Ohio History Journal

THE PATHFINDERS OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.

COMPILED BY W. H. HUNTER.1   STEUBENVILLE GAZETTE. I. Who were the Pathfinders ?- The Scoth-Irish Exerted Potent Influence in Winning the Ohio Country from the Wilderness and the Indians- Ohio History from      the Pennsylvania- Virginia Point of View- The Third Race Division not noted by Historians - The Scotch-Irish and not the Puritans and Cavaliers made Ohio. By means of the ever busy and facile pens of the descendants of the noble Puritan fathers, the belief has taken deep root in the eastern states, and it is not without adherents in the west, that the pre-eminent position Ohio maintains as an element of the Republic, is wholly due to the remarkable fecundity, mental and physical, of the eight families from New England who located at Marietta in 1788. Until very recent years no one had the temerity to dispute in the least degree the claim that Ohio is solely the product of Puritan forethought, fortitude, thrift, moral power and enterprise, and no writer considered the pains de- manded to gather data for a controversy, worth the bother to show that other races should share the honor with the Anglo- Saxon Puritan. However, the past few years have developed a disposition among the so-called Scotch-Irish people2 to dispute, 1 In preparing the historical sketches introductory to a report of the celebration of the Centennial of Jefferson county, the compiler has availed himself of data gathered for the Caldwell History of Belmont and Jeffer- son counties; of reports of proceedings of the Scotch-Irish Society of America; addresses delivered at New England Society Dinners; the files of The Steubenville Gazette, and historical addresses delivered by him before historical societies in Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and papers prepared by him for the Wells Historical Society of Jefferson county. 2In a very able work entitled "The Covenanter, the Cavalier and the Puritan" by Judge Temple of Tennessee, the Scotch-Irish are denominated Covenanters.

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

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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 thei_r

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

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