USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Dayton > History of the city of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio, Volume I > Part 3
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INDIAN ATTACKS.
Events taking place further to the west will be noticed more particularly because of the local interest attaching. In 1778 Daniel Boone while at Blue Licks, accompanied by twenty-nine other men, while engaged in making salt for the Kentucky garrison was made a prisoner by about eighty Miami Indians and taken to Old Chillicothe, the principal Indian town on the Little Miami, and then to Detroit, later being brought back to Old Chillicothe and adopted into the Shawnee tribe. Learning that an expedition was about to start to attack Boonesborough, he made his escape and warned his friends. Later between three and four hundred Miamis and Shawnees, led by a Frenchman, who had with him eleven other Frenchmen attacked Boonesborough and both by force and cunning sought to destroy the garrison and those who looked to them for defence. After a siege of nine days the Indians were compelled to withdraw.
There were two notable disasters to the Americans on the Ohio river. In 1779 Colonel Rogers was returning from New Orleans to Pittsburg with two keelboats. At the mouth of the Little Miami river a party of Indians made their appearance. Rogers landed a body of his men to attack them, whereupon his force was attacked by five times their own number, and in a few moments sixty Kentuckians were slain. In 1781 a force of one hundred and seven men under Colonel Lochry being a part of the expedition with which George Rogers
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Clark was to attack Detroit was passing down the Ohio river in boats. At a point about ten miles below the mouth of the Great Miami river they landed to obtain supplies for themselves and their horses. They were suddenly attacked by three hundred or more Indians. After many of the Americans were slain the others were overpowered and taken prisoners. A number of them, including their leader, were killed after they were prisoners. Captain Brant, the celebrated chief was in command. We may notice now a number of expeditions that im- mediately concern the Miami country. In this region the most relentless foes of the Americans were the Miamis and Shawnees. They were provided with arms by the British at Detroit and frequently were led by British officers and carried the British flag. Under the administration of Lieutenant Governor Ham- ilton a ready price could always be expected for scalps. At the south, notwith- standing the ravages of the Indians, Kentucky was rapidly being peopled, more especially back from the Ohio river. Many war parties came in canoes down the Great Miami river, forming camps at different places, and crossing the Ohio to kill the settlers and enrich themselves by plundering. So numerous and bold were the Indian attacks that in 1779 an expedition, under Colonel John Bow- man, was organized and sent against the Shawnee village, Old Chillicothe, situ- ated on the Little Miami three miles north of the present town of Xenia. Cross- ing the Ohio at the mouth of the Licking, the force of one hundred and sixty men proceeded on the trail, leading from where Cincinnati now stands, over to the Little Miami and up that stream and surprised the Indian town. The In- dians rallied, and from a central block-house and a number of strongly built cabins surrounding it, beat off the Americans. The Indians followed the retir- ing whites, but were beaten off in turn. The command of Colonel Bowman had burned a number of cabins and captured a large number of ponies, but were greatly chagrined at their inability to take the town. The expedition was of great benefit, unknown however, by the Kentuckians, as it led to the breaking up of a strong expedition that was being organized at Detroit for an invasion of Kentucky. The following year the intended expedition was actually made ready. Six hundred British and Indians under the command of Captain Byrd, of the British army, taking with them two, some accounts say six, pieces of ar- tillery descended the Great Miami river in canoes and bateaux, and crossing into Kentucky captured without resistance Ruddle's and Martin's stations on the south fork of the Licking. Because the leader shuddered at the massacres which he was unable to prevent or because, like his Indian followers, he was contented with small successes and did not care to advance in the face of stub- born resistance, he returned as he came. The Indians returned to their homes by the Little Miami trail, carrying their plunder with them. The British had difficulty in forcing their loaded boats up the Great Miami, owing, in part, to low water, but probably succeeded in reaching by water the forks of the Miami where the cannon were later hid in the woods.
CLARK'S FIRST EXPEDITION.
Before this inroad took place George Rogers Clark had been planning an attack against the Indians. He now hastened his preparations, using extraor-
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dinary measures to secure a large and efficient force. Soldiers were brought up from the Falls of the Ohio. Men, leaving their homes scantily provided and protected, came to the mouth of the Licking where all of the forces were to meet. There were present such well-known Indian fighters as Harrod, Kenton and Floyd. Colonel Logan was second in command. Captain Robert Patter- son was also present. The force numbered nine hundred and seventy men. Leav- ing forty men at the point where Cincinnati now is to guard the boats he proceeded to attack Old Chillicothe. A three-pound cannon was carried on a pack-horse. It rained so continuously that it was difficult to keep the rifles dry. Every night the little army encamped in a hollow square with the baggage and horses in the middle. The expedition finding Chillicothe destroyed and partially burned completed the destruction of the town and pressed on to Piqua, a large Indian town on Mad river about six miles below the site of Springfield. Piqua con- sisted of log houses, strongly built, and a strong block-house. There were present several hundred warriors, the renegade, Simon Girty and a brother also being present. Colonel Logan was directed to take two divisions of the force and make a detour and attack the village in the rear, but from some cause failed to arrive at his position in time to be of service. The Indians resisted the attack of Clark with the two divisions under his immediate command for a time. Finally the cannon was brought into use and the Indians retreated while their way was not yet closed. The town was destroyed and also a large quantity of growing corn, making with that destroyed at Chillicothe about five hundred acres. The army returned by the ruined site of Chillicothe, using as forage for their horses the corn of one of the fields left standing for that purpose. The homes and crops of about two thousand Indians thus being destroyed, the In- dians were kept busy for a long time securing subsistence and replacing their loss. The towns destroyed were occupied by the Shawnees, the most dreaded foes of the Kentucky settlements, and one, at least, was not rebuilt, and the other lost all prominence in Indian warfare.
In 1781 a large British and Indian expedition appeared on the Ohio river, at the mouth of the Great Miami, some of the Indians of the expedition de- stroying the division of soldiers under Colonel Lochry. A strong party passed over into Kentucky harrassing the settlements. The next year a great war party under the British partisans, Caldwell and McKee, Simon Girty also being present, crossed the Ohio river into Kentucky. The first blow fell on Bryan Station. The garrison made a successful resistance. A large force of the best Indian fighters of Kentucky pursued the Indians, and without waiting for the full number of pursuers to come together resolved on attacking the Indians, They were drawn into ambush and the murderous slaughter of Blue Licks followed, seventy being killed outright. Outrages continued and only a desperate effort could relieve the situation.
CLARK'S SECOND EXPEDITION.
In this condition of affairs all eyes turned toward George Rogers Clark. On the fourth of November, 1782, Clark was at the mouth of the Licking with one thousand and fifty mounted riflemen. Instead of taking the old trail from
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the site of Cincinnati by the Little Miami a direct course was taken through the forest up Mill Creek and near the Great Miami river to the site of Dayton. Here a small body of Indians had assembled to dispute the crossing of Mad river. After a lively little fight the Indians were dispersed and Clark's army proceeded up the east bank of the Great Miami to within four miles of the Piqua villages. The horsemen forded the river at this point and proceeding up the west bank occupied the villages without a battle.
There has been so much confusion in regard to the two campaigns conducted by Clark that some explanations seem necessary. In 1750 and earlier there was at the junction of Loramie's Creek, sometimes called the west fork of the Miami, and the Miami, a populous town called Pickawillany, occupied by the Miami Indians, the town being a great center for English traders. The town was destroyed by the French in 1752. In its place a new town with a fort was built which was unsuccessfully attacked by Indians, aided by the English, in 1763. After this battle, due to the French losing their foothold in America, the Miamis who had taken sides so strongly with the French withdrew to the Maumee and the entire region became occupied by the Shawnees, save as fragments of the Miamis remained among them. After the Piqua on Mad river was destroyed by the first expedition under Clark, the Shawnees thus dispossessed built a town called Piqua where the present Piqua is and this was called Lower Piqua and the town at the forks of the Miami was called Upper Piqua. Fort Piqua, of General Wayne's time, was between these two towns. The site of Upper Piqua, under the name of Pickawillany, has frequently been confused with that of Loramie's Store where a fort called Loramie's Fort was afterward built. Loramie's Store was on Loramie's creek, fifteen miles above Upper Piqua near the portage between the Miami or Loramie's creek and the St. Marys, a branch of the Maumee.
After Clark was in possession of the Piqua towns he sent an expedition of a hundred and fifty horse to destroy the trading post at Loramie's and seize the stores. As it was the outfitting place for Indian incursions on the frontier settlements it contained a large amount of military stores as well as miscellane- ous goods to be sold to the Indians or that had been obtained from them. The expedition completed its work in a single night and early the next morning was back with the rest of the troops. From the time Clark's army crossed the Ohio till they returned, the loss that they sustained was one man killed and one man wounded. The Indian loss was ten killed, seven prisoners and two whites re- taken. A white woman, a Mrs. McFall was also secured and returned to Ken- tucky. In other ways the Indian loss was great and incapable of being replaced. Everything of value was destroyed. The destination of the two expeditions under Clark, as well as the lines of march, were entirely different. The Chilli- cothe destroyed in the second campaign was Lower Piqua. On the 20th of No- vember the Kentuckians forded Mad river on their return march. Their safety from attack permitted them in a measure to spy out the land, and they did not fail to mark out the land at the junction of Mad river and the Miami as an inviting place for settlement. In the expedition along with Clark were, Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton, Benjamin Logan, Robert Patterson, John Floyd and other noted Kentuckians. As the returning army neared the Ohio it was pro-
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posed that they should come together fifty years later to celebrate the results of the campaign. The meeting was actually called in 1832, but only a few of those heroes lived to respond to the call.
CONQUEST OF ILLINOIS.
We must now go back in time to notice the most noted campaign connected with the Revolution in the west-the conquest by a little army of Virginians under George Rogers Clark of the French settlements under the rule of the British on the Mississippi and the Wabash. From these settlements as well as from Detroit raids were incited against the American settlements. George Rogers Clark, soldier, patriot and statesman, saw what the conquest of these settlements would mean and secured the cooperation of Patrick Henry, then governor of Virginia. In 1778 with four companies with less than fifty men in each he floated down the Ohio and, marching across the country, surprised the garrison at Kaskaskia, and captured the British commandant. Immediately Colonel Bowman was dispatched to capture Cahokia in which undertaking he was successful. Vincennes was won through the persuasions of Gibault, the French priest. Audacity had won what calculation never could have effected, and yet cold calculation was not wanting.
Lieutenant Governor Hamilton at Detroit, who more than any one else was responsible for the Indian atrocities perpetrated upon the American settlements, undertook in person the retaking of the lost posts, and without opposition possessed himself of Vincennes. Various considerations led him to postpone the effort to take the other places till spring. But in that delay was his un- doing. Amidst incredible hardships, through the flooded lands and swollen streams, Clark made his way to Vincennes, captured the fort, made Hamilton his prisoner and sent him with some other prisoners to Virginia. From the fort at the falls of the Ohio (Louisville) Clark exercised some supervision over the conquered territory till the close of the war.
It will be noticed that the conquest of the Illinois and Indiana country was by Virginia, in a country claimed by her under her charter. In 1778, after Clark's campaign the county of Illinois was erected by the Virginia legislature out of the previous great county of Botetourt and included all of the territory bounded by the Pennsylvania line, the northern lakes and the Ohio and Missis- sippi rivers. Colonel John Todd was appointed the first county lieutenant and civil commandant of the county. Of course, the civil authority thus estab- lished was nominal rather than real.
TERMS OF PEACE.
The time for peace had at length come. In 1782, after the surrender of Corn- wallis in the fall of the preceding year the British were ready to acknowledge the independence of the colonies. The greatest difficulty in coming to terms of agree- ment was in defining the western boundary for the new nation. In this connection the settlement of the country south of the Ohio, the conquest of Clark in the pres-
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ent states of Illinois and Indiana, and partial authority and settlements estab- lished in the territory north of the Ohio strengthened greatly the American claims.
To make the case difficult for the Americans the French and Spanish who had come to the aid of the colonies in the war for independence began early to scheme to keep America weak and dependent on themselves. Many of the French were sincere in their sympathy with the colonists, but the same cannot be said of the French court. Spain already held the territory west of the Mississippi and about its mouth and desired to extend her sway, while France had not given up hope of recovering her hold in America. Both insisted on the American boundary being drawn on a line with the Alleghenies or the border of the adjacent settlements with the idea that sooner or later one or the other might secure from Great Britain the territory of the west and north. That they did not succeed was due to the skill and determination of the American treaty-makers at Paris-Jay, Adams and Franklin. The British were led to see that Americans would be better neighbors than Spaniards and that it would be wise to seek "to regain the affections of the Americans." In the treaty of peace as signed in 1783 America was given prac- tically the present boundary at the north and the Mississippi to near its mouth as the western boundary, Spain holding Florida on the south. Of the eight hun- dred thousand square miles of territory with which the young republic entered upon her career one-half of it, of which France and Spain would have deprived her, lay west of the Alleghenies.
CHAPTER II.
THE NORTHWEST UNDER THE AMERICAN FLAG.
NATIONALIZING OF THE PUBLIC DOMAIN-ORDINANCE OF 1785-ORDINANCE OF 1787-INDIANS WITHIN THE BOUNDS OF OHIO-INDIAN TREATIES-MARCH OF SETTLEMENTS-THE OHIO COMPANY-THE MIAMI LANDS-JUDGE SYMMES' PURCHASE-JOURNEY TO THE WEST-EXPLORATION OF MIAMI LANDS-FIRST SETTLEMENTS-EXPLORATION AND SURVEYS-THE RIVER SETTLEMENTS -- PLAN FOR TOWN ON SITE OF DAYTON-INDIAN ATTACKS-OUTCOME OF JUDGE SYMMES' CONTRACT-A GENERAL INDIAN WAR-GENERAL HARMAR'S CAMPAIGN-ST. CLAIR'S EXPEDITION-PEACE EFFORTS-GENERAL WAYNE'S EXPEDITION-CIVIL ADMINISTRATION-HAMILTON COUNTY-TERRITORIAL LEGISLATURE-OHIO A STATE.
NATIONALIZING OF THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.
The nationalizing of the western territory, in name as well as in fact, was yet to take place. The claim of New York to an indefinite area conquered by the Six Nations and ceded by them to her was yielded by her to the general government in 1781. Virginia and Connecticut claimed territory extending to the Mississippi, including all of the present area of Ohio. Virginia, retaining certain reservations, surrendered her claim to all north and west of the Ohio in 1784. Connecticut made her cession in 1786, retaining the profit that might accrue from lands after- ward known as the Western Reserve. The preceding year Massachusetts ceded her rights to lands west of New York. Common possession and control of the western lands tended to bring the various states closer together, and also insured the largest benefits to the territory that was yet to be peopled. At the close of the Revolution the general government was greatly in debt, the currency, was greatly depreciated, and vast promises in land had been made to soldiers and officers. To meet the exigencies congress was anxious to sell the public lands in lots both to individuals and companies.
No sooner had Virginia made her cession of her rights to western lands than Jefferson introduced an ordinance providing for government over the entire com- mon domain. Ten states were in time to be formed. Slavery was to be excluded after 1800 from this wide area, both north and south of the Ohio. This latter provision did not prevail but the general ordinance was adopted. From the time
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of its adoption in 1784 it remained inoperative till 1787, when it gave place to the famous ordinance bearing date of that year.
ORDINANCE OF 1785.
Meantime, in 1785, an act of far-reaching importance relating to the survey and sale of public lands was adopted. It provided for a survey in rectangular lots-sections and townships-and the regular numbering of the same, before the sales and settlements could be made. Before this claimants made their own loca- tion and survey. The new method had been suggested in 1784, and following the act of 1785 was practically introduced by Thomas Hutchins, the geographer of the United States. Thomas Hutchins was a captain in Colonel Bouquet's expedi- tion to the Muskingum in 1763. In 1778 he was made "geographer" for the con- federated colonies. After independence was achieved he continued to serve in the office of "geographer" till his death in April, 1789. The plan of rectangular surveys by east and west and north and south lines as contained in the Ordinance of 1785 was doubtless the invention of Mr. Hutchins already foreshadowed by his scheme for military settlements promulgated in 1765. Till this time surveys in all countries had been arbitrarily determined by roads, rivers, and coasts. Section sixteen of each township was by the ordinance reserved for education. The pro- vision that a section in each township should be reserved for the support of religion did not prevail, though it was later included in some of the land grants.
ORDINANCE OF 1787.
The act entitled "An Ordinance for the government of the territory of the United States northwest of the River Ohio," was greatly modified before its final adoption. This was largely due to Nathan Dane, member of congress from Mas- sachusetts, and Dr. Manasseh Cutler. Dr. Cutler acted as agent for a company of New Englanders who had associated themselves for securing a grant of lands north of the Ohio. Congress was anxious to sell its lands, and the ordinance was modified to suit the insistent demands of the intending purchasers. The famous ordinance was adopted July 13, 1787. In his reply to Hayne, Daniel Webster de- clared his doubt "whether one single law of any law giver, ancient or modern, had produced effects of more distinct, marked, and lasting character than the Ordinance of 1787." Senator Hoar speaks of the ordinance as belonging with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution-"one of the three title deeds of American constitutional liberty." Of it Judge Cooley says: "No-charter of government in the history of any people has so completely withstood the tests of time and experience." It has been spoken of as the one example in the history of the world of signal success in the mapping out of a charter for a country yet to be peopled.
Passing by the more usual provisions of the ordinance the special features may well be given in the summary and characterization of Roosevelt in his "Win- ning of the West." "The all-important features of the ordinance were contained in the six articles of compact between the confederated states and the people and states of the territory, to be forever unalterable, save by the consent of both par-
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ties. The first guaranteed complete freedom of worship and religious belief to all peaceable and orderly persons. The second provided for trial by jury, the writ of habeas corpus, the privilege of the common law, and the rights of proportional legislative representation. The third enjoined that faith should be kept with the Indians, and provided that "schools and the means of education" should forever be encouraged, inasmuch as "religion, morality, and knowledge" were necessary to good government. The fourth ordained that the new states formed in the northwest should forever form part of the United States, and be subject to the laws, as were the others. The fifth provided for the formation and admission of not less than three or more than five states, formed out of the northwestern terri- tory, wherever such a putative state should contain sixty thousand inhabitants ; the form of government to be republican, and the state, when created, to stand on an equal footing with all the other states. The sixth and most important article declared that there should never be slavery or involuntary servitude in the north- west, otherwise than for the punishment of convicted criminals, provided, how- ever, that fugitive slaves from the older states might lawfully be reclaimed by their owners. This was the greatest blow struck for freedom and against slavery in all our history, save only Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, for it determined that in the final struggle the mighty west should side with the right against the wrong. * The blow was dealt by southern men, to whom all honor should ever be given."
About two months after the adoption of the ordinance for the government of the northwest the constitutional convention, sitting at Philadelphia, completed the drafting of the Constitution of the United States, pronounced by Gladstone the most remarkable document ever produced by the hand of man at a single stroke Probably Gladstone was not aware of the extent to which the Constitution was a development from previous acts.
INDIANS WITHIN THE BOUNDS OF OHIO.
The Iroquois, often called the Six Nations, had at the time when the nortli- west came into prominence with the English extended their villages from their old home in New York along the southern shore of Lake Erie and along the western border of Pennsylvania to the Ohio. Near the Ohio they were called the Mingoes. Logan was their most famous chief. Brant, a noted chief of the Mohawks, be- came a little later a great factor in Indian relations in the northwest. The Hurons or Wyandots were situated on both the north and south sides of the west end of Lake Erie. They were kindred to the Iroquois but along with other northwestern tribes were savagely attacked by them and the tribal character largely broken up. The dreaded Wyandots living about Sandusky Bay and extending indefinitely southward were a remnant of the old Hurons. The Eries, in early times dwelling on the southern shore of Lake Erie, were attacked and destroyed by the Iroquois, despite the fact that they were their kindred.
The valley of the Muskingum was occupied by the Delawares who had mi- grated from the east. The Scioto valley was occupied by the Shawnees who had migrated from the south. The valleys of the two Miamis, especially the upper parts of the same, were occupied by the Miamis, called by the Iroquois Twigh-
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