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     FIRST WHITE SETTLERS - The name of the first white man to visit the Scioto licks will never be known, but there is every reason for believing that he was a Frenchman, of that class known as Bushrangers, whom King describes as follows:  They were a mixture of the smuggler and trapper, deemed outlaws because they would not purchase licenses under the rigid monopoly in the fur trade as farmed out in Canada.  In this way, thousands of French-

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men disappeared, who had been sent over to the colony at much expense; the king and his ministers constantly complaining of the loss of their subjects.  Far out in the forests of the west, safe from the king's reach, they were living with the savages, marrying and hunting, fiddling, drinking and smoking, in entire independence.  Of Such were many of the earliest settlers of Ohio.  Living thus, they must have accompanied some bands of Indians, sooner or later, on a salt-making expedition to these licks, it is probable that many such visitors had learned of their existence before 1725, for the licensed fur traders of Canada, began to visit the Southern Ohio country about that time.

     FIRST ENGLISH VISITORS - A state of war existed at all times between the French and English borderers.  The French found willing allies in the Indians, for the two races understood each other better and mingled more readily.  Nearly all the French Bushrangers had Indian wives, and in time their half breed progeny became numerous in the Ohio country.  The latter class hated the English with  the combined hatred of Frenchman and Indian, and they spared no effort to stir up their savage kindred against the English borderers of Pennsylvania and Virginia.  As early as 1735 they began to make raids into the Alleghenies to destroy isolated and outlying settlements.  The border warfare thus instituted was conducted with the greatest ferocity and cruelly, and lasted sixty years.  During that period no English settler in the mountains tell himself safe for a day from an attack by the Indians.  They went armed al all times, whether at work, or on pleasure bent.  When they left their homes in the morning they were never sure that they would live to come back, or that the cabin, which held all that was dear to them, would be standing when they came.  From 1735 to 1795, the Indians went on these manhunting excursions just as regularly as Ohio men now go into the mountains of Virginia after game.  As a rule they killed every person, man, woman or child; but there were times when a brave chose a handsome lad for adoption, or a half-breed saved an attractive girl or woman for a wife, or some courageous man was spared, that the Indians might have the pleasure and gratification

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of torturing him at the stake.  All the expeditions up the Kanawha returned by way of the Scioto licks, and it is probable that the first English visitors to them, belonged to one or the other of the classes of captives mentioned.  The Indians told the early salt boilers that it was the custom to burn while prisoners at the stake during the Indian gatherings at the licks in the summer and fall, and that the stake during the Indian gatherings at the licks in the summer and fall, and that the stake stood on the point overlooking the Crossin sulphur spring near the site of the town well.  Scores of English captives were tortured at this point between the years 1735 and 1794.

     DE CELORON'S EXPEDITION - Notwithstanding the alliance between the French and Indians, daring English traders entered the Ohio country during the first quarter of the Eighteenth century, and by 1731 they had penetrated as far as the Wabash.  During the next 15 years English traders came in such numbers that the French became alarmed and sent to Canada for a force to drive out the invaders.  The government acted promptly and sent out an expedition of 250 French and Indians, under the command of De Celoron.  They left Montreal June 15, 1749, moved on by way of Lakes Erie and Chautauqua, down the Allegheny and the Ohio, as far as the Big Miami, and back to the Maumee.  They reached the mouth of the Big Miami August 30, 1749.  De Celeron everywhere proclaimed the dominion of France and drove out the English traders.  The French were now supreme in the valley and although Gist, an Englishman, succeeded in stirring up some trouble in 1750, their traders had a monopoly of the trade until 1762.  During that period they visited the licks regularly.

     APPEARANCE OF THE LICKS - The earliest description of an Ohio lick is to be found in the narrative of Colonel James Smith published in 1799.  Smith was captured by the Indians just before the battle in which Braddock met his defeat and death, and was brought to Ohio and adopted by his captors.  In August of the same year he accompanied them on a salt making expedition to the "Buffalo Lick," as he called it, which he describes as follows:  "We then moved to the Buffalo lick, where we killed

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several buffaloes, and in their small brass kettles they made about half a bushel of salt.  I suppose this lick was about thirty or forty miles from the aforesaid town, and somewhere between the Muskingum, Ohio and Scioto.  About the lick were clear, open woods, and thin white oak land, and at that time there were large roads leading to the lick, like wagon roads."  The town referred to by Smith was on the upper Muskingum, more than 40 miles away from the Scioto licks, but his language is rather indefinite, and the visit may have been made to these very licks.  If this theory be accepted, Smith's visit is the first recorded in their history.

     THE FIRST MAP - As already indicated, the Indians did not murder all their captives, and a certain proportion of those spared escaped from time to time and returned to their homes in Virginia.  It was through the latter that the English learned definitely of the existence of the Scioto licks.  A fairly accurate knowledge of their location was known in Virginia as early as 1755.  Lewis Evans, the Welsh geographer, was born in 1700.  Adopting a surveyor's career, he came out to the colonies, and he is entitled to the honor of having published the first satisfactory map of the English possession in America.  The first edition appeared in 1749.  A second edition, more complete and including Virginia and the Ohio valley, was published in 1755, and the Scioto salt licks are marked upon it.  Unfortunately for the cause of science, Evans died in June, 1756, but his fame is secure.

     THE HALTERMAN BOYS - Three young boys, the sons of Christopher Halterman of Virginia, were brought to the licks in 1759 as captives of the Shawanese.  This tribe, who roamed over the hills of Southern Ohio, and cultivated corn and tobacco patches in its fertile valleys, were the most daring of the Ohio Indians, and their war parties were constantly hovering on the borders of the English settlements.  Among the pioneers was one Christopher Halterman, who, with his family, crossed the mountains and settled on the headwaters of one of the tributaries of the Ohio.  He built a cabin and cleared an acre or two of rich bottom, and all seemed favorable, when he sickened suddenly and died.  The widow was

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a heroine, and instead of abandoning the claim and clearing, as many would have done, she determined to remain in the wilderness.  Her oldest sons were already able to help her, and they might have prospered.  Remote from all Indian trails, they had never seen a native of the forest, and lived in security.  But the end came unexpectedly.  A band of Shawanese passed through the region in the fall of 1759, and one of their scouts discovered the smoke from the widow's cabin.  Creeping stealthily forward while the family was at breakfast, the Indians entered the cabin before their presence was discovered.  Their yells over the easy victory did not daunt the mother, and she seized an ax to defend herself and children, but before she could deliver a blow an Indian sank a tomahawk in her head.  Three little girls were killed in a like manner.  The baby was picked up by the feet, and its head dashed against the wall of the cabin.  Three likely lads remained.  Their sturdy defense with their fists amused the Indians and they spared them.  After scalping the dead and looting the cabin they kindled a fire on the floor and left the neighborhood at once.  Setting out for the Ohio, they were joined by a number of other bands, who were engaged likewise.  In a few days all arrived at the Scioto licks, where they remained for a few weeks.  It was now October, and they set out for Old Chillicothe, where the three Halterman boys, Christopher, Jacob and Gabriel, were adopted into the Shawanese tribe.  The adoption ceremony was very impressive.  The bet description of it in existence is that written by Colonel James Smith, who was adopted by the Indians four years before the Halterman brothers.  His narrative is as follows:  "A number of Indians collected about me, and one of them began to pull the hair out of my head.  He had some ashes on a piece or bark, in which he frequently dipped his fingers in order to take the firmer hold, and so he went on, as if he had been plucking a turkey, until he had all the hair clean out of my head, except a small spot about three or four inches square on my crown.  This they cut off with a pair of scissors, excepting three locks, which they dressed up in their own mode.  Two of these they wrapped round with a narrow beaded garter, made by themselves for that purpose, and the other they plaited at full length, and then stuck.

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it full of silver brooches.  After this they bored my nose and ears, and fixed me off with earrings and nose jewels; then they ordered me to strip off my clothes and put on a breechclout, which I did.  They then painted my head, face and body in various colors.  They put a large belt of wampum on my neck, and silver bands on my hands and right arm; and so an old chief led me out in the street, and gave the alarm halloo, "coowigh," several times, repeated quick; and on this all that were in the town came running and stood round the old chief, who held me by the hand in the midst.  As I at that time knew nothing of their mode of adoption and had seen them put to death all they had taken, and as I never could find that they saved a man alive at Braddock's defeat, I made no doubt but they were about putting me to death in some cruel manner.  The old chief, holding me by the hand, made a long speech, very loud, and when he had done, he handed me to three young squaws, who led me by the hand down the bank into the river, until the water was up to our middle.  The squaws then made signs for me to plunge myself into the water, but I did not understand them.  I thought that the result of the council was that I should be drowned, and that these young ladies were to be the executioners.  They all three laid violent hold of me, and I for some time opposed them with all my might, which occasioned loud laughter by the multitude that were on the bank of the river.  At length one of the squaws made out to speak a little English (for I believe they began to be afraid of me), and said 'No hurt you.'  On this I gave myself up to their ladyships, who were as good as their word, for though they plunged me under water, and washed and rubbed me severely, yet I could not say they hurt me much.  These young women then led me up to the council house, where some of the tribe were ready with new clothes for me.  They gave me a new ruffled shirt, which I put on, also a pair of leggins done off with ribbons and beads, likewise a pair of moccasins and garters dressed with beads, porcupine quills and red hair; also a tinsel laced cappo.  They again painted my head and face with various colors, and tied a bunch of red feathers to one of those locks they had left on the crown of my head, which stood up five or six inches.  They seated me on a bearskin and gave me a pipe, tomahawk, and

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polecat skin pouch, which had been skinned pocket fashion, and contained tobacco, killegenico, or dry sumach leaves, which they mix with their tobacco; also spunk, flint and steel.  When I was thus seated the Indians came in, dressed and painted in their grandest manner.  As they came in they tooook their seats, and for a considerable time there was a profound silence; everyone was smoking, but not a word was spoken among them. At length one of the chiefs made a speech, which was delivered to me by an interpreter, and was as follows: 'My son, you are now flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone.  By the ceremony which was performed this day, every drop of white blood was washed out of your veins.  You are taken into the Caughnewago nation, and initiated into a warlike tribe; you are adopted into a great family, and now received with great seriousness and solemnity in the room and place of a great man.  After what has passed this day you are now one of us by an old strong law and custom.  My son, you have now nothing to fear; we are now under the same obligation to love, support and defend you, that we are to love and to defend one another; therefore you are to consider yourself as one of our people.' "
     After the ceremony, each of the boys was introduced to his new kin and feasted by them.  Gabriel, the youngest, did not farewell, and died the first winter.  Christopher and Jacob were older and better able to withstand the privations of life with the Indians.  They were not entirely without the companionship of whites, for more than a hundred prisoners were in the hands of the Shawanese at that time.  It is probable that the majority of these prisoners were taken to the licks to make salt every summer, as Daniel Boone was later.  The Halterman boys remained with the Indians until they were surrendered to Colonel Bouquet and his army at the forks of the Muskingum Nov. 9, 1764, with 204 other white prisoners.  The scene at this surrender was indescribable.  According to one writer, many of the prisoners were old enough to remember their kindred, and they were only too glad to exchange the wilderness for civilization.  But there were a few, especially women, who had been captured so young, and had lived so long with the Indians, that they were loath to leave, and were removed

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only by force.  Some women, parted from their Indian husbands and children, escaped from the army and returned into the wilderness.  The Haltermans remembered the murder of their mother only too well, and they were delighted to return to the whites.  Christopher was now a young man, and had become an Indian hater.  He became conspicuous in later life as an Indian fighter.  He has descendants living in this county, one of whom is his grandson, Gabriel Evans, named after the little lad that died in captivity.

     END OF FRENCH DOMINION - France set up its claim to the Ohio valley in 1670, by right of discovery and first occupation.  It was annexed to Louisiana in 1713, and ruled from New Orleans.  De Celoron's expedition in 1749 was intended to establish the claims of France beyond dispute, but, instead, and most fortunately for us, it led to the French and Indian war, by which France lost all her possessions on this continent.  The cession was made by the treaty of Fontainebleau, in 1762, and the Ohio valley passed into the undisputed possession of the English.

     ANNEXED TO QUEBEC - QUEBEC - Colonel Bouquet's expedition in 1764 brought the Ohio valley to the attention of Parliament, and, according to some writers, an act was passed in 1766 making the Ohio river the southwestern boundary of Canada, and placing the region north and northwest of it under the local administration of the Province of Quebec.  Later writers claim that this act was not passed until 1774, and King refers to it as follows: "Another event had occurred earlier in the year (1774), unknown to Lord Dunmore, which totally changed the political status and relations of the country, which he had been invading.  Parliament on June 22 had passed an act, 'making more effectual provision for the government of the Province of Quebec,' hence known as the Quebec Act.  By this, the whole country bounded by the Ohio, the Mississippi and the lakes, west of the west line of Pennsylvania, was annexed and made a part of that province.  The declared object of this measure was to extend the boundaries and government of Quebec, so as to secure and satisfy the French inhabitants

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at Kaskaskias, the Wabash and Detroit.  The Quebec act extended to all inhabitants of the province the free exercise and enjoyment of the religion of the Church of Rome, subject, nevertheless, to the king's supremacy.  The clergy of that church were to have their accustomed dues and rights with respect to such persons only as professed that religion; provision being reserved also for the maintenance of the Protestant clergy, as the king should deem expedient and necessary.  This act was denounced in and out of Parliament, as arbitrary and dangerous, and yet, though debated by the most eminent men in both houses, was suffered to pass by the insignificant vote of fifty-six against seven in the House of Lords.  One of these seven was Lord Chatham, who assailed it as "a child of inordinate power."  The Continental Congress also viewed it in that light; not quite the spirit of tolerance which might have been expected of the Sons of Liberty, animated in some degree perhaps with the temper of sour grapes.  This new government, like that which was temporarily imposed by the Ordinance of 1787, was well adapted to an immense country with no population.  Such an unexampled concession of religious liberty placed Parliament at an advantage.  Ohio was now transferred back to its old connection with Canada, and so remained until the treaty of independence."  This act was passed, no doubt, to divide the French and English colonies in the struggle with England, then about to begin.  It succeeded admirably, if that was its purpose.  But it also laid down a precedent that had much more to do with shaping the Ordinance of 1787 than our historians are willing to admit.

     BOTETOURT COUNTY - The Quebec act was passed without any regard to the claims of Virginia based upon the Charter of 1609, notwithstanding the fact that that colony had reasserted its claims in 1769, when its House of Burgesses erected the County of Botetourt, to include all the western part of Virginia as far as the Mississippi river, a territory embracing the Scioto licks.  The new county was given that name in honor of Norborne Berkeley, Lord of Botetourt, who was then governor of the colony.  His term began in 1768, and he at once became very popular, because of his action in siding with the colonies against the mother coun-

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try.  But before he had accomplished much for the colony he sickened and died in October, 1770.  He was succeeded by John Murray, Earl of Dunmore, who was not so popular.

     LORD DUNMORE'S WAR - The successful issue of Colonel Bouquet's expedition caused a partial lull in the border warfare with the Indians, and for ten years there was a period of comparative peace.  But in 1774 hostilities were renewed on a most bloody scale, both whites and Indians being guilty of the blackest treachery.  Among the slain in the spring of that year was the family of Logan, the famous chief, and up to that time a friend of the whites.  This was the inception of what is known as Lord Dunmore's War.  The Virginia governor began his preparations to penetrate into the heart of the Indian county before the passage of the Quebec act, but there are reasons for believing that he knew of the intentions of the Home government, and that the Indian raids furnished a pretext for entering the Ohio valley to negotiate with the savages, in furtherance of the plan of Parliament to set Canada and her Indian allies against the Thirteen Colonies.  At any rate Dunmore's operations northwest of the Ohio directly concern the history of the Scioto licks.

     BATTLE OF POINT PLEASANT - The great event of this war was the battle of Point Pleasant, in which the ancestors of many of the present inhabitants of Jackson county participated.  It appears that the Virginia troops entered the Indian country in two columns, a plan of operations inviting defeat.  Very singularly, the fighting fell to the lot of the pioneers, led by General Lewis.  This and other incidents of the war place Governor Dunmore in an unpleasant light.  The story of the battle and the operations leading up to it is graphically told by Atwater, as follows:  "General Andrew Lewis was ordered to raise a military force and rendezvous at Fort Union, now in Greenbrier county, and from thence descend the Great Kanawha to its mouth on the Ohio river.  The Earl of Dunmore intended to raise troops in Lower Virginia, and marching up the Potomac to Cumberland, in Maryland, cross the Alleghanies, until he struck the Monongahela, thence follow-

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ing the stream downwards, reach Pittsburg, and from Fort Pitt to descend the Ohio to Point Pleasant (as we now call it), and form a junction with Lewis.  This was the original plan of operations, and in accordance with it, General Lewis raised troops in Botetourt and Augusta counties, on the high grounds, near the headwaters of the Shenandoah, James river and the Great Kanawha.  These counties were then on the very frontiers of the colonial government of Virginia, in which so many celebrated springs exist, such as the White Sulphur, the Warm, the Sweet Spring, etc., and in a country, too, then occupied by sharpshooters, hunters and riflemen.  Collecting from all parts of this country two regiments of volunteers at Camp Union, now in Greenbrier county, General Lewis, on the 11th day of September, 1774, marched forward towards the point of his destination.  His route lay wholly through a trackless forest, a distance of one hundred and sixty miles.  This march was more painful and difficult than Hannibal's over the Alps.  On the first day of October, 1774, Lewis reached the place of his destination, but no Earl Dunmore was there.  Dispatching two messengers in quest of Governor Dunmore, Lewis and his Virginians continued at Point Pleasant.  On the 9th of October three messengers from the Earl arrived at Lewis' camp and informed him that the Governor had changed his whole plan - that the Earl would not meet Lewis at Point Pleasant, but would descend the Ohio to the mouth of the Hockhocking river, ascend that to the Falls, and then strike off to the Pickaway towns, along the Scioto, whither Dunmore ordered Lewis to repair and meet him as soon as possible, there to end this campaign.  On the 10th of October two of Lewis' soldiers were up the Ohio river hunting some two miles above the army, when a large party of Indians attacked them.  One hunter soldier was instantly killed, but the other fled and safely arrived in the camp and gave notice of the near approach of the enemy.  General Lewis instantly gave orders for two detachments to meet and repel the enemy.  Colonel Charles Lewis commanded the detachment of Botetourt militia and Colonel Fleming commanded the other detachment of Augusta militia.  Rushing out of their camp, they met the enemy about four hundred yards from it.  The enemy instantly fired upon our men a whole

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volley of rifles, and furiously commenced the battle.  At the first onset our men faltered a moment and began to retreat, but the reserve came up from the camp, and the enemy in turn gave way apparently, but in doing so extended his line of battle from the Ohio to the Kenawha, and by that means completely hemmed in our men in the angle formed by the junction of these rivers.  There the enemy posted his warriors behind old logs, trees and driftwood and fought with desperation and without cessation from the rising of the sun, when the battle commenced, until the sun sank below the horizon, when the enemy drew off his forces and retired from the field of battle.  In this desperate action we lost two colonels, viz: Charles Lewis, of the Botetourt volunteers, who was mortally wounded in the first fire of the enemy.  He was enabled to just reach his tent, where he immediately expired.  And Colonel Fields was also killed in battle.  We lost in killed five captains, viz: Buford, Murray, Ward, Wilson and McClenehan; three lieutenants, Allen, Goldsby and Dillon and many subalterns, besides seventy-five private soldiers, who were killed in this hardly fought battle.  The wounded amounted to one hundred and forty officers and soldiers, many of them severely, who afterwards died of their wounds.  The loss of the enemy was never certainly known, but thirty-three of their dead bodies were found on or near the battleground, and it was not doubted that the enemy had thrown many of his dead into the rivers, on both of which his warriors were posted, as we have seen.  From the character of our troops, being all sharpshooters and backwoodsmen, it is probable that the loss in killed and wounded was about equal on both sides.  The numbers of the armies were probably about the same, judging from their extended line of battle and the constant firing all day along that line from river to river.  The next day after the battle Lewis fortified his encampment (he should have done so before the action, as soon as he arrived there) with logs on the outside of it, and by digging an entrenchment."

     GENERAL LEWIS AT THE LICKS - The borderers buried their dead, left their wounded in charge of a strong guard and set out to join Lord Dunmore.  According to the best authorities, their

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line of march was by way of the Scioto licks.  The author of "In Colonial Days" says: General Lewis fought the battle of Point Pleasant Oct. 10, 1774, compelling the Indians to retreat, and then, contrary to Lord Dunmore's order, to make a halt at Salt Licks, pressed on to Chillicothe, where he joined his superior officer."  They remained at the licks one night, but their desire to avenge their fallen comrades led them to ignore the positive orders of Dunmore, and they pushed on toward the Indian towns.  Their action angered Dunmore greatly, and he went out to meet them and ordered them back to Point Pleasant.  Lewis obeyed the order and he and his men returned home.  The majority of them participated in the Revolution, but they never forgot that game preserve in the neighborhood of the licks, and in later years many of them returned to Ohio and settled in this county.  So many of the Greenbrier folk came, that their settlement near the licks was given that name.

     A BAND OF HUNTERS - There is a tradition that a band of twenty Virginians, most of whom had been with Lewis, came on a hunting expedition to the licks a year or two later.  They were very successful, and were on the point of starting home, when they were attacked by Indians and all killed with the exception of two men, who had deserted their companions at the first fire and fled.  The latter returned home, but they were killed in the Revolution, and even their names have been lost.

     BOONE'S VISIT - The most distinguished captive brought to the licks by the Indians was Daniel Boone.  This occurred during his second captivity.  Boone and some thirty companions went to the Blue Licks in Kentucky in the winter of 1777-78 for the purpose of making salt, and while there, they were captured by the Indians and brought to Ohio.  They were taken first to the Shawanese village on the Miami, where they were kept for several weeks.  Later Boone and ten companions were taken to Detroit, where all but Boone were surrendered to the English.  The Indians refused to deliver or sell him, and after a short stay brought him to Old Chillicothe, in the Scioto valley.  Here he was formally

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adopted into the Indian tribe, the ceremony, according to the description of Peck, being virtually the same as in the case of James Smith.  Ellis tells the story of Boone's escape as follows:  "In the month of June, 1778, a company of Shawanese went to the Scioto Licks to make salt, taking Boone with them.  He thought the chance promised to be a good one for getting away and he was on the alert.  But the Indians were equally so, and they kept him so busy over the kettles that he dared not make the attempt.  Finally, having secured all they wished of salt, they started homeward again, and, reaching Old Chillicothe, Boone's heart was filled with consternation at the sight of 450 warriors in their paint, fully armed and ready to march upon Boonesborough.  This was a formidable force, indeed, more than double that against which the garrison had ever been forced to defend themselves, and it seemed to the pioneer as if the settlement, his family and all friends were doomed to destruction.  It was now or never with Boone.  If his escape was to prove of any benefit to others than himself, it would not do to delay any longer.  The settlers were unaware of their danger, and unless duly warned were likely to fall victims to Shawanese cunning and atrocity. Boone determined to leave within the succeeding twenty-four hours, no matter how desperate the chance.  Before he closed his eyes in snatches of fitful slumber he had decided on the course to pursue.  He rose early the next morning and started out for a short hunt, as he had frequently done, for such a strategem promised to give him more time for a chance of getting a good start of his pursuers.  The pioneer was 160 miles from Boonesborough, but he was scarcely out of sight of the Indians when he headed straight for the settlement, and ran like a man who realized it to be a case of life and death.  He did not spare himself.  He had concealed enough for one meal about his person before starting, and this was all he axe while
making the long journey, occupying five days.  He did not dare to stop long enough to shoot any game for fear his pursuers would be upon him.  At the close of the fifth day, tired, hungry and worn, he made his appearance in front of the Boonesborough stockade, and was admitted with amazement and delight by his friends, who believed he had been killed long before.  So general, indeed, was

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this belief in his death that his wife and family had moved back to their home in North Carolina some time before."  There is a local tradition around Jackson that Boone made his escape while at the licks.  It is also told that he made a wonderful leap in making his escape, from one side of a ravine to the rocks on the other.  These traditions have no foundation in fact.  The name of Boone has been found carved in a rock near a spring in the northern part of Jackson county, but this was no doubt the work of some wag of early days.