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 9
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The English colonies were at this time east of the Alleghanies, while the French were establishing themselves west of this range, gaining an entrance north and south, the two portions separated by hostile and barbarous foes. La Salle's spirit of adventure led him into new fields, but Father Hennepin was detailed to investigate that part of the world now known as the State of Ohio. The records assert that he published a volume containing an account of his observations "in the country between New Mexico and the frozen ocean," in 1684, together with maps of Lakes Erie, Huron and Michigan, and a plat of the larger streams in Ohio.
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Apparently, the French more speedily comprehended the value of their advantages in the New World than the English, and vigorously inaugurated and sustained commercial and religious projects. They were essentially benefited by the mediation of the Catholic priests between settlers and Indians, this really earnest class everywhere ingratiating themselves with the savages. The Order of Jesuits were very vigorous, and representatives were stationed at every trading-post, village and settlement. The English colonists engaged mostly in agriculture, while the French took a lively interest in the fur trade with the natives, probably from their former settlement in Quebec and thereabouts, where the climate is advantageous for this business. This added to the influence of the priests, and the natural assimilation of French and the Indians, through the tact and amiability of the former, the French possessions gained more rapidly than the English or Spanish. They courted their daughters and married them. They engaged in feasts and trades, and took advantage of those unimpeded times to extend their dominion with surprising celerity. A chain of trading, missionary and military posts extended from New Orleans to Quebec, by way of the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, thence via Mackinaw and Detroit to Lakes Eric and Ontario. This route was shortened thereafter by following the Ohio River to the Wabash, following the latter upward, and down the Maumee to Lake Erie.
About the same time, and to check the advancement of the French, the Ohio Company was formed by the English. This was an outgrowth of the contest between these two nations for the ascendency, whether empire, settle- ment or individual. After thirty years' peace between these two nations, "King George's War" opened the campaign in 1744, but terminated in 174S, the treaty at Aix-la-chapelle unfortunately omitting a settlement of any division of claims in America. The English, French and Spanish were the first to enter. America, and the right of possession by each monarch or empire was held by right of a first discovery. The only right that England could advance regarding Ohio was that the portion of the Six Nations found in the Ohio Valiey had placed some of their lands under British jurisdiction, and that other portions had been purchased at Lancaster, Penn., by means of a treaty with the same nations. All this was strenuously denied and ignored by the French. Thus several conflicting influences swept carnage over fair Ohio. The Indians were allied to one side and the other, and were against each other. The Indians and French would advance against the English, and they, in retaliation, would make a raid into the Indian territory and overcome a French settlement. Whenever they could as well, Indians would take the cause in their own keep- ing and fight each other. The wide, verdant fields of Ohio were drenched ghastly red under a glowing sun, and the great forests cchoed moans from the dying and distressed. The English colonists had partially overcome their deprivation, caused by a struggle for subsistence, and means to guard against the savages -- this distress augmented by campaigns against Canada-by their
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increased numbers and wealth, but were now alarmed by the French rule in America, which gained so rapidly, unmolested as it was by Indian raids and other devastating circumstances. A constant conflict was going on between Lake Erie and the Upper Ohio. Atrocities and massacres were committed indiscriminately, which opened the way for a desperate class of marauders and villains from the colonies and European States. These people enlisted with the Indians on either side for the purpose of leadership and plunder. Every fortification, trading-post and settlement was garrisoned or deserted, and the ground between the Alleghanies and the Maumee became a conflict field, rife with thrilling deeds, sacrifice and adventures, the half never having been chronicled, and many heroes falling uncrowned by even a lasting memory, since during these times the people kept few annals, and cared less for historical memories than anything on earth. They were living, and dying, and struggling, and that was more than they could carry through safely. The French formed a road from the Ohio River to Detroit, via the foot of the Lower Rapids of the Maumee, and the foot of the Lower Rapids of the Sandusky.
The Ohio Company obtained a charter under English views, from the British Government, with a grant of 6,000 acres of land on the Ohio. The English now reverted to the times of the Cabots, and protested that by right they held the entire country between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, bounded by those parallels of latitude defining their Atlantic coast settlements. France claimed the region drained by the Mississippi and tributaries, the great lakes and their tributaries, the area being west of the Alleghanies. Ohio was thus included in the disputed tract.
The Ohio Company was formed in 1748, by a number of Virginians and Londoners, two brothers of George Washington taking conspicuous parts in the movement ; Thomas Lee was especially active. When the surveys were begun, the Governor of Canada entered vigorous protests, and indicated his displeasure by a prompt line of posts from Erie to Pittsburgh, named respectively, Presque Isle, Le Bœuf, Vedango, Kittaning and Du Quesne. The latter was begun by the English, captured by the French, and by them completed.
The first English settlement of which we can find traces was a block-house at Piqua, about the year 1752. It was attacked, and a bitter struggle ensued, resulting in the death of fourteen of the assailants. Those within the garrison suffered severely, many being burned, and the remainder captured and dis- . patched to Canada.
In 1753, the French and Indian war actively began. It did not extend beyond the American continent until 1756, when the home governments took an interest in its progress beyond encouraging their respective colonists to pur- sue the war-path to a direful finale for their adversaries. For four years, the French captured and conquered, spreading terror wherever they went, and they followed every Englishman that set his foot on Ohio soil to the death. We may state that these people had not retained their civilized habits, and
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constant association with savages had embued them with barbarous methods of warfare which were sickening and revolting to the English, and to which they could not resort. It is highly probable that French success was vastly brought about by these means, together with the assistance of their Indian allies. In 1758, when the English hope was almost exterminated, the elder Pitt being placed at the head of the administration, a new and energetic system was inaugurated, wise measures instituted, and military science triumphed over savage cunning and French intrigue. The first brilliant English achievement was the conquest of Canada. When the home governments interfered, the. war assumed the character of a French and English conflict, regardless of Indian right, yet the tribes continued to participate in the carnage.
A certain Christian, Frederick Post, a Moravian missionary, located upon the Muskingum, near Beavertown. Heckewelder consented to become his associate. The Indians receiving them kindly, under conditions that Post should serve as tutor, this missionary began clearing a field for the purpose of planting corn for sustenance. This did not accord with Indian logic. They had stipulated that he teach and he was planting corn, which to them was a signal of the coming of other whites, the building of a fort and encroachments upon the Indians. They referred to the French priests, who were in good physical condition, did not till land, but were in charge of the Great Spirit who provided for them, a conclusive proof to them that when divine work was acceptable to the Great Spirit, priests were somehow sustained by other than the plans which disturbed their great hunting-grounds. However, they allowed him a small space, and he remained with them, preaching and teaching during the summer of 1762, when, accompanied by one of the principal chiefs, he returned to Lancaster, Penn., where a treaty was concluded. On his return to his post, he was met by Heckewelder, who imparted the tidings that friendly Indians had warned him that the war was about to sweep over their section, and destruction awaited them if they remained. The mission was accordingly abandoned. This failure was not so bitter as the English effort to sustain their trading-post in 1749, on the Great Miami, afterward called Laramie's store. It pursued a feeble existence until 1752, when a French raid upon the Twig- twees and English colonists proved fatal.
A. European treaty now excluded the French from any rights to make treaties with the Indians, and the English, in their flush of victory after Pitt's succession, assumed the authority over Indians and lands. The savages did not accept the situation with anything resembling the gentle spirit of resigna- tion, and the Ottawa chief, Pontiac, led the several tribes into a general war against the intruders. It was no longer French and English, but Indian and English, the former being instigated and assisted many times by the French, now desperate and unscrupulous in a mad spirit for revenge.
The intention of the Indians was to drive the whites east of the mountains, destroying their numerous strongholds in Pennsylvania and Virginia, if they
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failed in their hope of utterly exterminating them. Pontiac had effected a consolidation of the tribes ranging from. Mackinaw to North Carolina, thus being enabled to swoop down upon all the settlements simultaneously. A deadly beginning was made in the Ohio Valley, and only two or three English traders escaped out of the one hundred and twenty located in that vicinity. The forts at Presque Isle, St. Joseph and Mackinaw, were captured amid scenes of slaughter too terrible to perpetuate in description. The years 1763 and 1764 were literally drenched in human carnage and anguish. Ohio was a great field of crime, murder, pain and horror. The expeditions of Bradstreet and Bouquet crushed the war in 1764, and Pontiac with his Ottawas removed to the Maumee and settled. English settlement now progressed with great rapidity, but this was destined to be disturbed in 1774, by the action of Lord Dunmore, who led an expedition against the tribes of the Ohio country, termi- nated by his treaty on the Scioto plains. At this period, the colonists were not in strict harmony with England, and the spirit of revolution was spreading every day.
When Lord Dunmore made his treaty, the affirmation was made and gained ground that he, being a thorough loyalist, had compromised under such terms as held the Indians British allies against the settlers. Directly following this treaty, was the deliberate murder of a number of Indians, near Wheeling, including the family of the great chief, Logan-which inaugurated retaliating atrocities.
In the year 1781, April 16, the first white child was born within the pres- ent limits of Ohio, and was christened Mary Heckewelder, daughter of a Mora- vian missionary. All the settlers of these Moravian towns on the Muskingum were made prisoners in September of the same year. Heckwelder was trans- ported to Detroit, but English tyranny failed to find any evidence against him or his colaborers, and they were reluctantly released, and returned to their fam- ilies in Sandusky. Poverty added to their sufferings, and in the forlorn hope of finding a remnant of their property at the old settlements, which might assist in mitigating their necessities, they wearily went thitherward. They began gathering their grain, but the Wyandots attacked them, and many lives were lost. Frontiersmen had also grown jealous of them, and a body of about ninety marched out together, for the fiendish purpose of pillaging, slaughtering and laying waste all Moravian towns and posts. With the wily insidiousness of savages, they went about their diabolical plan. The Moravians were cordial and bade this band welcome, when they reached their towns in the guise of friend- ship. Williamson, the leader, and the gleaners, were called from the fields, when, to the dismay of these trusting and frark people, they were all bound, and only fifteen out of the marauding band of ninety were in favor of even sparing the lives of these hapless men, women and children. Forty men, twenty-two women and thirty-four children were then cruelly and heartlessly murdered, their sufferings laughed to scorn, and the last sound that fell on their
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ears was exultant derision. It would seem that whatever the Indians left un- done, in the way of horror, in the State of Ohio, the whites improved upon, and blackened the pages of American history with deeds of blood. Succeeding this barbarity, was the expedition against Moravian Indian towns, upon the San- `dusky. Not an Indian, whether an enemy or friend, old or young, male or female, was to escape the assault, including an extermination of the Moravian element.
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Col. William Crawford led the expedition, which counted 500 men, in their dastardly work. Warning had in some manner reached the towns, and the troops found them deserted. But the Indians were incensed, and their wrath had not driven them to hiding-places, but to a preparation to meet their foes. They fought desperately, and Crawford's troops were defeated and scattered, many being captured, and among them, Col. Crawford himself. It is hardly probable that Crawford could justly expect much mercy at the hands of his captors. His battle-cry had been "no quarter," and yet he evi- dently hoped for some consideration, as he requested an interview with Simon Girty, who lived with and influenced the Indians. Accounts state that Craw- ford implored the aid of Girty, and at last secured a promise to use his power to obtain the Colonel's pardon. However, this was of no avail, and it is doubt- ful whether Girty was disposed to intercede. The prisoners were tortured and put to death, and Crawford's agonies were protracted as long as possible. Dr. Knight managed to disable the Indian who had him in charge, and made his escape to the settlements, where he related the result of the expedition and the tortures of the captured.
On October 27, 1784, a treaty was concluded, at Fort Stanwix, with the sachems and warriors of the Mohawks, Onondagas, Senecas, Cayugas, Onei- das and Tuscarawas, and the Six Nations then ceded to the Colonial Govern- ment all claims to the country west of a line defined by the western boundary to the Ohio-thus rendering the Indian claim to a large portion of Ohio lands practically extinct.
Although the French and Indian war was a series of heart-rending events, it was a serious and remarkable school of discipline for the untrained troops which soon engaged in the Revolutionary struggle. On the fields of Ohio, many valuable officers, who earned distinction in the war of independence, learned their first lessons in intrepid valor.
During the Revolution, the colonial troops were engaged east of the moun- tains, and western settlements and frontier people were left alone to defend them- selves and their property against encroachments and attacks.
The Indian tribes again became belligerent, and united with the English against the " Americans." The latter held a line of posts along the Upper Ohio, while the British were stationed in the old French strongholds on the lakes and the Mississippi. The unscrupulous whites and Indians ranged at rau- dom between this boundary and the Cuyahoga, thence southerly to the Ohio,
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thus including the Scioto and Miami Valleys. Southeastern Ohio constituted " the neutral ground."
Gen. Clarke's expedition, although chiefly confined to Indiana and Illinois. greatly influenced the settlement of Ohio. His exploits and the resolution of his troops were chiefly instrumental in holding the country west of the Alle- ghanies, and insuring its possession by the United States during the Revolution. The British had been emphatic, in the Paris treaty, at the time of the settlement of the French and English difficulties, in demanding the Ohio River as the northern boundary of the United States. The American Commissioners relied upon Gen. Clarke's valor and energy in holding the country west of the Alle- ghanies, which he had conquered, and the British Commissioners were compelled to give 'their consent, under civil and military measures. In 1783, by the treaty of Paris, at the close of the Revolutionary war, the English relinquished all rights to the fertile territory between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi, and the United States held undisputed possession.
January 10, 1786, Gens. Rufus Putnam and Benjamin Tupper circulated a pamphlet, proposing the formation of a company for the purpose of settling the Ohio lands, and soliciting the attention and consideration of all those desiring a future home and prosperity. A meeting was also called, to assemble during the following February, and select delegates to represent each county in Massachu- setts. These dignitaries should convene during the month of March, at the " Bunch of Grapes " tavern, in Boston, for the purpose of definitely forming the association, and adopting such measures as would benefit all directly interested. The meeting and " convention " followed, and the subscription books were opened. One million dollars, chiefly represented by Continental certificates, was the price of the land. The shares were valued at $1,000 each, and there was a division of a thousand shares. The first payment was to be $10 per share, this money to be set aside for such expenses as might accrue. A year's interest was to be devoted to the establishment of the settlement, and those families who were unable to incur the expense of moving were to be assisted. Those who purchased shares to the number of twenty were entitled to a representation by an agent, who was permitted to vote for Directors. This plan matured and was acted upon during the following year. It may be that the action of Connecti- cut, in ceding her territorial claims to the General Government, with few excep- tions, greatly encouraged this new undertaking. That tract was, until recently, designated the " Western Reserve "-an extent 170 miles from the western boundary of Pennsylvania, and parallel thereto, being reserved.
On October 27, 1787, a contract was made between the Board of the Treas- ury, for the United States, and Manasseh Cutler and Winthrop Sargent, agents for the Directors of the New England Ohio Company, for the purchase of a tract of land, bounded by the Ohio, and from the mouth of the Scioto to the inter- section of the western boundary of the seventh townships, then surveying; thence by said boundary to the northern boundary of the tenth township from
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the Ohio ; thence, by a due west line, to the Scioto; thence, by the Scioto, to the beginning.
However fertile and attractive Ohio was known to have been, settlement did not gain rapidly after the close of the war with England, although the United States has gained her freedom. It was more than six years after Cornwallis laid down his sword, before a white settlement was formed on the Ohio side of the river. The French and Indian war had incited the English to be jealous of her colonial conquests, and mistrusting their loyalty, they had, so soon as the French claims were annulled, taken measures to crush all colonial claims also, and a royal proclamation rescinded all colonial land grants and charters, holding all the country west of the sources of the Atlantic rivers under the protection and sovereignty of the king of Great Britain, for the use of the Indians. All white persons were forbidden to remain or settle within the prescribed limits. Parlia- ment then attached this tract to Quebec, and the English Government felt assured that the thirteen colonies were restricted and held secure cast of the Alleghanies.
The result of the war between the colonies and England did not constitute an Indian treaty. Although England signed over her title and right, the sava- ges held the land and ignored all white agreements, one way or the other. Whenever an attempt at settlement was undertaken, Indian depredations proved disastrous. The tribes were encouraged by the English fur traders, and the English commandant at Detroit incited them to destroy all Americans who attempted to usurp the rights of red men.
Added to this serious difficulty was the unsettled debate regarding State claims, which rendered a title precarious. A treaty, signed at Fort McIntosh, previous to the war, and authenticated, shows that during the conflict the Dela- wares and Wyandots occupied the Indian and British frontier, on the southern shore of Lake Erie, from the Cuyahoga to the Maumee, and from the lake to the sources of its tributaries. Later, these two tribes ceded to the United States "the neutral ground," by warranty decd, and by quit-claim, the terri- tory south and west of the described tract, set apart for their usc.
By special measures, the grant of Congress in the matter of the Ohio Com- pany extended to nearly 5,000,000 acres, valued at $3,500,000. The original Ohio Company obtained 1,500,000 acres, the remaining being reserved by indi- viduals, for private speculation.
The same year, Congress appointed Arthur St. Clair, Governor, and Win- throp Sargent, Secretary, of the Territory.
Fort Harmar had previously been built, at the mouth of the Muskingum, and in 1788, a New England colony attempted the "Muskingum settlement," on the opposite side, which was afterward named Marietta. In July, 1788, the Territorial officers were received in this village, and there established the first form of civil government, as set forth in the Ordinance of 1787. Three United States Judges were appointed, and Courts of Common Pleas, Probate and Justice were established.
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If the stormy times were supposed to be of the past, that composure was rudely broken by the utter disregard of the Shawnee and other Indian tribes, who soon induced the Delawares and Wyandots to repudiate their consent in the matter of settlement. The miseries of frontier horrors were repeated. The British commandant at Detroit instigated many of these hostilities, yet the American Government took honorable action in assuring the English represent- ative that American military preparations in the West was not an expedition against Detroit, or other British possessions, although the possession of Detroit by that nation was in direct opposition to the treaty of 1783. Gov. St. Clair, to avert the direful consequences of a border war, dispatched a Frenchman, Gameline, to the principal Indian towns of the Wabash and Maumee countries, to request them to meet the United States agents, and make a compromise for the benefit of both parties, at the same time reiterating the desire of the General Government to adhere to the Fort Harmar treaty. The Miamis, Shawnees. Ottawas, Kickapoos and Delawares received this representative kindly, but declined the wampum sent by the Governor, and deferred giving an answer until they had considered the subject with the " father at Detroit."
Blue Jacket, chief of the Shawnees, informed the Frenchman that the Indi- ans doubted the sincerity of the Americans. The new settlement on the Ohio was a proof that the whites intended to crowd further and further, until the Indians were again and again robbed of their just right. He then emphatically asserted that unless the north side of the river was kept free from these inroads there could be no terms of peace with the Shawnees, and many other tribes.
Blue Jacket was unusually intelligent and sagacious, and expressed himself eloquently. He was persistent in his determination to engage in the war of extermination, should the white settlements continue north of the Ohio.
- These overtures were continued, but they failed in producing any arrange- ment that permitted the whites to locate north of the Ohio.
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