HISTORY
OF
SANDUSKY COUNTY, OHIO,
CHAPTER I.
ABORIGINAL OCCUPATION.
The Sandusky Valley in Aboriginal History—The Ancient Eries--General Indian War—The Wyandots Driven from their Ancient Seats—The Fries Perish—Extent of the Conquest of the Six Nations—The Neutral Nation—Two Forts at Lower Sandusky—Origin and Destruction of the Neutral Nation—Ohio Indians—Return of the Wyandots—Character of the Wyandots—Brant Visits Lower Sandusky, and Forms a Confederacy—Upper Sandusky Becomes their Seat of Government—The Wyandots are Given a Reservation in 1817—Their Final Removal from Ohio in 1842—Other Tribes and Reservations.
THE Sandusky country, in aboriginal history, possesses a peculiar charm and fascinating interest. During that period of years which fills western annals with the story of intrigue and bloody conflict, the plains and prairies of the lower Sandusky valley were the home of the most powerful and most generous of the savage nations. The border country of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky, and the first settlements of Ohio, saw the Indian at war, and too often his character has been estimated by his conduct when inspired to cruelty by a natural desire for revenge. Here we see him at home, far removed from his enemy, and perceive the softer side of his untamed nature. The field brings us to a nation's capital, acquaints us with the manners and customs of primitive life, and by affording a more accurate knowledge of the treatment of white prisoners, softens harsh prejudices. Less than a century ago these plains, now covered by a thriving city, presented all that interesting variety of scenes of Indian life,—primitive agriculture, rude cabins, canoe-building, amusements, and the council fire, around which painted warriors planned campaigns and expeditions having for their ultimate object the preservation of the vast, beautiful forest, and the beloved hunting grounds—the return and welcome of war parties and the terrifying and not always harmless treatment of prisoners.
Tradition goes back a century farther, and makes the locality of this city the seat of a still more interesting people, a people who for a time preserved existence by neutrality, while war, which raged with shocking ferocity, effected the extinction of the neighboring tribes.
It will be necessary in these preliminary chapters, in which are traced the occupation and ownership of the territory included in Sandusky county, in order to an understanding of historical events common to a wide range of country, to frequently go beyond the small field of which this volume, by its title, professes to treat. At the risk of being tedious, we begin with the primitive events of Western history.
Nothing is known of the aboriginal occupation of Ohio previous to 165o, and
10 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.
many statements of events during the succeeding century rest upon traditional authority. At the opening of the historical era, the territory now constituting the State was a forest wilderness, inhabited mainly by the powerful but doomed Eries. Most of their villages were located along the south shore of the Lake which bears their name. Good Indian authority supports the theory that one of the strongholds of the tribe was the archipelago lying north of Sandusky Bay. Brant, the distinguished Mohawk chief, speaks of them as a powerful nation. But the doors of extermination awaited them.
The Indians of Northeastern North America have been classed in two generic divisions, the Iroquois and the Algonquin. The Iroquois family, consisting of the Wyandots, Eries, Andastes and the five Confederate tribes, were confined to the region south of Lakes Erie and Ontario and the peninsula east of Lake Huron. They formed as it were an island in the vast expanse of Algonquin population extending from Hudson's Bay on the north to the Carolinas on the south; from the Atlantic on the east to the Mississippi on the west. The Delawares were the leading tribe, and, according to tradition, the parent stem of the Algonquins t. The Wyandots lived on the eastern shore of Lake Huron and were in consequence named by the early French explorers, "Hurons. " The western tribes of the Iroquois family were more powerful than the eastern until the great Confederacy of Five Nations, afterwards Six by the addition of the Tuscarawas, was formed early in the seventeenth century. The Six Nations had the rude elements of a confederated republic, and were the only power in this part of the continent, deserving the
*Schoolcraft.
t Workman's Conspiracy of Pontiac,
name of Government.* About the middle of the seventeenth century began a war which desolated the western forest of its inhabitants and changed the whole face of aboriginal geography. The confederated tribes, grown arrogant by fifty years of power, made war upon their western neighbors. The country of the Wyandots was first invaded. This war had already commenced where Champlain entered the St. Lawrence, and that enterprising officer accompanied one of the hostile parties against their enemies. t The Wyandots suffered disastrously in that war. Driven from their ancient home, they were pursued by the victorious Iroquois to the northern shores of Lake Huron. Distance was no security against the relentless fury of their foes, who were encouraged by victory and maddened by resistance. Famine and disease assisted war's devastation. The account of the suffering, told by missionaries, who witnessed and shared their fate, excites our pity. Driven from their hiding places, they fled farther westward until at last a feeble remnant found protection in the dominion of the Sioux. This helpless remnant of the most proud and haughty of the Indian tribes in little more than a century, again became the most powerful of the Indian nations.
During this fearful war the Eries remained neutral, or, rather, were at the head of a confederation of neutral tribes, whose dominion extended into Canada, and was crossed by the Iroquois confederacy in their campaign against the Wyandots. ++ The proud Iroquois next began that cruel war which resulted in the extinction of the whole Neutral Nation. The Canada tribe fell first, and then the Eries of Ohio became victims of savage butchery. Using their canoes as scaling ladders,
*James Albach's Annals.
+North American Review, 1827.
++ Schoolcraft.
HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY - 11
the warriors of the eastern confederacy stormed the Erie strongholds, leaped down like tigers upon the defenders, and murdered them without mercy. This general massacre was carried to the entire extinction of the powerful nation which once held dominion over the whole southern shore of Lake Erie. The Andastes next perished. The date of this event is placed, upon good authority, at 1672. About the same time the Shawnees were driven from their ancient home far into the South. The proud Iroquois now pretentiously claimed to be the conquerors of the whole country from sea to sea, and indeed they may have been masters of the vast expanse between the lakes and the Ohio as far west as the Mississippi. The Miamis, however, have no tradition of ever having suffered defeat. Well accredited Indian writers think, therefore, that the Miami River was the western boundary of the Iroquois conquest.
The territory now embraced in the State of Ohio, in consequence of this fatal war, became a land sparsely inhabited. The upper Ohio Valley was without human habitation when explored by the early French navigators. The western post of the Six Nations on the lake was a Seneca village on the Sandusky River, at the location of the present village bearing the same name.
But in the general narrative an item of local interest has been passed over. General Lewis Cass has preserved the tradition of the Wyandots that, during the long and bloody wars between the eastern and western tribes, there lived upon the Sandusky a neutral tribe of Wyandots called the Neutral Nation. They occupied two villages which were cities of refuge, where those who sought safety never failed to find it. These villages stood near the lower rapids. "During the long and disastrous contests which preceded and followed the arrival of the Europeans, in which the Iroquois contended for victory, and their enemies for existence," says General Cass, "this little band preserved the integrity of their tribe and the sacred character of peacemakers. All who met upon their threshold met as friends, for the ground on which they stood was holy. It was a beautiful institution, a calm and peaceful island, looking out upon the world of waves and tempests." Father Segard says this Neutral Nation was in existence when the French missionaries first reached the Upper Lakes. The details of their history and of their character and privileges are meager and unsatisfactory. "And this," continues General Cass, "is the more to be regretted, as such a sanctuary among the barbarous tribes is not only a singular institution, but altogether at variance with the reckless spirit of cruelty with which their wars are usually prosecuted. The Wyandot tradition represents them as having separated from the parent stock during the bloody wars with their own tribe and the Iroquois, and having fled to the Sandusky River for safety." The tradition runs, that at the lower rapids two forts were erected, one for the Iroquois or Six Nations, the other for their enemies. In these, war parties might find security and hospitality when they entered the country. Tradition does not tell why so unusual a proposition should be made or acceded to. General Cass thinks it probable that superstition lent its aid to the institution, and that it may have been indebted for its origin to the feasts and charms and juggling ceremonies which constituted the religion of the natives. "No other motive was sufficient to restrain the hand of violence and to counteract the threat of vengeance."
Major B. F. Stickney, for many years an Indian Agent in this part of Ohio, said in a lecture delivered in Toledo in 1845:
12 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.
The remains of extensive works of defense are now to be seen near Lower Sandusky. The Wyandots have given me this account of them: At a period of two centuries and a half ago* all the Indians west of this point were at war with those east. Two walled towns were built near each other and each were inhabited by those of Wyandot origin. They assumed a neutral character and all the Indians at war recognized that character. They might be called two neutral cities. All of the west might enter the western city and all of the east the eastern. The inhabitants of one city might inform those of the other that war parties were there or had been there; but who they were, or whence they came, or anything more must not be mentioned. The war parties might remain there in security, taking their own time for departure. At the western town they suffered warriors to burn their prisoners near it, but the eastern would not. (An old Wyandot informed me that he recollected seeing, when a boy, the remains of a cedar post or stake at which they used to burn prisoners). The French historians tell us that when they first came here these neutral cities were inhabited and their neutral character preserved. At length a quarrel arose between these two cities and one destroyed the inhabitants of the other. This put an end to neutrality.
These traditions, handed down along the generations for nearly two centuries, are probably inaccurate in detail, but the general fact of the existence of two such cities, located near the headwaters of navigation on the Sandusky River, is entitled to as much consideration as any other fact of early Indian history. In view of the general historical events of the period the tradition is reasonable. A fierce and relentless attack was made upon the Wyandot Nation by the Confederated Iroquois. In the bloody contest which followed, the Wyandots were defeated and driven from their native soil. While the body of the defeated nation sought refuge in the high latitudes above Lake Huron, it is not improbable that a tribe or company crossed Lake Erie towards the south, found their way into Sandusky Bay and thence ascended the river to where rapids and shallow water prevented further progress. Here, at the head of navigation,
* This tradition places the time too early by more than half a century.
would be a natural place to settle, and experience would dictate the propriety of building works of defense. Experience, too, would dictate the propriety of neutrality, when the Eries, among whom they had settled, were compelled, at a later period, to take up the weapons of war in defense of their country. These refugee Wyandots, if we suppose the tradition to be true, had seen the Neutral Nation of the northern side of the lake escape the cruel invaders, on account of neutrality. A similar policy of neutrality shielded them during the equally savage contest which resulted in the extinction of the Eries. History and tradition authorize the belief that a neutral tribe once dwelt near the present city of Fremont, and also that they were destroyed; either in an internal dissension or by the hand of the invading warriors of the Iroquois Confederacy. Gist found, in 1750, on Whitewoman creek, a Wyandot village containing about one hundred families, named "Muskingum." This is supposed to have been an isolated government. There can be no doubt but that the Wyandot Nation was greatly scattered by the general war of 1655.
We have now given the most trustworthy information, so far as our knowledge of aboriginal history goes, of the Indian occupation of the region in which Sandusky county is included, prior to the period which historians have termed the second Indian occupation of Ohio. Previous to 1650, nothing is known. The' succeeding century may be called the first period of Indian history. At the opening of this period the Eries were undoubtedly masters of the Sandusky River region. Accepting tradition as authority, a detached band of refugee Wyandots established themselves at the lower rapids, and probably became masters of the soil. Then followed the conquest of the Six Nations, and a half century of quiet, per-
HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY - 13
haps undisturbed, preceded the second Wyandot occupation.
The first authentic and accurate knowledge of Ohio Indians may be said to have had its beginning about 1750. About that time French and English traders sought out the denizens of the Ohio forests, and from their accounts some knowledge of the strength and character of the Indian tribes and their location, can be gleaned. The most trustworthy and valuable accounts are to be found in the narrative of the captivity of Colonel James Smith, who, as a prisoner, tramped the forest from the lakes to the river, having been a captive from 1755 to 1759, and in the reports made in 1764 by Colonel Boquet, as the result of his observations while making a military expedition west of the Ohio.
According to Boquet's report, the principal Indian tribes in Ohio about the middle of the last century were the Wyandots, the Delawares, the Shawnees, the Mingos, the Chippewas and the Tawas (or Ottawas). The Delawares occupied the valleys of the Muskingum and Tuscarawas; the Shawnees, the Scioto Valley; the Miamis, the valleys of the two rivers which bear their name; the Wyandots occupied the country about the Sandusky River; the Ottawas were located on the valleys of the Sandusky and Maumee, or Miami of the Lake; the Chippewas inhabited the south shore of Lake Erie; and the Mingos, an off-shoot of the six Nations, were in greatest strength on the Ohio, below the present city of Steubenville. All the tribes, however, frequented the country outside their ascribed limits of territory, and at different periods, from the time when the first definite knowledge concerning them was obtained, down to the era of white settlement, occupied different loactions. Thus the Delawares, whom Boquet found in 1764 in greatest numbers in the Tuscarawas Valley, thirty years later mainly occupied the county which bears their name; and the Shawnees, who were found strongest on the Scioto, had, by the time of St. Clair and Wayne's wars, concentrated upon the Little Miami. As the natives saw white settlements encroaching upon their hunting grounds, a bond of sympathy and common danger united the nations. Tribal differences and jealousies were forgotten when they foresaw the destruction of their loved domain by the white man's axe,
The Delawares had their densest population on the Upper Muskingum and Tuscarawas. They were in possession of the greater part of the eastern half of the present territory of Ohio, their domain extending from the Ohio to Lake Erie. This tribe, which claimed to be the elder branch of the Lenni-Lenape, has, in tradition, in history, and in fiction, been accorded a high rank among the Indians of North America. The best accredited Indian historians have testified to the superiority of the Delawares, and James Fennimore Cooper, in his charming romances, has popularized the fame of the tribe. Long before the advent of Europeans upon the continent, according to tradition, the Delawares lived in the West, but separating from the rest of the Lenni-Lenape, they migrated slowly eastward. In alliance with the Iroquois they conquered a race of giants, the Allegewi, and finally settled on the Delaware River, where European navigators found them. After the Atlantic coast became settled by whites the Delawares again came West. A portion of the tribe having obtained permission from the Wyandots, then settled on the Muskingum. They called the Wyandots their uncles, thus acknowledging the superiority of that Nation. They settled on the Muskingum about 1745, and the fact that permission was obtained
14 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.
from the Wyandots is an evidence that Nation succeeded the Iroquois to the domain of the conquered Eries. The most successful labors of the Moravian missionaries were among the Delawares.
The Shawnees are interesting to us, chiefly because of the nativity of the great war chief, Tecumseh, through whose influence the tribes of Ohio were drawn into an alliance with the British armies in 1812. The Shawnees were the only Indians who had a tradition of foreign origin, and for some time after the whites became acquainted with them they celebrated the arrival of their remote ancestors. Little is known of the early history of this tribe. It is generally conceded, however, that at an early period they were overcome and scattered, some being carried by their conquerors into Pennsylvania, and others driven South into the Creek country. Encouraged by the Wyandots and French they returned, about 1740, and settled in the fertile valley of the Scioto. It is said that Tecumseh's mother was a Creek woman whom his father took for a wife during the southern residence of the tribe. The chief himself, who commanded the Indian forces during the attack on Fort Stephenson, was born in the Mad River Valley after the return of his tribe.
Shawnee war parties frequently visited Lower Sandusky while this place was occupied by the Wyandots. Their captives were brought here on the way to Detroit, and their friendly alliance with the Wyandots made the Indian power most formidable during the early settlement of the Northwest. The four tribes of the Shawnees were the Piqua, Kiskapocke, Mequachuke, and Chillicothe. They were a highly imaginative people as is shown by the abundance of fanciful traditions. Their account of the origin of the Piqua is a good example. According to the legend, the tribe began in a perfect man,who burst into being from fire and ashes. The Shawnees said to the first whites who mingled with them, that once, when the wise men and chiefs were sitting around the smouldering embers of a council fire, they were all startled with a great puffing of fire and smoke, and suddenly from the ashes and dying coals there arose before them a man of splendid form and mien. He was named Piqua to signify the manner of his coming into the world,—that he was born of fire and ashes. This legend of the origin of the tribe, beautiful in its simplicity, has been made the subject of much comment by several writers, as showing, in a marked degree, the romantic susceptibility of the Indian character. The Shawnees have been designated "the Bedouins of the American wilderness" by some writers, and "the Spartan of the race" by others. They are justly entitled to the former title by their extensive and constant wanderings; the latter title more properly belongs to the Wyandots. The Shawnees were vigorous warriors. They made frequent incursions into the white settlements; were the active allies of the French, and afterwards of the British during the Revolution; made constant war upon the frontier settlements of Ohio and Kentucky, and participated actively in the war against St. Clair and Wayne; in the War of 1812 a part of the Nation followed the celebrated Tecumseh. It was during this long period of war that they frequently visited Lower Sandusky with captives or for council.
The Ottawas existed in the territory constituting the State of Ohio, in small numbers. They seem to have been inferior in almost every respect to the other great Indian nations of Ohio. The name of Pontiac alone renders them conspicuous in history.
The Miamis, so far as is known, were the original inhabitants of the valleys
HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY - 15
bearing their name, and claimed to have been created in it. The Mingos had a few small villages along the Ohio River and the Lake basin. Drake mentions a Mingo village near Lower Sandusky. Logan has made the name Mingo familiar to every reader of western adventure.
In our sketch of the first period of aboriginal history, we left the main stem of the Wyandot Nation, a weak band of refugees, under the protection of the Sioux, in the country west of Lake Superior, where they enjoyed safety and tranquility. But defeat and overthrow did not kill the proud spirit native to the tribe. A domain lost, left dominion to be gained. In a few years the power of the Iroquois Confederacy was crippled by their wars with the French. The Wyandots descended Lake Superior and occupied the lands about old Michilimackinac. When the French fort at Detroit was established they were invited to settle in its vicinity and their services were important in resisting the hostile operations which the Foxes continued against the infant colony. Their final migration was to the plains of Sandusky. Just when they came to Sandusky is not known. Colonel James Smith in the narrative of his captivity, claims to have visited, in 1757, a town on the "Little Lake" (which was the name given Sandusky Bay) named Sunyendeand, which was probably located near the mouth of Cold creek,* in Erie county. This is spoken of as a village of considerable size, but, although he ascended the river, no mention is made of a village at the falls. "When we came to the fall of Sandusky," says the narrative, "we buried our birch bark canoes as usual, at a large burying place for that purpose, a little below the falls. At this place the river falls about eight feet over a rock, but not perpendicularly; with much difficulty we pushed up our wooden
*Firelands Pioneer.
canoes ; some of us went up the river and others by land on horses, until we came to the great meadows or prairies that lie between the Sandusky and Scioto."
Colonel Smith describes the country from the mouth of the Sandusky to the falls as chiefly first-rate land, lying flat or level, intermixed with large bodies of clear meadows, where the grass is exceeding rank and in many places three or four feet high. " The timber is oak, hickory, walnut, cherry, black ash, elm, sugartree, buckeye, locust, and beech. In some places there is wet timber land — the timber in these places is chiefly water-ash, sycamore, and button-wood. From the falls to the prairie the land lies well to the sun; it is neither too flat or too hilly, but is chiefly first-rate; the timber nearly the same as below the falls, excepting the water-ash."
Colonel Smith's narrative gives negative evidence that the seat of government of the Wyandots was yet at Detroit, and that there were no villages on Sandusky River above the bay and below the prairies. The Nation, however, was acknowledged to be at the head of the great Indian family.*
How this preeminence was acquired none now can tell. They were the guardians of the great council fire, and they alone had the privilege of sending their messengers with the well-known credentials, wampum and tobacco, to summon other tribes to meet their uncle, the Wyandot, when any important subject required deliberation. In the calamities occasioned by the victories of the Iroquois, the site of the council fire had often changed, but always with prescribed ceremonial and with due notice to all. t This fire was extinguished in blood at Brownstown, at the mouth of the Detroit river in 1812. The Wyandots were the
*Lewis Cass, in North American Review, 1827.t General Lewis Cass.
16 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.
keepers of the grand calumet and performed that office in the unequal contest with General Wayne in which the allied tribes were hopelessly defeated.
Lower Sandusky probably became the principal war seat of the Wyandots, although Upper Sandusky was the chief seat of government. Half King, the great chief, lived at Upper Sandusky, but Tarhe, the Crane, the principal war chief, lived at Lower Sandusky, at least until Wayne's victory and the treaty of Greenville, after which the office of Half King was abolished, and Crane, the great war chief and chief of the Porcupine tribe, became the head chief of the Nation. Crane led his warriors from Lower Sandusky against Wayne, and he, himself; carried the grand calumet. He was made custodian of the treaty of Greenville.*
The first mention of an Indian village at Lower Sandusky is made by Boquet, in his report, made in 1764, where he speaks of the Wyandot village Junqueindundeh, near the falls of Sandusky. When missionaries first visited this county the plains along the river were planted in corn and the Wyandots of Upper Sandusky frequently sent down for supplies.
An event of unusual consequence is hinted at by Captain Brant, the famous half-breed chief of the Mohawks and war chief of the Six Nations. In a council held at Buffalo Creek, in 1794, Brant, addressing General Chapin, the United States Commissioner, said: "This idea (exerting ourselves to hold our territory,) we all entertained at our council at Lower Sandusky, for the purpose of forming our confederacy and to adopt measures for the general good of our Indian nations and people of our color." On another occasion Brant said: `"For several years we were engaged in getting a confederacy formed, and the unanimity occasioned
*History of Fort Wayne.
by these endeavors among our Western brethren enabled them to defeat two American armies." In 1785, after the formation of the confederacy, Brant went to England.* These fragments indicate that the present site of the city of Fremont is the ground on which the grand confederacy was formed, of which Brant was chief, and which enabled the Western tribes to defeat two American armies.
The government of the Wyandots was reposed in a council of seven chiefs, and the Nation was divided into seven tribes, over each of which a chief presided. These were the three Turtle tribes,—the Little Turtle, the Water Turtle, and the Large Land Turtle; the Porcupine tribe, the Deer tribe, the Bear tribe, and the Snake tribe. The office of chief was hereditary in the female line. A chief was succeeded by his sister's son or by the nearest male relative in that line. After the office of Half King was abolished, the chief of the Porcupine tribe was the acknowledged head of the Nation. This honor belonged to Tarhe, or the Crane, as he was generally known.
We cannot dismiss this subject without speaking of the character of this Nation, which but little more than half a century ago possessed and inhabited our soil, but is now well nigh extinct. General Harrison gives to the Wyandots unquestioned preference among the Western Indians on the score of bravery. With other tribes, flight in battle, when occasioned by unexpected resistance and obstacles, brought with it no disgrace, and was rather a part of their strategy, but otherwise with the Wyandots. In the battle of the Maumee Rapids, in which the confederated tribes were broken by General Wayne, of the thirteen Wyandot chiefs engaged, but one escaped, and he badly wounded.
When General Wayne assumed his
* Perkins's Annals of the West.
HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY - 17
position at Greenville, in 1795, he sent for Captain Wells, who commanded a company of scouts, and told him that he wished him to go to Sandusky, and take a prisoner for the purpose of obtaining information. Wells (who, having been taken from Kentucky when a boy and brought up by the Indians, was perfectly acquainted with Indian character,) answered that he could take a prisoner, but not from Sandusky." "And why not from Sandusky?" said the General. "Because," answered Captain Wells, "there are only Wyandots living at Sandusky." "Well, why will not Wyandots do?" "For the best of reasons," answered Wells; "because Wyandots will not be taken alive."
Upper Sandusky had been the main station of the Wyandots, and probably after the treaty of Greenville was their only seat of government in Ohio. By the treaty of the Maumee Rapids, in 1817, they relinquished all claim to the Sandusky Valley, except a reservation twelve miles square in the county, which bears their name. The center of this reservation was Fort Ferree, now the town of Upper Sandusky. An additional reservation, one mile square, was granted them for hunting purposes, on Broken Sword Creek.
By the same treaty the Delawares received a reservation, three miles square, in Wyandot county. The Delawares ceded their reservation to the United States in 1829, the Wyandots in 1842, they being at that time the only Indians remaining in the State. They departed for the West in July, 1843, their number at that time being seven hundred souls. Colonel John Johnson, the Indian Commissioner at that time, says many of the old chiefs cried, and all regretted to leave their native land.
During the later years of their residence in Ohio, William Walker was a leader among the Wyandots. He had been clerk on an Ohio river steamboat, but came among the Indians for purposes of speculation. He married a half-blood squaw at Upper Sandusky, who was one of the most intelligent women on the reservation. Walker became quite wealthy. He had several boys and girls whom he educated. One of the sons was William H. Walker, for some time Government interpreter. He had considerable poetical genius, as is shown by the following lines composed while at college :
Oh, give me back my bended bow,
My cap and feather, give them back,
To chase o'er hill the mountain roe,
Or follow in the otter's track.
You took me from my native wild,
Where all was bright, and free and blest;
You said the Indian hunter's child
In classic halls and bowers should rest.
Long have I dwelt within these walls
And pored o'er ancient pages long.
I hate these antiquated halls;
I hate the Grecian poet's song.
Just before departing for the West, young Walker wrote the following song in the Wyandot tongue, but translated it into English :
THE WYANDOT'S FAREWELL.
Farewell, ye tall oaks, in whose pleasant green shade
I've sported in childhood, in innocence played,
My dog and my hatchet, my arrow and bow,
Are still in remembrance, alas! I must go.
Adieu, ye dear scenes which bound me like chains,
As on my gay pony I pranced o'er the plains;
The deer and the turkey I tracked in the snow,
O'er the great Mississippi, alas ! I must go.
Sandusky, Tyamochtee, and Broken Sword streams,
No more shall I see you except in my dreams.
Farewell to the marshes where cranberries grow,
O'er the great Mississippi, alas! I must go.
Dear scenes of my childhood, in memory blest,
I must bid you farewell for the far distant West.
My heart swells with sorrow, my eyes overflow.
O'er the great Mississippi, alas! I must go.
Let me go to the wildwood, my own native home.
Where the wild deer and elk and buffalo roam,
Where the tall cedars are and the bright waters flow,
Far away from the pale-face, oh, there let me go.
18 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.
There were along the Sandusky River scattered bands of other tribes—Mingos, Mohawks, Onondagas, Tuscarawas and Oneidas. Good Hunter, a leading Mingo chief, said his band was a remnant of Logan's tribe. By the treaty of Maumee Rapids in 1817, these scattered fragments of tribes, with a few Wyandots, were grouped together upon a reservation consisting of thirty thousand acres of land, which was increased to forty thousand the following year. This reservation extended two miles and an eighth northward of the south county line, and from the Sandusky River to Green Spring. The name Senecas of Sandusky was applied, because of the old Indian village of that name. Most of the inhabitants of this reservation were descendants of the six tribes composing the Iroquois confederacy of Six Nations. It should be remembered that the territory included within the limits of this reservation was, before the treaty of 1817, embraced in the country of the Wyandots. By a treaty concluded at Washington in 1831, these Indians relinquished their land, and removed to the Neosho River.
Like the Wyandots of Upper Sandusky, they came to Lower Sandusky to trade, judge Olmstead being their favorite merchant.
The principal chiefs of the Senecas were Coonstick, Small Cloud Spicer, Seneca Steel, Hard Hickory, Tall Chief, and Good Hunter. Many interesting episodes in their history are narrated in the chapters relating to Ballville and Green Creek townships.
The Ottawas were a nation of hunters and trappers, and were always subjects of shame among their warlike neighbors. This last residence in Ohio was on the Maumee River. They never laid claim to any part of Sandusky county, but often followed both the Portage and Sandusky Rivers on hunting expeditions.
The Delawares, after being forced from their seats on the Muskingum, occupied the western and central part of the State. The Muncies, the most warlike of the tribes of this Nation, established a village on the Sandusky River, about three miles below the Wyandot village at the rapids. Here Tecumseh visited them in 18o9.