Centennial history. Troy, Piqua and Miami county, Ohio, Part 4

Author: Harbaugh, T. C. (Thomas Chalmers), 1849-1924, ed. and comp
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold publishing co
Number of Pages: 882

USA > Ohio > Miami County > Troy > Centennial history. Troy, Piqua and Miami county, Ohio > Part 4
USA > Ohio > Miami County > Piqua > Centennial history. Troy, Piqua and Miami county, Ohio > Part 4

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As there was a "confusion of tongues" at Babel so there is a confusion of state- ments concerning the exact site of Picka- willany. Some writers place it in Shelby County and others confuse it with Lora- mie's Store, and vice versa. Let us sift the different assertions for a moment and settle, if we can, the location of this impor- tant frontier post. Parkman, who is a very authentic historian, in his "Montcalm and Wolfe," says that Celeron de Bien- ville in 1749 "reached a village of the Miamis lately built at the mouth of Lora- mie Creek," and again refers to it as "the Indian town on the upper waters of the Great Miami." Howe, in his account of Shelby County, locates Pickawillany "about a mile south of the Shelby County line," and adds, in the interest of acenraey, that its exact location was "on the north-

west side of the Great Miami, just below the month of what is now Loramie Creek in Johnston's prairie." This would locate it in Washington Township and nine miles southwest of Sidney. But in the first edi- tion of his "Historical Collections" Howe says, "The mouth of Loramie's Creek is in this (Shelby) county, sixteen miles north- west of Sidney." Loramie's Store or post could not have occupied the site of Picka- willany. The two sites are entirely differ- ent. In the "History of Fort Wayne" is given a speech of Little Turtle, chief of the Miamis, made at the Treaty of Greenville, 1795, in which he locates Pickawillany within the present boundaries of Miami County. Dr. Asa Coleman of Troy, one of the earliest and most intelligent of the pioneers, in his "Historical Recollee- tions," remarks: "Howe places the trad- ing post (Pickawillany) here described in Shelby County northwest of Sidney, evi- dently confusing it with Loramie's Store and Fort Loramie, a point located sixteen miles distant from the Miami River up Loramie's Creek when the trading post of the Tewightewee towns and the trading establishment here described was a mile southwest of the Shelby County line in Miami County, below the mouth of Lora- mie's Creek in Johnston's prairie."

Gen. George Rogers Clark attacked Pickawillany in 1782, as will be described later, and he locates it at the month of Loramie's Creek, nine miles south of Sid- ney, while Loramie's Store was nearly fifteen miles northwest between the waters of Loramie's Creek and the head waters of the St. Mary's. This is proven by the fact that Clark, after attacking Pickawillany, marched fifteen miles to Loramie's Store and burned all the buildings.

IHISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY

That the Indian Piqua stood on what was called the Johnston Prairie is attested by the fact that the ground to-day when freshly plowed shows discoloration, "prob- ably from the disturbance of the soil in digging the trenches and the well." Many old time relies have been found on the site of this historie old fort. Summing up everything presented by different writers the conclusion is reached that the trading post of Piekawillany was situated within the borders of this county, which coneln- sion places the first settlement here thirty- nine years before the coming of the whites to Marietta. Of course the settlement at Pickawillany was not a permanent one, but our county should have all the credit it is entitled to. It is rather perplexing to read the accounts of writers who should have written with more care than they have done. Some of the early maps are also confusing, but the Evans map made in 1755 places Pickawillany at the mouth of Loramie's Creek, and this map is undoubt- edly right. One of the most important events connected with this old station is the fact already mentioned that there occurred the first conflict, small though it was, in the "Braddock" or French and Indian War which established English supremacy on this continent and broke the sway of the French.

The beauty, fertility and worth of the Ohio valley early excited the grasping pro- pensities of France and England. Each wanted what the other had, and each was ready to take by force that which promised to enrich her rival. The fleur de lys could not float where the banner of Saint George kissed the breezes and vice versa. The two ruling courts of Europe, each corrupt, balked at nothing that would advance their

interests and fill their coffers. Long be- fore Washington shed the first blood in the French and Indian War through the death of Jumonville, the land which lies to-day within the borders of Miami County was a bone of contention between the con- tinental rivals. The story carried back by Gist, his flowery description of the coun- try he had seen, acted as a spur to the Eng- lish. The two kingdoms girded their loins for the conflict.

The first step or among the first was to warn the French from the Valley of the Ohio. This delicate and important task was assigned to a youth of twenty-one, who was destined to be known in time to the whole world-George Washington. Clothed with the proper authority by Gov- ernor Dinwiddie of Virginia, Washington in 1753 turned his face toward the Ohio wilderness, accompanied by Gist as guide. While the future chieftain of the Amer- ican armies did not reach the banks of the Miami, there is no doubt that his report stimulated immigration and started the wave which was soon to top the Alle- ghanies in its westward course. The French were loath to give up their posses- sions along the Ohio. They knew that each surrender but strengthened their adver- sary. The previous wars on this continent had permanently settled nothing. There could be no peace while the two nations faced each other this side the Atlantic. The prize was not only Canada, but that vast and, as yet, unpeopled region which stretched southward to the Ohio, and west- ward to the banks of the Mississippi. This tract included the lands watered by the Miami.

The Treaty of Paris, which was the con- cluding event of the French and Indian

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

War, saw the Gaul with but a limited foot- hold on the North American continent. The fleur de lys was hauled down and the ban- ner of Saint George took its place. Sul- lenly the French withdrew from the re- gions they had held and William Pitt stood forth as the great diplomat of his day. With the gigantie struggle at an end, the tide of immigration, interrupted by the war, turned westward. The time was near at hand when the foot of the white man should erinkle the leaves of the Miami for- ests and when the sound of his axe should startle the foxes in their coverts.

Previous to the expedition of George Rogers Clark, which penetrated to the present domain of Miami County, as I shall show, in 1782, the Indians had been unusu- ally troublesome. They were constantly crossing the Ohio from the Kentucky wil- derness, carrying the war among the unpro- tected white settlements. Previously, or in 1780, Clark strnek and destroyed the Indian towns on Mad River, and the Shaw- nees, to which people belonged the great leader Tecumseh, abandoning their burn- ing wigwams, sought the banks of the Great Miami, where they built another town, naming it Piqua. From this point of vantage they swept viciously in every direction carrying torch and tomahawk even into Kentucky. The intrepid Clark once more took the forest trail and in 1782 led 1,000 Kentnekians northward. He commanded a force of resolute men ar- rayed in buekskin and homespun, and all were innured to fatigue of every kind and at home with the rifle. The leader of this foray had gained fame by his capture of the British post at Vincennes and was in every way calculated to head just such a body of men. He was the friend of Wash-

ington who had followed his career with interest and had complimented him for his bravery. The first Clark expedition had forced the Indians northward and they were now firmly established in the Miami country.

Eager for vengeance and never forget- ting their chastisement in 1780, they again took up the hatchet and swept the wilder- ness far and wide with the ferocity of tigers. In short the destruction of every white settler in Ohio and Kentucky seemed imminent, and if not given a salutary les- son the lands just opening up to civiliza- tion would for a number of years remain in the hands of the red man. It was this terrible state of affairs which led to Clark's second expedition. He crossed the Ohio at a point where Cincinnati now stands, but where at that time there was nothing but a fort and a stockade. The wily Clark was well acquainted with the Indian char- aeter and threw out scouts to guard against surprise as he progressed through the wil- derness.

People living at the present day cannot estimate the trials of a march like that made by Clark and his little band. They were headed for the Indian towns on the Miami. The forest was then unbroken, its trails were those made by the red hunt- ers and the wild animals. The branches of the great trees overlapped, casting the whole ground in shadow and the long howl of the wolf was the only sound that broke the silences. Roads had to be cut through this lonesome tract of country, roads for the pack-horses, the teams and the men and all the time the latter had to be on the alert against an Indian surprise such as had overwhelmed Braddock on the Monon- gahela. At night the camp was well guard-

HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY

ed and the little army slept on its arms. The inmates of the solitary cabins scarcely dared retire at night for fear of attack, and nightly the darkness was illuminated by the flames of burning homes. The sparse settlements were ever in the shadow of the tomahawk. The warcry of the Indian was liable at any moment to fall upon the set- tler's ears. There was fear by day and dread by night. The babe was taken from its mother's arms and dashed against the nearest tree. Crops were destroyed and the blossomed-fringed pathways of the for- est became scenes of massacre. Where to- day stand the cities and hamlets of this county and where the industrious farmer follows his plow in peace, the Indian struck with the ferocity of a fiend and left desola- tion in his wake. Language cannot ade- qnately depiet the dangers and horrors of this period.

Not long before Clark's invasion the In- dians, during a foray into Kentucky, cap- tured a white woman named Mrs. MeFall. She was compelled to accompany her cap- tors into Ohio and the band was headed toward the Piqua settlements. A grand pow-wow was abont to be held and savages from every quarter were flocking to the place of rendezvous. Warriors hurried thither afoot and on horseback and the for- est seemed to swarm with them. As the red maranders reached the river they were astounded to behold the advance gnard of Clark's little army. Instantly there was consternation among the Indians. They stood not on the order of their going but scattered in every direction, terror-stricken at meeting the rifles of the resolute bor- derers. Mrs. McFall and the sqnaws were abandoned to their fate and fell into the hands of Clark, who carried them with him.

When the Piqua towns were reached they were found to be stripped of nearly everything portable, but many bits of In- dian furniture were left behind by the frightened warriors. Upper as well as Lower Piqna was found in the same condi- tion. Clark halted for the night. With his usual precaution he threw out his gnards to prevent surprise, and silence set- tled over the forest. Suddenly the woods rang with shots, for the wily foe, creeping through the underbrush, had opened fire on the sentries. In a moment the whole army was aronsed and firing was kept up till the break of day. Notwithstanding the disadvantages under which the border men labored five Indians were found dead on the leaves, the survivors, satisfied with their punishment, having decamped. Dur- ing the previous evening a detachment sent ont by Clark had burned Loramie's Store a few miles away. The total loss on the part of the army was Capt. MeCracken and a man whose name is unknown. The chastisement inflicted had for a time a salutary effeet on the Indians. They dis- covered that the whites were determined to put an end to their depredations, cost what it might, and the scattered settle- ments in this region enjoyed a brief repose.

Among those who accompanied Gen. Clark was one of the first settlers of Miami County, a courageous man named Abra- ham Thomas. He afterward published an account of the expedition in the Troy Times from which I make the following extraet :

"In the year 1782 I again volunteered in an expedi- tion under General Clark, with the object of destroying some Indian villages about Piqua on the Great Miami River. On this oceasion nearly 1,000 men marched out of Kentucky by the route of the Licking River. We crossed the Ohio at the present site of Cineinnati, where our last year's stockade had been kept up and a few

GEN. GEORGE ROGERS CLARK

GEN. ANTHONY WAYNE

GEN. WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON

GEN. ARTHUR ST. CLAIR

GEN. JOSIAH HARMAR

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

people resided in log cabins. We proceeded immediately onward through the woods without regard to our former trail and crossed Mad River not far from the present site of Dayton. We kept on the east side of the river -the Miami-and crossed it four miles below the Piqua towns. Shortly after gaining the bottoms on the west side of the river, a party of Indians with their squaws on horseback came out of a trace that led to some Indian towns near the present site of Greenville. On arriving at Piqua we found that the Indians had fled from their villages, leaving most of their effects behind. During the following night I joined a party to break up an encampment of Indians said to be lying about what was called the French Store (Loramie's). We soon caught a Frenchman on horseback, tied him to a horse for our gnide and arrived at the place in the night. The Indians had taken the alarm and eleared out. We, how- ever, broke up and burned the Frenchman's store, which for a long time had been a place of outfit for Indian marauders, and returned to the main body early in the morning. Many of our men were stocked with plunder. After burning and otherwise destroying everything about upper and lower Piqua towns we commenced our return march.

"In this attack five Indians were killed during the night the expedition lay at Piqua. The Indians lurked around the camp, firing random shots from the hazel thickets without doing us any injury; but two men who were in search of their stray horses were fired upon and severely wounded. One of these died shortly afterward and was buried at what is now called 'Coe's Ford,' where we recrossed the Miami on our return. The other, Capt. MeCracken, lived until we reached the site of Cincinnati, where he was buried. On this expedition we had with us Capt. William Barbee, afterward Judge Barbee, one of my primitive neighbors in Miami County, a most worthy and brave man, with whom I have marched and watched through many a long day and finally re- moved with him to Ohio. "'

Since the first bloodshed in the French and Indian War occurred within the limits of Miami County, one of the last battles between the rival nations took place within the same territory. In 1763 the adherents of France and England came together on the Col. John Johnston farm at Upper Piqua. Here the Tewightewee towns in- habited by the Miamis were then estab- lished. The Indians, with the Wyandots, Ottawas and kindred nations, espoused the cause of France. They were assisted by Canadians and French, the whole forming a motley confederacy against the common enemy. I may premise by saying that the French by their lenient treatment of the red man had drawn to their interest some

of the most powerful of the northern tribes, whereas, on the other hand, the English were not so fortunate.

They (the English) were aided by the Shawnees, Delawares, Munseys, Senecas, Cherokees and Catawbas, and these war- riors with a sprinkling of traders laid siege to the fort. For a whole week, ac- cording to the most authentic records ob- tainable, the siege went on with all the at- tending incidents of border warfare. The besieging army suffered severely. The re- sisting force was also badly crippled and lost such property as was exposed. Black- hoof, one of the Shawnee chiefs, with his accustomed exaggeration, informed Col. Johnston after the siege that he could have gathered baskets full of bullets. The allies of France, discouraged and shut off from further active warfare by the peace which had been signed, turned their footsteps from this part of the country and. retiring to the region of the Maumee, came back no more. In their place came the Shawnees, the parent race which produced Tecumseh, the most formidable of the many leaders of the scarlet legions.

For some years comparative peace reigned about Upper Piqna, yet the boats which plowed the waters of the Miami were not always out of danger at the hands of the restless savages. In 1794 Capt. J. N. Vischer, the last commandant at Fort Piqua, was compelled to almost witness the massacre of the officers and crews of two freight boats which he was powerless to aid. It is believed that the boats were at- tacked for the purpose of drawing the gar- rison from the fort, but the discreet com- mander was not to be drawn into the snare.

At the time of Clark's expedition the country of the Miami was a primitive par-

HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY

adise. The first beauty of the woods came with the spring. At first the landscape looked bare and desolate, but before many days the air was sweet with the blossoms of the wild grape, plum, cherry and crab- apple and the whole land beautiful with the contrasting red and white of the dog- wood and rosebud, or of elder and wild rose, and the fresh green of the young leaves. The country on both sides of the Miami was for many miles unbroken for- est or a thicket of hazel bushes and wild fruit trees. Pioneers could in the summer step ont of their back doors into a bound- less wild park of garden. Delicious per- fumes, sweet as attar of roses, delicate, pungent, aromatic, and countless flowers, pink, white, purple, scarlet, blue, and bend- ing with every shade of yellow and green delighted the senses.

Gist, in his description of the forests of the Miami, has spoken of the great variety of trees that covered the ground. Many of these were of the lordliest kind and had stood for ages before the foot of man pressed the soil about their roots. Oak, hickory, walnut, beech and butternut stood everywhere in the greatest profusion. Their nuts afforded food for the settler as well as for the wild hogs that roamed the woods. Everywhere on both sides of the Miami stretched the great woodlands which to-day are things of the past. In summer the air was mild and pleasant. The winters were cold but the forests aeted as "breaks" and kept the icy blasts from the inmates of the cabins. A pioneer writer in the Troy Times thus refers to the aspeet of this country a century ago :

"The country around the settlements presented the most lovely appearance. The earth was like an ash-heap and nothing could exceed the luxuriance of primitive vegetation. Indeed, our cattle often died from excess

of feeding and it was somewhat diffienlt to rear them on that account. The white weed or bee-harvest, as it is called, so profusely spread over our bottoms and wood- lands, was not then to be seen, the sweet annis, nettles and wild rye, and pea vine, everywhere abonnded-they were almost the entire herbage of our bottoms. The two last gave subsistence to our eattle and the first with their nutritions roots were eaten by our swine with the greatest avidity. In the spring and summer months a drove of hogs could be scented at a considerable distance from their flavor of the annis root. Buffalo signs were frequently met with, but the animals had entirely dis- appeared before the first white inhabitant came into the country, but other game was abundant."

Among the first white settlers to estab- lish themselves in Miami County was John Knoop. He came from Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, in 1797. In the spring of that year lie came down the Ohio to Cincinnati and cropped the first season at Zeigler's stone-house farm, four miles above the post. During the summer he ventured into the Indian country north of the Ohio. At one time he made a journey with a surveying party and selected land not far from the banks of the Miami. At that time the forest swarmed with Indians, principally of the Shawnee nation, but there were others here at the time, roving bands of Mingoes, Delawares, Miamis and Pottawatomies. These bands were peace- fully inclined and made no efforts to dis- turb the first settlers. In the spring of 1798 Knoop moved to near the present site of Staunton where, with Benjamin Knoop, Henry Gerard, Benjamin Hamlet, John Tildus and others, he established a station for the safety of the pioneer families.

It was the victory of Clark that gave to the first settlers in this county a sense of security. Fear of the whites kept the red men in abeyance and those who first awoke the echoes of the woods with their axes were permitted to inhabit the land in peace. The inmates of "Dutch Station," as the settlement was called, remained within it two years, during which time they were oc-

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

cupied in elearing and building on their respective farms. Here was born in 1798 Jacob Knoop, the son of John, the first civilized native of Miami County. At this time there were three young men living at the mouth of Stony Creek and cropping out on what was known as Freeman's prairie. One of these was D. H. Morris, for a long time a resident of Bethel Town- ship. At the same time there resided at Piqua Samuel Hilliard, Job Garrard, Shadrach Hudson, Josiah Rollins, Daniel Cox and Thomas Rich. All these, with the tenants of Dutch Station, comprised the inhabitants of Miami County from 1797 to 1799. From this time all parts of the county began to receive numerous immi- grants.

In the fall of 1796 Benjamin Iddings came from Tennessee in search of a new home and located in the Weymire settle- ment within the limits of Montgomery County, but after one winter there he re- moved with a family of six children to Newton Township, where he located on the east side of Stillwater. When Judge Symmes made the extensive "Symmes Purchase," which embraced many thou- sands of acres between the two Miamis, he offered inducements to settlers. Immigra- tion thus given an impulse, began to push northward and some of those who had al- ready bought land of Symmes entered the present limits of Miami County and estab- lished themselves near the mouth of Honey Creek as early as 1797. These people, among whom were Samuel Morrison and David Morris, established the first perma- nent settlement in the county. They laid out opposite the month of the creek a town called "Livingston," which name long ago disappeared. Rollins and Hudson already

mentioned located near the mouth of Spring Creek, perhaps a few months prior to the settlement at Dutch Station.

The various " stations" so called, erected by the first settlers were formed by erecting logs in a line and the cabins were all joined together, forming one side of a square with the remaining three sides enclosed by palings eight feet high, firmly driven in the ground. All the openings inside the square were secured by a strong gateway. On Gerard's and Gahagan's prairie near Troy, which had once been tilled by the Indians, the tenants of Dutch Station re- mained two years. In 1799 their numbers were increased by the arrival of John Ger- ard, Uriah Blue, Joseph Coe, Abram Hath- away, Nathaniel Gerard and Abner Ger- ard. These were the first actual settlers of the county.

From whence did our first pioneers come? Nearly all the states that comprised the original Union furnished their quota. Those from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Virginia were perhaps most numerous, but Georgia and the Carolinas sent a goodly number. There were a few from New Eng- land and New York and even little Dela- ware contributed to the settlement of the county. All the pioneers were men of nerve and determination. They did not shrink from the arduous task of carving out new homes in the unbroken wilderness. Some were of hardy Scotch-Irish stock, while German blood flowed in the veins of others. All had traversed leagues of wild land to the homes they found in the beau- tiful region of the Miami. Nothing daunt- ed them. They met dangers seen and un- seen in order that they could raise their children in a new land and give them a heritage enriched by toil and self sacrifice.

CHAPTER III.

FORMATION OF THE COUNTRY; THE HOME IN WILDERNESS, ETC.

Pontiac's Conspiracy-Boquet's Expedition-Block Houses Built at Cincinnati-New York and Virginia Relinquish Charter Claims-Fort Harmar Erected-The Settle- ment at Marietta-Quick Settlement of the Ohio Valley-Ordinance of 1787- Slavery Forbidden-St. Clair Made Governor-Formation of Hamilton and Mont- gomery Counties-Formation of Miami County-Abrogation of the Indian Title- Wayne's Victory of the Fallen Timbers and Treaty of Greenville-The Miami Indians-The Symmes Purchase-School Districts Reserved-Sale of Public Lands on Time Payments-The First Court-Homes of the Pioneer Settlers-Pioneer Habits and Customs-Domestic Industries-Early Circulating Medium-Militia Musters-County Officials.

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Centennial history. Troy, Piqua and Miami county, Ohio, Part 4

Author: Harbaugh, T. C. (Thomas Chalmers), 1849-1924, ed. and comp Publication date: 1909 Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold publishing co Number of Pages: 882

Author: Harbaugh, T. C. (Thomas Chalmers), 1849-1924, ed. and comp
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold publishing co
Number of Pages: 882