AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 23 moon and sun exerts such a strain upon the substance of the globe that it seems in the highest degree improbable that the planet could maintain its shape as it does, unless the supposed crust were at least 2,000 to 2,500 miles in thickness. The third school holds that while the great mass of the earth is solid, there exists between the crust and a solid interior a mass of molten rock. This suggestion was advanced by Rev. O. Fisher as a harmonious solution between the two schools, but, geologically considered, there was no foundation for any such solution of the problem. It has now been shown as reliably as possible that the structural area of Crawford county is practically a hundred million years old, and whether the crust of the earth at this point is 2,500 miles thick, or less, it has certainly sufficient thickness to sustain the weight of any increase of population which the most optimistic figurer might desire. Next comes the formation, the building up, of the earth. There are two accounts of the formation of the earth, and bothfairly agree. The shorter is given first: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And God saw the light that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day." Second Day—God created the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. Third Day—God gathered the waters under the heaven unto one place and created the dry land, and caused the land to bring forth grass and herbs and trees. Fourth Day—God created the sun and the noon and the stars, and arranged the days and the seasons and the years. Fifth Day—God created from the waters the creatures that inhabit the waters and that Hy above the earth. Sixth Day—God created the animals that occupy the land, and then he made man after his own image and gave him dominion over every living creature, the fishes of the sea and the fowls of the air, and the animals of the earth. And He said, "I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life. I have given every green herb for meat." The other account is the geological, showing the earth is built up of several distinct strata, deposited in the different ages, and by the fossil remains found in the different strata scientists are able to trace the eras in which the earth became habitable to different animals. The Ohio Geologist, Prof. Edward Orton, commences the strata underlying Ohio with the Silurian. The fossil remains show there were two such distinct deposits of this era that geologists call it the Lower and Upper Silurian, the Lower Silurian being the first deposit. On top of the Upper Silurian came the Devonian, and on this the Carboniferous. Above came the Glacial deposit, a rearrangement of the exterior of the earth, the other strata having been built up from the interior. Scientists and archaeologists differ as to what caused the great glacial period which swept down from the frozen north some eternities ago. There are several schools. One accounts for it by the precision of the equinoxes, holding it was due to the laws of gravitation and celestial mechanics, and that the earth's ecliptic or ecliptical revolutions around the sun have been constantly changing, so that what was once the equatorial climate was in the Arctic region and vice versa, thus accounting for the fact of remains of tropical animals and plants being found in the Arctic regions. The Annular School holds that when the earth was forming it was surrounded by a series of annular belts, the results of igneous fires raging during the ages of the earth's formation, solidifying, as the centuries passed, into the rock which eventually formed the solid surface of the globe. From the intense 24 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY interior fires gases forced their way, and followed the earth's movements, and although thousands of miles away, still within the earth's attraction. This vapor separated into strata, the heaviest nearest the earth, but they all revolved around the earth similar to the present rings of Saturn. The question was whether these great belts would break away into space, or whether the attraction of gravitation would attach them to the earth. After any number of millions of years the attraction of gravitation slowly but surely conquered, and the gases, solidified by ages, became 'a part of the earth, changing its form, and each succeeding attachment marking a geological epoch, accounting for the changes in vegetable and animal life, and the appearance of new types in both the vegetable and animal kingdoms. In the great fight which raged between the elements endeavoring to escape, and the earth endeavoring to hold them, it can be readily seen that as the earth obtained the mastery, and finally, by the attraction of gravitation, brought them nearer and nearer, increasing in speed as the earth's power of attraction became stronger, they would be attached with great force, producing powerful shocks and violent convulsions of the entire earth. For some reason the attraction was strongest at the poles, lessening in force as it reached the equator, and it was one of these violent convulsions, which caused the glacial epoch, driving, pouring, hurling, all the frozen north down toward the equator. Geology shows, so far as Ohio is concerned, this great belt, of ice and snow, rocks and boulders, earth and debris was forced southward until it covered all the great lakes, and practically all north of the Ohio river. The geological formation shows it covered Ohio from a point north of where the Ohio river enters Pennsylvania, extending thence southwesterly to the Ohio river a few miles above Cincinnati, Crawford county being covered by this glacial deposit. Under whatever circumstances the earth was formed the first deposit on the surface was the Silurian, and some ages later another deposit or solidification, called the Upper Silurian, to distinguish it from the first or Lower Silurian. In the Silurian deposits are found cellular marine plants and the lower order of fish, while in the Devonian there are a few specimens of cryptogramic ferns of vascular plants and trilobites with abundant fish. Humboldt states in his Cosmos that: "The oldest transition strata contain merely cellular marine plants, and it is only in the Devonian system that a few cryptogramic forms of vascular plants have been observed. Nothing appears to corroborate the theoretical views that have started regarding the simplicity of primitive forms of organized life, or that vegetable preceded animal life, and that the former was necessarily dependent upon the latter." The carboniferous deposits were next, and in the lower strata saurians are found, together with fish in abundance and occasional specimens of land plants. The upper carboniferous strata contain plants in abundance, some sixty feet high, and these, in the coal deposits, show that the earth was thick and dense with plants and trees. Here the saurians show diminution in size, and monster land animals make their appearance, these animals showing through the different strata of the carboniferous deposits that while all lower strata were water animals, as the world was building these water animals became half land and half water, and it is only in the upper carboniferous strata that the land monsters of the past were found; and after animals came the birds. In all these strata, commencing with fish, followed by reptiles, animals and birds, no trace of man is found. In the Lower Silurian, Ohio is underlaid with the Trenton, Utica, and Hudson river limestones in ascending order. In the Upper Silurian come the Medina, Clinton, Niagara and Heidelberg layers. It is in these Silurian strata oil and gas are discovered, geologists advancing the theory that oil is formed from chemical action on the fish that abounded in that age. In the Devonian are the Devonian limestones and the Hamilton and Ohio shales. Then come the carboniferous, the lowest bed being called the Waverly, and this divided into the Bedford Shale, Hamilton Shale and Ohio Shale, the latter again divided into the Huron, Erie and Cleveland Shale. On top of these is sub-carboniferous limestone, covered with a layer of conglomerate series. From this to the glacial drift are the coal AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 25 series the strata in which coal is found. The strata underlying Ohio is taken from the celebrated Ohio geologist, Prof. Edward Orton. The carboniferous strata was formed millions of years ago (more or less) by the deposits of vast forests, which some chemical action turned into coal. It is probable that during the carboniferous period the atmosphere must have been warmer and with more aqueous vapor and carbonic acid in its composition than at the present day to admit of so luxuriant a flora as that from which the coal seams were formed. The vast beds of coal found all over the world, in geological formations of many different ages, represent so much carbonic acid once present in the air. In different sections of the state the various strata occur at varying depths, due to the different upheavals of the earth in the ages long past; the strata also vary in thickness in different localities. The sub-strata of Crawford county, or any other section of the earth, shows that this globe was millions of years in forming. It was originally decidedly liquid in character, the fires of the interior contending with the waters of the surface for the mastery, the interior throwing out vast masses to be attacked and disintegrated by the waters which covered the earth. Through long ages the battle between the two elements—fire and water—continued, and the interior won, and a foundation for the earth was laid; true it was soft, spongy and marshy, but still a foundation. The geological strata show, at this time, no specimens except those of the lowest order of water animals, practically only threads with life. In what is known as the Silurian deposits, as the ages advanced these water animals became firmer, and instead of being merely threads of life, they had some body and the trilobite appears. Of the deposits of these earlier forms of marine animal life, Dr. Buckland draws the conclusion that "the eves of the trilobites carries to living man the certain knowledge, that millions of years before his race existed, the air he breathes, and the light by which he sees, were the same as at this hour and that the sea must have been, in general, as pure as it is now." Each additional layer of the Silurian showed more solidity in the construction of the water animals, until finally the monsters of the deep held full sway of the globe. Some of these sea animals showed there was land, their construction being decidedly reptilian, but the land was low, marshy and boggy, as the remnant of no strictly land animal was found. The world was in the possession of the water animals, reptiles, and the indications are it was in their possession many thousand times longer than it has been in the possession of man. Dr. Buckland, the English naturalist, says: "When we see that so large and so important a range has been assigned to reptiles among the former population of our planet, we cannot but regard with feelings of new and unusual interest, the comparatively diminutive existing orders of that most ancient family of quadrupeds with the very name of which we usually associate a sentiment of disgust. We shall view them with less contempt, when we learn, from the records of geological history, that there was a time when reptiles not only constituted the chief tenants and most powerful possessors of the earth, but extended their dominion also over the waters of the sea; and that the annals of their history may be traced back through thousands of years, antecedent to that latest point of progressive stages of animal creation, when the first parents of the human race were called into existence." It was from the remains of these innumerable fishes and reptiles that through some chemical action the oil fields came and through them the gas fields. Later deposits of the earth showed stronger and higher land plants; and commencing with the lowest order of land animals, these animals showed increasing solidity of structure, evidencing the fact that the earth was becoming habitable. All this took ages, the interior constantly throwing out great masses until it finally established a foundation, which the almost universal sea failed to sweep away; on this it builded. The geological structure further shows the air was not yet habitable, the atmosphere too light, as no remnants of bird life are discovered, everything lived either in the water or on the earth. And it is only on the last deposits of the Carboniferous strata that birds appear. Traces of fish, reptiles, plants, animals and birds are 26 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY shown in the geological deposits in the order rained, but no trace of man. The nearest approach to the human form is in the topmost drift of all, just before the glacial period when fossils of the quadrumanna (four handed or monkey tribe) were found, one, three feet high, contained four incisor teeth, two canine, four false grinders, and six true grinders in a continuous series. So we have the progression. "The earliest animals and plants are of the simplest kind. Gradually as we advance through the higher strata, or, in other words, as we proceed through the record of progressive creation, we find animals, and plants of higher and higher structure till at last we come to the superficial strata, where there are remains of kinds, approximating to the highest of all animated tribes, namely, man himself. Put before the above discoveries there' remained one unmistakable gap in the series. The guadrumanna, or monkey, who forms an order above common mammalia, but below the bimana, or human tribes, were wanting. Now, this deficiency is supplied; and it is shorn that every one of the present forms of animated existence, excepting the human, existed at the time when the superficial strata was formed. The only zoological event of an important nature subsequent to that period is the creation of man ; for we may consider of a lesser importance the extinction of many of the specific varieties which flourished in the geological ages, and the creation of new."* The earth was now created, inhabited by everything except man, and then came the glaciers from the north, rearranging and shifting the entire universe. The Glacial drift, the geologists divide into six parts, the lowest being the Glacial drift, above this the Erie clays, the Forest bed, the Iceberg, drift and the Terraces or Beeches which mark intervals of stability in the gradual recession of the water surface to its present level. † The geologists say the Glacial period was one of continual elevation, during which the topography of the country was much the same as now, the draining streams following the lines they now do, but cutting down their beds *Humholdt. † Orton. until they flowed sometimes two hundred feet lower than they do at present. In the latter part of this period of elevation, glaciers, descending from the Canadian islands, excavated and occupied the valleys of the great lakes, and covered the lowlands down nearly to the Ohio river. Next, by a depression of land and elevation of temperature, the glaciers retreated northward, leaving in the interior of the continent, a great basin of fresh water, in which the Erie clays were deposited. This water was drained away until a broad land surface was exposed within the drift area. Upon this surface grew forests, largely of red and white cedar, inhabited by the elephant, mastodon, giant beaver, and other large, now extinct, animals. Again conies the submergence of this land and the spreading over it, by iceberg agency, of gravel, sand and boulders; the gradual draining off of the waters, leaving the land as we now find it smoothly covered with all the layers of the drift, and well prepared for human habitation. How many years all this took is purely conjectural. In not one of any strata prior to the glacial deposits have the fossil remains of man been found. Fishes, reptiles, animals and plants, are shown to have existed, prior to the glacial period. Prof. Frederick Wright mentions a stone instrument found by Dr. C. L. Metz near Cincinnati which scientists are confident was made by man. And Prof. Wright observes from all the circumstances connected with the discovery that it shows "that in Ohio, roan was an inhabitant before the close of the glacial period. We can henceforth speak with confidence of pre-glacial man in Ohio. It is facts like these which give archaeological significance to the present fruitful inquiries concerning the date of the glacial epoch in North America. ‡ When the age of the Mound Builders ofOhio is reckoned by centuries, that of the pre-glacial man who chipped these palaeolithic instruments must be reckoned by thousand of years." Again he says: "It is not so startling a statement as it once was, to speak of man as belonging to the glacial period. And with the recent discoveries of ‡ Prof. Wright estimates the glacial period as only 8,000 or 10,000 years ago. AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 27 Dr. Metz we may begin to speak of our own state as one of the earliest portions of the globe to become inhabited. Ages he fore the Mound Builders erected their complicated and stately structures in the valleys of the Licking, the Scioto, the Miami and the Ohio, man, in a more primitive state, had hunted and fished with rude instruments in some portions at least of the southern part of the State. To have lived at such a time, and to have successfully overcome the hardships of that climate and the fierceness of the animal life, must have called for an amount of physical energy and practical skill which few of this generation possess. Let us therefore not speak of such people as inferior. They must therefore have had all the native powers of humanity fully developed, and are worthy ancestors of succeeding races." From the geological structure of Crawford county we find the first known inhabitant of the county, and it is a pleasure to know he or it was one of the prominent occupiers of the earth. On August 13, 1838, in digging a millrace, Abraham Hahn came upon the bones of a mastodon in a swamp just east of the Toledo & Ohio Central shops at Bucyrus.* It was found at a depth of only six feet. This animal was a forest monster, which existed in the carboniferous era. The mastodon also existed after the glacial period. This section of Ohio has a formation of several hundred feet of glacial drift, overlying the carboniferous, so the mastodon may have roamed this county after the glacial drift, or in that drift was swept down from the north, incased in the ice and rocks and debris, and had lain there undisturbed for centuries. Other remnants of mastodon have been found * THE FIRST INHABITANTS. Mastodon—Land animal; twelve feet tall, body thirteen feet long; similar to Megatherium but heavier. Tail different, being like an elephant's tail. Plesiosaurus—Water animal, about forty-live feet long; head and neck like a snake, about seventeen feet long; body perhaps six feet in diameter and fourteen feet long, tapering to a point. Formed of vertebrae from head to tail, with ribs in body, Lived on fish and sea grasses. Ichthyosaurus—Water animal, but partly land. An overgrown crocodile of our present day; thirty feet long; lived on fish. Deinotherium—Land animal; a trifle larger than an elephant. Lived on leaves and branches. Pterodactyl—Between bird and reptile. About in Holmes township. However they came here, they were the first known occupiers of the county. Crawford county, therefore, has definite proof that it was in existence, and habitable, in the ages long ago. As to when man first inhabited this section the geological indications are that prior to the Glacial drift there were none here, and none anywhere else on the face of the globe—man as he exists today. When the country was discovered and the Indians inhabited this region, they were not the first settlers. Indian lore shows that legends had descended to them of a prior race being in this section; how many hundreds or thousands of years prior is an indeterminable question. Practically all over the state are elevations, the work of what are called the Mound Builders. The line of the Glacial drift, geologically considered, is pronounced, and both inside and outside of this line the work of the Mound Builders is found. The glacial drift rearranged, shifted and covered everything, so the Mound Builders and their work probably followed after the glacial drift. What became of the Mound Builders is a problem. Physical geography gives five distinct races of men, and among them is the Indian. If the Mound Builders of centuries ago became the Indians of the present the problem is easily solved. But the tendency of creation has ever been upward, and thousands of years should have produced more of advancement in civilization than the nomadic wanderers through our forests. It took trillions of years to develop water into the lowest order of animal life; more millions to develop a more solidly constructed marine animal. The same is true of land, and millions of years passed before eight feet high; wings twenty feet tip to tip; like a large bat with head of bird and a beak. Dinosaurus—Half reptile; half animal; four legs; hind ones strongest; sixty to eighty feet long; head like a giraffe, with, neck twenty-five feet; body twenty-five feet and about eight feet in diameter; tail, starting same size as body and thirty-five feet long, tapering to a point. Iguanodon—Reptile; fifty to sixty feet long; front legs small, hind legs strong; could walk on two feet similar to a kangaroo; length mainly in neck and tail, similar to dinosaurus. Deinornis—Bird, ten to eleven feet tall, and very heavy body. Megatherium—Land animal; twelve feet tall, body thirteen feet long, including tail eighteen feet. Lived on roots and branches of trees; tail large at body. 28 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY the incipient tendrils of watery ground became plants and trees, and the delicate animalculae developed into the higher order of brute life. The Mound Builders leave behind them crude implements, and earthworks showing they were a constructive race, living in communities, and with indications of civilization. The Indians were the reverse, and from the indications of what the Mound Builders were and the known facts of the Indian, it is difficult to conceive any connection between the two races. While the Indians were anything but a peaceful people, even before the advent of the white man, it is but just to them to say they only developed the highest and most insistent and persistent ideas of cruel savagery after they came in contact with a superior order of civilization. CHAPTER II DISCOVERY OF AMERICA The Landing of Columbus and the Various Explorations—The Naming of America—Naddod, the Norwegian—Iceland Visited by the Irish—Norse Settlements There in 875—The Expedition of Lief Ericson Discovers the American Coast and Calls It Vinland—Norse Settlements on Baffin's Bay, 1135—Population and Trade of Iceland in the 12th Century —Visited by Columbus, 1477—The Zeni Brothers—The Landing of Columbus—Voyage of Americus Vespucius—Spanish Settlements—The New World Presented to Spain by the Pope—Expedition of Sebastian Cabot—Discovers Labrador—Explores Coast to So. Carolina—Ponce de Leon Lands in Florida—Followed by de. Soto—Expedition of Cartier—Sails up the St. Lawrence—D'Ayllon Kidnaps Indians Ibis Example Followed by Cortoreal—Expedition of Verrazini—Possessions of Spain, England and France—Protestant Settlements in South Carolina—The Settlers Murdered by the Spaniard Menendez —The Massacre Avenged by de Gourges—Sir Richard Grenville Lands at the Island of Roanoke—His Men Murdered by the Indians—The Colony Reestablished by John White —Treats Indians Kindly—The First English Child Born in what is now the United States —Jamestown Settlement of 1607—Capt. John Smith—The Dutch Settle New York—Landing of the Pilgrims—Other Settlements of English, Swedes and Dutch Penn Settles Pennsylvania—The French Establish Posts in Canada and Northwest Territory—Are Driven from the United States and Canada—The United States Obtains Florida and Spanish Settlements Beyond the Mississippi—England obtains all East of the Mississippi—Also Territory West of the Rocky Mountains—The Northwest Boundary Settled—Liberal Terms of Colonial Charters. Steer on, bold sailor, wit may mock thy soul that seeks the land, And hopeless, at the helm, may drop the weak and weary hand; Yet ever, ever to the west, for there the coast must lie, And dim it dawns, and glimmering dawns, before thy reason's eye,—Schiller. Columbus discovered America and landed on October 12, 1492. The country was named after Americus Vespucius, who discovered South America seven years later, and North America itself had been discovered five hundred years prior to Columbus discovery. Yet Columbus was given credit for the discovery, as it was his voyage, followed up, which settled the country. Toward the close of the ninth century Naddod, a Norwegian, while at tempting to reach the Faroe Islands, 200 miles northwest of the British Isles, was driven by storm to Iceland, and he found the land had already been visited by the Irish. The Norsemen made a settlement there in 875 by Ingolf. The colonization at Iceland was carried in a southwesterly direction, through Greenland to the New Continent. Notwithstanding these Icelandic explorations westward, one hundred and twenty-five years elapsed when Lief, a Norwegian, the son of Eric the Red, in one of his voyages landed on the American coast, between Boston and New York, in the year i,000. He called the new land Vinland, on account of the grapes growing -there, and he was naturally delighted with the fruitfulness of the soil and the mildness of the cli- 29 30 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY mate as compared with Iceland and Greenland. Later a settlement was made here, and when the white people came to Rhode Island in 1638 they discovered a tower of unhewn stone made from gravel of the soil around, and oyster-shell lime. It was circular in form, 23 feet in diameter and 24 feet high. The Narragansett Indians knew nothing of its origin. The Icelandic chronicles state that besides Lief the Red, Thorfinn Karlsefne visited the point and settled here with his wife Gudrida, and that a son was born to them, Snorre Thorbrandsson. "These historic chronicles seem to have been written in Greenland as early as the twelfth century and partly by descendants of settlers born in Vinland, so others besides Snorre were born there. The care with which the genealogical tables are kept was so great that that of Thorfinn Karlsefne, whose son Snorre Thorbrandsson, was born in America, has been brought down from 1,007, the date of Snorre's birth, to the present, and Lossing states this geneological tree shows that Thorwaldsen, the great Danish sculptor, was a descendant of this first known white child born on American soil. The Icelandic history also shows that explorers erected three boundary pillars on the eastern shore of Baffin's Bay, bearing a date of 1135. When these were found in 1824 there were also discovered the ruins of a number of buildings, showing there had been a settlement there, and the records further show frequent fishing trips to this and other localities along Baffin's Bay. At this time Iceland was an important place. It had in 1100 a population of 50,000 people, had a government and records, and poets and writers, and was farther advanced in literature at that time than any European nation.'* Ships from Bristol, England, kept tip a constant trade with Iceland, and Christopher Columbus himself, in a work on "The Five Habitable Zones of the Earth," says that in the month of February, 1477, he visited Iceland, "where the sea was not at that time covered with ice, and which had been resorted to by many traders from Bristol." Columbus, in work, mentions a more southern island; Frislanda, a name which was not on the maps published in 1436 by Andrea Bianco, * Encyclopædia Britannica. or those in 1457 and 1470 published by Fra Mauro. The island is dwelt upon at length in the travels of the brothers Zeni, of Venice, in 1388 to 1404. But Columbus could not have been acquainted with the travels of the Zeni brothers as they were unknown to Zeni's own Venetian family until 1558, when they were first published, fifty-two years after the death of Columbus. Therefore Columbus knew there was land southwest of Iceland. He could easily have reached this land by taking the beaten track to Iceland, and then southwest, but his genius told him he could find it by taking a westerly course from Spain, which he slid, and became the discoverer of a new world. The landing of Columbus was on what is now San Salvador, latitude 24 north, longitude 76 west, one of the Bahamas, about three hundred miles east of the Florida coast. On this trip he cruised south as far as twenty degrees north latitude and discovered Cuba and San Domingo. In March, 1493, he returned to Spain withplants, birds, animals and Indians of the new world, and his journey overland from Palos to Barcelona, to meet Ferdinand and Isabella, was the march of a conqueror. At Barcelona the throne of the rulers was erected in a Public Square and Columbus was received with royal honors, all the great of the kingdom being there to do him homage. The counselors of Spain believed it advisable to keep the wonderful discovery quiet, as Columbus reported fabulous wealth in the new world. That same year he returned again to America, taking with him several horses, a bull and some cows, the first European animals taken to the new world. He made two other voyages. In 1498 he discovered the Orinoco, on the north coast of South America. On his third voyage he was returned to Spain in chains, owing to misrepresentations made to Queen Isabella. Matters were easily explained and he made his fourth and last trip, in 1502, but on his return in 1504 the Queen was dead, and his enemies were in power, and he who had given Spain a new nation and a glory that would last for all time, died in poverty and obscurity at Valladolid on the 20th of May, 1506. In the meantime Americus Vespucius in 1499 visited the Orinoco, one year after Columbus had dis- AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 31 covered it, and returning gave a glowing account of the new world and it was named America. Immediately after the first discovery of Columbus, Spain made settlements in the islands of the West Indies. and reduced the Indians to slavery, and Spanish cruelty and wrong broke the spirit and lowered the standard of the Indians. The Spanish colonists married the Indian women, and from this union carve the mixed race of the West Indies. The Pope recognized the discoveries of Spain, and by an edict granted Spain the ownership of the new world; that there might be no future doubt of what Spain owned he gave them control of "the whole region westward, beyond an imaginary line 300 miles west of the Azores." Notwithstanding Spain made no public announcement of the discoveries of Columbus, the most extravagant stories drifted through Europe of the fabulous wealth of a new world, and Sebastian Cabot, of Bristol, England, on March 16, 1497, was granted a commission of discovery by Henry VIII. Bristol was the port which years previous had done most of the trading with Iceland, and when Cabot started, he took the well-known route toward the northwest, and on July 3, 1497, discovered the rugged coast of Labrador. He skirted along the coast southward, past Newfoundland, touched at several points, and returning to England announced the discovery of what was undoubtedly a new continent. The next year, 1498, he fitted out another expedition, and, like Columbus, his main object was to discover a passage to India. Again he reached Labrador, and cruised north, but the ice stopped his progress, and he abandoned his search for a northwest passage, and went south, exploring the coast from Labrador to North Carolina. On March 27, 1512, Ponce de Leon landed in Florida, and took possession in the name of the King of Spain—the first appearance of Spain on United States soil. Years later, in 1539, Ferdinand de Soto landed in Florida with six hundred men, all warriors, and proceeded inland through Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, crossing the Mississippi river somewhere below Memphis in May, 1541, taking possession of the land he passed over, and the land beyond that river in the name of the King of Spain.' During the entire trip he had much trouble with the Indians, men died of sickness, and when he reached Florida on September 20, 1543, of the six hundred men who started but sixty returned, but they had made a trip of three thousand miles, through an unbroken wilderness, wandering on and on in a vain search for the fabulous gold they dreamed was somewhere in the interior. In 1534 Jacques Cartier, a Frenchman, went up the St. Lawrence river with his ships as far as where Quebec now stands, and learning the Huron (Wyandotte) King had his capital at a point called Hochelaga he paid him a visit. The Wyandotte King entertained his guest with the greatest hospitality and showed by every means possible that the visitors were welcome. Cartier remained the guest of the King for several days and climbed the large mountain, saw the magnificent St. Lawrence stretching above and below him, the rich country as far as the eye could see in every direction, and he named it Mont Real, which is its name today, the Metropolis of Canada with a population of half a million. Cartier returned the King's hospitality by a dinner on board his vessel in which he made him a prisoner and took him to France, exhibiting him to that civilized nation as one of the barbarian curiosities of the new world. In 1542 Cartier returned to the St. Lawrence, and had intended taking the King back with him, but the unfortunate savage, pining for his home and people, had died of a broken heart. On Cartier's arriving at Quebec with a force of men to make a settlement, he found the Indians so unfriendly that he was compelled to build a fort at Quebec for his protection. This was the first experience of the Wyandotte Indians with the newer and higher order of civilization. Practically the same thing occurred in South Carolina. D'Ayllon, a French navigator, who had founded a colony at San Domingo, started for the Bermudas to capture a few slaves to work the Domingo sugar and tobacco plantations. Bad weather drove him to the coast of South Carolina where he was furnished water and provisions by the natives, and treated with the greatest hospitality. He entertained them in return on his boats, showed 32 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY them over the vessels, and when a hundred savages were below fastened down the hatches, and sailed for San Domingo. One vessel was lost, and on the other the savages stubbornly refused food, and nearly all died of starvation. A few years later D'Allyon returned for more slaves. He landed on the same coast, and was again hospitably received by the ignorant natives. They gave him feasts and banquets, and arranged a magnificent feast at their capitol, and when in the wilderness, miles from help, they were led into an ambush, and the entire party massacred. Thus early were the Indians learning the higher order of civilization. Cortorcal of Portugal obtained a permit from King John to make discoveries. He reached Canada, captured fifty natives, took them back to Portugal and sold them for slaves. The investment was so profitable that he immediately started for a second cargo, but he was never heard of afterward. In 1523, Francis the First, of France, sent out John Verrazini with four vessels to make discoveries. Inn March of 1524 he reached the Cape Fear river in North Carolina, and explored the coast, anchoring in Delaware Day and New York harbor, and landed where New York now is. He treated the Indians to liquor, and not being used to it many became very drunk, from which fact the Indians then called the place Manna-ha-ta, "place of drunkenness." He continued his trip north and named Canada New France. The entire coast had now been discovered; Spain had Florida and the southern part of tile United States and beyond the Mississippi; England from the Carolinas north, and France had Canada, all this within half a century after Columbus' great discovery. Settlements had been established by the Spanish and French in the West Indies and by the Portugese in Newfoundland, but no permanent settlement had yet been made in the United States. The era had now arrived when John Calvin in England, Martin Luther in Germany, and the Huguenots in France were bitter in their opposition to the Catholic church, and Admiral Coligny, the advisor of the weak Charles the Ninth of France, decided to establish a place of refuge for the Protestants in the new world. The King granted him a commission for that purpose, and on February 28, 1562, a squadron under. command of John Ribault sailed for America. The fleet first touched near the harbor of St. Augustine, Florida, sailed north past the St. John's river to Port Royal, the southeastern part of South Carolina, where they established their colony, calling it Carolina, in honor of Charles of France. The colony did not prosper and additional settlers were sent. In the meantime Philip II of Spain, who claimed the territory by virtue of Columbus' discovery, and the edict of the Pope giving Spain everything west of the Azores, was highly incensed at this invasion of his territory, and sent Pedro Menendez to Florida as Governor with strict instructions to drive out the French and establish a Spanish colony. He had a strong force and landed at St. Augustine, founding a town there, the first in the United States, and proclaimed the King of Spain as Monarch of all of North America. Ribault, learning of the landing of Menendez, started down the coast to attack him, but his ships were wrecked, many of his men drowned, and those who reached the shore were either killed, or were murdered by the Spaniards. In the meantime Menendez marched overland to Port Royal surprised the settlement, and murdered all of them, about nine hundred in number. He erected a cross on the site of the wholesale butchery and on it placed an inscription that these men were slain, "not because they were Frenchmen but Lutherans." And being in a particularly pious frame of mind he laid the foundation for a church to commemorate the deed. When Charles of France learned of the murder of his subjects, matters at home were in such shape that he could not avenge the insult, but a wealthy Frenchman, Dominic de Gourges, fitted out a ship at his own expense, and landed at Port Royal with one hundred and fifty warriors, captured the two hundred men left in charge there, and hanged the whole party, he, too, erecting a cross with the inscription: "I do not this as unto Spaniards or Moors, but unto traitors, robbers and murderers." His force was too small to risk an attack on Ft. Augustine, and being in danger of being attacked by the Spaniards at any moment, he had no time AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 35 to even lay the foundation of a church, but sailed immediately for home, leaving the placarded Spaniards hanging to the trees as an object lesson to the Indians of the new and higher order of civilization. From 1579 to 1585 settlements were made by the English in Virginia and North Carolina, but they were not permanent. In 1585 Sir Richard Grenville landed at the island of Roanoke in Albermarle Sound. He treated the Indians very badly and they returned the compliment with interest. He was finally compelled to return to England, which he did, leaving fifteen men in charge. Two years later, in 1587, John White went over with reinforcements, and found the colony abandoned, the men having been murdered by the Indians. White re-established the colony, and reversed the policy of Grenville, treating the Indians kindly and cultivating their friendship. He induced Manteo, their chief, to become a Christian, and baptised him. White further pleased the Indians, and their Chief by investing him with the title of Lord of Roanoke, with great formality and display, followed by a feast to the Indians and presents. This was the first—as well as the last—peerage ever created in America. When White returned to England he left behind his daughter, Eleanor Dare, wife of Lieutenant Dare, one of his officers. On August i8, 1587, there was born to Lieutenant and Mrs. Dare, a daughter, and she was named Virginia Dare, the first English child born in what is now the United States. In 1589 White again started for America but was driven back by the Spaniards ; however in 1590 he returned to the colony only to find it abandoned and all traces of the colonists lost, and it was not until eighty years later the English learned that their lost kindred had been adopted by the Hatteras tribe, and become amalgamated with the children of the wilderness. * In April, 1607 a settlement was made at Jamestown, Virginia, composed almost entirely of English "gentlemen" whose profligate lives had left them in destitute circumstances in England, and who only came to America in a spirit of adventure, and the hope of re- *Ellis.—People's Standard History of the United States. alizing a fortune in the new world without work. The colony was an absolute failure, dependent on the Indians for the necessaries of life. Capt. John Smith, a man of great force, later took charge of the colony and endeavored to instill a spirit of industry into the men. He urged the cultivation of the soil, but at the end of two years the two hundred settlers had only forty acres under cultivation, and but for the Indians would have starved. It was not until June, 1610, on the arrival of Lord De La Warr, with a different class of colonists, that a permanent and lasting settlement was established in Virginia. In 1613 the Dutch from Holland, settled in New York City, calling it New Amsterdam, honestly buying the land from the Indians for $24. On December 22, 1620, the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, with forty-three men and their families. In 1629 a colony was founded in New Hampshire; in 1633 in Connecticut; in 1634 in Maryland; in 1636 in Rhode Island; and in 1638 in Delaware, all by the English. In 1623 the Swedes founded a colony in New Jersey. This settled the entire coast; New England being English; New York, Holland; New Jersey, Sweden; Delaware, Maryland and the Carolinas, English; Georgia and Florida, Spanish. The Dutch claimed New Jersey as their territory, and forced the Swedes to acknowledge their claims. But in 1682, when William Penn made his settlement in Pennsylvania, the Swedes preferred English rule to that of Holland, and in time they came under the control of the English. Still later the English took possession of New Amsterdam calling it New York, which gave them the entire coast, excepting Florida and Southern Georgia. The French were in undisturbed possession of Canada. While the English were colonizing and securing possession of the coast line, the French. through Canada, were exploring the interior, passing through the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, establishing forts and trading posts, exploring the Mississippi, and by virtue of their discoveries, all the land west of the Alleghenies and north of the Ohio river, was tinder the control of the French; and beyond the Mississippi France owned all the Mississippi Valley to the Rocky 36 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY Mountains; Spain owned Texas and all west of the Rockies up to the northern boundaries of California. In 1763, after a long war between England and France, the American colonies being English assisting the mother country, France was driven from the United States and Canada, all east of the Mississippi being ceded to England; all her possessions west of the Mississippi being ceded to Spain, and in this treaty Spain ceded Florida to England. In 1783, at the close of the Revolutionary war, England secretly ceded Florida to Spain, and the United States bought it in 1819. In 1801 Spain ceded her territory beyond the Mississippi to France, and in 1803, Napoleon needing money, and to prevent England ever securing it, sold it to the United States. The war with Mexico gave the United States all west of the Rocky Mountains, that part west of the Rockies and north of California being claimed by the United States by right of the discoveries of Lewis and Clarke, a claim disputed, but conceded later by England and Spain in the settlement of the northern boundary between the United States and Canada. When Spain first discovered America she claimed the entire continent, north and west to the Pacific Ocean. The rulers of England in granting charters, followed the same liberal policy, and their charters were for land between certain degrees of latitude on the coast, extending to the Pacific Ocean. CHAPTER III INDIAN OCCUPANCY Their Home on the Sandusky—Attacks on the Settlers—Crawford's Expedition—Character of the Indians—Their Mode of Life—Their Aversion to Work—Failure of Attempts to Enslave Then—Lack of Written Language—Their History Preserved by the Missionaries —Indian Traditions Concerning Their Origin—The Various Tribes—Legends Concerning a Previous Race—Division of the Country Among the Tribes—Origin of the "Five Nations"—Conflict with the French and the Hurons—Sell Land to William Penn—Work of the Franciscan Friars—Of the Jesuits—The Iroquois Make Treaties with the English and Dutch—Their War with the Eries—Attack the Hurons in Canada—The Country Controlled by Them—The Wyandottes and Ottawas—The French and Indian Posts at Mackinac and Detroit—The Foxes Attack Detroit—Are Routed and Almost Exterminated—The Tuscaroras Unite with the Five Nations Forming the "Six Nations"—The Wyandottes in This Section—The Delawares in the Muskingum Valley—The Shawanese—Indian Raids into Pennsylvania and Virginia—Attacks on the White Settlers Whom They Torture and Kill—The French Forts in Northwest Territory—The French and Indian War—Washington Attacks the French—Braddock's Defeat—The Triumph of the English and Its Results—Pontiac's Attempt—Mistake of Ensign Paully—His Capture and Escape—The Murder of Pontiac—Gen. Bradstreet's Expedition Battle of Point Pleasant— Cornstalk—Simon Girty—The Revolution and Its Results—The Part Taken by the Indians in the Revolutionary War—The English Trading-Post at Sandusky Where Indians were Paid for Scalps of White Settlers—Indian Attack on Ft. Henry—Bravery of Elizabeth Zane—The Peaceful Moravian Indians Butchered by Col. Williamson-Col. Crawford's Defeat and Tragic Death—End of the Revolution—Treaty of Ft. McIntosh—Murder of Sha-tay-ya-ron-yah—Other Treaties— Battle of Fallen Timbers -Boundaries—War of 1812—Surrender of Gen. Hull—Harrison's Expedition—British and Indian Attack on Ft. Meigs—Defense of Ft. Stevenson—Victory of Commodore Perry—Battle of the Thames and Death of Tecumseh—British Defeated at New Orleans—End of the War. Lo, the poor Indian, whose untutored mind Sees God in clouds and hears him in the wind. —Pope. The only good Indian is a dead Indian.—Mark Twain. The Indians of the United States were a race who had no written history. They were principally forest wanderers, living on game and fish, and what little grain the Indian women cultivated, for no Indian warrior would demean himself by labor. In the early history of the country a brisk trade existed by adventurers bringing colored men from Africa and selling them to the early settlers as slaves. The thrifty pioneers endeavored to secure slave labor cheaper by capturing Indians, but in all the colonies where it was attempted it proved a failure. The Indians would not work, and although cruel and brutal punishment was inflicted it was useless. The Indians died under the lash rather than degrade themselves by manual labor. They had, - 37 - 38 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY as stated, no written language, the Iroquois being regarded as the most intelligent, as they could count up to one hundred, many of the tribes being unable to definitely express numbers above ten. Long before the hunter and the trapper wandered through the great northwest, the Jesuit and Moravian missionaries, following on the heels of the early discoveries, became very friendly with the Indians. It is from records left by these men, the principal information of the Indians is obtained, but the early history given by them is much of it legendary. These missionaries learned from the older men of the Lenni Lenape (Delawares) that centuries previous their ancestors dwelt in the far west, and slowly drifted toward the east, arriving at a great stream, called the Namoesi Sipee (Mississippi) or "river of fish." Here they met the Mangwes (Iroquois) who had drifted westward to the Mississippi, far to the north, the Delawares having come east about the centre of the United States. The country cast of the Mississippi was reported as being inhabited by a very large race of men, who dwelt in large towns along the shores of the streams. These people were called the Allegewi, and it was their name that was given to the Allegheny river and mountains. Their towns were strongly fortified by earth embankments. The Delawares requested permission of the Allegewi to establish themselves in their territory, but the request was refused, although permission was given them to cross the river, and go through their country to the east. When the Delawares commenced crossing the river the Allegewi became alarmed at their numbers, and fell upon them in force and killed those who had crossed, threatening the others with a like fate should they attempt to pass the stream. The legend indicates the Allegewi were not of the Indian race but the Iroquois were. The Delawares were indignant at the murder of their braves and the treachery of the Allegewi, so they took counsel with their Iroquois brethren, and they formed a compact to unite and drive the Allegewi beyond the Mississippi, and divide the country. The war lasted for years and great was the slaughter on both sides, until finally the Indians conquered, and the Allegewi fled down the Mississippi, never more to return. The Iroquois then took the country along the great lakes, and the Delawares the country to the south. The two nations remained peaceful for many years, and the Delawares explored still further and further to the east, until finally they established their principal headquarters along the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers. The Iroquois covered the territory north of the Delawares and along both shores of the St. Lawrence. The Delawares, occupying land from the Atlantic to beyond the Mississippi river, became divided into various tribes, but they had grown in strength as the years passed and far outnumbered the Iroquois. Trouble arose between the two nations, and they went to war. To overcome the superiority in numbers of the Delawares the Iroquois resorted to stratagem. An Indian tribe is one family, and an injury done to one member is avenged by the entire tribe. All tribes had their war instruments marked with some peculiar design, or totem. The Iroquois murdered an Indian of one of the Delaware tribes and left at the scene of the murder the war club bearing the mark of another branch of the Delawares. This caused war between the two branches of the Delaware tribes. The shrewd Iroquois soon had the Delawares hopelessly divided, fighting and killing each other. The treachery of the Iroquois was discovered and the Delawares called a grand council, summoning their warriors from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, with the intention of utterly exterminating the Iroquois. Then was formed by the Iroquois the Five Nations, organized by Thannawaga, an aged Mohawk chief. It was an absolute alliance of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, a form of Republic in which the leaders of the five nations consulted and acted as one. Under this powerful organization the Delawares were forced back to their own lands. The Five Nations having driven back the Delawares turned their attention to the French, who were forcing them south from their hunting grounds on the St. Lawrence. North of this river were the Hurons (Wyandottes) and although of the Iroquois branch of the Indians, yet they were now a separate nation and at enmity. Although Cartier had AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 39 treacherously taken their chief to France on his first visit, Champlain, nearly a century later, had made friends with the Hurons and when the Iroquois began resisting the French inroads on their territory, Champlain organized the Hurons and made a raid on the Iroquois in 1609, administering a crushing defeat, the Hurons returning to Quebec with fifty scalps. In 1610 another attack was made on the Iroquois by Champlain and his Huron allies, but they were driven back by the Iroquois. The French now abandoned further extensions to the south, and the Iroquois made an onslaught on their ancient enemies, the Delawares, and drove them from the Atlantic westward to the Alleghenies. It was land the Five Nations had taken from the Delawares that they sold to William Penn in 1682. The Iroquois as early as 1609 became the inveterate enemy of the French, an enmity which continued with undiminished hatred for a century and a half. So when the French created this hatred by their attacks on the Iroquois, this, and an admiration the western and northern Indians had for the French, made them allies. The Hurons were not as warlike as the Iroquois, but like all Indians they took up the cause of any insult to any member of their tribe. As a result the battles between the Iroquois and the Hurons were frequent, and they were ever inveterate enemies. To balance the Five Nation league of the Iroquois, the Hurons also united all that branch of the Algonquins in the north and west who were opposed to the Iroquois, the principal nation of the confederation being the Wyandottes. After the French and Hurons had defeated the Five Nations on Lake Champlain, they remained quiet for some time. The Franciscan friars had done much missionary work among the Hurons and many had adopted the Catholic faith, and with religion came a less war like spirit, and more cultivation of the soil. With the Iroquois the missionaries could do nothing, many losing their lives in the attempt. The Jesuits followed the Franciscans, and found a fruitful field of labor among the Hurons. This was from 1625 on, and the energetic Jesuits soon supplanted all over the west the quieter and less religiously aggressive Franciscans. The Jesuits established missions and schools all along the northern border of the lakes, at Detroit, through Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin, and along the Mississippi from its source to New Orleans. It is to be noted, however, that even these zealous Jesuits in going from Quebec, on the St. Lawrence, to Detroit, kept north of the lakes, as the more convenient route by way of the Niagara river and Lake Erie was controlled by the ferocious Iroquois, whose implacable hatred of everything French had been started by Champlain. It is but just to the Jesuits to say some did visit the Iroquois, only to be horribly treated, sometimes tortured and burned at the stake; or, if allowed to return, maimed for life. One faithful missionary was sent home as a warning to others. The fiendish Iroquois had made holes through the calves of his legs; through these holes they had placed reeds filled with gun-powder. These were then set on fire, blowing the calves of his legs to pieces. It is stated that later on he again limped among them, and the Iroquois who, with all their cruelty admired bravery let him alone. But he was the only Frenchman who was allowed to preach to the Iroquois. As the legend fails to state whether he made any converts among the Iroquois, it is probable he did not, much as they needed religious, teaching. For nearly forty years the warlike Iroquois remained quiet, except occasional marauding expeditions against neighboring tribes and treacherous attacks on the white settlers. They had made a treaty of peace with the New England settlers, and in 1648 made a treaty with the Dutch of New Amsterdam. Under this treaty the Dutch sold them arms and ammunition, which, prior to this time, the Dutch had scrupulously refused to do. After two-score years of rest a new generation had sprung up, equally warlike and equally fearless, and they concluded to try their new weapons on the Eries, another of the tribes of the Huron combination. The Eries then occupied the southern shore of Lake Erie, including the territory now embraced by Crawford and adjoining counties. The Fries were entirely unprepared and the victory was so complete that the Eries never again became prominent. This led to a war between the Hurons and the Iroquois, and it raged with 40 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY undiminished fury for several years, until in 1659, the Iroquois crossed into Canada in great force, above the French settlements, and marched through the Huron territory, massacring their enemies, burning their towns, destroying the missions and murdering the priests. The Hurons fled through lower Canada, across the river at Detroit, and into upper Michigan, and only found final refuge from their insatiable foes on the southern shores of Lake. Superior, where the Chippewas came to their defense and drove the Iroquois back. The Iroquois were now in undisputed control from the Atlantic to the Mississippi and from the Lakes to the Ohio river. In the Lake Superior region the bulk of the Wyandottes and Ottawas (another of the Huron branch) made their home for many years, until two French priests arrived among them, Jacques Marquette and Claude Deblon, and began organizing them in the interest of the French, and establishing a headquarters for all the Indian allies of the French at Mackinac. This was in 1671, and here they remained for thirty years. In 1701 Cadillac, who had been in command of the French fort at Mackinac, established a new post at Detroit, which was called Fort Ponchartrain, later changed to Detroit, a naive it ever after retained. When Cadillac moved to Detroit, at his request most of the Indian allies accompanied him; they were joined by other Indians, and new tribal relations established, and the Hurons took the name of their leading tribe, the Wyandots,* the name meaning "Traders of the West." The Wyandots were frequently attacked by their old enemies, the Iroquois, but the Indians around Detroit were all united; they received arms and ammunition from the French, and when necessary the French soldiers fought with them, and at the end of six years the Iroquois were compelled to give up the struggle and leave the French and Wyandots in control of lower Michigan and Canada north of Lakes Erie and Ontario. But the shrewd Iroquois were not idle. They instigated the Fox nation to make an attack on the Detroit settlement. They chose a * The correct name was Wyandotte, but from this date the name is given according to the modern spelling. time when the Wyandots were away on a hunting expedition, early in May, 1712. Du Buisson was then in command of Fort Ponchartrain, with only twenty-one men. He sent runners out to notify the Indians to return. On the 13th an assault was made on the Fort, but the Foxes and their allies were held at bay. While the fight was going on the Wyandots returned, and drove the Foxes into the fort they had erected when they came to capture the French settlement, The French and Wyandots in turn attacked the enemy's fort, but were unsuccessful. For nineteen days the fighting continued, when the Foxes were compelled to flee, and hurriedly built a fortification a few miles north of Detroit. Here they were attacked by the French and their allies, the French bringing two small cannon to bear on the enemy. The fighting lasted three days more, when the Foxes were utterly routed, the Wyandots, and their allies, the Ottawas and Pottawatomies massacring eight hundred men, women and children, nearly wiping out the Fox nation, a few of those remaining joining their friends, the Iroquois, and the remainder removing to Wisconsin and the south shore of Lake Superior, where they became as bitter enemies of the French as were the Iroquois in the east. It was this same year the Tuscaroras, driven from North Carolina, came north and united with the Iroquois and the confederation became the Six Nations. While the battles at Detroit intensified the anger of the Six Nations and the Foxes against the French, it gave the latter the strong friendship of the Wyandots and all those Indians who surrounded the French settlement, a friendship which, to the credit of the Wyandots, they faithfully maintained through all the varying fortunes of war for the next half century, and when, in 1763, the flag of France fell before the meteor flag of England, and the French retired from American soil, for some years after the treaty of peace between England and France was signed, the Wyandots with their western allies were at war against the British. The Wyandots now gradually extended their hunting grounds along the southern shore of Lake Erie, the nearly half a century of war of the Iroquois with the French hav- AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 41 ing left that nation in so crippled a condition that they never again appeared west of the Alleghenies on a warlike expedition. The Wyandots are known to have been in this section as early as 1725, and, extending their territory, were soon in control from Lake Erie to the Ohio river. In 1740 the remnant of the once famous Delawares was driven from Pennsylvania by the Six Nations and by the advance of the Pennsylvania colonists, and the Wyandots gave them permission to occupy the Muskingum Valley. A number of the Shawanese also made their home along the Scioto, and the Ottawas had land between the Sandusky and the Maumee rivers, and from here, as allies of the French, they frequently made warlike excursions into Pennsylvania and Virginia, surprising the settlers at dead of night, and massacring entire families, men, women and children, and when the expedition was in retaliation for some real or fancied wrong, returning with the prisoners and holding a war dance while the unfortunate captives were horribly tortured until death alone relieved them of their suffering. For a quarter of a century, from their forest fastnesses on the Sandusky, they made raids hundreds of miles distant, on the unsuspecting stockade or lonely cabin, pillaged, massacred and burned and were off again, lost in the trackless woods, where it was impossible to follow them. There are remains today of Indian trails all over the southern portion of Crawford county, on which the Indians stealthily marched in single file, to and fro on their murderous expeditions. From the lake at Sandusky to the Ohio river their water route was up the Sandusky, across to the Scioto and down that stream to the Ohio, one of their portages being through the southwest portion of Dallas township. In 1755 all of the coast states were .British colonies; the French were in control of all west of the Alleghenies and north of the Ohio, they had fortifications all along Lake Erie; one at Fort Duquesne (Pittsburg) another at Eric, Pennsylvania ; at Detroit: two at the mouth of the Sandusky, others in Indiana and Illinois, and the Indians in all this great northwest were their friends and allies. The French claimed the territory, and justly, by right of discovery; the English claimed through charters of British rulers, granted to companies for so many miles along the Atlantic "and extending west to the Pacific ocean." The section of the state where Crawford county is located came under a charter granted Virginia, this charter's northern line being the present northern boundary of Crawford county. The country from the northern boundary of Crawford to Lake Eric was claimed under the charter granted to Connecticut. England further claimed Ohio from the fact that in a treaty with the Iroquois (Six Nations) she had bought of them all their territory north of the Ohio river and west of the Alleghenies to the Mississippi. While there is a dispute as to whether the Sim. Nations ever did extend their conquests beyond the Cuyahoga river, and whether the Six Nations ever did own by conquest that part of Ohio where Crawford county is situated, England always recognized the claims of the Iroquois and the Americans acquiesced. In 1744, when the war occurred between I' rance and England, practically all the Indians of the northwest gave their services to the French. They attacked the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia; some went down the St. Lawrence, reported at Montreal, where they were given arms and ammunition, and attacked the settlers of New York, and even extended their depredations across the Hudson to massacre settlers in far-off New England. they were as loyal to their French friends as they were bitter and implacable in their hatred of the English and the Iroquois, who, after a hundred years, were still the loyal friends of the English. In 1745 a French commandant's record in Canada shows the number of Indians reporting for duty in the war against England, among them the Wyandots.Other records show that in one year at least twenty of these blood-thirsty murdering bands were sent out by the French, frequent mention being made of the part taken by the Wyandots in the wholesale butcheries which followed in these bloody raids. In 1748 a treaty was patched up between England and France and comparative quiet was maintained until 1754, but as the French still remained in possession of the great north-west, and England was determined to have the territory, war again broke out. In the 42 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY spring of 1754 a company of French soldiers from Fort Duquesne, while extending their explorations southward, were attacked by some Virginia rangers under Lieut. Col. George Washington. A fight for the ownership of the great northwest between the French and English was so inevitable that during the winter of I74-3 England and the colonies on the one side and the French on the other organized for the coming struggle, which commenced in 1755, and lasted for seven long years, England and the extreme eastern colonies marching to Canada, and the Virginia and Pennsylvania militia joining with the English soldiers in the battles in the northwest. In this section the war commenced with the attempt of Gen. Braddock in command of the English, and Col. George Washington in command of the militia, to capture Fort Duquesne, situated at the point where the Allegheny and Monongahela unite to form the Ohio. The French sent an army from Detroit, and they were joined in their march by the Wyandots, and through the forests and over the plains of Crawford they hurried to the battle ground. The Wyandots then were the leading nation of the northwest, the most numerous, and in bravery were the equals of the Iroquois. They were a fighting nation, every man a warrior, with their pride of bravery raised to so high a pitch that not one ever surrendered, and for more than half a century to come it is doubtful if a single Wyandot was ever captured. They were among the Indian troops who were secreted in the woods and poured the deadly fire on the ambuscaded Americans and English. The French loss was four killed, and the American and English 300. Among the slain was Gen. Braddock, who had refused advice as to Indian warfare, and who paid the penalty with his life, leaving Washington in command to save what he could from the slaughter. The victory at Fort Duquesne excited the Indians' thirst for blood, and nearly every Wyandot warrior took to the war path. Along the borders of Pennsylvania they left a trail of death and desolation; they were with Montcalm in Canada, where the French were defeated; then on to Ottawa, which fell into the hands of the British; returning to Fort Niagara they received another repulse; everywhere the English and Americans were slowly but surely driving back the French. Bravery, endurance and fortitude were characteristic of the Wyandots, but adversity they could not stand. Their belief in French superiority was becoming shattered, and by degrees they drifted back to the banks of the Sandusky, disappointed and discouraged, and took no further hand in the struggle. It ended in 1763 when France relinquished Canada, and all her possessions in the United States east of the Mississippi to the English. It is probably better for civilization that the result was as it was, but when one reflects that cold and calculating England had confined her settlements to the easily reached shores of the Atlantic, while the French for two hundred years had explored the boundless forests, navigated streams unknown, erected trading posts, gone where the foot of the white man had never trod, the opinion is almost inevitable that although it was probably for the best, it was not the right that triumphed. The French had made all the explorations, experienced all the hardships of travels in an unknown country; their explorers had suffered torture and death in harmonizing the savage tribes, and just as the land is ready for settlement, and the harvest of her years of toil is reached, England, by the force of arms, seizes the prize. But why mourn for the French or criticise the English. "For time at last sets all things even," and justice, though slow, is sure, and before England could reap the fruits of her shrewdness, the American nation rose in its might, as one man, and the Great Northwest, stolen from the French, became free and independent, and later the garden spot of the United States with today more than twenty millions of people. While the French were receiving their reverses, Pontiac an Ottawa chief (Huron branch of the Indians) organized practically all of the Indians of the northwest to seize every English outpost, probably twelve in number. In the Great Northwest they failed only at Detroit, where the siege lasted for many months, by which time the English had regained their forts and relieved Detroit, and peace was declared. In this peace Pontiac refused to join, but retired with his Ottawas to AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 43 Illinois. The capture of the different forts was arranged for May 7, 1763. The Wyandots captured the Fort near the mouth of the Sandusky. Here Ensign Paully was in command, and on May 16 he was approached by seven Indians with a request for a conference. He admitted them without hesitation, when he was seized, bound and the fort captured, the garrison being taken unawares. Nearly all the garrison, eleven in number, were massacred and the fort was burned. Ensign Paully being reserved for torture. He was tied to the stake, and just as the fagots were about to be fired an Indian squaw, whose husband had been killed, claimed the prisoner to take the place of her dead husband. Paully consented, and was liberated, but at the first opportunity made his escape, leaving the widow doubly bereaved. Pontiac in Illinois remained the inveterate foe of the English, and in 1769 he was murdered by an Illinois Indian. The Wyandots, who had for some years been living quietly, on learning the news, accompanied by the Ottawas and other tribes marched to Illinois and avenged the chief's death by the almost wiping out of the Illinois tribe. In 1764 Gen. Bradstreet, who was in command at Detroit, with a force of men "ascended the Sandusky river as far as it was navigable by boats." The point reached was probably the old Indian town of Upper Sandusky on the river about three miles southeast of the present town of Upper Sandusky. Here a treaty of peace was made with the chiefs and leading men of the Wyandots. Among those who accompanied Gen. Bradstreet was Israel Putnam, then a major in command of a battalion of Americans. This peace was fairly observed until in 1774, the Wyandots, Shawanese, Delawares and Mingoes made an attack on Point Pleasant, where the Kanawha joins the Ohio. They had a force of over a thousand war- riors, under command of Cornstalk. General Lewis was in command of Point Pleasant with 1,100 men. The fight continued all day the English loss being two colonels, five captains, three lieutenants and a hundred soldiers, besides a hundred and forty wounded. The Indian loss must have been severe, as during the night they retreated across the Ohio river and returned to their homes. Just before the battle they were joined by Simon Girty, who had been a scout for the English. He was an efficient scout, but in some altercation with Gen. Lewis, the latter struck him with a cane over the head, inflicting a deep gash. Girty threatened vengeance, and escaped from the fort, joining the Indians, and in the attack on the fort was as savage and bitter and cruel as any Indian warrior could desire. He remained with his new friends and ever after made his home with the Shawanese, Delawares and Wyandots. He declared he had foresworn his white blood and assumed the garb of the Indians with their painted flesh and feathered headdress. After the Americans and English had succeeded in driving out the French in 1763, England for years pursued an unjust policy toward the colonies, which eventually culminated in the Revolutionary war. In the east all manufactures which interfered with England were prohibited or crippled by severe laws. All goods must be bought in England; all products raised in America must be sold to England alone, and forwarded on English vessels. The English commercial policy also affected the great Northwest, of which Crawford county is a part. The French, by their explorations, and by their trading posts all over this great territory had built up a large business in furs, of which they had a monopoly. The English merchants secured this trade, and it was so vast and profitable they wanted it continued. As a result they petitioned the King and Parliament: "It does appear to us that the extension of the fur trade depends entirely on the Indians being undisturbed in the possession of their hunting grounds, and that all colonizing does, in its nature, and must, in its consequences, operate to the prejudice of that branch of commerce." So George Third issued a proclamation declaring the new territory, the Great Northwest from the Ohio to the Lakes and from the Alleghenies to the Mississippi, royal domain, and prohibited further settlement in this vast territory, or the purchase of any part of it from the Indians. This was in 1774, and the English statesmen, forseeing a coming contest, attached this ter- 44 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY ritory to the Province of Quebec, and Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin were a part of Canada. Eight years later the Province of Quebec was the danger point in the treaty of peace between England and the United States. The American commissioners were Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, John Jay and Henry Laurens. Their imperative instructions were that the independence of theUnited States must be recognized. Other matters were minor. France had been the ally of the United States and the treaty must be satisfactory to that nation. France had received from Spain practically all west of the Mississippi river, and desired to have her rights recognized by England. Spain was with France, and the two secretly arranged with .England that the north boundary of the United States should be the Ohio river, basing the claim on the ground that the Great Northwest was a part of the Province of Quebec, and there was no question that Canada was to remain English territory. In the early part of the treaty, while this agreement was not definitely reached, matters were tending that way. Franklin, as minister to France, conducted the earlier negotiations, and later, when John Adams and John Jay arrived, the boundary came up. The English were insistent; Vergennes, the French minister, favored the English, until finally Adams and Jay positively declared, they would submit to no boundary except the lakes. Laurens and Franklin stood by them solidly, and it was over a year before England finally yielded the point, and Ohio and the Great Northwest became a part of the United States. England probably thought the territory of far less importance than it was, having relegated all that vast region to a great hunting ground, with no higher conception of its future use than the protecting and raising of fur bearing animals. How different the views of John Jay, who speaking of this territory in Congress in 1777, prophetically said : "Extensive wildernesses, now scarcely known or explored, remain yet to be cultivated; and vast lakes and rivers, whose waters have for ages rolled in silence to the ocean, are yet to hear the din of industry, become subservient to commerce, and boast de lightful villas, gilded spires, and spacious cities rising on their banks." On the breaking out of the Revolutionary war, the Wyandots and their neighbors at first saw no reason to take any hand in the contest. In the east the British had secured the assistance of the Six Nations, the Mohawks being then the chief tribe, but by 1777 the English had succeeded in enlisting the Wyandots and other Ohio tribes on their side, and under British pay they made onslaughts on the western borders of the colony, attacking the settlers in Pennsylvania and Virginia. Many joined the British army, and a number of Wyandots joined the army of Gen. Burgoyne, in New York state, but did little beyond burning a few houses of settlers, stealing their stock and murdering a number of the pioneers. In an excursion with Burgoyne into New Hampshire, a number of Wyandots were killed, and they blamed the British General for the loss, claiming the warriors were needlessly sacrificed. This, and the fact that Burgoyne endeavored to restrain their ferocity and cruelty, disgusted the Wyandots, and most of them returned to their home on the Sandusky; but still under the pay of the English, continued to harass the frontier, destroying, burning and murdering. The English had a trading-post at the Indian village of Sandusky, where settlement was made, and at this point nearly all the Indian tribes were paid for the scalps taken. Their first expedition was in 1777. The renegade Girty was thoroughly conversant with affairs along the Ohio river, and at his suggestion five hundred warriors, Delawares, Wyandots and Shawanese, started on an expedition against Fort Henry, near where Wheeling now is, on the Ohio river. The British had supplied them with arms and ammunition, and the Indians made their way through the dense forests, along their trails, crossed the Ohio and surrounded the fort with its garrison of forty men, and a number of women and children. Col. David Sheppard was in command, and rumors had reached the fort that five hundred warriors had started from the Sandusky region on some murdering expedition, destination unknown On the evening of September 26, 1771, settlers AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 45 reported Indians in war paint had been seen lurking in the neighborhood. Cabins were abandoned, and all sought safety in the fort. Col. Sheppard sent out two men to reconnoitre; one was killed and the other returned to the fort wounded; the Colonel then sent out fourteen men, and as they were proceeding cautiously down the river they fell into an ambush, and eleven were instantly killed, the others escaping in the dense forest. Hearing the firing, the Colonel sent twelve more men to relieve the imperiled party; eight of these were promptly killed. The fighting force in the fort was now reduced to a dozen men. The Indians made constant attacks, but were as constantly driven back. It was during this engagement that, when the powder gave out, Elizabeth Zane bravely went to the storehouse, sixty yards away, and brought back the powder. in safety. She volunteered for this service, saying that no man could be spared for this perilous trip under the direct fire of the enemy. Night coming on, the Indians retired until morning. During the night a dozen men arrived from a neighboring settlement, and succeeded in gaining entrance to the fort. In the morning forty more rangers arrived, and the Indians, now regarded it as useless to continue their assault on the fort. They therefore destroyed everything they could, set fire to the houses, and killed or carried off three hundred head of cattle. They had killed twenty-one men, with several others wounded. Their own loss, however, was over a hundred. They returned to Sandusky with twenty-one scalps for which cash was paid by the British agent. While the Wyandots were allies of the English, as well as the other tribes of Ohio, on an eastern branch of the Muskingum in Tuscarawas county were several hundred Moravian Indians, of the Delaware tribe, who constantly refused to take part in the war; they had become Christian Indians, had three settlements in Tuscarawas county, and had cleared considerable land, devoted their time mostly to farming and kept up constant business relations with the Americans at Pittsburg, about sixty miles distant, which was the headquarters of the American forces in the west. They refused all the overtures and bribes of the British. Finally, in the fall of 1781, Col. Elliott, of the British forces, who was stationed at Upper Sandusky, took with him two chiefs and three hundred warriors, and marched to the Moravian settlements, their route being through Crawford, crossing the Sandusky at a point one mile south of the Tod township line, and passing through Bucyrus township in the direction of New Winchester and in a southeasterly direction toward the Kilbuck in Holmes county and on to the Tuscarawas settlements. The three Moravian towns, all on the Tuscarawas river, were Schönbrunn, two miles south of the present town of New Philadelphia, seven miles further south was Gnadenhütten and five miles Further Salem. On reaching the Moravians the Indians urged their brethren to stand by them in their war against the Americans; the English Colonel offered them presents, but the Moravians stood firm. Failing in peaceful persuasions the Indians insisted they should accompany them to the banks of the Sandusky, claiming they were too near Pittsburg, and the Wyandots were afraid they might ally themselves with the detested Americans. Expostulations were useless and the peaceful Moravians were forced to leave their crops ungathered, and accompany their captors in the long and weary march to the banks of the Sandusky. The Moravians were taken to Sandusky and from there their missionaries were sent to Detroit as prisoners. Some writers place the Moravian winter quarters on the river southwest of Bucyrus, but Butterfield fixes it near the old Indian town, three miles southeast of the present town of Upper Sandusky. Here they passed the winter, suffering great hardships, as the Indians make no provision for the future, and the addition of several hundred to the Indian villages along the Sandusky was beyond their means of support. After a severe winter a number were allowed to return to their villages to gather the crops of the fall previous. About one hundred and fifty of them, men with their wives and children, made the journey to their former homes, and resumed their work on the clearings, dividing their force so as to look after all three of the villages. While the Moravians had spent the winter suffering on the banks of the Sandusky the Wyandots had not been idle, but had made 46 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY maurading expeditions on the settlers of Pennsylvania and Virginia, with their usual burning and killing. The settlers of the upper Ohio and the Monongahela determined to administer a lesson that would be a warning to the Indians, and a corps of a hundred mounted men was organized, and under command of Col. Williamson started for the Moravian towns. They knew the Moravians had spent the winter on the Sandusky, the point where all the brutal, murdering expeditions were organized; they knew they had again returned to their villages on the Tuscarawas. In what follows, the most lenient might concede they did not know the peaceful Indians had been taken there against their will, but this is not borne out by history. The rangers under Williamson reached Gnadenhütten after a forced march of two days, and at this village found the Indians gathering corn on the west bank of the Tuscarawas. A boat was secured and sixteen of the men crossed the river, but found more Indians there than they had expected. Then the rangers certainly learned their visit to Sandusky had been an enforced one, for they sympathized with them for the cruel treatment they had received and assured them of their friendship and that they had come to see in what way they could protect the Moravians. They further assured them that another expedition would come from the Sandusky region, and they would again receive the same cruel treatment, and that their friends at Pittsburg had advised them to go to that place where they would receive protection. Knowing the settlers of Pittsburg had always treated them with the greatest friendship, and being Christian Indians, they did not doubt what the men told them, and placed themselves under their protection. The trusting Indians also sent a messenger down the river to the village of Salem to notify the Indians there of the kindness of their new-found friends, urging them to join them at Gnadenhütten. They crossed the river with the rangers and gave their guns into their hands, after which they were ordered into houses and a guard placed around then. Col. Williamson sent a party of men down the river to the village of Salem, but on the way they met the Salem Moravians coming up the river to join their brethren at Gnadenhütten. The Salem Indians arrived and they, too, were deceived into giving up their arms after which they were imprisoned. Col. Williamson then called a council of war, and put the question for the then to decide, as to whether the Indians should be taken as prisoners to Fort Pitt (Pittsburg) or whether they should be put to death. There were eighteen who favored the minor outrage of carrying them away as prisoners and eighty-two voted for immediate death. James Patrick, Esq., of New Philadelphia, wrote an interesting history of the Moravian Missions in Tuscarawas county. From this work the following account of the horrible scene is taken: "In the majority, which was large, no sympathy was manifested. They resolved to murder—for no other word can express the act—the whole of the Christian Indians in their custody. Among these were several who had contributed to aid the missionaries in the work of conversion and civilization. Two of them had emigrated from New Jersey after the death of their spiritual pastor, the Rev. David Brainerd. One woman, who could speak good English, knelt before the commander and begged his protection. "The supplication was unavailing. They were ordered to prepare for death. But the warning had been anticipated. Their firm belief in their new creed was shown forth in this sad hour of their tribulation, by religious exercises of preparation. The orisons of these devout people were already ascending to the throne of the Most High. The sound of the Christian's hymn and the Christian's prayer found an echo in the surrounding woods, but no responsive feeling in the bosoms of their executioners. With gun, and spear, and tomahawk and scalping knife, the work of death progressed in these slaughterhouses, till not a sigh or moan was heard to proclaim the existence of human life within. All perished save two. Two Indian boys escaped as by a miracle, to be witnesses in after times of the savage cruelty of the white man toward their unfortunate race. "After committing their cruel and cowardly act, the buildings containing the mutilated bodies of the murdered Indians were set on fire, and the flames of the heavy logs soon reduced to crumbling ashes all that remained of the Christian Indians." AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 47 Dr. Doddridge pays a beautiful tribute to the Christianity of the Moravians when he writes: "They anticipated their doom, and had commenced their devotions with hymns, prayers and exhortations to each other to place a firm reliance upon the mercy of the Saviour of men. When their fate was announced to them these devoted people embraced and kissed each other, and bedewing each others faces and bosoms with their tears asked pardon of their brothers and sisters for any offense they might have committed through life. Thus, at peace with God, and each other, they replied to those who, impatient for the slaughter, demanded whether they were ready to die, that `having commended their souls to God, they were ready to die.' " Having reduced to ashes all traces of their inhuman act, tSchönbrunnrted up the river for Schönbrunn to murder the Moravians there. but the Christian savages had learned of the sad fate of their companions and fled to the forest, and were beyond pursuit. The number murdered was ninety-six; of these sixty-two were grown persons, about forty-two men andtwenty women; the remaining thirty-four were children. A few of the men who looked as if they might be warriors were taken from the slaughter house and brained with tomahawks. Most of these quietly knelt down, and while offering up prayers to God, received the fatal blow. But one attempted to escape, and he soon fell dead with five bullets through his body. These outside dead were placed in the slaughter-houses and burned with the rest. One hundred and fifty years previous when Menendez murdered the Huguenot Christians on the Atlantic coast he tarried on the site of his crime long enough to lay the foundation of a church to commemorate his act. It was probably through inadvertence Col. Williamson overlooked this beauiful finishing touch of piety! It was only a part of the Moravians who had been murdered; the larger number were still on the banks of the Sandusky, and to this same retreat fled the fifty ChristianSchönbrunn.who had escaped from Schönbrunn. Immediately on Williamson's return, arrangements were made for a new expedition to go to the fountain-head of all the trouble—the head, quarters on the Sandusky—and administer a blow that would leave the settlers in peace. The massacre of the Moravians took place May 3, 1702, and on May 7 the decision was reached to attack Upper Sandusky, the seat of the Wyandots, not that the Wyandots alone were massacring the murdering and massacreiing, butchering and scalping of the unfortunate settlers and their families, but because Upper Sandusky was the headquarters of the Wyandots, Ottawas, Delawares, and Shawanese, and here was their rendezvous, where they gathered to start on their raids. Volunteers to the number of 480 were secured, all mounted and well armed, all from two or three counties south of Fort Pitt. Monday, May 20, was the time set for their assembling and the place chosen was Mingo Bottom, on the west bank of the Ohio, about seventy-five miles below Pittsburg,. and about two miles below the present city of Steubenville. They began assembling on the 21st, and on the 24th the last man had reported. A vote was taken as to who should command the expedition, and Col. William Crawford received 235 votes, and Col. David Williamson, who had commanded the expedition against the Moravians, 230. Col. Crawford was therefore selected as commander with Col. Williamson as senior major, and second in command. Among the troops was Robert Sherrard, grandfather of Rev. J. H. Sherrard, who was for many years pastor of the Presbyterian church at Bucyrus. Of the troops 320 were from Washington county, Pennsylvania, 130 from Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, 20 from Ohio county, Virginia, and 10 from various localities. Besides the two commanding officers there were three other Majors, Gladdis, McClelland and Bunton, with Daniel Leet as brigade major, and Dr. John Knight as surgeon. John Slover and Jonathan Zane accompanied the expedition as guides. There were eighteen companies, the captains, as far as known, being McGeehan, Hoagland, Beeson, Munn, Ross, Ogle, Briggs, Craig, Richie, Miller, Bean, and Hood. The Williamson expedition against the Moravians was a private affair of the settlers. The expedition against the Wyandots was a government affair, under direction of Gen. Irvine. who commanded the western department of the United States and Lieut. Rose. 48 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY a member of his staff, accompanied the expedition as his representative. The Indians were assisting the English by their constant attacks in the west, necessitating the keeping on the border for protection a large force which otherwise could have been utilized in the war against England. The attack on the Wyandot village was in reality an expedition of the Revolutionary war, to destroy a post which for years had been the Indian headquarters of the British government; a place which had been and was the gathering point of all Indian expeditions against the colonies; the village where the Indians of northwestern Ohio repaired to receive their arms and ammunition from the British, and to receive pay for services rendered, the pay being based on the number of scalps turned over to the British agent at Upper Sandusky. From these Indian villages came the stories of cruel deaths inflicted on their unfortunate captives. For, while it seems sickening and saddening that men, women and children were murdered on these expeditions, in many of them a few of the stronger captives were taken back alive, divided among the different villages, and died with all the prolonged agony to the sufferer that devilish ingenuity could devise. But in these tortures the Wyandots took no part; they murdered and scalped their prisoners, but burning at the stake had been abandoned years previous. The Delawares and Shawanese were the torturers. At Gnadenhütten the vote to murder peaceful Christian Indians was eighty-two; the vote for mercy being eighteen, and a deed was consummated so despicable and so dastardly that the civilized world for over a century has blushed with shame that honest, conscientious, law-abiding Christian men should place so foul a stain on civilization. In this every reader of this work will coincide. But who cast those eighty-two votes' Men whose grey-haired fathers had been cruelly murdered; men who had returned to their peaceful homes only to find their wives butchered, almost beyond recognition, and lying weltering in blood, bleeding and scalpless, on their hearthstones; to find even the innocent babes at the mothers' breasts scalped and butchered. While in their minds was the knowledge of the death by the Indians of a father or a son, a brother or a friend, who had first run the gauntlet, that Indian "free for all" in which every villager took a part; the long line down which the naked captive must pass, starting with the children and squaws with their whips and clubs, administering blows to the flying victim; then past the younger men, and finally brave warriors with knives and tomahawks so skilfully used as to administer blows that would cut and wound but not kill; and on and on, cut, carved and covered with blood, to sink exhausted at the Council-house door. To be cared for? No! This bleeding remnant of a man was sometimes scourged and beaten still, and thrown into some guarded hut to await the morrow, when the poor sufferer was dragged forth to furnish what further amusement the strength of his constitution would stand. Commencing at the less vital parts, skilful savages took strips of skin from his legs and arms, and sometimes nearly half the body was laid bare before suffering nature could stand no more and death relieved him of his sufferings. At the stake the fire was fiendishly built so far away that the torture was prolonged for hours, the ears, fingers and toes cut off, the fiends previously pulling the nails out by the roots, yelling with delight at the suffering of the tortured victims. Every horror the inventive mind of the savage could think of was practiced. * * John Leith was a prisoner and storekeeper among the Tndians from 1763 until he trade his escape in 1791. During the Revolution he kept a store at Upper Sandusky, employed by the British. In his biography, written by his grandson, Judge George W. Leith, is his description of the first "Running of the Gauntlet" he witnessed : "One fine day in early summer a band of warriors came in from the south with a captive, a powerful young Virginian. He had been overpowered and captured in a hand-to-hand struggle. I saw him stripped for the race, and thought him as fine a specimen of a man as I ever saw. His action was unimpaired, the only wound perceivable being a long gash on the fleshy part of his thigh, which, though considerably swelled, did not impede his motion. He was stripped naked and painted black for the race at my store. Two lines of Indians were formed, extending back from the store about two hundred yards. He was marched back through the lines in a southerly direction, the savages panting and yelling for the onset. Poor fellow ! he stepped with the elasticity of a racehorse, confidently believing that if he succeeded in the race his life would be spared. But his doom was scaled, and this was but the opening scene in the horrible tragedy. The warriors were armed with guns loaded with powder to be shot into his naked body, the boys were armed with bows and arrows, and the squaws and children with clubs and switches. No one was allowed to strike or shoot until the victim was AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 49 All these horrible acts of the Indians were known to have been visited upon the relatives of the men who had accompanied Williamson, and anger and revenge were a stronger motive than right and justice. Williamson should have prevented it, but while today every reader of this history can justly shudder and denounce the brutal murder of the Moravians, the fact remains that if every reader had been on the banks of the Tuscarawas at the time, knowing what these men knew, having suffered as these men had suffered, when the vote for life or death came, the proportion would have been the same, No one can endorse the needless, inhuman murder of the innocent Moravians, but the perpetrators of the dastardly deed had minds at the time inflamed by the cruelties inflicted on themselves and their relatives by other Indians. In this modern day those at a distance from the crime can well shudder and denounce the burning at the stake of the brute who has ruined and murdered an innocent girl in the southland, but were the matter to come home to them direct, how many fathers, with the brutal act fresh in the memory, would lift a finger to stay the hand that fires the funeral pyre? Would there be even eighteen out of eighty-two? It was Saturday morning, May 25, 1782, the expedition started for the Sandusky Plains, about 150 miles distant, but to avoid the Indian trails, so the savages would have no knowledge of the attack, their course was through the unbroken forest, to the Tuscarawas, on the banks of which were the destroyed Moravian towns, and it took them four days to cover the sixty miles, although Williamson's men, over the traveled route, had made it in two days when on their mission of opposite to where he stood, so that the speed of the runner might not be impeded or checked by a front fire. The word was given, `All ready, go P and simultaneously a yell went up all along the line from the savages, who were eager to inflict the severest punishment upon the helpless captive. The young fellow came through the lines with astonishing swiftness, and ran into the store where I was. He was covered with ragged and gaping wounds made by the discharge of powder and the tomahawks, and the arrows stuck out from his blackened body like the shafts of a clothes-rack. He gave me a most imploring look, as if he expected me to help him, and suddenly sprang high in the air as if in terrible agony. He turned and went out at the door, when he was brained with a tomahawk and fell to the ground with his last despairing groan." murder. They encamped at the ruined town of Schönbrunn, and two officers, reconnoitering, saw in the distance two Indian warriors, who had been spying on their movements. It was now believed the Indians would have full knowledge of their expedition, and Crawford determined to press on as rapidly as possible. They started on a forced march through the wilderness of .Holmes county, and the night of May 30 encamped about ten miles south of the present site of Wooster, just south of the Wayne county line. From here they went almost due west, passing north of Odell's lake, and on to the Mohican, following up the river until near where Mansfield now is they turned west and encamped on June 1st at Spring Mills, eight miles cast of Crestline. The next day, June z, about one o'clock, they entered Crawford county just north of where Crestline now is and continued west to the Sandusky river at the mouth of a small creek called Allen's Run, near the present town of Leesville. The Sandusky river was the point for which the guides were aiming and the officers, pleased at reaching this destination, called a halt for an hour. They had reached the river south of the Wyandot trail, which the Indians used on their excursions from the Sandusky towns east to Pittsburg. In the last five days they had made eighty-five miles, and the guide, Slover, told Crawford they were now about twenty-five miles due east of the Indian town, and that a little to the southwest there were extensive plains reaching to their destination. After nine days of slow and difficult marching through an unbroken forest, they decided to make for the open plains; so they followed the south bank of the Sandusky, two or three miles, to about the center of section 12, of Jefferson township. Here the Sandusky bends to the north and they left the riwer and, going southwest, encamped for the night in the southwestern part of Jefferson township, on the eastern edge of the plains. Early on the morning of June 3rd they entered the plains, and the open sunlight, after the long and dreary march through the dense woods, was a pleasing relief to all. Their course was now west through Whetstone and Bucyrus townships, passing about four miles south of Bucyrus, to an Indian trail skirting the west side of the Sandusky; they followed