USA > Ohio > Seneca County > History of Seneca County, Ohio; a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Vo. I > Part 6
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William Spicer. or Big Kittles. a captive of the Wyandots. was a native of Pennsylvania. made captive about 1775. and brought to the Ohio river, where the Wyandots would tie him to a tree near the river bank, so as to attract the attention of white travelers, who, on coming to release the boy. would themselves be captured. He was moved to the Sandusky about 1778, grew up here, and became a large stock raiser and farmer. About 1821 he was beaten and then robbed of several thousand dollars, it is alleged, by a carpenter named William Rollins, an emplove of P. D. Butler, at Fort Ball. At that time Benjamin Barney and a constable named Papineau. a polished French-Canadian, and Caleb Rice espoused Spicer's canse. arrested Rollins, Downing. Butler and Case, brought them to trial, and had Rollins sentenced to eleven years in the penitentiary. A year later Spicer himself signed a petition asking pardon for the robber. A good deal of the $6.000 or $7.000 stolen was returned to this prosperous captive, who died here about 1830. One of his daughters was the second wife of Crow, another captive. Spicer's cabin, like himself, is said to have been the filthiest west of the Alleghenies. This Wil-
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liam Spicer was charged, in 1830, with the murder of Drake, the mail carrier, son of Judge Drake, of Marion county.
Robert Armstrong, to whom a section of land was granted at Fort Ball in 1817, was made captive in Pennsylvania, and adopted by a woman of the Wyandot nation. Ile married a half-breed Indian, presumably of the Cayugas, was employed as interpreter by the United States, as he could speak English and Indian well. and thus ingratiated himself into the confidence of both parties, until he was awarded by the United States with this grant of six hundred and forty acres in one of the most beautiful spots in the state. In 1823 the president issued a patent to him for this land, and the same year he sold 404 acres of it to Jesse Spencer. moved from Upper Sandusky to Fort Ball that year, returned in 1824, and died within two miles of Upper Sandusky in 1825, on the Wyandot reservation.
William McCulloch, named in the treaty of 1817, was engaged for some months as an interpreter by Gen. Harrison, and killed by a cannon ball while on duty at Fort Meigs in 1813. To his seven children a section of land was granted adjoining the Arm- strong reservation at Fort Ball, which was sub-divided, and sold. In the history of Ohio McCulloch is mentioned as a half-bred. married to a squaw or squaws.
John Van Meter, captured in West Virginia in 1778, by the Wyandots, transferred to the Mohawks or Senecas in later years by his foster mother, was married to a Mohawk woman named Susan Brandt, sister of Thomas, Isaac and Paulus Brandt, the last chiefs of the Mohawk nation, the remnant of whom settled near Tiffin and resided in this county. The treaty of 1817 provided that 1,000 aeres of land be granted to John Van Meter. his wife and her three brothers. This was known as the "Van Meter Reservation." on Honey creek, and was the home of John, Sr., until his death about 1824. In 1828 John Van Meter, Jr., Thomas, Isaac and Paulus Brandt sold their interests in this reservation to Lloyd Norris for $2,500, and in 1829 young Van Meter accom- panied the twenty-five Mohawk families on their trans-Mississippi journey.
Crow, or Jacob Knisely, was made captive in his youth by the Wyandots at Loval Hanna. Pennsylvania, and carried to the Ohio river; thence brought to the Sandusky and transferred to the Senecas, with whom he moved west in 1831-32. He was made captive in 1778. Fifty years later his father came to Seneca county and stayed at Crow's cabin. The captive refused to ans- wer any questions. until Mr. Knisely said : "If you are my son, then your name is Jacob." Crow responded enthusiastically. saying : "That is my name and I am your son. I recollect that. but I kept it all to myself for fear that somebody would claim me
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and take me away.". A very old Wyandot squaw, the woman who adopted young Knisely and named him Crow, was sent for to the Wyandot reservation, and she confirmed the fact, but watched her foster son, lest his father would induce him to return to civili- zation. In early years Crow married a Wyandot woman, who died, but before leaving for the west he took William Spicer's daughter as his wife. He would not return with his father. part- ing from him forever at Bellevue. He died in 1833. White Crow, a son of Crow by his second wife, visited the old reservation here in 1852, after leaving his sons at school in Dayton. He is now known as Jacob Knisely.
As a preface to an article copied from the American Remem- brancer, the late Judge Lang, in his historical writings gave the following : "The Senecas were. at one time in their history, a very powerful race, and about the time of the Revolutionary war the most savage and cruel of any of these forest monsters. About the time they took possession of their reservation in Seneca county, there was scarcely anything left of them, and those that did settle here were a mixed rabble of several tribes, half-breeds and captives.
"For more than a century this tribe had been in contact with the white race, in peace and in war; and instead of deriving the benefit which naturally ought to have followed, from this inti- macy, they deteriorated to more abject barbarism still, and dwin- dled down to a handful of dirty, stupid, superstitious, worthless rabble. Had not this county once been their home, and been named after them, nobody would care to read or learn anything about them. As it is, the reader would scarce be satisfied, in perusing a history of this county, without having an opportunity to learn all there was of them, and what they were like when they roamed over the ground that contains so many happy homes as now enjoyed by the people here. All these sprung up by magic, as it were, since the last satanic yell of these hell-hounds of the woods died on the desert air.
"The manner in which the British government carried on both her wars with the United States, by making the Indians their allies, and supplying them with everything needful to perpetuate their cruelties upon the white people along the frontier, put the British government in a worse light still. looking at the matter from every stand point. For a high tone, Christian people, claim- ing the mastery of the seas, and upon whose territory the sun never ceases to shine. not only justifying midnight butchery of her superior enemy by savage warfare, but helping it along and approving such atrocities calls aloud for universal condem- nation.
"The relation of Great Britain with the western savages, and the power this red ally exercised on the western frontier, is clearly Vol. I-3
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shown in a letter that Dr. Franklin furnished the American Re- membrancer, an authority which nobody will dispute.
"The British government had sent its agents to all the Indian tribes to enlist the savages against the colonists. The Americans sent Benjamin Franklin to Paris to secure, if possible, the aid of France in favor of his countrymen. Dr. Franklin wrote an article for the American Remembrancer, which, in that day, exerted a very powerful influence in both Europe and America. It purported to be a letter from a British officer to the governor of Canada, accompanying a present of eight packages of scalps of the colonists, which he had received from the chief of the Senecas. As a very important part of the history of the times, the letter should be re- corded. It was as follows :
MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY :
At the request of the Seneca chief. I hereby send to your Excellency, under the care of James Hoyt. eight packages of scalps, cured. dried, hooped and painted with all the triumphal marks. of which the following is the invoice and explanation :
No. 1-Containing forty-three scalps of Congress soldiers, killed in different skirmishes. These are stretched on black hoops, four inches in diameter. £ The inside of the skin is painted red. with a small black spot, to denote their being killed with bullets; the hoops painted red ; the skin painted brown and marked with a hoe ; a black circle all round. to denote their being surprised in the night; and a black hatchet in the middle, signifying their being killed with that weapon.
No. 2-Containing the scalps of ninety-eight farmers. killed in their houses ; hoops red, figure of a hoe. to mark their profession ; great white circle and sun. to show they were surprised in day time; a little red foot, to show they stood upon their defense, and died fighting for their lives and families.
No. 3-Containing ninety-seven, of farmers; hoops green. to show that they were killed in the fields: a large, white circle. with a little round mark on it, for a sun, to show it was in the day time ; a black bullet mark on some. a hatchet mark on others.
No. 4-Containing one hundred and two. farmers; mixture of several of the marks above; only eighteen marked with a little vel- low flame, to denote their being prisoners burnt alive. after being scalped; their nails pulled out by the roots. and other torments: one of these latter being supposed to be an American clergyman. his hand being fixed to the hook of his scalp Most of the farmers appear, by the hair, to have been young or middle aged men. there being but sixty-seven very gray heads among them all, which makes the service more essential.
No. 5-Containing eighty-eight scalps of women : hair long. braided in the Indian fashion, to show they were mothers; hoops. blue; skin, yellow ground, with little red tad-poles. to represent. by way of triumph. the tears of grief occasioned to their relatives : a black scalping knife or hatchet at the bottom. to mark their be- ing killed by those instruments. Seventeen others, being very. gray; black hoops; plain brown color; no marks but the short
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY .
club or cassetete, to show they were knocked down dead, or had their brains beaten out.
No. 6-Containing one hundred and ninety-three boy's scalps, of various ages; small green hoops, with ground on the skin, with red tears in the middle, and black marks, knife, hatchet or club, as their death happened.
No. 7-Containing two hundred and eleven girls' scalps, big and little; small yellow hoops; white ground tears, hatchet and scalping knife.
No. 8-This package is a mixture of all the varieties above mentioned to the number of one hundred and twenty-two, with a box of birch bark, containing twenty-nine little infants' scalps, of various sizes; small white hoops, white ground, to show that they were nipped out of their mothers' wombs.
With these packs, the chiefs send to your Excellency the fol- lowing speech, delivered by Conicogatchie, in council, interpreted by the elder Moore, the trader, and taken down by me in writing :
Father-We send you herewith many scalps, that you may see we are not idle friends. We wish you to send these scalps to the Great King, that he may regard them, and be refreshed; and that he may see our faithfulness in destroying his enemies, and be con- vinced that his presents have not been made to an ungrateful people, etc .- Abb. Ilist. of Ohio, p. 189.
"Is the reader at a loss to determine which is the most lovely of the two-the American savage or the British savage-the giver or the receiver of these scalps?"
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CHAPTER III
GENERAL RELATED HISTORY
ORDINANCE OF 1787-GRAND WATERWAYS TO BE FREE-COUNTY OF HAMILTON-FIRST NORTHWESTERN CONGRESSMAN-PRINCIPAL THEATERS OF 1812 WAR-THE OHIO MICHIGAN CONTROVERSY- NORTHERN OHIO BOUNDARY-OHIO EXTENDS HER BOUNDARY- MICHIGAN GETS INTO ACTION-OHIO HOLDS HER COURTS-HARRIS LINE, THE STATE BOUNDARY-COX ON THE WOLVERINE WAR.
We know of no subject so fraught with interest as the organi- zation and development of the Northwest Territory Whatever is grand about our country, whatever is noble about our manhood, whatever is progressive about our society, whatever is beneficent in our institutions, are all the fruitage of the united efforts of our ancestors. Whether in peace or in war, on the land or on the sea, the magnificent courage of the Americans have made them invincible against the foes without and the foes within. No nation has ever successfully stood against the American army, whether led by Farragut on the Mississippi, Perry on Lake Erie, Jackson at New Orleans or Dewey in the Manila Bay.
The Northwest Territory was vast in its extent, embracing all the territory northwest of the Ohio river, nearly two thousand and forty square miles, or a hundred and fifty millions of acres. The land had not been fully explored by the white man, and was then but little known.
On July 13, 1787, congress passed the famous ordinance es- tablishing the Northwest Territory and its government. The first settlement was made at Marietta, where the first court in the North- west Territory was held September 2, 1788. The first court was opened at Marietta with great splendor as became the occasion and a procession was formed, and Colonel Sproat. the high sheriff, marched at the head, with drawn sword. up a path that had been cut through the forest to a cabin where Judge Putnam and Judge Tupper took their seats on a high bench, and after prayer the com- missions of the judges, clerk and sheriff were read and the open- ing of the court proclaimed by the high sheriff, in these words: "Oh, yes, the court is now opened for the administration of even- handed justice to the poor and to the rich alike."
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The ordinance for the government of the Northwest Territory was an admirable document, wonderful it might be called for the clearness of its enunciation of principles of government. It was the work of wise, thoughtful men who were framing as they thought an instrument on which depended not only their own hapi- ness and fortune, but that of posterity even to remote generations. It provided for the protection of personal property and freedom of conscience to every man. It proclaimed religious freedom and provided that no one should be molested on account of his relig- ious sentiments or mode of worship.
When we consider the vastness of the Northwest Territory, it seems almost incredible that it should have been so thoroughly set- tled and improved within a little over a century.
Ohio was the first state formed ont of the Northwest Terri- tory and later other states were formed and new stars thus added to the American constellation.
In framing the laws to govern this Northwest Territory, the fact should be recognized of the declaration that the waters of the Mississippi and of the St. Lawrence should ever remain free to the people of the Northwest Territory and to the states created from the same. It was that declaration which thundered every gun from the Mississippi to the sea in the great war of the rebel- lion. It was that idea that was seen in the blazing campfires of the varions regiments of men who hewed their way from the Ohio to the gulf. Not all of these soldiers returned. Some of them sleep in the church-yard at Shiloh; some of them in the wilder- ness ; some of them rode to their death with Sheridan in the valley ; some of them were strewn along the path of Sherman's great march from Atlanta to the sea, and some of them perished in rebel prisons, looking only to the stars for hope.
Westward the star of empire took its way, commencing back in the days of Abraham, the first record of which reads: "By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he was to receive as an inheritance, he went, not knowing whither he went. "
From that unknown country, named Ur of the Chaldees, Teran, the father of Abraham had already journeyed westward, bringing his household to Haran; here they tarried for a little, and here it was that Abraham heard the divine call and went forth to the land of Canaan. But the tide of immigration did not stop here. It traversed Europe, halting for a time upon the shores of the Atlantic. In the fullness of time the word that Abraham had heard was spoken again, and the brave Columbus turned the prows of his ship toward the setting sun and sailed away, not knowing whither he went, but greatly hoping that he might find beyond the sea a land that he should receive as an inheritance.
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On the 2nd of January, 1790, Governor St. Clair arrived at Cincinnati and organized the county of Hamilton. General An- thony Wayne was appointed by President Washington to the com- mand of the army of the Northwest, and with a force of two thou- sand, six hundred men he started on his march from Fort Wash- ington to the Indian country. Victory perched on his banner at the battle of Fallen Timbers, on the Maumee, and his name became a terror to the Indians as "Mad Anthony." The Indians sued for peace. and the treaty at Greenville, in 1795. followed, giving peace to the territory. and with peace prevailing, new impulse was given to trade and agriculture. Forests were rapidly felled,
STOCKADE, WAR OF 1812.
towns sprang up and the hopes of the early settlers were fastly blossoming into fruit.
In 1798 the territory contained fifteen thousand white male inhabitants and was therefore entitled to enter on the second grade of the territorial government, and the people were called upon to elect representatives to the first general assembly. The members elected met at Cincinnati to nominate ten persons to be returned to the president, out of whom five were to be selected, with the con- sent of the senate. to be commissioned as a legislative council.
A legislature having been elected, convened at Cincinnati, September 16, 1799, and on the third day of October in joint ses-
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sion William Henry Harrison was elected the first delegate to con- gress from the Northwest Territory.
In January, 1802. a census was taken of the eastern division of the territory which was found to contain over forty five thou- sand inhabitants. and application was made to congress for per- mission to call a convention to establish a state government. Per- mission being granted, a convention convened at Chillicothe on the first day of November, 1802, and framed a state constitution, which was signed by the members and thus became foundamental law without submission to the people.
The Northwest Territory and Ohio were the principal theaters of the war of 1812. We met with defeat and disaster at first, but these were wiped out by the splendid achievements of Colonel Croghan's defense at Fort Stephenson, Perry's on Lake Erie, the total defeat of the allied British and savages at the Thames by General Harrison, and the closing triumphs of General Jackson at New Orleans. In all these contests the men of Ohio had a large share and performed feats of valor worthy of their heroic ancestors.
For numberless centuries migration was flowing westward, but the tides of time finely brought it to the final barrier. At the golden gate, on the snowy summits of the Cascade mountains, the pilgrims stand and gaze afar to that Asian continent from which in the dim twilight of history their fathers set forth. The circuit of the earth is completed; migration has served its term, and there upon the Pacific coast the problems of history are to be solved; and here upon the American continent is to list, it is pre- dicted, the new Jerusalem, whose glories are to fill the earth.
Too much credit cannot be given to the pioneers for the homes they founded and for the work they accomplished. But the pioneer days are gone and so are the pioneers, and the great cur- rent of migration across the continent is stayed upon the Pacific coast.
The brave pioneers welcomed death rather than endue tyranny, but they have passed to the beyond where there is peace. Gone to stand among those who no longer see as in a blurred mirror, dimly, but face to face with eternal realities, in the light of God. They made the world in which they lived better for us, and the world to which they have gone is dearer and nearer since they have passed within its portals.
In regard to the controversy between Ohio and Michigan as to the boundary line. but very little is known by this generation Few histories have more than a meagre account of it, generally dismissing the subject with a few lines about "The Toledo War," by relating one or two of the humorous and ludicrous events in- cident thereto, but failing wholly to give the subject the promi- nence it deserves. The question itself had no effect upon Seneca
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
county directly, but when soldiers were called out to protect the citizens of Ohio along the disputed border, it was found that the disputed line was in the 17th division, in which Major-General John Bell, of Lower Sandusky, was the commanding general, and Seneca county was in one of the brigades in that division, and under obligations to furnish her quota of the troops called out by Governor Lucas. It therefore became a matter of interest to Seneca county after all, and especially when about 300 men, "armed and equipped as the law directs," left Tiffin with their · baggage and tents in wagons, and provisions for an indennite time. Colonel Henry C. Brish led these citizen-soldiers as their commander, to report to General Bell. John W. Patterson was captain of one company, and John Walker was quartermaster. The companies left Tiffin and marched to the scene of the impend- ing conflict, but nothing very serious occurred and the matter in controversy was finally amicably adjusted.
The trouble of this northern boundary of Ohio originated with the admission of Ohio into the Union, and was caused by an error in the map that placed the southern bend of Lake Michigan too far south. It vexed the convention that formed the constitu- tion, and congress in admitting Ohio into the Union. As early as the adoption of the ordinance of 1787 providing for a govern- ment of the northwest territory, a provision was made for the northern boundary of states that should hereafter be formed, lying south of a line drawn due east and west from and through the southern bend of Lake Michigan which east and west line should also be the southern boundary of two states lying north of the line, so that this east and west line finally formed the north line of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and the south line of Michigan and Wisconsin.
On the 30th of April, 1802, when congress passed an act authorizing the people of the territory of Ohio to form a state con- stitution, they described the northern boundary line as follows :
"On the north by an east and west line drawn through the southern extreme of Lake Michigan, running east after intersect- ing the due north line from the mouth of the Great Miami, until it shall intersect Lake Erie, or the territorial line, and thence through Lake Erie to the Pennsylvania line; provided that congress shall be at liberty, at any time hereafter, either to attach all the territory lying east of the line, to be drawn due north from the mouth of the Miami aforesaid, to the territorial line, and north of an east and west line drawn through the southerly extreme of Lake Michigan, running east, as aforesaid, to Lake Erie, to the aforesaid state, or dispose of it otherwise in conformity to the fifth article of compact between the original states and the people and states to be formed in the territory north of the river Ohio."
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
MICH
HURON
MICHIGAN
:
LAKE
ECIOU
DETROIT
LAKE ERIE
HARRIS LINE
MONROEO
TOLEDOS
MAUMEEO
PERRYSBURG
INDIANA
0
H
,
O
Perasovania line
ORDINANCE LINE
wabash R
Miami R
THE LINES IN DISPUTE.
LAKE
-
Ma fumecR.
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
When the convention at Chillicothe, on the 29th day of Novem- ber, 1802, adopted the first constitution for Ohio, they gave the state the northern boundary, as contained in the enabling act with this proviso :
"Provided, always, and it is hereby fully understood and de- clared by this convention, that if the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan should extend so far south that a line drawn due east from it should not intersect Lake Erie, or if it should intersect the Lake east of the mouth of the Miami river of the lake, then and in that case, with the assent of congress of the United States, the northern boundary of this state shall be established by and extend to a direct line running from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan to the most northerly cape of the Miami bay, after intersecting the due north line from the mouth of the Great Miami river aforesaid, thence northeast to the territorial line, and by the said territorial line to the Pennsylvania line."
1
When congress on the 19th of February, 1803, admitted Ohio into the Union, nothing was said about the northern boundary. On the 11th of January, 1805, congress created the territory of Michigan, and defined her boundaries as follows:
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