Wood County, Ohio - The whole text, 1910 (part 1 of 8)

Preface

' I *HE purpose of this book is to preserve to the people of Wood county and the Maumee Valley some of the historic facts and interesting incidents of its early days and to present them in an entertaining and readable form.

The plan of making it scrap-book-fashion originated with my father and an outline of the work had been arranged by him and left - an unfinished task.

The further preparation and compilation was then entrusted to the trained hand of Mr. F. J. Oblinger, who has, with pains-taking care, from a mass of manuscript, notes, clippings and other material, condensed the gleanings of a liffe time into these pages.

I am also under obligations to Mr. John E. Gunckel, of Toledo, for his kindness in permitting the use of a number of cuts from his "Early History of the Maumee Valley."

The publication I have undertaken, personally, as a memorial to my father, from whose pen most of the articles have come. * Some are now in print for the first time, while others have appeared during his years of active newspaper work.

My father's labors in this direction were purely out of love for the work. All history appealed to him, but the early struggles of Wood county pioneers was a chapter so replete with tragic interest, so tinged with romance, so filled with human endeavor and its achievement that it called forth his highest admiration.

It seemed fitting, therefore, that the final effort of his life should have been a record of these events and with this thought in mind and the grateful encouragement and friendly interest extended by his old associates, both personally and as members of the Pioneer and Historical societies, I have ventured to complete the work. MAY EVERS-ROSS.

Our Pioneers

"Gimme back the dear old days - the pathway through the dells To the schoolhouse in the blossoms; the sound of far-off bells Tinklin' 'crost the meadows; the song of the bird an' brook, The old-time dictionary an' the blue-l)ack spellin' book.

WHO is there who does not love to hear of their ancestors and their ancestral home, even if that home was ever so homely - nothing but a log cabin with a stick chimney? Even though the father and mother and grandparents, - long since passed away - were plain, every-day people, dressed in home-spun garb, yet our thoughts to our latest hour in life go back to the dear old home and to those dear old people with tonderest emotions.

Heroic, were they? Ah, yes. We of Wood county may not deny that virtue to our ancestors. Go back if you will half or three-quarters of a century and view the wilderness landscape of swamp, plain and forest as they found it, in your worst vein of imagination and say if they who buffeted with those discouragements w^ere not untitled heroes.

to those pioneer ancestors who amid poV' erty, sickness and privation of every kind laid broad and enduring, the foundation of our present prosperity.

It is the story of such as these - individuals, communities and nations, together with the land they inhabited which makes biography and history - two of the most interesting branches of human knowledge. Wood county with its accumulation, tiirifty people and historic years, has an interesting contribution of this kind, now fast passing into oblivion, which if fittingly and truthfully told is well worthy a place in the annals of the nation. Much that belongs to and becomes a part of our history occurred before our land had a place marked in the Geographical Atlas.

Our homes of today lay in the track of great events. The martial tread of armies, men upon whose valor the fate of the nation hung, disturbed the silent wastes of Wood long before she had so much as a name, and the forest echoes repeated the startling roar of the cannon which proclaimed that the final contest between Civilization and Barbarism was in deadly issue at her very threshold.

The story of her early settlement and progress, while a fruitful theme for the chronicler's pen, will derive increased interest from a brief narration of some of this preceding outline history which has become a part of the written story of the nation. In this we are told that Wood county was a small fractional part of a vast extent of territory, of which the French were the first white claimants, basing their claim as other Europeans did on the right of discovery and conquest. This nominal possession had existed about one hundred years when, in 1763, the English, who were also claimants of contiguous territory, dispossessed the French, after a bloody war, of all their lands in America. That twenty years later, in 1783, England, in turn, after a war of eight years, was forced to quitclaim all her possessions south of Canada to her own rebellious Colonists, who started a new Government of their own styled The United States of America.

The open page of our history after this nominal ownership by these two most powerful and enlightened nations of Europe, for a period of one hundred and twenty years, was still a blank. No marks of civilization were left behind. Adventurous explorers and fur-traders had passed through the forests or by the river in expeditions to points beyond, but otherwise tliis land, since called Wood county, Avas nought but a vast game preserve for vagrant bands of Indian hunters.

But a change for the better is coming slowly. Civilization has set its course westward with relentless tread. War is sometimes a great educator. The various desultory expeditions in the west had been the means of promulgating wonderful stories in the east of the beautv and fertility of the western country, and shortly after the birth of the new Government a vast tide of immigration was sweeping across tlie Alleghanies to the fertile region of the Ohio and its tributaries.

It should be kept in mind that each of the civilized nations claiming any part of the country, held it always subject to the claims of the Indian tribes occupying it. There was this serious cloud on the title of all land in the west at that time. In the present boundaries of Ohio not less than thirteen tribes and bands laid claim to title. As will be readily foreseen the great inundation of white settlers into their fine hunting grounds soon aroused the jealousy and hostility of these tribes and stealthy murders and brutal, fiendish outrages on the whites soon followed. The Government, then under the wise administration of President Washington, had ohserved so far as possible a humane and pacific policy toward all the tribes and had spared no efforts to secure peace with them by treaty and purchase of their lands. But through the mischievous advice and influence of British traders, who were profiting by a lucrative traffic with the Indians, they insisted on the Ohio Eiver as the boundary between them and tJie whites, and no treaty which all the tribes would respect and sanction could be made, only on this basis.

Finally an army under Gen. Harmar was sent against them, but was defeated on the Maumee near where Fort Wayne I now is. Another army under Gen. St. Clair, then Governor of the Northwest Territory, was organized and sent against them. Again, the savages fell back, though by a more direct course toward the Maumee. Again the Americans met with overwhelming defeat and were routed with great slaughter and the barbarous butchery of all their unfortunate wounded and prisoners, and the loss of all their cannon and military equipage.

all the whites north oC the Ohio were compelled for safety to shut themselves up in forts and block-houses and from all sides came loud demands for strong and vigorous measures by the Government, which was far too slow and lenient in its policy to suit the distressed settlers.

President Washington now sent for General Anthony \\'ayne, an old army associate of his in the Kevolution. Wayne, who was a resolute man of audacious courage, came on and organized his army and though assailed and opposed by every strategem o.f savage warfare, he marched to the Maumee, where on the northerly Ijank of the Maumee about two miles below the present townsite of Waterville, August 20, 1791, he met the confederated tribes and fragments of tribes of the ISTorthwest who had assembled their warriors to dispute his further -advance by the wager of battle. Wajme assailed them with his characteristic fury and impetuosity. The issue was not long in doubt. The Indians were -completely routed, many of their chiefs being killed, Avhile the rest, Avhen the battle was over, were flying fugitives. They had been encouraged and assisted by the British, who had a fort, in violation of their treaty with the United States, just t)elow where Maumee is now. Some of the Indians fled there for protection but the gates were sluit against them. The English commander liad douljtless a pretty wholesome respect for Wayne as a soldier and did not care to take any chances in provoking him to storm the fort and therefore prudently refused to give shelter to the fugitive savages.

The Americans destroyed all cornfields and Indian villages on their return up the river, subsisting much of the time, especially while they were constructing Fort Wayne and Defianc'\ on the corn and vegetable ])atches of the Indians. After garrisoning these forts "Wayne marched back to Fort Greenville, now in Darke countv, and left the tribes

The effect of Wayne's victor}^ over the Indians cannot be correctly measured by the number of savages slain in battle. The campaign had convinced them of their inability to successfully make war on tlie whites. They had seen an army come among them led by a chief whom they could neither surprise nor defeat. They had seen the hollowness of the English promises of help; when danger came they had seen the king's soldiers creep into their forts like ground hogs, and when the Indian went there for protection the gate was shut in his face and he was left to the mercy of Wayne's victorious soldiers. They had seen their cornfields laid waste, their villages burned and their women and children left destitute for the winter and had seen five garrisoned forts placed in their country to enforce peace. There was a logic in all this that the Indian could understand. He saw that he must do one of three things, make peace, leave tlie country, or be annihilated.

British agents still endeavored to prevent a treaty, but hollow promises and fine talk did not allay the pangs of huager and the pinching cold of winter; and the following year the basis of a treaty was made at Greenville, Darke county, on the 3d of August, 1795, by which the Indians relinquished all claim forever to more than three-fourths of Ohio, besides sixteen cessions of land, located from each other at great distances, and distributed over an extensive area of wilderness country, the lands upon which are now established those great centers of commerce, Chicago, Detroit, Toledo and Fort Wayne, besides other distant posts, as Versailles and Mackinaw. This treaty was signed by the war chiefs of no less than twelve tribes of Indians.

The Pioxeer

grant after grant during tlic years that followed - Treaty of Fort Industry, 1805; at Detroit, 1807; at Brownstown, 1808; treaty where Maumee now stands, in 1817, and one of the most important to the ]\Iaumee Valley; treaty at St. Marys, 1818; treaty of Saginaw, 1819. One by one the different grants were extinguished. The Delawares ceded their reservations in 1829. The Wvandots ceded thf'ii-s Ijy a treaty made at Upper Sandusky, March 17, 1842. This was the last Indian treaty in Ohio - a state, says Henry Howe, every foot of whose soil has been fairly purchased by treaties from its original possessors. The last Indian title extinguished was that of the Wyandots, and they left for Kansas in -July, 1843.

Early Formation

The territory now known as Wood county, belonged to tlie Eries, or, as some historians say, the Neuter Nation. The French explorers and missionaries first saw the shores of Lake Erie, and next to the Iroquois, invaded the country about the close of the first half of the Seventeenth Century. From the beginning of French exploration to 1713, it formed a part of the original province of Quebec: from 1713 to 1764, it was a part of Louisiana; from 1764 to 1769, under the British parliament statute, it belonged to Quebec ])rovince: from 1769 to 1778, under authority of the Virginia legislature, it was attached to Boletourt county, Va., and from 1778 to 1787, it formed a part of Illinois county, Va.

When the territory northwest of the Ohio was established in 1787, Wood county was its wildest and most inhospitable part, and later off of Wayne county (organized in 1796). The Ottawas,

Of Ohio, in March and April, 1803^ esta])lished the counties of Green, Montgomery, Oallia, Butler, Warren, Geauga, Scioto and Franklin, and all of Wood county, south of the Fulton line was detached from the great county of Wayne. Our county seat was then at Detroit. Congress had since chopped us off, so to speak, and, like a chip from a great log, we were lying over in the state of Ohio, and our late county seat, Detroit, was in Wayne county still, but in Indiana territory. The ]\Iaumee country had been divorced. We were in that fragment of Ohio that liad been Wayne county, North- Avest territory, but now we were in a new state, without a seat of justice or county government, nor even a county name.

It is true that the hordes of Indians and few white traders and half breeds here had but little use for a county seat, but still it was the fashion to preserve the semblance of civil government, by attaching all territory to some organized county for such purposes. It had been the rule too, on the Ohio, where the settlements began, to extend the limits of tlie now counties to the northern bound- ary of the territory. So it happened, when Green and Franklin counties were organized on the northern borders of the settlements, they were extended north to the state line, possibly to include the 12 mile reserve, and took in the present territory of Wood. The present tier of eastern townships of Wood were in Franklin, with the county seat at Franklinton, now Columbus, and the remainder of Wood was attached to Green county, with seat of justice at Xenia. But the fact that this territory had two county seats caused but little inconvenience; except the U. S. Eeserve it was all Indian territory; there were no taxes to pay or deeds to record. Settlements, however, ^\ere extending up the Mad river very fast, and two years later, 1805, Champaign county was formed of parts of Green and Franklin counties, and in 1817, Logan county was organized. Wood county was in Logan county from 1817 to 1820 as well as in Erie county in the territory of Michigan, for the Michigan authorities jnstly exercised jurisdiction over a part of it.

Dr. Horatio Conant had no sooner made his home within the old limits of Wood county, than Governor Cass commissioned him a Justice of the Peace of Erie county, with headquarters at ]\Laumee. To oppose this action, and as soon as Waynesfield township of Logan county Avas established, the governor of Ohio commissioned Seneca Allen, of Fort Meigs, a Justice of the Peace for Logan county, and thus it was in two distinct jurisdictions until 1835-36, when the Toledo war woke up congress to apply a remedy.

Now that the Maumee Rapids people had a county of their own, and a seat of justice right in their midst, it might reasona1)ly be presumed that they would, after the gi-eat inconvenience they had endured, be happy to a man. Xot so.

lliuikan naliire is not shaped thus. Jt was the same then as it is today ; never satistied. ^laumec had the county seat ti'mporarily, but not by general approval. Orleans and Perrvsburg were not pleased. The settlers were pretty evenly divided on each side of the river. But in the new counties then forming, the seats of justice were fixed temporarily by the legislature until the developments of population should indicate where the prop^u' place for the county seat would be, when three disinterested commissioners were appointed, whose duty it was to carefully investigate the situation and fix upon the location of the county seat. Had the location of tlie seat of justice been by a vote of the settlers, no doubt Maumee Avould have held it at that time.

Orleans and Perrysljurg, both on the south side of the river, were envious of each other and would not act in unity, and in a triangular battle, Maumee could out vote either of them. The question has often been raised in later years as to how Perrysburg got the county seat away from her stronger neighbor, Maumee, and we believe this is the first time an explanation has appeared in print.

At the session of the legislature, in the winter of 1821-22, Charles E. Sherman (father of Senator and General Sherman), Edward Paine, Jr., and Xehemiah King were appointed commissioners io fix the pennanent location of the county seat of Wood county. At the May term of court in Maumee, 1823, the report of these commissioners, a copy of which had been placed on file with the clerk, was read in open court, and froin which report (following the language of the journal), "it appears that the town of Perrysburg in said county of Wood^ was selected as the most proper place aa a seat of justice for said county of Wood, the said town of Perrysburg being as near the center of said county of Wood, as to situation, extent of population, quality of land and convenience and interest of the inhabitants of said county of Wood, as was possible, the commissioners aforesaid designate in-lot No. 387, as the most proper site for the court house of said county of Wood."

It must not for a moment be supposed that Maumee surrendered up this coveted prize without a protest, or that Orleans looked on with an approving smile. Both opposed it with every possible influence, but Perrysburg had a powerful ally. Just at this critical juncture, the United States gave some friendly aid to her protege.

In May, 1822, Congress enacted a law vesting the title to all unsold lots and out-lots in Perrysburg, in the Commissioners of Wood county, on condition that the county seat should be permanently located there. The net proceeds of the sale of the lots were to be used in erecting public buildings, etc. There was a considerable number of these lots unsold and the gift proved of great benefit to the county in its early poverty, in getting a jail and court house without much expense to the tax-payers. Regardless of this help to the county, the decision of the commissioners who located the seat of justice, was a wise and also a just one, either in the light of the views set forth in their report, or of what subsequently occurred, the dismemberment of Wood county to form Lucas.

time a complicated question of jurisdiction between Ohio and the territory of Michigan, which well nigh provoked a war 15 years later. According to the claims of Michigan, most of the territory north of the Maumee belonged to her. The tinal decision of the question rested with Congress, as Michigan was not yet a state. This uncertainty of jurisdiction may also have had its influence with the commission which .fixed the permanent county seat at Perrysburg. It was known to the friends of the latter place, and the Hollisters, Spaffords and others, who had at that time invested in property in Perrysburg, were tacticians enough to work the point for all it was worth. Although the decision of the commission in favor of Perrysburg was made in May, 1822, there does not appear to have been any haste in the removal.

The first meeting of the county commissioners in Perrysburg, as shown by their journal, was on the 3rd of March following, nearly ten months after the decision had been made. Their minutes of the proceeding in Maumee, during almost three years, show a light amount of routine work. They had constructed a log jail and taken some steps looking to the establishment of roads. Their record for the entire time covers only about 20 pages, and the auditor, Ambrose Rice, received $29.75 for his services in the year ending March 4, 1823. Thomas W. Powell, then prosecuting attorney, was appointed auditor for the year 1823, and filled both offices, getting an allowance of $30 for his services as auditor, which was 25 cents more than Rice got.

Sceap-Book The Treaty Of Maumee

THE conclusion of the series of great events by which the United States acquired a clear title deed to the lands now embraced in Wood county was that of the Maumee Treaty in 1817. In September of that year Duncan McArthur and Lewis Cass, as the authorized agents of the United States, met the Wyandot, Ottawa, Chippewa, Pottawatomy, Seneca, Delaware, and Sha^\a"iee tribes to the number of about 7,000 Indians, at a treaty council at the Maumee Rapids and purchased from them all their remaining lands in Ohio except some scattering reservations. Only one of these touched the present limits of Wood county.

Of all the great treaties from that made with the Iroquois at Fort Stanwix in 1784, down to this at the Maumee Rapids, none was so important to Northwestern Ohio. Campaigns had bean made and battles fought - sometimes to end in defeat, sometimes in victory. Treaty had followed treaty, bnt each and all had consigned this land to the sway of the savage. Almost three decades had passed from the time the Marietta Colony was planted on the Ohio in 1878, until the power of the government was invoked in bringing the unshadowed noonday light of Civilization to the Maumee country. Now, for the first time could it be said that this section stood on an equality with the rest of Ohio, free from the fetters of ownership and dominance of a race whose interests, habits, customs and mode of life were entirely opposed to the improvement of the country.

It is possible that this land was, in that early time, thought unfit for white occupation, or rather that it was better suited to the uses of Indians than whites. It was doubtless true that in some respects this portion of Ohio was not the most desirable of any in the State. That, however, coupled with the fact that it was held as Indian territory for about thirty years after settlement begun in other portions of the State, explains why some of the counties were, for a time, way behind the procession.

A line drawn from Sandusky Bay south along the west end of the Connecticut Reserve to the Greenville treaty line, near Mount Gilead, thence westerly along that line to the Indiana line, thence north to Michigan, and including all the west part of Ohio as far as Defiance, and down the Maumee to its mouth, would about embrace the Ohio land bought at that treaty, and since cut up into about eighteen counties. Wood, as she is today, lay entirely within this purchase, aside from the half of the twelve-mile square Reserve on the north side of the Maumee, bought at Wayne's treaty. The land on the north side of the Maumee, west to Defiance, was bought at the treaty of Detroit, 1807.

The treaty was regarded by the people of the state with great interest. This part of Ohio north of the Greenville line was a blank space on the map. It was simply the Indian territory and the "Black Sw^'"iir,." Its name caused a shrug of terror to many. In others there was a belief that while it was not an earthly paradise, yet it was a good place to go and "grow up with the country"

The Pioneer

There was an Indian present whose name was jMashkeman, who was a great warrior, and prided himself on being a British subject. He had been bribed to oppose the treaty. Wlien he found the Indians giving way to Cass and McArtbur, our commissioners, it made him very angry. He said in his speech that *'the palefaces had cheated the red men, from their first landing on this continent. The first who came said they wanted land enough to put a foot on. They gave the Indians a beef, and wore to have so much land as the hide would cover. The palefaces cut that hide inlo strings, and got land enough for a fort. The next time they wanted more land they bought a great pile of goods, which they offered for land. The red men took the goods, and the palefaces were to have for them so much land as a horse would travel round in a day. They cheated the red man again by having a relay of horses to travel at their utmost speed. In that way they succeeded. Now, you Cass," pointing his finger and shaking his tomahawk over Cass' head, "ISTow, you Cass, come here to cheat us again."" Tluis closing he sat down. Cass replied : "My friends, I am much pleased to find among you so great a man as Mashkeman. I am glad to see you have an orator, a man who understands how much you have been cheated by the white people, and who is fully able to cope with. them - those scoundrels who have cheated you so outrageously. 'Tis true what he has said, every Avord true. And the first white man Avns your French father. The second Avhite man was your Englisli father you seem to think so much of.

"NoAv you have a father, the President, Avho does not want to cheat you, but wants to give you more land west of the IMississippi than you have here, anrl to build 7uills for vou, and help yoii till the soil."

Cass turned to Knaggs, who was one of the interpreters, and said : "Take tliat woman away and put a petticoat on lier; no man would talk that way in council."

Tavo or three Indians and interpretors took liim off out of the council. Tlie treaty resulted in buying from the Indians the northwestern part of Ohio and tlie southern part of Michigan.

Otusso, son of Kantuck-e-gau, the most eloquent warrior of his tribe, was a very intelligent Indian - quite the equal of Tecumseh in mental acumen, but lacking the force and vigor of the latter. Otusso was a descendant of the I'enoAvned Pontiac, and at tlie time of his death the last of his family, and the last Avar phief of his nation, remaining on the Maumee river.

His mother was a sort of Indian Queen and grandniece to Pontiac. She Avas held in great reverence by the Indians - so much so, that at the time of this treaty in 1817 (she then being very old and Avrinkled and bent over Avith age, her hair perfectly white), no chief Avould sign the treaty until she had first consented and made her mark bv touching her fingers to the pen. At that treaty there Avere 7,000 Indians gathered together. When the treaty was agreed upon, the head chiefs and warriors sat round the inner circle. She had a place among them. The remaining Indians, with the Avomen and children, comprised a crowd outside. The chiefs sat on seats built under the roof of the council house, Avhich was open on all sides. The whole assembly kept silence. The chiefs boAved their heads and cast their eves to the ground and Availed patiently for the old woman until she rose, went forward, and toucliod the pen to the treaty, after it had been read to them in her presence. Then followed the signatures of all the chiefs.

Following close after this treaty another helpful thing to the settlement took place. The Government in the previous year. 181fi, liad not only platted the town of Perrysburg but had resurveyed the 12-mile Reserve. It was

The land office was at Wooster, Ohio, and in 1817 the sale took place, which proved of great advantage to the settlement. It gave a fixedness and permanence to the improvements started. Hitherto when all were squatters without fixed tenure there was but little incentive to go into extensive improvement. - ('. IF. E.

WOOD COUNTY, in name and boundary, was bom into the sisterhood of Ohio counties April 1, 1820, by an act of the Ohio Assembly. She drew her first breath of official corporate life in the following month, May 12, in the second story of a little store room in Maumee. There the first Board of Commissioners (Daniel Hubbell, John Pray and W. H. Ewing) held their first meeting and made the first page of the official records of Wood county.

The beginning was small, but the expectations were proportionately great. It is safe to affirm that there was not at that time a more unpromising member in the family of Ohio counties. Possibly tliat gallant soldier, Captain Wood, who was Gen. Harrison's chief engineer at Fort Meigs, and who helped to defend that post in 1812, and for whom Wood county was named, did not feel ver}' highly complimented. But were it possible that he could rise up from beside the marble shaft built to his memory on the Hudson at West Point, and view this

The biography of these hardy pioneers and the historic events of the memorable past rightly form a part of the story of Wood county. An account of the land and of the individuals and communities who occupy it makes l)iography and history, two of the most interesting branches of human knowledge.

Wood county, with her accumulation of historic years and thrifty, progressive people, has a contribution of this kind now fast passing into oblivion, which, if truthfully and fittingly told, is well worthy a place in our national history. ]\Iuch that belongs to and becomes a part of our history occurred before our land had a place marked in the geography of the world. The homes which we enjoy to-day lay in tlie tracks of great events of the past.

Long before the silent wastes of Wood liad even a name, the martial tread of armies responded to the call of the nation, when its destiny hung trembling in tlie l)alance. It was then the startling roar of cannon proclaimed that the final contest between Civilization and Barbarism was in deadly issue at her very threshold. - C. ^Y.' E.

The Pioneek Catholic Missions

THE following interesting sketch of the first Catholic explorers and missionaries, was furnished Mr. Evers some years ago by D. W. Manchester, Secretary and Librarian of the Western Eeserve Historical Society, with headquarters at Cleveland:

There has been much published relating to early explorations in North America and the West, but a great portion from the different sources does not seem to assimilate, or there seems, rather, to be a disagreement with the whole. There has been less published, because of less general interest, perhaps, respecting the first priests and their missions; but what has been published appears to be more definite and reliable. I suppose there is no doubt that LaSalle was the first white man who "looked into the Maumee Valley," although Jolliet undoubtedly was the first Frenchman who navigated Lake Erie; and while the latter may have coasted along the southerly shore of that Lake, there is no probability that he penetrated at all the interior. There is scarcely any ground for question that La- Salle did make explorations within the present state, and he is believed to have been at Cleveland and in the vicinity of Canfield, Mahoning county. On this expedition LaSalle set out from Montreal, July, 1667, "with five Canoes and three Canoes of Sulpitians guided by some Senecas who had wintered in Canada." Col. Chas. Whittlesey, until his death president of the Western Eeserve Historical Society from its organization, speaking of this expedition, the only record of which, so far as I am aware, being that of Galinee, "still in deacon's orders," who accompanied LaSalle, says, "LaSalle's plan might have been to cross

Lake Ontario to Grand river, down it to the lake, thence along the north shore of Erie to the mouth of the Maumee river on the route referred to by him in 1663." The Colonel also says, "He (La- Salle) may have spent the winter (1669- 70) in Ohio, where game was abundant and beaver numerous. We have no reliable evidence that he was at Montreal between July 1669 and August 1672."

There is much mystery about the movements of LaSalle, and an unfortunate lack or reliable data, arising largely from the fact that the Catholics make as little mention of him as possible after what they term his "apostasy." Gen. Garfield, in a valuable address, published as Tract 20, publications of the Historical Society, entitled "Discovery and Ownership of the Northwestern Territory and Settlement of the Western Eeserve," follows much the same line of thought as Col. Whittlesey, and speaking of LaSalle's expedition says, "We find him with a small party near the western extremity of Lake Ontario boldly entering the domain of the dreaded Iroquois, traveling southward and westward through the wintry wilderness until he reached a branch of the Ohio, probably the Alleghany."

Before the death of Col. Whittlesey, Pierre Margry communicated to him an extract from an unpublished letter (without date) of LaSalle's, in which the latter mentions "the river which you see marked on my map of the southern coast of this lake (Erie), etc." The original of this letter was sent to Francis Parkman, who says, "On the map described 'Discovery of Great West' the Maumee river is clearly laid down, with a portage direct to the Ohio, which is brought close to Lake Erie." This map is clearly anterior to 1680.

I might add that an additional reason ^fhy there is so little account of LaSalle's travels and explorations, is found in the fact that a part of the papers were lost in the attack of the Iroquois on the post in 1681, and that on his assassination in 1687, his brother, the Abbe Cavalier, burned the most of the papers that were found with him.

Mr. Gillmany Shea is of the opinion that we may conclude that "unauthorized trappers, traders and Coureurs de bois, both French and English, were among the Indians in advance of the explorers."

It is a fact, I believe, that the early explorers and priests (and they were inseparable) came direct from Canada to the Northwest Territory, and Mr. Shea says that Father Joseph Ix> Caron was the first Catholic priest from Canada who penetrated into the present territory of the United States. He was one of four Fransiscans whom Champlain obtained from France in 1614. A year later, Le Caron was laboring among the Indians at Lake Huron; but I think there is no evidence that he was in the limits of Ohio.

Mr. Shea is unquestioned authority on Catholic missions in America, and in an article contributed by him to the Catholic Universe of Cleveland in 1881, and which paper the E«v. G. F. Houck, Chancellor of the Cleveland Diocese, which embraces tliirty-three counties in Northern and Northwestern Ohio, has embodied in his book entitled "The Church in Northern Ohio," says, "The first trace of Catholic missionaries having visited the territory now within the limits of Ohio, is foimd as early as 1749. It was then that the Jesuit Fathers, Potier and Bonnecamp, came to evangelize the Huron Indians living along the Vermillion and Sandusky rivers, in Northern Ohio. He also states that the first permanent chapel within the confines of the present state of Ohio, was erected near Sandusky in 1751, by the Jesuit Father de la Eichardie, who, with his companions, had

A part of the Huron tribe was brought by Father de la Eichardie, in 1751, to Sandusky, where, under the name of Wyandots, they soon took an active part in the affairs of the West. They were also conspicuous in the last French War, and at its close were implicated in the conspiracy of Pontiac, though long checked by the influence of Father Peter Potier, S. J. During the exciting times of the war these missionaries were driven from Sandusky, Father Potier being the last Jesuit missionary among the western Hurons. He died in July, 1781. The Indian missions in and near Sandusky thence depended entirely on the priests attached to the French posts in Canada and Michigan.

When the Society of Jesus was suppressed, and Canada lost to the French, the above mentioned Indian missions were abandoned. From 1751 to 1795 no record is found of any further effort made in Northern Ohio to continue the missionary work begiin by the Jesuits. In the early part of 1796 the Eev. Edmund Burke was sent by Bishop Hubert, of Quebec, from Detroit, to the northwestern part of Ohio, near Fort Miami, just built by the British govermnent on the IMaumee river, opposite the present site of Perrysburg, Wood county.

Here he resided about one vear. ministering to the few Catholic soldiers in the fort, and endeavorinp^ witli little success, to christianize the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians in th<^ noio-hborhood - the latter work having been for long one of his aims as a missionary priest. Father Burke left this unpromising charge about Februarv, 1797. From that time, and until 1817, no priest was stationed in Northern Ohio, and in fact none in the entire territory of the present state of Ohio." - 77. W. Manchester.

Disastrous Campaigns

EARLY in the year 1790, a short distance north of Marietta, twelve white settlers were inhumanly butchered and their bodies burned by the Indians. 'This was the beginning of what is sometimes known in history as Wayne's War. The Government still entertained hopes of avoiding a general war, but it was thought best at the same time to

chastise the Indians severely for this outrage and make them feel the power of the "thirteen fires" as the Indians termed the United States. Accordingly Gen, Harmar, an old continental officer, with

a battalion of regular troops and twelve hundred Kentucky and Pennsylvania volunteers, marched against the hostile warriors. These latter fell back to the Maumee at the junction of the St. Joseph and St. Mary's rivers, now Fort Wayne.

There, after some bad generalship by Harmar, a part of his army was ambushed by the Indians under command of a Miami chief named Little Turtle and many of the regulars with their officers killed. The volunteers saved themselves by inglorious flight.

Thus, disastrously ended the first attempt to punish the Indians. Embold- "^ened by this victory and stimulated by the plunder it secured them the savages '"became more defiant and bloodthirsty vthan ever. The situation of the settlers ;at this time was one of great peril. Several desultory war expeditions by the Kentucky and Virginia volunteers were made, whicli resulted cliiefly in destroying some Indian villasres and their cornfields, but this only exasperated the revengeful savages to additional atrocities.

A second expedition by the Government was commanded by Gen. Arthur St. Clair, at that time Governor of the Northwest territory. On the approach of this army the Indians, this time fell back on a more direct route to the Maumee. St. Clair, who had seen service in the war of the Revolution, was a gouty old man, lacking not only in vital energy, Init in the qualities of an Indian fighter. He pursued the retreating foe until they had reached a point (since called Fort Recovery near the head of the Wabash, on the line of the present counties of Darke and Mercer) , where, one morning at daylight the Americans were suddenly and unexpectedly attacked by an overwhelming force of Indians, again led by the wily chieftain Little Turtle. St. Clair's army was utterly defeated and routed with a loss in slain of over nine hundred men, nearly half of his fighting force, together with his cannon, ammunition, liuggage and other equipment.

No such appalling, ghastly disaster had ever before befel the whites in Indian warfare; not even Braddock's defeat equaled it in loss of life.

The prisoners and wounded were put to death with the most diabolical tortures known in savage warfare, while the dead were mutilated in the most horrible manner. The eyes of these were gouged out and the sockets as well as the mouth and ears filled with earth - as if in a grim, hideous satisfaction of the white man's demand for more land. The brutality and demoniacal vengeance of the savages was never more atrociously exhibited than in this defeat and pursuit of the whites. The direful news spread rapidly from the frontier to the Atlantic and the helpless l)order settlers spoke of the

General Anthony Wayne

President Washington, it is related, wrung his hands and shed tears of anguish when the news reached him and both swore and prayed in the conflict of frenzied emotions which almost distracted his mind. He was inconsolable, doubtless in part, for his share of the responsibilit}', in appointing a man Avho had proved as incompetent as St. Clair.

The whole country clamored loudly now for active and strong measures by the Government. A leader was in demand to go to the frontier, organize an army and punish and subdue the savages, an undertaking of no small magnitude as the case then stood. The President, after much serious deliberation, sent for

A former military associate, living at Chester, Pennsylvania, a small farmer and surveyor by occupation. Wayne mounted his horse and rode to the capital city to see what his old commander wanted. He was then in the prime of life, a fighter by nature, of audacious courage and had the greatest degree of confidence in the wisdom and judgment of the President, in all things.

He promptly consented to go and fight the Indians if the President would allow him time to recruit, equip and drill his aimy before he was required to march against the enemy, which reasonable precaution, of course, was assented to.

Anthony Wayne, whom President Washington had called to his aid in this grave emergency, was a rugged, picturesque character of the Eevolutionaiy period. It seems even at this distant da}', an anomaly in the character of the great President that he had always placed

Wayne, while not dissipated, loved grog and jovial companions. Washington, was sedate, dignified and sober. Wayne was subject to startling ebullitions of profanity when angry or excited and it mattered little either who his auditors were. Washington was self-poised and devoutly religious in character.

As soldiers, too,, they were unlike. Wayne in battle struck with the furry of a tempest, regardless of consequences. He was by some called reckless and had even then won the soubriquet of "Mad Anthony," which followed him to his grave. Washington was slow and deliberate, calculating carefully the, effect of every movcmient.

Wayne had the dash and impetuosity of Murat, fonning his conclusions on the impulse of the moment. Washington liad the crafty strategy, foresight and inflexibility of purpose of Frederick the Great.

Wayne sought victory over his enemies by the sliort, sharp method of bloody annihilation. Washington compassed the destruction of his foe by adroit and farreaching combinations and steady, hard fighting to a finish.

Each was great in his sphere. Each devoutly loved his country, and this devotion harmonized all differences or prejudices in habits and character. Such were the men of the Kevolution.

Illustrative somewhat of Wayne's peculiar characteristics an incident is told of him, whether true or not, during the dark days of the Eevolution.

A council of war had been held at Washington's headquarters, and Wayne, who commanded a Pennsylvania brigade some distance away, had been decided on as a suitable leader of a storming party to assault and carry the high, rocky fortress of Stony Point on the Hudson. The fortress was not only strong by nature.

but was defended by six hundred trainpd British soldiers, and the mere thought of carrying it by a night attack was suggestive of desperate work.

Washington sent for Wayne, with whom at that time he had but little personal acquaintance. Watching closely the effects his question would have, he said: "Gen. Wayne, I have sent for yon to ask you a question; can you take your brigade and storm Stony Point?" Quick as a flash the general was on his feet and with a wicked light in his eye, staring straight into the face of the commander, he said : "General, I can storm hell, if you will lay the plan for me."

This bluff, warlike answer, in the contemplation of so hazardous an enterprise, almost startled the sedate commander, but he saw in the resolute rough and ready soldier before him the very man he had been looking for to lead the assault on Stony Point.

Wayne did not disappoint his commander's expectations. He led his men up the rocky precipice over the British parapets in the face of a deadly fire with the sweep of a rising tornado. When near the top a bullet struck Wayne on the head and knocked him down, but with a blasphemous oath on all the British he commanded his men, who thought him fatally hurt, to carry him into the fortress, where he met the English commandant, paralyzed and dumfounded at the audacity and suddenness of the attack and who surrendered without conditions. This daring and successful expedition led by Wayne, was pronounced by Gen. Charles Lee to be the most brilliant achievement of the war.

Wayne fought in nearly all the principal battles of the Revolution and always with distinction. If there was any desperate work to bo done his was the first name mentioned. His savage attack on Cornwallis in Virginia, in which he inflicted heavy loss on the British, doubtless saved Lafayette from serious disaster in that campaign. Wayne was sent to Georgia and routed and dro\^e from that state a large force of Indians on their way to join the British. The Georgia Legislature voted him their thanks, and also gave him a large tract of land for this service. In this campaign Wayne acquired some useful experience in Indian diplomacy and warfare, which afterwards came in good play in dealing with his Indian foes.

It should not, from these jottings of Wayne's early career, be inferred that he was a reckless or unsafe commander. There was neither lack of method nor of tactics in his mode of warfare. He was a leader and shared all the dangers and hardships of his men. He had good executive ability, unerring judgment and an acuteness of perception amounting almost to intuition. Shrewd and quick in expedient, watchful, cautious and energetic, Anthony Wayne was

Either in savage or civilized warfare. Such was the man chosen to carry the stars and stripes- - the banner of Civilization to the ]\Iaumee wilderness and whose career we have deemed wortliy of more than a passing notice.

In his memory, there should be here, «. bronze statue the base of which should be the famous Turkey Foot Rock, which yet marks the place of his last battle.

The President was delayed in getting the necessary appropriations l)y Congress, hut Wayne in the meantime went west to Pittsburg, preferring to recruit his army from the border men, who made l^etter soldiers for an Indian campaign.

It Mill not be difficult to understand why there was at first a reluctance on the part of men to enlist to fight the savages after the disastrous termination of the two previous campaigns. It seemed, like signing one's own death warrant to enroll to fight Indians, the way things had been going. Bnt Wayne's prestige as a soldier, with his other characteristics so well suited to western men of that time, soon won the day, and his army, which was to be called The Legion, divided into four sub-divisions, soon begun to assume figliting proportions.

In the meantime all emigration north of the Ohio had ceased. The settlers already there lived in, or close to block houses and even in this way were in peril of their lives. The Government all this time had beeii putting forth every effort to bring the tribes together in a grand council and, if it wore possible, to yet avert a general war. Five different messengers had been sent among them on peace missions and all save one had been murdered, and this one was unable to effect any arrangement satisfactory to both sides. "The Ohio river must be the boundary or blood will flow," was the Indian ultimatum.

Wayne, while awaiting the result of the Government's peace efforts, was drilling and practicing his troops. In the early part of October, 1793, he advanced northward from the Ohio to a strong position in the enemy's country, where he established Fort Greenville, now the county seat of Darke county.

It was already too late in the season to hope to bring the campaign to a successful issue before winter, but the position of his army was such that he could afford protection to the settlements and at the same time keep his line of communications open for supplies. Gen. Wayne, therefore, decided to remain here until spring. About one thousand mounted men from Kentucky who had joined him went home for the winter, but had formed so good an opinion of his army and of Wayne's generalship, that tliey promised

After establishing his men securely in winter quarters Wayne sent a detachment of troops to the place of St. Clair's defeat, twenty-three miles in advance of his army, where he established another strong outpost called Fort Recovery. These troops had first to perform the melancholy duty of gathering up the bleaching skeletons of St. Clair's illfated men. Ko less than six hundred skulls were picked up and buried.

It was the wisli of the President that Wayne should establish and garrison a chain of military posts from the Ohio to the stronghold of the Indians at the Maumee, so as to more effectually check all hostile expeditions and to make the Indians understand that the Government had power at hand and could summarily punish its enemies and also protect its friends.

The Indians had bv tliis time l)eoome pretty well satisfied tliat the Government meant to deal vigorously with them and exerted themselves correspondingly.

Under the advice of Brandt, Blue Jacket, Roundhead, Little Turtle and other leading chieftains, influoud'd by British and Canadian emissaries, who promised them aid to drive back the hated Americans, the tril)os were to all unite and make common cause against the advancing enemy.

Runners were sent to distant tribes to urge them to hurry forward their warriors for the impending struggle. The medicine men were invoked to aid by all the infernal arts of which superstition was master, to stir up the embers of hatred against the people of the thirteen (now increased to fifteen) fires, by addition of Vermont and Kentuclv}^

For this reason he had been restive at the restraint placed upon his movements, which practically delayed him almost a year. Still it is to the credit of the Government and humanity that nothing was left undone that could tend to avert the bloody argument of the sword.

was a good deal like the famous 'Methodist preacher, Peter Cartright, said about I his methods of converting the rough sin- ^i ners in the west at an early day. "Shake them over hell until they can smell brimstone, and then they are willing to accept salvation.'" - C. W. E.

IX giving the story of Wood county the reader is asked at the outset, to kindly bear in mind, that for a period of nearly one huiidred and fifty A^ears after the coming of the first whites. Wood county had neither name nor place on the Atlas of iVmerica. To make the story reasonably intelligible to the student of her history, some account of the events of that antecedent period becomes necessary. This will be given with due regard to avoiding too m;iny tcdioiis details.

The county as since constituted was, for more than one hundred years, a very insignificant part of a vast extent of territory under tlie nominal ownership of France. That ownership ceased in the year 1763 and passed to the Englisii, who, after retaining possession twenty years, surrendered in 1783. all their lands south of Cimada to the United States. That pai't of our history, like the unknown ages before the coming of the whites, is a blank. There are no written lines on its pages. There was nothing to write. The Freneli and English left behind scarcely a visible trace of civilization in the Maumee country.

Adventurous explorers and fur traders had visited it, occasionally, or passed through on their Journeys to distant points : that was all. The county remained in its primeval condition just as the forces of nature had left it since the dawn of creation. It Avas but a vast game preserve for vagrant bands of Indian hunters. Indeed this condition of things continued during the first decade of ownership by the United States, when occurrences remote from here brought about a gradual change.

The Indian tribes occupying the stretch of unbroken wilderness between the ^laumee and Ohio rivers began a relentless, murderous warfare on the infant American settlements then springing up on the north side of the Ohio. This warfare, in whicli tlie tribes had the counsel and advice of mercenary British agents and traders at Detroit, was Avaged for the purpose of exterminating the whites or driving them to the south side of the Ohio. That Avas the boundary line the Indians had set. for the Americans. Treaties had been made for the purchase of the territory, but the claims of tlie tribes Avero so conflicting that one tribe would refuse to sanction or respect the agreements of another and the deadly strife continued. So numerous and Avarlike Avere the Indians that defeat or disaster had attonded nearlv everv Avar expedition the xVmericans had sent against them. In the language of one of the Peace Commissioners sent to thein by the Government, "The savages hud become insolent with triumph." The settlers had flod to the forts and bloclchouses for safety and it was evident that the country woukl have to be abandoned or the Government would have to adopt vigorous measures to break the power of the tribes, by inflicting severe chastisement u]ion them.

In this emergency President Washington, then at the head of the Government, sent out to the Ohio an old military associate of his in tlie Kevohition, Gen. Anthony Wayne, a man of known fighting qualifications and l)y his habits, well suited to the rough and ready men on the frontier. Wayne made a success of the work he was chosen for. From the moment he organized his army and led it into the wilderness the panic-stricken settlers felt liope and, confidence.

The Indians fell back slowly in the direction of the Maumee, watching for an opportunity to ambush or surprise the Americans as they had successfully done in two previous campaigns. Several savage assaults were made during the advance, but the warrioi's, wlio fought like Spartans, were so rouglily handled bv Wayne's soldiers tliat they became more cautious. All devices and stratagems of savage warfare failed them. In the language of their alilest chieftain," Little Turtle, they had met a white chief whose eyes were never closed ; to whom the night and the day were alike. The more sagacious of the chiefs saw plainly that they were over-matched at last. With a sort of crude statesmanship that one cannot but admire in them, they at once cast aside all old tril)al diff"rences for the time being, senl runners to distant tribes and bands for help and jnit forth every effort to rally a force ])owi'rful enough to destroy tlie ne\v invader. At that time the Maumee was tlir head

A good descriptive writer of that time says: "The Maumee River was a delightful home and a secure retreat for our savage enemies. Its banks were studded with their villages, its rich bottom lands were covered with their corn, while their light canoes glided over a beautiful current, which was at once a convenient highway and an exhaustless reservoir of food. Forest, stream and prairie produced, spontaneously and in superabundance, game, fish, fruits, nuts - all things necessary to supply their simple wants. Here their wise men, without fear of molestation, gravely convened about their council fires, and deliberated on the means of checking and rolling back the tide of white immigration - a tide which they dimly foresaw would ultimately sweep their race from. the face of the earth. From here their young warriors crept forth, and stealthily approaching the homes of their natural enemies, the palefaces, spread ruin and desolation far and wide. Here their booty and savage trophies were exhibited with the exultations and boasts of the returned 'braves.' Behind an impenetrable swamp, their women, children and propertv were safe during the absence of their men. Exempt from attack or pursuit, the savage here enjoyed perfect freedom, and lived in accordance with his rude instincts and the habits and customs of his tribe. iVmid the scenes of his childhood, in the presence 'of his ancestors' graves, the red warrior, with his squaw and pappoose, surrounded by all the essentials to the enjoyment of his simple wants, here lived out the character which nature had given him. In war. this valley was his base line of attack, his source of supplies, and his secure refuge: in peace, his home."

fiance is now, to his surprise he found the country had been abandoned by the enemy, but in his farther advance down the river on the northwesterly bank and when about two miles below the present town of Waterville, he found himself in the immediate presence of the confederated tribes of the northwest who had assembled their warriors in a well chosen position to dispute his further advance. The place chosen, some time previously, had been visited by a tornado that had prostrated nearly every tree in that forest and these trees lay as they fell in indescribable confusion. That battle ground has thus taken the name of "Fallen Timber," although some historians designate it as "The Battle of the Maumee," and others refer to it as "Wayne's Battle."

In the language of the missionary, Eev. James B. Finley, "It was the last united effort of Barbarism to check the swelling overflow of Civilization." This was on the 20th of August, 1794. It should be stated here also as showing the humane spirit of Washington toward these tribes, that while Gen. Wayne came with the sword of an Ajax in one hand, he carried the olive branch of peace in the other. Four days before the battle Wayne sent a peace message to the tribes, but it was treated with contempt. Wayne, after making the necessary disposition of his force, promptly assailed them. He swept everything before him. Such of the warriors as escaped the deadly bullets of the Americans sought safety in flight. Some fled to the British fort "Miami" below where Maumee now stands.

Eight here occurred a thing which had mueli to do in subsequent negotiations between the Americans and Indians. The latter had no doubt been furnished before the battle with arms and ammunition by the English. They had also been encouraged by the English, whether from official sources or not is not so clear, that in case thev met with defeat thev would receive shelter at the fort. The- English commandant knew that the fort was there in violation of treaty rights with the Americans. It was on x\merican soil. He knew too, that should he give shelter to Wayne's armed enemies it would be a justifiable cause for the- Americans to storm the fort. At all events he prudently kept his gates closed and left the Indians to their fate. For this act of perfidy on the part of their - friends, the English, the Indians justly made loud complaint and in their treaty diplomacy with tlic Iribes that followed the Americans made good use of it.

Gen. Wayne destroj'ed all the cornfields and Indian villages on both sides of the river, and everything else that could shelter or subsist an Indian that he could lay hands on far and near from tlie ]\Iaumee Bay to Fort Wayne and beyond, built and garrisoned Forts Wayne and Defiance and then marched back to Fort Greenville (now the site of the county seat of Darke county) and went into winter quarters, thus giving the tribes until spring to decide ;is to their future course; whether it should be for peace or for more war.

So horrible a visitation and such condign chastisement had never befell them before. They had met a white chieftain who defied all their arts of warfare and whipped them on their own chosen field and wlioso genius for destruction surpassed the Evil Spirit itself. The swampy fastnesses and the forest depths of the Maumee country proved no saferetreat for the red man. That ark of safety had been broken. Their pretended friends, the king's soldiers, had crept into their fort like cowards and left the Indians to escape tlie best way tliey could. There was a logic in all these things which the savage warriors could easily comprehend. They saw the hopelessness of further contest.

in and declared for peace and during all the early part of summer these chiefs waged a diplomatic war with Gen. Wayne in defense of, and to secure all their rights which would have done credit to the statesmanship of enlightened people. They held to every vital point affecting their interests with the same desperate tenacity with which they had fought the last battle of Fallen Timber. The treaty known ever since as the Greenville treaty, when signed, gave to the United States about three-fourths of the land included within the present boundaries of Ohio in the south and eastern part.

The Greenville treaty line, which became important in subsequent surveys, and which is indicated on most Ohio maps, will be pretty correctly indicated by drawing a line from Cleveland southward to the northeast corner of Holmes county, thence west to the northwest corner of Darke connty, thience south to the Ohio, at the mouth of the Kentucky river.

For this they were to receive annuities and other considerations. On the part of the United States, it relinquished all lands north and west of the Greenville treaty line, except sixteen blocks located in various places and roads thereto, known as United States Eeserve lands. The Government also held a protectorate right over the relinquished territory, that is, it agi'eed to protect the Indians and they agTeed not to sell their territory to anyone else. Among these reservations were the present sites of Fremont, Fort AA'ayne, Chicago, Detroit, Mackinaw, etc.

One among the largest of these blocks, or Reserves, and the one in which we are more particularly interested, in this narration, was one of twelve miles equare at the foot of the rapids of the Miami of the Lake (Maumee). This Reserve includes both sides of the Maumee from the heart of the present city of Toledo to a point nearly three miles above where Waterville now is. Its southeast corner is the southeast corner of Ferrysburg township, thence north, passing through the city of Toledo, twelve miles, west twelve miles, thence south twelve miles (the southwest corner is near the canal opposite the middle of Station island), thence east to place of beginning. The south line passes a little north of Hull Prairie, and crosses Station Island east of the center.

As Wood and Lucas counties have since been constructed, making the Maumee the boundary, to the east limits of the Reserve, AVood county has about two<-fifths of this 92,160 acres and Lucas three-fifths. This was the first land in what is now AA^ood county to which the United States had a clear title and here began her settlements and civilization.

AVhy should we not award Mad Anthony and his hardy soldiers first honors as pioneers with the sword and cannon preceding the plow and ax? At least they may have the honor of being first here in "proceedings to quiet title.'' How those beleaguered people, penned up in forts, rejoiced when they heard of AVayne's decisive victory on the Maumee, and when, a year later, news of his treaty of peace reached them and they knew they could come forth in safety, how their shouts went up in gladness. An enthusiastic chronicler of that period says:

"Peace opened the garrisons, and the valleys of every river resounded with the woodman's ax. Never since the golden age of the poet did the siren song of peace reach so many ears or gladden so many hearts."

In the following year, 1796, a treaty was ratified between England and the United States under which all English troops were withdrawn to the Canada side of the boimdary, thus removing another cause of dissension and distrust and giving Americans possession of Detroit. In the same year a county of dimensions was organized, em- bracing what, is since jSTortheastern Indiana, Northwestern Ohio and the lower Peninsula of Michigan, and named Wayne, in honor of Mad Anthony, with Detroit as the county seat. If any white man had lived where Wood county is now and been in need of a marriage license, or tax receipt or wished to attend court, his county seat would have been Detroit. The latter place had been the great focus point in the lucrative fur trade, which the French, and later on the English, had enjoyed for many years.

The Maumee Eapids, which was considered at the head of navigation, was, next to Detroit at that time, regarded as the most advantageous place on the lakes. Bright visions of the great city yet to spring up here had, even then, flitted across the brain of many an enthusiastic prophet. Wayne's men had spread marvelous stories of the beauty and fertility of the ]\Iaumee country and of the enormous catfish and muscalunge in the rivers, but always concluded their encomiums with an "if" it was not for the ague. But so long as the country remained so largely in possession of the Indians it was evident that its advancement would be retarded.

In tlie meantime a large per cent of the immigration was locating north of the Ohio. The west was making history. Kentucky had been admitted into the Union and in 1803 Ohio, with a population of upwards of 72,000, was admitted, with substantially her present boundary limits. This new relation at once inspired the people of Ohio with a desire to get the Indian title extinguished in their northwestern border.

In 1805 Michigan territory was organized and William Hull appointed Governor, and in the same year a treaty was held at Fort Industry (now Toledo), at which the United States purchased a strip of country along the south shore of Lake Erie about fifty miles wide, extending from tlio ('iivahoii-a river west to a point on the Lake between Sandusky Bay and the mouth of the Portage river, corresponding with the present west line of Huron and Erie counties, and south to the 41st parallel and corresponding with the present soutli line of Medina, Portage, Summit and Huron counties. This purchase formed the western part of what has since been known as the Western or Connecticut Reserve.

This important treaty, freeing as it did, that fine body of land covering nearly the entire Ohio front on Lake Erie, gave a new impetus to immigration from New England and New York to which the new territory was easy of access up the Lake.

In 1807 another treaty was made at Detroit by which the United States acquired that block of land lying between the ]\Iaumee river and the Canada border bounded east by the Lake and west by a line running due north from Fort Defiance.

In the year following, 1808. another treaty was made which was the beginning of what has since been one of the most important highways in the state, the Maumee and Western Reserve Road. The tribes ceded rights of way for a road 120 feet wide from the foot of the rajn'ds to the western line of the Connecticut Reserve (east line of Sandusky county) together with a strip of land one mile "^vide on each side of the road grant given to aid in its construction. Thus gradually the agencies of advancing civilization are opening the way ahead.

By this time Peter Navarre and a number of other French families from Detroit, had located on the Bay and later John Anderson, a Scotch fur trader, well known among the Indians, had located a trading post at Fort Miami. Peter Manor, an adopted son of the Indian Cliiof Tondoganie, also located at the foot of the Rapids in 1808.

Sc Hap- Book

tiy, more especially on account of the extensive fur trade with the Indians. There were then living along the Bay and river about eight thousand Ottawa Indians with some small bands of several other tribes who made their homes with the Ottawas. Considerable commerce was carried on by light sailing craft, owned mostly in Detroit, the distribution of goods in exchange for furs and otht-r forest products forming the bulk of the trade.

This grew to such dimensions that in 1810 the Governor appointed Major Amos Spatford Collector for the Port of Miami. The Major, who also served as Postmaster, Avas the first civil officer in this part of Ohio. His first quarterly report shows the exports for three months to have been $5,610.85 worth of skins and furs, and $30 worth of bear's grease. After careful research and inquiry we are of the belief that to Maj. Spafford belonged the honor of having been the first permanent occupant and owner of land in what is now Wood county - the first pioneer. Although the collector's office of the Port of ]\Iiami and the Postoffice were on the north side of the river, the Major built his cabin on the south side, just above where Fort Meigs was afterward located. Like the other settlers, he became a squatter. - C. W. E.

Wayne'S Daring Scouts

WAYNE'S prestige as a soldier and his manl}^, bluff, honest nature drew about him the most adventurous, dare-devil characters on the frontier - men, who not only talked the Indian language, but in all the arts of wood craft, in war and hunting, excelled the Indians themselves.

Such men were Wm. Welles and Henry and Christopher Miller. Their comrades in these scouting expeditions were Hickman, Thorpe, May, Mahaffy and Robt. McClellan. The latter, McClellan, \\as doubtless the most athletic, at least the most active man on foot that ever trod the western wilderness. No white man or savage could escape if McClellan pursued, or could overtake jMcClellan if he chose to flee. Old Andrew Kace, who was with Wayne and afterwards settlod on the Maumee, told of an officer at Greenville, who had a standing offer of a fine horse to any man, red or white, who could outspeed IMcClellan. He would back off a few paces and spring over a covered army wagon with the ease of a deer going over a seven-rail fence. Then too, in courage and endurance McClellan was unexcelled.

To Wayne and his army these men were invaluable. They were the ears and eyes of his army. If he wanted informatioiT from the enemy's camp they brougnt it. If he wanted an Indian brought in alive tho\- brought him and enjoyed the excitement and hair-breadth escapes more than the dull monotony of camp. An account of these reckless dare-devil spies who accompanied Wayne, and their many exciting adventures would make an interesting chapter in border history, but like much of that historv, it has been lost. It had passed away forever when the actors themselves were gone. - C. W. E.

Grand Organization

THE Maumee Valle}^ Pioneer Association was organized in 1864, and its first president was Gen. John E. Hnnt. It held annual reunions from that time until Sept, 10, 1909, when it was merged into the Maumee Valley Pioneer and Historical Association, which had been incorporated in 1902, for the purpose of purchasing sites and accomplishing more practical results than could be achieved under the Pioneer Association. In regard to the work of this bod}^, Mr. Evers says:

It is fitting that a word of commendation be spoken for the unselfish and devoted work of the Maumee Valley Pioneer and Historical Association to reclaim and preserve these historic grounds and care for the graves of those wlio perished in defense of their country.

Some of its members have for yeai's lent their influence and put forth their best efforts in this work, at ptH-uiiiarv loss and often under the most (!is;ouragiiig circumstances. And now that their indomitable efforts are being crowned with success, no one has more reason to rejoice than those faithful and indefatigable old workers, who for so many 3'ears have devoted themselves to this lal)or of patriotism and love.

Without these efforts Fort INIeigs would never have had a monument, and the hundreds of graves thereabouts would have remained unmarked in tlie pasture fields as they have boon in the scores of years that have passed away. All honoito the Association and tbcir co-workor-.

as well as those of the Ohio Assembly, through whose patriotic action this tardy act of justice to our heroic dead was made possible. All honor, too, to the old Pioneer Association that kept alive and stimulated the interest in social and patriotic advancement.

Under the incorporation and plan of the Maumee Valley Pioneer and Historiial Association, the purchase of the Kentucky burial ground was made possible. It is under tliis business-like method that most of the real progress has been made and so much has been accomplished. This association is still in splendid working order, not for gain or profit (for not an officer receives a dollar for his services), but to aid in every way possible to jireserve and mark the historic spots in the Maumee Valley and to mark the burial places of the soldiers who laid down their lives in reclaiming the land from savagery and from the rule of kings in Europe.

As such, may not this Association claim, without overstepping the bounds of modesty, this fine monument overlooking Fort Meigs and the graves of its dead, as one of its proud achievements? But there is much yet to do. Still, with the aid Ohio has already given, the Associali(ni expects to be able to. accomplish very much in the future. With these unselfish and worthy motives, the Association is most certainly entitled to public confidence and substantial support.

The officers of the Association are : President, D. K. Hollenbeck, of Perrysburg; Secretary, J. L. Pray, of Toledo. The Association holds its annual meetings in Toledo, on the 32d of February. 'I'be Fort Meigs Commission comprises tlio following membership : John B. Wilson, Chairman ; Charles W. Shoemaker, J. L. Pray, and Wm. Corlett, Socrotarv.

WOOD COUNTY was organized by an act of the Legislature of the State of Ohio, passed February 12, 18"^(), and took effect April 1, following. The act provided, "that all that part of the lands lately ceded by the Indians to the United States, which lies within this State, shall be erected into fotirteen counties to be bounded and named as follows: No. 11, to include all of ranges nine, ten, eleven and twelve north of the second township north in said ranges, and to run north with the same to the State line, and to be known by the name of Wood." This included the county of Lucas with the exception of two small fractions taken from the counties of Henry and Ottawa. The two counties remained united until by act of the Legislature passed June 20, 1835, the county of Lucas was formed with the first countv-seat at Maumee City.

In the formation of Lucas county all that part of Wood then lying north of the Maumee river was severed from the original county of Wood. The channel of the river thereby becoming the boundary between the counties. By the act providing for the original organization of Wood county, the counties of Hancock, Henry, Putnam, Paulding and Williams were attached to the county of Wood to remain until otherwise provided by law. At their meeting on the 4th day of March, 1823, the cotmty commissioners organized the county, and the territory attached to its jurisdiction into two townships, Waynesfield and Auglaize. The township of Waynesfield was made co-extensive with the counties of Wood jMaumee City remained the seat cf Justice of Wood county, and the courts were held at that place, and the otlier county business was there transacted from the organization of the county in the year 1820, until the year 1823.

By this time the settlements on the south side of the river at or near Perrys- Imig. had become so large as to require a separate township organization, and accordingly the County Commissioners on the 28th day of May, 1823, "ordered tliat so much of the township of Waynesfield as is included in the county of Wood and lying on the south side of the Maumee river, be set ofP and organized into a township by the name of Perrysburg, and that the election of township officers be held on the 19th day of June, 1823, at the house of Samuel Spaiford in said township."

This ordtT organizing ail of the county of Wood south of the Maumee river into a townsliip, rendered the reorganization of a township for Hancock county, which up to this time had been a part of Waynesfield township, necessary, and accordingly the Commissioners organized it into a separate township by the name of Findlay. And Henry countv, wbicli by a former order had been incltided within Auglaize township, was erected into a separate township by the name of Damascus.

Battle at Providence, near Grand Rapids, battle on the site of Perrysburg, siege of Fort Wayne, two sieges of Ft. ]\Ieigs. Dudley's defeat near Miami, battle of Eiver Eaisin, defence of Ft. Stephenson and Perry's victory were all fought on or within 40 miles of the Maumee river.

Dedication

Of the Granite Monument at Fort Meigs in the Presence of Thousands - Inspiring Addresses by Representatives From Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Ohio

THE 1st of September, 1908, will long be remembered by the citizens of Northwestern Ohio, On that day the beautiful gi-anite monument that now adorns Port Meigs was dedicated with inspiring ceremonies. The monument rises to the height of 82 feet, anJ has been erected in memory of the dead of Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Virginia, who fell in the battle around Fort Meigs during the war of 1812-1813. The Toledo Blade in its description of the monument and the commemorative exercises of that day, says it was on this point on the banks of the Maumee that the progress of the British was forever checked. Here the soldiers of the king, even when amalgamated with the savage hordes of the lake country, met their superiors. The onward march of British possession was first checked, then halted and then put to flight. The British held Detroit and from that outpost made strenuous effort to encroach further and further upon the lands claimed by American settlers and the American nation. The garrison in Fort Meigs, and the men under Dudley, that bravo Kentuckian, and the troops under men like him, declared that the soldiers of the king could go no further. They fought, bled, and hundreds of them died, to uphold that proposition. The Fort Meigs monument says to the people of all the world: "This far the British came, further they could not go, for the volunteer soldiers, many of whom lie

On two sides of the big shaft are | bronze inscriptions, and on the others are phrases in raised granite letters. All four tell of the deeds of these men who fought and bled to save their country from the English, and who, dying, were buried on the Fort Meigs grounds, on which the monument stands.

There is nothing extravagant about the monument, no great figures surround it. It is simple; a magnificent stone column symbolic of the patriotic spirit of the people of today, and of their great love and gratitude for the hardy men of the war of 1812, who by their bravery and death, made it possible to erect a shaft in their memory on United States soil, instead of on a possession of the British.

Tliree hundred and twenty-two tons of Vermont granite, the wliitest and purest, are in this Fort Meigs monument, and twenty-five cars were required to haul the huge blocks of stone. Forming a foundation for it is 6,000 cubic feet of concrete. The base of the shaft is 34 feet square, rising step-like for 16 feet, where rests the obelisk.

The obelisk is 66 feet in height, and from the base it tapers from six feet square to four feet square near the top. At the tip it has been cut to a perfect point. In the whole are 3,778 cubic feet of stone.

The history of the fight for the monument is almost as interesting as the history of the battles in commemoration of which it was erected, and like the history of the war, the story of the monument fight, though bloodless, contains many records of unselfish deeds and noble efforts. Especial honor is due to the Maumee Valley Pioneer and Historical Society, to the Oliio General Assembly and

For years the graves of Ohio's dead in Fort Meigs battles were nnmarked. Cattle wandered over them, slowly munching at long grass. The burial ground was a pasture. The Maumee Valley Pioneer and Historical Association protested, but its protests were little heeded. Then, lest the shame of such a condition should always rest on the heads of the people of Ohio, the association members quietly bought up land where the dead lay.

But the association wanted a monument fittingly commemorating the bravery of these heroes, to grace the vicinity of the spots where their tired bodies lay. They wanted a monument that would properly mark in the very heart of the Maumee valley region, the limit of British victoi*j' and the end of her encroachment upon American territory.

So, in the Ohio Assembly a resolution was introduced, authorizing an appropriation of $25,000 for such a shaft. It was pushed by Lucas and Wood county Senators and Eepresentatives and adopted in 1904, but the resolution necessitated a further vote on a bill allowing the appropriation. The assojciation worked might and main in the Assembly, night and day. In addition to the author of the measure and its chief supporter, other legislators fought for it, and Governor Hai-ris, himself an old soldier, aided by suggestions and advice to the Commission.

These efforts resulted triumphantly. Tlie Ohio Assembly made the appropriation in March, 1906, and Governor Harris at once set to work to . bring the monument plan to a completion. In accordance with a provision of the biH granting the appropriation, July 23, lOOn, he appointed a commiission of three, J. L. Pray, of Toledo, C. W. Shoemaker, of Waterville, and J. B. Wilson, of Bowling Green, to start the ball rolling. June 12, 1907, the ground on which the monunuent stands, consisting of Eiver Tracts 65 and 66, comprising 36 acres, was purchased from the Hayes heirs for $10,800. October 22 of the same year the contract for the shaft was let by the commission to Lloyd Bros., Toledo's monument builders.

Throughout the winter, stone cutters worked on the great pieces of granite, cutting them to proper shape and size. June 15 of 1908, the stone was on the Fort Meigs grounds. Great cranes rapidly swung the blocks into place after the foundation of concrete had been completed, and August 1, the last piece was laid. It cost $14,000, or a total, with the grounds, of $24,800, $200 less than the appropriation.

While the stone for the shaft was being prepared, interested ones were still at work in the Assembly, with the result that a law was enacted providing for the care and protection of the monument and grounds. By this law an additional appropriation of $5,000 is made, to mako improvements in the way of trees, fences and landscape work, and also to erect a cottage, which is now completed for the care taker of the grounds, and to bo used as the headquarters of the Commi:V sion.-

In the morning a salute of four guns was fired by Battery B, field artillery, which came from Toledo the night before to carry out the flag raising ceremony.

A beautiful day, a lavish display of the national colors, the numerous refreshment stands and comfort tents, the encampment of the battery and the ins]3iring scene were enjoyed by the thousands asseml)le(l from far and near.

Early in the afternoon, Governor Harris, of Ohio, and his party arrived, when a salute of seventeen guns was thundered from the field pieces of battery B, under command of Captain Grant S. Taylor. When the bunting which draped the newly completed monument was ..drawn by the hand of David Robinson, jr., whose father was a soldier at the siege of Fort ]\Ieigs, four guns of the ll)attery belched forth another salute and the band burst into patriotic music, which was almost drowned by the cheers from thousands.

A beautiful silk flag was presented to the State by the Toledo National Union, which was run up on the 100-foot steel flag pole that will permanently mark the site of the fort, as it stands in the exact penter of the ancient strong works.

The assemblage was called to order at 2 o'clock by J. B. Wilson, Chairman of the Et. Meigs Commission, followed by an invocation by Rev. J. P. Michaelis, of Maumee.

Gov. A. L. Harris was introduced as president of the day, and in an address by Chairman Wilson the State of Ohio was presented with the completed monument, through Gov. Harris, who accepted the same in a fitting reply.

All of these gentlemen gave terse, vigorous and patriotic addresses, and if frequent applause by the thousands assembled is an indication, they were thoroughly appreciated.

These exercises were interspersed throughout with patriotic songs, rendered by a choir of 75 voices from Waterville, which proved to l)e a most pleasing feature, and one that was thorouglily enjoyed.

The night previous was spent in placing markers throughout the grounds, showing different points of interest at the Fort and its surroundings, well calculated to give those visiting the spot a more intelligent view of the situation during the memorable sieges of 1813. These were arranged imder the direction of the late C. W. Evers, well known as a student and expert in the pioneer history of this section of Ohio. He had worked faithfully several days in assisting the Commission to get ready for the commemoration, and paid the penalty for his unselfish and patriotic enthusiasm in promoting the Fort Meigs monument project. He was taken seriously ill and instead of witnessing the fruition of his arduous labors, he passed the weary hours in a hospital.

This work, so auspiciously inaugurated on that day, will, as the years go by, result in the further improvement of these grounds, and can not fail to elicit the interest of all the citizens of the Valley in its transformation to a scene of beauty well deserving of the memory of the heroic dead.

Center Tonwnship

Benjamin Cox was the first white settler in Center township. He built a cabin near the Portage, on the northea.st quarter of section 32, now the Infirmary farm, in the latter part of 1837 or early part of 1828. Collister Haskins was under the impression that Cox did not bring his family in until 1828. Benjamin did not enter the land ; still we must not grudge him the honor of being the first settler, since he located and made his improvements with that intention, but after four years sold out aud moved otf.

His son, Joseph Cox, however, made the first land entry in Center, January 13, 1831, the east half of southeast fourth of section 28, which, in April, 1835, lie sold to Joseph Russell ; the land lying on the Portage, three miles east of Main street, was for years known as the William Underwood place. A daughter ol Benjamin Cox, Elizabeth, uiarried Jacon Eberly, and was among the most respected of that galaxy of nolile pionwr women, who, witli llieir husbands, braved the deprivations of l)ygone days in the black swam]). Another daughter, Lydia, 'born at Findbn- in 181 ;. was, according to Beardsley's history, the first white child to see the light of day in Hancock county, where the same authority credils Cox with being the first white settle i-. Cox. who had performed useful military service in the war of 1812, was a native of Virginia, and seems to have possessed thai restlcs?; s]nrit of most of tlie old Ix);-- der men of that day who were never contented unless fully abreast of, or a little ahead of the westward advance of white settlements. That class usually led the van and blazed the way. Kobust and fearless, these restless, adventurous fellows, were, in a sense,' scouts for the more timid multitude then hastening over the AUeghenies, and, like the ocean spray, sc-attering itself in the valleys of the Muskingum, Scioto and the two Miamis, nntil in its northward and westward march, it had swept away the Greenville treaty line, advanced to and passed the ^lanmee.

That hardy class of men, the coarser, stronger fibre of civilization, was not only usofu], but absolutely indispensable. Their like never was before, nor can be again. The conditions which required the hard, dangerous service which thev performed, have passed, never to return. The smoother grooves and easier lines on which we move today demand qualifications so varied and changed that, in our haste to keep up with the march, we almost forget that there ever was a race of pioneers, our forefathers, who lived in cabins and, with flint-lock guns, freed this land from the bondage of kings and wrested the wilderness from the dominion of barbarous savages. x\ll honor to them. Their manhood and sterling virtues in life can never suffer by comparison with their successors. Uncrowned heroes and lieroines they were. Though most of tbem sleep in graves unmarked with stone or bronze, we can do them the more enduring honor of passing their names and deeds down to future generations on the brightest pages of our annals. Benjamin Cox moved to Indiana, where he - -Insod bis life at an advanced age.

of section 31, by Joseph A. Sargent, October 31, 1833, lying on Main street next south of the Bender road. For some years this tract was owned by Nancy Flickinger. Sargent built his cabin on the Avest side of the street, in Plain, where he also owned land. Twelve days later, November 1, 1832, Adam Phillips entered the Infirmary tract, the improvements of which he had previously bought of Ben Cox.

In the following spring, April, 1833, Phillips brought his family, wife and six children, out from Stark county, coming by way of Fremont, then Lower Sandusky. When he got as far west as Woodville with his outfit, consisting of a wagon covered with boards, and drawn by two horses and four oxen, Phillips left the road and followed the Indian trail up the Portage through the wilderness to the Cox cabin, being the iirst man to bring a wagon through on that route, now one of the best and most traveled roads in the county; he had taken the precaution to bring two good axmen, Jacob Phillips and George Hemminger, with him. The Phillipses were so well pleased with the location that Adam soon after bought more land. Few persons who came into Wood county at that early day were better suited to withstand the deprivations of life here than Adam and Catherine Phillips; both were rugged and determined; they were ambitious to have a prosperous home; their courage and hopes were boundless; everything in those first days looked bright; the bow of promise was great. Alas, how often that bow was to be overcast with clouds of discouragement - of sickness, of destitution - almost despair; yet this was almost the identical experience at one time or another, of all who came. Still there were few obstacles so great that Phillips would not find some way to overcome them. He was a medium sized, dark complexioned man with keen black eyes, hair long, and usually parted in the middle; he had a loud, clarion voice and though of limited education, he had a ready flow of language and when a bit excited would get off some startling figures of speech especially on religious subjects, which were always favorite themes with Adam.

He had a striking resemblance to some of the published pictures of Lorenzo Dow. PhillijDs was in many ways as eccentric as Dow, and his peculiar appearance and voice would attract attention in any crowd of men. Pages might be filled with incidents, both laughable and pathetic, told about him by his neighbors. One incident related, whether trvie or not, suggests how completely religious emotions took hold of him at times. It was at a period when the "Millerite" craze was being boldly promulgated, and a day had been fixed upon not far ahead, when the world was to be burned. Some of the zealous Millerites had been dinging the doctrine in Phillips' ears pretty industriously until it had to some extent become a subject of serious thought to him. One dark night about that time, as the story goes, the smoke house in the yard, where was stored the hams and bacon, took fire and the lurid glare of the rising flames soon flashed with blinding effect on Adam's bedroom window. With a piteous deep moan he sprang out of bed, shouting, "My God, Catherine, the judgment day's upon us and my soul is unprepared; call the boys," and immediately fell upon his knees, half asleep yet, and began praying so loud that no further fire alarm was needed. This story, enjoyed by none more than Adam's best friends, was told so often on him that it had doubtless like most stories, gained a little by the telling, but is given here in rather an abridged form. Phillips at once took a leading part in all improvements in the settlement; at every cabin