MEMOIRS OF THE EARLY PIONEER SETTLERS OF OHIO
With Narratives Of Incidents And Occurrences In 1775
By S. P. Hildreth, M. D., 1854
Pages 349-352
Col. Ebenezer Battelle was a descendant of the Puritan race, and only son of Ebenezer Battelle., of Dedham, Mass. His father was one of the industrious, honest yeomanry of the good old bay state, who duly appreciated the value of learning, more farmers’ sons being liberally educated in that state than in any other of the Union. At a suitable age he pursued a full college course at Cambridge, and graduated in the year 1775. He was intended for the ministry, as were a large number of the educated men before the Revolution; but the war breaking out in the last year of his course, his attention was diverted from the study of divinity to that of a martial nature. He held the commission of a colonel under the governor of Massachusetts, in the militia, during or at the close of the war.
In 1781, he commenced business in Boston, as the active partner in a bookstore, in company with Isaiah Thomas, of Worchester, a man who delighted in being useful, and assisted many young men in their commencement of life. He remained in this occupation six years; during the time, married Miss Anna Darant, the daughter of Cornelius Darant Esq., a rich merchant of that place. She was a woman of superior intellect, beautiful person, and great excellence of character, the impress of which descended to her children. This bookstore was the second one ever opened in Boston, the first being kept by Mr. Guile, to which was added a circulating library to aid in keeping up the establishment. While here [Col. Battelle] was elected to the command of Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, a noted band of military.
On the formation of the Ohio Company, he became an associate, and was appointed one of their agents. On the sixth of April 1788, the day before the pioneers landed at Marietta, he left Boston in company with Col. John May and others by water, for the mouth of the Muskingum, by way of Baltimore. After six weeks’ tour in crossing the mountains, by almost impassable roads, with their heavy-loaded wagon, they reached the place of destination the last of May. During the following summer he was employed in erecting a dwelling house, in the front curtain of Campus Martius, for the reception of his family. The first Court of Quarter Sessions, held the 9th of September, was opened in his house, as appears by the old records of that court. In October, 1788, he re-crossed the mountains to meet his family at Baltimore, and guide them over the Alleghenies. He found them under the care of Mr. Daniel Mayo, a young gentleman who had recently graduated at Cambridge, and became a resident of Newport, Ky., after the close of the Indian war. Their journey, at this late season of the year, was very trying to Mrs. Battelle, who had all her life been nurtured in the comforts of a city. At Simrel’s ferry, a noted place of embarkation for emigrants, they met with several other New England families, amongst them, Isaac Pierce, Charles Green, and Capt. Zebulon King, who, the next spring, was killed by the Indians. The last of November, eight families embarked in one boat, and that not a large one, and arrived at Marietta in December. Here they met with a hearty welcome from the five or six females and heads of families who had come on in August proceeding. The winter was passed very pleasantly in Campus Martius, in the company of such men as Gens. Varnum, Parsons, and Putnam, with Gov. St. Clair, and the officers of Fort Harmar. The Indians were yet all friendly, and an abundance of wild game, with a good stock of provisions from Pittsburgh, rendered this as delightful a season as any that occurred for many years thereafter.
That winter an association was formed for the settlement at Belpre, composed almost entirely of the old officers of the continental line. Col. Battelle united himself with these enterprising and intelligent men, and in the spring of 1789, proceeded to clear his land and erect himself a stout block-house for the reception of his family. On the 1st day of May, one of the associated, Capt. King, from Rhode Island, was killed by the Indians, while peaceably at work on his new land. The Following day Col. Battelle, with two of his sons and Griffin Greene, Esq., embarked at Marietta in a large canoe, with farming tools, provisions and etc. On their way down they were hailed by someone form the shore, and informed of this sad event. They landed and held a consultation on what was best to be done. Some were for returning; but they finally decided on proceeding. The Block-houses of the two emigrants were near each other, and nearly opposite to the middle of Backus’ island, on the spot afterward occupied by Farmers’ castle. After landing, the other settlers came and joined them for mutual defense, and through the night kept up a military guard, in the old Revolutionary style, the sentinel calling our every fifteen minutes, “All’s well,” not thinking this would give the skulking Indians notice where to fine them. No enemy, however, molested them during the night, and their fears of attack gradually subsided. They were not again disturbed until the winter of 1791.
Early in April, before any families had moved on to the ground, a party of officers from Fort Harmar, with their wives, and a few ladies from Marietta, made a visit to the new settlement, in the officer’s barge, a fine large boat, rowed with twelve oars. These were the first white females who ever set foot on the soil of Belpre. On their return, Col. Battelle, with several others, accompanies then by water in a canoe, and another party by land. While on the voyage, a large bear was discovered swimming across the river. The landsmen fired at him with their muskets and rifles, but without effect. The canoe then ranged along the side, when Col. Battelle seized him by the tail and when the bear attempted to bite his hand, he raised his hind parts throwing his head under water, and thus escaped his teeth. One of his companions soon killed him with an axe. He weighed over three hundred pounds, and afforded several fine dinners to his captors. In 1790, owing to early frosts and late planting the year previous, the inhabitants were left without bread-stuff, corn being their chief dependence. Their suffering s were great, until the crop of 1791 was gathered, which proved to be plentiful, and after that time they did not suffer again for food, During the Indian war [Col Battelle’s] family was sheltered in Farmer’s castle, and all escaped injury, though often in danger. Several of the inmates were killed.
In the plan of Farmer’s castle, his block-house occupied the northeast cornet. In their lower room of this building, regularly on the Sabbath, divine worship was kept up by the inhabitants. His son, Ebenezer, a lad of fourteen years, was drummer to the garrison, and at the hour of service marched with his drum the whole length of the castle, summoning the people to worship. Col. Battelle officiated as chaplain, reading the sermons of a standard divine; so that the Sabbath was honored and generally respected by the inhabitants.
He died at the residence of his son, in Newport, Washington County, Ohio, in the year 1815.
He left three sons and one daughter, Cornelius, Ebenezer, and Thomas. Cornelius and Thomas, at the close of the war, went to the West Indies, where a rich uncle put them into a lucrative business. Thomas married the daughter of Gov. Livingston, of New York, and Cornelius the daughter of a rich planter. Louisa remained single, and lived in Boston with her mother’s relatives. Ebenezer settled on a farm in Newport, and has a numerous family of children noted for their intelligence and respectability.
George J. Blazier, West Virginia History, Charleston WV, Vol. 15, No. 3, April 1954
Thomas Battelle [was] the first to depart from England for America. Thomas (d. 1706) came to Massachusetts Bay colony before 1640, and settled at Dedham. He became a farmer, a vocation followed also by his son John, and his grandson, Ebenezer. In addition to the hazzards of everday life, these three generations were beset by threats of Indian uprisings and the English-Franch Wars which involved the colonies in America. Ebenezer [b. 1729] , a graduate of Harvard College, lived through the period of agitation for the indepence of the American colonies. He was captain of militia, and he and his company answered the alarm of April 19, 1775, and marched to the scene of the battles of Lexington and Concord. His son, Ebenezer Jr., [b. 1754] the first of the Battelle name to migrate to the Ohio River country, was a member of his father's company, and following the battle of Lexington, served in the colonial forces until his discharge in 1779. Following his discharge he was commissioned by the Govenor of Massachusetts as a colonel of militia; henceforth, he was known as Colonel Battelle.
On Religious faith: Battelles in America have been known throughout the entire period from 1640 on for their strong religious faith and for their support of the churches to which they subscribed. Colonel Ebenezer [b.1754] who was graduated from Harvard College in 1774, had been trained for the Christian ministry. However, he was invested with the same pioneer spirit that carried his great, [great] grandfather, Thomas, from England to the new country, a spirit which challenged Col. Ebenezer to seek out opportunities in the frontier region of that nation which was born out of the Revolutionary War.
On the Bookstore in Boston: Following the cessation of the fighting in 1781, he established a bookstore on Marlborough Street [now Washington), in Boston. This bookshop soon became a meeting place for the reading public of Boston who came to browse about the shelves, often to make purchases, and to chat informally about the English authors whose works were being imported from abroad. The informal discussions more often took the direction of speculation upon the furtue of the new nation, the belated war-time pay of the soldiers, the possibilities of cashing their military land warrants in the West. This land was then in the process of being ceded to the general government by Virginia, Connicticut, and Massachusetts.
On the Trip to Marietta: Details of the journey are sparse from April 6 until May 4, 1788. On that day Colonel John May, who had departed from Boston on April 14 for the same destination, but by another route, wrote in his diary: "This day we crossed the Laurel Mountain and Chestnut Ridge, and at night fell in with Colonel Battelle, H. H. Williams, and my hired hand; found them in good health and spirits; slept in the same house with them, but a miserable place it was." In the same diary two days, later, Colonel May recorded that he and his party arrived in Pittsburgh, which he described as a village of "150 houses, mostly built of logs." The entry for May 12 is as follows: "Colonel Battelle has recovered his health, and is the heartiest man amongst us." The party remained in Pittsburgh for conferences and also for transportation until May 24, and on that day Colonel May wrtoe: "At 121/2 o'clock cast off our fasts, and committed ourselves to the current of the Ohio." Two days later, May 26, 1788, the diary recorded: "I intend in some future page to give a description of the Ohio, as I have made several observations which cannot be conviently put down here... We are passing one lovely island after another, floating, tranquilly, but majestically, at the rate of four and one-half miles per hour. Thus we moved on constantly espying new wonders and beauties, until 3 o'clock when we arrived safely on the banks of the delightful Muskingum.
On Col. Battelle as agent for shareholders in the Ohio Company: On August 14, 1788, he attended a meeting of the Ohio Company, representing thrity-six shares, and again on December 3, at which meeting he was appointed to a committee for the leasing of the public squares. At a meeting of the agents, March 2, 1789, he became a Member of the Committee for the administration of the Donation lands, and on May 2 was appointed to the Committee for ascertaining the fees for recording of certificates of permission to occupy and clear city lots.
In the Belpre settlement: Coronel Battelle's land was situated opposite to Backus (Blennerhassett) Island, adjoining that of Nathan Cushing. The two men began erecting their houses in close proximity to each other for purposes of safety in the event of an Indian attack. This was a wise decision as was demonstrated in 1791 when the Indian raids began. The two houses became the nucelus of the stockade to which the settlers of the outlying lands came for refuge for the duration of the war.
On his leadership: It was during the [Indian] war period that Colonel Battelle's many qualities of leadership, other than military, were recognized by the entire colony. Being the scholar and religious man that he was, he helped provide for education and instruction of the community's children, and became spiritual leader as well, providing fro an conducting regular religious services. His contributions to the moral of the thirty families were immeasureable.
On the move to Newport; In 1802, Colonel Battelle's work as an agent for the Ohio company had come to an end. He and his third son, Ebenezer Jr., moved to the Upper Newport township settlement which his son had purchased in 1801.
