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Big Bottom Burial Ground
Stockport, Morgan County, Ohio

Lat: 39° 31' 58"N, Lon: 81° 46' 27"W
T8N R11W Sec 32

Contributed by Julie Witkowski, Nov 29, 2006 [jfwski@hotmail.com]. Total records = 12.

To reach this cemetery from Stockport drive south on Hwy 266 about 2 miles. Turn right or west into Big Bottom State Park, situated toward the south end of the park. (Big Bottom was originally in Washington County but the county line was changed in 1818 moving it into Morgan County)

A few years after the settlement at Big Bottom, on Jan 01, 1791 a war party of 15 Delaware and Wyandot Indians from the north attacked the unexpecting settlers. This surprise attack killed nine men, one woman, and two children by either bullet wounds or a tomahawk. Only one Indian was injured and that was by Mrs. Meeks swift action with an axe, but she was killed before she could strike a second blow. Only three people escaped: Mr. Asa & his wife, Eleazer Bullard and 16 year old Philip Stacy.

The day after the attack Capt Rogers led a party of men over to Big Bottom. They found that the Indians had removed everything they thought valuable, and then they tore up the floor, piled it on the dead bodies and set it on fire, planning to destroy the block-house with the bodies of their enemies. The building was made of green beech logs, so the fire only consumed the floors and roof, leaving the walls still standing.

The action of the fire had so blackened and disfigured the dead, that few of them could be distinguished. Ezra Putnam was known by a pewter plate that lay under him, and which his body had prevented from entirely melting. William James was recognized by his great size, being six feet four inches in height, and stoutly built. He had a piece of bread clenched in his right hand, probably in the act of eating, with his back to the door, when the fatal rifle shot took effect. As the ground was frozen outside, a hole was dug within the walls of the house and the bodies consigned to one grave.

I visited and transcribed this burial site in the spring of 2006. All names are included on one single monument.

- Julie Witkowski

Camp, John, d. 2 Jan 1791
Clark, Joseph, d. 2 Jan 1791
Couch, James, d. 2 Jan 1791
Farwell, Jonathan, d. 2 Jan 1791
James, William, d. 2 Jan 1791
Meeks, Child 1, d. 2 Jan 1791, c/o Isaac
Meeks, Child 2, d. 2 Jan 1791, c/o Isaac
Meeks, Isaac, d. 2 Jan 1791
Meeks, Wife, d. 2 Jan 1791, w/o Isaac
Putnam, Ezra, d. 2 Jan 1791, s/o Major Putnam
Stacey, John, d. 2 Jan 1791
Throop, Zebulon, d. 2 Jan 1791