Weston Township (part 2 of 15)

We may, as a Christian people, feel a -prickling conscience, at times, when we glance over those old land patents, bearing the President's name and the great seal of the United States, and reflect that the title was, really, only made clear and perfect when the native chieftians, and their warriors, borne down amid the roar of cannon and clash of arms, were forced to throw down their bloody hatchets and put their mark on the treaty deed. That was the court of last resort. It was the decree of - well, call it Fate. There was no appeal. Still it is well for us to know and feel that humane endeavor was exhausted in trying to do what at last was wrought by force. This is not offered as a justification of all that has been done, but mentioned rather in mitigation of some of the things that were done.

After this treaty with the Shawnees, in January, the government, with the understanding that a peaceful conclusion with the Indian claimants had been reached, began active work to plant settlements north of the Ohio. Hitherto it had not only discouraged, but had forbidden, settlers from locating there, and those who had done so did it at their own peril, and usually paid the penalty with their lives, unless lucky enough to get out in time.

Here we will leave our old guardians, France and England, for a time, as well as the savage tribes who hold the Maumee Country, and turn to the New Government, just starting into life. With it is involved the future of this wilderness. From its new energies, new agencies of growth, progress and strength, must come deliverance. There are many critical stages to pass; many obstructions to be cleared away; long marches made; battles fought; treaties negotiated; and the patience and wisdom of statesmanship exhausted before the hardy band of pioneers who came later with axe, plow and spade, to reclaim and subdue this waste place, could begin with a clear title deed and an assurance of protection to life and property. It is not designed to give here a history of Ohio, or of the Northwest, but only to present, in chronological order, an account of such events as have affected the history of Wood county. An inspiration of pride swells in every American bosom when contemplating the herculean work of those sturdy, devoted patriots and statesmen, who stood at the front, in the long struggle for a new nation. Now that it was born and christened, they were, for a time, to take charge of its destiny. Out of chaos and confusion they brought order and system. Out of thirteen colonies, with diverse claims and interests, they established the Union, and that Greater Charter, the Constitution. Out of poverty and distress they brought prosperity and contentment. Out of the wilderness they carved and founded great States, where communities and cities sprung up as if by magic. When England gave up the contest, she simply made a quit-claim deed; that is, the new nation took possession, subject to all claims and encumbrances.

Included in the treaty, and which more directly concerns this story, was the vast stretch of country from the Ohio to the Canada border, on the north, and from Pennsylvania west to the Mississippi, since cut up into the States of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and that part of Minnesota east of the Mississippi. When the United States took possession, this was a namelesS waste, the greater part under the general term, Province of Quebec, and the smaller part of it, Louisiana, and occupied by about twenty-two tribes and clans of Indians, and a sparse population of whites about the military posts, mostly French. Besides being poor, the government was heavily in debt, and had in addition many soldiers who had been promised bounty in land. This public territory, or domain, seemed to be about the only resource she had. It was known to be the finest body of land in the world; adapted to all the wants of man. Its vast inland fresh-water seas were the wonder of all travelers. Its great rivers and broad fertile valleys were unexcelled in any country, and its fame was known in all the great centers of Europe. That it could readily be disposed of and would sustain a vast population there was not a doubt. It was in the light of all these facts that Congress set to work to clear up the title and open the land to settlement. First to be dealt with was four members of the Confederate sisterhood: Virginia, Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut. Each claimed a slice of the New Territory. All claimed under their original Colonial charters from the King of England, and Virginia made the additional claim of conquest, and New York of purchase from the Iroquois.

No reader of history but has admired the feats of the redoubtable Virginian, Col. George Rogers Clark, who, during the Revolutionary war, when he saw that Congress was neglecting the Illinois Country, next the Mississippi, sallied forth from Kentucky with a small force and captured the British garrisons at Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Vincennes, freed the country from British rule, drove away Lieut. Henry Hamilton, and held it in spite of all efforts of the enemy to drive him off. Kentucky was at that time a part of Virginia, and the latter State at her own expense equipped Clark for the expedition. But for the enterprise and success of that gallant officer Illinois and Indiana might, to-day, belong to Canada, possibly all the country north of the Ohio.

Virginia compromised her claim by taking 3,800,000 acres of land bordering the Ohio on the north, between the Scioto and Miami, known since as the Virginia Military Tract. New York and Massachusetts conflicted somewhat with each other in jurisdiction, and finally relinquished their claims. Connecticut was more stubborn and reluctant. She claimed a belt of land clear to the Pacific, but finally, after much vexatious delay, compromised, in 1786, by taking a strip of land about fifty miles average width, on the south side of Lake Erie, and extencjjng west from Pennsylvania, 120 miles, containing 3,700,-

000 acres, known, sometimes, as "New Connecticut, or "Connecticut Reserve," but usually as the " Western Reserve. " Five hundred thousand acres of this land at the west end, now comprising Huron and Erie counties, known as the " Fire Lands," were given by Connecticut to those of her citizens, whose property, at New London, Stonington and other coast towns, was destroyed by fire in the Revolutionary war. This peaceable settlement of those claims required patient and careful statesmanship. The Union of the States had not yet been perfected, and the least bit of friction might have done great mischief at such a critical time. All breathed easier when it was finally consumated.

This brings us to the most interesting period in the early history of our country - the laying of the foundations of five of the great States in the Union. The fate of the Maumee Country is so directly linked and connected with the history of that period, and the country was itself the arena of so many historic events, thac a brief outline of the story, though national in its scope, will not only be of interest, but necessary to the ground-work of our local history.

Among the most urgent agencies in hastening the efforts of the government to plant settlements'north of the Ohio, were the bounty claims for land, of the Revolutionary soldiers. Many

01 these men had served eight years for but little pay, and that in depreciated currency. The promise to them of land in the different grades of the service was as follows: Major-general, 1,100 acres; brigadier-general, 850 acres; colonel, 550 acres; major, 400 acres; captain, 300 acres; lieutenant. 200 acres; ensign, 150 acres; non-commissioned officers and privates. 100 acres each.

The survey of this vast public domain, and the manner in which it should be done, had already been arranged for by Congress, and the surveyors began work in July, 1786, following the treaty with the Shawnees in January of the same year. The first stake was driven on the north bank of the Ohio, at the Pennsylvania line. The surveys were under the direction of Capt. Thomas Hutchins, United States Geographer. This was the beginning of a work so important then, and to all future generations, that a sketch of it in this volume, based on official authority, is given a separate chapter.

The best statesmen in the land had, meantime, been laboring to perfect a plan of provisional civil government for the new territory, which resulted in the enactment by Congress. July 13, of the celebrated Ordinance of 1787, the Magna Charta of the Northwest - a document more talked about, and which has received more encomiums from statesmen, past and present, at home and abroad, than any other, the Constitution only excepted. It is the fundamental law of five great States. Salmon P. Chase said of it: "Never probably in the history of the world did a measure of legislation so accurately fulfill, yet so mightily exceed, the anticipations of legislators. When the settlers went into the wilderness they found the law already there. It was impressed upon the soil itself, while it yet bore up nothing but the forest. * * * This remarkable document," he says again, " was the last gift of the old Confederation to the country, and was a fit consummation of their glorious labors." At the time of its promulgation the Federal constitution was under discussion in the convention, and in a few months - upon the organization of the new national government - that Congress was dissolved never again to reassemble. Its essential propositions were: (1)

Freedom of conscience and right of worship. (2) Free people and no slavery. (3) Free schools and encouragement of education and religion. (4) Inviolability of private contracts and the greatest personal liberty. What a debt of gratitude later generations have acknowledged to the wise statesmen of that day for the single provision in the Ordinance of 1785, of a section of Laid, in each township, for school purposes. That alone immortalized their legislation. That Ordinance organized the whole domain north of the Ohio into a single division, called the Territory northwest of the Ohio, but which will be referred to for greater convenience in the succeeding pages as the North wesf Territory. A governoi, secretary and three judges constituted the corps of officials, who were to go on the ground and put the Ordinance into operation. All that seemed necessary now to make a great State was people. These were soon forthcoming. On the 7th of April, 1788, Gen. Rufus Putnam, superintendent of the Ohio Company, with a party of forty-seven New England colonists, crossed the Alleghany mountains, and by boat passed down the Ohio, landing at a point where the Muskingum unites with it, and there planted the first settlement, which they named Marietta. In June another installment of New England pioneers arrived, and afterward they came faster than shelter could be provided for them. By the 15th of July the government officials had arrived: Arthur St. Clair, governor; Winthrop

Sargent, secretary; John Cleves Symmes, James M. Vamum and Samuel H. Parsons, judges. These officials, appointed by Congress and the Ordinance of 1787, were the Government. A day was appointed for a public meeting; addresses were made; the commissions of the new officials were read; the governor duly inaugurated; three rousing cheers given, and the people dispersed in a happy mood. In this summary way the Northwest Territory was organized. Marietta was its temporary capital, and the wheels of government were in motion; the proceedings had occupied no more time in those wild woods than the opening of a country school lyceum by the reading of its constitution and by-laws.

That was a unique sort of government those first settlers had. The governor was the executive branch; the three judges the judicial, and the governor and judges together, the legislative. They adopted from the statutes of the different States, subject to the approval of Congress, such laws as were deemed necessary to their condition. These were mostly derived from Pennsylvania, Virginia and Massachusetts. This government, in the scope of its legislative authority, greatly resembled the municipal corporations of to-day. The judiciary had more extended powers - original, appellate and final - but as they confined themselves closely to the wellestablished precedents of the older States, the pioneers, too busy to indulge in law, the luxury of more wealthy societies, had little cause of complaint in that direction.

Gov. St. Clair issued a proclamation establishing and defining the limits of Washington county, the first county of the Northwest Territory, and the oldest, of course, in Ohio. In extent of territory that county was a vast one. It took in all eastern 'Ohio, from the point where the boundary line of Pennsylvania crosses the Ohio river, west by south, following the river, to the mouth of the Scioto, thence thirty miles north of Columbus, then east to a point on the Tuscarawas river, then north to Lake Erie, where Cleveland now is. If a man living on the shore o£ Lake Erie had wished to have a deed recorded, or procure a marriage license, he would have to go to Marietta, the county seat, on the Ohio. There were no mail routes to send letters by, nor roads either, for that matter. But it was unavoidable, for people were scarce and territory abundant. In the fall of the same year (1788), a settlement was started near where Cincinnati now is, in what is known as the Symmes Purchase. Judge Symmes and his chief associates in the colony enterprise, were Jerseymen, and this set- * tlement was composed largely of people from New Jersey, mingled with others from various parts. As the settlements grew and prospered, others took courage to make a beginning. In the winter of 1790-91 Gen. Nathaniel Massie located a colony of Virginians on the river, above Symmes Colony, at Manchester (now Adams county), which was in the tract reserved and known as the Virginia Military Tract. Great inducements were offered by Massie, and this settlement soon had a permanent foothold.

There were now three centers of settlement on the Ohio river, besides the "Seven Range" settlement, next to Pennsylvania, and a pretty fair start had been made for future growth. In these three, or we may say four central settlements, were four almost distinct types of civilization which then began to exert their influence on the future of the land occupied. Most prominent were the two leading colonies, one from Virginia, the other from Massachusetts; the first, descendants of the proud Cavaliers, and their aristocratic associates back to Sir Walter Raleigh; the other the descendants of the Puritans, whose faith, devotion and religious zeal had made them, for freedom's sake, content to live on the bleak, rocky shores of New England. To-day we find, in a degree, the impress and characteristics of those early settlers in the Scioto valley, about Chillicothe; in the valley of the Muskingum around Zanesville, between the two Miamis, north to Hamilton, Dayton and Troy, and in the cosmopolitan, but energetic, inhabitants of the seven ranges. And if we anticipate dates a little, and go over to the south shore of Lake Erie, where the Connecticut Reserve is dotted over with towns and settlements, churches and schools of the enterprising thrifty New Englanders, we shall find the characteristics of their late homes still more strongly impressed there.

We have passed now, in chronological order, to the third year, 1791, in the life of the new Territorial Government; its settlements have expanded; the original one, at Marietta, had multiplied into eight minor communities.

But while this extension north of the Ohio was going on gradually, portentous clouds had been gathering. The powerful tribes of Indians to the northwest, whose fine hunting grounds the whites were approaching, had been showing much uneasiness. They hovered about the settlements, and regarded the whites with restless, jealous looks and menacing gestures. The aspect was too threatening to longer admit of doubt. They claimed they had been cheated in the purchase; that some tribe, or tribes, got better bargains than others; they wanted a new treaty; they wanted to sell over again.

Fourth Treaty. - To meet this disaffection a meeting of the tribes was called, at Ft. Harmar, opposite Marietta, January 9, 1789, and, as usual, the Iroquois were on hand to sell again; also the Delawares, Chippewas, Ottawas, Wyandots, Sauks and Pottawatamies were there, though it is noticeable that the Shawanees were not present. A new peace talk was had, presents made, and the former treaty at Ft. McIntosh confirmed with the assent of all present. This was the fourth Indian treaty the United States had made. It was hoped this would end the dissatisfaction, but it did not. There were some implacable chiefs, with bad advisers, who claimed the treaty had been made without anthority, and further that the whites had no right north of the Ohio. With all this effort of the government to pacify the savages, it was still evident that there was trouble coming. Those Indians who came about the settlements were sullen and uncommunicative, and their actions were so significant that the old border men knew what it meant, and took the precaution to put the forts and block-houses in a state of security from surprise. This state of suspense was ended one winter night, in 1791, when fourteen settlers were found, inhumanly butchered, at a place called Big Bottom, on the Muskingum. One of the murderers was a Mohawk warrior, so it was known that the Iroquois were mixed in the massacre.

The whites then saw they were in for a war, and hurried to their forts for safety. Gen. Harmar, who had conducted the last treaty, took his regulars and such volunteer troops as were at hand, and marched to the head of the Maumee, where the Miami villages were. Here he was outgeneraled and defeated; showing that he had become too old to successfully make either peace or war. This victory gave the Indians great encouragement, and there was, of course, no use trying to treat with them. Gov. St. Clair now took the field and, as soon as he had an army organized, led his column in the direction of the Maumee Country, whither the Indians were retreating in force. Much hope was centered in that army. The whole frontier - the nation - was looking for St. Clair to strike a blow that would humble the savages. But it was not to be so. Soon the messengers from the wilderness, northward, brought the startling news of an overwhelming, appalling disaster to St. Clair's army. One morning at daylight, near the line of Darke and Mercer counties, at what has since been Ft. Recovery, the Indians, under the lead of Blue Jacket and Little Turtle, made a savage attack, in which they cut the American army to pieces, inflicting a loss of six hundred men, and taking all its baggage and cannon. The wounded and prisoners were treated with unexampled barbarity. Even the mouths of the dead were filled with earth, as if in derision of the whites' desire for. more land.

The Indians were now 4 4 insolent with triumph, ' ' and demanded that the whites must go south of the Ohio. All efforts to make peace on any other basis failed. All immigration had ceased north of the Ohio, in fact on either side, and the settlers were cooped up in forts and block-houses. Many felt doubts as to what the final result would be. Even the government authorities seemed, for the moment, paralyzed. The settlers were clamorous for vigorous measures and a war of extermination. Four treaties had been made with the savages, and yet peace seemed further off than at any time since the New Government had come into power. Gen. Washington, who was now President, sent an army associate of his, Gen. Anthony Wayne, the "Mad Anthony" of the Revolution, west to organize a new army. Wayne was a man of audacious courage, yet prudent and skillful in generalship. He was rough and sententious in speech, and, with his well-known reckless fighting record, was just such a man as would draw about him the best class of border fighters.

When at last, in the spring of 1794, he turned the head of his column in the direction of the dreaded Maumee Country, the prayers of the Nation followed him. Night and day the savages hung on his flanks, laid ambuscades and planned surprises for "Mad Anthony" and his gallant followers; but this time they were the only ones who met with surprises. At last, in the sul- try days of August, the suspense was broken by the arrival of a messenger at Ft. Washington, on the Ohio, that Wayne had met and overwhelmed the combined tribes, in battle, on the banks of the Maumee, under the very guns of the British Fort Miami; and later, that he had destroyed every shanty, wigwam, cornfield, and truck patch, from the source of the Maumee to the lake, and built and garrisoned Forts Defiance and Wayne. A glad shout went up, and benedictions and thanks followed from the whole people. The border settlers were 'fairly mad with joy. " Mad Anthony" had overcome the ague, the swamps, the British and Indians.

This battle, known in history, as "Wayne's Battle," or battle of the " Fallen Timbers," because of the down timber from the effects of a recent tornado, began on the north side of the river, about three miles above Maumee, near a sharp hill, known as Presque Isle hill, and ended just below Maumee, at Ft. Miami. In the language of the missionary, J. B. Finley, this was "the last united effort of barbarism to check the swelling tide of civilization." Like many other decisive battles, the importance of this one is not to be measured so much by the numbers killed as by the results, or the vital issues involved and decided. While the tribes lost heavily in this battle, the Wyandot nation losing eleven chiefs, this was not its most decisive feature. Gen. Wayne, in his campaign and fight, had demonstrated to the tribes that a white chief had come among them whom they could not surprise or whip, and fully impressed the savages with the hollowness of the promises of the lying, hypocritical British agents and traders, ' ' that their Great Father, the King of England, would help the Indians when the time of need came." The warriors in their flight, to escape from Wayne's victorious soldiers, had seen the King's officers skulk into the fort like ground hogs, and close the gates against the Indians, while the Americans continued the slaughter, even under the very muzzles of the British cannon. [This was a critical juncture. The relations of England and the United States had been on a strain for some time. Ft. Miami with its British garrison was on American soil, and while Gen. Wayne, at the time was acting under very guarded instructions from President Washington, there was no doubt that had the English officers shown the least disposition to shelter or protect the savages on that day, that Wayne would have stormed the fort. He was an impetuous, fiery man in battle, and this the English knew, and doubtless the officers in command, in the fort, had a wholesome respect for him. It was well it was so, for had the flame of war been started there, it might, at that time, have led to serious complications. No doubt President Washington had more anxiety on this -point than he had as to the outcome of Wayne's campaign against the Indians.]

Again Wayne had destroyed all their cornfields and truck patches, and all manner of shelter for winter protection. The pinching hunger and cold could not be quieted with British promises. All these things were arguments that appealed stronger to the savages than the logic of words. It is recorded, too, that the superstitious Indians got an idea that Gen. Wayne was a great medicine man, as well as a warrior, and that through some charm, orconjury, he was endowed with supernatural power that made him invincible in war. They thought the British were afraid of him, or they would have turned their cannon upon him when they saw his men destroying the shanties and out-buildings about the fort. It had, too, in some way, become impressed upon them that Wayne loved to drink firewater, fight, kill and destroy, and that he was only held in check, from day to day, by the commands of his Great Father at Washington. All these stories were afloat years afterward; but this much is known certainly of Indian character, and it is true to a great extent among whites, too, that an Indian has great jrespect for a fellow who he knows can whip him.

Fifth Treaty. - In the summer of 1795 the Indians assembled at Ft. Greenville, in what is now Darke county, and after many talks and speeches, and where, in skillful diplomacy, Gen. Wayne found a pretty good match in some of the unlettered chieftains, a treaty, which is famous in history as the Greenville Treaty, was signed by twelve tribes, as follows: Delawares, Wyandots,

Ottawas, Pottawatamies, Chippewas. Miamis, Piankashaws, Eel Rivers, Weeas, Kickapoos, Shawnees and Kaskaskias. The boundary lines, as defined by this treaty, are best illustrated, so far as Ohio is affected, by the accompanying map, but are nearly the same as those made at Ft. McIntosh, beginning at the mouth of the Cuyahoga; thence up that river to the present north line of Tuscarawas county; thence west, by a little south, to the southwest comer of Mercer county, and thence south to the Ohio. All north and west of this line was given over to the savages! under certain conditions, except sixteen blocks, or reservations, and connecting roadways, reserved by the United States. Of these blocks six were on the Maumee river and its tributaries; the Auglaize; and one at the mouth of the Maumee river, each six miles square; one on the St. Mary's, two miles square; and one at the Maumee Rapids, twelve miles square. There were also reservations at Sandusky, Fremont, Detroit, Chicago, Mackinaw and other points. The one at the Rapids of the Maumee, of about 92,160 acres of land, was about half on the south, or Wood county, side of the river, and was the first land to which the government acquired unencumbered title in what is now Wood county. Further, the Indians stipulated that in case they sold all, or any portion, of this land, they would sell to no one except the United States, and that no one should come among them to trade unless such person had a license from the United States. This clause shut out the mischievous English agents and traders. This treaty, the fifth one the United States had made for the same territory with the Indians, annulled any other treaty that conflicted with its stipulations. Thus virtually closed the Indian war, which had desolated the Pennsylvania and Virginia border, and, latterly, the land between the Ohio and Lake Erie, more or less, for over forty years, and in which more than five thousand whites had been murdered or taken captive. This does not include the loss in war, or the various military expeditions and skirmishes.

Chapter

The Greenville Treaty - Opens the Flood-gates of Immigration - British evacuate all Forts in the United States Territory, including Ft. Miami - Wayne County organized, 1796, with Detroit as County Seat - Wood a Part of Wayne - Ohio admitted as a State, 1803.

BY the Treaty of Fort Greenville, negotiated in 1795, about two-thirds of what is now Ohio was freed from the ownership of -the Indians, and the remaining northwestern portion, as well as all the rest of the Northwest Territory, was consigned, indefinitely, to the rule of the savages. But if the outlook wasgloomy for the Maumee Country, there was glad sunshine and joy along the Ohio. For four years immigration had been at a standstill, and painful anxiety had reigned in the little settlements, where the inhabitants were shut up in the block-houses, or ventured forth in peril of the tomahawk and knife. The report of Wayne's treaty came like a streak of light in a cloudy sky to them - a joyful messenger of glad tidings. Peace opened the gates of the forts and started the flow of immigration anew. Virginia again sent her best families into the rich lands between the Miami and the Scioto, and soon the settlements had advanced to Chillicothe, which now became the center of a large population, and later the temporary capital of the Northwest. The Jerseymen of Symines' Purchase had advanced far up the valley of the beautiful Miami. The New Englanders were pushing their settlements up the Muskingum and spreading out all over the Ohio Purchase, while the Pennsylvanians were sending some strong settlements into the Seven Range Country, adjoining the Keystone State. This was not all. Far up north, on the shore of Lake Erie, next to Pennsylvania, came another invasion of New Englanders, like the advance guard of a strong army corps. They were from Connecticut, looking up their fine possessions in the Western Reserve. They came across "York State" to the lake at points since known as Buffalo, Erie, Black Rock, Lockport, etc., and came down the lake in boats. The first installment, under the direction of Gen. Moses Cleveland, landed at the mouth of Conneaut creek, July 4, 1796,' and began to lay the I foundations of that grand civilization which has, in later years, distinguished the Western Reserve. In September and October the surveying corps had advanced to the Cuyahoga, the Indian borj der line, and laid out the city of Cleveland; and from that time on the settlement was pushed with New England vigor and perseverance.

United States and England, the latter surrendered up all the posts she had been unjustly holding in United States territory, and, among the rest, Detroit. Gen. Wayne was sent out to take possession and garrison the forts. There was quite a settlement at Detroit and vicinity, and at the mouth of the river, largely French, and so Gov. St. Clair proclaimed a new county and named it Wayne, in honor of the old hero, "Mad Anthony." Wayne was the sixth county in the Northwest Territory, and the third in what is now Ohio. Hamilton county was second, formed January, 1790. If Washington and Hamilton were large, they were yet children in comparison with Wayne. Wayne took in all northwestern Ohio to Cleveland, and northwest to Ft. Wayne, Ind. ; thence on a line to Lake Michigan, taking in northern Indiana and a part of Illinois, including the site of Chicago; thence north along Lake Michigan, including all the land on the rivers flowing into the lake, which would include about half of Wisconsin; thence by a due north line to the Canadian boundary, following the same back by Lake Huron and Detroit river to Lake Erie, and so on to the place of beginning at Cleveland, including all the present State of Michigan. Of this vast territory Detroit was made the county seat. The land in the present bounds of Wood county was included in thatgreat county of Wayne.

If some unfortunate white man had lived here then, his post office address would have been Detroit, Wayne county, Northwest Territory; or if he had been summoned to attend court at the county seat he would have possibly met at the court house in Detroit, some other juryman, from the head of Green bay (Wisconsin now), who had been on the road ten days or two weeks getting there, and whose mileage bill would cover five or six hundred miles of travel. Wayne was a vast county, and in the improbable court incident we have drawn, the school boy, or girl, will find a ready answer for the mental question which often occurs: ' ' Why was the country cut up into so many States and counties?" Namely, for the convenience of the people in transacting their business affairs. This same rule follows us down to townships, school districts, and city wards.

As the Maumee Country at the date of w'hich we are speaking ( 1 796) is in peaceable possession of the Indians, and there is nothing passing here to record in its history, now in its third stage, let us go back a little while to the Ohio river. We note a most extraordinary spectacle; the settlement of a new domain; the sudden transition from its wilderness state; and under the forms of popular government, by an enlightened people.

Such energy, such zeal and peaceful rivalry had never before been seen. Cabins and new settlements on every side heralded the coming of civilization; and the valleys and hill-tops were noisy with the bustle and marvelous activity of the joyful pioneers. In the language of one enthusiastic chronicler, people came across the Alleghanies like spray flung from the ocean.

In the year 1798, Gov. St. Clair announced that the population of voters was over 5,000, and that under the Ordinance, the Territorial Government could pass to the second stage, that of choosing for itself a legislative body, and a delegate to Congress. This action was taken, and the first legislature of the Northwest Territory met in Cincinnati in 1799, and elected a delegate to Congress, and a number of new counties were established.

The following year, 1800, Congress cut the Northwest Territory north and south, about on the line of the Great Miami river, and named the west part Indiana Territory, with its capital at Vincennes. William H. Harrison was governor. At the same time Chillicothe was made the temporary capital of the east division. [The capital remained at Chillicothe until 1810, when it was changed to Zanesville until 1812, then back to Chillicothe until 1816, when it was permanently located at Columbus.] Trumbull county was formed, including, in its bounds, all the Connecticut Reserve east of the Cuyahoga river, with county seat at Warren. This indicates that the settlements were also growing in that quarter. So great, indeed, had been the increase in the east division that Congress, believing the population sufficient to entitle the people of the east part to the honors of statehood, passed an Enabling Act, April, 1802, allowing the voters to choose delegates and form a constitution, all of which was completed on the 29th of November, same year, and the proposed new State named Ohio [There never was a Territory of that name. Until her admission as a State, or rather, at the time of her admission, Ohio was simply the eastern division of the Northwest Territory], after the great river which forms its southern border, with metes and bounds, substantially, as they are to-day, except the strip on the north taken later on from Michigan. This constitution, with the name of the State, boundary lines and other proceedings of the convention, was submitted to Congress, and by that body approved, and on February 19, 1803, an Act was passed admitting Ohiq to the sisterhood of States. [There has been considerable discussion as to when Ohio was admitted as a State; whether in 1802, or 1803. Inves- tigation of the facts leaves little room for doubt on this point. The constitution was completed, and all the requirements of the Enabling Act complied with by the people, in November, 1802. Then Congress scrutinized this proceeding, accepted and approved it, and passed an Act in February, 1803, admitting Ohio into the Union, and on March 3, 1803, the Territorial officials stepped out and the State officials took charge.]

This was a long and rapid stride forward in our history. In March, 1788, there was not a permanent settlement or town in Ohio; just a wilderness terrorized over by savages. In 1803, fifteen years later, a State is carved out, with 60,000 prosperous people, and a fully equipped government, with nine organized counties or subordinate governments.

Montgomery, Gallia, Butler, Warren, Geauga, and Scioto, and in April some others, including Franklin. These counties are named because two of them will be again alluded to presently. In the meantime the great changes going on had caused a sort of mishap to Wood county, or to the place where she now is. We remember that we were a short while ago nearly lost in the great county of Wayne, Northwest Territory, to which it had been attached in 1796. Our county seat was then at Detroit. Congress had since chopped us off, so to speak, and, like a chip from a great log, we were now lying over in the State of Ohio, and our late county seat, Detroit, was in Wayne county still, but in Indiana Territory. The Maumee Country had been divorced. We were in that fragment of Ohio that had been Wayne county, Northwest Territory; but now we were in a new State, without a seat of justice or county government, not even a county name.* It is true that the hordes of Indians and few white traders and half-breeds here had but little use for a county seat, but still it was the fashion to preserve the semblance of civil government, by attaching all territory to some organized county for such purposes. It had been the rule, too, on the Ohio, where the settlements began, to extend the limits of the new counties to the northern boundary of the Territory. So it happened, when Greene and Franklin counties were organized on the northern borders of the settlements, they were extended north to the State line, pos-

-A part of the Territory in the new State still retained the name: I Wooster is the county seat; Detroit, too. is the county seat of Wayne j county, Mich. Both counties date their organization front 179d. ' sibly to include the Twelve Mile Reserve, and took in the present territory of Wood. The present tier of eastern townships of Wood were in Franklin, with county seat at Franklinton (now Columbus) and the remainder of Wood was attached to Greene county, with the seat of justice at Xenia. But the fact that this Territory had two county seats caused but little inconvenience; except the U. S. Reserve it was all Indian territory; there were no taxes to pay or deeds to record. Settlements, however, were extending up the Mad river very fast, and two years later, 1805, Champaign county was formed of parts of Greene and Franklin, with county seat temporarily at Springfield (now Clark county), but soon after changed to Urbana. In this new county the settlers had reached their northern limit. There stood the Greenville Treaty line, the border mark between whites and Indians. North of that was the Indians' territory, into which the whites dare not carry their settlements. That line stood like a Chinese wall until the year 1817, separating civilization from barbarism. On one side were fruitful fields, towns, roads, churches, schools, and a well-fed, well- clothed, people, enjoying the rewards of peace, industry and thrift which good soil, good climate and a beneficent Providence assures to every citizen of Ohio. On the other side was the wilderness and squalid poverty - the Indian in his worst estate. The uncertain and irregular provision of the chase made him hungry and a beggar; the smoky, comfortless wigwam, with his idle, monotonous life, made him crave the delirium of fire-water. His forest pride and independent spirit forsook him, and he became an abject being, with gloomy forebodings of the future. The transition was too sudden, even had the fiber of his nature been less unyielding. Nowhere has the contrast between the two modes of existence been more clearlj' shown than on this line, before the worst vices of civilization had time to contaminate and degrade the savage from his natural state. How appropriate the lines of Paulding seem to this situation:

But it was impossible that this condition should continue long. The land could not be separated on such a line. It must be all one or the other. Call it fate, or whatever name we choose, the ! Indian was doomed to be swept aside by the new I and superior race. He either must fall in with

Important events in the development of the country were now coming in such rapid succession that it is nearly impossible to keep trace of them in regular order. In this year (1805) Michigan Territory was formed, with William Hull as governor, capital at Detroit.

Chapter Vi

THIS brings us, in the progress of this account of the Maumee Country, to what may be called the formative period of white settlement. Such descriptions of the actual conditions existing here at that time, as we get from men who were on the ground and spoke from personal observation, afford the best information obtainable. It is, moreover, deemed best, where practicable, to give the story in the relator's own words. Before the white people get here, then, let us glance at the resident Indian population, which it is believed then numbered not less than eight thousand. In the year 1802, the Connecticut Missionary Society sent out an agent to establish a station among these Indians. A letter or report of that year, sent in by the society's agent, Rev. David Bacon, contains the following references: "I set out (from Detroit) April 20th for the Miami (Maumee) in a canoe, with Beaumont and a man I had hired ; but, by reason of unfavorable winds, we did not arrive at the mouth of the river until the 4th of May. We were very much fatigued with hard rowing, and were several times in danger by the violence of the waves. I was obliged to go without the public interpreter, as he could not be spared. But when I came to the Miami I found an excellent interpreter in whom the Indians placed the utmost confidence, and who served me faithfully for a much less sum than what either of the others would have asked. His name is William Dragoo. When I arrived at the mouth of the river, the most of the chiefs were drunk at the traders' above. After remaining there two days, and finding it uncertain when they would be down, we went up and stored my provisions and farming tools at Ft. Miami, eighteen miles above. Hearing there that most of them had gone down, we returned the next day to the mouth. The day after I found that

Little Otter, the head chief, and one other were all that remained in the main village where we were, and that the rest all lay drunk at the neighboring village. In the afternoon I spent several hours with these two explaining to them the origin and designs of the Missionary Society, and the benefits, temporal and spiritual, that they might expect to receive by having me among them. They appeared to pay good attention, and when I had concluded, Little Otter observed, in reply, that the Great Spirit had been listening, and that they and their young men had been listening to all I had said; that he believed it was true; that the air appeared clear and no clouds in the way, and that he would assemble his chiefs and hear me again as soon as possible, but that till then he could give me no further answer.

'-This was Saturday, the 8th. Through the Sabbath following we enjoyed peace and quietness among them. Hitherto, the most of them had remained sober. But the following night we were disturbed by the rattles and drums of a number of individuals who spent the night in conjuring over a poor sick child in order to save its life, but it died within a day or two after.

"Next day we started for the trading post. As we had a strong head wind, it was with difficulty that we got but five miles up the river that afternoon. We encamped about a quarter of a mile above their dancing ground. My interpreter advised me to go with him to see them that evening; and I had a desire to be present, as I supposed I might acquire some information that might be useful; but I thought it would not be prudent to be among them that night as I knew some of them were intoxicated and that such would be apt to be jealous of me at that time; and that nothing would be too absurd for their imaginations to conceive, or too cruel for their hands to perform. But as a son of the head chief was sent early next morning to invite me down, I went to see them. I had the greater desire to go, as this is their annual conjurationdance, which is celebrated every spring, on their return from hunting, and at no other time in the year. * * *

"Mr. Anderson, a respectable trader at Fort Miami, told me that they had been growing worse every year since he had been acquainted with them, which is six or seven years; and that they have gone much greater lengths this year than he has ever known them before. He assured me that it was a fact, that they had lain drunk this spring, as much as ten or fifteen days, at several different traders above him; and that some of them had gone fifteen days without tasting a mouthful of victuals while they were in that situation.' Mr. Anderson disapproved of the practice, and, by not complying with it, has lost the trade, and has turned his attention to his farm. He treated me very kindly, and seemed friendly to my designs, and very desirous to have me come out there."

Rev. James B. Finley, in his autobiography, says that in the fall of the year 1800, in company with others, he purchased a drove of fat cattle near Chilicothe and drove them through to Detroit, by the way of the Sandusky Plains, Lower Sandusky and the Maumee Rapids where they found a large Indian village.

"The Indians of this town had just finished their great fall dance and frolic, and were making preparations for starting for their huntinggrounds. Being hungry and half starved, they demanded of us a steer for the privilege of driving through their country. I told them no, they could not have it, as the cattle were for the soldiers at Detroit. At this one of the Indians raised his rifle to shoot a steer, but riding instantly betweem him and the animal, I told him if he shot I would send a force of soldiers after him from Detroit, and he should be taken there to answer for his conduct. This had the desired effect, and we passed on unmolested. * * * Soon after the sale (of the cattle to a government contractor), we left for home, with provisions sufficient to last till we reached the Maumee Rapids, where, our stock being exhausted, we found it impossible to purchase any; and taking a string of corn, on which, with some hazel nuts, we subsisted for two days, we arrived at Lower Sandusky. At this place we purchased, of Whitaker, a few quarts of flour and the half of a small deer."

Peter Navarre's reminiscences, written by H. L. Hosmer as a historical sketch, contains much that relates directly to the Maumee tribes. "At that time, 1807," says the narrator, " the Indians of the Ottawa nation lived in a village on the Maumee, nearly opposite Manhattan. It was a grassy plat; the houses, of logs, about sixty in number, were built in two rows, whitewashed, and presented a cheerful and pleasant appearance. The village had been in existence since the days of Pontiac, and marked the site of his encampment on the Maumee at the time he left Detroit in 1764. The head chief of the nation, Fish-qua-gun, was a descendant from Pontiac. The character generally given to him, by those who knew him, was that of a kind-hearted, peaceable old man. At this time, also, the widow of Pontiac, Kan-tuck-ee-gun, and his son Otusso dwelt at the mouth of the river. The old woman was held in great reverence, always the first one applied to by the nation for advice, and the first to sign all treaties. Otusso was a man of excellent sense, free from the vices of his tribe, and, with none of the ferocity, inherited all the bravery of his father. He was a proud man, and held intercourse with those only of the whites who, like himself, were distinguished by station or power. Mesh-ka-mau, a cousin of Otusso, was a chief on the opposite side of the river. He was the finest orator in the nation, and the foremost speaker at all treaties. There were eight thousand of the Ottawas, at this time, living on the Maumee. Once a year they had a sacrifice of the best of everything they owned. On such occasions, which generally lasted three days, they would eat what they could, and burn the remnant of their food so that the dogs could not get it. About ten days before this annual sacrifice they would blacken their faces, and eat and drink only in the afternoon. Thousands of them would finally assemble, and erect a shanty where they held their feast. They would make religious speeches, and with upraised hand, and by every outward demonstration, testify their reverence for the Great Spirit. Feasts were frequent among them and upon various occasions. Sometimes sickness, often hunting, and, oftener still, to enjoy the pleasure of a protracted season of ball playing, they would have feasts of several days' continuance. At this period they drank but little liquor, were proud and vain, and many of them rich. Their robes were of fine cloths, bedizened with silver and gold coins, which jingled and glittered as they walked. Often chiefs would have several hundred dollars fastened to their dresses. A variety of dances were incident to the feasts. One, called Ki a-wa, indicated their expectation of, or desire for, war, and was almost invariably introduced at every feast during the two years preceding the war (1812). The English visited the Indians in great numbers during the years 1810 and 18 1 1, for the purpose of interesting them in the coming war against the United States. Navarre saw them frequently, heard their counsels, and witnessed their effect upon the nation."

" In June, 1805, having agreed to spend two months at the River Raisin, Michigan Territory, and among the Wyandot Indians, I set out from Cleveland on the 10th in company with Capt. Parish, of Canandaigua, and Mr. Knaggs, of Detroit, interpreters, going to attend the treaty at Swan Creek. We traveled on horseback, and lodged the first night on the sand beach near the mouth of Black river.

"Just as we were about to start in the morning, we looked up the lake toward Detroit, and saw the smoke of the burning town, which was that morning consumed by fire. We crossed the river in a canoe, and swam our horses; also at Vermillion. * * * Friday morning we crossed the Sandusky river; swam our horses by a canoe; found the chiefs had arrived from the upper town on the way to the treaty about selling their land. Here I met the Rev. James Hughes. We spoke to Tarhe, or Crane, and Walk-in-the-water, about time for preaching, and went to Barnet's, or De-un-quot's, house and took dinner, and then returned to Mr. Whitaker's. Barnet appears with the meekness of a Christian, and is really an amiable man. * * * Tuesday, the 25th, we rode through the Maumee swamp, about thirty-six miles, and lodged in the woods. Wednesday we forded the Maumee; got breakfast at a French house and rode down to the outlet of Swan creek. Fort Industry, where the Indian agent, Mr. Jouet, with the commissioners of the Connecticut Fire Land Company, and the chiefs of eight different tribes of Indians, were in council about selling and buying land."

Here, Mr. Badger gave the Wyandots a long temperance talk, after which Crane, their head chief, made a short speech, and told them to make up their minds what they would do. In about half an hour the old chief replied: " Father, you have told us the truth; we thank you. Father, we have all agreed to use no more ardent spirits." Mr. Badger adds: " I lived with them about four years after this, and I saw or knew of but one man drunk in that time. It broke up the traders so that they left them." a practicing lawyer under the old Territorial Government, and came out to Detroit once a year to attend court, after Wayne county was established in 1796, says: "On one of the journeys of the court and bar to Detroit, we arrived at the Ottawa town, on the Auglaize, about the middle of the day, and accepted an invitation to remain there until the next morning. Blue Jacket, the Shawnee chief, resided at that village, but was then absent. The party, however, were received very kindly by the venerable Delaware chief, Bukongehelas, who, in the course of the afternoon, got up a game of foot ball, in the true aboriginal style, for the amusement of his guests.

"The contending parties arranged themselves in the center of the lawn, the men on one side and the women on the other, each party facing the goal of their opponents. The side which should succeed in driving the ball through the stakes at the goal of their adversaries were to receive a purse, to be divided among them. The contest continued about an hour, with great animation and with various prospects of success, but was finally decided in favor of the fair sex, by the herculean strength of a mammoth squaw, who got the ball and held it in spite of the efforts of the men to shake it from the grasp of her uplifted hand, till she approached the goal to throw it through the stakes."

The party spent the night very pleasantly in the village, and in the morning resumed their journey. On their outward trip they took the route by Dayton, Piqua, Loramies, St. Mary's and the Ottawa town on the Auglaize, and from thence down that river to Defiance; thence to the Foot of the Rapids, and thence by River Raisin (the old name of Monroe, Mich.), to Detroit. But on their return from Detroit they crossed the Maumee river at Roche de Boeuf, by the advice of Black Beard, who lived in that neighborhood, and with whom the party breakfasted. As a matter of precaution, they hired his son to accompany them in the capacity of a guide. He led them through a succession of wet prairies, over some of which it was impossible to ride, and it was with great difficulty they were able to lead or drive their horses through the deep mud which surrounded them on all sides. After two days and a half of incessant toil and difficulty, they arrived at the same village in which they had been so kindly treated, and so much amused on their outward trip.

To their great mortification and disappointment they were informed that Blue Jacket had returned from Cincinnati a day or two before j with a large quantity of whiskey, and that his people were on a high frolic. This information was soon confirmed by the discovery that the whole village, male and female, was drunk. The party, however, were received with great kindness, but it was manifestly impossible to remain in the village, and the only alternative was to proceed on their journey.

From these statements of cotemporary witnesses, among the Indians, the reader can form an estimate of the general condition, circumstances, location and numbers of our Indian predecessors, just prior to, and at the time of, the coming of, the whites. The great body of these were Ottawas,* though individuals and bands of other tribes were mingled with them, and the Wyandots shared in the use of their hunting grounds. They were scattered along the Maumee; mostly on the north side, along the rapids, because the country was drier and more open, from the bay to De-

Chippewas. the Pottawatamies and Ottawas were originally one nation. [Speech of Ottawa chief at treaty at Chicago. 1821 - Drake, Book V, p. 120.]

fiance, and on the Auglaize and Blanchard. Their corn and truck patches were frequent, too, on Bean creek, Swan creek, and the smaller tributaries. Occasionally camps for hunting and sugarmaking were found on the Portage and its branches, and at other isolated points favorable to the Indian mode of life.

The greatest blight on the race, according to the testimony of the missionaries of that time, was whiskey and the conjurors. The latter were cunning charlatans, who pretended to have communication and influence with both good and evil spirits. By this means these impostors gained great influence among their superstitious, ignorant brethren. This power they used for their own selfish ends, and nearly always to the detriment and injury of the tribes. They were not unlike their congeners, the "Messiahs" and ghost dancers, of a later day, among the Dakota tribes in the Northwest, and no less potential for mischief.

Chapter Vii

Treaty of Ft. Industry (Toledo now) - Traders attracted to the Maumee - First Survey, 1805 - Major Amos Spafford, Wood County's first Permanent Settler - Pioneer Civil Officer in Maumee Country - Treaties of Detroit and Brownstown

THE rapid advancement of civilization in the new country now warranted the United States Government in making fresh acquisitions, especially as the State of Connecticut desired to secure possession of that part of her lands lying west of the Cuyahoga river. Accordingly, on July n, 1805, a treaty, the sixth relating to Ohio,* was made at Ft. Industry (now Toledo), with the Wyandot, Ottawa, Chippewa, Munsee, Delaware, Shawnee and Pottawatamie tribes, for the purchase of the remainder of the Connecticut Reserve. It will be remembered that this tract extended west 120 miles from the Pennsylvania line to what is now the west line of Huron and Erie counties, but the Indian title, by the Greenville Treaty, had only been acquired as far west as the Cuyahoga river (Cleveland). Beyond that river the Connecticut people could not go. That State had bargained away some of this fine tract, and was very anxious to buy out the Indian's rights. So the United States made the treaty, and Connecticut and her land companies furnished the money to pay the Indians, and had the proceeds arising from the subsequent sales, but no jurisdiction over the territory. There was considerable opposition among the Indians as there would naturally be where there are so many partners in a large transaction. But after much wrangling, many talks, much persuasion, many promises and presents, the deal was made and the treaty duly signed up.

The treaty, while it did not directly affect it, was of great advantage to the Maumee Country, which, with some superior advantages along with its drawbacks, was being held back while other parts of the State were being settled; still these gradual advances of the lines of settlement gave hope for the future.

Renewed life sprung up now in the Western Reserve, and emigrants began to pour in along the lake, west of Cleveland. Ship builders began to find occupation in constructing boats, at the different towns, for the increasing lake commerce. Lockport, Erie, Black Rock and Buffalo, soon had boats visiting Detroit, Cleveland, Huron, Sandusky Bay. Maumee Bay, Conneaut and other lake points. The Maumee Bay, or the country about the Rapids of the Maumee, was one of the most attractive points because of its large fur trade. The Maumee was at this time occupied, especially in winter, by Indians from its head-waters to the lake. The Foot of the Rapids was the head of navigation. To this point the traders shipped their goods. From here they were hauled, or packed, to the head of the Rapids and thence by pirogues or canoes taken to Ft. Wayne.

That was a great distributing point for a large scope of country, even to the Wabash and White rivers. The Fort was, as late as 1822, in charge of an army officer, with a small garrison; and collected about it were the log huts of the traders, and a motley population of Indians and Canadians, half-breeds or "Canucks." These Canucks, who could speak the Indian tongue, were employed by the traders to transport goods on pack-ponies to distant points. Two boxes, or parcels, of goods, about equally balanced, were placed on the pack-saddle, like a sack with a jug in each end. In the center between the two packs was a keg of whiskey, some bags of shot, pigs of lead foi making bullets, or a batch of steel traps. When this stuff was traded out the Canadian voyageur would return to the trader with a load of furs, which in turn found its way down the Maumee in the returning boats. The goods supplied by these traders consisted of red cloth and blankets, guns, hatchets, tobacco, whiskey, paint, hawk's bells, powder, lead, shot, beads, ribbons, rings, brooches, kettles, leather, blades, etc.

The subordinate traders and Canucks who conducted these pack trains from the post were generally a rough, uncouth, intractable lot, sometimes but little in advance of the savages. A coat made of a blanket, or smoked deer-skin, a skin cap, if they wore any head covering, with deer leather leggins and moccasins, comprised their dress, and a rifle, hatchet and knife, their equipment for guarding the goods and getting their meat in the forest, as they traveled from place to place. While wholly unschooled in the politer forms of civilized society or customs, these rough, swarthy men were brave and nearly always trustworthy. The per cent of peculation was less than under the more polished surroundings of later years.

their clerks, required a transportation line along the Maumee, long before the land came into market or the axe of the pioneer was heard in the bordering forests and fertile valleys.

Another thing occurred this same year, 1805, which we should, in speaking of the actual first coming of the white men to the present territory of Wood county, make a note of. In that year Elias Glover, United States Deputy Surveyor, arrived with his corps of assistants, and run out and marked the exterior subdivision and meander lines of the U. S. Reserve of twelve miles square. [Resurveyed between 1816 and 1824 by Joseph Wampler and William Brookfield, as is more fully explained in the chapter on Public Lands, Surveys, etc.] It will be remembered that among the blocks or reservations of land, kept for the United States, by Gen. Wayne, when he made the Greenville Treaty with the Indians, there was one large one, twelve miles square, at the Rapids of the Maumee; also the proviso was made that when the United States got ready to survey the boundary lines of any of these reservations, that the chiefs and head-men of the tribes should be notified so that they could be present and see that it was properly done, etc. The northeast corner of this reserve, as surveyed by Glover, stands in the city of Toledo; the southeast corner is identical with the present southeast corner of Perrysburg township; thence west on the section line, passing a little north of the village of Hull Prairie, and crossing the lower half of Station Island, in the Maumee, the southwest corner is a few rods west of the river, in Lucas county. Twelve miles north of that is the northwest corner, thence east to the place of beginning in the city of Toledo, completes the boundary. Of this tract of 92, 160 acres, a trifle less than half is within the present bounds of Wood. It was, as previously noticed, the first land the United States acquired title to here, and one of the direct results of Wayne's battle and treaty. The title to this reserve was one of the conditions of that treaty, and the size of the reserve, and the tenacity with which Wayne insisted on having this block of land, shows the important views he had concerning the Maumee Rapids and vicinity. The field notes of these surveys are interesting in two ways; first, in showing the important mill sites, and the estimate the surveyors gave of the country, its forests, soil, water, etc. ; second, in being the first official, undeniable evidence left on record of a white man making in what is now Wood county any permanent improvement. In fact there is no evidence that, previous to that date, a white man had even camped on Wood county

This was not nearly all. Among those who came in that pioneer work was a man to whose memory belongs the honor of being the first permanent settler of what is now Wood county; who acquired the first title to land and built his cabin on it. In the party of New Englanders who came down the south shore of Lake Erie, in 1796, and landed at Conneaut, was Amos Spafford. Later we hear of his being at Cleveland, when the survey was made. In 1805 he came with the surveyors to the Maumee Rapids. He did not become a resident at that time, but was favorably impressed with the country, and doubtless then chose the location where he afterward settled with his family. [For account of the Spafford Farm, refer to Index.]

On the north side of the river, above the site of old Fort Miami, Col. John Anderson, a Scotch trader, had a small establishment, and there were two or three transient French traders along the Rapids. At Fort Industry, Toledo, there was a trader, or a sort of garrison sutler at the fort. It will be remembered that, under the treaty, no one could establish themselves in trade, among the Indians, without a license, or permit, from the United States.

The British traders at Detroit, when Wayne came to take possession, in 1 796, very adroitly shifted their establishments to Malden, on the Canada side of the river, and, by every possible inducement, tried to get the Indians to bring their furs across the river to trade. In this way they held a good share of the trade for a long time; but the American traders were pretty enterprising, and kept sub-agents and traders traveling among the Indians, during the buying season, or, as was often the case, located in their midst, and who lived almost as the savages did.

Before we make note of the little column of white settlers, now timidly advancing in the distance, let us make note, in their order, of two other events that brought a rift of light in the dark cloud so long hanging heavily over the Maumee Country.

Detroit Treaty. - At Detroit, in 1807, Gov. William Hull, of Michigan Territory, acting for the United States, made a treaty with the Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawatamies and Wyandots, for a large tract of land, which fortunately included the territory in Ohio, lying north of the Maumee, as far west as the mouth of the Auglaize. This was not much, to be sure, but it began to let daylight into the long benighted Maumee Country.

Treaty of Brownstozun. - One year later, on November 25, 1808, another treaty, at Brownstown, with the same tribes, and the Shawnees in addition, laid the basis for the Maumee and Western Reserve road, for years the most important, most traveled, and, we might add, the worst highway in this part of Ohio, if not in the world. This cession from the tribes gave a roadway 120 feet wide, direct from the Foot of the Rapids, through what is now Fremont, to the east side of Sandusky county (the west line of the Connecticut Reserve), and one mile of land, each side of the roadway, to help pay for building the road. This route is nearly in the same course of the old trail, formerly used by the French, and afterward by the English, in their expeditions, by land, between Detroit and the Ohio; only their trail kept on the higher ground along the route, thus often deviating from a straight course. This liberal provision assured a public highway, virtually, from Detroit to the growing settlements of the Reserve, and farther east, by the south shore of Lake Erie; also a path for the eastern emigrants to the fine lands of southern Michigan, northern Indiana, and to the southern end of Lake Michigan, where Chicago has since grown up.

The Foot of the Rapids, then recognized as the head of navigation on the Maumee, stood in high estimation as a point of future commercial importance. It gave most promise of all locations in the wilderness at the head of Lake Erie.

Following the treaties just mentioned, occasional white squatters began to locate at the Foot of the Rapids. And now arises the troublesome query of who was the first white settler on the Maumee ? There are no records by which to answer this question, and all who could tell have long since passed off the stage of life. Furthermore, it is difficult to determine what constitutes a settler in this sense. If building a cabin, cultivating the soil and trafficking with the Indians made a man a settler, some of the traders might be entitled to the honor. When Wayne swooped down on the Maumee Indians, in 1794, Col. John Anderson, British-Indian agent, at the time, had a little trading establishment, and a garden and corn field above Fort Miami. Wayne's followers devoured the Colonel's roasting ears, and destroyed everything outside the fort. Old Andy Race, with the victorious army, and later a settler, and who believed that "Mad Anthony" could do anything, not actually forbidden by Omnipotent Power, used to say that Wayne would have stormed the fort, and destroyed that, too, only that he ran out of whiskey that morning. However this may have been, Anderson seems, for some reason, not to have been seriously interfered with when the United States took possession. The Missionary, David Bacon, says (year 1802): "Mr. Anderson, a respectable trader,

-was at Fort Miami, and was opposed to selling whiskey to the Indians. " This would indicate that Anderson, who was at Miami at the time of the battle, 1794, and was yet there in 1802, had been a permanent resident for at least eight years. Mr. Anderson afterward lived at Monroe, Mich. J. B. Beaugrand, Gabriel Godfrey, and one or two other Frenchmen, were traders on the north side, in 1805, when the United States surveyors were at the Rapids. But the French settlement proper was down opposite Manhattan. Another early trader, by the name of Courtmanche, made transient trips through the valley.

It looks as though Col. Anderson, with his corn-field, garden and store, was best entitled to the honor of being the first settler. The first comers were in fact all squatters, and in a sense transient occupants. The title to the honor, however, is not so clear as to bar other claimants. Among the first Americans was James Carlin, Government blacksmith to the Indians, who came from the River Raisin in November, 1807. He moved first from Auburn, N. Y. , to Erie, Penn.; then came up the lake to Detroit. The Ewings, Races, Carters, David Hull, Daniel Purdy, and some others came in the year 1807. Several French families, the Mominees, Peltiers, La Points and others were there' in 1807. The years 1808 and 1809 brought a number more families, Americans and French, the latter mostly from Detroit and the Raisin. They were the avant-couriers of the great population which has since taken possession of every acre of this vast domain. Like the scouts and skirmishers in the advance of a great army, they cautiously felt their way ahead, and the main army followed and took up the burden of the battle. Gradually the settlement increased.

In 1810, Amos Spafford, previously mentioned, with his family, settled on the south side of the river. He held a commission as collector of the Port of Miami, Erie District. In June, of the same year, he was appointed postmaster, and the settlement had the convenience of mail every two weeks. Benoni Adams was carrier from Cleveland to the Rapids, the round trip, made usually on foot, because there was no road through the swamp, occupying sometimes two weeks. Miami was the only post office on the route, between Cleveland and Chicago, then- Fort Dearborn, except River Raisin (Monroe). ! Major Spafford's first quarterly report, as collect- or, showed the export value of goods, furs, skins and bear's oil, to be $5,640.85. Here was the beginning of civil government on the Maumee. Amos Spafford was the pioneer officer, in the exercise of civil authority; date 1810. He was, too, the first pioneer to build his cabin, and begin a permanent abode, in what is now Wood county. The land he first squatted upon, and made improvements on, he afterward paid for, and there he died in 1817. He was the first man who possessed title, from the United States Governr ment, to Wood county soil, his patent being signed by James Monroe, as related in the chapter on Land Titles.

In this same year, 1810, some New Yorkers and Pennsylvanians came from Buffalo, and a party of them landed from the schooner, where Port Clinton is, to take a look at the country. Andrew Race, who was with them, on his return to the Maumee, with his brothers Bob and Dave, piloted the party through. Beside the Races were Jesse Skinner, Cyrus Hitchcock, Daniel Murray, Samuel Merritt, and some others. Most of the party selected locations, and then some went back east. Skinner selected what is since River Tract 50,* at and below the south end of the present Waterville bridge. One of the Ewings had previously located three miles below, on the same side of the river, and a Frenchman, a sort of trader, named Peter Lumbar, had a squatter's shanty near the mouth of Tontogany creek, nearly opposite the Ottawa Indian village. By these gradual accretions the settlement grew, numbering in the spring of 1812 about seventy families. All were along the river on both sides, except one of the Ewings, Samuel H., Daniel Murray, and one other family, who located at Monclova, where Ewing built a dam on Swan creek, and had commenced constructing a sawmill.

The settlers had already begun to test the productiveness of the soil by planting islands, and rich bottoms, in grain and vegetables. After the first crop, there were no longer doubts as to the quality of the soil. The yield was enormous; none had ever seen better. Another great yield, not so gratifying, came in the fall season - the Maumee fever and ague. This misery came right from the start, but was not considered dangerous after the first year and a season of acclimation. Still, with hardships, exposure and the prevailing fever, a number of those first settlers lost their lives.

only on the Maumee, but in the world's history. Europe was trembling beneath the tread of the gigantic armies of Napoleon, marching to the Russian frontier. Ominous war clouds darkened the horizon of all Europe, and lowered threateningly over the United States. The hopeful.

embryo settlement at the Maumee had planted their crops, and the islands and* bottoms were verdant with the promise of a bountiful harvest, when all their hopes were blasted by events, which will be described in the next succeeding chapters.

Chapter Viii

Wah of 1812 - Arrival of Gen. Hull's Army at the Maumee Rapids - Hull's "Trace" - Surrender at Detroit - The pioneer Maumee Settlement abandoned to the Savages.

SAID Montesquieu, "Happy are the people whose annals are a blank." Fortunate, indeed, would the first Maumee Pioneers have been could this part of our story have been a blank in their history.

About the middle of June, 1812, the settlement about the Lower Maumee Rapids was set astir by the arrival of Gen. William Hull, with about two thousand troops, on his way to Detroit. This column consisted of three volunteer regiments, under Cols. Duncan McArthur, James Finley, and Lewis Cass, that had been recruited in southern Ohio, mostly about Dayton, Springfield and Urbana, also a battalion of regulars under Col. Boyd. They marched from Urbana, directly northward, and cleft their way through the heavy forests from Champaign county to the Maumee. .

Congress had appointed Gov. Hull brigadier general, and authorized the enlistment of this force for two causes: First, Gov. W. H. Harrison, in the Indiana Territory, had been having serious trouble with the Indians. Tecumseh, with a band of restless Shawnees, had settled on the Wabash, with the Miamis, and with his twin brother, Elkswatawa, better known as the "Prophet," a brawling, fanatical conjurer and medicine man, was "pow-wowing" the dissatisfied elements, in all the tribes, into an aggressive league against the whites, similar in some respects to that of Pontiac. Some of the halfcrazed Indians had already commenced depredations on the settlers, and Indians who disbelieved in the * ' Prophet" were driven off, and in some instances put to death for witchcraft by their overzealous ignorant brethren.

up what troops he could and marched over to the ' 1 Prophet's " village, near the mouth of the Tippecanoe. The cunning Indian came out to meet him, and professed great friendship and wanted no war. A parley was arranged for the next day. Harrison then went into camp about a mile from the Indian village. The next morning, before daylight, his camp was assailed, with unexampled fury, by the "Prophet's" warriors, and one of the most stubborn battles in Indian warfare followed, the whites losing nearly two hundred men, and some of their best officers. The savages were beaten off finally, and their village burned; but it was evident, from this act of treachery, that when Tecumseh, who was absent, returned from his pilgrimage among other tribes, he and I his fanatical brother would stir up a general war, if possibie. Hence, the Governors of both Michigan and Indiana Territories, where a large portion of the tribes were, began active preparations to defend the settlements. This action, fought November 7, 1 8 1 1 , is known in history as the battle of Tippecanoe, taking its name from the creek near where the fight took place. The second cause, for an armed force at Detroit, was the strained relations between Great Britain and the United States. Because of the impressment of ! American seamen, and unredressed acts of injustice and overbearing insolence, the United States was on the eve of formally declaring war on England; in fact, had done so, when Hull was camped at the Rapids, but there were no telegraphs or railroads in 1812, so news went slow, and this army was still ignorant of the true situation.

To guard their line of communications, Hull's forces, as they came north, constructed Forts McArthur in Hardin county, Findlay on the Blanchard, and a small stockade on the north branch of the Portage, or Carrying river, called Fort Portage. These were temporary defenses, and were garrisoned with the necessary complement of men under subaltern officers. The presence of this military force was a great relief to the little settlement at the Rapids, as there had been a feeling of insecurity since the affair of Tippecanoe the previous fall. This was increased by the expected trouble with Great Britain, and the settlers prevailed on Gen. Hull to also leave them a small detail of soldiers for their better protection.

Hull's army, after their toilsome march through the swamp, in which the water in places reached the saddle girths of the horses, enjoyed three days rest and refreshment, in their camp on the river, as only soldiers on the march know how to do. While they are encamped there, let us take a hasty look over the route they came. It was Wood county's pioneer road, and from north to south, the only one for many years after. It was such a miserable excuse for a road, however, that the early settlers did not respect it with the name of road, but called it "Hull's Trace."

No professional engineering skill was expended either in its location or construction. Gen. Hull was at Dayton with his little army, and wanted to get to Detroit, so they decided to advance to Urbana, and thence take a straight northerly course. Instead of engineers, they employed three expert woodsmen, Isaac Zane, Robert Armstrong and James McPherson, as guides to pilot the army through the woods and keep it from getting lost. Zane and Armstrong had been raised among the Indians from boyhood, and McPherson was a fur trader, familiar with the country between Cincinnati and Detroit. Looking over the ground now, since it is stripped of the forest and exposed to view, we must own that the most skillful topographical engineer could scarcely have improved on the route selected by those unlettered woodsmen without compass or chain.

After seeing the route marked out on a sectional map under the careful guidance of some of the earliest settlers, as Gen. John E. Hunt, Judge William Ewing, Jacob Eberly, Thomas Cox, Collister Haskins and others, who were familiar with and had traveled it, the "Trace" may be described in general terms as follows: It entered the county from the south, on the east part of Section 35, in Henry township, not far east of Rocky Ford creek, which it followed north to the center of Section 19, Bloom township, where it crossed to the west side of the creek, near the present bridge, and continued north between the creek and the Perrysburg and Findlay pike, to the southeast corner of Section 1 , Henry township, where it bore west gradually, about to the half-section line, when it continued nearly due north, through the chain of beech ridges and swails, to the north branch of the Portage, or Ditch 12, near which point was established the stockade post, sometimes called Fort Portage. Here the trail turned down stream, northeast, until about eighty rods east of the pike, where it crossed the Portage, and from there lay nearly parallel with the railroad to Bowling Green, a part of the way on the railroad's right of way. The railroad track is on top of the old trace at the Wooster street crossing, Bowling Green. Passing north near the old cemetery ground, the route was almost direct to the point of ridge across the prairie, on the west side of the stone pike, in the northeast corner of Section 1 3, Plain. Here, on the dry ground that is sometimes called Terry's Corners, was a favorite camping place, with prairie grass convenient for grazing the oxen and beef cattle. From this point the trace bore away from the pike, passing just west of Union Hill cemetery, Plain township, thence to the corner of Section 23, Middleton township, which it crossed diagonally, also Fractional Sections 1 5 and 34, and River Tracts 46, 47 and 48, striking the Maumee near the ravine, opposite the lower end of Dodd's island, at River Tract 49, thence down the river, on the most eligible ground, to the "Big flats," where the army camped and crossed the river at that point, when the march was resumed.

This route is thus somewhat minutely described for future reference, not only because of its relation to one of the unfortunate historic events of the war of 1812, but because it was for some years a path for the pioneers to their county seat (Urbana, and, afterward, Bellefontaine), and also, in part, a United States mail route.

For some of the incidents of the march, and the inglorious end of the expedition, and career of Gen. Hull, an extract from the "Reminiscences of Gen. John E. Hunt." read before the Maumee Valley Pioneer Association, in Perrysburg, February 22, 1876, will prove instructive and of interest. Hunt, w'ho went with the troops, was at that time in his fifteenth year, and in later years was a commissioner of Wood county. "In 1812," he says, "I was living with my brother-in-law, Dr. Abraham Edwards, at Dayton. He became surgeon-general of Hull's army. Going out with him, I messed with the staff officers and dined at Gen. Hull's table. The army left Dayton in the forepart of June.

We struck the Maumee river about the I 5th of that month. In passing through Hull's Prairie the water was up to my saddle skirts. It was a clear summer day when the army struck the river, at the head of the '-'Big flats," about two miles above Fort Meigs. There were three regiments of volunteer militia, and the Fourth U. S. Infantry, who had joined Hull at Urbana, and were just come from the victory of Tippecanoe, in all 2,500 men. After coming through the wilderness so many days, it was beautiful to look upon the broad, open channel of the river, expanding among the islands and sweeping off into the blue distance in graceful curves. The high banks were clothed with the primeval forest, and the level bottom land and islands were covered with grass. It was not half an hour before the whole arrfty was in the water. When we left Dayton, a regiment went forward at a time. Col. McArthur went first and built Fort McArthur, and Col. Findlay followed and built Fort Findlay. We camped at the "Big flats" three days, the General expecting every day to hear news from Washington of the declaration of war against Great Britain. The first day they moved they marched four miles down the left bank of the river, having forded at Presque Isle, and camped on the bottom land below Miami. There they found a small vessel, 1 The Cuyahoga,' which was chartered and sent ahead for Detroit, loaded with the officers' wives and baggage. On the way she was captured by the British at Malden. [As Hull's men marched through the settlement where Maumee is, a Capt. Bond, a sort of clerk or deputy collector for Maj. Spafford, brought out his militia company and paraded them in honor of the occasion. Each man, in the absence of a feather, had a deer tail stuck in his hat. - Way's Memoirs ]

" On the march from Miami to Monroe, when about half way, news reached us of the declaration of war. The British got the news before we did, through a fur company's agent, who took it by express direct to Canada. The Canadians might have taken Detroit, by surprise, before we got there. Hull stopped two days at Monroe to make a display of his troops. Thence he marched to. the river Huron: there we camped on an open prairie. We could see from our camp the masts of the 20-gun brig. 'Queen Charlotte,' which lay in the lake, off Malden. Some Indians were observed in the distance. During the night we were aroused by a false alarm. Hull's apprehension of an attack by a force which might be landed from the ' Queen Charlotte,' gave color to the alarm. It was afterward learned that the

Indians were Wyandots, who offered themselves as allies at Detroit. Their services were not accepted, as our government's orders were to have nothing to do with them. At that time there were no British troops on board the * Queen Charlotte.' On the occasion of this false alarm it was whispered in the camp that the old man Hull was a good deal frightened. The next day we went into camp at the River Rouge, seven miles from Detroit. We marched in great disorder, strung along five or six miles. Hull halted there eight or ten days to prepare his men to make a display in the streets of Detroit. Detroit was then a town of ten or twelve hundred people. Then he marched his men through Detroit and back again to camp on the River Rouge. After some days he moved up and crossed the Detroit river, in batteaux, below' Belle Isle. One beautiful morning they crossed the river without opposition, and made a fine display marching down opposite Detroit, with colors flying and music playing. There they made a fortified camp and remained. A tw'o-story brick house in the center of the camp was the General's headquarters. There I first saw Gen. Cass, then a colonel.

" It was a warm July morning, and I was taking my breakfast at a boarding house, kept by a man w'hose name was Deputy. At the table sat Maj. Munson, of Zanesville, Ohio. A redfaced young man, with a morning gown on, came in, and as he took a seat alongside of Maj. Munson, he said something severe against Gen. Hull. Maj. Munson said: 'Col. Cass, what is the matter w'ith you? ' Cass replied that he had been two hours with that old fool, and could not get him to make a push toward Malden, all he could do. ' He has agreed to let me go down with my regiment and two companies of the Fourth United States Infantry, and if God lets me live I'll have Malden before I get back.'

" The British had a 2-gun battery at the River Canard, four miles above Malden, so posted as to rake the causeway and bridge at that point. A day or two before, a regiment of our militia had been driven from there. Cass sent two companies of the U. S. Fourth Infantry under Sneliing to ford the stream above the battery. When Sneliing made his appearance, approaching the British on their flank, Cass moved forward w'ith his main force upon this bridge. The enemy opened fire upon him, but when they discovered Sneliing on their flank they retreated. Cass followed them to within a mile and a half of Malden, when it became so dark he thought it prudent to retreat to the battery at the bridge.

Thence he sent an express to Hull for reinforcements, so as to attack Malden the next morning. Instead of doing so, Hull sent his aid, Col. Wallace, of Cincinnati, and ordered Cass back.

' ' Cass has frequently told me he has always regretted he did not disobey orders, and march on Malden. He afterward learned that the British had all their valuables ready to leave, and loaded on board the ' Queen Charlotte. ' If he had made his appearance in the morning the British would have blown up their fort and sailed away to Niagara. This would have prevented an Indian war, and saved Detroit. Cass returned to camp, and a few days after, Hull, on hearing of the advance of Gen. Brock, retreated across the river to Detroit, where he occupied Fort Shelby. This fort was situated right about the center of the present city of Detroit, about the fourth street from the river.

"Gen. Brock, at Niagara, had overreached Gen. Dearborn, another superannuated Revolutionary officer, who was in command of that frontier, and concluded with him an armistice of thirty days. This gave time for the ' Queen Charlotte ' to sail from Malden to the lower end of Lake Erie, and returned with himself and the force which captured Detroit. Soon after Hull crossed back, Brock moved the ' Queen Charlotte ' up the river, and anchored off Sandwich, covering with her guns the crossing to Detroit. While the ship was stationed there, Capt. Shelling asked Gen. Hull, in my presence, for liberty to take two 12-pound guns down to Spring Wells, and sink her or start her from her position.

"Hull said, ' No, sir; you can't do it. ' Brock had built a battery on the Canada side, opposite Fort Shelby; as soon as it was finished, when the sun was about an hour high, he opened fire on us. During the night, shells were thrown at intervals. At the dawn of day a heavy fire of bombs and solid shot was opened. I was taking a drink of water at the door of one of the officers' quarters, in company with a boy of my age, who afterward became Maj. Washington Whistler, U. S. A. At the next door to us, and about twelve feet away, four of our officers were standing together. They were Capt. Hanks, Lieut. Sibley, Dr. Blood and Dr. Reynolds, of Columbus. A 32 -pound shot came from the enemy's battery, killing Hanks, Sibley and Reynolds, and wounding Dr. Blood. They were knocked into a heap in a little narrow entryway - a narrow, confined space. Their mangled remains were a terrible sight. Capt. Hanks was lying on top, his eyes rolling in his head. Directly came along Gen. Hull, who looked in upon them and turned very pale, the tobacco-juice running from the corners of his mouth to the frills of his shirt. In a short time after, the white flag was hoisted; that ball seeming to unman him.

" After these men were killed, I left the fort to reconnoitre. On the street in front of Maj. Whipple's house, one-fourth of a mile in front of Fort Shelby, I found two 32-pound guns in position. Capt. Bryson, of the artillery, had placed them there to rake the British column of 1,500 men who had made a landing and were approaching the city by way of Judge May's long lane to reach a ravine which crossed it, and through which they could file and be protected from any battery we had. They were marching in close column, in full dress uniform, of bright scarlet, in perfect order, at a steady regular pace, without music. As they came on, followed by their Indian allies and some twenty whites dressed as Indians, my boyish fancy was struck with their appearance, as I expected every moment to see them torn to pieces by those 32-pounders, double charged with canister and grape. My brother Thomas stood ready at the guns. In his hand a lighted match was held up in the air. He was in the very act of firing when Col. Wallace, the aide of Gen. Hull, came up and said: ' Don't fire, the white flag is up.' At that instant Capt. Hull, who had been across the river with a flag of truce, fell in with us on his return. Col. Wallace said to him: ' It's all up, your father has surrendered.' Capt. Hull exclaimed: 'My God ! Is it possible ?'"