USA > Ohio > The Western Reserve and early Ohio > Part 2
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It must not be overlooked that, whereas the signal stations of the Cuyahoga Valley ran north and south, those of the Chippewa and Mohican valleys ran east and west.
Either from lack of room, or apparently not satis- fied with building a new home near the 41st meridian of north latitude, they extended their possessions and continued down the Great Scioto War Trail, still bear- ing south of west until the present edge of Ashland county was reached. Here, struck with the topograph- ical possibilities of building effective defensive works in which to dwell in. peace, or, it may be, to make a third stand against the hordes of the Five Nations, armed with "the white man's thunder," or, whatever the impulse, they again got busy on their elaborate forts and miles of simple, earthen village walls, which no doubt were palisaded, and were hastily constructed.
These works, remarkable in many particulars, are situated from fifteen to thirty miles west of Kointown
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An Erie Totem -- Found in Richland County, 1838
STONE HEAD
THE ERIES
and from two to twenty miles south, and could have 1 been reached by an Indian runner in the course of a few hours, providing he kept to the well-beaten war trace.
The defensive works of this people were generally found at the head of valleys through which ran streams of living waters. No water, no fort. Or else, jutting out from some prominent point in its most inaccesable places, giving a commanding view of both valley and surrounding country. The low earthen walls as found in these works for the last 50 or 75 years, would seem to indicate that they would form a little protection ·against a savage foe, even if armed with war clubs, bows and spears, yet the conclusion may be a little hasty. The winds and rains, the hail and snow of a thousand storms, sweeping in all their fierce wild grandeur over an abandoned and desolate country could only have helped to lower these earthen walls and flat- ten their bases year by year. Did we know how long and how many inches each year were lowered by weath- er conditions then indeed we could form some idea of their former glory not incompatable with their present condition.
It may be stated with some degree of certainty that ordinary village walls were no less than ten feet in height and on the top of these were planted pickets, set closely together, formed from the bodies of small trees, no doubt of an equal height of the embankments, making no mean defensive works even in pioneer days.
Such fortified Indian towns were found in New Jersey, New York, Georgia and Florida before and after the beginning of the seventeenth century.
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THE ERIES
Mr. Shea has stated that the Hurons, Eries and other Indian Nations occupied such fortified places and such is the opinion of all great historians and the ma- jority of our Archaeologists and Antiquarians, and such is the testimony of the Jesuits who penetrated the eastern boundary of the mysterious Erie Nation.
These works were perched on crags, promontories and the most inaccesible places where neither man nor goat could hardly obtain a foothold. If built on a nar- row neck of land pushing its precipitous sides out into the valley it would have two or three lines of parallel embankments built across the narrowest point, next to the mainland, where, if defeated at one abattis they could retreat to another, thus having their foes in a pen where it would be equally impossible to go back- ward as well as forward.
These people did not take to true circles and half circles like the mound builders of central and southern Ohio, but were inclined to build in squares and parallel- ograms where they could not conform their walls to the sides of steep ridges or deep gullies.
The double or triple line of embankments were characteristic of this giant race of red men.
Outside of the scanty details furnished by Father LeMoyne, Claude Dablon and other Jesuit Fathers, the only white men, so far as is known, who ever saw the Eries, and the very meagre and conflicting traditions of the Five Nations, there is but little to go on except the guesswork of a few historians and the fading records left on the face of mother earth.
All indications point to the fact that Conneaut was
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THE ERIES
the capital town and beyond this the Jesuit fathers were not allowed to go.
Two hundred and seventy-five years ago this strange people boasted of no less than 28 villages and twelve town-forts, which contained an estimated pop- ulation of 12,000 people and 4,000 warriors. Of these villages and forts the writer, after forty years of per- sonal investigation and exploration, has relocated 32. There were no doubt low villages which had been obliterated fifty years ago by the ruthless plow in the hands of vandal man. No record has ever been made of these, as half a century ago they were looked upon by the agriculturist as of no value; mere evidence of "Injun" occupation and of no especial value or interest. Then again, there might have been works in Pennsyl- vania, east of her west state line, of which the writer was not cognizant.
Fifty years ago these works possessed character- istics all their own, entirely different from the "mound- builders" works of central and southern Ohio, Indiana and Wisconsin. The works in northern Ohio are mostly built, not on second terraces, but in the highest, most sightly, picturesque and inaccessable places in their locality, showing that these people were great lovers of beautiful scenery and natural surprises, as well as good engineers for their condition and age of the world.
Although not what is called a warlike people in the general acceptance of the term; in the sense of a people who make war on their neighbors on one pretext or another, or no pretext at all ,yet they knew how to fight when it came to defending home and family,
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THE ERIES
and native land. The slogan of some of our forefath- ers was " America for Americans". Theirs was "the Erie country for the Eries". Their great height and strength terrorized their foemen and added to their invincebility for many decades, serving to preserve the peace among the Nations. But the English were jealous of them supposing them to be under French influence because they held aloof from them as they did from all others. In reality, in exclusiveness, they were the Chinese of the American wilderness. The English were very jealous of the French and of their encroachments on American soil, and possessing no knowledge of them at all except that furnished by individuals of the Five Nations, whose natural enemies they were, they jumped to the conclusion that they were "French Indians", and made preparations to dis- perse them by arming their allies, the Five Nations, with the modern weapons of that day-"The White Man's Big Thunder", and sent them out to destroy the people of their unjust suspicions.
Organizing a primitive force of extraordinary and unusual size the Five Nations made their journey by canoes along the eastern and southern shores of Lake Erie until they reached the first town of the Eries, which undoubtedly was Conneaut, Ohio. The Eries were taken completely by surprise and the 40,000 Iro- quois warriors terrorized them, no less by their num- bers than the explosive fire arms they carried, a weapon the Eries had never seen or heard before. Using their canoes as scaling ladders by placing them against the parapeted picket walls the savages of the east swarmed like flies up and over their fortifications.
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THE ERIES
LAKEERIE
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RETREAT OF THE ERIES
The Eries fought like demons but the battle was lost from the beginning. Force of numbers and terror of fire-arms had done their work, and those not killed were either captured or escaped to the forests. Loaded down with their captives the invaders made their way
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THE ERIES
to their eastern home villages, where for months the nights were made hideous by the burning and torture by the stake of their unfortunate captured Eries.
How long this war of extermination continued no man knows but years afterwards adventurous priests witnessed the burning of Eries in the villages of the Five Nations.
The Eries were armed with the most primitive weapons-bows and arrows, the stone ax and the stone- headed war club. Along the lake shore fort after fort must have fallen until like the Moors they must have recognized the fact that they were gradually being driven from the graves of their fathers and from the land they had called their own so long.
From 1634 to 1666 and probably later, this war of giants raged with unabated fury. It was strength and rude weapons against numbers and modern weap- ons, and the later won.
Just when the exodus from the lake shore began no one knows, but it was by the way of the Cuyahoga and Rocky River valleys. Whole decades must have been employed to build the defensive work of the lonely, crooked Cuyahoga alone. Slowly and sadly the Eries fell back from the beloved shores of the great lake, but stubbornly contesting every foot of soil. They were no cravens, and had resolved if they could not live upon their land they would die upon it. The spirit of freedom, from the earliest times, was born upon the soil of the Western Reserve-long before Paul Revere's ride, or the lanterns were hung from the old North Church. After the war for freedom the officers and soldiers of the Revolution largely settled here be-
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THE ERIES
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PRE-HISTORIC WORKS IN ASHLAND COUNTY
A. Fort Tyler.
B. Fort Glenn.
C. Fort Metcalf.
E. Mohican John's Town
F. Fort Gamble. G. Fort Bryte.
H. Fort Stoner.
I. Fort Shambaugh
K. Hell Town. 3. Fort Parr.
23. Greentown.
cause one of the first acts of the "old Congress" had guaranteed the land "Forever Free"-it could never bear the tread of slaves . It was the home of "the underground railroad", the hot-bed of the anti-slavery
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THE ERIES
movement and the residence of such men as Charles B. Storrs of Hudson, and John Brown of Ossawatomie.
The very scent of freedom was in the air and soil the savage first owners left behind.
As stated before, the Erie retreat was made south- ward by the Cuyahoga and Rocky River valleys. While the latter river bore but two defensive works outside its mouth, the valley of the Cuyahoga was lined and seamed with them from beginning to end. Few of them exist today.
How long they occupied the Cuyahoga Valley it is impossible to say, but it must have been for decades. Their first act after resolving to move to the south- west was to build Fort Island, in Copley Swamp, at that time an impregnable position, but too small to accom- modate but a small portion of their people. It was an advanced but secure outpost.
From near the present site of Akron signal sta- tions ran southwestwardly as far as Richland County, on which in times of danger fires leaped and sparkled as they did on a thousand crags of Scotland, warning of a Claverhouse, or calling the clans together in com- mon defense of home and country. Every foot of ter- ritory was fought over in order to conquer this mighty race.
Establishing their temporary headquarters on the Chippewa, they built new village walls and defensive works as far west as the eastern line of the present county of Richland.
Col. Charles Whittlesey, President of the North- ern Ohio and Western Reserve Historical Society, a former Talmadge boy, spent many years of his life in
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THE ERIES
GROUP OF IMPLEMENTS
trying to solve the question as to where the Eries made their last stand, fought their last fight and disappeared from mortal ken. The writer was then acting through his appointment as field agent for his society, but afterwards became Secretary of the District Historical Society, covering the ground of the Erie retreat and
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STONE IMPLEMENTS
1. Greenstone Pestle.
5. Long Eladed Battle Ax. 6, 7, and 8. Polished Axes
THE ERIES
ERIE CROCKERY
the great historical tragedy. The Colonel, like many others, made the mistake of looking too far afield for what might be found at home. Just before his death, the Colonel wrote Dr. Hill "The town which was the scene of the final battle, was somewhere in the interior of Ohio, called Kointown-probably near a river-but cannot be identified." It seems strange that Dr. Hill and Colonel Whittlesey, both of whom were on the same quest, should miss it by so small a margin.
The final battle was without doubt a surprise as was the first, but instead of being cooped up it was fought in the open. It is also very doubtful if the Eries had the time or the much needed opportunity to summon all the outlying stations to their assistance.
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THE ERIES
The remnant that was left were probably assimilated in time into other tribes.
The village of Indians found at Conneaut by Moses Cleveland was thought to be descendants of the ancient Eries; others have claimed to have found characteristics of this giant race in other tribes. The Catawabas, Kickappoos, Andastes and Massangas and even the Shawaneese have been mentioned. It is all speculation and must be taken at only its real value by the reader and investigator.
THE FIRST NAVAL BATTLE ON LAKE ERIE
Whether another naval battle was ever fought on American waters we know not, if so we never heard of it, where both antagonists were Indians.
At a camp-fire on the shores of Lake Erie shortly after Perry's victory, there were present some of Perry's men, Gen. Harrison and his staff, many Indian chiefs, among whom were the great Chief Tarhe, Black Snake and others.
Black Snake, then bent and crooked with the weight of many years, for he lived 125 years, related to the soldiers and sailors the following tale: "Many, many suns ago before I was born there was another great fight on the big lake."
Near as this can be ascertained it must have been about 1625. The Eries had always had a desultory warfare with their eastern neighbors and had con- cluded to organize a great naval expedition against them, so thousands of war canoes were gathered to- gether and set out on their journey to the head of the lake where Buffalo now stands.
Spies and runners of the eastern tribes informed them of the coming of the Eries, and all the canoes and warriors that could be hastily gotten together sailed to meet their foe.
They came together on the lake and slaughter at once began. The lighter canoes of the eastern tribes could not withstand the heavier boats of the Eries and thousands died under the furious onslaughter of their
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NAVAL BATTLE ON LAKE ERIE
foemen. All the bodies that could be gathered together and all the captured canoes were taken to the banks of the Niagara River, heaped up and burned in one immense funeral pyre.
The Eastern Indians left living got together and formed a union to resist and if possible conquer the Eries. The Mohawks, Oneidas, Cayugas, Onondagoes and Senecas were formed under the name of the Five Nations. Some twenty-five or thirty years later the Five Nations again met the Eries at the foot of the Canandiagua Lake, where the Five Nations were suc- cessful, the Eries driven homeward followed for five months by the warriors of the Five Nations who had 6,000 men in the battle. It is stated that few of the Eries ever reached home.
The Buffalo Commercial published this afterwards and vouched for its authenticity. Still later the ac- count of this great naval battle appeared in the "Ohio Farmer".
THE FRENCH IN OHIO
Parkman says :- "The first appearance of the French in Ohio excited the wildest fears in the tribes of that quarter, among whom were those who, dis- gusted with the encroachments of the Pennsylvanians, had fled to these remote retreats to escape the intrus- ions of the white men. Scarcely was their fancied asylum gained when they saw themselves invaded by a host of armed men from Canada. They knew not which way to turn. There was no union in their coun- sels, and they seemed like a mob of bewildered chil- dren."
Celeron De Bienville, knight of the military order of St. Louis, and the early French explorer, in 1749, in his expedition down the Ohio to take pos- session of the "Ohio Country" for France, landed at the mouth of the Scioto. They arrived on August 22, 1749, and departed on the 26th. Here there had been for years a Shawanese village and living with them a party of English traders. These under the orders of the Marquis de la Gallissonneire, Governor-in-Chief of New France, he warned away. He had under him a chaplain, eight subaltern officers, six cadets, twenty soldiers, 180 Canadians and thirty Iroquois and Abin- akis Indians. This expedition crossed over from Can- ada, and embarking on the headwaters of the Alle- gheny, floated into the Ohio and down that stream. Celeron left no plate at the mouth of the Scioto. He however, planted six plates at the mouths of the Kan-
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FROM THE GREAT LAKES TO THE GULF
THE FRENCH IN OHIO
awha, Muskingum, the Great Miami, etc. The plate designed for the Scioto was stolen by an Indian, a Seneca, who in the winter of 1749-50 delivered it to Gov. Clinton. Translated it reads :- "In the year 1749, the reign of Louis XV, King of France, we Celeron, Commandant of a detachment sent by Monseur the Marquis of Galliesonniere Commander in Chief of New France, to establish tranquility in certain Indian vil- lages of these Cantons have, buried this plate at the confluence of the Ohio and of To-ra-da-Koin, this 29th of July-near the river Ohio, otherwise Beautiful River, as a monument of renewal of possession, which we have taken of said river, and of all its tributaries and of all the land on both sides, as far as the sources of said river."
The plate at Marietta was found in 1793, on the left bank of the Muskingum, and that on the Kenawha in 1846.
Christopher Gist visited here in 1751. It was Lower Town. Logstown, fourteen miles below Fort Pitt, was Uppertown. The former consisted of 300 men and 100 houses besides a council house 90 feet long. On the Kentucky side there were forty houses. On his return home De Bienville ascended the Ohio in boats to the mouth of the Great Miami, thence up that stream as far as Piqua, where he burned his boats, and procuring ponies, made his way to a new French Fort on the site of Fort Wayne, from where he made his way to Montreal .. On his way up he stopped at Pickawillany, just below the mouth, on the northeast side of the Great Miami, to be precise, at the mouth of Loramie Creek. Here he buried his plate. The Eng-
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THE FRENCH IN OHIO
lish called the town "Old Brittain", the French "Dem- oiselle". These Indians had recently come from Can- ada and De Bienville tried to induce them to return but failed. Leaving four half-barrels of powder, four bags of bullets and four bags of paint lie where they had been refused by the savages he re-embarked, reaching the French Fort September 25, where he found M. de Raimond in charge.
After Gist's visit, this place soon became a place of great importance. On June 21, 1752, the forces under Chas. Langdale of the French Fort Michiliniac- kinac, consisting of 250 Chippewas and Ottawas, fell on this place, killed fourteen Indians; the place de- stroyed and the body of Old Britain was boiled and eaten by the attackers.
This was the real beginning of what is called Braddock's War, and was not to cease until eleven years later in 1763.
The French now had forts Michilimackinac on the Straits, Starved Rock, Chartres on the Mississippi, Ouatanon on the Wabash, St. Joseph on Lake Michigan, the fort at junction of the St. Marys and Josephs Riv- ers, Margarets at the mouth of the Hock Hocking Riv- er, Duquesne at Pittsburg, Du Troit at Detroit, San- dusky at Sandusky, a French trading station on the Cuyahoga, Presque Isle at Erie, Le Bouef at Conneaut, Fort Vennango on French Creek, Marchault on the Allegheny, Massac on the Ohio, and a trading station on the Huron.
In 1758 the French blew up Fort Duquesne and the English built Fort Pitt on its ruins. This was to change the Ohio into a great National highway, and
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THE FRENCH IN OHIO
people its shores with a sturdy race of valiant English souls who were to make the wilderness to blossom.
The following is a letter written in 1501, by Pietro Pasqualigo, Venietian Ambassador of the court of Portugal to his brothers in Italy :
"On the eight day of last month one of two cara- vels which his Most Serene Majesty sent the past year under the command of Gasper Corte Real, arrived here, and reports of finding of a country distant west and northwest 2,000 miles, hitherto quite unknown. They sailed so far forward that they came to a place where it was extremely cold, and they found in the latitude of 50 degrees the opening to a very great river. The Captain of the lesser ship had not sufficient courage to pass far beyond the mouth, where Corte Real went on alone, and the other carvel awaited his return for the space of fifteen days, and then returned to Lisbon. If Corte Real's carvel is lost or if it shall yet come safe- ly no one can tell, but should I receive additional infor- mation it shall be transmitted to you."
Jacques Cartier came to the St. Lawrence in 1530. In Newfoundland there were certainly Basque fisher- men before Cartier.
The ignorance of America was not only proverbial but it was universal. Chas. Dudley Warner speaking of its says: "Ignorance of America is taught in Eng- lish schools." In 1756, Henry Popple published a "Map of the British Empire in America," in which the Mo- nongahela and Kanawa are unknown, but La Riviere Aux Boeufs enters the Ohio from the south east, com- ing out of a lake not known.
Mr. Clayton, of Virginia, in a letter addressed to
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THE FRENCH IN OHIO 1324613
the Royal Society of England, under date of Aug. 17, 1688, says :
"I know Col. Bird that is mentioned to have been about that time as far as Toteras. He is one of the intellegentest gentlemen in all Virginia and knows more of Indian affairs than any man in the country. I discoursed him about the River (Ohio) on the other side of the mountains said to ebb and flow, which he
FORT HILL NEAR BEREA
ANCIENT CHANNEL
A
RIVER
ROCKY
BOTTOM LAND.
A .- Enclosed space. a, a, a .- Embankments and ditches. Scale. 200 feet to the inch.
assured me was a mistake in them, for that it must run into a Lake now called Petite (Conneaut) which is fresh water for since that time a colony of French are coming down from Canadas and have seated them- selves in the back of Virginia, where Fallam and the rest supposed there might be a bay, but is a Lake
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THE FRENCH IN OHIO
which they have given the name of Lake Petite, there being several large Lakes between that and Canadas. The French possessing themselves of the lakes will no doubt in a short time be absolutely masters of the Beaver Trade." If the statement of Mr. Clayton is true, and we have no reason to doubt it, then the French settled here and built Fort Presque Isle and Fort Le Bouef before 1688, or sixty-five years before current history states. But current history received its dates from a renegrade white named Coffin whom Col. John- son found living among the Indians of the Mohawk. We do know that other statements made by this rene- grade are untrue, then why not the dates. We also know that Fort Massac on the Ohio, was very old in 1758, and that part of the garrison of Duquesne re- built it at that time. Evan's map in 1755, shows that the Ohio starts in Lake Petite, (Conneaut). It is only one of the mistakes of early geographiers.
In 1790 the Scioto Land Company induced 500 French settlers to settle at Gallipolis. They were ill- fitted for pioneer life and it was a hopeless case from its very start. Lonesomeness, famine and disease did its work and many lost their lives, and others moved away.
In March 1795, Congress made a "French Grant" of 24,000 acres in Scioto County for the benefit of French families, who lost their lands by invalid titles at Gallipolis. In 1798 Congress made an additional grant of 1,200 acres. But a few families settled on the Grant. They were a worthy, simple-hearted people, and those that remained became thrifty and useful citizens.
F
PRE-TERRITORIAL MILITARY EXPEDITIONS INTO THE OHIO COUNTRY 1760-1788
MAJOR ROGER'S EXPEDITION.
After the conquest of Canada by the English, Gen. Amherst sent Rogers with some 60 boats and 200 men up Lake Erie. He arrived at the mouth of the Cuya- hoga river on Nov. 7, 1760. Rowing up this river sev- eral miles he pitched his camp. Here he was met by Pontiac, who forbade him to go further. After a par- ley of two days he made a friend of Pontiac, who pro- ceeded with him to Fort DuTroit (Detroit) where he pulled down the lillies of France and ran up the flag of England. Here he remained until December, when leaving a garrison he set out for Sandusky, leaving his boats here. He set out to return to Pennsylvania by land through Ohio. Major Rogers and his remaining men left Sandusky, 1760, and crossing the Huron river and following the Southern Fort Pitt and Sandusky Indian Trail, he passed through the present counties of Sandusky, Seneca, Richland, Ashland, Wayne, Stark and Columbiana, arriving at Fort Pitt (Pittsburg) Jan. 23, 1761.
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