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REDLONS OF HOLLIS, MAINE.
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sore that the emigrants made a stop of several weeks to give the horses
rest. They were in a Dutch settlement, and the men threshed grain and
the women spun linen to pay their board and horse-keeping. One of Mr.
Redlon's horses was not in a condition to travel at the time the others
were ready to resume their journey, and it was exchanged for a tight-
bitted mare." Samuel Ridlen, one of the sons of Abraham, informed
me that they had a very pleasant time on the way to Ohio. The men
raced horses by day, and at evening tested their strength by wrestling.
The women took their knitting-work with them and made the time profit-
able. The teams were drawn together in a circle at evening, and while
the men cared for the horses, the women were busy around the camp-fires
cooking food for supper. The women and children slept in the wagons,
and the men took turns in watching the horses. No serious accident oc-
curred till the train reached the Alleghany mountains, where they found
a hard road. The ascent was so steep they were obliged to put two
teams together and draw one wagon up the mountain a mile, and then
return for another. In going down on the Ohio side, the road was so
steep and rough that long poles were fastened to the sides of their car-
riages, and held by men on the upper side, to prevent them from cap-
sizing. On the way down, a colt, on which Timothy Redlon, Abraham's
eldest son, was riding, stumbled and threw the lad, breaking his arm. A
halt was made, and the arm dressed as best it could be, but it was very
painful, and the movements of the colt and the jolting of the wagons
caused the arm to swell badly.
At Redstone Creek, on the bank of the Ohio River, the company tar-
ried several days and built flat-boats upon which to transport their house-
hold goods down to Cincinnati. A young man had joined their company,
who claimed to be on his way to southern Obio, prospecting for farm-
land, and as he had no horse, Abraham consented to let him ride his
down the west side of the river, with the agreement that they should be
delivered to him in good condition when their boats landed at their des
tination. Having disembarked they waited in vain for the stranger and
horses to appear. Mr. Redlon went back and traced his horses till he
found one of them turned out by the roadside; the other he never heard
from. The recovered horse was too poor to drive, and it was exchanged
for a heifer, and a note for thirty dollars, which was never collected.
Abraham moved his family into some cabins owned by Abraham Town-
send, who had formerly lived at Little Falls Plantation, but had joined
the first company who emigrated to Ohio, and lived there that winter.
He had purchased land of Mr. Witham, and was to pay for it by split-
ting rails; consequently he built a rude lodge in the woods by setting
puncheons in a trench dug in the ground, which were chinked, and
roofed over with chestnut-bark; in this cabin Mr. Redlon and family lived
through the winter, and subsisted on a few bushels of meal, wild turkeys,
and venison brought to them by two hunters named Van Eaton, who
sometimes tarried with the family through the night. During the win-
ter Abraham and his eldest sons were employed making fence-rails. I
think one of the children was born in this bark-covered camp, and the
family suffered many hardships and deprivations during the time their
land was being cleared and comfortable buildings erected.
The New England families erected a church in their settlement, and
Mr. Witham became their preacher; the year 1801-2 witnessed a great
revival of religion in the neighborhood, and with many other families
