History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers, Part 3

Author: Everett, Homer, 1813-1887
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : H.Z. Williams
Number of Pages: 1040

USA > Ohio > Sandusky County > History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers > Part 3

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It was more in name than in fact, how- ever, that Virginia had jurisdiction over this great county of Botetcurt through the act of 1769. In 1778, after the splen- did achievements of General George Rogers Clarke-his subjugation of the British posts in the far West, and conquest of the whole country from the Ohio to the

Mississippi-this territory was organized by the Virginia Legislature as the county of Illinois. Then, and not until then, did government have more than a nom- inal existence in this far extending but undeveloped country, containing a few towns and scattered population. The act, which was passed in October, contained the following provisions :

All the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia who are already settled, or shall hereafter settle on the western side of the Ohio, shall be included in a distinct county which shall be called Illinois; and the Governor of this Commonwealth, with the advice of the council, may appoint a County Lieutenant or Commandant-in-Chief, during pleasure, who shall appoint and commission so many Deputy-Com- mandants, Militia officers and Commissaries, as he shall think proper, in the different districts, during pleasure, all of whom, before they enter into office, shall take the oath of fidelity to this Commonwealth, and the oath of office, according to the form of their own religion. And all officers to whom the inhabit- ants have been accustomed, necessary to the preser- vation of peace and the administration of justice, shall be chosen by a majority of citizens, in their re- spective districts, to be convened for that purpose by the County Lieutenant or Commandant, or his deputy, and shall be commissioned by the said County Lieutenant or Commandant-in-Chief.

John Todd was appointed as County Lieutenant and Civil Commandant of Illinois county, and served until his death (he was killed in the battle of Blue Lick, August 18, 1782), being succeeded by Timothy de Montbrun.

New York was the first of the several States claiming right and title in Western lands to withdraw the same in favor of the United States. Her charter, obtained March 2, 1664, from Charles II., em- braced territory which had formerly been granted to Massachusetts and Connecti- cut. The cession of claim was made by James Duane, William Floyd, and Alex- ander McDougall, on behalf of the State, March 1, 1781.

Virginia, with a far more valid claim than New York, was the next State to fol- low New York's example. Her claim was

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

founded upon certain charters granted to the colony by James I., and bearing date respectively, April 10, 1606, May 23, 1609, and March 12, 1611; upon the con- quest of the country by General George Rogers Clarke; and upon the fact that she had also exercised civil authority over the territory. The General Assembly of Virginia, at its session beginning Octo- ber 20, 1783, passed an act authorizing its delegates in Congress to convey to the United States in Congress assembled, all the right of that Commonwealth to the ter- ritory northwest of the Ohio River. The act was consummated on March 17, 1784. By one of the provisory clauses of this act was reserved the Virginia Military District, lying between the waters of the Scioto and Little Miami Rivers.

Massachusetts ceded her claims with- out reservation, the same year that Vir- ginia did hers (1784), though the action was not formally consummated until the 18th of April, 1785. The right of her title had been rested upon her charter, granted less than a quarter of a century from the arrival of the Mayflower, and embracing territory extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Connecticut made what has been char- acterized as "the last tardy and reluctant sacrifice of State pretensions to the com- mon good"* on the 14th of September, 1786. She ceded to Congress all her "right, title, interest, jurisdiction, and claim to the lands northwest of the Ohio, excepting the Connecticut Western Re- serve," and of this tract jurisdictional claim was not ceded to the United States until May 30, 1801.

The happy, and, considering all com- plications, speedy adjustment of the con- flicting claims of the States, and consolida- tion of all rights of title in the United

States, was productive of the best results both at home and abroad. The young Nation, born in the terrible throes of the Revolution, went through a trying ordeal, and one of which the full peril was not realized until it had been safely passed. Serious troubles threatened to arise from the disputed ownership of the Western lands, and there were many who had grave fears that the well-being of the coun- try would be impaired or at least its prog- ress impeded. The infant Republic was at that time closely and jealously watched by all the governments of Europe, and nearly all of them would have rejoiced to witness the failure of the Ameri- can experiment, but they were not des- tined to be gratified at the expense of the United States. As it was, the most pal- pable harm, caused by delay, was the re- tarding of settlement. The movement towards the complete cession of State claims was accelerated as much as possi- ble by Congress. The National Legislature strenuously urged the several States, in 1784, to cede their lands to the Confeder- acy to aid the payment of the debts in- curred during the Revolution, and to pro- mote the harmony of the Union .*

The States of New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland had taken the initiative action and been largely instrumental in bringing about the cession of State claims. The fact that they had no foun- dation for pretensions of ownership save that they had equally, in proportion to their ability with the other States, assisted in wresting these lands from Great Britain, · led them to protest against an unfair division of the territory-New Jersey had memorialized Congress in 1778, and Del- aware followed in the same spirit in Jan- uary, 1779. Later in the same year Maryland virtually reiterated the principles

* Statutes of Ohio; Chief Justice Chase.

* Albach's Annals of the West.

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

advanced by New Jersey and Maryland, though more positively. Her represent- atives in Congress emphatically and elo- quently expressed their views and those of their constituents, in the form of instruc- tions upon the matter of confirming the articles of Confederation.

The extinguishment of the Indian claims to the soil of the Northwest was another delicate and difficult duty which devolved upon the Government. In the treaty of peace, ratified by Congress in 1784, no provision was made by Great Britain in behalf of the Indians-even their most faithful allies, the Six Nations. Their lands were included in the boundaries se- cured to the United States. They had suffered greatly during the war, and the Mohawks had been dispossessed of the whole of their beautiful valley. The only remuneration they received was a tract of country in Canada, and all of the sover- eignty which great Britain had exercised over them was transferred to the United States. The relation of the new Govern- ment to these Indians was peculiar. In 1782 the British principle, in brief that "might makes right"-that discovery was equivalent to conquest, and that therefore the nations retained only a possessory claim to their lands, and could only abdi- cate it to the government claiming sover- eignty-was introduced into the general policy of the United States. The Legisla- ture of New York was determined to expel the Six Nations entirely, in retaliation for their hostility during the war. Through the just and humane counsels of Washing- ton and Schuyler, however, a change was wrought in the Indian policy, and the Continental Congress sought henceforward in its action to condone the hostilities of the past and gradually to dispossess the Indians of their lands by purchase, as the growth of the settlements might render it necessary to do so. It was in pursuance

of this policy that the treaty of Fort Stan- wix was made, October 22, 1784. By this treaty were extinguished the vague claims which the confederated tribes, the Mohawks, Onondagas, Senecas, Cayugas, Tuscarawas, and Oneidas had for more than a century maintained to the Ohio Val- ley. The commissioners of Congress in this transaction were Oliver Wolcott, Richard Butler, and Arthur Lee. The Six Nations were represented by two of their ablest chiefs, Cornplanter and Red Jacket, the former for peace and the latter for war. La Fayette was present at this treaty and importuned the Indians to pre- serve peace with the Americans.

By the treaty of Fort McIntosh, ne- gotiated on the 21st of January, 1785, by George Rogers Clarke, Richard Butler and Arthur Lee, was secured the relinquish- ment of all claims to the Ohio Valley held by the Delawares, Ottawas, Wyan- dots, and Chippewas. The provisions of this treaty were as follows :

ARTICLE Ist-Three chiefs, one from the Wyan- dot and two from the Delaware Nations, shall be de- livered up to the Commissioners of the United States, to be by them retained till all the prisoners taken by the said Nations or any of them shall be restored.

ARTICLE 2d-The said Indian Nations and all of their tribes do acknowledge themselves to be under the protection of the United States and of no other sovereign whatever.

ARTICLE 3d-The boundary line between the United States and the Wyandot and Delaware Na- tions shall begin at the mnouth of the river Cuyahoga and run thence up the said river to the portage be- tween that and the Tuscarawas branch of the Mus- kingum; then down the said branch to the forks at the crossing-place above Fort Laurens; then west- wardly to the portage of the Big Miami, which runs into the Ohio, at the mouth of which branch the fort stood which was taken by the French in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-two; then along the said portage to the Great Miami or Owl River, and down the southeast side of the same to its mouth; thence down the south shore of Lake Erie to the mouth of the ('uyhoga where it began.

ARTICLE 4th-The United States allot all the lands contained within the said lines to the Wyan- dot and Delaware Nations, to live and to hunt on,

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

and to such of the Ottawa Nation as now live there- on; saving and reserving for the establishment of trading posts six miles square at the mouth of the Miami or Owl River and the same at the portage of that branch of the Miami which runs into the Oliio, and the same on the Cape of Sandusky, where the fort formerly stood, and also two miles square on the lower rapids of Sandusky River; which posts and the land annexed to them, shall be for the use and under the Government of the United States.

ARTICLE 5th-If any citizen of the United States, or other person not being an Indian, shall attempt to settle on any of the lands allotted to the Wyan- dot and Delaware Nations in this treaty, except on the lands reserved to the United States, in the pre- ceding article, such person shall forfeit the protection of the United States, and the Indians may punish him as they please.

ARTICLE 6th-The Indians who sign this treaty, as well in behalf of all their tribes as of themselves, do acknowledge the lands east, south and west of the lands described in the third article, so far as the said Indians claimed the same, to belong to the United States, and none of the tribes shall presume to settle upon the same or any part of it.

ARTICLE 7th-The post of Detroit, with a dis- trict beginning at the mouth of the River Rosine on the west side of Lake Erie and running west six miles up the southern bank of the said river; thence northerly, and always six miles west of the strait, till it strikes Lake St. Clair, shall also be reserved to the sole use of the United States.

ARTICLE 8th-In the same manner the post of Michilimackinac with its dependencies, and twelve miles square about the same, shall be reserved to the use of the United States.

ARTICLE 9th-If any Indian or Indians shall com- mit a robbery or murder on any citizen of the United States, the tribe to which such offenders nay belong shall be bound to deliver them up at the nearest post, to be punished according to the ordinance of the United States.

ARTICLE Ioth-The Commissioners of the United States, in pursuance of the humane and liberal views of Congress, upon the treaty's being signed, will di- rect goods to be distributed among the different tribes for their use and comfort.

The treaty of Fort Finney, at the mouth of the Great Miami, January 31, 1786, secured the cession of whatever claim to the Ohio Valley was held by the Shawnees. George Rogers Clarke, Richard Butler, and Samuel H. Parsons* were the

Commissioners of the United States. James Monroe, then a Member of Con- gress from Virginia and afterwards Presi- dent of the United States, accompanied General Butler, in the month of October preceding the treaty, as far as Limestonet (now Maysville, Kentucky). The party, it is related, stopped at the mouth of the Muskingum and (in the words of General Butler's journal,) "left fixed in a locust tree" a letter recommending the building of a fort on the Ohio side. By the terms of this treaty the Shawnees were confined to the lands west of the Great Miami. Hostages were demanded from the. In- dians, to remain in the possession of the United States until all prisoners should be returned, and the Shawnees were com- pelled to acknowledge the United States as the sole and absolute sovereign of all the teritory ceded to them, in the treaty of peace, by Great Britain. The clause em- bodying the latter condition excited the jealousy of the Shawnees. They went away dissatisfied with the treaty, though as- senting to it. This fact, and the difficulty that was experienced even while the treaty was making, of preventing depredations by white borderers, argued unfavorably for the future. The treaty was productive of no good results whatever. Hostilities were resumed in the spring of 1786, and serious and wide-spread war was threat- ened. Congress had been acting upon the policy that the treaty of peace with Great Britain had invested the United States with the fee simple of all the Indian lands, but urged now by the stress of cir- cumstances the Government radically

* I General Samuel H. l'arsons, an eminent Revo- lutionary character, was one of the first band of Ma- rietta pioneers, and was appointed first as Associate

and then as Chief Judge of the Northwest Territory He was drowned in the Big Beaver River, November 17, 1789, while returning to his home in Marietta froin the North, where he had been making the treaty which secured the aboriginal title to the soil of the Connecticut Western Reserve.

+2 General Butler's Journal in Craig's " Olden Time, ' October, 1847.

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

changed its policy, fully recognizing the Indians as the rightful proprietors of the soil, and on the 2d of July, 1787, appro- priated the sum of twenty-six thousand dollars for the purpose of extinguishing Indian claims to lands already ceded to the United States, and for extending a purchase beyond the limits heretofore fixed by treaty.

Under this policy other relinquishments of Ohio territory were effected through the

treaties of Fort Harmar, held by General Arthur St. Clair, January 9, 1789, the treaty ofGreenville, negotiated by General Anthony Wayne, August 3, 1795, and vari- ous other treaties made at divers times from 1796 to 1818 .* But of these it is be- yond our province to speak in this chapter.

* It is a fact worthy of note, and one of which we may well be proud, that the title to every foot of Ohio soil was honorably acquired from the Indians.

CHAPTER III. ADVENT OF THE WHITE MAN.

La Salle Upon the Ohio Two Hundred Years Ago-Possibility of His Having Explored the Muskingum- The Griffin on Lake Erie-French Trading Stations-Routes Through the Wilderness-The San- dusky River-The English Supersede the French-Interest in the West Exhibited by Governor Spots- wood, of Virginia, in 1710 -- The Transmontane Order Founded-Licenses Issued for Trading with the In- dians, by the Governor of Pennsylvania, in 1740-Systematic Exploration of the Ohio Valley by Celeron de Bienville-Fort Sandusky Built by the French-Pickawillamy, the First Building Erected by the En- glish in Ohio-Organization of the Colonial Ohio Land Company, in Virginia, in 1748-Preparation Made to Establish a Colony-French Resistance-War of Britain Against the French and Indians-Its Results-Franklin's Plans for Western Settlements -- Pontiac's War-Fort Sandusky Destroyed-Proba- ble Effect of this Event Upon Lower Sandusky-Immense Schemes for Western Colonization-Colonel Boquet Wins a Bloodless Victory on the Upper Muskingum-Hostility of the Shawnees-Logan-Lord Dunmore's War-The Battle of Point Pleasant-An Event of Immeasurable Importance in the West- General George Roger Clarke's Conquest of the Northwest-Value of His Foresight and Decisive Ac- tion- His Services Unappreciated-Miscellaneous Military Invasions-The Establishment of the Mora- vian Missions on the Muskingum-The Massacre-Crawford's Campaign Against Sandusky.

I 'HE adventurous La Salle, there is every reason to believe, was the first white man who trod the soil of the destined State of Ohio, and the first whose eyes beheld the beautiful river. With a few followers and led by Indian guides he penetrated the vast country of the power- ful Iroquois until, as Parkman says, he reached "at a point six or seven leagues from Lake Erie, a branch of the Ohio, which he descended to the main stream," and so went onward as far as the "falls," or the site of Louisville. His men abandoning

him there, he retraced his way alone This, according to the best authorities, was in the winter of 1669-70, over two hun- dred years ago. Indeed, there is some reason to believe that he made his way from Lake Erie to the Ohio by the Cuya- hoga, the Tuscarawas and Muskingum, though the preponderance of evidence points to the Alleghany as the route fol- lowed. Ten years later La Salle unfurled the first sail ever set to the breeze upon Lake Erie, and upon the Griffin, a schooner of forty-five tons burden, made

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

the voyage to Lake Huron. In 1682 he reached the Mississippi, descended to its mouth, and there solemnly proclaimed possession of the vast valley in the name of his king.

It is known that the Sandusky was a water route of travel for the early French traders and explorers from Canada to the · Mississippi. They ascended the stream from the bay to the mouth of Little San- dusky, thence up that creek four miles to a portage, thence across the portage, about a quarter of a league to the Little Scioto, thence to the Scioto and the Ohio. "As- cending the Sandusky," writes William Walter to Mr. Butterfield, "to the mouth of the west branch, known as Little San- dusky, with a bark or light wooden canoe, you could in a good stage of water ascend that tributary four or five miles further; thence east across to the Little Scioto is about four miles further. This was the portage." Colonel James Smith estimates the distance, when he crossed, to be one- half mile. This was in the spring of 1757. The Sandusky and Scioto was the path of travel of the northern Indians, when on excursions southin to Kentucky, and also the highways of the Shawnees to Detroit. In early history the term San- dusky is applied to the whole region which casts its waters into the bay. The origin of the name is given in another chapter.

Governor Alexander Spotswood, of Vir- ginia, became interested in the Western country early in the eighteenth century ; engaged in exploring the Alleghanies in 1710; discovered a passage through them in 1714, and entered with great ardor· upon the scheme of taking practical pos- session of the Ohio Valley. He founded the Transmontane order, whose knights were decorated with a golden horseshoe bear- ing the legend "Sic jurat transcendere montes," and urged upon the British Sove-

reign the importance of securing a foot- hold in the West before the French had gained too powerful an ascendancy. His suggestions were not regarded, and many years later the British Government had cause to remember with regret the wise policy they had neglected to act upon. Although no systematic plan of exploration or settlement was followed, in- dividuals from time to time passed the great barrier and visited the valley of the la belle riviere. There have been handed down certain vague traditions that the English had trading posts on the Ohio as early as 1730, and it is known positively that they had soon after that time. In 1744 the Governor of Pennsylvania issued licenses for trading with the Indians as far west as the Father of Waters. John Howard had descended the Ohio in 1742 and been captured on the Mississippi by the French; and six years later Conrad Weiser, acting in behalf of the English, visited the Shawnees at Logstown (below the site of Pittsburgh,) bearing gifts with which to win their favor. About the same time George Crogan and Andrew Montour, the half-breed son of a Seneca chief, bore liberal presents to the Miamis, in return for which the Indians allowed the whites to establish a trading post and build a stock- ade at the mouth of Loramie Creek on the Great Miami (within the present county of Shelby). The fort, built in 175I, which was called Pickawillamy, has been cited by some writers as the first English settlement in Ohio. The building, which was undoubtedly the first erected by the British on the soil of the State, was destroyed in June, 1752, by a force of French and Indians.

Prior to the middle of the century the French strenuously reasserted their owner- ship of the Northwest, and did actually take possession of what is now the north- ern part of Ohio, building a fort and es-

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

tablishing a trading station at Sandusky. This was probably the first trading sta- tion east of the Maumee (Miami of the lake). The French looked upon the English traders with jealousy and made reprisals at every opportunity. The In- dians of the Lake basin were loyal to the French while those of the South accepted the friendship of the English. These events forecasted serious trouble and made the establishment of a military post on the lake a measure of expediency. Gist's Diary fixes the time under date of Decem- ber 17, 1750. At the village of Muskingum, on the Tuscarawas, he makes the follow- ing entry :

Two traders belonging to Mr. Croghan came into town and informed us that two of his people had been taken by forty Frenchmen and twenty Indians who carried them, with seven horse-loads of skins, to a new fort the French were building on one of the branches of Lake Erie. *

The location of Fort Sandusky has been a subject of much dispute. Taylor, in his excellent history of Ohio, concludes that the exact locality cannot be ascer- tained, but the probability is that the site was about three miles west of the city of Sandusky, near the village of Venice, on Sandusky Bay. The old trail from Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh) to Detroit, struck the bay near this point and the fort was probably near the trail. All the Revolu- tionary treaties with the Indians, and the treaties of Fort Harmar and Greenville, reserve to the United States "six miles square upon Sandusky Lake, where the fort formerly stood." On a map of Ohio, published in 1803, this tract is delineated as extending from the south shore of the bay, and includes the locality Taylor sup- poses to have been the location of the fort. In this opinion Parkman, in his "Chart of Forts and Settlements of Amer- ica, A. D. 1763," agrees ; but Evans' map

of the British Colonies, 1755, places the fort on the peninsula, between the bay and lake, and marks Fort Juandat (prob- ably a corruption of Wyandot) near the mouth of the Sandusky River, on the south side of the bay. This latter place is the same as the Indian village of Sunyendeand, visited by Colonel James Smith in 1757. This village was at the mouth of a small creek, but what creek is not known. Evans' Chart would locate it in the terri- tory now included in this county, but the weight of evidence is against that conclu- sion. There was another Wyandot village at the source of Cold Creek. Celeron de Bienville made a systematic exploration of the Ohio Valley and formally declared by process verbal the ownership of the soil. On the 16th of August, 1749, he was at the mouth of the Muskingum. This fact was revealed in 1798 by the discovery of a leaden plate which had been buried by him and which set forth that the explorer sent out by the Marquis de la Gallissoniere, Captain General of New France, agreeably to the wishes of His Majesty, Louis XV, had deposited the plate as a monument of the renewal of possession of la riviere Oyo, otherwise la belle riviere, and all those which empty into it, and of all the lands of both sides even to the sources of the said rivers, and which had been obtained by force of arms and by treaties, especially those of Ryswick, Utrecht, and Aix-la- Chapelle. A similar plate was found in 1846 at the mouth of the Kanawha. They were doubtless deposited at the mouths of all the principal tributaries of the Ohio.

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History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers, Part 3

Author: Everett, Homer, 1813-1887 Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : H.Z. Williams Number of Pages: 1040

Author: Everett, Homer, 1813-1887
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : H.Z. Williams
Number of Pages: 1040