1800 1810 1820 1830 1840

600 11,185 20,556 29,224 31,623

1850 1860 1870 1880 1890

35,378 37,396 41,021 49,638 (estimated) 58,500

It will be observed that the population was pretty evenly distributed up to 1840, and was mostly agricultural. The growth since is due to the development of manufacturing towns along the river and railroads, and Pease, Pultney and Warren townships, with their manufacturing towns of Bridgeport, Martin's Ferry, Bellaire and Barnesville have furnished 17,000 of the 18,000 increase of population in the forty years. The evolution within ninety years of a civil community like Belmont county, with its population, crops, productive forces, wealth, social growth, educational and religious development, upon 460 square miles of wild, mountainous, wooded lands then uninhabited but by wild animals, is one of the marvels of modern history, the details of which read like romance, but the deeds of daring bravery, heroic suffering, uncomplained of hardships, patient, earnest toil that come to us as a legacy from those who have wrought this grand transformation, were real and earnest. It is not possible in a work limited as this one is, because of the large field covered by it, to enter in detail into all the interesting and frequently thrilling events comprised within the history of the growth and development of such a county, but it will be the aim to give in concise form, enough to place the reader in possession of sufficient facts as to the early Indian occupancy, early settlement, rapid growth and present condition of the county to enable him to fairly comprehend the character of the grand transformation that has taken place. Indian Occupancy. There is little authentic history as to any permanent previous occupancy of the territory included within the county, either by Indians or others. There are a number of mounds, remains of earth-works and fortifications that clearly indicate pre-existing occupancy, abandoned long enough in advance of any French or English controversy as to the ownership of the territory, to have permitted a complete transformation, by growth of dense forests, into a dark wilderness fitted only for the abode of wild animals. The student of curious knowledge may visit the large mound at Martin's Ferry, 500 feet in circumference and about twenty-five feet high, on the summit of which he will find a large decayed stump, the tree removed in 1836 by Joseph Templeton and others who explored the mound and found skulls, teeth and fraginents of bones, covered with ashes and charcoal, arrow heads and a metal hatchet of copper. He may visit other smaller mounds and the remains of fortifications in BELMONT COUNTY, OHIO - 443 the forests, that have breasted the storms of centuries and find abundant evidence of past formidable occupancy, if not of a higher intelligence and civilization than was found in the Indian occupants, preceding the white settlements. Upon this data illucidated and illuminated by the reasonings and conclusions of learned archaeologists, he may build the pre-existing nation to suit his fancy. The limits of this work will allow only a review of such facts as come within the period of occupancy by Indians preceding the white settlement. At the time of the first claims and controversies between the French and English as to ownership of the territory within the present limits of Ohio, it was in the practical possession of the following Indians: The Iroquois, occupying the east side of a line running from the lake at the mouth of the Cuyahoga river south to .the Ohio, near the north line of Belmont county. The Wyandots and Ottawas, the lake front west of the Cuyahoga to the Maumee and south to include Wyandot and Crawford counties. The Delawares west of the Iroquois to the headwaters of the Scioto and south to the Ohio at Meigs county. The Shawnees west of this line and east of the Little Miami and the Miamis the balance of the territory west within the state. On the east side of the state the Indian villages and settlements were generally north of the territory included within the seven ranges, and these lands seem to have been held subject to a sort of joint occupancy by the several tribes for hunting purposes, as well as for scalping purposes, during the attempts at early white settlement. During the French and English, Revolutionary and Indian wars, frequent excursions were made through the county along a well-de- fined Indian trail on or near the line now occupied by the National road, against the earlier settlers at Wheeling and along the southeastern side of the river, descriptions of which will be found in the history of Ohio and other counties of West Virginia. Opinions of Indian character are largely formed from observations of the condition of the miserable remnants of tribes that now infest western frontiers and hang upon the skirts of civilization, corrupted by the vices of society without having secured any of the benefits of its civilizing influences. These have lost that proud independence which formed the main pillar of their native character, and with spirits humiliated by a sense of inferiority, their native courage cowed by contrast with the superior knowledge of their enlightened neighbors, their strength enervated, their diseases multiplied, they are mere wrecks and remnants of once powerful tribes under brave and able leaders. Compare the Indian of the fifteenth century, and his long, brave contest for his rights of domain, with the barbarians of Britain, Russia, Lapland, Kamtschatka and Tartary, and he will be found their superior in many respects, but without allowance for his surroundings, conditions and opportunities, we insist upon comparing him with the nations of civilization and culture and in discussing Indian character, the peculiar circumstances in which he has been placed have not been sufficiently considered. He should not be expected to rise above the circumstance and conditions by which he was 444 - HISTORY OF THE UPPER OHIO VALLEY. surrounded, and the laws and customs that come to him through the experience of successive generations, for these were as potent controllers of his life and habits as are those that come to us through the manners, morals, laws and religions, by which we have been surrounded. This much we know of them, and we may safely say, they were liberal, open handed, true to themselves and to each other, and sharing with each other as long as they had anything to share, so that individual suffering from want was unknown among them. Of their generous character the following testimonial is from a letter by William Penn, addressed to the " Free Society of Traders," and contains a brief, pertinent description of their character and life: " They excel in liberality. Nothing is too good for their friends. Give them a fine gun, coat or other thing, it may pass twenty hands before it sticks. Light of heart, strong affections, but soon spent. The most merry creatures that live, feast and dance perpetually. They never have much nor want much. Wealth circulateth like the blood, all parts partake and none shall want what another hath, yet, exact observers of property. They care for little because they want but little, and the reason is, a little contents them. In this they are sufficiently revenged on us; if they are ignorant of our pleasure, they are also free from our pains. They are not disquieted with bills of lading and exchange, nor perplexed with chancery suits and exchequer reckonings. We sweat and toil to live, their pleasures feed them I mean their hunting, fishing and fowling, and their table is spread everywhere. They eat twice a day, morning and evening. Their seats and table are on the ground." It is not strange that the Indians, without a written language, without knowledge, beyond that secured by personal observation, and dependent largely upon tradition, should be superstitious in a high degree. They commenced no journey, inaugurated no enterprise, without consultation of signs and portents, and like many farmers still living in Belmont county, they would not cut poles for a wigwam, plant their maize or perform the ordinary business of every-day life, without critical attention to weather signs and the position and supposed influences of the moon. Of this weakness in the Indian character, Heckwelder, the great missionary among them, in his history of the Indian nations, says: " Great and powerful as the Indian conceives himself to be, firm and undaunted as he really is, braving all seasons and weathers, careless of danger, patient of hunger, thirst, and cold, and fond of displaying the native energy of his character, even in the midst of tortures, at the very thought of which our own puny nature revolts and shudders; this lord of the creation whose life is spent in a state of constant warfare against the wild beasts of the forest and the savages of the wilderness, he who, proud of his independent existence, strikes his breast with exultation and exclaims, 'I am a man.' The American Indian has one weak side which sinks him down to the level of the most timid being; a childish apprehension of an occult and unknown power, which, unless he can BELMONT COUNTY, OHIO - 445 summon sufficient fortitude to conquer it, changes at once the hero into a coward." Indian Courtship and Marriage. There was very little foolishness in Indian courtship. No hanging on the front gate, no moonlight serenades, no long evenings spent in sentimental interview and social flatteries and fawning, but who shall say there was not less contention, less unfaithfulness, less cause for scandal and separation than among us. Heckwelder gives the following as an aged Indian's view of marriage: " Indian when he see industrious squaw which he like, he go to him " (they had no feminine gender in their vocabulary) " place his two forefingers close aside each other — make him look like one — look squaw in face, see him smile which is all and he say ' Yes '; so he take him home. No danger he be cross; no, no. Squaw know too well what Indian do if he cross. Throw him away and take another; squaw have to eat meat—no husband no meat. Squaw do everything to please husband; he do same to please squaw; live happy." The Indian takes a wife on trial. He builds a house and provides provision. She agrees to cook and raise corn and vegetables while he hunts and fishes. As long as they live up to the contract and perform the specified duties they remain man and wife. When they cease to do this they separate. She does all the domestic work including the raising of grain and vegetables, and when traveling, carries the baggage, without complaining, on the theory that the husband must avoid labor that would stiffen the muscles, if he expects to be an expert hunter, so as to provide her meat to eat and furs to wear. The Indian to clothe his wife well gives her all the skins he takes, and the better he treats her the more he is esteemed by the community. As evidence of his devotion to her, Heckwelder relates the following: " I have known a man to go forty or fifty miles for a mess of cranberries to satisfy his wife's longing. In the year 1762, I was a witness to a remarkable instance of the disposition of Indians to indulge their wives. There was a famine in the land, and a sick Indian woman expressed a great desire for a mess of Indian corn. Her husband having heard that a trader at Lower Sandusky had a little, set off on horseback for that place, one hundred miles distant, and returned with as much corn as filled the crown of his hat, for which he gave his horse in exchange, and came home on foot, bringing his saddle back with him." Food and Cooking. In 1762, according to the same authority, their principal food consisted of game, fish, corn, potatoes, beans, pumpkins, cucumbers, squashes, melons, cabbages, turnips, roots of plants, fruits, nuts and berries. They eat but two meals a day. They made a pottage of corn, dry pumpkins, beans and chestnuts, and fresh or dried meats pounded and sweetened with maple sugar or molasses, and well boiled. They also make a good dish of pounded corn and chestnuts, shelbark and hickory nut kernels, boiled, covering the pots with large pumpkin, cabbage or other leaves. They make excellent preserves from cranberries and crab apples, with maple sugar. Their bread is of two kinds; one made of green and the other of dry corn. 446 - HISTORY OF THE UPPER OHIO VALLEY. If dry, it is sifted after pounding, kneaded, shaped into cakes six inches in diameter, one inch thick, and baked on clean dry ashes, of dry oak barks. If green, it is mashed, put in broad green corn blades, filled in with a ladle and well wrapped up, and baked in ashes. They make warrior's bread, by parching corn, pounding it into flour, sifting it and mixing with sugar. A tablespoonful, with cold or boiling water, is a meal, as it swells in the stomach, and if more than two spoonfuls is taken it is dangerous. Its lightness enables the warrior to go on long journeys and carry his bread with him. Their meat is boiled in pots or roasted on wooden spits or on coals. The original Indian method of making sugar is said to have been in this manner: The sap from the maple trees was gathered and placed in wooden troughs made with their tomahawks. It was boiled by throwing hot stones into the sap until reduced to the required consistency. Noted Chiefs. The greatest among the Indian chiefs of which we have historic knowledge, was the grand old Indian monarch, Pontiac, the great chief of the Ottawas. It was by his pre-eminent ability as a great leader and organizer, that the event known in history as " Pontiac's conspiracy," was organized in 1873, in which the western tribes were concentrated in a grand simultaneous attack against all the English garrisons of the frontier. This, in the field of natural hostilities, was a scheme worthy the genius of an educated military leader of a civilized nation. First, by extraordinary diplomacy, he unites the hostile Ojibwas and Pottawatomies with the Ottawas and then directs the whole military power of the united forces in a masterly attack upon the English outposts. Among the Iroquois, Logan, Red Jacket, Cornplanter, Great Trees and Half Town, were brave, conspicuous warriors and eloquent talkers. Cornstalk and Tecumseh, as warriors and eloquent defenders of the Indians rights. In 1774, Cornstalk was king of the northern confederacy of Indian tribes, and the chief speaker at the treaty with Lord Dunmore. His speech on that occasion was bold, plain and fearless, picturing the wrong suffered by his people, and dwelling with great force and eloquence upon the diabolical murder of Logan's family. Col. Wilson, of Virginia, who was present on the occasion, thus describes his manner: " When he arose, he was in nowise confused or daunted, but spoke in a distinct and audible voice, without stammering or repetition, and with peculiar emphasis. His looks while addressing Dunmore were truly grand and majestic, yet graceful and attractive. I have heard the first orators in Virginia, Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee, but never have I heard one whose powers of delivery surpassed those of Cornstalk." The celebrated speech of Logan comes to us in our school books and will be read and declaimed as long as those of Patrick Henry. Others by Tecumseh, Red Jacket and other chiefs displayed a high order of eloquence, and if space permitted, would be given here. Border Warfare. - Very few battles were ever fought within the limits of Belmont county between the Indians, or between the Indians and the whites. The battles of the Lord Dunmore war following the murder of Logan's family by Col. Cressap were fought. unex- BELMONT COUNTY, OHIO - 447 pectedly to the English forces south of the Ohio, for the Indians. aroused by the unprovoked murder of the Indians on Yellow creek and Captina, had concentrated their forces under Cornstalk, the celebrated Shawnee warrior, and moved so quietly and expeditiously that their whereabouts was unknown to the English until they appeared south of the Ohio, north of Point Pleasant, where Gen. Lewis had concentrated his army, and between him and the forces of Lord Dunmore by which he expected to be reinforced, and attacking with vigor kept up the fight until night, killing seventy-five and wounding 150 of Gen. Lewis's army of 1,100 men, and then retreating across the river. The Indians returned to Chillicothe dispirited and alarmed at the prospect of the invasion of their towns, and Cornstalk, disgusted at their want of courage, made peace with Lord Dunmore. In 1777 a general alarm created by the threatened attack by the concentrated Indian forces upon border settlements south of the Ohio, induced many to comply with a proclamation of the governor of Virginia to retire to the 1nterior, but at Wheeling where a government fort had been erected, and a little village of twenty-five or thirty houses had been established, the Indians suddenly appeared during the early morning of September 1, numbering about 400 warriors, and made a desperate and prolonged assault upon the fort, a full account of which will be found in the history of Ohio county, elsewhere in this work, where full accounts of subsequent attacks upon Fort Henry will be detailed. The only contests within the limits of Belmont county worthy of the name of battles were the attack by the Indians upon Capt. Kirkwood and the soldiers in his cabin, that stood where the town of Kirkwood now stands, made in the night time in the spring of 1791, and the battle of Captina creek in the spring of 1794, accounts of which will be found in connection with history of early settlement of the county. Treaty Relinquishment of Title by the French, the' English and the to Virginia the territory of the Great Northwest, of which he knew little or nothing. For 158 years, until 1769, the colony of Virginia never attempted to exercise authority over the " Territory Northwest of the River Ohio." The French were the first to make settlements along the St. Lawrence river and the great lakes. Quebec was founded by Sir Samuel Champlain in 1708. The French movements date from the settlement of Quebec, and as early as 1616, Le Caron,. a Franciscan friar, penetrated the western wilds as far as Lake Huron, and as early as 1673, had explored west to Lake Superior and south to the mouth of the Arkansas river, claiming this northwest country Indians. James I. of England, by several charters bearing dates respectively, April 10, 1606; May 23, 1609, and March 12, 1611, conveyed as a part of the territory of Louisiana, and when Virginia or any other of the colonies attempted to exercise jurisdiction over any part of it, the French promptly disputed their rights. After a long struggle between the French and English, in 1763 the French, by treaty, ceded their claim to the English. By the peace of 1783, England assigned all her rights to the United Colonies whether derived from 448 - HISTORY OF THE UPPER OHIO VALLEY. the Indians or the French. By the terms of the treaty of Fort Stanwix, concluded by the United States with the Iroquois or Six Nations, on the 22d of October, 1784, the title claim of said confederacy to the greater part of the valley of Ohio was extinguished. In this treaty, Cornplanter and Red Jacket represented the Indian confederacy and the United States congress was represented by Oliver Wolcott, Richard Butler and Arthur Lee. In January, 1785, a treaty was concluded at Fort McIntosh, by which the Delawares, Wyandots, Ottawas and Chipppewas, relinquished all claim to the Ohio Valley, the boundary line between them and the United States to be the Cuyahoga river, and along the main branch of the Tuscarawas, to the forks of said river, near Fort Laurens, then westwardly to the portage between the headwaters of the Great Miami and the Miami of the Lake or Maumee, thence down said river to Lake Erie, and along said lake to the Cuyahoga river. By a treaty with the Shawnees at Fort Finney, at the mouth of the Great Miami, January 31, 1786, the United States commission se- cured the relinquishment of the Shawnee claim. The treaty of Fort Homer, by Gen. St. Clair, January 9, 1790, and the treaty of Greenville, August 3, 1795, by Gen. Wayne, were mainly confirmatory of the previous cessions, and the rights and title secured to the Indians under these several treaties were gradually purchased by the government.