USA > Ohio > Shelby County > History of Shelby County, Ohio, and representative citizens > Part 3
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In April, 1607, a settlement was made at Jamestown, Virginia, composed almost entirely of English "gentlemen" whose profligate lives had left then in destitute circumstances in England, and who only came to America in a spirit of adventure, and the hope of realizing a fortune in the new world without work. The colony was an absolute failure, dependent on the Indians for the necessaries of life. Capt. John Smith, a man of great force, later took charge of the colony and endeavored to instill a spirit of industry into the men. He urged the cultivation of the soil, but at the end of two years the two hundred settlers had only forty acres under cultivation, and but for the Indians would have starved. It was not until June, 1610, on the arrival of Lord De La Warr, with a different class of colonists, that a permanent and lasting settlement was established in Virginia.
In 1613 the Dutch from Holland settled in New York City, calling it New Amsterdam, honestly buying the land from the Indians for $24. On December 22, 1620, the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, with forty-three men and their families. In 1629 a colony was founded in New Hampshire; in 1633 in Connecticut ; in 1634 in Maryland ; in 1636 in Rhode Island; and in 1638 in Delaware, all by the English. In 1623 the Swedes founded a colony in New Jersey.
This settled the entire coast; New England being English; New York, Holland; New Jersey, Sweden ; Delaware, Maryland and the Carolinas, Eng- lish; Georgia and Florida, Spanish. The Dutch claimed New Jersey as their territory, and forced the Swedes to acknowledge their claims. But in 1682, when William Penn made his settlement in Pennsylvania, the Swedes preferred English rule to that of Holland, and in time they came under the control of the English. Still later the English took possession of New Amsterdam calling it New York, which gave them the entire coast, excepting Florida and Southern Georgia. The French were in undisturbed possession of Canada.
While the English were colonizing and securing possession of the coast line, the French, through Canada, were exploring the interior, passing through the state of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, estab- lishing forts and trading posts, exploring the Mississippi, and by virtue of
* Ellis .- People's Standard History of the United States.
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their discoveries, all the land west of the Alleghenies and north of the Ohio river was under the control of the French; and beyond the Mississippi France owned all the Mississippi Valley to the Rocky Mountains; Spain owned Texas and all west of the Rockies up to the northern boundaries of California.
In 1763, after a long war between England and France, the American colonies being English assisting the mother country, France was driven from the United States and Canada, all east of the Mississippi being ceded to Eng- land; all her possessions west of the Mississippi being ceded to Spain, and in this treaty Spain ceded Florida to England. In 1783, at the close of the Revolutionary war, England secretly ceded Florida to Spain, and the United States bought it in 1819. In 1801 Spain ceded her territory beyond the Mississippi to France, and in 1803, Napoleon needing money, and to prevent England ever securing it, sold it to the United States. The war with Mexico gave the United States all west of the Rocky Mountains, that part west of the Rockies and north of California being claimed by the United States by right of the discoveries of Lewis and Clarke, a claim disputed, but conceded later by England and Spain in the settlement of the northern boundary between the United States and Canada.
When Spain first discovered America she claimed the entire continent, north and west to the Pacific ocean. The rulers of England in granting char- ters, followed the same liberal policy, and their charters were for land between certain degrees of latitude on the coast, extending to the Pacific ocean owing to their ignorance of American geography or to carelessness, some of the boundaries as defined in the several colonial charters, overlapped, which sub- sequently led to disputes between the states and these were only settled by the final cession of the disputed territory to the general government.
CHAPTER III THE INDIAN TRIBES
Character of the Indians, With An Account of the Principal Indian Tribes East of the Mississippi River Subsequent to the Discovery of America by the Whites-Their Wars and Treaties.
The Indians of the United States were a race who had no written history. They were principally forest wanderers, living on game and fish, and what little grain the Indian women cultivated, for no Indian warrior would demean himself by labor. In the early history of the country a brisk trade existed by adventurers bringing colored men from Africa and selling them to the early settlers as slaves. The thrifty pioneers endeavored to secure slave labor cheaper by capturing Indians, but in all the colonies where it was attempted it proved a failure. The Indians would not work, and although cruel and brutal punishment was inflicted it was useless. The Indians died under the lash rather than degrade themselves by manual labor. They had, as stated, no written language, the Iroquois being regarded as the most intelligent, as they could count up to one hundred, many of the tribes being unable to definitely express numbers above ten.
Long before the hunter and trapper wandered through the great North- west, the Jesuit and Moravian missionaries, following on the heels of the early discoveries, became very friendly with the Indians. These missionaries were told by the older men of the Lenni Lenape (Delawares) that centuries pre- vious their ancestors dwelt in the far west, and slowly drifted toward the east, arriving at a great stream, called the Namoesi Sipee (Mississippi) or "river of fish." Here they met the Mangwes (Iroquois) who had drifted westward to the Mississippi, far to the north, the Delawares having come east about the center of the United States. The country east of the Mississippi was reported as being inhabited by a very large race of men, who dwelt in large towns along the shores of the streams. These people were called the Allegewi, and it was their name that was given to the Allegheny river and mountains. Their towns were strongly fortified by earth embankments. The Delawares requested permission of the Allegewi to establish themselves in their territory, but the request was refused, although permission was given them to cross the river, and go through their country to the east. When the Delawares commenced crossing the river the Allegewi became alarmed at their numbers, and fell upon them in force and killed those who had crossed, threatening the others with a like fate should they attempt to pass the stream.
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The legend indicates the Allegewi were not of the Indian race but the the Iroquois were. The Delawares were indignant at the murder of their braves and the treachery of the Allegewi, so they took counsel with their Iroquois brethren, and formed a compact to unite and drive the Allegewi beyond the Mississippi, and divide the country. The war lasted for years and great was the slaughter on both sides, until finally the Indians conquered, and the Allegewi fled down the Mississippi, never more to return. The Iroquois then took the country along the great lakes, and the Delawares the country to the south. The two nations remained peaceful for many years, and the Delawares wandered further to the east, until finally they established their principal headquarters along the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers. The Iroquois covered the territory north of the Delawares and along both shores of the St. Lawrence. The Delawares, occupying land from the Atlantic to beyond the Mississippi river, became divided into various tribes, but they had grown in strength as the years passed and far outnumbered the Iroquois. Trouble arose between the two nations, and they went to war. To overcome the superiority in numbers of the Delawares the Iroquois resorted to stratagem. An Indian tribe is one family, and an injury done to one member is avenged by the entire tribe. Each tribe had its war instruments marked with some peculiar design, or totem. The Iroquois murdered an Indian of one of the Delaware tribes and left at the scene of the murder the war club bearing the mark of another branch of the Delawares. This caused war between the two branches of the Delaware tribes. The shrewd Iroquois soon had the Dela- wares hopelessly divided, fighting and killing each other.
The treachery of the Iroquois was discovered and the Delawares called a grand council, summoning their warriors from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, with the intention of utterly exterminating the Iroquois. Then was formed by the Iroquois the Five Nations, organized by Thannawaga, an aged Mohawk chief. It was an absolute alliance of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, a form of republic in which the leaders of the five nations consulted and acted as one. Under this powerful organization the Delawares were forced back to their own lands.
The Five Nations, having driven back the Delawares, turned their atten- tion to the French, who were forcing them south from their hunting grounds on the St. Lawrence. North of this river were the Hurons (Wyandottes) and although of the Iroquois branch of the Indians, yet they were now a sep- arate nation and at enmity. Although Cartier had treacherously taken their chief to France on his first visit, Champlain, nearly a century later, had made friends with the Hurons and when the Iroquois began resisting the French inroads on their territory, Champlain organized the Hurons and made a raid on the Iroquois in 1609, administering a crushing defeat, the Hurons return- ing to Quebec with fifty scalps. In 1610 another attack was made on the Iroquois by Champlain and his Huron allies, but they were driven back by the Iroquois. The French now abandoned further extensions to the south, and the Iroquois made an onslaught on their ancient enemies, the Delawares, and drove them from the Atlantic westward to the Alleghenies.
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It was land the Five Nations had taken from the Delawares that they sold to William Penn in 1682. The Iroquois as early as-1609 became the inveterate enemy of the French, an enmity which continued with undiminished hatred for a century and a half. So when the French created this hatred by their attacks on the Iroquois, this, and an admiration the western and northern Indians had for the French, made them allies. The Hurons were not as warlike as the Iroquois, but like all Indians they took up the cause of any insult to any member of their tribe. As a result the battles between the Iroquois and the Hurons were frequent, and they were ever inveterate enemies. To balance the Five Nation league of the Iroquois, the Hurons also united all that branch of the Algonquins in the north and west who were opposed to the Iroquois, the principal nation of the confederation being the Wyandottes.
After the French and Hurons had defeated the Five Nations on Lake Champlain, they remained quiet for some time. The Franciscan friars had done much missionary work among the Hurons and many had adopted the Catholic faith, and with religion came a less warlike spirit, and more culti- vation of the soil. With the Iroquois the missionaries could do nothing, many. losing their lives in the attempt.
The Jesuits followed the Franciscans, and found a fruitful field of labor among the Hurons. This was from 1625 on, and the energetic Jesuits soon supplanted all over the west the quieter and less religiously aggressive Fran- ciscans. The Jesuits established missions and schools all along the northern border of the lakes, at Detroit, through Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin, and along the Mississippi from its source to New Orleans. It is to be noted, however, that even these zealous Jesuits in going from Quebec, on the St. Lawrence, to Detroit, kept north of the lakes, as the more convenient route by way of the Niagara river and Lake Erie was controlled by the ferocious Iroquois, whose implacable hatred of everything French had been started by Champlain. It is but just to the Jesuits to say some did visit the Iroquois, only to be horribly treated, sometimes tortured and burned at the stake; or, if allowed to return, maimed for life.
For nearly forty years the warlike Iroquois remained quiet, except occa- sional marauding expeditions against neighboring tribes and treacherous attacks on the white settlers. They had made a treaty of peace with the New England settlers, and in 1648 made a treaty with the Dutch of New Amsterdam. Under this treaty the Dutch sold them arms and ammunition, which, prior to this time, they had scrupulously refused to do. After two- score years of rest a new generation had sprung up, equally warlike and equally fearless, and they concluded to try their new weapons on the Eries, another of the tribes of the Huron combination. The Eries then occupied the southern shore of Lake Erie, including the territory now embraced by Crawford and adjoining counties. The Eries were entirely unprepared and the victory was so complete that the Eries never again became prominent. This led to a war between the Hurons and the Iroquois, and it raged with undiminished fury for several years, until in 1659, the Iroquois crossed into Canada in great force, above the French settlements, and marched through the Huron terri-
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tory, massacreing their enemies, burning their towns, destroying the mis- sions and murdering the priests. The Hurons fled through lower Canada, across the river at Detroit, and into upper Michigan, and only found final refuge from their insatiable foes on the southern shores of Lake Superior, where the Chippewas came to their defense and drove the Iroquois back. The Iroquois were now in undisputed control from the Atlantic to the Missis- sippi and from the Lakes to the Ohio river.
In the Lake Superior region the bulk of the Wyandottes and Ottawas (another of the Huron branch) made their home for many years, until two French priests arrived among them, Jacques Marquette and Claude Deblon, and began organizing them in the interest of the French, and establishing a headquarters for all the Indian allies of the French at Mackinac. This was in 1671, and here they remained for thirty years. In 1701 Cadillac, who had been in command of the French forth at Mackinac, established a new post at Detroit, which was called Fort Ponchartrain, later changed to Detroit, a name it ever after retained. When Cadillac moved to Detroit, at his request most of the Indian allies accompanied him; they were joined by other Indians, and new tribal relations established, and the Hurons took the name of their lead- ing tribe, the Wyandots,* the name meaning "Traders of the West."
The Wyandots were frequently attacked by their old enemies, the Iroquois, but the Indians around Detroit were all united; they received arms and ammu- nition from the French, and when necessary the French soldiers fought with them, and at the end of six years the Iroquois were compelled to give up the struggle and leave the French and Wyandots in control of lower Michigan and Canada north of Lake Erie and Ontario.
But the shrewd Iroquois were not idle. They instigated the Fox nation to make an attack on the Detroit setlement. They chose a time when the Wyandots were away on a hunting expedition, early in May, 1712. Du Buisson was then in command of Fort Ponchartrain, with only twenty-one men. He sent runners out to notify the Indians to return. On the 13th an assault was made on the Fort, but the Foxes and their allies were held at bay. While the fight was going on the Wyandots returned, and drove the Foxes into the fort they had erected when they came to capture the French settlement. The French and Wyandots in turn attacked the enemey's fort, but were unsuc- cessful. For nineteen days the fighting continued, when the Foxes were com- pelled to flee, and hurriedly built a fortification a few miles north of Detroit. Here they were attacked by the French and their allies, the French bringing two small cannon to bear on the enemy. The fighting lasted three days more, when the Foxes were utterly routed, the Wyandots, and their allies, the Ottawas and Pottawatomies massacreing 800 men, women and children, and nearly wiping out the Fox nation, a few of those remaining joining their friends, the Iroquois, and the remainder removing to Wisconsin and the south shore of Lake Superior, where they became as bitter enemies of the French as were the Iroquois in the east. It was this same year the Tuscaroras, driven from North Carolina, came north and united with the Iroquois and the con-
* The correct name was Wyandotte, but from this date the name is given according to the modern spelling.
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federation became the Six Nations. While the battles at Detroit intensified the anger of the Six Nations and the Foxes against the French, it gave the latter the strong friendship of the Wyandots and all those Indians who sur- rounded the French settlement, a friendship which, to the credit of the Wyan- dots, they faithfully maintained through all the varying fortunes of war for the next half century, and when, in 1763, the flag of France fell before the meteor flag of England, and the French retired from American soil, for some years after the treaty of peace between England and France was signed the Wyandots with their western allies were at war against the British.
The Wyandots now gradually extended their hunting grounds along the southern shore of Lake Erie, the nearly half a century of war of the Iroquois with the French having left that nation in so crippled a condition that they never again appeared west of the Alleghenies on a warlike expedition. The Wyandots, extending their territory, were soon in control from Lake Erie to the Ohio river. In 1740 the remnant of the once famous Delawares was driven from Pennsylvania by the Six Nations and by the advance of the Pennsylvania colonists, and the Wyandots gave them permission to occupy the Muskingum Valley. A number of the Shawanese also made their home along the Scioto, and the Ottawas had land between the Sandusky and the Maumee rivers, and from here, as allies of the French, they frequently made warlike excursions into Pennsylvania and Virginia, surprising the settlers at dead of night, and massacreing entire families, men, women and children, and when the expedition was in retaliation for some real or fancied wrong, returning with the prisoners and holding a war dance while the unfortunate captives were horribly tortured until death relieved them of their suffering.
In 1755 all of the coast states were British colonies; the French were in control of all west of the Alleghenies and north of the Ohio, they had fortifi- cations all along Lake Erie; one at Forth Duquesne ( Pittsburg) another at Erie, Pennsylvania; at Detroit; two at the mouth of the Sandusky, others in Indiana and Illinois, and the Indians in all this great Northwest were their friends and allies. The French claimed the territory, and justly, by right of discovery; the English claimed through charters of British rulers, granted to companies for so many miles along the Atlantic "and extending west to the Pacific ocean."
In 1744, when the war occurred between France and England, practically all the Indians of the northwest gave their services to the French. They attacked the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia; some went down the St. Lawrence, reported at Montreal, where they were given arms and ammu- nition, and attacked the settlers of New York, and even extended their depre- dations across the Hudson to massacre settlers in far-off New England. They were as loyal to their French friends as they were bitter and implacable in their hatred of the English and the Iroquois, who after a hundred years, were still the loyal friends of the English. In 1745 a French cominandant's record in Canada shows the number of Indians reporting for duty in the war against England, among them the Wyandots. Other records show that in one year at least twenty of these blood-thirsty murdering bands were sent out
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by the French, frequent mention being made of the part taken by the Wyan- dots in the wholesale butcheries which followed in these bloody raids.
In 1748 a treaty was patched up between England and France and com- parative quiet was maintained until 1754, but as the French still remained in possession of the great Northwest, and England was determined to have the territory, war again broke out. In the spring of 1754 a company of French soldiers from Fort Duquesne, while extending their explorations southward, were attacked by some Virginia rangers under Lieut. Col. George Washing- ton. A fight for the ownership of the great Northwest between the French and English was so inevitable that during the winter of 1754-55 England and the colonies on the one side and the French on the other organized for the coming struggle, which commenced in 1755, and lasted for seven long years, England and the extreme eastern colonies marching to Canada, and the Vir- ginia and Pennsylvania militia joining with the English soldiers in the battles in the northwest.
In this section the war commenced with the attempt of Gen. Braddock in command of the English, and Col. George Washington in command of the militia, to capture Fort Duquesne, situated at the point where the Allegheny and Monongahela unite to form the Ohio. The French sent an army from Detroit, and they were joined in their march by the Wyandots, who were then the leading nation of the northwest, the most numerous, and in bravery the equals of the Iroquois. They were among the Indian troops who were secreted in the woods and poured the deadly fire on the ambuscaded Americans and English. The French loss was four killed, and the American and English 300. Among the slain was General Braddock, who had refused advice as to Indian warfare, and who paid the penalty with his life, leaving Washington in command to save what he could from the slaughter.
The victory at Fort Dequesne excited the Indians' thirst for blood, and nearly every Wyandot warrior took to the war path. Along the borders of Pennsylvania they left a trail of death and desolation; they were with Mont- calm in Canada, where the French were defeated: then on to Ottawa. which fell into the hands of the British; returning to Fort Niagara they received another repulse; everywhere the English and Americans were slowly but surely driving back the French. Bravery, endurance and fortitude were characteristic of the Wyandots, but adversity they could not stand. Their belief in French superiority was becoming shattered, and by degrees they drifted back to the banks of the Sandusky, disappointed and discouraged, and took no further hand in the struggle. It ended in 1763 when France relinquished Canada, and all her possessions in the United States east of the Mississippi to the English.
While the French were receiving their reverses, Pontiac an Ottawa chief (Huron branch of the Indians) organized practically all of the Indians of the northwest to seize every English outpost, probably twelve in number. . In the great Northwest they failed only at Detroit, where the siege lasted for many months, by which time the English had regained their forts and relieved Detroit, and peace was declared. In this peace Pontiac refused to join, but
RESIDENCE OF JOSEPH ALTENBACH, SIDNEY, O.
OHIO AVENUE HOMES, SIDNEY, O.
MIAMI RIVER EAST FROM TWO MILE BRIDGE, SIDNEY, O.
LAKE TAWAWA AND CLUB HOUSE, SIDNEY, O.
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retired with his Ottawas to Illinois. The capture of the different forts was arranged for May 7. 1763. The Wyandots captured the fort near the mouth of the Sandusky. Here Ensign Paully was in command, and on May 16 he was approached by seven Indians with a request for a conference. He admit- ted them without hesitation, when he was seized. bound and the fort captured, the garrison being taken unawares. Nearly all the garrison, eleven in number, were massacred and the fort was burned. Ensign Paully being reserved for torture. He was tied to the stake, and just as the fagots were about to be fired an Indian squaw, whose husband had been killed, claimed the prisoner to take the place of her dead husband. Panlly consented, and was liberated, but at the first opportunity made his escape, leaving the widow doubly bereaved.
Pontiac in Illinois remained the inveterate foe of the English, and in 1769 he was murdered by an Illinois Indian. The Wyandots, who had for some years been living quietly, on learning the news, accompanied by the Ottawas and other tribes marched to Illinois and avenged the chief's death by almost wiping out the Illinois tribe.
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