Ohio History Journal

Big Bottom and Its History.              27

 

This was the first massacre and the principal one, during the

Indian war then just opening.

Marietta had been settled two years before, and Big Bot-

tom, as this place was then known, was an overflow from that

place and comprised altogether thirty-six persons.

The year before several other settlements were established

from Marietta, but thus far this was the most remote.

No state in the Union was settled by a more worthy or en-

terprising class of citizens. They were largely the soldiers or

sons of soldiers of the Revolutionary War. Many were college

graduates, and practically all of them were well educated, and

they brought to the west the very best civilization of the east.

Ohio at that time was an unbroken wilderness filled with

wild animals and wilder men, and to conquer it the highest cour-

age and ability were required. The result was the founding of

a state which in all the requirements of a high civilization has

no superior.  Even in wealth and population to-day there is

no state in the Union that equals it if we leave out the great cities

of New York, Chicago and Philadelphia, which are mainly for-

eign and not native.

The men or women, therefore, who founded this state and

gave their lives to its development and established the institutions

we now enjoy, are well worthy of remembrance and honor by

those who come after them and now enjoy the fruits of their

labors and sacrifices.

What these labors and sacrifices were, will be indicated in

the address of the distinguished speakers who are here to-day

and to whom I now give opportunity to be heard.

 

ADDRESS OF JUDGE W. B. CREW.

When I look over this audience and see here this afternoon

so many friendly and familiar faces. I feel that I need hardly

assure this company that I am glad to be with you on this occa-

sion. It is always a very great pleasure to me, upon any

occasion, to meet and greet my friends and neighbors of good

old Morgan, the county of my birth. And I think I may be

pardoned for saying that on this occasion the pleasure is doubled

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28        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.   by reason of the fact that I find myself in such distinguished company. And I want to thank you, Mr. Chairman, and through you, the society under whose auspices these exercises are held, for the courtesy which has afforded me the opportunity of being with you on this interesting occasion. If I remember rightly, it was Isaak Walton who said in his "Angler," that Dr. Botelier was accustomed to remark, "that doubtless God might have made a better berry than the strawberry, but doubtless He never did," and I suppose that I but voice the sentiments of this com- pany, and assert a truth, when I say, that doubtless there might

have been a better place to be born in than Morgan county, but doubtless no such place exists.  And those of us who are to the manor born, but whose business has for a season called us into other fields, are, I assure you, always glad to get back home. My friends, I came here to-day at the kind invitation of my friend, Mr. Randall, not as one of the orators of this occasion, and not expecting or intending to make a speech, but I came, doubtless as most of you have come, only that I might, as a

citizen of Morgan county, testify by my presence my appreciation and approval of what has been done by one of our patriotic, public-spirited fellow-citizens, Mr. Brokaw, in erecting, at his own expense, this beautiful monument, which he has generously donated to The Archaeological and Historical Society of Ohio, to the end that there may be preserved and perpetuated the memory of one of the greatest, if not the greatest historic event in the pioneer history of Morgan county. This upon his part was certainly a most generous and gracious act, and I want here and now, for myself and for you, as citizens of Morgan county,- for whom I think I may assume to speak on this occasion,--to thus publicly thank Mr. Brokaw for his generous gift. As we have been so eloquently told by Prof. Martzolff, this custom of erecting monuments or tablets to commemorate great happenings or events of public interest, is a custom of great antiquity; as old perhaps as the centuries themselves. And when

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Big Bottom and Its History.             29   we consider that but for this custom and the preservation of these monuments and tablets, much that we now recognize and accept as historic truths would have been lost to us and all future generations, it is matter of earnest congratulation upon our part, that this monument, which we are met here to-day to dedicate, has been donated to, and has been formally accepted by the Archaeological and Historical Society of Ohio. For we feel and know that its acceptance by this Society gives abundant assurance that with such a custodian, it will be so cared for and preserved that in the years to come it will remain in place to tell its sad historic story. That this may be so, and that many years of health and happiness may yet remain to its generous donor, is, I am sure, the earnest, heartfelt wish of each and all of us.   ADDRESS OF W. H. HUNTER. I am a Presbyterian and believe in destiny as did Mr. Bro- kaw, whose ancestor I surmise, was Abraham Brokaw who set-

tled in what is now Nottingham township, Harrison county, in 1798, and who with others organized the Nottingham  Presbyte- rian Church in 1802. He believed in des- tiny: that the pioneer followed at the right hand of God and nothing was done not directed by Divine power. I can see des- tiny in the horrid massacre of the pioneers on this spot and which we commemorate to-day. It pointed the way to the achieve- ment which is the great state of Ohio. That massacre called the attention of the

authorities at Philadelphia to the need of a strong arm: it called attention to the fact that there really were settlers beyond the Alleghanies. But you may ask why did not Harmar and St. Clair, when they took up arms save the hour? Had they succeeded the treaties would have made the English line at the Ohio river in- stead of at the lakes. Their defeats only pointed the way for the intrepid Anthony Wayne, whose victory at Fallen Timbers and whose treaty at Greenville ended the Revolutionary War as the

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