U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Hughes, Elias (d. 1844) ------------------------------------------------------------------- History of Harrison County, West Virginia, From the Early Days of Northwestern Virginia to the Present. by Henry Haymond Acme Publishing Company, Morgantown, W.Va., 1910 Pages 376-377 Elias Hughes was born on the South Branch of the Potomac, his birth occuring sometime before Braddock's defeat in 1755. He first appears on the public stage as a soldier participating in the battle of Point Pleasant in 1774, in which he took an active part. He was the last survivor of that conflict and lived seventy years after it was fought. He next appears in Harrison County where for many years he was engaged as a scout, watching the Indian war parties and giving notices of their approach to the settlers of the Monongahela Valley, and in this capacity he was of great service to the frontier by his activity and knowledge of Indian war-fare. He pre-empted 400 acres of land in 1770 on the West Fork River near the mouth of Hacker's Creek. Hughes' father, and others of his kindred, and a young lady to whom he was much attached were murdered by the Indians. These acts of barbarity made him ever after an unrelenting and merciless enemy of the Indian race and he never spared one of them when opportunity occurred. The Indian troubles having ceased by the treaty at Greenville in 1795, Hughes' services not being longer required, he entered into the employment as a hunter for a party of surveyors in Ohio, probably under the direction of John G. Jackson, Deputy Surveyor under Rufus Putnam, Surveyor for the United States Government. Hughes was attracted by the fine appearance of the land on Licking River and concluded to locate on it, so in 1797 with his wife and twelve children, his nephew John Ratcliff with his wife and four children on foot and pack horses started west and settled on what is called the Bowling Green on the banks of the Licking four miles East of the present City of Newark. This colony of twenty one souls was the first permanent white settlement in the present County of Licking, State of Ohio. In 1801 four horses were stolen by two Indians from Hughes and his neighbors. They were followed and overtaken and though his companions endeavored to pursuade Hughes to spare their lives he strenuously objected, his old hatred for the race was too great to be overcome and the horse thieves paid the penalty. Although about sixty years of age he served in the war of 1812, as also did three of his sons, one of whom died from disease. He died in 1844 at about the age of ninety years and was buried with Military honors. For many years he was a pensioner and during the latter part of his life he was afflicted with blindness. Hughes was a quiet unassuming law abiding citizen, of a good disposition and had the respect of his neighbors. He was reasonable on all subjects but that of Indian warfare. He was a true child of the frontier and never forgave the savages for their merciless war on helpless women and children. ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other biographies for Harrison County, WV by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/wv/harrison/bios.html -------------------------------------------------------------------