USA > Ohio > Seneca County > History of Seneca County, from the close of the revolutionary war to July, 1880 > Part 8
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Old companions in the conflict. I rejoice to see you and once more take
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FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION-CONCLUSION.
you by the hand, and a more fitting occasion than the present could hardly occur or be conceived of. In the days of our youth we came to the rescue of this lake, and to assist in restoring peace to the frontier. A kind Providence has lengthened out our days beyond man's allotted period of existence, and now, after a lapse of nearly half a century, permits us to revisit the place where important scenes transpired in our early years, and to unite in celebrating the victory achieved by our much-loved commander. We joyfully survey the wonderful changes and improvements that have occurred since the war of 1812. Buffalo was then a populous village, but soon after a heap of ashes; Erie contained but a score of dwellings; Cleve- land was a cluster of log cabins; Sandusky, the same; Toledo was nowhere, and Detroit in possession of the enemy, and not a single American vessel was left on the lakes on which to hoist our stars and stripes.
And what do we now behold ? A population increased an hundred fold; magnificent and prosperous cities; lofty spires and domes on temples of worship; colleges and seminaries of learning: extensive commerce; railroads diverging and intersecting in all directions; the white, outspread wings of commerce gliding to and fro, and freighted with the exhaustless products of the north and northwest-aye, and ploughing yon crystal waves, once shrouded in the smoke of our cannon, and crimsoned with the blood of our companions.
Old friends, we part to-day, probably to meet no more. Our memories of the past, and the happy experiences of this celebration, fill our hearts with grateful and tender emotions, and will serve to gild the evening twilight of our days. I bid you an affectionate farewell.
Mayor Starkweather, of Cleveland, then made a short speech. He was followed by Joshua R. Giddings. D. Bethune Duffield, Esq., of Detroit, delivered a poem of rare beauty, describing the battle. Judge Mason, of Toledo, also spoke.
ON BOARD THE STEAMER QUEEN CITY.
Dr. Usher Parsons pointed out from the steamer Queen City, on her trip homeward, with three other survivors on board, the locality where the fleet had come to anchor a few days before the engagement, and fired three guns, a signal previously agreed upon between Commodore Perry and Gen. Harrison. "The next day" (said the doctor) "Gen. Harrison, and his suite, among whom were the celebrated Governor McArthur and Hon. Lewis Cass, with a number of Indian chiefs, came on board, drenched with rain. Here we received the volunteer rein- forcement from the army. A day or two after the reception of Gen. Harrison and suite, they were saluted with the usual number of guns. They stood, during the time, on the quarter-deck of the Lawrence, in full-dress uniform. I have never since looked upon a nobler and a more martial staff of officers. When the firing began the "Indian braves" dodged below in double-quick time, and remained in the cabin
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
until it ceased. Their ears were not used to that kind of thunder."
The author took a very active part in this celebration, and must be excused for referring to it here, because it always seemed to him very wrong that the plan of the association was not carried out. After all these patriotic effusions of eloquence in prose and song, and these thousands of people, with one voice, agreeing to erect the monument on Gibraltar rock, as then and theretofore contemplated-that all this should be set at defiance, and the plan frustrated by a few selfish men, can not be successfully apologized for. There is certainly no more appropriate spot on earth for a monument to Perry and his braves than right at the spot where the corner stone was laid at Gibraltar rock in 1858. If the present generation should fail to carry out the plan then inaugurated in such glorious style, and with such high hopes of success, may not a Mr. Jay Cooke, with his acknowledged patriotism and his wonderful recuperative powers, yet erect such a monument upon that corner stone that shall be worthy of the day and deed? While in the zenith of his fame Mr. Cooke built a palatial mansion near the corner stone, where it was laid more than 21 years ago. In this mansion many ministers of the gospel throughout the land, for several years, found and enjoyed Mr. Cooke's hospitality, and made the acquaintance of the superintendent, Mrs. McMeens, the' distinguished Tiffinite, the widow of my late and lamented friend, Dr. McMeens, the efficient secretary of that "monumental association," and who preserved the proceedings of the 10th day of September, 1858.
Whatever became of the funds, I do not know, and would not have anybody believe that improper use was ever made of them; but one thing I do know: That soon after that glorious inauguration, efforts were made to build a monument to Perry in the public square at Cleveland; that succeeded. . I can never look at it, or think about it, but feelings of sadness pervade my whole being. If there is, in fact, no' wrong connected with it, it is certainly away from home. Why did not the people of Sandusky, and of the islands, protest against the robbery? Why did Toledo and Detroit stand by and see this thing done? Such is life!
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CHAPTER III.
PEACE-TREATIES-RESERVATIONS-CESSIONS-EMIGRANTS ARRIVING-WARS BETWEEN THE WYANDOTS AND SENECAS-SPEECH OF LOGAN-LOGAN'S DEATH.
PEACE.
And now smiling peace with her blessings and treasures Did visit the plains of Columbia again.
T HE annihilation of the British fleet on Lake Erie, the re-conquest of Detroit, and the utter overthrow and dispersion of the British army at the battle of the Thames, brought peace to the northwestern frontier. The population of Ohio was now three hundred thousand. At the conclusion of Wayne's expedition, only eighteen years previous, it was but five thousand. The battle of the Thames took place October 5, 1813. Peace was made at Ghent, in Switzerland, between the I'nited States and Great Britain, December 24, 1814.
After the fall of Tecumseh the Indians abandoned all hopes of arresting the advance of civilization, and tribe after tribe exchanged its hunting grounds for rich annuities from the United States, and retired beyond the Mississippi.
There was no permanent state capital in Ohio before 1812. Chilli- cothe continued to be the capital pro tem. until 1810. Then the state legislature met at Zanesville. In 1812 the high bank on the Scioto, just opposite Franklinton, was selected by a committee of the legislature as a site for the future capital. This region was then an unbroken wilderness. In December, 1816, the legislature met there for the first time. The site is on the same parallel with Philadelphia, four hundred and fifty miles distant, and on the same longitude with Detroit, from which it is one hundred and seventy miles south. On the same day, when the first sale of town lots in Columbus took place, war was declared with Great Britain, June 18, 1812.
Great efforts were now made to extinguish the Indian titles in Ohio. Generals Lewis Cass and Duncan Mc.Arthur met a large delegation of Indian chiefs, warriors and sachems at the foot of the rapids of the Maumee, on the 29th day September, 1817. Gens. Cass and McArthur were the commissioners representing the United States. The Wyandots,
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
Senecas, Delawares, Shawnees, Potawatomies, Ottawas and Chippewas were represented in behalf of all the northwestern Indians. A treaty was then and there concluded by which all the lands of the Indians within the State of Ohio were ceded to the United States forever. At that time no white man had settled in Seneca county.
At this treaty the United States granted to the Senecas a tract of land containing thirty thousand acres, lying upon the east side of, and adjoining, the Sandusky river, mostly within the boundaries of what now constitutes Seneca county. The chiefs of the Senecas, to whom this cession was made, were Takawmadoaw, Captain Harris, Isahow- masaw, Joseph, Tawgyou, Captain Smith, Coffeehouse, Running-about and Wipingstick.
At another treaty, held about one year thereafter by the same commissioners in behalf of the United States and these Indians, at the same place, ten thousand acres more were added to the "Seneca reservation, adjoining the other tract on the south, thus making the whole reserve to contain forty thousand acres.
To the Wyandots was ceded a tract twelve miles square, now in Wyandot county, and the southwest corner of Big Spring township, in Seneca county, about twelve square miles.
For further information concerning this Indian reservation on Big Spring, see the documents:
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, OFFICE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS.
WASHINGTON, MAY 11, 1880.
W. LANG, EsQ., Titlin, Ohio-Sir :- I am in receipt, by reference from the Commissioner of the General Land Office, of your letter, dated 7th of January, last, in which you state that you have been informed that there was an Indian reservation of about twelve square miles in the southwest corner of Seneca county, Ohio; and, as you are writing a history of said county, you desire to be informed as to whom it was made. You expressed the opinion that it belonged to the Delawares.
In reply. I have to state that the second clause of the second article of the Wyandot treaty of September 17, 1818, (7 stat., p. 179), contains the following stipulation, to-wit:
"That there shall be reserved for the use of the Wyandots residing at Solomons-town, and on Blanchard's fork, in addition to the reservation before made, sixteen thousand acres of land, to be laid off in a square form on the head of Blanchard's fork, the center of which shall be at the Big Spring, on the trace leading from Upper Sandusky to Fort Findlay."
This reservation was known as the Big Spring Indian reservation, and was located in township 1 N. and 1 S., range 12; and 1 N. and 1 S., range 13, in Ohio.
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INDIAN RESERVATIONS.
It appears from an examination of a map that about two-thirds of this reservation was situated in the southwest corner of Seneca county, and the remainder south and west thereof.
By the provisions of the first article of the Wyandot treaty of January 19, 1832. (7 stat., p. 364), the reservation was ceded to the United States.
Very respectfully,
R. E. TROWBRIDGE, Commissioner.
Upon the receipt of the foregoing letter, the writer hunted up the law ceding this Big Spring reservation to the United States, and it is added here as a sort of relic. My old friend. Dr. G. W. Sampson, who is still living, was one of the witnesses.
ARTICLES OF AGREEMENT AND CONVENTION Made and concluded at Mccutchenville, Crawford county, Ohio, on the nineteenth day of January, 1832, by and between Fames B. Gardiner, specially appointed Commissioner on the part of the United States, and the Chiefs, Headmen and Warriors of the band of Wyandots, residing at the Big Spring, in said county of Crawford, and owning a reservation of 16,000 acres at that place:
WHEREAS, The said band of Wyandots have become fully convinced that whilst they remain in their present situation in the state of Ohio, in the vicinity of a white population, which is continually increasing and crowding around them, they can not prosper and be happy, and the morals of many of their people will be daily becoming more and more vitiated; and understanding that the government of the United States is willing to purchase the reservation of land on which they reside, and for that purpose have deputed the said James B. Gardiner as special commissioner to treat for the cession of the same;
Therefore, To effect the aforesaid objects, the said Chiefs, Headmen and Warriors, and the said James B. Gardiner, have this day entered into and agreed upon the following articles of convention:
ARTICLE I. The band of Wyandots residing at the Big Spring, in the county of Crawford, and State of Ohio, do hereby forever cede and relinquish to the United States the reservation of 16,000 acres of land granted to them by the second article of the treaty made at St. Mary's on the 17th of September, 1818, which grant is in the following words, to-wit: "There shall be reserved for the use of the Wyandots residing at Solomon's-town, on Blanchard's fork, sixteen thousand acres of land, to be laid off in a square form, on the head of Blanchard's fork, the center of which shall be at the Big Spring, on the road lead- ing from Upper Sandusky to Fort Findlay."
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
ARTICLE II. The United States stipulate with the said band of Wyandots, that as soon as practicable after the ratification of this treaty, the aforesaid tract of 16,000 acres shall be surveyed into sections and put into market and sold in the ordinary manner of selling the public lands of the United States; and when the same shall be sold, or as soon as any part thereof shall be disposed of, (be the price received therefor, more or less,) there shall be paid to the chiefs, headmen and warriors, signing this treaty, for the benefit of all the said band of Wyandots, the sum of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre for each and every acre so sold, or for sale. The said price shall be paid in silver, and in current coin of the United States.
ARTICLE III. For the improvements now made upon said reservation, the United States agree to pay a fair valuation in money, according to the appraisement of Joseph Mccutcheon, Esq., (or such person as the Secretary of War may depute for that purpose,) and an appraiser to be chosen by the band of Wyandots. And in case the said appraisers shall not be able to agree upon any of their valuations, they shall call to their assistance some competent citizen of the county of Crawford.
ARTICLE IV. There shall be reserved for Roe-nu-nas, one of the oldest chiefs of said band, one-half-section, to contain 320 acres, and to include the improvements where he now lives.
ARTICLE V. It is expressly understood between the present contract- ing parties, that the said band of Wyandots may, as they think proper, remove to Canada, or to the river Huron, in Michigan, where they own a reservation of land, or to any place they may obtain a right or privilege from other Indians to go.
ARTICLE VI. It was expressly agreed before the sitting of this treaty that that part of the fifth article relating to the granting to the said band of Wyandots' lands west of the Mississippi, and every other article in relation thereto is wholly null and void, and of no effect.
ARTICLE VII. Inasmuch as the band of Wyandots herein treating have separated themselves from the Wyandots at Upper Sandusky and on the Sandusky plains, they ask of the general government that there may be a special sub-agent and protector appointed for them while they remain in the State of Ohio, and they respectfully recommend Joseph Mccutcheon, Esq., of the county of Crawford, as a fit and proper person to act in such capacity; and that he may have the power to employ such interpreter as he may think proper in his intercourse with said band.
The aforesaid articles of agreement shall be mutually binding upon
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INDIAN RESERVATIONS.
the present contracting parties, when ratified by the President of the United States, by and with the consent of the Senate thereof.
J. B. GARDINER. MATTHEW GREYEYES,
ROE-NU-NAS, BEAR-SKIN, ISAAC DRIVER,
[ SHE-A-WAH, Or (JOHN SOLOMON,* JOHN MCLEAN.
JOHN D. BROWN,
ALEXANDER CLARKE,
Done in the presence of C. Clarke, secretary of the Commission; Joseph Mccutcheon, J. P. in the county of Crawford, Ohio; John C. Dewitt, Richard Reynolds, G. W. Sampson.
(To the Indian names are subjoined marks).
EXPLANATION.
In the first draft of this treaty provision was made for the removal of the band west of the Mississippi, but they refused to accept of a grant of land, or to remove there, and the articles having relation thereto were accordingly omitted. It was therefore necessary to omit the sixth article; and circumstances did not admit of time to remodel and copy the whole treaty.
J. B. GARDINER, Special Commissioner.
The facts are that the Indians got drunk, and it was dangerous to remain any longer amongst them.
"The Wyandots," says Abbott, "were considered the bravest of all the Indian tribes." Several of their chiefs were men of high moral and religious character. In the early occupation of Canada by the French, the Catholics, with a spirit of devotion and self-sacrifice which has never been surpassed, established a mission there. The first Protestant who preached to them was John Stewart, a mulatto, of the Methodist church. The Rev. James B. Finley, one of nature's noblemen, established a Methodist mission here and organized a school. Between- the-logs, a Wyandot chief, became quite a celebrated preacher. They built a large mission house a short distance northeast of Upper Sandusky. It was of stone, and a very substantial structure. Pity the
*This John Solomon afterwards attached himself to the main tribe of Wyandots at Upper Sandusky, and moved to the west with them. He returned with his squaw to Wyandot a few years after, and remained there to the time of his death, which occurred in 1875. He was present at a pioneers' pic-nic in Shoch's woods, on Honey creek, in Eden township, on the first day of September, 1877, and being called upon for a speech, stepped on to the stand and related, in very broken English, an account of a bear hunt. He was a tall and noble looking man. His squaw is still living.
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
people of Upper Sandusky have not kept it in repair as a land-mark of the historic past ! The roof has fallen in, and there is nothing left of it but the stone walls.
Sum-mun-de-wat, another christian chief, was brutally murdered by some miscreant white men, who enjoyed his hospitality. I speak of him, especially, because this chief was very well known and respected by the early settlers of Seneca county. He was a special friend of our lamented townsman, Dr. Kuhn.
At a treaty held at Washington City, on the 29th day of February, 1831, the United States were represented by Mr. James B. Gardiner, and the Senecas by Coonstick, Seneca Steel, Captain Good-hunter, Hard-hickory and Small-cloud-Spicer, their chiefs. George Herrin acted as interpreter. Gen. Henry C. Bresh was sub-agent. At this treaty the Senecas sold their whole reservation to the United States, with full authority to sell the same. The proceeds were to be placed in funded stock at five per cent. interest, which was to be paid to the Senecas as an annuity, after deducting the cost of building for the latter a saw mill and a grist mill near Green Springs. They were to have, also, 70,000 acres northwest of the State of Arkansas, on the Neosho and Cowskin rivers, and ninety miles from Fort Gibson.
The Wyandots ceded their reservation to the United States in 1842. At this cession the last foot of soil in Ohio passed away from the red man to the race that conquers the world-the Caucasian.
.
Emigrants who crossed the mountains and descended and settled in the Ohio valley, usually brought with them their household goods, and their flocks of sheep, their horses and cattle. They crossed the moun- tains in large wagons, and drove their flocks before them. On reaching the Ohio river they put all on board of flat-boats and descended the river to their places of destination. But when emigration began to set in for northwestern Ohio, the emigrants had to find their way through a dense forest, as best they could. There were no roads open, and no bridges across any of the numerous creeks and rivers with which this northwestern part of Ohio abounds. There were immense swamps on both sides of the Sandusky, and along all its tributaries. Farther west and north the country was almost one continuous, immense swamp as far north as the Maumee, and west to Indiana, and far into that state. The soil was very rich, it must be admitted, and the farmer well knew that as soon as the water and the forest were conquered, the soil would eventually reward him for his toil. But to subdue these and become master of the situation required almost super-human power, the most patient fortitude, heroic courage, untiring
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EMIGRATION.
perseverance, great self-denial and hard labor, without reward, or hope of reward, for a long time to come.
The British and Indian foes were subdued and conquered, but now there were other foes to conquer; not only the forests and the swamps and other tasks inevitable, but diseases incident to frontier life, and especially those that attended the life in the woods. Many of the settlers of, and emigrants to, the valley of the Sandusky, who came from the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey and Virginia; and, also, some from Ireland, France and Germany, were in comfortable circumstances, and after having paid for their land, mostly entered, or bought at government prices, had some money left, and were somewhat prepared for emergencies; but by far the largest number of them expended their last dollar to pay for their land, and then trusted to Providence, their iron will and strong arms, for success. Those that came by the way of Lake Erie had to encounter the forest as soon as they touched the shore. Those that came over the moun- tains by way of Pittsburg, had to make their way through the forest almost from the time they crossed the Ohio river. It was the same way with those who came from the south. Nothing but forest as soon as they left the settlements on the Scioto, the Muskingum, or the Great Miami, except the Sandusky plains. The way through the woods was marked by cutting a piece of baik from a tree as big as a man's hand, about five or six feet from the ground, and on both sides of the tree. Then, by cutting away the underbrush and removing fallen timber, a wagon track was opened by winding around between the trees. One or two men, with their axes, would walk ahead of the team, blaze the trees and remove obstructions.
In the absence of a compass, on a cloudy day, the course east and west, as well as north and south, was found by observing the moss on the trees, which always grows most profusely on the north side. When the team came to a stream it was often very troublesome to cross. Fallen trees, brush and drift-wood had set the water back and dammed the stream. Then a crossing had to be found by driving up or down the stream, and cutting a road, as it became necessary. Finally, the land, or tract of land, that had been bought, or was soon to be pur- chased, was found, and a halt ordered. Those that were fortunate enough to have their own teams were rich; but emigrants from Europe, who had hired teams at Cleveland, Sandusky, Dayton or Pittsburg to bring them here, were left in the woods and the teams started back. Here was the emigrant, with his wife and children, with their clothing, bedding, a few cooking utensils, very little provision, an axe or two, cross-cut
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
saw, iron wedges, some carpenter tools, a gun, some ammunition, and, best of all-a will. A few poles leaned against a large tree, and brushes thrown upon the poles, soon made a roof and a shelter. Two forks driven into the ground about five feet apart, and a pole laid upon the forks, would be sufficient to suspend a small iron kettle in which the meal could be cooked. Life in the woods had commenced.
Very few people had come as far as the Sandusky river before the land sales, as the sales of the government lands were called. The Senecas, as has already been stated, owned 40,000 acres, mostly in the present limits of Seneca county, and the Wyandots twelve miles square immediately south of the Senecas, which tracts, of course, were not in market. Some men left their families in the settlements and came to the Sandusky valley on foot or on horseback, on a sort of an exploring expedition, prospecting and looking up tracts that suited them, then return and bring the family, or go to Delaware, make an entry, and then return and start with the family. Before the land sales, however. and up to the year 1820, a very few families had located between these reservations. Those who settled along the banks of the Sandusky, will all be named, and as near as possible described in these pages.
The Wyandot Indians had a tradition as to the history of their tribe that located their ancestors north of the St. Lawrence, where their wigwams were spread along the Utiwas down to Coon lake, and to the mouth of the gulf. They were then known as the Hurons, and their country they called Cu-none-tat-tia. The Senecas, who were also a large tribe, occupied a large tract of country south of the St. Lawrence. How it came that the Hurons changed their name to Wyandot is not known-nor is it material.
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