Ohio History Journal

UNVEILING OF TABLET AT FORT GOWER

Appropriate and interesting exercises marked the

unveiling of a tablet by the Ohio Daughters of the

American Revolution on the site of old Fort Gower at

Hockingport, Athens County, Ohio. The exercises

preliminary to the dedication were held in the city of

Athens Friday evening, November 9. The formal

dedication and unveiling of the tablet occurred on the

day following at Hockingport. The granite monument

bears two tablets, one commemorating the building of

the Fort by Lord Dunmore on his way to the Pickaway

Plains and the resolutions adopted by Dunmore's offi-

cers expressing sympathy with their revolutionary

brethren in the Continental Congress; the other in

honor of Colonel Robert Patterson and his associates

who were here attacked by the Indians.

The program is here presented in full:

PROGRAM OF EXERCISES

UNVEILING TABLET AT HISTORIC FT. GOWER

by

OHIO DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

ATHENS, OHIO

Friday and Saturday, November 9th and 10th, 1923

Friday afternoon from three to five o'clock, Nabby Lee Ames

Chapter will receive all visiting Daughters at the home of Mrs. T.

Watson Craig.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9th -- ATHENS

Ewing Hall, 7:30 P. M.

Presiding ........................... Mrs. James T. Merwin

Regent, Nabby Lee Ames Chapter

Assembly ............................................. Vercoe Murphy

Bugler of The American Legion

(87)

88                  Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

Invocation     ..............................Dr. Daniel McGurk

Music.................................Ohio University Girls' Glee Club

a. I know of two bright eyes ............................Clutsam

b. Long Ago ................................... Marshall-Loetke

Polonaise -- MacDowell .............................Miss Irene Witham

Presentation of Memorial....................Mrs. O. D. Dailey, Albany

State Chairman, Historic Spots

Acceptance of Memorial ..............Mrs. Lowell F. Hobart, Cincinnati

State Regent, Ohio D. A. R.

Music ..................................Mrs. Helen Falloon Stevens

a. Thou art risen, my beloved..................Coleridge Taylor

b.  Ah! Love, but  a  day ...........................Hallet Gilberti

"Lest we forget"..................................Dr. Garland, Dayton

Welfare Director, N. C. R.

Address -- The Larger Patriotism ....................Dr. Edwin Chubb

Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, Ohio University

America

Benediction   ............................    .Dr. Abbott Y. Wilcox

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10th

Hockingport, Site of Ft. Gower

1:00 o'clock P. M.

Presiding........................Mrs. Lowell F. Hobart, State Regent

America

Dedication...........................Mrs. Wm. Magee Wilson, Xenia

Vice President General from Ohio, N. S. D. A. R.

Unveiling........................Mrs. Orson Dryer, Columbus

Assistants--Margaret Townsend Porter

Marjorie Boyles

Charge to the Nabby Lee Ames Chapter ....................Mrs. Hobart

State Regent, Ohio D. A. R.

Acceptance of Charge....................... Miss Helen Mar Townsend

Chairman of Historic Spots, Nabby Lee Ames Chapter

Star Spangled Banner

The local papers give liberal space to this event.

The following account is from            the Athens Messenger

of November 11, 1923:

Most impressive were the services at Hockingport Satur-

day afternoon when the Ohio Daughters of the American Revo-

lution unveiled and dedicated the tablet marking the historic

site of Fort Gower where the first American Declaration of In-

dependence was made in 1774. Among those attending the cere-

monies were 40 representatives from other state chapters who

were very much pleased with the services held at Hockingport.

Many of the visitors arrived in Athens on Friday and in

Unveiling of Tablet at Fort Gower         89

the afternoon they were entertained with a reception at the home

of Mrs. T. W. Craig. In the evening the memorial was pre-

sented to the Ohio D. A. R. by Mrs. O. D. Dailey, of Albany,

who is state chairman of the committee on historic spots. Mrs.

Dailey reviewed the historic interest of Fort Gower and the me-

morial was accepted by Mrs. Lowell F. Hobart, of Cincinnati,

the state regent.

Two splendid addresses of a patriotic nature were delivered

by Dr. Garland, of Dayton, and by Dean Edwin Chubb, of the

Ohio University.   Dr. Garland represented John Patterson,

president of the National Cash Register Co., of Dayton, who

donated one of the tablets on the memorial and the address of

Dr. Garland stressed the importance of remembering the scenes

of historical importance, together with pioneers who made the

development of the country possible.  Dean Chubb's address

was a fine one on "The Larger Patriotism."

Music was furnished for the occasion by the Ohio Uni-

versity Girls' Glee Club, Mrs. Helen Falloon Stevens and Miss

Irene Witham. Mrs. James T. Merwin, regent of the Nabby

Lee Ames Chapter, presided, the invocation being asked by Dr.

Daniel McGurk and the benediction being pronounced by Dr.

A. Y. Wilcox.

The trip to Hockingport, which was gaily decorated with

flags in honor of the occasion, was made by automobile.  Mrs.

Lowell F. Hobart, the state regent, presided during the cere-

monies which were opened with the singing of "America," by

the audience. The dedication address was made by Mrs. Wil-

liam Magee Wilson, of Xenia, vice-president general of the

National D. A. R.   The unveiling of the memorial was done

by Mrs. Orson Dryer, of Columbus, assisted by the Misses

Margaret Porter and Marjorie Boyles, of Athens.

The memorial is a granite block cut from the quarries near

Stony Creek battlefield in Connecticut. It is six feet high, four

feet wide, and two feet thick, and two of its sides are bronze

tablets telling the history of the site it marks and its dedication

by the Ohio D. A. R. Its charge was given to the Nabby Lee

Ames Chapter of Athens by State Regent Mrs. Hobart, and the

charge was accepted by Miss Helen M. Townsend, chairman of

the historic spots of the local chapter.

We have received a full report of two of the ad-

dresses. In presenting the memorial Mrs. O. D. Dailey

spoke as follows:

90        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

Students of history have long been aware that no state of

the Northwest Territory can boast of so many forts and stock-

ades as Ohio. Yet, up to the present year, no fort was so little

known or so little heralded as Fort Gower.  However, recent

historians have brought it out of its obscurity, and are placing

it among the most significant of western forts, because at this

place occurred an event which gives to Ohio, which gives to

Athens County, so to speak, the claim upon a Revolutionary site.

It is not for me to enter upon any detailed history of this

event, but, that we may understand the motive which prompted

7,000 of Ohio's Daughters to select this site as deserving some

mark of recognition, it becomes necessary to state a few facts.

In 1774 the English Parliament affirmed the detested Quebec

Act, passed eleven years before, which gave Quebec jurisdiction

over the territory West and North of the Ohio river, known as

the Northwest Territory.  The American colonists were for-

bidden to settle in this region.  Pennsylvania did not object so

seriously to this act, for their trade with the Indians would be

even more secure if fewer settlements were made.

But the Virginians did not give up so easily. They claimed

that their charter extended into the Ohio country, and that

they had a right to settle there.  Consequently, Lord Dunmore,

last royal Governor of Virginia, planned an expedition into Ohio,

ostensibly to punish the Indians for frequent excursions across

the Ohio river. General Andrew Lewis, who was put in com-

mand of another division of 1500 men, which was eventually

to join Lord Dunmore's division, went down the Kanawha as

far as Point Pleasant. Here on October 10, occurred the bloody

battle which drove Cornstalk and his 1000 brave Indians back

across the Ohio river.

In the meantime Lord Dunmore with his men followed his

guides down the Ohio river until they arrived at the mouth of

the Hock-hocking river, where they built a stockade and named

it Fort Gower.  Leaving a garrison of 100 men to guard the

Fort, Lord Dunmore and his army marched up the Hock-hocking

valley, past the present site of Athens, camped on Sunday at

Sunday Creek, on Monday at Monday Creek, thence by the

present site of Logan, southwest to within seven miles of Circle-

ville, where Camp Charlotte was established. Here a few days

later the famous treaty with the Indians was made which closed

Lord Dunmore's War.

Returning to Fort Gower they there learned that couriers had

arrived in their absence, announcing the action of the first Con-

tinental Congress, assembled at Philadelphia, September 5, 1774.

It was at this time that the event occurred which concerns us

and our interests.

Unveiling of Tablet at Fort Gower         91

Immediately the officers of Lord Dunmore held a meeting,

and in order to assure their countrymen on the frontier, in the

great crisis that had arisen, that they were ready at all times to

defend their country, drew up a set of resolutions saying that

they would be loyal to King George the Third so long as he

delighted to reign justly over a brave and free people, but "as

the love of liberty and attachment to the real interests of America

outweigh every other consideration, we resolve that we will exert

every power within us for the defense of American liberty, and

for the support of her just rights and privileges, not in any

riotous manner, but when regularly called forth by the unani-

mous voice of our countrymen."

Thus an independence was virtually declared upon Ohio soil,

upon the banks of the Hock-hocking, in what is now Athens

County, by these sturdy Virginians, more than one and a half

years before old Liberty Bell pealed forth her message of

freedom.

Theodore Roosevelt in his "Winning of the West" makes

this statement:  "Lord Dunmore's War with the Indians was

the opening act of the drama whereof the closing scene was

played at Yorktown."  The declaration at Fort Gower was a

part of this War.

At Point Pleasant, West Va., stands a marble shaft erected

by the Daughters of the American Revolution of that State,

in memory of the patriots who shed their blood in the first battle

of that war.

The far-famed Logan Elm is a natural memorial for the

events which center around the treaty with the Indians, which

closed that War.  Fort Gower has remained in its obscurity,

unmarked.

But, as State Chairman of Historic Sites, it has been my

pleasant duty to carry out one of the purposes of the organiza-

tion of the Daughters of the American Revolution, which is

"to perpetuate the memory and spirit of the men and women

who achieved Independence by the acquisition and protection of

historic sites," therefore, I beg to report to the State Regent of

that organization, in behalf of the Ohio Daughters, that Fort

Gower is no longer unmarked, for there, too, now stands a

huge granite boulder whose bronze tablet bears a message com-

memorating the men who at that spot, on November 5, 1774,

were among the first of our country to express the spirit of

American independence.

At Hockingport in directing the unveiling of the

tablet Mrs. Orson D. Dryer spoke as follows:

92        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

Madam   Vice-president General, Madam  State Regent,

Daughters of Ohio and Friends: Would that I had the words

of a poet and the gift of an artist that I might paint a word

picture that would, in a measure bring to your minds the scene

enacted here one hundred and forty-nine years ago.

When John Murray, Earl of Dunmore, Royal Governor of

Virginia, arrived here with twelve hundred Virginians whom he

had led through the mountains to Fort Pitt and from there by

boat to the mouth of Hock-hocking, he built and garrisoned a

small stockade and named it Fort Gower, in honor of the English

Earl. The site upon which the Virginian army encamped was

one of awe-inspiring grandeur.  Here were hills and valleys,

all covered with gigantic forests, the growth of centuries, stand-

ing in their majesty and arrayed in the colors of early October.

On October 11th, Dunmore and his army left here on their

way to the Indian Villages. The army camped the first night at

Federal, and the second at Sunday Creek, both in Athens County.

At the third camp, near Nelsonville, news was brought from

General Andrew Lewis of his victory, at Point Pleasant, which

occasioned great joy among the troops. Two days later a mes-

senger from Cornstalk, the Indian chief, appeared, suing for

peace; but next day the army continued its journey to the

Pickaway Plains, where it camped on the bank of Scippo Creek,

at a place named Camp Charlotte. Here the famous treaty with

the Indian chiefs occurred. What the exact terms of that treaty

were is not now fully known. No copy of the treaty can be found.

Whatever the terms, the results of the Dunmore War were

most important. "It kept the northwestern tribes quiet for the

first two years of the Revolutionary struggle."  Cornstalk

haughtily acceded to the terms of the whites, but one distin-

guished chief who refused to be present at that council, was

Logan. He said, "I am a warrior, not a councilor" and would

not come.

The campaign had ended. The camp was struck and the

soldiers took up their march from Pickaway Plains back to the

Ohio. When Dunmore's army arrived at Fort Gower the sol-

diers learned for the first time of the action taken by the first

Continental Congress, which had assembled at Philadelphia

September 5, 1774. The officers of the army thereupon held a

meeting proclaiming their sympathy with colonial independence.

A strange way for Virginia frontiersmen to celebrate their

triumph over western Indians, and this was six months before

the shot was fired at Lexington that was "heard round the

world."

The resolutions passed November 5, 1774, asserted loyalty to

Unveiling of Tablet at Fort Gower         93

the king while "he delights to reign over a brave and free

people," but declared that "love of liberty outweighs all other

considerations," and they would "exert every power" for its de-

fense when called forth by the voice of their countrymen. They

also expressed the respect entertained for Lord Dunmore, and

believed that the campaign was undertaken from no other motive

than the true interest of this country. These resolutions were

signed by Benjamin Ashby, Clerk, but it is unfortunate that we

have no way of ascertaining who all the other officers were, nor

whether Lord Dunmore had left the army for Fort Pitt prior

to, or after the passage of these resolutions.

General Adam Stephen was one of the officers reported to

have made a speech at this time favoring the colonial cause and

several of my ancestors took part in this celebrated meeting. My

great-grandfather, Colonel Benjamin Wilson, was aid-de-camp

on Lord Dunmore's staff, ranking as a lieutenant at this time

and vested with the authority that goes with that office, which

was then a much more important office than now.  Two of

Colonel Benjamin Wilson's brothers were with him, namely John

and Archibald and two cousins, John and William White.

Dunmore's army broke up into small squads, which found

their way back to Fort Pitt as best they might.  The men suf-

fered for lack of provision and were chiefly dependent upon

what game could be killed. Archibald Wilson and William and

John White at their own request left the army at Fort Gower

going home by the Shenandoah Valley, making some "toma-

hawk improvements" by blazing the trees and cutting initials

and date on them, which gave them a valid title to land in

Virginia.

But the two White brothers were never able to take up their

claims, as both of them were killed the following year by

Indians.

There were a number of the officers in this expedition

against the Indians, who became famous a little later in the

Revolution.

Benjamin Wilson became a Colonel in the Revolution. He

and his brother John were delegates to the Virginia convention

which ratified the Constitution of the United States.

It is a great honor you have conferred upon me today in

permitting me to have the privilege of unveiling this memorial

which has been erected by the Daughters of the State of Ohio,

to commemorate the greatest event that ever occurred on Ohio

soil.

I want to congratulate our chairman, Mrs. O. D. Dailey on

having so successfully carried her plans through to completion