He's So Nice the Indians Would Never Harm Him

The Interviews

1794

 Interviews With Early Settlers

Stations

"He’s So Nice the Indians Wouldn’t Hurt Him

Spencer was taken the summer before we came.  His mother had a nephew living with her and Mrs. Spencer said she was glad it was her son that was taken for she knew he was so good natured they wouldn’t hurt him.

 

("Taken" was a term referring to individuals being "taken" or kidnapped by the Indians.  Kidnapping was common on the frontier during early times.   The mortality rate among Indian children made white children prize targets as "replacements."

 

Interview with James Beasley: (1794).  He lived 15 miles east of Cincinnati near Milford, Ohio.

A Non-Fatal Gut Shot

 Major Benjamin Stites & Nathaniel Reeder were going down to Cincinnati from Columbia.  They were fired on by perhaps a party of 30 Indians.   Stites when he saw the Indians raising out of a hollow dropped right down on his horse and hear the bullets go over him.  Stites got in first and the two soldiers ere coming out of the fort, when they met Reeder, whom they supposed to be killed.  Reeder had been shot right in front of the abdomen, but so the bullet passed in and came out without hurting a vessel.

Isaac Beasley lived about 5 miles up the Little Miami, west side.  One night in the spring or summer of 1794 the Indians were around his house, he knew from the dogs barking.  In the morning he got up and went back and forth till he could see if he saw anything of the  yet moving so they couldn’t fire.  As many as 7 or 8 guns were fired at him, all missing and he ran to the door.  His wife hearing the guns supposed he was dead and was pushing it too but he prevented and got in and then got his gun and ran to the stairs to shoot.  Here he was seen through the chink and was shot in the arm, the bullet entering above the wrist and coming out at the elbow.  By the time his sons 7 or 8 were up and fired at the Indians who fled.  One was supposed to be killed but never found.  Beasleys was about ½ mile from Frazier’s Station where I lived. 

Apparently Beasley was outside pushing on the door of the cabin trying to get in and his wife, thinking he was dead, pushed against it from inside the cabin thinking it was Indians trying to get in,. Luckily they figured it out.

Shot In The Leg and It Proved Fatal.

 

 Hinkle’s. a company of 15 up to Covaltt’s helping him build it. They were on horseback and were waylaid by a party of 40 Indians who fired on them, and killed two horses, Gabriel Hutchings shot down under him and Hinkle’s who was wounded in the calf of the leg.  When the horse fell Hinkle jumped to his feet and ran till he got close to his door and he died in about an hour.  A vein in the balf of his leg was cut.  His door at at the Round Bottom , he ran 200 yards so near his home it was.  There was no station at Round Bottom only one or two houses there yet.  The alarm was given but the Indians discontinued the attack.

 

The fact Hinkle could run 200 yards with a bullet through his ankle is a testament to his stamina.  Hinkle was related to Ensign Schillinger, the soldier who kept a journal at Fort Amanda in 1813 

“I killed your father.”

Ephraim Covalt killed at his own station. He was out, supposed to have been straggling.  Covalt wore a pair of silver sleeve buttons.  About 3 years after an Indian came along & asked his son if his name wasn’t Covalt.  He said it was, “Me kill your father.”  The Indian then said and showed him the buttons.  He had his father’s gun too.  Some blamed Covalt for letting him go.         

I've read this account many many times and I'm still amazed at how the Indian tells Covalt's son, in an almost nonchalant manner that he had killed his father, and even tole him he had some of his possessions.  We'll never know the Indian's  demeanor the time but because the son took no action, one must wonder if the Indian said it jokingly as if to say, "Gee, now this is really  a coincidence, I killed your dad and have his buttons and gun and now I meet his son.  This is really a coincidence," and then blew off the entire incident as if it was a non-event.  We'll also never know what Covalt's reaction was to incident but we do know neighbors criticized Covalt for not retaliating. 

Flinn

 Olcott was shot through the shoulder.  James Newell was killed, he had been thrown.  Henry Ball was taken prisoner.   The backwater was up very high,, they went up in a pirogue and brought him down the next morning, he was not yet dead.  He was killed by Mrs. Ferris this side the middle gate. 

"He was killed by Mrs. Ferris"?  Was it an accident on purpose??  We may never know.

Pirogue

James Newell was my uncle's wife's brother. Robert Griffin was killed alone, his father had brought down a large family from Pa. He had gone out a hunting and had killed a turkey and a raccoon. This was on another branch of Duck Creek from Mrs. Ferris' just below Dr. Duncan's place. Griffin had been living at my father's before he was killed, and was living with my mother at the time. He was on his return home at the time. Old Mr. Paul was killed a week or so before or after, his son had like to have gotten killed at the same time. Nelson's station was about 100 yards just in front of the mound where John Ferris lives. I think this station must have been established as early as 1791. After Robert Griffin's death his father and brother's family moved to Nelson's Station. Alexander Gordon's children were taken while they lived at this station. I think they were out after the cows.

The following reads as if children being kidnapped by Indians was an everyday event.  "Alexander Gordon's children were taken while they lived at this station. I think they were out after the cows."

James Newell Killed

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If you would like learn more about Fort Amanda and the patriots who served there, these books can be purchased locally, on the net or by contacting me at djohnson43@att.net

     

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Available at;
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The Allen County Museum (620 W. Market st) in Lima, Ohio 

Amazon.com

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