History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois

Front matter

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(Qotnell Uniuemtg Slihrarjj

BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME 0> THE

Preface

rPlHE history of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, after months of persistent toil and -»- research, is now completed, and it is believed that no subject of universal public importance or interest has been omitted, save where protracted effort failed to secure reliable results- We are well aware of our inability to furnish a perfect history from meager public documents and numberless conflicting traditions, but claim to have prepared a work fully up to the standard of our promises. ''Through the courtesy and assistance generously afforded by the residents of these counties, we have been enabled to trace out and put on record the greater portion of the important events that have transpired in Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, up to the present time. And we feel assured that all thoughtful people in these counties, now and in future, will recognize and appreciate the importance of the work and its permanent value. .

A dry statement of events has, as far as possible, been avoided, and incidents and anecdotes have been interwoven with facts and statistics, forming a narrative at once instructive and interesting.

We are indebted to John Grear, Esq., for the history of Jonesboro and Precinct ; to Dr. J H. Sanborn for the history of Anna and Precinct; to Dr. N. R. Casey for the history of Mound City and Precinct, and to George W. Endicott, Esq., of Villa Ridge, for his chapter on Agricult" ure and Horticulture of Pulaski County. Also to H. C. Bradsby, Esq., for his very able and exhaustive history of Cairo, as well as the general history of the respective counties, and to the many citizens who furnished our corps of writers with material aid in the compilation of the facts embodied in the work.

September, 1883. THE PUBLISHERS.

Part I. Cairo

PAGE.

< H APTEE I.— City of Cairo— The First Steamboat on Western Waters — Great Earthquake of 1811 — First Settlement of Cairo — Holbrook's Schemes — A Mushroom City and the Bubble Eursted — Early Navigation of Western Rivers — Capt. Henry M. Shreve, etc., etc 11

f HAPTER II.— Crash of the Cairo City and Canal Company in 1841 — The' Exodus of the People — Pastimes and Social Life of Those Who Remain— Judge Gilbert — How a Riot was Suppressed — Bryan Shannessy — Gradual Growth of the Town Again — The Record Brought Down to 1853, etc 31

CHAPTER III.— Cairo Platted— First Sale of Lots— The Foundation of a City Laid — Beginning of Work on ■ the_ Central Railroad— S. Staat- Taylor— City Governiubiit organized and Who Were Its Officers — Increase of Population— The War— Soldiers in Cairo — Battle of Belmont— Waif of the Battle-field— "Old Rube "—Killing of Spencer— Overflow of '58— Wash Graham and Gen. Grant — A Few More Practical Jokes, etc., etc 47

f HAPTER IV.— Decidedly a Cairo Chapter— Cairo and Its Different Bodies, Politic and Corporate — Cairo City and Bank of Cairo— Cairo and Canal Company— Cairo City Property— Trustees of the Cairo Trust Property —The Illinois Exporting .Comnany— D. B. Holbrook —Justin Butterfield— Recapitulation, etc., etc 67

CHAPTER V.— The Levees— How the Territorial Legislature by Law Placed the Natural Town Site Above Overflows — First Efforts at Constructing Levees- Engineer's Reports on the Same— Estimated Height and Costs— The Floods— The City Overflowed— Great Disaster, the Cause and Its Effects— The Levees are Reconstructed and They Defy the Greatest Waters Ever Known 90

CHAPTER VI.— The Press— Its Power as the Great Civilizer of the Age — Cairo's First Editorial Ventures- Birth and Death of Newspapers Innumerable— The Bohemians— Who They Were and What They Did— "Bull Run" Russell— Harrell, Willett, Faxon and Others — Some of the "Intelligent Compositors"— Quantum Suflicit 126

C HAPTER VII.— Societies : Literary, Social and Benevolent —The Heal League— Lyceum— Masonic Fraternity- Its Great Antiquity— Odd Fellowship — The Cairo Casino— Other Societies, etc 155

PAGE.

CHAPTER VIII.— Cairo— Her Condition in 1861-1878-1883 — The" Ebb and Flow of Business and Population — War and the Panic Which Followed — Steamboats — Mark Twain — Pilots — Some Steamboat Disasters— And a Joke or Two by Way of Illustration, etc 160

CHAPTER IX— The Church History— St. Patrick's— German Lutheran — Presbyterian — Baptist — Methodist and Other Denominations — The Different Pastors — Their Flocks, Temples, the City Schools, etc., etc 176

CHAPTER X.— Railroads — The Illinois Central — Cairo Short Line — The Iron Mountain — Cairo & St. Louis— The Wabash— Mobile &. Ohio— Texas & St. Louis— The Great Jackson Route — Roads Being Built, etc., etc.... 195

CHAPTER XL— Conclusion— The Future of the City Considered— Her Present Status and Growth — Present City Officials, etc 217

PAET II.

UNION COUNTY.

CHAPTER I.— Introduction— Geology— Importance of Educating the People on This Subject— The Limestoue District of Illinois— Economical Geology of Union, Alexander and Pulaski Counties — Medical Springs, Building Material, Soil, etc. — Wonderful Wealth of Nature's Bounties — Topography and Climate of this Region, etc 22-5

CHAPTER II.— Pre-historic Races— The Mound-Builders— Fire Worshipers — Relics of these Unknown People — Mounds, Workshops and Battle-Grounds in Union, Alexander and Pulaski Counties — Visits of Noxious Insects — History Thereof, etc 244

CHAPTER III.— The Daring Discoveries and Settlements by the French — The Catholic Missionaries — Discovery of the Mississippi River— Some Corrections in History — A World's Wonderful Drama of Nearly Three Hundred Years' Duration, etc 25t

CHAPTER IV— Following the Footsteps of the First Pioneers—Who They Were— How They Came— Where They Stopped— From 1795 to 1810— Cordeling— Bear Fight- First Schools, Preachers, and the Kind of People they Were— John Grammar, the Father of Illinois State- Craft, etc 264

CHAPTER V.— Settlers in Union, Alexander and Pulaski— Lean Venison and Fat Bear— Primitive Furniture — A

CONTENTS.

Pioneer Boy Sees a Plastered House— How People Forted — Their Dress and Amusements— Witchcraft, "Wizards, etc.— No Law nor Church— Sports, etc.— Gov. Dougherty— Philip Shaver and the Cache Massacre- Families in the Order they Came, etc., etc 275

CHAPTER VI.— Organization of Union County— Act of Legislature Forming It — The County Seal— Commissioners' Court — Abner Field — A List of Families — Census from 1820 to 1880— Dr. Brooks— The Flood of 1844— Willard Family — Col. Henry L. Webb — Railroads- Schools — Moralizing, etc., etc 285

CHAPTER VII.— The Bench and Bar— Gov. Reynolds- Early Courts— First Term and Officers— Daniel P. Cook — Census of 1818— County Officers to Date— Abner and Alexander P. Field— Winsted Davie — Young and Mc- Roberts — Visiting and Resident Lawyers — Grand Juries Punched — Hunsaker's Letter — War Between Jonesboro and Anna— County Vote, etc., etc 301

CHAPTER VIII.— The Press— Finley and Evans, and the First Newspaper—" Union County Democrat "—John Grear— The "Record," "Herald," and Other Publications—How the Telegraph Produced Drought— Dr. S. S. Conden — Present Publishers and Their Able Papers, etc. 318

CHAPTER IX.— Military History— " Wars and Rumors of Wars" — And Some of the Genuine Article — Revolutionary Soldiers— Mexican War— Our Late Civil Strife — Union County's Honorable Part In It— The One Hundred and Ninth Regiment — Its Vindication in History, etc., etc 323

CHAPTER X.— Agriculture— Similarity of Union County to the Blue Grass Region of Kentucky — Adaptability to Stock-Raising — Fair Associations — Horticulture — Its Rise, Wonderful Progress and Present Condition — Varieties of Fruit and Their Culture — The Fruit Garden of the West — Vegetables — Shipments — Statistics, etc., etc 334

CHAPTER XI.— Jonesboro Precinct — Topography and Physical Features— Coming of the Whites— Pioneer Hardships— Early Industries — Roads, Bridges, Taverns, etc. — Religious and Educational — State of Society — Progress and Improvements, etc 352

CHAPTER XII.— City of Jonesboro— Selected and Surveyed as the County Seat — Its Healthy Location — Early Citizens — Some who Remained and Some who Went Away— First Sale of Lots — Growth of the Town — Merchants and Business Men — Town Incorporated — Schools and Churches— Secret Societies, etc 357

CHAPTER XIII.— Anna Precinct— General Description and Topography— Early Settlement— The Cold Year- Organization "of Precinct— Incident of the Telegraph- Schools and Churches— Bee-Keeping, Dairying, etc.— Crop Statistics — A Hail-Storm, etc - 363

CHAPTER XIV.— City of Anna— The Laying-out of a Xown— Its Name— Early Growth and Progress— Incorporated—Fires— Notable Events— Societies, Schools and Churches— Manufactures— Organized as a City— Hospital for the Insane— City Finances 371

CHAPTER XV.— South Pass, or Cobden Precinct— Its Topographical and Physical Features— Early Settlement of White People— Where They Came From and a Record of Their Work— Growth and Development of the Precinct—Richard Cobden— The Village: What it Was, What It Is, and What It Will Be— Schools, Churches, etc., etc..

CHAPTER XVI. — Dongola Precinct — Surface, Timber, Water-Courses, Products, etc. — Settlement — Pioneer Trials and Industries— Schools and Churches— Mills— Dongola Village : Its Growth and Development— Leavenworth—What He Did for the Town, etc

CHAPTER XVII.— Ridge or Alto Pass Precinct— Surface Features, Boundaries, and Timber Grown— Occupation of the Whites— Pioneer Trials— Industries, Improvements, etc.— The Knob— Churches and Schools— Villages, etc., etc 41Q

CHAPTER XVIII.— Rich Precinct— Description, Boundaries and Surface Features— Settlement of the Whites— Where They Came From and Where They Located— Lick Creek Post Office— Schools and Churches— Caves, Sulphur SpringB, etc 414

CHAPTER XIX.— Stokes Precinct— Topography and Boundaries—Coming of the Pioneers— Their Trials and Tribulations— Mills and Other Improvements— Mount Pleasant laid out as a Village — Churches, Schools, etc., etc 419

CHAPTER XX.— Saratoga Precinct— Its Formation and Description— Topography, Physical Features, etc. — Early Settlement— The Wild Man of the Woods— Mills- Saratoga Village —Sulphur Springs — An Incident — Roads and Bridges— Schools, Churches, etc., etc 425

CHAPTER XXL— Mill Creek Precinct— Its Natural Characteristics and Resources— One of the Earliest Settlements in the County — Pioneer Improvements — Schools and Churches — Villages, etc 431

CHAPTER XXII.— Meisenheimer Precinct — Its Surface Features, Timber, Streams and Boundaries — Settlement of the Whites— Early Struggles of the Pioneers — Schools and Schoolhouses— ^Religious — Mills, Roads, etc., etc 433

CHAPTER XXIII.— Preston and Union Precincts— Their Geographical and Topographical Features — Early Pioneers— Where They Came From, and How They Lived— The Aldridges and Other " First Families"— Swamps, Bullfrogs and Mosquitoes — Schools, Churches, etc 435

Part III. Alexander County

CHAPTER I.— First Settlement of the County— The Way the People Lived — Growth and Progress— Geology and Soils — The Mound-Builders— Trinity— America— Col. Rector, Webb and Others— Wilkin son ville— Caledonia —Unity— Many Interesting Events — etc., etc., etc 443

CONTENTS.

PAOE.

CHAPTER II.— The Act Creating the County— How it waa Named — Some Interesting Extracts from Dr. Alexander's Letters — The Prominent People — Col. John S. Hacker — Official Doings of the Courts— County Officers in Succession — Different Removals of the County Seat —Preacher Wofiford — etc.,. etc 454

CHAPTER III.— Census of Alexander County Considered— The Kind of People They Were— How They Improved the Country— Who Built the Mills— Dogs Versus Sheep — Periods of Comparative Immigration — Acts of the Legislature Effecting the County, etc., etc 466

CHAPTER IV.— War Record— 1812-15— Black Hawk War- Some Account of It, and Capt. Webb's Company- Roster of the Company— War with Mexico— Our Late Civil War — Politics — Representatives and Other Officials — John Q. Harmon— State Senators, etc. — Some Slanders Upon the People Repelled, etc., etc 472

CHAPTER V.— Bench and Bar of Alexander County— State Judiciary and Early Laws Concerning It — Judicial Courts — How Formed— First Justices of the Supreme Court— Who Came and Practiced Law— Judges Mulkey, Baker, I. K. Haynie, Allen, Green, Wall, Yocum, Linegar and Lansden— Local Lawyers, etc 479

CHAPTER VI.— The Precincts of Alexander County— Topography and Boundaries — Their Early Settlement — Dangers and Hardships of the Pioneers— Villages- Schools and Churches— Modern Improvements, etc 491

Part IV. Pulaski County

CHAPTER I.— Geology, Meteorology, Topography, Timber, Water, Soil, etc.— Great Fertility of the Land— Its Agricultural and Horticultural Advantages— What Farmers are Learning— Address of Parker Earle, etc 503

CAAPTER II. — Organization of the County— The Facts That Led to the Same— Act of the Legislature— Establishment of the Courts— the First Officers— Removal of the Seat of Justice -The Census— Precinct Organization— Lawyers — Schools, Churches, etc., etc., etc 510

CHAPTER III.— About Early Leading Citizens— George Cloud, H. M. Smith, Capt. Riddle, Justus Post— Pulaski in War— Black Hawk, Mexican and the Late Civil War— History of the Men Who Took Part— A. C. Bartleson, Price, Atherton— Mr. Clemson's Farm, etc., etc 521

CHAPTER IV.— Agriculture— Early Mode of Farming in Pulaski County— Incidents— Stock-Raising— Present Improvements— Horticulture— First Attempts at Fruit-Growing— Apples— Tree Peddlers— Strawberries —Peaches— Grapes and Wine— Other Fruits, Vegetables, etc., etc 526

CHAPTER V.— Mound City— Early History of the Place— The Indian Massacre — Joseph Tibbs and Some of the

PAGE.

Early Citizens of "The Mounds"— Gen. Rawlings— First Sale of LotB— The Emporium Company— How It Flourished and Then Played Out— The Marine Ways — Government Hospital — The National Cemetery, etc 535.

CHAPTER VI.— Mound City— Decline and Death of the Emporium Company — Overflow of the Ohio in 1858 — Flood of 1862, 1867, 1882 and 1883— Leveeing the City —Bonds for the Payment of the Same— A Few Murders, With a Taste of Lynch Law, etc 553-

CHAPTER VII.— Mound City— It Becomes the County Seat County Officials— Judge Mansfield — Lawyers — F. M. Rawlings and Others — Jo Tibbs Again — The Press — "National Emporium" — Other Papers — First Physicians of the City — Schools— Teachers and Their Salaries, etc., etc 561

CHAPTER VIII— Mound City— Its Church History— Catholic Church — The Methodists, etc.— Colored Churches — Fires and the Losses which Resulted— Manufactories — Secret and Benevolent Societies— Something of the Mercantile Business — Population of the City — Its Officers and Government, etc 570*

CHAPTER IX.— Election Precincts Aside from Mound City — Boundaries, Topographical Features, etc. — Advent of the White People and their Settlements — How they Lived — Progress of Churches and Schools— Growth and Development of the County 580

PAET V.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

Cairo— Extra 56a

Union County.— Anna Precinct 57

Stokes Precinct 190

Rich Precinct 204

"Union Precinct 209

Preston Precinct 211

Mill Creek Precinct 212

Anna and Jonesboro — Extra 214

Alexander County.— Elco Precinct 218

East Cape Girardeau Precinct 235

Unity Precinct 239

Clear Creek Precinct 243

Santa Fe Precinct 247

Beech Ridge Precinct 249

Lake Millikin Precinct 250

CONTENTS.

PAGE.

Pulaski County.— Mound City Precinct 251

Dllin Precinct 326

Pulaski Precinct 331

Burkville Precinct 334

PORTRAITS.

Arter, D 133

Casey, N. E 547

Casper, P. H 241

€lemson, J. Y 97

Davie, Winstead 223

Endicott, G. W 529

Finch, E. H 151

Gaunt, J. W 259

Grear, John 349

PAGE.

Hambleton, W. L 565

Hess, John 187

Hight, W. A 5n

Hileman, Jacob 331

Hoffner,C 43

Hughes, M. L 277

Leavenworth, E 61

Mason, B. F 295

Meyer, G. F 205

Miller, Caleb 313

Morris, James S 4'*9

Parmly, John 457

Eoss, B. F 403

Safford, A. B 25

Sanborn, J. H 385

Scarsdale, F. E 169

Spencer, H. H 116

Stokes, M 421

Toler, J. M 79

Wardner, H 367

Weaver, John 475

Williams, A. G 493

HISTOEY OF

ALEXANDER, UNION AND PULASKI

COUNTIES

Part I

BY H. C. BRADSBY.

Chapter I

CITY OF CAIRO— THE FIRST STEAMBOAT ON WESTERN WATERS— GREAT EARTHQUAKE OF 1811 —

FIRST SETTLEMENT OF CAIRO— HOLBROOK'S SCHEMES— A MUSHROOM CITY AND

THE BUBBLE BURSTED — EARLY NAVIGATION OF WESTERN

M. SHREVE, ETC., ETC.

RIVERS— CAPT. HENRY " And leaves the world to solitude and me." — Gray.

TH Hi earliest settlement of Cairo, on the promontory of land formed by the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, dates back only sixty-six years ago. There are persons yet living, npt only who were born then, but who can even remember events of that time with distinctness. But these clearheaded old people are nearly all gone, and in a very few years there will be nothing left us but the traditions of 1817, unless the present opportunity is conserved, and the facts placed in a permanent form while it is yet possible to obtain them from those who not only saw, but were a part of the long-ago events that have led to the present changed condition of affairs. The tooth of time eats away the living evidences of what occurred more than fifty years ago with unerring swiftness.

The life of a nation or city, compared to time, is but a breath, although it may survive generations and centuries, and how inconceivably brief, then, is the longest space of a single human life.

Man's nature is such that he is deeply concerned in the movements of those who have gone before him. Whether his forefathers were wise or foolish, he wants to learn all he can about them; to study their customs, habits and general movements. And while those are yet left who were participants in the earliest gathering of a people in any particular locality, it is easy enough to sit down by the fireside and listen to the story of the father?; of their trials; their triumphs, their failures, their ways of thought and their general actions; but in a moment, and before you have had time to reflect upon the loss, they are all gone, and the places that knew them so well will know them no more forever; and then it is the chronicler, who puts in permanant form all these once supposed trilling details, has performed an invaluable, if not an imperishable, seivice. The proper study of mankind is man. It is the one inexhaustible fountain of real knowledge ; and the " man" that is best studied is your own immediate forefathers or predecessors. To learn and know them well is to

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

know all you can learn of the human family. To solve the complex problem of the human race does not so much consist in trying to study all the living and the dead, as in mastering, in so far as it is possible, the chosen few.

Many thousands nf years ago, preparations first began to be made for a habitation for man upon the very spot now occupied by the city of Cairo. The uplift of the rocks that formed the first dry land upon the continent in and about the Huron region had proceeded slowly in their southwesterly direction for a very long time. This was then a part of the Gulf of Mexico, and it was slow and very gradual the uplift went on, and the waters of the Gulf receded south of the junction of the two rivers, and the Lower Mississippi Eiver began to form. Prom Freeport southward, along the line of the Illinois Central Railroad, there is a gradual descent to the valley of the Big Muddy River, in Jackson County, where the level of the railroad grade is only fifty-five feet above that of the river at Cairo. At that point, there is a sudden rise of nearly seven hundred feet, the only true mountain elevation in Illinois. It runs entirely across the southern portion of the State, finally crosses the Ohio, in the vicinity of Shawneetown, and then is §lost beneath the coal measures of Kentucky. The forces beneath the surface made this uplift, and it is supposed by geologists that this must have taken place before the Gulf receded below the present junction of the rivers.

Cairo stands upon an alluvium and drift of about thirty feet in depth, and while it probably was many centuries in gathering here so as to rise above the face of the waters, yet it has been here a comparatively long time, as is evidenced by the immense trees of oak, and walnut, and many others that do not grow in swamps or grounds that more than occasionally overflow, and beneath these great trees that have braved the storms of hundreds of years has been found the remains, deep in the soil, of other great forests that had preceded the one found here by the first discoverers. It takes the geological seons to prepare the way for man's coming, and man can only come when the preparations for his reception are complete.

Mr. Jacob Klein, the brick-maker of Cairo, and who has carried on this business successfully the past nineteen years, determined three years ago to try the experiment of getting pure water by digging. He has sunk three wells ; . the first was sixty-five feet deep where it struck ^a heavy bed of gravel and promised an abundant supply of water, but the very dry season of three years ago his water supply was short. He then [had the second well sunk. This is 100 feet deep, and, like the first, stopped in the gravel.

Not still satisfied, Mr. K. contracted for the third well, to be put down with a two and a half inch pipe. The contract called for a well 300 feet deep. The contractor went down 206 feet and stopped, and then Mr. Klein .took up the work himself and carried it to 218 feet, when he struck the rock. A bed of white clay was encountered, five feet thick, resting upon the rock Here, clearly, was once the bed of the river. Prom the clay, which is 213 feet below the surface, the strata are coarse sand and seams of coarse gravel until the alluvium of the surface is reached. Mr. Klein reached an inexhaustible supply of pure, soft water, which stands within fifteen feet of, the surface at all seasons of the year and for all purposes is as fine water as was ever found. It is described to be as soft as rain water and clear and cold, and is never affected by the stage of waters in the river. It never flows during a long stage of high

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

water, as do the shallow wells when the town begins to fill with sipe water. Mr. Klein is satisfied that from ten to twenty feet farther down, which will pass through the rock he has now reached, will give him a flowing artesian well, and this improvement he has in contemplation of making the present or next year. This is the first real effort ever made here to get pure well water, and has demonstrated the fact that it is beneath us, in inexhaustible quantities and of the very best quality.

Without the attention being specially called to the fact, there are very few people who would] suppose that the white man had come almost in what is a suburb now of Cairo, and built his fort and fought the " redskins " one hundred and two years ago; yet such is the fact. Fort Jefferson is one of the favorite picnic resorts of the people of Cairo. It is only six miles below here, and across on the Kentucky shore. To the gay party starting out for a festival day, it is but little, if anything, more than merely crossing the river into Kentucky to go to Fort Jefferson. How many of all our people, especially the young, know, when they wander about the place, that they are upon historic ground? Let us tell them something of its tragic story, and when they next stroll about in its grateful shades and resting places, let them look for the fast fading landmarks of the old fort, and remember that Mrs. Capt. Piggott and many other noble souls lie buried there; and also let them recall the ~ heroic efforts of those, not only who died that twe might live, but of those who so heroically struggled to drive back the red fiends.

This fort was erected by George Rogers Clark, under the direction of Thomas Jefferson, in 1781. Jefferson was then [Governor of Virginia, and, being advised the Spanish Crown would attempt to set up a claim to the country east of the Mississippi River, he took this step to foil the design.

Immediately after the erection of the fort, Clark was called away to the frontiers of Kentucky, but was succeeded by Capt. J ames Piggott.

Immigration to the fort was encouraged, and several families settled at once in its vicinity, and for a living proceeded to cultivate the soil. For a short time, the settlement flourished. During 1781, however, the Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians became exceedingly incensed at the encroachments of the whites (their consent for the [erection of the fort not having been obtained), and they commenced an attack upon the settlers in the neighborhood. The whole number of warriors belonging to these tribes at that time was about twelve hundred, including the celebrated Scotchman Calbert, whose posterity figured as half-breeds. As soon as it was decided an attack would be made upon the fort by the Indians, a trusty messenger was dispatched to the Falls of the Ohio for further supplies of ammunition and provisions.

The settlement and fort were in great distress— at the point of starvation, indeed — and succor could not be obtained short of the Falls or Kaskaskia.

The Indians approached the settlement at first in small parties, and succeeded in killing a number of the settlers before they could be moved to the fort. Half the people, both in the fort and its vicinity, were helpless from sickness, and the famine was so distressing that it is said pumpkins were eaten as soon as the blossoms had fallen off the vines. The Indians continued their murderous visits in squads for about two weeks before the main army of " braves" reached the fort. The soldiers aided and received into the fort all the white population that could be moved.

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

In the skirmishes to which we have alluded, a white man was taken prisoner by the Indians, who, to save his life, exposed the true state of the garrison. The information seemed to add fury to the passions of the savages.

After the arrival of the main body of the savages, under Calbert, the fort was besieged three days and nights. During this time, the suffering, and misery of the garrison were extremely great. The water had almost given out; the river was falling rapidly, and the water in the wells receded with the river. The supply of provisions was quite exhausted, and sickness raged to such an extent that a veiy large number could not be moved from their beds. The wife pf Capt. Piggott and several others died, and were buried within the walls of the fort while the savages were besieging the outside. It seemed reduced to a certainty, at this juncture, that, unless relief came speedily, the garrison would fall into the hands' of the Indians and be murdered.

The white prisoner now in the hands of the Indians detailed the true state of the fort. He told his captors that more than half its inmates were sick, and that each man had not more than three rounds of ammunition, and that the garrison was quite destitute of water and provisions. On receiving this information, the whole Indian army retired about two miles to hold a council. In a few .hours, Calbert and three chiefs, with a flag of truce, were sent back to the fort.

When the inmates of the fort discovered the flag, they sent out Capt. Piggott, Mr. Owens and another man, to meet the Indian delegation. The parley was conducted under the range of the guns of the garrison.

Calbert demanded a surrender of the fort at discretion, urging that the Indians knew its weak condition, and that an unconditional surrender might save much bloodshed. He further said that he had sent a force of warriors up the Ohio, to intercept the succor for which the whites had sent a messenger. He gave the assurance that he would do his best to save the lives of the prisoners, except in the case of a few whom the Indians had sworn to butcher. He gave the garrison one hour to form a conclusion.

The delegates from the whites promised that if the Indians would leave the country, the inmates of the fort would abandon it with all haste. Calberfagreed to submit this proposition to the council, and was at the point of returning when a Mr. Music, whose family had been cruelly murdered, and another man at the fort, fired upon him and wounded him somewhat severely,

The warriors were engaged a long time in council, and, by almost a seeming , interposition of Providence, the long-wished-for succor arrived during the time in safety from the "Palls." The Indians had struck the river too high up, and thereby the boat escaped. The provisions and men were hurried into the fort, a new spirit seemed to possess every one, and active exertions were at once made to place the fort in position for a stout resistance. The sick and the small children were placed beyond the reach of harm, and all the women and the [children of any considerable size were instructed in the art of defense.

Shortly after dark, the Indians attempted to steal on the fort and capture it; but in this being most decidedly frustrated, they assaulted the garrison and tried to storm it. The cannon had been placed in proper position to rake the walls, so when the " redskins " mounted the ramparts, the cannon swept them off in heaps. The Indians, with hideous yells, and loud and savage demonstrations, kept up a streaming fire from their