History of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Part 6

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

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It was evident to every one that the only way to settle these disputes without violence was to cede the land west of the Alleganies, or the greater part of it, to the Confederation, and the patriotism of the day was equal to the occasion. New York led the way, in the forepart of 1280, by ceding to the general gov- ernment all her claims to the territory west of a line drawn north and south through the westernmost part of Lake Ontario. In December of the same year, Virginia followed with a cession of all her right to both the soil and the jurisdiction of the whole tract northwest of the Ohio river. These cessions were confirmed after the treaty of peace, and accepted by the Congress of the Confederation. Massachusetts abandoned her claim to the country west of the west. boundary of New York, as defined just above, and compromised with that State in regard to a large tract east of that line.

Connectient, however, being a very small State, was naturally more tenacious than the others regarding her land. Besides, she had been engaged in a long, bitter controversy with Pennsylvania regarding the colony she had planted in the Wyoming valley, a con- troversy in which much blood had been shed, and in which the passions of the people of Connecticut had been warmly aroused in favor of their title to the land lying west of them, from " sea to sea." Nevertheless, after much negotiating, in the year 1286 she ceded to the United States her claims to all the land west of a line a hundred and twenty miles west from the west boundary of Pennsylvania. The tract between that boundary and the line first mentioned she retained for herself, and the other States seem to have acceded to her position. The tract thus excepted from the

GENERAL HISTORY OF CUYAHOGA COUNTY.

general cession was thenceforth known as the Connec- tient Western Reserved Lands, or, more briefly, as the Western Reserve.

Meanwhile measures had been speedily taken to obtain a cession of the "right of occupancy" of the In- dians. It should be understood that in all the dealings of Europeans with the Indians it was taken for granted that the absolute title to the land-what in law is called the fee simple-was vested in whatever European gov- ernment could establish its power over it, by discovery, by building forts on it, or by conquest. But, as a gen- eral rule, tribes of Indians with whom the European nation might be at peace were considered as having a certain inferior title, called the right of occupancy. So long as they refused to sell the land and remained at peace, it was considered illegal to remove them by force, but they were not permitted to sell to any one except the government or colony holding the title, unless the purchaser had obtained a grant from that government or colony. The same system prevails to the present day; the United States claiming the title to all the unoccupied lands within its boundaries, but not attempting to settle any given tract until it has first purchased the Indian "right of occupancy "-at the same time forbidding ony one else to purchase the Indian title.

In colonial times, and perhaps at a later day, it would appear as if speculators and frontiersmen had sometimes got up wars for the express purpose of driving the Indians from their lands. But the great confederacy of the warlike Iroquois was too powerful, and too good a guard of the colony of New York against the hostile French, to be treated in this manner, and down to the time of the Revolution they had hunted over their broad domain with rarely any mo- lestation. In that contest, however, they had, in spite of many pledges to the contrary, waged deadly and unsparing war against the colonists, and at the treaty of peace had been abandoned by the British without a single stipulation in their favor. The United States did not directly contiscate any portion of the land the Iroquois had claimed, but they brought such a pres- sure to bear that the latter very well understood that some of it must be given up.

Accordingly, at a council held at Fort Stanwix, in 1784, between commissioners of the United States and the chiefs of the Six Nations, the latter ceded to the former, besides a small tract in New York, all their land west of the west bounds of Pennsylvania and of the Ohio river.

But Indian titles are usually very indefinite. and notwithstanding the long established pretensions of the Iroquois it was thonght best to obtain a distinct renunciation of the claims of the western Indians to the same tract. In January, 1785, a treaty was made at. Fort Meintosh, by George Rogers Clark, Richard Butler and Arthur Lee, with those who called them- selves the chiefs of the Wyandots, Delawares, Chip- pewas and Ollawas, by which those tribes were placed under the protection of the United States and a

definite boundary of their territory was established. The boundary between the United States on the one hand and the Wyandots and Delawares on the other, was to begin at the month of the Cuyahoga river, go up that stream to the portage and across to the Tus- carawas; thence down to the forks of the Muskingum; thence west to the portage of the Big Miami; thence to the Miami of the Lakesor Omee ( Manmee) ; thence down that stream to its month.

The United States allotted the lands thus bounded to the Wyandots and Delawares and to such of the Oftawas as then dwelt there, to live and hunt on. It was provided that no citizen of the United States should settle on those lands, and if any did so that the Indians might punish them as they pleased. The claims of these tribes to all the lands east, south and west of those above described were formally relin- quished. It was further provided that if any Indian should murder a citizen, his tribe should deliver him to the nearest military post. Three military reserva- tions were excepted from the Indian territory by the United States, but none of them were within the pre- sent county of Cuyahoga.

The territory of Cuyahoga county was thus, for the time being, divided by the Cuyahoga river into two sections; the western section being devoted to Indian occupancy, while the eastern part was intended for the home of C'ancasian civilization. It was not, however, occupied for some time afterwards, on account of its distance from the settlements already established.

Down to this time there had been only a slight trade in Indian goods and furs, back and forth between Pittsburg and the mouth of the Cuyahoga. In the spring of 1786, we find the first account of any con- siderable commercial operation between those two points. The firm of Duncan & Wilson, of Pittsburg, had made a contract with Caldwell & Elliott, of De- troit, to deliver to their agent at the mouth of the Cuyahoga a large quantity of flour and bacon. In May they began to forward it from Pittsburg, employ- ing for that purpose about ninety pack-horses and thirty men. Mr. James Hillman, (afterwards known as Col. Hillman, of Youngstown,) was one of the men employed, and has given an interesting account of the transaction in a letter published in Col. Whittle- sey's Early History of Cleveland.

The long train of burdened animals followed the great Indian trail, leading from Pittsburg to the Sandusky, as far as " Standing Stone," on the Cnya- hoga, near the present village of Franklin, passing thence along a smaller trail to the mouth of Tinker's creek, in the present town of Independence in this county. There the train forded the Cuyahoga and proceeded down the west side, passing a small log honse, which a trader named Maginnis had lately left. At the month of the Cuyahoga the men found an Englishman named Hawder, sent thither by Caldwell and Elliott to receive the freight, who had put up a tent in which he resided. No one else was at the mouth of the river.

THIE PERIOD FROM 1883 TO 1494.

As the freight was delivered, it was forwarded by the sail-boat " Mackinaw" to Detroit. The month of the Cuyahoga was then where it is remembered to have been by old residents before the opening of the present channel: the water running through what is now called the "old bed." There was, however, a pond. called by the packmen "Sunfish pond." lying still further west, and having been, apparently, a still older bed of the river.

As the work of transportation was expected to last all summer, the men desired to establish themselves on the east side of the river, partly, perhaps, to get off from Indian ground, but principally on account of a tine spring of water which bubbled forth near the present foot of Superior street. But it was ditli- enlt to cross the river, and to sail up it in the "Mack- inaw" was impracticable, because the mouth was closed by a sand-bar. It was opened by a very sim- ple piece of engineering. The men made some wood- en shovels, waded ont npon the sand-bar, and ing a ditch through which the water ran with sufficient force to clear a channel navigable for the "Macki- naw."

Having sailed up to the desired locality, they made collars for their horses out of blankets, and ings out of the raw elk-hide tent-ropes, drew together some small logs, and built a cabin near the spring before mentioned. This is the first house that is known with certainty to have been erected on the site of the city of Cleveland, though it is quite probable that. there had previously been a temporary trading-post on one side or the other of the Cuyahoga at its month.

The traffic described by Mr. Hillman continued throughout the season; six round trips being made by the trains. We infer from the language of a letter from Mr. Hillman, published in the Early History of Cleveland, that some other goods besides flour and bacon were taken to the mouth of the Cuyahoga, and that some furs were transported back to Pitts- burg. Some of the npward-bound freight was taken to Detroit by water and some by land.

Meanwhile, and almost simultaneously with the be- ginning of this traffic, the first settlement was made in Cuyahoga county by people who designed to de- vote themselves to the arts of peace and civilization, though most of them were not of the prond t'ancas- ian race. It was about the 4th of June, 1286, that a weary band of travel-worn men and women crossed the western border of Cuyahoga county, and made their way along the lake shore toward the month of the Cuyahoga river. They arrived there on the 8th, and almost at the same time a flotilla of canoes came down the lake, with the old men and women and some of the children belonging to the households, whose more vigorous members had marched on shore. The schooner " Mackinaw" had just previously brought their heavy luggage and the most infirm of their members.

All, save two leaders, were of unmixed Indian blood, yet they bore upon their tawny features an

expression rarely seen among those fierce, relentless denizens of the forest-an expression of mildness, of patience, of resignation, lightened up only by occasional gleams of religious enthusiasm. Their principal leaders were two sturdy, broad-shouldered men, with the unmistakable round, German physiog- nomy, but whose fair Tentonie complexion had been bronzed by long exposure almost to the aboriginal hue. These were JJohn Heckewelder and David Zeis- berger, and their followers were the remnant of that celebrated band of Moravian Indians, whose cruel fate forms at once one of the saddest and one of the darkest pages of American history.

Converted to Christianity by the efforts of the Mo- ravian missionaries, they had established themselves in the fertile valley of the Muskingum before the Revolution, where, unmoved by the sneers of their brethren of the woods, they sought to live by agri- enlture and the chase, eschewing war, performing the duties of their religion, and manifesting every evi- dence of a sincere abhorrence both for the theoretical errors and practical crimes of paganism. During the Revolution they were objects of distrust to both par- ties, though, so far as can be ascertained, withont cause on the part of either. As the war went on, nu- merous ontrages were committed on the frontier of Pennsylvania by Indians, especially by Delarrares, to which tribe a large part of the Moravian Indians had belonged. The fierce Scotch-Irish frontiersmen were fnrions for revenge, and they cared little on whom it fell. It was easy to convoet stories that the Moravian Indians harbored and aided the marauders, though all the circumstances showed that such was not the case.

At the same time the pagan Indians and the British officers insisted that the Moravians should move back farther into the wilderness, where they could not be of any assistance to the Americans. This they in fact did in 1282, but a portion of them returned to the Muskingum to take care of their crops. In the sum- mer of that year a battalion of militia, under Col. Williamson, marched swiftly to the Moravian towns, disarmed the hunters, got all of the people into their power under false pretenses, and then in cold blood murdered the whole muimber-over a hundred men, women and children. No more infamous atrocity was ever perpetrated by the worst of those who are com- monly called savages.

Yet those who had not returned to the Muskingum, together with some who were at another village and thus escaped the massacre, nearly all still adhered to their religion. A few, only, joined the hostile Indians and clamored fiercely for revenge-as might well be expected. But the main body gathered sadly together on the Sandusky, under the leadership of their de- voted missionaries, Heckewelder and Zeisberger, and again devoted themselves to the arts of peace and the duties of religion. But here they were constantly persecuted by their kinsmen. the Delawares, and other savage Indians, and were taken under the pro-

GENERAL HISTORY OF CUYAHOGA COUNTY.

tection of the British commander at Detroit. They established themselves near that post, where they re- mained until the spring of 1786. They then deter- mined to locate themselves on the Cuyahoga, appar- ently hoping to be allowed to establish themselves at their old home on the Muskingum, for which they always manifested a strong attraction. The schooners "Beaver" and "Mackinaw," belonging to the North- west Fur Company, were employed to bring them, but. occupied so much time on account of adverse winds that the "Beaver" was ordered back from Sandusky. The "Mackinaw," as has been stated, brought the Ing- gage and the intirm, while the rest came on foot or in canoes, under the leadership of Heckewelder and Zeisberger.

They pitched their camp on the site of Cleveland. One of their number proceeded to Pittsburg to ob- tain provisions, and Zeisberger set forth to explore the river and find a suitable location. On the second day he came to a lofty plateau on the west side of the river, a little below the month of what is now called Tinker's creek, where had once stood the Offera vil- lage of which mention has previously been made. There being already some partially cleared ground

here, and the locality being high and healthy, the missionary selected it as the proper place for his peo- ple. The latter immediately removed their camp thither, and began to erect huts and plant corn, ex- peeting to go to the Muskingum after harvest. They named their temporary abiding place Pilgerruh.

By the end of June they were, as they considered, unite comfortably honsed. Congress had voted them tive hundred bushels of corn, but it was to be deliv- ered at Fort Melntosh in the vicinity of the Mns- kingnm valley, and thither they never went. They were almost destitute of provisions, but they devoted themselves assiduously to the chase, and with good snecess-numerous elks being especially named as among the victims of their skill. The man sent to Pittsburg also returned with an order from Duncan & Wilson, directing the agent in charge of their pack- train to sell Zeisberger, on credit, all the flour the Indians needed. A large quantity of goods also arrived, which had been devoted to their use by the Moravian churches at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, three years before, but had failed to reach them on account of their distant wanderings. Thus their immediate wants were relieved, and on the 13th of August they celebrated the Lord's Supper. But their friends at Pittsburg assured them that they could not return to their lands on the Muskingum without great pro- bability of another bloody outbreak on the part of the frontiersmen. So they concluded to remain, at least through the winter, on the Cuyahoga.

The good missionaries were sadly troubled abont those Indians who had formerly belonged to their congregation, but who had apostatized to paganism. In September Zeisberger sent to the apostates some of his most trusty converts, bearing a very pathetic "speech," beseeching them to return; but all in vain.

Samuel Nanticoke, one of Zejsberger's delegates, met his brother, who had apostatized, and added his own entreaties to those of the missionary, but the son of the forest fiercely rejected his pleadings, saying:

" By the waters of the Tusearawas the whites gained the end for which they strove so long. There lie all our murdered friends. 1 avoid the whites and tlee from them. No man shall induce me to trust them again. Never, while I live, will 1 unite with you Christians. If your town were near, I might perhaps visit yon, but that would be all. Our fore- fathers went to the devil, as you say, and where they are I am content hereafter to be."

In October the houses of the Moravians, rude but comfortable, were completed, and promised sufficient shelter through the coming winter.

Heckewelder thereupon left the mission, with which he had so long been connected, for the East; leaving Zeisberger in charge, assisted by a lately arrived brother named William Edwards. Heckewelder con- tinned to labor as a minister until his death, many years afterward, and was the author of a valuable work on the Indians, from which most of these facts, relating to the transient Moravian colony in Cuya- hoga county, have been derived.

Zeisberger was fearful lest the Indians under his charge should become a burden on the Moravian mission board, and, having labored beyond his strength to prevent it, fell seriously ill. The mission board heard of this with deep regret, and united in a remonstrance, urging him to draw on them for what he might need. After their cabins were com- pleted, the Indians labored zealously to build a chapel, in which divine service might be held. It was soon finished, and was consecrated on the 10th of November.

As stated a short distance back, it was in this year (1286) that Connectient ceded to the Confederation all the western lands which she claimed, except what now constitutes the " Western Reserve." This ces- sion was made on the 14th day of September. About the same time the legislature of that State authorized three of its citizens to sell all that part of the Re- serve lying east of the Cuyahoga river and the port- age path; that is, all to which the Indian title had Leen extinguished. It was to be sold in townships of six miles square, at not less than three New England shillings (fitty cents) per acre. Five hundred acres were to be reserved in each township for the support of ministers, and five hundred for the support of schools. The first minister in cach township was also to receive two hundred and forty aeres besides. Until a republican government should be established there, the law declared that the general assembly of Connectient should provide for the maintenance of order among the settlers. It was evident that that State still claimed not only the title to the land of the Western Reserve, but the political jurisdiction over its inhabitants. But the land was so far from the older settlement that no sales of any extent could

THE PERIOD FROM 1783 TO 1794.

be made, the surveys were not executed, and the whole scheme fell to the ground.

Late in the autumn of 1786, the two schooners of the Northwestern Fur Company, the . Beaver " and the "Mackinaw," were coming up the lake, on their way to Detroit. It was snowing fast when they arrived, late in the afternoon, in the vicinity of the Cuyahoga, and they both tried to run into that river for shelter. Both failed. The " Beaver," com- manded by Captain Thorn, was driven ashore near the present foot of Willson avenue, in the city of Cleveland; but, so far as we can judge from the vague accounts which have come down to us, without loss of life. The captainand crew of the " Mackinaw " were not aware of the wreck of the " Beaver," and after they had ridden ont the storm sailed away to Detroit.

This was the last trip of the season, and the lake would soon be frozen up; so Captain Thorn and his men did not think it advisable to attempt escaping until spring. They accordingly built a cabin on the bank of the lake, opposite the wreck, and prepared to winter there. There were three small brass field-pieces on the schooner, as seems to have been the custom on the Fur Company's vessels, which frequently had to visit regions which might be infested with hostile Indians. These were taken ashore, greased, plugged up, wrapped in pieces of sail, and buried on the shore between the wreck and the cabin.

From Captain Thoru's subsequent statements it ap- pears there was then an Indian-trader by the name of Williams at the mouth of Rocky river, from whom he bought provisions when the stock taken from the ves- sel ran low. Mr. Williams is mentioned in no other account, and it is not known how long he had been at the point mentioned, From the fact that he is not spoken of by Mr. Hillman, who came to the mouth of the Cuyahoga six times during the summer of 1286, and would undoubtedly have heard of him if he had then been at Rocky river, it may be presumed that Mr. Williams did not locate there until the fall of that year-but this is quite uncertain.

Captain Thorn also bought some provisions of the Moravians. He and his crew remained through the winter, but left with the opening spring. Hle con- tinned to sail the lakes or to live near them all his life. He was a Canadian, but took the side of the United States during the war of 1812. He afterwards resided on the St. Clair river, in Michigan, until his death, which occurred about twenty years ago; he being then nearly a hundred years old. Hle was well known to many of the carly settlers of Cleveland, especially to Captain Allen Gaylord, from whose man- nscript statement, preserved in the archives of the Ilistorical Society, the above facts are mostly ob- tained.

Meanwhile Zeisberger and his followers were in great perplexity as to what they should do next. Pilgerruh was not considered a desirable residence. They would all have been glad to return to the Mus- kingum, but feared attacks both from frontiersmen

and hostile Indians. Their kindred Delawares of- fered them an abiding place at Sandusky. At length they determined to go to the month of Black river. They celebrated Lent and Easter at Pilgerruh, and then prepared for their journey.

On the 19th of April the persecuted little band as- sembled for the last time at their chapel, and joined in prayer to God with hearts apparently still devoted to their religion, notwithstanding all they had suf- fered from those who called themselves the champions of that faith. Their simple service being concluded, they immediately set forth. One party went by land under Zeisberger, while the rest entered their canoes and followed the lead of Edwards down the river. Ere they could reach the lake a great storm checked their progress; so they remained to fish. The chron- icler of their movements narrates that in one night's work with torch and spear they obtained three hun- dred fish of good quality, weighing from three to fif- teen pounds cach. What they did not want to eat they dried for future use. They then proceeded to their destination, where both parties arrived on the 24th and 25th of April, having dwelt in the territory of Cuyahoga county about ten months and a half.

Their fortunes, after leaving our county, were al- most as sad as before. Scarcely had they reached Black river when they were driven on to Sandusky by the hostile Delawares. They remained there till 1290, when, being again ordered by their jealous kinsmen to remove into the western wilderness, they besought the aid of the British commander, who took them to the banks of the Thames river, in Canada. In 1297 the lands they had occupied on the Mus- kingum were conveyed to them by the United States, and a part of them returned thither. These, too, subsequently sold their lands and improvements to the United States and returned to Canada, where their descendants still reside.

In July, 1787, the Congress of the Confederation passed an ordinance organizing the vast district be- tween the Ohio, the great lakes and the Mississippi, under the name of the "Northwestern Territory," and providing for civil government over it. They also elected General Arthur St. Clair as governor, together with a secretary and three judges. The ordinance was drawn by Nathan Dane, of Massachusetts, and pro- vided that from all the territory thus organized slavery should be forever excluded. Connecticut protested against the inclusion of the Western Reserve in the new Territory, but without effect.

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History of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Part 6

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