CHAPTER VII. FRANKLINTON. I. In the spring of 1795 a surveying party of Kentuckians appeared in the woods on Deer Creek, within the present confines of Madison County. The leader of the party was Lucas Sullivant, the pioneer explorer of Central Ohio and founder of Franklinton. Mr. Sullivant was at that time about thirty years of age. Born in Mecklen burg County, Virginia, in 1765, he participated, at sixteen, in an expedition to repel an Indian invasion of his native State. Cast upon his own resources early in life, he gained influential friends, one of whom was Colonel William Starling, whose second daughter he afterwards married. By diligent improvement of his time and means, be qualified himself as a Land Surveyor, and found in the hospitable wilderness of Kentucky, then an outlying county of Virginia, a useful field for the exercise of his talents Mr. Sullivant first located at Paris, in Bourbon County, Kentucky, and became owner of a fine tract of land in that vicinity. Subsequently he resided several years in Washington County with a family named Treacle, whose name he gave, after his arrival in Ohio, to the stream now known as Little Darby Creek, in the western part of Franklin County. Mr. Sullivant's biographer describes him at his maturity as a man "of medium height, muscular and well proportioned, quick and active in his movements, with an erect carriage and a good walk, a well-balanced head, finished off with a cue, which he always wore; a broad and high forehead, an aquiline nose, and a blue-gray eye, a firm mouth and square chin. He was firm and positive in his opinions, but courteous in manners and expression, prompt and decisive to act upon his own convictions, and altogether a man of forcible character, exercising an influence over those with whom he came in contact." After Mr. Sullivant's arrival in Kentucky, Virginia authorized her soldiers to appoint a surveyor of the lands which she had reserved for them from her cessions to the National Government. Their choice fell upon Colonel Richard C. Anderson, who had served with distinction as an officer of the Continental Army. On July 20, 1784, Colonel Anderson opened an office for the survey and distribution of the Virginia bounty lands, under the protection of a frontier stockade and blockhouse on the present site of the city of Louisville. Among the deputy surveyors whom he appointed were Nathaniel Massie, Duncan McArthur, Lucas Sullivant, John O'Bannon, Arthur Fox and John Beasley. Mr. Sullivant was assigned to the northern portion of the Virginia Military District, where we find him at the opening of this chapter. His party had been organized at Limestone, now Maysville, Kentucky, and comprised about twenty men, including assistant surveyors, chain-carriers, scouts, porters, and other helpers. While running his lines on Deer Creek he encountered a mounted French trader accompanied by two Indians. Soon after this party had passed him, Mr. Sullivant heard shots, and going back found, to his dismay, that his rear guard had fired on and killed the Frenchman, and put his Indian companions to flight. Sullivant reprimanded his men severely for this unprovoked and unnecessary attack, well knowing that it could not fail to incite early retaliation from the Indians at the villages on the Scioto. Some of his companions scoffed at his apprehensions, but so sure was he of coming trouble, that he resolved to shift the scene of his operations just as soon as he could close his work in that neighborhood. His fears were soon realized. While he was running his last lines, four days after the affair of the Frenchman, Sullivant descried a band of Indians, larger than his own party, crossing the prairie at a considerable distance. This was a hostile expedition sent out from the Mingo villages then clustered about the present site of Columbus. Sullivant proposed fight, but his men were averse to it, and remained concealed in the high grass while the warriors passed by unsuspecting that near at hand were the very men whose scalps they were looking for. But the Indians did not miss their opportunity. After they had passed, and Mr. Sullivant had cautioned his men to be quiet, and not to use their firearms, he resumed his work, which he was just finishing, at nightfall, when a flock of wild turkeys flew up into the trees near by. Tempted by these birds, the men disobeyed orders, and fired several shots. Sullivant warned his companions to be ready, for the Indians were still within hearing, and would soon be upon them. He had scarcely ceased when the warriors rushed at them with a whoop and a volley. Mr. Sullivant, says his son and biographer-who shall describe what followed"lifted his compass, which was on the Jacob's staff standing beside him, and, tossing it into a fallen tree top, unslung the light shotgun he carried strapped on his back, and fired at an Indian who was advancing upon him with uplifted tomahawk, and, turning about to look for his men, saw they were in a panic and rapidly dispersing, and he also took to his heels, and fortunately in about a quarter of a mile, fell in with six of his men. Favored in their flight by the darkness, and shaping their course by the stars, they journeyed all night and most of next day before halting. The third night, as they were traveling along, footsore and weary, they heard voices which seemed to proceed from a hillock in front, and they stopped and hailed. The other party, discovering them at the same moment, challenged and ordered a halt. A parley ensued, when, to their great surprise those on the hill appeared to be the other and larger party of their own men. But no advance was made by either side, each fearing the other might be a decoy in the hands of the Indians, for it was not an uncommon trick for the cunning savages to compel their unfortunate prisoners to play such a part.3 After many inquiries and some threats had been exchanged, Mr. Sullivant advanced alone, and immediately verified his belief that the men he had been parleying with were members of his own company. A reunion at once took place, amid the gloom of the wilderness, but not of the entire party. Two men were missing, and of these two one, named Murray, was known to have fallen dead at the first fire of the Indians. Many years after these events, while Madison County was being settled up, Mr. Sullivant's compass was found, in good condition, just where he cast it during his encounter with the Indians. His son, Mr. Joseph Sullivant, carefully preserved it, and still had it in his possession at the time he wrote the foregoing narrative. Some time after the Deer Creek adventure, Mr. Sullivant began his surveying operations within the present limits of Franklin County. His party carried with it a supply of bacon, flour and salt, but depended for its subsistence mainly upon the wild game of the woods. This not always being a sure reliance, the company cook was sometimes driven to dire expedients to satisfy the hungry stomachs of the party. On one occasion, coming in at night, weary and hungry, the men, to their great delight, were regaled with appetizing odors issuing from a steaming campkettle. When the mess was ready each one received his share of hot broth in a tin cup, the chief being awarded as his portion the boiled head of some small animal. Opinions differed as to what the animal was, the raccoon, rabbit, groundhog, squirrel, porcupine and opossum each having its partisans. Finally, on being driven to the wall, the cook acknowledged that the soup had been made from the bodies of two young skunks which he had captured" without damage to himself" in a hollow log. The effect of this announcement was curious. Some of those who had partaken persisted that the soup was excellent, others wanted to whip the cook; one, only, involuntarily emptied his stomach. Wolves, bowling and barking, hovered constantly around the camps of the expedition, seeking its offal, and the American panther, or catamount, was more than once seen prowling about on the same errand. Once, when the party had pitched its camp near a place known to the early settlers as Salt Lick, on the west side of the Scioto, three miles below the present city of Columbus, a panther was detected crouched on the limb of a tree, almost directly over the campfire around which the men were sitting. The tail of the beast was swaying to and fro, its eyeballs glaring and its general behavior such as to indicate that it was about to make a spring. Seizing his rifle, a huntsman of the party took steady aim between the two blazing eyes, and fired. The panther instantly came down with a terrific scream, and scattered the campfire with the leaps and convulsions amid which it expired. When Mr. Sullivant awoke the next morning after this adventure, he felt some incubus on his person, and soon discovered that a large rattlesnake had coiled itself upon his blanket. Giving blanket and snake both a sudden toss, he sprang to his feet, and soon made away with his uninvited bedfellow. In the course of a subsequent expedition Mr. Sullivant appointed a rendezvous. for his party at the junction of the Scioto and Whetstone (now Olentangy) then known to the surveyors and map-makers as the Forks of the Scioto. Should his men arrive there before he did, they were directed to leave a canoe for him, proceed up the river and await him at the mouth of a stream now called Mill Creek. Owing to detention, he arrived at the Forks late in the afternoon, but found at canoe awaiting him as arranged, and immediately set out in it to rejoin his companions. He had but just pushed into the stream when he detected three Indians lurking in a grove of huge sycamores which then stood on the west bank of the Whetstone. He drove his canoe rapidly up stream, cautiously followed by the |