Harbert Family Stories
John Harbert (b. 1769) In the year 1791 the Indians killed James or John McIntire and wife a mile or two above the mouth of Bingamon Creek. Five or six of us when we heard the news, started and went to Benj. Robinson's. Robinson had appointed before we got to his house, to meet some men on Buffalo Creek. We started eleven of us in all, went up Tenmile Creek to the mouth of Jones' Run, and in going up said Run we found the trail of the Indians, but as Robinson had promised to meet those men, we went on to Buffalo Creek, but found no persons. We took up Buffalo to the head of Fishing Creek, went down a considerable distance, took up a right hand branch on which we camped. Next morning crossed over the dividing ridge, fell on the waters of Middle Island, went down the same, to the creek about a mile below the three forks. The Indians had just come down the creek. Here was a fresh trail. Col. George Jackson proposed that six men should be chosen who should strip as light as they could and go ahead of the horses. He also asked the privilege of choosing them and going ahead, which was granted. I then thought, chosen or not, I would be one of them. George Jackson, Benj. Robinson, Christopher Carpenter, John Haymond, John Harbert and myself the 6th. one, were the number. We stripped ourselves as lightly as we could, tied handkerchiefs around our heads, and proceeded to travel as fast as we could. The Indians appeared to travel very carelessly, broke bushes, &c. It was in May. The weeds were young and tender. We could follow a man very easily. We went about seven or eight miles, passed where the Indians had stopped to eat. Arriving on a high bank Jackson turned around and said: 'Where do you think they have gone?' with that he jumped down the bank and we proceeded down on the beach a short distance, when one of the Indians fired. I think we were about forty yards from them, we on the beach, they on the bank on the same side of the creek. We started on the run and had run ten or fifteen yards when the other three fired, then we were in about thirty yards of them. At the first gun, Jackson wheeled around and said: 'Where did that gun come from?' John Harbert and brother John discovered them first running up the hill, they fired. Benj. Robinson and myself ran and jumped on the bank where the Indians left their knapsacks. I fired the third shot, the Indians were sixty yards off. They had run up a very steep hill. Robinson shot at the same Indian that I did. I heard him or one of them talk after I shot. Jackson and Carpenter shot last. We than ran a little to the right from where the Indians had ran up the hill. I was the first on top, with the company I was with (the other men had joined us and two or three went round the hill in another place.)
We then turned down to where the Indians had got on the top of the hill, there we found a blanket, belt, knife, scabbard and blood. The Indian had bled considerable. He went about a quarter of a mile and cut a stick which we supposed was to stop the blood. We followed him about a mile when we then thought it dangerous to follow, thinking he had his gun with him and would hide and kill one of us. To my mortification we returned. We could have trailed him anywhere. On our return we found his shot pouch. Had we found it first, I think we would have overtaken him. About ten years after, his gun was found. After we fired, I wanted to run down a creek as I could see that a run came in just below, but the rest would not. If we had, I have no doubt we would have met them again as the wounded Indian crossed the point and run not very far from its mouth. The other Indians we did not follow, but I think they crossed below where the wounded one did. We returned to the Indians' place of attack where we found all their knapsacks, one shot pouch (having previously found one) for hatchets and all their plunder, including the woman's scalp. Here on examination we found that Brother John had been shot through the handkerchief just above his ear, and Jackson through the shirt sleeve near his wrist. Had we looked, we would have found the Indian's gun. We ought to have expected that the Indian would have thrown away his gun before his shot pouch. I have since heard that one of the Cunnighhams who was a prisoner with the Indians at thattime, on his return said that an Indian came home and said that he had been with three others on Muddy River (West Fork) killed a man and a woman, and they were followed, and they fired on the white men and killed two, and that the white men fired on them and wounded three, one of whom died after crossing the second ridge at a run. We were on the second ridge and near the second run. The other two died between that and the Ohio River. If this account is true and the Indians we followed were the same, we must have shot well. We thought at the time we had wounded two. We sold our Indian plunder for about twenty dollars among which were some curious affairs.
Yours &c.,Wm. Haymond.
- Haymond, Henry. History of Harrison County West Virginia. , pp. 362-363
