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(RETURN TO THE HENRY & FULTON COUNTY INDEX) HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES. CHAPTER I. A BRIEF CHAPTER EXPLANATORY OF THIS VOLUME AND ITS SUBDIVISIONS.
FOR an intelligent and proper narration of the events which it is the purpose and province of this work to record, it has been found necessary that the work should be arranged in three general divisions, or departments, and each department again divided into chapters.
The first department contains all that pertains to the two counties, Henry and Fulton, that may be said to be common to both of them, and will be found recorded in the earlier chapters, numbers two, three, four, five and six, bringing the subject down to the time of the erection or formation of Henry county, in the year 1820. These chapters relate in the main to the Indian occupation and history, with the fifth, the early settlers of the Maumee Valley prior to and about the time the county was brought into existence. Following these chapters will be found the history of Henry, the senior of the two counties. Henry county was formed in the year 182o, while its fellow in this volume, Fulton, was not given an existence until some thirty years later.
Again, the departments relating especially to the counties will be found subdivided and arranged in two departments each; the first treating of subjects having a general extent over the county, and not of such character as to identify them with any particular township or locality, and of themselves form the general history of each county.
18 - HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.
By comparing the chapters in the general history of the counties there will be found similar subjects treated in each, but these have been carefully prepared by different writers, and while the subject matter in the general remarks will be found the same, and the same conclusion arrived at, the variable style of presenting them will be found interesting and instructive to the reader.
It will be discovered, too, that each township in each county is written separately, some longer and some shorter, according to the importance of each, or the volume of history that each is found to possess.
Generally any county cannot be said to possess any history prior to its formation, and a narrative of its events would naturally commence with that formation ; but notwithstanding this, the territory now embraced within the boundaries of Henry and Fulton counties had a history long before such formation was made, or even contemplated, and that history embraced the whole Maumee Valley, of which valley the county of Henry forms an integral party although but few, if any, of the stirring events of the valley can be said to have been enacted within the borders of what now constitutes that county ; therefore, it may truthfully be said that the history of Henry and Fulton counties is auxiliary to that of the whole Maumee Valley, auxiliary to but not coextensive with it. Nevertheless, in an intelligent narrative of the events of this locality the history of the whole valley must be included.
CHAPTER II.
Commencement of the Indian Occupation of the Country East of the Mississippi—Original Occupants—The Lenni Lenapes—The Mengwe —The Allegwi—Ancient Tradition—The Conflict—The Lenapes and Mengwe Victorious—Their Occupation of the whole Eastern Country.
WHEN the first European adventurers visited this country they found the whole land occupied by a tribe, or rather a nation, of Indians, calling themselves Lenni Lenapes, meaning original people. Their possessions reached from the Hudson River on the east, throughout the whole country west from that, including the larger rivers of Pennsylvania, the Delaware, Susquehanna, Allegheny, Ohio, Juniata, Schuylkill, and the streams of Ohio as well, even as far south as the Carolinas. Their seat of government was on the Delaware River, and from this fact they were known to the whites as the Delawares. Their sub-tribes, that scattered over this vast domain, were subjects of and paid allegiance to the sachems and chiefs at the seat of government, although each tribe was known by a different name suited to the locality in which they respectively lived.
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Among them, and with their old antagonists, the Iroquois, for hundreds of years there lived a tradition, handed down from generation to generation ; but it is well enough to remark that the story has not in any regard been enlarged upon by younger generations ; it has remained the same, told in the same simple manner, although without fixed date, and no names except those of the tribes or nations engaged. The story, or tradition, is so pure and natural that it seems like a reality, and to call it a tradition seems an unworthy charge and a gross perversion of Indian character and Indian nature.
Sometime during the fourteenth century, as the story goes, 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 possession of a numerous fierce and warlike nation of Indians calling themselves the Allegwi, who claimed all the territory for hundreds of miles around and apparently were possessed of sufficient force to 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 of those in authority the request was refused, but permission was given that the Lenapes and Mengwe might cross the river and journey to the country far east and beyond the lands claimed by the Allegwi. The embarkation was at once commenced and thousands crossed the river, when, either deceived as to 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 them 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 long and terrific battle and drove them from the country to the far south.
The victorious forces now 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 and fought but little. After their journey had ended, these nations never had friendly relations, but lived aloof from each other, and finally became engaged in war, which ended in the entire subjugation of Lenni Lenape, or Delaware country, by the powerful Five Nations, who were, or claimed to be, descended from the Mengwe.
The Lenni Lenapes, as has been stated, settled in the country of the rivers and running streams, while the Mengwe took the country bordering on the lakes, in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. The former were far more numerous, but were peaceful and content to live at peace ; while the latter, although less in number, were quarrelsome and inclined to warfare. They were wary and crafty, not satisfied with beating an enemy, but sought to annihilate all against whom they waged war. This people, from about the middle
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of the seventeenth century down to the time of the last treaty between the whites and the Indians, were the acknowledged rulers of our whole country ; and although they were variously known as the Iroquois Confederacy, the Five, and subsequently, the Six Nations, and by other names as well, they were, nevertheless, the same people, and inasmuch as they were the conquerors and rulers of the country in this region, and carried on their depredations in this locality, an extended account of their origin and existence, as well as their system of government (for it was a perfect one), will be appropriate in this place. And although there are no well authenticated accounts of Indian history single to the counties of Fulton and Henry, until many years later, the history of the Iroquois Confederacy, or Five Nations, will serve to prepare the mind of the reader for such events as are to follow in succeeding chapters, bringing the subject down to a time within the memory of man.
THE IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY.
It should be stated at the outset that the name Iroquois was never applied by the confederates to themselves. It was first used by the French, and its meaning is veiled in obscurity. The men of the Five Nations (afterwards the Six Nations) called themselves " Hedonosaunee," which means, literally, " They form a cabin," describing in this expressive manner the close union that existed among them. The Indian name just quoted is more liberally and commonly rendered "The people of the long house," which is more fully descriptive of the confederacy, though not quite so accurate a translation.
The central and unique characteristic of the Iroquois league was not the bare fact of five separate tribes being confederated together, for such unions have been frequent among civilized and half-civilized peoples, though little known among the savages of America. The feature that distinguished the people of the Long House from all other confederacies, and which, at the same time bound together all these ferocious warriors as with a living chain, was the system of clans extending throughout all the different tribes.
Although this clan system has been treated of in many works, there are doubtless thousands of readers who have often heard of the warlike success and outward greatness of the Iroquois Confederacy, but are not acquainted with the inner league which was its distinguishing characteristic, and without which it would in all probability have met, at an early day, the fate of other similar alliances.
The word clan has been adopted as the most convenient one to designate the peculiar artificial families about to be described ; but the Iroquois clan was widely different from the Scottish one, all the members of which owed undivided allegiance to a single chief, for whom they were ready to fight against all the world ; yet "clan " is a much better word than " tribe," which is sometimes used, since that is the designation usually applied to a single Indian nation.
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The people of the Iroquois Confederacy were divided into eight clans, the names of which were as follows : Wolf, Bear, Beaver, Turtle, Deer, Snipe, Heron, and Hawk. Accounts differ, some declaring that every clan extended through all the tribes, and others that only the Wolf, Bear, and Turtle clans, did so, the rest being restricted to a lesser number of tribes. It is certain, however, that each tribe—Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas or Senecas—contained parts of the three clans named, and of several of the others.
Each clan formed a large artificial family, modeled on the natural family. All the members, no matter how widely separated among the tribes, were considered as brothers and sisters to each other, and were forbidden to intermarry. This prohibition was strictly enforced by public opinion. The nations of Indians that formed this confederacy were the Onondagas, Mohawks, Oneidas, Cayugas, and Senecas. All the clans being taught from earliest infancy that they belonged to the same family, a bond of the strongest kind was created throughout the confederacy. The Oneida, of the Wolf clan, had no sooner appeared among the Cayugas than they claimed him as their special guest, and admitted him to their most confidential intimacy. The Senecas, of the Turtle clan, might wander to the country of the Mohawks, at the farthest extremity of the Long House, and he had a claim upon his brother Turtle, which they would not dream of repudiating. If, at any time, there appeared a tendency toward conflict between the different tribes, it was instantly checked by the thought that, if persisted in, the hand of the Heron must be lifted against his brother Heron, the hatchet of the Bear might be buried in the brain of his kinsman Bear, and so potent was the feeling, that for at least two hundred years, and until the power of the league was broken by overwhelming outside force, there was no serious dissension between the tribes of the Iroquois.
Such then was the bond that bound together this nation in common brotherhood, and made them a most powerful league, sufficiently strong to prevail against every enemy, nor were they slow in availing themselves of their might. Additions to their strength were made from various sources, noticeably in the accession of the Tuscaroras, by which the Five Nations became the Six Nations ; but this last acquisition N as made after the grand conquest of the Iroquois over the whole country.
First, they overthrew the Kahquahs and the Eries, and then went forth " conquering and to conquer." This was probably the day of their greatest glory. Having supplied themselves with the arms of the white man they smote with direst vengeance whomsoever of their own race as were so unfortunate as to provoke their wrath.
On the Susquehannas, the Delaware, the Ohio, the Allegheny, even to the Mississippi in the west and the Potomac and Savannah in the south, the Iroquois bore their conquering arms, filling alike with terror the dwellers on the
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plains of Illinois, and in the. glades of the Carolinas. They strode over the bones of the slaughtered Kahquahs to new conquests on the great lakes beyond, even to the foaming cascades of Michillimacinac, and to the shores of the mighty Superior. They inflicted such terrible defeat upon the Hurons, despite the alliance of the latter with the French, that many of the conquered nation sought safety on the frozen borders of Hudson's Bay. The peaceful, though numerous Lenni Lenapes, fell an easy prey to their united attack, and the land of the Delawares passed into the hands of the confederates. In short they triumphed everywhere and stayed only before the steady approach of the sturdy white-faced pioneer, and even he was, for a time, held at bay by these fierce confederates.
These, then, were they, who, by force of arms, conquered, subjugated and ruled the whole Indian country. In this region their depredations were less prominent, nevertheless, they were its rulers and owners from an Indian point of view. The tribes, who, at a later day occupied this country, are understood to have been descendants of the earlier owners, yet no authentic record of their relationship can be traced. In the more stirring times of war and civilization, and the advance of settlement, something greater seems to have absorbed the mind of the Indian and the settler, and the connecting links of tribal relationship and descent for a time has been found broken. Yet, the Indians were here in force and made an Indian history for this region, as will fully appear in the succeeding chapters.
CHAPTER III. (1)
From the Close of the Revolution Down to the Time of the Removal of the Last of the Indian Tribes from the Valley — Names and Characteristics of the Tribes of the Valley — The Part Taken by Them in the Wars — Their Final Removal — Incidents.
AT the close of the Revolutionary War of the American colonies with Great Britain, in 1784, and for centuries before that time, so tradition has it, 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. At the time of the first American settlement in 1796, and until the last
(1) By Hon. D. W. H. Howard.
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remnant was removed in 1838, there were a few scattering families gathered up and removed in 1842 or '43. The Indian occupants were the Ot-ta-was, of the valley proper, and the hunting grounds on the Au Glaize; the Pot-ta-waw-to-mies of the St. Joseph and the upper portions of the Tiffin River, and the hunting grounds on the Raisin, River Ruch, and along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan (now in the State of Michigan). These latter people were, however, more or less intermarried with their neighbors, the Ot-ta-was on the south, and the O-gib-e-was on the north, whose lands and hunting grounds they adjoined. The Mi-am-ies on the upper Wabash and the Eel Rivers, with the smaller " bands " of We-aws and Pi-an-ki- shaws, and the lower St. Mary's River ; the Wy-an-dotts on the Sanduskies, the Tousaint and their branches ; the Shaw-won-no (or Shawnees) on the Hog Creek and upper " Blanchard's Fork " of the Au Glaize.
These various tribes, then quite numerous and powerful, were united into the confederation of the Five Nations, or tribes (each speaking a different dialect, but must not be understood as being in any manner connected with the original Five Nations, or Iroquois, mentioned in Chapter I), for the purpose of mutual protection and defense against the advance of the American settlements north of the Ohio River ; they having never signed the treaty or given their consent to the treaty made between the British and the American governments after the close of the Revolutionary War, but considering themselves the sole owners of this vast extent of terrritory, and beautiful and profitable hunting country, were determined to defend it until the last, and they were encouraged in this by the emissaries of the defeated British, who furnished them with arms, ammunition and clothing, and gave them sustenance and support in every way possible. The Indians availed themselves of the military experience and teaching of the British offrcers, and mainly through this were they enabled to defeat General Harmer with a large force near Fort Wayne on the St. Mary's in 179r, and subsequently General St. Clair with 1,600 men, near Greenville, in the summer of 1792. Added to the native strategy of the Indians, the experience and military education of the British officers who were their daily associates, and constantly hovering on the frontier, and renewing from time to time their pledges to sustain them in any event, it is not strange that the poor deluded savages closed their ears to the overtures made by Washington and the American government, and gave a willing assent to the British propositions. This was their home ; their fathers slept in graves upon the banks of these beautiful streams ; their council fires had burned for many years upon the banks of her rivers and had never gone out ; the deer and elk had been chased through every tangled break, and open forest and prairie ; the great black bear (so numerous then) had been tracked to his winter den, in the hollow of the giant oak, sycamore or poplar; the cunning beaver and the rich fur- covered otter and martin had been out-witted by the wily hunter and trapped
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in the fastness of his secluded home ; the red fox and the beautiful silver-gray fox had furnished the Indian maiden with the rich ornaments she so highly prized, and the valuable wampum to the Indian hunter in barter and exchange with the French and British fur traders. Food was abundant in these beautiful forests ; the wild turkey hid its nest from the bear and wolf and the wily fox (their natural enemy), and came forth with her brood to fill the woods with her twitter and call, and flocks of hundreds could be seen any day in a half hour's walk. The Indian women manufactured an abundance of the delicious maple sugar from the hard maple with which the country abounded. Fish in endless numbers and variety abounded in all the streams, and could be taken with net or spear at all seasons of the year, and nets were made from the bark of the nettle, the linn, or the leatherwood, and the spear from the wood of the supple hickory or white ash, hardened by heating the spear points in the fire. The rich " bottom lands " along the streams furnished a soil unequaled in fertility and productiveness upon which were grown thousands of bushels annually of that most valuable product, the Indian corn, maize, beans, squashes, and pumpkins were also grown extensively, and dried in the sun or over a slow fire, and preserved for future winter use. Much of the corn was also preserved in its natural green state in this way.
When the impartial historian reviews the beauties and attractions of this country, the ease with which the Indian could subsist, the sport of hunting and fishing, of paddling his frail bark canoe across lakes and on the streams, running the rapids of the swift rivers upon whose banks their villages were usually situated, where their children, in the limpid waters, sported like dolphins in the long summer days, and the hunter slaked his thirst at the bubbling spring of pure, cold water that could be found bursting from the banks, and the thousand attractions natural to the civilized or savage man, who would not contend for such a country ? Would not civilized and cultured man ? Surely the North American Indian might be pardoned, if not exonerated for fighting for his home, his council fires and the graves of his fathers, that had not been already desecrated by the foot of the stranger.
Such was the situation of the country and this the rich inheritance of these savage tribes, when the American government determined to make one more grand effort to subdue the Indians and compel the English government to fulfill its treaty obligations and evacuate the country, which it still held by garrison at the outposts of Mackinac, Detroit, St. Joseph and Fort Miami, with other points of less importance, as protection for its trading posts throughout the entire frontier. In 1752, after the terrible slaughter and defeat of General St. Clair's army, Washington prevailed upon Gen. Anthony Wayne, who had retired upon his farm in Pennsylvania at the close of the Revolutionary war, to once more take the field and strike a blow that would at once subdue the hostile savages and teach the emissaries of Great Britain that they too must re-
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spect the American arms. Wayne, after spending nearly two years mustering an army, making such preparations as to secure him against a possible defeat, took the field (or forest rather), and leaving the post at Greenville (now in Darke county, O.), in July, and although harassed somewhat on the march by the Indians, struck the Maumee River at the mouth of the Au Glaize, August 8, 1794, where he hastily constructed Ft. Defiance, and leaving the fort with a small garrison on the 16th of August, he proceeded down the left bank of the Maumee, pursuing the fleeing savages who had made, with the advice of the British general, great preparation at Presque Isle, or Fallen Timber, to resist Wayne's further advance. Wayne, previous to leaving Ft. Defiance in pursuit of the Indians, had sent a flag of truce requesting an interview (agreeably to Washington's desire), offering peace propositions of great advantage to the Indians; but they were disregarded and the bearer of the flag taken prisoner. There was, however, a division of opinion among the leading chiefs and warriors as to the proposition of Wayne for a council of peace. Many of the more sagacious chiefs saw that their defeat was only a question of time, as they could not always successfully contend against so powerful a government as that of the United States, and strongly urged a peaceful settlement of the long struggle at a council held by the confederated chiefs, under the "Council Elm" at the Grand Rapids of the Maumee, only two nights previous to the great battle of the Fallen Timbers. The principal advocates of peace in this council were the great chief, Little Turtle (Mis-she-kence) of the Miamis, and Kine-jo-i-no, a young chief of the Ottawas, but the eloquence of the wily Pottawatamie chief, Turkey Foot (Mis-sis-sa-in- zit), and the clamor of the braves for war prevailed, and the council closed its deliberations at the dawn of day and declared for war. On the 20th of August, 1794, was fought the great battle of the Fallen Timbers, which proved so disastrous to the confederated savages and gave a prophetic warning to the English emissaries of their future, if they persisted longer in holding their posts within American territory, The rout of the Indians at this battle was complete and the slaughter great, which taught them that Washington had at last found a general (Che-no- tin, meaning hurricane) that could cope with their most artful and sagacious warriors. This also broke the Indian superstition that the Mani- too (Great Spirit) would assure their success in any event and the councils of the more sensible and far-seeing chiefs were thereafter to prevail ; consequently, a treaty of peace was held by Wayne at Greenville with these savages, in 1795, where the greater portion of the northwest was ceded to the United States, thus ending a long and bloody conflict.
The various tribes were ruled over and governed by a chief and " head men," who inherited (not invariably however) their high positions from generation to generation, and were, many of them, possessed of much native talent and statesmanship. They were far-Seeing, and well aware of the power and
26 - HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.
numerical strength of the white man ; and while welcoming him as a stranger, and a " trader," they nevertheless feared him as a neighbor and intruder, and knew full well that at no distant day, they would be compelled to contend, by the force of arms, for their hereditary birthright, their native home, and all that was held dear to the savage breast ; the beautiful lakes, rivers and forests, supplied with an abundance of food, furnished by the kindness and generosity of the Great Man-i-too (the great spirit) as a home for his red children forever,
At the time of the commencement of the white settlements proper in the Maumee Valley, in 1808 or 1810, the principal Indian villages were located as follows, and were presided over by the following named chiefs: Near the mouth of the Maumee was located the Ottawa village of Mis-sis-sa-nog (Turkey Town), whose principal chief was Scho-no. It had a population, in 1810, of about six hundred inhabitants. Their people had fine cornfields and gardens and fine grazing country on the margin of the bay ; and also beautiful forests of timber surrounding them on all sides, which was bountifully supplied with wild game in great variety. They still held a large tract of land in their OWn right. The next village of importance was twenty miles up the river, called Me-nish-sha-nong (or Island Town), located mainly on a large island, .(called Indian Island) upon which a French trader had many years previously planted an orchard that furnished a never-failing crop of apples. It had also large quantities of corn and beans, and also squashes and pumpkin were annually produced. They also owned a large tract of rich land on the left bank of the river, extending some twelve miles above ; quite a village was also located on the main land and the population (of both villages) at this time was not far from 'me thousand souls. This village was governed by two chiefs, 0-to-saw and Na-wash, and in later years, previous to their removal west, by Ot-to-kee and Wau-se-on.
A Presbyterian mission was established in 1820 or 1821, by Rev. Isaac Von Tassel, and conducted as a school for the young Indians, until their final removal to their new homes, west of the Missouri River, in 1838. A portion of the old Mission House (a frame building) is still standing, but in a somewhat dilapidated condition, a landmark of a former age, and upon whose tablets is written the melancholy history of the vain efforts made by good and 'benevolent people, in behalf of the poor and benighted savage. Surrounded, as he was at this time, from 1820 to 1838, and associated more or less with unprincipled and whisky-selling white men, the education and Christian teachings received at the mission had a tendency (if anything) to demoralize, rather than to elevate him ; and coming in contact with this worthless appendage of civilization, who delighted in demoralizing, and then robbing the unsuspecting Indian, he soon became a drunken vagabond.
The more important, however, of the villages of the valley proper, was the Ottawa village of Ap-a-to-wau-jo-win, or Half-way, which was located at the
GENERAL HISTORY - 27
head of the " Grand Rapids," and near the noted Council Elm. Here, too, was located the band of Tien-jo-i-no, the noted peace-chief, and colleague of Little Turtle in the great council held previous to the battle of Fallen Timbers. It had a population of from 600 to 800 in 1820, but had diminished by disease and debauchery, incident to intoxication, to about half that number in 1838, the time of their final removal west.
They had fine corn-fields and gardens, as had all the other villages on the rich river flats.
The villages of Shaw-wun no and Nac-i-che-wa, at the mouth of the Au Glaize, where now stands the flourishing village of Defiance, and where Wayne constructed Fort Defiance in 1794, named from its strong position, at the junction of the Au Glaize with the Maumee, was the most wealthy of any of the Indian settlements. The people owned large farms and droves of many horses.
At the time of General Wayne's march down the river, in their hasty flight before his victorious army, the Indians abandoned nearly everything but their ponies, which aided them materially in their retreat. Wayne destroyed all the corn and gardens, and burned their villages, situate on both sides of the river.
On the Blanchard's Fork of the Au Glaize, where the village of Ottawa is now located, was the Indian settlement of Oc-que-nox-ie, a blood-thirsty and savage warrior, who was never (after the treaties of peace) the friend of the white man, and who would, on most all occasions, repeat the bloody tales of the warpath. He was always feared and hated by all whites and peaceably inclined Indians.
Shar-low's Town, on the Au Glaize, some distance above its mouth, was of less importance than many others, although governed by a very wise chief, and a great friend of the white settlers.
The principal villages of the numerous and powerful tribes of the Miamis were at the head of the Maumee, where is now the city of Fort Wayne, and on the banks of the beautiful Wabash, at Peru, Logansport (mouth of the Eel River), and at Wabash Town, in the State of Indiana. The principal chiefs were Richardville (Rusheville) and La Fontaine, with a number of chiefs of much less influence with their people.
The beautiful bottom-lands of the Wabash furnished a fertile soil for their entire cornfields, and the sloping and rolling highlands, covered with hard maple, gave abundant sugar orchards for the supply of the delicious maple sugar.
The Wyandott settlements were on the Sandusky River and the Ti-mochtee Creek, under the control of the chiefs of the " Wauker family." The Shawnees, or Shaw-wun-no, emigrants from the powerful nations of the Carolinas, owned a small reservation on the upper branches of the Au Glaize, and the principal villages were on and near the site of the present little city of
28 - HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.
Wa-pa-kon-net-ta, in Allen county, 0. The educated brothers, William and Joseph Parks, were the controlling spirits of this tribe of the Shawnees.
The principal Indian village within the present limits of Fulton county, was that of the Pottawatomie chief, Winameg, located on the banks of Keeg (now Bad) Creek, and the high ridge crossing the creek near the post-office of Winameg (in Pike township), named for the old chief by his early and lifelong friend, D. W. H. Howard, whose residence is immediately upon the site of the old village and near where his father, Edward Howard, built in the early years of the thirties a trading house, in which was opened a lucrative trade with the remnant of this (then) scattered and wandering people, the remnant of a once powerful nation, now principally inhabiting a small reservation west of the Missouri. Smaller settlements were located on Bean Creek and the upper branches of the St. Joseph, but were of a more temporary character. At the time of the writer's first visit to the village of Winameg, in the spring of 1827 or 1828, the aged chief, Winameg, whose head was whitened by the snows of a hundred winters, yet who was still active in mind and body, ruled the tribe and directed its affairs, aided by his son (Wi-na-meg) and other chiefs of less influence. Much of the earlier history and tradition of these people was learned by the writer some years later from the great Pottawatomie chief, " Billy Colwell," an Englishman by birth and without a drop of Indian blood in his veins, who was taken prisoner when a child in one of the expeditions from the Mohawk by the Iroquois, from Canada, and who was afterwards sold to the Pottawatomies of the peninsula of Michigan and adopted by them and eventually made their Great Chief By his superior intelligence and tact he became the " Head Chief " of all the Pottawatomies and Ogibewas. Within the boundaries of the village of Winameg, or more properly Neshe naw-ba, or Due-naw-ba (the Twin-Boys), and at a still earlier day, named De-mutre, " the Beaver," for the many ponds in the immediate vicinity, were numerously inhabited by this sagacious httle animal, was located the " Mounds," which are still plainly seen, although the plow has done much to reduce their height in the yielding, sandy soil ; tradition has it, as related to the writer by " Billy Colwell," many years previous to their removal west, that a great battle was fought between the Pottawatomies (the pioneers of the land) and a powerful tribe of invaders from beyond the Mississippi. Great slaughter was the result of the battle, and the slain of both armies were interred in these mounds by the Pottawatomies, who defeated the invaders and still held the place. Billy Colwell died in 1841, and lies buried on a high bluff overlooking the muddy waters of the Missouri, near the city of Council Bluffs, Iowa. Chief Colwell led the Pottawatomie warriors against General Harrison, at the battles of Tippecanoe and the Thames, and was also at the siege of Ft. Meigs in July, 1813.
There were also several small settlements of the Ottawas on the high pop-
GENERAL HISTORY - 29
lar sugar ridges along the banks of the Maumee within the limits of Henry county. A noted and favorite camping place, once of much historic interest, was " Girty's Point," situate above Napoleon on the left bank of the Maumee, where was held the headquarters of the noted renegade white man, Simon Girty. This was a beautiful high bottom land, covered with a forest of large oaks, white and blue ash, sugar maple, walnut, and several other varieties of timber, and almost entirely unencumbered with small timber or underbrush. The surroundings were open and clear as a park that had been through the hands of a skilled landscape architect. These trees formed a dense shade, and made a place of frequent resort for the Indians during the heated summer months. Deer and other wild game abounded and subsistence was easily obtained. The grass along the margin of the stream and on the low banks furnished an abundance of sweet food for the herds of ponies that the Indians possessed at this time. The history of the blood-thirsty Simon Girty, this renegade white man, who deserted his own people and joined the savages, and who urged them to acts of inhuman barbarity to avenge an imaginary wrong, will be found written elsewhere in this work. It is, moreover, written in the blood of innocent women and children. In his cruel treatment of Colonel Crawford while burning at the stake, and other acts of like character of less note, need not be repeated in these pages ; but for preserving historic truths, they should never have been put upon the historic page.
The small reservations retained by these tribes, at the treaty of Greenville, as their home, were finally ceded to the United States, and a portion of the Indians removed to their homes and hunting grounds west of the Mississippi, during the summer of 1832. The remainder, with a few small bands and families (Chief Winameg and a few others excepted), were taken to their lands west in 1838, the writer aiding the government and accompanying them on the journey. B. F. Hollister, of Ft. Meigs, was the agent and conductor for the removal of those in 1832, both from the immediate valley of the river and, also, for the Shaw- wan-noes (or Shawnees), of Wa-pa-kon-ne-to. They were moved overland in wagons and on horseback, using their own ponies on the trip. Those removed in 1838 were by the Hon. Robt. A. Forsyth, of Maumee City, by contract with the government. The greater number, with their goods, were taken to Cleveland by the lake steamer, " Comodore O. H. Perry," commanded by the veteran Captain David Wilkinson; and from Cleveland by the Ohio Canal to Portsmouth ; thence down the Ohio and up the river Mississippi and Missouri to the mouth of the Kansas River, where now stands the prosperous and thriving Kansas City ; thence to the Indian Territory. Many of the young men rode their ponies across the country, crossing the Mississippi at Burlington. Thus the original possessors of this beautiful and fertile country passed on their long journey " toward the setting sun," and now where the dark and shaded forests the tangled thicket and mirey swamp, silently proclaimed a wilderness ;
30 - HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.
where, either in the darkness of the night or in the broad light of the sun, could be heard the dismal howl of the wolf or the Indian's savage yell, now waves the golden harvest of the husbandman and the sharp whistle of the locomotive speeding along the lightning train over the iron track. The cry of the wolf and the " whoop " of the Indian is heard no more in the land, and the plowboy whistles gaily, undisturbed as he wends his quiet way to the fields to turn the fertile soil.
Many of the chiefs hereinbefore mentioned, of these tribes, were men possessed of native intelligence, not generally known or understood by the historian or the general reader ; they were men of noble presence and dignified bearing ; wise and eloquent in counsel, and sagacious and strategetic managers on the battle-field. Few men equaled the Miami chiefs, Richardville and Wase-on, in the persuasive and eloquent language which dropped from their lips in debate. The writer well remembers, when but a boy, of being present at the treaty, held opposite Fort Meigs, in 1831, with the Ottowas, by the United States commissioner, Governor Porter, of Pennsylvania. The governor, in his address to the Indian council, portrayed in glowing and eloquent language, the beauties of the country beyond the Mississippi, which was to be their new home ; the beautiful groves of timber, the rolling and undulating prairie land, covered with waving grass, and spangled over with flowers of the many-colored hues of the rainbow ; herds of buffalo, elk and deer, were quietly resting in the cool shades of the leafy forest; wild turkeys and water-fowls by the million, fed upon the luxuriant vegetation. This picture was drawn by a master mind, and presented to the untutored savage, in the most seductive language of which the eminent statesman and diplomat was possessed. After closing his eloquent address, and taking his seat, amid a profound silence throughout the council, all eyes were turned upon the stoical and dignified countenance of Otto-wau kee (Che-ot tire-wan-kee), the great O-taw-waw chief, who sat with his gaze riveted upon the earth, seeming unconscious of the wild throbbing of the thousand anxious hearts of the assembled council. Many minutes passed in silent suspense, when he rose to his feet, and with that majestic dignity born to the North American savage, scarcely equaled by the cultured prince or statesman, folded his arms across his breast, his eyes now riveted upon the face of the commissioner, and flashing with the inward emotion of his bosom, he spoke as follows: " The ears of my young men are open : they have heard. what the paleface chief has said : his voice is like the bird, and the land is as beautiful as the flowers, among which it builds its nest and feeds its young ; my young men compare it to the beautiful land of the spirits of the dead; the land of the great Man-i-too, beyond the setting sun. Their heads are young, and they are not wise ; they may go, but the old and the wise, will stay where the graves of their fathers are ; where the council fires of their people have never gone out ; the land and the water given to them by the Great Spirit, so
GENERAL HISTORY - 31
long ago that no one lives who remembers the time—the land of the beautiful Me-au-me, and when the Great Man-i-too calls, we will answer—'here !' My pale-face brother is wise ; his beautiful daughters from the sun-rise love the shade and the flowers, and the beautiful land toward the sun-down, that he sings in the ears of the red children ; will he not go there with his pale-face children ? There is no enemy of my brother on the long trail, and no one to molest him ; he need not be afraid ; the Great Spirit of his fathers, will protect him. Go to the wigwam of the great father (the President of the United States), and tell him that his red children will give the beautiful land' to their pale-face brothers, and they will sleep where their father's sleep, and their last council fire shall go out on the banks of their beautiful Me-aw-mee. Go, tell this to the great father.'
The wily and adroit commissioner could not answer the native eloquence and statesmanlike speech of the great chief, and the council closed.
Among many like incidents (and several occurred at which the writer was present), there was one other worthy of record in these pages, as showing the native character of these untutored savages. This incident was related several times at the cabin of the writer's father, by one of the principal actors at the scene, Governor Lewis Cass, territorial governor of Michigan. Governor Cass was sent by the government, in 1824 or 1830, as commissioner to treat with the Win-ne-ba-goes, Sacs and Foxes, 0-gib-e-was and Kick-a-poos, to be assembled on the banks of the Mississippi, at the old French trading-post, Prairie du Chien. It took many weeks to assemble them from their distant hunting-grounds, and the governor was obliged to be patient, and wait the slow movements of the Indians, who were loth to come into the council. He put in the time as best he could by talking to the leading chiefs already assembled, and urging his purpose in many long private conferences. One morning, as the governor was seated upon a log on the bimk of the Mississippi, the great head chief of the Win-ne-ba-goes, Waw-be-see (White Crane), seated himself by the side of the governor, and became an attentive listener to all the commissioner had to say ; soon, however, other chiefs and braves came and began to take seats on the log (always on the left side of the great chief), and soon filled that end of the log, so that the chief requested Cass to move along, as more of his braves wished to sit down. After several moves, the general reached the end, and could move no farther without falling off, and after notifying White Crane of the fact, the Indian rose, and taking a position, but a few feet in front of the general, said :
"My brother is a great chief; he speaks the truth and my young men have heard it and they will not forget it." Then raising his right hand and pointing towards the rising sun said: "My brother, so many snows have fallen, and it is so long ago that none can remember it, that my people looked over the great salt lake toward the sunrise and saw a great canoe with white wings coming to
32 - HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.
the land. My people welcomed the strangers, for they were the people of the sun, with pale faces ; we gave them food and shelter and gave them land ; we looked again and more canoes with white wings were coming ; we gave their people food and we gave them land to plant their corn and we moved away to give them room. Many more came, more than we could count, and we moved away many times, so far that we could not see the salt lake, to where all the water was without salt ; the children of the sun were so many that we gave them all the land around the shores and beyond the great lakes that have no salt, and we moved to the banks of the 'great river,' the 'father of waters,' and now you ask us again to move further; we are at the end of the log, and if we move again we shall fall off, fall into the great river, for our canoes will not cross the muddy water. Go, and tell the 'Great Father' what we say. I have done."
Thus closed the conference, and the commissioner, knowing that it was useless to prolong his stay, soon left the treaty ground.
These incidents are related that the reader may be able to judge more correctly the Indian character and his ability to cope with the wisest of our statesmen. As a rule, when treaties were successfully made, there was more or less deception practiced to accomplish the objects in view, and it is no credit to so noble and generous a government as that of the United States to have, unfortunately perhaps, appointed among its agents selected to transact the business of the government, with these untutored and confiding savages, men who were, to say the least, not just.
CHAPTER IV.
HISTORY OF THE SOIL AND JURISDICTION.
Province of Louisiana — French Claim --British Claim — Cession of France to England Cession by England to the Colonies —Cesssion by the States to the United States— Extinguishment of Indian Titles — Organization as to Territory — Admission as a State—Organization of Counties— Township Organization.
HENRY county was originally embraced in that vast region of territory claimed, by virtue of discovery and conquest, by France, lying between the Allegheny and the Rocky Mountains, known by the general name of Louisiana. While the king of France had dominion in North America, the whole of the United States northwest of the Ohio River was included in this province, the north boundary of which, by the treaty of Utrecht, concluded between England and France in 1713, was fixed at the 49th parallel of latitude north of the equator.
GENERAL HISTORY - 33
After the conquest of the French possessions of North America by Great Britain this territory was ceded by the former country to the latter, by the treaty of Paris, in 1763, and the dispute of dominion ceased.
Dominion beyond the Alleghenies had always been claimed by England. The principal ground for the claim was, that the Six Nations owned the Ohio Valley and had placed it, with their other lands, under the protection of England. Some of the western lands were also claimed by the British as having been actually purchased at Lancaster, Pa., in 1744, at a treaty between the colonists and the Six Nations.
The European powers based their claim to American territory upon the discoveries made by their subjects, and thus the title to "Louisiana" became a subject of contention between France and England. In 1609 the English crown granted to the London Company all the territory extending along the coast for two hundred miles north and south from Point Comfort and "up into the land, throughout, from sea to sea, west and northwest." Charles II., in 1662, granted to certain settlers upon the Connecticut, all the territory between the parallels of latitude which include the present State of Connecticut, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. During the Revolution Massachusetts claimed an interest in these western lands, founded upon a similar charter granted thirty years afterwards.
In 1774 the parliament of Great Britain passed an act by which the whole of the northwestern territory was annexed to and made part of the Province of Quebec, as created and established by the royal proclamation of October 7, 1763.
The colonies, having, in 1776, renounced allegiance to the British throne, assumed rank as free, independent, and sovereign States, and each State claimed the right of soil and jurisdiction over the district of country embraced within its charter.
The claim of England to this northwestern territory was ceded to the United States by the treaty of peace signed at Paris, September 3, 1783. The provisional articles which formed the basis of that treaty, more especially as related to the boundary, were signed at the same place on the 30th of November, 1782. Pending negotiation relative to these preliminary articles, the British commissioner, Mr. Oswald, proposed the Ohio River as the western boundary of the United States, and but for the indomitable perseverance of John Adams, one of the American commissioners, who insisted upon the Mississippi as the boundary, the probability is that the proposition of Mr. Oswald would have been acceded to by the United States commissioners.
The charters of several of the States embraced large portions of unappropriated western lands. Those States which had no such charters insisted that these lands ought to be appropriated for the common benefit of all the States. Congress repeatedly urged upon the charter States to make liberal cessions of those lands for the common benefit of all. 5
34 - HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.
Answering these appeals, the State of Virginia, in March, 1784, ceded the right of soil and jurisdiction to the district of country embraced in her charter, situated to the northwest of the Ohio River. In September, 1786, the State of Connecticut also ceded her claim of soil and jurisdiction to the district of country within the limits of her charter, " situated west of a line beginning at the completion of the forty-first point degree of north latitude, one hundred and twenty miles west of the western boundary of Pennsylvania, and from thence by a line drawn north parallel to and one hundred and twenty miles west of said line of Pennsylvania, and to continue north until it came to forty- two degrees and two minutes north latitude." Connecticut, also, on the 30th of May, 1801, ceded her jurisdiction claims to all territory called the "Western Reserve of Connecticut." The States of New York and Massachusetts also ceded all their claims.
But these were not the only claims which required adjustment before the commencement of settlements within the limits of Ohio. Numerous tribes of Indians asserted their respective claims, and these had to be extinguished. A treaty for this purpose was made at Fort Stanwix, October 27, 1784, with the sachems and warriors of the Mohawks, Onondagas, Senecas, Cayugas, Oneidas,. and Tuscaroras, by the third article of which treaty the Six Nations ceded to the United States all claims to the country west of a certain line extending along the west boundary of Pennsylvania, from the mouth of the Oyounayea to the river Ohio.
A treaty was also concluded at Fort McIntosh, January 21, 1785, with the Wyandot, Delaware, Chippewa, and Ottawa nations. By this treaty the boundary line between the United States and the two former nations was declared to begin " at the mouth of the river Cayahoga, and to extend up said river to the Portage between that and the Tuscaroras branch of the Muskingum, thence down that branch to the crossing place above Fort Laurens, thence westerly to the Portage of the Big Miami, which runs into the Ohio, at the mouth of which branch the fort stood which was taken by the French in 1752, thence along said Portage to the Great Miami, or Omee River, and down the south side of the same to its mouth, then along the south shore of Lake Erie to the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, where it began." The lands within the described limits were allotted to the Wyandots and Delawares " to live and hunt on, and to such of the Ottawa nation as lived thereon, saving and reserving for the establishment of trading posts, six miles square (one township) at the mouth of the Miami, or Omee, (Maumee) river," and the same at the Portage, on " the branch of the Big Miami which runs into the Ohio, and also the same on the Lake of Sandusky, where the fort formerly stood, and also two miles square on each side of the LOWer Rapids of Sandusky River."
In 1789, January 9, another treaty was made at Fort Harmer, between Governor St. Clair and the sachems and warriors of the Wyandot, Chippewa,
GENERAL HISTORY - 35
Potawatomie, and Sac nations, in which the treaty of Fort McIntosh was renewed and confirmed.
The claim of soil and jurisdiction by France, England, the colonies and the Indians to the territory within the limits of Ohio having been extinguished and the title vested in the United States, legislative action by Congress became necessary before actual settlements could be commenced, as in the treaties with the Indians, and by the acts of Congress, all citizens of the United States were prohibited settling on the lands of the Indians as well as on those of the United States.
Ordinances were accordingly adopted by Congress for the government of the northwestern territory, and for sale of portions of the lands to which the Indian title had been extinguished. In May, 1785, Congress passed an ordinance for ascertaining the mode of disposing of these lands. Under that ordinance the first seven ranges, bounded on the east by Pennsylvania and on the south by the Ohio River, were surveyed. Sales of parts of these were made at New York in 1787, parts at Pittsburgh and Philadelphia in 1796, and some were located under military land warrants. No further sales were made until July 1, 1801, when a land office was opened at Steubenville.
In 1788 Congress appointed General St. Clair governor ; Winthrop Sargeant, secretary, and Samuel Holden Parsons, James 'Mitchell Varnum, and John Cleves Symmes, judges over the territory. The county of Washington, its limits extending westward to the Scioto and northward to Lake Erie, and embracing about half the territory within the present limits of Ohio, was established by proclamation of the governor. In 1790, Hamilton county was erected including the country between the Miamies, " extending northward from the Ohio River to a line drawn due east from the standing stone forks of the Great Miami." Wayne county was established in 1796, including all the northwestern part of Ohio, a large tract in the northeastern part of Indiana and the whole territory of Michigan, so that the territory of Henry county was as a county organization first under the jurisdiction of Wayne county. Wooster is the capital of the county retaining the name of Wayne in Ohio.
In 1789 the first Congress under the constitution passed an act recognizing the binding force of the ordinance of 1787, and adapting its provisions to the federal constitution. The northwest territory, before the end of the year 1798, contained a population of five thousand free male inhabitants, of full age, and had eight organized counties, entitling the citizens under the ordinance of 1787, to a change in their form of government, and a territorial government, the first legislature of which met on the 24th of September, 1799. On the 3oth of April, 1802, Congress passed an act authorizing the call of a convention to form a constitution. The constitution of that year was adopted at Chillicothe on the 29th of November of that year. It became the fundamental law by the act of the convention alone and Ohio became one of the United,
36 - HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.
States, and county organization, soil and jurisdiction were subsequently controlled by our own legislature and State officials.
On the 7th of May, 1800, the northwest territory was divided into two governments, that part lying west of a line beginning opposite the mouth of the Kentucky River, in Kentucky, and running north to the Canada line, was called Indiana, and formed, and still is, the western line of Ohio.
After the admission of Ohio into the Union, the remainder of the territory, was, by act of Congress, January 11, 1805, formed into the county of Michigan, and is now the State of Michigan, being admitted January 22, 1837, and forms the northern boundary of northwestern Ohio.
After Ohio assumed the sovereignty of a State, county organizations became rapid, and boundaries were clearly defined. By act of the Legislature, passed February 12, 180, "all that part of the lands lately ceded by the Indians to the United States, which lies within this State"-being northwestern Ohio-was erected into fourteen counties, Henry being of the number. By this act the boundaries of the county were defined "to include all of ranges five, six, seven and eight, north of the second township north, in said ranges," [the north line of Putnam county, (which was formed at the same time) and the south line of Henry], and to run north with the same to the State [Michigan] line.
By the erection of Defiance county, March 4, 1845, townships three, four and five of the fifth range, being Adams, Richland and Powell's Creek-now Highland-were taken from Henry, and made a part of Defiance, which with Williams county, forms the western boundary of Henry. June 30, 1835, Lucas county was formed, to which most of the territory now composing Fulton county, and at that time belonging to Henry, was allotted, but by the erection of Fulton, February 28, 1850, this territory was given to that county, and the line between the two counties, Henry and Fulton, established on the south line of section twelve, in township six, north of range eight east, and which is now the northern boundary of Henry county. The eastern boundary has never been disturbed.
The county is now divided into thirteen townships as follows:
|
Ridgeville Freedom Napoleon Flatrock Pleasant Liberty Harrison Monroe Marion Washington Damascus Richfield Bartlow |
Township “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ |
No. 6, N “ “ 5 “ “ 4 “ “ 3 “ “ 6 “ “ 5 “ “ 4 “ “ 3 “ “ 6 “ “ 5 “ “ 4 “ “ 3 “ |
Range No. 5, E Range No. 6, E Range No. 6, E Range No. 6, E. Range No. 6, E Range No. 7, E Range No. 7, E Range No. 7, E Range No. 7, E. Range No. 8, E. Range No. 8, E. Range No. 8, E. Range No. 8, E |
|
Napoleon, in Napoleon township, is the county seat.
GENERAL HISTORY - 37
CHAPTER V.
HISTORY OF THE ADVENTURES, INVASION, IMMIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT BY THE WHITES.
THE first footprints of white men in the sands of the Maumee were unquestionably made by the French Jesuits in the seventeenth century. These zealous and devoted people came to the red man, unlike the Spaniard with sword and brand to civilize by death, torture and depopulation, but with the Word of God in their hands, preaching peace and good will to all men, and endeavoring to civilize and Christianize by education, kindness, mercy and the teachings and virtues of the highest Christian civilization.
Whatever the motive of the European in his visit to the American Indian, whether trade, agriculture, or missionary labor, prudence, even of those who sought only temporary residence, suggested the necessity of adopting some means of safety, of retreat and protection, and to guard against surprise, treachery and attack. As early as 1679 the Count de Frontenac, then governor of Canada, urged upon the French monarch the importance of erecting forts and trading posts in the western country along the chain of the great lakes. Frontenac, a man of great energy and spirit, though unaided by the profligate Louis, sent out a number of trading parties, authorizing them to erect stores and posts and to take possession of all territory visited, in the name of the government of France.
The first effort to form a settlement in the territory now constituting the jurisdiction of Ohio, was undertaken by the French in the Maumee Valley, in the year 1680. On the authority of the late A. T. Goodman, secretary of the Western Reserve and Northern Ohio Historical Society, and founded on data obtained from French records at Montreal and Quebec, and papers at Albany and Harrisburg, "One of these parties found their way to the Miami or Maumee River, and, in 1680, built a small stockade just below the site of Maumee City. This was an important trading point for several years, and in 1694 was under the command of Sieur Courthemanche, but was finally abandoned for a more eligible location at the head of the Maumee River. near where the city of Fort Wayne now stands. On the very spot where the fort of Maumee stood, the British, in 1794, erected Fort Miami." This shows the occupation of the Maumee to antedate that sought to be established at Detroit, the first effort at settlement being made by the French at the latter place in 1683.
In 1695 Captain Nicholas Perrot built a trading station "at the west end of Lake Erie," the exact location of which cannot now be ascertained. After remaining there for two years the Miamis plundered the place, made prisoner of Perrot and were about "roasting him alive" when he was rescued by the Outagamis.
38 - HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.
In 1690 war was declared between England and France, and for a century after a bitter and malignant feeling existed between the subjects of these nations, and especially so among those residing and claiming possessions in America, and competing for the lucrative trade with the Indians. In that year we find the governor of Canada in a letter to his king expressing " great desire for the maintenance of French posts in the west." A bloody war occurred in 1695 between the Iroquois and the Miamis, in which the latter suffered severely as did also the French traders in the Ohio and Illinois country, and the governor of Canada complained that the Iroquois "roasted all the French prisoners" who fell into their hands.
It is probable that English traders began establishing themselves permanently in the west in 1698-99, as early in the year 1700 M. de Longueil, at a council held with various Indian tribes at Detroit, urged them to make war on the English, saying : " It is to the White River and the Beautiful (Ohio) River that I expect you will immediately march in quest of him, and when you destroy him you will seize and divide all his goods among you If the English escape you on the Beautiful River you will find them a little further off with his brother, the Flat Head." During this same year the Iroquois made a treaty with the French, by which their missionaries and traders were allowed in all parts of the west, and about the same time a party of factors from Detroit built a small post on the Maumee, where Toledo now stands.
The English, in 1703, invited the Hurons and Miamis to locate near the Senecas, on Lake Erie, but the proposition was rejected. During the year 1705 Sieur de Joncaire visited the Seneca Indians, and Sieur de Vincennes the Miamis, on business of the governor of Canada, and found English traders among them. The mission of these Frenchmen seems to have failed, for in 1707 M. de Cadillac, commandant at Detroit, marched with a small force against the Miamis, and soon forced them to terms. In 1714 Captain de La Forest pointed out to the French government the importance of maintaining Detroit and keeping possession of Lake Erie and its environs. The French had more foresight than the English, and spent large sums of money in extending their possessions, and having obtained control of the Indians, the English, in 1716, sent agents among them with speeches and presents, but were unsuccessful in forming an alliance. Gain seems to have been the great object of these traders, and in a letter addressed about this time to the governor of Canada by M. de Ramezay and M. Begon, they urge the French government to build a post at Niagara, on the ground that it " would deter the Missisague and Amicone Indians from going to the Iroquois to trade when passing from the neighborhood of Lake Erie."
In 1736 the French claimed to have 16,403 warriors, and 82,000 souls under their control in the west, and in 1739 the commandant at Detroit crossed the Ohio country, and discovered Bigbone Lick, in Kentucky. He
GENERAL HISTORY - 39
constructed a road from Detroit to the Ohio River, which crossed the Miami at the foot of the rapids, and was thereafter used by the Canadians.
By the treaty at Lancaster, Pa., in 1744, the Six Nations " recognized the king's right to all lands beyond the mountains," and the English, encouraged by this, formed several settlements and magazines along the Ohio, but were driven off by Detroit Indians.
[It is not the province of this work, and it would much exceed our space to give an account of all the French, English and Indian troubles, outrages and murders which occurred in the western territory during the first half of the eighteenth century, and we refer the reader who may be interested in it to Knapp's History of the Maumee Valley, while we hasten to history more immediately connected with the territory of which we write.]
In 1748 the " Ohio Company " was formed for the purpose of securing the Indian trade, and it appears that in 1749 the English built a trading house on the Great Miami, at a spot called " Loramie's Store." In 1751 Christopher Gist, as agent of the " Ohio Company," was appointed to examine the western lands, and made a visit to the Twigtwees, who then lived upon the Miami River, about one hundred miles from its mouth. In 1752 the French, having heard of this trading house, sent a party of troops to this Indian tribe and demanded the surrender of these traders as intruders on French soil, which demand was refused. The French, assisted by the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, attacked the block trading house, and after a battle, in which fourteen of the natives were killed and others wounded, took and destroyed the buildings, capturing the traders and carrying them to Canada. The name of this fort, or trading house, was Pickawillany, and was the first British settlement of which a record can be obtained.
In order to repel the Indians, who, after Braddock's defeat in 1755, pushed their excursions as far as the Blue Ridge, Major Lewis, in January, 1756, was sent with a party of troops on an expedition against them. The attempt, on account of the swollen condition of the streams and the treachery of guides, proved a failure ; but in 1764, the year after the French had relinquished their claim to this territory, General Bradstreet dispersed the Indian forces besieging Detroit, and passed into the Wyandot country, by way of Sandusky Bay. He ascended the bay and river as far as navigable for boats, made a camp, and a treaty of peace was signed by the chiefs and head men of the Indian nations, except the Delawares, of the Muskingum, who still remained hostile. Colonel Boquet, with a body of troops, the same year marched from Fort Pitt into the heart of the Ohio country, on the Muskingum River, and a treaty of peace was effected with the Indians, who returned the prisoners they had captured from the white settlements.
During the Revolutionary War most of the western Indians were more or less hostile to the Americans, and numerous expeditions were projected
40 = HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.
against them, but we must confine ourselves to the territory which forms our subject, and this will confine us to the period after the Revolution, and after the time that England had relinquished all claim to the western lands.
In the same year, after the treaty at Fort Harmer (1789), referred to in the preceding chapter, the Indians assumed a hostile appearance, and were seen hovering around the infant settlements near the mouth of the Muskingum and between the Miamis, and a number of persons were killed. The settlers became alarmed, erected block-houses, and in June, 1789, Major Doughty, with one hundred and forty men from Fort Harmer, commenced building Fort Washington. A few months afterward General Harmer, with three hundred men, arrived, took command, and, negotiations proving unavailing, was directed to attack the Indian towns. In pursuance of orders, he marched, in September, 1790, with one thousand three hundred men, from Cincinnati westward towards what is now Fort Wayne to the Indian villages on the Miami of the Lake (Maumee) near the latter place. Harmer, after several reverses and severe loss, succeeded in burning the towns and destroying the corn crop of the Indians, and commenced his homeward march ; but the savages rallied, engaged in battle with a detachment of Harmer's army under command of Colonel Hardin, which resulted in the defeat of the latter; and the general, dispirited, returned to Cincinnati, his expeditions in intimidating the Indians having been entirely unsuccessful.
The Indians continued hostile. A new army, superior to the former, was mobilized at Cincinnati, under the command of Governor St. Clair, a Revolutionary officer. The regular force numbered two thousand three hundred men, and the militia about six hundred. Commencing his march toward the Indian towns on the Maumee, he established a fort at Hamilton and one at Jefferson. Misfortune attended the expedition from its commencement, desertions and the detachments of soldiers to pursue and capture them, and to protect the convoys of provisions which it was apprehended they (the deserters) designed to capture, materially weakened the army, and on the 3d of November, 1791, when, at what is now the line of Darke and Mercer counties, St. Clair halted, intending to throw up slight fortifications and await tbe return of the troops sent in pursuit of the deserters. On the following morning, however, before sunrise, he was attacked with great fury by the whole disposable force of the northwest tribes. The Americans were totally defeated. General Butler and upwards of six hundred men were killed. Indian outrages multiplied and immigration was entirely suspended.
The president, Washington, now urged the most vigorous prosecution of the war and the complete protection of the Northwest Territory ; but the enlistment and organization of a new army was retarded by many obstacles, and it was not until the spring of 1794 that an army was gathered at Greenville, in Darke county, and placed under the command of General Anthony Wayne,
GENERAL HISTORY - 41
the bold, energetic and experienced " Mad Anthony " of the Revolution. His force consisted of 2,000 regulars and 1,500 mounted volunteers from Kentucky. The whole force of Indians, amounting to about 2,000 men, had collected near the British fort erected after and in violation of the treaty of 1783, at the foot of the Rapids of Maumee. [From this point on the 13th of August, 1793, the Indians, inspired by Elliott, McGee, Butler, and other English traders and emissaries, with hope of British aid, a defiant rejection of all overtures of peace made by the United States, was sent. It was signed by fifteen nations in addition to the Seven Nations of Canada, and closed all attempts at peace.] On the 28th of July, 1794, Wayne moved to Greenville and on the 8th of August was near the junction of the Au Glaize and Maumee, at Grand Glaize, now Defiance. This had been the Indian headquarters, and Wayne was anxious to reach it undiscovered. In order to do this he had caused two roads to be cut, one towards the foot of the Rapids (Roche de Bout), the other to the junction of the St. Mary and St. Joseph, while he pressed forward between the two; but the Indians hearing of the approach of the army from a runaway member of the quartermaster's corps, hastily abandoned their town. Being unable to make peace with the Indians, who still relied on British aid and support from Detroit, Wayne determined to march forward and settle matters at once, and on the 8th of August he had advanced forty-one miles, and being in the vicinity of the foe, threw up some light works which was named Fort Deposit, in which to place the heavy baggage during the expected battles. On the morning of the l0th, the baggage having been left behind, the whites moved down the north bank of the Maumee and encountered the Indians with their English allies about two miles east of where the village of Waterville now stands, and there was fought the celebrated battle of Fallen Timbers. The Indians were completely routed and fled and were pursued under the guns of the British fort, Miami. Wayne returned with his army to Fort Defiance on the 27th of the same month, laying waste the Indian villages for a distance of fifty miles on each side of the Maumee. The army remained at Fort Defiance until September 14, of the same year, and then marched for the Miami villages at the junction of the St. Joseph and St. Mary Rivers, and there built Fort Wayne, where the city of that name now stands. During this time the troops suffered much from sickness, but more for want of flour and salt, the latter article, on the 24th of September, selling for six dollars per pint.
This vigorous prosecution of the war by Wayne, and the failure of the British to furnish their promised aid and supplies, induced the various tribes to ask for peace, and finally, on the 30th of July, 1795, a treaty by which the hatchet was to be buried forever was agreed to at Greenville.
In a letter, dated August 14, 1794, written from Grand Glaize (Defiance) Wayne says : " The margin of these beautiful streams, the Miamis of the lake (Maumee) and Au Glaize (Auglaize) appear like one beautiful village for a num-
42 - HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.
ber of miles both above and below this place ; nor have I ever beheld such immense fields of corn in any part of America from Canada to Florida."
The permanent settlement of Ohio followed closely the treaty of Wayne, but was confined mostly to the southern and eastern parts of the territory— Marietta, Dayton, Chillicothe, Cleveland, and Cincinnati ; but speculators and settlers began to appear in pretty large numbers in western Ohio, settlements being established in the Miami of the lakes (Maumee).
After the death of Wayne, 1796, General Wilkinson was appointed to the western command, and but little of interest occurred on the Maumee until the outbreak of the war of 1812. A few white settlements had grown up along the river, and more or less Indian outrages occurred and pioneer adventures were had, but few can be located with any certainty within the jurisdiction of which we write. In 1812 three points in the west, Fort Wayne, the Wabash and the Maumee, needed defense. The troops for the first point were placed under the command of General Winchester, a Revolutionary officer then resident in Tennessee, and but little known to the frontier men; the Wabash under Harrison, who had acquired fame at Tippecanoe; while Governor Edwards, of the Illinois territory, was to command the expedition on the river of the same name. Such were the intentions of the government, but the wishes of the people finally led to the appointment, Sept. 17, 1812, of General Harrison to the post of commander-in-chief of the west and northwest. In the mean time Fort Wayne had been relieved and the line of the Maumee secured, so that when Harrison was placed at the head of the western military affairs, his main objects were: (r) to drive the Indians from the western side of the Detroit River; (2) to take Malden and (3) to recapture the Michigan Territory, surrendered by Hull. To do all this before winter and be prepared to conquer Upper Canada, Harrison proposed to take possession of the Rapids of the Maumee and to concentrate his forces and stores at that point. He divided his troops into three columns—the right to move from Wooster through Upper Sandusky, the center from Urbana by Fort McArthur on the heads of the Sciota, and the left from St. Mary's by the Au Glaize and Maumee, all meeting at the Rapids. The troops of the left, under Winchester, worn out and starved, were on the point of desertion; the center, mounted men, under General Tupper, were unable to do anything, mainly by reason of the incapacity of their commander, which, together with sickness and the difficulties of transportation caused by the autumn rains, obliged a change in this plan and caused a postponement until winter would bridge the streams; and even when that had taken place, Harrison was doubtful as to the wisdom of an attempt to conquer Canada without vessels on Lake Erie. And the year of 1812 closed with nothing effectual having been done towards the re-conquest of Michigan. Winchester, his men enfeebled by sickness, in want of clothing and of food, was on his way to the Rapids, the right wing of the army was approaching Sandusky and the center rested at Fort McArthur.
GENERAL HISTORY - 43
On the 10th of January, 1813, Winchester reached the Rapids, having passed down the north bank of the Maumee from Defiance. Of Winchester's misfortunes at Frenchtown, we have not time to speak, nor does it relate to our subject; suffice to say that Harrison, with the remnants of his army, was at the Rapids in the spring of 1813 and had erected Fort Meigs. Of this fort the English with their Indian allies commenced the investment, and by the 1st of May had completed their batteries.
On the 5th of May, General Clay, with twelve hundred additional troops, came down the Maumee in flat boats. Of the events which followed—the defeat of Colonel Dudley, the massacre of his men, the subsequent victories of Harrison on land, and Perry on the lakes—general history speaks.
White settlement on the Maumee was very tardy, and in 1800 Colonel John Anderson was the only white trader of any notoriety on the river, having in that year settled at Fort Miami. Peter Manor, a Frenchman, was here previous to that time, and was adopted by the Indian chief, Tontogany. He did not however come to reside until 1808. During the year 1810 Major Amos Spafford, Andrew Race, Thomas Learning, Harvy W. Learning, James Carlin, William Carter, George Blalock, James Slason, Samuel H. Ewing, Jesse Skinner, David Hull, Thomas Dick, William Peters, Ambrose Hickox and Richard Gifford came here, and when the War of 1812 broke out there were sixty-seven families residing at the foot of the Rapids. The war made the Maumee an exceedingly unhealthy climate, and the white settlers were compelled to flee for their lives. After peace was declared, most of those who had resided here before the war, returned, and the actual settlement of the Maumee Valley began, but progressed very slowly until the location of the Miami and Erie Canal. The last remnant of the powerful tribe of Ottawa Indians was not removed until 1838, and their burying-grounds and village sites are scattered along both banks of Maumee from its mouth to Defiance.
CHAPTER VI.
Early Settlers of the Maumee Valley Recalled— The Names of Many of Them, and Some Incidents Concerning Them.
IN the year 1830, according to the census of population then made, the countyof Henry contained two hundred and sixty persons, young and old; in 184o, two thousand five hundred and three ; in 1850, three thousand four hundred and thirty-four ; in 1860, eight thousand nine hundred and one ; in 1870, fourteen thousand and twenty-eight; in 1880, twenty thousand five hun-
44 - HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.
dred and eighty-five. From these facts it is fair to assume that in the year 1820 there was not to exceed a dozen families within the borders of the county, and upon this basis, not more than fifty or sixty white inhabitants. Although Henry county was formed, and only formed, in the year 1820, there were not then living therein enough people to organize a township, and it was not until three years later, 1823, that the whole county was populous enough to be formed into one township, called Damascus. The county, it is true, was given an existence at the time named, and while conveyances of land may have recognized such an existence, the residents knew no county boundaries beyond their warrant or deed ; they were residents and pioneers of the whole Maumee Valley, and as such will be mentioned so far as their names can be ascertained.
It is possible that in the following record the names of some may be inadvertently omitted, as the names, as obtained, are somewhat incomplete, still it will serve to show who were a large majority of the residents of the valley prior to the year 1825, together with some incidents concerning them and their families.
The list was prepared by a person now past the alloted " three score and ten" years of life, and will be found substantially authentic so far as given. It is arranged to commence at Defiance and record the names as the people were found on going down the river, and is as follows : Pierce Evans and family, Indian fur trader ; Dr. Jonathan F. Evans, physician and surgeon ; Colonel Evans, on the Au Glaize ; Allen Browher, father and brother, farmer and trader; - Brubecker, farmer ; James Laughlin, Indian jewelry manufacturer and river boatman ; the " Snook Boys," two brothers, farmers and pirogue men (river boatmen).
Flat Rock : (Down the river four miles), old Uncle Hively, Pennsylvania Dutch farmer ; Adam Kepler, on south side of the river, also Pennsylvania farmer. There were a few other settlers near this point, whose names cannot now be recalled.
The next settlement was at or near Damascus, below the present village of Napoleon : John Patrick and wife, farmer and Indian trader ; " Sammy " and David Bowers, brothers, on south side, both farmers ; Elisha Scribner, father and family, farmer ; Charles Bucklin and father, " Squire " Bucklin, farmers ; Samuel Vance and wife, farmers and Indian fur traders, brother to ex-Governor Vance, of Ohio ; Richard Gunn and family, farmer ; Carver Gunn and family, farmer ; Osman Gunn and family, farmer ; Judge Cory, the largest farmer in the valley ; David De Long and sons " Jeff" and " Nicky."
Grand Rapids : Uncle Peter Manore, Frenchman, farmer ; he built the first saw-mill on the river ; his son, Frank, now or recently living on the old homestead, a part of the Indian grant of one and one-half sections, at the head of the Grand Rapids, was born at the foot of the rapids, where Maumee City now is, in 18 t 2.
GENERAL HISTORY - 45
On the south side of the river, at this place, was settled Thomas Howard and his sons, Edward, Robert A. and Richard M. W., and their families, as also William Pratt and family, son of Captain Pratt, of Fort Meigs, all farmers.
A few miles below this, at Raccoon Rapids, was John Morgan, an old Rocky Mountain hunter and trapper, and his " man Friday," " Bob" Ryan, a farmer.
A short distance further down, on what afterwards was known as the Hedges (grandfather of Judge David Commager) farm, was a " squatter," by the name of Adam Teel, farmer, and still further down the river, near the mouth of Tone-tog-o-nee Creek, and opposite the " Indian Island," was erected and in full operation, the Presbyterian Indian Mission, under the general management of Rev. Isaac Van Tassel!, assisted by Revs. Coe and Sackett, with their families, and the Misses Riggs and Brewster; Dayton Riley (brother of William Riley, of African slavery fame, who after his release and return to America, built the first mill to crack corn, on the St. Mary's River, near the line of the Toledo, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad, near the present village of Wilshire, Van Wert county, Ohio). This Dayton Riley was a very good carpenter, and performed much work for the Indian mission people, but loved the woods so well that most of his time was spent in hunting and trapping for the fur-bearing animals, and lining the little busy bees to their homes in hollow trees, for their rich stores of wild honey.
Still on down the river opposite the present village of Waterville, was the commodious and hospitable log cabin of " Uncle " Guy Nearing, whose cabin latch-string always "hung out " to welcome the neighboring settler, or the tired and often belated traveler. Near him, in a snug little cabin, lived one Thomas Dix, usually called " Uncle Tommy Dix," a full-blooded Irishman, from Cork, and the only pauper on the river. He was, however, very industrious, but being quite aged, was unable to entirely maintain himself, and was aided considerably by the town poor-masters. He was quite a hand at making maple sugar in the spring. He had seven large trees near his cabin into which he put numerous spiles, and, as he counted it, made quite a sugar bush. A settler once asked him how many trees he had, and he answered " seventy." The settler could not see so many and so remarked. Uncle Tommy replied that he had " tin taps in a tree, and sure that's sivinty."
Just below this were the families of John Race and the Deckers and John Charter. Going back to Roch to Bout (Bushteboo) was found Isaac Richardson, the man who was afterwards murdered by Porter, the " Old Gay Lark," as he was usually called, who was the first man ever hanged in the valley under the civil laws of the United States ; and also Hughs, a millwright, living at Richardson's.
At Waterville was John Pray and family, Colister, and Whitcomb Haskins (a little below), and the two brothers Farnsworth and their families ; Deacon Cross, Mr. Martindale, Orson Ballou, Alex. Howard and family ; Warren
46 - HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.
Gunn, and on the high bank of the river, a little below was the white- washed log cabin of " Count" Pierre Louie La Point, known as " Uncle" Peter La Point, whose roof often sheltered and made glad many a heart from the posts at Detroit, and along the river to Fort Wayne, by the hospitality of this genial and kind-hearted old Frenchman ; Deacon Barlow (on Presque Isle), Judge Jonathan Jerome, at Turkeyfoot Rock, " Old" Haynes, and one or two others whose names cannot now be recalled.
At Maumee City proper were General John E. Hunt, and Robert and James H,, and Duncan Forsyth, all merchants and Indian fur traders ; Judge Wolcott, also a fur trader ; David and Isaac Hull, fur traders ; Dr. Conant, James Wilkison, Hezekiah Hubel, hotel keeper and farmer ; " Old" Haynes, George, John and James Knaggs, farmers and traders ; Parley Carlin and his brother, Esquire Carlin, Mr. Gibbs and family, Whitney, Peter Rebedow, a blacksmith ; Mr. Mashor, the Rand family, Trombley, and a number of other French families, including Peter Nevar and brothers ; " Deacon " Keeler, and Indian agent Major Stickney and family, Mr. Whitney and "Uncle Peter" Shaw, Mrs. Mary Ann Gilbert (nee Miss Wolcott, daughter of Judge Wolcott), Ralph Keeler. There may be yet a number whose names have been forgotten.
Passing back to the vicinity of Fort Meigs : First was found Captain Pratt and sons, Jonas, Hiram, Amos, James, and Foster, and daughters Sally and Jane. Also in the family of Captain Pratt was his mother, known by everybody as " Granny " Pratt, Judge James Spafford and brother, and their families, Dr. Coulton, John and Frank Hollister, merchants and Indian fur traders, as also a brother, Harry ; Thomas McKnight, John Webb, who built the first house in Perrysburg and who died August 28, 1885 ; Jacob Wilkinson and Captain David Wilkinson; the Denison family, Nathaniel, Julius, Leonard, and Blinn, brothers, and sister Mary ; Philander B. Brown and father, a blacksmith, and sister Jane; Elijah Herrick, Thomas McElrath and the Learning families, Carter, a tailor, and Wm. Ewing, then a boy, but later known as ex-Judge Ewing ; Judge Thomas Powell, " Sile" Morehouse and brothers, and Vickers, a gunsmith and blacksmith, employed by the United States government for the Indians; Griffith, John Chartier, Wm. M. Billings, Valentine Winslow, the Deckers, Races, John J. Lovett, Hawley, Wilsons, Baldwin, Prentice, Hubbard Worden, Sibley, Whitmore, Noyes, Elijah Huntington, Joshua Chapel, Charles C. P. Hunt, brother of John E., of Maumee, Mrs. Major Skinner (nee Miss Mary Ann, daughter of Maj. Spafford, of Ft. Meigs), James Mackelrath, Ft. Meigs ; Louis Trombla and Mr. Daget, of Maumee; Mr. Adams, Waterville; Mrs. Isaac Hull, daughter of Mr. Spafford; Mrs. Perrin, now living, daughter of Jacob Wilkison and brothers Merrill and Samuel, Jerry Crane and father, Mr. Crane, " Old " Loup, " Sister " Knowles, an old bachelor, who finally married and was supposed to have lost his life from poison given him by his. wife; Charles and Curtis, " Curt." Roby, and possibly others.
GENERAL HISTORY - 47
CHAPTER VII.
Erection of Henry County—The Act Creating It— Other Counties Erected at the Same Time—Original Boundaries— Subsequent Reductions to Form Other Counties— Geographical Location and Present Boundaries — Events Incident to Its Complete Organization — Locating the County Seat — Napoleon Designated — First County Officers — First Court — The Old Log Court-House — The First Frame Court-House — Its Burning — The Records Destroyed — The First Brick Court-House — Its Destruction — The Present Court-House and Jail — County Civil List.
IN the early part of the year 180, and soon after the (then) last treaty with the Indians, by which their right of possession to the soil in this part of Ohio was extinguished, there was at the disposal of the authorities a vast tract of laud in the northwestern portion of the State that was practically uninhabited by whites ; and, for the better administration of the affairs of this country, and the desire on the part of the authorities that the territory should be occupied and improved by settlers, it was deemed prudent that the country should be erected into several counties. It was, therefore, by such provisional action that the county of Henry was brought into existence.
By the act which was passed on the 12th day of February, 1820, it was declared " That all that part of the lands lately ceded by the Indians to the United States, which lies within this State, shall be, and the same is hereby erected into fourteen separate and distinct counties,." to be bounded and named as in the act provided. The counties so formed were : Allen, Crawford, Hancock, Hardin, Henry, Marion, Mercer, Paulding, Putnam, Sandusky, Seneca, Van Wert, Williams, and Wood.
Separating Henry county from its fellows formed at the same time, it is found that the same was made to include " all of ranges five, six, seven, and eight north of the second township north, in said ranges, and to run north with the same to the State (Michigan) line as aforesaid, and to be known by the name of Henry." The county was so named in honor of Patrick Henry, that distinguished statesman whose eloquent voice had been so frequently heard in upholding the cause of the struggling American colonies in the days of her infancy.
At the time of this erection there undoubtedly was not a sufficient number of residents within the broad limits of the county to fill the county's offices, or to in any manner administer its affairs ; but the act made further provision, by the second section, that the newly created counties of Hancock, Henry, Putnam, Paulding, and Williams should be attached to the county of Wood until otherwise directed by law. The temporary seat of justice of Wood county was fixed at Maumee. The first election for county and township officers for Wood county, and the counties attached to it, as well, was ordered and directed to be held on the first Monday of April, 180.
48 - HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.
Under this provision and by this enactment was Henry county attached to Wood county, and so continued for about four years, when, by an act passec on the 2d of February, 1824, it was provided that Williams county be fully organized for all purposes, and that the other counties of Henry, Putnam, anc Paulding be attached thereto for judicial purposes ; that on the first Monday of April, 1824, the legal electors residing in the counties of Williams, Henry, Putnam, and Paulding " shall assemble within their respective townships, at the usual place of holding elections, and shall proceed to elect their several county and township officers, who shall hold their several offices until the next annual election."
It was further provided that the courts for the several named counties should be held at Defiance, in the county of Williams, until otherwise provided by law ; further, " that suits or actions, whether of a civil or criminal nature,' which should be pending at the time of the passage of the act, should be prosecuted to final judgment and execution in the county of Wood, in the same manner as they would have been had not Williams county been fully organized. Otherwise than as above provided, Williams county became the seat of justice for Henry county after February, 1824.
By virtue of an act passed June 0, 1835, entitled "An act to erect the county of Lucas," Henry county was called upon to surrender a portion of het territory to the formation of the new, and the portion so taken passed undet the jurisdiction of Lucas county, except as related to suits or actions then pending in Henry county, which grew out of transactions in the land so taken. It was also provided by this act that the counties of Lucas, Darke, Shelby, Mercer, Allen, Van Wert, Putnam, Henry, Wood, and Williams, should particpate in common in the election of a representative to the General Assembly of the State, and With the additional county of Miami, should elect one State senator.
Again, in the year 1845, by an act passed March 4, Henry county was called upon to surrender a part of her territory to the formation of Defiance County, thus taking from her lands on the western border, and her jurisdiction Ind authority over the part so taken ceased, except as to suits and actions then Pending.
For a third time the county was made to surrender her territory to a new formation, in the year 1850, under an act passed on the 28th day of February, creating the county of Fulton. This will be found fully set forth elsewhere in his work, in the department relating to Fulton county, so that a detail of the acts need not be given here.
In the year 1834, Henry county became fully organized for all purposes ; authorized to elect its own officers, hold courts within its boundaries, and perform all of the acts and duties incumbent upon all counties. But, before gong into the facts relative to this organization, and the proceedings and events
HENRY COUNTY - 49
that occurred at that time, a brief description of the location and characteristics of the county will at this time be appropriate.
Henry county occupies a central position among the counties in that section of the State of Ohio, that is usually termed the Northwest. Its boundaries, after the formation of the several counties in the region, are as follows : north by Fulton county, east by Wood county, south by Putnam county, and west by Defiance and a small part of Williams counties.
In the formation of Defiance county, the lines were so run as to leave a portion, or fragment of Henry, projecting westward between Fulton and Defiance counties, and reaching out an average township length to Williams county. This strip, or projecting tract of land, now comprises the township of Ridgeville. With the exception of this deformity, caused by the erection of Defiance county, this is, perhaps, as regular in formation and boundary, as any of the counties of the State.
Under an act of the State Legislature passed during the session of 1834, the civil organization of Henry county was completed, and it was thereafter no longer annexed to Williams county, but authorized to elect its own officers, administrate its own affairs, and govern itself. The act made provision, also, for the appointment of three commissioners, not residents of the county, to whom fell the duty of locating the seat of justice for the county. In the performance of the trust the commissioners visited the county, and viewed the several localities proposed, heard the arguments of the people, pro and con, and finally, and with no opposition, or but very little, fixed the seat of justice at the town of Napoleon.
The first proceeding necessary, after the complete organization of the county was the selection of county officials. They were as follows : Pierce Evans, Reuben Waite and David J. Corry, judges ; Newton Evans, clerk of the courts : Xenophen Mead, Amos Cole and Allen Brougher, county commissioners; Hazel Strong, auditor ; Israel Waite, treasurer ; Elkanch Husted, sheriff; William Bowen, coroner; Frederick Lord, prosecuting attorney. They were to hold their respective offices until the general election in October following, and at that time all were re-elected except that Samuel Bowers was elected to the office of sheriff in place of Elkanch Husted, who had left the county. The whole number of votes cast at this election was ninety-seven.
A term of court, the first in the county, was held at the public house of George Stout, a short distance north of the Maumee River. Judge David Higgins presided upon this occasion, having reached the place by coming up the river on horseback. Unfortunately, the journal of the proceedings of this pioneer court was destroyed by fire upon the occasion of the burning of the frame court-house, in the year 1847, and no record of the same is now obtainable.
It became necessary that, for the proper conduct of terms of court, and the |