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Early 19th Century Diary of a Trip on the Ohio River and its

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Historical Memorabilia Start Price:350.00 USD Estimated At:500.00 - 1,000.00 USD
Early 19th Century Diary of a Trip on the Ohio River and its

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Auction Date:2009 Jun 24 @ 10:00 (UTC-04:00 : AST/EDT)
Location:6270 Este Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio, 45232, United States
ca 1835, 30pp. Small (12mo) hand-sewn journal, no covers, written variously in pencil and ink.

Although the author and date of this travel journal are unidentified, a few basic facts seem clear. Whoever the author was, his use of language and technical geological terms suggests he was an educated man, and he clearly had a strong interest in the history and natural history of the region.

The journal begins on the eastern banks of the Ohio River in the newly formed Marshall County, and moves northward on the Ohio with excursions on both banks. Throughout, the focus is on the antiquities he encounters and the stories relating to white settlement. One of his first extended passages relates to a remarkable archeological discovery: Visited an interesting collection of human skeletons on the oposite side of the Ohio, against the town of Steubenville, supposed to have been placed there by the Mingo Indians, who formerly resided on this shore. This natural sepulcher was discovered by a person who was working in a stone quarry -- the loose stone & earth had fallen down from the side of the hill & covered the mouth of the cavern, which had also been closed by the depositers themselves with fragments of sandrock not only to secure it from the invasion of wild beasts, but also from the curiosity of white men… The author goes on to discuss the peculiar geology of the cave, the state of the skeletons, and what he could discern of the burial practices and artifacts.

After Steubenville, the journal moves north to the ruins of Fort McIntosh, near Beaver, Pa., one of the earliest American forts in the region (1778). He describes the ruins as they appeared, as well as the geology of the location: It stood on the verge of an elevated plain about twenty rods from the banks of the Ohio, with which it was connected by a covered way, made by digging a ditch & covering it with puncheons sloping in toward each other at their tops until they met & then covered with earth… Shortly thereafter, the author also provides an account of the legendary frontiersman Samuel Brady, He was in fact, what many of the early backwoodsmen were, an "Indian hater." This class of men appear to have been more numerous in this region, than in any other pail of the frontier, & doubtless arose from the slaughter at Braddock's defeat & the numerous murders & attacks on defenceless families that followed that defeat for many years. What follows is an account of Brady's capture by Indians and escape, which in this version began when Brady snatched an Indian baby and tossed it in the fire, using the confusion to run for the steep banks of the Ohio and leaping in. The journal ends as the author reaches the new canal connecting the Lake Erie.

An excellent account of travel on the antebellum Ohio River from the perspective of an educated antiquarian fascinated with the history of Indians and white settlement. 

Descended Directly in the Putnam-Hildreth Families of Marietta, Ohio

Condition: Some minor evidence of water damage in the past not affecting the text, with very faint, though still legible writing.