USA > Ohio > Historical collections of Ohio, containing a collection of the most interesting facts, traditions, biographical sketches, anecdotes, etc., relating to its general and local history : with descriptions of its counties, principal towns, and villages > Part 52
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In the southern part of this county is a colony of colored people, amounting to several hundred persons. They live principally by agriculture, and own extensive tracts of land in the townships of Granville, Franklin and Mercer. They bear a good reputation for morality, and manifest a laudable desire for mental improvement. This settlement was founded by the exertions of Mr. Augustus Wattles, a native of Connecticut, who, instead of merely theorizing
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MIAMI COUNTY.
upon the evils which prevent the moral and mental advancement of the colored race, has acted in their behalf with a philanthropic, Christian-like zeal, that evinces he has their real good at heart. The history of this settlement is given in the annexed extract of a letter from him.
My early education, as you well know, would naturally lead me to look upon learning and good morals as of infinite importance in a land of liberty. In the winter of 1833-4, I providentially became acquainted with the colored population of Cincinnati, and found about 4,000 totally ignorant of every thing calculated to make good citizens. Most of them had been slaves, shut out from every avenue of moral and mental improvement. I started a school for them, and kept it up with 200 pupils for two years. I then proposed to the colored people to move into the country and purchase land, and remove from those con- taminating influences which had so long crushed them in our cities and villages. They promised to do so, provided I would accompany them and teach school. I travelled through Canada, Michigan and Indiana, looking for a suitable location, and finally settled here, thinking this place contained more natural advantages than any other unoccupied country within my knowledge. In 1835, I made the first purchase for colored people in this county. In about three years, they owned not far from 30,000 acres. I had travelled into almost every neighborhood of colored people in the state, and laid before them the benefits of a permanent home for themselves and of education for their children. In my first journey through the state, I established, by the assistance and co-operation of abolitionists, 25 schools for colored children. I collected of the colored people such money as they had to spare, and entered land for them. Many, who had no money, afterwards succeeded in raising some, and brought it to me. With this I bought land for them.
I purchased for myself 190 acres of land, to establish a manual labor school for colored boys. I had sustained a school on it, at my own expense, till the 11th of November, 1842. Being in Philadelphia the winter before, I became acquainted with the trustees of the late Samuel Emlen, of New Jersey, a Friend. He left by his will $20,000, for the " support and education in school learning and the mechanic arts and agriculture, such colored boys, of African and Indian descent, whose parents would give them up to the institute." We united our means and they purchased my farm, and appointed me the superintendent of the establishment, which they call the Emlen Institute.
In 1846, Judge Leigh, of Virginia, purchased 3,200 acres of land in this settlement, for the freed slaves of John Randolph, of Roanoke. These arrived in the summer of 1846, to the number of about 400, but were forcibly prevented from making a settlement by a portion of the inhabitants of the county. Since then, acts of hostility have been commenced against the people of this settlement, and threats of greater held out, if they do not abandon their lands and homes.
MIAMI.
MIAMI was formed from Montgomery, January 16th, 1807, and Staunton made the temporary seat of justice. The word Miami, in the Ottawa language, is said to signify mother. The name Miami, was originally the designation of the tribe who anciently bore the name of " Tewightewee." This tribe were the original inhabitants of the Miami valley, and affirmed they were created in it. East of the Miami, the surface is gently rolling, and a large proportion of it a rich alluvial soil : west of the Miami, the surface is generally level, the soil a clay loam, and better adapted to small grain and grass than corn. The county abounds in excellent limestone, and
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MIAMI COUNTY.
has a large amount of water power. In agricultural resources, this is one of the richest counties in the state. The principal produc- tions are wheat, corn, oats, hay, pork and flax-seed. The following is a list of the townships in 1840, with their population.
Bethel,
1586 Lost Creek, 1304
Spring Creek, 1501
Brown, 1230
Monroe,
1409
Staunton, 1231
Concord, 2408
Newburg, 1632 Union, 2221
Elizabeth, 1398
Newton, 1242
Washington, 2642
The population of Miami, in 1820, was 8851; in 1830, 12,807; and in 1840, 19,804, or 44 inhabitants to the square mile.
Prior to the settlement of Ohio, Gen. George Rogers Clarke led an expedition from Kentucky, against the Indians in this region, an account of which follows, from the reminiscences of Abraham Thomas, originally published in the Troy Times. This Mr. Thomas, it is said, cut the first sapling on the site of Cincinnati : he died only a few years since.
In the year 1782, after corn planting, I again'volunteered in an expedition under General Clarke, with the object of destroying some Indian villages about Piqua, on the Great Miami river. On this occasion, nearly 1000 men marched out of Kentucky, by the route of Lick- ing river. We crossed the Ohio at the present site of Cincinnati, where our last year's stockade had been kept up, and a few people then 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 up the east side of the Miami, and crossed it about four miles below the Piqua towns. Shortly after gaining the bottom, on the west side of the river, a party of Indians on horseback, with their squaws, came out of a trace that led to some Indian villages near the present site of Granville. They were going on a frolic, or pow-wow, to be held at Piqua, and had with them a Mrs. M'Fall, who was some time before taken prisoner from Kentucky ; the Indians escaped into the woods, leaving their women, with Mrs. M'Fall, to the mercy of our company. We took those along with us to Piqua, and Mrs. M'Fall returned to Kentucky. On arriving at Piqua, we found that the Indians had fled from the 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. We soon caught a Frenchman, tied him on horseback, for our guide, and arrived at the place in the night. The Indians had taken alarm and cleared out ; we, however, broke up and burned the Frenchman's store, [Lo- rime's store, see Shelby county,] which had for a long time been a place of outfit for In- dian marauders, and returned to the main body early in the morning, many of our men well stocked with plunder. After burning and otherwise destroying every thing 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 after, and was buried at what is now called " Coe's Ford," where we re-crossed the Miami, on our return. The other, Capt. M'Cracken, lived until we reached the site of Cincinnati, where he was buried. On this expedition, we had with us Capt. Barbee, afterwards Judge Barbee, one of my primitive neighbors in Miami county, Ohio, a most worthy and brave man, with whom I have hunted, marched and watched through many a long day, and finally removed with him to Ohio.
From the " Miami County Traditions," also published in the Troy Times, a few years since, we annex some reminiscences of the set- tlement of the county and its early settlers.
Among the first settlers who established themselves in Miami county, was John Knoop. He removed from Cumberland county, Penn., in 1797. In the spring of that year, he came down the Ohio to Cincinnati, and cropped the first season on Zeigler's stone house farm, four miles above Cincinnati, then belonging to John Smith. During the summer, he made two excursions into the Indian country, with surveying parties, and at that time
1
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MIAMI COUNTY.
selected the land he now owns and occupies. The forest was then full of Indians, princi- pally Shawnees, but there were small bands of Mingoes, Delawares, Miamis and Pota- watomies, peacefully hunting through the country. Early the next spring, in 1798, Mr. Knoop removed to near the present site of Staunton village, and in connection with Ben- jamin Knoop, Henry Garard, Benjamin Hamlet and John Tildus, established there a sta- tion for the security of their families. Mrs. Knoop, now living, there planted the first apple tree introduced into Miami county, and one is now standing in the yard of their house, raised from seed then planted, that measures little short of nine feet around it. * *
The inmates of a station in the county, called the Dutch station, remained within it for two years, during which time they were occupied in clearing and building on their respec- tive farms. Here was born, in 1798, Jacob Knoop, the son of John Knoop, the first civil- ized native of Miami county. At this time, there were three young single men living at the mouth of Stoney creek, and cropping on what was afterwards called Freeman's prairie ; one of these was D. H. Morris, a present resident of Bethel township; at the same time there resided at Piqua, Samuel Hilliard, Job Garard, Shadrac Hudson, Jonah Rollins, Daniel Cox, Thomas Rich and - Hunter ; these last named had removed to Piqua in 1797, and together with our company at the Dutch station, comprised all the inhabitants of Miami county, from 1797 to 1799. In the latter year, John, afterwards Judge Garard, Nathaniel and Abner Garard, and the year following, Uriah Blue, Joseph Coe and Abra- ham Hathaway joined us with their families. From that time, all parts of the county began to receive numerous immigrants. For many years, the citizens lived together on footings of the most social and harmonious intercourse -- we were all neighbors to each other, in the Samaritan sense of the term-there were some speculators and property-hunters among us, to be sure, but not enough to disturb our tranquillity and general confidence. For many miles around we knew who was sick, and what ailed them, for we took a humane interest in the welfare of all. Many times were we called from six to eight miles to assist at a roll- ing or raising, and cheerfully lent our assistance to the task. For our accommodation, we sought the mill of Owen Davis, afterwards Smith's mill, on Beaver creek, a tributary of the Little Miami, some 27 miles distant. Our track lay through the woods, and two days were consumed in the trip, when we usually took two horse-loads. Owen was a kind man, considerate of his distant customers, and would set up all night to oblige them,
1. and his conduct materially abridged our mill duties.
With the Indians, we lived on peaceable terms ; sometimes, however, panics would spread among the women, which disturbed us a little, and occasionally we would have a horse or so stolen. But one man only was killed out of the settlement, from 1797 to 1811. This person was one Boyier, who was shot by a straggling party of Indians, supposed through mistake. No one, however, liked to trade with the Indians, or have any thing to do with them, beyond the offices of charity.
The country all around the settlement 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 difficult to rear them on that account. The white-weed or bee-harvest, as it is called, so profusely spread over our bottom and wood lands, was not then seen among us; the sweet annis, nettles, wild rye and pea-vine, now so scarce, every where abounded : they were almost the entire herbage of our bottoms ; the two last gave subsistence to our cattle, and the first, with our nutritious roots, were eaten by our swine with the greatest avidity. In the spring and sum- mer months, a drove of hogs could be scented at a considerable distance, from their flavor of the annis root. Our winters were as cold, but more steady than at present. Snow generally covered the ground, and drove our stock to the barn-yard, for three months, and this was all the trouble we had with them. Buffalo signs were frequently met with ; but the animals had entirely disappeared before the first white inhabitant came into the country ; but other game was abundant. As many as thirty deer have been counted at one time, around the bayous and ponds near Staunton. The hunter had his full measures of sport, when he chose to indulge in the chase ; but ours was essentially an agricultural settlement. From the coon to the buck-skin embraced our circulating medium. Our imported com- modities were first purchased at Cincinnati, then at Dayton, and finally, Peter Felix es- tablished an Indian merchandizing store at Staunton, and this was our first attempt in that way of traffick. For many years we had no exports but skins ; yet wheat was steady at 50 cents, and corn at 25 cents per bushel ; the latter, however, has since fallen as low as 124 cents, and a dull market.
For some time, the most popular milling was at Patterson's, below Dayton, and with Owen Davis, on Beaver ; but the first mill in Miami county is thought to have been erected by John Manning, on Piqua bend. Nearly the same time, Henry Garard erected on Spring
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MIAMI COUNTY.
creek, a corn and saw mill, on land now included within the farm of Col. Winans. It is narrated by the Colonel, and is a fact worthy of notice, that on the first establishment of these mills, they would run ten months in a year, and sometimes longer, by heads. The creek would not now turn one pair of stones two months in a year, and then only on the recurrence of freshets. It is thought this remark is applicable to all streams of the upper Miami valley, showing there is less spring drainage from the country, since it has become cleared of its timber, and consolidated by cultivation. *
View in Troy.
Troy, the county seat, is a beautiful and flourishing village, in a highly cultivated and fertile country, upon the west bank of the Great Miami, 70 miles north of Cincinnati and 68 west of Columbus. It was laid out about the year 1808, as the county seat, which was first at Staunton, a mile east, and now containing but a few houses. Troy is regularly laid off into broad and straight streets, crossing each other at right angles, and contains about 550 dwellings. The view was taken in the principal street of the town, and shows, on the right, the court house and town hall, between which, in the distance, appear the spires of the New School Presbyterian and Episcopal churches. It contains 2 Presbyterian, 1 Episcopal Methodist, 1 Wesleyan do., 1 Episcopal and 1 Baptist church, a market, a branch of the state bank, 2 newspaper printing offices, 1 town and 1 ma- sonic hall, 1 academy, 3 flouring and 5 saw mills, 1 foundery, 1 ma- chine shop, 1 shingle and 1 plow factory, and a large number of stores and mechanic shops. Its population in 1840, was 1351; it has since more than doubled, and is constantly increasing. It is con- nected with Cincinnati, Urbana and Greenville, by turnpikes.
The line of the Miami canal, from Cincinnati, passes through the town from south to north; on it are six large and commodious warehouses, for receiving and forwarding produce and merchandize, and three more, still larger, are in progress of erection, and four . smaller, for supplying boats with provisions and other necessaries. The business done during the current year, ending June Ist, 1847, in thirty of the principal business houses, in the purchase of goods,
360
MIAMI COUNTY.
produce and manufactures, amounts to $523,238, and the sales to $674,307. The articles bought and sold, are as follows: 174,000 bushels of wheat, 290,000 bushels of corn, 100,000 bushels of rye, barley and oats, 17,000 bbls. whiskey, 17,000 bbls. flour, 1,300 bbls. pork, 5,000 hogs, 31,000 lbs. butter, 2,000 bushels clover seed, 600 bbls. fish, 3,000 bbls. salt, 30,000 bushels flax seed, 304,000 lbs. bulk pork, 136,000 lbs. lard, 1,440 thousand feet of sawed lumber, &c. The shipments to and from the place, are about 20,000 tons.
There is an extensive hydraulic power here, not yet brought into use, which has recently been purchased by one of the most wealthy and enterprising citizens of the place, who is now maturing arrange- ments to bring it into immediate and extensive use, for manufacturing purposes.
View of Piqua.
Piqua is another beautiful and thriving town, 8 miles above Troy, and also on the river and canal. It was laid out in 1809, by Messrs. Brandon and Manning, under the name of Washington, which it bore for many years. The town plot contains an area of more than a mile square, laid out in uniform blocks, with broad and regular streets. On the north and east, and opposite the town, are the villages of Ross- ville and Huntersville, connected with it by bridges across the Miami.
It contains 1 New and 1 Old School Presbyterian, 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Methodist Wesleyan, 1 Episcopal, 1 Baptist, 1 Asso- ciate Reformed, 1 Lutheran, 1 Catholic and 1 Disciples church ; 1 high school, a town hall, and a branch of the state bank. The man- ufacturing facilities in it and vicinity are extensive. The Miami furnishes power for 1 wool carding and fulling factory, 3 saw-mills, 1 grist mill adjacent to the town, and a saw and grist mill, with an oil mill, below the town. The water of the canal propels a saw mill, a clothing and fulling factory, with a grist mill. A steam saw mill, steam grist mill and tannery, with 2 steam iron turning and ma-
361
MIAMI COUNTY.
chine establishments, constitute, with the rest, the amount of steam and hydraulic power used. With these, are over 100 mechanical and manufacturing establishments in the town, among which are 25 coopers' shops-that business being very extensively carried on. There are also 15 grocery and variety stores, 12 dry goods, 3 leather, 1 book and 3 hardware stores, a printing office, 4 forwarding and 3 pork houses ; and the exports and imports, by the canal, are very heavy. South of the town are seven valuable quarries of blue lime- stone, at which are employed a large number of hands, and adjacent to the town is a large boat yard.
In the town are 600 dwellings, many of which are of brick, and have fine gardens attached. Along the canal, has lately been erected a number of 3 story brick buildings for business purposes, and the number of business houses is 98. During the year 1846, eighty buildings were erected, and the value of real estate at that time was $476,000.
The population of Piqua, in 1830, was less than 500; in 1840, 1480; and in 1847, 3100.
The Miami river curves beautifully around the town, leaving be- tween it and the village a broad and level plateau, while the oppo- site bank rises abruptly into a hill, called "Cedar Bluff," affording fine walks, and a commanding view of the surrounding country. In its vicinity are some ancient works. From near its base, on the east bank of the river, the view was taken. The church spires shown, commencing on the right, are respectively, the Episcopal, Catholic, New School Presbyterian, Wesleyan Methodist, Old School Presby- terian and Baptist ; the town hall is seen on the left. From the Miami county traditions, we annex some facts respecting the history of Piqua.
JONATHAN ROLLINS was among the first white inhabitants of Miami county. In connec- tion with nine others, he contracted with Judge Symmes, for a certain compensation in lots and land, to become a pioneer in laying out a proposed town in the Indian country, at the lower Piqua village, where is situated the pleasant and flourishing town under that name. The party left Ludlow station, on Mill Creek, in the spring of 1797, and proceeded without difficulty to the proposed site. They there erected cabins, and enclosed grounds for fields and gardens. But the judge failing in some of his calculations, was unable to fulfill his part of the contract ; and the other parties to it gradually withdrew from the association, and squatted around on public land, as best pleased themselves. It was some years after this, when land could be regularly entered in the public offices ; surveying parties had been run- ning out the county, but time was required to organize the newly introduced section system, which has since proved so highly beneficial to the western states, and so fatal to professional cupidity.
Some of these hardy adventurers settled in and about Piqua, where they have left many worthy descendants. Mr. Rollins finally took up land on Spring Creek, where he laid out the farm he now occupies. While this party resided at Piqua, and for years after, the In- dians were constant visitors and sojourners among them. This place appears to have been, to that unfortunate race, a most favorite residence, around which their attachments and re- grets lingered to the last. They would come here to visit the graves of their kindred, and weep over the sod that entombed the bones of their fathers. They would sit in melancholy groups, surveying the surrounding objects of their earliest attachments and childhood sports- the winding river, which witnessed their first feeble essays with the gig and the paddle- the trees where first they triumphed with their tiny bow, in their boastful craft of the hunter -- the coppice of their nut gatherings-the lawns of their boyhood sports, and haunts of their
46
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MIAMI COUNTY.
early loves, would call forth bitter sighs and reproaches on that civilization, which, in its rudest features, was uprooting them from their happy home.
The Indians at Piqua soon found, in the few whites among them, stern and inflexible masters, rather than associates and equals. Upon the slightest provocation, the discipline of the fist and club, so humbling to the spirits of an Indian, was freely used upon them. One day, an exceedingly large Indian had been made drunk, and for some past offense took it in his head to kill one of his wives. He was following her with a knife and tomahawk, around their cabin, with a posse of clamorous squaws and pappooses at his heels, who were striving to check his violence. They had succeeded in wresting from him his arms, and he was standing against the cabin, when several of the white men, attracted by the outcry, approached the group. One of them, small in stature, but big in resolution, made through the Indian crowd to the offender, struck him in the face, and felled him to the ground, while the surrounding Indians looked on in fixed amazement.
" The word Piqua is the name of one of the Shawanoese tribes, and signifies, " a man formed out of the ashes." The tradition is, that the whole Shawanoese tribe, a long time ago, were assembled at their annual feast and thanksgiving. They were all seated around a large
View at Upper Piqua.
fire, which having burnt down, a great puffing was observed in the ashes, when behold ! a full formed man came up out of the coals and ashes ; and this was the first man of the Piqua tribe. After the peace of 1763, the Miamis having removed from the Big Miami river a body of Shawanoes established themselves at lower and upper Piqua, which became their great head quarters in Ohio. Here they remained, until driven off by the Kentuckians, when they crossed over to St. Mary's and to Wapaghkonetta. The Upper Piqua is said to have contained, at one period, near 4000 Shawanoese. The Shaw- anoese were formerly a numerous people, and very warlike. We can trace their history to the time of their residence on the tide wa- ters of Florida, and as well as the Delawares, they aver that they originally came from west of the Mississippi. Black Hoof, who died at Wapaghkonetta, at the advanced age of 105 years, told me that he remembered, when a boy, bathing in the salt waters of Florida : that his people firmly believed white or civilized people had been in the country before them-having found, in many instances, the marks
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MIAMI COUNTY.
of iron tools, axes upon trees and stumps, over which the sand had blown. Shawanoese means "the south," or "people from the south."*
Upper Piqua, three miles N. of Piqua, on the canal and Miami river, is a locality of much historic interest. It is, at present, the residence of Col. John Johnston-shown in the view-and was once a favorite dwelling place of the Piqua tribe of the Shawanoese. Col. Johnston, now at an advanced age, has for the greater part of his life resided at the west, as an agent of the U. S. government over the Indians. His mild and parental care of their interests, gave him great influence over them, winning their strongest affections, and causing them to regard him in the light of a father. To him we are indebted for many valuable facts, scattered through this volume, as well as those which follow respecting this place.
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