Old Time Incidents in Pioneer Life

Printer-friendly version

Ironton Register, Thursday, April 30, 1896
OLD TIMES
INCIDENTS IN PIONEER LIFE
(by John G. Wilson)
No. 4

Submitted by Sharon M. Kouns

For the Register.
When I was a boy, a small cave just back of our Village was pointed out to me in which it was said, that an Indian skeleton was found; and as I was curious to know how it came there, the following tale was told. Away back, when Ohio was a territory and the pioneers were pulling their way into the western part of Virginia and portions of Kentucky, the Indians who witnessed their encroachments on their lands with anger, determined to keep the long knives as they termed the whites, south of the Ohio river at any cost; and bands of them were constantly on the watch to catch and kill the whites as they came with their pack horses loaded with their household effects. Their families mostly on foot accompanied them. They also came by river in flat boats on which they had their goods both household and farming. They also had their boat partitioned off; one part reserved for their cow and horse. The better class came in boats and were considered rich prey by the Indians.
It was one of these boats to which was attributed the story of the battle in which the Indian was wounded, and whose skeleton was found some years after in the cave.
The boat, a large one, some ninety feet long and twenty-four feet wide, with two families comprising 20 in all, 12 males and 8 females, with their furniture and stock. One of the men was a blacksmith and also made guns.
They had left what is now Pittsburg where the whites had a fort and were slowly making their way down the Ohio river keeping a sharp lookout for the presence of the wily savage. They were on their way to Kentucky of whose rich lands they had heard from the scouts and hunters who had been there. They had reached and passed the great Kanawha river at whose mouth they expected to find Indians, but had been permitted to pass without molestation, although they afterwards learned that the Indians had been concealed at the mouth of the river and were persuaded by their chief to await a better time further down the river.
When they had reached the mouth of the Guyan river they were fired upon by the Indians who had reached there first, going by land which was not so far. Several of the pioneers were wounded but they pulled their boat to the opposite shore and were out of reach of the balls. The rifles of the Indians could not send a ball across the Ohio river. The Indians, as soon as the boat was out of reach ceased firing, and as the day was almost gone, the whites were very anxious to get away from so dangerous a locality for they were afraid that during the night the Indians would attack them in canoes.
They held a council and decided that during the darkest part of the night that they would row their boat back to the Virginia side and tie up and await events knowing that the Indians would cross over to the Ohio side of the river in order to surprise them. So as quickly and noiselessly as possible they rowed across and fastened their boat and with rifles in hand awaited morning. The savages sure enough did cross over and went down the bank of the river searching for the boat, but after going several miles and not finding it, concluded that they had been fooled, went back up the river and reached the spot directly opposite where the boat was, as the first indications of day began to show in the East.
They soon discovered the boat and a volley was fired but the balls fell short and they soon quit firing. On the boat was a rifle which the blacksmith had made especially to shoot a long distance and as the Indians showed themselves fearlessly dancing and jumping about, making insulting gestures, he thought he would try what his gun would do, and taking sure aim at one of the Indians, who seemed to be more insulting than the balance, he fired. The Indian was seen to clasp his hand on his breast, totter and fall. Several of his companions ran to him and he was picked up and carried out of sight. The Indians vanished as quickly as possible on perceiving that the whites had a gun that would kill so far and did not show themselves again. Along towards noon, a band of Wayne's men came to the rescue of the whites and drove the Indians away, and the supposition was that the wounded or dead Indian was placed or crawled into the cave and his bones were not found for many years after.
The boat under the protection of Wayne proceeded on her way and finally reached what is now Maysville, Kentucky where they landed and made their homes near the fort at that place. G.