"Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly," The Pathfinders of Jefferson County compiled by W. H. Hunter

Pages 176 to 181:

"...Mr. Wells, who then lived in his mansion on the river front. [Note: 42 History Upper Ohio Valley.] A few years ago the late Capt. W. M. Farrar, an active member of the Ohio Historical and Archaeological Society, and Dr. A. M. Reid, the latter of Steubenville, marked the point on the Ohio river at which occurred the fight between Adam Poe and the big Indian. The place designated by their mark is at the mouth of Tomlinson's run, which empties into the Ohio from the Virginia side about three miles above the head of Brown's island. A short distance from the shore is a small island, and it was between the island and the shore the fight took place. The land at this point is owned by Rev. Mr. Cowl, of the Methodist Protestant church. Most of the published accounts of this justly celebrated fight are incorrect, and J. A. Caldwell, while gathering data for his history of Belmont and Jefferson counties, devoted much effort to obtain a true account, which he obtained from old residents then living in the neighborhood, and even from the descendants of the Poes, who had heard the story from the lips of the actors themselves. A grandson of Adam Poe is now (January, 1898) in Ravenna, and has in his possession a tomahawk used in the border warfare by his illustrious ancestor. The Poes were Scotch-Irish and were born in Maryland, coming to the northwestern part of Virginia bordering on the Ohio before the Zanes settled at the mouth of Wheeling creek. The Poe settlement soon increased to twelve families. Adam was married in 1778, and Andrew two years afterwards. Both men were trained frontiersmen and were engaged in most of the expeditions that required spirit a daring and fortitude to bear the perils of the woods. In every sense, says Caldwell, they were shrewd, active and courageous, and having fixed their abode on the frontier of civilization, determined to contest inch by inch with the savage their right to the soil and privilege to live. In appearance they were tall, muscular and erect, with features denoting great force of character. The date of the conflict which made famous these two brave men is 1781. In the fall of that year, following the massacre of the Lochry expedition at the mouth of the Big Miami, the settlements in this region were frequently disturbed by incursions of the Indians. In August the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawanese, with over three hundred warriors assembled at the Moravian town, the object being to take the missionaries and their converts to Detroit to try them for spies. After remaining at Gnadenhutten for a month the head of the warriors, Half-King, sent out a party of six Wyandots to attack the white settlers on the Ohio, among the six being three sons of the Half-King. They broke into the cabin of William Jackson, an old man, in the Poe settlement, and he being alone, they took him prisoner. Jackson's son, who was about seventeen years of age, on returning to the cabin, saw the Indians with his father, in the yard, and he fled to Harman's fort. The Indians attempted several other houses and the alarm became general. Preparations were made to follow the Indians with a view of rescuing Jackson, and at the first dawn of day, says Caldwell, in his account, twelve of the settlers, mounted on horseback, were in pursuit. They followed the trail at the greatest possible speed until they reached the top of the river hill, a distance of about twelve miles. Here they left their horses and traveled on foot, the hill being very precipitous. When they reached the bottom of the hill the trail turned down the river, and in crossing the little stream, Tomlinson's run, Andrew observed that where the Indians had stepped into the water it was still riley, and cautioned the men to keep quiet; that the Indians were very near and would hear them and kill the prisoner, Jackson. After fruitless efforts to quiet the men he left the company, turning off square to the right, went to the bank of the river, and looking down he saw, about twelve feet below him, two Indians stooping with their guns in their hands, looking down the river in the direction of the noise. He observed that one of the Indians was a very large man. It occurred to him that he would shoot the larger and take the other a prisoner. He squatted in the weeds, and crept up to the brow of the bank, put his gun through the weeds and took aim, but his gun missed fire. When the gun snapped both Indians yelled, "Woh! woh!" Poe immediately drew his head back and the Indians did not see him. By this time the other settlers had overtaken the other five Indians with Jackson, who were about one hundred yards down the river, and had begun to fire, which drew the attention of the two under the eye of Andrew, who again drew aim, his gun missing fire the second time. He then dropped the rifle and sprang instantly upon them. On springing about at the snap of the gun, the two Indians were brought side by side, but did not have time to fire at Poe before he was upon them. He threw his weight upon the big Indian, catching each of them about the neck, and threw them both. The big Indian fell on his back, Andrew following with his left arm around his neck. The little Indian fell behind Andrew, whose right arm was around the Indian's neck. Their guns both fell. One of them lay within reach of Andrew, who observed that it was cocked. The Indians had a raft fastened to the shore close by where they were standing, the river being very high. The tomahawk and bullet pouch were on the raft. Andrew's knife was in the scabbard attached to his shot pouch, which was pressed between them. He got a slight hold of the handle and was trying to draw it to dispatch the big Indian who, observing it, caught his hand, and spoke in his own tongue very vehemently to the other who was struggling very hard to get loose. Andrew made several efforts to get his knife, but in vain. At last he jerked with all his might. The big Indian instantly let go and Andrew, not having a good hold of the handle, and the knife coming out unexpectedly easy in consequence of the big Indian loosing his grasp, it flew out of Andrew's hand and the little Indian drew his head from under his arm, his grasp being slackened in the act of drawing his knife. The big Indian instantly threw his long arm around Andrew's body and hugged him like a bear, while the little Indian sprang to the raft, which was about six feet off, and brought a tomahawk with which he struck at Andrew's head, who was still lying on his side on the big Indian, he holding him fast. Andrew threw up his foot as the stroke came and hit the Indian on the wrist with the toe of his shoe and the tomahawk flew into the river. The big Indian yelled at the little Indian furiously, who sprang to the raft and got the other tomahawk, and after making several motions struck at Andrew's head, who threw up his right arm and received the blow on his wrist, which broke one bone of his wrist and the chords of three of his fingers. Andrew immediately threw his hand over his head when he was struck, and the tomahawk catching in the sinews of his arm, drew it out of the Indian's hand and it flew over his head. After the stroke was given the big Indian let go his hold and Andrew got upon his feet. As he rose he seized the gun which lay by his head, with his left hand, and it being already cocked, he shot the smaller Indian through the body; but scarcely had he done so when the big Indian arose and placing one hand on his collar and the other on his hip, threw Andrew into the river. Andrew threw his hand back and caught the Indian by his buckskin breech clout and carried him into the river also. The water being deep they both went under. Then a desperate effort was made by each to drown the other; sometimes one was under the water, sometimes the other and sometimes both. In the struggle they were carried about thirty yards out into the river. Poe at length seized the tuft of hair on the scalp of the Indian by which he held his head under water until he thought him drowned. But he himself was sinking; not being able to do much with his disabled right hand, he threw it on the back of the Indian's neck, who was under water, and swam with his left arm to recruit himself a little. The Indian was not dead as supposed and got from under Andrew's arm and swam to shore with all his speed, Poe following him as fast as he could, but he could not catch him. As soon as the Indian got out of the water he picked up a gun, and in his effort to cock it, disabled the lock. He then threw it down and picked up the empty gun, with which Andrew had shot the other Indian and went to the raft for the shot pouch and powder horn and commenced loading. In the meantime, as soon as the Indian reached the spot where both guns and tomahawk lay, Andrew swam back into the river and called for his brother, Adam, who was with the other party. Adam came running on the bank where Andrew had jumped off, and began to load his gun. Andrew continued swimming away from them with nothing but his face out of the water, still calling for Adam to load quickly. The race between the two in loading was about equal, but the Indian drew his ramrod too hastily and it slipped out of his hands and fell a little distance from him. He caught it up and rammed down his bullet. The little delay gave Poe the advantage, so that just as the Indian raised his gun to shoot Andrew, Adam's ball entered the breast of the savage and he fell forward on his face upon the very margin of the river. Adam, now alarmed for his brother, who was scarcely able to swim, jumped into the river to assist him to shore, but Andrew, thinking more of the honor of securing the big Indian's scalp as a trophy than his own safety, called upon Adam to leave him alone and scalp the big Indian.

In the meantime the savage had succeeded in reaching the deep water before he expired and his body was borne off by the waves without being stripped of its scalp. An unfortunate occurrence took place during this conflict. Just as Adam arrived at the top of the bank for the relief of his brother, the others of his party, hearing the hallooing of Andrew, came running up the bank and seeing him in the river mistook him for a wounded Indian, and three of them fired at him, one of them wounding him dangerously. The ball entered his right shoulder at the juncture with his neck, passing through his body, coming out at his left side. During the contest between Andrew Poe and the two Indians the rest of the party followed the Indian trail to the river, where the other Indians were with the prisoner, Jackson. They had a large raft and were preparing to cross the river. Jackson seeing the men coming as soon as the Indians did, ran to them. One of the Indians struck him on the back with a tomahawk, making a slight wound. None of the Indians were captured, but being badly wounded only one of them got across the river and he was shot through the hand. One of the settlers named Cherry, was shot through the lungs and died in about an hour. Andrew Poe was straight and tall, being six feet two inches in height, with large bones covered with well-developed sinews and muscles and weighed over two hundred pounds. He had broad shoulders, slightly rounded, and a deep, full chest, surmounted by a large and well-balanced head, the physique indicating great strength and extraordinary power of endurance. In 1795 he built a large two story hewn log house near Hookstown, Pennsylvania. The upper story was left without windows and was meant for a fort in case of an attack by the Indians. Andrew Poe was a member of the Presbyterian church at Millcreek, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, during all, or the most part of the pastorate of Rev. George Scott, which extended over forty years...."