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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY, CHAPTER I. PHYSICAL FEATURES AND PRE-HISTORIC REMAINS. BROWN COUNTY borders on the majestic Ohio, and may properly be termed an Ohio River County; but in the division of the State of Ohio into hydrographic basins it has usually been placed in the Miami Valley. It lies nearly midway between the Little Miami and the Scioto; a small portion of the county is drained by East Fork into the Little Miami; no part of the drainage reaches the Scioto. Nearly all of the surface is drained directly into the Ohio by White Oak, Straight and Eagle Creeks and smaller streams. The county contains 470 square miles, and is bounded on the north by Clinton, on the east by Highland and Adams, on the west by Clermont, and on the south by the Ohio River. Although not the largest in the State, a longer line can be drawn in it than in any other county in Ohio, the diagonal from the southeast to the northwest corners being about forty-five miles. The county has a different shape from that of any other in the State, about one- fourth of its area forming what is popularly called " the boot leg," being from seven to eight miles in width and fifteen in length. Perhaps no county in Ohio has a more diversified topography or contains a greater variety of soil. Within it are hills so steep and high that they may be called mountains, and large tracts of land marvelously level; extensive areas drained by nature in the most perfect manner, and swamps of vast extent; farms on steep hill-sides, and farms all "wet lands;" black swamps, white swamps and limestone hills; beech lands and oak lands. The county has some of the richest and some of the poorest soil in the State. The county may be considered as an extensive plain, originally level, and elevated above the Ohio from four hundred to five hundred feet, and having only a slight inclination toward the south. The streams rising in the highest lands have a rapid fall in reaching the Ohio, and have cut for themselves deep channels. Hills as high and steep as those along the Ohio extend some distance up the principal streams which drain the county. The deep channels of these streams are serious impediments in the construction of roads and railways. On account of their rapid descent, the roar of the waters of White Oak Creek is much greater than that of the Miamis. Picturesque scenery may be found in the county along the Ohio and the streams which-flow into it. The hills along the Ohio are said, perhaps with truth, to be unsurpassed in beauty on the globe. The roads leading from the river to reach the high table-lands pass along the beds of the streams between beautifully undulating hills, now denuded of their forest covering, and furnishing valuable and productive farms for tobacco growing. On the turnpike between Ripley and Georgetown, is an extended view of hilly and broken land. A singularly formed elevation near Georgetown, called Bald Point, commands a beautiful view of the wide and deep-cut channel of the White Oak. This narrow and high ridge is in the bend of the stream; has nearly precipi- 216 - HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY. tour sides, and on either hand from its crest can be seen the bed of the stream three hundred feet bclow. The Cincinnati road formerly passed over this ridge, but the way, being both difficult and dangerous for vehicles, was abandoned. The ascent is, however, comparatively easy for the foot passenger, who finds his path strewn with numerous fossils of many species. The northern portion of the county constitutes a part of an extended flat- lying tract, which takes in portions of Warren, Clermont, Clinton, Brown and Highland, the surface of which is almost a dead level, and was long popularly known as " the swamps." These swamps have mostly been drained, but the descent from them is so slight that there are extensive localities in which the water can be taken with nearly equal facility in different directions. In the early settlement of the county, these wet lands were considered worthless; they were called slashes, and were covered with water more than half the summer. A. change has taken place in public opinion concerning their value. As _ the lands have been reClaimed, the soil, which at first was stubborn and intractable, has been found under a wise management to be rich in agricultural possibilities. These swamps, however, long delayed the settlement and improvement of a considerable portion of the county. They long remained covered with the dense original forests, which shut out the sun's rays from the surface of ground, and, lying about the sources of the streams, they furnished a constant supply of water for the tributaries of the Ohio which flow through the county. The soils of the county are of two classes, having distinct origins, viz., native and foreign. The native soil consists of clays and sands formed_ by the disintegration of the native limestone rocks, or those immediately underlying the soil. It is chiefly found on the slopes of the hills along the Ohio and its tributary streams, and constitutes a considerable proportion of the southern half of the county. This soil is of great strength and fertility, and is well adapted to the growth of Indian corn and wheat. The famous tobacco lands of this county belong to this class. The foreign soil consists of drift or materials of foreign origin, and is made up of yellow, white and black clays, and alluvium. These different soils were characterized by different kinds of forest growths. The indigenous trees were the best evidence to the early settler of the character, capacity and fertility of the soil. Althongh there is usually much difference between native and foreign soils, yet as the underlying rock is limestone, and the gravels and sands of the drift are largely composed of the same kind of rock, the foreign soils in this region are largely calcareous. Geologically, the stratified rocks of the county belong to the Cincinnati Group, the Hudson River Period, the Lower Silurian Age and the Paleozoic Era. On the Ohio River, near the western boundary of the county, may be found rocks which underlie those exposed at Cincinnati. The Point Pleasant beds of Clermont County are the oldest rocks of Ohio. The latest formed strata of the Cincinnati Group may be found in the highlands of Eagle Township. From Point Pleasant, in Clermont County,, to the northeastern corner of Brown County, may be found the entire series of strata of the Lower Silurian of Ohio, having a vertical scale of over seven hundred feet. The Niagara formation, or Upper Silurian, of Adams County extends over the western boundary of that county, and embraces the highest lands in the eastern portion of Eagle Township. The blue limestone strata form the floor of the county as well as Southwestern Ohio. The name indicates the color of the rocks. The bluish tinge is due to the presence of an oxide of iron. Exposure frequently changes the color to a light gray or drab. Many of stratified rocks of Brown are popularly termed gray limestone. Geologically, however, they all belong to the strata HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY - 217 called by Prof. Orton the Cincinnati and Lebanon beds of the blue limestone, and are characterized by precisely the same fossils. The drift beds are spread over almost the entire county. They consist of clays, sands, gravels, bowlders, and buried vegetable remains, all of which have been transported by glacial action, or by glaciers and icebergs, a greater or less distance from the places of their origin. These beds vary much in depth, in the materials of which they are composed and in the order in which the layers of different materials are arranged. Fragments of wood are frequently found deeply buried in the drift. Bowlders are scattered irregularly over the county as well as other portions of the Miami country, and constitute an interesting feature of the surface geology. They are termed erratic rocks, hardheads or grayheads. They are universally recognized as of northern origin. They are composed of rocks foreign not only to the county but to Ohio. All geologists agree that many of them were brought from the Lake Superior region and the Canadian highlands, and that far the largest number have been brought from beyond the great lakes. Prof. J. S. Newberry, late Chief Geologist of Ohio, believes that these bowlders were deposited at a later date than the most recent stratified beds of drift, and that they were floated to their present resting places by icebergs, just as icebergs are now known to transport great quantities of rocks, gravel and sand, sometimes, in the case of a single iceberg, amounting to 100, 000 tons. There are few bowlders of very large size in the county. One of the largest is found in the immediate neighborhood of Fayetteville. The large masses of cliffs which attract the attention of the traveler on the Ohio River hills above Higginsport are not bowlders, but examples of the Drift Conglomerate, and formed of the gravels of the drift cemented through the agency of lime water. Fossiliferous remains of great beauty and variety are found in abundance throughout the county. Perhaps no locality in Ohio furnishes superior facilities for the study of the ancient living forms inhabiting the seas, at the bottom of which the upper beds of the Lower Silurian were formed. They occur in such numbers and are so perfectly preserved that the most careless observers have their attention directed to them in the stones by the wayside and in the village pavements. They are ofttimes so crowded together as to constitute the chief substance of the rocks. The higher or Lebanon beds especially are very fossiliferous, and consequently less valuable for building purposes. ANTIQUITIES. The ancient remains of Brown County are chiefly mounds, inclosures and cists. It cannot be said that any law governing the arrangement or distribution of these works has been discovered. They are, perhaps, most numerous in the valleys near the Ohio, but they are found on the flat lands in the north of the county, and also on the most inaccessible places. A small mound is situated on the summit of the hill called Bald Point, near Georgetown. Two mounds near the Ohio, not far from Aberdeen, are the largest in the county. The purpose for which the mounds were built is unknown. They may have been surmounted with houses and appproachable only with ladders, or foundations for watch towers and signal stations, or places of worship and sacrifice. A more common view is that the mounds were places of sepulture and memorials raised over the dead, the largest mounds being erected in honor of distinguished personages. The notion that they contain the remains of vast heaps of dead fallen in ,great battles is wholly unsupported by the facts obtained from excavations and examinations, But one or two skeletons are usually found in 218 - HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY. these mounds, and where many are found, it is probable that the later Indians, and, in some cases, Europeans, have buried their dead in them. The new Ameri - can Cyclopedia assumes, from facts and circumstances deemed sufficient to enable us to arrive at approximate conclusions concerning the antiquity of the Mound-Builders' records, that we may infer, for most of these monuments in the Mississippi Valley, an age of not less than 2,000 years. " By whom built, whether their authors migrated to remote lands under the combined attractions of a more fertile soil and more genial clime, or whether they disappeared beneath the victorious arms of an alien race, or were swept out of existence by some direful epidemic or universal famine, are questions probably beyond the power of human investigations to answer. History is silent concerning them, and their very name is lost to tradition itself." The inclosures, which seem to have been works of defense, and are commonly called ancient forts, in Brown County are not numerous or important. There are several pre-historic cemeteries in this county, and in some of them a number of skeletons have been found, and frequently implements in connection with the skeletons. The bodies were usually placed in shallow graves, on the sides and ends of which were placed stones on edge, forming a stone box or cist. It has been doubted by some whether these graves are as ancient as the mounds. They were found both in the northern and southern part of the county, but they attracted most attention at the mouth of Eagle Creek. James Finley, Postmaster at West Union, on February 1, 1809, wrote: "Graves are found in different parts of the county. The bodies are deposited in sepulchers made by digging the grave about three feet wide and walling it up with flat stones. The small bones crumble to dust when touched; the large ones are yet sound. Several of these graves are on the bank of the Ohio just above Eagle Creek. The bank has fallen away, and they appear like the end of a conduit made for the conveyance of water." The archaeological remains of Brown County are not so numerous or extensive as those of Ross, Pickaway and Warren Counties; yet here, as in almost the whole of the Ohio Valley, are found traces of a numerous and busy ancient and now extinct race, not of nomadic tribes, but tillers of the soil, workers in copper mines and builders of extensive towns and works of defense—a people with fixed laws, customs and religious rites. Many of the pre-historic works of the county have been obliterated by the cultivation of the soil, and few of them have been accurately surveyed and described. The ancient remains of other counties in Southern Ohio have attracted more attention from writers on American antiquities than any in Brown. In Adams County is an earthwork representing an enormous serpent 1,000 feet in length, which seems about to swallow an egg-shaped figure 164 feet in length. On the summit of Fort Hill, in Highland County, is an ancient work over half a mile in length, a full description and drawing of which are given by Dr. John Locke in the First Geological Report of Ohio. Fort Ancient, in Warren County, one of the largest and most important of the pre-historic works of defense in the Ohio Valley, has been frequently described. Among the most interesting archaeological relics are the utensils, implements, weapons and personal ornaments of pre-historic times. It should be borne in mind that, while most writers on American antiquities make a distinction between. the Mound-Builders and the tribes the whites found in possession of the country, such a line of demarcation cannot well be drawn with accuracy with respect to the stone, flint and copper relics. Some of these relics may belong to a pre-historic race of the distant past, some to the earliest Indian tribes inhabiting the country, and others to later Indians, whose mechanical arts may have been modified by contact and trade with the whites. It is, HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY - 219 therefore, impossible to separate the relics of the Mound-Builders from those of the later races. We cannot refer the copper implements to any particular epoch, nor can we determine when the atone age began or ended. Stone implements have been found associated with the remains of animals long since extinct, yet these implements are not different from those known to have been in use among the savage tribes when first seen by the whites. The relics now under consideration have been found in as great quantities in this county, perhaps, as in any county in Ohio. With respect to the purposes for which they were designed, they may be divided into utensils for domestic use, implements for handicraft, weapons and ornaments. With respect to the materials from which they were fabricated, they are stone, flint, slate, copper, pottery, bone, horn and shell. The most common relics are the flint arrow-heads, spear-heads and daggers. Thousands of arrow and spear heads have been picked up in the county. Other flint implements, such as knives and cutting tools, scrapers and borers, have been found. Of stone relics, the most common are axes and hammers, grooved so that a forked branch or split stick could be fastened for a handle; balls more or less round, probably used as hand hammers; pestles for crushing grain, and many ornaments—among them flat perforated tubes of highly polished slate, and various forms of flat stones, polished and perforated. Stone pipes are found of various sizes and construction. Specimens of ancient pottery have not been often found in the county. Charles Rau, the author of several valuable papers on American antiquities, has shown that there was an extensive trade or traffic among the pre-historic races of America. This is rendered evident from the fact that their manufactured articles consist of materials which must have been obtained from sources in far distant localities. The materials of which many relics found in the Miami country are composed, can only be found at a distance of hundreds of miles. The term "flint," used to describe the material of which various chipped implements are manufactured, is used to include various kinds of hard and silicious stones, such as hornstone, jasper, chalcedony, and different kinds of quartz. There have been found in the United States, places where the manufacture of flint implements was carried on. There was a great demand for arrow-heads among the primitive tribes, and, in places where the proper kind of material could be found, there were workshops for their manufacture. An important locality to which the aborigines resorted in Ohio for quarrying flint is now called Flint Ridge, and extends through Muskingum and Licking Counties. Dr. Hildreth says of this ancient flint quarry : "The compact, silicious material of which this ridge is made up seems to have attracted the notice of the aborigines, who have manufactured it largely into arrow and spear heads, if we may be allowed to judge from the numerous circular excavations which have been made in mining the rock, and the piles of chipped quartz lying on the surface. How extensively it has been worked for those purposes may be imagined from the countless number of the pits, experience having taught them that the rock recently dug from the earth could be split with more freedom than that which had lain exposed to the weather. These excavations are found the whole length of the outcrop, but more abundantly at Flint Ridge, where it is more compact and diversified with rich colors." The greenish, striped slate, of which variously shaped tablets are made, is believed to occur in no part of the Union except the Atlantic Coast District, and to have been transported, either in a rough or worked condition, from that region to the different parts of the Mississippi Valley, in which the relics are found. The copper used by the aboriginal tribes was probably obtained chiefly from the northern part of Michigan. 220 - HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY. CHAPTER II THE INDIAN OWNERS. THE territory composing Brown County was uninhabited on its discovery and exploration by white men. So far as is known, no tribe of Indians ever lived upon its soil. There is no historic proof that any people ever had permanent habitations within its limits after the pre-historic race, the Mound Builders, had passed away, until the English-speaking white men took possession of the land, and began the work of clearing away the forests which had been growing for centuries over the earthworks of a people whose history is enveloped in obscurity. When the Ohio Valley was first explored by white men, the Miami Indians laid claim to nearly all of Western Ohio, and a vast region extending through Indiana to Illinois and northward to the Maumee. This powerful tribe, or rather confederacy of tribes, had villages on the Scioto, the head-waters of the Miamis, the Maumee and the Wabash. But of their vast territory, much that was then the most beautiful and is now the most valuable, was entirely unoccupied. The Ohio, from the mouth of the Scioto, was without evidences of human habitations on either side. The region of the two Miamis, from their union with the Ohio well up to their sources, was an unbroken solitude. Why a region so inviting as Kentucky and Southwestern Ohio should have remained uninhabited for so long a period, while the inhospitable regions of the lakes were peopled, has, perhaps, not been satisfactorily explained. The theory that Kentucky was a common hunting-ground, and purposely kept bare of inhabitants, has been advanced. That it was a disputed ground and battlefield between the tribes of the South and those of the Northwest has been suggested. Perhaps the lack of human inhabitants may be explained with the simple fact that sufficient time had not elapsed since the advent of the Indian races upon the continent to people the whole territory; and that savage tribes, as well as civilized races, are not always successful in first selecting and occupying the best and most pleasing regions. But whatever may be the explanation, the fact that the region referred to was destitute of all traces of recent settlement is established by the testimony of the first explorers and emigrants. Mr. Butler, in his history of Kentucky, says that " no Indian towns within recent times were known to exist within this territory, either in Kentucky or the Lower Tennessee." Gen. Harrison, whose long acquaintance with the Miami Valley before its settlement by white men, and his familiarity with Indian history and traditions, entitle his opinion to the greatest weight, was emphatic in denying the occupation of the country for centuries before its discovery by the Europeans, although he thought there was evidence, from the remains of pottery, pipes, stone hatchets and other articles of inferior workmanship to those of the Mound-Builders, of its being inhabited by some race inferior to that people. At the threshold of this history, then, we are to conceive of the territory of Brown County during the generations preceding the approach of white men, . not as thickly populated with dusky braves, whose villages dotted the shores of its streams, but as a wilderness inhabited only by the beasts of the forest. There was not a town or settlement upon its soil. The smoke curled up from no scattered wigwams; no council fires were lighted; no fields of maize were tilled by the squaws within its limits. The Ohio rolled "his amber tide" HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY - 221 along the southern boundary of the county through an unbroken solitude. James Kirke Paulding, in his poem, " The Backwoodsman." describes the scene which met the eyes of the voyagers down the Ohio before the commencement of the wars between the white and the red men. "As down Ohio's ever ebbing tide, Oarless and sailless, silently they glide, How still the scene, how lifeless, yet how fair Was the lone land that met the stranger there! No smiling villages or curling smoke, The busy haunts of men bespoke; No solitary haunts the banks along, Sent forth blithe labor's homely, rustic song; No urchin gambol'd on the smooth, white sand, Or hurled the skipping-stone with playful hand. Where now are seen, along the river side, Young, busy towns, in buxom, painted pride, And fleets of gliding boats, with riches crowned, To distant Orleans or St. Louis bound, Nothing appeared but nature unsubdued One endless, noiseless, woodland solitude." But, while there were no Indian residents, there were Indian owners. We have said that the Miami Indians claimed the territory. They were, doubtless, the rightful owners of the soil when the first white men Visited the Miami Rivers. This tribe had important towns on the head-waters of the Great Miami in 1751. It was then probably the most powerful of the. North American tribes. Little Turtle, the famous Miami chief, a few days before he agreed to the treaty at Greenville, and ceded his right to these lands, spoke with pride and yet with sadness, of the former greatness and dominion of his tribe. His words are preserved in the American State Papers: I hope you will pay attention to what I now say to you. You have pointed out to us the boundary line between the Indians and the United States; but I now take the liberty to inform you, that that line cuts off from the Indians a large portion of country which has been enjoyed by my forefathers time immemorial, without molestation or dispute. The prints of my ancestors' houses are everywhere to be seen in this portion. It is well known to all my brothers present, that my forefather kindled the first fire at Detroit; from thence he extended his lines to the head-waters of Scioto; from thence to its mouth; from thence down the Ohio to the mouth of the Wabash; from thence to Chicago on Lake Michigan. At this place, I first saw my elder brothers, the Shawnees. I have now informed you of the boundaries of the Miami nation, where the Great Spirit placed my forefather a long time ago, and charged him not to sell or part with his lands, but to preserve them for his posterity. This charge has been handed down to me. I was surprised to find my other brothers differed so much from me on this subject; for their conduct would lead one to suppose that the Great Spirit and their forefathers had not given them the charge that was given to me, but on the contrary had directed them to sell their lands to any white man who wore a hat, as soon as he should ask it of them. Little Turtle took pride in the antiquity of his race, as well as in the extent of territory controlled by his ancestors. In 1797, this Miami chief met Volney in Philadelphia. The French philosopher explained to the savage orator the theory that the Indian race had descended from the dark-skinned Tartars, and by a map showed the supposed communication between Asia and America. Little Turtle replied: "Why should not these Tartars, who resemble us, have descended from the Indians?" The tribes which in Ohio resisted the encroachments of the whites were the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawnees, Chippewas, Ottawas, Pottawatomies, Miamis, Weas and Eel Rivers. The last three were in fact but one tribe, but., at the treaty of Greenville, Gen. Wayne recognrzed this division, so as to allow them a larger share of the money which was stipulated to be paid by the United States. Gen. Wayne thought it just that the Miami Indians should receive more of the annuities promised by the Government than they would be entitled 222 - HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY. to as a single tribe, because he recognized the fact that the country ceded by the treaty was in reality their property. It was the opinion of Gen. Harrison that all the Indian tribes of Indiana and Ohio which were united in the war against the whites could not at any time during the ten years which preceded the treaty of peace in 1'795 have brought into the field more than 3,000 warriors, although a few years before the Miamis alone could have furnished more than that number. The ravages of the small-pox were the principal cause of the great decrease in their numbers. They composed, however, a body of the finest light infantry troops in the world. They delayed the settlement of the country now forming Brown County and adjoining counties for more than seven years, and, if they had been under an effrcient system of discipline, their conqueror at Tippecanoe admits that the settlement of the country might have been attended with much greater difficulty. While the Miami Indians were the rightful owners of the soil when the Miami country was first visited by white men, they were not the only nor the principal tribe which resisted the settlement of the country by the white men. About ten years before the beginning of the Revolutionary war, the Miami tribes abandoned their towns on the Great Miami and removed to the region of the Maumee. The Shawnees, a warlike and numerous tribe, then established themselves on the head-waters of the two Miami Rivers. It was the Shawnees i that the first settlers of the Miami country most frequently came in contact with. They came from the South, and first appeared in Ohio under the protection of the Miamis. Before the removal of the Miamis to the northward, the boundary line between the hunting grounds of the Shawnees and the Miamis appears to have passed through Brown County, the- former holding sway over the Scioto Valley, the latter over the Miami Valley. After the settlements in Kentucky had been commenced, the Shawnees held dominion over the whole region now included in Brown and adjoining counties north of the Ohio. The Indians frequently encamped and hunted within the limits of Brown County. They also often crossed the Ohio near the present sites of Aberdeen and Ripley, for the purpose of stealing horses and annoying the settlements in Kentucky. Tecumseh, in his youthful days, was often in this region. He was born at an Indian village in what is now Clark County, Ohio, and when only about seventeen years of age, or about the year 1785, manifested signal prowess in an attack on some boats on the Ohio near the site of Aberdeen. The boats were captured and all in them killed, except one person, who was burnt alive. The youthful Tecumseh was a silent spectator of the cruel punishment, never having before witnessed the burning of a prisoner, and after it was over he expressed in strong terms his abhorrence of the act, and by his eloquence endeavored to persuade his party never again to burn a captive. Seven years later, Tecumseh was the leader of a party of Indians in a severe engagement with the whites on East Fork, an account of which is given on a subsequent page. Col. Harmar, in a letter to the Secretary of War, dated May 14, 178'7, speaks of having recently seen a party of Shawnees with six or seven prisoners encamped on the Ohio opposite Limestone, Ky., and waiting to exchange their prisoners for an equal number of Indians taken in Col. Logan's expedition. The Indians were commanded by a chief named Wolf. Col. Harmar went over the river and remonstrated with the chief against the frequent murders in Kentucky by the Indians, and told him that the thirteen Great Fires would be provoked to such a degree that they would send their young warriors and destroy all their nations. The chief's answer was in the usual style, that none of the Shawnees committed these murders, but they were done by banditti, countenanced by none of the tribes. The Shawnees who roamed over the territory now forming Brown County HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY - 223 lived in villages ,on the Scioto and its branches, and the upper waters of the two Miamis. The important towns nearest to Brown County were situated on the North Fork of Paint Creek, near the site of Frankfort, in Ross County, and three miles north of the site of Xenia, in Greene County. The former was called Chillicothe; the latter Old Chillicothe. There were several Indian towns in Ohio called Chillicothe, which appears to have been a favorite name for towns with them. Besides those named, there was one on the Scioto at the site of Westf all, in Pickaway County, and another near the site of Piqua, in Miami County. INDIAN MODE OF LIFE. Long before the first settlement of the Miami country by the whites, the habits of the Indians had been modified by their contact with the Europeans. The French and English traders had supplied them with fire-arms, scalping- knives and tomahawks. They had iron pots and brass kettles for cooking and sugar-making. They had learned to love strong drink, and were given to great excesses in eating and drinking. Some of their own arts showed great skill and ingenuity. According to James Smith, a captive among the Delawares in Ohio, the Indian squaws in the sugar-making season of 1756 made vessels for collecting sugar-water in a very curious manner, from freshly peeled elm bark. The manner of construction he does not describe. They raised gourds, and used them for cups and dishes. Their huts were generally built of small, round logs, and covered with bark or skins. Old Chillicothe was built somewhat after the manner of a Kentucky station—that is, a hollow square. A long council house extended the entire length of the town, in which embassies were received and the chiefs met to consult on grave questions. Some of the houses are said to have been covered with shingles or clapboards. Many Indian huts were made by setting up a pole on forks and placing bark against it; there being no chimney, the smoke passed through an opening at the top. The agriculture of the Indians was confined chiefly to the growing of corn and beans, to which potatoes were afterward added. The extent of their cornfields was much greater than is generally supposed. A journal of Wayne's campaign, kept by George Will, under date of August 8, 1794, says: " We have marched for four or five miles through corn-fields down the Auglaize, and there are not less than 1,000 acres of corn around the town." The same journal describes the immense corn-fields, numerous vegetable patches and old apple trees found along the banks of the Maumee from its mouth to Fort Wayne. It also discloses the fact that the army obtained its bread and vegetables for eight days, while building Fort Defiance, from the surrounding corn and potato fields. Four years before, Gen. Harmar, in his expedition, burnt and destroyed at least 20,000 bushels of corn. In the cultivation of these large fields, nearly all the work was performed by the women. In addition to field work, the Indian women procured water and firewood, dressed skins, made garments and moccasins, and were little more than mere slaves of the men. The men went to war, procured game, manufactured such arms and implements as were not obtained from the whites, and kept them in repair. They disdained ordinary labor, except upon an object of such dignity and importance as a canoe or a dwelling Their hunting grounds were often a great distance from their villages. Thus, while the Indian squaw was cultivating these fields or gathering the corn, her warrior lord may have been hunting on the banks of the White Oak or Eagle Creek, and have shot the arrow whose flint head the Brown County farmer of to-day turns up with his plow. 224 - HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY. CHARACTER OF THE INDIANS. Gen. William Henry Harrison thus speaks of the intellectual and moral qualities of the Indians who roamed over this region, in his discourse before the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, on the aborigines of the Ohio Valley. "The Wyandots, Delawares, Shawnees and Miamis were much superior to the other members of the confederacy. The Little Turtle of the Miami tribe was one of this description, as was Blue Jacket, a Shawnee chief. I think it probable that Tecumseh possessed more integrity than any other of the chrefs who attained to much distinction; but he violated a solemn engagement which he had freely contracted, and there are strong suspicions of his having formed a treacherous design, which an accident only prevented him from accomplishing. Similar instances are, however, to be found in the conduct of great men in the history of almost all civilized nations. But these instances are more than counterbalanced by the number of individuals of high moral character which were to be found amongst the principal and secondary chiefs of the four tribes above mentioned. This was particularly the case with Tarhe, or the Crane, the great sachem of the Wyandots, and Black Hoof, the chief of the Shawnees. Many instances might be adduced to show the possession on the part of these men of an nncommon degree of disinterestedness and magnanimity, and strict performance of their engagements under circumstances which would be considered by many as justifying evasion. "By many they are supposed to be stoics, who willingly encounter deprivations. The very reverse is the fact. If they belong to either of the classes of philosophers which prevailed in the declining ages of Greece and Rome, it is to that of the Epicureans. For no Indian will forego an enjoyment or suffer an inconvenience if he can avoid it, but under peculiar circumstances, when, for instance, he is stimulated by some strong passion. But even the gratification of this he is ready to postpone whenever its accomplishment is attended with unlooked-for danger or unexpected hardships. Hence their military operations were always feeble, their expeditions few and far between, and much the greater number abandoned without an efficient stroke, from whim, caprice, or an aversion to encounter difficulties." He adds: " When, however, evil comes which he cannot avoid, then he will call up all the spirit of the man and meet his fate, however hard, like the best Roman of them all." EXTINGUISHMENT OF INDIAN TITLES. The Indian titles to the lands in Brown County were extinguished by the treaties of Fort McIntosh in 1785, Fort Harmar in 1789, and Greenville in 1795. The first stipulated for the distribution of goods among the different tribes for their use and comfort, but their value is not specified. The last provided that the United States should deliver to the tribes goods to the value of $20,000, and for a perpetual annuity of $9,500, payable in goods reckoned at first cost in the city or place where they should be procured. By these three treaties, the Indians relinquished forever all their claims to two-thirds of the State of Ohio. The great councils of the Northwestern tribes, however, refused to recognize the validity of the two former treaties, because they were made with only a few of the tribes, and had not been sanctioned by the united voice of the Indian confederacy. The Indians could have obtained a much larger sum for these lands had they accepted the offers of the United States. Government made previous to Wayne's victorious campaign against them. In 1793, President Washington instructed the Commissioners appointed by him to negotiate a treaty of peace with the Northwestern Indians to use every effort HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY - 225 to obtain a confirmation of the boundary line established at Fort Harmar, and to offer in payment $50,000 in hand, and an annuity of $10,000 forever. The Indians refused the money, claiming that the treaties already made were void because not sanctioned by all the tribes, demanded that the Ohio River should be considered the boundary, and that every white settlement should be removed from the Northwest Territory. The Commissioners explained to them that the United States Government had sold large tracts of land northwest of the Ohio, and that the white settlements and improvements were numerous, and had cost much money and labor, and could not be given up; but the Government was willing to pay a larger sum in money and goods than had been given at any one time for Indian lands since the whites first set their feet on this continent. The Indians gave as their final reply: "Money is of no value to us, and to most of us unknown. As no consideration whatever can induce us to sell the lands on which we get sustenance for our women and children, we hope we may be allowed to point out a mode by which your settlers may be easily removed, and peace thereby obtained. "We know these settlers are poor, or they never would have ventured to live in a country which has been in continual trouble since they crossed the Ohio. Divide, therefore, this large sum of money which you have offered to us among these people. Give to each,- also, a proportion of what you say you will give to us annually over and above this large sum of money, and, we are persuaded, they will most readily accept it in lieu of the land you sold them. If you add, also, the great sums you must expend in raising and paying armies with a view to force us to yield you our country, you will certainly have more than sufficient for the purpose of repayrng these settlers for all their labor and their improvements. " We shall be persuaded that you mean to do us justice, if you agree that the Ohio shall remain the boundary line between us. If you will not consent thereto, our further meeting will be altogether unnecessary." The Commissioners on the part of the Government said: "That they had already explicitly declared to them that it was now impossible to make the Ohio River the line between their lands and the lands of the United States. Your answer amounts to a declaration that you will agree to no other boundary than the Ohio. The negotiation is therefore at an end." Nothing remained for the Government but a vigorous prosecution of the war. The Indians were defeated by Gen. Wayne in August, 1794, and in August, 1795, a treaty of peace was ratified by all the tribes. Who was in the wrong in the long and bloody war which attended the early settlement of Ohio? Are we placed in the dilemma of believing either that our pioneer fathers were rapacious invaders of the lands of the Indians, or that the red men were regardless of their solemn engagements? Fortunately, we are not compelled to adopt either alternative. Enough has already been said to show that the war was not one in which all the wrong was on one side and all the right on the other. An honest effort was made by the Government of the United States to observe good faith toward the Indians, and to prevent their lands from being taken from them without their consent in treaties duly ratified, but in the earlier treaties for the purchase of lands in Ohio, all the tribes who had just claims were not represented. 226 - HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY. CHAPTER III. ADVENTURES AND CONFLICTS WITH THE INDIANS. THE pioneer hunters and woodsmen of Kentucky often passed over the Ohio into the territory now forming Brown County in pursuit of marauding parties of Indians. This county was the scene of some adventures of thrilling interest during the times of tumult and suffering through which the Northwest Territory passed. Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton, Neil Washburn and other noted hunters and scouts passed over the hills and through the swamps of Brown County long before there was a white settler within its limits. In 1778, Daniel Boone was a prisoner among the Indians of Ohio for several months. He probably passed through the county in making his flight homeward, when he made the marvelous journey of 160 miles, from Old Chillicothe to Boonesboro, in less than five days, during which he had but one meal. About the 1st of August of the same year, Boone and Kenton were in a small party formed for the purpose of surprising the Indians at the small Shawnee town on Paint Creek. Before reaching the town, it was learned that the Indian warriors had left it, and were marching against Boonesboro. Boone thereupon, with most of his men, returned to Kentucky to assist in defending the station. Simon Kenton and his companion, Montgomery, determined to proceed alone and capture some horses as a recompense for the trouble of their journey. Reaching the Indian village, they approached it with the stealthy pace of the cat or the panther, and took their stations in the corn-field, supposing the Indians would enter it as usual to get roasting ears. They remained all day and did not see a single Indian, and heard only the voices of some children who were playing near them. At night, they entered the town, and, capturing four of the best horses they could find, they made a rapid night march for the Ohio, which they crossed in safety, and, on the second day afterward, reached Logan's Fort with their booty. SIMON KENTON TAKEN PRISONER IN BROWN COUNTY. About the 1st of September, 1778, Simon Renton, becoming tired of the quiet of a life in the stations of Kentucky, planned a raid against the Indian town on the North Fork of Paint Creek, in what is now Ross County. He was joined by Alexander Montgomery and George Clark. The party set off from Boone's Station with the avowed purpose of taking horses from the Indians, the Kentucky settlements having lost many horses by Indian raids. They crossed the Ohio and proceeded cautiously to Chillicothe, and arrived at the Indian town without meeting any adventures. Kenton's biographer, John McDonald, says: "In the night, they fell in with a drove of -horses that were feeding in the rich prairies. They were prepared with salt and halters. They had much difficulty to catch the horses; however, at length they succeeded, and, as soon as the horses were haltered, they dashed off with seven—a pretty good haul. They traveled with all the speed they could to the Ohio. They came to the Ohio near the mouth of Eagle Creek, now in Brown County. When they came to the river, the wind blew almost a hurricane. The waves ran so high that the horses were frightened, and could not be induced to take the water. It HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY - 229 was late in the evening. They then rode back into the hills some distance from the river, hobbled and turned their horses loose to graze, while they turned back some distance and watched the trail they had come, to discover whether or no they were pursued. Here they remained till the following day, when the wind subsided. As soon as the wind fell, they caught their horses and went again to the river; but their horses were so frightened with the waves the day before that all their efforts could not induce them to take the water. This was a sore disappointment to our adventurers. They were satisfied that they were pursued by the enemy; they therefore determined to lose no more time in useless efforts to cross the Ohio; they concluded to select three of the best horses, and make their way to the Falls of the Ohio, where Gen. Clark had left some men stationed. Each made choice of a horse, and the other horses were turned loose to shift for themselves. After the spare horses had been loosed and permitted to ramble off, avarice whispered to them, and why not take all the horses. The loose horses had by this time scattered nd straggled out of sight. Our party now separated to hunt up the horses they had turned loose. Kenton went toward the river, and had not gone far before he heard a whoop in the direction where they had been trying to force the horses into the water. He got off his horse and tied him, and then crept, with the stealthy tread of a cat, to make observations in the direction he heard the whoop. Just as he reached the high bank of the river, he met the Indians on horseback. Being unperceived by them, but so nigh that it was impossible for him to retreat without being discovered, he concluded the boldest course to be the safest, and very deliberately took aim at the foremost Indian. His gun flashed in the pan. He then retreated. The Indians pursued on horseback. In his retreat, he passed through a piece of land where a storm had torn up a great part of the timber. The fallen trees afforded him some advantage of the Indians in the race, as they were on horseback and he on foot. The Indian force divided; some rode on one side of the fallen timber, and some on the other. Just as he emerged from the fallen timber at the foot of the hill, one of the Indians met him on horseback, and boldly rode up to him, jumped off his horse and rushed at him with his tomahawk. Kenton, concluding a gun-barrel as good a weapon of defense as a tomahawk, drew back his gun to strike the Indian before him. At that instant, another Indian, who, unperceived by Kenton, had slipped up behind him, clasped him in his arms. Being now overpowered by numbers, further resistance was useless—he surrendered. While the Indians were binding Kenton with tugs, Montgomery came in view, and fired at the Indians, but missed his mark. Montgomery fled on foot. Some of the Indians pursued, shot at, and missed him; a second fire was made, and Montgomery fell. The Indians soon returned to Kenton, shaking at him Montgomery's bloody scalp. George Clark, Kenton's other companion, made his escape, crossed the Ohio and arrived safe at Logan's Station. " The Indians encamped that night on the bank of the Ohio. The next morning, they prepared their horses for a return to their towns, with the unfortunate and unhappy prisoner. Nothing but 'death in the most appalling form presented itself to his view. When they were ready to set off, they caught the wildest horse in the company and placed Kenton on his back. The horse being very restive, it took several of them to hold him, while the others lashed the prisoner on the horse. They first took a tug, or rope, and fastened his legs and feet together under the horse. They took another and fastened his arms. They took another and tied around his neck, and fastened one end of it around the horse's neck; the other end of the same rope was fastened to the horse's tail, to answer in place of a crupper. They had a great deal of amusement to themselves, as they were preparing Kenton and his horse for fun and 230 - HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY. frolic. They would yell and scream around him, and ask him if he wished to steal more horses. Another rope was fastened around his thighs, and lashed around the body of his horse; a pair of moccasins was drawn over his hands, to prevent him from defending his face from the brush. Thus accoutered and fastened, the horse was turned loose to the woods. He reared and plunged, ran through the woods for some time, to the infinite amusement of the Indians. After the horse had run about, plunging, rearing and kicking for some time and found that he could not shake off or kick off his rider, he very quietly submitted himself to his situation, and followed the cavalcade as quiet and peaceable as his rider. The Indians moved toward Chillicothe, and in three days reached the town." LOGAN'S EXPEDITION AND LOGAN'S GAP. The most important army which passed through this county in the campaigns against the Indians was that commanded by Col. Benjamin Logan, in the autumn of 1786, and which destroyed the Mack-a-Cheek towns, in what is now Logan County, Ohio. In the autumn of this year, Gen. George Rogers Clark raised forces for an expedition against the Indians on the Wabash, and ordered Col. Logan to raise a force and march against the Indian towns on the head-waters of the Great Miami. Logan succeeded in raising four or five hundred mounted riflemen, with whom he crossed the Ohio near where Maysville, Ky., now stands, and passed northward, and would have succeeded in surprising the Indian towns had not one of his men deserted to the enemy and given notice of his approach. He succeeded, however, in destroying the towns and numerous corn-fields, killing about twenty Indians and taking seventy or eighty prisoners. He returned by the same route and crossed the Ohio near Limestone, after an absence of about two weeks. Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton, Col. Robert Patterson and other noted woodsmen were in this expedition, as was also Gen. William Lytle, then only sixteen years old, and, being too young to come within the requisition of the law, offered himself as a volunteer. Among the prisoners taken by Col. Logan back to Kentucky were an Indian woman, known as the " grenadier squaw," who was a sister of Cornstalk, and upward of six feet high, and an interesting Indian lad about sixteen years old, who was adopted by Col. Logan as a member of his family, and was afterward known as Capt. Logan. The route of Col. Logan through Brown and Clinton Counties was well known to the early surveyors of the Virginia Military District. The place from which the deserter left the army was on Todd's Fork, in Clinton County, about three miles northeast of Wilmington, and since known as " the Deserted Camp." This also was a well-known locality to the early surveyors. A few miles below Aberdeen, on the north side of the Ohio, is an opening through the river hills to which the attention of travelers on steamboats is often directed, and which is known as Logan's Gap. Through this gap the valley of Eagle Creek is easily reached. Tradition has assigned different reasons for the origin of this name. It is probable that Logan's army passed through this gap, and that thus it received its name. So numerous were the depredations of the savages during the year 1789 that an expedition was planned against the Indians, who had frequently harassed boats on the Ohio from a lofty rock near the mouth of the Scioto. The Kentuckians being aroused, Gen. Charles Scott, with 230 volunteers, crossed the Ohio at Limestone, and was joined by Gen. Harmar with 100 regulars of the United States, and, on the 18th of April, 1790, marched for the Scioto. The plan adopted was to strike the Scioto some distance from the Ohio, with the hope of intercepting the Indians. The Indians, however, had abandoned HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY - 231 their camp, and there was no general action. On the route, a small Indian trail was discovered; thirteen men were detached to follow it; they came upon four Indians in camp, all of whom were killed at the first fire. No official report of this abortive expedition appears ever to have been made to the War Department. KILLING OF AMOS AND WILLIAM WOOD. Amos Wood was an early settler on the Kentucky side of the river, near the site of Dover. Mr. Wood, in company ,with his son William, and Thomas Watts, crossed the Ohio and passed back on a ridge to a deer-lick, for the purpose of procuring venison. Having killed a deer, they were engaged in dressing the meat, when Indians were seen approaching them. Leaving the venison, they fled, and were pursued by the savages to the Ohio. Unfortunately, they failed to reach the river, where they had left their boat. Amos plunged into the river, and was shot and killed. His body was afterward found near Cincinnati. William was overtaken and killed with a tomahawk on the bank of the river. Thomas Watts was engaged in a close encounter with one of the savages. The Indian threw his tomahawk at him and missed him; Watts gained possession of the weapon, and it served him a useful purpose in his own defense. He reached the boat and crossed the river in safety, with the Indian's tomahawk as a trophy. This tragedy of the killing of Amos Wood and his son was witnessed by their friends from the Kentucky shore. The date of the occurrence is not now attainable. The widow of Amos Wood afterward resided at Cincinnati, in a cabin made of papaw poles, and, at a later period, on Mad River. NEIL WASHBURN AND HIS ADVENTURES. This celebrated hunter, trapper and scout killed his first Indian in Brown County, and afterward was for some time a resident of this county. Some account of him is appropriate in this place. Cornelius Washburn was a native of New Jersey, was born about the year 1774, and was the son of Jeremiah Washburn. When Neil was six years old, his father moved to the Red Stone country, in Pennsylvania, and, nine years later, to the vicinity of Maysville, Ky. Thomas McDonald, an early pioneer of Ohio, furnished the following account of Neil for Henry Howe, when he was compiling his historical collections: "In the year 1790, I first became acquainted with Neil Washburn, then a lad of sixteen, living on the Kentucky side of the Ohio, six miles below Maysville. From his early years, he showed a disposition to follow the woods. When only nine or ten, he passed his time in setting snares for pheasants and wild animals. Shortly after, his father purchased for him a shotgun, in the use of which he soon became unexcelled. In the summer of 1790, his father, being out of fresh provisions, crossed the Ohio with him in a canoe to shoot deer at a lick near the mouth of Eagle Creek. On entering the creek, their attention was arrested by a singular hacking noise some distance up the bank. Neil landed, and, with gun in hand, cautiously crawling up the river bank, discovered an Indian, about twenty feet up a hickory tree, busily engaged in cutting around the bark, to make a canoe, in which he probably anticipated the gratification of crossing the river and committing depredations upon the Kentuckians. However this may have been, his meditations and work were soon brought to a close, for the intrepid boy no sooner saw the dusky form of the savage than he brought his gun to a level with his eye and fired; the Indian fell dead to the earth, with a heavy sound. He hastily retreated to the canoe, from fear of the presence of other Indians, and recrossed the Ohio. Early the next morning, a party of men, guided by Neil, visited the spot, and found the 232 - HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY. body of the Indian at the foot of the tree. Neil secured the scalp, and the same day showed it, much elated, to myself and others, in the town of Washington, in Mason. Several persons in the village made him presents, as testimonials of their opinion of his bravery. " In the next year, he was employed as a spy between Maysville and the mouth of the Little Miami, to watch for Indians who were accustomed to cross the Ohio into Kentucky to steal and murder. While so engaged, he had some encounters with them, in which his unerring rifle dealt death to several of their number. One of these was at the mouth of Bullskin, on the Ohio side. "In 1792, the Indians committed such great depredations upon the Ohio, between the Great Kanawha and Maysville, that Gen. Lee, the Government agent in employing spies, endeavored to get some of them to go up the Ohio, above Kanawha, and warn all single boats not to descend the river. None were sufficiently daring to go but Neil. Furnished with an elegant horse and well armed, he started on his perilous mission. He met with no adventures until after crossing the Big Sandy. This he swam on his horse, and had reached about half a mile beyond, when he was suddenly fired upon by a party of Indians in ambush. His horse fell dead, and the Indians gave a yell of triumph; but Neil was unhurt. Springing to his feet, he bounded back like a deer, and swam across the Big Sandy, holding his rifle and ammunition above his head. Panting from exertion, he rested upon the opposite bank to regain his strength, when the Indians, whooping and yelling, appeared on the other side, in full pursuit. Neil drew up, shot one of their number, and then continued his retreat down the Ohio, but, meeting and exchanging shots with others, he saw it was impossible to keep the river valley in safety, and, striking his course more inland, to evade his enemies, arrived safely at Maysville. "In the fall of the same year, he was in the action with Kenton and others against Tecumseh, in what is now Brown County. Washburn continued as a spy throughout the war, adding the sagacity of the lion to the cunning of the fox. He was with Wayne in his campaign, and at the battle of the Fallen Timbers manifested his usual prowess. "Neil Washburn was in person near six feet in height, with broad shoulders, small feet, and tapered beautifully from his chest down. He was both powerful and active. His eyes were blue, his hair light and his complexion fair. A prominent Roman nose alone marred the symmetry of his personal appearance." After peace with the Indians was restored, Washburn spent most of his time in hunting and trapping until the war of 1812, in which he served as a ranger. He owned land in Brown County, about six miles east of the site of Georgetown, and resided there for some time. In 1813, he sold his land in Brown County. The records of this county show that this noted scout, like many others of his time whose lives were spent in the woods, was unable to write his name, and there are records of several documents, in signing which both he and his wife made their marks. In 1815, he moved to Williamsburg, Clermont County, which was his home for several years, but most of his time was spent in hunting and trapping in the Southwest. It is believed that he was killed by the Indians in 1833, while trapping on the Yellowstone. A BATTLE WITH THE INDIANS ON EAST FORK, In the month of March, 1792, some horses were stolen by the Indians from the settlements in Mason County, Ky. A party of whites to the number of thirty-six was immediately raised for the purpose of pursuing them. It embraced Simon Kenton, Cornelius Washburn, Benjamin Whiteman, McIntyre, HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY - 233 Calvin, Downing, Ward and other experienced woodsmen. The trail of the Indians being taken, it was found that they had crossed the Ohio where Ripley now stands. The pursuing party reached the Ohio the first evening, prepared rafts, crossed over and encamped for the night. Simon Kenton was placed in command. Early the next morning, the trail was again taken, and followed in a north course, the weather being bad and the ground wet. When fairly in the Indian country, a portion of the party became dissatisfied; a difference of opinion as to the best plan to pursue was found to exist, and twelve of the men were granted liberty to return. The remaining twenty- four continued the pursuit until a bell was heard, which they supposed indicated their approach to the Indian camp. A halt was called, and all useless baggage and clothing laid aside. Whiteman and two others were sent forward as spies in different directions, each followed by a detachment of the party. After moving forward some distance, it was found that the bell was approaching them. A solitary Indian came riding toward them. When within 150 yards, he was shot and killed. Kenton directed the spies to proceed, being satisfied that the Indian camp was near at hand. They pushed on rapidly and found the Indians encamped on East Fork. The indications of a considerable body of Indians were so strong that the expediency of an attack at that hour was doubted by Kenton. A hurried council was held, in which it was determined to retire, if it could be done without discovery, and lie concealed until night, and then assault the camp. This plan was carried into execution. Two of the spies were left to watch the camp and ascertain whether the pursuing party had been discovered. The others retreated, and took a commanding position on a ridge. The spies watched until night, and then reported that they had not been discovered by the enemy. The men, being wet and cold, were now marched down into a hollow, where they kindled fires, dried their clothes and put their rifles in order. The party was then divided into three detachments, Kenton commanding the right, McIntyre the center, and Downing the left. By agreement, the three divisions were to move toward the camp simultaneously, and, when they had approached as near as possible without giving an alarm, were to be guided in the commencement of the attack by the fire from Kenton's party. When Downing and his detachment had approached close to the camp, an Indian rose upon his feet and began to stir up the .fire, which was but dimly burning. Fearing a discovery, Downing's party instantly shot him down. This was followed by a general fire from the three detachments upon the Indians, who were sleeping under some marquees and bark tents, close upon the margin of the stream. But unfortunately, as it proved in the sequel, Kenton's party had taken `Boone" as their watchword. This name, happening to be as familiar to the enemy as themselves, led to some confusion in the course of the engagement. When fired upon, the Indians, instead of retreating across the stream, as had been anticipated, boldly stood to their arms, returned the fire of the assailants and rushed upon them. They were re-enforced, moreover, from a camp on the opposite side of the river, which, until then, had been unperceived by the whiles. In a few minutes, the Indians and the Kentuckians were blended with each other, and the cry of Boone " and " Che Boone " arose simultaneously from each party. It was after midnight when the attack was made, and, there being no moon, it was very dark. Kenton, perceiving that his men were likely to be overpowered, ordered a retreat, after the attack had lasted for a few minutes; this was continued through the remainder of the night and part of the next day, the Indians pursuing them, but without killing more than one of the retreating party. The Kentuckians lost but two men—Alexander McIntyre and John 234 - HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY. Barr. The loss of the Indians was much greater, according to the statements of some prisoners, who, after the peace of 1795, were released, and returned to Kentucky. They related that fourteen Indians were killed and seventeen wounded. They stated further that there were in the camp about one hundred warriors, among them several chiefs of note, including Tecumseh, Battise, Black Snake, Wolf and Chinskau; and that the party had been formed for the purpose of annoying the settlements in Kentucky, and attacking boats descending the Ohio River. Kenton and his party were three days in reaching Limestone, during two of which they were without food, and destitute of sufficient clothing to protect them from the cold winds and rains of March. The foregoing particulars of this expedition are taken form the narrative of Gen. Benjamin Whiteman, one of the early and gallant pioneers of Kentucky, afterward a resident of Greene County, Ohio. His statement was followed in the account of the battle given in Drake's Life of Tecumseh. Stephen Huddle, who had been captured by the Indians when quite young, and had adopted their habits, was with Tecumseh in this engagement. His Indian name was Sinnamatha. His account of the engagement differs somewhat from that before given. He says but two Indians were killed, and that their force was less than that of the whites. Ruddell states that, at the commencement of the attack, Tecumseh was lying by the fire, outside of the tents. When the first gun was heard, he sprang to his feet, and, calling upon Sinnamatha to follow his example and charge, he rushed forward and killed one of the whites [John Barr] with his war-club. The other Indians, raising the war-whoop, seized their arms, and, rushing upon Kenton and his party, compelled them, after a severe contest of a few minutes, to retreat. One of the Indians, in the midst of the engagement, fell into the river, and, in the effort to get out of the water, made so much noise that it created a belief in the minds of the whites that a re-enforcement was crossing the stream to aid Tecumseh. This is supposed to have hastened the order from Kenton for his men to retreat. The afternoon prior to the battle, one of Ke'nton's men, by the name of McIntyre, succeeded in catching an Indian horse, which he tied in the rear of the camp, and, when a retreat was ordered, he mounted and rode off. Early in the morning, Tecumseh and four of his men set off in pursuit of the retreating party. Having fallen upon the trail of McIntyre, they pursued it for some distance, and at length overtook him. He had struck a fire and was cooking some meat. When McIntyre discovered his pursuers, he instantly fled at full speed. Tecumseh and two others followed, and were fast gaining on him, when he turned and raised his gun. Two of the Indians, who happened to be in advance of Tecumseh, sprang behind trees, but he rushed upon McIntyre and made him prisoner. He was tied and taken back to the battle-ground. Upon reaching it, Tecumseh deemed it pru ent to draw off his men, lest the whites should rally and renew the attack. He requested some of the Indians to catch the horses, but, they hesitating, he undertook to do it himself, assisted by one of the party. When he returned to camp with the horses, he found that his men had killed McIntyre. At this act of cruelty to a prisoner, he was exceedingly indignant, declaring that it was a cowardly act to kill a man when tied and a prisoner. The conduct of Tecumseh in this engagement, and in the events of the following morning, is creditable alike to his courage and humanity. Resolutely brave in battle, his arm was never uplifted against a prisoner, nor did he suffer violence to be inflicted upon a captive without promptly rebuking it. It is a singular fact that two brothers named Ward were in this engagement, and on opposing sides. John Ward had been captured by the Indians in 1758, when he was three years old, had been adopted as a member of the HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY - 235 Shawnee tribe, and had married an Indian woman, by whom he had several children. He, with his wife and children, was in the camp at the time of the attack by the whites. Capt. Charles Ward, of Mason County, Ky., then a mere lad, was with the party under Kenton, and afterward informed the author of "Western Adventures " that, just before firing began, while he stood within rifle shot of the camp, an Indian girl, apparently about fifteen years old, attracted his attention. Not recognizing her sex, he raised his gun and was on the point of firing, when her open bosom betrayed her sex, and her light complexion caused him to doubt whether she 'could be an Indian by birth. He afterward learned that she was his brother's child. . John Ward was killed in an engagement with the whites one year later, another brother, Capt. James Ward, Simon Kenton and about thirty others, being in the engagement. Several accounts of the battle on East Fork have been published. There is some difference in the accounts respecting its exact locality. Howe's Historical Collections places it at Salt Licks, Perry Township, Brown County. The history of Clermont County says the camp of the red men when they were attacked was "on the southeast side of the East Fork of the Little Miami River, in Jackson Township, Clermont County, at Limekiln Ford, near the mouth of Grassy Run, and on what are now (1880) the lands of Thomas Gold- trap, J. G. Hutchinson, Samuel Bicking's heirs, about two miles south of Marathon and five miles northeast of Williamsburg." The writer of the account in the Clermont County history claims that Cornelius Washburn, who for some time made his home in the immediate vicinity of the battle, often pointed out the battle-ground and located it as just described. " Western Adventures" says the engagement took place on the Little Miami, which is evidently an error for East Fork of the Little Miami. The account given by Benjamin Whiteman says the Indians were encamped "on the southeast side of the East Fork of the Little Miami, a few miles above the place where the town of Williamsburg has since been built." Solomon Claypool, one of the very earliest settlers in Perry Township, and who was acquainted with both Washburn and Ruddell, located the battle above the mouth of Grassy Run, in Perry Township. It would not be easy, even for those who participated in the struggle, to point out its exact locality after the lapse of many years, and all that can now be said with certainty is that the engagement was on the southeast side of East Fork, and not far from the boundary line between Clermont and Brown Counties. McDonald, in speaking of this action, says: " The celebrated Tecumseh commanded the Indians. His cautious and fearless intrepidity made him a host wherever he went. In military tactics, night attacks are not allowable, except in cases like this, when the assailing party are far inferior in numbers. Sometimes, in night attacks, panics and confusion are created in the attacked party, which may render them a prey to inferior numbers. Kenton trusted to something like this on the present occasion, but was disappointed; for, when Tecumseh was present, his influence over the minds of his followers infused that confidence in his tact and intrepidity that they could only be defeated by force of numbers." 236 - HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY. CHAPTER IV. VIRGINIA MILITARY LANDS—TITLES--SURVEYS. BROWN COUNTY lies within the district known as the Virginia Military Lands, sometimes called the Virginia Military Reservation. These lands are bounded on the south by the Ohio, on the east and north by the Scioto, and on the west by the Little Miami, and a line drawn from the source of the Little Miami to the source of the Scioto. They include the whole of Adams, Brown, Clermont, Clinton, Fayette, Highland, Madison and Union Counties; one half of Franklin, Hardin and Logan; one-fourth of Champaign; one-sixth of Clark; three-fourths of Greene; two-fifths of Warren and Scioto; three-fifths of Pike; two-thirds of Ross and Pickaway; one fifth of Delaware and Marion; Anderson Township in Hamilton County; and part of Goshen Township in Auglaize County. At the time of the Revolution, the charters of some of the States embraced large portions of Western unappropriated lands, and each of them, on becoming sovereign and independent, claimed the right of soil and jurisdiction over the whole region embraced within its charter. Some of the States which had no such charters urged that the Western lands ought to be appropriated for the benefit of all the States, as the title to them had been secured by the common blood and treasure. After much contention, these lands were ceded to the United States. Virginia, in March, 1784, ceded to the General Government the right of soil and jurisdrction to the country embraced in her charter situated northwest of the Ohio, reserving the lands between the Little Miami and the Scioto for the payment of the land warrants of her troops in the Revolution, in case they should be needed for that purpose. THE CLAIM OF VIRGINIA. The foundation of the claim of Virginia to this region rests upon what is called the Virginia charter of 1609. This was not, strictly speaking, as the name now given to it and that by which it is called in the act of cession would seem to imply, a charter to Virginia, or to the colony of Virginia, or to the people of Virginia, but it was .a charter by James, in 1609, to a company of gentlemen residing principally in and about the city of London, and who, by that charter, were organized into a corporation under the name and style of " The Treasurer and Company of Adventurers and Planters of the City of London for the First Colony of Virginia." By this charter, the King, in the first place, authorized this company, which was anciently called " the London Company," with his license to purchase and hold " any mariner of lands, tenements and hereditaments, goods and chattels, within our realm of England and dominion of Wales." He, in the next place, grants to the corporation, their successors and assigns, " all those lands, countries and territories situate, lying and being in that part of America called Virginia, from the point of land called Cape or Point Comfort, all along the seacoast to the northward 200 miles, and from the said point of Cape Comfort all along the seacoast to the southward 200 miles, and all that space and circuit of land lying from the seacoast of the precinct aforesaid up into the land throughout, from sea to sea, west and northwest; and, also, all the islands lying within 100 miles along the coast of both seas of the precinct aforesaid." HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY - 239 The following account of the origin of the claim of Virginia to this region is abridged chiefly from a full discussion of the subject by Hon. Samuel F. Vinton, in his argument delivered before the General Court of Virginia at its December term, 1845, for the defendants in the case of the Commonwealth of Virginia versus Peter M. Garner and others for alleged abduction of certain slaves. The pamphlet containing Mr. Vinton's argument is now out of print. By the words " from sea to sea," the Atlantic and Pacific are supposed to be meant. The grant begins by drawing a base line of 400 miles in length along the Atlantic coast, of which Point Comfort is the center, the northern extreme of which would be at or near Cape May, in New Jersey, and the southern termination at or near Cape Fear, in North Carolina. From one of these terminations a line was to be drawn west, and from the other northwest, back into the land "from sea to sea; " but from which extremity the west and from which the northwest line is to be run, the grant does not specify. If the west line be drawn from the northern termination of the coast line, and the northwest from its southern termination at Cape Fear, it would leave the State of Ohio west of and beyond the grant; but as these two lines would come together before reaching the sea, the Virginia construction always has been that the west line must be drawn from the southern termination on the coast, and the northwest line from the other extremity of the coast line. If the lines be drawn in this way, the west line would strike the Pacific in the Gulf of California, some eight degrees of latitude south of the present boundary line between the United States and Mexico. The other, or northwest line, would cross into Canada somewhere between Lakes Erie and Ontario, and strike the Pacific in the Arctic Circle, somewhere north of Behring's Straits, embracing a portion of the continent that would make not less than forty-five or fifty States of equal extent of territory with the present State of Virginia. While the magnitude of this grant to a small colony is calculated to strike us with amazement, it should be remembered that at that time the northwest coast of America was wholly unknown, the interior of the continent had never been penetrated from either ocean, and, except the line of coast along its Atlantic border, the vast region of country embraced within the limits of this grant was a sealed book to the world, of whose contents all civilized men were profoundly ignorant. Sir Francis Drake, not long before, from the top of a mountain in the Isthmus of Darien, had seen both oceans. This naturally led to the inference that the continent was a long and narrow strip of country. Smith, in his History of Virginia, relates a fact which shows that, at that time, it was the belief in England that the South Sea, as the Pacific was then called, was but a short distance from the Atlantic. He states that, in the year 1608, the year before the date of the charter, " they fitted up, in England, a barge for Capt. Newton, who was afterward a Deputy Governor of Virginia, under the charter, which, for convenience of carriage, might be taken into five pieces, and with which he and his company were instructed to go up James River as far as the falls thereof (where the city of Richmond now is), to discover the country of the Monakins; and from thence they were to proceed, carrying their barge beyond the falls, to convey them to the South Sea, being ordered not to return without a lump of gold or a certainty of the said sea." It thus appears that the ignorance of the geography of North America which existed in England in the early part of the seventeenth century has affected the titles to the lands of a vast portion of Ohio. THE CESSION AND RESERVATION OF VIRGINIA. The history of the times of the Revolution shows. that nothing, except the war itself, so deeply agitated the whole country as the question to whom prop- 240 - HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY. erly belonged the vast Western domain, and no question subjected the Union to a greater peril. All the States were greatly straitened for the means of bearing their respective proportions of the expenses of the war. All attached a very great and probably undue importance to these lands, as a source of revenue, or as a fund on which to obtain credit by their hypothecation. Two sets of opinions, or two parties, sprang up about the right to them. One maintained that the States, respectively, had succeeded to the crown lands within their limits. The other, that the confederacy, or nation at large, had succeeded to the rights and property of the crown, as a common fund. Many very distinguished men arrayed themselves on different sides of this question. Mr. Hamilton, for example, held the latter opinion, and Mr. Madison the former. Those States whose colonial limits embraced any considerable amount of these lands claimed that they were the property of the State, and that the right of the crown, by the Declaration of Independence, had passed to the State sovereignties, where the lands happened to be. Those, on the contrary, who had none of these lands within their limits, claimed that all the crown lands and crown property had passed to the nation, on the principle that what was acquired and conquered by the common effort, blood and treasure was, by the law of nations and of justice, the common property of all. Seven States, embracing within their limits large bodies of these lands, insisted on the right of the State sovereignty; the other six strenuously insisted on the right of the nation, and thus the controversy forthwith found its way into the Congress of the Confederation. In January, 1781, Virginia passed an act yielding to Congress all her right and claim to the country northwest of the Ohio, but this surrender was clogged with various conditions, of which one was that the United States should guarantee to her all of her remaining territory on the southeast side of the river, which included the present States of Tennessee and Kentucky. The acceptance of this act of cession was urged upon Congress for more than two years by the Virginia delegation in Congress, with great perseverance, when, in May, 1783, it was finally refused by Congress. The act of cession which was accepted by Congress was passed by the General Assembly of Virginia October 20, 1783, and accepted by act of Congress passed March 1, 1784. The latter date is the date of the deed of cession. The following is the reservation in the deed of cession of the lands in Ohio known as the Virginia Military Lands: That in case the quantity of good lands on the southeast side of the Ohio, upon the waters of the Cumberland River and between the Green River and Tennessee River, which have been reserved by law for the Virginia troops upon Continental establishment, should, from the North Carolina line bearing in further upon the Cumberland lands than was expected, prove insufficient for their legal bounties, the deficiency should be made up to the said troops, in good lands, to be laid off between the Rivers Scioto and Little Miami, on the northwest side of the River Ohio, in such proportions as have been engaged to them by the laws of Virginia. The titles to the lands in this district rest upon land warrants issued by Virginia for services in the Revolutionary war. A number of acts were passed by the State of Virginia promising bounties to her troops. An act passed in October, 1779, fixed the quantity to be granted at the end of the war as follows: A private was to receive 200 acres; a non-commissioned officer, 400 acres; a subaltern 2,000 acres; a Captain, 3,000 acres; a Major, 4,000 acres; a Lieutenant Colonel, 4,500 acres; a Colonel, 5,000 acres; a Brigadier General, 10,000 acres; a Major General, 15,000 acres. ENTRY AND SURVEY OF LAND WARRANTS. The lands were entered, located and surveyed under the laws of Virginia. HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY - 241 Gen. Richard C. Anderson was appointed principal surveyor, and he opened an office for the reception and location of surveys at Louisville, Ky., August 1, 1784. The lands on the Kentucky and Tennessee were to be first surveyed. The deficiency, if any, was to be made up in the lands between the Little Miami and Scioto. Before the close of the year 1786, it became evident that the lands south of the Ohio would not be sufficient to satisfy the warrants, and attention was directed to the reservation north of the Ohio. An office for the location and survey of the lands between the Little Miami and Scioto was opened by Gen. R. C. Anderson August 1, 1787. Before this, and as early as the winter and spring of 1787, John O'Bannon and Arthur Fox, two enterprising surveyors from Kentucky, explored the district. Their object was to obtain a knowledge of the region for the purpose of making choice locations of warrants as soon as the office for entries was opened. They explored the whole extent of country along the Ohio, and passed some distance up the Scioto and Little Miami, and some of the smaller streams which flow into these rivers. It was probably from his exploration that O'Bannon Creek received its name. A white-oak tree at the mouth of this creek was marked " O'B. Cr." as early as 1787, as is shown by the record of the land entries. It is said by a writer in the American Pioneer that the first location of lands in the Virginia Military District was made for Mace Clements, being 1.- 000 acres at the mouth of Eagle Creek, and was recorded August 1, 1787. John O'Bannon was the first to make surveys in the district, and also the first to make a survey within the present limits of Brown County. The first survey in the whole district is said to be that on which the town of Neville, in Clermont County, and on the Ohio, is now situated, which was surveyed by O'Bannon November 13, 1787. On the next day, he made two surveys in Clermont County, one of which includes the present town of Moscow. On the third day, November 15, 1787, O'Bannon made the first survey in Brown, being that opposite Maysville (No. 396)-1,000 acres, entered by Phillip Slaughter. On the 17th, he surveyed 1,000 acres at the mouth of Eagle Creek (No. 386), entered for Mace Clements, Seven different surveys were made by O'Bannon within the limits of Brown County before the close of the year 1787, as well as large quantities of land in Clermont County. At this early period, notwithstanding the winter season and the dangers from the Indians, in a single day he surveyed, in Clermont County, 3,400 acres, in several different tracts, some of them miles apart. John O'Bannon is the name of the only surveyor who returned a survey of lands in Brown County before the close of the year 1788. On July 17, 1788, Congress, by resolution, declared that all locations and surveys between the Little Miami and the Scioto invalid, for the reason that it had not been officially ascertained that there was a deficiency of good lands in the reservation south of the Ohio. This resolution was repealed by an act of Congress passed August 10, 1790, which declared that the lands on the south of the Ohio were insufficient for the purpose for which they had been reserved. ADVENTURES OF THE EARLY SURVEYING PARTIES. After the removal of obstructions by Congress, the surveys proceeded rapidly. The principal deputy surveyors under Gen. R. C. Anderson, who made surveys in Brown County prior to the close of the year 1800, were John O'Bannon, Nathaniel Massie, William Lytle, Arthur Fox, John Beasley and Joseph Kerr. Among those whose names appear as chain-carriers or markers in the returns of surveys in Brown County are Duncan McArthur, afterward a surveyor, and General and Governor of Ohio; John McDonald, author of " McDonald's 242 - HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY. Sketches," whose biographies of Massie. and McArthur .give much interesting information concerning the dangers and hardships of the early surveyors of this district; and a large number of names familiar to the early settlers of Brown County, and prominent among whom were the Washburns and the Beasleys. We condense from John McDonald's Life of Gen. Nathaniel Massie some interesting facts concerning the early surveys: A Virginia statute, fixing the fees of the surveyors, provided that they should be paid in tobacco. The fee for surveying and platting 1,000 acres was 320 pounds of tobacco. However, as the risk of making entries was great, and as it was desirable to possess the best land, the owners of warrants, in most cases, made liberal contracts with the surveyors. One-fourth, one-third, and sometimes as much as one-half, acquired by the entry of good lands were given by the proprietors to the surveyors. If the owners preferred paying money, the usual terms were £10, Virginia currency, for each 1,000 acres entered and surveyed, exclusive o£ chainmen's expenses. These terms cannot appear extravagant when we consider that, at that time, the danger encountered was great, the exposure during the winter severe, and that the price of first-rate land in the West was low, and an immense quantity in market. The locations of land warrants in the Virginia Military District between the Scioto and the Little Miami, prior to 1790, were made by stealth. Every creek which was explored, every line that was run, was at the risk of life from the savage Indians, whose courage and perseverance were only equaled, by the perseverance of the whites to push forward their settlements. The winters were selected as the season most secure for the surveys, the Indians then being in winter quarters. After Gen. Nathaniel Massie had made the first settlement in the district at Manchester, in the winter of 1790, he became the most extensive surveyor and land speculator in Ohio at that time. When seventeen years old, he had been in the Revolutionary war. He then studied surveying, and in 1785, when he was twenty years old, left for Kentucky to seek his fortune. " Young Massie soon became an expert surveyor, and it was a matter of astonishment (as he was raised in the dense population east of the mountains) how soon he acquired the science and habits of the backwoodsmen Although he never practiced the art of hunting, he was admitted, by all who knew his qualifications as a woodsman, to be of the first order. He could steer his course truly in clear or cloudy weather, and compute distances more correctly then most of the old hunters. He could endure fatigue and hunger with more com posure than most of those persons who were inured to want on the frontier. He could live upon meat without bread, and bread without meat, and was perfectly cheerful and contented with his fare. In all the perilous situations in which he was placed, he was always conspicuous for his good feeling and the happy temperament of his mind. His courage was of a cool and dispassionate character, which, added to great circumspection in times of danger, gave him a complete ascendancy over his companions, who were always willing to follow when Massie led the way." In his surveys, he usually had, besides himself, three assistant surveyors, and six men with each surveyor. The parties all moved with great caution. First went the hunter, looking for game and on the watch for the Indians; next, the surveyor, two chainmen and marker; then the packhorse man with baggage, and, two or three hundred yards in the rear, a watchman, on the trail, to guard against an attack from behind. When night came, four fires were made for cooking—that is, one for each mess. Around these fires, till sleeping time arrived, the company spent their time in the most social glee, singing HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY - 243 songs and telling stories. When danger was not apparent or immediate, they were as merry a set of men as ever assembled. Resting time arriving, Massie always gave the signal, and the whole party would then leave their comfortable fires, carrying with them their blankets, their firearms and their little baggage, walking in perfect silence two or three hundred yards from their fires. They would then scrape away the snow and huddle down together for the night. Each mess formed one bed; they would spread down on the ground one-half of the blankets, reserving the other half for covering. The covering blankets were fastened together by skewers, to prevent them from slipping apart. Thus prepared, the whole party crouched down together, with their rifles in their arms, and their pouches under their heads for pillows; lying spoon fashion, with three heads one way and four the other, their feet extending to about the middle of their bodies. When one turned, the whole mess turned, or else the close range would be broken and the cold let in. In this way they lay till broad daylight, no noise and scarce a whisper being uttered during the night. When it was perfectly light, Massie would call up two of the men in whom he had most confidence, and send them to reconnoiter and make a circuit around the fires, lest an ambuscade might be formed by the Indians to destroy the party as they returned to the fires. This was an invariable custom in every variety of weather. Self-preservation required this circumspection. During one of his expeditions, which set out from Manchester in the winter of 1794-95, with Nathaniel Beasley, John Beasley and Peter Lee as assistant surveyors, and took the route of Logan's trace to the Deserted Camp, the ground was covered with a sheet of snow from six to ten inches deep. During the tour, which continued upward of thirty days, the party had no bread. For the first two weeks, a pint of flour was distributed to each mess once a day, to mix with the soup in which meat had been boiled. After the defeat of the Indians by Wayne, the surveyors were not interrupted by the Indians; but on one of their excursions, still remembered as "the starving tour," the whole party, consisting of twenty-eight men, suffered extremely in a driving snow-storm for about four days. They were in a wilderness, exposed to this severe storm, without hut, tent or covering, and, what was still more appalling, without provision, and without any road or even track to retreat on, and were nearly one hundred miles from any place of shelter. On the third day of the storm, they luckily killed two wild turkeys, which were boiled and divided into twenty-eight parts, and devoured with great avidity, heads, feet, entrails and all. Gen. William Lytle was one of the most extensive surveyors and land-dealers in Clermont and Brown Counties. When only seventeen years old, he passed through Brown County, a volunteer in Col. Logan's expedition against the Indians. He was born in Cumberland, Penn., and, in 1799, his family emigrated to Kentucky, where his boyhood was mostly passed. When a young man, he began to make surveys and locate land warrants in the Virginia Military District. This business he followed for the greater portion of his life. Before the treaty of Greenville, he was exposed to incessant dangers, suffered great privations, and was sometimes attacked by the Indians. About 1796, he laid out the town of Williamsburg, which at first was known as Lytlestown. Lytle became the first Clerk of Court of Clermont under the Territorial government. In 1810, Gen. Lytle removed from Williamsburg to Cincinnati, where he died in 1810. While the early surveys were in progress in Brown and adjoining counties, the Indian depredations upon boats on the Ohio and into the settlements of Kentucky were so numerous and destructive that scouts or spies were engaged to range along the river from Maysville to the mouth of the Big Sandy River, 244 - HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY. and also, for a part of the time at least, between Maysville and the mouth of the Little Miami. In the spring of 1792, the four scouts who ranged between Maysville and the mouth of the Big Sandy, as their names appear in the account given in McDonald's Sketches, were Samuel Davis, Duncan McArthur (afterward Governor of Ohio), Nathaniel Beasley (afterward a prominent citizen of Brown County) and Samuel McDowell. Benjamin Beasley, a brother of Nathaniel. and afterward an early settler of Brown County, although not named by McDonald, was also for a time a scout along the Ohio. " These men," says McDonald, " upon every occasion, proved themselves worthy of the confidence placed in them by their countrymen. Nothing which could reasonably be expected of men but was done by them. Two and two they went together. They made their tours once a week to the mouth of Big Sandy River. On Monday morning, two of them would leave Limestone, and reach Sandy by Wednesday evening. On Thursday morning, the other two would leave Limestone for the mouth of Sandy. Thus they would meet or pass each other about opposite the mouth of Scioto River; and by this constant vigilance, the two sets of spies would pass the mouth of Scioto, in going and returning, four times each week. This incessant vigilance would be continued till late in November, or the first of December, when hostilities generally ceased, in the later years of the Indian wars. Sometimes the spies would go up and down the Ohio in canoes. In such cases, one of them would push the canoe and the other would go on foot, through the woods, keeping about a mile in advance of the canoe, the footman keeping a sharp lookout for ambuscade or other Indian sign," WANT OF SYSTEM IN THE SURVEYS. In the Virginia Military District, lands to satisfy the military Warrants were located in various geometrical figures, and with boundary lines running in every direction. The tract was never laid out into regular townships or sections. The owner of a Virginia military warrant was permitted to locate it in such shape and in whatever place in the district it pleased him, provided the land had not been previously located. The only limitation of the shape of the location was that of a Virginia statute which required the breadth of each survey to be at least one-third of its length in every part, unless the breadth was restricted by mountains, water-courses or previous locations. In consequence of this want of system, there were interferences and encroachments of one land entry upon another, and great difficulty is to-day experienced in tracing titles in this district. In addition to the troubles resulting from the overlapping of one survey upon another, sometimes, when a tract was intended to adjoin another, the sur veyors failed to run along the lines of the tract already surveyed, thus leaving a strip of unappropriated land to become the subject of controversy and litigation, A case went to the Supreme Court from Brown County in 1846, in which forty-one and one-fourth acres between two surveys long before located were in controversy. In this case, John Joliffe, Hamer & Johnston and J. H. Johnson were the attorneys. The Supreme Court in this case decided that the survey limits the grant to the calls of the survey, and that, where a discrepancy exists in the calls, the line actually run is to be found by having recourse to the more certain, fixed and natural objects called for in the boundary. The early settlers, in their haste to locate upon the lands they had bought, and reclaim them from the woods, were often careless about their titles, and frequently were grossly imposed upon. The records and traditions give accounts of some who were compelled to pay twice for their lands; some who paid over again a portion of what they had paid years before; and others who HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY - 245 lost their lands entirely, and were compelled to leave their farms, already partly cleared and improved. In consequence of the want of system in the original surveys, the irregularities in the locations of the warrants, the large size of the tracts located, and their remaining in the possession of non-residents for two or more generations, it is believed that more than double the litigation has arisen concerning titles and boundaries in the Virginia Military District than in any other portion of Ohio of equal extent. Time and the statute of limitations, however, have cured most defects of title and settled most questions of disputed boundaries. The following, from the pen of Hon. Reader W. Clarke, on the subject of land titles in this district, we find in the history of Clermont County, page 49: " Most persons holding the Virginia land warrants never saw the land upon which they were laid, as surveyors took them to locate, and generally for a share of the land, more or less, as they could drive the bargain. Large tracts of a thousand acres or more were often thus located; the surveyor getting for his pay the larger half, and, being upon the ground, was enabled to secure the best portion. Some of the surveys are large, calling for several thousand acres, and invariably overrunning the quantity named. Breckenridge's Survey, upon which Bethel is situated, called for 4,000 acres, while in fact it contains over six thousand; and thus the Government was cheated out of the surplus of the survey. It was not unfrequently the case that holders of warrants could have them laid upon well-chosen lands by competent surveyors for the surplus, and it often happened in such cases that the surveyor would get the most land. About the year 1835, a land speculator got a small warrant, calling for about one hundred acres, located by a surveyor who was a preacher of the Gospel, and who was to make the location for the surplus; and he did his work well; but the surplus was larger than the quantity called for in the patent. By this method of locating large tracts, to remain in the hands of non-residents, living far away from the lands, and often descending by death to heirs, and the title becoming tangled and difficult to be gathered up into a perfect legal conveyance; and, furthermore, by the very bad practice of speculators selling lands to emigrants upon mere bond for title, without themselves having perfected their right to such lands, or, indeed, often without intending ever to do so, the broad foundation for future trouble was laid. Land was sold very cheap, even so low as $1 per acre for choice selections, and for sometimes 50 cents, 25 cents, and less, if more could not be had; but, cheap as it appeared to the unsuspecting purchaser, it often proved his ruin. He would go upon his land, build his cabin, clear out his fields, and, just as he was beginning to realize some of the fruits of his hard labor, a claimant with a better title would call upon him, and he would have to surrender up all, without a return of his purchase money or pay for improvements. Sometimes the occupants would hold on to their shadow of a title and risk the chances of a law suit; but of course the better title prevailed, and they lost not only their land, but, as before narrated, were harassed by lawyers' fees and cost bills, which, in many cases, finished up the administration of the poor man's worldly effects, and left him almost as naked as when he came into the world. Many bought their farms a second and even a third time before they were quieted in their titles. " Few men contributed more to this ruinous state of things than Gen. Lytle, who was extensively engaged in locating land warrants and selling lands, and had many and influential friends, and all adventurers into the county who wanted land were recommended to Lytle. He was a man of easy and affable address, not difficult to trade with, and of course the all-confiding purchaser desired nothing but the word and bond of Gen. Lytle for a deed, and felt secure that all was right, and in his faith paid his money and expend- 246 - HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY. ed his labor to improve his possessions. Old pioneers say that any person wishing land had only to call on Gen. Lytle, name the quantity and location, and he would at once close the bargain, take the money and give his bond for a deed, although he had no particle of title whatever, or right to sell, but probably he intended to get in the title—a thing not difficult for him, but not always done—and of course the consequence was the poor, confiding settler lost his land and all his labor bestowed upon it, as well as the purchase money; for our information is, very few were ever fully indemnified by Lytle for their losses. Tradition says Gen. Lytle made most of his surveys on horseback, and the well-known historical fact that his surveys, more than those of any other early surveyors, overran in quantity, is to be attributed to this circumstance; for in the saddle he was not able, on account of the thickets, ravines, underbrush and other obstructions, to get around, but stopped short or went beyond the required points to make his surveying accurate; and, as land was cheap as a song, and there was never an expectation that it would all be taken up and farmed, Lytle was not particular, but surveyed his tracts in wanton disregard of the great future trouble and litigation to subsequent owners and occupants." HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY - 249 CHAPTER V. PIONEER HISTORY. THE question who was the first white settler in Brown County is an interesting one, but it is one which can now never receive a satisfactory answer. It is very probable that the first white men who built their cabins within the limits of the county were intruders upon the lands of the Government of the United States. Tradition gives accounts of such intruders on the fertile valleys near the Ohio in this county, and official reports of military officers directed to drive off persons attempting to settle on the lands of the United States, without mentioning this region as one which was intruded upon, render the tradition probable. As early as January 24, 1785, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs instructed Col. Harmar "to employ such force as he may judge necessary in driving off persons attempting to settle on the lands of the United States." From the correspondence published in the St. Clair papers, it appears that the number of persons who had established themselves northwest of the Ohio before the settlement at Marietta was much larger than is usually supposed. John Emerson, on March 12, 1785, took upon himself the authority to issue a proclamation for elections by the inhabitants of the west side of the Ohio for the choosing of members of a convention for forming a constitution--the elec tions to take place on April 10, 1785, one at the mouth of the Miami, one at the mouth of the Scioto, one on the Muskingum and one at the house of Jonas Menzons. Ensign John Armstrong reported early in 1785 to Col Harmar that, from the best information he could obtain, there were 1,500 persons on the Miami and Scioto, and upward of 300 families on the Hockhocking and the Muskingum, and down the Ohio for a great distance there was scarcely one bottom without one or more families. These intruders were all dispossessed by the Government authorities. There are traditions of some of these early adventurers intruding themselves into what is now Huntington Township, in the vicinity of Aberdeen, but the details of the history of the attempted settlement there are lost. The location of the best lands and the most fertile valleys had become known to the whites by means of the expeditions of Kentuckians against the Indians, passing from Limestone northward and northeastward through the County; the explorations of the agents of the owners of Virginia military laud warrants, and the excursions of hunters and adventurers. Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton and other early adventurers had passed through the county in different directions long before the first surveys were made. Limestone, now Maysville, was the chief landing place of the early emigrants to Kentucky, who descended the Ohio in their journey to therr new homes. So numerous were the flat-boats that descended the Ohio and stopped at this place that they were scarcely of any value, and were frequently sent adrift in order to make room for others. Gen. Harmar, in building Fort Washington, at Cincinnati, which was one of the most substantial and solid wooden fortresses in the whole territory, obtained the planks for its construction from the flat-boats brought to Limestone. January 14, 1790. he wrote the War Department that he had contracted at Limestone for forty or fifty flat-boats at the moderate price of $1 or $2 each.