FROM THE ARCHIVES

(By Stephen Kelley from the People’s Defender 1984)

The area where Zane’s Trace crosses into Adams County from Brown was once a howling wilderness covered with a dense virgin forest and profusely inhabited with game animals. At a very early date, this region was discovered to be a hunter’s paradise by some of the earliest settlers in the Limestone-Washington (Maysville) Kentucky area.

Three men in particular made numerous hunting expeditions into this part of southern Ohio, two of whom left a legacy still with us today. Ellis Palmer, John Gunsaulus and George Mefford were rugged individuals who relished the rigors of hunting good camping in the untamed, unmapped wilderness despite the dangers of unpredictable weather and ferocious animals as well as the dangers presented to the warring Shawnee. John Gunsaulus is described as “a man of unusual size and tremendous muscular power.”

He was a veteran of the ill-fated expedition against the Indians in June 1782 led by Colonel William Crawford. Gunsaulus was among the few fortunate souls to escape alive from that debacle. It was during the military foray that Colonel Crawford was captured and later horribly tortured and burned at the stake.

During one of Gunsaulus’ hunting trips to what is now Adams County, a war party of Shawnee discovered his canoe and began following his trail. According to one source, “The pursuers overtook him, one of whom he soon shot. He then started on his retreat, loading as he went. Another (Indian) soon fell and perhaps a third one also,. The pursuit was then abandoned and Gunsaulus made his way to a point opposite Brook’s Bar, near Maysville, where he swam the (Ohio) river and escaped. ” This near-fatal hunting expedition apparently took place about the year 1787, long before any white settlements were made in this vicinity on the north side of the Ohio River. About 1803, Gunsaulus built a cabin and squatted on lands now owned by James Dugan on the Ripley Pike. He later moved into Jackson Township in Brown County where he died.

Ellis Palmer was a Pennsylvania by birth and was one of the famous Mason County, Kentucky Indian spies during 1792. When still a boy in his home state, his family had been attacked by Indians. He had the unfortunate experience of witnessing the scalping and subsequent death of an older brother at the time. Quoting from one source, “He vowed vengeance against all Indians, whether friends or enemies.” Another source relates that “.. when he grew large enough to handle a rifle, he pushed to the frontier to seek revenge and many a red man has passed to the “Happy hunting grounds through the unerring aim of his rifle.”

About the year 1796, after peace was made with the Shawnee, one of that tribe was reportedly seen in the neighborhood Ellis Palmer frequently hunted. After learning of the Indian’s presence, Palmer set up an ambush and”… shot him and threw his dead boy into a sink hole and covered it from sight.”

This incident took place near a large salt lick and spring named Ellis’ Lick as a result of Ellis Palmer’s numerous hunting and camping trips near it. The run formed by this spring became known as Ellis’ Run, the name by which it is still known. Ellis’ Lick was located on the farm presently owned by Herbert Tone on Ellis Run Road.

Palmer is credited as being “without doubt” the first white settler to live in Huntington Township in Brown County, building his log house near the mouth of Big Three Mile Creek in late 1794. About 1804 he moved and built another home in Sprigg Township near his old hunting grounds.

George Mefford was among the earliest pioneers at Limestone settling there in 1785. In 1787 he built a story and a half log house not far from Washington. The floors in this old home were built of the planks taken from the broad horn flatboat Mefford and his family had traveled in down the Ohio River. The Mefford home was constructed a good distance from the other settlers’ cabins and became known as Mefford’s station or Mefford’s Fort. It became e a welcome refuge for the whites in that vicinity when the Indians became troublesome.

Mefford hunted in Sprigg Township in the same area as Gunsaulus and Palmer. In the same manner of Palmer, Mefford found a salt lick frequented by large numbers of game animals. This lick became known as Mefford’s Lick and was located on the farm now owned by Wendell Laurie on the Ripley Pike. At this lick was a spring which continues today to feed the small stream still known as Mefford’s Run. Thus, Ellis’ Run and Mefford’s Run continues to perpetrate the names of two early pioneers who left their mark in the legends of Old Adams.