History of Wayne County, Ohio, Volume I, Part 6

Author:
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1162

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THE SHAWNEES.

The Shawnees were called the Bedouins of the American wilderness, and were a savage, bloodthirsty and warlike tribe. Their blood leaped with the hot blood of the South, whence they came. From Georgia they were driven to Kentucky by other and more peaceful tribes, and from Kentucky they came North, some of their number settling in Chillicothe, on the Scioto river, while others centered near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Their territory extended from Sandusky and westward toward the great Miami. They were ever at war. The great war chief, Tecumseh, was of this tribe, as was also his brother. the great Indian Prophet, who fought the famous battle of Tippecanoe. in Indiana, November 7, 1811, against General Harrison.

Taylor in his "History of Ohio," says, "For forty years the Shawnees were in almost perpetual warfare with America, either as British colonies or

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WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.

as independent states. They were among the most active allies of the French during the Seven Years war, and after the conquest of Canada, continued, in concert with the Delawares, hostilities which were only terminated after the successful campaign of General Boquet. Under the treaty of Greenville, in 1795, they lost nearly the whole of the territory which they held from the Wyandots, and a part of them, under the guidance of old Chief Tecumseh, again joined the British standard during the war of 1812-14."

Thus it will be observed that the Delawares, Wyandots and Shawnees -the first to occupy the valley of the Muskingum and thence to Lake Erie and the Ohio river, asserting possession over nearly one-half of the domain contained now within Ohio-were asserting possession through a stubborn antagonism to the American people and the cause of our national independence. Their fiendish cavorts, warring and plundering raids included vast areas, and . to this hour fading and unfading drops of blood mark the line of their ac- cursed marauds.

INDIANS OF WAYNE COUNTY, STRICTLY SPEAKING. 1.

The Indians that inhabited Wayne county, as now bounded, when the first settlers came in to make for themselves homes and to develop the country, seemed to exist by an implied tenure. A dread of the whites, akin to fear, apparently possessed these Indians. Something like a haunting memory of the crimes of their race was ever upon them. Not mutual or even tribal relations existed among them, and their pacific dispositions towards the early settlers presented but another distinctive characteristic of the Indian- the cunning caution and self-interest begotten of fear itself. They roamed in pairs, or squads of a half dozen, though in some of their villages and set- tlements they would collect together to the number of two hundred, three hundred and sometimes as high as four hundred. In Clinton, East Union, Franklin and Chippewa townships they congregated in largest numbers. Their sudden disappearance from the county was most remarkable, occurring, as it were, in a single night, and that, too, soon after the war of 1812-14 had been announced. They scented the bad breath of the coming carnival and hastened westward to deepen the blood stain of their hands.

WAYNE COUNTY INDIAN TRAILS.

The trail of the American Indian was to be plainly seen on every hand when the first pioneers came to Wayne county, but with the passing of the decades they have become forever lost, living only in tradition and for the

WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.

most part in surmise. In Hutchins' history of the celebrated expedition of General Boquet against the western Indians in 1764, in which the English marched an army of one thousand five hundred men into and through what is Tuscarawas county, Ohio, to the forks of Muskingum river, he refers to five different routes from Fort Pitt (Pittsburg) through the Ohio wilder- ness. The route that most concerns this county and its people was as follows : "Second route, west-northwest, was twenty-five miles to the mouth of Big Bever, ninety-one miles to Tuscaroras in Stark county, sixty miles to Mohican John's Town (in Mohican township, near Jeromeville), forty-six miles to Junandat, or Wyandot Town; four miles to Fort Sandusky, twenty- four miles to Fremont, Sandusky county. The total distance from Fort Pitt was two hundred and sixteen miles to Fort Sandusky ; to Sandusky river two hundred and forty miles."

This trail penetrated Wayne county in section 12, Paint township; thence in a northwesterly direction, crossing over sections 32, 31 and 30 in Sugar- creek township; thence entering East Union township on section 25, bearing north to section 24; thence more directly west, passing about a mile north of Edinburg; thence to Wooster township, entering it from the east in sec- tion 13, and thence to the Indian settlement south of Wooster and on the site of the old Baptist burying ground. From that point in a northwesterly direction, cutting zig-zag through the southwestern part of what is now the city of Wooster, crossing the Henry Myers farm, passing the old salt-lick ; thence crossing the Killbuck creek a few rods north of the public bridge on the Ashland highway; thence west across the old Hugh Culbertson farm; thence for quite a distance along the line of the Ashland road; thence in a north- western direction to Reedsburg, in Plain township; thence to Mohican John's . Town, and thence on to Fort Sandusky.

INDIAN CHIEF KILLBUCK.

This noted Indian was of the Delaware tribe and was much displeased at the action of Braddock's army, and at a war council he, in conjunction with another chief, Shingiss, made the following scathing speech :

"We know well what the English want. Your own traders say that you intend to take all our lands and destroy us. It is you who have begun the war. Why do you come here to fight? How have you treated the Dela- wares? You know how the Iroquois deceived us into acting as peace media- tors : how they shamed us, and took our arms; put petticoats on us: called us women, and made us move three times away from our homes. And why?

WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.

Because the English paid them a few beads and blankets, and paint, and when their senses were stolen away with fire-water they sold our lands; but we tell you this must cease. We are no longer women, but," striking his breast, "men-men who can strike, and kill and-Yes," hissed out old Shingiss, springing to his feet, rising to his full stature, his wicked little eyes flashing a venomous fire, "we are men and no longer women! We have thrown off the petticoat of the squaw, and have seized the keen tomahawk of the brave. I speak," stamping his foot, "as one standing on his own ground. Why do you come to fight on our land? Keep away! French and English. The English are poor and stingy. They give us nothing but a few beads, some bad rum, and old worn-out guns, which kick back and break to pieces; and their traders cheat us and fool us and our squaws and maidens. But I tell you we won't suffer it longer."

MASSACRE OF SIXTEEN INDIANS AT WOOSTER.

The following account of an Indian massacre at Wooster was so graph- ically given in Ben Douglas's History of Wayne County (1878) that it is here reproduced :

"As we have said, our early settlements were made pretty generally in peace, and therefore we are barren of anything thrilling and startling in way of border strife. One hostile demonstration, however, occurred, which we propose to narrate, within the present corporation of Wooster, with the cir- cumstances and details of which but few if any of the surviving pioneers of Wayne county have any knowledge.

"This incident itself so little resembles a fierce Indian struggle, the heroes of which sensational and resolute narrators too frequently seek to invest with apotheosis, that only in its more liberal interpretation can be embraced in the catalog of great border exploits. It is the only violent collision that we have to chronicle transpiring within the present limits of the county between the pale and the copper faced.

"A gang of Indians intent on a foraging expedition started from the region of Sandusky in an easterly direction, and in the course of their hunt- ing and predatory peregrinations succeeded in reaching the white settle- ments on the banks of the Ohio and near Raccoon creek, some distance from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Their sole object being plunder and theft, without regard for sacrifice of human life, they crossed the river in bark canoes and for a while mingled with the whites, in apparent friendship, who had estab- lished quite a colony there. When opportunity, 'foul abettor,' furnished a safe occasion for it, these remorseless devils and incarnate fiends, with their

WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.

antipathy and hatred of the pale face, pounced upon and murdered five of their number, and burned to the ground seven dwellings, together with the families they sheltered. This act of diabolism and hellish slaughter very naturally aroused the community. Blood called for blood. The insulted silence of the air broke into echoes of revenge.

"A company of thirty men, fearless of flints and fate, was immediately organized for the purpose of pursuit and punishment. The command was taken charge of by Capt. George Fulkes, the peer of Brady in Indian war- fare. Better indeed than Brady did he know their character, for at the age of three years he had been stolen by the Indians from his father, then living on the Raccoon creek, they retaining charge of him until he was a man, when his father bought him from them and restored him to his family. Later Brady became an expert Indian fighter. After crossing the river with their plunder, and apprehensive that they might be followed, the Indians observed the precaution of cutting the bottoms out of their canoes, and made great haste to retrace their steps in the direction from which they came. Could they but reach Sandusky with their stolen goods they would be safe enough.

"Keenly alive to the immediate pursuit that might take place and de- termined to run down and exterminate the murderers, no time was lost in the outset. The river was dashed over. The track of the fleeing assassins was soon scented. Indications eventually pointed to the fact that they were in proximity to the fugitives, but whether the Indians knew this or not we are not apprized. Late one evening, Captain Fulkes and his men, from what is known now as Robinson's Hill, a short distance south from Wooster, dis- covered the camp fires of the enemy on what is now the Point, or Flat-iron, at the intersection of South Bever street and Madison avenue, in the present limits of the city of Wooster. Avoiding all rashness and adopting the policy of caution, he concluded to make no attack that evening. So, to elude de- tection, they crossed over to Rice's hollow, remaining there for the night, or until the moon arose, when preparations were made for the assault. The arrangements completed, the advance was made and the Indian camp sur- rounded. At a given signal they fired upon them, killing fifteen, all of the party with the exception of one who had gone to the bottoms to look after the traps. Hearing the noise of the musketry he rushed in the direction of the camp and, calling to Captain Fulkes, who understood some dialect, asked, 'What's the matter?' 'Come on,' shouted Fulkes, 'nothing is the matter.' The Indian advanced toward Fulkes, but when within a few paces of him an unruly lad perforated his carcass with a bullet.

WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.

"A shallow grave was scooped upon the Point before described, and here the sixteen Indians were rolled together and earthed over, their spirits having been unceremoniously delivered to the keeper of the Happy Hunting Ground.

"Of Captain Fulkes we know but little, save that he was a bold Indian fighter."

MAP AND SCALE

៛

PRESENT DRAINAGE PRECLACIAL DRAINAGE GLACIAL COLS LINE OF HIGH ELEVATIONS INCOMPLETE DATA WRIGHT'S GLACIAL LINE ++++

LEGEND

WHAT THE GLACIER 3 010 FOR OHIO

EVELAND

LAKEVIEW

NORTH UNION

ERIE

SHALEV

PER

BANDELI

CK RIVER

WAVERLY

EBERFA

MANCHESTER

GELYRIA

CEYLON

River

SPEARS

. NORTHFWLA

AUTON

Berlin Heigh

OBERLINNY

Grafton

win

PALIEN

angola

SEGNOR WALK

ERHART

"Bath

Harland

Clarks field!

i Likehell

YORK ENTER 21

Dellower

Granger!

Montrose

- COPLEY

ROPort

0 190 --

Hart Fairfield

Ritchville

NEW LONDON

LAKEY

WELL

WATIR

3.64

Sullivan

Lamps

Plymouth

Perrysburg

₦/513

Shiloh

7000

Adana

CapasH

BRIVES

London

Beings

JEROME

# Callewith

Shelby

MODY

NEW

660

Smallville

S HLA V

140

honig vild

Rootshugh

Wertwindsor

H.L

MIFLIN

SBHaysville

804AL

LAKE

WYLAKE &

Ontano

FORKSP Co

A MELOTRO Stor

Hvavarr

OM ZENA

Mount EATON

Blooming Grove

Washington

LAKE),1G)

150

Animators

BELLVILLE

Benton

Johnsvill

HASHVAINS

FCUNDLE

iden)

Willumsbal

Browns

Pour Tord

North Liberty

augusto Mille

KNOX

Pulaskvitman

westerville 1

1/ Efredricklow

3ID

Wucan

.R resiline

#Blackleysville

MA Ne Ttek

WAVERLY

ZAR FORK

ALLE

LEXINGTON

₣SteamCorn

COLLOUDENVILL 421

Holmes

Newville

ARFORK

GLACE

HILLERS BURG

Nowtarlide

topole

Santeile

COAL OUTLIER DE

Tuederas

720

PRODI

OFR.

how Haven

Ruggles

WEST SALEM

Told hickory

coichland-

Chinian

LAKE

FORT

544 AL

Placesburgh

Crystal Spr.

ASHUAND

FORK

TARK

OLENA

1 A 149

WOHER WEILDE

MARSH

do Rock

FUERONGLOMERATE .

LOTLE YO!

Milan

VERMILION

L'OUTILGEARS Of ICARBONIFEROUS/

EAST TOWNSEND

Lane

WAS

Pontiac

Brighton

Penibelde

WAVERLY

Orchard st

Stuben

Hemery !!

Tork

SAVANAH

Spring Mills

FLOW

Maysville

BLUCAS

Berlin

Thamara

PRESENT AND PREGLACIAL DRAINAGE of WAYNE AND ASSOCIATE COUNTYS. IN OHIO Compiled from field notes & drawn by J.H. TODD

JURON.

CHAPTER III.

GLACIATION, ARCHAEOLOGY, MOUND BUILDERS, ETC.

By J. H. Todd, M. D.

INTRODUCTION.

In Douglas' History of Wayne County there is a very concise descrip- tion of the geological structure, but not a clear differentiation of the two almost equal halves of the county.

It is generally known that in the south and east half of the county is found coal (all of the seven veins being represented) and many hilltops are capped with lime, while in the north and west there is no coal and no lime- stone. Now the dividing line between these widely separated geological for- mations is a preglacial river bed extending from Loudonville to Shreve and on by Wooster and Orrville to Sterling and from here, my own observations lead me to believe, it went north through Chippewa lake and the old and deep channel of Rocky river to Lake Erie. But Frank Leveret, of the United States geologic survey and who has examined the ground, favors a route from Sterling by Warwick and the Copley marsh to the Cuyahoga river and through it to Lake Erie.

Leveret says (pages 163-5, Monographs of the U. S. Geological Sur- vey) : "J. H. Todd has recently called attention to evidence that the lower courses of these tributaries of the Mohican creek had an eastward discharge. There is a continuous valley or lowland with an average width of about a mile following the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago railroad from Mans- field to Wooster, Ohio. East of Wooster there is a great drift accumulation, rising nearly two hundred feet above Killbuck valley, but it is Todd's opinion that the old valley continued in that direction about ten miles, to the vicinity of Orrville, where a valley is found with very low rock floor.

"This valley seems to have drained northward either to Rocky river or the Cuyahoga, passing Sterling.

"The writer is inclined to favor the view that this valley had a course

WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.

eastward from Sterling to Warwick, and thence north past New Portage and Copley marsh into the old Cuyahoga, that being a larger valley than the old Rocky river valley.

"Todd, however, favors the Rocky River valley as the line of discharge into Lake Erie.

"The valley under discussion, with its deep filling of drift, shows general eastward descent, as indicated in the table given later. The available data concerning the rock floor shown in the table, though meager, also favor the view that it slants eastward. It furnishes a more natural trunk line than any other old line of drainage yet found in that region. The several tribu- taries of the Mohican creek converge toward this old valley and seems to find in it a natural line of discharge. This old line may properly be termed the Old Mohican."

Further, Leveret says, in writing of Killbuck: "It is quite certain that the old valley which leads northward along the Killbuck as above noticed from Shreve to Wooster, did not continue along this creek beyond Wooster.

The continuation of that old valley (the Old Mohican) was probably eastward, as suggested by Todd."

Again Leveret says : "A large part of Killbuck valley apparently once discharged northward to the Old Mohican, for there is a marked narrowing of the valley in passing southward down the present stream."

So here we have our pre-glacial river authoritatively established from Loudonville to Sterling at least, and supplemented by the Killbuck channel from the col near Killbuck village in the coal region to where it joins the axial channel six miles below Wooster, developing a tripod lake two by three miles in extent, and this river is now, although no man ever saw it, named the Old Mohican.

We have found from investigation and examination of fossils, that this ancient river ran exactly around the northeast head of an island that repre- sents the oldest dry land in the United States-an island standing sentinel in both a Silurian and Devonian sea-ages before the Alleghany mountains were evolved or the coals of the carboniferous age had filled the Allegheny basin, to form, out of carboniferous conglomerate, an eastern bank to our river.

I also find the line of the Old Mohican marked by the Waverly clay (as reported in the "Soil Survey" of the county). The Waverly shale was ground to clay in the glacial mill as it came up our valley from Sterling to Orrville, and erosive streams have since carried the Waverly sand over the new valley and deposited it as a soil nine to twelve inches in depth.

WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.

It really makes no difference to Wayne county whether the waters in the Old Mohican went from Sterling by the Rocky river, or the Cuyahoga, to Lake Erie, for all the writer claims, from original investigation, is that there is a deep and wide preglacial river bed, now filled with drift, from Loudonville, through Wayne county to Sterling, and that the channel passes exactly between the Waverly hills of the Cincinnati incline and the coal measure conglomerate, and that it carried all the waters of all Mohican's branches, together with the reversed Killbuck and Sugar creek, north to the bed of Lake Erie.

PREGLACIAL TOPOGRAPHY.

In order to give any clear idea of the glaciation of Wayne county it is necessary to take into consideration the preglacial topography, of not only Wayne, but of all the adjacent counties, for the drainage streams derive their headwaters in almost all instances from springs in neighboring counties, and many of the streams are reversed in at least part of their flow,-the red lines in the accompanying map indicate the preglacial, and the black the present drainage of the district,-while the highest hills and practically all drainage lines have been so modified by the glacial drift-in some places four hundred feet thick-that the preglacial aspect of the county is not now recog- nizable.

The nature and magnitude of the glacial effects are beyond conception. You must give wings to your imagination to contemplate the picture, even after carefully considering the altitudes and depressions I will give you.

Wayne county rests on the northeast face of what was, in the dawn of the earth's organic history, an island in a Silurian sea, and a large arm of the Atlantic, known as the "trough of the coal measures," which was a warm sea with only the lowest order of life existing in its depths, afterwards surrounded it. This island, or low mountain chain, extended from San- dusky, Ohio, far into Kentucky, while its breadth was from forty to one hundred and twenty miles, and it is now known geologically as the "Cincin- nati Arch," or "Anticline;" poetically it has been called the "Lost Atlantis."

In Ohio, and particularly in Wayne county, it presents in relief, and shows bold headlands, while in Kentucky it is in intaglio and was once sub- merged to receive the limestone that constitutes the "Blue Grass region." Here, in Wayne county, the arch is capped by Waverly sandstone and shale, as can be seen at the Reddick quarry, the Coe quarry, along the Christian run and at the shale brick works west of the city, where many characteristic

WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.

fossils are to be found, particularly crinoidea, conularia and productus. At these points there seems to be an association with the Devonian and lower carboniferous ages.

In studying the Waverly group of rocks in this part of the island, I find a crescent of highest rock hills in the state, extending by Smithville Summit in Wayne to West Salem, Polk, in Ashland, and Mansfield, Belleville, and Independence, in Richland counties, which constitute a continental divide from which the rock strata dips away on the west under the coal fields of Indiana. on the north under the bed of Lake Erie, while on the east they decline gradually into the synclinal trough of the Allegheny coal basin. This constitutes a watershed in three directions and Professor Newberry says (in Vol. I of Geological Survey of Ohio), "It will be noticed that the direction of the drainage streams, which follow the strike of the strata on either side, indicate that it once formed a watershed that gave the initial bearing to their flow."

It did more, for the fresh water from these many streams meeting the water of different density, temperature and chemic composition would create a current around the shore of the island.

If you will go with me, carrying an aneroid barometer to note elevations, from Wooster, by Mifflin, to Belleville, in Richland county, you will cross all the streams at points of original scoring that drained the northeast face of this headland and carried their waters to the channel of the Old Mohican.

Starting at Wooster University, we find it stands five hundred and twen- ty-two feet above Lake Erie; Killbuck valley, three hundred and thirty-two feet ; Jefferson, near rock summit of plateau, six hundred feet ; the flood plain of Muddy fork, four hundred and thirty-two; and the divide between this and the Jerome fork of the Mohican, six hundred and fifty, while its flood plain is four hundred and fifty; Hayesville, on the summit of the divide be- tween the Jerome and Black forks, seven hundred, and the flood plain of the Black fork at Mifflin is five hundred feet ; the depot at Mansfield, five hundred and eighty-one; the plateau south of the city, eight hundred, and above Belle- ville, nine hundred. In the cross section from Ashland to Loudonville the divide between the Jerome and Black forks-independent of glacial deposit- is nearly a level plain, with only a gradual descent of fifty to seventy-five feet. But these elevations do not mark the summit of our present hills nor the heads of present streams, neither do they cover the preglacial drainage of Congress and Chester townships. The old divide entered the county two miles south of West Salem, and crossed the township diagonally south of Congress village and crosses what is now the Killbuck one mile north of

WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.

Overton, and, entering Wayne township, it intersects a north and south divide from Burbank to Wooster, but continues on across Wayne into Greene town- ship, ending with and marking the head of the island east of Smithville, where the strata, badly crushed and eroded, dips under the bed of the Old Mohican. The north and south divide is a continuance of the divide between the Black and Rocky rivers and passing east of Lodi and Burbank nearly parallels the Killbuck from Burbank to Overton, but here deflects southeast to Wooster, where Wooster University stands on a pinnacle of Wa- verly one hundred and seventy-two feet above the city's square. By this cross- ing of the divides near Overton we had in evidence a range of highest pre- glacial hills in the county. The rocks here banking the Killbuck are now less than eighty rods apart, although nearly two hundred feet high, and the stream runs on a rock bottom for half a mile, while from the crests of the hills drain- age lines were projected in four directions. All the waters of northeastern Con- gress township were carried, with the waters of Killbuck from Overton, through an old preglacial channel one and one-half miles west of Burbank to the Black river, west of Lodi and thence to Lake Erie. The district south of the divide in Chester and Congress townships-save a fringe of drainage into the Muddy fork of the Mohican-was carried into a preglacial channel leading by Ft. Hill to Wooster and ending in the Old Mohican near the Ap- ple creek bridge. This channel is now followed by the Little Killbuck to Ft. Hill and drains a large territory, carrying pure spring water that could and should be utilized by Wooster, for it is gravel and sand filtered, and is avail- able either by artesian or pump wells.

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History of Wayne County, Ohio, Volume I, Part 6

Author: Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen Number of Pages: 1162

Author:
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1162