History of Ashland County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 3

Author: Hill, George William, b. 1823; Williams Bros
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: [Cleveland] Williams
Number of Pages: 896

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SPROTT'S HILL.

On the northeast quarter of section thirty-five, in Clear Creek township, and about two and a half miles northwest of Gamble's fort, is Sprout's hill. This bill is about ninety feet high, and contains, at its base, an area of about tive acres. It is composed of alluvium, mixed with gravel and rounded boulders. The top is about sixty by ninety feet, and is nearly flat. Upon this two mounds were erected, each about twenty-five feet in diameter, and four or five feet high. When Thomas Sprott settled there, some fifty years since, large trees grew upon and about these mounds, which were about thirty feet apart. From these mounds a good view of the Gamble fort and the mound at Orange can be had.

In examining the south mound some thirty years ago, Thomas Sprott and a brother came upon a sort of stone coffin, constructed of flat stones set on the edges, which contained the skeletons of some sit or eight Rclens, neatly cleaned and packed, in a good state of preserva tion. On the flat stones constituting the lidt of the coffin, over a peck of red : ermillion was found. These relics were replaced by Mr. Sprott. .

HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.

BRYTE'S FORT

is situated about one and a half miles northwest of the Sprott mound, on section twenty-six. This work is quadrangular in shape. Its longest sides face the east and west, and are very nearly five hundred feet each in length, while the north and south ends are each about two hundred and fifty feet long, making the whole length of the embankment about fifteen hundred feet. Near the southwest corner was a gate-way leading to a very fine spring, some four or five rods distant. A deep ravine encircles the west side and the south end of the work, while there is a gradual descent froin the north end and eastern side, showing that it was erected for de- fensive purposes. The view from the fort in all direc- tions, is very fine, and takes in an area of four or five miles. The Orange mound and those of Sprott's hill, were plainly discernible. When Mr. John Bryte com- menced to clear his farm some fifty-four years ago, he found large oak trees and other timber growing on the embankment, and often walked upon it in hunting squir- rels. When he first saw it the walls were between three and four feet high, and perhaps ten or eleven wide at the base. He has been cultivating the fort for nearly fifty years, and the embankment is nearly obliterated. For defensive purposes the site was a good one. The water of the adjoining spring would supply a large army. It is situated on the summit, where the brooks divide to flow north to Lake Erie, and south to the White-woman, the Muskingum and the Ohio.

Many stone axes, fleshers, arrow-heads, polished and perforated stones, and pipes, have been found in the vicinity of the foregoing work.

STONER'S FORT.

Ashland county must have been, in pre-historic times, the home of a numerous people. From evidences to be tound in many parts of the county, its people lived in large fortified villages, and from the nature of the places chosen for settlement, capable of making a vigorous de- fence against the attacks of a beleaguering enemy. High and commanding points were prepared. The localities are generally found at the head of valleys, at a promi- nent point; many of the ancient earthworks overlook a wide valley, and give a commanding view. of the sur- rounding country. In this manner, no doubt, the in- habitants were enabled to detect the approach of an enemy and .guard against sudden attacks and surprise. It is a curious question to determine by what means, or in what manner these villages were protected from attack and dispersion by the enemy. How were they fortified? The early French explorers say the ancient Eries, a remnant of the Mound Builders, no doubt, resided in castles or towns fortified by picket or palisade; the in- trenchments were thrown up in circular or square forin. This county possesses, perhaps, twelve or fifteen such works, ranging in area from two to eight acres in quan- tity, The remnants of these fortified places found in the forests when the first pioneers commenced to clear up the country, some seventy years since, were generally about three to five feet high in the center, and about ten

feet across the base, having in many places large oak and other timber, ranging in a growth from three hun- dred to six hundred years,. It will be easily observed that intrenchments of this kind, without pickets, would furnish no possible defence against the attacking forces of an enemy; for the red warrior could easily leap over such an earthen wail and assault the village. It is equally difficult to fix, with precision, the date of these works, and the kind of people who built them; judging from the timber and its slow growth, they may have ranged these valleys fifteen hundred years ago. It is equally difficult to determine the cause of their disappearance ; they may have been succeeded by the fierce red man, or driven by force to a less rigorous climate for protection. The traditions of the Aztec race fixes their formier resi- dence in the far north, possibly in Ohio, Indiana and in Missouri, from whence they were expelled by a fiercer and more warlike race, finally finding a home in Mexico. The habits of the red man are different; they are op- posed to physical exertion, and never could have been the means of fortifying great military works. They are very warlike, full of strategy, and very destructive to their enemies. The race they expelled must have been organized into a sort of government, and either by coercion or arrest employed large numbers in the erec- tion of their stupendous earthworks in different parts of Ohio. Many of their works seem to have been erected in the absence of timber; in fact, the whole country seems to have been almost destitute of timber, from what cause we are unable to detennine. The growth of our timber has largely occurred within six hundred years. Acorns planted by design or accident, on the very in- trenchments of the forts, have grown into lofty oaks, three to four feet in diameter, and perhaps six hundred years old.

With these prefatory remarks, we desire to call the attention of the pioneers to an ancient earthwork or intrenchment on lands of John and David Stoner, in southeast quarter of section twenty-eight, in Milton township. Sixty-seven years ago the pioneers of Milton had their attention drawn to this work then in the forest, and nearly as when left by those who erected and occu- pied it. It is a few hundred yards west of Mr. Stoner's house, and is partly within a plowed field. It forms nearly a complete circle. The length of the circle is about one thousand nine hundred feet; it contains nearly eight acres of land. The east half of the circle has been plowed over for, perhaps, forty years, and is nearly oblit- erated. The west half of the circle can be distinctly traced, and has many trees upon it. Among these were noticed some three or four white oaks, very tall, that are over three feet in diameter, that have grown upon the embankment, that are at least six hundred years old. In the location of the work it is surrounded by ravines east, west, and northwest, possessing sufficient water for all practical uses. Early settlers state that before the removal of the forest the work was about three feet high, an 1 nine or ten feet at the base, and may have been originally a strong stockade, and been the residence of hundreds of people. The view from the fort is very fine; it over

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HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.

looks the valley of the Black fork to the west and north- west for a long distance. The locality in Richland county known as High Hill, comes clearly into view from the fort, and constitutes a striking feature of the landscape. This seems to be a continuation of the same class of works found on the farm of the late John Bryte, in Clear Creek township, and doubtless erected by the same race, for defensive purposes. Mr. John W. Fry of Ash- land, accompanied me in viewing and taking the dimen- sions of the work, and is of the opinion that it was much more distinct when he first saw it, many years ago. From the fort we passed to land of Mr. Henry Pifer, about half a mile northwest, where we viewed the remains of an ancient mound, probably connected as a burial site, with the fort, in the valley, near the Black fork. While no bones have been reached in plowing, different strata of earth have been turned up, such as tough yellow clay, black, tough hard-pan and sand, and gravel in great abundance. By excavating eight or ten feet deep, it was discovered that large numbers of human bones may be found encased in muck, like those recently found in the John Green mound. In plowing farther south, along the Black fork, Mr. Pifer is of opinion that other burial places and excavations will came to light. It will then appear that to erect and com- plete such a village, with the mound to be used for burial purposes, it must have taken the joint labor of a vast number of men: To accomplish so much with the feeble means employed, it will appear that this county must have teemed with human beings long before the white man arrived.

SHAMBAUGH'S FORT.

Returning to the south end of the county we ascend the Black fork of Mohican. At the farm of Lewis Oli- ver, and one or two points below, were found mounds of five or six feet in height, and about thirty feet in diame- ter, at the base. A little southwest of Perrysville, on the road leading to Newville, on the summit, above the village, was a mound overlooking the valley, the size of the ones described.

Passing up the stream to near the old Indian village of Greentown, to the lands of Mr. John Shambaugh, on the north side of the stream, on section eighteen, we find another circular fort, containing very nearly two acres, with a gate-way looking to the west. In the cen- ter was a mound, about four feet high, which had probit- bly been an altar or lookout. When first discovered, the embankment was about three and a half feet high, and ten wide at the base. It is difficult to conjecture for what purpose the work was constructed, as it was situa- ted on the bottom, fully a quarter of a mile from the ele- vated lands on either side of the stream. A small brook flowed by it, from which, no doubt, water was obtained. Timber-such as oak, hickory and elm, grew upon and within the work, the larger trees being over three feet in diameter. The lands along the streams are very fertile : and the site of the fortification having been plowed ever for half a century, the embankments are merely tracea- ble.

THE PARR FORT.

About one mile distant from the work alluded to, on section nineteen, is found what is known as the Parr fort. It is also a circular work, the embankment, when first discovered by the pioneers, being about seven feet high, and twelve or fourteen in diameter, at the base. It enclosed an area of about three acres, and had a gate- way at the west. Very near it, on the east side, stood a large mound from which copper beads and stone imple- ments have been taken.

I am informed by Dr. J. P. Henderson, of Newville, that this mound was opened some fifty years ago. In it were found human bones, charcoal, decayed wood, a stone pipe, the stem of which was wrapped with copper wire and a copper wedge. This last produced quite a sensation at the time, as it was supposed to be gold ; but on being taken to Wooster, and examined by a sil- versmith, it depreciated in value, and was disposed of for a mere trifle. The mound was of peculiar structure. It was built of large flat stones in a circular form, like a shot-tower, and filled up and around with earth ; and was a cone in appearance. The fort was well situated, and should have made a good defence. Many stone axes, stone fleshers, and polished stone plates have been found in the vicinity of these works.

DARLING'S FORT.

About two and a half miles south of Parr's fort, near St. John's church, on the north bank of the Clear fork of the Mohican, is found another very strongly situated work. It is circular, and contains an area of nearly three acres. It bad embankments from the gate on the south side (as I am informed), leading down to the bank of the stream. When first discovered, by Judge Peter Kinney and others, it was covered with large timber, and the embankment was over three feet high. It commands a full view of the valley for many miles, and was doubt- less used as a defensive work. Many very choice stone relics have been plowed up along the valley by farmers, and are now in the cabinet of Dr. James P. Henderson, of Newville. It will be seen then, that, Green township contained three defensive works, and is rich in archeo- logical remains.

We find no other remains until we reach the village of Mifflin. On the level land, a little northwest of the vii- lage, is a large mound. The top is slightly flattened, and was, no doubt, used as a burial spot by the Delawares. It has not been excavated, and its contents are only a matter of conjecture. Many stone aves, stone heads, flint arrow-heads, and pick shaped implements of stone highly finished, have been plowed up by the farmers all along the valley of the Black fork.

There are, perhaps, twenty or thirty smaller mounds scattered over the county to which my attention has not been called. The mounds of this county are invariably truncated and none exceed ten feet in height. I am in- clined to the opinion that many of the smaller ones were the center of an encampment, and were erected for sac- rificial purposes. Such a mound existed in the center of the council house at Greentown. The venison and bear

HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.

meat, for their great feasts, was boiled in large copper kettles upou the monnd. This may account for the char- coal, ashes, and charred bones so frequently found in small flat mounds. I have reason to believe, also, the tent or wigwam of the ruling chief was sometimes placed on a central mound of similar structure.

THE ORIGIN OF THE WORKS.

Two hundred and thirty years ago, when the French Jesuit missionaries, La Moyne, Father Joseph De la Roche, D'Allyon, Brebœuf, Chamount, and Sayard, were endeavoring to establish missionary stations among the Hurons, Ottawas, and the Five Nations known as the Iro- quais, the Eries, a powerful nation, owned all the terri- tory south and adjoining Lake Erie, and gave name to the lake. This nation was able, single-handed, to repel the assaults of the Five Nations. Its borders extended along the lake shore, from the Senecas, near Buffalo, to the Miamis, southwest of the lake, one of their fortified positions, according to Schoolcraft, being on what is now known as Kelley's Island. Like the Harons, they are supposed to have oceupied densely populated villages, well fortified by ditch and palisade. They owned the territory out of which the Western Reserve was erected, and many suppose the earthworks of this region were constructed by that people. When the missionaries were first permitted to enter the eastern part of their territory,

they had twenty-eight villages, and twelve large towns or forts, which contained twelve thousand people and four thousand warriors. From 1634 to about 1666, a fierce and relentless war raged between the Eries and the Iro- quois or Five Nations, in which the Iroquois finally tri- umphed and expelled the Eries from the country.

If it be true, as conjectured, that the Eries erected the earthworks of northern Ohio, it must have taken place about that period. If we take the growth of forest trees as evidence of so recent an occupation of these fortified places, it will make it tolerably certain that they were constructed by that nation. The peculiar structure of the embankments strengthens the supposition that they once contained a stockade. They are too low to have afforded protection in case of assault, and only upon the theory of having been palisades can we imagine they were used for military defence. If it be rue, that two hundred and fifty years ago, as suggested by Mr. Shea, the Huorns, Eries, and other nations occupied fortified places, it may be reasonably inferred that the Eries, about the beginning of the year 1600, occupied and fortified this region.

It may be said they were destitute of implements to construct such fortifications. We know not what imple- ments were used, or how long it took to throw up such embankments, nor the number of men employed in their construction. The earth was found in situ, and only had to be heaped against each side of a palisade. How the stakes were obtained for such a purpose is a matter of conjecture. The trees may have been felled, and the stakes separated in suitable lengths by fire.

CHAPTER IV.

THE FRIES OR THE CAT NATION.

The Aborigines of Northern Ohio .-- Their Antiquity .- They Vield to the Encroachments of the Whites .- The Eastern and Western Tribes arrayed against each other .- The Eries .- They give their Name to the Lake North of Ohio .-- Their Works and their Charac- ter as a Nation. - Vanquished by the Iroquois .- Does a Remnant of the Tribe still exist?

Two hundred years ago the territory composing the State of Ohio was unexplored by the white man. The Indian tribes were the undisputed lords of the soil, and dweit along its rivers and streams and fertile valleys. Although the children of the forest possessed no written records, tradition assures us that their history teemed with tragic events. We have no means of determining when the red man took possession of the lake shore, and the valleys of the Miami; the Muskingum and the Ohio. That they roamed over the hills, amid the valleys, and rowed their birch canoes upon the beautiful rivers of this State, ages before the arrival of the white man in this region, is undisputed.

Upon the appearance of the European upon the east- ern shores of New England, Virginia, Maryland, Dela- ware, New York, and New Jersey, and his attempt to take possession of the territories inhabited by the Indian tribes, jealousies and collisions soon sprang up and culminated in a fierce and bloody border war, in which many of the most powerful Indian tribes were se- verely chastised, and broken in strength and numbers, and finally compelled to seek new hunting-grounds in the west.

The rivalry between Great Britain and France in estab- lishing colonies in North America, resulted in arraying the Indian tribes of the west against those of the east, and contributed to their dispersion and final extinction in many of the older States. The tribes recognized as the original proprietors of the soil on the south shores of Lake Erie, enter chiefly into a history of the territory composing Ashland county. It is generally conceded that the Cat Vation, or Eries, sometimes called in the early annals of the country, the Kaleahs, were once the lords of the soil of all Northern Ohio, and inhabited this region. It is the opinion of the early. Jesuit mission- aries, as well as of Mr. Bancroft, that the Cat, or Erie no- tion suggested the name of Erie, to the beautiful lake that fringes the northern border of the State. The chief seat of their power seems to have been located near the southeastern shore of Lake Erie; while the tribe had a wide range extending from the Miami of the lake to the Allegheny in western Pennsylvania, and south to cen- tral Ohio. They de not seem to have been a war-like race, but from the strength of the tribe, constituted a soit of human wall to break the incursions of the Sioux and Illinois from the west, as well as the expeditions of the Fire Nations, occupying northern New York and a part of northern Pennsylvania. Occupying a sort of middie ground, and being one of the most powerful tribes in the confederacy, known as the neutral nation, they excited the jealousy and revenge of the Five Nations, and finally fell before the victorious Mohawks. The de-

HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.

tails of the struggle that led to their conquest are very obscure .* The names of the leading-men, and the ex- act strength of the nation on the battle field, are all buried in uncertainty. We are indebted to the early Jesuit missionaries for all the information we possess con- cerning the Eries.

The Canadian shores of the lake were first visited by those self-sacrificing christian messengers, with a view of propagating the tenets of the Catholic church, and the spread of French authority among the red men of the Canadian forests. They penetrated almost every portion of that region, pushing their enterprise west to Wiscon- sin, over the wild prairies of Illinois, to the Mississippi, to central Ohio, along the Muskingum, the Scioto, the Miami, into the wilds of Indiana to Vincennes, as well as northern New York.

The first mention of the Eries is by Father Le Moyne and Claude Dablon, in 1657, who were then mission- aries among the Mohawks and Senecas of northern New York, by whom it is stated that the savage tribes com- posing the Five Nations were carrying on a war of exter- mination against the Eries, bringing back great numbers of prisoners to the villages to be delivered to the flames, or adopted into the Five Nations. This war of extermi- nation was continued by the savage Mohawks, and their confederates, until the broken and vanquished Eries were driven back to Kelley's Island and subjugated and their way opened to the Miamis, the Illinois, and the Sioux. These anthorities inform us that the Mohawks were furnished arms and ammunition to accomplish the ruin of the Eries by the British colonists, in the hope of breaking French influence among the tribes of the West. The Five Nations, according to Schoolcraft, made war upon the neutral nation, west of them, composed prob- ably of the Hurons, the Ottawas, a remnant of the Al- leghans, the Andastes or Kahwahs, and the Erics; and, after the conquest of the Hairons, or Il'yandots, then established on the borders of Lake Huron, the Five Na- tions invaded the Andastes and the Eries in 1655, and, after they had been forced westward to their stronghold on Kelley's Island, the relentless Iroquois, known as the Five Nations, followed them thence and laid siege, using their canoes as scaling ladders, and, leaping down like tigers among the defenders, butchered them without mercy. t

The greater part of the nation was involved in the massacre, and a remmant carried back with the victors and incorporated with the conquerers or consigned to the flames, a few escaping to other tribes. This mis- fortune befell the poor Eries, doubtless because they were at the head of the confederation called the neu- tral nation. The Eries, being at the head of the neu- tral nation were seldom engaged in war with their

neighbors of the East or West ; and with the Miamis on the west, and the Andostes, their kinsmen, on the east, they held sway over the larger portion of Ohio, and pursued the buffalo, the elk, the deer, and other game through our forests and over the plains undis- turbed by foreign foes, until the rage of the bloody Mo- hawk marked the nation for destruction. Schoolcraft is of the opinion the Eries had developed the laws of civ- ilization so far as to desire peace with the surrounding tribes, and seemed intent on making progress in the arts of civilized life. After their destruction by the Iroquois, it was found that their intrenchments on Kelley's Island were very strong, and of a character unlike anyching found among other tribes. The intrenchments were on the southern shore of the island and were composed of two crescent shaped embankments, and seemed to be intended to inclose and defend their villages. One of them had a front of four hundred feet, and the other six hundred and fourteen feet on the rocky margin of the lake. Adjacent is a rock thirty-two by twenty-two feet on the surface, on which a great variety of figures are deeply cut. It presents the most extensive and well sculptured inscriptions of the antiquarian period found in America. The characters are pictographic and easily interpreted. If his conjectures be correct, the ancient Eries had made greater progress in recording their his- tory than any of the Indian tribes found in the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi ; and their conquest by the re- lentless and untamed Mohawks is to be greatly regretted because they came nearer connecting the Indian tribes with the ancient Mound Builders than any of the tribes found within the limits of the State, by the first settlers and missionaries. In visiting the waters emptying into. the Muskingum and the Ohio, we have no doubt the an- cient Eries made Ashland county a part of the great highway leading to central Ohio. We are led to this conclusion because it was a part of their territory, and because the sides of the stream along which they must have journeyed are dotted with the relics and ruins of ancient stockades and earthworks.

In his history of the condition of the Indian tribes, part serond, 86-7-he expresses the opinion that the in- scriptions found on Kelley's Island allude to the occupa- tion of that basin of the lake by the Eries, the coming of the Wyandots, of the fatal triumph of the Iroquois, and the flight of the people who have left their name to the lake. If such is a correct interpretation of the in- scriptions, the Eries were not exterminated, as some sup- pose, by the Iroquois; for this record must have been placed there after the conquest. General Lewis Cass, of Michigan, concurs in this opinion, and says the Cana- dians term the Shawanese the "Ca! Nation." He also expresses the opinion that the Kickapoos and Catarobas are remnants of the vanquished Eries. Mr. Taylor, in his history of Ohio, first part, page 520, says a people who were called Erierions by the Wyandots, and Kank- wahs by the Iroquois, may have had many other names from other tribes; and that a remnant of the nation called the "Ca!" or "Eries," may still be in existence somewhere among the Indian tribes of the West.

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History of Ashland County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 3

Author: Hill, George William, b. 1823; Williams Bros Publication date: 1880 Publisher: [Cleveland] Williams Number of Pages: 896

Author: Hill, George William, b. 1823; Williams Bros
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: [Cleveland] Williams
Number of Pages: 896