The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1868-05-02
"reminiscences OF a Female
Centenarfan

Mrs. Jessup, who is nearly, if no
quite, one hundred years old, and q
daughter of Benjamin Jones, who re
moved from Fort Duquesne west of the
Allegheny river, after the French had
evacuated Fort Duquesne. is still living
at Fairview, near S'ittsburg. The late
General William Robinson, son of James
Hobinson, above mentioned was the
ilrst white male, and Mrs. Jessup the
trst white female child born west of the
Allegheny. Mrs. j does not recolect
the exact year in which her father NOV
ed, but j. I. King, Esq, who has pub
lished an account of her in the Pitts
burg Quarterly Magazine, thinks it must
have been as early as 1870.
| Mrs. Jessup says that when she was
about one year old, and during the mouth
OF March, her father, with five other
white men, crossed the Monongahela
river one day, to assist friend in rails
ing a cabin. The day was exceedingly
wet and cold, and when the men return
ed in the evening, about dark, they were
drenehed to the skin. A good wood fire
was buiIt up, aud the men all stood
|aesssssriss e, < rfss aizY tlrfr elo<hes Mrs.
Jones had g5fle to, a4id was nfffkfne u
COW under the shelter of an apple tree
that stood near the cabin. While thus
occupied she saw one of the men stagger
out of the door and fall she thought it
little singular, as she had not noticed
that any of them were drunk but her
reflections were cut short by the appear
ance of another, who likewise staggered
and fell, then another, and still another,
until the whole six lay IN heap. The
truth had ere this flashed upon her, but
prudence bade her keep perfectly still.
When all seemed quiet, with fear and
trembling, she noiselessly approached
the cabin, secured the children, who
were left undisturbed in their humble
bed in one corner, and fed into the
darkness, lest she and they should be
the next victims. The rain was still
pouring down in torrents, and to use
Mrs. Jessep's own language, the night
was powerful dark )" trembling in every
limb, not only from fear, but with cold,
she passed the night under some % paw
paw" bushes using sometimes her own
body, and sometimes making the boy
use his to protect the child fIom the |
storm and had net this precaution been
taken, Mrs. Jessep, who was that child |
Of nearly hundred years ago, might not
be living to-day to repeat her mothers /
account of that fearful night The long
sleepless hours that interyened before |
the morning, which might bring her re-
lief or consign her to a similar or per-
haps worse fate than her husband had |
met, was an age of horrible forebodlngs. |
AS it afterward transpired, the six
nen had been stabbed by an Indian who |
had stealthily crept up behind and done
his work with such precision and dispatch |
that there was scarcely an outcry. One |
ot the men, however, by the name of
William Freeman, escaped fatal injury /; /
the other five, including Mr. Jones, died, |
It is supposed, instantly. Freeman after /
1 time recovered his senses, and with his /
strength crawlcd to the Ferry /
d !taGsd asse trEs ksBt Rz gapss &c Rebinsen Hs
who immediately sent word to Fort Pitt,
rom whence party Of men was sent in
pursuit of the assassin. In the morning
Mrs. Jones and her children were
brought over to the Fort and properly
provided for. The pursuing party fol-
owed the Indians trail for several days,
md finally succeeded in making him
prisoner at point on Lake Erie, near
where the city of Erie is now situated.
His captors reached the Fort in safety
With their prisoner, and it was at first
determined that the boy Jones should
shoot him, to avenge the death of his
tather, but wiser counsel prevailed, aud
be was taken to Hannahstown, placed III
,he county jail and afterward tris d, found
guilty and executed-the first man hung
vest Of the mountains by order of law.
Mrs. Jessep could not remember the
Indians name, aud as the records of the
court were all destroyed when the town
vas sacked by the Indians, this and the
precise date of the hanging are likely to
remain shrouded in mystery. As Mrs.
Jessep was a year old at the time OF the
murder of her father, the inference Is
hat she was bon some years before
General Robinson, unless his age was
greater than computed.