John Bartle
1745-1845
Captain John Bartle was born 2 Apr 1745 in New York City, fought in the Revolutionary War and was wounded leading his company of New York militia against General Burgoyne's redcoats at the battle of Freeman's Farm, New York in 1777. While a captain of Continental troops, he fell into Iroquois hands near Rome, New York in 1778 and was traded off from tribe to tribe until he was dragged at the end of a rope as far west as Lake Superior. His captivity lasted five years until a British colonel lent him 70 guineas (about $5300), the money demanded by the Indians for his release.
He migrated in 1789 to Lexington with a boat load of merchandise and opened a merchant's store; he then relocated his business the next year to Cincinnati, where he built that town's first shingled house and sold provisions to the army. Bartle had hired an agent to locate James Welch in an effort to purchase the land on the west side of the Licking River, present day Covington, but Thomas Kennedy found him first and bought the land.
Bartle then purchased four lots at Newport in 1791. He built his home on Second Street, at the southeast corner of Central-then Cabot Avenue. It would have been here that the first child born in Newport, his daughter Eliza, was delivered in 1791 or 1792. She died and her next sister took that name in 1793. Eliza became a life-long resident of Newport, grew up and married Elijah Pierce. Eliza died in 1876.
Children of John Bartle and wife
1. John Bartle
2. Eliza-b&d 1791
3. Eliza-1793-1876 m-Elijah Pierce
Bartle established Newport's first store and continued operating his original one near Ft. Washington. On November 9, 1793, the first edition of The Centinel of the North Western Territory came out, published by William Maxwell. John Bartle was the agent for taking subscriptions at Newport and he acted in this capacity until December 7, 1794.
By 1794 Bartle was operating a ferry to Cincinnati, but James Taylor filed suit in the nearest court at Limestone, against him. Taylor won the judgment affirming the Taylor's exclusive right to transport passengers across the Ohio. Bartle was a wealthy and sophisticated Continental veteran who commanded widespread respect.
Bartle resettled in the Indiana Territory in 1801, but came back to Newport after a few years and lived there until his death, 9 Dec 1845.