History of Henry and Fulton counties, Ohio : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 33

Author: Aldrich, Lewis Cass, ed
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 852


USA > Ohio > Henry County > History of Henry and Fulton counties, Ohio : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 33
USA > Ohio > Fulton County > History of Henry and Fulton counties, Ohio : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 33


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These deep sands cover a fourth part of the county. The principal tract is central, including central and southern Chesterfield, the western half of Pike, and a small area in southwestern Royalton. In the southeast the county limits include a portion of a much larger district that forms a broad belt in Lucas, Henry and Wood counties. In this county it covers the southeastern two-thirds of Swan Creek township, and a small portion of York.


There can be no doubt that this sand, of whatever depth, rests on clay, and all around the margins of these tracts are belts of country, often several miles in width, where the sand is thinner, so that the underlying clay may be met in digging a few feet, and forms an impervious subsoil that checks largely the leaching tendencies of the sand. These belts have been as well timbered as the clay lands, and at their margins pass gradually into them. The depth of the drift as shown by examinations made in various localities, is about as fol- lows: Archbold, one hundred and forty-six feet ; at Wauseon, one hundred


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FULTON COUNTY.


and sixty-six feet ; at Delta, eighty-five feet ; at Phillip's Corners, one hundred and fifty feet ; at Matamoras, one hundred and forty-five feet ; Fulton town- ship, eighty feet. The water supply in the deep sand district is derived by shallow wells from the sand. Elsewhere recourse is had to the deep-seated reservoirs in the Erie clay, and these are reached by boring. In frequent in- stances the clay has been penetrated to its base, but no supply obtained ; still more commonly water is found at the base, and even above it. There exist no surface indications, nor other data from which to anticipate results, and it is a notorious fact that of two holes bored but a few rods apart, one may furnish an abundance of water, and the other none. When reached, the water generally rises nearly to the surface, and in some limited districts overflows, making artesian wells; the belt of these, already described as crossing Will- iams county between the Ridge and Beam Creek, crossing Franklin and termi- nating in Gorham township. A fountain well is known in Clinton township. The water has the same general character, and the same variety, as that of Will- iams county.


Clay, suitable for making brick, can be found in abundance in every town- ship, and a quality adapted to the manufacture of tile is not uncommon. Bricks are made to some extent, and the manufacture of drain-tiles, although a com- paratively recent industry, it is now large and still growing. The people real- ize the importance of a thorough under-drainage to accomplish the best results in agricultural pursuits. This is all the more apparent in this county where the land is very flat. The excessive moisture became an evil, but unstinted ditch- ing under competent direction, together with the free under-drainage system that has marked the county during the past ten years, has made it one of the richest and most productive counties of the northwest territory of Ohio. En- dowed with no natural facilities for manufacture, she has had of necessity to be- come almost purely a farming county, and readily and heartily have her peo- ple responded to this necessity, and its results are shown in the full and abund- ant crops of each season. The deposit known as peat or muck, is found in mod- erate quantities in the marshes of the sand districts. This is serviceable as a top-dressing for the light sand lands. Marl is also found in the marshes, upon the borders of the sand areas, where there has been some drainage from the clay land. Bog iron ore has been found in similar situations, and, possibly, may be found to exist in considerable quantities.


The existence of petroleum in this and adjoining counties is a known fact, but that it need not be sought or expected in paying quantities in this locality, is indicated by the experimental borings that have been made Still, this non- success, is not a sure guarantee that valuable cil deposits are not underlying this county. It was thought that in earlier days there were sure surface indi- cations that would denote the presence of this product, but later theories, and later results, have exploded this fallacy. Borings for water that reached the


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HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.


underlying black shale have, in several instances, penetrated at the bottom of a gravel saturated with oil, and the discovery of a local deposit would not be remarkable. Still, a practical and well informed oil producer would naturally be inclined to the belief that this region is " off the belt." But this theory proves nothing, as oil, in limited quantities has been obtained, and whether it exists in quantities sufficient to warrant its production, remains for future dem- onstration.


An accurate record, kept by M. Britton, during the process of boring at Wauseon, the depth attained being over twenty-one hundred feet, will show through what deposits the drill passed, and the thickness of strata. From the surface to the shale or slate rock, the drift measured one hundred and fifty- six feet, and from thence downward as follows: Black shale, 94 feet; soft limestone, 30 feet ; black shale, 70 feet; lime, 27 feet ; hard brown lime, 15 feet ; soft lime, 20 feet ; soapstone, 5 feet ; hard brown lime, 15 feet; white lime, 60 feet ; brown hard lime, 45 feet ; magnesia, 5 feet ; light brown lime, 15 feet ; lime and magnesia, 10 feet; chalk, 5 feet ; light lime, 20 feet ; dark hard lime, 15 feet ; white pebble sand, 20 feet ; light slate, 15 feet ; hard white lime, 65 feet ; floating sand over coal, I foot ; coal, 8 feet ; soapstone, 10 feet ; water lime, 70 feet ; drab lime, 35 feet ; hard lime with iron, 130 feet ; water lime, 45 feet ; brown hard lime, 48 feet; dark drab lime, 25 feet; white marble, IIO feet ; dark lime, 90 feet; colored marble, 120 feet; dark lime, 53 feet ; slate, 90 feet; dark slate, 280 feet; black slate, 310 feet ; slate and Trenton rock, 30 feet.


CHAPTER XXXIII.


Showing Titles, Grants and Surveys, Native and Foreign. to the Soil of Fulton County.


T HE territory now known as Fulton county, and now included in Ohio, was first explored, with its contiguous territory, by Chevalier Robert de la Salle, a French fur trader, who came to the valley of the Maumee in 1679, and where, in 1680, he built a small stockade fort at Miami, just below the present site of Maumee proper. The French claimed the country, and repelled by force of arms, every counter claim of the English-speaking settlers, who held under grants from Kings George or James of England, until 1763. For generations after the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, in October, 1492, the country was the subject of wild conjecture and tales of wonder by the whole European world, and its visitors and explorers were but civilized ruffians whose only object was gain of gold and diamonds, and favor of their superiors.


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FULTON COUNTY.


It is quite probable that this northwestern territory was first visited and set- tled by white men (French) a few years earlier than the visit of La Salle. Father Marquette, a French Catholic missionary, visited the Upper Lakes in 1668, and founded missions at Detroit and other places. Father Marquette has undoubtedly the credit of being the first white settler west of the Ohio. Y'et history says, "early in the seventeenth century, before the landing of the pilgrims on Plymouth Rock, the northwest, and more particularly the Up- per Lakes, were visited by French explorers, missionaries and fur-traders, and this whole country west of the Alleghanies at once became familiar to them, a race of semi-vagabonds, acting in the interest of the French fur-trading com- panies. This knowledge of the country gave to the French what they claimed a pre-empted right to this whole country west of the Ohio and cast of the Mississippi River, and north to the Arctic Ocean," over which they placed rul- ers as early as 1663.


Robert de la Salle was the first to set up the tri-color of France, under a commission from Louis XIV, its king.


This whole vast wilderness region was under the control of France just one hundred years, when the whole territory passed into the hands of the English by the treaty of Paris, 1763, France ceeding all her American possessions east of the Mississippi River to the North Sea. Thus finally ended French jurisdic- tion over the vast western domain, of which they had claimed ownership, by right of discovery, for at least one hundred and sixty years and during this time of ownership by the French, it was recognized as the Province of Quebec, of which the city of Quebec was the capital. Soon after that territory passed under Brit- ish rule, the most of the Indian tribes in the west were dissatisfied with the English and preferred the French control, who, under the lead of Pontiac, an Ottowa chief, who lived on Pechee Island about eight miles above the city of Detroit, and who at this time was Grand Sachem of all the Indian tribes in the west, some twelve in all. In May, 1763, they made a simultaneous attack upon several forts, among them was Forts La Bœuf, Venango, Presque Isle, Michillimacinac, St. Joseph, Miami, Green Bay, Quitonon, Pittsburgh, San- dusky, Niagara and Detroit, and by the secret aid of the French, the attack resulted in the most frightful massacre of the English garrisons at all the points except Detroit, Pittsburgh and Niagara. Those conquered fell into the hands of the savages. This success upon their part led to a succession of hostilities, which for a time retarded any rapid occupation of this country by the whites.


No acme of peace was established until August 20, 1794, when occurred the final struggle between the Indian and American forces, the latter under General Anthony Wayne, on the lower Miami (or Maumee), which broke the strength of Indians and their white allies. But to return to our historical in- tentions of titles etc., in connection with events as they transpired. A little over one hundred years ago at a regular session of the House of Burgesses of


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HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.


the colony of Virginia, March 1, 1784, by an act that body ceded all the ter- ritory northwest of the Ohio River, to the United States. Then, thereafter, by subsequent acts of the Federal Congress, the cession was ratified July 13, 1787, which is generally called the "Ordinance of Freedom;" aside from some minor titles, Virginia had claimed title to the whole of this northwestern ter- ritory, by its several charters granted by James the I, of England, bearing dates respectively April 10, 1606; May 23, 1609; March 12, 1611, and like- wise by subsequent conquest. That Virginia had a paramount title above all other claims, when the prehistoric facts are all set forth, is undeniable. Under these she asserted ownership and exercised a nominal jurisdiction over the whole territory, as early as 1769, on the western boundary east of the Mis- sissippi River. But whatever the claim was founded upon, the State legisla- ture of Virginia waived all title and ownership to it (except to the Virginia military district) and all authority over it by directing 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 sale as of ju- risdiction, excepting as above, to the secretary of said State, lying and being to the northwest of the Ohio River. New York, Massachusetts, and Connect- icut, soon after the treaty of peace of 1784, and for some time before, had as- serted claims to a portion of this northwest territory, and now composing the State of Ohio, although it was at once apparent that said claims were overlap- ing those of James I to the colony of Virginia, as facts seem to determine.


Smucker, in his paper in the Ohio statistics of 1877, says: " 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 Connect- icut, bearing date March 19, 1631, both embracing territory extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean; and that of New York, obtained from Charles the Second, March 2, 1664, included territory that had been previously granted to Massachusetts and Connecticut ; hence the conflict of claims between these 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 provisions 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 considered and favorably reported upon by a committee of Congress, May 1, 1782; and by like acts of patriotism, magnanimity and generosity to those of New York and Virginia, Massachu- setts and Connecticut soon followed by similar acts of relinquishment of title, or by corresponding deeds of cession to the United States. The Legislature of Massachusetts, on the 13th day of November, 1784, authorized her delegates in Congress to cede the title of that State to all the territory west of the west- ern boundary of the State of New York to the United States, and the measure


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FULTON COUNTY.


was consummated in 1785. Connecticut, in September, 1786, ceded all her claims to soil and jurisdiction west of what is now known as the Western Re- serve, 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 Connecticut suf- ferers by fire, during the Revolution, since known as the 'Firelands,' the In- dian title to which was extinguished by the treaty of Fort Industry (now To- ledo), in 1805, Charles Jouett being the United States commissioner, and the chiefs of the Shawnees, Delawares, Wyandotts, Chippewas, Ottawas, and some minor tribes, representing the interest of the Indians. The remainder of the Western Reserve tract, amounting to about three million 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 dollars. Jurisdictional claim to the Western Reserve was ceded by Connecti- cut to the United States, May 30, 1801." So ends all the conflicting claims by grants or right of discovery, and the ordinance of Virginia, fully and une- quivocally, and forever, places the great Northwest from under the shadows of these accumulated claims to territory, as far as the white race is concerned. We yet have to deal with the claims of the red man. As we must all admit, he was here before the advent of Europeans upon its soil ; that he has, at least, a possessory right. To this land he held the right of pre-emption, "the time whereof the memory of man ran not to the contrary ;" and superadded to this, "a patent from the Great Spirit, which established his right on solid ground." The first adventurers held that their Christian civilization gave to them a su- premacy, and that the pagan world had no rights which they were bound to respect ; a doctrine they fully carried out in the first two hundred years after the discovery of America.


When we reflect on what has been done, and view these past centuries over, and that now, in our greatness and acme of boasted civilization, the words of Cowper may justly apply to us :


" O, could those ancient Incas rise again, How would they take up Israel's taunting strain Art thou, too. fallen, Iberia ? Do we see The robber and the murderer, weak as we? Thou, that has wasted earth, and dared de pie Alike, the wrath and mercy of the skies, Thy pomp is in the grave, thy glory laund Low in the pits thine avarice has ma le. We come with joy from our ctorial test. To see the oppressor in hi turn oppressed. Art thou the God, the thun let of whose hall Rolled over all our desolated land ; Shook principalities and kingdom- down. And made the mountains tremble al This frown ? The sword shall light upon the boatel powers. And waste them as they wasted our -. 'Tis thus, Omnipotence, his law fulfills, And vengeance executes what justice will -. "


39


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HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.


Now, as the treaty of Paris, of 1763, had adjusted all the disputes between the two rival governments for the possession of American territory, at which time all of the vast French possession, east of the Mississippi River, passed to and under the control of the government of Great Britain, and aside from her charter titles named, she based further claims by treaties with the great Iro- quois, or Six Nation Indians, who claimed to have conquered the whole coun- try, from the Atlantic Ocean on the east, to the Mississippi on the west, and from the lakes, north, to the Carolinas, south, and hence claimed that they were owners and had full power to dispose of the same. Great Britain, from 1763, retained possession until the close of the War of the Revolution, when by the treaty of Paris, in 1783, and so ratified by the American Congress in January, 1784, possession and government passed to the United States in Oc- tober, 1784. . That prior to this treaty with the British government, it is un- derstood that by the terms of the treaty held at Fort Stanwix, that the princi-


pal chief of the Six Nations confirmed the Fort Stanwix treaty of 1784.


As


the Six Nations, having taken part with England in the Revolution, when the king's power fell in America, the Indian nations were reduced to the miserable alternative of giving up so much of their country as the Americans required, or the whole of it. That in said treaty the title of the Six Nations was extin- guished through all the valley of the Ohio, and by them Great Britain claims to have acquired a full right to soil and complete and undisputed jurisdiction. That the treaties of Fort McIntosh and Finney, alone, held respectively in Jan- uary, 1785 and 1786, the Indian titles to all this territory west of the Cuyahoga River, and east of a line directly south from the mouth of the Maumee at its confluence with Lake Erie ; that in this soil and jurisdiction passed as well as the good will and perpetual peace of said nation.


It is conjectured, and perhaps well, too, that the Indians were held in the military arena of this country by a few unprincipled speculators, and that they were the moving springs for their tardy adherence to treaties made and con- cluded at different times and places ; that the principal of them were McKee, Simon Girty and one Elliott, who, for gain, conceived that if the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers were made the boundaries in settlement, it would be no difficult matter for them to purchase it with trifling articles, and the worst of all fire water (whisky), of which they largely dealt in at their trading post, De- troit. The conclusions of these treaties were anything but satisfactory to them ; and with the battle at Presque Isle (Erie, Pa.), forever resigned their hopes. They had seen the Indian nations hopelessly defeated in all their contending conflicts with the white, which proved to be the Indian's destruction. It is from these three men and their teaching, that most of the inhuman barbarities of the Indians came, in the West.


Immediately after the severe campaign of General Anthony Wayne, upon the Maumee, and the successful defeat of the Indians at the battle of Fallen


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FULTON COUNTY.


Timbers, August 20, 1794, just above the rapids on the Maumee, and the re- moval of their British allies, peace again smiled, and men again appeared in their genuine manhood as worthy of the heroic age of the West ; as having se- cured peace with the savages, and relief from their horrible atrocities. The government took immediate steps to secure a further gratuity of relief by the treaty of Greenville, which was concluded August 3, 1795, in which the In- dians agreed to a permanent peace. The Indians, as a price of their further peace, gave up an extensive tract of country, south of the lakes and west of the Ohio, and such other tracts as comprehended all the military posts in the western region. And, as a guarantee, the government, as a gratuity, gave them $20,000 in goods, and further agreed to pay them $9,000 a year, forever to be divided among the twelve tribes, then in council, in proportion to their numbers; and further agreed not to sell or dispose of their right to soil, or pass jurisdiction to any person or persons, or power other than the United States, which gave permanent peace to the country until the War of 1812.


Long before the white man had put foot upon the valley of the Maumee, or its adjacent territory, there dwelt and roamed over this unbounded forest a powerful tribe of Indians, known as the Pottawatamies, with the fragment of another tribe named the Tawas, who had long been accustomed to hardships in every form, and taught to consider themselves invincible. They had learned to regard life as valueless, if its price was victory. Their hunting grounds were boundless, and game was plentiful from Lake Erie to Lake Michigan. Let it be said, to the honor of these Indians, that their white brethren were very seldom molested.


Hull's Treaty. - In the year 1807, at a council held with the dusky sons of the forest, at Detroit, November 17th, called by Governor Hull, who was then governor of the northwestern territory, they ceded the lands in the south part of Michigan, and the northern part of Ohio, to the whites. The tribes in coun- cil were the Chippewas, Ottawas, Wyandottes and Pottawatamies, who were the original owners.


Boundaries. - The boundaries fixed by that treaty were as follows : Begin- ning at the mouth of the Miami (now Maumee) of the lakes, running thence up the middle of said river, to the mouth of the great Auglaize River; thence run- ning due north one hundred and thirty-two miles, until it intersects a parallel of latitude to be drawn from the outlet of Lake Huron, which forms the River St. Clair; thence northeast, the course will lead in a direct line to White Rock, Lake Huron; thence due east until it intersects the boundary line between the United States and Upper Canada, in said lake, through the river St. Clair and the Detroit River into Lake Erie, to a point due cast of the Miami River ; thence to the place of beginning, now embracing about two hundred and sixty townships of Ohio and Michigan. This treaty did forever extinguish all the Indian titles within said boundaries and no subsequent Indian claims have been attempted.


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HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.


Treaty of Chicago .- In 1821 a further treaty was made at Chicago, by which the Indian title to all the lands in the territory south of the Grand River was relinquished to the government of the United States, which cleaned out all the Indian titles west of the west treaty line, made by Governor Hull, at De- troit in 1807. These treaties comprehended all the lands in central and south- ern Michigan, and a large area in northern Ohio, and relinquished every ves- tige of Indian titles to all the lands now within the limits of Fulton county, except a special grant of a few sections in the southeast corner of said county, which was afterwards sold to the white settlers.


That after the acts of cession from the Virginia colonies were fully com- pleted and confirmed by the Congress of the American colonies, July 13, 1787, that same Congress appointed Arthur St. Clair governor of the Northwest Ter- ritory, who arrived at Marietta, July 9, 1788, nearly one year after the cession, and entered forthwith upon the duties of his office. On July 27, 1788, Gover- nor St. Clair by proclamation, established the county of Washington, including all the territory east of the Sciota River, north to Lake Erie. The balance of the present limits of Ohio, reaching south to the present center of the State, was considered unorganized territory. On August 15, 1795, it, with the whole peninsula between the lakes, now called Michigan, was organized into one county, called Wayne. The county seat of the same was fixed at the city of Detroit (then but a military post), and remained so until Ohio was admitted into the Union, February 19, 1803, when the boundary line upon the north be- tween it and the unorganized territory was established, at what is now termed the " Fulton line," which was afterwards run as established by the ordinance of 1787. Before this Northwestern Territory was subdivided into independent government divisions, the seat of government was at Chillicothe, O., to which Wayne county sent one delegate until the year 1800. In this year the Terri- torial Legislature convened at Cincinnati, at which the county of Wayne was represented by three citizens of Detroit, to wit, Solomon Sibley, Jacob Visgar and Charles F. Chohart de Joncaire. It was in this year that the Northwest- ern Territory was divided into two governments called "the Eastern and West- ern Divisions." The western was called Indiana, and the eastern the " Old Gov- ernment of Ohio."




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