Big Bottom Massacre

Following the American Revolution, the new federal government sold millions of acres of western lands to land companies for operating funds. The Ohio Company of Associates brought settlement to Marietta in 1788, and two years later, despite warnings of Native American hostility, an association of 36 company members moved north from Marietta to settle Big Bottom, a large area of level land on the east side of the Muskingum River. Although the settlers were acquainted with Native American warfare, they built an unprotected outpost, leaving the blockhouse unfinished, without pickets around it, and without posting a sentry. On January 2, 1791, a war party of 25 Delaware and Wyandot Indians from the north attacked the unsuspecting settlers, killing nine men, one woman, and two children. War continued throughout the Ohio Country until August 1794, when the tribes were defeated at the Battle of Fallen Timbers.

Ohio · United States