GENERAL HISTORY OF CUYAHOGA COUNTY
CHAPTER I.
THE SITUATION IN 1626.
First Information—The Neuter Nation—The Eries—Their Connection With the Iroquois—Their Location—Open Ground to the South— Neighbors on the West— Slight Knowledge of the Eries—General Character of the Indians—Meager Authority of Sachems and Chiefs —Absence of Property and of Jealousy—Forest and Game.
THE first definite knowledge regarding the occupants of the south shore of Lake Erie dates from the year 1626, when Father La Roche Daillon, a " Recollet" missionary, preached among the Attiwandaronks, more commonly known as the Kahquahs, called by the French the Neuter Nation. This peculiar tribe was principally located in the Canadian peninsula on the north shore of Lake Erie, having, however, several outlying villages on the east side of the Niagara, and extending a short distance from Buffalo up the southeastern side of the lake.
Before going farther, we may note that at the time our story begins, the French had been for twenty- three years established on the shores of the St. Lawrence, the Dutch were already located at the mouth of the Hudson, while the Pilgrim Fathers had for six years been sternly battling with want, and hardship, and danger, on the rock-bound shores of New England. The position of the French on the St. Lawrence gave them a great advantage ilr prosecuting discoveries and establishing posts along the great lakes, and that adventurous people were well disposed to make the fullest possible use of their opportunities.
From the information obtained by Father Daillon during his sojourn among the Neuter Nation, eked out by occasional reports from straggling French hunters and Iroquois chiefs, it appears that at that time all the southern shore of the lake, from the mouth of Cattaraugus creek, in New York, to the vioinity of Sandusky bay, was occupied by a powerful tribe of Indians, called Erie or Erickronons (people of Erie) and known by the French as the Nation o/ the Cat. It is not exactly certain that "Eric" meant " cat " in the Indian language, but such is believed to be the case. Some writers have claimed that the Eries and Neuters were the same nation, but the weight of evidenoe is decidedly in favor of their separate existence, and the powerful authority of Park-
man ("Jesuits of North America," p. 44) is on the same side.
Little is known of the Eries save that they were a powerful tribe, of kindred blood with the celebrated Iroquois, or Five .Nations, and speaking a dialect of the same language. In fact, according to the -most profound students of Indianology (if we may be allowed to coin a convenient word) the Iroquois, the Neuter Nation, the Eries and the Hurons were all parts of one aboriginal stock, while around them, on the north, the east and the south were various branches of the still larger Algonquin race. Tradition asserts that at one time the authority of the Eries extended as far east as the Genesee river in New York, which was the boundary between them and the fierce Senecas, the westernmost nation of the Iroquois confederacy. Their villages, however, were on the shore of the lake which bears their name, and as near as can be ascertained, their principal seats stretched from the vicinity f the present city of Erie to that of Cleveland.
To the southward there was a vast open space, alternately the hunting ground and the battlefield of rival tribes, over which the Eries could range with more or less difficulty, to the confines of the Choctaws and Cherokees. On the west and northwest were the lands of the powerful Ottawas, Pottawattomies, Chip- penes and Miamis. It will be understood that the word "powerful" is used in it relative sense, meaning powerful for a tribe of Indians. The Senecas, the strongest of the Five Nations, had but about a thousand warriors, and it is not probable that either of the western tribes, including the Eries, had more than that number.
Less is known of the Eries than of most other Indian tribes, for during the middle part of the seventeenth century the French missionaries and fur-traders were generally deterred by the enmity of the Iroquois from taking the route to the West by way of Lake Erie, and ere that route was opened to European travel the • Eric nation was blotted out of existence, as will hereafter be described. From the slight accounts which_ have reached us, however, it is evident that they did not differ materially from the other Indian tribes which-surrounded them, and whose characteristics are so well known to Americans.
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14 - GENERAL HISTORY OF CUYAHOGA COUNTY.
Fierce, cruel and intractable, the men spent their time in hunting and fighting, while the women not only performed their domestic labors, but bore all burdens when attending their masters, and planted, tended and gathered the maize, the pumpkins and the beans, which were the principal vegetable food of the tribe. Slight indeed were the bonds of government imposed on these most democratic of republicans. A few of the elder men were known as sachems, a position rather of honor than of power, though they exercised a gentle authority in maintaining order at home, and determined whether there should be peace or war with neighboring tribes.
In war, the leadership of the tribe devolved on younger men,. called war-chiefs, but even these had no authority resembling that exercised by the officers of a civilized army. War being once declared, any ambitious chief could raise a party of volunteers to go on a raid against the enemy. They usually followed his guidance, but in case they refused to obey him there was no punishment known to Indian law which could be inflicted upon them. Even if one of them showed cowardice, the severest chastisement visited upon him was to call him a "squaw," and debar him henceforth from the honors andprivileges of a warrior. This, however, was a terrible punishment to men whose only idea of glory or fame was in connection with warlike prowess. Sometimes, in cases of great importance, the chiefs called the whole nation to arms, but even then those who failed to respond were merely designated as "squaws," and left in company with the squaws.
Of civil government there was little need. Ferocious as the Indians were against their enemies, the members of the various tribes seldom quarreled among themselves. There was not much for them to quarrel about. There was almost no individual property save the stone tomahawk, the bow and the arrows which each man could manufacture for himself; so there were no contests arising from the sin of covetousness. The marriage bond sat lightly upon them, although they were not a peculiarly licentious race. They were merely apathetic in that respect, and marital infidelity did not awaken the anger often felt among barbarous nations no purer than the Indians; so there were few quarrels about women. Liquor had not been introduced among them, and thus another large class of troubles was avoided.
True, they had ferocious and malignant tempers, but it .was not necessary to exercise them at home, and until after the introduction of liquor they seldom did so.- If a number of Erie braves felt their native fierceness gnawing in their breasts till it must have vent, it was needless for theni to slay each other; they could get up a war party, go forth and scalp a few Ottawa women, or aril a captured Scneca warrior, and be happy.
The whole Indian system was opposed to the idea of stringent government. Parental restraint over children was of the lightest kind, though great deference was paid to age in both men and women. The little copper-colored rogues ran about in naked blessedness, doing whatsoever they liked; the girls, as they approached womanhood, expecting nothing else than to share the labors of the wigwam and cornfield, while the adolescent boys eagerly trained themselves to become hunters and warriors.
When the Eries were the lords over the territory of Cuyahoga county there was ample opportunity for the young braves to exercise themselves there in the exhilarating duties of the chase. The level or gently undulating ground, composed of sandy soil near the lake and a clayey loam farther back, was covered with a gigantic growth of beeches, maples, oaks, elms, etc., probably unsurpassed on the continent. The Indians were in the habit of burning off the underbrush so that they could more readily see the game, and this killed the small trees, but caused the large ones to attain magnificent proportions.
Here the deer wandered in great numbers. Here and there, in some aged and hollow tree, the black bear made his hermitage through the wintry days, coming forth in the spring to feed on roots and berries, and, later, on the ample supply of nuts and acorns afforded by the forest. Here, too, was occasionally heard the fierce scream of the American panther, at which even the hardy Indian youths shrank back in dismay, leaving the task of confronting that dreaded foe to the bravest warriors of the tribe.
Numerous birds flitted among the trees, on which the children could test the strength of their tiny bows and their own accuracy of aim, while at long intervals the lordly eagle soared far overhead, or circled swiftly downward to seize his prey, usually defying with impunity the arrows even of the most renowned bowmen of the forest. Upon the earth, among many harmless congeners, crawled the deadly rattlesnake, which, however, was easily avoided by the dark youth, shod with wariness and buskined with cunning.
Life was even more abundant in the water than on shore. The lake swarmed with pike, pickerel, sturgeon, whitefish, etc., etc., somc of which found their way into the river, where they were met by' the gleaming trout from the upland streams.
Such was Cuyahoga county and its inhabitants at the time when the first accounts regarding this locality came to the knowledge of the whites. Even then, those accounts were very vague, but, as they have been eked out by subsequently acquired knowledge, one is able to bring up before the mind's eye a tolerably accurate picture of this primeval period. Before, however, we move forward from this standpoint, it is proper to make brief mention of that long, vague period which antedates all reliable information, and is commonly called the pre-historic era.
PRE–HISTORIC SPECULATIONS - 15
CHAPTER II.
PRE-HISTORIC SPECULATIONS.
Relics in Northern Ohio—The Mound-Builders—Ord Fortifications of this Region —Works in Cleveland —In Newburg—In Independence—At the Forks of Rocky River—Outside the County—In Western New York — Absence of Large Mounds—Coffins at Chagrin Falls—Evidence of Moderate Sized Ancients—The Jaw-Bone Theory—Indian Palisades—Their Superiority to Breastworks—Absence of Metal Instruments—Conclusion in Favor of Ancient Indian Occupancy.
So FAR as is actually known, the Eries might have been here ten years, or a hundred years, or a- thousand years, before they were heard of by the French. Yet, the restless and belligerent character of the American Indians makes it improbable that any tribe would remain many centuries in the same locality, and doubtless the Eries gained their title to this region by the good old process of driving away or exterminating the peceding lords of the land, whose rights were similarly grounded upon slaughter and conquest.
But, aside from the probable occupancy of .the country by successive tribes of red men, there are works and relics still extant in Cuyahoga county, as well as in other parts of northern Ohio, in Pennsylvania and in New York, which have led many to believe that a race of a much higher grade of civilization than the Indians once inhabited these regions. 'Those old inhabitants are supposed to have been akin to the celebrated though somewhat mythical "Mound-Builders" of thc Ohio valley. But the works attributed to the latter people are of a far different character from those, of their northern neighbors, including not only extensive fortifications capable of sheltering ten, fifteen or even twenty thousand men, but enormous mounds, sometimes seven or eight hundred feet in circumference at the base and seventy feet high, and supposed to have been devoted to religious sacrifices.
Without entering into any discussion on the character or origin of the " Mound-Builders," which would be entirely foreign to the purpose of this volume, it is safe to say that the works extant in Cuyahoga county and the rest of the lake region bear no indications of having been erected by a race superior to the American Indians. Nay, they show strong affirmative evidence that their architects were not superior to the red men discovered here by the Europeans. The works in question are mostly fortifications of moderate extent, the enclosed space rarely exceeding live acres. In a majority of cases advantage has been taken of a strong natural position, where only a small amount of labor was necessary to fortify it.
Such is the case at one of the best preserved of these embankments in Cuyahoga county. It is within the limits of Cleveland city, but in what was formerly the town of Newburg; being between Broadway and the Cuyahoga river, and only a short distance from that stream. The natural position consisted of a peninsula surrounded on three sides by ravines nearly sixty feet deep, with steep, clayey sides, and joined to the main land on the south by a narrow isthmus. On this isthmus, at the narrowest point, the occupants of the situation built two embankments, the outer one extending completely across the neck, the inner one reaching nearly but not quite across the isthmus, leaving a narrow entrance-way on the west side. The bight of both embankments is about two feet, and each has a ditch on its outer side, now very shallow, but apparently at one time some three feet deep.
The space thus enclosed contains about five acres, and, although the land outside the ravines is of the same bight as that within the "fort," yet foemen would have found it difficult to send their arrows to the center of the enclosed space through the natural growth of trees, even supposing that the defenders knew nothing of the art of building• palisades, on which point there is no evidence.
Most of the other fortifications are of a similar character, the object ilr each case being to fortify an isthmus, and thus hold a kind of peninsula or promontory, nearly surrounded by ravines.
Just outside the city limits, in the present township of Newburg and close to the Cuyahoga, is another of these labor-saving fortifications, the enclosed space being about the size of the one above described, and the protecting ravines being even deeper, though not so steep.
Two miles farther up the river, in the township of Independence, is still another of these enclosures, the area in this case being nearly ten acres. There are two embankments across the isthmus, with a ditch between them and another outside of the outermost breastwork.
In the same township, a short distance north of Tinker's creek, is another fortification by which a promontory among the bluffs is defended from the approach of an enemy.
At the forks of Rocky river, cloy to the line between the townships of Middleburg and Olmstead, was one of the most remarkable of these primitive fortresses. It is a lofty cliff, almost surrounded by the waters of the west branch of the river, with no method of reaching the top save by an oblique and difficult path cut in the almost perpendicular side. In front of. this path were three lines of breastworks, from two to three feet high each, with ditches in front of them, as in the case of the others before mentioned. This was one of the most formidable of these peculiar fortifications to be found in this county.
Outside of the county there are, in northern Ohio, many other works more elaborate and important than those above mentioned, but all evidently constructed for the same purpose—that of fortifying with a little labor a strong natural position. Among these strongholds there is one in Northfield, Summit county, where a promontory of about four acres, two hundred feet above the Cuyahoga, is fortified by intrenchments across a very narrow ridge connecting it with the back country; one at Weymouth, Medina county, where a peninsula of less than an acre, formed by a bend of Rocky river, is defended by three lines of intrench-
16 - GENERAL HISTORY OF CUYAHOGA COUNTY.
ment, from four to six feet high, counting from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the bank; one near Painesville, Lake county, where a narrow peninsula is fortified by two embankments, the tops of which are not less than nine feet from the bottom of the ditches outside. There is also one near Conneaut, Ashtabula county, but this is on a somewhat different plan; a space of five acres on the top of a detached mound, seventy feet high, being entirely surrounded by a circular intrenchment.
There were, at the time of the first settlement, a large number of similar rude fortifications in western New York, but there was less attention paid there to the defense of peninsulas and promontories; a majority of the works being complete redoubts, each enclosed by a single a few feet high, with a ditch outside. Some were on detached hills or mounds, but many were in the valleys or on the open plains, and have consequently been obliterated by cultivation. One of the largest fortresses of that section, known as Fort Hill, and situated in the town of be Roy, Genesee county, contained, when first discovered, great piles of round stones, evidently intended to be used against assailing foes.
Nowhere in the lake region are there found any of those immense mounds, so prominent in the Ohio valley, from which the name of " Mound-Builders has been derived, and applied to an unknown race of men: Some small mounds, a few feet high have; however, been discovered, generally in the vicinity of the fortifications before described, and probably intended as burial-places. One of these -mounds, situated near Chagrin Falls, was opened in 1840, and found to contain four rude, stone coffins, without lids; three of them being of the proper size for an ordinary man, and one suitable for a halfgrown boy.
These coffins are the strongest evidences with which we arc acquainted of the existenoe of an early race, more advanced than the Indians. So far as known the Indians never made stone coffins. On the other hand those articles negative most decidedly the opinion frequently advanced, that the ancient inhabitants of this region, be they of what race they might, were superior in bight to the people of modern times. It is very certain that in numerous instances the thighbone of a big Indian has, by an imaginative process of reconstruction, been developed into a whole race of pre-historic giants. A commonly quoted evidence on this point is the statement that some venerable jawbone, taken from an ancient mound, will " fit right on over" the jaw of an ordinary, adult white man; the easy reasoner forgetting that any concave body will "fit right on over " a convex one as large as itself, and that a score of bowls or kettles of the same size will " fit" each other to perfection.
So far as the fortifications are concerned there is absolutely nothing to show that their builders were superior to the the discovered by the white men. True, the Indians, when first discovered, did not build earthen breastworks, but they did build palisades, requiring more labor and ingenuity than the much vaunted earthworks. The palisaded castles of the Five Nations were almost impregnable to any foe not provided with fire-arms, and doubtless the kindred, though hostile, Eries had provided themselves with similar defenses. The first Frenchman who came to Montreal found there an Indian town of fifty cabins, encompassed by three lines of palisades, made of closely fitted timbers, near thirty feet high. On the inside there was a lofty wooden rampart, reached by ladders, and always kept well supplied with stones with which to assail an enemy.
Such a fortress shows a. much greater progress in architectural skill than do the rude earthworks previously described. Moreover, considering that wooden arrows and stone tomahawks were the most effective weapons of the Indians; it is plain that the palisades were a great improvement on the breastworks as a protection against an enemy. Since artillery has come into use among the whites, wooden and even stone defenses have been abandoned in favor of earthen ones, into which the balls of an enemy sink without destructive results. But there was no danger of either wooden or earthen walls being destroyed by arrows or stone tomahawks; the problem was to prevent the foe from shooting or climbing over the harrier. For this purpose it is evident that the palisade thirty feet high was immensely superior to the low breastwork, which could only with immense labor be raised five or six feet above the surrounding country.
Moreover, while the intrenchment could hardly be employed to advantage except on some strong natural position, where its slight bight was eked out by the ascent from lower ground, the palisade could be built on the very bank of a stream, or in the midst of a maize field, and afford almost perfect protection to the cabins placed inside. While, therefore, among a people who use artillery, earthen fortifications are an advance on wooden or stone ones, yet the palisades of the Iroquois and 'Fries show them to have advanced in defensive skill beyond the men who erected the earthworks of northern Ohio and western New York, though very probably the former were descended from the latter.
The coffins at Chagrin Falls are far stronger evidences of ancient superiority to the Indians than are the breastworks, but while it is true that Indians generally did not make stone coffins, yet they did make weapons and utensils of stone, such as tomahawks, etc., and the existence of the larger articles in this vicinity may be due to the fact that northern Ohio is much more prolific than other sections in stone which is easily shaped into any required form.
Another circumstance, showing that the pre-historic inhabitants of this region were of the same race as the Indians, or an inferior one, is the fact that no metal instruments, not even of copper, have come down to us from the pre-historic era. Flint arrowheads, flint knives, stone hatchets, there are in abundance—all of the same kind as those used by the
THE ERIES AND THEIR DESTRUCTION - 17
Indians-and if metal instruments had existed some of them would certainly have remained to the present day.
Between the borders of Lake Erie and the valleys of southern Ohio, there is a tract which has been well designated by Colonel Whittlesey as a neutral ground between the inhabitants of those localities. Without attempting to cross this open space and risk ourselves among the shades of the mythical " Mound-Builders," but looking only at the region of the great lakes, we may consider ourselves on tolerably firm ground. The Indians were here when the white men first came; the relics of ancient times generally show not superiority over, but inferiority to, the works of the red men, and the very strong probability is that some of the numerous tribes of Indians, in a more or less advanced state;. were the masters of this region from the time it first had human occupants until they gave way to the insatiate invaders from Europe.
CHAPTER III.
THE ERIES AND THEIR DESTRUCTION.
The Eries little known to the French—Power of the Iroquois—Destruction of the Kahquahs—Iroquois Tradition Regarding the Overthrow of the Eries—The Latter hear of the League of the Five Nations—An Athletic Contest with the Senecas—Bloody Work—An Attempted Surprise—A (treat Battle—Defeat of the Eries—Probability of the Story Considered—Another Account—Butchery of the Erie Ambassadors— Burning of an Onondaga Chieftain-- Wrath of the Confederates—The Next Spring they Set Out—Approaching the Stronghold—Description of the Warriors—The Assault—The Victory—Vengeance—Return of the Iroquois.
During the first quarter of a century after the existence of the Fries became known to the French, very little occurred which has become matter of history or even of tradition. The Gallic explorers with undaunted footsteps made their way to the shores of Lakes Huron and Ontario, but Lake Erie was almost an unknown sea to them. Between its waters and the French settlements in Canada were the homes of the fierce, untamable Iroquois, against whom Champlain, the founder of Canada, had needlessly waged war, and who had become the most implacable enemies of the French colonists. These celebrated confederates, already the terror of surrounding tribes, were rapidly rising to still wider dominion, partly on account of the strength derived from their well- planned union, and partly on account of the facility with which they could obtain fire-arms and ammunition from the Dutch on the Hudson river, who were very glad to have so good a guard located between them and the adventurous Frenchmen of Canada. Equipped with these terrible weapons, and strong in their live-fold alliance, the Iroquois wreaked terrible vengeance not only on the countrymen of Champlain, but on their numerous foes of their own race, little foreseeing that the destruction of their Indian rivals would only leave themselves the less able to resist the advance of the Europeans.
There was occasional warfare between the Iroquois and the Fries, but the Kahquahs, or Neuter Nation, whose seats were on both sides of the Niagara river and extended a short distance up the south side of Lake Erie, lay partly between the rivals, and were then at peace with both; so the enemies were constrained to bridle their hatred when they met on Kahquah ground, or, as some accounts say, only when in the immediate vicinity of the Kahquah villages. The Kahquahs maintained a similar neutrality between the Iroquois and thc Hurons of Canada, and hence the French designation of "La Nation Neu Ire." They were not Quakers, by any means, however, and often waged war against distant tribes.
But the time was rapidly approaching when their neutrality would no longer serve to shield them from the aggressive spirit of the Iroquois. In the autumn of 1650, the Five Nations, having already destroyed the Hurons, burst like a thunderbolt upon the unfortunate Kahquahs, defeated them in battle, burned a large number of their villages and slaughtered the inhabitants. The next spring they renewed the assault, and utterly destroyed the Kahquahs as a nation, slaying all except a few whom they adopted into their own tribes, and a few more who fled for safety to the Indians of the Far West, among whom they soon lost their separate identity.
Naught now interposed between the Fries and their arrogant foes, the Five Nations. Experience showed that they might soon expect an assault made with all the strength of the confederacy, and no doubt they prepared for its coming. The story of the final struggle is only to be derived from the vague and boastful traditions of the Iroquois, for of the Frics none are left to tell the tale of their people's ruin. One account, which has been widely quoted, was published in the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser in 1845, and is said to have been vouched for by "Governor Blacksnake," a celebrated Seneca chief then nearly a hundred years old, and by other aged warriors of the Five Nations.
It represents that " when the Fries heard of the confederation between the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas," they imagined it must be for some mischievous purpose. To discover its meaning they invited the Iroquois to send a hundred of their most athletic young men, to play a game of ball with a like number selected by the Fries, for a heavy wager. The invitation was declined. Next year it was repeated, but again declined. A third time the challenge was sent, and this time it was accepted.
A hundred men, the flower of the Iroquois youth, went forth, unarmed, to meet their antagonists. The two parties met near the site of Buffalo. A large amount of wampum-belts, buffalo robes, beaded moccasins, etc., was deposited on each side as a wager, and then the game was played. The Iroquois were successful. The Fries then challenged the victors to a foot-race between ten of the fastest runners. The
18 - GENERAL HISTORY OF CUYAHOGA COUNTY.
challenge was accepted, and the Iroquois were again victorious. By this time the Epics were extremely angry, and their chief proposed a wrestling match between ten of the best men on each side; it being understood that the victor in each case should tomahawk his adversary and tear off his scalp as a trophy. The Iroquois accepted the proposition, determined, however, as they say, not to enforce the bloody penalty provided they were the conquerors. In the first match a Seneca threw his antagonist, but declined to slay him. The infuriated chief of the Eries immediately drove his own tomahawk into the brains of his prostrate champion. A second and a third Eric met the same fate. The chief of the Iroquois, seeing the terrible excitement which prevailed among the Epics, put a stop to this remarkable "sport," and quickly led his men. back to their own homes.
This inglorious contest increased the jealousy of the Epics. They determined to attack the Senecas, who resided on Seneca lake, in the present State of New York, hoping to destroy them ere the other confederates could interfere. A Seneca woman, married among the Eries, fled and informed her countrymen of the intended assault. All the warriors of the Five Nations rallied to meet it. The two armies met on the east side of the Genesee river.. After a long and bloody combat, elaborately described by Blacksnake and his friends, after the Fries had seven times been driven across a small stream which ran across the battle field, and had every time regained their ground, they were forced back for the eighth time, and a corps of a thousand young Iroquois warriors, which had been held in reserve, was let loose upon the rear of their exhausted foes. This decided the day, and the Epics were almost entirely annihilated by the vigorous young warriors. The Iroquois army followed their defeated enemies to their homes, destroyed their villages, and slew all but a few wretched men and women, who fled in terror to the tribes farther west.
Such is the substance of the story as preserved by Iroquois tradition, but it is altogether too good a story for the Five Nations. It shows them meek under provocation, successful in every athletic contest, and acting entirely on the defensive in the war which resulted in the destruction of their foes. The statement in the beginning that the movements of the Fries were caused by their hearing of the formation of the Iroquois league, shows the dubious character of the whole story, for that league had been in existence at least half a century when the Eries were destroyed, and probably much longer. The confederacy had again and again demonstrated its power, and it would be absurd to suppose that their near neighbors and bitter enemies, ,the Eries, did not know all about it. Some portions of the tradition may be true, but it is so partial to the Iroquois that no dependence can be placed upon it. Almost the only certain thing in the whole story is that there was a war between the Iroquois and the Epics, and that the latter were defeated and destroyed.
The most reliable account of the last great, contest between the Iroquois and the Eries is that given by Parkin in his "Jesuits of North America." This is also derived principally from Indian tradition, but the statements of the red men have been carefully sifted by that experienced historian, and have been compared with contemporary accounts of French missionaries. Moreover, it is quite in consonance with the nature of the Iroquois and the known results of the case. It appears from this account that in '1653 a treaty of peace was made between the Fries and the Senecas, the nearest and most powerful of the Iroquois tribes, and the former nation sent thirty ambassadors to the Seneca country to confirm it. While they were there a quarrel arose in which a Seneca warrior was killed by one of the Fries. The countrymen of the deceased, regardless of the sacred office of the ambassadors (according to civilized ideas), immediately fell upon them and slew the whole thirty.
When the Fries heard of this butchery, of course the war was at once renewed. One of the parties sent to harass the Iroquois captured an Onondaga chief, and returned with him in triumph to their own country. Indian custom required that he should he burned at the stake to appease the shades of their slaughtered brethren. Some of the older and wiser sachems objected. Such an act would make the whole confederacy perfectly implacable, although previous to that time the quarrel had been principally with the Senecas. The Five Nations, partly armed with European weapons, had shown their immense power by scattering the great Huron nation to the four winds and by utterly destroying the Kahquahs, and it would be madness to invoke the unappeasable wrath of the terrible confederaoy. On the other hand the young warriors were furious for revenge, and besides it was almost a positive law among them that the blood shed by their foes should be repaid with torture whenever an opportunity offered.
There was, however, one way of escape. It was an immemorial custom that a prisoner's life might be saved at the request of a near relative of a slain warrior, who adopted him in place of the deceased. It was determined to give the Onondaga to the sister of one of the slaughtered ambassador:. She was then absent, but it was not doubted that she would accept the prisoner in place of her brother, since by that means alone could the stern requirements of Indian law be reconciled with the safety of her people. She soon returned, and was earnestly solicited to acquiesce in the arrangement. But no; she would have • no such brother as that.
"Let him be burned," she said; and the party of vengeance was thus reinforced by all who held in especial reverence the ancient customs of the tribe. The unfortunate Onondaga was doomed to the stake, and submitted to his terrible fate with the usual stoicism of an Indian warrior. But, as they were about to light the funeral pile, he declared that they were burning the whole Erie nation, and many a prudent
THE ERIES AND THEIR DESTRUCTION - 19
old sachem foreboded the accomplishment of the prophesy.
When the news reached the Iroquois, the whole confederacy was in a fury of rage. Mohawks, Oneidas and Cayugas were as eager for revenge as the Senecas; and the Onondagas, whose chief had suffered the last punishment of savage hate, were even more so. The approach of winter prevented an immediate movement against the Eries, but in the spring of 1654 nearly all the Iroquois warriors were summoned to the field. An army was fitted out which Le Moine, a Jesuit missionary then among the Onondagas, estimated at eighteen hundred men—an immense number when compared with an ordinary Indian war party.
The Eries, sensible of their danger, had retreated to the western part of their territory—probably to the vicinity of Cleveland and had there fortified themselves with palisades, strengthened by an abattis of forked trees. The Iroquois estimated the number of the Erie warriors at two thousand, but this was probably one of time usual exaggerations of an enemy. The Senecas, by far the most powerful of the Five Nations, could only muster a thousand warriors, and there is no reason to suppose the Eries were stronger. Probably they were weaker.
After a long maroh through the forest, the Iroquois approached the stronghold of their enemies. A few carried muskets or arquebuses, and ammunition, either purchased from the Dutch or captured from the French. Two wore French costumes, doubtless stripped from the bodies of slain enemies. At length the long column of the confederates arrived in front of the fortress of the Eries, and spread themselves out in line. Other armies have been larger and better disciplined, but few have made a more terrifying appearance than that which now stood awaiting the signal for the onslaught.
The war costume of an Indian in the olden time consisted of a small breech-clout of deerskin, and a crest of as many bright colored feathers as he could obtain. His face and naked body were painted with pigments of red, yellow and black, arranged in the most fantastic and hideous designs that the artist could invent. A thousand or more savages, thus arrayed and decorated, and known to be filled with the most furious hatred, must have presented an appalling appearance to any but the hardiest foes. Nearly every man curried the bow, the arrows and the war club which had been the weapons of his fathers, but a Lw, as has been said, were. provided with fire-arms, and many had substituted iron hatchets and knives for the stone tomahawks and flint scalpers of their ancestors. The war-chiefs, of whom there was a large proportionate number, took their positions a few yards ahead of the line, each one in front of his own band.
When all was ready the two Iroquois, before mentioned as being dressed in French costume, advanced close to the walls and demanded the surrender of the Eries. One of them, who had been baptized by the Jesuits, declared that the " Master of Life" was on their side.
" Ho, ho!" cried the scornful Eries, " our hatchets and our arrows are the masters of life; come and see what they will do!"
The heralds retired, the head chiefs gave the signal, and with terrific yells the Iroquois advanced to the attack. They were met with flights of poisoned arrows, and were compelled to fall back. They then brought forward the canoes in which they had made the trip up the lake, and each crew bore its own bark above their heads so as to protect them from the arrows of the Eries. Thus shielded, they again moved forward. The poisoned missiles rattled on the frail bark vessels, but only occasionally hit the exposed part of some careless warrior.
At length the assaulting line reached the front of the palisade. This lofty barrier might well appear an insurmountable obstacle to men unprovided with ladders, but the Iroquois placed their canoes against the wooden walls, and, in spite of the resistance of the Eries, speedily climbed over into the fort. Then began a scene of frightful butchery. Probably largely outnumbered by their confederated foes--perhaps hardly equal to them in warlike prowess—the Eries gave way on all sides. The Iroquois rushed forward, Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas and Mohawks all eager to be the first in the race for vengeance. The forest resounded with the fearful yells of the victims, as in swift succession they struck down their foes with war-club or tomahawk, tore off their scalps, and waved the reeking trophies above their heads in demoniac triumph.
As was generally the case when one savage nation was completely successful over another, the conquered people was almost completely annihilated. Men, women and children were slaughtered with equal ruthlessness, and all their villages were burned to the ground. Some escaped to join the tribes of the Far West. Some, especially children, were reserved for adoption by the conquerors, in accordance with widespread Indian custom. Many of the warriors, too, were taken alive, but these were generally devoted to the most terrible fate which savage malignity could invent.
When night came on, the victors prepared for a grand illumination. The captured warriors were bound, naked, one by one, to the trees of the forest. Piles of light fuel were heaped around them and then the torch was applied. A Cayuga told Mr. Parkman that, according to the tradition in his tribe, a thousand Fries were thus enveloped in flames at once. As the Indians couldn't count over ten, and as there were probably not over a thousand Erie warriors in all, if so many, it is best to take this statement with much allowance. But even if there were a hundred thus subjected to torture, they must have formed the most soul-curdling sight that can well be imagined. Those who admire the romance of Indian life might have enjoyed their fill of it could they have stood in
20 - GENERAL HISTORY OF CUYAHOGA COUNTY.
the forest on the shore of Lake Erie, two hundred and twenty-five years ago, and have seen the darkness lighted up by fire after fire, extending in every direction, in the midst of each of which a naked warrior writhed in the agonies of death; his voice, however, rising in the death-song, defiant and contemptuous toward his foes, who danced and howled around him in all the ecstasy of diabolical glee.
The Iroquois remained in the country of the Eries for two months, nursing their own wounded, and hunting out, and capturing or slaying, any of that unfortunate people who might still be lingering near the homes of their ancestors. Then the conquerors re-entered their canoes, proceeded down the lake and made their way to their own homes, where they were doubtless received with universal admiration as heroes who had deserved well of their country.
CHAPTER IV.
DISPUTED DOMINION.
Iroquois Power—Its Boundary on the Cuyahoga—Ownership of the Western Part of the County—French Skill—La Salle's Supposed Visit —His Great Exploration—The First Vessel on Lake Erie—Tonti and Hennepin—Brilliant Prospects for the French—Fate of the Griffin— Subsequent career of La Salle— Pretensions of the French and English —The Jealous Iroquois—Ohio a Part of Louisiana—Building of Fort Niagara—An Extensive Trust Deed—Lake Erie called " Oswego "— Meaning of the Word—The War of 1744—The Ohio Company—De Bien- vine's Expedition—New French Posts- The First European Establishment in Cuyahoga county—Washington in the Field—The First American Congress—Franklin's Proposition—Beginning of the Great War— Western Indians aid the French—Defeat of Braddock—French Fortunes wane—Loss of Niagara and Quebec—Surrender of Canada-- End of French Power in the Lake Region.
FROM that time forward northwestern Ohio became a part of the domain of the all-conquering Iroquois. They fixed their western boundary at the Cuyahoga river, and there were none to dispute it with them. They continued, however, to reside in central New York, using this region only as a hunting ground. That remarkable confederacy was then at the bight of its power. From the Atlantic to the ;.Mississippi, from Hudson's bay to the Gulf of Mexico, no nation nor league of their own race was able to withstand them, and the feeble colonies of Europeans alternately courted their friendship or shrank from their enmity.
Though claiming no farther west than the Cuyahoga, their war parties made frequent excursions far beyond that boundary, coasting up Lake Erie in their canoes, passing by those who propitiated their friendship, but executing vengeance on those who awakened their wrath, even to the distant shores of the Mississippi and the far northern waters of Lake Superior.
That part of Cuyahoga county \vest of the river which bears its name was not permanently occupied by any tribe, but appears to have been claimed by another confederacy, much less powerful than the Iroquois, which had its principal seat in Michigan, and was .composed of the Ottawas, Uhippewas and the Pottawattamies. The Shawnees, who resided in the southwest, in the present State of Indiana, also frequently hunted along the shore of Lake Erie. In fact, the boundaries of Indian possessions were seldom defined with the accuracy of farm-lines in a deed, and were constantly varying according to the power or caprice of their owners.
Notwithstanding the old grudge of the Iroquois against them, the French, whose skill ill managing savages was unequaled by that of any other European nation, succeeded in the intervals of active warfare in insinuating themselves among those fierce warriors, and securing a foothold for their fur-traders and even for their missionaries. It is highly probable that some of those classes, intent on the interests of commerce or religion, made their way to the south shore of Lake Erie soon after, if not before, the destruction of the unfortunate people who resided there; for the Jesuit map of 1660 proves that the members of that order had at least traced the chain of waters from Lake Erie to Lake Superior.
Very little is known, however, of the locality under consideration. According to a biography of the celebrated La Salle, by an anonymous author, yet bearing many evidences of credibility, that remarkable adventurer came into the country south of Lake Erie in 1669, discovered the Ohio and descended it to the rapids where Louisville now stands, where he was abandoned by his men and compelled to return alone. What La Salle was doing at this period is not positively known, and such an exploit would be in perfect harmony not only with his dauntless courage and boundless love of adventure but with his uniform lack of tact in managing his subordinates.
A map attributed to La Salle, issued in 1672, calls the great body of water which bounds Cuyahoga county on the north, " Lake Tejocharonting, commonly called Lake Erie."
But it was not until 1679 that Lake Erie was fully explored by European eyes and its waters plowed by a vessel built by European hands. The leader in this important enterprise was the brilliant adventurer already named, Robert Cavelier de hi, Salle. This gentleman, a Frenchman of good family, then thirty-five years old, was the boldest and most successful of all the gallant men who attempted to explore the interior of North America. Some adventurers had made short excursions inland from the coast, ̊theft had trodden the shores of the St. Lawrence, others still had traced the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and discovered the mouth of its principal river; it was given to La Salle to glide from the northeast to the southwest over three thousand unknown miles of land and water, to unravel the great enigma of the Mississippi, and to span the whole eastern portion of the continent with the bow of triumphant discovery.
Having left his native Rouen at the age of twenty-two, La Salle had for thirteen years been leading a life of varied adventure in America, and had in 1678 received a commission from Louis the Fourteenth to
DISPUTED DOMINION - 21
discover the western part of New France. In the winter and spring of 1678 and 1679 he built a vessel of sixty tons on the Niagara river, above the falls, to which he gave the name of the "Griffin." After long waiting, to perfect his preparations, La Salle sailed up Lake Erie from the head of the Niagara on the seventh day of August, 1678.
It is not certain on which side of Lake Erie the "Griffin" sailed, nor whether it crossed the watery portion of Cuyahoga county; the presumption, however, is that it went on the north side, which was not only the shortest but was least likely to be infested by the hostile Iroquois. Nevertheless, the opening of the great inland sea, on which the county borders, to the knowledge and the commerce of Europe is an event of such importance to all who live on its shores as to merit more than a passing notice.
La Salle occupied four days in making the voyage from the site of Buffalo to the head of the lake; where he entered into the straits which lead to Lake Huron. There were thirty-four men on board the "Griffin," all Frenchmen with two or three exceptions. La Salle himself is represented as a handsome, blue-eyed cavalier, with smooth cheeks and abundant ringlets, apparently better fitted to grace the salons of Paris than to dare the dangers of the American wilderness, yet in reality standing in the foremost rank of all those who opened the new world to the knowledge of the old.
The second in command was Henry de Tonti, an Italian by birth, son of the inventor of the "Tontine" plan of insurance, who had served valiantly as a soldie in the Sicilian wars, who had been exiled from his native land by revolution, and who showed, throughout his career under La Salle, the most unwavering contempt of danger and the most devoted loyalty to his chief.
Another distinguished voyager on the "Griffin" was the celebrated Father Hennepin, a Franciscan friar of Flemish birth, but French by education and language, who was at once the priest and the historian of the expedition. " With sandaled feet, a coarse, gray capote, and peaked hood, the cord of St. Francis about his waist, and a rosary and crucifix hanging at his side, the father set forth on his memorable journey." He was attended by two coadjutors, and they carried with them a light portable altar, which could be strapped on the back like a knapsack or set up in the wilderness at a moment's notice. Father Hennepin was destined, in the course of the wide wanderings on which he was then entering, to display thc most unswerving courage, and the most devoted zeal in the conversion of the savages to Christianity, but was also to acquire the less enviable reputation of being one of the most mendacious of the many untrustworthy European travelers in America.
As the little bark with its gallant commander, its zealous priests and its swarthy crew, swept westward
* Parkman.
before the favoring breezes, all doubtless believed that they were opening the new lake to the commerce of France, and that its fertile shores would in time be occupied by the subjects of Louis le Grand or his successors. To all appearances the French had obtained the complete dominion of all the waters of the St. Lawrence, and the career of La Salle was to extend still farther the sway of their magnificent monarch. The most vivid and prophetic imagination could not have pictured the shores of the great lakes passing from the dominion of France to that of England, (whose king, Charles the Second, was then the mere vassal of Louis the Fourteenth), and again, after a brief interval, becoming a part of an independent country, whose power was to rival that of either of the great nations which had preceded it in the path of empire.
La Salle named the waters over which he was passing the" Lac de Conti," in honor of one of his patrons, the Prince de Conti, but Father Hennepin called it Erie, mentioning at the same time that the Indians termed it " Erie Tejocharonting."
The "Griffin," though the pioneer of all the immense commerce of Lake Erie, was itself the sport of disastrous fate. It went to Green Bay, where La Salle, Tonti and Hennepin left it; started on its return with a cargo of furs, and was never heard of more. Whether it sank with all on board amid the storm- tossed waters of Lake Michigan or Huron, or was driven upon the shore of Lake Erie and its crew murdered by the revengeful Iroquois, has been a subject of frequent but unavailing investigation. Numerous relics of shipwreck have been found near the mouth of Rocky river, in Cuyahoga county, and it is possible, not probable, that sonic of them came from the long lost "Griffin." With greater probability it has. been deemed that the scene of the " Griffin's " shipwreck was discovered, near the beginning of this century, by the settlers in the southwest part of Erie county, New York; for there were cannon found there with French mottoes upon them, which certainly gives color to the theory that that was the theater of the "Griffins " disaster. There are, however, other ways of accounting for those relics, and it is quite likely, as before stated, that the pioneer vessel of the upper lakes sank amid their turbulent waters with all of its unfortunate crew.
After the "Griffin" had sailed, La Salle, with the majority of his companions, went into the Illinois country. There they built two trading posts, but as; after long waiting, the "Griffin" did not return, the indomitable chief, with three comrades, performed the extraordinary feat of returning on foot to the shores of the St. Lawrence, subsisting entirely upon the game they procured with their muskets. It has generally been supposed that La Salle and his companions went on the southern side of Lake Erie across the territory of Cuyahoga county, but there are good reasons for believing that they crossed the Detroit river and skirted the northern shore of the lake,
22 - GENERAL HISTORY OF CUYAHOGA COUNTY
where they would be in less danger from the ever- dreaded Iroquois.
La Salle afterwards returned to the Illinois region, and in 1682, with a handful of men, descended the Mississippi to the sea, thus achieving the greatest feat of discovery ever accomplished in the interior of America, and adding the vast territory of Louisiana to the dominions of France. While endeavoring, however, to colonize these newly discovered lands, he met with continual disasters, and was at length murdered by some of his own followers, in what is now the State of Texas.
For a long period afterwards there is very little to relate regarding the county of Cuyahoga. The French waged long wars with the English under King William and Queen Anne, and the Iroquois were generally in alliance with the latter people. Nevertheless the French, whose powers of insinuation among savages were unrivaled, obtained considerable influence among the Senecas, and were enabled to make many profitable voyages after furs upon Lake Erie. Fort Ponchartrain was built on the site of Detroit in 1701. By the peace of Utrecht, concluded at the end of " Queen Anne's War" in 1713, the Five Nations (or the Six Nations, as they became about that time by the admission of the Tuscaroras into the confederacy), were acknowledged to be subjects of the crown of Great Britain, but no definite boundaries were assigned them. From that time forth the English claimed to own as far west as the Cuyahoga, on the ground that the Six Nations had long been the proprietors to that point, while the French, by right of discovery and possession, claimed both shores of the great lakes, together with the whole valley of the Mississippi.
As for the Iroquois, they repudiated the pretensions of the English as scornfully as they did those of the French, and asserted their own ownership by virtue of their conquest of the Kahquahs and Eries. In fact they were becoming, perhaps, more jealous of the English than of the French, since the former were continually obtaining large tracts of Indian lands for the purpose of colonization, while the latter only wanted posts for their fur-traders and stations for their missionaries. French traders from Canada scoured the whole West in search of furs, as did also the Dutch and English of New York.
At the period in question the French considered Ohio as a part of Louisiana. That province was divided into four parts, each in charge of a military commandant; all being subject to the council-general of Louisiana. One of these subdivisions nominally included all the territory northwest of the Ohio. In fact, however, the would-be rulers exercised very little authority outside the walls of their rude fortresses.
In 1725, the French obtained permission of the Iroquois chiefs to build a " stone house " at the month of the Niagara, on the east side, where the Marquis de Denonville had previously planted a French post, which had been speedily abandoned. The " stone house" was at once begun, and finished the next year; assuming, by the time it was completed, the proportions of a strong, frontier fortress. This was a very important proceeding, as it gave the French, to a great extent, the command of the whole upper lake region. There was a great deal of intriguing among the Iroquois chiefs on the part of both the French and the English, and it is sometimes difficult to learn which was in the ascendency ; though, as a general rule, the English influence was predominant. The French were most successful with the Senecas and one or two other western tribes of the confederacy, while the Mohawks and Oneidas, who lived on the English frontier, were usually faithful to their interest. The ancient bond of the " Hedonosaunce," or People of the Long House, as the Iroquois called themselves, was evidently weakening under the stress of foreign intrigue.
But the French did not have it all their own way even with the western tribes. The same year that Fort Niagara was completed seven of the principal sachems of the Senecas, Cayugas and Onondagas made a deed of trust to the King of Great Britain and his successors, of their lands, extending in a belt sixty miles wide from the foot of Lake Ontario, all along that lake, the Niagara river and the "Lake Oswego," [Erie] to the " creek called Canahogue," which was the original form of Cuyahoga. The deed also included the "beaver hunting-grounds" of those nations, the boundaries of which were not described, but which are supposed to have been on the Canadian peninsula. The king was to hold the lands forever, but solely in trust for the tribes above named; the object being evidently to give the English an excuse for withstanding the pretensions of the French to the same territory.
It is doubtful whether the seven chiefs had any authority to deed away the lands of their people, even " in trust," and it is probable that they represented only the English faction, while it was the French faction which had given that nation authority to build Fort Niagara. The officers of King Louis and King George now maintained the conflicting claims of their respective masters to the country east of the Cuyahoga with more pertinacity than ever before:
It will have been observed that in the above deed Lake Erie is called " Oswego," that being the same name which about the same time was applied to the locality on Lake Ontario, at the mouth of the Onondaga, now Oswego. On a map in Golden's History of the Five Nations Lake Erie is called "Okswego," and this appellation is also used in Washington's journal, in 1753, and on Pownal's map; as -late as 1777. This name, like most Indian names, has received many different explanations. The most plausible, considering that the expression was used in regard to two such widely separated localities, is that of " boundless view," or, as the Indians express it, "look everywhere—see nothing." Such an appellation
DISPUTED DOMINION - 23
would be applicable to almost any point along the lakes, or to either of the lakes itself. The lake on which Cuyahoga county borders was, however, more often called by its old name of "Erie," and this finally superseded all others.
Notwithstanding the intrigues of the French and English, that part of Cuyahoga county east of the river continued in peaceable possession of the Six Nations, who used it-only as a hunting ground, while the western part was occupied for the same. purpose by the Ottawas, Ohippewas and Pottawattamies. The only white men seen within its bounds were occasional French fur-traders, or, less often, an extremely daring English one, and perchance, now and then, a dark- gowned Jesuit, abandoning ease and risking life to spread the faith of his church among the savages of the Far West.
In the war between France and England, begun in 1744, and concluded by the treaty of Aix la Chapelle in 1748, the Six Nations generally maintained their neutrality, and the contest had no effect this far west. In the last named year, however, an association called the Ohio Company was organized under the authority of the government of Virginia, for the purpose of settling the lands which that colony claimed west of the Alleganies. It numbered fourteen members, all Virginians except one, (a Londoner), among whom were Lawrence and Augustine, elder brothers of George Washington. The Virginia authorities gave it a grant of half a million acres west of the Alleganies, but without any definite location of boundaries; if the owners could maintain themselves on the Ohio or the shores of Lake Erie, they were welcome to do so.
The peace of Aix in Chapelle was little more than an armed truce, so far as America was concerned, and the intrigues of both French and English for the extension of their frontiers were more active than ever. In 1749, the Count de la Galissoniere, the governor- general of Canada, ordered Monsieur Celeron de Bienville to set forth from Detroit with three hundred • men, to visit all important points, east and southeast, as far as the Alleganies, and to take formal possession of the country in the name of the king of France. De Bienville obeyed his instructions, and at each important locality he buried a leaden plate, engraved with the arms of France, and also made one of those curious records, called a "proces verbal," which consisted of a solemn written declaration of the officer, duly attested before a notary public, to the effect that he did then and there take possession of the surrounding country, in the name and for the benefit of the king of France.
As the mouth of the Cuyahoga had long been recognized as one of the principal places in the West, especially as being the boundary between the Six Nations and their western rivals, it is highly probable that Celeron de Bienville buried one of his plates and drew up one of his "proces verbal" at that point, but there is no direct evidence to that effect. The
next year the French followed up the movement they had begun, by building a fort near Sandusky bay.
In 1752, the Marquis de Duquesne de Menneville was appointed governor-general of Canada, and proceeded to carry out the aggressive policy of his predecessor. The Indians of all the tribes became seriously alarmed, and in a council held below Pittsburg, that year, they inquired where the Indian lands were, since the French claimed all on the west side of the Ohio and the English on the cast. The next year the French began to carry out their long planned scheme of connecting Lake Erie and the Ohio river by a chain of posts, which should at once mark. the boundary of the French possessions and defend them from invasion. Posts were accordingly established at Presqu' Isle, (Erie), Le Boeuf (French Creek) and Venango, all in the present State of Pennsylvania. If the movement was successful and the English acquiesced in it, Cuyahoga county, with all the rest of the West, was to become French territory.
The English and their colonies took the alarm ; small garrison was ordered to the forks of the Ohio, and young Major George Washington was sent by the governor of Virginia to remonstrate with the commandant at LeBoeuf and demand his withdrawal. The latter proceeding was entirely futile, as was doubtless expected, and the next spring the French went down with a heavy force, drove away the little garrison at the forks of the Ohio, and built a fort there which they called Fort Duquesne. Thus the chain of posts was complete, and for the first time Cuyahoga county was fully inclosed within the French lines. The same year another fort was built on the Sandusky. About the same period, perhaps a little earlier, a French post of some kind was established on the Cuyahoga. It is shown on Lewis Evans' map, of 1755, as a "French house," five or six miles up the river on the west side. The language would indicate a trading-house, but it was probably sufficiently fortified to resist a sudden attack of hostile Indians. This was the first European establishment within the limits of Cuyahoga county.
By this time all the colonies were much excited, and a meeting of their representatives—the first American congress—was held at Albany to devise some means of united action against the common enemy. Benjamin Franklin, a delegate from Pennsylvania, proposed a plan of union among the colonies, which, however, was not adopted. Immediately afterwards Franklin, in his paper at Philadelphia, proposed a plan for defending the frontiers. Two joint-stock companies were to be formed, each shareholder in which was to receive a certain number of Tuxes of land from the government; one of the companies being bound to plant a colony on the Niagara frontier, and the other to establish one north of the Ohio. For the protection of the latter he proposed a temporary fort on French creek, and another at the month of the " Tioga" [Cuyahoga] on the south side of Lake Erie, " where a post should be formed and a
24 - GENERAL HISTORY OF GUYAHOGA COUNTY
town erected for the trade of the lake." This was, so far as known, the first suggestion ever made looking to the building of a town on the site of Cleveland.
But Franklin's plan necessitated that the government should first drive the French away from the bead-waters of the Ohio and the south shore of Lake Erie, and this was a very difficult thing to do. When it should be accomplished the problem of defending the frontiers would have been substantially solved, whether the proposed colonies were established or not. .
In that year (1754) Washington, by attacking a French party which was spying around his camp, struck the first overt blow in the most important war which had yet been waged in America. The French rallied their numerous friends among the western Indians, and these came gliding down the lake in canoes, resplendent in war-paint and feathers, ready to aid their great father, the king of France. Some went to Presqu' Isle (Erie), and thence to the posts in the interior, but some went up the Cuyahoga to the " French house," thence to the portage, and so on direct to Fort Duquesne.
In 1755, a crowd of these western savages defeated the disciplined army of Braddock, and the valley of the Ohio and the shores of Lake Erie appeared to be more firmly fixed than ever in the power of the French. Their grasp was loosened in 1758, when Fort Duquesne was surrendered to General Forbes, but was by no means entirely relinquished. The next year, at the same time that Wolfe was seeking glory and a grave under the walls of Quebec, General Prideaux and Sir William Johnson, with a considerable force of English, Provincials and Iroquois, came to besiege Fort Niagara, justly considered the key of the whole upper-lake region. Again the western Indians were called on, and again they hastened down the lake to the assistance of their French brethren.
D'Aubrey, the commander at Venango, gathered all he could of both white and red, and hastened to the relief of Niagara. He was utterly defeated and captured, however, close to the walls of that post, and the fort itself was immediately surrendered to the English. When this news came westward, followed quickly by the intelligence of the fall of Quebec, the few remaining Frenchmen along the lakes sadly foreboded the speedy transfer of this broad domain to the power of the hated English. In September of the next year (1760), the Marquis de Vandreuil, governor-general of Canada, surrendered that province to the English, including all the forts of the western country. This ended the long contest for dominion over the territory of northern, Ohio, for no one could doubt that, with the French once subdued, the English would be the virtual lords of the whole country, although they might permit the various tribes of Indians to assert a nominal ownership.
CHAPTER V.
ENGLISH DOMINION.
Major Rogers and his Rangers sent to Detroit—The Command at the "Chogage"—Location of that Stream—A Band of Ottawas— Question as to the presence of Pontiac—Rogers’ description of the Meeting, and of subsequent Events—Sir William Johnson at the Cuyahoga—first British Vessel on Lake Erie—Conspiracy of Pontiac—Wilkins' Expedition—Location of the Disaster which befell it—Bradstreet's Expedition—Its arrival in Cuyahoga County—Description of the Scene—The Command proceeds up the Lake—Its Return—Wreck of the Flotilla— Location of that Event—Destruction of Boats—Putnam and his Men return on Foot—Relics found near Rocky River—A Mound full 4,-)f Bones—Query regarding its Occupants—Subsequent Events—Hardships of Early Navigation—Ohio annexed to the Province of Quebec— Lord Dunmorels War—The Revolution—Indian Forays—Murder of Moravian Indians—Meeling of Commissioners to negotiate Peace— Proposition to give Ohio to Great Britain—Its Defeat—Duration of English Dominion.
As soon as the surrender of Canada had been enforced, the British commander-in-chief, Gen. Amherst, felt that it was important to send a body of troops immediately to take possession of the western French posts, especially of Detroit, which had been looked on as the headquarters of French power on the upper lakes by numerous warlike tribes, who would hardly believe that England was victorious as long as they saw the Gallic flag flying from the battlements of that fortress. He selected for that purpose the force reported to be the bravest body of partisans in the Anglo-American army--the celebrated New Hampshire Rangers, commanded by their renowned leader, Major Robert. Rogers. Major Rogers had served throughout the war which was just closing, usually having a separate force with which he operated against the Indians or annoyed the French, and acting much of the time in concert with Israel Putnam, of Connecticut, whose fame as a partisan was second only to his own; each of them having done more daring deeds and experienced more hair-breadth escapes than would suffice to fill a volume.
This hardy backwoods leader, with his battalion of "Rangers," set out from Fort Niagara in October, 1760. The command moved up the Niagara and set forth upon Lake Erie in the large bateaux, holding fifty men each, with which white troops usually navigated the great lakes at that period. On the 7th of November the battalion arrived at the mouth of a river which Rogers, in his published journal, calls the "Chogage." It has generally been assumed that this was the Cuyahoga, but we agree with Col.. Whittlesey, the author of the Early History of Cleveland, in.thinking that it was much more probably the "Cheraga," as the Grand river was then called, according to the old maps; a name which has since become Geauga. Major Rogers, in his journal, gave the distances which he sailed nearly every dlay, and these, as stated after he left Presqu' Isle (Erie), would bring him just about to Grand river. "Chogage" is much more like Cheraga than it is like Cuyahoga or Canahogue, and as the Cuyahoga river was one of the best known. streams in the western country, and was laid down