USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > Early history of Cleveland, Ohio : including papers and other matter relating to the adjacent country : with biographical notices of the pioneers and surveyors > Part 8
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Their chapel was completed and consecrated on the 10th of November. It was never their design to remain permanently at Pilgerruh.
Their rich lands in the more genial valley of the Muskingum, were ever present to their minds as their future home. But they were not destined to
10
138
PILGERRUH.
see those pleasant fields, to drink the sweet waters of the spring at Schoenbrunn, or to weep over the bones of their slaughtered companions; until after more trials, and after painful and distant wander- ings.
The majority of the Delawares were still their enemies. At Sandusky they had friends enough, however, to keep them advised of the designs of their pagan brethren. A Delaware chief sent them word, privately, that they would be wise not to go to the Muskingum.
General BUTLER, who was the Indian agent at Pittsburgh, also advised them to remain at Pilger. ruh. Captain PIPE, a noted chief of the Delawares, desired them to come and settle at the mouth of the Huron river, a place which was known by the name of "Petquotting."
One of the Moravian writers and missionaries, by the name of LOSKIEL, speaking of the dilemma they were now in, remarks that the "missionaries were not concerned as to their own safety. If that alone had been the point in question, they would not have hesitated a moment to return to the Muskingum. But they dare not bring the congregation committed to their care, into so dreadful and dangerous a situa- tion."
They resolved to abandon the project of a return, and after celebrating Lent and Easter at Pilgerruh in the spring of 1787, they prepared to remove to
139
THEY ARE NOT AT REST.
the mouth of Black river. Their last service on the banks of the Cuyahoga, is said to have been an occa- sion of deep religious interest. Their hearts were full of devotion and of gratitude, notwithstanding the dangers by which they were surrounded.
On the 19th of April, the last prayer was heard in their chapel at the "Pilgrim's Rest," which was no sooner concluded than they set forward.
One part descended the river in canoes, and coast- ing westward, reached the mouth of Black river. Another party proceeded on foot to the same place, with which they were well pleased, and had hopes that the unconverted Indians would suffer them to remain in peace.
They had enjoyed this expectation only three days, when a peremptory message came to them from the principal chiefs of the Delawares, to proceed forthwith to Sandusky.
This band of simple, patient and harrassed chil- dren of the woods, decided at once to obey, looking with confidence to heaven for protection.
The praying Indians of Ohio, whom the United brethren of Moravia had induced to separate from their savage neighbors, had the misfortune to be suspected by all parties. Those Americans who constituted the frontier men of the West, living at the verge of the settlements in Kentucky, Virginia and Pennsylvania, regarded the Moravians as secret- ly leagued with the French, and after the Revolution,
140
PETQUOTTING.
with the English. This was the cause of the massa- cre on the Muskingum, in March 1782. On the other side, the north-western tribes of Indians,in- cluding those of Ohio, who were in league with the British, regarded the praying Indians as no better than Whites. It was this feeling that led the Delawares, a tribe to whom many of ZEISBERGER'S band belonged, to keep a strict watch over them. They stood in constant dread of the chiefs of their own tribe. They were afraid to return to the Mus- kingum, because it displeased the Delawares and other nations, and thus lived in daily expectation of persecutions. It was not an unexpected event, there- fore, when they were ordered away from Black river, after they had left the Cuyahoga. Only three days were they permitted to remain there, supplying themselves with fish, which they speared in the river, by torch light. They then felt compelled to enter their canoes and remove to Petquotting, at the mouth of the Huron river. As they passed along near the shore, vegetation began to show the influ- ence of spring. The buds upon the trees of this dense forest, were expanding into miniature leaves; grass, flowers and rank herbage were springing up under the shade of their branches. But the mind of these wanderers, was in sad contrast with the peace and beauty of the scene. They were full of appre- hension. The message of the Delawares was couched in dominant and angry terms. There were with them
141
DRIVEN FROM PETQUOTTING.
two young men, by the name of MICHAEL YOUNG and JOHN WEYGAND, vainly endeavoring to support their timid souls, as they entered the Huron river, and tied their canoes to the shore at Petquotting. This must have been about the first of May, 1787, the message of the Delawares having been delivered on the 27th of April. By the 11th of May, they had erected huts, giving to their new residence the name of New Salem. On the first of June, they had built a chapel, and celebrated the Lord's supper in it. In the winter of 1789-90, a powerful league was formed among the north-western Indians against the Uni- ted States. The Moravians were required to join it, and as they were suspected by their Pagan brethren, it was determined at their council fire, that they should be removed to the interior, near Fort Wayne, which was then called Keyequash. In their distress they again applied to the commandant at Detroit, who being touched by their demeanor and their helplessness, again gave them relief. He sent a ves- sel to the mouth of the Huron river, in April, 1790, and selecting a place on the river Thames in Canada, transported them thither.
To this settlement they gave the name of Fair- field, where they remained in safety during the In- dian wars under HARMAR, ST. CLAIR and WAYNE. In the year 1797, when their reverend father, ZEIS- BERGER, had attained the age of seventy-seven years, their lands on the Muskingum were surveyed, and
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THEY RETURN TO MUSKINGUM.
patented to them by the United States. It seemed that all obstacles were now removed, to their return to their desired home in Ohio. A part of the band returned there in the spring of 1798. They found, after an absence of sixteen years, nothing but the ruins of their houses, weedy and deserted fields, and the graves of their kindred. Some remained at Fairfield, in Canada. In 1804, a part of them re- turned to New Salem, on the Huron river. On the Muskingum, they rebuilt the villages of Gnaden- hutten, Salem and Schoenbrunn, and established a new settlement, under the name of Goshen. The faithful old ZEISBERGER died in the year 1808, but at this time his grave cannot be identified. As the country adjacent became more populous with whites, the converted Indians, and probably their white neighbors, thought it best for them to aband- on their settlements. The United States purchased their lands and improvements on the 4th of August, 1823, and they returned to Canada, where some of them still survive. The grave yard at Goshen was reserved from sale, also ten acres around the church at Beersheba, together with the parsonage, church lot and grave yard, at Gnadenhutten. Thus termin- ated the Moravian settlements in Ohio, after a pre- carious and painful existence of sixty years.
In the month of April, 1788, while ZEISBERGER and his congregation were at Petquotting, the first settlement of whites was founded in Ohio, at the
143
THEIR SUCCESSORS IN OHIO.
mouth of the Muskingum. As these emigrants were from the land of churches, they considered religious services to be an essential part of the new colony. They brought with them the Rev. DAVID BRECK, and afterwards the Rev. DANIEL STORY, who, under the Rev. MANASSEH CUTLER, formed a church at Marietta. In the fall of the same year, a settle- ment was made at Columbia, near Cincinnati, and a Baptist church was established there in 1790, un- der the charge of the Rev. DANIEL GANO. These congregations worshiped God, as the Pilgrims had done before them, with arms in their hands, sur- rounded by savages, whose minds were filled with
wonder and revenge. During the second year of the settlement at Cleveland, (1797,) the Rev. SETHI HART held the position of General Agent and Chap- lain, for the Connecticut Land Company on the Reserve. He has left no evidence of his spiritual efforts, and according to tradition, he was not a very zealous laborer in the vineyard of Christ. In this part of Ohio, the first regular dispensation of gospel truth occurred in Youngstown, in September, 1799, under the Rev. WILLIAM WICK, of the Presbyterian persuasion. A church was organized there the next year, during the last months of which the Rev. Jos. BADGER arrived as a missionary from Connecticut, to the settlements on the Western Reserve. From this period, being the commencement of the present century, the history of WICK, BADGER, ROBBINS, and
144
PIONEER MISSIONARIES IN OHIO.
the other pioneer ministers who planted Christianity throughout the Reserve, is within the reach of all.
As the labors, privations, and even names of these early teachers are forgotten, I append a list of them here :
Date of arrival. Name. First station.
1761. FREDERICK POST,
near Bolivar,
Persuasion. Moravian.
1761. JOHN HECKEWELDER, do. do.
1768. DAVID ZEISBERGER, Venango Co., Pa. do.
1768. JOHN ETWEIN, Forks of Beaver River, do.
1772. HECKEWELDER and
ZEISBERGER, on the Muskingum, do. Baptist.
1773. DAVID JONES, on the Scioto,
1775. JOHN JACOB YOUNGMAN,
on the Muskingum,
1775. - ROTHE, do.
Number of members, 369.
1777. WM. EDWARDS, on the Muskingum,
1777. JOHN JACOB SCHMICK, do.
Moravian. do.
1780. SARAII OHNEBURG, afterwards Mrs. HECKEWELDER, on the Muskingum, Moravian.
1780. MICHAEL YOUNG, do.
do.
1780. - SHEBOSH, do.
do.
1780. SENSEMANN, do. do.
1782. JOHN MARTIN, do. do.
1787. JOHN WEYGAND,
on the Cuyahoga. do.
1788. DANIEL BRECK,
Marietta, do. do.
Congregational.
1788. DANIEL STORY,
1788. DANIEL GANO,
near Cincinnati, Baptist.
1799. WILLIAM WICK,
Youngstown, Presbyterian.
1800. JOSEPH BADGER, Western Reserve, Congregational.
1801. E. F. CHAPIN, do. do.
1803. THOMAS ROBBINS, do. do.
Moravian. do.
ORIGIN OF TITLE.
To those outside of the legal profession, nothing is more uninteresting than discussions upon titles. But the subject is too important to be omitted. In regard to the permanent prosperity of a country, a good system of land titles, is of no less consequence than a good government.
On the Western Reserve, although the system is simple, the history of its origin is somewhat compli- cated. A thorough exposition would of itself occupy a small volume. I can only present the outlines.
England claimed the North American continent by discovery, in virtue of the voyages of JOHN and SEBASTIAN CABOT, along its eastern coast. The Pope assumed to grant to Spain, a large part of America, but the other powers, paid very little attention to the title of his Holiness ; as it was wholly without foundation. By the practice of civilized nations, which constitutes the law of nations; discovery and possession, make up the title to unoccupied countries. In determining the limits of possession under the
146
TITLE BY POSSESSION.
law of nations, constructive occupation was allowed, whereby the party who held the mouth of a river took the country which is drained by it.
Thus Spain, by the explorations of DE NARVAEZ, and DE SoTo, on the Gulf of Mexico ; became pos- sessed of the country of the Apalachicola, Mobile, Pearl, and Mississippi rivers, early in the 16th cen- tury.
She soon lost a large part of this territory, by the failure of continuous possession, and the French taking advantage of her neglect, extended their oc- cupation over it. Coming in by way of the St. Law- rence in 1535, and fixing themselves there in 1603, they pushed forward in every direction.
In 1660 they reached the west end of Lake Superior; in 1673 they were on the upper Mississip- pi, and on the 7th of April, 1682, LA SALLE arrived at its mouth.
The English had frequently tried to dislodge them, by negotiation and by force, but without suc- cess. By the year 1749, French military posts had entirely surrounded the English colonies. They were continually contracting the inner cordon of their forts, until they were brought in immediate contact, with the frontier positions of the British Crown. The French then held the Bay of Funday, Fort Cohasset on the Connecticut, and Crown Point on Lake Champlain.
They held Oswego, Niagara, Fort Erie, opposite
147
FRENCH AND ENGLISH CLAIMS.
Buffalo, Presque Isle (Erie, Pa.), the Allegheny and Ohio rivers. This dangerous proximity brought on the old French war of 1754. Before appealing to arms, the French offered a boundary, commencing on the Gulf of Mexico, at the mouth of the Apalachicola, thence up the same to its source. From its head waters the dividing line between the English and French colonies, was to follow the crest of the Allegheny mountains; to the sources of the Susquehanna; and thence to Crown Point, and the Bay of Funday.
As a counter proposition, the English offered to accept the line of the Allegheny mountains, as far as the eastern branches of the Ohio; diverging thence to their junction at Pittsburg ; up the Alle- gheny river, and French creek to Presque Isle, on lake Erie; and thence along the shore, through lake Ontario, the outlet of lake Champlain, and the sources of the Atlantic rivers. This being refused, the war was begun; which in 1760, ended in the conquest by the English, of all the French possessions, east of the Mississippi, except the island of Orleans.
With the Indians, the French policy was quite different from that of the English, and the Ameri- cans. The French did not ask for territory, except as tenants of so much as might be necessary for tem- porary cultivation, around their forts. Their treaties were made to secure peace and traffic.
The French have little taste for colonizing new
148
CLAIMS OF THE COLONIES.
countries, for the purpose of permanent cultivation. But whatever rights the French had in the Indian country, became English ; by conquest, secured by the treaty of February 13, 1763; and as the Indians were their allies, they stood in the position of a con- quered people.
Between the colonies and the crown, there arose at once the question of title, to the lands beyond the Alleghenies; included in all the colonial charters.
The Sovereigns of England not only made grants in this country of immense extent, for very trifling considerations, covering many times over the same territory; but they claimed the power to amend, alter, and annul previous patents, a power which was frequently exercised.
Virginia at first included a large part of North America : from latitude thirty-four to latitude forty- eight north, thence west and north-west to the Great South Sea; which was at that time a geographical myth. While the Pilgrim fathers were on the sea, in search of a new home; where they could be exempt from religious persecution ; JAMES the First, king of England, on the 3d of November, 1630, divided Old Virginia; constituting a northern and a southern colony; under the names of the "London " and "Plymouth " companies. The charter of the Plymouth company, is tediously verbose, granting to forty favorites of the crown, mostly nobles; the country between latitude 40 and 48ยบ north, stretch-
149
LONDON AND PLYMOUTH COMPANIES.
ing indefinitely, to the mythical South Sea, on the west. This territory was forever to be called "New England." It covered the Dutch settlement on Hudson river, and subsequent grants to the Duke of York, now constituting the State of New York ; most of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Canada and the north- western States.
The " Council of Plymouth " was made a corpo- ration, with most extensive political and personal privileges; on condition of rendering to the king, one-fourth part of all the gold and silver that might be discovered. They had exclusive rights of trade, free of duty, except as to imports to England. It was made a heinous crime to speak evil of "New England" or the corporators. The object of the grants are set forth in these words: " The principal effect which we can desire or expect of this action is the conversion or reduction of the people in those parts to the true worship of God and christian reli- gion."
In 1630, the Council of Plymouth, sitting in the county of Devon, England, granted to ROBERT, Earl of Warwick, its President; "All that part of New England, in America, which lies and extends itself from a river there called Narragansett river, the space of forty leagues upon a straight line near the sea shore, towards south-west, west and by south, or west, as the coast lieth, towards Virginia, account- ing three English miles to the league, all and singu-
150
DEED TO EARL WARWICK.
lar, the lands and hereditaments whatsoever, lying and being within the bounds aforesaid, north and south in latitude and breadth, and in length and longitude, and within all the breadth aforesaid throughout all the main lands there, from the west- ern ocean to the South Seas." What lands were meant by this description, or what were not included in it, constituted the legal puzzle of a century and a half.
On the 19th of March, 1631, Earl ROBERT con- veyed the same premises "more or less," to Viscount SAY AND SEAL BROOK, and his associates, which is called the "Patent of Connecticut." It is under this patent she claimed a large part of Pennsylvania and Ohio, and from which her claim to the Western Reserve is derived. The limits of Connecticut north and south were finally determined to be the forty-first parallel, and the parallel of forty-two degrees and two minutes north. As doubts were entertained of the validity of Warwick's patent, to found a political government; and the colony of Massachusetts encroached upon that of Connecticut, recourse was had to King CHARLES the Second, who granted a most ample charter on the 23d of April, 1662, which also fixed the northern boundary.
Lord SAY AND SEAL was still living, and a fast friend of the Puritans. He was also in power at court, and in favor with CHARLES Second. JOHN WINTHROP the Governor, who was sent to England
151
CHARTER OF CONNECTICUT.
to procure this charter, had in his possession a ring; which once belonged to CHARLES the First. This was presented to the King, delighting his royal heart exceedingly. Whatever they desired was put into the charter, which served as a constitution, until after the United States became independent of Great Britain .- [Trumbull's History of Connecticut.]
The charter of the "London Company," covering a large part of North America, had been annulled by judicial process in 1624. The subsequent grant to the Duke of York, extended across the St. Law- rence indefinitely to the north-west. Connecticut and Massachusetts, under the charter of the Plym- outh Company, reached to the Great South Sea.
After the Peace of Paris, and before the revolu- tion, the Indians made grants of territory to Great Britain, embracing parts of New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Virginia, as these colonies were then described. They had much reason to claim, that having borne much of the expense, and fur- nished a large part of the soldiers, to carry on the war with the French and Indians, the lands thus wrested from their enemies, should be confirmed to them. Whether under the law of nations, the King had a right to grant them territory, which lay beyond the rivers emptying into the Atlantic, he now held this disputed country by a good title, and they insisted that he was bound to make good his ancient promises. The Crown took a different view.
152
CESSIONS BY THE INDIANS.
In the fall of 1763, all the colonists were excluded from lands beyond the mountains, by royal procla- mation.
Before the French war, the "Ohio Land Com- pany" had been formed, with extensive grants in Ohio and West Virginia. The colony of Virginia had issued bounty land warrants, to her soldiers who fought against the French. As she claimed, under the almost limitless charter of the London Company, the holders of these warrants had a roving commission, to plant themselves at will in the western country. These bold soldiers paid little heed to the King's proclamation, or to the savages, who protested fiercely against their intrusions. Even WASHINGTON came to the Great Kenhawa and located his warrants. Projects for land compa- nies and settlements, in the valley of the Ohio, were being vigorously prosecuted, when the war of the revolution broke out. When it closed, all the rights which the English government possessed, either from French or Indian conquest, were trans- ferred by the same right of the conqueror, and by treaty, to the United States.
Immediately after the peace of 1783, the Amer- ican Congress took measures to obtain cessions of Indian lands. Their commissioners, beginning at Fort Stanwix in 1784, afterwards at Fort McIntosh, Fort Harmar, and other points on the Ohio, in 1785-6, concluded what are called treaties, with the Six Nations and many western tribes.
153
TITLE BY CONQUEST.
In these negotiations, although matters had the appearance of bargain and sale, a certain amount of goods and money, for a given quantity of land, the terms were those of a conqueror, dictating to the vanquished. The Indians had fought with the British, against us, as they had with the French, against the English. Victory placed them again in the position of a conquered people. These treaties were not those of parties, equal under the law of nations, but were articles of settlement at the con- clusion of a war. The Indians always regarded them as stipulations made under duress, to be kept no longer than they were obliged to do so by force.
They had learned under British rule, that the gov- ernment would permit no sales by them to other parties. They had been guarantied by the British crown, a permanent home, west of the Alleghenies ; into which the white men had been forbidden to enter. This was done in good faith by the British authorities, but the issue of war had abrogated her authority ; a war to which the Indians were parties.
The possession of the soil is evidently due to those who will cultivate it. The earth was not intended as a mere hunting ground for the savage. By his mode of life, he requires about six miles square to support a family. He draws his subsistence from the spontaneous production of nature, always exhausting and never adding any thing to her resources.
11
154
OLD DIFFICULTIES REVIVED.
Of course the earth cannot in this way fulfil its destiny, and support the increasing millions that are incessantly appearing upon it. In 1736 all the sav- ages, with which the Jesuit Missionaries were acquainted, on the waters of the lakes and of the Mississippi, did not exceed 80,000. Within the limits of Ohio, there were probably more Indians about the time of the Revolution, than ever before. By Capt. HUTCHINS' estimate, made in 1787, there were not of them to exceed 7,000 souls. The whole number, would not have made a city of the second class, as fixed by our statutes.
The old difficulty between the colonies and the crown, revived immediately after the revolution, between the same parties as States, and the confed- eration of the United States of America. All the old questions of boundary, came up anew. New York, at an early day, consented to a liberal curtail- ment of her claims. The pressure of the war, the wisdom, forbearance and patriotism of those times, and the financial difficulties which oppressed the nation, all conspired to make the discussion tem- perate, and finally secured a happy result. Con- gress held the Indian grants. Some States had no indefinite western boundary, on which to found a claim. These had, like the others, sent their citizens into the field, and supported them there. Like the colonies in the French war, they had acquired a moral right to a portion of the proceeds of the
155
CONFLICTING CLAIMS.
conquest. The discussion continued from the form- ation of the confederation, until the year 1800, before everything connected with the western lands was adjusted.
Connecticut, having been ousted of her preten- sions in Pennsylvania, was tenacious of her claims to the west of that State. By her deed of September 14, 1786, she limited herself to a tract, about as large as Old Connecticut, in the north-eastern part of Ohio, commonly called the "Western Reserve." To this as to all other western lands, the title was eventually made sure by compromise; the United States refusing to consider the comparative value of the conflicting claims of the States.
In addition to the relinquishment of 1786, a farther compact was made between the State and the Government, by which Connecticut, in 1800, relin- quished to the United States, all claim of political jurisdiction, and the latter confirmed to her the title to the soil.
That personal enterprise which is engendered by wars, expends itself in the United States, upon the new territories. The provincial soldiers of the old French war, and of the campaign under Col. BOUQUET, 1764, were the men who became the pioneers on the waters of the Ohio. Very soon after the Revolu- tion, our immediate ancestors began to look west- ward. Their courage did not allow them to fear their red enemies. Wars are not wholly without
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