Transcript:Haymond, Henry. History of Harrison County, West Virginia/p361

Source

Haymond, Henry. History of Harrison County, West Virginia: from earliest days of northwestern Virginia to the present. (Morgantown, West Virginia: Acme Publishing, 1910).

Overview

William Haymond, Jr. was the son of Major William Haymond. He submitted a series of letters about the life and times of his father and family to his nephew, Luther Haymond. Eight of these letters were included in the source above. This transcript is part of a series of transcripts that provide the text for those letters. The text is presented as accurately as possible and hyperlinks to werelate pages for individuals are provided. This is a work in progress.

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Transcript - Letter No. 5.

Letter No. 5.

Palatine Hill, Va., April 10, 1842. Luther Raymond,

Sir: — In my last letter I think I stated that our trip on Kanawha was in 1791. I am not certain whether it was in that year or 1792, not important. In my last letter we were as far as Shepard's camp. Shep- ard was the name of the man we found in the woods. The next morning after we got to his camp we loaded the meat in our canoe, that is the one we found. We left our first made canoe and descended the river, had not gone far before we met two men going up the river to hunt, each in .a separate canoe. Shepard went back with them and Coburn and myself proceeded down the river having first exchanged our big canoe with one of them for a less one. We landed at Neal's Station safe with our load. Stayed there a day or two and then proceeded up the River to Marietta.

The river was very high and we had a hard day's work to get up, not being in the habit of Avorking. At Marietta we sold our skins, bear meat, &c. After staying several days at Mr. Williams we started home. When about six miles we met Isaac Richards with about 15 or 20 men go- ing to be stationed at Williams and Neal's Stations.

Coburn would turn back A\dth them to Williams. This I opposed, but yielded. Back we went. Stayed three or four days and then started again. By this time our company had increased to 10 or 12, among whom was a Frenchman who could not understand English. He was not able to keep up and Richards hired him his horse to ride to Clarksburg where we arrived safe some time about the first of April, having been gone 40 days or upwards, during which time we had never changed our clothes. We might have made considerable if we had been industrious. We, I be- lieve, sold our beaver skins for two dollars a pound and the bear meat for six pence a pound. What would you think now to see two such persons as we were?

In May following, the Indians stole some horses on the West Fork of the Monongahela River and took two or three prisoners. They were fol- lowed to near the Kanawha River. Our men discovered them at night, went back and laid until near day when they crept up to the fire, but the Indians were gone. They pursued them until they got to the river, a part of the Indians had crossed, the other had taken down the river, or otherwise, the Indians that had crossed the river left the horses over on the west side of said river being too closely pursued and took the prison- ers off. Our men then went up the river to a ford, crossed over and took the horses. On their return up the ford to recross they saw that same Shepherd and his companion Daniel Rowell descending the river with our canoe before mentioned, and a hollow Sycamore tree made so that it would carry a load. They thought at first sight that it was the Indians crossing the river and Shepherd and Rowell thought the others were In- dians. However, they soon found out their mistake. ' Shepherd and Row- ell proceeded down the river and had not gone far when they saw the raft of the Indians floating from the shore, they having just crossed.

The same year, or about that time, the said Rowell and two other young men, one of whom was a Neal, were up said river near the mouth of the West Fork. Rowell was sitting in the canoe ferrying the others over the river, the two young men were standing up when the Indians fired on them and killed the two young men who fell out of the canoe. Rowell swam ashore, ran to the camp and got his gun without a lock he had taken it off to grease. He then made for Neal's Station. On his way he hid his gun and was never able to find it again. The men stationed at Neal's ascended the River (Kanawha) found the men and buried them. The Indians had not found them as they were not scalped.

About this time the spies at Neal's Station saw the trail of Indians, who had been on the West Fork of the Monongahela and stole perhaps 8 or 10 horses. They had crossed the Kanawha some 25 or 30 miles above its mouth. The men at the station got in canoes, went down the Ohio until they struck the trail where they had crossed. They followed and overtook the Indians, retook the horses and brought them back to the Station, made a sale and divided the proceeds. This is the first and last case that I have any knowledge of that the men of this Country kept the property taken from the Indians that had been stolen by them. (See the Border Warfare.)

In the year 1791 the Indians killed James or John Mclntire and wife a mile or two above the mouth of Bingamon Creek. Five or six of us when we heard the news, started and went to Benj. Robinson's. Robinson had appointed before we got to his house, to meet some men on Buffalo Creek. We started eleven of us in all, went up Tenmile Creek to the mouth of Jones' Run, and in going up said Run we found the trail of the Indians, but as Robinson had promised to meet those men, we went on to Buffalo Creek, but found no persons. We took up Buffalo to the head of Fishing Creek, went down a considerable distance, took up a right hand branch on which we camped. Next morning crossed over the divid- ing ridge, fell on the waters of Middle Island, went down the same, to the creek about a mile below the three forks. The Indians had just come down the creek. Here was a fresh trail. Col. George Jackson proposed that six men should be chosen who should strip as light as they could and go ahead of the horses. He also asked the privilege of choosing them and going ahead, which was granted. I then thought, chosen or not, I would be one of them. George Jackson, Benj. Robinson, Christopher Carpenter. John Raymond, John Harbert and myself the 6th. one, were the number. We stripped ourselves as lightly as we could, tied handkerchiefs around our heads, and proceeded to travel as fast as we could. The Indians ap- peared to travel very carelessly, broke bushes, &c. It was in May. The weeds were young and tender. We could follow a man very easily. We went about seven or eight miles, passed where the Indians had stopped to eat. Arriving on a high bank Jackson turned around and said: "Where do you think they have gone?" with that he jumped down the bank and we proceeded down on the beach a short distance, when one of the Indians fired. I think we were about forty yards from them, we on the beach, they on the bank on the same side of the creek. We started on the run and had run ten or fifteen yards when the other three fired, then we were in about thirty yards of them. At the first gun, Jackson wheeled around and said : ' ' Where did that gun come from ? ' ' John Harbert and brother John discovered them first running up the hill, they fired. Benj. Robin- son and myself ran and jumped on the bank where the Indians left their knapsacks. T fired the third shot, the Indians were sixty yards off. They had run up a very steep hill. Eobinson shot at the same Indian that T did. I heard him or one of them talk after I shot. Jackson and Carpen- ter shot last. We than ran a little to the right from where the Indians had ran up the hill. I was the first on top, with the company I was with (the other men had joined us and two or three went round the hill in an- other place.)

We then turned down to where the Indians had got on the top of the 'hill, there we found a blanket, belt, knife, scabbard and blood. The Indian had bled considerable. He went about a quarter of a mile and cut a stick which we supposed was to stop the blood. We followed him about a mile when we then thought it dangerous to follow, thinking he had his gun with him and would hide and kill one of us. To my morti- fication we returned. We could have trailed him anjrwhere. On our re- turn we found his shot pouch. Had we found it first, I think we would have overtaken him. About ten years after, his gun was found. After we fired, I wanted to run down a creek as I could see that a run came in just below, but the rest would not. If we had, I have no doubt we would have met them again as the wounded Indian crossed the point and run not very far from its mouth. The other Indians we did not follow, but I think they crossed below where the wounded one did. We returned to the Indians' place of attack where we found all their knapsacks, one shot pouch (having previously found one) four hatchets and all their plunder, including the woman's scalp. Here on examination we found that Brother John had been shot through the handkerchief just above his ear, and Jackson through the shirt sleeve near his wrist. Had we looked, we would have found the Indian's gun. We ought to have expected that the Indian would have thrown away his gun before his shot pouch. I have since heard that one of the Cunninghams who was a prisoner with the Indians at thattime, on his return said that an Indian came home and said that he had been with three others on Muddy River (West Fork^ killed a man and a woman, and they were folloM^ed, and they fired on the white men and killed two, and that the white men fired on them and wounded three, one of whom died after crossing the second ridge at a run. We were on the second ridge and near the second run. The other two died between that and the Ohio River. If this account is true and the Indians we followed were the same, we must have shot well. We thought at the time we had wounded two. We sold our Indian plunder for about twenty dollars among which were some curious affairs.

Yours &c.,

Wm. Haymond.