Seeking the location of THE JOURNAL OF WILLIAM GRILLS, book or
manuscript or the location of a copy, published in Baltimore in 1808.
Grills was captured and adopted by Indians, witnessed the killing of
Logan's family, apparently returned to Maryland/Virgina, then went to
Kentucky (which was a part of Virginia) and appears in the records
there before he was killed by Indians in 1785.  His journal was
published at about the same time as other frontier narratives.  The
journal was researched in the 1950s by Allan W. Eckert and cited as a
reference in THE FRONTIERSMEN which was published 1967.  Two decades
later I followed up on every Eckert source but this one, which I never
could find.  Eckert could find it either nor, understandably after so
long a time, recall the library in which he found it.

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Request for Question Clarification by luciaphile-ga on 02 Jul 2002 14:55 PDT

Two questions: how certain are you of the title "the Journal of
William Grills"? and is it "Logan" or "Logans"?  Thanks.

luciaphile-ga

Hi historyscout,

I just thought you'd want to know that someone was researching, even if
the results were negative. I searched the Library of Congress online, at:
http://www.loc.gov/

There are records for 108 documents published in 1808. I eyeballed each
one, but there were no references to William Grills. Sorry about that.
Your question poses a wonderful challenge, though, and I hope another
researcher can succeed for you.

sublime1-ga

Allan W. Eckert's citation in the 1967 THE FRONTIERSMEN was:

Grills, William, JOURNAL OF WILLIAM GRILLS (Baltimore, 1808), pp.
107-113, 135-138, 180-183, 191-209.

Hence the book has at least 209 pages or else it was published in a
periodical and serialized between different issues.  Logan was a Mingo
chief who had married a Shawnee.  Other accounts of this incident are
available, including the depositions in the appendix of Thomas
Jefferson's NOTES ON VIRGINIA.  We have the other accounts, other
documents shoring up Allan Eckert's account of Grills from his
research done in the 1950s, but have not been able to locate the
journal itself.  Eckert cannot recall the specific library where he
found it, and we have not been able to relocate the manuscript or a
copy.

I'm not a history scholar, but could it be in Niles' Weekly Register
1818?
Perhaps it is easier for you to search the CD-ROM index or you know
immediately that it isn't in there.  Hope this helps in someway.

Niles' Weekly Register...From March to September, 1818-Vol. XIV Or
Vol. II-New Series.
by Niles, H. 
Hardback. Franklin Press, Baltimore (1818) 
BOOK GOOD/no dustjacket In need of rebinding, this book is still
holding together though the front cover is detached. No previous owner
markings. And very clean interior pages. "...documents, essays, facts
together with notices of the arts and manufactures, and a record of
the events of the times. " 8vo. 440 pages.
http://www.alibris.com/search/detail.cfm?chunk=25&qauth=Niles%20H&qtit=Niles%27%20Weekly%20Register%20From&S=R&bid=8028531868&pqtynew=&page=1&matches=8&qsort=p

Nile's Weekly Register, Containing Political Historical, Geographical,
Scientifical, Statistical, Economical, and Biographical Documents,
Essays,
and Facts: together with Notices of the Arts and Manufactures, and a 
Record of the Events of the Times. Baltimore.
V.7-52, Sept. 10, 1814-Aug. 26, 1836 (LAC 31236-62)
Accompanied by an index to V.1-12, Sept. 1811-Sept. 1817 (LAC 31014)

http://www.radford.edu/~wkovarik/papers/niles.html

If it was serialized...
107-113, 135-138, 180-183, 191-209
lengths 6, 3, 3, 18 (too long for Niles?, 16 pages weekly)
gaps 28, 45, 11 (2 weeks, 3 weeks, 1 week)

Good Luck!

No luck on the Journal itself, but some possibly useful tidbits from a
wonderful librarian at the University of Kentucky:

"Although Mr. Grills is mentioned in a passing reference in John
McDonald's
Biographical Sketches of General Nathaniel Massie and others published
in 1838 and he is also noted in Collins which is a standard history of
Kentucky (it recounts the McDonald tale of Simon Kenton and others
in the winter of 1773-74 at the Mouth of the Big Sandy), I located no
information about the location of the journal or useful facts about
Mr. Grills.
I was only able to verify that he was, indeed, on the frontier.

In addition, I checked Joseph Sabin's Dictionary of Books Relating to
America
but the Baltimore 1808 work is not listed in this reference tool.

There is a brief reference to Grills and Sanders who were killed on
Eighteen
Mile Island near Louisville in the George Rogers Clark Papers, a part
of the
Draper Collection. The specific citation is 13J41 and it refers to a 
June 7, 1868 letter from Abram Hunter to Lyman Draper. Mr. Hunter did
not recall the
murdered men's first names.

One of my colleagues did found a genealogical site online posted by
[name omitted] who is asking for information about the journal. To
quote from
this reference:  "We are looking for the journal which was either
pilfered or
misplaced from the library (he doesn't say which library), or moved to
another
library, or another copy or transcription of this journal." This note
was posted
June 13th.

Since William Grills was supposed to have been killed in 1785, someone
other
than he published the 1808 journal so there is, possibly, another name
associated with the publication of the work which is proving to be
elusive.

If you would like to check out the site yourself the URL is
<http://genforum.genealogy.
com/grills/messages/201.html>

Good luck with your search.

Best wishes,

Claire McCann
Manuscript Librarian
210 King Library
Special Collections and
  Archives Service Center
University of Kentucky
Lexington KY 40506-0039

Thanks for posting the comment.  However, I was the one myself who
posted a query at the Genealogical Forum (see link above), and the
reference to Draper Mss. 13J33-36 as well as the Collins History
reference, were published in my 1993 book, INDIAN BLOOD: Finding Your
Native American Ancestor.  John Sanders, who had lived with the
Indians and was George Rogers Clark's guide, was the trading partner
of William Grills in Louisville, perhaps also with half-breed George
Owens.  Abram Hunter, whose father Joseph Hunter was one of the
original settlers of Louisville, told Draper:

"...My father and his comrades left the main shore and went on to an
island and stayed all night without fear and in the morning my father
returned for his trap alone, his comrades refusing to accompany him,
and got his traps and a beaver in each one and on their way home to
Louisville met Grills and Sanders, two great trappers and hunters who
were going to the same island and creed to trap for beaver.  They
informed them of the presence of Indians but Grills and Sanders,
heedless of their warning, went to the island and camped and built a
fire.  The Indians in the night crept up on them and killed them but
their camp boy made good his escape and, although late in the fall,
swam to the kentucky shore and went to Louisville and told the news."

Just for info.  I appreciate the effort.

I look in on this question every now and then, and try to find the
journal.  No luck, so far, but I did uncover one interesting reference
to Grills that may be of interest to you:

From:
THE PAPERS OF Thomas Jefferson 
Volume 2 -- 1777 to 18 June 1779  
JULIAN P. BOYD, EDITOR 
LYMAN H. BUTTERFIELD AND MINA R. BRYAN, ASSOCIATE EDITORS 
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS 1950 

pg 42:

"On 4 Nov. James Duncan, Richard Reeves, and William Grills presented
a petition stating that they had lost their rifles in a boating
accident on 25 Dec. 1776; the Committee of Public Claims recommended
that the petitioners be allowed £5, £6, and £8 16s. respectively. The
House approved this recommendation and on 21 Nov. the Senate
concurred, but with amendments."