Source:
History of Belpre, Washington Co., Ohio
By C. E. Dickinson, D. D.
Formerly Pastor of Congregational Church
Author of the History of First Congregational Church
Marietta, Ohio
Published for the Author by
Globe Printing & Binding Company
Parkersburg, West Virginia
1920

CHAPTER VIII
Page 60
Extracts from Lives of Early Settlers -

Captain Jonathan Devoll - Griffin Greene - Captain William Dana - Colonel Nathaniel Cushing - Major Jonathan Haskel - Colonel Ebenezer Battelle - Colonel Israel Putnam - Aaron Waldo Putnam - Captain Jonathan Stone - Major Nathan Goodale - Major Robert Bradford - Captain Benjamin Miles - Captain Perly Howe - Guthrie Brothers - James Knowles - Captain Eleazer Curtis - Bull Brothers - Aaron Clough - Peregrene Foster

SKETCHES OF PIONEERS, BEING EXTRACTS FROM LIVES OF THE EARLY SETTLERS OF OHIO BY DR. SAMUEL P. HILDRETH.

CAPTAIN JONATHAN DUVOLL, when a young man acquired the trade of Ship Carpenter and in later years became quite noted in the construction of boats, ships and mills.  He volunteered at the beginning of the revolution, in 1775, as first Lieutenant and Adjutant of the regiment.  In 1877 he resigned because superceded in promotion of Adjutant of Second regiment to the office of Brigade Major.  In 1775 he performed a very brilliant exploit in capturing a British Brig in Newport harbor and the following year captured a band of Tories near the same locality.  He joined the Ohio Company in 1878 and was one of the first forty-eight pioneers who arrived at Marietta, April 7th, 1788.  During the winter he had superintended the construction of boats at Sumrills Ferry.
     He was chiefly engaged during the summers of 1788-9 in building Campus Martins and removed with his family to Belpre in February, 1790.  At the breaking out of the Indian war in 1791 he superintended the construction of Farmers Castle, and built the Floating Mill at Belpre, in 1791.  In 1797 he removed to a farm on Wiseman's bottom, on the Muskingum, five miles above Marietta.  Here the next year he built a floating mill where he did custom grinding for the farmers on the Ohio and Muskingum rivers.  In 1801 he built a ship of four hundred tons for B. I. Gilman, Esquire, a merchant of Marietta.  The timber of this vessel was wholly of Black Walnut from the valley of the Muskingum for which river the ship was named.  In 1802 he built the schooner Nonpareil.  In 1807 he built a large frame flouring mill on the spot where the floating mill was moored.  The water wheel was forty feet in diameter, the largest seen at that day west of the mountains.  During all these days he improved his farm, planting fruit trees and making his home pleasant and comfortable.  In 1809 he purchased and put in operation ma-

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chinery for carding sheeps wool which had now become so abundant as to need something more than hand cards, as farmers were already owning flocks of sheep.  In 1808 he erected works for dressing and fulling cloth both of which operations are believed to have been the first ever carried on in this part of Ohio, if not in the whole state.  He may be called the Master mechanic of the settlers.  He died, during the epidemic fever which prevailed, in 1823, aged 64.

     GRIFFIN GREENE was born at Warwick, Rhode Island in 1749.  Early in life he engaged in the business of a smith and anchor making, and later he and his cousin Jacob Green erected a forge for working in iron.  He was also a cousin of General Nathaniel Greene.  Both these men belong to the sect of Quakers from which they were expelled on account of their interest in the war.  He commenced his military career in 1775, by serving as Commissary to the Rhode Island troops, although in the previous year he had been trained to military exercises as a volunteer in the Company, to which his cousins Christopher and Nathaniel belonged, with many of the most active and prominent young men of the colony.  In 1777 he was paymaster in the regiment commanded by Christopher Greene and during the attack on the fort at Red Bank was exposed to the shot of the enemy in taking a supply of powder to his countrymen.  In 1778 his cousin Nathaniel Greene was appointed by Washington quartermaster general of the army, and Griffin became one of his deputies, continuing in that position until General Nathaniel Greene was placed in command of the southern army.
     In 1777 Mr. Greene engaged as a partner in a company for fitting out two brigantines as privateers, the coast being at that time pretty clear of British ships of War.  These were called the Black Snake and the Rattle Snake; but before the one had time to erect its head and the other to shake its rattles in defiance of the British lion they were driven on shore at Sandy Hook in April 1778, by an enemy cruiser, and lost.  This was the fate of many American privateers and in the estimate it is probable that as much was lost as won by the colonies in this nefarious business.

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     Mr. Griffin Greene wrote many letters concerning public affairs during these eventful years.  We will give one concerning Benedict Arnold.
                                                                              Camp Tappan, Sept. 9, 1780.
     Treason!  treason!  of the blackest kind has been most providentially discovered.  Gen. Arnold, who commanded at West Point, was in contact with the British Adjutant General for delivering into the enemy's hands all the forts and fortifications of that place.  The plan was laid, the conditions settled and the time fixed for the execution.  The adjutant General had been up to King's ferry to see Gen. Arnold and on his return to New York, near the White Plains was taken up by three military men who carried him prisoner to Major Jameson of Sheldons light-horse; and on his being searched, plans of the works, the strength of the garrison, and a hundred other observations necessary to be known in order to favor an attack, were all made out in Arnolds own hand writing.  They were immediately sent to General Washington who was then on his return from Hartford.  But unfortunately Jameson, from a false delicacy, reported to Gen. Arnold, that he had taken prisoner, one Anderson, which gave him time to just make his escape before General Washington got to the Point.  The Adjutant general and one Mr. Joseph Smith are now both prisoners in this camp and doubtless will be hung tomorrow.  We have only to lament that Arnold is not to greet the gallows with them.  It appears, from an inquire into Arnold's conduct that he is the most accomplished villain in the world; nothing can exceed his meanness.  I am called upon to attend a court martial and cannot go further into this dark and wicked business.  The military lads that took Mr. Andre deserve immortal honor and will be most liberally rewarded."
     Mr. Greene came to Marietta in 1788 bringing beside his household goods a considerable number of valuable books.  The first anchor made on the Ohio river, made for the brig St. Clair, was constructed under his direction.  Soon after his arrival at Marietta Governor St. Clair commissioned him a justice of the peace and one of the Judges of the Court of Quarter Sessions.  In 1789 he was made director of the Ohio Company in place of General Varnum,

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deceased, an office he held until the affairs of the company were closed.  He joined the Belpre Association in 1790, and was a leading man in the colony, solemnizing marriages and settling civil disputes among them.  In January, 1802 he was appointed Post Master at Marietta by Thomas Jefferson.  He was also inspector for the port of Marietta.  Ships were built here and cleared from this port.  He was a leader in the enterprise, already described, which discovered the Scioto Salt Spring.  In person he was tall of genteel and accomplished manners, having seen and associated with much refined company and men of talents.  As a man of genius he ranked with the first of the Ohio Company's settlers, abounding as it did with able men.
     He died in 1804 at the age of fifty-five.

     CAPTAIN WILLIAM DANA was of French Huguenot descent and was born at Brighton, Mass. in 1745.
     He removed his family to the vicinity of Worcester, Mass. just before the battle of Lexington.
     He was chosen Captain of an Artillery Company and was stationed a mile or two out of Charleston at the time of the battle of Bunker Hill.  An express from General Putnam, near its close, arrived with orders to hasten on to the hill to reinforce the flagging provincials.  He started at full speed but met his countrymen on Charleston neck on their retreat.
     He remained in the service two or three years attached to the department of General Knox head of the Artillery Corp.
     In the Summer of 1788 he and two sons came to Marietta where he cleared a small section of land and built a brick kiln and burned the first brick made in Ohio.  In 1789 he removed with his family, to Belpre and drew a lot of land just above the head of Blennerhassett Island and spent the winter in a small cabin but built a comfortable home in 1790.
     He lived in Farmers Castle during the Indian war.   A few years after its close his land was cleared, a convenient

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frame house built, orchards of fruit trees in bearing, and smiling plenty crowned his table, around which assembled eight sons and three daughters.  In person Captain Dana was tall and in his manhood sustained the position and bearing of a Soldier.  In disposition he was cheerful and social and never happier than when surrounded by his old associates at the festive board.
     He died in 1809.

     COLONEL NATHANIEL CUSHING.  Mr. Cushing belonged to the illustrious Cushing family of Boston and was born in Pembroke, Mass., April 8th, 1753.  At the beginning of the revolutionary war he lived in or near Boston.  In July, 1775, he was commissioned Lieutenant in Captain Trescott's Company and Colonel Brewers regiment, promoted as Captain in 1777, and came out of the war of Major by brevet.
     He was engaged in many battles and skirmishes and was regarded as one of the most brave and successful officers.  By his kindness to those under his command and his watchful care for the best interest of his men, he was a great favorite with the soldiers.  His Company was attached to Gen. Rufus Putnam's regiment of light infantry and he made some daring and successful raids on the enemy.  At that time there was a large district between the contending armies called the neutral ground that was nearly deserted by the inhabitants, and ravaged by both parties especially by the Tories, who, from this and the adjoining country, supplied the British in New York with forage and fresh provisions.  The Americans, to watch the incursions of the enemy and keep the Tories from robbing the peaceable inhabitants near the lines, kept strong outposts or detachments of soldiers on the borders between King's bridge and the White Plains.  It was a dangerous position for the troops, and none but the most active and vigilant of the partisan officers were selected for this service.  They were not only liable to sudden and night attacks from the bands of Tories who were born and brought up here, and were familiar with every road and by-path, but also exposed to a corps of light horse under the noted partisan officer Col. Simcoe who had cut off and destroyed several advanced parties of American troops.

HOME OF WIRT SHEPPARD

PUTNAM HOME, BUILT 1800
Continued in the family until the Present time

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     To avoid the latter casualties, the order of the Commanding General was, that they should not advance beyond a certain line into the neutral ground, but keep within their own defenses, lest they should be surprised by the light horse and cut to pieces.  Among others ordered on this hazardous service, was Capt. Cushing with a detachment of men in addition to his own Company.  Soon after arriving and taking up his position, information was brought by some of the Whig inhabitants, that there was a considerable body of Tories posted at no great distance from him on the road to New York.  The opportunity thus afforded of distinguishing himself and the detachment under his orders was too great to be resisted; besides, if successful, he would be doing a service to the cause, and wipe away some of the disgrace attached to the defeat of other officers who had preceeded him in this service.  With the main body of his man he, early that night, commenced a rapid march across the country, by an unfrequented road and about midnight surprised and captured the whole party.  Col. Simcoe, with his mounted rangers, was posted in that vicinity, and received early notice of the event, by some friend of the British and acting with his usual promptness, immediately commenced a pursuit, with the expectation of cutting to pieces the detachment, and releasing the prisoners.  Capt. Cushing, with all haste, posted off the Captive Tories in advance, under a small guard; charging the officer to rush on toward the lines as rapidly as possible, while he followed more leisurely in the rear, with the main body of troops.  Expecting a pursuit from Simcoe; he marched in three ranks, and arranged the order of defense if it were attacked by the cavalry; a kind of troops much more dreaded by the infantry than those of their own class.  Where about half way back, the clattering hoofs of the rangers horses were heard in hot pursuit.  As they approached, he halted his detachment in the middle of the road, ready to receive the charge.  It fortunately happened that he found, in the house with the captured Tories a number of long spears or lances, sufficient to arm the rear rank.  When called to a halt, and face the enemy, it brought the spearmen in front.  Standing in close array, shoulder to shoulder, with one end resting on the ground, they received their enraged enemies on their points, while the other two ranks poured upon them a deadly fire, leaving

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many of the horses without riders.  This unexpected result threw them into disorder, and their leader directed a retreat.  Cushing now renewed his march in the same order.  Simcoe, enraged and chagrined at the failure of his charge, again ordered a fresh and more furious onset, but was received by his brave antagonist in the same cool and resolute manner, and met a still more decided repulse, losing a number of his best men and horses.  Not yet satisfied to let his enemies escape he made a third unsuccessful attempt and gave up the pursuit, leaving Capt. Cushing to retire at his leisure.  He reached his post unmolested, with all the prisoners, and the loss of only a few men wounded; none killed.  The following day he was relieved by a fresh detachment and marched into camp with the trophies of this brave adventure.
     The morning after his return, in the orders of the day, by the commander-in-chief, notice was taken of this affair, and any similar attempt by the troops on the lines forbidden, thereby apparently censuring the conduct of Capt. Cushing.  This was rather a damper to the feelings of a brave officer, who was peculiarly sensitive and sustained a nice sense of military honor.  Soon after the promulgation of the order, and he had retired to his tent brooding over the event of the morning, and half inclined to be both angry and mortified at the nice distinctions of the Commander, an aid of Gen. Washington entered with a polite invitation to dine with him.  He readily complied with the request and at the table was placed in the post of honor at Washington's right hand.  A large number of officers were present, in whose hearing he highly complimented Capt. Cushing for the gallant manner in which he conducted the retreat with the coolness and success he had done; but at the same time added that for the strict and orderly discipline of the army, it was necessary to discountenance every act that contravened the orders of the Commander-in-chief.  This satisfied all his mortified feelings and increased his love and respect for his revered general.
     His was one of the first families who arrived in Marietta, August 19th, 1788.
     Soon after his arrival he was commissioned by Governor St. Clair as Captain in the First Regiment.  He was one of the most active, brave, and intelligent men in

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arranging and conducting military and civil affairs in the settlement.  After the capture of Maj. Goodale by Indians he was chosen Commandant in Farmers Castle.
     He was gentlemanly and refined in manners, very courteous and affable in his intercourse with others, whether poor or rich, and very highly esteemed by Mr. and Mrs. Blennerhassett.
     He died in 1814.

     MAJOR JONATHAN HASKELL, was born in Rochester, Mass. in 1754 and entered the Army when twenty one years of age and served to the close of the war.  He came to Marietta in 1788 and in 1789 joined the Belpre Association.  On the breaking out of the Indian War and received a commission as Captain in the regular service and went to Rochester, Mass., where he recruited a company of soldiers and he was stationed for the defense of that and the surrounding settlements, as soldiers had been withdrawn from Fort Harmar in 1790.
     He remained in Marietta until 1793 when he was commissioned Captain in the second sub legion under Gen. Wayne and joined the army of the frontier that summer.
     He was stationed at Fort Saint Clair, where he remained until June 1794 when he was appointed to the command of the fourth Subdivision with the rank of 1795
     After the war Maj. Haskell returned to his farm in Belpre where he died in 1814.
     A letter written by him to Griffin Greene and Benjamin I. Gilman who gives very graphic account of the celebrated campaign under General Wayne.

LETTER FROM CAPT. HASKELL TO GRIFFIN GREEN AND B. I. GILMAN.

     The last time I wrote you was from Fort St. Clair, the date I have forgotten.  In June last I was relieved from the Post and joined the fourth Sub-legion which I have

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commanded ever since.  The 28th of July the army moved forward, consisting of about 1900 regulars and 1500 Militia from Kentucky, by the way of the battle ground, now Fort Recovery, then turned to the eastward and struck the Saint Marys in 20 miles, where we erected a small fort, and left a subaltern Command. - Crossed the St. Marys. - In four or five days march found the Auglaize, - continued down that river to where it formed a junction with the Miami of the Lakes - 100 miles from Greenville by the route we took - At this place we built a garrison and left a Maj. to command it, and the army proceeded down the river toward the Lake, 47 miles from this garrison until the 20th inst.  In the morning about nine o'clock we found the Indians who had placed themselves for us.  When the attack commenced we formed and charged them with our bayonets and pursued them two miles through them with our bayonets, and pursued them two miles through a very bad thicket of woods, logs, and underbrush and with the charge of the Cavalry routed and defeated them.  Our line extended in length one and a half miles and it was with difficulty we outflanked them.  The prisoner, (a white man) we took, says they computed their number as 1200 Indians and 250 white men, Detroit Militia, in action.  Our loss in the engagement was two officers killed, four officers wounded; about thirty soldiers killed and eighty wounded.  The Indians suffered most, perhaps 40 or 50 of their killed fell into our hands.  The prisoner was asked why they did not fight better.  He said: we would give them no time to load their pieces but kept them constantly on the move.  Two miles in advance of the action is a British Garrison established last Spring around which we marched within pistol shot.  In the day time it was demanded but not given up.  Our artillery not being sufficient and the place too strong to storm, it was not attempted but we burned their outhouses, destroyed their gardens, corn fields, and hay, within musket shot of the fort and down beyond them 8 or 9 miles without opposition.  The 27th inst. we arrived here where our fort is and are to halt a few days to refresh.  We have marched about 60 miles through the Indian villages and settlements and have destroyed several thousand acres of corn and all kinds of vegetables; burned their houses, furniture, tools, etc.  A part have gone on to Fort Recovery for a supply of provisions for us.  It is said that when they return we go up the Miami 60 miles to

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where the St. Marys forms a junction with the St. Joseph and destroy all the corn in the country.
                             In great haste, I am, gentlemen,
                                     Your humble servant,
                                                    J. HASKELL.

To
     GRIFFIN GREEN,
     B. I. GILLMAN.
     Letter received by Mr. Gilman at Harmar Point, Oct. 13th, '94 and sent to Mr. Green.
     Dr. Hildreth adds the following very appropriate words which give an insight into conditions at that time.

     "This letter described, in plain terms the ruin and devastation that marked the course of the American Army.  It might have been considered a wise policy to devote to destruction the dwellings, corn fields, gardens, and in fact every species of property that belonged to the hostile Savages, but it was also a most cruel policy.  The British troops, in their inroads among the rebel settlements of the Revolutionary war, never conducted more barbarously.  The Indian villages on the Miami and the Anglaize were snugly and comfortably built - were furnished with many convenient articles of housekeeping and clothing.  They had large fields of corn and beans, with gardens of melons, Squashes and various other vegetables.  Mr. Joseph Kelley of Marietta, then a boy of twelve years old, and for several years a prisoner with the Indians, who treated him kindly, and was adopted into a family as one of their children, was living at that time at the junction of the St. Marys and the Anglaize, the spot where Maj. Haskell says the army would next go, to complete their work of destruction.  Mr. Kelley was there when an Indian runner announced that the American troops had arrived in the vicinity of the village.  His friends had not expected them so soon, and with the utmost haste and consternation, the old men, with the women and children, the warriors being absent, hurried abroad their canoes, taking nothing with them but a few clothes and blankets, not having time to collect any provisions from their fields and gardens.
     The Sun was only an hour or two high when they departed, in as deep sorrow at the loss of their country and homes, as the Trojans of old when they evacuated their

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favorite city.  Before the next day at noon their nice village was burnt to the ground; their cornfields of several hundred acres, just beginning to ripen, were cut down and trampled under foot by the horses and oxen of the invaders, while their melons and squashes were pulled up by the roots.  The following winter the poor Indians, deprived of their stock of corn and beans, which were grown every year and laid up for their winter food as regularly as among the white people, suffered the extreme of want.  Game was scarce in the country they retreated to on the west of the Miami, and what few deer and fish they could collect barely served to keep them alive.  It was a cruel policy, but probably, subdued their Spartan courage more than two or three defeats, as for many years thereafter, until the days of Tecumseh, they remained at peace.
    

     COLONEL EBENEZER BATTELLE.  Col. Battelle was the only son of Ebenezer Battelle and was born at Dedham, Mass., and graduated from Cambridge College in 1775.  He held a commission of Colonel under the Governor of Massachusetts in the Militia.  He was one of the active partners in a book store in Boston for about six years.  While here he was elected to the command of the ancient and honorable artillery Company, a noted band of military men, composed of officers of good standing and character.
     He became an associate in the Ohio Company and came to Marietta with Col. May in the Spring of 1788 and his family came in November of the same year.  During the following winter he became a member of the Belpre Association and in the Spring of 1789 proceeded to clear his land and erect a stout block house for the reception of his family.  May 1st, Captain King was killed by Indians.  The following day Col. Battelle, with two of his sons and Griffin Greene, Esq., embarked at Marietta in a large canoe, with farming tools, provisions, &c.  On their way down they were hailed by some one from the shore and informed of this sad event.  They landed and held a consultation on what was best to be done.  Some were for returning; but they finally decided to proceed.
     The block-houses of these two emigrants were near each other, and nearly opposite the middle of Backus' Is

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land, on the spot afterwards occupied by Farmers Castle.  After landing the other settlers joined them for mutual defense, and through the night kept up a military guard, in the old revolutionary style, the sentinel calling out every fifteen minutes "All's well" not thinking this would give the skulking Indians where to find them.   No enemy, however, molested them during the night, and their fears of an attack gradually subsided.
     Early in April, before any families had moved on to the ground, a party of officers from Fort Harmar, with their wives, and a few ladies from Marietta, made a visit to the new settlement in the officer's barge, a fine large boat, rowed with twelve oars.  These were the first white females who ever set foot on the soil of Belpre.  On their return Col. Battelle, with several others, accompanied them by water in a canoe, and another party by land.  While on the voyage, a large bear was discovered swimming across the river.  The landsmen fired at him with their muskets and rifles, but without effect.  The canoe then ranged alongside, when Col. Battelle seized him by the tail and when the bear attempted to bite his hand, he raised his hind parts, throwing his head under water, and thus escaped his teeth.  One of his companions soon killed him with an axe.  He weighed over three hundred pounds and afforded several find dinners to his captors.
     In the plan of Farmers Castle his blockhouse occupied the north east corner.  Col. Battelle was very much interested in Education and religion in the settlement.  Both schools and religious services were held in a large room in his block house.  He officiated as Chaplain when no clergyman was present.  Some times he gave a discourse of his own but oftener read a sermon of some eminent divine.  He made Sunday respected and honored in the settlement.  In the early years he was paid twenty dollars by the Ohio Company for his services as a religious teacher.  He died in the home of his son at Newport, Ohio in 1815.

     COLONEL ISRAEL PUTNAM, the elder was plowing at Pomfret, Conn. with four oxen in April, 1775 when he heard of the battle of Lexington.  He immediately left his oxen and mountain his favorite horse rode with all possible haste to

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Cambridge, Mass., where he did most important service, and was soon Commissioned a Major General.  His son Israel soon raised a Company and served  under his father until the arrival of General Washington as Commander-in-chief.  Israel continued in the service as aid to his Father.  At the close of the war he became a raiser of blooded Stock some of which he brought with him to Ohio.
     He also brought a considerable number of valuable books which were the foundation of Belpre Farmers Library.  He was an influential man and was a leader in the establishment of both education and religion.
     When absent from home his wife took charge of the family of six children.  She was a woman of great spirit, and as farm a patriot as the general himself, hating, with all her soul and strength,  the British oppressors of her country, who were technically called Redcoats, and loving with equal ardor the American soldiers, supplying them with food and clothing to the extent of her ability.  In the winter of 1779 when the patriot troups suffered so much from the want of warm garments, she had spun and woven in her own house, a number of blankets made from the finest wool in the flock, and sent on for their relief.  Numerous pairs of stockings were also manufactured by her own hands and contributed in the same way.  No one at this day knows, or can appreciate the value of the labors of American females in achieving our freedom.  They wrought and suffered in silence, bearing many privations in common with their husbands and sons in the days which tried the patriotism of the colonies.  She was a woman of elevated mind and great personal courage, worthy of the family to which she was allied.  In the absence of her husband, when the vultures and hawks attacked the poultry, she could load and fire his light fowling piece at them, without dodging at the flash.

     AARON WALDO PUTNAM was a son of Col. Israel Putnam, and came with his father to Ohio in 1788, when he was about twenty years of age.  He remained in charge of his farm in Belpre while his father was absent during the Indian War.  He had two very thrilling adventures with Indians during this time which have already been

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narrated.  After the close of the war he worked diligently in improving his farm which was one of the best in the valley.  He introduced the best breeds of stock then known.  He planted extensive orchards, grafted with scions of the best known varieties of fruit, brought from the east.
     In 1800 he built a very fine house which still stands and is occupied by his descendants.  This house and also the house built by Capt. Jonathan Stone near the village are good examples of the best New England farm house of that period.  When built the upper story was fitted up for a ball room, and in an inaugural ball Lady Blennerhassett from the Island led in some of the dances.  The sturdy puritans of that time were conscientious and firm in their moral convictions, but believed also in recreations and when we consider the anxieties of those years when they knew that a murderous foe might be skulking in the neighboring forest, waiting for a night attack, we must command their plans for such social amusements as would bind them close together and encourage them to persevere in their homes until danger from the Savages should pass away.  This Putnam house, painted white, and standing on the margin of the Plain, or second bottom, and surrounded by orchards, became a conspicuous object to travelers on the "Belle Riviere" as there were at that time little besides wilderness and log cabins between Pittsburg and Cincinnati.

     CAPTAIN JONATHAN STONE was born in Braintree, Mass. and was son of Francis Stone who lost his life in the army of Gen. Wolfe at the conquest of Quebec.  He entered the service of his country at the beginning of the revolution and the following year married Susanna Matthews a niece of Gen. Rufus Putnam.  In the army he rose step by step to the rank of Captain.  After the war he settled in Brookfield, Mass., and was employed by Gen. Putnam as a surveyor in the Province of Maine.  He also served with Gen. Lincoln in subduing Shay's rebellion in which rebellion a brother of his and other relatives were engaged.
     He visited Marietta in the fall of 1788 and made provision for the reception of his family.  On July 4th,

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1789 he left Brookfield, Mass., with a wagon, drawn by four oxen, containing his household goods and three children.  Two cows were driven on ahead, while his wife traveled on horse-back the whole distance to Simril's ferry, the western rendezvous for emigrants to Marietta.  At Buffalo or Charleston, he bartered one yoke of oxen for provisions to support his family until he could raise a crop himself.
     For the avails of a farm he had sold in Brookfield, he secured two shares of the Ohio Companies lands being about two thousand acres.  He reached Belpre Dec. 10th and put up a log cabin on his lot, drawn the previous winter, making the floors and doors from the planks of the boat in which he descended the river.  His farm lay in the wide bottom opposite and a little below the mouth of the Little Kanawha (still owned by his descendants.)  During the Indian war he removed his family to Farmers Castle and was one of the most active and efficient defenders of that garrison.  In the Spring of 1793, he, with several others erected a palisade and several blockhouses on his own farm and remained there until the peace of 1795.
     In 1792 he was appointed Treasurer of Washington County by Winthrop Sargent, then acting as governor of the North West Territory.  After the peace he was employed by the Ohio Company, with Jeffery Mathewson, to complete the surveys of their lands, which was done in a masterly manner.  He died after a short illness, Mar. 25, 1801 aged fifty. 
     Captain Stone was a man with a well formed agreeable person, gentlemanly manners and social habits.  By his contemporaries he was highly esteemed.  In 1911 the Belpre Historical Society erected a granite monument to point out the locality of Stones Garrison.  (See account of Belpre Historical Society.)

     MAJOR NATHAN GOODALE, son of Solomon and Anna Goodale, was born about 1743.  His father died about one year later and in 1745 his mother, Anna Goodale, married Dea Samuel Ware and Nathan spent his early years in his family.† 

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     He married Elizabeth Phelps, Sept. 11th, 1765 and about 1770 removed to Brookfield, Mass., where he labored on the farm and as a bricklayer.  Mr. Goodale had made some preparation for a soldier life in drilling as a minute man and entered the army as a Lieutenant and was afterwards commissioned as Captain with which rank he continued through the war, to which was added a brevet Major.
     He purchased a share in the Ohio Company and arrived at Marietta with the first families, Aug. 19, 1788.  Soon after his arrival at Marietta Governor St. Clair appointed him Captain of a Company of light infantry selected from the most active men in the colony.  His experience in military affairs rendered him a very able and efficient officer familiar with all the details of actual service.  He was one of the first settlers in Belpre in 1789.  During the short period he lived here he was considered to be one of the most industrious, persevering and thoroughly educated farmers in the County.
     At the beginning of the Indian War he went with his family to Farmers Castle.  In making the arrangement for the defense and military government of the garrison he was the leading man; and the command was by unanimous consent given to him.  His tragic kidnapping by Indians make him the martyr of Belpre and seems to make it proper that we describe his career somewhat in detail.  General Rufus Putnam wrote to General Washington recommending Captain Goodale for promotion in which he gives the following description of his exploits in active service: "In the dark month of November, 1776, Mr. Goodale entered the service as a Captain in the regiment under my command, and was in the field early the next Spring; but, although he always discovered a thirst for enterprise, yet fortune never gave his genius fair play until August, 1777.  It is well known into what a panic the country and even the northern army, were thrown on the taking of Ticonderoga.  When General Gates took command in that quarter our army lay at Van Shaicks island; and Mr. Burgoyne, with his black wings and painted legions lay at Saratoga.  The woods were so infested with Savages, that for some time none of the Scouts who were sent out for the purpose of obtaining prisoners or intelligence of the en-

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emy's situation succeeded in either.  General Gates, being vexed at continual disappointments, desired an officer to procure him a man that would undertake, at all hazards, to perform this service.  Captain Goodale, being spoken to, voluntarily undertook the business under the following orders from General Gates: "Sir, you are to choose out a enemy's camp, unless you lose your life or are captured, and not return until you obtain a full knowledge of their situation.  Captain Goodale in his report of this scout, says it was not performed without great danger as the party was much harassed by the Indians which occasioned their being in the woods three days without provisions.  However he succeeded beyond expectation; first throwing himself between their outguards and their camp, where he concealed his party until he examined their situation very fully, and then brought off six prisoners, whom he took within their guards, and returned to General Gates without any loss.  This success induced General Gates to continue him in that kind of service.  A full detail of all the art and address which he discovered during the remainder of that campaign would make my letter too long.  It may be enough to observe that before the capture of the British army, one hundred and twenty-one prisoners fell into his hands.  But as Captain Goodale is no less brave and determined in the open field where opposed to regular troops, than he is artful as a partisan of the woods, I beg your patience while I recite one instance of this kind.  A day or two after Mr. Burgoyne retreated to Saratoga, on a foggy morning, Nixons brigade was ordered to cross the creek which separated the two armies.  Captain Goodale with forty volunters went over before the advance guard.  He soon fell in with the British guard of about the same number.  The ground was an open plain, but the fog prevented their discovering each other until they were within a few yards, when both parties made ready nearly at the same time.  Captain Goodale, in this position, reserved his fire and advanced immediately upon the enemy who waited with a design to draw it from him; but he had the address to intimidate them in such a manner, by threatening immediate death to any one who should fire, that not more than two or three obeyed the order of their own officer, when he gave

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the word.  The result was that the officer and thirty-four of the guard were made prisoners."
     We have an account of another of his exploits from a different source.  At the action of Valentine Hill the commander of the troops to which he was attached, had ordered him to keep possession of a certain pass, important to the Americans, at all hazards, without any discretionary power as to contingencies.  His command consisted of about forty light infantry and a number of Indians who stood the attack of a large body of the enemy and a company of cavalry, until there were only seventeen men left out of the forty.  Near the close of the combat the officer who led the charge rushed upon him with his sword.  Captain Goodale with a loaded musket, which he had probably picked up from one of his fallen men, shot the Briton dead from his horse as he approached.  In a moment another of the enemy, seeing the fall of his leader, sprang at him in desperation, with a full purpose to revenge his death.  The musket being discharged, the only resourse was to parry the descending blow aimed at his head, in the best manner he could with the empty piece.  It fell obliquely, being turned from it course by the musket and instead of splitting the skull of its intended victim glanced on the bone, peeling up a portion of the scalp several inches in length.  The stunning effects of the blow felled him to the earth, but directly recovering, he rose to his feet.  In the meantime the Cavalryman, who had leaned forward in the saddle farther than prudent to give a certain death-stroke, lost his balance when the heavy sword glanced from the skull, and  fell to the earth.  The bayonet of Captain Goodale immediately pinned him to the ground and left him dead by the side of his leader.  Thus two of the enemy fell by his hand in less than a minute.  Seeing all prospect of further resistance useless he retreated with the balance of his men to an open woodland near the scene of action and secreted himself under a pile of brush.
     An Indian had hidden under another heap, where they might have remained in safety until dark and then escaped; but the Savage, having an opportunity to shoot one of the enemy who approached their hiding place, could not resist the chance to add another scalp to his trophies and shot him.  The report of the gun revealed his hiding

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place, and, being discovered, they were made prisoners.  He remained for some time in the hands of the enemy, and when exchanged, his children related, that the British officers put poison in wine to which he was treated.  He was sick for some time but recovered and resumed his place in the army.  A narrative of his kidnapping and death is found in the account of Farmers Castle.  An account of the dedication of a monument erected to his memory is recorded in the history of the Belpre Historical Society.

     MAJOR ROBERT BRADFORD was born at old Plymouth, Mass., in 1750.  He was a lineal descendant of Governor Bradford, of about the fifth remove.  His wife was Kezia Little, daughter of Captain Nathaniel Little, of Kingston, Mass.  He entered early, and with all his heart, into the service of his country during the Revolutionary War, and for the larger part of that period commanded a company of light infantry.  His military life commenced at the battle of Bunker Hill and ended with the Capture of Corwallis at Yorktown, being actually engaged in nearly all the pitched battles fought in the middle and eastern states.  With many other American Officers he received the gift of an elegant sword from Marquis LaFayette as a mark of his esteem.
     When the Ohio Company was formed he became an associate and removed his family to Marietta in 1788, and removed to Belpre in 1789.  He was associated with Colonel Battelle in the expedition which discovered the site of the Scioto sale spring.

    CAPTAIN BENJAMIN MILES, from Rutland, Mass., was an officer during the Revolution and one of the early settlers at Belpre.  His farm was in the lower settlement.  He bought on from the east some choice cattle, among them a pair of very large oxen which the Indians wantonly killed when they failed to capture A. W. Putnam and Nathaniel Fisher.  Captain Miles was a substantial farmer and a man of influence.  He built the first brick house in the settlement in which he had a tavern.  The first town meeting in Belpre was held at his house.  When the First Church was organized in Marietta in 1795 Captain Miles

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was chosen deacon for Belpre.  He died at Belpre in 1817.

     CAPTAIN PERLY  HOWE when a young man came to Marietta during the first years of the Colony and married Persis, daughter of Gen. Rufus Putnam, May 2, 1798.  Soon after this he removed to his farm about one mile west of Belpre Village.  He was a school teacher for a number of years and was known as "Master Howe."  He was considered one of the best teachers in the County.  He was commissioned Capt. of the First Brigade, third division of the Washington County Militia in 1804 by Governor Tiffin.  At the time of Burr's conspiracy this company stood guard and Captain Howe was a witness in the trial.  He was the first Deacon of the Congregational church of Belpre and held the office until his death.  Himself and family were prominent musicians in the church for two or three generations.
     He and his son entered into a business partnership, and at the close of a contract with several specifications to which they mutually agreed, they added the words, "and lastly we agree at all times to exemplify the Spirit of Christ."  What a revolution would be wrought in business if all was conducted according to this principle.
     The following sketches of pioneers are copied and condensed from the interesting History of Newbury by Mrs. Laura Curtis Preston.

     GUTHRIE BROTHERS.  Truman and Stephen Guthrie each received a share in the Ohio Company's lands from their father, Joseph Guthrie of Washington, Conn.  They journeyed most of the was to Pittsburg on foot and by river to Marietta where they arrived July 3rd, 1788.  Truman cleared about half an acre of land near Mound Cemetery, enclosing it with a brush fence; he sowed about a peck of wheat he had brought from Pennsylvania.  This is said to have been the first wheat sown in Ohio and later the product of this same wheat was sown in Newbury.  During the  following year these brothers went back to Connecticut.  In 1791 they returned to Newbury, Stephen  with his wife and infant daughter Laura, in company with Eleazer Curtis and

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family.  Later Truman married Elizabeth daughter of Col. Israel Stone of Belpre, taking his wife home in a canoe.  They ate their first meal in this home from the head of a barrel.  Their first table was a poplar pincheon hewed and planed, making a cross legged table which still remains in the family.
     In 1795 when Belpre township was organized Stephen Guthrie, begin one of the prominent men in that part of the County, was appointed by the Governor a Justice of the Peace.  One cold day in January, while he was engaged with some men in killing hogs, he observed a party of half a dozen coming in their sleds, who, coming up, went into the house and made known the object of their visit.  The Justice suggested that he should have time to change his garments, as he had on a long white linen frock, provided in those days for log rolling and all dirty work, and said to the party that his appearance was not proper, as his long frock was badly soiled with blood.  "Oh! said the intended bride, We're in a great hurry; it makes no difference."  So the ceremony was performed in short order, the groom giving the bride a smack which sounded like the crack of a small pistol.  "Waht's to pay Squire?" said the groom.  His answer was "the law allows a dollar and a half."  "All right, I have not got it today, but will pay with flax in the Spring."  But the flax never grew.  (A Pioneer Sketch by Stephen H. Guthrie. )

     BULL BROTHERS.  Howell and Captain Aaron Bull of Weathersfield, Conn., were original proprietors of one of the one hundred acre lots at the lower end of Newbury bottom.  The brothers came to Ohio in 1789.  Howell's name is found in the list of single men in Farmers Castle in 1791 and Aarons in the list of grand jurors the same year.  They cleared about three acres of their land, built a cabin and sold their claim to Eleazer Curtis in 1794.  Aaron returned to Connecticut.  Howell Bull was a active intelligent man.  While an inmate of Farmers Castle he rushed to the rescue of Aaron Waldo Putnam and Nathaniel Little as they were running toward the fort pursued by Indians.

PORTERFIELD CONGREGATIONAL MEETING HOUSE
BUILT 1889

UNIVERSALIST MEETING HOUSE,
ROCKLAND, BUILT 1912

     CAPTAIN ELEAZER CURTIS (the title was probably given him in

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the Indian War) enlisted as a private in the War of Revolution, and was discharged a Sergeant.  He endured the memorable winter at Valley Forge.  He, with his wife and five children, from Warren, Conn. made the trip to Ohio with the Guthrie brothers in 1798.  The trip to Pittsburg was long and tedious, but with nothing more serious than the overturning off one wagon, as they crossed the mountains.  As they floated down the Ohio, in a flat boat, just above Wheeling the boat caught in an overhanging tree, causing a plank to spring, and the boat would have filled with water had not Capt. Curtis caught up a feather bed and stuffed it into the hole.  A young man who attempted to climb the overhanging tree, fell into the water, and was drowned.  They arrived at Marietta in November, 1791.  The family resided respectively at Marietta, Goodale's garrison, and Newbury stockade, until the close of the Indian war, when they moved on to their farm, which Mr. Curtis had purchased of the Bull brothers.  In 1795 he built a two story log house which was the best in the neighborhood at that time.  A brick residence was built in 1827-8 by Walter Curtis son of Eleazer, all the material being made on the premises.  Walter purchased the farm of the other heirs and also added other acres to it.  Mrs. Curtis who was Almira  daughter of Stephen Guthrie, boarded the men who worked on the house, and in addition to the house work, wove fifty-seven yards of linen sheeting, sold about one hundred and fifty pounds of cheese besides what was consumed by a family of twelve.  Walter Curtis represented Washington County in the Legislature, was Associate Judge, three years, Justice of the Peace, and held other minor offices.  He, and his brother, Horace, were partners in the Keel-boat business, going to Pittsburg, Charleston, Cincinnati, and other points down the river.  His son, Austin, was also a state representative, Justice of the Peace,  and served in the war of the rebellion.  The farm is still owned by the descendants of Eleazer Curtis.

     JAMES KNOWLES, a soldier of the Revolution, with Martha his wife and six sons and one daughter emigrated from Cape May County, N. J. to Ohio in 1794.  A son of Reuben was a soldier in the War of 1812.  In 1810 Reuben and James were on a produce boat going down the

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Mississippi; on the way they tied up for the night near what is now New Madrid.  That night there was an earthquake that caved off the bank where they were and over one hundred acres of land sank, forming a lake that still remains.
     Tall Sycamore trees went down end first; in the scramble for his life James caught hold of a tree and climbed as it sank.  All the crew came out alive from that fearful night but the boat and contents were lost.  Reuben and Amos worked on the boat that Aaron Burr had built at Marietta.

     AARON CLOUGH, then a young man of twenty years, drew the land opposite Newbury Bar.  With ten other men one of whom was Captain John Leavens a fellow townsman, he made the journey to Ohio.  One of the party kept a journal which still exists, and records the following.  "This party went out, not as members of a Company, but on our own hook, according to our own roving disposition and desire to see the world.  We had a team of four horses, and a baggage wagon for clothes, farming tools and provisions, and had a very marry journey through the country."  They were forty six days on the journey, landing at Marietta, May 18, 1788, just six weeks after the first arrivals.

     PEREGRENE FOSTER was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and was present at the execution of Major Andre.  After the war he removed to Providence, R. I. where he practice law for a few years.  He was one of the surveyors in the company of pioneers who landed at Marietta, April 7th, 1788.  He returned to Providence later in that same year, removed to Morgantown, Penn. in 1792 and in 1796 to Belpre.  During that year he secured a franchise for a ferry across the Ohio river, on which franchise a ferry was operated by a succession of owners until purchased by the Bridge Company in 1918.  Mr. Foster died in 1804.

- END OF CHAPTER VIII -