USA > Ohio > Clark County > The history of Clark County, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its cities, towns, etc.; general and local statistics; portraits of early settlers and prominent men, V. 1 > Part 24
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In 1700, William Penn visited the chiefs of the band at Conestoga, and in the same year the Council of Maryland resolved, " that the friendship of the Susquehannock and Shawnee Indians be secured by making a treaty with theni. they seeming to be of considerable moment and not to be slighted."
The map of North America by John Senex in 1710, indicates villages of " Chaouanous" on the head-waters of South Carolina, but apparently places the main body along the upper waters of Tennessee River, a short distance west of the Appalachian Mountains. This would make them very close neighbors of the Cherokees and probably places them too high up the river. Ten years later (1720) a map of the north parts of America, by H. Moll, does not indicate the presence of any "Chaouanous " on the Tennessee River, but shows their former territory to be occupied by the "Charakeys." This corresponds with the state- ment in Ramsey's Annals of Tennessee, page 45, that M. Charleville, a French trader near New Orleans, came among the Shawnees, then (1714) inhabiting the country upon the Cumberland River and traded with them, and that about this period the Cherokees and Chickasaws expelled them from their numerous vil- lages upon the lower Cumberland. On this map of Moll's, is found at the mouth of the Cumberland (there denominated the Sault) River, the designation of " Savannah Old Settlement," indicating the probable abandonment at least sev- eral years previously of the last Shawnee village in the Cumberland and Ten- nessee Valleys, in their gradual withdrawal to the north side of the Ohio River. As late as 1764, however, according to Ramsey, a straggling band of them moved from Green River in Kentucky, where they had been residing (though as I surmise, only temporarily), to the Wabash country.
It seems also, that at some period anterior to 1740, a band of "Chaonan- ous," wanderers in all likelihood from the Cumberland and Tennessee country, had lived for a time within two leagues from the fort at Mobile, Ala., for in that
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year M. de Bienville, the commandant assigned the place, which had been aban- (loned by them, to the use of some fugitive "Tænsas."
Another band, probably an offshoot from those who had wandered to South Carolina, found a home at the place now known as Oldtown, Alleghany County, Md., a few miles below the Cumberland, on the Potomac River, and, in 1738, we find by reference to Volume I, page 63 of the Virginia State Papers, that "the king of the Shawanese living at Alleghany sends friendly messages to Gov. Gooch desires peace," etc. This is likely the same band who, in 1701, concluded a treaty with William Penn at Philadelphia, and is referred to in the preamble to the treaty, as inhabiting in and about the northern parts of the River Potomac. The nucleus for the Shawnee village which long occupied the neighborhood of Winchester, Va., is likely traceable to this band.
But I have already far exceeded the proper limits of such an article, and am yet more than a century behind in my story. I can give but the merest out- Jine of their subsequent history. I shall be unable to consider and discuss the probabilities of their identity wtih the "Savannah " Indians and their former residence on the Savannah River in Georgia; the story of their chief. Black- Hoof, relative to their home on the Suwanee River in Florida; their asserted consanguinity with the Sacs and Foxes, or any other of the numerous suggestions and theories concerning their origin and primal abode.
Between the date of the ejection of the western portion of the Shawnees from the valleys of the Cumberland and the Tennessee Rivers, and the middle of the eighteenth century, their appearance in history is rare. They were doubt- less scattered in several bands along the Ohio River and in the interior of what is now the States of Ohio and Indiana. The oldest map on which I have noticed the location of the Shawnees within the limits of Ohio, is that of Emanuel Bowen, published in London in 1752, which places a "village d'Chouanon " on the north side of the Ohio River about midway between the mouths of the Kanawha and Scioto.
That branch of the tribe living in Pennsylvania had in the meantime become decidedly the most numerous and important portion of the Shawnee people.
Their history is a part of that of the State in which they lived. and need not be here recited. It is sufficient to state the fact that owing to the aggress- iveness and encroachments of the increasing white population, they were grad ually crowded from their lands and homes until about the year 1750, when they began their migrations to the west of the Ohio River, and within a few years had united with their western brethren and were quite numerous in the Mus- kingum and Scioto Valleys. They sided actively with the French in the war of 1755; aided materially in the defeat of Braddock and were a terror to the bor- der settlements of Pennsylvania and Virginia.
In 1756, an expedition under Maj. Lewis, against their upper town on the Ohio River. three miles above the month of the Kanawha, was a failure. In 1764, Col. Boquet's expedition to the Muskingum resulted in securing temporary peace with them. In 1774. Col. McDonald destroyed their town of Wappatomica, a few miles above Zanesville.
In the same year they received a severe blow in the defeat at Point Pleas- ant. In 1779, Col. Bowman's expedition destroyed the Shawnee village of Chillicothe on the Little Miami River. three miles north of Xenia.
lu 1780, Gen. George Rogers Clark burnt the Piqua town on Mad River, the centennial anniversary of which is responsible for this lengthy disquisition. In 1782, Gen. Clark repeated his expedition and destroyed the Upper and Lower Piqua towns on the Great Miami within the present limits of Miami County. In 1786. Col. Logan destroyed the Mack-a-check towns in Logan County.
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HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
In 1790, the Shawnees suffered from the expedition of Gen. Harmar, but had a share with the Miamis in his final defeat.
In 1791, they glutted their vengeance at the cruel defeat of St. Clair, and. in 1794, were among those who were made to feel the power of the Federal troops at Fallen Timbers, under Gen. Wayne, which brought the peace of 1795.
In the meantime, the Shawnees had been parties to a treaty of peace with the United States in 1786, at the month of the Great Miami, but it failed of its object.
As the result of Wayne's victory, came the treaty of Greenville in 1795. participated in by the Shawnees and eleven other tribos, whereby all the terri- tory south and east of a line beginning at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River; thence up the same to the portage leading to the Tuscarawas River; down the Tuscarawas to the crossing above Fort Laurens; thence westerly to Lorain's store on the Great Miami; thence to Fort Recovery (the place of St. Clair's defeat), and thence southwesterly to the Ohio River, opposite the mouth of the Kentucky River, was ceded to the United States. This tract comprised about two-thirds of the area of Ohio and a portion of Indiana.
July 4, 1805, the Shawnees were again parties to a treaty wherein was ceded to the United States a large tract of country lying north and west of the Greenville treaty line, and cast of a north-and-south line 120 miles west of the Pennsylvania boundary.
By treaty of November 25, 18OS. in conjunction with other tribes, they ceded the right of way for two roads; one running from Fort Meigs, on the Maumee, to the Western Reserve, and the other from Fremont, south to the Greenville treaty line.
Prior to the war of 1812, the Shawnees had become hostile to the United States. The great Tecumseh and his scheming brother, the Prophet, with their allies, were defeated by Harrison at Tippecanoe in 1811, and the Indian alliance was finally broken and dissolved. by the death, in 1813, of Tecumaeh, at the battle of the Thames.
By the treaty of 1817, the Wyandots, Pottawatomies and other tribes made a cession to the United States (in which the Shawnces concurred) of almost the entire Indian territory within the present limits of Ohio.
Out of this cession the United States in turn granted them sundry small reservations upon which to live. Among these reservations there were for the Shawnees a tract ten miles square, with Wapakoneta as the center; a tract adjoining the above of twenty-five square miles on Hog Creek, as well as a tract of forty-eight square miles surrounding Lewistown for the mixed Senecas and Shawnees. The treaty of 1818 added twenty square miles to the reserve at Wapakoneta, and fourteen square miles to the one at Lewistown.
By the treaty of July 20, 1831, the Lewistown Reserve was ceded to the United States and those at Wapakoneta and Hog Creek were ceded on the Sth of the succeeding month, by which transaction the last vestige of Shawnee right or claims to lands in Ohio became extinguished. and they agreed to move west of the Mississippi River.
With this end in view a tract of 60,000 acres of land was granted to the Lewistown band of mixed Senecas and Shawnees, which was subsequently selected in the northeast corner of Indian Territory, to which they removed, and where, with some subsequent modifications of boundaries, they now reside.
It is necessary here to state that a band of Shawnees some years prior to 1793, becoming dissatisfied with the encroachments of the white settlers, removed west of the Mississippi River, and in that year were, in connection with certain Delawares who accompanied them, granted a tract of land by Baron de Caron- delet, the French Governor. The Delawares having in 1815 abandoned this
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HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
region, the Shawnees, in 1825, ceded the land to the United States and accepted in lieu thereof for the accommodation of themselves and such of their brethren as should remove from Ohio, a tract in the eastern part of the present State of Kansas, 100x25 miles in extent, and removed thereto.
To this reservation the Wapakoneta and Hog Creek band of Shawnees, after the treaty of 1831, removed, and the principal part of the tribe became again re- united.
By the treaty of 1854, the Kansas Shawnees ceded to the United States all of their reservation but 200,000 acres, within which, allotments of land in sever- alty were made to the individuals of the tribe, who from time to time with the consent of the Secretary of the Interior sold the same, and under the provisions of an agreement entered into in 1869 with the Cherokees, they removed to the country of the latter and merged their tribal existence with them.
A number of the Kansas Shawnees who, just prior to and during the late rebellion, wandered off to Texas and Mexico, returned after the war and were provided with a home in the Indian Territory alongside of the Pottawatomies, and are known as " Absentee Shawnees." These, together with those confeder- ated with the Senecas in the northeastern part of Indian Territory, are all of the once numerous and powerful "Massawomekes" now left to maintain the tribal name of "Shawnee." C. C. ROYCE.
EXTINCTION OF THE INDIAN TITLE.
As closely allied to the foregoing article, the transfer of the lands of the Indian to his civilized successor, the white man, calls attention.
The treaty of Fort McIntosh January 21, 1785, was conducted by Gen. George Rogers Clark, Richard Butler and Arthur Lee, Commissioners for the United States. The tribes represented were the Wyandots, Delawares, Ottawas and Chippewas, these inhabiting the extreme northern portions of the State west of the Cuyahoga River. The boundaries of the lands relinquished by this treaty, are variously stated by writers. From Monette's "History of the Missis- sippi Valley," it is learned that the line began " at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, thence up the east bank of said river, to its lake source; thence across to the source of the Tuscarawas, and down that stream to its junction with Wol- honding Creek (near the town of Coshocton), thence in a direct line south of west, to the mouth of Mad River, thence up the Great Miami River to the Por- tage across to the St. Mary's, or main branch of the Maumee, thence with said river to Lake Erie, and along its south shore to the place of beginning." If this be correct, the line from Coshocton to the mouth of Mad River would enter Clark County at about the same point on its eastern boundary that the National road does, and would leave the county at another point on the southern bound- arv, near the southeast corner of Section 5, Town 3, Range 8, which is also a county corner. The other description of these boundaries is the same except the line above mentioned, which runs directly from Coshocton to " Loramie's," an old trading-post and military station in the northwest part of Shelby County, this line would pass far north of Clark County. It matters little, except for the sake of truthful details, whether all the lands of this county was ceded to the United States by the treaty of Fort McIntosh or not, for on the 31st day of January of the next year, 1786, the treaty of the Great Miami was concluded with the chiefs, warriors and head men of the Shawnees. The United States Government was represented by Gen. George Rogers Clark, Col. Richard Butler and Samuel H. Parsons. The conference was held at the mouth of the Great Miami River.
By this treaty the General Government acquired all the lands in Ohio, east of the Great Miami, and south of a line running west from the coufluence of Mad River and the Great Miami (Dayton).
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HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
As is the case to-day, these treaties did not prove final with the Indians. until they had been soundly threshed by Gen. Wayne in 1793 and 1794. This again brought them to proper terms, and, on the 3d day of August, 1795, Gen. Anthony Wayne, as Commissioner for the United States, concluded a treaty at Fort Greenville in Darke County.
This was an important epoch in the history of the Indian wars upon the Ohio region, and closes the long series of hostilities which had been kept up against the Western frontier, with but few interruptions, since the beginning of the French war in the year 1754.
ORIGINAL LAND SURVEYS.
In October. 1778, John Cleves Symmes, in behalf of himself and his asso- ciates, contracted with the "Board of the Treasury " for 1,000,000 acres of land lying on the Ohio River, and between the Great and Little Miami Rivers, on the east and west, and to extend far enough north to include the above quantity of land; but Symmes failed to pay for this amount, and another agreement was made, whereby he became possessor of only about one-fourth part of the original territory, while the remainder reverted to the Government, and in due time was surveyed into townships and sections, and sold to whoever desired to possess it. The greater portion. of what is now Clark County, was a part of the original tract bargained for by Symmes, and which went back to the Government in the year 1794. In 1789, Col. Israel Ludlow, a surveyor and part owner of the tract of land where Cincinnati now stands, laid out the first plat of that city. In 1795, Ludlow laid out the city of Dayton, in which he was also an interested partner. During the period from 1795 to 1803 or 1804, Col. Ludlow appears to have been engaged principally in land surveying for the General Government and for various private land companies and individuals. The records of the United States Land Office show that the public lands of this county were sur- veyed by Israel Ludlow in 1802, and by Stephen and Maxfield Ludlow in 1805. The system adopted in surveying these lands, was the same as that followed by Symmes, in the laying off of the "Symmes Purchase" proper, and is unlike the Government system, used both then and now is this: The ranges in the Gov- ernment system are rows of townships numbered from right to left, or from left to right, according as they are on the right or left of a primary line, called the "Principal Meridian," while in the "Symmes Purchase " the ranges are numbered from south to north, and the townships are numbered from west to east. Each range begins at the Great Miami River and extends eastward, and the first town on the west end of a range is No. 1, so that the same numbers do not stand over one another from north to south.
Each whole township is divided into thirty-six sections, commencing at the southeast corner of each township. the first section is No. 1, the next north is 2 and so on; No. 7 is next west of No. 1, and is the beginning of the next tier of sections, etc.
Israel Ludlow located the range, township, and each alternate section line before, or during the year 1802. In running the exterior lines of a township, a stake was planted every two miles; these were called "block corners," because the inclosed quantity contained a "block" of four square miles or sections. After the death of Israel Ludlow, which occurred in 1804. Stephen and Maxfield Ludlow completed the surveys in 1805, by running the remaining section lines half way between each block line mentioned above. It has been the experience of every surveyor since then, that the distances and quantities generally "overrun " the specified amounts called for by Ludlow's notes.
A part of the lands in this county were what was known as " Virginia Mili- tary Lands," and were never divided by any system of surveys; any person
(DECEASED)
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HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
holding a warrant for a given number of acres selected the quantity named in the warrant, in any place he desired and with no regard to the points of the compass, length, breadth, "or any other creature," so long as the lands did not encroach upon lands selected by others, and even that limit was often overstepped.
The dividing line between the Virginia Military Lands and the Symmes Purchase, or Congress Lands, is known as "Ludlow's Line;" this line begins at the head-waters of the Little Miami, in this county, and runs north, 20° west. to the head-waters of the Scioto, crossing the head-waters of the Great Miami, near Belle Center, in Logan County. A part of this line is opened and used as a public road, and is called the Ludlow road.
The " Roberts Line" was a line run by one Roberts, and while it was in a general way intended for a boundary between the same tracts of land, an agree- ment, or compromise between the United States Government and the State of Virginia was made, by which the line was expunged, and the Ludlow line established.
The surveyed townships are not identical with the civil townships; for instance, the civil township of Springfield is composed of thirty-six sections (one entire township), known as "Town 5, Range 9," and fourteen whole and three fractional sections in Town 4, Range 9.
" Pre-emption " lots are small parcels of land scattered here and there through the entire tract known as the Symmes Purchase. The history of these lots seem to be this: During the time the surveyors were running out the pub- lic lands, if any member of the party, for himself or his principal, desired to select and secure a choice lot of land, he did so, and the lines and corners were immediately established by the surveyors in the field, and the "field Hotes" of these special surveys were incorporated with the notes of the general survey. thus enabling the would-be owner to locate and describe his chesen tract at the Government Land Office. Nearly all of the old pre-emption lines and corners have disappeared, and are known only to the professional surveyor, who prizes theia as monuments and reference data.
Col. Thomas Kizer, the veteran surveyor, has in his possession a compass made by Dean of Philadelphia; this instrument was owned and used by his father, David Kizer, who obtained it from John Dougherty about 1813: Dough- erty got it from Jonathan Donnel. This relie is marked: I. Ludlow, 1791: Henry Donnel, 1794; J. Donnel, 1796; John Dougherty, 1799; these marks are rudely scratched upon the cover of the instrument, and bear every evidence of being genuine; there is no doubt but that this old compass was used in making the first surveys in this county, or that it is the identical instrument used by John Dougherty, in laying off Demint's first plat of Springfield, and by Jonathan Donnel on the survey of "New Boston."
EXTENT AND BOUNDARY.
The county is twenty-nine miles long, from east to west, and about seven- teen miles broad, from north to south, and contains 412 square miles. It is bounded on the north by Champaign County, east by Madison, south by Madi- son and Green, and west by Montgomery and Miami. The northern and western boundary lines are straight regular lines coinciding with the township and see- tion lines of the original survey; the eastern boundary is a straight line bearing several degrees east of north, while the southern boundary is broken by several offsets, and one or two diagonal lines.
Springfield, the county seat. is situated in latitude north 39º 50', longitude west of Washington 6° 45', or 27 minutes mean time, very nearly .*
*From the local observatory of F. M Book walter, Esq.
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HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
THE ERECTION OF CLARK COUNTY.
On the 20th of February, 1805, the Legislature passed an act establishing the county of Champaign, by the third section of which act "the temporary seat of justice" was fixed "at the town of Springfield, at the house of George Fithen, until the permanent seat of justice be fixed by law." Thus was the lit- tle log town clothed with the dignity of a county seat, and hopes and aspirations kindled, which were not to be relinquished without an effort to preserve them. Urbana was laid out as a town in 1805, and, through the efforts of influential men, who were interested in the new "plat," the county seat was permanently removed there. But Springfield had tasted the sweets of public honor and pat- ronage ; besides the near town of Urbana was a rival, as a center of population and settlement, and, during the war of 1812, it was a Government military post; so. as soon as there was a sufficient number of people who naturally came to Springfield to " mill and to meeting," the subject of a new county began to be agitated, the result of which was that on Saturday, December 24, 1814, Mr. Mc- Beth, of the House of Representatives, presented petitions from the inhabitants of Champaign, Madison, Miami and Green Counties, praying for a new county to be set off' from those counties, agreeable to the boundaries specified in the petitions.
Mr. Newel presented remonstrances from inhabitants of Champaign, which petitions and remonstrances were read and referred to a committee, with leave to report a bill or otherwise: "Ordered, That Mr. Davidson acquaint the Sen- ate therewith."
"Monday, December 26, Mr. Huston presented at the Clerk's desk remon strances from the inhabitants of Greene County, which were referred to the same committee, to whom were referred the said petitions, etc." Having fairly intro- duced the subject, and escorted it over the threshold of the House of Repre- sentatives, it will not be necessary to follow it through all the verbiage of the journals of the Senate and House, for the three years which followed its intro- duction.
"Saturday, January 28, 1815, on motion the said bill do now pass, where- upon, on motion, ordered that the further consideration of said motion be post- poned till Monday next."
But the bill was not called up again this session, warranting the presump- tion that its friends found themselves too weak to secure its passage, and wisely preferring not to have the precedent of an unfavorable vote.
December 28, 1815, Mr. Bell moved the order of the day, whereupon the House resolved itself into a committee of the whole, and, as such, amended the bill by striking out the first section and the enacting clause. "Resolved, that this House agree to the report of the committee of the whole. The question being taken, it was decided in the affirmative --- the bill was therefore lost."
The next appearance of the subject is in the journal of the Senate, under the date of Wednesday, December 16, 1816, when it came up under the head of unfinished business of the last session, etc.
Passing over several pages of matter, which record the "ups and downs" of the bill, the final entries are transcribed from the Senate journal.
Saturday, December 13, 1817, "the Senate went into committee of the whole." * "Senate took up the amendments reported by the committee of the whole, to the bill to erect the county of Clark, which were agreed to." "Ordered that the bill as amended be engrossed, and read a third time on Monday next."
Monday, December 15, 1817. "an engrossed bill entitled. etc., was read the third time."
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It was immediately put upon its passage and was passed. Yeas, 17; nays, 10. Tuesday, December 23, 1817, "the Senate received a message from the House of Representatives, by Mr. Hawkins:" Mr. Speaker, the House of Repre- sentatives have passed the bill entitled an act to erect the county of Clark."
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