Ohio History Journal

POWDER MAGAZINE AT FORT HAMILTON.

 

 

DR. WILLIAM C. MILLER.

It is generally understood that the Revolutionary War ended

with the surrender of Cornwallis, October 19, 1781, and a treaty

of peace was signed at Ghent, acknowledging the independence

of the colonies, and by this treaty the United States were to have

and hold as part of its domain the territory from the Atlantic

to the Mississippi River and south of the Great Lakes, except

Florida which was ceded to Spain. But did the British adhere

to their agreement? No. For twelve years after, they sought

in every conceivable manner to reclaim Detroit. They incited the

Indians against the white settlers in the Ohio Valley, furnishing

them arms and ammunition, so that by 1790 the Indians became

so arrogant and the white settlers so dismayed and panic-stricken

that they fled from their primitive forest homes to the nearest

fort. It was in 1791 when President Washington's attention was

called to the condition of affairs in the Ohio country. Then he

ordered General Arthur St. Clair, a gallant and brilliant soldier

of the Revolutionary War and who had given his fortune to

save his country's independence and was then governor of the

Northwest Territory, to raise an army and proceed against the

Indians for the protection of the pioneers and in order that ever-

lasting peace and tranquility might prevail in the Ohio country.

Leaving Fort Washington now Cincinnati on September 8, 1791

by the 17th he arrived at a point 25 miles north of the east side

of the Miami River in latitude of 39-26 and longitude of 7-29.

Here he built a fort and on the thirteenth of September had fin-

ished it and named it in honor of General Alexander Hamilton,

then Secretary of the Treasury in Washington's cabinet. A pow-

der magazine was erected at the south end of the fort of square

logs laid close together having a hipped roof, a cupola in its

center, and a blue ball on top of it. A well was dug in March,

1792, located in the east side of what is now Monument Avenue

and for years afterwards was known as the Sohn's Well. Gen-

(404)

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Powder Magazine at Fort Hamilton.         405

 

eral St. Clair, Wayne, Wilkinson and Harrison, and Major Cass,

Col. Buttler and Col. Darke were at this well often one hundred

years ago to quench their thirst. This well and the powder

magazine are to-day the only remaining relics of Old Fort Ham-

ilton. After the treaty of Greenville, the white winged messen-

ger of peace floated over the Miami Valley never again to be dis-

turbed, and General Wayne in the fall of 1796 ordered Fort

Hamilton vacated and the public property sold at auction. Is-

rael Ludlow had purchased the site of Fort Hamilton. Upon its

abandonment as a garrison, many of the old soldiers of St. Clair

and Wayne, such as John Torence, Captain Wingate, John Reily,

Archibald Tolbert, and John Sutherland remained to make it their

permanent abode, thus forming the nucleus for the now pros-

perous city of Hamilton, a hundred years after. The old well is

still there where thousands of Hamilton inhabitants within these

hundreds of years, now all passed and gone, have quenched their

thirst.

The powder magazine, when the fort was abandoned, was

turned into a jail and remained as such until 1810. The old sol-

diers of General St. Clair and Wayne, residents of Hamilton,

formed themselves into a militia company and whenever there

was any prisoner, a detachment of ten or twelve would form

a guard to prevent the occupant's escape. In 1803, when the

country was organized the commissioners ordered the magazine

to be reinforced with militia and strengthened, two more com-

panies were organized from the immediate vicinity of the town.

John Winjato, James Blackburn and John Gray were captains

and when any of them were called to duty they were henceforth

paid for their services.

The magazine was strengthened with a door of heavy two-

inch plank driven full of spikes and nails with a hole cut in the

center in the shape of half moon for the admission of light, air

and food for the occupants and fastened with an iron hasp and

paddlock. In 1810, the magazine was abandoned as a jail and

was from that time until 1825 used as a place of worship. Here

the Rev. Lorenzo Dow, the eccentric itinerant preacher of three-

quarters of a century ago, preached. Here Rev. Adam Rankin,

of Kentucky, Rev. David Rush, and Rev. R. H. Bishop, later

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406      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

President of Miami University, preached to the adherents of their

faith, the Associated Reformed and now the United Presbyter-

ians. Here Miss Ellen McMechen, later Mrs. Charles K. Smith,

and Miss Jane McMechen, later Mrs. Jessie Corwin, taught school.

Here the children of the early settlers were taught their A, B,

C's, such as the Blairs', Wilkinson's, Hough's, McBridis', Cam-

eron's, Sutherland's, Wood's, Murray's, Webster's, and Hun-

ter's; a chart owned by Mrs. James McMechen in the early twen-

ties in this building, can be seen at the Magazine building to-day.

Here Mrs. Henry Skinner, daughter of Israel Creeg, once

sheriff of Butler County, the venerable mother of Dr. George

Skinner, who is still with us, went to school. About the year

1840 the magazine was abandoned as a school. Carl Donges,

proprietor of the William Tell Hotel on High Street, whose prop-

erty extended from High to Court Street upon which the maga-

zine stood, became its owner. He, a man of military attainments

and for years captain of the Jackson guards, a military organi-

zation, converted this building into a magazine again. Here were

kept the two little bull dogs and the ammunition that used to

thunder forth the victory of a political campaign at the wee small

hours of the night awakening the inhabitants to let them know

who was the winner. When two shots were fired in succession

it meant a Democratic victory, and one shot fired at a time, in-

dicated a Whig victory.

In 1849, the magazine was purchased by Peter Jacobs, who

removed it to a lot on Water Street, purchased of C. K. Smith

some years previous and converted it into a dwelling. It was

then weatherboarded and the roof changed to a gable fronting

on Water Street. It remained in the Jacob's family until 1883

when it fell into the hands of the late Thomas Millikin. Thomas

Millikin had an eye on this house knowing its history personally,

and the writer has frequently heard from the lips of the leaders

in the community in the first half of the last century refer to

the last relics of Fort Hamilton, the magazine and Sohn's Well.

In 1889, a committee of the Soldiers and Sailors Pioneer Monu-

ment Committee called upon Thomas Millikin with a view of

acquiring the magazine building and to place it upon the lot at

the foot of High Street. Mr. Millikin thought well of the propo-

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Powder Magazine at Fort Hamilton.         407 sition, but somehow nothing came of it. Some time later a com- mittee of the Daughters of the American Revolution called upon Mr. Millikin with a view of getting this building, remodel it, and convert it to its original form as near as possible. Mr. Millikin was most enthusiastic and promised to give them the building; they to remove it. In the meantime Thomas Millikin died and the property fell into the hands of 0. M. Blake, who upon being apprised of Mr. Millikin's promise, most graciously and patrioti- cally carried out Mr. Millikin's wishes and thus this historic building became the property of the D. A. R. The officials of Hamilton with a like spirit of patriotism and a desire to perpet- uate the memory of Hamilton's early days granted a site for this building on the north side of the east end of the High and Main Street bridge, and furnished every convenience,

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