CHAPTER I IN THE BEGINNING THE GLACIAL EPOCH-WORK OF THE GLACIERS IN THE MAUMEE AND SANDUSKY REGION-PRE-GLACIAL OR GLACIAL MAN. They belonged to the bygone days in the country of the beautiful Maumee and Sandusky. They had in their time "killed many a b'ar," shot deer by the score, trapped muskrats by the thousands, and even taken the valuable skins of the beaver, otter and other fine fur bearers. They had in their vigorous, hardy, younger years had many thrilling experiences with wolves, panthers and other flesh eaters of the forest primeval. They possessed too, their homely philosophy. Of evenings by their camp fires and on other auspicious occasions, they crudely discussed the sciences and religion and discoursed upon the planets and the stars in the mysterious heavens. They were withal true lovers of nature and all things beautiful with which they came in close, daily contact. One bright morning when the magic of another spring began to touch the bordering forest monarchs and brushwood ever so silently and tenderly with a shade of living green, when the birds were again singing joyously their not forgotten songs, these two time tried comrades lazed upon the bank of the Maumee, fishing. After recounting as they had done again and again thrilling earlier experiences and hardships which had tested their mettle, their conversation drifted to the subject of creation and God. Environment added a feeling of awe to the discussion and there followed a deep silence in harmony with the stillness of the wilds all about them. Neither spoke a word for an extended period. Then Jed, as if he knew the subject had been upon the mind of the other as well as upon his own, after gazing meditatively up the delightful stretch of silver burnished by the morning sun, with surprising abruptness, turned and said : "Hank, when do you s'pose God started in to make this world, anyway?" Hank pulled in his line, put on fresh bait and deftly cast his hook into another pool. Then with a pause and with great de- - 1 - 2 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY liberation he replied : "Jed, it was a long time ago. A 1-o-n-g t-i-m-e ago." With the observation by Jed that "He did a mighty good job anyway," Hank's answer seemed a finality. It settled the question satisfactorily to both of them. In the hands of such a wonderful Creator they were content to leave their destiny. This answer of Hank the pioneer hunter and trapper leads to a short outline of the physical, formative period of this region, before taking up quite extensively the historical background to this story of the Maumee and Sandusky and following through from the dawn of civilization to the present. Geologists say that at one time in the formation of the surface of the earth, or its changes, certain sections were covered deep with ice glaciers. Much of now Ohio, including the northwestern portion of the state was in the track of one of these great floes. The era is known as the "glacial period" or "ice age." The evidence according to geologists is unquestionable that so far as this section is concerned, "at a comparatively recent period," only a matter of ten to twelve thousand years ago, the northern portions of America, as well as that of Europe were covered with an unimaginable mass of slowly moving ice, "pressing down from the direction of the north pole toward the warmer latitudes." The regions over which these great glacial sheets spread, have been comparatively well defined. In the great movement of this untold mass of ice, it ground down the elevated surfaces and filled up the depressions of the country and brought down in its movement vast loads of granite boulders and finer material from the north. As it melted, the ice dropped these boulders and this finer material (till) here and there, it had picked up along the way and which had frozen to it. The "home" of these boulders which can be seen today scattered about the surface of Northwestern Ohio as well as other sections, was in the north. They are totally unlike the natural rock formation here and could have been brought down in no other way than by this ice drift. One of the outstanding specimens of these "wanderers from home" is the noted Harrison Boulder or rock, lying in the Sandusky region, about six miles southwest of Fremont, on the Harrison trail running from Fort Seneca to Fort Meigs. It is of the species of granite belonging to the highlands of Canada, north of Lake Erie, a section pronounced by geologists the oldest land in the world. The age of this rock, at which General Harrison is said to have lunched with 4 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY his staff on his military campaign, War of 1812, is estimated to be anywhere from 25,000,000 to 150,000,000 years. In size it is thirteen feet long, ten feet across and about seven feet thick, one half its bulk standing above the ground. Its weight is estimated at forty-five tons. It was evidently picked up by the glacial drift somewhere in the Labrador or Hudson Bay region. Among other noted specimens scattered over the Maumee and Sandusky regions is, or was before broken up, a Corniferous limestone boulder located at the side of the channel of the Auglaize River in Jackson township, Putnam County. Before blasted, it stood fifteen feet above the ground. The thickness or height of the ice in the Lake Erie section during the glacial age is estimated at eleven thousand feet. Prior to this period Northwestern Ohio, perhaps, was like the hilly regions of the southeastern part of the state. In forming the topography of the Maumee and Sandusky valleys and fashioning the drainage system, Nature used the glaciers as a great instrument to scoop out the basin of Lake Erie, chisel out the rivers and drainage system and plane down the highlands. The general direction of the movement of the ice drift is shown by the grooves left on the visible rock surface which is from the northeast to the southwest. The most remarkable series of these glacial grooves has been found in the limestone formations at Kelleys Island. These grooves are several feet deep and are shown in the glacial illustrations in this volume. Prominent evidences are also found along the lake shore at Lakeside and Marblehead in Ottawa County. Another evidence of the work of the glaciers in Northwestern Ohio is in the terminal moraines, found in several sections. In many places the depth of the glacial deposits exceeds one hundred feet. The rocks thereby being exposed to the air, frost and water, were decomposed and aided in forming the famously rich soil of this territory. Moraine means an accumulation of earth and stones carried forward and deposited by the glaciers. When it is at the extremity of the glacier it is known as terminal moraine. Thus the ridges of this transported and glacial deposited material are called moraines. The moraines show where the glaciers rested for a long period and the front which naturally gathered most of the material, dropped it as the glaciers melted. There are three or four of these moraines in the section south of Lake Erie. The approaches are ordinarily so gradual that they are not perceptible, except by close observation. The De- TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 5 fiance Moraine extends northward and eastward from Defiance. The St. Joseph-St. Marys Moraine, so named because it follows these two rivers, has its apex near Fort Wayne, Indiana. The third, extending in the same direction is only a few miles distant. The Salamoine Moraine yet farther south crosses the southern boundary of Northwestern Ohio near Fort Recovery thence on to Kenton. The drainage system has been greatly influenced by the glaciers. There was a time when a great lake covered the central portion of this territory, designated by geologists as the Maumee Glacial Lake existed between the Defiance Moraine and Lake Erie, Moraine and the St. Joseph-St. Marys Moraine. Its drainage was through the Tymochte Gap into the Scioto River and also through the Wabash. Numerous sand ridges running across Northwestern Ohio, a majority from an easterly and westerly direction, were at different stages the shores of Lake Erie as its shore line gradually receded to its present outline. What is designated as Whittlesey Glacial Lake existed between the Defiance Moraine and Lake Erie, a later basin. The Wabash and Maumee rivers were once connected by a wide channel, easily defined, through which the confined water found its way to the Gulf of Mexico. The waters of the receding lake finally formed the St. Joseph and St. Mary's rivers, which in turn formed or fed the Maumee. Following up the line of discussion by Jed and Hank, the fishermen, when did man first exist in America, in present Ohio and in these valleys of the Maumee and Sandusky? About all that can be said is that it was "a long time ago." Whether there was a pre-glacial or glacial man in Ohio is an open question. Scientists of equal note take opposite views. The proof of the existence of man during this period rests on slender, circumstantial evidence. There have been discovered three paleoliths or flint implements in Ohio one each in Hamilton, Clermont and Tuscarawas counties, and elsewhere one or two other like specimens. In each case the paleolith was found many feet below the surface in gravel deposits. Consequently, some scientists say, these implements must have been used by primitive man in the localities discovered, prior to the disappearance of the ice floe. One argument in favor of this claim is that these paleoliths, the most primitive things made by man, are unlike the specimens of the Mound Builders, or the later Indians, familiarly known. The late geologist, Dr. G. Frederick Wright, was a firm advo- 6 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY cate of the theory of glacial man and places the close of the glacial period at possibly ten thousand years ago. "In conclusion,. then," he says, "we may say it is not so startling a statement as it once was to speak of man as belonging to the glacial period. And we may begin to speak of our own state (Ohio) as one of the earliest portions of the globe to become inhabited. Ages before the Mound Builders erected their complicated and stately structures in the valleys of the Licking, the Scioto, the Miami and the Ohio, man in a more primitive state had hunted and fished with crude implements in some portions at least, of the southern part of the present state. To have lived in such a time, and to have successfully overcome the hardships of the climate and the fierceness of the animal life must have called for an amount of physical energy and practical skill which few of this generation possess. They must, therefore, have had all the native powers of humanity fully developed and are worthy ancestors of succeeding races." Doctor Wright also says there is enough to establish the fact that men, whose habits of life were much like the Eskimos, followed up the retreating ice of the great glacial period which covered much of Ohio in its great area, and deduces that "very likely the Eskimos are the descendants of that early race in Ohio." Gerard Fowke in his discussion of the question in his "Archæological History of Ohio," sums up his conclusion after quoting what others have said upon the subject as follows : " The question must remain an open one until the claims of those who advocate and those who deny that man lived in Ohio, or in America for that matter, while the ice sheet held domain, are less open to dispute than they are at present." Even with all the claims put forth, Fowke says the age of man would not be carried to so remote a period of time as many assume. CHAPTER II THE MOUND BUILDERS WHO WERE THE MOUNDMEN ?-EXTENT OF THEIR OPERATIONS-OHIO THEIR FAVORITE ABODE-THEIR GREATEST MONUMENTS-EVIDENCES OF THEIR WORK IN NORTHWESTERN OHIO. Coming down the centuries to what might be termed another race, the Mound Builders, archeologists have definite evidence to work upon. Although the time they were here and the cause of their passing is speculative, these mysterious people have left behind in their widespread handiwork wonderful tangible examples of their existence. Evidences of their habitations have been found from the Allegheny River to the Rocky Mountains, and even on the Pacific slope. Examples of their work are known from Lower Canada to the borders of the Gulf of Mexico. The Ohio region along the Ohio River, and the hills and delightful valleys of the Muskingum, the Scioto, the Miamis and the Cuyahoga, however, were their favorite abodes. Summed up, the extent of their operations in present Ohio are almost equal to those in all the balance of America. The probability is that their life in this region extended over a wide period, but that they were not great in numbers. Fowke has made some estimates upon this point. He says, considering their crude methods, it would have taken a thousand men, working a hundred years continuously, to have fashioned their mounds in Ohio alone. Over five thousand locations are noted in Doctor Mills' archeological atlas, where the Mound Builder left his landmarks in this state. Those known as enclosures, the walled-in areas, comprising from one to over three hundred acres in area, total in number near to six hundred. They are mostly found in the southern part of the state, Ross County being the most favored section. But there are scattered all over Ohio, hundreds of single mounds of various sizes and designs. Placed in one continuous stretch, the Ohio earthworks would extend over a space of more than three hundred miles. They contained some thirty-two million cubic yards of earth and a considerable amount of stone. 8 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY The most conspicuously known works in Ohio are Fort Ancient in Warren County and the Serpent Mound in Adams County. Fort Ancient is on the east bank of the Little Miami River. The enclosure is really a promontory containing about 135 acres and descends from the eminence to the river as steeply as the soil will permit. The walls of the enclosure follow the windings of the natural embankment, forming re-entrant angles at the head of every tributary gully and running out to the extreme point of nearly every projection between the gullies. The whole length of the surrounding embankment is nearly four miles, while a direct line from the north wall to the south wall is five thousand feet. The outer side of the embankment coincides with the extreme edge of the promontory. The embankment, varying from four to twenty feet high, is intersected by seventy-two gateways and there,is in this marvelous artificial structure 650,000 cubic yards of material. Fort Ancient is the property of Ohio and in charge of the Ohio Archeological Society. The Serpent Mound, Adams County, the largest emblem of a spiritual character fashioned from earth by the Mound Builders, is located on a high bluff overlooking Brush Creek Valley. The entire length of this effigy structure following the convolutions is 1,350 feet. Beginning with its tail in a triple coil on a high place of the bluff, the earthen symbol curves gracefully down to the point of the "promontory," where immediately in front of the serpent's huge, open jaws, is a large egg-shaped hollow eighty-six feet long and thirty feet wide. When the late afternoon lights and shades bring out the contrasts of the landscape, the view of this marvelous structure, as Doctor Putnam says, is "strange and weird; and this effect is heightened still more when the full moon lights up the scene and the stillness is broken only by the unseen birds of the night." The Serpent Mound is also the property of the state. The most famed and largest stone fort in America built by the Moundmen, is the Spruce Hill Fort, located on a hill by that name east of Paint Creek in Ross County. The elevation is some 400 feet high and is approachable only by a narrow neck or isthmus which connects it with a range Of hills. The site is admirably chosen as a place of defense, commanding a view of the whole surrounding valley and inaccessable on all sides except at the point mentioned. The walls of sandstone and cobblestones found at hand, were built around the hill a little below the brow. The base of the wall is from eight to ten feet in width. There are a TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 9 score of other earthworks in the state of almost equal note, including those at Marietta and Newark. Present Northwestern Ohio, much of the region being low and level, was not suitable for the habitation or operations of the Mound Builders. However, in every county in this section he has left his footprints. The only enclosure or fort of importance in this territory was situated on the right bank of the above where is now the east end of Fassett Street bridge and Maumee River within the present City of Toledo. It was just directly back of the Baltimore & Ohio elevator. Years back, when this section of Toledo was yet an unfenced common and after the ground and embankments had been cleared of trees, the site was reduced to practically a level by the plowman, who planted his crops there season after season. Elias Fassett for whom Fassett Street was named, and who lived close at hand, remembered distinctly of this prehistoric earthwork before the tillers of the soil disturbed it. He said that the northern edge of the enclosure, which Was evidently circular in form but which had partly been washed away by the encroachment of the river, reached near to the bridge, and that the rear embankment reached across the street that now parallels the river. When the Fassett family settled there, the site of the fort or enclosure was covered with great sugar maple trees. The grove of maples not only covered the three-acre earthworks, but extended a short distance down the river. Evidently the ground had been cleared of the original forest growth and in the reforesting process, this new species, the maple, not indigenous to that special locality sprang up. This is known to be the way of nature. In front of the old Fassett home there was a small elevation of sand, apparently an artificial mound. In using this ground to level up the Fassett lot, six or more skeletons in a perfect state of preservation were unearthed, buried face downward. These skeletons were evidently of Indians of a later period. Reference is made to this local earthworks in "Ancient Monuments of the' Mississippi," by Squier and Davis, 1848, a Smithsonian contribution. These two archeologists made the earliest extensive investigation in Ohio of the operations of the Mound Builders. Accompanying a plat of this Maumee River fort, are comments of the late Charles Whittlesey of Cleveland, a noted investigator of this subject, but who was rather extravagant at times in his claims and possibly not always accurate in his de- 2-VOL. 1 10 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY ductions. Mr. Whittlesey, after giving the location. of the enclosure, says, "The water of the river here is deep and of the lake level. The bluff is about thirty-five feet high. Since the work was built the current has undermined a portion. * * * The walls, measuring from the bottom of the ditches, are from three to four feet high. * * * As there is no ditch on the southwest side, while there is a double wall and ditch elsewhere, it is presumable that the work was abandoned before it was finished." As there are only rare instances in Ohio where mounds were not entirely completed, it would be of great interest to know why these prehistoric people did not complete the "Toledo works." Mr. Whittlesey further says that the enclosure in question was the most westerly of a cordon of eight military forts along Lake Erie in present Ohio; and that while there had "not been found any remnants of timber in the walls, yet it is very safe to presume that palisades were planted on them, and that wooden posts and gates were erected at the passages left in the embankments and ditches." He remarks that these eight lake forts "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." Lucas County had a total of sixteen recorded prehistoric sites. Besides the enclosure described, there were before their obliteration, ten mounds, three village sites, one burial, and one petroglyph —Turkey Foot Rock. If the generally accepted story of this rock is true; that the marks were cut thereon by the Indians after the battle of Fallen Timbers, then this work could not be called prehistoric. But the story of a chief named Turkey Foot being killed there is probably romance. No evidence is at hand as to when some of these "Tracks" were cut on the rock, and they are probably very old. There was a burial mound within Toledo limits south of the east end of Cherry Street bridge on the river bank, and two village sites further down the river on the same side. There were two burial mounds on the left bank of the river, on the west side of the river road, a short distance north of the present Country Club golf course, now a residential section. A third mound was in Ottawa Park on the crest of a hill. In Jerusalem township were five burial mounds, a village site and an ordinary burial ; in Adams township two burials, and two ordinary burials in Providence township on the river. In 1871 there was a survey of an enclosure, made from the TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 11 memory of citizens and the slight remaining outlines, located on the south bank of Swan Creek, which included within its interior the intersections of Oliver and Clayton streets. Near circular in form the shortest diameter of the enclosure was about four hundred feet and the earthen walls extended down the bluff to the early channel of the creek, which was about 1870, cut through in its old course. Wood County had a few scattering prehistoric sites, mostly along the Maumee. Mills' archeological atlas marks an enclosure on the extreme northern border of the county on the river bank below the Ford Plate Glass Works, Rossford. Most reliable generally, it is possible that this was not an enclosure as Mills states, but a more than ordinary burial mound. Civilization long ago destroyed its identity. Above Perrysburg about two miles on a bluff overlooking the river was an ordinary burial, a village site just above the mouth of Tontogany Creek, Washington township, and two burials in section 4, Grand Rapids township. There was a village site in section 29, Plain township, four miles west of Bowling Green, and a couple of ordinary burials in Weston township. Henry County had only two ordinary burials, one in the northern edge of present Napoleon and the other on the opposite side of the Maumee River south. Fulton County contained more prehistoric works than any of the Northwestern Ohio counties. Quoting from authority, although it has no large streams, the topography is such that the county is well drained, the mean elevation being greater than that of adjoining counties. On the broad, level tablelands of the central portion of the county, prehistoric evidences were abundant, particularly in present Pike and Chesterfield townships. On the headwaters of Bad Creek in Pike township, there were twelve mounds which practically formed a group. There were six recorded enclosures in Fulton, and forty-five mounds, the total recorded earthworks numbering sixty-four. Quoting from the late Doctor Mills, an interesting feature of the archeology of Williams County, is the fact that the mounds in every case were in groups. There were six groups as follows : A group of three each in Bridgewater and Florence townships ; two groups of three in St. Joseph township ; a group of four mounds in Northwest township ; and a group of five west of the latter group, three of which were on this side of the Ohio-Michigan line in Northwest township and the other two over the line 12 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY in Michigan. Williams had one enclosure in Northwest township, one in St. Joseph and a total of eleven burials and four village sites. The topography of the territory in present Paulding County was too flat and low for prehistoric works. Auglaize township contained one mound, one village site and one burial, all on the Auglaize River. Brown township had one burial on the Auglaize and Washington township one village site and one burial, located on the Little Auglaize River. Van Wert County had one enclosure in section 17, Liberty township, one mound in Pleasant township within the present limits of Van Wert and one mound in section 17, Washington township. Pleasant township had two village sites and one cemetery and Wilshire township one cemetery. The county had six burial places. Mercer County had three enclosures in Dublin township along the St. Marys River and one burial site. There was one enclosed structure in the northwest edge of Fort Recovery and a burial, and an enclosure within the present limits of Celina. Gibson township had one mound in section 24. Along the old trail north of St. Marys, facing the St. Marys River in Auglaize County, were three enclosures of the crescent type, with two village sites on the Auglaize River and four burial places along the Auglaize and branches. Along the Ottawa River and branches in Jackson township, Allen County, were two mounds, two burial places and two cemeteries. On the Ottawa River south of Elida was one mound, two village sites in Bath township and one burial place in Amanda township. Prehistoric evidences in Putnam County followed the Blanchard River. Blanchard township had two mounds and four burial sites. Perry township three mounds near the junction of the Blanchard and the Auglaize rivers, with a village site north of Ottawa and a mound near the Blanchard in section 29, Ottawa township. A total of forty-four sites have been noted and recorded in Hardin County. This, says Mills, is because of the county's position on the watershed between the Scioto and the Miami and the Sandusky and Lake Erie streams. The county was remarkable for burials as they have been found in almost every gravel bed. There was a group of four mounds near forest. Of the sixteen other mounds, most of them were adjacent to the Scioto TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 13 River. Dudley and Goshen townships each had one enclosure, while Dudley had one cemetery and Roundhead township one village site. Hancock County so far as recorded, contained two enclosed sites, four mounds, three village sites and six burial places. There was one enclosure near Janara, and one in section 12, Blanchard township. There were two mounds in Union, one in Pleasant and one in Albert township. Blanchard township had three village sites and there was one mound and one burial place at Van Buren. Practically every gravel bank along the Scioto and Olentangy rivers in Marion County were utilized as burial places for the aborigines. Near Waldo, in Waldo township have been found many skeletons as is the case near Prospect on the Scioto. The county had seventeen mounds, seventeen burial sites and two cemeteries. No enclosures have been recorded. Numerous prehistoric sites along the Sandusky River show that this valley was favorable to the habitation of this earlier people as well as a favorite locality for the Indians following. Within present Wyandot County have been noted fifty-three mounds, eight village sites, eighteen burials, one cemetery, and one enclosure in Pitt township with a mound within the circle. Most of the mounds were distributed along the banks of the Sandusky River and Tymochte Creek and tributaries. The Scioto-Sandusky Trail ran through the county, one of the great thoroughfares of the country. Jackson township had ten mounds, six of which were in a group. Pitt township had twelve mounds and Salem ten. It seems strange, by reason of its situation and its watercourses that Crawford County had so few prehistoric evidences, mostly in the southern portion. Auburn township had one enclosure, Holmes one and Polk township one. There were eleven mounds within the county, two village sites and one recorded burial. Seneca County had twenty-three recorded prehistoric sites. Two enclosures were located on Honey Creek—one in sections 7 and 8, Eden township, and the other in section 8, Bloom township. Thompson township had many prehistoric evidences and there was a group of three mounds in section 4, Eden township, with a burial adjoining. Most of the prehistoric evidences within present Sandusky County were found along the Sandusky River. This section was 14 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY a great station where trails centered which were very important in early historical times, and evidences show that there must have been here at one time a considerable permanent population. Sandusky township below Fremont had on the river six enclosures, Ballville township two and Riley two near the bay. There were two village sites within present Fremont and a third near by. The county had only two recorded mounds. Prehistoric evidences in Ottawa County were mostly in the eastern section east of Port Clinton near the lake shore. Kelley& Island, belonging to Erie County, had four mounds and two enclosures, besides the two noted petroglyphs which have been written about extensively. "Taking into consideration" says Prof. H. C. Shetrone of the Ohio Archeological Society, "the histories of human races, nations and peoples, the disappearance of the Mound Builder should not present a particularly strange or incomprehensible phenomenon. When the stories of the nations of the world are considered, it is found that many of them, if not most of them, reached certain stages of development and then as such ceased to exist. The causes leading to their downfall are many and varied, but when set forth in recorded history are plainly apparent. The stories of some of these are plainly told, while those of others, which lie beyond the historic horizon are but dimly discernible. In all the pages of history, there are but few nations that survive from great antiquity. * * * Unsuccessful warfare, followed by annihilation, subjugation and assimilation by victorious opponents; decadences following social and moral depravity and other lesser causes, contribute to the downfall of nations. In the case of the Ohio Mound Builders, any of these causes may have played its part. * * * Mny authorities, however, see in the mound-building peoples the direct ancestors of the historic Indians who occupied in general the country inhabited during the mound-building era." They point to the fact that the Cherokees, Mandans and Natchez were known to have built mounds. The chroniclers with De Soto on his journey (1540) from Florida to the Mississippi noted that the Cherokees built mounds, upon the top of which they located their dwellings. On the other hand the late E. O. Randall says : "Whatever may be the inference of relationship between the Indians and Mound Builders elsewhere, the Ohio mounds suggest meager, if any cultural similarity to the Ohio Indians or the tribes of any other section." The Ohio Indians TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 15 had no knowledge or tradition of the builders of these earthworks and could give no light upon the subject. "If the Indian theory be correct," says Randall further, "it must be admitted that the American historic Indian who was discovered by the invading European, was a degenerate and unworthy descendant of his distant forebear." There was a broad chasm between the two peoples, at least as to architectural ability, artistic talent and characteristics of industry displayed by the moundmen. Late authorities divide all mankind into three divisions—the White, the Black, the Yellow. The American aborigines are classified with the Yellow race. There were at least two distinct cultural groups among the Ohio Mound Builders. But, says Shetrone, if we persist in indentifying the high-culture Mound Builders as a race distinct from the Indian, shall we assume that the remaining mound-building cultures and sub-cultures represent still other races, or were they of the same race representing different cultures? "What of the Pueblos, the Cliff Dwellers, the Aztec, the Toltec, the Inca and others of North and South America?" In brief, Prof. Shetrone says he is forced to conclude that the population of Ohio and America pertained solely to a single great race which in itself was distinct from any other. "The Mound Builders as with the Pueblo and the comparatively highly advanced peoples of Mexico, Central and South America, must be regarded merely as a stock of the native race, which, under favorable environment and an enjoyment of a period of peace and plenty, found time to develop its arts and industries, and its social, governmental and religious institutions." One of the most advanced examples of the culture of these Mound Builders was found in the Feurt Village site of some four acres located in Scioto County five miles north of Portsmouth on the east side of the Scioto River, a description of which is taken from the writings of Professor Shetrone. At the back door of this apparent capital city was the extensive hill country with its forest products of game, fruits and nuts. In front and on either side of the promontory on which it reposed was the great river bottoms or Scioto flood plain which furnished an ideal hunting ground and unsurpassed soil for the cultivation of corn, beans and other products. Within easy access was the river itself with its unfailing supply of water affording in season fish, mussels and waterfowl. Approaching the village by the trail which flanked the high 16 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY hills along the eastern side of the narrow second terrace, there would have been found a community of several hundred people. These men, women and children, were of average size and physique and similar to the Indian of historic times. The village was rather carelessly and unevenly laid out with a semblance of streets and passageways. On either side of these passageways were ranged tepees of skins and bark and rude huts built of poles and bark, and in some instances "chinked" with clay and grass, forming a sort of wattlework. Within these tepees and huts, or near by, were the family fireplaces, basin-shaped, of puddled clay. These were used both for cooking and for fires for warmth. All about the village the residents were occupied in their various pursuits. The costumes of the inhabitants were made from skins of wild animals, feathers, and coarse fabric or cloth woven from vegetable fiber, grass and hair. The amount of clothing worn varied from practically nothing in hot weather to heavy garments made mostly from the furs of native wild animals for the colder seasons. As ornaments, men, women and children alike, were profusely adorned with necklaces, bracelets, and arm-bands of beads made from shell, bone or stone. The principal industries and arts, centered about the securing of food and its preparation. There were games for amusement and recreation. The three most serviceable materials used in the manufacture of implements, utensils and ornaments, were wood, stone and bone. Wood was used for the construction of tepees, kindling of fires and cooking; as well as the making of bows and arrows, spears and many other objects. Various kinds of stone was the nearest approach to metal, used in cutting, scraping, pounding and perforating when manufacturing their products and in fashioning clay into potteryware. Different kinds of bone, including antler and shell, was employed in making fish-hooks, awls, perforators, needles, arrow and spear points, scrapers, hoes, chisels; also ornaments of beads, pendants and other designs. Granite and other hard stone was used to make wedge-shaped tools something like an ax-blade. These were mounted on wooden handles and used as axes, hatchets or tomahawks. Hand hammers selected from water-worn stones, were used in cracking nuts, pounding grain, breaking bones and for other innumerable purposes. Mortars, or metates made from stone, one face of which was ground out basin-shaped, were used in grinding corn into meal. TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 17 Stone disks from the size of a silver dollar to six times larger, were used for gaming purposes. Some of these had various designs worked on their sides. Evidently they had a pitching game like horseshoes and others akin to dominoes and dice. There were expert workers in flint, the material being brought in from Flint Ridge in present Licking and Muskingum counties, and from across the river in Kentucky. The products were finely wrought into arrows and spearpoints, knives, scrapers and drills. The highest skilled artisans were the pipe-makers and the workers in pottery. A variety of fine grained pipe-stone was used of varying texture and colors—grays, tans, browns, flesh pink and red. The carvings were in the images of animals, birds and the human face. The pottery was made from tough, clean clay, tempered by an admixture of powdered mussel shells. Below the residential and manufacturing districts of the village were the gardens and truckpatches, mostly attended by the women and girls. Corn was the staple product, with beans, squash or pumpkin and other vegetables. The dried products not used when needed, were stored in pits dug in the ground, the receptacles being lined with bark. The products of the forests and streams were bear, deer, wild turkey and numerous small animals; also game birds, together with fish and mussels. After the feasts came the smokers and the games before referred to. Burial ceremonies were evidently quite elaborate, the burials being made on the ground, the bodies covered with grass and woven fabric, and then over all built a mound of earth. In research work valuable strings of pearls have been found, also ornaments and implements of copper, such as bracelets, finger rings, awls, and beads. Scores of volumes have been written about the origin of the native American. One suggestion is that they were indigenous to the country; that is, that they originated here, just as did the buffalo and other animals belonging to America; that the Indian race had its birth on this continent and that other continents had their indigenous people. Other writers attribute the origin of the American aborigine to a foreign source. Almost every country, and people on earth as Professor Shetrone says, has been suggested as the source of this origin—Egyptians, the Chinese, the Japanese and other mongolians. It was originally quite generally believed that the first Americans came by way of the Behring Straits, either in boats 18 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY or on the ice. Other theorists put up the claim that the Mongolians from across the Pacific landed somewhere on northwestern South America and from there gradually spread over the continents. These theories are put forward necessarily in abridged form for those who care to pursue the question farther. Even the theory that the American aborigine was indigenous to this continent, certainly does not conflict with the biblical story of creation. CHAPTER III THE AMERICAN INDIAN ORIGIN OF THE INDIANS-THEIR ORGANIZATION, GOVERNMENT, HABITS, MENTALITY, RELIGION Leaving out the possibility of a pre-glacial man in Ohio, the opinion in general is that the human occupation of the western hemisphere was much more recent than in the eastern hemisphere —the Old World. From the fact that the American aborigine developed an absolutely distinct physical type "characterizing them as a race apart from all others" and considering their numerous distinct languages, there are other authorities who contend that the course of human existence in the Old and the New worlds has been practically the same. The native American has existed here at least thousands of years. Nothing more definite can be determined. What of the Indian of North America as found here on the arrival of the first Europeans? There were then within the present bounds of the United States probably from one-half million to near a million of this Red race. From near their very first contact with the encroaching white man—the Virginia Colonists and the Pilgrim Fathers—down through three centuries, their story is one of a great and continuous tragedy. At first, as at Jamestown and in the New England settlements, there was at least a pretense of effort at friendly relations. But from the first friction the struggle resolved itself into open hostilities. "The friendship between Powhatan and Capt. John Smith, the treaty between Massasoit and the Plymouth Colonists and the justice of Rogers Williams," says Professor Shetrone, "were the bright spots" which ended in their decline and subjugation. Columbus received his first impression of the natives at the Bahama Islands and upon the South American continent. He named them "Indians" because he mistook them for the natives of Oriental India, the land he supposed he had reached. Then, as has been observed, followed the Cabots, Magellan, De Leon, Balboa, Cortez, De Soto and at the north Cartier and many others —all viewing the native American in his natural, primitive con- - 19 - 20 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY dition. Had these adventurers found in all sections the same degree of culture or intelligence and conditions, their accounts of their observations must have in the main been the same; which would have more easily aided in the correct understanding of the aborigine as a whole. But by reason of the diversity of climate, geography and other conditions which affect all human races, these Europeans found the natives over this wide section in many respects dissimilar. The natural mental capacity of the Indian was not greatly inferior to that of the ordinary civilized white man. That is, an ordinary Indian child, when this people were first known, if reared in civilization and in proper environment and with proper tutorage, would have progressed in intelligence practically equal to a child of the white race. The transverse was or is true of a child of civilization reared in savagery. Some writers have described the Indian as licentious and utterly immoral, and that they recognized none of the social or moral obligations of life. That by reason of their habits their mortality was great and that while the mothers were prolific not one child in thirty lived to maturity. There were extremes of degeneracy no doubt as among individuals of civilization. However, in his native state the Indian knew and as a rule recognized the virtues of honesty, truth and the sanctity of human life. "Public opinion rather than law and the fear of punishment was the motive which compelled obedience to social decree ;" although in many tribes, executive councils with power of enforcement existed. In his own clan or tribe, the Indian respected the rights and property of others. It was against hostile tribes and his white enemies that his indignities and cruelties at times were boundless. There are innumerable recorded instances, however, of his honesty, faithfulness, generosity, and courage. As to the social and governmental organization, the most commonly known and representative unit was the tribe, a body of these people knit together by blood ties or relationship; by adoption and by a common language and certain definite ideas as to social, political and religious observances. While kinship, an authority says, remained the basis of tribal organization and government, the tribe was more or less fixed as to territorial district and as to residence, thus uniting the personal and geographic idea. When several tribes were united for mutual benefit the organization became a confederation. TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 21 Clans or gentes consisted of those people actually or theoretically related; organized to promote their social and political welfare. Members of a clan often assumed a common class name, or a totum, symbolized by some animal or object by which to identify them from another clan. Each tribe might have a number of clans, which in turn were organized into brotherhoods. The social and civil functions were lodged in a tribal chief or chiefs, who in turn were organized into a council with legislative, judicial and executive powers. These civil chiefs were not permitted to exercise authority in military affairs, which were usually left to war chiefs and to the grand council of the tribes. Ill success of the war chiefs meant their dismissal. The Indian, religion was based upon the supernatural and the mysterious; things they could not understand. Magic power, they believed was vested in various objects, animals, persons, spirits and deities. They believed in a hereafter. Their inclination was strong towards religious excitement. They had many "prophets" whose influence at times was seriously detrimental. Neither the Mound Builders nor the Indians of history had a written language. Among the Indians known to history within the territory comprised within the United States near to sixty different linguistic families have been noted. That is, the various tribes have been classified as speaking that many different languages; these languages also being divided into numerous dialects as is the fact among the languages spoken by civilized people. Certain traits in their language, however, were common to practically all the Indians of the continent. To attempt to follow the history movements and locations of even the leading Indian tribes of America from the time of discovery down through the three or more centuries, is to be "swept into a bewildering but delightful maze of legend, semi-history and romance." But a brief outline of the situation of the tribes found within the limits of present Ohio at the time civilization began to penetrate this section follows. CHAPTER IV THE OHIO INDIAN ERIES THE EARLIEST KNOWN TRIBE-CONTEST WITH THE IROQUOIS-THE OHIO COUNTRY TRIBES AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION. The story of early mankind was the same the world over. Wars, bloodshed, conquests; the rise and fall of empires and nations, civilized and uncivilized. Confederacies, alliances, intrigue, diplomacy and the shifting of the line of demarcation. This story beginning with the American aborigine is no different. The story of the Indian and white man in Northwestern Ohio is no different. There was continual warfare and the shifting of territorial occupation by tribes and nations. There were intervals of peace and calm and then the fires of strife would break out anew with even greater fury. In the process, some nations were practically or entirely annihilated, or lost their identity by absorption or assimilation. The Ohio country between the Great Lakes and the Ohio River with its temperate climate and geographical advantages; with its great forests and prairies teeming with game and its streams full of life, was a favorite land of the savage. Its possession was most desirable, and consequently an object of contention. On of the earliest aborigine nations known vaguely to history in the Ohio territory was the Erie or Cat Nation, which occupied the lands south of Lake Erie. Their domain extended from the Genesee River, the frontier of the Five Nations on the east across nearly half the northern part of the present state to the Maumee River on the west. The belief is that they were a populous and powerful people with a permanency extending over a long period of years. It is evident that they once belonged to the country farther westward, and in this section possessed towns and villages of pretention. They were an Iroquoian people and the story runs that they took this name from the wildcat which infested this territory, and considered the reputed fighting qualities of the animal as symbolic of their courage and prowess. According to the Jesuit Relations, the Erie country was a - 22 - TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 23 "land of unusual fertility, with climate neither too cold or too warm." It is through the Jesuits that the first glimpse of the Eries is obtained, who, however, had not mingled with them, but had obtained their information from the Iroquois. The famous Etienne Brule, a trader and wood ranger, the first of the coureurs de bois, as Champlain relates, visited the Eries in the summer of 1615 for the purpose of securing their aid against the Iroquois. Brule was probably the first white man to set foot upon Ohio soil. The Eries were estimated to have at one time numbered some fifteen thousand, as many as the entire population of the red race within the limits of the present state one hundred years later. They mustered some four thousand warriors. The Eries together with the Hurons and other tribes, had evidently been at war with the Iroquois proper for a long stretch of years before 1650 and always held their own. But the Iroquois effected one of the strongest Indian confederations known, and in their location east of the Eries, procured fire-arms from the colonists which they soon learned to use effectively. As gleaned from the Jesuit. Relations, then came the tragedy. While the Senecas, whose territory joined the Eries on the East, were keeping up a pretense of friendly relations with the Cat Nation, the other four members of the tribes of the Five Nations or the confederacy, were preparing for war. Evidently learning of this and for the purpose of continuing the peaceful situation and cementing it more firmly, the Eries sent a delegation of thirty representatives to negotiate the pact. By accident a member of the Seneca tribe of the Iroquois federation was killed by the Erie ambassadors, a spark which lit the great conflagration. In revenge the Senecas put to death all but five of the visiting Eries, whereupon the Eries retaliated by pillaging and burning a Seneca town, and in defeating a war party made captive one of the leaders. While they evidently desired little excuse, this aroused the Iroquois, who gathered a force of some eighteen hundred of the foremost warriors of the Onondaga tribe. The invasion took place in 1655. The Iroquois people came down Lake Erie in canoes, landing probably near the site of Erie, Pennsylvania. Retreating into the forest, the Eries made a stand behind fortifications of felled trees in the vicinity of their principal town, called Rique. It was a desperate siege. While the Iroquois had firearms, the Eries were experts with the bow and arrow and used their poisoned arrows with great rapidity and effect against the slower process of loading and gun firing. As 24 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY protection, the Iroquois brought their canoes into use, lifting them bottom up over their heads and shoulders for shields. Then with further ingenuity the besiegers raised their canoes on end against the palisades of felled trees, mounted the canoe crossbars, like ladders, scaled the timber barricades and overpowered the desperate defenders. The brutal Iroquois "wrought such carnage among women and children the blood ran knee deep in certain places." Squaws and papooses were fiendishly slain by the hundreds. Remnants of the vanquished Eries fled west and south, while large numbers were absorbed by the tribes of the victors. This disaster with minor defeats following, completely wiped out one of the greatest Indian nations of history. The lake which bears their name, the Ohio county on this lake and the City and County of Erie, Pennsylvania, are the monuments left to their memory. By reason of their claimed supremacy over the Ohio tribes and the nations farther west and south, in fact by their alleged mastery over "all the nations east of the Mississippi," this Iroquois confederacy, the Five Nations, claimed by conquest a wide domain including all the hunting grounds in the Ohio country. They regarded the Delawares and Shawnees therein as mere tenants and the other tribes as trespassers, allowed to remain by sufferance. There have been many differences of opinion as to the real status of these Iroquois claims. Whatever the facts, the other Indian tribes of the Ohio country, especially the Miamis, the Shawnees, the Delawares, Wyandots, Ottawas, and Senecas, still played a prominent part in its early history. In the distribution of the various tribes in later years, the Iroquois were assigned only to Northeastern Ohio. Conspicuous in the early history of the Ohio section were the Miamis, against whom the Iroquois also warred as well as against the Illinois. They were not natives of this territory, but were identified with the region they occupied longer than any other tribe figuring in Ohio annals. When first spoken of, about 1660, they were found by the French explorers in present Wisconsin, Northern Illinois, lower Michigan and in now Indiana. They were recorded by La Salle on the St. Joseph, called the Miami, and on the Wabash. Their extension into Ohio Territory gave their tribal name to the Big Miami and Little Miami and to the "Miami of the Lakes," the Maumee. Their great chief Little Turtle said: "My fathers kindled the first fires at Detroit; thence they extended their lines to the headwaters of the Scioto; TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 25 thence to its mouth; thence down the Ohio to the mouth of the Wabash; thence to Chicago over Lake Michigan." They in main withdrew to the Wabash from this country after the peace treaty of 1763. The early Ohio history of the Miamis centers about their chief town Pickawillany, on the headwaters of the Great Miami River and near the present line between Miami and Shelby counties. This town was known as the "Ohio capital of the western savages." It was the dramatic scene of contest between the French and English for the possession of this region, had an important trading post and was a trail center. The head resident Maimi chief was called the Demoiselle by the French by reason of his passion for gay attire and fancy ornaments. On account of his loyalty to the English, the latter named him "Old Britain." The cabins of the Miamis were well furnished and they were a well mannered people. Their women were better attired than most squaws, while the men "used scarcely any covering and were tatooed all over the body." The Shawnees figured prominently and for a long course of years in Ohio history centralized in the lower Scioto valley. When La Salle arranged in 1669 for his epoch making journey to the Ohio, he was told by the Iroquois to beware of the belligerant Shawnees he would encounter in his probable course. In 1680 in returning from their Illinois invasion, the Iroquois attacked the Miamis, giving as the cause that the Miamis had invited the Shawnees into the Ohio region to join them in war upon the Iroquois. The Jesuit Relations reference to the Shawnees show that they were found in a wide range of territory. Capt. John Smith in establishing his colony on the banks of the James River came in contact with the Shawnees and they were mentioned as located on the Delaware by De Laet in 1632. Father Marquette met them in the Northwest and ten years later they were parties to the important Penn treaty in 1682. This treaty was faithfully kept and "not a drop of Quaker blood was ever shed by an Indian," says Bancroft. Always warlike, they were friendly with the French against the English and later took sides with the English against the Americans during the Revolution and War of 1812. The Shawnees evidently came in from the south country in the early part of the eighteenth century when they located in the regions of the junction of the Scioto and the Ohio. They had 3 -VOL. 1 26 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY for a century and a half a settlement at the mouth of the Scioto known as Shawneetown. Celeron in his expedition encircling Ohio, found them there in 1749. Of the Shawnees, there was Black Hoof who was at the defeat of Braddock, and at the battle of Point Pleasant on the upper Ohio in 1774, called "the first battle of the Revolution;" also at the defeats of Harmar and St. Clair and at Fallen Timbers. He died at Wapakoneta in 1831. There was Cornstalk, the leader of the Indian allied forces in the Point Pleasant engagement; Black Fish, the captor of Daniel Boone ; Blue Jacket at the defeats of Generals Harmar and St. Clair and who led the Indians at Fallen Timbers; and finally Tecumseh, the great Indian factor in the War of 1812, ever bitter and antagonistic to the whites. The Delawares, an important confederacy, originally belonged in the central basin of the Delaware River in the territory of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Delaware. They were subjugated by the Iroquois near the beginning of the eighteenth century who compelled them to do manual service like the squaws and took from them the right to make war or to change their location or dispose of their lands without the approval of the Five Nations. Scattering numbers of the Delawares about 1750 began drifting westward into the Ohio country locating on the Muskingum and other contiguous streams. The Tuscarawas also settled on the principal upper Muskingum branch, giving their name to that river. The Munsee branch of the Delawares also came over the Alleghanies. Later a detached band of the Senecas with Iroquois blood and known as the Mingoes arrived and established Mingo Town; also villages on the headwaters of the Sandusky and Scioto. Strengthened by a coalition with these later bands and through their friendliness with the French, the Delawares threw off the yoke of the Iroquois and became a factor in Ohio history in opposition to the encroachments of the English. The story of the missionaries Zeisberger and Heckewelder and the mission established at present Gnadenhutten, Tuscarawas County, in 1792, and the massacre ten years later by outlaw whites, has to do with the Delawares, as well as the battle of the Olentangy and the burning of Colonel Crawford. The Wyandots were kindred of the Hurons and a surviving branch were referred to as the Tobacco tribe which belonged-originally to the Iroquois stock. Driven from the Ontario region to Georgian Bay and Mackinac and yet to Green Bay by the TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 27 Iroquois proper about 1670, the Wyandots who survived came in contact with the Sioux who pushed them back again to Mackinac and the Georgian Bay region, which section the Iroquois had by then abandoned. Evidently still coveting the rich hunting grounds and more congenial section near their earlier abode, they returned to the vicinity of Detroit and settled in the lower Maumee section and upon the Sandusky. Here their kinsmen the Hurons joined them on the Sandusky in 1745 under Orontony or Chief Nicholas. The Wyandots prospered and expanded their territorial occupation until they were the dominant force in the later Northwestern Ohio area, and even east to the Muskingum and south to the valley of the Hocking. The Hurons in their own language were known as the Wendats which the English spoke as "Wyandot" and on their settlement here they were soon known as Wyandots, the name of Huron being dropped entirely. In present Northwestern Ohio and the Sandusky, the domination of the Wyandots was almost akin to that of the Iroquois in earlier times, as even the Delawares and Shawnees later occupied their territory by Wyandot sufferance. Tarhe the Crane was a Wyandot and one of the Ohio country's greatest chiefs. The Mingos, a detached band of the Senecas, have been spoken of in connection with the Delawares and the establishment of Mingo Town. They drifted into the Wyandot region and established themselves upon the headwaters of the Scioto and Sandusky, where about 1800 they were joined by wanderers from the Cayuga tribe of the Iroquois. Henceforth they were known as the Senecas of the Sandusky. Seneca County, Ohio, took its name for them where they had their principal reservation. They had also settlements at Lewiston, Logan County, and villages in Delaware County and where is now Columbus. In the history of Northwestern Ohio, as was the case with the Wyandots, the small numbers of the powerful Ottawa tribe of the Georgian Bay section who occupied local territory command much interest. An Algonquian people, these Ottawas were friends and allies of the Wyandots and like the latter had been driven from their Ontario abode. They lived on the lower Blanchard River section, also had villages on the Maumee in the vicinity of Roche de Boeuf, and evidently hunted and trapped over a wide range of the Wyandot district. Their name signifies "traders" and is perpetuated by the Ottawa River, Canada, Ottawa River, a tributary of the Auglaize, the Town of Ottawa, Putnam County, 28 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY and by the County of Ottawa on Lake Erie. Pontiac was their most noted chief, born at the mouth of the Auglaize, Defiance, in 1712. Up to this point has been given a brief outline of aboriginal man in connection with the Ohio country. More of this story of the various tribes follows in connection with the treaties between the Indians and the government concerning the Maumee and the Sandusky. CHAPTER V INDIAN TREATIES FIRST TREATY AFFECTING OHIO LANDS-THE GREENVILLE TREATY-TREATY AT THE MAUMEE RAPIDS-OTHER PARLEYS AND TREATIES. The title to Ohio soil was obtained by oncoming civilization from the Indians by treaties of cession. The government claimed the right to extinguish the Indian titles of occupancy "by purchase or conquest" and also sovereignty. The government set the price they would pay in the form of goods, annuities and glittering gold in quantities enough to be attractive, and in their later treaties provided for homes for the dispossessed beyond the Mississippi in the broad expanse of the new West. These "original Americans," reading their destiny, made the best of a sad and forced situation. It is pertinent here to give, in summarized form the Indian land cessions in Ohio taken from the Ohio Archeological reports, and shown by two maps : The first treaty affecting Ohio lands was made with the Wyandots, Delawares, Chippewas and Ottawas in 1785, which defined the boundaries of the Indian tribes, and ceded certain tracts to the whites. This was followed by another in 1786 with the Shawnees. But neither of these was ever carried into effect because of continued warfare on the frontier between Indians and whites. Under them, however, Congress made three grants September 3, 1788, each of 4,000 acres, to Christian Indians in Ohio. These were at the Moravian missions of Schoenbrunn, Gnadenhutten and Salem, on the Muskingum. They are marked 1, 2 and 3 on the small map. They were repurchased by the government in 1823. It was not until Gen. Anthony Wayne's expedition, in 1794, crushed the power of the Indians in Ohio at the decisive battle of Fallen Timbers, on the Maumee, some dozen miles above Toledo, that the United States obtained cession of Ohio lands which the tribes recognized. This treaty, the fruit of Wayne's victory, was made at Greenville, Ohio, August 3, 1795, with the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawnees, Ottawas, Chippewa, Pottawatomies, Miamis, Eel Rivers, Weas, Kickapoos, Piankeshaws and Kaskaskias. - 29 - 30 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY By this treaty the Indians gave up to the United States all lands lying east and south of the following boundary, known as the Greenville Treaty Line: From the mouth of the Cuyahoga River up that stream to the portage between it and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum; thence down the Tuscarawas to the crossing-place above Fort Laurens; thence westerly to a fork of that branch of the Great Miami River at or near which stood Loramie's store; thence westerly to Fort Recovery; thence southwesterly in a direct line to the Ohio River opposite the mouth of the Kentucky. The line is shown on the small map, and the area ceded is marked 4. The Indians thus granted nearly two-thirds of Ohio's entire area, embracing the eastern and southern portions, and a small triangular portion of Southeastern Indiana. By the same treaty, the Indians ceded to the United States a number of smaller tracts of land within the general limits of the territory reserved to themselves in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. The following is a list of these cessions in Ohio, the number preceding each indicating its location on the large map. 8. Six miles square at or near Loramie's store.* 9. Two miles square at the head of navigable water on St. Marys River, near Girty's Town. (Site of now St. Marys, Ohio). 10. Six miles square at the head of navigable water on the Auglaize River. 11. Six miles square at the confluence of the Auglaize and Maumee, at Ft. Defiance. This was surveyed in 1805. 12. Twelve miles square at the British Fort Miami, at the foot of the rapids of the Maumee. This was surveyed in December, 1805; subdivided and sold under act of Congress of April 27, 1816. 13. Six miles square at the mouth of the Maumee. Surveyed in 1806 by Ewing under act of Congress of March 3, 1805. This embraced all of the area on which Toledo now stands, and extended north just across the Michigan line. Two miles square on Sandusky Bay, where a fort formerly stood. This was found to be within the limits of the Firelands, and hence was never separately surveyed. 14. Two miles square at the lower rapids of the Sandusky * (This store or trading post, was established by Peter Loramie, or Lorimier, and his son Louis, both of Montreal, in 1764. It was at a vantage point on the portage between the Great Miami and Maumee rivers. The store was plundered and burned by George Rogers Clark and his Kentuckians in 1782, referred to later. The site is now Berlin, Shelby County.—Editor). 32 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY River, at Ft. Stephenson, where Fremont now stands. Surveyed by Ewing in 1807; subdivided into town lots and sold under act of Congress of April 27, 1816. The next cession in importance was that made by the treaty of July 4, 1805, made at Fort Industry, where Toledo now stands. The tribes participating were the Wyandots, Ottawas, Chippewas, Munsees, Delawares, Shawnees and Pottawatomies. This treaty defined the boundary between these Indians and the United States to be a meridian line drawn north and south 120 miles due west of the Pennsylvania line, and extending from Lake Erie south to the Greenville treaty line. This embraced three tracts, all shown on the small map. The one bordering on Lake Erie west of the Cuyahoga, numbered 5 on the small map, is a part of the Western Reserve; the tract next west, numbered 6, is the Firelands, which are really a part of the Reserve; and third, the tract south of these two, numbered 7, between the 41st parallel and the Greenville treaty line. The Western Reserve of Connecticut occupied the northeastern corner of the state. It was bounded on the north by Lake Erie, on the east by Pennsylvania, on the south by the 41st parallel of latitude, and on the west by the present east line of Seneca and Sandusky counties. In 1792 the Connecticut legislature granted 500,000 acres off the west end of the Reserve to such of her citizens as had suffered by British depredations in the Revolution—burning of Groton and New Britain especially. On this account this tract is called the Firelands. On November 17, 1807, a treaty was made at Detroit with the Ottawas, Chippewas, Wyandots and Pottawatomies, by which they ceded to the United States a large area in Southern Michigan, and including, in Ohio, all lands lying north and east of a line beginning at the mouth of the Maumee, and running up that stream to the mouth of the Auglaize, thence due north. See No. 32 on the large map. From this area, however, the Indians reserved the following tracts, the numbers referring to positions on the large map. 15. Six miles square on the Maumee, above Roche de Boeuf, "to include the village where Tondaganie (or the Dog) now lives." This reserve was ceded to the United States August 30, 1831. The name of the Chief Tondoganie, the Dog, (which is spelled several different ways in the documents) is perpetuated in the name of the Village of Tontogany, Wood County, which stands a few miles east of the site of the Indian village. TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 33 16. Three miles square on the Maumee, above the twelve miles square ceded by the treaty of Greenville, "including what is called Presque Isle," which is the hill immediately south of and overlooking the battlefield of Fallen Timbers. This reserve was, however, located at Wolf Rapids, as Presque Isle was found to be within the twelve-mile square reserve, at the foot of the Rapids of the Maumee, ceded to the United States by the treaty of Greenville. This reserve was ceded to the United States by treaty of August 30, 1831. 17. Four miles square on Maumee Bay, "including the villages where Meshkemau and Waugau live." This reserve was ceded to the United States by treaty of February 18, 1833. It embraced the lands from Toledo to and across the Ottawa River, and a part of Michigan on the other side of that stream, on the western shore of Maumee Bay. At Brownstown, Michigan, a treaty was made, on November 25, 1808, with the Chippewas, Ottawas, Pottawatomies, Wyandots and Shawnees, ceding to the United States a tract of land for a road, 120 feet wide, from the foot of Maumee Rapids (Perrysburg), to the western line of the Western Reserve; and all the land within one mile of said road on each side, that settlements might be established along it. It is numbered 18 on the large map. They also ceded a strip 120 feet wide, for a roadway only, settlements being barred, from Fremont south to the Greenville boundary line. This road followed up the Sandusky River, passing just west of Tiffin, through Upper Sandusky and Marion, and reaching the Greenville treaty line about half way between the latter place and Delaware. These roads gave free access between the twelve-mile square cession at the foot of the Maumee Rapids, and the lands already in possession of the whites east and south of the Indian tract. On September 29, 1817, a treaty was made at the foot of the Rapids of the Maumee, with several Indian tribes, by which the Wyandots ceded all the land in Ohio west of the line established by the Fort Industry treaty, except certain reserves hereinafter stated; and the Pottawatomies, Ottawas and Chippewas ceded the remaining Indian lands in the northwestern corner of the state, north of the Maumee, and west of the Detroit treaty line—numbered 20 on the large map. This extinguished the Indian title to all lands in Ohio but a small area south of the St. Marys River and north of the Greenville treaty line, marked 21 on the large 34 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY map—excepting the following named small reserved tracts. The numbers of the list below correspond with those on the map : 22. To nine chiefs, Doanquod, Howoner, Rontondee, Tauyau, Rontayau, Dawatont, Manocue, Tauyaudautauson and Hadaunwaugh, a tract twelve miles square at Upper Sandsky, its center being Fort Ferree. This was ceded to the United States by treaty March 17, 1842. 23. To the same, for the use of the tribe, one mile square in a cranberry swamp on Broken Sword Creek. This was ceded to the United States April 23, 1836. 24. A tract of 30,000 acres for the Seneca tribe on the Sandusky River. Ceded to United States February 28, 1831. 25. A tract to the Shawnees at Wapakoneta, ten miles square, the center being the council-house at that Indian village. Ceded to United States August 8, 1831. 26. A tract adjoining the above, on Hog Creek, of twenty-five square miles. Ceded to United States August 8, 1831. 27. A tract of forty-eight square miles to the Shawnees at Lewistown. Ceded to the United States July 20, 1831. 28. For the use of the Ottawas, five miles square on Blanchard's Fork of the Auglaize. Ceded to United States August 30, 1831. 29. For the use of the Ottawas, three miles square, including, Oquanoxa's village. Ceded to the United States August 30, 1831. 30. To the Delawares, nine square miles adjoining the reserve to the Wyandots on Sandusky River. Ceded to the United States August 3, 1829. 31. To the Ottawas, thirty-four square miles on the south side of the Maumee, including McCarthy's Village. Ceded to the United States February 18, 1833. This included all of East Toledo and Presque Isle. There were also fourteen small tracts granted to certain individuals, aggregating 9,480 acres. A supplementary treaty to the above was made at St. Marys, on September 17, 1818. By it there were additions made to seven enumerated reserves. These lands were ceded to the United States by the treaties of July 2 and August 8, 1831, January 19, 1832, April 23, 1836, and March 17, 1842. The last treaty that concerned Ohio lands was made at St. Marys, on October 6, 1818, by which the Miamis ceded lands in Indiana and Ohio—the area in the latter being the small tract TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 35 between the Greenville treaty line and St. Marys River, marked No. 21 on the large map. This was the last tract in Ohio held by the Indians under the claim of original possession. Nothing was left except the reserves. These were gradually ceded to the United States, at the dates noted above where each is mentioned. The last was the Wyandot reserve at Upper Sandusky, which was ceded on March 17, 1842. During the century this process which might be termed eviction was in progress, the Indians of the Ohio region were decreasing in numbers through wars amongst themselves, through fighting with the French against the encroachment of the English, or in their vascillation the transverse, provided they considered it for their interests; also by their contests with American arms and in individual skirmishes with the tide of oncoming settlers. They always took enough time out from these military expeditions and contests for hunting excursions and trapping in season ; bartering their furs and products with the traders, mostly for liquor, this firewater being their greatest enemy. It brought greater disaster in its way than war. The first important treaties provided for no relocation of the Indians, for they were permitted to hunt and trap over most of their original haunts so long as they properly demeaned themselves. The Greenville treaty made by General Wayne, 1795, had this provision : "The said tribes of Indians, parties to this treaty, shall be at liberty to hunt within the territory and lands which they have now ceded to the United States, without hindrance or molestation, so long as they demean themselves peaceably, and offer no injury to the people of the United States." Further, another article of the treaty reads: "In consideration of the peace now established, and of the concessions and relinquishments of lands made in the preceding article by the liberality of the United States, as the great means of rendering this peace strong and perpetual, the United States relinquishes their claims to all other Indian lands northward of the river Ohio, eastward of the Mississippi and westward and southward of the Great Lakes and the waters uniting them, according to the boundary line agreed upon by the United States and the King of Great Britain in the treaty of peace made between them in the year 1783." In this grant there were some reservations; also, these lands granted should the tribes desire to dispose of them, must be sold only to the United States. With the settlers crowding in and game becoming scarcer each 36 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY year, it was in 1830 that the United States adopted the policy of providing new lands and for the removal of the Indians to the west. Congress then passed a law entitled "An act to provide for an exchange of lands with the Indians residing within any of the states or territories, and for their removal west of the Mississippi." While American independence became a theory with the treaty of Paris, signed with Great Britain, September 8, 1783, so far as the then west was concerned, the Revolution did not end until the victory of General Wayne at Fallen Timbers, August 20, 1794. Even then, considering the Great Lakes region and present Ohio, full independence did not come until the close of the War of 1812, ended by General Harrison's victory over the British Proctor at the battle of the Thames in Canada, October 5, 1813, and where fell the intrepid Tecumseh, restoring to the United States the full possession of the Maumee and Sandusky country, Detroit and the Michigan peninsula. CHAPTER VI BEGINNING OF OHIO INDIAN REMOVAL GRADUAL WITHDRAWAL AFTER THE REVOLUTION FROM THE MAUMEE AND SANDUSKY-SAD STORIES OF THEIR DEPARTURE-THE WYANDOTS THE LAST TO GO-SCENES AS THEY LEFT THE UPPER SANDUSKY-MORE PARTICULARS OF THE "RAPIDS" TREATY. With British influence now wiped out, the Indians of the Ohio region had two alternatives: The acceptance of the conditions offered by the state and nation as to their status in remaining here, or their removal to other territory. The Indians who had espoused the cause of the British, especially the Shawnees and Miamis, elected to withdraw, although they still held reservations, while the Wyandots, Delawares and Ottawas, loath to give up their old surroundings, preferred for the time being to remain under existing conditions. But the latter tribes too soon yielded to the pressure of civilization and though never so satisfactory or congenial, passed westward and southward into less civilized sections. "The career of the Indians as a race had terminated so far as Ohio was concerned" and it only remains to write the finis. The Miamis, earliest of the historic tribes to appear on Ohio soil and who figured' so prominently in the upper Maumee Valley were the first to take their departure therefrom. At the close of the French and Indian war, as a result of the peace of 1763, the Miamis as a tribe removed from Ohio to Indiana, the Shawnees then occupying their lands. By 1827, they had sold most of their lands in Indiana and had moved to Kansas and thence to the Indian territory, where the remnant of the tribe continues to live. One band, however, remained in Wabash County, Indiana, until 1872, when their land was divided and apportioned among the individual representatives. The Miamis (1818) numbered about 400 in all, as compared with about 1,500 individuals at an earlier date. Despite their early disappearance as a tribe from Ohio, the Miamis as noted in the summary of treaties, figured in the last treaty concerning Ohio lands held by the Indians under the claim of original possession. This treaty was held at St. Marys, as noted, October 6, 1818. The remaining Indian lands were reser- - 37 - 38 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY vations which they were permitted to occupy after the main territory in which they were located had been relinquished by cession. The Delawares as a people left Ohio comparatively early. Their head chief, Captain Pipe, died in 1794, at his town adjoining the Wyandot reserve near Upper Sandusky. The majority of the Delawares removed from the Ohio region before the American Revolution to lands in Indiana lying between the Ohio and White rivers and finally located in Oklahoma and the Indian Territory. Small numbers drifted to the Canadian Thames section, where they are known as the Moravians and Munsees of the Thames. The Senecas, who occupied a reservation of 30,000 acres on the Sandusky below present Tiffin, and the mixed Senecas of the Lewistown, Logan County reservation, after the cession of their lands in 1831 as noted, removed to Kansas and in 1867 to the Indian Territory where they reside. After the Battle of Tippecanoe, November 7, 1811, where General Harrison defeated the Indian forces under the Prophet, the reputed brother of Tecumseh, the Shawnees mostly scattered from Ohio, south and west. Like several other tribes they had their Ohio reservations. They possessed lands ten miles square at Wapakoneta and twenty-five square miles adjoining on Hog Creek. They ceded these lands to the government as noted, in August, 1831, and removed first to Kansas and then to the Indian Territory. Besides their noted chiefs, Cornstalk and Tecumseh, Black Hoof was a worthy foe. He was with Cornstalk at Point Pleasant, active in the campaigns against Generals Harmar and St. Clair and after the battle of Fallen Timbers was an advocate of peace. The first intimation the Shawnees of the Wapakoneta and Auglaize reservations had of their proposed removal came in 1831, when James Gardner an agent at Columbus sent word regarding a proposal to purchase their lands. As with the tribes of other reservations regarding such changes; it created great consternation. A council was held and a messenger dispatched to Gardner not to come. But Gardner brought to bear outside influences. As was the case in other places when the Indian lands were wanted, traders were induced to urge payment of the Indian debts and some of the chiefs were made drunk and bribed. While there was much opposition, those who had been bribed and influenced were in a majority. The dissipated members of the tribe were attracted by the distribution of much ready money and the TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 39 treaty was signed. Gardner was charged with misrepresenting its terms without reading its contents. When the Shawnees found that they had been deceived, they appealed to the Quakers to aid them in procuring redress. A committee of Friends went to Washington and presented the matter to Congress, showing that the Shawnees were to actually receive $115,000 less than was represented. Whereupon, after a delay of twenty years, the amount received was increased by $96,000. As the Indians had been informed by Gardner that they would be removed early in the spring of that year (1831) , they sold their cattle and hogs and much of their other belongings. As it was nearly a year later that their removal took place, they suffered great privation in the meantime, and many reached almost the starvation point. The money finally was brought to the town on horseback in ten wooden kegs and disbursed from what was known as the Jones Woods in the northern edge of Wapakoneta Town where Gardner made his headquarters. After the disbursement of the funds, the Indians engaged in a drunken revelry and round after round of festivities and dancing, until the traders had most of their money. In this situation, after recovering from their debauchery, they disposed of what property they had left, or buried what they could not sell or transport. After more sober realization of what was taking place, they began their farewell religious ceremonies, public and private. One act was to remove the fencing enclosing the graves of their ancestors, level the mounds even with the surrounding surface and cover the space so expertly with green sod that no trace of the burials remained. A visit by the chiefs to their neighbors and friends, some at considerable distance, and the exchange of presents, was the last act before they informed the agents in charge of their removal that they were ready to go. Quoting a descriptive writer : "They mounted their horses, and such as went in wagons seated themselves and set out with their 'high priest' in front, bearing on his shoulders the ark of the covenant;' which consisted of a large gourd and the bones of a deer's leg tied to its neck. Just previous to starting, the priest gave a blast of his trumpet, then moved on slowly and solemnly, while the others followed in like manner until they were ordered to halt in the evening and cook supper. The same course was observed through the whole journey. When they arrived near St. Louis, they lost some of their number by cholera. The Shawnees who emigrated numbered about 700 souls." 40 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY The start from Wapakoneta began November 20, 1832. They reached Piqua on the first day's march where they remained two days paying tribute to the graves of their ancestors. They encamped at Hamilton on the night of November 23, where they again tarried for three days. On Christmas they made camp at the junction of the Missouri and Mississippi, and immediately began building quite respectable cabins, and were by the last days of February protected in comparative comfort against the winter blasts. Including the Senecas with them, there were about 1,100 in all making the winter journey. The Shawnees of the Hog Creek reservation, followed west in the spring of 1833, under the supervision of Joseph Parks. On account of the season of the year, they were attended with less hardship. The passing of the Ottawas holds much interest to the history of the Maumee country. While the tribe proper belonged more in Michigan where some of them still reside, they had reservations as heretofore noted in northwestern Ohio. As stated, it was on August 30, 1831, that the Ottawas of Ohio ceded to the government their reservation of five miles square on the Blanchard River in Putnam County and three miles square, including Oquanoxa's Village on the Auglaize a little west of the first reservation. On February 18, 1833, their remaining reservation of thirty-four square miles on the east side of the Maumee including McCarthy's Village, together with Presque Isle at the river's mouth was ceded and the Ottawas of this reservation at intervals withdrew to west of the Mississippi and to Oklahoma where a remnant now reside. It is well to call attention to the fact that this thirty-four miles square reservation included present Toledo, east side, and that the Indians were still in possession there after the towns of Port Lawrence and Vistula, Toledo proper, had been consolidated, after a Toledo railroad had been projected and about the time Toledo was named—three years only before its incorporation as a city. As the first actual settlement was made in Toledo about 1817, for many years thereafter just across the river lived the Red man upon his own lands, his title thereto undisputed, and he was no doubt a frequent visitor to and walked Toledo streets and mixed with the early settlers. In fact many of the Ottawas lingered here long after their lands were given up to the government, 1833, and the first delegation had passed to the west. A majority of those remaining followed August 31, 1837 and went to the same region. They TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 41 were transported on the steamboat Commodore Perry to Cleveland, thence by canal to Portsmouth and on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers west. They were under the care of Col. John McIlvane, Columbus, superintendent, with Capt. W. E. Cruger, Rochester, New York, as assistant and distributing agent. John Mack, D. H. Forsythe and C. Roby, Maumee, were attached to the expedition, the former as commissary and the other two as interpreters. Several of the tribe yet remained, unwilling to join their fellows in removal. They numbered about one hundred and fifty, the chief Otteka being with them. It seems that the separation of the fragments of the colony was aided by merchants who were persuading them to stay, evidently wanting their trade especially in whiskey; and also for the reason that many of the Indians were in debt to the traders. In a notice published in Maumee August 19, 1837, by Superintendent McIlvane, he appealed to the alleged creditors of the Indians not to obstruct their departure, intimating that efforts were being made to do so. "They have now no country or home here," said the notice, "Therefore, in the name of humanity, in the name of justice, in the sacred name of mercy," it is hoped that if "any are secretly working to discourage the emigration of these unfortunate creatures, they will pause and consider the impropriety of their course. In conclusion it is requested that those who have been in the habit of selling liquors to these Indians do so no more, as it will be impossible to remove the dissipated." The newspaper Whig of July 30, 1839, regarding the final exit of the the remaining Ottawas said : "The remaining few of the once powerful tribe of Indians (the Ottawas) who have lingered about this section for the past few years dragging out a miserable and precarious existence, took their departure for the west of the Mississippi, July 15, on the steamer Commodore Perry under the superintendence of Judge Forsythe of Maumee, the Indian agent. They went to Cleveland and then by the canal to Portsmouth and then west on the rivers, one hundred in number. They hated to go and much persuasion was required by Judge Forsythe. The villages of the Ottawas were once strewn along the banks of the Maumee from the bay to the mouth of the Auglaize and the bones of their forefathers are yet rotting in the unidentified and unknown graves of their forgotten cemeteries." The last of the Ohio Indians to leave the state were the Wyandots who contributed so much to the history of Ohio and the north- 42 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY west section. They furnished Nicholas the great conspirator, that conspicuous character Tarhe the Crane, and were concerned in the American Revolution in this then west and in the War of 1812. Their last great chief was Pomoacan or Dunquard, known as Half King, the later of several Indians of that title. The question of the removal of the Wyandots to the West was first proposed about 1824. The news immediately aroused consternation among their people until assurance came from the Great Father at Washington that force would not be used, but the matter would be left to the discretion of the tribe. Gradually they had been circumscribed in the freedom of their range by the white settlers whose attack upon the forests had encircled their reservation by clearings and cultivated fields. Their total numbers of all ages and both sexes had been reduced to less than 800. In 1800, they had numbered about 2,200. But there was great opposition among them from the first to the proposed removal and the fact was some eighteen years in consummation. Grey Eyes, an ordained Christian minister, was one of the leaders of the opposition who said he would never leave and the first votes were largely opposed to the change. The agitation ended in the same old story of the Indian, and at the last vote more than two-thirds of the man population voted for the transposition. Col. John Johnson was the commissioner for the Government. He had for years had charge of Indian affairs in Ohio. By the terms of the treaty, the tribe was given 148,000 acres of land in Wyandot County, Kansas, opposite Kansas City. They were given $23,860 to wipe out the debts of the tribe, granted an annuity of $17,500 together with a perpetual fund of $500 for educational purposes. A later treaty reduced the size of the reservation and by the payment of $380,000 their annuity was abolished and they were removed to Qupaw Reservation, Indian Territory. Preparations for the departure commenced in the spring of 1843 and actual removal began in July following. The head of arrangements for the Indians was Chief Jacques. Days and weeks before the departure, frequent councils were held in the council-house and religious worship carried on with devotion and solemnity in the mission church. Their dead that had been buried in other sections of Ohio were brought home and with deep emotion laid at rest again in the little mission cemetery. Stone or marble tablets were placed as tributes at all unmarked graves. When all honor had been paid, when all the farewells to the TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 43 scenes they loved so well had been said; after looking over their beloved home again to the east where had risen many suns, to the north over the old Sandusky trail, to the south over the road towards the Scioto which had led for centuries to the beautiful Ohio, they turned their faces westward. In this last hour as the sorrowful cavalcade prepared to begin the march, Grey Eyes turned to the white people gathered to witness the leave taking and on behalf of his people delivered an affectionate farewell. His words as summarized have been preserved by a local historian present at the scene, who recorded them as follows: "He exhorted them to be good Christians and to meet him in Heaven. In a most sublime and pathetic manner he discoursed upon all the familiar objects of a home—no longer theirs. He bade adieu to the Sandusky, on whose waters they had paddled their light bark canoes and in whose pools they had fished, laved and sported. He saluted in his farewell the forests and the plains of the Sandusky, where he and his ancestors had hunted, roved and dwelt for many generations. He bade farewell to their habitations, where they had dwelt for many years and where they still longed to dwell. With mournful strains and plaintive voice he bade farewell to the graves of his ancestors, which now they were about to leave forever, probably to be encroached upon ere the lapse of many years by the avaricious tillage of some irreverent white man. Here, as A savage, untutored Indian, it is probable Grey Eyes would have stopped, but as a Christian he closed his valedictory by alluding to an object yet dear to him; it was the church where they had worshiped, the temple of God constructed by the good white men for their use, and within whose walls they had so often bowed down in reverence under the ministrations of Missionary Finley and his co-laborers." When the final leave-taking came, the wagon train, the chiefs on horseback and hundreds following on foot, began the long journey. By the end of the first day they had reached Grass Point, Harden County, where they made camp. The second night found them near Bellefontaine, the third night at Urbana, the fourth at Springfield. On the seventh day they reached Cincinnati where they took boats, and going down the Ohio and up the Mississippi and Missouri reached their new abode—not home. While the Wyandots were journeying towards Cincinnati, Head-Chief Jacques with some of the leading members of the tribe paid a visit at Columbus to Governor Shannon. Farewell addresses were exchanged and that by Chief Jacques is quoted : 44 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY "We have several objects in view in visiting you, the governor of the state. First, it was due him as the chief magistrate of this great state; secondly, it was due to the people of Ohio, to whom, through their governor we speak and bid an affectionate farewell. We came here also to ask for the extension of executive clemency to an unfortunate brother of our nation, and we thank you for granting our prayer in his behalf. We part with the people of Ohio with feelings the more kind, because there has been no hostility between your people and ours ever since the treaty of General Wayne at Greenville. Almost fifty years of profound peace between us have passed away, and have endeared your people to ours ; whatever may be our future state beyond the Mississippi, whither we are bound, we shall always entertain none but feelings the most kind and grateful toward the people of Ohio. Before Wayne's treaty there had been one long war between our fathers and your ancestors. At that treaty they promised peace and they have kept that promise faithfully. We will forever keep that promise as long as the sun shines and the rivers run. When we arrive at the place of our destination, surrounded, as we shall be, by Red men, less acquainted with them than we are with white men, we shall always take pleasure in telling the Indians of that western region how kind, how peaceful, how true, faithful and honest your people have been to our people. If at any future day any of our people shall visit this state, we hope that your people will see that they do not suffer for food or any of the necessities of life ; that when thirsty you will give him drink ; when hungry you will give him food; when naked you will give him clothes; or sick, that you will heal him. And we on our part promise the same kindness to any of your people should they visit us in our far western future home. Our original intention was to pass through Columbus as a nation on our departing journey from Ohio to the West; but for the purpose of shortening our route on so long a journey, the principal part of our people have passed through Urbana. But although, for the reason stated, our people have passed through Ohio by the shortest route, yet they could not forego the pleasure of sending you their chiefs and addressing you, and through you the people of Ohio, in the language of truth, friendship and sincerity." The sentiment expressed in the foregoing may be regarded as merely a savage, religious impulse and zeal, spoken under the spell of the moment by an Indian who realized the inevitable TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 45 results being brought about by advancing civilization and accepted the situation with fortitude and magnanimity. Of course the Wyandots had in a manner received good treatment from the authorities, especially at the Upper Sandusky settlement, but this did not lessen the pull to their heartstrings when they were called upon to give up the home for which they had formed such an attachment. One of the Wyandot chiefs in his own tongue gave expression in poetry to the sentiment of his people. The last verse as translated, reads as follows: "Adieu ye loved scenes, which bind me like chains; Where' on my grey pony I pranced o'er the plains. The deer and the turkey I tracked in the snow, But now must I 'leave all. Alas must I go? Sandusky, Tymochte, and all their broad streams— I ne'er more shall see you, except in my dreams." More of the details surrounding the Greenville treaty will be referred to further along in this story. Ranking next to it in importance to the Ohio section and especially to Northwestern Ohio, was the treaty of September 29, 1817, mentioned, held at the foot of the Maumee Rapids on the west side of the river, site of present Maumee. The negotiations were carried on by Lewis Cass and Duncan McArthur, both prominent figures in the War of 1812. Previous to this treaty, all Northwestern Ohio west of the Reserve below the lakes and south to the Greenville treaty line was known as Indian Lands, and except certain reservations belonged to the Indians. This treaty opened a large portion of the Maumee and Sandusky valleys to settlement, and rapid changes and developments immediately followed. At this treaty some 7,000 members of the Wyandot, Seneca, Delaware, Shawnee, Pottawatomie, Ottawa, and Chippewa tribes were present and took part in the negotiations. There were a large number of small tracts reserved which the Government agreed to grant by patent in fee simple to Indian chiefs and to whites prominent in Indian affairs. Of the whites, some were considered by the co-mingling of blood and others by reason of adoption after capture. One of the most interesting grants requested of the Government by the Indians, was that of 1,280 acres of land situated on the west side of the Sandusky River near Croghansville, below present Fremont, to Elizabeth Whitaker. She was the widow of James Whitaker, a white 46 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY trader at Lower Sandusky after the Revolutionary period, who died about 1806. Whitaker and his wife, who was Elizabeth Fulks, were captured by the Indians about 1781 and 1783 respectively, and adopted by the Sandusky Indians. They were married at Detroit and occupied the body of land below Lower Sandusky (Fremont) where Whitaker built a cabin, the first permanent white residence in Ohio and where was born to them eight children. The grant to Mrs. Whitaker was a confirmation of the Indian gift. Robert Armstrong who had been taken a prisoner by the Indians and who had married a Wyandot squaw was granted one section of land on the west side of the Sandusky near Fort Ball, now within the limits of Tiffin. The children of William McCulloch were given one section of land adjoining the grant of Armstrong. John Vanmeter who had been taken prisoner by the Wyandots and who had married a Seneca squaw, and to his wife's three brothers, was granted one thousand acres of land in now Seneca County near Honey Creek, a Sandusky tributary. This was adjoining the land of Vanmeter. Catherine Walker, a Wyandot woman who had been wounded in the service of the United States, was awarded 640 acres. To Sarah Williams who had been captured by the Indians, to Joseph Williams and Rachel Nugent, the children of the late Isaac Williams, a half blood Wyandot, one quarter section of land below Croghansville on the east side of the Sandusky and to include their improvements at Negro Point. Among further grants : To William Spicer, captured by the Indians and who married a Seneca woman, 640 acres of land on the east side of the Sandusky where Spicer had a corn field. To Nancy Stewart, daughter of the late Shawnee chief, Blue Jacket, 640 acres on the Great Miami River below Lewistown (Logan County). To the children of the late Shawnee chief, Captain Logan, who fell in the service of the United States during the late war (1812), 640 acres on the east side of the Auglaize River adjoining the ten mile grant. To James McPherson, taken prisoner by the Indians and who ever after lived with them, 640 acres of land adjoining the north and west line of the forty-eight mile grant at Lewistown. To Saw-en-de-bans, or the Yellow Hair or Peter Minor (Manor), an adopted son of Tontoganie, at the special request of the Ottawas, out of the tract reserved by the treaty of Detroit in 1807 above Roche de Boeuf, at the village of said Tontoganie, was given 640 acres on the north side of the TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 47 Miami (Maumee) at Wolf Rapids. This land in fact is at the site of old Providence, Lucas County, which plat was laid out by Manor opposite Grand Rapids, Wood County. Tontogany village and Tontogany Creek, Wood County, are named for Chief Tontoganie. Mrs. Whitaker, Spicer and others are mentioned by the missionary Joseph Badger, who was among the Indians of this section from 1800, until they left for the West. The Government in this treaty at the lower Rapids also agreed to build a sawmill and a grist mill and maintain a blacksmith for the use of the Wyandots and Senecas upon the Wyandot reservation, and also a blacksmith for the use of the Indians at Wapakoneta, Hog Creek and Lewistown. There was opposition from some quarters among the Indians under British influence, to signing the treaty. John E. Hunt in his reminiscences relates an experience with Mesh-ke-mau, a noted and savage warrior who prided himself on being a British subject and who had been bribed by the British to frustrate if possible the signing of the document. This warrior made a great speech in which he accused the paleface of cheating the red man and using all kinds of duplicity and trickery in their dealings. He even struck General Cass with his fist. Whereupon Cass turned to Knaggs, one of the interpreters, and said, "Put a petticoat on this woman and take her away." With this most belittling remark that could be applied to an Indian, he was led from the council-house. Among those present at the treaty was a grand-niece of Pontiac. She was the mother of Otusso, the son of Kan-tuck-e-gun, and the last of the great Ottawa chiefs. This old and wrinkled squaw was regarded as a sort of Indian queen and exercised a great influence over her people. When it came to signing this important lower Rapids treaty, no chief would make a move until this old mother had indicated her mind. They all sat in silence under the roof of the open-sided council-house, their heads, bowed, their eyes cast to the ground. They awaited the verdict of this ruling spirit of past greatness. Then, bent and withered by the infirmities of age, the old queen arose, went forward and with deliberation touched the pen which made her mark on the great document. Without hesitation the chiefs all followed with their strange signatures. In 1816, the year before the foregoing treaty was made opening the lower Maumee and Sandusky basins to the whites, the number of Indians of both sexes in Northwestern Ohio and their 48 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY location as reported to the Government was as follows: The Ottawas about the lower Maumee, the bay and Lake Erie and upon the Auglaize, about 450; the Senecas and others of the Six Nations, located between Upper Sandusky and Lower Sandusky (Fremont), at and near Seneca Town on the Sandusky, 450; the Delawares living about the headwaters of the Sandusky, 161; the Shawnees living in the Auglaize and the Miami rivers territory, with their main village at Wapakoneta, 840; the Wyandots with their homes on the Sandusky and its tributaries, 695; total, 2,596. As there was a somewhat constant shifting, this report does not fully agree with the numbers of each tribe, when they finally were called upon to leave their reservations. CHAPTER VII FIRST WHITE MAN IN THIS SECTION CONDITIONS ON THE MAUMEE AND SANDUSKY THEN-ETIENNE BRULETHE COUREURS DE BOIS-THEORIES OF FIRST EXPLORERS-OPENING CONTESTS FOR TERRITORIAL POSSESSION-ENGLAND, FRANCE AND SPAIN. After the realization that a new continent had been discovered westward across the Atlantic and the dawn of approaching civilization appeared upon the eastern horizon of America, there passed more than a century before the light of this approaching civilization penetrated to the valley of the Maumee and the Sandusky. And what were the conditions of these valleys tributary to Erie when the first canoe of the white man came gliding over their rivers and his footsteps made their imprint upon its soil? What did he find and see? Some time before him in the centuries past, a prehistoric man had been here. He left no record of his stay written on tablets of stone. He left no story in tangible form of his going nor an inkling as to whence he came. But it is known that he was here. This is told by his monuments fashioned of mother earth and by the works of his hand found therein, together with the bones of his dead. Then there is the story, veiled somewhat by the distance of time, of the earliest savages known, who occupied the Maumee and Sandusky region, or a portion of it, told by the Indians of history. When the first white man arrived he found the red man here although it is said he was not native to this section. He was a hunter and a trapper and he roamed this territory because it gave him fine opportunities for the chase and for furs and skins for his bed and body—this before he had met the trader. He was a savage, warring with his neighbors perhaps; he was in his primitive, natural state, not yet contaminated by civilization. He probably had no permanent towns and villages here then, but roamed the forests in his hunts and plied the network of waters of this section with his canoe unhampered in his pursuits as was his humor for the occasion. All Northwestern Ohio was deep forests then, with prairies - 49 -