Andrew Ellison
Andrew Ellison was born in 1755. His father, John Ellison, a native of Ireland, was born in 1730, and died in 1806. He is interred in the Nixon graveyard, three miles south of West Union, Ohio. Andrew Ellison came to Manchester, Ohio, from Kentucky, with Gen. Nathaniel Massie, in the winter of 1790. He took up his residence in the town of Manchester with his family. He located a farm on the Ohio River bottoms about two miles east of Manchester, and proceeded to clear and cultivate it.
The events in the history of the pioneers of Ohio, one hundred years ago, are becoming more obscured every day. Many facts that should have been preserved have been lost, and many more are now liable to be lost, if not obtained from those now living, and preserved.
The story of Andrew Ellison's capture by the Indians, given in both editions of Howe's Historical Collection of Ohio, is incorrect, and the correct and true story is given here. The story by Howe given in his edition of 1846 was copied bodily from McDonald's Sketches published in 1838. Where McDonald got his information we do not know, but he was contemporary with General Nathaniel Massie and Andrew Ellison, though much younger.
Our sketch comes from a granddaughter of Andrew Ellison. She obtained it from her mother, who was born in 1789, the daughter of Samuel Barr, and the wife of John Ellison, Jr. Mrs. Anne Ellison ob tained it of her husband, and he of his father, who survived until 1830.
For some time prior to his capture, Andrew Ellison had been going to his farm, two miles east of Manchester, in the morning, and remaining at work until evening. He took his noon-day meal along in a basket. On the morning of the day of his capture, he had eaten his breakfast with his family, and taken his noon-day lunch and started to his farm. While on his way, afoot, he was surprised by a band of Indians. The first intimation he had of their presence was the rattling of their shot pouches and in an instant they had him surrounded and seized. They forced him to run about half a mile to the top of a steep hill away from the traveled paths. They then tied him with buffalo thongs to a tree, till they scouted about to their own satisfaction. When ready to march, they cut the buffalo thongs with a knife, took his hat and basket of provisions, and compelled him to take off his shoes and march in moccasins. They also compelled him to carry a heavy load. At night they fastened him to a tree.
His failure to return home in the evening was the first intimation his family had of his capture. Major Beasley was the commander of the station at Manchester at that time, and not General Massie. When Mr. Ellison failed to return at the usual time, his wife went to Major Beasley and asked that a rescue party be sent out at once. The Major fearing an ambuscade, did not deem it wise to move out in the evening. but early next morning he took out a party in pursuit. They discovered Mr. Ellison's hat and shoes, and the pieces of buffalo thongs, with which he had been tied directly after his capture.
The party determined to pursue no farther, having come to the conclusion that the Indians desired to retain Mr. Ellison as a prisoner, and that if they pursued and attacked them while on the retreat, the Indians would probably kill him at once. They concluded that his chances for his return alive would be better by allowing him to escape, if he could and so gave up the pursuit.
The Indians took him first to their Chillicothe towns, where they compelled him to run the gauntlet, and in which ordeal he was severely beaten, but he was not compelled to go through this punishment a second time, or at any other place. The Indians took him to Detroit, where a Mr. Brent, an Englishman, who heard his story and sympathized with him, bought him from the Indian who claimed to own him. for a blanket, and not for $100 as stated by Howe. Mr. Brent furnished him with suitable clothing, and with money for his trip home. He came from Detroit to Cleveland by water, and thence by land, afoot, to Manchester, in September, 1793, and surprised his family by his appearance among them. From his capture until his return, they had heard nothing of him nor he of them.
Andrew Ellison and his wife, Mary, were both born in County Tyrone, Ireland. About 1797, he took up a large tract of land on Lick Fork of Brush Creek, four miles north of West Union, and there he built a stone house, which was the pride of his time. It is said that upon its completion, he and his wife went upon the hill opposite to have a view of it, and upon the view they concluded that they had the grandest house in the country. It was modeled after houses he had seen in Ireland.
It is said that Mr. Ellison selected this location on account of the abundance of game in that vicinity. Within site of the old stone house is a celebrated deer lick, where, in December, 1793, Ashael Edgington was waylaid and killed by a band of Indians under Captain Johnny.
Mr. Ellison's wife died in 1830 at the age of seventy- ive. They are buried on the farm on which the stone house is located. Ellison was an extensive locator of lands, left great quantities of it to his children, and gave each a list of surveys.
His daughter Margaret married Adain McCormack; his daughter Isabel married Rev. Dyer Burgess, and his daughter Mary married Thomas Houston. His son Andrew was one of the iron masters in the Hanging Rock region, and died there. For some time his remains were exposed in an iron coffin on the river bank, in pursuance of his own request. His son John married Anna Barr, daughter of Samuel Barr, who was killed by the Indians, near what is now Williamsburg, in the spring of 1792. Mrs. David Sinton, of Cincinnati, Ohio; Mrs. Thomas W. Means, of Hanging Rock, Ohio, and the first Mrs. Hugh Means, of Ashland, Kentucky, were daughters of John Ellison and Anna Barr.
Andrew Ellison was thirty-eight years of age when captured, and was one of the few pioneers who walked across the state twice, while it was a virgin forest.
Andrew Ellison was a shrewd Irishman. Had all the land he owned been preserved intact, without improvement and owned by a single person to this day, that person would be fabulously wealthy.
But while Andrew Ellison could see as far into the future as anyone, we can give one instance in which his judgment turned out wrong. In May, 1796, congress authorized the location of a great highway between Maysville, Kentucky, and Wheeling, Virginia, by Ebenezer Zane. In the spring of 1797 it was laid out, and as it was then a mere blazed path through the woods, it was called Zane's Trace.
Everyone expected that trace to become a great highway between the South and East, and all the settlers were anxious to be near it. Andrew Ellison located his lands on Lick Fork of Brush Creek, and built his great stone house to be along the national highway. He expected many advantages to accrue in the future from his location near the national road. It was a great thoroughfare for travel from the South to the East until the railroads began to be built and then its glory departed forever. The great coaches, the horsemen, the freight wagons, the droves of hogs, cattle and mules deserted it, and now it is only a neighborhood road for its entire length. The last to desert it were the mules. Till the opening of the Civil War it was used for driving mules from Kentucky to Zanesville or Pittsburg to be shipped east, but since the Civil War this useful product of Kentucky is shipped by railroad. Andrew Ellison, however, never dreamed and could not anticipate that Zane's Trace would be superseded by railroads.
From History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900
THE CAPTURE OF ANDREW ELLISON
In the spring of 1793, the citizens of Mancester commenced clearing the out lots of the town, and while so engaged, an incident of much interest and excitement occurred. Mr. Andrew Ellison, one of the settlers, cleared a lot immediately adjoining the fort. He had completied the cutting of the timber, rolled the logs together and set them on fire. The next morning, a short time before day break, Mr. Elllison opened one of the gates of the fort, and went out to throw the logs together. By the time he had finished this job, a number of the heaps blazed up brightly, and as he was passing from one to the other, he observed, by the light of the fires, three men walking briskly towards him. This did not alarm him in the least, although, he said they were dark-skinned fellows; yet he concluded they were Wades, whose complexions were very dark, going early to hunt. He continued to right his log heaps, until one of the fellows seized him by the arms, and called out in broken "English: "How do; how do." He instantly looked into their faces, and to his surprise and horror, found himself in the clutches of three Indians. To resist was useless.. He therefore submitted to his fate wihtout any resistance or attempt to escape.
The Indians immediately moved on with him, in the direction of Paint creek. When breakfast was ready, Mrs. Ellison sent one of her children to ask their father home; but he could not be found at the log heaps. His absence created so immediate alarm, as it was thought that he might have started to hunt after the completion of his work. Dinner time arrived, and Ellison not returning, the family became uneasy, and began to suspect some accident had happened to him. His gun rack was examined, and there hung his rifle and pouch in their usual place. Massie raised a party and made a circuit around the place, and after some search, the trails of four men, one of whom had on shoes; and as Ellison had shoes on, the truth, that the Indians had made him a prisoner, was unfolded. As it was almost night at the time the trail was discovered, the party returned to their station. Next morning early, preparations were made by Massie and his party to pursue the Indians. In doing this they found great difficulty, that it was so early in the spring that the vegetation was not of sufficient growth to show plainly the trail of the Indian, who took the precaution to keep on hard and high ground, where their feet could make little or no impression. Massie and his party, however, were as unerring as a pack of well trained hounds, and followed the trail to Paint creek, then they found the Indians gained so fast on them, that pursuit was vain. They therefore abandoned it, and returned to the station.
The Indians took their prisoner to Upper Sandusky, and compelled him to run the gauntlet. As Ellison was a large man, and not very active, he received a severe flogging as he passed along the line. From this place, he was taken to lower Sandusky, and was again compelled to run the gauntlet. He was then taken to Detroit, where he was generously ransomed by a British officer for one hundred dollars. He was shortly afterwards sent by his friend, the officer, to Montreal, from whence he returned home before the close of the summer of the same year.
From Caldwell's Illustrated Historical Atlas of Adams County, Ohio; J. A. Caldwell, Publisher, Newark, Ohio.