by Allan Eckert
104. This was the Cumberland River but, even though the stream had been renamed by the Walker party twenty years earlier at its upper reaches where it flowed through the Cumberland Gap, it was still referred to in its lower reaches by the name Shawanoe. The place where this incident occurred was just west of present Rockcastle, Trigg Co., Ky.
105. The figure 20 M Wt signifies 2,000 pounds.
106. Indenture was quite a prevalent means by which an individual or even whole families—usually very poor, often illiterate people—could sell themselves as servants to wealthy people who would pay their passage to the New World or, for those already in America, would provide (or promise) them the funds by which they could become settlers on their own following indenture. The terms of indenture might be from as short as six months or a year to upward of ten years. Most often a legal document was executed that bound both parties to the indenture agreement, such as the following: INDENTURE OF AN EMIGRANT SOLD TO PAY HIS PASSAGE MONEY Witnesseth, that John Peterson, of the county of Bedford and provence [sic] of Pennsylvania, yeoman, of his own free and voluntary will, for the consideration of the sum of £7.16.0 lawful Money of Pennsylvania, and for other good causes, he the said John Peterson hath bound and put himself, and by these Presents, doth bind and put himself servant to Richard Wells of the County afs’d, to serve him, his Executors, Administrators and assigns, from the Day of the Date hereof, for and during the full term of one years and six months, thence next ensuing. During all which Term the said Servant, said Richard Wells, his Executors, Administrators and assigns faithfully shall serve, and that honestly and obediently in all Things as a good and faithful Servant ought to do. And the said Richard Wells, his Executors, Administrators and assigns, during the said Term shall find and provide for the said Servant, sufficient Meat, Drink, Washing and Lodging. And for the Performance hereof both the said Parties bind themselves firmly to each other by these presents. IN WITNESS whereof they have hereunto interchangeably set their Hands and seals. Dated the thirteenth day of March, Anno Domini one thousand seven hundred and seventy-three. Done before me. George Woods, J.P. his Mark. John X Peterson
107. This so-called National Road was the genesis of present U.S. Route 40.
108. Fort Bedford was located 100 miles west of Carlisle on the site of the present city of Bedford, Bedford Co., Pa. Fort Ligonier was another 44 miles beyond that post, located on Loyalhannon Creek at Laurel Hill.
109. This settlement was made on the site of the present town of Carmichaels, Greene Co., Pa.
110. The Decker’s Creek Settlement, first established in the fall of 1758, was situated at the mouth of the creek still bearing that name at the southern edge of the present city of Morgantown, Monongalia Co., W.Va.
111. All these settlements were located in present Upshur Co., W.Va.
112. Fort Stanwix, built by Gen. John Stanwix, was situated on the site of present Rome, Oneida Co., N.Y.
113. The sum of £10,000 in goods was meant by the British to be distributed proportionately to the tribes on hand for the council who were giving up their lands and putting their marks to the treaty. The Iroquois, however, once the deal was made, imperiously demanded the full amount and it was given to them, thus making them culpable in large measure for consummating what was undoubtedly the greatest land fraud perpetrated against American Indian tribes.
114. The Mohawk subchief, Abraham, who witnessed these proceedings, reported soon afterward to Sir William Johnson and related to him what had transpired. He then told Sir William, “As to the pretensions of any inconsiderable people, behind our backs, we shall soon silence them, and we desire that you may assure the King that it was our property we justly disposed of, that we had full authority to do so.” The Iroquois, however, made no appearance in Ohio against the Shawnees or any other tribe. Having been the sole beneficiaries of the deal they had made, they were content to merely sit back and watch unfold the disaster they had instigated.
115. This camp was situated in present Estill Co., Ky., at or near the site of the present village of Station Camp on Station Camp Creek.
116. Findlay and Boone, along with Col. Knox and others who came along a little later, were largely responsible for the genesis of the term long hunters, occasioned by their going out on hunts that lasted for months, sometimes even years, before their return.
117. This was the headwaters of Wheeling Creek, encountered by Zane’s party most likely in the area where the stream passes beneath the present Pennsylvania Route 221, between present West Alexander and East Finley.
118. This is present Little Wheeling Creek.
119. Individuals were supposed to have no right to claim more than 400 acres, plus preemption rights to another 1,000 acres, but it is apparent that the Zane brothers claimed far more than this and evidently were never penalized for having done so.
120. This stream still bears the name of Buffalo Creek, which empties into the Ohio at the southern end of present Wellsburg, Brooke Co., W.Va. Williams’s claim was located near the mouth of present Stotts Run, where it empties into present Buffalo Creek, just over two miles due north of present West Liberty, Ohio Co., and three creek miles downstream from present Bethany, Brooke Co., W.Va.
121. Isaac Williams did get back, eventually, after an odyssey lasting for ten years. He paddled down the Ohio all the way to the Mississippi, up that river to the Missouri and up the Missouri for about 200 miles. Before returning, he hired himself out as a hunter for various new settlements.
122. The hill from which Zane took his observation is the bluff that rises directly behind the present Lincoln School and through which present Interstate Route 70 passes in a tunnel.
123. This, of course, is the site of the present city of Wheeling, Ohio Co., W.Va.
124. Catherine Zane grew to maturity at Wheeling and eventually married Capt. Absalom Martin of the U.S. Army.
125. With the large number of claims being made in the Ohio Valley at this time, it was not surprising that there were overlappings of claims or multiple claims made for the same ground, especially when the parcel in question was choice. Just such a case occurred at Round Bottom, where the claims of Washington and George Rogers Clark conflicted with the claims of Cresap. The case was tied up in litigation for many years and was finally settled in favor of George Washington. Cresap did win a different judgment, however, in a land dispute with George Rogers Clark over a claim both men made near the mouth of Fish Creek at present Cresap’s Bottom, Marshall Co., W.Va.
126. The present city of Parkersburg, W.Va., is located at the mouth of the Little Kanawha River. The Delaware village called Bulltown was then located three miles up the Little Kanawha from its mouth, on a bottom of the east bank where, at the mouth of present Dry Creek, stands the present village of Stewart, Wood Co., W.Va.
127. Included in Washington’s claim here, though he didn’t know it at the time, was the famous Burning Spring, discovered about eighteen months later by the Van Bibber party, for details of which see Note 133.
128. The Big Sandy River is the present boundary between West Virginia and Kentucky.
129. The Fry Claim of 2,084 acres, made by Washington, was located on the northwest bank of the present Louisa Fork of Big Sandy River, on the site of present Louisa, Lawrence Co., Ky.
130. This party surveyed in the area of the present Kentucky capital city of Frankfort, where they claimed 600 acres.
131. This party did quite a bit of surveying in the area that is now the city of Louisville, Ky.
132. In later years, due to his name being enshrined on it, this rocky shelf became known, as it remains today, as Van Bibber’s Rock.
133. The burning surface of this spring was caused by subterranean natural gas leaking upward into the subsurface channel caused by the spring. Though sometimes it would be extinguished by heavy downpours, the site was noted for attracting lightning, which would again ignite it. It is still known today as Burning Spring and eventually became the site of the first natural gas well
in America. It is located near the town of Coal Fork, Kanawha Co., W.Va.
134. Camp Union was established in 1770 on the site of present Lewisburg, Greenbrier Co., W.Va. Its official designation was Fort Savannah, but the name Camp Union was used while it was under construction and became so popular that the Fort Savannah designation more or less vanished.
135. These four men made their settlement on the site of present Frankford, Greenbrier Co., W.Va.
136. The nine others, besides Wetzel and Bonnett, were Conrod Stoup, Martin Stull, George Rhinehart, Jacob Reagen, Martin Kellar, John Pectoll, James Clark, Abraham Messer and Adam Grindstaff.
137. One story, unverified, states that the Wetzels and Bonnetts actually started out to claim on Wheeling Creek before the Zanes, but that Lewis Bonnett’s saddle girth snapped, and while they were stopped to repair it, the Zane party passed them by and got claim to the lower Wheeling. While it is true that the Zane party may have passed them by, this occurred in 1770, during the second trip of the Zanes, when Ebenezer was bringing his wife to the cabin and claims made the preceding year. Thus, even had Bonnett not had the mishap, his party would still have found Wheeling Creek below the Forks all claimed by the Zane family.
138. John Wetzel’s claim was located in the bottom on the west (left) side of Wheeling Creek, opposite the mouth of present Cricket Hollow, in what came to be known as the Sand Hills District of present Marshall Co., W.Va.
139. Whether it was Cricket Hollow Run that he followed upstream and where he encountered the bear cannot be authenticated.
140. The stream they followed up from Wheeling Creek is present Bruce Run, and the settlement was made on the site of the present unincorporated community of Sand Hill, Marshall Co., W.Va.
141. Boggs Settlement was established by William Boggs, Sr., about 1772, at the mouth of a ravine less than a half-mile north of the run, on the site of the old switching yards of the B&O Railroad just a few hundred feet south of the present Ohio-Marshall County line, in the southern edge of present Wheeling, W.Va.
142. The stream on which the McCullochs settled was present Short Creek. The McCulloch Settlement was situated at the Brooke-Ohio County line, a half-mile from the present village of Windsor, W.Va.
143. All these burial mounds, including the large one, were interconnected by low earthen entrenchments. They are situated on a second terrace 75 feet above river level. For many years it was believed that the second terrace was as natural as the first, but close studies in later years indicated that the second terrace, some 30 feet in thickness, was artificially constructed as a base for the mounds, which are themselves perfectly circular. Not unexpectedly, the large mound has received the most attention. Often described as one of the largest burial mounds discovered in the United States, the great Grave Creek Mound was described by an early archaeologist, S. D. Peet, as being comprised of cubic contents equal to the third pyramid of Mycerinus, but “heaped up by a people destitute of the knowledge of iron, and who had no domestic animals or machinery to aid them.” No information has ever been uncovered that would explain who it might have been that made the curious markings in the giant beech tree at its summit, or who might have carved in the date 1734. Both the beech and oak at the summit were in a state of decay by 1818 and were finally cut down in 1828. The annular rings inside the oak indicated its age to be slightly more than 500 years, meaning the tree sprouted there sometime around the year 1300. No serious excavation was made at the mound until 1838, when an adit seven feet high by ten feet wide was excavated at the base, parallel to ground level, toward the center. At a distance of 111 feet diggers encountered the top of what turned out to be a vault lined with upright timbers side by side and covered over by similar timbers. The logged top was rectangular, eight feet wide by twelve feet long, and covered over with large flat stones common to the neighborhood, some of which had tumbled into the vault as the timbers rotted. When excavated, the vault was found to be seven feet deep. Inside were discovered two human skeletons, a male and a female, in what was described as a “tolerable” state of preservation. Articles of what appeared to have once been items of clothing and furnishings were positioned beside the skeletons, but decay had rendered them unidentifiable. There were also some worked stone implements and weapons that were in perfect condition. The two skeletons were of ordinary size; the female skeleton was unornamented. The male skeleton was surrounded by 650 ivory beads that had evidently been a necklace. They appeared to have been sawn from a single length of ivory, and then each piece was drilled through the center. With them, though whether a part of the necklace could not be determined, was an ivory ornament six inches in length. At that point another digging was begun at the summit of the cone, perpendicular to the tunnel at the base. At a depth of 36 feet—34 feet directly above the vault at the base—another burial vault was discovered approximately the size and description of the first. This one contained a single skeleton that had been ornamented around wrists and ankles with beaten copper rings three-eighths-inch thick, these ornaments having an aggregate weight of 17 ounces. Mummified skin and sinews were attached to the bones in the areas of encirclement by the rings. There were also 200 mica discs and 17 large beads carved from bone, along with over 2,000 discs cut from shells. Most important, however, within the vault and just two feet from the skeleton, was found what has been named “the Inscribed Stone”—a smooth, oval-shaped stone inscribed with three lines of ancient characters sandwiched between parallel inscribed lines. The first line held seven characters, the second held nine, the third held seven. Beneath these was a larger hieroglyphic character. The stone, studied at the Royal Antiquarian Society in Copenhagen, was declared definitely not runic but possibly Celtiberic. Numerous other prehistoric earthen burial mounds have been found in this general area of the Ohio River in present Marshall County, W.Va. One was on the claim made by Michael Cresap at present Cresap’s Bottom, three at Wells’ Bottom, a few at Fish Creek and others elsewhere. On the Wetzel claims in the Sand Hills District of the county have been found mounds, oval in shape, constructed of rocks piled together to a height of three to four feet, and in that area the sand-rock base has been found to contain footprints of birds, hooved animals and humans, along with bored holes that were thought by the early settlers to have been hollowed out for molding lead, though no trace of lead has ever been found there. The Fish Creek rock mounds occur at intervals for a distance of some four miles. On upper Wheeling Creek, 4.5 stream miles below the town of Majorsville at the Pennsylvania border and a mile and a half above the tiny community of Viola, on the bottom directly across from the mouth of Wolf Run, are several of these curious stone mounds, ranging in size from ovals that are eight by ten feet to circular stone-pile structures as much as 75 feet in circumference. The largest of these was taken apart about 1835 and was found to contain from 500 to 600 skeletons, plus a large number of artifacts, including highly polished darts, arrowheads, spearheads, hatchets, skinning knives, pipes and pieces of pottery. In some areas the pottery shards are amazingly abundant and have been found layered to a depth of two feet or more. In all the mounds, earthen or stone, in this region that have thus far been opened, skeletal remains, ornaments, carved pipes, weapons and various implements have been found. Occasional finds are still made on the ground surfaces today. While all of the above mounds and remains were found in present Marshall Co., W.Va., some 35 miles above this, at present East Steubenville, Brooke Co., W.Va., a rather remarkable discovery of ancient remains was made in 1834. A stonemason, Samuel Cummings, crossed the Ohio from Steubenville, O., to inspect the rock ledges on the then Virginia (now West Virginia) side of the river to locate rock suitable for quarrying. Almost exactly opposite the foot of South Street in Steubenville, he found a huge rock that in some bygone age had tumbled from the overhang above. While inspecting it, he found, beneath accumulated debris and rubble, an ancient stone wall. He began pulling it apart and abruptly exposed a large vaultlike compartment in which there were an estimated 75 to 100 human s
keletons “packed together in perfect regularity.” Nathaniel Wells, who owned the land, lived several miles away and did not hear of the find for several days. In the meanwhile, word of the find spread, and hordes of people thronged to the site, mainly crossing over the river from Steubenville, and began carrying away skulls, bones, implements or whatever else could be found. Wells, who said he would have protected the find for scientific study had he known of it, did not arrive until virtually everything was gone.
144. The Tomlinson Settlement was located at the mouth of present Grave Creek, on the site of the present city of Moundsville, Marshall Co., W.Va.
145. Miss Harkness had an uncle, referred to only as Harkness, who was a trader and had been killed by the Shawnees at the same time as the husband of Elizabeth Tomlinson Martin, early in 1770.
146. Many of the uneducated settlers in this area, unable to handle French pronunciation of Chartier’s, spoke or wrote the word in ill-conceived phonetics as Shirtee. The name of Chartier’s Creek often appears this way in the early documents.
147. The name Catfish Camp continued to be used for quite a few years until the settlement became quite large and was renamed in honor of the first President of the United States. It was located on the site of present Washington, Washington Co., Pa.
148. Houston remained at his Catfish Camp only a year or so, by the end of which time so much settlement had occurred that he became disgusted, sold his claim there and descended Chartier’s Creek about ten miles, where he established a new settlement at an unoccupied bottom on the west bank there. That settlement was made on the site of present Houston, Washington Co., Pa.