The Van Bibbers

THE VAN BIBBERS

In our “Reminiscences, No. 1,” we spoke of Peter Van Bibber [also found spelled Van Bever and Benbever] as one of the first half dozen settlers in Lawrence County, Ohio, and who built a cabin in 1798, below Union Landing.

The next year, 1799, James and Jacob Van Bibber, brothers of Peter, settled and built cabins just below the mouth of Ice Creek. The Van Bibbers were from the Kanawha. Jacob settled and lived for many years on Little Sandy, and we suppose he died there.

During the Indian wars, while the Van Bibber family was living on Kanawha, James and Jacob, then small boys, went out to hunt their horse in the “range.” A bell had been put on the horse, but as it appears, two Indians had taken the bell off and used it as a decoy; they jingled, and the boys followed, and finally, they sprung upon the boys. One of them seized Jacob, but James, the older one, darted from the other Indian and ran so fast that he escaped.

Jacob was taken to the Indian towns as a prisoner. Some years afterward, the Indians were hunting on Raccoon, within the present limits of Gallia County and had young Van Bibber along. They sent him out for their horses at one time and became lost. He wandered to the bank of the Raccoon, which he knew would lead him to Ohio when he conceived the idea of returning home.

He came to Ohio, and a boat soon appeared, coming down. Those in it were afraid of his being an Indian decoy, but finally, after his telling who he was, they landed their women on the Virginia side and went over for him. Once on the Virginia shore, he soon made his way to his home on Kanawha. Some years afterward, the young Van Bibbers settled in Lawrence County, [Ohio], as mentioned before.

We will digress a little. After the settlements in this county, an Indian, one day, stopped at Luke Kelley’s and stayed there and among the near neighbors for some three or four days. He said he was going to Kanawha, but he found whisky here, and the love of it detained him. He told me about being at the Rock [Hanging Rock] very many times in years before.

At one time, when Mr. Kelley was taking a wild steer over the river, the Indian insisted that he should have the privilege of swimming the steer to prove that he knew how having done the same before at the Rock. He amused the boys very much by catching the wild young colts in open fields by their tails and swinging about all over a field–which colts the whites could only catch by getting them into a pen or a corner.

There was a rumor that the Indians, in years before, had buried treasure at the Rock. To get whisky, the Indians favored this rumor. For a glass, he would tell them where to look, but it would always happen that they did not look just at the right place, but for another glass, he would tell them the exact spot and so on.

On one occasion, while hunting for the treasure, they found an Indian’s bones, two thick bars of copper, and a shell drinking cup under a rock near where Z. Hall now lives; at another time, they found another Indian’s bones under a rock near the same place. At last, the Indian told them to go higher up, and they would find a tree with certain marks on it, and there they would find the sought riches.

And sure enough, they did find a tree, a buckeye with the marks the Indians had made on it some years before; this tree stood at the foot of the hill just above where the rolling mill now stands. For this, the Indian got a double drink; but no treasure was yet to be found. The Indian, thinking that he had got about all the whisky he could, was all at once among the missing.

After leaving below, the Indian, as it appears, went up to the cabins of the Van Bibbers below Ice Creek. He told the Van Bibbers that he was going to Kanawha, and they replied they used to live there. The Indian said he had been there before. “I tell you,” said he, “so you see, Indian, no lie. Indian was there with another Indian, and two little boys came to hunt horses.

We took the bell off the horse and lied with it to boys, and when we got ’em about right, we jumped at me, but my boy flew like a bird, and I didn’t catch him.” “Why law me,” exclaimed old lady Van Bibber, “that was you, James.” The Indian, seeing that he had exposed himself, kept silent and began to look for the door. James Van Bibber laughed and told him that it was peace and that he would not hurt him. The Indian was ill at ease and would not utter a syllable. They coaxed him to stay all night, but long before daylight, he got up and went out, the last seen of him.

We shall continue Mr. Kelley’s reminiscences next week.