Springfield Township (part 12 of 69)

The fertility of the soil of the Miami Valley has long been recognized as being of a high grade, as the following quotation from Howe bears evidence: beauty and fertility were known to the inhabitants of Kentucky and the people beyond the Alleghanies, and repeated efforts were made to get possession of it. These efforts led to retaliation on the part of the Indians, who resented the attempt to dispossess them of their lands, and the continuous raids back and forth across the Ohio River to gain or keep control of this beautiful valley, caused it to be called, until the close of the eighteenth century, the "Miami Slaughter-house." The report of the French Major, Celoron de Bienville, who, in August, 1749, ascended the La Roche or Big Miami River in bateaux, to visit the Twightwee villages at Piqua, has been observed, but Gist, the agent of the Virginians, who formed the Ohio Land Company, was probably the first person who wrote a description in English of the region surrounding Dayton. Gist visited the Twightwee or Miami villages in 1751. He was delighted with the fertile and well -watered land, with its large oak, walnut, ash, wild cherry and other trees. 'The country,' he says, 'abounded with turkey, deer, elk, and most sorts of game, particularly buffaloes, thirty or forty of which are frequently seen feeding in one meadow; in short, it wants nothing but cultivation to make it a most delightful country. The land upon the Great Miami River is very rich, level and well timbered, some of the finest meadows that can be. The grass here grows to a great height on the clear fields, of which there are a great number, and bottoms are full of white clover, wild rye and blue grass.' It is stated by pioneer writers that the buffalo and elk disappeared from Ohio about the year 1795.

And Eepresentative Citizens

"The development of the Miami Valley has shown that the glowing accounts of the early explorers as to the fertility of the soil were not too highly colored. The 'Mad River Country,' as this region was called by the first pioneers, was the synonym for all that was desirable in farming lauds.

The soil iu every part of the county is more or less mixed with limestone drift. In the valleys it is of a red, dark coloi', and adapted to the raising of corn. In the southern part of the county around Medway, considerable tobacco is grown. In Pike and Grerman townships, while good crops of corn and wheat can be grown, the soil is particularly adapted to the gTO"wing of oats. In many parts of l^iad River Valley the soil is of that rich loamy character that gives a profitable growth to potatoes. The county being ramified in every direction with streams, as the description heretofore given will show, makes it exceedingly well adapted for pasturage puii^oses, and while the land has become almost too valuable to be used for stock-raising purposes, yet a growing city makes a considerable demand for products of dairy, and that industry is growing rapidly.

In reference to the kind of timber that would naturally grow upon the soil in Clark County, the following from Prof. Orton can be read with profit :

"The native forests of the drift regions were, without exception, hard-wood forests, the leading species lieing oaks, maples, hickories, the walnut, beech and elm. The walnut, sugar maple and white hickory and. to quite an extent, the burr oak, are limited to warm, well-drained land, and largely to limestone land. The upland clays have one characteristic and all-important forest tree, viz., the white oak. It occupies vastly larger areas than any other single species. It stands for good land, though not the quickest or most generous, but intelligent farming can always be made successful on white oak land. Under-draining is almost always in order, if not necessary, on this division of our soils. Tlie regions of sluggish drainage, already referred to, are occupied in their native state by the red maple, tlie elm. and by several varieties of oaks, among which the swamp Spanish oak is prominent. This noble forest growth of Ohio is rapidly disappearing. The vandal-like waste of earlier days is being checked to some degree, but there is still a large amount of timber, in the growth of which centuries have been consumed, annually lost.

"The character of the land when its occupation by civilization was begun in the last century was easily read by the character of its forest growths. The judgments of the first explorers in regard to the several districts were right in every respect but one. They could not do full justice to the swampy regions of that early day, but their first and second-class lands fall into the same classifications at the present time. In the interesting and instructing narrative of Col. James Smith's captivity among the Indians, we find excellent examples of this discriminating judgment in regard to the soils of Ohio as they appeared in 1755. The 'first-class land' of that narrative was the land occupied by the sugar tree and wal- nut, and it holds exactly the same place today. The 'second-class land' was the white Ocik forests of our high-lying driftcovered districts. The 'third-class' land were the elm and red maple swamps that occupied the divides between different river systems. By proper drainage, many of these last named tracts have recently been turned into the garden soils of Ohio, but, for such a result, it was necessary to wait until a century of civilized occupation of the country had passed. These facts show in clear light that the character of the soil depends upon the geological and geographical conditions under which it exists and from which it has been derived. ' '

To particularize, in this county it may be said that the oak predominates, the white, oak being the principal variety, although there was a considerable amoimt of red, black, pigeon, swamp and other classes of this variety.

In the fine red soil along the valleys therq are very fine specimens of black walnut, there being also found a scattering of butternut or white walnut. The oak forests were generally interspersed with hickory of the shell bark and other varieties. In the lands west of Mad Eiver were found some sugar groves, but they were not plentiful enough to make tlip maple syrup industry a profitable one. Scattered sugar trees are found in almost all parts of the county. The beech and poplar variety are almost exclusively confined to the uplands of Pike and German Townships. Along Mad River there are some magTiificent specimens of sycamore from five to six feet in diameter. The buckeye is also occasionally found.

ash and the elm of white variety prevailed. The gray or harder ash is also found scattered in the uplands, it being the same particularly with the growth of oak. Elm is also foimd in the uplands.

The sassafras and dog-wood likewise are usually found in what is known as oak land. The cottonwood, willow and quaking asj) are generally confined to the low lands. The wild cherry is found scattered in many parts of the county.

Occasionally trees of gum, ironwood, mulberry, hackberry and persimmon will be found in tlie various parts of the county, while pawpaw bushes were mostly found in the forests of the beech and poplar, and the hazelbush in the oak grove.

Some fine specimen of linn are also found, principally where the poplar and sugar grow. The wild crab-apple, black and red haw are, or rather were, found scattered here and there over the county. The blackberry bushes' grow to profusion in many ]:>laces.

At one time no doubt at least fourfifths of the 200,000 acres of this county was covered with timber. Now, possibly less than one-tenth can be found to be in that condition and very little in the condition that nature left it.

Timber of the variety not indigenous to this county has been transplanted in various places with success notably the South Carolina poplar and the catalpa.

Indian Occupation

In a ComUiion of Nature - Erie Indians - Iroquois - Twirihticees - Shawnees Lirlian Villnges - Battle of Piqu.a - Tecumseh-^Indian Character - Indian 'Fighting - Indian Incidents, etc.

Mnrat Halstead has given a beautiful description of the natural condition of Ohio, which is particularly applicable to the part in which Clark County is located, when he says "The French were truthful, as well as tasteful, when they named the Ohio, ' The Beautiful River. ' ' ' In the grand old days of the wilderness, the "ffame" crossed the famous stream, finding fords in the absence of floods. The buffaloes that roamed through the shady paradise, between the great river and the lake, knew well the wide water that divided and united the valley; and their mighty feet made roads for the herds to seek, wading or swimming to the -salty waters they loved, and the blue grass that was agreeable in its nutritious assimilation. The dainty families of the Virginian deer were pleased to sport in the bright streams. The southern squirrels gathered in armies and invaded the north, and, in frisky array, their noses and tails telling that they held steadily on their appointed course. Their tails were very helpful sails - for squirrel squadrons. There were "bear wallows" on the clay hills, where the ^dgorous animal made bath tubs for his personal use. The bear was the predecessor of the hog. In the deep woods there were showered an ample supply of acorns and beech nuts, hickory nuts and walnuts, and haws, red and blue ; loaded with the grapes named for their fond lovers the fox and the crow. There were wild crab ajoples that only the frost could mellow, and pawpaws, the temperate zone banana of the color of golden butter; and the surveyors of the new lands of promise, reported (and the story grew as it spread) that the legs of their riding horses were crimsoned with the blood of raspberries that stood on the slopes among the sugar trees. Some of the berries were red and some were yellow, and all had a delightful flavor. The May apples blossomed white over the brown fallen leaves, that each year added to the fruitfulness of the laud. There were two tall and delicate trees.

held in high, favor and having an almost oriental reputation, as it seemed they should have been the pride and luxury of the tropics. Tlie mulberry and persimmon are witnesses testifying in Ohio that there is no monopoly of sweetness in the forests of the tbrj'id zone. One ought not to forget that the Ohio woods, before they were despoiled, held groves of the slippery elm tree, which, however, was more than matched by the fragrance of the sassafras and the blazing tints of tlie red buds, seeming luminous growth of the American beauty roses, that lit up the hill sides with a springtime glory surpassing the exquisite tires the frost kindles in October. Beside the red bud, whose name is most inadequate (for it is worthy the gardens of Persia the poets paint) stood the dogwood, a gnarled and sturdy undergTowth, blossoming in the sunshine of spring as if the trees were of wands bursting into enchanting bloom, when the fires of summer poured white light to illumine saplings bending under fairy snow drifts, gathered on the boughs burdened with beauty."

In all probability the Erie Indians were the immediate successors of the mound builders. Much of history in reference to this fact rests in tradition but this seems to be now accepted as the nearest solution to the truth that can be obtained. Some historical data exists that about 1640, the Eries ranged over Ohio. Whether the mound liuilders were exterminated or removed to the south, or degenerated in the savages of prehistoric times, is a question that still remains unsolved.

The first authentic aecoimt of the Ohio wilderness is from the French explorers. The Eries held the country to the south of Lake Erie, how far is not known. They were a powerful and numerous people living in fortified villages, and tradition credits them with being the most enlightened of all the Indian tribes of North America, excepting only the Aztecs of Mexico.

The Iroquois, frequently designated as the Five Nations, as including the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Senecas and Cayugas, were the foes of the Eries.* About 1660 the Iroquois surprised the Erie warriors, stormed their fortifications and after the custom of the victors, carried away and adopted the women and children of their vanquished foes. This tribe of Indians claimed all the land north of the Ohio River, and as such tribe at one time ceded their interest in these lands to that part of the United States which was then included in the state of New York, a controversy arose as to whether Ohio really belonged to Virginia by reason of the conquest and explorations made by Clark and others, or whether it belonged to New York by virtue of the treaty made with the Iroquois. There is considerable controversy over the fact as to whether they really ever occupied much, if any, of the State of Ohio, but if so probably very little of the territory now within Clark County.

*.\boiit 1712 tlip Tiiscaroras. who had been driven from Nortli Carolina by the British, joined the confederacy, which thereafter was commonly known as the Six Nations.

to the conquest of this section, the tribes that were afterwards found in central Ohio - the Wyandottes, Delawares, Shawnees, Miamis and others did not concur therein.

While the Iroquois were a powerful confederation, it is said that they were at no time a numerous people. At the time of their greatest afiBuence they are said not to have numbered more than 25,000 and at the time of our revolution probably less than 15,000, and after their conflict with the western tribes they slowly drew back, claiming the title but really relinquishing it.

This tribe or nation of Indians were occupants of the Miami Valley as early as 1749, as the following quotation from Gist's Journal will show:

"The Great Miami river was first known as Rock River, called by the French Ri\aere de la Roche, from its rocky bed. When the Miami nation emigrated to it from the Wabash, it took their name. Its head approached near that of the Maumee, which empties into Lake Erie, and was the original Miami, but changed by the whites to avoid confusion. The two rivers with a portage between their waters, formed one of the principal canoe routes between the Ohio and the Lake. It was that by which Celeron (see next chapter) went from Ohio to Detroit. The Twigtwees were Miamis, of which nation the Pickwayliness and Pyankeshees, later mentioned, were also tribes. They were once a very powerful nation, and claimed to have held the land between the Scioto and the Wabash, from the Ohio to the lakes, beyond the memory of man. They were the only Northern Indians who had not at some time been subdued by the Six Nations, and had so harassed them when they had extended their conquest of other nations to the Mississippi that they had to relinquish their hold there and restrict themselves to their former limits. They had been faithful allies of the French from their first appearance on the lakes, and equally persistent enemies of the English, until a few years prior to this time, when they had changed their allegiance, moved from the Wabash to the Miami, and became friendly to the English. For this and in retaliation for their treaty with Groghand and Fist, the French waged a destructive war against them, taking their fort and burning their villages in 1752."

But whatever we may say about Indian occu]:>ation of Clark County, we know that the Shawnees were the immediate predecessors of the white man, that it was with this tribe that the historic battle of Piqua was fought in 1780 by General Clark, and some historians say that this tribe or nation of Indians were the immediate followers of the mound builders, butihis rests only on tradition.

The centennial of this battle of Piqua, which was held in ]8S0, brought forth a great many historical matters in reference to the Shawnee Indians, and a letter of particular importance which is found in Beer's historv, from Prof. Rovce of the

And Eepeesentative Citizens

Smithsonian Institute, gives more facts about tiiis tribe than can be found elsewhere. He says, "the Shawnees were the Bedouins, and I may almost say the Ishmaelites of the North American Tribes. As wanderers they were without rival ajnong their race, and as fomenters of discord and war between themselves, and their neighbors their genius was marked. TJieir original home is not, with any great measure of certainty, known. It is altogether improbable that it ever will be."

' ' On these grounds, 100 years ago, were the then principal villages of the Shawnee Indian tribe. This tribe had occupied different portions of the now territory of the United States during neaiiy three hundred years of preceding history, and it was the most warlike of all the Indian tribes. It had rarely been at peace with the other tribes until it went to war with the whites. Their chiefs possessed more sagacity and more of the true spirit of warriors than the chiefs of other tri))es. Their traditions were of war, extending back to a time when they, in search of conquest, 'crossed a sea' to this continent. In this tribe alone did the latter tradition prevail. Here the head chiefs made their home. On account of the abundance of game, the richness of soil, the pure water from the numberless perennial springs, the large ([uantities of fish which then abounded in the limpid waters of Mad River and its tributary streams, the facility for engaging in favorite sports upon the river and the then open prairies, these aboriginal people had become more than ordinarily attached to this place as a home. The acquisition of these lands may have been at the cost of many of their chiefs and braves. Here were the graves of their ancestors and those dear to them. They followed the natural instincts of mankind in defending this country against the aggressions of the white race."

There were probably several branches of the Shawnee tribe or nation. At the time that the white occupation of Ohio began they were no doubt in possession of Centra! Ohio, as a number of villages bear names evidencmg that fact. From the time of 1780 we find them engaged more or less in wars between the Indians and the whites and as parties to treaties with the white people. In 1790 they suffered from the expedition of Gen. Harmar, but afterwards had a share with the Miamis in his final defeat. In 1791 they rejoiced over the defeat of St. Clair, and in 1794 they were made to feel the effect of General Wayne 's victory. They were parties to a treaty of peace that was made in 1786 at the mouth of the Great Miami and in 1795, by the treaty of Greenville, they surrendered much of their territory, comprising about two-thirds of Ohio and a portion of Indiana. In 1805 they were again parties to a treaty wherein they ceded to the United States a large tract of country Ijnng north and west of the Greenville treaty line, and east of the north and south of a line twenty miles west of the Pennsylvania, and in 1805 they with their tribes granted a right of way for two roads, one running from Meigs on the Maumee on the western reserve and one from Fremont south to the Greenville treaty line. With their chief, Tecumseli, they were defeated in the battle of Tippecanoe in 1811.

and lost the entire Indian Territory within the present limits of Ohio. In return for what they gave they were granted certain reservations, one of which was a tract ten miles square near Wapakoneta, a tract adjoining of twenty-five miles on Hog Creek, as Avell as a tract of forty-eight square miles surrounding Lewistown. (There was an earlier Wapakoneta, which was located on Mad River near where a small stream enters, about two and onehalf miles south of West Libert j^)

In the war with the Mingos and Shawnees, in 1818 there was added a tract, twenty miles square, to the reserve at Wapakoneta, and fourteen miles to the one at Lewistown. By the treaty of 1831, the Lewistown reserve was ceded to the United States, as well as those at Wapakoneta and Hog Creek, and this was the last of the lands over which the Shawnees claimed any title in Ohio, they agreeing to move west. For this purpose a tract of 60,000 acres of land was granted to the Lewistown band of Shawnees in the northeast corner of Indian Territory, which has been their most recent place of residence.

Such has been the fate of the Shawnees, who once occupied this valley. When first known to the whites, they were a numerous and warlike people of Georgia and South Carolina. They abandoned or were driven from that locality, and located in Pennsylvania and took part in the tragic scenes of the Wyoming Valley.

They fought on Braddock's field, at Point Pleasant, and along the whole line of the Western Frontier, and lastly, we find them on the Wabash at Tippecanoe. Their traditions, if carefully preserved, would have embraced a hundred battlefields in as many separate districts, which now embrace eight or nine sovereign states, with a population of from eight to ten millions of people. The last Indians removed from Ohio in 1841.

The Indians in selecting a site for villages, usually gave preference to fertile lands bordering upon streams of water. The location of only two Indian villages is known to have been in Clark County. In Beer's history it is said that on a farm of the Smiths perhaps one-half of a mile west of the village of New Carlisle there .'^tood the village of Chinchima. This village was located on Honey Creek. It might have been a Miami village, as the Miami s seem to have been in occupancy of the lands along the Miami River. The other village in Clark County was that of Piqua which was the scene of the historic battle of General Clark, which will be subsequently narrated herein. The location of this village is well described in the histoiy given of that battle. The result of the battle was that the Indians practically abandoned the territory now comprised in this county. Afterwards they established another village which they likewise called Piqua, and this was at the place where the city of Piqua in Miami County is now located. They also had another town of the same name within the boundary of what is now Pickaway County. The fact that the Indians gave these same names to villages in different localities has caused considerable confusion in reading Indian history, it sometimes being hard to distinguish which one of the ditt'erent places is meant. There were quite a number of villages leadingnorth on Mad River; about two and a half miles south of West Liberty was Wapakoneta, next was the town of Maea-eheek, then three miles northwest from Mae-a- cheek, on the west side of the river, was Pigeon Town; Wapatomica near Zanesfield was next. Blue Jacket was where Bellefontaine now is. Three miles above was Buckingahelas, and nine miles Solomon's Town.

They also had a town or village three miles north of Xenia, which was called Chillicothe, and another town of the same name where the city of Chillicothe is now located in Ross County. Historians have distinguished these two by calling the one near Xenia "Old Chillicothe." This latter place was destroyed by an expedition from Kentucky, a year previous to the battle of Piqua. As the battle of Piqua is the first and only battle that has ever occurred so far as we know upon Clark County ground a description of the same cannot be otherwise than interesting.

During the Shawnee Centennial of 1880 the Hon. Thomas F. McGrew prepared a paper on the subject, and from the fact that he was not only long a resident of this place, but was also learned and cautious in a matter of this kind, I think it may be considered the most reliable that can be found an^Tvhere and I insert it herewith.

"The old Indian town of Piqua was situated about five miles west of the present site of the city of Springfield, Ohio, on the north bank of Mad River. In going there from the city named, you pass down Mad River until you reach a point where the stream runs in a westerly direction out into a large basin or prairie, which gives some evidence of having one time been the bottom of a small lake.

"At the time the Indians occupied the place, the prairie was about three miles long and one mile wide. It is now fenced off into farms under the highest state of cultivation. At the upper end of this beautiful open landscape, the river gracefully bends round and silently flows to the south; then again toward the west, continuing in the latter direction until it reaches the lower end of the prairie, where it sweeps around to the northwest, and is soon lost to sight in the forest below.

"At the time referred to, on the south side of the river was another prairie, bordered by the low hills in the distance. Over this prairie ran the road from the old Indian town of Chillicothe, about twelve miles south of Piqua, and reached the river on the south bank, nearly opposite the latter town.

' ' About two-thirds of the distance down the prairie, on the north side of the river, further progress was obstructed by what might be called a willow swamp, stretching across the prairie from the southwest to the northeast, and stopping about one or two himdred yards short of a limestone clitT, rising out of the north border of the basin or prairie.

"Behind the willow swamp was located the town of Piqua, and behind the town was a round-topped hill, rising up 100 feet from the level of the plain. From the crown of this hill the country might be overlooked for as much as five miles up

"The rocks on the north side of the prairie rose up out of the same like a stone wall, twenty-five or thirty feet high, running down in the direction of the roimd-topped hill back of Piqua, before reaching which it was suddently cut otT, leaving an open space between the hills and rocks. This was covered with a growth of forest trees of a low and bushy growth. It was impossible to pass up over this wall of rocks in 'large companies, except in one or two places, where they inclined to drop to the level of the prairie.

"At one point, there was an opening cut down from the point of the cliffs, and quite through tliem to the lowlands, by some natural force, and was so narrowed that not more than one person, certainly not more than two, could pass up or down through the cut at the same moment of time. This place was concealed from observation by a heavy undergrowth of timber, and could be easily obstructed, and could chock the advance of a victorious army.

"The approach to the lower part of the town was defended by a stockade fort, not common with Indians as a means of defense. It included a space of about two acres. The hill, the wall of rocks, the open plain, carpeted with wild flowers of all color; the silver line of the river, the hills far off in the distance, crowned with forest trees, and the long line of Indian wigwams, marking their locations by curling wreaths of smoke, as it rose up from the fires, with here and there a cornfield, indicated that the Indians had

' ' The Indian children of the town could play before the cabin doors in the lowlands, free from the apprehension of danger, while the warrior on the hill-top might sweep the whole country on the lookout for an approaching enemy, and, by an agreed signal, warn the whole tribe in a moment.

"In August, A. D. 1780, Piqua was quite populous. In addition to the Shawnees, 300 Mingoes were there as allies to aid in the defense of the place. Piqua is said to have contained, at one period, nearly four thousand Shawnees.

"The town was built after the manner of French villages. The houses extended along the river more than three miles, and were in many places more than twenty poles apart.

"The celebrated, hardened villain, Simon Girty, was the leader of the Mingo braves, as allies of the Shawnees. He had been educated in, and had adopted with savage delight, all the cruelties practiced by the Indians, and stood near, two years later, in the presence of his old friend Colonel Crawford, and derived fiendish enjoyment from witnessing his agonies while burning at the stake. Perhaps he remembered, even in the presence of this awful event, that the hand of one of the daughters of Crawford had been denied to him before he deserted to the Indians. This would be dreadful revenge, but Girty was a dreadful savage. A prisoner among the Indians, who met with the scoundrel, described him as a man with dark, shaggy hair, low forehead, contracted brows, meeting above Ms short, flat nose, gray, sunken eyes, and thin, compressed lips, with a wicked expression of countenance that made him seem the picture of a villain. C. W. Butterfield writes that, ' all the vices of civilization seemed to center in him, and by him were ingrafted upon those of the savage state, without the usual redeeming qualities of either.' He moved about through the Indian country during the war of the Revolution and the Indian war which followed, a dark whirlwind of fury, desperation and barbarity.

"In the refinements of torture inflicted upon helpless prisoners, as compared with the Indians', theirs seemed to be merciful. In treachery, he stood unrivaled. The prisoner who became his. captive must abandon all hope of pity, and yield himself to the club, the scalping-knife and the indescribable agonies of the stake. No Indian, drunk, was a match for him. He swore horrid oaths. He appeared like a host of evil spirits. He was called a beast, and a villainous, untrustworthy cur dog. This savage, compounded of all the meaner qualities that could or might disfigure the life of a human being, it has been affirmed, had in some rare moments better emotions. He met with his former acquaintance, Simon Kenton, while the latter was a prisoner of the Indians, under sentence of death, and called him his dear friend, and interfered and saved his life. He looked the scoundrel with a gloomy stare, while 'o'er his eyebrows hung his matted hair.'

"The celebi-ated chief of the Shawnees, Catahecassa, or the Black Hoof, was born in Florida and had bathed and fished in salt water before he settled on Mad Kiver. He was present at the defeat of Braddoek, near Pittsburg, in 1755, and was engaged in all the wars in Ohio from that time until the treaty of Greenville, in 1795. He was a man of sagacity and experience, and of fierce and desperate bravery, and well informed in the traditions of his people. He occupied the highest position in his nation, and was opposed to polygamy and the practice of burning prisoners. He was a man of good health and was five feet eight inches in height. He died in Wapakoneta at the age of one hundred and ten years, A. D. 1831. Without being able to find it so stated, after some investigation, in so many words, I believe that this Indian was the chief leader in the defense of Piqua when the place was invested by Gen. Clark. To jorevent, if such a thing could be jaossible, almost continual depredations of the Indians upon the border population, an expedition was organized to march against their towns on Mad River. This army rendezvoused at the place where Covington, in the State of Kentucky, now stands. It ascended the Ohio River from Louisville in transport boats, which also brought provisions and stores.

"On the opposite side of the river they built a block-house, in which to store provisions and form a base of supplies. This house was the first one built on the site where the city of Cincinnati, now stands.

"On the 2nd of August, A. D. 1780, Gen. George Rogers Clark moved with an army of 1,000 men from the point named to the Indian towns on Mad River, located in and near to the terirtory which is now included in Clark County, Ohio. The distance to be marched was about eighty miles, through an untracked forest, over which, with great labor, the

"The soldiers marched without tents, beds or personal baggage. Their rations for a thirty-days campaign were six quarts of corn, one gill of salt, with what green corn and wild game they might pick up on the march. Any meat they obtained was cooked on sticks set up before the fire. Sometimes green plums and nettles were cooked and eaten liy the men.

"The impression obtained, not only in the settlement, but with the soldiers, that if the army was defeated none of the men would escape, and that in such events the Indians would fall on the defenseless women and children of Kentucky and massacre them, burn their towns and their villages, and lay waste their country. It seemed to be a choice either that the white settlers or the Indians must be destroyed, and both parties regarded it in the same light, and acted with the calmness and bravery usual to forlorn hopes, fonned of soldiers commanded to encoimter some desperate exigency. Daniel Boone, the pioneer Indian tighter, acted as a spy for the expedition.* The skill and vigilance which entered into the campaign will be demonstrated by a presentation of the manner, form, and conduct of the army -while on the march.

"It was separated into two divisions. General Clark commanded the first and Colonel Logan the second. Between these two columns marched the pack mules and the artillery. The men in each division were ordered to march in four lines, about forty yards ajoart, with a line of flankers on each side, about the same distance from the right and left lines. In the event of an attack from the enemy in the front, it was to halt, and the two right lines would -nheel to the right, and two left lines wheel to the left, and the ai'tillery would advance to the front, the whole forming a complete line of battle. The second division would form in the same manner, and advance or act as a reserve. By calling in the right and left flanking parties, the whole force would present a line of battle in the form of a square, with the pack mules and the bagsrage in the center. In case of an attack on either flank, or the rear, the same maneuver would put the army in the most favorable position for defense or assault.

"On the 6th day of xVugust, A. D. 1780, the army arrived at the Indian town of old Chillicothe, only to find it burned and the inhabitants gone. On the 7th, some days sooner than the Indians had expected, it drew up in front of Old Piqua. A soldier had deserted to the Indians before the army arrived at the mouth of the Licking, and gave notice of the approaching expedition. The attack commenced about 2 o'clock p. m. on the 8th day of August, and lasted until 5 in the evening. The assaulting forces were divided into three separate conmiands. One, under the command of Colonel Lynn, was ordered to cross the river and encompass the town on the west side. To prevent this move from being successful, the Indians made a iwwerful effort to turn the left wing of the assaulting party, which Colonel liynn successfully defeated by extending his force a mile to the west of the town. Colonel Logan, with 4-00 men under liis ooimnand, was ordered to marcli up the south side of the river, concealing, if possible, the move from the observation of the Indians, and cross over the stream at the upper end of the prairie, and prevent their escape in that direction. General Clark remained in command of the center, including one six-pounder cannon. He was to assault the town in front.

"This disposition of the forces, with a simultaneous assault made by the separate commands, promised, if well executed, the capture of the town and a complete rout of the Indians, with the death of a great number. According to the custom of the times, no prisoners were made. All that were captured were put to death.

"The Indians, according to their plan of defense, could not safely retreat, if defeated, over the round-topped hill, for the elevation would bring them within sight and range of the American rifle, and the cannon with the command of Gen. Clark, which, in appearance and sound, created more fear than it did harm.

"Neither could they escape out of the upper end of the prairie, for Colonel Logan and his 400 men had been sent to intercept them there ; nor to the north, for this route was too much obstructed by the rocks ; nor to the west or lower part of the town, the location of the stockade fort, for at this point the battle raged with the greatest fierceness, under the command of Colonel Lynn. The constant crack of the rifle in its deadly work, the shouts of the white soldiers, the yells of the Indians, the .screams of the wounded and dying, the distant roar of the cannon, disclosed this to be the point where defeat was to be accepted or victory won.

"Simon Girtv. who never was a constant friend to any party, 'gnashing his teeth in impotent rage,' ordered his 300 Mingo Indians to withdraw from what may have appeared to him an unequal fight.*

"This moment of time, near the same hour of the day one hundred years ago, was a dark and doubtful crisis in the history of that part of our country which is now regarded as the most beautiful, fertile and thicklj' po])ulated part of Ohio.

"If Clark's army had been defeated, we cannot doubt that every white soldier would have been put to death, and the State of Kentucky invaded by the Indians, and what would have followed on the border can only be con.iectured by what we have been told in the history of Indian wars.

"The Shawnoes, disheartened by the withdrawal of their allies, and pressed by the fierce, rather desperate fighting of the whites, which they denominated 'madness,' or fate, so reckless were the soldiers in exposing their lives (and against such 'madness' the Indians never contend), gave up the fight and slowly fell back up the prairies, partly concealed by the tall grass, the wigwams, and the trees in the willow swamp. They fought as they retreated, not for victory, hut for their lives, until they reached the rocks, beneath which they had concealed their women and children.

"Their situation was now worse than it had been at the commencement of the conflict, for they had ]iassed all the low ground, making a retreat to the north l)ractieal, with the exception of the open-

-Buttcrfield. in his history of the Girtys. says thnt there were no Minsoes in Pinii.n iit the time it wns attacked by Clark and Simon fiiiiy was not there, pp. 122. 400. Ed.

ing cut down' from the top of the clitf already described, and up through this, tradition claims, they marched out into the hills. If Colonel Logan had executed his part of the plan with greater rapidity, the Indians would have been cut off from this place of retreat, and a great number of them put to death. Some persons assert that Colonel Logan marched to a point where Mad River meets with the waters of Buck Creek before he crossed the river, and then marched down the east side thereof to execute his part of the general plan. He marched about three miles, according to all the authorities, and this is the distance from the site of the Old Piqua to the inouth of Buck Creek.

"It follows that, if he did go so high up the river as the point named, that he would have travelled six miles before he could bring his men into action.

"This view of the maneuvering, after looking over the location of the battlefield, seems so unmilitary that I cannot accept it. I presume that he made a detour from the river, that his force might not be observed, as secrecy was one of the conditions of success. To accomplish his part of the general plan, he may have marched three miles, but certainly not six. Let this point be settled as it may, there is no dispute about the fact that when he got his men into position, the battle had been fought and won, and the Indians gone. The loss was about equal - twenty men on each side.

"On the 9th of August, the stockade fort, the shot-battered cabins, and the corn fields, were destroyed. On the 10th, General Clark, with his army, left for Kentucky. This campaign left the Indians without shelter or food. They had to hunt

"This once powerful nation of the Shawnees had resided near Winchester, Va., then in Kentucky and in South Carolina, after that on the Susquehanna, in the State of Pennsylvania. From this last-named point they emigrated to the banks of the Mad River, and remained until driven from Piqua by General Clark.

"The Shawnees are now no more. The nation which gave birth to the great chiefs so intimately connected with the early history of Ohio, such as Blue Jacket, Black Hoof, Cornstalk, Captain Logan, Tecumseh, and the latter 's vagabond brother, the Projihet, has gone out of history."

Tecumseh was no doubt the most noted man that ever sprung from the Shawnee tribe of Indians, of whom E. O. Randall, who is most excellent authority, said, "With the exception of Grant and Sherman, he was, in my opinion, the greatest warrior born within the borders of Ohio. He was more than a mere fighter; he was a diplomatist, orator and a natural leader of men; he watched what he knew was a hopeless contest, but fought bravely to the last; he was idolized by his followers and respected by his foes."

There is no question but that he was born at this old Shawnee town of Piqua, he himself having pointed out that site as his birthplace, during his lifetime. On the centennial dav of this memorable bat-

"Who were tliere on that memorable day? There were here (at their birthplace) the three ten-year-old brothers - triplets - with their Creek mother, two of whom became famed in the bloody historjof the West. The names of those boys were Tecumseh (a cougar crouching for his prey), Ellskwatawa (an open door), afterward named and recognized as the Prophet, and Rumskaka."

"His father, Puckeshinwa, was a member of the Kisopok tribe of the Swanoese nation, and his motlier, Methontaske, was a member of the Turtle tribe of the same ]5eople. Tliey moved from Florida about the middle of the last century to the birthplace of Tecumseh. In 1774, his father, who had risen to be chief, was slain at the battle of Point Pleasant, and not long after, Tecumseh, by his bravery, became the leader of his tribe. In 1795 he was declared chief and then lived at Deer Creek, near the site of the present City of Urbana. He remained hei-fe about one year, when he returned to Piqua, and in 1798, he went to White River, Indiana."

"A Shawnee, five feet ten inches high, and with more than the usual stoutness. He possessed all the agility and jjerseverance of tlie Indian character. His carriage was dignified; his eye penetrating; his countenance, even in death, betrayed indications of a lofty spirit, rather of the sterner cast." This writer was describing an oflQcer of the English army. His national pride would incline him to a favorable estimate of an Indian chief who served in the English army, and in that light we must regard his portraiture of Tecumseh. "I have met," says Thomas F. McGrew, ' ' and conversed with an early settler in Clark County who remembered his personal appearance, and described him as nothing above that of an ordinary Indian."

Tecumseh was born about 1768 and was killed at the battle of the Thames, October 5, 1813, being then forty-five years of age. His first prominent appearance was in the attack on Fort Recovery (near Greenville, Ohio) in 1794.

About 1805 his brother, Ellskwatawa set himself up as a prophet, denouncing the use of liquor, and all food and manners introduced by the whites. He and Tecumseh then attempted to unite all the western tribes into one nation to resist the whites, extending from the lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, and soon had 10,000 Indians gathered at Greenville.

In 1811 he was in the south getting the Creeks and Seminoles to rise and, by promise of English aid, to overthrow the United States authority.

The battle of the Thames was fought October 6, 1813. In this battle Tecumseh held the title of Brigadier General from the Briti,«h, and he is buried not far from that battlefield. He seems to have had a presentiment that he would not survive this battle, for it is said that laying aside his sword and uniform in the conviction that he might fall he put on his hunting suit and was soon killed. Col. R. M. Johnson is said to have shot him, but it was not known for some days by the Americans. All historians do not agree as to Tecumseh's ability or his general character. That he was an Indian possessed of the iseculiarities of that race is no doubt true ; that he was at times cruel and vacillating is beyond dispute, but generally I think it may be accorded to him, that if not classed in the high rank that Randall puts him, yet he was beyond question the most distinguished Indian that ever had his birth within the borders of this county.

"Let us now try to fonii some estimate of the party of the second part, of the noble red man. lie is a survival of the stone age, and probably belongs to the oldest race of man. He is brave, patient, enduring, loyal to his tribe, and fairly honest, until demoralized by evil association. On the other hand, he was cruel, revengeful, lazy, and unreliable. The curse of Reuben is upon him. 'Unstable as water, he cannot excel.' Naturally the Indian has a warlike and not peaceful characteristic. We used to hear stories of a handful of white men standing off hordes of howling savages. The fact is, that under the conditions of frontier warfare, the Indians are, man for man, equal to the white men. Success in war does not depend on the halfhour's tighting, but on weeks or months of hard campaigning. Trained in warfare from his boyhood, a master in woodcraft, and a past master in stratagems, the Indian is a better campaigner than any, except the best trained soldier."

And of his fighting, the authority last quoted from says : ' ' The character of the Indian fighting in the heavily wooded countrj^ of Oregon and Washington was very similar in character to the Indian warfare in Ohio in its pioneer days. Colonel Shaw, an ex]3erienced Indian fighter in that part of the country, gave the writer this statement of his experience. 'The Indians,' he said, 'fight like wolves or_ other wild animals which hunt and fight in droves. As the wolves attack with great fierceness wounded animals, so the Indian, by some instinct of fight attacks the weakest part of your line, and if they have made any impression crowd on that point.' 'This,' he said, 'they do without orders.' While this is true, their chiefs have been known in battle to give orders by flashes from old mirrors."

* ' One day, soon after we settled on Buck Creek, and father and the older boys were away from home, four Indians - two young men and two older ones - came to our house and called for their dinners. Mother provided a dinner for them, and while they were eating she asked one of the young men if they were at the burning of Colonel Crawford. He said that the two of the old ones were. She then told him that Colonel Crawford was her grandfather. AVhen he notified the other ones of this fact they all immediately stopped eating and appeared somewhat alarmed; but she told them to go on with their eating and not be uneasy. She then asked them if they could tell her about the death of Major Harrison. They told her that he had been squibbed to death with powder at Wapatomica, near Xanestield, Ijogan County. She then told them that Harrison was her father." This report fully corroborated one given by a man named Trover, I think, who was a prisoner at the same time with Major Harrison. He said he had seen Harrison's body black and powder-burned.

Another Indian trouble was in the time of Governor Tiffin. He was advised of the coming trouble and he sent word to Tecumseh at Wapakoneta to meet him in council at Springfield, with eighty warriors, the picked men of the Shawnee tribe. I remember one of them in particular, a man by name of Goodhunter, who had formerly camped near our house, when on a hunting expedition. He was as fine a specimen of perfect physical manhood as I ever saw. The council was held and the pipe of peace was smoked. The following incident occurred in connection with the smoking. A Dr. Hunt had a clay pipe and Governor Tiffin used it for the occasion. When he had filled the pipe and started it, he passed it to Tecumseh who looked at it a moment and then throwing it away he brought forth his tomahawk-pipe, and after starting it handed it to Governor Tiffin. I heard Tecimiseh's speech as he made it through an interijreter, and I never heard a finer orator than he appeared to be.

"About 1805, a friendly Indian, encamped on the headwaters of Mill Creek, near the present site of Emery Church, was visited by three men from this township. The visit was made in the guise of friendship; they were kindly received and entertained ; they engaged the Indian in shooting at target, and taking advantage of him when his gun was empty, shot him dowji without any other provocation than the fact that he belonged to the hated Indian tribe. ' '

The following is given by the late John Ross, of German Township, as alluding to Tecumseh and the state of affairs when he was in his glory.

"In those days, Indians were very numerous and quite hostile, so that the settlers lived in constant dread of them, many times being compelled to collect together for mutual protection. In 1806, during one of their outbreaks, all the whites for miles around collected at a place a few miles southwest of Springfield, since known as Boston, where they built a blockhouse. Colonel Ward, Simon Kenton, and a few other of the prominent men of the party, went out and made a treaty with the Indians, which was kept about two years, or until 1808, when this treaty was renewed at the then village of Springfield. The militia and many other of the settlers met about sixty Indians, among whom were five or six chiefs, principal among whom was old Tecumseh. Mr. Ross remembered him as tall, lithe figure, of good form, and fine, commanding appearance. Tie made a speech at the treat}', which, for an Indian, was remembered as being full of oratory, and remarliable for ease and grace of delivery. A white man had been murdered, for which the murderer was demanded, or the whole tribe would be held accountable. 'Can yju,' asked Tecumseh, 'hold your whole people accountable for a murder committed by one of your bad men? No, then you cannot hold us accountable.' "

"As an illustration of his morals and honor, in his early life, I give the following incident: It was communicated to me by a friend, who obtained the same information from an early settler in Clark County, that Tecumseh traded with a white man a much-worn saddle for one that appeared better. The white man repaired the saddle which he obtained in the trade, and by the use of his own skill and materials, made it look the better one of the two. When Tecumseh next met this white man with the repaired saddle, he treacherously claimed it as his own. The white man invited him to settle the right of ownership by a personal conflict, which the Indian very cowardly declined."

In Mr. Martin's history of Springfield, a description is given of the trial of three Indians who killed a white man about the year 1807, a few miles west of Urbana. This trial was held opposite the old Foos Tavern. Tecumseh was present. After a full and patient inquiry into the facts of the case, it appeared that the murder of Myers was the act of a single Indian, and not chargeable to either band of the Indians. Several speeches were made by the chiefs, the most prominent of which was that by Tecumseh. He gave a satisfactory explanation of the action of himself and the Prophet in calling around them a band of Indians; disavowed all hostile intentions toward the United States, and denied that either he or those under his control had committed any depredations upon the whites. His manner of speaking was animated, fluent and rapid, and, when understood, very forcible.

The council then terminated. During its session, the two tribes of Indians became reconciled to each other, and peace and quiet was gradually restored to themselves in various feats of activity and strength, such as jumping, running and wrestling, in which Tecumseh generally excelled. At this time, Tecumseh was in the thirty-eighth year of his age, five feet ten inches high, with erect body, well developed and of remarkable muscular strength. His weight was about one hundred and seventy pounds. There was something noble and commanding in all his actions. Tecumseh was a Shawnese; the native pronunciation of the name was Tecumtha, signifying "The Shooting Star." He was brave, generous and hmnane in all his actions.

Among others who were present at this council were Jonah Baldwin, John Humphreys, Simon Kenton, Walter Smallwood, John Daugherty and Griffith Foos.

AYe give here an incident which will illustrate their dislike to manual labor. A company of Indians were fishing near the residence of Gen. Benjamin Whiteman near Clifton, when one of them became engaged in a wrestling match with a mulatto in the General's employ. The

Indian proved to be the l)etter man, giving the mulatto a heavj" fall, after which he was unable to get up. The Indian became anxious as to the effect of the accident, and asked of the General, "What you do with me if me kill Ned?" The General replied, "You must work in his place." The Indian looking at Ned, and thinking the matter, over, replied, "Me would rather you would kill me. General."

As descriptive of the life of this race, which is now fast passing away, the following beautiful passage from the writings of Charles Sprague will not be without interest.

"Not many generations ago, where you now sit, encircled with all that exalts and embellishes civilized life, the rank thistle nodded in the wind, and the wild fox dug his hole unscared. Here lived and loved another race of beings. Beneath the same sun that rolls over your head, the Indian hunter pursued the panting deer; gazing on the same moon that sijiiles for you, the Indian lover wooed his dusky mate. Here the wigwam beamed on the tender and helpless: the council-fire glared on the wise and the daring.

"Now they dipped their noble limbs in your sedgy lakes and now they paddled their light canoe along your rock shores. Here they warred ; the echoing whoop, the bloody grapple, the defying death song, all were here; and when the tiger-strife was over, here curled the smoke of peace. Here, too, they worshipped; and from many a dark bosom went u]i a pure iirayer to the Great Sjiirit. He had not written his laws for them on tables of stone, but

"The poor child of Nature knew not the God of revelation, but the God of the universe he acknowledged in everything around. He beheld him in the star tkat sank in beauty behind his lonely dwelling; in the sacred orl) that flamed ou him from his mid-day throne; in the flower that snapped in the morning breeze; in the lofty pine that had defied a thousand whirlwinds; in the timid warbler that never left his native grove; in the fearless eagle whose untired pinion was wet in clouds; in the worm that crawled at his feet; and in his own matchless form, glowing with a spark of that light to whose mysterious source he bent in humble though blind adoration.

"And all this has passed away. Across the ocean came a pilgrim bark, bearing the seeds of life and death. The former were sown for you; the latter sprang up in the i)ath of the simple native. Two hundred years have changed the character of a great continent, and blotted forever from its face a whole peculiar people. Art has usurped the bowers of Nature, an(J the anointed children of education have been too powerful for the tribes of the ignorant. Here and there a stricken few remain; but how unlike their bold, untamed, untamable progenitors. The Indian of falcon-glance, and lion-bearing, the theme of the touching ballad, the hero of the ]iathetic tale, is gone; and his degraded offspring crawl upon the soil where he walked in ma.iesty, to remind us how miserable is man when the foot of the concjueror is on his neck.

springs are dried ui3, their cabins are in the dust. Their council-fire has long since gone out on the shore, and their war-cry is fast dying away to the untrodden "West. Slowly and sadly they climb the distant mountains and read their doom in the setting sun. They are shrinking before the mighty tide that is pressing them away; they must soon hear the roar of the last wave which will settle over them forever. Ages hence, the inquisitive white man, as he stands by some growing city, will ponder on the structure of their disturbed remains, and wonder to what manner of persons they belonged. They will live only in songs and chronicles of their exterminators. Let these be faithful to their rude virtues as men, and pay due tribute to tlieir unhappy fate as a people."

Chapter Iv The Old Northwest

The Old Nortincest - Settlement by the French - French Settlement in Ohio- French Dominion - English Dominion - Important Part in the Revolution- United States' Control - Ordinance of 1787 - Arthur St. Clair.

That part of the United States located between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers includes that part of our great commonwealth which historians now designate as the "Old North West." It comprises 265,878 square miles and was subsequently divided into Ohio with 39,964 square miles, Indiana with 33,809 square miles, Illinois with 55,414 .square miles, Michigan 56,451 square miles, Wisconsin 53,924 square miles, and that part of Minnesota lying east of the Mississippi estimated to contain 26,000 square miles, making a grand total of 170.161,867 acres. It is really and truly the heart of our country.

Its admission into the Union if I may so use the term is the beginning of a new era in tlie life of our commonwealth. All the original .states were named after persons or objects in the old country - the new states were strictly American, their names being commemorative of the American race that preceded the white man in the occupation of the lands.

Within its boundaries are found the great cities of Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and St. Paul, and many others of considerable consequence. Through its boundaries a constant stream of commerce is carried on between the states of the colonies and the great west, bej'ond the Mississippi. Without any disparagement to either that part of the country which lies to the east or the west, it may be said with respect to all the great events that have happened since this great Northwest became a part of this government she has furnished a large proportion of the means and men by which and whom they were accomplished. Especially is that true in regard to all matters occurring within the last half century. Six presidents have come from the states within the old Northwest, namely: Wm. H. Harrison, ITlysses S. Grant, Rutherford R. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, and William McKinley.

Imndred years ago, save a few Jesuit priests and French explorers, it was in the sole possession of the red man. The bison roamed over the prairies of Illinois, the dee> fed in the valleys of Ohio, the bear climbed unmolested the hills of Michigan and INIinnesota and the howl of the wolf re-echoed in the untrodden woodland. Fish abounded in the many fresh waters and the beaver and other animals were plentiful. With the priest and the explorer there came the pioneer trader and hunter, a man of intrepid fearlessness, but not as a general thing of very lofty ideals of justice or moralit5^

In the growth of civilization it has been observed, without the ability to give any very good reason therefor, that it has always had a tendency to push to the westward. The French having settled in Quebec and around Lake Champlain, following this rule or law, if such it may be termed, were soon pushing on further in the unknown west.

Sault St. Marie, still a point in our lime as a place to behold a wonderful passage for ship tonnage from our northern lakes, was established in 1765 by Marquette. This is the oldest village in the northwest, fourteen years older than Philadelphia, and established 120 years before a settlement was made at Marietta, Ohio.

This was an age in which the chevalier sought to show his fealty to his king and honor to his people by the countries he might discover and "by the right of discovery," attach them to the crown of his

In 166fi La Salle came to Canada, and going across from Lake Erie went down the Kankakee and along the river of the Mississippi to St. Louis, which he reached in 1674, and later came up the Ohio at least as far as Louisville. It is important not to forget that the Mississippi Valley was laid open to the knowledge of the world by a voyager who plowed from the Atlantic to the Gulf. On April 9. 1682, La Salle and his little party stood on the Mississippi not far from its mouth, beside a column bearing the arms of France, and with appropriate ceremony took formal possession for his royal master Louis X, of the country of Louisiana, "from the mouth of the Ohio River along the Mississippi and the rivers that flowed into it from its source beyond the country of the Sioux to its mouth at the sea." This territory was particularly known as Illinois, of which Old Kaskaskia was the capital. In 1721 it was the seat of a college and a monastery. This town at its best was claimed to have had from two to three thousand inhabitants.

The French are not good colonizers, and for this reason this country did not .proceed as rapidly in civilization as the English colonies along the Atlantic coast. The industries of this western settlement were furs, peltries and agriculture.

In 1705, 20,000 hides were said to have been shipped from the AVabash. In 1746 the Wabash country shipped 600 barrels of flour to New Orleans. These events occurred almost 100 years before Ohio was admitted into the Union as a state.

Ohio was bardly in tlie track of either the French priest, trader, or explorer, yet at an early date a settlement was made on Lake Erie. In 1749 Celeron De Bienville, a French explorer, acting under the order of the governor-in-chief of New France to drive hack intruders, made an exploration into the central part of this state. He had under him a chaplain, ahout 30 soldiers, as many Indians, and ahout 100 Canadians. This expedition crossed over from Canada and embarked on the muddy waters of the Ohio, and down to the mouth of the . Great Miami, thence making his way up that stream as far as Piqua. He burned his canoes, and crossed over on ponies to the other side of the water, and thence returned to Montreal. He planted several plates of lead at the mouth of various rivers, among others the Kanawa, Muskingum and Great Miami, signifying a renewal of possession of the country One of these plates was found at Marietta in 1798 by some boys on the west bank of the Muskingum and one at Kanawa in 1846, by a boy playing on the margin of the river.

The following is a translation of the inscription on the plate: "In the year 1749, reign of Louis XV, King of France, we, Celeron, commandant of a detachment by Monseiur the ^laniuis of Gallisoniere. commander-in-chief of New France to establish tranquility in certain Indian villages of these cantons, have buried this plate at the confluence of the Toradakoin, this twenty-ninth of July, near the river Ohio, otherwise P.eautiful River, as a monument of renewal of possession which we have taken of the said river, and all its tributaries; inasmuch as the preceding Kings of France have enjoyed it, and maintained it by their arms and treaties ; especially by those of Ryswick, Utrecht, and Aix La Chapelle."

This explorer visited the town which was called Pickawillany, which was situated in the northern part of Miami county about nine miles southwest of Sidney. This place was considered as the first trading post of English occupation in Ohio. It was destroyed by the French and Indians in 1752. Just when the town or trading post of Pickawillany was established is not definitely known, but it was sometime prior to the first French expedition. It is said that at one time it contained 400 Indian families, and was the residence of the principal chief of the Miami confederacy.

About seventeen j'ears, after the destruction of Pickawillany, a French trader by the name of Loramie established a store about fifteen miles north of the site of Pickawillany. and this place became a prominent spot in history, and a prominent point in the boundaries of the Greenville treaty, and also in giving the boundaries of early counties.

"Wliether or not there was ever a French settlement in this county rests only in tradition, but tradition has it, and has some probabilities to snjiport its truthfulness, that not far from the ancient Indian village of Piqua in this county thei-e was a French trading post.

a lawful dominion over this great northwest. The inhabitants of the colonies, however, were not unmindful of the fertility and value of this country. The trading territory offered by the fur bearing animals that inhabited southern Michigan had not escaped the notice of the Dutch trader. With characteristic determination push he was constantly widening his territorial claims in the direction of this French dominion.

The Iroquois Indians, while perhaps never in actual possession of much of the territory of Ohio and the Northwest, yet claimed title to all that country'. This tribe of Indians had in 1684 at Albany placed themselves under the protection of King Charles, and in 1726 they conveyed all their lands in trust to England to be ]3rotected by that government. This gave a ground of contention between the English and the French settler. Beginning at the trading post of Piekawillany, it was. continued with French success in the memorable defeat of General Braddock at Ft. Pitt in 1753, and was crowned with English triumph on the heights of Abraham in t!ie battle of Quebec, September 13, 1759, between the English general Wolfe and the French General Montcalm. By the treaty of 1763 the king of France renounced all pretension which he had to such territory and ceded all his rights thereto to the British crown.

The English were now the imdisputed masters of this great northwest. What real benefit it was to them is a serious question, for we find that in the short space of twenty years they were compelled to surrender it to the government formed by the thirteen colonies. However, this English domain was of very great importance regarded in the light of its development by people from the English colonies. While considerable ill will might still be found among the French settlers, the English colonists, ingratiating themselves into the good will of some of the Indians, by making accusations against the French of wronging them and with their characteristic push, were successful in many of their dealings with the savages and enabled to make rapid headway in the settlement of various places. Tlie fact seems to be, however, that the French as a general rule, were kindlier in their dealings with the Indians than were the English colonists.

Had it not been for these settlements made by persons from the English colonies, and had it not been that this territory was under dominion of the English when the treaty was made, acknowledging the United States as an independent government, this great northwest would not have been included, and it did remain for sometime afterward a question, just how far north the English Government did surrender her dominion to the United States. It was a mater of considerable controversy and was not finally settled until the war of 1812.

The taking or keeping of this northwest territory upon the part of revolutionary forces, has been frequently recognized as one of the most important events in American history.

Gex. Arthur St, Clair And Bepkekentative Citizens

great background of the Revolution. The fiendish proposal of the British ministry to secure the scalping knife and the tomaliawk in aid of the mother country against ]jer rebellious cliild, called forth from the elder Pitt another of his immortal bursts of eloquence. But the British power would not abandon its brutal plans. The military posts of the British, on the lakes and the rivers of tlie Illinois country, were rallying centers for the western savages, who were provisioned, armed and infuriated against the Americans, and sent forth on expeditions of massacre and rapine. Deeds of bravery and patriotism were enacted in the Ohio Valley more romantic than the often rehearsed events in the Atlantic colonies. The soil of Ohio was the scene of a large share of the struggle for existence of the new-born republic. The career of the colonists from Lexington and Concord was chiefly a series of victories during the years 1775 and 1776 to the autumn of 1777, when the clouds grew heavy and the storm gathered in the South. The northern army of Gates had disbanded after the surrender of Burgoyne (October 7). Howe occupied Philadelphia and comfortably quartered his army therein. With his soldiers the winter of 1777-78 was a period of exultant gaiety. He only awaited the milder weather of si)ring that he might dispatch a few regiments to Valley Forge and disperse or destroy the remnant forces of Washington that were well nigh exhausted by the hunger and cold of that terrible winter. The cause of human liberty seemed doomed to inevitable defeat. General Howe held the Americans at bay east of the Alleghanies. The British cause was being strengthened in the nortliwest. General Hamilton, in his headquarters at Detroit, proposed to annihilate any assurance of success tlie Americans might hope for beyond the Alleghanies. But there was a Washington in the West as well as in the East. He was George Rogers Clark, a huntsman of the trackless forest interior of Kentucky, who with the soul of a patriot, the bravery of an American soldier and the mind of a statesman, hastened on foot, through six hundred miles of wilderness, to Williamsburg, the capital of Virginia. There he obtained audience with Patrick Henry, then governor of Virginia. Clark proposed to strike the vast power of Great Britain in the northwest and save that magnificent territory to American independence. His plans were appreciated and ap]Droved, but troops could not be spared him from the Continental army; they were needed to a man in the East. Clark gathered two hundred Virginia and Pennsylvania liackwoodsmen, and while the sun of spring was melting the snows of Valley Forge and hope and courage were again animating the heart of AVashington, Clark set out on that famous expedition for the capture of the interior northwest posts of Great Britain. It was the campaign of the "rough riders" of the Revolution. It was the dash of Sheridan in the Shenandoah. It was Sherman's "nuirch to the sea," through the interior of the enemy's country. This caTupaign of Clark broke the backl)one of British strength in the west. The Britisli posts of Illinois and Indiana were all taken save Detroit. The Northwest was secured and preserved to the United States."

of General Clark aud other men had in procuring an acknowledgment of independence, one thing remains sure, and that is that the great northwest became a part of the United States acknowledged by the Treaty of 17S3.

Much of the old northwest remained in ignorance of the consequences of the political events that were then enacting at the time that the treaty of Paris was made, and neither the United States nor Great Britain fully understood the extent or the true location of the boundaries that were assigned in= the treaty acknowledging the independence of this country. There was consequently more or less friction between this and the mother country in reference to some of these boundaries which were not finally overcome until the termination of the War of 1812. The English were jealous of the growing power of this country, and for some time, no doubt, felt little disposed to assist us in settling questions relating to the territory of this great northwest. This feeling was manifested more about Detroit and the Lakes than elsewhere, and probably had its share of influence in bringing on the War of 1812, which finally setled all controversies. However, long before the Treaty of 1785 and continuing up until the adoption of the Ordinance of 1787, there was considerable contention between the colonies as to the ownership of various parts of this northwest. Virginia claimed it by right of conquest, which had been made through means furnished by her and her ])atriotic Governor, Patrick Henry, to General George Rogers

Clark. New York made a claim based largely upon the treaty made with the Irocpiois Indians, who claimed all this northwestern country, they ceding to her therein all their right and title to that country'. Massachusetts aud Connecticut made claims resting upon royal grants made to them, in which grants the territory was made to run east and west between certain degrees of latitude without any particular termination of their western boundary. All these contentions between the colonies were compromised in concessions, or reservations of lands for certain purposes when the Ordinance of 1797, organizing the great northwest into a territory, was passed by the United States Congress, or rather by Congress of the colonies, for the United States Government in its present form had not yet come into existence.

Lord Chatham, in the British Parliament said that "for solidity of reason, force of sagacity and wisdom of conclusion under a complication of difficult circumstances, no nation or body of men stand in preference to the general Congress of Philadelphia."

Daniel Webster said: "We are accustomed to praise the law givers of antiquity, we hope to perpetuate the fame of Solon and I^ycurgus. but I doubt whether one single law of any law giver, ancient or modern, has produced effects of more distinct, marked and lasting character than the Ordinance of 1787. We see its consequences at tliis moment and we shall never cease to see them, perhaps, while the Ohio shall tlow." This ordinance provided that the territory northwest of the Ohio River was to be divided into not less than three nor more than five states. While making ample provision for securing to the inhabitants the right to worship according to the dictates of their conscience, and preserve to them the liberty of person guaranteed by the writ of habeas corpus, and the right of propertj' and person determined by trial ^y jury, and recognizing the necessity of schools and education, the most important provision was that in relation to slavery. The part that the United States played in the final eradication of that iniquitous institution can hardly be determined. This provision was in Article Six of the ordinance and was as follows : "There was to be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than for the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." It was further provided - probably as a balm to soothe the injured feelings of some slave holder - "That any person escaping from the same from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original states, such fugitive shall be lawfully reclaimed and be brought back to the ]ierson claiming his or her labor as aforesaid."

To whom credit should be given for this provision ui)on the great question of slavery the following from Bancroft may be read with interest:

"Thomas Jefferson first summoned Congress to prohibit slavery in all the territory of the United States: Rnfus King lifted up the measure when it lay almost lifeless on the ground, and suggested the immediate instead of the prospective prohibition: a Congress composed of five Southern States to one from New England and two from the Middle States, headed by William Graj^son, supported by Richard Henry Lee, and using Nathan Dane as scribe, carried the measure to the goal in the amended form in which King had caused it to be referred to a committee; and as Jeiferson had proposed, placed it under the sanction of an irrevocable compact."

If the slave holder had realized the full consequences of this prohibition of slavery clause in the Ordinance of 1787, the opposition would have been more strenuous than it was, but he did not realize then what a great power the northwest would exercise in the future history of our country. Having the guarantees of property and person secured by this great ordinance, the settlement of the northwest began in earnest and continued with rapidity.

Shortly after the adoption of the ordinance Congress elected as the first governor of this great territory a young military officer who had shown l)oth patriotism and military talent.

The following beautiful and pathetic statement in reference to that distinguished man is taken from Governor Nash's address at the Ohio Centennial.

"Fellow-citizens, I have a story that I desire to tell you. It is a story of patriotic eifort and yet it seems to me that it furnished the best example of the ingratitude of republics of any that has come within mv knowledge.

"In 1758 there was a young Scotehmau about to leave his home. He was a graduate of the University of Edinburgh. He was thoroughly educated, he was tall, handsome and twenty-three years of age. He enlisted in the army of the king of Great Britain and became an ensign in one of his regiments. He left his home in Scotland and came to America under Amherst. In the French-English War he served faithfully and bravely before the walls of Louisburg. For gallantry in that action he was promoted to the position of second lieutenant in his company. Then a few years later he was joined to the command of the great and gallant Wolfe in the final sti'uggle between the French and English, for the possession of Canada. Upon the i^lains of Abraham, in the attack upon Quebec, he was one of the brave soldiers who followed the gallant Wolfe, who fell upon that bloody field. One of the color bearers fell, bearing down with him the colors of his regiment. This lieutenant seized those colors covered with blood and carried them bravely until the end of that conflict, which has been told in history and. sung in song for nearly one hundred and fifty years.

"That brave Scotchman was Arthur St. Clair the first governor of the Northwest Territory. He resigned from the English army; he became the hu.sband of a loved wife; he was endowed with ample fortune, and in 1706 he went to western Pennsylvania, near Pittsburg, and settled among her beautiful hills and became one of the leading pioneers of this western countr3^ called upon by John Hancock in 1775 to raise a regiment to engage in our great struggle for liberty. He responded as a patriotic man always responds. At this time he wrote to an intimate friend: 'I hold that no man has a right to withhold his services when his country needs them. Be the sacrifice ever so great, it must be yielded upon the altar of patriotism.'

"He raised a regiment of Pennsylvanians. He joined in the expedition of Arnold against Montreal for the capture of Canada. He was there barely in time to save the army of Arnold from utter rout. Then he was called by Washington to New Jersey. He was then made a major-general in the Revolutionary army. He engaged with Washington in the battles of Trenton and Princeton. There he gave advice to oiir gallant chief which was esteemed most highly. After those victories he returned to the northern territory and with his command soiight to stay the invasion of BurgojTie. He was through all those conflicts which finally resulted in the surrender of Burgoyne and his army. Then he joined Washington, again became his faithful adviser, was a favorite of Alexander Hamilton, was a friend of LaFayette, the brave Frenchman who came to our rescue. By them all he was esteemed and honored. At Valley Forge, Washington called upon this brave general, with his fortune to come to the rescue of his army. W^ith his own money he assisted in feeding Washington's soldiers; with his own money he partially clothed them ; by his patriotism he impoverished himself.

dinance of 1787 was framed. In the making of its provisions he took an active part. That ordinance became the law of this territory. Then the Continental Congress saw fit to elect Arthur St. Clair as the governor of the territory, whose ordinance he helped to frame. For fourteen years he remained here as the governor of the Northwest Territory. His labors, were very irksome. The value of what he did for our pioneers can never be over-estimated. At length there came the time in 1802 when he must retire from office. He went back to his beloved Pennsylvania hills.

"He was an old man, yet he sought to recuperate the fortune which he had lost. He pleaded with Congress to restore the money to him which he had expended upon the army that gave us our liberties; but that Congress, poor and impoverished, too, made the lame excuse that St. Clair's

"He went !)aek to his home in Pennsylvania and lived in a hovel with his widowed daughter. At last one day, with some truck that might give him the sustenance of life, he started with his jiony and cart to a nearby town and on the way a wheel fell into a rut. The aged general was thrown from the cart upon the stony ground and severely injured. There he lay nearly a day before he was discovered and rescued. In a few days he died. He was by his Masonic brothers buried in a little country graveyard at Greensburg. They erected a i^lain, brown sandstone monument over his tomb and inscribed upon it these words :

"The earthly remains of General Arthur St. Clair are deposited beneath this humble monument : which is erected to supply the place of a nobler one, due from his country.

"It is too late to do justice to St. Clair, but we can honor his memory by erecting over that lonely grave till monument which is due from his country."

Oliio - Admission of State - County and Township Organization - Organisation of Counties - Formation of Clark County - Systems of Survey - The U. S. Rectangular Survey - Miami Rivers Survey - Pre-emption Lots - Table of Measurements - Name of Boundary - Selection of County Seat - New Boston - George Rogers Clark.

While no one will doubt the integrity and iDatriotism of General St. Clair, yet in the light that we now have, most of us will agree that some of his ideas upon fundamental principles were hardly in accord with those underlying a free government, but to that reason all his difficulties with the Territorial Assembly cannot be attributed. He was a Federalist, they were Republicans, and to that reason, perhaps, as much as anything else, may be attributed his unpopularity with the Legislative Assembly.

Prior to 1800 all the northwest constituted a territory by that name. In this year was organized the territory of Indiana with Gen. Williani H. Harrison as governor, leaving practically in the old territory that part which was later formed into the State of Ohio. There never was a territory by the name of "Ohio." The official name was "The Eastern Division of the territory of the United States northwest of the River Ohio." At the time Indian Territory was created, that which was left within the bounds of the present state of Ohio had sufficient ]iopulation to become a state. Those in opposition to Governor St. Clair conceived that it would be easier to get rid of him by having Ohio admitted as a state, than to have him removed as governor of the territory. It would perhaps be unjust to say that this was the sole motive. Tlie territory was rapidly filling up and naturally the people desired to assume the dignity given to statehood. By an Act of Congress thirty-five members representing the counties of Trumbull, Jett'erson, Belmont, Washington, Fairfield, Ross, Adams, Clermont and Hamilton, on the basis of one member for each twelve hundred inhabitants were called together in Chill ico the in November, 1802, and formed a constitution on that day for the state of Ohio. On this basis at the time these thirty-five delegates were selected, the state then had a population of 10,500. The exact date of the admission of the state is a matter of some confusion, but March 1, 1803, is genei-ally considered to be the true date when Ohio became a state and the territory ceased its political existence.

In the older states there were two kinds of local organization, one which prevailed in New England, which was known as the town system, and the other prevailing in Virginia, known as the county system, which have been very well described by Hinsdale.

"The mingling of elements from all parts of the Atlantic slope in the new population, and particularly the appointment of New England and Middle State men in about equal numbers to Territorial offices, decided the character of the local institutions now found in Ohio. Two radically different types of local government are found in the old States - the town system and the county system. As the names indicate, the first assigns the major part of political power to town or township officers, the second to county officers. These systems are traceable to England. The founders of New England came from towns and cities, and they naturally set up municipal institutions ; the founders of Virginia came from the English counties, and as naturally set up county institutions. That the one would be more congenial to a civic democracy, the other to a landed gentry, goes without the saying. As is well known, Mr. JetTerson strove to introduce the New England system into Virginia, and made it the subject of frequent eulogy. 'These wards, called townships in New England,' he said, in 1816,- 'are the vital principle of their governments, and have proved themselves the wisest invention ever devised by the wit of man for the perfect exercise of selfgovernment and for its preservation.' Again, in 1810, he speaks of 'the large, lubberly divisions into counties,' of the Middle, Southern and Western States, 'which can never be assembled.' Local government in the Middle States is a compromise of the town and county systems; the county is more than in New England, and the town more than in the South. Governor St. Clair was from Pennsylvania, Judge Symmes from New Jersey, General Putnam from Massachusetts ; and the three established in the Territory local institutions that are a sort of cross on the compromise and town systems.

"Before the state was admitted into the union counties were formed by proclamation of the govei'nor. In this manner there were ten counties organized, towit, Washington in 1788, Hamilton 1790,

Wayne 1796, Adams and Jefferson in 1797, Ross 1798, Trumbull, Clermont and Fairfield 1800, and Belmont 1801. Which one of these ten counties included our county remains somewhat of a question, resulting chiefly from the fact that the old boundary lines have in time jjassed away. It is interesting to know that the county of Washington originally included almost all of eastern Ohio. It began on tlie bank of the Ohio River, where the western boundary line of Pennsylvania crosses it, and running with that line to Lake Erie; thence along the southern shore of said lake to the mouth of Cuyahoga River; thence up said river to the portage between it and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum; thence down that branch to the forks at the crossing place above Ft. Lawrence; thence with a line to be drawn westerly to the portage on that branch of the Big Miami on which the fort stood that was taken by the French in 1752, until it meets the road from the lower Shawnees town to Sandusky; thence south to the Scioto River; thence with that river to the mouth; thence up the Ohio River to the place of beginning."

The Ft. Lawrence referred to above was a fort built near the north line of what is now Tuscarawas County and not far from the village of Bolivar. It was an important point in Lord Dunmore's war. The correct spelling of the name of this fort is "Laurens," as it was named after General Henry Laurens, who was then, in 1778, president of Congress.

The "fort that was taken from the French in 1752," referred to in the description of Washington County, was at the village of Pickawillany ; and the

"Lower Shawnees towu" no doubt referred to the towns of the Shawnees on the Scioto River, in contra-distinction to those on the Miamis and Mad River, and this would then make the Scioto River the western boundary line of Washington County and therefore would not include Clark County.

When Hamilton County was organized it was described as "beginning on tne bank of the Ohio River at the confluence of the Little Miami and down said Ohio River to the mouth of the Big Miami, and np said Miami to the standing stone forks or branch of said river, and thence with a line to be drawn due east to the Little Miami and down said Little Miami to the place of beginning."

Where this "standing stone forks" was upon the Rig Miami I am unable to say, from the fact, however, that the Little Miami hardly as.sumed the dignity of a river within the present boundaries of Clark County. It is not likely that the original boundaries of Hamilton County included much of this county. However, when AVayne County was organized it followed the lines of Washington County up to the point where it turned south to meet and follow the Scioto River, to-wit, where the line drawn from Ft. Laurens to Pickawillany crossed tlie road to Sandusky, and this ))oint is referred to in the establishment of Wayne County as the eastern boundary of Hamilton, so it seems that, if not l)y proclamation, yet by a general assumption, that Hamilton County was made to include all west of the western boundary of Washington County and south of the southern boundary of AVa^^le County, thus including Clark County, and that the entire state of Ohio was at that

In 1798 Ross County was formed, and took its territory from the counties of Washington and Hamilton. It had its western boundary in a line drawn due north from the mouth of Elk River or Eagle Creek; there was a ford there across the Ohio River. This creek or river emi^ties into the Ohio in Brown County, and if a line be drawn due north you will find it included the half or more of Clark County in the formation of Greene Count}'.

When Cireene County was formed, in 1803, it was taken from Hamilton and Ross. The territory now in Greene County was described as follows: "Beginning at the southeast corner of the countj^ of Montgomery, running thence east to the Ross County line, in the same course continued eight miles into the said county of Ross: thence north to the State line (State line here referred to, I presume means the south boundary line of the Greenville Treaty) : thence westernly with the same to the east line of Montgomery County: thence with the said boundn-y line of Montgomery to the beginning."

The upper part of this teri'itory was in turn taken to form Champaign County, which took all of Greene County now included in Clark County, together with a strip six miles on the east off Madison, Franklin County having been originally taken from Ross, and Madison from Franklin.