Ohio History Journal

Fort St. Clair             519

attack that Lieutenant Hale was killed and Madison

was wounded. The Indians were forced to retreat some

distance where they then took a stand and, in turn,

forced the militia back. This zigzag method of fight-

ing was carried on for some time until the Indians and

all but six of the horses were lost sight of at about the

place where Eaton is now located.

The exact number of Indians killed in this battle is

not definitely known, though two were left and are

buried at the fort. Besides the graves of the Indians at

the fort, there are the graves of Lieutenant Hale,

Orderly Sergeant English, and Privates Bowling, Jett,

Clinton, and Williams.

It is because of this battle that the Historical So-

ciety of Preble County has set aside November 6th as

St. Clair Day.

 

"FORTY FOOT PITCH"*

 

BY A. C. RISINGER

All peoples delight to discover and preserve the

history of their pioneers, especially the sturdy, courage-

ous, aggressive, primary pioneers who ventured into the

wilds of the farther frontiers and seized and subdued

the wilderness for themselves and their posterity.

The history of the primary military and civil pio-

neers of Preble County has been rather fully developed

and preserved by various records and documents and

in much part by oral traditions.

One historical mention, however, has remained

somewhat obscure to the general inquiring public and

 

* Read at the St. Clair celebration, November 6, 1922, Eaton, Preble

County, Ohio.

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520     Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

inquiry prevails as to the nature and location of "Forty

Foot Pitch," which mention has descended from early

historical notes and local traditions.

Thus considerable confusive conjecture persists as

to "Forty Foot Pitch."

Some have surmised that the expression relates to

a place incident to the activities of General Arthur St.

Clair or of Captain John Adair. Others have surmised

that the expression "Forty Foot Pitch" is incident to the

encampment of Lieutenant Lowry at Lowry's Run

about five miles north of Eaton and in a gentle valley

south and west of Zion's Lutheran Church. Others

have not only surmised but have contended that "Forty

Foot Pitch" is a bold, barren bluff about a quarter of

a mile east of Bantas Fork bridge located three and one-

quarter miles north of Eaton on the Eaton and West

Manchester road. This barren bluff is in plain view of

travelers driving along the highway over or near said

bridge. Others assert that "Forty Foot Pitch" is down

Bantas Fork Creek about one-half mile southeasterly

from said Bantas Fork bridge, on land of the estate of

John Risinger.

The undersigned has been interviewed by members

of the Preble County Historical Society and requested

to write his knowledge and opinions as to the true

location of "Forty Foot Pitch."

I, said undersigned, have very familiar personal

knowledge of said locations, said knowledge, dating

from early childhood and persistent through the years.

The topography of the vicinity of Lowry's encamp-

ment on Lowry's Run is very gentle, devoid of bold

bluffs, and the plateau descends in gentle slopes to the

place of this encampment and there is no feature of the

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Fort St. Clair            521

topography suggestive of a "pitch" and more than that,

the military documentary records give no basis for be-

lief that said expression arises out of the activities of

General St. Clair, Lieutenant Lowry or Captain Adair.

The bold, barren bluff east of Bantas Fork bridge is, by

dimension and reliable tradition, excluded as the place

of "Forty Foot Pitch."   I have recently made a

measurement of this bold barren bluff and find that by

a taut tape it measures seventy-eight feet from the top

to the bottom of said declivity. The disparity between

forty feet and seventy-eight feet is at least a basis for

strong skepticism.

The location situate about half a mile down the

creek southeastward from said Bantas Fork bridge is

undoubtedly the "Forty Foot Pitch."

My father, Levi Risinger, in his ninetieth year, has

very interesting and vivid recollections, gathered from

personal observations and pioneer traditions, as to this

latter place being "Forty Foot Pitch."

Abel Risinger, Sr., my father's father, acquired the

land east and southeast of Bantas Fork bridge and lo-

cated there in the early part of 1800, at which time

Anthony Wayne's military trail was very distinctly

marked in the wilderness and this trail disclosed that

when Wayne reached Bantas Fork Creek he met the

impediment of a rather sharp shore or bluff which he

must descend in order to cross over said stream. This

bluff has a sharp declivity of about forty feet. In order

to descend and cross the stream Anthony Wayne made

an oblique road angling down said bluff to the bottom

land below. This road down the bluff was simply a

shoulder cut in the slope so that his military train

passed down upon an oblique grade. All of the pioneers

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522      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

of that day spoke of this as the "Forty Foot Pitch."

Said Risinger ancestor was a millwright and farmer.

He cleared some of the land and operated a saw mill

and a grist mill in the vicinity of what is called "Forty

Foot Pitch." The country was devoid of roads, nothing

but trails, and the pioneers scattered through the wilder-

ness southward, made use of said "Forty Foot Pitch"

in crossing the creek to the mills.

Levi Risinger was born half a mile from said

oblique road cut in the bluff and in his early boyhood

he knew of this cut as "Forty Foot Pitch" and it was so

known and regarded by all the pioneer settlers of that

country, -- the Kislings, Pences, Kaylers, Christmans,

Craigs, Cottermans, Snyders, Days, Kenneys, and

other well-known pioneer ancestors who were all in ac-

cord in said understanding. The cut in the bluff is yet

rather distinctly marked and this summer the writer

had some fallen timber and debris cut and burned off of

said cut which is yet so well preserved that his father,

Levi Risinger, was transported up said cut in an auto-

mobile and he was quite pleased to be the first one to

ride up this ancient cut in a wondrous chariot of modern

times.

In order to further fortify faith I quote from a won-

derful and instructive address delivered in Eaton by

Honorable Abner Haines on the 4th of July, 1876. He

was a man of great intelligence, a learned lawyer and

historian. Said address is preserved in the Auditor's

Office in bound volume of the Eaton Register of 1876.

I take this excerpt from the address:

 

The trace or military road of St. Clair through the county of

Preble is so obscured by the lapse of time that the true line is

now lost. It can only be recovered by the original survey, pro-

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Fort St. Clair                 523

vided the notes were preserved and filed at Washington in the

War Department. In the Spring of 1793, the advance portion of

General Wayne's army left Fort Washington and began to as-

semble at Fort Greenville in Darke County preparatory to their

march into the Indian country. General Wayne substantially

adopted the route of General St. Clair to Fort Hamilton, but

from this point he adopted a new route to Fort Greenville,

passing on the east side of Sevenmile Creek in Preble County,

which he cut through the wilderness. Wayne's military road

passed up northward a short distance east of the town site of

Eaton, and when the county was first settled the line and open

way through the forest was plain and distinct. Even the surface

roots of trees on the line showed indubitable marks of having

been marred and bruised by the wheels of wagons and ordnance

trains. The south part of said trail has long since been estab-

lished as the public highway called "The Old Trace Road".

Wayne's trail crosses Bantas Fork at or near the "Forty Foot

Pitch" and attained the highlands on the north side just west of a

sycamore tree on the east side of the north road and thence ran a

little west of north to Fort Greenville. There was some con-

fusion among the old settlers respecting the origin of the name

"Forty Foot Pitch". Some claimed that it originated from a

team sliding down the precipice, while others said it was so noted

on the map of the route by military engineers. The latter in all

probability is the true origin of the name and so communicated

by the soldiers to the early settlers.

The salient suggestions of Mr. Haines that Wayne's

trail passed a short distance east of Eaton and went

northward and passed over Bantas Fork at the cut in

the side of the declivity and the oral traditions from the

pioneer settlers in that vicinity are corroborated by Mr.

E. P. Vaughan, Esq., who is probably the most learned

citizen of Preble County as to pioneer military activities

and locations, who informs us that in his judgment there

is no question as to the location of Wayne's trail just

east of Eaton and northward along a line parallel to the

Eaton and Greenville road, at least as far as Wayne's

crossing at Bantas Fork. Mr. Andrew Wikle, residing

a short distance east of Eaton, over ninety years old

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524     Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

and of remarkable general mentality, corroborates the

statements of Honorable Mr. Haines and the opinion of

Mr. Vaughan.

It will be noticed that Mr. Haines mentions that "it"

-- that is, Wayne's Trail, -- "crosses Bantas Fork at or

near the Forty Foot Pitch and attained the highlands on

the north side." The words "at or near" are intelligible

to one understanding the earth formations adjoining

the aforesaid ledge or shoulder cut in the side of the

bluff. Just west of said cut or ledge, almost adjoining,

is a barren bluff about forty feet high caused by the

ancient erosion of the stream against the face of the

bluff. It is very clear that it was the opinion of Haines

that "Forty Foot Pitch" was either the sidewise cut

upon the declivity or the barren "pitch" proximately

adjoining. This matter is further supplemented by re-

liable oral tradition from said Abel Risinger, sr., and

Levi Risinger, his son, in this, -- that for a number of

years after said Risinger had located and established

his mills as aforesaid the trace of Anthony Wayne's

army after coming down the said oblique cut or ledge

crossed over Bantas Fork proceeded several rods north-

eastward and then up the gentle slope, now a farm road

of John Risinger's estate, and thence the army at the

upper end of the said gentle slope proceeded westward

over the plateau and encamped on a high area and close

to the edge of the barren slope conspicuous from Bantas

Fork bridge. This encampment was strategically lo-

cated by Wayne in that he thereby was only required to

guard his army in minimum degree on the west, as said

bluff was a protection and the guarding line on the east

was limited practically to a semi-circle.

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Fort St. Clair            525

Levi Risinger in his boyhood days found many mili-

tary mementoes of Wayne's encampment at said place

and mementoes were occasionally found along the line

of the trail backward up over said oblique cut and down

across what is now the farm of said Risinger.

Besides the historical data relative trails and topog-

raphies reason dictates an argument which I regard as

very conclusive that "Forty Foot Pitch" means more

than a sharp barren declivity -- a grassless, bushless

wall of earth. Sharp slanting bluffs abounded along the

streams incident the pioneer military trails in this

county and thus a bluff forty or eighty feet, of less or

greater declivity, could not have surprised or awakened

the interest of the St. Clair, Wayne or Lowery soldiery

of 1791-2 and 3, and thus such a common-place thing

as a declivity would not have had any military mention

unless said common-place declivity was connected with

some military situation, difficulty, failure or success.

The writer does not know of any other mention

whatever in the history of Preble County, documentary

or traditional, of any other pitch than "Forty Foot

Pitch." The numerous bold bluffs observed by said

pioneer militia were not at all significant or worthy of

mention and the only reason why said pitch was men-

tioned is because it relates to a military episode and

expedient. Wayne had reached the Bantas Fork Val-

ley and had first descended a rather gentle slope down

to the upper edge of said declivity, steeply descending

about forty feet to the foot-land below. Here was a

situation which required the particular consideration of

Wayne and his military engineers. The difficulty con-

fronting was to get down this pitch the military wagons

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526      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

and accoutrements.  Wayne could not safely go di-

rectly down and thereupon he dug an oblique shelf-road

in the breast of the declivity downward -- eastward a

distance of about one hundred feet, and thereby the

army descended to the floor of the valley and crossed

the stream.

The shelf-road is not the "pitch."  It is the ex-

pedient made in breast of the pitch or declivity. It is

a very interesting, well-preserved remnant of Wayne's

Preble Trail.  It is historically and sentimentally

worthy a permanent designation by an attractive

monumental stone with a bronze tablet insert inscribed

"WAYNE'S FORTY-FOOT PITCH"

 

 

THE BATTLE OF FORTY FOOT PITCH*

BY ESTHER E. NICHOLS

Today we are met to honor some of the brave heroes

of our own state. Though inconspicuous in the history

of our country, still they played a most important part

in gaining for us a great Nation and homes of safety.

Many of them were the close friends and relatives of

our ancestors and they justly deserve the gratitude and

respect which we, each one, can give. Among those

who are most intimately connected with the history of

our own country, are the brave heroes who fell in the

Battle of Forty Foot Pitch, or Ludlow Springs, a few

miles north of Eaton.

A month previous to this battle a great confedera-

tion of Indians had been threatening attacks, putting

* Read at the St. Clair celebration, November 6, 1922, Eaton, Preble

County, Ohio.

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