24 - WOOD COUNTY, OHIO CHAPTER V. 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 was gloomy 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 Symmes' 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 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 border line, and laid out the city of Cleveland; and from that time on the settlement was pushed with New England vigor and perseverance. In this same year (1796), under the provisions of what is called the Jay Treaty, between the WOOD COUNTY, OHIO - 25 United States and England, the latter surrendered up all the posts she had been unjustly holing 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 that great 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 which we are speaking (1796) 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 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 Ohio 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- 26 - WOOD COUNTY, OHIO 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. About the first thing the new State did, through its legislature, was to create seven new counties, March, 1803, as follows: Greene, 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; Wooster is the county seat; Detroit. too, is the county seat of Wayne county, Mich. Both counties date their organization from 1796. 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 clearly 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: Extremes of habits, manners, time and space, Brought close together, here stood face to face, And gave at once a contrast to the view, That other lands and ages never knew. 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 and superior race. He either must fall in with WOOD COUNTY, OHIO - 27 the marching procession or be left to his fate, by the way side. 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. RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE