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Washington County A History of Belpre,
Washington County, Ohio by Cornelius Evarts Dickinson, Samuel Prescott
Hildreth - Belpre (Ohio) - 1920
They decided that all,
about thirty families, should be A list of families in Farmers Castle
at Belpre in 1792. No. 1 - Colonel Ebenezer Battelle, wife,
and four children: CONTINUED HOSTILITIES
The crops of the settlers
were confined chiefly to Indian corn, beans, potatoes, turnips, and
pumpkins, with a little wheat and rye. They also raised hemp and flax for
domestic use. Until the erection of a floating mill in the fall of 1791, a
noted era in the annals of Belpre, their meal was all ground in the
primitive hand mill. But little wheat was raised until after the close of
the war, when mills were built on the creeks. By the aid of a bolting
machine, turned by hand in the garrison, the floating mill furnished the
flour for many a noble loaf of bread, and the crusts of numerous pumpkin
pies, the only fruit afforded for this use in that day.
YOUNG MEN SENT TO RED STONE Under these discouraging
circumstances the inhabitants contributed all the money they could gather,
which was but a small sum, and dispatched two active young men to "Red
Stone" to purchase a supply of salt meat and a few barrels of flour. It
was a hazardous journey, not only in danger from the Indians, who, since
St. Clairs defeat, were still more harassing to the inhabitants, but also
from the inclemency of the season, it being the first part of December.
They, however reached head waters unmolested, made their purchases, and
were ready to descend the river when it closed with ice. In the mean time
nothing was heard from the two messengers by the inhabitants and
winter wore away in uncertainty of their fate. Some thought they had
decamped with the money, and others that they had been killed by the
Indians, as the news of St. Clairs defeat had reached them soon after
their departure ; while the more reflecting were firm in their confidence
of the integrity of the young men and attributed their silence to a want
of opportunity to send them a letter, as the river was closed, and no
regular mail was then established. The last of February the ice broke up
in the Ohio, with a flood of water that covered the banks and inundated
the ground on which the garrison was built. Early in March the young men
arrived with a small Kentucky boat with provisions, and entering the
garrison by the upper gate, moored their ark at the door of the
commandant, to the great joy and relief of the inhabitants. After the
disastrous events of the Campaign of 1791, a small guard of United States
troops were stationed at Belpre, usually consisting of a corporal and five
men. Their principal duty was to watch the garrison, while the inhabitants
were abroad in their fields, or at any other employment.
MURDER OF BENONI HULBERT BY INDIANS.
On September 28th, 1791
Joshua Fleehart and Benomi Hulbert left the garrison in a canoe to hunt
and to visit their traps near the mouth of the Little Hocking. Fleehart
was a celebrated hunter and trapper. Like many other backwoodsmen he
preferred following the chase for a living to that of cultivating the
earth. Numbers of them depended on the woods for their clothing as well as
their food. Hulberts family from the oldest to the youngest were clothed
in dressed deer skins. These men had hunted a good deal together and
supplied the garrison with fresh meat. As they passed the narrows above
the mouth of the creek they were strongly inclined to land and shoot some
turkeys which they heard gobbling on the side of the hill, a few rods from
the river. It was a common practice with the Indians, when in the vicinity
of the whites, to imitate the note of these birds, to call some of the
unwary settlers within reach of their rifles. After listening a few
moments the nice, discriminating ear of Fleehart satisfied him that they
were made by Indians. Hulbert did not believe it but was finally induced
not to land. They proceeded on and entered the month of the creek, where
his companion landed and traveled along on the edge of the woods in search
of game, while Fleehart paddled the canoe further up the stream. As they
had seen no more signs of Indians, they concluded that the gobbling this
time was done by the turkeys themselves. In a short time after Hulbert had
left the canoe, the report of a rifle was heard, which Fleehart at once
knew was not that of his companion and concluded was the shot of an
Indian. He landed the canoe on the ormosite shore, and running up the bank
secreted himself in a favorable spot to fire on the Indians should they
approach to examine the creek for the canoe. He directly heard a little
dog belonging to his companion in fierce contest with the Indians trying
to defend the body of his master; but they soon silenced him with a stroke
of a tomahawk. After watching more than an hour, so near that he could
hear the Indians converse and the groans of the dying man, but out of his
sight and the reach of his rifle, the Indians being too cautious to
approach where they expected danger, he entered his canoe and returned to
the garrison, which he reached a little after dark and reported the fate
of his companion. The next morning a party of men, conducted by Fleehart,
went down by water, and found him dead and scalped on the ground where he
fell, with the body of his faithful dog by his side. They brought him to
the Castle where he was buried.
Belpre, June 24th, 1790.
I have an opportunity to
send a few lines by General Putnam which I gladly embrace to inform you
that we allstill exist, and have the addition of another son whom I shall
call George. A fine little boy he is. We are as usual, sometimes sick and
sometimes well. All of us at work for life to get in a way to be
comfortable. We got through the Winter as well as I expected. We are more
put to our trumps than I ever expected for bread. There is no corn nor
flour of any kind to be had. We at present live entirely without it, as
many of our neighbors do. There were very few potatoes raised for want of
seed. Our whole family have not eaten two bushels since we came here. We
have a plenty of corn and potatoes planted so that I expect to live in a
short time, things look promising. Mr. Dana has worked himself almost to
death to get things as forward as he has ; he is poor and pale, as are all
our family, but he is perfectly satisfied with what he has done and
depends on reaping the good of his labor. I have passed through many
scenes since I left you and am still the same contented being without fear
from the natives. Great God! grant that I may still be protected and
carried through every changing scene of life with fortitude and behave as
becomes a Christian. I have not received a line from any of my friends but
Mr. Atherton and Captain Blanchard. Mr. Atherton informed me that sister
Sparrow had lost her little girl. What a distribution of Providence, there
was enough to feed and clothe, still they must be afflicted. Infinite
Wisdom no doubt thought it best. What ever is, is right, but we all mourn
the loss of so sweet a child. My blood thrilled in my veins and though at
so great a distance have very sympathetic feelings for the parents. I wish
you would write me the manner of her death, and how you all are and
everything that concerns my family. It would seem like a feast. Be assured
now I have begun to write it seems like a visit. The hurry in which I have
lived has kept me from almost every duty; and care for the safety of my
own in the new world has kept me continually busy ; there seemed not a
moment to spare. The attention of a family that has but one cow and that
wants everything is great and but one woman to do the whole, but I have
not lost my spirits. It is now eleven at night, all are at rest and it
rains very fast, and has for this thirty hours as fast as I ever knew it.
The river rises and falls at an amazing rate. Everything grows as fast as
we could wish but I fear we will still have to grind in a hand mill. As
itgrows late and our house is very wet must bid you adieu. The next letter was written two years
later and indicates the changed conditions. I once more give myself the
satisfaction to inform you and all my friends that we are all alive and in
as good health as it is common for us to be. Various have been the scenes
I have passed through since I left your peaceful dwelling. We lived in
peace and safety as we thought for one year without a guard for selves or
family. MUTUAL INSURANCE SOCIETY
Soon after the
commencement of the war, the inhabitants who owned cattle and hogs, formed
themselves into a Society for the mutual insurance of each others stock
against the depredations of the Indians ; and also for carrying on their
agricultural labors. Each one was accountable for any loss in proportion
to the amount he owned. For this purpose the animals were appraised at
their cash value, and recorded in a book by the Secretary. Quite a number
of cattle and hogs were killed or driven away by the Savages during the
war, the value of which was directly made up to the owners by the company.
Horses they did not attempt to keep during the war as they were sure to be
stolen, and were a means of inviting the Indians into the settlement. It
was a wise and salutary arrangement and found to be very useful in
equalizing like burdens and losses of a community who had located
themselves in a wilderness and had to encounter not only the toil and
privations of reclaiming their new lands from the forest but also to
contend with one of the most subtle, revengeful, and wily enemies the
world ever produced. The leading men in Belpre had been acquainted during
their service in the Army, at a time which tried mens souls, and they felt
a degree of kindness and interest in each others welfare not to be found
in any other community. Their mutual dangers and suffering bound them
still closer together in the bonds of friendship. There was also an amount
of intelligence and good sense rarely found in so small a number, as will
be more distinctly shown in the biographical sketches (See Chapter
VIII.)
FLOATING MILL Early in the summer of
1791, the settlers, being disappointed by the Indian war in completing the
mill, commenced on the Little Hocking, concluded to build what might be
called a floating mill. This could be anchored out in the river and be
safe from destruction by Indians. The labor of grinding corn on a hand
mill for a community of more than one hundred and fifty persons was a task
only known to those who have tried it. MURDERS AT
NEWBURY. This
settlement was begun at the same time with that at Belpre, considered a
part of it and called the "Lower Settlement." The location was six miles
below Farmers Castle and was commenced by about fourteen associates. On
the breaking out of hostilities, Jan. 2nd, 1791, they left their new
clearing and joined the garrison at Belpre. Finding it out of their power
to cultivate their land at so great a distance, early in the Spring of
1792, the men returned and built two blockhouses, with a few cabins and
enclosed the whole with a Stockade on the bank of the river opposite a
spot called "Newbury bar," and moved back their effects. There were now
four or five families and eight single men ; in all about twenty souls. A
man by the name of Brown, from headwaters, with his wife and four
children, had recently joined the settlement, and commenced clearing a
piece of land about eighty rods from the garrison. On Sunday, March 15th,
a mild and pleasant day, his wife went out to see him set some fruit trees
they had brought with them. Not apprehending any danger from the Indians
so near the garrison, she took along with her the children, carrying an
infant in her arms, and leading another child of two years old by the
hand, while Persis Dunham, a girl of fourteen, the daughter of widow
Dunham, and a great favorite with the settlers, for her pleasant
disposition, kind consiliating manners, and beautiful person, led another
child, and the fourth loitered some distance son, led another child, and
the fourth loitered some distance behind them. When they arrived within a
short space of Mr. Brown, two Indians sprang out from their concealment;
one seized Mrs. Brown by the arm and sunk his tomahawk in her head. As she
fell he aimed a blow at the infant which cut a large gash in the side of
the forehead and nearly severed one ear. He next dashed his hatchet into
the head of the child she was leading, and with his knife tore off their
scalps. The other Indian fell upon Persis and the remaining child, sinking
his tomahawk into their heads and tearing off their scalps with the
remorseless SCARLET
FEVER. In the summer of 1792, in
addition to their other calamities, the inhabitants of Farmers Castle were
assailed with Scarlet Fever and putrid sore throat. It commenced without
any known cause or exposure to contagion. The disease was sudden and
violent in its attacks and very fatal, some of the children died within
twenty-four hours. It was of a very putrid type and the seat of the
disease confined chiefly to the faces and throat, many having no confined
chiefly to the faces and throat, many having no scarlet efflorescence on
the skin. It continued for several weeks and overwhelmed this little
isolated community with consternation and grief. Medicine seemed to have
little or no effect in arresting the progress or checking the fatal
termination of the disease. SCHOOLS No people ever paid more
attention to the education of their children than the descendants of the
Puritans. One of the first things done by the settlers of Belpre, after
they had erected their own log dwellings, was to make provision for
teaching their children the rudiments of learning, reading writing and
arithmetic. RELIGIOUS SERVICES The larger portion of the
time during the war religious services were held on the Sabbath in Farmers
Castle by Col. E. L. Battelle. The people assembled in the large lower
room in his block house which was provided with seats. Notice was given of
the time to commence the exercises by his son Ebenezer, then a lad of
fifteen or sixteen years, and a drummer to the garrison, marching up and
down beating the drum. The inmates understood the call as readily from the
"tattoo" as from the sound of a bell, and they attended very regularly.
The meeting was opened with prayer, sometimes read from the church service
and sometimes delivered extempore, followed by singing, at which all the
New Englanders were more or less proficient. A sermon was then read from
the writings of some standard divine and the meeting closed with singing
and prayer. Occasionally, during the war, Rev. Daniel Story visited them
and preached on the Sabbath, but these calls were rare, owing to the
danger from Indians of intercourse between the settlements. After the war
his attendance was more regular, about once a month ; on the other three
Sundays religious services were continued by Col. Battelle, at a house
erected on the Bluff, which accommodated both the upper and middle
settlements until the time when they were able to build another and more
convenient place of worship. The holy day was generally observed and
honored by the inhabitants but not with the strictness common in New
England. Very few of the leading men of that day were members of any
church ; yet all supported religion, morality and good
order.
OF THE
SPIES AND RANGERS.
To the vigilance and
courage of the men engaged as spies and rangers may in part be attributed
the fact, that so few losses were sustained by the inhabitants during the
Indian war, compared with that of most other border settlements. This
species of troops were early employed by the Ohio Company at the
suggestion of Gen. Rufus Putnam, who Ohio Company at the suggestion of
Gen. Rufus Putnam, who had been familiar with their use in the old French
war and subsequently taken into the service of the United States. The duty
of the spies was to scour the country every day the distance of eight or
ten miles around the garrisons, making a circuit of twenty-five or thirty
miles and accomplishing their task generally by three or four o'clock in
the afternoon. They left the garrison at daylight, always two in company,
traveling rapidly over the hills and stopping to examine more carefully
such places as it was probable the Indians would pass over, in making
their approach to the settlements, guided in this respect by the direction
of the ridges or the water courses. The circuit in Belpre was over on to
the waters of the Little Hocking river, and up the easterly branches
across to the Ohio, striking this stream a few miles above the entrance of
the Little Kanawha and thence by the deserted farms down to the garrison.
The spies from Waterford made a traverse that intersected or joined their
trail, forming a cordon across which the enemy could rarely pass without
their signs being discovered. While they were abroad the inhabitants, at
work in their fields or traveling between stations, felt a degree of
safety they could not have done, but for their confidence in the sagacity
and faithfulness of the spies. Their dress in summer was similar to that
worn by Indians. Their pay was five shillings, or eighty cents a day as
appears from the old pay roll. They were amenable to the commanding
officer of the station but under the direct control of Col. Sproat, who
was employed by the United States. They had signs known to themselves, by
which they recognized a ranger from an Indian even when painted like
one.
SMALL
POX.
In September, 1793, the
small pox was introduced within Farmers Castle, whose walls could not
protect them from this insidious foe, by Benjamin Patterson one of the
spies. He was at Marietta where it prevailed and thinking spies. He was at
Marietta where it prevailed and thinking himself exposed to the contagion
was inoculated by Dr. Barnes who was then there, and engaged him to
inoculate the rest of the family.
Submitted & Transcribed
by
Barb
Ziegenmeyer
FARMERS CASTLE
The upper and lower ends opened into a smooth level
bottom,
suitable for a road by which to enter or depart from
the garrison.
The work was commenced the first week in
January, and prosecuted
with the utmost energy. As fastas the block houses were built the families moved intothem. These
were thirteen in number arranged in two
rows with a wide street
between. The basement
storywas in general twenty feet square, and the upper abouttwenty-two
feet, thus projecting over the lower one andforming a defense from
which to protect the doors andwindows below, in an attack. They were built of round
logs a foot in
diameter, and the intersitives nicely chinkedand pointed with mortar.
The doors and windowshutters
were made of thick oak planks, or puncheon, and
secured with
stout bars of wood on the inside.***The pickets were made of quartered oak
timber growing on the plain
back of the garrison, formed from trees about a foot
in diameter,
fourteen feet long, and set four feet in the groundleaving them ten feet high,
over which no enemy could
mount without a ladder. The smooth side was set
outward;
and
the palisades strengthened and kept in their
places by stout ribbons, or
wall pieces, pinned to them
with inch tree nails, on the inside. The spaces
between
the
houses were filled up with pickets, and occupied three
or four times the width of
the houses, forming a continuous
wall, or inclosure about eighty rods in length and sixrods wide. The
palisades on the river side filled the whole
space and projected over
the edge of the bank, leaning onrails and posts set to support them. They were sloped
in
this manner
for the admission of air during the heat of
summer. Gates of stout
timbers were placed in the Eastand West ends of the garrison, openincr in the middle,
ten
feet wide,
for the ingress and egress of teams, and to take
in the cattle in case of an
attack. A still wider gate opened
near the center of the back wall for hauling in wood,
and
all were
secured with strong heavy bars. Two or
three
smaller ones, called water
gates, were placed on the river
side, as all their water was procured from the Ohio.
When
sicms of
Indians were discovered by the spies, the domestic
animals were driven within
the gates at night. At sunset
all the avenues were closed. Every house was filled
with families and as new settlers arrived occasionally during the war
families
and as new settlers arrived occasionally during
the war some houses
contained several families.
The
corner block houses on the back side of the garrisonwere provided with watch towers running up eight feet
above the
roof, where a sentry was constantly kept.
When
the whole was completed,
the inmates of the station called
it "Farmers Castle" a name very appropriate, as it
was
built and
occupied by farmers. The directors of the Ohio
Company, with their
characteristic beneficience, paid the
expense of erecting three
of the block houses,
and the money
was distributed among the laborers. The view of the
Castle from
the Ohio river was very picturesque and imposing;
looking like a small
fortified city amidst the surrounding
wilderness. During the war
there were about
seventy able bodied men mustered on the roll for
military
duty,
and the police within assumed that of a
regularly besieged fort, as
in fact it was a great portion of
the time, the Indians watching in small parties, more
or
less
constantly, for a chance to kill or capture the inhabitants when they least expected
it. At sunrise the roll was
called by the orderly sergeant, and if any man had
overslept
in
the morning, or neglected to answer to his name,
the penalty was fixed as
the cutting out the stump of a
tree level with the ground, stumps
being thickly scattered
over
the surface within the Castle. This penalty was so
rigidly exacted that but
few stumps remained at the
close
of the war. A regular commander was appointed with
suitable
subalterns.
Maj.
Nathan Goodale was the first Captain, and held
that office until he removed into his own garrison in
1793,
when
Colonel Cushing took the command. The
flagstaff
stood a few yards west of
the back gate near the house of
Colonel Cushing on which floated the stars and
stripes.
Near
the staff was a large howitzer, or swivel gun, mountedon a platform incased in
wood, hooped with iron bands
and painted to resemble a six pounder. It was so
adjusted
as to
revolve on a socket, and thus point to any part of
the works. During the
Spring and Summer months, when
there was any probability of Indians, it was fired
regularly
morning and evening. It could be distinctly heard for
several miles
around, especially up and down the river; the banks and hills, re-echoing
the report. This practice no doubt kept the Indians in awe, and warned
them not
doubt
kept the Indians in awe, and warned them not to approach
a post whose inmates were
habitually watchful, and
so well prepared to defend themselves. Around this
spot
it was
customary for loungers and news mongers to assemble,
to discuss the concerns of
the Castle and tell the
news of the day. It was also the rallying point in case of
an
assault and the spot where the muster roll was called
morning and evening. The
spies and rangers here madereports of their discoveries to the Commandant; in
short
it was
"place d'armes" of Farmers Castle.
In
the upper room of every house was kept a largecask or hogshead constantly filled with water to be
used in
case
of fire. It was a part of the duty of the Officer of
theday to inspect every house,
and see that the cask was wellfilled. Another duty was to prevent any stack of grain
or
fodder
being placed so near the Castle as to endanger thesafety of the buildings
should the Indians set them on
fire or to shelter them in case of an assault.
They also inspected the
gates, pickets, and houses, tosee that all were in repair and well secured at night.
They received
dispatches from abroad, or sent out expresses to the other stations. Their
authority was absolute and the
government strictly military. The greatest and
principaldanger to the settlers arose from their exposure to
attackswhen
engaged during the Spring and Summer months in
working in their fields.
The clearings of some of the inhabitantslay at the distance of
three miles, while others
were within rifle shot of the garrison. Those could
onlybe
visited in companies of fifteen or twenty men. Their
exposure was not confined
to their actual engagement in their fields, but chiefly in going to and returning
from their labors. While at their work, sentries were constantly
placed in the
edge of the adjoining forest; and flankingparties examined the ground
when marching through the
wood between the upper and lower settlements. It was agreat labor to
transport their crops for so long a distance after
they were harvested,
although it was chiefly done bywater. For these reasons, in the second year of the
war,it was
decided as best for them to divide into smaller communities.
Accordingly, a strong
stockade garrison wasbuilt three miles above called "Stones Garrison," and
one
below
called "Goodales Garrison." To these several families, whose lands
adjoined, removed and continued to occupy them lies , whose lands adjoined,
removed and continued to occupy
them until the close of the war. Fresh emigrants
howevercontinually arrived so that Farmers Castle remained crowded.
No.
2 - Captain William James, wife, and ten children :
Susan, Anna, Esther, Hannah, Abigal and Polly;
William,
John,
Thomas, and Simeon. Also Isaac Barker, wife, and
eight children: Michael,
Isaac, Joseph, William and Timothy;
Anna, Rhoda, and Nancy.
Also Daniel Cogswell,wife and five children : John, Abigal, Peleg, Job and
Daniel.
No.
3. - Captain Jonathan Stone wife and three children:
Benjamin Franklin, Samuel, and Rufus Putnam.
No. 4 - Colonel Nathaniel
Cushing, wife, and six children:Nathaniel, Henry, Varnum, Thomas, Sally and Elizabeth.
Also Captain
Jonathan Devoll, wife, and six children:Henry, Charles, Barker,
Francis, Sally and Nancy,
with a nephew, Christopher Devoll.
No. 5 - Isaac Pierce, wife,
and three children: Samuel,Joseph and Phebe. Also
Nathaniel Little, wife, and one
child. Also Joseph Barker, wife and one Child, Joseph,born in
Belpre.
No.
6 - Maj. Nathan Goodale, wife, and seven children :
Betsy, Cynthia, Sally, Susan, Henrietta, Timothy, and
Lincoln.
No.
7 - In the South west corner of the garrison, A. W.Putnam, wife, and one child, William Pitt born in the garrison. Also
D. Loring, wife, and seven children: Israel,Rice and Jesse ; Luba,
Bathsheba, Charlotte and Polly.
Major Oliver Rice lived in the family of Mr. Loring.
AlsoCaptain
Benjamin Miles, wife, and five children: Benjamin,Buckmaster and Hubbard,
(twins), William, Tappan and Polly.
No.
8 - Griffin Green, Esq., wife, and four children, Richard, Philip, Griffin and Susan.
No.
9 - John Rouse, wife, and eight children : Michael, Bathsheba, Cynthia, Betsy, Ruth,
Stephen, Robert and Barker, twins. Also Maj. Robert Bradford wife and
three or her, twins. Also Maj. Robert Bradford wife and three or four
children. Several of these died of scarlet fever, others were born after
the war.
No. 10 - Captain
John Leavens, wife, and six children;Joseph, and John, Nancy, Fanny,
Esther and Matilda.Also Captain William Dana, wife, and eight
children;Luther, William, (young men) Edmond, Stephen, John Charles and
Augustus; Betsy, Mary and Fanny.
Between 10 and 11
there was a long low building, called the barracks in which a small
detachment of United States troops were quartered.
No. 11. - Mrs. Dunham
widow of Daniel Dunham, who died in 1791, one son and two daughters. Also
Captain Israel, Jasper, Augustus, B. Franklin, and Columbus;
Betsy,Matilda, Lydia and Harriet, born in the Castle.
No. 12. - Benjamin Patterson,
wife and six children;three of the rangers, or spies, who were single men,
boarded with him, viz: John Shepherd, George Kerr, and Matthew Kerr.
Patterson served as a spy three years for the settlement at Belpre and
then moved down the river. Also Benoni Hurlburt, wife and four
children.
No. 13. - Colonel
Alexander Oliver, wife and eleven children: Launcelot, a young man,
Alexander, John and David, Lucretia, Betsy, Sally, Mehala, Electa, Mary.
Also Colonel Daniel Bent, wife and four children; Nathan, Daniel,Dorcas,
and daughter who married Joel Oaks. Also Silas Bent, Esq., oldest son of
the Colonel, wife and two or three children.
Several other families lived in Farmers Castle for a
short time and then proceeded down the river but the above list contains
nearly all the permanent and substantial heads of families who settled in
Belpre in 1789 and 1790.
Joshua Fleehart, wife, and four children, lived in a
small cabin east of block house No. 3. He was a noted hunter and supplied
the garrison with fresh meat. Soon after the war closed he removed nearer
to the frontier where he could follow trapping and hunting to better
advantage. One of his hunting adventures will be related later.
Unmarried men in Farmers
Castle: Jonathan Waldo, Daniel Mayo, Jonathan Baldwin, Cornelius Delano,
Joel Oaks, James Caldwell, Wanton Casey, Stephen Guthrie, Truman Guthrie,
Captain Ingersol, Ezra Phillips, Stephen Smith, Howell Bull, Samuel
Cushing, William and John Smith, Jonas Davis, Dr. Samuel Barnes.
Within the walls of Farmers
Castle there were assembled about two hundred and twenty souls,
twenty-eight of these were heads of families. A number of those enumerated
as children were males above sixteen years and enrolled for military duty.
Others were young women from sixteen to twenty years of age.
Among the inmates of the
garrison the name of Christopher Putnam or Kitt as he was familiarly
called, must not be forgotten. He was a colored boy of sixteen or eighteen
years of age, who had been the personal or body servant of General Israel
Putnam, during the latter years of his life, and after his death lived
with his son Col. Israel Putnam. In the fall of 1789, Colonel Putnam came
out to Marietta with his son Aaron Waldo, and brought Kitt with him. In
the Autumn of 1790 the Colonel returned to Connecticut for his family.
That winter the war broke out and he did not move them until 1795. Kitt
remained at Belpre with Mr. Putnam in the garrison and was a great
favorite with the boys. He was their chosen leader in all their athletic
sports, for his wonderful activity, and much beloved for his kind and
cheerful disposition. When abroad in the fields cultivating or planting
their crops, he was one of their best hands, either for work or to stand
as a sentry. On these occasions he sometimes took his station in the lower
branches of a tree where he could have a wider range of vision and give
early notice of the approach of danger. Under the watchful vigilance of
Kitt, all felt safe at their work. After he was twenty-one years of age
and became a free man he lived with Captain Devoll, on the Muskingum and
assisting in tending the floating mill and clearing the land on the farm.
At the election for delegates, under the territory, to form a constitution
for Ohio, Kitt was a voter and was probably the first and only black who
ever exercised the elective franchise in Washington County as after the
adoption of that article all colored men were dis-franchisee!. (Later they
were allowed the franchise.) He died about franchisee!. (Later they
were allowed the franchise.) He died about the year 1802 much lamented for
his many personal good qualities and industrious habits.
The winter following the first
occupation of Farmers Castle was one of severe privation in the article of
meat. Late in the fall of 1791, the fat hogs were all collected and
slaughtered in company, and hung up in an outhouse near the garrison to
cool and dry through the night. During this period it accidentally took
fire and burnt up all their winter stock of meat, to their great loss and
disappointment. A number of other hogs which had been left at their
outlots and fattened in pens were also killed by the Indians. These were
visited by their owners once in three or four days, and fed with corn left
in the field for that purpose.
They also served in rotation
with the inhabitants in standing sentry in the watch towers. John L. Shaw,
well known in Marietta, for many years after the war, as an eccentric
character, of great wit and power of mimicry, was corporal of the guard
for a time and a great favorite with the inmates of the Castle. He was
subsequently a Sergeant in Captain Haskells Company from Rochester, Mass.
During Wayne's Campaign, while stationed at Fort Recovery he had a narrow
escape from the Indians. In October, 1793, contrary to orders, he ventured
out into the forest near the fort to gather hickory nuts and had set his
musket against a tree. While busily engaged, with his head near the
ground, he heard a slight rustling in the leaves close to him. Rising
suddenly from his stooping posture, he saw an Indian within a few yards,
his tomahawk raised ready for a throw, while at the same time he called
out in broken English "Prisoner, Prisoner!" Shaw having no relish for
captivity sprang to his gun, cocked it and faced round just as the Indian
hurled his hatchet. It was aimed at his head but by a rapid inclination of
the body, it head but by a rapid inclination of the body, it missed its
destination and lodged the whole length of the blade in the muscles of the
loin. By the time he had gained an erect position his enemy was within two
steps of him with his scalping knife. Shaw now fired his gun with such
effect as to kill him on the spot, and its muzzle was so near as to set
his calico hunting shirt on fire. Before he could reload, another Indian
rushed upon him, and he was obliged to trust his heels in flight. He ran
in the direction of the fort, but a fresh Indian started up before him,
and he was obliged to take to the woods. Being in the prime of life and a
very active runner he distanced all his pursuers, leaping logs and other
obstructions which the Indians had to climb over or go around. After
fifteen or twenty minutes of hot pursuit, which the shrill yells of the
Indians served to quicken, he reached within a short distance of the fort,
and met a party of men coming out to his rescue. They had heard the shot
and at once divined the cause, as no firing was allowed near the fort,
except at the enemy or in self defense. Shaws life was saved from the
rifles of the Savages only by their desire of taking a prisoner to learn
the intentions of General Wayne.
The first actual demonstration of hostility, after the
inhabitants had taken possession of their new garrison, was on March 12th
by some of the same party who had attacked the settlement at Waterford,
and killed Captain Rogers at Marietta. The settlers who had evacuated
their farms, of necessity left a part of their cattle and fodder on the
premises ; while those near the castle were visited daily to feed and milk
their cows. On this morning Waldo Putnam, a son of Colonel Israel Putnam,
and grandson of the old veteran General, in company with Nathaniel Little,
visited the possession of the former, half a mile below, to feed and milk
the cows. While Waldo was in the posture of milking, Little, who kept
guard, discovered an Indian leveling his gun at him. He instantly cried
out "Indians, Indians!" Just as the gun cracked Waldo sprang to one side,
and the ball struck the ground under the cow where he was sitting. They
instantly ran for the garrison, when three Indians sprang out from the
edge of the woods and joined in the pursuit, firing their rifles at the
fugitives as they ran, but happily without effect. They were soon with- in
a short distance of the garrison, when a party in a short distance of the
garrison, when a party of men rushed out to their rescue and the Indians
retreated, after killing several of the cattle, and among them a yoke of
oxen belonging to Captain Benjamin Miles, which were noted for their size,
being fifteen inches high and large in proportion. In the subsequent year,
while Putnam and Little were at the same place, very early in the morning,
a small dog that was a few rods in advance gave notice of danger by
barking violently at some hidden object which his manner led them to
suspect must be Indians. Thus warned they began slowly to retreat, and
look carefully for their enemy. The Indians, three or four in number,
watching them from their covert behind a brush fence, now jumped from
their hiding place and gave chase. The two white men quickened their speed
and crossed a deep gully which lay in their path on a log, barely in time
to prevent the Indians from cutting off their retreat. They had examined
the ground and expected to take them prisoners or kill them at this place.
Seeing them past the defile they now commenced firing at them, but missed
their object. In the ardor of pursuit they rushed up within a short
distance of the Castle, when Harlow Bull, a fierce little warrior, who had
just arisen from bed, and was only partly dressed heard the firing and
rushed out at the gate with his rifle and discharged it at the Indians at
the same time returning their war whoop with a yell nearly as terrible as
their own. Several of the soldiers soon after appeared in the field, when
the Indians retreated to the forest, greatly disappointed in their
expected victims.
After
the fugitives were safe within the wall considerable alarm was for time
felt for Major Bradford who had gone out with them but fell a good way
behind his company on account of a lame foot, from a recent wound. He had
nearly reached the gully or defile when the Indians began the pursuit,
and, knowing he could not keep pace with the others, he jumped down the
bank of the river, near which he was hobbling along, before he was seen by
the Indians, and keeping under shelter he reached the garrison unnoticed
and came in at one of the water gates. For a few minutes his family were
fully persuaded that he was killed as his companions could give no account
of him.
Mr. Hulbert was over sixty years old, and had moved
into the country from Pennsylvania in the fall of 1788 and lived for a
time at Marietta. He served as hunter to a party of Ohio Company Surveyors
in 1789 and was esteemed an honest, worthy man.
He was the first man killed by
the Indians in Belpre after the war broke out.
The death of Mr. Hulbert was a source of additional
terror and dread to the elderly females in the garrison, whose fears of
the Indians kept them in constant alarm, lest their own husbands or sons
should fall a prey to the rifle or tomahawk of the Savages. They had but
little quiet except in the winter, during which period the Indians rarely
made inroads, or lay watching about the garrison.
But as soon as the Spring
began to open and the wild geese were seen in flocks steering their course
to the north,and the frogs heard peeping in the swamp, they might
invariably be expected lurking in the vicinity. So constantly was this the
case, that the elder females and mothers with the more timid part of the
community, never greeted this season with the hilarity and welcome so
common in all parts of the world, and so desirable as releasing us from
the gloom and storms of winter. They preferred that season to any other,
as they then felt that their children and themselves were in a manner safe
from the attack of their dreaded foe. They therefore regretted its
departure, and viewed the budding of the trees and the opening of the wild
flowers with saddened feelings, as the harbingers of evil; listening to
the song of the blue bird and the martin with cheerless hearts, as
preludes to the war cry of the Savage. Much of our comfort and happiness
depends on association : and though surrounded with all the heart may
crave, or our tastes desire, yet the constant dread of some expected evil
will destroy all peace of mind, and turn what otherwise might be joy into
sorrow. The barking of the watch dog at night was another source of terror
as it was associated with the thought that some savage foe was lurking in
with the thought that some savage foe was lurking in the vicinity. The
more timid females when thus awakened in the night would rise upon the
elbow and listen with anxious care for the sound of the war whoop or the
report of the rifle of the watchful sentry; and when they again fell into
a disturbed slumber, the nervous excitement led them to dream of some
murderous deeds or appalling danger. Several amusing incidents are related
of the alarms in the garrison from the screams of persons when asleep and
dreaming that they were attacked by Indians. Amid the peace and quiet of
our happy times, we can hardly realize the mental suffering of that
disastrous period.
The
following letters written to her father by Mrs. Mary Bancroft Dana give us
an inside view of conditions during those trying years.
Honored Sir,
Your affectionate daughter,
Mary Dana.
September 8, 1792.
Honored Sir:
At length an army
was sent out against that injured nation for cruelties they were often
committing upon persons or families.
A year ago last February three small settlements moved
together. A garrison was created and block houses built. We continued
there with two families in every house, one above and one below, three
miles from our usual dwelling. We continued there nine months but before
the defeat of the army we returned and lived in our own house all winter.
In the course of the
winter Mr. Dana built a decent block house nigh a quarter of a mile from
our other. I now live in a snug garrison where there are seven families.!
Nobody pretends to walk any distance without an instrument of death on his
shoulder, continually looking for danger and trial. All necessary business
is performed with alacrity and fortitude. Everything around us is
flourishing and we are supported and prospered beyond our expectations.
This letter I send by Mrs. Battelle who is about to set out for Boston.
She has been in this country nigh four years and is now going to visit her
friends. Me thinks it would add to my happiness to hear from every branch
of my family; their situation, their prosperities, their adversities,
although at so great a distance I should share every adversity, and
partake of the prosperity. Not a single line have I received from any of
you since I left you, and this wretched writing I hope will put you in
mind, or one of my brothers, to write the first opportunity. I must
conclude with sending duty and respects and love for myself and family.
Your dutiful daughter,
MARY DANA.
These letters reveal many of the privations of
settlers in a new country with no public means of travel, and no mails,
the only means of transporting letters being in the knapsacks of
travelers, and sometimes years passed before they heard from friends in
the old home.
Mrs. Dana
was daughter of Capt. Edmond Bancroft, of Pepperell, Mass. She brought up
a family of eleven children and did her full share in promoting the
welfare of Belpre.
The
pioneer wives and mothers deserve more honors than we can express for the
perseverance and heroism with which they endured the privations of those
early years.
Griffin Greene, Esq., one of the Ohio Company
directors, and also an associate in Farmers Castle, had traveled in France
and Holland three or four years before, and in the latter country had seen
a mill erected on boats and the machinery moved by the current. He
mentioned the fact to Captain Jonathan Devoll, an ingenious mechanic, of
ardent temperament and resolute to accomplish anything that would benefit
his fellow men; and although Mr. Greene had not inspected the foreign mill
so as to give any definite description, yet the bare suggestion of such a
fact was sufficient for Captain Devoll, whose mechanical turn of mind
immediately devised the machinery required to put it in operation. A
company was formed and the stock divided into twelve shares of which
Captain Devoll took one-third, and Mr. Greene about one-fourth; the rest
was divided among five other persons. When finished it cost fifty-one
pounds eight shillings, Massachusetts currency, according to the old bill
of expenditures. The mill was erected on two boats one of them five and
the other ten feet wide and forty-five feet long. The smaller one was made
of the trunk of a hollow Sycamore tree and the larger of timber and plank
like a flat boat. They were placed eight feet apart and fastened firmly
together by beams, running across the boats.
The smaller on the outside supported one end of the
shaft of the water wheel and the larger the other; in this was placed the
mill stones and running gear, covered with a tight frame building for the
protection of the grain and meal and the comfort of the miller. The space
between the boats was covered with planks forming a deck fore and aft of
the water wheel. It was turned by the natural current of the water, and
was put in motion or checked by pulling up or setting down a set of
boards, similar to a gate in front of the wheel. It could grind from
twenty- five to fifty bushels of grain in twenty-four hours, according to
the strength of the current. The larger boat was fastened by a chain cable
to an anchor made of timbers and filled with stones, and the smaller one
by a grape vine to the same anchor. The mill was placed in a rapid portion
of the Ohio a few rods from the shore and in sight of the Castle. The
current here was strong, and the position safeguarded from Indians. With
the aid of a bolting cloth in the garrison, turned by hand, very good
flour was made, when they had any wheat. The day of the completion was a
kind of jubilee to the inmates of the Castle, as it relieved them from the
slavish labor of the handmill, which literally fulfilled the prediction to
Adam: "In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy bread." The floating
mill was a great relief, and was visited by all the settlers on both sides
of the Ohio for a distance of twenty miles, in their canoes, the only mode
of transportation at a period when there were neither roads nor bridges in
the country.
The men in the
garrison, hearing their screams, rushed out to their rescue; but only
saved the little fellow who loitered behind, and commenced firing at the
Indians. Brown, whom they had not discovered before, now came in sight but
being without arms could render no assistance. The Indians immediately
gave chase to him but he escaped and reached the garrison. As the men were
not familiar with Indian warfare, no effective pursuit was made; whereas
had there been several backswoodsmen among them they would doubtless have
been followed and killed. When the bodies of the slain were removed to the
garrison, the poor little infant was found in a state of insensibility
lying by the side of its dead mother. It finally revived and was nursed
with great tenderness by the females at Farmers Castle, where the child
was soon after brought, whose deepest sympathies were awakened by its
motherless condition and ghastly wound which had nearly deprived it of all
its blood. By great care it was restored to health, and the father, with
his two remaining children, returned to his relations. Newbury was again
deserted and so remained until the end of the war.
It gradually subsided after
carrying off ten or fifteen children. Like many other epidemics it was
most fatal in the first few days of its appearance. It was confined to
Belpre, while Marietta and the other settlements escaped its ravages. In
the Summer and autumn the inhabitants were more or less affected with
intermittent fevers of a mild type, to the production of which, no doubt,
the swamp back of the garrison afforded a large share of the malaria.
Bilious fever also occasionally attacked the new settlers but the disease
was seldom fatal and gave way to simple remedies.
Bathsheba Rouse, the daughter of John Rouse, one of
the emigrants from near New Bedford Mass, was employed in the summer of
1789 to teach the small children, and for several subsequent summers she
taught a school in Farmers Castle. She is believed to have been the first
female who taught a school within the present bounds of Ohio. During the
winter months a male teacher was employed for the larger boys and young
women. Daniel Mayo was the first male teacher in Farmers Castle. He came,
a young man from Boston, with the family of Col. Battelle, in the Fall of
1788, and was a graduate of Cambridge University. The school was held in a
large room of Col. Battelle's block house. He was a teacher for several
winters, and during the Summer worked at clearing and cultivating his lot
of land. He married a daughter of Col. Israel Putnam and after the war
settled in Newport,
Ky. Jonathan Baldwin,
another educated man, also taught school a part of the time of their
confinement in school a part of the time of their confinement in the
garrison. These schools had no public funds as at this day to aid them but
were supported from the hard earnings of the honest pioneers. (They
received a small sum from the Ohio Company.)
The men who served at Belpre, but not all
at the same time, two or three being a proportion for each garrison, were
Cornelius Delano, Joel Oaks, Benjamin Patterson, Joshua Fleehart, George
Kerr, John Shepherd, and James Caldwell. The first two were New England
men; the other five had been brought up on the frontiers.
Great was the consternation
of the married females and children when the news of the Small Pox being
among them was known. Their sufferings and losses from the Scarletina were
still fresh in their minds, and the dreaded name of Small Pox seemed like
the final sealing of their calamities. Few, if any of the inhabitants,
except the officers and soldiers of the army had gone through with the
disease, and as there was no chance of escaping it, a meeting of the
inhabitants was directly called. It was voted to send for Dr. True to come
down and inoculate them in their own dwellings. The Doctor accepted the
invitation and Farmers Castle became one great hospital, containing
beneath each roof more or less persons sick with this loathsome disease.
The treatment of Dr. True was very successful, and out of nearly one
hundred patients not one died.
Of those under the care of
Dr. Barnes in Major Goodales garrison, a colony which moved out of Farmers
Castle in the spring, two or three died; among them was a child of Mr.
Patterson. The cause of its fatality was the failure of those first
inoculated to take the disease, probably from deteriorated matter ; and
several took it in the natural way, so that on the whole they got through
with this pest very favorably.
