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Captain William
Gray was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, March 26, 1761.
He entered the army as a private soldier at the age of seventeen
years, and was promoted for good conduct. At the storming of
Stony Point, he was one of the first to scale the walls of that
fortress. He was the nephew of William Gray, one of the
richest merchants in Boston, for whom he was named, who always
manifested a great interest in his success in life. He married
Miss Mary Diamond, of Salem, Massachusetts, and in the autumn of
1787, he joined the Ohio Company and came west with the first
pioneer band that left New England, having one of the famous wagons
labeled "For Ohio,: in his particular charge. His family did
not come to Marietta until 1790, when he established himself at
Waterford.
At the beginning of the Indian war, he was chosen
commander of Fort Frye, which had been erected for teh security of
the inhabitants of that place, and into which they were then
compelled to take refuge. The situation was peculiarly
exposed, as the savage war parties could descend the Muskingum,
silently and swiftly, in their light canoes, and thus elude the
rangers who daily patrolled the woods to discover signs of their
presence. This remote out-post was repeatedly visited by the
enemy, horses were stolen, and cattle wantonly slaughtered, and on
one occasion the fort was attacked with great vigor, but the
assailants were repulsed, and only one of the inmates, Wilbur
Sprague, was wounded, who recovered after a long and painful
illness. The members of the garrison had many narrow escapes,
and one of their number, Daniel Convers, was taken prisoner
and carried into captivity. It was in a great measure due to
the prudence and vigilance of Captain Gray that this post
suffered no greater loss during the war. On the return of
peace, he settled on a farm near the town of Beverly, where he
reared a large and respectable family, and died there in 1812.
 Source:
The founders of Ohio : brief sketches of the forty-eight pioneers -
Publ. Cincinnati by R. Clark & Co. - 1888 |
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Another of Major Haffield White's party, was
John Gardner, a
young man from Marblehead, who was the son of a sea captain, and had
been bred a sailor. He came west, as did many others, in
search of fortune and adventures. In the spring of 1789, he
joined the Waterford association and drew his lot on the fertile
peninsula, where Major Dean Tyler and Jervis Cutler's
lots were located. He and Jervis Cutler agreed to
assist each other in clearing their land, and were making good
progres when one day, while the latter was absent at Marietta,
Gardner was seized by a party of Shawnees, who took his gun, and
hurried him into the woods, where at some distance their horses were
concealed. They were all mounted but one, who walked and led
the prisoner by a rope around his neck; in this they took turns.
At the close of the first day they gave him a little jerked meat,
and having carefully secured him by making him lie upon a stout
sapling which they bent down and fastened to the ground, with his
hands tied behind him with leather thongs, while another cord bound
him to the trunk, his captors laid down to sleep. He made no
attempt that night to escape, but after the next day's weary march,
finding themselves beyond the fear of pursuit, they encamped early,
shot a bear and a deer, built a fire, roasted the flesh with which
they regaled themselves, and gave him a plentiful repast. They
endeavored to persuade him to remain quietly with them, painted his
face and cut off part of his hair, and promised to make him a good
Shawnee, but were not unmindful of the necessity of securing him as
before. That night the rain fell gently and moistened and made
more pliable the thongs with which he was bound, and he determined,
if possible, to escape. By cautious and long continued effort,
he succeeded in releasing himself, without one of the bells which
they had fastened to the limbs of the sapling sounding the alarm.
Taking his gun from the side of one of the Indians sleeping near
him, he stepped out into the dark forests and walked till morning in
the direction of home, then taking an easterly course, he came to a
branch of Wolf Creek, which he followed down to the mills, where he
was joyfully welcomed, as his four days' absence had occasioned
serious alarm for his safety. The next morning, he and
Cutler, who had returned the same evening from Marietta, renewed
their woodland labors with renewed spirits. Mr. Gardner,
like most sailors, when land-bound, longed for the sea; he went back
to Marblehead, and was soon in his father's ship afloat on the
ocean, doubtless preferring to encounter the ills he knew, than
those he knew not of.
Source:
The founders of Ohio : brief sketches of the forty-eight pioneers -
Publ. Cincinnati by R. Clark & Co. - 1888 |
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