Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1915-10-22
THE
fLATBOATMEN
A True Story of the Ohio Valley
In the Eighteenth Century.
By DWIGHT NORWOOD

The boys of the first half Of the nine
tenth century read Indian stories of
what may now be called the easterly
west. The main avenue to the con-
quest of this same region, later called
the middle west, was through the Ohio
valley and the tributaries of that
stream. The stories these boys read
were not the fictitious tales their chill
dren or grandchildren perused IN the
latter part of the same century OF the
red man of the -plains" or the Rocky
mountains, but real happenings to pip
neers passing down "La belle riviere,"
as the early French settlers called the
Ohio river, to open up what became
Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and other ter
rttory In that region
AS 0 as the Revolutionary war
ended the tide of emigration to these
states commenced. From Pittsburgh
to its confluence with the Mississippi the
Ohio was dotted with the fatboat of
the period.
Hostile Indians infested the Ohio val
ley and were fertile In stratagem, as
all red men have always been. When
they took prisoners they would com
pei them to act as decoys to emigrants
on the fatboats. There were also rene
gade whites who served the same pur-
pose. These whites would hail a fat
boat and beg the emigrants TO take
them aboard, saying that they had
been captured by Indians and escaped.
AS soon as the boat came into the back
waters on the shore, where 1t could
only with difficulty be brought again
into the current, it would be attacked
by Indians who had been concealed on
the shore In time this strategem be-
came known to the whites, and they
would refuse to listen to the decoy's
pleading. Yet there were times when
the pleader was sincere and was de-
MED rescue.
Other devices were resorted to by
the Indians to lure the fiatboatmen to
the shore that they might be murdered
and plundered. Game was plentiful In
the forests, and the red men would I'm
itate the sounds made by animals or
birds. The wild turkey, which w0s OBJ
tainable in America till the middle or
latter part of the nineteenth century,
was a coveted meat by these pioneers,
and often when the gobbie was heard
the boat would be steered to shore and
a hunting party sent for the birds.
In 1873 Henry Crist and Solomon
Spears, engaged In obtaining salt from
the Kentucky ticks, with a party Of thir-
teen whites, including one woman. left
Louisville and floated down the Ohio
till they reached the mouth Of Salt riv-
er, which they assembled by the back
water. Scouts were sent ashore on the
near bank of Salt river while the boat
moved slowly onward. On the morn
ing OF the second day of this ascent
the boat was landed and preparations
were made for breakfast. The COB
bling of the wild turkey was beard in
the woods, and two of the crew went
ashore with their guns to secure a bird
or two for the meal.
Now, these persons had e indica-
lions of the presence OF Indians and
knew that the gobbling of the turkey
was a common decoy with them. But
not stopping to deliberate they fell
Into the trap. Scarcely had they reach
ed the shore when more than a hun
dred Indians sprang forward
Whoever has seen an Indian painted
for war, his features made savage by
the colored lines drawn upon them, can
imagine the terror inspired by the at
tack. Few persons now living have
seen this sight, but thotss who have
cannot understand how white men dur
ing the early history of America could
take their wives and little children.
too, to make homes in a country where
they were liable at any moment to be
murdered,
Of the fiatboat party two were on
shore, the rest still on the boat, which
mad been fastened to a tree by means
of a chain that had been carried around
the trunk and a hook on the end in
serted In a link. The object of the In
dians being to secure the emigrants,
the boat and its cargo, they made u
furious attack upon the whole party.
Every man sprang to his gun, and
since In all there were II dozen guns
The Indians, who never wasted life In
their encounters If they could help it,
retired behind the trees on the bank.
Then commenced a steady fire on
the boat. The Indians were protected
Dy the trees, and the return fire from
me whites availed little or nothing.
BESIDES the advantage of hiding be-
ind trees, the savages were on higher
ground. Now one and now another of
the pioneers fell, but such was the ne
cessity for every nan to stand by his
rlne that the killed were not needed
and the wounded We're left t, take care
OF themselves.
Unfortunately for the whites the boat
lay with ffq how tO tho shore and thp