USA > Ohio > Ohio early state and local history > Part 4
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Rev. Montgomery lived in the Block-House seven years and then built a cabin close by, where he lived until he died June 1, 1830. Lang's History says he was buried near the old fort. Duke's is the only cemetery near there.
The Senecas continued to live upon their reservation until 1831. In that year a treaty was made in Washington between James B. Gardiner, Commissioner on the part of the United States, and Comstock, Seneca Steel, Captain Good Hunter, Hard Hickory, and Small Cloud Spicer, Chiefs of the Senecas.
Previous to the making of this treaty, in 1825, Coonstick, Steel, and Cracked Hoof, left the reservation for the double purpose of a three years hunting and trapping excursion, and to seek a location for a new home in the west for the tribe. They returned in 1828 and found Seneca John had become Chief. Coonstick, Steel, Comstock, and Seneca John, were brothers. Comstock was Chief when the three went west, and had died before their return. Seneca John was accused of causing Comstock's death by Witchcraft. His denial was very eloquent, but in the end, gave his life for his living brothers' blood-thirstiness. This was well described in the Seneca County histories; and somewhere within the limits of Seneca County the bones of Seneca John lie today, for when the In- dians left this county, Mr. Brish says he saw Coonstick and Steel level the grave so that no vestige remained.
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The three young men that went west to find a new location for the Senecas, must have been successful, for the Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1829 contains the fol- lowing:
SENECA CHIEFS OF OHIO, to the
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
October 15, 1829.
Our Father and President of the United States:
We, the Seneca Chiefs, residing on the Sandusky River and State of Ohio, wish you to open your ears to your Red children in this place. Our agents have long since told us that there is a good country in the West, and plenty of game, where the Indian could live well and be out of the way of bad white men and from strong drink which has destroyed so many of our people. Some of our Chiefs and some of our warriors have visited Missouri and Arkansas and have returned much pleased with the country and particularly with that part of the country where the Cherokees have lately taken their seats.
We therefore for ourselves and for our Nation, request the President and government of the United States to make arrangements to hold a treaty with us and prepare and secure a home for us, by the side of our brothers, the Cherokees in the West. We want cash for our improve- ments and cash to meet the expense necessary to remove our people to the West; and the balance of the value of our reservation to be paid to us in land.
It is our wish to move next fall, if possible. We therefore ourselves and for our Nation, pledge ourselves to be the friends of the President and the people of the United States.
Signed by:
Comstock, His (x) mark. George Curly Eye, His (x) mark. Seneca Steel, His (x) mark. Tall Chief, His (x) mark. Wiping Stick, His (x) mark.
Captain Good Hunter, His (x) mark. Blue Jacket, His (x) mark. Hard Hickory, His (x) mark. Segow, His (x) mark. Captain Smith, His (x) mark. Small Cloud Spicer, His (x) mark. Thomas Brant, His (x) mark.
Martin Lane, Interpreter.
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I certify that the within application of the Chiefs was signed of their own free will and voluntary act and that the same was written by their request October 15, 1829.
(Signed), James Montgomery, Assistant Agent for the Senecas.
In the fall of 1831 the Senecas started for their new home on the Neosho River in the Indian Country Southwest of Mis- souri. Part of them went overland and a part under Henry C. Brish went to Cincinnati and thence by boat to St. Louis.
In Volume XI, No. 3, of the Journal of American History, are two letters written by George Washington Gist to his father, Colonel Joshua Gist, living at Westminster, Maryland, dated February 4, 1832. He was appointed to transfer the Seneca Indians from Tiffin, Ohio. From this letter it seems that several men were appointed to transfer the Senecas. He speaks of the severity of the weather and many interesting occurrences on the way, among which, was attending the theater at Louisville. I will quote from the letter:
"The theater being open, we all had an invitation and many attended (gratis), the second tier boxes being assigned to us, and we cut a considerable figure, as many of the Indians put on their best. As in all theaters, there are some ill-behaved; when we entered the box, they began to hiss. I mentioned to one of the managers that I thought he could turn their hissing into praise of the Indians. I then took one of the Chiefs, Comstock, aside and told him that he must go to the boat and get his flag, a beautiful one. He agreed and got it. I gave him his instruction through the interpreter, that when the curtain fell he must hold out the flag with the expression "Our Country's Flag." After arranging all the Chiefs together in the front row of the box, we waited for the first scene to be finished. When the curtain fell, Comstock held out his flag, out of which dropped into the pit a beautiful handerchief, when such applause ensued as to deafen."
Another incident in connection with the transporting of these Indians to their new reservation in the Indian country, has been related to me by Miss Lilah Coxe, a grand niece of General Brish.
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During the journey, one of the Indians died, leaving a wife and child. When General Brish was about to return home, he visited the widow, whose name was Konkepot, and who, it is believed was a Mohican, adopted by the Senecas, who was ill, and believed she was about to die. While there, she asked him to bring her her tomahawk, which he did, when she at- tempted to kill her child with it. She was prevented from doing this by him. When asked by him why she had attempted to kill her child, she replied that she did not wish to die and leave it with the Indians, as they would not care for it, but said that if General Brish would take the child-a little girl-home with him and rear it in his family, she would not kill it. This he agreed to do, and brought the child home with him. The child was reared in his family, and was a playmate of the mother of Miss Coxe. The girl was given the name of Louisa Konkepot, her Indian name being Tululu.
After she grew to womanhood, she longed to return to her people in their new home. This privilege was readily granted her, and she returned there, and shortly thereafter married an Indian. After a short time becoming tired of the cruel treatment of her husband, she returned to the home of her foster father, General Brish, and remained here for some years. Then the desire to again see her people became strong in her, and she again returned to them in their new home in the Indian country. There she married a white man and never returned to Tiffin.
That General Brish never lost his fatherly interest in these Indians, is shown by a poem written by him in 1853, more than twenty years after he had taken them to their new home, and which he sent to his friend Dr. Dresbach, then on his last sick bed. This poem was found in an old memorandum book which, many years after it was written was given to William Lang, when writing his History of Seneca County. Attached to the poem, is the following note written by General Brish at the time he wrote the poem:
"Old memories revived of my feelings on reaching the country allotted to the Seneca Indians, upon the Neosho River, west of Missouri, and my parting with them on the evening of the 15th of July, 1832. Written in April, 1853, with a hope that their perusal may afford my dear friend, Dr. E. Dresbach, one moment's pleasure, even though that pleasure be in ridiculing them."
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"THE SENECA HOME." (For Dr. Dresbach.)
"Through pathless wilds we've come our way, O'er prairies wide, hills high and low, Till at length arrived, at close of day, Upon the winding Ne-o-sho.
Hail! beautious stream and climate fair; Welcome, deep, rich soil of thine; Hail, prairies green, health breathing air; Hail, sturdy oak and lofty pine.
*Hah-ne-gueeych friend, hast thou no joy to speak? Why from thy heart upheaves the sigh,
Why the tear upon thy cheek? Come, join our joy, or tell us why.
Red man, I mourn thy hapless fate. Thy doom is farther on; For thou must journey, soon or late Towards the setting sun.
Thy destiny is found in one prophetic word; Away thou must still further back; The white Man's voice behind is heard; His feet are in thy track.
The time has come when we must part, Still may your lives in joy go on, Is the fond wish of one true heart, When the moon is up thou'lt find me gone.
And now, my friends, receive my last adieu; My guide awaits me; I must go. While mem'ry lasts I'll think of you; Again, farewell, swift flowing Ne-o-sho."
*Indian name given General Brish.
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Many interesting reminiscences the old settlers have given to their children, concerning the few years the white people and the Indians lived here together.
Mrs. Leah Anna Sheats, the daughter of John Ditto, gave me the following:
One evening two Indian women and two Indian men came to her father's home when he was gone. They had some fowls and wanted to roast them in the ashes, which they did, feathers and all. When they were roasted, they pulled them from the ashes, removed the feathers, and motioned for salt. Mrs. Ditto gave them salt and a loaf of bread. They staid all night. One of the squaws slept on the foot of the trundle bed, with two children-no one dared to tell them to go away.
Mrs. Sheats gave the following descrpition of their marriage ceremony:
Indians married for so many moons if they could agree. The woman gave the man a deer's foot and the man gave the woman an ear of corn. That ended the ceremony.
Concerning the burial customs, Mrs. Sheats says: The body was wrapped in a blanket before death, ready for burial.
Among the Southern Cheyennes, this same custom is still common, and when the body is lowered in the grave, all the possessions of the dead one are thrown in the grave. A boy's or man's pony is driven on his grave and shot there.
My great-grandmother Keller had an out-door bake-oven. The Indians would come on baking day and take of her bread and pies, and sometimes take all.
The Wyandottes remained on their reservation until 1842. On March 17, 1842, a treaty was concluded with them, under which they ceded all their possessions in Ohio, containing 109, 144 acres of land, more or less, and the Wyandotte reservation on both sides of the Huron River, in the State of Michigan, containing 4,996 acres of land, more or less.
The Wyandottes used what is now known as the Kilbourne Road as a trail when going from their settlements near Upper Sandusky to Sandusky City.
Mrs. Samuel Ink, who, in 1833, came with her parents from the State of New York and settled upon the farm upon which she now lives a short distance south of Republic, in her reminis-
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cences, says that Chief Roundhead got the Wyandotte Indians to fight for the British in the War of 1812. They used to travel the Kilbourne road in going to Sandusky where they took the boat to New York or Canada to get the presents which the British promised them. Their presents consisted of blankets, beads, and trinkets. At a date earlier than 1812, this trail was probably used in going from their winter hunting grounds to fish in the spring and summer.
The Wyandotte Indians had a church at Upper Sandusky. Father Thompson, a missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church, worked among them many years. His daughters speak of the Wyandottes as being Christian Indians.
Before leaving for Cincinnati, on their way to their new reservation in the west, they held a farewell service, march- ing around the church and burying ground, singing their songs of farewell. One of these songs was translated into English and given to Mrs. Ink by a daughter of Father Thompson. The song is as follows:
THE WYANDOTTE'S FAREWELL.
Adieu to the graves where my fathers now rest, For I must be going afar to the West, I have sold my possessions my heart filled with woe, And now I must leave thee; alas, I must go.
Adieu ye tall oak in whose pleasant green shade, I've sported in childhood, in innocence played, My dog and my hatchet, my arrow and bow, Are still in remembrance, alas I must go.
Adieu ye loved scenes that bind me like chains, When on my gay pony I pranced o'er the plains, The deer and the turkey I tracked o'er the snow, And now I must leave thee, alas, I must go.
Sandusky, Tymochtee, and Brokensword streams, Nevermore shall I see you except in my dreams, Adieu to the marsh where the cranberries grow, To the great Mississippi, alas, I must go.
Adieu to the road which for many a year, I traveled each Sabbath the Gospel to hear, Pray for the poor Wyandotte, whose tears ever flow, With grief at departing-alas, I must go.
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On February 8, 1887, the Congress of the United States passed an act, known as the Dawes act, providing for the allot- ment of lands in severalty to Indians on the various reservations and for the issuing of patents (deeds) for the lands so allotted to or chosen by the Indians; and also conferring upon all Indians so taking lands in severalty, and adopting the habits of civilized life, all the rights of citizens, including the right of suffrage, declaring all such Indians to be citizens of the United States. February 8, is a great day with the Indians, and is commonly called the Indians' Fourth of July.
The Wyandotte and Seneca Indians hold their allotments in the northeast corner of the present State of Oklahoma. They are as prosperous as any community in the west. In fact, they are better educated than many of their white neigh- bors, for the whites had very poor opportunities for an educa- tion when Indian Territory was in existence. Many of them have a college education, quite a number of the Wyandottes having attended Baldwin University at Berea, Ohio.
Very few of them are full-bloods; intermarriage with the whites has been very common. I have had personal acquaint- ance with at least a dozen of these Indians who were serving in the Indian service in positions incurring responsibility and they did it well. I had a letter recently from one of the tribe, saying he was receiving a salary of $1,200, as supervising farmer for an Indian reservation covering ten townships near Keshena, Wisconsin.
The Indian can be moved no further West, and whether he be surrounded by good or bad white men, his tribal organiza- tion has been taken away by the Government, and he has been made a citizen of the United States. Young Indians who have education enough to transact business, are given deeds to their land the same as any other citizen, while the old and in- competent Indians are treated as wards of the Government in order to protect them from whites and Indians with evil designs.
From ten to fifteen million dollars are spent annually on the Indians by the Government for educational purposes. Day Schools are being established to take the place of the old boarding school, because the day school not only educates the
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child, but also the home. The granting of food, clothing, etc., which had its beginning at the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, has been withheld from the able-bodied, and instead of spending his time in gambling and smoking, he is earning his living. Fairs are being held annually, at which prizes are awarded the best products. I have read with much pleasure names of my former pupils who had received the prizes for the best farm or household exhibits. From the blanket Indian, little is expected. It is the educated Indian that is learning to make his living. The great Indian Schools at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Haskell at Lawrence, Kansas, Chilocco, Oklahoma, Phoenix, Arizona, and Riverside, California, are giving them a chance for higher education. These schools turn out some splendid young men and women, and some of the opposite kind, too, just as any other school.
The Wyandottes and Omahas stand as the leaders in prog- ress. While it seems so slow, the Indian is coming to the place where he can hold his own.
Many interesting stories come to mind of the Cheyennes, with whom I worked eight years. They are a strong race; and when I think of the change they have made since October 29, 1899, up to the present time, it is remarkable. It has been my happy experience to see government officials, teachers, and devoted missionaries united in their efforts to give the Indian a better vision of life.
Is the Red Man passing? Yes, but not out of existence. The Indian population is increasing. He is passing from his old communistic form of government, known as a tribe, into the broader rights of a man-a citizen of the grandest govern- ment under the shining Sun-The United States of America.
Our Pioneer Men and Women
By MISS ORVILLA VAN TINE
HE dictionary says that a pioneer is one who goes before and prepares the way. Certainly the pioneers of this county and city prepared the way for us to enjoy life as we find it today. A man or woman who leaves friends and family and goes to new surroundings under the conditions that all new countries are settled, displays strong character.
In 1817, when Erastus Bowe, a young man from Rutland, Vermont, arrived on the banks of what was probably then a beautiful little stream, the scene that met his eye was entirely different from that of today. Two ways of arriving at the river were open to the traveler, and earlier than that date the road had been taken, but none tarried here. The Harrison Trail from Columbus to Sandusky gave an access to the country from the north or south. Indians roamed at will, and perhaps the block-house, at that time neglected, had been occupied at times by some Indian in place of a wigwam. Not far from the block-house and the spring, young Bowe built his log house, which was used as a tavern. Later, he brought his wife, formerly a Miss Swinerton, of Marion, Ohio, here, with their older children. In all six children (Guilford, Eleanor, Eliza, Edwin, Edward, and James) were born to this couple. Mr. Bowe afterwards lived in Fort Ball, near the McNeal place, and later in two localities in the country, the last place being the present home of his daughter, Miss Emma. Mr. Bowe was
Note .- I am indebted in part, for the information I have secured, to Lang's History of Seneca County, Mrs. Thomas W. Ourand, Mrs. Truman H. Bagby, Miss Florence Cronise, Mr. Samuel B. Sneath, Mr. Christopher C. Park, Mrs. Delene Jerome, of Bowl- ing Green, Ohio; Miss Belle Armstrong, of Cleveland, Ohio; Mrs. Oscar Tunison, Mrs. Cornelia Coxe, Mrs. Johnson, Mr. Austin McNeal, Mr. Joseph Baumgardner, Miss Eva Augsperger, the Misses Jennie and Maria Dresbach, Mrs. Rachael Neligh, Mr. Robert Watson, Mrs. Rebecca Gillig, Mr. Benjamin Tomb, Mr. Earl B. Naylor, and Miss Lucile Glenn .- Orvilla Van Tine.
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married a second time to a Miss Alger, of Canandaigua, New York, and there were four children (Laura, Mary, Charles and Emma) born to them. He was an excellent farmer, taking an especial interest in fruit trees, raising fine apples, and intro- ducing the first strawberries into the county. He was afflicted with weak eyes in later life, as a result of a sick spell and wore colored glasses. One person in speaking of him said he was one of the nicest men he had ever known.
After one man had shown the way, others followed; first a few, and later many came. Josiah Hedges, the founder of the city, arrived here in 1820 from Mansfield. He was a Virginian by birth. He located on the opposite bank of the river from Fort Ball, where the few settlers were already established. Probably prior to his coming there had been only one cabin on that side of the river, between Fort Seneca and Melmore. In that cabin was a cobbler by the name of Johnson. Jesse Spencer platted the town of Oakley on the Fort Ball side of the river and he and Mr. Hedges had many unpleasant en- counters until Mr. Hedges bought him out.
At Fort Seneca many families settled in the twenties and thirties. William Harris came here from New York State in 1819, and his family one year later. His daughter, Tabitha, was married in 1821, to Benjamin Culver, a son of another pioneer settler. She afterwards was a resident of Tiffin, in the home of her son William Benjamin Stanley.
Moses Abbott, and his wife Saraphina (Snow), were natives of West Brookfield, Massachusetts. They first moved to Oneida County, New York, about 1814, and then to Seneca County, settling on a farm near Fort Seneca in 1823. They had six children: Theodocia, who married a man named Farwell; Eliza, who married John Michaels; Jonathan, who married Eliza Bowe; Lorenzo, who married Jeanette Sherwood; Francis, who married Melissa Ingraham; and Henry, who married Eliza, the daughter of Reuben Lott, a pioneer of Liberty township, who came to Seneca County from Fairfield County, Ohio, in 1831; he having moved to that county from Bloomsbury, New Jersey, about 1815.
George Wagner and his wife (Margaret Carpenter), came to Seneca county from Harrisburg, Penna., in 1842, and settled
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near Ft. Seneca. They had nine children: Edmund, who married Katherine Berkey; Eliza, who married John Michael Myers; Levi, who married Susie Goodhue; Almira, who married George Shuman; Jesse, who married Nancy Gilmore; Malvina, who married John Hoke; Alfred, who married a Miss Stough; and Johannah and Josephine.
Out on the Portland road were Jacob Holtz, Curtis Titus, and others. Curtis Titus and his wife Lucinda (Wileman) Titus, moved to Adams Township in 1833, from Connecticut- they being natives of that State. Their children were Rasselus R., who married Alvira Clerk; Calena, who married Earl Church; Miles, who married Emeline Clark; and Wileman, and Huldah.
William Watson was the settler of Watson Station. He and his family came from Pennsylvania in 1836. Their chil- dren were William, Thomas, John, Mary, Oliver, James, Sharon, Elizabeth, Stephen, and David. The last two went to Cali- fornia in 1849. Thomas Watson was for many years a resident of Tiffin, residing on East Perry Street, where his son Robert now lives.
Six miles out on the Coe Road dwelt Patrick Kinney, a native of Ireland, who settled there in 1829, and bought 200 acres of land. He, with Philip Hennessey, contracted for brick for the first Catholic church, with one John Strong, a bachelor, who built the old brick home on Tiffin street near Hedges Park, and whose brick-yard was adjacent.
At Fostoria, the Fosters, from whom Ohio procured a Governor, were a prominent early family.
The towns of Fort Ball and Tiffin contained numerous taverns in those days, and people coming from the outside world either by stage, or ox cart, or on foot, found shelter under their hospitable roofs, if the fireside of a relative was not for them. So, many of the people who afterwards lived in the country came to Tiffin first. Among these were John Michaels, from near Easton, Pennsylvania, Peter Van Netta, a New Jersey man arriving here in 1825, Enoch Umsted, from Mary- land (whose wife was Sarah Ebbert) in 1828, and Jesse Coe, from whom one of our streets takes its name.
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Benjamin Tomb, from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, came to Seneca County about 1842, and bought what was known as The Spicer Creek farm, north of the city. They lived in a log cabin, and afterwards built another, which was the largest house in the township. The money of Spicer, the white man who was captured by and lived among the Indians, was said to have been buried on the farm. A few years later the family moved to Tiffin. The children were Sarah Jane, who married Thomas Watson; Jacob, Mary Ann, the wife of George R. Huss; Massie, Rebecca, Thomas, Benjamin, Emma, wife of Dr. George S. Yingling; George, and Harry. Mrs. Rebecca Gillig, and Benjamin, are the only children living, and are residents of Tiffin.
Ezra Baker, an owner of many acres, Richard Baker, William Fleet, Nathan Cadwallader, Dr. Selden Graves, Joseph Pennington, George, John, and Henry Feasel, John Rosenberger, the Stoners, the Snooks, Levi Keller, the Gibsons, the Nobles, the Rules, were all early settlers in the rural com- munities. Mrs. Elizabeth Trumbour, grand-mother of Mrs. Charles A. Krout, kept the half-way house between here and Republic.
Agreen Crabtree Ingraham occupied one of the first cabins on the Fort Ball side of the river. It stood at the corner of Miami and Jackson streets. He held several offices, receiving the title of "Judge," before removing with his family to the South Sandusky road, where he kept a tavern. There were six children in his family.
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