History of Knox County, Ohio, its past and present, Part 6

Author: Hill, N. N. (Norman Newell), comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A.A. & Co., Mt. Vernon, Ohio
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Mt. Vernon, Ohio : A. A. Graham & Co.
Number of Pages: 1096

USA > Ohio > Knox County > History of Knox County, Ohio, its past and present > Part 6

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HISTORY OF OHIO.

of the French court, their neglect of the true basis of wealth, agriculture, and the repressive tendencies laid on the colonists, led the latter to adopt a hunter's life, and leave the country unde- veloped and ready for the people who claimed the country from "sea to sea." Their explorers were now at work. The change was at hand.

Occasional mention has been made in the his- tory of the State, in preceding pages, of settle- ments and trading-posts of the French traders, explorers and missionaries, within the limits of Ohio. The French were the first white men to occupy the northwestern part of the New World, and though their stay was brief, yet it opened the way to a sinewy race, living on the shores of the Atlantic, who in time came, saw, and conquered that part of America, making it what the people of to-day enjoy.

As early as 1669, four years before the discov- ery of the Mississippi by Joliet and Marquette, La Salle, the famous explorer, discovered the Ohio River, and paddled down its gentle current as far as the falls at the present city of Louisville, but he, like others of the day, made no settlement on its banks, only claiming the country for his King by virtue of this discovery.

Early in the beginning of the eighteenth cent- ury, French traders and voyagers passed along the southern shores of Lake Erie, to the mouth of the Maumee, up whose waters they rowed their bark canoes, on their way to their outposts in the Wa- bash and Illinois Valleys, established between 1675 and 1700. As soon as they could, without danger from their inveterate enemies, the Iroquois, masters of all the lower lake country, erect a trading-post at the mouth of this river, they did so. It was made a depot of considerable note, and was, probably, the first permanent habitation of white men in Ohio. It remained until after the peace of 1763, the termination of the French and Indian war, and the occupancy of this country by the English. On the site of the French trading- post, the British, in 1794, erected Fort Miami, which they garrisoned until the country came under the control of Americans. Now, Maumee City covers the ground.

The French had a trading-post at the mouth of the Huron River, in what is now Erie County. When it was built is not now known. It was, how- ever, probably one of their early outposts, and may have been built before 1750. They had an- other on the shore of the bay, on or near the site of Sandusky City. Both this and the one at the

mouth of the IIuron River were abandoned before the war of the Revolution. On Lewis Evan's map of the British Middle Colonies, published in 1755, a French fort, called "Fort Junandat, built in 1754," is marked on the east bank of the San- dusky River, several miles below its mouth. Fort Sandusky, on the western bank, is also noted. Several Wyandot towns are likewise marked. But very little is known concerning any of these trading-posts. They were, evidently, only tempo- rary, and were abandoned when the English came into possession of the country.

The mouth of the Cuyahoga River was another important place. On Evan's map there is marked on the west bank of the Cuyahoga, some distance from its mouth, the words "French House," doubt- less, the station of a French trader. The ruins of a house, found about five miles from the mouth of the river, on the west bank, are supposed to be those of the trader's station.

In 1786, the Moravian missionary, Zeisberger, with his Indian converts, left Detroit in a vessel called the Mackinaw, and sailed to the mouth of the Cuyahoga. From there they went up the river about ten miles, and settled in an abandoned Ottawa village, where Independence now is, which place they called " Saint's Rest." Their stay was brief, for the following April, they left for the Huron River, and settled near the site of Milan, Erie County, at a locality they called New Salem.

There are but few records of settlements made by the French until after 1750. Even these can hardly be called settlements, as they were simply trading-posts. The French easily affiliated with the Indians, and had little energy beyond trading. They never cultivated fields, laid low forests, and subjugated the country. They were a half-Indian race, so to speak, and hence did little if anything in developing the West.

About 1749, some English traders came to a place in what is now Shelby County, on the banks of a creek since known as Loramie's Creek, and established a trading-station with the Indians. This was the first English trading-place or attempt at settlement in the State. It was here but a short time, however, when the French, hear- ing of its existence, sent a party of soldiers to the Twigtwees, among whom it was founded, and de- manded the traders as intruders upon French ter- ritory. The Twigtwees refusing to deliver up their friends, the French, assisted by a large party of Ottawas and Chippewas, attacked the trading- house, probably a block-house, and, after a severe

HISTORY OF OHIO.

battle, captured it. The traders were taken to Canada. This fort was called by the English "Pickawillany," from which "Piqua" is probably derived. About the time that Kentucky was set- tled, a Canadian Frenchman, named Loramie, established a store on the site of the old fort. He was a bitter enemy of the Americans, and for a long time Loramie's store was the headquarters of mischief toward the settlers.

The French had the faculty of endearing them- selves to the Indians by their easy assimilation of their habits; and, no doubt, Loramie was equal to any in this respect, and hence gained great influ- ence over them. Col. Johnston, many years an Indian Agent from the United States among the Western tribes, stated that he had often seen the "Indians burst into tears when speaking of the times when their French father had dominion over them; and their attachment always remained unabated."

So much influence had Loramie with the In- dians, that, when Gen. Clarke, from Kentucky, invaded the Miami Valley in 1782, his attention was attracted to the spot. He came on and burnt the Indian settlement here, and destroyed the store of the Frenchman, selling his goods among the men at auction. Loramie fled to the Shawanees, and, with a colony of that nation, emigrated west of the Mississippi, to the Spanish possessions, where he again began his life of a trader.

In 1794, during the Indian war, a fort was built on the site of the store by Wayne, and named Fort Loramie. The last officer who had command here was Capt. Butler, a nephew of Col. Richard Butler, who fell at St. Clair's defeat. While here with his family, he lost an interesting boy, about eight years of age. About his grave, the sorrowing father and mother built a substantial picket-fence, planted honeysuckles over it, which, long after, remained to mark the grave of the soldier's boy.

The site of Fort Loramie was always an im- portant point, and was one of the places defined on the boundary line at the Greenville treaty. Now a barn covers the spot.

At the junction of the Auglaize and Maumee Rivers, on the site of Fort Defiance, built by Gen. Wayne in 1794, was a settlement of traders, established some time before the Indian war began. "On the high ground extending from the Maumee a quarter of a mile up the Auglaize, about two hundred yards in width, was an open space, on the west and south of which were oak

woods, with hazel undergrowth. Within this opening, a few hundred yards above the point, on the steep bank of the Auglaize, were five or six cabins and log houses, inhabited principally by Indian traders. The most northerly, a large hewed-log house, divided below into three apart- ments, was occupied as a warehouse, store and dwelling, by George Ironside, the most wealthy and influential of the traders on the point. Next to his were the houses of Pirault ( Pero) a French baker, and Mckenzie, a Scot, who, in addition to merchandising, followed the occupation of a silver- smith, exchanging with the Indians his brooches, ear-drops and other silver ornaments, at an enormous profit, for skins and furs.

Still further up were several other fami- lies of French and English; and two Ameri- can prisoners, Henry Ball, a soldier taken in St. Clair's defeat, and his wife, Polly Meadows, captured at the same time, were allowed to live here and pay their masters the price of their ransom-he, by boating to the rapids of the Mau- mee, and she by washing and sewing. Fronting the house of Ironside, and about fifty yards from the bank, was a small stockade, inclosing two hewed-log houses, one of which was occupied by James Girty (a brother of Simon), the other, occasionally, by Elliott and McKee, British Indian Agents living at Detroit."*

The post, cabins and all they contained fell under the control of the Americans, when the British evacuated the shores of the lakes. While they existed, they were an undoubted source of Indian discontent, and had much to do in prolonging the Indian war. The country hereabouts did not settle until some time after the creation of the State government.

As soon as the French learned the true source of the Ohio and Wabash Rivers, both were made a highway to convey the products of their hunt- ers. In coursing down the Ohio, they made trading-places, or depots, where they could obtain furs of the Indians, at accessible points. generally at the mouths of the rivers emptying into the Ohio. One of these old forts or trading-places stood about a mile and a half south of the outlet of the Scioto. It was here in 1740; but when it was erected no one could tell. The locality must have been pretty well known to the whites,. however; for, in 1785, three years before the settlement of Marietta was made, four families

* Narrative of O. M. Spencer.

HISTORY OF OHIO. 1735017

made an ineffectual attempt to settle near the same place. They were from Kentucky, but were driven away by the Indians a short time after they arrived, not being allowed to build cabins, and had only made preparations to plant corn and other necessaries of life. While the men were encamped near the vicinity of Piketown, in Pike County, when on a hunting expedition, they were surprised by the Indians, and two of them slain. The others hastened back to the encampment at the mouth of the Scioto, and hurriedly gathering the families together, fortu- nately got them on a flat-boat, at that hour on its way down the river. By the aid of the boat, they were enabled to reach Maysville, and gave up the attempt to settle north of the Ohio.

The famous "old Scioto Salt Works," in Jack -. son County, on the banks of Salt Creek, a tributary of the Scioto, were long known to the whites before any attempt was made to settle in Ohio. They were indicated on the maps published in 1755. They were the resort, for generations, of the In- dians in all parts of the West, who annually came here to make salt. They often brought white prisoners with them, and thus the salt works be- came known. There were no attempts made to settle here, however, until after the Indian war, which closed in 1795. As soon as peace was as- sured, the whites came here for salt, and soon after made a settlement. Another early salt spring was in what is now Trumbull County. It is also noted on Evan's map of 1755. They were occu- pied by the Indians, French, and by the Americans as carly as 1780, and perhaps earlier.

As early as 1761 Moravian missionaries came among the Ohio Indians and began their labors. In a few years, under the lead of Revs. Fredrick Post and John Heckewelder, permanent stations were established in several parts of the State, chief- ly on the Tuscarawas River in Tuscarawas County. Here were the three Indian villages-Shoenburn, Gnadenhutten and Salem. The site of the first is about two miles south of New Philadelphia; Gna- denhutten was seven miles further south, and about five miles still on was Salem, a short distance from the present village of Port Washington. The first and last named of these villages were on the west side of the Tuscarawas River, near the margin of the Ohio Canal. Gnadenhutten was on the east side of the river. It was here that the brutal massacre of these Christian Indians, by the rangers under Col. Williamson, occurred March 8, 1782. The account of the massacre and of these tribes

appears in these pages, and it only remains to notice what became of them.

The hospitable and friendly character of these Indians had extended beyond their white breth- ren on the Ohio. The American people at large looked on the act of Williamson and his men as an outrage on humanity. Congress felt its influence, and gave them a tract of twelve thousand acres, embracing their former homes, and induced them to return from the northern towns whither they had fled. As the whites came into the country, their manners degenerated until it became necessary to remove them. Through Gen. Cass, of Michigan, an agreement was made with them, whereby Con- gress paid them over $6,000, an annuity of $400, and 24,000 acres in some territory to be designated by the United States. This treaty, by some means, was never effectually carried out, and the princi- pal part of them took up their residence near a Moravian missionary station on the River Thames, in Canada. Their old churchyard still exists on the Tuscarawas River, and here rest the bones of several of their devoted teachers. It is proper to remark here, that Mary Heckewelder, daughter of the missionary, is generally believed to have been the first white child born in Ohio. How- ever, this is largely conjecture. Captive women among the Indians, before the birth of Mary Heckewelder, are known to have borne children, which afterward, with their mothers, were restored to their friends. The assertion that Mary Heckewelder was the first child born in Olrio, is therefore incorrect. She is the first of whom any definite record is made.

These outposts are about all that are known to have existed prior to the settlement at Mari- etta. About one-half mile below Bolivar, on the western line of Tuscarawas County, are the remains of Fort Laurens, erected in 1778, by. a detachment of 1,000 men under Gen. Mc- Intosh, from Fort Pitt. It was, however, occu- pied but a short time, vacated in August, 1779, as it was deemed untenable at such a distance from the frontier.

During the existence of the six years' Indian war, a settlement of French emigrants was made on the Ohio River, that deserves notice. It illus- trates very clearly the extreme ignorance and credulity prevalent at that day. In May or June of 1788, Joel Barlow left this country for Europe, " authorized to dispose of a very large body of land in the West."" In 1790, he distributed pro- posals in Paris for the disposal of lands at five

HISTORY OF OHIO.

shillings per acre, which, says Volney, " promised a climate healthy and delightful; scarcely such a thing as a frost in the winter; a river, called by way of eminence 'The Beautiful,' abounding in fish of an enormous size ; magnificent forests of a tree from which sugar flows, and a shrub which yields candles ; venison in abundance ; no military enrollments, and no quarters to find for soldiers." Purchasers became numerous, individuals and whole families sold their property, and in the course of 1791 many embarked at the various French sea-ports, each with his title in his pocket. Five hundred settlers, among whom were many wood carvers and guilders to His Majesty, King of France, coachmakers, friseurs and peruke makers, and other artisans and artistes, equally well fitted for a frontier life, arrived in the United States in 1791-92, and acting without concert, traveling without knowledge of the language, customs and roads, at last managed to reach the spot designated for their residence. There they learned they had been cruelly deceived, and that the titles they held were worthless. Without food, shelterless, and danger closing around them, they were in a position that none but a Frenchman could be in without despair. Who brought them thither, and who was to blame, is yet a disputed point. Some affirm that those to whom large grants of land were made when the Ohio Company procured its charter, were the real instigators of the movement. They failed to pay for their lands, and hence the title reverted to the Government. This, coming to the ears of the poor Frenchmen, rendered their situation more distressing. They never paid for their lands, and only through the clemency of Congress, who after- ward gave them a grant of land, and confirmed them in its title, were they enabled to secure a foot- hold. Whatever doubt there may be as to the

causes of these people being so grossly deceived, there can be none regarding their sufferings. They had followed a jack-o-lantern into the howling wilderness, and must work or starve. The land upon which they had been located was covered with immense forest trees, to level which the coach- makers were at a loss. At last, hoping to conquer by a coup de main, they tied ropes to the branches, and while a dozen pulled at them as many fell at the trunk with all sorts of edged tools, and thus soon brought the monster to the earth. Yet he was a burden. He was down, to be sure, but as much in the way as ever. Several lopped off the branches, others dug an immense trench at his side, into which, with might and main, all rolled the large log, and then buried him from sight. They erected their cabins in a cluster, as they had seen them in their own native land, thus affording some protection from marauding bands of Indians. Though isolated here in the lonely wilderness, and nearly out of funds with which to purchase pro- visions from descending boats, yet once a week they met and drowned care in a merry dance, greatly to the wonderment of the scout or lone Indian who chanced to witness their revelry. Though their vivacity could work wonders, it would not pay for lands nor buy provisions. Some of those at Gallipolis (for such they called their settlement, from Gallia, in France) went to Detroit, some to Kaskaskia, and some bought land of the Ohio Company, who treated them liberally. Congress, too, in 1795, being informed of their sufferings, and how they had been deceived, granted them 24,000 acres opposite Little Sandy River, to which grant, in 1798, 12,000 acres more were added. The tract has since been known as French Grant. The settlement is a curious episode in early West- ern history, and deserves a place in its annals.

HISTORY OF OHIO.

CHAPTER III.

ENGLISH EXPLORATIONS -TRADERS -FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR IN THE WEST - ENGLISHI POSSESSION.

A S has been noted. the French title rested on the discoveries of their missionaries and traders, upon the occupation of the country. and upon the construction of the treaties of Ryswick, Utrecht and Aix la Chapelle. The English claims to the same region were based on the fact of a prior occupation of the corresponding coast, on an opposite construction of the same treaties. and an alleged cession of the rights of the Indians. The rights acquired by discovery were conventional, and in equity were good only between European powers, and could not affect the rights of the natives, but this distinction was dis- regarded by all European powers. The inquiry of an Indian chief embodies the whole controversy: " Where are the Indian lands, since the French claim all on the north side of the Ohio and the English all on the south side of it?"

The English charters expressly granted to all the original colonies the country westward to the South Sea, and the claims thus set up in the West, though held in abeyance, were never relinquished. The primary distinction between the two nations governed their actions in the New World, and led finally to the supremacy of the English. They were fixed agricultural communities. The French were mere trading-posts. Though the French were the prime movers in the exploration of the West, the English made discoveries during their occupation, however, mainly by their traders, who penetrated the Western wilderness by way of the Ohio River, entering it from the two streams which uniting form that river. Daniel Coxie, in 1722, published, in London, "A description of the English province of Carolina, by the Spaniards called Florida, and by the French called La Louis- iane, as also the great and famous river Mescha- cebe, or Mississippi, the five vast navigable lakes of fresh water, and the parts adjacent, together with an account of the commodities of the growth and production of the said province." The title of this work exhibits very clearly the opinions of the English people respecting the West. As early as 1630, Charles I granted to Sir Robert Heath " All that part of America lying between thirty-

one and thirty-six degrees north latitude, from sea to sea." out of which the limits of Carolina were afterward taken. This immense grant was con- veyed in 1638, to the Earl of Arundel, and after- ward came into the possession of Dr. Daniel Coxie. In the prosecution of this claim. it appeared that Col. Wood, of Virginia, from 1654 to 1664, ex- plored several branches of the Ohio and " Mescha- cebe," as they spell the Mississippi. A Mr. Need- ham, who was employed by Col. Wood, kept a journal of the exploration. There is also the ac- count of some one who had explored the Missis- sippi to the Yellow, or Missouri River. before 1676. These, and others, are said to have been there when La Salle explored the outlet of the Great River, as he found tools among the natives which were of European manufacture. They had been brought here by English adventurers. Also. when Iberville was colonizing the lower part of Louis- iana, these same persons visited the Chickasaws and stirred them up against the French. It is also stated that La Salle found that some one had been among the Natchez tribes when he returned from the discovery of the outlet of the Mississippi, and excited them against him. There is. however, no good authority for these statements, and they are doubtless incorrect. There is also an account that in 1678, several persons went from New England as far south as New Mexico, "one hundred and fifty leagues beyond the Meschacebe," the narrative reads, and on their return wrote an account of the expedition. This. also, cannot be traced to good authority. The only accurate account of the English reaching the West was when Bienville met the British vessel at the "English Turn," about 1700. A few of their traders may have been in the valley west of the Alleghany Mount- ains before 1700. though no reliable accounts are now found to confirm these suppositions. Still, from the earliest occupation of the Atlantic Coast by the English, they claimed the country. and, though the policy of its occupation rested for a time, it was never fully abandoned. Its revival dates from 1710 properly, though no immediate endeavor was made for many years after. That

HISTORY OF OHIO.

year, Alexander Spottswood was made Governor of Virginia. No sooner did he assume the functions of ruler, than, casting his eye over his dominion, he saw the great West beyond the Alleghany Mount- ains unoccupied by the English, and rapidly filling with the French, who he observed were gradually confining the English to the Atlantic Coast. His prophetic eye saw at a glance the animus of the whole scheme, and he determined to act promptly on the defensive. Through his representation, the Virginia Assembly was induced to make an appro- priation to defray the expense of an exploration of the mountains, and see if a suitable pass could not then be found where they could be crossed. The Governor led the expedition in person. The pass was discovered, a route marked out for future em- igrants, and the party returned to Williamsburg. There the Governor established the order of the "Knights of the Golden Horseshoe," presented his report to the Colonial Assembly and one to his King. In each report, he exposed with great bold- ness the scheme of the French, and advised the building of a chain of forts across to the Ohio, and the formation of settlements to counteract them. The British Government, engrossed with other matters, neglected his advice. Forty years after, they remembered it, only to regret that it was so thoughtlessly disregarded.

Individuals, however, profited by his advice. By 1730, traders began in earnest to cross the mount- ains and gather from the Indians the stores beyond. They now began to adopt a system, and abandoned the heretofore renegade habits of those who had superseded them, many of whom never returned to the Atlantic Coast. In 1742, John Howard de- seended the Ohio in a skin canoe, and, on the Mississippi was taken prisoner by the French. His captivity did not in the least deter others from coming. Indeed, the date of his voyage was the commencement of a vigorous trade with the In- dians by the English, who crossed the Alleghanies by the route discovered by Gov. Spottswood. In 1748, Conrad Weiser, a German of Herenberg, who had acquired in early life a knowledge of the Mo- hawk tongue by a residenec among them, was sent on an embassy tothe Shawanees on the Ohio. Hc went as far as Logstown, a Shawanee village on the north bank of the Ohio, about seventeen miles be- low the site of Pittsburgh. Here he met the chiefs in counsel, and secured their promise of aid against the French.

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History of Knox County, Ohio, its past and present, Part 6

Author: Hill, N. N. (Norman Newell), comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A.A. & Co., Mt. Vernon, Ohio Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Mt. Vernon, Ohio : A. A. Graham & Co. Number of Pages: 1096

Author: Hill, N. N. (Norman Newell), comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A.A. & Co., Mt. Vernon, Ohio
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Mt. Vernon, Ohio : A. A. Graham & Co.
Number of Pages: 1096