OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Tidbits of Ohio -- Part 82B ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES(tm) NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives remain the property of the contributors, who retain publication rights in accordance with US Copyright Laws and Regulations. In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, these documents may be used by anyone for their personal research. They may be used by non-commercial entities so long as all notices and submitter information is included. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit. Any other use, including copying files to other sites, requires permission from the contributors PRIOR to uploading to the other sites. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgenwebarchives.org ************************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 July 18, 2006 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Historical Collections of Ohio And Then They Went West Know Your Ohio Tid-Bits - part 82 B by Darlene E. Kelley notes by [ ] S. Kelly +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Tid-Bits - Part 82 B. Bradstreets Expedition And Rocky Rivers Treasures As told me by C. Whittlesey. The Indian war continuing into the summer of 1764, Col. Boquet advanced with his forces from Fort Pitt to the Muskingum River, and Col. Bradstreet, with a well appointed army of three thousand men, entered Lake Erie in a flotilla of batteaux. After a campaign of varied success, in which the conduct of the latter compares very unfavorably with the former, who duped by the duplicity of the savages, and laboring under a heavy censure from his commander in chief, commenced his return down the Lake, with a force of about eleven hundred men. On the 18th of October, 1764, he left Sandusky Bay, not even recalling his scouts and hunters. " The boats of the army had scarcely entered Lake Erie when a storm descended on them, destroying several, and throwing the whole into confusion. For three days the tempest raged inceasingly, and when the angry lake began to resume tranquility, it was found that the remaining boats were insufficent to convey the troops. A large body of Indians, together with a detachment of provincials, were therefore ordered to make their way to Niagara, along the pathless borders of the Lake. They accordingly set out, and after many days of hardship reached their destination, through such had been their sufferings from fatigue, cold and hungery, from wading swamps, swimming creeks and rivers, and pushing their way through tangled thickets, that many of the provincials perished miserably in the woods. On the 4th of November, seventeen days after their departure from Sandusky, the main body of the army arrived in safety at Niagara, and the whole, embarking on Lake Ontario, proceeded to Oswego. Fortune still seemed adverse to them, for a second tempest arose, and one of the schooners, crowded with troops, floundred out of sight of Oswego, though most of themen were saved." The story goes as told later; " The sequel of the expedition was singularly unfortunate. When a few days out from Sandusky, and about to encamp for the night, Col. Bradstreet, instead of landing at the mouth of a neighboring river ( Rocky, or Cuyahoga ? ) where the boats could have lain in safety, persisted in disembarking at a spot which it was told him was visited by heavy surfs. The result of his obstinacy was, that a heavy storm arising, twenty-five of the batteaux were dashed to pieces, and most of the baggage and ammunition were lost, together with a field train of six brass cannon. A hundred and fifty men were therefore compelled to make the journey to Niagara on foot, through a wilderness of four hundred or more miles, filled with savage men and savage beasts, and crossed by deep rivers and fearful morasses. Many perished on the way, and those who finally reached Niagara were spent with fatigue, cold and hunger. On the 4th of November the main body of the army, wearily shattered, entered the gates of Fort Niagara. Stragglers continued to come in, day after day, until the last of December, that all of the survivors had reached their homes." Franklin B. Hough, M.D. of the Bureau of Military Affairs, at Albany, N.Y., had the unpublished letters of Sir Wm Johnson that was written in the winter of 1763, and in the spring of 1864 was still on file with that bureau to be inspected. They are addressed to Gen. Gage, Charles Lee. Lt. Col. Eyre; also, to the Board of Trade, and to some other unknown persons. They confirm the statements of the foregoing quotations, and furnish other particulars. In his letter to Gen. Gage, he imputes the wrecking to Bradstreet's relying solely upon a Detroit pilot, " a nortorious villian," -- a Frenchman, who had been in the confidence of the late Capt. Dalyell or Dalzell, whose death he caused the year before, by betraying him into an ambuscade. This pilot, it seems, refused to run into a large river [ Black River ] after the storm commenced, and at length persisted, contrary to the sentiment of the army, in drawing up his boats along an open and exposed beach, [ McMahon's ] though, had he gone a lttle farther, another large river [ either Rocky or Cuyahoga ] afforded a safe harbor. As a consequence, before the following morning one-half of his boats were lost, and he buried his cannon and ammunition " by day, all in the sight of ye French Villian." whom he fears will on his return, cause them to be taken up, and employed against Detroit. He also alludes to the overland return of 170 Indians and Rangers, without an ounce of provision at their starting, and speaks of the kindness of the Senaca Indians of Chenusio [ Genesee ] treating famished soldiers with great humanity, feeding them gradually till they recovered, &c. The loss of officers and men by the wreck, was, it is said made the subject of legislative action, reports and petitions, in the colony of New York. If the records and documents should be examined in relation thereto, more light would no doubt be obtained on the subject. That the storm must have overtaken the expedition somewhere between Sandusky and Black River, it is evident from the fact that the latter place, the army had already become alarmed, and were anxious to run into the port. That McMahon's beach was the place where the disaster occurred, is equally evident, for no open beach vestiges of an extensive wreck have been have been found elsewhere. It appears that the boats were closely drawn up aganst the shore, without special precaution, the crews and troops encamped on the then dry beach, and broke with terrific force against the abuptly clay banks. This occurred suddnly, during the night. The frail batteaux were either sunk, dashed to fragments, or driven high over the bar to the base of the cliffs. In a bank of a gully on Col. Merwin's farm, a bayonet was found a few years since, forced to its base into the tenacious clay, some six or seven feet above the bottom of the run, which had evidently been used as a fixture, by which the retreating soldiers drew themselves up to the top of the bank. In another instance, a company of soldiers, invested with their bayonets, belts and cartridge boxes, gained the upland skirting the right bank of McMahon's run, probably wet and fatigued, stripped themselves of their cumbersome impliments, and piled them systematically and soldierly-like, against the foot of a chestnut tree. After the lapse of more than half a century, the bayonets were found by McMahon, covered with leaves and herbage. Nearby a musket barrel was also discovered by him, enclosed in the fork of a tree by the growth of wood. It had been placed in an inclined position, and there had been remained undisturbed until the tree had completely vested it. It must have been in the morning ensuing the suvivors in melancholy groups, overlooking an angry and tumulous lake, the beach strewn with bodies of their dead commrades, and the remains of their boats, arms and provisions. The number of lives here lost is not known. When the storm abated, Bradstreet proceeded to launch and repair such of his boats as had escaped destruction, and to collect and bury the cannon and ammunition which could be recovered. The place of their deposits was probably at the eastern part of a clay cliff, some ten rods west of the mouth of McMahon's run. From time to time the lake has infringed on this cliff. Some years since two six pound cannon balls, and numerous musket balls were washed out. The cannon had either been disinterred and removed in early days by the British, or washed into the Lake by the wearing away of the shore. One of the batteaux, cast high upon the bottom land near this cliff,and probably rendered unseaworthy, was burned, to prevent its falling into wrong hands. the nails, rudder hangings, bow ring, and other irons, as well as the ashes and charcoal remaining after its distruction, were ploughed up by McMahon many years since. The other vestages that were discovered in this locality are; Some one entrusted with a sack or box of gun flints, containing several quarts, threw down his charges near the residence of Frederick Wright, by whom it was disinterred a few years since. An antique silver spoon was ploughed from the earth at the earliest cultivation of John Williams orchard, 40 years ago-an utensil no doubt belonged to some officer's mess. A sword and seeral bayonets were also ploughed up, a little north and east of that place. In the gardens of Mr. Patchen, at the plank Road House, coins have been found, bearing date early in the last century; one a Fench silver coin, of the year 1714, and and English copper penny of 1749. These coins were probablythrown down in discarded clothing, or forsaken knapsacks. Ample room remains for further research at both localities. A number of cannon are doubtless concealed in the sands, fronting McMahon's beach, and the right bar exteding into the Lake from the right bank of Rocky River. Storms and fishermen's nets, are annually revealing other vestages of these disasters. 1st An ancient and elaborately finished sword thrown by the surf on the beach fronting the right bank of the river, in the year 1820, which was picked up by Orin Joiner, a member of the Datus Kelley family. The hilt terminated in a ponderous lions head, which, and the guard, were of pure and solid silver. It was subsequently sold to a Cleveland goldsmith, and the silver was melted down for other uses. If I am correctly informed, the lions head was in the last century, the insignia, to designate the navel officer attched to the flotilla -- probably the commander. 2nd. In the spring of 1842, a heavy storm broke up and rearranged the hidden sand bar, extending at right angles with the beach, from the east bank far into the lake. Evidences were abundent at that tim that one of the sunken barges, which had been engulfed in the quicksands, for more than three fourths of a century was also broken up. Gun Flints, brass guards of muskets, eroded bayonets and fragaments of muskets barrels, were cast on the shore or were found among the sands in shoal water. many of these articles were observed by John Williams, Capt. Burlighame, and Frederick Wright, who were among the few survivors o the early settlers that reollect the circumstances. In one night, Fredrick Wright hauled in six bayonets, while sweeping his bar with his seine, soon after a storm occurred. The surf also threw high upon the beach , the bow-stem of a large boat or batteaux. The wood was much chafed and watersoaked, a heavy iron ring bolt, perforating it, secured by a nut, was deeply incrusted with rust. A thick coating of aquatic moss or algae, invested a portion of wood, while other portions had evidentually been bured in the sand. It remained on the shore for a year or two, when it was burned by fishermen, and he secured the ring-bolt. At that time, it attracted the attention of common observers, and was deeply rooted in their minds, indeffinately associated with other relics. Since the year 1850, no further discoveries have been made on that beach. 3rd. The ring bolt, rudder irons, nails, and other remnants of the consumed batteaux, were exposed by clearing of the bottom at the mouth of McMahon's run, soon after the first settling of the township. 4. In the year 1859, a bayonet was thrown by a plow on the margine of the plateau, overlooking the bank of the river, between Tisdale's point, and the highway, running from the plank-road to the residence of Col Mervin. In the year 1862, Capt Tisdale, while constructing a private road to his residence on the point, uncovered with a plow, the circle of boulders inclosing a quanity of ashes and charcoal- the remains of a campfire, to which allusion has already been made, and which was near where the bayonet was found. On the outer margine of the circle were, dug out of the earth, te remains of a case-knife, nearly consmed by rust, and the blade of a surgeon's amputating knife. 5th. A stack of bayonets, covered with accumulted soil, rubbish and rank vegetation, and the remains of a musket, resting in a crotch of a tree. 6th Several years later, two six-pound canon balls and a number of leaden musket balls, were exposed to view, by undermining, by the Lake of the clay cliff. which rises from the western margin of the bottom lands. These were no doubt among the articles buried by Bradstreet, with his cannon and ammunition as described by Sir William Johnson. 7th. About the year 1831, a young daughter of Datus Kelley, now Mrs. Charles Carpenter, of Kelley's Island, found an antique silver spoon on the beach, opposite the present residence of Col Mervin. She dug it out of the sand while at play. It is thick and heavy fr its size, the workmanship, which of course, is evidently old, and is of the model of those that were comon, in the mor wealthy families of New England during the last century. On the underside of the tip of the handle, the initials, I. C. are engraved, and on the bowl, are stampd the initials of the maker, A.S. Mrs Carpenter has had the care and good taste to retain it in her possession as an interesting relic. 8th. On the 4th of July, 1851, Oscar Taylor, in company with several young men, while bathing at the Lake at McMahon's cove, some forty rods west run, discovered in the water a teaspoon simular in all respects, except te engaved initials are S.T. he now resides at New London, Wisconsin, and retains te spoon. On the same occasion Stephen M. Taylor found an old bayonet near that locality. 9th. Still farther to the west, on te beach opposite the farm of Mr. Brown, the proprietor discovered many years since, an iron or steel tomahawk, constructed to answer also the purpose of a piper for smoking. 10th. In the year 1859, an extensive slide of land from the high land, overlooking the lake and the right bank of McMahon's run, took place. While examining it, Edwin Bidwell noticed the end of a bayonet, still bearing the metallic tip of the sheath, projecting from the undisturbed margin of the bank, about twelve inches below the surface, the depth of the soil that seems to have accumlated over many of these relics, dropped by the land, a hundred years since. This bayonet was vested in the fine grained blue clay, formed by the braking down of the adjacent shales, in which condition it is thrown upon the margin of the high banks of the Lake, bu the surf during storms. So perfectly did tis investing material, protect the bayonet against the action of erosive agents,that it now retains much of its polish, and is entire in all its parts. Through the kindness of Mr. B. I have it in my collection at WRHS. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ More in Tid-Bits 82 Part C.