Ashland County, Ohio - Chapter 17: Treaties and Surveys, 1880

In the year 1758, the French surrendered to the British authorities F'ort DuQucsne. and, ' with it, fell French dominion in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. In September, 1760, the -French governor, Yaudrueil, surrendered the fort at Detroit to Major Robert Rogers, who left an English garrison to hold and defend it. The French never regained their possessions in Ohio, although they intrigued, through Pontiac and his savage allies, for their recovery.

In 1768, a treaty was held by Sir William Johnson, at Fort Stafiwix, in central New York, in which the Indian title to the lands between the Alieghanies and the east ern boundaries of Ohio, was extinguished, and came under the jurisdiction of Pennsylvania. By this treaty, the colonists of V irginia were greatly gratified, by having their territory extended beyond the Ohio; although the Stnixo/ees, Mia mis, and many of the Wyamiots, resisted the extension of the territorial dominion of Virginia, and it required many sanguinary campaigns to subdue their opposition. The Indians of Ohio continued to make incursions upon the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia, often capturing many prisoners, and killing the helpless pioneer settlers. To soften their hostility, and obtain their good will, it was thought best to send agents among them, to hold talks and make presents.

In 1775, congress organized an administration of Indian affairs, and Captain James Wood proceeded to the territory of Ohio, by authority of the general assembly of Virginia, to invite a council at Fort Pitt, formerly Fort DuQuesne. In the meantime, Governor Hamilton, of Canada, used all his arts, through secret agents, to enlist the Indian tribes in the cause of Great Britain. Captain Wood found much difficulty in inducing the Ohio savages to meet him in council at Fort Pitt, but finally succeeded. Congress appointed Franklin, Henry, and Wilson, commissioners, to meet the Indians at Fort Pitt. The conference, in effect, accomplished nothing.

About that time Colonel Oeorge Morgan, a gentleman of undoubted courage, discretion and experience, was appointed Indian agent, and by his influence the hostility of the Ohio tubes was neutralized, and the horrors of impending invasion averted during the dreary years of the revolution. Morgan personally visited nearly all the hostile tribes, and finally brought about a conference - at Fort Pitt, in October, in which nearly all the tribes were divided in their support of the British, and agreed to abstain from hostility against the border settlements. By presents, false representations, and intrigue in r 779, British influence had so far triumphed with ali the western tribes except the Delawares and a few 1 Vy at; dots, that it held the ascendency until- 17S3, when the tribes were humbled by the colonial forces, being abandoned by the British, who were compelled, to retire before the victorious legions of the colonists. In 1784, a new treaty with the Six Nations took place at Fort Stanwix, at which those tribes were informed that Great Britain had yielded bv treaty, to the United States, ail claims to the country south and west of the great northern rivers and lakes, as far as the Mississippi, making no reservation in favor of any Indian nation, but leaving their tribes to seek for peace with the United States upon such terms as might be deemed reasonable and just. The chiefs of those powerful tribes expressed much surprise at the conduct of the British authorities, claiming that they had risked all for their great father, the British king. There were manv chiefs from- the U'yamiots, Defalcates, Of toons, i S/tawtnes and other western tribes present at the conference. That treaty extinguished the claims of the Six Nations to all the lands west of the Ohio, and defined I their future possessions in northern New York and l'enn- I sylvania. In 1775, the treaty of Fort McIntosh was ! held, and the Wyandots , Detonates, Chip/>ev>as and G | t'Koas were represented. By that treaty those tribes ac- 1 knowlcdged themselves and all tlwir tribes, to he under | the- protection of the l nited Suites. File boundary he j tween those tribes was fixed by the commission. Citihe United States were prohibited from settling

While upon this topic, the reader will pardon a short i digression upon the Indian policy of our fathers. The j character cf William Penn has been panegyrized alike by orator, poet, and painter. The picture has been sadly overdrawn, and William Penn placed in a false light. Let us examine his policy. It is asserted that he made a treaty with the Indians under a great elm at Shackanaaxon, in which he made an ostentatious purchase of the lands of the aborigines. West, the painter, has drawn an imaginary picture of the scene, and the features of Penn, and the red men of the forest surrounding him. He is represented as purchasing their lands for a few yards of British broadcloth, a few beads and other tinsels. * Thus millions of acres of land were purchased for a few hundred dollars, and a homiletic snivel upon war and conquest delivered. History presents no au- \ then tic evidence of such a treaty! It is simply a myth ' drawn from Quaker tradition, and never had any real existence, f That Penn had a talk with the Indians of Shackamaxon, now Philadelphia, and that he distributed a few presents in cloth, and discoursed on the wickedness of war, is doubtless true. All such sales to Penn, or any other party were void. But admitting they could enter into a contract. The consideration offered them tor their lands was a fraud upon its face.

These criticisms may be regarded as too severe, by the friends of the old Quaker, but to show the superficial charity of the Penns in their Indian policy, we will add a few more facts of history. A son of William Penn, John, governor of Pennsylvania, in 1764, 'or proclamation, offered a premium for Indian captives and scalps. "For the capture of any male above ten years, one hun dred and fifty dollars, or for his scalp, being killed, one hundred and thirty-four dollars; and for every female cap- i tured, one hundred and thirty dollars, or for the scalp of ; such female killed, fifty dollars. "i Thus the fine theo- i ries of the good William were disregarded in the first gen- : eration of Penns. And because the Indians resented the loss of their lands, the venality and cruelty of the whites, Governor Penn proposed to hunt them, lik a wolves, by offering a price for their scalps! This was the occasion of the relentless Indian incursions, that desolated west trn Per.nsylvatra in later years.

When Lord Calvert purchased the right of occupation of the aborigines of St. Mary's, in Maryland, for a con sideration which seems to have given general satisfaction, he carefully cultivated their friendship, and perfect amity . prevailed. He gave the Indians in exchange for the liberty of occupying their land, axes, hoes and clothing, thereby endeavoring to introduce among them the first rudiments of civilization - the implements of agriculture. S Yet, we have no Wests painting fine pictures of him, and his new-made aboriginal friends.

So, when Great Britain deserted her Indian allies in .Ohio, Michigan, and the northwest, she did a cowardly thing. Her pretended ownership of their soil fell to tile ground, and the United States were finally compelled to admit that the Indians were the owners of the soil, and obtained the same by conquest, treaty, and purchase, although the remuneration fell far below the just value of their lands. In 1786 the treaty at Fort Finney, at the junction of the Miami river with the Ohio, was held, and resulted in placing the Shawnecs and o:her tribes under the protection of the United States, and admitting their sovereignty over all the land over which the Indians roamed.

Under her colonial charter, Virginia had claimed all the lands between the thirty-fourth and forty-fifth degrees of north latitude, which included all the territories of Ohio, -Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan. A counter-claim to a part of the territory northwest of the Ohio was set up by Connecticut. Other colonies complained that Virginia was about to take possession of nearly all the western territory, while the twelve remaining colonies had assisted in wresting' it from the common enemy; and urged that those territories should be considered as common property, and sold as prescribed by j Congress, for the common benefit, to be erected into free States for admission into the Union. In 1784, in order to settle all disputes concerning the territory west of Ohio, Virginia authorized her delegates in Congress to make a deed of cession to the Linked State? of the territory in dispute, asking indemnity for her expenses of | subduing the British posts in said territory. On the twenty-riinth of April, 1784, Congress accepted die cession, and the States subsequently endorsed the same, with a stipulation prohibiting slavery. In 17S0 Connecticut also ceded to the United States her claims on the lands lying in northern Ohio, for the common benefit.

On the thirteenth of July, 1787, Congress passed, the celebrated ordinance organizing the territory of the Ohio, now constituting five of the most prosperous Stares west of the Ohio river. The territory was organized under the ordinance; and General Arthur St. Clair was appointed governor of the Northwestern territory, on the fifth of October, 1 7S7C The intrusion of settlers had forced a public system of survey and sale of land upon the attention of Congress as early as May, 17$;,. An ordinance prescribing the mode of survey and sale of western lands was passed. It provided that a corps of surveyors - one from each State, and appointed bv Congress - should be placed under the direction of Thomas Hutchins, geographer of the United States, and instructed to divide the territory into townships of six miles square, by lines running due north and south, and others crossing these at right angles, as far as practicable. I he first line running north and south was to begin at the Ohio river, at a point due north from the western termination of the southern boundary of Pennsylvania; the first line running east and west was to begin at the same point and extend through the territory. 1 he township?, whole or fractional, were to be numbered from south to north - t|,v. ranges of townships progressively westward. The ( tuv.n-F.ip: were to be subsequently divided into thirty-six j .sections, each containing a mile square, or six hundred j and forty acres. The survey has since been carried to j half sections, quarter sections, and eighths, and in some j cases to sixteenths. Jackson, I fi rry, Mohican and Lake ; townships are in the fifteenth range from the western j boundary from Pennsylvania: and Hanover, Green, Vermillion, Montgomery and Orange in the sixteenth range, while Mifflin, Milton and Clearcrcek are in the seventeenth range of townships. Reggies, Troy and Sullivan were surveyed out of the Connecticut Western Reserve, and do not range with the sectional survey of this county.

It was provided that where the survey of seven ranges of townships had been completed, plots should be returned j to the board of the. treasury, and the Secretary of War was j to reserve, by lot, one seventh past for the use of the | late continental army, and' so of every subsequent seven j ranges, when surve yed and returned. Lots eight, eleven, j twenty-six and twenty-nine, in each township,- were re- i served to the United States for future sale; lot sixteen, for the maintenance of public schools within the townships.

The Connecticut Western Reserve is situated in the northeast quarter of the State, between Lake Erie on the north, Pennsylvania east, the parallel of the forty-first degree of north latitude south, and Sandusky and Seneca counties on the west. It extends one hundred and twenty miles from east to west, and is about fifty j miles wide. It contains about three million eight hun- j dred thousand acres. It is surveyed into townships of ' five miles square each. About five hundred thousand | acres of the west end was set apart by the State of Con- j neeticut to "sufferers by fire during the revolution. These | lands were donated in 1792. The townships being five j miles square were subdivided into four quarters, and j these into lots of from fifty to .five hundred acres each to suit the purchaser. Hanover, Green, 'Mifflin and Milton townships were surveyed by James Hedges, deputy United States surveyor, and a citizen of Virginia, in 1007. Vermillion, Montgomery, Lake, Mohican and j Perry were surveyed by Jonathan Cox, depu'y surveyor, \ under Mansfield Ludlow in 1807., Clearcrcek, Orange j and Jackson townships were surveyed by Mansfield Lud- j low in 1807. The three northern townships, Ruggles, j Troy and Sullivan, being part of the Western Reserve j and "gore," were surveyed about the time that territory was divided into townships. At the period when these ( surveys took place, the territory now constituting the limits of Ashland county had not a single pioneer within it; but was used as a free hunting ground by the ] Wyandot s, Ottazvas, DoLuoarcS, Jfohegans and Minims. I The first land office for the entry and purchase of lands was established at Canton, Ohio, soon after the survey was completed; and a majority of the lands of this county were entered at tint office. .Subsequently an office was established at Wooster, Ohio, where the pioneers purchased the remaining lands of the county, subject to entry.