There was no one
to draw him out of danger, and before the pain brought him partially to
his senses, his leg was so badly burned that it had to be amputated.
There were no anaesthetics in those days, but while the leg was being
removed, a fife and drum corps played its hardest at the bedside, and
the doughty old warrior kept time to the music with his fingers.
He lived for ten years thereafter, though his paralysis never left him.
He felt keenly the ingratitude of the Republic which he had served so
well, and which yet, in his old age, abandoned him to want, and the
story is told that, when the state of Virginia sent him a sword of
honor, he thrust it into the ground and broke it with his crutch.
"I gave Virginia a sword when she needed one," he said; "but now, when I
need bread, she sends me a toy!"
* * * * *
In the settlement of the country north of the Ohio, one man, a veteran
of the Revolution, was foremost. His name was Rufus Putnam, and he was a
cousin of that Israel Putnam, some of whose exploits we will soon
relate. He has been well called the "Father of Ohio," for he was the
founder of the first permanent white settlement made within the borders
of the state. He was born in 1738, at Sutton, Massachusetts, and his
early life was a hard and rough one.
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