GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 75 Greene county, they have been systematically explored in only one or two instances. In general, these remains are in the western part of the county and along Little Miami, Mad river, Caesars creek and Painters creek, three townships of the county, Ross, Silvercreek and Jefferson, having no such remains within their borders. The traces left by the Mound Builders in Greene county are of six kinds, plain mounds, mounds raised on hills, single burials, village sites, circles and earthworks, and enclosures. The plain mounds were raised with no attention paid to the topography of the adjoining land, but in two instances these early dwellers of Greene county built their mounds on hills. In several instances they made only single burials. The circles and earthworks were circular mounds raised for fortifications, and the enclosures are circles wherein mounds have been raised as citadels for the general fortification. In all, there are seventy-six such material remains of the Mound Builders in Greene county. Bath township has four mounds, one mound on a four single burials and one village site ; Beavercreek township, one mound and two single burials ; Sugarcreek township, nine mounds, one mound on a hill, three single burials ; Xenia township. twelve mounds, one village site, two circles and one enclosure; Spring Valley township, fourteen mounds and three single burials ; Caesarscreek township, three mounds ; New Jasper township, two mounds ; Cedarville township, four mounds, one circle and one enclosure, and Miami township, four mounds, one single burial and one circle. Within the borders of Ohio there are numerous material remains left by this departed race. Approximately, there are in all some ten thousand mounds. This wealth of archaeological and historical material should not be left untouched, nor should the contents of these mounds be left to the unpracticed and unskilled hand of the amateur. The people of the state have taken wise cognizance of this fact and the General Assembly liberally sustains the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society in its investigation of these messages of the past. One of the pioneers of this movement to preserve the last remnants of this departed race from total obliteration and destruction is one of the best known sons of Greene county, Prof. Warren K. Moorhead. No doubt it was during his ramblings around in the rural districts of the home county that he conceived the idea of giving these material remains of the Mound Builders the scrutiny of an expert archaeologist. He began the preparation for his work, which he has so ably carried out, when he was actively connected with the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society. The following is a sketch of the Mound Builders of Greene county, 76 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO written by Professor Moorhead for the little volume, "Greene County, 1803-1908." The editor of this little book, wherein the history of the county is so well and interestingly epitomized, has kindly given permission to use his article in this connection. It follows : PREHISTORIC MEN OF GREENE COUNTY. Prehistoric man in Greene county left probably sixty or seventy monuments, of which forty-one are seen at the present day. The historic period—that of the Shawanoes or Shawnees at Oldtown, then Old Chillicothe—did not embrace any of these remains. The Shawnees buried in ordinary graves and confined their village to the little plateau south of the gravel hills flanking Oldtown run. The prehistoric people lived on Caesars creek, Massies creek, Oldtown run, and the Little Miami river. Whether glacial or preglacial man lived in Greene county is a debatable question. In fact, scientists are divided into two schools on the whole question of glacial man in America. There are those who believe that the discoveries in the gravels at Trenton, New Jersey, Wilmington, Delaware, Madisonville and Newcomerstown, Ohio, and in Nebraska and elsewhere are indicative of a human culture extending back thirty or forty thousand years. Against this proposition are most of the Smithsonian scientists and several leading geologists, who do not believe that the evidence warrants any such conclusion. Although many rough implements were found by me in Oldtown run many years ago and, at the time, thought by Dr. Thomas Wilson of the Smithsonian to be paleolithic in character, yet it is not established that glacial man lived in Greene county. Coming down to the more recent times and accepting observations and explorations as trustworthy, we observe that the earliest man in Greene county probably buried his dead in natural formations which appeared moundlike in character. It is quite likely that he selected glacial kames and knolls, rounded by the action of the elements during thousands of years ; and because digging in this way was easy, he placed his dead in shallow graves upon these graceful summits. When gravel pits were opened in Greene, Fayette, Warren and Clinton counties, it was no uncommon thing to find human remains therein, and alongside such human remains lay types of crude implements somewhat different from those found in mounds and upon village sites. Therefore, I have believed that in Ohio we had not only tribes which built mounds, but also an earlier people, although not necessarily a people of great antiquity—that is, great compared with the age of the glacial epoch. These early people found game very plentiful, the winters not severe and life on the whole not a desperate struggle for existence, such as characterized tribes in Canada and upon the headwaters of the Columbia and Missouri. The buffalo roamed throughout central and southern Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, and as late as 176o buffalo were killed by Capt. James Smith, long a captive among the Indians. Buffalo bones have not been found in village sites in Greene county, but they were exhumed from ashpits at Ft. Ancient and at Madisonville. Accustomed as we are to innumerable luxuries, regarding the high development of the twentieth century as a matter of course, and forgetting the millenniums through which man was slowly toiling upwards, we can; not understand how the American aborigine achieved what he did. He had no metal, save a limited supply of copper in a few isolated centers. All his art, manufacturing, building, etc., must be accomplished by the use of stone, bone and shell tools. The Indian was more ingenious and saving than we. He made use of such material as he could find. His textile fabrics—whether baskets or blankets—his elaborate pipes and his skilfully made bows were all worked out of raw material by hand. It seems incredible to us that he accomplished his work with such tools as the flint drills, the bone awls, the flint saws and the hammerstones that we find in every collection in Greene county. But one must not forget that the Indian had great capabilities. The Indian brain is finer than that of the negro and his skeletal structure is also of a higher order. GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 77 The mound building to which he was given extended throughout the entire Mississippi valley. While there are some mounds in China and a few elsewhere in the world, yet mound building was not practiced largely save among American tribes. References to archaeological maps of Greene county will show the distribution of mounds, village sites and the earthworks. From the character of the earthworks it is to be supposed that they are defensive. The mounds were for burials exclusively. The method of mound construction was simple. Natives selected a level spot of ground, well situated, preferably near a stream and commanding the surrounding country. They burned off the grass and shrubs and beat the surface until it was level. On these hard burned floors they placed the bodies of their dead with various implements, ornaments, etc., and over the interned heaped a large mass of earth. The earth was carried in baskets and skin bags, as is clearly shown by the different lens-shaped masses averaging about half a bushel in quantity. Shortly after the mound was constructed, grass began to grow and then the monument became more indestructible than imposing structures of stone or brick. A simple mound of earth outlasts any other work erected by man. Nearest to Xenia of all the works in the county is the circle on Oldtown run, two miles northeast. Unfortunately, I do not recall the name of the gentleman on whose land it lies, but it may easily be found. Within the enclosure is a small mound. It is quite evident that circles were erected as sun symbols, and sometimes as symbols of the universe. The square represented the earth, or the four winds, or the four cardinal points. West of Xenia is a large mound on the land of John B. Lucas, which was opened about fifteen years ago by George Day and Clifford Anderson. The burials in this mound presented two types, the ordinary interment and the cremated skeletons. Curious tubular pipes, flat tablet-shaped ornaments of slate, the war hatchets, large flint knives, copper bracelets, and problematical forms were found with the skeletons. The largest ancient fortification of Greene county is at Cedarville cliffs. Squier and Davis, the pioneers of American archaeology, in their famous publication, "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley" (1848), being the first work issued by the Smithsonian Institution, give a description of this work which is herewith reproduced. I quote from their original description : "It is situated at Massies creek, a tributary of the Little Miami river, seven miles east from the town of Xenia, Greene county, Ohio, and consists of a high promontory, bounded on all sides, excepting an interval at the west, by a precipitous' limestone cliff. Across the isthmus, from which the ground gradually subsides toward the plain almost as regularly as an artificial glacis, is carried a wall of earth and stones. This wall is now about ten feet high by thirty feet base, and is continued for some distance along the edge of the cliff where it is least precipitous on the north. It is interrupted by three narrow gateways, exterior to each of which was formerly a mound of stones, now mostly carried away. Still exterior to these are four short crescent walls, extending across the isthmus. These crescents are very slight, not much exceeding at the present time three feet in height. The cliff has an average height of upward of twenty-five feet, and is steep and almost inaccessible. The valley is three hundred feet broad. Massies creek, a considerable stream, washes the base of the promontory on the north. The area bounded by the cliff and embankment is not far from twelve acres. The whole is covered with the primitive forest. "The natural strength of this position is great, and no inconsiderable degree of skill has been expended in perfecting its defenses. A palisade, if carried around the brow of the cliff and along the summit of the wall, would render it impregnable to savage assault. About one hundred rods above this work, on the opposite side of the creek, is a small circle, two hundred feet in diameter, enclosing a mound. About the same distance below, upon the same bank, is a large conical mound, thirty feet in height and one hundred and forty feet in diameter at the base." Squier and Davis also illustrated the semi-circular embankment and mound lying half a mile south of the work previously described. They present a diagram of the polygon, seven miles north of Xenia on the east bank of the Little Miami river, some distance below 78 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO Yellow Springs. These gentlemen refer to the mound enclosure by a circle on Oldtown run, two miles north of Xenia. At the time their book was published, the high, conical-shaped mound below the cliffs (near the Hon. Whitelaw Reid's house) was something over thirty feet in altitude and one hundred and forty feet diameter at the base. In subsequent years people from Cedarville have attempted its exploration and the height is somewhat reduced and the diameter extended. The other mounds are scattered about the county, following more or less regularly the water courses. None of them were house sites or "lookout stations," but all may be safely classed as mortuary tumuli. No stone mounds are to be found in the region and artificial terraces common to Caesars creek in Warren county, do not, I think, extend into Greene. If they appear in the southwest edge of Greene, I stand corrected. Save at Cedarville, no large mound exists in the county. There have been, from time to time, persons living in Xenia who were interested in archaeology. When I was a boy a picnic party was organized to visit Ft. Ancient, twenty-two miles south. I remember following Judge E. H. Munger and two or three other gentlemen who were familiar with Professor Short's "North Americans of Antiquity," about the wonderful enclosure and listening to their comments. Although the monuments, sixty or seventy years ago, were much more distinct than at present, yet very few persons in Ohio took any interest in them. The pioneer was Caleb Atwater of Circleville, who visited Greene county before 1818. His book, "Archaeologia Americana," was published in Massachusetts in 1820 at Worcester. Old citizens in Xenia will remember W., B. Fairchild. Of the Xenians of seventy-five years ago, Fairchild was one of the most intelligent. His interest in science was marked and he is mentioned in the first report of the Smithsonian Institution several times. S. T. Owens, surveyor of Greene county in the early forties, is credited with having made the first accurate survey of these interesting monuments. In recent years a number of gentlemen residing in or near Xenia have made archaeological collections. These have a special value to science and should be preserved in the Xenia public library, or where they will be available to future generations. Perhaps the best exhibit of stone art of prehistoric tribes is the collection owned by George Charters. His exhibit comes from Caesars creek, Massies creek, Oldtown run and other favorite sites. Particular attention is called to the skill of the Greene county natives in the chipping of flint, now a lost art. Some of the large spear heads found in Greene county are made of pink and white flint brought from the flint ridge pits in Licking county, nearly a hundred miles distant, and are marvels of skill and beauty. On some of the larger ones I have seen depressions from which flakes as small as the thirty-second of an inch were detached. Any prehistoric man was able to make his ordinary arrow heads, but it required a master hand to make a certain kind of spear-head, which I have named the "sunfish" pattern because of its resemblance in form and color to the large blue and red sunfish of Greene county streams. The late Jacob Ankeney had a large collection of Greene county specimens. As a boy I used to go to his house and spend hours with him in the examination of his treasures. But unfortunately this collection has become scattered, so it is said. Next to Mr. Charter's exhibit in size is that of George Day. Doctor Spahr, of Clifton, has some hundreds of interesting implements relating to primitive art of northern and eastern Greene county, and there are a score of smaller exhibits scattered throughout the county. These, taken as a whole, give one a comprehensive knowledge of the stone age in this region. The tribes do not appear to have been sedentary in their habits, although they appear to have lived long enough in one place to raise crops of corn, tobacco, pumpkins and beans. Numerous stone pestles attest this. So far as we are able to judge, Greene county natives were not given to travel or exchange. Aside from the Flint ridge flint, all materials were local. They received a little copper from the north and a few plates of mica from the south—both dear to aboriginal hearts. But they did not import ocean shells, and pearl beads, and galena, obsidian and Tennessee flint, as did the tribes of the Scioto valley. GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 79 Prehistoric man in Greene county was of what is called "Ft. Ancient culture," that is, the Ft. Ancient culture is totally different from the higher culture of the Scioto valley. The tribes of the surrounding counties from beyond the Great Miami on west to the headwaters of Paint creek on the east belong to this same general Ft. Ancient stock. It is quite likely that in case of attack by enemies from the north or from the Scioto, they retreated to Ft. Ancient. Traveling light, as aborigines do when in danger, they could reach Ft. Ancient from almost any part of Greene county in from four to five hours. With the exception of the site at Oldtown, made historic by Kenton, and Boone, and Blackfish, and Captain Bowman, all the other places on which Indian implements are found in the county are pre-Columbian. Their exact age can not be determined, although it is probable that some of them may have been inhabited two or three thousand years ago. Nothing remains of prehistoric man in Greene county save his mounds and stone artifacts. Civilization has obliterated pretty much all else. Yet, it seems to me, that we owe it to science—if not to the memory of those red men of the simple life—to preserve such of their works as time has vouchsafed to us. The notable ones are the enclosure and mound near Cedarville cliffs. The "Cliffs" have been a favorite picnic resort for a century. Nothing more picturesque exists in the state. Greene county could easily make of the place a park, for the natural beauty and the park conditions are perfect. The expense would be trifling and the benefit to the community at large beyond price. Such a place as the "Cliffs" near any city would have become a public "nature field" a generation ago. The park scheme would probably include the imposing mound near Mr. Reid's home and the fortification on the bluffs overlooking Massies creek. The future generations might exclaim with pride : "Greene and Licking counties are the only two of the eighty-eight that preserve their natural scenery and their antiquities." CHAPTER IV. THE INDIANS AND OLD CHILLICOTHE. Through the long and tortuous windings of progress some races of men have risen from their primitive existence to a high state of civilization, but during these devious twistings of destiny some races, off shoots of the original stem, have wandered so far that their position became little bettered with the passing years. Savages they were and savages they remained. Among these savage races of the world's history, no one of them is more unique, fascinating or extraordinary in character and in custom, in action and achievement, than the Indian who roamed the forest fastnesses of North America before the European discoverers and settlers first made their appearance here. The Indians were a singular and picturesque people. In them were mingled the elements of the human and the brute, the crudity and barbarity of the prehistoric man, and withal the majesty, nobility and lofty sentiment of the civilized being. They approached in many' things the political and domestic organization of the modern man. They had their leaders, their chosen chiefs, their sagacious sachems, their mighty men of politics, war and religion ; their patriots and martyrs. Even they had heroes and mighty men of valor whose exploits would excite the envy of an Achilles, a Leonidas, a Horatius or a Launcelot. From what place and when came these children of the forest to the valleys, plains and uplands of North America no one knows and it is hardly worth while to speculate or guess. Unlike the ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, Greeks, Romans and Phoenicians who left their obelisks, cuneiform bricks, magnificent temples, matchless dissertations, codes of law and delicate works of art in bronze, gold and silver, the Indians have left their successors only conflicting and vague traditions which become more confusing and worthless historically as the vista lengthens into the past. Hence, definite knowledge concerning the red man dates back little earlier than his discovery by that famous Genoese sailor, who mistook him for an inhabitant of the distant Indies and therefore called him "Indian." We have been prone to call him "bloodthirsty red skin," but the Indian on second thought seems no more deserving of that appellation than the paleface who seized his hunting grounds by trickery, fraud and treachery GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 81 oftentimes, and then shot the unfortunate savage in cold blood. No wonder it is that the Indian turned upon his betrayer and practiced cruelty which did not bear the refinement of that perpetrated by the latter. Again, we have preserved in our annals the massacres of the whites by the redskins, but the latter did not record the many deeds of butchery of which they were the victims, save in their own hearts where they nursed the fires of their vengeance. THE SHAWNEES Since the beginning of the known history of the Indian, Greene county and western Ohio have been under the suzerainty of many different tribes, and it was here at Oldtown and on the Scioto that some of the most terrible struggles between the whites and redskins took place. It must be remembered that the Indian in his settlements did not become a permanent resident, but continued to shift his habitat. Above all he was migratory, and if he did descend from the lost tribes of Israel, as many ethnologists claim, he surely had the characteristics of the "Wandering Jew." This was especially true of the Shawnees who made the last stand of the red race for their hunting grounds in Greene county before the ever-increasing tide of white immigration. Restless and fearless, wary, warlike and nomadic, they were the vagrants of the trackless wilderness, the aboriginal Arabs, ever seeking new fields for conquest and opportunity. At the time when western Virginia began to feel the approach of civilization, the Shawnees were in possession of the Scioto valley, occupying territory as far west as the Little Miami, since they had been invited there by the Wyandottes at the instigation of the French. This tribe excelled all others in restlessness and in hatred for the white man. From the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, from the Susquehanna to the Mississippi, in the forests, over the prairie, by the mountain streams, the Shawnee hunted the bear, bison and turkey ; and almost from the landing of the English at Jamestown in 1607 his favorite activity was the scalping of the cunning and avaricious paleface. The Shawnee was proud to a fault and considered himself superior to all other tribes of the Indians. He boasted of the tradition that the Creator, Himself, was an Indian, and He made the Shawnees, who sprang from His brain, before He created any other human race. After the Creator had made the Shawnees, He made the English and French out of His breast, the Dutch from His feet and the "Long Knives," the Americans, from His hands. All these inferior races He placed beyond the "Stinking Lake," the Atlantic. They were doubtless among the tribes which welcomed John Smith at Jamestown. Old chronicles make mention of them at different places. In 1632 they were on the Delaware river ; in 1685 they were inhabitants of the (6) 82 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO Illinois country. Marquette and Joliet spoke of them as residents, if they could be so called, of the Northwest. They were chiefly located in the valleys of the Cumberland and the Tennessee, from whence they migrated in all directions. This tribe was a party to the great Penn treaty of 1682, and was thereafter the keeper of a parchment copy of that agreement. It is probable that the Ohio Shawnees were emigrants from the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida, having been driven out by the Seminoles and other southern tribes. This migration is said to have been taken under the leadership of the chief, Black Hoof. Christopher Gist reported from his journey through this country in 1750, in behalf of the Ohio Company, that the Shawnees were a very strong tribe located on the Scioto. Bouquet says in 1764 that the same tribe numbered about five hundred warriors. It is certain that the Shawnees were a well-established tribe in Greene county when the white settlers began moving up from Kentucky. Their arrogant and autocratic disposition, and their untempered ferocity made them the most formidable and most feared of all the tribes with which the western settler had to contend. Fortunately, however, when the first settlers of what is now Greene county began to establish their homes here, they were little bothered by this turbulent tribe of redskins. OLD CHILLICOTHE. Old Chillicothe, the site of which is now occupied by the peaceful village of Oldtown, was one of the chief villages of the Shawnee Indians. This town, before the entrance of the paleface into the country which later became the beautiful county of Greene, was one of the largest "cities" in the Ohio country, numbering about eleven hundred souls. Beautifully situated in the broad valley of the Little Miami, it occupied a site of rare beauty. A lovely prairie stretched away to the west, bounded by a range of wooded hills. On the north meandered the Little Miami. Old Chillicothe was one of the terminal points of the many Indian "thoroughfares" which penetrated the forest fastnesses of the land north of the Ohio. Here at the council house, which occupied the site of the present school house of Oldtown, Black Fish, Tecumseh and the hated renegades, Simon Girty, McKee and the Scotchman Dixon, met in council with the warriors of the Shawnee nation and planned marauding expeditions against the white settlements of Kentucky. To this historic old place the grand old pioneers, Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone, and many other less famous backwoodsmen were brought to languish in captivity, to be adopted into the tribe or to suffer the torments which only the Indian mind was an adept at manufacturing. GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 83 Depredations perpetrated by the Shawnees against. the peaceful settlements of Kentucky made it necessary for the "Long Knives," or Americans, to send several military expeditions against old Chillicothe, the headquarters of the redskins.. In 1774 the Earl of Dunmore, the last royal governor of Virginia, made the first expedition against the Shawnees, and although the line of march did not pass near Oldtown, it is quite likely that many of the braves from old Chillicothe took part in the unsuccessful attack of Cornstalk against Colonel Lewis, who commanded a detachment of Dunmore's troops at Point Pleasant on the Ohio river. In 1780 and again in 1782 Gen. George Rogers Clark led expeditions of Kentuckians against old Chillicothe and laid the village in ruins and destroyed the Indians' crops. In 1779 Colonel Bowman made an unsuccessful attack on this Indian village., The aid that the Indians received from the British caused them to become arrogant again, and in 1790 General Josiah Harmar sought to chastise them again by destroying old Chillicothe, but he was forced to turn back from any further operations against the savages because of their superior numbers and excellent leadership. Major Hardin's attack on old Chillicothe in the same year netted little more than the destruction of the place and he, too, was forced to turn back. Then in 1791 came the ill-fated attempt of General St. Clair, the territorial governor of the Northwest Territory, and the success of the Indians so elated them that it seemed the white settlement .of this vast territory was completely frustrated. In 1794 "Mad Anthony" Wayne, the hero of Stony Point, administered such a severe defeat to the Indians at Fallen. Timbers that they never recovered from the disaster. The treaty of Greenville, which General Wayne made with the several chiefs of the Indian confederacy in August, 1795, left the whites in control of this vast country and Ohio was thus opened up to peaceful settlement. OTHER CHILLICOTHES. It is well at the outset to correct some impressions of old Chillicothe. There were several Indian villages thus named in Ohio, and considerable confusion has arisen over this fact. The word Chillicothe, or che-le-co-the, as it was pronounced by the famous chief, Logan, was a common noun applied to Indian villages, meaning "the place where the people live." There were five old Chillicothes, one at the site of the present city of Piqua, one down the Scioto river about four miles from Circleville, near the present village of Westfall; another three miles north of Chillicothe, in Ross county ; one on the site of Oldtown, this county, and there was still another village on the site of the present town of Frankfort, twelve miles north of the city of Chillicothe. Hence, while reading the recital of the adventurers of some of the pioneers, the reader is likely to think of them all taking place at one 84 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO of the chillicothes. It is certain, however, that the chillicothe of Boone and Kenton is the one that existed in what is now Greene county, as will be later shown. It is impossible to establish the date of the founding of the chillicothe on the Little Miami, here in Greene county, for its founders, the Shawnees, left no record of the time of their coming to these parts. It is known, however, that early in the eighteenth century quite a large body of the Shawnees left their hunting grounds in the Carolinas, Georgia and northern Florida and migrated northward under the leadership of their chief, Black Hoof, and settled on the banks of the Great and Little Miami rivers and on the Scioto. It is probable that 1750 found the village of old Chillicothe thoroughly established here in what later became Greene county. Though this chillicothe was an important "city" in those days, the largest village of the Shawnees was the old chillicothe on the banks of the Scioto. During the years of their great activity in Ohio, war parties were constantly passing from one village to the other, a distance of almost one hundred miles. But the old chillicothe in this county was considered one of the Shawnee capitals, and its importance became greater in the eighties of the eighteenth century, after the destruction of the Shawnee villages on the Scioto, for the survivors removed to the town on the banks of the Little Miami and here made their home until the old chillicothe was abandoned in the nineties of that century. It must not be thought that the Shawnees of this old chillicothe were degraded savages, for they had cabins almost as comfortable as those of the early white settlers. The Indians were well clothed, and had quite extensive gardens, orchards and corn fields. In its palmiest days the village was about a quarter of a mile in length, several acres of which were enclosed within a stockade. The huts were straggled along in irregular order, and for the most part occupied the little elevation which is now marked by the brick school house, a frame house, an orchard and barn at Oldtown, on the left side of the road which leads from Xenia. In the heart of the village was the council house which stood on the site of the present brick school house. It was a long, narrow building, roughly made and scarcely waterproof, where the warriors repaired to take counsel among themselves on matters of pressing interest to the tribe, questions of the hunt or the warpath. Soon after Simon Girty and the Scotchman Dixon joined the Shawnees at this chillicothe, the two renegades superintended the improvement of the council house. As was said before, old Chillicothe was one of the most populous villages in Ohio during its prosperous days, for it contained a population of eleven hundred, of which three hundred were warriors. When it is considered what manner of Indians the Shawnees were, the importance of the war strength of old Chillicothe during those trying GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 85 days in the early history of the Northwest Territory can be readily understood. A SCHOOL BOY'S VIEW OF OLDTOWN. In 1899 the Ohio Educational Monthly offered a series of prizes to the pupils of the grade schools for the best papers along the lines of Ohio historical research. Among the many contributions thus inspired was one relating to the history of Oldtown in Greene county, written by Clark McVay, then a pupil of the seventh grade of the Xenia public schools, which was given honor place by the Monthly and which is such a concise and comprehensive presentation of the subject which has been treated of in this chapter that it is here reproduced : Oldtown, situated three and a half miles north of Xenia, is of historical note. It was once called old Chillicothe town. As the Indians called any town Chillicothe the people here called this town old Chillicothe town and called the one on the Scioto old Chillicothe. In the year 1773 Capt. Thomas Bullitt of Virginia, one of the first settlers of Kentucky, was proceeding down the Ohio to make surveys and a settlement there. He left his party and went through the woods to old Chillicothe town to obtain the consent of the Indians for his intended settlement. The Indians, astonished by his boldness, finally consented to his settlement. He is supposed to have been the first white man who ever saw the place. Shortly afterward some of his party laid out the city of Louisville, Kentucky. In 1778, the celebrated Daniel Boone was taken prisoner in Kentucky and brought to old Chillicothe town. Shortly afterward, through the influence of the British governor, Hamilton, Boone, with ten others were taken to Detroit. It is known, but it has never been published (in fact, only one man knows it here) that in 1814 a court was held in a brick house near old Chillicothe town (now occupied by O. W. Linkhart), present at which were David Laughead, James Galloway (father of Major Galloway) and General Whitman. The first question asked Laughead by the lawyers was, "When was the first time you ever saw Oldtown or old Chillicothe town, where we now are?" He replied that 178o was the year. He said that the reason he remembered it so well was because he was one of the few men who marched against the place and another town, Piqua. The Indians of this place and Piqua made frequent raids on the frontier of Kentucky, and these men came north to punish the Indians. The Indians had deserted the town, but the men destroyed the crops and went back to Kentucky. In the year 1806 a fight occurred at old Chillicothe town. It was between Ben Kizer, champion of Greene county, and Aaron Beal, a citizen of Greene county. The indictment against the men has been found. Beal came out victorious. It is about half a mile south of town where Simon Kenton ran the gauntlet. He did not quite succeed in getting through. Near Oldtown, on a certain hill, are some earthworks about eighteen inches high. This is the place where General Harmar was defeated. John Morgan, a man who was with General Harmar, said that when they were retreating many men died and were covered with a thin layer of dirt. This accounts for all of the skeletons that have been ploughed up recently. BLACKFISH. Among the many chiefs who undoubtedly made old Chillicothe their home, was Blackfish, the one of greatest note. It is not known when he was born or who were his parents, but the raids which he led against the whites of the Kentucky settlements made his name for many years a means by which pioneer mothers stilled their children. 86 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO TECUMSEH. The greatest Indian in the known history of the race was Tecumseh who, according to Rev. Benjamin King, an adopted member of the Shawnee tribe, was born near old Chillicothe, in Greene county, in 1770. The authorities differ as to the place of his birth, the best maintaining that he was born not far from old Chillicothe, in his mother's cabin on Mad river. But be that as it may, the village was a small one and the main Shawnee town was at old Chillicothe. He was a full-blooded Shawnee and was one of two boys born at the same time." As twins are rare among Indians, this incident of his birth had with it religious significance and Tecumseh was famous even in his early youth. This noble Shawnee and his brother, who later became known as the Prophet, very .probably hunted and fished within the confines of what later became Greene county, which has the right to claim him, if not as a son, at least as a resident. This "noble" red man devoted himself to the expulsion of the paleface from the hunting grounds of his people, and it seems that in the years when he was most active, his contentions were just. right and reasonable. Moreover, he had every reason to hate the white man. His father, a Shawnee chieftain, had fallen under the bullets of the Long Knives at the battle of Point Pleasant in 1774 ; his eldest and dearest brother had lost his life in an attack on a southern post, and another had been killed while fighting by the side of his illustrious brother at the battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. His mother's home had been destroyed by the whites and the lands of his people had been taken from them by the treaty of Greenville. But even with all of this, his spirit was not that of personal revenge. He hated the whites as the destroyers of his race, but all prisoners and defenseless people could depend upon his honor and humanity for their safety. He discouraged the cruelties which his people practiced against prisoners. In his boyhood he witnessed the burning of a prisoner, and the spectacle was so terrible to him, an unschooled aborigine, that by an eloquent plea he induced the party to give up the practice forever. The nobility in his nature, his cavalier qualities make the children of the men he hated blush for some of the outrages which our forefathers carried out against the redman. Had this Bayard of the Shawnee been ably and unselfishly supported, it is likely that much suffering of his brethren and much white blood which was spilled might otherwise have been saved. TECUMSEH AND THE GALLOWAYS. Since old Chillicothe was a very important village of the Shawnees, Tecumseh spent much of his time within the borders of what became Greene county. He kept in his heart a great affection for his birthplace and here he GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 87 became well acquainted with some of the very early settlers of Greene county. A tradition of the Galloway family concerning this Indian leader, which is related in the little book, "Greene County, 1803-1908," reveals a trait of Tecumseh's nature. The Galloways were near neighbors to some of the best known of the Indians who occupied that part of the county. This fact is worthy of special note as their family traditions are rich in interesting accounts of the friendships with the redmen that were formed in those early days. The distinguished Tecumseh was a frequent and welcome visitor at this home and soon became much infatuated with the daughter, Rebecca. With the true dignity which was ever a trait of the character of Tecumseh, he approached the father, who feeling that his daughter could perhaps, more tactfully find a way out of the embarrassing position and still retain the good will of the Indian, which they greatly desired to keep, referred him to her. The chief fearlessly appealed to the girl herself, for was he not the great Tecumseh, the leader of his people ? He offered her beautiful gifts of silver ornaments dear to his people. She told him she could not work like the Indian women did, nor lead the wild life they did. He assured her that she need not work. Then she changed her tactics and told him she would consider his proposition, if he would promise to lead the life of a white man and assume their dress and habits. This matter he took under consideration, but finally told her, most sorrowfully, that he could not possibly do that ; that the taking up of the manners and customs of the white man would place him in everlasting disgrace with his people and much as he desired the union he could not bear their reproaches. And thus we see the womanly daughter of the pioneer fully able to turn aside the undesirable suitor, but still retain a very necessary friend, for the friendship between Tecumseh and the family never waned. PEN PICTURE OF NOTED WARRIOR. Col. W. S. Hatch in his "History of the War of 1812" gives the following description of Tecumseh when he saw him on the streets of Detroit on August 17, 1813: The personal appearance of this remarkable man was uncommonly fine. His height was about five feet, nine inches. His face, oval rather than angular, his nose handsome and straight, his mouth beautifully formed like that of Napoleon I, as represented in his portraits ; his eyes clear, transparent, hazel, with a mild, pleasant expression when in repose or in conversation, but when excited in his orations or by the enthusiasm of the conflict, or in anger, they appeared like balls of fire ; his teeth beautifully white, and his complexion more of a light brown or tan than red ; his whole tribe as well as their kindred, the Ottoways, had light complexions ; his hands and arms were finely formed ; his limbs straight ; he always stood very erect and walked with a brisk, elastic, vigorous step ; invariably dressed in Indian tanned buckskin ; a perfectly fitting hunting frock descending to the knee was over his under clothes of the same material ; the usual paint and finish of leather fringe about the neck, cape, edges of the front opening and the bottom of the frock ; a belt of the same material in which were his side arms, an elegant silver mounted tomahawk and knife in a strong leather case ; short pantaloons, connected with neatly fitting leggings ; a blanket of the same material thrown over his left shoulder, used as a blanket in camp and as a protection in storms. DANIEL BOONE AT OLDTOWN. For almost a hundred and forty years after the landing of the Pilgrims, the country west of the Alleghanies remained a "howling wilderness," known 88 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO only by a few hardy French traders, explorers and Jesuit missionaries. The opening of this fertile territory to the settlement of the whites was due to such hardy pathfinders as John Sevier, Isaac Shelby, James Robertson and Daniel Boone, the latter of whom came to be regarded as the ideal of. American frontiersmen. When it is realized that Kentucky was the stepping-stone used by the pioneers in settling the Northwest Territory, an estimate can be made of the great service rendered by Boone and his companions in blazing the trail for their white brothers into this vast country. In his early life Daniel Boone had a more or less uneventful existence, although he was a member of the unfortunate Braddock campaign in 1755. His training while living in the frontier settlements of the English colonies fitted him for his remarkable and valuable service along the Ohio river. It was not until May I, 1769, that he left his family on the banks of the Yadkin river in North Carolina to go in search of a new field for pioneering. For some time tales of the fabulously fertile country called Kentucky across the Alleghanies had come to the ears of Boone, and he longed to remove his family to that place. Since settlement in that country was fraught with danger from the redskins and wild animals, he pushed out by himself to prepare a place to which he could take his family. He found Kentucky all that he had dreamed it to be and in 1771 he returned to the Yadkin, sold his farm and started out with his family in company with five or six other families for the Kentucky country. The party was attacked by the Indians, who had watched with displeasure this invasion of their hunting grounds, and the settlers were forced to turn back. Nothing daunted, Boone asked the assistance of Governor Dunmore of Virginia in settling the region, and the latter became very much interested. When the governor invaded the Ohio country in 1774, Boone was one of his scouts. In 1775, Boonesborough had been platted and as soon as a fort was built Boone brought his family safely through to that settlement, which became the center of all the Shawnee invasions from Oldtown into Kentucky. BOONE'S CAPTURE. On January 1, 1778, Boone selected about thirty companions and started for the salt springs on the Licking river, about a hundred miles north, to make salt for the different garrisons in the Kentucky country. They carried with them on horses, several large boiling pans, given to the settlements by the governor of Virginia, but when they arrived at the Licks, they found the water so weak that it took eight hundred and forty gallons of water to make a bushel of salt. While the saltmakers were at work, two or three others of the party served as scouts and hunters and Boone was one of the GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 89 latter. On Saturday, February 7, 1778, Boone started out alone with a packhorse for a supply of game which was very plentiful about the salt licks. Having killed a buffalo, Boone had started back to the Licks in the afternoon with the best cuts of the meat tied on the back of his horse. It was bitterly cold. When he was about ten miles from camp, he was discovered by four Shawnees, members of a large party of Oldtown Indians under Blackfish and Munseka, who had taken the warpath to avenge the death of Cornstalk. Benumbed with the cold and unable to unpack his horse and flee, Boone was captured after a sharp fight with the redskins. He was then taken to the main camp of the Indians and he later induced his companions to surrender peaceably. JOURNEY TO OLDTOWN. The Indians, highly elated over their success, for they had captured twenty-eight of the saltmakers, immediately started back to Oldtown, where they arrived On February 18, after an uncomfortable journey in severe weather. The captives received excellent treatment from the Shawnees, however. During the journey the supply of food became very much depleted and they were obliged to kill and devour their dogs, and after this source of sustenance was exhausted, they were forced to live for ten days on a brew made from the inner lining of whiteoak bark. Finally the party killed a deer, but knowing that their stomachs were not prepared for substantial food, the savages boiled the animal's entrails to a jelly which they drank freely. They offered some of it to Boone but he refused it. However, he was forced to drink it, and his grimaces undoubtedly afforded much amusement for the Shawnees. Presently he was allowed to eat and the redskins told him that had he not taken the "medicine" the food would have killed him. On March 10, Boone and about ten of his companions were taken to Detroit to Governor Hamilton, who offered his Indian allies one hundred pounds for Boone, to whom the British governor had taken quite a fancy. This, however, was refused by the Shawnees who were bent upon making Boone a member of their tribe. The Indians had taken a keen liking for the hunter, whose quiet disposition, whose prowess as a hunter and whose skill in border warfare was fully appreciated by them. BOONE BECOMES A SHAWNEE. On April 10, the Indians returned to Oldtown and Boone was formally adopted into the tribe. This process was a most painful and uncomfortable one. After he had been scrubbed thoroughly in order to wash all the white blood out of him, all of his hair, excepting a tuft at the crown, was plucked 90 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO out by the roots. When his face was painted after the approved style of the Indian. he was taken to the council house where he was addressed with all gravity by the chief. Thus were the ceremonies of adoption consummated, and he became a son of Blackfish. BOONE'S ESCAPE. In the early part of June, 1778, the Shawnees took Boone to a salt lick on the Scioto river, about sixty miles east, where they kept him busy over the kettles most of the time, since he had a thorough knowledge of the process of saltmaking and the Indians were averse to work. The saltmaking aroused Boone's suspicion that the Shawnees were contemplating a descent upon some white settlement, and when the party returned to old Chillicothe in two weeks, he found about four hundred and fifty warriors fully prepared to attack Boonesborough. Boone was in consternation, for he knew that the fort was in no condition to stand an assault. He was compelled to attend the councils with a smiling face, and although he understood every word of the deliberations, he led them to believe that he was ignorant of the Shawnee dialect. To divert any suspicion that he contemplated escape, he entered into their plans with apparent enthusiasm. Boonesborough was one hundred and sixty miles away, but the time finally came when the hunter had to make his escape at all hazards. Knowing that the moment his flight was suspected four hundred and fifty warriors would be on his track, all thoroughly prepared for pursuit, Boone arose on the morning of June 16, apparently to take his usual hunt, but in reality to make his escape to warn the unsuspecting settlement at Boonesborough of their impending danger. As soon as Boone got out of the sight of the villagers at Oldtown, he struck out southward at his greatest speed in order to put as much distance as possible between himself and his captors before they were apprised of his intentions and could start in pursuit. Although he had made preparations all along to provide himself with ammunition, he now dared not fire his rifle to kill any game nor did he risk lighting a fire. He had, however, provided himself with a few cuts of dried venison before he left old Chillicothe, and with these he appeased his hunger as he hurried along. Finally he reached the Ohio, but, experienced as Boone was in woodcraft, he was a poor swimmer. Fortunately, he found an old canoe which had drifted in among the bushes, and after bailing out the water and plugging up the hole, he crossed the river in safety. Feeling that he then was not in any imminent danger of pursuit, he shot a wild turkey, cooked and ate his first meal since he had left the Shawnee village on the Little Miami. Finally, after a journey of five days, he reached Boonesborough, where he found that his family had returned to North Carolina, having despaired of ever seeing him again. GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 91 DARNELL'S LEAP FOR LIFE. In the same party of Kentuckians, which included Daniel Boone and who were taken prisoner by the' Shawnees in 1778 and brought northward to Oldtown, or old Chillicothe, was a valiant young Kentuckian of the name of Darnell. As shown before, Boone with ten of his companions was, through the influence of Hamilton, the British governor, taken to Detroit, while the remaining seventeen prisoners were left behind with their savage captors. At first it seemed a misfortune to Darnell to be included among the captives who were left behind, but subsequently he found that his remaining in Old-town gave him the opportunity to escape. Well versed in woodcraft, cunning as a fox and possessing the superior intelligence of the white man, he was successful in making his escape from his captors one night. When morning dawned he was in a wood northwest of the present site of Clifton, where he paused to recruit his strength and to partake of his simple but practical repast of dried venison. Evidently not realizing the danger of his situation, since it was daylight, he took a piece, of the dried meat from his pouch and began to devour it with relish. Darnell had scarcely finished his portion of meat when the slight noise of a breaking twig disturbed the morning stillness. His keen frontiersman's ear and backwoods training told him at once that it was a human foot that had broken the twig, and in an instant he was on his feet with every sense alert. Turning to the direction whence the sound had come, his keen sense of vision enabled him to discover several Indians hidden behind trees. In a moment he knew they were Shawnees, his former captors, who had discovered his escape and had come in hot pursuit. Taking in the situation at a glance, he knew that any attempt to get beyond his enemies, who were in his path would result in his certain capture which would mean certain death by the tomahawk or slow torture at the stake. Flight, however, was the only alternative, flight in a direction directly opposite from the course which he had marked out. The savages, evidently enjoying the white man's discomfiture, remained behind the trees interestedly and intensely watching every movement of their intended prey. Of course, they could have brought him down with a bullet, but it was their intention to take him alive so that the whole village of old Chillicothe could enjoy witnessing the lingering death of the paleface at the stake. DARNELL'S FLIGHT. Tightening his buckskin belt he sprang forward and the Indians, who numbered six, darted from behind the trees in hot pursuit. Although he was no mean runner, the savages rapidly gained ground. His course lay 92 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO toward the Little Miami and the gorge through which it flows. As the approaching redskins were almost upon him, the fugitive suddenly veered to the left and quickened his pace. The change in his course did not give him the desired advantage, for he found that he had miscalculated his pursuers' speed and endurance and now feared that he would soon be overtaken. Straining every nerve and summoning all of his energy, he veered still farther to the left when the roaring of the falls reached his ears. As his present course would take him to the falls where he would have the opportunity to elude his pursuers, the Shawnees sent their fleetest runners to head him off ; hence he changed his course again and ran straight forward toward an ash tree which stood near the edge of the cliff a short distance below the falls and which he had marked several years before with his hatchet. Again the hunters looked back over his shoulder to measure his progress and to his alarm found that the Indians were almost upon him. The leader of his pursuers was Little Fox, a Shawnee chief, of no mean distinction, and Darnell decided that that savage was the most vulnerable point at which to strike his enemies. Before he left Oldtown he had stolen a rifle and hunting accouterments from his captors and now he examined the priming of his rifle which he found in perfect condition. To the surprise of the savages he suddenly paused in his career near a tree which stood on the road now leading from Clifton to Yellow Springs, boldly faced his pursuers and threw his rifle to his shoulder. Little Fox immediately saw the intention of his quarry, who had the weapon directed at his breast, and tried to shelter himself behind a tree ; but he was too late, for when the rifle cracked the Shawnees had lost another valuable chief. Darnell did not pause to reload, for the remaining five darted forward with hideous yells to avenge the fall of their chieftain. THE LEAP ACROSS THE GORGE. Directly before Darnell lay the gorge which, from bank to bank, was fully thirty feet in width. Cedars and bushes grew thickly along the edge of the precipice and far below rolled the Little Miami, white with the foam from the falls above. The hunter was not ignorant of all these facts, for he had visited it before. He knew the foolhardiness of the attempt to leap the gorge and that almost certain death awaited him on the ugly stones in the bottom of the precipice through which the river tumbled, but such thoughts did not arrest his progress. He was determined to leap the gorge, and if death came to him in the attempt it would come more easily and quickly on the rough stones in the river bed than at the stake back in old Chillicothe. After he had passed the ash tree, he summoned every ounce of his strength and strained every nerve to the utmost for the leap, and a moment later he had sprung from the cliff. To the amazement of the Shawnees who had GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 93 reached the cliff and were gazing with wonder at the daring attempt of the white man, Darnell cleared the chasm and grasped a bush on the opposite side of the gorge. With great exertion he drew himself up to solid ground and sprang forward again; however, there was no further need for precipitate flight, for the pursuit was ended. As his form disappeared among the trees, one of the wondering redskins must have given voice to some such expression : "He is more than a paleface. He is under the protection of the Great Spirit, for neither paleface nor Indian could ever have leaped across the Chekemeameesepe. Let us no longer pursue a spirit. We shall never look upon his like again this side of the Dark River and the Happy Hunting Grounds." In silence the baffled savages retraced their steps to Oldtown where they related the story of the daring man's leap to their wondering people. The white prisoners could scarcely believe it, but they afterwards heard the story from the lips of Darnell himself. THE STORY OF JENNIE COWAN. One of the most tragic and pathetic stories of the days of the Indian occupancy of this region and of the time when the Shawnee village at Old-town was in its ascendancy had to do with the remarkable adventure which befell Mrs. Jennie Cowan, a great-grandaunt of the venerable pastor emeritus of the Second United Presbyterian church at Xenia, the Rev. James Gillespy Carson. During the middle eighties of the eighteenth century Jennie Cowan, with her husband and young daughter, was living with her family in the settlement surrounding the pioneer fort in what is now Blunt county, Tennessee. One day when the men of the settlement were outside the blockhouse engaged in the tending of their crops, a band of the Shawnees which had gone down into the Tennessee country from their headquarters at Oldtown descended upon the settlement, killed and scalped the men and took some of the women prisoners, among the latter of whom was Mrs. Cowan. This unhappy woman, mercilessly bereaved of her husband and cruelly torn from the side of her daughter and the companionship of her associates at the settlement, was taken by her savage captors to the headquarters of the tribe at Oldtown, a long and arduous journey across the great Kentucky country and up into the valley of the Miamis. The Indians, with savage venom, thinking to add to the trials and miseries of their unhappy captive, compelled the poor woman to carry with her the scalp of her slain husband. This, however, instead of being added punishment, as her captors had designed, was but a gruesome task willingly borne by the bereaved woman, who gladly bore the scalp of her husband in the bosom of her dress rather than to see it in the desecrating hands of her blood-thirsty captors. Upon the arrival of the marauding band at the Shawnee village (Oldtown) Jennie Cowan was given 94 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO over to the charge of an old squaw and was compelled to serve the latter as a slave during the period of her captivity, subjected to cruel treatment and under the necessity of performing the drudgery of her savage mistress's primitive abode. Among the tasks required of her was that of drawing and boiling the sugar water during the early days of the spring. As Doctor Cowan recalls the story, which was related to him in his childhood by his mother, who had it from her grandaunt, during one of these seasons of sugar-boiling the unhappy captive fell asleep after three days and nights of ceaseless vigil over the kettles of sugar water and thus permitted the fires to die out and the sugar water to get out of "boil." She awakened just in time in the gray dawn of the morning to relight the fires and renew the boiling process before her savage taskmistress. appeared on the scene. For seven years Jennie Cowan was held in captivity at the Shawnee village. During the latter period of this captivity one of the Shawnee braves from the nearby Mad river station of the tribe declared his admiration for the white captive and made her an offer of marriage, which, of course, was declined. The captive's taskmistress insisted upon her acceptance of the proffer of marriage and threatened dire consequences in case of further declination of the "honor," but the chivalrous brave, gracefully acknowledging the right of the captive to her own choice in the matter, withdrew his suit and in order to appease the wrath of the squaw who held the white woman's temporary destiny in her hand, declared that he did not want the fair captive and would not have her. His open admiration, however, did not abate and presently found tangible expression in an offer to the captive of a means of effecting her escape from the village. He arranged for the holding of a shooting match at his station on the Mad river and appointed a comrade and a young Indian woman there to meet the captive secretly and see that she had safe conduct to Ft. Detroit. And thus Jennie Cowan, after seven years of captivity, was enabled to make her way from Oldtown. The released captive and her escort crossed Lake Erie on the ice, for the escape was effected in midwinter, and were nearing the fort at Detroit when the Indian who was guiding Mrs. Cowan was attracted by the possibility of getting some whisky at a sutler's camp not far from the fort and entered the place. There his captive was recognized by another Indian, who seized her and announced his intention to return her to the station at Oldtown.. Her guide, however, was able to secure the assistance of a friendly Indian and prevented the execution of the threat which would have returned the white woman to a captivity than which death would have been more welcome. She presently was safely conducted to Ft. Detroit, where she was given tender and kindly care and was after a while escorted to Ft. Pitt and thence down the river to Maysville, from which point she was able to make her way to her former GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 95 home in Tennessee, where she was received with open arms and many manifestations of rejoicing on the part of the settlement, which had long counted her as dead. Not long after her return to her old home Mrs. Cowan was married to one of the settlers in the community. Two years later a marauding band of Cherokees from the Georgia country invaded Tennessee and the much-tried woman again was taken captive, her daughter this time being taken captive with her. For two years the women were held in captivity by the Cherokees. A company of young men in the Blunt settlement then was organized to proceed against the Cherokees for the purpose of rescuing the captives. This company succeeded in compelling the surrender of a band of Cherokees and with the captives thus secured was enabled to effect an exchange of prisoners and the unhappy white woman and her daughter, the former of whom had been compelled to spend nine years of her life in durance among the redskins, were again restored to home and civilization. CHAPTER V. COUNTY ORGANIZATION. Just twenty-three days after Ohio became a member of the Union, Greene county was erected into one of the civil divisions of the state, March 24, 1803, by an act of the General Assembly. This section was not the only one favored with the privilege of forming its local government, for three other counties were erected by the same act, Warren, Butler and Montgomery counties. The first was named after Gen. Joseph Warren, the hero of Bunker Hill ; the second for Gen. Richard Butler, a distinguished officer of the Revolution, who fell in St. Clair's disastrous defeat; the third for Gen. Richard Montgomery who fell at Quebec in the American attack on Canada during the Revolution, and Greene county was given its name in honor of the brilliant American general who led Cornwallis into the trap at Yorktown, Gen. Nathaniel Greene. Since these counties were composed of territory taken mainly from Ross and Hamilton counties, the Legislature out of justice to the parent civil divisions, reserved to these two counties the right to make distress for all dues and officers' fees which were yet unpaid by the inhabitants of the newly established counties. Although the act creating these new counties was passed on March 24, it was not in force until after May 1, 1803, which date is really the birthday of Greene, Montgomery, Warren and Butler counties. Since the country was wild and undeveloped, no preparation had been made for the immediate establishment of a permanent seat of justice in each of the new counties, and section six of the act provided temporary places where the county business could be transacted and the courts held. This temporary county seat in Warren county was the house of Ephriam Hathaway on Turtle creek; in Butler county, the house of John Torrence in Hamilton; in Montgomery county, the house of George Newcome in Dayton, and in Greene county, the house of Owen Davis, the miller, on Beaver creek ; however, this latter house was then occupied by Davis' tenant, Peter Borders. It is quite probable that the reason for choosing the house of Owen Davis for the temporary seat of justice for Greene county was that this cabin was located on the Pinkney road, the only road which extended southward to Cincinnati at that time. BOUNDARIES. The first limits of Greene county were much more extensive than they are today as may be seen by the wording of section four of the act which GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 97 created the four counties. There is, however, so much geographical ambiguity in the section describing the original boundaries of the county that it is well nigh impossible to determine with any degree of certainty the limits of the county as set forth by the section. The difficulty in defining these original limits arises from the fact that the framers of the section described the bounds not by township, range and section lines, neither by natural features, but their delineation depended entirely upon the counties previously established, Ross and Hamilton : Sec. 4. All that part of the counties of Hamilton and Ross included in the following boundaries, viz.: beginning at the southeast corner of the county of Montgomery, running thence east to the Ross county line, and the same course continued eight miles into the said county of Ross ; thence north to the state line ; thence westwardly with the same to the east line of Montgomery county (Montgomery county also extending by the act to the northern limits of the state) ; thence bounded by the said line of Montgomery to the beginning, shall compose a fourth new county called and known by the name of Greene. It would take an expert cartographer to delineate on the map of the state the limits of Greene county as they were described above. In the first place, it is necessary to determine the limits of Montgomery county which was erected- at the same time as was Greene ; in the second place, the limits of Ross county, whose extent at that time was very vague, would have to be determined. In fact the only definite line of the county at that time was its northern boundary, the state line, but the eastern and western limits of this north line of the county were not determined by this act. Moreover, while the section specifically states that the northern boundary of the county of Greene was the state line, it follows that the framers of the section did not take into consideration the Greenville Treaty line of 1795, for the Legislature as a matter of fact had no right to organize counties out of territory to which the Indians had not then relinquished their title. It follows then that the limits of Greene county in 1803 could not have extended farther north than this Greenville Treaty line of 1795. SCATTERED SETTLERS GIVEN PROTECTION. The Greenville Treaty line began at the mouth of the Cuyahoga river ; thence up that river to the portage ; thence across the portage and down the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum to the crossing place above Ft. Laurens ; thence in a westerly direction to that branch of the Great Miami at or near which stood Loramie's store ; thence northwest to Ft. Recovery; thence in a southerly direction to the mouth of the Kentucky river. The addition of all this extensive tract north of the treaty line to the Greene county of 1803 was the origination of a policy on the part of the Legislature to add to each regularly organized county of the northern tier certain portions of Indian or unorganized territory, which was to be under the civil (7) 98 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO and criminal jurisdiction of the newly organized county. This was done to give the scattered settlers in that portion protection. There was little or no effort on the part of the early Greene county government to organize this great expanse of territory. All that was done was the erection on May 10, 1803, of Mad River township, which embraced this extensive section. This township was wild and unsettled as was shown by the petition of James McPherson for- a tavern, twenty miles north of Springfield, in 1804. Obviously, most of the civil business transacted by the county government with this great township was confined to its extreme southern portion. Even the origin of the territory which composed Greene county as it was originally is vague in one respect. According to the section of the act which created this county, it was composed of not only a part of Ross and Hamilton and Wayne counties, but it also had within its bounds a strip of territory which was included in neither of the before mentioned counties. Generally that strip of land is regarded as having been a part of Hamilton county. QUESTION OF BOUNDARIES A SECONDARY ONE. Immediately after the organization and establishment of the county, the officers were so busy in starting the machinery of government that the question of boundaries was a secondary one. Townships were organized; the county seat of justice had to be located, the lots sold, and the court house begun. Gradually the question of boundaries between this and adjoining counties arose, especially after the organization of Champaign county in 1805 from parts of Greene and Franklin counties. It was not, however, until 1810 that serious effort was made to delineate the bounds of the county. On January of that year, the board of commissioners made the following order : Ordered that the surveyor of this county proceed to ascertain part of the north and all of the east boundary of the county by surveying as follows, viz.: Beginning where the old Ross county line crosses the line between the eighth and ninth ranges, which is considered the county line between Champaign and this county ; thence east eight miles ; thence south twenty-one miles, adjoining Franklin and Highland, or so far south as that the south boundary line of this county will intersect the same ; and that notice be given the board of Commissioners of Champaign, Franklin and Highland counties, that the surveyor of this county will proceed to survey accordingly on the third Monday of March, next, and continue from day to clay until the same is completed, and that said surveyor take to his assistance two chain carriers and one marker, to mark with three chops, fore and aft. (Signed) JOSIAH GROVER, CLK. G. C. Evidently the task of surveying these two boundaries in the county was no small one, for it was not until the April following that Samuel Kyle made his report to the commissioners in detail, as follows : Samuel Kyle, Esq., Surveyor of Greene county, being appointed to survey a part of the north and all of the east boundary of the county aforesaid, made his return in the following words, to wit : Beginning at a stake where the old Ross county line crosses the line GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 99 between the eighth and ninth ranges ; thence east (crossing the north fork of the Little Miami at 2 miles, 148 poles, the Springfield road at 7 miles, 22 poles, a branch of the east fork, 8 miles and 208 poles) ; thence nine miles, 24 poles to a black oak, white oak and hickory on the line between the eighth and ninth ranges. I then proceeded to ascertain the east boundary. Beginning at a stake eight miles cast of the old Ross county line, supposed to be at or near the place where. the S. E. corner of the. county will be established ; running thence north (crossing the Chillicothe road at 3 miles and a half, the south fork of Massies creek at 12 miles and 20 poles, the United States road at 13 miles; the old Chillicothe road at 15 miles and 40 poles, the east fork of Massies creek at 15 miles and 100 poles, the east fork of the Little Miami at 17 miles and 208 poles, and a branch of said fork at 19 miles and 8 poles), 20 miles and 271 poles to the black oak and hickory at the northeast corner 'of said county. (Signed) SAMUEL KYLE, S. G. C. Ordered that the said lines be established agreeably to the survey aforesaid. FURTHER BOUNDARY LIMITATIONS. This east line of Greene county has not been changed since it was determined in 1810, but there is considerable dispute about its actual whereabouts today, since the survey can not be determined by section, township and range lines, as this part of the county lies in the old military survey. This old Ross county line was located one and one-third miles west of the Paintersville and Port William road, as now located, or eight miles west of the present southeast corner of Greene county. From this point the Ross county line extended north, passing approximately one-half east of Paintersville, New Jasper and Cedarville. Thus Greene' county extended eight miles on its eastern side into old Ross county. The west line of Greene county, as established in 1803 has remained unchanged. The task here was easier because that part of the county lies in the Congressional survey. The line between this county and Montgomery begins at the southeast corner of the latter county, in the line of Warren county, and in the east line of section 16, township 3, range 5, seventy and thirty-two hundredths rods south of the southwest corner of section 10, township 3. From thence the line extends northward with the sectional line to the northwest corner of section 9, township 2, range 8. At this point the line extends two miles to the southwest corner of section 34, in the line of townships 3 and 4. Here the line turns northward following the west line of section 34 until it reaches the northwest corner of the county at the northwest corner of this section, which is situated a short distance northwest of Osborn. The south line of Greene county was surveyed following an order of the commissioners, March 6, 1810. 'The order is as follows : The .commissioners of Greene county being informed that the commissioners of Warren county having agreed to run a line between Warren and Greene counties, beginning at the Little Miami river at the middle of the fifth range, thence east to the old Ross county line, and the same course continued eight miles ; ordered that the surveyor of Greene county do meet the surveyor of Warren county on the 2nd Monday of April, next, at the