History of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Part 5

Author: Johnson, Crisfield
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.B. Lippincott & Co.
Number of Pages: 716

USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > History of Cuyahoga County, Ohio > Part 5

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Bradstreet proceeded to make the best arrange- ments he could for continuing his return home. Ilis six brass field-pieces were buried on the shore, as Sir William complained, " in the sight of ye French vil-

lain," who, he feared, would canse them to be dug up by the Indians and used against Detroit. The re- maining boats being too few to carry all the men, the commandant directed a hundred and seventy rangers, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Putnam, to march along the shore of the lake and river to Fort Niagara, while the main body of the army proceeded by boat to the same place.

Among the numerous relics described by Dr. Kirt- land, interesting of themselves, and also as proving beyond doubt the locality of Bradstreet's disaster, we will mention the following ; some being found at Me- Mahon's beach, and some in the immediate vicinity of Rocky river, a mile or two farther down. The discovery of these at the latter point led Dr. Potter to believe that Major Wilkins' expedition was wrecked there, but, as before stated, there is no reasonable doubt but what that disaster occurred on the north shore of Lake Erie, and it is of course probable in the highest degree that some of Bradstreet's boats would be carried down to the month of the river before they broke up.

An elaborately finished sword was thrown on the beach fronting the right bank of Rocky river in 1820, which was picked up by Orin Joiner, a member of the family of Datus Kelley. The top of the hilt was a large lion's head of pure silver, of which metal the guard was also composed. The silver was melted down by a Cleveland goldsmith to whom the sword was sold. Dr. Potter supposes the lion's head to have been an cusign of the naval service, but the de- tailed report of the forces employed on the expedi- tion does not show that any belonged to the navy. There were seventy-four "bateau-men," but these were landsmen hired by Bradstreet, and organized in a corps to navigate the vessels from which they took their name.

In 1842, the bow-stem of a large bateau was thrown upon the beach, after a storm which tore up the sand- bank that extends from the east side of the month of the river into the lake. The wood was thoroughly water-soaked and partly covered with aquatic moss, the irons were deeply rusted, and the whole had evi- dently been long imbedded in the sand. Numerous pieces of muskets, bayonets, guns, flints, etc., were also brought to the surface of the sand-hank, or thrown on shore, by the same storm. Mr. Frederick Wright drew in six bayonets with his seine in one night, a short time afterwards.

At the mouth of "MeMahon's run" the irons and the remnants of a batean were found by the first settlers of the township. Several years later two six-pound cannon-balls and a number of musket-balls became exposed by the action of the lake at the foot of a clay cliff at the west end of the bottom-lands. This is supposed to have been the place where Brad- street buried his cannon and ammunition.

About 1831, a young daughter of Datus Kelley found in the sand of McMahon's beach a silver spoon of heavy make and coarse workmanship, evidently

GENERAL HISTORY OF CUYAHOGA COUNTY.

dating from the last century. It doubtless belonged to one of Bradstreet's officers, as did also another of the same description, found by Oscar Taylor in 1851. Numerons bayonets and pieces of muskets were also thrown by the surf upon the beach, which were collected by the families of Governor Wood and Colonel Merwin.

Of still greater interest is a bayonet which remained until its discovery, some twenty years ago, imbedded in the blue clay of the bank of a gully on the farm of Colonel Merwin, where it had evidently been driven to its base by a soldier, to help himself and his com- rades up the steep ascent. On the npland just above the beach, the early selflers found a stack of bayonets covered with soil and vegetation, just as they had been piled by a squad of tired soldiers after they had as- cended the bank.

We are able, too, to follow the track of Putnam and his men for a short distance, with reasonable certainty, as they started on their tedious journey through the Forest. They appear to have followed a ridge leading from the vicinity of McMahon's beach to the crossing of Rocky river, near the plank-road bridge. On this ridge, near the residence of Frederick Wright, one of the soldiers threw down nearly a peck of gun-flints, which were found there sixteen or eighteen years ago by the gentleman just named. By their being aban- doned so early on the journey, it is probable that it was done by Putnam's order, who foresaw that his men were less likely to run out of flints than they were to fail in strength on the wearisome march.

Farther east, along the ridge, a silver teaspoon, re- sembling those already mentioned, was found at the first plowing of the ground afterwards occupied by the orchard of John Williams. Still farther on, in the garden of the Patchen Inn, Mr. Silverthorn in 1863 found three or four dollars in small silver pieces, of French and English coinage, all of earlier date than 1764. It is difficult to account for them except on the theory that one of Putnam's officers or men threw off some article of clothing there, and in his fatigue and perplexity neglected to remove this money from the pockets. In 1863, Mr. P. A. Delford also discovered, near the plank-road gate, two copper pennies, bearing the date of 1749 and the face of George the Second.

In this account we have not only followed the de- scription given by Dr. Potter, (condensing it to some extent), but have adopted his views in regard to the course of events thus far, except as to the wreck of Major Wilkin's expedition. We have more doubts, however, as to his theory that the contents of a mound in that vicinity were the bones of Bradstreet's soldiers, drowned in the disaster of October, 1764. All the contemporary reports say that no lives were lost, and this corresponds with the usual account of the event, according to which the boats were drawn up along the shore and the men landed, and then the storm destroyed the boats. This would certainly give the men a chance to escape, and there is no reasonable

doubt that they did escape. Dr. Potter notices a memorandum that "the losses of officers and men by the wreck was made the subject of legislative action," and thence concludes that many were drowned; but this statement evidently refers to the " losses " of property by the officers and men. Otherwise the word " loss " would have been used.

The mound in question was located a hundred and fifty feet east of the plank-road bridge across Rocky river, being, when the land was cleared, about a rod square and rising two or three feet above the adjacent ground. The covering was so thin that the bones could easily be reached by a spade, and many bones were scattered about the surface. About 1850 Mr. Worden attempted to plow through it, but found so many bones, and especially skulls, that he desisted. Mr. Eaton, who again plowed into the mound in 1861, brought to Dr. Potter two bushels of bones, in- cluding a dozen craninms, and there was a large amount left; the skeletons being piled in tiers on top of each other, and the bottom of the collection being two or three feet below the surface. Certainly, if so large a number of Bradstreet's soldiers had perished and been buried there, some of the numerous reports regarding that expedition would have said something about them. It is almost needless to add that white people do not bury their dead on the top of the ground, and heap up a thin covering of earth into a mound above them, especially when there was no greater reason for haste than there was then.

Dr. Potter states that he explored the grave to the bottom; that the skeletons were all those of adult males; that be found several Indian relics among them; that he and "one of the most perfect craniolo- gists of our country," pronounced the skulls to be those of Anglo-Saxons, except one, which he believed to be that of an Indian-adding, however, that he might be in error, and that "all may be Anglo-Saxon." But if such errors could be made, then all may have been Indian, which they probably were, judging from the character of the mound, the articles found in it, and the fact that there is no evidence that any such number of white people ever died in that vicinity previous to the present century.

On the 22nd of October Bradstreet camped at Grand river: so that he probably left Rocky river that morning. Ile arrived with the main army at Fort Niagara on the 4th of November, and proceeded thence to Oswego and Albany. Nothing is known of Putman and his gallant band after they plunged into the forest at Rocky river save that they, too, in time made their way to Fort Niagara, though after suffer- ing numerous hardships. It was not until the latter part of December that the last of the provincials reached their homes.

In May, 1765, the schooner " Victory " was sent to get the cannon left by Bradstreet near "Riviere aux Roches " (Rocky river), but was prevented by bad weather. As the authorities were evidently desirous to obtain them, there is every reason to suppose they

ENGLISH DOMINION.

did so, though there is no direet evidence to that effect; for certainly there must have been plenty of weather during the season when half a dozen light field-pieces could be loaded on to a schooner.

For many years after these events very little oc- cnrred within the territory of Cuyahoga county re- quiring the notice of history. The Iroquois used it as a hunting-ground, and their war parties occasion- ally made excursions over it, or coasted along its bor- ders, to attack those whom they chose to consider their enemies living farther west, but very rarely, if ever, did the latter venture to return their visits and assail the fierce confederates of New York.

Detachments of British soldiers also occasionally passed by here on their way to or from the upper posts. The freight of the lake consisted of supplies for the military posts, goods to trade with the Indians and furs received in return. It was carried almost entirely in open boats, or bateaux, similar to those which bore the commands of Rogers and Bradstreet; some of them going on the north side and some on the south side of the lake. Of course the navigation was very dangerous, and many were the hardships at- tending the traffic. The New York Gazette in Feb- ruary, 1720, informed its readers that several boats had been lost in crossing Lake Erie, and that the dis- tress of the crews was so great that they were obliged to keep two human bodies, found on the north shore, so as to kill for food the ravens and eagles which came to feed upon the corpses. Certainly a most startling picture of the terrors attending the early comercial operations on Lake Erie.

In 1774 an act of Parliament declared the whole territory northwest of the Ohio to be a part of the province of Quebec, though without prejudice to the rights of other colonies. Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, however, declared the act to be in derogation of the rights of his province, and pro- ceeded to grant large tracts of land northwest of the Ohio. For other reasons the patriot leaders of the colonies were strongly opposed to a law which trans- ferred the whole Northwest to a province which had no constitutional government, and was arbitrarily ruled by the crown.

This was the period of " Lord Dunmore's War, " in which the Indians occupying the present territory of Ohio, western Pennsylvania and western Virginia, under the lead of the celebrated Logan, were defeated by the Virginians at Point Pleasant, at the mouth of the Kanawha. It does not appear to have changed in any respect the condition of affairs on the shores of Lake Erie.

The next year the Revolution broke out, but this locality was too far from the frontier to be the scene of any portion of that conflict. The nearest Ameri- can settlement was at Pittsburg, the village which had grown up around Fort Pitt, distant about a hun-

dred and twenty miles in a straight line from the mouth of the Cuyahoga. Many of the western In- dians, however, were persuaded to take arms in favor of the British, mainly by persuasion of the French leaders whom they had long been accustomed to ad- mire and to follow, and who were employed by the English for that purpose. War parties accordingly frequently passed down the lake; some going on to join the English forces in Canada-others turning off at the Cuyahoga and going up its valley, whence they made their stealthy way to the Ohio and struck bloody blows at the settlers around Pittsburg. The inspiration of these expeditions came from the Brit- ish post at Detroit, whence the Indians received arms, ammunition and presents of various kinds, to encour- age them to continue in their bloody work.

So numerous did these outrages become that in 1728 an expedition was projected against Detroit, intended to break up the nest where so many murders were hatched. As preliminary to this a force was sent out from Pittsburg against the Sandusky Indians, but it only went as far as the present county of Tuseara- was, where Fort Laurens was built, but abandoned the next year. The expedition against Detroit was given up. Other attacks upon the hostile Indians were inade nearly every year.

In 1282 occurred the celebrated murder of about a hundred peaceable Moravian Indians in the terri- tory of Tusearawas county, by a force of frontier militia under Colonel Williamson. After this shock- ing event the hostile Indians became more bitter than ever, and many who had previously been neutral now united with the infuriated friends of the murdered Moravians.

Meanwhile the English had been taught by a score of defeats that they could not conquer America, and in 1282 commissioners met in Paris to consider the terms of peace. One of the most important ques- tions was that of the boundary between the British provinces and the United States. Commissioner Os- wald, one of the representatives of Great Britain, proposed the Ohio river as the boundary line; claim- ing the northwestern territory as part of the province of Quebec under the law of 1774. This proposition was also secretly favored by Vergennes, the French minister. It was vehemently opposed by the Ameri- can commissioners, headed by John Adams, and the line was finally fixed in the middle of the great lakes and their connecting rivers. The detinite treaty of peace, recognizing the independence of the United States, was signed in the fore part of 1783, and all this region ceased by law to be under English do- minion.

It will be seen that unquestioned British authority over the territory of Cuyahoga county only lasted from the surrender of Canada in 1760 to the peace of Paris in 1783-twenty-three years.

GENERAL HISTORY OF CUYAHOGA COUNTY.

CHAPTER VI. THE PERIOD FROM 1783 TO 1794

Detention of Western Posts by the Briti h-Dissensions Among the States About the Northwest-Origin of Conflicting Claims-The First English Charter-The Second Charter for Virginia-The Plymouth Charter-Aunulment of the Virginia Charter-Grant of Massachu- seits by the Plymouth Company- - Grant of Connecticut to Earl War- wick by the same Company-Its Boundaries-Its Conveyance to Lord Say and Seal, Lord Brooke and others-The New York Claim-Views of the States without Claims New York first cedes her Claim to the United States-Virginia follows-Also Massachusetts-Connecticut cedes her Claim to all but the Western Reserve-The Indian "Right of Occupancy " The Iroquois cede all East of the Cuyahoga-Treaty with the Wyandots, Delawares and others-First Trade from Pitts- burg-Primitive Engineering- First House in Cleveland-The Mora- vians in Cuyahoga County-Outline of their Past History-Their Con_ version-Their Peaceful Conduct-The Massacre -- Wandering of the Survivors-They arrive at the Mouth of the Cuyahoga-Locate in the present Independence-Call their New Home Pilgerruh-Their Course during the Year-Speech of an Apostate-Connecticut attempts to sell the Reserve-Wreck of the "Beaver"-The Crew winter on the Site of Cleveland-The Moravians Leave the County-Their Subse- quent Fortunes-Organization of the Northwestern Territory -Form- ation of Washington County -Another Indian Treaty-An old French Trader-Defeat of Harmar and St. Clair-Conveyance of the " Fire- Lands "-Wayue's Victory and Treaty

ON the conclusion of the treaty of peace the Americans expected, of course, to take immediate possession of the posts previously held by the British, lying south of the boundary line. The English government, however, refused to give them up, giv- ing as an excuse the alleged unfair conduct of some of the States regarding debts owed by their citizens to British subjects. The posts at Fort Niagara, at Detroit and on the Sandusky river were thus re- tained. The Indians naturally looked on their pos- sessors as the great men of the lake region, and thus the English maintained a predominant influence over this part of the country many years after any sem- blance of legal title had passed away.

Meanwhile, even during the Revolution, dissensions had arisen between the States regarding the owner- ship of the vast country lying between the Alle- ganies, the great lakes and the Mississippi. Several of the States had conflicting claims, based on royal charters or other grounds, while those who had no such claims insisted that that unoccupied territory ought to belong to all the States in common, since it had been rescued from the power of Great Britain by their united efforts. We will endeavor to give a brief sketch of the principal pretensions put forth by the States, so far as they relate to this locality. An elabo- rate account of them all, with all their ramifications, would require a volume.

In 1606, King James the First granted a charter to certain noblemen, gentlemen and merchants of England, conveying to them all the eastern sea-coast. of North America, between the thirty-fourth and forty-fifth degrees of north latitude; that portion between the thirty-fourth and thirty-eighth degrees being granted to a company resident in London and vicinity, and that between the forty-first and forty-fifth degrees to a company resident in the west of England, while both had the privilege of establishing colonies between the thirty-eighth and forty-first de- grees, and of occupying the laud for fifty miles

each way along the coast from the point of settle- ment, and fifty miles back. The western company failed to establish a colony in the territory granted to it. The London company, with great difficulty, succeeded in planting one in Virginia.

So, in 1609, King James gave a new charter to the London company, under the title of " The Treasurer and Company of Adventurers and Planters of the City of London for the first colony of Virginia." In this charter his majesty granted to the company all Virginia, from Old Point Comfort, at the outlet of Chesapeake bay, two hundred miles northward and the same distance southward along the coast, "and all up into the mainland throughout, from sea to sea, west and northwest." It was on this charter, and this alone, that Virginia afterwards claimed the great northwestern territory, giving the terms "west and northwest" the widest range of which they were capable.

In 1620, King James gave a charter to the " Second Colony of Virginia," commonly called the Plymouth Company, comprising all the territory between the fortieth and forty-eighth degrees of north latitude, under the title of New England, granting it to them " in length of and within all the breadth aforesaid, throughout all the mainlands, from sea to sea, together with all the firm lands, etc., upon the main, and within the said islands and seas adjoining," pro- vided it was not actually possessed by any Christian prince or State.

In 1624 the charter of the London or First Virginia company, covering Virginia proper, was set aside and declared void by the English courts, under a writ of qno warranto, on account of the misconduct or neg- leet of the proprietors. The next year King Charles the First declared that the territory previously cov- ered by the forfeited charter should thenceforth be dependent on him, and it was treated and considered as a royal government; the right of granting vacant lands being vested in the crown. Maryland, Dela- ware, North Carolina, South Carolina and parts of Pennsylvania and Georgia were afterwards formed out of the territory covered by the forfeited charter, without any protest on the part of the people or gov- ernment of Virginia.

In 1628 the council of Plymouth, in whom, as before stated, had been vested the title of New Eng- land, granted to Governor Endicott and others all the lands from three miles north of the Merrimac river to three miles south of Massachusetts Bay, extending west "from sea to sea," except lands ocenpied by any foreign prince or State. This became the province of Massachusetts bay, which claimed a territory about seventy miles wide and four thousand miles long, running from the Atlantic to the Pacific. As, how- ever, the strip in question would all go north of Cuyahoga county, we need give no farther attention to it.

In 1630 the council of Plymouth also conveyed to its president, Robert, Earl of Warwick, the territory em-

TITE PERIOD FROM 1783 TO 1794.

braced in the following description: "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 southwest, west and by south, or west, as the coast lieth, towards Virginia, accounting three English miles to the league; all and singular, 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 Western ocean to the South Seas."

In 1631, the territory thus diabolically described was conveyed by the Earl of Warwick to Lord Brooke and Lord Say and Seal, and their associates, who he- came the founders of Connecticut. It was on the ground of the above grant that Connecticut after- wards claimed the northern part of Ohio, and really, considering the extraordinarily puzzling nature of the description just given, we see no reason why that State should not have claimed all North America by the same title, The northern limit of Connecticut was, however, fixed by the English authorities at forty-two degrees and two minutes, and the southern one at forty-one degrees north latitude, and we believe the officials of the colony and State translated the unintelligible lingo of Earl Warwick's deed to mean that those northern and southern limits should be extended westward to the Pacific ocean.

The deed to Earl Warwick and the subsequent charter confirming Connecticut in its political powers were never annulled nor forfeited, and were the foun- dation of Connecticut's claim, not only to northern Ohio, but to the celebrated Wyoming valley in Penn- sylvania, where many bitter and even bloody contests took place before the Revolution, between the factions of the two States just named.

Moreover, New York had a claim to northwestern Ohio nearly as good as that of Connectient, and much better than that of Virginia. The nations of Indians who resided on the frontiers of its settlement, were always considered as particularly pertaining to her jurisdiction, and her colonial assembly had frequently been at considerable expense in keeping a commis- sioner among them and conciliating their good will. The State, therefore, claimed a pre-emptive title to their lands, and insisted that those lands reverted to her after they were forfeited by the hostility of the Iroquois during the Revolution. But it was generally admitted that the Iroquois lands extended to the Cuyahoga river; consequently New York asserted her title thus far west, as the successor of those tribes.

The claims of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Vir- ginia were all interfered with by the actual possession established by the French and Dutch, but when the colonies founded by these nations were conquered by the English, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Virginia insisted that the crown should make good its original grants. But the king's ministers took no such view

of the matter; they did not, when New York was acquired, extend the dominion of Massachusetts nor Connecticut over it, and when the Ohio country was acquired it was, as we have seen, made a part of the province of Quebec.

Thus it was near the close of the Revolution nu- merons conflicting claims were put forth to the fair land between Lake Erie and the Ohio river, which it was easy to sce would be the home of a thriving population. But all the other States than those named above were strongly opposed to the recogni- tion of those claims. They argued, and with justice, that not only had some of those pretensions, particu- larly those of Virginia, been long since annulled by due course of law, but that, no matter what might be the technical title derived from some old yellow parchment, the valley of the Ohio and of the lakes had actually been conquered both from France and from Great Britain by the blood and treasure of all the colonies, and that all were equally entitled to share in the results. Maryland had been especially active in opposing the pretensions of Virginia on this subject, and had been with difficulty persuaded to enter the old Confederation (in 1772) by the pledge that she should be justly treated regarding the public Jands.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Part 5

Author: Johnson, Crisfield Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.B. Lippincott & Co. Number of Pages: 716

Author: Johnson, Crisfield
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.B. Lippincott & Co.
Number of Pages: 716