Warren County Historical Society

History Highlights Col. Lewis Drake

From the WCHS Archives

One of the picturesque military men of the early days of our country was Col. Lewis Drake. He has a number of descendents still living in this county.

The colonel (it was a legitimate title, not honorary) was born in New Jersey on June 19, 1766 and died at his home in Genntown on March 20, 1849. His military career started in the New Jersey militia where he rose to the rank of colonel.

Several incidents in his early life brought home to him most vividly the horrors of war. One is that when a British raiding party failed to find anything in the Drake homestead, they overturned the bed on which his mother, lately confined, was lying. Lewis rescued her upon finding her underneath the bedstead but she never fully recovered from the experience. Another incident is said to have caused him to suffer a spinal injury when an enraged British soldier threw him upon the floor.

The Drake home was subject to repeated attack during the Revolution because Lewis’ uncle, with whom he lived after his mother’s death, was a patriot spy and the object of repeated British manhunts.
Col. Drake made several trips west and, in 1798, came to Fort Washington (Cincinnati). He traded one of his prize guns for 80 acres of land which was to later be in the heart of Cincinnati. He sold the tract in the spring of 1800 for $600.

He had married Mary Evans Russell, of Welsh descent, in 1790. His wife’s father had sent Mrs. Drake a very excellent saddle from England as a wedding present. Col. Drake was very indignant when a landowner offered him 40 acres along what is now Vine Street, near McMillan Street, in the Queen City for the saddle. To him, the 40 acres of Cincinnati hillside were not worth a quality side-saddle. The tract is priceless today.

He worked for Judge John Cleves Symmes for a while and later purchased a tract of 160 acres from him at Genntown. The colonel paid twelve-and-a-half cents an acre for the land.

The Drakes moved to the Genntown location in 1800. Col. Drake’s son, Samuel, served with Gen. William Henry Harrison in the War of 1812 and when an emergency arose for ship carpenters, young Samuel told of his father and four other Warren Countians, Moses Trimble, Train Newport, David Williams and Jacob Trimble. These men built some of the ships Commodore Perry used in his renowned Battle of Lake Erie.

When not clearing land for himself, the colonel was surveying for others. He was an excellent man with firearms and his contacts with the Indians soon won him the trust and friendship of many of the redskins. In 1815 Col. Drake was sent to Fort Greenville to participate in the treaty effected with the Indians.

In addition to their son, Samuel, other children of the colonel and Mary Russell were Margaret, Priscilla, Joseph, Elizabeth, Mary, John, Lewis, Isabel, William-Henry and Charlotte. Samuel, became the father of John R. Drake, who was in the carriage-making business here for many years.

Widowed in 1821, the colonel married Rachel Lincoln, a cousin of Abraham Lincoln, on August 22, 1822. They were parents to one son, Isaac Lincoln Drake, who became a doctor.

The colonel was known for many years as “grandpappy,” particularly to the younger generation. He enjoyed an enviable reputation as a marksman. He was victorious in many shooting matches with both whites and Indians. His matches are said to have included one with Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton in which the colonel was the ultimate victor.