Sandusky County, Ohio - Chapter 5: Early Ohio, 1882

Chapter 5: Early Ohio

Five Characteristic Centres of Settlement - First Measures After the Revolution for Selling Western Lands - Ordinance of 1785 - Revolutionary Bounties - Organization of the Ohio Company - Ordinance of 1787 - The Ohio Company Land at the Mouth of the Muskingum - Formal Inauguration of Government - - Growth of the Massachusetts Colony - Settlement Between the Miamis - John Cleves Symmes' Purchase - Founding of Cincinnati - French Settlement at Gallipolis - The Virginia Military District - Settlement of Manchester - Founding of Chillicothe - Character of Population - The Western Reserve - Sale to the Connecticut Land Company - Surveyed into Townships - Cleveland Founded - Slow Growth at First - Subsequent Rapid Growth - The Northwestern Indian Reservation - Frontier Line of Settlements in 1812 - Population in 1812 - Erection of Counties - Formation of State Government - Origin of the Northwest Boundary Difficulty - Open Conflict Between Ohio and the Territory of Michigan - Opening Wedge to Settlement in Northwestern Ohio - Causes of the War of 1812 - Attitude of the Wyandots - Results of the War Forecasted - Hull's Surrender - Ohio Exposed to the Enemy - Militia Volunteers - Victories Follow Defeat and Disaster - Ohio's Part in the War.

THE fading picture of Wyandot Lower Sandusky calls to mind a more stirring scene, Lower Sandusky of Fort Stephenson fame. This period, brief but crowded with tragic events, dates the beginning of white settlement in Sandusky county. What was Ohio then? is a question which naturally suggests itself, and one which this chapter is intended to answer.

Historically Ohio is carved into seven distinct divisions, bearing five characteristic civilizations transplanted from different Eastern colonies, and tracing their ancestry to antagonistic races or social castes. Out of these five elements has grown the Ohio of to-day - justly proud and sufficiently honored.

The centres of early settlement, widely separated from each other by bridgeless streams and long reaches of untraversed forests, impressed the instincts and training brought from Eastern homes upon their localities. That impress is still discernible in the politics, religion, and culture of the native population. The clashing of opinion which has been a necessary result of grouping five -discordant elements into one State, has been potent in developing native intellect and producing occasions for its exercise. It is further a proposition, proved by the inevitable logic of history, that the mingling and fusion of people of different races, temperaments I and training, is productive of physical and ! mental strength. To these facts may be

When the Revolution closed, the Congress of the Confederation found itself in possession of a vast Western domain of boundless fertility. Plans of emigration and colonization again revived. Congress, in May, 1785, passed "an ordinance for ascertaining the mode of disposing of the Western lands, and Thomas Hutchins, the United States geographer, was instructed to lay off the territory into townships of six miles square, and each township into thirty-six lots, containing six hundred and forty acres each. Congress had, in 1776, and by several succeeding acts, pledged bounties to the Continental soldiers. One-seventh of the land was to be reserved for this purpose. Lots eight, eleven, twenty-six, and twenty-nine were to be reserved for future sale; the remainder was to be divided among the several States and sold by them at not less than one dollar per acre, with the additional cost of the survey and sale. This system operated against the colonization plan, for the townships were to be drawn by the several States, making it impossible for a company to purchase a large tract in one body. This ordinance excepted an undefined tract between the Scioto and the Little Miami, which had been reserved by Virginia in her act of cession, for the use of her own troops. Indian hostilities prevented individual settlement, and it was evident that Congress had placed too high an estimate on the value of the unbroken forest.

From time to time, as circumstances suggested, this original ordinance was amended. The bounty claims of Revolutionary soldiers were the strongest agency in the settlement of the Northwest. A major-general were entitled to eleven hundred acres, a brigadier-general to eight hundred and fifty acres, colonel to five hundred acres, lieutenant-colonel to four hundred and fifty acres, major to four hundred acres, captain to three hundred ! acres, lieutenant to two hundred acres, ensign one hundred and fifty acres, noncommissioned officers and privates one hundred acres each. As early as 1783 1 General Rufus Putnam, of Massachusetts, transmitted to Washington a memorial asking for an appropriation of Western lands to supply these claims. The measure was placed before Congress, but the question of ownership not being settled action was postponed. In 1775 Colonel Benjamin Tupper came West as a surveyor, but the survey being interrupted by Indian troubles he returned to the East the following winter with such favorable impressions of the country beyond the Ohio that he united with Putnam in forming a plan of association and settlement. They prepared a publication setting forth the project, and inviting all who desired to promote the scheme to send delegates to a general convention to be held in Boston, March 1, 1786.

An opportunity now seemed open to the hardy and resolute soldiers who had carried the war to a successful issue, to retrieve their ruined estates. The convention which met in pursuance to this call, represented the best elements of New England society. Articles of association were agreed upon, which made the capital of the company one million dollars. Three directors - Samuel H. Parsons, General Rufus Putnam, and Dr. Manasseh Cutler, were elected, with instructions to purchase a private grant of lands. Major Winthrop Sargent (second Territorial Governor) was elected secretary.

About the time of the organization of the Ohio Company another land company was organized in New York, with William Duer at its head. Dr. Cutler, to whom was delegated the responsible office of making a contract with Congress, found that body averse to the New England scheme, but by combining with the New York company, in which several members of Congress were interested, there was hope of success. It had been the hope of the Massachusetts company to have General Parsons, one of their own number, placed at the head of the new territorial government which colonization would make it necessary to establish; but his plan of purchase could not succeed without the support of General St. Clair, who was a representative from Pennsylvania and President of Congress. Cutler was a good lobbyist and yielded the choice of his associates in favor of St. Clair for the governorship.

The first ordinance directing the establishment of a government for the Western territory, was submitted by Mr. Jefferson in 1784, and contained a clause against slavery. It also contemplated the division of the Territory into seventeen States. This ordinance, with the important omission of the proviso against slavery, was passed by Congress in April, 1784. This act, owing to the divisions it contemplated, was thought inexpedient, and another act, applying only to the territory acquired by the cession to the United States by Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, and Connecticut, - all the territory at that time owned by the United States - was submitted, w'hich resulted in the passage on July 13, of the celebrated ordinance of 1787, which is in fact the fundamental law of the States whose territory was comprehended, - Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

This enactment organized a single territory northwest of the Ohio and eastward of the Mississippi, subject to future division, if deemed expedient by Congress, into two districts. This fundamental law, enacted before a solitary- freeholder raised his cabin on the territory it was intended to govern, has been characterized as a fit consummation of the glorious labors of the Congress of the old Confederation. It established in the Northwest, the important principles of the equal inheritance of intestine estates, and the freedom of alineation by deed or will. After prescribing a system of territorial civil government, it concludes with six articles of compact between the original States and the people of the States in the Territory, w'hich should forever remain unalterable unless by common consent. The first declared that no person demeaning himself in a peacable and orderly manner, should ever be molested on account of his mode of worship or religious sentiments. The second prohibited legislative interference with private contracts, and secured to the inhabitants trial by jury, the writ of habeas corpus, a proportionate representation of the people in the Legislature, judicial proceedings according to the course of common law, and those guarantees of personal freedom and property which are enumerated in the bill of rights of most of the States. The third provided for the encouragement of schools and for good faith, justice, and humanity towrard the Indian. The fourth secured to the new States to be erected out of the Territory the same privileges with the old ones; imposed upon them the same burdens, including responsibility for the Federal debt, prohibited the States from interfering with the primary disposal of the soil of the United States, or taxing the public lands; from taxing the lands of non-residents higher than residents ; and established the navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence, and the portages between them, common highways for the use of all the citizens of all the

United States. The fifth article related to the formation of new States within the Territory, the divisions to be not less than three nor more than five. By this article the west boundary of Ohio became a line running northward from the mouth of the Great Miami, until it intersected a line running eastward from the southern bend of Lake Michigan, the northern boundary.

There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the Territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crime whereof the party shall have been convicted.

This ordinance gave the greatest encouragement to immigration, and offered the fullest protection to those who became settlers, for "when they came into the wilderness they found the law already there. It was impressed upon the soil while yet it bore up nothing but the forest/' *

The Ohio Company, before the close of the summer, was rapidly formulating regulations for the government of their affairs, and the associates making hasty preparations for the anticipated removal to the beautiful country of which they had formed most extravagant ideas.

In October Congress ordered seven hundred troops for the protection of the frontiers, and on the 5th of the month appointed the territorial officers: Arthur St. Clair, Governor; Winthrop Sargent, Secretary; Samuel H. Parsons, James M. Varnum, and John Armstrong,! Judges.

On the 7th of April, 1788, a company of forty-eight men, with General Rufus Putnam at their head, disembarked from their boat at the mouth of the Muskingum and planted the first American colony on the soil of Ohio.

which had been created the fall before, was formally established upon Ohio soil, on the 15th of July. The Governor and Judges had arrived at Fort Harmar several days before. The ceremonies attending inauguration of government were highly impressive. The Judges, Secretary, and inhabitants assembled on the site of Marietta, where the Governor was welcomed by Judge Parsons. Under a bower of foliage contributed by the surrounding forest, the ordnance of 1787 was read, congratulations exchanged, and three hearty cheers echoed and re-echoed from the waters of two rivers, the high hills, and thick forests.

Marietta, the town founded by the Massachusetts colony, became an important centre of settlement. Conceived on the soil of the loyal old Bay State, the story of its birth was heralded throughout all New England. Reinforcements came from the best homes and the best communities, not from Massachusetts alone, but of Connecticut and Rhode Island also. The course of emigration from the impoverished States, once opened, widened and deepened until temporarily closed by an unfortunate conflict with the red natives, a little less than three years after the arrival of the first company of pioneers. Early in 1789 two colonies branched off from Marietta, one settling on the Ohio, opposite the mouth of the Little Kanawha, known as the Belpre Association; the other on the Muskingum, twenty miles above its mouth, which still bears the name of Waterford. During the same summer a third colony branched off from the parent town, and located on Big Bottom, in Morgan county. The attack on the Big Bottom block-house, January 2, 1791, and the indiscriminate slaughter of its inhabitants, wras the opening of a general Indian war along the whole border.

mouth of the Muskingum when a people I of different stock cut into the forest, and raised their cabins between the Miamis of the Ohio. In October, 1788, John Cleves Symmes, one of the judges of the Territory, and a native of New Jersey, negotiated with Congress on behalf of himself and associates for the purchase of one million - acres extending northward from the Ohio, between the Great and Little Miamis, but in consequence of failure to make payment the greater part of the purchase reverted to Congress, the patent when issued covering but about three hundred thousand acres. Judge Symmes sold the large, natural amphitheater opposite the Licking River, to Mathias Denman, of New Jersey, who entered into a contract with Colonel Patterson and Mr. Filson, of Kentucky, for laying out a town. Mr. Filson was killed by the Indians, and his interest became the property of Israel Ludlow. Patterson and Ludlow, accompanied by a small party, arrived on the site of Cincinnati December 26, 1788. This may be considered the date of the founding of Cincinnati. A few block-houses had been erected the preceding month at the mouth of the Little Miami. In February following the arrival of Patterson's party, Judge Symmes, with a party of citizens and soldiers, descended the Ohio, and disembarked at the mouth of the Great Miami, where it was proposed to found a city destined to become the metropolis of the West, but unfortunately the site was inundated by spring floods, necessitating abandonment of the cherished project. Judge Symmes, determined to be the founder of a city, then laid out a town extending from the Ohio to the Miami. But nature had formed another place for the Western metropolis, which, unfortunately for the projector of the Miami settlement, he had sold.

North Bend was the name given by Symmes to his town, Losantiville to the town in the amphitheater, which was soon changed to Cincinnati, and the town at the mouth of the Little Miami founded by Colonel Stiles, was named Columbia. The three villages were rivals for a short time, but the establishment of Fort Washington in June, 1789, and its occupation by three hundred soldiers under command of General Harmar probably turned the tide in favor of Cincinnati. The original settlers of these villages were mostly from New Jersey, and recruits for a number of years came from the same place. Thus was planted in the Miami Valleys the civilization, temperament and hereditary bias of the "Red Sand State," - Hollander and English tinctured with Swedish blood.

The third settlement* in Ohio, and the first foreign colonization, was made opposite the Big Kanawha in the summer of 1791. We have mentioned the joint negotiations of William Duer of New York, and Mannasseh Cutler, for the purchase of an extensive tract, bounded by the Ohio River on the south and extending northward betwen the first seven ranges to the Scioto. A patent for the whole tract was issued to the Ohio Company; but two days afterward, all of the tract lying west of the seventeenth range was transferred to the Scioto Company, of which Duer was chief. The Scioto Company at once took measures for the disposition of its lands, foreign colonization being the favorite and novel scheme. Joel Barlow, the poet, was sent to France, then in the days of its discontent and revolution. His roseate descriptions pictured an Arcadia, of which Fair Haven was the destined capital. Attentive listeners saw noble forests, consisting of trees that spontaneously produce sugar, and a plant that yields ready made candles, gracefully rising from la belle riviere , a pure stream abounding in excellent fish of vast size. To live in a land of plenty with no taxes to pay and no military services to perform, was the fair vision of this trancendent land which influenced a large company, composed chiefly of carvers and gilders, coach-makers, friseurs, and other artistes. Less than a dozen heavy laborers embarked in the enterprise. Deeds for their land, handsomely printed in high colors, raised still higher the delusive anticipation that their journey was to a Fair Haven in fact as well as in name.

The Scioto Company employed General Rufus Putnam, of the Ohio Company association, to locate a village and prepare homes for the immigrants. Fair Haven, located opposite the mouth of the Kanawha, was found to be below the high-watermark, which induced General Putnam to locate Gallipolis (City of the French) four miles below upon a high bank. A detail of forty laborers, under Major Burnham, cleared a small tract of land, and built block-houses and cabins, arranged in four rows, twenty in each row. The Company had also contracted with the Ohio Company to furnish the colony with provisions, but having failed to make payment for labor already discharged, the French were left in a pitiful condition. The disheartenment of disappointment on their arrival at the promised paradise became utter dejection when they learned that the Scioto Company had never paid for the land, and in consequence could give no title. These deluded foreigners, enured to ten der handed employments, were thrown into the pioneer battle under the greatest disadvantages. In constant danger of an attack from Indians, suffering from sickness, and without money, they were una ble to do for themselves as settlers at the other openings along the river were doing. I'he\ were provided for by an act of Congress, in 1798, which set apart for them a tract of land known as the French Grant, east of the mouth of the Scioto. Many remained at the original place of settlement; others, disgusted with the imposition practiced upon them, found homes at other places - Vincennes, St. Louis, Kaskaskia, and St. Genevieve. We have not included Gallipolis as one of the centres of settlement because the original colony, although it has left its impress upon its own locality has never asserted itself in affairs of the State.

TheVirginia Military District is one of the most interesting historical divisions of the State. It became practically an extension of Virginia into Ohio, between the Scioto and the Little Miami, as far north as the centre of the State. As has been noticed in a preceding chapter, Virginia, of which Kentucky was a part, reserved in her act of cession of all claims to lands northwest of the Ohio, this extensive tract to be appropriated as bounty to her own troops in the war of the Revolution. General Nathaniel Massie was appointed by the State Government to make a survey of the District, and for some time carried on the work by making expeditions with his party through the present territory of Kentucky. In the winter of 1790-91, encouraged, no doubt, by the flourishing progress of the settlements at the mouth of the Muskingum and at the Miamis, Massie determined to plant a colony on Virginia soil. Such a settlement would afford his party protection from danger and exposure while prosecuting the survey. The site of Manchester was chosen and a town laid off in lots. The adjoining tracts were surveyed into an equal number of out-lots of larger size. He gave general notice through Kentucky of his intention to found a town, and offered to the first twenty-five families one out-lot and one in-lot, and one hundred acres of land. His terms were quickly accepted by upwards of thirty families. The company arrived in March, 1791, and went to work with a will. In a short time each family had a cabin, and the whole village was enclosed with a strong stockade, with block-houses at each angle. The Indian war was at its hottest when this colony crossed the river and built their fort, but "it suffered less from depredation and even interruption by Indians than any settlement previously made on the Ohio River. This was, no doubt, due to the watchful band of brave spirits who guarded the place - men who were reared in the midst of danger, and inured to peril, and as watchful as hawks."*

A general border war, which had been waged industriously on both sides between the Ohio tribes and the Pennsylvania and Virginia borderers for a long term of years, assumed more alarming proportions with the opening of the year 1791. The first attack on the north side of the Ohio was at Big Bottom, on the 2d of January. That bloody surprise, in which fourteen persons were slain and five taken captive,! marks the opening of a period of distress and peril for the pioneers of Ohio. Lower Sandusky's part in the history of that period has been shown. For four years immigration was almost at a standstill, and at the settlements unceasing danger from a clandestine enemy held in check material improvement.

The reporc of Wayne's decisive victory on the Maumee was a joyful message to the garrisoned settlers along the Ohio. That event marks the beginning of the second epoch of Ohio history, an epoch full of activity and one which moulded the political destinies of the State. The boundless possibilities of the West was no longer a speculation. Colonization and war together had disseminated through the East a knowledge of the fertility of the soil and transportation facilities. Peace opened the garrisons, and the valleys of every river resounded with the woodman's axe. "Never since the golden age of the poets," says an old writer, "did the 'siren song of peace and harmony ' reach so many ears or gladden so many hearts as after Wayne's treaty in 1795." Never did a people, we may add, engage with such earnestness of purpose in the incalculable task of hewing a great State out of an unbroken forest.

The village of Cincinnati, which in 1792 had a population of about two hundred, increased to upwards of six hundred souls before the close of 1796. Population spread northward from Cincinnati, and was characteristically J ersey, but there was a considerable mixture of people from other Eastern States.

An attempt was made by Massie, in 1795, to found a town in the heart of the Virginia Military District, but Indian hostilities defeated his scheme. The following year the attempt was repeated with a more favorable result. Chillicothe was laid out early in 1796, and became by far the largest town in the District, and first capital of the State of Ohio. The pioneers of the military tract came through the passes of the Blue Ridge, bringing with them the institutions of the Old Dominion, except slavery, which was fortunately barred beyond the Ohio by the ordinance of 1787. The contrast between the Virginian of the Scioto and his Eastern neigh- bor, the New Englander of the Muskingum, was as marked as the difference in the character of their native States. The Virginian proudly traced his ancestry to English nobility, and claimed the blood of Norman and Cavalier; his neighbor at Marietta turned to the New England Register of Genealogy, and followed his line of descent to the Puritan Nonconformist who came to America for religious freedom. These two elements have been, since before the formation of the State Constitution, opposing forces in State politics, at times on the floors of legislation, fighting each other as bitterly as the respective States from which they sprung.

We have now hurriedly sketched the founding and growth of the three southern and oldest centres of settlement. The fourth division in order of settlement, but first entered by Federal surveyors, was the seven ranges. The survey of these ranges was commenced in compliance with an ordinance of Congress passed in 1785. The seven ranges extend seven townships west from the Pennsylvania line, and from the Ohio River to the fortieth parallel of latitude. Most of the settlers came over the Alleghanies from Eastern Pennsylvania. Many are of Quaker descent, but a larger proportion are of German origin. Some of the counties were partially settled from other States. There is less homogenity of race and training in this than in any other of the five centres of early settlement. In this respect it is like the United States Military Reservation lying just west of it and extending to the Scioto. This tract was set apart to satisfy Revolutionary bounties, and in consequence drew its population from all the States. Settlements were made simultaneously in several parts of the seven ranges as soon as Indian hostilities were suppressed. Steubenville, one of the oldest of the towns which flourished, was founded in 1798.

The Northwestern Indian Reservation, of which Sandusky county is a part, drew largely from the seven ranges and from the Military Reservation. These two divisions are coupled together as one centre of settlement, the character of the mixed population being about the same in each.

The Connecticut Western Reserve is the largest tract in the State possessing a homogeneous population. Extending westward from the Pennsylvania line to the east line of Sandusky county, and from the forty-first parallel to the lake, it contains an area of more than three million three hundred thousand acres, and is settled even to this time almost wholly by people of Connecticut stock.

In a previous chapter relating to the ownership of the Northwest, it was seen that the dispute between the States arising from indefinite colonial titles to Western lands, was finally settled by the States ceding their claims to the Federal Government. "The last tardy and reluctant sacrifice" was made by Connecticut, in 1786, with this extensive reservation, which it was supposed by the Legislature would eventually become a new State - New Connecticut - almost commensurate with the parent Commonwealth. Another dispute arose, when, in 1788, Governor St. Clair, in obedience to the ordinance of 1787, organized the Territory into counties, constituting all that part east of the Cuyahoga, the Tuscarawas and the Scioto, Washington county, with Marietta as the county seat. This proclamation was deemed by Connecticut an interference with territory over which she had sole jurisdiction.

The first tract of land disposed of by the State, was sold in 1786 to General Samuel Parsons. It consisted of twentyfour thousand acres, lying partly in each of the present counties of Mahoning and Trumbull. He had heard that there were available saline springs on the tract, and made the purchase for speculative purposes. His expectations were never realized, and he was drowned in the Beaver River, three years afterward. He never paid for the land and it reverted to the State of Connecticut, the original grantee of the patent.

The Fire lands, embracing the present counties of Huron and Erie, was the next section carved off from her Western posses, sions by the State. During the Revolution, British invading parties were the special terror of Connecticut. Most of her ablebodied men were in the army, leaving the State with a feeble guard against hasty exploits from the royal headquarters at New York. Nine towns were thus plundered and laid wTaste, mostly by fire, and the inhabitants of one of them massacred. The sufferers, after the war appealed to the Legislature for relief, and, after several years discussion and delay, they were voted an appropriation of five hundred thousand acres, to be surveyed off from the western part of the Reserve, and distributed in proportion to their losses. The settlement of this district did not commence until about 1808, owing to Indian occupation and fear of hostilities.

The Legislature of Connecticut took the first measures towards the sale of the State's Western lands in October, 1786, when a resolution was passed directing a survey of all that part of the Reserve east of the Cuyahoga and the portage leading from the Cuyahoga to the Tuscarawas. The resolutions also directed the sale of the land at fifty cents an acre, in the public securities of that day. No sales were made, except to Parsons, under this resolution, which was displaced by another resolution changing the method of sale, in 1795. The Company plan, which had proved successful in the southern part of the Territory, was finally adopted by Connecticut. In May, 1795, a committee was appointed to receive propositions for the purchase of all the unappropriated lands in the Reserve, and to make the best contract possible for the State, the committee being empowered to give deeds to the purchasers. One million dollars in specie was the minimum price fixed by the Legislature, and specie or specie notes only were to be received as payment. The committee succeeded in making the sale in September, 1795, to a company of thirty-five persons, at the sum of one million two hundred thousand dollars. This sum became the basis of the Connecticut school fund, which now amounts to about two million dollars. The transfer was made to the Connecticut Land Company, which was incorporated under the laws of Connecticut. An act was also passed incorporating the proprietors of the Fire-lands. These acts granted political jurisdiction over transferred lands, under authority of the State of Connecticut. It will be seen that by this act practically a dual government was created in Northeastern Ohio. The Reserve, by the ordinance of 1787, was made a part of the Northwest Territory, the United States recognizing the reservation, by Connecticut, of a proprietary right to the soil, but claiming absolute political jurisdiction. This intricate conflict of claims was finally settled in 1800, by Connecticut abandoning her pretensions and recognizing the political authority of the Territorial Government.

The leading man in the Connecticut Land Company, and the heaviest stockholder, was Oliver Phelps. A deed was made by the State to each purchaser, giving him absolute title to a number of acres proportional to the amount of stock subscribed. The buyers, for convenience, transferred the whole tract to three trustees. The company was enlarged to four hundred shares at three thousand dollars a share. The management of its affairs was entrusted to a board of eight directors.

General Moses Cleaveland was appointed surveyor of the Company, with instructions to lay off ail that part of the Reserve east of the Cuyahoga in townships of not less than sixteen thousand square miles, and to lay out a town at the mouth of the Cuyahoga. Washington, Jefferson, and other statesmen of the times, who took a live interest in Western settlement, looked upon the mouth of the Cuyahoga as destined to become an important commercial point. This prediction, widely entertained, led to the selection of the site of the prospective capital of New Connecticut, for the authority of the Northwest Territory had not yet been accepted. The surveying party commenced early in July, 1796, and reached the mouth of the Cuyahoga in October, where a town was laid out in accordance with the direction of the company, and named Cleaveland, in honor of the veteran chief of the corps. A small settlement was made that fall, but the growth of the village was slow, discourag ingly slow, in comparison with the flourishing towns on the Ohio. At the end of the first year the population was fifteen. Three years later there were but seven residents, and in 1810 only fifty seven. A feeble settlement was made at Conneaut the next year after Cleaveland was founded, and several openings were made in the ! Mahoning Valley during the next few years. The Mahoning country was more accessible, and consequently grew faster than the northern part. Warren was the most important point on the Reserve for a number of years, and contained, in 1801, thirty-five families. Trumbull county was organized in 1800, with Warren as the county seat.

If the growth of the Reserve at first was slow, the superiority of its soil finally became known, and New Connecticut has grown within the last seventy years, with remarkable rapidity. Chillicothe, the principal town of the far famed Scioto Valley, founded but a few months before Cleveland, became the first capital and second city of the State, while the Reserve was yet scarcely a factor in politics. In 1880 there were within the Reserve four cities outrivalling in size and industry the Virginian city of the Scioto.

The seventh division into which patents, grants, and treaties carved the territory of Ohio, is the one including Sandusky county. It was almost without white habitation at the opening of the period which closes this brief outline of the growth of Ohio. It was upon the native population of this Northwestern Indian reservation that the British arms, in 1812, depended for their chief assistance.

The frontier line of settlements, at the opening of that struggle, extended from Lake Erie at Huron, southward through Richland, Delaware, and Champaign counties, thence westward to beyond the Miami and Indiana line.

The early settlers of Ohio, without exception, were superior men. The dangers of the frontier kept back all who were lacking in courage or incapable of enduring physical hardships. Even in the lull of supposed peace there was constant danger of an attack from red warriors, kindled to vengeance by a real or supposed injury. In 1810 the population of the State was 230,760; the vote for governor, in 1812, was 19,752, and at different times during the war, then actually in progress, more than twenty thousand Ohio troops were in the field, more than the entire number of votes cast at an important State election.

Governor was Washington, embracing about half the present territory of Ohio, and reaching from the mouth of the Cuyahoga to the mouth of the Scioto. Hamilton county was proclaimed in 1790. Detroit was occupied by American troops in 1796, and made the seat of a new county - Wayne - which embraced the whole territory of Michigan, Northwestern Ohio and Northern Indiana. The Virginia Military District was erected into a county in 1797. The same year Washington county was divided, the northern half being set off as Jefferson county, with Steubenville as the county seat. Adams was divided by the erection of Ross in 1798, and Jefferson by the erection of Trumbull in 1800. Trumbull was the first county of the Reserve. Several counties were foimed in the Reserve between 1800 and 1809, when Huron was erected. The treaty of Maumee Rapids, the inevitable sequence of the- issue of the War of 1812, brought into market all Northwestern Ohio except the Indian reservations, and by an act of the Legislature the tract thus fully acquired was carved into counties in 1820.

Indiana Territory was set off by an act of Congress in 1800, and in 1802 an enabling act was passed authorizing the people of Ohio to elect delegates to a convention for the formation of a State constitution as a preliminary step to admission into the Union. The act admitted delegates only from that part of the Territory comprehended by the ordinance of 1787, as the most eastern of the five States into which it was proposed to divide the Northwest. This act cut off the northern county of the Territory (now the eastern part of Michigan), and brought upon Congress the charge of endeavoring to erect the State for partisan purposes.

State. The ordinance made the western boundary a line running due north from the mouth of the Miami River, and the northern boundary a line running east from the southern bend of Lake Michigan. This line was not yet surveyed in

1802, but the convention, acting on the hypothesis that it was the intent of the ordinance to include Maumee Bay in the Eastern State, resolved that the northern boundary should be a line running from the most northerly cape of Maumee Bay to the southern bend of Lake Michigan.

The Constitutional Convention finished its labors in November, and the document became the fundamental law of the State without being submitted to the people. Congress recognized Ohio as a member of the Federal Union in February, 1803.* It is not the purpose of this chapter to trace the civil history of the State, but only to present such a view as will show the chronological and ethnological relations of Sandusky county, and the events of a general character which have affected its history.

The Constitutional Convention's definition of the northern boundary was for many years the subject of serious dispute and eventually threatened to involve the State in war ; indeed more than threatened - war was actually begun. The convention determined the line on the principles on which courts of chancery construe contracts. The map on file in the State Department, and used by the committee which framed the ordinance of 1787, marked the southern extreme of Lake Michigan far north of its real position, and a line was drawn due east which intersected the western coast of Lake Erie north of the Raisin River. This line was manifestly intended to be the boundary of the new State when formed. The apprehension caused among the members by an old hunter's statement that a line drawn due east would cut off Maumee Bay, which was manifestly intended by Congress to belong to Ohio, induced the convention to change the line prescribed by the language of the ordinance in order to make certain of saving to the State the valuable harbor at the mouth of the Maumee.*

The question of jurisdiction over the territory lying between the line prescribed by the Ohio Constitution and the line prescribed by the ordinance, first came up in 1812, the population of the disputed tract at that time being fifty families. Nearly all desired the jurisdiction of Ohio, except a few officers serving under the government of Michigan, and determined to enforce the laws of that Territory.!

Conflicting claims in 1835 caused an open rupture in which Sandusky county participated. This conflict is detailed in another chapter. Its origin was in the interpretation and definition by the State Convention, of an act of the Federal Congress.

It remains to close this chapter with a summary of an episode in National history and an epoch of pre-eminent consequence in local history. We say an episode in National history, for although the blood of America's bravest citizens and England's trained soldiers stained the hardly contested battlefields of three campaigns, although the Federal Treasury was depleted, private estates bankrupted and the occupations of peace well nigh destroyed, the result in an international sense was negative. We have called the war an epoch in local history because it was the opening wedge to white settle- ment, from the Sandusky Valley to the Maumee. Nearly all the able-bodied men of Ohio were brought into the field, and the expanse of forest inhabited only by rebellious Indians, which lay between the British western headquarters and the Ohio settlements, was an important part of that field. Men of sufficient sturdiness, self-respect and courage to volunteer in defense of their homes bivouacked in the heavy forests of the Northwest, perceived the unbounded wealth of the soil and discussed around cheerful camp fires the probable future of the wilderness and advantages of early settlement. Many even blazed on the trees the chosen locality of their future home. Forts and permanent camps made openings in the wilderness, were the centres of army trails, attracted traders and tradesmen, and thus became incipient villages. The complementary local result of the war was its weakening and demoralizing effect upon the Indians to whom this region had been guaranteed a home inviolable as long as they maintained peace with the United States.

In the previous chapter we called attention to the ambition of Tecumseh, and his operations looking toward the establishment of an Indian empire in the West. He was encouraged and aided in his scheme by agents of the British Government, who desired to have an organized force of braves ready to follow the standard of the crown in the event of probable conflict with the United States. The European powers had, for a long time, been engaged in war, and successive military decrees involved serious commercial complications. England, as a war measure, claimed the right to search all neutral vessels, and under this pretense hundreds of American seamen were impressed on board British ships. Congress threatened war, but the threat only made English agents more active in spreading the fire-

The attitude of the Wyandots has already been touched upon. Crane and his cabinet of chiefs foresaw in the approaching conflict certain destruction for their nation, and exercised their utmost efforts to prevent the calamity by maintaining neutrality. The disaster to Tecumseh's cause at Tippecanoe, in 1811, further impressed them with the futility of war, and threatened to crush the confederacy before it had been completed. It was Tecumseh's plan to refrain from attack upon the white settlements until the conflict with Great Britain should be in actual progress, but the battle of Tippecanoe was precipitated by the Prophet while Tecumseh was on a diplomatic mission among the Creeks, in the South. That battle disclosed to the Americans the dangers of the situation, and the extent to which British influence had been exerted among the Indians.

Interference with American trade, enforced by the blockade system, the impressment of American sailors, and the encouragement given the Indians supplemented by supplying them with arms, induced Congress in June, 1812, to declare war. Although this ultra measure had long been contemplated, our Government was totally unprepared for the conflict, which accounts for the disgraceful series of blundering during the first year of its progress.

To General Hull, Territorial Governor of Michigan, with headquarters at Detroit, was given the important commission to make an invasion of Upper Canada; but, through the imbecility of that officer, the project was a total failure, and for the same reason Detroit fell into the hands of the British, without a blow, on the 15th of August. This disaster spread the greatest apprehension throughout Ohio.

The Northwestern army, composed of fourteen hundred brave men, were now prisoners of war; the British command of the lakes was absolute; the Territory of Michigan was in the possession of foreign troops and their Indian allies, and nothing was left to prevent an invasion into Ohio. The militia of the Reserve, under General Wadsworth, turned out almost to a man, and in little more than two weeks from the first announcement of Hull's surrender at Cleveland, an army of raw farmers and woodsmen were encamped on the Huron River.

Before the close of the summer British arms presided over the Upper Lakes, Fort Dearborn, the last American post, falling victim to a most horrid Indian massacre. During the winter of 1812-13 warlike preparations were pushed in the Northwest with the spirit of self-defence. Harrison, with an army of volunteers, occupied the northwest of Ohio, constructed forts and garrisoned every strong point, so that at the opening of spring a greater feeling of security prevailed, and able-bodied men followed the army with less apprehension concerning the safety of their homes. It is not within our province to follow this conflict, which opened writh defeat, disaster and disgrace, except one desperate scene, which is fully treated in a separate chapter. Croghan's gallant and successful defence of Fort Stephenson turned the tide in favor of the volunteer arms. Perry followed by making the flag of the Republic master of Lake Erie, and Harrison complemented these achievements by totally defeating Proctor and extinguishing the allied Indian force under Tecumseh on the Thames. The bullet which mortally wounded Tecumseh killed British influence over the Northwestern Indians, and secured the people of Ohio perpetually against incursions from that source. Jackson, at New Orleans, crowned the

During the whole contest the conduct of the State Government was as patriotic and honorable as the devoted bravery of her troops was eminent. When the necessities of the National Treasury compelled Congress to resort to a direct tax, Ohio, for successive years, cheerfully assumed and promptly paid her quota out of the State Treasury.* There was, at first, a difference of opinion with regard to the expediency of war, out when a foreign army landed on our shores her citizens cheerfully volunteered, and Ohio's blood stained every important battle-field in the Northwest.

Pre-Histori C Races

The Cave-Dwellers - Mound Builders - Their Fortifications and Works in the County - Description and Location of the Works - The Stone Workers.

The Cave-Dwellers

THAT there was a race of men who dwelt in caves made in the rocks, who inhabited this continent, or parts of it, is now pretty well settled among those who search for ancient traces of mankind. Much inquiry has been made in this direction by earnest and learned men, and the facts gathered furnish strong circumstantial, if not positive evidence that some of the Cave-dwellers inhabited different parts of Ohio, and that they were the first inhabitants. Among the proofs adduced to establish the existence of the Cave-dwellers, we find that some time ago Colonel Whittlesey, who was President of the Northern Ohio Historical Society, made an exploration along the Cuyahoga River, from its source to its mouth, and reported that he found artificial habitations j made in the rocks forming the north side 1 of the river, which, though narrow, has cut a channel down the north side of the dividing ridge between that river and the Tuscarawas. He found that in some places the chasm was made deeper than the stream is wide at its head, and on the sides were caves containing human bones and bones of animals, showing that they were once inhabited by human beings.

General Bierce, who published a history of Summit county, corroborates, from personal observation, the statements of Colonel Whittlesey as to the caves. General Bierce also shows that in Green township, formerly of Stark county, now of Summit, on the east side of the Tuscarawas River, great numbers of stones were found by the white settlers of Stark county on an elevated plateau. These stones varied from four to six feet in circumference and were elevated a little above the earth's surface, with a comparatively even surface on top. On these stones it was supposed sacrifices of human beings were made to appease the wrath or propitiate the favors of some ancient god or gods. Near by the place where these stones were found was the Indian trail used in passing from the Sandusky country to the Ohio River. The trail ran along the elevated ridge on which these stones were found. But no evidence was found about these stone altars either of calcined bones of burnt prisoners, or of charred wood, or of implements to indicate that the altars had been made use of for any purpose by the modern Indians; and in the absence of other evidence, the conclusion is that the altars were erected by the ancient race domiciled in the caves, and who were probably the first of mankind in Ohio. Mr. Whittlesey, in passing down the Cuyahoga, found earthworks and other evidences of a later race than the Cavedwellers, and further on toward the lake he found what approaches to be regular fortifications, evincing a still higher civilization than the earthworks already mentioned; but he leaves his readers to form their own conclusion.

From the facts given here by Colonel Whittlesey and General Bierce, taken in connection with the better and the undoubted testimony which the Mound Builders have left of their existence, and interpreting the works each race has left on the earth, as they came and passed in successive ages, we may quite reasonably j conclude that first came the Cave-dwellers into this land ro inhabit it. Second, there succeeded them at some time another race who had invented implements, and could erect earthworks for defences, and who piled it up into great mounds for burial, sacrificial, or military purposes. Thirdly, came a race who worked stone and earth and with their improved implements, made regular fortifications and places of abode or worship. Fourthly ' came a race of red men who afterwards j kicked down the stone altars and de stroyed the earthworks of their predecessors, struck fire from flint, burned all they could of the structures of the more ancient races, using for themselves the bow and arrow and stone hatchets and stone arrow heads, with bark canoes and thongs of the hides of animals for- fishing and hunting purposes, while the mounds of earth raised by the more ancient races were left unharmed, as places for lookout, or of burial for their chiefs and warriors. Thus seems to read the inscriptions made by the ancient races on the surface of the earth, as far as they have been yet interpreted by observation, science and reason.

Whence Came The Cave-Dwellers

Where these most ancient of the inhabitants of our continent, the Cave-dwellers, came from, is a question which perhaps may never be satisfactorily answered. But certain geological facts may help to conjecture whence they came. First, it is said by the most learned geologists of the time, that certain portions of this continent are the oldest portions of the earth's surface, and contain its Eozoic crust without evidence of marine beds or other proofs of submergence by any floods since that day. Certain areas in northern New York, Canada, Labrador, and west of the Mississippi, in Missouri, Arkansas, Dakota, and Nebraska remain as in the Eozoic time, or time when there was no life. Second, from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic Ocean no sea has ever overflowed these parts of the continent since the close of the carboniferous age or the age which produced the plants and forests out of which coal was formed.* Third, at the time the carboniferous sea disappeared the water-shed holding back the mass of waters of the lake existed and on which dry land first appeared in Ohio. This w'ater-shed traversed the State from south-

Mr. Atwater, the antiquarian, in his work on the antiquities of America, holds the opinion that the people who put up stone altars, earthworks, and fortifications, commenced that work at the head of the northern lakes, thence moved along their borders into what is now western New York, thence in a southwestern direction, following the rivers to the Ohio River and down the Ohio and Mississippi, thence to the city of Mexico, as now known, where they had their central power, and from which locality they radiated colonies into what is known as South America, and other countries. But whence came the Cave-dwellers is a question still unsolved. Some speculations are found about it, such as that at one time the islands in the Atlantic, North or South were once so approximate as to allow convenient transit from continent to continent, and that afterwards upheavals in the ocean and the sinking of these islands left a greater expanse of water. That crossing was once effected by way of Greenland, and thereby a race was planted on this continent - others claiming that man was as indiginous to this continent as to the Eastern hemisphere. These speculations are of little value in settling the query, and leave the question still unanswered and surrounded with that mist and darkness which bounds the region of ascertained facts. There are as yet no discovered traces of this race in Sandusky county; still, the nearness of them to us makes the mention of them pertinent, while the facts discovered are interesting to all.

Mound Builders And Their Works

The subsidence of the waters of the glacial period of the earth, which geologists say formed the great chain of lakes whose waters flow over the Falls of Niagara in such awful grandeur, sending the lowest bass of perpetual thunder against the reverberating hills around, left the region of country called Northwestern Ohio, of which Sandusky county is a part, a great plain slightly inclined from the south towards the north, its northern termination but little elevated generally above the level of the lake which bounds it at the present time. The region was generally almost level, and, though swampy, was chiefly covered with a dense growth of large forest trees of considerable variety.

The singular absence of high hills, low valleys, high rocks, and intervening ravines, which made this country ineligible to the Cave-dwellers, rendered it also a rather uninviting location to the Mound and Fort Builders. The works of the successors to the Cave dwellers are therefore not as numerous nor as striking to the beholder as they are in many other localities. But, notwithstanding this unfavorable feature in the surface of the county, there are yet found within its limits sufficient of these works to prove that this ancient race, or these ancient races of men, were once here.

There were, a few years ago, the remains of a line of earthen forts, supposed to be for defence, extending from Muskash Point, now in Erie county, along south and eastward on the solid lands along the marshes of Sandusky Bay to the Sandusky River, striking the river in section twelve, township five, range fifteen; thence up the river to Negro Point, on the Williams Reserve, in section fourteen, and along up the river on the high bank or hill along the river on the east side, up to near the north line of Seneca county.

Mr. Michael Stull, an aged farmer now residing in section twelve, Riley township, says that in 1820 he came to Muskash and owned a piece of land there on which were the remains of a considerable ancient fort. The walls were of earth, with openings or gates. The fort was in a circular form and inclosing several acres of ground. In this fort he found flint arrow-heads, stone axes, and numerous specimens in various forms of rude pottery which appeared to have been made of burnt clay, largely mixed with pounded shells of clams or oysters.

Another similar fort, with similar remains in and about it, was found in section one, Riley township. Then another on the farm now owned by Mr. Stull in section twelve in the same township. This fort or ancient structure is now entirely obliterated, and was, when the writer visited the place in August, 1879, part of a beautiful clover field, not revealing even a trace of its walls or form. Mr. Stull levelled it himself. It was, according to his description of it, circular in form, with two gates or openings opposite each other. The circle was about twenty rods in diameter. A distinguishing feature of this fort was that a part of the wall on the west side was made by piling soft limestones, which were found in plenty on the surface of the land a short distance from its structure. The walls of this fort, when first seen by Mr. Stull, were about four feet high. The ridge of soft limestone had been covered on the sides and on top by earth to a considerable height; the other portions of the wall were composed of a ridge of earth only.

further up the river, in section fourteen, same township. This fort included five or six acres of land, and is situated partly on the land now owned by L. D. Williams, and partly on another tract. The five last mentioned of these ancient forts are in the form of semi-circles, the river forming the arc. The bank of the river where these remains aTe found, is composed of earth which readily dissolves and washes away by the action of the water, and these works are on the side of the river on which the current and the motion given to the water by the winds spend their force, and where these forces have for a long time been encroaching upon the land, which, in times past, was some distance away from the river. It is quite plain, therefore, that these, like the one at Muskash Point and the one on the Stull farm, were originally circular in form, and some distance from the perpendicular, low bank of the river, for all the remains of the other forts in this chain, unaffected by the wash of a stream, are in that form complete.

There are evidences of another fort of the same kind above the Williams Reserve a short distance, on the high bank of the river, in section thirteen, township five, range fifteen. This work is different in form from those heretofore mentioned, being nearly square, and is supposed to include about three acres of land. It is situated at a place where there was once an Indian village called Muncietown, about three miles below the city of Fremont.

Another and larger ancient fort was found a little down the river from the residence of Mr. L. D. Williams, which, he says, was a circle and inclosed about ten acres of land.

A Mound

eter, which must originally have been raised to a considerable altitude, and must have been of very ancient construction. Mr. Williams says that about the year 1820 he assisted in cutting down a whiteoak tree which stood on the very summit of the mound, for the purpose of capturing a swarm of bees which had long been in the tree, and that this tree was then near three feet in diameter. At the time this tree was cut the elevation of the mound was about eight feet above the general level of the surrounding land. The mound was afterwards opened by Mr. John Shannon, of this county, and his brother, about the year 1840. The mound had then attracted considerable observation and much speculation among the observers as to what it was raised for, and what might be in it. One night Mr. Shannon's brother dreamed that there was a large wedge of gold buried under this mound, and communicated his dream as a profound secret, and the two were so strongly impressed with the belief that the gold wedge was there that they, being then young men, resolved to dig open the mound at all events, and see what was in or under it. The stump of the oak had then so far decayed that it was removed without much difficulty. On removing the earth from a considerable space and a little below the general level of the surface around the mound, they found, not the gold wedge dreamed of, but the teeth of a human being in good preservation. Upon further carefully removing the earth they found, marked in a different colored earth from that surrounding it, the figure of a man of giant size, plainly to be seen. Where the breast of the buried man had lain were found two oval-shaped plates of white mica. One of these plates had been, or appeared to have been, perforated, as there was a round hole in it near the centre, such as might have been made by a rifle ball. On the other plate were dark streaks and spots, which the discoverers supposed might be characters or letters, understood at the time, recording the name and rank of the | man who had been buried, and the circumstances of his death; but these inferences can only be entitled to the rank of conjectures.

Following the river up about two miles from the location of the mound above mentioned, the remains of another ancient fortification were found on the hill overlooking the valley of the river of the opposite side below and both sides above. It included the block of lots once called the Whyler property, on which he many years ago erected a brick cottage, which is still standing. Here the hill or bluff trends quite sharply to the east for some distance, and then curves southward, meeting the river again near where it is crossed by the Lake Shore railroad in the southern portion of the city. No more advantageous point for a fort and lookout can be found along the whole course of the Sandusky River than this one. Our informant* saw this fort before improvements had obliterated it. According to his description of the location of these remains this fort was in the original plat of the town of Croghansville, on lots 649, 650, 667, 668, 669, 670, as now numbered on the present map of the city, and perhaps other and parts of other lots.

There were a tew years ago the remains of another fortification about two miles from the last mentioned, on the bluff commonly known as the Blue Banks, in section ten, township four, range fifteen, in Ballville township.

There was also found a considerable mound on what is now out-lot thirty-three, a little to the left or east side of the road leading from the south end of Front street in the city of Fremont, to Ballville village. This mound was levelled and plowed over many years ago. In it were found some human bones, pottery, arrowheads, and stone axes, so common in these tumuli, but the fact that human skulls and other bones were found indicated that the human remains had been placed there at a later date than that of the age of the Mound Builders.

Why Did These Ancient Races Come

If any one is curious enough to inquire what inducements existed to bring these ancient races to the region of country through which this line of ancient fortifications is found; why they should settle and fortify themselves along the marshes bordering the Sandusky Bay, and the dry land along the banks of the Sandusky River, the answer could rationally be, that they were attracted hither by the health, beauty, or the grand scenery; or by advantageous localities for strong fortifications for defence or aggressive war. The most rational and acceptable answer to these questions may be found in the fact that those races obtained their supplies of food by capturing the game in the woods and prairies, and in the waters in their vicinity. Credible accounts given by the early settlers of countries where the remains of these fortifications were found, all tend to prove that in all the regions of the Northwest, there could be no point found where the locality afforded such a superabundance of superior game and fish in close proximity, as this. The great abundance of deer, bear, turkeys and wild fowl of the woods; and of waterfowl, such as swan, geese, brant, and crane, and ducks of great variety ; and such animals as beaver, otter, mink, etc., which the Indians and early white settlers describe as once being here, and the immense quantity of excellent fish, show that no better point could be found for a race of men to locate who depended on the chase for food.

The Stone Workers

The evidence of the existence of a race of men who worked stone into weapons and clay into utensils, is abundant in the county. There are also proofs showing the great antiquity of this race. Mr. Albert Cavalier, residing on Mud Creek, in Rice township, this county, on section twenty-five, township six, range fifteen, a few years ago cleared a part of his land, which was level - no sign of mound or fort was perceptible. The trees were of white oak, very large and fine ; some two and some as large as three feet in diameter. On plowing the land, his plow threw up a great number of flint arrow-heads, stone axes, stone pipes, and pieces of pottery composed of burnt clay mixed with pounded shells. These could not be seen on the surface, but were covered nearly to the depth of a furrow, and some were found under the stumps of the trees he had cut, when the stumps were removed. Mr. Cavalier deposited a variety of these articles with the Historical Society, and they are now in Birchard Library. Mr. Lewis Leppelman, of this city, has been for some years gathering specimens of the same kind. He is entitled to great credit for the time, energy, and money he has spent to collect the largest variety and finest specimens of this kind of relics known in Nortwestern Ohio, and placing them also in Birchard Library, where they can be seen by all visitors. A description of all the varieties of this interesting collection, and where found, would alone make a volume. Mr. Leppelman would lay the public under still greater obligation by placing with them a descriptive catalogue, showing where each of the important pieces was found. This collection contains not only stone arrow-heads, axes, and pipes in great variety, but a large number of specimens of other forms of stone, showing equal or more skill in their make, of which it is difficult to conjecture the use. Many of the specimens of Mr. Leppelman have the same form, and are of like material as those found in the lakes of Switzerland, and described and lithographed in the Smithsonian Report of

1876, on page 356 and the four succeeding pages. This valuable work proves very clearly that in Europe there were distinct periods marked by man's use of different material: first, the age of stone; second, the age of bronze ; third, the age of iron. The age of stone seems to have for a long time been co-extensive with the races of men. The writer was lately informed by Mr. Samuel Ickes, now residing at Deadwood, that some of the Western Indians still use the flint arrow-point for some purposes, such as killing small game with the arrow, and skinning deer and preparing the skin for various uses with the stone axe.