Enoch Enochs (abt. 1774 - abt. 1824)

Born about 1774 in Tenmile Creek, Greene, Province of Pennsylvania

Ancestors

Husband of Sarah (Forshey) Enochs — married about 1797 in Fishing Creek, Virginia, United States

Descendants

Died about 20 Mar 1824 at about age 50 in Monroe, Ohio, United States

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Biography

Enoch was born about 1774. He passed away about 1824.

From CHARACTER SKETCHES of Some Families in Noble County, Ohio by M. B. Archer

Enoch Enochs, better known as Little Ene, son of Captain Enochs, was a quaint and curious character, and so many stories have been told of him, that his name has become almost historical.

This Enoch was a rambler, and followed the river for 40 years.

In the story, "Christina," written by us, some years ago, he was one of the characters, and on one occasion (in the story) in company with Martin Crow they appeared in Marietta, and imbibing too freely of Jamaica Rum, they were arrested by the solders at Fort Harmer, and were locked up in the Fort. In the night that followed, by a clever ruse, Enoch escaped, and made his way to the edge of the river, and there watching the lashing of the water against the side of a flat boat that lay there, said, #I never seen so many soap suds in my life, I didn't.#

(Here I will quote in full from a chapter in the story.)

"The captain gave this order, 'in five minutes pull the plank.' By this time the captain had discovered him, and walking up to him, tapped him on the shoulder and said:

"Where are you bound for?" (meaning, of course, to ascertain what his fare should be.)

"But we must have your fare, and in order to ascertain what you should pay, we should know your destination."

"Can't tell; I ain't there yit. You see, me and Mart Crow and Fred Crow and Lewis Wetzel started the other morning fur to go over to the Scioto to git a lot of Redskins that had done some murderin' upon Wheelin' Creek and Fred and me got as fur as Ma- re-at-te, and a couple of fellers wearin' blue coats came up to me, and said they wanted me over at the fort. Poor Fred, he jist took to his heels and wandered off into the woods, and God knows, maybe the wolves have eat him up."

Here tears filled his eyes, and the captain became quite interested in him. Aside from his drollery he was a typical backwoodsman. His hair fell unkempt in long, yellow links over his shoulders, and scattering patches of beard were making efforts to appear on his face. He lost his gun and equipments at the fort.

"Then you have no destination, or point, where you expect to leave the boat?"

"No, Cap; we've been wandering 'round in the woods fer several days. I'm gittin' tired of that, so I am. The feller up at the fort said we was drunk, he did, and said we was outlaws and jist took me over and socked me in the cellar at the fort, he did. I jist sware pint blank I only took two mugs o' cider#strongest cider I ever seed, it was."

"Do you expect to remain here until you are carried off in a box? But what do you know about Lewis Wetzel?"

The flatboat was part of the machinery of our western civilization, and the savage had been as a great a hindrance to their free navigation as they had been to the advance of the western settlements. Wetzel was, by force of circumstances, their friend. The flatboatman was Wetzel's friend; and it followed that if this newcomer was in any way closely associated with Wetzel, they were his friends.

"Jist knowed Lewis Wetzel all me life; jist lived a short piece down the creek from Dad's clearin', they did."

"May we ask what is your name?"

"Enoch Enochs, from Wheeling Creek. They call me ' Little Ene ' to home, they do."

"Do you want to hire on this boat?"

"Well, Cap., I don't want to git into the woods again, I don't."

"Well, you may consider yourself hired, and we shall pay you eight dollars per month and found."

In this short chapter we cannot follow Enoch Enochs for the forty years he followed the Ohio and Mississippi and can only relate one or two of the adventures with which he was connected. He was by no means a coward, but when "riled' or the occasion demanded, he was as ferocious as a wild beast. He also possessed a fertile brain and had in his odd way a profound wisdom. On one occasion when the boat was tied up near a farmer's cabin, "Ene" noticed a flock of turkeys near the bank. He made a dash among them, chasing a large gobbler into the very dooryard of the cabin. "He got away, he did," and the settler and his family, thinking the gobbler had escaped from the boat, turned out and assisted him in catching the fowl, when "Ene" triumphantly carried it away amid the cheers of those on the boat.

On another occasion, he had secured a calf from a settler in almost the same manner; but the settler from whom the calf had been taken, soon discovered his loss, when he gathered up his neighbors and made for the landing.

As the boat was nearing the landing, "Ene" saw an unusual number on the shore, and could see several hiding behind trees. He took in the situation in a moment. He procured a white sheet and covered the calf with it (the calf had been skinned and was lying on a puncheon bench.) The plank was hardly thrown, when on they came with a rush, a dozen or more. Their feet had hardly struck the boat, when "Ene" ran forward saying: "Be keerful there, stand back; he's got the smallpox, he has."

This was enough; they fell back in utter confusion; some over the plank, while others rushed pellmel over the edge of the boat and went sprawling into the water and with difficulty saved drowning themselves.

On another occasion, when their provisions were running low, "Ene" had gone a distance into the country on a foraging expedition, when he came to a cabin. The chickens were roosting on the top of the chimney, and in order to procure them, "Ene" was forced to climb to the top. The chimneys in those days, were made of split-stick, filled with mortar. As he reached for two large hens, that were occupying the topmost perch on the chimney, (he could see them in the moonlight) it caved in, and he, chickens and all, landed on the inside. In the inside of the cabin, a young man was "sitting up" with his best girl. This strange apparition, falling from the clouds through the cabin, as it seemed to them, frightened them out of their senses, when the young man threw both arms up and fell backward with the wild cry:

"Jesus Christ!"

"No tain't Jesus Christ, it ain't; it's little Enoch Enochs, and if you'll open the door, he'll go out, he will!"

On another occasion, when the boat was far down the river, a very slick gentlemen (as the boys said) came on board. He was known to be the worst gambler and meanest cut-throat on the river.

"Boys, if you play with that fellow, bet on poor hands, and beware of 'fours and fulls."

"Ene" was no slouch at straight poker (this was the game in those days). He had learned this game at the fort at Wheeling. He had been an apt scholar and could look sour and disappointed when he had "fours" or a "full." Not long after this slick gentleman had taken passage, the boys got an invitation to engage in a "social" game of poker, and like the "Wooing Widow," they all said "no."

"Ene" was the last to be invited to the game. He declined, but as the gambler was turning away, "Ene" called him back.

"Say, mister, if you jist won't cheat, we'll try you for a small stake, we will."

It was a beautiful evening, and the last rays of the western sun were disappearing in the horizon, as the company were being seated around a table in the middle of the boat. A bountiful supply of pine knots were lighted for the occasion. Several hands had been run off and had been won by different ones around the board, except our slick gambler, who had not won a single hand. He appeared to look chagrined and disappointed. As the cards were being tossed in for a new deal, "Ene" noticed the gambler slip a card in his sleeve, at the same time scanning his own, he discovered an ace. With one hand, he cast in four cards, secreting the ace in the palm of the other hand, and as he pretended to adjust his stool, he slipped the ace between his thigh and the stool. In like manner he purloined from the deck all four of the aces, keeping a steady a steady eye on the gambler to ascertain when he should do the same with his own hand. The gambler knew, of course, that if #Ene# should get a good hand, those of his associates would back him for all that could be raked up around the boat. He had not taken the four aces himself, for the reason that the suspicion of crooked dealing would be more easily allayed in taking four deuces. The pot had been passed out until it contained a nice roll. He ran "Ene" three kings and two jacks (these from the bottom of the deck where he had placed them). The first four cards were two kings and two jacks. "Ene" knows what is coming, and as he reached for the fifth card, his hand trembled visibly, (this, of course, he put on), and as he raised the fifth card, which was a king, he involuntarily straightened back with a look of profound joy (and this was put on also). He now with two hands catches his stool, and leaning forward, adjusts it nearer the table, and in doing so he exchanges the "full" for the "fours." It is the man first to the left of the gambler who must start in the betting. His hand only a moderate one, and he casts in a Spanish dollar. "Ene," who was opposite the gambler, called to give him a chance to raise. The man to "Ene's" left called also, when the gambler slipped in a Spanish dollar, and in addition, laid in a gold eagle.

"I make it twenty harder."

The two players, sitting on either side of him, threw their hands to the center # using the gambler's slang.

"It's no use, he's stole the deck."

"Throw 'em in, 'Ene,' and save your money."

"I sware pine blank, afore I'll throw these cards in, I'll jist chance my hope of the new Jerusalem, I will."

Which the gambler followed with this jolly -- "and that would not call my bet."

By this time the boys had gathered around "Ene," and knowing that four aces was the best hand in the deck, they divined what had happened. "Ene" unbuckled his belt and making the $20 good, raised the gambler $100, all the money he possessed. As he put in the $100, he laid his cards face down on the table and plunged a huge dirk through them, into the table, which was the custom in those days when a large stake was up.

"Anchor," shouted "Ene," now getting in deep earnest. The gambler pulled a large dirk and anchored his cards as "Ene" had suggested.

Then each laid a large horse-pistol by the side of their cards as a reminder that the anchor should not be lifted.

The gambler is flush with money, having just returned from a big winning at New Orleans.

The boat people possessed quite a sum of money in the aggregate, besides they were carrying in the strong box a large amount of money going into the Western settlements, all of which was placed in "Ene's" hands for the occasion. Raise after raise came from each as they glared at each other like two wild beasts. At last, when "Ene" and his friends had piled in a sum equal to $10,000, the gambler called him and almost intuitively reached for the pile. Clutching his pistol a little harder and pressing his teeth a little closer, #Ene# said:

"Jist hold on, pard; show your hand."

The gambler threw down four deuces with an air of triumph and haughtiness.

"Sorry to tell you, pard, but they ain't good; I've four ones," and he thrust them on the table.

The gambler said not a word, (for he knew he had been beaten at his own game), but straightened up from his chair, walked to the prow of the boat, and placing his pistol to his temple, sent a tiny bullet into his brain. He reeled from the boat and falling into the swirl, was carried under and was never seen again.

But to your story -- Enoch Enochs had gone with his boat for several days, down the river, when a leak sprung, and they were obliged to pull in for repairs, and while this was being done, Enoch hired on another boat which was returning up the river, which at the end of several days returned to Marietta.

As they pulled up to the landing, Enoch noticed a young man standing on the bank whom he recognized as Stephen Forshire, Jr. (7) (Marietta was the trading point for the new colony.)

(7) The surname today is spelled FORSHEY in Noble Co, as will be seen in comparing the FORSHIREs listed in the Franklin Twp, Monroe Co. U.S. Census of 1830 with the 1850 census for Franklin Twp, Noble Co. There are many Forshey-Enochs marriages recorded in the earliest records of Guernsey and Monroe Counties.

For some reason "Ene's" boat was to be delayed for several weeks. He was told by young Forshire that his people had moved into Ohio, and that he was soon going back to the new settlement.

"Steve, I'll jist go up to the new settlement and see how things are goin' and where your're at, I will."

So, on the very night on which Nancy Archer and Christina Crow bounded so lightly from the Archer cabin to meet McBride, and the Crow boys, Enoch Enochs and Steve Forshire, Jr. were at the cabin of Steve Forshire, Sr.

Sources

• 1820 United States Census: "United States Census, 1820", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHG3-SQM : Thu Jul 20 23:04:51 UTC 2023), Entry for Enoch Enochs, 1820.

Enoch Enochs in Entry for Joseph Enochs: "Ohio, County Death Records, 1840-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F6JR-R4X : 1 March 2021), Enoch Enochs in entry for Joseph Enochs, 05 Aug 1871; citing Death, Pomeroy, Salisbury Township, Meigs, Ohio, United States, source ID v 1 p 38 fn 3, County courthouses, Ohio; FHL microfilm 313,469.

Noble County, Ohio History and Biography: Ancestry.com. Noble County, Ohio History and Biography [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. Original data: History of Noble County, Ohio with Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men. Chicago, IL, USA: L. H. Watkins, 1887.

U.S., Indexed Early Land Ownership and Township Plats, 1785-1898: National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; Township Plats of Selected States; Series #: T1234; Roll: 50

FamilySearch Information: https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/L6H7-M34

The Tenmile Country and Its Pioneering Families: https://books.google.com/books?id=UM7gBFLDzvkC&pg=PA20&lpg=PA20&dq=capt+william+crawford,+frontier+rangers&source=bl&ots=8-gCk-M7wu&sig=ACfU3U27IogCD8_yvxp4m6QQQlUE2BQjfQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjX-uOfmtLpAhUBIqwKHfA1CXo4ChDoATAAegQICRAB#v=onepage&q=enoch%20enochs&f=false

Enochs Family History: file:///C:/Users/Default.Default-PC/Pictures/Add%20to%20Family%20Tree/Enochs%20Family%20History.pdf

Historical Records of the Enoch Family in Virginia & Pennsylvania by Harry G Enoch, pg 136: https://books.google.com/books?id=W4whBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA134&lpg=PA134&dq=capt+william+crawford,+frontier+rangers&source=bl&ots=rlCQnfTc36&sig=ACfU3U0pQOeHc7mScGIRrWCw6V30bZTDqw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiDhLuVl9LpAhVNSq0KHY31DbUQ6AEwBXoECAwQAQ#v=onepage&q=capt%20william%20crawford%2C%20frontier%20rangers&f=false

CHARACTER SKETCHES of Some Families in Noble County, Ohio by M. B. Archer: http://www.archercousins.com/ArcherAssn/mba.htm