Fight at Dunkard's Creek.-While hunting, Wetzel fell in with a young hunter who lived or Dunkard's creek, and was persuaded to accompany him to his home. On their arrival they found the house in ruins and all the family murdered, except a young womar who had been bred with them, and to whom the young man was ardently attached. She was taken alive, as was found by examining the trail of the enemy, who were three Indians and a white renegado. Burning with

Johr Ferren, Photo., St. Clairsville, 1888.

THE LEWIS WETZEL SPRING.

revenge, they followed the trail until opposite the mouth of Captina, where the enemy had crossed. They swam the stream, and discovered the Indians' camp, around the fires of which lay the enemy in careless repose. The young woman was apparently unhurt, but was making much moaning and lamentation. The young man, hardly able to restrain his rage, was for firing and rushing instantly upon them. Wetzel, more cautious, told him to wait until daylight, when there was a better chance of success in killing the whole party. At dawn the Indians prepared to depart. The young man selecting the white renegado and Wetzel the Indian, they both fired simultaneously with fatal effect. The young man rushed forward, knife in hand, to relieve the mistress of his affections, while Wetzel reloaded and pursued the two surviving Indians, who had taken to the woods, until they could.

ascertain the number of their enemies. Wetzel, as soon as he was discovered, discharged his rifle at random, in order to draw them from their covert. The ruse took effect, and, taking to his heels, he loaded as he ran, and suddenly wheeling about, discharged his rifle through the body of his nearest and unsuspecting enemy. The remaining Indian seeing the fate of his companion, and that his enemy's rifle was unloaded, rushed forward with all energy, the prospect of prompt revenge being fairly before him. Wetzel led him on, dodging from tree to tree, until his rifle was again ready, when suddenly turning he fired, and his remaining enemy fell dead at his feet. After taking their scalps, Wetzel and his friend, with their rescued captive, returned in safety to the settlement.

Fight at the Indian Springs.-A short time after Crawford's defeat in 1782, Wetzel accompanied Thomas Mills, a soldier in that action, to obtain his horse, which he had left near the site of St. Clairsville. They were met by a party of about forty Indians at the Indian springs, two miles from St. Clairsville, on the road to Wheeling. Both parties discovered each other at the same moment, when Lewis instantly fired and killed an Indian, while the Indians wounded his companion in the heel, overtook and killed him. Four Indians pursued Wetzel. About half a mile beyond, one of the Indians having got in the pursuit within a few steps, Wetzel wheeled and shot him, and then continued the retreat. In less than a mile farther a second one came so close to him that, as he turned to fire, he caught the muzzle of his gun, when, after a severe struggle, Wetzel brought it to his chest, and, discharging it, his opponent fell dead. Wetzel still continued on his course, pursued by the two Indians. All three were pretty well fatigued, and often stopped and treed. After going something more than a mile Wetzel took advantage of an open ground, over which the Indians were passing, stopped suddenly to shoot the foremost, who thereupon sprang behind a small sapling. Wetzel fired and wounded him mortally. The remaining Indian then gave a little yell, exclaiming, "No catch that man; gun always loaded." After the peace of 1795 Wetzel pushed for the frontier, on the Mississippi, where he could trap the beaver, hunt the buffalo and deer, and occasionally shoot an Indian, the object of his mortal hatred. finally died, as he had lived, a free man of the forest.

He

After the peace of 1763 he was assigned the command of Fort Ligonier, in Pennsylvania, and received there a grant of 1,000 acres. Prior to the Revolutionary war he held several civil offices. His military skill and experience, intelligence and integrity were such that, when the revolutionary war commenced, he was appointed Colonel of Continentals. In August, 1776, he was promoted te the rank of Brigadier, and bore an active part in the battles of Trenton and Princeton.

He was subsequently created a Major-General, and ordered to repair to Ticonderoga, where he commanded the garrison and, on the approach of Burgoyne's army, abandoned it.

Charges of cowardice, incapacity and treachery were brought against him in consequence. He was tried by a court-martial, who, with all the facts before them, acquitted him, accompanying their report with the declaration, that Major-General St. Clair is acquitted, with the highest honor, of the charges against him." Congress subsequently, with an unanimous voice, confirmed this sentence. The facts were, that the works were

incomplete and incapable of being defended against the whole British army, and although St. Clair might have gained great applause by a brave attempt at defence, yet it would have resulted in the death of many of his men and probably the capture of the remainder; a loss which, it was afterwards believed in camp, and perhaps foreseen by St. Clair, would have prevented the taking of Burgoyne's army. In daring to do an unpopular act, for the public good, St. Clair exhibited a high degree of moral courage, and deserves more honor than he who wins a battle.

St. Clair served, with reputation, until the close of the war. In 1785, while residing on his farm, at Ligonier, he was appointed a delegate to the Continental Congress, and was soon after chosen president of that august body. After the passage of the ordinance for the government of the Northwestern Territory he was made governor, and continued in the office until within a few weeks of the termination of the territorial form of government, in the winter of 1802-3, when he was removed by President Jefferson.

During the continuance of the first grade of that imperfect government, he enjoyed the respect and confidence of every class of the people. He was plain and simple in his dress and equipage, open and frank in his manners, and accessible to persons of every rank. In these respects he exhibited a striking contrast with the secretary, Col. Sargent; and that contrast, in some measure, increased his popularity, which he retained unimpaired till after the commencement of the first session of the legislature. During that session he manifested a strong desire to enlarge his own powers, and restrict those of the assembly; which was the more noticed, as he had opposed the usurpations of the legislative council, composed of himself, or in his absence, the secretary, and the Judges of the General Court; and had taken an early opportunity of submitting his views on that subject to the general assembly.

The effect of the construction he gave, of his own powers, may be seen in the fact that of the thirty bills passed by the two houses during the first session, and sent to him for his approval, he refused his assent to eleven; some of which were supposed to be of much importance, and all of them calculated, more or less, to advance the public interest. Some of them he rejected because they related to the establishment of new counties; others, because he thought they were unnecessary or inexpedient. Thus more than a third of the fruits of the labor of that entire session was

lost, by the exercise of the arbitrary discretion

of one man.

This, and some other occurrences of a similar character which were manifest deviations from his usual course not easily accounted for. multiplied his opponents very rapidly, and rendered it more difficult for his friends to defend and sustain him. They also created a state of bad feeling between the legislative and executive branches, and eventually terminated in his removal from office, before the expiration of the territorial government.

The governor was unquestionably a man of superior talents, of extensive information and of great uprightness of purpose, as well as suavity of manners. His general course, though in the main correct, was in some respects injurious to his own popularity; but it was the result of an honest exercise of his judgment. He not only believed that the power he claimed belonged legitimately to the executive, but was convinced that the manner in which he exercised it was imposed on him as a duty by the ordinance, and was calculated to advance the best interests of the Territory.

Soon after the governor was removed from office he returned to the Ligonier valley, poor and destitute of the means of subsistence, and unfortunately too much disabled by age and infirmity to embark in any kind of active business. During his administration of the territorial government he was induced to make himself personally liable for the

purchase of a number of pack-horses and other articles necessary to fit out an expedition against the Indians, to an amount of some two or three thousand dollars, which he was afterwards compelled to pay. Having no use for the money at the time, he did not present his claim to the government. After he was removed from office, he looked to that fund as his dependence for future subsistence, and, under a full expectation of receiving it, he repaired to Washington City, and presented his account to the proper officer of the treasury. To his utter surprise and disappointment it was rejected, on the mortifying ground that, admitting it to have been originally correct, it was barred by the statute; and that the time which had elapsed afforded the highest presumption that it had been settled, although no voucher or memorandum to that effect could be found in the department. To counteract the alleged presumption of payment, the original vouchers, showing the purchase, the purpose to which the property was applied. and the payment of the money, were exhibited. It was, however, still insisted that, as the transaction was an old one, and had taken place before the burning of the war office in Philadelphia, the lapse of time furnished satisfactory evidence that the claim must have been settled, and the vouchers destroyed in that conflagration,

The pride of the old veteran was deeply wounded by the ground on which his claim was refused, and he was induced from that consideration, as well as by the pressure of poverty and want, to persevere in his efforts to maintain the justice and equity of his demand, still hoping that presumption would give way to truth. For the purpose of getting rid of his solicitations Congress passed an act, purporting to be an act for his relief, but which merely removed the technical ob

jection, founded on lapse of time, by authorizing a settlement of his demands, regardless of the limitation. This step seemed necessary, to preserve their own character; but it left the worn out veteran still at the mercy of the accounting officers of the department, from whom he had nothing to expect but disappointment. During the same session a bill was introduced into the House of Representatives, granting him an annuity, which was rejected, on the third reading, by a vote of 48 to 50.

After spending the principal part of two sessions in useless efforts, subsisting during the time on the bounty of his friends, he abandoned the pursuit in despair and returned to the Ligonier valley, where he lived several years in the most abject poverty, in the family of a widowed daughter, as destitute as himself. At length Pennsylvania, his adopted State, from considerations of personal respect and gratitude for past services, as well as from a laudable feeling of State pride, settled on him an annuity of $300, which was soon after raised to $650. That act of beneficence gave to the gallant old soldier a comfortable subsistence for the little remnant of his days which then remained. The honor resulting to the State from that step was very much enhanced by the fact that the individual on whom their bounty was bestowed was a foreigner, and was known to be a warm opponent, in politics, to the great majority of the legislature and their constitu

ents.

He lived, however, but a short time to enjoy the bounty. On the 31st of August, 1818, that venerable officer of the Revolution, after a long, brilliant and useful life, died of an injury occasioned by the running away of his horse, near Greensburgh, in the eightyfourth year of his age.

"I know of no writer," writes Mansfield, "who could express an idea so clearly and so briefly. He wrote the pure old English-the vernacular tongue, unmixed with French or Latin phrases or idioms, and unperverted with any scholastic logic. His language was like himself-plain, sensible and unaffected. His force, however, lay not so much in this as in his truth, honesty and courage, those moral qualities which made him distinguished at

that day and would distinguish him now. His opposition to slavery and its influence on the government was firm, consistent and powerful. Probably no public writer did more than he to form a just and reasonable anti-slavery sentiment. In fine, as a writer of great ability, and a man of large acquirements and singular integrity, Hammond was scarcely equalled by any man of his time.