The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1939-06-15

ton of Alexander C. Mason and Sur
veyor C. Milton Sincell.
Like most of the smaller pioneer
forts, Ashby's Fort consisted of one
or more log cabins, loop-holed for rifle
men, log barn or sheds for livestock,
all joined or enclosed by a stockade OF
split logs or saplings, driven side by
side into the ground.
Apparently the Ashby home was
never attacked by the Indians, but
Mrs. Ashby used to relate that when
the family observed the red men spy
ing on the fort from the surrounding
woods, the children would build at
night great fires Of wood within the
stockade, fed with buffalo fat to
brighten the savages.
Life on Cherry Tree Creek in those
early years, when the scattered set
tiers were liable to Indian attacks, and
the woods and glades were full of wild
animals-life there was often excit-
ing and sometimes dangerous, but al
ways interesting.
One of the few stories of those days
which have come down to us is Of
The Last Buffaloes
One day in early winter an Ashby
boy and a neighbor were searching
for the neighbours cows, which had
strayed away. They tracked some an
imals in the light snow until they came
to what is now the J. J. Ashby farm,
near Crellin, when the boy noticed that
one of the beasts had rubbed snag,
leaving some woolly hair. He said to
his companion: "Have your cows
grown wool?" The man replied, "They
have been gone so long damned if I
know what they have grown"
Following the tracks to the top of
hill they found four buffaloes. The
men shot the two bulls and the buffalo
COWS ran westward. These were the
last buffalos seen in the Glades, where
so many grazed in summer before
and for some years after-the coming
of the white men.
The Cherry Tree Creek Indian camp
ground was up the valley above a
small lake or pond in which the buffa-
loes used to wallow; here also came
deer and elk to drink the brackish
water. Many arrow tips and flint chips
were found there, and William R.
Mason dug up the stones of what he
supposed to be an Indian sweat house
or hearth.
The Ashby Mill
After the Revolution, when other
settlers came into the Glades, the Ash
bys built a small dam across Cherry
Tree Creek near the fort and grist
mill below, operated by an undershot
wheel. They are also said to have built
"the block house, a two-story log
structure, loopholed for defense, in
the field below the present Daniel j.
Swartzentruber house; but this block
house may have been built by later
settler.
The foundation stones of the Ashby
Fort were in place until 1884, when
they were removed. Its site is now un-
marked, but may be seen from the
Swartzentruber house.
In 1888 William Ashby was allotted
as a settler Military Lots 1910 and
1912, adjoining Ashby's Discovery"
The Ashbys At Piney Bottom
For some unknown reason William
Ashby abandoned his settlement on
Cherry Creek. In 1895, Thomas Hall,
of Hartford county, Md, in considera-
ton of the sum of SITS, lawful money
of the State" decided toWilliam Ashby
"Piney Bottom" 270 acres, which had
been surveyed for the noted Maryland
patriot, Samuel Chase, in 1774, be-
ginning where Cherry Creek empties
into the Youghiogheny.
On the edge of this fine pine swamp
the Ashbys built log cabin into the
river bank, and about 1895 moved
there; later they constructed a large
two-story log house nearby, now the
Luther Nine homestead.
At Piney Bottom the family pros
pered. William and Sarah reared a
family of six daughters and four sons.
William Williams, born in 1888, is said
to have been the first native white
child of the Glades country. When the
pioneer William Walton Ashby made
his will in 1903, he provided for his
wife and left to his ten children lands
aggregating 1885 acres, most of it IN
nearby West Virginia. His wife was
Sarah Williams, daughter of a Welch
immigrant. Their great-grandchildren
are numerous and prosperous in Mary
land and other States.
William and Sarah Ashby, your
ashes rest in unmarked graves on your
beloved Piney Bottom, but you left
your mark in the history Of the Great
Glades of Maryland.
CHARLES E. HOVE.
Sang Run, Md, 1888.