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M. I
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00827 1519
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HISTORY
OF
WESTERN OHIO
AND
AUGLAIZE COUNTY
WITH
ILLUSTRATIONS AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF
PIONEERS AND PROMINENT PUBLIC MEN
BY
C. W. WILLIAMSON
.
COLUMBUS, OHIO : PRESS OF W. M. LINN & SONS 1905
Copyright 1905 by C. W. WILLIAMSON Wapakoneta, O.
Entered at the Office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D. C. 1905, by C. W. Williamson, Wapakoneta, O.
1232593
PREFACE.
The need of a reliable history of Auglaize County and the section of the state in which it is located has been recognized for many years. In presenting this volume to the people of Auglaize County the author feels that much matter of interest, has, of necessity, been omitted. The first half of the volume is devoted to the early history of Western Ohio. In this division of the work, the Indian occupation of Ohio is related at considerable length, and is followed by an account of the peopling of Western Ohio. The author feels that no apology need be offered for the full account given of the campaigns of Harmar, St. Clair, Wayne, Hull and Harrison. It is believed that the order in which they are presented will be of value to the student and general reader.
The military campaigns are followed by an extended his- tory of the Shawnee Indians and the great Indian Treaties of Western Ohio.
The history of the county and townships has been written and compiled from the most authentic sources. The biographical history of the townships has claimed a great deal of attention, and has been collected at much expense and labor.
Whilst it is not pretended that the volume is free from errors and imperfections, the author has endeavored to procure all the facts detailed, or in any way, alluded to in its pages, from trust- worthy sources.
The following authorities have been consulted in the prepa- ration of this work: American Pioneer; Atwater's History of Ohio; Cist's Cincinnati Miscellany ; Collin's Historical Sketches of Kentucky; Dillon's History of Indiana; Dawson's Life of Harrison ; Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio; McClung's Western Adventure; McAfee's History of the War of 1812; J. M. Peck's Western Annals; S. P. Hildreth's Pioneer History ; McBride's History of Hamilton County ; Knapp's History of the Maumee Valley.
C. W. W.
WAPAKONETA, OHIO, December 1, 1905.
iii
30.00
CONTENTS.
PART I.
PAGE
CHAPTER
I. Early French and English Explorations
1
CHAPTER
II. Indian Occupation of Ohio
8
CHAPTER
III. The Revolt of the Colonies
17
CHAPTER
IV. The Early Settlers
22
CHAPTER
V. Harmar's Campaign
29
CHAPTER VI. St. Clair's Campaign 45
CHAPTER
VII. Wayne's Campaign
89
CHAPTER
VIII. Territorial Events From 1791 to 1812
138
CHAPTER . IX. Harrison's Campaign 152
CHAPTER
X.
Indian Treaties
207
CHAPTER
XI. The Shawnees
237
CHAPTER
XII. Indian Biography
291
PART II.
CHAPTER
XIII. Topography and Geology
325
CHAPTER
XIV. Organic History
410
CHAPTER
XV. Political History
447
CHAPTER
XVI. Courts and Bar of Auglaize County
523
CHAPTER XVII. Military History
530
PART I.
A HISTORY OF WESTERN OHIO.
A HISTORY OF WESTERN OHIO AND AUGLAIZE COUNTY.
CHAPTER I.
EARLY FRENCH AND ENGLISH EXPLORATIONS.
The history of that portion of Western Ohio, of which Aug- laize County is a part, dates back to 1680, when La Salle and a few followers ascended the Maumee river and established a trad- ing post near where Maumee City is located. The post was placed in charge of Sieur Courthemanche, after which the voy- agers proceeded up the river to its source, and from thence south, to the Ohio river.
In after years the British built Fort Miami on the exact spot where La Salle's post was established. Other posts were estab- lished afterward at Fort Wayne, Vincennes, Pickawillany, St. Marys and Wapakoneta. Following the trails that connected the important Indian towns of the Mississippi Valley, the Jesuit trad- ers established a lucrative trade that lasted until the close of the French dominion over the Northwest Territory in 1763.
The English made their first permanent settlement in 1607, at Jamestown, in Virginia. The French planted a small colony at Port Royal, in Nova Scotia in 1605, and three years afterward, in 1608, a small colony of adventurers, from France, founded the city of Quebec, in Canada. From this time until the year 1763, through a period of more than a century and a half, France and Great Britain were active and vigorous rivals in many contests concerning the territories, the colonists, and the trade of North America.
The English, basing their title upon the discoveries made by the Cabots, laid claim to all the territory from New Foundland to Florida, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The French, on the other hand, claimed all the interior portion adja- cent to the St. Lawrence and Mississippi rivers and their tribu- taries, upon the ground that they had explored and occupied it ;
2
HISTORY OF WESTERN OHIO
and, the better to secure their claim, they erected forts at various points through the region. In consequence of these conflicting claims, a war broke out between England and her colonies, with a few Indians, on the one side, and France and her colonies, largely aided by the Indians, on the other, which is known as "The French and Indian War." It was a contest for dominion over the great Mississippi valley.
The year 1749 witnessed the beginning of difficulties. Stroll- ing bands of traders, had, for several years frequented the Indian villages on the upper tributaries of the Ohio river. As soon as it became known in Canada that the English were engaged in traffic with the Indians, French traders were dispatched from Canada to visit the same villages, and to compete with the Eng- lish in the purchase of furs.
Virginia, under her ancient charter, claimed the whole coun- try lying between her western borders and the southern shores of Lake Erie. The French fur-gatherers in this district were regarded as intruders not to be. tolerated. To prevent further encroachment, a number of prominent Virginians joined them- selves together in a body called THE OHIO COMPANY, with a view to the immediate occupation of the disputed territory.
It is a fact worthy of note that the French in their early ex- plorations and expeditions in the Northwest Territory united piety with business. "They were zealous in sending out their missionaries, but they were always attended by traders, as skilled in the world's profit and loss, as their priests were in proselyting the Indians. The suave manner Of the French was so fascinat- ing to the Indians that the traders were able, ere long, to exercise complete control over them. The order of Jesuits was so numer- ous in Canada that representatives were stationed at every trad- ing post, village and settlement. The English colonists, engaged mostly in agriculture, while the French took a lively interest in the fur trade with the natives, probably from their settlement in Quebec and thereabouts, where the climate is advantageous for such a business. This, added to the influence of the priests, and the natural assimilation of French and Indians, through the tact and amiability of the former, the French possessions gained more rapidly than the English. They courted the Indian girls and married them. They engaged in feasts, games and trades, and took advantage of the unimpeded times to extend their dominion."
3
AND AUGLAIZE COUNTY
Lines of trading and military posts extended in numerous direc- tions through Ohio and other portions of the Northwest Terri- tory.
FRENCH TRADERS.
"To establish a permanent hold of the Ohio and Miami val- leys, Governor Hamilton, of Pennsylvania, in 1748, negotiated a
FRENCH TRADERS.
treaty with the Twigtwee Indians who occupied the country along the Miami river in what is now Shelby and Miami counties. To preserve the relations of the treaty, he sent out in the fall of 1750, a company of twenty-five men who established a trading post at the mouth of Pickawillany creek, at a point on the Miami river about eight miles south of Sidney. Before the next spring a block house was completed, and several stores and dwellings were erected. The block house and other buildings were sur-
4
HISTORY OF WESTERN OHIO
rounded by a stockade, as a protection, in case of sudden attack, both for their persons and property. The stockade consisted of a high wall of split logs set deep in the ground, and having three gateways. Within the inclosure the traders dug a well, which furnished an abundant supply of fresh water during the fall, winter and spring, but failed in summer. At this time Picka- willany contained four hundred Indian families, and was the residence of the principal chief of the Miami Confederacy. Chris- topher Gist was there in February, 1751, and in his published journal says: 'The place was daily increasing, and was ac- counted one of the strongest Indian towns on this continent.' In his entry for February 18th, he thus refers to the stockade: "We walked about and viewed the fort, which wanted some repairs, and the traders' men helped them to bring logs to. line the mid- dle."
In several contemporary papers it is stated that the fort at Pickawillany was built of stone. If this were the case, remains of the structure ought yet to be visible, but after a careful exam- ination we are unable to find any traces of the kind in the neigh- borhood of the mouth of Loramie's creek. During the winter and spring of 1751, according to a letter of George Croghan, thirty of the Miamis were killed by the French, presumably on account of their alliance with the English. In January, 1751, three French soldiers, who had deserted from the post at St. Joseph's and St. Mary's, delivered themselves to the English at Pickawillany. The Miamis demanded the Frenchmen for pur- poses of revenge. This the traders humanely refused to do, and to save their lives sent them to an English trading post on the Muskingum river, commanded by Colonel George Croghan. When the French governor of Canada heard that deserters from his service were received and protected at Pickawillany, he be- came greatly enraged, and ordered a detachment of two hundred and forty French, Ottawas and Chippewas to proceed to Picka- willany and destroy the post. In May, 1752, Monsieur St. Orr, with his force, left Detroit, and on the 21st of June, at early dawn reached Pickawillany. An attack was immediately com- menced, and after a spirited resistance the fort was surrendered. In the skirmish fourteen Twigtwees and one trader were killed. At the conclusion of the surrender all the buildings were burned and the goods appropriated. The English traders, tradition says,
5
AND AUGLAIZE COUNTY
were all murdered on their way to Canada. The Twigtwee king, old Britain, was killed and boiled in a kettle, and eaten by the Canadian Indians who accompanied the expedition.
The foregoing history of the post at Pickawillany, is from the journal of Captain William Trent, who was commissioned by Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, to carry presents to the Indians
-
DESTRUCTION OF FORT PICKAWILLANY.
at Logtown, and to the Twigtwees on the Miami river. Captain Trent, Thomas Burney, and about twenty Indians visited the ruins of the fort and devastated Indian village, on the 6th of July, but found no one there, the Indians having moved to the Wabash river, eighty miles to the west.
After the fall of Pickawillany Post most of the English traders abandoned the Ohio trade, and the French paid no further attention to it until 1769, when Peter Loramie, a French Jesuit
6
HISTORY OF WESTERN OHIO
trader, came over from Vincennes and established a store on Pickawillany creek, about nine miles north of its junction with the Miami river. Loramie was a great hater of the English, and his store was, for thirteen years, the headquarters, from which expeditions were sent against the pioneers of southern and east- ern Ohio. Loramie so endeared himself to the Indians, that he was able to exercise absolute control over them. "I have," says Colonel Johnston, "seen the Indians burst into tears when speak- ing of the time when their French Father had dominion over them." Soon after Loramie established his store, other stores were established in what is now Auglaize county. One of them was located on a branch of the St. Mary's river about two miles up the stream from the village of St. Marys. It was what is called a dug-out in the West, that is, the apartments occupied by the traders were excavations made in the bank of the creek, protected in front and on the sides by pickets. But little is known con- cerning this post, beyond the fact that it was occupied by French traders. They no doubt left at the time General Clark visited Loramie's store.
About the same time that the St. Mary's store was estab- lished, Francis Duchouquet and two other Frenchmen established a trading post at Wapakoneta. They built a stockade on the Auglaize river, about half a mile northeast of Wapakoneta on what is known as the Shafer farm. A spring, in the southwest corner of the inclosure, furnished the inmates with an abundance of good water.
This stockade is called Fort Auglaize in some of the earlier histories.
From 1769 to 1782 the pioneers of Cincinnati and vicinity suffered much from the atrocities committed by the Indians sent out from Loramie's store. So noted had the place become in 1782, that General George Rogers Clark marched against it with a regiment of Kentucky volunteers.
The bloody war between Great Britain and France, com- menced at Pickawillany in 1752, terminated with the treaty of Paris in 1763. "By the terms of the treaty France divided her possessions in America between Great Britain and Spain. To Great Britain she gave Canada and Cape Breton, and all the islands save two in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Entering what is now the United States, she drew a line down the Mississippi
7
AND AUGLAIZE COUNTY
river from its source to a point just north of New Orleans. To Great Britain she surrendered all her territory east of this line. To Spain she gave all her possessions to the west of this line, together with the city of New Orleans" To make her posses- sions east of the Mississippi complete, Great Britain gave Havana to Spain in exchange for Florida.
At the end of the war with France, Great Britain came into possession of Canada and all that part of the United States which lies between the Atlantic and the Mississippi, with the exception of the little strip at the mouth of the river.
CHAPTER II.
INDIAN OCCUPATION OF OHIO.
The origin of the North American Indian is unknown. "Many theories have been advanced to account for the red man's presence in the New World, but most of them have been vague and unsatisfactory." Our knowledge of the Ohio Indians does not extend beyond the year 1650. It is difficult to realize that the third state in the Union, now occupied by prosperous cities, vil- lages and cultivated fields, was peopled only two and a half cen- turies ago by a race of savages, who were not only wild rovers of the forest, but were unskilled in aught, save warfare, and the excitement of the chase.
The Ohio of 1650, we assume to have been a wilderness of vast extent, occupied in the northern part by a nation of Indians, called the Eries, whose villages skirted the southern shore of Lake Erie. The wanderings of the Indians were confined, chiefly, to that portion of the state, as they depended for their sustenance on fish taken from the lake, and game taken from the dense forest skirting the shore.
At that time the Wyandots. (or Hurons) held the peninsula between Lakes Huron, Erie and Ontario, and their hunting ex- cursions extended as far south as the regions about the mouths. of the Maumee river, while a tribe called the Andastes occupied the villages of the Allegheny and upper Ohio.
In 1655 the Five Nations or Iroquois, as the French called them, attacked the western tribes, and their extinction soon fol- lowed. After the great massacre, the remnant of survivors was incorporated with other tribes, to which they fled for refuge. .
Nothing in Indian history is more imposing than the Con- federacy of the Five Nations, the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, and Senecas. This great league of red men exercised for many years a fierce kind of despotism over other branches of its own race, sweeping everything before it in battle, crushing the obsti- nate, and establishing a jurisdiction over an amazing spread of country. Later, the Confederacy was joined by the Delawares
8
9
AND AUGLAIZE COUNTY
and Shawanese, after which it was called the Six Nations. The Shawanese being late arrivals, accepted, after many struggles, the bitter necessity of acknowledging the rule of the Iroquois. They became united, as the Delawares were, by conquest.
"Thus it was at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Ohio was almost unclaimed and uninhabited by human beings, save as it was used as a hunting ground by the Iroquois, or crossed and recrossed by them in their long war expeditions. But they were not able to maintain complete supremacy over so vast a region. Between 1700 and 1750, Ohio again became oc- . cupied by different tribes of savages, as weeds take possession of a neglected field." They sprang from the surviving members of the tribes that had been overcome and dispersed by the Iro- quois. A mere enumeration of them must suffice :
I. The Wyandots, who formerly occupied the northern portion of the state along the Sandusky river, now returned and occupied their old hunting grounds.
2. The Delawares occupied the territory through which the Muskingum flows, and held possession over nearly half of the state.
3. The Shawanese consisted of four tribes, or sub-divisions,
namely : Mequachake, Chillicothe. Kiskopocoke and Piqua tribes. These tribes occupied an extensive area in Ohio and In- diana. They were always a restless people, moving from place to place with such frequency that much of their history is wrap- ped in obscurity. There is scarcely a doubt that they were pres- ent at the treaty of peace and friendship negotiated by William Penn in 1683. They must have been considered a very promi- nent people, from the fact of their having preserved a copy of the treaty in their possession or keeping, as we are informed that, at a treaty held with them by the governor of Pennsylvania in 1722, the Shawanese produced Penn's treaty on parchment to. the governor.
LIFE AMONG THE OHIO INDIANS.
The various tribes of Ohio Indians differed in their social conditions, customs and practices nearly as much as do the bar- barous nations of Asia, from whom some writers suppose the Indians have descended.
The red men were, more or less, nomadic in their habits ;
10
HISTORY OF WESTERN OHIO
moving from place to place, as game became scarce, or as they became involved in wars, which made it unsafe for them to re- main long in a particular locality.
They usually lived in villages near streams or springs. The structures which formed the villages were wigwams, covered with bark or the skins of wild animals. "In some of the older and larger villages they lived in pole or log houses of a more permanent character. In addition to dwellings of such a charac- ter, many villages had what were called long houses, large enough
17
96 FT.
FIGURE I.
to hold from thirty to fifty families in separate booths or stalls."
Figure I shows a frame house of the Senecas, covered with elm bark. Smoke is seen at regular intervals issuing from five holes in the roof. Under each hole is a stone fireplcae in the middle of the hard, earthen floor, and around each fire pit are four stalls, two on each side and opening on the long passageway that runs through the center of the house with an outside door at each end. This house would have twenty-four compartments, of which twenty would hold each a family, while at each end two stalls were generally reserved for storing provisions. A house
11
AND AUGLAIZE COUNTY
occupied by a single family had a fire-pit in the middle of the floor. The foregoing description of an Indian long house is taken from John Fisk's "History of the United States." Nearly all of the Shawanese Indians lived in pole or log houses during the winter months. In addition to the dwellings described, there was, in the chief town of every nation, a building set apart for public purposes, called a council house. This building, as in the example of the long house, was either a frame covered with bark, or a log structure of sufficient dimensions to accommodate a large num- ber of people. In these buildings national and tribal councils were called to debate questions of policy and right.
CLANS AND TRIBES.
All the families, living in a long house or an equivalent group of houses, traced their descent from a common female ancestor. Each clan had its own name,- usually that of some animal or bird, as the Wolf, Bear, Turtle, Eagle or Turkey. Such animals or birds were held sacred, and carved images of them, called totems, served as a kind of clan emblem, and were placed over the doors of their houses.
A certain number of clans,- from three or four up to twenty or more,- speaking the same language, constitute an Indian tribe. Every tribe, as a usual thing, elected a head war-chief, and was governed by a council of its clan-sachems.
RELIGION.
The Indians were a superstitious race of people, but did not practice idolatry, so common among the barbarous nations of the Eastern Continent. "They believed in a great spirit, everywhere present, ruling the elements, showing favor to the obedient, and · punishing the sinful. He they worshipped; to Him they sacri- ficed. But not in temples, for they built none. They also be- lieved in many subordinate spirits - some good, some bad. Both classes were believed to frequent the earth. The bad spirits brought evil dreams to the Indian ; diseases also, bad passions, cruel winters, and starvation. The good spirits brought sunshine, peace, plentiful harvests, all the creatures of the chase. He be- lieved that the Medicine Man, or Prophet, obtained a knowledge of these things by fasting and prayer, and then made revelations
12
HISTORY OF WESTERN OHIO
of the will and purposes of the spirit world. All their religious ceremonies were performed with great earnestness and solemn formality."
In connection with their religious rites they indulged in a great variety of wild barbaric dances. They had the corn dance, which took place in the spring, and was an important ceremony, for its object was to secure favor of the Great Spirit, that their crops might be bountiful. The green corn dance took place at the time that Indian corn was sufficiently matured for roasting ears. It was a time of dancing, feasting and thanksgiving to the Great Spirit. The replacement dance was another ceremonial engaged in on funeral occasions. Before the dance, a game of chance of some kind was played, and he who won the game, became heir to the possessions of the deceased, after which all joined in a merry dance. The complimentary dance was given in honor of a Medicine Man, after he had, as was believed, effected some cure. But as is well known, the war dance was the one in which they took the greatest interest and delight. Be- fore engaging in the exercise, the warriors painted their faces and bodies in hideous colors, and decorated their heads with the feathers of the eagle, hawk or other bird. The warrior was fond of hanging about his person numerous trappings ; claws of bears, fangs of rattlesnakes, claws of hawks, bones of animals and scalps of enemies. After spending the night in festivities and dancing the warriors leave the village in the early morning, appar- ently impressed with the perils of the enterprise, and preserve the most profound silence in their departure.
An immoderate love of play, or games of hazard so common among people unaccustomed to the occupations of regular indus- try was universal among the Indians. Their games and plays consisted of running, wrestling, shooting at a mark, racing in canoes along swift rivers or placid lakes, playing at ball, or · engaging in intricate and exciting games, performed with small stones resembling checkers or dice. The Indian under ordinary circumstances was indifferent, silent, and phlegmatic, but as soon as he engaged in play he became animated, impatient, noisy, and almost frantic with eagerness. Under the influence of fierce pas- sion, he would hazard his entire possessions.
To forgive an injury or grievance was accounted a weakness or shame by all the Indian nations of America. Revenge was
13
AND AUGLAIZE COUNTY
considered to be a noble virtue. The Indian was treacherous and cruel beyond description, and was never so happy as when at the dead of night, he roused his sleeping victims with an unearthly yell, and massacred them by the light of their burning home. "Much, though, as he loved war, the fair and open fight had no charms for him. To his mind it was madness to take the scalp of an enemy at the risk of his own, when he might waylay him in ambush or shoot him with an arrow from behind a tree." If prisoners were captured they were taken to certain noted local- ities where they were tortured. In these tortures they exhibited the most diabolical ingenuity in devising the most excruciating torments. We have never seen an estimate of the number of white people, tortured by the Indians during the Colonial and Revolutionary periods of our history, but from the summing up of all accounts, the number must have amounted to several thou- sand. Among the noted localities where large numbers of pris- oners were tortured we note the following: Fort Duquesne, Chillicothe, Upper Sandusky, Lower Sandusky, the Shawanee towns of Piqua, Wapakoneta, St. Marys, and Fort Wayne. The latter named place is said to have been the most noted one in the Northwest Territory.
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