Was born in Bedford county, Pennsylvania, near Bloody run, in 1769. He was in Williamson’s campaign against the Moravian villages, on the Tuscarawas, in 1782, and was at the massacre of the Christian Moravians, and saw the burning of their houses. He was then quite young, but large of his age. Colonel David Williamson was a brother-in-law, and for that reason he was induced to accompany the expedition. He always disapproved that barbarous act, and often stated to his sons, that Williamson yielded a reluctant consent to the perpetration of that dreadful tragedy, being unable to control the violence of his soldiers, who were border volunteers, and had suffered much from Indian raids and depredations.

In the year 1810, Solomon Urie and his brother Thomas went on a hunting excursion across the Ohio and established a camp about midway between the present sites of Cadiz and New Philadelphia. They hunted together some days, and finally, in one of their trips through the forest in search of game, became separated. Thomas, having killed a bear, in the evening was conveying the skin toward the camp, which he had nearly reached, when he was shot and killed by Indians, who had taken possession of it, and were in ambush, watching his arrival. Solomon, at the same time, was approaching the camp from another direction, driving before him his horses, which had been belled and hoppled. When almost in sight of the camp, he heard a double crack of guns, and, fearing his brother might have been assailed by Indians, considered it prudent to leave his horses and carefully guard against surprise. When he came in sight of his camp, he saw two Indians plundering it, while a third was acting as sentinel. He raised his rifle to shoot the Indian guard, when his brother’s dog began to bark, which pointed out his position to the Indian. Mr. Urie comprehended the position at a glance. There were three Indians. To press forward might be fatal. In his rear was a swamp. To retreat in that direction would be folly. Summoning all his energies, he made a bold dash in the direction of the Indian sentinel. The Indian became alarmed and retreated, dodging behind trees to escape his white assailant. Mr. Urie pressed boldly forward, discovering as he went, the body of his brother Thomas. He successfully escaped the Indians, who pursued him some miles to the verge of a precipice, down which he plunged, and on descending to the bottom, discovered that he had broken the breach of his gun, the lock being uninjured. The Indians were amazed at the leap, and abandoned further pursuit. Mr. Urie continued his flight in the direction of the Ohio River, and, much to his surprise, came upon a camp formed of Captain Samuel Brady and other hunters. The next morning he and a number of others returned to his late camp and found Thomas covered with the skin of the bear he had shot the day before. The Indians had carried away one of his moccasins and a leggin. His body was pierced with two bullets, and scalped. A grave was dug with wooden shovels, into which his body was deposited, enclosed in a coffin made of puncheons. The Indians had departed with the horses, forty deer, ten bear, and ten beaver skins, and the entire stock of provisions and traps. Mr. Urie offered all the property to his new comrades if he would join him in the pursuit, capture and punishment of the Indians. It was regarded as too hazardous an undertaking, and he was reluctantly compelled to leave the murder of his brother unrevenged for the present.

He returned to his home in Washington county, resolved to retaliate on the red fiends of the Ohio forests at no distant day. When the war of 1812 was inaugurated, he and his son Samuel served three months on the borders of Canada, and rendezvoused at Black Rock. In the summer of 1814, Mr. Urie visited Orange township, and located a quarter section of land, and a quarter section in Montgomery township, and erected a small cabin and cleared a few acres of ground, and in the fall of 1815 removed to it with his family, which consisted of seven sons–Samuel, Thomas, David, Solomon, John, George W. and James; and two girls–Susannah and Elizabeth.

In the fall of 1815, he erected a blacksmith shop on his land, being the first one in Orange township, he being a blacksmith and gunsmith by trade. The first winter after his arrival, he killed forty deer, eight large black bears, a great number of wolves, and other game. On one occasion, there being considerable snow on the ground, he took an old horse and rode two or three miles north in the forest, hitched to a sapling, and, proceeding a short distance, shot a fine deer. Returning to the horse, he rode it through the undergrowth to the deer, tied a rope around its neck, fastened the other end to the tail of the horse, mounted, and rode home, dragging the deer after him. He had reached his cabin but a few minutes, when, as he was engaged in skinning the deer, a gang of hungry wolves, following his trail, appeared in the vicinity of his cabin. His dogs set up a furious barking and commenced an attack upon the wolves, when they soon fled into the forest. It was a narrow escape; for they were half famished for food. He was very successful in trapping wolves. He usually made a sort of triangular pen, arranging a large trap, so that the wolf would have to pass over it in reaching a piece of fresh meat which he placed in the narrow end, covering the trap with leaves. Having bent and trimmed a small sapling, he fastened the chain of the trap to it in such a manner that when the wolf attempted to back out, it would tread upon the trap, set it off, be caught by the hind legs, and elevated by the sapling. In this way, he captured a great many, a reward being offered for their scalps. Soon after the erection of his shop, Tom Lyons, Jonacake, Catotawa, and other Wyandot and Delaware Indians, came to have their tomahawks and guns repaired. They frequently brought bent gun-barrels to be straightened. Passing the barrel between the logs of his shop, he used sufficient force to spring it back, until the bend was out; then, taking a bow with a thong of deer sinews, he passed the thong through the barrel, and, springing it until it was tense, he could see whether any kinks were left in the barrel by sighting through the bore; and if any were discovered, he removed them by a wooden mallet, by laying the barrel on the end of a square block and striking on it, occasionally looking through the bore at a piece of white paper, to see if all the kinks were out. The Indians watched the operation very closely, insisting that he would “spoil gun.” After completing the work, Mr. Urie would challenge the Indians to shoot at a mark with him. Being a fine shot, always shooting off-hand, “Old Peel,” as he called his rifle, was sure to cut the paper. The Indians, being accustomed to shoot with a rest, made poor shots off-hand. When they were about to shoot, Urie, who was always brimful of fun and tricks, would stand close to his competitor, saying, “Indian stir mush,” “Cooza,” “No go,” when the Indian, becoming very nervous, would miss the mark, and Urie would laugh heartily. In this way, when he bet he won most of their furs and skins.

After the murder of his brother, Mr. Urie never entertained a very cordial feeling for the red race; and, on his hunting excursions along the Black river, from 1815 to 1825, though reticent on the subject, it is believed he more than once avenged the death of his brother.

Mr. Urie died in Montgomery township, July 7, 1830, aged nearly sixty-two years, and Mrs. Elizabeth Urie, his wife, in June, 1842, aged about seventy-three years. Colonel George W. Urie is the only one of the family in this county. Thomas* and David+ are in Iowa; and James is in Indiana. All the others are gone to their final resting place.

*Thomas Urie died in Iowa, September 8, 1875, aged eighty-two years.

+David Urie died in Iowa, March, 1874, aged seventy-eight years. (Transcribed by Penny Hanes PHanes1368@aol.com) (Contributed by Russ Shopbell)