Morrow County, Ohio - Chapter 1: Topography -Geology - Primitivetribes, 1880

THE present State of Ohio, coniprisinu' an extent of country 210 miles north and .south, 220 miles east and west, in length and breadth - 25,570,96!) acres - is a part of the Old Northwest TeiTitory. This Territory embraced all of the present States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and so much of Minnesota as lies east of the Mississippi liiver. It became a corporate existence soon after the formation of the Virginia Colony, and when that colony took on the dignity of State government it became a county thereof, whose exact outline was unknown. The county embraced in its limits more tenitory than is comprised in all the New England and Middle States, and was the largest county ever known in the United States. It is watered by the finest system of rivere on the globe ; while its inland seas are without a i)arallel. Its entire southern boundary is traversed by the beautiful Ohio, its western by the majestic Mississippi, and its northern and a part of its eastern are bounded by the fresh-water lakes, whose clear waters preserve an even temperature over its entire surface. Into these reservoirs of commerce flow innumerable streams of limpid water, which come from glen and dale, from mountain and valley, from forest and prairie - all avenues of health, commerce and prosperity. Ohio is in the best part of this territory - south of its river are tro])ical heats ; nortli of Lake Erie are polar snows and a polar climate.

The territory com])rised in Ohio has always remained the same. Ohio's history differs somewhat from other States, in that it was never under Territorial government. When it was created, it was made a State, and did not pass through the stage incident to the most of other States, /. e., exist as a Territory before being advanced to the powers of a State. Such was not the case with the other States of the West ; all were Ten-itories, with Territorial forms of government, ere they became States.

Ohio's boundaries are, on the north. Lakes Erie and Michigan ; on the west, Indiana ; on the south, the Ohio River, separating it from Kentucky; and, on the east, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. It is situated between 38° 25' and 42° north latitude ; and 80° 30' and 84° 50' west longitude from Cireenwich, or 3° 30' and 7° 50' west i'rom Wa.shington. Its greatest length, from nt)rth to south, is 210 miles; the extreme width, from ea.st tc» west, 220 miles. Were this an exact outline, the area of the State would be 46,200 square miles, or 29,568,000 acres ; as the outhnes of the State are, however, rather in-egular, the area is estimated at 39,964 S(iuare miles, or 25,576,960 acres. In the last census - 1870 - the total number of acres in Ohio is given as 21,712,420, of which 14,469,132 acres are improved, and 6,883,- 575 acres are w-todland. By the la.st statistical report of the State xVuditor, 20,965,371 i{ acres are reported as taxable lands. This omits many acres untaxaltle for various reasons, which would make the estimate, 25,576.960, nearly correct.

The face of the country, in Ohio, taken as a whole, presents the appearance of an extensive monotonous plain. It is moderately undidating but not moun^ainous, and is excavated in places by the streams coursing over its surface, whose waters have forced a way for themselves through cliffs of sandstone rock, leaving abutments of this material in bold outline. There are no mountain ranges, geological uplifts or peaks. A low ridge enters the Stated near the northeast corner, anderos.ses it in a southwesterly direction, emerging near the intersection of tlio 40tli deoTce of north latitude with till' wrstorn linuiidiU'v of the State. This "(livi(lt>" separates the lake amlOhii) Hiver waters, and luahitaiiis an elevation of a little more than thirteen luiiidred leet above the level (if the oeean. The hiuhest |tart. is in Uiehland ('nunty, at tlu^ southea.st corner, where the elevation is 1,.")I)(> feet.

North <if this rid^e the .snriaee is generally level, with a gentle inclination toward the lake, the ine- (jnalities of the .surface being caused by the .streams which empty into the lake. The central part of ()hii> is almost, in general, a level plain, about one thousand fe(>t above the level of the sea, .slightly inclining southward. The Southern part of the State is rather hilly, the valleys growing deeper as they incline toward the great valley of tlu^ Ohio, which is sevi'ral hundred feet below the general level of the i^tate. In the southern counties, the surface is generally diversified by the iiie(|ualities jiroduced by the excavating power of the Ohio Hiver and its tributaries, exercised through long jieiiods of time. There are a few prairies, or plains, in the central and northwestern ])arts of the State, but over its greater portion originally existed immense growths of timber.

The " divide,"' or water-shed, referred to, between the waters of ]jake Erie and the Ohio River, is less elevated in Ohio than in New York and Pennsylvania, though the difference is small. To a person pa.ssing over the State in a balloon, its surface presents an unvarynig plain, wliile, to one sailing down the Ohio Kiver, it appears mountainous. On this river are bluflfs ranging from two hundred and fifty to six hundred feet in height. As one ascends tin; tributaries of the* river, these bluffs diminish in height until they become gentle undulations, whilt! toward the sources of the streams, in the central part of the State, the banks often become low and marshy.

The jn-incipal rivers are the Ohio, Muskingum, Scioto and .Miami, on the southern slope, emptying into the Ohio ; on the northern, the Maumee, Sandusky, Huron and Cuyahoga, emptying into Lake Erie, and, all but the first named, entirely in Ohio.

The Ohio, the chief river of the State, and from which it derives its name, with its tributaries, drains a country whose area is ovi-r two hundred thousand S(piare miles in extent, and extending from the water-shed to Alabama. The river was first discovered by La Salle in IGOi), and was by him navigated as far as tlu> Falls, at Louisville, Ky. It is formed by the junction of the Alleghany and INIonongahela rivers, in Pennsylvania, whose waters unite at Pittsburgh. The entire length of the river, from its source to its mouth, is 950 miles, though by a straight line from Pittsburgh to Cairo, it is only (!1 5 miles. Its current is very gentle, hardly thre«^ miles per hour, the descent being only five inches per mile. At high stages, the rate of the current increases, and at low stages decreases. Sometimes it is barely two miles per hour. The average range between high and low water mai-k is fifty feet, although several times the river has risen more than sixty feet above low water mark. At the lowest stage of the river, it is fordable many places between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. The river abounds in islands, some of which are exceedingly fertile, and noted in the history of the West. Others, known as "tow-heads," are .simply deposits of sand.

The Scioto is one of the largest inland streams in the State, and is one of the most beautiful rivers. It rises in Hardin County, flows .southeasterly to Columbus, where it receives its largest affluent, the Olentangy ar Whetstone, after which its direction is southei'ly until it enters the Ohio at Portsmouth. It flows through one of the richest valleys in the State, and has for its companion the Ohio and Erie Canal, for a distance of ninety miles. Its tributaries are, besides the Wlaetstone, the Darby, Walnut and Paint Creeks.

The Muskingum Hiver is formed by the junction of the Tuscarawas and Waldhoning Rivers, which rise in the northern part of the State and unite at Coshocton. From the junction, the river flows in a .southeastern course about one hundred miles, through a rich and populous valley, to the Ohio, at IMarietta, the oldest settlement in the State. At its outlet, the M uskingum is over two hundred yards wide. By improvements, it has been made navigable ninety-five miles above IMarietta, as far as Dresden, where a side cut, three miles long, unites its w^aters with those of the Ohio Canal. All along this stream exist, in abundant profusion, the remains of an ancient civilization, whose history is lost in the twilight of antii[- uity. Exten.sive mounds, earthworks and various fortifications, are everywhere to be found, inclosing a nuite history as silent as the race that dwelt here and left these traces of their evistence. The same may be said of all the other valleys in Ohio.

The jMiami River - the scenes of many exploits in jiioneer days - rises in Handin County, near the headwaters of the Scioto, and runs southwesterly, to the Ohio, passing Troy, Dayton and Hamilton. It is a bt^autiful and rajiid stream, flowing through a highly productive ami populous valley, in which limestone and hard timber are abundant. Its total length is about one hundred and fifty miles.

The Maumee is the largest river in the northern part of Ohio. It rises in Indiana and flows northeasterly, into Lake Erie. About eighty miles of its course are in Ohio. It is navigable a:i far as Perrysburg, eighteen miles from its mouth. The other rivers north of the divide are all small, rapid-running streams, affording a large amount of good water-power, much utilized by mills and manufactories.

A remarkable feature of the topography of Ohio is its almost total absence of natural lakes or ponds. A few very small ones are found near the water-shed, but all too small to be of any practical value save as watering-places for stock.

Lake Erie, wdiich forms nearly all the noi'thern boundary of the State, is next to the last or lowest of America's " inland seas." It is 290 miles long, and 57 miles wide at its greatest part. There are no islands, except in the shallow water at the west end, and veiy few bays. The greatest depth of the lake is off Long Point, where the water is 312 feet deep. The shores are principally drift-clay or hard-pan, upon which the waves are continually encr(jaching. At Cleveland, from the first survey, in 1796, to 1842, the encroachment was 218 feet along the entire city front. The entire coast is low, seldom rising above fifty feet at the water's edge.

Lake Erie, like the others, has a variable surface, rising and falling with the seasons, like great rivers, called the " annual fluctuation," and a general one, embracing a series of years, due to meteorological causes, known as the " secular fluctuation." Its lowest known level was in February, 1819, rising more or less each year, until June, 1838, in the extreme, to six feet eight inches.

Lake Erie has several excellent harbors in Ohio, among which are Cleveland, Toledo, Sandusky, Port Clinton and Ashtabula. Valuable improvements have been made in some of these, at the expense of the General Government. In 1818, the first steamboat was launched on the lake. Owing to the Falls of Niagara, it could go no farther east than the outlet of Niagara River. Since then, however, the opening of the Welland Canal, in Canada, allows vessels drawing not more than ten feet of water to pass from one lake to the other, greatly facilitating navigation.

were appointed a committee by the Legislature of Ohio to report the " best method of obtaining a complete geological survey of the State, and an estimate of the probable cost of the same." In the preparation of their report, Dr. Hildreth examined the coal-measures in the southeastern part of the State, Prof Riddle and Mr. Lapham made examinations in the western and northern counties, while Dr. Locke devoted his attention to chemical analyses. These investigations resulted in the presentation of much valuable information conceining the mineral resources of the State and in a plan for a geological survey. In accordance with the recommendation of this Committee, the Legislature, in 1837, passed a bill appropriating $12,000 for the prosecution of the work during the next year. The Geological Coi-ps appointed consisted of W. W. Mather, State Geologist, with Dr. Hildreth, Dr. Locke, Prof. J. P. Kirtland, J. W. Foster, Charles Whittlesey and Charles Briggs, Jr., Assistants. The results of the first year's work appeared in 1838, in an octavo volume of 134 pages, w4th contributions fi-om Mather, Hildreth, Briggs, Kirtland and Whittlesey. In 1838, the Legislature ordered the continuance of the work, and, at the close of the year, a second report, of 286 pages, octavo, was issued, containing contributions from all the members of the survey.

Succeeding Legislatures failed to provide for a continuance of the work, and, save that done by private means, nothing was accomplished till 1869, when the Legislature again took up the work. In the interim, individual enterprise had done much. In 1841, Prof. James Hall passed through the State, and, by his indentification of several of the formations with those of New York, for the first time fixed their geological age. The next year, he issued the first map of the geology of the State, in common with the geological maps of all the region between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi. Similar maps were published by Sir Charles Lyell, in 1845; Prof. p]dAvard Hitchcock, in 1853, and by J. Mareon, in 1856. The first individual map of the geology of Ohio was a veiy small one, published by Col. Whittlesey, in 1848, in Howe's History. In 1856, he published a larger map, and, in 1865, another was issued by Prof. Nelson Sayler. In 1867, Dr. J. S. Newberry published a geological map and sketch of Ohio in the Atlas of the State issued by H. S. Stebbins. Up to this time, the geological knowledge was very general in its character, and, consequently, erroneous in many of its details. Other States had been

This report, accompanied by maps and charts, for the first time accurately defined the geological iurmations as to age and area. Evidence was given which set at rest (piestions of nearly thirty years' standing, and estal)lished the fiict that Ohio includes nearly double the number oi" formations bcf ire supposed to exi.st. Since that date, the surveys have been regularly nuide. Each county is being surveyed by itself, and its fiirmation accurately detennined. Elsewhere in thcjse pages, these results are given, and U) them the reader is refeiTed fi)r the specific geology of the county. Only general results can be noted here.

(jn the general geological map of the State, are two sections of the State, taken at each northern and southern extremity. These show, with the uiaj), the general outline of the geological features of Ohio, and are all that can be given here. Both sections show the geneVal arrangements of the formation, and prove that they lie in sheets resting one upon another, but not horizontally, as a great arch traverses the State from Cincinnati to the lake shore, between Toledo antl Sandusky. Along this line, which (!Xtends southward to Nashville, Teiin., all the rocks are raised in a ridge or fold, once a low mountain chain. In the lapse of ages, it has, however, been lixtensively worn away, and now, along a large })art of its course, the strata which once arched over it are removed from its summit, and are found resting in ri'gular order on either side, dip))ing away from its axis. Where the ridge was highest, the erosion has been greatest, that being the reason why the oldest rocks are ex])osed in the region about Cincinnati. By following tlu( line of this great arch from Cincinnati northward, it will be seen that the Helderbcrg limestone ( No. 4), midway ot the State, is still unbroken, and .stretches from side to side ; while the Oriskany. the Cornifemus, the Hamilton and the Huron formations, though generally removed from the crown of the arch, still remain over a limited area near Bellefontaine, where they

On the east side of the great anticlinal axis, the rocks dip down into a basin, which, for several hundred miles north and south, occupies the interval between the Nashville and Cincinnati ridge and the first- fold of the Alleghany JMountains. In this basin, all the strata form trough-like layers, their edges outcropping eastward on the flanks of the Aileghanies, and westward along the anticlinal axis. As they dip from this margin eastward toward the center of the trough, near its middle, on tin; eastern border of the State, the older rocks are deeply buried, and the surfiice is here underlaid by the highest and most recent of our rock formations, the coal measures. In the northwestern corner of the State, the strata dip northwest from the anticlinal and pass under the jVIichigan coal basin, |)recisely as the same formations east of the anticlinal dij) beneath the Alleghany coal-field, of which Ohio's coal area forms a part.

The rocks underlying the State all belong to three of the great groups which geologists liave termed " systems," namely, the Silurian, Devonian and Carboniferous. Kach of these are again subdivided, for convenience, and numbered. Thus the Silurian sy.stem includes the Cincinnati group, the Medina and Clinton groups, the Niagara group, and the Salina and Water-Line groups. The Devonian system includes the Ori.skany saiulstone, the Carboniferous limestone, the Hamilton grou]), the Huron shale and the Erie shales. The Carboniferous system includes the Waverly group, the Carboniferous Conglomerate, the Coal Measures and the Drift. This last includes the surface, and has been di\lded into six parts, numbering from the lowest, viz.: A glacialed surface, the Olacial Drif^, the Erie Clays, the Forest Bed, the Iceberg Drift and the Terraces or Beaches, which mark intervals of stability in the gradual recession of the water surface to its jiresent level.

'- First. Subsecpient to tin; Tertiary was a period of continual elevation, during which the tojHigraphy of the country was much the same as now, the draining streams following, the lines they now do, but cutting down their beds until they flowed sometimes two hundred feet lower than they do at present. In the latter part of this period of elevation, glaciers, desceiuling from the Canadian

"Second. By a depression of the land and elevation of temperature, the glaciers retreated northward, leaving, in the interior of the continent, a great basin of fresh water, in which the Krie clays were deposited.

"^T/iird. This water was drained away until a broad land surface was exposed within the drift area. Upon this surface grew forests, largely of red and white cedar, inhabited by the elephant, mastodon, giant beaver and other large, now extinct, animals.

'^Fourth. The submergence of this ancient land and the spreading over it, by iceberg agency, of gravel, .sand and bowlders, distributed ju.^t as icebergs now spread their loads broadcast over the sea bottom on the banks of Newfoundland.

The gradual draining-off of the waters, leaving the land now as we find it, smoothly covered with all the layers of the drift, and well prepared for human occupation."

" In six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and rested the seventh day," records the Scriptures^ and, when all was done, He looked u])on the work of His own hands and pronounced it " good." Surely none but a divine, onmipotent hand could have done all this, and none can study the " work of His hands" and not marvel at its completeness.

The ancient dwellers of the Mississippi Valley will always be a subject of great interest to the anti([uarian. Who they were, and whence they came, are still unanswered (questions, and may remain so for ages. All over this valley, and, in fact, in all parts of the New World, evidences of an ancient civilization exist, whose remains are now a wonder to all. The aboriginal races could throw no light on these questions. They had always seen the remains, and knew not Avhcncc they came. Explorations aid but little in the solution of the problem, and only conjectui-e can be entertained. The remains found in Ohio equal any in the Valley. Indeed, some of them are vast in extent, and consist of forts, fortifications, moats, ditches, elevations and mounds, embracing many acres in extent.

'-It is not yet determined," says Col. Charles Whittlesey, "whether we have discovered the first or the original people who o(;cupied the soil of Ohio. Modern investigations are bringing to light evidences of earlier races. Since the presence of man has been established in Europe as a cotemporary of the fossil elephant, mastodon, rhinoceros and the horse, of the later drift or glacial period, we may reasonably anticipate the presence of man in America in that era. Such jn-oofs are already known, but they are not of that conclusive character which amounts to a demonstration. It is, however, known that an ancient people inhabited Ohio in advance of the red men who were found here, three centuries since, by the Spanish and French explorers.

" Five and six hundred years before the an-ival of Columbus," says Col. Charles Whittle-sey, "the Northmen sailed frt)ni Norway, Iceland and Greenland along the Atlantic coast as far as Long Lsland. They fmuid Indian tribes, in what is now New England, closely resembling those who lived ujion the coast and the St. Lawrence when the French and English came to possess these regions.

'' These red Indians had no traditions of a prior people ; but over a large jiart of the lake country and the valley of the Mississippi, earth-works, mounds, pyramids, ditches and forts were discovered - the work of a more ancient race, and a people far in advance of the Indian. If they were not civilized, they were not barbarians. They were not mere hunters, but had fixed habitations, cultivated the soil and were possessed of considerable mechanical skill. We know them as the Moil 11(1- Bin'/dcr.'i, because they erected over the mortal remains of their principal men and women menuu'ial mounds of earth or unhewn stone - of which hundreds remain to our own day, so large and high that they givt; rise to an impression of the numbers and energy of their builders, such as we receive from the pyramids of Egypt."

Might they not have been of the same race and the same civilization ? Many competent authorities conjecture they are the work of the lost tribes of Israel ; but the best they or any one can do is only conjecture.

'' In the burial-mounds."" continues Col. Whittlesey, are always portions of one or more human skeletons, generally partly consumed by fire, with ornaments of stone, bone, shells, mica and copper. The largest mound in Ohio is near jMiamisburg, Montgomery County. It is the second largest in the West, being nearly seventy feet high, originally, and about eight hundred feet in circumference. This would give a superficial area of nearly four acres. In 18(j4, the citizens of Miamisburg sunk a shaft from the summit to the natural surface, without findiuii' the bones

(ir aslics (if the urcat man 1i>r 'wluiiu it was iiitondod. The cx]»l(irati()ii lias cousiderahly lowered the mound, it being now about sixty loot in height.

'' Fort Aneient, on the Ijittlo JMiami, is a good .'ijK'cinien of the niiHtary defenses of the Moundliuilders. It is well loeated on a long, high, narrow, preeijiitous ridge. The parapets are now from ten to eighteen feet high, and its perimeter is sutheient to hold twi'uty tlum.sand lighting men. Another {)rominent exam])le of their works exists near Newark, ]jicking County. This collection presents a groat variety of ligurcs, circles, rectangles, octagons and ])aiallel banks, or highways, covering more than a thousand acres. The county fair-ground is permanently located within an aneient circle, a ((uarter of a mile in diameter, with an embankment and interior ditch. Its highest place was over twenty feet from the top of the moat to the bottom of the ditch."

One of the most curious-shaped works in this county is known as the "Alligator," from its sup- ])osed resemblance to that creature. When measured, several years ago, while in a got»d state of preservation, its dimensions W'erc two hundred and ten feet in liMigth, average width over sixty feet, and height, at the highest point, seven feet. Jt appears to be mainly comj^osed of clay, and is overgrown with grass.

Speaking of the writing of these people, Col. Whittlesey says : '' There is no evidence that they had alphabetical characters, picture-writing or hieroglyphics, though they must have had some mode of recording events. Neither is there any proof that they nsed domestic animals for tilling the soil, or for the purpose of erecting the imposing earthworks they have left. A very coarse cloth of hemp, flax or nettles has been found on their burial-hearths and aiound skeletons not consumed by fire.

" The most extensive earthworks occupy many of the sites of modein towns, and are always in the vicinity of excellent land. Those about the lakes are generally irregular earth forts, while those about the rivers in the southern part of the State are generally altars, pyramids, circles, cones and rectangles of earth, among which fortresses or strongholds are exceptions.

" Those on the north may not have been cotemporary or have been built by the same peo])le. They are far less prominent or extensive, which indicates a people less in nnmbers as well a,s industry, and whose principal occupation was war among themselves or against their neighbors. This style of works extends eastward along the south shore of Lake Ontario, through New York. In Ohio, there is a space along the water-shed, between the lake and the Ohio, where there are few, if any, ancient earthworks. It appears to have been a vacant or neutral ground between different nations.

" 'i'lie Indians of the North, di-essed in skins, cultivated the soil very sparingly, and manufactured no woven cloth. On Lake Superior, there are ancient copper mines wrought by the Mound- Huilders over fifteen hundred years ago." Copper tools are occasionally found temj^ered sufficiently hard to cut the hardest rocks. No knowledge of such tempering exists now. The Indians can give no more knowledge of the ancient mines than they can of the mounds on the river bottoms.

" The Indians did not occupy the aneient earthworks, nor did they construct such. They were i'ound as they are now - a hunter race, wholly averse to labor. Their abodes were in rock shelters, in caves, or in temporary sheds of bark and boughs, or skins, easily moved from place to place. Like most savage races, their habits are unchangeable ; at least, the example of white men, and tlieir eiforts during three centuries, have made little, if any, impression."

When white men came to the territory now embraced in the State of Ohio, they found dwelling here the Iroquois, Delawares, Shawanees, Miamis, Wyandots and Ottawas. Each nation was composed of several tribes or clans, and each was often at war with the others. The first mentioned of these occupied that part of the State whose northern boundary was Lake Erie, as fir west as the mouth of the Cuyahoga lliver, wliere the city of Cleveland now is ; thence the boundary turned southward in an irregular line, until it touched the Ohio River, up wdiich stream it continued to the Pennsylvania State line, and thence northward to the lake. This nation w^re the implacable foes of the French, owing to the fact that Champlain, in 1009, made war against them. They occupied a large part of New York and Pennsylvania, and were the most insatiate compierors among the aborigines. When the French first came to the lakes, these monsters of the wilderness Avcrc engaged in a Avar against their neighbors, a war that ended in their concjuering them, possessing their territory, and absorbing the remnants of the tribes into their own nation. At the date of Champlain's visit, the southern shore of Lake Erie was occupied by the Eries, or, as the orthography of the word is sometimes given, Erigos, or Errienous.* About forty years afterward, the Iroquois ( Five Nations) fell upon them with such fury and in such force that the nation was annihilated. Those who escaped the slaughter were absorbed among their c(in(|uerors, but allowed to live on their own lands, paying a sort of tribute to the Iro(juois. This was the policy of that nation in all its conquests. A few years after the conquest of the Eries, the Inxpiois again took to the war-path, and swept thn)ugh Ohio, Indiana and lUiuois. even attacking the Mississippi tribes. But for the intervention and aid of the French, these tribes would have shared the fate of the Hurons and Eries. Until the year 1700, the Irocjuois held the south shore of Lake Erie so firmly that the French dared not trade or travel along that side of the lake. Their missionaries and traders penetrated this part of Ohio as early as 1650, but generally suffered death for their zeal.

Having completed the conquest of the Hurons or Wyandots, about Lake Huron, and murdered the Jesuit missionaries by modes of torture which only they could devise, they permitted the residue of the Hurons to settle around the west end of Lake Erie. Here, with the Ottawas, they resided when the whites came to the State. Their country was bounded on the south by a line running through the central part of Wayne, Ashland, Richland, Crawford and Wyandot Counties. At the western boundary of this county, the line diverged northwesterly, leaving the State near the northwest corner of Fulton County. Their northern boundary was the lake ; the eastern, the Iroquois.

The Delawares, or " Lenni Lenapes," whom the Tro(pi()is had subjugated on the Susquehanna, were assigned by their conquerors hunting-grounds on the 3Iu.skingum. Their eastern boundary was the country of the Iroquois (before defined), and their northern, that of the Hurons. On the west, they

* Father Louis Hennepin, in his work published in 1684, thus alludes to the Erii s : -' These good fathers," referring to the priests, " were great friends of the Hurons, who told them that the Iroquois went to war beyond Virjiinia, or Now Sweden, near a lake which they called '' Erige,' or 'Erie,' which signifies 'the cat,' or ' nation of the cat,' and because these savages brought captives from this nation in returning to their cantons along this lake, the Hurons named it, in their language, ' Eriye,' or ' Erike,' ' the lake of the cat,' and which our Canadians, in softening the word, have called ' Lake Erie.' "

Charlevoix, writing in 1721, says: "The name it bears is that of an Indian nation of the Huron ( Wyandot) language, which was formerly seated on its banks, and who have been entirely destroyed by the Iroquois. Erie, in that language, signifies 'cat,' and, in some acounts, this nation is called the ' cat nation.' This name, probably, comes from the large numbers of fhat animal found in this region."

extended as far as a line drawn from the central part of Richland County, in a semi-circular direction, south to the mouth of Leading Creek. Their southern boundary was the Ohio River.

West of the Delawares, dwelt the Shawanees, a troublesome people as neighbors, whether to whites or Indians. Their country was bounded on the north by the Hurons, on the east, by the Delawares ; on the south, by the Ohio River. On the west, their boundary was determined by a line drawn southwesterly, and again southeasterly - semi-circular - from a point on the southern boundary of the Hurons, near the southwest corner of Wyandot County, till it intersected the Ohio River.

All the remainder of the State - all its western part from the Ohio River to the IMichigan line - was occupied by the Miamis, Mineamis, Twigtwees, or Tawixtawes, a powerful nation, whom the Iroquois were never fully able to subdue.

These nations occupied the State, partly by permit of the Five Nations, and partly by inheritance, and, though composed of many tribes, were about all the savages to be found in this part of the Northwest.

No sooner had the Americans obtained control of this country, than they began, by treaty and purchase, to acquire the lands of the natives. They could not stem the tide of emigration ; people, then as now, would go West, and hence the necessity of pcaceftilly and rightfully accjuiring the land. " The true basis of title to Indian territory is the right of civilized men to the soil for purposes of cultivation." The same maxim may be applied to all uncivilized nations. When acquired by such a right, either by treaty, purchase or conquest, the right to hold the same rests with the power and development of the nation thus jjossessing the land.

The English derived title to the territory between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi partly by the clauu that, in discovering the Atlantic coast, they had possession of the land from '-ocean to ocean," and partly by the treaty of Paris, in February, 1763. Long before this treaty took place, however, she had granted, to individuals and colonies, extensive tracts of land in that part of America, based on the right of discovery. The French had done better, and had ac((uire(l title to the land by discovering the land itself and by consent of the Indians dwelling thereon. The right to possess this country led to the French and Indian war, ending in the supremacy of the English.

The Five Nations claimed the territory in (|ue.stion by right (»f con(|uest, and, though professing frienilship to the EugUsh, watched them with jealous eyes. In 1084, and again in 172G, that conteileracy made cessions of lands to the Knglish, and these treaties and cessions of lands were regarded a.s sutticu'nt title by the English, and were insisted cm in all subsequent treaties with the Western Nations. The following statements were collected by (^il. Charles Whitvlesey, which show the jjvincipal treaties made with the red men wherein land in Ohio was ceded by them to the whites:

In September, 17-<), the Iroqunis, or Six Nations, at Albany, ceded all their claims west of Lake Erie and sixty miles in Avidth along the south shore of Lakes Erie and Ontario, from the Cuyahoga to the Oswego River.

In 1744, this same nation made a treaty at Lanca.stcr, Penn., and ceded to the English all their lands "that may be within the colony of Virginia."

In 17.")2, this nation and other Western tribes made a treaty at Logstown, Penn., wherein they contirmed the Lancaster treaty and consented to the settlements south of the Ohio River.

February 13, 17(33, a treaty was made at Paris, France, between the French and English, when Canada and the eastern half of the 3Iississii)|)i Valley were ceded to the Knglish.

In 178.3, all the territory south of the Lakes, and ea.st of the ^Mississippi, was ceded by England to America - the latter country then obtaining its independence - by which means the country was gained by America.

October 24, 1784, the Six Nations made a treaty, at Fort Stanwix. N. Y., with the Americans, and ceded to tluMii all the country claimed by the tribe, west of Pennsylvania.

In 1785, the Chippewas, Delawares, Ottawas, and Wyandots ceded to the United States, at Fort Mcintosh, at the mouth of the Big Beaver, all their claims east and south of tin; " Cayahaga," the Portage I'ath, and the Tuscarawas, to Fort Laurens ( Bolivar), thence to Loramie's Fort (in Shelby County ; ; thince along the Portage Path to the St. Marys River and down it to the "Omee."' or Maumee, and along the lake shore to t!ie '-Cayahaga.'

January 3, 178(i. the Shawanees, at Fort Finney, near the mouth of the Great Miami (not owning the land on the Scioto occupied l)y them), were allotted a tract at the heads of the two

February 9, 1789, the Irocjuois made a treaty at Fort Ilarmar, wherein they confirmed the Fort Stanwix treaty. At the same time, the Chippewas, Ottawas, Delawares, and Wyandots - to which the Sauks and Pottawatomies assented - confirnu'd the treaty made at Fort Mcintosh.

August 3, 1795, Gen. Anthony Wayne, on behalf of the United States, made a treaty with twelve tribes, confirming the boundaries established by the Fort Harniar and Fort Mcintosh treaties, and extendetl the l)oundary to Fort Recovery and the mouth of the Kentucky River.

In 1805, at Fort Industry, on the Maumee, the Wyandots, Delawares, Ottawas, Chip])ewas, Shawanees, Menses, and Pottawatomies relincpiished all their lands west of the Cuyahoga, as far west as the western line of the Reserve, and south of the line fi'om Fort Lattrens to Loramie's Fort.

July 4, 18(»7, the Ottawas. Chippewas, Wyandots, and Pottawatomies, at Detroit, ceded all that part of Ohio north of the Maumee River, with part of jNIichigan.

November 25, 1808, the same tribes with the Shawanees, at Brown.stone, Mich., granted the Government a tract of land two miles wide, fi'om the west line of the Reserve to the rapids of the Maumee, for the purpose of a road through the Black Swamp.

September 18, 1815, at Springwells, near Detroit, the Chippewas, Ottawas, l'otta\vatomies,AVyandots, Delawares, Seneeas and IMiamis, having been engaged in the war of 1812 on the British side, were confined in the grants made at Fort Mcintosh and Greenville in 1785 and 1795.

September 29, 1817, at the rapids of the ^laumee, the Wyandots ceded their lands west of the line of 1805, as far as Loramie's and the St. ]\lary's River and north of the Maumee. The PottaAA'atomies, Chippewas, and Ottawas ceded the territory west of the Detroit line of 1807, and north of the Maumee.

October (j, 1818, the Miamis, at St. Mary's, made a treaty in which they surrendered the remaining Indian territory in Ohio, north of the Greenville treaty line and west of St. Mary's River.

one by Gen. Forbes, at Fort Dii Quesne (Pittsburgb), in ^758; one by Col. Bradstreet, at Erie, in August, lT()-t; one by Col. Bo(juet, at the mouth of the Waklhoning, in November, 17(3-1 ; ill May, 17()5, at Johnson's, on the Mohawk, and at Philadelphia, the same year; in 1774, by Lord Dunniore, at Camp Charlotte, Pickaway County. By the treaty at the Maumee Rapids, in 1817, reserv'ations were conveyed by the United States to all the tribes, with a view to induce them to cultivate the soil and cease to be hunters. These were, from time to time, as the impracticability of the plan became manifest, purchased by the Government, the last of these being the Wyandot Reserve, of twelve miles square, around Upper Sandusky, in 1842. closing out all claims and composing all the Indian difficulties in Ohio. The open war had ceased in 1815, with the treaty of Ghent.

" It is estimated that, from the French war of 1754 to the battle of the Maumee Rapids, in 1794, a period of forty years, there had been at least 5,000 people killed or captured west of the

Alleghany Mountains. Eleven organized military expeditions had been carried on against the Western Indians prior to the war of 1812, seven regular engagements fought and about twelve hundred men killed. More whites were slain in battle than th(M-e were Indian braves killed in military expeditions, and by private raids and murders ; yet, in 1811, all the Ohio tribes combined could not muster 2,000 warriors."

Attempts to determine the number of persons comprising the Indian tribes -in Ohio, and their location, have resulted in nothing better than estimates. It is supposed that, at the commencement of the Revolution, there were about six thousand Indians in the present confines of the State, but their villages were little more than movable camps. Savage men, like savage beasts, are engaged in continual migrations. Now, none ai'e left. The white man occupies the home of the red man. Now