USA > Ohio > Hancock County > History of Hancock County, Ohio : containing a history of the county, its townships, towns portraits of early settlers and prominent men, biographies, history of the Northwest Territory, history of Ohio, statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc > Part 22
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 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102
Certain reservations were set aside by this treaty for the uses of the sev-
197
HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
eral Indian tribes, to which large additions were made by a treaty con- cluded at St. Mary's, Ohio, with the Wyandots, Senecas, Shawnees and Ot- tawas, September 17, 1818. The Wyandot Reservations embraced a tract of twelve miles square around Upper Sandusky, one mile square on Broken Sword Creek, 55,680 acres lying on the north and east of the Upper San- dusky Reserve, and 16,000 acres surrounding the Big Spring at the east end of the marsh (in what is now the southwest corner of Seneca County, and extending across the line into Big Lick Township, Hancock County), the last mentioned tract being "for the use of the Wyandots residing at Solomon's Town and on Blanchard's Fork." The Delawares had a reserve of three miles square immediately south of the Wyandots, extending into Marion County. The Ottawas had three tracts set aside for their residence, viz. : five miles square on the Blanchard River around the village of Ottawa (Putnam County), three miles square on the Little Auglaize around Oquanoxa's Town, and thirty-four square miles on the south side of the Maumee, including the village of the Indian chief McCarty. The Shawnees had reserved ten miles square around their village of Wapakoneta (Auglaize County), twenty square miles adjoining it on the east, twenty-five square miles on Hog Creek, also adjoining the first mentioned tract, and forty-eight square miles surrounding the Indian village of Lewistown (Logan County). Another tract containing 8,960 acres, lying west of the Lewistown Reserva- tion, was set aside for mixed bands of Shawnees and Senecas. The "Sene- cas of Sandusky" were given 40,000 acres on Sandusky River, lying in what is now Seneca and Sandusky Counties. Besides the foregoing reservations, numerous smaller tracts were granted at different points to individual chiefs, half-breeds and adopted whites then living with the Indians. In 1818 the Miamis, whose reservation included lands on St. Mary's River, near the west line of the State, ceded the same to the United States. In 1829 the Dela- ware Reserve was purchased, and, in 1831, the reservations located in Logan, Auglaize, Seneca, Hancock and Sandusky Counties, were like- wise obtained, and those of the Ottawas in 1838. In March, 1842, the Wyandots ceded their lands to the Government, and in July of the following year the last Indian left Ohio for the far West. Thus, after a struggle of more than three-quarters of a century, the red man was at last forced to suc- cumb to the strength and prowess of a superior race, and his bloodthirsty efforts were futile to stem the onward march of American civilization.
The territory embraced in Hancock County lay between the Indian towns in what is now Wyandot and Seneca Counties and those located on the Blanchard, Auglaize and Maumee Rivers. It was a portion of the hunting grounds of the Wyandots and Ottawas, who within the period of American history roamed at will through its unbroken forests. The Wyan- dots had a small village on the site of Findlay, and cultivated corn along the river within the present limits of the city. Howe, in his "Historical Collections, " speaking of the settlement of Wilson Vance at Fort Findlay, in 1821, says: "There were then some ten or fifteen Wyandot families in the place, who had made improvements. They were a temperate, fine-look- ing people, and friendly to the first settlers." Howe was, probably, mis- taken, as under the treaty of 1817 the Indians gave up all claims to these lands and removed to certain reservations set aside for their benefit, one of which was "reserved for the use of the Wyandots residing at Solomon's Town and on Blanchard's Fork." This plainly indicates that there were
198
HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
settlements of Wyandots on the Blanchard, and we believe Findlay was the site of one of these villages.
The writer called upon Mrs. Elizabeth Eberly, a daughter of Benjamin J. Cox, who now resides near Portage, Wood County, and in reply to his questions she gave the following information: "When my father settled at Fort Find . lay, in 1815, there were eight or ten families of friendly Wyandots living around and in the block-houses of the fort. They tilled two fields, one above and the other below Fort Findlay, on the south bank of the Blanch- ard. Kuqua was the chief, and one of his sons, Tree-Top-in-The-Water, died in a cabin west of the fort before the Indians removed to Big Spring Reservation. New Bearskin, another of Kuqua's sons, lived in one of the block-houses, and the old chief also occupied one of the same buildings. Six or seven miles down the river the Wyandots had another village, which my father sometimes visited. Solomon, who once lived in Logan County, dwelt at the latter village, and often came to our house. We never had any trouble with the Indians who lived upon the Blanchard, and when they removed to Big Spring, Kuqua offered my father a tract of land near the spring if he would go and live with them, but he did not care to go, and refused the kind offer." The foregoing may be regarded as indubitable proof that the Wyandots had two villages on the Blanchard, in what is now Han- cock County, and also that the sites of these towns were at Findlay and "Indian Green," in Liberty Township.
As further evidence of the existence of an Indian village on the site of Findlay, an excerpt is here given from the work of Squire Carlin, who is recognized as a reliable authority on local pioneer history: "When I settled at Findlay, in the fall of 1826," says Mr. Carlin, "several small cabins stood west of the old fort, and others southwest of the residence of Wilson Vance, in the rear of the Sherman House site. There were no Indians living here at that time, but I understood these cabins were built by the Indians, and that they also had raised corn on the river bottoms above the fort. It has always been my impression that an Indian village once existed at this point, though I believe the occupants moved away soon after the treaty of 1818 and before the erection of Hancock County in 1820."
In the history of Liberty Township, the Indian village that once stood on the north bank of the Blanchard, in Section 7, is spoken of. It is gen- erally believed that the Wyandots had a settlement here up to the treaty of 1818, when all these lands having been ceded to the Government, this band removed to their reservation at the Big Spring. Further down the river, in Putnam County, the Ottawas had, up to the time of their removal to the West, two villages, one on the site of Ottawa, and another two miles above that point. These towns were known as Upper and Lower 'Tawa, the latter being on the site of Ottawa, and the former between that and Gilboa. The Wyandot village in Liberty Township was surrounded by a clearing of some twelve acres, whereon the Indians had a graveyard, and a plum orchard. It has been claimed that an earth fortification once ran along the brow of the hill overlooking the river. Careful examination of what is said to be the remains of this defensive work leads the writer to believe the cut back of the elevation was made by the washings of the surface drainage into the river. There is nothing here to sustain the theory of an artificial earth- work, and no reasonable grounds upon which to base such a conclusion. The site of this village was deserted prior to the coming of any white set-
.
199
HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
tlers to its vicinity, and was subsequently owned by Robert McKinnis. A man named Ellison settled upon this tract and began opening the graves for the purpose of obtaining the ornaments or, valuables usually interred with the Indian dead. The Indians, learning of the desecration, visited Ellison, and so thoroughly scared him that he soon afterward left the county. Some of the pioneers tell us it was the general belief that Ellison stole about a half bushel of jewelry from these graves, but this is, no doubt, an exagger- ation. There is scarcely a township in the county where Indian remains have not been discovered, as they buried their dead in any spot which fancy dic- tated. Ornaments of gold, silver or copper were usually found in each grave. Some of the pioneers have claimed that Mount Blanchard is also the site of an Indian village, and, from the large number of relics found there by early settlers, it is highly probable that a band of Wyandots once dwelt at that point.
The character of the Indians who frequented this 'county cannot be more appropriately illustrated than by giving a few extracts from the "Personal Reminiscences" of Job Chamberlin, Esq., of Findlay, written in 1874: "The county," says Mr. Chamberlin (speaking of the early years of set- tlement beginning with 1822), "was full of Indians, chiefly Wyandots. Those that we became the best acquainted with were Solomon, Bigpan, Bearskin, Kuqua, Johnnycake, Half John, Isaac Hill and Armstrong. Sol- omon had been a chief in the war of 1812, and he had the temerity to boast, to some of his white friends here, of his barbarous feats and inhuman treat- ment of his captives. He said at one time he cut his prisoners' tongues off. He compelled them to put their tongues out, and as he could not bold them with his bare hand, he would take a piece of flannel in his hand and catch hold of the tongue with that, then he could hold it and pull it out as far as possible to cut it off. He would make a gurgling noise down his throat to mimic the victims of his cruelty in their efforts to talk. He also boasted of having killed twenty women at one time. He and another Indian went to a house where twenty women were collected together for safety, when he broke open the door and went in, whilst his companion stood at the door to prevent their escape. He said there was one woman who fought him with a chair, and came very near overpowering him, while the others crawled under the beds. But he finally killed the one who gave him battle, and then had nothing to do but drag out the others and tomahawk them.
"Kuqua was their doctor, and practiced divination. To cure the patient he would pow-wow around the sick bed, and thump around the room until the demons, which were supposed to be the cause of the disease, would be driven away, and the patient restored to health. * *
* The Indians possessed the same fanatical belief in witchcraft that was so dis- graceful to the Pilgrim Fathers, and like them would inflict capital punish- ment on the victims of their suspicion. Just after we came here, there was a squaw living in the eastern part of the county, whom the Indians decided had lived to such an extreme old age as to have outlived all usefulness, and must therefore be a witch. So they appointed two of their braves to execute the death sentence previously passed upon her for the crime of witchcraft. They took her into the woods, and each taking hold of an arm raised it up and thrust his knife into her side, which soon terminated her life. They very indifferently buried her, and the hogs were afterward seen feasting upon the remains. * **
200
HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
"The Indians were generally peaceable, but sometimes there would be a difficulty between them and the white settlers, usually as to the ownership of stock. Their hogs ran wild in the woods, and occasionally a reckless white man would kill some of them, and then the innocent would be blamed. My father had a yearling heifer stray away to town, and when he went after it the Indians had caught and fastened it with a cord, and refused to sur- render the animal. My father, somewhat incensed, commenced untying the cord, when Bigpan came up and took hold of his hand, saying, 'No! no!no!' but father persisted, and untied it, and let the calf free. The Indian said, 'Now you steal my cow, and maybe you steal hog.'
"There were a few drunken Indians came into my father's cabin one day. My sister was sitting in a chair in front of the fire, when one of them came up behind her and flourished his big knife over her head, making murderous demonstrations; but the squaws quickly came forward and took the knife away from him. They also took the weapons from the other In- dians and carried them to a safe distance, and the band soon departed with- out further trouble. But the Indians were a fruitful source of wealth to traders and dealers in furs and deer skins. * * * *
"I have seen some of the Indians with their ears cut from the ear-lap about half-way around, close to the rim, but not cut loose at either end. The flesh would heal and hang in a cord, on which they would place their rings. They would wear moccasins on their feet, made of well-dressed deer skin, hand- somely ornamented with colored beads cut from porcupine quills, and beau- tifully arranged around the ankle and over the top of the moccasin. Some would wear a silver tube, three or four inches long and about one inch in diameter, on top of the head, which was held in place by drawing the hair firmly through it. The warriors occasionally would paint their cheeks red, put a red stripe over each eye-brow, one down the bridge of the nose and one on the chin. The whites thought these marks significant of war, and that the Indians thus marked were the allies of some warring tribe of the West. Some of the whites were fearful they would be victims, but they were never molested, except in a few personal encounters, one of which took place on the premises of John P. Hamilton, Esq. Asa Lake had called to stay over night, and the Indian, Armstrong, who had been drinking too much whisky, also came there for the same purpose. They went to the stable to feed their horses, and when Mr. Hamilton went up in the mow to throw down hay, Lake thought he would have some sport with the Indian, and taunted him about decorating his face, until the redskin got mad, drew his knife, and thrust it at Lake's breast with all his might, but missed his aim, the knife passing under Lake's arm and cutting a long slit in his coat. Lake sprang for a club, knocked the Indian down, and perhaps would have killed him had not Mr. Hamilton interfered and pacified Lake, by reminding him that he had provoked the trouble and should not blame the drunken Indian. Mr. Hamilton took the Indian into the house and kept him all night, which kind act made Armstrong his friend ever afterward. * *
"But the Indians, like the wild animals, were 'under cow' to the white man, as the following instance will fully illustrate: Mr. Hamilton set a trap to catch wolves, and one morning on going to where his trap had been set, found that it had disappeared. He concluded it had been stolen, and accused Half John with taking it, but the Indian declared positively that he was innocent. Mr. Hamilton, however, was so sure he was the thief
201
HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
that he told the Indian he would shoot him unless he returned the trap. Half John, thoroughly frightened, hunted all day for the missing trap, and in the evening came to Hamilton and requested the latter to go with him, that he had found the trap. Hamilton went, and was considerably chagrined to find his trap on the leg of a big hog."
Prior to the departure of the Wyandots for the far West, in July, 1843, the pioneers of Hancock County were greatly annoyed by the numerous bands of Indian hunters, who roamed the forest in search of game. Many of these Indians regarded the produce of the whites as a part of their legiti mate spoils, and would bring venison and other game to the isolated cabins to exchange for other commodities, and always managed to get what they were most in need of. The struggling settler very often had to share his scanty meal with any Indian who called at his cabin, and they were always ready to eat. The Indians were, as a rule, gourmands, and we can easily imagine the feelings of the needy family upon whom one or more of these lazy fellows would call for food. It is true they sometimes repaid such hospitality, nevertheless their frequent coming was often a heavy drain upon the meager resources of the pioneers, who were not sorry when they finally left the country. It was a part of the inevitable that the red man should depart and the white man take his place, and no thoughtful, civilized person would prefer a land covered with forests and ranged by semi-savages, to a great State embellished with all the improvements that art can devise or industry execute.
CHAPTER II.
THE PIONEERS OF HANCOCK COUNTY-THEIR SACRIFICES AND HEROIC PER- SEVERANCE-BLANCIIARD. THE FRENCH EXILE-ERECTION AND OCCUPA- TION OF FORT FINDLAY-THORP, TIIE SUTLER - FIRST PERMANENT WHITE SETTLERS - BIRTH OF THE FIRST WHITE CHILD IN HANCOCK COUNTY-PIONEERS OF THE COUNTY PRIOR TO 1830 - IMMIGRATION TO NORTHWESTERN OHIO AND ITS ACCOMPANYING HARDSHIPS-BEGINNING WORK IN THE UNBROKEN FOREST-THE PIONEER CABIN AND ITS FUR- NITURE-TABLE WARE, FOOD AND MEDICINE OF THE PIONEERS - HABITS, LABOR AND DRESS-EARLY MANNERS AND CUSTOMS -SOCIAL GATHER- INGS -FIRST MARRIAGE IN THE COUNTY-THE GRATER AND HOMINY BLOCK - PIONEER MILLS OF HANCOCK COUNTY-DIFFICULTIES OF GOING TO MILL-PRICES OF STORE GOODS, PRODUCE AND FURS DURING EARLY DAYS - MODE OF LIVING-THE PIONEER CHURCH AND SCHOOL-RAPID GROWTH AND MATERIAL PROGRESS OF THE COUNTY AFTER ITS ORGAN- IZATION -THE HANCOCK COUNTY PIONEER AND HISTORICAL ASSOCIA- TION.
"What heroism, what perils, then ! How true of heart and strong of hand, How earnest, resolute, those pioneer men!"
TN every country there is but one generation of pioneers. The history of that generation possesses a value and an interest which belong to no sub- sequent period. Leaving behind them the comforts and influences of a civil- ized community, the pioneers came to a new country, densely forested. and applied their sturdy and earnest energies to the destruction of the
202
HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
towering timber, and the rearing upon its ruins of a new civilization, similar to that from which they migrated. The struggles and dangers they must undergo, the habits and customs which their new environment engen- dered, the gradual approach of their institutions from the inadequacy at their inception to the present stage of efficiency, and the self-denying mode of life they were obliged to adopt, present a phase of life that has now de- parted from this State forever.
Less than one hundred years ago there was not a single white settlement throughout the length and breadth of Ohio, and seventy-five years ago not a single white family living in Hancock County. Could those who have seen this county only as it now is, borrow the eyes of the sturdy pioneers who helped to make the transformation, in place of the now smiling fields and comfortable homes, naught but a vast wilderness, filled with savage beasts, would greet their sight. The present generation can form no just conception of the trials, endless labors, sacrifices and privations to which the first settlers heroically submitted. They were not seeking fortunes nor fame; they were intent only on making a home for their children, and from that laudable impelling motive has arisen the splendid structure of Western civilization we see all around us.
"These Western pioneers an impulse felt, Which their less hardy sons scarce understand."
Their industry, enterprise and perseverance wrought from out nature's wilds the great prosperity which in the sunlight of to-day, from every hillside and glen, looks up to smile upon us. The pioneers of Hancock County, with few exceptions, have passed to their final account, and it remains for their descendants to keep bright the recollections of such names and events as have come down to them, for the memory of their deeds deserves to be "written in characters of living light upon the firmament, there to endure as radiant as if every letter was traced in shining stars."
Prior to the coming of the real pioneers, a few wandering whites had found their way into the territory drained by the Blanchard River. On the authority of Col. John Johnston, long the government agent of the Shawnee Indians, Howe, in his "Historical Collections," speaking of Blanchard, after whom the stream was named, says: "He was a native of France and a man of intelligence, but no part of his history could be obtained from him. He doubtless fled his country for some offense against its laws, intermarried with a Shawnee woman, and after living here thirty years died in 1802, at or near the site of Fort Findlay. When the Shawnees immigrated to the West seven of his children were living, one of whom was a chief." There is no doubt that this portion of the State was traversed by French traders many years before and after the planting of the first permanent American settlement northwest of the Ohio. Many of these men married squaws and lived with the Indians as one of themselves. It is therefore probable that Blanchard, who, it is said, was a tailor, may have dwelt at intervals and worked at his trade in the several Indian villages located on the stream which bears his name; and as there was a village on the site of Mount Blanchard, another on the site of Findlay, and a third farther down the river in Liberty Township, one of these was doubtless the place to which Col. Johnston had reference.
The following account of Blanchard, prepared and read before the
Mrb. Baldwin
205
HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
" Hancock County Pioneer and Historical Association," by W. H. White- ley, of Findlay, in 1877, is worthy of a place in this chapter:
"There is, perhaps, no character that presents itself in the whole his- tory of the Northwest, about whom there clings so much of interest and mystery as that of Jean Jacques Blanchard. The personal history of this strange man is vague and indefinite, but in the occasional glimpses which we get of it through the long lapse of years, we see a life of adventurous wan- derings and vicissitudes-a life that seems to have forgotten the dreams of its childhood, and thrown aside and abandoned as worthless the purer in- stincts of nature, and in their stead embraced a wild and semi-savage exist- ence. A man of education, culture and refinement, he left the home of his birth, and all that the human heart holds near and dear, and plunging into the wilderness he dwelt with a strange people, who spoke a strange language, and who worshiped a strange God. From the best information that can be obtained it appears that Blanchard was born in France, about the year 1720. The immediate place of his birth, or who or what his parents were, is, and probaby will be forever, unknown. That he had received a liberal education there can be no reasonable doubt; he was well versed in mathe- matics, and from an account of him given by an officer of the American army, who met him in 1799 near the present site of the town of McArthur, Ohio, the supposition is that he at one time possessed an intimate acquaint- ance with the Latin and Greek languages. He spoke his native language fluently and with that peculiar accent known as the 'Paris dialect.' The theory long held in reference to Blanchard is that he was a Frenchman, who, either to escape the penalty of some crime, or for the love of adventure, had taken up his residence among the Indians. In the meager account of himself which Blanchard gave to Capt. Forth, the officer before referred to, he says that he emigrated from France to Louisiana in the year 1760. Here he remained until a few months after the cession of that territory to Spain, in the year 1762. What his employments were during the two years he remained in Louisiana has never been ascertained. For the next seven years nothing whatever is known of him. The presumption in the mind of the historian. Elliot, was that Blanchard had joined a band of Spanish freebooters, and with them engaged in plundering small vessels in the West India waters. *
"In the autumn of 1769, or the spring of 1770, Blanchard made his appearance among a band of Shawnee Indians, who resided about twenty- two miles south of the place where Dayton now stands. How or from whence he came no one knew, nor did he ever explain it. It is supposed that, becoming tired of being a pirate, he had returned to Louisiana and joined a party of traders, and after visiting several Indian tribes became weary of his mercenary companions and plunged into the wilderness alone, and coming to the village of the Shawnees he determined to take up his abode with them. He was kindly received by the tribe, and it was not long until he was regarded as one of their number. When he came into the Shawnee tribe he had with him an elaborate case of curiously wrought tools. These he used in making ornaments for the Indians from the small coins and shells which they furnished him for that purpose. So skilled was he in manufacturing ornaments, with which the savages were wont to adorn themselves, that his fame spread abroad among other tribes, and they came
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.