Springfield Township (part 39 of 69)

Community centers: South Charleston is an acquisition, and is older than the township. Because of its location on the stage route between Columbus and Cincinnati, it was a busy center in its early history. Some of the most celebrated taverns were in that vicinity, and distinguished travelers were entertained in South Charleston. Ii\ 1849 it became an incorporated town. Its "palmy days" were in the time of the stage coach, and it still has its quota of aged persons who remember all about it.

One comment was, "South Charleston is a town of strong early associations," and another was, "Conservative South Charleston." It is a place of wide, well shaded streets, and commodious homes, although the townspeople were discussing a recent business reverse, and hoping the community would speedily recover from it.

It is related that when Charles Paist had the principal business house in South Charleston an amusing incident occurred, involving a negro, a plug hat, a roll of butter, a hot stove - and Mr. Paist, who was chief interlocutor. The negro went into the back room, stole a roll of butter and concealed it in his hat; because Paist suspected the theft, he detained the negro by the side of the hot stove much against his apparent inclination, and soon the evidence was against him. The stream of melted butter told the story of the theft, and when the negro finally left the store, the merchant had his confession - no need of other witness than the melted butter.

A booklet written by Albert Reeder is the source of much information about South Charleston. He relates that Fred Stowe, a son of the writer of Uncle Tom's Cabin, was once in the community with a governess, and that they played together, fishing and turtle hunting, and he refers to a rail fence separating the town from an adjoining woods pasture. In it was a pond on which the boys played shinny in winter, and the hunters would shoot wild duck from it in summer - a true story that requires a vivid imagination to comprehend it today.

In the days of grist mills, saw mills and blacksmith shops, there was a blacksmith in South Charleston whose specialty was mules and oxen, and in support of the story there was a yoke of oxen drawing a wagon and a second vehicle drawn by a single ox in shafts passed through Springfield, November 3, 1921, that attracted much attention.

The first mayor in South Charleston was Joseph S. Peat, and the marshal was James Thacker; when the boys were noisy on the streets, he would drive them home - no need of a curfew, and an old account says, "It is surrounded by a fine grazing and tillable country." There are attractive suburban homes, and it is the trading center for a large community. There is a village manager and a commission to take care of the future, and one measure recently adopted restrains school children from tying their sleds to automobiles, the fate of three Wittenberg college girls who were injured in that vicinity prompting it. By practicing economy, notwithstanding the business reverses, the South Charleston village manager and commission is able to function without borrowing money.

Other centers in Madison - Selma and Dolly Varden. Selma has the distinction of having been peopled by Quakers, there being two Quaker communities in Madison Township; the Orthodox Friends are

The population of Madison . Township in 1840 was 1,115 while forty years later it was 2,396, showing a gain of 1,281 persons in that period; in 1920 the census report gives to the area 2,370, showing a gain of ninety-three in ten years, and there never has been a decline shown in the number of citizens.

While one account says there were twenty townships in Champaign County, and that ten of them were transferred to Clark County, another statement is that when there were two townships in Clark County one was Springfield; it is conceded that the township is named for the town, and the story of James Demint need not be repeated, although outside the town among the early settlers were: Smith, Tuttle, Ward, Beesly, Ricketts, Ritt, Warder, Murray, Hunt, Mulholland, McLaughlin, Crabill, Shuey and Needham.

Lagonda, which is now within the corporate limits, was on the map almost as early as Springfield. While Simon Kenton first lived on Mad River, he later lived in Lagonda. He once operated a mill there, but avoiding the complexities of civilization, when it became a community, he went to the frontier again.

The City of Springfield is a story within itself, and other centers are : Sugar Grove Hill, Rockway, Durbin and Beattytown, sometimes called Emery Chapel, and all are suburban to Springfield. The city sustains the relation to the township that New York does to Queens County, or Chicago to Cook County - the balance of power is in the city.

In 1840 the population of town and township was 4,443, and in forty years the gain was 20,012, bringing the number to 24,455 in 1880, although after 1850, when Springfield was incorporated as a city, it had a separate report from the township, the 1920 report attributing 3,698 people to the township outside the city, which was a gain of 619 in ten years. In 1920 the city showed a population numbering 60,840, and since in 1910, it was 46,921, it had gained 13,919 in ten years. In the century year 1900 the population of Springfield was 38,253, indicating a continual growth since the beginning of the twentieth century.

It was homes rather than society desired by the settlers in Pike Township, and until January 30, 1829, there was no effort made toward an organization. While it is remote from Springfield, it has its own community centers, and is equally distant from trading points in Miami and Champaign counties. Andrew and Samuel Black were early residents, and the occupation is agriculture.

The community centers are North Hampton, Dialton and Seth, the latter not shown on the map. While North Hampton once had electric current from the Springfield, Troy & Piqua Traction Company, when that was no longer available, it installed its own electric plant and direct current is furnished consumers for business houses, residences and the streets, lights furnished from sundown till 9:30 each evening, the village council hoping to make the plant pay for itself. While other

In 1840 Pike Township had a population numbering 1,437, and the increase in forty years covering the period till 1880 was 321, but in 1920 the area had lost 261, showing a population of 1,497, it having lost 133 in the last ten years.

While each township and town has its problems, under present management many individual interests have become community concerns, and they are treated in collective manner; while the little red school house had its place, consolidation has changed the panorama, and educational development is described in a separate chapter. While every community had its first school teacher, he served his day and generation and the world holds him in grateful remembrance, but community conditions aje different and he would not meet the requirements today.

When asking or conferring favors, men and women do not recognize township, county or state boundaries, although loyalty still actuates them. In 1900 there were 58,939 citizens accredited to Clark County; in 1910 there were 66,435, and when the census was computed again in 1920 there were 80,728 people within the borders of the county.

On February 9, 1803, Ohio was admitted as the seventeenth state into the Union, and according to the 1920 census its population of 5,759,394 represented an increase of 992,273, or 20.8 per cent over the 1910 showing, and during that decade the entire population of the United States increased 14.9 per cent, showing the increase in Ohio to be 5.9 per cent greater than in the country at large, and the 14,293 gain in Clark County is a fraction greater than the gain in the entire commonwealth of Ohio. Forty-nine counties show an increase from the 1910 to the 1920 census, while thirty-nine counties show a decrease in the number of inhabitants; no boundaries have been changed, and local conditions account for the fluctuations in the state as well as within the bounds of Clark County.

In The Wake Of The Moundbuilders

While in the bibliography of Ohio Earthworks mention is made of the mounds and embankments in Clark County, this feature in the history is adapted from an exhaustive study made by Arthur R. Altick, who is a collector of Indian specimens and antiquities.

The Altick collection is extensive and embraces all the varieties of Indian relics seen in the best museums; while some of it was purchased, most of it is a result of personal research in Clark and Miami counties. Indeed, Mr. Altick has some rare specimens, and among them are many curios that he secured from the mounds in Clark County. While scientists recommend that such research should be conducted under the direction of experienced persons representing state or local organizations, Mr. Altick has followed his own initiative, always restoring the mounds to the condition in which he found them. W. H. Rayner has also made a study of the mounds in Clark County.

Mr. Altick writes : "In the remote ages of the past, the region comprising Clark County was the home of a race known as the Moundbuilders. The only records of this once numerous although now extinct people are the mounds they left, and the articles found within them. They attained to a higher degree of culture than their successors, the American Indians, whom the white men found on this continent; this assertion is corroborated by the fact that pottery executed with considerable artistic skill has been found in the mounds as well as remnants of coarse cloth, which indicates that the Moundbuilders knew something about the art of weaving. Copper and stone tablets with hieroglyphic "drawings; mica and shell ornaments; copper axes and tomahawks, the metal of which appears to have been subjected to an annealing process to make it harder; stone pipes executed in the designs of birds, reptiles and animals, the eyes set with pearls, all have been found upon opening of these ancient earthworks.

Clark County seems to have been a favored region by the Moundbuilders, doubtless due to its topography, the virgin forests offering unrestricted hunting grounds, and the numerous springs affording an unlimited supply of drinking water; it seems that Mad River afforded fish in abundance at the time that ancient race inhabited the country. There are about forty mounds located within the county, the largest of which is near Enon and is known as Knob Prairie Mound. It is on the 300-acre farm in Mad River Township owned by Frank Werden, and it is surrounded by a race track; the surrounding country is practically level, and it is land adapted to agriculture; the sub-soil immediately about it is of a comparatively shallow depth, the material for its construction evidently having been taken from the surface around it.

Knob Prairie Mound is 200 feet in circumference, 50 feet high and conical in shape; it covers an area of approximately one acre. A hedge fence encircles its base, and fruit trees grow on its sides. A hackberry graces the top, and in season lilacs blossom there; the mound is well set in blue grass, with spiral paths leading to the summit and many visitors climb to the top of it. Knob Prairie Mound marked the Humphrey farm before Werden acquired it, and sight-seers are not regarded as trespassers who come and go without disturbing anything. The trees and shrubbery found there bear no direct relation to the Moundbuilders; they are an afterthought of the owners who care to beautify the site, rendering it more attractive to visitors.

Some years ago Knob Prairie Mound was opened, and the investigator says : "We found top soil all the way down for thirty feet when we came to a cave of curious construction; it was in the shape of a bake oven, and high enough for a man to stand upright in the center; it tapered down on the sides. On one side there was a door that evidently had led from a ground entrance into the cave. In the middle was a pile of dirt and stone resembling an altar ; on it were bones, charcoal and some pieces of decayed wood. There was one piece of partly charred wood in a good state of preservation. The wood was preserved, but the bones would not stand removal ; the investigators then cut their names and the date on the altar, filled up the excavation and left."

It is said that when Gen. George Rogers Clark was in the vicinity, at the time of the Shawnee Village of Piqua battle, August 8, 1780, he ascended Knob Prairie Mound to reconnoiter; he was accompanied by some of his officers, the mound being in direct line with his march; from its apex it offered a wide panoramic view of the country. In 1888, in connection with a presidential campaign, a flag staff was reared at the summit, and charred wood was found by those excavating for it. The pole was seventy feet high, but alas! one morning there was no flagstaff. An auger made less noise than a saw, and it was "bored" out of its commanding position on Knob Prairie Mound. No one ever confessed his part in the removal of the flagstaff. As well as being a sepulchral mound, everything points to the fact that Knob Prairie was a signal or observation point used by the Moundbuilders, as well as later inhabitants of the country.

Another mound was located two rods east from the intersection of Spring and Washington streets, within the present limits of the City of Springfield. It was conical, and 150 feet in diameter at the base, but in 1847, when the Dayton & Sandusky Railroad was being built it was removed, the material being used in ballasting the track; the construction men found a quantity of human bones in the center of the mound, as well as what appeared to be the lower maxillary of some wild animal that had a large crooked tooth in it. The maxillary or jaw bone looked as if it had been ground away, in an endeavor to make it easily grasped by the hand; from its shape, it. doubtless served as a war club; when exposed to the air it crumbled to pieces. An early account of this mound says : "In 1818, two white oak trees, some bushes and a number of large stumps covered it."

In the Automobile Blue Book of Ohio is the statement that the G. A. R. burial plot in Ferncliff Cemetery was the work of the Moundbuilders. While it has been shaped up and rendered more symmetrical, the fact of its origin is unquestioned. It was a distinctive mound, and bones were found in it. Within a year about sixty bodies were discovered while workmen were grading Sylvan Hill in Ferncliff, and S. J. Perrott, superintendent of the cemetery, called Dr. B. F. Prince, of Wittenberg College, who declared the bones to be those of Indians or Moundbuilders ; they were badly decomposed, and crumbled when exposed to the air; the bodies had been buried in groups of five or six covering a small area around the crest of the hill ; the skulls resembled those of the Indians, although it is known that the Moundbuilders were active in that vicinity. They were of medium height, erect, with long welldeveloped arms, and they were equally at home in the trees or on the ground; it is said the high cheek bone of the Indian is lacking in the facial development of the Moundbuilders. All these bones were collected by Mr. Perrott, and buried in one grave in another part of Ferncliff.

Although no trinkets were discovered with the bones found in Sylvan Hill, it was the consensus of opinion that they were of Indian origin, because the manner of their burial was in accord with the Indian custom. In October, 1921, W. H. Rayner dug into an Indian grave in Harmony Township, finding a conch shell drinking cup, bearing out the theory that the Shawnees who inhabited the country came from the Gulf region of the United States. For two weeks workmen grading Sylvan Hill were uncovering bones and making a collection, showing to the present generation that nothing is known about the final disposition of their bodies - born but not dead, and the future is veiled in uncertainty.

According to an engineering record made in 1863, the mound in Ferncliff was five and one-half feet high, conical in shape and thirtytwo feet in diameter; many years ago it was opened by investigators, a shaft being sunk in the center. About five feet from the apex, a hard ceiling of baked clay was encountered; the excavators continued their shaft through this ceiling, finding it a vault or cave ten feet high and shaped like a bake oven, similar to the one in Knob Prairie Mound. In this chamber were bones, charcoal and a wooden chain seven inches long with six links, and made from black locust.

Mr. Altick recently visited Bechtle Mound located about one mile from Ferncliff, and almost due southwest from it. Bechtle Mound is 750 feet from the south side of Buck Creek, and seventy feet above the water level of the stream; this mound occupies the east end of a ridge composed of clay and gravel, and it raises to an elevation of twelve feet above the surface. It is about 100 feet west from Bechtle Avenue, and

300 feet south of the viaduct across the drive in Snyder Park ; the north and south diameter is approximately seventy feet at the base, while the east and west measurement is nearly sixty-four feet, the base circumference measuring 210 feet. While it has a rectangular base, it approaches the cone in shape and the apex is somewhat sunken, most likely caused by the interior chamber giving away; its summit affords an excellent observation* point. An unobstructed view may be had of the Mad River Valley; three oak trees grow on its western slope.

While there is no authentic record as to the exact age of these mounds, the latest reports from scientists indicate that some of them are more than 800 years old, their computations based on the erosion of the elements. The fact that Ferncliff, Bechtle, the cut back of the Masonic Home and Knob Prairie mounds are in a direct line, indicates that the builders had some definite object in so placing them ; they could signal from their summits by fire and smoke, thus establishing a long line of communication with one another. The trend of this chain of mounds is northeast and southwest, following the course of Mad River through Clark County.

Mr. Altick also visited, a mound on the R. W. Newlove farm in Harmony Township which consists of two elliptical shaped ridges of earth, resembling a gigantic "wish bone." The area of the two ridges is practically the same, covering about one acre, the one on the north being more shallow than the other; the ridge on the south has a ditch twenty-five feet wide, and from five to seven feet deep; it encircles the inside of the ridge, and is thrown up on the outside of it. The distance from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the ridge varies from nine to thirteen feet, and the height of the ridge varies from four to six feet, as measured from the land surrounding it. The width at the base is from twenty to twenty-five feet, and the outlet at the ends of the ditches is from thirty to forty feet in width, while the two ridges are separated by twenty-five to thirty feet, the diameter of one being 325 feet, while the other is 434 feet, indicating considerable activity on the part of the Moundbuilders in that locality.

The circumference of these two ridges measures 1,025 feet, and the western half of the north ridge is under cultivation, the remainder of the area being covered by forest trees and a dense growth of underbrush. Inside the inclosure of the southern ellipse at the western end, there is a small mound ; a few years ago a shaft was sunk into it to the depth of four feet, and the material removed was fine gravel with nothing unusual in it. It is the only excavation ever made in the ridges, and the adjacent valley is about three-quarters of a mile in length, with boggy land extending to Beaver Creek; on the north and west, the valley is walled by a range of hills. To the casual observer, this seems inadequate as a means of defense, and the whole valley would be a death trap for an invading force. About half a mile from this point, the national road was cut through a similar mound; at the present time it stands about twenty-five feet high from the surface, and an oak tree is on its apex; its diameter is nearly 250 feet - a milestone of the ages.

On the eastern slope of this mound Mr. Altick secured three hammer stones, and one broken spear head that was covered with patina; the flake marks on it were worn smooth. A square block of white flint with one corner broken off was also found ; it was covered with patina and appeared to be of great age; a flint knife and the head of a flint knife found there were also covered with patina, this being the color or incrustation which age gives to works of art. About 300 feet southwest is another mound nearly three feet high, and thirty feet in diameter. The apex is sunken about eight inches, most likely caused by the interior chamber giving away, although there is no indication that the mound has ever been opened; it is at the western edge of a woods, and part of it is under cultivation. A large black flint of unusual luster was secured at this mound.

Accompanied by J. Heber Cusick, Mr. Altick visited another mound having an elevation of 100 feet above the semi-rolling surrounding country and covering approximately two acres; to the aborigines it afforded an excellent observation point; the surface is covered with wild shrubs and trees, with here and there an open space matted with wild morning glories and poke plants. On the top is a small level place which was used as a burial plot by the Indians, or some other race that roamed over this region in the dim ages of the past. The composition is almost pure gravel and sand, and the fact that it was used as a place of burial was discovered as follows: Hedgehogs had burrowed into the top of the mound, and in throwing out the sand they pulled out human bones which were found by squirrel hunters; they were in the refuse thrown out by the hedgehogs, Mr. Cusick having seen them himself. With further excavations, the two men are agreed that important paleontologic specimens may be found in this mound.

Mr. Altick and Mr. Cusick began excavations at the summit of the mound, where a perpendicular shaft was sunk eight feet square, and one foot from the surface in the black leaf mold they found a complete skeleton lying face downward, in horizontal position ; however, the bones crumbled when they were lifted from the earth. They excavated another six inches, carefully removing the sand and gravel in order not to injure any deposit they might find; the material removed was screened so that small objects would not escape their notice, and here they came across another skeleton lying face upward, with only six inches separating them. It lay in a sandy mixture, and was in better state of preservation tlian the first skeleton, and while due precaution was taken in removing it, the bones crumbled as they handled them.

The shaft was then sunk eighteen inches deeper when three more skeletons were unearthed; they were in excellent condition, the bones being firm and hard, due to the greater depth at which they found them. One was the skeleton of a female, one was a child and the other was a male of gigantic stature. As a matter of comparison, Altick held up the femur of the male skeleton by Cusick's leg, and it extended eight inches below his knee ; he is six feet in height. The ribs of this skeleton had petrified to a grayish slate color, but none would withstand the contact with the air.

When the shaft on this mound was three feet deep, the two amateur antiquarians enlarged it by sending out a lateral to the north, and they found a skull through which an elm root had penetrated ; it was an inch in diameter, and its fine roots were matted and twisted within this bony enclosure. The high cheek bones and low receding forehead were very pronounced ; the skeleton was in standing posture, while the others were all in horizontal positions. In all the skeletons exhumed, the most perfectly preserved portions were the teeth; it was a peculiarity of the aborigines that their teeth were worn almost to the maxillary bones, and yet the remarkable thing about them was their excellent condition. No cavities were found, and yet they were teeth of old persons as indicated by their worn condition.

Other skeletons found in this lateral were those of little children, as indicated by the size of the bones and the thickness of the skulls; some of the bones were from persons of larger stature; at this point the interment ranged in depth from one foot and a quarter to four feet. The aborigine usually buried his dead with the implements of war or the chase near the body. In the great Madisonville cemetery there have been instances where nothing was found buried with the skeleton, but had these investigators enlarged their excavations they might have discovered some unusual things. Five years later they visited the mound . again, finding the shaft well overgrown with shrubs, red pokeberry plants and morning glory vines; clearing away the accumulation they began digging again.

The lateral running north was extended, and two flints were found; one was a magnificent black, oval flint, seven and one-half inches long; it was two inches wide at the widest point, and one-quarter of an inch thick. It was too long and too large for an arrow or spear head, and was probably used as a knife. The workmanship on it is of superior type, the flaking being smooth and true ; the other specimen was chipped from gray colored flint rock, three and three-quarter inches in length, and one and three-quarter inches in width at the widest point; it was threequarters of an inch thick, with a barbed head and blunt point. Its size and shape indicate that it had been used as a spear head. These two specimens were found in screenings taken from the earth twelve inches below the surface, where the outline of a skeleton was plainly discerned, but there were no bones in condition for removal.

At a depth of two feet in this same lateral a stone ax and a banded slate gorget were unearthed. The ax is six inches long and three inches wide, with a one and one-half inch groove at the top which is fivesixteenths of an inch deep, made from a hard grained, grayish colored rock; there is also a groove running lengthwise on the top edge of the ax, three and three-quarters of an inch long with a depth of onesixteenth of an inch. It is a beautiful specimen, highly polished, and shows very excellent workmanship. The banded slate gorget is a piece of armor defending the upper part of the breast, and this one was four inches long, and two and one-quarter inches in width, being one and one-half inches at the narrowest portion; it was three-eighths of an inch thick, with two holes three-sixteenths of an inch in diameter piercing approximately the center, and the mounds in Clark County are an unending source for scientific research.

In 1840, says an old account, William Parker found the tusk of an elephant or some similar animal along Buck Creek near the Foos mill; while it was partly decayed, it was prehistoric and raises the question about the earlier wild life of the forest. It is recommended that archaeologists should note on charts the positions of skeletons, and the implements found with them, and that the mode of burial should be recorded - whether side by side, or the limbs drawn or distended, such details aiding in determining the period and the conditions under which the subjects had lived in the world.

Present day knowledge of the Moundbuilders is meager, and limited to the articles of culture found in their ancient earthworks; by careful analyses, the archaeologist arrives at a degree of accuracy in his conclusions, and thus the world has its knowledge of prehistoric races. Skeletons in half-charred condition crumble readily, and it seems that burning their dead was a custom among the Moundbuilders. While the Indians often burned their prisoners at the stake, there is no record that they ever burned their own dead, and the conclusion is easily reached that the, bones found in these Clark County mounds are from the skeletons of the Indians. This conclusion is further supported by the fact that the bones were found near the surface and not at the base, as was the custom among the Moundbuilders.

The Indian was a lazy fellow, but that charge is not laid at the door of his predecessor, the Moundbuilder. The State of Ohio is dotted with about 400 mounds, monuments to the enterprise and industry of an extinct people; the Indians have utilized these mounds as a burial place for their dead, and investigation develops the fact in almost every instance that the skeletons lie near the surface. A great deal is still to be learned about the earliest inhabitants of the country; nothing is known of their language, their laws, their religion, nor by what names they were known while living on the earth.

Some hitherto unopened mound may yet reveal a "Rosetta Stone," or some other means of deciphering the unsolved mysteries of a long extinct race - the key to the situation may yet be found in Clark County, and the world will be ready to receive the story.

Chapter Vi

It used to be said that travelers gained their impressions of the towns through which they were passing from the tin can dumps to be seen from the car windows, and tourists following the National road from the east gain certain information about Springfield before they reach it from the United States Tire Company sign - a huge book a few miles out of town. This advance history reads: "Springfield was once the hunting ground of the Shawnee whose great chieftain was Tecumseh, who flourished his sword at Fort Miami, and stopped the massacre of defenseless prisoners." Those sign writers owe it to a community to be well informed on local history.

A Smithsonian Institute estimate of the Shawnee Indians reads: "The Shawnees were the Beduoins, and I may almost say Ishmaelites of the North American tribes; as wanderers they were without rivals among their race, and as fomentors of discord and war between themselves and their neighbors, their genius was marked ; their original home is not known with any measure of certainty," and thus the primitive race as found along Mad River in the Revolutionary period is veiled in obscurity. Since then almost one and one-half centuries have cycled by, and time does not shed more light on the Shawnees.

In a review of the local situation in the light of history, before a meeting of the Clark County Historical Society, December 6, 1921, W. W. Keifer said the white race was the third nationality to people the hills and dales adjacent to Mad River. He reviewed the story of Capt. John Smith being carried through as a prisoner by the Indians in 1772, of John Paul coming into the community in 1790, and the awful fate that awaited him, and of the subsequent settlers, saying that when General Clark came in 1780 he only tarried long enough to rout the Indians. It was not until after the Greenville treaty in 1790 that many settlers ventured into the community. Chillicothe and Piqua villages were the strongholds of the Shawnees, and when General Clark and his army approached Chillicothe they fled to Piqua, where they made their final defense, witnessing the overthrow of the Shawnee Confederacy.

An early writer says: "The territory of Ohio furnished an ideal home for the Indian. The climate was excellent, the streams abounded with fish and the forests with game; the red deer was abundant, and the buffalo and elk were found in considerable numbers in certain portions of the state. These and other large animals furnished food for the Indians; their hides furnished the covering for their lodges, and clothing for their bodies. The waters of the state at certain seasons of the year were alive with myriads of wild fowl, of which we can now have no conception as to numbers. These added greatly to the sustenance of the Indians. No portion of the country was more favorable for forest life," and narrowed down to Clark County the above is in harmony with the Keifer assertion : "Ohio and Clark County are highly favored as to climatic conditions. While the Moundbuilders and the

As a short resume of Indian history, the Miamis occupied all the western portion of Ohio, all of Indiana and a large portion of Illinois; they were once the most numerous and powerful of all the tribes in the Northwest. They had no tradition of ever having lived in any other portion of the country and it is evident they occupied their territory through many generations. Their principal villages in Ohio were along the headwaters of the two Miamis, and the Miami of the Lake (The Maumee) and along the waters of the Wabash in Indiana as far south as Vincennes. While at the time of the Greenville treaty in 1795 they had been reduced in numbers and power, they were the oldest occupants of the Ohio territory. Quite different is the history of the Shawnees, who were wanderers on the face of the earth.

The Shawnee and Mingo Indians had many villages on Mad River; their villages extended a distance of about three miles and their habitations were only a few rods from each other. Chillicothe village was in the present limits of Greene County, and the Shawnees there mingled much with their neighbors along Mad River. In the Shawnee tongue, Piqua meant "A man formed out of ashes," and the whole series of Shawnee villages had the same name, and when the Con- federacy was overthrown and the remnant of the tribe removed to the Big Miami, they retained the name, and thus the City of Piqua - the Border City in Miami County.

It is said that all of the Indian tribes in Ohio had practically the same government or tribal organization, but the Shawnees were nonconformists and in many details they were unlike other Indians. In some of the tribes there was complete separation of the military and social government, and the sachem or tribal chieftain represented them in council ; and in their grand councils the heads of the different tribes had part, and they were conducted with great ceremony. The sachem explained the object of the assembly, and each Indian present was at liberty to express his opinion. When the majority agreed, the sachem only announced the decision, having no voice in it. When a man once expressed his opinion it was dishonorable to reverse it. In some of the tribes the squaw had her separate property, which consisted of everything in the lodge or wigwam except the implements of war and the chase which belonged to the warriors. Each tribe had the right to demand service from all of its male members in avenging wrongs in time of war. The military council included all able bodied men.

While the Shawnees of Piqua Village were attacked by the expedition commanded by General Clark, it was a law of the tribes that when they determined upon a war expedition they observed the war dance, and then started for their objective point. They did not move in compact bodies as comprehended by present-day military tactics, but broke up into small parties, each of which took its different way to a common point of assembly. This was a necessity as they must subsist upon the game found on the way, and it was impossible to secure quantities sufficient to sustain a large number of warriors on any one line of travel. They understood and met conditions in their own way ; they traveled light and fast, and they were dangerous enemies. They would strike when unexpected, and disappear as suddenly; in this way they were able to subsist en route and to elude pursuit.

While one writer says: "The Miamis claimed the right of possession in the territory between the Scioto and the Miamis, and they were at one time in possession of and entitled to the same, in time the Wyandots seemed to have been accorded the right thereto," local history is silent save about the Shawnees. The Delawares and the Iroquois were established in nearby sections of Ohio, but one informant says: "The Shawnees held the valley of the Scioto; in fact, they held most of the territory included in the Hanging Rock Iron Region of a later day."

In the beginning of history the Miamis occupied the valleys of the two rivers upon which they impressed their names; the Ottawas the valleys of the Maumee and Sandusky, and the Chippewas the south shores of Lake Erie. However, all the tribes frequented lands outside their own prescribed territory, and at different periods from the time of the first definite knowledge concerning them, down to the era of the white settlement, they occupied different locations. Not long after Gist's visit in 1751 the Shawnees left the mouth of the Scioto and established themselves higher up the river and on the waters of the Miami, building such towns as Old and New Chillicothe. The Shawnees were steadfast friends of the English until Dunmore's War in 1774, after which they became the most inveterate and formidable

The Shawnees of the Scioto and the Delawares of the Muskingum were always hostile, and during and after the Revolutionary war various American expeditions were sent against the warlike Shawnees. The scenes of these forays and conflicts were in the Upper Valley of the Scioto. The Bible says: "To the making of many books there is no end," and there are conflicting accounts of the Shawnees. One writer says: "In 1779 Colonel Bowman headed an expedition against them and their Village of Chillicothe was burned; but the Shawnee warriors showed an undaunted front, and the whites were forced to retreat. In the summer of the following year General Clark led a body of Kentuckians against the Shawnees; on this approach the Indians burned Chillicothe themselves and retreated to their town of Piqua, six miles below the* present site of Springfield. There they gave battle and were defeated. In September, 1782, this officer led a second expedition against them and destroyed their towns of Upper and Lower Piqua in what is now Miami County. Other expeditions from Kentucky were directed against the stubborn Shawnees of the Upper Scioto Valley and along the Miami rivers farther west," 1786-8 given as the time of these conflicts..

The battle with the Shawnees at Piqua Village has been mentioned before and will be mentioned again in the military relation of Clark County to the rest of the world. Thomas Hutchins, who afterward became a geographer of the United States, drew a map showing some of the early activities against the Shawnees along the Scioto and Miami rivers, and this map was published in London in the time of the Revolution. Until then the French had made the only maps in existence. This map locates two Shawnee villages near the head-waters of .the Scioto, and it records lead mines in that vicinity. Still another writer relates that while the Shawnees were the dominant tribe along Mad River, there were Sacs and Foxes, and adds: "The old Indian town of Piqua, the ancient Piqua of the Shawnees and the birthplace of Tecumseh, was situated on the north side of Mad River, and occupied a site on which a town called New Boston was later built," and its story has already been given in an earlier chapter.

While Tecumseh has not hitherto been mentioned, his name will always be associated with the history of Clark County. He was born in the Shawnee Village in 1768, and was only twelve years old when General Clark and his army invaded the country. It is said that Piqua Village was a well planned and executed battle, and that the youthful Tecumseh was carried by the remnant of the tribe to another Piqua on the Big Miami and after he reached maturity he devoted himself to an effort to reunite the tribes, and regain the hunting grounds along Mad River. While he was unlettered and ignorant, he was a statesman with the same conception of government as is embodied in the Constitution of the United States - in Union there is strength. But he was doomed to disappointment, never realizing his ambition.

Because of his activities, Tecumseh was designated as the Flying Panther and as a Meteor, and while he only attained to forty-five years, his name has gone down in history as the foremost Indian of his day and generation. While most historians speak of the Prophet as half brother to Tecumseh, the story is told in Springfield that triplets were born along Mad River and that one died in infancy while the real name of the Prophet was Elksinatawa or Tenskinatewa - both versions in one of the local histories. While Tecumseh is the outstanding character, the Prophet distinguished himself as a soothsayer among the Shawnees. While the untutored mind of Tecumseh evolved the brilliant idea of uniting the tribes, and regaining lost territory, jealousy of his leadership on the part of other Indians weakened his cause; it was a wonderful conception for an ignorant savage, and while he had the ability to reason he could not control the cogitations of others. While he could neither read or write, he originated the idea of banding all of the tribes together; while it would have been an autonomy, it would have been a powerful Indian Confederacy.

Tecumseh is described as a man of excellent qualities, impressive manners and natural eloquence, and while he was married several times, he sometimes failed in such conquest; when a wife no longer pleased him he gave her property and set her adrift. Tecumseh once proposed to a white woman named Rebecca Galloway, saying: "I big chief; you make great squaw," but his eloquence failed to win her. She did not want an Indian husband. The chieftain discarded one wife because she served turkey to guests without carefully removing the feathers, but he lived five years with the last one - something unusual for Tecumseh. Whatever the social standard required of warriors, for the first offense of adultery the squaw had her hair cropped and for repeated offenses her left ear was removed and so on until she was sadly maimed for life.

When a warrior became an outlaw and was repeatedly convicted it became lawful for anyone to kill him; their captives in war and in their forays were sometimes shot, sometimes burned, and sometimes adopted and converted into Indians. As a rule the white captives sometimes acquired the woodcraft and habits of their captors. Some of them became inveterate foes to the white man. While Simon Kenton was once a captive, it did not influence him that way, although Simon Girty is mentioned in that class. He was sometimes called the "White Indian." He once rescued Simon Kenton, although celebrated for his cunning and craftiness.4 While no Indian surpassed Girty in these qualities, and he is cited as an example of extreme cruelty, it is said that he saved many captives from death. It is probable that injustice has been done him by inaccurate and prejudiced writers. His home was farther north, in the military group of Ohio counties, but he visited Kenton in Clark County.

It was so long ago that the Shawnees were exterminated along Mad River that few stories are handed down from one generation to another about them, like happens in newer counties, where linger some of the early settlers. It is likely that the Shawnees went single file about the country, and yet they were not contemporary with Clark County settlers - they had been driven out of the country. It is related that the final catastrophe in the lives of the Shawnees who once inhabited the country along Mad River was enacted in 1846, when about seventy of them including the women and children were brought from a temporary reservation in Indiana to Cincinnati and embarked on a steamboat for St. Louis and the Far West. The story is told that when they were being deported some marched through Springfield, and all the boys in town who saw them were Big Chiefs afterward. The Indians are the romance race, and the child of today stands ready to wear the feathers and the beaded costumes, little thinking what deportation meant to the Shawnees.

It was so long ago that it is not now part of the consciousness of the citizens of Clark County. In World war days platform speakers decried deportation as the crime of the European war countries. It does not require any undue stretch of the imagination to gain some conception of the injustice thus perpetrated upon the American Indians. The migration of the Shawnees from Mad River is ancient history and yet they were endowed with a love for their country. In some breasts there is still sympathy for the American Indian. The reservations were described to the Shawnees as consisting of 100,000 acres of unbroken forest, with wild animals unmolested. They could feast on buffalo, elk, deer and other game, and thus they were buoyed up for what awaited them - the loss of their possessions in different parts of Ohio and the Old Northwest. While the system was winked at by the United States Government, it was a hardship for the unsuspecting Indians.

While Tecumseh is about the only Shawnee whose name is known in Clark County today, his history is known to the world. While there is confusion about the word Piqua as the name of the Shawnee village, the outside citizen thinking only of the present-day city bearing the name, no one can rob Clark County of the honor of having been the birthplace of Tecumseh within its classic bounds - Clark and Tecumseh both being names to conjure with when establishing local prestige because of them.

The story goes that in the autumn of 1807 a white man named Myers a few miles west of where the Town of Urbana now stands, while Clark was still part of Champaign County, was murdered. The tragedy was attributed to straggling Indians, and this murder taken with the assemblage of th$ Indians under the leadership of Tecumseh and the Prophet, created great alarm among the settlers on the frontier. It was the cause of many returning to Kentucky. The settlers demanded from Tecumseh and the Prophet the Indians who committed the murder ; the brothers denied that the crime was committed by their party or with their knowledge - they did not even know the murderers. The alarm spread and the militia was called for the protection of the community. It was finally agreed that a council should be held in Springfield.

Something had to be done to quiet the settlers who were in constant fear of the Indians. When the time came General Whiteman, Major Moore, Captain Ward and some others acted as commissioners representing the white people in the community. Two groups of Indians attended the council, one from the tribes in Ohio led by McPherson, and the other brought by Tecumseh from the vicinity of Fort Wayne. About seventy Indians accompanied Tecumseh. Roundhead, Blackfish and other chiefs came to the council. It was a strange assemblage in Springfield, which has since prided itself as a convention city. There was an unfriendly feeling between the two groups, and each was willing that the guilt for the murder should be fixed upon the other.

Tecumseh and his followers refused to attend the council unless permitted to retain their arms. After the conference was. under way in a maple grove in Springfield, fearing some violence on the part of the Indians present, the commissioners again asked Tecumseh to lay aside his weapons. The wily chieftain refused, saying his tomahawk was at the same time his pipe and he might wish to smoke it before the business of the council was finished, and he made an animated speech clearly showing that the Myers murder was not chargeable to him or his party.

When Tecumseh said that his tomahawk was also his pipe, a young doctor named Brown who had recently located in Springfield, described by one writer as a tall, lank-sided Pennsylvanian who was among the spectators, and who evidently had no love for the shining tomahawk of the self-willed chief, cautiously approached and handed Tecumseh an old, long-stemmed, dirty-looking earthen pipe, intimating that if he would relinquish the tomahawk he might smoke it. Taking the pipe between his thumb and finger, Tecumseh held it up and looked at it for a moment and then at the owner, who was receding from the point of danger, and with an indignant sneer he threw it over his head into the bushes. Nothing more was said about "disarmament," and the council proceeded with its business, knowing that Tecumseh was in no mood for levity. A good many things had happened that had been charged to the Shawnees. Facts were not to be juggled with and the council must not imagine vain things.

Beside the murder of Myers, a Mrs. Elliott had been shot at while working about her house on Mad River. She was wearing a sunbonnet and the bullet had pierced it. Feeling ran high as the council proceeded with the business brought before it. There had been frequent alarms, and although false reports were circulated, the people would assemble and the Foos Hotel was used as a fort, the people gathering there for protection. Other houses were utilized as places of refuge and while Tecumseh declared the innocence of himself and party, the people were not inclined to take chances with him. However, after full inquiry into the facts, it appeared that the murder of Myers was the act of an individual and neither group assumed the responsibility. Thus ended an unusual court of inquiry in Springfield.

While the judges were the commissioners indicated, the principal speaker at the bar was Tecumseh, whose delivery was fluent and rapid, and he made a lasting impression upon all who heard him. He explained the views of himself and the Prophet, saying they had called around them a band of Indians, disavowing all hostile intentions toward the United States, and denying that he or those associated with him had committed any aggressions against the whites. In the course of the council the two hostile parties became reconciled and quiet was restored on the frontier. The delegates - the Indians - remained in Springfield three days, and they frequently amused themselves and others by engaging in various games and athletic exercises, in which Tecumseh was usually the victor. His strength and muscular power were remarkable, and in the opinion of all who attended the council, his physique corresponded to the high order of his moral and intellectual character.

April 10, 1910, and notwithstanding "twice told tales," in using it, the paper is herewith reproduced. Long before the advent of the white man in western Ohio, the beautiful wooded hills on the north bank of Mad River were the favorite resort of successive tribes of Indians. Here was the Indian Village of Piqua, the birthplace of the renowned Tecumseh. To the southwest were rudely tilled fields of maize, which supplied these children of the forest with the only products for their domestic use not directly provided by the hand of nature.

In this crude attempt at agriculture is seen the first struggle toward a primitive civilization that would in time have lifted these strange people out of the depths of barbarism in which they were submerged; the natural beauty of the locality, together with the unusual resources that abound, marked this place as one of long continued residence of the aborigines. Here, centuries ago, lived and thrived the people of the Stone Age. The varied scenery - the vine-clad bluffs, the wooded hills, the rippling brook, the undulating pasture land blended into a picture dear to those children of nature.

In the river were choicest fish awaiting the bone fishhook and sinew line. Birds of varied hue and sweetest song flitted from branch to branch, enhanced this very paradise of which they were part. The forest on the north abounded in game where implements of the chase were brought into play, when warrior and youth were wont to execute feats of valor and courage that marked their standing in the tribe, and christened each anew in memory of every grand achievement. From out these hills flowed purest streams of crystal water; beneath these trees roamed dusky maid and lover. On moonlit summer nights were s.een graceful forms of many dancers, decked with shells and bright feathers as they moved in stately pace to the trum of the tomtom or the screeching tone of the reed whistle, while they offered their chanted praise to the Great Spirit who had showered their lives with blessings, and permitted them to defend the graves of their fathers.

The domestic scenes enacted on these hills baffle imagination. Here the squaw in hut, tepee or rock shelter, assisted by her children, gathered the acorns as they fell from the overhanging boughs, dressed and prepared the game the father and older sons had provided, and shelled and leached the maize that hominy might not be wanting in the home over which she presided. At the running brook she tanned the skins and on the winter days she shaped them into blankets, moccasins and robes that furnished all the necessary raiment. Among her tasks was one that seemed the choicest of them all - to grind the nuts and corn, would take her to the village mill. There with others of her kind, each one provided with a stone, they ground their common grist and talked of all the gossip of the tribe - why Turtle Face had turned his back on the maid Silver Sides.

How strange it was that Running Deer should fail to see how much in love with him was Weeping Eyes, and more anon until the task was done, and each one turned homeward with the ashen cake she had prepared. A glimpse at a central promontory reveals the arrow maker's shop; here, cross-legged day by day he sat and shaped the flint, obsidian and quartz and made the shapely, spears and arrow points ; some he designed for war, others for the chase, and some, no doubt the choicest of them all, were made for gifts as tokens given in love and esteem; they were made too fragile for baser use.

Here, too, by lucky chance a flake unusual in size with edges sharp as a razor escapes the crushing of the horn-tipped tool, and is eagerly grasped and safely treasured, wrapped in softest fur. It is the surgeon's knife, and oft must come in play in story times of battle, which must be waged should outer foes attempt to drive them from these hills that have been theirs since the memory of their oldest man. The river gravel gave their tools well shaped to the hand, but many of the best were pecked and rubbed, and show even now the purpose for which they were designed. The battle ax with groove and pole and edge is no mean weapon when it is hung with shaft entwined and grown by nature to its firm embrace; it makes one think of warriors of a stature grand, who swung such axes to defend their race.

The pestle, conical in shape, was broad of base and fitted to the hand, was used to crush and grind their meal, to crack their nuts and problems more complex; to pound the sinews of the legs of deer, thus furnishing thread for the bone needles they used, and there were celts or skinners - shapely stones with edge and pole, but made without the groove and used by hand, they entered into many daily tasks. But rare and seldom found are stones of slate, fashioned into fantastic shapes, and drilled with holes which were used on staffs in ceremonial state, or work as breastplates to indicate the rank of those who bore them, and some were niched with marks to tell the moons that had gone by since the wearer became the leader of his tribe.

Under the gravel tops of nearby hills are graves of many hundreds of these braves. Many were called home in ripened years, but some were crushed in battle as is shown by their mutilated bones - a legion of them, so that the spade may not pierce the earth without disturbing these grim relics of the past, and with these bones are found the perforated shells, the legal tender of these olden times. Somtimes the spade upturns a hollowed stone - the paint box of some coquette of either sex, for such ornaments were the property of all.

No doubt these people wrought with implements of wood, but if so they have vanished with the race. Baskets made of bark and lined with clay were burned with fire, and so was made the pottery of old. So frail was this that naught remain but broken fragments that tell a tale of struggling light that the Divine Father had given them, on which to build a greater destiny. Much has been lost, but enough remains of these relics of a by-gone race that he who cares to fit his hand where once theirs lay, to work the pestle as they ground the grain, to helve the ax that for centuries has been free, to flake the flint with that prime arrow-maker of old, may cover again those still beautiful hills and valleys with that strangely natural people who lived so close to nature that one almqst believes they could not have been far from Nature's God.

The Clark County Historical Society is to be congratulated upon the fact that it owns a plot of ground in the very center of that historical locality deeded to the society by the late Leander Baker. (While Mr. Rayner had the impression that Mr. Baker had given an acre to the historical society for the site of the proposed Clark-Tecumseh monument, it was but one-quarter of an acre, and W. W. Keifer, who later acquired the farm, recognized as the military center, proposes to add to the plot sufficient ground whenever the monument is a reality, to allow an approach to it without crossing private property, and to allow of some landscape work adjoining it.) Mr. Keifer has now deeded enough ground to make the plot nearly an acre. This is a beautiful promontory and affords a view of Mad River and the surrounding - country.

The time will no doubt soon come when public interest will be so fully aroused in regard to this old battle ground that a suitable monument will be erected to not only commemorate the battle between the whites and the Indians in western Ohio, but also to mark the peaceful abode of a race who have gone never to return to the land of their fathers. (Mr. Rayner has studied both the Moundbuilders and the Indians, and as custodian of the Clark County Historical Society museum he has imparted much information to others.)

Because of its direct relation to the early settlement of Clark County, the Indians agreeing to cease their depredations against the whites, although the intrepid Tecumseh was not party to it, some mention is made of it. Because Gen. George Rogers Clark had acquired much local territory, and it had been lost again to the Indians through the inefficiency of Gen. Arthur St. Clair as territorial governor, President George Washington, detailed Gen. Anthony Wayne to go to Fort Washington (Cincinnati) and bring order out of chaos. With his army General Wayne marched northward, stopping and constructing a fort at Greenville, and from that point he dealt with the Indian question.

While there were 1,130 Indians assembled, only 143 Shawnees had part in the proceedings, and Tecumseh who had become a recognized leader, was not present. Most of the chieftains had been approached by British agents as had Tecumseh, but their people were so reduced that they agreed to a permanent peace with the "Thirteen Fires," as they denominated the original states, and, notwithstanding Tecumseh, the settlements were soon located on Mad River. Within a year corn was again growing where the Shawnees had cultivated the bottom lands before they were driven out of the country.

Judge Jacob R. Burnett, who knew many of the chieftains who signed the Greenville Treaty, August 3, 1795, and who later helped to frame the first Constitution of Ohio, and who often stopped in their villages while traveling his judicial circuit, wrote: "At the time our settlers were coming northwest of the Ohio, that hardy race were the acknowledged owners and sovereigns of the land they possessed. The government claimed no right, either of occupancy or soil, but as it was obtained by purchase," but subsequent developments do not correspond to that interpretation. While Piqua Village was destroyed in 1780, Peter Smith, who located on Mad River in 1804, relates: "The smoke from the wigwams of the Indians mingled with the smoke from the cabins of the whites; in the cold winter nights, while the early settlers watched the blazing logs in the fireplaces, they also watched the door lest a stalwart might surprise them. In the summer evenings, while they sat in the doorways enjoying the odors from the forest, they would peer into the darkness, not quite sure but redskins were stalking around," and in the creek a few yards from the Smith cabin was a favorite place for the squaws to harden their papooses by bathing them in running water. Mr. Smith, who relates the story, is elsewhere men- tioned as the first author of Materia Medica in the Miami country. Besides being a medical practitioner, he was also a Gospel minister. Prominent citizens in Springeld trace their lineage through Dr. Peter Smith today.

In defense of the Indian, someone writes that he did not care to construct a canoe because it would be stolen from him; he did not secure more game than his family would consume because it would be carried away by others. When the missionaries came among them and they learned integrity, the Indians began constructing canoes which was the beginning of merchant marine in this country. When they began to preserve game, it was the forerunner of the packing industry, and thus it is claimed that business enterprise and civilization itself are the by-products of missionary effort, although nothing is known of missionaries among the Shawnees on Mad River.

It was in the summer season that the Indians congregated in their villages; that was also the season when they went to war, or on their forays against the white settlers. In the winter season the villages were practically deserted. It was their custom to separate into smaller parties usually made up of relatives or members of one household, including the old men, women and children. They would go into different localities and select a spot along a stream of water or by the side of a lake or spring where in the autumn they would erect a lodgment, where they might sojourn through the winter. The hunters would then separate and go in different directions. They would select a camp where they might hunt or trap without impinging upon each other.

These hunters always kept in touch with the main camp or lodge to which they supplied meat for subsistence, and thus welfare work was instilled into the savage long before he accepted civilization. The Indians changed their camps according to their pleasures or necessities, but at the end of the season they gathered the results of their efforts and returned to their villages. They had an understanding of economics, since it was their custom to collect the fat of the beaver, raccoon and bear in the entrails of animals which the squaws had made ready, and thus it was transported from the chase to their villages for domestic use in future.

In the spring of the year when the sap began to run the Indians put it into the entrails of animals for transportation and preservation, and thus they utilized materials about them. When they made sugar they mixed it with the fat of the animals, and they cooked it with green corn and vegetables, making what they considered a most savory food. While in a measure they were provident, they often died from exposure and hunger. They had no means of securing large stores and never acquired the art of husbandry. When the Indians had plenty they were extravagant, but they were capable of enduring great hunger and fatigue. They were often distressed for want of food when there was a crust on the snow and the noise of walking frightened the game before them. They often saved themselves from starvation by digging walnuts and other nuts from under the snow, but poor Lo never welcomed the advances of civilization.

Chapter Vii

It was George Washington who said: "Citizens, by birth or choice of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affection," and perhaps that accounts for the Springfield slogan: The best 60,000 city in America.

The Shawnees only used the area occupied by Springfield for a hunting ground, and there is no record of the city in their language. To them the universe centered in Piqua Village. While James Demint knew nothing of the settlers on Mad River, the country is older than the town in Clark County as well as the rest of the world; history begins in the country. While the honors are uncertain, the community was "tipped off" with a significant name - Springfield. "It was alive with springs - hundreds and hundreds of them," but it seems that sewers and other improvements have ruined many of them.

While a recent Springfield visitor remarked: "The town is running in low gear," one of the most distinguished American citizens, the late Theodore Roosevelt, would have phrased it: "Strenuous life," and every effort seems to be put forth in the community. While some of the vanguards of society sound the alarm, and say the world is going too rapidly, there are psychologists in the community teaching the citizens how to discover their hidden mentality and physical force, how to find themselves. There is a tendency abroad to get the most out of everything - commerce, manufacturing, agriculture, and whether in low gear or in high tension, the wheels are turning and Springfield is abreast of other communities.

"Where two or three are gathered together in my name," and since March 17, 1801, there has been no backward movement. While society follows the crowd, and some with high ideals become lost in the shuffle, there has always been high moral purpose in Springfield. In the days of the grandfathers when strict frugality was practiced in the homes, there was no congestion of fuel bills and incidentals - when milk and water bills were unknown, then was the simple life. The profiteer had not invaded the sacred precinct - but changed conditions followed in the wake of civilization.

When Springfield had been on the map 120 years, and the civilization of the past was tabulated and a matter of record, it was a stormy morning - the dawn of a newer world civilization, superinduced by conditions of unrest and misinterpretation, and the hopeful ones were looking forward to a noonday splendor of greater achievement. Reconstruction follows war, and the sanguine individual foresees that the social upheaval will adjust itself - that the world will not slip backward in its forward march toward higher civilization. Henry Watterson counselled : "At this point of peril and trial in our country, there should be no other thought than of the unstained honor of the heritage of its glory which we hold in trust, because that lost, nothing else is worth preserving," and Springfield shares the attitude of others. The spirit of loyalty is not a minus quantity.

An English settlement expressed in 1770: "Let every kindred, every tribe," is well understood in Springfield. All the world sends its surplus population to the United States, "The Land of the Free," and President Benjamin Harrison said: "The gates of Castle Garden never swing outward." There are Springfield residents who had their difficulties on Ellis Island, although time was when only the English tongue was heard in the community. Students of the future needs in this country still recommend that English should be the language of all who live in the country. When T. R. Marshall, former vice president of the United States, and one time governor of Indiana, was in Springfield in October, 1921, he paid tribute to foreigners who came into this country to become part of it, acquiring the language and discarding their own vehicle of speech as foreigners.

A Lutheran Church periodical recently said: "Many of the Lutherans coming from the eastern states were already using the English instead of the German language, while others scattering themselves among the English-speaking inhabitants of Ohio soon became familiar with the English tongue, and they preferred it to the German in public worship." From another source are these words: "In the new civilization - the new order of things that must follow in the wake of the World war, we may all wish that the whole world spoke English ; we are all enthusiastic about the mother tongue, and we are assured we will speak the language of love - the universal heart emotion." Most people respond to environment, while some live on a plane above it; the settlers thrown together in the melting pot of the wilderness were usually men and women equal to the requirements.

However, in order to show that not all the foreigners live in Springfield, Mr. Marshall related that when he visited an Indianapolis voting booth, A. D., 1920, there were "instructions to voters" in five languages posted on the walls. There were four languages he could not read, allowing him to turn a joke about the defeat of his - the democratic party. While in Washington, he had entertained distinguished foreigners, and while an interpreter made smooth translations he would have had more confidence, had the conversation been carried on in English. The foreign-born business men in Springfield speak English to customers, but use their native tongue when discussing questions among themselves, leaving the aforesaid customer in uncertainty while still under their shelter.

When the taps sounded in the year 1921, which is recognized as the boundary in this research covering the period of 120 years, an enterprising advertising firm sent out the following greeting : "In accordance with our long accustomed privilege, we are sending you in behalf of Father Time, his bond numbered 1922, for the delivery of one complete New Year," but this study is in retrospect. A recent cartoon : "Youth and Age," showing Father Time limping off the scene with the year 1921 under his arm, and lamenting, "It can't be done," is counteracted by the youth bearing the New Year, 1922, and flying the more hopeful suggestion, "It can be done," with the slogan, "Whatever you will," and that recalls the recent slogan suggested by F. E. Folger, "Share Springfield's Success."

While the name Springfield is enduring, in turn it has been designated : "Mad River City," "Champion City/' "City of Roses/' and "Home City," and when its future rests on such enthusiasm as was displayed by a caddy en route to the golf links, who exclaimed : "The best town of 60,000 population in the United States of America. It's the city of roses," it seems destined to be a "Continuing City." There are four Springfields of local significance, Springfield, Massachusetts, having a population A. D. 1920, of 129,563, while Springfield, Ohio, stand second, having slightly outgrown its "slogan" population, and Springfield, the capital city of Illinois, had 59,183, and Springfield, Missouri, ranks fourth with 39,620 inhabitants, and yet on first blush very few Clark County people accord their own Springfield second place in the comparison, nor do they think of it as less than half the population of any other Springfield. A number of persons were asked the relative question.

While starting the year 1922 right in the First Congregational Church, the Rev. Harry Trust quoted from Joshua: "For we have not passed this way heretofore," and that had special significance to James Demint and his wilderness contemporaries along Mad River. While taking stock, and placing a milestone along the highway of time - the history, Springfield and Clark County, it develops that Springfield has had its definite existence longer than the county - that for two years its location was uncertain, and that it has been in Greene and Champaign counties before the organization of Clark County - that like vinegar, Springfield is older than its mother.

In his New Year sermon, the aforesaid minister said that the fascination of exploration fastens its grip upon the individual, and when those Kentuckians ventured in separate groups to cross the Ohio soon after the Greenville treaty was heralded abroad, they established a goodly heritage. Be it remembered that when the original survey of Springfield was made, all were Kentuckians who were interested in it. While Demint and Daugherty were on the ground first, in the light of later developments Griffith Foos was the man of vision among them. He was the man who opened the door of Springfield to the wilderness world, and who is best known to posterity.

While there are times of inertia, a standstill condition is not in accord with the laws of nature. While the key-npte of the New Year sermon was, "Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow," there is quite as much sanctity in retrospect. It becomes a sacred duty to establish the connecting links between yesterday and today in local history.

The first published account of Springfield extant is found in the Ohio Gazetteer of 1816, which says : "It is a flourishing post town containing eight mercantile stores, and the mechanical shops usual in such towns, besides an extensive woolen cloth factory," while the latest directory says : "Springfield is without natural boundaries and, therefore, has numerous manufacturing sites with proper railroad sidings that can be procured at a reasonable cost," and beside suitable sites the city offers transportation, stable labor market and power, with satisfactory living conditions. Its proximity to the sources of raw material, and the markets for the finished products; its commission-manager form of government; its fair distribution of taxes; its healthy climate; its hospitals; its schools; its play grounds; its churches, musical advantages, parks, boulevards, mar-

When R. C. Woodward was writing Springfield Sketches, published in 1852, he said: "There are three old men now living in the community - John Humphreys, David Lowry and Griffith Foos ; they are all men of respectability," and from them he gleaned many facts used promiscuously in this review of the community. All were early and all were permanent citizens ; two of them represented agriculture, while one was a citizen of Springfield. The squatter is defined as the link between the Indian and the white settler, and he was encountered in some localities; wherever his hat was off he was at home, and he cared little for progress. He camped on the border line between savagery and civilization, and he knew little of the laws regulating society. His occupation was hunting and trafficking in furs, and when civilization crowded him he moved to the frontier again. These three venerable citizens had encountered the squatter in the early days of Clark County history.

The pioneers were compelling forces, and they did not rest on their oars; they were their own ancestors, and the "sons of their fathers" sometimes do not accomplish more with all their superior advantages. However, men and women still start at the bottom and climb to the top of the ladder of personal achievement; they do it unaided by tailor or druggist - they are self-made in the fullest meaning, and it is because of them that Springfield forges ahead today. Among them some still linger who knew the spirit of the pioneer community builders, and the difference between yesterday and today - the changed environment has wrought a changed civilization. It is said that indifference stops the clock in any community, and while Springfield has its problems, the men of today are maintaining the high standards of civilization established by the fathers.

"The biographer strives, in recording the lives Of America's forefathers, to hand His particular dad all the virtues that's had, And with faint praise the rest of them brand.

"Now I take it that they, in a sort of a way Worked together this nation to found; They put over the deed, and there's surely no need To carp and cavil and scoff. Their collective endeavor was sound, And there's glory enough to go round."

While the pioneers were unequalled for honesty and hospitality, some who followed in their wake have been noted for their morality and their intelligence. The chief object of the settler was the care of his immediate family, and when there was a surplus product he supplied others, and thus agriculture has supported commerce and manufacturing, and Springfield is the most noted city in the world in its manufacture of the implements of agriculture. A recent platform speaker viewed with alarm the modern tendency toward the use of machinery, calling it a shadow on civilization and saying that it "takes the creative joy out of life," and yet who would want to "backward, turn backward," to the days of the stage coach and the spinning wheel in local industry ?

No less distinguished personage than Lord Northcliffe, who was England's and perhaps the world's most traveled citizen, said that the United States has been transformed within the last generation - thirty years a generation in the above estimate - and Springfield has advanced with the rest of the world. Lord Northcliffe said : "The United States is now almost another country, although the basic element of American character is the same; while I go to the United States often, and have watched the gradual changes, other countries and especially those which have only lately been affected by the newspaper, the moving picture, the professional propagandist and the automobile have changed much more suddenly. While many of the changes are superficial, and the superficial is what meets the eye everywhere, there are certain vast world movements beginning to show themselves."

While it is alleged that the Mother Shipton prophesy appeared in pamphlet form in 1641, and has been reprinted frequently, its every detail except that couched in the last two lines: has all been verified, and the street activity is like the country woman who seldom quit her home, said of the bustle and rush: Springfield is just like meeting broke all of the time. In his 1921 annual report, Fire Chief Samuel F. Hunter says under the heading of recommendations: "The first and foremost thought that we should always keep before us is the fast and constant growth of our city, such as the industrial plants that are expanding with larger buildings, and the finished and unfinished products therein that must be protected; then our mercantile establi9h- ments are getting larger and more numerous, with larger stocks to be protected ; there are more school buildings being built to take care of the increased number of children; our hospital is being built larger to take care of the increased demands ; there are new additions and others being laid out for residences; these dwellings are being built principally of wood construction, and there are demands for more houses to take care of the industrial development.

"There are 20,000 buildings of all kinds, principally of wood construction; there are valuable contents, and all are combustible; the city is growing and new buildings are being erected, thus increasing the fire hazards," and few men keep closer in touch with city developments than the chief of the fire department, who stands ready at all times to "give an account of his stewardship." While in many ways Springfield is a modern city, there is still something of the old aristocracy - pride in ancestry. Among the older residents is a degree of familiarity - they know each other by their Christian names, and they still say John and Mary. While society is letter perfect in many things, Springfield is past its transition period, and is recognized as a city.

It was on St. Patrick's day, 1801, that Springfield first claimed "its place in the sun," but not until January 23, 1827, did the State Legislature recognize the "incorporated town of Springfield," and not until May 14, 1850, was Springfield incorporated as a city. While it has had citymanager-commission form of government since January 1, 1914, under the original form of government James L. Torbet was mayor. It is said that the coterie who developed the community made enough money to serve their needs - that they were able to say : "Here it is," rather than "Where is it?" and yet they did not manifest any ambition for great wealth.

There was a time when there was as much social prestige in the rural as in the city homes in Clark County ; before the Civil war, New Carlisle and South Charleston shared social honors with Springfield, and the farm fireside was a voice in the community, and while the contact is different - they all have their influence today. The reconstruction period changed conditions, and since 1870 Springfield has been the business and social magnet, but the world is undergoing reconstruction again. Clark County names in the hall of fame are : Tecumseh, Mother Stewart and Gen. Frederick Funston, and many who know them as national characters, do not associate them with Springfield and Clark County.

In the 1921 edition of "Who's Who" are the following Clark County names : L. E. Holden of New York, who also maintains a South Charleston residence; Hamilton Busbey of South Vienna; Dr. D. H. Bauslin, T. B. Birch, C. G. Heckert, Richard Hockdoerfer, Gen. J. Warren Keifer, L. S. Keyser, M. L. Millegan, Juergens Neve, Walter Tittle, V. G. A. Tressler, and Clarence S. Williams. This is recognition not purchased with money, but since the publication two names - Doctors Heckert and Bauslin, have been stricken from it by fate - the destiny that rules the world. In the past as well as in the present, many Clark

An old account says that in 1820 there were three leap-year bridegrooms in Springfield : John Bacon, Ira Paige and Charles Anthony, and all became active in local business affairs ; they all had children, and were active community builders. In 1836 Mr. Anthony is listed again as an attorney, contemporary with James L. Torbet and Samson Mason; the doctors of that period were Robert Rodgers, Berkley Gillett, Isaac Hendershott and Benjamin Winwood ; the ministers were John S. Galloway, Michael Morley and William N. Raper; John Ludlow was the druggist; John Wallace and Wolcott Spencer were the merchants, and William Werden was the hotel man of the town. Robert Lucas was governor of Ohio. Many people were then locating within the state, and Clark County was attracting its share of settlers. It was about the end of the Andrew Jackson presidential administration, and the country was rapidly adjusting itself.

R. C. Woodward, who wrote "Springfield Sketches" anonymously, acknowledges having gained much information from Mrs. Walter Smallwood, who was the most active woman in the community. In 1804 there were eleven houses in the vicinity of Main and Market streets. Two Frenchmen, LeRoy and DeGrab, are mentioned as the first dry goods merchants. Foos and Lowry had taverns, and there was a brewery. Three of the houses, the Daugherty home, the Charles Stowe store, and the Lowry Inn, had ornamental stone chimneys, while stick-and-clay described the others; sometimes the settlers said "stick-and-cat" in describing the cabin-clay chimneys. The home of Colonel Daugherty was spoken of as a mansion. It was the finest house in Springfield. While the Demint cabin was across Buck creek, the Griffith Foos hostelry was the first house built within the incorporated town of Springfield.

While the stranger in Springfield thinks of the Esplanade as the public square today, it was the plan of James Demint that the business should center about the county buildings nearer Buck Creek, and George Fithian, in whose home the temporary Clark County Court was held in 1805 and who had become interested in Springfield real estate, had the same idea about it. The four corners at Limestone and Columbia streets, occupied by the court house, county building, Clark County Historical Society and the soldier's monument, were designed to remain vacant, with the business interests centering around them; it was to be a military square similar to the plan of surrounding towns, but other additions were laid out and business did not center in that locality. There was a reversionary clause, and to save the property from going back to the Demint ownership, the county buildings were located there. It is said the first Demint plat did not become a matter of record for some years, and the second one not until after his death, and when Sprigman and Lowry opened an addition they planned a market house, and business went in that direction. It was on higher ground, and offered better advantages to the community.

It is out of the question to correlate all of the facts, and give the exact chronology of early Springfield. There was a time when grain was carried on horseback to Lebanon, and thus the settlers had flour. Within a year or two, James Demint constructed a mill at the mouth of Mill Run that had the capacity of five bushels of grain every twenty-four hours, and then people had the home product - white bread when they wanted it, but the capacity was not long equal to the requirement. When Simon Kenton had a mill in Lagonda, the settlers talked about going to Kenton's mill, but his education was not sufficient to manage the milling business ; he said he was wronged by patrons, and he did not remain long in the community. However, mill sites are numerous in the vicinity of Springfield. For many years flour mills were operated by water power, there being mill dams of both log and stone, and the tolls amounted to fortunes.

In 1807 Robert Rennix built a flouring mill on Buck Creek which was "considered quite an addition to the comfort and convenience of the citizens," and in April, 1841, S. and J. Barnett built a fire-proof mill with iron gearing operating five burrs, and the product was 100 barrels of flour in twenty-four hours. What would James Demint do with such an indus- try? The Barnetts were their own millwrights, and they furnished power to other industries ; their mill gave an impetus to trade conditions in Springfield. It was a real asset to the community. While the Barnett mill was on Buck Creek, Mill Run furnished water power to many industries, a dozen mills in operation at one time. The Demint mill was the rift in the clouds - the settlers could have meal and flour without such long journeys. Water power is still available in Springfield's largest flour mill - Limestone Street and Buck Creek.

1812 when it was moved to Springfield. In 1809 there was a powder mill built by John Lingle and Jacob Cook, but they did not have to contend with the disarmament sentiment broadcast in the world today. A number of pioneer tanneries were scattered about, some on Mad River and one at New Carlisle, and the sale of oak bark was a source of income to many settlers. Oak bark was tan-bark, and skins of animals were tanned and made into clothing. Thomas Williams specialized on deer tanned and made into clothing. Thomas Baldwin was an early Springfield merchant - Stowe and Baldwin, and they had the first two-story frame business house in town. The first two-story log house was the hotel property owned by Archibald Lowry.

Jonah Baldwin had part in the council with the Indians in 1807, when Tecumseh came to town for an adjustment, and for more than half a century he was a man of influence in Springfield. In 1812, Pierson Spinning came from Dayton, with a stock of goods that had been caught in a storm between Cincinnati and Dayton, by wagon, and because they would not sell well in the older community the damaged stock was brought to the Village of Springfield. It proved such a profitable venture that he continued the business till 1834, and at one time he was regarded as the richest man in Clark County. He made frequent horseback trips to eastern markets to buy goods, and because of a physical handicap - a permanent lameness, he used a side-saddle for the long journey. He would visit both Philadelphia and New York, and spend six weeks making the trip that is now accomplished in twenty-four hours.

In Pierson Spinning's day the merchandise was brought over the mountains to Pittsburgh in wagons and it was shipped by the Ohio to Cincinnati and transported again by wagon to Springfield. The cost of transportation was about $6 per hundred, when wheat was worth 27l/2 cents on the local market. Because of the canal, grain was worth more on the Dayton market than in Springfield. Mr. Spinning was a connoisseur, and while buying merchandise he supplied his own household with many costly treasures - the Spinning of Springfield today having many of them. The family had the first cookstove and the first piano brought into Springfield.

1813 with capital amounting to $20,000; he was a man of unusual business ability, acquiring twenty-five lots at $25 each from Demint, and becoming a booster for the organization of a new county. Recognizing the possibilities of Springfield, Fisher went to the State Assembly in Chillicothe and urged that a new county be erected from Champaign, Madison and Greene counties ; his measure was opposed by Joseph Vanoe who represented him in the assembly, but the agitation was continued at his own expense; he lobbied in the interest of Springfield until Clark

County became a reality, and then he met and overcame the rivalry set up by New Boston, now only a memory west from Springfield. When the news of his success reached Springfield there was a jollification; tar barrels were burned in the street, and apple toddy was passed to all. While quick communication had not yet been established, within a week from that Christmas day, 1817, local government was established in Springfield. It had been almost twelve years in Champaign County.

When Maddux Fisher was a Springfield business man the first pavement was in front of his store. Fisher's Corner was a landmark for many years. To the victors belong the spoils, and that long ago a "pull" was an advantage. He was postmaster himself, and he named personal friends for offices in the new county. Because of their activities, men are still rewarded with official positions - Maddux Fisher establishing the precedent in Clark County. While it has been recited that Springfield business went south from the original center because of the location of a market house near the Esplanade, one account says there was a time when it was along Main Street, with only scattered groups of houses on Columbia and North streets, between Spring Street and Lowry Avenue, the latter know as Mechanic Street while Wittenberg was then Factory Street, and the change of name from Market Street to Fountain Avenue is within the memory of men and women not yet grown old in the community.

Main was once South, and Columbia was Main, but that change was made in order that Main Street might be the continuation of the National Road through Springfield. Main and Market are intersecting streets in many towns - time honored names in many communities, and the sign Market Street may still be seen in Springfield. While the street corner signs in the pavements are permanent, strangers continue asking for information without seeing them. The name Fountain Avenue is seen in the pavement, while the name Market Street is still seen on some of the walls of buildings. Market Street became Fountain Avenue under conditions that no longer exist, Dr. T. J. Casper using his influence to effect the change because of the fountain erected by O. S. Kelly on the Esplanade. It was while Mr. Kelly was mayor of Springfield.

While the intent of the fountain was excellent, its construction was not well planned, the lower basin not being large enough to catch the water when enough force was used to display the cascade or spray, and it was always wet about it. When the Kelly Fountain was installed the city beautified the Esplanade by planting trees - shade in the center of Springfield. Lawn seats were scattered about, and they were an invitation to idlers to while away their time in the beauty spot of the town. The mistake of the plan was apparent, and when the fountain needed repair it was torn down, and the seats were* removed to Snyder Park. Instead of pointing with pride to the fountain Springfield citizens were disgusted with the loafers always assembled there, and it was not an attraction for visitors.

The Kelly Fountain had a series of water basins, and in the sunshine the cascades were beautiful, but coupled with the fact that the pressure splashed the water beyond the basins, and the people attracted to the seats reflected discredit on the community, the fountain is now a memory ; the name of the street requires constant explanation, and some would gladly return to the time honored designation - Market Street. The names were not suggestive of the development along them, and