HISTORY OF

DEFIANCE COUNTY, OHIO.

CHAPTER I

HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY NORTHWEST OF THE OHIO

A HUNDRED years carries us back to Ohio in a state of nature; its forests unbroken by

the labors of civilized man; its rich mines unopened; its beautiful lakes and rivers free from all navigation save the Indian canoe. The silence of solitude rested over its whole extent, except where the Indian villages gathered the sparse population, or the shout of the hunt or battle broke the stillness. A hundred years ago the Northwestern Territory that now comprises the great and prosperous States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, with a population of 9, - 000,000, was an almost unknown wilderness, with a few French settlements scattered among large tribes of roaming Indians. Great :Britain had received this territory by her treaty with France in 1763, but she did not encourage its settlement by the American colonists. Her policy was to leave the Indians in undisturbed possession of it, and keep up a profitable commerce with them. Such was its condition on the 4th of July, 1776, when our independence of Great Britain was declared. During the war of Independence, Great Britain used these Indian tribes against the United States. By the treaty of 1783 between the United States and Great Britain, this territory west to the Mississippi and south to the Ohio was reluctantly granted to the United States. It is said that it was only by the firm purpose of John Adams in negotiating that treaty that the Ohio River did not become the southern boundary of the British possessions, instead of the present Canada line. It is a matter of history that Great Britain maintained trading posts and forts within this territory long after it was ceded to us, and is believed to have aided and supported the Indian tribes in their deadly hostility to the first settlements of Ohio. During the Revolutionary war, New York, Massachusetts, Virginia and Connecticut had each set up claims to this territory under royal charters, although to the other colonies their claims seemed unjust, their assertions for a time seriously affected the formation of the American Union. It required all the patriotism and wisdom of the fathers of the republic to deal with this delicate question, so as to secure for the common good this vast empire, and not alienate any of these powerful colonies from the Union. The differences were finally adjusted, Virginia ceded her rights in 1785, reserving the territory between the Scioto and Little Miami Rivers, which amounted to over 3,700,000 acres, and Connecticut ceded her rights in 1786, reserving out of her grant all north of latitude 41, extending for a hundred and twenty miles west of Pennsylvania, since known as the Connecticut Western Reserve, amounting to a little less than 3,700,000 acres, Massachusetts and New York ceded their rights with no other condition than that the territory should be held for the benefit of all the States of the Union.

Large bounties of land had been promised by Congress to the officers and soldiers of the line. Virginia, who regarded herself as the owner of the unlimited territories of Tennessee and Kentucky and northwest of the Ohio, had also made magnificent promises of bounties to her soldiers and offrcers. These bounties, in case of Brigadier Generals, were 10,000 acres; and to Major Generals, 15,000 acres; all other officers less, in proportion to their rank. Those who were entitled to these bounties became impatient to receive them. By the war their business had been broken up, the commerce and manufactures of the country were of little value, and the small and sterile farms of New England and the Atlantic coast offered small attractions for agriculture compared with the rich lands of Kentucky and the Ohio country, of which accounts found their way to these Eastern States. Congress was pressed by them to provide for the settlement of these territories, particularly the great region northwest of the Ohio River. Believing that the Indian tribes who had been at war with the United States were to be treated as defeated enemies, with no absolute rights in the lands they .occupied, Congress made the treaty of Fort Stanwix in October, 1784, with the Six Nations, fixing their boundary west

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by the west line of Pennsylvania, and giving to the United States all north and west of the Ohio. The treaty of Fort McIntosh was made on January 21, 1785, with the Delawares, Wyandots, Ottawas and Chippewas, who were then supposed to represent the Indians in actual occupation of Ohio, fixing their boundary by the Cuyahoga River on the east, and a line from the portage between the Cuyahoga and Muskingum to the head-waters of the Miami at the old French Fort, thence along the east side of the Maumee to Lake Erie, as a southern boundary of the lands of the Indians of Ohio. As soon as this was done, surveys were ordered by Congress, and preparations for immigration to the Ohio country were discussed. But northeast of the Ohio was yet unoccupied under authority of the United States. The Moravians had a successful mission on the Tuscarawas River, where civilization had made its home, and white families and Indians were enjoying comparative comfort and prosperity. This mission was in charge of Brothers Ziesburgen, John Heckewelder, Jengman, Senseman and others. Mary Heckewelder was born at this misson, April 16, 1787, and is supposed to be the first white child born in Ohio. The history of this mission is one of the most interesting and saddest in Ohio history. It would be pleasant, did space permit, to pay a deserving tribute to the love and faithfulness of those devoted men and women and recall that scene of peace and Christian civilization which found its temporary home among those savages of the wilderness. Here they founded their villages, beautifully called Shoenbrun, the beautiful spring; Guadenhutten, tents of grace; and Salem, peace. But the want of space compels us to turn to other scenes, to learn from them, if we may, the source of Ohio's strength and glory.

On the 20th of May, 1785, Congress considering the United States to be the rightful owners and in possession of the lands ceded by the treaty of Fort McIntosh, passed an ordinance for ascertaining the mode of disposing of the lands in the "Western Territory," directing therein how surveys should be made. In these surveys, Section 16 was reserved for the use of schools, and four other sections were reserved for further disposal by Congress. Although many changes were made in the laws relating to lands in Ohio, this policy of providing for schools was continued throughout.

THE ORDINANCE FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF THE TERRITORY OF THE UNITED

STATES NORTHWEST OF THE OHIO RIVER.

This ordinance was passed on the 13th day of July, 1787. As this ordinance is spoken of so often, and has so often been eulogized, it is well for us to know exactly what it is, and what part of it is entitled to eulogy. For we will find that parts of it became exceedingly distasteful to the early settlers of Ohio, and were bitterly denounced by them very early in our history. This ordinance first provides certain temporary rules of property, which were subject to future legislation, regulating descents, dowers, wills and deeds. It provides for the rights of the inhabitants of Kaskaskia and Vincennes, or Port Vincents, as it is therein called, which were to be subject to the laws of Virginia at the time. Then it provides for a temporary government. This was to consist at first of a Governor, Secretary and three Judges, to be appointed by Congress. The Governor and Judges were to have the power to adopt and publish in the district such laws of the original States, criminal and civil, that might be necessary and best suited to the circumstances of the district, and not disapproved by Congress. All officers were required to be residents for certain periods of time, and all to be land owners; the Governor to own 1,000 acres; the Secretary and Judges each 500 acres. When the district should contain 5,000 free male inhabitants of full age, they were to elect a House of Representatives. Its members were to own each 200 acres of land, and those only could vote for representatives who owned 50 acres of land. These Representatives were elected for two years. They were to select ten names of citizens of the territory, each owning 500 acres of land, out of which Congress selected five persons who composed the coun cil, and whose term was five years. The - Governor, Council and Representatives formed the Legislature. This Legislature had power to make laws in all cases for the good government of the district, not repugnant to the principles and articles of the ordinance declared and established, and to repeal and alter those made by the Governor and Judges. All bills passed by a majority of the Council and the House had to have the assent of the Governor. He also had power to convene, prorogue and dissolve the assembly, when in his opinion it should be expedient. He also had power to form counties, appoint all magistrates and other officers, not otherwise directed by the ordinance, during the temporary government. The third division of this ordinance contains a declaration of certain fundamental principles of government and the rights of man. Among these are the rights to worship and to religious opinions. It also declares that no law ought ever to be made that shall in any manner interfere with or effect private contracts, engagements bona fide, and without fraud, previously made. It declares that " religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." It further declares that "the utmost good faith shall always

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be observed toward the Indians, their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent; and in their property, rights and liberty they shall never be invaded, or disturbed unless in just and lawful wars authorized by Congress, but laws founded in justice and humanity shall, from time to time, be made for preventing wrongs being done to them and for preserving peace and friendship with them."

Article 6 declares that " there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in said territory otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted," to which a proviso was attached that fugitives from labor or service could be reclaimed. It is to this third part of the ordinance that the eulogies of many of our statesmen and citizens have been given, and to-day, in the light of almost a century of Ohio's history, cannot we unite in those eulogies? Mr. Webster, in his celebrated controversy with Hayne says, that this ordinance was drawn by Nathan Dow, of Massachusetts. "It was adopted, as I think I have understood, without the slightest alteration, and certainly it has happened to few men to be the author of a political measure of more large and enduring consequence. It fixes forever the character of the population northwest of the Ohio, by excluding from them involuntary servitude. It impresses upon the soil itself, while it was yet a wilderness, an incapacity to bear up any other than free men. It laid the interdict against personal servitude not only deeper than all local law, but deeper also than all local constitutions. Under the circumstances then existing, I look upon this original and reasonable provision as a real good attained. We see its consequences at this moment, and shall never cease to see them perhaps while the Ohio shall flow." In another part of this discussion, he said of this ordinance: " It need hardly be said that that paper expresses just sentiments on the great subject of civil and religious liberty. Such sentiments were common and abound in all our State papers of that day. But the ordinance did that which was not so common, and which is not even now universal; that is, it set forth and declared, as a high and binding duty of government itself, to encourage schools and advance the means of education, on the plain reason that religion, morality and knowledge are necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind."

"One observation further. The important provision incorporated in the Constitution of the United States, restraining legislative power in questions of private right, and from impairing the obligations of contracts, is first introduced and established, as far as I am informed, as matters of expressed written constitutional law in the ordinance of 1787."

In the sketches of the history of Ohio prefixed to Chase's Statutes, and published in 1833, Gov. Chase says:

"After establishing the freedom of conscience, the sacredness of personal liberty, the inviolability of private contracts, and the security of private property; after recognizing the duty of the Government to foster schools and diffuse knowledge; and after enjoining the observance of good faith to ward the unfortunate and ignorant Indian, and the performance toward them of these offices of kindness and peace which so adorn and grace the intercourse of the mighty with the weak, as if resolved to omit nothing which might be thought justly to belong to an instrument providing for the erection of free States, the framers of the ordinance, in the last article, declare there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude within the territory otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.' Well might he say of this ordinance, never probably in the history of the world did a measure of legislation so accurately fulfill and yet so mightily exceed the anticipation of legislators. The law has been described as having been a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night in the settlement and government of the Northwestern States. When the settlers went into the wilderness, they found the law already there. It was impressed upon the soi 1 itself while it yet bore up nothing but the forest. The purchaser of land became by that act a party to the compact, and bound by its perpetual covenants so far as its provisions did not conflict with the terms of the cession of the States."

"This remarkable instrument," he says again, "was the last gift of the old confederation of the country, and was a fit consummation of their glorious labors." At the time of its promulgation the federal constitution was under discussion in the convention and in a few months, upon the organization of the new national Government, that Congress was dissolved, never again to re-assemble,

Some, and indeed most of the principles estab¬lished by the articles of compact are to be found in the plan of 1784, and in the various English and American bills of rights. Others, however, and those not the least important, are original. Of this number are the clauses in relation to contracts, to slavery and to the Indians. On the whole, the articles contain what they profess to contain, the true theory of American liberty. The great principles promulgated by it are wholly and purely American. They are, indeed, the general principles of freedom, unadulterated by compromise with circumstances, the effect of which are visible in the Constitution and history of the Union."

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While Congress had under consideration the measure for the organization of a territorial government northwest of the Ohio River, the preliminary steps were taken in Massachusetts toward the formation of the Ohio Land Company, for the purpose of making a purchase of a large tract of land in said Territory and settling upon it. On the passage of the ordinance by Congress, the aforesaid land company perfected its organization, and by its agents, Rev. Manasseh Cutler and Maj. Winthrop Sargent, made application to the Board of Treasury, July 27, 1787, to become purchasers, said board having been authorized four days before to make sales. The purchase, which was perfected October 27, 1787, embraced a tract of land containing about a million and a half of acres, situated within the present counties of Washington, Athens, Meigs and Gallia, subject to the reservation of two townships of land six miles square, for the endowment of a college, since known as Ohio University, at Athens; also every sixteenth section, set apart for the use of schools, as well also every twenty-ninth section, dedicated to the support of religious institutions; also Sections 8, 11 and 26, which were reserved by the United States for future sale. After these deductions were made, and that of donation lands, there remained only 964,285 acres to be paid for by the Ohio Land Company, and for which patents were issued.

At a meeting of the directors of the company, held November 23, 1787, Gen. Rufus Putnam was chosen Superintendent of the company, and he accepted the position. Early in December, six boat builders and a number of other mechanics were sent forward to Simrall's Ferry (now West Newton), on the Youghiogheny River, under the command of Maj. Haffield White, where they arrived in January, and at once proceeded to build a boat for the use of the company. Col. Ebenezer Sproat, of Rhode Island, Anselm Tupper, and John Matthews, of Massachusetts, and Col. Return J. Meigs, of Connecticut, were appointed surveyors. Preliminary steps were also taken at this meeting to secure a teacher and chaplain, which resulted in the appointment of Rev. Daniel Story, who some time during the next year arrived at the mouth of the Muskingum, in the capacity of the first missonary and teacher from New England.

Early in the winter the remainder of the pioneers, with the surveyors, left their New England homes and started on their toilsome journey to the Western wilderness. They passed on over the Alleghanies, and reached the Youghioghemy about the middle of February, where they found their companions who had preceded them. The boat, called the " Mayflower," that was to transport the pioneers to their destination, was forty-five feet long, twelve feet wide and of fifty tons burden, and was placed under the command of Capt. Devol. " Her bows were raking, or curved like a galley, and strongly timbered; her sides were made bullet proof, and she was covered with a deck roof," so as to afford better protection against the hostile savages while floating down toward their Western home, and during its occupancy there, before the completion of their cabins. All things being ready) they embarked at Simrall's Ferry, April 2, 1788, and passed down the Youghioghemy into the Monongahela, and thence into the Ohio, and down said river to the mouth of the Musk ingum, where they arrived April 7, and then and there made the first permanent settlement of civilized men within the present limits of Ohio. These bold adventurers were re-enforced by another company from Massachusetts, who, after a nine weeks' journey, arrived early in July, 1788.

Many of these Yankee colonists had been officers and soldiers in the Revolutionary army, and were, for the most part, men of intelligence and character, and of sound judgment and ability. In short, they were just the kind of men to found a State in the wilderness. They possessed great energy of character, were enterprising, fond of adventure and daring, and were not to be intimidated by the formidable forests nor by the ferocious beasts sheltered therein, nor by the still more to be dreaded savages, who stealthily and with murderous intent roamed throughout their length and breadth. Their army experience had taught them what hardships and privations were, and they were quite willing to encounter them. A better set of men could not have been selected for pioneer settlers than were these New England colonists— those brave-hearted, courageous, hero-emigrants to the great Northwest, who, having triumphantly passed the fiery ordeal of the Revolution, volunteered to found a State and to establish American laws, American institutions and American civilization in this, the wilderness of the uncivilized West. If any State in our American Union ever had a better start in its incipient settlement than Ohio, I am not aware of it. Gen. Washington, writing of the bold pioneers, said that " no colony in America was ever settled under such favorable auspices as that which has just commenced at the Muskingum, Information, property and strength will be its characteristics. I know many of the settlers personally, and there never were men better calculated to promote the welfare of such a community." Having had a personal army acquaintance with Gens. Putnam and Parsons, and with Col. Return Jonathan Meigs, and probably with many other leading members of this pioneer colony, his favorable opinion of them is entitled to great weight.

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THE FIRST SETTLEMENT UNDER THE ORDINANCE OF 1787.

Of course, no time was lost by the colonists in erecting their habitations, as well as in building a stockade fort, and clearing land for the production of vegetables and grain for their subsistence, fifty acres of corn having been planted the first year. Their settlement was established upon the point of land between the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers, just opposite and across the Muskingum from Fort Harmar, built in 1786, and at this time garrisoned by a small military force under command of Maj. Doughty. At a meeting held on the banks of the Muskingum, July 2, 1788, it was voted that Marietta should be the name of their town, it being thus named in honor of Marie Antionette, Queen of France,

SURVEYS AND GRANTS OF THE PUBLIC LANDS.

The first survey of the public lands northwest of the Ohio River was the seven ranges of Congress lands, and was done pursuant to an act of Congress, of May 20, 1785. This tract of the seven ranges is bounded by a line of forty-two miles in length, running due west from the point where the western boundary line of Pennsylvania crosses the Ohio River; thence due south to the Ohio River, at the southeast corner of Marietta Township, in Washington County; thence up said river to the place of beginning. The present counties of Jefferson, Columbiana, Carroll, Tuscarawas, Harrison, Guernsey, Belmont, Noble, Monroe and Washington are, in whole or in part, within the seven ranges.

The second survey was that of the Ohio Company's purchase, made in pursuance of an act of Congress, of July 13, 1785, though the contract was not completed with the Ohio Company until October 27, 1787. Mention of its extent, also the conditions, reservations, and circumstances attending the purchase, have already been given; 100,000 acres of this tract, called donation lands, were reserved upon certain conditions as a free gift to actual settlers. Portions of the counties of Washington, Athens and Gallia are within this tract, also the entire county of Meigs. The donation lands were in Washington County.

The next survey was the "Symmes Purchase " and contiguous lands, situated to the north and west of it, and was made soon after the foregoing. The " Spumes purchase " embraced the entire Ohio River front between the Big Miami and Little Miami Rivers, a distance of twenty-seven miles, and reaching northward a sufficient distance to include an area of 1,000,000 acres. The contract with Judge Symmes, made in October, 1787, was subsequently modified by act of Congress bearing date of May 5, 1792, and by an authorized act of the President of the United States, of September 30, 1794, as to amount to only 311,682 acres, exclusive of a reservation of fifteen acres around Fort Washington, of a square mile at the mouth of the Great Miami, of Sections 16 and 29 in each township, the former of which Congress had reserved for educational and the latter for religious purposes, exclusive also of a township dedicated to the interests of a college; and Sections 8, 11 and 26, which Congress reserved for future sale.

The tract of land situated between the Little Miami and Scioto Rivers, known as the Virginia Military Lands, was never regularly surveyed into townships, but patents were issued by the President of the United States to such persons (Virginian) as had rendered service on the continental establishment in the army of the United States (hence the name), and in the quantities to which they were entitled, according to the provisions of an act of Congress of August 10, 1790. " It embraces a body of 6,570 square miles, or 4,204800 acres of land. The following counties are situated in this tract, namely: Adams, Brown, Clermont, Clinton, Fayette, Highland, Madison, and Union entirely; the greater or less portions of the following, to wit: Marion, Delaware, Franklin, Pickaway, Ross, Pike, Scioto, Warren, Greene, Clark, Champaign, Logan and Hardin."

Connecticut ceded all lands in the Northwest to which she claimed title to the United States (except the tract which has been known as the " Western Reaserve"), by deed of cession bearing date of September 14, 1786; and in May, 1800, by act of Legislature of said State, renounced all jurisdiction or claim to the " territory called the Western Reserve of Connecticut." That tract of land was surveyed in 1796, and later into townships of five miles square; and in the aggregate contained about 3,800,000 acres, being 120 miles long, and _lying west of the Pennsylvania State line, all situated between 41̊ of north latitude and 42̊ 2'. Half a million acres of the foregoing lands were set apart by the State of Connecticut in 1792 as a donation to the sufferers of fire (during the Revolutionary war) of the residents of Greenwich New London, Norwalk, Fairfield, Danbury, New Haven, and other Connecticut villages whose property was burned by the British; hence the name " Firelands" by which this tract taken from the western portion of the reserve has been known. It is situated chiefly in Huron and Erie Counties, a small portion only being in Ottawa County. The entire Western Reserve embraces the present counties of Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Erie, Geauga, Huron, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Portage and Trumbull; also the greater portion of Mahoning and Summit, and very limited portions of Ashland and Ottawa.

French grant, is a tract of 24,000 acres of land bordering on the Ohio River, within the present limits

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of Scioto County, granted by Congress in March, 1795, to certain French settlers of Gallipolis, who, through invalid titles, had lost their lands there. Twelve hundred acres were added to this grant in 1798, making a total of 25,200 acres. The United States Military Lands were surveyed under the provisions of an act of Congress of June 1, 1796, and contained 2,500,000 acres. This tract was set apart to satisfy certain claims of the officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary war, hence the title by which it is known. It is bounded by the seven ranges on the east, by the Greenville treaty line on the north, by the Congress and refugee lands on the south, and by the Scioto River on the west, including the county of Coshocton entire, and portions of the counties of Tuscarawas, Guernsey, Muskingum, Licking, Franklin, Delaware, Marion, Morrow, Knox and Holmes.

The Moravian Lands are three several tracts of 4,000 acres each, situated, respectively, at Shoenbrun, Gnadenhutten and Salem, all on the Tuscarawas River, now in Tuscarawas County. These lands were originally dedicated by an ordinance of Congress dated September 3, 1788, to the use of the Christianized Indians at those points, and by act of Congress of June 1, 1796, were surveyed and patents issued to the society of the United Brethren, for the purposes above specified.

The Refugee Tract is a body of land containing 100,000 acres, granted by Congress February 18, 1801, to persons who fled from the British provinces during the Revolutionary war and took up arms against the mother country and in behalf of the Colonies, and thereby lost their property by confiscation. This tract is four and one-half miles wide, and extends forty-eight miles eastward from the Scioto River at Columbus into Muskingum County, It includes portions of the counties of Franklin, Fairfield, Perry, Licking and Muskingum.

Dohrman's grant is a township of land six miles square, containing 23,040 acres, situated in the southeastern part of Tuscarawas County. It was given to Arnold Henry Dohrman, a Portuguese merchant, of Lisbon, by act of Congress of February 27, 1801," in consideration of his having,during the Revolutionary war, given shelter and aid to the American cruisers and vessels of war." The foregoing is a list of the principal land grants and surveys during our Territorial history, in that portion of the Northwest that now constitutes the State of Ohio. There were canal land grants, Maumee road grants, and various others, but they belong to our State, and not to our Territorial history.

TREATIES MADE WITH THE INDIANS.

By the means of the treaty of Fort Stanwix, concluded with the Iroquois or Six Nations (Mohawks, Onondagas, Senecas, Cayugas, Tuscaroras, and Onei das), October 22, 1784, the indefinite claim of said confederacy to the greater part of the valley of the Ohio was extinguished. The Commissioners of Congress were Oliver Wolcott, Richard Butler and Arthur Lee. Cornplanter and Red Jacket represented the Indians.

This was followed in January, 1785, by the treaty of Fort McIntosh. by which the Delawares, Wyandots, Ottawas and Chippewas relinquished all claim to the Ohio Valley, and established the boundary line between them and the United States to be the Cuyahoga River, and along the main branch of the Tuscarawas to the forks of said river near Fort Laurens, thence westwardly to the portage between the headwaters of the Great Miami and the Maumee or Miami of the Lakes, thence down said river to Lake Erie, and along said lake to the mouth of the Cuyahoga River. This treaty was negotiated by George Rogers Clark, Richard Butler and Arthur Lee for the United States, and by the chiefs of the aforenamed tribes.

A similar relinquishment was effected by the treaty of Fort Finney (at the mouth of the Great Miami) concluded with the Shawnees January 31. 1786, the United States Commissioners being the same as the foregoing except the substitution of Samuel H. Parsons for Arthur Lee.

The treaty of Fort Harmar, held by Gen. St. Clair January 9, 1789, was mainly confirmatory of the treaties previously made. So also was the treaty of Greenville, of August 3, 1795, made by Gen. Wayne on the part of the United States, and the chiefs of eleven of the most powerful tribes of the Northwestern Indians, which re-established the Indian boundary line through the present State of Ohio, and extended it from Loramie to Fort Recovery, and from thence to the Ohio River, opposite the mouth of the Kentucky River.

The rights and titles acquired by the Indian tribes under the foregoing treaties were extinguished by the General Government, by purchase, in pursuance of treaties subsequently made. The Western Reserve tract west of the Cuyahoga River was secured by a treaty formed at Fort Industry, in 1805. The lands west of Richland and Huron Counties and north of the boundary line to the western limits of Ohio were purchased by the United States in 1818. The last possession of the Delawares was purchased in 1829; and by a treaty made at Upper Sandusky, March 17, 1832, by Colonel John Johnston and the Wyandot chiefs, that last remnant of the Indian tribes in Ohio sold the last acre they owned within the limits of our State to the General Government, and retired,

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the next year, to the far West, settling at and near the mouth of the Kansas River.

FIRST OFFICERS OF THE TERRITORY.

Congress, in October, 1787, appointed General Arthur St. Clair, Governor; Maj. Winthrop Sargent, Secretary; and James M. Varnum, Samuel H. Parsons and John Armstrong, Judges of the Territory, the latter of whom, however, having declined the appointment. John Cleves Symmes was appointed in his stead in February, 1788. On the 9th of July, 1788, Gov. St. Clair arrived at Marietta, and finding the Secretary and a majority of the Judges present, proceeded to organize the Territory. The Governor and Judges (or a majority of them) were the sole legislative power during the existence of the first grade of Territorial government. Such laws as were in force in any of the States, and were deemed applicable to the condition of the people of the Territory. could be adopted by the Governor and Judges, and, after publication, became operative, unless disapproved of by Congress, to which body certified copies of all laws thus adopted had to be forwarded by the Secretary of the Territory.

The further duty of the Judges, who were appointed to serve during good behavior, was to hold court four times a year, whenever the business of the Territory required it, but not more than once a year in any one county.

THE SECOND GRADE OF TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT.

After it shall be ascertained that 5,000 free male inhabitants actually resided within the Territory, the second grade of Territorial government could, of right, be established, which provided for a Legislative Council and also an elective House of Representatives, the two composing the law-making power of the Territory, provided always that the Governor's assent to their acts was had. He possessed the absolute veto power, and no act of the two Houses of the Legislature, even if passed by a unanimous vote in each branch could become a law without his consent. The conditions that authorized the second grade of Territorial government, however, did not exist until 1798, and it was not really put into operation until September, 1799, after the first grade of government had existed for eleven years.

EARLY LAWS OF THE TERRITORY.

The first law was proclaimed July 25, 1788, and was entitled "An act for regulating and establishing the militia." Two days thereafter the Governor issued a proclamation establishing the county of Washington, which included all the territory east of the Scioto River to which the Indian title had been extinguished, reaching northward to Lake Erie, the Ohio River and the Pennsylvania line being its eastern boundary; Marietta, the seat of the Territorial government, also becoming the county seat of Washington County.

Quite a number of laws were necessarily adopted and published during 1788 and the following year. From 1'790 to 1795 they published sixty-four, thirty- four of them having been adopted at Cincinnati during the months of June, July and August of the last named year, by the Governor and Judges Symmes and Turner. They are known as the " Maxwell Code," from the name of the publisher, and were intended, says the author of "Western Annals," "to form a pretty complete body of statutory provisions." In 1798, eleven more were adopted. It was the published opinion of the late Chief Justice Chase, " that it may be doubted whether any colony, at so early a period after its first establishment, ever had so good a code of laws." Among them was that " which provided that the common law of England, and all statutes in aid thereof, made previous to the fourth year of James I, should be in full force within the Territory." Probably four-fifths of the laws adopted were selected from those in force in Pennsylvania; the others were mainly taken from the statutes of Virginia and Massachusetts.

LOCAL COURTS AND COURT OFFICERS.

Among the earliest laws adopted was one which provided for the institution of a County Court of Common Pleas, to be composed of not less than three nor more than five Judges, commissioned by the Governor, who were to hold two sessions in each year. Pursuant to its provisions, the first session of said court was held in and for Washington County, September 2, 1788. The Judges of the court were Gen. Rufus Putnam, Gen. Benjamin Tupper and Col. Archibald Crary. Col. Return Jonathan Meigs was Clerk, and Col. Ebenezer Sproat was Sheriff. Elaborate details of the opening of this, the first court held in the Northwest Territory, have come down to us, showing it to have been a stylish, dignified proceeding. Briefly, "a procession was formed at the Point (the junction of the Muskingum with the Ohio River) of the inhabitants and the officers from Fort Harmar, who escorted the Judge of the court, the Governor of the Territory, and the Territorial Judges to the hall appropriated for that purpose, in the northwest block-house in "Campus Martins." " The procession," says Mitchener, " was headed by the Sheriff, with drawn sword and baton of office." After prayer by Rev. Manasseh Cutler, the court was organized by reading the commissions of the Judges, Clerk and Sheriff; after which the Sheriff proclaimed that the

16 - HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.

court was open for the administration of even-handed justice to the poor and the rich, to the guilty and the innocent, without respect of persons; none to be punished without a trial by their peers, and then in pursuance of the laws and evidence in the case.

On the 23d day of August, 1788, a law was promulgated for establishing " General Courts of Quarter Sessions of the Peace." This court was composed of not less than three nor more than five Justices of the Peace, appointed by the Governor, who were to hold four sessions in each year, The first session of this court was held at " Campus Martins " September 9, 1788. The commission appointing the Judges thereof was read. " Gen. Rufus Putnam and Gen. Benjamin Tupper," says Mitchener, " constituted the Justices of the quorum, and Isaac Pearce, Thomas Lord, and Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr., the assistant Justices; Col. Return Jonathan Meigs, Sr., was Clerk. Col. Ebenezer Sproat was Sheriff of Washington County fourteen years. The first grand jury of the • Northwest Territory was impaneled by this court, and consisted of the following gentlemen: William Stacy (foreman), Nathaniel Cushing, Nathan Goodale, Charles Knowles, Anselm Tupper. Jonathan Stone, Olive Rice, Ezra Lunt, John Matthews, George Ingersoll, Jonathan Devol, Jethro Putnam, Samuel Stebbins and Jabez True."

ORGANIZATION OF COUNTIES.

Washington County, embracing the eastern half of the present State of Ohio, was the only organized county of the Northwest Territory until early in 1790, when the Governor proclaimed Hamilton County, which included all the territory between the Big and Little Miami Rivers, and extended north to the "Standing Stone Forks " on the first-named stream.

The following is a list of all the territorial counties organized; also the date of organization, with their respective county seats:

It will be observed that Hamilton was the second county organized. There were situated within its limits, when organized, several flourishing villages, that had had their origin during the closing months of 1788 and early in 1789. Columbia, situated at the mouth of the Little Miami, was the first of these laid out, its early settlers being Col. Benjamin Stites, of " Redstone Old Fort" (proprietor), William Goforth, John S. Gano, John Smith (a Baptist minister, who afterward became one of Ohio's first United States Senators), and others, numbering in all twenty-five persons or more, though some of them arrived a little later.

Cincinnati was the next in order of time, having been laid out early in 1789, by Col. Robert Patterson, Matthias Denman and Israel Ludlow. Several not very successful attempts had also been made at various points between Cincinnati and the mouth of the Great Miami by Judge Symmes.

The early settlers of Hamilton County were principally from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky. Judge Symmes and Burnet were representative men in the Miami Valley from New Jersey, Jeremiah Morrow and Judge Dunlavy from Pennsylvania, William H. Harrison and William McMillan from Virginia, and Col. Robert Patterson and Rev. James Kemper from Kentucky.

The Scioto Valley, the next in order of time, was settled chiefly by Virginians and Kentuckians, represented by Col. Thomas Worthington and Gen. Nathaniel Massie, two of its prominent settlers.

And the early settlements along Lake Erie, during the closing years of the eighteenth century whose representative men were Gov. Samuel Hunting. ton and Hun. Benjamin Tappan, were established by men not a whit inferior to those above named, And the good that Gen. Washington said of the New England Colony that settled Marietta could, with very slight modifications, be said of most of the settlers and pioneers of the aforesaid settlements.

EARLY TERRITORIAL VILLAGES AND TOWNS.

The following is a list of the principal villages and towns in the Northwest Territory, started and built up during Territorial rule, with the time of the first survey of lots, together with the names of their proprietors:

Marietta--Laid out in 1788 by Rufus Putnam and the Ohio Land Company.

Columbia--Laid out in 1788 by Benjamin Stites, Maj. Grano and others.

Cincinnati-Laid out in 1789 by Robert Patterson, Matthias Denman and Israel Ludlow.

Gallipolis—Laid out in 1791 by the French settlers.

Manchester--Laid out in 1791 by Nathaniel Massie.

Hamilton--Laid out in 1794 by Israel Ludlow.

Dayton--Laid out in 1795 by Israel Ludlow and Gens. Dayton and Wilkinson.

"Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr., was appointed (says Judge Burnet) after the first session of the Territorial Legislature, of which he was a member, and probably continued in office to the close of the Territorial government, but I have not been able to verify said conjecture."

HOSTILITY OF THE INDIAN TRIBES-MILITARY EXPEDITIONS.

From the time of the organization of the government of the "Northwest Territory," in 1788, until the ratification of the "treaty of Greenville," sometimes called "Wayne's treaty," in 1795, the attitude of many of the Western Indian tribes toward the white settlers in the Northwest Territory was that of extreme, unrelenting hostility. The military organization which had marched against them, before the establishment of civil government in the great. Northwest, had signally failed to subjugate them, or secure a permanent cessation of hostilities. The disastrous expedition of Gen. Braddock in 1755, of Maj. Wilkins in 1763, of Col, Bradstreet in 1764, of Col. Lochry in 1781, and of Col. Crawford in 1782, and the disgraceful and murderous expedition against the Moravian Indians on the Tuscarawas, in the last named year, only tended te inflame the hostile Indian tribes, and inspire them with greater courage in their hostile movements and aggressive measures against the white settlers, The fruitless, if not abortive, campaigns of Col. McDonald in 1774, of Gen. McIntosh in 1778, and of Gen. Broadhead in 1781, of course, led to no salutary results. Even the successful campaigns of Col. Boquet in 1763-64, of Lord

18 - HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.

Dunmore and Gen. Lewis in 1774, and of Gen. George Rogers Clark in 1778, failed to secure a permanent peace with the Western Indian tribes. The inhabitants of the Northwest Territory were, therefore, from the 7th of April, 1788, when the first immigrants arrived at the mouth of the Muskingum, until the treaty of Greenville was concluded in August, 1795, constantly liable to the stealthy but deadly attacks of the perfidious, merciless savage tribes of the Northwest. But they met their dastardly, cruel, relentless foe in the spirit of genuine manhood--of true, determined, unflinching heroism! They were men worthy of the heroic age of the West! Bravely did they bear themselves during those seven years of toil and privations, of dread and apprehension, of suffering and sorrow, of blood and carnage.

To secure the speedy termination of those savage atrocities the National Government early organized number of military expeditions, the first of these being that of Gen. Harmar, in 1790, who was then Commander-in-Chief of the military department of the West. He had a few hundred regular troops under his command, stationed chiefly at Ft. Harmar and at Ft. Washington, which served as the nucleus of his army. The great body of his troops, however, numbering in all above fourteen hundred, were Pennsylvania and Kentucky volunteers, the former being under the immediate command of Col. John Hardin, and the latter of Col. Trotter. The expedition left Ft. Washington and marched to the junction of the St. Joseph and St. Mary's Rivers (now Ft. Wayne, Ind.), where detachments of the army, under command of Col. Hardin, on the 19th and 22d days of October, encountered the enemy and suffered mortify. ing defeats. Of course, the campaign failed to give peace or relief from apprehended barbarities.

The next year Gen. St, Clair, the Governor of the Territory, who had a Revolutionary record of patriotism and ability, organized an expedition, whose strength somewhat exceeded that of Gen. Harmar's. It met with a most disastrous defeat, November 4, 1791, near the head-waters of the Wabash, now in Mere& County, Ohio, the battle-field being known as Ft. Recovery. Of 1,500 men in the battle, more than half of them were either killed or wounded, and it was indeed a great calamity to the disheartened and greatly harassed pioneers of the Northwest Territory.

Immediately after the defeat of Gen. St. Clair, the Federal Government took the preliminary steps to raise a large army to operate against the hostile tribes, for the purpose of finally and permanently subjugating them. Military preparations, however, progressed slowly, and the summer of 1794 had nearly passed before the confederated hostile Indian tribes were met in battle array by Gen. Wayne's army. The battle was fought at the Maumee Rapids, near Perrysburg, and Ft. Meigs, in Wood County, Ohio, and is known as the battle of " Fallen Timbers," though sometimes called the battle of the Maumee. Wayne's army numbered more than three thousand men, well disciplined, and ably officered, 1,600 of whom being mounted volunteer troops from Kentucky, commanded by Gen. Charles Scott, of said State, who was the second ranking officer in the army, and who, as well as Gen. Henry Lee (the "Light Horse Harry" of the Revolution) and Gen. William Darke, had been favorably considered by President Washington in connection with the chief command of the expedition. The choice, however, fell upon Gen. Wayne, the old com - panion in arms of the President, and to him is justly ascribed the honor of defeating the Indian tribes commanded by the celebrated Shawnee chief, Blue Jacket, on the Maumee, August 20, 1794, and of permanently breaking the power of a very formidable Indian confederacy. Cessation of hostilities followed this victory, and a peace, which the General Government had vainly sought by friendly negotiation, was secured—a peace which continued for many years, even, until after the northwest territory had "ceased to be," and the important incidents and events connected therewith had passed into history.

ORGANIZATION OF THE SECOND GRADE OF TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT.

The Governor having satisfactorily ascertained that the conditions existed entitling the territory to the second grade of government, that is, that there were "5,000 free male inhabitants, of full age," within the Territory, he, on the 29th day of October, 1798, took the preliminary steps to effect that object, by issuing his proclamation, directing the qualified voters to hold elections for Territorial Representatives on the third Monday of September, 1798. The election was held in pursuance of said proclamation, which resulted in the following gentlemen being chosen to constitute the popular branch of the Territorial Legislature for the ensuing two years:

MEMBERS OF TERRITORIAL LEGISLATURE OF 1799-1800.

Return Jonathan Meigs, Washington County.

Paul Fearing, Washington County.

William Goforth, Hamilton County.

William McMillan, Hamilton County.

John Smith, Hamilton County.

John Ludlow, Hamilton County.

Robert Benham, Hamilton County,

Aaron Caldwell, Hamilton County.

Isaac Martin, Hamilton County.

Shadrack Bond, St. Clair County.

John Small, Knox County.

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John Edgar, Randolph County.

Solomon Sibley, Wayne County.

Jacob Visgar, Wayne County.

Charles F. Chabert de Joncaire, Wayne County.

Joseph Darlinton, Adams County.

Nathaniel Massie, Adams County.

James Pritchard, Jefferson County.

Thomas Worthington, Ross County.

Elias Langham, Ross County.

Samuel Findlay, Ross County.

Edward Tiffin, Ross County.

The above-named gentlemen met at Cincinnati on the 22d of January, 1799, and nominated ten men, whose names they forwarded to the United States Congress, five of whom were to be selected by that body te constitute the Legislative Council of the Territory. They then adjourned to meet on the 16th of September, 1799.

On the 22d of March, ,1799, either the United States Senate, the United States House of Representatives, or the President of the United States (authorities are not agreed), chose from among those whose names had been suggested to them the following gentlemen, te compose the first Legislative Council of the Nerthwest Territory, their term of offrce to continue five years, any three of whom to form a quorum:

Jacob Burnet, of Cincinnati, Hamilton County.

Henry Vandenburg, of Vincennes, Knox County.

Robert Oliver, of Marietta, Washington County.

James Findlay, of Cincinnati, Hamilton County.

David Vance, of Vanceville, Jefferson County.

The ordinance of 1787 named Congress as the authority in whom was vested the right to select five from the list of ten persons to constitute the Territorial Council. But it will be borne in mind that said ordinance was passed by a Congress that legislated in pursuance of the articles of confederation, while yet we had neither President nor United States Senate, hence authority was given to Congress to make the selection. But it is highly probable that the aforesaid authority was subsequently transferred to the President, or to the Senate, or to them jointly.

FIRST COUNCIL AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Both the Council and House of Representatives met at Cincinnati, September 16, 1799, and effected a permanent organization. The Council perfected its organization by the election of the following officers:

President- –Henry Vandenburg.

Secretary—William C. Schenck.

Door-keeper—George Howard.

Sergeant-at-Arms—Abraham Cary.

The Heuse of Representatives completed its organization by electing. as its officers, the following gentlemen:

Speaker of the House—Edward Tiffin.

Clerk —John Riley.

Door-keeper--Joshua Rowland.

Sergeant-at-Arms—Abraham Cary.

Thirty bills were passed at the first session of the Territorial Legislature, but the Governor vetoed eleven of them. They also elected William H. Harrison, then Secretary of the Territory, a Delegate to Congress, by a vote of eleven to ten that were cast for Arthur St. Clair, Jr., son of the Governor, then a promising young lawyer of Cincinnati, and who then held the office of Attorney General of the Territory. The first session of the Territorial Legislature was prorogued by the Governor December 19, 1799, until the first Monday of November, 1800, at which they re-assembled and held the second session at Chillicothe, which, by an act of Congress of May 7, 1800, was made the seat of the Territorial government until otherwise ordered by the Legislature. This, the second session of the Territorial Legislature, was of short duration, continuing only until December 9, 1800.

On May 9, 1800, Congress passed an act establishing the Indian Territory, with boundaries including the present States of Indiana and Illinois, and William H. Harrison having accepted the office of Governor of said Territory,it devolved upon the Territorial Legislature, at its second session, not only to elect a Delegate to fill the vacancy occasioned by his resignation, but also to elect a Delegate to serve during the succeeding Congress. William McMillan, of Cincinnati, was elected to fill the vacancy, and Paul Fearing, of Marietta, was elected to serve from the 4th of March, 1801, to the 4th of March, 1803. They were both reputed to be men of ability.

By the organization of the Indiana Territory, the counties of St. Clair, Knox and Randolph were taken out of the jurisdiction of the Northwest Territory, and with them, of course, Henry Vandenburg, of Knox County, President of the Council; also, Shadrack Bond, of St. Clair County; John Small, of Knox County, and John Edgar, of Randolph County, members of the popular branch of the Legislature.

On the 23d of November, 1801, the third session of the Territorial Legislature was commenced at Chillicothe, pursuant to adjournment. The time for which the members of the House of Representatives were elected having expired, and an election having been held, quite a number of new members appeared. The Council remained nearly as it was at the previous sessions, there being not more than two changes, perhaps only one, that of Solomon Sibley, of Detroit, Wayne County, who took the place of Henry Vandenburg, thrown into the new Territory. Robert Oliver, of Marietta, Washington County, was chosen

20 - HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.

President of the council, in place of HenryVandenburg.

The House of Representatives at the third session of the Territorial Legislature was composed of the following gentlemen:

Ephraim Cutler, of Washington County.

William Rufus Putnam, Washington County.

Moses Miller, Hamilton County.

Francis Dunlavy, Hamilton County.

Jeremiah Morrow, Hamilton County.

John Ludlow, Hamilton County.

John Smith, Hamilton County.

Jacob White, Hamilton County.

Daniel Reeder, Hamilton County.

Joseph Darlington, Adams County.

Nathaniel Massie, Adams County.

Zenas Kimberly, Jefferson County,

John Milligan, Jefferson County.

Thomas McCune, Jefferson County.

Edward Tiffin, Ross County.

Elias Longhom, Ross County.

Thomas Worthington, Ross County.

Francois Chabert de Joncaire , Wayne County.

George McDougal, Wayne County.

Jonathan Schieffelin, Wayne County.

Edward Paine, Trumbull County.

The officers of the House during its third session were as follows:

Speaker of the House—Edward Tiffin.

Clerk--John Reily.

Door-keeper—Edward Sherlock.

The third session of the Legislature continued from the 24th of November, 1801, until the 23d of January, 1802, when it adjourned to meet at Cincinnati on the fourth Monday of November following, but that fourth session was never held, for reasons made obvious by subsequent events.

Congress, on the 30th of April, 1802, had passed an " act to enable the people of the eastern division of the territory northwest of the River Ohio to form a constitution and State Government, and for the admission of such State into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, and for other purposes." In pursuance of the aforesaid enactment, an election had been ordered and held throughout the eastern portion of the territory, and members of a Constitutional Convention chosen, who met at Chillicothe on the 1st day of November, -1802, to perform the duty assigned them. Edward Tiffin, Esq., of Ross County, was chosen as President, and on taking his seat in the chair delivered the following address:

" GENTLEMEN: I beg you to be assured that I duly appreciate the honor you have conferred in selecting me to preside over your deliberations on this important occasion; the duties of the chair will, I presume, be pleasing and easy, for, from the known character of the gentlemen who compose this convention, there can be no doubt but that the utmost propriety and deeorum will be observed, without the aid of interference from the chair. Whatever rules you may adopt for the government of the convention, shall be strictly observed; and in every decision which may be required from the chair the utmost impartiality shall be evinced."

Thomas Scott, Esq,, was chosen as Secretary and William McFarland Assistant Secretary.

The convention continued in session twenty-nine days, adjourning on the 29th of November, 1802, having formed the first constitution of the State, which met with the approbation of the people, and under which they lived and prospered till A. D. 1851, when the new constitution was adopted.

When the time had arrived for commencing the fourth session of the Territorial Legislature, the aforesaid Constitutional Convention was in session, and had evidently nearly completed its labors, as it adjourned on the 29th of said month. The members of the Legislature (eight of whom being also members of the Convention), therefore, seeing that a speedy termination of the Territorial Government was inevitable, deemed it inexpedient and unnecessary to

hold the proposed session.

The Territorial Government was ended by the organization of the State Government, March 3, 1803, pursuant to the provisions of a constitution formed at Chillicothe, November 29, 1802, by the following- named gentlemen: Joseph Darlinton, Israel Donalson and Thomas Kirker, of Adams County; James Caldwell and Elijah Woods, of Belmont County; Philip (latch and James Sargent, of Clermont County; Henry Abrams and Emanuel Carpenter, of Fairfield County; John W. Browne, Charles Willing Byrd, Francis Dunlavy, William Goforth, John Kitchel, Jeremiah Morrow, John Paul, John Reily, John Smith and John Wilson, of Hamilton County; Rudolph Bair, George Humphrey, John Milligan, Nathan Updegraff, and Bazaliel Wells, Jefferson County; Michael Baldwin, Edward Tiffin, James Grubb, Thomas Worthington, and Nathaniel Massie, of Ross County; David Abbot and Samuel Huntington, of Trumbull County; Ephraim Cutler, Benjamin Ives Gilman, Rufus Putnam, and John McIntire, of Washington County.

Joseph Darlinton, of Adams County; Francis Dunlavy, Jeremiah Morrow and John Smith, of Ham ilton County; John Milligan, of Jefferson County; Edward Tiffin and Thomas Worthington, of Ross County; and Ephraim Cutler, of Washington County, were the eight gentlemen of the last Territorial Legislature that were also elected members of the Constitutional Convention.

HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY - 21

CHAPTER II.

GEOLOGY.

CONTRIBUTED BY H. N. PRENTICE.

IN preparing this paper for the history of Defiance County, it is beyond my hopes, as it is above and beyond my ability, to enrich the literature of our geology, or add much of interest or value to the history of Defiance County. Moreover, the task seems the less necessary and the less encouraging, as our fields ef geology have already been passed over by an able corps of engineers sent out by the State, made up of gentlemen of known ability, educated and trained expressly for the work, and of whom it may in truth be said discharged their responsible and important duties with the ability and fidelity commensurate with the trust, conferring honor upon themselves and rendering a lasting and important service to the State; and I might be excused for mentioning, in this connection, that in view of the value of their reperts, with their accompanying maps and charts, it is to be regretted that so few of them are to be found in neat and conveniently arranged libraries, while so many are left to gather dust and mold in the book room in the basement of the State capitol.

OUR SEDIMENTARY ROCKS.

Of this class of rocks our geologists give us but a meager complement on our side.of the anticlinal arch. It seems that one corner of the State has lost, by erosion, all our carboniferous rocks, if, indeed, we ever pessessed any. Therefore, we have no coal measures, no carboniferous limestones or conglomerates. With these and the Waverly group, and the Erie shales gone, we are bought down to the Huron shales, on which eur drift beds rest. Below the Huron shales, in a descending order, we have the Hamilton group, the carboniferous limestones, the Oriskany sandstones, the water lime, the Niagara, the Clinton and the Cincinnati groups, which ends the- Upper Silurian system, and carries us down upon the metamorphosed recks—the Laurentian and Huronian —of the Eozoic age. But as our sedimentary rocks are so ably and so thoroughly written up elsewhere, it seems like a waste of space and a misapplication of time again te go over the ground with them here. Not se, however, with

OUR DRIFT GEOLOGY.

Every well that is bored, every railroad cutting, every cellar that is excavated—in fact, almost every furrow that is turned by the farmer's plow, develops some new phase in our surface geology. Hence, our drift groups present a feature in our geology that is deserving of more than a passing notice. Indeed, from the fact of these groups being immediately identified with the history of Defiance County, and because they form one of the most eventful and important chapters in the geological history of our globe, they are deserving a far better mention than my limited knowledge of our geology will allow me to bestow upon them. As is well known, Defiance County is embraced within the so-called drift districts of the Maumee Valley. The coating of earth that serves to conceal and to level up and smooth over the uneven surfaces of the older and deeply eroded underlining rocks of our valley, has, undoubtedly, an ice origin, and made up—in part, at least, of 7material foreign to this locality, and transported—drifted —hundreds of miles, from Northern New York the highlands of Canada and the Lake Superior regions. Among our drift material we find sands, gravels—coarse and fine—stones of all shapes and sizes, bowlders of red and gray granites, quartz, gneiss, together with black granite bowlders and copper-bearing rocks from Lake Superior. While those, for the most part, may be considered as foreign representatives, we may safely conclude that our own rocks, severally and collectively, have been drawn upon for drift material, and, 'judging from the character and preponderance of blue clay in their composition, one would suppose that the Huron shales had furnished their full quota. The general appearance of these groups would indicate that they have been ground up, stirred together and worked into a mass of mud, and dumped from some immense transport into a "higgledy-piggledy, pell-mell mass," as Mr. Geikie is pleased to term it, with but little reference to order or arrangement; and, if the stony record be not deceptive, at different times, and at periods widely separated from each other. Hence, these drift groups have ever been an enigma to the geologist wherever found--not only confounding the novice, but a puzzle even to old veterans in the field. Dr. Newberry says of the drift: " While it is true of other groups that a few words may suffice to convey a clear idea of them, or, at least, the few things we have learned of them, the drift phenomena are too com-

22 - HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.

plicated. too little known, to be so summarily dismissed." In truth, it may be said of the drift, that in many respects it is even yet an unsolved problem— strange and intricate. Now, the mode of laying down the sedimentary recks that form the frame-work of our globe, is simple and easily comprehended; the mechanical assorting of the materials, the manner of their deposition and the order of their superposition, are all in keeping wig' the known principles of cosmical law, and in harmony with the geological idea, yet the drift presents a wide and strange departure. Here the chain of sequence of events seems to be broken—the order and harmony destroyed.

But, after all, as our geologists would have us believe, these seemingly incongruous appearances presented by the drift beds have much of reality about them. Their confusion becomes less and less confused the more they are studied and the better we become acquainted with them; so that these seemingly disordered groups are, in reality, not so disorderly as a first sight would indicate. Our geologists grant them distinct groupings in a manner as other rocks. The first, or principal, division separates them into two groups, denominated the upper and lower drift. The lower drift goes by the name of tile or bowlder clay, and is characterized as the unmodified drift, and presents itself as a tough, waxy blue clay, interspersed, more or less, with belts and heaps of sand, gravels and bowlders---for travelers---with traces of coal, traces of wood, and occasionally bits of bone. The bowlders being more or less rounded and polished and sometimes scratched and grooved, indicating the rough usage they have been subjected to as graving tools in graving the rock over which they were forced, while being firmly held in the folds of the great ice raft, that transported them hither. When these clays form the surface soil--as in the absence of the upper drift—although possessing all the elements of fertility, they are not in high favor with the farmer, as they yield a reluctant submission to the plow and cultivation, and are not disposed to accept kindly the genial influences of sunshine and rain, and, withal, require a deal of labor and mueh skillful handling to convert them into acceptable seed beds for farm crops. The lowest of the drift beds rest immediately upon the stratified rocks, sometimes, however, with a layer of gravel beneath them. These gravel beds, wherever they occur, are an acceptable find to the well digger, as they are ever water- bearers.

Typical of the upper, or modified drift, is a belt or layer of fine sand, resting on the bowlder clay. These sands, so far as they extend, constitute the reservoirs for wells in common use for families, and, when not too much water-worn, and consequently are rough and angular, serve a aseful purpose for mortar for plastering houses and for stone and brick work. But often they occur as quicksands, and much too often, and much too quick, at times, for the convenience or safety of the laborer; and so fine, some times, are they, and so runney, that some well-diggers say of them that they will run through a crevice where water would hardly make the attempt.

Above, and resting on this belt of sand, is a heavy coating of brown or yellow clay, denominated brick-clay, more or less interspersed with sand and gravel, and not unfrequently a scattering of bowlders, some of which are chiseled and scratched as those in the lower beds. This description proximately, or in a general way, covers the whole ground of the drift beds, wherever found, for they are characteristically alike the world over. Prof. Geikie, a Scotch geolegist, who, probably, has given more time and a closer attention to the phenomena of the drift than any man living, says, "After reading a description of the drift beds of New England, I was struck with their close resemblance to those of my own country,"

If, however, we go into a minute description, or an ultimate analysis of the arrangement of the surface deposits of our Maumee Valley, we will hardly find any one description that will hold good even for the next farm. The borings of one well may differ materially from the borings of the next well, although in close proximity. Indeed, I have observed in Defiance City a marked difference in two sides of the same cellar; on one side occurred belts of sand, and wedge-shaped beds of gravel that were entirely wanting on the other side. No wonder, then, that our geologists give these changes and alterations in wonderful profusion and variety. On the whole, the phenomena of the drift are exceedingly interesting, and our drift groups become more and more interesting te us the more we learn of them; not alone because of their peculiar characteristics, or because they form our farms and fields—lands whereon we grow our crops, plant our orchards and build our homes—but they become interesting to us because of their antecedents and associations; because they are involved in, and are identified with, the great world- change of which the rocks bear testimony everywhere. It is from their records we read the story of the great ice age, when our summers had shortened and our winters had increased in length and severity, and our hemisphere placed under an Erebus of perpetual winter and ice and snow had swathed the ground as with a winding-sheet of death. Then it was that ()Teat glaciers, snow-fed monsters, who make their homes in the bleak regions of the north—grown te continental dimensions by the snow-accumulations of ages--came coursing down the frost-bound slopes and

HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY - 23

careered over our continent. Slowly but persistently pushing their way onward—pausing for no obstacle —they rasped down the summits of high mountains, and scraped out the basins of great lakes, and with the gathered fragments, chips and rubbish, they invaded our valley and further on, till the warmth of the returning summer of the great year ended their career, and they were forced to lay dewn their rich accumulation of earth and stones they could no longer hold, and retire forever from our valley, an d our rocks became clothed with a wealth of soil, from the fertility of whose elements we, at the present day, are gathering the harvest of a profitable agriculture.

GLACIATION.

During the last glacial period, according to Prof. Agassiz, our continent was glaciated from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the extreme north to the latitudes of Cincinnati and New York. Moreover, according to statements, this ice-sheet must have been of enormous dimensions, as were the glaciers that issued from it. The great mer de glace that occupied the divide between the St. Lawrence and Hudson's Bay, says Pref. Dana, was 12,000 feet, or more than two and a quarter miles in thickness; while the glacier that passed over the New England States is estimated to have been from 6,000 to 8,000 feet thick. Just how thick or how broad those glaciers were that performed the drift work of our valley, our geologists have failed to give us any very definite idea. Judging from indicatiens, however, they were no pigmies, even of their kind; and when we come to consider the fact that a sheet of ice 8,000 feet in thickness exerts a pressure of more than two hundred tons upon every square foot of surface, we need not be surprised to learn that the granite summits of the Laurentian Hills were reduced 1,500 feet by the eroding processses practiced upon them by the glacial ice, ner need we be astonished to find huge blocks—rounded and grooved—with lesser stones mixed up in the clays that form the drift groups of our valley; so that if the student finds small stones protruding from the sides of some railroad cutting, er a bowlder poised on the steeps of a river bank, er perched on some lofty summit, he is not to infer that they are growths, in situ, or that they were dropped from some passing iceberg, but rather that they were carried there by glaciers. For, as Mr. Croll says, " If a glacier can pass over the tops of mountains more than two thousand feet high, it can carry stones and bowlders along with it."

Besides the deep,broad, rock excavations that hold the waters of our groat lakes, the tear and wear of our underlying rocks, the deep-wrought channels and depressions they present, together with the piles of rubbish and heaps of debris with which our valley has evidently been strewn, are but the legitimate results of glacier action. For the reader is not to infer frem the smooth and even appearance our valley presents, with hardly a hill or hollow to relieve the eye or break the monotony, that its features were never roughened, or its surface never disturbed by moraine inundations, or thrown into hills and depressions by moving masses of glacier ice.

EROSION.

Now, as the forces of nature are never idle, erosion, or waste of surface, becomes a part of our geology, and as our valley has lost eighteen feet of her surface since the close of the last glacial period, and Lake Erie has gained a hundred feet of sediment, it is not hard to anticipate the time when our valley will be carried into the lake, and that basin will be filled to its rim with sedimentary deposits; introducing to the coming hammer-bearer a new feature in our geology. The principal agents employed in these leveling processes are frosts, rains, streams and currents, and although ages have been consumed by these leveling agents, yet every day witnesses the altered outline or the eroded surface of some bluff or river bank, caused by the last hard freeze and subsequent thaw, or the last storm that broke against its brow or coursed down its sides. While the tiny stream, as well as the swollen flood, is ever busy with the loosened materials, assorting and arranging them in the order of their several specific gravities, and hurrying them away to lower levels, to fill some river channel, or lake basin, or other depression, carrying farthest the finer clays-held longest in suspension ; leaving behind the coarser sorts--sands and gravels; while the grosser kinds—stones and bowlders—may scarcely be moved at all—rolled over, perhaps, or made to occupy lower positions by the removal of the loose earth that served to hold them in position. Thus, for example, the Lower Maumee receives the fine sediment of clay brought down by the upper branches of the stream; at Defiance rests the sands and gravels; while the Upper Maumee, and the higher stretches of the Auglaize, are largely montanic in many localities.

MODIFICATIONS.

Then, again, as, according to theory, during the cold seasens of the glacial period our valley had become, to some extent, submerged, and the strong current set in motion by the increased strength of the northern trades, would, in a like manner, serve to assort the sands from the clays as they were' washed from the surface of our soils, dropping the sands first, in accordance with their gravities, reserving the fine clay—held longest in suspension—as an outer or

24 - HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.

upper covering. Thus we can see, or think we can see, just how the broad sheet of sand, with, its covering of clay, was laid down over a large surface of Defiance County, stretching, as it does in some directions, far over the territory of our neighbors. But it is not alone with these surface changes that the geologist is chiefly concerned, for these changes and modifying processes are going on in all depths of our drift formations. Intercalated beds of sand and gravel become more and more pronounced year by year and day by day, while gravel beds are continually forming and increasing in thickness in. the channels and depressions of the underlying rocks. These occurrences are due to the action of water. Rains that fall upon the surface of the ground find their way, by percelation, into these beds, carrying away the lighter clay sediment and fine sands, leaving the clean washed, coarser gravel to accumulate and increase at the expense of the beds of clay. " The trouble with our soils is," said a neighboring farmer to me one day, as he was trying to stir up his stubborn clay,_ " they were not properly stirred and thoroughly mixed." A hint for a more liberal use of long manure and other mechanical appliances for lightening the soils. Beds of coarse and fine gravels are frequently found in a kind of pocket repositories,' deep in the beds of clay, as in and about Bryan, forming excellent repositories for water for wells, as do those gravel beds that lie deep down in the depressions of our rocks. Experienced well-diggers tell us that the farther down the bore is extended without striking the rock, the greater the chances for a deep and permanent reservoir of pure water.

THE GREAT SCANDINAVIAN GLACIER.

The wanderings of this great glacier— thanks to the enduring rocks, whose hardened surfaces have been able to hold the imprint of its graving-toolshas been traced by British geologists, from the Scandinavian mountains, south over Norway and Sweden, thence in a curve to the right, sweeping westward over Denmark and the British Islands, to its final plunge into the deep waters of the northern Atlantic. Prof. Geikie estimates this glacier to have been 2,000 feet thick, with a breadth of eighty miles, and, when coalesced with the Scottish glacier, its dimensions was such as, in passing over the bed of the German Ocean, to have displaced the entire waters of that sea. Besides, the work performed by the glacier would seem to have been commensurate with its dimensions; for it is said to have forced its way up the rugged ?steeps and over the tops of the Scottish hills, that were more than 2,000 feet high, and, in the meantime, performing for that country just what the North American glacier did for us, filled their valleys and glens with drift material precisely in character— only differing in constituent material—with our own valley drifts. But how far these glaciers are able to travel is not definitely known, as their wanderings can never be very great in any direction till cut off by the heat of the sun, or broken, in pieces by the waters of some deep sea. Those geologists, however, who have given the subject of these glaciers their greatest attention, are of the opinion that they would go on indefinitely, if backed by material aid, however rough or uneven the grounds might be over which they had to travel. Mr. Geikie is of the opinion that the waters of the German Ocean, with an average depth of 160 feet, offered no obstacle to the movement of the great Scandinavian glacier. although it was effectually broken to pieces in the deep waters of the Atlantic. . Mr. Crell says that " if the waters of Baffin's Bay and Davis Strait were as shallow as the North Sea, those Greenland glaciers would cross upon and over the American continent."

Now, the presence of these glaciers upon our continent would have the effect, as no one need be told. to reduce the temperature of our climate te that of Greenland, and condemn our valley to Arctic sterility.

These things being true, then—anomalous as it may appear—we are indebted for the geniality of our climate, and the productiveness of soils, to that great ocean current that flows down from the polar regions, and sweeps its way through Baffin's Bay and Davis Strait into the North Atlantic, and Which we are accustomed to associate in our minds with nothing better than fleets of icebergs and frozen seas. For when we take into consideration the vast amount of rubbish brought down by the Greenland glaciers and cast into these basins, we can hardly resist the conclusion that long ago, had not this channel been kept clear by the powerful and persistent efforts of this current, these basins would have been filled up, permitting these glaciers, fed by the thirty-foot annual snows that fall upon Greenland, " to pass upon and over the American continent." Mr. Geikie has this to say of Greenland and its glaciers: " The superficial area of Greenland cannot be less than 750,000 square miles, so that the country is almost continental in its dimensions. Of this great region, only a little strip, extending to 74' north latitude, along the western shore, is sparsely colonized—all the rest is a bleak wilderness of snow and ice. The coasts, are deeply indented with numerous bays and fiords or firths, which, when traced inland, are almost invariably found to terminate against glaciers. Thick ice frequently appears, too, crowning the exposed sea cliffs, from the edges of which it droops in thick, tongue-like and stalactitic projections, until its own