CHAPTER I. PREHISTORIC. THE MOUND BUILDERS-THEIR RELICS-WHO WERE THEY-OPINIONS OF ARCHEOLOGISTS CONCERNING THEM. The archaeology of any country forms one of the most interesting chapters in its history. Long before the proud Caucasian even knew of the fertile valleys and plains of Ohio, the region was inhabited by a peculiar race of people ; though who these ancient inhabitants were, what lives they led, what they accomplished, are all now largely matters of conjecture. The only key to their lives and deeds is found in the relics they have left, chiefly mounds and earthworks, from which archaeologists have been led to bestow upon the. extinct, aboriginal race the name of "Mound-Builders," the only name that seems appropriate to their peculiar mode of life. Brinton says the appellation "is applied to constructors of an extensive series of ancient remains, of uncertain date, scattered over the upper Mississippi and Ohio river valleys. These remains vary greatly in size and character, and evidently were erected by different peoples widely apart in time, but approximating each other in the general level of their culture. The mounds or tumuli are of earth, or earth mingled with stones, and are of two general classes, the one with a circular base and conical in shape, the other with a rectangular base and a superstructure in the form of a truncated and terraced pyramid. The former are generally found to contain human remains, and are therefore held to have been barrows or sepulchral monuments raised over the distinguished dead, or, in some instances, serving as the communal place of interment for a genus or clan. The truncated pyramids, with their flat surfaces, were evidently the sites for buildings, such as temples or council houses, which being constructed of perishable material have disappeared." - While this description is good as far as it goes, it says nothing of the effigy mounds found in various parts of the country, such as the Great Serpent mound in Adams county, Ohio ; the Eagle mound in Putnam county, Georgia ; several mounds of this class in the State of Wisconsin, etc. Nor does Brinton's description say anything of mounds surrounded by circumvallations or lines of fortifications—a feature to be found in a number of tumuli in Ohio, as well as elsewhere. The mounds themselves range in height from three to fifty feet, and in a 18 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY few cases as high as seventy or seventy-five feet. The areas inclosed within the circumvallations are usually of some symmetrical figure, most frequently a circle or ellipse, and vary from five to forty acres, or even more, one in Arkansas being said to embrace a square mile. Much speculation has been indulged in as to whether these ancient structures were intended as places of worship or as works of defense. The trend of opinion, however, is that they were of a military character, as in many of them have been found the ruins of cisterns, doubtless intended for storing water in time of siege. As stated by Brinton, these works are found most frequently in the upper Mississippi and Ohio river valleys, though as a matter of fact they extend from the Allegheny to the Rocky mountains and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. Archaeologists have no difficulty in locating the places which were most densely populated. by reason of the irregular distribution of the works, and it is interesting to note that in the selection of sites for these earthworks the Mound-Builders were evidently influenced by the same motives that actuated their European successors, as it is a well established fact that nearly every town of importance on the Ohio and upper Mississippi rivers and their tributaries is located on or near the ruins left by this ancient people. The sites elected by the Mound-Builders for their most pretentious works were on the river terraces or bottoms, where the streams afforded a natural highway and opportunities for fishing, while the soil in such localities is generally fertile and easily tilled. Francis C. Sessions, the second president of the Ohio Archæological and Historical Society, in writing to the Ohio State Journal in 1887, says : "Ohio is richer in archaeological and prehistoric remains than any other State, and thus far has done absolutely nothing to protect the many ancient mounds, earthworks, burial places and village sites. It is not very flattering to one's State pride that some Boston women were applied to by Professor Putnam of the Peabody Museum, Cambridge, Mass., to buy the famous Serpent Mound in Adams county. If he had not taken an interest in its preservation it is evident it would soon be a thing of the past. Is it not to be deplored that the public-spirited citizens of Ohio do not take a deeper interest in the preservation of these wonderful remains of a prehistoric race ? It is to be hoped that the governor will call the attention of the legislature in his message to the importance of their preservation, and that a small appropriation may be made toward securing from destruction some of the more important and ancient monuments of our State. There are many others as important as the 'Serpent' which need attention at once to preserve them." - Through the efforts of the Boston women referred to by Mr. Sessions, the Serpent Mound was purchased and placed under the control of the trustees of the Peabody Museum, thus insuring its protection against vandals and indiscriminate relic hunters. Among the other notable Mound-Builders' works in Ohio are the Adena Mound near Chillicothe, on the farm sold a few years ago by the heirs of Governor Worthington to Joseph Froelich ; the earthworks near Newark ; the Baum prehistoric village site in Ross county, from which many interest- PREHISTORIC - 19 ing relics have been taken, including broken pottery and bone fishhooks ; and old "Fort Ancient" on the left bank of the Little Miami in Warren county. The Adena Mound, originally 445 feet in circumference at the base and twenty-six feet high, was almost entirely removed a few years ago, the earth being used in the construction of a railroad. Archaeologists were present during the removal and reported the finding of a large number of relics, human skeletons, etc. In 1894 the Ohio legislature passed an act for the purchase of Fort Ancient, which is one of the most interesting earthworks yet discovered. The total length of the embankment is 18,712 feet, or over three and a half miles. This embankment is forty-three feet wide at the base, four feet wide at the top, and has an average height of thirteen feet. The inclosure is divided into three parts, known as the Old, New and Middle Forts, and in the wall are seventy-four well defined gateways or entrances. Warren K. Moorehead, curator of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society, in his report of field work for 1899, enumerates 2,275 earth mounds ; 56 stone mounds ; 253 village sites ; 140 enclosures, such as forts, earthworks, etc. ; four stone fortifications and 143 groups of stone graves. Gerard Fowke, in his "Notes on Ohio Archaeology," says : The total number of mounds in Ohio has been estimated at 10,000. This is probably under the correct figure, for while they are almost totally absent in the northwestern counties forming the 'Black Swamp' district, and are comparatively scarce in the rugged hill lands of some of the southern and southeastern counties, there is scarcely a township in any other portion of the State in which they are not found." While it is true that no important works of this bygone race have been found in Lucas county, there is abundant evidence that this section of the State was inhabited by the Mound-Builders. Of the remains enumerated in the report of Mr. Moorehead, fifteen are in Lucas county, embracing seven earth mounds, one glacial kame burial and three village sites in Oregon township ; two earth mounds in Adams township ; one inclosure in Springfield township, and one group of stone graves in Providence township. It appears, however, that no scientific exploration of any of these ancient structures in the county has ever been made, and most of them have been almost, if not completely, obliterated by the plow of the husbandman. In the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly for January, 1902, S. S. Knabenshue has an interesting description of an earthwork or aboriginal fort within the city limits of Toledo. Says he : "The site of this ancient work is on the East Side, a little above the end of Fassett street bridge, and directly back of the C. H. & D. elevator. The greater part is unfenced common, directly north of the present residence of Mrs. Charles A. Crane, to whom the site belongs. After the ground was cleared of trees, it was cultivated, and the plow soon reduced the works to a uniform level. The only reminder of the work is the name of Fort street—a short thoroughfare running east from the Ohio Central tracks to Crescent street. If extended westward to the river it would cut the center of the site. When it was laid out, the work was still in existence, and the name given in consequence." 20 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY Old settlers can recall when this old fort was covered with large maple trees, and Col. Charles Whittlesey, of Cleveland, includes it in his description of eight ancient earthworks of Northern Ohio, it being the most westerly of the eight. He says : "Of the works bordering on the shore of Lake Erie, there were none but may have been intended for defense ; although in some of them the design is not perfectly manifest. They form a line from Conneaut to Toledo, at a distance of from three to five miles from the lake ; and all stand upon or near the principal rivers. The most natural inference with respect to the northern cordon of works is, that they formed a well-occupied line, constructed either to protect the advance of a nation landing from the lake and moving southward for conquest ; or, a line of resistance for 'people inhabiting these shores and pressed upon by their southern neighbors. The scarcity of mounds, the absence of pyramids of earth which are so common on the Ohio, the want of rectangular or any other regular works, at the north—all these differences tend to the conclusion that the northern part of Ohio was occupied by a distinct people." It is possible that some readers may find but little interest in the peculiarities and distinctive features of these various relics of this singular aboriginal people. But the mere fact of their existence is a sufficient incentive to the ethnologist, the archaeologist and the historian to endeavor to solve the mystery of this ancient race and their works. The great number and variety of relics found in Ohio, if not immediately in Lucas county, indicate that this section was a favorite locality of the Mound-Builders, and this fact adds a local interest to what might otherwise be a dry subject. Who were the Mound-Builders ? So far the question has baffled the skill, the research and the learning of the most noted scientists of two continents for more than a century. As early as 1772 Rev. David Jones noted the existence of the mounds, and he was perhaps the first civilized man to advance a theory concerning them. The first survey of a scientific nature was that made by Caleb Atwater, of Circleville, Ohio, in 1819, under the auspices of the Archaeological Society of Worcester, Mass. About 1836 Col. Charles Whittlesey and Dr Edwin Hamilton Davis, of Chillicothe, Ohio, became associated in the explorations and surveys of the Newark antiquities. Dr. Davis became very much interested in the line of work and in connection with Ephraim G. Squier, of New York, continued his investigations. Davis and Squier made a large collection of relics, which is now in the Black-more Museum of Salisbury, England, and they were also the collaborators in the preparation of a work on the subject. Recognizing the merit of this work, the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, D. C., assumed a sort of protectorate over it, and in 1848 published it, together with some plans and notes furnished by others, under the title of "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley." This publication constituted the first systematic work with descriptions and illustrations of the numerous remains left by the Mound-Builders, and for a time it stood at the head of the archaeological literature of North America. From that day to the present, the Smithsonian Institution has continued to publish books and monographs relating to this subject. Stim- PREHISTORIC - 21 ulated by this national recognition, and in view of the absorbing interest of the subject, many individual investigators have published at private expense manuscripts and books, some of which are very elaborate and complete. It is a noticeable feature of all the early publications in this department of archaeology that they ascribe great antiquity to the Mound-Builders. It is also noticeable that the theories regarding the chronology of the aborigines differ widely. Some aver that thousands of years have elapsed since the building of these ancient structures, and all agree that they are very old. Growth rings of large trees growing on aboriginal earthworks have been cited as evidence of their age, but Fowke points out that this evidence is unreliable, as it is not unusual for two or three rings to form in one year. Had the Mound-Builders possessed a written language and left inscriptions capable of even an approximate translation, the solution of the mystery would have been simplified. But no Rosetta stone has been discovered to throw light on the subject, the earthworks and relics of rude art being all that remain to tell a meager story of their creators, and the present century dawned in almost as great ignorance of the prehistoric race as did the century preceding it. Eminent authorities are as widely at variance regarding the age of the mounds as they are concerning their origin and purpose. Recent writers, however, incline to the hypothesis that the Mound-Builders were the immediate predecessors of the Indians found here upon the advent of the white map, and that their antiquity is not so great as early writers supposed. Says Brinton : "The period when the Mound-Builders flourished has been differently estimated ; but there is a growing tendency to reject the assumption of a very great antiquity. There is no good reason for assigning any of the remains in the Ohio valley to an age antecedent to the Christian era ; and the final destruction of their towns may well have been but a few generations before the discovery of the continent by Columbus. Faint traditions of this event were still retained by tribes who occupied the region at the advent of the whites. Indeed, some plausible attempts have been made to identify their descendants with certain existing tribes. It is now fully recognized that the culture of these ancient peoples was strictly 'Indian' in character ; and in a number of prominent traits it bore a striking likeness to that discovered by De Soto and the early French explorers on the lower Mississippi and in the area of the Gulf States. Not only did modern tribes resident there erect mounds of similar size and character to those in the Ohio valley, but many minor details of art and ornament are identical. There is therefore no occasion to go beyond the ancestors or relatives of these southern tribes to explain the mystery of the Mound-Builders." The Marquis de Naidallac, in his admirable work on "Prehistoric America," published in 1895, sums up a voluminous discussion as follows : "What, it may be asked, are we to believe was the character of the race to which, for purpose of clearness, we have for the time being applied the term 'Mound-Builders ?' The answer must be, they were no more nor less than the immediate predecessors, in blood and culture, of the Indians described by De Soto's chroniclers and other explorers, 22 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY the Indians who inhabited the region of the mounds at the time of their discovery by civilized men." Lucien Carr, curator of the Peabody Museum of American Archæology, in an exhaustive review of the subject, says : "In view of the fact that these same Indians are the only people, ekcept the whites, who, so far as we know, have ever held the region over which these works are scattered, it is believed that we are fully justified in claiming that the mounds and enclosures of Ohio, like those of New York and the Gulf States, were the work of the red Indians of historic times, or of their immediate ancestors. To deny this conclusion, and to accept its alternative, ascribing these remains to a mythical people of a different civilization, is to reject a simple and satisfactory explanation of a fact in favor of one that is far-fetched and incomplete, and this is neither science nor logic." Gen. Gates P. Thruston, an archaeologist of Nashville, Tenn., and author of a work on "The Antiquities of Tennessee," concurs in this view when he says : "The stone-grave race and the builders of the ancient mounds and earthworks in Tennessee and probably in the Mississippi valley were Indians, North American Indians, probably the ancestors of the southern red or copper-colored Indians found by the whites in this general section, a race formerly living under conditions of life somewhat different from that of the more nomadic hunting tribes of Indians, but not different from them in the essential characteristics of the Indian race." In view of the volumes that have been written and published regarding the Mound-Builders, it is clear that these quotations might be multiplied indefinitely ; but enough has been said to show the general trend of opinion among the more modern investigators. There are some who still cling to the idea that the Mound-Builders were a distinct race, and that their antiquity is very great. It is not the purpose of this work to decide controverted questions, but to present both sides and allow the reader to draw his own conclusions. All the published information virtually agrees that the Mound-Builders were a race, or tribes, of people somewhat nomadic in their habits, yet more centralized in habitation than the Indians of historic times. They gave some attention to agriculture, probably more to hunting and fishing, and were schooled in the arts of primitive warfare. That they had some knowledge of trade, or at least a rude system of barter, and that this crude commerce did not extend in any one direction, is evidenced by the relics composed of materials that could only have come from a distance, as shells from the seacoast, mica from the old mines of North Carolina, copper from the Lake Superior country, and obsidian from what is now the Yellowstone Park. The pottery found in the mounds in the Mississippi Valley is inferior to that of Mexico, indicating that the march of progress was from south to north. After all, opinions can be but deductions from the relics they have left—silent mementos which have withstood the ravages of time and the forces of nature—and no matter how carefully these imperfect records may be studied. much will doubtless always remain shrouded in dense obscurity. CHAPTER II. THE INDIANS. THREE GREAT FAMILIES-ALGONQUINS-IROQUOIS-MOBILIANS-REGION INHABITED BY EACH-OHIO TRIBES-ERIES-WYANDOTS-MIAMISOTTAWAS - DELAWARES-SHAWANEES-COGNATE TRIBES - INDIAN TREATIES AND LAND CESSIONS-THE WHITE MAN IN POSSESSION. About the close of the Fifteenth century, at the time the continent of America was discovered by Columbus, that part of North America extending from Labrador south to the Gulf of Mexico and west to the Mississippi river was inhabited by three great races or families of Indians— Algonquins, Iroquois and Mobilians—each different from the others in language and physical characteristics. The Mobilians occupied sections of the country south of the Tennessee and east of the Mississippi river, extending eastward to the Atlantic coast. The leading tribes of this family were the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks and Seminoles. They wielded little or no influence on the history and affairs of the region now included within the boundaries of the State of Ohio. The Algonquin family covered by far the largest expanse of territory of any of the North American linguistic stocks, embracing the Atlantic coast from Labrador to the Pamlico Sound, extending westward beyond the Mississippi, and northwest into Canada. The principal tribes in the east were the Narragansetts, the Pequods, the Mohegans and the Catawbas : those of the west were the Shawanees, the Miamis, the Ottawas, the Illinois, the Kickapoos, the Pottowatomies, the Sacs and Foxes and the Sioux. It was the Algonquin race who first encountered the white man in the settlement of the United States, and before the close of the French and Indian war they had been forced back beyond the Alleghany mountains. The Iroquois occupied the eastern part of the Great Lake basin, their country extending from Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence river on the north to the Pennsylvania highlands on the south, and eastward to the vicinity of Lake Champlain and the Green mountains. According to Hewitt, the earliest history of this family is that it consisted of a number of independent tribes, but before the middle of the Seventeenth century five of these tribes—the Mohawks, Oneidas, - 23 - 24 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY Onondagas, Senecas and Cayugas—formed a league or alliance for defense, to which the English settlers gave the name of "Five Nations." About 1712 the Tuscaroras were admitted to the confederacy, which then took the name of the "Six Nations." The Iroquois called themselves Hodenosaunee, "the People of the Long House." The French gave them the name of Iroquois ; they were known to the Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam as "Maquas ;" the Delawares called them "Mengwe," which the Pennsylvanians corrupted into "Mingoes," a name by which the Senecas in Ohio afterward became known. The Wyandots—also called Wendats and Hurons—were first encountered by the white men at Montreal. They consisted of five confederated tribes of the Iroquois family, and about the middle of the Seventeenth century were located along the western side of the peninsula formed by Lakes Huron and Ontario. Between the Wyandots and Iroquois at that time were the Neutrals or Neuters ; about the headwaters of the Alleghany river was a tribe called the Andastes, and along the southern shore of Lake Erie were the Eries, or Cat tribe, which Du Gendron says was "so named on account of the abundance of wild cats found there, larger than the foxes of France." The same authority states that the Eries had no permanent towns, but cultivated the soil, and spoke the same language as the Wyandots. The Iroquois present a striking example of the truth of the adage, "In union there is strength." Surrounded as they were at the begining of the Seventeenth century by the Algonquins, with whom some of the tribes were always at war, their destruction seemed to be inevitable. But after the formation of the Five Nations they quickly learned their power, placed the New England tribes under tribute, and then turned their attention to those of the west. In 1649 or 165o they almost completely destroyed the Wyandots, assimilating some of those who were left, while others fled to the Chippewas in the Lake Superior country, and still others found a refuge among the Eries. In 1654 the Wyandots among the Eries incited that tribe to make war on the Iroquois. The Jesuit Relations for that year says the Eries had "two thousand men, good warriors, though without firearms ; but they fight like the French, enduring the first discharge of the Iroquois, who have fire-arms, and then pouring upon them a hail of poisoned arrows, which they can shoot off six or eight times before the others can reload their muskets." In 1655 the Five Nations sent a deputation to Quebec to solicit the aid of the French in their war with the Eries. The following year occurred an incident which terminated the conflict. The Eries sent thirty of their head men to confirm a treaty with the Senecas, and during the deliberations an Erie injudiciously killed a Seneca. The result was that twenty-five of the thirty ambassadors were put to death by the Senecas, who then joined in the war against the Eries and the tribe was nearly annihilated. Some of the Eries were adopted by the Five Nations and the remainder retired farther into the interior, where they were absorbed by other tribes. It was evidently the intention of the Iroquois to exterminate, subdue or assimilate all the tribes in the Ohio Valley, the Andastes being vanquished in 1672, and they might THE INDIANS - 25 have succeeded in their purpose had it not been for the aggression of the white men. Gen. Manning F. Force, in a paper read before the Historical and Philosophical Society in 1879, says : "In the latter half of the Seventeenth century, after the destruction of the Eries by the Five Nations, in 1656, what is now the state of Ohio was uninhabited. The Miami confederacy, inhabiting the southern shore of Lake Michigan, extended southeasterly to the Wabash. The Illinois confederacy extended down the eastern shore of the Mississippi to within about eighty miles of the mouth of the Ohio. Hunting parties of Chickasaws roamed up the eastern shore of the Mississippi to about where Memphis now stands. The Cherokees occupied the slopes and valleys of the mountains about the borders of what are now East Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia. The great basin, bounded on the north by Lake Erie, the Miamis and the Illinois, west by the Mississippi, east by the Alleghanies, and south by the headwaters of the streams that flow into the Gulf of Mexico, seems to have been uninhabited except by bands of Shawanees, and scarcely visited except by war parties of the Five Nations." The first half of the Eighteenth century witnessed a change. Vari0us tribes, retiring gradually before the advance of a superior race, came into Ohi0. The Wyandots or Hurons who sought shelter with the Chippewas in 1650, placed themselves, in 1670, under the protection of the French at Michilimackinac. As they gained strength they moved southeastwardly toward Detroit, and early in the Eighteenth century into Northwestern Ohio, where they found a permanent home until removed by treaty. Here they increased in numbers until in the War of 1812 they were able to furnish 400 warriors to the British. About the same time that the Wyandots came into Ohio the Miamis pushed into the western part ; the Senecas and some other detachments of the Six Nations found a habitat along the eastern and northern borders ; the Delawares located in the Muskingum valley ; the Ottawas, upon being driven fr0m the valley of the river of the same name, settled on the western shore of Lake Huron and the islands along the coast, and later in the valleys of the Maumee and Sandusky rivers ; and the Shawanees came into the Scioto valley some time after the year 1750, subsequently extending their claims as far west as the Little Miami. The Miamis were a powerful tribe, occupying the territory drained by the Miami and Maumee rivers. They consisted of three sub-tribesthe Miamis or Twigwees, the Piankeshaws and the Weas—and had a tradition that at some time in the past they had been even greater. Little Turtle, the chief and orator of the Miamis, is reported as saying: "My forefather kindled the first fire at Detroit ; from there he extended his lines to the headwaters of the Scioto ; thence to its mouth ; thence down the Ohio to the mouth of the Wabash ; and thence to Chicago and over Lake Michigan. These are the boundaries within which the prints of my ancestors' houses are everywhere to be seen." In Ohio the Ottawas never occupied more than a secondary position. They are entitled to a place in history, however, chiefly because the Ottawa chief, Pontiac, in the fall of 1762, conceived the design of 26 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY uniting all the tribes between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi river in one confederacy for the purpose of attacking simultaneously all the English forts and settlements, an undertaking in which he might have been successful had it not been for the failure of the tribes, through rivalries and old enmities, to act in concert when the critical moment arrived. The Indian name of the Delawares was Lenni Lenape, signifying "men." Before coming to Ohio they had lived along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers in New York and Pennsylvania. They were among the first tribes to form friendly relations with the whites, and traded with the Dutch of New Amsterdam (now New York). They took part in the Pontiac conspiracy ; were scattered at the battle of Point Pleasant in 1774; acted as allies of the British in the Revolution, and fought against St. Clair in 1791, but in the War of 1812 were loyal to the United States. The Iroquois called the Delawares "squaw men," the origin of which is told in a legend of the Delawares. According to this tradition the Lenape were the parent stock of many tribes and became known as the "grandfather of nations," among whom the Mengwe or Iroquois was a favored grandchild. But as he grew strong he also grew ungrateful and treacherous, and raised his hand against the Lenape, who finally marched against the Mengwe and their towns, winning victory after victory. In this crisis Thannawage, a wise Mohawk chief, advised unity, and his advice led to the establishment of the Five Nations as a means of defense. Then came the "Big Knives" or white men into Canada, which placed the Iroquois between two fires. Finding themselves unable to conquer the Lenape by force of arms, they resorted to cunning. A deputation of the principal Iroquois warriors, bearing the sacred calumet and belt of peace, was sent to the Lenape. The ambassadors succeeded in winning to their side the Lenape women, who persuaded the warriors of their tribe to bury the hatchet. "In a luckless hour," runs the legend, "the Delawares gave their consent and agreed to become women. Then the Iroquois appointed a great feast, and invited the Delaware nation to it. They came at the bidding of their treacherous foes, and were declared by them, in the following words, to be no longer men and warriors, but women and peacemakers. 'We dress you,' said the Iroquois orator, 'in a woman's long habit, reaching down to your feet, and we adorn your ears with rings. We hang a calabash, filled with oil and medicines, upon your arm. With the oil you shall cleanse the ears of other nations, that they may attend to good and not to bad words ; and with the medicines you shall heal those who are walking in foolish ways, that they may return to their senses, and incline their hearts to peace. And we deliver into your hands a plant of Indian corn and a hoe, which shall be the emblem of your future calling and pursuits.' So the great peace-belt, the chain of friendship, was laid upon the shoulders of the new mediator, who became a woman, buried the tomahawk, planted the corn, and forgot the glories which Areskoui confers upon the successful and dauntless warrior." The Shawanees, who have been not inaptly termed the "American THE INDIANS - 27 Arabs," belonging to the Algonquin family. A tribal tradition asserts that they once lived immediately south of the Iroquois, with whom they were always in trouble. The Iroquois ultimately gathered together all their warriors, invaded the Shawanee country and expelled the inhabitants. The tribe then moved to the southeast, and when Cumberland Gap was reached a council was held to decide what course to pursue. A difference of opinion arose and the tribe divided, one faction going on to the Savannah river and the other attempted to locate in the hunting grounds between the Ohio and Tennessee rivers, but were driven out by the Cherokees and Chickasaws. It was probably this portion of the tribe that loeated in the Scioto valley. Tecumseh, the celebrated Shawanee chief, was born near Springfield, Ohio. At various periods bands of Shawanees inhabited different sections of the country from Lake Erie to Florida, and some lived west of the Mississippi, in what is now the State of Missouri, on lands obtained from the Spaniards. General Force says : "Their eccentric wanderings, their sudden appearances and disappearances, perplex the antiquary and defy research." The Shawanees fought against Harmar, St. Clair and Wayne, and in the War of 1812 a portion of the tribe, led by Tecumseh, was allied with the British. In addition to the foregoing, there were several allied or cognate tribes, including the Pottawatomies, Kickapoos, Chippewas, Munsees, Kaskaskias, Eel River Indians, and a few others, none of whom had a fixed residence within the limits of Ohio, but who, because of their kinship to the tribes living there, joined in the treaties that extinguished the title of the Indians to the lands. The first important treaty of this nature, after the goverment of the United States was established, was that concluded at Greenville, Aug. 3, 1795, with the Wyandots, Delawares. Shawanees. Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawatomies, Miamis, Eel Rivers. Weas, Piankeshaws, Kickapoos and Kaskaskias. The cession included nearly two-thirds of the present State of Ohio, embracing that portion east of the Cuyahoga river and south of a line drawn from Fort Laurens, near the present town of Bolivar in the northern part of Tuscarawas county, to Loramie's store, and thence to Fort Recovery. Several small tracts at various points in the Indian country were also ceded, to wit : 1. A tract six miles square at Loramie's store. 2. Two miles square at the head of navigation on the St. Mary's river. 3. Six miles square at the head of navigation on the Auglaize river. 4. Six miles square at the confluence of the Auglaize and Miami (Maumee) rivers, at Fort Defiance. 5. Six miles square at the junction of the St. Joseph's and St. Mary's rivers, where the city of Fort Wayne, Ind., now stands. 6. Two miles square on the Wabash river, at the end of the portage from the Miami of the Lake (Maumee) ), about eight miles west from Fort Wayne. 7. Six miles square at the Ouatanon or old Wea towns on the Wabash. 8. Twelve miles square at the British Fort on the Maumee, at the foot of the rapids. 9. Six miles square at the mouth of the Maumee, where it empties into Lake Erie. 10. rox miles square on Sandusky lake, where a fort formerly stood. 11. Two miles square at the lower rapids of ththe Sanduskyiver. 12. The Post of Detroit and "all lz.nd to the north- 28 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY west and south of it to which the Indian title had been extinguished by gifts or grants to the French and English governments, and so much more land to be annexed to the District of Detroit as shall be comprehended between the River Rosine on the south, Lake St. Clair on the north, and a line, the general course whereof shall be six miles distant from the west end of Lake Erie and the Detroit river." 13. The Post of Michilimackinac, "all the island on which the post stands, and the mainland adjacent, of which the Indian title has been extinguished by gifts or grants to the French or English governments," and also a piece of the mainland north of the island. 14. Six miles square at the mouth of the Chikago river. 15. Twelve miles square at the mouth of the Illinois river. Of these smaller tracts, eight were located in Ohio, and two wholly or in part within the present confines of Lucas county. The tract twelve miles square at the foot of the Maumee rapids was surveyed in December, 1805, under the act of Congress of March 3, 1805, and it was subdivided and sold under the provisions of the act of Congress of April 27, 1816. The tract six miles square at the mouth of the Maumee was surveyed in 1806, under the act of March 3, 1805. The United States reserved the Post of Vincennes on the Wabash, Fort Massac on the Ohio river, and certain lands held by white settlers, but relinquished claim to all other Indian lands north of the Ohio, east of the Mississippi, and south and west of the Great Lakes, according to the provisions of the treaty of 1783 between the United States and Great Britain, except a tract of 150,00o acres near the rapids of the Ohio, which land was assigned to Gen. George Rogers Clark and his soldiers. On the other hand, the Indians agreed to give the whites "a free passage by water and land through the Indian country along the chain of posts from Loramie's store via, the St. Mary's to Fort Wayne, and down the Miami (Maumee) to Lake Erie ; also from Loramie's store down the Auglaize to Fort Defiance ; also from Loramie's store to the Sandusky river and down the same to Sandusky bay ; also from Sandusky to the foot of the Miami (Maumee) rapids, and thence to Detroit ; also from the mouth of the Chikago to the Illinois river and down the same to the Mississippi ; also from Fort Wayne to the Wabash and down the Wabash to Ohio." By a treaty concluded on July 4, 1805, at Fort Industry, where Toledo now stands, the Wyandots, Delawares, Chippewas, Munsees, Ottawas and Pottawatomies ceded to the United States all that part of Ohio lying north of the forty-first parallel of north latitude between the Cuyahoga river and a north and south line 120 miles west of the western boundary of Pennsylvania. The western boundary of this cession now forms the eastern line of Sandusky and Seneca counties. At Detroit, on Nov. 17, 1807, a treaty was concluded with the Ottawas, Chippewas, Wyandots and Pottawatomies, by which those tribes relinquished their title to a tract of land bounded as follows : "Beginning at the mouth of the Miami river of the Lake (Maumee) and running up the middle thereof to the mouth of the great Auglaize river ; thence due north until it intersects a parallell of latitude to be drawn from the outlet of Lake Huron which forms the river Sinclair ; THE INDIANS - 29 thence running northeast the course that may be found will lead in a direct line to White Rock in Lake Huron ; thence due east until it intersects the boundary line between the United States and Upper Canada in said lake ; thence southwardly following the said boundary line, down said lake through the river Sinclair, Lake St. Clair and the river Detroit into Lake Erie, to a point due east of the aforesaid Miami (Maumee) river, thence west to the place of beginning." This cession included all that part of Lucas county lying north and west of the Maumee river. Eight reservations were granted the Indians within the above described boundaries, three of these reservations being in Ohio, as follows : "Six miles square on the Maumee above Roche de Bceuf, to include the village where Tondagamie (or the Dog) now lives ;" three miles square "on the Miami of Lake Erie (above the twelve miles square ceded to the United States by the treaty of Greenville), to include what is called Presque Isle ; " four miles square "on the Miami bay, including the village where Meshkemau and Waugau live." The first of these reservations was ceded to the United States by a treaty made on the shores of Miami bay on Aug. 30, 1831. The second, which was located at Wolf Rapids, Presque Isle being within the limits of the twelve-mile-square tract ceded by the Greenville treaty, was also ceded at the same time and place, and the third was ceded by the treaty of Maumee, Feb. 18, 1833. On Nov. 25, 1808, at Brownstown, Mich., the Chippewas, Ottawas, Pottawatomies, Wyandots and Shawanees joined in a treaty ceding to the United States a tract for a road 120 feet wide from the foot of the Maumee rapids to the western line of the Connecticut Reserve, and all the land on each side of the road for a distance of one mile for the purpose of settlement. This road ran from Fort Meigs through Fremont and struck the western line of the Reserve about fifteen miles due west of Norwalk. That portion of Lucas county lying south and east of the Maumee was acquired by the United States by the treaty of Sept. 29, 1817, which was concluded at the foot of the Maumee rapids with the chiefs and headmen of the Wyandot, Seneca, Delaware, Shawanee, Pottowatomi, Ottawa and Chippewa tribes. The entire cession made by this treaty embraced a large tract of land in Ohio and Indiana, that part in Ohio lying south and west of the cession of Nov. 17, 1807, and extending south to the line of the Greenville treaty, except a tract in what is now Van 'Wert, Allen, Auglaize and Mercer counties, which tract was ceded by the treaty of St. Mary's, Oct. 6, 1818. The treaty of Sept. 29, 1817, contained a provision that, "The United States agree to grant by patent to the chiefs of the Ottawa tribe for the use of said tribe a tract of land to contain thirty-four square miles, to be laid out as nearly in the form of a square as practicable, not interfering with the lines of the tracts reserved by the treaty of Greenville in 1795, on the south side of the Miami river of Lake Erie, and to include Tushquegan or McCarty's village, which tract thus granted shall be held by the said tribe upon the usual conditions of Indian reservations as though no patent were issued." 30 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY By the treaty of Sept. 17, 1818, the tenure by which this tract was held was changed from a grant by patent to that of reservation, until such time as the Indians might cede it to the United States, which was done by the treaty of Maumee, Feb. 18, 1833. The treaty of St. Mary's, Ohio, Oct. 6, 1818, was the last important treaty with the Indians of the state. All the land that remained in the hands of the red men after that time consisted of small tracts reserved in former treaties, and these were gradually relinquished as the tribes found homes upon reservations west of the Mississippi. The white man, after years of strife, was in undisputed possession. Says Dodge : "The Indians of Ohio were noble specimens of their race. Guardians of a region of unsurpassed natural beauty, a country of fruits and flowers, alive with deer, the bison, and all manner of edible birds, it is no mystery that they fought long and desperately for its occupancy; and when the white man came, with the ominous and invincible bearing of manifest superiority, that their strong right arms were nerved and their wills roused to deeds of blood, such as the vindictive fury of savage hate has rarely realized. To a people whose pleasures were few and simple, and regarded alike as the perfection of present good and the greatest glory of the long hereafter, their abridgement was to be resisted with all the energies of death-defying bravery and undegenerate manhood." CHAPTER III. TERRITORIAL ERA. THE FIRST WHITE MEN-CONFLICTING CLAIMS-EARLY TRADING POSTS-THE OHIO COMPANY-FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR-TREATY OF PARIS-MILITARY EXPEDITIONS-OHIO PART OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC-LORD DUNMORE'S WAR-THE REVOLUTION-CLARK'S CONQUEST OF THE NORTHWEST - TREATY OF 1783 - ANOTHER OHIO COMPANY-CESSIONS OF WESTERN LANDS BY THE STATES - ORDINANCE OF 1787 - THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY - CAMPAIGNS OF HARMAR, ST. CLAIR AND WAY NE-OHIO ADMITTED AS A STATE-WAR OF 1812. The English colony of Virginia, under the charter of 1609, claimed all lands, countries and territories for a distance of 200 miles south from Point Comfort and as far north, "and up into the mainland throughout from sea to sea, west and northwest." Notwithstanding this claim, France was the first nation to explore and claim by right of discovery the region embracing the present State of Ohio. In July, 1669, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, with four canoes and fourteen men, left Montreal, ascended the St. Lawrence river to Lake Ontario, and under the guidance of a Shawanee Indian, reached the headwaters of the Alleghany river, from which point he descended the Ohio as far as the rapids, where the city of Louisville, Ky., now stands. Four years later Marquette and Joliet went by way of the Great Lakes and the Fox and Wisconsin rivers to the Mississippi, which they descended to the mouth of the Arkansas, and in 1682 La Salle succeeded in reaching the mouth of the great river, where, on April 9, he proclaimed all the country drained by it and its tributaries as belonging to France, under the name of Louisiana. Two years before this an expedition sent out by Frontenac, governor of Canada, built Fort Miami on the left bank of the Maumee river, fifteen miles from the mouth, which was the first post of the kind built lay white men within the limits of what is now the State of Ohio. Fort Miami was intended as a trading post, but it was occupied for only a short time, the French trade being moved farther into the Indian country. During the next forty years a number of French forts were erected on the Mississippi, the Illinois, the Maumee, and the shores of the Great Lakes. For some time communication between the western - 31 - 32 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY forts and Canada was kept up by way of Lake Michigan, but before the middle of the Eighteenth century a post was established near the mouth of the Wabash and a line of communication opened by way of that river and the Maumee. Attempts were made during this period by the English to open trading posts in the Ohio country, but the Indians remained firm in their attachments to the French, and the English trade made but little headway. One of the most conspicuous of these early English traders was George Croghan, who came to Pennsylvania from Ireland in 1743, and within three years was trading with the Indians as far west as the Maumee valley. His policy won the friendship of the red men, and in 1748 he set up a trading house at the mouth of the Beaver river, near the southwest corner of the present county of Lucas. The French and English traders were thus brought into competition in the purchase of furs from the Indians. Virginia was by no means inclined to yield or modify her claim under her charter, and in 1748 a number of the leading men of that colony organized the Ohio Company, with a view to the immediate occupation of the disputed territory. Among the principal members of the company were Governor Dinwiddie, Lawrence and Augustine Washington, and Thomas Lee, president of the Virginia council. In March, 1749, George II of England granted to this company 500,000 acres, "to be located between the Kanawha and Monongahela, or on the northern bank of the Ohio," and before the close of the year a trading post was located at a place called Pickawillany, later known as Loramie's store, on the Great Miami river. In 1750-51 the company sent Christopher Gist to examine the western lands, but before plans for colonization could be perfected and carried out the French governor of Canada sent an expedition under Captain Celoron to assert the claims of France and expel the English trespassers. About the close of the year 1751, four Englishmen were arrested as spies and sent to Montreal. After a preliminary examination they were sent to Paris for trial, but the British minister there demanded their release, claiming that their arrest was illegal. The prisoners were liberated, but the main questions at :;sue were not settled. Several of the English posts northwest of the Ohio were abandoned upon Celoron's approach, and that at Pickawillany was destroyed in 1752. The French now determined upon the construction of a line of forts back of the English settlements, in order to maintain their hold upon the Ohio country, and early in 1753 Du Quesne, governor of Canada, sent a force of 1,500 men under command of Sieur Marin to begin the work. Marin landed at Presque Isle (now Erie, Pa.), where he built his first fort. He then pushed on toward the Ohio, built Fort Le Bceuf on French creek and Fort Venango on the Alleghany river, after which he went into winter quarters, intending to press on to the Ohio as soon as spring opened, but his death occurred before that time came and the command devolved on St. Pierre. Strange as it may seem, these warlike preparations were unnoticed, and in fact almost unknown, in both France and England. But the people of the English colonies, especially Virginia, were greatly excited, many of them clamoring for war against the French. Governor Dinwiddie, however, TERRITORIAL ERA - 33 decided to try diplomacy before resorting to extreme measures, and a statement of the English claims to the Ohio valley, as well as a warning to the French against further encroachments, was drawn up and carried by George Washington to Fort Le Bceuf, where it was delivered to St. Pierre. Washington's mission failed, and the next step was an appeal to arms. Early in 1754 a company of zoo English volunteers under Capt. William Brent began the erection of a fort at the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela rivers, but before it was finished Trent and his men were driven off by the French, who then completed the fortification and named it Fort Du Quesne. Then followed seven years of conflict known in American history as the French and Indian war, the details of which are not pertinent to this history. Suffice it to say that the fall of Fort Du Quesne in 1758 terminated French dominion on the Ohio, and that the war was concluded by the treaty of Paris, Feb. io, 1763, by which Canada and all that portion of Louisiana east of the Mississippi, except the Isle of Orleans, were ceded to Great Britain. Three months after the conclusion of the treaty came the Pontiac uprising, in which a number of British posts were destroyed and the English were thus prevented from taking peaceable possession of the ceded territory. On Oct. 7, 1763, the English king issued a proclamation or order in council, dividing the newly acquired territory into three provinces and an Indian reservation. Canada was to become the province of Quebec ; south of the thirty-first parallel of north latitude and the St. Mary's river of Florida were the provinces of East and West Florida ; the colonies along the Atlantic coast from Canada to Florida were restricted in their western boundaries to the sources of the rivers flowing into the Atlantic ; and all the interior, bounded by the Great Lakes, the Floridas, the Mississippi and the Alleghany mountains was set apart as Indian territory. Had the Indians accepted this reservation and made peace, it is possible that the settlement of Ohio might have been delayed for years. But in the spring of 1764 they commenced committing depredations upon the western settlements, and two expeditions were sent into the Indian country. One of these, under Col. John Bradstreet, advanced in boats along the shore of Lake Erie, and the other, commanded by Col. Henry Bouquet, marched from Fort Pitt (Pittsburg) into the interior of Ohio. Both Bradstreet and Bouquet made treaties of peace with the Indians, who delivered their prisoners, and in April; 1765, representatives of several tribes met Sir William Johnson at a place called German Flats, in the interior of New York, and agreed to compensate the traders for their losses by granting them land ; but the boundary between the white settlements and the Indian territory was not settled until the treaty of Fort Stanwix, Nov. 5, 1768. During he decade following the French and Indian war, various schemes were proposed looking to the settlement of the Ohio valley. The old Ohio company sought the consummation of its grant ; the Virginia volunteers of 1754, who had been promised liberal bounties of land, grew persistent in their demands ; individual grants were urged ; 34 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY Sir William Johnson was ambitious to become the governor of a colony south of the Ohio ; and the Walpole company, which was first organized in 1763, was revived. The only settlements established in Ohio during this period were those planted by the Moravian missionaries in the Muskingum valley. The American colonists who fought in the French and Indian war naturally expected, in case the British arms were successful, that they would be permitted to occupy the conquered territory. The king's proclamation of 1763 caused much disappointment and dissatisfaction, which was heightened by the "Quebec Act." passed by the British Parliament on June 22, 1774. This act annexed Ohio to the province of Quebec, and granted certain rights and privileges to the French Catholics of Canada. It was one of the acts complained of in the Declaration of Independence two years later. To appease the discontent of the Virginians the royal authority awarded them a grant of land on the Ohio and Kanawha rivers. "for services in the French and Indian war," and in the spring of 1774 Col. Angus McDonald was sent to survey the tract preparatory to opening it for settlement. McDonald was driven off by the Indians, and about the same time the wanton murder of several Indians by Capt. Michael Cresap's company and a gang of rough characters led by one Daniel Greathouse stirred the natives to hostility. James Murray. Earl of Dunmore, was at that time governor of Virginia. Although a Tory, he was true to the interests of his colony, and while acknowledging his allegiance to the crown, he was "eager on all occasions to champion the cause of Virginia." As the Quebec Act. nullified Virginia's claim to the western lands, it was not favored by the governor. Acting under Dunmore's authority, McDonald raised a regiment and marched into the Muskingum valley, where he destroyed the Indian town of Wapatomica, near the present city of Zanesville, and the cornfields of the Shawanees, after which he returned to Wheeling. Later in the year two expeditions moved against the Indians, the northern one commanded by Dunmore in person and the southern under Gen. Andrew Lewis. The latter won a decisive victory over the Indians at the battle of Point Pleasant on Oct. 10, crossed the Ohio on the 18th, and pushed on to join Dunmore at Pickaway Plains, between the Scioto river and Sippo creek, near the headwaters of which Dunmore was encamped. Before reaching his destination, he was met by a messenger from Dunmore with the information that a treaty was under way, and orders to return to Point Pleasant. Lewis and his men, being eager for revenge, were not disposed to obey the order to return, and continued the march until met near the mouth of Sippo creek by Dunmore himself, who persuaded Lewis to turn back. A few days later Dunmore concluded his treaty, by which the Indians gave up all claims to lands south of the Ohio, and agreed not to molest the canoes of the white traders on that river. This affair is known as Lord Dunmore's war, the most significant feature of which was the resolutions adopted on Nov. 5. 1774, when the expedition had reached the Ohio river on the homeward march. The resolutions declared the respect of the soldiers for Lord Dunmore and their allegiance to the king, and contained the fol- TERRITORIAL ERA - 35 lowing expressive avowal : But as the love of liberty and attachment to the real interests and just rights of America outweigh every other consideration, we resolve that we will exert every power within us for the defense of American liberty, and for the support of her just rights and privileges not in any precipitate, riotous, or tumultuous manner, but when regularly called forth by the unanimous voice of our countrymen." Here was an exhibition of that spirit which brought on the Revolution and in less than two years found expression in the Declaration of Independence. At the beginning of the Revolutionary war, Great Britain, regarding the country northwest of the Ohio as an Indian reservation, attached to the province of Quebec, managed to secure the allegiance of most of the Indian tribes in that section, and they remained loyal to the English cause throughout the contest. It was to offset this condition of affairs that Gen. George Rogers Clark conceived the idea of invading the Northwest. Clark was born in Albemarle county, _Virginia. Nov. 19, 1752. He was with Dunmore in the campaign of 1774, and the next year removed to Kentucky, where he soon became a leader. Kentucky was then a part of Fincastle county, Virginia, and in June, 1776, Clark and John G. Jones were elected to the legislature. The distance from Harrodsburg to Williamsburg,. at that time the capital of Virginia, was 70o miles. and Clark and Jones did not reach the latter place until after the legislature had adjourned. While at Williamsburg Clark first heard of the Declaration of Independence, and immediately sought a conference with Patrick Henry, then governor of Virginia, to whom he outlined his plan. When the legislature met again, Clark and Jones were not admitted, but they were heard on the Kentucky situation. Meantime the British were active in the Northwest during the winter of 1776-77 in stirring up the Indians, Lieut-Gov. Henry Hamilton even offering premiums for every American or "white rebel" scalp the Indians would bring to Detroit. which led the Americans to give him the name of the "Hair Buyer General." Hamilton's brutal course was sustained by his superiors, and Clark aimed at the over- throw of this power in the Northwest. In the fall of 1777 lie again visited Williamsburg, and this time laid before Governor Henry the details of his plan, which was to collect a force and march against Detroit, destroying the British posts on his way. Governor Henry called into consultation Thomas Jefferson, George Wythe and George Mason, all of whom saw the advantages to be derived from Clark's project if he succeeded in carrying it out. They had full confidence in Clark. and through their influence the legislature authorized the governor "to organize an expedition to march against and attack any of our western enemies, and to give the necessary orders for such expedition." Armed with this authority, Henry commissioned Clark a colonel and directed him to raise seven companies of fifty men each, to act and receive pay as militia, but they were to be recruited in the counties west of the Blue Ridge; in order not to weaken the Continental forces in the East. Henry gave Clark about $6,000 and an order on the authorities at Pittsburg for boats to transport his men and supplies 36 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY down the Ohio. On May 12, 1778, three companies—less than 150 men—commanded by Captains Joseph Bowman, Leonard Helm and William Harrod, left Pittsburg and dropped down the Ohio to Corn Island, opposite the present city of Louisville, where Clark was joined by Capt. John Montgomery's company, in which was Simon Kenton. On June 24 the expedition left Corn Island and proceeded down the river in flatboats to the mouth of the Tennessee river, where Clark was joined by several hunters, one of whom, John Saunders, offered to guide the force to Kaskaskia, 120 miles distant. Moving "in light marching order," Kaskaskia was reached on July 4, and captured without firing a gun. Captain Bowman, with thirty mounted men, left Kaskaskia immediately after the capture and in quick succession captured Prairie du Rocher, St. Philip's and Cahokia, the inhabitants of these places taking the oath of allegiance to the United States. Clark's next objective point was Vincennes, "a town about the size of Williamsburg." Father Gibault, a French priest at Kaskaskia, informed Clark that Edward Abbott, the commander at Vincennes, was absent, and asked permission to try to win over the French people there without an appeal to arms. Permission was granted, and Father Gibault, accompanied by Dr. Jean Lefaut and a few others, set out for Vincennes, bearing an order from Clark to the settlers to garrison their own town, showing that he had faith in their loyalty. Upon reaching the post, Father Gibault called the French together at the church, where all took the oath of allegiance, elected an officer and made preparations to garrison the place. So far Clark's campaign had been a success, but on Aug. 8 a French missionary reached Detroit and informed Hamilton of the fall of the posts in the West. Hamilton sent the news to Governor Carleton at Quebec, and early in October started for Vincennes with about 200 men and fifteen boats loaded with supplies and presents for the Indians. His route lay up the Maumee to Fort Wayne, then across the portage to the Wabash and down that stream to Vincennes, a difficult voyage of some boo miles. News of Hamilton's movements reached Clark at Kaskaskia early in 1779. Leaving Captain Bowman with a few men at Cahokia, and Captain Williams with a small force at Kaskaskia, Clark left Kaskaskia on Feb. 5, with 170 men, for one of the most trying marches in history. At the same time Captain Willing was sent around by water with forty-six men. The streams were swollen, the country was wet, so that Clark's little army was over two weeks in covering the 240 miles that lay between Kaskaskia and Vincennes. Although Clark was outnumbered nearly four to one, he determined to present a bold front, and began by sending to the people of the town a proclamation warning "all true citizens and willing to enjoy the liberty I bring you to remain still in your houses ; and those, if any there be, that are friends to the king will instantly repair to the fort and join the hair-buyer general and fight like men ; . . . for every one I find in arms on my arrival I shall treat as an enemy." He then paraded his little army in such a way as to make it appear much larger than it really was, and on the 23d made his first attack on the British garrison at Fort Sackville. Some of his men entered the TERRITORIAL ERA - 37 town, where they were joined by the friendly inhabitants, and on the morning of the 24th Clark demanded a surrender of the fort. Hamilton refused, and the Americans began firing on the fort, keeping themselves under cover. After a short time Hamilton consented to a conference, and while in parley a party of Indians friendly to the British was captured by Clark's men, tomahawked within full view of the garrison, and their bodies thrown into the river. The English soldiers were terrified by this and urged a surrender, to which Hamilton finally consented. Two days later Captain Willing arrived with his galley. Captain Helm went up the Wabash and captured seven boats loaded with supplies worth some $50,000, the capture being effected without firing a gun. No doubt Detroit could have been added to the list of Clark's victories had he been in a position to move at once against that place after the capture of Vincennes. But a portion of his force had been left at Kaskaskia and Cahokia, and the men at Vincennes being worn out by their long and arduous march through the wilderness, he abandoned the idea of proceeding against that post. He was complimented by the Virginia legislature, which, on March 10, 1779, organized the Illinois country into the county of Illinois, and ordered Soo men to be sent to hold the territory. Some historians have not given Clark's conquest of the Northwest the prominence it deserves. Through his efforts the British plan to attack the American colonies from the rear was thwarted, the country to the northwest of the Ohio was secured to the American colonists, and by the treaty of Sept. 3, 1783, which concluded the Revolutionary war, the western boundary of the United States was fixed at the Mississippi river, whereas it might otherwise have been fixed at the Ohio, and the territory northwest of that river remained a British possession. As the war of the Revolution drew to a close, Congress appealed to the States having western claims to sacrifice those claims for the common good, and in October, 1780, adopted the first declaration concerning the future of Ohio and the Northwest. This was in the nature of "a pledge on the part of Congress that the lands ceded in pursuance of its recommendations should be disposed of for the common benefit of the United States ; be settled and formed into distinct States, with a suitable extent of territory ; and become members of the Federal Union, with the same rights of sovereignty, freedom and independeence, as the other States; that the expenses incurred by any State in subduing British posts, and in the acquisition and defense of the territory, should be reimbursed ; and that the lands ceded should be granted and settled agreeably to regulations to be afterward agreed upon in Congress." New York, claiming title through the Iroquois cession, was the first to comply with the request of Congress, and relinquished her claim on March I, 1781. Virginia, after some delay and dickering, ceded her claim on March 1, 1784, with the understanding that 150,000 acres at the falls of the Ohio should be reserved for General Clark and his men as a compensation for their services in conquering the Northwest. This tract is known as the "Virginia Military District." Massachusetts followed on April 19, 1785, and on Sept. 14, 1786, Connecticut yielded 38 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY her claims to all western territory, except a tract bounded on the north by Lake Erie, east by Pennsylvania, south by the forty-first parallel of north latitude, and west by a north and south line, parallel to and 120 miles from the western boundary of Pennsylvania. The district within these lines constituted what is known as the "Western Reserve." During the Revolution several Connecticut towns, notably New London, Fairfield and Norwalk, were almost completely burned by British expeditions sent out for the destruction of American stores. The people of these towns petitioned the legislature of the State for indemnification, and in May, 1792, that body set off 500,000 acres across the west end of the Western Reserve as "fire lands," to be parceled out among the sufferers in proportion to the losses each sustained. On May 30, 1800, the State relinquished all claim to the Western Reserve, which became part of the State of Ohio, subject to the same laws, etc., as the rest of the territory. On May 20, 1785, Congress passed an ordinance "for surveying and disposing of the public lands west of the Ohio river," and Gen. Rufus Putnam was appointed one of the surveyors to lay off the seven ranges immediately west of Pennsylvania, but as he was engaged elsewhere, Gen. Benjamin Tupper was appointed in his place. The survey was interrupted by the Indians, and Tupper returned to Massachusetts, where he met General Putnam, to whom he gave a full account of the country. The result was a meeting of the veterans of the Revolution at Boston on March I, 1786, when the "Ohio Company of Associates" was formed for the purchase and settlement of western lands. The capital stock of the company was fixed at $1,000,000, in shares of $1,000 each ; General Putnam, Gen. Samuel H. Parsons and Rev. Manasseh Cutler were chosen directors, and they selected for the company lands on both sides of the Muskingum, immediately west of the seven ranges. The grant to the company was voted by Congress and the contract was formally signed on Oct. 27, 1787. Under this agreement the company was to purchase between the seventh and seventeenth ranges, back from the Ohio river far enough to include 1.500.000 acres, "besides the donation of two sections in each township for the support of schools and the ministry, and two townships for a university, and three sections in each township retained under control of Congress." The company paid down $5o0,000 in final settlement certificates, and was authorized to take possession of 750,000 acres in the eastern part of the grant, but the United States withheld a deed until such time as the surveys should be completed and the remainder of the purchase price paid.. In the winter of 1787-88 the company sent two companies of people to make settlements. They came down the Ohio in a vessel called the "Mayflower," and on April 7, 1788, landed at the mouth of the Muskingum, where they laid the foundations of the city of Marietta. the first authorized settlement in the State of Ohio by English-speaking colonists. On July 13, 1787, three months before the contract with the Ohio Company was closed, Congress passed the "Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States Northwest of the River Ohio.'" It consisted of two parts : first. provisions for government as TERRITORIAL ERA - 39 a district exclusively by Congress, and later by a legislature subject to Congressional supervision ; and second, six articles of general and fundamental law, "to be considered as articles of compact between the original States and the people and States in the said territory, and forever remain unalterable, except by common consent." King, in his History of Ohio, says : "The Ordinance was a masterpiece of statesmanship in reconciling and vindicating every principle for which the Thirteen Colonies appealed to arms, and it remains today the model. upon which the Territorial governments of the United States are constructed." In October, 1787, Congress completed the Territorial government by the appointment of Gen. Arthur St. Clair as governor ; Winthrop Sargent, secretary : Gen. Samuel H. Parsons, John Armstrong and James M. Varnum, judges. The governor landed at Marietta on July 9, 1788. and on the 15th was passed the first law of the territory, providing for militia service of the male population and weekly drills. The Northwest Territory was now fully established. Although the United States, by the treaty of 1783, acquired title to all the territory between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, the Indians. showed a disposition to resent the location of white settlements upon what they regarded as their lands. Attempts were made to pacify them in the treaties made at Fort McIntosh, Jan. 21, 1785, and at Fort Harmar, opposite Marietta, Jan. 9, 1789, but they continued their hostile demonstrations. and in 1790 two expeditions into the Indian country were projected. One, which was to move from Vincennes up the Wabash, was abandoned for want of sufficient force, but the other, commanded by Gen. Josiah Harmar, left Port Washington (now Cincinnati) on Sept. 26, and marched north, the objective point being the Miami villages at the head of the Maumee river. Harmar's force consisted of 1,453 men and six pieces of artillery, 320 of the troops being regulars and the remainder militia from Kentucky and Pennsylvania. The Indians retired before Harmar's advance, and the villages at the head of the Maumee were reached and destroyed. King says : "This was all General Knox had ordered, and according to Indian warfare was a success. But the militia colonels were bent upon a fight, and Harmar unwisely yielded. They were defeated, and lost so heavily in two ambuscades that, though he brought his little army back in good order, the disaster and the discords which broke out between the officers of the regulars and the insubordinate militia inflicted a stigma upon Harmar's reputation, especially in Kentucky, which was fatal to him, though highly unjust." Another campaign was ordered ; Congress added a regiment of regulars and authorized a draft for 1.500 militia for six months' service. and Governor St. Clair was ordered to take command of the expedition. The plan was for St. Clair to march from Fort Washington on July to, 1791, and proceed to the head of the Maumee, where he was to establish a strong military post. with a chain of forts between that point and Fort Washington. But so much delay was encountered in recruiting the troops and collecting supplies that the army did not leave Fort Washington until Sept. 17. A month was spent in building Fort Hamilton, where the city of Hamilton now stands, and Fort Jefferson, 40 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY forty-four miles farther north, after which St. Clair continued his march northward. Late in October some of the militia, claiming that their six months had expired, deserted and started back to Fort Washington. Colonel Hamtramck, with the First regulars, St. Clair's best troops, was sent to bring them back, while the rest of the army moved slowly forward. Little Turtle, the Miami chief, who had been closely watching St. Clair's movements, was prompt to take advantage of this opportunity. On the evening of Nov. 3 St. Clair encamped in the woods on a small tributary of the Wabash, in what is now Mercer county. During the night more than a thousand warriors quietly surrounded his camp, and at the break of day the work of carnage was begun. After a desperate fight of four hours, the whites broke and fled in confusion, having lost over 800 men. It was a bloodier defeat than Braddock's. It is said that when President Washington received St. Clair's despatch announcing his defeat, "he threw it down and paced the floor in anger, using language that is not considered appropriate for even a state occasion." But the man and the hour were near at hand to settle for all time the question of white supremacy. St. Clair resigned from the army and Washington appointed Gen. Anthony Wayne, who accepted on condition that he should not be required to move against the Indians until his army was thoroughly organized and equipped. Congress increased the regular army to 5,000 men, and in June, 1792, Wayne began the work of organization at Pittsburg. In April, 1793, he dropped down the Ohio to Cincinnati, where he went into camp at a place called "Hob-son's Choice," and spent some time in drilling his men while the commissioners—Benjamin Lincoln, Beverly Randolph and Timothy Pickering—who had been appointed in March, 1793, were trying to effect a peaceful settlement. They announced their failure in July, and Wayne hurried forward the preparations for his campaign. Before the close of the year he built Fort Greenville, six miles north of Fort Jefferson, and Fort Recovery, on the scene of St. Clair's defeat. Here on June 3o, 1794, he defeated 2,000 Indians under Little Turtle, after which he commenced his advance. In July he built Fort Adams on the St. Mary's river ; Fort Defiance, at the confluence of the Auglaize and Maumee, was erected early in August, and Fort Deposit, a depot for supplies on the left bank of the Maumee, was completed on the 18th of the same month. In the meantime the British had rebuilt Fort Miami, the old French fort at the Maumee rapids, and garrisoned it with three companies of infantry under Maj. William Campbell. Near this fort the main body of the Indians was collected. Immediately after building Fort Deposit, Wayne advanced and on the loth met the Indians in battle array about a mile from the British fort. The wily foe had taken up a strong position behind a piece of woods, in which a large number of trees had been prostrated by a tornado, hence the engagement that followed is known as the battle of "Fallen Timbers." The fallen timber rendered the cavalry useless, and Wayne ordered the infantry to advance with trailed arms, fire only at close range, and then use the bayonet. The movement was a success. The Indians TERRITORIAL ERA - 41 were driven to open ground, where the mounted men fell upon them with the saber, and in a short time they were completely routed. The chief, Turkey Foot, tried in vain to rally his warriors, but they were thoroughly panic-stricken and fled in dismay toward the British fort, whither they were pursued by Wayne's victorious troops. Major Campbell sent an inquiry to Wayne to know "in what light he was to view this near approach of an American force to his garrison." Wayne, who was equally ready at fighting Indians or rebuking a British officer, promptly sent the following reply : "I think I may, without breach of decorum, observe to you that, were you entitled to an answer, the most full and satisfactory one was announced to you from the muzzles of my small arms yesterday morning, in the action against the horde of savages in the vicinity of your post, which terminated gloriously to the American arms ; but had it continued until the Indians, etc., were driven under the influence of the post and guns you mention, they would not have much impeded the progress of the victorious army under my command, as no such post was established at the commencement of the present war between the Indians and the United States." Some further acrimonious correspondence passed between the two officers, Wayne demanding the withdrawal of the British troops from United States territory, but he did not attack the fort. Averill says :* "Not feeling authorized, at this juncture, to open a war with Great Britain, General Wayne marched his troops past the fort, out of range of the guns, and, halting at the mouth of Swan creek, seven miles below, built Fort Industry, and garrisoned it with a small force under Lieutenant Rhea," etc. Toward the latter part of the month of August Wayne started on his return to the head of the Maumee, laying waste the Indian cornfields on both sides of the Maumee as far as Fort Defiance. At the head of the Maumee he built Fort Wayne and garrisoned it with a strong force under Major Hamtramck. A strong garrison was also placed at Fort Defiance, other posts were established in the Indian country, and in August, 1795, peace was secured by the treaty of Greenville, an account of which is given in the preceding chapter. The battle of Fallen Timbers was fought within the limits of the present Lucas county. Wayne's loss in the engagement was 33 killed and 100 wounded. This action and the treaty of Greenville opened the land for settlement, although more than a year elapsed before the white people could believe the peace was real. Then a flood of settlers began pouring into Ohio. By the act of Congress, approved May 7, i800, the Territory of Indiana was set off west of the Greenville treaty line from the Ohio river to Fort Recovery, and "thence north until it shall intersect the territorial line between the United States and Canada," all east of this line continuing to be the Northwest Territory. After considerable discussion regarding this portion of the original "Territory of the United States Northwest of the River Ohio," Congress, on April 3o, 1802, passed an act authorizing the people living therein to adopt a constitution and form a state government. The constitutional convention assembled at Chillicothe on Nov. 1, 1802, the organic law * Condensed History of the Most Important Military Posts in the Northwest. 42 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY was adopted on the 29th, and Ohio took her place in the sisterhood of States. In the War of 1812 the Maumee valley again became a battlefield. Although war was not formally declared until June 18, Governor Meigs of Ohio, acting under orders from the war department, called for volunteers in April, and in May three Ohio regiments were organized at Dayton. These regiments, with some other troops, under command of Gen. William Hull, then governor of Michigan Territory, moved to Detroit, Where they arrived on July 5, and on Aug. 16 Hull surrendered Detroit to General Brock, just at a time when over 3.000 men under Col. R. M. Johnson and General Payne were marching to his assistance and were within a short distance of the post. Gen. William H. Harrison, who had won the decisive battle of Tippecanoe the preceding autumn, was appointed commander-in-chief of the Northwestern army on Sept. 17. His plan was to collect troops at Wooster, Urbana, St. Mary's and Fort Defiance, concentrate them at the foot of the Maumee rapids, and then undertake the recapture of Detroit. A force of 3,000 men had assembled at St. Mary's, when Harrison learned that a large force of British and Indians was marching up the Maumee to attack General Winchester at Fort Wayne. Fearing that Winchester's force was not large enough to withstand the attack, Harrison made a forced march to Fort Defiance early in October, his object being to intercept the enemy. In the meantime Winchester also marched to Fort Defiance, and the British commander, learning of these movements, beat a hasty retreat. A few slight engagements occurred in the early part of the winter, and on Jan. 1o, 1813, Winchester, in command of the left wing of the army, arrived at the foot of the rapids. Here he received word that the inhabitants of Frenchtown (now Monroe), Mich., were liable to be attacked, and on the 17th he sent 55o men under Colonel Lewis and 110 under Colonel Allen to their assistance. On the loth Winchester himself arrived at Frenchtown with 26o men, and at daybreak on the 22nd the -whole force was surprised by a large body of British and Indians under Proctor. After a desultory fight of an hour or so. Winchester surrendered under the promise of protection—a promise which was not kept, as many of the prisoners were wantonly massacred, and of the entire force only thirty-three men escaped. Harrison arrived at the rapids on Jan. 20, with troops from Sandusky, and found a portion of Winchester's command there. Upon learning of the affair at Frenchtown, he took position on the Portage river until joined by reinforcements, when he returned to the rapids, and on Feb. 2 began the construction of Fort Meigs, on the right bank of the river, a little above the present town of Perrysburg, at the same time issuing the order for all troops to rendezvous there as soon as possible. His idea was to collect as large a force as he could and attack the British at Malden, but as soon as the ice broke up in Lake Erie Proctor advanced up the Maumee to lay siege to Fort Meigs. On the afternoon of April 26 two men were seen on the opposite side of the river. calmly reconnoitering the fort. These men were Proctor and the Shawanee chief, Tecumseh. A cannon shot from the fort plowed up TERRITORIAL ERA - 43 the dirt near them and they departed with more haste than ceremony. Within a few hours the fort was placed in a position to undergo a siege. Traverses were constructed, tents folded, and excavations made under the embankments for lodging places. The next day three guns and a mortar battery were planted opposite the fort, and the siege commenced. That evening the main body of Indians, about 1,500 in number, was sent across the river under Tecumseh and the fort was surrounded. In the night of May 3 Proctor succeeded in planting a battery on the right bank of the river, 400 yards from the fort, and on the 4th he sent Major Chambers to demand a surrender. To this Harrison replied as follows : "Assure the General that he will never have this post surrendered to him upon any terms. Should it fall into his hands, it will be in a manner calculated to do him more honor, and to give him larger claims upon the gratitude of his government, than any capitulation could possibly do." That night Capt. William Oliver, an intrepid scout, found his way into the fort with the information that Gen. Green Clay was up the river, within two hours of the fort, with 1,200 Kentuckians in flatboats, but had halted there to await orders. Captain Hamilton was sent up the river in a pirogue with instructions for Clay to land B00 men on the left bank, a mile and a half above the fort, march to the British batteries, spike the guns, cut down the carriages, then return to their boats and cross over to the fort. The remainder of Clay's force was to land on the right bank and cut its way into the fort. Hamilton stationed men to indicate the places where the landings were to be made. Colonel Dudley was placed in command of the detachment to surprise the British batteries. and all went well until he was almost upon the guns. Then some Indians discovered the presence of the Americans and fired their muskets. Dudley's men, thinking that silence was no longer essential, raised a cheer and rushed upon the batteries. The guns were spiked. but nearly all were captured and taken down to Fort Miami as prisoners. Those on the right bank met with better success. Col. John Miller made a brilliant charge on the battery on that side of the river, killed several of the British soldiers, captured forty-five prisoners. and entered the fort with only a slight loss. Proctor raised the siege on May 9, after which Harrison repaired the damages done, and then leaving Clay in command left for the interior to push forward the work of recruiting. On July 20 Proctor, beganhis second siege. Clay sent Captain McCune to notify Harrison. who promised reinforcements. It is probable that knowledge of this led Proctor to adopt a ruse which, if it had proved successful, would have given him possession of the fort. On July 26 a force of British infantry was secreted in the ravine below the fort to cut off any who might leave it, and then a sham battle was begun on the side of the fort from which the reinforcements would be likely to arrive. The hope was that a party would sally out of the fort to the relief of their supposed friends. when it would .be cut off by the infantry concealed in the ravine, and the -garrison thus reduced would be forced to surrender. But the ruse failed, though it is said that the American officers had hard work to make the men believe it was merely a trick, and on July 28 Proctor 44 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY withdrew. After the war Fort Meigs was garrisoned by forty men until May, 1815, when it was abandoned as a military post. Article V of the Ordinance of 1787 provides that, "There shall be formed in the said Territory not less than three nor more than five States," and fixes the boundaries of these States as follows : "The western State, in the said Territory, shall be bounded by the Mississippi, the Ohio and the Wabash rivers ; a direct line from the Wabash and Post Vincents, due north, to the territorial line between the United States and Canada ; and by the said territorial line to the Lake of the Woods and the Mississippi. The middle State shall be bounded by the said direct line, the Wabash from Post Vincents to the Ohio, by the Ohio, by a direct line drawn due north from the mouth of the Great Miami to the said territorial line, and by the said territorial line. The eastern State shall be bounded by the last-mentioned direct line, the Ohio, the Pennsylvania, and the said territorial line. Provided, however, and it is further understood and declared, that the boundaries of these three States shall be subject so far to be altered, that, if Congress shall hereafter find it expedient, they shall have authority to form one or two States in that part of the said Territory which lies north of an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan." The conflict between the language of this provision and that of the Ohio Constitution led to an acrimonious dispute in 1835 over the northern boundary. Lucas county was called into being during this dispute, a full account of which will be found in the next chapter. CHAPTER IV. THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE. IMPORTANCE OF THE QUESTION-THE ORIGIN OF THE DIFFICULTY- MITCHELL & BRADLEY'S MAP-EXCEPTION CLAUSE IN OHIO STATE CONSTITUTION-THE HARRIS LINE-THE FULTON LINE-ATTACK UPON SURVEYING PARTY-MAJOR STICKNEY AND HIS CONNECTION WITH THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE--ACTIVITY OF GOVERNORS LUCAS AND MASON- DISPUTE FINALLY SETTLED BY CONGRESS-LEGAL PHASES OF THE QUESTION. The history of the trouble which arose over the matter of establishing a permanent boundary line between the present States of Ohio and Michigan should be of special interest to the people of Lucas county, because of the fact that upon the decision and adjustment of the difficulty depended the question, whether the territory now embraced in the townships of Richfield, Sylvania, Washington, Oregon. and Jerusalem, and the northern parts of Spencer, Springfield, and Adams, together with nearly the entire limits of the city of Toledo, should be a part and parcel of the Buckeye State, or the inhabitants thereof should be numbered among the Wolverines. At one time the trouble threatened to assume the magnitude of -civil war between the sovereign State of• Ohio and the Territory of Michigan, supported, as the latter would unquestionably have been, by the military arm of the United States. The interest manifested was not confined to this locality, by any means, for leading members of Congress—notably John Ouincy Adams, of Massachusetts—took a hand in the fray, and it formed a subject for heated debate between giants of the political arena. Years have passed since the amicable settlement of this dispute, but time should not efface the record of historical events. Reasoning thus, and believing ( with no desire to be invidious) that many people are not familiar with the history of the difficulty, the writer has consulted various authorities and decided to devote a chapter in this work to what is sometimes called "The Toledo War." The question of boundary between Michigan and Ohio antedated the admission of the latter into the Union, and had its birth in the Congress that framed and adopted the "Ordinance of- 1787"—an instrument providing for the civil government of the Northwest Territory, then lately ceded to the United States. And it would be within the bounds of truth to say that this controversy, which for a time seri- - 45 - 46 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY ously threatened the peace of the country, was conceived through a blunder committed by a well-meaning though misguided Herodotus, prior to the action of the legislative body that convened under the Articles of Confederation. By the "Ordinance of 1787," Congress divided the Northwest Territory into three parts, the western to include all the present States of Illinois, Wisconsin, and a portion of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan ; the middle to include the present State of Indiana, and north to the British line ; the eastern to include the territory bounded by Indiana, Canada, Pennsylvania, and the Ohio river ; "Provided, however, and it is further understood and declared, that the boundaries of these three [prospective] States shall be subject so far to be altered, that if Congress shall hereafter find it expedient they shall have authority to form one or two States in that part of the said territory which lies north of an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan." The latest map in use at that time, which purported to give a representation of this portion of the earth's surface, was one published by Mitchell & Bradley in 1780, and, being decidedly inaccurate, it showed the southern extremity of the lake to be thirty miles north of where it really is. Congress, however, with only that map as a guide, thought that the "east and west line" would intersect the Detroit river, and hence really intended that the future State of Ohio should extend a considerable distance further north than it does. In fact, it was plainly the purpose of the framers of the "Ordinance" that the northern boundary should be near the forty-second parallel of north latitude. Judge Burnet, in his "Notes on the Northwest Ter- ritory," thus explains the origin of the difficulty : "The question of boundary, though not expressly referred to the Convention, was one of greater importance than would appear at first view. It is generally known to those who have consulted the maps of the western country extant at the time the Ordinance of 1787 was passed, that Lake Michigan was represented as being very far north of the position which it has since been ascertained to occupy. On a map in the Department of State, which was before the Committee of Congress who framed the Ordinance for the Government of the Territory, the southern boundary of that lake was laid down as being near the forty-second degree of north latitude, and there was a pencil line passing through the southern bend of the lake to the Canada line, which intersected the strait between the river Raisin and the town of Detroit. That line was manifestly intended by the committee and by Congress to be the northern boundary of this State, and, on the principles on which courts of chancery construe contracts, accompanied with plats, that map, and the line marked on it, should have been taken as conclusive evidence of the boundary, without reference to the actual position of the southern extreme of the lake." But Judge Burnet argues from the standpoint of equity, while the champions of the Michigan side of the controversy hold strictly to the legal phase of the question. They maintain that the provision in the Ordinance of 1787 was an article of "compact between the original States and the people and the States in said territory," and THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE - 47 by the express terms of the Ordinance was to "forever remain unalterable unless by common consent," and it never by common consent had been abrogated or changed. To quote the words of Judge Cooley, in his "Michigan" : "The people of Michigan had, therefore, two rights solemnly guaranteed to them by the Ordinance, neither of which could be taken from them without their consent. These were first to have a line drawn due east from the southern extreme of Lake Michigan for their southern boundary, and, second, to be admitted into the Union as a State on reaching a population of 6o,000." When the act was passed, enabling Ohio to take the necessary steps toward statehood, Congress, under the same misapprehension, bounded the future State on the north "by an east and west line drawn through the southern extremity of Lake Michigan, running east until it shall intersect Lake Erie on the Territorial [British] line, and thence on the same through to the Pennsylvania line." Again it is clearly proven that Congress intended the boundary line to be further north, for the Fulton line, so called (the boundary claimed by Michigan), if extended east, would not intersect the British line at any point whatever. When the convention that framed the Ohio State constitution was in session, in 1802, it was still the prevailing understanding that the old maps were correct, and that the line, as defined in the Ordinance and enabling act, would terminate at some point on the Detroit river, far above the Maumee bay. But, while that subject was under discussion, a strolling hunter, who had for many years plied his vocation in the vicinity of Lake Michigan,. and was well acquainted with its position, happened to be in Chillicothe, and, in conversation with some of the members, mentioned to them that the lake extended much farther south than was generally supposed, and that a map which he had seen placed its southern bend many miles north of its true position. His statement produced some apprehension and excitement on the subject, and induced the convention to change the line prescribed in the act of Congress so far as to provide that, "if the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan should extend so far south that a line drawn due east from it should not intersect Lake Erie, or if it should intersect the said .Lake Erie east of the mouth of the Miami River of the lake [Maumee], then and in that case, with the assent of the Congress of the United States, the northern boundary of this State shall be established by, and extended to, a direct line running from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan to the most northerly cape of the Miami [Maumee] bay," etc. The object of this proviso was to save the State of Ohio the valuable port and harbors on the Maumee river and bay, as was clearly intended by Congress, and which were the prizes contended for in the threatened resort to arms. Congress accepted this constitution, but without expressly giving assent to the alternate boundary, and as the assent was not expressly given it was claimed by the adherents of Michigan that in the face of the .compact of 1787 such assent could not be implied. In 1805 Michigan Territory was created with the southern boundary as originally specified—the old erroneous map being used as a guide —and without any reference to the Ohio amendment. 48 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY Upon this technicality arose the boundary difficulties, and the location of the line was considered very uncertain, even by the Ohio legislature, for at different sessions, in 1807, 1809, and 1811, resolutions were passed requesting that commissioners be appointed to establish definite boundaries on the north and west.. Soon after the admission of Ohio into the Union an attempt was made to secure the assent of Congress to Ohio's boundary, but on Dec. 6, 1803, this provision was stricken out in the Senate, and from that time until the close of the War of 1812, the question seems not to have been again raised in Congress. In the meantime, however, not only had Michigan's claim to the southern boundary existed de jure, but the asserted right had been exercised de facto, and had been recognized repeatedly and constantly by both the United States and the Territorial government. The United States government had attached the lands north of the falls of the Maumee to the Monroe (Michigan) land district ; it had recognized the boundary of Michigan as at the Rapids of the Maumee in the survey and building of the Ohio-Michigan road from the Connecticut Reserve to the lower falls of the Miami of Lake Erie ; it had located the Michigan University lands on the Maumee river ; it had recognized the same boundary in the building of the road from the Rapids of the Miami to Detroit. On the other hand, the Territorial government of Michigan had, without let or hindrance, exercised all the usual acts of jurisdiction to the line running due east from the southern bend of Lake Michigan. It had organized counties, townships and districts to that line ; had extended the jurisdiction of its courts and its judicial process to the same boundary ; in short, in every way that the case admitted, it was fixed as the boundary between Ohio and Michigan. But by assuming authority in the Maumee country the Michigan officials soon excited jealousy and resentment upon the part of the settlers in the disputed strip who professed allegiance to Ohio. On Jan. 23, 1812, Amos Spafford, Collector of the Port at Miami Rapids, addressed a letter to Governor Meigs, in which he stated it "to be the general wish of the people in this settlement (which consisted of about fifty families) to have the laws of the state of Ohio extended over them." He informed the governor that the people, with few exceptions, considered themselves clearly within the limits of Ohio—the exceptions being those who held office under the governor of Michigan, whose orders they were endeavoring to enforce. Collector Spafford stated that if no adjustment should be made, he feared the contention would ere long become serious. This letter of Mr. Spafford, it will be observed, was written during the period when the population of the western frontier was excited by the unfriendly relations existing between England and 'the United States, and which resulted in a declaration of war made by the latter in June of the same year. On May 20, 1812, an act was passed authorizing the president to ascertain and designate certain boundaries ; but the great issue of a foreign war, threatening a common danger, united all the people of the frontier, including those of the disputed jurisdiction, in support of the general THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE - 49 welfare, and national patriotism subdued for a time the promptings of local and selfish interests. In the act of May 20, 1812, Congress, heeding the petitions of Ohio's legislative assembly, and recognizing the seriousness of the boundary dispute and the importance of its early settlement, authorized and instructed the surveyor-general of the United States, under the direction of the President, and as soon as the consent of the Indians could be obtained, "to cause to be surveyed, marked and designated, so much of the western and northern boundaries of the state of Ohio, which have not already been ascertained, as divides said state from the territories of Indiana and Michigan, agreeably to the boundaries as established by the [enabling] act" of 1802. As will be observed, the framers of this act had in mind the line as originally stipulated (due east from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan), but they evidently recognized the mistake made in such designation, for they instructed the surveyor-general "to cause to be made a plat or plan of so much of the boundary line as runs from the southerly extreme of Lake Michigan to Lake Erie, particularly noting the place where said line intersects the margin of said lake, and to return the same when made to Congress." But, as before stated, the war of 1812 came on, and this, with ensuing difficulties, served to defer the making of the survey as directed. The matter remained in statu quo for several years, but on Aug, 22, 1816, the commissioner of the general land office directed the surveyor-general to "engage a faithful and skillful deputy to mark said northern boundary agreeable to the act of May 20, 1812." In 1817, peaceful treaties having been made with the Indians, Edward Tiffin, surveyor-general of the United States, in pursuance of said instructions and the Act of Congress mentioned above, employed William Harris, a skillful surveyor, to run a portion of the western and all of the northern boundary line of the state of Ohio. Indiana had been erected into a state in 1816, and its northern boundary, as defined by act of Congress, included "a strip of land, ten miles wide, off the southern portion of Michigan territory." This was another recognition of the old line which had been established through a mistaken idea of the geography of the country ; but by extending Indiana ten miles further north, Congress showed its disregard for the instructions given in the Ordinance of 1787, and gave to the Ohio claimants a precedent decidedly in their favor. Harris found that a due east line from the head of Lake Michigan would intersect Lake Erie seven miles south of the most northerly cape of Maumee bay, his survey in this matter agreeing perfectly with that afterward made by Fulton. He accordingly, in conformity with the proviso of the constitution of Ohio, ran another line from the lower extremity of Lake Michigan to the northerly cape of Maumee bay. It was claimed by the Michigan adherents that this act of the deputy surveyor was without authority of law or instruction from the department. In fact, the commissioner of the general land office, in a letter to the secretary of the treasury, June 5, 1818, said : "Having never heard of the proviso in the constitution of the state of Ohio relative to its northern boundary, I had uni-