LAST SURVIVOR OF THE BATTLE.
Belonging to General Lewis' army was a young man named Ellis
Hughes. He was a native of Virginia, and had been bred in the hot-bed
of Indian warfare. The Indians having murdered a young lady to whom
he was very much attached, and subsequently his father, he vowed revenge,
and the return of peace did not mitigate his hatred of the race. Shortly
after Wayne's treaty with the Indians in 1795, he forsook his native mountains,
and, in company with one John Ratliff, removed north of the Ohio,
where they became the first settlers in what is now Licking county in
that State.
Hughes died near Utica, that county, in March, 1845, at an advanced
age, in the hope of a happy future; claiming, and accredited by all who
knew him, to be the last survivor of the battle of Point Pleasant. He
was buried with military honors and other demonstrations of respect.
