OHIO STATEWIDE FILES OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List Issue 179 *********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by 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. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ *********************************************************************** OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 01 : Issue 179 Today's Topics: #1 Montgomery county [Tina Hursh To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.20011001175338.01879f88@clubnet.isl.net> Subject: Montgomery county Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" >From Howe's "History of Ohio", 1888. pg 270 Montgomery County was named from Gen. Richard Montgomery, of the American Revolutionary army; he was born in Ireland, in 1737, and was killed in the assault upon Quebec, Dec. 31, 1775. This county was created May 1, 1803, from Hamilton and Ross, and the temporary seat of justice appointed at the house of George Newcom, in Dayton. About one-half of the county is tolling and the rest level; the soil of an exellent limestone quarries, of a greyish-white hue. Large quantities are ezported to Cincinnati, wehre it is used in constructing the most elegant edifices; nearly all the canal locks from Cincinnati to Toledo are built with it. This is a great manufacturing county, and abundance of water power is furnished by its various streams, and it is very wealthy, with a dense agricultural populataion. The principal products are corn, wheat, rye, oats, barley, flaxseed, potatoes, pork, wool and tobacco. Area about 470 square miles. In 1887 the acres cultivated were 167,779; in pasture, 18,402; woodland, 34,134; lying waste, 9,624; produced in wheat, 639,886 bushels; rye, 4,655; buckwheat, 171; oats, 415,084; barley, 55,960; corn, 1,523,796; broom-corn, 67,759 lbs. brush; meadow hay, 15,104 tons; clover hay, 8,628; flax, 176,477 lbs. fibre; potatoes, 85,200 bushels; tobacco, 4,717,558 lbs. (largest in the State); butter, 829,943; cheese, 2,715; sorghum, 5,872 gallons; maple syrup, 13,934; honey, 4,018lbs; eggs, 34,473 dozen; grapes, 132,780 lbs.; wine, 6,301 gallons; sweet potatoes, 3,648 bushels; apples, 563; peaches, 15; pears, 1,725; wool, 15,747 lbs.; milch cows owned, 10,497. Ohio Mining Statistics, 1888: Limestone, 5, 062 tons burned for lime; 195,537 cubic feet of dimension stone; 33,977 cubic yards of building stone; 422,558 square feet of flagging; 9,750 square feet of paving; 48,586 lineal feet of curbing; 1,352 cubic yards of ballast or macadam. School census, 1888, 26,797; teachers, 402. Miles of railroad track, 165. Townships and Census 1840 1880 Butler 1,897 2,196 Clay 1,633 3,063 Dayton (city and twp) 10,334 38,678 German 2,629 3,451 Harrison - 2,667 Jackson 1,688 2,451 Jefferson 1,895 6,096 Madison 1,594 2,306 Mad River - 2,091 Miami 3,249 5,024 Perry 1,883 2,272 Randolph 1,774 2,327 Van Buren - 2,953 Washington 2,259 1,784 Wayne 1,045 1,191 Population of Montgomery in 1820 was 16,061; 1830, 24,374; 1840, 31,879; 1860, 52,230; 1880, 78,550; of whom 54,396 where born in Ohio; 4,059 Pennsylvania; 1,197 Indiana; 1,114 New York; 1,037 Virginia; 813 Kentucky; 7,894 German Empire; 2,574 Ireland; 664 England and Wales; 270 France; 207 British America; 159 Scotland, and 11 Norway and Sweden. Census, 1890, 100,852. Among the early settlers of Montgomery county was Col. Robert Patterson. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1753, and emigrated to Kentucky in 1775. In 1804 he removed from Kentucky and settled about a mile below Dayton. He was the original proprietor of Lexington, Ky., and one-third owner of Cincinnati, when it was laid out. He was with Col. George Rogers Clarke in 1778, i his celebrated Illinois campaign; in the following year he was in Bowman's expedition against old Chillicothe. In this expedition, according to Patterson's memoranda, Bowman had 400 men. In August, 1780, he was also a captain under [pg 271] Clarke, in his expidition against the Shawnees, on the Little Miami and Mad river; was second in command to Col. Boone, August 19, 1782, at the battle of the Lower Blue Licks; was colonel on the second expedition of Gen. Clarke, in the following September, into the Miami country; held the same office in 1786, under Col. Logan, in his expedition against the Shawnees. He died, August 5, 1827. His early life was full of incidents, one of the most remarkable of which we give in his own language, as origianally published in the Ohio National Journal: Canoe Journey up the Ohio.-In the fall of 1776 I started from McClellan's station (now Georgetown, Ky.) in company with Jos. McNutt, David Perry, James Wernock, James Templeton, Edward Mitchell and Isaac Greer, to go to Pittsburg. We procured provision for our journey at the Blue Licks,from the well-known stone house, the Buffalo. At Limestone we procured a canoe, and started up te Ohio river by water. Nothing material transpired during sevearl of the first days of our journey. We landed at Point Pleasant, where was a fort commanded by Capt. Arbuckle. After remaining thre a short time, and receiving despatches from Capt. Arbuckle to the commandant at Wheeling, we again proceeded. Aware that Indians were lurking along the bank of the river, we travelled with the utmost caution. We usually landed an hour before sunset, cooked and eat our supper, and went on until after dark. At night we lay without fire, ans convenient ot our canoe as possible, and started again in the morning at daybreak. We had all agreed that if any disaster should befall us by day or by night that we should stand by each other, as long as any help could be afforded. Attacked by Inidan.-At lenght the memorable 12th of October arrived. During the day we passed several new improvements, which occasioned us to be less watchful and careful than we had been before. Late in the evening we landed opposite the island {on the Ohio side of the river, in what is now Athens county}, then caleld the Hockhocking, and were beginning to flatter ourselves that we should reach some inhabitants the next day. Having eaten nothing that day, contrary to our usual preactice, we kindled a fire and cooked supper. After we had eaten and made the last of our flour into a loaf of bread, and put it into an old brass kettle to bake, so that we might be ready to start again in the morning at daybreak, we lay down to rest, keeping the same clothes on at night that we wore during the day. For the want of a better, I had on a hunting-shirt and britch clout (so called), and flannel leggins. I had my powder-horn and shot-pouch on my side, and placed the butt of my gun under my head. Five of our company lay on the east side of the fire, and James Templeton and myself on the west; we were lying on our left sides, myself in front, with my right hand hold of my gun. Templeton was lying close behind me. This was our position, and asleep, when we were fired upon by a party of Indians. Immediately after the fire they rushed upon us with tomahawks, as if determined to finish the work of death they had begun. It appeared that one Indian had shot on my side of the fire. I saw the flash of the gun and felt the ball pass through me, but whre I could not tell, nor was it at first painful. I sprang to take up my gun, but my right shoulder came to the ground. I made another effort, and was half bent in getting up, when an Indian sprang past the fire with svage fierceness, and struck me with his tomahawk. From the position I was in, it went betwwen two ribs, just behingd the backbone, a little below the kidney, and penetrated the cavity of the body. He then immediately turned to Templeton (who by this time had got to his feet with his gun in hand), and seized his gun. A desperate scuffle ensued, but Templeton held on, and finally bore off the gun. A Forlorn Condition.-In the meantime I made from the light, and in my attempt to get out of sight, I was delayed for a monet by getting my right arm fast between a tree and a sapling, but having got clear and away fromthe light of the fire, and finding that I had lost the use of my right arm, I made a shift to keep it up by drawing it throuthg the straps of my shot-pouch. I could see the crowd about the fire, but the firing had ceased and the strife seemed to be over. I had reason to believe that the other were all shot and tomahawked. Hearing no one coming towards me, I resolved to go to the river, and, if possible, to get into the canoe and float down, thinking by that means I might possible reach Point Pleasant, supposed to be about 100 miles distant. Just as I got on the beach a little below the canoe, and Indian in the canoe gave a whoop, which gave me to understand that it was best ot withdraw. I did so; and with much difficulty got to an old log, and being very thirsty, faint and exhausted, I was glad to sit down. I felt the blood running, and heard it dropping on the leaves all around me. Presently I heard the Indians board the canoe and float past. All was now silent, and I felt myself in a most forlorn conditiion. I could not see the fire, but determined to find it and see if any of my comrades were alive. I steered the course which I supposed the fire to be, and having reached it, I found Templeton alive, but wounded in nearly the same manner that I was. James Wernock was also dangerously wounded, two balls having passed through his body; Jos. McNutt was dead and scalped; D. Perry was wounded, but not badly, and Isaac Greer was missing. The miseries of that hour cannot well be described. Wernock's Resignation.-When daylight appeared [pg 272] we held a council, and concluded taht inasmuch as one gun and some ammunition was saved, Perry would furnish us with meat, and we would proceed up the river by slow marches to the nearest settlements, supposed to be on hundred miles. A small quantity of provisions which was found scattered around the fire was picked up and distributed among us, and a piece of blanket, which was saved from the fire, was geven to me to cover a wound on my back. On examination, it was found that two balls had passed through my right arm, and that the bone was broken; to dress this, splinters were taken from a tree near the fire that had been shivered from lightning, and placed on the outside of my hunting shirt and bound with a string. And now, being in readiness to move, Perry took the gun and ammunition, and we all got to our feet except Wernock, who, on attempting to get up, fell back to the ground. He refused to try again, said that he could not live, and at the same time desired us to tdo the best we could for ourselves. Perry then tood hold of his arm and told him if he would get up he would carry him; upon this he made another effort to get up, but falling back as before, he begged us in the most solemn manner to leave him. At his request the old kettle was fileld with water and placed at this side, which he said was the last and only favor required of us, and then conjured us to leave him and try to save ourselves, assuring us that should he live to see us again, he would cast no reflections of unkindness upon us. Thus we left him. When we had got a little distance I looked back, and distressed and hopless as Wernock's condition really was, I felt to envy it. After going about 100 poles, we were obliged to stop and rest, and found ourselves too sick and weak to proceed. Another consultation being held, it was agreed that Templeton and myself should remain there with Edward Mitchell, and Perry should take the gun and go tot he nearest settlement and seek relief. Perry promised that if he could not procure assistance he would be back in four days. he then returned to the camp and found Wernock in the same state of mind as when we left, perfectly rational and sensible of his condition, replenished his kettle with water, broght us some fire and started for the settlement. Wernock's Death.-Alike unable to go back or forward, and being very thirsty, we set about getting water from a small stream that happened to be near us, our only drinking vessel an old wool hat, which was so broken that it was with great difficulty made to hold water; but by stuffing leaves in it, we made it hold so that each one could drink from once filling it. Nothing could have been a greater luxury to us than a cold drink of water from the old hat. Just at night Mitchell returned to see if Wernock was still lving, intending if he was dead to get the kettle for us. He arrived just in time to see him expire; but not choosing to leave him until he should be certian that he was dead, he stayed with him until darkness came on, and when he attempted to return to us, he got lost and lay from us all night. We suffered much that night for the want of fire, and through fear that he was either killed or that he had run off; but happily for us our fears were groundless, for next morning at sunrise he found his way to our camp. That day we moved about 200 yards farther upa deep ravine, and farther from the river. The weather, which had been cold and frosty, now became a little warmer, and commenced raining. Those that were with me could set up, but I had no alternative but to lie on my back on the ground, with my right arm over my body. The rain continuing next day, Mitchell took an excursion to examine the hills, and not far distant he found a rock projecting fromt he cliff sufficient to shelter us from the rain, to which place we very gladly removed. He also gathered pawpaws for us, which were our only food, except perhaps a few grapes. Rescuers Arrive.-Time moved slowly on until Saturday. In the meantime we talked over the danger to which Perry was exposed, the distance he had to go and the improbability of his returning. When the time had expired which he had allowed himself, we concluded that we would, if alive, wait for him until Monday, and if he did not come then, and no relief should be afforded, we would attempt to travel to Point Pleasant. The third day after our defeat my arm became very painful. The splinters and leaves and my shirt were cemented together with blood, and stuck so fast to my arm that it required the application of warm water for nearly a whole day to loosen them so that they could be taken off; when this was done, I had my arm dressed with white oad leaves, which had a very good effect. On Saturday about twelve o'clock, Mitchell came with his bosom full of pawpaws, and placed them convenient to us, and returned to his station on the river. He had been gone about an hour, when to our great joy we behld him coming with a company of men. When they approahed us, we found that our trusty friend and companion, David Perry, had returned to our assistance with Captain John Walls, his officers and most of his company. Our feelings of gratitude may possibly be concieved, but works can never describe them. Suffice to say taht these eyes flowed down plenteously with tears, and I was so completely overwhelmed with joy that I fell to the ground. On my recovery, we were taken to the river and refreshed plentifully with provisions, which the captain had brought, and had our wounds dressed by an experienced man, who came for taht purpose. We were afterwards described by the captain to be in a most forgorn and pitiable condition, more like corpses beginning to purify than living beings. While we were at the cliff which sheltered us from the rain, the howling of the wolves in the direction of the fatal spos whence we had so narrowly escaped with our lives, left no doubt that they were feasting on the [pg 273] bodies of our much-lamented friend, McNutt and Wernock. While we were refreshing ourselves at the river, and having our wounds dressed, Captain Walls went with some of his men to the place of our defeat and collected the bondes of our late companions, and buried them with the utmost expedition and care. We were then conducted by water to Captain Wall's station, at Grave Creek. -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V01 Issue #179 *******************************************