USA > Ohio > Defiance County > History of Defiance County, Ohio. Containing a history of the county; its townships, towns, etc.; military record; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; farm views, personal reminiscences, etc > Part 42
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78
In this block-house was a hand mill, with buhr mill stones, that ground quite good meal when the corn was ripe and hard. There was also a large grater, like a horseradish grater, on which we could grate corn just out of the milk-this did not make bread, but mush and griddle cakes. This fort was built for the war of 1812, by Gen. Winchester, but came to be spoken of as Fort Defiance. This fort (Winchester's) stood on the bank of the Auglaize River, about two hundred yards above the point where Wayne's old Fort Defiance stood. Some of the stumps of the pickets, and some of the embankments of Wayne's old fort (Defiance) were still plainly to be seen.
Very few white people lived in that vicinity at the time of our arrival. Four French families were living in log cabins on the banks of the Maumee, above the point, and three American families on the An- glaize, one mile above the fort -- two of these by name of Driver, one a silversmith, the other a shoe-maker. Six miles below Fort Defiance, at Camp Number Three, there lived three American families, namely : Mr. John Perkins', Mr. Montgomery Evans', and Mr Hively's. Two of these families had looms, and wove flax and tow linen. Every farmer's wife took her spinning wheel with her to the new country. There were no sheep in that region then. In 1824, my brother James bought three sheep in Urbana, and drove them out to Defiance. There were two trading houses; one of these was just outside the fort, on the
204
HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
banks of the Maumee, and was kept by a Frenchman; the other was on the other side of the Maumee and was kept by Mr. Rice. The latter was quite a store; with everything for the Indians -- blankets, bright cotton shawls, beads, ribbons, cloth (such as was worn by the squaws for strouds), and bright calicoes, used by the squaws for short sacques that came below the waist. The calico was 50 cents per yard. The In- dian men wore calico shirts.
The traders made the most profit from selling whisky to the Indians.
Mr. Burroughs was a blacksmith, and lived near Rice's.
The Ottawa Indians brought the most of their trade to Defiance. It consisted of fur pelts of the otter, beaver, raccoon, bear, muskrat, mink, fox and wild cat, also dressed deer-skins; and, besides these, beeswax (from the wild honey), ginseng, cranberries and wild gooseberries.
The squaws made beautiful floor mats out of the large rushes which grew on the islands and at the river's edge. They colored some of the rushes black, others yellow. The mats were from one and a half to two yards long and one yard wide.
All the travel, of both whites and Indians, passed through the fort, except that which went on the river in pirogues or in bark canoes.
At that time, there was not a white person living between Fort Defiance and Fort Wayne, Ind.
Travelers planned so they could go through with the mail-carrier who carried the mail from Piqua to Fort Meigs (now Maumee City), or went in compa- nies.
There was a great deal of travel from Detroit to Fort Wayne, Green Bay and Chicago.
All this passed through Fort Defiance.
The Government paid the Miami Indians their annuities at Fort Wayne. The money, all silver, was carried on pack-horses through Defiance. Four or five gentlemen, with the men who drove the pack- horses, made up the company. They had to camp out in the wilderness, but I never heard of any being molested in any way. Our fears in regard to the hostility of the Indians were groundless. There were very few depredations committed by the men on the property of the whites, and when they did, it was when drunk on the whisky sold to them by the traders. Sometimes pigs would be found with arrows in their sides. If any white man's property was damaged by Indians, the amount of damage claimed and sworn to was paid by the Indian Agent out of the an- nuities of the whole tribe to which the offenders be- longed.
The whites did not like the chief of the village above Defiance, Ockonoksee; they thought he ought
to control his young men better; but their hopes were upon his elder son, a fine young man, who would soon come into the chiefship, and whom every one liked. He died, however, the first summer we lived at the fort.
The Indians were on their way to Detroit to draw their annuities, and, as their custom was, they en- camped on the other side of the Maumee to wait for all the Indians to collect, when they would together make the journey.
The young chief's horse broke its hobbles and ran away; he and others ran very fast to catch the horse, and while heated he drank hastily and freely of what he supposed was river water (he was temperate), but on draining the cup he exclaimed " Ugh! Whisky!" He laid down to sleep, and never waked. His corpse was brought over to the fort, and buried just a little way above the fort, on the high bank of the Auglaize, under a large apple tree.
The corpse was dressed in his best suit, namely, a dark blue cloth sacque coat and handsome leggins and moccasins.
The coat had two small capes, one a little above the other; the edges of each were ornamented with small silver brooches.
He wore silver arm-bands, and on his breast two silver breastplates, in shape of a half moon, hung one above the other.
A bunch of little silver baubles was in each ear, and around his waist was a beautiful wampum belt, in which was his hunting-knife in its scabbard. His tomahawk, gun and shot-pouch were by his side.
At his feet were placed a two-quart pail full of soup, together with a wooden spoon, and his pipe and some tobacco. This was the outfit of the dead chief for his journey to the great hunting-grounds.
The grave was dug so shallow that the corpse was nearly eveu with the surface of the ground. My brother James hastened and brought some clapboards to lay over the grave before they covered it with earth.
The Indians would not permit more than a slight and flat depth of earth over the grave. Before the grave was closed, Segatchaway, the brother of the old chief, stood over the grave and made a loud and vehement speech, threatening any man, white or Iu- dian, with death who would rob the corpse of its ex- pensive ornaments.
Two guns were fired off toward the Indian village, to inform a brother and sister buried there of the young chief's death.
Tobacco and whisky were sacrificed at the grave.
. All this time the young chief's parents sat on the ground, dressed without their ornaments. Ockonok- see's hair hung down upon his shoulders; dust was
205
HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
npon his head. He sat in an erect position, his feet crossed like a tailor's His wife sat by his side, her head oftentimes bowed to the ground, and, moaning low, she would beat the ground with her hand.
The little brother of the young chief, who was only five years old, and whom his father had named General Wayne, and who was now the heir of the chiefship, kept all the while close to his father, with behavior as dignified. When the ceremonies wore over, all the Indians left in great haste for their camp, except Ockonoksee and his wife; they remained, and took farowoll of the grave, the mother utter- ing pitiful cries.
Mr. Preston took them into his house and gave them their dinner; they then rode slowly out of the fort.
The next morning we hastened to the grave, fearing that, from its shallowness, the hogs would disturb it, and found the earth rooted away and the clapboards exposed.
My brother James took his ax, and, going into the woods, cut small saplings and erected over the grave a strong and shapely booth, which protected it per- fectly.
When the Indians returned from Detroit, they stopped at the grave and shot off two guns and burned tobacco and poured out whisky.
When Ockonoksee saw how nicely his son's grave was protected, he inquired who did it, and, on learn ing it was brother James, he sent for him. Having a mark set up, he selected two young Indians to shoot at it, and told them whoover, firing once, would hit the mark, should be his adopted son. They eagerly tried, but both missed it. Ockonoksee then bade James to shoot at the mark. James did so and hit it; whereupon Ockonoksee took a roundabout, or sailor's jacket, that belonged to his deceased son, and put it upon James' shouklers, thus investing him with the honor of his son's place.
Ever after this the old chief claimed James as his, and whenever he came to the fort he exercised much anthority over him, and required many favors at his hand.
Two years after the young chief's death, a half- breed shot his wife. She was an Ottawa squaw. They were on their way to Detroit, and were camping on the other side of the Manmee, waiting for others to come. He was shooting ducks, and, having killed one among the willows, sent his wife to fetch it while he re-loaded his gun. As she was going down the bank, he shot her in the back, and then ran to the nearest canoe, crossed over the river below the point, and was soon lost to sight, first in the corn-fields and then in the woods. The few Indians who were there, and my brothers James and Elias, with others of the
whites, all joined in the pursuit of him all that day, and some of the Indians kept on to the Indian village on Blanchard Fork, but did not find him. The squaw lived in great agony until the next afternoon, when she died. By this time, a large number of Indians had arrived, and they were very much excited. They buried her on the bank, near the wigwam where she died, and then moved over to the Defiance side of the river-men, squaws, papooses, horses, dogs, camp- kettles and all-and camped on the green just below our cabins. Some of the men began to gather wood and bruslı, and others rails from off father's calf-past- ure fence for a great fire, while others hobbled and belled the horses. The squaws, in the meanwhile, wero stealthily carrying off armfuls of bows and ar- rows, tomahawks, knives and guns, to hide them in the bushes.
When it was quite dark, a squaw came into our yard and motioned us to put out all the lights and keep within the house. She said, "Indian mad at white man because half-white killed squaw." We gratefully acted upon her advice. The green was lighted up with the great fire, and we, being in the dark, could distinctly see every movement of the In- dians. Not a squaw nor papoose was to be seen; they were all hidden in the bushes. The war-dance com- menced to the time of an instrument that sounded like a negro banjo. They had stripped themselves of all clothing except a piece of broadcloth about the loins. They divided into two parties, dancing differ- ent ways and then meeting as would enemies, all the time having the wildest gestures, throwing their arms and springing off the ground and keeping up a shrill war-whoop.
They looked frightful with their faces painted in red streaks on one side and on the other black, and feathers of different colors in their hair. We were thoroughly alarmed; even brother James, our brave pioneer, sat quietly in the house. The war-dance kept up till the great fire had burned down to a mass of coals; then they began to scream and beat upon their camp-kettles, making the dogs howl. We could see the squaws and papooses among them now, and in the height of the yelling and pounding we heard the distressed squeals of a pig and soon smelled the singing of hair. Then father said, " Go to bed, children, I am thankful that it required only a pig to appease their wrath." They cooked, ate and slept.
The next morning they were astir early and pre- paring for a start, and were sober and very quiet. Father walked out among them and called the atten- tion of some of the Indians to the pigs in the pen and holding up three fingers made them understand that there were three pig's last night and only two this morning. They looked very innocent and exclaimed,
206
HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
" Wawhaugh! waugh! no good, no good! " meaning that whoever took them was not good. The pigs were six months old and of fine breed.
The Indians were not commonly thievish. They did not steal from each other and very rarely from the whites; and in that thinly settled country, where neighbors were miles apart, I never heard of but one instance of a white woman being molested, and then no personal harm was offered her, but two drunken Indians demolished dishes and furniture in her hus- band's absence.
The squaws were very modest and virtuous. Okonoksee, the chief, did not stop with his young warriors to restrain them in their violent demonstra- tions toward the whites, and the whites thought he did not care to. He was intoxicated almost all the time, and every year he became worse and worse. His little son, " General Wayne," sickened and died. All his children were now dead except two daughters; one of them was married to a brave, noble Indian, and their little son was the last direct heir to the chiefship.
In a drunken frolic at the village one night, Okonoksee sought a quarrel with his son-in-law, and drew a knife threatening to kill him. The young man stepped into his wigwam, not because he was a coward, but to get out of the way of the drunken man, but the chief followed and stabbed him to the heart, killing him instantly, and either with design or a stagger he plunged the knife which he still held in his hand into his little grandson that was sitting on his mother's lap, killing him also. The indignation against him was very great. The chiefs of the other villages came to Okonoksee's village to try him for the crime.
They sat in council for three days, and decided that he must die. An Indian brought the word to Defiance that he was to be beheaded the next day. Messrs. Preston, Warren and Kepler, with my broth- ers and some others, went up to the village to see, as they supposed, the last of the old chief. When they got there the Indian men were formed in a circle with the condemned man sitting on the ground in the midst, his arms folded, his head bowed, and his good, faithful wife by his side. The Indians made room for the whites to join the circle. The chiefs were in council in a wigwam set apart for that purpose. After a time the chiefs came out, and walked up to the condemned chief. One of them made a speech; then they all walked around him. Having done this, the oldest chief, with some words, laid one hand on Okonoksee's head and the other hand on his mouth; and all the chiefs in turn said and did the same. The words were evidently the reprieve from the sentence of the day before, and the announcement of his punishment.
The laying the hand on the mouth was to signify that it was to be closed in council and in authority, and that he was divested of his chiefship.
This ceremony being ended, they brought a young Indian, a distant relative of the old chief, into the cir- cle. They put on him a wampum belt and some silver ornaments, and with other ceremonies, which I have forgotten, they installed him chief. Every one, both Indians and whites, were dissatisfied with " George," the new chief.
The Indians neither loved nor feared him. There was little difference in Okonoksee's lofty bearing after he was deposed, but he did not boast so much about his great bravery nor count on his fingers how many white men he had killed in the war. His people obeyed his word sooner than they did the new chief' s. The Indians became dissatisfied when the land near them was bought and settled by the whites, and finally the Government bought their reservation and moved them west of the Mississippi.
My father, as soon as possible, built a double-log cabin a short distance above the fort on the Auglaize. These cabins were roofed with clapboards and the floors made of puncheons. The trees were felled and sawed into proper lengths, split into puncheons, dressed off with a broadax and adze, placed evenly on the sleepers, driven closely together and firmly wedged.
My brother James loved to work in wood, and my father had taken a good supply of tools to Defiance.
This double-cabin, with a large entry between, was our home for several years. Here we entertained many people -travelers and land viewers-as there . were none but Mr. Preston's and father's family to keep them.
We had at this time neither church nor minister, nor schools; we had no physician, no roads, no car- riages and no mills. We had not a post office oven, but had to use Piqua or Fort Meigs (Maumee City) post office, and the mail carrier who carried the mail from Piqua via St. Marys, Fort Wayne and Fort Defiance to Fort Meigs, would mail our letters for us, and when he took letters out for us he paid the post- age and we refunded him.
We felt sorely the absence of society, but our few neighbors were excellent people, and though we suf. fered many deprivations in that new country neighbors hastened to each other's help in sickness or trouble of any kind and were ready to lend a helping hand in putting up their cabins, etc., etc. Besides our good neighbors, we every week met men of refinement and polite manners passing through to Fort Wayne. My father was a farmer. He cultivated part of the bottom land on the other side of the Auglaize River. It was very productive and yielded fine corps of corn, potatoes, melons, etc.
207
HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
The land was not yot survoyed. I think the con- tract was given that yoar to Capt. James Riley. I remember when he came to the fort; he was enter- tained at our house. Soon after that the survoying was commenced. The surveyors suffered greatly while at their work from the mosquitoes and gnats. The surveyors came frequently to Defiance for a rest.
We were at Fort Defiance nearly a year before there was a religions meeting of any kind held. The first was held by a Presbyterian minister, who was passing through, and put np at Preston's. My mother invited him to preach in our house, and she sent word around to all the people to come, and they came, French and all.
It was a year and a half after that before we heard another sermon. The second was preached by Rev. Solomon Manear, from Ross County, a young man just licensed to preach by the Methodist Episco- pal Church (and afterward admitted to the Ohio Con- forence). Ho had come out to Fort Defiance with others in charge of two wagons loaded with flour, bacon and dried fruit. My parents invited him to preach in our house; we had just moved into our double cabin.
We wero at Fort Dofiance two years before we had a school. Then a Mr. Smith came with his fam- ily and moved into an old trading house, and opened school in an old blacksmith shop that stood near Shane's apple tree. The tree was full of apples. Mr. Rice claimed the apples, but the scholars were allowed to play undor it. It gave a fine shade. The trunk was short and thick, the top large and spread- ing. The tradition of the tree then was that the wigwam where Shane was born stood near there, and on that day his father planted this tree, and when he was a little boy, the Indian boys when mad at him would break down his treo to spite him, which ac- counted for its shape.
Shano was then a man fifty years old, living at Shane's Prairie, on the St. Mary's River.
Having no mills, father had to send to Swan Creek (now Toledo), for flour and salt also. These were hauled to the head of the Maumee Rapids and from there brought in pirogues. It was hard work, both in low and high water-in low water they often hud to get into the water and push and pull the pirogue over the riffles.
Ague was prevalent in the Fort Defiance region. The first year we lived there our family were all down with it except my father und one sister, but the cold winter restored us to health.
In the early years of our pioneer life, death vis- ited our family and took from us our lovely sister Nancy, seventeen years of age. Sho died of the measles. Under the shadows of death, the depriva- | of its pioneer life.
tions of a pioneer life were most keenly felt-no re. ligious services to comfort and console, and not even a beautiful coffin in which to lay one of the loveliest of earth's fair flowers away. Nothing but the trees of the forest were available for this, and Messrs. James P'artee and John Plummer, members of Mr. Perkins' family, came and made the coffin out of puncheons of a black walnut tree. They planed and waxed the wood; they had to use nails instead of screws.
Our little settlement did not increase in numbers until after the land came into market. The land office was at Piqua. Messrs. Phillips and Leavel purchased the site of Defiance, and laid out the town. Mr. John Perkins bought laud on the Titfin River, where Brunersburg now stands. This stream was called by the Indians Bean River, but the surveyors named it in honor of the first Governor of Ohio. Mr. Perkins built a grist and saw mill on this river.
People now came and settled permanently, and frame buildings with briek chimneys took the place of log cabins with sticks and clay chimneys.
Messrs. Phillips and Leavel erected a frame build - ing for a store, etc., in Defiance. In an upper room of this building the first courts of justice were held. Previous to this, the people had to go to Fort Meigs for law purposes, as Williams and Wood Counties had one county seat, namely, Fort Meigs (Maumee City).
The lawyers who practiced in the Defiance Court were Messrs. Charles and William Ewing, of Fort Wayne, and Mr. Powell, of Fort Meigs.
The first officers were: Circuit Judge -Lane, of New York; Associate Judges, Robert Shirley, Sr., John Perkins and Pierce Evans; Sheriff, William Preston; Clerk of the Court. Dr. John Evans.
In this room, court was held until the brick court house was built about 1830 or 1831.
In 1825, Brother Nathan moved his family to Fort Defiance.
We were still without religious services and a house of worship, and Brother Nathan applied to the Ohio Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in 1827 Rev. Elias Pattee was sent to Fort Defiance Mission. Rov. Pattee soon gathered the men together with their axes and teams, and togs were cut, hewed and hauled to a lot presented by the proprietors of the town plat, and a church erected.
It was a simple structure-walls, windows, roof and floor-but no chimney. In this we worshiped when the weather was warm; when cold we held our meetings in private houses. When the brick court house was built, our moetings were held there, our society having outgrown the small accommodations
208
HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
My father bought land on the opposite side of the Auglaize River, one mile from Defiance, improved it and moved his family there. My brother Nathan settled five miles up the Anglaize; brother Elias, three miles; brother Robert on same stream uear where Charloe now stands, and brother James on the Maumee, ten miles above Fort Defiance.
Brother Nathan sowed wheat largely, and when his graiu was to be cut (they used sickles), he pro- posed to his harvesters to pay them an extra shilling a day instead of providing them (as had been the cus- tom) with whisky, as he was a man of temperance prin- ciples. Of the twenty men, only one preferred the whisky, and he was dismissed.
This was the first public movement toward tem- perance in our region.
Of my father's family, but two remain-my brother Robert and myself. My sister Mary mar- ried Mr. Thomas Warren, of Defiance, and died in a little less than a year afterward. I married Rev. James B. Austin, of the Ohio Conference of the Meth- . odist Episcopal Church; at the time of his death, in 1857, he was a member of the Cincinnati Confer- ence. Brother John died while a young man and single.
PIONEER RECOLLECTIONS OF PHILIP SHIRLEY.
We give below an article, dated February 26, 1883, from that worthy old pioneer, Philip Shirley, Dupont, Putnam Co., Ohio:
My father, Nathan Shirley, started from Ross Connty, March 1, 1825, with sixteen other families, among whom were the Tittles, Hammons and other families, and when a wagon would stop all would stop and help repair it, and it was on one of these occasions that I saw two Indians for the first time in full costume. There were several four-horse teams, one of which was my father's and all four were needed, as sometimes we were axle deep in mud. The company kept some ten men in advance to chop roads around bad places and fallen trees, which made a great distance of unbroken road. At the mouth of the Blanchard River, Thomas McClish had lately set- tled, who was the last white settler until we arrived near Defiance. At the Little Auglaize, at Fort Brown, we were met by several pirogues that carried part of our loads and assisted in crossing Little Auglaize, Blue Creek, Flatrock and Six-Mile Creeks. We passed Occonoxee's Indian town some twelve or fif- teen miles south of Fort Defiance, which contained some 300 Ottawa Indians, who had a long line of small hewed-log houses, some fifty or more in number, and other canvas or elm-bark wigwams for dwellings, and a few sleeping places fixed some fifteen or twenty feet above ground on four posts set in the ground to
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.