History of Fulton County CHAPTER I FULTON COUNTY ANTIQUITIES While the main purpose of this current writing is to record specifically and extensively the direct history of that part of Ohio now known as Fulton county, placing chiefest importance upon the inclusion of that. part of its annals not embodied in other historical works, the compilation, to be comprehensive, should include, as a preface to the direct historical narrative, a review, necessarily brief, of events. of anterior date, historic and prehistoric, analogous thereto; which requirement the compiler has endeavored to meet. It is more than probable that the white settlers of the period since 1832, and the Indians of prior domiciliation, were not the only terretenants of the region which now is Fulton county; there are, or have been, evidences in the county, and in other parts of Ohio, to give credence to the supposition that a prehistoric human race peopled the region. The mounds of Winameg, and other places, seem to point to the presence of earlier human inhabitants than the Indian tribes encountered by the first white explorers. The bones of the mastodon have been found in many parts, of northwestern. Ohio, one of the most perfect specimens of the prehistoric monster being discovered a few miles southeast of Wauseon; and, from such evidence of the presence of pachydermatous mammalia in the region in prehistoric times, it may well be assumed that the highest form of animal life, i. e., man,. also was existent. Implements, such as were used by. men of primitive days in other parts, have been found in northwestern Ohio, near the fossilized remains of animals known to be of the glacial period; and in many other evidences theorists are Supported in the belief that in prehistoric times a human race lived in the territory which now is Fulton county... The petrography of many boulders .present in Ohio, and foreign to the natural rock formation of the region have interested geologists, who estimate the age of the boulders to be from 25,000,000 to 150,000,000 years, and state that they were of glacial transportation; while evidences of very early, geological ages .point to the probability that the Gulf of Mexico once extended to the region. Several mounds similar to those at Winameg have been found along the Maumee River; but those of Winameg have, of course, direct place in Fulton county history. They were, in 1892, the subject of special investigation and report by a worthy Fulton county resident, Judge. Wm. H. Handy, and his report is the most authentic descrip- - 1 - 2 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY tion of an interesting phase of Fulton county history, and should be placed on record. Judge Handy reported, in part, as follows: "In the past week one fact has been demonstrated, viz : that a great lost race, which for want of a better name has been named the `Mound Builders,' once inhabited Fulton county. Until now, no works. in Ohio, north of the Allen county north line, or west of the Lucas county west line,- have ever been certainly identified as the work of that people.. ....Today, on the banks of Bad Creek, overlooking the famous council grounds of the Pottawattamies, on which stands the historic Council Oak of the Red Indians, we have located and identified eleven mounds of the Mound Builders; and the site of the twelfth. For more than half a century Hon D W H Howard on whose farm, and in whose orchard, most of. them (the mounds) are has zealously, guarded them from vandalism, permitting no one, in any way, to interfere with them, further than to cultivate the ground The mounds are located on the southeast quarter of the northwest quarter of section 9, town 10 south, range 3 east, in Pike Township, Fulton county They are built on a high ridge, containing five or six acres of land, and following the highest outer elevation of the bluff, with three exceptions "No. 1 (mound) is nearly covered by Mr. Howard's wood house, and is built on the southern edge of the bluff. A distinct and well defined terrace appears on the north side of the mound. No. 8, in the road, has almost been obliterated. The balance, while their outlines are somewhat indistinct, can be easily seen. The soil is a tap-dressing of light sand, mixed however, at a depth of six or seven inches, with gravel. Long years after these mounds were built they were exposed to the winds and rains, and consequently have lost much more by erosion than they have gained by decaying vegetation, or otherwise. And, indeed, Mr. Howard tells me that within his memory they were much higher and more distinct in their outlines than now. Besides, they were cultivated, more or less, for many years. Colonel Howard tells me that he heard old. Chief Wi-na-meg, the father of the Winameg after whom that postoffice was named, and when the old chief was about ninety-five years of age, say that the oldest man did not know .who made the mounds, and that nobody knew; but he thought that a great battle had been fought there and the dead buried in 'the mounds. Indian tradition, then, failed to account for them. 'If .the Red Indians had built them, tradition would have brought the fact down to old Winameg, probably. But it will need. no argument to convince one who has read much of the manners arid customs of the Red Indians that they did not build the mounds, or other works of the `Mound Builders',  "We went into these mounds with the purpose of making the excavations thorough enough to disclose their identity, their purposes, and whether they had ever been disturbed. When this had been accomplished, we quit work on each particular mound . . . . . Our first excavation was of mound No. 5 . . . . .This mound was about thirty-five feet in diameter. About ten feet from the centre we found small pieces of charcoal. The soil. before we got to the altar, was composed of: mould, six inches; white sand, eighteen inches; yellow sand, mixed with some gravel, at the surface. At about the- centre we uncovered HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 3 two altars, one a circle, the other a parallelogram, the circle lying di- rectly south of the other. The circle was four feet in diameter; the parallelogram, as near as we could make it, four to six feet. The altars were constructed in about the same manner. First was the soil. Overlying this, one foot of baked soil-sand, baked to a light brown color. Overlying this, four inches of sand baked until it had turned a bright red. Overlying this five inches of charcoal. Above this, six inches of sand and mould. "On the circular altar we found some remnants of human bones that had partially burned, and. nothing else. On the other altar we found the bones partially burned of many different wild animals. Among the human. bones on the circular altar, we found a jaw bone containing four teeth.. Very near the original surface, but with the baked earth covering him, immediately under the circular altar, we found the skull and a portion of the skeleton of a man, head to the west, and lying on his face. We have this skull, the part of the skull above the nasal bone, well preserved. Compared with the skull of an Indian found intrusively buried in Mound No. 6, we find two distinct types of man. "This is all we found in this mound. It was noticeable that the burned sand of the altars was as dry: as the dust that blows in the street, while when we came to the original soil, which had not been burned and under the altars, We found it moist. The ground of which the altars were composed had .never been disturbed since the fires went out. This was demonstrated to a certainty. No digging would ever have been done without disturbing the strata, and it had never been disturbed. The baked sand, the red burned ground, the charcoal were in as perfect layers, as if placed there by .the hands of a mason." 4 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY In most cases, the human bones found during the excavation crumbled upon exposure to the air; and some of the mounds had been tampered with, presumably by the Indians ; but the investigation had added local proofs to others discovered in Ohio to indicate that a race earlier than that of the Indian had dominion in this part of the Western Hemisphere. Of course the origin of the American Indian dates back far into hazy antiquity ; and it is perhaps possible to link the "Mound Builders" with the Indian by supposing the differences in form and character to be reasonably and merely the ordinary process of evolution. The Mound Builders may have been the forefathers of the Indians, change in the character, and indeed in the physiognomy, of the race coming with the passing of the centuries, in much the same way as changes have taken place in form of other species of the animal kingdom, during the evolving processes of centuries of reproduction, and adaptation to location and climate. Whether the historic mounds of Fulton county, and Ohio, were actually mounds at the time sacrificial use was made of the altars is not clear. Maybe the altars were open to the heavens. It would seem that the operation of fires in such covered spaces would hardly be tolerable. Again, the fact that many of the early human races were, in some unexplainable way., attracted to the solar system in their instinctive desire to worship something, would strengthen the thought that the early inhabitants of American territory were not mound builders at all, but people of almost Druidical convictions and religious practices. The ancient Celtic race, which originated in the Himalaya Mountains of India, might well have divided there when migration began, and just as one portion spread over the lands of Gaul, Britain, and Germany, so might another body of Celts have spread over the lands to the eastward, and passing through Tibet, Mongolia, Siberia, have reached the American continent by way of Alaska. And just as the Celts of westward migration established, in various places of settlement, evidences of Sun worship, in the huge stone circles and cromlechs still standing in France and parts of Britain, so might Celts of eastward drift have carried their Druidical practices with them, adapting their means of worship to the geological limitations of the region in which they settled. In the rocky regions of France and Britain, their circles and approaches could most conveniently be of stone; in, for instance, Ohio, where rock formations are not so near the surface, their circles and approaches would, feasibly, have been of earth, or clay. The common origin of the peoples of the earth is closer than the average person imagines. Students of the languages of the American Indian have noted a similarity in root of many Indian and Celtic words. That similarity may have come, within recent centuries, by the association of the French with the Indians in the seventeenth century; or it may have resulted from the absorption by the Indians of a Welsh party, which, it is believed, sought, earlier, to establish a colony in America. Wilkins' "History of Wales" records the sailing, in the fourteenth century, from Welsh shores of a certain Prince Madoc, who was bent on a voyage of discovery; also, that he returned some years later, bringing news of the discovery of a wonderful new land across the seas, westward. He wished to gather followers and re- HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 5 turn to the new land, and there found a colony. It is understood that he drew to his standard many Welshmen, and that, in due course, the expedition set sail. Whether Prince Madoc reached America with his band of colonists cannot even, properly, be conjectured, for no tidings ever again came of him; or of his followers; but it is not a matter for conjecture as to the land to which he referred. His discovery of "a new land across the seas" could riot have been merely of a part of Ireland; that was not a new land to the clans of Wales. The coast clans of both countries had for many centuries prior to that been clashing periodically at sea, both engaged in what. perhaps would, nowadays, be deemed to be piratical adventures. If Prince Madoc's expedition landed in America, it either was annihiliated by the Indians, or merged into their life. In the latter event; Welsh practices, and to some extent Welsh speech, would have some effect upon their Indian associates. However the "Mound Builders," the religious practices of which people might feasibly have been Druidical in character, were, presumably and probably, of a much earlier generation than that of the Indians who might have met Prince Madoc. It is the linking of thoughts of the Druidical ancient Britons, i. e., the Welsh and Cornish people; of the Mound Builders, with their altars; of the possible merging of Madoc's Welshmen, with the American Indian of a later day—that prompts one to the thought of the possible original eastern migration of Celtic people, as hereinbefore suggested, and of the possible linking of those people with the mound builders of Ohio. In which event, the cognomination, "Mound Builders," would riot properly fit the early inhabitants of Fulton county and, Ohio. However, the service rendered to the county, and nation, by Col. D. W. H. Howard, in guarding from vandalism the mounds upon his property until such time as proper investigation of them could be undertaken, is one of distinct historical value—a contribution to the archaelogical records of the nation. - 5 - CHAPTER II EARLY JURISDICTION Among the Indian tribes, the aborigines of which there is historical record were the Lenni Lenapes, and the Mengwe. The Lenni Lenapes held mainly to the rivers, and the Mengwe to the country bordering on the lakes of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. Until finally subdued by the Iroquois confederacy, which "put petticoats on the men," and deprived them of all right to make war, change their habitation, or dispose of their land without the consent of their overlords, the Lenape, or Lenni-Lenape nation held dominion throughout the whole country west of the Hudson River, including the larger rivers of Pennsylvania, and the streams of Ohio, even as far south as the Carolinas. Their seat of government was on the Delaware, and they held autonomous power over all the tribes of the territory. Tradition has it, that sometime during the fourteenth century: "There came to the west bank of the Mississippi River, each journeying eastward, two nations of Indians, called respectively the Lenni Lenapes and the Mengwe. Neither knew of the journey of the other, nor had they any former acquaintance. Their first meeting was upon the river. They found the country bordering on the river to be in the possession of a numerous fierce and warlike nation of Indians calli themselves the Allegwi, who claimed all the territory for hundreds or miles around, and apparently were possessed of sufficient force to - 6 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 7 maintain that claim. The emigrants sent messengers with presents to the chiefs and sachems of the Allegwi, and asked of them permission to cross the river and settle in their country. After a council . . . . . . . the request was refused, but permission was given to the Lenapes and Mengwe to cross the river, and journey to the country far east and beyond the lands claimed by the Allegwi Thousands crossed the river, when, either deceived by the number of the emigrants and fearing them, or with malice in their hearts, the Allegwi fell upon them with great force, and slaughtered many, driving the others into the forests and scattering them far and wide. After a time each of the journeying nations was gathered and all united as a common people, and, returning, attacked the Allegwi, beat them in a lopg and terrific battle, and drove them from the country to the far south. "The victorious forces then resumed their journey eastward, but with little feelings of friendship, for the Lenapes declared that the brunt of the battle fell upon them, and that the Mengwe hung in the rear." Thus came the first estrangement, which finally involved the two nations in war, and eventually led to the entire subjugation of the Lenni-Lenape nation, by the powerful Five Nations, or Iroquois Confederacy, as the French nerved the alliance. The Five Nation tribes were supposed to have had common origin in the Mengwe, although when confederated the five tribes, or nations, were known by the names, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca. Eventually the Tuscarora tribe joined the league. This combination remained the supreme power among the Indian peoples for more than two cen- 8 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY tunes; but long before that time the whole of the territory now embraced in the United States of America had passed, by parchment deed and declaration of discovery, if not by actual occupation, under the sovereign power and jurisdiction of nations of the white race. According to D. W. H. Howard, "for centuries" before the Revolutionary war determined that a republic and not a monarchy should be the form of government of white people, and of course necessarily of red, the Indian tribes inhabited the valley of the Maumee (Me-aw-mee) and its tributaries, the St. Mary's on the south, the St. Joseph on the north, the Au Glaize on the south, the Tiffin River, or Bean Creek, on the north, and the Turkey Foot, both north and south, and the smaller streams, such as Beaver Creek, joining the Maumee near Grand Rapids; the Tone-tog-a-nee, near the old Indian mission; and the Portage near its mouth. The Indian occupants were the Ot-ta-was, HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 9 of the valley proper, and the bunting grounds on the Au Glaize; the Pot-ta-wa-to-mies of the St. Joseph and the upper portions of the Tiffin River, and the hunting grounds on the Raisin River, and along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. The Pottawatomies were closely related with their neighbors, the Ottawas on the south, and the Ogibewas on the north, whose lands and hunting grounds adjoined. theirs. The Mi-am-ies were on the upper Wabash and the Ell rivers; smaller bands of We-aws and Pi-an-ki-shaws made their home on the lower St. Mary's River; the Wyandottes on the Sanduskies, the Tousaint and their branches; the Shaw-won-no (Shawnees) on the Hog Creek and upper Blanchard's fork of the Au Glaize. These tribes were all part of the Five Nations Confederacy, one of the main purposes of which league of nations was the necessity of preserving a united front to combat the encroachments of white men into their hunting grounds. It is believed that the first attempt by white people to settle within the territory now within the jurisdiction and borders of the State of Ohio was in the seventeenth century ; of greater interest however to the people of Fulton county is the fact that the attempted settlement was in the Maumee Valley. It was in, about, the year 1680 that some adventurous Frenchmen established themselves along that river, constructing a small stockade not far from its mouth. By right of discovery, and by virtue of a "concession in perpetuity" made by Pope Alexander VI, however, Spain claimed a priority to all of northwest Ohio; indeed the same concession,- or another by the same papal authority, deeded in blank to the Kings of Castile and Leon practically the 10 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY whole of the American continent, north and south, known or unknown. Francis I, King of France, however, disputed the claims of Spain and Portugal, refusing to recognize papal authority to so convey lands; and the French probably were in Ohio territory many decades before the British came. The original claim of France was based on the discovery of the St. Lawrence River by Cartier, in 1534, and confirmed by the subsequent explorations of Champlain, La Salle, Joliet, and others. France reasoned that the discovery of a river established a right to all the territory drained by that waterway and its tributaries. Hence the claim of France to the valleys of the Maumee and Sandusky, these waters being tributary to the St. Lawrence. Champlain visited the Wyandottes, or the Hurons, at their villages on Lake Huron, in 1615, when he remained with them several months. And he is supposed to have travelled along the southern shores of Lake Erie. Louis Joliet also is believed to have sailed on that lake ; and it is surmised that Chevalier de La Salle journeyed up the Maumee River, and then down the Wabash to the Ohio and the Mississippi. in the year 1669. La Salle is generally credited as die first white man to discover the Ohio, and he built the first Fort Miami, near the site of Fort Wayne, on his return overland. In 1668 St. Lusson at Sault Ste Marie, formally, in the name of God and France, and in the presence of representatives of many Indian tribes, proclaimed possession of "Lake Huron and Superior and all countries, rivers, lakes, and streams contiguous and adjacent thereunto, both those that have been discovered and those which may be discovered hereafter, in all the length and breadth, bounded on one side by the seas of the north and west, and on the other by the South Sea . . ." Jesuit fathers, and coureurs des Bois, two classes so opposite in character and purpose penetrated almost the entire Northwest Territory, not at the same time of course; and of the two classes, the Jesuit fathers made a lesser impression upon the Indian. The degenerate French adventurers, les coureurs des bois, with their stocks of brandy, trinkets and baubles and their carefree, roving, happy-go-lucky ways, were welcomed by the Indians, and received into their life, and were it not for the fact that the British treated the powerful Iroquois Confederacy with greater respect and circumspection than they showed other Indian tribes, and also the fact that the French devoted their efforts more to the Huron tribe, thus inculcating in the Iroquois mind a vindicative antipathy to the French people in general, the result of the struggle for supremacy in America between the French and the British would have been much different. The French laid. claim to all of the Northwestern Territory, while the British claimed the .whole of the continent as far west as. tile Mississippi River, and as far north as a line drawn directly west from their most northerly settlement on the Atlantic Coast. Thus Northwest Ohio became part of the disputed territory. In 1700, the British governor of New York made the following report to the home government: "The French have mightily imposed on the world in the mapps they have made of this continent, and our Geographers have been led into gross .mistakes by the French mapps, to our very great prejudice. It were as good a work as your Lordships could do, to send over a very skillful surveyor, to make correct mapps HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY- 11 of all these plantations, and that out of hand, that we may not be cozen's on to the end of the chapter by the French." Thereafter, the British paid more. heed to cartography, and as the decades passed added to the extent of their surveys. In Evans' map (1755) the Maumee and Sandusky rivers, and some of their tributaries, are pretty well outlined. Over the greater part of Northwest Ohio is printed the following: "These parts were by the Confederates (Iroquois) allotted for the Wyandottes when they were lately admitted into their league." The British also endeavored to cultivate trading with the Indians, the purpose being of course chiefly political. As early as 1740 traders from Virginia and Pennsylvania journeyed among the Indians of the Ohio and tributary streams to deal for peltries. They threaded their way through the forests or along streams as far north as Michilimackinack, and sought to curry favor by out bidding the French for the peltries, at the same time selling merchandise to the Indians at lower prices. England based her claims on the discoveries by John Cabot, who left. Bristol, England, in 1498, reaching American shores the same year, many decades, therefore, before the buccaneer Cartier first entered tilt St. Lawrence River. For nearly a century the two European powers contended actively for supremacy, the British surely colonizing the eastern states, and the :French seeming to be making vast strides in the interior. ,Northwest Ohio at that time was stated to have been a region where "one vast continuous forest shadowed the fertile soil. covering the land, as the grass covers a garden lawn, sweeping over hill and hollow in endless undulation. Green intervals, dotted with browsing deer, and broad plains blackened with buffalo, 12 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY broke the sameness of the woodland scenery. Many rivers seamed the forest with their devious, windings. A vast lake washed its boundaries, where the Indian voyager, in his birch canoe, could descry no land beyond the world of waters." At the opening the eighteenth century, efforts of both the French. and British seem to have been focused on the Maurice River. Its easy route to the south and southwest, caused both people to diligently seek the favor of the Indians dwelling along its banks. The French Post Miami, near the. head of the Maumee, had been built about HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 13 1680-86. It was rebuilt and strengthened, in 1697, by Captain de Vincennes; and it is claimed. that the French constructed a fort. a few years earlier, in 1680; on, the site of Fort Miami, a few miles above the mouth of the Maumee. Fort Pontchartrain, 'at Detroit, was built in 1701, and Many French expeditions, military and commercial, passed up and down the Maumee River. From Post Miami they would portage across to the Wabash, and from there descend to Vincennes, an important French post. At 'the beginning Of King George II's war, M de Longueville, French commandant at Detroit, used the Maumee River route, in passing with soldiers and Indians into Indiana; while in 1727, Governor Spotswood, of Virginia requested the British authorities to negotiate a treaty with the Miamis, on the Miami of the Lakes, so that a small fort might be built, which plan however was not carried out. Twenty years later, Orontony, or Nicholas, a Wyandot chief, whose stronghold and villages were near the mouth of the Sandusky River, where he permitted the British to erect Fort Sandoski, which was the first real fort erected by white men in Ohio, conceived a plan whereby he hoped to capture Detroit and all other French outposts and annihilate the French power in the West. He enlisted -in the adventure many neighboring tribes, the Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawatomies, from Fulton county, and the 'Shawnees, as well as more distant tribes. The Miamis and Wyandots were to sweep the French from the Maumee country ; the Pottawatomies were to operate in the Bois Blanc islands, and other tribes were to attack the settlement at Green Bay. The plot was discovered before serious happenings could occur to the French; and in the following year Nicholas and his followers went further west, into Illinois. In the spring of 1749 Celeron journeyed down the Ohio, taking 14 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY possession of the country in the name of his sovereign, and burying leaden plates asserting the sovereignty of France. The last plate was buried at the mouth of the Great Miami River. From Pickawillany (Pkiwileni) they portaged to Fort Miami (Fort Wayne) and although Celeron went overland to Detroit, his followers descended the Maumee. In the following year, Christopher Gist, emissary for the British, accomplished very much more, entering into treaty relations with the Miamis, or Twightwees, as they were called by the British. The many decades of strife between the French and British were fought elsewhere than in Northwest Ohio; or rather, no major battles were fought in that region. In 1752, French Canadians and Indian allies ascended the Maumee and Auglaise, capturing and destroying Pickawillany, where eight English traders were, the chief of the Pienkeshaws, known as "Old Britain" being slain, that being perhaps the most serious casualty the British suffered in that raid. "Old Britain," it has been stated. was boiled and eaten by the victors. The Turtle succeeded him as chief. With Braddock's defeat, the British prestige was shaken, and some of the Indian tribes, formerly sympathetic to the British, veered HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 15 to the French side. It also brought serious unrest among the Indian tribes, but was responsible for the uniting of Ohio tribes to more determinedly oppose the British. It brought prominently into history an Indian leader classed as "one of the greatest chiefs" of which there is record in American history. Pontiac who was born near the Maumee River, and whose home and stronghold was the Maumee Valley, was of the Ottawa tribe, in paternal descent, and eventually "was greatly honored and revered by his subjects." With the passing of the French from Ohio territory, the British policy underwent radical change. Whereas formerly, when in competition with the French, they distributed blankets, lilies, and brandy with lavish hand among the Indians, their attitude, with the political change, was, to say the least, parsimonious. The expedition of Rogers' Rangers, in the fall of 1760, was the first act of British authority over Northwestern Ohio, and although he contrived to prevent friction with the Indians under Pontiac in that year, he could not shake Pontiac's conviction that unless France was aided to retain her foothold in the region, the eventual destruction of the Indian race was inevitable. He rallied the remotest tribes to his side by his message, which- in substance was: "Why do you suffer these dogs in red clothing to enter your country and take the land the Great Spirit has given you? Drive them from it. Drive them." Pontiac's conspiracy was carried on in great secrecy and he planned to have the attacks on the various forts made simultaneously. The Maumee post, Presque Isle, Niagara., Pitt, Ligonier, and every British fort was hemmed in by Indian tribes, "who felt that the great battle drew nigh which was to determine their fate and the possession of their noble lands." The first intimation the British had of the conspiracy was in March, 1763, when Ensign Holmes, commandant of Fort Miami, at the head of the Maumee, "was informed by a friendly Miami that the Indians in the vicinity had lately received a war belt, with the urgent request that they destroy him and his garrison, and that they were even then preparing to do so." Ensign Holmes confronted the chiefs, demanded the belt, and it was delivered to him. He forwarded it to his superior officer, Major Gladwyn, at Detroit, with the comment: "This Affair is very timely Stopt, and I hope the News of a Peace will put a. stop lick any further Troubles with these Indians." One morning however, E sign Holmes was decoyed to "a number of Indian lodges . . . not far removed from the fort," and there treacherously slain. The Indians then overran the fort. On the 16th of May, Fort Sandusky was stormed, and the garrison massacred, entrance having been gained by typical Indian treachery. All the outposts of the British, with the exception of Detroit which successfully withstood a protracted siege, were destroyed, and settlers, throughout Ohio were murdered. The effort availed the Indians nothing, however. The receipt by Pontiac of a belt of wampum from "their great father, the King of France," while the conspiracy was still in embryo, had encouraged Pontiac to believe that the French king "had heard the voices of his red children," and would again take up arms with them; but when after much blood had been spilled, and the British were still in possession of Detroit, Pontiac received a letter from the French commander, informing him "that the French and English were now at peace," his rage was terrifying, his disappoint- 16 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY ment extreme. "He saw himself and his people thrown back upon their own slender resources." It has been stated that "for hours no man or woman dared approach him, so terrible was his rage. His fierce spirit was wrought into unspeakable fury." In rage and mortification, he soon afterwards removed his camp from Detroit, and returned to the Maumee River. Some time later, he went into Illinois territory, where the French still were, but they were no longer his allies for warlike operations, he found. His final submission was given to Sir William Johnson, at Oswego. That official "wrapped in his scarlet blanket, bordered with gold lace, and surrounded by the glittering uniforms of the British officers, was seen, with hand extended in welcome to the great Ottawa, who, standing erect in conscious power, his rich plumes waving over the circle of his warriors, accepted the proffered hand, with an air in which defiance and respect were singularly blended." Pontiac returned to the Maumee, and "yielded more and more to the seduction of the firewater." In 1789 he appeared at the post of St. Louis, and a few days later, visited an assemblage of Indians at Oahokia, on the opposite side of the river. He had donned the full uniform of a French officer, one which had been presented to him by the Marquis of Montcalm. Undoubtedly he still harboured resentment against the British, but whether he had planned further resistance is not known. At all events, his career ended there, for a Kaskaskia Indian buried a tomahawk in his brain. His tribesmen exacted a bloody revenge; the Sacs and the Foxes practically exterminating the Kaskaskias. In July, 1772, the Ohio Indians formed a strong confederacy on the Pickaway Plains, the Shawnees, Wyandots, Miamis, Ottawas, Delawares, and some western tribes uniting for mutual protection. They disputed the right of the Iroquois Confederacy to convey a title to the British for all the hunting grounds south of the Ohio. During the next two years "many inhuman and revolting incidents occurred," but then peace again reigned, and the decision of the Indians to remain loyal to the British was destined to greatly increase the difficulties of the American colonists when they revolted from British authority. During the first two years of the Revolutionary War, the Ohio Indians were inactive, not understanding the quarrel between the British colonists and the British nation. But eventually they were drawn into the struggle, on the side of the British. Henry Hamilton, who arrived at Detroit, in December, 1775, to take up administrative control of British affairs in that territory, by virtue of his appointment to the newly created office of lieutenant governor and superintendent of aborigine affairs, was in supreme control of the British and Indian operations in the territory, although the Indian operations being what might be classed as guerilla warfare were undertaken upon their own initiative, assisted undoubtedly by an ignoble group of renegade colonists, Simon Girty, Alexander McKee, and Matthew Elliott. In 1778, the British organized a large expedition, "consisting of fifteen large bateaux and several smaller boats, which were laden with food, clothing, tents, ammunition, and the inevitable rum, together with other presents for the savages." There were 177 white soldiers, and a considerable number of Indians. It required sixteen days for the forces to ascend 18 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY the Maumee, to its head, and it was destined to suffer defeat in an attack by American troops, under Colonel Clark, who captured the governor, Henry Hamilton. The latter was sent, with all of his officers, to Virginia. Two years later, the British organized a larger expedition of Indians, Capt. Henry Bird being in command, with the three Girtys, as guides and scouts. The expedition, one thousand strong eventually, ascended the Maumee, to the mouth of the Auglaize, which river they traversed as far as navigable. Many settlers were massacred, Captain Bird being unable to control the Indians. He took many prisoners in Kentucky, and eventually returned to Detroit, by way of the Maumee. In 1778 the Legislature of Virginia organized the Northwestern Territory into the country of Illinois, and eastern states claimed territory also west of the Alleganies. Finally, it was recommended that the states ceded their claims to the newly organized Union, and Congress, in 1780 provided that the territory so ceded should be disposed of for the benefit of the United States in general. New York State was the first to respond, assigning her western claim in 1781. Virginia, in 1784, ceded to the United States her claim to the country northwest of the Ohio River; in 1785 Massachusetts gave up her claims to all Ohio territory, excepting Detroit and vicinity; and in 1786 Connecticut waived her rights, excepting the section designated as the Western Reserve. Simon Girty was one of the bitterest enemies of the new republic. He, a renegade, depraved, cruel, pitiless, exercised much influence over the Indian, and will ever be remembered, in execration, for his part in the torture and death of Colonel William Crawford, in 1782. His last expedition against the Americans was in 1783, when he led a band of red men to Nine Mile River, within five miles of Pittsburg. But during the next decade, he was one of the most active influences present among the Indians to foment further trouble. In 1788, he attended an Indian council at the foot of the Maumee Rapids, and was received into the conference by the Indians as one of them. He was present at the grand council held in October, 1793, at the Glaize (Defiance), and also at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. He made good his escape, and the remainder of his life was lived in Canada, although during the War of 1812 he came back to American soil with the British troops, but fled precipitately to Canadian soil, when American troops approached Detroit. He deserved to be drawn and quartered, and perhaps dreaded some such punishment in case of capture by Americans. It is said that, when he incontinently fled, "he could not wait for the boat, but plunged his horse into the river and swam to the opposite shore." The Treaty of Paris, concluded at Versailles in 1783, by which all the territory south of the middle of the Great Lakes and their connecting rivers, and east of the Upper Mississippi River, was granted to the United States, did not materially alter the opposition of Ohio Indian tribes to the American republic. But the infant republic was forced to protect the settlers, who were ever advancing westward. A treaty, between the United States Government and the Chippewa, Delaware, Ottawa, and Wyandot tribes, entered into at Fort McIntosh, sought to restrict the settlers, and yet curb the Indians. The limits of Indian territory, as agreed upon, were the Maumee and the Cuyahoga HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 19 Rivers, on the west and east respectively. Within that territory, which included Northwest Ohio, and practically three-fourths of the entire state, the Delawares, Wyandots, and Ottawas, were to live and hunt at their pleasure; and a settler could enter only at his peril, the treaty authorizing the Indians "to shoot any person other than an Indian, whether a citizen of the United States or otherwise, who attempted to settle upon these exempt lands." Reservations provided for military posts at the mouth of the Maumee, and at Lower 'Sandusky. Nevertheless, the United States Government on July 27, 1787, granted the Ohio Company 1;500,000 acres of Ohio land, for settlement, and granted tracts also to other companies. The lands granted were on the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers. Arthur St. Clair was appointed first governor, and to him was committed the perilous task of allaying the restlessness among the Indians. Eventually this was effected by the payment of a "considerable sum of money" to the Indians, who however were not those in supreme authority. Many settlers were murdered, and eventually the unrest became so serious that General Harmar was ordered, in 1790, to conduct an expedition against the Maumee towns, which were reported to be the headquarters at which all the depredations were planned. The army, under General Harmar, marched northward, from near Fort Washington, on October 4, 1790. It was composed of about 1500 soldiers, four-fifths of whom however were untrained militia. Certain Indian villages were destroyed, but the unreliability of the militia troops soon became evident, and forced General Harmar eventually to decide to return to Fort Washington, which he reached about October 30th. There was much adverse criticism, but a court of inquiry acquitted General Harmar, who, however, resigned his commission soon afterwards. 20 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY The failure of General Harmar to effect the main purpose for which the expedition had been organized, which purpose was the establishment of strong fortress communications throughout the Maumee country, caused General St. Clair to recommend the sending of another punitive expedition. Accordingly, in September, 1791, an army of 2,300 "effectives" departed, General St. Clair being in command. By the time it had reached the eastern fork of the Wabash, about a mile eastward of the Ohio-Indiana line, the effective force was only about 1400 men. And there, the next morning, the camp was suddenly attacked by Indians, who "shot down the troops, as hunters would slaughter a herd of standing buffalo." The officers could not stay the wild rout which followed. It was a far greater disaster than that which General Harmar had sustained, and altogether the casualties exceeded half of the forces engaged. General St. Clair manifested signal personal valor, but had perforce to follow his troops in retreat. The inevitable court of inquiry sat, and its history duplicated that of the Harmar inquiry, for General St. Clair was exonerated, and, like his predecessor in misfortune, he soon afterwards resigned his commission. The defeat of two American armies, did not tend to instil into the Indian mind any clear recognition of the authority of the United States. The Maumee Indians, in particular, . continued to be belligerently inclined, and not amenable to peace overtures. Almost daily, fresh and revolting stories of massacres reached Washington, and the undertaking of another expedition became imperative. Anthony Wayne was chosen to command the expedition. The choice was an excellent one, as events proved. "Mad Anthony," who gained that cognomen by a daredevil feat of an earlier day, in forcing his way into The Citadel of 'Stony Point at the point of the bayonet, was a soldier of well-established reputation, quick and resolute in action, an ideal Indian fighter. He proceeded to Pittsburg to organize his army, and in December, 1792, the 'Legion of the United States,' assembled at Legionville, about twenty miles below Pittsburg. General Wayne proceeded carefully. His' raw troops he made into seasoned capable soldiers before he put them to the test of actual combat. He remained at Legionville, encamped, until the spring of 1793, and then the army was transported down the river, and landed at Hobson's Choice, not far from Cincinnati. There for several months the army underwent incessant drilling. There were several attempts made to .effect peaceful understandings with the red men, and some were inclined to "bury the hatchet." The ;Maumee Indians, with whom was Simon Girty, however, met the overtures with the curt rejoinder: "If you seriously design to make a firm and lasting peace, you will immediately remove all your people from our side of the river" (the Ohio). The peace commissioners, who were at Detroit, were forced to declare the negotiations at an end. They returned to Fort Erie, and reported to General Wayne, who decided to advance without further delay. He left Fort. Jefferson, and the first skirmish occurred near Fort St. Clair, south of Hamilton, where the Indians routed a small detachment, and captured about seventy horses. Proceeding carefully,. General Wayne established Fort Greenville, on the present site of the town of that name. There an encampment about fifty acres in extent was fortified, and a part of the army wintered in the stockade. Regular drill and teaching of devices of Indian warfare 22 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY were continued during the entire winter. Where General St. Clair was defeated, a detachment from General Wayne's army erected a fort, on Christmas Day, 1793. It was named Fort Recovery. The Indians undoubtedly were cognizant of every move, and it is stated were encouraged in their defiance by the British at Detroit, or at all events by British officials stationed at Detroit. It appears that the local officials, whether with the knowledge and authority of the British Government, or not, is not on record, despatched British soldiers, "three companies of Colonel England's regiment," to Maumee Rapids, to assist in building a fort there. One official wrote that this fort "put all the Indians here in great spirits" to resist the Americans. The fort was situated on the left bank of the Maumee River, within the limits of the present village of Maumee; and to Fort Miami came regular reports of the progress of General Wayne's army. It was reported : "that the army marched twice as far in a day as St. Clair's, that the troops marched in open order ready for immediate battle, and that the greatest precaution was exercised at night, by breastworks of fallen trees, etc., to guard against ambush and surprise." On June 30, 1794, the Indians attempted to storm ,Fort Recovery, but were beaten back, after sanguinary fighting, which lasted for two days. This check disheartened some of the Upper Lake Indians, who began to return home. It seems that the attack had not been in accordance with the original plan of resistance to General Wayne's advance, but the opportunity and the impetuosity of the Mackinac tribesmen brought it about. General Wayne's forces had, a few months earlier been increased by 1600 Kentucky cavalrymen, so that his command exceeded 3000. All realized that defeat must not come to this, the third, expedition, and they entered into their preparations with grim seriousness. The army left Fort Greenville on July 28th, 1794, proceeding by way of Fort Recovery. The route led through the Black Swamp country, and it is thought by some that General Wayne's army passed over the ridge road near Wauseon. He certainly would select the highest ground possible, and at best, his progress in such swampy territory was slow. He halted at Girty's Town, and built Fort Adams. On August 8th they reached the confluence of the Maumee and Auglaize Rivers, seventy-seven miles distant from Fort Recovery. General HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 23 Wayne had planned to surprise the enemy at that point, but upon arrival found that the Indians had departed. It seems that General Wayne's plans were communicated to them by a deserter, and thus One of the main hopes of the American general was frustrated. Nevertheless, he was able to devastate the region, which was what might be termed one of the main granaries of the tribes of the Maumee and Auglaize. He sent strong detachments up and down the river, destroy- ing the crops which were almost in the mature state. The Indians had acquired, from the French presumably, considerable skill in agriculture, and on the flat stretches bordering the river General Wayne found vast fields of ripe and ripening corn. In the many raids, his forces laid waste to a considerable acreage of growing crops, making the succeeding winter one of the most disastrous the Indians of the neighborhood had experienced. At the meeting of the rivers was an ideal location for the placing of a fort. Maybe, the general had purposed erecting one there. He probably had, for he ordered the construction of it almost immediately after the arrival of the army at that important point. And in all probability the news that came to him there, that the British garrison at Detroit was expected by the Indians. to take active part in opposing his advance, influenced him to erect a very strong fortification. It was constructed in eight days, and .pleased the general evidently, for after