Ohio History Journal

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EDITORIALANA

EDITORIALANA.

BIG BOTTOM MASSACRE DEDICATION.

It is one hundred and fifteen years since the little band of pioneers

were massacred in their fort at Big Bottom on the Muskingum. This

settlement was an off-shoot of the one at Marietta. It was the remotest

outpost of the Ohio Company. Scarcely had Mari-

etta been settled when there pushed out from the

protecting walls of Fort Harmar small bands of

settlers , to build homes and clear the fields in other

favorable locations. Belpre on the Ohio and Water-

ford on the Muskingum were soon begun. In the

fall of 1790 thirty-six men departed from Marietta

and built a blockhouse on the east side of the Mus-

kingum along the line of the Monongahela trail,

about a mile and a half below the present village

of Stockport, Morgan county. The winter that fol-

lowed was a very cold one. Since the Indians were

not so apt to go on their predatory raids in winter

as at other times, the usual severity of the season

disarmed the vigilance of the inmates of the block-

house. In fact the fort had hardly been completed. Already cabins

had been erected and preparations for the spring planting were being

made.  In this apparent security the work of clearing and building

continued.

On the second of January, 1791, along the high ridge on the oppo-

site side of the river, unnoticed by the inhabitants of the fort, a band

of Indians saw the settlement. During the day they continued their watch.

They noted the unprotected condition of the blockhouse and the prob-

able number of occupants. Early in the evening they crossed the river

on the ice and fell upon the unguarded frontiersmen. The deadly work

was soon accomplished. Several pioneers escaped and ran through the

woods to the settlement at Wolf's Creek.

No memorial of any kind had heretofore been erected to show the

passer-by that the place was historic. But now, thanks to Mr. Obadiah

Brokaw, who owns the land upon which the blockhouse stood, there is a

suitable and imposing monument that tells the story of that winter day's

massacre. The monument consists of a marble shaft whose apex is

Vol. XIV.- 30.           (465)