USA > Ohio > Auglaize County > Wapakoneta > History of Auglaize County, Ohio : with the Indian history of Wapakoneta, and the first settlement of the county > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19
Dar F 497 A959
Library
University of Pittsburgh
Darlington Memorial Library
Dar
F497
Class
Bonk
A959
WILLIAM & MARY DARLINGTON MEMORIAL LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH
-
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2009 with funding from University of Pittsburgh Library System
http://www.archive.org/details/historyofauglaiz00sutt
HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY, OHIO.
[Sutton, Robert]
HISTORY
OF
WILLIAM & MARY DARLINGIDA, MEMORIAL LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH
AUGLAIZE COUNTY, OHIO.
WITH THE
INDIAN HISTORY OF WAPAKONETA, AND THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTY.
WAPAKONETA: ROBERT SUTTON, PUBLISHER. 1880.
548
Dar F491 A999
PHILADELPIIIA : COLLINS, PRINTER.
WSiW
16/8/L
PREFACE.
THIS unpretending book is a record of but narrow interest and of purely local events. Its preparation was undertaken for the County Atlas, and at the request of friends, and those who take an interest in the work, I have put it into this vol- ume. To better preserve some account of the lives and labors of the early settlers who bore so honorable a part in convert- ing a wilderness into a great commonwealth, and to rescue from total oblivion some matters that seem worthy of narrat- ing, is the modest object of this sketch concerning the history of Auglaize County.
The writer is well aware that there will be found errors both of omission and commission in the book, but it cannot be avoided in a work of this kind. It has been prepared hur- riedly, amid the constant pressure of other duties, which are well known; and it will be discovered that some prominent early settlers, or leading men among recent citizens, have not been mentioned, while comparatively too great prominence will be thought to have been given to others; but the best has been done that could be under the circumstances, and it is hoped such inequalities and defects will be overlooked.
There is also a feeling among men that a record of a well- spent and useful life, if ever so humble, deserves to be remem- bered. They derive a pardonable pleasure from the thought that posterity will not wholly ignore or forget them, and it
(v)
vi
PREFACE.
is to be regretted that much valuable information touching the early settlement of the county has passed out of existence and is lost forever.
The thanks of the publisher are hereby extended to all who have in any manner assisted in the preparation of this work; but especially are thanks due to Col. George W. Andrews, Dr. G. W. Holbrook, J. L. McFarland, County Auditor, and C. P. Davis, Editor of the Democrat, of Wapakoneta, and Judge E. M. Phelps, of St. Marys. No pains have been spared in an earnest effort to attain accuracy and completeness. The material has been gathered from every available source, and compiled with a view of presenting reliable dates in an attrac- tive manner. Without daring to indulge in the belief that this aim has been realized in every instance, it is hoped the effort will meet the approval of those readers who, knowing the fallibility of all endeavors, do not demand absolute per- fection. To such readers, the volume is submitted without comment and without apology. R. S.
+.10
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Introduction . History of Ohio
13
The War of 1812
19
Indian Territory
20
The Shawnees
43
Blackhoof
48
Way-wel-ea-py
53
John Perry
53
Little Turtle
53
Tecumseh
54
Logan
62
Captain Johnny
· 64
Bright Horn
64
John Wolf
· 65
Peter Cornstalk
65
Blue Jacket
65
The Friends at Wapakoneta Auglaize County
. 67
Bodies of water
.
80
Railroads
81
Wagon Roads
81
Villages
83
Material Wealth
83
County Seat
85
Geology .
86
Mastodon .
92
Archæology
· 95
Official Record
99
Duchouquet Township
. 101
Wapakoneta
101
Business Interests
108
Schools
111
Churches .
. 113
Biographical
124
·
.
·
·
·
.
.
.
.
.
.
( vii )
.
80
.
15
viii
CONTENTS.
PAGE
St. Marys Township
140
St. Marys . .
140
Business Interests
146
Churches
148
Official Record .
149
Biographical
150
German Township .
154
New Bremen
154
Biographical
158
Churches
162
Jackson Township .
. 162
Minster
162
Biographical
. 166
Washington Township New Knoxville
167
Biographical
168
Pusheta Township .
· 169
Freyburg .
169
Biographical
· 170
Clay Township
171
St. Johns
·
171
Biographical
174
Goslien Township
176
New Hampshire
177
Biographical
177
Wayne Township
.
178
Waynesfield
· 179
Biographical
. 180
Union Township
. 184
Uniopolis .
185
Biographical
· 185
Logan Township
188
Buchland .
· 188
Biographical
192
Salem Township Kossuth
193
Biographical
. 194
Noble Township
195
Biographical
196
Moulton Township .
197
Glynwood
. 197
Biographical
· 199
Military Record
. 201
Roll of Honor
. 204
·
19
·
·
.
·
. 167
.
HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY, OHIO.
INTRODUCTION.
ONE hundred years ago the whole territory from the Alle- ghany to the Rocky Mountains was a wilderness, inhabited only by wild beasts and Indians. The Jesuit and Moravian missionaries were the only white men who had penetrated the wilderness, or beheld its mighty lakes and rivers.
While the thirteen old colonies were declaring their inde- pendence, the thirteen new States, which now lie in the western interior, had no existence, and gave no sign of the future. The solitude of nature was unbroken by the steps of civilization. The wisest statesman had not contemplated the probability of the coming States, and the boldest patriot did not dream that this interior wilderness should soon contain a greater population than the thirteen old States with all the added growth of one hundred years.
Ten years after that the old States had ceded their western lands to the General Government, and the Congress of the United States had passed the ordinance of 1785 for the survey of the public territory, and in 1787 the celebrated ordinance which organized the Northwestern Territory, and dedicated it to freedom and intelligence.
Fifteen years after that, and more than a quarter of a cen- tury after the Declaration of Independence, the State of Ohio was admitted into the Union, being the seventeenth which accepted the Constitution of the United States.
It has since grown up to be great, populous, and prosperous under the influence of those ordinances. At her admission in 1802 the tide of migration had begun to flow over the Alle- ghanies into the valley of the Mississippi, and although no steamboat or railroad then existed, not even a stage coach helped the immigration, yet the wooden "ark" on the Ohio, and the heavy wagon slowly winding over the mountains, bore these tens of thousands to the wilds of Kentucky and the plains of Ohio. In the spring of 1788-the first year of set- tlement-4500 persons passed the mouth of the Muskingum in three months, and the tide continued to pour on for half a century in a widening stream, mingled with all the races of Europe and America, until now the five States of the North- western Territory, in the wilderness of 1776, contain over
2
-
14
HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY, OHIO.
twelve millions of people, enjoying all the blessings which peace and prosperity, freedom and Christianity, can confer upon any people. Of these five States, born under the ordi- nance of 1787, Olio is the first, oldest, and, in many things, the greatest State in the American Union. Ohio is just one- sixth part of the Northwestern Territory -40,000 square miles. It lies between Lake Erie and the Ohio River, having two hundred miles of navigable waters, on one side flowing into the Atlantic Ocean, and on the other into the Gulf of Mexico. Through the lakes its vessels touch on six thousand miles of interior coast, and through the Mississippi on thirty- six thousand miles of river coast; so that a citizen of Ohio may pursue his navigation through forty-two thousand miles, all in his own country, and all within navigable reach of his own State. He who has circumnavigated the globe has gone but little more than half the distance which the citizen of Ohio finds within his natural reach in this vast interior.
Looking upon the surface of this State, we find no moun- tains, no barren sands, no marshy wastes, no lava-covered plains ; but one broad, compact body of arable land, intersected with rivers, and streams, and running waters, while the beauti- ful Ohio flows tranquilly by its side. From this great arable surface, where upon the very hills the grass and the forest trees grow exuberant and abundant, we find that underneath this surface, and easily accessible, lie ten thousand square miles of coal and four thousand square miles of iron-coal and iron enough to supply the basis of manufacture for a world! All this vast deposit does not interrupt or take from that arable surface at all. There you may find in one place the same machine bringing up coal and salt water from below, while the wheat and corn grow upon the surface above. The immense masses of coal, iron, salt, and freestone deposited below have not in any way diminished the fertility and production of the soil.
The first settlement of Ohio was made by a colony from New England at the mouth of the Muskingum. It was literally a remnant of the officers and soldiers of the Revolution. Of this colony no praise of the historian can be as competent or as strong as the language of Washington. He says, in answer to inquiries addressed to him: "No colony in America was ever settled under such favorable auspices as that which has just commenced at the Muskingum. Information, property, and strength will be its characteristics. I know many of the settlers personally, and there never were men better calculated to promote the welfare of such a community;" and he adds, "that if he were a young man, he knows no country in which he would sooner settle than in this western region." This
15
HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY, OHIO.
colony, left alone for a time, made its own government, and mailed its laws to a tree in the village; an early indication of that law-abiding and peaceful spirit which has since made Ohio a just and well ordered community. The subsequent settle- ments on the Miami and Scioto were made by citizens of New Jersey and Virginia, and it is certainly remarkable that among the early immigration there were no ignorant people. In the language of Washington, they came with "information" __ qualified to promote the welfare of the community.
Soon after the settlement on the Muskingum and the Miami, the great wave of migration flowed on the plains and valleys of Ohio and Kentucky. Kentucky had been settled earlier, but the main body of immigrants in subsequent years went into Ohio, influenced partly by the ordinance of 1787, securing freedom and schools forever; and partly by the great security of titles under the survey and guarantee of the United States Government. Soon the new State grew up with a rapidity which, until then, was unknown in the history of civilization. On the Muskingum, where the buffalo had roamed; on the Scioto, where the Shawnees had built their towns; on the Miami, where the great chiefs of the Miamis had reigned; on the plains of Sandusky, yet red with the blood of the white man ; on the Maumee, where Wayne, by the victory of the "Fallen Timbers," had broken the power of the Indian confederacy, the immigrants from the old States and from Europe came in to cultivate the fields, to build up towns, and to rear the institu- tions of Christian civilization, until the single State of Ohio is greater in number, wealth, and education than was the whole American Union when the Declaration of Independence was made.
HISTORY OF OHIO.
THE territory now comprised within the limits of Ohio was formerly a part of that vast region claimed by France between the Alleghany and Rocky Mountains, first known by the gene- ral name of Louisiana. In 1670, Marquette, a zealous French missionary, accompanied by Monsieur Joliet, from Quebec, with five boatmen, set out on a mission from Mackinac to the unexplored regions lying south of that station. They passed down the lake to Green Bay, thence from Fox River crossed over to the Wisconsin, which they followed down to its junetion with the Mississippi. They descended this mighty stream a thousand miles to its confluence with the Arkansas. On their
16
HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY, OHIO.
return to Canada they did not fail to urge in strong terms the immediate occupation of the vast and fertile regions watered by the Mississippi and its branches. About 1725, the French erected forts on the Mississippi, on the Illinois, on the Maumee, and on the lakes ; still, however, the communication with Canada was through Lake Michigan. Before 1750, a French post had been fortified at the month of the Wabash, and a communica- tion was established through that river and the Maumee with Canada. About the same time, and for the purpose of check- ing the progress of the French, the Ohio Company was formed, and made some attempts to establish trading houses among the Indians. The French, however, established a chain of fortifications back of the English settlements, and thus, in a measure, had the entire control of the great Mississippi Valley.
The English government became alarmed at the encroach- ments of the French, and attempted to settle boundaries by negotiations. These availed nothing, and both parties were determined to settle their differences by force of arms. The principal ground, whereon the English claimed dominion be- yond the Alleghanies, was that the Six Nations owned the Ohio Valley, and had placed it, with their other lands, under the protection of England. Some of the western lands were also claimed by the British as having been actually purchased at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1744, at a treaty between the colonists and the Six Nations at that place. The claim of the English monarch to the late Northwestern Territory was ceded to the United States, signed at Paris, September 3d, 1788. The provisional articles which formed the basis of that treaty, more especially as related to the boundary, were signed at Paris, November 30th, 1782. During the pendency of the negotiation relative to these preliminary articles, Mr. Oswald, the British commissioner, proposed the Ohio River as the western boundary of the United States, and but for the indomitable perseverance of the Revolutionary patriot, John Adams, one of the American commissioners, who opposed the proposition, and insisted upon the Mississippi as the, boundary, the probability is that the proposition of Mr. Oswald would have been acceded to by the United States commissioners.
The States which owned western nnappropriated lands, with a single exception, redeemed their respective pledges by ceding them to the United States. The State of Virginia, in March, 1784, ceded the right of soil and jurisdiction to the district of country embraced in her charter, situated to the northwest of the Ohio River. In September, 1786, the State of Connecticut also ceded her claim of soil and jurisdiction to the district of country within the limits of her charter, situated west of a line
17
HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY, OHIO.
beginning at the completion of the forty-first point degree of north latitude, one hundred and twenty miles west of the western boundary of Pennsylvania, and from thence by a line drawn north parallel to and one hundred and twenty miles west of said line of Pennsylvania, and to continue north until it came to forty-two degrees and two minutes north latitude. The State of Connecticut, on the 30th of May, 1801, also ceded her jurisdictional claims to all that territory called the " West- ern Reserve of Connecticut." The States of New York and Massachusetts also ceded all their claims.
The above were not the only claims which had to be made prior to the commencement of settlements within the limits of Ohio. Numerous tribes of Indian savages, by virtue of prior possession, asserted their respective claims, which also had to be extinguished. A treaty for this purpose was accordingly made at Fort Stanwix, October 27th, 1784, with the sachems and warriors of the Mohawks, Onondagas, Senecas, Cayngas, Oneidas, and Tuscaroras, by the third article of which treaty the said Six Nations ceded to the United States all claims to the country west of a line extending along the west boundary of Pennsylvania, from the month of the Oyounayea to the Ohio River.
Washington County was formed July 27th, 1788, by pro- clamation of Governor St. Clair, being the first county formed within the limits of Ohio. Its original boundaries were as follows: Beginning on the bank of the Ohio River, where the western boundary line of Pennsylvania crosses it, and running with that line to Lake Erie; thence along the southern shore of said lake to the month of Cuyahoga River; thence up the said river to the portage between it and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum; thence down that branch to the forks at the crossing place above Fort Laurens; thence with a line to be drawn westerly to the portage on that branch of the Big Miami, on which the fort stood that was taken by the French in 1752, until it meets the road from the lower Shawnese Town to San- dusky; thence south to the Scioto River, and thence with that river to the mouth, and thence up the Ohio River to the place of beginning.
Hamilton was the second county established in the North- west Territory; it was formed January 2d, 1790, by proclama- tion of Governor St. Clair, and named from General Alexander Hamilton. Its original boundaries were thus defined: Begin- ning on the Ohio River at the confluence of the Little Miami, and down the said Ohio to the mouth of the Big Miami, and up said Miami to the standing stone forks or branch of said river, and thence with a line to be drawn due east to the Little
2*
18
HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY, OHIO.
Miami, and down said Little Miami River to the place of be- ginning.
Wayne County was established by proclamation of General St. Clair, August 15th, 1796, and was the third county formed in the Northwest Territory. Its original limits were very exten- sive, and were thus defined in the act creating it: Beginning at the mouth of Cuyahoga River npon Lake Erie, and with the said river to the portage between it and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum; thence down the said branch to the forks at the crossing place above Fort Laurens; thence by a west line to the east boundary of Hamilton County, which is a due north line from the lower Shawnee Town upon the Scioto River; thence by a line west-northerly to the south part of portage between the Miamis of Ohio and the St. Marys River; thence by a line also west-northerly to the southwestern part of the portage between the Wabash and Miamis of Lake Erie, where Fort Wayne now stands; thence by a line west-northerly to the south part of Lake Michigan; thence along the western shores of the same to the northwest part thereof, including lands upon the streams emptying into said lake; thence by a due north line to the territorial boundary in Lake Superior, and with the said boundary through Lakes Huron, St. Clair, and Erie to the mouth of Cuyahoga River, the place of begin- ning. These limits embrace what are now parts of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and all of Michigan, and the towns of Ohio City, Chicago, St. Marys, Mackinaw, etc. Since then States and counties have been organized out of this territory.
It will be observed in the Virginia Military Districts in Ohio, which comprise the lands between the Scioto and Little Miami Rivers, that when the State of Virginia, in 1783, ceded to the United States all her right of soil and jurisdiction to all the tract of country she then claimed northwest of the Ohio River, it was provided that the Virginia troops of the Continental establishment should be paid their legal bounties from these lands (and here it may not be amiss to define these land de- nominations). The United States Military Lands were so called from the fact that they were appropriated by an act of Congress, in 1796, to satisfy certain claims of the officers and soldiers of the Revolution. The patent to the soldiers or pur- chasers of these lands, as well as of all other Ohio lands, is derived from the general government. The district was not surveyed into ranges and townships, or any regular form, and hence the irregularity in the shape of the townships as estab- lished by the county commissioners for civil purposes; any individual holding a Virginia Military Land warrant might locate it wherever he desired within the district, and in such
19
HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY, OHIO.
shape as he pleased, wherever the land had not been previously located.
THE WAR OF 1812.
After the recognition of American independence, in 1783, by Great Britain, she refused to execute the treaty in good faith, by refusing to surrender and evacuate the western posts, which she forcibly retained in violation of an express agreement from 1785 to 1796; in the mean time using every effort to corrupt and inflame the Indians, and bring on a bloody and relentless war with the savages. These intrigues had such an effect upon the red men of the Northwest, backed by the governor-general of Canada, Lord Dorchester, that Indian hostilities imme- diately began; and to protect the American people against these savage hordes, instigated and led by English officers, the campaigns of Harmar, St. Clair, and Wayne passed through western Ohio and Indiana from 1790 to 1794. The impress- ment of naturalized American citizens into the English service, and a renewal, through the MeKees, the Elliotts, and the Girtys, of an attempt to corrupt and again inflame the Indian tribes within the boundaries to acts of hostility and war, led the United States to declare war against Great Britain on the 18th of June, 1812. The governor of Ohio was asked for his proportion of soldiers to defend our borders; Governor Meigs responded with alacrity. Col. Duncan McArthur, with a regi- ment of soldiers, was detached from Urbana to open a road in advance of General Hull as far as the Scioto River. Having passed Mannery's block-honse and Solomon's Town (in what is now Logan County), a small Shawnee Indian village near the boundary line, the detachment commenced its labors through an extensive region of excellent level land. Having gained the river, they commenced building two block-houses on the south side of the Scioto, each twenty by twenty-four feet, connected by a strong stockade covering an area of near half an acre. This post was called Fort McArthur, and is up the Scioto nearly three miles southwest of the present city of Kenton. The site is exceedingly dreary, and must have been fatal to a great many soldiers in consequence of the great "Scioto Marsh," a short distance northwest of it. Not a vestige of the fort remains at this time (1880) ; but it is stated that rem- nants of the corduroy road, made by Gen. McArthur, can yet be traced through the boggy forest.
On the evening of the 19th of June, 1812, General Hull arrived with the residue of his army, and encamped on the north side of the river; and on the 21st Colonel Finley's regi- ment was detached for the purpose of cutting the road to
20
HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY, OHIO.
Blanchard's fork of the Auglaize; on the next morning moved forward, with the exception of part of Capt. Dill's company, which was left at Fort McArthur, for the double purpose of protecting the sick(?) and defending the fort in case of attack. The following was the formation of the army as announced in a general order: The 4th U. S. regiment on the right, Col. McArthur on the left; Col. Finley on the left of the 4th, and Col. Cass on the right of Col. MeArthur ; the cavalry on the right of the whole. In marching, the riflemen of the respective regiments formed the flank guards, and on the days the army marched they were exempt from other duty. From Fort McArthur to the rapids of the Miami is one hundred and fifty miles ; the route of the army was through a thick and almost trackless forest; through a country where numerous creeks and rivers have their origin.
INDIAN TERRITORY.
At the treaty of Greenville, in 1795, the southern boundary of the Indian territory was fixed, leaving the largest part of northern Ohio in the possession of the north western tribes, the Wyandots, Shawnees, Senecas, Ottawas, etc. At a treaty at the Maumee Rapids, in 1817, held by Lewis Cass and Duncan McArthur, commissioners on the part of the United States, there were granted to each of the Ohio tribes certain reservations, which have since been purchased by the United States, and the varions tribes have removed west of the Mississippi. In 1820, this territory was divided into counties, by an act passed by the Ohio Legislature. It provided : That all that part of the lands lately ceded by the Indians to the United States shall be, and the same is hereby, erected into fourteen separate and distinct counties, to be bounded and named as follows, viz .: First to include townships one, two, and three south, in the first, second, third, and fourth ranges, and to be known by the name of Van Wert ; second, to include all of said ranges south of said townships, to the northern boundaries of the counties heretofore organized, and to be known by the name of Mercer ; third, to include townships one and two south, and one and two north, in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth ranges, and to be known by the name of Putnam ; fourth, to include all of the northern boundaries of the organized counties, and to be known by the name of Allen ; fifth, to include townships one and two north, in the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth ranges, and to be known by the name of Hancock ; sixth to include all the last-mentioned ranges, south of said second township, and running south with the range lines to the northern bound-
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.