Memoir of Major Jonathan Haskell Debbie (Noland) Nitsche Diamonddeb@comcast.net MEMOIRS OF THE EARLY PIONEER SETTLERS OF OHIO With Narratives Of Incidents And Occurrences In 1775 By S. P. Hildreth, M. D., 1854 Pages 345-49 MAJ. JONATHAN HASKELL was born in Rochester, Mass, the 19th of March, 1775 [sic. 1755]. Like the larger portion of the New Englanders of that day, he was brought up on a farm, and received only a common school education, which fitted him for conducting the usual concerns of life to which he might be called. At the commencement of the war of Independence, when he was twenty years old, he was engaged in agriculture. How early he entered the army is not known. In 1779 he was aid-de-camp to Gen. Patterson, of the Massachusetts line, and was commissioned as a lieutenant. He continued to serve until the close of the war, either as an aid, or in the line of the army. When the Ohio Company was formed, he became an associate, and moved out there in company with Capt. Devol’s family, in the autumn of 1788. In 1789 he united with the Belpre settlement, and commenced clearing his farm. On the breaking out of the Indian war, in January, 1791, he received the appointment of captain in the regular service, and went to Rochester, Mass., where he recruited a company, and returned to Marietta in December; where he was stationed for the defense of that, and the adjacent settlements; as the troops had been withdrawn form Fort Harmar in the fall of 1790. After the defeat of Gen. St. Clair, he remained at Marietta until March, 1793, when he was commissioned as a captain in the second sub-legion under Gen. Wayne, and joined the army on the frontiers that summer. He was stationed at Fort St. Clair, where he remained until June, 1794, when he was appointed to the command of the fourth sub-legion, ranking as a major, although his commission was not filled until August, 1795. In a letter to Griffin Greene, Esq., whose relative he married, he gives a sketch of the campaign which defeated the combined forces of the Indians and closed the war. “HEAD QUARTERS, MIAMI OF THE LAKE, August 29th, 1794, Sir: The 28th of July the army moved forward, consisting of about eighteen hundred regulars and fifteen hundred militia, from the state of Kentucky, passing by the way of St. Clair’s battle-ground, now Fort Recovery. We then turned more to the eastward, and struck the St. Mary’s in twenty miles, where we erected a small fort, and left a subaltern’s command. We then crossed the St. Mary’s, and in four or five days’ marching found the Auglaize river, and continued on down that stream to its junction with the Miami of the lake; distant one hundred miles from Greenville, by the route we pursued. At this place we built a garrison, and left a major to command it. The army then marched down the river forty-seven miles from the new garrison, and on the 20th inst., at nine o’clock in the morning, came up with the Indians, who had posted themselves in a position chosen as most favorable for defense. The troops charged upon them with the bayonet, and drove them two miles, through a thicket of woods, fallen timber, and underbrush, when the cavalry fell upon and entirely routed them. Our line extended two and a half miles, and yet it was with difficulty we outflanked them. One of the prisoners, a white man, says the number of the Indians engaged was about twelve hundred, aided by two hundred and fifty white men from Detroit. Our loss in the action was two officers killed, and four wounded, with about thirty privates killed, and eighty wounded. The Indians suffered much; about forty or fifty of their dead fell into our hands. The prisoner was asked why they did not fight better? He said that we would give them no time to load their pieces, but kept them constantly on the run. Two miles in advance of the battle-ground, is a British garrison, establishing last spring, which we marched round within pistol shot, and demanded a surrender, but they refused to give it up. Our artillery being too light, and the fort too strong to carry by storm, it was not attacked, but we burnt their out-houses, destroyed all their gardens, cornfields, and grass, within musket shot of the place, and all below for eight or nine miles, without any opposition. On the 27th we arrived at this place, where we have a fort, and shall halt a few days to rest. We have marched through the Indian settlements and villages for about sixty miles, destroyed several thousand acres of corn, beans, and all kinds of vegetables, burned their houses, with furniture, tools, &c. A detachment has gone into Fort Recovery for a supply of provisions for the troops, and when it returns, we shall march up the Miami sixty miles, to where the St. Marie’s unties with the St. Joseph’s and destroy all the corn in that country.” Haskell Bible Record: From the files at Campus Martius Family record inscriptions in Holy Bible, Matthew Carey, Philadelphia, 1809 now (1974) in the possession of Mrs. Janet Lawton, Barlow, Ohio   "Jon'a. Haskell boughtt of Peleg Tripp, May 4th 1815," Peleg Tripp and Sarah Tripp was married 15th day of April 1784. Jon'a Haskell borne March 19th 1755 mariried 25th day of April 8th 1792 Phebe Haskell died April 25th 1809. John Greene Haskell borne February 18th 1794. Charles Haskell borne October 16th 1798. Maria Haskell borne November 20th 1800. Eliza Haskell borne August 1st 1804. Died August 22nd 1804. Eliza 2nd Haskell borne May 12th 1806 Jonathan Haskell dies December 6, 1816 marked out and replaced by January 11, 1817. Jesse Lawton and Maria Haskell married November 6th 1821. James Lawton and Eliza W. Haskell married ________   Peleg Tripp was borne August 24 day in the year 1762 Sarah Tripp borne March 25 day 1765. Samuel Tripp, son of Peleg and Sarah his wife was born 3 day August 1785. Abigail Tripp, daughter of Peleg and Sarah his wife was borne July 11th day 1794.   Marriages: Charles Haskell and Elizabeth H. Dana Married April 12th 1826. James Lawton and Elizabeth W. Haskell married September 30th 1824.   Births: Mary Ann Haskell borne March 10th 1827. Pamela Frances Haskell borne February 2nd 1830. Charles Haskell Lawton borne September 23rd 1825. Died in Santa Paula, California September 5th 1883. Edward Lawton borne June 4th 1827. Jane Lawton borne May 11th 1830. David W. Lawton borne July 11the 1833. Mary G. Lawton borne July 20th 1835.   Deaths: John G. Haskell died November 10th 1825. Charles Haskell died July 23rd 1831.