TOLEDO AND LUCAS COUNTY - 25 At Toledo it is 100 feet, three miles east, in Oregon Township, it measures 80 feet and in Richfield Township it is only 65 feet. On the summit of the rocky ridge two miles west of Sylvania it is entirely absent. SOIL AND CLIMATE Lucas County, in common with all the Great Lake region, is covered with the glacial drift. Soil formed of drift materials, being composed of a variety of mineral constituents, usually has all the chemical requirements of a fertile soil. Exceptions to this rule are seen in places where the separation of drift materials—by floods or atmospheric action—is sometimes carried to such a degree as to destroy fertility. A bed of clay, sand or gravel is not a soil, but a mixture of all three constitutes a soil that will produce vegetation. Originally, the greater part of the county was heavily timbered with beech, basswood, black walnut, elm, hickory and some other varieties of trees. In these timbered districts the soil is composed of clay, sand and loams, and the clay usually contains a considerable percentage of lime, which adds to the fertility. Soil of this character is well adapted to fruit culture and Northern Ohio boasts many fine orchards and vineyards. In places there were small plains called "oak openings," a fine description of which is given in J. Fennimore Cooper's novel of that name. The soil in the oak openings is generally sandy and with numerous treeless swamps. But by drainage and careful cultivation these have been made to produce fair crops. The townships of Jerusalem and Oregon, and the eastern part of Washington, lie in the district known as the "Black Swamp." Here the soil is a fine clay, with sand as a constituent in places, and its dark color is due to decaying vegetation. The crawfish, or fresh-water lobster has been an important agent in the improvement of the soil in this district. During dry seasons these little crustaceans bore their wells deeper and deeper, until they strike water, bringing the excavated clay to the surface, where it becomes mixed with the mold, giving the soil greater elements of productiveness and durability. Like that of other cities in 'the Great Lakes country, the climate of Toledo is modified by the large bodies of water in the immediate vicinity. Records of the United States Weather Bureau show that the average mean temperature from May to September, inclusive, rarely exceeds 72̊ Fahrenheit, and the mean winter temperature is 26̊, the coldest weather usually occurring in February. The mean annual temperature is therefore 49̊ and varies but little from that of other lake cities in about the same latitude. The annual precipitation is 38.9 inches. Early settlers found the swampy portions of the county too wet for cultivation and these swamps wielded an unfavorable influence upon the general healthfulness of the climate. Dr. William C. Chapman, writing in 1888, says : "For some years before name was given to Toledo, there was, perhaps, no more unhealthy place upon the whole continent than at this point of Wood and Lucas counties. The river, from its headwaters at Fort Wayne, ran slowly through the marshes of the Black Swamp. The land being flat and covered with forests, with no drainage, was a hotbed of miasm, and was as uninviting as possible to the frontiersman. As land was redeemed from its primitive condition, after the plow furrow followed the malaria, until whole communities were prostrated with the dread fever and ague." 26 - TOLEDO AND LUCAS COUNTY Not only were fever and ague prevalent in those early days, but the more severe forms of remittent fever were general. As late as 1866 the death rate in Lucas County was almost seventeen persons for each one thousand inhabitants. Probably nowhere in the country has the effect of man's dominion over the forces of nature been more clearly illustrated than in Lucas County. With the clearing of the forests and the draining of the swamps, the fever and ague disappeared by 1875. The death rate decreased and since the year 1900 it has never exceeded twelve per thousand of the population in any one year. Dr. Charles E. Slocum, in his "History of the Maumee Valley," says : "Since the passing of the swamps and their miasms, the healthfulness of this basin ranks very favorably with that of any region in America. Most parts have been comparatively free from the severer forms of contagious diseases, including tuberculosis." CHAPTER II PREHISTORIC TOLEDO THEORIES REGARDING THE ABORIGINES-THE MOUND BUILDERS-OHIO MOUNDS-MOUND BUILDERS' DISTRICTS--LUCAS COUNTY MOUNDS-THE OLD FORTS AT TOLEDO-WHO WERE THE MOUND BUILDERS-THE MODERN VIEW. When the first white men came into the Maumee Valley they found the country peopled by Indian tribes ; but were these tribes the original occupants ? The question is more easily asked than answered. Owing to various theories that have been advanced, the origin of the aboriginal inhabitants of Central North America is veiled in obscurity. A number of writers—men who made a special study of the subject—have asserted their belief that the first occupants of the continent were descendants of the lost tribes of Israel. Among these were Prescott and School-craft, who have supported their theory with interesting and ingenious arguments to show that it was not impossible for the first inhabitants of North America to have come from Asia, either by being drifted across the Pacific Ocean or by way of Behring's Strait, and then gradually working their way southward into what are now the United States and Mexico. THE MOUND BUILDERS The first white settlements along the Atlantic coast were made in the early years of the Seventeenth Century. Almost a century and a half elapsed after these settlements were founded, before evidences were discovered to show that the interior had once been peopled by a peculiar race. One of the reports of the United States Bureau of Ethnology says : "During a period beginning some time after the close of the Ice Age and ending with the coming of the white man—or only a few generations bef ore—the central part of North America was inhabited by a people who had emerged to some extent from the darkness of savagery, had acquired certain domestic arts, and practiced some well-defined lines of industry. The location and boundaries inhabited by them are fairly well marked by the mounds and earthworks they erected." The center of this ancient civilization—if such it may be called—appears to have been in the present State of Ohio. From the relics left by this people, the name of "Mound Builders" has been conferred upon them by archaeologists. Most of the mounds so far discovered are conical in shape and are rarely more than a few feet in height. When opened they have generally been found to contain human skeletons, weapons and utensils. For this reason they have been designated as burial mounds. Others are in the form of truncated pyramids—that is, square or rectangular at the base and having a level area at the top. Mounds of this type frequently rise to a height of fifty or seventy-five feet and are supposed to have been - 27 - 28 - TOLEDO AND LUCAS COUNTY lookouts or signal stations. In some localities the mounds, or tumuli, take the form form of animals or birds. These are called effigy mounds. Notable examples of effigy mounds are the "Great Serpent," in Adams County, Ohio ; the "Eagle," in Putnam County, Georgia ; and the "Great Bear" mound, near Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Here and there are to be seen well-defined earthworks, indicating that they were erected as places of defense against invading enemies. In a few instances a large mound, surrounded by an embankment, outside of which are a number of small mounds, has been discovered. Investigation of such mounds has disclosed charcoal, ashes, charred bones, etc., which has given rise to the theory that they were centers of religious worship or sacrifice. OHIO MOUNDS Concerning the relics of the Mound Builders in Ohio, Francis C. Sessions, presi-dent of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society, wrote in 1887 : "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, Massachusetts, 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 ancient monuments of our state. There are many others as important as the 'Serpent,' which need attention at once to preserve them." Twelve years after the above was written by Mr. Sessions, Warren K. Moore-head, curator of the same society, gave in his report of field work the following list of known Ohio relics : |
Earth mounds (burial) Stone mounds Village sites Forts, earthworks, etc. Stone fortifications Groups of stone graves |
2,275 56 253 140 4 143 |
Total |
2,871 |
Gerard Fowke, in his "Notes on Ohio Archaeology," says : "The total number of mounds in Ohio has been estimated at ten thousand. 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 southeastern counties, there is scarcely a township in any other portion of the state in which they are not found." Among the important Mound Builders' works in Ohio are the "Great Serpent," TOLEDO AND LUCAS COUNTY - 29 already mentioned ; the Baum prehistoric village site in Ross County, from which many interesting relics have been taken ; the Adena Mound, near Chillicothe ; and Fort Ancient, on the left bank. of the Little Miami River in Warren County. The Adena Mound was originally 445 feet in circumference and 26 feet high. Some years ago it was almost entirely removed, the earth being used in the construction of a railroad. Archaeologists who were present at the time reported the finding of a large number of relics, including human skeletons, utensils, etc. Fort Ancient is one of the most interesting earthworks yet discovered. The total length of the embankment is 18,712 feet, or a little more than three and a half miles. At the base this embankment is over forty feet wide, is 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, Middle and New Forts. In the wall are seventy-four well preserved gateways or entrances. In 1894 the Ohio Legislature provided for the purchase of this work, which is now a state reservation. A similar earthwork, though much smaller, is found near Newark. MOUND BUILDERS' DISTRICTS Cyrus Thomas, of the United States Bureau of Ethnology, has divided the region once inhabited by the Mound Builders into eight districts, each of which is marked by certain characteristics not common with the others. The location of these districts can be fairly well determined by their names, to wit : 1. The Dacotah ; 2. The Huron-Iroquois ; 3. The Illinois ; 4. The Ohio ; 5. The Appalachian ; 6. The Tennessee ; 7. The Arkansas ; 8. The Gulf. The second of these districts—the Huron-Iroquois—is the one in which Toledo and Lucas County are situated. It embraces the country formerly inhabited by the Huron and Iroquois Indians and includes the greater part of the State of New York, a strip across the northern part of Ohio, the lower peninsula of Michigan, extending northward into Canada. Throughout this district burial mounds have been found, a number of fortifications have been noted, and "hut rings" (remains of the foundations of ancient dwellings) are abundant. LUCAS COUNTY MOUNDS In the list of Mound Builders' works above enumerated by Mr. Moorehead, fifteen are in Lucas County, to wit : Seven earth mounds, one glacial kame burial place 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. There is no record of any scientific exploration of these mounds and they have been practically obliterated by the plow of the husbandman. It appears that Mr. Moorehead overlooked the most important relics in the county. Grove K. Gilbert, of the Ohio Geological Survey, in his report on Lucas County, published in 1871, describes two small earthworks at Toledo. He says : "In regard to these works tradition is silent, and though it is questionable whether they belong to archaeology or modern history, it is well to describe them before they are entirely destroyed. "One is now intersected by Clayton and Oliver streets and has been nearly obliterated by grading, etc. It was pointed out to me by Mr. Charles A. Crane, an old 30 - TOLEDO AND LUCAS COUNTY resident, and from his description and such fragmentary portions as remain, I have been able to restore the outline. It has the form of a semicircle 400 feet in diameter, resting on the bluff of Swan Creek, down which the embankments were carried to the water. "The second work is similar in form and 387 feet in diameter. It is located on the east bluff of the Maumee River, in Oregon Township, just within the southern limit of Toledo ; and the field which it traverses has never been disturbed by the plow. The ridge rises less than two feet above the surface and the ditches from which the earth was removed remain within and without. The curve is irregular, as though its location had been influenced by trees, and at one point, probably the entrance, a second short ridge lies inside the principal. These and other facts have led to the conclusions : First, that the works are forts ; second, that the embankments supported stockades ; and third, that they belonged to a people using the river and protecting themselves against a foe in the forest. "There is little to indicate their antiquity. Human bones (probably of Indians), with fragments of pottery, bones of fish, deer, etc., and excavated kettle-shaped fireplaces are found in close proximity to the eastern work, but their connection was not established. The other was based on a channel of Swan Creek, doubtless then full of water, but at the commencement of the present occupation deserted by the stream and filled to the condition of a marsh, through which a cut for navigation has recently been dredged." Col. Charles Whittlesey, of Cleveland, made an examination and wrote a description of eight ancient earthworks in Northern Ohio. He says : "Of the works bordering on the shore of Lake Erie, there was none but may have been intended for defence ; 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 this 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." The most western of the eight forts described by Colonel Whittlesey was the one on the right bank of the Maumee at Toledo, one of those mentioned by Mr. Gilbert in his report of 1871. Concerning this fort S. S. Knabenshue wrote in the "Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly" for January, 1902 : "The site of this ancient work is on the east side, a little above the end of the Fassett Street bridge and directly back of the C. H. & D. elevator. The greater part is unfenced common. . . . 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 '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 fort was still in existence and the name was given in consequence." Fort Street is now Hathaway Street. Slocum, in his "History of the Maumee Valley," gives the old earthwork a slightly different location from that given by TOLEDO AND LUCAS COUNTY - 31 Knabenshue. lie says the upper embankment came to the river bank a few yards above Fassett Street and the south end was 387 feet down the river. He also says that the names "Fort and Crescent streets were suggestive of the use and form of the embankment." WHO WERE THE MOUND BUILDERS ? Various authors have written upon the subject and almost every one has a theory as to the origin of the Mound Builders. Some maintain their civilization was first established in the Ohio Valley, whence they worked their way gradually southward into Mexico and Central America, where the white man found their descendants in the Aztec Indians. Others, with arguments equally logical and plausible, contend that this ancient race originated in the South and migrated northward to the country about the Great Lakes, where their progress was checked by hostile tribes. The first survey of a scientific character was that made by Caleb Atwater, of Circleville, Ohio, in 1819, under the auspices of the Archaeological Society of Worcester, Massachusetts. Circleville derives its name from a circular earthwork on the left bank of the. Scioto River, in the center of which was erected the courthouse. Mr. Atwater was born at North Adams, Massachusetts, in December, 1778, and was educated for a Presbyterian minister. Later he studied law and in 1815 located at Circleville, where he died in 1854. His investigation of the mounds in Pickaway County proved them to be of artificial origin and awakened a widespread interest in the subject of archaeology. Among the earliest writers on the Mound Builders were Dr. Edwin H. Davis, of Chillicothe, Ohio, and Ephraim G. Squier, of New York. Between the years 1845 and 1848 these two men explored over two hundred mounds in the Ohio Valley. They wrote an account of their investigations, which, accompanied by diagrams and illustrations, was published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1848, under the title of "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley." This publication was the first systematic effort to describe the numerous mounds and other remains left by the Mound Builders and for years it stood at the head of the archaeological literature of North America. Since then the Smithsonian Institution has continued to publish books and monographs relating to this subject and many private investigators have published the results of their explorations. Practically all the early writers on archaeology in North America were agreed upon one thing, which was that the Mound Builders were a very ancient race. The principal reasons advanced in support of this theory were : First, the Indians had no traditions concerning many of the mounds and earthworks, and, second, trees several feet in diameter were found growing upon many of the relics at the time of their discovery by the white man. Growth rings of these trees were cited as evidence of their great 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. No inscriptions or hieroglyphics have been found to assist in the solution of the mystery, and much that has been written on the subject is based upon conjecture and speculation. In recent years archaeologists, who have made extensive research among the mounds and earthworks, are almost unanimous in the belief that the Mound. Builders were nothing more than the ancestors—more or less remote—of the Indian tribes found here by the white men. Says Brinton : 32 - TOLEDO AND LUCAS COUNTY "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 of 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 the 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." In this hypothesis Brinton is supported by the entire staff of scientists connected with the United States Bureau of Ethnology. These men have made a special study of the North American Indian tribes, their traditions, customs, etc., and in the investigation of archaeological remains they have been able to avail themselves of many advantages early writers did not possess. Hence, it is quite probable that the fortifications on Swan Creek and the east bank of the Maumee River, as well as the mounds found in other parts of Lucas County, were the work of the red savages who were the ancestors of the Miami, Ottawa or Wyandot Indians, who dwelt in this region when the first white men came to the Maumee Valley. CHAPTER III INDIAN HISTORY ORIGIN OF THE NAME "INDIAN "-TRIBAL DISTRIBUTION-THE CHIPPEWA-THE DELAWARE-THE HURON-THE IROQUOIS-THE MIAMI-THE OTTAWA-THE POTAWATOMI - THE SENECA - THE SHAW NEE -- MINOR TRIBES - HOW THE WHITE MAN GOT THE LAND-SPAIN'S POLICY IN DEALING WITH THE INDIANS-THE FRENCH POLICY-THE ENGLISH POLICY-POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES-EARLY TREATIES-TREATY OF GREENVILLE-TREATY OF FORT INDUSTRY-TREATY OF DETROIT-TREATY OF BROWNSTOWN-TREATY OF MAUMEE RAPIDS-TREATY OF 1831—TREATY OF MAUMEE. When Christopher Columbus made his first voyage to America in 1492, he believed that he had reached the goal of his long cherished ambitions, and that the country where he landed was the eastern coast of Asia. Early European explorers, entertaining a similar belief, thought the country was India and gave to the race of copper-colored people they found here the name of "Indians." Later explorations disclosed the fact that Columbus had really discovered a continent hitherto unknown. The error in geography was corrected, but the name given to the natives by the first adventurers still remains. Probably more pages have been written relating to the Indian tribes in North America than on any other one subject connected with American history. To the student of history there is a peculiar fascination in the story of these savage people—their legends, traditions, wars and customs—that makes the topic always one of surpassing interest. Therefore, no history of Toledo and its environs would be complete without some account of the tribes that inhabited the country before the advent of the white man. TRIBAL DISTRIBUTION The North American Indians are divided into various groups or families, each of which is distinguished by certain physical or linguistic characteristics. The groups are subdivided into tribes and each tribe is ruled over by a chief. At the beginning of the Sixteenth Century, when the Europeans began their explorations in America, they found the leading Indian families distributed over the continent as follows : In the far north were the Eskimo, a people that have never played a conspicuous part in history. These Indians still inhabit the country about the Arctic Circle, where some of them have been employed as guides at rare intervals by Arctic explorers, which has been about their only association with the white race. The Algonquian family, the largest and most powerful of all the Indian groups, inhabited a great triangle, roughly bounded by the Atlantic coast from Labrador to Cape Hatteras and by lines drawn from those two points to the western end of - 33 - 34 - TOLEDO AND LUCAS COUNTY Lake Superior. The principal Algonquian tribes were the Chippewa, Delaware, Miami, Potawatomie, Ottawa, Sac and Fox, Shawnee and the Huron or Wyandot. Almost in the center of the Algonquian triangle—along the shores of Lake Ontario —lived the Iroquoian group, composed of the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga and Seneca tribes. South of the Algonquian country, extending from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi River, was the domain of the Muskhogean group, the leading tribes of which were the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw and Creek. The Indians of this group were among the most intelligent, as well as the most aggressive and warlike of all the North American tribes. About the headwaters of the Mississippi River and extending westward to the Missouri was the country of the Siouan family, which was composed of a number of tribes closely resembling each other in physical appearance and dialect, all noted for their bravery and military prowess. South and west of the Siouan country dwelt the "Plains Indians," including the Arapaho, Apache, Cheyenne, Comanche, Kiowa and Pawnee. Still farther west lived the Shoshonean family, one of the smallest on the continent. In what are now the states of Arkansas and Louisiana was the Caddoan family, known as "hut builders." None of these western or southern tribes figured to any extent in the history of the Maumee Valley. In the present chapter the design is to notice only those tribes whose history is more or less connected with the country about Toledo. These were the Chippewa, Delaware, Huron, Iroquois, Miami, Ottawa, Potawatomie, Seneca, Shawnee and some minor tribes, which were really only subdivisions or offshoots of the larger ones. THE CHIPPEWA This was one of the largest tribes of the Algonquian family. The Indian name was Ojibwa, meaning "to roast till puckered up," a name conferred by other tribes on account of the Chippewa method of making moccasins with a puckered seam around the edge. Morgan divides the tribe into twenty-three clans or gentes, the most important of which were the bear, beaver, bald eagle, crane, snake, sturgeon, turtle and wolf. A Chippewa tradition says that at an early date the tribe was allied with the Ottawa and Potawatomie in a sort of confederacy known as the "Three Fires." During this period they inhabited the country on both shores of the northern part of Lake Michigan and the foot of Lake Superior. The French gave them the name of Sauteux, from the Sault Ste. Marie. At Mackinaw the Chippewa withdrew from the alliance and moved westward, though they subsequently participated in several treaties relating to the cession of lands in Ohio and Michigan. Although a large tribe numerically, the Chippewa were not as prominent in history as some of the smaller ones. Some of the tribe lived near Detroit and became the friends of the French. When the post was surrendered to the English in 1760, they transferred their allegiance to the new power. According to one account, it was a Chippewa girl who warned Major Gladwin (the English commandant at Detroit) of Pontiac's conspiracy in the spring of 1763. After the United States came into control of the country, the Chippewa continued to receive presents from the English until 1820, when a treaty of peace was concluded with them by Gov. Lewis Cass, of Michigan. TOLEDO AND LUCAS COUNTY - 35 The Chippewa believed in dreams, revelation's, etc., and that after death the good Indian would follow a plain road to a place where he would find everything he loved in life. Their dead were usually buried in a sitting posture, with the body facing westward. THE DELAWARE The Delaware nation was composed of three phratries—the Munsee, the Unami and the Unalachtigo—the three constituting the Leni Lenape, or "real men." The French called them Loups (wolves). In 1682 they took part in making the first treaty with William Penn. At that time their great council fire was about where Germantown, a suburb of Philadelphia, now stands. They inhabited the country along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, were friendly with the whites and traded with the Dutch of New Amsterdam (now New York City). According to tradition, the Lenape formed the parent stock of many tribes and became known as the "grandfather of nations." Among these the Iroquois or Mengwe was a favored grandchild, but as he grew to manhood and became strong he raised his hand against the Lenape, who finally marched into the Iroquois country with many warriors and won victory after victory. Then came the "Big Knives" or white men into Canada, which placed the Iroquois between two fires. In this crisis Than-na-wa-ge, a wise Mohawk chief, advised peace with the Lenape. A deputation of the principal men was sent to the Lenape, bearing the sacred calumet and peace-belt, and succeeded in persuading them to bury the hatchet. Thus the Delaware nation became subject to the Iroquois. "In a luckless hour," says the legend, "the Lenape gave their consent and became women: The Iroquois appointed a great feast and invited the Delaware nation. 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 squaws and peacemakers. 'We dress you,' said the Iroquois orator, 'in a woman's long robe, reaching down to your feet, and we adorn your ears with rings. Upon your arms we hang a calabash, filled with oils and medicines. With the oils you shall cleanse the ears of other nations, that they may listen to good instead of evil counsel 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 toward peace. And we deliver into your hands a plant of Indian corn and a hoe, which shall be the emblems of your future calling and pursuit.' "In this manner the great peace-belt, the chain of friendship was laid upon the shoulders of the powerful Leni Lenape, who became women, buried the tomahawk, planted the corn and forgot the glories which Areskoui confers upon the successful and dauntless warrior." The peace between the Delaware and the Iroquois was made about 1720 and lasted for about thirty years. In 1751 the Delaware and Huron formed a sort of alliance and at the close of the French and Indian war the former again became an independent nation. From that time until the treaty of Greenville in 1795, the Delaware tribe was one of the most determined opponents of the encroachments of the whites upon the Indian lands in Ohio. After the treaty of Greenville the main body of the tribe located in what is now Southern Indiana and about the Gnadenhutten mission in Ohio. They joined in several treaties with the United States and about 1835 most of them were removed to a reservation in Kansas. 36 - TOLEDO AND LUCAS COUNTY THE HURON According to the United States Bureau of Ethnology, the Huron confederacy consisted of f our tribes of Iroquoian stock, called the Bear, Cord, Deer and Rock people. Their alliance was known as the Wendat (or Sendat) confederacy. The name Huron originated from the French "hure," meaning bristly, and was given to these Indians because of their coarse, bristly hair. In 1615 Champlain found the f our confederated tribes living about the Georgian Bay and the eastern coast of Lake Huron. He estimated their number at thirty thousand and says they had eighteen populous villages, eight of which were fortified with palisades. About forty years later they became involved in a war with the Iroquoian tribes and were driven to take refuge with the Erie Indians, whom they persuaded to join them in the war. In 1656 the allied tribes were defeated with heavy losses and the Huron survivors fled to Christian Island in the Georgian Bay. Finding that locality unsafe, they retired to Michilimackinac, whither they were pursued by their old enemies. The Iroquois advance was checked by the Chippewa and the Huron went on to the vicinity of the Green Bay, where they formed an alliance with some of the Ottawa and Potawatomie. According to the Jesuit Relatibns, a Huron settlement was founded in 1670 on Mantoulin Island, where the next year Father Jacques Marquette established the Mission of St. Ignace. In June, 1703, some thirty Huron families from this settlement located near Detroit and became the firm friends of the French. In 1745 the French commandant at Detroit offended Chief Orontony (or Nicholas), who, with his followers, left Detroit and established a village near where Sandusky now stands. There he began the formation of a conspiracy for the destruction of Detroit and other French posts, but a Huron woman revealed the plot to a Jesuit priest, who in turn notified the commandant at Detroit. Orontony then destroyed his village near Sandusky, and led his band to the White River in Indiana, where he established a new village. He died there in the fall of 1748. Upon the death of their leader the band returned to Sandusky, where they took the name of Wendat instead of Huron. This name was soon generally known as "Wyandot," and as the Wyandot nation they laid claim to a large part of the present State of Ohio. During the War of 1812 they supported the English and by the peace of 1815 the tribe was granted a large tract of land in Ohio and Michigan. Most of this land was ceded to the United States in 1817, the tribe accepting two reservations, one near Upper Sandusky and the other on the Huron River in Southern Michigan. In 1842 these reservations were sold to the United States and the occupants removed to what is now Wyandotte County, Kansas. The remnant of the tribe now occupies a reservation in the northeastern part of Oklahoma. The Huron, or Wyandot, recognized and enforced the rights of ownership and inheritance of property ; frowned upon theft, murder and various other offenses recognized as such by the white man's code. After their removal to Kansas they established a sort of civil government. In their religion they were Nature worshipers, nearly every material object being a deity of greater or less importance. THE IROQUOIS Strictly speaking, there were no Iroquois Indians, that name being applied in a general way to all the tribes of the same stock, ethnologically known as the Iro- TOLEDO AND LUCAS COUNTY - 37 quoian family. In 1534 Jacques Cartier met with these Indians on the shore of the Gaspe Basin and on both banks of the St. Lawrence River between Quebec and Montreal, which was their first acquaintance with the white race. The word Iroquois means "We are of the extended lodge." It was given to the confederacy formed in the latter part of the Sixteenth Century by the Cayuga, Mohawk,. Oneida, Onondaga and Seneca tribes, after wars with other tribes led them to unite for their common defense. This confederacy was known to the early settlers of New York as the "Five Nations." It claimed nearly all the St. Lawrence Valley, the basins of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, the eastern shore of Lake Huron, and all the present State of New York except the lower Hudson Valley. Says F. W. Hodge "In this confederacy each tribe was an independent political unit, which sent delegates to a general council. The Five Nations were second to none north of Mexico in their political organization, statecraft and military prowess. Their chiefs were diplomats of ability and nearly always proved a match for the white men, when the two races met in council for the negotiation of treaties, etc. In 1722 the Tuscarora tribe was added to the confederacy, which then took the name of the Six Nations." Champlain, in one of his early expeditions, joined a party of Canadian Indians at war with the Five Nations, who thereby became the bitter and lasting enemies of the French. Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries tried in vain to win them to the Catholic faith and in the French and Indian war they fought on the side of the English. They were cruel in war and it has been stated that they often ate the flesh of their enemies killed in battle. THE MIAMI Among the great tribes of the Algonquian family, the Miami (called Twightwees by the early English) occupied a large territory in Southern Michigan, Western Ohio and Central Indiana. Some idea of the extent of their claims may be gained from the speech of the great chief, Little Turtle, at the council of Greenville in August, 1795. "My fathers," said he, "kindled the first fire at Detroit ; from there they extended their lines to the headwaters of the Scioto ; from there to its mouth ; then down the Ohio to the mouth of the Wabash ; then to Chicago and over Lake Michigan. These are the boundaries within which the prints of my ancestors' houses are everywhere to be seen." The Miami was one of the first tribes to establish friendly relations with the French. As early as 1703 there was a considerable Miami colony at Detroit, but their principal settlement at that time was on the shore of Lake Michigan, in the southwest corner of the present State of Michigan. Subsequently the tribal headquarters were established at the head of the Maumee River, where the City of Fort Wayne, Indiana, now stands. Among the Miami agriculture was practiced in a primitive way, the women, as in other tribes, doing the work of the field and wigwam, while the men engaged in hunting or "went on the war path." They were less treacherous than many of the tribes and appear to have had a higher sense of honor. When the peace treaty of Greenville was concluded on August 3, 1795, some of the Maimi chiefs objected to certain provisions, but finally yielded to the majority. As Little Turtle "touched the goose quill" he said : "I am the last to sign 38 - TOLEDO AND LUCAS COUNTY this agreement and I will be the last to break it." He kept his word and remained on terms of peace with the white people until his death at Fort Wayne on July 14, 1812. The Miami intermarried with the. whites and some of their descendants still live in the Wabash Valley in Indiana. THE OTTAWA According to tradition the Ottawa, Chippewa and Potawatomi were originally one people, which came from some point north of the Great Lakes and separated in the vicinity of Mackinaw. The first mention of the Ottawa in history was in 1615, when Champlain met about three hundred of them on the eastern shore of Lake Huron. Their early habitat was on the shores of the Georgian Bay. Those met by Champlain told him that they had come to that locality to gather and dry huckleberries. Champlain gave them the name of "les cheueux releuez" and in his description of them says : "Their arms consisted only of a bow and arrows, a buckler of boiled leather or rawhide. They wore no breech clouts, their bodies were tattooed in many fashions and designs, their faces painted and their noses pierced." From their pierced noses an ornament consisting of a small shell, a bright pebble or the tooth of some animal was suspended. This custom was doubtless responsible for the conclusion reached by some of the early writers, that the term Ottawa signified "the nation with a hole in the nose." But this theory is not sustained by the United States Bureau of Ethnology, the "Handbook" of which says : "The name Ottawa was applied to these Indians because in early traditional times and also during the historic period they were noted among their neighbors as intertribal traders and barterers, dealing chiefly in corn meal, sunflower oil, furs , and skins, rugs and mats, tobacco and medicinal roots and herbs." The Jesuit Relation for 1667 says the Ottawa then claimed the country along the Ottawa River in Canada, and that no other nation was permitted to navigate the stream without their consent. At that time the Ottawa and part of the Huron nation were living together. Three or four years later the Huron moved into what is now the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. A little later it seems that a portion of the Ottawa also gained a foothold on the west side of Lake Huron, settling in the vicinity of the Saginaw Bay, where they formed an alliance with the Potawatomi. In 1703, at the invitation of Cadillac, the Ottawa established a village opposite Detroit, where Windsor now stands, and there built a picket fort. For more than half a century they were the steadfast friends of the French and on numerous occasions assisted the little garrison at Detroit in repelling the attacks of hostile tribes. From Detroit a portion of the tribe moved southward into the Maumee Valley. The celebrated chief, Pontiac, was born on the Maumee, near the present City of Defiance, about 1720. It is said that his mother was a Chippewa. He became the leading chief of the Ottawa nation ; commanded the Indians in the defense of Detroit in 1746 ; led the Ottawa and Chippewa warriors in the French and Indian war, and took an active part in the defeat of General Braddock's army in 1755. After the French posts about the Great Lakes and in the Wabash Valley were surrendered to the English in 1760, many of the Ottawa grew dissatisfied with the new power. In the fall of 1762 Pontiac traveled many miles through the forests TOLEDO AND LUCAS COUNTY - 39 in the endeavor to unite the tribes in an uprising against the British. He was partially successful and in May, 1763, assaults were made simultaneously on the posts at Michilimackinac, Detroit, Niagara, Miami (Fort Wayne, Indiana), Sandusky, Fort Du Quesne (Pittsburgh), St. Joseph and Ouiatenon (Lafayette, Indiana), and a few minor posts. Detroit and Fort Du Quesne held out, but at most of the the other places the garrisons were massacred. The uprising was ended by the treaty of August 17, 1765, and about four years later Pontiac was killed by a Kaskaskia Indian during a drunken carousal at Cahokia, Illinois. It has been stated that a trader hired the Kaskaskia to assassinate Pontiac. The Ottawa were good farmers and experts in handling their canoes. At the close of the Revolutionary war a portion of the tribe refused to submit to the authority of the United States and removed to Canada. Those who remained joined with other tribes in relinquishing their claims to lands in Ohio and Michigan, the last of which was made in 1833. A few years later the tribe was removed to a reservation near Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. THE POTAWATOMI This tribe was one of the greatest of the Algonquian group. The name Potawatomi means "the people of the place of fire," or "nation of fire." The first authentic account of these Indians is that given by Jean Nicollet, who found them in 1634 living with the Winnebago and some other tribes about the Green Bay on the west shore of Lake Michigan. The Jesuit Relation for 1671 says : "Four nations make their abode here (Green Bay), namely : Those who bear the name of Puans (Winnebago), who have always lived here as in their own country, and who have been reduced to almost nothing from being a very flourishing and populous people, having been exterminated by their enemies, the Illini ; the Potawatomi, the Sauk and the Nation of the Fork also lived here, but as strangers or foreigners, driven by the fear of the Iroquois from their own lands, which are between the lake of the Hurons and the country of the Illini." This would indicate that the original habitat of the Potawatomi was somewhere near the foot of Lake Huron. When the Relation of 1671 was written, the tribe was moving toward the south and east. Soon after Detroit was founded a Potawatomi village was established near that post, *where early French writers became acquainted with the tradition that the Ottawa, Potawatomi nd Chippewa had once lived together about the Sault Ste. Marie. The tribe remained loyal friends of the French. In 1763 many of the Potawatomi warriors joined Pontiac in his attempt to drive the English out of the country. They fought on the side of the British in the Revolution and a considerable portion of the tribe was engaged in the battle of Fallen Timbers, August 20, 1794. At the council of Greenville in August, 1795, the Potawatomi chiefs notified the Miami that it was their intention to move down upon the Wabash River, which they did soon afterward, in spite of the protests of the Miami, who claimed the entire Wabash Valley. At the beginning of the Nineteenth Century the tribe was in possession of the country around the head of Lake Michigan, from the Milwaukee River to the Grand River in Michigan, extending eastward across Southern Michigan, southwest over a large part of Northern Illinois and southward to the Wabash River in Indiana. Within this large territory they had fifty 40 - TOLEDO AND LUCAS COUNTY or more populous villages. In the War of 1812 they again took the side of the British, which was their undoing. After that war they joined in a number of treaties, ceding tract after tract of land in Indiana, Ohio and Michigan to the United States. The last of their lands was relinquished in 1841, when they removed to a reservation in what is now the State of Kansas. There were fifteen Potawatomi clans or gentes, the most important of which were the bear, beaver, eagle, fox, sturgeon, loon, thunder and wolf. Polygamy was common among them when the first missionaries visited the tribe. In their mythology they were guided by two spirits— Kitchemonedo, the Great Spirit, and Matchemonedo, the Evil Spirit—and they were sun worshipers to some extent. Their great annual festival was called the "Feast of Dreams," at which dog meat was served as the leading dish. THE SENECA The Seneca tribe was the most powerful of the Five Nations and furnished the greater part of the Iroquois army in the wars with the Huron, Neuter and Erie Indians about the middle of the Seventeenth Century. When first encountered by the white men the Seneca occupied the country between Seneca Lake and the Geneva River in Western New York. The name means "people of the stone," or "place of the stone." The tribe took part in the Pontiac uprising of 1763 and fought on the side of the British in the Revolution. At the close of that war they moved westward and established themselves on the south shore of Lake Erie, between the present cities of Cleveland and Sandusky. Between the years 1795 and 1831 the Seneca were interested in several treaties with the United States. By the treaty of September 29, 1817, they were granted a reservation of 40,000 acres on the Sandusky River. This reservation was sold to the United States on February 28, 1831, and a little later the remainder of the tribe removed to Kansas. THE SHAWNEE The Shawnee Indians have been called by some writers the "American Arabs." A tribal tradition says they once inhabited a territory in the present State of Pennsylvania, immediately south of the Five Nations, with whom they were always in trouble. They were finally driven out by the Five Nations and when they reached Cumberland Gap a council was held to determine which way they should go. A difference of opinion resulted in a division of the tribe, one faction going to the Savannah River and the other to the region between the Ohio and Tennessee rivers. The latter was driven out by the Cherokee and Chickasaw and after wandering for some time located in the Scioto Valley. Tecumseh, the great Shawnee chief, was born near the present City of Springfield, Ohio. At various periods bands of the tribe inhabited different sections of the country from Lake Erie to Florida. Some lived west of the Mississippi, in what is now the State of Missouri, on lands granted to them by the Spanish authorities. Gen. Manning F. Force, in a paper read before the American Historical Society in 1879, says : "Their eccentric wanderings, their sudden appearances and disappearances, perplex the antiquary and defy research." Shawnee warriors fought TOLEDO AND LUCAS COUNTY - 41 against Harmar, St. Clair and Wayne and in the War of 1812 a portion of the tribe under Tecumseh was allied with the British. The Shawnee took part in the negotiation of several treaties relating to the Indian lands in Ohio and after the last of these lands were ceded to the United States accepted a reservation in Kansas. MINOR TRIBES In addition to the tribes above described there were a few whose connection with the history of the country about Toledo was very slight. Among these were the Kickapoo, whose home was on the lower Wabash River ; the Kaskaskia, one of the Illinois tribes ; the Piankesha, Eel River and Wea, who occupied small districts in Central Indiana ; the allied Sac and Fox tribes, and the Winnebago. Most of these tribes took part in the Indian wars which followed the Revolution and the chiefs of several signed the treaty of Greenville. There were certain traits of character common to all the tribes. They were fond of ornament and decorated their persons with pebbles, teeth of animals, shells, feathers and claws of birds, etc. The dog was the only domestic animal of the Indians about the Great Lakes (the western tribes owned ponies). At meal time the dog was always present, and as the Indians ate with their fingers, they used the dog for a napkin. When food was plentiful feasts were common. On such occasions the policy was "eat all you can." When game was scarce they frequently ate their dogs. Some of the tribes raised corn, beans and other vegetables, which they boiled together in a dish called "succotash." Nearly all were fond of games and would wager their all on a game of la crosse—a game of ball played with rackets, something like those used in tennis, the object being to drive the ball to a fixed goal. The side winning the greatest number of goals within a given time also won the game. Another favorite game was played with plum seeds, one side of which was scraped white and the other colored black. These seeds were placed in a small cup or dish, shaken like dice, and cast upon the ground. The player throwing the greatest number of white seeds won the stake. HOW THE WHITE MAN GOT THE LAND When the first white men came to what is now the State of Ohio, they found the Indians in possession of the country. The red men had no established system of fixing boundaries or recording deeds, yet, except in a few instances, each tribe or confederacy occupied a certain district as its exclusive hunting grounds, until driven out by a more powerful tribe. By the treaty of September 3, 1783, which ended the Revolutionary war, England acknowledged the independence of the United States, the western boundary of which was fixed at the Mississippi River. Thus the new republic inherited all the rights and powers of the mother country in dealing with the natives. But Great Britain had no power to extinguish the Indian title to the lands, leaving that problem to be solved by the Federal Government. Before the United States could come into formal and complete possession, it was therefore necessary that some agreement be made with the natives that would permit the white people to occupy and develop the territory. In this connection it may be interesting to the reader to notice briefly the policies of the several European nations claiming territory in America regarding their relations with the Indians. 42 - TOLEDO AND LUCAS COUNTY SPAIN'S POLICY When Cortez was commissioned captain-general of New Spain in 1529, he was instructed to "give special attention to the conversion of the Indians; to see that no Indians be given to the .Spaniards as servants ; that they pay such tribute to His Majesty as they can easily afford ; that there shall be a good correspondence between the Spaniards and the natives, and that no wrong shall ever be offered the latter, either in their goods, families or persons." Despite these instructions, during the conquest of Mexico the treatment of the Indians was often cruel in the extreme. Many of them were enslaved and forced to work in the mines to satisfy the avarice of their Spanish taskmasters. Don Sebastian Ramirez, bishop and acting governor after Cortez, honestly tried to carry out the humane instructions of the Spanish Government, but soon discovered that he was not to be sustained. Antonio de Herrera, the Spanish historian, says : "Under the administration of Bishop Ramirez the country was much improved and all things carried on with equity, to the general satisfaction of all good men." With regard to possession, the Spaniards never accepted the idea that the Indians owned all the land, but only such portions as might be actually occupied, or that might be necessary to supply their wants. All the rest of the land they considered as belonging to Spain "by right of discovery," and was taken without compensation. THE FRENCH POLICY It seems that the French had no settled policy concerning the possession of or title to the land. In the early charters or letters patent to companies and individuals, giving them exclusive right to trade with the natives, nothing was said about the acquisition of the lands. As a matter of fact, the early French in America cared very little for the absolute ownership of the lands, their principal object being the control of the fur trade. In the establishment of trading posts only a small tract of land was required for each post, and the trader and his retinue usually lived with the Indians as "tenants in common." At some of the posts a few acres would be cleared, for the purpose of raising vegetables, but the great forests were rarely disturbed, leaving the hunting grounds of the natives unmolested. If a trading post was abandoned, the small cultivated tract reverted to the Indian owners. It was not until about the close of the Seventeenth Century that the French interested themselves in the subject of land ownership. Under such a liberal policy it is not surprising that the French traders and the natives were almost always on friendly terms. THE ENGLISH POLICY Great Britain's method of dealing with the Indians was different from either that of Spain or France. The English colonists wanted to establish permanent homes and cultivate the soil. Consequently, title to the land was the first consideration. The English Government, however, treated the Indian as a barbarian and in making land grants ignored any claim he might have to the soil. The so-called "Great Patent of New England," the Plymouth Company's charter, included "all the land from 40̊ to 48̊ north latitude and from sea to sea" and made not the slightest allusion to the Indian title. TOLEDO AND LUCAS COUNTY - 43 The charters granted by the English monarch to Lord Baltimore and William Penn gave the grantees authority to collect troops, make war upon the barbarians and other enemies who might make incursions into the settlements, pursue and capture them, and put to death or spare the lives of the captives as their discretion might dictate. After the settlements reached a point where the local authorities were called upon to deal with the question, each colony adopted a policy of its own. That of Pennsylvania was perhaps the only one whose "foundations were laid deep and secure in the principles of everlasting justice." Several of the colonies followed Penn's example and bought the land of the tribal chiefs. In a number of instances failure to quiet the Indian title by purchase resulted in bloody and disastrous wars. All the European nations that acquired territory in America asserted in themselves and recognized in others the exclusive right of the discoverer to claim and appropriate the lands occupied by the natives, but France was the only one which exercised that right with a due regard for the original occupants. Says Park-man : "Spanish civilization crushed the Indian English civilization scorned and neglected him ; French civilization embraced and cherished him." POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES The founders of the United States Government were either from England or descendants, for the most part, of English ancestors, and they copied the English policy with certain modifications. The Articles of Confederation, the first organic law of the American Republic, provided that : "The United States in Congress assembled shall have the exclusive right and power of regulating the trade and managing all affairs with the Indians not members of any of the states, provided that the legislative right of any state within its limits be not infringed or violated." Under this provision Congress, on September 22, 1783, issued a manifesto forbidding all persons to settle upon Indian lands. Then came the Federal Constitution, which superseded the Articles of Confederation, and which vested in Congress the power to deal with all matters arising out of the Government's relation with the Indian tribes. On March 1, 1793, President Washington approved an act regulating trade and intercourse with the Indians, in which it was expressly enacted : "That no purchase or grant of lands, or any title or claim thereto, from any nation or tribe of Indians, within the bounds of the United States, shall be of any validity, in law or equity, unless the same be made by a treaty or convention entered into pursuant to the Constitution." The aims of Congress in the enactment of this law were : First, to prevent adventurers from trespassing upon the Indian lands, thereby provoking conflicts with the natives ; and, second, to establish a system by which Indian title might be extinguished and possession of the land guaranteed for all time to come. The penalty for violation of any of the provisions of the act was a fine of $1,000 and imprisonment for a term not exceeding twelve months. With amendments, this law remained the basis of all transactions with the Indians until 1871. Cyrus Thomas, of the United States Bureau of Ethnology, says : "By the act of March 3, 1871, the legal fiction of recognizing the tribes as independent nations, with which the United States could enter into solemn treaty, was, after it had continued nearly one hundred years, finally .done away with. The effect of this act was to bring under the immediate control of Congress the trans- 44 - TOLEDO AND LUCAS COUNTY actions with the Indians and reduce to simple agreements what had before been accomplished by solemn treaties." EARLY TREATIES Soon after the Federal Constitution went into effect, the Government began making treaties with the Indians. The first treaties were merely expressions of peace and friendship, but as the white population increased and more territory was needed, treaties in which the Indians agreed to relinquish certain tracts of land were negotiated. On October 22, 1784, Richard Butler, Arthur Lee and Oliver Wolcott, as commissioners of the United States, concluded a treaty with the Six Nations at Fort Stanwix, New York. This treaty was made before the adoption of the Constitution. It is of peculiar interest in the history of Toledo and the Maumee Valley because it fixed the western boundary of the domain of the Six Nations, beginning at a point on the shore of Lake Ontario, four miles east of Niagara, and running by certain described courses to the "forks of the Ohio," where now stands the City of Pittsburgh. Prior to the conclusion of this treaty, the Six. Nations were frequently at war with the tribes about Lakes Erie and Huron. In accepting the above boundary the Six Nations made no further forays and the treaty brought peace to the Ohio tribes, particularly the Wyandot. By the treaty of Fort Harmar, January 9, 1789, between Gen. Arthur St. Clair, representing the United States, and the chiefs of the Six Nations, the treaty of Fort Stanwix was modified so as to give the Six Nations some additional territory in Western New York. This treaty remained in force until the Six Nations ceded their lands to the United States and removed to reservations. TREATY OF GREENVILLE Late in July, 1795, a great council of Indians was called at Greenville, Ohio, by Gen. Anthony Wayne, acting under the authority of the United States. For the events which led to the calling of this council see the chapter on Indian Wars. Chiefs of twelve tribes were present at the council, to wit : The Chippewa, Delaware, Eel River, Kaskaskia, Kickapoo, Miami, Ottawa, Piankesha, Potawatomi, Shawnee, Wea and Wyandot. On August 3, 1795, a treaty was concluded which established a boundary line between the Indian possessions and the white settlements : "Beginning at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River and up that stream to the portage between the Cuyahoga and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum River ; thence down the Tuscarawas branch to the crossing place above Fort Lawrence (Laurens) ; thence westerly to that branch of the Great Miami River running into the Ohio, at or near which fork stood Loramie's store, and where commenced the portage between the Miami of the Ohio and the St. Mary's River, which is a branch of the Miami which runs into Lake Erie ; thence in a westerly course to Fort Recovery, which stands .on a branch of the Wabash ; thence southwesterly in a direct line to the Ohio River, so as to intersect that river opposite the mouth of the Kentucky or Cuttawa River." All the .country south and east of this line was ceded to the United States, to be opened to white settlement. That portion of Ohio north and west of the line THE TREATY OF GREENVILLE Most important of all Indian treaties, settling the boundary between the United States and Indian lands north of the Ohio by a line zigzagging southwestward from the mouth of the Cuyahoga to near Cincinnati, was signed August 3, 1795, after two months of negotiation between General Wayne and Indian chiefs. Twelve tribes were represented and the total number of aborigines present was 1,130. Eighty-eight chiefs signed the treaty, together with General Wayne's staff and his interpreters and spies, including the well known Capt. William Wells. Above are some of the signatures which are fairly characteristic of all. Two of the most celebrated are represented in the above illustrations: Tar-he, a Wyandot, and Little Turtle, the Miami, who commanded the Indians at St. Clair's defeat. Little Turtle was also the foster father of Captain Wells. These two Indians impressed the whites with their statesmanlike qualities and were men of real character. General Wayne owed a great deal to the diplomacy and moderation of Tar-he. who was one of the first to recognize the necessity of yielding to the United States and abandoning English alliances. Little Turtle was chief spokesman for the Indians and in gaining his allegiance to the treaty General Wayne's contest was won. TOLEDO AND LUCAS COUNTY - 47 remained the domain of the Indians, except sixteen small tracts which were ceded to the United States for military purposes. These tracts were as follows : 1. One piece of land six miles square at Loramie's store, about twelve miles northwest of the present Town of Sidney. 2. One piece of land two miles square at the head of navigable waters on the St. Mary's River, near Girty's Town. This tract was about twenty miles east of Fort Recovery. 3. A tract six miles square at the head of navigation on the Auglaize River, not far from the present City of Lima. 4. A tract six miles square at the confluence of the Auglaize River and the Miami of Lake Erie (the Maumee), where the City of Defiance now stands. 5. One piece of land six miles square at or near the confluence of the St. Mary's and St. Joseph's rivers, where the City of Fort Wayne, Indiana, is now situated. 6. One piece of land two miles square on the Wabash River, at the end of the portage from the Miami of the Lake (the Maumee) and about eight miles rom Fort Wayne. 7. A tract of six miles square at the Ouiatenon, or old Wea towns on the abash River, not far from the present City of Lafayette, Indiana. 8. One piece of land twelve miles square at the British fort on the Miami of the Lake (the Maumee), at the foot of the rapids, a short distance up the river from the present City of Toledo. 9. A tract six miles square at the mouth of the Miami of the Lake, where it empties into Lake Erie. A portion of this tract is now within the limits of the City of Toledo. 10. A tract six miles square on the Sandusky Lake, where a fort formerly ood. 11. One piece of land two miles square at the lower rapids of the Sandusky River, not far from the present City of Fremont. 12. The post of Detroit and all the land to the north, the west and the south of it, of which the Indian title has been extinguished by gifts or grants to the French or English governments, etc. 13. The post of Michilimackinac and all the land on the island on which that post stands, and the main land adjacent, of which the Indian title has been extinguished by gifts or grants to the French or English governments. 14. A tract six miles square at the mouth of the Chikago River, emptying into the southwest end of Lake Michigan, where a fort formerly stood. This tract is now within the city limits of Chicago. 15. A piece of land twelve miles square at or near the mouth of the Illinois River, where it empties into the Mississippi. This tract included the old French post of Kaskaskia. 16. One piece of land six miles square at the old Peoria fort and village, near the south end of Illinois Lake on the Illinois River, where the City of Peoria now stands. The Indians also granted to the people of the United States free passage by land or water through their country along the following routes : From Loramie's store via the St. Mary's River to Fort Wayne and down the Miami (Maumee) to Lake Erie from Loramie's store down the Auglaize to Fort 48 - TOLEDO AND LUCAS COUNTY Defiance, from Loramie's store to the Sandusky River and down the same to the Sandusky Bay ; from Sandusky Bay to the foot of the Miami Rapids and thence to Detroit ; from the mouth of the Chikago River to the Illinois River and down the same to the Mississippi ; from Fort Wayne to the Wabash River and down the Wabash to the Ohio. The United States also reserved the posts at Vincennes and Fort Massac, with all lands adjacent thereto, of which the Indian title had been extinguished. The cessions made by the treaty of Greenville were the first ever made by the Indians to the United States. By this treaty about two-thirds of the State of Ohio became the property of the white race, only the northwestern third remaining in the hands of the Indians. The small cessions within the Indian territory have been enumerated, because they constituted "the thin end of the edge," which resulted in the negotiation of other treaties, until all the states of Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin—the old Northwest Territory—passed into the hands of the white man. TREATY OF FORT INDUSTRY Fort Industry stood near the intersection of Monroe and Summit streets in the present City of Toledo. On July 4, 1805, the chiefs and head men of the Chippewa, Delaware, Munsee, Ottawa, Potawatomi and Shawnee tribes met with representatives of the United States at this fort and entered into a treaty, by which they ceded all claims to the Connecticut Western Reserve. The western boundary of the ceded lands was a line drawn due south from the shore of Lake Erie (not far from the present Town of Port Clinton) to the boundary established by the treaty of Greenville, and the eastern boundary was the Cuyahoga River. The northern half of the cession included the district known as the Western Reserve and 500,000 acres of the "fire lands," that is, lands granted to citizens of Connecticut to compensate them for property burned by the British during the Revolutionary war. For these lands the Connecticut Land Company agreed to pay the Indians $16,000 and an annuity of $1,000 for a given number of years. The southern half—that portion between the forty-first parallel of north latitude and the Greenville boundary—was a new cession to the United States for white settlement. TREATY OF DETROIT On November 17, 1807, William Hull, then governor of Michigan Territory and superintendent of Indian affairs, held a council with the chiefs of the Chippewa, Ottawa, Potawatomi and Wyandot tribes at Detroit, which resulted in the conclusion of a treaty, by which the tribes ceded to the United States a large tract of land, bounded as follows : "Beginning at the mouth of the Miami River of the Lakes and running thence up the middle thereof to the mouth of the Great Auglaize River ; thence running due north until it intersects a parallel of latitude to be drawn from the outlet of Lake Huron, which forms the River St. Clair ; thence running northeast, the course that may be found will lead in a direct line to the White Rock in Lake Huron ; thence due east until it intersects the boundary line between the United TOLEDO AND LUCAS COUNTY - 49 States and Upper Canada in said lake ; thence southwardly, following the said boundary line, through the River St. Clair, Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River into Lake Erie, to a point due east of the said Miami River ; thence west to the place of beginning." Included in the tract thus ceded was that part of Ohio north of the Maumee River and east of the line running due north from the mouth of the Auglaize River at Defiance. By this treaty that part of Lucas County north of the Maumee River became subject to white settlement. For the lands relinquished the United States agreed to pay the sum of $10,000, "in money or in goods and animals for the improvement of husbandry, at the option of the Indians." Of this sum the Chippewa and Ottawa were each to receive $3,333.33 and the remainder was to be divided equally between the Potawatomi and Wyandot tribes. In addition to this initial payment, the Indians were to receive "forever" an annuity of $2,400, to be divided among the tribes as follows : Chippewa, $800 ; Ottawa, $800; Potawatomi, $400; Wyandot, $400. Subsequent treaties stopped the payment of the annuity. Within the above described boundaries the Indians were given eight reservations, three of which were in Ohio, to wit : One six miles square on the Miami of Lake Erie above Roche de Boeuf, to include the Village of Tondagamie (the Dog) ; one 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 Presque Isle; and one four miles square on the Miami (Maumee) Bay, to include the villages of Meshkemau and Waugau. The second of these reservations was located at the Wolf Rapids, Presque Isle being within the limits of the twelve miles square ceded to the United States by the treaty of Greenville. TREATY OF BROWNSTOWN On November 25, 1808, a treaty was concluded at Brownstown, Michigan, with the Chippewa, Ottawa, Potawatomi, Shawnee and Wyandot Indians. The lands affected by this treaty were all within the present State of Michigan, but the tribes ceded to the United States "a tract of land for a road 120 feet wide from the foot of the rapids of the River Miami of Lake Erie to the western line of the Connecticut reserve, and all the land within one mile of said road on each side thereof, for the purpose of establishing settlements along the same." The road began at a point on the Maumee River opposite Fort Meigs and followed a southeasterly course, via Fremont, until it struck the west line of the reserve about due west of the present City of Norwalk. TREATY OF MAUMEE RAPIDS That part of Lucas County lying south (or east) of the Maumee River came into the hands of the United States by a treaty concluded at the foot of the Maumee Rapids on September 29, 1817. The tribes participating in this treaty were the Chippewa, Delaware, Ottawa, Potawatomi, Seneca, Shawnee and Wyandot. The Wyandot (the other tribes consenting) ceded to the United States a large tract of land in Ohio and Indiana, bounded as follows : "Beginning at a point on the southern shore of Lake Erie, where the present
|