Ohio History Journal

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Big Bottom and Its History

Big Bottom and Its History.             29

 

we consider that but for this custom and the preservation of

these monuments and tablets, much that we now recognize and

accept as historic truths would have been lost to us and all future

generations, it is matter of earnest congratulation upon our part,

that this monument, which we are met here to-day to dedicate,

has been donated to, and has been formally accepted by the

Archaeological and Historical Society of Ohio. For we feel and

know that its acceptance by this Society gives abundant assurance

that with such a custodian, it will be so cared for and preserved

that in the years to come it will remain in place to tell its sad

historic story. That this may be so, and that many years of

health and happiness may yet remain to its generous donor, is, I

am sure, the earnest, heartfelt wish of each and all of us.

 

ADDRESS OF W. H. HUNTER.

I am a Presbyterian and believe in destiny as did Mr. Bro-

kaw, whose ancestor I surmise, was Abraham Brokaw who set-

tled in what is now Nottingham township,

Harrison county, in 1798, and who with

others organized the Nottingham  Presbyte-

rian Church in 1802. He believed in des-

tiny: that the pioneer followed at the right

hand of God and nothing was done not

directed by Divine power. I can see des-

tiny in the horrid massacre of the pioneers

on this spot and which we commemorate

to-day. It pointed the way to the achieve-

ment which is the great state of Ohio.

That massacre called the attention of the

authorities at Philadelphia to the need of a strong arm: it called

attention to the fact that there really were settlers beyond the

Alleghanies.

But you may ask why did not Harmar and St. Clair, when

they took up arms save the hour? Had they succeeded the

treaties would have made the English line at the Ohio river in-

stead of at the lakes. Their defeats only pointed the way for the

intrepid Anthony Wayne, whose victory at Fallen Timbers and

whose treaty at Greenville ended the Revolutionary War as the