Contents 
Front Matter Benjamin's Story The Ohio Company Rufus Putnam Colonel Putnam, Engineer The First Emigrants Building a Fleet Campus Martius Arrival of General Putnam Work of the First Emigrants Clearing the Land How Our Company was Formed Making Ready for the Journey Concerning Myself Setting Out Mistress Devoll's Outfit At Providence The Road to Blooming Grove Plans for the Future On the Water Once More Feasting on Honey Among the Moravians The Rope Ferry The Way Thru Pennsylvania The Shame of the Girls Meeting With Parson Cutler Ohio Cornfields The Governor and Judges The Name of the Town Campus Martius Independence Day Master Devoll's House The Indian Mounds At Harrisburg Isaac Barker's Sport Uncle Daniel Carter Uncle Daniel Joins Us Hard Traveling Mud and Water A Storm of Snow Across the Mountains A Friendly Dunkard Master Hiples's Kindness A Surly Landlord Isaac Flogs the Landlord A Much Needed Lesson A Time of Rest Pack Trains A Night Adventure Women and Children Descending The Mountains The Foot of the Hills Nearing Journey's End At Sumrill's Ferry Parting With Uncle Daniel Our Flatboat The Cattle Are Sent Away At Pittsburgh Too Much Water Escape of the Women Repairing Damages Our Pilot A Change Of Weather Noisy Fear A Real Feast Finding The Canoe Buffalo Creek A March Across Country At Marietta Plans for the Future Inspecting Marietta A Temporary Home Buying Land Visiting the Savages Captain Haskell's Advice A New Friend Fishing Through the Ice The Sabbath in Marietta A Regular Business A Visit from the Savages Building a Home A Great Project The Two Millers Savages on the Warpath

Benjamin of Ohio - James Otis




The Rope Ferry

We stayed longer in Bethlehem than we were warranted in doing, when one takes into consideration the length of the journey before us; but it was all so entertaining, so peaceful, and there was such an air of friendliness among the people, that I was sorry when we drove out of the town, hoping to find lodgings for the night at the house of a German, eight miles beyond.

And so we journeyed on without adventure until we came to the Lehigh River, and there I saw what I dare say no fellow in Massachusetts has laid eyes upon. It was called a rope ferry, by means of which we were to cross the river.

Ben Cushing claims that there is nothing wonderful about this ferry, for it consists simply of a rope stretched from one bank of the river to the other; to this, attached by a noose, or, in other words, a hawser which will readily slip, the ferryboat is made fast in such a manner that the stern is lower downstream than the bow, and the current catching this, forces the boat along.

[Illustration] from Benjamin of Ohio by James Otis

Perhaps I haven't made this very plain to you, but it is operated on the principle of force applied to what might be called an inclined plane; therefore, since the craft cannot be shoved downstream by the current, it must be urged toward the opposite shore.

At all events to me it was a great curiosity, whether Ben Cushing thought it so or not, and I studied the general arrangement so carefully that if we should need anything of the kind in this country, I am quite certain I could build one.