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150 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES survey of the premises to ascertain whether savages might not be concealed about the camp awaiting our return. He then preceded me, walking softly, and with great caution inspecting every point in advance and behind us. Having convinced himself that there was no ambush on that side, he made a circuit and explored the other side of the camp in the same way. Having convinced ourselves that no enemy lurked around, we advanced to the fire, spread our blankets on the ground, and threw ourselves on them for repose. He then admonished me of the necessity of untiring vigilance, reminding me that the danger from the wily foe was often greatest at the moment when the parties felt themselves most secure. He then directed me to keep a keen lookout on the north side of the camp, while he would do the same in regard to the south. A stratagem was practiced upon us on this occasion which had well nigh proved fatal to the party practicing it. We had not been long on our mutual watch before I discovered a man lurking in advance toward the camp, keeping a tree between him and myself in order to screen his body from view. We reclined our feet toward the fire. My rifle was carefully loaded, the muzzle resting on a log at our heads. At first I supposed it to be one of our own men, and. I determined to be farther satisfied before I alarmed my father. I discovered in a moment that he was approaching me with too much caution for that supposition ; that he carefully inspected everything around us, and made his way with a soft and stealthy step. I allowed him to approach near enough to a tree at which he was aiming, to enable me to clearly discover that his face was . blacked and that he wore no hat. I had hitherto remained motionless, and I was convinced he had not yet seen me. I cocked my rifle. Even this slight noise aroused my father, who lay with his back to mine, looking in a contrary direction. He asked me what I was doing. I informed him I was watching an Indian who was lurking toward us, apparently to fire upon us, and that I was waiting until he should reach a tree, toward which he was stealing, and expose his head so that I might give him a fatal shot. He asked me if I saw more than one, to which I answered in the negative. He then directed me to be sure of my aim, and not to fire until I should have gained sight of a mark in his eye. The person had now CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 151 gained his tree, and had now rested his gun in a position to fire upon us. But as we reclined flat on the ground, and as a log in some measure protected our bodies from his fire, it was necessary for him to survey us closely in order to find any part of our bodies sufficiently exposed to receive his shot. This I comprehended from his movements, and waited my own opportunity. In putting his head from behind the tree for this close inspection, he exposed half of it. I took aim and drew the trigger, but the gun missed fire. The person, hearing the noise, instantly jerked back his head. "I am sorry for that," said my father in a low tone of voice, and I replied in vexation that it was the first time it had failed me. It was two minutes before the person exposed his head for a second survey of us. He once more showed his face, so as almost to give me a shot at him. He finally presented two-thirds of his face, and my gun missed fire a second time. Hearing this more distinctly than the first snapping, he again jerked back his head and exclaimed, "Why; I believe you have been snapping at me !" I immediately recognized the voice to be that of Crawford, one of our men. He had thrown off his hat and blacked his face, as he informed us, with a view to frighten me. We were both provoked at this wanton folly, and I assured him that I still had a good mind to shoot him. My father severely reprimanded him, and I remarked with astonishment upon the circumstance that my rifle had twice missed fire. To show him the extent of his exposure, I pointed to a white spot on the tree behind which he had been concealed. I observed to him that it was not larger than his eye, and that I would demonstrate to him what his fate would have been in case my gun had not missed fire. I presented, and my ball carried the hark of the white spot into the tree. The other men soon after came in. We immediately saddled our horses, mounted, and moved off to the place where our buffalo laid. We encamped there for the night and feasted upon the choice pieces of the animal. I found myself ill during the night, and in the morning my father discovered that I had the measles and that they appeared on my face. He proposed, in consequence, to take me home. It was distant nearly seventy miles, and I was unwilling to interrupt the business for which he had come out, in this way, and I so informed 152 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES him, proposing to return alone. He replied that it would be necessary for me to sleep out at least two nights alone, and that I might become worse on the journey. I answered that I had no apprehensions of the kind and that it would not be the first time I had spent nights alone in the woods. In reply my father renewed his objections, pointing out the additional dangers from the Indians on such a long way. But I overcame all his objections and was allowed to start off alone. It was a long excursion through a wilderness which apprehension had too much reason to people with savages. I had the measles, and was but fourteen years old. But such was the training of the youths of that period in the woods. I commenced my journey, stopping twice the first day to let my horse feed upon the grass. I took care to select a spot in the open woods, where I could survey the country for a great distance around me. I saw abundance of game on my way, but having no use for it, and being charged by my father to make no unnecessary delay, I allowed it to pass unmolested. A nightfall I struck a considerable stream. It was easily fordable. Thinking if any enemy came on my track it would be easy to baffle him here, I rode up the middle of the stream half a mile and ascended a branch that fell into the stream two or three hundred yards. I then left the branch and rode on a mile to a tree top which afforded plenty of dry wood. I dismounted, hobbled my horse to feed for the night, kindled me a bright fire, used some of my provisions, laid myself, down to sleep, thinking as little about the measles and my lonely situation as possible. The next morning I started at early dawn, expecting to reach home that night. At to o'clock I discovered a very large bear in my course. The temptation to give the animal a shot was irresistible to one of my years and inclinations. I dismounted and killed the animal. Although I could make no use of the carcass, I -determined to carry home the skin as a trophy. I found it a difficult business, in the first place, to arrange the large, heavy and greasy hide so that it could be carried on horseback. It so frequently slipped from under me that I found I must either leave it or tarry out another night. I concluded on the latter. I had considerable fever during this night, and did not sleep much. I set off in the morning with CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 153 the first twilight and reached Lexington at noon the next day. I was nearly recovered. In ten days afterwards my father and his party returned. Early in the spring of 1785, my father, with my brother and myself, went out to his lands, sixteen miles from Lexington, and erected a couple of cabins. He then moved his family there and commenced clearing the lands. But in a few days we discovered traces of Indians in our vicinity. As it was an unprotected frontier establishment, my father deemed it necessary to enclose his cabin in a stockade. It was done with three lines of palisades, the cabins making the fourth side. During the year we were not much annoyed by the Indians. But the next summer they took from us thirteen fine horses at one time. We raised a party and pursued them. We came in sight of them just as they had completed swimming the horses over to a sandbank on the opposite side of the Ohio. When they discovered us they exclaimed from the opposite shore that we were too late and might go home again. We had the comfort of exclaiming back again that they were thieving rascals, and asking them if they were not ashamed of what they had been doing. They replied, with great coolness, not at all ; that a few horses now and then was all the rent they obtained of us for their Kentucky. lands. They outnumbered us three to one, and of course we had no other prudent course but to follow that of their advising and return home without our horses. It was in the autumn of this year that General Clark raised the forces for the Wabash expedition. They constituted a numerous corps. Colonel Logan was detached from the army, at the Falls of the Ohio, to raise a considerable., force with which to proceed against the Indian villages on the head waters of Mad River and the Great Miami. I was then aged sixteen, and too young to come within the legal requisition. But I offered myself as a volunteer, hoping to find and reclaim my father's horses. I need not relate the circumstances of the failure of General Clark's expedition. Colonel Logan went on to his destination, and would have surprised the Indian towns against which he marched had not one of his men, deserted to the enemy, not long before they reached the towns, who gave notice of their approach. As it was, he burned eight 154 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES large towns and destroyed many fields of corn. He took seventy or eighty prisoners and killed twenty warriors, and among them the head chief of the nation. This last act caused deep regret, humiliation and shame to the commander and his troops. We came in view of the two first towns, one of which stood on the west bank of Mad River, and the other on the northeast of it. They were separated by a prairie half a mile in extent. The town on the northeast was situated on a high, commanding point of land that projected a small distance into the prairie, at the foot of which eminence broke out several fine springs. This was the residence of the famous chief of the nation. His flag was flying, at the time, from the top of a pole sixty feet high. We had advanced in three lines, the commander with some of the horsemen marching at the head of the center line, and the footmen in their rear. Colonel Robert Patterson commanded the left, and I think Colonel Thomas Kennedy the right. When we came in sight of the towns the spies of the front guard made a halt and sent a man back to inform the commander of the situation of the two towns. He ordered Colonel Patterson to attack the towns on the left bank of Mad River. Colonel Kennedy was also charged to incline a little to the right of the town, on the east side of the prairie. He determined himself to charge with the center division immediately on the upper town. I heard the commander give his orders and caution the Colonels against allowing their men to kill any among the enemy that they might suppose to be prisoners. He then ordered them to advance, and as soon as they should discover the enemy to charge upon them. I had my doubts touching the propriety of some parts of the arrangements. I was willing, however, to view the affair with the diffidence of youth and inexperience. At any rate, I determined to be at hand to see all that was going on and to be as near the head of the line as my Colonel would permit. I was extremely solicitous to -try myself in battle. The commander at the head of the center line waved his sword over his head as a signal for the troops to advance. Colonel Daniel Boone and Major (since General) Kenton commanded the advance, and Colonel Trotter the rear. As we approached within half a mile of the town on the left and about three-fourths from CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 155 that on the right, we saw the savages retreating in all directions, making for the thickets, swamps and high prairie grass to secure them from their enemy. I was animated with the energy with which the commander conducted the head of his line. He waved his sword and in a voice of thunder exclaimed, "Charge from right to left." The horses appeared as impatient for the onset as their riders. As we came up with the flying savages I was disappointed, discovering that we should have little to do. I heard but one savage, with the exception of the chief, cry for quarter. They fought with desperation as long as they could raise knife, gun or tomahawk, after they found that they could not screen themselves. We despatched all the warriors that we overtook, and sent the women and children prisoners to the rear. We pushed ahead, still hoping to overtake a larger body, where we might have something like a general engagement. I was mounted on a very fleet gray horse. Fifty of my companions followed me. I had not advanced more than a mile before I discovered some of the enemy running along the edge of a thicket of hazel and plum bushes. I made signs to the men in my rear to come on. At the same time pointing to the flying enemy, I obliqued across the plain so as to get in advance of them. When I arrived within fifty yards of them I dismounted and raised my gun. I discovered at this moment some men of the right wing coming up on the left. The warrior I was about to shoot held sup his hand in token of surrender, and I heard him order the other Indians to stop. By this time the men behind had arrived and were in the act of firing upon the Indians. I called tb them not to fire—that the enemy had surrendered. The warrior that had surrendered to me came walking toward me, calling his women and children to follow him. I advanced to meet him with my right hand extended. But before I could reach him the men of the right wing of our force had surrounded him. I rushed in among their horses. While he was giving me his hand sever. of our men wished to tomahawk him. I informed them they would have to tomahawk me first. We led him back to the place where his flag had been. We had taken thirteen prisoners. Among them were the chief, his three wives, one of them a young and handsome woman, another the famous grenadier 156 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES squaw, upwards of six feet high, and two or three fine young lads. The rest were children. One of these lads was a remarkably interesting youth of about my own age and size. He clung closely to me and appeared keenly to notice everything that was going'on. When we arrived at the town a crowd of our men pressed around as to see the chief. I stepped aside to fasten my horse, and my prisoner lad clung to my side. A young man of the name of Curner had been to one of the springs to drink. He discovered the young savage by my side and came running toward me. The young Indian supposed he was advancing to kill him. As I turned round, in the twinkling of an eye he let fly an arrow at Curner, for he was armed with a bow. I had just time to catch his arm as he discharged the arrow. It passed through Curner's dress and grazed his side. The jerk I gave his arm undoubtedly prevented the arrow from killing Curner on the spot. I took away the remainder of his arrows and sternly reprimanded him. I then led him back to the crowd which surrounded the prisoners. At the same moment Colonel McGary, the same man who had caused the disaster at the Blue ticks some years before, came riding up. -General Logan had just then given orders to dispose of the prisoners in one of the house's and place a guard over them, and had reined his horse around when his eye caught that of McGary. "Colonel McGary," said he, "you must not molest these prisoners." "I will see to that," said McGary in reply. I forced my way through the crowd to the chief with my young charge by the hand. McGary ordered the crowd to open and let him in. He came up to the chief, and the first salutation was the question, "Were you at the defeat of the Blue Licks?" The Indian, not knowing the meaning of the words or not understanding the purport of the question, answered, "Yes." McGary instantly seized an axe from the hands of the grenadier squaw and raised it to make a blow at the chief. I threw up my arm to ward off the blow:. The handle of the axe struck me across the left wrist and came near breaking it. The axe sunk into the head of the chief to the eyes, and he fell dead at my feet. Provoked beyond measure at this wanton barbarity, I drew my knife with the purpose to avenge his cruelty by despatching him. My arm was CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 157 arrested by one of our men, which prevented my inflicting the thrust. McGary escaped from the crowd. The officer at that moment came up with his guards, ordering the men to open - the crowd, and desiring the prisoners to follow him to the guardhouse. The lad that was my prisoner caught my hand and held fast to me. I walked with them to the guardhouse, into which they were ordered. A strong guard was placed around the house. Other prisoners were brought in until the house was nearly filled. A detachment was then ordered off to two other towns, distant six or eight miles. The men and prisoners were ordered to march down to the lower town and encamp. As we marched out of the upper town we fired it, collecting a large pile of corn for our horses, and beans, pumpkins, etc., for our own use. I told Captain Stucker, who messed with me, that I had seen several hogs running about the town which appeared to be in good order, and that I thought a piece of fresh pork would relish well with our stock of vegetables. He readily assenting to it, we went in pursuit of them ; but as orders had been given not to shoot unless at an enemy, after finding the hogs we had to run them down on foot until we got near enough to tomahawk them. Being engaged of this for some time before we killed one, while Captain S. was in the act of striking the hog I cast my eye along the edge of the woods that skirted the prairie and saw an Indian coming along with a deer on his hack. The fellow happened to raise his head at that moment, and. looking across the prairie to the upper town, saw it all in flames. At the same moment I spoke to Stucker in a low voice that there was an Indian coming. In the act of turning my head around to speak to Stucker, I discovered Hugh Ross, brother-in-law to Colonel Kennedy, at the distance of about sixty or seventy yards, approaching us. I made a motion with my hand to Ross to squat down ; then, taking a tree between myself and the Indian, I slipped somewhat nearer him to get a fairer shot, when at the instant I raised my gun past the tree, the Indian being about one hundred yards distant, Ross's ball whistled by me so close that I felt the wind of it, and struck the Indian on the calf of one of his legs. The Indian that moment dropped his deer and sprang into the high grass of the prairie. All this occurred so quickly that I had not time to draw a sight on him 158 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES before he was hid by the grass. I was provoked at Ross for shooting when I was near enough to have killed him. And now the consequence would be .that some of our men would probably lose their lives, as a wounded Indian would give up only with his life. Accordingly, Captain Irwin at that moment rode up with his troop of horse and asked me where the Indian was. I pointed as nearly as I could to the spot where I last saw him in the grass, cautioning the Captain, if he missed him the first charge, to pass on out of his reach before he wheeled to recharge, or the Indian would kill some of his men in the act of wheeling. Whether the Captain heard me I cannot say ; at any rate, the warning was not attended to, for after passing the Indian a few steps, Captain Irwin ordered his men to wheel and recharge across the woods, and in the act of executing the movement, the Indian raised up and shot the Captain dead on the spot, still keeping below the level of the grass so as to deprive us of an opportunity to put a bullet through him. The troop charged again, but the Indian was so active that he had darted into the grass some rods from where he had fired at Irwin, and they again missed him. By this time several footmen had got up. Captain Stucker and myself had taken each of us a tree that stood out in the edge of the prairie among the grass, when a Mr. Stafford came up and put his head first past one side and then the other of the tree I was behind. I told him not to expose himself that way or he would get shot in a moment. I had hardly expressed the last word when the Indian again raised up out of the grass. His gun, Stucker's and my own, with four or five behind us, all cracked at the same instant. Stafford fell at my side, while we rushed on the wounded Indian with our tomahawks. Before we got him despatched he had made ready the powder in his gun, and a ball in his mouth, prepared for a third fire, with bullet holes in his breast that might all have been covered with a man's open hand. We found with him Captain Beasley's rifle, the Captain having been killed near the Lower Blue Licks a few days before the army passed through that place on their way to the towns. Next morning General Logan ordered another detachment to attack a town that lay seven or eight miles to the north or northwest of where we then were. On our way up we dis- CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES- 159 covered an Indian on horseback at some distance ahead of us, who at that moment wheeled his horse and rode off under the whip. A small party pursued him and run him past five horses he had tied to a tree in a thicket of woods. They returned with the horses just as we were approaching the town, when we saw two Indians coming out of one of the houses, jump on their horses that had been standing hitched to a post. Three of us took after them. Our Captain hallooed after us not to pursue further than the woods across the prairie ; but, finding the woods open and clear of underbrush, we kept up the pursuit, aware that we could see Indians in open woods as soon as they could see us. We had been gaining on them all the time, and as I was on a fleet horse, and a lighter rider than the other two, I had kept from fifty to sixty yards ahead of my companions, when jumping a log, my saddle girth broke, and my saddle, of course, gave way. I, however, alighted on my feet, and immediately fired at one of the Indians, then at about fifty yards distance. I saw in a moment that he had been struck. The other men coming up sprang. off their horses, and both fired at the other Indian, the one I had shot at having left his horse and taken to a swamp just on his right, into which he was followed by the other Indian, who, I was satisfied, was also wounded. In 1807, I was in that part of the country, and Isaac Zane showed me the very place where his cabin stood at the time, it being now rotted down, adding, that in about five minutes after the report of the first rifle the Indian it had been fired at came running to his cabin with a shot in his shoulder which made him a cripple in his right arm for life. Zane was then married to a squaw, and had at the place his wife and several children at the time. We then returned with the Indians' horses and one or both of their guns, setting fire to the town and a large block house that the English had built there of a huge size and thickness, and so returned that evening to the main body. But from the hard riding, and my horse drinking too freely when overheated, together with eating too much Indian corn, he became so badly foundered that I despaired of getting him home. On our return to camp, it being late in the evening, we had only time to swallow a mouthful of food before orders, issued 160 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES from headquarters to strike our tents and march in fifteen minutes. It was then ark, but the moon, which was near the full, gave light occasionally as she burst from behind some dark cloud. Our course led us across the prairies, and as we had to retrace the ground on which our columns had marched, we found a well-beaten road, which was a great advantage at night. The Captain I had selected on joining the army was James McDowell, a fine, manly, noble-hearted fellow. He came to me just as the army was moving off their encampment and suggested to me that P had better get my horse as near the front as possible ; that he would travel better in the center line, as that was an old worn path and better beaten than either of the side lines, and fall in directly in rear of the front guard, before the prisoners, and he would send Ensign Smith to assist me. I profited by his friendly advice, and Mr. Smith and myself moved up to where the front guard had halted, where we remained for a moment, when we heard the well-known, tremendous voice of Logan almost half a mile in the rear, "Move on in front." We instantly obeyed the order. I directed Smith to whip up my foundered horse, while I led or rather dragged him after me. Our course led down the prairies, and was seldom interrupted by any of the dark forests on either side. I discovered before we had marched far that our lines were too far extended, and heard the same hoarse, deep voice about a mile in the rear, muttering like a heavy roll of distant thunder, "Read guard, move up ; why these vacancies in your lines?" As we found the voice approaching we quickened our steps, and in a short time got to the guard having charge of the prisoners immediately in my rear. "Why, sir, do you suffer this vacant space between the prisoners and the front guard?" "Some of the squaws have children to carry, and are not able to march faster," replied the officer of the guard. "Change them, then, with those on horseback, sir, and do riot let me have to repeat to you to force them to the front." I had suffered my foundered brute to occupy no more space than the length of the rifle that laid on his left shoulder, when turning round my head a little rearwards, I discovered that Goliath approaching, growling all the time, on an animal resembling an elephant for size more than a horse. He was just then in the act of bringing down the flat CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 161 of his tremendous sword on the back of my poor foundered animal, and repeating it three or four times. "Damn you, what brought you here in front of the prisoners with your horse?" approaching me as he waved his sword ; "you merit this more than your horse." I could stand this no longer, but brought my gun to my shoulder, sprung my double trigger and leveled at him. Smith sprang forward like lightning, and threw up the muzzle, exclaiming, "For God's sake, don't kill the General !" General Logan wheeled to the right about, and appeared, after moving a few paces, to come to a halt. Smith advanced to him and explained the cause, adding, "This is a young man in your army—is a volunteer, and has gone through more fatigue service this day than any other man in the line. His horse has been foundered from two long and severe chases after Indians today, and Captain McDowell, to whose command he belongs, directed him to take the position he did, as his horse would not be able to travel in the rear." "I knew nothing of this before, sir, and am sorry that I was so severe. I will go and speak to him, for he appears to be a choice spirit." The General, accompanied by Ensign Smith, overtook me. "My young soldier," said the General, "I am sorry I treated you so harshly. I had ordered the prisoners and wounded men, with their guards, to take their position near the advance guard in the center column, and was astonished when I came up to find a crippled horse between them, but, on explanation, I am convinced you were only obeying your Captain's orders." I replied, "Young as I may be in the service and discipline, I feel proud in saying that I never disobeyed the order of a superior officer, and when I have, as I believe, done my duty, I will not permit even the Commander-in-Chief to run over me with impunity,': "I like your spirit, my young volunteer ; that is manly and noble. Incline to the left and resume your position. The center line is the best road for your lame horse, and, as soon as we halt for the night, call on me at headquarters." I did as directed, and after about two hours' march we came to a point of woods which projected some distance into the prairie, out of which issued one of those pure and living branches of Mad River, where-we encamped for the night. I led my horse directly to the creek, when I got him into the water about knee deep, and tied his 162 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES bridle to a swinging limb, so that he could not let his head down. I laid down my knapsack, and struck fire while the men collected wood, and had just got the fire to burn when Captain McDowell came up and asked me how I got on with my lame horse. I told him pretty well, though he was remarkably stiff and lame. "Yes, Smith tells me, also, that the General wanted to turn you out of the road." "I am sorry Mr. Smith said anything on the subject, as I wished it to remain between ourselves." "Well," said Captain McD., "if Smith had not turned the muzzle of your piece aside it would have leaked out ten miles back, I expect. But come," said he, "and we will see the General. He knows more of you now, and probably likes you better than at the moment." We found the General giving some orders respecting the wounded and prisoners, which done, Captain McDowell observed, "General Logan, let me make you acquainted with Mr. Lytle, a young volunteer soldier of yours." The fire burned bright, and he had a full view of my face. As he extended his hand, he said, "I believe my young volunteer and I had a slight interview not more than ten miles back," smiling as he spoke and grasping my hand cordially ; "we were then in the dark ; I am now glad to see him and his Captain at my fire." The General from that time till his death treated me as kindly as a father would his son. When I got home I found Mr. Robert Todd had arrived a few moments before me, from Clark's expedition up the Wa- bash. He informed me of the men's mutinying and returning home at the very moment the troops expected an engagement with the enemy, which reduced Clark's forces so much that it would have been impolitic to have risked an action with the handful of men who remained, so the remnant returned home. I went frequently to see my young Indian acquaintance and share with him whatever I might have to eat ; but we parted at Limestone, when we crossed the Ohio River, and I did not see him for almost a year after, when I met him at Danville, on his being sent home to his nation from that place. The General gave him 'his own name of Logan, by which he ever afterwards went.. In the course of the next spring the Indians became troublesome, and we were much exposed in going out to the fields or CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 163 the woods. To add to the difficulty, they set fire to one of the houses in the dead of night. This was the storehouse where our saddles, bridles, horse gears, tools and provisions were secured. By this stratagem they no doubt expected we should open the front gate to get water to put out the fire, when they would rush in, and, guided by the light, readily shoot down and tomahawk the inmates, whom they supposed would be thrown into confusion, between the enemy and the devouring element. But the kind care of an overruling Providence directed otherwise. By the signs we had discovered in the woods for several days my father had apprehended an attack, and had already sent off an express for a reinforcement. That very night the reinforcement, consisting of a party of about sixty men, arrived some three hours before the house was discovered to be on fire. Having made a forced march of several hours, they were considerably fatigued, and slept very soundly. My father, brother and myself had committed the watching to hired laborers, being ourselves exhausted with standing sentries all night for a week preciously, and were also asleep. But, as I always awake at the slightest noise, the first crackling of the fire disturbed me, and with my rifle in hand, which always lay by my side in apprehended danger, I sprang to the nearest porthole. On looking out as far as I was enable to see, I discovered a great light, and judged instantly that some of the houses must be on fire. The men were immediately posted around the pickets inside the fort, with a strong guard at the gate, and six men were detached to the lofts of each cabin to keep in check such enemies as might attack the rear of the fort, ail ten or twelve prepared to put out the fire. While these arrangements were making, my father awoke, hearing the alarm, and, springing from his bed, rushed with all his force against the door of the building that was on fire, burst the lock, and pitched directly into the flames. At this time I was on the pickets to gain the roof of the burning building, but seeing his imminent danger, I sprang to his rescue and dragged him out of the flames, the clothes of both taking fire, which was, however, put out by some of the company dashing buckets of water over us. Three or four of us then succeeded in getting the roof off and tearing the building down to the second floor. In the meantime the Cap- 164 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES tain of our reinforcing party had guarded every point of defense in so masterly a manner that the Indians, seeing we were so well prepared for them, did not dare to fire upon us, and drew off their party as quietly and secretly as it had advanced. We soon subdued the fire, but the shock so alarmed my mother and sisters that my father discovered that he must render their lives unhappy if he remained longer a resident on the frontiers. He therefore purchased a tract of land below Lexington, in a tolerably thick-settled part of the country, to which he removed his family. Even here we were not secure, for the Indians came several times and stole horses, and at one time took six of his, when we pursued and overtook them at their encampment on the Big Island on Eagle Creek. We killed several of them and recovered our horses. A considerable snow storm had fallen, and the Indians, judging we could not discover their track, felt perfectly safe. Several other attempts of the kind, about this time, shared the same fate. But in August, 1788, a party of them came over and tomahawked and scalped some of Colonel Johnson's negroes, at or near the Great Crossings of the Elkhorn, and stole some of Capt. Lyman Buford's horses. I did not get notice of this before to o'clock next day, and as our horses were always running at large in the woods when not actually in use, by the time I had hunted them up and returned, it was fully the middle of the day. My brother and I lost no time in saddling two of them and setting out. We heard that a large party of our men had taken the Indian trail early that morning and was in close pursuit of them. We, knowing the direction the Indians generally took• when they had committed depredations on the white settlements in that part of Kentucky, and being well acquainted with the woods between us and the Ohio River, having pursued them often before and being well mounted on fleet horses, took a course which we did not doubt would intersect their trail before they would reach the Ohio. Indeed. we had strong hopes of striking the trail before any of the pursuing party would be able to overtake them, fearing nothing for ourselves if the party did not amount to more than five or six persons. However, about sundown or perhaps nearer dark, we struck the trail in sight of some of CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 165 the men in pursuit. As we came up we asked how far the front of the party was ahead to which the reply was four or five miles. We passed them, and kept on passing men every few hundred yards, until IN e caught up with the foremost, several hours after night, when I found Captain Stucker groping out the trail. Dismounting, he and I gave up our horses to some of the men behind us to lead, and we kept the trail on foot. About 3 o'clock in the morning we found that the ground over which the Indians had passed was very hard and gave no traces of the horses' feet. We had hoped that the horses of their own accord would follow the track if left to their own guidance, as they sometimes do ; but they, being jaded with a hard ride of more than sixty miles, appeared rather disposed to bite the bushes and browse about, so we concluded to give them some corn we had carried with us for that purpose, and get some rest for ourselves until daylight, when we got up to the trail and started onward. The Indians led us a very circuitous route, so that it was 3 o'clock in the afternoon when we reached the river. At the moment we struck it, on looking up stream we perceived a small barge appearing in sight ; and waiting until she reached us, the men on board were at first alarmed and bore off for the Indian shore, but directly seeing we were white men and spoke English, rounded to. The party proved to be Captain Ward and three other men, from Pittsburgh, and, on finding out our business, Ward and one of his men agreed to unite with our party. While the men were getting ready, Captain Stucker and myself were sent across in the boats to take the trail and follow it out from the river for a mile or two and see if the Indians had not camped back of the bottom to rest themselves. We did so, and by the time we got back to the river the volunteers that had turned out for the chase had all got over, to the number of twenty-seven, leaving their horses with the remainder of the men—about sixty—on the Kentucky shore, to wait for our return. Colonel Robert Johnson assumed the command of our little party. We had not traveled far before he called a halt, and ordered Captain Stucker to slip out to the left a few paces, detailing eight men to follow him, directing Captain Samuel Grant, with eight more under his command, to do so to the 166 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES right, remaining himself in the center with eight more, the residue of the party. Addressing himself to the men, "Now, boys," said he, "every man sees his officer, and when we come in view of the enemy Captain Grant will file off to the right, Captain Stucker to the left, and I shall keep the center. Each man will follow his officer and obey his orders. In the meantime we will march single file until we get sight of the Indians. Captain Stucker and Mr. Lytle will keep in advance of the party fifty or sixty yards, and when they discover the enemy, will either halt till we come up, or return to meet and advise us of the situation of things." We pursued on until some time in the night, when the thick and lofty character of the timber and its dense foliage rendered it so extremely dark that it was impossible to keep the trail, and compelled us to lie down till daybreak. At the first glimpse of dawn we were all up, and reprimed our guns, for fear that our priming had become moistened during the night. We marched on, and had not traveled more than half a mile before we heard bells down in the valley below us, and, advancing nearer, we discovered the horses that had been belled, in front of the rest, and feeding quietly on the bottom pastures. At the same moment we observed an Indian approaching us. Captain Stucker and myself both squatted down ; the men about forty yards behind us followed our example. The Indian kept on within a few steps of where we lay hid in the -high weeds, and inclined a little to the right, as we supposed, to go to the horses that were at hand feeding; but he went on past them, as we discovered, and kept his course till he had gone out of sight. We then knew that he had gone out to hunt, and we got up and followed his back track until we came in sight of the encampment. After waiting to let the entire party come up, Captain Stucker signed to Captain Grant to file off to the right, while Stucker moved to the left, their men following them, as had already been arranged. But Johnson, instead of getting his men to follow him in the center, directed Captain Patterson to take the men and lie watching the horses that we had just passed, so as to be ready to fire on the Indians in case they should attempt to escape by means of the horses. This order was given without the knowledge of either Grant or Stucker or any of their party, Johnson being CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 167 behind us, and giving Patterson his directions in a low voice, and signing to his own men to follow Patterson, while he himself kept on after Grant. I stepped on in front of Stucker, he and his party following me, until I led them quite around from the south to the west, or rather northwest side of the Indians, so that when Johnson would fire on them from the south, and Grant from the east, the enemy would be driven directly where we lay concealed in ambush to receive them. Where we halted happened to be close on the high bank of a branch.' The Indians had ten large camps, besides some tents, the nearest of which was about forty steps from us, and they extended from this point up towards where we expected Grant's and Johnson's parties to give the signal by firing on them. There were two or three• squaws cutting wood by the camps, and three or four stout lads that came down with brass kettles, dipping water from the branch directly under us, and carrying it to the camps. At this moment Captain Grant fired on them from the right. The women and children and about forty warriors broke from their camps, running toward us. We sprang across the creek, from the high bank that we had squatted down upon, and, rushing up to them, the first warrior I met was a remarkably large Indian, at whose breast I presented my gun, which,'to my great mortification, missed fire. Whether it was Stucker that was behind me I dared not look back to see, but the next man in my rear, whoever he was, shot him down. I instantly made ready at a warrior I observed taking aim at one of Capt. Grant's men, of the name of Hastings, but his gun fired first. When mine cracked I saw the Indian pitch forward on his face, the gun dropping from his hands. I then looked to see the effect of his fire upon Hastings, and saw the poor fellow stagger and fall. At that moment two Indians took hold of the one I had shot down, one under each arm, and dragged him from the field. I was reloading as fast as possible, and asked the man just behind me if his gun was charged, and on his replying it was, "Then," said I, "shoot down one of those fellows dragging away the dead Indian." He instantly fired and wounded him. They both dropped the dead body, and the unwounded one caught the other by the arm and dragged him off the field. 168 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES While thus engaged I had taken a tree a little in advance of our men, but young Mr. Grant and Mr. Garrard coming up at this moment, and finding them considerably exposed to the enemy's fire, I gave them up the tree, and having got the powder and ball down my gun, was just priming, when, turning my head a little to the right, I saw three guns presented at me within less than ten steps. I jumped back at the moment the blaze appeared from the muzzles of the pieces. I felt I was wounded, but still hoped I had, been too quick for them and that the wounds were not mortal, although they had all three hit me. However, I had no time to examine the wounds, and my whole thought was to retaliate. The Indians ran about fifteen or twenty steps after they fired at me, and made a short pause. The middle one looked around to see if I had been brought to the ground, but as he turned I heard him give the word of command, and, although it was in Indian, it was an audible and deep-toned voice. As I 'raised my rifle she appeared to be uncommonly heavy, but it was necessary to be in a hurry, as the Indians are very quick in their motions, especially action. He stood quarterly, with his naked breast exposed. I aimed for his nipple, as I knew a shot in that direction would pass out under his right shoulder. The fellow dropped at the report of the rifle. Captain Stucker was a few paces from me, on my left, at the time, and observed, if I aimed at that fellow's left nipple, I must have made a center shot. Stucker then asked me if I was badly wounded. I told him I believed not, but had not time to examine. He then asked me if we had not better force through them and unite with Johnson and Grant. I replied that we were better where we were ; that now we had the enemy between our fires, and when they treed to fight one they exposed themselves to the fire of the other, and that from the number of dead and wounded they were running off the field, would shortly retreat. "But they fight hard, sir, and appear greatly over our numbers. There is another reason why we should retain our present position, if possible ; if we force them from this, you force them back upon their dead and wounded. Now, sir, if you will spare me a few of these men, I will try and cut my way through that guard and destroy their wounded, and 1 will assure you the day is our own if I succeed in this at- CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 169 tempt." Captain Stucker told me to try it. I then ordered three men to follow me. This was a small force to attack the life guard of the wounded Indians, which I knew must be twenty strong at least ; but as I discovered the guard was placed about thirty steps in the rear of the wounded, my object was to get around and destroy the wounded before the guard would discover us, and then to fall on the back of the guard whilst they were engaged fighting Stucker. Just as I was passing the guard I came upon a wounded Indian who had his thigh broken and had hid himself in the weeds and grass, and, keeping my eye on one side of the enemy, I did not discover him on the other until I saw the smoke rise in my face, and, dropping, found my breast within six inches of the muzzle of his gun, which had been flashed at me but failed to discharge. We despatched him, but by this time the guard discovered us and gave us a heavy fine, they being in a much greater force than I expected. I then directed my little band to follow me, and passed directly in front of the guard, whilst we received the fire of each warrior as we to him. This, however, did no other execution than to mow down the grass and weeds through which we ran. We finally found ourselves in the rear of the division that was fighting Stucker, who did not discover us, as they lay ambuscaded behind logs and trees, until we got so near as to powder-burn each other. Stucker at this moment discovered our situation and came to our relief, when the Indians left us in possession of the field. About this time Captain Grant had fallen, and Colonel Johnson ordered the men composing Grant's command down to join Stucker, leaving the Indians in possession of the ground they occupied, on and near the top of a very high hill. With this addition to our force we pursued our retreating party of the enemy a few hundred yards, but to no purpose. We then returned to the Indian encampment, where the men, or at least numbers of them, turned in and plundered the camps, there being upwards of twenty thousand dollars' worth of goods there which the Indians had taken out of boats attacked a short time before in the Ohio River. I had just seized a chunk to set the goods on fire, when Captain Patterson, with the eight men Colonel Johnson had committed to 170 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES his charge, came up, and for the first time, and to my great astonishment, I found out that they had not been in the action at all. At this moment one of Grant's men told me he expected that the Indians with whom they had been engaged and had left in possession of the ground at the top of the hill would shortly fire down upon us. "Why," said I, "is it possible you left the Indians that you were fighting in possession of the field?" "Yes," said he, "Johnson ordered us down to join Stucker as soon as Grant fell." I looked up and could see the high weeds shaking in forty places, and saw that the Indians were extending their as fast as reinforcements came in, and that they were preparing to give us battle once more. Just as I was observing these movements young Grant came up and asked me if I was able to go with him up the hill and bring down his brother. "My dear sir," said I, "your brother is dead, and Johnson has left the Indians they were fighting in possession of the field, and they are now preparing for another attack, and will fire on us in less than ten minutes. You must not think of throwing away your life for revenge only." He replied he could never go home without seeing his brother once more. "Well, sir," I observed, "if you insist on it I will go with you, but we shall never come back if we go." He still insisted on it, and we set out on foot. As we were passing the camps at the foot of the hill, seeing Colonel Johnson on horse, I went directly up to him and told him of the mad determination of Moses Grant, and begged him to form the men and prepare for action, and let us march up and rout those Indians lie had left in possession of the field of battle. I represented to him that the men were all in confusion, and plundering the camps ; that we should be fired on in less than five minutes, and if they were attacked in the present position of things they must all be cut to pieces. Johnson appeared bewildered, or rather unmanned, and I could get no reply from him. At this moment Captain Stewart came riding up to me on an Indian pony, with a tug halter on it, and leading another. He jumped off his horse, took hold of me as I was ascending the hill with Grant, and made me get on the little horse. Turning his head down hill, "There," said he, "ride down to the camp, and some of the men who are plundering CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 171 will tie up your wounds, or you will bleed to death." I found myself by this time getting very faint, and so I reined my horse alongside of a beech tree, which I leaned my head against to steady myself from falling off. My face was turned towards the hill, where I saw Grant, with Sterrett and Gregory, his two companions, ride up to the very weeds I had seen shaken by the Indians not three minutes before, when a tremendous fire opened upon them, and all three of the men fell down before my eyes, appearing, as they went down, to be completely enveloped in smoke. A portion of the Indians fired down at us at the same time, and one of the balls lodged in the beech tree against which I was lining, and forced off a piece of the bark, which struck me a severe skite on the cheek and brought me to, from my fainting fit. Johnson then ordered a retreat. By this time most of the men had caught Indian horses, and, having mounted, they broke and away they went in considerable disorder. I followed, as a matter of course, but at some distance in. the rear, and frequently looked back to see if could discover any one of the three poor fellows trying to escape, when at length I got a glimpse of Captain Sterrett. I hallooed to Captain Stucker, who was about— At this point the personal narrative breaks off. The story is completed by the following taken from the "Western General Advertiser," published in Cincinnati by Charles Cist, in the number of April 14, 1344. "Overpowered by numbers, the whole detachment of Kentuckians who survived this hard fought contest, made their way, not without fresh loss, to the river. Feats of bravery and desperation were exhibited in this battle, known since by the name of Grant's Defeat, from the death of the two officers of that name, who were engaged in it, which can hardly be matched even in our early border warfare. "The Indians numbered nearly four to one. In the struggle, Lytle, then hardly seventeen years of age, had both his arms wounded, his face powder-burnt, his hair singed to the roots, and nineteen bullets passed through his body and clothing. In this condition, a retreat being ordered, he succeeded in bringing off the field several of his friends, generously aiding the wounded and exhausted by placing them on horses, while 172 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES he himself ran forward in advance of the last remnant of the retreating party, to stop the only boat on the Ohio at that time. which could take them over and save them from the overwhelming force of their savage adversaries. "On reaching the river, he found the boat in the act of putting off for the Kentucky shore. The men were reluctant to obey his demand for a delay until those still in the rear should come up—one of them declaring that 'it was better a few perish, than that all should be sacrificed.' He threw the rifle which he still carried on his shoulder, over the root of a fallen tree, and swore he would shoot the first man who pulled an oar, until his friends were aboard. In this way, the boat was detained until they came up, and were safely lodged from the pursuing foe. Disdaining to take advantage personally of this result, the boat being crowded almost to dipping, he ran up the river to where some horses stood panting under the willows after their escape from the battlefield, and mounting one of the strongest, forced him into the river, holding on to the mane by his teeth, until he was taken, in the middle of the stream, into the boat, bleeding and almost fainting from his wounds, by the order of his gallant captain, the lamented Stucker, who had observed his conduct with admiration throughout, and was resolved that such a spirit should not perish ; for by this time the balls of the enemy were rattling like hail about their ears. "The father of Col. R. M. Johnson commanded this expedition, in which were embarked the boldest spirits of that part of Kentucky; and the scene of this sanguinary struggle was on Eagle Creek, a few miles in the rear of the river at that point where Vevay, Indiana, is now built." Tradition relates that William Lytle's life was largely saved during the retreat by the devoted care of his brother John. When honored in Cincinnati, General Lytle jocosely claimed the rank of "Oldest Citizen," because on that April 12, 178o, as an eagerly curious boy, he had gone ashore and mingled with the men who gathered logs for a breastwork along the western brow of Deer Creek, which, if needed, was to protect a retreat to the boats. CHAPTER VIII. MAPPING THE WILDERNESS: The Interrupted Surveying Resumed—Massie and Lytle Make 'a Narrow Escape—Belteshazzar Dragoo—A Battle with Tecumseh on the East Fork—Massie's Work in 1792—Linton's Survey, No. 681—Lytle's Work in 1793—The Profit on the Work—Lytle's Surveyor's Camp—James Taylor, Sr. —The Land Market in 1795—The Indian Peril of that Time —Two Traces from Lexington—Covalt's Station—Major Riggs Killed at Milford—The Winter of 1791-92—Adam Snider—The Tiller and the Man Who Would Not Work—The Shawnees Had Only Nominal Possession. Surveys by the same party on the same day of large tracts miles apart have caused some doubt ; but such incidents can be explained by understanding the dates to refer, not to the actual walk from corner to corner about the tracts, but, to the assembling of the notes, made by assistants, for platting and calculating and completing the reports, of which several might be signed and witnessed at one time. The only condition affected would have been the priority of conflicting claims which would not occur where but one deputy was working. The work done by O'Bannon between O'Bannon Creek and Eagle Creek, almost wholly before the New England people reached Marietta, was stopped by Congress on July 17, 1788, and declared of no effect, because the Virginia Reservation for the same purpose in Kentucky was thought to be enough. And there the matter rested for two years. Of course there were charges and denials of selfish motives in thus hindering the settlement of the Military District in order to gain something from the passing boats that were counted but did not stay at Marietta. On August io, 1790, Congress repealed its action against the Military Surveys. Massie's settlement was the early consequence, promptly noticed by the Shawnee neighbors. The popular policy of conciliating their prejudice against surveyors was a more likely but not mentioned reason 174 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES for suspending the work that hindered the treaty making. When the treaties failed, Congress permitted the surveyors to resume the risk of measuring and dividing the land. In searching for frequently meager evidence to justify a reasonable but elusive conclusion, a writer finds his most fascinating encouragement in an authentic date or a casual explanation that confirms a fading tradition or restores a succession of events to the dignity of recorded facts. On April 21, 1791, Massie went from the fort in a canoe four or five miles up the Ohio, accompanied by William Lytle, Israel Donalson and James Tittle to survey some land that Tittle was to buy. Arriving at a stream, since called Donalson Creek, the party with Lytle and Donalson carrying the chain meandered up the river about one hundred and forty or fifty rods close to a large mound, where they were put to flight by two canoe loads of Indians. Donalson tripped, fell and was captured. Lytle a chain's length ahead threw his hat away, knowing that one Indian at least would stop for the prize, and got to the fort with Massie and Tittle. After several days, Donalson escaped and reached Cincinnati, where the first man to meet and help was William Woodward, the future founder of Woodward High School. Massie's bold undertaking induced others to venture across from Kentucky. The opposite would have been the more surprising, yet little that ventured to that sphere of influence came far enough west then to be included in Brown County now. The, records of Adams County preserved the evidence of a transaction typical of the time whereby Alexander McIntyre of the District of Kentucky and State of Virginia under date of August 24, 1791, bound himself to make a deed to Belteshazzar Dragoo for four hundred and fifty acres of first rate land lying on both sides of Eagle Creek convenient for a mill site with four feet head and fall, not more than ten miles from the river. The deed was to be made as soon as it could be obtained from the office at Louisville. Any sense of security in that direction was soon rudely disturbed by an event that made Old Clermont a part of the Battle Ground. A Shawnee horse stealing raid through Mason County, Kentucky, in March, 1792, was followed by a hastily gathered CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 175 company of thirty-six men from about Kenton's Station. Of them, the names of Neil Washburn, Alexander McIntyre, John Barr, Charles Ward, Benjamin Whiteman, Isaiah Ferguson. Downing, Calvin and Simon Kenton have been preserved. Whiteman and Kenton reached the rank general. Kenton was simply chosen captain of that pursuit. The trail of the robbers was found and followed to where they crossed the Ohio at Ripley. By that time it was nearly night of the first day and the pursuers only succeeded in getting across and going into camp. They were ready with the first light to follow one full day behind over the trail in a northerly course to the Indian towns that had grown farther west. The weather was bad, and, on the second morning, twelve of the men unable to continue were permitted to go home. The rest should have gone the same way, for there was no chance to succeed. With one day ahead and across the river, with nothing in front to watch, the Indians laughed at pursuit and always won the race. Still, twenty-four pressed on over a course probably near the line between Brown and Clermont. About eleven o'clock, the tinkle of a stock bell brought a halt, while Whiteman and two others were sent ahead to find the camp that was supposed to be near. Instead, one Indian came riding a horse with a bell and was killed, because of his childish vanity in the bell. The incident was considered a certain sign that other Indians were near. The entire party of twenty-one men and the three spies in advance moved carefully forward about four miles, when such strong indications of a large camp were found, that a halt was made for consultation. A night attack was decided upon, and the command retreated to a ridge, while the spies watched for any signs of alarm in the camp. When night came the spies reported that their presence was unknown. Wet and cold, they drew away into a hollow and built fires where they warmed, dried their clothing and ate, 'while they planned and waited the time of attack, hoping for success, while knowing that some were about to perish. Because the famous chief of the Shawnees, the celebrated Tecumseh, "The Blazing Star," then about twenty-four years old, was present and directed the defense, the battle that began after midnight under clouds without a moon was described with much detail by the early historians and by Drake in his 176 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES "Life of Tecumseh." Yet, because of the total wildness of the country and the absence of peculiar landmarks, the place ac the conflict hid been disputed. A few thought the line of march was toward Lynchburg. Others have claimed the site was in Perry Township and near the line of Brown and Clermont counties. The weight of the argument is largely in favor of a locality on the south side of the East Fork a few miles above the subsequent town of Williamsburg (about five in fact) and nearly opposite the mouth of Grassy Run in Jackson Township of Clermont County. This is the place pointed out by the unerring woodcraft of the noted scout, Neil Washburn, who, besides being one of the band, afterward settled and lived for years in the immediate vicinity. The party was divided into three detachments, with Kenton commanding the right, McIntyre the center and Downing the left. All were to. approach as near as possible, and, at Kenton's signal, all were to fire at once on the sleeping camp. As the left wing came near the camp, an Indian started to fix the fires. Fearing a discovery, Downing's party delivered their fire and killed the wakeful Indian. The center and right fired into the tents. Instead of flying in fright, the camp rallied and the warriors rushed to find their assailants. Tecumseh happened on John Barr and killed him with a blow of his war club. The Kentuckians had chosen "Boone" for their watch word, which unfortunately was equally familiar to the Shawnees. The confusion resounded with shouts of "Boone' and "Che Boone." Perceiving the overwhelming charge in his direction and fearing the result in the gloom without the camp, Kenton ordered a retreat. Some one of the camp having fallen over the bank, by splashing in the water, made the impression that reinforcements were crossing the river. The Kentuckians reached their recent fires with a belief that they had killed two and lost one. Expecting pursuit they at once began a three days' struggle with March storms and empty haversacks to retrace the trail over which they had advanced in a day and a half. The last two days of the expedition were full of intense suffering made more distressing by a sense of their fruitless waste of life and energy. More about the affair was learned from prisoners, who were with Tecumseh, after they were released and returned through CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 177 Wayne's Victory and Treaty. The fate of McIntyre was tints explained. In the afternoon before the attack, he had caught a horse in the woods, which he tied by their camp fires, and rode it away on the retreat. Tecumseh and four others found his tracks the next morning, and, following, came to where he had stopped and was cooking a piece of meat. After a chase, McIntyre was personally captured by Tecumseh, who did not pursue the retreating whites any farther, but returned to his own camp with the prisoner. After a short absence on other affairs, Tecumseh on returning was deeply indignant to find that his guards had killed McIntyre. What was done about this same McIntyre's bond to Belteshazzar Dragoo has not been found. Various tales of the battle were told by the returned prisoners. Some placed the Indian loss at two ; others said that fourteen were killed and seventeen wounded, and that a band of a hundred intending to capture boats on the Ohio was thus turned from their purpose. Every enlarging circumstance was used to increase the consequence of Tecumseh and soothe the discomfiture of Kenton's party. Some of Tecumseh's band remained in the East Fork Valley or others took their place. Massie gathering a large force for an early start, arranged to work in three detachments that could be massed for mutual protection. The course taken as shown by results was toward and up the Little Miami as far as possible, and then east Paint Creek and the Scioto, in order to obtain some outline of the Military District. As Massie's own detachment of nine men was working along the Stone Lick, they were attacked by some twenty Indians and forced to seek safety in Covalt's Station across the Miami toward Fort Washington. There is circumstantial but not positive assurance that, as the party went working up the eastern side of the Miami, Colonel Robert Todd selected the tract now known as Todd's Survey, No. 1550, of four hundred acres that now includes a part of Branch Hill. But the Survey was not reported until March to, 1794. On April 1, 1792, Joseph Carrington's Survey No. 631, of five hundred acres now including most of Loveland was fully struck from the wilderness. The party then passed northward through eastern Warren County, and to Clark and Clinton Counties. On April 24, 1792, all Kentucky was made 178 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES to mourn for Colonel Robert Todd's death by the haunting Indian's. Despite the danger, the work went on to the finish of Massie's purpose. .Made more watchful, if possible, by his beloved brother-in-law's untimely fate, William Lytle had the special fortune to discover and kill an Indian in the act of firing upon the unsuspecting Massie. But for the clear eye, steady nerve and instant action of the student, the career of the Master would have stopped the next moment. The relations between the two were full of the instinctive respect of brave and generous spirits that believe in the good and fear no harm from the other. In the deep 'solitudes of their companionship, they opened their thoughts to visions of the empire of homes and happiness that would mantle the Land Wonderful, when the throngs of delighting toil should follow the paths they were preparing. As their youth was leading through the perils of spying the land, so, out of the right that comes with all dearly bought knowledge, their age should share the splendor of the transformation that would soon require their busy pleasure to hasten. Instead of sending their brave designs to wither along the waste of vain intentions, fostering fate changed their dreams into plans of action so plain and practical that time but wears a deeper mark to their merit. After returning to Massie's Station, surveying was resumed on Stone Lick, as is proved by the record on October 20, 1792, of John Linton's Survey No. 681, for one thousand six hundred and sixty-six and two-third acres in Stone Lick township. The position of that survey is a peculiar proof that others adjoining were made at another time in order to close the extremely difficult lines. It has pleased some writers who probably never followed a line, "Through bush and through brier," to decry the lack of system characteristic of the Virginia Military Surveys. In fact there was much lack of system all through. The Indians were not systematic in their attacks. The public defense was a personal necessity. The scalps of the houseless and the well-to-do counted the same in the war dances, but there was much inequality among the defenders. To remedy this Virginia promised an ample home, and promised that each should choose and shape the land himself. The custom gloried in the intense individuality that was avowed by whoever could say "I am a Virginian." What that has meant on battlefields CLERMONT AND BROWN CODIFIES - 179 has passed into history. Such was the sentiment mingled with the .divisions of the land that seem very odd and awkward to those accustomed to the modern method of surveying which is not more suggestive of patriotism than the multiplication table. Unless the honor was bartered or trifled away, the name of a survey is a perpetual memorial of the first possessor's martial worth. To judge the quality and make a fair allowance for difference between hill and valley, land or water power according to the orders or advice of the owners of the warrants was a part of the problem that continuously confronted the first surveyors. A fair study of such problems must admit that there was nothing careless or haphazard in the skill that comprehended and projected the bold lines, "Through flood and through fire." and Indian fire at that, of Linton's huge survey, nearly three miles long, so as to include several more miles of the Stonelick Canyon. A modern buyer could not easily be shown a less desirable tract of equal extent in the two counties. Yet it was the first and for some time the only survey made in Stonelick Township. To make that survey Massie braved the presence of Tecumseh's victorious band. From it he was forced to fly to Covalt's Station and after the big expedition of the year was done, he returned to finish the interrupted lines. We have recently heard much censure of selfish control of ore, oil and timber lands and irrigation ways. Those whose logic results in opposition to all private possession of natural forces will frown at the object of Linton's Survey in 1792, when there was no roof raised and no grain grown in all the space between Massie's and Covalt's Stations. After the, test of more than a hundred years all must smile to learn that Massie's perilous efforts to make and complete that survey were prompted by his determination to preempt and hold the most valuable mill-sites along that precipitous stream. In 1793, Lytle not yet twenty-three years old was deemed qualified for independent action. After that, Massie mainly took the Scioto side of the District, and gathered his helpers in his convenient Station or from about Maysville and Kenton Station. Lytle inclined to the Miami side with assistants from about Lexington. Of these assistants, his brother John, also a surveyor, was first. The story of their work for the ten or 180 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES twelve years to come would largely be a history of the mapping of Old Clermont. The fringe notched along the Ohio by O'Bannon's party in 1787 and 1788 and by Massie, and by a few others along the Miami and up the smaller streams in 1792, was now to be widened by an advance upon the inland forest. On April I, 1793, eight hundred choice acres adjoining Todd's Survey in Miami Township were measured for Ezekiel Howell. On April To, a four hundred tract was cut out on the O'Bannon in Goshen Township for W. Campbell. The young surveyor may be regarded as having "found himself" by the end of that summer, judging by the work accomplished during a few days. From October 6 to October 12 inclusive, the surveys on the waters of the East Fork, and mostly in Batavia Township, were : for Robert Tyler, thirteen hundred and thirty-three and one-third acres ; for John Gernon, two thousand acres ; for Joseph Jones, seven hundred thirty-eight acres ; for N. Darby, fourteen hundred and forty-four acres ; for William Parsons, one thousand acres ; and for Robert Gibbon, one thousand acres—in all, seven thousand, five hundred and fifteen and one-third acres in six tracts, in seven days. Some of these and many others have suffered a change of names but the metes and bounds are as fixed by Lytle. The Gibbon tract includes the town of Amelia. The chain for the Parsons Survey was carried by David Osborn and Charles Crist, while the marking was done by Daniel Campbell. A thousand acres for Robert Dandridge was arranged to include the water power on Clover Creek. The profit of the work was fascinating. An old Virginia law fixed a surveyor's fee for the field work and descriptive plat at three hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco for each thousand acres. But, with the great peril of the work, such regulation went out of use, and the owners of land warrants gladly gave an interest in the tract to be located when a price in money could not be agreed upon. Sometimes a fourth and even a- third interest was offered. The owner or owners of several warrants sometimes offered one for the surveys of the rest. Then, .presently, a tract would he entered in Lytle's own name. All Kentucky was speculating in land and no one was more hopeful than young William Lytle, as he realized his steadily growing consequence as an Ohio land-holder. Ambi- CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 181 tion tinted every prospect. We can believe that the winter months were busy with describing and explaining what had been done, and with planning, dealing and contracting for the next campaign. The youthful hero of Moluntha's Capture and Grant's Defeat was welcomed with local pride about Lexington or where he chose to go. in Kentucky. The trend of his ambition carried him away from the swirl of petty rivalries and gained him sympathy amid otherwise jealous contentions. Those, who might have been hostile to his energy centered on local affairs, were eager to use his talent on the danger line. Without a page to quote from but the maps of his work, we know that his life was brimful of intense physical and mental activity. His enterprise was radically personal in every detail. There was no co-operative bureau or agency to collect the warrants, arrange the terms or distribute the surveys. There was no mail, no express, no communication, except a special messenger went to or from the party hidden in the wilderness. Everything depended upon the infinite attention of the chief whose sole limitation was an honorable performance of his promise. Lytle's party for 1794 started early—so early, that on March 27 they had completed a survey for John Breckenridge of four thousand acres within which the Village of Bethel was somewhat centrally founded. In and about that Breckenridge Survey, fate also founded and fostered a series of incidents that within two generations reached the utmost importance yet attained in the Story of Freedom. While a completed survey was a desirable base for another, it was sometimes required that there should be a "line-up" with an older one miles away. A general gathering place -Arius became a necessity for a party -many miles from its home. A sheer bank of thirty feet facing southward across the East Fork and stretching more than as many rods either way along the stream offered some protection against attack on that side. The huge beech trees that crowned the bluff were a natural rampart for men trained "to tree" against an enemy. A plentiful spring flowed and still flows 'front between the Silurian ledges and the eight or ten feet of overtopping gravel and soil that forms the surrounding plain to the hills a half mile away. In front of the bank and floating down ward from the midway 182 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES spring, a pretty island of some three acres once divided the river and made the scene an enchanting trysting place for rural revelry, party powwow or pious praise. Some thought that a trail came that way from the Shawnee towns on the Miami to the Buffalo grounds by the Bluelick plains in Kentucky. Others thought it was on the way by which the Scioto Warriors hastened to the Mouth of the Licking. Lytle soon learned that the camp was central in the Valley of the East Fork, about which his fortune was gathering. Just when the camp was formally chosen is not known. But the traditions of the Surveyor's Camp were a vivid memory among some who loved to tell how things began. It may have had some use in 1793. The following year required such convenience and in 1795, Lytle's work was all around that vicinity, reaching eastward into the present limits of Brown County. Among those speculating in Ohio lands was General James Taylor afterward a resident of Newport, Kentucky, who became the holder of many fine tracts in the Virginia Military District. The immediate local effect of Wayne's Victory was to permit actual settlers to buy lands for that purpose. The first evidence of that new order in Old Clermont was a power of attorney from General Taylor to William Lytle issued on April 24, 1795, authorizing him to sell and convey in such quantities and on such terms as he saw fit any or all of Taylor's Military lands. The survey of a thousand acres between Mount Carmel and Tobasco was sold to Robert Kyle for two dollars and fifty cents per acre. The next survey including Tobasco was sold for two dollars per acre, to Daniel Durham. In the same year Ezekiel Dimmitt bought the fine bottom lands just below Batavia for two dollars and fifty cents per acre. These values may be regarded as fairly representative of the land market in 1795. The buyers were among the ablest of the pioneers and left prosperous families. Taylor and Lytle were thoroughly posted traders and fully realized the benefits from prospective settlement. In coming and going between Lexington and his work in Ohio, Lytle had the choice of two roads. One was the main pioneer trail from Limestone Point on the Ohio to Central Kentucky, now known as the Maysville and Lexington Pike. From Limestone the way to his camp went down the Ohio and CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 183 over the hills across the Breckenridge Survey, sometimes by Feesburg, but generally by the Bullskin. That way went nearby where Amos Wood, his son William, and Thomas Watt came over the river from their cabin by what is now Dover to get some Ohio venison. Having killed a deer and while getting ready to return, they were surprised by Indians and fled with all speed. Failing to reach their boat. Amos jumped into the river and started to swim across, but was shot from the bank. The son was tomahawked while running for life. A tomahawk thrown at Watt was dodged and gained by him. Turning upon the pursuing Indian, Watt was able to gain the boat and reached the Dover shore, where the tragedy had been witnessed by the wife and mother and other friends of the slain. Wood's body was found near Cincinnati, where the rest of the family afterward lived awhile and then drifted away to a still wilder frontier. How many more of the luckless who went from friends and were known no more may have perished on the lonely shore of Old Clermont can never be told. But when Lytle wished to confer with General Taylor or make large acquaintance with the managers of the Symmes Purchase or to meet those who were going between Kentucky and the Army or to pay his respect to Governor St. Clair, he went by Covalt's Station to Cincinnati and over the road lately opened from there to Lexington. While the locality has frequent mention in the early annals of the Cincinnati region the story of Covalt's Station has been strangely omitted from works that should have been adorned with the heroic incidents. In the same days when Judge Symmes and Major Stites were forming their plans and gathering the companies that settled Columbia and North Bend and resulted in Cincinnati, Captain Abraham Covalt, a soldier of the Revolution, from New Jersey, but then a resident of Bedford County, Pennsylvania. negotiated with Symmes and Stites for the possession of a tract on the Little Miami, which proved to be the noble terrace opposite, the mouth of the East Fork that at once gained fame among the pioneers with the appropriately descriptive name of "Round Bottom." The forgetfulness of the ancient story is doubtless due to the fact that the first settlers Soon went away and left their fine land to be the farm home of United States Senator, John Smith, whose fair 184 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES fame was clouded by an imputed complicity with Aaron Burr. After that, every material vestige of the once formidable station faded from sight and memory so that none can point its place. Captain Covalt having organized his expedition and journeyed over the mountains to the Ohio, started down the river on New Year's day, 1789, and on January 19, landed without mishap at Columbia, from two large "arks" loaded with all that was deemed necessary for an independent colony. One boat brought agricultural implements, the outfit for a small grain mill and the finest lot of horses, cattle, sheep and swine that had as yet been brought to the Territory North West. The entire company amounted to forty-five men, women and children. The patriarch's family was numerous, and the heads of other families were Robert McKinney, Jonathan Pittman, John Webb, John Hutchens, David Smith, Z. Hinkle and Timothy Covalt. Among the single friends and relatives were Fletcher, Buckingham, Beagle, Clemmons, Cook, Coleman, Murphy and Gerston. On the dispersion of the colony, the paternal names of Covalt, McKinney, Webb, Hutchens, Fletcher, Beagle and Clemmons crossed the Miami and following the lines to newer and cheaper lands, found homes in Union, Miami, Goshen, Wayne and Stonelick Townships of Clermont County. As many of the men were cut off in the long war, the more numerous maternal branches have formed a bewildering network of extensive relationship to that hand of bold adventurers. Captain Covalt indulged no illusions of a peaceful possession. Through undaunting perils and with unflinching fortitude, he hoped to plant his family amid the honorable plenty of the most productive prospect of which his ears had heard. To accomplish this, the grandfather accepted the hazard of planting their fortune on the utmost verge of the Indian Country at the mouth of the desolate Valley centering the Land of Old Clermont. Without delay the weak were left on the boats and in tents protected by Columbia while the strong went to Round Bottom and built seventeen cabins into a palisade that also protected a structure for their mill. The exact location is not certain except that it was determined by the water power of the small stream from the hills, long known as Mill Run. The site therefore was near the present confluence of the Wooster CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 185 Pike, the Pennsylvania Railway, the Hillsboro and Columbus, and the Milford and Blanchester Traction lines. This scene of incessant travel in full view of the immense freighting of the Norfolk and Western Railway across the Miami has the distinction of being the firs: inland white .settlement in all Ohio. As the winter of 1788-9 with its record of extreme severity went by, Covalt's people were reunited under their protecting palisade in making the "clearing" that now bears the alluring yet satisfying name of "Terrace Park." Before the first flowers of spring had faded in that lovelies of valleys, five of their best horses had been stolen. In June Fletcher, Buckingham and Abraham Covalt, Jr started to hunt up the Miami. Before going far, Covalt became uneasy and insisted that they should return so urgently that the others consented to get back to the station by nightfall. While retracing their way, they were suddenly fired upon by a band of yelling Indians. Covalt and Fletcher were walking close together, and started to run down the river. Buckingham some three rods in the rear started up the river much hindered by his blanket which was finally flung from his neck with the loss of his hat. The hill coming close to the river there, he started up, but soon perceiving that he was not pursued, he stopped, carefully primed his gun, and listened. A yelling down the bottom forty rods or more away convinced him that one or both of his companions had been overtaken. With such a start, he hurried along the hills till near the railroad bridge below Miamisville, and then across the bottom plain made famous as Camp Dennison, to the stockade, where Fletcher had come only a few minutes earlier in the nigl t. Tripped by a vine, Fletcher had fallen and laid stab- while the pursuers. thinking him done for, pushed on after the doomed Covalt. Then he darted aside and gained safety. A searching party tree next day found and brought young Covalt's scalped and plundered body for decent burial at the Station. One month later his dearest friend, Abel Cook, was killed by a savage lurking around their field, and was buried by his side. In March, 179o, the row of graves was increased for Captain Covalt and Hinkle, who were killed while making shingles near the fort. In September, 1791, Captain Aaron Mercer and Captain Ignatius Ross of Columbia in returning from Covalt's Mill with their g rists on horseback met 186 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES James Newell, also of Columbia, on his way to the mill with corn to be ground. They warned him that "Indian signs" had been seen, and vainly entreated him to return with them. Before going far, they heard a shot, and on cautiously returning, found that Newell had been killed, pilfered and his horse stolen. Captain Ross was the father of Major Thomas Ross, the pioneer of Sterling Township. Captain Mercer was the pioneer who ventured in the summer of 1792 to build a block house on the east side of the Miami where copious springs gushed from a gravel bank and flowed through a prodigiously fertile bottom safely above all floods. The enterprise was aided by his sons-in-law, Ichabod Miller and Thomas Brown, and the place was known as Mercersburg, until some later people invented the strikingly inappropriate name of Newtown for one of the very old towns of Ohio. One who would rather mingle the fancies of romance with facts of action may find many suggestions in tracing the migrations of families. In 1789 'William Riggs, Sr., of Delaware, and a on who answered to the title of Major started from Delaware with a good wagon, four fine horses, a negro man worth eight hundred dollars, a choice outfit and three thousand dollars in gold. The winter was spent with a son and daughter living near Fort Red Stone, doubtless with much satisfactory speculation about the fine heritage that would be secured in the Miami country. In the spring of 1790, they reached Limestone, where the negro man took flight and was seen no more. After a vain wait for his return, their boat sailed or floated to Columbia, where the wagon was put ashore and the horses tied fore and aft, as was the custom, for feeding over night, with two boys for a sleepy guard. In the morning the horses were gone and never found, without blame to the Indians. In some way the family became a part of the Covalt garrison. Shortly after Newell's fate, Timothy Covalt, who had succeeded his father, went with Major Riggs across the Miami to get a basket of pawpaws. As they sauntered through a patch back of the long familiar mill site, they met the fire and awful yell of three Indians lurking along the gravelly ridge fifteen or twenty yards away. Seeing that Riggs, who was ahead, had fallen. Covalt turned from the hotly pursuing Indians and fled into the river from which he was rescued by people from the CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 187 fort who came so promptly that the Indians only stopped to scalp the unfortunate Riggs who could not have been chosen for more evil fate in Delaware. A large per cent. of the Covalt garrison was with St. Clair's Army, and when the tidings of that defeat came, the dispirited remnant took their effects and combined with those at Gerard's Station. Gerard's Station was founded in April, 1790, by a party that went entirely outside of Symmes' Purchase and boldly established themselves on the east side of the Little Miami entirely within the Virginia Military reservation, where a strong block house was built not far from the eastern end of what has long been known as the Union Bridge—a point of unique importance to much of Brown and Clermont Counties. The head men in maintaining Gerard Station were John Gerard, Joseph Martin, Captain James Flinn, Stephen Betts, Joseph Williamson, Stephen Davis, Richard Hall and Jacob Bachofen. The talk about old-fashioned weather, either hot or cold or any extreme, has no supporting evidence in a long aggregation of time. While the winter of 1788-9 was a dreadful memory, the first winter of 1792 was semitropical. The despair of defeat was lulled by a gladness of spring that wooed the refugees back to the deserted stations, and. Round Bottom was reoccupied in February. But during the summer three of Covalt's already depleted garrison were captured. The loss of the leader and more than half of the defenders told heavily on the rest. How the affairs of the Station were settled and how the estate passed to Senator Smith, I have not learned, nor does it matter much after the failure of the heroic effort, except the painful neglect which has obliterated the graves that should have been respected. The pertinence to our story is the grim courage that went back from the River Ohio and there boldly made the first interior stand for civilization, in West Milford on the edge and within the municipal jurisdiction of Clermont. And with this, the fact must be taken that quite a half of the survivors staked their subsequent fortune in Old Clermont. Lytle had fine control of the old pioneer spirit. He believed in such men and they believed in him. No other man of his time induced so many to come to his lands and terms. There is a tradition of the Surveyor's Camp that Adam Snider, one of 188 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES his men, killed an Indian for some offense, such, perhaps, as horse stealing—the greatest of pioneer provocations—for Which retaliation was demanded. Lytle considered the complaint with a diplomatic gravity delightful to Indian etiquette and surprising to his associates. A feast was served and presents arranged until the messengers professed satisfaction and ceased to prosecute. The tradition rests upon the memory of Mrs. Mary Cowdrey, a daughter of General Lytle's youngest sister, Elizabeth, whose married name was Beaty. Nearly seventy years of Mrs. Cowdrey's life were passed as a resident of Pike Township. Her story long forgotten by others is confirmed by the fact that Adam Snider was one in the Surveyor's Camp and that he lived long in Williamsburg in a house across Broadway from the Court House, of which he was the janitor for many years. He was remembered by the old as a gentle, pleasant mannered man who bore no trace of a wild rough life. The easy change in their demand may be taken as proof that the Indians had not come to the camp with clean hands, but rather in a spirit of making good out of a bad claim. In fact, the waning power of the Indians in 1793-4, despite their recent victories, permitted little attention to the clamor of distant bands whose pilferings were a poor substitute for the stern duty of watching and hindering Wayne's steady march toward the ruin of their dominion. After all the war for the Ohio was but a part of the ceaseless conflict that has everywhere happened, and will forever occur between the essentially hostile forces of ignorance and progress. By the innate strength of its own action European refinement was brought into line along the Ohio against conditions thousands of years behind the march of the white race. The collision between resolute natures that would not and could not exist together was not to be averted. Every plea of the Indian to hold the land for hunting was impossible. Every proposition to divide the land for individual tilling, and for the use of commerce was scorned. And so the tiller rose up against the man who would not work and slew him. If the hunting rights had existed for generations and through centuries the decisions of war would have been equally forceful. But the possession of the Shawnee claimants between Eagle Creek and the O'Bannon to the utmost sources of all CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 189 the included streams had been nominal, and never amounted to the construction of one wigwam or the planting of a hill of corn. Again, this nominal claim never reached the duration that civilized experience has wisely established for the limitations needed to confirm a thorough and undisturbed possession. From the extirpation of title Mound Builders to the ejectment of the Shawnees there is nothing to show that the region of Brown and Clermont counties was ever more than a trailing ground for hurried bands—and not much of that. With such conclusion there is no need for mawkish sentiment about the fate of the barbarians. They were the victims of an evolution that soon or late destroys what can not be assimilated. Their removal was so imperatively necessary as the extirpation of the fierce animals that fed upon the flocks and could neither change their spots nor hide their ravenous jaws. Yet no human mind can or should ignore the pity of or forget the sorrow that fell to the women and children for whom Moluntha asked mercy from the conquering race. The lack of a report of his .plea for peace in face of the opposition of his warriors amid the commotion of the interrupted Treaty of Fort Finney is a deplorable loss from the all too meager records of Indian eloquence. The violence of their life, the imminence of tragic death, the mourning of mothers, the cry of fatherless children, the hunger of many, the impending ruin of all, formed a matchless theme for impassioned declamation, which, from the treaty, we know was mastered by the old Sachem, who was the statesman of the people generaled by Cornstalk and Tecumseh. At last, within eight years of his dastardly assassination, the destiny foreseen by Moluntha was accomplished at the Battle of the Fallen Timbers on the. Maumee. After the results of that battle were confirmed by Wayne's Treaty in 1795, the white man was free, and not before, to "plant corn in Ohio," unvexed by Shawnee war. Enough of the land had been surveyed to afford homes for many, but the work was only fairly begun, and much the larger part had not been touched by O'Bannon, Massie, Lytle and the agents of Taylor. What was done by others came later. CHAPTER IX. COMING OF THE PIONEERS. The Effacement of a Hundred Years—The Settlements After Wayne's Treaty—Massie's Repulse from Paint Creek in 1795 —The Origin of Williamsburg—James Kain—Massie and Lytle in the East in the Winter of 1795-96—Platting of Williamsburg Stopped by a Blizzard—Thomas Paxton—The Buchanan, Wood and Manning Settlement—The Ferguson Family—John Logston—Hamilton and Clark—Beltashazzar Dragoo—The Pioneers in a Forest Land—Adam Bricker—The People of 1796—The Pietists—The Five Ellis Brothers —The Dunlap-Kinkead Connection—James Edwards—Mills Stephenson—The Beaseleys—The Longs—Amos Ellis—Ezekiel Dimmitt and the Gest Brothers—The Light Family —The Christmas Fires of 1797—The Origin of BethelObed Denham—The Baptist Church—The First Emancipa tion Society—Taylor and Lytle Build a Grain and Saw Mill—The Earliest Breadstuff—The First Mill East of the Little Miami and West of ChillicotheLytle in Philadelphia in 1797-98—Early Births—Rumors of a New County—Earliest Roads—First Marriage—Kain's Dug Way and Morgan's Raid. A view of the period in which our institutions began immediately involves a consideration of when and how and where the land was "taken up," which was the term of the time that distinguished private tracts from the public domain. Since in the beginning the forest covered all, it will be easier to mention and understand where it was broken. Only those who attempt to revive the past can realize how completely the ordinary concern of a life is submerged by a hundred years. Except it be written on a trasured leaf or carved on a mossy stone there is naught to tell a name of those upon whose knees our infant sires were tossed. Enough, however, has been gathered from here and there to mark some lines between what was and what was not, so that a mind alert for historic hint may find some unexpected satisfaction. 192 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES While insisting that the Indian claims to our part of Ohio depended upon might and not upon right, it is only fair to add that there is no authentic instance of any claim whatever upon any land in Brown or Clermont counties not founded upon the ordinances and acts of Congress. This condition limits attention to the occupation of the surveys on which no settlement was maintained before the Treaty of Greenville, August 3, 1795, a date to be repeated until accepted as the base for all peaceful settlement north of the Ohio. Outside of the fourteen or fifteen block houses or stations around Fort Washington and forming a defensive cordon for the Cincinnati group the first settlement to the north was under the protection of Fort Hamilton, where ten families came in 1794. The first on record to test the value of Wayne's Treaty was William Bedle, who, on September 21, 1795, left Cincinnati with his fortunes in a wagon and went by one of the old army trails to a point about five miles west of Lebanon, where, lest the Indians should forget, he built a block house for safety and began the first clearing in Warren County. In the same days, a company, in which Governor St. Clair was a shareholder, started an exploring party up the Great Miami. On November 4, that same party located at Dayton, to which three different companies went from Cincinnati in 1796 and made the first start in Montgomery County. The first settlement in Clark County was made at Chribb's Station in 1796, and on April 7, 1796, the first house was raised in Greene county. In December, 1794, a correspondence between Massie and Rev. Robert W. Finley relative to a settlement of emancipators from Kentucky resulted in the forming of a party of sixty men at Manchester for an exploration of the Scioto Valley. On reaching Paint Creek they encountered the Indians of that vicinity, who had refused to take part in Wayne's Treaty. In the conflict that followed Joshua Robinson was mortally wounded, but Armstrong, a captive, escaped to his friends, while two Indians were killed an several wounded. The Kentuckians retreated to Brush Creek, where they were attacked early the next morning. The party continued to retreat with Allen Gilfillan wounded. and, on the next day, reached Manchester and went to their homes. With this repulse the efforts for settlement in that direction for 1795 were closed. CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 193 Meanwhile, Lytle returned to his camp on the East Fork. On May 14, 1795, he made Timothy Peyton's Survey, No. 954, of one thousand acres in Sterling Township. Other work was done. But the time had come for a more important attempt. For two or three miles westward from the camp, close along the present track of the Nor Folk & Western Railway, a tornado in downward swoop had leveled the forest some years before, and left a log-strewn scene, When soaked with winter storms, the rotting trunks were more forbidding for cultivation than the green wilderness. But when fanned by summer winds, the tangled mass was quick to burn. That Surveyor's camp and the tornado's path were the origin of Williamsburg, that, after Manchester, was a twin birth with Chillicothe, as the second town founded between the Scioto and the Little Miami. Without waiting for settlers, Lytle determined to make a start where it would fix attention in a way to do him the most good. To this end, James Kain, of Columbia, where he had come in 1790 from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with well grown sons and some younger children, was engaged to clear forty acres of the tornado deadening. The extent of the undertaking in one season proves that much help was required, but who rendered that help beyond his sons Daniel and John is not known. The clearing made in 1795, from its nature, was done in the dry season--in the summer. The clearing camp or cabin was a mile and a half west of the Surveyor's Camp. The scene until recently was witnessed by a spring beneath the brow of the hill about two hundred yards south of the Deerfield road and west of Kain Run, so named from the first white man to dwell by its course. In those days the plans of Massie and Lytle were perfected for final action. The friendship of the master and pupil was strengthened by the larger purposes of manhood. Massie must have been much vexed by the skirmish with the Paint Creek Indians which had deferred his hopes by making settlements that would promote the land market in which both had much interest. They felt that the chance was coming that would redeem their hopes and repay their risks. And, what was still more important, both had located about all the land warrants that could be picked up in Kentucky. But the CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 194 warrants were reported to be plenty and cheap in the East. Therefore. in the fall of 1795, both went east for mutual advantage and with a clear understanding of their purpose to secure the patents for lands already surveyed and to obtain options on work to come. They travelled well mounted with extra horses for the packs, the servants and themselves, so that the company could move rapidly and keep well together, for the Indians were not the only dangerous people on the lonesome traces. In a letter from Philadelphia, then the national capital, and dated January 16, 1796, to his "Honored Parents," and now in my hand, Lytle gives a short account of his travels. He not only describes his difficulties, but also shows the customs of a well-to-do traveller at that time and proves himself a master of clear expression. "Before arriving here in the fall, I had been obliged to travel 2,100 miles through several states ; then finding, after three weeks' delay that my business called me to Richmond, Va., I left Peter, my servant, to take care of my horses and went on board a packet that sailed for Baltimore, where I continued my journey in the land stages to Fredericksburg, in Virginia, at which place I was obliged to lie for one fortnight, when I got better and went on ; but, unfortunately caught cold and relapsed. By the time I arrived in Richmond, I was ready to go to bed and lie thirty-three days, extremely ill with a nervous complaint, unable to attend to business or anything else. I then set out for Philadelphia again, at which place I arrived on the 28th of December, and have mended daily since, and at this time enjoy estimable health, living in Fourth street near the Market. Mr. Massie and self found, as we cannot get our patents down for two months, that it will be better for one of us to stay and get them, than to take the trouble of coming all the way back, so the lot appears to fall on me to stay, and I suppose it will be he .middle of March before I leave. I think, if I get home once more, I will marry some person that will keep me there for I am tired of this rambling. The French appear to be generally successful, and I believe peace would be agreeable to both parties, if they knew how to come at it on honorable terms. I had the honor of dining a few days since with a British officer on CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 195 the Lightning, so after the conversation changed to the present state of war in Europe, 'Oh, damn the French,' said the Captain, 'we are like not to do as much as we thought with them ; they are like flints—the more they're beat, the more they spit fire.' " This letter concluding with some personal words to parents, brothers and sisters was directed to "William Lytle, Esqr., Fayette Co'ty, Kentucky." Because a mail to that place as yet was not, the four pages were held by a wafer without an envelope, and "Honored by Mr. N. Massie." The child who wanted "to see things" done in the first landing at Cincinnati, the buffalo and bear hunter of fourteen, the boy volunteer who captured Moluntha and defied his General, the demon incarnate of wild courage at Grant's Defeat, the pupil who outran the Indians in a four-mile race from Donal-son's Creek, the youthful surveyor and prosperous land dealer, was now left in his twenty-sixth year to guide and maintain an important business and enjoy life in what was then the most select society in America, where he was credited with fine spirit and great promise ; for his heroism was well known to the officials over whom George Washington was still President. Amid such pleasant surroundings, he met and impressed a young lady already chosen by fate to he the grandmother of their illustrious descendant, "The Soldier Poet of America." The future generals eventually got their patents "down." With their habits of keen observation, they must also have learned much that was different from, the woodcraft of their experience. Many warrants were obtained that made the future look busy, and old plans were made definite. Massie returned and so restored the hopes of the emancipators, that Finney and forty others met him at Manchester, and, starting about April I, 1796, went to the mouth of Paint Creek, while others boated up the Ohio and the Scioto. They planted some three hundred acres of Indian fields in corn. In August Massie began to lay out the town of Chillicothe and by the end of the year twenty cabins were occupied. Because of his detention in Philadelphia even longer than expected, Lytle did not get started so early. Kain returned, planted corn and enlarged the clearing, and became a permanent settler. But 196 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES before this, and according to the family tradition, in 1795, he brought his daughter Polly—for Mary—then a handsome lass of twelve years, on the same horse with an older friend,. Polly Bunton, from Columbia where their provisions were obtained. While at the camp these girls cooked for the clearing party. How long that employment lasted is not told, but from it they both claimed, in many years to follow, that' they were the first white women to come to the East Fork Valley, and that statement was never disputed. Polly Kain married James Perrine and Polly Bunton married Daniel Kidd, both worthy pioneers of Batavia, who all lived to see their posterity sit in high places—so high that the peril and adventure of those girls seem an impossible dream. Among those who belonged to the surveyor's company, tradition and documentary proof alike have preserved the names of Adam Bricker, Adam Snider and Ramoth Bunton, the father of Polly, as subsequent residents. In 1796 the clearing grew so large that it was known as a landmark in pioneer geography, as the "Big Field," long after the locality was marked on the maps as Williamsburg. As the indispensable planting and tending of the crop permitted, Kain built a large cabin by the Surveyor's Camp. That cabin was on the ground afterwards laid off and numbered as In Lot No. 43. The exact site is now covered by the fine home of Charles P. Chatterton, whose wife, once Lorisa Kain, is a great-granddaughter of the first occupant of the ground. To that cabin Kain's family was brought by way of Newtown in a wagon driven by young Archibald McLain over a road that had to be cut through the brush, so that the trip took several days. As soon as established, the "Kain House" became a place, where the surveyors brought the game that fell in their ramblings, and where they found a more varied table than their regular camp fare. Under such conditions, but at a date not stated, Lytle began to lay off his town with the help of John and James Campbell as chain carriers, and James Sterling as marker. Even with Lytle's activity and dexterity the task of arranging and platting five hundred lots with streets properly disposed to the nature of irregular surroundings, all supplemented by nearly one hundred and fifty out lots or squares for an expected growth, and CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 197 all laid with a precision that hinders trouble and still commands admiration, was neither easily nor quickly done. While the enterprise was in full action. a blizzard on November 26, 1796, froze the earth so that stakes could not be driven and in consequence no more was done with compass and chain that year. Before leaving for winter quarters, the reports were completed for three surveys for Daniel De Benneville, amounting to three thousand five hundred acres including the town and nearly one-fifth of the township of Williamsburg. The platting and the statements of Lytle gave such assurance of a town that some c ecided to stay. There was plenty of corn in the Big Field and game in the woods everywhere. Much work was promised the next year. According to custom, a lot each was to be given the first ten settlers that would build a house. Kain took Lot 43 west of the Surveyor's Camp which ranged along the bank and the adjoining part of Front Street. Adam Snider built on Lot 265. Adam Bricker took his chance west of the mill site. Ramoth Bunton chose a lot by the spring north from the public square. A statement has been made that John Lytle remained in the place during the winter of 1796-7. Whether so or not, the four cabins named are all that can be claimed for that date. A good deal can be found to show that a satisfactory man could hold a steady place with Lytle whose policy was always generous. There was, and is yet where not usurped, a surplus of both width and length for every lot in Williamsburg. There is or was a tradition that his practice was based upon the assumption that there was enough for all, and that a full measure would hinder contention. Because of this, people gathered about who cared more for his service than for the wages. In rescuing the Surveyor's Camp for a while longer from the impenetrable oblivion that will ere long shroud all endeavor, I have in some degree accomplished a pleasant but by no means easy task, for the satisfaction of people who may delight to dally with the infancy of Old Clermont. The fading traditions among the old, that were condensed to a phrase or ignored by writers who failed to discern their significance have been assembled, compared and found in such harmony with family registers, public records and events of those days, 198 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES that the work about that camp is restored to a sequence which puts other settlements in a clearer perspective and makes a logical story possible. Much of this explanation must be referred to the fine memory of Mrs. Harriet Lytle, a daughter-in-law of John Lytle, who, after the age of ninety, minutely remembered the conversation of him and his brother, the General, who delighted in her interest in their early adventures. She had clear recollection of such pioneers as lived in Williamsburg until the removal of the county business to Batavia. With the work done there as a surveying center, Williamsburg has a priority of at least three years over any other place between the present limits of Adams and Hamilton counties, or more definitely named, between Covalt's and Massie's Stations. But as a place of continuous residence that priority has been reduced to a contest with several localities. Going eastward from Covalt's Station on Round Bottom, the first of all inland clearings and settlement on the Little Miami within the limits of Old Clermont was made near Loveland by Colonel Thomas Paxton, an officer in the Pennsylvania line in the Revolutionary Army, who also had a command of Kentuckians in Wayne's Army, from which he returned south along the eastern bank of the Little Miami. Pleased with the country, he sold in Kentucky and purchased twelve hundred acres in Miami township. Of four accounts consulted, one states that he came to Loveland in the spring, another in the fall of 1795 ; the other two, in 1796 ; but all claim that he built the first house and raised the first crop of corn by a white man between the Little Miami and Scioto rivers. That claim is both too broad and too far. If the writers, had read farther, they would have found the oldest date exceeded four years by the settlement at Manchester, and still nearer, could have, found several preceding crops and numerous older settlers at Newtown and at Gerard's Station. It is not credible that a man of Paxton's reputed sagacity would have risked his wife and four daughters—a prize to tempt a tribe—far out in the wilderness still haunted by thieving Indians scarcely restrained by the treaty, as was experienced by Massie's expedition to Paint Creek. The confusion in the dates of the different accounts is cleared by CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 199 the reasonable probability that an advance party in 1795, was followed by the family in 1796 to a house that even then was stockaded. The first credible attempt at a clearing on the riverside within the present limits of Clermont was made in the summer of 1795, by error, on the Neville Survey, by John Gregg and William Buchanan, who intended to take up the Anderson Survey at Moscow. Upon discovering the mistake, Gregg returned to Kentucky, whence his son George came in later years to form a large and influential connection. Buchanan went into the uplands and began another clearing near Calvary Church in Washington township. Shortly after he was followed by three brother,,, John, David and Jeriah Wood, and three brothers, John, Nathan and Elisha Manning, who were intermarried with three of the Wood sisters, so as to form almost one family, which during the winter of 1795-6 built a stockade about a fine spring by Indian Creek. That stockade called Manning's Station soon attracted more company and became noted as a place of refuge in the lonely country, yet no attack was ever felt, and the timbers were used for other purposes. Isaac Ferguson, whose rather, Thomas, was with Washington at Great Meadows and in Braddock's Defeat, and who was himself a Revolutionary soldier, moved his family in 1784 from the Monongahela to Limestone In 1792 he was with Kenton in the fight with Tecumseh at Grassy Run. In 1795 while living in Kentucky, opposite tie mouth of Ten Mile, he cleared fifteen acres in Ohio township, planted an orchard and built a cabin to which, in 1796, he brought his family in time to raise a crop. An old tradition claimed that John Logston was the first white man to live in Franklin towns lip in Clermont, where he kept a ferry at the mouth of Bullskin at a date that excluded all others from comparison. If so, his occupation must have been lonesome, unless his patrons were horse stealing Indians, against whom the Kentuckians provided a bounty for every red scalp with the right ear attached, which made canoeing on the Ohio somewhat precarious to the red people, and others too, for the scalp hunters were not over nice and would have preferred a mistake to a lost chance. Any review