This and That

By Helen Kaverman, The Delphos Herald
Published:  Tuesday, May 6, 2008 (2 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Samuel Hall and Martha Wamsey were married in 1824 in Muskingum County. They came to Blanchard Township, Putnam County in the spring of 1832. Both gave their biographies for the 1886 Pioneer Reminiscences. He said they were married in Licking County and she gave the location as Muskingum County.
Samuel was born in Monongalia County, Va., on 9 April, 1803. Martha was born in 1805 in Cochocton County to John and Mary Wamsley. John and Mary moved from Clarksburg, Harrison County, Va., in 1800, five years before Martha’s  birth. They made the trip with her family, the Robinson family, together as one group on pack horses.
During the Indian War, Martha’s grandfather, William Robinson (her mother’s father), was taken prisoner by Logan, the Indian Chief, and his men. They brought him from Virginia to Ohio, where they kept him prisoner for four months. William said he intended to settle his children in that area of Ohio, if ever there was peace.
After his release, he returned to Virginia. In 1800, her grandfather moved his family (10 children, who were all married and with families) and settled them where he had been held prisoner.
Martha said: “He entered them all a farm apiece, some on the one side and some on the other side of the Muskingum River. They all moved at one time and together on pack horses, and they all came from Clarksburg, Harrison County, Virginia.”
The route they followed was an old Indian Trail.
She continued “My father died when I was 9 years old. Some six years after my father’s death, my mother sold her farm and moved to Irville, Muskingum County, where we lived some two years and then moved five miles from there and settled on a farm in Jackson Township, Muskingum County, where two years later I was married to Mr. Samuel Hall, I being in my 19th year.
We moved ourselves on a farm in the same place. Our farm joined my mother’s and brother’s where we lived until the year 1832, when we moved to the farm that we now live on in Blanchard Township, Putnam County, where it was all a wilderness, no neighbors, except one, Otho Crawfis.”
The family of Joseph Hickerson moved with them from the same place and settled on a farm adjoining them.
“We all lived in one camp for a week, then we each had a small cabin raised, they were raised by four men,” she wrote.
The Hickerson house was raised one day and the Hall house the next day.
She continued, “Then we went in them without floors or doors or windows or chimneys. We could see the torches of the Indians passing by our cabin almost every night and almost every day they would call on us for something to eat, more or less frequently they would come to trade with us. One Sunday, seven of them came with their baskets to trade. I told them that it was Sunday and that I would trade the next day, so they sat down their baskets and left them. The next morning, soon after we had our breakfast, seven of the Indians and squaws came and called for their breakfast. Some called for coffee and some for tea, so I made it for them and got them as good a breakfast as I could.
Seven Indians eat two loaves of bread baked in a large skillet, one pone of bread the same size. Some drank seven cups of coffee apiece. The Chief’s squaw, Kingeonel, drank eight cups of tea. They often came here with their guns and tomahawks and butcher-knives, then I would think they were going to kill us, so they would come in, put up their knives and ask for something and if I had it they got it and they always went away peaceable. I was afraid of them for some time.”
The Halls had three children at that time. James M. was only 6, Emaline E. was 4 and Melissa was 6 months.
Martha said she and the children would often be alone when her husband had to go here or there. She would be afraid because quite a number of Indians would ride by their house on their ponies and give a whoop, which would make her tremble.
She continued “After we had lived here some time, I got used to them, so I was not much afraid, often being glad when I would see the squaws coming, they being good company for me when I would get lonesome.”
(To be continued
next week)

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