History of Preble County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, Part 89

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

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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

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State. It was here but a short time, however, when the French, hearing of its existence, sent a party of soldiers to the Twigtwees among whom it was founded, and de- manded the surrender of the traders as intruders upon French territory. The Twigtwees refusing to deliver up their friends, the French, assisted by a large party of Ot- tawas and Chippewas, attacked the trading-house, prob- ably a block-house, and, after a severe battle, captured The traders were taken to Canada. This fort it. was then called by the English "Pickawillamy," from which Piqua is probably derived. About the time that Kentucky was settled, a Canadian Frenchman named Loramie, established a store on the sight 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 towards the settlers.

The French had the faculty of endearing themselves to the Indians by their easy assimilation of their habits- no doubt Loramie was equal to any in this respect, and hence gained great influence over them. Colonel John- ston, 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 Indians, that, when General Clarke, from Kentucky, invaded the Miami valley in 1782, his attention was attracted to the spot. He came on and burned the Indian settlement here, and destroyed the store of the Frenchman, selling his goods among the men at auction. Loramie fled to the Shawnees, and, with a colony of that nation, emi- grated west of the Mississippi, to the Spanish posses- sions, 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 Lora- mie. The last officer who had command here was Cap- tain Butler, a nephew of Colonel 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 his sorrowing father and mother erected 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 important point, and was one of the places defined on the boun- dary 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 General Wayne in 1794, was a settlement of traders, established some time before the Indian war began. "On the high ground ex- tending 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 occupa- tion of a silversmith, exchanging with the Indians his brooches, ear-drops and other silver ornaments, at an en- ormous profit, for skins and furs.

Still further up were several other families of French and English ; and two American 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 Maumee, 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 oc- cupied 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 crea- tion 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 hunters. 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 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 pre- parations to plant corn and other necessaries of life. While the men were encamped near the vicinity of Pike- town, 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, fortunately 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 Jackson county, on the banks of Salt creek, a tributary of the Scioto, were long known to the whites before any at- tempt was made to settle in Ohio. They were indicated on the maps published in 1755. They were the resort,

* Narrative of O. M. Spencer.

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for generations, of the Indians 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 became known. There were no attempts made to settle here, however, until after the Indian war, which closed in 1795. As soon as peace was assured, the whites came here for salt, and soon after made a settle- ment. Another early salt spring was in what is now Trumbull county. It is also noted on Evans' map of 1755. They were occupied by the Indians, French, and by the Americans as early 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. Frederick Post and John Hecke- welder, permanent stations were established in several parts of the state, chiefly 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; Gnadenhutten 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 Colonel 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 brethren on the Ohio. The American people at large looked on the act of Will- iamson and his men as an outrage on humanity. Con- gress felt its influence, and gave them a tract of twelve thousand acres, embracing their former homes, and in- duced 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 General Cass, of Michigan, an agreement was made with them, whereby Congress paid them over six thousand dollars, an annuity of four hun- dred dollars, and twenty-four thousand acres in some territory to be designated by the United States. This treaty, by some means, was never effectually carried out, and the principal 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 gen- erally believed to have been the first white child born in Ohio. However, 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 Ohio, is therefore incorrect. She is the first of whom any definite record is made.

These outposts and the Gallipolis settlement are about

all that are known to have existed prior to the settlement at Marietta. 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 one thousand men under General McIntosh, from Fort Pitt. It was, however, occupied but a short time, being va- cated 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 illustrates 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 proposals in Paris for the disposal of lands at five 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 Beauti- ful,' 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 mili- tary 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 with- out knowledge of the language, customs and roads, at last managed to reach the spot designated for their resi- dence. There they learned they had been cruelly de- ceived, 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 French- man 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 afterward gave them a grant of land, and confirmed them in its title, were they ena- bled to secure a foothold. Whatever doubt there may be as to the causes of these people being so grossly de- ceived, 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 coachmakers 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.

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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 pur- chase provisions 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. Con- gress, too, in 1795, being informed of their sufferings, and how they had been deceived, granted them twenty- four thousand acres opposite Little Sandy river, to which grant, in 1798, twelve thousand acres more were added. The tract has since been known as French grant. The settlement is a curious episode in early western history, and deserves a place in its annals.

CHAPTER XVII. ENGLISH EXPLORATIONS-FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR IN THE WEST.

AS 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 al- leged cession of the rights of the Indians. The rights ac- quired 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 disregarded 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 orig- inal colonies the country westward to the South sea, and the claims thus set up in the west, though held in abey- ance, 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 occupa-

tion, however, mainly by their traders, who penetrated the western wilderness by way of the Ohio river, enter- ing it from the two streams which uniting form that river. Daniel Coxie, in 1722, published, in London, "A de- scription of the English province of Carolina, by the Spaniards called Florida, and by the French called La Louisiane, 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 Rob- ert 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 afterwards taken. This immense grant was conveyed in 1638, to the Earl of Arundel, and afterwards came into the pos- session of Dr. Daniel Coxie. In the prosecution of this claim, it appeared that Colonel Wood, of Virginia, from 1654 to 1664, explored several branches of the Ohio and "Meschacebe," as they spell the Mississippi. A Mr. Needham, who was employed by Colonel Wood, kept a journal of the exploration. There is also the account of some one who had explored the Mississippi to the Yel- low, 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 D'Iberville was colonizing the lower part of Louis- iana, these same persons visited the Chickasawes 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 incited 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 hun- dred and fifty leagues beyond the Meschacebe," the nar- rative reads, and on their return wrote an account of the expedition. This, also, cannot be traced to good author- ity. 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 moun- tains 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 aban- doned. Its revival dates from 1710 properly, though no immediate endeavor was made for many years after. That 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 mountains unoc- cupied by the English, and rapidly filling with the French, who he observed were gradually confining the

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English to the Atlantic coast. His prophetic eye saw at a glance the animus of the whole scheme, and he deter- mined to act promptly on the defensive. Through his representation, the Virginia assembly was induced to make an appropriation to defray the expense of an ex- ploration 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 emigrants, and the party returned to Williamsburgh. 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 ex- posed with great boldness 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 mountains and gather from the Indians the stores beyond. They now began to adopt a system, and abandoned the here- tofore renegade habits of those who had superseded them, many of whom never returned to the Atlantic coast. In 1742, John Howard descended 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 Governor Spottswood. In 1748, Conrad Weiser, a German of Herenberg, who had ac- quired in early life a knowledge of the Mohawk tongue by a residence among them, was sent on an embassy to the Shawnees on the Ohio. He went as far as Logstown, a Shawnee village on the north bank of the Ohio, about seventeen miles below the site of Pittsburgh. Here he met the chiefs in counsel, and secured their promise of aid against the French.

The principal ground of the claims of the English in the northwest was the treaty with the Five Nations-the Iroquois. This powerful confederation claimed the juris- diction over an immense extent of country. Their pol- icy differed considerably from other Indian tribes. They were the only confederation which attempted any form of government in America. They were often termed the Six Nations, as the entrance of another tribe into the confederacy made that number. They were the conquer- ors of nearly all tribes from Lower Canada, to and be- yond the Mississippi. They only exacted, however, a tribute from the conquered tribes, leaving them to man- age their own internal affairs, and stipulating that to them alone did the right of cession belong. Their country, under these claims, embraced all of America north of the Cherokee nation, in Virginia; all Kentucky, and all the northwest, save a district in Ohio and Indiana, and a small section in southwestern Illinois, claimed by the Miami confederacy. The Iroquois, or Six Nations, were

the terror of all other tribes. It was they who devastated the Illinois country about Rock Fort in 1680, and caused wide-spread alarm among all the western Indians. In 1684, Lord Howard, governor of Virginia, held a treaty with the Iroquois at Albany, when, at the request of Colo- nel Duncan, of New York, they placed themselves under the protection of the English. They made a deed of sale then, by treaty, to the British government, of a vast tract south and east of the Illinois river, and extending into Canada. In 1726, another deed was drawn up and signed by the chiefs of the national confederacy by which their lands were conveyed in trust to England, "to be protected and defended by his majesty, to and for the use of the grantors and their heirs." *

If the Six Nations had a good claim to the western country, there is but little doubt but England was justi- fied in defending their country against the French, as, by the treaty of Utrecht, they had agreed not to invade the lands of Britain's Indian allies. This claim was vigor- ously contested by France, as that country claimed the Iroquois had no lawful jurisdiction over the west. In all the disputes, the interests of the contending nations were, however, the paramount consideration. The rights of the Indians were little regarded.

The British also purchased land by the treaty of Lan- caster, in 1744, wherein they agreed to pay the Six Nations for land settled unlawfully in Pennsylvania, Vir- ginia, and Maryland. The Indians were given goods and gold amounting to nearly one thousand pounds ster- ling. They were also promised the protection of the English. Had this latter provision been faithfully car- ried out, much blood would have been saved in after years. The treaties with the Six Nations were the real basis of the claims of Great Britain to the west; claims that were only settled by war. The Shawnee Indians, on the Ohio, were also becoming hostile to the English, and began to assume a threatening exterior. Peter Chartiez, a half-beeed residing in Philadelphia, escaped from the authorities, those by whom he was held for a violation of the laws, and joining the Shawnees, persuaded them to join the French. Soon after, in 1743 or 1744, he placed himself at the head of four hundred of their warriors, and lay in wait on the Allegheny river for the provincial traders. He captured two, exhibited to them a captain's commission from the French, and seized their goods, worth one thousand six hundred pounds. The Indians, after this, emboldened by the aid given them by the French, became more and more hostile, and Weiser was again sent across the mountains in 1748, with presents to con- ciliate them and sound them for their feelings of the rival nations, and also to see what they thought of a set- tlement of the English to be made in the west. The visit of Conrad Weiser was successful, and Thomas Lee, with twelve other Virginians, among whom were Law- rence and Augustine Washington, brothers of George Washington, formed a company which they styled the Ohio company, and, in 1748, petitioned the king for a grant beyond the mountains. The monarch approved

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History of Preble County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, Part 89

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

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