Historic Blennerhassett Island home, near Parkersburg, W. Va. Expedition against Spain

THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES

NEAR

PARKERSBURG, W. VA.

EXPEDITION AGAINST JPAIN

By ALVARO F. OIBBENS, A. M.

FULLY ILLUSTRATED

PARKERSBURG

GLOBE PRINTING & BINDING CO.
1914

CONTENTS

i. ISLAND DESCRIPTION AND TITLE.

6 2. BLENNERHASSETT AND BURR BIOGRA-

>. PHIES.

|

« 3. STEPS LEADING TO THE EXPEDITION.

4. PREPARATIONS, DEPARTURE, THE

WOOD COUNTY MILITIA ROLL.

5. THE TRIAL AT RICHMOND, VIRGINIA.

x 6. DESOLATION, RUIN, THE DESERTED
ISLE.

7. PRIOR OCCUPATION, PREHISTORIC

AND INDIAN RELICS.

8. PRESENT OCCUPATION, OWNERSHIP.

447996

ILLUSTRATIONS

1. THE HISTORIC ISLAND IN THE BEND

OF A MAGNIFICENT RIVER.

2. FRONT VIEW OF THE MANSION.

3. PORTRAITS OF BLENNERHASSETT AND

LA-DY BLENNERHASSETT.

4. PORTRAITS OF BURR AND THEODOSIA.

5. VIEW IN VICINITY OF BLENNERHAS-

SETT ISLAND.

6. MOUND BUILDERS' POTTERY.

7. PIPES CARVED OF STONE.

Copyrighted

MERTON B. GIBBENS

1899, !9°6 ar>d 191*

Parkersburg, West Virginia

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VIEW OF THE ISLAND

HE most charming of all the ten islands
on the Ohio river frontage, within the
area of Wood county, was one destined
to be historic in American events. It
rested, ere the dawn of the century, like a gem of
beauty on the fair bosom of the current, while the
parting waters, golden at evening and radiant at
morn, welcomed the kissing sunlight as it fell alike
over surrounding hill and vale.

In the bend of a magnificent river, with the
vinewr-eathed and willow-fringed stately trees, look-
ing in kingly air, down upon its peibble-decorated
sands in front, it was like a poetic dream of Nature
disclosing itself to the eye of fhe traveler as he, on
his exploring way southward and westward, passed
reluctantly on.

Perhaps had every daring beholder, wh'otse vis-
ion greeted this delightful scene, gone on his way
toward the dominion's of Spain with unfaltering oar
strokes, there would have been no record in this
volume of a great mystery and conspiracy, and t'he
tranquility of a happy home and patriotic people
would have been undisturbed. But a Napoleonic
destiny barred the way to so happy a realization,

and Blennerbassett was the victim of his own ambi-
tion or the wiles of another whom the entire Nation
had honored and trusted.

It is said that when Washington and his group
of attendants in huge canoes made his land-inspec-
tion tour down the Ohio in 1770, he marked for
entry in his own right this island. Doubtless he
may have done so, but in the multitude oi greater
events, which crowded his country's sky the record
was not made in the proper land office of Virginia,
and ihis hatchet-claim lapsed.

A pioneer .writer of history,* asserts that Colo-
nel P. Devoll located it, along with that tract above
the mouth of the Mu skin gum, in his own name in
1774, and sold it to Elijah Biackus, w*ho gave the
first name to the island as it was recorded in early
navigation maps.

It appears to have been first surveyed in 1784,
on a land warrant issued in 1780, and a patent made
out by Patrick Henry, Governor of Virginia, 1786,
to Alexander Nelson, erf Richmond, who was a mem-
ber of a mercantile firm in Philadelphia. By a bill
in chancery of the High Court of Virginia, procur-
ed by Blennerhassett to perfect his title, it appears
that E'lijaih P>ackus, of Norwich, Connecticut,
bought of James Heron, of Norfolk, in the year
1792, two islands in the Ohio riVer, the'principal one

*Hildreth in "Original Contributions to the American Pio-
neer."

I SLAND HOME

being that lying about two miles below the mouth
of the Little Kanawha river, then in Monongalia
county. The acreage was stated at 297 and t'he
purchase consideration 250 pounds in Virginia cur-
rency, or about $883.33.

Elijah Backus was a lawyer, editor of the Ohio
Gazette and tihe Territorial and Virginia Herald, of
Marietta, 7th December, 1801 ; elected to State Sen-
ate of Ohio in 1803, and removed to Pittsburg and
there died in 1807 or 1808. He was once name.l
by the Justices of \Yood for mem'bers'hip in their
court, but not having decided to locate on the Vir-
ginia side the commission was never made out.

In March, 1798, Harman Blennerhassett ver-
bally agrees to purchase of Elijah Backus 170 acres
of the upper portion for $4500, and moved with
wife and one child, soon after, upon it, using as his
residence the old block-fliouse about a half mile away
from the upper end of the island, which building
had been erected in the time of the Indian war by
Captain James. Here he lived till the completion of
his memorable mansion in 1800. In the primitive
log-defense, afterwards, Daniel Pusher, who had
landed on the is-land on New Year's day 1800; lived
a few years, and then bought in Belpre. He was
father of ten children. That building long ago suf-
fered demolition.

At the period specified huge sycamores and
other kingly forest trees guarded and graced the

10 BLENNERH ASSETT

head of the isle, and the wild-grape, trumpet-vine
and creepers, thick and matted, interlaced the shores
and touched the willows that encircled the wilder-
ness isle on every side.

The island, or dual island, is narrow and long,
extending miles from head to navigation's foot.
The river on either side is so narrow as to permit
the distinct hearing of ordinary conversation be-
tween island and main shore. From either bank,
back of fertile meadows, rise picturesque hills, seem-
ingly shutting in the island group from all the outer
world.

Harman Blennerhassett

.if ~*AI IFTED, credulous, fated might be writ-
"^ ten as characteristic of this son of the
Emerald Isle, who sought to make an
Eden within the wilderness. He was

the youngest son of a distinguished family, which
could trace its lineage from the era of King John.
His grand-father, Robert, having emigrated from
Cumberland in the time of Elizabeth, became the
head of three respectable branches of the Celtic
gentry. He was not, as often asserted, of noble
birth, though the family residence was Castle Con-
way, Ireland. Harman was born in 1767, while his
parents were on a visit in Hampshire, England ; so
he was less than thirty years of age when he reach-
ed the shores of America. To his education his
•parents had devoted thoughtful care, and he grad-
uated with marked honors, destined for the bar, and
attained the degree of Barrister, but was not at-
tracted to it for an occupation, and succeeding by
the death of his elder brother to the family estates,
he abandoned law as a profession. Xature had en-
dowed him with more than moderate powers of
mind to pursue investigations in natural sciences,
and accordingly he delighted in these studies and

12 BLENNER HAS SETT

pursuits. It was claimed that so tenacious was his
memory that he could repeat the whole of Homer's
I Iliad in the original Greek. In stature he was six
feet tall, slender in proportions and inclined to stoop
in his shoulders. His forehead was prominent
above ordinary, and his nose was the distinguish-
ing feature of his kindly face. In manners he was
easy, courteous, social and interesting. In disposi-
tion he was obliging, charitable, indulgent and hos-
pitable, bestowing his gifts upon the needy with
cheerfulness and without ostentation. Being near-
sighted he was compelled almost constantly to use
spectacles. He was, nevertheless, passionately fond
of gunning, but necessarily had with him his wife
or a trusted servant, who levelled his fowling piece
and brought it to bear upon the game when lo-
cated. Peter, a colored servant, was sometimes
stationed a short distance away and directed his aim
as follows:*

"Xow bend, Master Blennerhassett, a little to
the left. Now to the right. Up a point. There —
steady — fire." Off would go the rifle, and not in-
frequently the frightened but unharmed game also.

He had a fine ear for music, and excelled as a
performer upon several instruments, and was the
author of creditable musical compositions. He
was domestic in his habits, even to indolency, meth-
odical in his plans and practice, ever studied to

*"Hildreth's American Review," 1848, p. 50.

mSSESz mSLM B

ISLAND HOME 13

make his home cheerful, even to luxury, its inmates
happy, and in the entertainment of friends both
husband and wife were peerless and fascinating. In
dress 'his style was English, contrasting with that
of his plain neighbors and associates. At social
gatherings invariarly he appeared in satin waist
coat, buff colored or scarlet knee-breeches, small
silk stockings, silver buckled shoes and coat of blue
velvet or broadcloth. At home his dress was more
careless, in warm weather rather negligee, with-

His wife was Margaret. Agnew, daughter of the
out coat or waistcoat, and in Winter a thick woolen
jacket or round-about.

Lieut-Governor of the Isle of Man, and granddaugh-
ter of the famous general of that name who fell at
the battle of Germantown, Pennsylvania, and after
her arrival in America she erected a monument to
his memory.

W'hile it is stated that he supplied himself with
extensive literary and philosophical apparatus in
London and embarked for New York in 1797, yet
in his subsequent declaration, March 7, 1803, seek-
ing citizenship, he made oath that he "had resided
in the United States between the 2Qth of January,
1795, and i8th of June, 1798, and had then been in
the State of Virginia one year."

He lingered in New York for awhile to study
the people and the geography of the land he was to
adopt as his own.

14 BLENNERHASSETT

Over the rough, narrow paths of the Allegheny
barriers, with his wife and child, he passed in the
fall of 1797, and at Pittsburg embarked in a keel-
boat down the Ohio, seeking a place for his castle.
Landing at Marietta he spent the entire winter in a
pleasant way among a refined citizenship, and pros-
pecting by repeated excursions into the adjacent
hills and vales for a site for his residence. He had
almost decided to locate upon an eminence in the
rear of the village, but the steepness of the ap-
proaches and the discovery in time of the captivat-
ing island in Virginia, below the Little Kanawha,
decided his purchase and his destiny, and in March,
1798, out of a fortune of little less than $100,000 he
secured the main part of the island and fixed his
abode.

The next two years was spent in supervising
personally the erection of a palatial home, which
he was ambitious should surpass any other private
mansion west of the mountains, and in clearing the
grounds of the dense timber and undergrowth, and
in beautifying the approaches and lawns. To this
accomplishment many hands were requisite, in ad-
dition to the contractors, house-carpenters and the
laborers, the ten negro servants he had purchased
as grooms, waiters and watermen. Forest trees,
the growth of years innumerable were uprooted,
boughs and trunks burned or conveyed away, and
the inequalities of ground surface were smoothed

ISLAND HOME 15

and changed in accordance with artistic taste. The
giant trees, save ihere and there reserved ones, to-
gether with underbrush which might obstruct de-
lightful view to the traveler descending Ohio's cur-
rent, were removed from the broad front of the up-
per portion of the sand-pebbled gently-sloping head
of the island. Elms, sycamores, and cottonwoods
were sacrificed 'neath the strokes of the woodman's
axe, tihat better, grander view might be had of the
palatial mansion, which he had painted an alabaster
whiteness.

Col. Joseph Barker, of Marietta, who, a few
years after, in 1803, built a brigatine and named it
Dominic, for Hlennerhassett's oldest son, was the
principal architect of this uniquely planned resi-
dence of costly beauty. An exterior view is given
in the cut presented. Springing up at that era of
of primitive cabins, in almost a wilderness, which
had just emerged from the perils of Indian warfare
and the presence of ferocious game, it was like a
creation of magic, a revelation of paradise in a
"boundless contiguity of shade" and unadorned na-
ture. The c6st of the princely building, remote
from the marts of industry and art, was, it is said,
in excess of a half hundred thousand dollars. The
exterior improvements of walks, lawns, shrubbery,
orchards, flowers and clearing of an hundred acre
farm below tihe structure, doubtless added ten
thousand more, the entire expenditure of which

16 BLENNERHASSETT

among farmers, mechanics and laborers was an ap-
preciated benefit where money was scarce and
opportunities to earn it few indeed.

No expense was spared in the construction and
decoration, which might impart splendor, useful-
ness, or convenience. Tlhe main building fronted
the east and was two stories high, 52 feet in length
and 30 feet in width. Across the front a deep por-
tico extended, and thence on either side in circular
wings, single stories, 40 feet in length, connected
the principal or center building with buildings on
the north and south sides, each also facing the east,
and being 26 feet in length and 20 feet in depth ami
two stories high. The entire structure formed half
of an eclipse, with frontage of one hundred and four
feet, exclusive of the circular porticoes, or promen-
ade extensions. The right hand wing was used for
library, philosophical apparatus, laboratory and
study ; the left appropriated to an occupancy by the
servants. The united taste, culture and consulta-
tion of the Blennerhassett pair brought finishing,
furnishing and furniture of every apartment in har-
mony and unison with a matured plan and ideal.
The furniture, of the best, latest and richest, in
every room, was brought from the East by wagon,
through Pittsburgh, and thence down the Ohio by
barge and keel, and was selected to please the eye
and luxurious comfort and convenience to family
and numerous guests.

ISLAND HOME 17

The hall, a spacious room, was painted somber
color, with cornice of plaster, bordered with mould-
ing of gilt, extending around the lofty ceiling, with
rich, heavy furniture to correspond. The drawing
room contrasted with the hall in having furniture
light in hue and structure, and elegant, with gay
carpets, splendid mirrors, rich curtains, classic pic-
tures and artistic ornaments. The side-^boards —
with decanters and wine glasses, indispensible to
Virginia hospitality in early times — was graced, as
were the tables, by a liberal supply of silverware.
The finest taste in all the interior, as well as beauty
of the exterior surroundings, indicated the refine-
ment of owner and hostess, and the possession and
enjoyment of the finest estate in the Virginia section
of the Western world, compensated them partly for
their absence and immigration from associates and
heritage in the older land across the wide, wide sea.

Greeting the eyes in front of this mansion,
which had been built of wood in view of safety in
case of supposed earthquakes, was in process of
brief time a graded lawn of several acres adorned
with walks and dotted here and there with shrub-
bery and clusters of bright flowers and extending
eastward to the rippling water's edge of the upper
end of the island, with an opening in the reserved
trees.

From the dwelling a gravelled carriage way and
walks led through a vine ornamented gateway to

18 BLENNERHAiSSETT

the river on the north side, where light 'boats were
moored and slave attendants ready to ferry to the
Ohio shore. This useful avenue was bordered with
a thick hedge of native hawthorn. In the distance
of this landscape picture were the forest trees and
copse-wood, forming vistas for sunshine and storm
to play in and delight the vision.

The space immediately in the rear and to the
west of the ideal home was assigned for fruits and
flowers of richest hue, and rare shrubbery in beds
and gracefully curved walks. The wide area on the
exterior border was circled by a picket fence, along
whose line were planted peach, pear, quince and ap-
ricot trees, facing winding walks, over which floated
in dewy morn, and sunlit noon, and dreamy eve, de-
licious odor of mingled and embowered honey-
suckle, eglatine and similar flowering shrubs.

On the south was an extensive vegetable gar-
den, and adjacent to it a thrifty orchard of apple,
plum, cherry and similar fruits, in great variety.

The farm below, westward, was of alluvial soil,
naturally rich and productive and kept improved
and highly cultivated, yielding then as now in abund-
ance wheat, corn and other grains, and its meadows
were stocked with the best breeds of cattle and
swine.

This estate upon a lovely island, when much
labor and money had been expended upon it, and a
few years of joyous possession had wafted by, was

ISLAND HOME 19

indeed a rich dominion for cultivated minds, a pic-
ture of peace, repose, quietude, innocence and happi-
ness.

Here in this mansion — almost a baronial castle
when contrasted with its cabins, wilderness and
pioneer neighbors, on both sides of the grand river —
the rich Irish barrister and his accomplished wife
and children, spent nearly six years of delightful
existence. His retinue of employes and servants
was large, and while the house was in process of
erection and the improvements of lawns and farm
progressing, afforded sustenance to many in those
years of hardships and scarcity. His gardener,
Peter Taylor, had been brought from England,
Thomas Neale, a pioneer of Virginia, was long his
dairyman and farm superintendent.

The self-exiled Blennerhassett, when seeking
relaxation or change from his library, pictures, vio-
lincello and chemical laboratory, spent the hours in
the village of Newport, on the Virginia shore, or at
Belleville settlement, at Farmer's Castle in Belpre,
or the Harmar fort, chatting socially with those
congenial pioneers. When at social gatherings, he
invariably appeared in the prescribed outfit of an
English gentleman.

His wife, Lady Margaret, was properly the mis-
tress of a refined home. Both were hospitable, fond
of party and dance, and often broke the isolation of
their water-encircled home by invitations to her

20 BLENNERHASSETT

drawing room of the youth and beauty of the vil-
lages on both sides, she being the very center and
magnet of an animated circle. She had been with
scrupulous care brought up and educated in Eng-
land by two maiden aunts, and was taught not only
the languages and higher branches of a literary edu-
cation, but initiated into the practical arts of house-
wifery and supervision as well. She could read and
fluently converse in Italian and French, and was
endowed in mind and manner and educated to grace
with ease any position in the courts of Europe. In
figure she was tall and well proportioned, impres-
sive in appearance, graceful, yet dignified, with deli-
cately moulded features, fair and almost transparent
complexion, a swan-like neck, the feminine envy of
that era, dark blue eyes of sparkling intelligence
and radiant capability, abundant and glossy hair of
rich brown hue. In dress her taste inclined to the
showy and attractive, and she aimed to select and
adapt her outfit to her well-shaped form.

She was passionately fond of outdoor exercise
and recreation, rowing, riding and walking. Her
step was elastic and graceful, whether passing
among and caring for shrubbery and flowers or
vaulting into the saddle of her favorite steed, or
upon the waxed floor of the private ball room ; in
each she was enthusiastic and admired. In the sad-
dle she was an expert equestrienne, and her favorite
horse, Robin, in his bright trappings, seemed ever

ISLAND HOME 21

proud of his mistress as both bounded swiftly
along the forest road from the shore opposite the
island to Marietta village or Fort Harmar and back
again.

Often her cloth, scarlet riding robe, spangled
with gold lace and glittering buttons and her flow-
ing tresses waving beneath her ostrich-plumed hat,
glimmered in the vine and leaf-tangled woods, as
she fleetly rode along the river paths with her
dusky, polite and faithful servant, Ransom, in the
rear, spurring his charger to keep in sight of his
charge, and only so doing when she checked her
steed to await his coming. Like a fawn or fairy of
sylvan creation she seemed to dart along her course
beneath the green foliage, catching the inspiration
of rosy health and elasticity. Her admirers boasted
that'as an athlete and pedestrienne she could clear
a five-rail Virginia fence at a single bound.

It is said that a farmer's son of Belpre rented
and cultivated a field of corn on the island, near the
avenue leading from house to river, for the sole pur-
pose of stealing a look at her beautiful person as she
passed by on her way to ride or walk, as accustomed
on a pleasant day.

Over the current she could guide or propel a
boat, handling the oars with forceful skill, always
having a sable attendant, generally Moses, the wat-
erman, near in case of accident. She sometimes
went in a canoe as far as Parkersburg, then New-

22 BLENNERHASSETT

port, and even up the Kanawha to Beach Park, the
home of the Hendersons.

In the dance room she was peerless, her step
light, her motion graceful, and with the rapidity and
ease of thought winding airily through each call and
figure, she was a favorite in each set.

*"In conversation she was ready, versatile and
engaging, being well-read in the general literature
of her day, her conversational powers were great,
showing clearness of perception and critically edi-
fying. Her writings show a mind of deep sensi-
bilities, in which the genius of thought gives finish
and force to her sentences. There was a finish and
beauty of experience interwoven with the subject on
which she wrote, which created a corresponding
sympathy in the mind of the reader." Elsewhere,
as pertaining to sorrows of after days, is quoted one
of her poems, indited while at Montreal, Canada,
She wrote and subsequently published a volume en-
titled, "Widow of the Rock."

*A friend of the family, with opportunity to
traditionally know, states that "Mrs. Blennerhassett
introduced vacination in the West. During fre-
quent visits to New York her children were vaccin-
ated. 'She preserved the virus, invited parents to
send their little ones to the island, and successfully

"Pamphlet of S. C. Shaw.

*Maria P. Wood'bridge, in Lippincott's Magazine, of Fell).
1879.

ISLAND HOME 28

performed the operation. One of the children long
recollected the beautiful Mrs. Blennerhassett. Ad-
miration, love and respect and sympathy are felt
for her as we follow her changing life from happy
gaity to lonely death in a New York garrett."

Edenic was the delightful home and domestic
happiness, and quiet roseate surroundings of the
Blennerhassett family, and such a portrayal of their
appearance and character till the dawn of the year
1805.

AARON BURR

N Newark, New Jersey, fifth November
was born Aaron Burr, whose

combination with the owner of the his-
toric island, within the domain of our

territory, brings his biography in brief into our vol-

ume at this point.

*He entered Princeton College at 12 years of
age and was graduated in 1772; studied theology
with a clergyman in Connecticut ; entered the Conti-
nental army in 1775; distinguished himself at Que-
bec, Monmouth, New Haven, and resigned, owing
to ill health tenth March, 1779; studied law and
was admitted to the bar in 1782; began practice at
Albany, and in 1783 removed to New York ; was a
member of the State House of Representatives in
1784 and 1798; Attorney General of New York in
1789 and 1790; Commissioner of Revolutionary
Claims in 1791 ; a Democratic U. S. Senator from
New York, twenty-fourth Oct., 1791, to third March,
1797. At the Presidential election of 1801, Burr and
Jefferson had each 73 electoral votes, and the House
of Representatives on the thirtieth ballot chose Jeff-
erson President and Burr, Vice-President. In 1804

*From the Directory of Congress.

Aaron Burr and Daughter Theodosia

ISLAND HOME 25

he was the Democratic candidate for Governor of
New York and was defeated by Morgan Lewis by
8000 majority ; mortally wounded Hamilton in a duel
at Weehawken, July 12, 1804; after endeavoring to
revolutionize the Mississippi Valley, he was arrested
and brought to Richmond, where he was tried in
August, 1807, on a charge of treason and acquitted;
to escape persecution and his creditors, he went
abroad in 1808, returning to New York City in
1812, he resumed law practice, and died on Staten
island, at Port Richmond, Sept. 14, 1836.

About tenth April, 1805, seeking surcease from
the poignancy of recent events, and perhaps with a
determination to retrieve political heights and power
by new evolution and schemes, in a vague way, he
wandered West from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, and
there arriving about the thirtieth, on a boat prev-
iously ordered and arranged for, he descended the
Ohio river. The craft is thus described:

M'His boat was a rude floating house, or ark,
sixty feet long, fourteen feet wide, containing four
apartments, a dining room, a kitchen with fire place
and two bed rooms, all lighted by glass windows,
and the whole covered by a roof, which served as a
promenade deck. The cost of this commodious
structure, to his astonishment, he found was only
one hundred, thirty-three dollars. Of propelling
power it had none, but merely floated down the swift

*Parton's Life of Aaron Burr.

26 BLENNERHASSETT

and winding stream, aided occasionally and kept
clear of snags and sand banks by a dextrous use of
the pole. In the Spring the current of the Ohio
rushes along with/ surprising swiftness, carrying
with it an ark or iraft eight miles an hour. It would
be a resistless totrent at that time but for its in-
numerable bends. -Along the whole course hills,
steep, picturesque and lofty, rise almost from the
bed of the river and pour their streams headlong
into it, whenever the, rain falls or the snow melts.
For hundreds and hundreds of miles this most mon-
otously beautiful of rivUrs winds and coils itself
among those ever-varying seldom-receding hills,
skirted by a. narrow fringe of bottom land. Those
hills, soon to be vine-clad, were then one forest;
those bottoms, now smiling with farms, or disfigured
by the shabbiest of towns and villages, were then
destitute of inhabitants for hundreds of miles at a
stretch.

He stopped briefly at Marietta on the fifth of
May, to see the mounds and antiquities there, with-
in sight of old Fort Harmar. Here the leading citi-
zens called upon him to offer civilities and hospi-
talities, as to one who had been honored with the
high office of Vice-President of the Union and had
filled the chair so ably in the National Senate.

In the hours of his stay, doubtless, he had
opportunity to hear of the elegant mansion, almost
princely, of the Barrister and of its occupants, to

ISLAND HOME 27

whom the Ohio Company's settlers were more than
friendly, even attached, and to welcome suggestions
to stop and view the estate.

Resuming his journey, as the eviednce appears,
he next, a few hours later, could not pass the island
without placing feet on the soil, and strolling over
the grounds, in company with a Mrs. Shaw. Blen-
nerhassett was absent, but upon invitation of his
ever courteous wife, who observed the strangers and
tendered the hospitalities of her home, entered and
passed the hours in conversation 'till eleven o'clock,
when Burr re-embarked and proceeded down the
river, being impressed with the desirability of se-
curing an auxiliary and friend in his absent host,
the lord of the manor ; and having deeply impress-
ed his hostess with his fascinating powers, and the
splendor of his official position.

Early in December Burr wrote a letter to Blen-
nerhassett, in which he expressed his regret at not
making his personal acquaintance when accidently
visiting the island, alluded cautiously to the talents
of his absent host, as deserving wider fields and
greater rewards, and indirectly stimulated him to
action, and suggested plans to increase his fortune
and attain a more exalted position of usefulness
and honor.

To this adroit communication reply was made,
admitting a desire to participate in any speculation

BLENNERHASSETT

which might be presented, as, in Burr's opinion,
worthy to engage his talents.

"1 contemplated," says he in his Hrief at the
Richmond trial thereafter, "not only a commercial
enterprise or land purchase, but a military adven-
ture was distinctly mentioned in which I should
engage.'' He conceived the country on the eve of
a Spanish war, when it would be necessary to bring
all the talents of the people into play, among which
was Burr's, and under such considerations was will-
ing to engage in any enterprise to subjugate the
dominion of Spain, the prospective enemy of the
Republic.

Other correspondence followed, and in August,
1806, with his accomplished and fascinating daugh-
ter, Thedosia, wife of Gov. Joseph Alston, of South
Carolina, he visited a second time the island.

Father and daughter had embarked, with her
infant son, at Pittsiburg, and near the close of the
month on their descent the voyagers reached Mar-
ietta. It was General Muster Day, and as an hon-
ored guest Burr interviewed the militia and put
them through a few evolutions to the satisfaction
of admiring spectators. In the eve they attended a
ball and completely conquered all, he by courtly
grace and manners, and Thedosia, by the magnetism
of her beauty and the flash of her feminine witti-
cisms.

This interview and stay at the island is graphi-

ISLAND HOME 29

cally described in its effects by the eloquent William
Wirt :

"A shrubbery, which Shenstone might have en-
vied, blooms around him ; music that might have
charmed Calypso and her nymphs, is his ; an ex-
tensive library spreads its treasures before him ; a
philosophical apparatus offers to him all the mys-
teries and secrets of nature; peace, tranquility and
innocence shed their mingled delights around him ;
and, to crown the enchantment of the scene, a wife
who is said to be lovely beyond her sex and graced
with every accomplishment that can render it ir-
resistable, has blessed him with her love and made
him the father of her children. The evidence would
convince you that this is only a faint picture of real
life. In the midst of all this peace, this innocence,
thjs tranquility, this feast of mind, this pure ban-
quet of the heart, the destroyer comes. He comes
to turn this paradise into a hell ; yet the flowers do
not wither at his approach, and no monitory shud-
dering, through the bosom of their unfortunate pos-
sessor, warns him of the ruin that is coming upon
him. A stranger presents himself; introduced to
their civilities by the high rank he had lately held
in his country, he soon finds way to their hearts by
the dignity and elegance of his demeanor, the light
and beauty of his conversation and the seductive
and fascinating power of his address. The conquest
was not a difficult one. Innocence is ever simple

30 BLENNERHASSETT

and credulous ; conscious of no design itself, it ex-
pects none in others; every door and portal of the
heart are thrown open and all who choose it, enter.
Such was the state of Eden when the serpent en-
tered its bowers. The prisoner in a more engaging
form, winding himself into the open and unprac-
ticed heart of Blennerhassett found but little diffi-
culty in changing the native character of that heart
and the object of its affections. By degrees he in-
fuses into it the poison of his own ambition ; he
breathes into it the fire of his own courage ; a dar-
ing and desperate thirst for glory ; an ardor panting
for all the storms and bustle and hurricane of life.
In a short time the whole man is changed ; and every
object of his former delight is relinquished. No
more he enjoys the tranquil scene ; it has become flat
and insipid to his taste. His books are abandoned;
his retort and crucible thrown aside ; his shrubbery
blooms and breathes its fragrance upon the air in
vain — he likes it not ; his ear no longer drinks the
melody of music — it longs for the trumpets clangour
and the cannon's roar. Even the prattle of his
babes, once so sweet, no longer affects him, and
the angel smile of his wife, who hitherto touched
his bosom with ecstacy so unspeakable, is now un-
felt for and unseen. Greater objects have taken
possession of his soul ; his imagination has been
dazzled by visions of diadems, and stars, and gar-
ters, and titles of nobility — he has been taught to

ISLAND HOME 31

,burn, with restless emulation, at the names of
Cromwell, Caesar and Bonaparte."

Theodosia, with womanly tact, won her way,
and with her father's desire for adventure and an
imperial elevation, infused the same spirit and hopes
into the heart of Margaret, and they were dream-
ers together, and constructed their castles while
active preparations began in earnest for the fitting
out of some mysterious expedition.

The month of September was full of activity,
ardor and preparation for the great consumation of
something yet not distinctly revealed. Burr and
Blennerhassett proceeded to the counting house of
Dudley, \Yoodbridge & Co., of Marietta, in which
firm Blennerhassett was a partner, and ordered the
building of boats and purchase of a quantity of pro-
visions. The batteaux were to be 15. ten of which
were to be 40 feet long and five of 50 feet length,
and all 10 feet wide and 2 1-2 feet deep, and after
the Schenectedy model, such as were in use on the
Mohawk river. The conveyance capacity of this
flotilla was to be 500 men. A separate keel-boat.
60 feet long was to be constructed for arms, ammu-
nition and provisions. One of the larger boats was
to be fitted up in better style for the family of the
leaders. It was to have separate rooms, fire place
and glass windows at the sides. The provisions
were to cost $2,000 and the boats a like sum.

The contract to build, at his boat-yard, seven

BLENNERHASSETT

miles above the mouth of the Muskingum, was
given to Col. Jos. Barker, who had erected the
island mansion. They were to be delivered Qth
December. The expedition provisions were 'to be
pork, bacon, flour, kiln-dried meal, whiskey and
smaller articles.

With definite understanding then Burr and his
aid parted. During the period of absence Blenner-
hassett was intensely busy near his residence and
old social haunts overseeing and urging forward
the building of the boats, the purchase and storage
of provisions, and drying in many kilns corn upon
his island and soliciting recruits.

To some young men he stated the object was
to settle Western lands ; to others that the destina-
tion was Mexico, saying that undoubtedly there
would arise war with Spain. He wrote a series of
essays and published them in a Marietta paper over
the signature "Querist," showing that the Western
country would be advantaged by a separation from
the Atlantic States. Such views, it must be admit-
ted, were prevalent, largely in Kentucky and over
the entire West, and were not considered treason-
able. The essays were answered under the signa-
ture "Regulus," from the pen of Jared Mansfield,
U. S. Surveyor, appointed by President Jefferson.

W/hile these operations were going forward
under the propulsion of Blennerhassett, Burr for
recruits and perfection of general plans, went to

ISLAND HOME 33

Chillicot'he, Cincinnati, Kentucky and Nashville. At
the latter town he contracted to build six boats, on
the Cumberland, and deposited $4,000 with General
Jackson to pay for them. He also contracted to
purchase 4,000 acres of land on the Washita, a
branch of the Red river, for $40,000, and paid there-
on $5,000. The settlement of a colony upon these
lands was represented to be the sole object of the
proposed expedition.

Then Comfort Taylor, of New York, was re-
cruiting men and collecting supplies at Pittsburg,
with which he was to embark upon several boats
at that point and join the Blennerhassett fleet at
the island. Daniel Floyd, of Indiana Territory, was
similarly employed near the Falls ,of the Ohio, and
was to connect with the fleet when it came down.

In October, Theodosia was joined by her hus-
band, the Governor of South Carolina, who was
drifting into the enterprise, and they with Blenner-
hassett left the island in charge of Margaret and
visited Lexington, Kentucky.

The arrangement was to rendezvous Novem-
ber ist; to leave the Ohio Falls by the I5th with
500 to 1,000 men; to be in Natchez, Miss., from the
5th to the middle of December to meet General
Wilkinson.

In 1787, then a citizen of the Kentucky section
of Virginia, Wilkinson had loaded a boat with flour
and tobacco and descended the Ohio and Mississippi

34 BLENNERHASSETT

rivers with the "ostensible purpose of making ar-
rangements with the Spanish authorities by which
to secure to the inhabitants of the upper country a
free navigation of the Mississippi and a market for
their produce."*

In consequence of these semi-military and
scarcely concealed operations and movements, ru-
mors followed each other in rapid succession, on
both sides of the river in the vicinity of the island.

Early in October, 1806, there was a mass meet-
ing of citizens in Wood county, expressive of alarm
for the safety of the country, by accumulating evi-
dence of the complicity of Burr and Blennerhassett
in a mysterious and many believed treasonable de-
sign. The cause of their apprehension proceeded
fiom a partial revelation of the objects of the expe-
dition, to some of his more intimate acquaintances,
by Blennerhassett, and to whom also he had made a
secret acknowledgment o'f the authorship of "Quer-
ist."

The public meeting, as appears from manuscript
papers once held by a prominent lawyer and actor
in the agitation of the popular mind, and now pre-
served by 'descendants of a pioneer family in Mason
county, was united in its action and thoroughly
patriotic in its motives and declarations. The pro-
ceedings read :

"At an assemblage of a number of citizens, at

"Opinion 29 Oct. 1807

ISLAND HOME 35

the Court House of 'Wood county, for the purpose
of taking into consideration Burr's Expedition, Col.
Hugh Phelps was appointed Chairman, and James
G. Laidley, Secretary.

Among others present appeared Alexander Hen-
derson, Peter Anderson, Robert Kincheloe, Thomas
Tavenner, James Compton and many others.

The object of the call was briefly and suc-
cinctly stated by the chair to be to take steps to
protect the honor and safety of the settlers and
their property, and to cause every person friendly
to the Constitution of the United States to express
their attachment thereto. The situation was ex-
ceedingly alarming and instant action is incumbent.
Hostility to peace and good order was being mani-
fested, and it is for you, gentlemen of the new
county, to determine a course of proceedure.

On motion, it was, without dissent, resolved,
that a committee be appointed to draft and to re-
port forthwith resolutions expressive of strong
disapprobation to the plan laid down by many am-
bitious characters, and that a volunteer company
be raised to protect our county.

The chair selected Alexander Henderson, James
Wilson, Jacob Beeson, Hugh Phelps, George Creel,
Jr., John G. Henderson, Robert Kincheloe, James
G. Laidley, Thomas Tavenner, Reece Woolf, Wil-
liam Beauchamp, George Creel and James H. Neal.

W'hile the gentlemen selected were in council

36 BLENNERHASSETT

discussing a course of action and framing proper
wording, speeches were made by various persons
present. Great diversity of opinion was had as to
extent of guilt of those suspected, and the object of
the movements on the island, yet there was unan-
imity as to. necessity for a prompt and military
course.

On return to the body of the court room, the
following was reported by those delegated to ad-
vise, and without disagreement adopted as the views
of every one present :

"Resolved, by the Committee appointed by the
Citizens of Wood County, that met this 6th day of
October, 1806, for the purpose of deliberating on
the measures necessary to be adopted in this Alarm-
ing Crisis to Counteract what is supposed to be
the ambitious and disorganizing views of Aaron
Burr and his Parisans in this Western Country:

"i. That it is expedient that the Citizens of
Wood County should without delay form them-
selves into a Volunteer corps or body of men,
in order to train tihemselves to Arms and Military
discipline for the purpose of Defending themselves
and their property from any Threatened Attack
and Repelling any Aggression that may be At-
tempted by any Insurgents inimical to the Inter-
ests of the United States, until some more effective
measures can be adopted by the President of the
United States. That to effect this laudable pur-
pose, it is Recommended that six subscription pap-
ers be immediately drafted and handed around the
County, in order to Procure Subscribers to the

37

same, enrolling themselves in the said Body. And
that it is proper that a meeting should be held of
the said persons enlisting themselves as aforesaid,
at the Court House of Wood County, on the nth
day of this present month, for the purpose of Choosr-
ing by ballot Proper Officers to command the said
Corps and adopt Proper rules and Regulations for
their future Conduct.

"And that the Colonel of tihe ii3th Regiment
of Virginia Militia be requested to use the most
effective means to collect the Public Arms of said
Regiment and have them forthcoming at the Court
House of this county on the nth day of this present
month ; and also that the persons appointed to 'hand
around the said Subscription papers should request
the subscribers to their respective papers to volun-
teer in bringing forward any private arms they
may be in possession of at the said time.

"Resolved, that Alexander Henderson, Peter
Anderson, Robert Kincheloe, Thomas Tavenner,
James Compton and James G. Laidley are proper
persons to be appointed to hand around the said
Subscription papers.

"Resolved, that a Copy of the Proceedings of
this Committee be forwarded to the Printer of
the Ohio and Monongalia Gazettes, to be printed
an their respective newspapers, and that a printed
Copy of said Pioceedings be forwarded with as
much expedition as possible to the Executive of Hie
Commonwealth of Virginia and the President of
the United States.

Resolved, that a Permanent Committee of five
persons be appointed to Regulate the proceedings
necessary to be pursued during the existence of
danger, and that said Committee or a majority of

447996

38 BLENNERHASSETT

them should meet whenever an emergency may
seem to them to require it ; and that the said Com-
mittee be empowered to call meetings of the citi-
zens of Wood County; and that Col. H. Phelps,
Robert Kinclieloe, Jacob Beeson, Alexander Hen-
derson and George Creel, Jr., are considered as fit
persons to compose said Committee.

"Resolved, that it is incumbent a permanent
Secretary should be appointed to said committee,
and that James Wilson is a fit person for that pur-
pose.

"Resolved, that the foregoing resolutions are
founded on a firm attachment to the Constitution
of the United States, and adopted in support of the
Liberties guaranteed to us by the same, submitting
ourselves always to the Constituted authorities."

VOLUNTEER ENROLLMENT.

Pursuant to Resolutions submitted to the con-
sideration of Sundry Citizens of Wood County on
the 6th day of October, 1806, and adopted, it is con-
sidered that the alarming situation of existing
affairs in this Western Country render it imme-
diately and essentially necessary for every true
friend to his country, in support of that Constitution
and of that Government for which our fore-fathers
have bled, and having gained under which them-
selves and their children have so long happily lived,
to adopt measures of defense against the views of
any ambitious and disorganizing Demagogues in-
imical to the interests of the same ; for which pur-
pose the Citizens of Wood County, in conformity

ISLAND HOME

39

thereto, are expected to come forward upon this
occasion by subscribing their names to this paper
to form themselves into a Volunteer independent
Corps, to effect said purposes, until some more effec-
tive steps for our safety can be taken by the
President of the United States of America.

Robert Kinc'heloe,
William Prince,
Hubbard Prince,
John Johnson,
Peter McCaul,
Samuel Allen,
John Gibbins,
John Carpenter,
James Melrose,
William Hill,
Ximrod Saunders,
David Creel,
Henry Thornton,
Henry Gillaspie,
Thomas Creel,
Elijah ['helps,
Geo. Ruble,
Leonard Caplinger.
James Dutton,
Richard Lee,
Bennett Williams,

John 0.
Robert Wells.
W. Minor.
Robert Shanklin,
Richard Arnold,

David
Charles Murphey,

William D. Bayley,
Edward McPherson,
Lawrence King",
Levi Barton,
Thomas Thornton,
John Caplinger,
Daniel Brown,
Willis Owens,
William Gillaspie,
William Dixon,
Francis Tierney,
Elijah McDonale,
William Melrose,
James Beaby,
Robert Page,
Henry Lord,
James Lord*
Jeptha Kincheloe,
Alexander Creel,
Joseph King.
John Gillaspie,
Henderson,
Jeremiah Brown,
James Ringlesby,
Jorisha Smavvler,
Joseph Johnson.
Rawson,
Thomas Tavenncr,

40

Benniah Badgeley,
Thomas Leachman,
Adam Ruble,
Polser Ruble,
Philip Harter,
Christopher Coonrod,
John Badgeley,
Robert Edelen,
Harrison Sursons,
John Spur.lock,
Elijah Rockhole,
Walter Coe,
Geo. Dunlevyi
Jedra Darbv,
Thos. Gilrason,
Peter Jett,
William Langfitt,
William Dyar,
James Cunningham,

Z.

James Gillespie,
James Melrose, Jr.,
Robert Triplett,
Thomas Thorfiton,
Sylvester Ward, Jr.,
Rezin Barnes,
John Owens,
Jacob Beeson,
George Creel,
Daniel Rowell,
John Stephenson,
James G. Laidley,
Thomas James,
Hugh Phelps,
Wm. Weedon,

Peter Hannaman,
John V. Browne,
James Gibson,
James Ward,
John Pugh,
Charles Paw,
John Drake,
Asahel Wilkinson,
E. McFarlane,
George Jacobson,
Joel Woolf,
Peter McCall,
John Carpenter,
Samuel Coe,
John T. Langfitt,
William Sinclair,
Andrew F. Dyar,
John Coe,
John Barns,
Bockorees,

Reece Woolf,
John Neal,
James Wilson,
J. C. Griffin,
Joseph Cook,
Joseph Spencer,
Timothy Darling,
Elijah Moss,
James Foley, Jr.,
Moses Pilcher,
Andrew Davidson,
William Enoch,
James H. Neal,
Walker Turner,
Elias Gates,

ISLAND HOME

41

Yates S. Cornwell,
Allen Davis,
Nehemiah Lewis,
Henry Woodyard,
Jesse Woodyard,
J. A. Murdough,
Tunis Dils,
Philip Dils,
Peter Dils,
Stephen N. Wilson,
Walter Coe,
William Eaton,
Haley Rice,
John Trevin,
Thomas Dye,
James Henderson,
John Dils,
Henry Dils,
John Heany,
Francis Langfitt,
Robert Barnes,
George Creel, Jr.,
J. G. Henderson,

Chas. Rockhold,
Jacob Tr umbo,
Jacob Shry,
John James,
Bennett Cook,
Edward Coe,
Elias Barnes,
Elijah Barnes,
Elias Davis,
William Davis,
Elias Hickman,
Martin Bailey,
James Davis,
Shepherd Oonwell,
Edward Gambrill,
Lewis Gregory,
Thomas Fais,
Alexander Henderson,

of Alex'r,
David Owl,
Frederick Cradlebaugh,
Jacob Owl,

Isaac Smalley.

Mrs. Blennerhassett, hearing of the meeting at
Newport, and being informed that a battalion of
three companies, under command of Col. Hugh
Phelps, were then mustering at the Point, intending
to make descent that eve to burn the mansion and
seize the Kiln-dried corn, despatched Peter Taylor
to Kentucky to inform her husband of the danger
which menaced him and his property.

"On his way home he called on Dr. Bennett, of
Mason County, to get more information and pro-

42 BLENNERHASSETT

cure aid in case of attack, and protested the inno-
cence of his designs."

He then wrote as follows:*

WOOD COUNTY, 3 NOV. 1806.
COLONEL PHELPS:

Dear Sir — Just returned home after a journey
of seven hundred miles. I hasten to express to
you the satisfaction with w'hich I learned, on the
road, that you had been invested with the com-
mand of the two volunteer companies that had been
raised in the county during; my absence, as that
circumstance afforded me a sure guarantee against
the idle reports I had heard of any misguided vio-
lence intended by my neighbors, against my family
or property, while I was not on the ground to de-
fend them.

But t'he information my wife has given me of
the purport of the friendly message, (of protection,
Sec.,} you sent me, at a time when you thought it
would be expedient, has laid me under personal ob-
ligations to you, and rendered it a duty with me to
endeavor to revive our former neighborly inter-
course, especially at a season when so much mis-
conception misleads the people, propogated, as I
have no doubt I can satisfy you, by your enemies
and their own, when I shall have the pleasure oi
an hour's unreserved conversation with you, an
which I expect I can make you some proposition
that will engage your attention and be 'serviceable
to your best interests. I therefore embrace the
earliest opportunity of soliciting an interview with
you, and, in consideration of my fatigue, I take the

*Safford's Blennerhassett papers, p. 149.

ISLAND HOME 43

liberty of requesting to see you this evening, and
accept a bed with us, or if that should be incon-
venient to you, I shall do myself the pleasure of at-
tending any appointment you may designate for
tomorrow.

I am, dear sir, your obliged and obedient ser-
vant,

HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT.

REPLY.

NEWPORT, NOV. 6, 1806.
HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT,

Dear Sir: From circumstances of business, it
was out of my power to attend at Ool. Gushing' s
so early as my appointment. A short time after
you left there I went over and found a note re-
questing me to wait upon you this day. I am
sorry that from similar circumstances, I 'Shall not
be able to comply ; but if you should be at home,
I shall do myself the pleasure to wait upon you to-
morrow.

Your Obt. Serv't,

HUGH PHELPS.

Col. Phelps, having visited Blennerhassett ac-
cording to appointment, the latter thanked him for
informing his wife of rumors afloat, and the meas-
ures adopted to meet the designs of himself and
associates. He affected, however, to ridicule re-
ports heard of the injuries threatened his family, and
suggested that he suspected the other party in the
country, under the influence of the Hendersons, was
becoming so strong that its leaders would probably

44 BLENNERHASSETT

overturn the Colonel's interest, on which they had
hitherto depended for whatever popularity they had
acquired, and cautioned the Colonel against any
coalition or co-operation they might seek with him,
in existing clamor or suspicion against the views
or intentions of Aaron Burr, or his friends, which the
past conduct of the Hendersons toward him should
induce him to avoid.

Col. Phel-ps, in reply, complained much of the
ill treatment he had received from the Hendersons.

Blennerhassett stated his concern with Aaron
Bifrr in the land purchase; that he solicited or in-
vited no person to join in the emigration, though
many had voluntarily offered to do so ; but added
that if the Colonel wished a concern for himself or
his friends, he might look to the example of General
Jackson and others of distinction, who, Blennerhas-
s_tt understood were going to join in the settlement
with many associates ; that as to rumors, &c., circu-
lated of Colonel Burr, or his friends, accusing them
of engaging in anything against the laws of the
United States, such were wholly groundless ; but
that it was not unlikely that the proximity of the
purchase to the country where an engagement had
already taken place, or might soon be expected be-
tween General Wilkinson and the Spaniards, would
engage Colonel Burr and his friends in some of the
early adventures of the war ; General Jackson having
already prepared to march with one thousand or

ISLAND HOME 45

fifteen hundred of his Tennessee Militia, whenever
he should think himself authorized by the orders
and wishes of the Government to put that body in
motion.

Colonel Phelps received the information by de-
clining to embark himself, on account of his family
and the unsettled state of his affairs, but said that he
had no doubt many young men of Wood county
would be glad to go with Blennerhassett, to whom
he would recommend the speculation as he might
have opportunities.''

Soon after this episode Burr joined Blennerhas-
sett for a conference as to plans and their execution,
and soon left.

From the vicinity of Newport, at the mouth of
the Little Kanawha, and on both sides of the Ohio,
where the commotion was becoming alarming, and
approval or censure directed upon the movement as
each believed it patriotic and justifiable or other-
wise, reports went to Washington, to Richmond and
to Ohio's Capital at Chillicothe. Based upon these,
perhaps, the President sent a confidential agent,
John Graham, Secretary of Orleans Territory, west
to discover and reveal the situation. Arriving at
Marietta about the middle of November, he met and
interviewed along with others, Blennerhassett, who,
upon being questioned, was impressed that he was
conversing with a confederate and disclosed all he
knew as to Burr's plans. Graham undeceived him,

46

stated the character of such an expedition to be
objectionable and might be a violation of law and
treaties, and endeavored in vain to persuade Blen-
nerhassett to withdraw.

Thence information was sought at Newport and
lielpre, and Graham thereafter went to Chillicothe,
where the Ohio Legislature was in session, and
held interviews with its leaders and the Executive.
Governor Tiffin presented the situation by message.
The Legislature considered the subject with closed
doors, and passed an act to enable the Executive
to suppress or defeat the alleged reprehensible
scheme and expedition. Under this authority the
Militia of the adjacent townships were ordered out
under the command of Major Generall Buell, with
instructions to seize the flotilla built upon the Mus-
kingum, and stores collected at Marietta, and all
boats of suspicious character descending the river.

On the 27th of November, 1806, President Jeff-
erson issued his pronunciamento, alleging "that un-
lawful enterprises were on foot in the Western
States, having for their object a military expedition
against the dominion of Spain, that for this purpose
sundry citizens of the United States were fitting out
and arming vessels in the Western waters, collecting
provisions, arms and military stores, and seducing
honest and well meaning citizens, under various pre-
tenses, to participate in said criminal enterprises,
warning all persons engaged therein to withdraw

ISLAND HOME 47

from the same without delay, as they will answer
the same at their peril and incur prosecution with
all the rigors of the law; and commanding all offi-
cers, civil and military, to use their utmost exer-
tions to bring the offending persons to punishment.
Neither the name of Burr nor accomplices were
mentioned.

On the /th of December Comfort Tyler and
Israel Taylor, from Beaver, Pennsylvania, arrived on
the island with 4 boats and about 32 men, and at
that point all was confusion and expectation.

Blennerhassett addressed and sent by special
envoy the following note to the boat contractor:

Wood County, Dec. 9, 1805.
Col. Barker:

Dear Sir — I have immediate occasion for so
many of the boats as are caulked and paid. I
wish you therefore to forward them by Capt. Elliott
and Mr. Dean to this place without waiting a mo-
ment for their covers, w'hich we intend to finish
ourselves, or on the way with the assistance of Col.
Tyler's men and our own. You will forward, 'how-
ever, such of the materials as are got ready for
completing the coverings, and make out your bill
accordingly. For such of the boats as I cannot
have here by tomorrow morning, Mr. D. Wood-
bridge and myself will make such arrangements as
will be agreeable to you. You perceive I wish you
to drop working on my family boat, which how-
ever I wish you afterwards to get ready in the most
comfortable manner, for my wife and children — of

48 BLENNERHASSETT

whom some of my friends will take charge to fol-
low on with the utmost expedition.
I am, Dear Sir, Yours, &c.,

HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT.
To Col. Barker by Mr. Jas. Dean.

In anticipation of the departure of the flotilla,
he addressed another letter to his friend and coun-
selor, James Wilson, to be presented by his wife sub-
sequently:

December io, 1806

Dear Sir — As circumstances render it improb-
able you can soon hear from me, I request you to
tend the earliest attention to the completing of a
proper inventory of all the effects I leave here, and
also to the recording of the deed I entrusted to
your care, which I think should be accompanied
with an affidavit stating that it was delivered to you
to be recorded the last December court which was
not done for want of a court. I rely upon your
honor and friendship in this and every other par-
ticular relating to much of my interest as you have
professionally taken charge of.

I iliave amicably settled my difference with D.
Woodbridge, just as he will explain to you. My
other business I trust in your care will be lucrative
though not I flatter myself to the extent of better
service I sincerely believe I shall hereafter be able
to render you.

With hearty good washes for your prosperity
and the happiness of your family, I am, dear Wil-
son,

Your sincere friend,

HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT.

ISLAND HOME 49

Of the fifteen boats contracted for on the Mus-
kingum, only eleven were completed, and it was in-
tended to deliver them on the tenth, but the day
before they were seized by a detachment of six or
eight of the militia, with all the provisions stored
at Marietta.

Nearly all the recruits had been attracted to
the enterprise under an impression that its character
was untainted by disloyalty, indeed favored by the
National Government, and that they might have to
fight, only in case of war with Spain, but the activity
of State authorities and the military seizure con-
vinced them of their error, and Blennerhassett found
himself deserted by the substantial portion of those
he had pledged to the expedition, and, doubtless,
but for the ambition, pride and intervention of his
wife, would have also abandoned it. Some of the
younger men were not so ready to desert the cause.
At the fireside of a neighbor in I'elpre, a party
assembled, and decided by strategy and force in the
darkness of the night to liberate the boats then in
custody of the authorities on the Muskirogum. As
they were in the act of untying the boats a sentinel
observed their purpose and sounded the alarm.
Nevertheless, persisting in their efforts, a struggle
ensued without arms, for possession of the boats as
they drifted out toward the center of the stream.
By this time all but one were retaken by the militia,

50 BLENNERHASSETT

and in this captured one the ardent youth returned
down the Ohio to their homes.

The Buell militia are thus facetiously described
by Judge \V. H. Safford in his well written volume.

"A warlike array of undisciplined militia, with
cannon, necessary equipage and arms, stationed
themselves along the banks of the river, to cut off
the forces tpcpected from above. Many amusing
jokes were played off at the expense of the raw re-
cruits during this campaign ; such as setting an
empty tar barrel on fire and placing it in an old boat
or raft of logs, to float by in the darkness of the
night. The sentinels, after duly hailing and re-
ceiving no answer, would fire a shot to enforce their
command ; but still dread silence reigned, and calmly
the phantom vessel, with her solid crew, floated on-
ward and downward, in utter recklessness as if the
crowing of a farmhouse cock only had disturbed the
night's silence. Irritated at such manifest contempt
of their high authority, they plunged into the stream
to seize the boat and capture its luckless naviga-
tors ; when 'confusion utterly confounded,' naught
appeared but the remains of a log or barrel, which
some laughter loving wag had freighted for their
mischance and his amusement.

"On another occasion, they had learned that
Tyler and his men had passed down the river as far
as Blennerhassett's island, from whence he was ex-
pected to return, to recapture the boats and pro-

ISLAND HOME 51

visions. To cut off all possible communication with
Marietta, where the boats were tied, particular in-
structions were given in the evening to bring away
all the water-crafts from the lower side of the Mus-
kingum. Several sailors, who boarded on the oppo-
site shore, considered the opportunity for sport too
favorable to pass unimproved. The plan first pro-
posed for the accomplishment of this end, was to
raise an armed party, with blank cartridges, and
fire at the sentinels. Upon strict search, however,
they found that all the muskets, blunderbusses, rifles
and shotguns had been previously appropriated by
the militia. The cannon was then thought of, when
this, also, it was ascertained, had been called to the
aid of the State authorities. Determined not to be
defeated, in the laugh they had promised themselves,
they resorted to the expedient of emptying a half-
keg of powder into a canvas sack, wrapping it close-
ly with twine. This they deposited under ground,
care being taken to leave a communication with the
contents by means of a priming-hole and slow
.natch. At midnight, when all, save the faithfu\
and lonely sentinels, were enjoying that repose so
necessary to the wearied soldier, after a destructive
attack

"On whiskey and peach-'brandy,"

a confused and foreboding sound, from the opposite
shore, grated unmusically on the car of the guards.
Although appearances were somewhat ominous, yet

52 BLENNERHASSETT

they concluded not to disturb the slumber of their
brothers in arms until a more satisfactory demon-
stration had been made. For this opportunity they
were not kept long in suspense. Suddenly the earth
began to heave and throe, as if drunk with the heel-
taps of the soldiers' glasses, and following in quick
succession, a report that many mistook for the sum-
moning trump of the end of time. The scene which
succeeded is more easily imagined than described.
Those less confused, did indeed, take time to adjust
their ontsi'de garments, but much the greater num-
ber started with nothing but their nether vestments,
wihout regard to uniform or military parade. Here
stood one, vainly struggling to thrust his feet
through the armholes aVid sleeves of his linsey
warmus,'. while, at his side a companion had drawn
his pants over his shoulders, illustrating most lu-
dicrously, but literally, the lines of doggerel :

"Put on his shirt outside his coat,
And tied his breeches round his throat."

"Shivering in the cold winds of December, they
'hurried in hot haste to the tanta-ran-ta of the
trumpeter, and rub-a-dub-dub of the drum major
general. Whether any had taken the precaution to
load or prime is a question which time and reflec-
tion have never settled. The major, who was a
tailor, is said to have charged the cannon with his
goose — the State having made no provision for
ammunition. The deputy, as he mounted his horse,

ISLAND HOME 53

was heard to say that, As great men were scarce, he
thought it best to flee from danger.' Had Tyler and
his men been the real cause of their alarm, he would
have doubtless met with a stern resistance, but.
fortunately for him, lie was unconsciously asleep on
the island."

Soon after the mooring of Tyler's boats at the
island landing, the Wood county militia were being
assembled 'to carry out the President's proclamatory
orders and avert the expedition. The island party
had information that the companies from Newport
'••ore to descend on them on the morrow. So in
haste they prepared to depart that night. All was
activity, and every recruit was in motion to run
bullets, load the boats, and gather the still adhering
ones. It was a chill night in fierce December, and
the snow had fallen several inches deep.

* Pearly Howe, who had been employed to make
forty boat poles for the flotilla, on the evening of
the loth of December, went to deliver them on the
1 V io side landing. On signaling over, a flat wa
sent to receive them. On the boat, two young men,
recruits, were acting as sentinels, each armed with a
rifle. No persons, unless known, were allowed to
pass from the Ohio shore to the island. One of the
guards laid down his rifle in the bow, while the other
sat. wi'h his gun across his thighs, ready for action.

Simon Pool, about dusk, under the authority of

•Evidence as witness on the trial.

54 BLENNERHASSETT

the Ohio Governor, went to 'the water's edge, his
utmost limit of jurisdiction, opposite the island land-
ing, hoping to find a chance to apprehend Blenner-
hassett on Ohio soil, but was not permitted to pass
beyond the sands of his State.

There wias a regular pass words for crossing
the channel. Some one of the island would ask to
the hailing boat, "What boat?" If the answer was
"Ise boat," the craft was unfastened and sent over.
A watchword was also used on the Ohio side.

With forty or more men in four boats and a
smaller one added by Blennerhassett, and a liberal
stock of provisions, five rifles, three pair of pistols,
one blunderbus, and all the outfit they had secured,
Blennerhassett and his assistant directors lifted
moorings and passed out upon the stream into the
night.

The island was left almost in loneliness, with
Mrs. Blennerhassett and her two sons, Dominick
and Harman, Jr., and a few servants ; who were all
to follow in a few days in the special boat yet on
the Muskingum.

With the dawn of 'the morrow the Wood county
militia were astir, and in a few hours appeared at
the deserted isle, with Hugh Phelps, their stalwart
Colonel, in command of the two companies. Too
late ; the anticipated game had flown. Leaving a
small party of men in charge of the premises, the
commander, with the remainder of his volunteers,

ISLAND HOME

promptly marched down on the Virginia shore,
across the great bend, to intercept the fugitives at
Point Pelasant. The direct distance by land being
less than one-half that by water, the military arrived
at Kanawha's mouth many hours before the boats.
Colonel Phelps stationed his men on the bank of the
Ohio with strict injunctions to watch all night. The
air was raw, the surroundings uncomfortable ; the
villagers sociable and providing, the whiskey flask
was frequently circulated, overcoming tired limbs,
and thoughts of duty and discipline, the watchers get
ingloriously drunk and soundly slept, the Tyler flo-
tilla in the night's obscurity, glided by and pursued
its way unhailed and unmolested, and by day-dawn
was too far on its course to be overtaken. In similar
way it passed toward its destination, uniting at the
Falls, on the i6th. with Floyd's boats, and ten days
later joined lUirr at the mouth of the Cumberland,
and on the 29th passed Fort Massae, notwithstand-
ing orders had. been given by State Governors for
its arrest.

At the island, before the arrival of the militia,
Mrs. P)lennerhassett had mounted her charger,
Robin, and was on her way to obtain the family
boat at Marietta and follow the expedition. In this
she failed and on her return home found a deplor-
able condition existing.

Several days previous to the flotilla's departure
from the island, a party of fourteen young men, late

BLENNERHA.SSETT

students fresh from academy, with Morgan Neville
and William Robinson, Jr., sons of influential and
rich parents, widely and favorably known, adven-
turous and hoping to join the expedition to the
.Spanish dominions, embarked in a flat boat at Pitts-
burg for the purpose. When nearly opposite the
mouth of the Little Kanawha, their boat was, dur-
ing the night, driven ashore by the wind and ice, and
the next day they were all arrested by the militia
forces are Newport, and in their own craft escorted
to the island to await the return and pleasure of
Colonel Phelps, then still absent at Point Pleasant.
The young men, restless under their captivity and
disappointment in not connecting with the Blenner-
hassett flotilla, in their humor and chagrin, nduculed
their captors in homespun, and threatened legal re-
taliation for their arrest and detention. Such im-
pertinence became unbearable to the guards, and
Justices of the Peace were sent for to Newport.
Reece Wolfe and Daniel Kincheloe responded, and
in one of the richly furnished apartments of the is-
land mansion the trial was conducted. The young
men, with ability and humorous adroitness, pleaded
their own cause, and nothing of a positive or un-
patriotic character being produced, they were re-
leased.

During this rather comical examination, and the
absence of the Colonel, who was a soldier and a

ISLAND HOME 57

gentleman, a spirit of license and devastation took
possession of the militiamen left in charge.

*" First of all, the men broke into the wine
cellar, and there drank themselves into vandals.
Then they ranged the house, destroying or disfigur-
ing wherever they went ; firing rifle balls through
painted ceilings, tearing down costly drapery, and
dashing to pieces mirrors and vases. Then they
rushed, like so many savages, about the grounds,
destroying the shrubbery and breaking down trellis-
es and arbors. The ornamental fences were torn
away, piecemeal to make fires for the sentinels at
night. In the midst of this riot and destruction
Mrs. Blennerhassett returned ; but the embarrass-
ments of her situation, and her anxiety for the suc-
cess of the expedition were such that she surveyed
the ruins of her abode with indifference."

In this dilemma the young men who had been
recently relieved of captivity, prepared to continue
their journey, and, with sincere sympathy and cour-
tesy, offered her and her helpless children an apart-
ment in their boat.

At this juncture the Colonel arrived from his
tour of fruitless attempt to check the flotilla. He
witnessed with inward mortification and anger, the
wanton destruction of the premises, and the evi-
dences of revelry and ruin by his men, during his
compulsory absence, and turning upon them, with

*Parton's Life of Aaron Burr, pa?e 437.

5S

withering look and stern voice, he exclaimed, *
"Shame ! Shame ! Shame on such conduct ! You have
disgraced your district and the cause in which you
are concerned."

Courteously then and kindly he met the released
strangers, acceded to their wishes and that of their
invited guest for the voyage, aided her in prepara-
tion for departure, and expressed to Mrs. Blenner-
hassett sorrow for the rudeness shown so recently,
assured her of what she already knew, that were he
present the vandalism would not have happened.

Next morning, I7th of December, with the
assistance of the Colonel, as well as the young men,
needed furniture, part of the library, trunks and pro-
visions were put aboard another boat, that of A. W.
Putman of Belpre — who also assisted in departure —
lashed alongside, sadly, with shattered dreams, the
Blennerhassetts, wife and boys, bade adieu to a once
blissful abode, and the boats sped on their way.

Early in January the family was reunited at
Bayou Pierre on the Mississippi.

Neither the purpose of our local history or
afloted space in the volume, will permit a detail of
events in the unhappy destiny or subsequent lives of
the alleged conspirators.

Briefly, the expedition was a failure ; arrests
followed the leaders, and both Brur and Blenner-
hassett were indicted at Richmond, Virginia, in the

"Judge Stafford's Blennerhassett Papers.

ISLAND HOME 59

U. S. Circuit Court before Chief Justice Marshall,
each on two charges, one for treason, the other for
misdemeanor.

Burr was arrested on the Tombigbee river, in
Washington county, Alabama, conducted to Fort
Stoddart, was a prisoner there three weeks, and
then, on horseback with guard of 9 men, under com-
mand of Perkins, started to Washington City. On
the way President Jefferson dispatched at Freder-
icksburg a conveyance to Richmond, Va. Blenner-
hassett was arrested, tried and acquitted at Natchez
by the Territorial authorities, who censured, as did
the sympathizing people, Jefferson and the Admin-
istration, for their fear and misconception.

''"After this discharge from custody he located
his family at Natchez, Mississippi, and in June fol-
lowing left that place on horse, to return to his is-
land, and look after his affairs. When he reached
Lexington, Ky., he was arrested for treason, and
under guard conveyed to Richmond. Others of
Burr's confederates who had means returned to the
Eastern States, and forgot their dream of glory in
the pursuit of civil life. Others remained in the
Territory, supplying it with school teachers, music
teachers, and dancing masters. These events, nar-
rated in the papers of the day, drew the attention of
thousands to the Western States from the east as
emigrants."

60 BLENNERHASSETT

"So great effect had this alleged Burr conspir-
acy upon the L*. S. that in 1818 it carried the Na-
tional Road over the Alleghany barriers to bridge a
possible chasm to sever the Mississippi from the
I'nion. Hence to meet this rival line, Virginia, 27
Feb. 1827, gave authority to construct a road from
Winchester over the mountains to the Ohio river."**

So exceedingly bitter had become public opinion
and so suspicious the multitude toward all who had
not displayed animosity in conduct and speech
against the expeditionist, that even friendly counsel
was attacked and motives misconstrued. The Vir-
ginia Gazette, copying from the Aurora, declared :

"\Ye are authorized to state from unquestion-
able authority that James Wilson, who was Secre-
tary of the Wood County meeting last Fall, has been
arrested as one of Burr's adherents, was examined
before the magistrates, and found guilty."

Such statement was an error in fact. Warrant
was issued, but by orders from Richmond, with-
drawn. The attempt, however, thus to reflect upon
the patriotism of a sensitive nature, so wrought upon
the accused that he eventually migrated from the
county, and settled in the Great Kanawha Valley.

Blennerhassett, learning of this episode, in 'his
Port Gibson retreat, on the 25th of March, 1807,
mailed the following letter, which was received in

ISLAND HOME 61

the slow process of postal transportation, on nth
of June.

Natchez, March 11, 1807.

My Dear Sir — I hear first by Mrs. Blenner-
hassett of the embarrassment you underwent fr.
the sagacity of yr. patriotic neighbors, who charg-
ed you with a participation in my crimes. What-
ever inconvenience you have suffered on that ac-
count, my imagination 'has not failed to magnify, in
proportion, as my best services will never be want-
ing in my endeavors to indemnify you for it.

Some particulars from you on this subject fr.
you I feel much interest and anxiety to learn. I
will now forbear to engage you further in this line,
than to beg of you to refer my present sentiments
to some future works that may verify their sin-
cerity.

AIS you are probably curious to know some-
thing of my destiny and future prospects — I can
inform you of the first, that the issue of my trial
fixed here for May next, will constitute a small
portion of the sand or mortar with which the mon-
ument now rising to the glory of Mr. Jefferson or
the Constitution i-s to be cemented. Mr. Graham
is to be the master-mason on that part of the work
to be raised in this part of the country ; with what
address he will handle his tools is yet uncertain.
Only amidst the jar of convictions and acquittals
that will reach your ears, yon will distinguish with
your usual discernment the traverses of those lines
of liberty and slavery of private h'Miors and public
duty that characterixe the high minded administra-
tion of this free country and its happy constitution.

As for Col. IHirr — he mav sink or raise above

62 B L E N N E R H A S S E T T

liis enemies, but he has forfeited no recognizance
in spite of all the proclamations that can be issued
by Government or Governors. I am almost tempt-
ed to inclose you Gen. \Yilliams advertisement of
his horse Diomede.

My future prospects embrace' the occupation of
a Cotton Planter, as the surest and easiest means
of retrieving my shattered resources. Not that I
have been mistaken in my belief that the practice of
the law, would succeed well, but I have feared that
to insure success some practice in intrigues must
be united with a knowledge of law. As to your-
self, therefore, if you could stoop somewhat to the
former, as I know you are gifted in the latter, I
should not hesitate to say to you, move im'nie-
diately hither. You will be independent in 3 years;
wealthy in 6. Think of this. You shall hear fur-
ther from me more particularly as to the field here
and in N. Orleans, when the weather is fairer and
I can better advise you of the harvest you might
make there, than at present.

My situation here, as it precludes at present
the means of my returning to the Island to collect
the property there, so it will probably determine
me ultimately against residing there again. I am
now embarassed by the want of my negroes,
horses and household furniture which I have en-
treated Col. Gushing to forward to me in the best
ma inner he can, with a statement of the amount
of sales he has effected. In this I request you to
assist him, and inform me of the general <state of
all the business I left in your care, with every other
concern of mine I am sure you will not disregard,
because it was unnoticed to you. I particularly
hope you have adjusted my account with Capt.

ISLAND HOME 63

Thomas Xeale, &c, &c. I am persuaded you have
not omitted to concern yourself with Col. Gush-
ing, of the amount or value of the salable property
you know I intended for sale. It is of importance
to note everything down as soon as possible, and
every article kept dry, and the horses, &c, that you
could induce any purchaser to buy the rest — be
gladly received here together with all the cash that
can be forwarded. I write also to Doctor Wallace
and Capt. Neale by the opportunity of Miss. Boat
and Dana returning to Belpre, to whom I refer you
for further news, &c. I have to request you to
assist Mr. Biggs to collect and bring along any of
my effects he may take up at the Island on his way
to this place.

Mrs. B. retains with me the most friendly re-
gards for Mrs. Wilson and yourself. I entreat you
to write to me as soon and after as you can, and
remember you can always command, dear Wilson,
the last services of

Your devoted friend,
HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT.

THE TRIAL AT RICHMOND

~*v HIS celebrated case was docketed for a
to ke§"m 3ot^ °f ^arcn> J8o7, but

if, numerous delays ensued. It was in the

United States Court for the Fifth Cir-

cuit of the Virginia District, presided over by the
distinguished Chief Justice John Marshall, with
Cyrus Griffin as associate.

The Grand Jury for which twenty-four free-
holders were summoned and sixteen constituted,
on the 24th of June brought in indictments against
both Burr and Blennerhassett, and one against each
for "treason," and another for a "misdemeanor,"
levying war against the United States, at Blenner-
hassett Island, time D'ecember 10, 1806.

John Randolph, Foreman, presented on in-
formation of Peter Taylor, William Eaton, John G.
Henderson, Jacob Allbright, D. Woodbridge, Jr.,
Edmund B. Dana, Alexander Henderson, Hugh
Phelps, and others. General Andrew Jackson was
also a witness.

Next day presentments were made against
Jonathan Dayton, Ex-Senator from New York;
Comfort Tyler and Israel Smith of same state ;
John Smith, Ex-Senator from Ohio; and David

ISLAND HOME 65

Floyd of the Indian Territory, naming the place as
Blennerhassett Island, and the time as December 13,
1806.

On June 26 forty-eight jurors, twelve at least
to be from Wood county, were ordered to be sum-
moned. That day the prisoner, Burr, was removed
from the goal to the front room of the house of
Luther Martin, used for a dining room. To secure
it, shutters writh bars, and the door with bar and
padlock were provided, and seven men as guards
on the floor of an adjoining unfinished house.

The jurors from Wood appeared, and were :
Hezekiah Bukey, Jacob Beeson, William Prince,
James G. Laidley, James Henderson, Nimrod
Saunders, James Compton, Thomas Creel, Anthony
Buckner, Hamilton Morrison, Yates S. Conwell
and David Creel.

Among numerous witnesses for the prosecu-
tion over a broad territory, were: Hugh Allen,
Simeon Poole, Edward B. Dana, Lewis Kerr, Jacob
Jackson, John Blair, Alexander Rollston, Alexander
Henderson, John G. Henderson, Hugh Phelps, Re-
turn J. Meig, Tunis Dils, Maurice P. Bellnap,
Charles Duval, James Taylor, Bennett Cook, and
Hezekiah Lewis, Peter Taylor, gardener, Jacob
Allbright laborer, Dudley Woodbridge, Jr., John
Dana, Morgan Neville, Waldo Putnam and William
Love, groom.

Of all summoned as petit jurors, from Wood

66 BLENNERHASSETT

county, not one was admitted to the panel, each one
having so expressed his views of the case as to be
barred out.

In court Burr appeared with scrupously neat
attire, in black, with powdered hair and queue, in
manner dignified, composed, polite, impressive, and
hopeful, never under any provocation losing his
temper, nor giving -personal retort. He guided his
assistant counsel, brought forward nearly every
motion on his own side, and clearly and briefly
stated the grounds therefor. Blennerhassett was
as neatly and carefully attired, but less buoyant in
spirits, and only could await the result of the trial
of his principal's case.

The assisting counsel were : Edmund Ran-
dolph, an old-school gentlemen ; John Wickham, an
Englishman of bearing, eloquence and logic, of fine
presence and persuasive manner ; Luther Martin,
one of the most noted lawyers of Maryland; Ben-
jamin Botts, father of John Minor, young, ready,
dashy, and a caricaturist in word painting; Charles
Lee, once United States Attorney General ; and
unique "Jack Baker," a lame man, a merry fellow,
with horse wit, but no lawyer or speaker, the hu-
morist of the group. All these counsellors tender-
ed their services gratitously to Colonel Burr ;
Wickham and Botts did likewise to Blennerhassett.

In selecting a panel the record states, beginn-
ing with the first, Hezikiah Bukey:

ISLAND HOME 67

Botts. We challenge you for cause. Have
you ever formed an opinion about the guilt of Col.
Burr?

Bukey. I have not sir, since I have been sub-
poenaed.

Ques. Had you before?

Ans. I had formed one before in my own
mind.

Here Hay, the prosecutor, stated, he did not
believe there was a single man in the State, qualified
to become a juryman, who had not in some form or
other made up and declared an opinion on the con-
duct of the prisoner.

Botts. Have you said Col. Burr was guilty
of treason?

Bukey. No. I only declared that the man who
acted as Col. Burr was said to have done, de-
served to be hung.

Ques. Did you believe that Col. Burr was that
man ?

Ans. I did, from what I had heard.

Wirt. Did I understand you to say that you
concluded upon certain rumors that you had heard,
that Col. Burr deserved to be hung?

Bukey. I did.

Ques. Did you believe these rumors?

Ans. I did.

Ques. Would you, if you were a juryman,
form your opinion upon the question whether an

68

overt act of treason had been committed at Blen-
nerhassett Island, from the rumors heard?

• Ans. It was upon other rumors, and not upon
that, that I had formed an opinion,

Martin submitted it to the court, whether ho
could be considered an impartial juryman.

The court decided that he ought not to be so
considered, and he was accordingly rejected.

James G. Laidley stated that he had formed
and expressed some opinions unfavorable to Colo-
nel 'Burr, that he could not pretend to decide upon
the charges in the indictment, which he had not
heard; that he had principally taken his own opin-
ion from newspaper statements; and that he had
not, so far as he recollected, expressed an opinion
that Colonel Burr deserved hanging, but that his
impression was that he was guilty. He was there-
fore rejected.

James Compton being challenged for cause and
sworn, stated that he had formed and expressed an
opinion from hearsay, that Colonel Burr was guilty
of treason, and of that particular treason of which
he stood charged, as far as he understood. He
was rejected.

Mr. Burr observed that as gentlemen on the
part of the prosecution had expressed a willingness
to have an impartial jury, they could not refuse
that any juryman should state all his objections to
IrmseH; and that he had no doubt, in spite of the

ISLAND HOME 69

contrary assertions which had been made, that they
couKl get a jury from the panel.

Hamilton Morrison, upon being called, said
that he had frequently thought and declared that
Colonel Burr was guilty, if the statements which
he had heard were true ; that he did not know
whether they were so, but only thought from the
great clamor which had been made that it might be
possible that he had not passed any positive opin-
ion ; nor was he certain that he had always qualified
it by saying: "If these things were true;" that he
does not recollect to have said, that Colonel Burr
ought to be punished, without stating at the same
time, "If he were guilty." Mr. Morrison was sus-
pended for further examination.

Yates S. Conwell had formed and expressed
an opinion, from the reports he had heard, that
Colonel Burr must be guilty of high treason. He
was accordingly set aside.

Jacob Beeson declared that he had for some
time past formed an opinion, as well from news-
paper publication as from boats which had been
built on the Ohio, that Colonel Burr was guilty;
and that he himself had borne arms to suppress
this insurrection. He was therefore set aside as
incompetent.

William Prince declared he had nearly the
same impression as Mr. Beeson ; that he, too, had
borne arms: as well on Blennerhassett's Island as

70

on descending the river in search of Blennerhassett.
He was set aside in like manner.

Nimrod Saunders declared, that he had ex-
pressed an opinion previously to his being sum-
moned on the jury, that the prisoner had been
guilty of treason. He was therefore set aside as
incompetent.

Thomas Creel had no declaration to make,
and was challenged for cause. Upon being inter-
rogated, he stated that he had never asserted that
the prisoner ought to 'be punished ; that he had
said, that he was a sensible man ; and if there was
any hole left, he would creep out of it ; that he
had conceived that Colonel Burr had seduced Blen-
nerhassett into some acts that were not right; that
he had never positively said that Colonel Burr was
guilty; that he had said that Blennerhassett was
the most blamable, because he was in good circum-
stances, and well off in life ; whereas Colonel Burr's
situation was desperate, and that he had little to
lose ; that he had not said, that Colonel Burr di-
rectly misled Mr. Blennerhassett, but through the
medium of Mrs. Blennerhassett ; in short, that there
was no determinate impression on his mind re-
specting the guilt of the prisoner.

The Chief Justice did not think that this was
sufficient to set him aside, and suspended his case
for further examination.

Anthony Buckner had frequently said that the

ISLAND HOME 71

' prisoner deserved to be hung. He was therefore
set aside.*

David Creel had formed an opinion from the
statement in the newspapers, and if these were
true, the prisoner was certainly guilty. He had
expressed a belief that he was guilty of the charges
now brought against him, and that he ought to be
hanged. He was therefore rejected.

Subsequently, nth of August, James Hender-
son, of Wood County, who was absent yesterday,
was called. He was challenged for cause. On
being examined by Mr. Botts, he admitted that he

"The pamphlet, "Biography of the Buckner Family" gives
this fuller version of the examination of Col. Anthony
Buckner.

"He had 'been as most of his comrades upon the same
occasion, and his associates near the island-tome of the
Irish Barrister, who was also accused, open in his denun-
ciation of Conspirator Burr, and indignant at the stuptid
acquiescence and aid given by his friend Blenraerhassett.
Upon being interrogated in court as to any expression of
guilt or innocence in the pending case, replied that, "He
had frequently declared the opinion that any man who did
as it was said the prisoner had acted, should be hung."

He was further asked: "Did you not say you would giive
five pounds for Colonel Burr's head? Looking keenly at the
prisoner, he replied, "Yes, by G — d, and I'll do it yet."

The silence for a moment was paimful. You mlight have
heard a pin drop. As he poured out these emphatic but
not very elegant or courteous iwords1, his piercing black
hours moulding bullets for the volunteer militia."
eyes, that seem to look through one, flashed Ire upon the
marbleized face of the distinguished defendant, 'but no or-
der of contempt was therefor .issued against him.

He and his son-in-law, George Creel, Jr., had the night
before going to the island, sat up during all its December
hours moulding bullets for the volunteer militia.

72 BLENNERHASSETT

was not a freeholder; and was subsequently set
aside.

Mr. Hamilton Harris was the next of the sus-
pended jurymen who was called. He declared
that it was with pain he should serve on the jury;
that he did not wish to serve on it; that it was still
more disagreeable to him, as the defendant seemed
to have such imaginary thoughts against him ;
that he had not meddled with the prisoner's tran-
sactions, though perhaps he might have done so,
had it been profitable to him. James Henderson
and Mr. Neale were 'both examined as to what they
might have heard him say on the subject, and both
declared that they had heard him say nothing ma-
terial.

Mr. Burr — Hlave not these rumors excited a
prejudice in your mind against me?

Ans. I have no prejudice for or against you.

Mr. Botts. Are you a freeholder?

Ans. I have two patents of land.

Ques. Are you worth three hundred dollars?

Ans. Yes ; I have a horse here that is worth
the half of it.

Ques. Have you another at home to make up
the other half?

Ans. Yes; four of them. (Here the court
said that sufficient cause had not been shown
against his being a proper juror.) I am surprised
why they should be in so much terror of me. Per-

ISLAND HOME 73

haps my name may be a terror, for my first name
is Hamilton.

Colonel Burr then observed that that remark
was a sufficient cause for objecting to him, and
challenged him. Mr. Morrison was therefore set
aside.

This was the first peremptory challenge which
the prisoner made, of the thirty-five to which the
law entitles him.

Thomas Creel, another of the suspended jury-
men from Wood county, was next set aside by the
court, because, he said, that he had both formed
and expressed sentiments unfavorable to the pris-
oner.

None from the county of Wood but had so ex-
pressed opinions as to afford cause for rejection,
so the jury had to be made up entirely from citi-
zens distant from the place of alleged treason.

THE WITNESSES.

The official reports of the trial and other
sources available this century after the event; do
not furnish interesting incidents of narration of any
value. They seem to indicate that the evidence of
a conspiracy was not abundant in the locality of
the island.

In substance, Peter Taylor, the gardener, said,
that he had been with Blennerhassett three years ;
in October, 1806, his employer had inquired for
young men who had rifles, were orderly, and could

74 BLENNERHASSETT

conform to discipline ; that in this inquiry he stated
that Colonel Burr had 80,000 acres of land in the
southwest, and wanted young men to settle upon
it ; that he would give any such one who would go
down the river, plenty of grog and victuals while
going down the stream, and three months provis-
ions after they had got to the end ; and that every
one enlisting must have his own rifle and blanket
to bring with him.

Jacob Allbright, a Dutchman laborer, said that
he was hired to build a kiln for drying corn on the
island ; after the grain was dried it was sent to
mill ; that he was four weeks on the island in that
business ; that the snow was two or three inches
deep when the Beaver boats landed at the pier;
that Blennerhassett paid off in Kentucky notes,
'not very good to circulate; that he went over to
the bank at Kanawha to change them ; that he saw
one or more moulding bullets in the kitchen ; that
he assisted in carrying to the boats four or five
trunks on the night of the departure.

William Love, the groom of Blennerhassett,
alleged that it was a very cold night the hour the
boats left the island, raining and freezing; that
Blennerhassett's clothes were put into the boat he
was to occupy ; that Dudley Woodbridge slept on
the island that night.

It was also shown that the boats left the shore
Wednesday night of the I3th of December ; that

ISLAND HOME 75

there were only four of them, and about thirty men
therein ; that on the island when preparing to em-
bark, some packed meat on board and some carried
other things ; that they untied about one o'clock at
night ; that there was one sick one left on the island.
That Nahm Bennett was sent before day to pass
Gallipolis, with two horses, to connect with the
flotilla; that Burr had been on the island not later
than six weeks before the boats left shore; that
depositions for the trial were taken before John G.
Jackson ; that the party had left at that hour in the
night because the Kanawha militia were expected
down very early next morning; that a half bushel of
candles and some brandy were taken into the boats ;
that the party held a council at the foot of the pier,
and all left together ; that they only intended to
defend in case of attack by the expected mob, was
the drift of declarations heard.

During the examination of witnesses, as well
as in arguments thereon and thereafter, the eminent
counsel on both sides displayed enthusiasm, legal
learning, tact and forensic and poetic oratory. The
press as well as the bar were impressed with the
importance of the issues involved, and the attention
of the people, from ocean to ocean and river border
to southern gulf, was thoroughly engrossed. It
was the only topic each day near the scene of the
initial acts of the alleged conspiracy. In Wood
county it was looked upon from both political and

personal standpoints. • By some, Jefferson, the
President, was blamed as being too ardent, sus-
picious and partisanly vindictive without occasion,
and by others his course was not only justified but
commended, and the object of the attempted en-
terprise believed to have been unpatriotic and dan-
gerous to civic liberty. Blennerhassett, however,
with few exceptions, was considered deceived as to
the nature and end of the expedition, and the sym-
pathies of his admirers and neighbors went out
strongly towards him in his financial and legal
embarrassment and the serious accusations against
him. Even Burr had among many west of the Al-
leghenies sincere devotees, and numerous sons ol
unrelated families near the close of that era bear
his name as their own distinctive appellation.

Late in September Burr was discharged on the
main indictment in the United States Court, and
the one for treason against Blennerhassett, though
a bond of $5,000 was given, with Dudley Wood-
bridge as security, was never prosecuted.

Judge Marshall ended the "misdemeanor" trial
by stating:

"I shall commit Burr and Blennerhassett for
preparing and providing means for a military ex-
pedition against the territories of a foreign prince
with whom the United States is at peace. If those
whose province and duty it is to prosecute offend-
ers again-st the United States shall not be of opinion
that a crime of deeper dye has been committed, it

ISLAND HOME 77

is at t'heir choice to act in conformity with that
opinion.

"If Burr is sent to Kentucky, Blennerhassett
cannot be, because he has provided no means for
an expedition but in the District of Qhio."

They were ordered committed to Ohio, and
admitted to bail in the sum of $3,000 each; Luther
Martin and Dr. Cummings became sureties for
Burr, and Dr. Cummings and Israel Smith for
Blennerhassett.

Both were in custody for long months, and as
the act was one, the grade of leadership and guilt
different but interlaced, the acquittal of Burr end-
ed the prosecution, and virtually set both expedi-
tionists free again, but left them wrecked in for-
tune and influence, and the ardor of their energies
and ambition dampened.

DESOLATION and ENDING

uf /Y'Y
4J [

4^ ITHIN one year from leaving the island,
^ Blennerhassett returned to find it deso-
^ " " M late» his property seized for debt, many
j^S^_ articles, among which was Robin a fav-
orite horse, stolen, 'slaves sold or escaped, and house
gutted of its contents. The prospect was in no wise
encouraging, and it is not to be wondered that his
naturally timid heart almost failed him.

The boats fitted up on the Muskingum had
been modified for transports to carry United States
troops from Marietta to St. Louis. Under orders
of the President, the meal and one hundred barrels
of pork stored for the expedition, had been sold and
the funds appropriated. Ransom Read, the best
slave, for a debt* of thirty-five dollars and costs, had
been cried off at a public sale.

Negligence of tenants, river freshets, and the
rudeness of those in charge who viewed it as public
property, had rendered the building and surround-
ings pitiable to behold. Window casings had been
torn out to procure the leaden weights by which
the sashes were poised. The stone roller used to
leven his lawn and grounds, was broken to obtain
the iron axles on which it ran. Hemp and cordage

ISLAND HOME 79

machinery took the place of flowers and shrubbery.

He sadly looked upon the ruins of his once
bright home, and returned to Natchez, purchased a
plantation of '1000 acres, at St. Catherine, near Port
Gibson, Claiborne county, Mississippi, on it placed
twenty-two slaves, and there, upon about two hun-
dred acres of it, began the culture of cotton. The
war with Great Britain, in 1812-15, occasioned an
embargo and reduction in values, and the enterprise
was abandoned. He sold the plant for $27,000
which scarcely satisfied his creditors.

The Blennerhassetts spent ten years on their
cotton plantation, enjoying the society of a few
choice friends. Harman, however, seemed to have
dropped hope and muscular energy. During this
period another son and a daughter were added to
the home circle. Lady Margaret, with her char-
acteristic industry rose at early down, mounted Her
horse, and rode over the grounds, examining each
field, and giving directions to the overseer as to
the work to be done that clay, or any alteration to
be made in the plans, which circumstances required.

He removed to New York, and attempted the
practice of law. Not succeeding, he went to Can-
ada in 1819, and there also failed in his purposes.
Then he visited Ireland, his native heath, to prose-
cute a reversionary claim, but was barred by statute
of limitations. During this absence of her hus-
band, Mrs. Blennerhassett found a home in New

80 BLEXNERHASSETT

York, and was financially assisted by the Emmetts.
She went then to Pennsylvania, where at Wilks-
barre, her sister, Mrs. Dow, resided. She next join-
ed her husband in Montreal, and while there, in
1824, wrote for publication a volume entitled,
"Widow of the Rock and Other Poems." Among
the productions of her pen while in Canada was the
pathetic one named:

THE DESERTED ISLE.

Likt mournful echo, from the silent tonub,

That pines away upon the midnight air,

Whilst the pale moon breaks out, with fitful gloom;

Fond memory turns' with sad, but welcome care,

To scenes of desolation and despair;

Once bright with all that beauty could bestow,

That peace could shed, or youthful fancy know.

To the fair isle, reverts the pleasing dream;
Again thou risest, in thy green attire,
Fresh, as at first; thy blooming graces seem: —
Thy groves, thy fields, their wonted sweets respire;
Again thou'rt all my heart could e'er desire.
Oh! Why, dear isle, are thou not still my own?
Thy charms could then for all my griefs atone.

The stranger that descends Ohio's stream,
Oharmed with the beauteous prospects that arise,
Marks the soft isles that, 'neath the glittering beam,
Dance with the wave and mingle with the skies;
Sees, also, one that now in ruin lies,
WMch erst, like fairy queen, towered o'er the rest,
In every native chanin, by culture dressed.

There rose the seat, where once, in pride of life,
My eye could mark the queenly river's flow,
In summer's calmness, or in winter's strife,
(Swollen with rains, or battling with the snow.
Never, again, my heart such joy shall know.

ISLAND HOME 81

Havoc and ruin, rampant war, have passed
Over that isle, with their destroying blast.

The black'ning fire has swept throughout her halls,

The winds fly whistling o'er tihem, and the wave

No more, in spring floods, o'er the sand beach crawls,

But furious drowns in one o'erwhelming grave,

Thy hallow'd haunts it watered as a slave.

Drive on, destructive flood! and ne'er again,

On that devoted isle let man remaiin.

Too many bliss'ful moments there I've known;
Too many hopes have there met their decay;
Too many feelings now forever gone,
To wish that thou could'st e'er again display
The joyful coloring of thy .prime array:
Buried with thee, let them remain a blot,
With thee, their sweets, their (bitterness forgot.

And, oh! that I could wholly wipe .away

The memory of the ills that worked thy fall;

The memory of that all-eventful day,

W'hen I returned, and found my own fair hall

Held by the infuriate populace in thrall;

My own fireside blockaded by a band

That once found food and shelter of my hand.

My children (oh! a mother's pangs forbear;
Nor strike again that arrow to my soul;)
Clasping the ruffians in suppliiant prayer;
To free their mother from unjust control,
While with false crimes and imprecation® foul,
The wretched, vilest refuse of the earth,
Mock jurisdiction held around my hearth.

Sweet is>le! methinks I see thy bosom torn;

Agaiin behold the ruthless ra'bble throng,

That wrought destruction taste must ever mourn.

Alas1! I see thee now — shall .see thee long;

But ne'er shall bitter feelings urge the wrong,

That to a mob, would give the censure, due

To those that arm'd the plunder-greedy crew.

82 BLENNERHASSETT

Thy shores are warmed by bounteous suns in vain,

Columbia! — if spite and envy spring,

To blot the beauty of mild nature's reign:

The European stranger, who would fling,

O'er tangled -woods, refinement's polis'Mng,

May find, expended every .plan of taste,

His works by ruffians rendered dO'Ubly waste.

After a brief stay the family embarked for
Bath, England, to reside with his maiden sister at
Cottage Crescent. Thence for health they went to
St. Aubin, on the Isle of Jersey, to be with his
sister Avis. Thence they removed to Port Prerie,
upon the Island of Guernsey, where February I,
1831, on the bosom of his devoted Margaret, whom
thirty-four years before he had married, he passed
away, within requiem murmur of the never ceasing
waves.

In 1842 his widow visited the United States to
seek relief from the government, which had prose-
cuted relentlessly and almost inexcusably despoiled.
She asked damages for acts of the Virginia militia,
in a statement made out by Dudley & Woodbridge,
who well could estimate its extent.

She also petitioned for relief sought in the fol-
lowing words :

"Your memoralist does not desire to exagger-
at the conduct of the said armed men, or the injur-
ies done by them ; but she can truly say, that be-
fore their visit, the residence of her famiily had
been noted for its elegance and high state of im-
provement, and that they left it in a state of com-

ISLAND HOME 83

parative ruin and waste ; and as instance of the
mischievous and destructive spirit which appeared
to govern them, she would mention that while they
occupied as a guard-room one of the best apart-
ments in the house (the building of which had cost
nearly forty thousand dollars), a musket or rifle
•ball was deliberately fired into the ceiling, by Which
it was much defaced and injured, and that they
wantonly destroyed many pieces of valuable furni-
ture. She would also state, .that being apparently
under no subordination, they indulged in continual
drunkenness and riot, offering many indignities to
your memoralist, and treating her domestics with
violence.

Your memorialist further represents, that these
outrages were committed upon an unoffending and
defenceless family in the absence of their natural
protector, your memorialists' husband being then
away from home ; and that in answer to sudh re-
monstrances as she ventured to make against the
consumption, waste and destruction of his property,
she was told by those who assumed to have the
command, that they held the property for the
United States, by order of the President, and were
privileged to use it, and should use it, as they
pleased. It is with pain that you memorialist re-
verts to events, which, in their consequences, have
reduced a once happy family from aff'hience and
comfort to comparative want and wretchedness ;
which blighted the prospect of her children, and
made herself, in the decline of life, a wanderer on
•the face of the earth."

With this petition is filed also the following:

84 BLENNER HAS SETT

"On the I3th day of December, 1806, the boat
in which we were, was driven ashore, by ise and
wind, on Backus Island, about one mile below Mr.
Blennerhassett's house ; we landed in the forenoon,
and the wind continuing unfavorable, did not afford
us any opportunity of putting off until after three
o'clock in the evening, at which time we were at-
tacked by about twenty-five men, well armed, who
rushed upon us suddenly, and we, not being in a
situation to resist the fury of a mob, surrendered ;
a strong guard was placed in the boat to prevent,
we presume, those persons of our party who re-
mained in the boat, from going off with her, while
we were taken to the house of Mr. Blennerhassett.
On our arrival at the house we found it filled with
militia ; another party of them were engaged in
making fires, around the house, of rails dragged
from the fences of Mr. Blennerhassett. At this
time Mrs. Blennerhassett was from home. When
she returned, about an hour after, s'he remonstrated
against this outrage on the property, but without
effect ; the officers declared that while they were
on the island the property absolutely belonged to
them. We were informed, by themselves that their
force consisted of forty men the first night ; and on
the third day it was increased to eighty. The
officers were constantly issuing the wlhiskey and
mea't, which had been laid up for the use of the
family, and whenever any complaint was made by
the friends of Mrs. Blennerhassett, they invariably
asserted that everything on the farm was their own
property. There appeared to us to be no kind of
stiibordination among the men ; the large room they
occupied on the first Moor presented a continued

ISLAND HOME 85

scene of riot and drunkenness; the furniture ap-
peared ruined by the bayonets ; and one of the
men fired his gun against the ceiling; the ball
made a large hole, which completely spoiled the
beauty of the room. They insisted that the ser-
vants should wait upon them, before attending to
their mistress ; when this was refused, they seized
upon the kitchen and drove the negroes into the
wash house. We were detained from Saturday
evening until Tuesday morning, during which time
they were never less tin an thirty, and frequently
from seventy to eighty men living in this riotous
manner entirely on provisions of Mrs. Blennerhas-
set't. When we left the island, a cornfield near
the house, in which the corn was still remaining,
was filled with cattle, the fences having been pulled
down to make fires. This we pledge ourselves to
a true statement of those transactions, as impres-
sion was made on us at the time.

MORGAN NEVILLE,
WM. ROBINSON, JR.

Henry Clay, with sincerity and ardor, urged
its passage before the proper committee, but while
pending therein, she died, worn out and mortified
with toil and privation, attended only by her son
Harman, and Mary, a black servant, who, her for-
mer slave, would not desert her even in the depths.
This negrees remained faithful with Harman, the
son, till his death, and subsequently was burned to
death.

Mrs. Blennerhassett was a member of the
Episcopal church, and buried by their beautiful

86 BLENNERHASSETT

ritual, in the family vault of Thomas Addis Em-
mett, the friend of other days. At the funeral
were both Robert Emmett, the father and his son.
Watched during her illness by her devoted Har-
man, and the faithful Mary, she sank peacefully to
rest. The "Marble Cemetery" of repose is a small,
plain enclosure on Second street in New York, with
no shrubbery or flowers, but strewn with vaults,
amid the rush of a busy world around.

Of their children, it may be said :

1. Dominick, born in 1799, the eldest son was
dlissipated. In 1822 he sailed for Savannah ; in
1823 he enlisted as surgeon-mate, drank heavily and
was discharged. In New York he turned up desti-
tute, and by intervention of friends of his fathers
was made assistant apothecary in a hospital. Sub-
sequently he lost his position and went to St. Louis
Mo.

2. Harman, Jr., born in 1801, was an invalid,
became a portrait painter, succeeded poorly, and
was eventually taken to the alms house on Black-
well's island, Nov. 10, 1854, and there in his illness
was attended by the family servant and the ladies of
the "Old Brewery Mission." He died August i8th
of that year, and was buried beside his mother.

3. Joseph Lewis, the youngest, moved to Mis-
souri, where he married and practiced law, in Troy,
Lincoln county ; was an officer in the Confederacy,

ISLAND HOME 87

and died soon after the close of the war, and left
descendants in St. Louis.

The other children, daughters, died with fever
in Mississippi.

Theodosia Alston, the fascinating child of the
gifted conspirator, with her maid and physician,
Dec. 30, 1812, 'set sail from Charleston, on the
Carolina coast, in a small schooner, the "Patriot,"
to go to her father in New York. The vessel was
noted for her sailing qualities, was commanded by
an experienced captain, had a pilot of skill and
courage, and was expected to make the voyage
within six days.

Neither vessel, crew or passengers were ever
heard of afterwards, and their fate is still locked
up in the arcana of the great ocean. Burr, who
idolized his daughter, as she did him, ever after
the 'sad event declared himself "severed from the
human race."

The mansion and premises passed into the
hands of a Kentucky creditor, who began the cul-
ture of hemp and manufacture of cordage thereon.
In those days it was a profitable industry all along
the water courses. The wings of the dwelling
were the places of its storage and caused the de-
struction of the already wrecked castle of buried
hopes and dreams of empire. The servants re-
turned one night from a merry-making, or frolic, on
the adjacent shore, and in the river crossing their

BLENNERHASSETT

skiff was upset, and one of their number was
drowned, and the rest submerged. On hastening
to the cellar for brandy to restore the unfortunate
and drive the chill from themselves, they passed
through the entrance to the hemp room to which
the stair-way led, too near the hemp, and the flare
of the candle ignited the fibres, and the flames al-
most instantly were beyond control, and in less than
an hour only ashes and debris remained of the once
lovely mansion of the Barrister prince. In night's
darkness, dazed with the effects of their careless-
ness, the servants neglected to awaken the sleepers
in the main rooms, who would have perished had
not one accidently awakened in time to alarm the
others. Their escape was made with no robes but
their thin night dress, and a few articles of furni-
ture only were saved.

Today there is little to remind the curious visi-
tor of the happiness and splendor of 100 years ago.

*"The Ohio and Virginia hills, the beautiful
river, and the blue sky are the only things which
look in the least as they must have looked to the
original inhabitants."

Before leaving the island with the flotilla Blen-
nerhassett had rented to Col. Nathaniel Gushing, a
friend in Belpre, the entire estate, crops, cattle and
agricultural utensils. He kept possession for two
vears, and it was then by creditors suits, taken out

ISLAND HOME 89

of his hands by the courts, and furniture and li-
brary under an attachment sold at auction for bills
endorsed by him for Burr.

Joseph S. Lewis, of Philadelphia, a merchant,
owned the island after the failure — purchasing it in
Sept. 1817 — and destruction of the house and prop-
erty. It passed into the hands of George Neale,
Sr., and is now possessed by his daughter Alice and
son-in-law Amos W. Gordon. It is a pleasure re-
sort during the Summer 'season. The old well is
still in use, and some locust and other trees said
to have been planted by Blennerhassett himself,
over-shadow its moss-covered edges and its crystal
waters that drop from the old oaken bucket. The
caps of the stone gateway are shown in the steps
of the present dwelling.

PRIOR OCCUPATION

^

y

HIS romantic spot in American history
was one of the camping and also burial
grounds of the red man. it was cer-
tainly a hiding shelter for his canoes
when on the war path. Behind have been left,
brought to light by the abrasion of the Ohio's cur-
rent, evidences of even pre-historic occupancy, as
well as many relics that are plainly Indian in their
origin and use. Arrow-heads, stone pipes, neck-
lets, darts and numerous pieces of pottery have been
secured, arranged and made to advance an ingen-
ious theory of Prof. Henry Stahl, who has spent
years of research and study, in this attractive field
to prove that civilization has left evidences of its
progress in the sands of the rivers, the mounds of
higher levels, and the charred deposits of Indian
camps everywhere.

The island, which is of glacial origin, extends
cast r.nd west, is narrow in the middle and broad
at both extremities. From the upper end a ridge
of land begins and runs west about the center of
the tract for over a mile, on both sides of this slight
elevation are natural troughs, like abandoned canal

C

C

<L>
3

6
o

o
0,

PQ

ISLAND HOME 91

beds, with ridged banks higher than those borde-r-
irg the river on either side. The channel bed on
the north side of the western section of the island
has been cut away by the current, leaving the
ridge to become the river bank. Here near the
center of the island, seems to have been placed by
nature, or design of some prior race, a large shell
heap. The deposit is over noo feet long, in width
at upper end about three, and at lower 300 feet.
The shells are of Unio. Amid these, as exposed by
the water abrasion or plowing, or research, are
found in great numbers, pottery whole and broken,
chet-chips, bones of the deer and fragments of hu-
man skeletons, and a variety of stone implements.
The shells of the land tortoise are quite numerous.
In places ash-pits and gravel and clay are apparent.
One of the skulls taken from the bank is now in
the Smithsonian Institute at Washington. The
pottery, much of it beautiful and elegant in design,
and displaying a wonderful and surpassing origin-
ality, is of cliay mixed with broken shells from the
river. Prophyry implements highly polished were
found, probably bark peelers. Pipes, circular
stones, and arrow heads of fifteen different varie-
ties were obtained by the thousand. The latter
composed of gray, brown and black diet, chalce-
dony, and horn-stone. "As implements of attack
are abundant it is probable they were fastened to
arrows and used in shooting fish." Jasper drills

BLENNERHASSETT

also were numerous. Instead of having been used
to bore in stone, it is Likely they were used to spear
fish or in the chase and as hairpins — since the early
tribes were careful of their long crownal locks.
Tips of the horn of the deer, pendants and many
other ornaments of beautiful workmanship of can-
nel coal, beads from bird bones, green stone polish-
ed hatchets, circular discs, grooved stone hatchets,
bark peelers, bone needles and bone fish hooks, and
cannel-coal eyelets, beads and copper bracelets,
musical bone and stone flutes evidencing in their
construction a taste for and knowledge of music,
horn-hoe soil-diggers formed of the curved antlers
of a stag, with bevelled sharp end, were among the
numerous relics, some few of which were deposited
in the Smithsonian Institute at the National Cap-
ital, but the rarest are in the Stahl collection.

The archoelogical character of the island is of
great importance and the vast number of industrial
implements, whole and fragmentary pottery, the
evident remains of numerous ancient workshops,
group surrounding the various tribes and people
heaps of flint clippings, shell heaps, the great num-
ber of skeletons,' together with bones of animals,
now extinct, as well as an abundance of the animal
who dwell upon the same, show beyond a question
that the island had been inhabited permanently for
many certuries ere the white man's arrival.

Many articles found show great age, far be-

Plain and Image Pipes With Stone Flute

ISLAND HOME 93

yond that of the roving Indians who, ever since
the boundary line they so much desired to preserve,
to-wit, all territory west of the Ohio, was encroach-
ed upon, built no mounds, and for probably two
hundred years all their dead were intrusives in the
mounds built years before their arrival.

Hence the abrasion of currents of the spring
flood brings to light the magnificent pottery and
workmanship of the race who built the original
mounds, as well as the "good enough" crude stone
and bone relics of the Indian who last occupied this
strategic point, when the game in abundance was
forced to seek the water, and no enemy could ap-
pear without approaching under many disadvan-
tages in fleets of canoes, which owing to the fav-
orable posts of observation were never able to sur-
prise the islanders.

The range of astonishing amount of relics re-
covered, the great difference in the artistic develop-
ment of domestic implements, show that primitive
man began here early, and the many mute wit-
nesses of man's earliest attempts to supply himself
with defensive and aggressive arms, demonstrate
that the human family, step by step, produced the
same result as the early races on the Xile, proving
that if this country was ever settled by Kuro-
peans or Asiatic tribes the arrival upon the western
continent took place in the earliest stage of indus-

94 BLENNERHASSETT

trial development when even language was in its
infancy.

We are pleased to offer our readers a few illus-
trations showing specimens from the island, col-
lected and ingeniously arranged by our talented
friend, Prof. Henry Stahl, of Parkersburg, who
has divided thousands of specimens into the follow-
ing four divisions:

1. Man in his earliest stage;

2. Man as a savage;

3. Man as a barbarian ;

4. Man's first steps into civilization.

The articles found are classed into these four
respective social stages, showing a continuous de-
velopment from the first article fashioned by the
hand of man down to the appearance of iron and
steel.

From many of these ingeniously arranged and
s^stemized groups, a few only have been selected.
Few, if any richer fields for research and study of
the prior races, can be found than Blennerhassett
Island, so pregnant with memories of vanished
years.

In the Stahl valuable relic collection is a sun-
dial plate, found at the bottom of the old well of
Blennerhassett. It is of dark purple slate, octagon-
al in shape, about half an inch think and ten inches
across. The face has its characters and lettering
distinct, was made by J. Still, whose name is .cut

ISLAND HOME 95

in script upon the outer edge. The inscription is
"G. Neil, 1812, latitude 54 degrees, 20 north.

There was found in the Blennerhassett man-
sion, in 1806, several drawings, which were preserv-
ed as late as 1846 in the family of a descendant of
Commander Hugh Phelps. .Among these .was one
of the head of a huge elk, designated "An Early
Settler." Also, in oil, several indian heads, the
work, doubtless, of Lady Blennerhassett and sup-
posed to have been in portraiture of friendly In-
dians of prominence who frequented the barrister's
grounds at that peace period. No one has been
able, as yet, to identify or name the originals from
whom taken. Copies of these are now preserved
in an album by J. H. Dis DeBar, ex-Commissioner
of Emigration. for West Virginia, long a citizen of
this county, but of late years resident in Philadel-
phia. Three of these portraits, on one canvas, cheek
to jowl, indicate determined character, and if one
was not in portraiture of the famed chief governing
the river section, Kyashuta, who it is presumed
was personally known to the island owners, in 1800,
then no likeness of that hero who gave Washing-
ton a buffalo and so courteously treated him at
Belleville in 1770, is extant.

PRESENT OCCUPATION

<*=••" "•**» T is more than probable the race usu-
& T[ ^ a^ called, for want of a better name,
^ £ Mound-builders, were the first occu-

_^5£^_ pants of the island, it may have been
thousands of years ago. Their presence on its
wave washed sand is proved beyond question. By
conquest or abandonment the Indian succeeded and
enjoyed its beauty and isolation from inimical in-
trusion for many un-numbered moons and cycles.
In the march of events the coming of the paler-
tinted man drove him from the hunting grounds
and the bark and pelt-tented villages to the North-
west and eventually toward the setting sun, and
the absolute extermination that awaits the last of
his race.

RECORDED OWNERSHIP.

The island appears, from official records to
have been claimed and the right, whether by mili-
tary land warrant, hatchet title, or otherwise, un-
disputed, by Samuel McDowell, who assigns to
John Harvie, and he to Henry Banks, who assigns
to James Heron of Richmond, in trust, for the firm
of Heron, Nelson & Co. The gifted Patrick
Henry signs the deed. They on May 10, 1792,

ISLAND HOME 97

convey for 250 pounds Virginia currency to Elijah
Backus of Norwich, Conn. 269 and 297, equal 566
acres, by survey made May 17, 1784. (Page 97 B 7
of Wood County records.)

Backus, Jan. 28, 1799, contracts to sell to Har-
man Blennerhassett, for $4,000, the upper section
of the island, thus described : East and South bound
ed by waters of the Ohio, then by a line drawn
across said island, at the "Narrows," as by Pere-
grine Foster and Silas Bent in their respective sur-
veys for said Backus and Blennerhassett, made
about March, 1798.

The property, after years, passes into the hands
of George Neal, Jr., but not until Nov. 17, 1827,
does he acquire full title, by deed from Hannah
George (formerly Richards), late Hannah Backus,
of Montgomery county, Ohio, relic of Elijah
Backus, late of Randolph County, in the then terri-
tory of Illinois, deceased, conveying for $300 her
dower in the east end of the island (Deed Book 7,
page 128.)

By the first county assessment, in 1801. Elijah
Backus, then owner, was charged with tax of $5.22
on 370 acres, at a valuation of $1,100. He was also
assessed with 228 1-2 acres, the "upper part of
Belpre Island," $3.30.

In Deed Book 4, page 3, is recorded conveyance
from Elijah Backus, and wife Hannah, to Aaron
Waldo Putnam, dated 24 April, 1807, for two tracts

98

of land on the two islands below the mouth of the
Kanawha, for the consideration of $1,903.50. It is
thus described : Survey by Levi Barber of 141 acres
in West or lower end of the first island ; on East
by lands sold by Backus to Harman Blennerhassett,
beginning at a place called the "Narrows," and
the other tract the whole of the island called "little
island, or second isle South," being part of two
tracts of land conveyed to Backus by James Heron
of Richmond, Virginia, May 10, 1792, by that Court
in that year.

In 1816 the assessment books show that Aaron
Waldo Putnam owned the 141 2-10 acres, "lower
part of Belpre island."

In 1820 appears 150 acres, part of Blenner-
hassett Island, "two miles S. W. from the Court
House, assessed to Thomas Morris and Samuel
Canby of Baltimore," formerly charged to Elijah
Backus. So the earliest name of the middle ap-
pears to be "Backus" as stated upon old river navi-
gation charts, and next "Belpre" from its facing
that stockade-protected settlement — the colony
there from Fort Harmar — and that the easterly and
formerly the whole took the present name from the
momentous events of later history.

Mrs. Amos W. Gordon and son Clifford now
own the upper end of old Blennerhassett portion,
of 105 acres, deriving her title from her father
George Neale Jr. They reside thereon and culti-

ISLAND HOME 99

vate the acreage, and the public resort to it from
curiosity, by picnic excursions, and for base-ball
games, coming by steam-launches, or by skiffs,
sail-boats and the great steamers of the Ohio. It
is an attractive spot to travellers, who pass the
island up or down by palatial electric-lighted steam-
ers, or view it from comfortable railroad coaches
from the Virginia shore,, and who are ever desirous
to have pointed out the site of the vanished man-
sion, which like a gem, peeped a century ago, from
its primitive and weird water-encircled setting in
the wilderness. Some one in the centuries yet to
come may have the means and sentimental inclina-
tion to restore the once hospitable edifice and its
once beautiful dream like surrounding.

MISCELLANEOUS.

From various sources gathered, the following
items may have a local interest:

Blennerhassett got $6,000 for onehalf the profits
of his Marietta business, had $3,000 stock in the
firm, had $6,000 in the hands of his Philadelphia
agent. After building his mansion he had, outside
of island property, five negroes and $1,700 cash. He
had $9,000 in stock and profits, and $10,000 on
another account, and the amount in agent's hands,
besides isle and negroes ; property left by his father
amounted to 20,000 pounds, equal to $100,000. vest-
ed in British 3 per cent stock.

He gave power of attorney, 27 Nov., 1806, to

100 BLENNERHASSETT

Samuel Hunt, of Gallia County, Ohio, and James
Wilson, of Wood, to settle the mm affairs of Dud-
ley Woodbridge, Jr., & Co. The firm began to
operate 24th April, 1802. The records disclose that
some of the men most active in the destruction of
the home and property of the Blennerhassett mem-
ber were those indebted to him financially, some of
whom for years indulged and befriended and con-
fided in. They were the first to believe him guilty
and credit him with unpatriotic intentions and acts.
He had a store earlier than this of 'his own,
as appears from the records of suits in Wood
County. In October, 1800, he filed an account as
follows:

Sylvester Lyons,

To Harman Blennerhassett, Dr.,
1798.

May 8th, To 6^ of lining @ 75c —$4-87

To l/2 gallon whiskey @ SQC .50

May 24. To i qt. whiskey @ 250— .25

Aug. 29. To y2 Ib. Bohea tea @ 550— . -55

Aug. 29. To i Ib. raisons @ 33C

1799.
April 13. To sundries, delivered to John

James as per order ._io.85

April 19. To fish hooks -33

April 19. To Ib. chocolate -53

April 19. To 180 bushels of corn 59.61

ISLAND HOME 101

This account amounted to over a hundred dol-
lars, and was tried by a jury on the loth day of
March, 1801, and a verdict rendered in behalf of
the plaintiff.

In the County Court Feb. 2, 1807, in case of
George Creel against Harman Blennerhassett, the
entry reads ; "On an attachment, the sheriff hav-
ing returned executed on one negro man named
Ranson Reed, and the defendant fails to reply, it
is therefore considered by the court that the plain-
tiff recover against the defendant $35.25 for his
debt ; also his costs in this behalf expended, and
that the sheriff expose to sale the property afore-
said and render unto the said plaintiff his debt
aforesaid, on the first Monday in April term next.

Ransom who was long the faithful waiter upon
Mrs. Blennerhassett, and became the property of
James M. Stephenson, an indulgent master, was a
swarthy, dwarfish negro, a good fiddler, and a fav-
orite with the youngsters of the vicinity, and many
were the Virginia reels under his music and in-
struction, and when tired of the dance, the young
(listened to his wonderful stories of the stately
queen now far away from her own isle of sorrow.

April 6, 1807, three commissioners were ap-
pointed to appraise the property in the hands of
Sheriff Hugh Phelps, seized as that of Aaron Burr.

The sale bill of the Blennerhassett property,

102

Aug. 24, 1807, in case of Robert Miller against said
defendant showed :

Accounts and notes, 34 in number $140.88

Stock, farm utensils, &c 850.34^

Total— -$991.221/2

Which property the Court ordered returned to
Blennerhassett, or the value thereof, on surrender
by Nathaniel Gushing of the island rented by him,
and he is directed to deliver up all at the expiration
to Robert Miller or his attorney.

The entry Nov. 5, 1810, is:

Ichabod Griffin having heretofore been ap-
pointed to collect and deposit in the Bank of Mar-
ietta the money arising from the sales of certain
property of Aaron Burr, and which was then in
controversy between Robert Miller and the United
States, but which has since terminated in favor of
the United States; it is therefore ordered that the
said Ichabod Griffin pay the money by him received
as aforesaid to the Secretary of War, or to John G.
Jackson, agent for the United States, or to his or-
der.

The Monthly Court, 4 Feb., 1811, with Geo. D.
Avery, Richard Neale, Bennett Cook and Robert
Edelen, general justices, on the bench.

ISLAND HOME 103

George Miller,

vs.

Harman Blennerhassett and Robert Miller— In
Chancery.

Ordered that Robert Miller be inhibited from
paying, delivering or secreting any goods or chat-
tels in his possession belonging to Harman Blen-
nerhassett, &c.

The county court, 6 April, 1807, appointed
Peter Anderson, William Weedon and Samuel
Weld to appraise property seized by Col. Hugh
Phelps, as the property of Aaron Burr. They made
return schedules, nth of April, 1807, of 25 barrels
of whiskey— 756 gallons— at an average value of 31
cents per gallon, $273.41 ', n t>bls- pork, $361.41;
5 bbls. beef, $30.00; other sundries, incuding two
boats ($60.25), making a total of $1,056.38^. These
articles were for the expedition from the Island to
the South.

SEIZURE OF FOUR BOATS BY BUELL.

Marietta, 2 Feb., 1807.

I certify that the four unfinished batteaux, late
the property of Harman Blennerhassett, began to
be built by Col. Jos. Barker, were seized by au-
thority of the State of Ohio, by special warrant
from the Governor's agent, and a return thereof

104

has been regularly made to the Secretary of War
and to the governor of the State of Ohio.

JOS. BUELL, Maj. Gen.,
3rd Division Mil., State Ohio.

John Clark, sheriff of the county of Washing-
ton, Ohio, makes the following return:

'1 do hereby certify that on the 2Oth day of
Feb., 1807, I served a writ of foreign attachment
on Dudley Woodbridge, as garnishee of Harman
Blennerhassett, attaching all lands, tenements,
goods, rights and credits, moneys and effects which
the said Blennerhassett might have in his, the said
W'oodbridge's hands or possession."

Among those who were upon the island when
so much devastation occurred, were Major Robert
Kincheloe, Matthias Chapman and Jacob Beeson,
men of sterling worth and integrity, education and
probity. The character of these citizens was such
as in part to controvert insinuations so often made
that the militia of the county were guilty of rude-
ness and incivility to the Blennerhassett hostess
and family.

One of the pioneer natives of the county, be-
yond four score years of age (now dead about ten
years), Mrs. Clementine (Saunders) Neale, stated
that these officers of the command in later years,
who were eye witnesses of the event, assured her
that so far from Mrs. Blennerhassett being insulted
or rudely annoyed, as as been so repeatedly alleged,

ISLAND HOME

she was courteously addressed, that the Major
asked an interview, and she came out from her
room for a few minutes and treated him with much
hauteur, and was herself answered with mildness,
but firmly. The Major was a most kindly and gen-
ial gentleman, as were the others named, and in-
capable of any breaches in this regard.

There was a pier at the landing whence the flo-
tilla embarked on that Memorable December night,
the steps to which were of stone, but till recently
could not be located. For many years interested
parties had been searching at times for these steps
which led down to the stream and were known to
exist somewhere upon the shores of the island.
Lew Shaefer, during the summer of 1894, in wan-
dering about the supposed vicinity, came upon a
nicely dressed stone, one end of which protruded
above the earth. Upon excavating he discovered
the old stone steps, built nearly a century ago by
the barister-farmer, Blennerhassett. They are
about seventy-five yards below the present landing,
and appeared only recently to be yet firmly joined
by the cement originally brought from the old
country.

George Simms, of Tfockingport, Ohio, has an
old kettle which once belonged to Blennerhassett.

Israel Waldo Putnam, of Rockland, the vicin-
ity of the site of Farmer's Castle, in Ohio, has an
old settee given his grandmother by Mrs. Rlenner-

106 BLENNERHASSETT

hassett, after she left the island and for kindness
bestowed on her by the grandmother and family.
It is made of wild cherry, then abundant in the
woods, is six feet long, three feet high and fifteen
inches wide, with waved slats, three inches wide, of
solid wood, and is highly prized. With it, received
in a similar way, he owns a small table of black
walnut, native to the island farm. He has also two
glass plates, with figures of leaves and vine, with
gold leaf, given to his oldest sister. One of the
plates is in the hands of Dr. Curtis, of Marietta.
Descendant Putnam has also the old parchment
deed executed and signed by Patrick Henry to
Alexander Nelson, in trust for Nelson, Heron & Co.,
assignee of Henry Banks, dated 16 May, 1786, for
269 acres, by survey dated 17 May, 1784, by virtue
of Treasury Warrant No. 5,851, issued 5 July, 1780,
for second island below mouth of Little Kanawha
river, in the couny of Monongalia." This descrip-
tion would indicate that the island is a combina-
tion by gradual fills and freshets of several insular
tracts.

George Alfred Townsend, the famous corres-
pondent "Gath," owns a set of Blennerhassett, old
style, blue back, split-bottomed chairs, bought of
Miss Ellenwood.

There is still preserved in front of the tenement
upon the island several blocks of dressed stone,
which were portions of the pillars at each side- of

ISLAND HOME 107

the landing. Nearby the original location of these
shafts are tall sycamore trees, across the straight
and almost limbless trunks of which are numerous
slats nailed to serve as rests for wild duck snares
of the bird hunters. The bank has crumbled away
from the "Narrows." There exists a huge syca-
more tree still, which started from the cellar of the
mansion soon after its destruction, and must be
104 years old. The same well and a locust tree
nearby will cause one to imagine the years of a
century to have been rolled backward, and Blenner-
hassett to be enjoying the cool waters of the one
and the shade of the other as he leans slightly in
his chair at evening or sultry noon, and meditates
upon the loveliness of his island home and the
quietude and inspiration of peace ere the spoiler
came.

Quite a number of Blennerhassett relics and
souvenirs are in the families of the citizens of Mar-,
ietta. The college has some in the Fearing collec-
tion.

Dr. B. F. Harte has a sofa, once the property
of D. C. Skinner ; Miss Mary L. Skinner owns
several handsome knife cases ; Mrs. J. D. Cadwall-
ader has a folding garden chair, which from Blen-
nerhassett passed into possession of Dudley Wood-
bridge ; Mrs. Frich of Fifth street has a table ; and
the government order for the arrest of Blenner-

108 BLENNERHASSETT

hassett belongs to Mrs. M. N. Buell, of Fifth street,
Marietta.

In the relic room of the "Woman's Centennial
Association" in Marietta, are :

1. A fruit dish, presented by Mrs. Goodno, of
Belpre;

2. A silk fan, given to Miss Rowena Spencer,
of Vienna, who afterward became Mrs. Arius Nye,
by Lady Blennerhassett herself, afterwards the
property of Mrs. Shelton Sturgis, of Chicago, then
of her daughter, Mrs. E. H. Brush, of Chicago, who
presented it to the relic room ;

3. A parlor chair, white and gilt, cane-seated,
presented by Sarah (Norton or) Gaston, of Har-
mar;

4. Part of some chintz bed-hangings, present-
ed by Mrs. Mary Starr, of Marietta;

5. An old iron tea-kettle, presented by Miss
Ellenwood, of Belpre, O.

W. Park Andrews, as heir of the Mayberrys,
has the following relics of the mansion; 2 large
platters or waiters of sheetiron ; 6 stem goblets of
cut-glass for wine ; 2 of smaller size ; 2 decanters ; i
small, old fashioned, washstand, with hole in top
for basin. The descendant of James G. Laidley-
Alex. Thomas Laidley, of Charleston, West Vir-
ginia, till death owned a snuff box given by Blen-
nerhassett to his friend, in 1805, before the con-
spiracy culminated. It now is stored by the State

ISLAND HOM E 108

Historical Society. Amos Gordon has his dresser,
to be seen in his home on the head of the island.
He claims the old house was two stories and the
wings two, but the circular approaches only one.
The wine cellar portion alone was dug out.

The miniatures from which photos were copied
and the engravings of the Blennerhassetts in this
volume produced, were taken in Europe in 1795, ere
debarkation for the new world of America. The
^Mississippi plantation to which tfhe unfortunate
barrister fled, when driven from his cherished is-
land, in view of the shelter it afforded and promised,
was called "La Cashe," the hiding place.

In May, 1895, a Spanish silver coin, bearing
the date 1772, was found near the spot where prev-
iously had been dug up a number of pieces of
Indian pottery, which bore curiously carved fig-
ures thereon.

The old floating mill, which by the action of
the current ground the golden maize of the early
settlers, was on the Virginia side, away from the
present channel. The old miller, it is traditionally
stated, was killed by the Indians and buried on the
Ohio side of the river.

The county court of Wood, once authorized its
clerk. John Stokeley, to erect a dam over the south
channel of the Ohio river from the Virginia shore
to the island, for the purpose of constructing and
running a grist mill, but the enterprise was never

110 BLENNERHASSETT

carried out. A wing dam, to deepen the channel
for steamer navigation, has been constructed there
to throw the volume of water pressing on the
south shore in the great bend to the north side of
the island.

Several of the young men from Belpre, six or
more ; returned in the spring from the Mississippi
territory. Two others, Charles and John Dana, re-
mained, and settling near Walnut Hills, purchased
land and cultivated cotton.

Burr, soon after his recognizance, in January,
1807, requested John Dana, with twenty others, to
take him in a skiff to a point twenty miles above
Bayou Pierre, and land him in the night, intending
to escape across the country by land. In order to
better conceal his identity; before starting he ex-
changed his broadcloth coat and beaver hat with
Dana for his coarser dress of a boatman, and an
old white wool hat.

One of Blennerhassett's attempts in chemistry
was to convert beef into adipocere, or waxy fatness,
by immersing large pieces of it in the still water of
the beautiful cove between the landing and the sand
bar at the head of the island. He fancied it might
be used for illuminating, but the cat fish and perch
so interfered with his experiments that he never
perfected the chemical change.

Charles Fenton Mercer, who was on the island

ISLAND HOM E 111

in November, 1806, made a full statement, soon
after the Richmond trial, giving his opinion of the
object of the expedition, in which he clears Blenner-
hassett of any designs against the peace and quiet
of the United States.

•miVERSlTY ot

A/T

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