USA > Ohio > Fulton County > A standard history of Fulton County, Ohio, an authentic narrative of the past, with an extended survey of modern developments in the progress of town and county, Vol. I > Part 8
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"Came into this territory, then Williams county, on seetion two, town seven north, range four east, in February, 1833, while others claim not until 1834, and on the farm known today as the Shilling Farm. In the absence of better proof, we will accept the record as given by A. W. Fisher, in his historical reminiscences of early settlers, wherein he writes of Joseph Bate's daughter, Mrs. Alvord, of Camden, Michigan, replying to which she declares that her father came in 1832; from the testimony of others, it will be doing justice to the memory of Joseph Bates to give him the benefit of a medium date, February, 1833, which would seem to correspond with the memory of many living witnesses."
Other records support this deduetion, one in particular supporting the belief that Joseph Bates was here long before 1834. As will be noted in the German Township chapter of this present work, Jacob Binder, in his narrative of the coming of the pioneers of German Township in 1834, refers to Joseph Bates, "a noted hunter," whom they heard of when they had reached Defiance, in 1834, on their return from Fort Wayne, whither they had journeyed, in search of
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suitable land upon which to settle, and in which search they had been up to that time unsuccessful. Mr. Binder stated that, at Defiance, "they heard of one Joseph Bates, eighteen miles north, a noted hunter, and a man of broad and accurate knowledge of the country," explain- ing that "Mr. Bates then lived on what is now (1896) known as the John Shilling Farm, in the southwestern part of Franklin Township, Fulton county." Continuing the narrative, Mr. Binder said: "To him they gladly came. They found him to be the man they exactly needed -brave, active, generous, and thoroughly posted on the conditions of the country, and the needs of new settlers." Evidently, Joseph Bates at that time was a man of wide repute; and in such country where news travelled slowly, and where a settler might live a long while unknown to, what would now be termed, comparatively near neighbors, the circumstance leads one to believe that Joseph Bates was in the territory earlier, perhaps, than 1833.
RATTLESNAKES WERE NOT UNCOMMON IN FULTON COUNTY IN THE EARLY DAYS.
However, in linking Eli Phillips and Joseph Bates as the pioneer settlers of Fulton county, justice will probably be done to the memory of both. They were both true pioneers, brave, hospitable, and reso- lutely active. During the Boundary Dispute, Eli Phillips sided with Michigan; indeed, he went so far as to take military service for the Territory of Michigan at that time. He was placed in responsible com- mand, with the grade of lieutenant-colonel, and probably recruited to the militia of the Michigan command some of the settlers within the Ohio territory in dispute. It appears that most of the settlers were in
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sympathy with the Michigan administration; at least those within what became the northern townships of Fulton county, and those in that part of the second tier of townships north of the Fulton Line.
Here, in this chapter, it will be unnecessary, perhaps, to name the other early pioneers of Fulton county, for each will be given honorable and appropriate place in the respective township chapters, where individual records can, properly, be more extensively reviewed. To make individual review of the advent of the settlers would demand considerable space, as may be imagined when it is realized that the population (white) grew from one, or two, in 1832 to more than three thousand in 1840. The population of the respective townships in 1840 as given by Historian Aldrich is as follows: Amboy Town- ship, 452; Chesterfield, 301; Clinton, 303; German, 452; Gorham, 352; Royalton, 401; Swan Creek, 494; and York, 435. The other four townships of Fulton county were of later organization.
York Township was, apparently, the first to be organized. Local historians place its organization as of June 6, 1836, although official records are not available to substantiate. The same condition applies to Swan Creek Township, the organization of which is stated to have been after that of York Township, but in the same year, 1836. It probably occurred after the amended organization in 1836, of Lucas county, which was somewhat hurriedly formed in 1835 when the Boundary Dispute was the matter of most urgent and portentous moment to the contending states. The other ten townships of Fulton county were organized on the dates given below: Amboy, on June 4, 1837; Chesterfield, on June 4, 1837; Royalton, on June 4, 1837 ; Clin- ton, on March 5, 1838; Gorham, on March 6, 1838; German, on March 4, 1839; Franklin, on March 1, 1841; Fulton, on March 1, 1841; Pike, on March 1, 1841; and Dover, on June 5, 1843. All settlers within the territory when York Township was organized were expected to proceed to York Centre to cast their vote.
The early pioneers found that red men were to be their neighbors; although the Indians then in the county do not appear to have been unfriendly. As a matter of fact, they were considered by some settlers to be "a nuisance," in too frequently proffering help to incoming white people. At the best, however, the Indians constituted an un- certain element, and as the settlement by whites progressed the state authorities and the United States Government sought to induce the Indians to remove further west. Colonel Dresden W. H. Howard, than whom there has been no greater authority on the Indian history of Fulton county, wrote, in 1887 :
"The principal Indian village within the present limits of Fulton county, was that of the Pottawatomie chief, Winameg, located on the banks of Keeg (now Bad) Creek, and the high ridge crossing the creek, near the post-office of Winameg (in Pike Township). Smaller settlements were located on Bean Creek, and the upper branches of the St. Joseph, but were of a more temporary character."
Winameg was so named, to honor the remembrance of Chief Winameg, who was well-known to, and a great friend of D. W. H. Howard and his father Edward Howard, who, "in the early years of the 'thirties" built a trading log house near the Indian village, doing much business in furs with the inhabitants thereof. The fine, old, colonial residence later built by the Howard family at Winameg, still
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stands on the site of the Indian village. Continuing, Colonel Howard wrote:
"At the time of the writer's first visit to the village of Winameg, in the spring of 1827 or 1828, the aged chief, Winameg, whose head was whitened by the snows of a hundred winters, yet who was still active in mind and body, ruled the tribe and directed its affairs, aided by his son, Wi-na-meg, and other chiefs of less importance."
There were other settlements; one is referred to in the Clinton Township chapter; but undoubtedly the main Indian village was that of Winameg. Colonel D. W. H. Howard, under date of March 14. 1887, and on the stationery of the Maumee Valley Monumental Asso- ciation, of which he was vice-president and one of the most active workers, wrote to Mrs. S. D. Snow, who belonged to an old Dover Township family, and at that time lived in Hartford, Michigan, as follows:
THE FINE OLD COLONIAL RESIDENCE, BUILT BY THE HOWARD FAMILY, STILL STANDS UPON THE SITE OF THE INDIAN VILLAGE, AT HISTORIC WINAMEG.
"The Indian name that was applied to this portion of Fulton county (presumably the vicinity of Winameg) was a Pottawatomie, or rather French and Indian, word, signifying 'Two-Boys,' or 'Twin- Boys,' and was applied more particularly to the 'Ridge' and Springs at Etna, at the old crossing of Bad Creek-Djue-Naw-ba-Two (French, Djue) Naw-ba (Boy) Pottawatomic. Now the true word, in Indian, and as they commonly used it, was Neshe-Maw-ba, or Twin Boys. I have always had trouble in getting the printers to spell my Indian words as I write them. I spell the words, Djue-naw-ba; or Nesha-naw- ba ...... The Pottawatomies were the tribe which you knew, and were removed, or notified by the Government to remove, in 1839 or 1840, when the remnant went, some to Canada and the rest to the north-
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west. I was employed to aid in removing the greater portion of the Ottawas and Pottawatomies west of the Mississippi in 1832 and 1833."
Governor Lewis Cass was one of the government officials chiefly responsible for the negotiations with the Indians relative to their removal; and Governor Porter, of Pennsylvania, was another who sought to persuade them to depart to the new home selected for them beyond the Mississippi; to the place where "the beautiful groves of timber, the rolling and undulating prairie land, covered with waving grass, and spangled over with flowers of the many-colored hues of the rainbow" would make their life an enviable one. One would have thought that such graphic description would have brought apprecia- tive response from Indians who had been forced to pass their lives in a damp, swampy, mosquito-ridden country, such as was the "Black Swamp" of northwest Ohio at that time. But the seductive language of Governor Porter had little effect. The Indians were reluctant to even consider the subject of removal. Yet, they must have known, or at least the shrewd must have reasoned, that it was inevitable as the setting of the sun; and knowingly, or unwittingly, conferences ulti- mately ended in only one way-in the achievement of the purpose of the United States Government. Colonel Howard, who knew the Indians so well, and was so closely in their confidence, stated that "as a rule, when treaties were successfully made, there was more or less deception practiced to accomplish the objects in view." He thought it "unfortunate" that "so noble and generous a government as that of the United States" should appoint "among its agents selected to transact the business of the government with these untutored and con- fiding savages, men who were, to say the least, not just."
Nevertheless, willingly or unwillingly, it was necessary to trans- port the Indians farther west; they could not be permitted to impede the settlement and development. And they had to recognize the supreme authority of the "Great Father," the President of the United States. But the life of the Indian had been so Nomadic, that unanim- ity of action was scarcely to be expected of them. It was a matter of much difficulty to gather them for migration. Some remained in the "deeps" of the wilderness, while some even went into Canada, rather than cross "the muddy river" (Mississippi). From 1832 to 1840 the migration continued, and isolated Indians might have been in Fulton county somewhat later. In fact, there undoubtedly were many in Clinton Township in the early years of its settlement, as individual testimony reviewed in that township chapter of this work substantiates. But they had become so few in numbers at that time that their pres- ence constituted no bar or hindrance to the full settlement of the region. The main migrations occurred in 1832 and 1838, those of the former year going overland in wagons and on horseback, using their own ponies, and those of 1838 going by lake steamer to Cleveland ; thence by canal to Portsmouth; thence down the Ohio and up the Mississippi and Missouri to the mouth of the Kansas River; and thence to Kansas territory.
Proof that Indians still were in Fulton county in 1840 is supplied by a diary for that year, kept by Mrs. Mary (Rice) Hibbard, wife of Mortimer D. Hibbard, a pioneer of Dover Township, and the first auditor of Fulton county. An entry in the diary, under date of November 29, 1840, reads :
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"The Indians who formerly lived in this place have been com- pelled this fall to leave it and go to the far West. They heard prepara- tions were being made to take them away, and fled two hundred miles, to a woods in Michigan. While there encamped they were overtaken, surrounded, and compelled to go. I cannot think it right to force them to leave their native woods and plains, to which they seem so attached, and go to a strange land, as they have done. They were a harmless people, never disturbing the whites, unless first misused by them-getting their living principally by hunting, picking berries, and sometimes making baskets, which they exchanged with the whites for bread, or potatoes. They frequently came here hungry and asked for victuals, for which they seemed very thankful, but I never knew them to take anything without leave. They were very fond of ornaments, silver brooches, brass rings, glass beads, or little bells, which they wore around waist, neck, or arms."
FORT MEIGS MONUMENT.
Mary B. (Copeland) Howard, who died in 1915 at the venerable age of ninety years, was almost as much interested in the Indians, near whom they had lived, as was her husband, Colonel D. W. H. Howard, who predeceased her by about seventeen years. She was keenly interested in pioneer history; followed closely with her husband the proceedings of the Maumee Valley Historical and Pioneer Associa- tion; and ably aided her husband in the organization of the Maumee Valley Monumental Association, which two associations were the main factors in influencing the Ohio Legislature, in 1906, to appropriate the sum of $25,000 to erect a shaft on the site of Fort Meigs, in honor and remembrance of those national heroes who died in the defence of that fortress. Both Mr. and Mrs. Howard wrote much in later life regard- ing the Indians. One of Mrs. Howard's interesting articles is entitled
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"The last of the Pottawatomie Indians (in the Maumee Valley)," and because of its authenticity is deserving of place in Fulton County rec- ords. The article reads:
"In 1833, the Government of the United States bought all of the land in Ohio country then belonging to the Pottawatomie Indians, and gave them a tract of land in Kansas. Now, some of the Indians hated to leave their homes; while others did not go to Kansas at all, but went to Canada; others hid in the swamps and woods of Ohio.
Among the tribe there was a man named Senalick. He and his squaw were away when the tribe moved from Ohio; and they did not come back for some years. Then they went to a white man who was a friend of the Indians (probably Colonel Howard himself), and asked the privilege to hunt and fish in their old home. They did so for many months. One day the squaw came to their white friend and told him that her husband, Senalick, was very sick. The friend went down to the wigwam, and found Senalick severely sick. A mark on the Indian's forehead indicated that in some way he had been bitten by a spider. A few days later the squaw came to their friend's house again. Black stripes were painted upon her face, and her message was that in the night the Great Spirit had come and taken her husband away. She was told that her husband could not be buried until the next day. Then she went away, and when later her friend went down to the wigwam he saw her sitting beside the corpse. She had everything ready for the burial, having laid Sena- lick's hunting knife, powder horn and gun beside his dead body, but her friend, knowing that she would not remain after the burial and that she would have to travel many hundreds of miles to get to her tribe, told her that she would need the gun and some powder. It was hard work to persuade her, for she believed her husband would have need of the gun when he reachd the happy hunting grounds.
Senalick was buried, and for the remainder of the day, and through the night, the squaw sat at the graveside. Early next morning, the friend of the Indians stood at the door of his house, from which a clear view of the Maumee River could be obtained, and there upon the river he saw one lone canoe, drifting down. He called to his wife, and they both watched as it drifted past. When it came near they saw that in it was the squaw with two little papooses, a few blankets and sacks, and a gun. Senalick was the last Pottawatomie Indian that ever set foot in any part of this country."
The Howard home, when the family first came into Ohio, was at Fort Meigs, but two years later the Howards "moved to a home in the woods, cutting a road as they went, and settling on land at the head of the rapids in the Maumee, the place now known as Grand Rapids." Just across the river was the camp of "two thousand or so Indians." There, "young Howard ...... passed his boyhood. He attended the Indian Mission School, with the Indians, who were his only playmates. He grew up with them, learned their language, and in later life was known as the friend of the Indians, so that in all probability the "friend" Mrs. Howard writes of was her own husband, Col. D. W. H. Howard. If so, the passing of Senalick must have occurred in, or later than, 1842, for May B. Copeland was not married to Colonel Howard until that year. Col. and Mrs. D. W. H. Howard
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did not take up residence on the land he owned at Winameg, Pike Township, until 1851, and from the year of their marriage to their coming to Winameg they lived for the greater part of the time at Maumee Rapids. Therefore, there is every reason to believe that the last of the Indians left the Maumee Valley in the early '40s. Mrs. Howard, in another newspaper article stated :
"The saddest people that I ever saw were the Indians who used to roam through the forest which covered this county as they assembled in Toledo in 1837 (this may have been a typographical error, for most records show that the last important removal of Indians from the Maumee Valley took place in 1838, although Colonel Howard, in the letter before-quoted herein, stated that the Pottawatomies were removed, or notified to remove, in 1839 "and also in 1840"), and were waiting to be conveyed by the Government to a reservation in Kansas. ..... The removal of the Indian from Northwestern Ohio was but a demand of civilization, but it was a sad, sad day for the lone Indian, when he looked for the last time upon the hunting ground which was as dear to him as is your home to you ...... These poor Indians were broken-hearted, but well for them that they did not know the character of the place to which they were going. When the day arrived for their leaving, one continuous pitiful wail was all that could be heard, as the Indians with solemn tread and bowed heads marched into the boats to sail away from their hunting grounds forever. Colonel Howard, as a friend of the Indian, went with them to their new reservation in Kansas."
Worthy of record also in Fulton county history is "A Memory," a paper written by Mary B. Howard, and read by her daughter, Agnes Howard McClarren, at a meeting of the Wauseon Daughters of the American Revolution in May, 1913. It deals with the Indian trails of the county, and begins :
"As a matter of historical fact, there were no trails of importance leading northward from the Maumee River, but with a sagacity born of living close to the great heart of nature, the Indian always selected his hunting trails on the high ridges, which later were used as thorough- fares by the white men.
"The Indian camps, or villages, were all along the Maumee River, the largest being at Fort Industry, or, as we know it, Toledo, from which a trail led westward, on what is now Dorr Street, passing near Holland, to Ai, thence to Winameg, where was a large village of Pottawatomies; from there it extended westward to Angola, Indiana, finally losing itself at Fort Dearborn, Chicago, only to emerge again, taking a southwesterly course towards the great Santa Fe trail, New Mexico. However, we have only a short link of it in Fulton county.
"During the hunting season, this was a much traveled trail, leading as it did into such fine hunting grounds, abounding with deer, bear, and wild turkey.
"This trail, now known as the Angola Road, over which the United States mail came to the early pioneers of Lucas, Fulton, and Williams counties. As carly as 1840, the carrier, with his pony well saddled and his mail securely fastened on behind, left Maumee, traveling through bog and quagmire, in storm and cold over this then almost blazed trail he passed, stopping at the various cabins and settlements along his way. We know of him first at Parchers Corners, four miles
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west of Ai; thence on to Dr. Holland's, later known as the Shute Farm, where warmth, cheer, and most openhanded hospitality greeted him, usually much needed by the half-frozen carrier and his faithful pony. We next see him at Winameg, thirty-two miles west of Toledo, where for many years E. C. Sindel kept a postoffice, and where also was a block-house, or trading post, for the Indians. His road led still west- ward about twelve miles, jogging a little to the south, where, two miles north of what is now known as Burlington or Elmira, Samuel Darby kept a postoffice. He spent the night with them, going on the next morning to Zone, returning again to Maumee.
"A trail branched northward at Winameg, passing through the Holt and Daniels farms towards Adrian, crossing the River Raisin near therc; thence on to Detroit, or was lost in the forests of northern Michigan. It was over some portion of this trail that the Indians went to hide themselves when, in 1833, the Government ordered them to go farther west, to reservations in Kansas and Oklahoma.
"Another trail left Winameg, going southward through the Howard, Hubbard, Trowbridge, Fewless, and Cowan farms, following the ridges through Delta, and on to the river; another left the Delta road at some point a little to the west of the town, passing towards, but east of, Wauseon, through the Lamb and Huntington farms, angling to the west along the high ground to Ridgeway, onward to the river and Fort Defiance.
"There were much used and important trails from Toledo to Fort Wayne, along the water course, using the river as far as the rapids, seven miles below the town of Canal R. Then they traveled along the south bank again, taking to their canoes just above the rapids.
"Another trail was one the Indians used in their annual trip to Detroit (to receive their annuity from the British Government) from Toledo to Monroe, crossing at Malden, and on to Detroit. The Harrison trail enters Ohio at Petersburg, Fort Pitt, Mahoning county. It follows the Ohio River to the mouth of Beaver Creek, going north to Lisbon and Waynesburg, Stark county, crosses the Muskingum River, near Wooster, then taking a northwesterly course to Sandusky; thence to Castalia, to Fremont. It crosses the Maumee at the foot of the rapids, follows the river to Miami; thence across to the Raisin, and along to Detroit. This was called the big trail, and was of great importance."
A map of Pioneer Trails and Roads previous to 1850, giving inter- esting information regarding the early settlers of Clinton Township as well as outlining the trails, was prepared in pencil by Thomas Mikesell, of Wauseon, shortly before his death. It was later carefully redrawn, by a competent man, and blue-printed, so that reproduction is possible. The cut of the Mikesell map can be found by turning to a page of the Clinton Township chapter of this work.
It may be supposed that traffic along Indian trails of Fulton county was heavy during the first seven or eight years of settlement by white people, although the blazed trail could not last long. Some of the settlers included in the thousand that constituted the white population of the region in 1840 perhaps did the original migration partly by water, for steam and sailing vessels regularly plied from Buffalo to Detroit from the year 1827. Earlier than that, craft plied from
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Cleveland to the Raisin and Maumee rivers, with fair regularity. One steamboat, the "Walk-in-the-Water," was built expressly to ply direct from Buffalo to the Maumee Rapids; and at one time Perrysburg seemed destined to become quite an important port. As a matter of fact, the "Walk-in-the-Water" was found, when launched, to have too deep a draft, and she had to make the mouth of Swan Creek her terminus. The steamboat "Sun" commenced in 1838 regularly to travel between Manhattan and Perrysburg and Maumee; and a con- verted canal boat, steam-propelled, ran from the head of Maumee Rapids to Fort Wayne. The majority of the settlers of Fulton county, however, probably placed more reliance on the prairie schooner, or emigrant wagon, than in mechanical contrivances. Astounding happenings were recorded in 1836 and 1837 in the matter of railroad
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THE "WALK-IN-THE-WATER."
development. The Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad Company, in May, 1837, announced "To Emigrants and Travellers" that the railroad had been brought into full operation between Toledo and Adrian. The road was opened in 1836, and until June, 1837, when the first locomo- tive was delivered, the cars were drawn by horses. It was originally intended to use oak rails, but when the wooden rails were found to wear quickly, it was decided to reinforce them by tipping the oak rail with a strip of iron 21/2 inches wide and 5/s of an inch thick. The "strap rails" did not prove very satisfactory; still they proved a theory many thought would be impossible in practice. It proved that an engine set on a smooth rail would actually pull a load as heavy as itself. John Butler ("Uncle John"), who was one of the pioneer settlers in Chesterfield Township, and who, in 1838, carried the mails for ninety miles through the dense forests of Fulton county, and on
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