Images by
Ray Haskell
Site by
Susan Clarke Haskell
Life Members of the
HASKELL FAMILY ASSOCIATION
© 2005-2008
Any commercial use of material found here is expressly forbidden.
Ray Haskell
Site by
Susan Clarke Haskell
Life Members of the
HASKELL FAMILY ASSOCIATION
© 2005-2008
Any commercial use of material found here is expressly forbidden.
MAJ. JONATHAN HASKELL was born in Rochester, Mass, the 19th of March, 1757. Like the larger portion of the New Englanders of that day, he was brought up on a farm, and received only a common school education, which fitted him for conducting the usual concerns of life to which he might be called. At the commencement of the war of Independence, when he was twenty years old, he was engaged in agriculture. How early he entered the army is not known. In 1779 he was aide-de-camp to Gen. Patterson, of the Massachusetts line, and was commissioned as a lieutenant. He continued to serve until the close of the war, either as an aid, or in the line of the army.
When the Ohio Company was formed, he became an associate, and moved out there in company with Capt. Devol’s family, in the autumn of 1788. In 1789 he united with the Belpre settlement, and commenced clearing his farm. On the breaking out of the Indian war, in January, 1791, he received the appointment of captain in the regular service, and went to Rochester, Mass., where he recruited a company, and returned to Marietta in December; where he was stationed for the defense of that, and the adjacent settlements; as the troops had been withdrawn form Fort Harmar in the fall of 1790. After the defeat of Gen. St. Clair, he remained at Marietta until March, 1793, when he was commissioned as a captain in the second sub-legion under Gen. Anthony Wayne, and joined
the army on the frontiers that summer. He was stationed at Fort St. Clair, where he remained until June, 1794, when he was appointed to the command of the fourth sub-legion, ranking as a major, although his commission was not filled until August, 1795. In a letter to Griffin Greene, Esq., whose relative he married, he gives a sketch of the campaign which defeated the combined forces of the Indians and closed the war.
“HEAD QUARTERS, MIAMI OF THE LAKE, August 29th, 1794,
Sir: The 28th of July the army moved forward, consisting of about eighteen hundred regulars and fifteen hundred militia, from the state of Kentucky, passing by the way of St. Clair’s battle-ground, now Fort Recovery. We then
turned more to the eastward, and struck the St. Mary’s in twenty miles, where we erected a small fort, and left a subaltern’s command. We then crossed the St. Mary’s, and in four or five days’ marching found the Auglaize river, and continued on down that stream to its junction with the Miami of the lake; distant one hundred miles from Greenville, by the route we pursued. At this place we built a garrison, and left a major to command it. The army then
marched down the river forty-seven miles from the new garrison, and on the 20th inst., at nine o’clock in the morning, came up with the Indians, who had posted themselves in a position chosen as most favorable for defense. The troops charged upon them with the bayonet, and drove them two miles, through a thicket of woods, fallen timber, and underbrush, when the cavalry fell upon and entirely routed them. Our line extended two and a half miles, and yet it was with difficulty we outflanked them. One of the prisoners, a white man, says the number of the Indians engaged was about twelve hundred, aided by two hundred and fifty white men from Detroit. Our loss in the action was two officers killed, and four wounded, with about thirty privates killed, and eighty wounded. The Indians suffered much; about forty or fifty of their dead fell into our hands. The prisoner was asked why they did not fight better? He said that we would give them no time to load their pieces, but kept them constantly on the run. Two miles in advance of the battle-ground, is a British garrison, establishing last spring, which we marched round within pistol shot, and demanded a surrender, but they refused to give it up. Our artillery being too light, and the fort too strong to carry by storm, it was not attacked, but we burnt their out-houses, destroyed all their gardens, cornfields, and grass, within musket shot of the place, and all below for eight or nine miles, without any opposition. On the 27th we arrived at this place, where we have a fort, and shall halt a few days to rest. We have marched through the Indian settlements and villages for about sixty miles, destroyed several thousand acres of corn, beans, and all kinds of vegetables, burned their houses, with furniture, tools, &c. A detachment has gone into Fort Recovery for a supply of provisions for the troops, and when it returns, we shall march up the Miami sixty miles, to where the St. Marie’s unties with the St. Joseph’s and destroy all the corn in that country.”
This letter describes, in plain terms, the ruin and devastation that marked the course of the American army. It might have been considered a wise policy to devote to destruction the dwellings, cornfields, gardens, and in fact every species of property that belonged to the hostile savages, but it was also a most cruel policy. The British troops, in their inroads amongst the rebel settlements of the Revolutionary war, never conducted more barbarously.
The Indian villages on the Miami and the Auglaize, were snugly and comfortably built--were furnished with many convenient articles of house-keeping and clothing. They had large fields of corn and beans, with gardens of melons, squashes, and various other vegetables. Mr. Joseph Kelly, of Marietta, then a boy of twelve years old, and for several years a prisoner with the Indians, who treated him kindly, and was adopted into a family as one of their own children, was living at this time with them at the junction of the St. Mary’s and Auglaize, the spot where Maj. Haskell says the army would next go, to complete there work of destruction. Mr. Kelly was there when an Indian runner announced that the American troops had arrived in the vicinity of the village.
His friends had not expected them so soon, and with the utmost haste and consternation, the old men, with the women and children, the warriors being absent, hurried aboard their canoes, taking nothing with them but a few kettles and blankets, not having time to collect any provisions from their fields and gardens. The sun was only an hour or two high when they departed, in as deep sorrow at the loss of their country and homes, as the Trojans of old when they evacuated their favorite city. Before the next day at noon, their nice village was burnt to the ground, their cornfields of several hundred acres, just beginning to ripen, were cut down and trampled under foot by the houses and oxen of the invaders, while their melons and squashes were pulled up by the roots. The following winter the poor Indians deprived of their stock of corn and beans, which were grown every year and laid up for their winter food as regularly as among the white people, suffered the extreme of want. Game was scarce in the country they retreated to on the west of the Miami, and what few deer and fish they could collect, barely served to keep them alive. It was a cruel policy; but probably subdued their Spartan courage more than two or three defeats as for many years thereafter until the days of Tecumseh, they remained at peace.
Dr. Hildreth, who wrote this article, is, of course, looking back on history with these sentiments, but not actually realizing that what Major Haskell and his troops performed allowed Dr. Hildreth's ancestors to peacefully live in the Ohio Valley, just like all the other New Englanders who went there. I think the editorial in the fifth paragraph is just as interesting as the actual history and letter from Major Jonathan Haskell, since it shows the change of opinion in Ohio from the Pioneers to the descendants later.
Respectfully submitted, Sharon Lee Gates
When the Ohio Company was formed, he became an associate, and moved out there in company with Capt. Devol’s family, in the autumn of 1788. In 1789 he united with the Belpre settlement, and commenced clearing his farm. On the breaking out of the Indian war, in January, 1791, he received the appointment of captain in the regular service, and went to Rochester, Mass., where he recruited a company, and returned to Marietta in December; where he was stationed for the defense of that, and the adjacent settlements; as the troops had been withdrawn form Fort Harmar in the fall of 1790. After the defeat of Gen. St. Clair, he remained at Marietta until March, 1793, when he was commissioned as a captain in the second sub-legion under Gen. Anthony Wayne, and joined
the army on the frontiers that summer. He was stationed at Fort St. Clair, where he remained until June, 1794, when he was appointed to the command of the fourth sub-legion, ranking as a major, although his commission was not filled until August, 1795. In a letter to Griffin Greene, Esq., whose relative he married, he gives a sketch of the campaign which defeated the combined forces of the Indians and closed the war.
“HEAD QUARTERS, MIAMI OF THE LAKE, August 29th, 1794,
Sir: The 28th of July the army moved forward, consisting of about eighteen hundred regulars and fifteen hundred militia, from the state of Kentucky, passing by the way of St. Clair’s battle-ground, now Fort Recovery. We then
turned more to the eastward, and struck the St. Mary’s in twenty miles, where we erected a small fort, and left a subaltern’s command. We then crossed the St. Mary’s, and in four or five days’ marching found the Auglaize river, and continued on down that stream to its junction with the Miami of the lake; distant one hundred miles from Greenville, by the route we pursued. At this place we built a garrison, and left a major to command it. The army then
marched down the river forty-seven miles from the new garrison, and on the 20th inst., at nine o’clock in the morning, came up with the Indians, who had posted themselves in a position chosen as most favorable for defense. The troops charged upon them with the bayonet, and drove them two miles, through a thicket of woods, fallen timber, and underbrush, when the cavalry fell upon and entirely routed them. Our line extended two and a half miles, and yet it was with difficulty we outflanked them. One of the prisoners, a white man, says the number of the Indians engaged was about twelve hundred, aided by two hundred and fifty white men from Detroit. Our loss in the action was two officers killed, and four wounded, with about thirty privates killed, and eighty wounded. The Indians suffered much; about forty or fifty of their dead fell into our hands. The prisoner was asked why they did not fight better? He said that we would give them no time to load their pieces, but kept them constantly on the run. Two miles in advance of the battle-ground, is a British garrison, establishing last spring, which we marched round within pistol shot, and demanded a surrender, but they refused to give it up. Our artillery being too light, and the fort too strong to carry by storm, it was not attacked, but we burnt their out-houses, destroyed all their gardens, cornfields, and grass, within musket shot of the place, and all below for eight or nine miles, without any opposition. On the 27th we arrived at this place, where we have a fort, and shall halt a few days to rest. We have marched through the Indian settlements and villages for about sixty miles, destroyed several thousand acres of corn, beans, and all kinds of vegetables, burned their houses, with furniture, tools, &c. A detachment has gone into Fort Recovery for a supply of provisions for the troops, and when it returns, we shall march up the Miami sixty miles, to where the St. Marie’s unties with the St. Joseph’s and destroy all the corn in that country.”
This letter describes, in plain terms, the ruin and devastation that marked the course of the American army. It might have been considered a wise policy to devote to destruction the dwellings, cornfields, gardens, and in fact every species of property that belonged to the hostile savages, but it was also a most cruel policy. The British troops, in their inroads amongst the rebel settlements of the Revolutionary war, never conducted more barbarously.
The Indian villages on the Miami and the Auglaize, were snugly and comfortably built--were furnished with many convenient articles of house-keeping and clothing. They had large fields of corn and beans, with gardens of melons, squashes, and various other vegetables. Mr. Joseph Kelly, of Marietta, then a boy of twelve years old, and for several years a prisoner with the Indians, who treated him kindly, and was adopted into a family as one of their own children, was living at this time with them at the junction of the St. Mary’s and Auglaize, the spot where Maj. Haskell says the army would next go, to complete there work of destruction. Mr. Kelly was there when an Indian runner announced that the American troops had arrived in the vicinity of the village.
His friends had not expected them so soon, and with the utmost haste and consternation, the old men, with the women and children, the warriors being absent, hurried aboard their canoes, taking nothing with them but a few kettles and blankets, not having time to collect any provisions from their fields and gardens. The sun was only an hour or two high when they departed, in as deep sorrow at the loss of their country and homes, as the Trojans of old when they evacuated their favorite city. Before the next day at noon, their nice village was burnt to the ground, their cornfields of several hundred acres, just beginning to ripen, were cut down and trampled under foot by the houses and oxen of the invaders, while their melons and squashes were pulled up by the roots. The following winter the poor Indians deprived of their stock of corn and beans, which were grown every year and laid up for their winter food as regularly as among the white people, suffered the extreme of want. Game was scarce in the country they retreated to on the west of the Miami, and what few deer and fish they could collect, barely served to keep them alive. It was a cruel policy; but probably subdued their Spartan courage more than two or three defeats as for many years thereafter until the days of Tecumseh, they remained at peace.
Dr. Hildreth, who wrote this article, is, of course, looking back on history with these sentiments, but not actually realizing that what Major Haskell and his troops performed allowed Dr. Hildreth's ancestors to peacefully live in the Ohio Valley, just like all the other New Englanders who went there. I think the editorial in the fifth paragraph is just as interesting as the actual history and letter from Major Jonathan Haskell, since it shows the change of opinion in Ohio from the Pioneers to the descendants later.
Respectfully submitted, Sharon Lee Gates
Major Jonathan Haskell 1757-
...Biography