MIRACULOUS ESCAPE.
One of the most remarkable escapes upon record, is that of
Thomas Mills. The circumstancese were these. On the 30th
day of July, Mills and two other men, Henry Smith and
Hambleton Kerr,[35]
started on a fishing excursion up the river
from Wheeling. When near Glenn's run, a party of Indians,
who had watched the movements of the whites, fired upon
them, killing Smith, and wounding Mills in fourteen places.
He had that many distinct bullet-holes in him, and yet not
one of them was mortal. Kerr escaped. Just before the
attack, Mills and his companions had caught an enormous
cat-fish, (weighing 87 pounds,) and when the men were taken
from the canoe at Wheeling, their appearance was truly
frightful; they were literally covered with blood and sand.
Mills recovered from his wounds, and was recently living on
the Ohio, near Shade river. He was in his time, a most useful
man on the frontier, possessing great experience as a hunter
and scout.
The men were gigging by torchlight, and thus became fair
objects for the aim of the savages.
In the summer of this year, John Nieswanger and Joseph
Heffler, two very efficient spies, started on a hunting expedition
down the Ohio. They were dressed in Indian fashion,
as was often the custom on such occasions, so as the better to
elude detection. They descended the river in a canoe, and
on the evening of the day they left, put into Little Grave
creek. A party of Indians had watched their movements,
and during the night attacked them with fury. Nieswanger
was killed, but his companion succeeded in getting off, with
the loss of two fingers. He escaped to Wheeling, and thence
went to Pittsburgh, to have an operation performed upon his
maimed hand. Returning, and when near the present residence
of Hamilton Woods, he was attacked and killed by the
Indians. While in pursuit of Heffler, at Grave creek, the
canoe floated off, and thus the savages lost the chance of
scalping the unfortunate Nieswanger. Some months afterwards
the canoe was found lodged at the head of Captina
Island, with the remains of the hunter and his gun still in it.
1784 was a year of comparative quiet on the frontier. The
teeaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain
had the effect to restrain the western Indians for the time
being.
