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 4
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 4
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
In order to repel the Indians, who, after Braddock's defeat in 1755, pushed their excursions as far as the Blue Ridge, Major Lewis, in January, 1756, was sent with a party of troops on an expedition against them. The attempt, on account of the swollen condition of the streams and the treachery of guides, proved a failure ; but in 1764, the year after the French had relinquished their claim to this territory, General Bradstreet dispersed the Indian forces besieging Detroit, and passed into the Wyandot country, by way of Sandusky Bay. He ascended the bay and river as far as navigable for boats, made a camp, and a treaty of peace was signed by the chiefs and head men of the Indian nations, except the Delawares, of the Muskingum, who still remained hostile. Colonel Boquet, with a body of troops, the same year marched from Fort Pitt into the heart of the Ohio country, on the Muskingum River, and a treaty of peace was effected with the Indians, who returned the prisoners they had captured from the white settlements.
During the Revolutionary War most of the western Indians were more or less hostile to the Americans, and numerous expeditions were projected
40
HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.
against them, but we must confine ourselves to the territory which forms our subject, and this will confine us to the period after the Revolution, and after the time that England had relinquished all claim to the western lands.
In the same year, after the treaty at Fort Harmer (1789), referred to in the preceding chapter, the Indians assumed a hostile appearance, and were seen hovering around the infant settlements near the mouth of the Muskingum and between the Miamis, and a number of persons were killed. The settlers be- came alarmed, erected block-houses, and in June, 1789, Major Doughty, with one hundred and forty men from Fort Harmer, commenced building Fort Washington. A few months afterward General Harmer, with three hundred men, arrived, took command, and, negotiations proving unavailing, was di- rected to attack the Indian towns. In pursuance of orders, he marched, in September, 1790, with one thousand three hundred men, from Cincinnati west- ward towards what is now Fort Wayne to the Indian villages on the Miami of the Lake (Maumee) near the latter place. Harmer, after several reverses and severe loss, succeeded in burning the towns and destroying the corn crop of the Indians, and commenced his homeward march ; but the savages rallied, engaged in battle with a detachment of Harmer's army under command of Colonel Hardin, which resulted in the defeat of the latter; and the general, dispirited, returned to Cincinnati, his expeditions in intimidating the Indians having been entirely unsuccessful.
The Indians continued hostile. A new army, superior to the former, was mobilized at Cincinnati, under the command of Governor St. Clair, a Revolu- tionary officer. The regular force numbered two thousand three hundred men, and the militia about six hundred. Commencing his march toward the Indian towns on the Maumee, he established a fort at Hamilton and one at Jefferson. Misfortune attended the expedition from its commencement, desertions and the detachments of soldiers to pursue and capture them, and to protect the con- voys of provisions which it was apprehended they (the deserters) designed to capture, materially weakened the army, and on the 3d of November, 1791, when, at what is now the line of Darke and Mercer counties, St. Clair halted, intending to throw up slight fortifications and await the return of the troops sent in pursuit of the deserters. On the following morning, however, before sunrise, he was attacked with great fury by the whole disposable force of the northwest tribes. The Americans were totally defeated. General Butler and upwards of six hundred men were killed. Indian outrages multiplied and im- migration was entirely suspended.
The president, Washington, now urged the most vigorous prosecution of the war and the complete protection of the Northwest Territory ; but the en- listment and organization of a new army was retarded by many obstacles, and it was not until the spring of 1794 that an army was gathered at Greenville, in Darke county, and placed under the command of General Anthony Wayne,
41
GENERAL HISTORY.
the bold, energetic and experienced " Mad Anthony " of the Revolution. His force consisted of 2,000 regulars and 1,500 mounted volunteers from Kentucky. The whole force of Indians, amounting to about 2,000 men, had collected near the British fort erected after and in violation of the treaty of 1783, at the foot of the Rapids of Maumee. [From this point on the 13th of August, 1793, the Indians, inspired by Elliott, McGee, Butler, and other English traders and emissaries, with hope of British aid, a defiant rejection of all overtures of peace made by the United States, was sent. It was signed by fifteen nations in addition to the Seven Nations of Canada, and closed all attempts at peace.] On the 28th of July, 1794, Wayne moved to Greenville and on the 8th of August was near the junction of the Au Glaize and Maumee, at Grand Glaize, now Defiance. This had been the Indian headquarters, and Wayne was anxious to reach it undiscovered. In order to do this he had caused two roads to be cut, one towards the foot of the Rapids (Roche de Bout), the other to the junc- tion of the St. Mary and St. Joseph, while he pressed forward between the two; but the Indians hearing of the approach of the army from a runaway member of the quartermaster's corps, hastily abandoned their town. Being unable to make peace with the Indians, who still relied on British aid and support from Detroit, Wayne determined to march forward and settle matters at once, and on the 18th of August he had advanced forty-one miles, and being in the vicinity of the foe, threw up some light works which was named Fort Deposit, in which to place the heavy baggage during the expected battles. On the morning of the 20th, the baggage having been left behind, the whites moved down the north bank of the Maumee and encountered . the Indians with their English allies about two miles east of where the village of Waterville now stands, and there was fought the celebrated battle of Fallen Timbers. The Indians were completely routed and fled and were pursued under the guns of the British fort, Miami. Wayne returned with his army to Fort Defiance on the 27th of the same month, laying waste the Indian villages for a distance of fifty miles on each side of the Maumee. The army remained at Fort Defiance until September 14, of the same year, and then marched for the Miami villages at the junction of the St. Joseph and St. Mary Rivers, and there built Fort Wayne, where the city of that name now stands. During this time the troops suffered much from sickness, but more for want of flour and salt, the latter article, on the 24th of September, selling for six dollars per pint.
This vigorous prosecution of the war by Wayne, and the failure of the British to furnish their promised aid and supplies, induced the various tribes to ask for peace, and finally, on the 30th of July, 1795, a treaty by which the hatchet was to be buried forever was agreed to at Greenville.
In a letter, dated August 14, 1794, written from Grand Glaize (Defiance) Wayne says: "The margin of these beautiful streams, the Miamis of the lake (Maumee) and Au Glaize (Auglaize) appear like one beautiful village for a num- 6
42
HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.
ber of miles both above and below this place ; nor have I ever beheld such im- mense fields of corn in any part of America from Canada to Florida."
The permanent settlement of Ohio followed closely the treaty of Wayne, but was confined mostly to the southern and eastern parts of the territory- Marietta, Dayton, Chillicothe, Cleveland, and Cincinnati ; but speculators and settlers began to appear in pretty large numbers in western Ohio, settlements being established in the Miami of the lakes (Maumee).
After the death of Wayne, 1796, General Wilkinson was appointed to the western command, and but little of interest occurred on the Maumee until the outbreak of the war of 1812. A few white settlements had grown up along the river, and more or less Indian outrages occurred and pioneer adventures were had, but few can be located with any certainty within the jurisdiction of which we write. In 1812 three points in the west, Fort Wayne, the Wabash and the Maumee, needed defense. The troops for the first point were placed under the command of General Winchester, a Revolutionary officer then resi- dent in Tennessee, and but little known to the frontier men; the Wabash un- der Harrison, who had acquired fame at Tippecanoe; while Governor Edwards, of the Illinois territory, was to command the expedition on the river of the same name. Such were the intentions of the government, but the wishes of the people finally led to the appointment, Sept. 17, 1812, of General Harrison to the post of commander-in-chief of the west and northwest. In the mean time Fort Wayne had been relieved and the line of the Maumee secured, so that when Harrison was placed at the head of the western military affairs, his main objects were: (1) to drive the Indians from the western side of the De- troit River; (2) to take Malden and (3) to recapture the Michigan Territory, surrendered by Hull. To do all this before winter and be prepared to conquer Upper Canada, Harrison proposed to take possession of the Rapids of the Maumee and to concentrate his forces and stores at that point. He divided his troops into three columns-the right to move from Wooster through Up- per Sandusky, the center from Urbana by Fort McArthur on the heads of the Sciota, and the left from St. Mary's by the Au Glaize and Maumee, all meeting at the Rapids. The troops of the left, under Winchester, worn out and starved, were on the point of desertion; the center, mounted men, under General Tup- per, were unable to do anything, mainly by reason of the incapacity of their commander, which, together with sickness and the difficulties of transportation caused by the autumn rains, obliged a change in this plan and caused a post- ponement until winter would bridge the streams; and even when that had taken place, Harrison was doubtful as to the wisdom of an attempt to conquer Canada without vessels on Lake Erie. And the year of 1812 closed with nothing effectual having been done towards the re-conquest of Michigan. Winchester, his men enfeebled by sickness, in want of clothing and of food, was on his way to the Rapids, the right wing of the army was approaching Sandusky and the center rested at Fort McArthur.
1
GENERAL HISTORY.
43
On the 10th of January, 1813, Winchester reached the Rapids, having passed down the north bank of the Maumee from Defiance. Of Winchester's misfortunes at Frenchtown, we have not time to speak, nor does it relate to our subject; suffice to say that Harrison, with the remnants of his army, was at the Rapids in the spring of 1813 and had erected Fort Meigs. Of this fort the English with their Indian allies commenced the investment, and by the Ist of May had completed their batteries.
On the 5th of May, General Clay, with twelve hundred additional troops, came down the Maumee in flat boats. Of the events which followed-the de- feat of Colonel Dudley, the massacre of his men, the subsequent victories of Harrison on land, and Perry on the lakes-general history speaks.
White settlement on the Maumee was very tardy, and in 1800 Colonel John Anderson was the only white trader of any notoriety on the river, having in that year settled at Fort Miami. Peter Manor, a Frenchman, was here previous to that time, and was adopted by the Indian chief, Tontogany. He did not however come to reside until 1808. During the year 1810 Major Amos Spafford, Andrew Race, Thomas Leaming, Harvy W. Leaming, James Carlin, William Carter, George Blalock, James Slason, Samuel H. Ewing, Jesse Skinner, David Hull, Thomas Dick, William Peters, Ambrose Hickox and Richard Gifford came here, and when the War of 1812 broke out there were sixty-seven families residing at the foot of the Rapids. The war made the Maumee an exceedingly unhealthy climate, and the white settlers were com - pelled to flee for their lives. After peace was declared, most of those who had resided here before the war, returned, and the actual settlement of the Maumee Valley began, but progressed very slowly until the location of the Miami and Erie Canal. The last remnant of the powerful tribe of Ottawa Indians was not removed until 1838, and their burying-grounds and village sites are scat- tered along both banks of Maumee from its mouth to Defiance.
CHAPTER VI.
Early Settlers of the Maumee Valley Recalled - The Names of Many of Them, and Some Incidents Concerning Them.
IN the year 1830, according to the census of population then made, the county of Henry contained two hundred and sixty persons, young and old; in 1840, two thousand five hundred and three; in 1850, three thousand four hundred and thirty-four ; in 1860, eight thousand nine hundred and one ; in 1870, fourteen thousand and twenty-eight; in 1880, twenty thousand five hun-
44
HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.
dred and eighty-five. From these facts it is fair to assume that in the year 1 820 there was not to exceed a dozen families within the borders of the county, and upon this basis, not more than fifty or sixty white inhabitants. Although Henry county was formed, and only formed, in the year 1820, there were not then living therein enough people to organize a township, and it was not until three years later, 1823, that the whole county was populous enough to be formed into one township, called Damascus. The county, it is true, was given an existence at the time named, and while conveyances of land may have recog- nized such an existence, the residents knew no county boundaries beyond their warrant or deed; they were residents and pioneers of the whole Maumee Val- ley, and as such will be mentioned so far as their names can be ascertained.
It is possible that in the following record the names of some may be inad- vertently omitted, as the names, as obtained, are somewhat incomplete, still it will serve to show who were a large majority of the residents of the valley prior to the year 1825, together with some incidents concerning them and their families.
The list was prepared by a person now past the alloted " three score and ten" years of life, and will be found substantially authentic so far as given. It is arranged to commence at Defiance and record the names as the people were found on going down the river, and is as follows: Pierce Evans and family, Indian fur trader; Dr. Jonathan F. Evans, physician and surgeon ; Colonel Evans, on the Au Glaize ; Allen Browher, father and brother, farmer and trader; - Brubecker, farmer ; James Laughlin, Indian jewelry manufacturer and river boatman ; the "Snook Boys," two brothers, farmers and pirogue men (river boatmen).
Flat Rock: (Down the river four miles), old Uncle Hively, Pennsylvania Dutch farmer; Adam Kepler, on south side of the river, also Pennsylvania farmer. There were a few other settlers near this point, whose names cannot now be recalled.
The next settlement was at or near Damascus, below the present village of Napoleon : John Patrick and wife, farmer and Indian trader ; "Sammy " and David Bowers, brothers, on south side, both farmers; Elisha Scribner, father and family, farmer ; Charles Bucklin and father, "Squire " Bucklin, farmers ; Samuel Vance and wife, farmers and Indian fur traders, brother to ex-Gov- ernor Vance, of Ohio; Richard Gunn and family, farmer ; Carver Gunn and family, farmer ; Osman Gunn and family, farmer ; Judge Cory, the largest farmer in the valley ; David De Long and sons "Jeff" and " Nicky."
Grand Rapids : Uncle Peter Manore, Frenchman, farmer ; he built the first saw-mill on the river ; his son, Frank, now or recently living on the old home- stead, a part of the Indian grant of one and one-half sections, at the head of the Grand Rapids, was born at the foot of the rapids, where Maumee City now is, in 1812.
45
GENERAL HISTORY.
On the south side of the river, at this place, was settled Thomas Howard and his sons, Edward, Robert A. and Richard M. W., and their families, as also William Pratt and family, son of Captain Pratt, of Fort Meigs, all farmers.
A few miles below this, at Raccoon Rapids, was John Morgan, an old Rocky Mountain hunter and trapper, and his "man Friday," "Bob" Ryan, a farmer.
A short distance further down, on what afterwards was known as the Hedges (grandfather of Judge David Commager) farm, was a " squatter," by the name of Adam Teel, farmer, and still further down the river, near the mouth of Tone-tog-o-nee Creek, and opposite the "Indian Island," was erected and in full operation, the Presbyterian Indian Mission, under the general man- agement of Rev. Isaac Van Tassell, assisted by Revs. Coe and Sackett, with their families, and the Misses Riggs and Brewster; Dayton Riley (brother of William Riley, of African slavery fame, who after his release and return to America, built the first mill to crack corn, on the St. Mary's River, near the line of the Toledo, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad, near the present village of Wilshire, Van Wert county, Ohio). This Dayton Riley was a very good carpenter, and performed much work for the Indian mission people, but loved the woods so well that most of his time was spent in hunting and trapping for the fur-bearing animals, and lining the little busy bees to their homes in hol- low trees, for their rich stores of wild honey.
Still on down the river opposite the present village of Waterville, was the commodious and hospitable log cabin of " Uncle " Guy Nearing, whose cabin latch-string always "hung out " to welcome the neighboring settler, or the tired and often belated traveler. Near him, in a snug little cabin, lived one Thomas Dix, usually called " Uncle Tommy Dix," a full-blooded Irishman, from Cork, and the only pauper on the river. He was, however, very industrious, but be- ing quite aged, was unable to entirely maintain himself, and was aided consider- ably by the town poor-masters. He was quite a hand at making maple sugar in the spring. He had seven large trees near his cabin into which he put numerous spiles, and, as he counted it, made quite a sugar bush. A settler once asked him how many trees he had, and he answered " seventy." The settler could not see so many and so remarked. Uncle Tommy replied that he had " tin taps in a tree, and sure that's sivinty."
Just below this were the families of John Race and the Deckers and John Charter. Going back to Roch te Bout (Bushteboo) was found Isaac Richard- son, the man who was afterwards murdered by Porter, the " Old Gay Lark," as he was usually called, who was the first man ever hanged in the valley under the civil laws of the United States ; and also Hughs, a millwright, living at Rich- ardson's.
At Waterville was John Pray and family, Colister, and Whitcomb Haskins (a little below), and the two brothers Farnsworth and their families ; Deacon Cross, Mr. Martindale, Orson Ballou, Alex. Howard and family ; Warren
46
HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.
Gunn, and on the high bank of the river, a little below was the white-washed log cabin of "Count" Pierre Louie La Point, known as " Uncle" Peter La Point, whose roof often sheltered and made glad many a heart from the posts at Detroit, and along the river to Fort Wayne, by the hospitality of this genial and kind-hearted old Frenchman ; Deacon Barlow (on Presque Isle), Judge Jonathan Jerome, at Turkeyfoot Rock, " Old" Haynes, and one or two others. whose names cannot now be recalled.
At Maumee City proper were General John E. Hunt, and Robert and James H., and Duncan Forsyth, all merchants and Indian fur traders; Judge Wolcott, also a fur trader ; David and Isaac Hull, fur traders; Dr. Conant, James Wilkison, Hezekiah Hubel, hotel keeper and farmer ; " Old" Haynes, George, John and James Knaggs, farmers and traders; Parley Carlin and his brother, Esquire Carlin, Mr. Gibbs and family, - Whitney, Peter Rebedow, a blacksmith ; Mr. Mashor, the Rand family, - - Trombley, and a number of other French families, including Peter Nevar and brothers ; " Deacon " Keeler, and Indian agent Major Stickney and family, Mr. Whitney and "Uncle Peter" Shaw, Mrs. Mary Ann Gilbert (née Miss Wolcott, daughter of Judge Wolcott), Ralph Keeler. There may be yet a number whose names have been forgotten.
Passing back to the vicinity of Fort Meigs: First was found Captain Pratt and sons, Jonas, Hiram, Amos, James, and Foster, and daughters Sally and Jane. Also in the family of Captain Pratt was his mother, known by every- body as " Granny " Pratt, Judge James Spafford and brother, and their fam- ilies, Dr. Coulton, John and Frank Hollister, merchants and Indian fur traders, as also a brother, Harry ; Thomas McKnight, John Webb, who built the first house in Perrysburg and who died August 28, 1885 ; Jacob Wilkin- son and Captain David Wilkinson; the Jenison family, Nathaniel, Julius, Leon- ard, and Blinn, brothers, and sister Mary : Philander B. Brown and father, a blacksmith, and sister Jane; Elijah Herrick, Thomas McElrath and the Leam- ing families, Carter, a tailor, and Wm. Ewing, then a boy, but later known as ex-Judge Ewing ; Judge Thomas Powell, "Sile" Morehouse and brothers, and Vickers, a gunsmith and blacksmith, employed by the United States government for the Indians; Griffith, John Chartier, Wm. M. Billings, Valentine Winslow, the Deckers, Races, John J. Lovett, Hawley, Wilsons, Baldwin, Prentice, Hubbard Worden, Sibley, Whitmore, Noyes, Elijah Huntington, Joshua Chapel, Charles C. P. Hunt, brother of John E., of Maumee, Mrs. Major Skinner (née Miss Mary Ann, daughter of Maj. Spafford, of Ft. Meigs), James Mackelrath, Ft. Meigs ; Louis Trombla and Mr. Daget, of Maumee; Mr. Adams, Waterville ; Mrs. Isaac Hull, daughter of Mr. Spafford; Mrs. Perrin, now living, daughter of Jacob Wilkison and brothers Merrill and Samuel, Jerry Crane and father, Mr. Crane, "Old " Loup, " Sister " Knowles, an old bachelor, who finally married and was supposed to have lost his life from poison given him by his wife; Charles and Curtis, " Curt." Roby, and possibly others.
47
GENERAL HISTORY.
CHAPTER VII.
Erection of Henry County - The Act Creating It - Other Counties Erected at the Same Time - Original Boundaries- Subsequent Reductions to Form Other Counties - Geographical Location and Present Boundaries - Events Incident to Its Complete Organization - Locating the County Seat - Napoleon Designated - First County Officers - First Court - The Old Log Court-House - The First Frame Court-House - Its Burning - The Records Destroyed - The First Brick Court-House - Its Destruction - The Present Court-House and Jail - County Civil List.
I [N the early part of the year 1820, and soon after the (then) last treaty with
the Indians, by which their right of possession to the soil in this part of Ohio was extinguished, there was at the disposal of the authorities a vast tract of land in the northwestern portion of the State that was practically uninhab- ited by whites ; and, for the better administration of the affairs of this country, and the desire on the part of the authorities that the territory should be occu- pied and improved by settlers, it was deemed prudent that the country should be erected into several counties. It was, therefore, by such provisional action that the county of Henry was brought into existence.
By the act which was passed on the 12th day of February, 1820, it was declared " That all that part of the lands lately ceded by the Indians to the United States, which lies within this State, shall be, and the same is hereby erected into fourteen separate and distinct counties," to be bounded and named as in the act provided. These counties so formed were: Allen, Crawford, Hancock, Hardin, Henry, Marion, Mercer, Paulding, Putnam, Sandusky, Sen- eca, Van Wert, Williams, and Wood.
Separating Henry county from its fellows formed at the same time, it is found that the same was made to include " all of ranges five, six, seven, and eight north of the second township north, in said ranges, and to run north with the same to the State (Michigan) line as aforesaid, and to be known by the name of Henry." The county was so named in honor of Patrick Henry, that distinguished statesman whose eloquent voice had been so frequently heard in upholding the cause of the struggling American colonies in the days of her infancy.
At the time of this erection there undoubtedly was not a sufficient number of residents within the broad limits of the county to fill the county's offices, or to in any manner administer its affairs; but the act made further provision, by the second section, that the newly created counties of Hancock, Henry, l'ut- nam, Paulding, and Williams should be attached to the county of Wood until otherwise directed by law. The temporary seat of justice of Wood county was fixed at Maumee. The first election for county and township officers for Wood county, and the counties attached to it, as well, was ordered and directed to be held on the first Monday of April, 1820.
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.