USA > Ohio > Seneca County > History of Seneca County, from the close of the revolutionary war to July, 1880 > Part 4
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It was nearly a year before Congress took any action in the matter. Dep- redations on the frontier were constantly going on.
Gen. Scott, soon after the St. Clair disaster, achieved a complete victory over the Indians, near the river, but statistics of the same are not very accessible, and particulars are wanting.
New troops were gathered at the falls of the Ohio for another expedition. under the leadership of Anthony Wayne, whose impetuosity gave him the name of "Mad Anthony."
Wayne was born in Easton, Pennsylvania, on the 18th day of January, 1745. He was a surveyor at eighteen years of age. In 1775 he raised a regiment of volunteers, and became its Colonel. He became a Brigadier- General, and was at Brandywine. He led the capture of Stony Point. In 1792 Gen. Washington appointed him successor of St. Clair in command over the army of the northwest.
In September, of 1793, Gen. Wayne had so far organized his army as to be ready to move into the Indian country. He reached Fort Jefferson by rapid marches. This fort was situate about twenty-five miles southwest of Sidney, the county seat of Shelby county. He fortified the camp well, and called it Greenville, now the seat of justice of Darke county. Here he made winter quarters. Commissioners had been sent to the Indians, who failed to conclude a peace, inasmuch as the Indians demanded that all the white settlements should be removed across the Ohio river, and the northwest
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
belong exclusively to the Indians. This meant resistance. Both sides prepared for war. On the 17th day of October, 1793, Lieutenant Lowry and ensign Boyd, with ninety men, while escorting to camp Greenville a train wf twenty wagons loaded with grain and stores, were attacked by the Indians. under the leadership of Little Turtle. The Americans were totally routed, losing both officers, fifteen men, seventy horses and all their wagons.
On the 24th day of Angust, the Governor of Kentneky had furnished Wayne with sixteen hundred mounted volunteers, under the command of Gen. Scott. In December. Wayne moved upon the place where St. ('lair was ronted, built a fort and called it Fort Recovery. The place is now in Mercer county, and within one mile of the Indiana state line. It was on Christmas day when they pitched their tents on the old battle ground. Before the men could make their beds they had to carry away the bones. which they buried the next day. Amongst these were six hundred skulls. In many cases the sinews still held the bones together. Here one company of artillery and one of riflemen were left. The rest returned to Fort Greenville.
General Wayne then advanced up the Auglaize to the Mamnee. Here in the very heart of the enemy's country, he constructed a fort and called it " Fort Defiance," a very appropriate name. He put up two block houses directly between the junction of the two great streams. Stout palisades enclosed nearly two acres of ground. A wall of earth outside of the pickets was faced with logs. Beyond that a ditch was dng fifteen feet wide, eight feet deep, filled by water from the Auglaize.
The Indians in this region were far advanced in civilization, by their intercourse with the French, and the country around was well cultivated. More than a thousand acres were in corn. Apple and peach orchards had been started. General Wayne returned to Greenville, leaving the fort garrisoned. The troops under his command now numbered about three thousand. As far as could well be ascertained, the Indians numbered about two thousand. Many British officers and Canadian troops were associated with them. still encouraging the savages to resistance.
General Wayne was under full instructions from General Washington as to the manner of procedure.
The Indians watched all these works closely and resolved to make a desperate effort to capture the forts. On the 30th of June, 1794, some fifteen hundred Indians with several companies of Canadians, with faces blackened and in Indian costumes. led by British officers in full uniform, made a furions attack on Fort Recovery. Major McMahon was encamped just outside of the works with one hundred and fifty troops. The enemy rushed upon the detachment and assailed the fort from every side, but were repulsed and compelled to abandon the field, where on the 4th day of November, 1791. they had gained so great a victory. Major MeMahon, lieutenant Drake and twenty other officers were killed and thirty wounded. The loss of the enemy was very heavy : the exact number was never ascertained until it was disclosed at the treaty of Greenville.
Gen. Wayne obeyed very closely the instructions of General Washington oven to the minute rules of laying off a camp. Fort Defiance was one hundred and three miles from Greenville. Now Wayne pressed forward
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INTRODUCTION.
and down the Maumee to the rapids, some forty-five miles, and within seven miles of the old English Fort Miami, erected Fort Deposit. The army that assembled here numbered two thousand regulars and eleven hundred riflemen. commanded by Gen. Scott. Scouts now ranged through the forest, one of whom, William Wells, was captured, and who had been raised by the Indians and deserted them, joining his own people. He was the adopted son of Little Turtle.
On the 13th day of August, Gen. Wayne issued a very interesting procla- mation to the Indian chiefs, requesting them to meet him in general council. for the purpose of agreeing upon terms of peace. His proposition was rejected in substance. They sent back to Wayne a message, saying: "If Gen. Wayne will remain where he is for ten days, and then send Miller to us, we will treat with him; but if he advances we will give him battle."
Gen. Wayne had already sent his army on the march and met the messen- gers on their return, near Fort Meigs. They stated that the Indians were dressed and painted for war.
At 6 o'clock of the morning of the 20th day of Angust, Wayne advanced from Fort Deposit and took position at Presque Isle. , Here they met and routed the savages and British forces from Detroit. The victory was complete, and amongst the dead enemies were many whites, armed with British muskets and bayonets. The Americans encamped for three days within sight of the British fort. Messages were passed between Gen. Wayne and the commander of the fort. as to the right of the British to its occupa- tion. Major Campbell refused to give up the fort, whereupon Gen. Wayne carefully inspected the works. The British had four hundred and fifty men and ten pieces of artillery. It was decided not to attack the fort. Gen. Harrison, afterwards President of the United States, was aid to Gen. Wayne in this campaign. Now Gen. Wayne sent out his cavalry, which laid waste the whole valley of the Maumee for fifty miles. Winter approached, and the Indians were destitute of homes and provisions. In September another fort, forty-seven miles from Fort Defiance, was erected, and named after the General, Fort Wayne. Leaving a garrison here. Gen. Wayne returned to Greenville on the 20th day of November.
The Indians, thus left in utter destitution, were also anxious for peace.
Accordingly, in July following, a general council was called to meet near Greenville, represented on the part of the Indians by the chiefs east of the Mississippi river. Negotiations continued for six weeks. On the 3d day of August the treaty was signed. Gen. Wayne signed in behalf of the United States. The following tribes were represented: Wyandots, Delawares, Shawnees, Ottawas. Chippewas, Potawatomies, Miamis. Eel Rivers, Weas, Kickapoos, Piankeshas and Kaskaskias.
The treaty of Greenville ended for a time the war with the savages east of the Mississippi. This was in reality the end of the war of the revolution.
Gen. Wayne never received the honors that were due him from his country for the great services he had rendered. At the close of the year 1796, returning from Detroit to the eastern states, he was taken sick in a log cabin at Presque Isle, now Erie, Pennsylvania, which at that time was a small hamlet in the wilderness. After a short illness he died, and at his request was buried under the flag of the fort.
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
According to the Treaty of Paris, in 1783, the British military post at Detroit, and all the other forts within the recognized boundaries of the United States, were to have been withdrawn "as soon as convenient." Yet for more than ten years they not only retained these posts, but supplied the savages with munitions of war, and urged them to, and helped them on. in their atrocities against the frontier settlers. John Jay was sent over to England, as a special minister, to urge the amicable evacuation of these forts, (Fort Meigs was one of them), and with much difficulty succeeded in obtaining a promise that his request should be complied with before the Ist day of June, 1796. The posts at Detroit and Manmee were accordingly delivered over to Gen. Wayne.
Thereupon the whole of the northwestern territory was organized into five counties. Washington county embraced all the territory between the Muskingum and the Little Miami, extending from the Ohio river forty miles north. with Marietta the seat of justice. All that portion between the Little and Great Miami, within forty miles of the Ohio river, was called Hamilton county, Cincinnati the county seat. Knox county embraced the land between the Great Miami aud the Wabash, also bordering on the Ohio river, with Vincennes its county seat, and where Gen. Harrison, while Governor of the territory, built a two-story brick house for a residence, (which the writer. saw in August, 1876, while stumping Indiana for Tilden). The county of St. Clair included the settlements on the Illinois and Kaskaskia rivers. as well as those on the upper Mississippi, with Kaskaskia for its seat of justice. Wayne comty embraced all the Manmee, Raisin and Detroit rivers, with Detroit for its county seat, taking in the whole of Michigan and a part of Indiana.
This vast region. then embracing but very few and very small settlements of white people, reaching from Fort Pitt to the Mississippi river, over howling forests and oceans of prairies, is now teeming with millions of happy, prosperons and intelligent people. Where once the birch canoe was the only mode of travel over the still waters of the Ohio and Mississippi. the stately steamboat, with its comforts and luxuries, is "queen of all she surveys." while railroads and telegraph lines ent the country in every direc- tion, furnishing means to interchange both thought and traffic.
We will not undertake a more extended description of the various settle- ments made in Ohio after the treaty of Greenville, and refer the kind reader to the more elaborate history of Ohio, confining ourselves more closely hereafter to events particularly tending to affect the subject of our task.
Early in the year 1796, arrangements were made to establish a colony in that part of Ohio known as the Western Reserve. A surveying party was sent out, which, coasting along the shores of Lake Erie. landed on the 4th of July at the month of a little stream called Conneaut. Here they celebrated their landing day and the anniversary of the birth-day of the republic at the same time. This company consisted of fifty-two persons, only two of whom were females, Mrs. Stiles and Mrs. Gunn. There was one child. The next morning they commenced the building of a large blockhouse, which was to be their dwelling place and store house at the same time, and called it -stow Castle." This little colony suffered very much from exposure, want of food.
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INTRODUCTION.
the inclemency of the following winter, and disease-incidents to frontier life.
Emigrants began to flock into the Reserve in considerable numbers, and commenced settlements in various places-some of these fifteen or twenty miles away from the nearest white neighbor. The hardships encountered by these isolated settlers are easier imagined than described. It required a full day's journey to find a neighbor to assist in sickness, or any other emergency.
As early as 1755 there was a French trading post on the banks of the Cuyahoga river. near the mouth of which the beautiful city of Cleveland now stands. Ten years after the landing of the pioneers at Conneaut, a Moravian missionary, Zeisberger by name. with several Indian converts. left Detroit in a vessel called the Mackinaw, and cast anchor at the mouth of the Cuyahoga. They then ascended the stream ten miles to the deserted village of the Ottawas. where they settled. and called the place "Pilgrim's Rest." In the fall of 1796. the surveyors, who landed at Conneant, advanced to the mouth of the Cuyahoga and laid out the plan of a city which they named Cleveland, in honor of Gen. Moses Cleveland, the agent of the land company. He was a lawyer of Canterbury. Connecticut, a man of note and wealth.
During the year 1790, the Connecticut Land Company constructed the first road on the Reserve. It ran from the Pennsylvania line to Cleveland. From 1799 to 1500 there was but one white family in Cleveland-that of Major Carter. Emigrants soon flocked in and made quite a little colony in 1801 .. The Indians soon commenced coming to Cleveland to do their trading. They spent the winter in hunting, and in the spring flocked to Cleveland, traded off their furs, and returned to their homes on the Sandusky and Manmee. Other companies of emigrants followed from time to time.
The emigrants to Ohio from New England and the middle states usually traveled in wagons until they strnek the Ohio, at Wheeling. They then took boats and floated down the river several hundred miles. locating here and there. wherever friends had advised them to go, or interest led. In the year 1796. the whole white population of the northwestern territory was estimated at 5,000 sonls. They were generally scattered along the banks of the Muskingum. Scioto and Miami. and their affluents, to within fifty miles of the Ohio river. .
Cincinnati then contained one hundred log cabins, about one dozen frame houses, and six hundred inhabitants.
Col. Massie, a Virginian. in 1795. having secured large bodies of excellent land west of the Scioto, npon the branches of Paint creek, erected a station hear the month of the creek, and soon after laid out a town three miles above. This town the Indians called Chillicothe, which means town. The town increased very rapidly in proportions. Emigrants were constantly arriving. It was the first town west of the mountains which was built in peace and quietude. undisturbed by Indian atrocities. Other emigrants asrended the Muskingum to Zanesville.
The settlements on the Detroit and Maumee rivers were annexed to the county of Wayne. Detroit was the seat of justice. Two full regiments garrisoned these forts in 175. Five counties comprised the whole bort! -
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
western territory. Forty miles above Chillicothe there were three or four cabins near the right bank of the Scioto, at Franklinton. now incorporated within the city of Columbus. A few vagabond whites, who had given up civilization for barbarism, were scattered amongst the Indians, and as the settlements of the pioneers were extended along the trails of the Indians. the savages, both white and red, retreated further into the interior. New counties began to be organized in proportion as new settlements sprang up in every direction.
For eight years Cincinnati had been the centre of military preparations, and the sounds of the bugle, the fife and drum reverberated through her streets and along the hills that fringed the beautiful stream.
Now all was peace and order, and the hum of busy life took the place of war and preparations for war. Cincinnati started on her great mission of cominercial greatness.
The strongest tide of emigration flowed into the valley of the Scioto, so famous for its fertility, its level plains and rich bottom lands. The Governor organized a new county. called Ross, of which Chillicothe was the seat of justice. There were then but three cabins between this town and the Hock- hocking river. The country about Lancaster belonged to the Wyandots, where they had a town of bark huts, containing a population of about tive hundred, who gradually withdrew to their brethren at Upper Sandusky.
This year (1798), as shown by the census taken at this time, the population of the territory amounted to five thousand free white males. The people were therefore entitled, by the ordinance of 1787, to what was called a second grade of territorial government. Gov. St. Clair accordingly issued a procla- mation ordering an election to be beld in the several counties on the third Monday of December, following, to elect twenty representatives to serve as a Lower House of the Territorial Legislature.
The meu elected were gentlemen of the first order of intelligence and patriotism, and were unsurpassed by any legislative body that has met in Ohio at any time hitherto. They met at Cincinnati on the first Monday in February, 1799. Edward Tiffin was one of them. He was afterwards elected Governor, as we shall presently see. This Territorial Legislature nominated ten men to the President of the United States to serve as a Legislative Council.
The first regular session of the Legislature was to be held at Cincinnati on the loth, but did not organize until the 20th of September, and continued for nearly three months. It is said that the address of the Governor was remarkable for its polished diction. Capt. William H. Harrison. subse- quently President of the United States, was elected first delegate to Congress.
Congress, in order to prevent large bodies of land from falling into the hands of speculators who would check emigration by greatly advancing the price, devised a mode of survey and sale, by which the publie lands should be laid off into small tracts and held open for sale to any individual.
In 1800 Trumbull county was organized in the Western Reserve, and an immense population flowed in from Pennsylvania. In 1801 the state of Connecticut relinquished her claim of jurisdiction of the Western Reserve, : nd received a title in fee simple of the soil from the U'united States.
in the session of 1800, Congress divided the northwestern territory into
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INTRODUCTION.
two parts. The eastern portion, which contained >0.000 square miles. embraced the regions of Ohio and Michigan. This was still called the northwestern territory. The balance, called the Indian territory, comprised all the country from the Great Miami to the Mississippi, and from the Ohio river on the south to Lake Superior, and the sources of the Mississippi on the north, containing 180,000 square miles, now embraced in the states of Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.
ORGANIZATION OF OHIO AS A STATE GOVERNMENT.
In consequence of his awful defeat, Gov. St. Clair became very unpopular, as shown by the first election of Governor. The census of 1800 showed a population over which he presided of 42,000, a number large enough to entitle the territory to admission into the Union as a state. Petitions were presented to congress for that purpose.
On the 30th day of April, 1802, an act was passed by Congress, authorizing the call of a convention to form a state constitution for a state to be called the State of Ohio.
The convention assembled at Chillicothe on the Ist day of November, and on the 20th of the same month a constitution was ratified and signed hy the members. It became the fundamental law of the state without being left to a vote by the people, and remained such for nearly fifty years thereafter.
The constitution created three departments of government-executive, legislative and judicial. The legislature was composed of a senate and house of representatives. The judiciary department was vested in the supreme court, cirenit courts. and justices of the peace. The judges were elected by joint ballot of both houses of the legislature. for a period of seven years. The justices of the peace were elected hy the people of each township for three years, as now. St. Clair. as a candidate for Governor. received but few votes. Edward Tiffin was almost the manimous choice. The boundaries of the state were fixed as they now are.
By act of congress the sixteenth section in each township was set apart for the use of schools. The salt springs were reserved to the state, and three per cent. of the proceeds of the sale of the public lands was to be used for the construction of roads.
The first legislature organized seven new counties. There were now fifteen. The whole northwestern part, being more than one-half of the state, was in the possession of Indians.
The first court in Greene county was held in a log cabin. Gen. Benjamin Whitman was the presiding judge. He had a friend by the name of Davis who had a mill near by. While the court was in session, Davis and another man, whom Davis had accused of stealing his hog, had a fight, and Davis whipped him. With his hair and clothes badly disheveled and bruises ou his face. he came into court, and approaching the table where the judge sat. ยท addressed his neighbor thus : "Ben .. I have whipped that enssed hog thief. What's the damage? What's to pay? There's my purse. Take what's right." He put down his purse and shaking his clenched fist at the judge. rontinned : "Ben., if you'd steal my hog I'll be hanged if I wouldn't whip you too." Eight dollars paid fine and costs.
There is also a good story told that occurred some time afterwards while
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
Judge Tappan was on the bench in some county in the Miami valley. The court was held in a log cabin and a stable close by was used as a jail. A trial had just been closed and the judge was charging the jury. The defendant in the case was a man who had an enemy in the crowd. This man spoke ont occasionally and approvingly of what the judge said. Hle was an old friend of Judge Tappan and felt perfectly at liberty in speaking to the judge at any time, as he pleased. Judge Tappan was near-sighted. and when this man in the crowd would repeat his interruptions by saying. "That's right ! give it to him judge," "Give it to him old gimlet eye," ete .. the judge stopped in his charge to the jury, and asked : " Who is that man making this disturbance?" The man spoke up and said: "It's this old horse, judge!" Judge Tappan then spoke up quickly and said : "Sheriff ! take that old horse to the stable and feed him on bread and water twenty-four hours!" The order was promptly executed and the court proceeded.
There was neither a pleasure carriage nor a bridge in the state at this time. Men wore homespun and buckskin clothes. Women wore linsey woolsey : and flax, hemp and wool were all the materials from which clothing was constructed for Sunday wear, spun by the family and woven by the family or at the loom of some neighbor. Settlers were compelled to keep dogs for the protection of their calves, sheep, hogs and poultry.
As a general rule the rifle was used to keep the family in meat from the game in the forest.
Ohio was now a state and a member of the Federal Union, starting on her proud career.
The first legislature met at Chillicothe on the first day of March. 1503. The territorial laws were, so far as was thought practicable. embraced in the new state laws. Judges were elected, courts organized. the practice regulated and provisions made for the election of justices of the peace. A secretary, an anditor and a treasurer of state were appointed and their duties prescribed. Laws were passed for leasing school lands and salt reservations. Senators were elected to Congress and laws passed for the election of members to the House of Representatives.
While this legislature was in session the treaty for the purchase of Louisiana was concluded with France under President Jefferson.
The second General Assembly met in Chillicothe in December, 1803. At this session laws were passed enabling aliens to hold title to lands ; to make appropriations of the three per cent. fund for roads, to improve the revenue system. to regulate the duties of justices and constables, to regulate the common law and chancery practice of the state. (In 1809-10 the laws were revised.) Gen. Lewis Cass was the first person admitted to practice law in the northwestern territory.
About this time the Indians, who had behaved well from the time of the treaty of Greenville, began to resist the tide of emigration setting in westward. The celebrated Tecumseh. aided and encouraged by British influence and supported by his brother. "The Prophet," soon made it evident that the west was again about to experience a repetition of savage warfare. In 1811 Gen. Harrison, Governor of the Indian Territory, residing at Vincennes, marched against the town of "The Prophet." upon the Wabash,
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