800 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY export and import duties, established in the Maumee Valley was located at Miami in now the lower section of Maumee City. Congress passed the act establishing the Customs District of Miami March 3, 1805, but the office at Sandusky, the original port in Ohio as a subdivision of the District of Erie, continued to make any collections necessary, consequently the Miami port was not opened until same years later. The records show that Amos Spafford who had located across the Maumee River, was collector of the Port of Miami in 1810. According to his report to the Government for the quarter ending June 30, 1810, there were two classes of . exports, valued as follows: Skins and furs, $5,610.85; bears oil, 20 gallons, $30. When General Hull surrendered at Detroit in 1812, Collector Spafford, with other Americans on the Maumee left the river to the British and Indians. Near the close of the War of 1812, he returned, however, as his salary for 1814 was $2.50; office rent, $10; fuel and stationery, $15.75. He also appends the following note: "There being no officer legally authorized to administer oaths, nearer than sixty or seventy miles, I have not been able to attend to that part of the duty as the law requires." There was a custom office at Port Lawrence (Toledo) in 1832, with William Wilson collector and there probably was a collector there some years before that date. As early as 1824 the custom house records show that between 1822 and 1824, there were twenty-eight sailing vessels doing business on the Maumee River. Turning to the Sandusky River, while the canoe of the red man and the white trader in the earliest days, traversed most of its course, the head of commercial navigations was at the "falls" at Lower Sandusky (Fremont). There were English trading posts along the lower section until after the close of the American Revolution as already told about, at which time traffic between the merchants of the Sandusky and Detroit was evidently the most extensive on the lower lakes. Then with the influx of white settlers and the founding of Lower Sandusky, now Fremont, as a business center, the river commerce expanded in importance with the establishment of the boat building industry. Among the British sailing craft that plied the Sandusky from Detroit during the Revolution were the Faith, Adventure, Makien, St. Aubech, and one or two others, names hard to decipher. Missionary Badger sailed up the Sandusky in a small craft in 1806. In the year 1816, at Lower Sandusky, was built the sloop Nautilus. Then in later years, among the more important TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 801 schooners built there were the Cincinnati, Home, Almira Meeker, Wyandot, Ben Flint, Dan Tindall and Cornelia Amsden. May 29, 1830, the steamboat Ohio was launched at Lower Sandusky and later the steamer Fremont. The Tindall was built at the mouth of Muscalonge Creek and the Flint with several other schooners were constructed at the yards where the L. E. W. Railroad bridge crosses the river. The last sailing craft built at Fremont was the schooner N. C. West in 1867. The early exports on the Sandusky included walnut and other timber with such products as wheat, corn, oats, bacon, lard, butter, leather, ashes and staves. The imports included all kinds of merchandise, groceries and salt, this as early as 1840. The early British traders were obliged to leave the Sandusky at the close of the Revolution, but at least one of the early merchants, James Whitaker, remained in trade with the Indians and first white settlers, passing through or coming to the region until his death in 1804. Rev. James B. Finley in his autobiography, says that in the fall of the year 1800, in company with others, he purchased a drove of fat cattle around Chillicothe and drove them through to Detroit by the way of the Sandusky Plains, Lower Sandusky and the lower Maumee Rapids, where they came to a large Indian village. "The Indians of this town had just finished their great fall dance and frolic, and were making preparations for starting for their hunting grounds. Being hungry and half starved, they demanded of us a steer for the privilege of driving through their country. I told them no, they could not have it, as the cattle were for the soldiers at Detroit. At this, one of the Indians raised his rifle to shoot a steer, but riding instantly between him and the animal, I told him that if he shot I would send a force of soldiers after him from Detroit, and he would be taken there to answer for his conduct. This had the desired effect and we passed on unmolested. * * Soon after the sale (of the cattle to the Government contractor) we left for home with provisions sufficient to last till we reached the Maumee Rapids, where our stock being exhausted, we found it impossible to purchase any; and taking a string of corn, on which with some hazel nuts, we subsisted for two days, we arrived at Lower Sandusky. At this place we purchased of Whitaker a few quarts of flour and a half of a small deer." At this time Hugh Patterson also kept a store at Muncietown. But the first stock of goods of then modern merchandise was 802 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY opened up at Lower Sandusky in 1817, by J. S. and G. G. Olmstead. J. S. Olmstead in 1830 shipped by boat down the Sandusky and to Buffalo, the first important cargo of wheat from Lower Sandusky port. The price received was 60 cents per bushel, which with shipping expenses of 20 cents per bushel, left comparatively no profit. In April, 1840, according to newspaper files, there were four schooners being loaded with wheat at Lower Sandusky for Buffalo. From the writings of the historian Basil Meek is taken the following : "As many as fourteen lake vessels have been in port here at one time loading and discharging freight. Some idea of the shipping on Sandusky River in early days may be had by the following clipping from the Fremont Journal of August 27, 1869, showing the marine news for that week: "Marine News. Schooner H. D. Root, Captain Tyler, from Buffalo, arrived 16th, with merchandise ; cleared 18th, for Buffalo, with lumber. "Scow Vampyre, Captain Large, from Saginaw, arrived 18th, with pine lumber. Cleared for Buffalo 21st, with 8,500 bushels wheat. "Scow Lime Rock, Captain Corbin, arrived from Buffalo, 22d, light. "Steamer Oliver H. Perry from Sandusky, arrived 22d, with excursionists, cleared same day. "Scow D. E. Baryman, Captain Grant, arrived from Buffalo, on the 23d, light. "Schooner N. C. West, Captain Skinner, from Buffalo, 23d, cleared 24th, with 9,000 bushels wheat for Buffalo. "Schooner Wm. Kelley, Captain McKay, from Buffalo, arrived August 23d, light. "Steamer Reindeer, Captain Orr, from Sandusky, arrived 24th, light, cleared with excursionists for Put-in-Bay, 25th inst. "For many years the schooners H. D. Root and N. C. West with the barge Fostoria and others, traded between Fremont and Lake Erie ports, being towed up and down the river from 1866 to 1879 by the tug L. Q. Rawson. "Gradually the marine shipping grew less as the railroads were extended and the last of our river fleet, the schooners West and Root, were disposed of and Fremont ceased to be a regular port of entry except for an occasional cargo of lumber. "Among the first passenger and freight steamers trading Lower Sandusky were the steamers Commerce and Jack Do TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 803 ing. The Commerce was running between Lower Sandusky and Venice in 1840. "In 1851 the steamer Islander began making regular trips between Fremont and Sandusky, stopping at local docks for passengers and freight. The Islander was succeeded on this route in 1855 by the new steamer Island Queen, Captain Orr, master. Later the steamers Bonnie Boat, General Grant, Evening Star, and Reindeer plied the river route and the steamer Young Reindeer in 1877 was the last passenger steamer to make weekly trips to Sandusky. "In 1866 the propeller City of Fremont was built by The Fremont Transportation Company and ran on the route from Fremont to Buffalo for two seasons. "Many excursions to Sandusky and the Islands were taken on the steamers Island Queen, Bonnie Boat, General Grant, Reindeer, Oliver H. Perry, Islander, and in later years on the steamers B. F. Ferris and R. B. Hayes. "Before the advent of the gasoline launch there were a number of small steamers on the river owned by Fremont parties. "In 1867, the Mary Sutor was running on the river and later the Young Reindeer, Fred, 'Gem, and several small steam launches formed the pleasure fleet. In 1886 John Smith built the steamer Colonel Bartlet on the east bank of the river and for the next nine years it was used in picnic excursions and fishing trips to the bay. "On the banks of the river and on Pickerel, Raccoon, South and Mud creeks, many thousand cords of wood, hickory butts, stave bolts, piles, and saw-logs were piled during the winter months to be freighted to Sandusky or lake ports at the opening of navigation. Gradually the streams began to fill up as the country began to be drained, so that at present none of these streams are navigable for commercial purposes. The once thought-to-be-endless, but now fast failing supply of timber for shipping purposes gave out about 1890; and save an occasional cargo of lumber from some Michigan port for our local lumber yards in Fremont, there has been little or no freight traffic on the Sandusky River for the past twenty years. (Up to 1910.) " Lower Sandusky was made a port of entry about 1833. In the season of 1851, the schooner Hamer made the run between Upper Sandusky and Buffalo in seventy-eight hours, the best record for a sailboat between these points. The value of Fremont exports for the season of 1851 was $337,279.58; imports $201,- 804 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY 026, with eighty-eight boat arrivals and clearances. Newspaper files report eight vessels at the docks receiving and discharging freight, September 22, 1854. During the War of 1812, the Government purchased a tract of timber land on the east side of the Sandusky for the purpose of establishing a navy yard there, but as no additional armed craft were required, after peace was declared, the land was later disposed of to private parties. With the completion of the canal along the Maumee and the advent of the railroads in the Sandusky region, the importance of river commerce on the Maumee and Sandusky began to wane. THE CANAL ERA The first suggestion of canals in now Ohio was apparently made by James Smith in his "Life and Travels" in 1757, among the Indians of this territory. In speaking of the portage between the headwaters of the Sandusky and that of the Scioto, he says that this portage is "level and clear of rocks, timber or stone, so that with a little digging there may be water carriage the whole way from the Scioto to Lake Erie ;" making water communication with the Ohio. As has been shown in the story of navigation on the Maumee and Sandusky systems, the chief roads for early commerce were the rivers. However, artificial waterways (canals) were discussed seriously at an early period. Even before the passage of the Ordinance of 1787, and the establishment of the Northwest Territory, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson had discussed the advisability of a canal connecting Lake Erie with the Ohio River as part of a national system which should join the Mississippi with the St. Lawrence and the Atlantic. Generals Wayne and Harrison in the records of their military campaigns set forth the practicability of such artificial methods for commerce. Capt. Robert B. McAfee in his "History of the Late War in the Western Country," (1816) often referred to in this history, says : "The Miami (Maumee) is navigable for boats from this place (Fort Wayne) to the Lake. The portage to the near, est navigable branch of the Wabash is but seven or eight miles, through a low, marshy prairie, from which the water runs both to the Wabash and St. Marys. [The latter a head stream of the Maumee.—Editor.] A canal at some future day will unite these rivers and thus render a town at Fort Wayne, as formerly, the most considerable place in this country." TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 805 Maj. Benjamin F. Stickney who figured so prominently in the early history of Toledo, and who was Indian agent at Fort Wayne, at the time wrote in 1818 as follows to the Western Spy, a Cincinnati publication : "The Miami River of the Lake (Maumee) is formed by the junction of the St. Mary's and St. Joseph's rivers at Fort Wayne; pursues a general course northeast with its meanderings about 170 miles, discharging into the Maumee Bay. This river is navigable for vessels drawing five to six feet of water to Fort Meigs, sixteen miles from its mouth, and for smaller craft to its head. Although it is not large, yet, in connection with the Wabash, the importance of its navigation will not be exceeded by any discharging into the northern lakes or the Ohio River. The Wabash pursues a diametrically opposite course to its junction with the Ohio. At the highest waters of these rivers, their waters are united at the dividing ridge, and you may pass with craft from one river to the other. There is a wet prairie or swamp, covered with grass, that extends from the headwaters of the Wabash to the St. Mary's, and discharges its water into both rivers, about seven miles from one to the other. At low water this swamp is six to ten feet above the water in the rivers. It is composed of soft mud that can be penetrated twenty feet with a pole. Of course it would be a small expense of labor to connect the waters of these two rivers by a canal that would be passable at the lowest water. Those rivers will be the great thoroughfare between the lakes and the Mississippi ; and, of course, will constitute an uninterrupted navigation from the Bay of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, except for the short portage at the Falls of Niagara." Major Stickney communicated his views to Governor Clinton, of New York, who replied : "I have found a way to get into Lake Erie and you have shown me how to get out of it. You have extended my project 600 miles." It was also an Ohio man who introduced into American politics a practical policy of projecting and constructing internal improvements. Thomas Worthington in 1814 Governor of Ohio, while United States Senator from Ohio in 1807, offered a resolution in Congress asking the Secretary of the Treasury, Gallatin, to report to the Senate a plan for Government aid in opening roads and canals. As a "History of Ohio Canals" says : Nothing was done at this time though Gallatin, in 1808, vigorously took up the project of national aid to roads. The country was 806 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY not yet ready for national aid to internal improvements. The growing young West was not yet a power in Congress. In 1810, the Erie Canal Commission of New York was appointed with DeWitt Clinton at its head. Unsuccessful in an attempt to get national aid for a canal to connect Lake Erie with the Hudson River, it sought aid and cooperation from Ohio, particularly our influence in Congress. In response, the Ohio Legislature passed a resolution January 15, 1812, to the effect that a canal connecting the Great Lakes with the Hudson was a project of national concern and that the United States should defray the cost. The resolution argued that improved facilities would render the produce of our country more valuable, the foreign commodities cheaper and that they would encourage agriculture, manufactures, and internal commerce and strengthen the bond of union between the states. Madison, however, was unfavorable to the project and the War of 1812 ended the matter for the time. After the war New York decided to go ahead with the Erie Canal relying upon her own resources. Soon, however, she applied to Ohio for aid in building the canal. December 11, 1816, Governor Worthington sent to the Ohio Legislature a communication from DeWitt Clinton showing the benefits such a canal would be to Ohio and asking her to participate in the expense. A committee appointed to consider this, reported favorably January 9, 1817, and offered a resolution that the Governor correspond with Clinton and report at the next session. Four days later the Senate struck out the part pledging Ohio's aid, but passed the remainder. Ohio had reached the point where she was beginning to consider the subject of her own canals. After several years of maneuvering and attempted legislation, adopting resolutions and issuing governors' messages, the Ohio Legislature on January 31, 1822, by a combination of the friends of the canals and public schools, passed a bill authorizing the governor to employ an engineer and appoint commissioners to cause examinations and surveys. Estimates were to be made by the engineer, and an appropriation for the preliminary work was made, not to exceed $6,000. In less than eight months five routes were examined. 1—Mahoning and Grand River route. 2—Cuyahoga and Muskingum-Tuscarawas branch. 3—Black River and Muskingum-Killbuck branch. 4—Scioto and Sandusky route. 5—Maumee and Great Miami route. TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 807 Concerning the Maumee route in 1824, a survey was made for a canal from the Ohio River at Cincinnati up the Great Miami, Dayton, Piqua and to the Maumee River at Defiance; thence down the Maumee on the northern or western bank to its mouth. The survey was under the direction of M. T. Williams, and while the surveying party's camp was established in the upper Auglaize wilderness, Engineer Williams procured guides who knew the country and investigated in advance the most feasible route to the terminal location. Reaching the foot of the Maumee Rapids, he chartered a small boat and with his helpers took soundings on the river to its mouth and in Maumee Bay to Turtle Island. His report of these soundings of the water's depth made to the Chief Engineer James Geddes, and later to the Ohio Legislature, divulged that the mouth of Swan Creek was the most suitable point for the connection of the canal with the river and the transfer of cargoes from the canal boats to vessels for lake ports. A survey of the Scioto-Sandusky route was also made, following practically the Scioto River to its head, through now Delaware and Marion counties to Upper Sandusky on the headwaters of the Sandusky. From here the survey was run down the Sandusky, through Tiffin to Fremont the head of Sandusky navigation. This project was never carried through. The canals authorized to be built by an act passed February 4, 1825, were the Ohio and Erie canal following the Muskingum route from Cleveland to Portsmouth, and the Miami canal from Cincinnati to Dayton, following the Great Miami River; with a promise of extending the latter route to Port Lawrence, now Toledo. Contracts were let and the methods of construction provided for were as follows : 1. Grubbing and Clearing. The whole breadth of the canal was required to be thoroughly grubbed and cleared before excavation or embankment was commenced. A strip of 20 feet wide on each side of the canal was also to be cleared that no part of any stumps should remain one foot above ground. This kind of work was paid for by the chain. Where the water of the canal spread over the adjoining land the timber was to be cut down. This is called side clearing and was paid for by the acre. 2. Mucking and Ditching. Where the canal banks were above the natural surface of the earth, all wood and rubbish, vegetable matter, loose dirt, etc., had to be removed from a space at least 10 feet wide under each bank so that the bank would rest solid ground. This was paid for by the alibi e yard 808 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY 3. Embankment and Excavation. Where the canal was below the natural surface of the earth. (a) Water Excavation. Where there was digging under water to remove earth. (b) Rock Excavation. Where the canal was cut in the rock. (c) Detached Excavation. Where loose rocks over a certain size were to be removed. (d) Embankment. Where the canal was above the natural surface of the earth and banks had to be raised. This was paid for by the cubic yard. 4. Locks. These were made of stone or wood. Culverts. These were made of stone or wood. They were paid for by the perch (of 161,4 cu. ft.) or by the cubic foot. 5. Puddling. All culverts and back walls of locks were to be covered by a good puddle. This was composed of gravel mixed with clay loam. This mixture was made by spreading the gravel and clay level and not over six inches in depth at one turn and then saturated with water. The whole mass was then trodden with cattle or horses, or punched down with hand spikes or bars to make it as solid as possible. Other layers were then put on in the same way. 6. Protection. Outward slopes of banks liable to wash away were protected with stone of suitable size, quality and shape, either in a regular slope wall or thrown loosely on. When it was placed in a regular slope wall it was called pavement. Protection by heaps, is stone taken from the canal when dug and piled upon the side of it. All contracts for doing work of any kind on the canal were made in writing. Through the efforts of Indiana interests a survey was also made for a canal route from Fort Wayne to the Ohio River by way of the Wabash Valley. By an act of March 2, 1827, the State of Indiana received a grant of alternate sections of land for a distance of five miles on each side of the Wabash & Erie Canal, "connecting the waters of Lake Erie with the Ohio River." On May 24, 1828, President John Quincy Adams approved a supplementary act, Section 4 of which provided that "The State of Indiana be, and hereby is, authorized to convey and relinquish to the State of Ohio, upon such terms as may be agreed upon by said states, all the rights and interest granted to the State of Indiana to any lands within the limits of the State of Ohio, by an act entitled 'An act to grant a certain quantity of TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 809 land to the State of Indiana, for the purpose of aiding said state in opening a canal, to connect the waters of the Wabash River with those of Lake Erie,' approved on the 2nd of March, A. D. 1827, the State of Ohio to hold said lands on the same conditions upon which they were granted to the State of Indiana by the act aforesaid." To carry into effect the provisions of this section, Ohio appointed William Tillman, of Zanesville, and Indiana appointed Jeremiah Sullivan, of Madison, commissioners with plenipotentiary powers to agree upon a division of the lands. These commissioners, in October, 1829, agreed upon a plan by which Indiana was to surrender to Ohio all the canal lands in the latter state, Ohio to construct the canal and guarantee its use to the citizens of the two states on equal terms. After some delay on the part of Ohio, this compact was ratified and from this time the canal, though one project as a commercial proposition, became separated as regards its construction and management. Shortly after the surveys were completed and the land grants were satisfactorily adjusted, the dispute over the Ohio-Michigan boundary caused a delay. Ohio owned the lands which were to furnish a large part of the revenue for the construction of the canal, and it could hardly be expected that the authorities of that state would be willing to aid in building a canal if the terminus was to be outside the state and in Michigan. While the boundary question was under discussion, different plans were proposed, one of which was to employ slack water for navigation by so improving the Maumee River with locks and dams as to make it navigable for steamboats to Ft. Wayne. Another cause of delay was the rivalry between Toledo and the towns of Perrysburg and Maumee for the terminus of the canal. Manhattan, near the mouth of the river, also set up a claim that the proper place to end the canal was at the Maumee Bay. The boundary dispute was finally settled by Congress on April 30, 1836, and on the 22nd of the following August the canal commissioners met at Perrysburg to decide the question of where the canal should connect with the Maumee. Delegations from the rival towns were present to advance their claims and it was finally resolved by the commissioners to grant Maumee, Toledo at Swan Creek and Manhattan, canal connection with the river. This decision was approved by Governor Lucas after his visit to the several towns. In May, 1837, contracts were awarded at Maumee City for 810 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY the construction of the canal between the mouth of the Maumee River and the Head of the Rapids. The several contractors gathered about two thousand laborers along the line of the canal and the first wages were paid in Michigan "wild-cat" bank bills borrowed for the purpose. From the very beginning of the work the contractors labored under difficulties "to an extent that no other work in the state has been subjected," says the Board of Public Works, in its report for the year ending on December 31, 1839. First, the financial panic of 1837 made it impossible for the contractors to obtain funds for the prosecution of the work, and in May, 1838, the laborers had received no wages for about five months. Many of them threatened to quit, but the matter was finally adjusted by the contractors giving due bills, orders on stores, etc., all of which were fully paid in good money in June. An occasional keg of whiskey was also an inducement to continue work. Second, the high price of provisions, which had to be brought from long distance, the consequent high wages, and the sickness which drove many of the laborers out of the valley, all combined to cause vexatious delays. Toward the close of 1839 the contractors were advised that the prospect of obtaining money to continue the work was doubtful and they were recommended to use their discretion about the prosecution of the work. Consequently, not much was done during the first three months of 1840. By the 1st of April, however, financial conditions were better and during the remainder of the year better progress was made. In June, 1842, the canal was opened for traffic between Toledo and the Rapids. In its annual report of January 2, 1843, the Board of Public Works said: "The whole of this work is now so far completed as to admit the water when the proper season for using the same shall arrive, and nothing but unforeseen accidents will from this time prevent, at all proper seasons of the year an uninterrupted navigation. For the last fifteen months there has not been paid one dollar in money to the contractors on this canal, and the amount due is equal to $500,000. Almost the whole resources and credit of that portion of the state in the vicinity of this work have been used up and invested in the construction of the canal." Contracts for that portion of the canal between the Rapids and the Indiana state line were let in October, 1837. The following summer the Wabash & Erie Canal was opened for traffic between Fort Wayne and Logansport, Indiana. The Ohio portion of this canal was only eighteen miles in length—from the Indi- TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 811 ana state line to the junction with the Miami & Erie Canal in Paulding County. On May 8, 1843, the canal was opened between Toledo and Lafayette, Indiana. The first boat to make the through trip was the Albert S. White, Capt. Cyrus Belden, of Toledo. A great celebration was held at Toledo, speeches being made by H. D. Mason, George B. Way, Myron H. Tilden, Benj. F. Stickney, John Fitch, Herman Walbridge and others. The first packet, fitted for passengers, followed soon afterward under Capt. William Dale. Fort Wayne advertised a grand celebration on July 4, 1843, when representatives from Toledo, Detroit, Lafayette and other cities were present. Gen. Lewis Cass delivered the principal address. A fleet of canal boats from Lafayette arrived at Toledo April 16 to 18, 1844, carrying 471,922 pounds of lard, 415,098 pounds of bacon, 41,949 barrels of ashes, 3,983 bushels of wheat, 1,445 barrels of pork, 860 barrels of flour and other products. Owing to the heavy forest growth south of the junction of the two canals in Pauding County, there was considerable delay in the construction of that portion of the Miami & Erie Canal. The result was that the first boat from Cincinnati did not arrive at Toledo until June 27, 1845. The following year the United States Government made its first use of the canal in transporting troops from points in the Northwest to Cincinnati on their way to Mexico, the commissioned officers being carried upon the packets and the non-commissioned officers and privates upon freight boats. On June 28, 1847, the packet boat Empire left Dayton for ToledQ and arrived on the 30th. Among the passengers were the Governor of Ohio, William Bebb, Ex-Gov. Thomas Corwin, Robert C. Schenck and other distinguished men. The trip was made in 48 hours. Until 1856 these canals were regarded as part of the great military thoroughfare between New York City and the South. Besides the use of the canals for military purposes, they proved to be the safest, easiest and cheapest modes of transportation devised up to this date. During the year 1846 the value of the produce brought to Toledo by the canal was $3,000,000 and the cargoes sent out from Toledo were valued at $5,000,000. Slocum, in his "History of the Maumee Valley," gives the following description of the canal packet, or passenger boat : "The sleeping berths for the first class passengers were ranged on each side of the upper cabin, generally in two rows one above the other, but occasionally in three rows and some were made to shut up or swing out of the way by day. Hammocks and cots 812 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY were provided for the overplus passengers and many would sleep on the deck. The dining-room was below, generally midboat, but sometimes forward, and the food was generally good. These boats carried express freight and some of them carried the United States mail. They were drawn by two to six horses, according to the size of the boat and the load, and the horses were generally kept on a trot by the driver, who rode the saddle (left rear) horse, attaining a pace of from six to eight miles an hour. Relays of horses were sometimes carried in a narrow stable in the center part of the boat, especially the freight boats, but usually the packet relays were stationed at convenient ports." The canal packets were considered both rapid and comfortable and were liberally patronized. The journey from Toledo to Lafayette, a distance of 242 miles, was advertised to be made in fifty-six hours, or a little less than five miles an hour. The rate of fare was usually three cents a mile on the packets and two-and a-half cents on the freight boats. For long distances berth and meals were included in the regular rates. From thirty-five to forty persons were considered a good passenger list, but if more sought passage they were rarely turned away. The average canal boat captain was a resourceful individual. He knew how to "handle a crowd" and would manage to take care of all that came, even if the boat's capacity was overtaxed. Competition was keen among the boats and only as an absolute necessity was business, either passenger or freight, refused. This competition extended to the operation of the boats. In meeting and passing, the rules for the position of horses, tow lines, etc., must be strictly observed, as well as those providing for the precedence of packets over freight carriers. Failure to observe the regulations was certain to start an argument, which sometimes resulted in an exchange of blows. At wharves, and particularly at the locks, the slightest unnecessary delay was sure to be resented with an outburst of profanity, if nothing more. However, one good thing resulted from the competition. The time between Toledo and Cincinnati was reduced to four days and five nights, which was looked upon as "rapid transit" in those days. And it was good time when one stops to consider the numerous stops to receive and discharge passengers and freight. Often an hour would be required to load and unload freight and delays also occurred on almost every trip on account of the precedence of other boats. For a long time the largest boat on the canals was the Harry of the West, which was brought through Lake Erie from the New TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 813 York & Erie Canal in 1844, by Capt. Edwin Avery. The following year the first steam canal boat, the Niagara, was built for Samuel Doyle at a cost of $10,000, but it could not successfully compete with the horse-power boats. During the next ten years several steam canal boats were tried, but objections were raised to their use because the commotion caused by the propellers had a tendency to injure the banks of the canal and interfere with other boats. In November, 1859, the steam propeller Scarecrow made her first run from Toledo with a load of lumber for Franklin. On May 25, 1862, the propeller Union arrived at Toledo from Lafayette, with a cargo of 1,750 bushels of wheat and having in tow a boat carrying 2,050 bushels more; besides twenty barrels of pork and two casks of hams, 115 tons in all. Capt. William. Sabin reported that he had made the trip in five days, three and one-half hours. While the canals were in operation, it was no unusual matter for three thousand to four thousand boats to clear from Toledo annually. Frequently fifty or sixty boats would be at the Toledo docks at one time,'loading and unloading or waiting their turn. Many of the laborers on the canals while they were under construction, entered or purchased land and brought their families to the Maumee Valley. In this way the canals proved a powerful stimulus to the development of the country. Slocum gives the course of the canal through Toledo as follows: "The course of the abandoned canal is now occupied in its northern part by the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway to Cherry Street, thence the course turns nearly south, crossing Oak Street at Allen, crossing Adams between Ontario and Michigan, Madison at Ontario, Jefferson a little nearer Ontario than Erie, Monroe nearer Erie, Washington at Erie, thence turning westward to cross Lafayette at Ontario, thence southward crossing Nebraska Avenue just west of Thirteenth Street and Swan Creek just east of Wyandotte Street." The canal tolls in Toledo in 1847 amounted to $63,869. The number of boats in commission was 417. The number of canal boat clearances in 1848 was 3,753; aggregate tonnage 142,071,204 pounds. Tolls paid, $117,220.25. There are yet living in Toledo (1929) men who remember when the canal was in operation through the heart of Toledo; when there were docks along near now Ontario Street between Monroe and Adams and when schooners loaded and unloaded their cargoes, near where now stands the Toledo Public Library and the old Central High School building. 814 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY After the advent of the railroad the canal traffic began to decline. Wherever the two came into competition rates were reduced to such an extent that profits disappeared. The railroads then raised rates at points away from the canal to make up the loss. An instance is recited where the railroad rate on wheat from Tontogany, Wood County, to Toledo, a distance of twenty-three miles, was seven cents per bushel. The same road (the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton) carried wheat from Troy to Toledo, 120 miles, for six cents per bushel. The reason was that Troy was on the line of the canal while Tontogany was not. In like manner the Wabash Railroad charged fourteen cents per bushel to transport wheat from points only sixty miles from Toledo, but not on the canal, and carried wheat all the way from Indiana for ten and twelve cents. As the canals were the property of the state, the Legislature in March, 1852, while railroad building in Ohio was still in its infancy, requested the Board of Public Works "to report by what authority railroad companies have been permitted to erect bridges over the canals of the state for the passage of cars; the means adopted by such companies to obtain the transportation of freight which, at proper rates for transportation, would pass upon the canals; what effect the removal of such bridges would have upon said roads ; and whether any legislation be necessary for the removal of said bridges." The board at that time was composed of George W. Monypenny, A. P. Miller and James B. Steedman. In replying to the demands of the General Assembly, the board made a long report, in which it was declared that the bridges had been erected without the permission of the board or authority of law. Then, after explaining how the board had undertaken to maintain canal traffic by reducing the rates, the report said : "We have ordered our engineers and superintendents to prevent the erection of any more bridges across the canals by railroad companies. We would also suggest the propriety of passing a law prohibiting railroad companies from shipping produce, merchandise or other articles from within twenty miles of the canals, at less freight per mile than the highest rate charged for transportation on any other part of the road. * * * If these railroads would be content with doing their legitimate business, both they and the canals might prosper; but unfortunately they are owned and controlled mostly by foreign capitalists, who feel no sympathy with the people of the state or its prosperity, and are guided only by the TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 815 hope of large dividends. Against the efforts of these capitalists, the state should early erect barricades and carefully guard them, or it will soon find, when too late, the public works are entirely at their mercy." Not long after this the Central Ohio Railroad began building a bridge over one of the state canals near Zanesville. The pit for one of the abutments was filled up by order of Commissioner Manypenny, when the railroad company applied to the court for an injunction. Judge R. C. Hurd, of the Licking Common Pleas Court, granted the injunction, holding that the right granted by the Legislature to the railroad company to construct a road on a certain line included the right to build bridges where necessary and that the canal was no exception. This opinion was sustained by the higher courts. Meantime other opposition to the canals developed. The people of Paulding County, living near the large reservoir upon which the canal depended for water, set up the claim that the reservoir was detrimental to the health of the community. They appealed to the state authorities to abate the same as a nuisance, but the request was not granted and some "unknown parties" destroyed the banks of the reservoir, rendering it useless, though that part of the Wabash & Erie Canal through Indiana had been abandoned some years before. Another source of opposition was certain private corporations which desired the canals for their own use. Emissaries of these companies went among the people and explained that better service could be given if the canals were leased to such companies. In this way public opinion was molded and in 1861 the Legislature passed an act authorizing the leasing of the canals for a period of seventeen years. Soon after this the lessees discontinued the use of the two locks connecting the canal with the river at Manhattan and they were abandoned by an act of the Legislature, approved on March 26, 1864. It was about this time that the Wabash & Erie Canal between Fort Wayne and Lafayette was abandoned, though that section between Fort Wayne and the Miami & Erie Canal continued in use until about 1886. With the abandonment of the Manhattan locks, connection with the lower Maumee was made through the Toledo side-cut, which dropped fifteen feet into Swan Creek by two locks. By the act of January 31, 1871, the Legislature abandoned that portion of the canal between the Manhattan locks and the Toledo side-cut (3.75 miles), together with the aqueduct over Swan Creek. 816 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY During the life of the lease, the business of the canals continued to decline, while that of the railroads increased. When the canals were returned to the State in 1878 "their condition was deplorable." The lessees had failed to keep them in repair and for several years the State expended annually from $15,000 to $40,000 in excess of the receipts to maintain and operate them. A few sections, where there was no railroad competition, were operated for a longer period, but as canals, once such a potent factor in transportation and the development of the Maumee Valley, they are now nothing but a memory. In December, 1922, the City of Toledo, for $300,000, acquired that part of the canal extending from its intersection with Swan Creek in the city to the Village of Maumee. It is the purpose of the city to make of the canal property a boulevard entrance into the city's business center. Besides the natural streams for canal aeders, Ohio constructed vast reservoirs at the proper summits for artificial water supply. The Miami and Erie Canal had only one summit, but it was supplied from three reservoirs—the Grand, or St. Marys, the Lewistown, and Loramies. The St. Marys Reservoir, located mostly in Mercer County, was constructed in 1837-39, at a cost of $528,222.07 and contains 17,603 acres. It was formed by closing in a natural basin and is from three to five miles in width and nearly ten miles in length. It is pronounced the largest artificial body of water in the world. The Lewistown Reservoir, Indian Lake, in Logan County, encloses 7,200 acres, was constructed in 1851 to 1860, and cost $600,000. It is now famed as a fine summer resort, its banks being lined with delightful summer homes. Loramies Reservoir, on the line of Loramies Creek in Shelby County, contains 1,900 acres, was constructed in 1844 at a cost of $22,000. All these "lakes" have been made popular resorts and favorite places for boating, hunting and fishing. Six Mile Reservoir in Paulding County, abandoned, is now in one of the prosperous agricultural sections of that locality. Many prosperous hamlets sprang up along the canals which became important trading points, with flouring mills, sawmills, stave factories and other establishments. Florida and Texas in Henry County, Providence in Lucas County, are examples of this early day prosperity. Along the flats at Maumee were carding and woolen mills and other manufacturing enterprises. It of course was claimed for the canals that they would not only develop agriculture, but manufacture and commerce and in some TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 817 sections the mining industry. In 1839, there was leased water power from the canals capable of operating 207 pairs of four and one-half foot mill-stones. In 1857 there were 2,200 flouring mills in Ohio principally moved by steam or canal power. CHAPTER LII FIRST SETTLERS ON THE MAUMEE AND SANDUSKY GENERAL WAYNE'S CHOICE OF RESERVATIONS-LOCATED AT STRATEGIC POINTS-FIRST WHITE ARRIVALS-THEIR LOCATION AND EXPERIENCES-OPENING OF WAR OF 1812 CAUSES THEIR FLIGHT. The Treaty of Greenville, concluded by Gen. Anthony Wayne with the Indian tribes August 3, 1795, was the great opening wedge for civilization and the establishment of permanent white settlements in the valleys of the Maumee and Sandusky. While it is true that most of Northwestern Ohio remained Indian lands for several years after the treaty was concluded, the farseeing Wayne provided for certain important United States reservations which had much to do with the development of these two wonderful valleys. Among other reservations, as has been related, were the six miles square reserve at the mouth of the Auglaize (Defiance) and the six miles square reservation where is now Fort Wayne, Indiana. But the two most important to this story were the "one piece twelve miles square at the British fort on the Miami of the lake (Maumee) at the foot of the Rapids" and "one piece two miles square at the lower Rapids of the Sandusky." The northeast corner of this twelve miles square reservation took in the mouth of Swan Creek and where Fort Industry was located, foot of now Monroe Street, Toledo. It consequently included where was built the earliest business establishment of Toledo, the old "warehouse." The southeast corner of the tract is now the southeast corner of Perrysburg township, Wood County. The south line of the reservation cut through the lower end of Station Island, later known as Parker's Island, in the Maumee River, and the southwest corner of the reservation is consequently in now Lucas County a short distance from the west river bank. The west reservation line running north twelve miles from this point, makes the northwest corner of the reservation where this west line intersects now West Dorr Street, Toledo; the north line of the tract consequently being on a line with t latter street. The 92.160 acres of land within the reservation nearly equally divided by the Maumee River, slightly more th - 818 - TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 819 one-half being in now Lucas County and the other portion in Wood County. Therefore, besides a large section of the southern district of Toledo (including the south part of Toledo, east side), Rossford, and Perrysburg, Wood County, and Maumee, Waterville, Monclova, and Holland, Lucas County, are within the old Twelve Miles Square Reserve, and within which occurred the battle of Fallen Timbers, and wherein was located Fort Meigs and old Fort Miami. The City of Fremont is situated directly upon the two miles square reserve "at the lower Rapids of the Sandusky" with old Fort Stephenson almost in the center of the tract. Among two other reservations was "one piece six miles square at the mouth of said river (Maumee) where it empties into the lake" (Erie) and "one piece six miles square upon Sandusky Lake (Bay) where a fort formerly stood." The point in here making specific reference to these reservations, is to show that General Wayne located them at strategic military points and where later were made the first permanent settlements on the Maumee and Sandusky. The Treaty of Fort Industry followed in 1805, the Detroit Treaty 1807, the Brownstown Treaty 1808, and then the Great Treaty at the Foot of the Rapids (Maumee City) in 1817, opening all Northwestern Ohio to civilization. When Wayne made the Treaty of Greenville, 1795, there were French traders and trappers along the Maumee and the south shore of Lake Erie and at the mouth of the Sandusky. With the Western Reserve opened up in 1805, emigrants began to locate along the south shore of the lake west of Cleveland. The ship building industry followed and Lockport, Erie, Black Rock and Buffalo soon had boats running to Conneaut, Cleveland, Huron, Sandusky Bay and up the Sandusky River; also, to the Maumee Bay and up to the Rapids and to Detroit and other lake points. In the meantime, Elias Glover, United States Deputy Surveyor, with his corps of assistants, arrived in 1805 on the lower Maumee as elsewhere noted, and surveyed and marked the outlines of the United States twelve miles square reserve at the Foot of the Maumee Rapids, resurveys being made in 1816 and later. Surveys were also made of the reservations at the lower Rapids of the Sandusky (Fremont) and at the mouth of the Sandusky. As has already been shown both the lower Maumee and Sandusky were most attractive by reason of their surrounding fur trade. Both valleys were occupied, especially in winter, by Indi- 820 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY ans, from their headwaters to the lake. The Foot of the Maumee Rapids and the Lower Falls of the Sandusky were the heads of navigation for these respective streams. To both these places the traders and merchants shipped their goods, from Detroit and other points. On the Maumee, up or along the margin of the Rapids, the traders hauled or had packed their merchandise, and from the head of the Rapids to Fort Wayne the carriage, in season, was by pirogues and canoes. Fort Wayne was a great distributing point for a wide section, and as late as 1822 the fort was in charge of an army officer, and around about were the traders' huts and a "motly population of Indians and half-breeds —Tanucks'." For the Sandusky River, Lower Sandusky was the distributing point in that territory. These half-breed subordinate traders were employed by their superiors to transport goods on pack-ponies to distant points. Two boxes or parcels of goods about equally balanced were placed on the pack-saddle, like a sack, with a jug in each end. In the center between the two packs was a keg of whiskey, some bags of shot, kegs of lead for making bullets, or a batch of steel traps. Sometimes canoes were used on the upper tributary streams for distribution. When the stock was disposed of, the subordinates would return with loads of furs, which in turn found their way down the Maumee or the Sandusky in boats for the outside market. The under-traders who conducted these packs to the interior from the main ports, were described as "generally a rough, uncouth, intractable lot, sometimes but little in advance of the savage. A coat made of a blanket or smoked deer-skin, a skin cap, if they wore any head covering, with deer leather leggins and moccasins, comprised their dress. A rifle, hatchet and knife was their equipment for guarding their goods and for procuring their supply of meat in the forest. Thus provided for, they traveled among the scattered Indians. While wholly unschooled in the politer forms of civilized society or customs, these rough, swarthy men were brave and nearly always trustworthy. The per cent. of profit was less than under the more modern surroundings of later years." The requirements of this extensive traffic with the Indians, the force of helpers and clerks of the merchants necessitated these transportation lines along the Maumee and Sandusky long before the land came into market "or the axe of the pioneer was heard in the bordering forests and fertile valleys." And such was the situation in either section, of this then land of the savage, except- TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 821 ing in the reservations, when arrived the first permanent white settlers. It was to these reservations that the first emigrants came and their location shows the great understanding of General Wayne in their establishment. They were the fruits of his victory on the lower Maumee, the first lands the United States obtained clear title to in Northwestern Ohio. When U. S. Deputy Surveyor Glover's men in 1805 drove the first stakes outlining the government landmarks, it was the formal entry here of civilized possession. The field notes of these surveys are interesting in their observation as to valuable mill sites and their estimate of the forests, soil, water and other points. They are the undeniable and official records of the beginning of civilized improvements. History, however, at this point forces a digression. All during the campaign of General Wayne, and back even to the march into the regions of the upper Maumee of Generals Harmar and St. Clair, then when Wayne was making his treaty at Greenville and had won a greater victory there than at Fallen Timbers, there was a white man on the Sandusky, who established on that river the first home of civilization in Ohio. He was no other than James Whitaker and the remarkable story of James Whitaker and Elizabeth Whitaker, his wife, is related later in these pages in detail. And on the Maumee was another noted character whose famous family, although not then permanently located, was at the Foot of the Rapids of that river years before that date and whose descendants have been long established there. On the river boulevard running between Toledo and Maumee City, and in the northern or eastern borders of the latter city, reposes a staid old mansion built in 1825, and one of the first frame residences in this valley. At the time of this writing (1929) this historical home was owned and occupied by Miss Antoinette Knaggs. Her father was the late George Knaggs, its builder, and then owner, and who figured prominently in the early days of the Northwest. The grandfather of this Mr. Knaggs was also named George Knaggs, a native of England. He married Rachel Sly of the same country and on coming to America they located in Philadelphia. Some three years before Pontiac's conspiracy and about 1760, western activities brought them to Detroit and among the traders of the lower Maumee, where they were located near the site of where later Fort Miami was built. There was evidently 28-VOL. 1 822 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY no permanence to their location, for the records show that their son James was born at Roche de Boeuf in 1765 above now Waterville. However, it is stated that the other children of George and Rachel Knaggs, born in the vicinity of later Miami, were : Whitmore, born in 1760; Elizabeth, born in 1772 ; Thomas, Rebecca, James and William. Mrs. Rachel Knaggs despite her environment was a woman of unusual refinement and character and the children were educated to a surprising degree under the conditions. Whittmore Knaggs, the oldest son, was married in Detroit to Josette Labadie, daughter of Pierre Des comptes Labadie. Her family was of the nobility of France and prominent in the early history of Quebec and Montreal. Labadie later figured conspicuously in the history of Detroit. At the age of eighteen Whitmore Knaggs had become an Indian agent and interpreter, the appointment being made by Washington. He was interpreter for General Wayne and was with him at the battle of Fallen Timbers. When the Americans took possession of Detroit he became further noted as an Indian Agent with wide experience. Growing up among the Ottawa Indians on the Maumee and associating with them in his younger years, they had become greatly attached to him, as he had early given them valuable counsel. Consequently, in 1785 when he was twenty-five years of age, the Ottawa head men presented him with near four thousand acres of land located on the Maumee above the present City of Toledo. The original grant was lost and in 1795 the tribe issued a second grant signed by all their leading chiefs. The United States Government subsequently objected to the amount of the gift and a part thereof was transferred to other parties. The bulk of the land, however, was finally confirmed to the three living sons of Whittmore Knaggs—George, John and James. Whittmore Knaggs in his later career was a resident of Detroit. After General Hull's surrender of that place in 1812, official business called Knaggs to Washington. As a part of his journey compelled him to enter British territory, he secured safe conduct by a passport through their region. In January, 1813, he returned to this then West by way of the Maumee. At the Lower Rapids he found only desolation and ruin, perpetrated by the Indians when they took the war path at the outbreak of hostilities. At the River Raisin (Frenchtown) where his mothe and brother James lived, he found General Winchester and his Kentucky forces. He witnessed Winchester's defeat and the TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 823 slaughter of his men by the British and Canadians under Proctor and his Indian allies. Succeeding in making his escape, Whitt-more Knaggs fled to the river bank and came upon General Winchester. Soon after the General and Knaggs ran into a band of six or eight wounded Indians who made them prisoners. Two chiefs among the Indians recognized Knaggs and it was stated that later his presence was all that saved a considerable further number of Winchester's men from being massacred. Knaggs was with Winchester when the latter was escorted before General Proctor and the report says that they were handcuffed and treated with great indignity. On account of his influence with the Indians the British were wary of his presence. Together with General Winchester, Colonel Lewis, Major Madison and some others, he was sent by way of Montreal to Quebec, at which place and at Beaufort they were confined in prison until the spring of 1814, when a general exchange of prisoners took place. Knaggs was charged with breaking his parole of safe conduct and participating in the River Raisin engagement on the side of the Americans. His own emphatic denial and that of Winchester was of no avail. The children of Whittmore Knaggs and his accomplished French wife were : Whittmore, George B., John, James and Elizabeth. All the children were born in Detroit. About 1819, the father gave George B., his second son, a farm on the Maumee River just below the site of Fort Miami, and carved from his large Indian gift. He also gave his son John a tract below that of George B. Knaggs. It is said that in 1819, George, only a boy, was made an Indian chief. After this ceremony he signed some important papers at Saginaw, Mich. At the age of sixteen he came to the Maumee River and took charge of building a house below old Fort Miami not far from Rock Bar. It was evidently on his father's land and was designed as a fur trading post in connection with the business of his father. Here George for a time was in trade with his brother John. At Detroit some time during this period, George B. Knaggs attended St. Thomas College, Detroit, and also West Point. For a time he was a clerk for Henry I. Hunt, then a Detroit merchant. He gravitated between Detroit and the lower Maumee and in 1824 after his marriage to Matilda Lee, daughter of a Detroit physician of the family of Lees of Virginia, he brought his bride to Fort Miami and immediately began the erection on his land of an elaborate mansion for the times, and upon its completion in 1825, he occupied it as 824 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY his permanent home. The residence stood on the bank of the Maumee in the rear of where is now located the Lucas County Children's Home. Among the distinguished personages who were guests of Mr. Knaggs at this estate were Gen. William Henry Harrison, who was entertained during his campaign for the presidency in 1840; Richard M. Johnson, vice president under President Van Buren; Governor Lewis Cass, Mrs. Cass and their daughter Belle; Mrs. George B. McClellan, wife of General McClellan; Governor Lucas of Ohio (at the time of the Ohio and Michigan boundary dispute) ; and it is said, former Governor Hull of Michigan and his nephew, Isaac Hull (Isaac lived at Maumee) ; Col. George Croghan (the hero of Fort Stephenson), and many other distinguished persons. Upon Mr. Knaggs' death the home was still occupied by his daughter Antoinette, first spoken of, who was the child of George Knaggs' second marriage, to Laura Bosley, daughter of John Bosley, a New Yorker who owned flouring mills at Perrysburg and Fremont. In 1916 Miss Knaggs had this fine old mansion moved from the river bank to where it now stands as a monument of pioneer days, on the Toledo-Maumee City Boulevard. With this digression in a way, the thread of the narrative concerning the Maumee is continued. The treaty made at Detroit in 1807 with the Indians by Governor Hull of Michigan Territory, acting for the United States, affected only the upper Maumee section as far down as the mouth of the Auglaize, but it "let daylight into the long benighted Maumee Country and the Sandusky." The Brownstown Treaty one year later laid the basis for the Maumee and Western Reserve Road, 120 feet wide, direct from the Foot of the Maumee Rapids (at now Perrysburg) through present Fremont to the west line of the Connecticut Western Reserve and the east line of now Sandusky County; also a strip one mile wide on each side of said roadway was ceded to pay for its construction. As one writer observed, this route was or is nearly on the same course of one of the old trails used by the French and afterwards by the English, in their expeditions by land between Detroit and the Ohio down the Scioto. Only their trail kept on the higher ground, thus often deviating from a straight course. This early highway opened communication from Detroit to the developing settlements of the Reserve and eastward, and was also a connecting link for eastern emigration to the southern Michigan and northern Indiana section and the head of Lake Michigan, now Chicago. Even consid- TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 825 ering this early date, this historian observes, "The Foot of the Rapids, then recognized as the head of navigation on the Maumee, stood in high estimation as a point of future commercial importance. It gave most promise of all locations in the wilderness at the head of Lake Erie." The time was now ripe for the permanent settlements on the lower Maumee. However, the first white people to establish homes here except those holding Indian grants were in fact only squatters, for the government had not yet put the lands upon the market. Who the very first of these were is not vital to history but interesting. There were scattered along the east bank of the Maumee at least previous to 1807, a few French, where is now Toledo, east side, including the Navarres, Antoine La Point, Peltier and Mominie. There were some other French on the west bank in the vicinity of Fort Miami, including J. B. Beaugrand and Gabriel Godfrey. As related by Peter Navarre in 1807, "the Indians of the Ottawa tribe lived in a village on the Maumee nearly opposite later Manhattan. It was a grassy plot; the houses of logs about sixty in number, were built in two rows, whitewashed, and presented a cheerful and pleasant appearance. The village had been in existence since the days of Pontiac and marked the site of his encampment on the Maumee at the time he left Detroit in 1764. The head chief of the nation, Fish-qua-gun, was a descendant from Pontiac. He was a kindhearted, peaceable old man. At this time also, the widow of Pontiac and Pontiac's son Otusso dwelt at the mouth of the river. Mesh-ka-man, a cousin of Otusso, was a chief on the west side of the river. He was the finest orator in the nation and the foremost speaker at all the treaties. The English visited the Indians in great numbers during the years 1810 and 1811, for the purpose of interesting them in the coming war against the United States." According to the U. S. Engineers who ran the outlines of the Twelve Miles Square Reserve in 1805, there was a licensed trader or a sort of garrison sutler at that time at Fort Industry; but not considering Knaggs, and one or two others identified with the Indians, the first write man of prominence to be identified permanently with the lower Maumee was Amos Spafford. He was with the party of New Englanders headed by Moses Cleaveland which came west along the south shore of Lake Erie in 1796 and landed at Conneaut, and later was with the surveyors at the mouth of the Cuyahoga where Cleveland was founded. In 1805 Spafford came 826 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY with the surveyors to the Maumee Rapids. He did not remain here at that time, but evidently selected a tract of land adjoining where was afterwards built Fort Meigs, upon which he later raised a cabin and in 1810 established his family. As has been stated, Spafford was chosen Collector of the Port of Miami, Erie District. In June, 1810, he was also appointed postmaster and the sparse settlement had mail delivery every two weeks. Benoni Adams was the mail carrier from Cleveland to the Rapids. The round trip, made usually on foot, generally occupied the full time of the two weeks schedule. Miami was the only post office on the route between Cleveland and Fort Dearborn (Chicago) excepting River Raisin (Monroe). When the Reserve survey was made, it placed these lands in the Detroit Land District, where they remained until 1816, when they came under the Land District of Wooster, Ohio. Congress by a special act on April 16, 1816, granted title to Collector Spafford for the lands he had settled upon and the 160 acres was thereafter known as "Spafford's Grant." This was the first passing of title from the United States to a private individual in this section. While Spafford was the first resident land owner on the Maumee, unless the Knaggs family is considered, other squatters had built their cabins on the lower river banks long before his arrival. Evers, the early Wood County historian, tells it like this: "When Wayne swooped down on the Maumee Indians in 1794, Col. John Anderson, British Indian Agent at the time, had a little trading establishment and a garden and corn field above Fort Miami. Wayne's followers devoured the Colonel's roasting-ears and destroyed everything outside the fort. ' * Anderson seems for some reason, not to have been seriously interfered with when the United States took possession. The Missionary David Bacon says (year 1802) : 'Mr. Anderson, a respectable trader, was at Fort Miami, and was opposed to selling whiskey to the Indians.' This would indicate that Anderson, who was at Miami at the time of the battle (1794), and was yet there in 1802, had been a squatter resident for at least eight years. Mr. Anderson afterwards lived at Monroe, Michigan. * * * The French settlement proper was down opposite (later) Manhattan. Another early trader by the name of Courtmanche made transient trips through the valley. "It looks as though Colonel Anderson with his corn fields, garden and store, was best entitled to the honor of being the first settler. The first corners were in fact all squatters and in some TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 827 sense transient occupants. [This was not the case with Amos Spafford, the first permanent landholder—Editor.] The title to the honor (of Anderson) however, is not so clear as to bar other claimants. Among the first Americans was James Carlin, government blacksmith to the Indians, who came from the River Raisin in November, 1807. He moved first from Auburn, New York, to Erie, Pa., then came over the lake to Detroit. The Ewings, Races, Carters, David Hull, a trader and tavern keeper, Daniel Purdy and some others, came in the year 1807. ['Old Andy Race' was with Wayne at Fallen Timbers—Editor.] The years 1808 and 1809 brought a number more families, Americans and French, the latter mostly from Detroit and the Raisin. They were the avant-couriers of the great population which has since taken possession of every acre of this vast domain. Like the scouts and skirmishers in the advance of a great army, they cautiously felt their way ahead, and the main army followed and took up the burden of the battle. Gradually the settlements increased." Here Evers mentions the facts already given about Spafford, and remarks :—"He was the first man who possessed title from the United States government, * * his patent being signed by James Monroe. The lands he first squatted upon and made improvements on, he afterwards paid for, and there he died in 1817." In the year 1810, also came some New Yorkers and Pennsylvanians by way of Buffalo, in a schooner, and a number of them landed where is now Port Clinton for inspection of that section. Andrew Race, the "Andy" already referred to, who was with them on his return to the Maumee, with his brothers Bob and Dave guided the party through to their destination. Besides the Race brothers, there were Jesse Skinner, Cyrus Hitchcock, Daniel Murray, Samuel Merritt and a few others. A majority of the delegation located lands and remained while a few of them returned to the East. Skinner selected what was surveyed by Engineer Wampler in 1816, as River Tract No. 50, in now Wood County, below the Waterville bridge. One of the Ewings had previously established himself three miles farther down the river on the same side. A Frenchman who did some trading, occupied a squatter's shanty near the mouth of Tontogany Creek, and not far from where later the Maumee Indian Mission was established. Nearly opposite was an Ottawa Indian village. Samuel H. Ewing, Daniel Murray and another family located at now Mon- 828 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY clova, where Ewing built a dam on Swan Creek and started the construction of a sawmill. Added to these were Thomas and Halsey W. Learning, Stephen Hoyt, George Blalock, Thomas Dick, William Peters, Ambrose Hickok, Richard Gifford, Capt. David Wilkinson, and some others. Further idea of the condition of the lower Maumee for some years after Wayne's campaign may be gathered from the following extract from the letters of Judge Jacob Burnet of Cincinnati, who traveled from there through the Maumee Valley to attend court at Detroit. After assigning his reasons for the downfall of the Indians, he says : "My yearly trips to Detroit from 1796 to 1802 (after Detroit was taken possession of by the Americans until near the time Ohio became a state) made it necessary to pass through some of the Indian towns, and convenient to visit some of them. Of course I had frequent opportunities of seeing thousands of them in their villages and at their hunting camps and of forming a personal acquaintance with some of their distinguished chiefs. I have eaten and slept in their towns and partaken of their hospitality, which had no limit but that of their contracted means. In journeying more recently through the state in discharging my judicial duties, I sometimes passed over the ground on which I had seen towns filled with happy families of that devoted race, without perceiving the smallest trace of what had once been there. All their ancient settlements on the route to Fort Defiance and thence to the Foot of the Rapids, had been broken up and deserted. The battle ground of General Wayne, which I had often seen in the rude state in which it was when the decisive action of 1794 was fought, was so altered and changed that I could not recognize it, and not an indication remained of the very extensive Indian settlements which I had formerly seen there. It seemed almost impossible that in so short a period, such an astonishing change could have taken place." Judge Burnet in another article tells of another time about 1797 or 1798, when the court and bar from Cincinnati to Detroit stopped at an Ottawa Indian town on the Auglaize (Wapakoneta) and remained over night. The next day a game of ball was arranged between the bucks and squaws, especially for their entertainment. It possessed the rudiments of present day football. There was a level field, with goal posts, the game being played with a large ball. The squaws lined up at one end of the field and the bucks on the other end and the feat consisted in the attempt of each side to carry the ball between the posts and over TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 829 the goal line of their adversary. Says Burnet : "The contest continued about an hour with great animation and with various prospects of success. But was finally decided in favor of the fair sex, by the herculean strength of a mammoth squaw, who got the ball and held it in spite of the efforts of the men to shake it from her grasp, till she approached the goal to throw it through the stakes." On the trip to Detroit their route was by Dayton, Piqua, Loramies, St. Marys and the Ottawa towns on the Auglaize; from thence down the Auglaize to Defiance and down the Maumee and across the River Raisin. On one occasion on their return from Detroit the "bench and bar" crossed the Maumee at Roche de Boeuf by the advice of Black Beard who lived in that neighborhood, and with whom the party breakfasted. To show them this new route they employed Black Beard's son as a guide. He led them through a succession of wet prairies, probably including Jackson Prairie, now the garden spot of Wood County, over some of which it was impossible to ride ; and it was with great difficulty that they were able to lead or drive their horses through the deep mud which spread in all directions. They were two days going from the Maumee to Wapakoneta Village on the Auglaize where they had witnessed the Indian ball game. Here they found that Blue Jacket had just returned from Cincinnati with a large quantity of whiskey and his people were engaged in a high, drunken frolic, including the women. "The Indians were scattered at this early day along the Maumee, mostly on the north side along the rapids, because the country was drier and more open from the bay to Defiance, and on the Auglaize and Blanchard. The Indian corn and truck patches were frequent on Bean Creek, Swan Creek and the smaller tributaries. Occasional camps for hunting and sugar making were found on the Portage River and its branches and at other points favorable to the Indian mode of life." When the settlers began gathering along the lower Maumee they also began to test the productiveness of the soil, by planting islands and rich bottom lands in grain and vegetables and the yield was enormous. And while from 1794 until 1812 there was comparative peace with the Indians along the Maumee, in the outlying districts in the later years, Tecumseh was visiting the various tribes spreading the propaganda for war, and in the offing was heard the rumblings of another American conflict with the annoying British. Finally the smoldering embers burst into 830 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY flame and the American army assembled at Dayton under General Hull. While some of the Indians remained loyal to the Americans or were neutral, others readily took up the hatchet. In the tumultuous situation the Maumee settlers clung to their cabin homes and little cultivated clearings. The story has already been told of the march of General Hull's army from Dayton to Urbana, and north through the forests to the Maumee River and Detroit. No professional engineering skill was used either in the location or construction of Hull's Trail. Instead of engineers they employed three expert woodsmen, Isaac Zane, Robert Armstrong and James McPherson, as guides to pilot the army through the woods and keep it from getting lost. There were some sixty-seven white families within or tributary to the lower Miami settlement on the Maumee when Hull's army passed through there. "But after the capitulation of Hull, how fared this infant settlement?" asks an early authority. "If they were electrified when they saw the army arrive, and felt security to some degree the first time in months, they were depressed and paralyzed when a few weeks later word came of Hull's surrender of that army, and that the British had adopted their former infamous plan in warfare of employing the savages as allies. Here was this little, scattered settlement of whites in the very midst of the Ottawa tribe—at their mercy in fact. All north of the Maumee was practically in the hands of the enemy. No settlements south of them to the Greenville Treaty line; west of them the turbulent followers of Tecumseh and his brother the Prophet on the Wabash and the Pottawatomies on the St. Joseph; east of them the nearest white neighbors were [outside the Whitaker family at Lower Sandusky and perhaps a few others—Editor] the weak settlements at the mouth of Huron River, now in Erie County; north of them was Detroit and adjacent settlements at the time headquarters for the British, active in their efforts to stir up the Indians by bribing and the most extravagant promises, to take up the tomahawk against the Americans. Tecumseh was there and had sworn allegiance to the King, and was effectively rallying the disaffected warriors to his standard. Even the lakes were under the control of the enemy who had several armed vessels patroling their shores. "Gloomy indeed was the outlook for this little isolated settl ment at the Maumee Rapids. To make matters worse, the sm detail of soldiers left (by Hull) for their protection, abandon TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 831 their temporary fortification, told the settlers to help themselves to the stores deposited there and retreated to the interior. There was no choice left these pioneers, they had to go too. They abandoned their crops ungathered; took such of their worldly effects as they could and fled, they scarcely knew whither. The Indians and British soon came and the torch obliterated nearly all the homely habitations of the people on the Maumee. The settlement was wiped out of existence. In its stead came hostile armies, and soon the war and din of the deadly conflict proclaimed that new issues hung in the balance to be decided in this court of last resort; or rather, old issues were to be fought over again." But with it all the spirit of '76 had not died in the hearts of the patriots and when General Harrison raised the American colors at Fort Meigs, overlooking the beautiful valley and the smoldering ashes of these pioneer cabins, it was never after hauled down by an enemy and proudly waves there at this writing. The flight of the settlers from the Maumee on the surrender of General Hull can best be told by those who were there. Peter Manor, a Frenchman, had been adopted by a chief named Tontogany or Ton-tog-a-nee under the name of Sawendebans or "the Yellow Hair." In his story Manor stated that the first intimation the settlers had of Hull's surrender at Detroit manifested itself by the appearance of a party of British and Indians at the Foot of the Rapids a few days after it took place. The Indians plundered the settlers on both sides of the river and departed for Detroit in canoes. Three of their number remained with the intention of going into the interior of the state. One of these was a Delaware chief named Sac-a-manc. Manor won his confidence under the pretense of friendship for the British and was by him informed that in a few days a grand assemblage of all the Northwestern tribes was contemplated at Fort Malden, and that in about two days after the gathering, a large number of British and Indians would be at the Foot of the Rapids, on their march to relieve Fort Wayne, then under the investment as supposed by the American army. He also told Manor that when they came again they would massacre all the Yankees found in the valley. A day or two after this Sac-a-manc left for the interior of the state. The day after the chief's departure Manor called upon Major Spafford and warned him of the coming danger as told by Sac-a-manc. The Major gave no credence to the story and said he was determined to remain on the river until a new army arrived from 832 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY the interior. A few days after this conversation a man named Gordon was seen by some of the anxious settlers hastily approaching Spafford's cabin on the east side of the river adjoining Fort Meigs site. Gordon had been brought up among the Indians and had at some time received at the hands of Spafford a trifling favor. The Major met him in his cornfield and was told that a party of some fifty Pottawatomies on their way to Malden had taken that route, and in less than two hours would be at the Foot of the Rapids. He urged the Major to make his escape immediately. Most of the settlers with their families had already fled after receiving the news from Detroit. Spafford immediately assembled those who were left on the river, where they put in as good sailing condition as possible an old barge used by army officers the year before in descending the river from Fort Wayne. They had barely time to assemble on board such of their effects as were portable and row down the bend below the settlement, before they heard above the shouts of the savages. Finding the settlers gone, the Indians passed on to Malden. In their "crazy vessel" the fleeing inhabitants headed by Spafford sailed out of Maumee Bay to the mouth of the Huron River to the Quaker settlement on that river, where the families remained until the close of the war. Sac-a-manc on his return from his tour a few days after the event, showed Manor the scalps of three white persons he had killed during his raid, at Owl Creek near Mt. Vernon. About this time a detachment of British forces under command of Col. Matthew Elliott, whose trading post on the east side of the river Wayne's forces had burned in 1794, accompanied by about five hundred Indians, arrived at the Foot of the Rapids. The Indians wanted Manor to act as their guide up the Maumee, but he feigned lameness and ignorance of the upper country, and by this means avoided being pressed into service farther than the head of the Rapids (Grand Rapids), to which point he accompanied them with his cart and pony. Colonel Elliott had not accompanied the party and on Manor's return he met Elliott at the foot of Presque Isle Hill (Turkey Foot Rock), who stopped him and on learning where Manor had been, with curses per. mitted him to go on. A mile below (just above present Maumee City) Manor met a party of some forty Pottawatomies, who also asked him what he was about. After telling them he was returning to the Foot of the Rapids to procure forage for the army he was again permitted to proceed and the British and Indians TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 833 marched up the Maumee until they saw the American flag waving over General Winchester's camp at Defiance, when in double quick time they returned to Canada. On their return they burned the lower Maumee settlers' cabins, stole their horses and destroyed the corn fields and other crops. Manor next went down the river to the British fleet then lying at the mouth of Swan Creek, under the command of Captain Mills. Here he reported himself, repeated what he had done for the British army and desired leave to go to his family at the mouth of the river. Captain Mills having no evidence of his loyalty save for his own statement, put him under the hatches as a prisoner of war. Through the aid of his friend Beaugrand, Manor was released in a few days and joined his family. Later the Indians destroyed the crops of Manor, plundered his store and took away his ponies, but did not molest his family. He was afterwards a scout in the American army during the remainder of the War of 1812. As has been related elsewhere, at the request of his Indian father Ton-tog-a-nee he was granted a reservation of land at the head of the Maumee Rapids, by the government, where is now Providence, Lucas County, which town he laid out. Upon his death he was buried on the farm set apart to him by the government. His wife "was equally noble and generous" and was a great help to the pioneer women of her day. Many of their descendants are now living in the Northwest including the City of Toledo. In 1808 Isaac P. Case of Connecticut arrived in Southern Ohio down the Ohio River with his wife, one son and three daughters. In the spring of 1811, with another family and two men named Scribner and Lapeer, they started for the Maumee Valley. At Wapakoneta they constructed a large pirogue of two basswood logs and passed down the Auglaize River to the ruins of old Fort Defiance. At this point they came upon Burgess Squire and wife and the latter's mother, the women also being mother and sister to Mr. Case. The Burgess family had spent the winter at Defiance with the only white resident, a French trader and his Indian wife. Taking all the families of the relatives and the two men in his pirogue, Case and party floated down the Maumee River and arrived at the Foot of the Rapids (Maumee and Perrysburg site) May 1, 1811, as the account says "after an exciting experience." Mr. Case was evidently later one of the well known Case family of Norwalk. Mrs. Philothe Case Clark, one of the daughters, wrote her early Maumee experiences for the Firelands Pio- 834 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY neer. After describing the sickness and deaths from wilderness privations, the burials being "in coffins made by friends from basswood trees, split and hewn with axes," she tells of the flight of the settlers from the Maumee after the news of Hull's surrender. Some left in boats, but her father and family with twelve other families fled in wagons drawn by oxen. Their route was southward over the old Hull's Trail. They crossed the Maumee near Turkey Foot Rock, passed through now Wood County and Hancock County, and by way of the Portage block-house, Fort Findlay and Fort McArthur (near now Kenton) reached Urbana, "after a toilsome journey of two weeks through the mud, greatly annoyed by mosquitoes and sometimes with no water except what was gathered from the cattle-tracks." At Urbana they drew military rations and after being sufficiently rested, resumed their journey to their relatives in the interior. Mrs. Amelia W. Perrin, a daughter of Capt. Jacob Wilkinson, one of the river and lake boat skippers, told this : "Among the incidents I have heard my mother relate is the following: One morning in the summer of 1811 (this was one year before the abandonment of their homes by the settlers) a man came riding down the river warning the settlers that a large body of Indians, hideously painted, were forming above, and their appearance and actions indicated that they were upon the war-path. The rumor created terrible alarm in the vicinity, and the thoughts of each were immediately directed to finding a place of refuge for themselves and their children. Father took his family to the woods some distance away, and there left them (mother and four children) concealed in a brush heap, with the promise to return as soon as he was assured of their safety, and enjoining them to keep quiet and closely concealed. All that long day they remained there, scarcely daring to move for fear of attracting the attention of some lurking savage. In his haste father had forgotten to bring anything to eat; but fear of the Indians kept the little ones quiet and caused them to forget their hunger, except the baby, which nursed until it drew blood. As the dead hours of that long, weary, terrible day passed slowly one by one, and father failing to come, mother's anguish grew almost unendurable, for she imagined that he had fallen at the hands of the Indians. When he finally appeared, just as the darkness of night was closing around us, there was a most joyful reunion. It seems that the uncertainty of the purpose of the Indians had prevented him from returning to us sooner. The savages were merely out on TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 835 `a lark' ; and had gobbled up a number of white men, father among the number, and pestered them just by way of amusement." Mrs. Hester Green's story: "I moved to the Maumee Rapids in 1810 with my father Daniel Purdy from the State of New York. There came with us from the same place with their families, William Carter, Andrew Race (son-in-law of Carter), Mr. Hopkins, Stephen Hoit and Mr. Porter. David Hull (a nephew of General Hull) kept a store and tavern. Being a bachelor, his sister kept house for him and I lived with them part of the time. Hull had a clerk by the name of Antoine La Point, a pretty shrewd fellow who could speak English, French and Indian. Among the names of the French who were there when we came, were M. Beaugrand, Peter Manor, Lorgeny, M. Emell, Baptiste Momeny, M. Guilliam, and Peter Williams, half French. Among the others remembered were Spafford, a man of very fine appearance, who was port collector, receiving four hundred dollars a year salary for collecting taxes on goods brought on boats; his son Aurora; Amos Hecock (son-in-law of Spafford) ; Mr. Blalock who lived about a mile south of us, a gunsmith, and who was said to make counterfeit money; John Woods; Jesse Skinner; Mr. Carlin, a blacksmith ; Mr. Scribner; John Kelly, who taught our school; James Ruling, silversmith; Peter Momeny; John Carter and two or three families south of Blalock's. "Our 'town' was at the Foot of the Rapids and my father lived about eight rods from the river opposite an island. Fish were very plenty; large ones could be caught in abundance with the hook and line. We would throw them on the bank as we caught them, and then selecting the finest for the table we left the remainder for the hogs to eat. Among the fish caught were sturgeon, muskaionge, pickerel, and bass. We gathered huckleberries about two miles from home. It was amusing to see the squaws gathering; they would hold a kettle or pan under the bushes and beat the berries off with a stick. I have seen forty and fifty lodges of Indians encamped here ; they were on their way to Malden to get their presents. We got our milling done at the River Raisin, about thirty miles away. Game was abundant, live stock was easily raised on the prairies, and we enjoyed a free and easy life until the mutterings of war began to fill us with alarm ; then the arrival of General Hull and his splendid army reassured us. He left a small command here who built a fort or blockhouse for our protection. [At or near old Fort Miami—Editor.] Thus 836 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY we lived in security until a messenger arrived informing us that General Hull had 'sold his army' and that we would have to leave. Then all was fright and confusion. We, and most of the others, excepting the soldiers, gathered what we could handily and left. We stopped at Blalock's a short time, and an Indian messenger arrived telling us to come back as they would not kill us, but only wanted some of our property. Looking around until he found Blalock's gun, he took it and went out and got a horse my mother had ridden to this point, and departed. We went back and remained three days, in which time the Indians were pretty busy in driving off our live stock (we lost sixteen head) and plundering the houses of such as had not come back. Mr. Guilliam was one who fled, leaving everything behind, and had not the presence of danger filled us with alarm, we would have been amused to see the Indians plundering his house. The feather beds were brought out, ripped open and the feathers scattered to the winds, the ticks alone being deemed valuable. But our stay was short, only three days, when the commandant of the fort informed us that he would burn the fort and stores and leave, inviting us to take such of the provisions as we might need. Consternation again seized upon us and we hastily reloaded our wagons and left. We staid the first night at a house eight or ten miles south of the Rapids. In the Black Swamp the load became too heavy and they rolled out a barrel of flour and a barrel of meat which they had abandoned at the fort. Mr. Hopkins, John Carter, Mr. Scribner and William Race went back the next fall to gather their crops and they were all killed by the Indians. John Carter was attacked while in a boat on the river and they had quite a hard fight before they got his scalp. [Mrs. Green is in error about the time Carter was killed by the Indians. It was on his return after the war.—Editor.] After many years the government gave Purdys four hundred dollars for the crops and stock left behind them in their flight." [Note—The Purdy delegation evidently took Hull's Trail in their hasty leavetaking. The house they occupied the first night out was evidently the blockhouse on the Portage River and just south of the present town of Portage, Wood County; although it was some over "eight or ten miles south of the Rapids."—Editor.] In Everett's "History of Sandusky County" is an account of a French Colony from the Maumee, which located near Lower Sandusky in 1812-1813, and is as follows : "After peace had been restored in 1815, this township (Rice) became the home of TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 837 many of the French families of the colony which left the Maumee and came to Lower Sandusky three years earlier. The original settlement of these people after coming to America was at Monroe, Michigan. They afterward established themselves on the Maumee, where they settled down to habits of industry. But the opening of British and Indian hostilities in 1812, compelled another removal and doomed them to four years of migration and unsettled life. In January, 1813, by direction of the government, about twenty families packed their possessions and started for Lower Sandusky (Fremont). It was a fortunate circumstance that heavy ice well covered with snow, gave them an easy course of travel, and at the same time made it possible to avoid the savage enemies of the forest. All being in readiness a French train was formed [on the lower Maumee—Editor.] This consisted of a procession of one-horse sleighs, the runners of which were made of boards. The train was placed under the direction of a Frenchman named Peter Maltosh, who had been an Indian trader. The journey to Locust Point over the ice was made in one day. On the following day, the Portage (Port Clinton) was reached and the third day Lower Sandusky. The colony was given quarters in the government barracks until spring, when cabins were built for them. In August, 1813, they were by order of the government, removed to Upper Sandusky until the conclusion of the war, when they were moved back (to Lower Sandusky) in government wagons. They had been wards of the government during the war, and the able-bodied among them bore their parts bravely in the lines of soldiery. The names of these refugees, some of whom returned to the Maumee at the close of the war, so far as can be learned were : Joseph Cavalier and wife, who died at Fort Stephenson ; Albert Cavalier, their son ; Mrs. Jaco, Gabriel O'Dett, de La Point, Thomas DeMars, Bisnett and Joseph and John and Peter Momeny, Peter Manor's family, Charles Fountaine, Christopher Colombo, and the Devoir family, consisting of five brothers, together with Maltosh the guide." Those who returned to the Maumee and the number who located in now Sandusky County were about equal. A few French on the lower Maumee joined the British when war was declared and others went to Canada. Before taking up the story of the return of the white settlers to the lower Maumee, at the close of the War of 1812, a later phase of this struggle concerning the Maumee and Sandusky will be exploited, about which little has been written. CHAPTER LIII LAST PHASE OF WAR OF 1812 BRITISH EFFORTS TO REGAIN LAKE CONTROL-ESTABLISH NAVAL BASES -THEIR WORK AMONG THE INDIANS-WESTERN UNEASINESS OVER THE SITUATION-AID OF THE OHIO MILITIA-THE FINIS. There is a latter phase of the War of 1812 which concerned especially the Great Lakes Region and consequently the Maumee and Sandusky, of much importance, which has by most historical writers upon the Northwest, never been sufficiently exploited. These stories usually end with Perry's victory on Lake Erie and General Harrison's annihilation of the British army under Proctor and his Indian allies, October 15, 1813, at the Canadian River Thames. It is true this was the climax and terminated the British rule of the Great Lakes and forever put a quietus upon their operations on the northern borders of Ohio. But they still had aspirations to again gain control of the lakes and even renew their military activities with the Indians, their former allies in the Maumee and Sandusky territory. As has been before reviewed, with Harrison's American forces returned to Detroit from their Canadian expedition with their booty and prisoners, General Cass was left in command at Detroit where he later became civil and military governor of Michigan Territory. But his presence being required at Albany at the courts-martial proceedings against General Hull, the command of the fort at Detroit devolved upon Col. Anthony Butler. This post which had borne the name of Fort Lernoult since 1778, was repaired and its title changed to Fort Shelby, in honor of Governor Shelby of Kentucky who had distinguished himself by his valuable war service. The Kentucky foot troops returned to the mouth of the Portage River (Port Clinton site) by way of the River Raisin and the lower Maumee, gathered in their horses left on the (Marblehead) peninsula and returned to Kentucky. The mounted Kentucky troops returned home up the Maumee route. General Harrison and Commodore Perry had planned an expedition against Mackinaw and had intended to sail on the 12th of October (181 3) but, the expedition for the time being - 838 - TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 839 was abandoned on account of severe lake storms ; nor had they received the expected supply of provisions and baggage which were on board the schooners Chippawa and the Ohio, the former from Bass Island (Put-in-Bay) and the latter from Cleveland. These boats had arrived at the mouth of the Detroit River where they were so distressed by severe gales that the marines threw all the baggage and provisions overboard. The decision to abandon the Mackinaw expedition was reached after a conference between General Harrison with McArthur and Cass of the army and Commodore Perry and Captain Elliott of the American fleet. It was also believed that General Proctor of the British had ordered the commanding officer at Mackinaw to destroy that post and retreat by the way of Grand River. Some of the Indian tribes had sued for peace and were mostly subdued, therefore General Harrison decided to proceed down the lake in the fleet with General McArthur's brigade and a battalion of rifleman Regulars under Colonel Smith. Believing that General Cass with his brigade would be able to cope with the Indian situation and hold the American conquests and advantage in that quarter, the Commander-in-Chief left him in command at Detroit and sailed down the lakes with the rest of his troops. Orders to this effect had been sent from the War Department by a Captain Brown who was lost when the schooner he had boarded foundered when she grounded at the lower end of Erie. The Secretary of War was at Sackett's Harbor when he received the news of Perry's victory, and September 22nd, twelve days after the engagement, he had dispatched Captain Brown with orders to General Harrison to secure Malden, proceed down the lake with his forces and throw himself in the rear of De Rotten-burg who was investing Fort George, then in the hands of the Americans. A reinforcement of 3,000 men on both sides of the Niagara was to be ready to join him on his arrival and Harrison was expected to drive the British from the country between lakes Erie and Ontario. On the 22nd of October General Harrison arrived at Erie, where Perry's fleet had been built, and soon sailed on to Buffalo, where he arrived on the 24th, with an aggregate of 1,300 men, which afforded, however, but 1,000 effectives. He had received no communication from the War Department, and was entirely uninformed as to the situation of affairs where he was going. He determined, however, to proceed down the Niagara to Fort George. De Rottenburg had long since abandoned that place, 840 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY and retired to Burlington Bay. General M'Clure, of the New York militia, was commanding at the fort when General Harrison arrived ; and as the enemy was still at Burlington, they determined to march against him and drive him from that position. The troops in the meantime were marched down by the falls and stationed at Newark. A communication was now opened with. the Secretary of War at Sackett's Harbor, and to obtain a sufficient force for the intended enterprise, a call was made on the militia of the adjoining counties. But before an adequate force could be collected, and the necessary arrangements made, a letter was received by General Harrison from the Secretary, informing him that the brigade of M'Arthur was required at Sackett's Harbor, and that he would be permitted to make a visit to his family, which he understood as an order to retire to his own district. The letter was dated on the 3rd of November, and on the 16th of that month, Commodore Chauncey arrived at Newark, the headquarters of General Harrison, with vessels to transport his troops to the harbor. The troops were accordingly embarked, and the General set out immediately for Washington City, which he included in his route on the visit to his family at Cincinnati. On his journey he received all those marks and demonstrations of public confidence and gratitude, with which the American people were accustomed to greet their distinguished defenders. General Cass, as stated, being required to attend the trial of General Hull at Albany, the command at Detroit devolved on Colonel Butler, and the former before his return to the Western country was appointed Governor of the Michigan Territory. The greater part of the American fleet was stationed for the winter in the harbor of Erie, some of the larger vessels being left in Put-in-Bay, and the necessary precautions were taken to guard the whole against any enterprise for their destruction by the enemy. The campaign on the northern frontier, under the immediate superintendence of Armstrong, Wilkinson and Hampton, having terminated most unfavorably to the American- cause, apprehensions were entertained by the government in December, that the British, thus encouraged, would make great exertions to reestablish their affairs in the Maumee and Sandusky, and particularly to regain the friendship of the Indians, and perpetuate their influence among them. With the latter views, it was ascertained that one Dickson had been sent up from York with a large quan- TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 841 tity of goods. Our government hence determined to take the most effectual and rigorous measures to counteract these designs of the British. Instructions were therefore sent after General Harrison on his return home, that the settlements on the Thames, which would afford the enemy the means of advancing towards Detroit, and intermeddling with the Indians, must be entirely destroyed and converted into a desert; that peace must be made with the Indians on the most liberal terms ; supplying all their wants and allowing them to retain all the lands they had held before the war; and that they must be engaged to take up arms on our side, and be let loose on the British frontier early in the spring, so as to drive away every British settler to be found on the west of Kingston. The activities and failures of the American army at the center (east of the Ohio region) will not be given in detail, but the successes of the British there brought anxiety again to the local region. The enemy had crossed into the American settlements on the Niagara frontier and laid the whole country in ruins, destroying everything before them in the most wanton and barbarous manner. It seemed almost necessary to retaliate in kind. As to the local situation Gen. John S. Gano of the Ohio Militia wrote Governor Meigs at Chillicothe as follows: Headquarters Ohio Militia, Lower Sandusky, January 16th, 1814. Dear Sir :—I have the pleasure to inform you that after repeated solicitations, and much delay, the paymaster has succeeded in obtaining two months' pay for the troops under my command. I have sent him on to Detroit, as the men there are in great want of money to purchase necessaries, etc. Yesterday the Lieutenant and Surgeon of the Navy, Champlain and Eastman, left this post for Put-in-Bay. They arrived the evening before, and report they have everything arranged to give the enemy a warm reception should they visit them. About forty pieces of cannon can be brought to play upon them at any point. I find, however, they want men. I shall send in the regulars from Seneca, (on the Sandusky River) as soon as possible, to reinforce them, which is absolutely necessary from the Lieutenant's representations to me. We have not had the detailed account from Buffalo, etc. Majors Vance and Meek have just arrived from Detroit, and give me a favorable account from that quarter as to the exertions of Colonel Butler, to whom I sent Major Vance as an express. There is a detachment under 842 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY Major Smiley, up the River Thames, who will, I hope, fare better than Larwill. The militia are very tired of the service there, and all are beginning to count days. They have had an immense deal of fatigue and severe duty to perform. The fort at Portage is progressing, and is the best piece of work in the Western country as to strength. The men draw the timber to admiration— eighty or ninety logs a day without a murmur. The teams have been, and are useless for want of forage. The greatest part have actually died. I wrote in November to Quartermaster Gardiner for funds to be sent to the Quartermaster's assistant here to purchase forage, which could have been obtained two or three hundred miles from here. If three hundred dollars could have been sent on, I think it would have saved the United States three thousand ; and I assure you I have used every exertion to preserve and protect the public property. As I before observed, nothing will induce the militia to remain after their term of service expires, which will be the last of next month. Is there any information from General Harrison or the Secretary of War on this subject? I am only anxious on account of the public property that may be left exposed. I have this post in a tolerable state of defence, as well as all the posts I command, which, you know, are scattered from Dan to Beersheba ; and each must rely on its own strength for its defence. I have had an immense detail business in communication, etc. Flour is very scarce at all the frontier posts. I have been between "hawk and buzzard"—the commissary and contractor; and between the two, as is usual, must fail. What a wretched system of warfare! From the best information I can collect, it is my opinion we shall have a warm spring. I have in reserve much to say when we have an interview. I have had some severe chills and fevers, but have recovered, and make it a point to have the men attended to as well as possible. It is allowed that the troops here exercise and maneuvre equal to the regulars, and are very orderly. I have the honor to be, with great respect, Your most obedient and humble servant, JOHN S. GANO. To His Excellency R. J. Meigs. P. S. Six o'clock, P. M.—An express by a naval officer h just arrived from Erie. Lieutenant Packet has given me a ful account of the loss of the posts below, at Niagara. The enem possessed themselves of the artillery, military stores, etc., to large amount; and there is no doubt but an attempt to take TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 843 destroy the vessels at Put-in-Bay will be made soon, and Captain Elliott has requested a reinforcement of two hundred men to send to the Island, which I have not the power to furnish. I have ordered about thirty regulars from Seneca, and will send a few militia. My troops are so scattered, I have no disposable force without evacuating some of the posts that contain considerable military stores. I wrote some time since to General Harrison, recommending him to send on the recruits. They certainly will be wanted as soon as the British can move on the ice or by water to Detroit or the Islands. I fear we shall lose all that has been gained, unless great exertions are used to reinforce; and supply of provisions is much wanted. JOHN S. GANO. [ Note by Editor.—The "fort at Portage" was evidently at the mouth of that river, where now is Port Clinton.] Fort Meigs still garrisoned had suffered greatly from a shortage of rations and about January 16, 1814, a detachment of soldiers from the fort went up the Maumee where they procured such supplies as could be spared from Fort Winchester (at Defiance), and brought them back to the Lower Rapids. General Gano reported two hundred barrels of flour at Winchester. Gano January 27th (1814) wrote General Harrison that "I think I would hang half of the quartermasters and all the contractors if I was to remain in service much longer ; and I am astonished how you have managed with them to effect the objects you have, for there appears no system or regularity with any of them." Much of the material of this chapter is taken from the writings of Capt. Robert B. McAfee who further relates that while the British did not think proper during the winter to send up any formidable force to the Northwest, yet Colonel Butler, the commanding officer at Detroit, was scarcely in a condition to contend with their advanced posts, and the individuals of the militia who were disposed to be troublesome. The brigade of General Cass, which was left at Detroit, was originally very weak, and during the month of December, (1813) it suffered extremely from a violent epidemic which resisted all the skill of its physicians. At one time its whole effective force did not amount to 300 men. A small corps of the Ohio and Pennsylvania militia, as indicated, were hence kept in service through the winter, to assist in garrisoning the different posts, and in protecting the vessels of the fleet. About the first of January (1814), the British posted a corps 844 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY of observations at Delaware on the Thames, thirty miles above the Moravian town, under the command of Captain Stewart, who frequently sent foraging and reconnoitering parties down the Thames and into the vicinity of Sandwich. Colonel Butler was hence induced to place a corps for similar purposes, and as a check to the movements of the enemy, on the Thames at Dobson's some distance below the Moravian town. It consisted of 30 men under the command of Lieutenant Lowell. The British, being apprised of the situation of this corps, descended the Thames from Delaware and surprised it in the night, capturing the whole party without much loss in killed and wounded on either side. The colonel did not think proper to reestablish the post, but occasionally sent reconnoitering and foraging parties up the Thames, one of • which, under Captain Lee, who commanded a company of Michigan rangers, captured and brought away Colonel Bagby, Captain Springer and several others of the Canadian militia, who were the most active in the cause of the enemy. Captain Springer was a native of the United States, having been born near Albany in New York, and had been naturalized by the British and made a magistrate as well as a militia officer. Captain Lee some time afterwards caught Major Towns-ley, a native of Connecticut, who had been the most active and vindictive partisan of the British in Upper Canada. In February Colonel Butler determined to make a stroke at some of the advanced posts of the enemy. The execution of the enterprise was confided to Captain Holmes, with a detachment of regulars and some Michigan rangers and militia. He was directed to march against a small post called Fort Talbot (north shore of Lake Erie) situated about 100 miles down the lake below Malden, or if he should deem it more eligible to make an attack on the enemy at Delaware, he was authorized to change his destination to that place. He marched from Malden about the 20th of February, with two six-pounders in his train, but he soon found it impossible to proceed down the lake with artillery; he was so much obstructed by fallen timber, thickets, and swamps. He was obliged to leave them and depend on his small arms. Captain Gill, who had pursued some Canadian militia up the Thames, with a small company of rangers, was to cross the country and form a junction with Holmes. After this had been effected, the route down the lake was found to be so difficult that Captain Holmes determined to leave it and go to the Thames, with a view either to attack the enemy at Delaware, or to intercept TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 845 any detachment that might be sent down the river. He struck the Thames below the Moravian town, and immediately marched towards the enemy's post. When he had arrived within fifteen miles of it, he learned that a detachment about 300 strong was coming to meet him. As the force which he commanded was much weaker, he determined to retreat till he could find a strong position to resist them. He fell back five miles to Twenty Mile Creek, a stream which runs into the Thames from the north. Having crossed it on a bridge, he posted his men on the summit of an adjoining height, and began to strengthen his position with a breastwork. The enemy soon appeared on the opposite heights over the creek. The captain now called a council of officers, to determine whether they should endeavor to maintain their position or retreat still further. On this question there was much difference of opinion. Many of the detachment had suffered so much from cold and fatigue that they were now unfit for duty, and others had been permitted from the same causes to return home, so that the whole effective force did not exceed 160, while the force of the enemy was believed to be double that number. Captain Holmes and his adjutant, Ensign Heard, a grandson of the celebrated General Morgan, were strenuously opposed to a retreat, and it was at last determined that they would perish or triumph in their present position. The enemy did not pretend to annoy them that evening, but early in the morning a party of British regulars came to the bank of the creek, fired a few times at the camp and then retired. After waiting some time for a more formidable attack, Captain Holmes sent out Lieutenant Knox with some of the rangers to reconnoitre. He returned in a few minutes and reported that the enemy had fled with precipitation, leaving their baggage scattered along the road, and that they did not appear to have been more than seventy in number. Mortified at the idea of having retreated from such a diminutive force, Captain Holmes immediately pursued them, with a determination to attack their position at Delaware next morning. Having pursued them about five miles, Captain Lee, of the advance guard, reported that he had come up with the enemy in considerable force, and that they were forming in order of battle. Captain Holmes now apprehended that they had retreated to draw him from his position, with a view to gain his rear with a superior force, which would compel him to advance towards their post at Delaware, or to cross the wilderness towards Fort Talbot without forage 846 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY or provisions. It was not their plan, however, to intercept his retreat, and in a short time he regained the position he had left on Twenty Mile Creek. Some of the officers again insisted on a retreat, but the captain determined to wait at his place for an attack from the enemy. He continued to strengthen his camp which was a hollow square, and post his regulars on the north side, and on the brow of the hill without breastwork. His rangers and militia were posted on the west and south, the horses and baggage being placed in the center. Late in the evening the enemy appeared again on the opposite heights, upwards of 300 strong, under the command of Captain Basden. Their militia and Indians immediately crossed the creek above the road, surrounded the camp, and commenced an attack on the north, west and south. Their regulars crossed on the bridge and charged up the hill within twenty paces of the American line, which had been ordered to kneel so as to be effectually protected by the brow of the hill. The fire of that line was now opened with such effect that the front section of the enemy was immediately cut down, and those which followed were very much injured. He then displayed his column along the hillside and took open distance behind trees, in which order a warm contest was maintained for a considerable time. On the other lines the militia and Indians fought behind trees at a more respectful distance, but were also much thinned by the deliberate fire of our men. Finding it impossible to make much impression on the camp, the enemy at length retreated under cover of the night, having lost in the action, according to their own statement, no less than sixty-seven killed and wounded, but in the opinion of Captain Holmes, their loss was between eighty and ninety. Of the British Captain Basden and Lieutenant M'Donald were wounded, and Captain Johnson and Lieutenant Graham were killed. The loss on the American side was but seven in killed and wounded. The brave detachment under Holmes received much applause for this victory, which formed a fine counterpart to the brilliant affair of Major Croghan at Lower Sandusky. As the American authorities still expected that the British would make exertions during the approaching summer to regain the ground they had lost in the Northwest, particularly to reestablish their influence with the Indians, a plan to counteract this was set on foot. One great apprehension was the report that the British were building armed vessels with a view of re- TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 847 habilitating their navy and gaining their lost control of the lakes. The American Commodore Sinclair on April 15, 1814, received a letter from the Secretary of the Navy containing the following: "April 15th, 1814. "You will immediately on your arrival at Erie, open a communication with the military commander at Detroit, asking of him all the information he may possess, relative to the passage into and navigation of Lake Huron, and all the circumstances connected with your expedition, the nature and extent of which you will explain to him. You will also request him to have in readiness to join your force, a body of 300 hardy, intrepid volunteers, one-half of which should be riflemen, for which, I have no doubt, the secretary of war will have directed the necessary measures to be taken. "The information we possess, relative to the designs and, movements of the enemy (British) rests upon report, and is rather probable than certain. There is, however, reason to believe that the enemy have sent two small detachments of seamen, and perhaps mechanics to Lake Huron, where they are constructing some sort of naval force—rumor says two brigs, but if the last is so, they must be of small force. They are also said to be building a number of boats on Lake Simcoe, and have recently transported considerable quantities of naval and ordnance stores to York, the distance from which to Lake Simcoe is not above 40 miles over a good road. The boats are doubtless intended to convey those stores, through the waters emptying from Lake Simcoe into Lake Huron at Gloucester Bay, on the southeast extremity of Lake Huron. It is on the shores of this bay they are constructing their naval force. For this place you will make a prompt and vigorous push, destroy or capture whatever they may have prepared, and proceed, before the alarm can be extended, to St. Joseph at the mouth of French River, which place it is expected you may readily reduce and get possession of all the property and stores deposited there, and leaving a force to protect that post if tenable, or not likely to be attacked by a superior force, you will thence proceed to Mackinaw, with which the communication of the enemy being entirely cut off, and the place being destitute of provisions, it will doubtless prove an easy conquest. Having accomplished these objects, you will be governed by the season, the state of your provisions and the information you may receive, whether to leave a small garrison at that place 848 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY and a part of your squadron on that lake, during the ensuing winter, or return to Erie with the whole." Another communication from the War Department to Colonel Croghan reads : "Information has been received, that the enemy is making a new establishment at Mackedash on Lake Huron, and that from 500 to 1,000 seamen, mechanics and others are now employed there, in the construction of armed vessels, etc. This establishment must be broken up. The safety of Detroit, the command of the lakes, the general security of that frontier depends upon it. Captain Sinclair win, accordingly receive orders to pass into Lake Huron, with part of the flotilla, and to carry such troops as may be destined to cooperate with the fleet, in the reduction of this and other places. His means of transportation will probably not accommodate more than 800 ; but the safest rule will be to embark as many as can be accommodated, taking yourself the command, and leaving behind you a competent force, to guard against Indian attacks, which at present are alone to be feared. If on reaching and reducing the place, it be found to be important, as I believe it will, it ought to be fortified and garrisoned, and become the left of a new line of operations, extending by the way of Lake Simcoe from Gloucester Bay on Lake Huron, to York on Lake Ontario. In this last view of the subject, supplies of cannon, ammunition, and provisions ought to be carried with you.—Armstrong." Accordingly as related by an authority: Early in July, 1814, a squadron of vessels left Detroit for the capture of Fort Mackinaw and other posts in that region important to the British fur trade. Some time had been given to preparation for this expedition. Arthur St. Clair was in command of the vessels Niagara, Caledonia, Scorpion, St. Lawrence and Tigress, and George Croghan, now a lieutenant colonel, was in command of the five hundred United States troops and two hundred and fifty militia which had quarters on the vessels. When the squadron arrived at Fort Gratiot, recently built by order of General M'Arthur at the head of St. Clair Strait or River, Croghan's force was augmented by Col. William Colgreave's regiment of Ohio volunteers and Captain Gratiot. A desired attack on a new British post on Matchadach Bay was abandoned after several days' trial to get through the narrow channels between the islands in the fogs, and without a familiar pilot. Sailing to Fort St. Joseph, toward Lake Superior, they TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 849 found it abandoned. The buildings here were destroyed by part of the expedition while others pressed forward to the Sault Ste. Marie where they arrived July 21st to find that John Johnson, "a renegade magistrate from Michigan," agent of the British Northwest Company, had just departed with his assistants, carrying away all the property possible, but setting fire to the company's sloop. This fire was extinguished by the Americans but the vessel proving unseaworthy she was again fired. After destroying the buildings, the Americans returned to St. Joseph, and the squadron arrived at Mackinaw July 26th, where they were to suffer repulse. Deciding it unwise for the vessels to attack the fort in front, Croghan's men were landed and proceeded to a rear attack. They were met, however, by such severe fire by the British and concealed savages, that they retreated to the boats with a loss of thirteen killed, including Major Holmes, and fifty-five wounded, including Captains Van Horn and Desha, and Lieutenant Jackson. Two were missing. Passing to the Nautawassaga River, they captured the block-house three miles from its mouth, but the valuable furs of the Northwest Company had been removed, and their vessel burned. The vessels now sailed for Detroit excepting the Tigress with Captain Champlin and the Scorpion with Captain Turner, with crews of near thirty men each, which were left as a blockade to cut off supplies from the garrison at Mackinaw. This they did effectually until the night of the 3rd of September when the Tigress, being alone, was captured by a stealthy and overwhelming force; which force, in turn, deceived the Scorpion's officers and crew to a close contact when she was also boarded and overwhelmed. These disasters, with the loss of the post at Prairie du Chien on the 17th of July, again increased the apprehensions of the Americans throughout the Northwest. The savages becoming more aggresive around Lake Michigan, General M'Arthur was directed to gather mounted men to proceed against them. He arrived at Detroit by way of Urbana, Upper Sandusky, Lower Sandusky and across the lower Maumee through Ohio the 9th of October, with about seven hundred men gathered from Ohio and Kentucky. The American army under Gen. Jacob Brown being sorely pressed on the Niagara frontier, General M'Arthur, deciding to divert some of the British forces from that point, executed the most daring raid of the war through Canada. Starting northward from Detroit after the middle of October with seven hundred and fifty men and five