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 6
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HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY
head. Tlie savages immediately seized Pauli and disarmed him. At the same time a confusion of yells and shrieks and the noise of firearms sounded from without. It soon ceased, however, and when Pauli was let out of the enclosure the ground was strewn with the corpses of his murdered comrades and the traders. At nightfall he was conducted to the lake, where several birch canoes lay, and as they left the shore the fort burst into flames. He was bound hand and foot and taken to Detroit, where the assembled Indian squaws and children pelted him with stones, sticks, and gravel, forcing him to dance and sing. Happily an old squaw, who had lately been widowed, adopted him in place of the deceased spouse. Having been first plunged into the river that the white blood might be washed away, he was conducted to the lodge of the widow, but he escaped from such enforced matrimonial servitude at the earliest opportunity.
It would not be within the province of this history to describe in detail the prolonged siege which was undergone by the British garrison at Detroit against a host of besieging savages. At every other point the conspiracy was a success, and for the British there was only an unbroken series of disasters. The savages spread terror among the settlers throughout all the Ohio country. Cabins were burned, defense- less women and children were murdered, and the aborigines were aroused to the highest pitch of fury by the blood of their numerous victims. It was not until a letter reached Pontiac from the French commander, informing him that the French and English were now at peace, that the Ottawa chief abandoned hope. He saw himself and his people thrown back upon their own slender resources. For hours no man nor woman dared approach him, so terrible was his rage. His fierce spirit was wrought into unspeakable fury. At last he arose and, with an imperious gesture, ordered the frightened squaws to take down the wigwams. In rage and mortification, Pontiac, with a few tribal chiefs as followers, removed his camp from Detroit and returned to the banks of the Maumee River to nurse his disappointed expectations.
Following the withdrawal of the Indians, comparative quiet prevailed for several months. Pontiac was still unconquered, however, and his hostility to the English continued unabated. He afterwards journeyed to the Illinois country, where the French still held sway, in order to arouse the western tribes to further resistance. His final submission was given to Sir William Johnson, at Oswego. That official, "wrapped in his scarlet blanket bordered with gold lace, and surrounded by the ghttering uniforms of the British officers, was seen, with hand extended in welcome to the great Ottawa, who, standing erect in conscious power, his rich plumes waving over the circle of his warriors, accepted the proffered hand, with an air in which defiance and respect were singularly blended." Like the dissolving view upon a screen, this picturesque pageant passed into history and Pontiac returned to the Maumee region, which continued to be his home. Here he pitched his lodge in the forest, with his wives and chil- dren, and hunted like an ordinary warrior, although he yielded more and more to the seduction of "firewater." There is probably no section of the extreme northwestern part of our state where his moccasined feet did not at some time tread.
For a few years the records are silent concerning Pontiac. In 1789, however, he appeared at the post of St. Louis. He remained there for two or three days, after which he visited an assemblage of Indians at Cahokia, on the opposite side of the river, arrayed in the full uniform of a French officer, one which had been presented to him by the Marquis of Montcalm. Here a Kaskaskia Indian, bribed by a British trader, buried
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HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY
a tomahawk in his brain. Thus perished the Indian chief who made him- self a powerful champion of his ruined race. His descendants continued to reside along the Maumee until the final removal of the remnant of his once powerful tribe beyond the Mississippi. His death was avenged in a truly sanguinary manner. The Kaskaskias were pursued by the Sacs and Foxes, and were practically exterminated for this vile deed. Their vil- lages were burned, and their people either slain or driven to refuge in distant places ..
Pontiac's vision of the ruin of his people was prophetic. The Indian has disappeared, together with the buffalo, the deer, and the bear. His wigwam has vanished from the banks of the streams. Today, mementoes of his lost race, such as the rude tomahawk, the stone arrowhead, and the wampum beads, when turned up by the plow of the paleface farmer, become the prized relics of the antiquary or the wonder of youth. But his prophetic eye went no further. Little did he dream that within the short space of a few human lives the blue lake over which he ofttimes sailed would be studded with the ships of commerce; that gigantic boats pro- pelled by steam would replace the fragile canoe ; that populous cities and thriving villages would arise by the score upon the ruins of the pristine forests ; that the hunting grounds of his youth, and old age as well, in the Maumee region, would become a hive of industry and activity, and the abode of wealth surpassed by no section of this or adjoining states.
In the early spring of the year following the collapse of Pontiac's conspiracy, the British commander-in-chief decided to send two expedi- tions to the western country. One of these was to invade the lake region and the other to visit the Delaware and Shawnee settlements in South Ohio. Bouquet did not reach our region, but the successful results of his efforts had a large influence in the greater peace that followed during the next few years. A great conference was held with the Ohio savages along the Muskingum at which treaties were entered into and many captives released by the Indians. The number is estimated to exceed two hundred. Many heartrending scenes occurred. In a number of instarices the dislike of the Indians to leave their white companions was almost equalled by their reluctance to return to civilization. Several white women were almost forced to quit their painted spouses.
The second expedition was commanded by Colonel John Bradstreet, a man whose reputation exceeded his exploits. Embarking in small boats at the foot of Lake Erie in the summer of 1764, the expedition set sail, numbering more than two thousand soldiers and helpers. It required a large flotilla to convey so large a party. Bradstreet had orders to attack the Indians dwelling along the Sandusky. He camped there for a time on his outward journey, but was misled by the Indian subtlety, and sailed away without either following his orders to chastise these Indians or completing the fort which he began. The Indians promised "that if he would refrain from attacking them, they would follow him to Detroit and there conclude a treaty." At Detroit the troops were royally wel- comed. An Indian council was at once summoned, and Montresor reports it as follows: "Sat this day the Indian council, Present, the Jibbeways, Shawanese, Hurons of Sandusky and the five nations of the Scioto, with all the several nations of friendly Indians accompanying the army. The Pottawattomies had not yet arrived. Pondiac declined appearing here until his pardon should be granted. * * * This day Pondiac was forgiven in council, who is at present two days march above the Castle on the Miami River called la Roche de But, near Waterville, with a party of sixty or more savages." The Indians agreed to call the English king "father," the term formerly applied to the French sovereign. After
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HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY
several weeks spent at Detroit, Bradstreet once more embarked for the Sandusky, where they arrived in a few days. A number of prominent and lesser chiefs visited him here, but nothing was accomplished. Their subtlety was too deep for the English commander. He camped where Fremont is now located and began the work of erecting a fort. This was finally abandoned and the expedition returned to Fort Niagara.
An interesting incident in connection with the Bradstreet expedition was a journey undertaken by Captain Morris, of which he kept a complete and interesting journal. Under instructions from his superior, he "set out in good spirits from Cedar Point (mouth of the Maumee), Lake Erie, on the 26th of August, 1764, about four o'clock in the afternoon at the same time the army proceeded for Detroit." He was accompanied by two Canadians and a dozen Indians, who were to accompany him "to the Rapids of the Miami ( Maumee) River, and then return to the army." There were also Warsong, a noted "Chippeway chief, and Attawang, an Uttawa (Ottawa) chief." The party proceeded up the Maumee to the headquarters of Pontiac, "whose army consisting of six hundred savages, with tomahawks in their hands," surrounded him. Pontiac squatted himself before his visitor, and behaved in a rather unfriendly fashion. The greater part of the Indians got drunk, and several of them threatened to kill him. After the savages had become more sober, Pontiac permitted the party to resume its journey up the river.
At the site of Fort Wayne, another rabble of Indians met the embassy in a threatening manner, but Morris remained in a canoe reading "The Tragedy of Anthony and Cleopatra," in a volume of Shakespeare which had been presented to him by the Indian chief. This was undoubtedly one of the strangest circumstances under which the works of Shakespeare were ever perused. The journal of Morris reveals a keen insight into the Indian nature. While Bradstreet was being deceiived by their duplicity, Morris recognized their real character and said: "I wish the chiefs were assembled on board a vessel, and that she had a hole in her bottom. Treachery should be paid with treachery; and it is worth more than ordinary pleasure to deceive those who would deceive us." When he reached Detroit again, Bradstreet had already departed on his journey to Sandusky.
The British continued their efforts to establish friendly relations with the Indians of the western country. In the spring of 1765 another small expedition was dispatched under Major George Croghan, who had visited the Indians on several previous occasions and thoroughly understood them. He floated down the Ohio and in May he was at the mouth of the Wabash, which he spells Ouabache. He says: "August 1st, we arrived at the carrying place between the Miames and the Ouabache, which is about nine miles long in dry seasons, but not above half that length in freshets. * *
* Within a mile of the Twightwee village, I was met by the chiefs of that nation, who received us very kindly. The most part of these Indians knew me, and conducted me to their village, where they immediately hoisted an English flag that I had formerly given them at Fort Pitt. * The Indian village consists of about forty or fifty cabins, besides nine or ten French houses-a runaway colony from Detroit. * * * All the French residing here are a lazy, indolent people, fond of breeding mischief, and spiriting up the Indians against the English, and should by no means be suffered to remain here.
"On the sixth day of August, we set out for Detroit, down the Miames River in a canoe. This river heads about ten miles from hence. The river is not navigable until you come to the place where the St. Joseph joins it, and makes a considerably large stream. Nevertheless, we found
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a great deal of difficulty in getting our canoe over the shoals, as the waters at this season were very low. * * * About ninety miles from the Miames or Twightwee, we came to a large river that heads in a large lick, falls into the Miame River (probably the Auglaize). The Ottawas claim this country, and hunt here, where game is very plenty. From hence we proceeded to the Ottawa village. *
* Here * we were compelled to get out of our canoes, and drag them eighteen miles, on account of the rifts, which interrupt the navigation. At the end of the rifts we came to a village of the Wyandots, who received us very kindly, and from thence we proceeded to the mouth of this river, where it falls into Lake Erie. From the Miames to the lake it is com- puted 180 miles, and from the entrance of the river into the lake at Detroit is sixty miles-that is, forty-two miles upon the lake, and eigh- teen miles up the Detroit River to the garrison of that name." Croghan's expedition had been very successful in accomplishing its purposes.
CHAPTER III
THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD
The Indians had at last become convinced that no more reliance could be placed upon the French, and that their interests would best be served by remaining on friendly terms with the British. The acquiescence of Pontiac and his late associates gave the English an opportunity to secure possession of the Ohio country as far as the Mississippi, and the oppor- tunity was not neglected. This expansive stretch of country was still almost an unbroken wilderness, in which the red men were the only human dwellers.
It became increasingly difficult for the British authorities to hold back the threatening tide of Caucasian invasion into the trans-Allegheny country. The marvelous reports of the abounding fertility of the soil enthused some. The abundance of game and fur-bearing animals and the natural call of the wild excited a still greater number. The Indians had hoped to retain all the region northwest of the Ohio, and in fact vague promises had been made by government representatives. A treaty was entered into with the Five Nations, but some of the Ohio tribes did not consider this treaty binding. They denied the authority of those tribes to dispose of the lands claimed and occupied by themselves. The Quebec Act, promulgated in 1763 by the King of England, had expressly forbid settlements in the Ohio country. The express purpose was to make this northwestern territory where we now live a great Indian reser- vation. This act was not wholly unselfish, for it seemed advisable in order to ensure the colonies from danger of Indian uprisings.
The famous Ohio Company had been formed as early as 1748, in the interests of Virginia. The Washington brothers, Lawrence and Augus- tine, Thomas Lee, and others, had been given a grant of half a million acres, with certain conditions. Two hundred thousand acres were to be located at once, provided the company succeeded in placing a colony of one hundred persons and building a fort sufficient to protect the settle- ment. This act had its part in causing the French and Indian war. During the progress of that sanguinary struggle the project lay dormant. At its close it was revived. Other companies were formed. One of these was the Mississippi Company, the articles of which are in the handwriting of the "Father of his Country." He foresaw the future of this promising country. The craving for the western land reached London, for the Earl of Selbourne, Secretary of State, wrote as follows: "The thirst after the lands of the Aboriginies is become almost universal, the people who generally want them are either ignorant of or remote from the conse- quences disobliging the Aboriginies, many make a traffic of lands and few or none will be at any pains or expense to get them settled, conse- quently they cannot be losers by an Aborigini War, and should a Tribe be driven to despair, and abandon their country, they have their desire tho' at the expense of the lives of such ignorant settlers as may be upon it. * * The majority of those who get lands, being persons of conse- quence (British) in the Capitals who can let them lye dead as a sure Estate hereafter, and are totally ignorant of the Aboriginies, make use of some of the lowest and most selfish of the Country Inhabitants to seduce the Aboriginies to their houses, where they are kept rioting in drunken- ness till they have effected their bad purposes."
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HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY
The character of the immigrants at this time is revealed by an excerpt from a report by Sir William Johnson: "For more than ten years past, the most dissolute fellows united with debtors, and persons of wandering disposition have been removing from Pensilvania & Virginia & into the Aborigine Country, towards & on the Ohio & a considerable number of settlements were made as early as 1765 when my Deputy (George Croghan) was sent to the Illinois from whence he gave me a particular account of the uneasiness occasioned among the Aborigines. Many of these emigrants are idle fellows that are too lazy to cultivate lands, & invited by the plenty of game they found, have employed themselves in hunting, in which they interfere much more with the Aborigines than if they pursued agriculture alone, and the Aborigine hunters (who are composed of all the Warriors in each nation) already begin to feel the scarcity this has occasioned, which greatly increases their resentment."
As a proof that this Northwestern country was becoming of greater importance than formerly, we find that in 1767 a post, or mart, was suggested for the Maumee River, as well as one for the Wabash, whereas formerly it was thought that Detroit was sufficient for this entire territory. In his report to the Secretary of State in that year, the superintendent said among other things: "Sandusky which has not been re-established is not a place of much consequence of Trade, it is chiefly a post at which several Pennsylvania Traders embarked for Detroit. St. Joseph's (near Lake Michigan) and the Miamis at Fort Wayne have neither of them been yet re-established, the former is of less consquence for Trade than the latter which is a place of some importance. At the Miamis there may be always a sufficiency of provisions from its vicinity to Lake Erie, and its easiness of access by the River of that name at the proper season, to protect which the Fort there can at a small expense be ren- dered tenable against any Coup du mains *
* this would greatly contribute to overcome the present excuse which draws the traders to rove at will and thereby exposes us to the utmost danger."
To meet the advance of the whites the Ohio Indians formed a great confederacy on the Pickaway Plains, in July, 1772, in which the Shaw- nees, Wyandots, Miamis, Ottawas, Delawares, and even western tribes had united for mutual protection. They denied the right of the Six Nations to convey a title to the English for all the hunting grounds south of the Ohio. They demanded compensation for themselves in the event settlements were insisted upon. For this attitude the Ohio Indians can- not be blamed. The purpose of this alliance was not only to hurl back from their frontiers the white invaders, but also to surpass the Iroquois both in strength and prowess. The Shawnees were the most active in this confederation, and their great chief Cornstalk was recognized as the head of this confederation. In the year 1774 many inhuman and revolt- ing incidents occurred. In the battle with the forces of Lord Dunmore, in what is known as Lord Dunmore's war, the power of this confedera- tion was broken. The peace pipe was again smoked, but the armistice was not of long duration. When the war finally broke out between the colonies and the mother country, the Ohio Indians, as soon as they learned of the significance of the struggle, aligned themselves on the side of the British, being partly lured to that decision by promises of the mil- itary authorities.
This decision of the savages to remain loyal to the British was destined to cost the American colonists many hundreds of additional lives, and an untold amount of suffering during the several years of bitter struggle for independence from the mother country. Previous to this time the colonies had already lost some thirty thousand lives, and had incurred
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HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY
an expense of many millions of dollars in their efforts for protection against the French and their Indian allies. Of this sum only about one- third had been reimbursed to them by the British Parliament. Hence it was that a large indebtedness had accumulated, and the rates of taxation had become exceedingly burdensome.
The war against the savages was almost without cessation. The cam- paigns were more nearly continuous than consecutive, and they seldom rose to the dignity of civilized warfare. In most instances it is difficult to tell when one Indian war ended and another began. Incursive bodies of whites and retaliatory bodies of Indians, or vice versa, kept this sec- tion of the state in an almost interminable turmoil. An attack was immediately followed by reprisal, and an invasion was succeeded by pursuit and punishment. Most of the encounters rose little above massa- cres by one or both belligerents. The killing of some of the family of the Mingo chief, Logan, is an instance of white brutality. Bald Eagle, a Del- aware chief, and Silver Heels, a friendly Shawneen chief, were also bru- tally murdered. It is no wonder that the Indians began to ask: "Had the Indian no rights which the white men were bound to respect?" In North- west Ohio the strength and aggressiveness of the savages was greater than in any of the other part of the state, because of the nearness to the British outposts and the consequent incitations of the British agents.
Under the French regime, and under the British also, until the Revolu- tionary war, the commandant of the military post at Detroit, to which Northwestern Ohio was tributary, exercised the functions of both civil and a military officer with absolute power. The criminal law of England was supposed to be the ruling authority, but as a matter of fact the supreme law was generally the will of the commandant or the official of his appointing. Many times the official proved cruel and remorseless, and as a result the greatest of dissatisfaction arose. When the office of Lieutenant Governor and Superintendent of Aborigine affairs was created for Detroit and the surrounding country, including this section, Henry Hamilton was appointed and arrived at his post in December, 1775. He proved to be not only tactful but also cruel and remorseless. The equip- ment of war parties of savages was absolutely in the hands of the British officials, and everywhere war parties of these savages were thoroughly equipped and frequently commanded by British officers themselves, and sent out over this territory, as well as other sections. In one report we read that fifteen war parties had been sent out from Detroit under British officers and rangers, many of the savages coming from the Maumee region. They brought in twenty-three American prisoners and one hun- dred and twenty-nine scalps. The white men who accompanied the sav- ages were frequently as cruel and debased as the red men themselves. All the scalps brought in by the savages were paid for. A scalp brought varying prices from fifty dollars upwards. The Indians were known to take an unusually large scalp, cut it in two parts, and attempt to secure two awards. Frequently the commandant himself encouraged the sav- ages by singing the war song and by passing the weapons through his own hands, in order to show his full sympathy with them in their mur- derous work. On their return to Detroit they were sometimes welcomed by firing the fort's cannon.
The following is one instance of a presentation of scalps from the Indians to the commandant at Detroit: "Presenting sixteen scalps, one of the Delaware chiefs said, Listen to your children, the Delawares who are come in to see you at a time they have nothing to apprehend from the enemy, and to present you some dried meat, as we could not have the face to appear before our father empty."
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HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY
During the first couple of years of the Revolutionary war, the Ohio Indians were inactive. As yet they scarcely knew with which side to affiliate, and they could not understand the quarrel. But their sympathies were undoubtedly with the British. Governor Hamilton at Detroit lost no opportunity to attract them to his cause. He danced and sang the war-song and mingled with them freely. Soon after his arrival he reported that "the Ottawas, Chippewas, Wyandots and Pottawattomies, with the Senecas would fall on the scattered settlers on the Ohio and its branches." Detroit became the great center for the Indian gatherings. All of the materials of war were supplied to them there. "They were coaxed with rum, feasted with oxen roasted whole, alarmed by threats of the destruction of their hunting ground and supplied with everything that an Indian could desire." One report shows that 17,520 gallons of the "firewater" were distributed in a single year. The Americans practi- cally ignored them at this time. Then came the brutal murder of Corn- stalk and his son Ellinipsico, in 1777, when on an errand of friendship for the colonists. The death of this brave and magnanimous chief was the signal for the Ohio tribes to go on the warpath. As there were no white settlements in Ohio as yet, their depredations were committed in Kentucky and on the Virginia border. Hence it was that this year is known as the "bloody year of the three sevens." Standing in the midst of a long series darkened by ceaseless conflict with the savages, it was darker than the darkest. It was bloodier than the bloodiest. The Shawnees, Ottawas, Wyandots, together with a few Delawares and Senecas, all took a part in the disturbances. The policy of hiring Indians by paying bounties on scalps was on a par with British employment of mercenary Hessians. Hamilton at Detroit became known among the Americans as "the hair buyer." Many scalps and prisoners were taken down the Maumee to Detroit by parties of savages. They were assisted by a group of renegade Americans, Simon Girty, Alexander McKee, and Matthew Elliott.
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