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28 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY CHAPTER V. Events Preceding the Revolution— Twelve Years of Peace— Growing English Power — Early Commerce of the Lake— The Second Sailing Vessel The Beaver The Moravian Missionaries and Indians Their Settlement in Erie County — The Revolution. 0F the British and Americans who had been in the closest friendship, and under the same banners had passed to and fro over the county and the lakes, there were not a few who in twelve more years were destined to seek each other's lives on the blood-stained battle-fields of the Revolution. For a while, however, there was peace, not only between England and France, but between the Indians and the colonists. The Six Nations, though the seeds of dissen- PRECEDING THE REVOLUTION - 29 sion were sown among them, were still a powerful confederacy, and their war parties occasionally made incursions into their county, against their old enemies, the dwellers of this region, but the latter generally avoided an engagement and withdrew upon their approach. Hither, too, came occasional detachments of red coated Britons passing along the borders of the lake and bay in open boats journeying westward to Detroit, Mackinaw and other forts and trading posts. Along the borders of this country, too, went nearly all the commerce of the upper lakes, consisting of supplies for the military posts, goods for barter and trade with the Indians, and the furs received in return. Trade was carried on almost entirely in open boats propelled by oars, with the occasional aid of a temporary sail. In good weather tolerable progress could be made, but woe to any of these frail craft which might be overtaken by a storm. The New York Gazette in February, 1770, informed its readers that several boats had been lost in crossing Lake Erie, and that the distress of the crews was so great that they were obliged to keep two human bodies found on the north shore, so as to kill for food the ravens and eagles which came to feed on the corpses. Other boats were mentioned at the same time as frozen up or lost, but nothing was said as to sail-vessels. There were, however, at least two or three English trading vessels on Lake Erie before the Revolution, and probably one or two armed vessels belonging to the British government. One of the former, called the Beaver, is known to have been lost in a storm on the southeastern coast of Lake Erie, and to have furnished relics found in that vicinity (Eighteen-Mile Creek) by early settlers, which by some have been attributed to the ill-fated Griffin. It was about the year 1770 that the great body of people known as the Moravian Missionaries and Indians left their established home on the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania, and emigrated westward to various places in Ohio and elsewhere. Their Pennsylvania settlement and colony was in the country of the Shawnees, among whom they had made many converts and strong friendships. By the treaty and sale of 1768 concluded between the Iroquois and the proprietaries of the province of Pennsylvania, the lands occupied by the Shawnees and the Moravians as well, passed into the control of the proprietors, whereupon the occupants prepared to vacate, although such action was not enforced. The Iroquois claimed title to this whole country of Pennsylvania by conquest, and from that time the Shawnees were a broken people, many of whom came to Ohio and made a settlement in this region, while others remained on the Susquehanna, as they were permitted to do by the conquerors. Rev. Christian Frederick Post seems to have been the leader of the missionaries, and his influence among all the Indian people was something remarkable. He was the great mediating power between the whites and natives in time of trouble, and 30 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY. his strength among the savages was attained through his entire freedom from deception, sham, avarice. Truth and singleness of mind were his characteristics. The Indians knew this and trusted him as fully as if he was of their own people. Some of the Moravians accompanied the Shawnees at the time of their earliest immigration into Ohio, but the great body did not come until many years later, the time mentioned above. One branch or body of them made a settlement in Erie county on the Huron River about two miles from Milan, but afterward moved to Milan. The precise date of their coming is not known, but it is supposed to have been soon after the Revolutionary War; still some authorities place their coming at an earlier day. Concerning these people in this county we extract the following sketch from the work of Mr. Henry Howe, the sketch having been contributed by Rev. E. Judson, of Milan : " On the spot where the town of Milan now stands, there was, at the time of the survey of the fire-lands in 1807, an Indian village, containing within it a Christian community, under the superintendence of Rev. Christian Frederick Dencke, a Moravian‘missionary. The Indian name of the town was Petquotting. The mission was established here in 1804. Mr. Dencke brought with him several families of Christian Indians from the vicinity of the Thames River in Upper Canada. They had a chapel and a mission-house, and were making good progress in the cultivation of Christian principles, when the commencement of the white settlements induced them in 1809 to emigrate with their missionary to Canada. There was a Moravian mission attempted as early as 1787. A considerable party of Christian Indians had been driven from their settlement at Gnadenhutton on the Tuscarawas River, by the inhuman butchery of a large number of the inhabitants by the white settlers. After years of wandering, with Zeisberger for their spiritual guide, they at length formed a home on the banks of the Cuyahoga River near Cleveland, which they named Pilgerruh, " Pilgrim's Rest". They were soon driven from this post, whence they came to the Huron, and commenced a settlement on its east bank, and near the north line of the township. To this village they gave the name of New Salem. Here the labors of their indefatigable missionary were crowned by very considerable success. They were soon compelled to leave, however, by the persecutions of the pagan Indians. It seems to have been a portion of these exiles who returned in 1841 to commence the new mission." In 1775 the Revolution began. Its important events were enacted without the boundaries of what now constitutes the State of Ohio. Still, it is to that war that Erie county owes some of the most important events of its early history, for, by reason of the sufferings of residents of Connecticut at the hands of the British, the whole body of land now embraced by the county and more, was donated to them, and the historic " Firelands" were brought into existence. This subject will appear fully discussed in a later chapter of this work. ACQUISITION OF LAND TITLES - 31 During the War of the Revolution, Indian sentiment was divided. The powerful Six Nations, through the influence of Sir William Johnson, and, after his death in 1774, of his nephew, Colonel Guy Johnson, remained true to the cause of Great Britain, while many of the tribes who had been allied to the French during the early wars, inclined to the cause of the colonies, who were receiving not only sympathy, but substantial support from the French government. Still, many tribes were unwilling to aid the patriot cause for the reason that their settlements were becoming too numerous, and they were transgressing against what the Indians firmly believed to be their undeniable rights. The inhabitants of this region were not called into active service, either aggressive or defensive ; they were destined to wait for coming years when later wars called them into action, which ended in their defeat, the loss of their favorite hunting and fishing grounds, and they themselves compelled to end their days in a new country beyond the Mississippi. With the surrender of Cornwallis, in October, 1781, hostilities ceased. In the fall of 1783 peace was formally declared between Great Britain and the revolted colonies, henceforth to be acknowledged by all men as the United states of America, of which Lake Erie formed a portion of the northern boundary. Although the forts held by the British on the American side of the line were not even up for many years afterward, and although they thus retained a strong influence over the Indians located on this side, yet the legal title was admitted to be in the United States. Thus the unquestioned English authority over. the territory of Erie county lasted only from the treaty with France in 1763, to that with the United States in 1783, a little over twenty years. |