KY-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest 8 April 2000 Volume 00 : Issue 147 ______________________________X-Message: #1 Date: Sat, 08 Apr 2000 12:11:46 -0400 From: Bob Francis Subject: MISC: Robert Jones Interview, Part Two, Bourbon Co From: The Kentuckian-Citizen, May, 1935 Pioneer History of Kentucky Interview with Robert Jones >From Draper Manuscripts Courtesy Mrs. William B. Ardery THIRD INSTALLMNT Jan. 18, 1788-At the mouth of Ohio Eagle Creek, Robt. Walker and myself plundered an Indian camp We were alone in our canoe (had gone ahead, or were behind the rest of the Mo. Co.), had drawn it ashore, and were ascending the bank, myself foremost, I thought I saw something, and said to Bob not to push on too abruptly, or close. The pot was swinging over the fire in full view, only concealed by the leaves, so that I did not at first see what it was. etc. We were now on our way to Mo., 20th. of May got back to Louisville, 24th of June, got back to Pa. General Scott made an expedition to guard the passage of the Ohio, Maybe in 1792: Was a mortal creature to swear. I was out and in 14 times. Twice I was in company with 8 men, who had left from my own neighborhood, and all within the hollow of me, and all both times lost. Jack Dial was Captain of my company, Ben Whiteman Lieutenant, and myself ensign, In the company under Scott, that campaign. He also commanded the Mason company of spies. In the fall of 1788 I came down with a boat load of cider, apples, and brandy, etc. I could sell the apples of good size at 25¢ dozen, and cider 25¢ a quart. Soon after I had sold out, I went out and staid up at Washington, till Jan. 18, 1789. I there met with the 2 Walkers, who were known to many of Col. Morgan's Co., which he added to in Pa., after leaving New Jersey. And they being led to join by their acquaintance. I was led to join them by my acquaintance. I then went on with that company to the Spanish settlement on the Mississippi. Col. George, Morgan of New Jersey, had gotten a grant of land at New Madrid. Every man was to have 300 acres of land who would go. The company met with these Walkers and got them, & they got me. Walker and- I went down ahead in that canoe, A little flurry of snow had fallen the last two or three hours, & there were no tracks. They had been trapping with success, & I believe were now going to steal horses, to take it on home. The Indians killed one son of old James Campbell (brother of Mathew ..Campbell that lived at Limestone. He was killed just over the river from there in the spring, and just before I returned from over the Mississippi. Perhaps was hunting. Col. G. Morgan's company amounted to 75, about, in 2 keels, & 5 or 6 flats. We loaned our spare money at Louisville, to buy bells?, Pickled pork, etc. Among the surveyors, about 6, were John Walker, Pete Light, old Mr. Rankins, and John Ward. When we got to Missouri, we wouldn’t take the land. He wanted us to give 9d an acre, and we didn’t want it. We came back and he went on down and back by way of New Orleans. We never got one half our money. It took half of it to get the rest, which we did. When we got back to Louisville we hadn’t a dollar in money. I had lost my gun and sold my watch. The Indians were far more dreadfully worse about Wheeling than ever in Ky. We were not troubled in Missouri. They were with us every day, and every night, in perfect friendship. It was a Spanish country, and they had only to leave to live there. They were not to trouble the Spaniards, or anybody they sent there. As soon as we entered the Ohio, though, we had to stand guard, 2 hours at a time, all night. One woman, called Molly Morgan, that went on to wash for them, staid in that country, and several others; right at the mouth of the creek where New Madrid now is. We surveyed from there, out back. The Indians had a town close by where we landed, Cherokees, Chickasaws, Delawares, Shawnees, etc. Here they brought in scalps and prisoners, frequently: They had a young woman for one of their prisoners. One Jacob Markle, one of the Pennsylvanians, fell in love with her, and was injudicious enough to propose to buy her. They immediately carried her away to one of their Shawnee towns, 60 miles away, afraid. My father came down in the spring of 1790. It was the coldest spring I ever knew. He staid a season at the Irish, Station, near Millersburgh. Fall 1792. John Edgington (&w. old Mrs. Nelson), Bill Williams, Joe Wells (&w. Archibald McDonald) and myself, had a boat coming down the Ohio; when we got down opposite the mouth of the Scioto, the Indians raised the hollow. Our boat was floating bow & stern to shore and we didn't mind them. They asked if we didn't' want some venison; & wouldn’t come ashore; we, if they wouldn't drink some grog? They said it was William Campbell they had there, or that spoke. I told them I knew better, for I had met him in Pa. during the summer, coming back from Detroit. We, under General Scott, he told me. In one of our scouting parties, had come within 2 miles of where he lay, spring 1792. Jacob & Daniel Light's came on back with us. That Daniel Light that was with us in Missouri. The Indians attacked the boat, and killed & wounded all that were in it but 2. Yet the boat was saved. Their boat was 15 or 20 miles behind ours. That, Daniel Light they wounded in 7 places. ______________________________X-Message: #2 Date: Sat, 08 Apr 2000 13:13:00 -0400 From: Bob Francis Subject: MISC: Interview with Robert Jones, Part Three, Bourbon Co From: The Kentuckian-Citizen, May, 1935 Pioneer History of Kentucky Interview with Robert Jones >From Draper Manuscripts Courtesy Mrs. William B. Ardery NOTE--As mentioned earlier, I do not have the FIRT INSTALLMENT of this series. I hope to find it the next time I'm in Bourbon County on a reseach trip.--Bob Francis FOURTH INSTALLMENT Strong's boat. A man that was rowing was shot, so as to graze the front of his forehead, just above, or at the eyebrows. It didn't break the skin: but blood-shot, his face and killed him. All the men on shore were kilied. It was at the mouth of Cygart’s creek. I think they were buried on the lower side of the creek, all together. Bill Lynn was the Captain at the Grove Creek defeat, in the time of the old revolution. He was killed at his station in Kentucky, near Middletown. There, was never as much death from the Indians in Pennsylvania, as lower down in Virginia, where that narrow strip and those short creeks, made it all a frontier. 1792? McCurry was the wagoner's name, who was in the road. Millersburgh. 1790.. Irish station. Came, landed at Limestone, 3rd May. Last of May contracted for some land. We made an Indian ladder, trimmed the sugar trees way up, and burned the branches about the foot of trees, and planted last of May. The Irish station was just settled. They laid out 5 acres to a lot, each side of the road, and that made the station. It was not picketed. One John Cahie, of the Irish station killed a Mr. McCutchen of Millers station, a widower this fall. McCutchen had pursued turkeys over to the neighborhood of Irish station, where Cahie was engaged in the same business. And seeing his head above a log, mistook it for a turkey's back, and shot him. Jimmy Barbour, Andrew Caldwell, old Mr. Frazier, John Cahie, his sons, Geo., Wm., and Jim, (and a son John also?) were at the Irish station. It was very high water that year, in the Mississippi country, and the Bayous ran up into the land, and the high water covered over a great deal of country. There was now and then a very fine piece of land in the midst of such country. Landed at Louisville spring of 1789, May 20th, went up by Owen's Station, near where Shelbyville now is, and from there went on across to where Frankfort now is. There were only three little bush pole cabins at that place. And one Jerry Gullion set us, Johnny & Bob Walker, & myself, over the river. Staid that night at old Wm. Haydon.'s, about a mile out. The fall of 1789, I returned from Pa., and down back of Marietta,. to hunt, Saw Col. Harrod there for the last time. He stopped about a month or more, at one Saml. McCullough's. Was there a hunting. He and I hunted a good deal there together. He seemed perfectly contented, and without any definite purpose in his mind. Joseph Jones, my brother, was killed on Paint Creek, in the spring of 1792. Had gone out a scout under Kenton. The Indians came on the camp in the night, Their fires were hid by the wigwams doubled close around it, so that they came right on it, was the way he got killed. The scout staid ready to go on the next day, or at day, but the Indians cleared out. John Jones, my brother, I was a boy then, was killed at the Beech Bottom ort, on the Ohio, above Wheeling. The Indians were laying in ambush. New Robinson, & my brother, were coming from Ramsey's Fort, about 6 miles off. Ned was shot in this way, viz., etc.—My brother told Robinson to tell Capt. Jos. Ogle to come out that he was mortally wounded. After this my brother, Ignatius Jones, with this same gun that John had, was taken out of the head of the Muskingum, from Fort Tuscara--was, time of McIntosh's campaigns, carried out to Sandusky towns, got away, and was out 18 days. He was the only one that was taken. Lower Sandusky, I think. He and three or four others, had just started to go to Fort Pitt. The Indians had ambuscaded, and took him advancing, and as he thought leading on the others, to attack, when they had retreated. They kept him 2 months at the towns. They were then out at 2 camps, making sugar. He killed 2 from each camp, and made his escape. They had given him an old gun to mend the britch, & he brought it off. He died out on Mad River in Ohio. Charles Norris, and a woman named Bilderback, at the mouth of Short Creek above Wheeling, hadn't been married, it was said, and moved over to the other side to avoid the law. This was the first man and woman that lived in Ohio. He was there & this woman with him, when I came, August 1779, in first block house ever built in Ohio. It was on the upper side of Short Creek, right at the point. That was a stopping place, & crossing place for those who went out and over land jobbing. They then thought that preemptions could be made in Ohio, as well as in Ky. This untill it became Congress land. I had an improvement there clear of timber, some old Indian village,, I suppose. Norris got a still house on this side, & moved back over, and three or four years after, one day jumping from a little wagon, instead of springing forward, and throwing it back, he went straight up, and fell down on the standard, and was killed. 'Twas said he and her were never married at all. But all the frontiers were settled with such kind of people. It is so now way out in the frontiers of Missouri. Tilton gave $70 for a cabin, as an improvement, but it fell into the hands of Congress & he had to give $3600 for 900 acres. Pennsylvania and Virginia were taken up by improvements. ______________________________X-Message: #3 Date: Sat, 08 Apr 2000 13:56:05 -0400 From: Bob Francis Subject: MISC: Interview with Robert Jones, Part Four, Bourbon Co From: The Kentuckian-Citizen, May 15, 1935 Pioneer History of Kentucky Interview with Robert Jones >From Draper Manuscripts Courtesy Mrs. William B. Ardery FIFTH INSTALLMENT I was 16 when I came down. 79 now. 63 years ago. 63-42 equals 19 1842-63 equals 1779. Wm. Green, afterwards in Bracken, was one of those in Missouri. Bob Walker was married to his sister. I came down, time of St. Claires defeat, with another boatload, but it was as great a defeat to me, as it was to the army. I could get a pair of silver knee buckles for a dozen of apples. Ben Hewlin? was Lynne's interpreter when he first came down to Cincinnati. He was chased by the Indians out back of Point Pleasant. Was caught in a place where he had either to be taken, or to jump, from a cliff of rocks. He jumped 53 feet into the top of a buckeye, and from there swung down by the limbs, and when he got down, his cordery vest was burst all into slits by his body swelling. He kept his gun with him all this time, but was so stunned out of his head, that instead of going to the fort, he took down the river, and got 4 miles from the fort, down the Ohio, opposite Gallipolis. He there hung up his Powder horn and left his gun, & crept back to the mouth of the Kenhawa, where he hallooed over, and they came and got him, it was on the lower side of the Kenhawa this happened. His cordery vest was all slit, as with a knife. The Indians, when they saw he would jump, shot 2 guns, but missed. The Indians went down and crossed at the islands, below Gallipolis, that night. The Indians used to come down the Big-Miami, to cross at 18 miles island above Louisville, and 9 miles island on the lower side of Big Kenhawa. Brother-in-law was cabined there on Short Creek, long before it was congress' land. One Maj. Hamtrammock, passed down toward Louisville, and burned every cabin on that side. But they soon put them up again. At the time that McBevar was taken, or killed, one Allen was sent up to the salt-works-are now on Elk Creek--to let them be warned. One Morris family lived on Elk up there. They went back afterwards. Dr. Thompson & Bill Owens, seeing them, was shooting a. welcome, and like to have killed themselves. General Scott's company, that went up to guard the Ohio, numbered 91. One Jones got drowned crossing at Limestone. 91 paraded. 89 went and came. Were 9 days gone. Did nothing. Went up to the mouth of Little Sciota, landed, and 25 men under Jack Dial took a circuit up the Little Sciota, above the forks, and then over to the Big Scioto, on the upper side, and then down to the mouth of Scioto, and then back to Scioto. Not a man over the 25 were willing to go out. These voluntary tours were always a month to draft from which they excused us. Ben Hewlin's jump. was in 1790. We took letters to Blaking and Black, contractors at Washington, Pa., for him. The year before, this, 1789, a very forward frost killed all the corn in roasting ear. Soft corn. It was last day in September. A very early snow. The soft corn froze, and the snow came, too, that night. The weather changed, and a rain fell, & you could smell the corn a 100 yards. Next year, '90, we got rye bread. 11 miles beyond Washington, Pa.; the rye cut green, dried in the straw, and then made into bread. 4 miles beyond was Jack Hill's tavern, evacuated . 11 miles was Davis'. The rye grain was not ripe, but the grains plump and big. The spring was backward, and the corn was planted late. A bushel of corn was from a dollar to 10/s. My brother, Jonas Jones, now the other side of Owenton, was along, 9 miles on the Cincinnati road, 4 miles from Liberty. Bob Todd married a Jenny Lytle. Was killed coming down the, hill, to other side, opposite Frankfort. The killing of him was the making of old General Lytle. Todd had just gotten in as surveyor over in Ohio, and Lytle succeeded him. Nobody with Todd at the time, but his horse brought him off. The Indians never got him. Year 1791 or 2. He left him in the bottom over the other side. I went with Lytle his 1st trip to survey, spring 1791? in Ohio, as hunter. Fox died, and Harry Lee married his widow. There was Peter Lee, too, a brother. It was out back of Manchester, Lytle & we were. Old town was 3 miles above the mouth of Big Kenhawa, where old town creek came into the Ohio. End of ky-footsteps-digest V00 #147 ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access.