THE PATHFINDERS OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
96 Ohio Arch. and His. Society
Publications.
or rather to divide the honor; and
inasmuch as the Puritans have
had the ablest writers and advocates in
America to uphold their
cause as to the claim that they, and
they only, made Ohio, it is
perhaps only fair that a statement
should be made to show that
the Scotch-Irish people of virile blood,
had an influence in the
development and progress of the
commonwealth as potent as that
of the Puritan.
The Puritan and the Cavalier have been
recognized as the
only great race divisions in
calculations of race influence in the
formative period of the Republic-one
north, the other south.
The historian did not take into
consideration the fact there was
another race element, greater in numbers
than both, more con-
spicuous in forming the Republic than
either.
The Scotch-Irish of America have not
been writers;3 they
were only actors. The execution of a
great work was glory
enough; they cared not who might be
given the credit in print,
so they and their followers enjoyed the
result of the achievement.
While the Scotch-Irish have made
history, the Puritan has written
history, and the story of the making of
Ohio has been told only
from the Massachusetts-Connecticut point
of view, and the reader
of this history has been led to believe
that to the New Englander-
that is to say, the Puritan, who is, or
was, an Anglo-Saxon with-
out the strain of the Norman,*-so
impressed himself upon Ohio
and its institutions that it does not
occur to him that there were
others.
There is no study so interesting to the
historian as ethnology,
for it is well to note the origin and
development of the pathfinder
of a new country in order to determine
from whence came the
distinguishing characteristics that gave
the motive and the mo-
mentum of those who led the way. Races
love to be tried in two
ways: first, by the great men they
produce; secondly, by the
average merit of the mass of the race.4
The influence of the Scotch-Irish people
on Eastern Ohio,
which was Jefferson county, has been so
paramount,-and in
noting this declaration, the writer does
not disparage the influ-
3The Scotch-Irish have not been writers
of history because they are
lacking in imagination.-Dr. Ellis Thompson,
President Philadelphia High
School. 4Tyndall. *Col. E;. C. McDowell in
"Scotch-Irish in America."
The Pathfinders of Jefferson
County. 97
ence of the New Englanders,-that not to
mention this race the
record would be incomplete. Blot out the
influence of this puis-
sant blood in the affairs of the state
and Ohio would not have been
the scene of deeds that make history. It
is true we would have
had the Ordinance of 1787, and that the
Puritan obtained ready-
made5 from the pen of a
Scotch-Irishman, the author of the in-
strument ceding the territory northwest
of the Ohio river to the
United States by Virginia whose valorous
Scotch-Irish sons
under Clark won it from the British; but
leave the settlement
at Marietta and all its great influence,
the achievements of the
Scotch-Irish in Ohio give to the state
its most important pages
of history.
These deeds have been recorded as
achievements of individ-
uals; but the deeds of the Puritan have
been credited to a people,
a distinct blood. There is a wide
difference between these two
peoples, and this difference is
indicated in the statement in the
above sentence. The Puritans were a
people-a community, a
compact; the Scotch-Irish acted as
individuals and held views
in contradistinction to those of the
Puritan. The Scotch-Irish
were individualists, the Puritans
socialists. This is the reason
the settlements made by the Puritans as
a rule were Federalistic
when the people of the Republic first
drew political lines; it is
the reason the settlements of the
Scotch-Irish were Democratic.
When the Puritans came to America they
were not per-
plexed by any vague philosophy of human
liberty and universal
equality.6 Their idea was not to
organize a republic in which
all men would be free and equal before
the law. Their wish was
to plant English colonies under the
protection of the English
flag, where they and those who thought
as they did might conduct
their religion and their local affairs
according to their own ideas.7
They were not advocates of a free
church. They burned the
first Presbyterian church built by the
Scotch-Irish settlers at
Worcester, Mass.8 They
believed in the state church if theirs
were the state church. They permitted no
dissent. In their
view there must be universal conformity
or else banishment, the
whipping post or the gibbet. The state was the ally of the
church,
5Senator Daniels at Marietta. 6Henry S.
Boutell. 7Henry S. Boutell.
8 Dr. Perry, Williams College, Mass.
NOTE.-A number of the defenders of
Londonderry in 1689 located in Massachusetts
and New Hampshire.
Vol. VI-7
98 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
useful to enforce its decrees and its
dogmas.9 Massachusetts did
not open her doors to all religious
sects until 1833,10 while the
Scotch-Irish everywhere were advocates
of a free church in a
free land. The persecution of the
Scotch-Irish Presbyterians in
Massachusetts was almost as intolerable
as was the persecution
of the Quakers by the same people.
Are we to believe then that Ohio is
indebted to this people
for the religious tolerance that obtains
as one of our most sacred
institutions? Are we to believe that
when a large book was writ-
ten giving the history of "Slavery
in Massachusetts," that when
as late as 1828 the abolitionist ran
greater risk of personal injury
in addressing a Massachusetts audience
than an audience in Vir-
ginia,11 we are indebted to this people
wholly for the emancipation
proclamation contained in the Ordinance
of 1787?
The Puritan idea has always been to get
the greatest aggre-
gate good in the community; the
individual and the family are
subordinate to the community. With them,
the state is the peo-
ple, and the people belong to, and are
made for, the state. With
the Scotch-Irish the people are the
state, and the state is made
by and for the people. Individualism and
family seem to be at
the foundation of the Scotch-Irish
philosophy of life.l2 They
maintain that the strength of the home
is the strength of the Re-
public; the Puritans hold that the
strength of the Republic is the
strength of the home.
But who are the Scotch-Irish, and what
elements of character
did they possess that made them
pathfinders? The prevailing
belief that this race is the result of a
cross between the Scots and
Irish is erroneous. The Scotch-Irish are
Scots who first settled
in the North of Ireland known now as the
Province of Ulster,
before the third century. In Ireland
they came under the influ-
ence of the Cross, and about the sixth
century emigrated to North
Britain, where they subjugated or
crossed with the Pictish tribes;
and then what had been Caledonia became
Scotland. While the
perfidious King James was on the throne
he fell out with certain
Irish nobles who possessed Ulster, and
confiscating their lands,
colonized them with Scots; and thus,
after a thousand years the
9Judge Temple. 10The Covenanter, Cavalier and Puritan. 11John
Rankin. 12Col. E. C.
McDowell, in "Scotch-Irish in America."
The Pathfinders of Jefferson County. 99
Scot who became, in Scotland, the
Irish-Scot, returned to the
home of his fathers and thereafter was
known as Scotch-Irish.
In these years infusion of new blood
went on, adding traits of
manhood lacking in the original stock,
as generations came and
passed. The cross of the intellectual
Irish who had kept the
lamp aglow when all else of western
Europe was in chaotic dark-
ness, with the physically robust Scot
made a strong race; but as
the years went by the Scot became the
audacious Norman, whose
spirit of adventure and enterprise,
toned by the conservative
Saxon strain, gave this people the
elements of character that have
revolutionized the factors of progress.
And these are the quali-
ties of blood that distinguished this
race when representatives
thereafter came to America and became
the pathfinders of Empire,
the course of whose star is ever
westward.
These people were what is known in
history as the Cove-
nanter stock and they were disciples of
John Calvin, John Knox
and Melville, and when they came to
America the principles that
were burned into their hearts came with
them: "The authority
of kings and princes," said John
Knox, "was originally derived
from the people; the former are not
superior to the latter; if the
rulers become tyrannical, or employ
their power to destroy their
subjects, they may be lawfully
controlled." With this spirit the
Scotch-Irish came to America, and
inspired by the truth of the
utterance, they were the first to
declare for American independ-
ence.
If we follow the footsteps of this
people along the pathway
that leads through the splendid
advancement of the world's civili-
zation, we follow them through every
triumph of man's prowess;
and as Hume traced the source of thought
to the law of associa-
tion, we only need mention the result of
research in any field of
endeavor and Scotch names flash to mind.
Why did these people come to America?
What made the
Scotch the most famous of explorers and
colonizers? The an-
swer is in the restlessness that comes
of ambition, the audacity
that comes of enterprise, that inspired
the spirit that directed
Livingston, Mungo Park, Richardson, Ross,
Collison, McClin-
tock, Hays, Dr. Johnson, Dr. Donaldson,
McKensie, McClure,
Clark, Lewis and Jeremiah Reynolds. But
this is not all. The
100
Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
Scotch had enriched the soil of the
fatherland with blood poured
out in battle for personal, civil and
religious liberty, and as very
little had been gained even after the
final stand and as the per-
secutions were no longer bearable, these
people saw beyond the
sea the hope of a home of peace,
certainly no harder to maintain
against the savage than under the
tyrant's heel. When they
came, they cut loose from the crown and
thereafter never lost
occasion to add to the uneasiness of the
head that bore it.
The first important immigration of these
people began in
1704, although there had been quite a
number to the eastern
shores of Maryland and the adjacent
counties of Virginia pre-
viously.
Francis Makemie organized the first
Presbyterian church
in America in 1683, thanks to the
tolerance of the Catholics who
had colonized Maryland, the Scotch-Irish
there being mostly
Presbyterians, who were at first denied
a church in Virginia, New
York and Massachusetts. But it was in
the early half of the
eighteenth century the great movement
began which transported
so large a portion of the Scotch-Irish
into the colonies, and which
to a great measure, shaped the destinies
of America. Of this
movement Froude says: "In the two
years which followed the
Antrim evictions, thirty thousand
Protestants left Ulster for a
land where there was no legal robbery,
and where those who
sowed the seed could reap the
harvest." The persecutions ceased
for a time and the toleration act gave
peace that checked the
tide of emigration, but only for a brief
period, for it again began
in 1729 and for twenty years twelve
thousand people annually
came from Ulster to America, landing
principally at the port of
Philadelphia, but many others came to
New England ports as
well as to southern ports, until at the
outbreak of the Revolution
they were more numerous than the
Puritans and Cavaliers, the
two other great divisions of population,
and instead of settling on
the seaboard they pushed to the interior
until they had formed a
line between civilization and the
Indians from Maine to Georgia-
the most determined, the most stubborn,
the most religious, the
most persistent men who ever colonized a
new country. And this
line continued to move westward and was
ever on the frontier.
They had been trained in war, for they
had fought for generations
The Pathfinders of Jefferson County. 101
battles for the triumph of principle,
which principle was their
guiding star in America.
These people, as noted, made settlements
in New England,
their most populous settlements in that
section being in New
Hampshire. It was from the New England
Scotch-Irish stock
that Mathew Thornton came, as did Horace
Creeley, Robert Ben
ner, Col. Wm. Miller, who won fame in
the war of 1812, Asa Gray,
Gen. McClelland, Hugh McCulloch. Gen.
Grant, a native of Ohio,
was descended from one of the New
England Scotch-Irish set-
tlers, although his mother's people were
of this blood but settled
in Bucks county, Pa. To the New England
Scotch-Irish stock
Ohio is indebted for Salmon P. Chase,
whose achievements are
recorded in the brightest pages of
history. Gen. Stark and the
"Green Mountain Boys" were of
this blood, as was Gen. Knox,
Washington's Secretary of War. In fact
all the members of
Washington's cabinet with one exception
were of this blood. So
were three of the five first members of
the Supreme Court ap-
pointed by Washington-Rutledge, Wilson
and Blair.
At the celebration of the Jefferson
County Centennial, Mayor
McKisson, of Cleveland, made the
statement in an address that
Joshua Reed Giddings and Benjamin Wade
were born in the
northern part of the original county;
this is an error. Giddings,
whether of Puritan or Scotch-Irish stock
the writer could not
ascertain, was born in Pennsylvania, and
was educated by a
Presbyterian minister, while Wade was a
Scotch-Irishman with
many, if not all, the distinguishing
traits of character, coming as
he did from one of the Massachusetts
settlements. According to
a late biographer Daniel Webster was
also of Scotch blood.l3
Rufus P. Ranney, one of the strong men
of whom the West-
ern Reserve is ever proud, and who has
been classed with the
Puritan stock, because from New England,
was likewise Scotch.
Early in their coming, as noted above,
the Scotch-Irish
formed a line from Maine to Georgia; in
New York the settle-
ment was principally in the Mohawk
Valley; the Cumberland
Valley in Pennsylvania, however, was the
main reservoir which
constantly overflowed west and south,
the people going up the
13Jefferson Davis was of the Simpson family from which
came Grant's
mother.
102
Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
Virginia Valley where they were given
peace of conscience on
condition that they would keep back the
Indians,-peace that
they did not have at the hands of their
Quaker neighbors in
Pennsylvania, for it is said that they
did not get along well with
the followers of the docile Penn, having
many bitter and un-
pleasant controversies with them.14
Many Scotch-Irish immi-
grants landed at Charleston and
Savannah, but the great bulk
came in at the port of Philadelphia;
Logan, Wm. Penn's mana-
ger, declaring that if their
"coming were not checked the turbu-
lent Irish would take the colony."
This line of sturdy pathfinders kept up
a continuous move-
ment westward, overcoming every obstacle
to advancement, until
the ensign of civilization was planted
on the Pacific coast from
the tropic sands of southern California
to the frozen mountains
of Alaska, conquering by the prowess
that comes of proper selec-
tion in race building whose foundation
was laid away back yonder
when the scholarly followers of St.
Columba crossed with the
Scot whose power was like the rugged
oak, gnarled and uncul-
tured, but became in the offspring
through infusion of gentler
blood-strains, like the polished column,
having still all the strength
of the forest monarch, but more
beautiful in the refinement of
tranquil stability. James W. Marshall,
of this race, was the first
person to discover gold in California,
and James Christie, of the
same strain, was the Klondike
pathfinder.
We often speak of Ohio as a Virginia
state. In a sense this
is largely true. But the Virginians who
came to Ohio were
mostly from the valley, very few coming
from tidewater, and the
majority of the people in the valley
first settled in Pennsylvania.
There were three lines of emigration
from Pennsylvania into
Ohio: One direct through the gateway to
the west at the meet-
ing of the rivers; one from Virginia,
and the other from North
Carolina through Tennessee and Kentucky.
Rev. Robert Finley
and his congregation which settled
Chillicothe, came by the latter
route, organizing schools and academies
all along the line of
progress. In fact there were public
schools organized and main-
tained by these people in North Carolina
before the Revolution-
ary war.15 Dr. Archibald Alexander, the
founder of Liberty
14Dr. Egle. 15North Carolina
Hand-Book.
The Pathfinders of Jefferson
County. 103
Hall, so much beloved by Washington,
that he endowed it be-
cause of the active part its people had
taken in the war against
England, was from Pennsylvania, and his
descendants were with
Lee and Jackson in the Confederate army.
Liberty Hall was the
beginning of Washington and Lee
University, the very founda-
tion of culture and power of the
Shenandoah and James, the
greatest influence in the state's
progress. The first President of
Liberty Hall, Dr. Graham, who was a
power in the Revolutionary
war, both in pulpit and field, was from
the Old Paxtang church,
near Harrisburg, Pa. Many of the
families that gave Virginia
the name of mother of statesmen,
educators and soldiers, the
McDowells, the Prestons, the Pattersons,
the McCormacks,
Ewings, Breckenridges, McCulloughs,
Simpsons, McCorcles,
Moffats, Jacksons, Irwins, Blairs,
Elders, Grahams, Campbells,
Finleys, Trimbles, Allens, Hunters,
Rankins, Junkins, Stewarts,
and hundreds of others were from the
Cumberland Valley. The
American ancestors of Gen. Jeb Stewart
lie buried in the Old
Paxtang graveyard; and it is one of the
possibilities of civil war
that many of both sides in that awful
clash of arms at Gettysburg
fell almost in sight of the graves of
their forebears. The an-
cestors of Col. Campbell, the hero of
Kings Mountain, first settled
in Pennsylvania.
The movement of these people from the
Cumberland Valley
into the Virginia Valley was constant
and communication was
kept up between the settlers, for they
were of the same congre-
gations, and it is safe to presume that
after the Hanover church
in Dauphin county, Pa., promulgated the
first declaration of in-
dependence, June 4th, 1774,-"That
in the event of Great Britain
attempting to enforce unjust laws upon
us by the strength of arms,
our cause we leave to Heaven and our
rifles", the contents of the
instrument were communicated to former
members of the con-
gregation then in North Carolina, who
inspired the Mecklenburg
declaration, which was promulgated a
year before the Jefferson
declaration was written and signed. The
Hanover Scotch-Irish
who promulgated the declaration that
inspired the Americans with
courage, at the same time organized a
Revolutionary society,
having for its object the independence
of America. They had a
banner ornamented with the portrait of a
pioneer rifleman and a
104
Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
rattlesnake, with the motto, "Don't
tread on me." How like
the Scotch motto, "Injure me at
your peril!"
The following year the Scotch-Irish
Presbyterians organized
a like society at Hannastown,
Westmoreland county, Pa., and
promulgated even a stronger declaration
and adopted a banner
of significance of the Hanover badge of
liberty. The close asso-
ciation of people with the church, the
church with Presbytery and
Presbytery with Synod, soon spread the
fire generated from the
Hanover spark.
The "Liberty Clubs" organized
in New York to promulgate
ideas that would inspire the people to
fight for independence, were
called Irish Presbyterian debating clubs
by the royalists. The
first American newspaper advocating
Republican principles, and
inspired by the spirit of John Knox,
urged the colonists to take
up arms that a republic might follow,
was edited by a Scotch-
Irishman named Anderson, his paper being
The Continental
Gazette, of New York, issued before the outbreak of the Revolu-
tionary war. It is not at all surprising
that Bancroft declared
that "the first voice publicly
raised in America to dissolve all con-
nection with Great Britain came not from
the Puritans of New
England, nor the Dutch of New York, nor
from the planters of
Virginia, but from the Scotch-Irish
Presbyterians."
Rev. Sankey, of the Pennsylvania Hanover
church, became
a minister in Hanover Presbytery in
Virginia, which Presbytery
furnished ten thousand of the names on
the petition for a free
church in a free land in 1785, and which
petition was the force
back of Jefferson's bill for religious
tolerance, becoming law be-
fore the Puritan fathers found the
Ordinance of 1787. These
were the brave people who stood with
Rev. David Caldwell on
the banks of the Alamance, May 16, 1771,
and received the first
volley of shot fired at rebels against
British oppression in Amer-
ica.16 The Lewises and the
soldiers who fought at Point Pleasant,
September 11, 1774, really the
first battle of the Revolution,
were of this valorous blood. Lord
Dunmore had incited the In-
dians to this conflict against the
Americans to discourage further
agitation of the then pending demand for
fair treatment of the
American colonies by the British.
Patrick Henry was of this
16 Bancroft.
The Pathfinders of Jefferson
County. 105
people; so was George Rogers Clark and
his two hundred soldiers
who won the Northwest Territory, now the
very heart of the Great
Republic. So were the men who fought on
the patriot side in the
battle of Kings Mountain. This was
pre-eminently a Scotch-
Irish victory, one of the most important
of the war, for every
subsequent event of the Revolution which
led in logical succes-
sion to the surrender of the British at
Yorktown and the close of
the war may be traced to this memorable
battle.17 At Cowpens
and Guilford we find the same element
that did the good work at
Kings Mountain. Col. Morgan's regiment
of sharpshooters
were of this blood, although he was not,
and when Morgan was
introduced to Burgoyne, after the
surrender, he said to him that
he commanded the finest regiment in the
world.17
From this race came Jackson, Polk,
Monroe, Calhoun and
Madison, as well as Rutledge, who,
Bancroft says, was the wisest
statesman south of Virginia. Of this
people came Allen Trimble
from the valley a babe in his mother's
arm, on horseback. His
father settled on land pointed out to
him in the valley by an In-
dian whom he favored when living in
Pennsylvania. Gov. Mor-
row was from Gettysburg. Gov. Allen was
of the same noble
blood. Gov. Vance was from Washington
county, Pa., as were
also the ancestors of Gov. Shannon, who
by the way, was the
first native Governor of Ohio, and the
original Jefferson county
has the honor of being his birthplace.
Pennsylvania has given
to Ohio no less than a dozen governors,
ten of them Scotch-Irish;
eleven of the counties were named for
Pennsylvania Scotch-Irish-
men, and they are abiding monuments to
some of the bravest,
noblest and wisest men of the pioneer
days-Wayne, Ross, Har-
din, Fulton, Mercer, Darke, Crawford,
Butler, Allen, Logan and
Morrow. In 1817, a majority of the
members of the lower House
of Representatives were natives of
Pennsylvania,18 and to-day
there are more Pennsylvania natives in a
majority of the counties,
including Washington and the Reserve
counties, than natives of
any other state, with of course, Ohio
excepted; and in the coun-
ties where the natives of Virginia and
Kentucky predominate, it
is not difficult to trace their origin
to Pennsylvania. To him who
has the inclination and leisure for the
task there can be no more
17Wm. Wirt Henry. 18 Howe's Historical Notes.
106
Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
interesting study than to follow the
trail of the Scotch-Irish from
Pennsylvania, through Virginia,
Tennessee and Kentucky, to
Ohio. John Rankin, the founder of the
Free Presbyterian
church, and one of the finest specimens
of physical and mental
manhood that ever blessed the earth,
came to Ohio from Penn-
sylvania by way of Virginia, North
Carolina and Kentucky. His
ancestors were early settlers of
Pennsylvania, and his father was
a soldier of the Revolution. The son
came to Ohio after the
Virginia ordinance of cession was
adopted,19 to get away from the
environment of slavery, as did also
Francis McCormack, the
founder of the first Methodist church in
the Northwest Territory.
It was from immigrants of this stock
that the abolition sentiment
got its spirit, its abiding force.
Of the five Presidents born in Ohio all
but Garfield belong to
this race.
Of this stock was Robert Fulton, who
built the first steam-
boat on the Ohio, and whose application
of this power revolu-
tionized western commerce. So was Cyrus
McCormack, the
inventor of the reaper. Of this blood
was Morse, the inventor of
the electric telegraph, Henry, of the
electric motor, Graham,
Gray, and Bell, of telephone fame,
Edison and Westinghouse.
The Puritan blood has been given credit
for the ingenuity
that made the rugged North Atlantic
coast the workshop of Amer-
ica; but it is a fact that the Puritan
ladies were taught to spin on
Boston common by Scotch immigrants from
the north of Ireland;
and the great textile industry was given
impetus by the invention
of the carding and spinning machines by
Alexander and Robert
Barr, which machines were introduced by
a Mr. Orr, and the
inventor of the mule spinning machine
was also a Scot. Gordon
McKay invented the sole-stitching
machine that revolutionized
shoe-making in New England. Elias Howe,
the inventor of the
sewing machine, was certainly of Scotch
blood. The first iron
furnace west of the Allegheny mountains,
was erected in 1794 by
a Scotchman named Grant. John Campbell
first employed the
hot-blast in making pig-iron.
John Filson, the surveyor and Indian
fighter, who made the
first map of Kentucky, and who
wrote the first history of the west,
19 This ordinance prohibited slavery
after 1800.
The Pathfinders of Jefferson County. 107
-published in 1785, was a native of the
Cumberland Valley and
one of the settlers of Cincinnati. Col.
Patterson, who was with
Clark in his expedition, was also one of
the founders of the me-
tropolis of the state. The Symmes were
Scotchmen from New
Jersey, as were also Judge Burnett and
Judge McLean, the two
greatest lawyers of the early west.
The Scotch-Irishmen looked upon
education as the greatest
element of power in civilization and the
school-house was one of
the first buildings erected in a
settlement. Dr. John McMillen,
who established the first college in the
west, that of Washington
and Jefferson, now located in
Washington, Pa., also established
one of the first colleges in Ohio, that at
New Athens, in Harrison
county, and in the original Jefferson
county; Prof. Joseph Ray,
the author of the mathematical works
still used in the public
schools, being a pupil and a professor
thereof. This college gave
to Congress Hon. John A. Bingham and
Senator Cowan, of
Pennsylvania. Athens county, in which
the first college in the
state is located, was settled by the
Scotch-Irish, and Thomas
Ewing and John Hunter, both of this
blood, were the first gradu-
ates, being the first collegiate alumni
in the west.20 Thomas
Ewing was one of the greatest statesmen
Ohio ever had to her
credit, strong, honest, sincere,
intellectual. It was in his family
that Gen. Sherman was reared. The father
of Secretary Sher-
man's wife was John Stewart, noted in
the annals of the Cumber-
land Valley. Of the Athens University,
W. H. McGuffey, the
author of the school books, was
president for thirty-five years.
He was also a professor of the Miami
University, another Ohio
Scotch-Irish college, and of the
University of Virginia, founded
by Jefferson. He was born in
Pennsylvania in 1800. "Three
Ohio men, now deceased," says Dr.
Hinsdale, "have exercised
a far-reaching educational influence
throughout the country," in
speaking of McGuffey, Ray and Harvey,
two of them, if not all,
were of Scotch-Irish blood. Dr. Hinsdale
might have also in-
cluded Linsley Murray, who was of the
same strain. Francis
Glass, who organized a classical school
in the backwoods of Ohio
in 1817, and wrote a Life of Washington
in Latin, which was
used for years as a text-book, was of
Londonderry stock, coming
20Howe's Historical Notes.
108 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
to the wilderness from Pennsylvania. Dr.
Junkin, an early
President of Washington and Lee
University, first organized
schools in Pennsylvania, and from
Virginia followed the trail of
the fathers into Ohio, where for years
he was the President of
Miami University, that has given to the
state many of its brightest
minds. He wrote a pamphlet in defense of
slavery which John
C. Calhoun, whose father went to North
Carolina from Pennsyl-
vania, characterized as the ablest
defense of the institution he
had ever read.21 The public
school of Ohio was really founded
by Allen Trimble after the system
inaugurated in New York by
Gov. Clinton, also of Scotch-Irish
blood. While acting governor
he appointed a commission, a majority of
whose members were
of Pennsylvania stock, which formulated
the Ohio public school
system. This system was perfected by
Samuel Galloway, born
at Gettysburg, a teacher, jurist,
statesman, upon whose advice
and opinion Lincoln set high value.
The Pennsylvanian has served Ohio in
both branches of
Congress; the first Territorial Governor
was Gen. St. Clair, a
Scotchman, whose remains now lie buried
at Greensburg in a
neglected graveyard; the first
Territorial Delegate was Win. Mc-
Millen; the first State Representative
was Jeremiah Morrow and
the first judge was Francis Dunlavey.
Dunlavey was a lieuten-
ant in Col. Crawford's expedition to
Sandusky.
The most noted of the Indian fighters
were of Scotch-Irish
blood, and they came principally from
the Pennsylvania-Virginia
stock-John and Thomas McDonald, J. B.
Finley, Simon Kenton,
Col. John Johnson, James Maxwell, Joseph
Ross, McClelland,
the Zanes, McCulloughs, Col. Crawford,
Gen. Thomas Hixon,
Gen. Findley, Gen. Wm. Lytle, the
grandfather of the soldier poet,
Gen. Robert Patterson, Samuel Brady, the
Poes, Adam and An-
drew, all of whose exploits are part of
history.
The generals Ohio gave to command
Federal troops in the
late war were largely of
Pennsylvania-Virginia Scotch-Irish
stock. Grant has already been mentioned;
the McDowells, the
Gilmours, the brilliant Steedman was
born in Northumberland
county; Geo. W. Morgan, was a native of
Washington county, so
prolific of Ohio men; Gen. Gibson, Ohio's greatest orator, was
21 Dr. Alexander White.
NOTE.-Francis Dunlavey who came to Ohio
from Pennsylvania, was a profound
scholar and a man of recognized
diversity of talent. He opened a classical school at
Columbia, near Cincinnati, in 1792.
The Pathfinders of Jefferson County. 109
a native of Jefferson county, but of Pennsylvania stock; the McCooks were of Washington county Scotch-Irish stock,-Dr. John and Maj. Daniel were the fathers of twelve commissioned officers in the Federal army, all of whom were either natives of the original Jefferson county or had lived within its territory, all men of sterling qualities, characteristic of the race from which they sprung; they have been pre-eminent as soldiers, as lawyers, as statesmen, as divines, as teachers, as orators, and one Rev. Dr. Henry C. McCook has become distinguished in scientific re- search, being an authority on entomology, and as the author of "The Latimers," the strongest historical novel of the west that has been written, and that has won him lasting fame as a writer of fiction; not only this: he has shown that there is material in the pioneer times of the Ohio-Pennsylvania-Virginia border upon which to base historical novels as strong as those founded on Scotch history by Scott. Dr. McCook is the most versatile, and withal the brainiest man ever produced by the original Jefferson county. As a divine, he is sincere, enthusiastic; as an orator he is eloquent, convincing; as a scientist, he stands at the very head of those who study along the lines of entomology; as an author of historical narrative, he has won the applause of readers; as a historian, he is painstaking, conscientious; as a scholar and teacher, profound and thorough. In no other man of our county have we the intellectual qualities so manifest as in Dr. McCook. And his work has all been for the enlightenment of his fellows, and the world about him is better and brighter because he is the center of it, giving out the fire of his great intellect and the warmth of his kind heart like a sun in a firmament, that all may be blessed. Gen. Hamer, who procured Gen. Grant's admission to West Point, was a Pennsylvanian, but descent is not known to the writer. T. Buchanan Reed, the author of "Sheridan's Ride," that stirring epic of the war period, was born in Chester county, Pa. The father of C. L. Vallandigham, whose classical school in Lis- bon, was attended by a portion of the McCook family, was from Pennsylvania, a Scotch-Irish Huguenot, a cross that adds to the sturdy Scotch strain, both in steadfastness of principle, beauty of feature and gentility of manner. James Geddes and Samuel |
110 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
Forrer, the pioneer engineers, who did
much to develop Ohio,
were from Pennsylvania.
Of the four field commanders-in-chief in
the late war, Win-
field Scott, Grant and McClelland were
of this race, and Sheri-
dan's mother was Scotch.
President Harrison is of this stock, his
mother coming from
Pennsylvania; so is President McKinley.
The late Thos. A.
Hendricks, a native of Ohio, was also of
Pennsylvania Scotch-
Irish blood. William J. Bryan is of the
Virginia strain. Senator
M. A. Hanna, the greatest political
organizer of the century, is
descended from a Pennsylvania-Virginia
Scotch-Irish family.
Twelve of the Presidents of the Republic
were of Scotch and
Scotch-Irish descent. As were also the
organizers of great in-
dustrial and business
enterprises-Carnegie, Rockefeller, Pull-
man, Armour.
In journalism the Cumberland and
Virginia valleys have had
a powerful influence. William Maxwell,
the editor of the first
journal in Ohio, was of this strain, as
was also Charles Hammond,
editor of the Cincinnati Gazette, as
early as 1824, and who was con-
sidered the ablest editor ever in Ohio.
As no vehicle of power
exerts greater force than the newspaper
in the affairs of state and
church, the Pennsylvania-Virginian can
rest his laurels in Ohio
on achievement along this line of human
endeavor and be sure of
highest honor, for no other blood has
given Ohio greater editors
than Richard Smith, Murat Halsted,
Washington and John Mc-
Lean, Whitelaw Reid, than Morrow, of
Cleveland, or McClure, of
Columbus. And it should be recorded here
that the lightning
press invented by Scott, by Gordon, by
Campbell, give to this
race the acme of mechanical ingenuity;
while Gedd, a Scotchman,
invented a process of stereotyping that
made possible the employ-
ment of the lightning press in the
multiplication of the printed
page.
In most of the Ohio counties the first
church built was invar-
iably Presbyterian. This alone gives a
strong suggestion as to
the influence of the Scotch-Irish on
Ohio. Had the Puritans
been the greatest factor in the
settlement of the state the first
churches would have been of a different
communion. But the
Scotch-Irish were not all Presbyterians:
Bishops Simpson, Mc-
The Pathfinders of Jefferson
County. 111
Cabe and McKendrie, of the Methodist
Episcopal church; Bishops
McIlvaine, Thompson and Leonard, of the
Protestant Episcopal
church; Col. Johnson, one of the
founders of Kenyon college, and
one of the greatest men of Ohio;
Alexander Campbell of the
Christian church; Bishop Watterson of
the Catholic church, were
and are examples of the intellectual
prowess of the Scotch.
It has been mentioned by those who sneer
at the Scotch-
Irish strain that Simon Girty, Captains
McKee, Elliot and Cald-
well were of this race. This is true. It
is not claimed by their
advocates that all the Scotch-Irish are
more moral than men of
other races; but it is claimed that they
possess elements of char-
acter that push them to the front until
they become leaders both
in thought and action, and the career of
the Tories mentioned
in this paragraph only emphasizes the
truth of the statement.
They were leaders and were at the very
head of the British army
in the west, advising movements and
commanding in battle; and
had it not been for their skill the
English forces in the west would
have been overthrown long before the end
finally came to the
conflict that was the most cruel, as
carried on by the British, in
the history of civilized warfare.
But the two most notable events that
mark epochs in the
history of Ohio are, first, the conquest
of the Northwest by
George Rogers Clark, and secondly, the
Greenville treaty by
Wayne. The first made the lakes rather
than the Ohio river the
dividing line between the Republic and
the British possessions,
the second made possible a home of peace
within this territory.
In this introduction the writer has
tried to show that Ohio
is in a measure indebted to other blood
besides that of the Puritan
for its rise and progress. The men who
made Ohio were of
sterling qualities, whether of Puritan
or Scotch blood. They were
men of iron frame, broad minds, brave.
112 Ohio Arch. and His.
Society Publications.
II.
The Indians in the Ohio River Country
- Hutchins, Gordon and
Rev. David Jones Mention Mingo Town - The First White
Person on Jefferson County Soil- The
Story of Mary Jami-
son, an Indian Captive-Early
Scotch-Irish Traders - Most
Important Epoch in American History - Boquet's Expedition
- The
Zane Settlement- Tomahawk Claim Made on the
Site of Steubenville in 1765.
The Upper Ohio Valley was occupied by
the red savages
before the conquering Anglo-Saxon races
drove out with the
long rifle the barrier to the onward
march of civilization. The
territory was one vast wilderness, says
Doddridge,22 one of whose
most prominent features was its
solitude. "Those who plunged
into the bosom of this forest,"
continues the same author who
wrote much about the Ohio country,
"left behind them, not only
the busy hum of men, but domesticated
animal life generally.
The solitude of the night was
interrupted only by the howl of the
wolf, the melancholy moan of the
ill-boding owl or the shriek of
the frightful panther. The day was, if
possible, more solitary
than the night. The noise of the wild
turkey, the croaking of
the raven, the tapping of the
woodpecker, did not much enliven
the dreary scene. The various tribes of
singing birds are not in-
habitants of the desert, they are not
carnivorous and therefore
must be fed from the labors of man. At
any rate they did not
22Joseph Doddridge, whose works have given the historians
many data,
was born in Bedford county, Pa., in
1764. In 1778 he was received as a
traveling preacher by a Methodist
Episcopal Conference in Washington
county, Pa. He continued in the
itinerancy of the Methodist communion
until 1791 when he entered the
Cannonsburg academy, afterwards becom-
ing an adherent of the Protestant
Episcopal church. He studied medicine
and located at Wellsburg, W. Va., in
1800. He devoted much of his time
to literary work and to establishing
churches in the Ohio country. In
addition to his celebrated "Notes
on Early Border Life," now out of print,
he wrote a drama entitled
"Logan," a " Treatise on the Culture of Bees,"
"The Pioneer Spy,"
"Sermons and Orations." He was one of the pioneer
doctors, for there were no doctors in
the Ohio country from the time of
Zane's settlement in 1769 to 1793.
The Pathfinders of Jefferson
County. 113
exist here."23 To enter
and conquer a wilderness filled with sav-
ages required elements of character that
the people of this day
and generation do not fully appreciate.
The pathfinders were
possessed of wonderful force of
character, perseverance, energy,
valor, fortitude, and withal with a
religious faith that knew no
fear, save that of the Creator Himself.
The Ohio Valley was occupied by the
Indians as hunting
grounds, and this fact is given as the
reason the first white ex-
plorers found no villages on the banks
of the river.
After the conquest of the Ohio country
by the Iroquois, or
Five Nations, they became demoralized
and between the years
1700 and 1750 the Ohio region became
occupied by different tribes
of savages. Before 1740, according to Hildreth, the English
knew very little about the Ohio Valley.
Up to that time the
French explorers were the only ones who
had knowledge of the
region. De Celeron was commander of the
French exploring
party that descended the river in 1749.
He speaks of finding
Indian villages along the Allegheny, but
only one on the Ohio,
that being Logstown. The Seneca Indians
dwelt at Mingo. The
Senecas were the most powerful and
warlike of the Iroquois.
They also had a capital in the
Tuscarawas Valley, and were pow-
erful in New York and Pennsylvania. It
is not definitely known
that Logan, who was a Cayuga, lived in
Mingo. In 1772 he
was located with his relatives and
others of his tribe at the mouth
of Big Beaver. Logan's presence at the
mouth of Yellow creek
in 1774 is conceded to have been only a
hunting camp. The
principal settlements of the Delawares
were on the Muskingum.
The "Moravian" Indians were of
this tribe. In 1750 they were
a powerful tribe claiming possession of
nearly half of the state.
The other tribes prominent in Ohio at
that date were the Wyan-
dots, Shawanese, Ottawas and Miamis. The
Ohio Valley was their
hunting ground and they united in bloody
warfare against white
settlers. The Wyandots, or Hurons, were
descended from the
remnant of the once powerful tribe of
that name, which half a
century before had been driven off by
the Iroquois. The Shawa-
23Other authorities say song birds were in the western
country at the
time of which Doddridge writes. Dr. H.
C. McCook made a thorough in-
vestigation and declares that Doddridge
is in error.
Vol. VI-8
114
Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
nese, called Chauanons by the French,
were the most prominently
identified with this immediate region.
For forty years after 1755
the Shawanese were in perpetual war with
the Americans, either
independent or as allies of the French
or British. They were al-
lies of the French in the Seven Years'
war. What was known as
Lord Dunmore's war was with this nation.
The Shawanese took
active part with the British in the
Revolutionary war and kept up
the fight until the Wayne treaty. By the
Wayne treaty, in 1795,
the Shawanese lost most of their
territory. In the war of '12, un-
der Tecumseh, they were allies of the
British. Cornstalk was the
king of the Shawanese and Tecumseh, born
at Chillicothe and
killed at Thames, was the most noted
chief.
In 1749 Celeron, the French explorer,
sunk leaden plates
in the Ohio at the mouths of important
streams, and wrote to
Gov. Hamilton that he was surprised to
find English settlers on
French territory. Some of these plates
were found, one in 1846 at
the mouth of the Kanawha.
In "Historical Outlines,"
given as appendix to "Afloat on
the Ohio," by Reuben Gold Thwaites,
president of the Wisconsin
Historical Society, just published
(1897), it is stated that the Eng-
lish fur traders were on the Ohio in
1700. In 1725, says the
same author, "the English from
North Carolina were trading with
the Miamis under the very shadow of Fort
Ouiatanon, near La-
fayette, Ind." "About this
time," continues the same painstaking
historian, "Pennsylvania and
Virginia began to exhibit interest
in their own overlapping claims to lands
in the country north-
west of the Ohio. Christopher Gist
explored the Ohio for the
Virginia company in 1750, the King of
England having made a
grant of five hundred thousand acres to
the company, and the
Gist expedition was made for the purpose
of selecting the lands.
In speaking of this incident, the
historian quoted above says "Gist
met many Scotch-Irish fur traders who
had passed into the west
through the mountain valleys of
Pennsylvania, Virginia and the
(Carolinas." In 1766 Capt. Harry
Gordon, a Scotchman, chief
engineer of the western department of
North America, was sent
from Fort Pitt down the Ohio, and
mentions Mingo as an In-
dian village, seventy-one miles down the
Ohio from Fort Pitt.
The Pathfinders of Jefferson
County. 115
In Imlay's "Topographical
Description of the Western Ter-
ritory of North America," issued in
1766, Mingo town is de-
scribed as seventy-five miles below Fort
Pitt, containing sixty
families.
Mingo town is mentioned in the journal
of Rev. David Jones,
who on June 9, 1772, says in his
journal: "Left for Fort
Pitt in company with George Rogers
Clarke and several others,
who were disposed to make a tour of this
new world. We traveled
by water in a canoe, and as I labored
none had an opportunity of
observing the course of the river. It
would be too tedious to give
a particular account; it may suffice to
be more general and refer
the cautious reader to a map expected
soon to be published by
Messrs. Hutchins and Hooper. From Fort
Pitt the river Ohio
runs about fifteen miles near a
northwest course, thence near
north about fourteen miles, then it
makes a great bend for about
twenty miles, running a little south of
west, thence for near twenty
miles southeast to the place called
Mingo town, where some of
that nation yet reside. Some of this
town were wont to plunder
canoes, therefore we passed them as
quietly as possible, as we
were so happy as not to be discovered by
any of them."
After the defeat of Braddock, in 1754,
the Indians made in-
cursions into Pennsylvania as allies of
the French, and many
diabolical outrages were committed on
the English settlers east
of the mountains both in Pennsylvania
and Virginia. On Marsh
creek, near Philadelphia, the Jamison
family were murdered, the
Indians sparing the life of but one
member, Mary, aged thirteen
years. She was brought to Fort Duquesne
and given into the
charge of two Seneca squaws, who brought
her to their home,
Mingo village on the Ohio. The history
of Mary's life, published
in 1824, gives the first recorded
incident in Jefferson county and
is the story of the first white person
known to have set foot upon
the soil of Jefferson county.
The story of Mary Jamison, or
"Deh-he-wa-mis", the white
woman of the Genesee, as she was called
by captors, follows:
"On the way we passed a Shawnee
town, where I saw a
number of heads, arms, legs and other
fragments of the bodies
of some white people who had just been
burned. The parts
that remained were hanging on a pole,
which was supported at
116
Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
each end by a crotch stuck in the
ground, and were roasted as
black as a coal. The fire was yet
burning and the whole appear-
ance afforded a spectacle so shocking
that even to this day the
blood almost curdles in my veins when I
think of it. At night
we arrived at a small Seneca Indian town
at the mouth of a
small river, which was called by the
Indians in the Seneca lan-
guage She-nan-jee, about eighty miles by
water from the fort,
where the two squaws to whom I belonged
resided; there we
landed. Having made fast to the shore
the squaws left me in
their canoe while they went to their
wigwam in the town and
returned with a suit of Indian clothing,
all new and very clean
and nice. My clothes, though whole and
good when I was
taken, were now torn in pieces so that I
was almost naked.
They first undressed me and threw my
rags into the river, then
washed me clean and dressed me in the
new suit they had just
brought, in complete Indian style, and
then led me home and
seated me in the center of their wigwam.
I had been in that
situation but a few minutes before all
the squaws in the town
came in to see me. I was soon surrounded
by them and they
immediately set up a most dismal
howling, crying bitterly and
wringing their hands in all the agonies
of grief for a deceased
relative. Their tears flowed freely and
they exhibited all the
signs of real mourning. At the
commencement of this scene
one of their number began in a voice
somewhat between speak-
ing and singing to recite some
words."
This was the ceremony of adoption, the
two squaws having
taken Mary as a sister to fill the place
of a brother killed in the
battle known as Braddock's defeat. She
spent her entire life
with the Indians, living several years
at Mingo town. She
speaks of visiting Fort Pitt, and of the
joy it gave her to see
those of her own race again.
In 1759 Forbes drove the French out of
Pennsylvania, and
the English standard was set to the
breeze on the new Fort Pitt
by Col. Armstrong, a Scotch-Irishman.
Wolfe and his High-
landers climbed the Heights of Abraham
and thus ended Latin
dominion east of the Mississippi. This
date marks the most
important epoch in the history of
America, even more important
than the Declaration of Independence,
for it was the beginning
The Pathfinders of Jefferson
County. 117
of the revolution that brought about
American independence of
European powers. In fact, says Hinsdale,
the triumph of Wolfe,
and not that of "the embattled
farmers of Lexington, was the
first great victory of the American
Revolution." With the de-
feat of the French the hostilities of
the Indians abated for a period.
Fort Pitt, with Col. Hugh Mercer, a
Scotchman, as were also
Forbes and Wolfe's soldiers Scotchmen,
was commander of the
garrison. Then began the migration in
large numbers of the
Scotch-Irish from the Cumberland valley
into western Pennsyl-
vania, overflowing to the Panhandle of
Virginia. Comparative
peace obtained up to 1763, the date of
Pontiac's conspiracy, when
the red savage broke out in a storm of
fury that was to have
simultaneously destroyed all the English
fortifications, "then
having destroyed their garrisons, to
turn upon the defenseless
frontier, and ravage and lay waste the
settlements, until, as many
of the Indians believed, the English
would be driven into the
sea, and the country restored to its
primitive owners."24 While
many of the English forts fell into the
hands of the Indians,
Fort Pitt was not taken, but the savages
committed awful depre-
dations on the settlements newly made in
the interior, east of
Pitt. Boquet's campaign against the
Indians followed, termin-
ating at the end of that year, but being
determined to further
punish the Delawares, Shawanese and
Senecas, who were still on
the warpath in the Ohio valley, he
marched with an army of
five thousand men into the Ohio country,
his advance guard
being composed of Pennsylvania and
Virginia scouts. This ex-
pedition passed through Jefferson
county, following Yellow
creek and its branches and then through
the Muskingum valley.
The expedition was a successful one, the
Indians suing for peace
and delivering up the white prisoners
they had made captive,
consisting of two hundred and six
persons, all Pennsylvanians
and Virginians, one hundred and
twenty-five of them being wo-
men and children. The expedition
returned to Fort Pitt on the
28th of November, 1764, the route being
up the Muskingum
and Tuscarawas valleys to the provision
stockade, near the pres-
ent town of Bolivar, at which point Fort
Laurens was afterwards
24 Parkman.
118
Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
erected, almost on the line of the
original Jefferson county,
thence by way of Sandy valley and Yellow
creek to the Ohio.
Col. Croghan, having been appointed by
the government,
after the treaty of peace in 1763, to
explore the Ohio country,
and to conciliate the Indian nations
that hitherto had acted with
the French, he set off from Fort Pitt on May 15, 1765,
with two bateaux, and on the 17th, at
six o'clock in the morn-
ing, he arrived at Mingo.
"Here," he says in his journal, "the
Senecas have a village on a high bank on
the north side of the
river. The chief of this village offered
Col. Croghan his ser-
vices to go with him to the Illinois,
which he did not refuse, for
fear of giving offense, although he had
a sufficient number of
deputies with him already."
The sturdy settlers of the valleys of
the Susquehanna, the
Cumberland and the Shenandoah, undaunted
by the treachery
of the savage, manifested in repeated
violation of treaties, again
turned their faces to the fertile lands
beyond the mountains.
The peace that followed the treaty of
1765 gave them hope of
possible peaceable settlements. In 1769
the Zanes [Wheeling
creek is famous in western history. The
three Zane brothers,
Ebenezer, Jonathan and Silas,-typical,
old-fashioned names
these, bespeaking the God-fearing,
Bible-loving, Scotch Presby-
terian stock from which sprang so large
a proportion of trans-
Allegheny pioneers,-explored this region
as early as 1769, built
cabins and made improvements.-Reuben
Gold Thwaites in
"Afloat on the Ohio," 1897]
penetrated to the banks of
the river, at the present site of
Wheeling, and during the fol-
lowing year actual settlements were made
in the adjacent
territory on the east side of the river,
but so far as known
no settlements were made on the west
side, it being a pro-
vision of the treaties that the country
north and west of the
Ohio was to remain in possession of the
Indians. Nevertheless
four years before the coming of the
Zanes, in 1765, Jacob
Walker, who had come from Maryland, made
a tomahawk claim
on the territory now occupied by the
city of Steubenville. After
aiding a Mr. Greathouse clear three
acres of land and plant his
corn opposite the site of Steubenville,
in Prooke county, Va.,
Walker crossed the river and deadened
three trees at a point
The Pathfinders of Jefferson
County. 119
now known as Marsh's spring, on North
Seventh street, denot-
ing the centre of the claim. This was
the first attempt ever
made to settle the west side of the
Ohio. The appended sketch
of the life of Jacob Walker was written
by his great-grandson,
the information therein contained being
handed down from gen-
eration to generation, and its
authenticity is not questioned.
"In 1765 the site of Steubenville
was a dense forest, and
game, such as deer, turkeys, hares, and
wild hogs, was abund-
ant. Jacob also during that year bought
of Mr. Greathouse a
farm, paying sixteen cents an acre for
it, there being four hun-
dred acres, it being the farm now owned
by J. J. Walker. They
deadened three trees at the spring by
his house, which was the
transfer. On account of trouble at
Richmond, Va., he did not
get a deed until 1785. During the summer
of 1765 he built a
cabin on his farm, it being about half
way between the present
residence of J. J. Walker and his son,
W. P. Walker, and that
fall he returned to Baltimore and
married Margaret Guthrie.
In the spring of 1766 he bought a pony,
and they started back
to his farm, she riding the pony, and he
walking, bringing all
they had with them. They arrived at the
cabin in August; he
went in and tramped down the weeds and
then helped her off
the pony, took off the pack saddle and
what other few things
they had and told her this was her home.
He afterwards helped
to build Fort Decker in what is now
Mahan's orchard, below
Mingo. They lived at the fort for seven
years during the sum-
mer, and on his farm during the winter. As soon as the
leaves
came in the spring the Indians came
also, and when he went
out to plow or plant he got two soldiers
to come with him from
the fort, they hiding at each end of the
field to keep the Indians
from slipping up and shooting him. He
worked all day with-
out speaking to his team above a
whisper. During his stay at
the fort one day in the fall he came up
to his cabin, having a
little dog with him; he came to the
spring first, and the little
dog slipped up to the cabin. It came
back and by jumping in
front of him and doing everything it
could to keep him from go-
ing to the cabin, he thought of Indians
and went back to the
fort and got some of the soldiers,
returning in time to see nine
Indians slip away. Another time Captain
Buskirk sent his son
120
Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
to mill on horse-back with a sack of
corn, also having a favorite
dog, which followed him. It was a two
days' trip, and on his
return the dog was not with him; his
father got very angry, and
the son went back to look for the dog,
and after he had gone
three days and no word from him, the
captain sent Jacob
Walker, Mr. Decker, and two soldiers to
see if they could find
him. They went from the fort down the
Ohio to the mouth of
Cross creek and up Cross creek,
following the trail, and when
they came to the mouth of Scioto run,
where it empties into
Cross creek, they found him; the Indians
had laid in ambush
and caught him without shooting and had
split his head with a
tomahawk; the prints of their fingers
were plain on his neck
where they had choked him to keep him
from hollowing. They
scalped him and took his horse. The
party sent out took him
and buried him up on the hill
overlooking Cross creek on land
that was or is owned by Silas McGee.
Jacob said of all the
sad sights that he ever saw, that was
the saddest. The captain
lost his son, horse and dog; the Indians
killed his wife and the
captain himself later. After Jacob had
left the fort and gone
out to his farm, during the summer
season, the Indians would
still come over the river and kill the
settlers. At such times
Jacob and his wife would take their
three children and go away
from their cabin. She would take a babe
in her arms and sit
down in the field, leaving John and Mary
at a short distance
covered with a quilt; Jacob sitting at a
short distance with his
gun. He was at the building of Fort
Steuben; he was at the
battle between Captain Buskirk and the Indians, fought on Bat-
tle run, west of Mingo, where Captain
Buskirk was killed, in
Jefferson county, Ohio. He was at a
council of war between
Logan and Buskirk. Jacob Walker was
appointed constable in
1797, at the first court held in Brooke
county. He died about
1830, aged 94 years."
The policies of the English colonists
and their general gov-
ernment were ever clashing. The latter
looked upon the Indian
trade as an entering wedge; they thought
of the West as a place
of growth. Close upon the heels of the
path-breaking trader
went the cattle raiser, and, following
him, the agricultural settler
looking for cheap, fresh, and broader
lands. No edicts of the
The Pathfinders of Jefferson
County. 121
Board of Trade could repress these
backwoodsmen; savages
could and did beat them back for a time,
but the annals of the
border are lurid with the bloody
struggle of the borderers for a
clearing in the western forest. The
greater part of them were
Scotch-Irishmen from Pennsylvania,
Virginia, the Carolinas--a
hardy race, who knew not defeat.
Steadily they pushed back
the rampart of savagery, and won the
Ohio valley for civiliza-
tion.- Reuben Gold Thwaites,
"Historical Outline," 1897.
III.
The Ohio Country Attracts the East - George Washington and
William Crawford Take a Trip Down the
River and Stop at
Mingo Town in 1770 - Many Settlers as Early as 1774 -
First Blood of the Revolution Shed on
Jefferson County Water
Front-- Capt. Connelly, the Tory,
Incites Americans to Kill
Indians which Excites the Dunmore War
- The Killing of
Logan's People, Part of the
Conspiracy to Incite the Indians
to War to Quiet the Rumblings of
Revolution-Battle of
Point Pleasant the First of the
Revolutionary War.
The glowing accounts circulated
throughout the east as to
the Ohio country were most enticing, and
even interested no
less a person than George Washington,
who was often inspired
by the spirit of speculation, and in
1770 made a canoe trip down
the Ohio, a record of which is given in
his journal. On October
21st he parted with Col. Croghan at
Logstown, where Croghan
proposed to sell him a large body of
land which Croghan
claimed, but Washington makes this
record: "At present the
unsettled state of this country renders
any purchase dangerous."
On the 22nd he writes: "As it began
to snow about midnight,
and continued pretty steadily, it was
about half past seven before
we left the encampment (below Little
Beaver). At a distance
of about eight miles we came to the
mouth of Yellow creek, op-
posite, or rather below which, appears
to be a long bottom of
very good land, and the ascent to the
hills appears to be gradual.
There is another pretty large bottom of
very good land two or
three miles above this. About eleven or
twelve miles from this,
and just above what is called the Long
Island (Brown's Island),
122
Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
which, though so distinguished, is not
very remarkable for
length, breadth, or goodness, there
comes in on the east side
of the river a small creek, (King's) the
name of which I could
not learn; and a mile or two below the
island, on the west side,
comes in Big Stony creek, (Wills) not
larger in appearance than
the other, on neither side of which does
there seem to be any
large bottoms or bodies of land. About
seven miles from the
last mentioned creek, and about
seventy-five from Pittsburg, we
came to the Mingo town, situated on the
west side of the river,
a little above Cross creek. This place
contains about twenty
cabins, and seventy inhabitants of the
Six Nations." Washing-
ton speaks of the abundance of game, his
party having killed
five turkeys the day of arrival at
Mingo, mentioning also that
the river abounded in wild geese and
several kinds of ducks.
According to this journal, Washington
found sixty warriors at
Mingo on their way to the Cherokee
country to war with the
Catabas.
Washington was accompanied on the trip
by Col. Crawford,
his friend and companion, in whose
integrity he had fullest con-
fidence, and upon whose ability as a
surveyor, and judgment
as a prospector he relied; Dr. Craik,
Joseph Nicholson, Robert
Bell, William Harrison, Charles Morgan,
and David Redden,
Col. Crawford's servant. On their return
Washington and
Crawford remained in Mingo three days.
The peace of the country was not
generally disturbed after
the treaties of 1765 up to the Dunmore
war, and that portion of
Virginia opposite Jefferson county was
quite rapidly settled.
Wheeling soon became of as much
importance as a place of
rendezvous as had Redstone Fort. which
had been the meeting
place of immigrants from Virginia and
Pennsylvania on their
way to Kentucky, and was the only
station between Fort Pitt
and the "dark and bloody
ground." Capt. Michael Cresap,
of Maryland, was among the earliest to
invade the Ohio country
and take up lands with a view of holding
for a price when they
should come into the market.25 With
his name is associated
one of the saddest tragedies of the
pioneer days, the murder
of Logan's relatives at the mouth of
Yellow creek. His
25 Caldwell's History of Belmont and
Jefferson counties.
The Pathfinders of Jefferson County. 123
coming to the Ohio country, says Jacobs
in the Life of Cresap,
he having become financially involved,
was urged by necessity as
well as laudable ambition to profit by
the possession of the rich
bottom lands, in order that he might in
time gain a competency
for his growing family by their sale,
and to this end early in
the year 1774, he employed a lot of
young men and repairing to
the wilderness of the Ohio, commenced
the work of clearing
the lands and building houses, and being
among the first ad-
venturers into this exposed and
dangerous region, was enabled
to select some of the best and richest
Ohio levels. It was while
he was engaged in this enterprise that
Cresap received word
from Capt. Connelly, commandant of the
West Augusta, Va.,
troops, and stationed at Fort Pitt,
apprising him that a war with
the Indians was inevitable, evidence
having been gathered by
scouts that the savages were preparing
to attack the settlers,
this being precursory to what is known
in history as Dunmore's
war, but really the beginning of the
Revolutionary struggle, for
the people of New England, in the
Mohawk, the Cumberland,
the Virginia valleys and on the Holston,
the Alamance and the
Watauga were protesting against British
tyranny, secession and
independence having been largely
discussed in the Presbyterian
presbyteries, and the English government
knew of the storm
that was coming. There was comparative
peace with the In-
dians and the settlers had time to think
of their other troubles
and to discuss them at the fireside and
in meeting. The savages
were evidently incited by the British
emissaries to hostilities to
give the settlers matters to consider of
more immediate serious
import than the discussion of state
affairs. Thus in 1774 began
the Revolutionary war, which did not end
in the Ohio country
until the complete victory over the
Indians and British by the
matchless Wayne and his Scotch-Irish
soldiers at Fallen Tim-
bers, twenty years after.
As has been stated, there were many
settlers along the east
side of the river at this time. George
Rogers Clark was with a
party of pioneers at the mouth of the
little Kanawha. A portion
of the party had gone up the river, and
while they were on the
expedition, those remaining were fired
upon by Indians. There
was cause for apprehension, for rumors
of war filled the very
124 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
air with their awful forebodings of
savage atrocities. The settlers
began to gather at Wheeling, the rush
being from all points, none
of them agreeing to accept the
protection offered by scouting
parties sent out from Fort Pitt, and
return to their plantations.
Cresap was elected as leader, and on
April 21, received a
letter from Fort Pitt confirming the
rumors of impending war.
A counsel was held and Cresap's men at
once declared war against
the Indians.
"About this time," says
Doddridge, "it being reported that a
canoe containing two Indians and some
traders was coming down
the river, and then not far from the
place, Captain Cresap proposed
to take a party up the river and kill
the Indians. The proposition
was opposed by Col. Zane, the proprietor
of Wheeling. He stated
that the killing of those Indians would
inevitably bring on a war
in which much innocent blood would be
shed, and that the act
itself would be an atrocious murder and
a disgrace to his name
for ever. His good counsel was lost. The
party went up the
river. On being asked on their return
what had become of the
Indians, they coolly answered, 'they had
fallen into the river.'
Their canoe, on being examined, was
found bloody and pierced
with bullets." The idea has been
advanced, and it is possible, if
it be true that the British incited the
Dunmore war for a far-
reaching purpose, it is evident that
Cresap was in the conspiracy,*
for conspiracy it evidently was, and in
killing these Indians on
the water front of Jefferson county made
this the scene of the
first blood of the Revolution.
According to the printed accounts, on
the same day, or the
day after, various canoes of Indians
were discovered on the river
by Capt. Cresap and his men, who drove
them down the river
to Pipe creek, where the Indians landed
and a battle ensued, in
which three of the savages were killed
and scalped and their stores
taken. This was the second bloodshed,
"and a war inaugurated,"
says Caldwell, "which brought forth
fearful vengeance." The
same night, according to the account of
Col. Clarke, who was
with the party, a resolution was formed
by Cresap's men to attack
Logan's camp at the mouth of Yellow
creek. "We actually
marched five miles and halted to take
some refreshments. Here
*As an unconscious tool of Connelly.
The Pathfinders of Jefferson
County. 125
the impropriety of the proposed
enterprise was argued, the con-
versation was brought forward by Cresap
himself. It was gen-
erally agreed that those Indians had no
hostile intentions, as it
was a hunting camp, composed of men,
women and children, with
all their stuff with them. This we knew,
as I, myself, and others
then present, had been in their camp
about four weeks before
that time, on our way down from
Pittsburg. In short, every
person present, particularly Cresap
(upon reflection) was opposed
to the projected measure. We turned, and
on the same evening
decamped and took the road for Redstone.
It was two days after
this that Logan's family was killed, and
from the manner in which
it was done, it was viewed as a horrible
murder by the whole
country."
Logan's camp, at the mouth of Yellow
creek, was about
fifteen miles above the site of
Steubenville. The account of the
atrocious massacre of Logan's people, as
given in Caldwell's
History of Belmont and Jefferson
counties, is as follows: "Di-
rectly opposite Logan's camp was the
cabin of Joshua Baker,
who sold rum to the Indians, and who
consequently had frequent
visits from them. Although this
encampment had existed here
for a considerable time, the neighboring
whites did not seem to
apprehend any danger from their close
proximity. On the con-
trary, they were known to have their
squaws and families with
them, and to be simply a hunting camp.
The report of Cresap's
attack on the two parties of Indians in
the neighborhood of Wheel-
ing, having reached Baker's may have
induced the belief, as was
subsequently claimed, that the Indians
at Yellow creek would
immediately begin hostilities in
reprisal. Under this pretext,
Daniel Greathouse and his brothers
gathered a party of about
twenty men to attack the Indian
encampment and capture the
plunder. Unwilling to take the risk of
an open attack upon them,
he determined to accomplish by stratagem
what might otherwise
prove a disastrous enterprise.
Accordingly, the evening before
the meditated attack, he visited their
camp in the guise of friend-
ship, and while ascertaining their
numbers and defences, invited
them with apparent hospitality to visit
him at Baker's, across the
river. On his return he reported the
camp as too strong for
126
Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
an open attack, and directed Baker, when
the Indians whom he
had decoyed should come over, to supply
them with all the rum
they wanted, and get as many of them
drunk as he could. Early
in the morning of April 30, a canoe
loaded with Indians, consist-
ing of eight persons, came over-three
squaws, a child, and four
unarmed men, one of whom was a brother
of Logan, the Mingo
chief. Going into Baker's cabin, he
offered them rum, which they
drank, and became excessively
drunk-except two men, one of
whom was Logan's brother, and one woman,
his sister. These
refused taking liquor. No whites, except
Baker and two com-
panions, remained in the cabin. During
the visit, it is said by
John Sappington, Logan's brother took
down a hat and coat
belonging to Baker's brother-in-law, put
them on, and strutted
about, using offensive language to the
white man-Sappington.
Whereupon, becoming irritated, he seized
his gun and shot the
Indian as he went out the door. The
balance of the men, who
up to this time remained hidden, now
sallied forth, and poured
in a destructive fire, slaughtering most
of the party of drunken
and unresisting savages. According to
the statement of Judge
Jolly, the woman attempted to escape by
flight, but was also shot
down; she lived long enough, however, to
beg mercy for her
babe, telling them it was akin to
themselves. Immediately on
the firing, two canoes of Indians
hurried across the river. They
were received by the infuriated whites,
who were arranged along
the river bank, and concealed by the
undergrowth, with a deadly
fire, which killed two Indians in the
first canoe. The other canoe
turned and fled. After this two other
canoes, containing eighteen
warriors, armed for the conflict, came
over to avenge their fellows.
Cautiously approaching the shore they
attempted to land below
Baker's cabin. The movements of the
rangers, however, were
too quick for them and they were driven
off with the loss of one
man. They returned the fire of the
whites but without effect.
The Indian loss was ten killed and
scalped, including the mother,
sister and brother of Logan."
In commenting on this horrible and
bloody massacre, Cald-
well says it cast a stain of infamy upon
the name of every person
in any way connected with it.
Contemporary letters and chron-
The Pathfinders of Jefferson
County. 127
ides of this event speak of it as a
shameless and atrocious murder,
and as the inciting cause of the
terrible war which followed, ac-
companied with all those cruelties which
savage ferocity could
invent.
The party guilty of the crime left
immediately, taking the
babe whose life had been spared with
them, arriving, according to
Judge Jolly, at Catfish camp, now
Washington, Pa., the evening
of the next day. "I very well
remember," says Judge Jolly, "of
seeing my mother feeding and dressing
the babe. However they
took it away and talked of sending it to
its supposed father, Col.
George Gibson, of Carlisle, Pa., who was
then and had been for
many years, a trader among the
Indians." The child was deliv-
ered to Gen. Gibson and was educated by
him.
John Sappington declared in an affidavit
that he did not be-
lieve any of Logan's family were killed
aside from his brother.
Neither of the squaws was his wife; two
of them were old women
and the other the mother of the child.
It has been related that
Sappington admitted that he shot Logan's
brother.
After writing an account of the massacre
of Logan's family,
Col. William Crawford, to whom
Washington had entrusted the
sale of his western lands, and who
subsequently met with horrible
death by burning by the Indians near
Sandusky, says, "Our in-
habitants are much alarmed, many
hundreds have gone over the
mountains, and the whole country
evacuated as far as the Monon-
gahela. In short, a war is every moment
expected. We have
a council now with the Indians. What
will be the event I do
not know. I am now setting out for Fort
Pitt at the head of one
hundred men. Many others are to meet me
there and at Wheel-
ing, where we shall wait the motions of
the Indians and shall act
accordingly."
About this time many other like outrages
were committed on
the Indians by the whites, including the
massacre of Captina.
They seemed to be simultaneous, giving
evidence of a conspiracy
to incite the savages to war with the
whites. It is also evident that
Capt. or Dr. Connelly, the English
commandant at Fort Pitt,
was wholly responsible for the outrages
on the Ohio and on its
headwaters. Connelly's letter to Cresap,
which occasioned his
128
Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
sudden removal from the seat of his
enterprises, directed the mur-
der of Indians and authorized the bloody
work. All this in con-
nection with the action of Dunmore,
makes very strong circum-
stantial evidence against the English,
who saw the storm cloud
of the American Revolution forming in
the great valley that ex-
tends from New York to the Carolinas.
There has been much written about the
murder of Logan's
people, the massacre being one of the
blackest pages in the his-
tory of the Ohio country. The historian
has enlarged on it and the
poet has taken it as a theme. Cresap and
Greathouse have been
villified and a stain put upon their
memory, while those really to
blame remained at the head of a
Christian nation. At the hour
Connelly directed Cresap to kill Indians
there was every indica-
tion that the savages were friendly;
there was nothing whatever
to indicate a possible uprising.
Resolutions passed at an indig-
nation meeting, held at Pittsburg,
blamed Connelly, the members
of the assembly declaring that every
part of Connelly's conduct
toward the friendly Indians convinced
them that he meant to force
them to war, as he both refused to
protect, and endeavored to mur-
der those Indians who, at the risk of
their lives, came with the
traders to protect them.
Col. Crawford and Maj. Angus McDonald,
early in July,
arrived at Wheeling with soldiers from
the Virginia valley and the
settlements along the Ohio river, about twelve
hundred men,
most of them inured to Indian warfare.
Here they erected Fort
Fincastle, and Maj. McDonald organized
an expedition to make
incursions into the Indian country,
leaving on the 25th of July
with about four hundred men, going to
the mouth of Captina
in boats and canoes. The Indians were
overawed and sued for
peace. McDonald having run out of
provisions retraced his
steps to Wheeling, his soldiers having
to subsist largely on weeds.
As soon as the soldiers were withdrawn
the savages invaded and
attacked the settlements, spreading
terror in all directions. The
settlers fled to the forts and
block-houses, but many of them were
murdered.
It was while at Wheeling that Lord
Dunmore received ad-
vices from the British government that
led to the treachery that
The Pathfinders of Jefferson
County. 129
forced the Lewises to fight the battle
of Point Pleasant without
the aid of promised reinforcements, and
which was no less than
part of the conspiracy to show the
settlers that they had enough
trouble at hand without entering upon an
enterprise that might
result in the separation of the American
colonies from Great
Britain.
Successive events that led up to the
murder of Indians on
the water front of Jefferson county
demonstrated conclusively that
the British had crushed the influence of
Christian civilization in
their hearts in order to fill its place
with a wicked spirit to coerce
the colonists to continue to bear the
galling yoke of tyranny.
Patrick Henry had delivered the speech
that was heard over the
mighty ocean. The Boston massacre had
filled the country with
horror. The tea had been thrown
overboard in Boston harbor.
Americans had been shot down on the
banks of the Alamance by
cruel soldiers of the crown. A congress
of the colonists had
been called. The Virginia House of
Burgesses had passed a
resolution to the effect that it would
oppose, by all proper and
just means, every injury to American
rights, and the House had
been dissolved by Dunmore. Hanover
Presbytery, in Pennsyl-
vania, had passed a declaration that had
an omnious sound. Rev-
olution was rife. An Indian war would
unite the settlers on an-
other matter of seemingly greater
import. Capt. Connelly, com-
mandant of Fort Pitt, by authority of
Lord Dunmore, was in
close communication with his lordship.
He at once refused to
protect friendly Indians when requested.
All testimony goes to
show that the Indians were never so
tranquil as at the time Con-
nelly sent the letter to Cresap, who was
under his command, but
between the two there was enmity;
Cresap, being a Whig and
Connelly of course a Tory. Connelly knew
Cresap as a desperate
man, who would take pleasure in killing
Indians. The letter
told him that war with the Indians was
inevitable, and urged him
to begin the bloody work at once.
Connelly, knowing that the
murder of a few Indians would at once
raise the alarm for re-
venge throughout the Indian country, and
put the savages upon
the war path against the settlers, had
two ideas in view: one to
incite the Indians to war, the other to
place the blame upon Cresap.
Vol. VI-9
130 Ohio
Arch. and His. Society Publications.
The settlers were to be left to fight as
best they could, as Lewis
was left at Point Pleasant.
History does not record a more terrible
battle than that fought
at Point Pleasant by Gen. Andrew Lewis
[When Washington was
appointed to command the Patriot army he
insisted that Lewis
should have been selected because of his
superior skill] and his
Scotch-Irish soldiers from the Virginia
valley. Gen. Lewis was a
leading actor in all the events in which
he took part, yet "fame,"
says Caldwell, "has trumpeted to
the world his exploits with feebler
tone than the deeds of others of far
lesser importance." Had the
battle of Point Pleasant been fought on
New England soil, the
pages of history would have been filled
with the name of Andrew
Lewis. In order to show that the men who
fought the battle of
Point Pleasant were Scotch-Irish it is
only necessary to append the
names of the captains under the command
of Gen. Lewis-George
Matthews, Alexander McClanaghan, John
Dickson, John Lewis,
Benj. Harrison, Win. Naul, John Haynes,
Samuel Wilson,
Matthew Arbuckle, John Murray, Robert
McClanaghan, James
Ward, and John Stewart.
The incidents occurring immediately over
the river were so
associated with the history of Jefferson
county, that it seems
necessary to note them in order to give
a comprehensive view
of this part of Ohio-it is at least
necessary to show the strong
character of the first settlers, those
of Virginia and Pennsyl-
vania being of the same blood as those
of Jefferson county.
IV.
The Revolution Comes - The Ohio Country in Arms - Diabolical
Outrages Committed by the Indians
Incited by the British on
Settlers as Described by Hildreth - Siege of Fort Fincastle
which is Re-christened Fort Henry.
The Revolution came. Virginia, absolved
from all alle-
giance to the crown, on June 29, 1776,
adopted a con-
stitution. Patrick Henry at the same
time was elected gover-
nor. Ohio county was formed, which
included the territory op-
posite the river front of Jefferson
county. Fort Fincastle was
The Pathfinders of Jefferson
County. 131
rechristened Fort Henry, in honor of the
noble Scotch-Irish Vir-
ginian, whose voice was ever for
liberty, and preparations were
made to defend the state against the
savage allies of the English.
Ohio county, says McKiernan, was to all
intents and purposes
a military colony. Every man able to
bear arms was enrolled.
The Indians, as mercenaries of the
British, committed many
diabolical outrages, and American
soldiers that might have given
more aid in the east, were compelled to
fight the savage in the
west, and thus prolonged the war.
However Fort Henry was
not garrisoned, as were the other forts
on the Ohio, but by the
settlers who sought its walls for
protection. On the last day
of August, 1777, began the terrible
siege of this fort - one of
the most stubborn and most successful
defenses on record.
There were nearly four hundred Indian
warriors of the most
blood-thirsty breeds, led by the cunning
and skillful Girty, while
in the fort there were only thirty
defenders, according to Hil-
dreth, and according to McKiernan only
twelve men and boys,
aside from the women, but brave women
they were. The In-
dians were under the British flag and
offered terms of surrender
from Gov. Hamilton at Detroit, who gave
the brave garrison
fifteen minutes to surrender under his
conditions. Col. Zane,
who was in command of the small
garrison, replied that the
time was sufficient for them to
deliberate which of the two to
choose, slavery or death. They had
consulted their wives and
children and were resolved to perish,
rather than place them-
selves under the protection of a savage
army, or to abjure the
cause of liberty and of the colonies.
For twenty-three hours
all was life, and energy, and activity
within the walls of the
fort.
Every individual had duties to perform, says Caldwell,
and promptly and faithfully were they
discharged. The more
expert of the women took stations by the
side of the men, and
handling their guns with soldier-like
readiness, aided in the
repulse, with fearless intrepidity. Some
were engaged in mak-
ing bullets; others in loading and
supplying the men with guns
already charged; while the less robust
were employed in cook-
ing. It seemed indeed as if each
individual were sensible that
the safety of all depended on his lone
exertions, and that the
slightest relaxation of these would
involve them all in common
132 Ohio Arch. and His. Society
Publications.
ruin. Word had gone out that Fort Henry
was invested by
the Indians, and every effort was made
to reenforce the garri-
son. It was on one of these attempts
that Major Samuel Mc-
Cullough was cut off from his men just
as they were entering
the gate of the stockade. The Indians
wanted to capture hint
alive for torture, or else they could
have shot him on several
occasions. They made almost superhuman
efforts to acquire
possession of his person, and when he
appeared among them
they were greatly elated in their savage
way. The fleetness of
McCullough's horse was scracely greater
than that of his ene-
mies, who fairly flew in pursuit of the
man who had evaded them
just at the point of capture. When the
Major reached the top
of Wheeling hill, he was met by another
band. He wheeled his
horse and rode back over his own tracks,
only to encounter those
who were pursuing him. He was now
surrounded on all sides,
the fourth being a precipitous precipice
of one hundred and fifty
feet, with Wheeling creek at its base.
According to the pub-
lished accounts,26 he
supported his rifle in his left hand and care-
fully adjusting the reins with the
other, he urged his horse to
the brink of the bluff and then made the
leap which decided his
fate, one of the most daring acts of
American history. He was
soon beyond the reach of the Indians,
safe and sound. The
Indians, finding that they could make no
impression on the fort,
and fearing the coming of
reinforcements, abandoned the siege,
but not until they had burned everything
in reach, including
the houses within the stockade. Capt.
Mason and a party who
had gone out of the fort to investigate
the forces of the enemy,
were met by the savages and most
inhumanly murdered with
the tomahawk and the scalping knife.
Upwards of three hun-
dred head of cattle and hogs had been
wantonly killed by the
Indians.
Fort Henry was again besieged September 11,
1782, by a
large force of Indians. The fort was
still under command of
Col. Zane and garrisoned by the
settlers. This siege continued
until the 13th, and was a most
desperately fought battle. It
was on the occasion of this siege that
Elizabeth Zane, one of
the most heroic women developed by the
awful times of the
26 Caldwell.
The Pathfinders of Jefferson
County. 133
Revolution, when only the fittest
survived the hardships if they
escaped the bullet, the tomahawk or
scalping knife of the British
army of savages, ran out of the fort to
the house of Col. Zane,
and returned with a keg of powder in her
apron and saved the
fort. The Indians were so overwhelmed by
her audacity that
they watched her with amazement and
permitted her to make
the most hazardous and most successful
expedition of that war.
The achievement of the pioneer settlers
of this region in main-
taining the two sieges of Fort Henry is
worthy more space in
histories than it has been given. Both
were battles of the Revo-
lution, and as such deserve to rank in
history with the other
patriotic defences of the land. Not only
was the garrison sum-
moned to submit to the British
authorities by a British official,
but the northwest Indians, who assaulted
the fortification, were
as much the mercenary soldiers of Great
Britain as were the
Hessians and Waldecks who fought at
Saratoga, Trenton and
Princeton. If the price received by the
Indians for the scalps
of the Americans did not always amount
to as much as the daily
pay of the European minions of England,
it was, nevertheless,
sufficient to prove that the American
savages and the German
hirelings were precisely on the same
footing as part and parcel
of the British army.27
What is known as "the Squaw
Campaign" of 1778, was in
the bounds of the original Jefferson
county. In February of
that year General Hand, who desired to
capture provisions and
clothing sent to the Cuyahogas, left
Fort Pitt with considerable
force. Not succeeding in the designs of
the expedition, he re-
turned to Salt Lick, in the territory
now Mahoning county,
where he killed and captured a few
squaws.
A strong effort was made by the
commander at Detroit to
entice the patriots from the cause of
American freedom. He
promised that if the settlers would
return to the allegiance of the
crown and trust themselves to the care
of the Indian allies, they
would be conducted to a place of
security. It is a fact that only
six could be found in this region who
expressed desire to comply
with the conditions offered by the
British, their names being,
George Baker, of near Logstown; James
Butterworth, from the
27 Caldwell.
134
Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
Big Kanawha; Thomas Shoers, Harrodsburg,
Ky.; Jacob Pugh,
six miles below the fort at Wheeling;
Jonathan Muchmore, from
Fort Pitt; James Witaker, and John
Bridges, Fish Creek. The
Tories were not numerous in the west.
The settlers were not of
the breed out of which Tories were
recruited. The Tories were
mostly on the seaboard.
The expeditions of Indians concerted by
the British at De-
troit to lay waste the settlements, to
outrage and kill the settlers,
passed through Jefferson county. One
expedition was in two
divisions, one to cross the river below
Wheeling, and the other
sixty miles above, at Raccoon creek. In
his account Withers
says: "The division crossing below
Wheeling was soon dis-
covered by scouts who gave the alarm,
causing most of the in-
habitants to fly immediately to that
place, supposing an attack
was to be made upon it. The Indians,
however, proceeded on
their way to Washington, then Catfish
camp, making prisoners
of many, who, although apprised that the
Indians were in the
country, yet feeling secure in their
distance from what they sup-
posed would be the theatre of
operations, neglected to use the
precaution necessary to guard them
against becoming captives
to the savages. From all the prisoners
they learned the same
thing - that the inhabitants had gone to
Fort Henry with a
view of concentrating there to effect
their repulsion. The in-
telligence alarmed the Indians. The
chiefs held a council in
which it was determined instead of
proceeding to Washington,
to retrace their steps across the Ohio,
lest their retreat, if de-
layed, should be entirely cut off.
Infuriated at the blasting of
their hopes for blood and spoil, they
resolved to murder all their
male prisoners. Preparations to carry
this resolution into effect
were immediately begun to be made. The
unfortunate victims to
their savage wrath were led forth from
among their friends and
their families, their hands were
pinioned behind them-a rope was
fastened around the neck of each, and
that bound around a tree,
so as to prevent any motion of the head.
The tomahawk and
scalping knife were next drawn from
their belts, and the horrid
purpose of these preparations fully
consummated. Imagina-
tion's utmost stretch can hardly fancy a
more heart-rending
scene than was there exhibited. Parents,
in the bloom of life
The Pathfinders of Jefferson
County. 135
and glow of health, mercilessly mangled
to death in the presence
of their children, whose sobbing cries
served but to heighten the
torments of the dying; husbands cruelly
lacerated, and by piece-
meal deprived of life in view of the
tender partners of their
bosoms, whose agonizing shrieks,
increasing the anguish of tor-
ture, sharpened the sting of death. It
is indeed
'A fearful thing
To see the human soul take wing,
In any shape, in any mood;'
but that wives and children should be
forced to behold the last
ebb of life, and to witness the struggle
of the departing spirit
of husbands and fathers, under such
horrible circumstances, is
shocking to humanity, appalling, even in
contemplation.28
This is but one of the hundreds of
incidents of horrible cru-
elty inflicted by those who fought under
the British flag upon
the American patriots of the west. Yet
there are New England
historians who would have us believe
that the Revolutionary
war was fought within ten miles of
Boston!
V.
Broadhead Notes Considerable
Settlements in the Ohio Country
as Early as 1779-Settlers Dispossessed by the Government
and Their Cabins Destroyed- Some of
Them Return to again
be Turned Out - Large Settlement at Martins Ferry with
a Town Government Previous to 1785- Settlers Threaten
to Make a Stand Against the
Troops-Names of the Squat-
ters, Among Them that of John
McDonald's Father --James
Ross Settles at Mingo - The First White Child Born in
Jefferson County His Son-Early
Settlement at Tiltonville.
In a letter to General Washington, dated
October 26, 1779,
Gen. Broadhead notes the fact that there
were considerable set-
tlements all along the Ohio, and as far
as thirty miles up the
tributaries, between the Muskingum and
Fort McIntosh. These
settlers were of course called
trespassers on the Indian land, as
the Ohio side of the river was then
known. These settlers were
28 Hildreth.
136 Ohio
Arch. and His. Society Publications.
dispossessed, but returned, as noted
below by Ensign Armstrong.
After Congress issued orders for the
settlers who had squatted
on the west bank of the Ohio to remove
until titles could be
had from the Indians and then disposed
of to settlers in a proper
way, Col. Harmar sent a detachment of
troops down the river
from Fort McIntosh29 to
dislodge all who refused to obey the
order. This detachment was under command
of Ensign Arm-
strong who made report April 12, 1785.
He crossed the Little
Beaver on April 1, and dispossessed a
family. Four miles be-
low he found families living in sheds,
but they having no raft
on which to transport their goods, he
gave them until the 31st,
in which to leave. At the mouth of
Yellow creek he dispossessed
two families and destroyed their cabins
with fire. We should
think by this time the men who had
fought the battles in the
west and believed they won enough ground
upon which to build
a cabin and raise a little corn, had
concluded that the govern-
ment was more dangerous to life and
property than the savage.
On the 3rd he dispossessed eight
families. On the 4th he ar-
rived at Mingo, where he read his
instructions to Joseph Ross,
who would not believe the instructions
came from Congress;
neither did he care from whom they came,
he was determined
to hold possession; if his house were
destroyed he would build
another, or six more, for that matter,
within a week. "He also,"
says the report of Armstrong, "cast
many reflections on the hon-
orable, the Congress and the
commissioners and the command-
ing officer." Armstrong said he
considered him a dangerous
man, took him prisoner and sent him to
Wheeling under guard.
The other settlers, who seemed to be
tenants under Ross, were
given a few days' time, at the end of
which they promised to
vamose. On the evening of the 4th
Charles Norris, with a
party of armed men, arrived at the
ensign's quarters and de-
manded his instructions; but they were
soon convinced and
lodged their arms with the officer.
Armstrong learned from
Norris that a large body of armed
settlers had assembled eleven
miles below, ready to resist his orders.
On the 5th Armstrong
arrived at the Norris settlement. He
informed Norris that if
the order were resisted he would fire on
the settlers, and he or-
29 Mouth of the Beaver.
The Pathfinders of Jefferson County. 137
dered his own men to load. However, the
settlers finally laid
down their arms and agreed to remove to
the east side of the
river on the 19th. At Mercer town, now
Martin's Ferry, he
found quite a large settlement, John
Carpenter and Charles Nor-
ris having been elected justices of the
peace, and here was an
organized government in Ohio before the
settlement at Marietta.
These people also agreed to obey the
order and promised to re-
move by the 19th. Although the squatters
along the west bank
of the Ohio had banded together to
resist the United States
troops, and were actually organized and
equipped with guns,
they were finally induced to yield; but
a compromise was ef-
fected, whereby they were given time to
prepare temporary
habitations on the east side of the
river. The descendants of
many of them now people this county. The
names of the first
settlers whose cabins were scattered
throughout this region were
as follows, many of them being familiar
to those now living in
this immediate vicinity:30 Thomas Tilton,
John Nixon, Henry
Cassill, John Nowles, John Tilton, John
Fitzpatrick, Daniel
Menser, Zephenia Dunn, John McDonald,31
Henry Froggs, Wi-
land Hoagland, Michael Rawlings, Thomas
Dawson, Thomas
McDonald,32 William Shiff, Solomon Delong, Charles Ward,
Frederick Lamb, John Rigdon, George
Weleams, Jessie Edger-
ten, Nathaniel Parremore, Jesse
Parremore, Jacob Clark, James
Clark, Adam Hause, Thomas Johnson, Hanament
Davis, Wil-
liam
Wallace, Joseph Redburn, Jonathan Mapins, William
Mann, Daniel Kerr, William Kerr, Joseph
Ross, James Watson,
Abertious Bailey, Charles Chambers,
Robert Hill, James Paul,
William McNees, Archibald Harben,
William Bailey, Jones Am-
spoker, Nicholas Decker, John Platt,
Benjamin Reed, Joseph
Goddard, Henry Conrod, William Carpenter, John Goddard,
George Reno, John Buchanan, Daniel
Mathews.
In the fall of the same year (1785) they
returned, and had re-
built the cabins destroyed by order of
the government, and were
found in possession by Gen. Butler, who,
accompanied by James
Monroe, afterward President, was sent
out to again warn them
off. It was this sort of tenacity of
purpose in the character of the
30 All but two or three Scotch-Irish. 31
The father of Col. John McDon-
ald. 32Uncle of Col. John McDonald.
138
Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
pioneers that gave them the force to
succeed in their efforts to
make homes in the wilderness.
Joseph Ross, who has already been
mentioned in these
sketches, was taken prisoner by
Armstrong and conveyed to Fort
Henry under guard. According to
Caldwell, Ross was the father
oF the first white child born in
Jefferson county. As early as 1784
Ross with wife and one son, Jacob,
settled on Mingo bottom.
Ross was a man of resolute will and
considerable force. He and
his family made their abode in the
hollow stump of a sycamore
tree, located on the old Jump place. As
late as 1814, says Cald-
well, there were people living here who
had seen the stump from
which a limb projected which had been
hollowed and used for a
smoke pipe. It was during the temporary
abode in this stump
that the first white child born in
Jefferson county saw the light of
day. At the time of this interesting
event Ross was engaged in
building a cabin. The child born in the
tree stump was named
Absalom, and at the time of his father's
death had grown to be
a fine young man. He stood six feet
three inches, and weighed
250 pounds. He would walk two and three
miles to and from
his work among the farmers and split an
hundred rails per day.
The brother was with Van Buskirk in his
fight with the Indians,
in which battle Jacob shot an Indian in
the back and pursued him
to get his scalp, but as the Indian
dived beneath some drift wood
and the roots of a large tree, the body
was not recovered. Absa-
lom married Annie Edsell, whose father
lived on an elevated point
near Cross creek, on which is now the P.
W. and Kentucky rail-
road, and died in 1867.
In Butler's report, dated October 1,
1785, it is noted that he
found a number of settlers at Mingo
town, among them one Ross,
who seemed to be the principal man of
the settlement. "I con-
versed with him and the others and
warned them away. He said
he and his neighbors had been
misrepresented to Congress; that
he was going to Congress to inform them
that himself and neigh-
bors were determined to be obedient to
their ordinances, and we
made an effort to assure them that the
land would be surveyed
and sold to poor and rich, and there
would or could be no more
The Pathfinders of Jefferson County. 139
of preference given to one than another,
which seemed to give
satisfaction."
As early as 1776 Joseph Tilton came to
the Ohio country
from Pennsylvania, and settled on land
near the site of Tiltonville,
where he lived with his family during
the following, the eventful
years of the Revolutionary war. He
became an expert scout
and was at two of the sieges of Fort
Henry. After the survey
he bought the land, on which he
continued to live up to the time
of his death, when it was divided among
his children. An old
gentleman who was acquainted with his
son, Caleb Tilton, in his
boyhood, informs the compiler that Caleb
at that time was looked
upon as the first white child born in
Jefferson county, the date
of birth being previous to 1784, at
which time Absalom Ross was
born, as noted above. The farm on which
Tilton settled is now
owned by William Medill. On it is a
large mound from which
W. L. Medill, Esq., has taken stone and
copper instruments, in-
cluding a copper needle and a large
piece of mica. Adjoining
the mound are the evident remains of an
ancient fort, whose out-
lines are very distinct.
Others followed Tilton and settled at
Warrenton and Tilton-
ville, and in the year 1785 there were
large settlements at these
points, and to-day many of their
descendants are living on the
lands then taken by their ancestors-the
Maxwells, McClearys,
Tiltons, and McCormacks.
The father of Ephraim Cable settled at
the mouth of Island
creek in 1785, where Ephraim was born
the same year, and until
recently was noted as the first white
child born in the county.
The father built a block-house, where he
lived and reared the elder
children of a family of twelve. Ephraim
Cable served honorably
in the war of 1812. Descendants still
live in the county and his
name has been also perpetuated by a bend
in the Ohio river and
by an eddy.
The date of the Cable settlement is
questioned, local his-
torians making it 1795, but there could
have been no occasion
for a blockhouse in 1795. The date 1785
has been given the
compiler by a descendant.
NOTE.-Jesse Delong was born on Short
creek about 1776, and died at the age of 106.
-Rev. R. M. Coulter in Cadiz
Republican, Oct. 31, 1895. He was possibly son of Solomen
Delong mentioned on p. 137.
140 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
VI.
The Lochry Expedition--Those Taking
Part are Inveigled to
Shore by Indians and British and all
but Two Killed out
of 106-Capt. Thomas Stokely, Father
of Gen. Samuel
Stokely, Escapes--He was to have been
Burned at the Stake,
but is saved by Giving the Masonic
Sign of Distress-The
Massacre of Lochry's Men an Exciting
Cause of the Mas-
sacre of the Moravian Indians by the
Friends of Lochry
from
Western Pennsylvania-The Gnadenhutten
Expedi-
tion of Col. Williamson-The Life of a
Moravian Indian
Maiden Saved by a Jefferson County
Settler who Makes Her
His Wife-A Respectable Family of the
County a Result
of the Union - Story of Sweet Corn-A Defense of William-
son and His Men--The Last Victim of
Indian Revenge a
Resident of Jefferson County.
What is known as the Lochry expedition,
organized in West-
moreland county, Pa., in the spring of
1781, by Col. Archibald
Lochry, the county lieutenant, under
direction of Col. Crawford,
has a very close association with the
history of Jefferson county.
Information of this expedition has been
difficult to obtain. In
searching the Archives of Pennsylvania,
the compiler of these
sketches, although aided by Dr. Egle,
the painstaking historian
and librarian of the state of
Pennsylvania, has been able to gather
only fragments which, put together, make
one of the strongest
indictments against the humanity of the
British. It was one of
the most disastrous expeditionsof the
Revolutionaryperiod in the
west, nearly all of the one hundred and
six men in it having been
massacred in the most cruel way by the
Indians under the British
flag and having in their possession
British cannon, and, it is sup-
posed, were commanded by a white man. As
has been stated,
the expedition was organized in 1781,
the object being to accom-
pany George Rogers Clark on an
expedition to Detroit, where
all the Indian enterprises to destroy
the settlers were concocted
by Gov. Hamilton. Under Col. Lochry was
Capt. Thomas
Stokely, the progenitor of the noted
Stokely family of Steuben-
ville, the father of Gen. Samuel
Stokely; Capt. Boyd and Capt.
The Pathfinders of Jefferson County. 141
Orr. The ensign of Capt. Orr's company
was Cyrus Hunter,
the great-grandfather of the compiler.
One account says that
Lochry was to have met Clark at Fort
Henry, and failing to
arrive on time, was left word to follow
down the river. Another
account says that the mouth of the Big
Miami was fixed as the
place of rendezvous, but was
subsequently changed to the Falls
of the Ohio. On July 25 Col. Lochry and
his command set out
for Fort Henry, where they embarked in
boats for their destina-
tion, the place of rendezvous. They
passed down the Ohio to a
point a few miles below the Big Miami,
now Aurora, Ind., where
they were inveigled to shore by the
supposed friendly statement
that Clark had camped there. "They
were suddenly and unex-
pectedly assailed by a volley of rifle
balls from an overhanging
bluff, covered with large trees, on
which the Indians had taken
possession in great force." Col.
Lochry and forty-one of his
command were killed or wounded by the
volley and the remainder
were captured, most of whom were killed
and scalped while pris-
oners. The supposition is that only two
escaped, for Capt.
Stokely and Capt. Boyd were the only two
who turned up in
Philadelphia, where they applied for
clothing and means by which
they could return to Westmoreland
county. Col. Lochry was
afterwards killed by a tomahawk while
sitting on a fallen tree
by an Indian, he having been wounded by
the volley. Capt.
Stokely gave an account of the
expedition to his son Samuel,
who afterward became Gen. Stokely, one
of the noblemen of the
Scotch-Irish race, and an early settler
of Steubenville, a man of
fine presence, gentle manners and of
wide influence. As he was
a man of literary attainments it was
thought that he wrote the
narrative as related by his father, but
if he did do this service for
posterity, the document cannot be found.
But he in turn handed
down the story through his son, M. S.
Stokely, of Duluth, from
whose lips the compiler received it.
Capt. Stokely was wounded
by the volley fired by the savages just
after the boat landed, but
fearing he would be killed if he showed
evidences of disability,
he assumed to be sound and was permitted
to accompany the
Indians on their march to Detroit. On
the way, however, they
camped and made preparations to burn him
at the stake, under
142
Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
protection of the British flag, under
whose standard they com-
mitted the cruelties that to this day
fill the world with horror.
Stokely was tied to the stake and the
fire lighted, when he made
the Masonic sign of distress. He was
immediately taken from
the stake and permitted to accompany the
Indians. However,
with Capt. Boyd he succeeded in making
his escape, and a year
after appeared before the council of war
in Philadelphia, and it
is recorded in the Archives of
Pennsylvania that the two men
"appeared before the council and,
stating that they were refugees,
were given provisions and clothing to
aid them on their way to
Westmoreland county." The Masonic
sign as a means of relief
from Indian torture is questioned by
historians. Dr. Egle says
he never heard of but one authentic case
of an Indian recognizing
the Masonic sign; this was a Canadian
Indian. The grandson of
Capt. Stokely says that he had always
understood from his father's
narrative of the story that the Indian
chief with the party that
massacred Col. Lochry and his soldiers
was a Canadian Indian,
and if the Canadian Indians were Masons,
the story has founda-
tion. Besides it is known that the
Indians that inveigled Lochry
and his brave men to disembark at the
mouth of the Miami, were
commanded by a white man, perhaps he was
a British officer sent
out by the brutal Hamilton from Detroit,
for the officers at De-
troit kept in touch with all the patriot
expeditions by means of
Indian spies.
Since the above was prepared for the
press, the compiler
has received further information about
the Lochry expedition
from Hon. C. A. Hanna, Treasurer of the
Chicago Postoffice,
who has in course of preparation an
elaborate record of the
pioneer families of Pennsylvania. Ensign
Hunter must have
returned as he left a manuscript account
of the expedition.
There were from 104 to 110 men in the
Lochry command, of
whom thirty-six privates and five
officers were killed. The
most of the remainder returned. James R.
Albach's Annals of
the West, Pittsburg, 1857, states that
"More than half the
number who left Pennsylvania under Col.
Lochry returned."
"This statement is derived from a
manuscript of Gen. Orr of
Kittanning, written from the recollection
of his father, Captain
The Pathfinders of Jefferson
County. 143
Orr, who was in the party, and is
corroborated by a manuscript
of Ensign Hunter, who was also a sharer
in it." (See note p. 148.)
This massacre had much to do with
bringing about the
massacre of the Christian Indians at
Gnadenhutten on March 7,
1782, for which the British were wholly
responsible. In fact it
was planned by the British at Detroit.
The hostile Indians, who
were the allies of the British, had
captured the missionaries having
the Moravian Indians in charge, and,
with the Christian Indians,
had taken them to Sandusky on a
trumped-up charge. The win-
ter following was a very severe one and
provisions ran short.
About one hundred of the Christian
Indians were permitted to
return to the Tuscarawas valley to
gather corn left growing when
they were taken away. At the same time
warriors were sent out
to murder the whites in the valley to
incense the Americans against
the Indians, knowing that they would
organize and make cause
against the Christian Indians in the
Tuscarawas valley. These
red warriors crossed the river at
Steubenville and committed all
sorts of awful depredations against the
settlers, among them the
murder of Mrs. Wallace and her babe. The
plan laid by the
British at Detroit was carried out.
Other depredations were committed in
western Virginia and
Pennsylvania. Prisoners were taken by
Indians claiming to be
Moravians. The government also suspected
the Moravians with
being very intimate with the British and
furnishing information.
Col. Williamson hastily organized an
expedition against the
Indians who had committed the
depredations, no doubt having
also in mind the massacre of Lochry and
his command. There
were ninety men in the command when they
organized at Mingo,
on March 2, 1782. The result of this
expedition fills a black
page in history. The British no doubt
thought the massacre of
the Christian Indians a most diabolical
deed. Col. Williamson
with his men marched to the Tuscarawas,
and finding the Indians
there and in possession of Mrs.
Wallace's bloody garments natur-
ally supposed that the Christian Indians
had murdered her, just
as the British at Detroit had planned
they would. There has
been much written against Col.
Williamson and the "murder" of
the Christian Indians; but those who
reproach his memory do
144 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
not appreciate the conditions then
existing. The pioneer to
whom we owe everything is entitled to
every doubt. He knew
the treacherous nature of the Indian as
well as of the British, and
it was natural and especially during the
border warfare of the
Revolution, to suspect every Indian and
trust none of them, Chris-
tian or otherwise; the British were
Christians, and they were not
trusted, and why should a savage under
the flag of Britain be
trusted simply because he professed
Christianity? The pioneer
who made this valley a home of peace for
those who came after
him, is worthy an enduring monument on
every hill and in every
valley, instead of clouding his memory
with the charge of mur-
der. When we celebrate the wonderful
achievements of the pio-
neer fathers we should rejoice in their
bravery, in their fortitude,
in their endurance and steadfastness of
purpose. They were won-
derful men, the like of whom this
country will never see more.
The sentimentality that has been wasted
on the Moravian Indians
and the reproach cast upon Col.
Williamson and his pioneer sol-
diers, as brave men as ever aimed the
long rifle at the savage and
made that aim count in one less British
ally, has its parallel in the
pioneer struggles in Pennsylvania, where
the Indians would com-
mit depredations on the hardy settlers,
and then seek safety among
the Quakers, who seemed to think it all
right for the Indians to
kill and destroy, but when the Paxtang
boys, as they were known,
undertook to retaliate, they were
charged with murder, and to
this day the Quaker writers have cast a
cloud over the memory
of these brave men, that it seems
impossible to efface.
It is a fact that a family named
Haverstock residing in that
part of Jefferson county now Belmont
county, is descended in
direct succession from the Indians of
the Moravian settlement at
Gnadenhutten. The grandmother of the
present Haverstocks
was an Indian maiden named "Sweet
Corn," and was in the field
gathering corn with the other
unfortunate members of her tribe,
on the morning preceding the ill-fated
day. As has been stated,
the Moravians had been carried to
"Captive's Town" in Wyandot
county, the preceding fall, by order of
the British authorities at
Detroit, on suspicion of undue
friendship for the American settlers.
They passed a winter of great privation
and suffering. They had
The Pathfinders of Jefferson
County. 145
but hastily and ill-constructed huts to
shelter them from the winter
of unusual severity, were possessed of
but the scantiest means of
provision and clothing and in the early
spring the impoverished
Moravians were in a state of entire
destitution. It was thereupon
determined to send a portion of the
tribe-the younger and
stronger-back to their grain fields on
the Tuscarawas, where corn
of the previous year's husbandry still
hung unplucked, to there
gather and return with the sustenance
for the aged, the sick, and
the enfeebled. As soon as the subsiding
snows permitted, a Mo-
ravian relief band started for their old
settlement, arriving there
early in March, and at once began the
work of collecting the corn.
"Sweet Corn," a lovely Indian,
and one of the Moravian converts,
was with the expedition and was in the
fields husking the grain
when Col. Williamson's command
approached. Joining Col.
Williamson's forces at Mingo was a young
hunter named John
Haverstock, one of the most intrepid of
the frontiersmen. He
was noted among the pioneers for his
great strength, agility and
daring, and as one of the most skillful
hunters, his boyish life
having been spent in trapping and
shooting in the unbroken for-
ests then lying west of the Ohio, and
now composing the coun--
ties of Jefferson and Belmont. Losing
his parents in childhood,
he had practically made his home in the
woods with no compan-
ion but his gun, sustaining himself on
game and amusing himself
with daring adventure. On the evening of
the 7th the American
forces were nearing the quiet and
unsuspecting Indian village,
John Haverstock scouting somewhat in
advance of the command,
and penetrating to the edge of the heavy
forest which skirted the
Tuscarawas bottoms, his gaze was
suddenly rivited by the be-
witching loveliness of the maiden as she
industriously husked her
grain for those who hungrily waited on
the Sandusky plains.
Col. Williamson's men were kindly
received at the village and
hospitably entertained. Upon their
advent Haverstock laid im-
mediate siege to the heart of gentle
"Sweet Corn." The maid was
not averse to the noble presence of the
young white hunter and
her troth was plighted to the American.
To his dying day John
Haverstock maintained that no evil
design was originally medi-
tated against the Moravian settlement,
although some of the men
Vol. VI-10
146
Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
attached to the command of Col.
Williamson insisted that the
Moravians were giving aid and comfort to
the hostile savages
of the northwest. But a bloodstained
dress was found in one of
the cabins and suddenly produced among
Williamson's men, which
it was insisted had been on the person
of Mrs. Wallace at the
time of her capture by the Indians a
short time before. The
minds of the patriots became greatly
embittered by the recent
enormity of the Wallace murder and other
diabolical outrages.
This discovery developed into an
immediate demand for revenge.
The determination was that of wholesale
slaughter. The work
of butchery progressed until the charnal
house was made com-
plete. Amid this carnage nothing but the
known heroic daring
and prowess of Haverstock saved the
weeping "Sweet Corn"
from the fate of her tribe. As the work
of blood ran riot the
colossal form of John Haverstock towered
before the wigwam of
the terrified Indian girl like an
impenetrable wall of steel between
her and the danger without. Rifle and
tomahawk clutched in
hand, he warned the maddened Americans
that he would visit
death on any who would attempt to
approach her place of refuge.
On the return march he carried the
maiden to the American settle-
ment at Mercertown, where she became the
bride of her protec-
tor, and became the mother of a
respected line of descendants,
from one of whom, the late W. T.
Campbell, Esq., these details
were gathered. Haverstock at one time
had an encounter with
Simon Girty on Mingo bottom.
It has never been charged that the
Christian Indians mur-
dered Mrs. Wallace and her babe, but it
is evident that the pio-
neers believed that they were guilty of
the crime. The Indians
who killed Mrs. Wallace sold the dress
to the unsuspecting Mo-
ravians, having in view the result. They
had hidden in the neigh-
borhood of Gnadenhutten until after the
massacre, and then made
a swift run to claim premiums for scalps
offered by the British
at Detroit. The news of the massacre was
soon in possession of
the warriors on the Sandusky, Miami,
Scioto and the Wabash.
Revenge most terrible was demanded of
the warriors by the chiefs
"in corresponding magnitude to the
murders committed on their
kin." Simon Girty, one of the most
skilled of the English officers,
The Pathfinders of Jefferson
County. 147
for such he was, first incited the
Indians to commit crimes to
arouse the whites to murder the Indians,
and then called upon
the Indians to avenge the destruction of
their people. It hardly
seems reasonable that the English would
employ a man of Girty's
diabolical spirit, but the evidence is
undisputed. He took the
oath under Connelly, and was received
with open arms by Ham-
ilton. At all the British camps it was
"determined to take two-
fold vengeance on the Americans. A vow
was made that no white
man should ever have the Tuscarawas
valley for a home, but that
it should remain uncontaminated by his
presence, and that the
boundary line of all future treaties
should be the Ohio river, for
ever and ever."33 Each
prisoner was to be taken to the scene of
the massacre and there dispatched by the
tomahawk and fire-
brand until the two-fold vengence had
been consummated. And
how many pioneers felt the scalping
knife and the tomahawk as
the result of this resolution!
According to Caldwell, in the year 1785,
an escaped prisoner
crossed the river at the scene of the
massacre and reported at
the Wheeling fort that he saw no human
in the valley. "The
bones of the Christian Indians were
scattered about over the
ground, and the fruit trees planted by
the Moravians were in
bloom, but the limbs had been broken by
the bears, and the place
had become the abode of only
rattlesnakes and wild beasts."
There is now a Moravian church on the
site of the Moravian
Indian missions, this church having been
organized a hundred
years ago (1798). It is now under the
charge of Bishop Henry
Van Vleck, who has in his possession
many relics of the massa-
cred Indians, including an iron hand
corn-mill, brought out to
the unbroken west by Heckewelder and his
fellow missionaries.
He also has in his museum pieces of
charred remains of the cabins,
together with a portion of the historic
tree that was blown down
a few years ago. Bishop Van Vleck is a
most conscientious his-
torian, and is incensed over the fact
that modern graves and
monuments have been permitted to
desecrate the ground in which
the Moravian Indians are buried and
await the resurrection morn.
The first actor in the awful tragedy and
the last victim of
the Indian vengeance was a Jefferson
county settler, Chas. Bilder-
33 Caldwell.
148 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
back, one of Williamson's men. He was a
Virginian who had
settled on Short creek, and was one of
the bravest of the pioneers
who won the west with the long rifle. He
was with Crawford,
but escaping returned to his cabin at
the mouth of the creek.
Seven years after the massacre, when he
had concluded that he
was to escape the vengeance of the
Indians, both he and his wife
were captured by the savages near their
cabin. They first cap-
tured Bilderback and his brother, Mrs.
Bilderback having hid
in the bushes; but they were determined
to have her also, and told
Bilderback to call his wife or they
would scalp him alive. He
called her, telling her of the fate if
she did not come. She then
responded and the three were taken to
the Tuscarawas. Mrs.
Bilderback and her brother-in-law were
taken to the site of Uh-
richsville, while Bilderback was
conveyed to Gnadenhutten. In
a few hours the Indians that had
Bilderback in charge came to
the camp and threw into Mrs.
Bilderback's lap the scalp of her
husband. She was overcome and fainted,
but was taken to the
Miami valley, where she remained a
captive for nine months, when
she was ransomed. In 1791 she married
John Green and moved
to Fairfield county, and it is said gave
birth to the first white child
born in that county. Bilderback killed
the first Moravian re-
moved on that ill-fated day, the name of
his victim being Shabosh.
He was the last white man known to have
been in the massacre
who paid the forfeit of his life for
connection therewith.
The centennial of this massacre was
celebrated at Gnaden-
hutten by the erection of a monument to
the memory of the Chris-
tian Indians who were the victims of
Col. Williamson's men. The
addresses delivered reflected on the
brave pioneers who were
severely censured, when the crime should
have been charged not
to the brave hearts who made this state
a part of the Republic
and a home of peace, but to the
Christian nation over the sea
that waged warfare with the tomahawk,
the scalping knife and
the firebrand.
NOTED.-Since the above was put in type, a letter to the
compiler from Hon. C. W.
Butterfield, author of "
Washington-Irvine Correspondence," "Crawford's Sandusky
Expedition," " Biographies of
the Girty's," and certainly the most thorough of writers
of pioneer history, questions the
masonic story. Girty was with the Indians, there
being 600. McKee was in the party, his
name being signed to a report of the victory
over the Americans sent to Detroit.
Capt. Stokely commanded a company of state
troops. The British thought they had
captured Col. Clarke, whom they had hoped to
burn at the stake.
The Pathfinders of Jefferson County. 149
VII.
Crawford's Disastrous
Expedition-Rendezvous at Mingo-
Jefferson County Men Participating in
the Battle and Re-
treat-The British Responsible for the
Cruel Death of Col.
Crawford, the Most Horrible in
Civilized Warfare-The
British Considered the Results of the
Battle a Great Victory
-The Great Age Attained by Indian Scouts who Escaped
Death at the Hands of the English
Savage Allies-Escape
of John Sherrard, Michael Myers and
Others.
There has not been written a chapter of
history more thril-
ling, and record has not been made of a
more horrible fate of a
military leader than that of Crawford's
defeat, and his death by
fire, June 11, 1782, at the hands of the
savage minions of the
English. After the massacre at
Gnadenhutten, Simon Girty had
inspired the Indians with such awful
spirit of revenge that no
pioneer's life was safe. The red savages
were making their
way through the settlements, plundering
and burning in every
direction, and the whites captured were
treated without mercy,
Doddridge tells us that the people were
forced into the forts
which dotted the country in every
direction. "These forts were
cabins, blockhouses and stockades. In
some places where the
exposure was not great, a single
blockhouse, with a cabin out-
side, constituted the whole fort. A
space around the fort was
usually cleared away, so that an enemy
could neither find a lurk-
ing place nor conceal his approach. Near
these forts the bor-
derers worked their fields in parties,
guarded by sentinels. Their
necessary labors were performed with
every danger and diffi-
culty imaginable. Their work had to be
carried on with their
arms and all things belonging to their
war dress deposited in
some central place in the field.
Sentinels were stationed on the
outside of the fence, so that on the
least alarm the whole com-
pany repaired to their arms and were
ready for the combat in a
moment." It is not at all
surprising that there was such wide-
spread feeling of revenge against the
hostile Indians, especially
so when it was known they were paid to
burn cabins and mur-
der women and children. The horrid
scenes of slaughter which
150 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
frequently met the view were well
calculated to arouse the spirit
of the pioneer American who really had
the brunt of the Revo-
lutionary war to shoulder.
"Helpless infancy, virgin beauty,
and hoary age, dishonored
by the ghastly wounds of the tomahawk
and scalping knife, were
common sights. When the slain were the
relatives of the be-
holder - wife, sister, child, father,
mother, brother - it is not
at all a wonder that pale and quivering
lips should mutter re-
venge. It should seem," continues
Doddridge, "that the long
continuance of the Indian war had
debased a considerable por-
tion of our population to the savage
state of our nature. Having
lost so many of their relatives by the
Indians, and witnessed
their horrid murders and other
depredations upon so extensive
a scale, they became subjects of that
indiscriminating thirst for
revenge which is such a prominent
feature in the character in
the savage." Mr. Doddridge may call
the incentive to remove
the savage what he please, but there is
no civilized people living
even in this advanced age that would not
follow the footsteps
of the pioneer fathers under like
conditions. It was these depre-
dations that gave spirit to the fatal
Crawford expedition and
defeat; it was these depredations that
gave the pioneer the spirit
to fight the Indian until he was
exterminated, for the whites
and the reds could not live in peace in
the same country, and the
white man had come to open the great
empire west of the three
rivers and whose gateway was Fort Pitt.
The Revolutionary war was now almost at
an end in the
east, for Cornwallis had met his fate at
Yorktown, but in the
west it was continued with savage vigor.
On May 20, the west-
ern troops began to rendezvous on Mingo
Bottom. On the 21st
Gen. Irvine, who had command of the
western department,
wrote to Gen. Washington: "The
volunteers are assembled this
day at Mingo Bottom, all on horseback,
with thirty days' pro-
visions." It was to have been a
secret expedition with the ex-
pectation of surprising the Indians at
Sandusky. According to
Irvine's instructions, they were to
"destroy with fire and sword
(if practicable), then you will
doubtless perform such other ser-
vices in your power as will, in their
consequences, have a ten-
The Pathfinders of Jefferson County. 151
dency to answer this great end." On
May 24, all the men were
at the place of meeting. John Rose, an
aide-de-camp of Gen.
Irvine, wrote the general: "Our
number is actually four hun-
dred and eighty men." After a
lively contest Col. Crawford was
elected to command, he receiving two
hundred and thirty-five
and Williamson two hundred and thirty
votes. "On the morn-
ing of Saturday, May 25," says
Butterfield in his work on the
Crawford expedition to Sandusky,
"the army under Crawford, in
four columns, began its march from Mingo
Bottom, in the
straightest direction, through the
woods, for Sandusky, distant
one hundred and fifty miles. The route
lay through what is
now the counties of Jefferson, Harrison,
Tuscarawas, Holmes,
Ashland, Richland and Crawford. The
whole distance, except
about thirty miles, was through an
unbroken forest. The only
indication of civilization - and that a
very sad one - in all the
region to be traversed, was the wasted
missionary establishments
in the valley of the Muskingum. As the
cavalcade moved up
over the bluff, an almost due course
west was taken, striking at
once into the wilderness, now deepening
and darkening around
it. The army progressed rapidly at
first, moving along the north
side of Cross creek, which had already
received its name. After
leaving what is now Steubenville
township, it passed through
the present townships of Cross Creek and
Wayne, Jefferson
county, and German township, Harrison
county, to the summit
where the town of Jefferson now
stands." The Panhandle rail-
road follows this trail for a hundred
miles. Although every pre-
caution had been taken to make the
expedition a surprise, the
British Indians who had spies out, knew
of the rendezvous and
the objective point of the expedition.
It is said that Indians
were on the hill back of Mingo, watching
every movement made
by the small patriot army; they knew the
plans of the com-
mander as they were talked over in the
councils of war, and
therefore the Indian forces at Sandusky
were prepared for the
onslaught. The Indians, Girty was also
with them, and British
were commanded by Capt. William
Caldwell, chief in command;
Capt. Elliott, Capt. McKee, Capt. Grant,
Lieut. Turney, Lieut.
Clinch, and Simon Girty.
152 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
The result of the battle is known to
every school boy, for
it has been printed in all the histories
of the west.34 The battle
was considered of great importance by
the British, and reports
of it are on file in the British War
Office. Capt. Caldwell in a
report to Maj. De Peyster, dated
"Lower Sandusky, June 13,
1782," says: "Simon Girty
arrived last night from the Upper
Village (Half King's town). He informed
me that the Dela-
wares had burned Col. Crawford and two
captains at Pipe's town,
after torturing them a long time.
Crawford died like a hero;
never changed his countenance tho' they
scalped him alive, and
then laid hot ashes upon his head; after
which they roasted him
by a slow fire."
Col. Crawford was one of the great men
of the Revolution-
ary period. He was Washington's equal,
if not superior, in the
profession of arms; he was beloved by
Washington, for he was
his friend and companion, and like
Washington he was trusted
in the fullest measure by those whose
hearts were in the patriot
cause. Col. Crawford's awful death at
the stake was the most
tragic event of the conflict carried on
in the Ohio country against
the heroic patriots by a civilized
nation by means of all the dia-
bolical devices that the savage mind
could conceive, and all
these atrocious modes of torturing men
were employed to make
a very hell of the last hours of the
life of one of the noblest men
America ever produced. Burning him at
the stake was not
enough to satiate the satanic desires
that made devils of human
kind; they shot his flesh full of powder
from head to foot; they
cut off his ears and thrust burning
sticks into his blackened
body. It was not enough to cloy the
diabolical yearnings in the
savage breast to pull the flesh from the
body of their victim as
he walked through the burning coals; it
was not enough to
satisfy the eyes of those in whose
hearts all human feeling had
been stifled, to fill these wounds with
red-hot ashes - they must
have torture more cruel to complete the
savage saturnalia, and
they tore the scalp from his head and
filled the opening with
coals! And a Christian nation engaged in
civilized warfare, in-
34 See the very graphic account of the
life of Col. Wm. Crawford written
by Judge James H. Anderson, a most
painstaking historian, just published
(1897) by the Ohio Historical Society.
The Pathfinders of Jefferson
County. 153
cited the savages and urged them on to
deeds so appalling, so
awful, so cruel, that history does not
record a parallel! But,
Col. Crawford died like the martyr to a
grand cause that he was,
- with a smile on his lips he turned his
eyes to heaven, as his
spirit took its flight.
Of those taking a prominent part in the
Crawford Expe-
dition, Michael Myers, John Sherrard and
Martin Swickard
afterwards settled in Jefferson county,
all having respected de-
scendants who to-day hold prominent
positions in social and
business affairs. Swickard and Myers
were together for a time
during the retreat and the hardships
suffered by them, if re-
corded, would make a very entertaining
volume. At the loan
exhibition, connected with the
centennial celebration, J. A.
Swickard, a grandson of Martin, had on
view the powderhorn
carried by his grandfather. The horn was
etched with a crude
representation of the British arms and
must have been taken
from an Indian. John Sherrard was the
grandfather of the late
Hon. R. Sherrard, and great-grandfather
of Col. H. C. Sher-
rard, of Gov. Foraker's staff, as well
as that of Gov. McKinley.
Sherrard kept a diary of the expedition
which has been employed
to correct misstatements that have crept
into history. During
the battle on Sandusky Plains the air
was very hot, and the sol-
diers suffered much from thirst.
Sherrard, whose gun had be-
come disabled, undertook to find water
for the troops, and find-
ing a pool of stagnant water about the
stump of a fallen tree
he slaked his own thirst and, filling
his canteen and his hat, car-
ried the stagnant water to the soldiers,
who drank it with much
satisfaction. He continued to fill the
canteens from this pool
and carried them to the soldiers while
the bullets flew thick
about him. In the retreat, according to
Butterfield's account,
"Sherrard overtook the main body of
the army just before the
latter left the woodland again to thread
its way in the open
country, in what is now Crawford county.
His story is a mel-
ancholy one. In company with Daniel
Harbaugh, after having
become separated from the division to
which he belonged, just
as the retreat commenced the evening
before, he had followed
as best he could the main body of the
troops, making, however,
very slow progress, owing to the
darkness, which rendered it
NOTE.--Philip Smith, who was with the
Crawford Expedition, settled near Steuben-
ville in 1799, where he lived until
1812, then removing to Wayne county.
154
Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
exceedingly difficult to keep the trail
of the retreating forces.
It was a fortunate circumstance that the
two followed in the
rear of the division moving to the
southwest from the field of
battle, for had they taken the track of
McClelland's party which
led between the camps of the Delawares
and Shawanese, both
doubtless would have been killed or
captured. Not long after
sunrise the next morning they gained the
woods, and moving
along the trace on the east side of the
Sandusky, some distance
south of where the old town formerly
stood, Sherrard, who was
riding in advance of his companion, saw
an Indian a short dis-
tance away on his left. He immediately
dismounted and got
behind a tree, calling at the same time
to his companion to place
himself in like posture of defense.
Harbaugh had not been
quick enough to discover the Indians,
for in getting upon the
exposed side of the tree, he was
immediately shot by the savage,
exclaiming as he gradually sunk down in
a sitting posture,
'Lord, have mercy upon me, I am a dead
man!' and immedi-
ately expired. As soon as the smoke of
the Indian's gun had
cleared away, the savage was discovered
by Sherrard, running
as if for life, doubtless expecting a
shot from the latter; but he
had already escaped from the reach of a
bullet. At the sight
of Harbaugh's pale face his friend was
greatly moved; more un-
manned than at any of the scenes
witnessed during the battle.
After a moment to collect his thoughts,
Sherrard stripped the
saddle from his dead companion's horse
and turned the animal
loose. He then relieved his own horse
from a very uncomfort-
able packsaddle and put in its place the
saddle of Harbaugh.
Mounting and taking a parting glance at
the prostrate form of
his companion, still in a sitting
posture, he rode sadly onward.
Sherrard had proceeded on the trail not
a very great distance
when he made the discovery that in the
excitement of the mo-
ment he had neglected to disengage from
the packsaddle a
supply of provisions which were rolled
up in a blanket. He
resolved to retrace his steps and secure
the provisions. Upon
returning to the place where Harbaugh was shot, a shocking
spectacle was presented to his view. The
Indian had returned
and had scalped the lifeless soldier and
then made off with his
horse, gun and bridle. Sherrard's
packsaddle and blanket had
The Pathfinders of Jefferson County. 155
not, however, been discovered by the
savage. Sherrard having
secured his provisions again resumed his
journey, overtaking
the retreating army without again
encountering an enemy, and
was cordially greeted by his companions
in arms."
Wm. Myers, the grandson of Michael
Myers, is still living
in Jefferson county, his home being in
the town of Toronto, the
site of which was included in the land
given his father for ser-
vices during the Revolutionary war. The
son is now, (January,
1898) eighty years of age and still
possesses the "long rifle"
with which his father did wonderful
execution in the days when
every pioneer was a soldier. This rifle
was also among the
relics of the loan exhibition. Michael
Myers died, it is said,
at the age of one hundred and seven
years, but this is not posi-
tively known, for the family records
were lost in the great flood
in the Ohio river in 1832. Some years
ago the son gave an
account of his father's life to a
historical writer of The Steuben-
ville Gazette, a synopsis of which is
not without interest at this
time. He was born at Winchester, Va., in
1745, and in 1771
settled on Pigeon creek, in western
Pennsylvania, and was a
prominent actor in all the Indian
warfare of his time, his knowl-
edge of the woods and of the Indian
character qualifying him
for the hazardous tasks undertaken by
him and his fellow-scouts.
He was a physical giant and possessed a
well-balanced mind;
was one of the fleetest of the scouts,
while his aim was ever true.
After the Gnadenhutten massacre the
exposed condition of the
frontier made it necessary for a patrol
of the Ohio, and Myers
was one of the scouts selected for this
work. He usually dressed
in Indian fashion and had the faculty of
imitating the savages
in many ways. A part of his duty
consisted in patrolling from
Mingo Bottom up the west bank of the
Ohio to the mouth of
Yellow creek, where he would remain over
night, cross the river
and return by the Virginia shore next
day. While thus em-
ployed he frequently stopped to drink at
Poplar spring, about
a mile below Toronto, and on one
occasion when approaching
the spring, he found it in possession of
the Indians. He raised
his rifle, fired, and the largest of the
savages fell into the spring.
Myers retreated with other savages in
hot pursuit, but he had
faith in his legs, and by the time he
reached the island he was
156
Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
far in advance of the Indians, and Capt.
Brady35 who was wait-
ing for him, had time to convey him
across the river before the
Indians reached that point. When they
had secured their canoe
on the other side, according to Myers'
testimony, Brady declared
that he could hit one of the Indians on
the opposite shore.
Myers expressed doubt, and Brady took
aim, fired, and the In-
dian fell, pierced by a bullet.
Myers was a captain of scouts in the Crawford
Expedition,
and was one of the men who, like Col.
Crawford, became sepa-
rated from the army, and immediately
found himself surrounded
by a horde of yelling savages. Such was
his immense strength
and fleetness that he succeeded in
escaping from his foes, rifle
in hand, only to be met by another band,
in fighting which he
was wounded in his leg by an arrow.
Pulling this out, he has-
tened onward, only to be again
surrounded by a still larger party
of Indians, and here he had to fight.
Clubbing with his rifle he
managed to keep them at a distance, but
was finally struck by
a tomahawk on the neck and again on the
elbow, which forced
him down upon his hands and knees. He
was almost in the
grasp of the Indians, when by a
superhuman effort he raised
himself and dashed through the ranks of
the savages at full
speed. In endeavoring to find the army
he came across a com-
panion scout who was wounded in the hip,
and who was fearful
of being left to die alone. Myers tried
to assist him, and finally
got him into a swamp, and then, hearing
Indians approaching,
was obliged to leave him to his fate.
While in the swamp Myers
got his rifle and ammunition so wet they
were worthless, and he
threw them away. He arrived at Fort
Henry without further
adventure. After Crawford's retreat the
garrison at the fort
was advised of the Indian council at
Chillicothe, and that it
had been determined to attack Fort
Henry. Myers was one of
the scouts who informed the garrison of
the approach of the
savages and British. There was no time
for preparation, but
the pioneers were enabled to hold out
against the siege of the
united forces of the Indians and
British, who finally retreated
over the Ohio. After this time it does
not appear that Myers
was engaged in any other general
conflict with the Indians, but
35The noted Indian scout.
The Pathfinders of Jefferson County. 157
after peace had been restored he could
hardly restrain himself
from killing any Indian that came upon
his path. Even in his
old age he refused to attend an
"Indian show" on exhibition in
his town, saying that he was not too
good to put a hole through
one of the savages, should he see them
in the ring.
Before the days of steamboating Myers
followed flatboating.
The settlers on the Upper Ohio raised
wheat, which they turned
into flour, and rye, which they turned
into whiskey, and these
commodities were shipped to New Orleans
and intermediate
points, this business being the
principal source from which the
settlers derived their incomes. Myers
made eleven trips to New
Orleans on flatboats and returned
overland through an almost
unbroken wilderness. He made his last
trip near the close of
the last century. He and his brother
were stricken with the
yellow fever at New Orleans. The brother
died and Michael
was robbed of $1600. After this he did
not visit New Orleans,
but confined his trips to Louisville and
other points. About
1795 he located on land purchased by him
on Croxton's run,
and in 1799 built a log cabin on the
bank of the Ohio near the
mouth of the run. In 1800 he brought his
family in a flatboat
from what is now Monongahela City and
became one of the
first settlers. This boat served many
years as a ferry boat. In
1808 he built a grist mill on Croxton's
run, which, by being kept
in repair, ran until 1861. At about the
same time he built a
stone house, the first of the kind in
this part of Ohio, thirty by
forty feet, which was kept as a hotel
for forty years.
As stated, Myers was about one hundred
and seven years
of age at his death. This is indicated
on his tomb in Sugar
Grove graveyard. But all the old hunters
lived to a wonderful
age, notwithstanding the terrible
privation and exposure they
underwent, and the numerous wounds they
received at the hands
of the Indians. Andrew Poe was
ninety-six, Adam Poe eighty-
nine, and Lewis Wetzel eighty-seven. It
was well that the
pioneer fathers were of stern
stuff. Myers retained his
faculties to the last, and at the age of
one hundred and five years
was more vigorous than most men are at
eighty. His immense
and powerful frame was scarcely any
shrunken at the time of
his death, and above all, his wonderful
fund of Indian stories
158 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
made him an object of awe among all his
neighbors. There
were giants in those days.
During his lifetime Myers frequently
told his neighbors that
Crawford was apprehensive of his fate
when he found the Indian
village deserted, fearing an ambush, and
counseled retreat, but
was urged on to his horrible fate by
Col. Williamson and other
officers in whom Col. Crawford and his
men had the fullest
confidence.
Myers was with Cresap when the two
Indians were killed
in the canoe, the first killed as the
result of the advice or rather
order of Capt. Connelly, under
instructions of Dunmore.
The homeward march of the retreating
army under Wil-
liamson was along the trail of the army
when outward bound to
the Muskingum. The stream was crossed on
the 10th, between
the two upper Moravian towns. From this
point to the Ohio
"Williamson's trail" was
followed, the troops reaching Mingo
Bottom on the 13th, when to their great
joy they found that
several of the missing had arrived
before them, some two days
previous. Opposite Mingo Bottom, on the
13th, the troops
went into camp for the last time. On the
14th they were dis-
charged, and the awful campaign of
twenty days' duration was
ended.
VIII.
Some of the Jefferson County
Frontiersmen -Romantic Story of
James Maxwell-His Cabin on Rush Run
Burned by the
Indians-He Kills Many Indians, but
After the Wayne
Victory Discovers that His Babe had
been Stolen and She
is Returned to Him -A Note of
Wetzel's Camp at Mingo-
John McDonald an Early Resident at
Mingo -An Account
of His Deeds by His Friend, Dr.
Morgan--Sketches Pre-
pared by Him Lost by Henry Howe
-Other Indian Fighters
whose Achievements were in Jefferson
County -The Poes-
The Brave Johnson Boys.
Among the first to brave the danger of
pioneer life was
James Maxwell,36 who was obliged to
leave his home in Virginia
36This story is confirmed by grandsons
of the early settlers near Rush
run.
The Pathfinders of
Jefferson County. 159
to avoid prosecution for a murder of
which he was subsequently
proven innocent. He was a cousin of Col.
Zane, and it was the
Zane settlement he attempted to reach to
find security; but such
was not the case, as Zane ordered him to
leave at once or he
himself would convey him to Berkeley
county, Virginia, where
the crime was said to have been
committed. Maxwell left and
came up the river, building his cabin
near the mouth of Rush
run. Here he lived solitary for about
two years, when Cresap's
massacre aroused the Indians to terrible
vengeance, and obliged
him to leave his cabin and hermit life
and take refuge in Fort
Fincastle, afterwards Fort Henry. Here
he learned that his
innocence of the crime charged against
him had been proved,
and he immediately set out on foot for
his old home in Virginia,
where he remained until 1780, when he
again returned to Rush
run, bringing with him his young bride,
who had chosen the
toils and privations of pioneer life to
be with the man she loved.
Another cabin was erected, commanding a
fine prospect of the
river, and gradually a small patch was
cleared for corn. Still
Maxwell and his wife were obliged to
live almost as primitively
as the Indians around them. They were
far from even the out-
skirts of civilization. The Indians soon
came to know Max-
well's cabin and the kindness of
"Wild Rose," as they called his
wife. Both treated all the red men who
came to their cabin,
friendly, and the Indians, while
stealing from every other white
settler in the valley, never molested
Maxwell's property. But
the temporary peace which had been
prevailing was soon to be
broken. So daring and gross were the
outrages of the Indians
becoming that many of Maxwell's
neighbors erected block-
houses, to which they might retreat in
case of attack, and stored
them with arms and provisions; but his
confidence in his ex-
emption from any attack was too great to
allow him to appear
suspicious of those who came backward
and forward to his
dwelling in so much apparent friendship.
In the meantime a
daughter had been born to them, whom
they called Sally. When
the daughter was about three years old
she was left in charge
of a young man visiting them, while the
parents went to Fort
Henry. They had intended staying there
two days, but what
they learned of the uprising of the
Indians alarmed them, and
160
Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
urged by members of the Wheeling
settlement, they immedi-
ately started for home to bring their
daughter and visitor back
to the fort to remain until the
agitation subsided. As they drew
near their cabin the air became thick
with smoke, and when
they entered the cleared ground, and
looked for their home, no
home was there. Instead burning logs and
smoking ruins;
around the ground was trodden with many
feet of moccasined
men. A tomahawk smeared with fresh blood
lay among the
embers, and near by lay the charred
remains of their late visitor,
but not a trace could they discover of
their daughter. Sally was
certainly dead; the fresh blood only
proved that too clearly, and
her body had been consumed by the
flames! The mother was
crazed by the terrible calamity, and
snatching the hunting knife
from her husband's belt, almost severed
her head from the body.
Broken-hearted by his double affliction,
Maxwell felt that he
could not hold his hands in despair. All
the settlers had as-
sembled at Fort Henry; they were soon
notified by the infuri-
ated husband, and all decided to follow
the trail of the savages
through the woods, but during the first
night heavy rains fell,
causing all traces of the trail to
disappear and the baffled party
were reluctantly obliged to return in
order to defend their own
homes and families from a similar fate.
Then it was that Max-
well swore to be avenged for the
destruction of his home and
the death of his child, and
single-handed for months he shad-
owed the red murderers through the dim
forest until his grudge
had been glutted a hundredfold, and his
name inspired as much
terror among the Indians as that of
Simon Kenton or Lewis
Wetzel. Maxwell did not appear again in
this vicinity until
about the time Fort Steuben was
completed by Capt. Ham-
tramck, in February, 1787. Col. Zane
recommended him to the
captain as a scout for the new fort.
Zane said his eye was
keener and his tread lighter than those
of the most wily savage.
He rivaled even that subtlest of Indian
hunters, Lewis Wetzel.
It was on a scouting expedition from
this fort that he met the
party of Indians who had fired upon old
John Wetzel and a
companion, who were going down the river
in a canoe, and not
obeying the command of the Indians to
stop, Wetzel was shot
through the body. He saved his friend,
who was mortally
The Pathfinders of Jefferson
County. 161
wounded, from further outrage by
directing him to lie in the
bottom of the canoe, while he paddled
beyond the reach of the
savages. He died upon reaching the
shore, and his death was
terribly avenged by his son. Maxwell,
who had acquired the
habit of loading his gun while at a full
run, was chased by this
same party from tree to tree, until he
had killed three of the six,
and the others thinking him always
loaded, left him. Maxwell
returned to the fort that night with
three scalps. He became
the very embodiment of daredevilism and
had so many hair-
breadth escapes from his inveterate
foes, that some parts of his
career that have come down through
tradition ar certainly much
exaggerated. He is said to have been
surprised and captured
by a party of Indians who had closely
watched his movements.
To have shot or tomahawked him would not
have been gratifica-
tion equal to that of satiating their
revenge by burning him at
a slow fire in the presence of all the
Indians in the village. He
was therefore taken alive to their
encampment, and after the
usual rejoicing over the capture of a
noted enemy he was made
to run the gauntlet, after which he was
blackened and tied to a
stake while the fires were kindled. Just
as the savages were
about to begin the torture, a heavy rain
put out the fire. The
storm ceasing, the Indians concluded not
to finish the torture
that day, and so postponed it. During
the night the Indians
taunted the "soft stepper", as
he was called by them, who was
bound to a log by a buffalo thong around
his neck, and his
hands were bound to his back with cords.
At last those watch-
ing him fell asleep, and Maxwell began
trying to loose the
cords, and soon extricated one of his
arms. It was but the
work of a few minutes for him to pull
the strap binding him to
the log over his head, and quietly
getting a pair of moccasins
and a jacket from one of his watchers,
he sneaked away to where
the horses were corralled, selecting the
first horse he came
across, he was soon far away from his
captors. He arrived in
Wheeling safely, and it was not long
until he was again on the
trail of another band of Indians led by
Simon Girty. He aban-
doned the pursuit, however, and was not
again actively engaged
in Indian warfare until the campaign of
1790, when he acted as
a scout for Gen. Harmar. After St.
Clair's defeat the next year,
Vol. VI-11
162
Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
he returned home and fished along the
banks of the Ohio until
he joined Wayne, and was a scout in the
battle of Fallen Tim-
bers. It was during Wayne's campaign
that he discovered that
his daughter had not been burned in his
cabin twelve years be-
fore, but had been taken by a chief and
by him sold to wandering
Hurons, who had been expelled by their
foes, the Iroquois, to
the territory at about the headwaters of
the Mississippi. He
also learned that she, whose supposed
cruel death he had been
avenging, was still living among the
Hurons. No sooner did
he hear this from an Indian of the Huron
tribe than he set out
for their land. He had no doubts, no
fears, that she was not
his daughter. How he identified her is
not known, but in the
course of a year after his departure he
returned, bringing with
him a beautiful and well-proportioned
girl of about sixteen years
of age. She could speak no word of
English and had no recol-
lection of her former home. After she
had become reconciled
to her father and was able to speak his
language, she told how
her life had been spent among the
Hurons, where her beauty
and white skin had made her almost a
goddess. She had always
thought herself a daughter of the chief
and had often wished
that she could darken her skin and hair
so she could more re-
semble the other maidens of the tribe.
Although knowing noth-
ing of the ways of civilized society,
Sally was not by any means
totally unaccomplished. Her adopted
father had taught her to
fear the great spirit, speak the truth
and to bear pain without
a murmur. She learned that the important
part of the Indian
woman's duty was to raise the vegetables
needed for food, to
prepare savory dishes of venison and
other game, to make their
garments, ornamenting them with uncommon
skill and taste,
and to manufacture baskets. She knew all
the herbs, roots and
barks that observation and tradition had
taught the Indian to
employ in the cure of diseases; all the
trees and shrubs were
known to her by the Indian name, and she
was skilled in do-
mestic surgery. For a long time she
pined for the freedom of
her Indian home, but the kindness and
patience of the matrons
living near Fort Henry, finally weaned
her away from all in-
clination to return. Her father, now
that his daughter was
found and peace restored between him and
the red man, his
The Pathfinders of Jefferson County. 163
occupation was gone. He hunted and
fished, but finally drifted
into the bad habit of intoxication. One
day his body was found
by hunters, floating in the river near
his old cabin, at the mouth
of Rush run. No marks of violence were
on it and it was gen-
erally believed that he had committed
suicide during the re-
morseful period following a drunken
spree. Sally, on account
of her great beauty and romantic career,
was the belle of the
region about her home. Two of her many
admirers became so
jealous that they fought a duel at the
mouth of Short creek, and
as a result one was killed and the other
lost an arm. She
finally married an Indian trader from
Detroit.
Jacob Holmes,37 an Indian
spy, was very early in this county,
but until the past summer (1897), very
little was known of him.
However, in August of this year, E. G.
McFeeley, an old resi-
dent of Steubenville, while looking
through the papers of an
uncle, E. H. McFeeley, whose pen kept
alive much of the history
of Steubenville, found a sheet of
foolscap paper filled out with
the following:
"At this distant period, when
Indian traditions are listened
to with the interest that we lend to the
events of a dark age, it is
not easy to convey a very vivid image of
the dangers and priva-
tions that our ancestors encountered in
preparing the land we
enjoy, for its present state of security
and abundance. Notwith-
standing there are so many striking and
deeply interesting events
in the early history of this state,
permit me to draw your attention
for a moment to an adventure which
happened with me in the
summer of 1838:
"It was about the middle of July, a
calm and somewhat sultry
day; I clambered up the sinuous path to
the summit of 'Mc-
Dowell hill' and seated my wearied frame
under the spreading
shade of a sugar maple. While reclining
in a listless attitude I
was aroused by the quick report of a
rifle, and a slight chuckling
laugh; on looking up I recognized my old
friend S B. -- ap-
proach and pick up a sparrow-hawk which
had fallen headless
at my feet. Holding the bird by its
talons he exclaimed: 'As
well aimed, Hawkeye, as when you fought
them 'tarnal Indians,
37 See
account of first Methodist church building in Ohio on page 256.
164
Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
on yonder hill!' Immediately an aged but
erect man advanced
to the foot of the tree, leaning his gun
against its trunk and wiping
the perspiration from his weather beaten
brow, he advanced a
pace and was introduced to me as Jacob
Holmes, the Indian spy.
Having heard some of the incidents of
the pioneers of the country,
I expressed a desire to become
acquainted with the events of his
early life. Mr. Holmes informed me that
our mutual friend, Mr.
B., had made him acquainted with my wish
and he had prepared
himself to gratify it. Seating ourselves
on the green sward he
commenced by saying:
"'I was born in 1768 in Berkeley
county, Virginia. In 1775
my father moved over the mountains.and
took up his abode in
the wilderness, one mile from where the
town of Washington,
Pa., now stands. The year 1776 emanated
one of the greatest
state papers ever produced by civilized
men, and remains as the
great American Text-Book. The result of
that declaration mo-
mentarily suspended the border warfare,
but in the short space of
two years, the Indians again commenced
their depredations;
urged on by British Canadian influence,
the warfare bore the im-
press of extermination. We built forts
and block-houses for the
refuge and protection of our families.
For seven long years we
kept up the defensive warfare; during
this time were the simulta-
neous attacks on Fort Wheeling by three
hundred Indians, and
on Fort Rice, by two hundred. There were
but two men, too,
in the block-house at that time, to
fight the Indians and defend
the women and children. For two days and
nights the assault
was continued with savage perseverance
without success: our
men, like the Spartans at Thermopylae,
stood firm as Trajan's pil-
lar and saved their wives and children.
" 'In the year 1784 my father moved
on the frontier of Vir-
ginia, on the Ohio, on Buffalo creek.
This year we had no dis-
turbance from the Indians, but the
following year, in June, the
smothered volcano again broke forth on a
settlement about twelve
miles of Buffalo. I was then in my
seventeenth year and for the