History of the city of Toledo and Lucas County, Ohio, Part 131

Author: Waggoner, Clark, 1820-1903
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: New York and Toledo : Munsell & Company
Number of Pages: 1408

USA > Ohio > Lucas County > Toledo > History of the city of Toledo and Lucas County, Ohio > Part 131

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

In a letter to the Blade, August 20, 1850, Major B. F. Stickney says he left Washington, D. C., March 8, 1812, under appointment as Indian Agent at Fort Wayne, Indiana Territory. Going Westward to Pittsburgh, he descended the Ohio to Cincinnati in arks, arriving there April 1st, that place then being " a good sized Village," the Post Office receiving $600 per year. Thence, he passed the present localities of Day- ton, Troy and Piqua, a few families being at each, with a log tavern at the former. The Western line of Ohio then had not been fixed, and Fort Wayne was supposed to be in this State ; Lake Michigan was supposed to extend 20 miles farther North than it does. Maj. Stick- Dey reached Ft. Wayne April 11, 1812. Hle seems to have had some peculiar views as to the policy best in the management of the In- dians. Hle thought Gen. Harrison, as Governor of Indiana Territory, in that regard relied too much on military force, and not enough on strategy, and attributed the superior influence of the British in that respect to the fact that they employed intrigue and bribery of Chiefs. Again, American Soldiers were constantly urging measures for ridding the country of the Indians, to which policy the Government yielded. Major Stickney's plan, as suggested in this letter, would have been-when it was decided that a certain tribe must be removed- to call them together (say for a space of 500 miles square), furnish them with plenty of good meat and bread, a little tobacco and some whisky, and hold them for six weeks, when disease would probably ensue, resulting in the death of 20 per cent., with a continued decrease of 15 to 20 per cent. per annum ; while those remaining would be so enervated as not to be dangerous. " In this mode," said Major Stick - ney, " all the lives of the troops would be saved, and at least three-fourths of the cash, and the Indians well satisfied with that mode of doing business." He says he communicated to the Government this plan for the treatment of the Indians, before his appointment as Agent. In his tetter to the Blade, be recognized the "ques- tion of morality " which his scheme might raise, but thought it no worse to dispose of Indians in that way than in battle. It is a re- lief to know, that among the forms of manage- ment of that race, that of insidious poison thus proposed, never has been tried. Nor does such device seem to have been entertained by the Government.

James Thomas was one of the young adven- turers who came to this County as early as 1817. He was born in Brighton, Monroe County, New York, in 1798, and reached Maumee April 19, 1817, having made the trip on foot after 15 days of hard travel. There was at that time no improved road between Buffalo and the

062

HISTORY OF TOLEDO AND LUCAS COUNTY.

Maumee River, nor a road of any sort for much of that distance. Cleveland was then a very small Village; there was a tavern at Elyria ; a small settlement at Florence Corners, Huron County ; a few houses at the County-scat, be- low Milan ; a few settlers at Lower Sandusky ; one house between that place and the Manmee River, consisting of a log shanty on " Car- ryin'" (Portage) River, which furnished shelter for a Frenchman on his trips as mail-carrier on foot, guided by blazed trees. Mr. Thomas remained here for three years, when he left. In 1824, he purchased a farm in Hartland, Hu- ron County, which continued to be his home for nearly 60 years, he dying in January, 1886, in the 88th year of his age.

The opening of the Wabash and Erie Canal was celebrated at Fort Wayne, July 4, 1843, with much demonstration and enthusiasm. General Lewis Cass was orator of the day and delivered an address of special interest and value, both in the thoughts presented and the historical and other facts furnished. Of the Maumee Valley and its aboriginal inhabitants. he said :

The line of your Canal was a bloody war-path, which has seen many a deed of horror. And this peaceful Town (Ft. Wayne) has had its Moloch, and the records of human depravity furnish no more ter- rible examples of cruelty, than were offered at his shrine. The Miami Indians, our predecessors in the occupation of this district, had a fertile institution, whose origin and object have been lost in the dark- ness of aboriginal history, but which was continued to a late period, and whose orgies were held upon the very spot where we now are. It was called the " Man-Eating Society," and it was the duty of all as sociates to eat such prisoners as were preserved and delivered to them for that purpose. The members of this society belonged to a particular family, and the dreadful inheritance descended to all children, male and female. The duties it imposed could not be avoided ; and the sanctions of religion were added to the obligations of immemorial usage. The feast was a solemn ceremony, at which the whole tribe were collected as actors or spectators. The miserable vic- tim was bound to a stake, and burned at a slow fire with all the refinement of cruelty which savage in- gennity could invent. Here was a traditionary ritual, which regulated with revolting precision the whole course of procedure at these ceremonies. Latterly, the authority and obligation of the institution had declined, and I presume it has now wholly disap- peared. But I have seen and conversed with the head of the family, the chief of the Society, whose name was White Skin, with what feelings of disgust, I need not attempt to describe. 1 well knew an in- telligent Canadian, who was present at one of the last sacritiees made to this horrible institution. The vic- tim was a young American, captured in Kentucky, toward the close of the Revolutionary War. Here where we are now assembled, in peace and security, celebrating the triumph of art'and industry, within the memory of the present generation, our country- men have been thus tortured, murdered and de- voured. But thank God, that conneil-fire is extin- guished-the impious feast is over-the war dance is ended-the war song is sung-the war drum is silent -the Indian bas departed, to find, I hope, in the silent West a more comfortable residence ; and to find also, I hope, under the protection, and if need

be, under the power of the United States, a radical change in institutions, and a general improvement in his morals and condition. A feeble remnant of the onee powerful tribe which formerly won their way to the dominion of this region by blood, and by blood maintained it. have to-day appeared among the pass- ing shadows flitting around the places that now know them no more. *

* To-day the last of the race is here. To-morrow they will commence their journey toward the setting sun, where their fathers. agreeable to their rude faith, have preceded them, and where the Red Man will find rest and safety.

In coming to this place, I passed along the Canal, and marked with delight the beautiful River on whose banks it has been constructed, and the charm- ing country to which it gives new life and value. I was forcibly struek with the contrast between this journey and a former one. Nature has been prodigal of her favors to the Valley of the Maumee. I can never forget the first time it met my eyes. It was at the commencement of the late War (1812), when the troops destined for the defense of Detroit, had passed through the forestsfrom Urbana to the Rapids of the Manmee. The season had been wet, and mueh of the country was low, and the whole of it unbroken by a single settlement. We had to cut our way and transport our provisions and baggage with great labor and ditlicutty. We were heartily tired of the march, and were longing for its termination, when we at- tained the brow of the table-lands through which the Maumee had made a passage for itself, and a fertile region for those who have the good fortune to occupy it. Like the mariner, we felt we had reached a port -like the wanderer, a home. In a subsequent jour- ney, led by official duty, I ascended the River, in a birch canoe. There is something romantic associated with that mode of conveyance, but it soon palls upon the traveler. During many a weary mile and honr, I have been borne by this aboriginal skiff over the Lakes and Rivers of the Northwest, and seen it ear- ried through the dense forests, across wild portages, and then floated npon some little stream, which, gradually swelled by successive tributaries, became a large River. It was thus I passed from Lake Superior to the Mississippi, launching my frail barque upon a mere rivulet, and descending before the peculiar characteristics of the stream announced that we were upon that mighty River, which flows from its foun- tains in the North to the tropical seas. * *

Here, where your Canal prepares to leave the basin of the Lakes for that of the Mississippi, I left the River with my birch canoe, and placing it upon a wagon, it was transported to Little River, where my faithful voyageurs re-embarked in it, and joined me at the White Raccoon's Village, to which I rode and where I passed the night. My friend, the Raccoon, treated me with great hospitality, but he was a little too hospital to himself and his kindred. Ile produced his keg of " fire-water," to do honor to the arrival of the " Chee-mo-kee-main," but unfortunately he was too free at his own feast. One of those scenes of in- toxication followed, which are the bane and the at- tendant of Indian life, and I retired to my blanket, leaving my host and his friends at their orgies. In the morning I embarked on the Wabash and de- seended that River to its mouth, stopping occasion- ally to examine and admire the beautiful country through which it Hows, unsurpassed, probably, upon the face of the globe.

I revert to these incidents of frontier life, to place in bolder relief the change which has resened this region from the Indian, and has crowned it with the precious work of civilization.

Mrs. Fanny L. Allen died in Cleveland, December 11, 1875, aged 82 years and 9 months. She was a daughter of Moses Brigham, and

660

EVENTS AND PERSONS.

born in Hanover, Massachusetts. On invita- tion of the celebrated Mohawk Chief Brandt, who was educated at Dartmouth College, Mr. Brigham removed to Delaware, Canada, where he engaged in trade. About 1811 the dangh- ter was married with Seneca Allen, a Civil Engineer, and they soon removed to Detroit, where they lived at the time of Ilull's surrender in 1813 They had 12 children, of whom seven survived the mother-George Allen, of Michi- gan; lliram, of California; Mrs. Hamilton Colton, of Milan, Ohio; Mrs. J. W. Keith and Mrs. Geo. B. Truax, of Detroit; Mrs. Gro. Il. Standart and Mrs. J. H. Blinn, of Cleveland. Mrs. Allen was the elder sister of Mrs. Carlos Colton, of Toledo. Mr. and Mrs. Allen were among the carliest setilers of the Maumee Valley, having come here in Is16, 72 years ago, and first settled six miles above Mammee City, at Roche de Pont, now Waterville, where Mr. Allen opened a small trade with the Indians. Several other families came at the same time and in the same vessel, among whom were those of Jacob Wilkison, Elijah Gunn, Charles Gunn and Christopher Gunn: Minerva, eldest daughter of Elijah Gnon, married David Hull, brother of Isaac Hull. Elijah Gunn, Jr., married Jerusha Jennison, whose family lived below Perrysburg. In 1818 Mr. Allen removed down to Fort Meigs (Orleans of the North), where then were half' a dozen families, including those of Amos Spafford, Aurora Spafford, Samuel Vance, Thomas Mellrath, Mr. Plum, Samnel Ewing and Isaac Hull (father of David and Isaac), and brother of General Hull. In January, 1824, Mr. Allen removed to Port Lawrence (Toledo), employing pirogues lashed together for that purpose, the River being open. At that time there were living at that place the families of John T. Baldwin, Joseph Prentice, and a Frenchman, named Trombley. A mile below lived Major Stickney, and below him Win. Wilson. Mrs. Hamilton Colton, with Dr. Walter Colton, in the Summer of 1824, made the trip to Detroit and back in a small Schooner, Capt. Truman Reed, being three days in going and six in re- turning. Mrs. Colton thought that Daniel Murray came to Port Lawrence in 1824, and built a house on the Monroe road, ball a mile from the mouth of Swan Creek. Mr. Fisher rame in 1825, and his son and Mr. Baldwin opened the first dry goods store in that locality. Mr. Bartlett (brother-in-law of Mr. Fisher) the same year came and bought Mr. Murray's place, that gentleman then moving West. Mr. Allen, in the Spring of 1821, purchased of John and William Hollister, of Perrysburg, at $3.00 per acre, 160 acres of land, now in the heart of Toledo, and erected a log cabin near the Whit- aker residence, corner of Monroe and Tenth Streets, in which job be was assisted by the late Carlos Colton. Unable to meet his pay- ments, this purchase was relinquished, as was

that of another buyer at the same price, and subsequently (1832) 70 acres of the tract was purchased by the late Jessup W. Scott at 812 per acre. The tract included tho present Central School building. In February, 1823, Seneca Allen, then of Fort Meigs, and Heman Alfred, of Vermillion, Huron County, left the mouth of Carrying ( Portage) River for Detroit by cutter, on the ice. After traveling some miles they struck thin ice, and were immersed. Mr. Alfred died and Mr. Allen escaped with his life. The horse was lost. Mr. AAllen, in the Winter of 1824-5, taught the first School opened within the present limits of Toledo, for the sum of $16 per month (boarding himself'), continu- ing the same for two winters. In the Summer of 1827, Mr. Allen and family removed to Monroe, Michigan, going by the Maumee Packet. and spending four days in the trip. On removing to Monroe, Mr. Allen was made Clerk of the Michigan Territorial Legislative Council, holding that office until his death by cholera, in 1834. Mrs. Allen was a woman of rare personal qualities, which enabled her to pass through the severe trials of pioneer life with heroic firmness and earnest activity, meet - ing all the demands of a large family and of many needy neighbors. Mr. Allen was a man of high character, and of the strictest integrity.

The following memoranda of early times, were supplied by Mrs. Allen not long before her death :

When Captain Allen and a portion of his family. visited the Valley in October, 1831, they found the principal Ottawa Indian Village located on the Man- hattan side of the River, near its mouth, where the Government made its payments to the tribe ; and their hunting grounds were on the opposite side. " 1 well remember," said she, " the beautiful road lead- ing from Vistula to this Indian Village. It was wind- ing, and shaded by magnificent trees. We frequently rode thither with Major Stickney in his one-horse wagon; and as we passed through the Village, the little Indians would run out calling him 'Father! Father !' which would please him amazingly. What is now chiefly the track of Summit Street, formed then a most charming ride through a delightful forest. The banks of the River were bold, high bluffs, and the graceful little fawns and flocks of wild turkeys often crossed our path as we were rid- ing, and disappeared in the woods. I bad two fawns for my especial playmates -- cach having a bell at- tached to its neck, and were daily companions in my rambles through the woods. The streets of Vis- tula bear the names originally given them- myself naming Lagrange, in memory of the home. in France, of Lafayette. Major Stickney gave Summit Street its name ; and d'aptain Allen suggested the names of all the others. The Indians were uniformly kind and hospitable. Their title was extinguished by treaty made on the part of the United States by the Terii- toriai Governor of Michigan, in 1833. The Canadian French were also courteous and obliging, and many of their suggestions regarding the diseases then pecu- liar to the country, and means to avoid them, were ascertained to be valuable. Venison, wild geese, turkeys, ducks, etc., were abundant. In the Summer and Autumn of 1833, the feeble colony, as well as the French and Indians, suffered much from sick- ness. The first weeping willow transplanted on this

661

HISTORY OF TOLEDO AND LUCAS COUNTY.

soil, was brought from Columbus by myself, and the ship had been used on the route as a riding whip." The willow tree referred to by Mrs. Allen, which sprang from the branch placed in the ground by her own hands in 1832, attained a large growth, and, having fived 40 years, was destroyed by a storm, in 1872, the same year that her own death occurred. It occupied a corner of Lagrange and Superior Streets. The remains of Captain Allen and wife now rest in Forest Cemetery.

Two residents of Erie Township, Monroe County, Michigan, have been more or less familiar with the history of Toledo and vicin- ity from the earliest settlement here. Refer- ence is made to Mrs. Sarah Rowe, widow of the late John P. Rowe, and to Mr. Samuel Mulholland, her brother, both children of Daniel Mulholland. The first named was born in 1807, the second in 1811, and both at Mon- roe, Michigan. The family removed to Erie Township in 1828, when the father entered 160 aeres of land in Section 17, Town 8, Range 8. The same year he built a frame house for his residence, that being the only structure of the sort then between Monroe and the present limits of Toledo. The house was located on what was known as the United States Turn- pike, about half a mile South of the present Village of Vienna. The son Samuel had per- sonal charge of the clearing of the land, which was covered with heavy timber. In 1829, a hotel was opened by Mr. Mulholland. The mails were then carried between Detroit and Maumee City, via Monroe, and along the Turnpike, being conveyed chiefly in ordinary wagons. Dr. Horatio Conant, of Manmee, had been carrying the mails, but was succeeded by John P. Converse and - Reese, who took the contract between Detroit and Cleveland. The hotel was kept in the name of the father until 1837, when Samnel and a widowed sister, Mrs. Mary Stowell, mother of Mrs. Reed M. Brigham, of Erie, jointly took charge of the establishment, and conducted it until 1841, when it was closed. About 1835, Mr. John P. Rowe was married with Miss Sarah Mulhol- land, and became associated in the hotel busi- ness. The mail stage line was continued on the United States Turnpike for several years after Mr. Mulholland went to Eric. As else- where stated, it passed Toledo on what is now Detroit Avenue, and about two miles from the mouth of Swan Creek, so long the center from which all distances were calculated. Mr. Mul- holland well remembers the arrangement under which the firm of W. J. Daniels & Co., for the purpose of securing such divergence of the stage route as would include Toledo, purchased of Converse & Co. the section between Maumee City and Monroe, and then ran the stages via 'Toledo, the extra cost of which was paid to Daniels & Co. by the proprietors of Port Law- rence and Vistula.

Mr. Mulholland and family resided in Monroe at the time of Hull's surrender, in 1813, when

they fled to Cleveland and the interior and did not return until three or four years after the close of the war. At the time they removed to Erie, there was but one building between them and Tremainesville, and that was the log-house of Wm. Wilkinson, on the site of the present residence of Mr. Wilkinson, a grandson of that gentleman, about one-half mile Southwest from Alexis Railroad Station. Mr. Wilkinson entered land and afterwards puebased 10 acres of John E. Hunt of Maumee. Abont that time Dr. Cyrus Fisher, Philip Gardinier and others settled about Ten-Mile Creek, where is now Tremainesville. The house of Mr. Mulholland became prominent during the " Toledo War," from the fact that it often was made the stopping place of the Michigan officials and Military. On the occasions of the repeated forays and other visitations from Monroe to the insurrectionars scene at Toledo, his hotel was made a stopping place, going and coming, where the " situation" and the plans for the subjection of the " Toledo Rebels," as they were called, were freely discussed. Mr. Mulholland is still sensible to the alarming seriousness of the state of things which then had all the terror of actual state of War. The only question in the case, was, as to the proba- bility of Ohio meeting the force which Michi- gan provided for vindicating her dignity and territorial rights. " If Ohio will fight," was the only contingency on which "bloody war" was supposed to hang. Not least of their anxieties arose from the faet of their mid-way location between the headquarters of the two parties. Such was especially the situation at the time of the holding of the memorable Court of Common Pleas at Toledo, in September, 1835, the prevention of which was counted a matter of prime concern by Governor Stevens. The force raised by him for that purpose (about 1,200 men), made a halt at Mulholland's when on its way to Toledo, and camped in a lot near the hotel. During the night they stopped there rain fell in torrents, completely soaking the wholly unprotected "rank and tile," their officers, or most of them, having found cover in the hotel or barn. The next day they moved towards Toledo, and were gone two days. Mr. Mulholland's understand- ing was, that Governor Stevens and other officials were then at their headquarters at the hotel of Christian Hertzler, at Vienna. The chagrin of the Michigan leaders upon learning of the successful holding of the Court while they slept, was illy disguised on their re- turn from the bloodless expedition to Toledo. They then looked upon the situation as very serious, although not wholly desperate. They would sooner have been defeated in a square fight than to be circumvented by strategy so simple and so effectual. That event virtually closed hostile demonstrations on both sides, which quietly awaited arbitrament by peaceful

665

EVENTS AND PERSONS.

means of the dispute, which, extending over 30 years of time, had possessed the aspect of hostility by open war for more than half a year. Mr. Mulholland says the Michigan people were thoroughly in earnest, fully con- vineed of the complete justice of their case. Their only source of doubt as to the outcome of the case, consisted in the fact that, with nothing but the inchoate condition of a help- less and impotent Territorial Government, they knew that they were called to maintain their rights against a powerful opponent en- joying all the political and other advantages of State Government, representation in Congress and votes in the Electoral Colleges to convene for the election of President and Vice Pesident the following year. To this source they then, as they have since, attributed largely their weakness with the Government at Washington, in whose hands they so completely were. Mr. Mulholland has since been much gratified at the steady advance of better relations between the parties to that dispute, until save in the memories of participants in the contest now fifty years past, no such disturbance of neigh- borly relations as the " Toledo War " is known. Mr. Samuel Mulholland several years since suffered the sad affliction of a loss of eyesight, and no longer able personally to manage his farm, has now (1887), with a daughter, Miss Jerusha, taken up his residence in Toledo, where another daughter (wife of Dr. O. S. Brigham) also resides.

Mrs. Rowe's memory covered the period beginning with the close of the War of 1812-15, when she was 8 years of age; and sbe specially knew more or less of Toledo and vicinity after 1828. She spoke of a sleighing-party from Erie, which visited Vistula in March, 1832 (previous to its consolidation with Port Law- rence in Toledo). There was then no public house in Vistula, and it was necessary for parties on such occasions to engage their sup- pers at the Tremainesville hotel on their way, to be taken on their return. They made their stop in Vistula at the house of Sam. Allen, who, though not a hotel-keeper, yet entertained the few strangers who needed accommodations. He lived in Major Stickney's brick house. There was at that time a small store in Vistula (that of Lewis Godard) ; also, a small Wind- Mill. Mrs. Rowe was made familiar with the stirring events of the " Toledo War," and, with other residents on the line between the head- quarters of the two parties (Toledo and Mon- roe), shared in the intense alarm and anxiety which for about six months prevailed. Mr. Rowe died at his farm-residence, near Vienna, Erie Township, June 11, 1865, aged 58 years. He had long been a successful farmer and a leading citizen of Monroe County. Mrs. Rowe continued to reside at the family homestead with her son, Charles M. Rowe, until her death, June 16, 1887.

Mr. A. J. Keeney, for 60 years also a resident of Erie, Michigan, well remembers that while he was yet a boy, a man came into that section seeking assistance from the settlers in raising a building in the neighborhood of Toledo, and explaining such appeal with the statement, that the immediato neighbors of the owner of the proposed building refused to assist at the raising, for the reason that he would not furnish liquors for the occasion. The result of such call, was, that while the scattered French and English settlers on the Bay Shore and vicinity were not especially averse to the use of intoxicating drinks, at raisings or elsewhere, they so fully sympathized with the conscien- tious fidelity to his convictions shown by the pioneer Teetotaler, that they turned out and furnished all the help needed, and were quite willing, for the time, to accept " Temperance drinks." Mr. Keeney does not remember the name of the settler committing so great an innovation on universal practice. It might or might not have been Deacon Samuel 1. Keeler, who about that time raised his house on the same principles of Temperance.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of the city of Toledo and Lucas County, Ohio, Part 131

Author: Waggoner, Clark, 1820-1903 Publication date: 1888 Publisher: New York and Toledo : Munsell & Company Number of Pages: 1408

Author: Waggoner, Clark, 1820-1903
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: New York and Toledo : Munsell & Company
Number of Pages: 1408