Cuyahoga County, Ohio - Chapter 5: English Dominion, 1870

Major Rogers and his Rangers sent to Detroit - The Command at the "Chogage'' - Location of that Stream - A Band of Ottawas - Question as to the presence of Pontiac - Rogers' description of the Meeting, and of subsequent Events - Sir William Johnson at the Cuyahoza - Virst British Vessel on Lake Erie - Conspiracy of Pontiac - Wilkins' Expedition - Location of the Disaster which befell it - Bradstreet's Expedition - Its arrival-in Cuyahoga County - Description of the Scene - The Command proceeds up the Lake - Its Return - Wreck of the Flotilla - Location of that Event - Destruction of Boats - Putnam and his Men return on Foot - Relics found near Rocky River - A Mound full of Bones - Query regarding its Occupants - Subsequent Events - Hardships of Early Navigation - Ohio annexed to the Province of Quebec - Lord Dunmore's War - The Revolution - Indian Forays - Murder of Moravian Indians - Meeting of Commissioners to negotiate Peace - Proposition to give Ohio to Great Britain - Its Defeat - Duration of English Dominion.

As soon as the surrender of Canada had been enforced, the British commander-in-chief, Gen. Amherst, felt that it was important to send a body of troops immediately to take possession of the western French posts, especially of Detroit, which had been looked on as the headquarters of French power on the upper lakes by numerous warlike tribes, who would hardly believe that England was victorious as long as they saw the Gallic flag flying from the battlements of that fortress. He selected for that purpose the force reported to be the bravest body of partisans in the Anglo-American army--the celebrated New Hampshire Rangers, commanded by their renowned leader, Major Robert. Rogers. Major Rogers had served throughout the war which was just closing, usually having a separate force with which he operated against the Indians or annoyed the French, and acting much of the time in concert with Israel Putnam, of Connecticut, whose fame as a partisan was second only to his own; each of them having done more daring deeds and experienced more hair-breadth escapes than would suffice to fill a volume.

This hardy backwoods leader, with his battalion of 'Rangers,' set out from Fort Niagara in October, 1760. he command moved up the Niagara and set forth upon Luke Krie in the large bateaux, holding fifty men each, with which white troops usually navigated the great lakes at that period. On the 7th of river which Rogers, in his published journal, calls the ""Chogage." It has generally been assumed that this was the Cuyahoga, but weagree with Col.. Whittlesey, the author of the Early History of Cleveland, in.thinking that it was much more probably the "Cheraga," as the Grand river was then called, according to the old maps; a name which has since become Geauga. Major Rogers, in his journal, gave the distances which he sailed nearly every day, and these, as stated after he left Presqu' Isle (Erie), would bring him just about to Grand river. ''Chogage" is much more like

At this point Rogers met a band of Attawawa (Ottawe) Indians, just arrived from Detroit. In Rogers' ** Journal," published in 1765, nothing is said of Pontiac or any other celebrated chief as being present on this occasion, but in his '* Concise Account of the War," also published in 1765, it is stated that Pontiac was the leader of the party and that he haughtily forbade the English from proceeding. Rogers was a good deal of an adventurer, and some have imagined that after Pontiac became celebrated the major added the account of their meeting to give interest to his story. It is, however, one of those discrepancies which indicate truth rather than falsehood. If Major Rogers had interpolated the account of Pontiac, he would have carefully made his two books harmonize on that point; they being both, as we have said, published in the same year. It has been suggested that, as the Cuyahoga was the eastern boundary of Pontiac's territory, he would not have halted Rogers at Grand river. But it should always be remembered that Indian boundaries are not as clearly defined as those of the white man; and though the Cuyahoga was generally considered the boundary between the Jroquois and the western Indians, yet the old maps show an Ottawa village on the east side of that stream, in the present township of Independence; so it may well be that the haughty Pontiac claimed as far east as Grand river or even farther. We may add that the great authority of Parkman is decidedly in favor of the credibility of Rogers' account.

According to that account the first delegation of Indians informed the major that the great chief, Pontiac, was not far off, and requested him to wait until that dignitary could see "'with his own eyes" the Anglo-American commander. Accordingly Pontiac soon met Rogers, demanded his business, and asked him how he dared to enter that country without his, Pontiac's, permission. Rogers answered that he had no design against the Indians, but should remove the French, the common enemy of both. the whites and the Indians, at the sume time giving a belt of wampum. Pontiac said:

"When he departed for the night he inquired whether | wanted anything that his country afforded, and he would send for it. I assured him that any provisions they brought should be paid for, and the next day we were supplied by them with several bags of parched corn and some other necessaries. At our second meeting he gave me the pipe of peace, and both of us by turns smoked with it, and he assured me he had made peace with me and my detachment; that I might pass through his country unmolested, and relieve the French garrison, and that he would protect me and my party from any insults that might be offered or intended by Indians; and as an earnest of his friendship he sent a hundred warriors to protect and assist us in driving a hundred fat cattle, which we had brought for the use of the detachment from Pittsburg by the way of Presqu' Isle [Eric]. He likewise sent to the Indian towns on the south side and west end of Lake Hrie, to inform them that I had his consent to come into the country. He attended me constantly after this interview till I arrived at Detroit, and while I remained in the country, and was the means of preserving the detachment from the fury of the Indians, who had assembled at the mouth of the strait, with an intent to cut us off. I had several conferences with him, in which he displayed great strength of judgment and a thirst after knowledge."

Rogers was detained at ''Chogage" by contrary winds until the 12th of November, when he made a run, which he estimated at forty-one miles, to " Elk river." This was probably Rocky river, though the old maps show Elk river east of the Cuyahoga. Those maps were made from vague reports, and though they showed the names of the principal streams they frequently confused the localities. The distance from "'Chogage"' (Cheraga, Geauga or Grand river) was so great that Rogers' next stopping place could not possibly have been Chagrin river, and the Cuyahoga was too well known to be mistaken. Irom Rocky riyer the adventurous major, with his battalion of daring partisans, seasoned in a score of desperate conflicts with the savages, proceeded up the lake to remove the principal emblem of French dominion in the upperlake region, while the O¢¢awa chiefs, preserving their friendly demeanor, continued in the somewhat unwonted task of escorting the detachment which drove the cattle along the shore.

Rogers reached Detroit in safety, and took possession of it in the name of King George the Second, and for a time it seemed as if all the tribes of the West were willing to acknowledge the supremacy of the British. The next year Sir William Johnson went to Detroit, to aid in attaching the western Indians to the English crown by the same arts by which he had gained such a powerful influence over the Jroquots. He returned by the south side of the lake, (which seems to have been a favorite route, although the one along the north side was the shortest), and mentions his preparations to stop at the Cuyahoga; showing, as before stated, that that was a well known point.

Meanwhile the western Indians, including perhaps some of the westernmost tribes of the Zroquois, had been all the while growing more hostile to the English, partly on account of their attachment to the defeated French, partly from jealousy of the rapid progress of the English, and partly, probably, from disgust at the haughty ways of the conquerors, never as adroit as the French in the management of barbarous tribes. A wide-spreading conspiracy was skillfully organized by Pontiac, which in the spring of 1763 developed itself in simultaneous attacks on all the principal English posts.

While that able though ferocious leader fiercely assaulted Detroit with his Ottawas, other tribes ¢ame hurrying down the lake to attempt the capture of Fort Pitt, and still others united with the Senecas in besieging Fort Niagara. But, though nine smaller posts were surprised and their garrisons massacred, the three just named withstood all the attempts of their foes. In the summer Major Rogers, who had returned east, was again sent up the lake with a detachment of provincials, to aid the garrison of Detroit. Pontiag still maintained the siege, and in the autumn another force of some six hundred regulars, under Major Wilkins, proceeded to the relief of the beleaguered post. 'This force was wrecked on their way up, the artillery was lost, seventy-three officers and men were drowned, and the remainder returned to Fort Niagara.

It has been strenuously argued that this mishap occurred near Rocky river, in this county, but after a careful examination of the facts, we have no hesitation in deciding that it was on the north shore of the | lake. 'The place mentioned in contemporary records as being the scene of the disaster was '' Point aux Pins" (Point of Pines), a well known locality in the district of Kent, Canada West, which is mentioned on several of the old maps by the same appellation. Besides, if Bradstrect's disaster, which occurred the next year at that point, had been at the same place as that which befell Wilkins, some of the contemporary writers would undoubtedly have said so.

Pontiac finally raised the siege of Detroit, but still maintained a hostile attitude toward the English. In the spring of 1764 it was determined to send a sufficient force up the lake to awe the western Indians into subjection. This expedition was placed under the command of Colonel (commonly called General) Bradstreet, a native of Massachusetts, who had been quartermaster-general of the Northern army in several of its most important campaigns, and who was generally considered one of the ablest and most enterprising officers in the service.

After a long halt at Fort Niagara, to compel the adhesion of the reluctant Senecas, the command came up the lake, reaching the borders of Cuyahoga county in August.

Colonel Bradstrect commanded the largest force of white men.which had yet appeared on Lake Erie, besides a considerable number of Indians. They made a gay and formidable appearance as they swept up the lake, the white men in their great, open bateaux, holding forty or fifty men each, with sails spread to catch the favoring breeze; the red men in acloud of light canoes, each burdened with but three or four

It was one of those motley but picturesque bands, so common in those early wars, which harmonized well with the wilderness through which they were often called to pass, and jit presented more to interest the eye and the imagination than might a far larger and better disciplined army. Three hundred and fifty of the number were veteran soldicrs of the seventeenth and fifty-fifth regiments of British regulars, clad in their brilliant, scarlet uniforms, officered by the elite of the aristocracy, and trained to obey every word of command with more than religious zeal.

Beside them were three battalions of provincial troops from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, numbering nearly eight hundred in all, less brilliantly clad and less rigidly disciplined than their English companions, but by no means to be confounded with ordinary militiamen. Nearly all of them had scen hard service in the many campaigns of the previous ten years, had shown themselves no unworthy foes of the soldiers of King Louis, and in combats with the Indians were more than equal to the red-coated musketeers of England. At the head of the Connccticut battalion was that sturdy farmer-soldier, then a little over forty years of age, already renowned as one of the most valiant Indian-fighters on the continent, the companion or rival of Rogers in half a dozen desperate campaigns, and afterwards destined to still wider fame as Major General Israel Putman, of the army of the Revolution.

Besides these soldiers of Caucasian blood, the water was covered by a swarm of bark canoes, where gleamed beneath the August sun the knives, the tomahawks and the naked, copper-colored bodies of a thousand warriors, gathered from nearly all the tribes of the east to aid in the subjugation of their contumacious western brethren. Here were Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Tuscaroras, Conawagas, Nanticokes, Stockbridges, Oquagas, and even a few Ot/awas from Oanada, ready to make war on their countrymen and their great chieftain, Pontiac. The largest body, however, from any tribe was composed of three hundred scowling Senecas, who had only been persuaded to join by the mingled threats of Bradstreet and persuasions of Sir William Johnson (who had accompanied the expedition as far as Fort Niagara), and who had only the previous year perpetrated the terrible massacre of the '' Devil's Hole," on the bank of the Niagara, when nearly a hundred English soldiers were surprised and slain in a few terrible moments. They could hardly have been very ~ reliable allies of the British, and were probably required to accompany the expedition rather as hostages for their brethren at home than for any other purpose.

Colonel Bradstreet, as has before been stated, had been considered one of the very ablest and most enterprising commanders in the service during the French war, but he was singularly unfortunate throughout this expedition. He was believed to have been deceived by a treaty he made with the Indians at Presqu' Isle. When he reached Sandusky bay he could neither persuade the hostile Indians of the Scioto plains to come to him and make a treaty, nor could he, for lack of transportation, go to them and conquer them. He next proceeded to Detroit, where perhaps the appearance of so large a force had a good effect on the lingering followers of Pontiac, and then returned to Sandusky bay.

On the 18th of October he re-embarked his men to return east, refusing to wait even a few hours for some who were absent from camp. Within a day or two after leaving Sandusky bay the boats were drawn up at night along an open beach, on which the men made their bivouac. During the night a storm arose, drove the boats ashore, destroyed a large portion of them, and caused the loss of a great part of thé provisions and ammunition.

The locality of this disaster was, beyond all reasonable doubt, at "'McMahon's beach," in the town of Rockport, in this county, stretching from one to three miles west ef Rocky river, and being from eight to ten miles west of Cleveland. The description of the locality corresponds with that given in contemporary accounts, though these are not very definite, and moreover there have been an immense number of military relics found in that vicinity which could not have come from any other source than Bradstreet's unfortunate flotilla. The principal of these relics are described in an elaborate paper by the late Dr. J. P. Kirtland, which is published entire in Colonel Whittlesey's History of Cleveland, and of which we avail ourselves liberally and thankfully in this chapter.

Some have attributed the disaster to the obstinacy of Bradstreet, who insisted on drawing up his boats opposite the beach and landing there, in opposition to the protests of his more experienced officers. Sir William Johnson, in a letter to General Gage, imputes the misfortune to Bradstreet's relying on a French pilot, of Detroit, who was suspected of betray- his failing to navigate Lake Erie with a fleet of bateuux and canoes. The wonder is that so many of those old navigators in such vessels escaped destruction.

Parkman's account says the storm raged three days, but some part of this had probably spent its force before the flotilla drew up opposite McMahon's beach. If it had been beaten against the land during that period, there would hardly have been a single boat left. As it was, twenty-five bateaux (half of the whole number) were destroyed, and most of the ammunition and baggage was lost.

Bradstreet proceeded to make the best arrangements he could for continuing his return home. His six brass field-pieces were buried on the shore, as Sir William complained, ''in the sight of ye French villain," who, he feared, would cause them to be dug up by the Indians and used against Detroit. The remaining boats being too few to carry all the men, the commandant directed a hundred and seventy rangers, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Putnam, to march along the shore of the lake and river to Fort Niagara, while the main body of the army proceeded by boat to the same place.

Among the numerous relics described by Dr. Kirtland, interesting of themselves, and also as proving beyond doubt the locality of Bradstreet's disaster, we will mention the following ; some being found at Mc- Mahon's beach, and some in the immediate vicinity of Rocky river, a mile or two farther down. The discovery of these at the latter point led Dr. Potter to believe that Major Wilkins' expedition was wrecked doubt but what that disaster occurred on the north shore of Lake Erie, and it is of course probable in the highest degree that some of Bradstreet's boats would be carried down to the mouth of the river before they broke up.

An elaborately finished sword was thrown on the beach fronting the right bank of Rocky river in 1820, which was picked up by Orin Joiner, a member of the family of Datus Kelley. 'The top of the hilt was a large lion's head of pure silver, of which metal the guard was also composed. 'The silver was melted down by a Cleveland goldsmith to whom the sword was sold. Dr. Potter supposes the lion's head to have been an ensign of the naval service, but the detailed report of the forces employed on the expedition does not show that any belonged to the navy. There were seventy-four ''bateau-men," but these were landsmen hired by Bradstreet, and organized in a corps to navigate the vessels from which they took their name.

In 1842, the bow-stem of a large bateau was thrown upon the beach, after a storm which tore up the sandbank that extends from the east side of the mouth of the river into the lake. The wood was thoroughly water-soaked and partly covered with aquatic moss, the irons were deeply rusted, and the whole had evidently been long imbedded in the sand. Numerous pieces of muskets, bayonets, guns, flints, etc., were also brought to the surface of the sand-bank, or thrown on shore, by the same storm. Mr. Frederick Wright drew in six bayonets with his seine in one night, a short time afterwards.

At the mouth of ''McMahon's run" the irons and the remnants of a bateau were found by the first settlers of the township. Several years later two six-pound cannon-balls and a number of musket-balls became exposed by the action of the lake at the foot of a clay cliff at-the west end of the bottom-lands. This is supposed to have been the place where Bradstreet buried his cannon and ammunition.

About 1831, a young daughter of Datus Kelley found in the sand of McMahon's beach a silver spoon of heavy make and coarse workmanship, evidently dating from the last century. It doubtless belonged to one of Bradstreet's officers, as did also another of the same description, found by Oscar Taylor in 1851. Numerous bayonets and pieces of muskets were also thrown by the surf upon the beach, which were collected by the families of Governor Wood and Colonel Merwin.

Of still greater interest is a bayonet which remained until its discovery, some twenty years ago, imbedded in the blue clay of the bank of a gully on the farm of Colonel Merwin, where it had evidently been driven to its base by a soldier, to help himself and his comrades up the steep ascent. On the upland just above the beach, the early settlers found astack of bayonets covered with soil and vegetation, just as they had been piled by a squad of tired soldiers after they had ascended the bank.

We are able, too, to follow the track of Putnam and his men for ashort distance, with reasonable certainty, as they started on their tedious journey through the forest. They appear to have followed a ridge leading from the vicinity of McMahon's beach to the crossing of Rocky river, near the plank-road bridge. On this ridge, near the residence of Frederick Wright, one of the soldiers threw down nearly a peck of gun-flints, which were found there sixteen or eighteen years ago by the gentleman just named. By their being abandoned so early on the journey, it is probable that it was done by Putnam's order, who foresaw that his men were less likely to run out of flints than they were to fail in strength on the wearisome march.

"Farther east, along the ridge, a silver teaspoon, resembling those already mentioned, was found at the first plowing of the ground afterwards occupied by the orchard of John Williams. Still farther on, in the garden of the Patchen Inn, Mr. Silverthorn in 1862 found three or four dollars in small silver pieces, of French and English coinage, all of earlier date than 1764. Itis difficult to account for them except on the theory that one of Putnam's officers or men threw off some article of clothing there, and in his fatigue and perplexity neglected to remove this money from the pockets. In 1863, Mr. P. A. Delford also discovered, near the plank-road gate, two copper pennies, bearing the date of 1749 and the face of George the Second.

In this account we have not only followed the description given by Dr. Potter, (condensing it to some extent), but have adopted his views in regard to the course of events thus far, except as to the wreck of Major Wilkin's expedition. We have more doubts, however, as to his theory that the contents of a mound in that vicinity were the bones of Bradstreet's soldiers, drowned in the disaster of October, 1764. All the contemporary reports say that no lives were lost, and this corresponds with the usual account of the event, according to which the boats were drawn up along the shore and the men landed, and then the storm destroyed the boats. This would certainly give the men a chance to escape, and there is no reasonable doubt that they did escape. Dr. Potter notices a memorandum that "' the losses of officers and men by the wreck was made the subject of legislative action," and thence concludes that many were drowned; but this statement evidently refers to the "losses" of property by the officers and men. Otherwise the word 'loss " would have been used.

The mound in question was located a hundred and fifty feet east of the plank-road bridge across Rocky river, being, when the land was cleared, about a rod square and rising two or three feet above the adjacent. ground, 'The covering was so thin that the bones: could easily be reached by a spade, and many bones were scattered about the surface. About 1850 Mr. Worden attempted to plow through it, but found so many bones, and especially skulls, that he desisted. Mr. Eaton, who again plowed into the mound in 1861, brought to Dr. Potter two bushels of bones, including a dozen craniums, and there was a large amount left; the skeletons being piled in tiers on top of each other, and the bottom of the collection being two or three feet below the surface. Certainly, if so large a numberof Bradstreet's soldiers had perished and been buried there, some of the numerous reports regarding that expedition would have said something about them. It is almost needless to add that white people do not bury their dead on the top of the ground, and heap up a thin covering of earth into a mound above them, especially when there was no greater reason for haste than there was then.

Dr. Potter states that he explored the grave to the bottom; that the skeletons were all those of adult males; that he found several Indian relics among them; that he and 'one of the most perfect craniologists of our country," pronounced the skulls to be' those of Anglo-Saxons, except one, which he believed to be that of an Indian - adding, however, that he might be in error, and that ''all may be Anglo-Saxon." But if such errors could be made, then all may have been Indian, which they probably were, judging from the character of the mound, the articles found in it, and the fact that there ig no evidence that any such number of white people ever died in that vicinity previous to the present century.

On the 22nd of October Bradstreet camped at Grand river; so that he probably left Rocky river that morning. He arrived with the main army at Fort Niagara on the 4th of November, and proceeded thence to Oswego and Albany. Nothing is known of Putman and his gallant band after they plunged into the forest at Rocky river save that they, too, in time made their way to Fort Niagara, though after suffering numerous hardships. It was not until the latter part of December that the last of the provincials reached their homes.

In May, 1765, the schooner " Victory" was sent to get the cannon left by Bradstreet near " Riviere aux Roches" (Rocky river), but was prevented by bad weather. .As the authorities were evidently desirous to obtain them, there is every reason to suppose they did so, though there is no direet evidence to that effect; for certainly there must have been plenty of weather during the season when half a dozen light field-pieces could be loaded on to a schooner.

For many years after these events very little occurred within the territory of Cuyahoga county requiring the notice of history. The Jroguois used it as u hunting-ground, and their war parties occasionally made excursions over it, or coasted along its borders, to attack those whom they chose to consider their enemies living farther west, but very rarely, if ever, did the latter venture to return their visits and assail the fierce confederates of New York.

Detachments of British soldiers also occasionally passed by here on their way to or from the upper posts. The freight of the lake consisted of supplies for the military posts, goods to trade with the Indians and furs received in return. It was carried almost entirely in open boats, or bateaux, similar to. those which bore the commands of Rogers and Bradstreet; some of them going on the north side and some on the south side of the lake. Of course the navigation was very dangerous, and many were the hardships attending the traffic. The New York Gazette in February, 1770, informed its readers that several boats had been lost in crossing Lake Hrie, and that the distress of the crews was so great that they were obliged to keep two human bodies, found on the north shore, so as to kill for food the ravens and eagles which came to feed upon the corpses. Certainly a most startling picture of the terrors attending the early commercial operations on Lake Erie.

In 1774 an act of Parliament declared the whole territory northwest of the Ohio to be a_part of the province of Quebec, though without prejudice to the rights of other colonies. Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, however, declared the act to be in derogation of the rights of his province, and proceeded to grant large tracts of land northwest of the Ohio. For other reasons the patriot leaders of the colonies were strongly opposed to a law which transferred the whole Northwest to a province which had no constitutional government, and was arbitrarily ruled by the crown.

This was the period of '' Lord Dunmore's War," in which the Indians occupying the present territory of Ohio, western Pennsylvania and western Virginia, under the lead of the celebrated Logan, were defeated by the Virginians at Point Pleasant, at the mouth of the Kanawha. It does not appear to have changed in any respect the condition of affairs on the shores of Lake Erie.

locality was too far from the frontier to be the scene of any portion of that conflict. The nearest American settlement was at Pittsburg, the village which had grown up around Fort Pitt, distant about a hundred and twenty miles in a straight line from the mouth of the Cuyahoga. Many of the western Indians, however, were persuaded to take arms in favor of the British, mainly by persuasion of the French leaders whom they had long been accustomed to admire and to follow, and who were employed by the English for that purpose. War parties accordingly frequently passed down the lake; some going on to join the English forces in Canada - others turning off at the: Cuyahoga and going up its valley, whence they made their stealthy way to the Ohio and struck bloody blows at the settlers around Pittsburg. 'The inspiration of these expeditions came from the British post at Detroit, whence the Indians received arms, ammunition and presents of various kinds, to encourage them to continue in their bloody work.

So numerous did these outrages become that in 1778 an expedition was projected against Detroit, intended to break up the nest where so many murders were hatched. . As preliminary to this a force was sent out froin Pittsburg against the Sandusky Indians, but it only went as far as the present county of Tuscarawas, where Fort Laurens was built, but abandoned the next year. 'The expedition against Detroit was given up. Other attacks upon the hostile Indians were made nearly every year.

In 1782 occurred the celebrated murder of about a hundred peaceable Moravian Indians in the territory of Tuscarawas county, by a force of frontier militia under Colonel Williamson. After this shocking event the hostile Indians became more bitter than ever, and many who had previously been neutral now united with the infuriated friends of the murdered Moravians.

Meanwhile the English had been taught by a score of defeats that they could not conquer America, and in 1752 commissioners met in Paris to consider the terms of peace. One of the most important questions was that of the boundary between the British provinces and the United States. Commissioner Oswald, one of the representatives of Great Britain, proposed the Ohio river as the boundary line; claiming the northwestern territory as part of the province of Quebec under the law of 1774. This proposition was also secretly favored by Vergennes, the French minister. It was vehemently opposed by the American commissioners, headed by John Adams, and the line was finally fixed in the middle of the great lakes and their connecting rivers. The definite treaty of peace, recognizing the independence of the United States, was signed in the fore part of 1783, and all this region ceased by law to be under English dominion. ,

It will be seen that unquestioned British authority over the territory of Cuyahoga county only lasted from the surrender of Canada in 1760 to the peace of Paris in 1783 - twenty-three years.