History of Allen county CHAPTER I THE OLD NORTHWEST Allen County and the Ordinance of 1787—Five New States—Marvelous Growth of the Old Northwest—Greatness of Ohio—First Colony in the Wilderness—Ohio's First County and First Court—Gen. George Rogers Clark—The Struggle in Kentucky—Clark's Expedition—Fall of Kaskaskia and Vincennes—Ownership of the New Territory—Lands Taken From the Indians—Black Hawk—His Wrongs—The Black Hawk War—The Wilderness Subdued. Allen County, Ohio, formed a part of the Old Northwest. By the celebrated Ordinance of 1787 the territory "northwest of the river Ohio" was to be divided into not less than three nor more than five sections or States. By the same law it was provided that "whenever any of the said States shall have sixty thousand free inhabitants therein, such State shall be admitted, by its delegates, into the Congress of the United States, on equal footing with the original States, in all respects whatever ; and shall be at liberty to form a permanent constitution and State govern- ment." (Article V, Ordinance of 1787.) Acting under, this provision of our organic law, Ohio became a State, February 19, 1803, and Allen County, as a part of Ohio, entered upon her history-making career, though the county had not yet been organized. There were five States carved out of the Old Northwest—Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, making a total area of 250,000 square miles. At the time of the passage of the Ordinance of 1787 it is probable there were not more than 6o,000 "free inhabitants" in the entire five States. Today there are more than 16 millions. In this section—the Old Northwest—we find now the largest lakes, joined by silvery rivers and canals, the richest mine deposits, and the most fertile soil in North America, if not in the world. Here are the longest rivers—and upon their banks sit in pride and majesty the noble cities from whose factories and mills come the clothing and food that help to feed and to protect the hungry millions of earth. The citizenship of this section is among the most enlightened and progressive, Ohio alone having furnished six Presidents of the United States, one Vice-President, three Presidents of the Senate, one 18 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY Speaker of the House, two chief justices, five associate justices and 22 cabinet officers. In addition, there is a long list of distinguished senators, inventors, authors and scholars; likewise In army and navy our quota is full And you can on our fighting rely. For many years after the coming of the white men, the American Indians—the original owners of the soil—made life a burden for these white men who were often forced to bare their breasts upon "upland glade or glen" to the tomahawk, the poisoned arrow and the fagot. The soil was redeemed for the white men by the veterans of three wars. It was reddened by the blood of the Indian, the French, the English and the American. It was consecrated by the death of many a noble son. But the great ordinance did more than to provide for the admission of States—it had strong provisions in regard to slavery and education. "There shall be neither slavery, nor involuntary servitude in said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." No such expression had yet been seen in any document ; and this is all the more wonderful and noble, when we recall the fact that, at that time, all the original States had slaves. From this can be traced the liberty-loving sentiment ever afterward found in the people of the Northwest. But this is not all. The great document resounded throughout the wilderness, as with a Titan's voice, the cause of religion and education : "Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." The 16th section of every township of 36 sections was set aside for the maintenance of common schools in each of these five States. This generous grant on the part of the general government gave to these five States five million acres. From the sale of this land the schools have realized more than 20 million dollars. The spirit of this section of the ordinance spread to all the Western States and they now have magnificent school funds. The ordinance also gave to each State one township entire for the maintenance of a university. In Ohio this township is located in Athens County, and thus grand old Ohio University, at Athens, originated, and is, in part, sustained to-day. It is the oldest university west of the Alleghany Mountains. Thus was the fund for education in Allen County begun, and it has been generously increased by liberal donations from the State and from private funds. FIRST COLONY IN THE WILDERNESS. In 1787 Rev. Manasseh Cutler led a band of intrepid pioneers into the wilderness, and they formed the first colony or settlement in what is now Ohio, at Marietta. They named their camp "Marietta," after the beautiful French QOueen, Marie Antoinette. Beueenthe first year had passed, Marietta had 132 men and 15 families. The first Fourth of July, 1788, was right royally celebrated in this new home of liberty. On the 15th of that month, the first Governor of the Northwest Territory, Gen. Arthur St. Clair, arrived and took charge of affairs. He was well received by the people, AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 19 and most heartily supported by them. Governor St. Clair soon began the work of organization and he laid out Ohio's first county (1788), which embraced about all of the eastern half of Ohio, and which he named Washington County. A sheriff, judges and other officers were appointed, and on Campus Martins, the first court in Ohio was opened in the block house. This was a great event, for on that day law and order began in the wilderness. The beginnings of great things are always of deep interest, and this interest grows with each decade. This beginning of established law was thus announced from the door of the log cabin court house, on Campus Martins, in the fall of 1788, by the newly appointed sheriff in these words :—"Oyez ! Oyez ! A court is now open for the administration of even-handed justice, to the poor and to the rich, to the guilty and to the innocent, without respect of persons ; none to be punished without trial by their peers, and then in pursuance of the laws and evidence in the case." From this first county of Ohio, the number has grown to 88, and courts of justice are established in each county. GEN. GEORGE ROGERS CLARK. The history of the Old Northwest cannot be told without relating the great work of George Rogers Clark. It would really be the play of "Hamlet" with Hamlet omitted. He was born in Virginia in 1752; and was a brother of Capt. William Clark, whose great journey of 8,000 miles into the Oregon country, 1804-06, in company with Capt. Meriwether Lewis, a grateful nation is this year (1905) commemorating by a World's Fair at Portland, Oregon. George Rogers Clark was made a brigadier general in 1781, but is generally known in history, especially during the campaign in the Old Northwest, as Colonel Clark. He was only 20 years old when he plunged into the unbroken wilderness of Ohio, as a soldier and surveyor of Lord Dunmore's expedition. He was as fine a rifleman as ever entered a forest, and he was skilled in all the knowledge of woodcraft. As a soldier he was brave and manly ; as a commander he was sagacious, patient and fearless. The Indians respected and feared him alike, and gave ,him and his men the title of "The Long Knives." In 1775, at the close of Dunmore's War, Clark went to Kentucky, where he assisted Daniel Boone to fight Indians, and to build a new commonwealth in the wilderness. On his return to his old home in Virginia, he learned that the War for Liberty had actually begun between the Colonies and England—the mother country. One year later we again find him in Kentucky, aiding the settlers on the borders in many ways. He is chosen by them to command the rude militia of this country, and it proved a wise choice. Every settlement was in constant danger of attack by the bloodthirsty Indians, and Clark knew full well how to resist them. But Virginia was claiming ownership of this country of Kentucky—"the dark and bloody ground"—and the hardy settlers thought they should have some protection from Virginia. At last two delegates, Clark being one, were chosen to go to Virginia and see the Governor and ask for the aid so justly due them. These determined delegates obtained an interview with the Governor of Virginia—then the noted Patrick Henry—and very forcefully showed him their needs and the necessity of immediate action. They petitioned for the formation of their. country into an independent county, and that they might be allowed to assist the Colonies in their struggle against the tyranny of England. They also asked for 500 pounds of gunpowder and a supply of rifles. The Governor was at first inclined to refuse these requests on the ground that Virginia had all she could manage in the defense of the Colonies. But Colonel Clark told him plainly that a country that was not worth defending was not worth claiming. The delegates obtained their desired arms and ammunition, and when the .Legislature next met the County. of Kentucky was formed, with almost the identical boundaries as now mark the State of Kentucky. General Hamilton, the British commander at Detroit, had set a price upon every settler's scalp in the Ohio Valley, and in 20 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY the spring of 1777 the Indians had been so incited to cruelty and bloodshed by the promise of pay on the part of the British, that they made constant raids on the settlements across the Ohio. Hiding in the dense forest, they boldly attacked the unprotected and helpless pioneer while at work in his field, burned 'his cabin, destroyed his cattle and his crops and carried his wife and children into hellish captivity. Not a single life was safe, for there was always a hidden dusky foe on every hand. Unless relief could be obtained soon, all the whites in the valley would be destroyed. Relief came—and under the guiding hand of the brave young Clark. He conceived the plan of not only protecting the settlements, but of saving the great Northwest. But to carry out his plans he must have more men, and he therefore hurried back to Virginia, and laid his plans fully before Governor Patrick Henry. He was duly commissioned to raise seven companies of 4o men each among the settlers west of the Alleghany Mountains. As an incentive each soldier was promised 300 acres of land, to be selected from the richest valleys of the conquered territory. Thus originated the Virginia Military Reservation, between the Scioto and Miami rivers in Ohio, and the Reservation, now in the State of Indiana, for Clark and his soldiers. In May, 1778, he started on the famous expedition from Redstone Old Fort—Brownsville, Pennsylvania—with only about 15o men. But the band increased in size as it marched on to old Fort Pitt, where it embarked upon the Ohio. When Colonel Clark left the Governor of Virginia, he was entrusted with two specific commands. One was to protect the settlers in Kentucky, and the other—not yet to be made public—authorized him to attack Kaskaskia, a British post on the Kaskaskia River, one mile east of the Mississippi. Governor Henry also gave him $1,20o, and an order on the commandant at Fort Pitt for all the powder he might need. From this fort the little band of men, without uniforms, fresh from the cabin, the forest and the mountain, began their perilous journey to conquer. what has proved to be as rich a country as can be found upon the globe. A motley crowd they were ! Clad only in the garb of the hunter, and armed with the clumsy flint-lock rifle, the tomahawk and the long knife. But each man felt that he had a mission to perform, and under the leadership of the "Hannibal of the West," he knew not defeat. At the falls of the Ohio, the army of backwoodsmen halted and camped on "Corn Island," opposite the present site of Louisville. Here the settlers, who had accompanied the expedition, decided to remain, and build their homes. Colonel Clark drilled his soldiers here, then boldly informed them of his secret commission from Governor Henry to attack the British post at Kaskaskia. Cheers from the soldiers followed the announcement. Clark wisely decides to make the journey by land, and therefore hides his little flotilla near the mouth of the Tennessee and begins his journey through the tangled forest. This journey was with dangers and difficulties, but, on the night of July 4, 1778, he surprises the garrison and captures the fort and the town. By a masterful management he brought all the inhabitants to take the oath of allegiance to the United States—and that without shedding blood. The British colors were lowered, and AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 21 in their place, the "Old Blue Flag" of Virginia was hoisted. Without fighting, the garrison of Cahokia, a few miles up the Mississippi, also surrendered. Then quickly followed the surrender of Vincennes, on the Wabash, 24o miles distant. Vincennes at this time was deserted by most of the British, as the Governor General, Hamilton, had returned to Detroit. But on learning of its capture by Colonel Clark and his backwoodsmen, and also that Kaskaskia and Cahokia were in his possession, Hamilton hastened to Vincennes with a large body of British regulars and Indian allies. He finds the fort in possession of just two men—Captain Helm and a soldier. The Captain places a cannon at the open gate and demands the honors of war, if the fort is to be surrendered. The request is granted—and two men march out between rows of British soldiers and Indians. Hamilton again takes command of the fort, but as it is now the dead of winter, decides to await the coming of spring before attacking Kaskaskia. But Clark is informed by his faithful Spanish friend, Colonel Vigo, who loaned Clark nearly $2o,000 to aid in this campaign, that Hamilton had sent most of his men home for the winter, with the intention of recalling them early in the spring for an attack on Kaskaskia. Clark at once marches against Hamilton, a long and dangerous journey. The streams were filled with floating ice, the meadows and valleys were full of water and the ground was swampy and irregular. Often the men had to wade, for four or five. miles at a stretch, through water to their waists. Food became scarce, and the men were falling from sickness. But fortunately for them they captured a canoe from some squaws, and in it they found a goodly quantity of buffalo meat, corn, tallow and kettles. This revived the weak, and gave them all added courage to press on to the attack. At last they camped on a small area of dry ground within sight of Vincennes. Hamilton was not aware of the approach of any enemy, and consequently felt secure in his stronghold. When night fell upon the camp, Colonel Clark led his men in a bold rush upon the town. The people of Vincennes were most heartily tired of British rule, and they welcomed the Americans. After some sharp fighting, Hamilton agreed to meet Clark in a church and arrange terms. The valiant Clark would listen to no proposition from this "murderer of defenceless women and children" but unconditional surrender. The next day Hamilton's men, 79 in number, marched out and laid down their arms. The American colors were again hoisted over "Old Vincennes," and the fort was rebaptized with a new name, "Fort Patrick Henry." To the good name of George Rogers Clark also belongs the great work of the invasion of the rich country of the Shawnees, and the defeat of the Miamis. This successful campaign gave to Clark undisputed control of all the Illinois country, and the rich valley of the Wabash. In fact he was the unquestioned master of the country from Pennsylvania to the "Father of Waters," and from the Ohio to the Great Lakes. By the Treaty of Paris, 1783, at the close of the Revolutionary War, this great area, now consisting of five States, was transferred from Great Britain to the United States. To the hero of this expedition America owes an enduring monument. But we have not always rewarded our great men in due measure. It is sad to relate that George Rogers Clark was allowed to pass his last years in poverty and neglect. His death came in 1818. OWNERSHIP OF THE NEW TERRITORY. For a long time it was doubtful to what State this newly acquired region belonged. Virginia claimed nearly all of it—and certainly her claim -was a strong one. Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut each laid claim. also, to parts of this territory. But Delaware. New Jersey and Maryland absolutely refused to enter the Union, unless all the other States gave up their claims to Congress. Their contention was this Should Virginia, or any other State, be given the whole or even a great part of this vast area, she would then have too much power. Therefore all claims, they said, should be surrendered by these States to Congress for the general good. This firm stand on   22 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY the part of these three small States finally prevailed, and all claims, save certain reservations, were given up to the general government. It was many years, however, before the Indian tribes gave up their rich hunting grounds to the white men. We cannot find heart to censure them for this, for it was no small matter for the savage son of the forest to yield the land of his birth and the bones of his fathers, to the encroachments of alien foes. The treatment given these original owners of the soil of God's broad footstool will ever bring the blush of shame to every honest American, for these lands were taken from them by misrepresentation, dishonesty and overwhelming force. Senator John Sherman—Ohio's great Senator—always claimed that the government never kept a single treaty made with the Indian. Is it any wonder then that we find the Sacs, the Foxes, the Ottawas, the Winnebagoes and the Kickapoos making a last desperate struggle to retain their happy hunting grounds ? BLACK HAWK. The story of this last long effort by these tribes centers around the one chief who towers above all others in this country as Mont Blanc towers among the foothills of the plain, viz : Black Hawk, a chief of the Sacs and Foxes. He was born in 1767, in the Indian village of Saukenuk, on the north bank of the Rock River, about a mile above its mouth. At the age of 19, upon the death of his father, who was killed in battle, he "fell heir to the medicine bag of his forefathers," and for 5o years was the only leader of his people—the last savage patriot to defend his land against the irresistible force of civilization. Black Hawk was a born warrior and leader of warriors. His great-grandfather was a mighty chief before. him—the celebrated old Thunder, who more than a hundred years before had led his fierce people —the Sacs—from the northern shores of the St. Lawrence to the rich valleys of Rock River and the Wisconsin. Black Hawk taught his people a rude form of agriculture, and they made -a garden of Rock Island. Until the un fair and one-sided treaty was made by the authorities at St. Louis in 1804 for a narrow strip of land along the great river, in order to work the mines of lead there, he was a friend of the Americans. But he never would acknowledge the rights of this treaty by which the valuable lands of his people were filched from them. This had been accomplished by loading the four chiefs, who had been sent to St. Louis to secure the honorable release of a Sac warrior imprisoned for killing a vicious backwoodsman in a quarrel, with gaudy presents, and filling them with whiskey. In addition, they were made flattering promises, and under these various influences they finally consented to give the American commander—the representative of the American government—certain parts of their country on two rivers—the Illinois and the Mississippi. It was also promised, on the part of the President of the United States, to pay the Sacs $1,000 per year for this valuable grant. These chiefs had no. right to make any treaty, though they thought by thus complying with the wishes of the white chief, they would gain his good will, and save the life of the Sac warrior whom they had been sent to aid. Instead, however, they saw him led out and shot to death—murdered without a trial—in the very land over which the Or- AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 23 dinance of 1787 had expressly stipulated : "The utmost good faith shall always be observed toward the Indians; their lands and their property shall never be taken from them without their consent ; and in their property, rights and liberty they shall never be invaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars authorized by Congress, but laws founded in justice and humanity shall from time to time be made for preventing wrongs being clone to them, and for preserving peace and friendship with them." How well we have kept these fair promises! What wonder that the noble blood of Black Hawk should fairly boil with vindictive rage at such treatment of his race! From this one abuse originated the Black Hawk War. But it was augmented by many other causes of even greater flagrance and dishonor. False reports about this great chief were spread far and wide, and the government sent an army against him. Our own great Lincoln formed, when a mere youth, a militia company, and marched to the supposed scene of "the great Indian uprising." Black Hawk, who never really meant to fight the Americans, but had long borne in silence his deep wrongs, was captured, through the treachery of the Winnebagoes, and imprisoned. His tribes—men, helpless women and children—were ruthlessly shot down or drowned in the Mississippi, the very river upon whose banks they had so long hunted, lived and loved. After a long imprisonment in Jefferson Barracks in Missouri, lie was taken to Washington, where President Andrew Jackson held an interview with him. When asked by the President why he had attempted to make war against the Americans, lie answered : "I am a man and you are another. I took up the hatchet to avenge injuries which could no longer be borne." The great President sent him back to live in peace with the few remaining people of his race, upon the plains of Iowa, where he died in 1838. Thus was closed forever, in the Old Northwest, the efforts of the red man to retain the lands and hunting grounds of his fathers. The Black Hawk War forms their last chapter. "As a race they have withered from the land. Their arrows are broken, their springs are dried up, their cabins are in the dust. Their council fire has long since gone out on the shore, and their war-cry is fast dying away to the untrodden West. Slowly and sadly they climb the distant mountains and read their doom in the setting sun." THE WILDERNESS SUBDUED. Gradually the wilderness gave way to the pioneer. His sturdy arm and untiring frame never knew rest until the forest was made to blossom with fruit and grain. He turned the mountain side into a garden of flowers. Along the stream he built his mill, and in the protected valley lie laid out the village—now the great city with its millions of people. He met the howling wolf with defiance, turned the woolly coat of the buffalo into a protecting robe, and dined upon choice rounds of bison and deer. As the virgin forest yielded before his axe, cattle, sheep, hogs, and horses flourished in his meadows. The meadow, in turn, gave place to the corn, and later to the wheat—and in place of the "Johnny cake" came the snow-white loaf. The loving mother, sons and daughters were clad, for many years, only in garments made by their own hands—the linsey-woolsey of "Hoosier" clays. Everybody worked from daylight until late into the night. The pioneer was his own manufacturer. He could shoe a horse, or "iron" a wagon. He could build a chair or a house. He could make his children's shoes, or a spinning wheel, and by the light of the fire from the great open fire-place—that ancient emblem of the tribal family and of modern civilization—he tied his brooms and taught his children the "three R's." As markets came nearer, his rude cabin "where humble happiness endeared each scene," gave place to a more pretentious dwelling, and in it many of the real luxuries of life were found. Blest be that spot, where cheerful guests retire To pause from toil, and trim their evening fire ; Blest that abode where want and pain repair, And every stranger finds a ready chair ; Blest be those feasts with simple plenty crowned, 24 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY Where all the ruddy family around Laugh at the jests or pranks that never fail, Or sigh with pity at some mournful tale; Or press the bashful stranger to his food, And learn the luxury of doing good. The virgin soil now yields its golden harvest and "health and plenty cheer the laboring swain." But out of all this change and progress comes the rugged pioneer himself, unchanged. His brow is deeply furrowed by the hardships of years of sunshine and shadow, and his manners are still those of the dawn. Dr. James Baldwin pays the pioneer the following noble tribute : "No hero of history, no warrior patriot, ever served his country better or earned laurels more nobly. The world may forget what he suffered and what he accomplished, but his monument shall remain as long as our country endures. What is his monument ? It is the Old Northwest itself, now the center of the republic, and the crowning factor of our country's greatness." CHAPTER II THE FAMOUS MAUMEE VALLEY Great Valleys of the World—Valley of the Maumee—Its Great Fertility—First Attempt at Settlement in Ohio—General Harmar Sent Against the Miamis—St. Clair's Defeat —Fort Defiance—Battle of the Fallen Timber, General Wayne's Great Victory—Siege of Fort Meigs—Col. George Croghan and the Defense of Fort Stephenson—End of the War of 1812—Early Struggle for Possession—Wild Game an Alluring Prize—The Economic Work of the Beaver—The Ohio Company—France Attempts to Take Possession of the Ohio Valley—The French and Indian War—The Fertility, Wealth, and Substantial Citizenship of the Great Maumee Valley. In all ages and countries man has sought the river valley. In the valley man first advanced from barbarism to civilization. The first nations to gain power and to become enlightened were those whose homes were on fertile soil and beside cool water. The great and fertile basin between the Alps and the Apennines—that garden of the ancient world—through which flows the Po, was the abiding place of millions of inhabitants, and the source of Italy's wealth. Of this valley Dr. Thomas Arnold-says : '"Who can wonder that this large and richly watered plain should be filled with flourishing cities or that it should have been contended for so often by successful invaders ?" The Greek historian Herodotus proclaims : "Egypt is the gift of the Nile." The annual overflow of that giant stream has kept the valley of Egypt a garden of richest alluvium for untold centuries. Here have uncounted millions of the human race "lived, loved and died." The great river valleys of Russia have long supported her teeming population. and to-day her sluggish rivers carry Russia's wealth to the sea. In America the Hudson flows through a valley so rich, and so beautiful, that it has long been the theme of the historian, and the inspiration of the bard. But to the inhabitants of the Old Northwest, and especially of Ohio, no valley has a greater charm than that of the Maumee. The name is Indian, and it falls softly on the ear when it is pronounced, for it has more vowels than consonants. The beauty of the name introduces you to the beauty of the valley. The source of this stream is generally regarded as St. Mary's River, which rises in Auglaize County, Ohio, near the county seat, and flows in a northwesterly direction through Mercer and Van Wert counties ; then it enters Indiana, passing through Adams and Allen counties of that State. At Fort Wayne it receives the St. Joseph from the north. Here the Maumee proper begins, and turning northeast it continues its course through Paulding, Defiance and Henry counties, and along the line between Wood and Lucas, falling into Maumee Bay at Toledo. The soil along its course is a black loam, capable of producing the most extensive crops year after year, without the use of fertilizers. 26 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY The richness of this valley attracted the Indian long years before the coming of the white man. Here he roamed unmolested, and here he "wooed his dusky mate." The fauna and flora were most abundant, and life for both the white and the red man was made easy and happy, for game was found on every hand, and the God of nature had clothed the forest like a vineyard. Into this valley immigrants came in large numbers. They felled the forest, and bridged the stream, and they made the wilderness blossom like the rose. Prosperous villages appeared at every turn of the road, or bend of the stream, and some of them soon became . cities. Along the banks of the stream, betimes, was heard the dreadful war-whoop of the Shawnees or the Hurons, the shrill whistle of the rifle ball and the roar of cannon. At Fort Wayne, Defiance and Toledo once stood massive forts where was heard the din of battle and there was seen the death grapple between "Mad Anthony" Wayne and his foes, or the long-drawn combat between General Harrison and the English general Proctor, aided by his devoted Indian ally, Tecumseh. The story of these old struggles is ever new and this chapter would be sadly wanting in interest should the recital of them be omitted here. FIRST SETTLEMENT IN OHIO, 1680. The Governor of Canada, Count de Frontenac, anxious for France to gain possession of the rich country to the south of the chain of Great Lakes, sent out trading parties with authority from the King of France to erect stores and military posts, and to take possession of the country in the name of the government of France. One of these trading parties erected a post on the Maumee, near the present site of Maumee City in Lucas County, in 1680. This was an important trading post for a number of years. This post was removed to a more advantageous position at the head waters of the Maumee, where the city of Fort Wayne now stands. On the very site of the old post at Maumee City, the British erected, in 1794, Fort Miami. The above named post or stockade, at Maumee City, is believed to have been the first attempt at settlement, or occupation by white men, within the present limits of Ohio. These statements are made, says the historian Knapp, on the authority of records at Montreal and Quebec, and papers at Albany and Harrisburg. The chief village of the Miami Indians was at the junction of the St. Mary's and St. Joseph rivers, where Fort Wayne now stands. In 1791 General Harmar was sent against them, to punish them for their continued attacks upon the white settlers. But he was led into an ambuscade and routed. General St. Clair, a Revolutionary officer of note and Governor of the territory northwest of the Ohio, was then sent to attack the Miamis in the same year. But he was surprised and signally beaten. Every school boy knows the story of his defeat. It was the most disastrous of all the early conflicts with the Indians. The battle was fought along a branch of the Wabash, a little south of the St. Mary's,. at Fort Recovery, in Mercer County, Ohio, November 4, 1791. After a careful examination of the records and ability of various officers, Washington assigned to Gen. Anthony Wayne the difficult task, and in June, 1792, he was sent into the Indian country in the Northwest. He was called by the Indians the "Chief Who Never Sleeps." He spent about two years in building forts, enlisting troops, and in gaining the confidence of some of the Indians. They left Fort Washington (now Cincinnati), October-7, 1793, and established Fort Greenville, on the present site of the county seat of Darke County. On Christmas Day, 1793, Wayne reoccupied the ground where St. Clair had been so badly beaten three years before, and erected a stockade, which was very appropriately named "Fort Recovery." As the fort was in process of erection, 600 human skulls were found and buried under one of the blockhouses—relics of the awful carnage of St. Clair's defeat. General Wayne now put forth every effort AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 27 to gain the favorable consideration of terms of peace, but the Indians, flushed with success, refused to accept any terms, however favorable, and even murdered Trueman, Freeman and Colonel Hardin, the three ambassadors sent to treat with them. Back of this action was the influence of the British, who urged the Indians on to further deeds of violence. On July 28, 1794., General Wayne, after being joined on the 26th by Colonel Scott, with 1,600 mounted Kentuckians, started on his victorious march against his foes. They fled at his advance, and he soon found himself in the fertile country about the junction of the Auglaize with the Maumee. There were extensive gardens and highly cultivated fields extending for many miles above and below the junction of the two rivers. All this indicated the `work of many people—an evidence of the number of the enemy. Here General Wayne at once erected a strong stockade fort where the two rivers meet and he named it "Fort Defiance." PLAN OF FORT DEFIANCE Explanations:—At each angle of the fort was a block-house. The one next the Maumee is marked A, having port-holes B, on the three exterior sides, and door D, and chimney C, on the side facing to the interior. There was a line of pickets on each side of the fort, connecting the block-houses by their nearest angles. Outside of the pickets and around the blockhouses was a glacis, a wall of earth eight feet thick, sloping upwards and outwards from the feet of the pickets, supported by a log wall on the side of the ditch and by fascines, a wall of fagots, on the side next the Auglaize. The ditch, fifteen feet wide and eight feet deep, surrounded the whole work except on the side toward the Auglaize ; and diagonal pickets, eleven feet long and one foot apart, were secured to the log wall and projected over the ditch. E and E were gateways. F was a bank of earth, four feet wide, left for a passage across the ditch. G was a falling gate or drawbridge, which was raised and lowered by pulleys, across the ditch, covering it or leaving it uncovered at pleasure. The officers' quarters were at H, and the storehouses at I. At K, two lines of pickets converged towards L, which was a ditch eight feet deep, by which water was procured from the river without exposing the carrier to the enemy. M was a small sand-bar at the point. —From Knapp's "History of the Maumee Valley." Wayne was eight days in building Fort Defiance ; began on the 9th of August and finished on the 17th. After surveying its block-houses, pickets, ditches and fascines, Wayne exclaimed : "I defy the English, Indians and all the devils in hell to take it." Colonel Scott, who happened at that instant to be standing at his side, remarked : "Then call it Fort Defiance." And so Wayne, in a letter to the Secretary of War, written at this time, said : "Thus, sir, we have gained possession of the grand emporium of the hostile Indians of the West without loss of blood. The very extensive and highly cultivated fields and gardens show the work of many hands. The margin of those beautiful rivers, the Miamis of the Lake (or Maumee) and Auglaize, appear like one continued village for a number of miles both above and below this place ; nor have I ever before beheld such fields of corn in any part of America from Canada to Florida. We are now employed in completing a strong stockade fort, with four good block-houses, by way of bastions, at the confluence of the Auglaize and the Maumee, which I have called Defiance." BATTLE OF THE FALLEN TIMBER. The Indians and their British allies did not, however, risk a battle here, but selected an elevated plain above the rapids of the Maumee, on the left bank of the river. This place they thought greatly favored their plan of battle, 28 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY for it was covered by fallen timber which had been recently hurled to the ground by a tornado, thus preventing the action of cavalry. Undaunted by this plan, Wayne moved on to the place of conflict, and on August 20th, about 8 o'clock in the morning, he began the attack upon the combined forces of Indians and British. The battle began at "Presque Isle"— a hill about two miles south of Maumee City, and four south of the British fort, Miami. "General Wayne had about three thousand men under his command, and the Indians are ,computed to have been equally numerous. This is not improbable, as the hostile league embraced the whole Northwestern frontier. As he approached the position of the enemy he sent forward a battalion of mounted riflemen, which was ordered, in case of an attack, to make a retreat in feigned confusion, in order -to draw the Indians on more disadvantageous ground. As was anticipated, this advance soon met the enemy, and being fired on fell back and was warmly pursued toward the main body. The morning was rainy, and the drums could not communicate the concerted signals with sufficient distinctness. A plan of turning the right flank of the Indians was not, therefore, fulfilled. But the victory was complete, the whole Indian line, after a severe contest, giving way and flying in disorder. About one hundred savages were killed." This decisive victory gave undisputed possession of the country of the Miamis, and completely broke their power. Before leaving this valley, so gloriously gained, General Wayne erected a fort where Swan Creek joins the Maumee, which was held until Jay's treaty, 1793, when Great Britain surrendered its Northern posts. "On the 27th the troops took up their march, devastating every village and field on the line to Fort Defiance, which they proceeded to render more substantial. September 14th the legion moved on to the Miami villages, where the long contemplated fort was constructed, and October 22, 1794, placed under, command of Lieutenant Colonel Hamtramck, who, after firing fifteen rounds of cannon, gave the name, which the city now bears, of Fort Wayne." SIEGE OF FORT MEIGS, MAY, 1813. Of all the military operations along the Great Lakes during the War of 1812, none is more interesting than the siege of Fort Meigs, near the present site of Toledo. The fort stood upon high ground, about 60 feet above the Maumee, on the margin of the bank. The surface is quite level. The site is well preserved, and a station called "Fort Meigs" is now seen along the line of the electric railway. One may yet see the well-defined outline of the old fort—the grand traverse yet arises six or eight feet above the ground. The place is famous, and many people visit it each year. The following accounts of Fort Meigs and her battles are taken from Knapp's "History of the Maumee Valley." "In an excursion of the veterans of the War of 1812, made to Fort Meigs in June, 1870, Mayor Tyler, in his address of welcome to the soldiers, remarked, with regard to the present condition of this consecrated ground : " 'On to-morrow you will be escorted to the old fortifications of Fort Meigs. There you will find its earthworks faithfully preserved, safe, only as far as the hand of time has marred its former war-frowning front. No instrument of agriculture has torn down or plowed up any part of the old fort. Two AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 29 of the original pickets, placed there in 1812, are there yet. There you will find, marked by stones long since placed over them, the graves of your fallen comrades, there the trenches, there the magazine, there all the outlines of the ancient warfare. Mr. Michael Hayes and his brothers, who own the soil of the old fort, have faithfully performed their duty in guarding this landmark of history from destruction or desolation. They have preserved many of the relics of the battle-field—grape shot, canister, bayonets, and many other evidences of the conflict.' "So far the military operations of the Northwest had certainly been sufficiently discouraging; the capture of Mackinac, the surrender of Hull, the massacre at Chicago, and the overwhelming defeat at Frenchtown, are the leading events. Nothing had been gained, and of what had been lost, nothing had been retaken. The slight successes over the Indians by Hopkins, Edwards and Campbell had not shaken the power or confidence' of Tecumseh and his allies ; while the fruitless efforts of Harrison through five months, to gather troops enough at the mouth of the Maumee to attempt the reconquest of Michigan, which had been taken in a week, depressed the spirits of the Americans, and gave new life and hopes to their foes. "About the time that Harrison's unsuccessful campaign drew to a close, a change took place in the War Department, and General Armstrong succeeded his incapable friend, Dr. Eustis. Armstrong's views were those of an able soldier. In October, 1812, he had again addressed the government, through Mr. Gallatin, on the necessity of obtaining command of the Lakes, and when raised to power determined to make naval operations the basis of the military movements in the Northwest. His views in relation to the coming campaign in the West were based on two points, viz : The use of regular troops alone, and the command of the Lakes, which he was led to think could be obtained by the l0th of June. "Although the views of the Secretary in regard to the non-employment of militia were not, and could not be, adhered to, the general plan of merely standing on the defensive until. the command of the Lakes was secured, was persisted in, although it was the 2nd of August, instead of the 1st of June, before the vessels on Lake Erie could leave the harbor in which they had been built. Among these defensive operations in the spring and summer. of 1813, that of Fort Meigs, the new post taken by Harrison at the foot of the rapids, and that. at Lower Sandusky, deserve to be especially noticed, as they form historical wealth which. the whole country, and especially the inhabitants of the Maumee Valley, will ever regard with feelings of pride and interest. It had. been anticipated that, with the opening of spring, the British would attempt the conquest of the position upon the Maumee, and measures. had been taken by the General to forward reinforcements, which were detained, however, as usual, by the spring freshets and the bottomless roads. It was no surprise, therefore, to General Harrison, that on the breaking up of the ice in Lake Erie, General Proctor, with all his disposable force, consisting of regulars and Canadian militia from Malden, and a large body of Indians under Tecumseh, amounting in the whole to 2,000 men, made him a hostile visit, and laid siege to Fort Meigs. To encourage the Indians, he had promised them an easy conquest, and assured them that General Harrison should. be delivered up to Tecumseh. On the 26th of April the British columns appeared on the other bank of the river and established their. principal batteries on a commanding eminence opposite Fort Meigs. On the 27th the Indians crossed the river and established themselves in the rear of the American lines. The garrison, not having completed their wells, had no water except what they obtained from the. river, under a constant firing from the enemy." Below is an extract from an article on the siege of Fort Meigs, by Rev. A. M. Lorraine,. originally published in the "Ladies' Repository" for, March, 1845.— "One afternoon, as numbers were gathered together on the 'parade,' two strangers, finely mounted, appeared on the western bank of the river, and seemed to be taking a very calm and deliberate survey of our works. It was a 30 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY grand traverse being completed, each man was ordered to excavate, under the embankment, suitable lodgings, as substitutes for our tents. Those rooms were shot-proof and bomb-proof, except in the event of a shell falling in the traverse and at the mouth of a cave. The above works were scarcely completed before it was discovered that the enemy, under cover of night, had constructed batteries on a commanding hill north of the river. There their. artillerymen were posted ; but the principal part of their army occupied the old English fort below. Their Indian allies appeared to have a roving commission, for they beset us on every side. The cannonading commenced in good earnest strange thing to see travelers in that wild country, and we commonly held such to be enemies, until they proved themselves to be friends. So one of our batteries was cleared forthwith, and the gentlemen were saluted with a shot that tore up the earth about them and put them to a hasty flight. If that ball had struck its mark, much bloodshed might have been prevented, for we learned subsequently that our illustrious visitors were Proctor and Tecumseh. The garrison was immediately employed in cutting deep traverses through the fort, taking down the tents and preparing for a siege. The work accomplished in a few hours, under the excitement of the occasion, was prodigious. The on both sides. It was, however, more constant on the British side, because they had a more extensive mark to batter. We had nothing to fire at but their batteries, but they were coolly and deliberately attended to ; and it was believed that more than one of their guns were dismounted during the siege. One of our militiamen took his station on the embankment, and gratuitously forewarned us of every shot. In this he became so skillful that he could, in almost every case, predict the destination of the ball. As soon as the smoke issued from the muzzle of the gun, he would cry out 'shot' or 'bomb,' as the case might be. Sometimes he would exclaim 'Block-house No. I,' or. 'Look out, main battery' ; 'Now for the meat house' ; `Good-bye, if you will pass.' In spite of all the expostulations of his friends, he maintained his post. One day there came a shot that seemed to defy all his calculations. He stood silent, motionless, perplexed. In the same instant he was swept into eternity. Poor man! he should have considered, that when there is no obliquity in the issue of the smoke, either to the right or left, above or below, the fatal messenger would travel in the direct line of his vision. He reminded me of the peasant in the siege of Jerusalem who cried out, 'Woe to the city ! Woe to myself !' On the most active day of the investment, there were as many as 500 cannon AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 31 balls and bombs thrown at our fort. Meantime the Indians, climbing up into the trees, fired incessantly upon us. Such was their distance, that many of the balls barely reached us, and fell harmless to the ground. Occassionally they inflicted dangerous and even fatal wounds. The number killed in the fort was small, considering the profusion of powder and ball expended on us. About 80 were slain, many wounded, and several had to suffer the amputation of limbs. The most dangerous duty which we performed within the precincts of the fort, was in covering the magazine. Previous to this, the powder, had been deposited in wagons, and these stationed in the traverse. Here there was no security against bombs; it was therefore thought to be prudent to remove the powder into a small block-house and cover it with earth. The enemy, judg-. Mg our designs from our movements, now directed all their shot to this point. Many of their balls were red-hot. Wherever they struck they raised a cloud of smoke. and made a frightful hissing. An officer, passing our quarters, said : 'Boys, who will volunteer to cover the magazine?' Foot-like, away several of us went. As soon as we reached the spot, there came a ball and took off one man's head. The spades and dirt flew faster than any of us had before witnessed. In the midst of our job, a bombshell fell on the roof, and lodging on one of the braces it spun around for a moment. Every soldier fell flat on his face, and with 'breathless horror awaited the vast explosion, which we expected would crown all our earthly sufferings. Only one of the gang presumed to reason on the case. He silently argued that, as the shell had not burst as quickly as usual, there might be something wrong in its arrangement. If it burst where it was, and the magazine exploded, there could be no escape; it was death anyhow ; so he sprang to his feet, seized a boat hook, and pulling the hissing missile to the ground and jerking the smoking match from its socket, discovered that the shell was filled with inflammable matter, which if once ignited would have wrapped the whole building in a sheet of flame. This circumstance added wings to our shovels and we were right glad when the officer said: 'That will do; go to your lines.'" Defeated in his attempts to capture Fort Meigs, Proctor next moved to Lower Sandusky, into the neighborhood of General Harrison's stores and his headquarters, and besieged Fort Stephenson. Herewith is given a brief account of the attack upon this fort, and its heroic defense by the youthful Colonel Croghan. COL. GEORGE CROGHAN AND THE DEFENSE OF FORT STEPHENSON. George Croghan was born near Louisville, Kentucky, November 15, 1791. He was a boy of manly appearance, and at a very early age developed a strong desire for military life. He was graduated at the College of William and Mary, Virginia, July 4, 181o. In 1811 he served in the battle of Tippecanoe, exhibiting great courage, activity and military skill. He was made captain the following year, and major, March, 1813. On May 5, 1813, he distinguished himself as aide-de-camp of General Harrison in the defense of Fort Meigs. Early in 1813, Fort Stephenson, at Lower Sandusky (now Fremont), was constructed by and named after Colonel Stephenson, then in command of United States troops. During the month of July, 1813, Major Croghan was placed in command of this fort, upon which an attack by the British was anticipated. Previous 32 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY to the battle, General Harrison had dispatched messengers to Croghan, advising him that if the enemy appeared in force he should retreat. But the young major wrote back that he had determined to hold the fort at all hazards. General Harrison treated his reply as disobedience of orders, and relieved him of his command. Croghan at once explained to the General's satisfaction, and was returned to his post. On the 31st of July the British made their appearance, landing about a mile below the fort. General Proctor, the British commander, at once sent a messenger to the fort with a flag, and a summons for an immediate surrender. To this went back the reply : "The fort will be defended to the last extremity; no force, however great, can induce us to surrender, as we are resolved to maintain, this post or bury ourselves in its ruins." Again was the flag of truce sent to Croghan, advising him to submit, and thereby avoid the terrible massacre that would surely follow. But to this, the cool and defiant answer went but : "When this fort is taken, there shall be none to massacre; it will not be given up while a man is able to resist." Firing immediately commenced by the British gunboats and a howitzer on shore. Croghan had but one piece of artillery, but by shifting its position from place to place, induced. the belief that he had several. The British, having made no satisfactory progress, determined to storm the fort, and on the 2nd of August advanced with about 50o regulars, 800 Indians, a howitzer and three six-pounders. They were under command to "give the Yankees no quarter." Croghan, with only 169 men, reserved fire until the "red coats" had approached within easy reach, when he fired with such fatal precision that the British faltered ; he then turned his battery, a single gun, a six-pounder loaded with grape and canister, upon them, and the ravine through which they were approaching was shortly filled with the dead and dying enemy. This British l0ss of dead and wounded was about 120, while Croghan's was only eight. Thus, on the 2nd day of August, 1813, at the age of 21 years, the heroic Croghan, against a vastly superior force, had won this brilliant victory. For this exploit he was brevetted lieutenant colonel by the President of the United States ; Congress awarded him a gold medal, and the ladies of Chillicothe, then the capital of Ohio, presented him with a beautiful sword. Just previous to the battle, Major Croghan wrote the following impressive letter to a friend : "The enemy are not far distant. I expect an attack. I will defend this post till the last extremity. I have just sent away women and children, with the sick of the garrison, that I may be able to act without incumbrance. Be satisfied. I shall, I .hope, do my duty. The example set me by my Revolutionary kindred is before me. Let me die rather than prove unworthy of their name." He was made inspector general in 1825, with rank of colonel, and served as such with General Taylor in Mexico in 1846-47. Col. George Croghan died in New Orleans, January 8, 1849. And to keep his memory, Fremont, through these passing years, has continued to celebrate the second day of August. Fort Stephenson, a spot precious to the citizens of Fremont, is now owned and cared for by the city. The old cannon, familiarly known as "Old Betsy," which did such fearful execution in the fight, to-day stands silently upon the fort, a fitting companion of that noble shaft, erected in memory of Colonel Croghan, and of the brave soldiers in the late Rebellion. Tecumseh's death at the battle of the Thames in Canada, and Perry's victory on Lake Erie, with Jackson's at New Orleans, following the successes of Fort Meigs and Fort Stephenson, closed the War of 1812, or the "Second War of Independence." EARLY STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. Prof. B. A. Hinsdale, of the University of Michigan, in his "Old Northwest," writes thus : "Save New England alone, there is no section of the United States embracing several States, that is so distinct an historical unit, and that so readily yields to historical treatment as the 'Old Northwest.' It was the occasion of the final struggle for dominion between France AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 33 and England in North America. It was the theatre of one of the most brilliant and far-reaching military exploits of the Revolution. The disposition to be made of it at the close of the Revolution is the most important territorial question treated in the history of American diplomacy. After the war, the Northwest began to assume increasing importance in the national history. It is the original public domain and the part of the West first colonized under the authority of the national government. It was the first and most important territory ever organized by Congress. It is the only part of the United States ever under a secondary constitution like the Ordinance of 1787. No other equal part of the Union has made, in one hundred years, such progress along the characteristic lines of American development." From the Old Northwest were formed the States of Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and part of Minnesota, and it forms one of the richest and most enterprising regions of America. Long before the English appeared upon this scene, the French had explored and threaded the great wilderness. They pushed their way into the great regions beyond the source of the Mississippi to the "Land of the Dakotas" and in the opposite direction to the mouth of the Mississippi and to the foot of the Alleghanies. They spread, themselves out over half a continent, visiting lakes, forests and rivers, bent on discovery, trade or the reclaiming of souls. The tale of the heroic expeditions of the French voyageurs, priests and soldiers amid the sublimity and grandeur of the virgin scenes which unfolded to their vision, forms a brilliant and enchanting chapter in American history. Of the galaxy of States formed from this Western region, the territory occupied by Ohio was the last to be discovered and claimed by the French. It lay in the path of the nearest route from Canada to the Mississippi Valley, but the explorers were long barred out by the hostile Iroquois, and not until the year 1680 do we find any important settlements. In that year one of the parties sent out by Frontenac, the Governor of Canada, built a small stockade - 2 - just below the site of Maumee City, which was an important trading post for many years. In" 1694 it was abandoned for a more favorable location at the head of the Maumee, where! Fort Wayne now stands. The next year witnessed the establishment of a trading post at the western end of Lake Erie, which was destroyed by the Miamis two years later. The Wabash Valley was occupied about the year 1700, the first settlers entering it from the Kankakee. Later the Canadians found a nearer route to the Wabash Valley by way of the Maumee River and the short portage between the head-waters of the two rivers. About this time, also, the English first established them- 34 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY selves in Ohio for permanent operations. As early as 1686-87 attempts were made by the Dutch and English traders from New York to penetrate this Western region. The country between Lake Erie and Upper Michigan was one of the great beaver trapping grounds and was therefore a temptation to the traders. ''!The Hurons, the Chippewas, the Ottawas and even the Iroquois, from beyond Ontario, by turns sought this region in large parties for the capture of this game, from the earliest historic times. It is a region peculiarly adapted to the wants of this animal. To a great extent level, it is intersected by numerous watercourses, which have but moderate flow. At the headwaters and small inlets of these streams, the beaver established his colonies. Here he dammed the streams, setting back the water, over the flat lands, and creating ponds, in which were his habitations. Not one or two, but a series of such dams were constructed :along each stream, so that very extensive surfaces became thus covered permanently with the flood. The trees were killed and the land was converted into a chain of ponds and marshes, with intervening dry ridges. In time, by Nature's recuperative process, the annual .growth and decay of grasses and aquatic plants, these filled with muck or peat, with occasional deposits of bog lime, and the ponds and swales became dry again. "Illustrations of this beaver-made country -are numerous enough in our immediate vicinity. In a semi-circle of 12 miles around Detroit, having the river for base, and embracing about 100,000 acres, fully one-fifth consists of marshy tracts or prairies, which had their origin in the work of the beaver. A little farther west .nearly one whole township in Wayne County is of this country." (Hubbard, "Memorials of a Half Century.") Ohio was also invaded by settlers from Virginia, but it is not known who the Englishmen were who first crossed the Alleghanies to the valleys beyond. We have no authentic records of explorations in the region until the year 1714, when Governor Alexander Spotswood of Virginia led an exploring party beyond the Alleghanies. In 1744 the Indians deeded all this Western region to Virginia and this gave the English their first real treaty right to the West. In 1748 the "Ohio Company," which was composed of 13 prominent Virginians and Marylanders and a London merchant, was formed for the purpose of speculating in lands and trading with the Indians in Ohio. Christopher Gist was sent out by the company to explore Southern Ohio, and from this time there is a growing interest in these western lands. The French, however, were not inactive. Marquis de la Galissoniere, who was Governor of Canada, sent Celoron de Bienville, with 300 men into the Ohio Valley with the purpose of taking possession of the country, of propitiating the Indians and of warning the English traders out of the country. Bienville crossed the portage between Lake Erie and Lake Chautauqua, which was the easternmost crossing from the Great Lakes to the southern rivers used by the French, and made his way down the Allegheny and Ohio rivers to the Miami, returning to Montreal by way of the Maumee and Lake Erie. At important points he buried leaden plates upon which were engraved the arms of France, and bearing an inscription that they had taken the land and buried the plates. Bienville found the valley swarming with English traders and the Indians generally well disposed toward them. The Marquis Duquesne, in 1753, with a strong force seized and held the northeastern branches of the Ohio. This threw .down the gauntlet to the English, and in 1756 war was formally declared between the two countries, which culminated on the Heights of Abraham in 1759. In the treaty of 1763 France surrendered her possessions to the English, and for several years Ohio was controlled by military commandants on the frontiers. The great valley of the Maumee was, it is seen, a part of this ancient battle-ground between the Indian tribes, the French and the English. It is now the home of millions of people, whose only contest is for advancement. Schools, churches and factories take the place 35 - AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS of the camp, the f0re and the wigwam. Where once the beaver had his undisputed dam in marsh and swamp, the farmer grows his crops in peace and contentment. The same skies hang above, and the same sun warms the land, but how different the product! Her great men and noble women have made hist0ry, have carried the burden and scattered the mists, and to-day no more fitting home can be found on old Earth than the valley of the Maumee. CHAPTER III INDIAN OCCUPATION The Life Story of Simon Kenton—Simon Girty, the Renegade—Gen. Anthony Wayne, the "Chief Who Never Sleeps"—Celebrated Treaty of Greenville—Gen. Arthur St. Clair—St. Clair's Defeat—Tecumseh, the Most Gifted American Indian—Tecumseh's Tecumseh's High Ideals of Justice—The Indian of To-Day—Haskell Institute—Carlisle Indian School—Logan's Speech—Villainy of the Government's Indian Agents—Sprague's View of the Indian and His Destiny. It is not a difficult task to imagine Allen County, and all of Ohio, the home and happy hunting grounds of the red man of the forest. The time is not so far back on the page of history. This county once abounded in game 0f all kinds, and the means of easily acquired subsistence. Over what are now the clean farms, the villages and the city, "the Indian hunter pursued the panting deer" and "the council-fire glared on the wise and the daring." The men who fought their, way to civilization in the wilderness of Ohio have a lasting place in our hearts. All honor to the scout, the guide, the Indian fighter and the pioneer ! They blazed the way through the forest, brake and fen ; they crossed the stream, and fixed the mountain path, and their sons and daughters live to bless the soil to-day. The Indian is gone from our country, pushed aside by that relentless tide of ever-advancing civilization. "It is an edict issued from the Court of Progress, that ferocious Titan who strides from East to West, that the Indian shall disappear, shall be remanded to the past, shall evanish." But not so the names of those who stood the shock of battle. SIMON KENTON. Among those who sacrificed a life-time to the cause of civilization, none stands out so plainly upon the horizon of liberty and law as Simon Kenton, the intrepid scout and friend of the white man. In the early days of Indian occupation it was very necessary that some brave spirit protect and guide the lonely settler. Simon Kenton was born to this duty, and no man in any avenue of life ever performed his part with greater fidelity. Leaving his early boyhood home in Virginia, April 6, 1771, after an unfortunate quarrel with a rival for the hand of a worthy young woman, Simon Kenton traveled to Kentucky. Here he became interested in all that aided the settlers in their struggles with wild nature and the still wilder red man of the forest. Through the long fight of the pioneers for possession of the soil, Kenton was ever the leader, and his services as scout and spy, at the head of every force sent against the cruel savages, were never fully recognized or rewarded. True, a tardy acknowledgment of his services to the country came in 1824, when the government granted him a pension of $20 per month. He was then. AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 37 69 years old, and was living quietly on his little farm in Logan County, Ohio, near Zanesfield. In his various expeditions against the Indians, Kenton passed much time in Allen County, Ohio, then an unorganized part 0f the State. He was often sent on secret missions by officers of the army to learn the location and strength of Indian tribes and Indian villages. On one occasion, being sent by Colonel Bowman to learn the strength of a town on the Little Miami, he was captured, thrown prone upon the ground and made to stretch his arms to their full length. The Indians then placed a strong pole across his breast, extending to either hand, and another at right angles from head to foot. His wrists and ankles were fastened with thongs to these poles, and then he was fastened to a sapling near by. So tight were these fastenings made that he could not move hand or foot. The Indian boys and women slapped, cuffed and kicked him all the while. After many hours of suffering he was tied to the back of a fine young colt, and Mazeppa-like, turned loose in the forest. The colt ran through bushes and underbrush, then quieted down and traveled along with the other horses. After three days of this kind of travel, the band arrived at Chillicothe, now Old Town, on the Little Miami in Green County, where he was made to run the gauntlet. This was a most trying ordeal, as the line of warriors, men, women and children, armed with knives, clubs and tomahawks, extended a quarter of a mile. But he reached the goal without a fatal blow. A council of war was then held to decide whether they would burn him at the stake or carry him to the other villages. After the speeches were made, the vote was taken. It was done by means of a war club which was passed from one to the other in solemn council, and those who voted to burn him hit the ground a violent blow with the club, and those who voted to carry him to the next village simply passed the club to the next warrior. A teller was appointed to count the votes. He was not to be burned at the stake then, but carried on to another village on the Mad River. On another occasion his life was saved by that renegade, Simon Girty, who, in 1775, left the people of his own race and took up his abode with the Indians. That was the noblest act of Girty, whom all nations despised as a traitor and distrusted as a man. Girty and Kenton had been companion scouts in the Dunmore expedition, and thus they had become warm friends. On leaving Virginia, after the unfortunate event already referred to, Kenton had changed his name to Butler. When Girty was told by his captive that his name was Simon Butler, he at once recognized his old friend, and at great peril to himself, saved Kenton from a terrible death by fire. Kenton was now allowed to go free, though not to leave the tribe. He was again placed in thongs, and by a vote of the war council he was, in spite of all Girty could do, condemned to die at the stake. He was at once seized and hurried off to the northward. On this march he was struck with an ax by an Indian and his arm broken. At a village on the Scioto, where they halted, Kenton saw the celebrated Mingo chief, Logan, the murder of whose relatives had caused the Dunmore's War. Logan was an eloquent speaker and his speech on the death of his friends has become common property of all who love justice and liberty. Logan treated Kenton kindly and told him that it was the plan to carry him to Sandusky and burn him there. But Logan really secured his safe conduct to Detroit where, it was argued, the British commander wanted to talk to him about Kentucky, information of which the latter greatly desired. After a short time he secured his release from Detroit, and in company with two other men, made his way back to Louisville in safety. This journey through the unbroken forest required 30 clays, and it was fraught with constant danger. Only the consummate skill of a backwoodsman like Kenton could have accomplished it. From this time on he took part in many campaigns, and was a most valuable aid to Wayne's army, always leading the scouting party in front of the army. He was made a 38 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY major by General Wayne and commanded a troop of 150 cavalrymen. He fought in all of Wayne's great battles, except in the battle of the Fallen Timber. In 1805 Kenton was made general of militia. He was in the thickest of the fight of the battle of the Thames, in Canada, where Proctor was overcome, and in which Tecumseh fell, shot by Johnson. Kenton, in 42 years, since he came to Ohio and Kentucky from Virginia, had run the gauntlet, according to the historian Marshall, 13 times, and three times had been tied to the stake to be burned. Prof. R. W. McFarland, the distinguished mathematician and scholar, in his excellent sketch of Kenton, closes thus : "And in these 42 years the battles, sieges, skirmishes, raids, marauding excursions, alone, or in company with others, are numbered by the score not to say by the hundred, and most probably his career has never had a parallel on this continent, or on any other. 'His like we ne'er shall see again.' " The great scout died April 29, 1836, on his farm at Wapatomica, in Logan County, Ohio, and was there buried. After 50 years his remains were taken to Urbana, Ohio, and there he sleeps today, amid the scenes of his earlier and eventful life. The following account of his personality and of his tomb is quoted from Professor Mcfarland's "Simon Kenton" : "Personal Characteristics.—In Collin's `History of Kentucky,' edition of 1847, P. 393, we find this : 'The following is a description of the appearance and character of this remarkable man, by one (McDonald), who often shared with him in the dangers of the forest and the fight. General Kenton was of fair complexion, six feet, one inch in height. He stood and walked very erect ; and in the prime of life weighed about one hundred and ninety pounds. He never was inclined to be corpulent, although of sufficient fullness to form a graceful person. He had a soft, tremulous voice, very pleasing to the hearer. He had laughing gray eyes, which appeared to fascinate the beholder, and dark, auburn hair. He was a pleasant, good humored and obliging companion. When excited, or provoked to anger (which was seldom the case), the fiery glance of his eye would almost curdle the blood of those with whom he came in contact. His rage, when roused, was a tornado. " 'In his dealing he was perfectly honest; his confidence in man, and his credulity were such that the same man might cheat him twenty times, and, if he professed friendship, might cheat him still.' "The correctness of this description could be affirmed by all who knew the man ; and in addition to this description, he had a sense of justice and fair play which nothing could turn aside. In the course of the War of 1812, some friendly Indians came to the vicinity of Urbana on legitimate business, and some men, inexperienced in the matter of Indian warfare, proposed to kill these men, considering all Indians bad. Kenton attempted to dissuade the men from so high-handed a measure, but his words, apparently not having the desired effect on them, he grasped his rifle and took his position in front of the Indians, and in his impressive and emphatic manner declared that whoever attacked the Indians would do it over, his dead body. It is sufficient to say that the Indians were not further molested. "As before stated, his long contest with the Indians had taught him the value of quick decision and instantaneous action ; and these things he had so long practiced that they became a part of his nature. I will give one instance outside of the domain of war. In the spring of 1807, my father and eight or ten other men, with their families, left the counties of Bourbon and Harrison, Kentucky, for homes in the Mad River Valley. Simon Kenton was employed by the company to pilot them to their destination, and to procure them a supply of fresh meat daily from the forest. He gave his instructions for the day each morning, before he started out for the hunt. One morning, with gun on shoulder he started, and by some inadvertence stumbled over a wagon tongue and fell sprawling to the ground. One of the party broke into a hearty laugh. This enraged Kenton, and quick as lightning he pointed his gun and pulled the trigger, but the fall had knocked the powder out of the pan, and the gun was not discharged. Kenton immediately begged par- AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 39 don for his hasty action, and asked the man never to do so again, lest in a moment of anger he might do what everybody would regret. My father was a witness to this incident and told me of it years before Simon's death. "Monument. —This is a substantial structure, seven or eight feet high and over four feet square at the base; and in every way is a most befitting memorial of the dead. In the forests of Ohio Kenton had confronted Indians, bears, wolves and panthers. On the south face of the monument is carved, life-size, the head of an Indian chief, decked out in regular savage style; on the west face is the head of a bear, as life-like as stone can be, and appearing as if the head had just been thrust through the face of stone; on the north side is the head of a wolf similarly carved ; and on the east side is the head of a panther. The design is by T. O. A. Ward, the celebrated sculptor, now of New York, but a native of Urbana. His grandfather originally owned the land on which Urbana is built, and for many years the elder Ward and Kenton were intimate friends." SIMON GIRTY. The world hates a renegade. It despises the man who turns against his own flesh and blood, and stands ready to slay the mother who gave him birth. Such a man, or fiend, was Simon Girty, once the friend of the white man. From his own people he turned and took up his lot with the Indian. His bloody work was done in Ohio, and especially in Northwestern Ohio. Doubtless in many parts of this county of Allen, Girty tracked to death his white victims, or danced with his dusky companions around the helpless victim at the burning stake. Simon Girty was born in Northwestern Pennsylvania, of an intemperate father and an unworthy mother. He had three brothers, one older than himself. The three younger boys had been taken captive by the Indians, and thus became possessed of the savagery of the Indian himself. Simon was the most wicked of the three thus reared among the wild life of forest. He preferred to live with the savages rather than his own people. He took an active. part in Dunmore's War in 1774, and here he met Simon Kenton, and the two young men soon became fast friends. On February 22, 1775, at Fort Pitt (Pittsburg), Girty was commissioned a captain in the militia. But his real sympathies were all the while with the Indians. Finally in company with about 14 others, Girty deserted Fort Pitt, where the militia was stationed, and started out for a reign of terror among the settlers of the wild frontier. They spread false news of the defeat of the Americans and the death of Washington. After, much injury and suffering which he inflicted upon the helpless pioneers, Girty started for Detroit. On his way he was captured by the Wyandottes. The Senecas demanded that he be given up to them because he was an adopted son of their race and had now taken up arms against them.. But the Wyandottes held him, and finally allowed him to go on to Detroit, where General Hamilton, the commandant, gave him a royal. welcome. Girty was now given a kind of work .which suited his nature exactly,—he was paid a regular salary to incite the Indians to bloody-deeds among the unprotected settlers. His name became a household term for terror all along the Ohio, from Pittsburg to Louisville.. He often came up into Ohio, and here, in Allen County, he did his deeds of darkness. At the Indian village of Wapatomica, in Logan County, Girty found his old friend and companion scout in Dunmore's War, Simon Kenton, tied to the stake and condemned to death. Girty recognized Kenton, and, after much parley and a personal appeal to his Indian friends, saved Kenton's life. This appears to be the one bright spot in Girty's dark career. Kenton afterward bought a small farm near this scene of his deliverance, and lived here until his death. But Girty's numberless acts of torture and even of murder cling to his name, and his one good act is almost forgotten. He persecuted the settlers of the valley and the missionaries, who had worked so zealously among the Christian. Indians of the Moravian settlements. His conduct toward Colonel Crawford could only have been inspired by a monstrosity 40 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY in human form, and when the Indians of the great West combined in one last effort, 179094, to repel the ever-increasing tide of immigration, Simon Girty was found among the Indians fighting against the whites. He assisted them at the battle of St. Clair's defeat, and, having captured a white woman, refused to give her up to the Wyandotte squaw who demanded her, according to the Indian custom. But the warriors gathered around, and actually forced the white savage to give her over to the more humane Indian squaw. He was present at the famous battle of the Fallen Timber, 1794, and did bloody work against Wayne's heroes. After this he is found in a trading-house, for a short time, at St. Mary's, Mercer County, Ohio. He then removed to Malden, Canada. Here he lived until his death, which occurred in 1815. He was totally blind for many years before his death, and a perfect sot. He had many defeats in his old age, and suffered very greatly ; in fact he was a complete human wreck, despised by everyone. "He died without a friend and without a hope." GEN. ANTHONY WAYNE. This famous general was of good old Pennsylvania stock, in which State he was born in 1745. Much of his history has already been narrated in other chapters. Like Washington he early accepted work as a surveyor, then a public -office. He was made a member of the .State Legislature, and of the Committee of Public Safety. He commanded a regiment in the Canadian invasion of 1775-76. At a most 'critical time he had full charge of the Ticonderoga forts, and he manned them with great skill. For this and other meritorious work he was appointed brigadier general, and was in charge of a division of the army at Brandywine. Here it was that his skill and bravery saved the lives of so many by the successful retreat which he conducted. It is sometimes a mark of greater skill to handle men in a retreat, when excited and repulsed, than to make .a successful attack. Because of his supreme caution and watchfulness, the Indians called him the "Chief Who Never, Sleeps." But he was surprised at Paoli, and the lesson there learned he never forgot. It will be remembered that he commanded the right wing at Germantown, where General Agnew fell. He was also a valiant fighter at the battle of Monmouth Court House, noted as the only battle of the Revolution in which every one of the 13 Colonies had representatives fighting on the American side. The name of Mollie Pitcher will never be forgotten in connection with this battle. But the most famous exploit of his earlier career was the consummate plan and its execution in the storming and the capture of Stony Point, July 13, 1779. Only a general of high order could have accomplished such a hazardous task. But lie planned and then executed. Wayne was ever a man of action, the doing was with him the highest essential. He further showed his remarkable ability in handling men in putting down the mutiny of troops at Morristown ; and he had a most honorable part in the war in Virginia in 1781, the same year in which he quieted the mutiny. He served with distinction in Georgia in 1782, and was made a member -of the ratifying convention of Pennsylvania in 1787. After the fearful slaughter of the troops at Fort Recovery, and the utter overthrow of St. Clair, Washington at once selected General Wayne to lead the forces of the young republic against the crafty fighters of the Western forests. He was made major general in 1792, and in the autumn of 1793 he entered the Indian country with a strong force. He marched from Fort -Washington (Cincinnati) to the present site of Greenville, where he built a strong stockade. The next summer lie advanced to Defiance on the Maumee, where, as related in Chapter II., lie built Fort Defiance. He built a second fort on the St. Mary's River. The Indians thus far had kept in hiding and had not risked a battle. But Wayne soon learned that they had selected a place lower down the Maumee, at the Fallen Timber, and here it was that lie inflicted upon then, a most crushing blow. August 20, 1794. ( See Chapter II.) General Wayne sent a message to the Brit- AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 43 ish at the nearest station that their turn came next ; all he wanted was an opening. But the British declined the honor., and kept quiet. He then took up his winter quarters at Greenville, and, in the following summer, 1795, the Indians, now subdued and humble, came to Greenville and entered into the celebrated treaty with General Wayne and commissioners of the United States. Twelve tribes with 1,200 warriors and sachems were present, and they ceded to the government 25,000 square miles of territory, in Michigan and Indiana, besides a large number, of special tracts. For this land they received $20,000 in presents, and were promised an annual allowance of $10,000. This treaty ended the serious Indian troubles until 1812. General Wayne's name has been given to the fort he erected at the head waters of the Maumee, and to the growing and prosperous city of Fort Wayne, and to numerous places in the country. He died in 1796. GEN. ARTHUR ST. CLAIR. This distinguished general was born in Scotland in 1734. His education was by no means neglected, and after a long course of instruction he graduated from the University of Edinburgh. After his graduation, he joined the British Army as an ensign, and came to America in 1758 with Admiral Boscawen. His service in the United States was very marked, especially at Louisburg and at Quebec. In 1762 he resigned his position, and two years later took up his residence in Pennsylvania. He was prominent in the civil affairs of his home, and was greatly beloved by his neighbors. When the Revolutionary War broke out, his inclination towards the common people caused him to join the Colonial Army, and he was given the rank of colonel. The student of history well remembers his gallant services at Three Rivers, Trenton and Princeton, for which services he was raised to the rank of major general in 1777, and was at once placed in. command at Ticonderoga. Burgoyne finally drove him from that stronghold, and although he was court martialed for losing that position, he was acquitted of any blame. Nevertheless he lost his command. He was too patriotic to give up the work of a soldier, so he remained in the army as a volunteer, and gradually arose to other important positions. He distinguished himself in the plans which ended with the surrender of Cornwallis. His broad scholarship and statesman-like qualities made him a member of the Continental Congress, 1785-87. A still greater honor awaited him, viz. : He was made president of that noted congress in 1787. He was president also of the Pennsylvania State Society of the Cincinnati, and was the man who gave the name of that society to the great city on the Ohio River, viz. : Cincinnati. In 1789 he was made the first governor of the Northwest Territory, and, in 1791, as the commander-in-chief of the United States Army, he led his forces against the Miami Indians, and met with the most disastrous defeat in all the story of the early Indian warfare, at Fort Recovery, Mercer C0unty, Ohio, November 4, 1791. Washington had commanded General St. Clair, not to risk an open engagement with the Indians until he was perfectly sure of his ground. It would seem that St. Clair disobeyed these orders and rushed into the thickest of the fight without proper precautions. The defeat resulted in a most humiliating loss of power and the complete overthrow of his own military renown. General Washington was said to have become greatly enraged at the news of St. Clair's defeat, and flying into a passion he used very strong language against the unfortunate general who had disobeyed his orders ; but when St. Clair, disheartened, defeated and suffering from rheumatism, appeared before Washington, it is said that the great general relented and forgave him. The committee of Congress, engaged to investigate the defeat, exhonorated him, but St. Clair's heart was broken, and with great disappointment to himself and his friends, he resigned his command in May, 1792, and in 1802 President Jefferson removed him from. the g - ernorship of the Northwest Territory. 44 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY The last years of many a great man have been spent in poverty and neglect, and the life of St. Clair is no exception to this statement. There was no sustaining hand to lighten the burden of his rapidly increasing age; there was no fortune at his command. Friends did not come at his beck and call, and, after long years of suffering and unwarranted neglect on the part of the government, he died in 1818. The school boy, as well as the adult reader, will ever remember "St. Clair's Defeat," rather than St. Clair's many victories and splendid services. TECUMSEH. In all the annals of Indian warfare and life there is no name more prominent than that of the manly, honest, noble chief, Tecumseh. He was born, says tradition, near the present site of Springfield, Ohio, in 1768. The tribe from which he sprang was a branch of the very powerful, and widely distributed, Lenni Lenape, or Delaware race. Long ago this branch had settled in the South, whence their name Shawnees, or "Southerners." These Shawnees became involved in bitter wars with the Creeks and Yamosees of Georgia and Florida. In consequence they drifted north to the rich valleys of the Ohio, the Miamis, the Wabash and the Maumee. They had many large villages in these valleys, and in one of these villages Tecumseh was born. His mother was a Cherokee woman, and it is said gave birth to triplets—Tecumseh, his celebrated brother, the Prophet, and a third brother of whom nothing is definitely known. The father was killed at the battle of Kanawha, October, 1774, when Lord Dunmore defeated Chief Cornstalk. Tecumseh believed the whites were wrongfully encroaching upon the Indians' lands, and, like Pontiac, he sought to organize all the Western Indians into a confederacy against the white settlers. To protect these. settlers, General Harrison, Governor of the Northwest Territory, who had ordered the Indians to go West, marched an army against them, and at the village of the Prophet, at the mouth of the Tippe canoe, he defeated the Indians with great loss.. Tecumseh was not in the battle. He had gone South, and when he returned and had learned what his brother, the Prophet, had done, he became very angry. He had expressly urged the Indians not to risk a battle then, but the Prophet, who had great influence, had planned the night attack upon Harrison after, asking Harrison to meet him in a "talk" the next day. This conduct of his brother so enraged Tecumseh that he "seized him by his long hair and shook him till his teeth rattled, declaring that he had destroyed all his schemes, and that he ought to be killed" This battle was fought November 7, 1811. The War of 1812 now broke out, and Tecumseh and his faithful band of Shawnees allied themselves with the British. He rendered most valiant service in the' battles of Raisin River and Maguaga. Also at Fort Malden and Fort Meigs. For valiant service the British raised him to the rank of brigadier general. On the 5th of October, 1813, this warrior chief was killed in the battle of the Thames, Canada. Tecumseh was the most gifted American. Indian. He would have been a great man in any age, and in any country. He had the rare gift of natural eloquence and such a high ideal of manly, noble conduct that he would never torture a prisoner, or permit it to be done. He. put to shame the conduct of his superior officer, General Proctor, when he dashed into a party of his warriors at the siege of Fort Meigs, who were torturing some white prisoners, and, hurling them right and left, he turned to General Proctor and demanded why he allowed such murderous conduct. Proctor replied, "I cannot restrain your warriors." Tecumseh then thundered back, "You are not fit to command ; go. home and put on petticoats." He had great powers as an artist, and could draw a map in relief on bark, which the best English engineers pronounced equal to their own best work. He was born to command, and had far more ability as a general than Proctor. His lofty ideas of honesty and honor have endeared him to the American people, and they have placed his name all over the country, and it was one of the given names of the great gen- AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 45 eral who led the march "from Atlanta to the Sea." While it is not really known who killed the great warrior, the following taken from Knapp's "History of the Maumee Valley" will be of marked interest :— State of Michigan, County of Monroe, ss. James Knaggs deposeth and saith, as follows : I was attached to a company of mounted men called Rangers, at the battle of the Thames in Upper Canada, in the year 1813. During the battle we charged into the swamp, where several of our horses mired down, and an order was given to retire to the hard ground in our rear, which we did. The Indians in front, believing that we were retreating, immediately advanced upon us, with Tecumseh at their head. I distinctly heard his voice, with which I was perfectly familiar. He yelled like a tiger, and urged on his braves to the attack. We were then but a few yards apart. We halted on the hard ground, and continued our fire. After a few minutes of very severe fighting, I discovered Colonel Johnson lying near, on the ground, with one leg confined by the body of his white mare, which had been killed, and had fallen upon him. My friend Medard Labadie was with me. We went up to the Colonel, with whom we were previously acquainted, and found him badly wounded, lying on his side, with one of his pistols lying in his hand. I saw Tecumseh at the same time, lying on his face, dead, and about fifteen or twenty feet from the Colonel. He was stretched at full length, and was shot through the body, I think near the heart. The ball went out through his back. He held his tomahawk in his right hand (it had a brass pipe on the head of it), his arm was extended as if striking, and the edge of the tomahawk was stuck in the ground. Tecumseh was dressed in red speckled leggings, and a fringed hunting shirt; he lay stretched directly towards Colonel Johnson. When we went up to the Colonel, we offered to help him. He replied with great animation, "Knaggs, let me lay here, and push on and take Proctor." However, we liberated him from his dead horse, took his blanket from his saddle, placed him in it, and bore him off the field. I had known Tecumseh from my boyhood ; we were boys together. There was no other Indian killed immediately around where Colonel Johnson or Tecumseh lay, though there were many near the creek, a few rods back of where Tecumseh fell. I had no doubt then, and have none now, that Tecumseh fell by the hand of Colonel Johnson. JAMES KNAGGS. Sworn to, before me, this 22d day of September, 1853. B. F. H. WITHERELL, Notary Public. "The secretary of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Mr. Draper, adds the following to the disposition of Mr. Knaggs : " 'Colonel Johnson was invariably modest about claiming the honor of having slain Tecumseh. When I paid him a visit, at his residence at the Great Crossings, in Kentucky, in 1844, while collecting facts and materials il- lustrative of the career of Clark, Boone, Kenton and other Western pioneers, he exhibited to me the horse pistols he used in the battle of the Thames, and modestly remarked, "that with them he shot the chief who had confronted and wounded him in the engagement." ' "Alluding to Captain Knaggs' statement, The Louisville Journal remarked : 'A new witness has appeared in the newspapers testifying to facts which tend to show that Col. R. M. Johnson killed Tecumseh. The colonel was. certainly brave enough to meet and kill a dozen Indians, and if he didn't kill Tecumseh, he no doubt would have done it if he had had a chance. He himself was often interrogated upon the subject and his reply upon at least one occasion was capital : 'They say I killed him ; how could I tell ? I was in too much of a hurry, when he was advancing upon me, to ask him' his name, or inquire after the health of his family. I fired as quick as convenient, and he fell. If it had been Tecumseh or the Prophet, it would have been all the same.' " "Shortly after the foregoing publication, Mr. Witherell communicated the following to a Detroit journal : " 'Captain Knaggs, who is spoken of in that communication, is a highly respectable citizen of Monroe, and was one of the most active and useful partisans in service during the War of 1812. Almost innumerable and miraculous were his "hairbreadth 'scapes" from the savages. " 'He related to me, when I last saw him, several anecdotes of Tecumseh, which will il lustrate his character. Among others, he states that while the enemy was in full possession of the country, Tecumseh, with a large band of his warriors, visited the Raisin. The inhabitants along that river had been stripped of nearly every means of subsistence. Old Mr. Rivard, 46 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY who Was lame and unable to labor to procure a living for himself and family, had contrived to keep out of sight of the wandering bands of savages a pair of oxen, with which his son was able to procure a scanty support for the family. It so happened that, while at labor with the oxen, Tecumseh, who had come over from Malden, met him in the road, and walking up to him, said : "My friend, I must have those oxen. My young men are very hungry ; they have had nothing to eat. We must have the oxen." " 'Young Rivard remonstrated. He told the chief that if he took the oxen his father would starve to death. " "Well," said Tecumseh, "we are the conquerors, and every thing we want is ours. I must have the oxen ; my people must not starve ; but I will not be so mean as to rob you of them. I will pay you one hundred dollars for them, and that is far more than they are worth; but we must have them." " 'Tecumseh got a white man to write an order on the British Indian agent, Colonel Elliott, who was on the river some distance below, for the money. The oxen were killed, large fires built, and the forest warriors were soon feasting on their flesh. Young Rivard took the order to Colonel Elliott, who promptly refused to pay it. The young man, with. a sorrowful heart returned with the answer to Tecumseh, who said, "He won't pay it, will he ? Stay all night and tomorrow we will go and. see." On the next morning he took young Rivard, and went down to see the Colonel. On meeting him, he said, "Do you refuse to pay for the oxen I bought ?" "Yes," said the Colonel, and he reiterated the reason for refusal. "I bought them," said the chief, "for my young men were very hungry. I promised to pay for them, and they shall be paid for. I have always heard that white nations went to war with each other, and not with peaceful individuals ; that they did not rob and plunder poor people. I will not." "Well," said the Colonel, "I will not pay for them." "You can do as you please," said the chief, "but before Tecumseh and his warriors came to fight the battles of the great King they had enough to eat, for which they had only to thank the Master of Life and their good rifles. Their hunting grounds supplied them with food enough, to them they can return." This threat produced a change in the Colonel's mind. The defection of the great chief, he well knew, would immediately withdraw all the nations of the red men from the British service ; and without them they were nearly powerless on the frontier. "Well," said the Colonel, "if I must pay, I will." "Give_ me hard money," said Tecumseh, "not rag money" (army bills). The Colonel then counted out a hundred dollars in coin and gave them to him. The chief handed the money to young Rivard, and then said to the Colonel, "Give me one dollar more." It was given ; and handing that also to Rivard, he said, "Take that ; it will pay for the time you have lost in getting your money." " 'How many white warriors have such notions of justice ? " 'Before the commencement of the war, when his hunting parties approached the white settlements, horses and cattle were occasionally stolen ; but notice to the chief failed not to produce instant redress. " 'The character of Tecumseh was that of a gallant and intrepid warrior, an honest and honorable man, and his memory is respected by all our old citizens who personally knew him.' "The following letter from the venerable General Combs, of Kentucky, who bore so gallant a part in the defense of the Ohio and the Maumee Valley, has both local and general interest : Editor Historical Record: You ask me for a description of the celebrated Indian warrior, Tecumseh, from my personal observation. I answer that I never saw the great chief but once, and then under rather exciting circumstances, but I have a vivid recollection of him from his appearance, and from intercourse with his personal friends, I am possessed of accurate knowledge of his character. I was, as you know, one of the prisoners taken at what is known as Dudley's defeat on the banks of the Maumee River, opposite Fort Meigs, early in May, 1813. Tecumseh had fallen upon our rear, and we were compelled to surrender. We were marched down to the old Fort Miami or Maumee, in squads, where a terrible scene awaited us. The Indians, fully armed with guns, war clubs and AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 49, tomahawks—to say nothing of scalping knives—had formed themselves into two lines in front of the gateway between which all of us were bound to pass. Many were killed or wounded in running the gauntlet. Shortly after the prisoners had entered, the Indians rushed over the walls and again surrounded us, and raised the war-whoop, at the same time making unmistakable demonstrations of violence. We all expected to be massacred, and the small British guard around us were utterly unable to afford protection. They called loudly for General Proctor and Colonel Elliott to come to our relief. At this critical moment Tecumseh came rushing in, deeply excited, and denounced the murderers of prisoners as cowards. Thus our lives were spared and we went down to the fleet at the mouth of Swan Creek (now Toledo), and from that place across the end of the lake to Huron and paroled. I shall never forget the noble countenance, gallant bearing and sonorous voice of that remarkable man, while addressing his warriors in our behalf. He was then between forty and forty-five years of age. His frame was vigorous and robust, but he was not fat, weighing about one hundred and seventy pounds. Five feet ten inches was his height. He had a high, projecting forehead, and broad, open countenance ; and there was something noble and commanding in all his actions. He was brave, humane and generous, and never allowed a prisoner to be massacred if he could prevent it. At Fort Miami he saved the lives of all of us who had survived running the gauntlet. He afterwards released seven Shawnees belonging to my command, and sent them home on parole. Tecumseh was a Shawnee. His name signified in their language, Shooting Star. At the time when I saw him he held the commission of a brigadier general in the British Army. I am satisfied that he deserved all that was said of him by General Cass and Governor Harrison, previous to his death. LESLIE COMBS. Lexington, Ky., October, 1871. THE INDIAN OF TO-DAY. Of all the mighty chiefs who led their bands of warriors unmolested over the plains and fertile valleys of North America, only one remains alive. That one is Geronimo, the "Human Tiger." Of all chiefs he was the most treacherous and fiendish. His crimes and butcheries are without number and he yet lives and enjoys good health. He is the last of his race, this old war chief of the White Mountain Apaches. He is about 90 years old. Many thousands of our people have seen him at one of the World's Fairs. Geronimo is without doubt the most wicked Indian alive and he has cost the lives of hundreds of white men. After Victoria, the Warm Springs chief, was killed in 1881, Geronimo became a leader and in Mexico and Arizona he kept more than 2,000 United States troops at bay for over a year. He was finally captured and is now living a life of indolence and assumed piety. He has learned to write his name in English, and is kept busy writing it at 25 cents a signature. It is well that this type of the red man is. passing. When Geronimo was at the height of his power, he constantly sought human life and taught his people to love only the war-path. It is said he never forgave and never forgot. The other great chiefs have all gone to the "happy hunting ground." Chief Joseph, the "Napoleon" of the Nez. Perces, died in peace about one year ago. He was the greatest general of his race, and was deserving of far better treatment than he received at the hands of the United States government. He may be compared with Tecumseh, the great Shawnee chief of 100 years before. The Mexican troops killed old Victoria in a desperate fight in the Beratcha (Drunken) Mountains in Mexico. Sitting Bull, the hero, of the terrible Custer massacre, was killed by the Indian police. Sitting Bull was not in the battle of the Little Big Horn at all, but he got all the notoriety for it. He was only a Sioux Medicine-man, .but he became a leader of his people and a terror to all border life. Red Cloud died peacefully at Pine Ridge. Agency about two years ago, and the friendly Sioux Chieftain, Spotted Tail, spent his last years in peace with the whites. The kindness of the people at Fort Laramie during the sickness and after the death of his daughter so softened the heart of the old chief against the whites that he became very friendly and helpful. He aided Custer in his fight in 1876 against the hostile Sioux, who were led by Sitting Bull. Thus have the great Indian leaders passed to the council of their forefathers, and thus. will they all leave us, unless they can adapt