Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1876-05-18


JACQUES, in the Enterprise of the 4th inst,
gives the following interesting sketch of Ed
ward Bratton, one of the PIONEERS of this
part of Ohio:
On the 14th of last month, this old pioneer
died at his residence in Jefferson township of
this county, at the age of 90 years. He was
the oldest resident living in the county, and
yet always claimed that he never moved either
into the State of Ohio or Guernsey county,
having been here before either was organized.
He was born in Miffin county, Pa, in 1884,
and 1899 removed with his father to the
North West Territory. They crossed the
Ohio river at Wheeling, where they stopped a
few days to rest and make inquiry about the
lands and roads across the river. The place
then consisted of few Indifferent cabins that
stood Immediately around the old Fort, por-
tion of which was still standing The land
between that and the creek on the South con-
tanned several patches of corn and race
course. Only one hut stood upon the Island,
and was occupied by Zane's negroes who at
tended to the Ferry
1t was while waiting at Wheeling that they
first heard the news of Gen. Washington's
death. 1t created a most profound impression,
people gathered in the streets and spoke of it
with saddened countenances. as of some great
calamity that had beiallen the country.
Crossing the river, the Brattons followed the
Zane Trace out to the forks of McMahon's
Creek, where they settled near the present site
of Belmont. The following spring, old Joseph
Wright, fgther of Nehemiah, moved into the
same neighborhood, employed young Bratton
to make him some rails to pen up his stock in
order to protect it from the bears and wolves
then SO plenty, and also enough to fence in a
nia nf ha OF To
of fifty cents a hundred, and found himself.
He would take his dinner with him and make
hundred rails day before returning home
in the evening.
In 1905, having married, he resolved to
move further west, where he would have more
room, and going back to the Zane Trace, he
followed it to what has since been known as
the Miner Stand; from there he took the
trail made by Gen. Broadhead in his expedi-
tion against the Indians at Coshocton in 1850.
This trail Bratton followed until he struck the
road lately opened from Fort Steuben to inter-
sect the Zane Trace at the Wills Creek cross
ing, where Cambridge now stands. This he
followed to the present site of the town of
Winchester, where he located. For some time
he had no white neighbors nearer than the
Carpenters at Londonderry, and the Beatty's
at Wills Creek. But there were a number of
Indian families residing in the vicinity, where
they hunted during the summer, and returned
to their town on Big Saltwater at the approach
of winter. Among these Indians were two
brothers by the name of Sions, of whom Mr..
Bratton always spoke kindly. They were not
only peaceable and friendly, but temperate
and honest. One Of them had white wife, a
girl that had been captured by his father, over
on the Monongahela, when a small child,
adopted and raised until she became the wife
of one of his SONS. She was very faithful
and Industrious woman, but was never known
to speak to, or in the presence of, white
person.
For several years, until horse mill was
built at Morristown, Mr.. Bratton got his grind
ing done on Wheeling creek, four miles north