History of Preble County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, Part 3

Author: H. Z. Williams & Brothers
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 559

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America and Peru, and who erected the vast structures which lend such an absorbing interest to those regions.

Another theory is that the race instead of journeying southward, improving constantly in condition and in- creasing largely in population, had their origin in Mexico or some other part of tropical or semi-tropical South or North America, and emigrated northward, gradually retrograding in civilization until they reached the lake region and became so barbarous in their habits of life as to have lost their early habits of industy, their civilized customs and their government. This theory has but little support-its opposite being the one favored by most archaeologists. Beside the fact that the similarity between the ancient works in the northern part of the United States, those along the Mississippi, and those in Mexico, points to their creation by the same race of people, the history and traditions of the early Mexican people, which extend back to the seventh century, afford something of a corroborating nature. The people of Montezuma, as that uphappy ruler informed Cortez, knew by their looks that they were not natives, but strangers, who came from a great distance. Thus it will be seen, if the Mound Builders were the progen- itors of the race to which Montezuma belonged, they must have arrived in Mexico prior to the close of the seventh century. The Aztecs are said by Mexican au- thorities to have arrived in the year 648. To that race they ascribe the teocalli, with which their country abounds. If we allow ourselves to be influenced by the above date, supposing indeed that the Aztecs were the descendants of the Mound Builders, we must neces- sarily regard the ancient remains of our country as belonging to a period prior to the date given. The same or an even greater degree of antiquity is indicated by other evidence. The exceedingly decayed condition of the skeletons in the mounds, the amount of vegetable accumulation in the excavations, the age of trees stand- ing upon the mounds and embankments, the shifting of the river channels since the works were constructed on their shores, and the fact that none of the Mound Build- ers' works are found upon the latest formed terraces, or river bottoms, nor north of the northermost lake ridge, all point to the conclusion that a great time has elapsed since the ancient race inhabited the country. Some of the trees have been known to have an age of from six to eight hundred years, and such trees have been found surrounded with the mouldering trunks of others, un- doubtedly of equal original size. Allowance must be made for a reasonable time for the encroachment of the forest after the works were abandoned by the builders, and then how great seems their age when we reflect that they are covered by at least the second growth of forest.

Speculating upon a people of a less remote age, wc might exclaim with Halleck :

"What tales, if there be tongues in trees, These giant oaks could tell Of being born and buried here."

But the hoary antiquity of the stateliest monarchs of the wood cannot carry us back to the time when the builders of the enduring earth monuments dwelt in our

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HISTORY OF PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO.

land. We can only know that a vast population filled the valleys and the fertile regions, and passed away; that a nation existed and is gone, leaving no page of history to carry through the ages the story of its origin and des- tiny. All that the student desires to know, that for which he has anxiously but vainly sought, has been en- gulfed in the illimitable oblivion that holds so much more of the history of human life-how much we can- not tell.

And here another thought arises-the conception of a possbility so stupendous and awe-inspiring, as to render the subject of our former speculation, vast though it is and fraught with mysterious interest, dwarfed by the comparison. Vast as may have been the age that has elapsed since our land has been the theatre of this un- known race, it is but a brief period in the cycles of time that have swept by since the first dawn of the world, and ancient as we are accustomed to regard the Mound Builders of America, they may have been only the last in a series of vanished races of men-the blood of the earth that has gone forth at every pulse beat of the creation, every heart throb of the Infinite.

LOCAL WORKS.

The most important of the Mound Builder remains in Preble county is the defensive enclosure situated at the confluence of Twin creek and Banta's fork, in Lanier township. The embankments here have been rendered less distinct than those of many similar works in other parts of the county. The slow wear of time, and the more telling work of the plowshare, have both had their effect upon the ancient walls, and they retain but little of their original semblance or even of the appearance which they presented to the early residents of the county. That the enclosure was intended for purposes of defence does not admit of a doubt. The site chosen was in itself a natural stronghold. The high land projecting like a wedge between the two streams could easily be guarded against the assault of an enemy, with no other than the advantages which its position affords. The earthworks constructed here would enable a small force of men to hold the situation against large odds, and it was, doubtless, to the ancient people, a practically im- pregnable fortress. It is very probable that the earth walls carried along the crest of the hill on two sides and across the level from the Twin creek side to the bank of its tributary stream, were surmounted by heavy palings or palisades. Still there is no positive evidence that such was the case, and we only form that conclusion from the fact that indications of. such palings have been found elsewhere in defensive enclosures. The area en- closed by the embankments consists of several acres. There was evidently a gateway in the wall extending across the promontory, and there remains some indica- tion of an earthen construction leading down the side hill upon the southeast side, very likely a passage-way by which the occupants of the fort, when in a state of siege, could reach the bed of Twin creek to procure from it water, without being exposed to the missiles of the ene- my. The stream which evidently once flowed at the

base of the bank has receded to a distance of several hundred feet, and therein is an evidence of the antiquity of the works, though an indefinite one, and of compara- tively little value. Banta's fork does not appear to have shifted its channel since the remote time when the forti- fication was constructed. Several mounds occur at no great distance from this enclosure, and such is their po- sition that it is natural to infer that they may have been used as signal stations or coignes of vantage from which the approach of an enemy might have been observed. This work is by no means a remarkable one, and the in- terest that would naturally attach to it is materially les- sened by its poor state of preservation. We should not have devoted so much space to its description but for the fact that it is the only enclosure known in Preble county.

There are, however, a large number of mounds within the limits of Preble, probably not less than a hundred. But few of them have been excavated, and none with very remarkable results. Among the most important we may mention the following: A large one on the Ozias farm, east of Lewisburgh, one on the Eaton and Lewis- burgh road, about a mile southwest of the latter place, and quite noticeable from the roadway, especially as one journeys toward Lewisburgh. There is a specimen of the Mound Builders' work on the farm of Franklin Pierce, near Camden, and one in the southern part of Somers township, near Somerville. There is a large mound on the Samuel Bennett farm in Dixon township, two on the Frank Dunlap farm, and another on the cor- ner of Dixon and Israel townships, where the farms of Messrs. Pinkerston and McQuoiston adjoin. Two others in this vicinity are to be found on the John Mc- Divitt farm, near Fair Haven. In Gasper township there are several mounds along Seven Mile, on the Al- baugh, Duffield and Abram Sayler farms. From the one on the last named farm two copper axes were taken and an abundance of flints. The mound in the Eaton cem- etery is well known, as it gives name to this resting place of the dead. When it was opened to receive the dust of Lowery and his comrades, who fell in 1793, charcoal was found near the base-an indication that it had been an altar or sacrificial mound, or perhaps a place where burned the sacred fire of an unknown religion. There is also a mound on the farm of John Kinkaid, in Wash- ington township, one on the farm of Benjamin Homan, sr., one on the Griffis farm, half a mile from the former. The last mentioned is of good size. In Harrison town- ship there is a mound a quarter of a mile east of Eu- phemia, and another on the Christian Stone farm, near Scuffletown. In Dixon township the novel sight is to be seen of a house built upon a mound. Near West Flor- ence is a small tumulus upon one of the Kelley farms. The tumuli are also of quite frequent occurrence in Is- rael township, and in the vicinity of New Paris, Jefferson township, and in the valley of Twin creek. A very fine mound, of large size and beautifully symmetrical in ap- pearance, is to be seen on the Swartzel farm in Monroc township.

A great number of Mound Builders' implements and

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ornaments have been found in Preble county, and the discoverers have formed them into collections owned into other localities. Smith Hunt, of Richmond, Indi- ana, has probably gathered more articles from Preble county than any other one man. Many of his pur- chases and "finds" have been sent to the Rose Poly- technic institute, at Terre Haute, Indiana, as have also many gathered by Mr. G. Dix Hendricks, of Eaton. This gentleman has at various times had in his posses- sion some of the rarest and most valuable archaeological specimens that have been brought to light in Preble county. He has been an indefatigable collector and brought to bear in his work rare judgment, obtaining thereby not only a local but general reputation among archaeologists. He has sent many pieces to the Rose Polytechnic institute and to R. W. Mercer, of Cincin- nati.

Albert Horn, of Lewisburgh, and Miss Mary Bloom, of Jefferson township, have also made collections, though small ones, and N. B. Stephens, of Eaton, has amassed quite a quantity of specimens, among which are some which are very rare and curious. He has a stone axe weighing twelve pounds, a very beautiful piece of work- manship which was found on the Ross Conger farm; a twenty-six-inch roller picked up on the Eli Fisher farm in Washington township, and a large collection of com- moner articles. The gem of his collection is a small, hard stone carved in the shape of a canoe, and perforated with two holes through its bottom as if for the purpose of suspending it about the neck of him who was origin- ally its possessor. It is of excellent workmanship, and certainly a unique specimen. It was found on the old Lewallen farm on Four Mile creek, in Dixon township. Mr. Stephens' collection is undoubtedly the best that is owned in the county, both in size and in the variety and value of specimens.

Matthias Disher, of Twin township, has in his posses- sion some fragments of pottery found in a gravel bank on the farm now owned by Ezra Ozias. One of the pieces has upon it an ear-like projection or handle. The vessel was probably whole until broken by the plow- share which unearthed it. It was a jar or urn, and of very good form.

CHAPTER III. INDIAN OCCUPATION.

THE principal tribes of Indians within the bounds of Ohio at the earliest period at which definite knowledge was received regarding them, were the Wyandots, called by the French Hurons, the Mingoes, an offshoot from the Iroquois, the Ottawas or Tawas, the Chippewas, Dela- wares, the Miamis, and the Shawnees. The Wyandots occupied the country about the Sandusky river; the Delawares the valleys of the Tuscarawas and Musking-

um, and the Upper Scioto ; and the Miamis the valleys of the two rivers that bear their name with the country between. The Shawnees had the greatest strength upon the Scioto at the earliest period that the whites went among them, and afterward were most numerous upon the Great and Little Miami. The Mingoes were in greatest numbers on the Ohio river, about Mingo bot- tom, below Steubenville, and also on the Scioto. The Ottawas had their headquarters in the valleys of the Maumee and Sandusky, and the Chippewas were con- fined principally to the south shore of Lake Erie. All of the tribes, however, frequented more or less, lands lying outside of their regular divisions of territory, and at different periods their locations varied. Different tribes commingled, too, to some extent.

The Wyandots, according to the best authorities upon aboriginal occupation, were among the earliest red men who dwelt within the territory now included in Ohio: Then came the Delawares, who claimed to be the elder branch of the Lenni-Lenape, and called themselves the grandfathers of the kindred tribes, recognizing only the priority and superiority of the Wyandots. This division has been awarded a high rank by nearly all writers upon the Indians. The Ottawas dwelt originally upon the banks of the Canadian river, remaining there until driven away by the Iroquois; they were then scattered through Canada and Ohio, along the shores of Lake Erie.

As a rule the Ohio Indians were fine specimens of their race-none were superior to the Shawmees and Miamis, between which tribes there existed a long-abid- ing and warm feeling of friendship. Little Turtle and Tecumseh were the representative chiefs of these tribes, the former of the Miamis and the latter of the Shawnees.

According to the best traditional authorities the do- minion of the Miami confederacy extended for a long period of time over that part of the State of Ohio which lies west of the Scioto river, over the whole of Indiana, the southern part of Michigan and over a large portion of the territory now included in Illinois. The large ter- ritory claimed by the Miamis may be regarded as some evidence of the high degree of importance which they maintained as a nation among the Indian tribes of the northwest. The Miami nation or confederacy was com- posed of four tribes, viz: The Twrightwees or Miamis proper, the Weas or Quiatenous, Pinkeshaws and Shock- eys. The Miamis proper dwelt where knowledge was first obtained concerning them, almost entirely in the territory now included in southwestern Ohio and south- eastern and eastern Indiana. This division was the largest and most powerful one in the confederacy. In the year 1765 the number of the warriors of this tribe was estimated at one thousand and fifty.

They were dwelling at that time in small villages upon the Scioto, the Miami, the Maumee, on the St. Joseph, of Lake, Michigan, and upon the Wabash and its tribu- taries> Branches of the Shawnees, Delawares, Potta- watomies, and.other tribes were at various periods per- mitted to enter and reside at various places within the boundaries of the large territory claimed by the Indians,

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and hence the presence of the Shawnees in great num- bers upon the headwaters of the Miamis. The Shaw- nees were the strongest and truest allies of the Miamis. They were intimately associated for a long period, and in each of the later Indian wars on the soil of Ohio, those of St. Clair and Wayne, as well as in the war of 1812, they bore together the brunt of the struggle. Al- though there is considerable conflicting testimony in regard to the early history of the Shawnees, it is generally con- cluded that they separated from the other Lenape tribes and led for many years a nomadic life in the south, the main body of them finally pushing northward, and en- couraged by the Miamis, crossing the Ohio and locating in the Scioto country. Here they lived until dispersed by the conquering Iroquois in 1672, when they again be- came scattered wanderers.

Returning in 1740, or soon after, a reunited race, they again took up their residence in the Scioto valley and contiguous territory, the Delawares-for that tribe was then occupying the valley-allowing them to take peaceable possession. From the Scioto country they gradually passed westward to the Miami, attracted on the one hand by their old time friends and repelled upon the other by the frequent incursions of the whites, and finally by the advancement of civilization.

The Shawnees like the Miamis were divided into four tribes -- the Piqua, Kiskopocke, Mequachuke and Chilli- cothe. Owing to their extensive wanderings this nation has been designated "the Bedouins of the American Wilderness,"-a term which is certainly not inappropri- ate when we consider that of all the tribes of the northwest this was the most nomadic in its habits (and indeed, has continued so down to the present time). The Shawnees were implacable enemies of the whites. They were fine specimens of physical manhood, and this fact coupled with their constancy in braving danger and stoicism in enduring the consequences of defeat won for them the appellation "Spartans of the Race." The Miamis were not behind them in powers or other ad- mirable elements of Indian character. To the former nation, however, belonged Tecumseh, who undoubtedly exerted a wider influence than any warrior among the western Indians. "The Little Turtle " of the Miamis was much like the great Shawnee chief, excellent both as battle leader and in the councils of peace ; but students of Indian character have united in giving him a lower rank than Tecumseh.

Preble county appeared to have been neutral ground for several tribes in the latter years of the eighteenth century. As has been shown, it was within the domain of the Miamis, but so far as is known they never had a village of any importance within it, and, for that matter, neither did the Shawnees or any other tribe. Most of the Indians who traversed this portion of territory were Miamis, Shawnees, and Delawares, but it also served as a hunting ground for small parties of Wyandots, Mingoes, and other tribes. Well defined. paths traversed the lands of Preble county, from the White waters to the Miamis, and in many places their trails could be easily distin- guished several years after the white settlers came into the

country. The last time that Indians were known to have camped within the limits of the county was in the win- ter of 1813-14. Five families of Delawares were lo- cated for nearly the whole of that season on section sixteen of Dixon township, on Four Mile creek, south of the Concord road. They were friendly to the whites and their presence was liked by them. They were looked upon as a safeguard against hostile Indians, who at that time were known to be skulking through the country.

LITTLE TURTLE, THE WAR CHIEF OF THE MIAMIS.

This celebrated chief, who was known in his tribe and to the Indians of the Western Confederacy as Mesheke- uoghqua, has been mentioned several times in this chapter, and as his name will occur in the chapter fol- lowing, upon St. Clair's campaign and Wayne's war, we take advantage of this opportunity to present the reader with such facts as are known concerning him. He led the Indians in that terrible battle known as the St. Clair defeat, and doubtless would have commanded the allied tribes who met Wayne had he not counseled pcace. He is known to have been the chief of the party who at- tacked Adair at Fort St. Clair in 1792, and it is supposed that he led the company against which the brave Lieuten- ant Lowery made the gallant but forlorn fight near the Forty-foot pitch. Little Turtle lived many years after the wars in which he took so prominent a part, and was held in high esteem by many eminent men who became acquainted with him. When the famous traveler and philosopher, Volney, was in America, in 1797, Little Turtle went to Philadelphia, and the great scholar im- mediately sought acquaintance with the savage. Little Turtle had become convinced that opposition to the whites was useless, and used all of his influence over his nation to secure peace and the adoption of agricultural pursuits. It was to further this end that he went to Philadelphia. His errand was to solicit Congress and the Society of Friends for assistance to carry out his cher- ished plan, and to make his people an agricultural com- munity. Schoolcraft says of this chief : "He was at once courageous and humane. There have been few individ- uals among the aboriginees who have done so much to abolish the rights of human sacrifice." On the approach of the war of 1812 Little Turtle communicated with William Henry Harrison, then governor of Indiana, ex- pressing his willingness to aid the United States and as- serting the friendship of his people. He afterward ren- dered important service. This celebrated chief is buried at Fort Wayne.

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CHAPTER IV. ST. CLAIR'S CAMPAIGN-ENGAGEMENT AT FORT ST. CLAIR.

NEARLY all of the Indian tribes of the Northwest Territory maintained an attitude of unceasing, uncom- promising, hostility toward the white settlers from the organization of the territorial government in 1788, until the ratification of the treaty of Greenville, otherwise known as Wayne's treaty, in 1795. The campaigns di- rected against the Indians prior to the organization of civil government had failed to secure a permanent peace. The inhabitants of the county were constantly exposed to, and occasionally suffered from, sudden, stealthy at- tacks of the savages. Immigration was discouraged and the constant apprehension felt by the scattered pioneers of the territory, led a few to return to the older settle- ments and prevented those who remained in the wilder- ness from making the improvements with which they would have surrounded themselves had peace been assured.

The National Government, anxious to bring about a termination of hostilities in the territory, organized a number of military expeditions, the first of which was that of General Harmar, who was then commander in chief of the military department of the West, in 1790. Detachments of the army met with mortifying defeat at the confluence of the St. Joseph and St. Mary's rivers (now Fort Wayne, Indiana), and the campaign failed to give security from the apprehended attack of the Indians on the white settlements.

In 1791 General St. Clair, governor of the territory and a man who had achieved quite a military reputation in the Revolutionary war, organized an expedition which, although stronger than Harmar's army, was nevertheless terribly overwhelmed by the combined Indian forces. Little Turtle, the chief of the Miamis, Blue Jacket, of the Shawnees, and Buckongahelas, of the Delawares, were engaged in forming a confederacy of all the tribes in the northwest territory, strong enough to drive the whites beyond the Ohio. It was St. Clair's purpose to check this movement, to secure control over the Indians by establishing a line of forts from the Ohio to Lake Erie, and especially to secure the commanding position at the head of the Maumee. General St. Clair began organizing his army at Pittsburgh at the close of April. On the fifteenth of May he reached Fort Washington (Cincinnati), and from this place, after many vexatious delays, he moved forward upon the seventeenth of Sep- tember to a point on the great Miami (the site of Ham- ilton, Butler county), where Fort Hamilton was built, the first in the proposed chain of fortresses.

After the completion of Fort Hamilton the army, with the exception of a small garrison, left there, marched on forty-four miles further, and erected Fort Jefferson, about six miles south of the site of Green- ville, Darke county. St. Clair and his army in passing northward through the territory now included within the boundaries of Preble county, marched up Seven Mile creek, west of Eaton. [The trace cannot now be defin- itely located. It was not cut to as great a width as

most of the military roads, and the line has been almost wholly obscured by the growth of the forest and the action of the weather upon the soil.] Having garri- soned Fort Jefferson, St. Clair pushed on in the direc- tion of the Indian villages on the Maumee, his force constantly being reduced by desertions, until he had, on arriving at the point where Fort Recovery was afterward built (near the south line of Mercer county), only about fourteen hundred men. At this point, on the fourth of November, 1791, occurred St. Clair's overwhelming de- feat, the most disheartening disaster known in the annals of American border warfare. Even the defeat of Brad- dock was less disastrous. "Braddock's army consisted of twelve hundred men and eighty-six officers, of whom seven hundred and fourteen men and sixty-three offi- cers were killed or wounded. St. Clair's army consisted of fourteen hundred men and eighty-six officers, of whom eight hundred and ninety men and sixteen offi- cers were either killed or wounded. But the compara- tive losses of the two engagements represent very inade- quately the crushing effect of the defeat of St. Clair. An unprotected frontier of a thousand miles, from the Alle- gheny to the Mississippi, was at once thrown open to the attack of the infuriated and victorious savages."

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History of Preble County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, Part 3

Author: H. Z. Williams & Brothers Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages: 559

Author: H. Z. Williams & Brothers
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 559