Abraham Covalt is my ancestor of the 9th generation, through my mother's father. I found this story of the settlement of the Terrace Park, Ohio area (close to Cincinatti) that references him and several of my other family members.
Pioneer settlers and Shawnee Indians fought and died for possession of what is now Terrace Park. The Indians almost won.
Five settlers were killed in little more than a year after Abraham Covalt, a Revolutionary War captain, established fortified Covalt Station here in January, 1789. The Indians lost only one. Two military expeditions suffered dismal defeat, and Covalt Station had to be abandoned over the winter of 1791-92. Of the Covalt Station men who joined the second military expedition, only [my great-uncle] Chenaniah Covalt returned.
The menace continued throughout the Miami area until an army under
General "Mad Anthony" Wayne won a victory and then a peace treaty in 1795. But in the years between, four other men had been killed here. Four more were carried off as prisoners, and only one was ever heard of again. The usual lot of Indian prisoners was to be burned at the stake.
For a time, indeed, the land between the two Miamis was called "the Miami slaughterhouse." So harassing were the Indian raids that a committee of citizens of Columbia and newly-founded Cincinnati once offered rewards for Indian scalps "with the right ear attached."
I've mentioned before the similarities between our political situation and that of the Roman Republic just prior to its conversion to an Empire under Julius and Octavian. I ran across a very interesting piece today on the economic similarities; it's a fascinating read and underscores Solomon's assertion that "there is no new thing under the sun." We're following the same patterns as those who have gone before us, and the result will inevitably be the same, assuming we continue down this road.
