Some More About Patrick Gass-- Part 2

In 1775,  Gass' father moved over  South Mountain into Maryland.  From 1777 to 1780 the boy lived with his grandfather, and was supposed to go to school; but he says himself that he never learned  to read, write, or cipher till he had come of age.

His next recorded move was in 1780 memorable  for the severity of its winter and the deplorable state of the American  army.  In 1782 the family "went west" -- that is, across the Alleghenies.

In 1784 and the next year, they continued their movement westward, eventually reaching Catfish Camp, named after an Indian chief about half way between the Monongahela and Ohio rivers.  Here Patrick seems to have developed  some of his qualities, for he used to explore the vicinity, and has left his impressions  of the site, as it was in 1790, of what is now Wellsburg, W. Va.

By 1792, having attained his majority, he was stationed as a soldier under Captain Caton at Yellow Creek, guarding the frontier against Indians.  These had long been troublesome, and were just then elated at having defeated General Arthur St. Clair's army in November, 1791.  General Anthony Wayne was sent against them, and the militia all along the frontier was drafted into service.

Patrick had been serving in his father's place and was soon pressed into military service himself and stationed at Bennett's fort, on Wheeling Creek, near Wheeling; but he seems not to have had any  actual engagement.  Indian hostilities were soon put down entirely and forever in the region by the defeat of the Redskins on the Miami by General Wayne in August 1792.

--Brock-Perry

Lt.Col. Mills Stephenson-- Part 10: Running the Flat Boats

After the War of 1812 he acted as a sheriff of Adams County before the formation of Brown County.  Then he got into a milling business near Ripley, Ohio and built and ran flat boats from there to New Orleans.  He would build the flat boat and float it down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans, sell his cargo and break apart the boat and make his way back to Ripley over land.

On one of these trips, he contracted fever and died at Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 1823.  (This gives us two dates, 1822 and 1823 for when he died and two places, Helena, Arkansas, and Vicksburg, Mississippi.)

--Brock-Perry

Lt.Col. Mills Stephenson-- Part 5: Buried in Louisiana or Arkansas?

Mills Stephenson engaged in farming and boat building after the war.  He would build flat boats and float them down to New Orleans from Ripley, Ohio, on the Ohio River.

This source says that he died of swamp fever in Shreveport, Louisiana, on January 16, 1822.

So, there is some confusion of where he died.  Another source said he died in Helena, Arkansas, and is buried there.

--Brock-Perry