USA > Ohio > Preble County > History of Preble County Ohio: Her People, Industries and Institutions > Part 10
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The cutting of this road and the forwarding of supplies greatly excited the Indians, who seem to have had no adequate idea of the strength and re- sources of the Americans, and who hoped and believed, and were encouraged to believe, that the British and Spanish would assist them to drive the white men south of the Ohio, and they finally, at Detroit, on August 16, 1793, for- mally rejected all offers of peace, unless the white men surrendered all rights north of the Ohio.
FAILURE OF THE "OLIVE BRANCH."
Wayne received word of the failure of the peace negotiations (which he personally expected) in September, 1793, and on October 7 he put the army in motion from Hobson's Choice, landing near Cincinnati, along the road he had been so industriously preparing. The army numbered about three thou- sand men, including officers, and was composed of regular troops, hunters, farmers, roustabouts, Indians, and some lawless elements as well. And it is doubtful if any but the pushing, energetic iron will and hand of Wayne could
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have controlled and made a conquering army of such a heterogeneous gath- ering of men. And the sequel shows that President Washington knew men, when, in the face of the opposition of his warmest friends in Virginia, he selected "Mad Anthony Wayne" as the one man who could wipe out and make the Indians forget the defeats of Harmar and St. Clair. The army reached a point six miles north of Fort Jefferson on October 13, and pro- ceeded to erect Fort Greenville on the present site of the city of Greenville. The army supplies were hauled along the Old Traces road and guarded by companies of soldiers against attacks of the Indians. About the middle of October, Lieutenant Lowery, in command of ninety men, started from Fort Hamilton with twenty wagons of supplies for Wayne's army, and on the evening of October 16, 1793, he camped alongside of the road at Ludlows Spring and on the banks of a small stream since named in his honor as Low- ery's run.
The 'ever watchful Little Turtle had been prowling along the flanks of the army, endeavoring to find an opportunity to strike a blow at his wily foe, and his warriors soon discovered the camp of the detachment, and Little Turtle surrounded the camp during the night with some two hundred and fifty Indians. In the early morning of the 17th the camp was attacked as it was at Fort St. Clair by the same chief and a large part of the escort fled, some going north toward Fort Jefferson, after a short but fierce fight. Lieu- tenant Lowery and Ensign Boyd, with thirteen men, were killed and the bal- ance scattered, and the Indians had full possession of the camp and wagon train. But they were so fearful that the soldiers fleeing north would warn Wayne of the presence of the Indians, and that he would instantly dispatch a force that would take full revenge for their foray, they, consequently, only took time to gather up the horses, guns and ammunition, and then fled through the woods, not even taking time to burn and destroy the wagons and provisions, but left them standing in the road, where the detachment sent back by Wayne found them and reported that only some trifling articles were missing, but that the Indians did get about seventy horses.
This and the fight at Fort St. Clair were the only battles fought within the county. Lieutenant Lowery and his fellow comrades were brought to Fort St. Clair and buried, and on July 5, 1822, Lieutenant Lowery's remains were removed to the Eaton cemetery. In 1847 a public subscription having been taken for the purpose, the remains of Lieutenant Lowery and all his men who fell in that fight were removed from the Eaton cemetery to Mound Hill cemetery, and a grave prepared in the mound left by the Mound Builders and a shaft of Rutland marble erected over the grave, with a terse description
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of the fight, the men and the purposes of the monument. And on every Dec- oration Day it is strewn with flowers in memory that they, having paid the "last full measure of devotion," are not forgotten by a grateful people.
BLEACHED BONES RETURNED TO MOTHER EARTH.
On December 23, 1793, Wayne sent a detachment to take possession of the field of St. Clair's defeat, and it reached the place on Christmas day. One of those present reported that they gathered up and buried six hundred skulls of the slain and that in many places they had to scrape together the bones of those who fell and remove them from the tents to make their beds. They built a fort on the south bank of the stream, which they named Fort Recov- ery, which name it still bears. The fort was garrisoned by a proper force under command of Capt. Alexander Gibson. During the winter Wayne kept up his preparations for the advance of the army in the spring, and kept him- self well informed of the movements and plans of the Indians by means of his scouts and spies; and the Indians, under the direction of Little Turtle, were ever on the alert to surprise Wayne's forces, but never once found the opportunity. From his spies, Wayne learned that the Indian warriors num- bered from two thousand to three thousand, who were expected to be pitted against his force, and on June 30, 1794, Little Turtle, with about fifteen hun- dred or more Indians, attacked the forces at Fort Recovery and fought for a good part of two days, but were beaten off with a heavy loss and retreated toward Grand Glaze, now Defiance.
After St. Clair's defeat the Indians were unable to take the captured can- non away, and hence turned logs over, dug a small trench, in which the can- non were placed, and then the logs were rolled back. But the white men had discovered the method and had recovered the cannon, which were mounted at the fort and helped to repel the attack; and after the fight it was found the Indians had rolled over many of the logs in the hope they could secure the cannon to use against the fort. Wayne's spies reported that there were a number of British officers with the Indian force, thus confirming his belief that the Indians were incited to war by the British.
TURTLE'S ADDRESS TO THE SENATE.
Wayne, in order to deceive the Indians, had been cutting two roads through the woods from Fort Recovery, one toward what is now Fort Wayne and the other northeasterly toward the Maumee rapids, and on July 26, 1794, having been reinforced by sixteen hundred mounted men from Kentucky, he
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marched north through the woods between the two roads, straight to the Grand Glaze, and would have surprised the Indians, but they were warned by a deserter from the army and fled, leaving their towns. He reached the place on August 8, and proceeded to build a fort, which he named Fort Defiance. Wayne again offered the Indians peace, and at a council of the chiefs Little Turtle counseled them to accept the offer and make peace, and is said to have made the following speech :
"Brothers, we have beaten the enemy twice, under separate commanders. We can not expect the same good fortune always to attend us. The Ameri- cans are now led by a chief who never sleeps; the days and the nights are alike to him. And during all the time that he has been marching upon our villages, notwithstanding the watchfulness of our young men, we have never been able to surprise him. Think well of it. There is something whispers to me that it would be prudent to listen to his offers of peace." Another chief thereupon accused him of cowardice, which ended all efforts for peace, because no epithet was so distasteful to an Indian as to be called a coward, and Little Turtle ended the conference with the two words, "We fight." The sequel showed that the loud-mouthed, smart-Aleck Indian was no safer ad- viser than the white men of the same class.
The Indians returned answer, asking Wayne to wait ten days, and they would send him an answer. For answer, Wayne, on August 18, started his army on the march down the north bank of the Maumee river, and after marching forty miles built a small fort, called Fort Deposit, in which he left the army baggage, so as to lighten his men for the expected battle. On August 20 the army continued its course down the north bank of the river for about five miles, when they came to a strip of country that had been visited by a tornado for a distance of about two miles from the river and most of the timber was blown down, and in this the Indians, about two thou- sand strong, had secreted themselves to make a stand against the Americans. Some two or three miles below, the British had a trading post and a fort gar- risoned by some two hundred, under Major Campbell.
THE ENEMY ROUTED.
In the advance of the army Major Price had a battalion of mounted men, who first struck the Indian line extending from the river north nearly two miles, and when the mounted men approached the line they were met with so severe a fire as to compel them to retreat. Wayne soon discovered
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that the Indians were in full force and were trying to turn his left flank, when he ordered Gen. Charles Scott to gain and turn the right flank of the Indian line with the whole force of mounted men, and also ordered his second line of men to close up with the front line, which he ordered to charge the Indian line with the bayonet, which they did; and as the Indians fled they followed so fast, firing as they charged, that the Indians had not time to reload their guns. At the same time he had ordered the regular cavalry to charge along the river bank and gain the left flank of the Indians, which they did. The whole matter was so unexpected to the Indians, and the charge was delivered with such impetuosity, that both the Indians and the Canadian militia helping them retreated so rapidly that in one hour they were driven two miles by Wayne's army.
The enemy then scattered and fled in every direction, terror-stricken at the rushing method of fighting adopted by Wayne, and left the Americans in peaceable possession of the battlefield. Wayne pursued the Indians until within range of the guns of the British fort. Wayne reported that he had nine hundred men actually engaged in the battle. The loss of the army was given as thirty-three killed and one hundred wounded, and that of the In- dians and Canadians much greater.
Wayne then proceeded to destroy the Indian villages and cornfields for fifty miles on each side of the river, even up to within a stone's throw of the British fort, and its garrison had to look on, although the British commander had written Wayne a letter threatening him if his army came within reach of his cannon. The army returned to Defiance on August 27, and from there it marched up the Maumee and reached the junction of the St. Joseph and St. Mary's rivers on the 17th of September, 1794, and proceeded immediately to build a fort, which Major Hamtramck, the commandant of the garrison, named Fort Wayne, by which name it is yet called.
General Wayne subsequently stated that the cornfields destroyed were the finest and most extensive he had ever seen. The names of the Indian tribes who were in the battle are: Delawares, Miamis, Shawnees, Tawas and Wyandots, and a few Chippewas and Pottawatomies from farther north and west.
Wayne then marched the remainder of his army to Fort Greenville and sent the Kentucky volunteers on to Cincinnati, where they were discharged. Wayne, in October, re-established his headquarters at Greenville and waited, certain that the battle of the "Fallen Timbers" would discourage the Indians.
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WISE AFTER THE EVENT.
It is related that some time after the battle the Indians held a council to decide on whether to continue the war or make peace, and as the different chiefs were called upon they either made a non-committal speech or shook their heads, and at last Little Turtle got up and stated that they had refused to listen to his advice for peace with Wayne until their women and children were starvng, and that it was plain that none of the tribes desired war, and that he would go and make peace. He then left the meeting and at once set about arranging for a meeting of the chiefs and Indians with Wayne in the spring. In June, 1795, the council began gathering at Greenfield to make peace. There were Buckongehelas of the Delawares, Little Turtle of the Miamis, Tarhe the Crane of the Wyandots, Blue Jacket of the Shawnees, Masass of the Chippewas, each accompanied by a number of his tribe, and representatives of the Pottawattamies, Ottawas and Eel River Indians. The conference lasted until, on August 7, 1795, the treaty known as the "Green- ville Treaty" was signed by all, and for southern Ohio all fear of Indian depredations was ended and the settlers' right to the land firmly established.
The language giving the southern and eastern boundary of the Indian lands is as follows :
"The general boundary lines between the lands of the United States and the lands of said Indian tribes, shall begin at the mouth of the Cuyahoga river, and run thence up the same to the portage between that and the Tus- carawas branch of the Muskingum river; thence down that branch to the crossing place above Fort Laurens; thence westwardly to a fork of that branch of the Great Miami river, running into the Ohio, at or near which fork stood Lorame's store, and where commenced the portage between the Miami of the Ohio, and St. Mary's river, which is a branch of the Miami which runs into Lake Erie; thence a westerly course to Fort Recovery, which stands on a branch of the Wabash; thence southwesterly, in a direct line to the Ohio, so as to intersect that river opposite the mouth of the Kentucky or Cuttawa river. * * And the said Indian tribes do hereby cede, and relinquish forever, all their claims to the lands lying eastwardly and south- wardly of the general boundary line now described."
THE SPOILS TO THE CONQUERORS.
And at the same time they ceded to the United States some sixteen other tracts, ranging in size from two miles square to twelve miles square, scat-
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tered over northern Ohio and Indiana and Illinois, and in Michigan as far north as Michilimackinac. This treaty was ratified by the Senate on De- cember 22, 1795, and thus closed the Indian wars.
Little Turtle was a chief of the Miamis, who had villages in the valleys of the two Miami rivers, and their largest settlements along the Maumee river; and there were several wigwams along the Whitewater near New Paris, and also some along Twin creek after white men began settling the county. Little Turtle was one of the ablest Indians of his time, wise in counsel and possessing considerable learning and considered resistance to the whites as useless and certain to bring destruction to the tribes, and whenever possible urged the Indians to peace and to adopt the agricultural pursuits of the white man. But when he went to war with his people, he was a warrior to be feared. He traveled pretty extensively, and is said to have had an ac- count of his travels written out, and to have formed a vocabulary of the language of the Miami tribe. Some time after peace was made he traveled to Philadelphia to get the aid of Congress and the Friends, or Quakers, to assist in transforming his people from savages to a peaceful and agricultural people. While there he met the French philosopher Volney, who explained to him that because the Tartars in some respects resembled the Indians the European historians had conjectured that the Indians were the descendants of Tartars, who by some means had crossed to America, and in reply he asked Volney three questions, which could not be answered, and no one since has been able to answer them. They were as follows: "Why should not Tartars, who resemble us, have come from America? Are there any reasons to the contrary? Why should we not both have been in our own country?"
"LOVE, HONOR AND TROOPS OF FRIENDS."
Little Turtle lived near Fort Wayne until about 1825, and died of the gout, loved and respected by both white men and Indians for his earnest efforts to elevate his people and to keep peace between the races, and at his death his body was borne to the grave by white men, among them some who had held high rank in the United States army, and he was given a sol- dier's burial as befitted a great chief. A monument is erected at his grave and it is often visited by both Indians and white men.
The forts constructed from Cincinnati to Fort Wayne were practically of one pattern, differing only in the size of the fort, and for those readers who are not familiar with those matters I quote St. Clair's report to the war department of the building of Fort Hamilton :
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"The circuit of that fort is about one thousand feet, through the whole extent of which a trench about three feet deep was dug, to set the pickets in, of which it required about two thousand to inclose it; and it is not trees taken promiscuously that will answer for pickets, they must be tall and straight and from nine to twelve inches in diameter, for those of larger size are too un- manageable. Of course few trees that are proper are to be found without going over a considerable space of woodland. They were then carried to the ground and butted, that they might be placed firm and upright in the trench, with the axe or crosscut saw.
"Some hewing upon them was also necessary, for there are few trees so straight that the sides of them will come in contact when set upright. A thin piece of timber, called a ribbon, is run around the whole near the top of the pickets, to which every one of them is pinned with a strong pin, without which they would decline from the perpendicular with every blast of wind, some hanging outward and some inward, which would render them in a great meas- ure useless. The earth thrown out of the trench is then returned and strongly rammed, to keep the pickets firmly in their places, and a shallower trench is dug outside, about three feet distant, to carry off the water and prevent their being removed by the rains. About two thousand pickets are set up on the inside, one between every two of the others; the work is then enclosed. But, previously, the ground for the site of the fort had to be cleared, and two or three hundred yards around it. A high platform was raised in one of the bastions on the land side to scour the second bend of the river with artillery. Another, made with the trunks of trees and covered with plank as that was, was raised in one of the bastions toward the river, in order to com- mand the ford and the river for some distance up and down."
The cannon were mounted on the raised platforms and holes were cut between the pickets, large enough to permit the men to see through, and for the muzzles of their guns in shooting at the enemy. Of course, such a fort would form but small protection against modern implements of war, but when it is remembered that the Indians had no cannon, only a part of them had guns, and the rest carried bow and arrow and tomahawk, it will be seen that, if manned by a proper force, they were well nigh impregnable.
A FAMILY KIDNAPPED.
The people living today in this Great Miami Valley that have never known the terrors of Indian war since Wayne's victory-and the story seems ancient-little realize the anxiety of the early settlers along the borders dur-
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ing those troublous times. The father or son might start to his work and never return, or if he did he might find his home in ashes and the dead bodies of wife, children or mother. To illustrate, I can do no better than relate a little family history : During the Revolution my mother's ancestors lived in one of the moutain valleys of northwestern Connecticut and my great-great- grandfather was absent in the Revolutionary army, and the oldest boy, about eighteen years old, one day started horseback with his grist to the mill, some five miles distant, and on his return in the evening found the home in ashes and the body, scalped, of his brother, and his mother and two brothers and two sisters missing, the youngest sister only about one year old and the other children ranging from seven to thirteen. The alarm was given and the trail followed for two days, only to find by the way the child, whose brains had been dashed out because it cried and might give the alarm, and the mother tomahawked because she could not travel faster, as was learned some three years later. But of one thing they were certain, that the deed was done by a small band of Indians, who had then fled north to Canada toward Quebec. As soon as peace came, the father went to Canada in search of his family and found the youngest son had been adopted by an Indian tribe and the eldest boy had been poisoned by an Indian woman because he was such a hearty eater, while the girl, then sixteen, had been sold to a French family, and he had to buy her back. They were brought back and afterward came to Ohio, and my mother often heard the story from her great-aunt's lips, of the murders, flight through the woods, and her life among the Indians.
Now that is not an isolated incident, but in a thousand homes along our then borderland occurred similar or worse scenes. We can not wonder that the white men of that time struck, and struck hard, to make the Indians under- stand that their homes must be left in peace. Among white men there are individuals who only respect other people's rights because they fear the force of public opinion, or the force of law; and I believe the Indians in America, generally speaking, as a race, were only brought to accept civilization and the peaceful pursuits of the white men because they learned by experience the force and power of the white men when aroused. There may be, and I grant are, some notable and splendid exceptions, but, reading the history of our land, they must be set down as exceptions by every fair-minded critic.
THE INDIAN MISTOOK HIS VOCATION.
If the Indians had made an effort to adapt themselves to something be- sides the warpath, they might have taken a large part in the development of
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our country. In the last fifty years times have changed with them, and as I write this I am reminded that there are two full-blooded Indians in the United States Senate. Man the hunter had to give way to man the laborer. There is much sentimental writing about robbing the Indians of their lands, but it must be admitted, I think, by all fair-minded critics that Ohio is an ex- ception. The Indian title to all the lands of Ohio were extinguished by fair and peaceful treaties. The Fort Harmar and Fort Stanwix treaties were peaceful treaties and established practically the same lines as the Greenville treaty, and the Indians who, with their chiefs, had made those treaties, re- fused to abide by them and, incited by the British, they waylaid and mur- dered the coming settlers and refused to desist, and the result was war; and after the war the Indian titles to the various lands in northern Ohio were secured by treaty or purchase. So that it may be asserted that all the lands of Ohio were honorably acquired by the government and then sold to the settlers, and that there never has been any litigation over the titles, as against the claims of the Indians, or an appeal to the United States courts to settle the matter, as has been done in a number of our western states.
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CHAPTER V.
LANDS, STREAMS AND ROADS.
Preble county is bounded on the north by Darke county, on the east by Montgomery and Butler counties, the line between said counties being one and one-half miles north of the southeast corner of Preble county, on the south by Butler county, and on the west by Union and Wayne counties of Indiana, the line between said counties touching the west line of Dixon township, about forty rods south of the northwest corner of section 7 in said township.
In writing the history of Preble county, and its townships, one of the most puzzling questions to the citizens of the county is why the townships are so numbered by the government surveyors and why the section lines differ in passing from one township to another. The reasons are these :
In 1796 Congress passed a law that a meridian line should be drawn north from the mouth of the Great Miami river, and the government land east and west thereof should be surveyed into townships six miles square, beginning at the mouth of said river, and numbered thence consecutively north. The land east of the Great Miami river was not at that time gov- ernment land, a large body between the Great Miami and Little Miami rivers having been sold to John Cleves Symmes and his associates called the Symmes Purchase, hence the east line of the townships could not go further east than the Great Miami river. The first line of townships north was called range I east and the second line range 2 east, etc., and the ranges ran north to the Greenville treaty line. And as the Great Miami river flowed southwesterly in its general course, the townships touching it would have their eastern side slanting, or oblique with the course of the river, and would not be square and full townships, hence are called fractional townships, but in the survey whenever they got six miles north of the start- ing point, the north line of the township was established.
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