KENTON'S "CHILLICOTHE."
BY T. J. BROWN, WAYNESVILLE, OHIO.
Having been born, and lived most of my
life in Greene
county, and within easy driving distance
of "Old Town," the
site of what I learned to designate as "New
Chillicothe," and hav-
ing known, when a boy about 1840, an old
Indian fighter who was
a participant in the ill-conducted
Bowman expedition intended to
capture and destroy that village, I read
up, very early in life, all
the adventures I could find, connected
therewith.
As to the advance upon Chillicothe by
Bowman's expedition
I think it can be safely said, and it is
a matter of common tradi-
tion, that it crossed the Little Miami,
from the west to the east a
couple of miles south of Waynesville, a
quarter of a mile south of
the mouth of Caesar's Creek. Then after
reaching a point about
three miles north, or rather, up the
river from Waynesville, for
although the general trend.of the river
is towards the south, it
has many large curves, it bore well to
the east to escape a large
tract of marshy prairie opposite Mount
Holly, which reached
from the river, nearly to the hills, and
has not even yet been all
drained, then turned westward in the
direction of our Chillicothe.
It is not my purpose to give an account
of the attempted
surprise and its failure-it is well
known that the retreat was
precipitant, the Indians' following and
harrassing the Kentuckians
for many miles, but Mr. Snodgrass, to
whom I have alluded,
said, the line of retreat was on the
west side of the river, prob-
ably crossing the Miami at Indian
Ripple, a couple of miles up
the river from Bellbrook, on the Upper
Bellbrook and Xenia
road. The Kentuckians passed between
Bellbrook and the river
and Mr. Snodgrass said they were
attacked very fiercely at a point
on the farm on which I was born-long
owned by my father.
The route designated, was a more direct
one to come in touch
with the military trail south of
Waynesville, than was the line of
advance, for be it known, Bowman was in
a hurry to get south of
the Ohio.
(322)
Kenyon's
"Chillicothe." 323
Now as to the identity of the
Chillicothe which was the
scene of Kenton's running of the
gauntlet, I am acquainted with
a little incident which bears upon that
point. I was acquainted
for many of the later years of his life,
with John Carman, who
was brought by his parents at 2 years of
age, to the extreme
southwest corner of Greene county, about
the year 1802. He
told me a few years before his death,
now probably ten years
ago, that when he married he moved upon
a tract of land some
miles east of Wilmington and about the
year 1830, perhaps a lit-
tle earlier or later, he saw a man
passing his premises who
was making very, leisurely progress but
was closely scanning the
lay of the land and the appearance of
the woods, and there was
plenty of woodland then. He measured his
surroundings in the
keenest manner, so much so as to excite
Mr. Carman's curiosity,
so he accosted him and inquired his
object in scrutinizing the land
in such a manner, to which the stranger
replied, he was Simon
Kenton, and that he was following up the
line of his retreat when
he and his two companions escaped from
the Indians. Kenton's
first gauntlet was run at Chillicothe,
evidently on the Little Miami.
The next stage of his captivity brought
him to Old Piqua, or
Pickaway, he was then taken farther and
farther north, running
the gauntlet a number of times, and
escaped at last, at Detroit,
and it seems, tried to keep as far away
as possible from the
Miami villages, and still maintain as
direct a route as safety would
allow.