USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, together with historic notes on the northwest and the state of Ohio > Part 1
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History of Greene County
R. S. Dills
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US 25797 15
COLLEGE
HARVARD
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LIBRARY
TAS
A COLLECTION OF AMERICAN HISTORY IN MEMORY OF CHARLES ELLIOTT PERKINS
OF BURLINGTON IOWA
MAN THE MAKER
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Brute Rogers Del,
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O
HISTORY
OF
GREENE COUNTY,
TOGETHER WITH
HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST,
AND
THE STATE OF OHIO.
GLEANED FROM EARLY AUTHORS, OLD MAPS AND MANUSCRIPTS, PRIVATE AND OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE, AND ALL OTHER AUTHENTIC SOURCES.
By R. S. DILLS.
ILLUSTRATED.
DAYTON, OHIO: ODELL & MAYER, PUBLISHERS. 1881.
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15 25797,15
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HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRA. . apr. 5,1923 W CHARLES ELLIOTT PERKINS MEMORIAL COLLECTION
JOHNSON PRINTES
DAY
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PREFACE.
Of all studies which engage the leisure moments of our minds, that of history is certainly entitled to pre-eminence in the direction of intellectual recreation and prac- tical utility. To the curious it affords satisfaction, and in the domestic circle it wields a beneficial influence not attainable from any other source. If time were chronicled by events, centuries might pass in a single age.
It has been the aim of the author of this work to compress the records and oral traditions of those events into a reasonable compass, to narrate them in a connected and lucid order, and to furnish a memorial, instructive, interesting, and useful to co- temporaries, and to future generations. To every class of readers a work of this na- ture commends itself; to those especially who have witnessed and participated in the rise, progress, and consummation of the incidents and scenes herein reviewed, will it be a souvenir of inestimable value.
In the prosecution of its compilation, he has been ably assisted by Professor George S. Ormsby, a writer of recognized ability, who prepared the early history of the Vir- ginia Military District, of which this county formed a part, the courts, court houses, jails, etc .; indeed, its entire political, official, and financial history, has been clearly treated of by him.
In arranging the materials which lie scattered through immense masses of public records, old documents, and periodical publications, the author has aspired to correct- ness of detail and minute discrimination between valuable historical facts and highly colored fancies of the imagination.
Few persons have a proper conception of the labor, research, and perplexities attend- ant upon the resurrection of moldy facts and ethereal traditions, which have so long slept in the matrix of obscurity, and collating the heterogenous mass into a systematic history ; therefore, should trifling errors appear, it is to be hoped that they will not be attributed to carelessness; for in many cases there is greatly conflicting testimony bearing upon the same point. But the historian receives no credit if he spend months upon a single date, and is censured if he make a single error.
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PREFACE.
It must be taken into consideration, also, that this work differs very materially from a book which has taken years of patient labor to produce, whose author has written, rewritten, revised, and corrected, until it comes out in perfect form. In this book, the facts for its composition were gathered by different persons, and the colloca- tion has been necessarily hurried, because of the limited time allowed for its comple- tion. Had years of study been devoted to its composition, the language used would, in many cases, have been greatly improved. We hope, therefore, that the public will take a charitable view of these extenuating circumstances.
R. S. DILLS.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS. -
HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
CHAPTER I.
Page.
Topography-The Great Lakes, and the Country of the Northwest Territory ...... 11 CHAPTER II.
Joliet and Marquette's Voyage-They leave Mackinaw May 17, 1673-They pro- ceed, by way of Green Bay and the Wisconsin, as far as the month of the Arkansas-Return by way of the Illinois and Chicago Creek-Father Mar- quette's journal, descriptive of the journey and the country through which they traveled-Biographical sketches of Marquette and Joliet .......
16
CHAPTER III.
La Salle'e voyage-Biographical sketch of La Salle-His concessions and titles of nobility-Preparations for his explorations-Sketch of Father Hennepin and the merit of his writings-La Salle reaches the Niagara River in Decem- ber, 1678, builds the ship Griffin, and proceeds up Lake Erie, and reaches Mackinaw in August, 1679. 26
CHAPTER IV.
La Salle's voyage continued-Mackinaw the headquarters of the Indian trade- The Griffin starts back to Niagara River with a cargo of furs, and is lost upon the lake-La Salle resumes his voyage in birch canoes, south along the west shore of Lake Michigan, and around its southern extremity to the mouth of the St. Joseph, where he erects Fort Miamis 33
CHAPTER V.
The several rivers called the Miamis-La Salle's route down the Illinois-The Kankakee Marshes-The French and Indian names of the Kankakee and Des Plaines-The Illinois-"Fort Crevecoeur"-La Salle goes back to Canada- Destruction of his forts by deserters-His return to Fort Miamis, and the successful prosecution of his exploration to the mouth of the Mississippi- The whole valley of the great river taken possession of in the name of the king of France
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CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VI.
Page.
The Miamis-The Miami, Piankeshaw, and Wea bands-They are kindred to the Illinois, originally from the west of the Mississippi-Their superiority and their military disposition-Their subdivisions and various names-Their trade and difficulties with the French and the English-Their migrations- They are upon the Maumee and Wabash-Their villages-From their posi- tion between the French and English they suffer at the hands of both-They defeat the Iroquois-They trade with the English, and incur the anger of the French-Their bravery-Their decline-Destructive effects of intemperance -Cession of their lands in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio-Their removal west- ward, and present condition. 57
CHAPTER VII.
The Shawnees and Delawares-Originally east of the Alleghany Mountains- Are subdued and driven out by the Iroquois-Marquette finds the Shawnees on the Tennessee in 1673-At one time in Florida-In 1744 they are in Ohio -They war on the American settlements-Their villages on the Big and Lit- tle Miamis, the St. Marys, the Auglaize, Maumee, and Wabash-The Dela- wares-Made women of by the Iroquois-Their country on White River, In- diana, and eastward, defined-Become friendly to the United States after Wayne's victory at Maumee Rapids, in 1794-They, with the Shawnees, sent west of the Mississippi-They furnish soldiers in the war for the Union- Adopting ways of the white people. 72
CHAPTER VIII.
The Indians-Their implements, utensils, fortifications, mounds, manners, and customs.
81
CHAPTER IX.
The war for the fur trade-Former abundance of wild animals and water fowl in the Northwest-The buffalo; their range, their numbers, and final disappear- ance-Value of the fur trade ; its importance to Canada-The coureurs de bois ; their food and peculiarities-Goods for Indian trade-The distant parts to which the fur trade was carried, and the manner in which it was conducted -Competition between French and English for control of the fur trade-It results in broils-French traders killed on the Vermillion-The French and Indians attack Fort Pickawillany-War 95
CHAPTER X.
The war for the empire-English claims to the Northwest-Deeds from the Iro- quois to a large part of the country-Military expeditions of Major Grant, Mons. Aubry, and M. de Ligneris-Aubry attempts to retake Fort Du Quesne -His expedition up the Wabash-Goes to the relief of Fort Niagara-Is defeated by Sir William Johnson-The fall of Quebec and Montreal-Sur- render of the Northwest to Great Britain-The territory west of the Missis- sippi ceded to Spain.
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CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XI.
Page.
General Clark's conquest of the Illinois-The Revolutionary War-Indian depre- dations upon the settlements of Kentucky-The savages are supplied with arms and. ammunition from the English posts at Detroit, Vincennes, and Kaskaskia-General Clark applies to Governor Henry, of Virginia, for aid in an enterprise to capture Kaskaskia and Vincennes-Sketch of General Clark-His manuscript memoir of his march to the Illinois-He captures Kaskaskia-The surrender of Vincennes-He treats with the Indians, who agree to quit their warfare on the Big Knife-Governor Hamilton, of De- troit, recaptures Vincennes-Clark's march to Vincennes-He retakes Vin- cennes, and makes the English forces prisoners of war-Captain Helm sur- prises a convoy of English boats at the mouth of the Vermillion River-Or- ganization of the Northwest Territory into Illinois County of Virginia- . Clark holds the Northwest until the conclusion of the Revolutionary War- For this reason only it became a part of the United States. 116
CHAPTER XII.
The title of Virginia, and her deed of cession-Probable number and character- istics of the population in 1787-Organization of the Ohio Land Company- The first settlement under the ordinance of 1787-Survey and grants of the public lands-Treaties made with the Indians-First officers of the Territory -The second grade of Territorial government-Early laws of the Territory Local courts and court officers-Organization of counties-Early Territorial villages and towns-Territorial officers-The Indian tribes of the Upper Ohio-Titles to Ohio-By whom held-When and how acquired and relin- quished-Early time white men in Ohio-The earliest English military ex- peditions on Lake Erie-Moravian missionary stations-Subsequent military movements upon Ohio soil-Colonel Bradstreet's expedition-Colonel Bou- quet's expedition-An act of the British Parliament-Colonel McDonald's expedition-Lord Dunmore's war-Organization of Illinois County-Expe- dition of General McIntosh-Erection of Fort Laurens, in 1778-General Daniel Broadhead's expedition-Colonel Archibald Lochry's expedition- Colonel Williamson's expedition-Colonel Crawford's Sandusky campaign- General George Rogers Clark's expedition-Colonel Logan's expedition- First treaties establishing boundaries-The first white child born in Ohio- Organization of the second grade of Territorial government-Members of the Territorial Legislature of 1799-1800-First Council and House of Rep- resentatives 130
CHAPTER XIII.
Admission of Ohio into the Union-Political History-Early laws of Ohio ........ 183
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CONTENTS.
HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
INTRODUCTION.
Page.
Virginia-Virginia military survey-County organization-Townships-Com- missioners' act -- The judiciary-Court of the associate judges-First court house-Court in Course-Court of Common Pleas-Supreme Court-Jails- Court houses-Greene Street-Broken bank notes in the treasury-Uncurrent money-Renting a stove-Exempt from taxation-Pavement around the pub- lic square-First agricultural society-Fencing the public square-First maps of surveys-Taxing lawyers and physicians-Imprisonment for debt- Politics 191
INDIAN WARS.
From their origin to the Treaty of Greenville, with incidents ........ 240
EARLY SETTLEMENT IN GREENE COUNTY.
Letter from Samuel Freeman-Tecumseh-The old cabin and pioneer church ..... 259
TRIALS OF EMIGRATION.
Frederick Bonner, sen .- Nimrod Haddox-Pioneers-Pioneer girls-The old school house 274
THE WAR OF 1812.
Causes of the war-Tecumseh, Harrison, Proctor-The deserter-Josiah Hunt- Effects of the war 285
THE OLD MUSTER.
Early laws establishing the militia-The parade-Whisky-List of officers ........ 298 COUNTY IMPROVEMENTS.
Railroads-Woolen factories-Infirmary-Description of the Infirmary-Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home; a history of the same-The law organizing it -Description of the buildings-The home school building -- Administration building-School department-Home officials. 303
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.
History of its organization, and officers 339
NEWSPAPERS.
The Gazette-The Xenia Torchlight-The Xenia Weekly Sunlight.
341
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GREENE COUNTY IN THE REBELLION.
Page.
Seventy-Fourth Regiment-One Hundred and Tenth Regiment-Ninety-Fourth Regiment.
350
SUMMARY.
Retrospect
.......
367
GEOLOGY.
Topography-Geological Series-Clinton and Niagara limestone-Sub-division of the Niagara Group-Drift-Soils-Analyses-Water supply. .... ............. 370
XENIA TOWNSHIP.
Boundary and history-Captain Bullet-Simon Kenton-Daniel Boone-Early settlers-Location of Xenia-Original surveys-Houses-Game-Cold Fri- day-Oldtown-Improvements-Powder mills-Miscellaneous-Banks-Se- cret societies-Churches-Union schools-Wilberforce University-Old citi- zens of Xenia-County census. 408
Biographical 462
CEDARVILLE TOWNSHIP.
Township officers-Old settlers-Cedarville village-Newspaper-Physicians Manufactories-Schools-Churches-Secret societies-Soldiers. 536
Biographical.
559
BEAVER CREEK TOWNSHIP.
Big Beaver valley-Population and industries-Railroads-Turnpikes and roads -Mills-Schools-Churches-Secret societies-Early settlements-Cemeter- ies-Villages-Homicides-Incidents. 575 Biographical 588
SUGAR GREEK TOWNSHIP.
The Virginia military reservation-First settlement-Incidents-Early settlement at Bellbrook-Pinkney road-Bellbrook-Incidents-Schools-Religious de- nominations - Mills - Limestone quarries - Cemeteries - Indian relics -- Sleepy Tom. 626
Biographical.
644
MIAMI TOWNSHIP.
Present condition-Yellow Springs and Neff House-Springs-Antioch College- Clifton -- Antioch bone cave. 661 Biographical 700
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CONTENTS.
BATH TOWNSHIP.
Early settlement-War of 1812-Indians-Game-Incidents-Early customs Page.
Churches-Schools-Osborn corporation -- Fairfield
709
Biographical
721
ROSS TOWNSHIP.
Grape Grove-Early settlers-Manufactures-Schools-Churches-Cemeteries ....
739
Biographical.
754
SILVER GREEK TOWNSHIP.
Introduction-Present boundary-Early settlers-Indians-Township organiza- tion 765
Biographical.
786
JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP.
Early settlement-Pioneer times -- Schools-Churches-Secret societies-Railroad -Bowersville-Post-office, etc. 815
Biographical
830
SPRING VALLEY TOWNSHIP.
Organization-Officers-Spring Valley village-Churches ..
850
Biographical
854
NEW JASPER TOWNSHIP.
Early settlers -- Schools-Churches-Organization-Villages .. 881
CÆSAR'S CREEK TOWNSHIP.
Boundaries-Early settlers-Schools-Churches -- Mills-Paintersville.
885
Biographical
889
SUPPLEMENT.
OHIO-Address by E. D. Mansfield 895 ORDINANCE OF 1787 916
XENIA PAPER MILL. 924 GREENE COUNTY OFFICIALS 926
GREENE COUNTY IN THE LEGISLATURE. 939
XENIA COLLEGE ..
943
BIOGRAPHIES-Xenia Township.
946
Beaver Creek Township. 950
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HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
CHAPTER I.
TOPOGRAPHY.
THE reader will have a better understanding of the manner in which the territory, herein treated of, was discovered and subse- quently occupied, if reference is made, in the outset, to some of its more important topographical features.
Indeed, it would be an unsatisfactory task to try to follow the routes of early travel, or to undertake to pursue the devious wand- erings of the aboriginal tribes, or trace the advance of civilized so- ciety into a country, without some preliminary knowledge of its topography.
Looking upon a map of North America, it is observed that west- ward of the Alleghany Mountains the waters are divided into two great masses; the one composed of waters flowing into the great northern lakes, is, by the river St. Lawrence, carried into the Atlantic Ocean; the other, collected by a multitude of streams spread out like a vast net over the surface of more than twenty states and sev- eral territories, is gathered at last into the Mississippi River, and thence discharged into the Gulf of Mexico.
As it was by the St. Lawrence River, and the great lakes con- nected with it, that the northwest territory was discovered, and for many years its trade mainly carried on, a more minute notice of this remarkable water communication will not be out of place. Jacques Cartier, a French navigator, having sailed. from St. Malo, entered, on the 10th of August, 1535, the Gulf which he had explored the year before, and named it the St. Lawrence, in memory of the holy martyr whose feast is celebrated on that day. This name was subsequently extended to the river. Previous to this it was called the River of Canada, the name given by the Indians to the whole country. The drainage of the St. Lawrence and the lakes extends through four- teen degrees of longitude, and covers a distance of over two thousand
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HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST
miles. Ascending this river, we behold it flanked with bold crags and sloping hillsides; its current beset with rapids and studded with a thousand islands; combining scenery of marvelous beauty and grandeur. Seven hundred and fifty miles above its mouth, the chan- nel deepens and the shores recede into an expanse of water known as Lake Ontario.
Passing westward on Lake Ontario one hundred and eighty miles a second river is reached. A few miles above its entry into the lake, the river is thrown over a ledge of rock into a yawning chasm, one hundred and fifty feet below; and, amid the deafening noise and clouds of vapor escaping from the agitated waters is seen the great Falls of Niagara. At Buffalo, twenty-one miles above the falls, the shores of Niagara River recede and a second great inland sea is formed, having an average breadth of forty miles and a length of two hun- dred and forty miles. This is Lake Erie. The name has been variously spelt,-Earie, Herie, Erige and Erike. It has also borne the name of Conti. Father Hennepin says: "The Hurons call it Lake Erige, or Erike, that is to say, the Lake of the Cat, and the inhab- itants of Canada have softened the word to Erie;" vide " A New Dis- covery of a vast Country in America." p. 77; London edition, 1698.
Hennepin's derivation is substantially followed by the more accurate and accomplished historian, Father Charlevoix, who, at a later period, in 1721, in writing of this lake uses the following words: "The name it bears is that of an Indian nation of the Huron lan- guage, which was formerly settled on its banks and who have been entirely destroyed by the Iroquois. Erie in that language signifies cat, and in some accounts this nation is called the cat nation." He adds: "Some modern maps have given Lake Erie the name of Conti, but with no better success than the names of Conde, Tracy and Orleans which have been given to Lakes Huron, Superior and Mich- igan."
At the upper end of Lake Erie, to the southward, is Maumee Bay, of which more hereafter; to the northward the shores of the lake again approach each other and form a channel known as the River Detroit, a French word signifying a straight or narrow passage. Northward some twenty miles, and above the city of Detroit, the river widens into a small body of water called Lake St. Clair. The name as now written is incorrect : " we should either retain the French form, Claire, or take the English Clare. It received its name in honor of the founder of the Franciscan nuns, from the fact that La Salle reached it on the day consecrated to her." Northward some twelve
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THE LAKES.
miles across this lake the land again encroaches upon and contracts the waters within another narrow bound known as the Strait of St. Clair. Passing up this strait, northward about forty miles, Lake Huron is reached. It is two hundred and fifty miles long and one hundred and ninety miles wide, including Georgian Bay on the east, and its whole area is computed to be about twenty-one thousand square miles. Its magnitude fully justified its early name, La Mer- douce, the Fresh Sea, on account of its extreme vastness. . The more popular name of Huron, which has survived all others, was given to it from the great Huron nation of Indians who formerly inhabited the country lying to the eastward of it. Indeed, many of the early French writers call it Lac des Hurons, that is, Lake of the Hurons. It is so laid down on the maps of Hennepin, La Hontan, Charlevoix and Colden in the volumes before quoted.
Going northward, leaving the Straits of Mackinaw, through which Lake Michigan discharges itself from the west, and the chain of Manitoulin Islands to the eastward, yet another river, the connecting link between Lake Huron and Superior, is reached. Its current is swift, and a mile below Lake Superior are the Falls, where the water leaps and tumbles down a channel obstructed by boulders and shoals, where, from time immemorial, the Indians of various tribes have resorted on account of the abundance of fish and the ease with which they are taken. Previous to the year 1670 the river was called the Sault, that is, the rapids, or falls. In this year Fathers Marquette and Dablon founded here the mission of "St. Marie du Sault" (St. Mary of the Falls), from which the modern name of the river, St. Mary's, is derived. Recently the United States have perfected the ship canal cut in solid rock, around the falls, through which the largest vessels can now pass, from the one lake to the other.
Lake Superior, in its greatest length, is three hundred and sixty miles, with a maximum breadth of one hundred and forty, the largest of the five great American lakes, and the most extensive body of fresh water on the globe. Its form has been poetically and not inaccurately described by a Jesuit Father, whose account of it is preserved in the Relations for the years 1669 and 1670: "This lake has almost the form of a bended bow, and in length is more than 180 leagues. The southern shore is as it were the cord, the arrow be- ing a long strip of land [Keweenaw Point] issuing from the southern coast and running more than 80 leagues to the middle of the lake." A glance on the map will show the aptness of the comparison. The name Superior was given to it by the Jesuit Fathers, "in conse-
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HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
quence of its being above that of Lake Huron. It was also called Lake Tracy, after Marquis De Tracy, who was governor-general of Canada from 1663 to 1665. Father Claude Allouez, in his " Journal of Travels to the Country of the Ottawas," preserved in the Rela- tions for the years 1666, 1667, says: "After passing through the St. Mary's River we entered the upper lake, which will hereafter bear the name of Monsieur Tracy, an acknowledgment of the obli- gation under which the people of this country are to him." The good father, however, was mistaken ; the name Tracy only appears on a few ancient maps, or is perpetuated in rare volumes that record the almost forgotten labors of the zealous Catholic missionaries; while the earlier name of Lake " Superior" is familiar to every school- boy who has thumbed an atlas.
At the western extremity of Lake Superior enter the Rivers Bois- Brule and St. Louis, the upper tributaries of which have their sources on the northeasterly slope of a water-shed, and approximate very near the head-waters of the St. Croix, Prairie and Savannah Rivers, which, issuing from the opposite side of this same ridge, flow into the Upper Mississippi.
The upper portions of Lake Huron, Michigan, Green Bay, with their indentations, and the entire coast line, with the islands east- ward and westward of the Straits of Mackinaw, are all laid down with quite a degree of accuracy on a map attached to the Relations of the Jesuits for the years 1670 and 1671, a copy of which is con- tained in Bancroft's History of the United States, showing that the reverend fathers were industrious in mastering and preserving the geographical features of the wilderness they traversed in their holy calling.
Lake Michigan is the only one of the five great lakes that lays wholly within the United States,-the other four, with their connect- ing rivers and straits, mark the boundary between the Dominion of Canada and the United States. Its length is 320 miles; its average breadth 70, with a mean depth of over 1,000 feet. Its area is some 22,000 square miles, being considerably more than that of Lake Huron and less than that of Lake Superior.
Michigan was the last of the lakes in order of discovery. The Hurons, christianized and dwelling eastward of Lake Huron, had been driven from their towns and cultivated fields by the Iroquois, and scattered about Mackinaw and the desolate coast of Lake Supc- rior beyond, whither they were followed by their faithful pastors, the Jesuits, who erected new altars and gathered the remnants of
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LAKE MICHIGAN.
their stricken followers about them; all this occurred before the fathers had acquired any definite knowledge of Lake Michigan. In their mission work for the year 1666, it is referred to "as the Lake Illinouek, a great lake adjoining, or between, the lake of the Hurons and that of Green Bay, that had not [as then] come to their knowl- edge." In the Relation for the same year, it is referred to as " Lake Illeaouers," and Lake Illinioues, as yet unexplored, though much smaller than Lake Huron, and that the Outagamies [the Fox Indians] call it Machi-hi-gan-ing." Father Hennepin says: "The lake is called by the Indians, 'Illinouck,' and by the French, ' Illinois,'" and that the "Lake Illinois, in the native language, signifies the 'Lake of Men." He also adds in the same paragraph, that it is called by the Miamis, "Mischigonong, that is, the great lake." Father Marest, in a letter dated at Kaskaskia, Illinois, November 9, 1712, so often re- ferred to on account of the valuable historical matter it contains, contracts the aboriginal name to Michigan, and is, perhaps, the first author who ever spelt it in the way that has become universal. He naively says, "that on the maps this lake has the name, without any authority, of the ' Lake of the Illinois,' since the Illinois do not dwell in its neighborhood."
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