USA > Ohio > Preble County > History of Preble County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches > Part 86
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"Those on the north may not have been cotemporary or have been built by the same people. They are far less prominent or extensive, which indicates a people less in numbers as well as industry, and whose principal occupation was war among themselves or against their neighbors. This style of works extends eastward along the south shore of Lake Ontario, through New York. In Ohio, there is a space along the water-shed, between the lake and the Ohio, where there are few, if any, ancient earthworks. It appears to have been a vacant or neutral ground between different nations.
"The Indians of the North dressed in skins, cultivated the soil very sparingly, and manufactured no woven cloth. On Lake Superior there are ancient copper mines, wrought by the Mound Builders over fifteen hundred years ago." Copper tools are occasionally found tempered sufficiently hard to cut the hardest rocks. No knowledge of such tem- pering exists now. The Indians can give no more knowledge of the ancient mines than they can of the mounds on the river bottoms.
"The Indians did not occupy the ancient earthworks, nor did they construct such. They were found as they are now -a hunter race, wholly averse to labor. Their abodes were in rock shelters, in caves, or in temporary sheds of bark and boughs, or skins, easily moved from place to place. Like most savage races, their habits are unchangeable; at least the example of white men, and their efforts during three centuries, have made little, if any, impression."
When white men came to the territory now embraced in the State of Ohio, they found dwelling here the Iro- quois, Delawares, Shawnees, Miamis, Wyandots, and Ot- tawas. Each nation was composed of several tribes or clans, and each was often at war with the others. 'T'he first mentioned of these occupied that part of the State whose boundary was Lake Erie, as far west as the mouth of the Cuyahoga river, where the city of Cleveland now
is, thence the boundary turned southward in an irregular line, until it touched the Ohio river, up which stream it continued to the Pennsylvania State line, and thence northward to the lake. This nation was the implacable foe of the French, owing to the fact that Champlain, in 1609, made war against them. They occupied a large part of New York and Pennsylvania, and were the most insatiate conquerors among the aborigines. When the French first came to the lakes, these monsters of the wilderness were engaged in a war against their neighbors, a war that ended in their conquering them, possessing their territory, and absorbing the remnants of the tribes into their own nation. At the date of Champlain's visit, the southern shore of Lake Erie was occupied by the Eries, or, as the orthography of the word is sometimes given, the Erigos, or Errienous .* About forty years afterward, the Iroquois (Five Nations) fell upon them with such fury and in such force that the nation was an- nihilated. Those who escaped the slaughter were ab- sorbed among their conquerors, but allowed to live on their own lands, paying a sort of tribute to the Iroquois. This was the policy of that nation in all its conquests. A few years after the conquest of the Eries, the Iroquois again took to the war-path, and swept through Ohio, In- diana and Illinois, even attacking the Mississippi tribes. But for the intervention and aid of the French these tribes would have shared the fate of the Hurons and Eries. Until the year 1700, the Iroquois held the south shore of lake Erie so firmly that the French dared not trade or travel along that side of the lake. Their missionaries and traders penetrated this part of Ohio as early as 1650, but generally suffered death for their zeal.
Having completed the conquest of the Hurons or Wyandots about Lake Huron, and murdered the Jesuit missionaries by modes of torture which only they could devise, they permitted the residue of the Hurons to set- tle around the west end of Lake Erie. Here, with the Ottawas, they resided when the whites came to the State. Their country was bounded on the south by a line run- ning through the central part of Wayne, Ashland, Rich- land, Crawford, and Wyandot counties. At the western boundary of this county, the line diverged northwesterly, leaving the State near the northwest corner of Fulton county. Their northern boundary was the lake; the eastern, the Iroquois.
The Delawares, or "Lenni Lenapes," whom the Iro- quois had subjugated on the Susquehanna, were assigned by their conquerors hunting-grounds on the Muskingum.
* Father Louis Hennepin, in his work published in 1684, thus alludes to the Fries: "These good fathers," referring to the priests, "were great friends of the Hurons, who told them that the Iroquois went to war beyond Virginia, or New Sweden, near a lake they called . Erige,, or 'Erie,' which signifies 'the cat,' or 'nation of the cat,' and because these savages brought captives from this nation in returning to their cantons along this lake, the Hurons named it in their language, 'Erige,. or ' Erike, the lake of the cat,' and which our Canadians, in softening the word, have called 'lake Erie."'
Charlevoix, writing in 1721, says: "The name it bears is that of an Indian nation of the Huron ( Wyandot ) language, which was formerly seated on its banks, and who have been entirely destroyed by the /ro- quois. Erie, in that language, signifies 'cat,' and, in some accounts, this nation is called the 'cat nation.' This name, probably, comes from the large numbers of that animal found in this region."
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
Their eastern boundary was the country of the Iroquois (before defined), and their northern, that of the Hurons. On the west, they extended as far as a line drawn from the central part of Richland county, in a semi-circular direction, south to the mouth of Leading creek. Their southern boundary was the Ohio river.
West of the Delawares, dwelt the Shawnees, a trouble- some people as neighbors, whether to whites or Indians. Their country was bounded on the north by the Hurons, on the east by the Delawares, on the south by the Ohio river. On the west their boundary was determined by a line drawn southwesterly, and again southeasterly-semi- circular -- from a point on the southern boundary of the Hurons, near the southwest corner of Wyandot county, till it intersected the Ohio river .-
All the remainder of the State-all its western part from the Ohio river to the Michigan line -was occupied by the Miamis, Mincamis, Twigtwees, or Tawixtawees, a powerful nation, whom the Iroquois were never fully able to subdue.
These nations occupied the State, partly by permit of the Five Nations, and partly by inheritance, and, though composed of many tribes, were about all the savages to be found in this part of the Northwest.
No sooner had the Americans obtained control of this country, than they began, by treaty and purchase, to ac- quire the lands of the natives. They could not stem the tide of emigration; people, then as now, would go West, and hence the necessity of peacefully and rightfully ac- quiring the land. "The true basis of title to Indian territory is the right of civilized men to the soil for pur- poses of cultivation." The same maxim may be applied to all uncivilized nations. When acquired by such a right, either by treaty, purchase or conquest, the right to hold the same rests with the power and development of the nation thus possessing the land.
The English derived title to the territory between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi partly by the claim that, in discovering the Atlantic coast, they had possession of the land from "ocean to ocean," and partly by the treaty of Paris, in February, 1763. Long before this treaty took place, however, she had granted, to individuals and colonies, extensive tracts of land in that part of Amer- ica, based on the right of discovery. The French had done better, and had acquired title to the land by dis- covering the land itself and by consent of the Indians dwelling thereon. The right to possess this country led to the French and Indian war, ending in the supremacy of the English.
The Five Nations claimed the territory in question by right of conquest, and, though professing friendship to the English, watched them with jealous eyes. In 1684, and again in 1726, that confederacy made cessions of lands to the English, and these treaties and cessions of lands were regarded as sufficient title by the English, and were insisted on in all subsequent treaties with the west- ern nations. The following statements were collected by Colonel Charles Whittlesey, which show the principal treaties made with the red men wherein land in Ohio was ceded by them to the whites: .
In September, 1726, the Iroquois, or Six .Vations, at Albany, ceded all their claims west of Lake Erie and sixty miles in width along the south shore of Lakes Erie and Ontario, from the Cuyahoga to the Os- wego river.
In 1744, this same nation made a treaty at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and ceded to the English all their lands "that may be within the col- ony of Virginia."
In 1752, this nation and other western tribes made a treaty at Logs- town, Pennsylvania, wherein they confirmed the Lancaster treaty and consented to the settlements south of the Ohio river.
February 13, 1763, a treaty was made at Paris, France, between the French and English, when Canada and the eastern half of the Missis- sippi valley were ceded to the English.
In 1783, all the territory south of the Lakes, and east of the Missis- sippi, was ceded by England to America -- the latter country then ob- taining its independence -- by which means the country was gained by America.
October 24, 1784, the Six .Vations made a treaty, at Fort Stanwix. New York, with the Americans, and ceded to them all the country claimed by the tribe, west of Pennsylvania.
In 1785, the Chippewas, Delawares, Ottawas, and Wyandots ceded to the United States, at Fort McIntosh, at the mouth of Big Beaver, all their claims east and south of the "Cayahaga," the Portage path, and the Tuscarawas, to Fort Laurens (Bolivar), thence to Loramie's fort (in Shelby county), thence along the Portage path to the St. Mary's river, and down it to the "Omec," or Maumee, and along the lake shore to the "Cayahaga."
January 3, 1786, the Shawnees, at Fort Finney, near the mouth of the Great Miami (not owning the land on the Scioto occupied by them), were allotted a tract at the heads of the two Miamis and the Wabash, west of the Chipperas, Delawares and Wyandots.
February 9, 1789, the Iroquois made a treaty at Fort Harmar, where- in they confirmed the Fort Stanwix treaty. At the same time, the Chippewa., Ottawas, Delawares, and Wyandots-to which the Sauks and Pottawatomics assented -confirmed the treaty made at Fort Mcln- tosh.
Period of war now existed till 1795.
August 3, 1795, General Anthony Wayne, on behalf of the United States, made a treaty with twelve tribes confirming the boundaries es- tablished by the Fort Harmar and Fort McIntosh treaties, and extended the boundary to Fort Recovery and the mouth of the Kentucky river.
In June, 1796, the Senecas, represented by Brant, ceded to the Con- necticut Land company their rights east of the Cuyahoga.
In 1805, at Fort Industry, on the Maumee, the Wyandots, Dela- wares. Ottawas, Chippewas, Shawnces, Menses, and Potatoatomics re- linquished all their lands west of the Cuyahoga, as far west as the west- ern line of the Reserve, and south of the line from Fort Laurens to Loramie's fort.
July 4, 1807, the Ottawas, Chippewas, Wyandots, and Pottawatomies at Detroit, ceded all that part of Ohio north of the Maumee river, with part of Michigan.
November 25, 1808, the same tribes, with the Sharonces, at Brown- stone, Michigan, granted the Government a tract of land two miles wide, from the west line of the Reserve to the rapids of the Maumee, for the purpose of a road through the Black Swamp.
September 18, 1815, at Springwells, near Detroit, the Chippewas, Of- tawas, Pottawatomies, Wyandots, Delawares, Senecas and Miamis, having been engaged in the war of 1812 on the British side, were con- fined in the grants made at Fort MeIntosh and Greenville in 1785 and 1795.
September 29, 1817, at the rapids of the Maumee, the Wyandots ceded their lands west of the line of 1805, as far as Lor .. mie's and the St. Mary's river and north of the Maumee. The Pottawatomics, Chip pewas, and Ottawas, ceded the territory west of the Detroit line of 1807. and north of the Maumee.
October 6, 1818, the Miamis, at St. Mary's, made a treaty in which they surrendered the remaining Indian territory in Ohio, north of the Greenville treaty line and west of St. Mary's river.
The numerous treaties of peace with the western In- dians for the delivery of prisoners were-one by Gen- eral Forbes, at Fort Du Quesne (Pittsburgh), in 1758; one by Colonel Bradstreet, at Erie, in August, 1764; one by Colonel Boquet, at the mouth of the Walhonding, in November, 1764; in May, 1765, at Johnson's, on the Mohawk, and at Philadelphia, the same year; in 1774,
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
by Lord Dunmore, at Camp Charlotte, Pickaway county. By the treaty at the Maumee rapids, in 1817, reserva- tions were conveyed by the United States to all the tribes, with a view to induce them to cultivate the soil and cease to be hunters. These were, from time to time, as the impracticability of the plan became manifest, purchased by the Government, the last of these being the Wyandot reserve, of twelve miles square, around Upper Sandusky, in 1842, closing out all claims and composing all Indian difficulties in Ohio. The open war had ceased in 1815, with the treaty of Ghent.
" It is estimated that, from the French war of 1754 to the battle of the Maumee Rapids, in 1794, a period of forty years, there had been at least five thousand people killed or captured west of the Alleghany mountains. Eleven organized military expeditions had been carried on against the western Indians prior to the war of 1812, seven regular engagements fought and about twelve hun- dred men killed. More whites were slain in battle than there were Indian braves killed in military expeditions, and by private raids and murders; yet, in 1811, all the Ohio tribes combined could not muster two thousand warriors."
Attempts to determine the number of persons com- prising the Indian tribes in Ohio, and their location, have resulted in nothing better than estimates. It is supposed that, at the commencement of the Revolution, there were about six thousand Indians in the present confines of the State, but their villages were little more than movable camps. Savage men, like savage beasts, are engaged in continual migrations. Now, none are left. The white man occupies the home of the red man. Now
"The verdant hills Are covered o'er with growing grain, And white men till the soil, Where once the red man used to reign."
CHAPTER II. EARLY EXPLORATIONS IN THE WEST.
WHEN war, when ambition, when avarice fail, religion pushes onward and succeeds. In the discovery of the New World, wherever man's aggrandizement was the paramount aim, failure was sure to follow. When this gave way, the followers of the Cross, whether Catholic or Protestant, came on the field, and the result before attempted soon appeared, though in a different way and through different means than those supposed.
The first permanent efforts of the white race to pene- trate the western wilds of the New World preceded any permanent English settlement north of the Potomac. Years before the Pilgrims anchored their bark on the cheerless shores of Cape Cod, "the Roman Catholic church had been planted by missionaries from France in the eastern moiety of Maine; and LeCaron, an ambi-
tious Franciscan, the companion of Champlain, had passed into the hunting-grounds of the Wyandots, and, bound by the vows of his life, had, on foot or paddling a bark canoe, gone onward, taking atms of the savages until he reached the rivers of Lake Huron." This was in 1615 or 1616, and only eight years after Champlain had sailed up the waters of the St. Lawrence, and on the foot of a bold cliff laid the foundation of the pres- ent city of Quebec. From this place, founded to hold the country, and to perpetuate the religion of his King, went forth those emissaries of the Cross, whose zeal has been the admiration of the world. The French colony in Canada was suppressed soon after its establishment, and for five years, until 1622, its immunities were en- joyed by the colonists. A grant of New France, as the country was then known, was made by Louis XIII to Richelieu, Champlain, Razilly and others, who, immedi- ately after the restoration of Quebec by its English con- querors, entered upon the control and government of their province. Its limits embraced the whole basin of the St. Lawrence and such other rivers in New France as flowed directly into the sea. While away to the south on the gulf coast, was also included a country rich in foliage and claimed in virtue of the unsuccessful efforts of Coligny.
Religious zeal as much as commercial prosperity had influenced France to obtain and retain the dependency of Canada. The commercial monopoly of a privileged company could not foster a colony; the climate was too vigorous for agriculture, and, at first there was little else except religious enthusiasm to give vitality to the province. Champlain had been touched by the sim- plicity of the Order of St. Francis, and had selected its priests to aid him in his work. But another order, more in favor at the Court, was interested, and succeeded in excluding the mendicant order from the New World, established themselves in the new domain and, by thus enlarging the borders of the French King, it became entrusted to the Jesuits.
This "Society of Jesus," founded by Loyola when Calvin's institutes first saw the light, saw an unequaled opportunity in the conversion of the heathen in the western wilds; and, as its members, pledged to obtain power only by influence of mind over mind, sought the honors of opening the way, there was no lack of men ready for the work. Through them, the motive power in opening the wilds of the Northwest was religion. "Religious enthusiasm," says Bancroft, "colonized New England, and religious enthusiasm founded Montreal, made a conquest of the wilderness about the upper lakes, and explored the Mississippi."
Through these priests-increased in a few years to fifteen-a way was made across the west from Quebec, above the regions of the lakes, below which they dared not go for the relentless Mohawks. To the northwest of Toronto, near the Lake Iroquis, a bay of Lake Huron, in September, 1634, they raised the first humble house of the Society of Jesus among the Hu- rons. Through them they learned of the great lakes beyond, and resolved one day to explore them and
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
carry the Gospel of peace to the heathen on their shores. Before this could be done, many of them were called upon to give up their lives at the martyr's stake and re- ceive a martyr's crown. But one by one they went on in their good work. If one fell by hunger, cold, cruelty, or a terrible death, others stood ready, and carrying their lives in their hands, established other missions about the eastern shores of Lake Huron and its adja- cent waters. The Fire Nations were for many years hostile toward the French, and murdered them and their red allies whenever opportunity presented. For a quar- ter of a century, they retarded the advance of the mis- sionaries, and then only after wearied with a long struggle, in which they began to see their power declin- ing, did they relinquish their warlike propensities, and allow the Jesuits entrance to their country. While this was going on, the traders and Jesuits had penetrated farther and farther westward, until, when peace was de- clared, they had seen the southwestern shores of Lake Superior and the northern shores of Lake Michigan, called by them Lake Illinois .*
In August, 1654, two young adventurers penetrated the wilds bordering on these western lakes in company with a band of Ottawas. Returning, they tell of the wonderful country they have seen, of its vast forests, its abundance of game, its mines of copper, and excite in their comrades a desire to see and explore such a coun- try. They tell of a vast expanse of land before them, of the powerful Indian tribes dwelling there, and of their anxiety to become annexed to the Frenchmen, of whom they have heard. The request is at once granted. 'Two missionaries, Gabriel Dreuillettes and Leonard Gareau, were selected as envoys, but on their way the fleet, propelled by tawny rowers, is met by a wandering band of Mohawks and by them is dispersed. Not daunted, others stood ready to go. The lot fell to Rene Mesnard. He is charged to visit the wilderness, select a suitable place for a dwelling, and found a mission. With only a short warning he is ready, "trusting," he says, "in the Providence which feeds the little birds of the desert and clothes the wild flowers of the forest." In October, 1660, he reached a bay, which he called St. Theresa, on the south shore of Lake Superior. After a residence of eight months, he yielded to the invitation of the Hurons who had taken refuge on the Island of St. Michael, and bidding adieu to his neophytes and the French, he departed. While on the way to the Bay of Che-goi-me-gon, probably at a portage, he became sepa- rated from his companion and was never afterward heard of. Long after, his cassock and his breviary were kept as amulets among the Sioux. Difficulties now arose in
the management of the colony, and for a while it was on the verge of dissolution. The King sent a regiment under command of the aged Tracy, as a safeguard against the Iroquois, now proving themselves enemies to the French. Accompanying him were Courcelles, as governor, and M. Talon, who subsequently figures in northwestern history. By 1665, affairs were settled and new attempts to found a mission among the lake tribes were projected.
"With better hopes-undismayed by the sad fate of their predecessors," in August. Claude Allouez embarked on a mission by way of Ottawa to the far west. Early in September he reached the rapids through which rush the waters of the lakes to Huron. Sailing by lofty sculptured rocks and over waters of crystal purity, he reached the Chippewa village just as the young warriors were bent on organizing a war expedition against the Sioux. Commanding peace in the name of his king, he called a council, and offered the commerce and pro- tection of his nation. He was obeyed, and soon a chapel arose on the shore of the bay, to which admiring crowds from the south and west gathered to listen to the story of the Cross.
The scattered Hurons and Ottawas north of Lake Superior; the Pottawatomies from Lake Michigan : the Sacs and Foxes from the far west; the Illinois from the prairies, all came to hear him, and all besought him to go with them. To the last nation Allouez desired to go. They told him of a "great river that flowed to the sea," and of "their vast prairies, where herds of buffalo, deer and other animals grazed on the tall grass." "Their country," said the missionary, "is the best field for the Gospel. Had I had leisure, I would have gone to their dwellings to see with my own eyes all the good that was told me of them."
He remained two years, teaching the natives, studying their language and habits, and then returned to Quebec. Such was the account that he gave, that in two days he was joined by Louis Nicholas and was on his way back to his mission.
Peace being now established, more missionaries came from France. Among them were Claude Dablon and James Marquette, both of whom went on to the mission among the Chippewas at the Sault. They reached there in 1668, and found Allouez busy. The mission was now a reality, and given the name of St. Mary. It is often written "Sault Ste. Marie," after the French method, and is the oldest settlement by white men in the bounds of the Northwest Territory. It has been founded over two hundred years. Here on the inhospitable northern shores, hundreds of miles away from friends, did this triumvirate employ themselves in extending their religion and the influence of their king. Traversing the shores of the great lakes near them, they pass down the western bank of Lake Michigan as far as Green Bay, along the southern shore of Lake Superior to its western extremity. everywhere preaching the story of Jesus. "Though suffering be their lot and martyrdom their crown," they went on, only conscious that they were laboring for their Master, and would, in the end, win the crown.
* Mr. C. W. Butterfield, author of Crawford's Campaign, and good authority, says: "John Nicholet, a Frenchman, left Quebec and Three Rivers in the summer of 1634, and visited the Hurons on Geor- gian bay, the Chippricas at the Sault Ste. Marie, and the Winnera- Noes in Wisconsin, returning to Quebec in the summer of 1635. This was the first white man to see any part of the Northwest Territory. In 1641, two Jesuit priests were at the Sault Ste. Marie for a brief timc. Then two French traders reached Lake Superior, and after them came that tide of emigration on which the French based their claim to the country."
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