanent possession of the debatable lands.

As a matter of special interest, we shall give a brief description of the manner of obtaining, locating, and surveying the territory which we now occupy.

The military warrant upon which the entries were made, were issued by Virginia as bounties to her oflicers and soldiers of the continental line, as well as to General George R. Clarke and his army, and which entitled the holder to the number of acres named therein. These were filed with the principal surveyor, who was paid for receiving them.

The first step towards obtaining land by warrant is by entry, or the appropriation of a specified quantity of land by the owner of the warrant. The next step is the survey, which designates the land by metes and bounds. Surveys were returned to the chief surveyor, with a plat of the land and boundary lines, signed by the deputy surveyor, who executed it, as well as by the chainmen and markers, which was recorded, and together with the sealed certificate of the surveyor and the warrant, were delivered to the owner, who could then obtain a patent from the President of the United States.

Three assistant surveyors, with himself making the fourth, were generally engaged at the same time in making surveys. To each surveyor was detailed six men, which made a mess of seven. Every man had his prescribed duty to perform. Their plan of operations was somewhat thus: In front went the hunter, who kept in advance of the surveyor two or three hundred yards, looking for game, and prepared to give notice should any danger from Indians threaten. Then followed, after the surveyor, the two chainmen, marker, and pack-horse men with the baggage, who always kept near each other, prepared for defence in case of an attack. Lastly, two or three hundred yards in the rear came a man called the spy, wliose duty it was to keep on the back track, and look out lest the party in advance might be })ursued or attacked by sur[)rise. Eacli man, tlie snrve^'or included, carried his rifle, blanket, and such other articles as were necessary on such an occasion. On the packhorse was carried the cooking utensils and provisions that could be conveniently taken. Nothing like bread Avas thought of. Some salt was taken, to be used sparingly. For subsistence they depended solely on the game which the woods aftbrded, procured by their own rifles. Thus was the larger number of the surveys nuide in the Virginia district, and thus was the territory of Fayette surveyed.

Early Surveyors

In the winter and spring of 1787, Major John O'Bannon and. Arthur Fox, two enterprising surveyors of Kentucky, explored the Virginia reservation with a view to making entries so soon as the law would permit. They traversed along the Ohio, Scioto and Miami rivers, as well as many of their tributaries. August 1, 1787, Col. K. C. Anderson, chief surveyor, opened a land oflice, and shortly after large portions of the bottom lands of the Ohio, Scioto and Little Miami were entered. These entries were in violation of the deed of cession by whicli it was provided that the deficiencies of lands southwest of the Ohio should be ascertained and stated to congress. This prohibition was removed in 17^0, aud entries became valid. This region was now greatly coveted, yet many difliculties were in the way - Indian wars, high price of lands, and exorbitant prices required by surveyors.

The pioneer surveyor in this district was Nathaniel Massie, then twenty-seven years old. lie had been in Colonel Anderson's oflice, and was familiar with the details of the business. He had also been in the West for six years. In 1790 he entered iuto an agreement with certain parties for the settlement of Manchester. Col. I\. C. Anderson, the principal surveyor of the Virginia military lands, had control of the land warrants placed in his hands for entry by his companions in arms. A large number of these he gave to Massie to survey and enter upon snch terms as he conlcl arrange with holders. The dangers to be encountered and the desire to locate the best lands enhanced the value of his services, and he therefore was enabled to retain one-third or one-half of the lands located, for his fees.

In 1793 he made an expedition to the Scioto, an enterprise beset with dangers appalling to any other save the intrepid man who determined to face them. Emplo^-ing about thirty men, and choosing John Beasley, l^athaniel Beasley and Peter Lee as assistant surveyors, and Duncan McArthur as chainman, he, in the mouth of October, procured canoes, set out on the perilous undertaking, and proceeded up the Ohio to the mouth of the Scioto, up that river to the mouth of Paint Creek, where they began operations; and surveys were made along the Scioto as far as Westfall, on the main and north branches of Paint Creek, and lioss and Pickaway were explored and partially surveyed. In 1793-4 he resumed his work, and explored Paint and Clear creeks to their sources. It seems tliat no surveys Avere made at this time, the sole object being to obtain fi correct knowledge of the geography and topography of the country. Having thus made himself acquainted with the country, in the winter of 1794-5 he organized a strong body to prosecute the surveying enterprise on an extensive scale. The same assistants were again employed, and fully armed and equipped to contend with the Indians if need be, the party set out from Manchester, taking the route of Logan's trace, halting at a spot on Todd's fork of the Little Miami, called the "Deserted Camp," where they began surveying, moving along the Miami to Oldtown, in Greene County, from which they surveyed along Massie's and Cesar's creeks -nearly to the present line of Fayette. It is said that during this expedition, which was in the winter, the party were without bread for thirty days. A pint of flour was each day given to the mess to thicken the broth in which meat had been boiled. The snow fell to the depth of eight or ten inches. When no immediate danger threatened, these men assembled around the camp tire at night. AYlien night approached, four tires - one for each mess - were made for cooking, around which, till sleeping time arrived, the company passed the hours in social glee, singing songs and telling stories. When danger was not imminent or apparent, they were as merry a set of men as ever assembled. Resting time arriving, Massie always gave the signal and the whole party would then leave their comfortable fires, carrying tlicir blankets, firearms and baggage, and walk in perfect silence two or three lumdred yards from the old camp, scrape away the snow and hnddle down for the night. Each mess formed one bed, spreading on the gronnd one-half of the blankets, reserving the other lialf for covering, which were fastened together by skewers to prevent tliem from slipping off. Thus prepared, the wdiole party, with tlieir riHes in their arms and their pouches for pillows, crouched down, spoon fashion, with three- heads one way and four tlie other, their feet extending to about the middle of their bodies, one nearly solid mass, so that when one turned all turned, or the close range would be broken and the cold let in. In this way they lay till broad daylight, no noise nor scarce a whisper being uttered during the night. . When it was perfectly light, Massie would call up two of the men in wliom he had the most confidence, and send them on a reconnoitering circuit around the fires, lest an ambuscade might have been formed by the Indians to destroy the party as they returned to them. Thus were made the original surveys, thus were the dangers met and overcome, thus was the country wrested from the hand of nature and the initial steps taken toward the perfect development of the present.

The first portion of land entered within the territoi-y of what is now Fayette County, was a part of survey JSTos. 243 and 772 in one ti-act, lying partly in Clinton, extending in a triangle into Fayette, southwest of No. 6,623, in the southwestern part of Concord.

The next is a part of No. 428, extending into the extreme southeastern part of the count}-, and the first survey lying wholly within the county is No. 463^ in the northern and eastern part of what is tiow Madison Township, surveyed for Thomas Overton by John O'Bannon, June 30, 1796 ; John Hamilton and Joshua Dodson, chain carriers, and Edward Mosby, marker. This tract contained 1,333^ acres, and was a part of military warrant No. 44. It was located northwest of the Ohio on Deer Creek, a branch of the Scioto, "Beginning at three white oaks and an elm, southwest corner to James Currie's survey (471) running east 320 poles, crossing Deer Creek at 148 poles to a hickory and two black oaks, southeast corner to Currie, thence south 8, west 597 poles, crossing the creek at 174 poles to a stake, thence north 16, east 615 to the beginning."

Numbering Of Surveys

Ill examining a map of the Virginia Military District, the irregularity of the surveys will be observed, while on the west side of the Little Miami they are regular. All the public lands outside the military district were surveyed regularly, according to act of congress passed May 18, 1796. By this act a surveyor general was appointed, whose duty it was, by himself and through deputies, to survey the unreserved and unpatented public lands, by running north and south lines according to the true meridian, and east and w^est, crossing the former at right angles, so as to form townships each six miles square, and sections each one mile square. On the other hand, lands within the military district were not survej^ed pursuant to any order of government at any particular time, nor in accordance with any definite plan.

The land was entered by persons holding land warrants, issued by the State of Virginia to her soldiers in the continental army, and in the army of General George Rodgers Clarke. In the majority of cases the original owners of these Warrants did not themselves enter the lauds, but other parties purchasing them, in many instances one person purchasing a number of them, located the aggregate amount in one or more tracts in whatever part of the territory he chose, provided it had not been previously entered. It was necessary only that it should be surveyed by a surveyor regularly and legally authorized to perform this work. These surveys were numbered in the order in which the tracts of land surveyed were entered, the survey taking its number from the entry. It frequently occurs that a survey having a higher number was nuide at a much earlier date than that having a lower number; but in every case the tract having the lower number was entered first. Thus, survey No. 463 was surveyed June 30, 1796, while survey No. 932 was surveyed March 18, 1794, nearly two years prior to No. 463.

By examining a map of this district, it will be observed, also, that some surveys have several numbers. Thus: John Nichols, Nos. 6281 and 6332, in Concord; Nos. 7267, 7657, and 7890, for northern part of Paint. In these, we observe in the first, two, and in the two latter, three difierent entries, all surveyed into one tract.

Conversely, we also observe in many cases, the same number of entry surveyed into two tracts. Thus, entry No. 669, (;f 1,000 acres, was surveyed into two tracts, one of 600, for Daniel Clark, and the other of 400 acres, for James Dougherty, found in the southern part of Wayne Township. These were surveyed by j^athaniel Massie, Itotli on the same day, March 13, 1795; returned to the land oftice, examined and recorded, the former July 3, the latter July 4, 1795. In looking over the old records of these surveys, two dates will be noticed; for instance, in No. 463, June 30, 1796, July 8, 1796. The survey wlieu made was dated, then returned to the land office, examined, and recorded at the time of the second date.

First Settlement Upon The Virginia Reservation

In the winter of 1790, Nathaniel Massie, in order to be in the center of his surveying operations, determined to make a settlement within the reservation. Accordingly, he olfered each of the first twenty -live families in Kentucky, one in and one out lot, and one; hundred acres of land, provided they would settle in a town he intended laying off. To this proposition more than thirty families acceded. After some consultation, the bottom on the Ohio, opposite the lower of the Three Islands, was chosen, the station fixed and laid off into lots, which i.s now known as Manchester, in Adams County, about twelve; miles above Maysville, Kentucky. The only neighboring settlements at this time were Columbia, below the mouth of the Little Miami, eight miles from Cincinnati, and the French settlement of Gallipolis, near the mouth of the Creat Kanawha.

In the spring of 1795 an abortive attempt to locate a town in this valley, was made by Nathaniel Massie. In ]SIarch, 1796, %notlier party, under the same leader - some going by way of the Ohio, and up the Scioto in boats, while others went by land - met at what is since known as Dutch Station, at the mouth of Paint Creek, and, and on the first of April they began to erect cabins and plant their crops. In the meantime, Massie had selected a location for the town on a large tract of land owned by himself, and containing two hundred and eighty-seven in and one hundred and sixty-nine out lots. After the boundaries of the lots, streets, and alleys were defined by blazing the trees, the embryo city was named Chilli cotlie.

Capture Of Andrew Ellison

One beautiful spring morning a thrilling incident occurred in the little station of Manchester, which threw the settlement into consternation ; and as the parties concerned belonged to and passed through this region of country, and likely from the route taken through this comity, we insert it here :

One morning Ellison Avent out from the fort to throw some logs together in his little clearing, which he had been burning. When he had about finished, and the heaps began to blaze, he observed, while passing from one to the other, three men approaching him. Supposing them to be some of his neighbors he paid no attention to them, although, said he, "they were dark-skinned fellows, I thought they were the Wades, who were dark skinned, going out early to hunt." He continued his work until one of them seized him by the arms and said in broken English, " How do ; how do, broder ?" He immediately whirled, and on facing them to his horror found himself in the clutches of three stalwart Indians. Resistance was both useless and dangerous. He therefore quietly submitted to his fate. They hurridly moved off with him in the direction of Paint Creek. In the meantime his breakfast was ready at his cabin, and his wife sent one 6f the children to summons him. The little fellow searched for his father, but came back without finding him. Supposing he had gone out to kill a deer, no immediate alarm was caused by his absence. Dinner time arrived, and his continued absence caused unneasiness to his now anxious wife. His rifle was found hanging in its accustomed place. The alarm increasing, a search was instituted, and the tracks of foi*r men, one of whom wore shoes, was found, leading away from the station, and the awful truth burst upon the poor wife and mother that her husband was a prisoner in the hands of the savages. It was nearly night when this discovery was made, and the party returned to the station. Early the next morning Massie and his party started in pursuit, which, owing to the scarcity of vegetation, and the percaution of the wily savages to keep on high, hard lands, where their feet would leave little or no impression, was slow and laborious. But Massie and his men were as unerring as well-trained blood-hounds, and followed the trail to Paint Creek, when finding the Indians gaining on them so rapidly that further pursuit was useless, they returned to the station. The Indians took their prisoner directly to Upper Sandusky - evidently passing through the territory of this county - where he was compelled to run the gauntlet, and being large and clumsy he received a severe flogging as he passed through the lines. After this he was taken to Lower San'dusky, where he ran the gauntlet again ; then to Detroit, where he was generously ransomed by a British officer, who sent him to Montreal, whence he came home during the summer of the same year.

"Immigrants poured in from dilFerent parts, cabins were put up in every direction, and women^ children, and goods, tumbled into them. The tide of immigration flowed like water through a breach in a mill-dam. Everything was bustle and confusion, and all at work that could work. In the midst of all this the mumps, and perhaps one or two other diseases, prevailed, and gave us a seasoning. Our cabin had been raised, covered, part of the cracks chinked, and part of the floor laid, when we moved in on Christ- .mas day. There had not been a stick cut, except in building the cabin. We had intended an inside chimney, for we thought the chimney ought to be in the house. We had a log put across the whole width of the cabin for a mantel; but when the floor was in we found it so low as not to answer, and removed it. Here was a great change for my mother and sister, as well as the rest, but particularly my mother. She was raised in the most delicate manner, in and near, London, and lived most of her time in affluence, and always comfortable. She was now in the -wilderness, surrounded by wild beasts, in a cabin with half a floor, no door, no ceiling overhead, not even a tolerable sign for a fire-place, the light of day and the cliilling winds of night passing between every two logs in the building; the cabin so high from the ground that a bear, wolf, panther, or an}^ other animal less in size than a cow, could enter without even a squeeze. Such was our situation on Thursday and Thursday night, December 25, 1800, and which was bettered but by very slow degrees. We got the rest of the floor laid in a very few days; the chinking of the cracks went on slowly,' but the daubing could not proceed till weather more suitable, which happened in a few days ; doorways were sawed out, and steps made of the logs, and the back of the chimney w^as raised up to the mantel, but the funnel of sticks and clay was delayed until spring. Our family consisted of my mother, a sister of twenty-two, my brother, near twenty-one and very weakly, and njyself, in my eleventh year. Two years afterward black Jenny followed us, in company with my half-brother Richard and his family. She lived two years with us in Ohio, and died in the Avinter of 1803-4.

"In building our cabin, it was set to front the north and south, my brother using my father's pocket compass on the occasion. We had no idea of living in a house that did not stand square with the earth itself. This argued our ignorance of the comforts and conveniences of a pioneer life. The position of the house, end to the hill, necessarily elevated the lower end, and the determination of having a north and south door added much to the airiness of the domicil, particularly after the green ash puncheons shrunk so as to have cracks in the iloor and doors from one to two inches wide. At both the doors we had high, unsteady, and sometimes icy steps, made by piling up the logs cut out of the wall. We had, as the reader will see, a window (if it could be called a window, w^hen, perhaps, it was the largest spot in the top, bottom, or side of the cabin at which the wind could not enter). It wjis made by sawing, out a log, placing sticks across, and then, by pasting aji old newspaper over the hole, and applying some hog's lard, we had a kind of glazing which shed a most beautiful and mellow light across the cabin when the sun shone on it. All other light entered at the doors, cracks, and chimney. Our cabin w'as 24x18. The west end was occupied by two beds, the center of each side by a door, and here our symmetry had to stop; for on the opposite side of the window, made of clapboards, supported on pins driven into the logs, were our shelves. Upon these shelves my sister displayed, in ample order, a host of pewter plates, basins, d;shes, and spoons, scoured and bright. It was none of your new-fangled pewter, made of lead, but the best London pewter, on which you could hold your meat so as to cut it Avithout slipping, and without dulling your knife. But, alas ! the days of pewter plates and sharp dinner knives have passed, never to return. -

Life In The Woods

above, Ave could asceiul. Our chimney occupied most of the east end; pots and kettles opposite the window, under the shelves; a gun on hooks over the north door; five split-bottom chairs, threelegged stools, and a small 8x10 looking-glass sloped from the wall over a large towel, and a pair of tongs, made in Frederick, with one shank straight, as the best manufacture of pinchers and bloodblisters, completed our furniture, except a spinning-wheel, and such things a;S were necessary to work. It was absolutely necessary to have three-legged stools, as four legs of anything could not all touch the floor at the same time.

"The completion of our cabin went on slowly. The season was inclement; we were weak-handed and weak-pocketed; in fact, laborers were not to be had. We got our chimney up breast high. Our house never was daubed on the inside, for my sister, who was very nice, would not consent to "live right next to the mud." My impression now is, that the window w^as not constructed till spring, for until the sticks and clay were put on the chimney, we could possibly have no need of a window, for the flood of light which always poured into the cabin from the fire-place would have extinguished our paper window, and rendered it as useless as the moon at noonday. We got a floor laid overhead as soon as possible, perhaps in a month ; but when it was laid the reader will readily conceive of its imperviousness to wind or weather, when we mention that it was laid of loose clapboards, split from a red oak, the stump of which may be seen beyond the cabin. That tree gree grew in the night, and so twisting, that should each board be laid on two diagonal I3' opposite corners, a cat might have shook every board on our ceiling.

" It may be well to inform the unlearned reader that clapboards are such lumber as pioneers split with a frow, and resemble barrel staves before they are siiaved, but are split longer, wider, and thinner; of such our roof and ceiling were made. Puncheons were plank made by splitting logs to about two and a half or three inches in thickness, and hewing them on one or both sides with the broad-ax; of such our floors, tables and stools were manufactured. The eave-bearers are those end logs which project over to receive the butting-poles, against which the lower tier of clapboards rest in forming the roof. The trapping is the roof timbers, composing the gable end and the ribs, being those logs upon which the clapboards lie. The trap-logs are those of unequal length above the eave bearers, which form the gable ends, and upon which the ribs rest. The Aveight-i>olos are those small logs laid on the roof. The knees are pieces of heart timber, placed above the bntting-poles successively, to prevent the weight-poles from rolling

"The evenings of the iirst winter did not pass oiF as pleasantly as evenings afterward. We had raised no tobacco to stem and twist, no corn to shell, no turnips to scrape; we had no tow to spin into rope yarn, nor straw to plait for hats, and we had come so late we could get but few walnuts to crack. We had, however, the Bible, Georo-e. Fox's Journal, Berkeley's Apology, and a number of books, all better than much of the fashionable reading of to-day, from which, after perusing, the reader finds he has gained nothing, while his understanding has been made the dupe of the writer's fancy - that while reading he had given himself up to be led in mazes of fictitious imaginations, and losing his taste for solid reading, as frothy luxuries destroy the appetite for wholesome food. To our stock of books were soon afterward added a borrowed copy of the Pilgrim's Progress, which we read twice through without stopping. The first winter our living was truly scanty and hard; but even this winter had its fehcities. We had part of a barrel of flour which we had brought from Fredericktown. Besides this, we had part of a jar of hog's lard brought from old Carolina ; not the tasteless stuff which now goes by that name, but pure leaf lard, taken from hogs raised on pine roots and fattened on sweet potatoes, and into which, while rendering, were immersed the boughs of the fragrant bay tree, which imparted to the lard a rich flavor. Of that flour, shortened with this lard, my sister, every Sunday morning, and at iw ofhrr time, made short biscuit for breakfast; not those greasy, gumelastic biscuit we mostly meet with now, rolled out Ivith a pin, or cut out with a cutter, or those that are, perhaps, speckled with or pufi'ed up with refined lye called salaratus, but made out, one by one, in her fair hands, placed in neat juxtaposition in a skillet or spider, pricked with a fork to prevent blistering and baked before an open fire - not half baked and half stewed in a cooking stove.

" In the ordering of a good Providence the winter was open, but windy. While the wind was of great use in driving the smoke and ashes out of our cabin, it shook terribly the timber standing almost over us. W^e had never seen a dangerous looking tree near a dwelling, but here we were surrounded by the tall giants of the forest, waA'ing their bongbs and iiniting their brows over us, as if in defiance of our disturbing their repose and usurping their long and uncontended pre-emption rights. The beech on the left often shook his bushy head over us as if in absolute disapprobation of our settling there, threatening to crush us if we did not pack up and start. The walnut over the spring branch stood high and straight; no one could tell which way it inclined, but all concluded that if it had a preference, it was in favor of quartering on our cabin. We got assistance to cut it down. The axeman doubted his ability to control its direction, by reason that he must necessarily cut it almost off before it would fall. He thought by felling the tree in the direction of the reader, along near the chimney, and thus favor the little lean it seemed to have, would be the means of saving the cabin. He was successful. Part of the stump still stands. These, and all other dangerous trees, were got down without other damage than many frights and frequent desertions of the premises by the family while the trees were being cut. The ash beyond the house crossed the scorf and fell upon the cabin, but without damage.

"The monotony of the time for several of the first years was broken and enlivened by the howl of wild beasts. The wolves howling around us seemed to mourn their inability to drive us from their long and undisputed domain. The bears, panthers and deer seemingly got miffed at our approach, or the partiality of the hunters, and but seldom troubled us. One bag of meal would make a whole family rejoicingly happy and thankful then, when a loaded East Indiaman will fail to do it now, and is passed off as a common business transaction without ever once thinking of the Giver, so independent have we become in the short space of forty years ! Having got out of the wilderness in less time than the children of Israel, we seem to be even more forgetful and unthankful than they. When spring was fully come, and our little patch of corn, three acres, put in among the beech roots, which at every step contended with the shovel-plow for the right of soil, and held it, too, we enlarged our stock of conveniences. As soon as bark would run (peel off) we could make ropes and bark boxes. These we stood in great need of, as such things as bureaus, stands, wardrobes or even barrels, were not to be had. The manner of making rope of linn bark, was to cut the bark into strips of convenient length, and water-rot it in the same manner as rotting flax or hemp.

When this was done the inside bark would peel off and split np so fine as to make a considerably rough and good-for-but-little kind of a rope. Of this, however, we were very glad, and let no ship owner with his grass ropes laugh at us. We made two kinds of boxes for furniture. One kind was of hickory bark with the outside shaved off. This we would take off all around the tree, the size of which would determine the calibre of our box. Into one end we would place a flat piece or puncheon, cut round to fit in the bark, which stood on end the same as when on the tree. There was little need of hooping, as the strength of the bark would keep that all right enough. Its slirinkage would make the top unsightly in a parlor now-a-days, but then they were cousidered quite an addition to the furniture. A much finer article was of slippery elm bark, shaved smooth, and with the inside out, bent round and sewed together where the ends of the hoop or main bark lapped over. The length of the bark was around the Idox, and inside out A bottom was made of a piece of the same bark, dried flat, and a lid like that of a common band-box, made in the same way. This was the finest furniture in the ladies' dressiug-room, and then, as now, with the finest furniture, the lapped or served side was turued to the wall, aud the prettiest part to the spectator. They were usually made oval, and while the bark was green were easily ornamented with drawings of birds, trees, etc., agreeable to the taste aud skill of the fair manufacturer. As we belonged to the Society of Friends, it may be fairly presumed that our band-boxes were not thus ornamented.

"We settled on beech land, which took mucli labor to clear. We coukl do no better than to clear out the smaller stuiF, and burn the brush, etc., around the l)eeches, which, in spite of the girdling and burning which we could do to them, would loaf out the first year, and often a little the second. The land, however, was very rich, and would bring better corn than might be expected. We had to tend it with the hoe; that is, to chop down the nettles, the waterweed, and the touch-me-not. Grass, coreless, lambs-quarter, and Spanish needles, were reserved to pester the better prepared farmer.

" We cleared a small turnip-patch, which we got in about the 10th of August. We sowed in timothy seed, which took well, and the next year we had a little hay besides. The tops aud blades were also carefully saved for our horse, cow, aud two sheep. The turnips were sweet and good; and in the fall we took care to gather walmits and liickory-mit.^, which were ahiiiuhint. These, with the turnips, which we scrajied, supplied the phice of fruit. I liave always been partial to scraped turnips, and could noAV beat any three dandies scraping them. Johnny-cake, also, when we liad meal to make it of, helped to make up our eyening's repast. The Sunday morning biscuit had all eyaporated, but tlie loss was partially supplied by the nuts and turnips. Our regular supper was mush and milk, and liy the time we had shelled our corn, stemmed tobacco, and plaited straw to make hats, etc., the mush and milk had seemingly decamped from the neighborhood of our ribs. To relieye this difficulty, my brother and I would bake a thin Johnnycake, part of which we would eat, and leaye the rest till morning. At daylight we would eat the balance as we walked from the house to work.

"The methods of eating mush and milk were yarious. Some would sit around the pot, and eyery one take therefrom for himself. Some would set a tal)le, and eacli haye liis tin cup of milk, and with a pewter spoon take just as mucli mush from the dish or pot, if it were on the table, as he thought would till his mcMitli or throat, then lowering it into the milk would take some to wash it down. This method kept the milk cool, and by frequent repetitions the pioneer would contract a faculty of correctly estinuiting tlie proper amount of each. Others would mix mush and milk together.

"To get grinding done Ayas often a great difficulty, by reason of the scarcity of mills, the freezes in winter, and drouths in summer. We had often to manufacture meal [irlioi ire JkkI rnni) in any way we could get the corn to pieces. We soaked and p(Minded it: we shayedit; we planed it; and, at the proper season, we grated it. Wlien one of onr neighbors got a hand-mill, it was thought quite an acquisition to the neighborhood. In after years, when in time of freezing or drouth we could get grinding by waiting for our turn no more than one day and a night at a horse-mill, Ave thought ourselves happy. To saye meal, we often made pumi>kin bread, in Avhich, when meal Avas scarce, the pumpkin Avould so predominate as to render it next to. impossible to tell our bread from that article, either l)y taste, looks, or the amount of nutriment it contained. Salt Avas tiA'e dollars per bushel, and Ave used none in our corn bread, Avhich Ave soon liked as Avell Avithout it. Often has the SAveat run into my mouth, Avhich tasted as fresh and Hat as distilled

" We had no candles, and cared but little about them, except for summer use. In Carolina we had the real fat light wood - not merely pine knots, but the fat, straight pine. This, from the brilliancy of our parlor, of winter evenings, might be supposed to put, not onlj-^ candles, lamps, camphene, Greenough's chemical oil, but even gas itself, to blush. In the West we had not this, but my business was to ramble in the woods every morning for seasoned sticks, or the bark of the shelly hickory, for light. 'Tis true that our light was not as good as even candles, but we got along without fretting, for we depended more upon the goodness of our eyes than we did upon the brilliancy of the light."

Indian Wars

In the country northwest of the Ohio, many tribes of Indiana roamed at large through the primitive forests, imbued, by the incursions of the white man, with feelings of bitter hostility towards any further progress of his hated enemy, among whom were the Deiawares on Beaver Creek, Cuyahoga and Muskingum, whose towns contained about GOO individuals ; about 300 Shawanoes who dwelt on the Scioto, Muskingum and adjoining country , the Twigtwees, Piankeshaws and Miamis, dwelling along the Miami river audits tributaries, all of whom looked with a jealous eye upon the advancing tide of immigration, which was so soon to convert his liunting grounds into waving fields of grain, and replace his wigwam by the more imposing structures of civilization. "We need not wonder therefore, that upon every provocation, how slight so-ever, his ever ready tomahawk sought its victim, his knife leaping from its sheath to circle round the head of his eneni}-.

The rival claims of England and France for the possession of the country, graduall}^ led to a long and bloody war, involving the colonies and Indian tribes, who espoused the cause of the nation offering the strongest inducement.

As early as 1749, the whole Miami valley became the arena of sanguinary contention between the two nations and their Indian allies, on both sides. The French rested their claims upon the explorations of Marquette and La Salle, actual occupation, and the construction of the treaties of Ryswick, Utrecht, and Aix La Chapelle ; while on" the other hand, the English claimed prior occupation, a construction of the same treaties favorable to them, and direct cession by the Aboriginal owners. Their discovery conveyed no equitable ownership, however, and was disregarded by both powers. The Indian title being totally ignored, led them to inquire : "Where are the Indian lands, since the French claim all on the north side of the Ohio, and the English all on the south side of it?"

The English colonies were agricnlturalists, and of a permanent nature ; while the French were mostly traders, soldiers, and missionaries. Tlius it followed, that the French hecame, through miscegenation, more thoroughly incorporated with the Indian tribes, and wielded a greater influence over them than the English; giving rise to the old proverb, that the "French knew how to give gifts to the Indians." Through her traders and missionaries, therefore, France was familiar with all the Indian tribes before theEngHsh explored beyond the mountains. The French, perfectly cognizant of the vast wealth of the new country, and the lucrative traffic to be carried on with the Indians, were induced at an early period to establish a line of quasi military trading posts among the Indians on the Ohio and its tributaries, and to preserve the possession so obtained, they began the erection of forts extending from Canada to Louisiana. To counteract this bold step of the French to possess themselves of the country and its rich resultant emoluments. England gave to an association of gentlemen in Great Britain and Virginia, (under the title of the "Ohio Land Company") the privilege of locating and holding in their own right and title, 600,000 acres of land within the country then under contention between England and France. In pursuance of this arrangement, according to Western Annals, in the fall of 1720, the Ohio Company sent out Christopher Gist with instructions to examine the passes, trace the courses of the rivers, mark the falls, seek for the most valuable lands, observe the strength, and conciliate the Indian tribes. Accordingly he visited Logstown. Received with jealousy, he proceeded to the Muskingum, found a village of Ottawas friendly to the French, and a village of Wyandots divided in sentiment. Next he passed to the Shawanoes towns on the Scioto, was assured of their friendship, then crossed the Miami Valley, reporting that "nothing was wanting but cultiva- ' tion to make it a most delightful country." The land was secretly surveyed, locations made in the most valuable sections, the Indians were conciliated, and trading posts were established. The true motives of the company were soon revealed through cupidity and jealousy, and tlie French actually seized and imprisoned the English traders, and estal)lished a line of military posts from Presque Isle to the Ohio river. Following this, at the suggestion of Washington, the Oliio Company erected a stockade at the confluence of the Monongahela and Alleghany; before the work was complete however, they were dispersed by the French, who took possession of the place, and erected Fort du Quesne. These hostile movements were follow-

Indian Wars

The defeat of Braddock opened the flood-gates for the inroads of the savages along the borders of the northwest, who murdered and scalped the colonists in the valleys by the scores during the years 1755, 1756, and 1757.

In 1758, expeditions were sent out to capture Fort Du Quesne. On approaching it, the French set lire to it and retired. The English took possession, rebuilt it, and named it Fort Pitt, now Pittsburgh. This rendered feasible the scheme of Pitt for the reduction of Canada. Predeaux was to attack Niagara, Amherst, Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and Wolf, Quebec, which latter surrendered September 18, 1759, and gave Canada to the English. During this, the tide of emigration was slowly pushing further into the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia, and traders once again entered the wigwams of the Indians, who anxiously watched the movements of the two nations.

With the surrender of Fort Du Quesne and Niagara, open hostilities between England and France ceased in the west. On the 8th of September, 1760, Canada was surrendered to the English. On the fuilure of peace negotiations, France and Spain united to check the advance of English power, which proving futile, a treaty of peace was signed November 3, 1762, and ratified at Paris, February, 1763, at which, to retain Havana, Spain ceded Florida to England, and to reinstate Spain, France secretly ceded all of Louisiana west of the Mississippi to Spain.

While the casus bdli between the two nations was settled, the Indians, who had generally espoused the cause of France, were by no means satisfied. In the breast of the Indian, the seeds of hatred for the English, early sown by the French, took ready root, and, nurtured by the same, grew into implacable animosity; therefore the task of spreading her authority over the savage hordes of the west, and securing peace to the colonies, was both difficult and dangerous. Foreseeing the inevitable destruction of his peo[)le unless the French were victorious, and the English driven from the soil, in 1762 the great Ottawa chief, Pontiac, sent messengers, with black wampum and red tomaliawk, to all the surrounding tribes, notifying them that on a certain day a simultaneous attack would be made on all the Enghsh posts, followed by a general onslaught upon the whole border. Pursuant to this, a grand council was held April 27, 1763, at the river Ecorces, at which Pontiac delivered a fiery speech, appealing to tlieir superstition, their manhood, and their hravery, and portrayed the wrongs they had suftered. The chiefs hstened, and burned for revenge ; the day was set, and each tribe eagerly awaited the bloody moment.

The history of Detroit, Major Gladwin, the l)eautiful Ojil^away girl through her love revealing the plans of the Indians, the shortened guns, the entrance of Pontiac and his chiefs, their apprehen- . sions at the bristling appearance of the garrison, the signal of the wampum, the click of the revolvers, rattle of swords, and consternation of the baffled Indians, are well known to every school-boy, who has laughed in his sleeve to see the Indians, who came in with so much pomp, go out with so much humiliation. The mask was thrown oif, and a furious attack began, but unavailing. ISTot so with the other posts. At Fort Sandusky, St. Joseph, Oniatenon, Miami, Presque Isle, and Mackinaw, they gained access under pretext of a game of ball, called baggataway. Only one escaped from Green Bay, Lieutenant Garell. Meanwhile war raged along the borders with savage cruelty.

Colonel Bouquet was sent to the relief of Fort Pitt, then closely beseigcd. Heaching Carlisle July 1, 1763, he found the people in a panic, huddled together, and without provisions. After . eighteen days spent in relieving them, he resumed his march toward Bushy Eun, where he was suddenly attacked by an overwhelming force of Indians. In vain did he charge, and drive them back. From behind trees and rocks they poured in an invisible yet destructive fire, until defeat seemed inevital^le. The genius of Bouquet saved them. Two companies were ordered to fall back, as if retreating. Two others were to lie in ambush. The Indians rushed upon the retreating column, when they received a heavy fire in flank, followed by a bayonet charge, which totally routed them. This closed the war during this year.

The next spring Pontiac again laid seige to Detroit. Bradstreet and Bouquet were sent against him. The former was duped by a pretended treaty. The same ruse was attempted upon Bouquet, but he treated their delegates as spies, and informed them that if they delivered all their prisoners in ten days, they might hope for peace, otherwise he would show no mercy. His terms were instantly complied with, and a permanent peace was established.

The appearance of security and immunity from danger which succeeded this treaty of 1765, contributed to the advancement of prosperity all over the northwestern frontiers. The necessity of con- gregating in forts and block-houses no longer existing, each family enjoyed the pleasures of its own fireside, undisturbed by apprehensions ol danger from the bloodthirsty savage. No longer did they cultivate their little patches in common, with tomahawks in theij" belts, and rifles attached to tl#ir plow-beams. They could sow, expecting to reap ; and this feeling of safety increased their prosperity, and encouraged others to join them. As a consequence, immigration flowed in, and settlements sprang up in the forests.

This peaceful condition of things, however, received a check in 1774, caused, in the main, by the gradual encroachment of the whites upon Indian territory. This (Lord Dunmore's war), after much bloodshed, was brought to a close, principally through tlie agency of the celebrated chief. Cornstalk, after the decisive battle of Point Pleasant, October 10, 1774.

This leads us up to the Revolution, when again the Indians, or, as Lord Chatham truly said, the " horrible hounds of war, torturing, murdering, devouring, drinking the blood of their mangled" victims," were let loose itpon the defenseless frontiers.

Inasmuch as the principal depredations in this war were committed in this region by the Shawanoes Indians, then located upon the Scioto, Mad, and Little Miami rivers, a brief resume of their histoi^y may not be uninteresting. The Shawanoes were known as the most warlike nation of the great Algonquin family. This family seemed to have possessed a language almost uniform throughout all the tribes. The Algonquins are supposed to have numbered at one time not less than 90,000. It is said that the language was very complex, yet capable of loft^ flights of oratory, beautiful rhetorical figures, and ill-adapted to light and trifling speech.

The Shawanoes were very nomadic, therefore their history is somewhat obscure. We hear of them as early as the advent of John Smith, 1607. They were then on the Susquehanna. In 1632 they were on the Delaware. The Swanee, or Suawanee River, in Florida, derives its name from them. From these many conflicting accounts, we are to suppose that originally they were one great tribe, but, by war, became separated into subdivisions, which, after many years wandering, were again reunited. We have an authentic account from their noted chief, Blackhoof, who told Colonel John Johnston, of Piqua, that he well remembered having bathed on the Florida beach. It is evident that they came from the south, under the leadership of Blackhoof, to the Miami Valley, and established themselves, about 1770, in the neighborhood of the Little Miami,

Scioto, and Mad Kiver vadeys. lu Lord Duiimore's war, the Sliawauues took aii active part, under the great and noble chief, Cornstalk. After his defeat hy General Lewis, he sued for peace, and ever after was the firm friend of the whites, and by them Avas cme'ly murdered, even while under their prWection on a mission of [leace. It appears that about 1770 the Shawanoes made their headquarter.; at Old Chillicothe (now Oldtown, on the Little Miami, in this county). It was here that Captain Bullitt visited them, in 1773. It was hero that Simon Kenton ran the gauntlet, in 1776. (Vid. Xenia Township.) It was here that Daniel Boone was taken, with twenty-seven others, in 1778. (See, also, Xenia Townshi}>.) Having now narrowed the horizon of our observations to that portion of territory circumscribed by the Ijoundaries of Greene County, we shall proceed more specifically to narrate the events that transpired within her borders.

In the autumn of 1779, a number of keel-boats were ascending the Ohio, commanded by Major Kogers. When they had advanced as far as the Licking, they observed a few Indians flpon a sand-bar, while a canoe, with three savages, was in the act of putting oft" from the Kentucky shore, evidently to bring them over. Instantly making his boats fast to the Kentucky shore, and cautiously lan'ding his men, ke sought to attack them unawares, but was discovered, furiously attacked, and his whole force almost totally destroyed, only two or three escaping to convey the doleful tidings to the settlements. As their capital, Chillicothe (now OldtoAvn), was within reach of retaliation, an expedition, in 1779, under Colonel Bowman, with Colonel Benjamin Logan second* in command, was littcd out against the Shawanoes, to strike a blow at Chillicothe. They left Harrodsburg in July, and took their preliminary measures so well, that they arrived within a mile of Chillicothe without giving the slightest alarm to the enemy.

Here the detachment halted at an early hour in the night, and, as usual, sent out spies to examine the condition of the village. Before midnight they returned with the intelligence that the enemy remained unapprised of their presence in the vicinity, and were resting in a state of unmilitary security. Upon the receipt of this, the army was instantly put in motion. It was determined that Logan, with one half the connnand, sliould march around the town on the left, while Bowman, with tlic remaining forces, was to make a corresponding movement (Hi the right. Both should gro[)e their way through the woods with profound silence until tliey met on the opposite sides, when the attack was to commence. Logan having completed his part of the* maneuver, stationed his men behind trees, logs, and stones, and awaited in silence and extreme anxiety the preconcerted signal of attack. Hour after hour stole away, and Bowman did not appear. At length the rays of the sun began to peep over the hills and shoot across the valley. Logan, still expecting the arrival of his colonel, more securely secreted his men in the high grass and awaited the signal. No orders arrived.

In the meantime, while changing positions through the grass they chanced to alarm a dog which was prowling around the village. He instantly set up a vociferous baying, spasmodically advancing toward the men who had attracted his attention. Presently a solitary Lidian left his cabin, advanced cautiously toward the dog, frequently halting and raising upon his tiptoes, and furtively gazing around him.

Logan's party lay close, scarcely breathing, anxiously hoping to take him alive without giving the alarm. But at that instant a gun was fired in an opposite quarter of the town, as was afterwards ascertained, by one of Bowman's men, and the Indian, giving one shrill whoop, ran swiftly back to the council house. Believing this to be the signal for attack, and concealment now being impossible, Logan's party sprang from the grass and rushed upon the village. As they advanced they perceived a motley crowd of all ages,«and both sexes, yelling, leaping and running toward the council house, where they collected in full force, determined upon a stubborn resistance. Logan instantly threw his men into the cabins, deserted by the Indians, and rapidly advancing from hut to hut, at last established himself within rifle-shot of the Indian stronghold.

IsTow listening impatiently for soun\is of the conflict which should have taken place on the other side in co-operation with him, his anxious ears detected no sound. All was silent in that quarter. The Indians having recovered from their temporary panic, pourea in a heavy and deadly fire upon the cabins that protected his men. His position grew each moment more critical. He had pushed his detachment so close to the redoubt that advance or retreat Was* equally dangerous. The enemy outnumbered him, and indications soon revealed a disposition to turn both his flanks and cut ofl:* his retreat. Under these circumstances, ignorant of the movements of his commander, and cut oft" from all communication with him, he resolved upon the bold and judicious plan of forming a movable l)rcastwork of the materials furnished by the cabins, and undej

Had this bold plan been consummated, with the co-operation of Bowman, the victory would no doubt have been complete, and many subsequent outrages have been averted. But in its very initiation a messenger arrived from Bowman with orders to retreat. Astonished at such an order, when honor and safety required an ofi'ensive movement, Logan hastily asked if " Bowman had been overpowered by the enemy?" "!No." "Had he ever beheld an enemy ?" " No." " What then was the cause of this extraordinary abandonment of a design so prosperously begun?" He did not know. The colonel had ordered a retreat ! Logan was reluctantly compelled to obey.

"With militia, in the face of an enemy superior in force, a retreat is almost certain to terminate in a demoralized rout, and this was no exception. As soon as the order was made known, a most tumultuous scene began, JSTot being sustained by that mutual confidence - offspring of discipline - wdiich buoys up regular soldiers under all circumstances, they no longer acted in concert. Each man selected the time, manner, and route of his individual retreat. Here a solitary Kentuckian would start up from behind a stump and scud aw^ay through the grass, dodging and turning to avoid the balls that whistled around him. There a do?en men would run from a cabin and scatter in every direction, each anxious to save himself, and none having leisure to attend to his neighbor. The Indians, astonished at seeing men fleeing apparently from themselves, sallied out, pursued and cut them up as a sportsman would a flock of geese. They soon joined Bowman's party, who, from some unaccountable panic in their commander, or fault in themselves, had not stirred from the spot where Logan had left them the night before. All was confusion. Some cursed their colonel ; some reproached other oflicers ; one shouted one thing ; one bellowed another ; but all seemed to agree that they ought to make the best of their way home without a moment's delay. By great * exertions on the part of Logan, ably assisted by Harrod, Bulger, and Major Bedinger, of the Bhie Licks, some degree of order was restored, and a tolerably respectable retreat commenced. The Lidians, however, soon surrounded them on all sides, and kept up a hot fire, which soon grew fatal. Colonel Bowman appeared totally demented, aud sat upon his horse like a pillar of stone, neither giving ai7 order or taking any measures to repel the enemy. The sound of the rifle sliots had, however, restored the men to their senses, and they readily formed in a large hollow square, took to the trees and returned the fire with great spirit. The enemy were quickly repelled, and the troops resumed their march.

But scarcely had they advanced half a mile when the Indians reappeared, and again opened fire on the front, rear, and hoth flanks. Again a square was formed, and the savages repelled ; but they had not fairly resumed their march when the same galling fire was again poured in upon them, from every tree, bush, and stone capable of concealing an Indian. Matters began to look serious. The enemy were evidently endeavoring to detain tliem until fresh Indians should arrive, cut ofi" their retreat, and take them all prisoners. The troops began to waver, and a' panic was rapidly spreading from colonel to privates. At this crisis, Logan, Harrod, and Bedinger, selected the boldest and best mounted men, and dashing into the bushes on horseback scoured the woods in every direction, forcing the Indians from their coverts, and cutting them down as they ran from tree to tree. This decisive step completely dispersed the enemy, and the weary and dispirited troops - continued their retreat unmolested, with the loss of nine killed and several wounded. The Indians in this action were led by Blackfish, the adopted father of Daniel Boone while he ^Y^s their captive.

The Indians, in retaliation for this, resolved upon the invasion of Kentucky. In 1780, aided by their English allies, who supplied them with men and artillery, they formed an army at Old Chillicothe, and under the command of Colonel Byrd marched for the settlements of Kentucky. Ruddles' Station was attacked,* and the garrison murdered. Colonel Byrd, being unable to restrain his savage allies, refused to go further unless all prisoners were delivered to him; which being promised, he led them along the valvey of the Licking five miles further, to Martin's Fort, where, despite their solemn promise, the same atrocities were committed, and, he, to his credit, refused to go any further. The Indians loaded their victims with the plunder of their own dwellings, and started for their towns, and as the unfortunate prisoner sunk under the weight the tomahawk was buried in his brains.

After the outrages committed by Colonel Byrd and his Indians, it was determined to punish them by carrying the war into their own stronghold, which was then Old Chillicothe, on the Little Miami, in this county. We can give no better account than from Bradford's notes :

" On the 2d of August, 1780, General Clarke took up the line of march from where Cincinnati now stands for the Indian towns. The line of march was as follows : The first division, commanded by Clarke, took the front position; the center was occupied by artillery, military stores, and baggage ; the second, commanded by Colonel Logan, was placed in the rear. The men were ordered to march in four lines, at about forty yards distant from each other, and a line of flankers on each side, about the same distance from the right and left line. There was also a front and rear guard, who kept only in sight of the main army. In order to prevent confusion, in case of an attack of the enemy during the march, a general order was issued, that in the event of an attack in front, the front was to stand fast, and the two right lines wheel to the right, and the two left lines to the left hand, and thus form a complete line, while the artillery was to advance to the center of the line. In case of an attack upon either of the flanks, or side lines, these were to stand fast, and likewise the artillery, while the opposite lines wheeled and formed on the two extremes of those lines. In the event of an attack upon the rear, similar order was to be observed a's in an attack in front. In this manner the army moved on without encountering anything worthy of notice.

"About 2 o'clock on the afternoon of the 6th of August, they arrived at the village. They found the town not only abandoned, but most of the houses burned down, and burning, having been set on fire that morning. The army encamped on the ground that night, and on the following day cut down several hundred (probably two hundred) acres of corn (and every tree which bore any kind of fruit was destroyed), and about 4 o'clock in the evening took up their line of march for the Piqua towns, which were about twelve miles from Chillicothe (in Clarke County).

" They had not marched more than a mile from Chillicothe, before there, came on a very heavy rain, with thunder and lightning, accompanied by considerable wind. Without tents, or any other shelter from the rain, which fell in torrents, the men were as wet as though they had been plunged into the river; nor had they power to keep their guns dry. It was nearly dark before the rain ceased, when they were ordered to encamp in a hollow square, with the baggage and horses in the center, and as soon as fires could be made, dry their clothes, etc. They were ordered to examine their guns, and see that they were in good condition ; to discharge them in the following manner : One company was to fire, and time given to re-load, when a company at the most remote part of the camp from that which liad hred, was to discharge theirs, and so on, aUernately, nntil all the guns were fired.

"On the morning of the 8th, the army marched by sunrise, and having a level, open way, arrived in sight of Piqua, on the west side of Mad Eiver, alDout 2 p. m. The Indian road from Chillicothe to Piqua, which the army followed, crossed' Mad River about a quarter of a mile below the town, and as soon as the advanced guard crossed into a prairie of high weeds, they were attacked by the Indians, who had been concealed there, awaiting their approach.

" The ground on which this attack was made, as well as the manner in which it was done, left no doubt but that a general engagement was intended. Colonel Logan was therefore ordered, with about four hundred men, to file oft" to the right and march up the river on the east side, and continue to the upper end of the town, so as to prevent the Indians from escaping in that direction, while the remainder of the men, under Colonels Flynn, Lloyed, and Harrod, were ordered to cross the river and encompass the town on the west side, while General Clarke, with the troops under Colonel Slaughter, and such a« were attached to the artillery, marched directly toward the town.

" The prairie in which the Indians who commenced the attack were concealed, was only about two hundred yards across to the timbered land, and the division of the army destined to encompass the town on the west side, found it necessary to cross the prairie to avoid the fire of a concealed enemy. The Indians evinced great military skill and judgment, and to prevent the western division from executing the duties assigned them, they made a powerful eftbrt to turn their left wing. This was discovered by Lloyed and Flynn, who, to prevent being outflanked, extended the line of battle west, more than a mile from the town, which continued, warmly contested on both sides, until about 5 o'clock, when the Indians disappeared, everywhere unperccived, except a few in the town. " The field-piece, which had been entirely useless before, was now brought to bear upon the houses, when a few well-directed shots dislodged the Indians which were in them. From a French prisoner among them. General Clarke learned that the savages did not expect the army to reach their tow^n so soon ; and that it was their intention, had it not rained, to attack the whites with the knife and tomahawk the previous night. The firing of the guns also deterred them. It seems that the alarm was universal, and every village was deserted. Occasionally, it is said, a solitary Indian wonld crawl through the grass within shooting distance, deliver liiR fire, and sink out of sight. The town was stretched along the banks of the river for a long distance, and in order to surround it on the east, Logan was compelled to march over three miles. In the meantime the Indians concentrated their whole force on the troops under General Clarke, and Logan never saw an Indian; hence, the great loss to the whites, arid severity of the battle, which led to the remark of Grirty, who drew off his three hundred Mingo warriors, saying it was folly to fight madmen. And true ; the Kentuckians fought with desperation, well knowing that if they were defeated none would escape ; and the Indians, elated with success and thirsting for blood, would fall upon the defenseless settlements of Kentucky, and murder their wives, their daughters, mothers, and children. The next day was spent in cutting down the growing corn, destroying the cabins and food, and collecting horses. On the 10th, the army began their homeward march, remaining in Chillicothe over night, and destroying a field of corn that had been left standing for their horses on their return.

"It is supposed that about five hundred acres of corn were destroyed on this expedition, besides every other vegetable, and food of any kind, to afford nourishment to the foe. Killing a few Indians only served to exasperate them, but destroying their sustenance struck at their vitals, and compelled them to hunt for support, and thus the settlements were left in repose."

This state of immunity from Indian outrage lasted but two years. In Angust, 1782, there was a grand council held at Chillicothe (now Oldtown), composed of the Wyandots, Shawanoes, Mingoes, Tawas, Potto watomies, Delawares, and numerous other tribes. In their deliberations they were aided by those two fiends in human shape, Girty and McKee. The Revolutionary War was virtually over, and these disgraceful traitors and renegades feared the avenging arm of Virginia, and had thus sought, for their own safety, to instigate the Indians to murder the settlers of the surrounding country.

In pursuance of their plans, two armies, one of six hundred, the other of three hundred and fifty, prepared to march to their assigned stations. Toward the last of August, the army of redskins who were destined for Kentucky, marched toward Bryant's Station, placing themselves in ambush. But in their eagerness for blood, they foiled their own scheme by prematurely firing upon a few stragglers around the fort.

The Indians were repulsed by tlie garrison ; and receiving reinforcements from Lexington, Ilarrodsbnrg, and Boonesborongli, pursuit was immediately commenced, and at the Lower Blue Licks they first caught sight of the foe. From the signs on the trail, the practiced eye of Boone detected evidences of a large force of Indians, and these, he concluded, were in ambush on the opposite bank, and he advised a separation of the forces, and extreme caution. But the impetuous McGary, exclaiming, " Let all who are not cowards follow me," spurred his horse into the river, and was followed by all into the ambush, and the terrible result of his rashness was the slaughter-pen of the Blue Licks.

An soon as Gen. G. R. Clarke heard of the disaster at Blue Licks, he determined to chastise the Indians, and, if possible, destroy them. To this end, he called for one thousand men, to be raised from Kentucky, making their headquarters at Cincinnati, where he was to meet them, at the head of a part of an Illinois regiment, of which he then had command, bringing with Ixjm one brass fieldpiece.

" The exultant savages had returned to Old Chillicothe, and had divided their spoil and their captives. Colonel Boone was immediately sent for to take part in this expedition. Clarke's army crossed the Ohio, and marching very rapidly up the banks of the Little Miami, arrived within two miles of Chillicothe before they were observed. Here they discovered a solitary straggler, who instantly fled to the village, yelling like a demon at every jump. The troops pressed on with all possible speed, but upon entering the town found it deserted. So precipitate had been their retreat, however, that the enemy left the fires burning, pots boiling, and meat roasting on sticks. This was a treat to the almost famished Kentuckians, who, after full indulgence, proceeded to destroy the town, corn, and everything tending to support the savage foe. It is said that on the approach of the army, men, women, and children fled to the forest, leaving everything behind them. Five towns, during this expedition, were left in ashes, and the work of destruction was complete. This campaign so thoroughly crushed the Indians, that no more organized raids were made against the surrounding settlei^ents, and the termination of the Revolutionary War left them to their own resources."

Numerous expeditions took place from this till the general outbreak in May, 1790. The militia, under General Ilarmer, attack the Miami villages. Colonel Hardin is dcf^jated October 19th, and again on the 22d. May 15, 1791, St. Clair organizes liis army at ' Fort Washington, September 17th begins his marcli, and on November 4th is defeated.

From 1780 to 1791, the armies of Clarke, Harmer, and St. Clair had marched through this section of the country. Here was the favorite home of the Indians; their corn-fields, their stronghold, their capital. Here were their councils held, their war dances performed. From here they radiated on their missions of murder and" rapine. Here was the hot-bed of Indian hostility. The triumphs over Harmer and St. Clair incited the savages to renewed barbarities. The frontiers were in continual apprehension of danger. They would retire at night, expecting to awake in flames, by the lurid glare of which the savages would be seen, waving the wreaking tomahawk, bathed in the blood of their wives and their children. General Wayne meets and conquers the Indians, after a severe battle, August 20, 1794. This decisive battle virtually ended the Indian trouble in the northwestern frontiers, and prepared the way for settlement.

Eleven years prior to this battle of General Wayne, Washington, seeing the difficulties that would necessarily grow out of individua. settlements in the Indian country, on the 7th day of September, 1783, in a letter to James Duane, a member of congress, urged the necessity of making the settlements more compact, and prohibiting individual purchase of the Indians, even punishing all such purchases, not made by congress or the state legislatures, as felonies. To this end, congress did, on the 18th day of April, 1783, urge the necessity of a cession of the western lands, and on the 13th day of September following, stated the terms upon which it would receive a deed from Virginia, to which she acceded, as we have seen, on the 20th of December of the same year ; and on the 1st day of March, 1784, the deed was made, and signed by Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Hardy, Arthur Lee, and James Monroe, delegates in congress from Virginia.

It was not deemed advisable to await the settlement of all questions of cession before taking steps to conciliate the Indians and extinguish their title. On the 22d of September all purchases of, or settlements upon, Indian lands were forbidden bf congress, and on the 15th of October the commissioners to treat with the Iiulians were instructed -

States; and to negotiate for all the land east of the line proposed by Washington, namely: from the month of the Great Miami to Mad River (Dayton) ; thence to Fort IMiami, on the Maumee ; and thence down the Manmee to the lake, etc."

It is believed the first treaty with the Indians extingnishing their title to the lands comprising the present territory of onr connty, was held at Fort Mcintosh, January 21, 1785, at which the United States were represented by George R. Clarke, Richard Butler, and Arthur Lee, and the chiefs of the Wyandots, Delawares, Chippewas, and Ottawa Indians.

The conditions of this treaty were, that three chiefs, one from the Wyandots, and two from the Delaware nations, should be delivered to the commissioners, to be held until all prisoners then in possession of the nations represented should be given up. The boundary line between the United States and the said Indians, was to begin at the river Cuyahoga, and run up that river to the portage between that and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum; then down the said branch to the forks at the crossing place above Fort Lawrence ; thence westwardly to the portage of the Big Miami which runs into the Ohio, at the month of which branch (Laramie's Creek) the fort stood, (Fort Laramie) which was taken by the French in 1752; then along the said portage to the Great Miami or Ome (INIaumee) river; and down the southeast side of the same to its mouth ; thence along the south shore of Lake Erie to the mouth of the Cuyahoga, where it began.

At the treaty of Fort Harmer, January 9, 1789, between Arthur St. Clair, Governor of the N'orthwest Territory, and the Wyandots, Delawares, Ottawas, and others, the treaty of Fort Mcintosh was confirmed; and in consideration of peace then granted, and the presents they then received, as well as a quantity of goods amounting to $6,000, which were delivered to them, they released and quit claimed, and ceded to the United States all the land east, south, and west of the lines above described.

Subsequently, by the treaty of Greenville, August 8, 1795, the boundary lines of the two former treaties were confirmed, so far as from the mouth of the Cuyahoga to the crossing place above Fort Lawrence. "ThenCe," says this treaty, "westwardly to a fork of that branch of the Great Miami River running into the Ohio, at or near which stood Laramie's store." (Laramie's store, or Pickawillany, was at the mouth of Laramie Creek, in Miami County, but Fort Laramie was sixteen miles up the creek, in Shelby County, evidently the spot mentioned.) Instead of running up tlie Maumee, - wliich was formerly called the Miami of the Lake, - and along the southern shore of Lake Erie to the place of beginning, the Greenville treaty line runs to Fort Eecovery, thence south in a direct line to the Ohio, intersectiiag it opposite the mouth of the Kentucky river. (See preceding pages.)

By this last treaty all other treaties were confirmed and ratified ; and all the territory northwest of the river Ohio, east and south of the above boundary lines, was ceded and relinquished forever by the Indians, " And these lands, or any part of them, shall never hereafter be made a cause or pretense, on jthe part of the said tribes, or any of them, of war or injury to the United States, or any other people thereof.

" In consideration of the peace now established, and of the cessions and relinquishment of lands made in the preceding article by the said tribes of Indians, and to manifest the liberality of the United States, as the great means of rendering this peace strong and perpetual, the United States now deliver to the said Indian tribes a quantity of goods to the value of twenty thousand dollars, the receipt whereof they do hereby acknowledge ; and henceforward, every year, forever, the United States will deliver, at some convenient place northward of the river Ohio, like useful goods, suited to the circumstances of the Indians, of the value of nine thousand five hundred dollars; reckoning that value at the firsi cost of the goods" in the city or place in the United States where they shall be procured. The tribes to which these goods are to be annually delivered, and the proportions in which they are to be delivered, are the following:

" To prevent any misunderstanding about the Indian lands relinquished by the United States, in the fourth article, it is now explicitly declared that the meaning of that relinquishment is this : The Indian tribes who have a right to these lands are quietly to enjoy them, hunting, planting and dwelling thereon, so long as they please, without any molestation from the United States. But when those tribes, or any of them, shall be disposed to sell their lands, or any part of them, they are to be sold only to the United States ; and until such sale, the United States will protect all the said Indian tribes in the quiet enjoyment of their lands against all citizens of the United States; and against all other white persons who intrude upon the same. 'And the said Indians again acknowledge themselves to be under the protection of the United States, and no other power whatever.

" All injuries shall be referred to law, not privately avenged ; and all hostile plans known to either, shall be revealed to the other party.

This great and abiding peace" document was signed by the various nations named in the fourth article, and dated August 3d, 1795. It was laid before the Senate, December 9th, and ratilied December 22d. So closed the old Indian wars of the West.

Thus have we endeavored to trace the history of our county, from the original grant of King James I, April 10, 1606, to Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Sommers, Richard Ilackluit, and Edward Maria Wingiield, " adventurers of and for our city of London," with various additions. May 23, 1609, and March, 1611, (vide sup.) to its cession to the United States by Virginia, March 1,1784; and on till its final conveyance by the Indians, under the treaties above mentioned, which freed it from savage depredation, prepared it for individual purchase and settlement, and cleared the way for the advancing tide of immigration, which was rapidly moving along the banks of every stream emptying into that great artery of the northwest, the Ohio River, appropriately called by the French " La Belle Rivier."

During the consummation of these various treaties, ranging from the year 1785 to 1795, a portion of the country began to be surveyed, (vide ante pages,) whieli was followed by purchase and actual occupation. A company, composed of officers and soldiers of the Revolution, was formed in Boston, March, 1786, with Gen.

Rufus Putnam as agent, wlio, in the spring of 1788, with fortyseven others from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, erected a stockade, and formed a permanent settlement known as Marietta. In the winter of 1786, a Mr. Stites, of Redstone, visited congress, then at IS'ew York, with a view to settling a tract of country between the two Miamis. John Cleves Symmes, then a member from Hew Jersey, becoming interested in the scheme, and with an eye to speculation, determined to make a personal investigation ; the result of which was the purchase of one million acres between the Miamis, in his name. Soon after, he sold to Mathias Denman, and others, that portion which now forms the site of Cincinnati, and in the fall of 1789 several families from New Yoi-k, ]S'ew Jersey, and Redstone, descended the Ohio River in flat-boats, as far as the mouth of the Little Miami. As the Indians manifested hostile intentions, forty soldiers, under Lieutenant Kersey, joined them as an escort and guard. They erected at first a single block house ; soon adding to it, however, three others. Subsequently a stockade fort was built on a spot now included within the town of Columbia. In June, 1789, Major Doughty, with one hundred and forty regulars, put up four block houses opposite the mouth of the Licking, on the purchase by Denham of Symmes, and about the same time built Fort Washington. Soon after, General Harmer arrived with three hundred more troops, and occupied the fort. Assured now of protection, Israel Ludlow, Denham, and Patterson, began the erection of cabins along the river, and within range of the fort. During the following winter Ludlow surveyed and laid out the town of Losantiville. (A quadroon production of the Latin os, Greek anti, and French ville, and L unknown.) When General St. Clair came there to reside as Governor of the Northwest Territory, he changed the name to Cincinnati.

In 1787 the reserved lands of Virginia were examined, and entries made. In the following year congress protested the validity of these claims, which, however, was withdrawn in 1790. In this year Nathanial Massie entered into an agreement with certain persons to survey these lands, and lay them open for individual purchase ; establishing a town above Maysville, called Manchester, from which they made surveying expeditions during the years from 1791 to 1796.

Symmes having oi-iginally contracted for two million acres of land, and under this contract having disposed of portions of it to settlers along the Little Miami, and vicinity of the present site ot

Dayton, his failure to pay for but two liundred and forty-eight thousand five hundred and forty acres threw these purchasers to the mercy of the federal rulers, until preemption rights were secured to them by the act of 1799.

A few da3's after "Wayne's treaty, St. Clair, Wilkinson, Jonathan Dayton, and Israel Ludlow, purchased the seventh and eighth ranges of Symmes, between Mad River and the Little Miami. On the 21st of September, 1795, Daniel C. Cooper undertook to mark out and survey a road on these lands, which was completed by John Dunlap, October 4th, the same year. November 4th, Israel Ludlow laid off Dayton, and the lots were disposed of by raffle.

As the Indians receded, the bold and adventurous pioneers followed closely in their wake. Radiating from their stronghold, they assembled in groups, and put out their little patches of corn ; and shooting out in diiferent directions, the little settlements spread toward all points of the compass, until in passing through the dense forest, the lonely cabin was frequently to be met with, and the smoke might be seen curling up through the closely intertwining branches of the patriarchal oaks. ,

Organization And Boundary

July 27, 1788, Washington County was formed under the territorial government, and included all that part of Ohio east of a line drawn from Cleveland, up the Cuyahoga, down the Tuscarawas ; thence west to the road from tlie Shawanoes town on the Scioto to Sandusky; thence south to and down the Scioto to its mouth.

January 2, 1790, Hamilton was organizecl, embracing the territory between the two Miamis, as far north from the Ohio as the "standing stone forks" of the Big Miami. June 22, 1798, it was changed so as to include all that part of Indiana lying between the Greenville treaty line, and the western line of Ohio, and all that part of Ohio west of the Little Miami, to the lower Shawanoes towns on the Scioto, and extending north to the southern line of Wayne.

The county of Wayne originally began at the Cuyahoga, ran up that river and down the Tuscarawas to the portage above Ft. Lawrence; thence west to the east line of Hamilton; ^thence west, northerl}^ to the portage of the Miami and St. Marys; thence west, northerly, to the poi'tage of the Wabash and Maumee, where Ft. Wayne now is, extending to the southern point of Lake Michigan; thence along its western shore to the northwest part; thence north to the territorial boundary in Lake Superior, and with the said boundary through lakes Huron, Sinclair, and Erie, to the place of beginning.

Organization And Boundary

point it extended west into the western part of what is now Highland County, about ten miles southwest from HilLsboro; thence r^prtli to the southern boundary line of Wayne County, described above; thence east on said line, to a point on the present southern^ boundary line of Wayne County, almost due south from Wooster, and a very little east of the eighty-second meridiian west longitude; thence south to the place of beginning. The eighty-second meridian west from Greenwich is perhaps not more than a mile west of the original eastern line of Ross County.

It will be observed that the original east line of Hamilton was the Little Miami. Yet in the description of Wayne we find the words : "thence by a west line to the eastern boundary of Hamilton " (" which is a due north line from the lower Shawanoes towns on the Scioto"). Also, that a portion of Hamilton, beginning at the mouth of Eagle Creek, was attached to Adams.

Highland County originally began at the twenty mile tree, due north from the mouth of Elk Creek, on the Ohio; ran east twelve miles ; then northeastwardly to the eighteen mile tree from the Scioto, at the intersection of Ross, Clermont, and Adams lines ; "thence to the mouth of the rocky fork of Paint Creek; thence up main Paint to the south line of Franklin County (now Pickaway) ; thence with said line west to the east line of Greene County;,^ thence with said line south to the southeast corner of the same; thence with the south line west, to the northeast corner of Clermont (certainly Warren) ; and from the beginning west to the north fork of White Oak Creek; thence north to the line of Warren County ; thence with said line east to corner of Clermont and Warren." (This description is vague.)

Fayette was formed January 19, 1810, - took effect March 1st, - from Ross and Highland. Beginning at the southwest corner of Pickaway, running north " with the line of said county to the corner of Madison ; thence west with said line to the line of Greene County ; thence south with Greene County to the southeast corner thereof; thence east five miles; thence south to the line of Highland County; thence east with said line to Paint Creek; thence in a straight line to place of beginning." All the lower portion was taken from Highland, and the upper from Ross.

The Pioneer

The pioneers were limited in learning, but instructed in their experiences, stern in their virtues, sturdy in their independence, marked in their individuality, frank in their intercourse, hospitable in their homes, fearless in danger.

Hospitality was a leading feature of the pioneer. The sick and needy were as well cared for as they have been since. Faith, Hope and Charity were organized. Indeed, these Christian graces did exist at that, early day, and were made manifest in the good deeds of the people towards one another, but the process of combination came at a later period. There was a community of social feeling, and nothing like aristocracy or assumed superiority on account of the possession of a few more acres or higher birth showed itself. IS'othing of caste to mar the free intercourse of all on the common platform of equality. It can not be disguised, however, that there were persons who gained precedence on account of superior intelligence, and who were looked upon as a kind of oracle in the management of the social, moral and financial affairs of the community in which they resided.

The social intercourse among the young people was of the most pleasing nature. Though they met " on the level and parted on the square," there were some of the young men more than others cavaliers, and some of the ladies aspired to reign as belles of society', yet there was no feeling of envy or jealousy ever engendered. Modern balls and parties had not been introduced : indeed the time was all too nearly occupied, both in the field and in the house, to indulge in amusements.

There Avas meeting on Sunday, and the young people would always attend, either walking or going on horseback. The young man would take his sweetheart up behind him on his horse, and all parties would enjoy this mode of travel exceedingly. Younggentlemen w^ere then called boys, and the young ladies were called girls.

The Pioneer

The means of transportation within the reach of the pioneer were most simple and laborious. The ox-wagon, or possibly four horses, when able to have them, conveyed the effects, while the long journey from Virginia, Pennsylvania, or Kentucky, was performed on foot; sleeping by the camp-fire or the wagon at night; depending on the rifle oftimes for food; burying themselves in a dense forest; cleaving by slow and laborious degrees a little spot for a rude log cabin; surrounded by wild beasts and still wilder Indians. Emerging from his cabin with his ax on his shoulder, the sturdy woodsman might be seen. With keen eye he surveys the forest round about in search of lurking danger, then -

" Loud sounds the ax, redoubling strokes on strokes ; On all sides round the forest hurls her oaks ; Headlong, deep-echoing groan the thickets brown. Then rustling, crackling, crashing thunder down,"

The trunks were trimmed, the brush piled, and with the help of neighbors the log-rolling took place ; and night was turned into day when the surrounding forests were lit up by the leaping blaze of the huge brush heap and the piles of logs.

Biographical Sketches Of Early Settlers John Popejoy

Was one of the first residents of Washington; came in 1811, purchased a lot and erected a log cabin thereon. Shortly after his arrival he was elected justice of the peace. He was considered rather eccentric ; made his legal decisions in accordance with his own ideas of justice, regardless of the laws or testimony hearing on the case. He kept no docket, but made a memorandum of all legal transactions on a piece of paper which was placed in a crevice in his cabin. He was a native of Virginia, and died in 1816 or 1817. He had two sons, John and Edward. Both were extensive dealers in stock. Edward subsequently removed to the far west; John died in this county.

Jacob Jamison '

Came to this county several years before its organization. Several years after his arrival he purchased land situated about two miles southwest of the village of Washington, at which place he resided until his death. He was a good citizen, a kind neighbor, but unfortunately had an ungovernable temper. Shortly after locating in the county, while living in its northeastern part, begot into a serious difliculty with a neighbor, and was thrice stabbed in the breast with a dirk in the hands of his antagonist. The wound inflicted was a severe one and it was at first supposed that it was mortal, but after being confined to his couch two months he recovered. He was elected successively to the oflices of justice of the peace, collector, commissioner and associate judge, serving faithfully and satisfactorily.