A land beyond a vast forest with rolling hills and uninterrupted woodlands unspoiled by the presence of civilization. That was the sight Andrew Dye witnessed sometime around the year 1771, when he first came to lands across the Allegheny Mountains and on the far side of the Monongahela River. He was a young man, just 27 years old, with a young wife and two children under the age of three; with them he had made the journey from New Jersey, across the wide expanse of Pennsylvania to a new land, new ideals, and a place where a man was in charge of his own destiny.
There were few settlers in those days; small cabins and farmsteads were sporadically located across the landscape, and the threat of Indian attack was ever present. Andrew had found his way up Whitely Creek to the vicinity of Garards Fort, a large stockade that provided a safe haven for the few settlers in the area when the threat of attack heightened. For a small frontier fort, Garards Fort was a busy place. Traders and trappers made frequent stops, and certainly tales were told about the lands on the Ohio River, and down into Kentucky. Jacob VanMeter, who spent quite a bit of time at the fort, was just beginning to make runs up and down the Ohio River, exploring new and unseen land.
Times were tough, and these people were tougher than the time in which they lived; Andrew was a hunter, and later his eldest son James inherited that trait. Just a few miles west of the fort, Andrew found a serene valley that he called “Sparrows Nest” and that’s where he made his home.
He began clearing the land. This was the first thing settlers did on the western frontier; clear a plot of land to farm, keep livestock and build a home. Today, Andrew’s land is known as Patterson Run, turning off Kirby Road right by the mine. Back then, there wouldn’t have been a road in sight, and at best, a dirt trail was the route that Andrew would have used each month to go to the meetings and services at the Goshen Baptist Church at Garards Fort, established by the Reverend John Corbly.
In 1782, disaster struck the community around Garards Fort. On the first Sunday in May, John Corbly and his family were walking from their home to the Goshen Baptist Church; John was slowly strolling behind his family while meditating on his sermon when Indians attacked the family, killing many of them.
Andrew Dye and his eldest son James, a mere thirteen years old at the time, were also on their way to the church, and they were among the first to assist Corbly after the attack. Several such attacks had happened over the years leading up to 1782 and they would continue well into the 1790s.
This was the world that Andrew knew, a hard life but rich in the reward of a hard day’s work. Each day was about survival, ensuring your crops would get you through winter and staying vigilant against the ever-present threat of attack.
From 1782 till 1789, Andrew and his family attended the Goshen Baptist Church, though not without incident. From 1788 to late 1789, it appears Andrew had a falling out with the church. He was censured several times for swearing and quarrelling and eventually excommunicated on December 19, 1789. From what records show, it seems that this was the end of Andrew’s time in Garards Fort. In 1790, his eldest son James, now 23 and with children of his own, acquired land further west in what would later become Gilmore Township on the waters of Dunkard Creek. Andrew went with him. By this time, Andrew had nine children, and his wife Sarah would give birth to their tenth and final child in 1791.
On Dunkard, James Dye built a mill and a large log home, with plenty of farmland, good crops, and lots of livestock. Still, Andrew wasn’t satisfied. Perhaps carrying on the tradition of his distant ancestors who left Denmark in the 1600s and settled on what is now Manhattan Island, he was ready to continue west.
During the 1790s, Andrew made several trips down the Ohio River and into the Ohio country; he acquired a large tract of land in Mason County, Kentucky and stayed there for a season or two, leaving his family behind on the land owned by his son James in western Pennsylvania. Somewhere around this time, Andrew’s wife Sarah died, leaving him a widower and strengthening his desire to permanently settle in the west.
In 1794, General Mad Anthony Wayne, the man for whom Waynesburg is named, defeated the Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timbers and restored peace to the western frontier. Settlers began flooding into the Ohio country. By this point, Andrew owned land in Greene County, Pa. and Mason County, Ky. and was hunting, trapping, and trading all over the upper Ohio Valley. In 1803, Ohio formed as a state, and Andrew settled in Miami County, Ohio – a great distance north of his lands in Kentucky. Andrew brought several of his children with him to the Ohio country, though James, his oldest, stayed behind in Pennsylvania and became a successful farmer and miller, and a prominent Justice of the Peace. James was the law of the land in southern Greene County in those years.
Andrew would remarry and have several more children, many of which would stay in the area surrounding his settlement in Miami County. Some would continue west and settle in places as far as Illinois. Andrew would stay in Miami County, where he died in 1835 at the age of 91.
Andrew’s story is not unique – most men of his day lived a similar lifestyle, hunting, trapping, finding land and raising a family, like the Pilgrims who first landed at Plymouth in 1620. Like them, Andrew and the first settlers of this region were made of tough stock and appreciated the security of a warm bed and a safe place to call home. Such things were a luxury in those times, not to be taken for granted.
Perhaps this is the reason why, when tracing the history of Thanksgiving, not only the Pilgrims, but settlers in Virginia and Spanish explorers and settlers would all lay claim to starting the tradition we now celebrate every November. Most holidays observe a specific occasion or event, but perhaps Thanksgiving is one holiday where we can celebrate a way of thinking more than a singular, specific event. Andrew, like his predecessors, would have constantly been thankful for the bounty that life provided him. Even in the most difficult times, we generally remain safe and free, and these early settlers didn’t always know that feeling. Let us all be thankful for the great things that life has given to us.