{"id":10054,"date":"2021-09-01T11:12:20","date_gmt":"2021-09-01T15:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/?p=10054"},"modified":"2021-09-01T18:21:31","modified_gmt":"2021-09-01T22:21:31","slug":"mccollochs-leap-and-other-wheeling-wayside-adventures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/mccollochs-leap-and-other-wheeling-wayside-adventures","title":{"rendered":"McColloch\u2019s Leap and Other Wheeling Wayside Adventures"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\u2014 by Marcia Hartman<\/em>\n

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Note:<\/strong> This story originally appeared in the March 2021 edition, Volume 6 Issue 6 of The Crossroads<\/a> <\/em>magazine, part of The Journal and the Noble County Leader, <\/em>www.journal-leader.com<\/a>. <\/em>Copyright Southeast Publications, Caldwell, Ohio. It is reprinted with permission.<\/p>\n

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Preview:<\/strong> We talk about taking a leap when someone tries a risky venture. Not many take a leap like Sam McColloch did in 1777<\/a>! Just one of several adventures across the river in Wheeling.<\/p>\n

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McColloch\u2019s Leap<\/h2>\n
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Oil on canvas, artist unknown, probably a copy after a lithograph by Karl Bodmer and Jean Francois Millet, 1852. Courtesy of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West<\/a>, Cody, Wyoming; Whitney Western Art Museum; Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch. 10.77.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1777, Samuel McColloch<\/a> (1752-1782) was a major in the local militia and commander of Fort Van Meter<\/a> located about seven miles north of Wheeling near what is now Clinton, West Virginia \u2014 a few miles northeast of Oglebay Park. Samuel served in the militia alongside his brother John. In 1770, the McCollochs emigrated from land they owned on the South Potomac, near where Moorefield, West Virginia is today, and settled on Short Creek where Fort Van Meter was built. The family is thought to have been somewhat more educated than most other early settlers. McColloch served different positions in government during his life and was third in command of the nine militia companies in the Ohio County Militia. (Interestingly, one of the McCollochs\u2019 sisters married Col. Ebenezer Zane<\/a>, making her a sister-in-law to Betty Zane<\/a>, who is credited with saving Fort Henry during a later Indian attack.)<\/p>\n

On September 1, 1777, a messenger brought the soldiers at Fort Van Meter an urgent plea for help from Fort Henry<\/a>. Fort Henry was located in the area near Main and 11th Streets in present-day downtown Wheeling. The fort protected the 25 or so cabins that were the beginning of Wheeling. Normally, there would have been around 40 soldiers in Fort Henry<\/a>, but only 16 were there on this day because a number had been lost in recent battles with the Indians. Major McColloch learned of the situation at Fort Henry no later than 10:00 a.m. and, although many say he rode to the rescue with 30 or 40 men, it\u2019s doubtful he had time that day to find so many. More likely he hurried to Wheeling with two other men as historian Joe Roxby reports. McColloch wanted to respond quickly because he knew his sister Elizabeth and brother John were trapped at Fort Henry. Fourteen additional reinforcements from Cross Creek, under leadership of a Capt. VanSwearingen, also arrived that day and fought their way into Fort Henry without loss of any men.<\/p>\n

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Postcard depiction of Fort Henry, Wheeling, Virginia 1774-1783. \u2014 OCPL Archives.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was said there were 300 Indians attacking Fort Henry. Shawnee, Wyandot, and Iroquois were the tribes in the Ohio Valley that were battling with settlers at the time. According to local historian Alan Fitzpatrick, this \u201craid was a Wyandot affair, led by Dunquat<\/a> the Half King and War Chief. He had his scouts arrive beforehand and stay hidden\u2026.[and] Dunquat posted warriors on Wheeling Hill\u201d to keep watch for other soldiers who might arrive.<\/p>\n

Major McColloch and his soldiers planned to approach the fort quietly and then put on a final burst of speed and shoot any Indians who tried to interfere. McColloch was in the lead but found his plan stymied as he was surrounded by Indians who were trying to pull him out of the saddle. It was concerning to him that they did not shoot him when they were close enough to easily do so. He knew they wanted to take him alive and probably torture him to death for the psychological advantage they would gain from inflicting such a death on an important militia commander. This possibly gave McColloch the impetus to break free. He headed at a gallop towards Wheeling Hill to escape.<\/p>\n

McColloch was riding a powerful brown gelding, but the seven-mile gallop to Wheeling had tired the animal. The Indians were on foot but were gaining on the horse and rider as McColloch reached the steep summit of the hill along where the National Road was eventually constructed just below the highest level of the hill that is now known as Mt. Wood. Accounts vary as to the height of the hill at the point where McColloch was forced to stop but is generally thought to be 300 feet. The Indians chasing McColloch were 50 yards away as he crested the hill, and suddenly, more appeared on the trail coming from the north, while others came from the woods to the west. McCulloch was cut off in all directions save the precipice to the east. He took what he thought would be a chance \u2013 if not to survive, at least a chance for a quicker death. So he forced his horse off the precipice. The cliff was perpendicular at first, but amazingly, the horse landed on smooth rock and was able to slide and scramble the rest of the way down.<\/p>\n

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Illustration of \u201cMcColloch\u2019s Leap\u201d from History of West Virginia in Two Parts<\/em>, by Virgil A. Lewis, 1889. Ohio County Public Library Archives, Special Collections.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Indians were reportedly watching from the top of the hill and were astonished to see McCollough and his horse emerge from the woods at the bottom, turn right and trot down Wheeling Creek \u2013 essentially unscathed. McColloch rode away and back to Fort VanMeter. Some accounts say the Indians spontaneously erupted in cheers after witnessing the feat he and his horse were able to achieve. Reportedly, they did not attack Fort Henry after this, although they burned some cabins and killed some cattle.<\/p>\n

This tale is pretty exciting, so I was eager to see where it happened. You can find the historical marker for the Leap along Route 40 \u2013 near the intersection with Stone Boulevard. At that intersection, there\u2019s a large statue representing a \u201cMingo\u201d<\/a> Indian. In 1928, the Kiwanis Club and George W. Lutz, an important businessman and philanthropist, presented the statue to the City of Wheeling. The plaque reads, \u201cThe Mingo, the original inhabitant of this valley, extends greetings and peace to all wayfarers.\u201d (However, the name Mingo is considered to be an English name for people who were part of the Seneca Indians and not a name they would call themselves. See the sidebar below for the Indian point of view about all this warfare that McColloch was facing.) The site of the Leap is just a half a block past the statue, but you can\u2019t park there. If you head down the road over the Indian\u2019s left shoulder, you\u2019ll find a few parking spaces.<\/p>\n

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This granite and bronze monument at the crest of Wheeling Hill on U.S. 40 marks the site of Samuel McColloch\u2019s famous leap. The monument was erected by the Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution in West Virginia in 1917. From the collections of the Ohio County Public Library Archives. Donated by Bertha Loth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My husband and I walked to the marker, looked over the edge of McColloch\u2019s Leap, and simultaneously said, \u201cNo Way!\u201d It was hard to take a photograph to adequately show the steepness of this drop because of all the small trees and brush in the way. You would think those trees would have impaled the horse before he ever got to any place on the hill with enough of a grade to make sliding possible \u2013 and even though the vegetation impeded the view, it didn\u2019t look like that sort of hillside was anywhere close! My next thought was, \u201cWere any witnesses to this ever interviewed!?\u201d<\/p>\n

An investigation was called for. Comments on the Emerging Revolutionary War Era website<\/a> by an individual who identified as a geologist suggested the hill was different then. The commenter reported the hill was 200, not 300 feet, and composed of material that would weather and erode easily. This individual felt there would have been a relatively small, sheer drop over a level of sandstone with the rest of the hill being comprised of softer pieces of material at a less dramatic angle, so a well-conditioned horse could slide down it. This individual thought some of the lower slope may have later been cut away to be used as fill for the industrial park across the creek. It still would have been quite the feat \u2013 but the McCollochs were known as accomplished horsemen and could possibly have pulled it off. This viewpoint appears to be corroborated by some 1888 and 1889 pictures the Ohio County Public Library has in its archives. You can see along the top of the 1889 photo that the leap would have been straight down at first \u2013 but then both photos look to me to show a more gradual slope after the initial drop. With the vegetation on the hill today, it\u2019s hard to tell if that slope still exists although the historians associated with the library believe it does resemble the slope as it was in the 1880s and that it was not carved up for fill or any other projects.<\/p>\n