KENTON'S "CHILLICOTHE."
BY T. J. BROWN, WAYNESVILLE, OHIO.
Having been born, and lived most of my
life in Greene
county, and within easy driving distance
of "Old Town," the
site of what I learned to designate as "New
Chillicothe," and hav-
ing known, when a boy about 1840, an old
Indian fighter who was
a participant in the ill-conducted
Bowman expedition intended to
capture and destroy that village, I read
up, very early in life, all
the adventures I could find, connected
therewith.
As to the advance upon Chillicothe by
Bowman's expedition
I think it can be safely said, and it is
a matter of common tradi-
tion, that it crossed the Little Miami,
from the west to the east a
couple of miles south of Waynesville, a
quarter of a mile south of
the mouth of Caesar's Creek. Then after
reaching a point about
three miles north, or rather, up the
river from Waynesville, for
although the general trend.of the river
is towards the south, it
has many large curves, it bore well to
the east to escape a large
tract of marshy prairie opposite Mount
Holly, which reached
from the river, nearly to the hills, and
has not even yet been all
drained, then turned westward in the
direction of our Chillicothe.
It is not my purpose to give an account
of the attempted
surprise and its failure-it is well
known that the retreat was
precipitant, the Indians' following and
harrassing the Kentuckians
for many miles, but Mr. Snodgrass, to
whom I have alluded,
said, the line of retreat was on the
west side of the river, prob-
ably crossing the Miami at Indian
Ripple, a couple of miles up
the river from Bellbrook, on the Upper
Bellbrook and Xenia
road. The Kentuckians passed between
Bellbrook and the river
and Mr. Snodgrass said they were
attacked very fiercely at a point
on the farm on which I was born-long
owned by my father.
The route designated, was a more direct
one to come in touch
with the military trail south of
Waynesville, than was the line of
advance, for be it known, Bowman was in
a hurry to get south of
the Ohio.
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