wasbioref-3

MURDER OF JOHN ARMSTRONG'S FAMILY.

John Armstrong and Peter Mixner, with their families, spent the winter of 1793-4 in the block house of Isaac Barker in the upper settlement of Belpre. These men were interested in a floating mill on the Virginia shore a little above the head of Blennerhassett Island. Early in the Spring of 1794 they built cabins and removed their families to the Virginia side of the river in order to be near their work. This was considered at the time a hazardous enterprise - as it proved to be. On the night of April 24th an attack was made on the cabin of Mr. Armstrong where Mrs. Armstrong and two young children were tomahawked and scalped. Three other children were taken into captivity and restored after the war. The other family, hearing the alarm, fled to their canoe and escaped before the Indians reached their cabin. Mr. Armstrong retreated to the mill where his two oldest boys were sleeping and all escaped. As soon as the alarm could be given in the morning a party from Stone's Garrison crossed the river but the Indians had retreated beyond their reach. The dead bodies were taken across the river and buried.

The pursuing party found by their trail where the Indians had raised their sunken canoes and crossed the Ohio to the Big Hocking up which they pushed their boats several miles when they left them and traveled by land. By the prints of the children's feet in the mud they ascertained that the prisoners were yet alive; and lest they would kill them if they were overtaken by the whites, they gave up the pursuit, and returned down stream and across the Ohio in the bark canoe left by the Indians.

On their arrival at the Wyandot towns the children were adopted into different families. Jeremiah the youngest, whose life was saved by the kind offices of a young warrior, was taken by the celebrated Chief Crane, who is represented to have been a kind hearted humane man and used him well. All were given up at the close of the war.

A History of Belpre Washington County, Ohio
C. E. Dickinson, D.D.
Published by Globe Printing & Binding Company, Parkersburg, West Virginia

MURDER OF JONAS DAVIS

The last of February, 1795, about ten months after the massacre of the Armstrong family, Jonas Davis, a young man from Massachusetts and an inmate of Stone's Garrison, discovered an old skiff in a pile of drift wood on the banks of the Ohio, about three miles above Belpre. He went up in a skiff to secure the nails, from this old boat, which were quite valuable at that time. While busily at work he was discovered by a hunting party consisting of two Indians and a negro who had been adopted into the tribe. They murdered and scalped him and left his body beside his skiff. As he did not return. a party went up from the garrison, discovered his body and took it back for burial. The death of Davis was specially distressing because he was very soon to be married to a daughter of Isaac Barker, and his wedding suit was already prepared. The next day after the death of Davis a party of four young men headed by John James, proceeded down the Ohio in a canoe in pursuit of the murderers. They made quite a long circuit and had some adventures but returned without finding the object of their pursuit. The murder of Jonas Davis and that of Sherman Waterman, near Waterford, were the last tragedies of the Indian War in these settlements .

A History of Belpre Washington County, Ohio
C. E. Dickinson, D.D.
Published by Globe Printing & Binding Company, Parkersburg, West Virginia

CAPTAIN JONATHAN DEVOLL.

CAPTAIN DEVOLL, when a young man acquired the trade of Ship Carpenter and in later years became quite noted in the construction of boats, ships and mills. He volunteered at the beginning of the revolution, in 1775, as first Lieutenant and Adjutant of the regiment. In 1777 he resigned because superceded in promotion of Adjutant of Second regiment to the office of Brigade Major. In 1775 he performed a very brilliant exploit in capturing a British Brig in Newport harbor and the following year captured a band of Tories near the same locality. He joined the Ohio Company in 1787 and was one of the first forty-eight pioneers who arrived at Marietta, April 7th, 1788. During the winter he had superintended the construction of boats at Sumrills Ferry.

He was chiefly engaged during the summers of 1788-9 in building Campus Martins and removed with his family to Belpre in February 1790. At the breaking out of the Indian war in 1791 he superintended the construction of Farmers Castle; and built the Floating Mill at Belpre, in 1791. In 1797 he removed to a farm on Wiseman's bottom, on the Muskingum, five miles above Marietta. Here the next year he built a floating mill where he did custom grinding for the farmers on the Ohio and Muskingum rivers. In 1801 he built a ship of four hundred tons for B. I. Gilman, Esquire, a merchant of Marietta. The timber of this vessel was wholly of Black Walnut from the valley of the Muskingum for which river the ship was named. In 1802 he built the schooner Nonpareil. In 1807 he built a large frame flouring mill on the spot where the floating mill was moored. The water wheel was forty feet in diameter, the largest seen at that day west of the mountains. During all these days he improved his farm, planting fruit trees and making his home pleasant and comfortable. In 1809 he purchased and put in operation machinery for carding sheeps wool which had now become so abundant as to need something more than hand cards, as farmers were already owning flocks of sheep. In 1808 he erected works for dressing and fulling cloth both of which operations are believed to have been the first ever carried on in this part of Ohio, if not in the whole state. He may be called the Master mechanic of the settlers. He died, during the epidemic fever which prevailed, in 1823, aged 64.

Sketches of Pioneers, Being Extracts from Lives of the Early Settlers of Ohio by Dr. Samuel P. Hildreth.
A History of Belpre Washington County, Ohio
C. E. Dickinson, D.D.
Published by Globe Printing & Binding Company, Parkersburg, West Virginia

GRIFFIN GREENE, ESQ.

Mr. Greene was born at Warwick, Rhode Island in 1749. Early in life he engaged in the business of a smith and anchor making, and later he and his cousin Jacob Green erected a forge for working in iron. He was also a cousin of General Nathaniel Greene. Both these men belonged to the sect of Quakers from which they were expelled on account of their interest in the war. He commenced his military career in 1775, by serving as Commissary to the Rhode Island troops, although in the previous year he had been trained to military exercises as a volunteer in the Company, to which his cousins Christopher and Nathaniel belonged, with many of the most active and prominent young men of the colony. In 1777 he was paymaster in the regiment commanded by Christopher Greene and during the attack on the fort at Red Bank was exposed to the shot of the enemy in taking a supply of powder to his countrymen. In 1778 his cousin Nathaniel Greene was appointed by Washington quartermaster general of the army, and Griffin became one of his deputies, continuing in that position until General Nathaniel Greene was placed in command of the southern army.

In 1777 Mr. Greene engaged as a partner in a company for fitting out two brigantines as privateers, the coast being at that time pretty clear of British ships of War. These were called the Black Snake and the Rattle Snake; but before the one had time to erect its head and the other to shake its rattles in defiance of the British lion they were driven on shore at Sandy Hook in April 1778, by an enemy crusier, and lost. This was the fate of many American privateers and in the estimate it is probable that as much was lost as won by the colonies in this nefarious business.

Mr. Griffin Greene wrote many letters concerning public affairs during these eventful years. We will give one concerning Benedict Arnold.

Camp Tappan, Sept. 9, 1780.
Treason! treason! of the blackest kind has been most providentially discovered. Gen. Arnold, who commanded at West Point, was in contact with the British Adjutant General for delivering into the enemy's hands all the forts and fortifications of that place. The plan was laid, the conditions settled and the time fixed for the execution. The adjutant General had been up to King's ferry to see Gen. Arnold and on his return to New York, near the White Plains was taken up by three military men who carried him prisoner to Major Jameson of Sheldons light-horse; and on his being searched, plans of the works, the strength of the garrison, and a hundred other observations necessary to be known in order to favor an attack, were all made out in Arnolds own hand writing. They were immediately sent to General Washington who was then on his return from Hartford. But unfortunately Jameson, from a false delicacy, reported to Gen. Arnold, that he had taken prisoner, one Anderson, which gave him time to just make his escape before General Washington got to the Point. The Adjutant general and one Mr. Joseph Smith are now both prisoners in this camp and doubtless will be hung tomorrow. We have only to lament that Arnold is not to greet the gallows with them. It appears, from an inquiry into Arnold's conduct that he is the most accomplished villian in the world; nothing can exceed his meanness. I am called upon to attend a court martial and cannot go further into this dark and wicked business. The military lads that took Mr. Andre deserve immortal honor and will be most liberally rewarded."

Mr. Greene came to Marietta in 1788 bringing beside his household goods a considerable number of valuable books. The first anchor made on the Ohio river, made for the brig St. Clair, was constructed under his direction. Soon after his arrival at Marietta Governor St. Clair commissioned him a justice of the peace and one of the Judges of the Court of Quarter Sessions. In 1789 he was made director of the Ohio Company in place of General Varnum, deceased, an office he held until the affairs of the company were closed. He joined the Belpre Association in 1790, and was a leading man in the colony, solemnizing marriages and settling civil disputes among them. In January, 1802 he was appointed Post Master at Marietta which office he held until his death. In July 1802 he was appointed collector for the district of Marietta by Thomas Jefferson. He was also inspector for the port of Marietta. Ships were built here and cleared from this port. He was a leader in the enterprise, already described, which discovered the Scioto Salt Spring. In person he was tan of genteel and accomplished manners, having seen and associated with much refined company and men of talents. As a man of genius he ranked with the first of the Ohio Company's settlers, abounding as it did with able men. He died in 1804 at the age of fifty-five.

CAPTAIN WILLIAM DANA.

Captain Dana was of French Huguenot descent and was born at Brighton, Mass. in 1745.

He removed his family to the vicinity of Worcester, Mass. just before the battle of Lexington.

He was chosen Captain of an Artillery Company and was stationed a mile or two out of Charleston at the time of the battle ,of Bunker Hill. An express from General Putnam, near its close, arrived with orders to hasten on to the hill to reinforce the flagging provincials. He started at full speed but met his countrymen on Charleston neck on their retreat.

He remained in the service two or three years attached to the department of General Knox head of the Artillery Corp.

In the Summer of 1788 he and two sons came to Marietta where he cleared a small section of land and built a brick kiln and burned the first brick made in Ohio. In 1789 he removed with his family, to Belpre and drew a lot of land just above the head of Blennerhassett Island and spent the winter in a small cabin but built a comfortable home in 1790.

He lived in Farmers Castle during the Indian war. A few years after its close his land was cleared, a convenient frame house built, orchards of fruit trees in bearing, and smiling plenty crowned his table, around which assembled eight sons and three daughters. In person Captain Dana was tall and in his manhood sustained the position and bearing of a Soldier. In disposition he was cheerful and social and never happier than when surrounded by his old associates at the festive board.

He died in 1809.

COL. NATHANIEL CUSHING.

Mr. Cushing belonged to the illustrious Cushing family of Boston and was born in Pembroke, Mass., April 8th, 1753. At the beginning of the revolutionary war he lived in or near Boston. In July, 1775, he was commissioned Lieutenant in Captain Trescott's Company and Colonel Brewers regiment, promoted as Captain in 1777, and came out of the war as Major by bevet.

He was engaged in many battles and skirmishes and was regarded as one of the most brave and successful officers. By his kindness to those under his command and his watchful care for the best interest of his men, he was a great favorite with the soldiers. His Company was attached to Gen. Rufus Putnam's regiment of light infantry and he made some daring and successful raids on the enemy. At that time there was a large district between the contending armies called the neutral ground that was nearly deserted by the inhabitants, and ravaged by both parties especially by the Tories, who, from this and the adjoining country, supplied the British in New York with forage and fresh provisions. The Americans, to watch the incursions of the enemy and keep the Tories from robbing the peaceable inhabitants near the lines, kept strong outposts or detachments of soldiers on the borders between King's bridge and the White Plains . It was a dangerous position for the troops, and none but the most active and vigilant of the partisan officers were selected for this service. They were not only liable to sudden and night attacks from the bands of Tories who were born and brought up here and were familiar with every road and by-path, but also exposed to a corps of light horse under the noted partisan officer Col. Simcoe who had cut off and destroyed several advanced parties of American troops.

To avoid the latter casualties, the order of the Commanding General was, that they should not advance beyond a certain line into the neutral ground, but keep within their own defenses, lest they should be surprised by the light horse and cut to pieces. Among others ordered on this hazardous service was Capt. Cushing with a detachment of men in addition to his own Company. Soon after arriving and taking up his position, information was brought by some of the Whig inhabitants, that there was a considerable body of Tories posted at no great distance from him on the road to New York. The opportunity thus afforded of distinguishing himself and the detachment under his orders was too great to be resisted; besides, if successful, he would be doing a service to the cause, and wipe away some of the disgrace attached to the defeat of other officers who had preceeded him in this service. With the main body of his men he, early that night, commenced a rapid march across the country, by an unfrequented road and about midnight surprised and captured the whole party. Col. Simcoe, with his mounted rangers, was posted in that vicinity, and received early notice of the event, by some friend of the British and acting with his usual promptness, immediately commenced a pursuit, with the expectation of cutting to pieces the detachment, and releasing the prisoners. Capt. Cushing, with all haste, posted off the Captive Tories in advance, under a small guard; charging the officer to rush on toward the lines as rapidly as possible, while he followed more leisurely in the rear, with the main body of troops. Expecting a pursuit from Simcoe; he marched in three ranks, and arranged the order of defense if it were attacked by the cavalry; a kind of troops much more dreaded by the infantry than those of their own class. When about half way back, the clattering hoofs of the rangers horses were heard in hot pursuit. As they approached, he halted his detachment in the middle of the road, ready to receive the charge. It fortunately happened that he found, in the house with the captured Tories a number of long spears or lances, sufficient to arm the rear rank. When called to a halt, and face the enemy, it brought the spearmen in front. Standing in close array, shoulder to shoulder, with one end resting on the ground, they received their enraged enemies on their points, while the other two ranks poured upon them a deadly fire, leaving many of the horses without riders. This unexpected result threw them into disorder, and their leader directed a retreat. Cushing now renewed his march in the same order. Simcoe, enraged and chagrined at the failure of his charge, again ordered a fresh and more furious onset, but was received by his brave antagonist in the same cool and resolute manner, and met a still more decided repulse, losing a number of his best men and horses. Not yet satisfied to let his enemies escape he made a third unsuccessful attempt and gave up the pursuit, leaving Capt. Cushing to retire at his leisure. He reached his post unmolested, with all the prisoners, and the loss of only a few men wounded; none killed. The following day he was relieved by a fresh detachment and marched into camp with the trophies of this brave adventure.

The morning after his return, in the orders of the day, by the commander-in-chief, notice was taken of this affair, and any similar attempt by the troops on the lines forbidden, thereby apparently censuring the conduct of Capt. Cushing. This was rather a damper to the feelings of a brave officer, who was peculiarly sensitive and sustained a nice sense of military honor. Soon after the promulgation of the order, and he had retired to his tent brooding over the event of the morning, and half inclined to be both angry and mortified at the nice distinctions of the Commander, an aid of Gen. Washington entered with a polite invitation to dine with him. He readily complied with the request and at the table was placed in the post of honor at Washington's right hand. A large number of officers were present, in whose hearing he highly complimented Capt. Cushing for the gallant manner in which he conducted the retreat with the coolness and success he had done; but at the same time added that for the strict and orderly discipline of the army, it was necessary to discountenance every act that contravened the orders of the Commander-in-chief. This satisfied all his mortified feelings and increased his love and respect for his revered general.

His was one of the first families who arrived in Marietta, August 19th, 1788.

Soon after his arrival he was commissioned by Governor Saint Clair as Captain in the First Regiment. He was one of the most active, brave, and intelligent men in arranging and conducting military and civil affairs in the settlement. After the capture of Maj. Goodale by Indians he was chosen Commandant in Farmers Castle.

He was gentlemanly and refined in manners, very courteous and affable in his intercourse with others, whether poor or rich, and very highly esteemed by Mr. and Mrs. Blennerhassett.

He died in 1814.

Sketches of Pioneers, Being Extracts from Lives of the Early Settlers of Ohio by Dr. Samuel P. Hildreth..
A History of Belpre Washington County, Ohio
C. E. Dickinson, D.D.
Published by Globe Printing & Binding Company, Parkersburg, West Virginia

MAJOR JONATHAN HASKELL

Major Haskell was born in Rochester, Mass. in 1754 and entered the Army when twenty one years of age and served to the close of the war. He came to Marietta in 1788 and in 1789 joined the Belpre Association. On the breaking out of the Indian War he received a commission as Captain in the regular service and went to Rochester, Mass., where he recruited a Company of soldiers and returned with them to Marietta, in December, 1791, where he was stationed for the defense of that and the surrounding settlements, as soldiers had been withdrawn from Fort Harmar in 1790.

He remained in Marietta until 1793 when he was commissioned Captain in the second sub legion under Gen. Wayne and joined the army on the frontier that summer. He was stationed at Fort Saint Clair, where he remained until June, 1794 when he was appointed to the command of the fourth Sub-division with the rank of Major, although his commission was not filed until Aug. 1795.

After the war Maj. Haskell returned to his farm in Belpre where he died in 1814.

A letter written by him to Griffin Greene and Benjamin I. Gilman gives a very graphic account of the celebrated campaign under General Wayne.

LETTER FROM CAPT. HASKELL TO GRIFFIN GREEN AND B. I. GILMAN.

The last time I wrote you was from Fort St. Clair, the date I have forgotten. In June last I was relieved from the Post and joined the fourth Sub-legion which I have commanded ever since. The 28th of July the army moved forward, consisting of about 1900 regulars and 1500 Militia from Kentucky, by the way of the battle ground, now Fort Recovery, then turned to the eastward and struck the Saint Marys in 20 miles, where we erected a small fort, and left a subaltern Command. Crossed the St. Marys. -In four or five days march found the Anglaize,--continued down that river to where it formed a junction with the Miami of the Lakes-100 miles from Greenville by the route we took. -At this place we built a garrison and left a Maj. to command it, and the army proceeded down the river toward the Lake, 47 miles from this garrison until the 20th inst. In the morning about nine o'clock we found the Indians who had placed themselves for us. When the attack commenced we formed and charged them with our bayonets and pursued them two miles through a very bad thicket of woods, logs, and underbrush and with the charge of the Cavalry routed and defeated them. Our line extended in length one and a half miles and it was with difficulty we outflanked them. The prisoner, (a white man) we took says they computed their number as 1200 Indians and 250 white men, Detroit Militia, in action. Our loss in the engagement was two officers killed, four officers wounded: about thirty soldiers killed and eighty wounded. The Indians suffered most, perhaps 40 or 50 of their killed fell into our hands. The prisoner was asked why they did not fight better. He said: we would give them no time to load their pieces but kept them constantly on the move. Two miles in advance of the action is a British Garrison established last Spring around which we marched within pistol shot. In the day time it was demanded, but not given up. Our artillery not being sufficient and the place too strong to storm, it was not attempted but we burned their outhouses, destroyed their gardens, corn fields, and hay, within musket shot of the fort and down beyond them 8 or 9 miles without opposition. The 27th inst. we arrived here where our fort is and are to halt a few days to refresh. We have marched about 60 miles through the Indian villages and settlements and have destroyed several thousand acres of corn and all kinds of vegetables; burned their houses, furniture, tools, etc. A party have gone on to Fort Recovery for a supply of provisions for us. It is said that when they return we go up the Miami 60 miles to where the St. Marys forms a junction with the St. Joseph and destroy all the corn in the country.
In great haste, I am, gentlemen, Your humble servant,
J. HASKELL.

To
GRIFFIN GREEN,
B. I. GILLMAN.

Letter received by Mr. Gilman at Harmar Point, Oct. 13th, '94 and sent to Mr. Green.

Dr. Hildreth adds the following very appropriate words which give an insight into conditions at that time.

"This letter describes, in plain terms the ruin and devastation that marked the course of the American Army. It might have been considered a wise policy to devote to destruction the dwellings, corn fields, gardens, and in fact every species of property that belonged to the hostile Savages, but it was also a most cruel policy. The British troops, in their inroads among the rebel settlements of the Revolutionary war, never conducted more barbarously. The Indian villages on the Miami and the Anglaize were snugly and comfortably built were furnished with many convenient articles of housekeeping and clothing. They had large fields of corn and beans, with gardens of melons, squashes and various other vegetables. Mr. Joseph Kelley of Marietta, then a boy of twelve years old, and for several years a prisoner with the Indians, who treated him kindly, and was adopted into a family as one of their children, was living at that time at the junction of the St. Marys and the Auglaize, the spot where Maj. Haskell says the army would next go, to complete their work of destruction. Mr. Kelley was there when an Indian runner announced that the American troops had arrived in the vicinity of the village. His friends had not expected them so soon, and with the utmost haste and consternation, the old men, with the women and children, the warriors being absent, hurried aboard their canoes, taking nothing with them but a few clothes and blankets, not having time to collect any provisions from their fields and gardens.

The Sun was only an hour or two high when they departed, in as deep sorrow at the loss of their country and homes, as the Trojans of old when they evacuated their favorite city. Before the next day at noon their nice village was burnt to the ground; their cornfields of several hundred acres, just beginning to ripen, were, cut down and trampled under foot by the horses and oxen of the invaders, while their melons and squashes were pulled up by the roots. The following winter the poor Indians, deprived of their stock of corn and beans, which were grown every year and laid up for their winter food as regularly as among the white people, suffered the extreme of want. Game was scarce in the country they retreated to on the west of the Miami, and what few deer and fish they could collect barely served to keep them alive. It was a cruel policy, but probably, subdued their Spartan courage more than two or three defeats, as for many years thereafter, until the days of Tecumseh, they remained at peace.

COLONEL EBENEZER BATTELLE

Col. Battelle was the only son of Ebenezer Battelle and was born at Dedham, Mass., and graduated from Cambridge College in 1775. He held a commission of Colonel under the Governor of Massachusetts in the Militia. He was one of the active partners in a book store in Boston for about six years. While here he was elected to the command of the ancient and honorable artillery Company, a noted band of military men, composed of officers of good standing and character.

He became an associate in the Ohio Company and came to Marietta with Colonel May in the Spring of 1788 and his family came in November of the same year. During the following winter he became a member of the Belpre Association and in the Spring of 1789 proceeded to clear his land and erect a stout block house for the reception of his family. May 1st, Captain King was killed by Indians. The following day Col. Battelle, with two of his sons and Griffin Greene, Esq., embarked at Marietta in a large canoe, with farming tools, provisions, &c. On their way down they were hailed by some one from the shore and informed of this sad event. They landed and held a consultation on what was best to be done. Some were for returning; but they fianlly decided to proceed.

The block-houses of these two emigrants were near each other, and nearly opposite the middle of Backus' Island, on the spot afterwards occupied by Farmers Castle. After landing the other settlers joined them for mutual defense, and through the night kept up a military guard, in the old revolutionary style, the sentinel calling out every fifteen minutes "All's well" not thinking this would give the skulking Indians notice where to find them. No enemy, however, molested them during the night, and their fears of an attack gradually subsided.

Early in April, before any families had moved on to the ground, a party of officers from Fort Harmar, with their wives, and a few ladies from Marietta, made a visit to the new settlement in the officer's barge, a fine large boat, rowed with twelve oars. These were the first white females who ever set foot on the soil of Belpre. On their return Col. Battelle, with several others, accompanied them by water in a canoe, and another party by land. While on the voyage, a large bear was discovered swimming across the river. The landsmen fired at him with their muskets and rifles, but without effect. The canoe then ranged alongside, when Col. Battelle seized him by the tail and when the bear attempted to bite his hand, he raised his hind parts, throwing his head under water, and thus escaped his teeth. One of his companions soon killed him with an axe. He weighed over three hundred pounds and afforded several fine dinners to his captors.

In the plan of Farmers Castle his blockhouse occupied the north east corner. Col. Battelle was very much interested in Education and religion in the settlement. Both schools and religious services were held in a large room in his block house. He officiated as Chaplain when no clergyman was present. Some times he gave a discourse of his own but oftener read a sermon of some eminent divine. He made Sunday respected and honored in the settlement. In the early years he was paid twenty dollars by the Ohio Company for his services as a religious teacher. He died in the home of his son at Newport, Ohio in 1815.

Click here to return to biography index.

Deb Murray