USA > Ohio > Allen County > A standard history of Allen county, Ohio : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, educational, civic and social development > Part 23
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It is said that there were 7,000 Indians present at this treaty at Foot of the Rapids of the Maumee, including the women and children. It must have been a strange assemblage. By this treaty the title to most of the land in the Maumee Basin was granted to the United States. Of all the great treaties ever made with the Indians this one held at the Maumee Rapids was of the greatest interest to North- western Ohio. A line drawn from Sandusky Bay to the Greenville Treaty line, near Mount Gilead, thence westerly along that line to the Indiana boundary and north to Michigan, would about embrace the Ohio land purchased at this council. It has since been divided into about eighteen counties. Almost three decades had elapsed since the Marietta colony was planted on the Ohio. Now for the first time could it be said that Northwestern Ohio stood on an equality with the rest of the state, and was practically free from the fetters and domi- nance of a race whose interest and habits, customs and mode of life, were entirely opposed to those of the rest of the country. Heretofore it had been partially a blank place on the map, labeled Indian country and Black Swamp. Its very name brought a shrug of terror to many. Following this treaty the civil jurisdiction of Logan County, with court at Bellefontaine, became operative until the organization of counties in 1820.
A number of additional treaties were made with the Indians at councils held in various places, but they are not of great importance for the purposes of this history, excepting the one convened at St. Marys in Auglaize County, in September, 1818. This was held at Fort Barbee, the present site of St. Marys, between the same parties, and some changes were made by which the Indians were given much more exten- sive allotments, because of a gathering dissatisfaction. Although the council did not commence until the 20th, the chiefs and warriors of seven nations began to assemble in the latter part of August. This council lasted until the 6th of October. It was intended to be supple- mentary to the one made the previous year at the Foot of the Rapids of the Maumee. The Wyandots were given a large increase in land, consisting of two tracts of 56,680 and 16,000 acres respectively. The Shawnees received 12,800 additional acres to be laid off adjoining the east line of their reservation at "Wapaghkonetta." The Senecas also received 10,000 more acres along the Sandusky. Additional annuities were granted as follows: To the Wyandots $500; to the Shawnees and Senecas, of Lewiston, $1,000; to the Senecas $500; to the Ottawas, $1,500; all of these were to run "forever."
The traders did a thriving business, and many thousands of dollars' worth of furs were exchanged for rifles. powder, lead, knives, hatchets, gaudy blankets, tobacco, etc. Pony races and ball games were daily diversions among the Indians, who were well fed by the Government. For this purpose droves of cattle and hogs had been driven in and great
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stocks of cornmeal, salt and sugar laid in upon these and with the game brought in by the Indian hunters they fared sumptuously every day.
It was not many years after the treaties described above until the removals of the Indians to reservations farther west were initiated. In fact, at the same treaty at St. Marys, some of the Delawares agreed to their removal to a reservation by the James tributary of White River, in Missouri. The Delawares living at Little Sandusky quitclaimed to the United States their reservations of three miles square on August 3, 1829, and consented to remove west of the Mississippi to join those Delawares already transferred. In 1829, by a treaty concluded at Sagi- naw, the Chippewas ceded to the United States land claimed by them running from Michigan to the "mouth of the Great Auglaize River." Two years later the Senecas along the Sandusky River relinquished their reservations in exchange for lands west of the Mississippi, and the Indians were removed in accordance with this treaty. There were just 510 of them, as mixed up a mess of humanity as could be found, so we are told by contemporaneous chronicles. A portion of them traveled overland, and the others journeyed to Cincinnati, where they proceeded by water down the Ohio.
It was in 1831 that negotiations were begun with the Shawnees for the purchase of their lands. The Indians were greatly divided in their opinions. James Gardner, who began the negotiations, greatly deceived the Indians, evidently for personal profit. Some were bribed by the traders and the dissipated ones knew that a removal meant much ready money. The tribe insisted upon the payment of all its debts as a pre- liminary. At last an agreement was reached. Because Gardner informed the Shawnees that they would be removed early in the spring, the Indians sold off their cattle and hogs and many other things. As a matter of fact it was almost a year, and the Indians meanwhile suffered great privation. Many came almost to the point of starvation. When the money finally came it was transported in ten wooden kegs on horseback from Piqua. After receiving their annuity, the Indians entered upon a round of festivities and dissipation, that lasted in most instances until their money was spent. After recuperating from their dissipations, they began making preparations for their removal to their western home. They destroyed or buried the property that they could not sell. David Robb, one of the commissioners who assisted in their removal, has left an interesting account of the ceremonies incident to the occasion.
"After we had rendezvoused, preparatory to moving, we were detained several weeks waiting until they had got over their tedious round of religious ceremonies, some of which were public and others kept private from us. One of their first acts was to take away the fencing from the graves of their fathers, level them to the surrounding surface, and cover them so neatly with green sod, that not a trace of the graves could be seen.
"Among the ceremonies above alluded to was a dance, in which none participated but the warriors. They threw off all their clothing but their breechclouts, painted their faces and naked bodies in a fantastical manner, covering them with pictures of snakes and disagreeable insects and animals, and then armed with war clubs, commenced danc- ing, yelling and frightfully distorting their countenances; the scene was truly terrific. This was followed by the dance they usually have on returning from a battle, in which both sexes participated. It was a pleasing contrast to the other, and was performed in the night, in a ring, around a large fire. In this they sang and marched, males and females promiscuously, in single file around the blaze. The leader of the band
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commenced singing, while all the rest were silent until he had sung a certain number of words, then the next in the row commenced with the same, and the leader began with a new set, and so on to the end of their chanting. All were singing at once, but no two the same words. I was told that part of the words they used were hallelujah! It was pleasing to witness the native modesty and graceful movements of these young females in this dance.
"When their ceremonies were over, they informed us they were ready to leave. They then mounted their horses, and such as went in wagons seated themselves, and set out with their 'high priest' in front, bearing on his shoulders 'the ark of the convenant,' which consisted of a large gourd and the bones of a deer's leg tied to its neck. Just pre- vious to starting, the priest gave a blast of his trumpet, then moved slowly and solemnly while the others followed in a like manner, until they were ordered to halt in the evening and cook supper. The same course was observed through the whole of the journey. When they arrived near St. Louis, they lost some of their number by cholera. The Shawnees who emigrated numbered about 700 souls."
It was on November 20, 1832, that they commenced their journey of 800 miles, and proceeded as far as Piqua the first day, where they remained two days to visit the graves of their ancestors. They traveled until Christmas of that year, when they encamped at the junction of the Kansas and Missouri rivers. They suffered much on the journey from the severity of the winter. They immediately commenced the con- struction of cabins, and, by the latter part of February, these were so far completed as to protect them from the cold western winds. They were joined the next spring by the Hog Creek tribe, under the direction of Joseph Parks. This second contingent fared much better than those who preceded them, as they had the advantage of season.
The Ottawas along the Lower Maumee, at Wolf Rapids and Roche de Bout, and also those by the Auglaize River and Blanchard River, near the present town of Ottawa, about two hundred in number, gave up their lands and consented to remove to a reservation of 40,000 acres in consideration of an annuity and presents of blankets, horses,' guns, and agricultural implements, etc. It was especially stated that this relinquishment did not include the square mile of territory previously granted to Peter Manor, the Yellow Hair. A three years' lease was also granted to Chief Wau-be-ga-ka-ke for a section of land adjoining Peter Manor, and a section and a half of land below Wolfe Rapids was given to Mcuk-qui-ona, or the Bear Skin. A quarter section each was set off to Himar Thebault, a half-breed Ottawa, to William Ottawa, and to William McNabb, another half-breed. This last remnant of the once powerful Ottawa tribe of Indians removed from this valley to lands beyond the Mississippi in 1838. They number some interesting men among them. There was Nawash, Ockquenoxy, Charloe, Ottoke, Petonquet, men of eloquence who were long remembered by many of our citizens. Their burying grounds and village sites are scattered along both banks of Miami of the Lakes, from its mouth to Fort Defiance. They left on the steamboat Commodore Perry for Cleveland on August 21, 1837, to go from there by canal to Portsmouth, and thence by the Ohio and Mississippi to their new western home. There were about one hundred and fifty in the party, and a few hundred remained behind with the white neighbors. A couple of years later another hundred, who had been eking out a precarious existence, consented to follow the others, and they were accordingly transported west by the same route.
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The Wyandots of the Big Spring Reservation, or those of Solomon's town, ceded their lands, amounting to about sixteen thousand acres, to the United States at a council held at Mccutchenville, Wyandot County, on January 19, 1832. James B. Gardner was the specially appointed commissioner on the part of the Government. It was stipulated that when sold the chiefs should be paid in silver the sum of $1.25 per acre for the land and also a fair valuation for all improvements that had been made. The Indians went to Huron, in Michigan, or any place that they might obtain the privilege of settling with other Indians. Some did in fact join the other Wyandots on their principal reservations. Chief Solomon went west with his tribe, but returned and passed his last days among the whites. The Wyandots were the last Indian tribe to leave Ohio. Final negotiations were concluded at Upper Sandusky on March 17, 1842. By this time the white settlers had completely encircled the reservation with towns and cultivated fields. The tribe had been reduced to fewer than eight hundred persons of all ages and both sexes. At the last vote, more than two-thirds of the male population voted for the transposition. By the terms of the treaty, the tribe was given 148,000 acres of land opposite Kansas City. In addition they were granted a permanent annuity of $17,500, together with a perpetual fund of $500 per annum for educational purposes, and an immediate appropriation of $23.860 to satisfy the debts of the tribe.
The preparations for the departure of the Wyandots began in the spring of 1843, but their actual removal took place in July. The arrange- ments were made by Chief Jacques. The final scenes at Upper San- dusky were filled with pathos. The love of the Wyandots for their ancestral homes was indeed great. Frequent councils were held, and religious worship in the old Mission Church was conducted for weeks prior to the removal. Their dead were brought from other places and solemnly reinterred in the mission cemetery. All unmarked graves were signified by either a stone or a marker. Squire Grey Eyes, who was an intelligent and Christian chief, importuned as follows:
"He exhorted them to be good Christians, and to meet him in Heaven. In a most sublime and pathetic manner he discoursed upon all the familiar objects of a home-no longer theirs. He bade adieu to the Sandusky, on whose waters they had paddled their light bark canoes and in whose pools they had fished, laved and sported. He saluted in his farewell the forest and the plains of Sandusky, where he and his ancestors had hunted, roved and dwelt for many generations. He bade farewell to their habitations, where they had dwelt for many years and where they still wished to dwell. With mournful strains and plaintive voice he bade farewell to the graves of his ancestors, which now they were about to leave forever, probably to be encroached upon ere the lapse of many years by the avaricious tillage of some irreverent white man. Here, as a savage, untutored Indian, it is probable Grey Eyes would have stopped, but as a Christian he closed his valedictory by alluding to an object yet dearer to him; it was the church where they had worshipped, the temple of God, constructed by the good white men for their use, and within those walls they had so often bowed down in reverence under the ministrations of Finley and his co-laborers."
The farewells having been said, the long cavalcade, with the chiefs on horseback and several hundred on foot, and many wagons loaded with their effects, began its journey. Among the chiefs were Jacques, Bull Head, Split-the-Log, Stand-in-the-Water, Mud Eater, Lump-on- the-Head, Squire Grey Eyes, and Porcupine. On the first day they had traveled to Grass Point, in Hardin County, and on the seventh day
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they reached Cincinnati. Here they were taken on boats down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and up the Missouri to their new homes. A few of the chiefs, including the head chief Jacques, visited Columbus, where they called upon Governor Shannon to thank him for courtesies and farewell speeches were delivered. As this last of all the once numerous Ohio tribes ascended the steamships that were to convey them from the place of their nativity, "they seemed to linger, and to turn to the north as if to bid a last farewell to the tombs in which they had deposited the remains of their deceased children, and in which the bones of their fathers had been accumulating and moulding for untold ages." The number who migrated at this time was 664, and about fifty journeyed west in the following year.
As the Indians began to disappear the tide of immigration, which had begun after the War of 1812, was still more increased. By 1820 the population of Ohio had risen to more than half a million. The state now ranked fifth, being outranked only by New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. She had outstripped in the race for population every other one of the original thirteen colonies. North- western Ohio began to develop even more rapidly than the other sec- tions, because of the long repression and the fertility of soil which attracted settlers. It was in 1820 that county outlines were established and fourteen counties officially created.
The country was still miserably poor. The money was at a dis- count because of the inflation of the currency following the war. Trans- portation was so bad that the produce of the western country was worth little because of the absence of markets. Butter was worth only 6 cents a pound and eggs could be purchased at 4 cents a dozen. Pork was 2 cents a pound and beef only a cent higher. Under such conditions there could be no great prosperity, even though there might be a goodly population. It was then that plank roads were constructed in some places. The question was not satisfactorily adjusted until the canals were con- structed. These artificial waterways answered the needs of the commu- nities, assisted by the navigable streams, until the advent of railways. The Miami and Erie Canal opened up the Maumee country with the southern section of the state. Lake communication reached Buffalo and the Erie Canal, which had been completed, gave access to eastern markets. An era of prosperity gradually developed which has never failed the richly endowed basin of the Maumee.
CHAPTER XIII
THE PREHISTORIC AGE
To the untrained mind the ages prior to the incoming of the white man, and the few things learned from the savages then inhabiting the country, are a sealed book. The historic period occupies but a very brief period in comparison with the untold ages consumed in the forma- tion of the topography of our beloved Northwestern Ohio as we now view it. It is not within the province of this work to take up the geology of the Maumee country in detail as it would be discussed by the learned geologist to whom the various rocks with the fossils found imbedded in them speak with almost audible voice. All that can be related in this chapter is just enough to briefly outline the subject and to stimulate, if possible, an impetus for further reading upon the subject.
In Northwestern Ohio occurs the most expansive area of level coun- try in the State of Ohio, the region of the old lake bed. In fact, if the investigator goes back far enough, he finds unmistakable evidence that it was once a part of the ocean bed. In a broad area, reaching from Ottawa and Lucas counties southwest to Paulding, Van Wert, and Defiance counties, the change in elevation frequently does not exceed a foot to the mile. In no part of Northwestern Ohio are there hills of any magnitude, but certain sections are slightly rolling, and there are points where the elevation is a few hundred feet above the level of Lake Erie.
The historic period of this region is very short in the chronology of the earth, in comparison with the great length of time covered by the geological ages. Whether these periods occupied 50,000,000 or 60,000,000 years is of very little interest to us, for whichever state- ment is accepted, the length of years is sufficiently impressive for our minds. In very early geological ages, the Gulf of Mexico extended to this region. The greatest influence in the conformation of the topog- raphy of this vast level area of land occurred during the glacial periods. It is quite probable that prior to this time Northwestern Ohio may not have differed greatly from the hilly region of the southeastern section of our state. This character of the underlying strata is evinced by the revelations of the oil driller. The dips of these strata are sometimes steep and sudden, fairly convincing proof that the original surface was most uneven. The deposits of oil and gas have been found within or below the Trenton limestone, a formation which is well understood among geologists. Hence these drillings have furnished geological students with much valuable information about this section.
The remarkable change in the surface of this region is almost wholly due to the effect of glaciers in prehistoric times. Immense glaciers formed somewhere in the upper regions of Canada, and moved down slowly toward the south. Neither trees, rocks nor any natural obstruc- tion permanently impeded their movement. The glaciers scooped out the basin of Lake Erie and, when they reached what is now Northwest- ern Ohio, the general movement was in a southwesterly direction. The fact of these glacial movements is established in a number of ways. On Kelley's Island there are the most remarkable glacier grooves that are found in Ohio. In some places the boulders which were imbedded in the glaciers cut grooves in the limestone rocks that abounded there to a
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depth of two feet. The same groovings, although not so deep, are found on many of the rocks along the lake shore at Marblehead and Lakeside. To a geologist these grooves speak as audibly as do the tracks of an elephant to the hunter. Hence it is that the rocky shores of Lake Erie have been carefully studied for many decades by geologists from all over the world. Six of these glacial epochs have been identified by these students of rocks.
One of these is known as the Harrison Boulder, lying a few miles southwest of Fremont. This is a species of granite known to come from the highlands of Canada, directly north of Lake Erie, which is said to be the oldest land in the world. The age of this particular rock is esti- mated by geologists to be from 25,000,000 to 150,000,000 years. It was transported here, so they affirm, not more than 10,000 or 12,000 years ago. In size it is 13 feet long, 10 feet wide and about 7 feet thick, of which one-half is out of the ground. It would weigh probably eighty ton, and has withstood the influence of climate all these years. The place of its origin is several hundred miles distant, in the Labrador or Hudson Bay region, and it could have been transported in no other way than by a glacier. There are many other smaller boulders scattered over the Mau- mee region. The valued rocks of this region are much younger, and were deposited when this was the bottom of the sea, so that they became filled with sea shells and shell fish and a vast accumulation of marine deposits. The superficial deposits all belong to the glacial age.
Still another evidence of the movements of glaciers across North- western Ohio is in the terminal moraines, which are found in several places. It has been estimated that the thickness of the glacier over Lake Erie was about eleven thousand feet. It is known from watching the movements of the glaciers of today on the Alps, as well as in Alaska and other places, that these great masses of ice and snow move almost as a semi-fluid substance. Their progress is exceedingly slow, but they are just as sure as they are slow. They freeze onto the rocks, never letting go, but carrying them along. The annual movements of glaciers which have been observed range from 130 to 330 feet in a single year. These glacial movements cut off the top of mountains, filled up the valleys, and made the surface of Northwest Ohio what it is today. They were like huge planes in their effect, leveling the high points, pushing everything breakable and movable before them, crushing and grinding the softer rocks. In many places the depth of the deposit exceeds 100 feet. The rocks, which were thus exposed to the air, frost and water were decomposed and formed the rich soil of this section, one of the richest in existence. As the surface was in places a little uneven, and in some places even depressed, it created the swamps which used to be so numerous.
The term moraine is given to a ridge of pulverized and transported material which is left by a glacier. The moraine marks where the front of the glacier rested, for it was the front that had accumulated most of the detritus. The glaciers in their movements gathered up rocks and soil, which were gradually ground up, so that a fair proportion of the mass of the glacier was sometimes made up of this material. At times the glaciers were halted in their movements for periods which might have covered centuries, and the surface being exposed to a warmer climate gradually melted. The detritus which had been gathered up was deposited in ridges, which can be still plainly distinguished. There are three or four of these moraines, either wholly or partly in North- western Ohio, which are in a cup shape, with the bottom of the cup pro- jecting toward the southwest. All of them are nearly parallel. The
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approach is generally so gradual that it is scarcely perceptible to the traveler. The first of these is known as the Defiance Moraine, which extends northward and eastward from Defiance. The next one is known as the St. Joseph-St. Marys Moraine, because it follows these two rivers, with the apex near Fort Wayne, Indiana. The third one is only a few miles distant from this, and extends in the same general direction. A fourth, known as Salamonie Moraine, is still a little farther distant, and crosses the southern boundary of Northwestern Ohio near Fort Recovery and Kenton. The many little lakes in Northern Indiana were caused by the irregular deposition of the glacial detritus, leaving depressions which became filled with water. It is still an unsettled question whether the different glacial epochs were separated by long intervals of mild climate or whether they were simply advances and recessions separated by only comparatively short intervals, as geological ages are measured.
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