History of Seneca County, Ohio, containing a history of the county, its townships, towns, villages, school, churches, industries, etc., portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies; history of the Northwest territory; history of Ohio; statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc, Part 24

Author: Leeson, M. A. (Michael A.)
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Chicago : Warner, Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1088

USA > Ohio > Seneca County > History of Seneca County, Ohio, containing a history of the county, its townships, towns, villages, school, churches, industries, etc., portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies; history of the Northwest territory; history of Ohio; statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc > Part 24

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Sally Williams, a quarter-breed, daughter of the Castleman woman, who in her youth was made captive in Pennsylvania, became the squaw of Solomon Johnnycake. Three of her sons by Solomon served in the Kansas Infantry dur- ing the war. Johnnycake and his wife were well known to all the settlers along the Sandusky from Tiffin up the river.

Billy Dowdee, known as Capt. Billy, was a fellow-scalper of old Tom Lyons, but an extra-good Indian after the war of 1812. His son Tom, and his son-in- law, Nickels, were two of the worst characters in the Wyandot country, the

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peers of Pumpkin of the Senecas. Nickels was killed by one of the settlers of Wyandot County, much to the satisfaction of his father-in-law.

Abduction of a pappoose. - Immediately after the first business houses were established at Tiffin, while yet the forest was untouched by the ax, save in a few places on Washington Street, south of Perry, the Indians were accus- tomed to visit the new stores to trade. On one occasion a large number of men and women crossed the river where now is the Washington Street bridge. The men hitched their horses in a grove, which then stood between the site of the Shawhan House and the river, while the women left their pappoose caches stand- ing by the trees. All marched up to the village, but were no sooner gone than an immense hawk, called by the Indians sea-eagle, swooped down, took one of the little Indians in his talons, and soared away. On this discovery being made, there was great sorrow among the savages. They quieted down after a little while, and remained in the grove for three days, observing a solemn si- lence all the while. On the third day the sea-eagle returned as if to explore, when one of the women stepped forth, fired, and brought down the great bird. Rejoicing followed, for the death of the little Indian was avenged.

CONCLUSION.

The dignity which poets and untraveled persons ascribe to the red man, vanished the moment the European appeared. From this time he lost all the noble qualities of the child of nature, and measured his evil doings by his opportunities. He imbibed, as it were, all the viciousness of the whites, but never essayed to emulate any of the few virtues with which the conquerors were credited. To-day, in the far West, remnants of those old res- idents of Ohio are still to be found, and among them many who remember their old hunting grounds on the Sandusky. With few exceptions they are animated monuments of moral deformity and physical decay, growing weaker and weaker, dying in their young days with a curse for the white race lingering on their lips. Only a short time and their history will alone remain to acquaint the future with their existence; the traveler will never find the camp of Ohio's Red pioneers.

The Indians with their bitter feuds, their wars of extermination, their alli- ances with the British, their invasions, their revenges, their hates, are all gone. Seldom do the thoughts of the higher people, who now own and cultivate their lands, turn toward the West in sympathy with the aborigines. How different with the exiles? In their day-dreams, far away in Oklohoma, they look toward the rising sun, and long to return to the land where they passed their youth, to surround themselves again with the memoried scenes. May we not hope that before they pass away these children of nature may learn from the past; may arrive at a high state of civilization and then come among us to realize the barbarous condition of their fathers, and conceive the littleness of their tribal glories ?

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CHAPTER III.

PIONEERS OF SENECA COUNTY.

C YOULD we evoke the genius of memory, and draw from those who are pass- ing away so rapidly now, the reminiscences of pioneer times, how many sto- ries we should glean of hairbreadth escapes in the wilds or in the waters-how the hunters returned from the hunt laden with spoil, or of the adventures of those who had found some new paradise in their wanderings over the prairie or through the forests. We can imagine how. after the long days had passed in toil, and the semi-occasional mail had come in, that those few old settlers would gather around their respective hearthstones and, with their pipes in their mouths, and after carefully perusing the papers, not more than a month old, review the events of the times, and compare notes as to progress in breaking and clearing the lands. And especially when the shorter days of winter came, and alone in the wilderness a month at a time, removed from communication with friends or relatives at their Eastern homes. how the ties of Western friendship would seem to draw closer, and the gatherings come oftener, and when the shades of evening came, the wagon would be hauled up. the box filled with a generous supply of hay, and the whole family take seats in the bottom and hasten to visit their neighbors, a dozen miles away. And then the sorrow, when some loved one was nearing the grave, and the doctor, hastily summoned from a score of miles away, gave no hope; how the sympathy of all the country around was shown in kindly offers, watchers coming a long dis- tance to give their aid, and the funeral gatherings, comprising the neighbors for miles round. There were many bitter trials and hardships not conceivable in these days, but they had their compensations, too, in the enlargement of the love of humanity, in the earnest and true-hearted sympathy. and in unbounded hospitality. Almost every house was a hotel, but it was a hotel without money and without price, every traveler was welcome to come and go at free will, and the thought of compensation seldom entered the minds of those free-hearted dwellers in the wilds.

The first white man to whom travel in northwestern Ohio is credited, was Pére Rasles. In 1689 Father Rasles came to America as a missionary to the Abenaquis Indians. He was a devout man and a scholar, publishing a diction- ary of the Indian language as one of the evidences of his zeal. Later on he became a missionary to the Iroquois, and followed them in their wanderings in the West. In 1691 he returned to the East, settling in Norridgewock, Me., where, on the 12th of August, 1724, he was killed during an attack upon the Indians by Capts. Harmon and Moulton, who ascended the river with a force of 200 men. In August, 1885, a man named Hitchcock, while digging on the site of the old village, unearthed a silver cross about five inches in length, bearing the figure of the Saviour and a skull and cross-bones. From marks upon this relic it is identified as the former property of the slaughtered priest, whose memory is reverently regarded, and whose work is again brought to mind by this singular discovery.

Probably the next white men to pass across this territory were the Mora- vians, who, as prisoners, were taken from the Moravian towns on the Tusca-

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rawas River to Upper Sandusky, by British emissaries. These peaceable Chris- tian Indians were charged with being spies, and with holding treasonable cor- respondence with the Americans at Pittsburgh and perhaps other points, and of harboring other Indians friendly to the American cause. Upon these charges they were arrested by Capt. Matthew Elliott, of the British army, who had under his command about 300 hostile Indians. Making no resistance, they were made captives, September 11, 1781, and by this overpowering force com- pelled to leave their much-loved homes and take up their line of march for the Sandusky River. Upon this march they followed the Indian trail down the Tuscarawas to the mouth of the Walhonding, in Coshocton County; thence up that stream to the mouth of the Kokosing; thence up the Kokosing, passing over the spot upon which Mount Vernon now stands, and on to the Wyandot town, near the present site of Upper Sandusky. The missionaries thus forci- bly removed were Revs. Zeisberger, Senseman and Jungman, of New Schon- brunn; Revs. John Heckewelder and Jung, of Salem, and Rev. William Edwards, of Gnadenhutten. The point at which they were left to take care of themselves, their wives, children and Indian captives, was on the banks of the Sandusky River, not far from where the Broken Sword Creek empties into it, about ten miles from Upper Sandusky. Here they selected a location, and, without delay, built a village of small huts to protect themselves from the inclemency of the weather. This village soon took the name of "Captive's Town," and was situated on the right bank of the Sandusky River, about a mile above the mouth of Broken Sword Creek.

The first French, Irish and Scotch settlers in the district of which Seneca County is the center were distinctly adventurers. Some of them were most treacherous enemies of the young Republic, and all their consciences were elas- tic when patriotism interfered with their purses or business prospects. San- duski was the only true pioneer among them all. In reference to this ancient settler in the Sandusky country, Jacob J. Greene, of Tiffin, writing under date, February 28, 1842, to the American Historical Journal, said: "The name, San- dusky, is in such general use in our section of the State, that it has become more extensively known, perhaps, than any other in the Union. The associa- tions connected with it, ever since our State has been known to the whites, with its conquest and settlement, are such as to make anything concerning it interesting. Thinking that the origin of the name is not known to you, I send it for the Pioneer, if this sketch should fall in with the design of your paper. At the time the French were establishing their line of trading posts on the Wabash and Maumee Rivers, nearly 100 years ago, connecting their operations on the Ohio with their settlements at Detroit, a Polish trader, by the name of San- dusky, or more properly spelt Sanduski, established himself near the present site of Lower Sandusky, at the foot of the rapids of the river. His operations in trading for furs, etc., with the Indians, being entirely confined to the river and bay, they soon became known to Europeans, and afterward to the Indians, as Sanduski's River and Bay. Sanduski, quarreling with the Indians, was forced to quit the country for the settlements beyond the Ohio for safety. The Indians, sometime after, followed and killed him in Virginia. So far as I can learn, there are but two of the name in the country-his grandsons. One lives in Kentucky, the other a few miles from Danville, Vermilion Co., Ill."

Capt. Matthew Elliott, an Irish Tory, who resided in that hot-bed of Tory- ism, Path Valley, Penn., remained there until his views led himself with others of like opinions to fly to the West or to the British lines. He came to the Mus- kingum in 1776, about the time the less prominent enemy of the young Repub- lic settled there. November 13, 1776, he, with his squaw, and it is thought,

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John Leith, started out for the Scioto to trade, but was followed by six Indians, who confiscated his goods and threatened to take his life. He escaped, how- ever, and, going to Detroit, he and the notorious Alex. McKee were commis- sioned spies and Indian agents; and prior to 1785 were rewarded by Hamilton, the British commandant, for their loyalty to the mother country. Elliott served during the war of 1812 with the British, was afterward appointed agent of Indian affairs, and died in Western Canada about the year 1818, the year Simon Girty died (British Occupation, Longman, London). He it was who brought the Moravians into captivity on the Sandusky and led on the advance guard of Butler's white rangers, in 1782, and directed the man- euvers of the Indians during the battle. There is but little doubt regarding the presence of this British officer at the burning of Col. Crawford.

Thomas Girty, son of the notorious Simon Girty (who fled from Ireland to escape the vengeance of the people, whom he betrayed), was the only one of this really vicious band of Girtys, who failed to continue notorious.

Simon Girty, or Katepa-Comen, son of Simon first, was made a prisoner during Braddock's war, was adopted by the Delawares, and died a drunken brawler. He had time to engage in those disgraceful murders which marked the warfare of those times against the Americans. This white rascal died at Malden in 1815, where he resided, receiving a small pittance.

George Girty, another child of infamy, died without gratifying his murderous inclinations.

James Girty, the fourth son of Old Simon, was an officer in the British serv- ice. He was made a prisoner during Braddock's war, was a notorious crim- inal, as a thousand family histories in Kentucky and Ohio can tell, and died the death becoming so much cruelty.

Michael Girty, another son of Old Simon, born after his father's murder, and after the wife's union with his murderer, was the son of an Indian woman. This cut-throat served the British in Ohio some time, but in 1821 moved to Illinois, where he engaged in wholesale murder and rapine. In 1827 he was interpreter for Gen. Cass, at the treaty of Bureau, subsequently aided Black- Hawk, murdered the settlers at Indian Creek, carried off the Hall girls and died in 1836.

William Hazle, whose father was a native of the north of Ireland, of Scotch descent, and an associate of the Girty boys, must be ranked with them in the social record, and hold the same place in the estimation of all good citizens.

Alexander McCormick, one of the traders, who resided at Sandusky for some years following the war of the Revolution, may be classed as an Irish- American of the Path Valley Tory type, but not so dangerous as Elliott, McKee, Girty, and others of that class.

Francis Lavalle, one of the French traders of Lower Sandusky, was a most impartial individual. He wished to see the British whipped, but detested the idea of losing Americans, Indians and Moravians in such numbers. This was the man who disobeyed the orders of Simon Girty, who told him: "Drive the Moravians to Detroit, round the head of Lake Erie, on foot, and don't halt even to let the women give suck to their children." Not only did he occupy four days in taking the Moravians to Lower Sandusky, but sent to Detroit for boats to transport them thither. While waiting Girty returned, threatened to annihilate Lavalle as well as the Moravians, and would at least have made them tramp to Detroit, had not the boats arrived. This same Lavalle visited the Moravians at New Gnadenhutten, Macomb Co., Mich., afterward, and was one of that band of American friends which comprised the Godfreys, Knaggs, etc., of the Detroit country.

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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.

John Leith, a native of Scotland, came to the colonies with his parents, moved to Ohio with an Indian trader, was adopted by the Indians, and about 1779, married a white captive, named Sallie Lowry, abducted from Big Bone, near Pittsburgh. On the dispersion of the Moravians, he was factor for some British traders at Sandusky, and may be said to have remained in this neigh- borhood until 1790, when he moved to Pittsburgh. Before the Senecas left this county, Leith returned, and died in 1832. His son, Samuel, was the first white child of English speaking parents born in the Sandusky Valley, his birth taking place about 1779 or 1780. June 3, 1782, he packed his cattle, horses, goods and valuables in readiness to flee from Col. Crawford's army, and set out on the 4th to Lower Sandusky. Late in the forenoon of that day, he met Capt. Matthew Elliott, pushing forward to Upper Sandusky, and, later, encountered Col. Butler's white rangers, who deprived him of his cattle, and then gave him a permit to proceed to Lower Sandusky. That night he camped in the Seneca country, on the west bank of the Sandusky, fourteen miles above the lower village.

Butterfield, in Crawford's Expedition against Sandusky, relates the follow- ing incident: "It will be remembered that this man (John Leith) had en- camped on the night of June 4, 1782, about fourteen miles above Lower San- dusky, on the river. Just after he had fixed his camp and put his horses out to graze, a Frenchman, an interpreter to the Indians, made his appearance from below. 'Well,' said he, 'I believe I will stay with you to-night, and take care of you.' Leith informed his visitor that he was welcome for the night, at the same time explaining his intention of making a very early start on the morrow. Next morning, * * a report was heard which they believed to be a cannon at Upper Sandusky.

The interpreter clapped his hands in great glee. I shall be there before the battle is begun,' said he, and rode off. This Frenchman joined the Wyandots, disguised as an Indian, and was shot through the heart the same day on which he parted from Leith. The story is told to show that the British regular troops and their artillery were en- gaged against the Americans, at Battle Island." At this time also, the Dela- ware and Wyandot women and children, and a negro boy, named Samuel Wells, a captive among them, were placed in a camp constructed in a deep ra- vine, north of the mouth of Tymochtee Creek, in what is now Seneca County. The negro stated that this camp was about one mile south of the mouth of the Tymochtee, but William Walker assured Butterfield that the young African's compass, or his idea of it, was wrong. Otherwise the Delaware women and children alone camped south of the Tymochtee.

The treaty of the Miami of the Lake, negotiated September 29, 1817, gives some facts of general interest to the reader of pioneer history, because therein are set forth a number of names of white captives, who intermarried with the Indians, and became the first white American settlers in Seneca County. In Article VIII, of that treaty, the following provisions are made:

"To Robert Armstrong, who was taken prisoner by the Indians about 1786, when four years old, and has ever since lived with them, and has married a Wyandot woman, a daughter of Ebenezer Zane, 640 acres on the west side of the Sandusky; to begin at the place called Camp Ball, and to run up the river with the meanders thereof 160 poles, and from the beginning down the river with the meanders thereof 160 poles, and from the extremity of these lines west for quantity." The name given to him by the Big Turtle band was Ono- vandoroh. He died at Upper Sandusky in April, 1825. To the children of the late William McCulloch, who was killed in August, 1812, near Manguajon, and who are quarter-blood Wyandot Indians, 640 acres on the west side of the

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Sandusky River, adjoining the lower line of the tract granted to Armstrong, and extending in the same manner, with and from the river.

James Armstrong, or Zee-Shawhan, a chief of the Delawares, and his friend, San-on-doy-our-ay-quay, or Silas Armstrong, another chief of the same tribe, were granted nine square miles of land for their own use, which was laid out at Capt. Pipes' village, at the mouth of the Tymochtee.

The Tequania family, particularly Joseph, Louis, head chief of the Senecas, and the one-eyed medicine woman, twin sister of the chief, possessed a fair knowledge of the first civilization of the period, and imitated the French- Canadians as far as it was possible for the Indian to mimic.

South of the Seneca Reservation the Van Meters, Walkers and others, bore a similar relation to the Americans of the thirteen States, and to them were granted large and beautiful tracts of land, within a few miles of the present county seat.

In addition to the grants named, one Elizabeth Whitaker, who was taken prisoner by the Wyandots, was granted 1,280 acres (presumably for herself and her Indian children), on the west side of the Sandusky, just below Cro- ghansville.

Still another grant was made of 160 acres, on the east side of the Sandusky, below Croghansville, at a place called Negro Point, to Sarah Williams, widow of the deceased Isaac Williams, a half-blood Wyandot, and her children, Joseph and Rachel Williams, the latter just then married to a half-breed named Nugent. Sarah Williams was a white captive of the Wyandots. but thoroughly Indian in her habits and manner.

The Cherokee Boy or Horonn, a chief of the Wyandots, and a great friend of the whites, pretending to be a white man himself. was granted a section of land on the Sandusky. His brother, also, was considered in the treaty.

The Walkers, Van Meters and others, mentioned in the Indian Chapter, as well as in the histories of the townships, may be classed among the Indian residents.

Actual Settlement .- The settlement of the county by Americans may be said to begin in 1817, though, in reality, the actual useful pioneer did not make his presence known here until 1819, when Eden, Clinton and Pleasant Town- ships received their first quota of American pluck and enterprise. In these townships, and in those times, men cast aside old friends, childhood's home, a thousand endearing scenes, to embrace a life in the forest, with Indians for neighbors and the wilderness for a garden. Then it was that the rail-fence, a time-honored institution, was introduced into northwestern Ohio. In Pleas- ant and Eden Townships the first fences were erected, and there also were they entwined in shrubs and wild flowers-wild ivy, cinque foil, dewberry, sweet fern, anise, artichoke, sun-flower, gaunt mullens, red-capped sumac, rasp- berry, and a thousand other weeds and flowers and shrubs, such as the creep- ing mallow and hazel. Then the frisky squirrel played along his new highway and garnered his winter fare at ease, and the animals of the forest came to its corners and viewed, as man would some novel sight, the first faint gleam of civilization among the trees.

O Time! preserve this picture; photograph it on my mind!

In richest colors print it there; leave no outline undefined!

What care I what foreign tourists tell; 'tis of little consequence- They can never mar the beauty of the zigzag old rail-fence!

Erastus Bowe, who was, in fact, the first permanent white settler within the present limits of Seneca County, arrived at Fort Ball, November 18, 1817, in company with two other men. who remained just long enough to assist him

Warren Proble

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in erecting a log-house. That log-house stood almost in the center of North Washington Street, near the bridge, and within it the first hotel or tavern in Seneca County was established, and the first actual settlement of the county begun.

Erastus G. Bowe, born in Delaware County, Ohio, April 5, 1818, was brought to Tiffin by his parents, June 7,1818, and is the senior old resident of the county. He resides in a brick cottage on the east side of the street, opposite St. Mary's Church, and gives promise of participating in the Centennial of the first set- tlement of what now constitutes Tiffin City.

Paul D. Butler and others, referred to in the history of Tiffin, were con- temporary settlers, coming from Massachusetts to Delaware, Ohio, in 1808, and to Fort Ball in 1817.

Hugh Welch, son of Felix and Margaret (Barnes) Welch, the former of Derry, Ireland, and a soldier of the Revolutionary war, was born in Beaver County, Penn., February 18, 1801; moved with his parents to Huron County, in 1816, and to Seneca County in February, 1819, making the first American settlement in Eden Township. He married, September 18, 1823, Miss Polly, daughter of John Gibson; was appointed the second postmaster in the county, August 4, 1825; moved to Wyandot County about 1834, and was commissioned associate judge of Crawford County in September of that year; founded the village of Mexico, and resided in that neighborhood until his removal to Green Spring. His wife died June 6, 1869, at the springs, where she was the first patient on their opening, January 1, 1868.

Thomas Welch, brother of Hugh, settled in Eden Township in February, 1819, and dying here soon after, was the first white American buried in the township.

John Welch, another brother, settled in Eden Township in June, 1819. He was the first preacher stationed at Toledo, and was subsequently represent- ative from Seneca County in the Legislature.

Martin Welch, still another brother, moved to Wyandot County about 1834, and died there.

Felix Welch, the father of these pioneers, was also a pioneer of the county, and is buried in Seneca County.

James Montgomery, the first Indian agent for the Senecas, and known to them by the name, Kuckoo-Wassa, or New Acorn, was born in Westmoreland County, Penn., November 20, 1776, about the time his father died at Johns- town, N. J., while serving in the American army against the British. In 1793 he, with his mother, moved to Kentucky, and located on one of the Tom- ahawk claims. Thirteen years later, in 1806, he married Miss Keziah Rouse, and the same year settled within eight miles of Urbana, Ohio, where he was a local Methodist preacher. During the war of 1812 he was appointed commis- sary officer by the governor. In 1819 he was appointed agent for the Senecas, and, in November of the same year, moved to old Fort Seneca, in Pleasant Township. He resided in one of the block-houses for some time; then moved another block-house close to the first one, which the family occupied, and both houses formed the agency quarters until 1826, when he built the log-house near the old fort, in which he resided to the time of his death, June 1, 1830. Of his eleven children, Mrs. Sally Ingham, of Tiffin, alone survives. This lady was born in Champaign County, February 4, 1811; was married, March 25, 1832, to Milton Frary, who died in 1852. In 1869 she married Alexander Ingham, of Cleveland, Ohio, who died in April, 1870.

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Author: Leeson, M. A. (Michael A.) Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Chicago : Warner, Beers & Co. Number of Pages: 1088

Author: Leeson, M. A. (Michael A.)
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Chicago : Warner, Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1088