USA > Ohio > Erie County > History of Erie County Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 2
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To the student and collector Erie county is a splendid field for observation and exploration, yielding rich rewards for rightly directed, systematic research. As yet no concerted action in this direction has been taken, or sufficient inter- est awakened to form a society for that purpose. Erie county should not be behind in so important a matter, and it is hoped such an organization will soon be effected, and many discoveries made that will throw light upon this subject, and many specimens added to a large nucleus, ready to be donated to so wor- thy an object.
CHAPTER III.
The Indian Occupation - The Eries - Their Destruction by the Five Nations - The Iroquois Confederacy - Lake Erie - Its Name and Derivation - The Huron or Wyandot Indians - Their Subjugation by the Five Nations - Other Tribes of this Region - Incidents Concerning Them - Their Final Removal.
T' THE first nation of Indians concerning whom any reliable information is obtainable as having occupied the lands bordering on Lake Erie in this vicinity was the Eries, and they, prior to their destruction by the powerful Iroquois Confederacy, occupied the greater part of the country on the south of the lake. From this tribe, or nation, the lake derives its name. The name, Erie, was always mentioned by the early French writers as meaning "Cat." On Sanson's map, published in 1651, Lake Erie is called "Lac du Chat," Lake of the Cat. There were certainly no domestic cats among the Indians until introduced by the whites, and the name must be attributed to the wild cat or
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.
panther. It may have been assumed by this tribe because its warriors thought themselves as ferocious as these animals, or it may have been assigned to them by their neighbors because of the abundance of wild cats and panthers in the territory occupied by the Eries. It is, then, first with this nation that we have to deal. The precise years in which these events occurred are uncertain, nor is it accurately known whether the Eries or other tribes first felt the anger of the Five Nations (the Iroquois). According to early French writers, among these Indians there lived a tradition that runs somewhat as follows :
The Eries had been jealous of the Iroquois from the time the latter formed their confederacy. About the time under consideration the Eries challenged their rivals to a grand game of ball, a hundred men on a side, for a heavy stake of furs and wampum. For two successive years the challenge was declined, but when it was again repeated it was accepted. The Eries were defeated, and then proposed a foot-race between ten of the fleetest young men on each side. Again the Iroquois were victorious. Still later the Eries proposed a wrestling match between ten champions on each side, the victor in each bout to have the privilege of knocking out his adversary's brains with his tomahawk. This challenge, too, was accepted, though, as the various Iroquois historians assert, with no intention of claiming the forfeit if successful. In the first bout the Iroquois wrestler threw his antagonist, but declined to play the part of execu- tioner. The chief of the Eries, infuriated by his champion's defeat, himself struck the unfortunate wrestler dead, as he lay supine where the victor had flung him. Another and another of the Eries was in the same way conquered by the Iroquois, and in the same way dispatched by the wrathful chief, until the Eries were thrown into a state of terrific excitement, and the leader of the confederates, fearing an outbreak, ordered his followers to take up their march home.
But the jealousy and hatred of the Eries was still more inflamed by their defeat, and they soon laid a plan to surprise, and, if possible, destroy the Iro- quois. In this they were foiled and terribly beaten in an open conflict. After- wards a powerful body of the descendants of the Eries went from the west to attack the Iroquois, but were utterly defeated and slain.
Such is the tradition. It is a very nice story for the Iroquois. None of these scenes was enacted in this region, but in the far eastern country occu- pied by the Eries; and as the possessors of the soil hereabouts were engaged actively in that series of events, it is here related.
The time of the destruction of the Eries by the Iroquois is somewhat uncer- tain, but from all authorities it may be placed at about 1655. It was certainly later than 1645, and earlier than 1660.
This fierce Iroquois nation possessed the soil of this region for a few years after the subjugation of the Eries, but as their possessions were so vast, and they were engaged in a terrible warfare with the Delawares, soon after they
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INDIAN OCCUPATION.
withdrew from its actual occupation, still, however, exercising authority and acts of ownership until their treaty with the whites extinguished their claim to title.
A word or two will suffice to describe these temporary possessors of the soil of Erie county, who have been variously known as the Five and subse- quently as the Six Nations and as the Iroquois Confederacy. It should be said that the name "Iroquois" was never applied by the confederates to them- selves. It was first used by the French, and its meaning is veiled in obscu- rity. The men of the Five Nations (afterwards the Six Nations) called them- selves "Hedonosaunee," which means literally, "They form a cabin"; describ- ing in this expressive manner the close union existing among them. The Indian name just quoted is more liberally and commonly rendered "The Peo- ple of the Long House ;" which is more fully descriptiveof the confederacy, though not quite so accurate a translation.
The tribes comprising the Five Nations were the Mohawks, Onondagas, Oneidas, Cayugas and Senecas. During one of their warlike excursions to the Carolinas they were assisted by the Tuscaroras in overpowering the Powhat- tans. At a later period the Tuscaroras were overcome by the Powhattans and whites and driven out of the country. They came north and were taken into the confederacy, whereupon the Five Nations became the Six Nations.
The best authority regarding the name of the first Indian occupants of this region is the work of the Jesuit priest, Father Louis Hennepin, published about the year 1684, in which he says: "These good fathers were great friends of the Hurons, who told them that the Iroquois went to war beyond Virginia, or New Sweden, near a lake which they called 'Erige,' or 'Erie,' which signifies 'the cat,' or 'nation of the cat;' and because these savages brought captives from the nation of the cat in returning to their cantons along this lake, the Hurons named it, in their language, 'Erige,' or 'Ericke,' 'the lake of the cat,' and which our Canadians, in softening the word, have called ' Lake Erie.'"
Another French writer, Charlevoix, says respecting the lake : " The name it bears is that of an Indian nation of the Huron (Wyandot) language, which was formerly seated on its banks, and who have been entirely destroyed by the Iroquois. Erie, in that language, signifies cat, and in some accounts, this nation is called the Cat Nation. This name probably comes from the large number of those animals formerly found in this country."-Howe's Hist. Col.
From this it is inferred that the Hurons were the successors to the soil of this region under sufferance of the Iroquois Confederacy. Charlevoix credits the Hurons, or Wyandots, for they were the same people, with speaking the same language as the Eries. This would seem to confirm the theory advanced by some writers of note that a remnant of the unfortunate Eries, some years after their subjugation, returned and possessed the soil of their fathers, 4
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.
although unwilling to assert their relationship to the Eries through fear of an- other visitation of the vengeance of the dreaded Iroquois.
But the Hurons, too, fell victims to the merciless attacks of these fierce confederates, for, says Johnson : " After the overthrow of the Kahquahs and Eries the Iroquois went forth conquering and to conquer. This was probably the day of their greatest glory. Stimulated but not yet crushed by contact with man, they stayed the progress of the French into their territories, they negotiated on equal terms with the Dutch and English, and, having supplied themselves with the terrible arms of the pale-faces, they smote with direst vengeance whomsoever of their own race were so unfortunate as to provoke their wrath.
"On the Susquehanna, on the Alleghany, on the Ohio, even to the Mis- sissippi in the west and the Savannah in the south, the Iroquois bore their conquering arms, filling with terror the dwellers alike on the plains of Illinois and in the glades of Carolina. They strode over the bones of the slaughtered Kahquahs and Eries to new conquests on the lakes beyond, even to the foam- ing cascades of Michillimacinac, and the shores of the mighty Superior. They inflicted such terrible defeat upon the Hurons, despite the alliance of the latter with the French, that many of the conquered nation sought safety on the frozen borders of Hudson's Bay. In short, they triumphed on every side, save only where the white man came, and even he was for a time held at bay by these fierce confederates."
The seat of government of the Erie Indians was in the western part of New York State, but their possessions extended westward along the lake even to this region and beyond it on the west. With the Hurons or Wyandots their relations were entirely friendly and they spoke the same language. The Hu- rons occupied, in their time, this locality, both on the east and west, in the lat- ter direction their lands extended to Lake Huron, and from them that body of water derives its name.
The name " Wyandot" is applied to a branch of this family or people, as it was a custom followed for hundreds of years to give the scattered branches of the parent tribe some name suitable to the locality in which they chanced to dwell.
The name Huron was applied to this people by the French, but its signifi- cation is unknown.
The Ottawas, also, were a tribe of Indians that used to visit this locality, but their main seat of residence was on the Maumee. The "Ottawa," is an Indian word meaning " trader."
Occasionally there comes information that other tribes have been repre- sented in this vicinity, and frequently some chief of prominence in the wars made a visit here. The Shawnees were one of these. They came from the country of the Susquehanna River of Pennsylvania, having been compelled to
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FRENCH DOMINION.
leave that region by the sale of the lands to the proprietaries of that province by the Five Nation Indians. The Shawnees were formerly allied to the Dela- wares, and with the latter were beaten by the Iroquois in their greatest devas- tating and conquering excursion. They (the Shawnees) are supposed to have been of Southern origin. They spoke the Algonquin language.
Some of these Indians 'figured in the early wars, but their depredations were confined to the localities where white settlement had made an advance. Therefore we can furnish to the reader none of the blood-curdling incidents or tales of horror as having occurred within the boundaries of Erie county, Yet, in a general way, as a part of the history of this region, some reference will be made to the early battles in Northwestern Ohio.
The last treaty with the Indians by which their title to lands in Ohio was extinguished was made in the year 1829, and soon thereafter their removal was commenced under the authority and direction of the general government. It was nearly ten years later, however, before the last remnant of the tribes was removed.
CHAPTER IV.
FRENCH DOMINION.
The French Dominion-La Salle -His Voyage up Lake Erie-The Griffin-French Opera- tions in this Region-The French and English Wars-Extinction of French Power in America -Pontiac's League-The Conspiracy-The War-Peace Again Restored.
F RANCE laid claim to the soil and right of possession of this country by discovery. The chief central figure in all operations of that sovereign power was Robert Cavalier de La Salle, a Frenchman of good family, then thirty-five years of age, and one of the most gallant, devoted and adventur- ous of all the bold explorers who, under many different banners, opened the new world to the knowledge of the old. This man arrived at the mouth of the Niagara in the month of January, 1679. He left his native Rouen at the age of twenty-two, and from that time forward he was employed in leading a life of adventure and exploration among the Indians of America. He held a commission from King Louis to discover the western part of New France, and in carrying out this work he first came to Lake Erie. He was authorized to build such forts as were necessary, but at his own expense, being granted cer- tain privileges in return, the principal of which appears to have been the right to trade in furs and skins. During this same year, 1679, he sent Sieur de La
E
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.
Motte and Father Hennepin (the priest and historian of his expedition), in ad- vance to the mouth of the Niagara. La Motte soon returned.
At a point about six miles above the falls La Salle built the first vessel that navigated the waters of Lake Erie. It was named Le Griffon (The Griffin), in compliment to the Count de Frontenac, minister of the French colonies, whose coat of arms was ornamented with representations of that mythical beast.
The Griffin was a diminutive vessel compared with the (leviathans of the deep which now navigate these inland seas, but was a marvel in view of the difficulties under which it had been built. It was of sixty tons burthen, com- pletely furnished with anchors and other equipments, armed with seven small cannon, and filled with thirty-four men, all Frenchmen with a single excep- tion.
In 1680 La Salle sailed the length of Lake Erie and into the chain of lakes beyond. Whether he touched Sandusky Bay does not appear, either by rec- ord or tradition. But his was a voyage of exploration and discovery, and it is more than possible that he did visit this locality ; and, in view of the subse- quent French erections in this region, it may reasonably be inferred the in- trepid commander delighted his eyes with the beautiful harbor of Sandusky Bay.
To follow La Salle through all his voyages and journeyings is not within the province of this work. Suffice it to say, therefore, that the Griffin was lost in the eastern waters of the lake, while her brave commander fell a victim to the murderous assaults of his own men whom he had employed to serve him.
For the next half century after the adventures of La Salle, the French maintained a general but not very substantial ascendency in this region. Their voyagers traded and their missionaries labored. Among the Huron-Wyan- dots, and other tribes of this region, they made friends and converts. The French sovereigns and ministers considered the whole lake region as being un- questionably a part of "New France" (or Canada). Their maps so described it, and they looked forward with entire assurance to the time when French troops and French colonists should hold undisputed possession of all this vast domain.
During the latter years of the seventeenth century the French and English claimants (for the English claimed also by discovery and possession), became involved in a conflict, each endeavoring not only to maintain but to extend their possessions, in the eastern country, and scarcely had an adjustment of their difficulties been reached and the echoes of conflict died away than they again became involved in the long contest known as " Queen Anne's War."
But, meanwhile, through all this western country the French extended their influence. Detroit was founded in 1701, the most important, perhaps, of all the western posts and the key to the whole lake region. Other posts were established far and wide, but it was not until near the middle of the eighteenth
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FRENCH DOMINION.
century that operations were commenced within the borders of Erie county, and the offensive and defensive measures were then adopted by the French and their firm allies, the Hurons, on account of the growing English settle- ment generally in the region. It has been stated that near the middle of the seventeenth century, which would be about 1650, some English traders made a settlement and built a stockade on the site of the present village of Venice, in Margaretta township; and that for something like one hundred years were they in possession before being compelled to leave by the French. The same authority is also somewhat uncertain as to the exact location of Fort Junan- dat, but thinks tradition accurately locates it at Venice. Upon the authority of Evan's map of the Middle British Colonies the location of Fort Junandat is given as the east bank of Sandusky River, near the bay, and that it was built in 1754.
The war between England and France was begun in 1744 and closed by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748. None of its more stirring events were enacted in Erie county, save the incidents to which reference has already been made, and even they were auxiliary and of subsequent performance. During these years the Huron-Wyandots remained firm in their allegiance to the French.
During the eight years of nominal peace which succeeded the treaty, both the French and English made numerous efforts to extend their dominion be- yond their frontier settlements, the former with the more success ; and it was- unquestionably during these years, and those that followed, down to the out- break of the struggle for American independence, that the more stirring scenes of warlike acts were performed in this county and vicinity. To their already established posts the French added many others, and endeavored to establish a complete line of defenses from the lakes to the Mississippi. Among these forts so constructed, although a position of minor importance, was that at the mouth of the Huron River, within the borders of Huron township ; and another on the shore of the bay near the site of Sandusky city. They were constructed in order to afford a protection to the French missionaries, traders and colonists who were living among the Huron-Wyandot Indians, should they become, at any time, in need of greater defenses than their own strength. These forts were abandoned prior to the Revolution.
Frequent detachments of French troops and their Indian allies passed along the route. Gaily dressed French officers sped backward and forward, at- tended by the fierce warriors of their allied tribes, and not infrequently the Hurons. Dark-gowned Jesuits hastened to and fro, everywhere receiving the respect of the red men, even when their creed was rejected, and using all their art to magnify the power of both Rome and France.
In 1754 open hostilities and violent acts were indulged in, but it was not until 1756 that war was again declared between England and France, this
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.
being their last great struggle for supremacy in the New World. At first the French were everywhere victorious. Braddock, almost at the gates of Fort Du Quesne, was slain, and his army cut in pieces by a force utterly contempt- ible in comparison with his own. Oswego fell. The French lines along the lakes and across the country were stronger than ever. But gradually the tide of war turned in favor of the British, and many of the Indian tribes wavered in their fidelity to the cause of France. Not so, however, with the Ohio Indians, who entertained only feelings of hatred for the English. They knew only the French, and were strongly attached to them-the Ottawas, the Wyandots and the Chippewas, the inhabitants of this region. The first visit these tribes re- ceived from the English was after the surrender of Vaudreuil, when Major Robert Rogers was sent to take charge of Detroit. He left Montreal in Sep- tember, 1760. By way of Presque Isle he proceeded slowly up Lake Erie and reached Detroit on the 19th of November. He at once demanded the sur- render of the post, but it was not until the 29th that Beleter, the commander, yielded, and this important point passed into possession of the British.
While before Detroit Major Rogers was visited by the great Ottawa chief, Pontiac, and between them a friendship was at once formed. From Detroit, in December, 1760, Rogers proceeded to the Maumee, and thence across Ohio to Fort Pitt. His route lay "from Sandusky, where Sandusky city now is, crossed the Huron River, then called Bald Eagle Creek, to 'Mohickon John's Town,' upon what we know as Mohicon Creek, the northern branch of White Woman's River, and thence crossed to Beaver's Town, a Delaware town on the west side of the ' Maskongam Creek,' opposite 'a fine river,' which, from Hutchins's map, we presume was Sandy Creek."
The reader will observe that the worthy historian places the fort on or near the site of Sandusky city. Evan's map of the Middle British Colonies locates it on the west of Sandusky River, and a third authority, referred to before in this chapter, gives it as near Venice. As to which may be correct is a ques- tion that, perhaps, cannot be satisfactorily settled at this day, but from the best information at hand it is thought that Venice was not the site of the fort, but that it was several miles distant therefrom.
The years 1761 and 1762 proved disastrous to the French arms, and soon the struggle was over. The English Octavius had defeated the Gallic Antony. Forever destroyed was the hope of a French peasanty inhabiting the plains of Erie county ; of baronial castles crowning the vine-clad heights of the islands of the lake ; of a gay French city overlooking the placid waters of Sandusky Bay. The treaty of peace between England and France was ratified in Feb- ruary, 1763, and by that treaty Canada was ceded to the former power. Not- withstanding the disappearance of the French soldiers, the western tribes still remembered them with affection, and were still disposed to wage war upon the English. The celebrated Pontiac united nearly all these tribes in a league
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FRENCH DOMINION.
against the red-coats, immediately after the advent of the latter, and, as no such confederation had been formed against the French, during all their long years of possession, this action of Pontiac must be assigned to some cause other than mere hatred of all civilized intruders. In truth, there appeared abundant room for the belief that Pontiac was but carrying out the schemes devised by some of the more revengeful of the defeated Frenchmen. And but two short years before this league was formed, and while the war between the English and French was working hard against the latter and defeat seemed inevitable, this same chief of the Ottawas is credited with having said: "Englishmen ! Although you have conquered the French, you have not yet conquered us. We are not your slaves. These lakes, these woods, these mountains, were left to us by our ancestors. They are our inheritance, and we will part with them to none. Your nation supposes that we, like the white people, cannot live with- out bread, and pork and beef. But you ought to know that He, the Great Spirit and Master of Life, has provided food for us upon these broad lakes and in these mountains."
So powerful indeed was the Pontiac league that the old animosity existing between some of the tribes and the Iroquois was, for the time, laid aside, and a few of the Five Nations joined the great body. By far the greater portion, however, were of the Ottawa, Wyandot, Chippewa, Miami, Delaware and Shawnee tribes. All from this region were enlisted in league.
In May, 1763, the league surprised nine out of twelve English posts, and massacred their garrisons. Detroit, Pittsburg and Niagara alone escaped sur- prise, and each successfully resisted a siege, in which branch of warfare, in- deed, the Indians were almost certain to fail.
In September of that year occurred the horrible massacre at Devil's Hole ; and following close upon that, in October, came the awful slaughter of the forces of Major Wilkins, who was moving to reinforce the garrison at Detroit.
In the West, Pontiac kept up active though unavailing hostilities, and in the summer of 1764 the English commander-in-chief determined to send a force up the lakes, able to overcome all opposition. Accordingly, General Bradstreet, an able officer, with twelve hundred British and Americans, ac- companied by the indefatigable Sir William Johnson and a body of his faithful Iroquois warriors. The Senecas, the only tribe of the Iroquois nation that gave aid to the French, or to Pontiac, were met by Bradstreet and brought into submission. That commander then embarked on the lake and went to the relief of Detroit. He caused to be destroyed the Indian towns and crops through this locality and upon the Maumee, and drove the Indians from the country.
Arriving at Detroit Bradstreet easily routed the forces of the now disheart- ened Pontiac, after which he returned to this county and proceeded up San- dusky Bay and River into the heart of the Wyandot country where he en-
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