USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County : together with historic notes on the Northwest, and the state of Ohio, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and all other authentic sources > Part 15
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" By conquest and treaty stipulations, Great Britain came into pos- session in 1763, and substantially retained it until the close of our Revolutionary war, when, by the treaty of peace concluded at Paris in 1783, and ratified by the American Congress in January, 1784, ownership was vested in the government of the United States, which, in October, 1784, by the terms of the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, extin- guished the title of the Six Nations to the Ohio Valley, and which, from time to time, by treaties concluded at various times and places, as given in my paper of last year, extinguished all other Indian titles, and thus acquired full right to the soil, and complete and undisputed territorial jurisdiction. By the treaties of Forts McIntosh and Finney alone, held respectively in January, 1785 and 1786, all Indian titles to Ohio territory were extinguished, except that portion situated
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chiefly between the Cuyahoga and Maumce Rivers, as will be seen by reference to my paper in last year's volume of 'Ohio Statistics,' and which also gives the dates of the subsequent relinquishment of Indian titles.
" New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, after the ratification of the treaty of peace, in 1784, between Great Britain and the United States, and for some time before, had asserted claims to portions of- the territory now composing the State of Ohio, and Virginia claimed title to the whole of it and much more, even to the entire extent of the 'territory northwest of the river Ohio,' organized four years thereafter. Virginia had asserted ownership, and exercised a nominal jurisdiction over the territory of our State, by establishing the county of Botetourt, in 1769, whose western boundary was the Mississippi River. That State's claim was founded, as heretofore stated, upon certain charters granted to the Colony of Virginia by James the First, bearing dates respectively, April 10, 1606; May 23, 1609; and March 12, 1611 ; also, upon the conquest of the country, between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and the northern lakes, by General George Rogers Clark, in 1778-79. But whatever the claim was founded upon, the State Legislature waived all title and ownership to it (except to the Virginia Military District), and all authority over it, by direct- ing the Representatives of said State (Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Hardy, Arthur Lee, and James Monroe) to cede to the United States all right, title, and claim, as well of soil as of jurisdiction, with the exception named, 'to the territory of said State lying and being to the northwest of the River Ohio;' which was accordingly done, March 1, 1784.
"The charter of Massachusetts, upon which that State's title was based, was granted within less than twenty-five years after the arrival of the Mayflower; and that of Connecticut, bearing date March 19' 1631, both embracing territory extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific ; and that of New York, obtained from Charles the Second, on March 2, 1664, included territory that had been previously granted to Massachusetts and Connecticut; hence, the conflict of claims between those States, their several charters covering, to some extent, the same territory ; and hence, also, their contest with Virginia as to a portion of the soil of Ohio. Probably the titles of some or all of the aforesaid contesting States were in some way affected by the pro- visions of treaties with the Iroquois, or by the fact of their recognition by them, as appendants of the government of New York.
"New York's deed of cession was favorably reported, upon by a
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committee of Congress, May 1, 1782; and by like acts of patriotism, magnanimity, and generosity to those of New York and Virginia, Massachusetts and Connecticut soon followed by similar acts of relin- quishment of title, or by corresponding deeds of cession to the United States. The Legislature of Massachusetts, on the 13th'day of Novem- ber, 1784, authorized her delegates in Congress to cede the title of that State to all the territory west of the western boundary of the State of New York, to the United States, and the measure was con- summated in 1785.
" Connecticut, in September, 1786, ceded all her claim to soil and jurisdiction west of what is now known as the Western Reserve, to the United States. Five hundred thousand acres of the western por- tion of the Western Reserve was set apart for the relief of the Con- necticut sufferers by fire during the Revolution, since known as the ' Firelands,' the Indian title to which was extinguished by the treaty of Fort Industry (now Toledo), in 1805, Charles Jouett being the United States Commissioner, and the Chiefs of the Shawnees, Dela- wares, Wyandots, Chippewas, Ottawas, and some minor tribes repre- senting the interests of the Indians. The remainder of the Western Reserve tract, amounting to about three millions of acres, was sold, and the proceeds dedicated to educational purposes, and has served as the basis of Connecticut's common school fund, now aggregating upwards of two millions of dollars. Jurisdictional claim to the Western Reserve was ceded by Connecticut to the United States, May 30, 1801.
EARLY-TIME WHITE MEN IN OHIO.
" As early as 1680 the French had a trading station on the Maumee River, a few miles above the present city of Toledo, near where Fort Miami was erected in 1794; and Bancroft, the historian, asserts that a route from Canada to the Mississippi River, by way of the Maumee, Wabash, and Ohio Rivers, was established by the French in 1716. A little later a route was established from Presque Isle, now Erie, on Lake Erie, to French Creek, and thence down the Alleghany and Ohio Rivers. Vague traditions have been handed down of the establish- ment of trading posts upon the Ohio, by Englishmen, as early as 1730. In 1742 John Howard crossed the mountains from Virginia, and descending the Ohio in a canoe, was captured, somewhere on his voy- age by the French. In 1748 Conrad Weiser, a German of Heren- berg, who. (says the author of 'Western Annals') had in early life
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acquired a knowledge of the Mohawk tongue, was sent to the Shaw- nees on the Ohio as an ambassador, and held a conference with them at Logstown, on the Ohio River, seventeen miles below the 'Forks of the Ohio" (now Pittsburgh), but it is not quite certain that he came within the present limits of Ohio, though it is probable.
"In 1750, Christopher Gist, an agent of the 'Ohio Land Company,' which had been organized in 1748 by the Washingtons, one or two of the Lees, and other Virginians, and some Englishmen, came over the mountains from Virginia, and crossing the Ohio at or below the ' Forks' (now Pittsburgh), passed over to the Tuscarawas River, which he descended to its junction with the Walhonding. From thence he traveled down the Muskingum, following an Indian trail, to the mouth of the Wakatomika (now Dresden, Muskingum county), where there was an Indian town. He then followed the Indian trail across the Licking River to King Beaver's town, situated on the head waters of the Hockhocking River, about equi-distant from the present cities of Lancaster and Columbus. The trail he followed must have led him near the 'Big Lake,' as the Indians called it, now the 'Reservoir,' a famous fishing resort, situated in the counties of Licking, Fairfield, and Perry. In this exploring expedition Gist was joined at the Wal- honding by George Croghan, and probably by Andrew Montour, a half-breed, son of a Seneca chief, who often acted as an interpreter between the whites and Indians. They crossed the Scioto and trav- eled on to the Great Miami, which Gist descended to the Ohio, and voyaged down said stream to a point fifteen miles above the 'Falls,' from whence he traveled through Kentucky to his home in Virginia, where he arrived in May, 1751.
"Croghan and Montour were the bearers of liberal presents from Pennsylvania to the Miamis, who, in return, granted the right to the English to build a strong trading-house or stockade on the Miami River, at the entrance of Loramic's Creek into said stream, in the present county of Miami, and which was accordingly erected and called Pickawillany, and has been called by some historians 'the first point of English settlement ir. Ohio,' and 'a place of historic interest.' The presents were made on behalf of Pennsylvania, and the reciprocal favor secured, it was believed, would largely benefit the Indian traders there and in 'the regions round about,' who were principally Pennsylvanians. The Pickawillany stockade was doubtless the first edifice erected upon Ohio's territory by English-speaking people; but it was of brief duration, for in June, 1752, a force of French, Cana- dians, and Indians (Chippewas and Ottawas) attacked and destroyed
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it, capturing or killing all the traders but two-fourteen of its defend- ers, chiefly Miamis, being killed in the action; a number also being wounded. I transcribe, from a long list of names in Captain Trent's journal, a few of those who traded at this post with the Indians between the years 1745 and 1753, as follows: Peter Chartier, Conrad Weiser, Thomas McGee, George Croghan, James Denny, Robert Callender, George Gibson, James Lowry, Michael Cresap, Sr., Chris- topher Gist, Jacob Piatt, William Trent, John Findlay, David Hen- dricks, John Trotter, William Campbell, Thomas Mitchell, William West, and others.
" Before 1745 the traders among the Ohio Indians were principally Frenchmen, but about this time Pennsylvanians and Virginians entered into that business in augmented numbers, and continued in it persistently, while the French gradually relinquished it; and after the capture of Fort Du Quesne, in 1758, the English also acquired a foot- hold as traders in the Upper Ohio Valley, and retained it until the peace of 1783-4.
"George Croghan, with a retinue of deputies of the Senecas, Shaw- anese, and Delawares, passed down the Ohio River in two bateaux from Fort Pitt to the mouth of the Wabash in 1765.
"It is also well known to persons familiar with our history, that George Washington came to Fort Pitt in 1770, and, with William Crawford, Dr. Craik, and a few other chosen friends, and two Indians, three servants, some boatmen, and an interpreter, voyaged down the Ohio River to the mouth of the Kanawha, and fourteen miles up said stream, and, after some buffalo shooting and hunting generally, but mainly after extensive explorations with a view to the selection and ultimate location of lands, returned by way of the Ohio to Fort Pitt. From the journal of Washington, a copy of which is now before me, it appears that they lodged one night in the camp of Kiashuta, an Indian chief of the Six Nations, near the mouth of the Hockhock- ing River. Washington and Crawford also took a short walk of eight miles across the 'Big Bend,' now in Meigs county, while their canoes were being paddled around the bend, on their return voyage.
"Rev. David Jones (the Chaplain Jones of revolutionary fame) also made a voyage down the Ohio and up the Scioto to the "Old Chillicothe " Indian towns, thence across the Licking to the missionary stations on the Tuscarawas, and from thence to Fort Pitt and home, in 1772-3, making the journey from the Indian towns on the Scioto on horseback, in company with a Pennsylvania Indian trader named David Duncan.
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" And, lastly, I mention a voyage made down the Ohio River in the autumn of 1785, from Fort Pitt to the mouth of the Great Miami, by Gen. Richard Butler, Gen. S. H. Parsons, Col. James Monroe, Major Finney, Isaac Zane, Col. Lewis, and others, who were then, or subse- quently became, men of note.
THE EARLIEST ENGLISH MILITARY EXPEDITIONS ON LAKE ERIE.
" After the conquest of Canada by the English, in 1759-60, General Amherst, with a view to the establishment of English authority over the uncivilized regions of the west, organized an expedition under command of Major Rogers, who, on the 12th of September, 1760, received orders 'to ascend the lakes and take possession of the French forts in the northwest.' This expedition, consisting of about two hundred men, coasted along the southern shore of Lake Erie, arrived at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River on the 7th of November, and were probably the first English-speaking people that, in any consider- able numbers, sailed upon it. The expedition sailed up the lake and on to Detroit, and there, on the 20th of said month, 'took down the colors of France and raised the royal standard of England.' In December, Major Rogers left the Maumee, and after reaching San- dusky Bay, (now Sandusky City,) he decided to cross the Huron River and travel to 'Fort Pitt' by way of the north branch of the White- woman's River (now called Walhonding), which he did, arriving there January 23, 1761.
" The second expedition that came within Ohio territory, was organ- ized at Albany, on the Hudson River, in 1763, by General Amherst, and consisted of six hundred British regulars placed under the imme- diate command of Major Wilkins. In ascending Lake Erie a violent storm was encountered, and a number of the vessels of the expedition were wrecked, losing fifty barrels of provisions, some field pieces, all their ammunition, and seventy-three men, including two lieutenants and a surgeon. The remnant returned to Albany without a further attempt to reach Detroit, the objective point of the expedition.
MORAVIAN MISSIONARY STATIONS.
"In 1761, Rev. Christian Frederick Post visited the Delaware Indians, living on the Upper Muskingum River, and took the prelim- inary steps to establish a Moravian missionary station among them. After building a cabin he went to Pennsylvania to find a suitable associate, one qualified to teach the Indian children to read and write,
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and thus assist him in his missionary labors. This companion he found in John Heckewelder, of Bethlehem, who was then engaged at some mechanical employment. In March, 1762, they started for their western mission, Heckewelder being then a youth of only nineteen years. After thirty-three days of weary horse-back travel, they arrived at the Muskingum, (now called the Tuscarawas) and with expressions of gratitude for their protection during their long and perilous journey, they at once took possession of the cabin built by the self-sacrificing missionary the preceding year. Other appropriate devotional exercises signalized their safe arrival in the wilderness of the Muskingum, which, however, was then to be the scene of their missionary operations for a very brief period. They cleared some ground around their cabin and cultivated corn and vegetables for their subsistence, but before the autumn months had gone by, the jealousy and hostility of the Indians rendered their condition not only unpleas- ant but unsafe, and the mission had to be abandoned, the missionaries returning to Pennsylvania.
. "Ten years later (1772), Rev. David Zeisberger renewed the attempt to establish missions on the Upper Muskingum. The first settlement, station, or village, that he founded was called Shönbrun, meaning a 'beautiful, clear spring,' and was situated on the west side of the Muskingum, two or three miles from the present town of New Philadelphia, the county seat of Tuscarawas county. The second mission station was established later in the year 1772, and was called Gnadenhütten, that is, 'tents of grace,' and was situated on the east bank of the Muskingum, seven miles below Shönbrun. In this year Rev. John George Jungman located as a missionary at Shönbrun, and in 1773 Rev. John Roth, also a missionary, commenced his labors at Gnadenhütten.
"In 1776, the Moravians, under the lead of Rev. David Zeisberger, established the town and mission station of Lichtenau, within two miles of the 'Forks of the Muskingum' (now Coshocton); and in 1780, Salem, situated on the west bank of the Muskingum, about five miles below Gnadenhütten, was established under the leadership of the same indefatigable missionary. Rev. John Heckewelder was its early minister, and it was here where, in July, 1780, he entered into the married relation with Sarah Ohneberg, a teacher at the Muskingum mission stations. Revs. Adam Grube, Edwards, Sense- man, and others, were missionaries at the above named villages at various times.
"The forcible removal of the missionaries and of the Moravian
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Indians from the Muskingum to the Sandusky by Elliott, an emissary of the British, in September, 1781, and the murder of ninety-four of them, who, in February, 1782, had returned to gather the corn they had raised the previous season, terminated Moravian missions for many years on the Upper Muskingum. Until 1786 there were none within the present limits of Ohio. During said year Rev. John Heckewelder, and others, established a mission on the Cuyahoga River, twelve miles from its mouth, which was composed mainly of those who had formerly lived on the Muskingum, and who spent the past few years at Gnadenhütten, on Huron River, thirty miles north of Detroit. This mission station on the Cuyahoga, known in Mora- vian history as 'Pilgrim's Rest,' was abandoned in 1790, the members returning to the vicinity of Detroit, and ultimately locating near the river Thames, where they built the town of Fairfield.
" The subsequent history of Moravian missionary effort in Ohio belongs to territorial and later times, but I may be permitted to say that Revs. Heckewelder and Edwards, in 1798, again established a mission at the Muskingum, upon the site of Gnadenhütten; and in the autumn of said year their fellow-laborers, Revs. Zeisberger and Mortimer, established another upon the Shönbrun tract, and named it Goshen. It was situated seven miles from Gnadenhütten, where the venerated Zeisberger labored until his death, in 1808, and where he and Edwards are buried. The Muskingum Moravian mission stations were finally brought to a close in the year 1823, the general government having purchased at that time all the interests previously acquired by the Moravians.
" Rev. John Heckewelder was conspicuously identified with our Pre-territorial, our Territorial and State history, and has been called one of the founders of Ohio. He was a man of talents, of character and integrity, and was one of the Associate Judges of Tuscarawas county in 1808, 1809, 1810, when he finally left Ohio, and returned to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he died January 31, 1823, having passed into the closing months of his eightieth year. His influence as a philanthropist, philosopher, pioneer, teacher, author, diplomatist, statesman, ambassador, jurist, and as a Christian missionary, was invaluable.
SUBSEQUENT MILITARY MOVEMENTS UPON OHIO SOIL.
" For the purpose of subjugating the hostile Wyandots, Delawares and Shawanese, who were unreconciled to English rule, and who had
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outraged humanity by their brutality toward the frontier settlers, having barbarously murdered many of them and carried their wives and children into captivity, General Gage, commander-in-chief of the British troops in North America, decided, in 1764, to organize two armies, to be commanded respectively by Colonels Bradstreet and Bouquet.
COLONEL BRADSTREET'S EXPEDITION.
"In pursuance of this purpose, Colonel Bradstreet, with a force of twelve hundred men, in August sailed up Lake Erie, by way of San- dusky Bay, to Detroit, which had been besieged by Pontiac for many months, confining the garrison to their ramparts. After relieving Detroit, he returned by way of Sandusky Bay to Niagara. Israel Putnam, who figures in our Revolutionary history as a Major-General, and as one of the most distinguished men of those 'stirring times,' served as Major, commanding a battalion of provincial troops in the Bradstreet expedition.
COLONEL BOUQUET'S EXPEDITION.
"Colonel Bouquet's army of fifteen hundred men, composed of two hundred Virginians, seven hundred Pennsylvanians and six hundred English regulars belonging to the Forty-second and Sixtieth regi- ments, was organized at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, arrived at 'Fort Pitt' September 17, and marched from thence for the Upper Muskingum River (now called Tuscarawas) October 3, reaching said stream on the 15th of said month, at a point within the present limits of Tuscarawas county, and proceeded at once to erect a temporary fort. 'Here,' (says the historian of the expedition) 'Indian chiefs and warriors of the Senecas, Delawares, Shawanese, and others, numbering in all nearly fifty, met Colonel Bouquet, October 17, and sued for peace in the most abject manner. Turtle-Heart, Custaloga, Beaver, and another chief or two, were the speakers, who, in their harangues, vehemently accompanied with wild gesticulations, asserted that they had been unable to restrain their young men, who had participated with those of other tribes in the acts of barbarity charged, and generally palliated the conduct of the Indians towards the white settlers.' They pledged themselves, however, in conclusion, to restore all captives, which had been previously demanded of them by Colonel Bouquet, who had doubtless authoritatively charged home upon them their perfidy and cruel barbarities, their violated engagements, their treachery · and
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brutal murders of traders and frontiersmen, their unfaithfulness to all promises they had made, their untrustworthiness, their baseness generally, concluding with the affirmation that their crimes merited the severest punishment.
" We also learn from the official account of the expedition that, by arrangement, Colonel Bouquet met them again on the 20th of Octo- ber, when, after reiterating the charges, against them, he notified them that many of the friends and relatives of those that had been massacred or captured by them accompanied the expedition, and that they would not consent to a peace with them until full satisfaction was rendered, by the restoration of all captives under their control, or by making satisfactory arrangements for their return to their homes and friends at the earliest practical period. Moreover, he emphat- ically impressed upon them that his army would not leave their country until they had fully complied with every condition contained in any treaty or arrangement he would make with them, because their oft-time violated obligations, their repeated acts of perfidy, their general faithlessness, their oft-told falsehoods, their forfeited honor in numerous cases, had rendered them so infamous as to be wholly untrustworthy.
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"' The temper of the foregoing address,' says a writer in the Histor- ical Record, 'was such as to extort a promise from those chiefs to secure the restoration promptly of all whites held in captivity by their people.' And it was then and there agreed that they would meet again in twelve days, at the junction of the Tuscarawas and White: woman (now called Walhonding) Rivers, when and where the Indians were to 'surrender all the prisoners now held by them, whether they were men, women or children ; whether they were English, French, African or American ; or whether they were adopted, or married, or living in any other condition among them.'
" In pursuance of the above agreement, Colonel Bouquet, on the 25th of October, reached the 'Forks of the Muskingum' (now Cos- hocton), and then and there made preparation for the reception of the prisoners. The Indians, realizing the necessity of keeping faith with the stern and determined commander of such a large army, brought in, from day to day, numerous captives, so that when the general meeting was held, on the 9th of November (being some days later than the time first agreed upon), two hundred and six captives were delivered, and pledges given that about one hundred more, still held by the Shawanese, and whom it was impracticable to have present on so short a notice, would be surrendered during the next spring. Ilos-
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tages were taken for the fulfillment of this part of the arrangement (for it was not a formal treaty), which (although some of the hos- tages escaped) secured the delivery of the additional captives, num- bering about one hundred, at 'Fort Pitt,' on the 9th of the following May.
" The scene at the surrender of the prisoners, in the midst of this far-off, western wilderness, far beyond the limits of the white settle- ments, was one that human language is too feeble to portray-which the pen of the historian and of the ready writer could not adequately describe-which the genius of the painter would utterly fail to pre- sent on canvas-which the skill of the renowned sculptor would be unable fully to exhibit in marble, and which could not fail to have stimulated into the most lively exercise all the variety of human pas- sions, and, exceptionally, all the tender and sympathetic feelings of the human heart !
"'There were seen,' said the aforenamed authority, fathers and mothers recognizing and clasping their once captive little ones, hus- bands hung around the newly-recovered wives ; brothers and sisters met, after long separation, scarcely able to speak the same language, or to realize that they were children of the same parents! In those interviews there was inexpressible joy and rapture, while, in some cases, feelings of a very different character were manifested by looks or language. Many were flying from place to place, making eager inquiries after relatives not found, trembling to receive answers to their questions, distracted with doubts, hopes and fears ; distressed and grieved on obtaining no information about the friends they sought, and, in some cases, petrified into living monuments of horror and woe on learning their unhappy fate !
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