AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 25 Newberry Township is the most elevated in the county. In the Stillwater region, especially in Union Township, the elevation is again marked, and precipitous banks in some places fringe that historic stream, but these acclivities lose themselves in gentle undulations until they become level plains. Newton Township, also on the west side, is mostly level, though bluffs are found along Stillwater as it courses through that particular section. In the northern part of the county, or that portion embraced by Washington Township, in which is the City of Piqua, the land is again undulating in the eastern and southern portion, but rather flat in the northern part. East of the Miami River there is but little high ground except in Bethel Township, where the land attains considerable height ; but all these elevations are tillable and produce good crops. The course of the Miami lies through a region particularly adapted to agriculture, and this fact no doubt attracted the early settler and decided him to locate here. The many small streams which enter the Miami Bead largely in natural spring's, and it is noticeable that they are generally free from contamination, the water being clear and healthful. These creeks, for the most part, flow through farm lands, and nearly all have low banks which afford stock easy access to the water. Spring Creek, so named on account of contiguous springs, courses through a fine farming region. Lost Creek and Honey Creek, also on the east side of the county, enter the Miami in Bethel Township and not far apart. Indian Creek, heading in Lost Creek Township, flows in a southwesterly direction into Lost Creek. The various small tributaries of the Miami form a perfect network of drainage throughout the county. Nearly all of them are subject to sudden rises, which help to enrich the land and stimulate fertility. On the whole the topography of Miami County is conducive to agriculture in all its forms. There is little waste land; the forest area is gradually disappearing, many farms being entirely treeless—a striking contrast to the physical geography of the country a few years back. The fertility of our soil is equal to that of any county in the State. The bottom lands on both sides of the Miami are highly productive, and the uplands bring forth abundant crops. The lands cleared by the first settlers now constitute the best farms in the county, which proves that the pioneer was a person of discrimination. He came from an older country east of the Alleghanies and sought among the forests of the Miami a home which promised to rival the one he had left. While the soil of his county varies in depth and productiveness, there has never been anything to discourage the farmer, and this accounts for the small numbers who have emigrated from this region. There is to-day no farm within our borders that is not convenient to market, and the numerous good roads that spread in every direction facilitate the delivery of our agricultural products. A few years ago a piece of land in Staunton Township, known locally as the "Shaking Prairie," was considered wholly untillable, but to-day it produces excellent crops. Tobacco of late years has become a staple crop in the county, which still further demonstrates the fertility of the soil. Usually the character of the surface depends upon its geological formation. To a large extent the development of natural 26 - HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY conditions is dependent on the drainage. The farm lands of Miami County are generally supplied with good water, which is furnished by natural springs and creeks. In the early days homes were built at or near springs, and running water was a desideratum. The larger waterways of the county have numerous "arms" or tributaries, which flow into them from various directions. These creeks are the natural drainage of the localities through which they flow. The Stillwater is the largest of the streams that enter the Miami. It finds its source in Parke County on our northern border and, after traversing Union, Newton and Newberry Townships, debouches into the Miami a short distance north of Dayton. This important tributary of the parent stream takes its name from the tranquillity of its current, which cannot be called rapid at any place. Stillwater is the drainage of the western side of the county. It is noted for the absence of abrupt banks on the west side, while on the east for nearly its whole course through Union Township the land slips level from the bed of the stream, receding like the trend of a prairie. Stillwater has many tributaries, chiefest among which is Ludlow Creek, which is celebrated for its "Falls," one of the most romantic places within the borders of the county. Other creeks of less importance to the Stillwater region are Greenville, Trotter and Panther. The main tributaries of the Miami enter it from the east. These are Lost Creek, Spring Creek and Honey Creek. Flowing into these are a perfect network of lesser streams, some of which have local names, while others are too small to have an appellation. The natural water system of the county is most excellent, supplying as it does the needs of agriculture and enriching the several communities in more ways than one. The larger streams afford sites for mills, but the introduction of improved milling machinery has of late years done away with the old system. The Miami eventually receives all the drainage. The county itself has a slope from north to south. In regard to the drift, as manifested within its borders, I quote from the State Geological Survey : "The entire surface of Miami County is covered with loose material, composed of gravel, sanded clay, with a great number of granite and other rocks of similar origin. The commonly received opinion is that these materials have been drifted hither by the agency of water, either fluid or ice, and the facts observed all tend to point to the north, mostly beyond the chain of the great lakes, as the source from whence it has been brought. The Miami, which enters the county at the north, cuts through a perpendicular thickness of about seventy-five feet of drift clay, gravel and bowlders, and all the water courses which intersect the northern portion of the county cut through the drift to the depth of thirty feet." The foregoing gives one an idea of the understratum of our soil. In some places the drift is composed of sand and gravel, with a sprinkling of clay, in others the clay is absent. The fine gravel for which the county is noted affords material for the excellent roads that bisect it everywhere. The gravel supply seems exhaustless and much of this material has never been uncovered. I shall not go into details concerning the various strata of rock that underlie our surface. It is sufficient to AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 27 say that we have within the county three distinct geological formations. These are the Niagara, the Clinton Rock and the Blue Limestone of the Cincinnati group. The Niagara formation is exposed at various places, notably along Greenville Creek, at the Piqua and other quarries. From the Niagara most of our quarried stone comes. The Clinton Rock is seen in the Honey Creek region and is prominent along Lost Creek. The builders of the Troy hydraulic found between that city and Piqua several hundred feet of solid Clinton Rock, through which they were obliged to cut. The Blue Limestone lies below the base of the Clinton. It is thus observed at the base of the Charleston cliffs, as well as on the Stillwater near West Milton. It would only weary the general reader to detail the numerous classes of rock which enter into the geological history of the county. The description would prove interesting only to the student and he is referred to the various surveys which have been made of this region. Again recurring to pre-historic relics, it is well to say they are not abundant in this county. True, some have been found at various times, but the archeologist has not been paid for his researches. We have within our borders no particular earthworks such as are found at Newark and in other parts of the state. Since several discoveries of mastodon remains have been made in the county, it is natural to suppose that the mastodon was co-existent with early man. Scientists place the prehistoric man in advance of the Mound Builder, yet beyond some pottery and implements of the latter race we know nothing of them. It is therefore not unlikely that in this county, ages before the first moccasin crinkled the leaves, the two strange races referred to lived and vanished. The coming of the Indian is well known. He appeared along the banks of the Miami and in the adjacent region. He made this locality his hunting ground. He drifted hither from the Miami of the Lakes or from the fastnesses of Kentucky, south of the Ohio. It is said that the Shawnee came from the far South, moving gradu- ally northward till he established himself in the Valley of the Miami. The Indian considered the land he inhabited his own. He erected his wigwam, planted a little maize, and where to-day are farms and cities of this county, he hunted the wild game or engaged his red rivals in battle. It is useless to attempt to locate all the red tribes that frequented this locality at different times. They will be referred to further along in this work. Fortunately the pioneer, who was a person of wide observation, has left us many accounts of the Indian. He had excellent opportunities for seeing the red man at home, on the warpath and in the chase. It was the richness of this region, not only in natural beauty, but in game of every description, that filled the Indian with a desire to fight for it. He had nothing in common with the palefaces, and from the moment the first white settler penetrated the forests of the Miami he had a natural and vindictive enemy in the Indian hunter. During the Indian occupancy of Miami County and for years thereafter, game was abundant. There was sustenance here for wild animals of every description. The streams were stocked with fish and the forests afforded shelter for birds and 28 - HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY beasts. The Indian, who was a natural hunter, spent much time in the chase. Before the advent of the settler he killed with the arrow or by laying snares for the wild tenants of the woods. Throughout the country deer, bears, wolves, wildcats, turkeys, pheasants and wild pigeons were to be found. There is authority for the statement that in 1749 buffalo were seen along the Miami. Bears were plentiful. They grew fat on berries and wild honey, which abounded in the Miami forests. It is stated as a matter of record that David Loury during his lifetime, killed one thousand bears on Mad River, which is an indication of the numbers to be found within the confines of this county. In the autumn of 1816, nine years after the formation of the county, Henry Kerns killed a bear whose quarters weighed four hundred pounds. As the bear vanished deer seemed to increase. The cool water courses and the wild and luxuriant pasture lands, untouched by the hand of man, formed their favorite habitat. John Knoop, one of the first settlers of the county, saw nine deer at one time where the hamlet of Staunton now stands. In fact, deer were so numerous at one time that they could be shot from the doors of the cabins, and more than one pioneer woman brought down the antlered lord of the forest from her window. The wolf was for a long time the sneaking, sleep-disturbing element of the county. He roamed the forests in bands, ever on the alert for the sheepfold and the unprotected lamb. His long howls awoke the echoes of the night and he became the settler's most annoying enemy. At last the Legislature offered a bounty of three dol- lars for his scalp, and thereafter he was pursued untiringly and at last destroyed. Of the smaller game, squirrels inhabited the county in vast numbers. In a few years they became great pests, destroying whole fields of corn in a short time. Their depredations resulted in the formation of organized bands of squirrel hunters and special days were set apart for the destruction of the litle pests. During one of these famous "hunts," which took place a few miles south of Troy, one hundred and fifty bushels of corn were awarded to Elias Gerard, who within six days brought in 1,700 squirrel scalps. A like amount of corn was given Charles Wolverton, whose trophies numbered 1,300. The great squirrel migration took place in this county in 1828 when thousands of the little animals traveled from west to east permitting nothing to swerve them from their course. Countless numbers were killed with clubs by the pioneer youth during this strange hegira. Such was the great game preserve of this county at the dawn of its history. The large game which survived the skill and rapacity of the Indian hunter succumbed to the settler. War was made on the wildcat, wolf and panther on account of their destructiveness, and the wild turkey was killed for food. The boys of the pioneer families were early taught the use of the rifle and became skilled with it. They could bring down the squirrel from the topmost branches of the oak and did not fear the panther. It was the descendants of these young pioneers who in after years became the marksmen of the armies of Grant and Sherman. CHAPTER II. FIRST WHITE MAN IN THE COUNTY The Call of the West—The Pioneer Settler—De Bienville's Expedition of 1749—Attack on Pickawillany—Expedition of Christopher Gist—Location of Pickawillany —Washington's Journey—Expeditions of George Rogers Clarke—Experiences of Abram Thomas—Battle on the Johnston Farm—Beauty of the Country at the Time of Clarke's Expedition—Coming of John Knoop, 1797—Pioneer Settlers. It is an interesting fact that the trend of discovery, invasion, and immigration from the earliest times has been westward. The adventurous prows of the Columbian fleet pointed toward the occident the call of the western wild lured the ill-fated De Soto to his grave beneath the waters of the Mississippi; Coronado marched toward the setting sun in search of the "Seven Cities of Cibola," and the Chevalier La Salle carried the sacred symbol of the Nazarene to the forests of the Illinois. The virgin woods, reflected in the limpid waters of the Miami, echoed only to the howl of the predatory wolf and the battle-cry of the contending tribes. Long before the coming of the white man the skulking Indian, decked in the paraphernalia of the warpath, sought his red rival within the present boundaries of this county, or hunted wild game through its primeval thickets. The trading-post, that forerunner of civilization, had not yet set up its stockade. The only craft that cut the western waters were the lithe canoes of the scarlet legions. From the Miami-of-the-Lakes to the shores of the Ohio the only pathways of the woods were the Indian and buffalo trails. It was the age of shadow and savagery. No axe awoke the echoes of the forests and everywhere, unbroken and in its pristine beauty; lay the vast hunting grounds of the red man. What must have been the thoughts of the Boones and Kentons when for the first time they beheld a scene like this? One naturally wonders if they dreamed of the opening up of the region of the Miami by the hand of civilization, of the day, not far remote, when the cabin of the settler should rise upon the wigwam's site and trade and traffic send up their clarion calls where ran the woodland trails. It seems a far cry back from the busy present to the distant past. Yet a century is but a milestone on the highway of Progress. It is man and man alone who makes history. The song of the first pioneer women has not been wholly lost in the noise of the myriad wheels of trade. The - 29 - 30 - HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY hand that reared the first cabin on the banks of the Miami builded better than it knew. Let us turn the early pages of history and trace from the beginning the opening up of this county. It is well that reliable records of our birthright have come down to us. The settler who first penetrated the wilderness of the Miami has left for us his footprints so that we can trace him unerringly. As a rule he was not a man of scholastic lore. He was a person of brain and brawn who, deterred by no difficulties, came from beyond the Alleghanies and passed with high hopes the portals of the "new Canaan." All hail the memory of the little band of pioneers who scaled the mountain barrier and saw the wolf flee from the light of his campfires! I shall not deal with tradition, which has been aptly termed "the unwritten or oral transmission of information," and it is not reliable. As early as 1749 Celeron de Bienville was sent out by the Marquis de la Gallissoniere, Governor of Canada, to take possession for France of the Ohio Valley and prevent the English Ohio Company from acquiring it by right of settlement. Gallissoniere was governor of Canada when the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed. He was a naval officer and, like all the early governors of that province, had a very exalted opinion of his abilities. Despite his physical deformity—he was a hunchback—he was animated by a bold spirit and strong and penetrating intellect. Parkman says that "he felt that, cost what it might, France must hold Canada and link her to Louisiana by chains of forts strong enough to hold back the British colonies and cramp their growth within norrow limits." The treaty had really done nothing to settle the boundaries between France and England. Slowly but surely the English had been crossing the Alleghanies, seducing the Indian from his allegiance to France and ruining the fur trade which even then flourished in the Ohio Valley. Something had to be done to counteract the aggressions of the English in this particular locality and this determined Gallissoniere to send Celeron de Bienville westward with the region embraced within the borders of Miami County as his objective point. De Bienville was a loyal officer of France, but a man of haughty, disobedient character. As the first Frenchman who entered the forest in this locality at the head of an armed force he deserves a brief mention. In some ways the Governor of Canada could not have entrusted the expedition to a better man, but De Bienville had ideas of his own and was inclined, when beyond the power of his superior, to exercise them. He was thoroughly familiar with the Indian character, and his intense hatred of the English led Gallissoniere to expect great things of him. Bred among the frivolities and corruptions of a licentious court, Celeron brought his gay habits into the wilderness, and these, with his innate stubbornness, threatened to clothe the expedition with failure. The expedition left Lachine on the 15th of June, 1749, and having ascended the St. Lawrence, swept across Lake Ontario and from Niagara skirted the southern shore of Lake Erie and at last gained the headwaters of the Alleghany. Celeron descended that river and the Ohio. Already the English trader had penetrated this wilderness, but the Frenchman claimed it in the name of his king. At different places De AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 31 Bienville buried six leaden tablets upon which he described his acts. The first of these plates which marked his route was buried at the foot of a tree immediately after crossing the Alleghany. A great ceremony preceded the burial, calculated to impress the French and Indians with the importance of the expedition. Four leagues below French Creek, by a rock covered with Indian inscriptions, they buried another plate, and at the mouth of the Muskingum two more were placed. Fifty years later a party of boys, bathing in the river, discovered one of these plates protruding from the bank, and, after melting half of it into bullets, they gave the last half away and it is still in existence. Celeron or "The plate planter," as he is called, buried still another plate at the mouth of the Great Kenawha and this plate was found by a boy in 1346. Three of Celeron's plates have been found. One which was never buried was found in possession of some Indians who brought it to Col. Johnson on the Mohawk and the scheming Colonel interpreted the inscriptions in a manner to incense the savages against the French. The last plate was buried at the mouth of the Great Miami, after which the little band crossed to Lake Erie and gained Fort Niagara October 19th, 1749. Celeron reached the old Indian town of Pickawillany on the site of the state dam two miles north of Piqua. In order to show the assurance and pomposity of the French I transcribe the inscription of the tablet buried at the mouth of the Great Miami: “In the year 1749—the reign of Louis XV, King of France—we, Celeron. commandant of a detachment sent by Monsieur the Marquis of Gallissoniere. Commander in Chief of New France. to establish tranquillity in certain Indian villages iu these cantons, have bnried this plate at the confluence of the Ohio and of To-Ra-Da-Koin, this 29th July—near the river Ohio. otherwise Beautiful river, as a monument of renewal of possession, which we have taken of the said river and all its tributaries and of all the land on both sides, as far as the source of said rivers—inasmuch as the preceding kings of France have enjoyed and maintained it by their arms and treaties, especially by those of Ryswick, Utrecht and Chapelle. " Parkman avers that Celeron was ordered to attack the English who had established themselves at Pickawillany, but he was loath to obey. At this place the English traders had often gathered to the number of fifty and Longueill, Governor of Canada, characterized them as "the instigators of revolt and the source of all our woes." De Bienville was charged with disobedience and forced to attack. A French trader named Langlade, who had married a squaw, led a force of 200 Ojibwa warriors from Michillimackinac and advanced through the forest to attack Old Britain of the "Demoiselle," who was the controlling spirit of the English at Pickawillany. This force of savage furies burst upon the English in the month of June, 1752. The Indian women fled from the maize fields to the protection of the traders. There were but eight traders in the fort at the time. Old Britain was killed with fourteen of his Miamis and the chief was eaten by his cannibalistic enemies. The traders captured at Pickawillany were cruelly treated. They were plundered of everything; even their clothes were taken from them and Langlade carried them in triumph to Duquesne, the new governor, who recommended him to the Minister for reward, saying: "As he is not in the King's service and had married a squaw, I will ask for him only a pension of two hundred francs, which will flatter his vanity." It was not much of a battle, but it was the initial clash of the two great nations whose supremacy on these shores was aft- 32 - HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY erward to be settled on the Heights of Abraham. It is rather notable that on the borders of Miami County should be fought out one of the early disputes between Celt and Gaul. Prior, however, to the assault on the trading post at Pickawillany, the region of the Miami was invaded by a little force intended to spy out the land in the interest of France's great rival, England. In 1750 an association consisting chiefly of Virginians and called the Ohio Company, was formed to settle the western wilderness. In this association were two brothers of Washington. The governing committee placed at the head of the exploring band a hardy scout and guide named Christopher Gist, one of the most noted backwoodsmen of the early days. A grant of 500,000 acres was procured from the king on condition that one hundred families should be established upon it within seven years, a fort built and a garrison maintained. The committee under whose instructions Gist was to operate in the exploring and selection of the land stipulated that "it must be good, level land. We had rather go quite down the Mississippi than take mean, broken land." Gist turned his face toward what was afterward to be the county we now inhabit—Miami. He was beset with dangers from the first. The Scotch-Irish traders told him that he would never return in safety, and it was not until the old backwoodsman declared that he was the bearer of a message from the King that he was permitted to proceed. Gist had with him as interpreter a companion named Andrew Montour, who was a character of those times. His mother was the celebrated half-breed, Catherine Montour, who had been carried off by the Iroquois and adopted by them. Her son Andrew, who became of much service to Gist, is thus described by one who knew him : "His face is like that of a European, but marked with a broad Indian ring of bear's grease and paint drawn completely around it. He wears a coat of fine cloth of cinnamon color, a black neck-tie with silver spangles, a red satin waistcoat, trousers, over which hangs his shirt, shoes and stockings, a hat and brass ornaments, something like the handle of a basket suspended from his ears." A real forest dandy of the olden time ! After leaving the Muskingum Gist journeyed to a village on White Woman's Creek, so called from one Mary Harris, who lived there. She had been captured when young by the Indians, and at the time of Gist's visit had an Indian husband and a family of young half-breeds. Moving west through the vast solitudes of the unbroken forest the little band reached a Shawnee town at the mouth of the Scioto, where they were well received. Soon after leaving this village they struck the trail leading to Pickawillany. The old guide was delighted with the country and in his report to the Ohio Company he says that "it is rich, level land, well timbered with large walnut, ash, sugar and cherry trees ; well watered with. a great number of streams and rivulets, full of beautiful meadows, with wild rye, blue grass and clover, and abounding with game, particularly deer, elks, wild turkeys and buffaloes, thirty or forty of the latter being seen on one piece of land." Such, no doubt, was the condition of this county at that period. Gist crossed the Miami on a raft and was hailed by Old Britain. the chief at AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 33 Pickawillany. At his time the station numbered 2,000 souls, and the traders were secure in a fort of pickets, protected with logs. Here was held in Gist's honor the first wild dance ever performed for white men in this region. It was called the "feather dance" and what it was like let the journal of the old frontiersman say : "It was performed by three dancing masters, who were painted all over of various colors, with long sticks in their hands, upon the ends of which were fastened long feathers of swans and other birds, neatly woven in the shape of a fowl's wing. In this disguise they performed many antic tricks, waving their sticks with great skill, to imitate the flying of birds, keeping exact time with their music. An Indian drum furnished music and each warrior, striking a painted post with his tomahawk, would recount his valorous deeds on the warpath and the buffalo trail." As there was a "confusion of tongues" at Babel so there is a confusion of statements concerning the exact site of Pickawillany. Some writers place it in Shelby County and others confuse it with Lordmie's Store, and vice versa. Let us sift the different assertions for a moment and settle, if we can, the location of this important frontier post. Parkman, who is a very authentic historian, in his "Montcalm and Wolfe," says that Celeron de Bienville in 1749 "reached a village of the Miamis lately built at the mouth of Loramie Creek," and again refers to it as "the Indian town on the upper waters of the Great Miami." Howe, in his account of Shelby County, locates Pickawillany "about a mile south of the Shelby County line," and adds, in the interest of accuracy, that its exact location was "on the north west side of the Great Miami, just below the mouth of what is now Loramie Creek in Johnston's prairie." This would locate it in Washington Township and nine miles southwest of Sidney. But in the first edition of his "Historical Collections" Howe says, "The mouth of Loramie's Creek is in this (Shelby) county, sixteen miles northwest of Sidney." Loramie's Store or post could not have occupied the site of Pickawillany. The two sites are entirely different. In the "History of Fort Wayne" is given a speech of Little Turtle, chief of the Miamis, made at the Treaty of Greenville, 1795, in which he locates Pickawillany within the present boundaries of Miami County. Dr. Asa Coleman of Troy, one of the earliest and most intelligent of the pioneers, in his "Historical Recollections," remarks : "Howe places the trading post (Pickawillany) here described in Shelby County northwest of Sidney, evidently confusing it with Loramie's Store and Fort Loramie, a point located sixteen miles distant from the Miami River up Loramie's Creek when the trading post of the Tewightewee towns and the trading establishment here described was a mile southwest of the Shelby County line in Miami County, below the mouth of Loramie's Creek in Johnston's prairie." Gen. George Rogers Clark attacked Pickawillany in 1782, as will be described later, and he locates it at the mouth of Loramie's Creek, nine miles south of Sidney, while Loramie's Store was nearly fifteen miles northwest between the waters of Loramie's Creek and the head waters of the St. Mary's. This is proven by the fact that Clark, after attacking Pickawillany, marched fifteen miles to Loramie's Store and burned all the buildings. 34 - HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY That the Indian Piqua stood on what was called the Johnston Prairie is attested by the fact that the ground to-day when freshly plowed shows discoloration, "probably from the disturbance of the soil in digging the trenches and the well." Many old time relics have been found on the site of this historic old fort. Summing up everything presented by different writers the conclusion is reached that the trading post of Pickawillany was situated within the borders of this county, which conclusion places the first settlement here thirty-nine years before the coming of the whites to ,Marietta. Of course the settlement at Pickawillany was not a permanent one, but our county should have all the credit it-is entitled to. It is rather perplexing to read the accounts of writers who should have written with more care than they have done. Some of the early maps are also confusing, but the Evans map made in 1755 places Pickawillany at the mouth of Loramie's Creek, and this map is undoubtedly right. One of the most important events connected with this old station is the fact already mentioned that there occurred the first conflict, small though it was, in the "Braddock" or French and Indian War which established English supremacy on this continent and broke the sway of the French. The beauty, fertility and worth of the Ohio valley early excited the grasping propensities of France and England. Each wanted what' the other had, and each was ready to take by force that which promised to enrich her rival. The fleur de lys could not float where the banner of Saint George kissed the breezes and vice versa. The two ruling courts of Europe, each corrupt, balked at nothing that would advance their interests and fill their coffers. Long before Washington shed the first blood in the French and Indian War through the death of Jumonville, the land which lies to-day within the borders of Miami County was a bone of contention between the continental rivals. The story carried back by Gist, his flowery description of the country he had seen, acted as a spur to the English. The two kingdoms girded their loins for the conflict. The first step or among the first was to warn the French from the Valley of the Ohio. This delicate and important task was assigned to a youth of twenty-one, who was destined to be known in time to the whole world—George Washington. Clothed with the proper authority by Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia, Washington in 1753 turned his face toward the Ohio wilderness, accompanied by Gist as guide. While the future chieftain of the American armies did not reach the banks of the Miami, there is no doubt that his report stimulated immigration and started the wave which was soon to top the Alleghanies in its westward course. The French were loath to give up their possessions along the Ohio. They knew that each surrender but strengthened their adversary. The previous wars on this continent had permanently settled nothing. There could be no peace while the two nations faced each other this side the Atlantic. The prize was not only Canada, but that vast and, as yet, unpeopled region which stretched southward to the Ohio, and westward to the banks of the Mississippi. This tract included the lands watered by the Miami. The Treaty of Paris, which was the concluding event of the French and Indian AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 35 War, saw the Gaul with but a limited foothold on the North American continent. The fleur de lys was hauled down and the banner of Saint George took its place. Sullenly the French withdrew from the regions they had held and William Pitt stood forth as the great diplomat of his day. With the gigantic struggle at an end, the tide of immigration, interrupted by the war, turned westward. The time was near at hand when the foot of the white man should crinkle the leaves of the Miami forests and when the sound of his axe should startle the foxes in their coverts. Previous to the expedition of George Rogers Clark, which penetrated to the present domain of Miami County, as I shall show, in 1782, the Indians had been unusually troublesome. They were constantly crossing the Ohio from the Kentucky wilderness, carrying the war among the unprotected white settlements. Previously, or in 1780, Clark struck and destroyed the Indian towns on Mad River, and the Shawnees, to which people belonged the great leader Tecumseh, abandoning their burning wigwams, sought the banks of the Great Miami, where they built another town, naming it Piqua. From this point of vantage they swept viciously in every direction carrying torch and tomahawk even into Kentucky. The intrepid Clark once more took the forest trail and in 1782 led 1,000 Kentuckians northward. He commanded a force of resolute men arrayed in buckskin and homespun, and all were innured to fatigue of every kind and at home with the rifle. The leader of this foray had gained fame by his capture of the British post at Vincennes and was in every way calculated to head just such a body of men. He was the friend of Wash ington who had followed his career with interest and had complimented him for his bravery. The first Clark expedition had forced the Indians northward and they were now firmly established in the Miami country. Eager for vengeance and never forgetting their chastisement in 1780, they again took up the hatchet and swept the wilderness far and wide with the ferocity of tigers. In short the destruction of every white settler in Ohio and Kentucky seemed imminent, and if not given a salutary lesson the lands just opening up to civilization would for a number of years remain in the hands of the red man. It was this terrible state of affairs which led to Clark's second expedition. He crossed the Ohio at a point where Cincinnati now stands, but where at that time there was nothing but a fort and a stockade. The wily Clark was well acquainted with the Indian character and threw out scouts to guard against surprise as he progressed through the wilderness. People living at the present day cannot estimate the trials of a march like that made by Clark and his little band. They were headed for the Indian towns on the Miami. The forest was then unbroken, its trails were those made by the red hunters and the wild animals. The branches of the great trees overlapped, casting the whole ground in shadow and the long howl of the wolf was the only sound that broke the silences. Roads had to be cut through this lonesome tract of country, roads for the pack-horses, the teams and the men and all the time the latter had to be on the alert against an Indian surprise such as had overwhelmed Braddock on the Monongahela. At night the camp was well guard- 36 - HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY ed and the little army slept on its arms. The inmates of the solitary cabins scarcely dared retire at night for fear of attack, and nightly the darkness was illuminated by the flames of burning homes. The sparse settlements were ever in the shadow of the tomahawk. The warcry of the Indian was liable at any moment to fall upon the settler's ears. There was fear by day and dread by night. The babe was taken from its mother's arms and dashed against the nearest tree. Crops were destroyed and the blossomed-fringed pathways of the forest became scenes of massacre. Where today stand the cities and hamlets of this county and where the industrious farmer follows his plow in peace, the Indian struck with the ferocity of a fiend and left desolation in his wake. Language cannot adequately depict the dangers and horrors of this period. Not long before Clark's invasion the Indians, during a foray into Kentucky, captured a white woman named Mrs. McFall. She was compelled to accompany her captors into Ohio and the band was headed toward the Piqua settlements. A grand pow-wow was about to be held and savages from every quarter were flocking to the place of rendezvous. Warriors hurried thither afoot and on horseback and the forest seemed to swarm with them. As the red marauders reached the river they were astounded to behold the advance guard of Clark's little army. Instantly there was consternation among the Indians. They stood not on the order of their going but scattered in every direction, terror-stricken at meeting the rifles of the resolute borderers. Mrs. McFall and the squaws were abandoned to their fate and fell into the hands of Clark, who carried them with him. When the Piqua towns were reached they were found to be stripped of nearly everything portable, but many bits of Indian furniture were left behind by the frightened warriors. Upper as well as Lower Piqua was found in the same condition. Clark halted for the night. With his usual precaution he threw out his guards to prevent surprise, and silence settled over the forest. Suddenly the woods rang with shots, for the wily foe, creeping through the underbrush, had opened fire on the sentries. In a moment the whole army was aroused and firing was kept up till the break of day. Notwithstanding the disadvantages under which the border men labored five Indians were found dead on the leaves, the survivors, satisfied with their punishment, having decamped. During the previous evening a detachment sent out by Clark had burned Loramie's Store a few miles away. The total loss on the part of the army was Capt. McCracken and a man whose name is unknown. The chastisement inflicted had for a time a salutary effect on the Indians. They discovered that the whites were determined to put an end to their depredations, cost what it might, and the scattered settlements in this region enjoyed a brief repose. Among those who accompanied Gen. Clark was one of the first settlers of Miami County, a courageous man named Abraham Thomas. He afterward published an account of the expedition in the Troy Times from which I make the following extract : "In the year 1782 I again volunteered in an expedition under General Clark, with the object of destroying some Indian villages about Piqua on the Great Miami River. On this occasion nearly 1,000 men marched out of Kentucky by the route of the Licking River. We crossed the Ohio at the present site of Cincinnati, where our last year 's stockade had been kept up and a few AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 39 people resided in log cabins. We proceeded immediately onward through the woods without regard to our former trail and crossed Mad River not far from the present site of Dayton. We kept on the east side of the river —the Miami—and crossed it four miles below the Piqua towns. Shortly after gaining the bottoms on the west side of the river, a party of Indians with their squaws on horseback came out of a trace that led to some Indian towns near the present site of Greenville. On arriving at Piqua we found that the Indians had fled from their villages, leaving most of their effects behind. During the following night I joined a party to break up an encampment of Indians said to be lying about what was called the French Store (Loramie 's). We soon caught a Frenchman on horseback, tied him to a horse for our guide and arrived at the place in the night. The Indians had taken the alarm and cleared out. We, however, broke up and burned the Frenchman's store, which for a long time had been a place of outfit for Indian marauders, and returned to the main body early in the morning. Many of our men were stocked with plunder. After burning and otherwise destroying everything about upper and lower Piqua towns we commenced our return march. " In this attack five Indians were killed during the night the expedition lay at Piqua. The Indians lurked around the camp, firing random shots from the hazel thickets without doing us any injury; but two men who were in search of their stray horses were fired upon and severely wounded. One of these died shortly afterward and was buried at what is now called 'Coe 's Ford,' where we recrossed the Miami on our return. The other, Capt. McCracken, lived until we reached the site of Cincinnati, where he was buried. On this expedition we had with us Capt. William Barbee, afterward Judge Barbee, one of my primitive neighbors in Miami County, a most worthy and brave man, with whom I have marched and watched through many a long day and finally removed with him to Ohio." Since the first bloodshed in the French and Indian War occurred within the limits of Miami County, one of the last battles between the rival nations took place within the same territory. In 1763 the adherents of France and England came together on the Col. John Johnston farm at Upper Piqua. Here the Tewightewee towns inhabited by the Miamis were then established. The Indians, with the Wyandots, Ottawas and kindred nations, espoused the cause of France. They were assisted by Canadians and French, the whole forming a motley confederacy against the common enemy. I may premise by saying that the French by their lenient treatment of the red man had drawn to their interest some of the most powerful of the northern tribes, whereas, on the other hand, the English were not so fortunate. They (the English) were aided by the Shawnees, Delawares, Munseys, Senecas, Cherokees and Catawbas, and these warriors with a sprinkling of traders laid siege to the fort. For a whole week, according to the most authentic records obtainable, the siege went on with all the attending incidents of border warfare. The besieging army suffered severely. The resisting force was also badly crippled and lost such property as was exposed. Black-hoof, one of the Shawnee chiefs, with his accustomed exaggeration, informed Col. Johnston after the siege that he could have gathered baskets full of bullets. The allies of France, discouraged and shut off from further active warfare by the peace which had been signed, turned their footsteps from this part of the country and, retiring to the region of the Maumee, came back no more. In their place came the Shawnees, the parent race which produced Tecumseh, the most formidable of the many leaders of the scarlet legions. For some years comparative peace reigned about Upper Piqua, yet the boats which plowed the waters of the Miami were not always out of danger at the hands of the restless savages. In 1794 Capt. J. N. Vischer, the last commandant at Fort Piqua, was compelled to almost witness the massacre of the officers and crews of two freight boats which he was powerless to aid. It is believed that the boats were attacked for the purpose of drawing the garrison from the fort, but the discreet commander was not to be drawn into the snare. At the time of Clark's expedition the country of the Miami was a primitive par- 40 - HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY adise. The first beauty of the woods came with the spring. At first the landscape looked bare and desolate, but before many days the air was sweet with the blossoms of the wild grape, plum, cherry and crabapple and the whole land beautiful with the contrasting red and white of the dogwood and rosebud, or of elder and wild rose, and the fresh green of the young leaves. The country on both sides of the Miami was for many miles unbroken forest or a thicket of hazel bushes and wild fruit trees. Pioneers could in the summer step out of their back doors into a boundless wild park of garden. Delicious perfumes, sweet as attar of roses, delicate, pungent, aromatic, and countless flowers, pink, white, purple, scarlet, blue, and bending with every shade of yellow and green delighted the senses. Gist, in his description of the forests of the Miami, has spoken of the great variety of trees that covered the ground. Many of these were of the lordliest kind and had stood for ages before the foot of man pressed the soil about their roots. Oak, hickory, walnut, beech and butternut stood everywhere in the greatest profusion. Their nuts afforded food for the settler as well as for the wild hogs that roamed the woods. Everywhere on both sides of the Miami stretched the great woodlands which to-day are things of the past. In summer the air was mild and pleasant. The winters were cold but the forests acted as "breaks" and kept the icy blasts from the inmates of the cabins. A pioneer writer in the Troy Times thus refers to the aspect of this country a century ago : "The country around the settlements presented the most lovely appearance. The earth was like an ash-heap and nothing could exceed the luxuriance of primitive vegetation. Indeed, our cattle often died from excess of feeding and it was somewhat difficult to rear them on that account. The white weed or bee-harvest, as it is called, so profusely spread over our bottoms and woodlands, was not then to be seen, the sweet annis, nettles and wild rye, and pea vine, everywhere abounded—they were almost the entire herbage of our bottoms. The two last gave subsistence to our cattle and the first with their nutritious roots were eaten by our swine with the greatest avidity. In the spring and summer months a drove of hogs could be scented at a considerable distance from their flavor of the annis root. Buffalo signs were frequently met with, but the animals had entirely disappeared before the first white inhabitant came into the country, but other game was abundant." Among the first white settlers to establish themselves in Miami County was John Knoop. He came from Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, in 1797. In the spring of that year he came down the Ohio to Cincinnati and cropped the first season at Zeigler's stone-house farm, four miles above the post. During the summer he ventured into the Indian country north of the Ohio. At one time he made a journey with a surveying party and selected land not far from the banks of the Miami. At that time the forest swarmed with Indians, principally of the Shawnee nation, but there were others here at the time, roving bands of Mingoes, Delawares, Miamis and Pottawatomies. These bands were peacefully inclined and made no efforts to disturb the first settlers. In the spring of 1798 Knoop moved to near the present site of Staunton where, with Benjamin Knoop, Henry Gerard, Benjamin Hamlet, John Tildus and others, he established a station for the safety of the pioneer families. It was the victory of Clark that gave to the first settlers in this county a sense of security. Fear of the whites kept the red men in abeyance and those who first awoke the echoes of the woods with their axes were permitted to inhabit the land in peace. The inmates of "Dutch Station," as the settlement was called, remained within it two years, during which time they were oc- AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 41 cupied in clearing and building on their respective farms. Here was born in 1798 Jacob Knoop, the son of John, the first civilized native of Miami County. At this time there were three young men living at the mouth of Stony Creek and cropping out on what was known as Freeman's prairie. One of these was D. H. Morris, for a long time a resident of Bethel Township. At the same time there resided at Piqua Samuel Hilliard, Job Garrard, Shadrach Hudson, Josiah Rollins, Daniel Cox and Thomas Rich. All these, with the tenants of Dutch Station, comprised the inhabitants of Miami County from 1797 to 1799. From this time all parts of the county began to receive numerous immigrants. In the fall of 1796 Benjamin Iddings came from Tennessee in search of a new home and located in the Weymire settlement within the limits of Montgomery County, but after one winter there he removed with a family of six children to Newton Township, where he located on the east side of Stillwater. When Judge Symmes made the extensive " Symmes Purchase," which embraced many thousands of acres between the two Miamis, he offered inducements to settlers. Immigration thus given an impulse, began to push northward and some of those who had already bought land of Symmes entered the present limits of Miami County and established themselves near the mouth of Honey Creek as early as 1797. These people, among whom were Samuel Morrison and David Morris, established the first permanent settlement in the county. They laid out opposite the mouth of the creek a town called "Livingston," which name long ago disappeared. Rollins and Hudson already mentioned located near the mouth of Spring Creek, perhaps a few months prior to the settlement at Dutch Station. The various "stations" so called, erected by the first settlers were formed by erecting logs in a line and the cabins were all joined together, forming one side of a square with the remaining three sides enclosed by palings eight feet high, firmly driven in the ground. All the openings inside the square were secured by a strong gateway. On Gerard's and Gahagan's prairie near Troy, which had once been tilled by the Indians, the tenants of Dutch Station remained two years. In 1799 their numbers were increased by the arrival of John Gerard, Uriah Blue, Joseph Coe, Abram Hathaway, Nathaniel Gerard and Abner Gerard. These were the first actual settlers of the county. From whence did our first pioneers come? Nearly all the states that comprised the original Union furnished their quota. Those from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Virginia were perhaps most numerous, but Georgia and the Carolinas sent a goodly number. There were a few from New England and New York and even little Delaware contributed to the settlement of the county. All the pioneers were men of nerve and determination. They did not shrink from the arduous task of carving out new homes in the unbroken wilderness. Some were of hardy Scotch-Irish stock, while German blood flowed in the veins of others. All had traversed leagues of wild land to the homes they found in the beautiful region of the Miami. Nothing daunted them. They met dangers seen and unseen in order that they could raise their children in a new land and give them a heritage enriched by toil and self sacrifice. CHAPTER III. FORMATION OF THE COUNTRY; THE HOME IN WILDERNESS, ETC. Pontiac's Conspiracy—Boquet's Expedition—Block Houses Built at Cincinnati—New York and Virginia Relinquish Charter Claims—Fort Harmar Erected—The Settlement at Marietta—Quick Settlement of the Ohio Valley—Ordinance of 1787-Slavery Forbidden—St. Clair Made Governor—Formation of Hamilton and Montgomery Counties—Formation of Miami County—Abrogation of the Indian TitleWayne's Victory of the Fallen Timbers and Treaty of Greenville—The Miami Indians—The Symmes Purchase—School Districts Reserved—Sale of Public Lands on Time Payments—The First Court—Homes of the Pioneer Settlers—Pioneer Habits and Customs—Domestic Industries—Early Circulating Medium—Militia Musters—County Officials. The genesis of Miami County begins with the formation of what is known as the Northwest Territory. I have briefly traced the struggle of France and England for the soil embraced within the present limits of our domain. The last engagement of the French and Indian War took place in 1763 at Fort Piqua. Although the Treaty of Paris settled the claims of the continental rivals to this particular region, in which England was the gainer, it did not put an end to the Indian troubles. In the year last mentioned Pontiac, the great sachem of the Ottawas, formed one of the most stupendous conspiracies ever known. He drew into it the various tribes scattered throughout Ohio, and the design of this scarlet Napoleon was the destruction of the British posts in the northwest. In this he was secretly and, at times, openly aided by the French, who still chafed under the overthrow which they had experienced at the hands of England. Pontiac and Tecumseh stand forth as the most astute Indians ever connected with the history of Ohio. The plans of Pontiac came to naught, most notably in his failure to capture Detroit, and after the allied tribes had sustained their final defeat at Fort Pitt (Du Quesne), they were forced to make peace by Boquet, who led an expedition into their country and liberated a number of white captives. Not until then did the opposition to British rule end on the part of the Indians. Royal proclamations had hitherto prevented settlements beyond the Ohio, but grants of land south of that river were - 42 - HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY - 43 obtained by companies formed in Virginia and elsewhere, and hunters and traders, ignoring the boundary lines, pushed into the new territory, taking up lands under the very noses of the French. In 1774 the "Quebec Act" passed the English parliament and the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers were made the western and southwestern boundaries of Canada. During the American Revolution a majority of the Indian nations espoused the cause of England, but the Delawares were kept neutral by the Moravians who had established villages of Christian Indians on the Muskingum in 1772. Two block houses were built at Cincinnati in 1780, the year of Clark's expedition, New York relinquished her charter claims to the Northwest Territory and the following year Virginia did the same but at the same time obtained by way of compromise a tract of land between the Scioto and Little Miami which received the name of the "Virginia Military District." Massachusetts and Connecticut yielded their claims in 1785 and '86, but gained land like Virginia, which was called the "Western Reserve." Congress, in 1785, caused to be surveyed the public lands west of the Ohio, and Fort Harmar was erected at the mouth of the Muskingum and the Ohio. Under direction of Gen. Rufus Putnam, a brilliant officer of the Revolution, the "Ohio Company of Associates" was formed in Boston and this eventually led to the settlement at Marietta. The settling of the Ohio Valley quickly followed the expedition led by Putnam. Immigrants poured through the passes of the Alleghanies all headed for that vast and beautiful region which stretched westward. These bands of hardy souls crossed or floated down the Ohio, stopping here and there as the different places pleased them, and the sound of the pioneer's axe awoke the solitudes of the forest. Congress, July 13th, 1787, passed the celebrated ordinance for the government of the Northwest Territory. This act provided for the formation of not more than five states out of the immense tract, and slavery and involuntary servitude was forbidden therein, otherwise than in punishment for crimes. On July 17th, the regular government of the Northwest Territory was installed with Gen. Arthur St. Clair as governor. On the 26th Washington County, Ohio, was established and on September 17th the first court was held. The inauguration of Governor St. Clair still further stimulated settlement. Reports sent back by those who had settled in Ohio caused a perfect stream of pioneers to flow in this direction. They were undaunted by reports of restless Indians, for it was believed that the red man was by no means pacified but this did not impede immigration. The white man considered himself capable of coping with the Indian and the lands of the Ohio were too great a prize to be permitted to slip from his grasp. Year after year the tide of civilization rolled westward, breaking through the mountain barriers in a resistless torrent, and filling the forests with a new race which would not brook threatened dispossession. In January, 1790, Hamilton County was organized, "beginning on the banks of the Ohio River at the confluence of the Little Miami, thence up the same to the Standing Stone Fork, or branch of the Big Miami, and thence with a line to be drawn due east to the Little Miami and down same to the 44 - HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY place of beginning." In March, 1803, a part of Hamilton County was laid off and called Montgomery. January 16, 1807, in an act which took effect March first," "All that part of Montgomery County be and the same is hereby laid off and created into a separate and distinct county which shall be known by the name of Miami, to-wit: Beginning at the southwest corner of Champaign County and southeast corner of section 1, township 2 and range 9; thence west with the line between ranges 9 and 10 to the Great Miami River, crossing the same in such direction as to take the line on the bank of the said river, between townships 3 and 4 in range 6, west of said river. Thence west with the said line to the state line, thence north with the same to the Indian boundary line; thence east with the same to the Champaign County line; thence south with the said county to the place of beginning. "From and after the 1st day of April, 1807, said county of Miami shall be vested with all the powers, privileges and immunities of a separate and distinct county. Jan. 7th, 1812, all that part of Montgomery County lying north of the county of Miami shall be and the same is hereby attached to the said county of Miami and all that part lying north of the county of Darke shall be and the same is hereby attached to the said county of Darke." In this manner according to law came into being the county we now inhabit. Prior, however, to the legal establishment of the county the Indian title had been abrogated. The county's name is derived from the Miami Indians whose place of residence, as a tribe, has long been a subject for dispute by local and state historians. I have before me a letter secured especially for this work from Col. Charles C. Royce, for many years a resident of the county and a compiler of Indian data for the General Government. Col. Royce is an authority on Indian affairs and his conclusions which follow settle once and for all the disputes concerning the Indian occupation of this county. He writes as follows : "At the close of the Revolutionary War and for a number of years thereafter the territory now comprised within the limits of Ohio was occupied and claimed by a number of Indian tribes, the respective boundaries of each tribe being specifically differential. As early as 1749 an English trading-post was established called Loramie's Store, or Pickawillany, within the present limits of Shelby County, and one or more villages of the Twightwees, or Miami Indians, existed for a time in the vicinity. When the French, with the assistance of the Ottawas and Chippewas, destroyed the trading-post in 1752 in the face of a vigorous protest from the Miamis, the latter were disturbed in their occupation of this territory and withdrew further to the north and west in the vicinity of Fort Wayne. ''After Wayne's defeat of the allied Indian forces at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, in 1794, he made a treaty with them at Greenville, in 1795, whereby they ceded all the land south of a line beginning at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, thence up the same to the portage between that and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum; thence down that branch to the crossing place above Fort Lawrence; thence to a fork of that branch of the Great Miami running into the Ohio at or near which fork stood Loramie's Store and where commences the portage between the Miami of the Ohio and St. Mary 's River, which is a branch of the Miami which runs into Lake Erie; thence a westerly course to Fort Recovery, which stands on a branch of the Wabash, thence southwesterly in a direct line to the Ohio so as to intersect that river opposite the mouth of the Kentucky River. ''This treaty was made jointly with a number of tribes, of whom the Miamis were one. The land ceded to the United States included the present boundaries of Miami County, but at the time of the cession there was no Miami County. Indians resided therein and the region including Miami, Clarke, Champaign, Logan and a number of other counties was claimed and occupied by the Shawnees who had a number of villages in this section. "By the treaty of October 6, 1818, the Miamis ceded to the United States a tract of country beginning at the Wabash River, near the mouth of Raccoon Creek; thence up the Wabash to Fort Wayne, thence to the St. Mary's River; thence up the St. Mary 's to the Portage; thence with the line of the Wyandot cession of 1817 to the reservation at Loramie's Store; thence with the Indian boundary line to Fort Recovery, and thence with said line to the beginning. This tract at its southwestern extremity included a part of the present Shelby, Auglaize and Mercer Counties and marked the southern and eastern lines of the territory specifically claimed by the Miamis. "It can be affirmatively stated that within the period since the organization of the Federal Government the Miami Indians neither occupied nor claimed any land within the present boundaries of Miami County. On the contrary the United States, by a treaty concluded January 31, 1795, at Greenville, definitely conceded the elaims of the Shawnees to the ownership of certain territory which included the present boundaries of Miami County." It will be seen from Col. Royce's statement that "within the period since the organization of the general government," the Miamis claimed no land within the boundaries of this county. That this tribe of the great Algonquin family at one time were in these parts is undisputed. As early as 1658 the French found the Miamis in the AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 45 neighborhood of Green Bay, Wis. In 1683 they carried on a war with the Sioux and Iroquois and in 1705 the French brought about a war between them and the Ottawas. The Miamis, many years later, united with Pontiac in his conspiracy for the destruction of the whites, and during the Revolution they assisted the English. As late as 1790 they were able to put in the field fifteen hundred warriors and were a nation not to be despised. They were warlike and energetic, but idle life and intoxicants so led to their downfall as a great savage nation that they were easily overcome by the whites. They gradually ceded all their lands to the General Government and in 1846 removed to the Fort Leavenworth agency. At the present time this once powerful nation is almost extinct and its members are dissipated and wretched. I have been thus particular in giving an account of the Miamis from the fact that this county owes its name to them. It is one of the few counties in Ohio that perpetuates the memory of the tribes that once roamed the forests. The Miamis produced no celebrated leaders like Tecumseh and Pontiac, but they had within their ranks warriors whose deeds for many years left their impress on the localities they inhabited. Prior to the formation of the county one of the hindrances to settlement was the manner in which the land could be obtained. In most of the states and territories lying west of the Alleghanies the United States collectively and as a nation owned or did own the soil of the country after the extinction of the Indian title. This vast domain, which comprised millions of acres, was to be sold at moderate prices to the settlers, but even at this many could not comply with the terms, for the average settler was poor in this world's goods and had nothing but his strong arm and his determination. The "Symmes Purchase" included land between the Great and Little Miami Rivers. It was patented by John Cleves Symmes in 1794 for sixty-seven cents per acre. Every sixteenth section or square mile in each township was reserved by Congress for the use of schools. This tract is now one of the most valuable in the state. I extract from a valuable work the disposition of the lands which attracted the early settlers of this county : "Up to 1799 Congress lands could not be sold in quantities less than 4,000 acres ; but through the efforts of General Harrison a law was passed authorizing the sale of half of the public lands in sections and the other half in half sections. In 1800 land offices were established by Congress for the sale of these lands in sections and half sections on the following terms : Two dollars per acre, applicant to deposit $6 for surveying a section, or $3 for half section and $5-for a patent for a section, or $4 for a half section ; also he was obliged to deposit one-twentieth of the price, all of which was to be forfeited if within forty-nine days one fourth of the purchase was not paid, another fourth within two years, another fourth within three years and the residue within four years with 6 per cent interest on the deferred payments from date of sale. Subsequent acts, however, gave great relief to the purchasers by extending the time of payments and in 1804 the fees for surveying were abolished and an act for the sale of lands in quarter sections was passed. In 1820 lands could be 46 - HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY bought in forty acre lots and the price was $125 cash." The last act was a great blessing to the early settler. He was enabled by it to purchase lands in quantities that suited him, but many purchased sections and half sections, forming from these tracts some of the best farms that exist in the county at the present time. When it became known that land in any quantity desired could be obtained in this section there was a great influx of immigration. The locality drained by the Miami and its tributaries offered excellent inducements to the pioneer, and he was not long in taking advantage of them. He saw that in the valley of the Miami there was everything needed for a home, and the reports he sent back over the mountains to friends and relatives produced amazing results. With the legal establishment of the county in 1807 a new era was to begin. The first court was held at Staunton, primitive it is true, but a court nevertheless. The log court-house witnessed the first operation of law within the limits of the county, and if the old records could be consulted, an interesting and amusing chapter might be included in this work. It is stated that court was first held in the house of one Peter Felix, who was a character of the early day. He was a Frenchman and somewhat of a trader and he dwelt for years at Staunton carrying on his business. Around the first county seat arose the cabins of the settlers. These early homes, which long ago gave way to more pretentious ones, were simple in the extreme. The wants of the settler were also simple in the extreme. He was easily satisfied. The cabins were, for the most part, constructed on a universal plan. They consisted, as a rule, of one large room. Overhead was a Barrett, access to which was had by means of a ladder in one corner of the cabin. The young folks used the upper room for a sleeping apartment. There they were lulled to sleep by the pattering rain on the clapboard roof which was all that separated them from the outer world. How often in the winter time on arising in the morning—never later than four o'clock—did they find their beds covered with snow, driven through the crevices by the piercing winds. The cracks between the logs were filled with clay in which was mixed the dry grass of the near-by meadows. This held the clay together and kept it from cracking and falling out. The fire-place was broad and deep, constructed of large stones obtained from the bed of a creek near by, and would accommodate a back-log six feet in length which was rolled into position with handspikes and would last for days. The floors were constructed of boards split from long straight logs, generally oak and were smoothed on one side with the axe, laid rough side down and made fast to the joists by wooden pins driven in holes made with an augur. This was called a puncheon floor and an old song recalls it in this manner : "Oh, Jennie, my toes are sore. Dancing over the puncheon floor. The windows were merely openings made by cutting out a portion of one of the logs, to be closed by a sliding clapboard. Loop-holes were sometimes pierced in the sides and ends of the cabins through which to shoot when attacked by Indians. The doors were heavy and strong and were often fitted with stout barricades to resist outside pressure. The beds were made AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 49 upon boards resting on a frame attached to the side of the cabin. The table from which the meals were partaken was secured in the same manner and three-legged stools took the place of chairs. Now and then in a cabin was seen an old split bottom arm-chair that had been brought "across the mountains. It was too dear a bit of furniture to be left behind, for the grandmother in it had sung sweet lullabies to all her children while in her protecting arms she rocked them to sleep. These cabin homes, humble as they were, afforded the pioneers comfortable and pleasant places of abode. One of our old settlers has left on record his experiences in a wilderness home which is particularly interesting : "My father 's family was small and he took us all with him to the Miami wilderness. The Indian meal which he brought was expended six weeks too soon, so for that time we had to live without bread. The lean venison and the breast of the wild turkey we were taught to call bread. I remember how narrowly we children watched the growth of the potato tops, pumpkin and squash vines, hoping from day to day to get something in place of bread. How delicious was the taste of the young potatoes when we got them! What a jubilee when we were permitted to pull the young corn for roasting ears! Still more when it acquired hardness to be made into johnny-cakes by the aid of a tin grater. The furniture of the table consisted of a few pewter dishes, plates and spoons, but mostly of water bowls, trenchers and noggins. If these last were scarce, gourds and hard-shell squashes made up the deficiency. "I well remember the first time I ever saw a tea cup and saucer. After the death of my mother, which sad event took place when I was seven or eight years of age, my father sent me away to school. I stopped at a tavern which was plastered on the inside, both as to the walls and ceiling. I had no idea there was a house in the whole world that was not built of logs—the tavern was a stone affair—but I looked around and could see no joists. Whether such a house had been built by the hands of man or had grown up of itself I could not conjecture. I had not the courage to inquire anything about it. When supper came my confusion was worse confounded. A little cup stood in a bigger one with some brownish stuff in it which was neither milk, hominy or broth. What to do with these little cups and the spoons belonging to them I did not know and I was afraid to ask anything concerning them." In the winter evenings around the fire blazing on the hearth would congregate the family, the mother engaged in making or mending the clothes of the household, while the father was shaping an axe handle, a hickory broom, or perhaps repairing the moccasins for himself and boys. The children cracking nuts or studying their lessons, while at their feet stretched out upon the heartli quietly slept the faithful watchdog, the guardian of the place, an indispensable acquisition to the pioneer home. A lurid flame from the long-nosed iron lamp, filled with melted bear's grease, mingling with the bright firelight, made cheerful the surroundings of this happy group. In these pioneer homes there was always a cheerful welcome for the new comer. There was little room for envy, jealousy and hatred, which are the cause for so much human misery in the older communities. As a natural consequence the pioneers were, as a rule, true Christians. It was this abiding confidence in an all-wise Providence that enabled them to bear up under the many trials and tribulations through which they were called upon to pass. The early settlers of Miami County were plain in their attire. Their garments were manufactured at home and from flax and wool, as cotton then was comparatively scarce. The immigrants from the South wore goods of cotton, but those who came from the East could not be so favored. The latter had to depend on wool and flax. A lady's linsey dress would often last through the second summer for then style seldom changed. The pioneers were content with what they had. The making of the family clothing gave employment to the female portion of it and led to habits of economy among them. Men in the winter time wore light Indigo blue Linsey, and now