GRANDMA TROWBRIDGE'S NARRATIVE
PART 2
Father bought two two-horse wagons, and my brother-in-law one; mother and the girls spun and wove a piece of tow and linen cloth, then they got it painted, and made covers to the wagons, so they were well secured from rain. I was then eleven years old, and my youngest sister six weeks. The neighboring women tried to make mother think she could not stand the journey, that she never could live to get to Ohio; if she could, the baby couldn't, such a journey would kill it; but mother said she was not afraid to risk it, and they were well and hearty all the way and the baby grew fat and as fast as any baby.
We set out on our journey, the ninth of September. It was only a pleasure trip for me, and likewise the rest of the children. We could ride sometimes and run on foot sometimes, and seeing new things all the time. We saw a chestnut, tree standing by the road, the first time we had seen any chestnuts growing, so we had to stop and gather some chestnuts. We continued our journey without anything extraordinary taking place for three hundred miles, then the men of our company were advised by some others to go across about thirty miles, to the headwaters of the Allegheny river make canoes there and go down by water, it would be easier and cheaper than traveling by land, so they concluded to do so.
We had to go that thirty miles through the woods, where there was no road, except a bridle-path; one or two men turned out as pilots and to help clear a road. We made ten miles that day. When night came we had to pitch our tents and camp out. They set some crotches in the ground, then laid a pole across them, then laid some slanting on it, then took our painted wagon-covers and spread over the poles. They made up a big fire by the side of a log, and all cooked their suppers and ate, then made our beds on the ground, after putting plenty of leaves under them, and went to bed and slept as well as if we had been in a palace. Got up in the morning, cooked our breakfast and ate, then was ready for another day's journey. There was a man along who was going through to the settlement that day; it would take the wagons two days, as they could make only ten miles a day; mother said if some of the girls would join her she would go through with that man.
Two of my sisters said they would go; so they started and walked through twenty miles and carried the baby. Those with the wagons had to camp out another night. On the third day we got through to the settlement. It was quite new, only three or four families there. A man by the name of King first settled there, and it was called King's settlement. One man of our company, and one they hired, took the horses and started through the country with them to Marietta, our place of destination, and the rest went to work, digging out canoes. We were there nine days; they made six canoes. It was on a creek that emptied into the Allegheny. I don't know how far we were from the river, but should judge it was three or four miles. Then they lashed the canoes together, two and two, making three pair; two canoes that were larger than the others, lashed together, and the three families that were with us went in those canoes; then they loaded up, put the things in the canoes, then laid the wagon wheels on top, letting the hubs go between the canoes, that kept all safe and steady.
Thus we started on our journey of five hundred miles, down the river in canoes. We were about five weeks on the river, camped out every night; we would land sometimes at an Indian settlement and go up into their wigwams, out of curiosity, to see how they appeared. It looked rather funny to see the young ones running about entirely naked. One of my sisters took a baby from its mother one time to see if it would stay with her, but it cried and screamed and would not stay with her at all.
We enjoyed our trip very well the most of the time but we had some misfortunes. We came to a riffle one time, where there was a large rock, about the middle of the river; we had a man in the fore end of the canoes to look out and tell where to stear; when we got to the riffle he said stear to the right of the rock, but just before they got to it, he says no! no! we can't go to the right, turn to the left; so they turned to go to the left, and when turned to go to the other side, they had got so close, the current came with such force that it took the canoes broadside against the rock, ran one up on to the rock, and the other sank into the water. Mother with the baby and some more of the young ones besides myself, were in those canoes; we clambered up into the canoe that was on the rock, and some got on to the rock, and had to wait until the other canoes could be partially unloaded, and come and take us ashore; then they managed to get the canoes ashore; then we had to stop for that day, the things were all wet that were in that canoe, that went under water, and had to be taken out and unpacked and dried; so they made up a big fire and staid till morning; then they got the things all dried and packed ready for another start.
We went on very pleasantly for a day, but it was not many days before another accident happened; the canoes that had the three families, ran on each side of a rock in a riffle, and split one side of one canoe off, and tore them apart, and let everything into the river, men, women and children, goods and all, but the water was not so deep but that the men and women managed to get ashore, taking two children each with them, except one woman, who managed to get herself out alone; one boy, eleven years old, got hold of the canoe that was split and turned over, and pulled himself upon it. Just as he had got on to it, his mother's baby floated along in reach of him, he got hold of it and pulled it up on the canoe with him; the other canoes were ready to take them ashore, and save the goods that were floating.
This woman, who got out by herself, was mother of the baby, and had four children younger than the one that caught the baby, but she never thought of any one but herself. When she got out of the water there, said she, I told them when we started, that I never should live to get to Ohio in the world; the other women told her she was not dead yet, she might still live to get to Ohio, and she did, and a good many years after.
Now they had to find another canoe, or make one; they went down the river about a mile, and had the good luck to find a man who owned a very large canoe, or what they called a peerogue (Ed. note: pirogue - hollowed out log used as a canoe. ), that would hold as much or more than both their canoes. So they traded with him, let him have the one they had left, and paid the balance and took the peerogue, and brought it up to where we were stopping, and had to stay till the next morning. By that time they had got their things dried and packed. They lost but few things, the most of the things were in boxes, or tied up in bundles that would float, so they caught the most of them; they would dive down and pick up those that went to the bottom, and take them ashore.
There was nine children under eleven years old, that went into the river, and they got them all out alive, and safe, and no one hurt, which they considered a providential circumstance. They got all fixed up and loaded up and started on our journey again. Had no more serious accidents and landed at Marietta on the twelfth day of November, having been nine weeks on the journey, but were all in good spirits, cooked and ate our own victuals, and lived at home. I did not hear one complain of not feeling well, during the journey.
Now, the men had to look around and find places for their families to stay, whilst they could go out into the country and find them homes, which was not a hard task, as there was plenty of land to be had. Father procured an old block house in the stockade, up the Muskingum about a mile from the Ohio River, for his family to stay in.
He went up the Muskingum four and a half miles, and purchased some eight-acre lots (the land was laid out in eight-acre lots along the Muskingum,) and went to work and cleared a place, cut logs and laid up a cabin; during that time, my sisters - older than myself - found places to work so that saved their board, and got something besides, which was a help.
Mother found a place for me, where she got thirty-three cents a week, besides my board. I was not large enough to do a great deal, but could wash dishes, sweep house, make beds, milk the cow, and such like chores. I stayed there three months. I went there about the first of December.
Sometime in the last part of December, father had got a place cleared, and a cabin laid up to the chamber floor, and split out long shingles, or what they called clapboards, for the upper floor, then they moved into it, for father wanted them there, so he would not have to hire his board; then he put on two or three rounds more of logs on the cabin, and then put on the roof, but we did not have a Vermont winter to contend with; it was warm and pleasant and the roads were dusty like summer the most of the time through the winter; it did not appear like winter at all. We had some pretty cold spells, and three or four little flurries of snow, but they came in the night and was all gone before the next night; it did not appear as if we had any winter at all. The peach trees were in full bloom in March, and were full of peaches in the fall; it was all new to us, we had never seen the like before; there was plenty of fruit here at that time, both peaches and apples.