History of Summit County, with an outline sketch of Ohio, Part 6

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1104

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causes of these people being so grossly deceived, there can be none regarding their sufferings. They had followed a jack-o-lantern into the howling wilderness, and must work or starve. The land upon which they had been located was covered with immense forest trees, to level which the coach- makers were at a loss. At last, hoping to conquer by a coup de main, they tied ropes to the branches, and while a dozen pulled at them as many fell at the trunk with all sorts of edged tools, and thus soon brought the monster to the earth. Yet he was a burden. He was down, to be sure, but as much in the way as ever. Several lopped off the branches, others dug an immense trench at his side, into which, with might and main, all rolled the large log, and then buried him from sight. They erected their cabins in a cluster, as they had seen them in their own native land, thus affording some protection from marauding bands of Indians. Though isolated here in the lonely wilderness, and nearly out of funds with which to purchase pro- visions from descending boats, yet once a week they met and drowned care in a merry dance, greatly to the wonderment of the scout or lone Indian who chanced to witness their revelry. Though their vivacity could work wonders, it would not pay for lands nor buy provisions. Some of those at Gallipolis (for such they called their settlement, from Gallia, in France) went to Detroit, some to Kaskaskia, and some bought land of the Ohio Company, who treated them liberally. Congress, too, in 1795, being informed of their sufferings, and how they had been deceived, granted them 24,000 acres opposite Little Sandy River, to which grant, in 1798, 12,000 acres more were added. The tract has since been known as French Grant. The settlement is a curious episode in early West- ern history, and deserves a place in its annals.

HISTORY OF OHIO.

CHAPTER III.

ENGLISH EXPLORATIONS -TRADERS -FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR IN THE WEST - ENGLISH POSSESSION.

A S has been noted, the French title rested on the discoveries of their missionaries and traders, upon the occupation of the country, and upon the construction of the treaties of Ryswick, Utrecht and Aix la Chapelle. The English claims to the same region were based on the fact of a prior occupation of the corresponding coast, on an opposite construction of the same treaties, and an alleged cession of the rights of the Indians. The rights acquired by discovery were conventional, and in equity were good only between European powers, and could not affect the rights of the natives, but this distinction was dis- regarded by all European powers. The inquiry of an Indian chief embodies the whole controversy : " Where are the Indian lands, since the French claim all on the north side of the Ohio and the English all on the south side of it?"

The English charters expressly granted to all the original colonies the country westward to the South Sea, and the claims thus set up in the West, though held in abeyance, were never relinquished. The primary distinction between the two nations governed their actions in the New World, and led finally to the supremacy of the English. They were fixed agricultural communities. The French were mere trading-posts. Though the French were the prime movers in the exploration of the West, the English made discoveries during their occupation, however, mainly by their traders, who penetrated the Western wilderness by way of the Ohio River, entering it from the two streams which uniting form that river. Daniel Coxie, in 1722, published, in London, "A description of the English province of Carolina, by the Spaniards called Florida, and by the French called La Louis- iane, as also the great and famous river Mescha- cebe, or Mississippi, the five vast navigable lakes of fresh water, and the parts adjacent, together with an account of the commodities of the growth and production of the said province." The title of this work exhibits very clearly the opinions of the English people respecting the West. As early as 1630, Charles I granted to Sir Robert Heath " All that part of America lying between thirty-

one and thirty-six degrees north latitude, from sea to sea," out of which the limits of Carolina were afterward taken. This immense grant was con- veyed in 1638, to the Earl of Arundel, and after- ward came into the possession of Dr. Daniel Coxie. In the prosecution of this claim, it appeared that Col. Wood, of Virginia, from 1654 to 1664, ex- plored several branches of the Ohio and " Mescha- cebe," as they spell the Mississippi. A Mr. Need- ham, who was employed by Col. Wood, kept a journal of the exploration. There is also the ac- count of some one who had explored the Missis- sippi to the Yellow, or Missouri River, before 1676. These, and others, are said to have been there when La Salle explored the outlet of the Great River, as he found tools among the natives which were of European manufacture. They had been brought here by English adventurers. Also, when Iberville was colonizing the lower part of Louis- iana, these same persons visited the Chickasaws and stirred them up against the French. It is also stated that La Salle found that some one had been among the Natchez tribes when he returned from the discovery of the outlet of the Mississippi, and excited them against him. There is, however, no good authority for these statements, and they are doubtless incorrect. There is also an account that in 1678, several persons went from New England as far south as New Mexico, "one hundred and fifty leagues beyond the Meschacebe," the narrative reads, and on their return wrote an account of the expedition. This, also, cannot be traced to good authority. The only accurate account of the English reaching the West was when Bienville met the British vessel at the "English Turn," about 1700. A few of their traders may have been in the valley west of the Alleghany Mount- ains before 1700, though no reliable accounts are now found to confirm these suppositions. Still, from the earliest occupation of the Atlantic Coast by the English, they claimed the country, and, though the policy of its occupation rested for a time, it was never fully abandoned. Its revival dates from 1710 properly, though no immediate endeavor was made for many years after. That

HISTORY OF OHIO.

year, Alexander Spottswood was made Governor of Virginia. No sooner did he assume the functions of ruler, than, casting his eye over his dominion, he saw the great West beyond the Alleghany Mount- ains unoccupied by the English, and rapidly filling with the French, who he observed were gradually confining the English to the Atlantic Coast. His prophetic eye saw at a glance the animns of the whole scheme, and he determined to act promptly on the defensive. Through his representation, the Virginia Assembly was induced to make an appro- priation to defray the expense of an exploration of the mountains, and see if a suitable pass could not then be found where they could be crossed. The Governor led the expedition in person. The pass was discovered, a route marked out for future em- igrants, and the party returned to Williamsburg. There the Governor established the order of the " Knights of the Golden Horseshoe," presented his report to the Colonial Assembly and one to his King. In each report, he exposed with great bold- ness the scheme of the French, and advised the building of a chain of forts across to the Ohio, and the formation of settlements to counteract them. The British Government, engrossed with other matters, neglected his advice. Forty years after, they remembered it, only to regret that it was so thoughtlessly disregarded.

Individuals, however, profited by his advice. By 1730, traders began in earnest to cross the mount- ains and gather from the Indians the stores beyond. They now began to adopt a system, and abandoned the heretofore renegade habits of those who had superseded them, many of whom never returned to the Atlantic Coast. In 1742, John Howard de- scended the Ohio in a skin canoe, and, on the Mississippi was taken prisoner by the French. His captivity did not in the least deter others from coming. Indeed, the date of his voyage was the commencement of a vigorous trade with the In- dians by the English, who crossed the Alleghanies by the route discovered by Gov. Spottswood. In 1748, Conrad Weiser, a German of Herenberg, who had acquired in early life a knowledge of the Mo- hawk tongue by a residence among them, was sent on an embassy to the Shawanees on the Ohio. He went as far as Logstown, a Shawanee village on the north bank of the Ohio, about seventeen miles be- low the site of Pittsburgh. Here he met the chiefs in counsel, and secured their promise of aid against the French.

The principal ground of the claims of the English in the Northwest was the treaty with the

Five Nations-the Iroquois. This powerful confed- eration claimed the jurisdiction over an immense extent of country. Their policy differed considera- bly from other Indian tribes. They were the only confederation which attempted any form of gov- ernment in America. They were often termed the "Six Nations," as the entrance of another tribe into the confederacy made that number. They were the conquerors of nearly all tribes from Lower Canada, to and beyond the Mississippi. They only exacted, however, a tribute from the conquered tribes, leaving them to manage their own internal affairs, and stipulating that to them alone did the right of cession belong. Their country, under these claims, embraced all of America north of the Cherokee Nation, in Virginia; all Kentucky, and all the Northwest, save a district in Ohio and Indi- ana, and a small section in Southwestern Illinois, claimed by the Miami Confederacy. The Iroquois, or Six Nations, were the terror of all other tribes. It was they who devastated the Illinois country about Rock Fort in 1680, and caused wide-spread alarm among all the Western Indians. In 1684, Lord Howard, Governor of Virginia, held a treaty with the Iroquois at Albany, when, at the request of Col. Duncan, of New York, they placed them- selves under the protection of the English. They made a deed of sale then, by treaty, to the British Government, of a vast tract of country south and east of the Illinois River, and extending into Can- ada. In 1726, another deed was drawn up and signed by the chiefs of the national confederacy by which their lands were conveyed in trust to England, "to be protected and defended by His Majesty, to and for the use of the grantors and their heirs."*

If the Six Nations had a good claim to the West- ern country, there is bnt little doubt but England was justified in defending their country against the French, as, by the treaty of Utrecht, they had agreed not to invade the lands of Britain's Indian allies. This claim was vigorously contested by France, as that country claimed the Iroquois had no lawful jurisdiction over the West. In all the disputes, the interests of the contending nations was, however, the paramount consideration. The rights of the Indians were little regarded.

The British also purchased land by the treaty of Lancaster, in 1744, wherein they agreed to pay the Six Nations for land settled unlawfully in Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland. The In-

* Annals of the West.

HISTORY OF OHIO.

dians were given goods and gold amounting to near a thousand pounds sterling. They were also promised the protection of the English. Had this latter provision been faithfully carried out, much blood would have been saved in after years. The treaties with the Six Nations were the real basis of the claims of Great Britain to the West; claims that were only settled by war. The Shawanee In- dians, on the Ohio, were also becoming hostile to the English, and began to assume a threatening exterior. Peter Chartier, a half-breed, residing in Philadelphia, escaped from the authorities, those by whom he was held for a violation of the laws, and joining the Shawanees, persuaded them to join the French. Soon after, in 1743 or 1744, he placed himself at the head of 400 of their war- riors, and lay in wait on the Alleghany River for the provincial traders. He captured two, exhib- ited to them a captain's commission from the French, and seized their goods, worth £1,600. The Indians, after this, emboldened by the aid given them by the French, became more and more hostile, and Weiser was again sent across the mount- ains in 1748, with presents to conciliate them and sound them on their feelings for the rival nations, and also to see what they thought of a settlement of the English to be made in the West. The visit of Conrad Weiser was successful, and Thomas Lee, with twelve other Virginians, among whom were Lawrence and Augustine Washington, brothers of George Washington, formed a company which they styled the Ohio Company, and, in 1748, peti- tioned the King for a grant beyond the mountains. The monarch approved the petition and the gov- ernment of Virginia was ordered to grant the Com- pany 500,000 acres within the bounds of that colony beyond the Alleghanies, 200,000 of which were to be located at once. This provision was to hold good for ten years, free of quit rent, provided the Company would settle 100 families within seven years, and build a fort sufficient for their protection. These terms the Company accepted, and sent at once to London for a cargo suitable for the Indian trade. This was the beginning of English Companies in the West; this one forming a prominent part in the history of Ohio, as will be seen hereafter. Others were also formed in Virginia, whose object was the colonization of the West. One of these, the Loyal Company, received, on the 12th of June, 1749, a grant of 800,000 acres, from the line of Canada on the north and west, and on the 29th of October, 1751, the Green- briar Company received a grant of 100,000 acres.

To these encroachments, the French were by no means blind. They saw plainly enough that if the English gained a foothold in the West, they would inevitably endeavor to obtain the country, and one day the issue could only be decided by war. Vaudreuil, the French Governor, had long anxiously watched the coming struggle. In 1774, he wrote home representing the consequences that would surely come, should the English succeed in their plans. The towns of the French in Illinois were producing large amounts of bread-stuffs and provisions which they sent to New Orleans. These provinces were becoming valuable, and must not be allowed to come under control of a rival power. In 1749, Louis Celeron was sent by the Governor with a party of soldiers to plant leaden plates, suit- ably inscribed, along the Ohio at the mouths of the principal streams. Two of these plates were afterward exhumed. One was sent to the Mary- land Historical Society, and the inscription* deci- phered by De Witt Clinton. On these plates was clearly stated the claims of France, as will be seen from the translation below.

England's claim, briefly and clearly stated, read as follows: "That all lands, or countries west- ward from the Atlantic Ocean to the South Sea, between 48 and 34 degrees of North Latitude, were expressly included in the grant of King James the First, to divers of his subjects, so long time since as the year 1606, and afterwards con- firmed in the year 1620; and under this grant, the colony of Virginia claims extent so far west as the South Sea, and the ancient colonies of Mass- achusetts Bay and Connecticut, were by their respective charters, made to extend to the said South Sea, so that not only the right to the sea coast, but to all the Inland countries from sea to sea, has at all times been asserted by the Crown of England."t

To make good their titles, both nations were now doing their utmost. Professedly at peace, it only needed a torch applied, as it were, to any point, to instantly precipitate hostilities. The French were

* The following is the translation of the inscription of the plate found at Venango: " In the year 1749, reign of Louis XV, King of France, we, Celeron, commandant of a detachment by Monsieur the Marquis of Gallisoniere, Commander-in-chief of New France, to establish tranquillity in certain Indian villages in these Cantons, have buried this plate at the confluence of the Toraclakoin, this twenty-ninth of July, near the River Ohio, otherwise Beautiful River, as a monument of renewal of possession which we have taken of the said river, and all its tributaries; and of all the land on both sides, as far as the sources of said rivers; inasmuch as the preceding Kings of France have enjoyed it, and maintained it by their arms and by treaties; especially by those of Ryswick, Utrecht, and Aix La Chapelle."

1 Colonial Records of Pennsylvania.

HISTORY OF OHIO.

busily engaged erecting forts from the southern shores of Lake Erie to the Ohio, and on down in the Illinois Valley ; up at Detroit, and at all its posts, preparations were constantly going on for the crisis, now sure to come. The issue between the two governments was now fully made up. It ad- mitted of no compromise but the sword. To that, however, neither power desired an immediate ap- peal, and both sought rather to establish and fortify their interests, and to conciliate the Indian tribes. The English, through the Ohio Company, sent out Christopher Gist in the fall of 1750, to explore the regions west of the mountains. He was instructed to examine the passes, trace the courses of the rivers, mark the falls, seek for valuable lands, ob- serve the strength, and to conciliate the friendship of the Indian tribes. He was well fitted for such an enterprise. Hardy, sagacious, bold, an adept in Indian character, a hunter by occupation, no man was better qualified than he for such an undertak- ing. He visited Logstown, where he was jealously received, passed over to the Muskingum River and Valley in Ohio, where he found a village of Wyan- dots, divided in sentiment. At this village he met Crogan, another equally famous frontiersman, who had been sent out by Pennsylvania. Together they held a council with the chiefs, and received assurance of the friendship of the tribe. This done, they passed to the Shawnee towns on the Scioto, received their assurances of friendship, and went on to the Miami Valley, which they crossed, remarking in Crogan's journal of its great fertili- ty. They made a raft of logs on which they crossed the Great Miami, visited Piqua, the chief town of the Pickawillanies, and here made treaties with the Weas and Piankeshaws. While here, a deputation of the Ottawas visited the Miami Con- federacy to induce them to unite with the French. They were repulsed through the influence of the English agents, the Miamis sending Gist word that they would " stand like the mountains." Crogan now returned and published an account of their wanderings. Gist followed the Miami to its mouth, passed down the Ohio till within fifteen miles of the falls, then returned by way of the Kentucky River, over the highlands of Kentucky to Virginia, arriving in May, 1751. He had visited the Mingoes, Delawares, Wyandots, Shawa- nees and Miamis, proposed a union among these tribes, and appointed a grand council to meet at Logstown to form an alliance among themselves and with Virginia. His journey was marvelous for the day. It was extremely hazardous, as he

was part of the time among hostile tribes, who could have captured him and been well rewarded by the French Government. But Gist knew how to act, and was successful.

While Gist was doing this, some English traders established themselves at a place in what is now known as Shelby County, Ohio, and opened a store for the purpose of trading with the Indians. This was clearly in the limits of the West, claimed by the French, and at once aroused them to action. The fort or stockade stood on the banks of Loramie's Creek, about sixteen miles northwest of the present city of Sydney. It received the name Loramie from the creek by the French, which received its name in turn from the French trader of that name, who had a trading-post on this creek. Loramie had fled to the Spanish country west of the Mississippi, and for many years was a trader there; his store being at the june- tion of the Kansas and Missouri, near the present city of Kansas City, Mo. When the English traders came to Loramie's Creek, and erected their trading-place, they gave it the name of Pick- awillany, from the tribe of Indians there. The Miami confederacy granted them this privilege as the result of the presents brought by Crogan and Gist. It is also asserted that Andrew Montour, a half-breed, son of a Seneca chief and the famous Catharine Montour, who was an important fac- tor afterward in the English treaties with the Indians, was with them, and by his influence did much to aid in securing the privilege. Thus was established the first English trading-post in the Northwest Territory and in Ohio. It, however, enjoyed only a short duration. The French conld not endure so clear an invasion of their country, and gathering a force of Ottawas and Chippewas, now their allies, they attacked the stockade in June, 1752. At first they demanded of the Miamis the surrender of the fort, as they were the real cause of its location, having granted the English the privilege. The Miamis not only refused, but aided the British in the defense. In the battle that ensued, fourteen of the Miamis were slain, and all the traders captured. One account says they were burned, another, and probably the correct one, states that they were taken to Canada as prisoners of war. It is probable the traders were from Penn- sylvania, as that commonwealth made the Miamis presents as condolence for their warriors that were slain.

Blood had now been shed. The opening gun of the French and Indian war had been fired, and both

HISTORY OF OHIO.

nations became more deeply interested in affairs in the West. The English were determined to secure additional title to the West, and, in 1752, sent Messrs. Fry, Lomax and Patton as commissioners to Logstown to treat with the Indians, and confirm the Lancaster treaty. They met the Indians on the 9th of June, stated their desires, and on the 11th received their answer. At first, the sav- ages were not inclined to recognize the Lancaster treaty, but agreed to aid the English, as the French had already made war on the Twigtees (at Picka- willany), and consented to the establishment of a fort and trading-post at the forks of the Ohio. This was not all the Virginians wanted, however, and taking aside Andrew Montour, now chief of the Six Nations, persuaded him to use his influence with the red men. By such means, they were in- duced to treat, and on the 13th they all united in signing a deed, confirming the Lancaster treaty in its full extent, consenting to a settlement southwest of the Ohio, and covenanting that it should not be disturbed by them. By such means was obtained the treaty with the Indians in the Ohio Valley.

All this time, the home governments were en- deavoring to out-maneuver each other with regard to the lands in the West, though there the outlook only betokened war. The French understood bet- ter than the English how to manage the Indians, and succeeded in attaching them firmly to their cause. The English were not honest in their actions with them, and hence, in after years, the massacres that followed.

At the close of 1752, Gist was at work, in con- formity with the Lancaster and Logstown treaties, laying out a fort and town on Chartier's Creek, about ten miles below the fork. Eleven families had crossed the mountains to settle at Gist's resi- dence west of Laurel Hill, not far from the Yough- iogheny. Goods had come from England for the Ohio Company, which were carried as far West as Will's Creek, where Cumberland now stands ; and where they were taken by the Indians and traders.

On the other hand, the French were gathering cannon and stores on Lake Erie, and, without treaties or deeds of land, were gaining the good will of the inimical tribes, and preparing, when all was ready, to strike the blow. Their fortifications consisted of a chain of forts from Lake Erie to the Ohio, on the border. One was at Presque Isle, on the site of Erie; one on French Creek, on the site of Waterford, Penn .; one at the mouth of French Creek, in Venango County, Penn .; while opposite it was another, effectually commanding

that section of country. These forts, it will be observed, were all in the limits of the Pennsyl- vania colony. The Governor informed the Assem- bly of their existence, who voted £600 to be used in purchasing presents for the Indians near the forts, and thereby hold their friendship. Virginia, also, took similar measures. Trent was sent, with guns and ammunition and presents, to the friendly tribes, and, while on his mission, learned of the plates of lead planted by the French. In October, 1753, a treaty was consummated with representa- tives of the Iroquois, Delawares, Shawanees, Twig- twees and Wyandots, by commissioners from Pennsylvania, one of whom was the philosopher Franklin. At the conferences held at this time, the Indians complained of the actions of the French in forcibly taking possession of the dis- puted country, and also bitterly denounced them for using rum to intoxicate the red men, when they desired to gain any advantage. Not long after, they had similar grounds of complaint against the English, whose lawless traders cared for nothing but to gain the furs of the savage at as little ex- pense as possible.

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History of Summit County, with an outline sketch of Ohio, Part 6

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848- Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey Number of Pages: 1104

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1104