Part 7

Thus, thanks to Jeremy, we set about building our home, working whenever the demand for game or fish was light, or when it stormed so furiously that we could not well go on the river or in the woods. When spring came and the snow had disappeared, we had as solidly built a cabin as could be found anywhere in Marietta outside Campus Martius.

Thus far we had accomplished a portion of our purpose. The people had come to understand that if we promised to provide them with a certain kind of game or fish, the promise would be kept to the letter. I am saying this not to praise myself, but simply to show we were making a name for ourselves as lads who told the truth, and kept strictly to their bargain.

As I looked at the matter, this was of greatest value to us. We had set about gaining a good reputation, and verily we had begun aright, though only in small matters. It remained to show whether we were of such stuff as settlers in a wild country should be made.

Before the first day of March we had paid for our eight-acre lot, had built a cabin of two rooms, in which was stored as much frozen game and fish as would keep sweet until warm weather came, and, in addition, had nineteen dollars which we could call our own.

A GREAT PROJECT

One day, when the rain came down in torrents, and we were not inclined either to fish or hunt, Captain Haskell came to make a friendly call, and, in no spirit of curiosity, but rather because of the interest which he had evidently taken in us, asked how we were progressing.

Without hesitation I told him exactly how we stood in the world, whereupon he praised us highly, and then proposed a scheme which fairly caused me to hold my breath in amazement, for it did not seem possible we could venture so far as his plan led.

His idea was that we build a water mill by buying from himself and Master Rouse the flatboat in which we were still living and by putting alongside of it a second one, the two to be fastened side by side in such a manner that a water wheel could be worked between them, and the double craft anchored in the current, where sufficient power could be had to drive the mill.

As to the stones for grinding and such small pieces of machinery as we might need, he figured that we could buy them either in Pittsburgh or from some craft which came up the river, and when I asked him how far he thought our store of money would go in such a project, he laughingly replied that Uncle Daniel and he would lend us a sufficient amount to pay for all we might need, and take from us in return three-quarters of the entire earnings until the debt, with interest, had been canceled.

When Ben Cushing asked if he believed we should find business enough to warrant the undertaking, he replied:--

"There are about two hundred people here now and twice as many coming from Massachusetts during the summer. Now, since there is no mill here and all the corn must be ground by hand, I am asking whether you do not believe that by harvest time a single mill such as Uncle Daniel and I propose you shall build, will be kept running during every hour of daylight?"

THE TWO MILLERS

We discussed the matter earnestly, as you may well suppose, and Uncle Daniel, coming aboard before we had finished the conversation, did his share of arguing. Before nightfall it was settled that on the following morning we should begin work on a second flatboat, and also repair the old craft in which we had come down from Sumrill's Ferry.

And all this we did, working with a hearty will far into each night, because it was possible to see before us a way of getting on in the world faster than we had ever dared to dream, and you may be sure we wasted no minute of daylight.

We had expected to cultivate our eight acres, and, in fact, when spring came we did put in a crop of corn; but the making of the mill and providing ourselves with food occupied so much of our time that we could not well afford to spend many hours as farmers, more particularly since both Uncle Daniel and Captain Haskell insisted that as soon as the mill was in working order we could earn double or treble as much as it would be possible to get from the ground.

And it all came about as these two good friends of ours predicted. The mill was a success from the first day we were ready to turn the wheel, and has continued so until now, when we are in sorest trouble.

THE SAVAGES ON THE WARPATH

From the time of our coming into this Ohio country, Marietta had steadily increased in size, the people coming, as it seemed to me, from every part of the eastern colonies, and just when Ben and I were congratulating each other that our lines had been cast in peaceful, pleasant places, even though we were settled in the wilderness, the Indians began their bloody work which we now fear may result in wiping out this settlement.

The treaty which had been made by the savages just after we arrived was kept only by the white men. Hardly more than two weeks ago news came that Captain King had been killed at that settlement to which Uncle Daniel went in the spring, while four others were slain in the forest, and one taken prisoner.

The savages are in arms against us. We have been forced to come into Campus Martius for safety; work of all kinds has been abandoned; our mill is moored far up the Muskingum River, where we have a faint hope it may escape destruction.

Although it may be that within the next four and twenty hours both Ben and I will have fallen beneath the tomahawk, yet must I bear witness that God has been good to us indeed. He has permitted two lads so to make their way in the world with nothing save their own hands as stock in trade, that now, as I have good reason for believing, we are counted among the responsible citizens of the town.

And of this it seems to me I had good proof no longer ago than yesterday, when I heard General Putnam say while he and some other of the men were discussing the possibilities of an Indian war:--

"If evidence were needed that it is well for young, willing workers to come into the wilderness, then I would point out to you that lad who journeyed with Mistress Devoll, and who, with his comrade, has laid up more than a fair share of this world's goods by unceasing work and unswerving honesty. He has done no more than many another might have done; but it has pleased me to watch the lad, and when I think of him it is always as our cheery-faced, upright miller, Benjamin of Ohio."

BOOKS CONSULTED IN WRITING BENJAMIN OF OHIO

BALDWIN, JAMES: Conquest of the Old Northwest. American Book Company.

BUEL, MISS ROWENA: Memoirs of Rufus Putnam. Houghton Mifflin Company.

DRAKE, SAMUEL ADAMS: Making of the Ohio Valley States. Charles Scribner's Sons.

EARLE, ALICE MORSE: Home Life in Colonial Days. The Macmillan Company.

ELLET, Mrs.: Pioneer Women of the West. John C. Winston Company.

ELSON, HENRY WILLIAM: History of the United States. The Macmillan Company.

HARPER'S MAGAZINE: Vol. 71, p. 552.

HILDRETH, S. P.: Pioneer History. H. W. Derby & Co.

HINSDALE, B. A.: The Old Northwest. Silver, Burdett & Co.

HOWELLS, WILLIAM DEAN: Stories of Ohio. American Book Company.

JONES, N. E.: Squirrel Hunters of Ohio. Robert Clarke Company.

MOWRY, WILLIAM A.: American Pioneers. Silver, Burdett & Co.

POWELL, LYMAN P.: Historic Towns of Western States. G. P. Putnam's Sons.

ROOSEVELT, THEODORE: Winning of the West. G. P. Putnam's Sons.

THWAITE, REUBEN GOLD: Early Western Travels (Buttrick). Arthur H. Clarke Company.

WALKER, CHARLES M.: History of Athens County, Ohio. Robert Clarke Company.

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Transcriber's note:

Page 9, Benjamin illustration was a dropped capital I illustration in the original book.

Page 68, uncle changed to Uncle (Uncle Daniel's household goods).

Punctuation silently corrected.