850 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY field cannon, he circled around Lake St. Clair, crossed the River St. Clair on the 26th, moved rapidly through the Scotch settlement of Baldoon, the Moravian towns on the Thames, and London, arriving at Oxford the 4th of November. Here he found a considerable force of militia which he disarmed and paroled; and he punished those who viciously opposed him by burning their houses. He moved eastward and passed through Burford to Brantford on the Grand River. Here, being opposed by the Iroquois aborigines resident there, the militia and British, he turned southward, attacked the militia at Malcolm Hill by the Grand River, killing and wounding seven and taking one hundred and thirty-one prisoners. The only American loss on this raid was one killed and six wounded at this point. The flouring mill and its belongings were here destroyed; also several mills on his way to Dover on Lake Erie. These mills had been the chief source of supply to the British in their operations against the Central army. At Dover General M'Arthur turned westward passing through Simcoe, St. Thomas and near the Thames, being pursued some distance by eleven hundred British regular troops. The 17th of November this successful American raid ended at Sandwich, where all the volunteers so desiring were discharged. Returning to Ohio from this most daring of marches through the enemy's country, Brig.-Gen. Duncan M'Arthur, then commanding the Eighth Military District, wrote a confidential letter to Thomas Worthington, then Governor of Ohio, under date Chillicothe, December 13, 1814, as follows: (Confidential) Chillicothe, December 13th, 1814. Sir :—With serious concern for the safety of the Northwestern frontier, I have the honor to submit to your consideration, and that of the Legislature of Ohio, a statement in relation to the situation of affairs in this district. The contractor failed in November to supply the troops at Detroit with the flour part of the ration, and they are now subsisting upon the immediate resources of the adjacent country. The advanced state of the season precludes the hope that any flour can be forwarded by lake transportation, should it have been collected at Erie, of which there is no authentic account. A considerable supply is reported by the contractor to be in readiness, to be taken down the St. Marys and Miami of the TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 851 lake (Maumee) as soon as praticable, of which there can be no certainty until April. Three or four thousand hogs are reported by the contractor to be in readiness to proceed to Detroit by the route of the Auglaize, and Hull's road. Subsequent information as to the number collected and the price allowed to sub-contractors, induces a belief that not more than one thousand will reach that place. These facts have been communicated to the Government, with a request that funds might be transmitted to this place to enable a special commissary to endeavor to supply the troops of the frontier. There is reason to presume that a delay for an arrangement of this kind would be fatal ; more especially as it is the intention of the Government to increase the military force of the Northwestern Frontier. I have, therefore, to request of your Excellency to solicit the Legislature of Ohio to aid the United States in effecting this important object in such a manner as they, in their wisdom, may deem most expedient. The loan of thirty thousand dollars would probably enable a person duly authorized to forward to Detroit, by the way of Sandusky, five hundred barrels of flour, and fifteen hundred hogs. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, DUNCAN MCARTHUR, Brig.-Gen. U. S. Army Comd'g. His Excellency Thomas Worthington, Governor of Ohio. Chillicothe, December 13th, 1814. Sir :—I had the honor to receive this evening your confidential communication of even date herewith, and will tomorrow morning communicate copies of it to both branches of the Legislature. Very respectfully, T. WORTHINGTON. General McArthur, commanding Eighth Military District. (Confidential) Chillicothe, 14th December, 1814. Gentlemen of the House of Representatives : I send you copies of a confidential communication of Brig.-Gen. Duncan McArthur, commanding the Eighth Military District, from which you will perceive the situation of the posts on the Northwestern frontier. Should the United States fail to 852 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY supply these posts, and no other provision be made to support them, they must inevitably fall into the hands of the enemy before the opening of the next campaign. Such a state of things would lay the whole frontier of Ohio open to the incursions of the enemy. With this view of the subject, I cannot hesitate to recommend to the Legislature to furnish, with the least possible delay, the means to supply these posts, believing they will in this way save both the blood and treasure of the State. I cannot hesitate in believing the General Government will take the earliest opportunity to refund the amount which may be advanced for the contemplated object. Very respectfully, T. WORTHINGTON. However with negotiations for peace being established and peace commissioners appointed, all action was consequently suspended. As stated in another chapter, while peace came to the Maumee and Sandusky region so far as concerned activities on local soil with Harrison's victory over Proctor on the Canadian Thames, there was apprehension and alertness all during 1814, with the attendant military engagements with the British as related, beyond our local borders. CORRECTED MAP OF THE ENGAGEMENTS ALONG THE MAUMEE RIVER, 1791-1S13 (1) Site of Roche de Boeuf, sometimes called Roche de Bout; (2) Wayne's camp. ugustt 19, 1794; (3) Wayne's battle line, Battle of Fallen Timbers, August 20, 1794; (41 TorRey Foot Rock; The north approach to Presque Isle Hill; (5) The Fallen Timbers; (6) Site of the engagement between Gen. Green Clay's Kentucky troops and the Indians, May 5, 1811; (7) British batteries spiked by Colonel Dudley's Kentucky troops May 5, 1813; (8) Scene of the Dudley massacre, May 5, 1813; (9) British batteries at the siege of FortMeigss. CHAPTER LIV SETTLERS RETURN TO THE MAUMEE AND SANDUSKY SITUATION IN THE MAUMEE SECTION-PERRYSBURG AND THEN MAUMEE ESTABLISHED-OTHER SETTLEMENTS OPENED-A GENERAL SURVEY On that July morning, 1813, when General Proctor and his British forces, after his second attempt to capture Fort Meigs, sailed down the Maumee, and on that memorable night of August when the same British army fled precipitately out of the Sandusky after the American boy Croghan had so gallantly defended Fort Stephenson against their persistent assaults, it was the last time the hostile flag of a foreign foe floated either upon the Maumee or Sandusky. Then in September following, when Commodore Perry with the American fleet obtained control of Lake Erie and when General Harrison in October that year put the British Proctor to an ignominious flight at the Canadian Thames, the last fond hope of the British to hold control of the wondrous valleys of the Maumee and Sandusky was forever blasted, although they still made some further efforts to regain their lost grbund. The grand finale came with the great victory of General Jackson over the British on that never-to-be-forgotten January day, 1815, at New Orleans. Three years of strife had wrought a great change in the Maumee and Sandusky country. As was written, peace and calm again reigned throughout these regions; but the scars of continuous warfare were painfully visible on every side. The waste fields of the Maumee settlers were grown up and choked with weeds and brambles and the mocking bloom of the cheery, wild sunflowers. Ashes and charred cinders marked the places where contentedly had nestled their little cabins, and by the same sign were noted the absence of the wigwam of the savage. The fresh earthen mounds told where slept the fallen heroes as the rippling waters of the yet beautiful Maumee sang their requiem. At Fort Meigs, now manned by only a small garrison, the American colors proudly waved over the grim cannon as they frowned 29-VOL. 1 - 853 - 854 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY in silence from the huge bastions. Dudley and his intrepid band who had perished just over the river were the last martyrs upon the altars of barbarism which had begun its hideous sacrifices across the Alleghenies near a century before. The bugle call to arms was silenced. The military had taken up the pursuits of industry. The sword and tomahawk were now to be succeeded by the peaceful implements of husbandry. Civilization had laid firm hold upon the country of the Maumee and the Sandusky. The treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain now gave the settlers who had fled from their new homes a renewal of confidence and they again turned their faces toward the land of promise. Among the first to return in the summer of 1815, to begin life again and resume his official duties for the Government as collector of the Port of Miami, was Amos Spafford. He had been preceded a short time by John Carter and John Rice who had built a cabin on the north or west side of the Maumee at Presque Isle Hill, near Turkey Foot Rock. With them Spafford took up temporary quarters. The Indians still had a village above that point and as he did not like their threatening attitude, Spafford moved his family down the river to the east side on the flats, at the foot of Fort Meigs, where they lived in a tent until he could finish his new cabin. A number of abandoned scows or flatboats built for shipping army supplies down stream from Fort Defiance lay along the river bank. They came in great service to the settlers in building their .new homes. These Spafford used largely in building his house which stood on the flats northwesterly from the fort near the old apple orchard, the trees of which remained there for many years. When Spafford left the river at the beginning of the war, Miami post office was naturally discontinued. In the summer of 1815, two vessels came up the river and most of the fort ordnance was dismantled and with other Government property taken to Detroit. Later in the season the schooner Blacksnake, Capt. Jacob Wilkinson, took away a cargo of guns and stores, and the fort which had been in charge of Lieut. Almon Gibbs and forty men, as has already been told in the story of Fort Meigs, was abandoned. For the convenience of the fort garrison and the few settlers, the previous year, on May 9 (1814) Gibbs had been appointed postmaster, the office being named Fort Meigs. After the fort was abandoned (1815-16), Gibbs left the army, established a store on the other side of the river (later Maumee) and moved the post office to his new location. The post office was still called TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 855 Fort Meigs and for some time after that, all the lower Maumee country went under that name. A majority of the new arrivals were by way of Cleveland and other Lake Erie ports on the south shore. Wayne's soldiers had seen the lower Maumee under favorable conditions, when they had viewed the vast fields of corn and other products and they had spread the account of the soil's productiveness as well as the scenic beauties of the valley. Soldiers who came by way of Hull's Trail through the Black Swamp and became afflicted with the fever and "shakes" (ague) told a somewhat different story. But Providence had set the time for the opening of civilization here and home seekers began to gather. Settlers sometimes utilized the old fort block-houses as living quarters until they could build their own cabins, and as long as it lasted the palisades and other timber came into use for many purposes. As heretofore told, strife as to the priority of rights to occupy the block-houses arose, and they were fired by someone and destroyed. There were yet some hostile Indians along the river. During the summer of 1815 the settlers engaged John Carter and John Rice to go upstream in a pirogue for supplies. Some time after they left, their empty boat was sighted floating clown the river. Sensing trouble, Spafford procured assistance and went up to their cabin. Here he found their bodies and the evidences of a desperate engagement with the Indians. Both men had been shot and tomahawked. Later the same season Levi Hall went down to the woods at the present site of Perrysburg to drive home his cattle. Soon after he left several gunfire reports were heard in that direction. When Hall did not return, search for him was begun. Near where now stands the Methodist Church in the upper part of Perrysburg, the searchers found his body. He had been shot and scalped. Such happenings although few, caused care and anxiety among the inhabitants, but retarded little the additions to the new community. In due time the settlers who suffered losses from depredations by the Indians and British and from other causes during the war, presented claims to the Government for payment therefor. A meeting of these claimants was held November 24, 1815, at the home of Amos Spafford and he was named their agent and authorized to proceed to Washington and make application to the proper authorities for indemnity. The list of applicants were : Daniel Purdy, Oliver Armstrong, James Carlin, William Carter, George Blalock, James Slawson, Amos Spafford, Samuel Ewing, 856 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY Jesse Skinner, William Skinner, Stacy Stoddard, Jacob Wilkinson, Thomas Dick, Samuel H. Ewing, William Peters, Amos Hicox, Richard Gifford, Samuel Carter, Baptiste Momeny, Thomas Mcllrath, Chloe Hicox, David Hull, John Redoad, and some others. James Carlin's claim was for his cabin burned, $110; blacksmith shop, $55; two-year-old colt taken by Wyandot Indians, $30. Oliver Armstrong's claim was for a lost horse, value $60; six acres of wheat in barn burned; four tons of hay; clothing and bedding burned or stolen and other articles, including standing corn used by the U. S. troops. All claims aggregated over four thousand dollars. This with some other amounts the Government after some delay allowed and paid. No better idea of the situation of the developing settlements can be obtained than by quoting from the statements of the early arrivals themselves gleaned from the historical memoranda of W. V. Way, who endowed the present Way Public Library, Perrysburg. Capt. David Wilkinson, at the age of fifteen years, on his first visit to the valley, sailed up the Maumee River in May, 1815, as a deck hand on board the schooner Blacksnake. The vessel, of about 25 tons burden, was commanded by his uncle, Jacob Wilkinson, and owned by his father and this uncle. The passengers were incoming settlers who embarked at Cleveland, their intentions being to establish themselves in the valleys of the Maumee and the River Raisin. Among the latter was the Mulhollen family who later kept the famous tavern at Vienna; also a Mr. Hunter and family, Scott Robb and a Mr. Hopkins, who settled on lands above now Perrysburg. The schooner landed her passengers and cargo from the bayou at the upper end of this later established village, there being then no dockage facilities for commerce. At the time of landing David Hull and Thomas Mcllrath were there trading with the Indians and besides, "keeping taverns" in their log houses standing on the hillside or river bank between Fort Meigs and the river. Halsey Leaming then lived in a log house in the vicinty, his brother Thomas residing with him. The family of Jesse Skinner lived on the flats near Fort Meigs, his close neighbor being Thomas Dicks, an Irish bachelor. Samuel Ewing was another neighbor. Fort Meigs at this time was garrisoned by some forty soldiers, as has been stated, under Lieut. Almon Gibbs. It was about this time that the fort was dismantled and abandoned. Fishing by the use of seins was an important industry at this TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 857 period. The Blacksnake made two trips from Cleveland to the Lower Rapids, the season of 1815. The second trip being made for a load• of fish. Captain Wilkinson also made two runs the season of 1816 and in September of the latter year, built a house on the flats below Fort Meigs near David Hull's. These flats were later the location of the plat of Orleans of the North. Seneca Allen, the first resident justice of the peace in now Wood County, came in 1816 with his family from Detroit. On the same vessel arrived the families of Jacob Wilkinson, Elijah, Charles and Christopher Gunn. The Gunns and Allen located on the north or west side of the river. Allen opened a trading place with the Indians at Roche de Boeuf, where another noted character, Isaac Richardson, had a mill. The Gunns settled permanently between that place and now Maumee City. Charles Gunn as justice of the peace under the jurisdiction of Champaign County performed the first marriage ceremony in that section, February 20, 1817; the contracting parties being Aurora Spafford, son of Maj. Amos Spafford, and a Mrs. Mary Jones. The county seat was at Urbana, and the route traveled was the old, or not so old then, Hull's Trail. Two years later Allen moved to Fort Meigs and held the office of justice for several years. As noted, the family of Jacob Wilkinson who had been on the river before the war, on their return and settling on the flats, kept a stopping place or tavern. It was rather strange that the newcomers located on this first river terrace, for in high waters the flats overflowed. It was probably because the land needed little preparation for tillage. One night on a sudden rise in the river, the Wilkinsons were obliged to scramble up the ladder stairway to the loft of their cabin, from which position they were rescued by boatmen. In the excitement their baby was enirely forgotten. But noting something floating on the water, investigation proved it to be the infant's "crib," the half of a section of hollow log with boards nailed on each end, making a regular dugout canoe in which the baby was sleeping unconscious of its surroundings. In 1816, came Wilson and Samuel Vance, who the following spring opened a trader's store for their brother Joseph Vance, later Governor of Ohio. It was the first store in now Wood County. According to these Way Memoirs, Almira Hull, daughter of David Hull, was the first white child born in this vicinity in settlement days (1817). Thomas Mcllrath also settled on the 858 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY flats in 1815. It was in the spring of 1818, that Ephraim and Thomas Learning, carpenters and millwrights, moved from here to Monclova and rebuilt the sawmill begun there before the war on Swan Creek by Samuel Ewing. Much of the lumber used by the early settlers was sawed at this mill. H. P. Barlow taught school in the Fort Meigs settlement in the winter of 1816- 17. It is the first or second record of a school on the lower Maumee. The earliest traders, except McKee, mostly had their locations on the north or Maumee City side of the river. Besides those mentioned who had located on that bank before the War of 1812, after this conflict, arrived in 1816 Dr. Horatio Conant, who was for about a year associated with Almon Gibbs in the mercantile trade. In the winter of 1817-1818 Doctor Conant taught the community school and at the same time practiced his profession ; his circuit including as far up the Maumee River as Defiance, north to the River Raisin and long distances east and west. On one of his professional visits to Defiance, he swam his horse over eight of the Maumee tributaries. Reaching Defiance he left his horse there and returned down the river to Maumee in a canoe. He was collector of the port at Maumee for a time, clerk of the courts of Lucas County and a justice of the peace for nearly fifty years. In 1848 he was mayor of the village and was prominent in the affairs of the Northwest until his death in 1879, aged 94 years. John E. Hunt came to this west side community in 1816, and was the first state senator from the district in which Lucas County belonged after its organization. He resided in Maumee City until 1853. Judge James Wolcott located on River Tract No. 21, west side of the Maumee in 1826. The Wolcott mansion built in 1827 and still standing on the Maumee-Toledo Boulevard, was a social center for the community in early days, where gathered the families of Judge Robert Forsythe, Gen. John E. Hunt, Igaac Hull, Curtis Hull, the Spaffords, Hubbels, M. R. Waite, Samuel M. Young and others. Mr. Wolcott was married at St. Louis in 1821 to Miss Mary Wells, daughter of Capt. William Wells and granddaughter of the famous Miami Chief Little Turtle. The foregoing characters were among the early pioneers of Maumee City which was laid out, platted and named by Maj. William Oliver in 1817. The plans were drawn by A. I. Wheeler and three lots at Broadway and Conant street were set apart for public use; two lots at Broadway and Gibbs street and two TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 859 lots at Broadway and Allen street reserved for church and school purposes. There was no Lucas County then and no Wood County. Being in Waynesfield township and under the jurisdiction of Logan County, the plat was acknowledged before Seneca Allen, justice of the peace of the County of Logan. Wood. County which then included Lucas County, was established in 1820, and the plat of Maumee City is of record in that county. Mr. Allen was then a resident of Orleans of the North. In 1816 the United States authorities dispatched one of their agents, Alexander Bourne, to locate and survey the site for a town at the foot of the Maumee Rapids. Looking over the various locations and topographical conditions and perhaps influenced by some of the local arguments produced by such men as Amos Spafford, he selected the present site of Perrysburg and Deputy United States Surveyors Joseph Wampler and William Brookfield laid out and surveyed the streets and lots. This was one year before the establishment of Maumee City. It is quite easy to identify towns and cities laid out by Government surveyors, by reason of the width of the streets. Louisiana Avenue, Perrysburg, is one hundred feet wide. In those days the expanse was broad and land cheap. In speaking of acreage, they talked in the thousands and millions. Regarding the name for the new town site as well as that at Lower Sandusky, Josiah Meigs, then Commissioner of the General Land Office, wrote to Amos Spa fford as follows : Washington City, April 12, 1816. Dear Friend : As you will have a town on the Miami of Erie, it will be well to think of the name it is to bear. The act does not give it a name. Who is to christen it? I wish you would think on the subject and let me have your wishes. For my part I will barely suggest to you that if it would be named Perryville, or Perrytown—or in some other form, which may always remind us of the victory of Erie—it would be good policy. We ought to make the best profit we can of the blood of our countrymen, which has been shed for the confirmation of our Independence. If it were left to me to name the town at Lower Sandusky, I should name it in honor of the gallant youth, Colonel Croghanand would say it should be Croghansville. I believe it is in your power to give the names. I am respectfully yours, JOSIAH MEIGS. (To) A. Spafford, Esq. 860 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY The suggestion of Commissioner Meigs was carried out, but instead of the addition of "town" or "ville," it was "burg"—making Perrysburg. There was also a Croghansville laid out in the Lower Sandusky Reservation. The contest over the final name "Fremont" for the whole town or now city will be told later. At this point a thoughtful writer of the time observes that "below Perrysburg about two miles is a ridge of rock across the river channel called Rock Bar, where vessels drawing over six feet of water cannot pass safely in the summer stage of water. The light craft on the lake in 1816 were not obstructed by the `bar,' but the heavy vessels of a later date found it dangerous. Rock Bar destroyed the hope of any town above it becoming the commercial emporium of the Maumee country, and forced the selection of a new site below it. Had the Government agent located Perrysburg below the 'bar,' there was a possibility that it might, with the early start and prestige of Government paternity have been the great city of the valley instead of Toledo." Perrysburg was laid out from the Reserve one year before the Indians at the great treaty on the lower Maumee ceded the balance of Northwestern Ohio to the United States opening up all of the Maumee and the Sandusky region to settlement. Not to be outdone by the settlers on the Perrysburg side of the river, Maumee City was established the same year of the treaty. Besides the founding of Perrysburg and Maumee, another helpful move in aid of the new developments, was the resurvey of the Twelve Miles Square Reserve the same year Perrysburg was laid out (1816). In this work a change was made and the land abutting the river was subdivided into "River Tracts" instead of into the usual square sections. The Maumee river lands were then thrown upon the market at auction as to selection, at the Land Office at Wooster, Ohio, in February, 1817. The sale proved a success, was of great advantage to the settlements and gave a permanency to the improvements which followed in consequence. As squatters there was little incentive to permanency, but now settlers held absolute and undisputed title. The chief business was fishing and the fur trade, but wheat, corn and vegetable production gradually grew in importance. Still another helpful act, besides the removal of the Greenville Treaty line barrier by the Maumee 1817 treaty, was the establishment the same year of a new county, taken from Champaign County, as shown by the article on the "Evolution of Counties." This new county extending to the Michigan line and in- TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 861 cluding much of Northwestern Ohio was named Logan with Belleville, now Bellefontaine, the county seat. While this county seat was still on the north and south road for communication, Hull's Trail, it was eighteen miles nearer than Urbana. Wayriesfield township which took in the Maumee settlements was also formed soon after this act, proving a further great convenience with local officials and a closer home government. The years 1818 and 1819, were devoid of special or startling events and characterized by a steady, permanent growth. By the end of 1819, the lower Maumee villages and adjacent settlements, exclusive of Indians, numbered over six hundred individuals. It was at this time that a petition was made to the Ohio Legislature for the formation of a new county or counties. Of the fourteen new counties named in the act passed February 12, 1820, the organization of only two counties was provided for—Wood and Sandusky. Maumee was named in the law as the temporary county seat of Wood County and the organization of the county took place there, but Perrysburg was chosen as the permanent seat of justice. As stated heretofore, the counties of Hancock, Henry, Putnam, Paulding and Williams were attached to Wood until further provided for. In addition, out of the territory of the original six counties under the jurisdiction of Wood County, named for Col. E. D. Wood, the engineer who built Fort Meigs, Lucas, Fulton and Defiance have been formed. In this act of 1820 Seneca County was attached to Sandusky for civil purposes and Croghansville was designated as the temporary seat of justice. Including Seneca, the population of the new county was less than one thousand. But evidently the first civil government affecting lower Sandusky was when the county commissioners of Delaware County annexed it to Radner township that county, April 29, 1811, to "enjoy township privileges." However, there is no available record of proceedings of any character regarding the annexed territory. Under the organization of Lower Sandusky township, while the township was under the civil jurisdiction of Huron County, an election was held August 15, 1815, at which township officers were chosen. The second election was held October 10, 1815, the list of voters being as follows : Israel Harrington, Elisha Harrington, William Andrews, Daniel M'Farland, Thoda A. Rexford, Asa Stoddard, William Ford, Randall Jerome, Jeremiah Everett, Moses Nichol, Anthony Arndt, Joseph Doane, Obediah Morton, Jonathan Jerome, Joel Thomas, Thomas D. Knapp, Peleg Cooley, Antoine Laurent, Isaac 862 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY Lee, Joseph Nominee, Charles B. Fitch, John M. Clung, Henry Disbrow, James Whitaker (son of the original Indian trader, James Whitaker), Nathaniel Camp, Samuel Avery, Peter Menore and Lewis de Leonard. Like the first occupants of the Maumee section, the earliest white settlers were squatters. The Two Miles Square Reserve was surveyed into four sections in June, 1807, by William Ewing, deputy United States surveyor, two years after the lines of the Twelve Miles Square Reserve at the Foot of the Maumee Rapids were run. Like the Maumee Reserve, the lands were not then put upon the market. Of the first white settlements on the Sandusky the subject will be treated in connected form in a subsequent chapter. When Sandusky County was established in 1820, unlike Wood County, two townships, Sandusky and Croghan, had been formed and composed the territory before its organization. On the Maumee River the settlements gradually extended upstream from the Lower Rapids and into the interior forests. During the garrisoning of Fort Defiance, an occasional American trader operated in that vicinity, but no permanent white settlements were attempted. Up to the War of 1812 the traders and their families on the Upper Maumee were, generally speaking, all French and British Canadians. As was the case on the Lower Maumee, at the close of hostilities, several soldiers who were located at Fort Winchester, returned to now Defiance and its vicinity. Those who came back in 1815-16, as settlers and occupied the buildings of Fort Winchester after its abandonment by troops, were James Partee, John Perkins, John and William Preston, John Plummer and Montgomery Evans. Later the timber was used for cabin building and fuel for the fireplace. In 1820 Defiance Village contained three stores and about one hundred white residents. In the interior of now Wood County, Col-lister Haskins settled at the site of Portage in 1824. While detailed stories of Williams, Wood, Lucas, Fulton, Henry, Hancock, Wyandot, Seneca, Ottawa, Paulding, Putnam, Defiance and Sandusky counties will appear later, a few high spots are here mentioned. In now St. Joseph township, Williams County, on the west bank of the St. Joseph River, below where was once a town site named Denmark laid out by a pioneer Judge Parker, was a low piece of meadow land called the "Indian Meadows." There were squatters and Indian traders in now Williams County earlier, TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 863 but James Guthrie, who arrived in that section in 1827, was evidently the first settler in Williams County. Concerning the old trail on the west side of the Maumee, above Maumee and through now Henry County, a writer of the time has penned this: "In 1836 after leaving Maumee City, the first house the traveler would meet would be at Waterville, and vicinity six miles above, where he would find five or six dwellings. (Isaac Richardson, the earliest, then Gilbert Underwood, 1816; John Pray, 1817; the Adams family, 1817; Orson Ballou, 1818; Whitcomb Haskins, 1822, and others.) Passing up seven or eight miles further he would reach the tavern of Tiehean, a half-breed Indian. The next house, eighteen miles above Maumee, would be a group of three or four cabins at Providence (established by Peter Manor) ; thence would be reached the hospitable house of Samuel Vance (of the prominent Governor Vance family), occupying the site of a farm which was found by Wayne's army in a high state of cultivation in 1794, and which was then known as Prairie due Masque and now as Damascus. This point would bring the traveler twenty-seven miles above Maumee. The next house, about two miles above Damascus, was a tavern and trading post occupied by John Patrick. Three miles above this the traveler would reach Napoleon, where were Judge Alexander Craig, James G. Haley, Gen. Henry Leonard, James Magill, John Powell, Haze11 Strong, George Stout and John Glass. Amos Andrews had a log cabin tavern." Above Napoleon five miles lived Elijah Gunn ; and a few rods west of his home, on Girty's Point, was earlier the trading cabin of George Girty, brother of Simon Girty, opposite Girty's Island." As to now Hancock County, there were two prominent Indian villages on the Blanchard River, and as late as 1815, there were a few Indian families hovering around old Fort Findlay in now the center of the City of Findlay. It is said that the Blanchard River, or forks of the Auglaize, takes its name from Jean Jacques Blanchard, a romantic Frenchman, who settled among the Shawnees of this section as far back as 1770 and married a squaw. The tradition is that he died in 1802 and was buried at the site of Fort Findlay, on the south bank of the river. As was generally the case, the first white arrivals of that section soon after the War of 1812, clustered about the old stockade and with the Indian's leaving built their cabins in that vicinity. The first settlers when Seneca County was organized were naturally along the Sandusky River and mostly near the Fort 864 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY Ball and Fort Seneca sections. When the Seneca Indian Reservation was established in 1817, Rev. James Montgomery, who was appointed Indian Agent, located at Fort Seneca where he brought his family that year in November. Prior to that time he preached for several years as a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church and was for a time commissary of the troops of the Ohio militia. For seven years they resided in the Fort Seneca block-house, when Montgomery occupied a tract of nearby land where he built a large log home. In 1819, there were only five families living between Fort Seneca and Fort Ball (Tiffin)—Abner Pike, William Harris, the Dumond family, a Widow Shippy and an old man named McNutt. William Spicer, a white man and Indian captive who married a Seneca squaw, lived on Honey Creek as early as 1806, and as late as 1817. Others who lived here early among the Indians were John Vanmeter, Joseph Williams and some others, who at the latter year received land grants. As to the early settlements in Wyandot County, and oth Maumee and Sandusky sections, reference is made to the inte esting story of Wyandot County and chapters on other North western Ohio counties. CHAPTER LV MORE CONCERNING THE SANDUSKY REGION STORY OF THE WHITAKERS - OTHER EARLY SANDUSKY SETTLERS-REVIEW OF EARLY FREMONT SECTION - OPERATIONS OF SARDIS BIRCHARD AND OTHER PROMINENT CHARACTERS The Maumee and Sandusky regions are the warp and woof, the structural fabric, from which is woven the story of the two greatest historical sections of the Northwest. They have been inseparably entwined throughout this narrative. Separating the parts somewhat, the beginning of permanent white settlements upon the Maumee and adjacent regions have been set forth and attention is turned in more detail to the beginning of civilization on the Sandusky. The traditions of the obscure Neutral Aborigine Nations and the Neutral Cities separated by the waters of the Sandusky have been recorded; the establishment of a post at the "St. Dusky" in 1745 by British traders and its later French and British and finally American history has been set forth; Pontiac's Conspiracy, the expeditions of Bouquet, and then Bradstreet accompanied by Gen. Israel Putnam to Lower Sandusky have been told about; the Sandusky travels of James Smith, the British traders of the Revolutionary period, the narratives concerning Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton and the Moravians, together with the Renegades, have followed with the campaign of Col. Robert Rogers; and finally the War of 1812 and Fort Stephenson. Now as to the permanent Sandusky white settlements. In the account of the first settlements of the Maumee Valley, the story of the Knaggs family who first came to the lower Maumee as early as 1760 is given; but they were not then permanently located there. Therefore is accorded to James Whitaker and Elizabeth Whitaker, his wife, who established their home on the Sandusky in 1782, the honor of being not only the first permanent white settlers in the Maumee and Sandusky region, but within the borders of Ohio. Their life story is taken from the C. M. Burton Historical Collection of Detroit, from the histories of Sandusky County by the Honorable Homer Everett and the late Basil Meek and from other sources. - 865 - 866 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY James Whitaker according to the best authority was born in London, England, in 1756 and in 1768 shipped for New York at the age of twelve, with his uncle, Capt. John Whitaker, in a schooner, of which the latter was not only the skipper but owner. It is not definitely known how he came to join the forces at Fort Pitt but he was a member of that garrison which was then (1780) in command of Colonel Brodhead. In May that year when Brodhead learned that the British and Indian army were gathering on the Sandusky River in preparation for an attack on Fort Pitt, he dispatched Capt. Samuel Brady, the famous scout, to the Lower Sandusky towns and gained information as to the situation at this British and Indian center. It is said that in his boyhood days Brady had been a playmate of Simon Girty who with his brother and McKee and Elliott, the famous renegades, had a short time before this gone over to the British. Brady on his dangerous mission was accompanied by two or three companions, all dressed and painted as Indians. Upon their long and perilous journey they traveled only in the night. Arriving at the Sandusky, Brady and his men under the cover of darkness waded from the river bank to the island opposite the Indian town of Lower Sandusky (Fremont) where they lay in a thicket for three days watching the movements of the savages. A thick fog enveloped the valley on the first morning. Near noon the sun dispelled the mist and before the secreted scouts was revealed in its splendor the whole romantic surroundings and Indian activities. Among other amusements, the villagers were engaged in a series of horse races along the river bank and entered into the contests with great hilarity. In his account, Hassler says, the town was "overcrowded with warriors and their festivities indicated preparations for the warpath." However, the races and other sports did not indicate that they were preparing for hostilities and Brady and his companions left the scene as stealthily as they came. Experiencing many dangerous situations on their return, they arrived safely at Fort Pitt after an absence of thirty-two days. In another scouting journey to the Sandusky Brady was surprised by the Indians, overpowered and bound. He was taken to the head Sandusky town and amidst great rejoicing his captors prepared for his torture and burning at the stake. To all of the prisoner's appeals, Girty, his "old time friend," who was present, made no apparent efforts to save Brady from the terrible ordeal. Preparations were made for the torture and TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 867 execution and the prisoner was tied to the stake and a fire lighted. Whereupon Brady with almost supernatural power, suddenly snapped the withes binding his arms, seized a squaw standing near-by and hurled her upon the burning pyre. Amidst the turmoil and excitement he dashed from the midst of the gathering. Getting a good start he outdistanced his pursuers and regained the forest. But the savages followed him relentlessly, as the account runs, for more than a hundred miles to where he made his famous leap, across a narrow gorge of the Cuyahoga Rivcr in now Kent, Portage County, and after secreting himself in the waters of "Brady's Pond" finally reached headquarters. There is little left to show the situation where he made his broad jump, said to have been the distance of twenty-two feet. Detroit during this period was under the command of Captain Lernoult and then de Peyster, heretofore spoken of. This apparent digression in the Whitaker story is made to show something of the situation when he was at Fort Pitt. The historian's (the Hon. Homer Everett's), account of Whitaker's capture by the Indians as told him by Mrs. Rachel Scranton, James Whitaker's daughter, is as follows : "About the year 1780 two brothers, Quill and James Whitaker, in company with another young man, left Fort Pitt one morning on a hunting expedition. They wandered a considerable distance from the fort, intent upon securing game with which to gratify their friends, but at an unexpected moment a volley of rifle balls rattled among the trees. One took mortal effect in the body of the unnamed young man, another passed through the hat of Quill Whitaker, who saved himself by flight; a third ball shattered the arm of James, the younger brother, and in a few minutes he was the prisoner of a band of painted Wyandot warriors. After several days' hard traveling, the Indians with their captive reached a village within the present boundaries of Richland County, Ohio. Here the lines were formed and Whitaker's bravery and activity were tested on the gauntlet course. The boy, wounded as he was, deported himself with true heroism. The first half of the course was passed without a single scratch, but as he was speeding on toward the painted goal an old squaw who cherished a feeling of deep revenge, mortified by the captive's successful progress, sprang forward and caught his arm near the shoulder, hoping to detain him long enough for the weapon of the next savage to take effect. The prisoner instantly halted and with a violent kick sent the vicious squaw and 868 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY the next Indian tumbling from the lines. His bold gallantry received wild shouts of applause along the line. Attention being thus diverted, he sprang forward with quickened speed and reached the post without material injury. Not satisfied that this favorite amusement should be so quickly ended, it was decided that the prisoner should run again. The lines for the second trial were already formed, when an elderly and dignified squaw walked forward and took from her own shoulders a blanket which she cast over the panting young prisoner, saying : 'This is my son. He is one of us. You must not kill him.' Thus adopted, he was treated with all that kindness and affection which the savage heart is capable of cherishing." Whitaker at the time of his capture was twenty-four years old ; this according to his age at the time of his death recorded on his tombstone, which dates correspond with the statement of his daughter that he was born in 1756. Judge Everett's story of the Whitakers as told to him by Mrs. Scranton continues: "About two years after the capture of Whitaker, another party of warriors made an incursion into Pennsylvania and captured at Cross Roads, Elizabeth Foulks, a girl eleven years old, whom they carried into captivity and adopted into a family of the tribe. Both captives lived contentedly and happily, having adopted the manners and customs of their hosts. A few years after—probably here on the Sandusky River, at a general council of their tribe, these two adopted children of the forest made each other's acquaintance. A marriage according to the customs of civilized life was at once arranged and the couple, ardent in their love and happy in their expectations, set off for Detroit, where the Christian ritual was pronounced which made them man and wife. "The Indians seemed well pleased by this conduct of their pale-faced children. They gave them a choice tract of farming land in the river bottom. Mr. and Mrs. Whitaker reared a large family, for whose education they expended considerable sums of money. Mr. Whitaker entered into mercantile business, for which he was well fitted. He established a store at his residence one at Tymochtee (Creek) and one at Upper Sandusky. He accumulated wealth rapidly, having at the time of his death his goods all paid for and 2,000 pounds on deposit with the Canada house where he made his purchases. At Upper Sandusky he had a partner, Hugh Patterson, with whom in the year 1804 he drank TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 869 a glass of wine and died a short time afterwards, his death being attributed to poison in the wine. Mrs. Whitaker, to whom a reservation was granted in the treaty of 1817, survived her husband many years." Patterson, a Canadian from Sandwich, according to Mrs. Whitaker's will, owed her on a judgment for $1,300, on which Richard Patterson was security. According to the writings of that able Sandusky Valley historian and talented writer, Miss Lacy Elliot Keeler of Fremont, who is here quoted, Helen Scranton (1907), a granddaughter of Mrs. Whitaker, related that "Elizabeth Foulks was taken prisoner by the Wyandots during the first years of the War of the Revolution, 1776, when eleven years old, at Beaver Creek, Pa. The children of the neighborhood were making sugar when they were attacked by the Indians, her brother, John Foulks, was tomahawked and killed, and her brother George, who was several years older than Elizabeth, was taken prisoner with her. Both were carried through to the vicinity of Detroit. She remained with the Indians at Detroit, being very kindly treated by them, until she was married to James Whitaker, also a prisoner at Detroit, some five years and three months after her capture, namely in 1781 or 1782. She was adopted by the Wyandots, but in common with the white prisoners, including her brother George, she was freed a short time before her marriage. George Foulks returned at once to Beaver Creek, Pa., where he married, leaving at least ten children. Elizabeth was married to James Whitaker according to rites of civilized life, but whether by a civil or a religious ceremony is not known. In 1782, very soon after their marriage, Whitaker and his wife left Detroit and returned to the banks of the Sandusky River, where they built a log cabin three miles below Lower Sandusky, now Fremont. A few years after settling on the Sandusky, Whitaker traded his furs and Indian supplies for lumber from Canada, and after rafting it up the Sandusky River built a large frame, two-story house, also a warehouse and store building. When her first child, Nancy, was nine or ten months old, Mrs. Whitaker started on her first trip home to Beaver Creek, carrying her baby on her horse in front of her and being accompanied by two Wyandot squaws. She was the mother of eight children, from her marriage in 1782 until the death of her husband in 1804, then at Upper Sandusky. She made several trips to her old home in Beaver Creek, going for the last time in 1823 to attend a family reunion at the home of her sister. An incident of that occasion is that her sister sat at 870 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY the table with twenty-two of her own children, two others having died. Of the twenty-two, a quartet of boys, born at one birth, were dressed in suits of handsome green cloth presented to them by President Monroe. Mrs. Whitaker died suddenly in 1833, while on a visit to Upper Sandusky, where her husband also had died nearly thirty years before. She was buried at Upper Sandusky, although her husband's body had been taken back to Lower Sandusky." A copy of the will of Mrs. Whitaker furnished the writer of this history by Judge Coonrod of the Probate Court of Sandusky County, where the will was filed, shows the document of the date of February 15th, 1833, admitted to probate September 13, 1833. Isaac and James Whitaker, her sons, were named as executors. The contents of "a chest containing valuable articles" was upon opening found to hold a silver castor, cruets, sugar tongs, table spoons, Indian arm-bands and silver shoe-buckles. The children of James and Elizabeth Whitaker were Nancy, whose birth is given as 1732 ; Isaac and James; Mary, according to her tombstone born in 1791 and died in 1827; Elizabeth, who died in 1813 ; Charlotte, who died in 1824 ; and Rachel, the youngest, born in 1801. On one of Whitaker's mercantile visits to Montreal he was accompanied by his daughter, Nancy, then in her early 'teens. They stopped with a family named Wilson, whose daughter the Wilsons had planned to send to school at Glasgow, Scotland. Whitaker arranged to send Nancy with her where she remained at school for some three years. Upon her return she did much toward raising the social and educational standard of the entire family. After Nancy's arrival from abroad William Wilson, an English officer and son of the Montreal merchant, who had evidently met her at Montreal, came for a visit to the Whitakers and on a later visit he was married to Nancy at the home of her parents. Charles Johnston, a Virginian of some note, in making a business visit to Point Pleasant on the Ohio River, while passing down that stream with a party of three men and Peggy and Dolly Fleming of Pittsburg, was hailed by two white men, according to Johnston's story, published in 1827, who implored to be taken on board and rescued from the Indians by whom they had been captured. These white men were simply used as decoys and when the boats containing Johnston and his companions approached the shore they were fired upon by a body of over fifty TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 871 Indians. Dolly Fleming and one of the men were killed and the balance of the party, including Peggy Fleming, were taken prisoner. The date was March 20, 1789. The prisoners were separated and one of them, William Flinn, was burned at the stake on the Sandusky River. Another of the prisoners named Skyles was condemned to the same fate, the torture to take place on the Maumee River, but he made his escape to Detroit. The part of Johnston's narrative concerning Peggy Fleming as related to Lower Sandusky is as follows : When they arrived at Upper Sandusky they met a Canadian trader named Francis Douchouquet who after much bargaining purchased Johnston from the Indians for 600 silver broaches. Says Johnston further : "The small band of Cherokees, three in number, to whom Peggy Fleming had been allotted in the distribution made of the prisoners on the Ohio, brought her to Upper Sandusky while I was there. She was no longer that cheerful, lively creature such as when separated from us. Her spirits were sunk, her gayety had fled ; and instead of that vivacity and sprightliness which formerly danced upon her countenance she now wore the undissembled aspect of melancholy and wretchedness. I endeavored to ascertain the cause of this extraordinary change, but she answered my inquiries only with her tears; leaving my mind to its own inferences. Her stay with us was only for a few hours, during which time I could not extract a word from her, except occasionally the monosyllables yes and no. Gloom and despondency had taken entire possession of her breast; and nothing could be more touching than her appearance. Her emaciated frame and dejected countenance, presented a picture of sorrow and of sadness which would have melted the stoutest heart, and such was its effect upon me that I could not abstain from mingling my tears with hers. With these feelings we parted. When we met again it was under far different and more auspicious circumstances, as will hereafter be seen. "Mr. Duchouquet sold his goods and collected his peltry at Upper Sandusky. The season had arrived for transporting his purchases to Detroit; and with a light heart I began the journey to that post in his party. The Sandusky River is not navigable from the upper town ; and Mr. Duchouquet's peltry was carried on pack horses to Lower Sandusky; whence there is a good navigation to Detroit. When we reached Lower Sandusky, a great degree of consternation prevailed there, produced by the incidents of the preceding day, and of the morning then recently past. The 872 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY three Cherokees, who had possession of Peggy Fleming, had conducted her to a place where they encamped, within a quarter of a mile's distance from the town. It was immediately rumored that they were there, with a white female captive. The traders residing in the town instantly determined to visit the camp of the Cherokees and to see her. Among them was a man whose name was Whitaker, and who like the one that I had met at Upper Sandusky had been carried into captivity from the white settlements by the Wyandots in his early life. He was not so entirely savage as the first; could speak our language better ; and though naturalized by his captors retained some predilection for the whites. The influence which he had acquired with his tribe was such that they had promoted him to the rank of chief ; and his standing with them was high. His business had led him frequently to Pittsburg where the father of Peggy Fleming then kept a tavern in which Whitaker had been accustomed to lodge and board. As soon as he appeared with the other traders at the camp of the Cherokees, he was recognized by the daughter of his old landlord, and she addressed him by his name, earnestly supplicating his efforts to emancipate her from the grasp of her savage proprietors. Without hesitation he acceded to her request. He did not make an application to the Cherokees but returned to the town and informed the principal chief, distinguished by the appellation of King Crane, that the white female captive was his sister; a misrepresentation greatly palliated by the benevolent motive which dictated it. "He had no difficulty in obtaining from the King a promise to procure her release. Crane went immediately to the camp of the Cherokees; informed them that their prisoner was the sister of a friend of his, and desired as a favor that they would make a present to him of Peggy Fleming, whom he wished to restore to her brother. They rejected his request. He then proposed to purchase her; this they also refused with bitterness, telling him that he was no better than the white people and that he was as mean as the dirt; terms of the grossest reproach in their use of them. At this insult Crane became exasperated. He went back to the town; told Whitaker what had been his reception and declared his intention to take Peggy Fleming from the Cherokees by force. But fearing such an act might be productive of war between his nation and theirs, he urged Whitaker to raise the necessary sum in value for her redemption. Whitaker, with the assistance of the other traders at the town, immediately made up TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 873 the requisite amount in silver broaches. This was not accomplished until it was too late to effect their object on that evening. Early next morning King Crane, attended by eight or ten young warriors, marched out to the camp of the Cherokees, where he found them asleep, while their forlorn captive was securely fastened, in a state of utter nakedness, to a stake ; and her body painted black ; an indication always decisive that death is the doom of the prisoner. Crane, with his scalping knife cut the cords by which she was bound ; delivered her the clothes of which she had been divested by the rude hands of the unfeeling Cherokees; and after she was dressed, awakened them. He told them in peremptory language that the captive was his, and that he had brought with him the value of her ransom. Then, throwing down the silver broaches on the ground, he bore off the terrified girl to the town, and delivered her to Whitaker ; who after a few days sent her, disguised by her dress and paint as a squaw, to Pittsburg, under the care of two trusty Wyandots. I never learnt whether she reached her home or not; but as the Indians are remarkable for their fidelity to their undertakings, I presume she was faithfully conducted to her place of destination. "The Cherokees were so incensed by the loss of their captive, that they entered the Wyandot town of Lower Sandusky declaring they would be revenged by taking the life of some white person. This was the cause of the alarm, which was spread among the traders at the time of our arrival, and in which our party necessarily participated ; as it was indispensable that we should remain there several days for the purpose of unpacking Mr. Duchouquet's peltry from the horses, and placing it on board the batteaux in which it was to be conveyed to Detroit. The Cherokees painted themselves, as they and other savages are accustomed to do when they are preparing for war or battle. All their ingenuity is directed to the object of rendering their aspect as horrible as possible, that they may strike their enemies with terror, and indicate by external signs the fury which rages within. They walked about the town in great anger, and we deemed it necessary to keep a watchful eye upon them and to guard against their approach. All the whites, except Whitaker, who was considered as one of the Wyandots, assembled at night in the same house, provided with weapons of defence, and continued together until the next morning; when to our high gratification they disappeared and I never heard of them afterwards. * * * At Lower Sandusky we found Mr. Angus McIntosh, who was exten- 874 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY sively engaged in the fur trade. This gentleman was at the head of the connection to which Mr. Duchouquet belonged, who was his factor or partner at Upper Sandusky, as a Mr. Isaac Williams was here. Williams was a stout, bony, muscular and fearless man. On one of those days which I spent in waiting until we were ready to embark for Detroit, a Wyandot Indian, in his own language, which I did not understand, uttered some expression offensive to Williams. This produced great irritation on both sides and a bitter quarrel ensued. Williams took down from a shelf of the store in which the incident occurred two scalping knives ; laid them on the counter; gave the Wyandot choice of them ; and challenged him to combat with these weapons. But the character of Williams for strength and courage was so well known, that he would not venture on the contest and soon afterward retired." Johnston further in his narrative declares that James Whitaker was with the Wyandots under Chief Crane at the defeat of General St. Clair by the Indians in 1791, and was with the same contingent in General Wayne's victory at Fallen Timbers, 1794. As his family consisted of his wife and four young children housed at his cabin on the Lower Sandusky at the time of the last engagement and at least three little ones at the time of St. Clair, and as he went to war evidently as a matter of compulsion or policy, it can easily be imagined the anguish in the heart of his young companion as he passed over the Sandusky-Maumee wilderness trail westward, possibly never to return to his loved ones. No doubt with her clinging little ones, at each morning and evening, she stood in the cabin door looking longingly for some sign of his coming, and when he appeared with strident step down the deep woods path, there was joy and gladness at the meeting. Incidentally it may be mentioned here that there was a British Post at Lower Sandusky during the Revolutionary war as indicated by an order issued by Brigadier-General Irvine dated at Fort Pitt November 11, 1782, to Maj. Isaac Craig, which among other things says: "Sir : I have received intelligence from various channels that the British have established a Post at Lower Sandusky." Miss Keeler in her writings makes observation that "it is a curious fact that of the first settlers of the Ohio Company at Marietta; the first organized settlement in the Northwestern Territory, who were captured by the Indians to be taken for ransom to Detroit, two of their number, Maj. Nathan Goodale, the Revo- TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 875 lutionary hero, and Daniel Conyers, then a young lad, should have been treated with great kindness by the Indian trader James Whitaker and his family, the first permanent white settlers in Ohio, at their home near Lower Sandusky. In fact Major Goodale died at the home of the Whitakers and was buried by them ; while young Conyers makes personal mention of their kindness to him, in his 'Reminiscences.' "The lad Daniel Conyers was captured by nine Indians on the 29th of April, 1791, just outside of Fort Frye, while engaged with three armed soldiers in cutting a tree for the purpose of making a hoop for the body of a drum. They were fired on, when the three soldiers ran, leaving Daniel, who was unarmed, to be captured by the Indians. He was hurried into a canoe on the river which crossed over to the mouth of Wolf Creek. On arriving at Lower Sandusky, on the 9th of May, he found oxen and other cattle that had been taken from the settlement at Marietta. Some young Indian boys ran with him up the river bank to keep him out of sight of the other Indians who lived in the large Indian village, and he thus received only kind treatment, except in the case of a drunken Indian, who knocked him down several times. Hildreth's Pioneer History says that they moved the next day down the Sandusky, and stopped a short time at Mr. Whitaker's (an Indian trader). He had a white wife who like himself had been taken prisoner in childhood and adopted into the tribe. The trader made them a present of a loaf of maple sugar, giving Daniel a share. Whitaker said but little to the prisoner, lest he should excite the jealousy of the warriors! On arriving at the mouth of the Portage River, near the ruins of old Fort Sandusky, Conyers was delivered to his new master, a Chippewa. The price paid for him was a horse and several strings of wampum. He was then taken to Detroit, where on the 14th of July he escaped and after secreting himself for several weeks was finally taken to the hospital by the son of the British Commandant, who treated him kindly and sent him on down to Montreal and then on to his relations in Killingly, Connecticut. He returned to Marrietta in February, 1794.' " Miss Keeler further says that "Of the many acts of kindness extended by James Whitaker and his wife during their residence among the Indians at Lower Sandusky, the most noted person whom they were able to assist was Major Nathan Goodale. Gen. Rufus Putnam, the intimate friend of Washington and his chief engineer and the 'Father of Ohio' in its first organized settle- 876 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY ment, was warmly attached to Major Goodale, who had served as an officer in his regiment through the entire war. General Putnam, in a remarkable letter to General Washington written at Massachusetts Huts, June 9, 1783, calls Washington's attention to the numerous conspicuous acts of personal bravery and of the gallant duty performed by Major Goodale during the Revolutionary war. Major Goodale was a native of Brookfield, Mass., but joined the Ohio Company in 1788. He removed to Belpre, near Marietta, in 1789, where he was captured March 1, 1793, while working on his farm within fifty rods of the garrison, by eight Wyandot Indians, who hurried him off toward Detroit in order to secure a large ransom. While en route, near Lower Sandusky, he fell sick and could not travel. The Whitakers learning of his condition took him to their home, where Mrs. Whitaker carefully nursed him until he finally died and was probably buried in what afterward became the Whitaker family graveyard. Mrs. Whitaker said the Indians left him at her house, where he died of a disease like pleurisy without having received any very ill usage from his captors other than the means necessary to prevent his escape." James Whitaker may be regarded as the first educator of this region. About 1800, at large expense, he hired a teacher from the East to instruct the older children. His oldest daughter, Nancy, had been taken to Montreal, and then sent to Scotland, where she remained three years at school, returning well qualified to teach her younger brothers and sisters. James Whitaker evidently had some schooling before he left England for America at the age of twelve years. He was a merchant and trader of large affairs and evidently kept his own books and accounts with the Detroit, Montreal and other merchants he had dealings with. One of his letters in the correspondence between the British traders on the Sandusky and the merchants at Detroit, the originals of which are in the Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Library, has already been set forth. A reproduction here of a photostat of that letter shows that Whitaker's penmanship was much superior to the usual handwriting of the traders and merchants of the times. The above letter is as follows : Sandusky, 20 May 1783 Sir—I shall be glad you will send me 1 Kegg of Rum 4 gallons and 1 of 2 Gallons-1 White Beaver Hat for my Wife and 2 Black Beaver Hats 1 lb Bohea Tea the Tea you sent Mr Dawson to the TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 877 Shawney Town Recd 1/4 only the Tea please Charge Mr Dawson &c I am Sir your humble Servt J. WHITAKER (Courtesy of Buston Historical Collection, Detroit.) Whitaker's signature is also attached with the names of others to a proclamation issued by the British Governor Hamilton, dated Detroit January 5, 1778, in which the signers in effect were made to say that they had been at all times treated with kindness and consideration by the Governor and were satisfied with his policy and the treatment of the Indians. It is quite remarkable under all the conditions the interest Whitaker took in educating his children. No doubt much of this thoughtfulness and desire for civilized advancement should be credited to Mrs. Whitaker, as shown by her acts in later years and evidently to the eldest daughter Nancy, after her return from school at Glasgow. Whatever the motivate force, he engaged a private instructor for his children from the East about 1799 or 878 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY 1800. After Mr. Whitaker's death in 1804, Mrs. Whitaker continued this policy and was prominent in the educational advancement also of the Indians of the Sandusky region. While Whitaker himself was evidently never in close sympathy with the British, from the fact that a daughter married Captain Wilson of the British army, it was natural that the British officers and officials in going and coming to the Sandusky from Detroit and the lakes, should make the Whitaker home a stopping place. It is stated that General Proctor was entertained there before the War of 1812 with other prominent Britishers. It has already been told in the chapter on the Indian Missions, as taken from his autobiography that the Missionary Rev. Joseph Badger in 1801 made the Whitaker home his first objective in coming up the Sandusky River. Monday, September 9, 1801, Badger's journal reads—"Arrived at Whitakers a little before dark, on the Sandusky. Swam our horses." Badger and his companions evidently remained at Whitaker's over night, for his journal then reads—"10th ( Tuesday) In the afternoon we went on our way to Portage River and encamped." The party were headed for the lower Maumee River and Detroit. This was while Mr. Whitaker was still living. On Badger's second visit to the Sandusky and Maumee valleys (1805) he preached to the Indians several times at the Whitaker home and Mrs. Whitaker, her husband having died the year before, aided Badger actively in his mission work. The chapter on missions quotes Badger's journal fully at this point, including his talk to the Indians at Mrs. Whitaker's when there were rumors of another war with Great Britain (1809) advising them to remain neutral and keep out of the conflict. Chief Crane was so impressed by Badger's speech that it evidently had much bearing on the attitude of Crane and his followers in remaining neutral and not joining the British. No doubt this influence among the tribe was also considerable. When the War of 1812 came on, Mrs. Whitaker evidently leaned toward the American cause. Concerning this Miss Keeler writes that "General Harrison often stopped at Mrs. Whitaker's house and she nursed him there through a long illness. When the British expedition set out from Detroit under Proctor late in July, 1813, against Fort Meigs and then against Fort Stephenson at Lower Sandusky, it is only fair to presume that they counted on Mrs. Whitaker being friendly or at least neutral, as it was known that she had in her house th TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 879 three children of a captain in the British army in the persons of the children of her daughter Nancy. The British gun-boats stopped at Whitaker's wharf, three miles below the fort, where the large, fine dwelling-house, store-house, factory and wharves of the Whitakers were located, but Mrs. Whitaker, with her children and grandchildren, on the approach of Tecumseh's horde of Indians, had fled to the protection of Fort Stephenson and had been sent but a day or so before the battle, with other refugees, women and children, on toward Upper Sandusky and Delaware. She, herself, was fired on by the Indians, whose bullets riddled her cape. Her descendants, and in fact many old residents, ascribe much of Major Croghan's success to the information and advice given him by Mrs. Whitaker. She certainly had every opportunity of learning of the intention of the Indian allies of the British, and this information she undoubtedly imparted to General Harrison and Major Croghan, although it is hard to estimate the actual value of the assistance given to Croghan in the battle. Nevertheless the British were so incensed at her conduct that they stopped at the Whitaker home on their retreat down the river from Fort Stephenson and remained long enough to utterly destroy the old home, the warehouse, the factory and the wharves. "Before Mrs. Whitaker fled from her riverside home, she buried a handsome silver service which had been presented to her and her husband, years before, by British officers. It was unearthed and carried off by the British. Among the evidences of the landing of British soldiers at the Whitaker homestead and also of the character of the troops engaged against Fort Stephenson is a Wellington half-penny token, coined in 1813, and presented to British troops participating in Wellington's peninsular campaign in Spain and Portugal, which was found within the last ten years (1900) near the Whitaker homestead and was placed in the Birchard Library Museum. After the close of General Harrison's Northwestern campaign he appointed a commission to appraise the damage and loss sustained by American citizens by the British invasion of Ohio during the War of 1812. This commission awarded Mrs. Whitaker $8,000 as the damage and loss sustained in the destruction of her property by the British forces under General Proctor. 'I have claims on the United States,' says her will, probated in 1833, 'to $8,000 for spoilation during the last war.' Voluminous papers were prepared many years ago containing original affidavits of settlers of that period, and placed in the hands of Congressman Frank 880 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY H. Hurd, who represented this congressional district some twenty five years ago"—about 1880 to 1886. Further concerning Badger at this point. When he operated the Indian mission at Lower Sandusky, according to his autobiography, he not only attempted to teach the Indians agriculture and assisted them in the way of plowing and raising crops, but himself cultivated the ground where now stands the central business section of Fremont. In 1807, when Deputy United States Surveyor Ewing ran the lines of the Four Square Miles Reserve, a paragraph in his field notes states: "From the post at the center of the Reserve run south between sections 3 and 4, five ch.—a small cornfield belonging to Mr. Badger. His house stands about 10 ch. west of the line ; the river on the east of the line ; 10 ch. out of the cornfield." This, says Meek, would place Badger's cornfield along the west bank of the river, between Croghan Street and Birchard Avenue. His house stood within now Fort Stephenson Park. This house, and also an Indian "castle" Badger called the council-house, is noted on the plat of this Reserve. After Whitaker's death, Badger speaks of making a plow for Mrs. Whitaker, hoed in the field, assisted in digging a well, wrote letters and was otherwise helpful to the family. Tecumseh's brother, "The Prophet," visited the Wyandots at Lower Sandusky as early as 1806 and designated four of their best women as witches and appointed certain Indians to slay them at midnight. The terrible work was frustrated by Mr. Badger. The "Whitaker Reservation" mentioned heretofore in the treaties with the Indians contained 1,280 acres and was set aside to Mrs. Whitaker as stated by the Treaty of 1817, on the Maumee. A deed was made by the Government to Mrs. Whitaker, confirming the grant, in 1822. As was always stated in such cases, there was a restriction in the deed that no conveyance was to be made to another party or parties, without the consent of the President of the United States. In 1823 this permission was granted and Mrs. Whitaker conveyed the estate to her son, George Whitaker for the consideration of $1,200. A writer some years ago took the lives of James and Eliza beth Whitaker, under other names, as the groundwork of an hi torical novel. Woven into the story was the romance of their daughter called "Jude"—evidently the eldest daughter Nancy. It appears that a young Indian brave who had been educated at Montreal had met Jude at Detroit and held a secret love for the TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 881 "beautiful daughter." He was in fact a rival of the young British officer who had met the girl in Canada. This Indian brave, finally on a mission to Lower Sandusky, was taken to the Whitaker home by James Whitaker. Jude and the Indian and Jude's younger sister were permitted to take a canoeing trip on the river. At this point the story runs like this: "While there for a day, Bright Horn was permitted to take Jude and her next younger sister Mary canoeing. As they came to a projecting rock which jutted out from the left bank of the Sandusky, they tied up their canoe and the trio climbed the elevation and comfortably seated themselves, surrounded by one of the most delightful views on the Sandusky. Jude brought along her old style five-string Spanish guitar, and as her sister soon walked up the bank in quest of some rare wild flowers, Jude played and sang a list of melodies she had learned abroad in school, as Bright Horn sat at her feet worshiping. "Then Bright Horn abruptly said, 'Jude, listen ! Do you hear the water running over the pebbles down from that spring as it meets the river? That is like the music of your voice. Do you hear the gentle breezes whispering among the trees? That is like you. Do you hear that woodthrush over yonder calling to its mate? That is the way my heart now calls to you. Do you think you could ever learn to come to me with joy and confidence like that spring gladly meets the strong flowing river? I know I am just an Indian and you are a beautiful white princess. There are wide waters between us. But God made both of us, and there is just one thing that will make a crossing over these waters ; that is love; nothing else will.' Jude sat silent for a seemingly long time and her cheeks paled. "Interruption came by a shriek from Jude's sister, not far away, who in her climb ran onto a huge rattlesnake, coiled. It struck, but in Mary's alertness, the enemy of the female species missed, and then bellied its way under a rock. The pause gave Jude time and she asked Bright Horn about his people. * * *" As the story continues, Jude's heart had in fact surrendered to the Indian brave, who was of the people who had given such kindly treatment to her father and mother after their capture. But her judgment evidently led her otherwise, for here is the scene when Bright Horn came to the Sandusky for his final answer: "Back home on the Sandusky, a storm had just passed over, when the lightning flashed and the thunder rolled. As the sun 882 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY came out and the forest leaves were glistening like silver pendants, Jude came to the door of their woods castle, from where she saw coming up the path from the river, Bright Horn, the Seneca brave. With rhythmic strides, his head erect, he was a picture for the gods to admire. Then as his eyes fell upon Jude, she covered her face with her hands. Recovering herself, she looked up at Bright Horn and smiled. "But the Indian stopped short in his tracks, and with a look on his bronzed face that Jude never forgot, he said in a steady voice, 'Jude, you need not tell me. I read my answer. The sparkling water from the spring is afraid to meet the strong current of the deep river. I am just an Indian.' "At this, Bright Horn turned on his heel and not heeding the call of Jude, passed down the Sandusky again in his canoe. "* * * The traders have long ago gone from the Sandusky region, the Indians have gone, and Whitcomb Farm has lost its forest charms. Missionary Badger, one of the West's greatest benefactors, lies sleeping in an historical burial ground not far away from there, in the shadow of a cluster of evergreens. But somewhere today, there live the many descendants of Mr. and Mrs. George Snow. Civilization crushing under its heel everything retarding its progress, is still on its onward march." Meek, in his writings, gives the appraisement of the home owners of property at Lower Sandusky in 1816 (eight houses in all), by Charles B. Fitch and Daniel Hill as follows : Morns A. Newman, one, $250; Moses Nichols, one, $100; Israel Harrington, one, $300; Aaron Forgerson, one, $200; Randall Jerome, three, $450; Thomas Brown, one, $150. However there were squatters in this section on the Sandusky before the War of 1812. This is shown by a petition forwarded to Governor Meigs in December, 1813, which reads as follows: To His Excellency R. J. Meigs, Governor of the State of Ohio: May it please your Excellency :—The undersigned inhabitants and settlers on the plains of Lower Sandusky, on the reservation made by the official agents of the United States, sanctioned by government, beg leave to humbly represent their present situation, and their future hopes. In the first instance, B. F. Stickney, Esq., as Indian Agen has denied us the right or privilege of settling on this ground, an he has even proceeded so far that he has actually instructed Gen- TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 883 eral Gano, our present commandant, to dispossess us of our present inheritance. Many of us whose signatures are annexed to this, have been severe sufferers since the commencement of the present war, and even prior to the declaration thereof. Without reflection on the past, and willing to undergo and encounter any difficulty which may ensue, we humbly beg leave to remain as we now do, in the peaceable possession of our cabins, unmolested by the interference of any man save him who at present commands us, and to whose orders we pledge ourselves at all times, and in any emergency, to be subservient. The advantages resulting from a settlement of this kind, and at a time, too, when the fruits of our labor cannot be wanting, need not be recited for your Excellency's information. We do not, neither can we, attempt to claim any legal right to the ground or spot of earth on which we have each and individually settled. But the improvements which we have made, and the buildings which we have erected, we trust will not be taken from us without the interference of legal authority. To you, sir, as our friend, our benefactor, and our governor, we have made this appeal in the hope and expectation that it may merit your Excellency's attention, by a set of subjects whose hearts are warmed towards you, and whose breasts will be unbared for you at our country's call. Permission to build has been granted by General Gano to those who have erected cabins since his arrival, and with pride and pleasure we acknowledge his favor and friendship. We remain your Excellency's most obedient and very humble servants. George Bean, R. E. Post, Israel Harrington, R. Loomis, William Leach, Louis Moshelle, Lewis Geaneau. Geo. Ermatington, Asa Stoddard, Morris A. Newman, Jesse Skinner, Walter Brabrook, Wm. Hamilton, Patrick Chess. These lands being United States Government lands, evidently the Governor of Ohio had no power to act in the matter, although he might have left the petitioners undisturbed. There seems to be no record of the action taken, if any. Few names of the petitioners appear in the later history of the section. Morris A. Newman and Israel Harrington, prominent in transactions following 884 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY this, were associate judges of the Court of Common Pleas. It was at Justice Newman's tavern which stood on the northeast corner of Pine Street and Ohio Avenue, in then Croghansville, that the first term of Common Pleas Court for Sandusky County was held May 8, 1820. The Honorable George Todd was presiding judge and Israel Harrington, Alexander Morrison and David Harrold associate judges. While this section was within the jurisdiction of Huron County occurred at Norwalk at the May term of court, 1819, the trial of three Indians—Negoshee, Negoneby and Negossum, charged with the killing in 1818 within the Lower Sandusky region two white trappers named John Wood and George Bishop on the Portage River near the present site of Oak Harbor. George Todd was the presiding judge and Ebenezer Lane the prosecutor. The two men from the now Marblehead peninsula went up the Portage River to trap coon. They carried guns, had with them ponies and had gathered a considerable amount of pelts and furs. The Indians came upon them in their camp, and after the deed friendly Indians discovered the bodies and gave a clue to the murderers. A posse of some eighteen whites threatened vengeance, but the culprits were taken to Norwalk and chained to the floor of a hatter's shop but escaped—two of them to the Maumee River Indians and the third, who had been wounded in his flight, was taken again between now Milan and Monroeville. The two from the Maumee were returned by their tribe. One of the three Indians turned state's evidence and the other two were hanged. The first execution on the Maumee River took place at the foot of Fort Meigs, where an Indian named Porter was hung in 1830, charged with shooting a man named Richardson. The earlier emigrants to Sandusky County not considering those who settled on the Four Square Miles Reservation at Lower Sandusky and the French families who came from the Lower Maumee, were in the main people from the East who had temporarily located on the Fire Lands. When land east of the Reserve was selling for $2 to $4 per acre, land as desirable or even better was available on the Sandusky at a dollar and a quarter per acre. From this fact the eastern part of the county was settled first. When the fame of the fertility of the Sandusky Valley reached the people of New York State, the movement westward began in the covered wagon and by the lake route. The first arrivals selected the hill sections and higher grounds for their homes, as the low lands were then impossible of occupation. The western TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 885 part of the county, now one of the richest localities, through which ran the Harrison Trail to the Maumee, was, some of it, a part of the Black Swamp. In consequence for years it was "abandoned to the wolves and frogs." Then when the Maumee and Weste.rn Reserve Road was opened up, taverns were built along this route and settlers began to establish themselves, and by 1830, the real development of Sandusky County began. David Gallagher, born in 1790, came to Lower Sandusky in 1810. At the siege of Fort Meigs he was on picket duty there and in the year following was a commissary at Fort Stephenson. At the close of the War of 1812, he engaged in the mercantile business, most of his trade naturally being with the Indians yet numerous in that section. He was the second merchant at Lower Sandusky and became a man of wealth. Jeremiah Everett came to Ohio in 1812 in his early years from Massachusetts. Like many others, his intention was to locate on the Western Reserve. He came up the river to Lower Sandusky in a large canoe with one Aden Breed, bringing a considerable outfit. Their route was by way of Ogontz Place, present Sandusky City, to which point they traveled overland. Young Everett was for a time Government mail carrier between Lower Sandusky and Fort Meigs. When the roads were passable the trip was made each week. Judge Everett had the distinction of being the first representative from Sandusky County to the Ohio General Assembly and was for many years a justice of the peace. Samuel Hollingshead, who had first located at Newark, Ohio, pulled up stakes and came to Lower Sandusky in 1819. He was a mechanic and gunsmith and found paying patronage in the latter capacity by the Indians. Later he located in the present Port Clinton section, near the mouth of the Portage River, where he plied his trade in connection with farming. Where is now Castalia, Ohio, is the famous "Blue Pool" fed by the springs coming from the higher ledge of lands buttressed by once a low prairie. D. P. Snow established a mill on the Cold Creek running from the springs, evidently operated by water power. During the War of 1812, while Mr. Snow was absent from home, Captain Pumpkin and a band of Indians captured Snow's family. They immediately dispatched the baby and marched the rest of their captors toward the Sandusky Bay. Mr. Morris E. Tyler, who told the story, says in his account that "Mrs. Snow, being unable to travel, was tomahawked and scalped within a few rods of the house. The remainder of the family, two sons 30-VOL. 1 886 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY and one daughter, they took to their canoes. They then conveyed them to Detroit, which had been disgracefully surrendered by the coward, Hull, where they sold them to the British government. After this brutality on the part of Pumpkin and his band, he killed some of his own people, when they in revenge killed this Indian murderer, on the Stony Prairie, about one mile from the City of Fremont. (It is said that the mill was burned.) "The Indians were in the habit of watching for the United States mail, which came weekly from Columbus to the forces in this part of the state. The Indians knew the day, and awaited the arrival of the mail carriers. About twenty of the redskins secreted themselves behind logs, in an oak opening, about one mile and a half south of Fremont, up the river. On that day General Harrison sent Colonel Ball with twenty-seven dragoons to Fort Stephenson. On their way they were attacked by the Indians, who were defeated by Colonel Ball's force, without the loss of a single man, and the mail was saved from British inspection. The village and township of Ballville was named after Colonel Ball in honor of this achievement. "At the close of the war the following named settlers were living here : Jeremiah Everett (father of Homer Everett), Israel Harrington, Morris A. Newman (father of the wife of Judge Knapp), James Nugin, and David Gallagher, who was then commissary at Fort Stephenson. Judge Isaac Knapp carried the mail a portion of that year, from Fort Stephenson to Fort Meigs (now Perrysburg). At that time there was no road, and he was guided by blazes or spots made on the trees by hewing with a hatchet. The route travelled was a dangerous one. They started from Fremont, went down the river to Muskalonge Creek, thence west about one mile, where they crossed the creek by fording; thence to Portage River, which they crossed, where Elmore is now situated ; from there by a circuitous route to Fort Meigs. "In those days the mail carriers were men of courage and determination, as the Indians and wolves were opposed to the advancement of our system of civilization. Fort Stephenson was built upon the ground later occupied by Lewis Leppelman and Dr. W. B. Ames, for residences." Another pioneer recorded "that Isaac Knapp located at Fort Stephenson in. September, 1814. None who were then citizens of the place, survive him. The pickets of the fort, and the two large block-houses, situated on the south line of the enclosure; the sentry-box on the southeast corner; the magazine in the northwest TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 887 corner, and a large block-house projecting over the picket line, and designed to cover the ditches, were then in good condition of preservation. About ninety to one hundred men, under command of Captain Gest, garrisoned the post. The fort was evacuated in May or June, 1815. Lieutenants Thomas L. Hawkins, and Thomas E. Boswell, after the evacuation, remained at the fort, and made the place their permanent home. Morris A. Newman, from Norwalk, was a tavern-keeper; and Messrs. Disborough and Wilson, who, in 1818, built a schooner for the lake trade, were also here. And so was Jeremiah Everett, and Josiah Rumsey—the last named building the schooner General Brown, in 1819. There were, also, in 1814, several French families—among them Thomas DeMasque, Joseph and Baptiste Momeny, and a Mr. La Point. There was also a Mr. Loomis, a Mr. Crossett, and Major Stoddard, an old man without a family, and Moses Nichols, who afterwards erected a tannery. * * * George Shannon had resided in the neighborhood of Fort Stephenson before the war, and married one of the daughters of the well-known Whitakers, but fled after the war broke out, and returned after Perry's victory. Lysander Ball located in the neighborhood in 1818 ; and during the same year, Thomas Holcomb, and Samuel Hollinshead, the latter later of Port Clinton. In early life, Issac Knapp exhibited several instances of the highest order of moral courage, and which have few parallels. In addition to his military service in the War of 1812, he served, after he had many years passed the 'military age' of life, in the war with Mexico, in 1846-47; and in civil life was a member of the Ohio Legislature, Associate Judge, etc." A sketch of Doctor L. Q. Rawson written about 1872, says that on his receiving a license to practice medicine from the Ohio Medical Society he engaged in practice at Tymochtee, then Crawford County and in December, 1827 removed to Fremont, Ohio. He attended medical lectures, and received the degree of M. D. from the Ohio Medical College, and the University of Pennsylvania, and continued in active practice until 1855. "On the 8th of July, 1829, the doctor married Miss Sophia Beaugrand, daughter of John B. Beaugrand, one of the early Indian traders at Maumee City, and who was engaged in business at that place on the occurrence of the War of 1812. When he commenced practice in Lower Sandusky, in 1827, the two physicians in the place were Drs. Brainard and Hastings. He survived many years his professional contemporaries. The gen- 888 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY eral limit to his practice was west to the Portage River, from the source of that stream to its entrance into the bay at Port Clinton; on the east, Clyde, and on the south to Fort Seneca. None of the intervening streams, crossed by these several routes, were then bridged, except the river at Lower Sandusky. The inhabitants were generally poor; and even those in comparatively comfortable circumstances, and disposed to pay, had little money, and offered produce in liquidation of their physicians' bills. "In 1834, the cholera scourge prevailed at Lower Sandusky. The people generally, at that time, regarded the disease as contagious, and the mass of them locked their doors, and refused to leave their houses, or admit visitors. Drs. Rawson and Brown, Mr. Birchard, and Judge Hulbert, discharged the several offices of physician, nurse and undertaker. The population of the town then amounted to about three hundred, and the per centage of deaths was large. This was the first year of the visitation of the cholera, and on no occasion of its subsequent appearance at Lower Sandusky, was the disease attended with results so fatal. "The Louisville and Lake Erie Railway, with which the name of Dr. Rawson was so closely identified, was incorporated April 25, 1853—Charles W. Foster, L. Q. Rawson, Sardis Birchard, James Justice, and John R. Pease, being the corp orators. The Company was organized on a capital of $200,000. The purpose was, the construction of a railroad from the town of Fremont, in the County of Sandusky, through the counties of Sandusky and Seneca, to the Town of Rome, in said County of Seneca; thence through the counties of Seneca and Hancock, to the Town of Findlay, in said County of Hancock; thence through the counties of Hancock, Allen, Auglaize, Mercer and Darke, to the west line of the state of Ohio, in said County of Darke.' Rome was the early name for Fostoria. "In 1855, Doctor Rawson made an effort to withdraw from professional business, and engage in railroad enterprises; and, cooperating with Mr. C. W. Foster, of Fostoria, was among the original projectors of the Lake Erie and Louisville Railroad, and, to their united energies and labors, the country interested in that important work is unquestionably indebted for the progress it made to completion." H. S. Knapp, the historian, in 1872 evidently from first hand information wrote the life story of Sardis Birchard, from which is taken the following; which again is emphasized as written in 1872: TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 889 "* * * Inheriting from his father, Roger Birchard, who died in 1805, what was then considered a handsome start for a young man, with a jovial and friendly disposition, fond of wild sports and wild company, with no one to look up to as entitled to control or advise him, his future might well be regarded with apprehension. He was then a slender, delicate, handsome youth, with engaging and popular manners, and a favorite among the young people of the new country. "While yet a boy, he was hired to help drive hogs to feed the first settlers at Fort Ball, now Tiffin, in 1817. The men in charge were hard drinkers, and, soon after leaving Delaware, the whole business depended on Birchard. It was in the bitterly cold weather of early winter; the roads and streams were impassable; but with an energy and spirit which delighted his employers, he pushed through to the Tymochtee, where he was met by a party of settlers at Fort Ball, to whom he safely delivered the drove of hogs. This was Mr. Birchard's first visit to the Sandusky region. He first visited his future home, Fremont, then Lower Sandusky, in September, 1824. His companion was Benjamin Powers, for many years a respectable citizen and successful merchant and banker of Delaware, Ohio. The young men traveled in a one-horse spring wagon, and their outfit consisted of a little extra clothing, and a jug of fine brandy. The then universal custom of the country for friends and acquaintances, on meeting, to drink together, made the brandy a by no means insignificant part of their supplies. "At Fort Ball they met Erastus Bowe, and other friends, formerly of Delaware, and had a jolly meeting, in which the brandy was not altogether neglected. At Lower Sandusky, they stopped at Leason's tavern, a log house on the east side of Front Street, where Shomos' block now stands (1872). The pickets were still standing around Fort Stephenson, and the ditch was quite perfect (1824) . The village then contained perhaps two hundred inhabitants. There was another tavern known as the Harrington tavern, and kept by Annie Williams, standing where Leppelman's store now is (1872). The young men made the acquaintance of George Olmsted, Elisha W. Howland, and others. They left for Portland, now Sandusky City, crossing the river at the 'Old Ford,' between what are now Garrison and Croghan streets, in Fremont. After his return home, Mr. Birchard, with Stephen R. Bennett as a partner, bought and drove to Baltimore, in the first cold weather of the winter of 1824-25, a large drove 890 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY of fat hogs. There were two incidents of this trip which are well remembered. The young men had to swim their hogs across the Ohio River, at Wheeling, and came near losing them all by the swift current of the river. By great exertions, and at considerable risk to themselves, they got all but four or five safely across. In the meantime, they were overtaken on the road by a tall, fine looking gentleman on horseback, who had also a carriage drawn by four horses, and two other saddle-horses with attendants. The gentleman helped Mr. Birchard get the hogs out of the way, chatted with him about the state of the market, and the prospects of the weather, and advised him as to the best way to dispose of his hogs at Baltimore. This gentleman turned out to be General Jackson, on his way to Washington, after the Presidential election of 1824, in which he was the highest, but not finally the successful candidate. "In the summer of 1825, while mowing in the hay-field, Birchard was seriously injured in health by over-exertion. From the effects of this, he never entirely recovered. * * * But the cheerful disposition of Mr. Birchard, aided by the elasticity of his constitution, carried him through. In May (evidently 1826) he set out on horse-back, making short day's journeys at first, and reached Vermont, where he remained until the approach of winter, when he travelled south to Georgia, and remained until the spring of 1826. [Or was it 1827—Editor.] "This year he made his first purchase of goods, as a retail dry goods merchant. He went to New York without money and without acquaintances. Passing about the streets, he fell into conversation with a young merchant, a stranger to him, named William P. Dixon, standing at the store door of Amos Palmer & Co., on the corner of Pearl Street and Maiden Lane. He told the New Yorker his plans and his condition; when the latter told him he would sell him all the goods he wanted in his line, and would recommend him to others. His stock was made up and shipped to Cleveland, he accompanying the goods. His intention was to sell to laborers on the Ohio Canal, which was then being built from Cleveland southwardly. After passing down the canal into the Tuscarawas Valley, he became dissatisfied with that trade, and sold part of his goods in bulk to another trader, and took the rest to Fort Ball (now Tiffin), on the west side of Sandusky River. Here he remained, trading successfully with the new settlers, until December, 1827, when he removed to Lower Sandusky—having decided to go with Dr. L. Q. Rawson, who preceded him a few TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 891 days. He was first in Lower Sandusky in business alone, in a store on the corner of Front and Croghan streets, where Betts' block now is (1872) ; the store being a new one, and erected and owned by Richard Sears, who had made a fortune trading with the Indians, and who had left for Buffalo that year, in the spring. Three other stores were here then, one very large one, owned by George Olmsted, on Front Street, east side, between Garrison and Croghan, where Heffner now is—a frame two-story building. George was the earliest merchant in the place, who came with his brother, Jesse, from New York City in 1817, and established one of the largest stores in the state. Their first store was on Front Street, west side, north end of town, where Gasdorf's packing house now is (1872). Boats came up the river, nearly to this store. Jesse S. had a store on the west side of Front Street, directly opposite to Birchard's. Esbon Husted's store was in a large frame building, on the southeast corner of Front and State streets, where the Birchard block now stands. Dry goods, groceries, hardware, crockery, salt, drugs, and school, and a few other books, stationery, whiskey, brandy, rum, wines, etc., were among the staple goods. "There were two distilleries—one owned by Ezra Williams, just at the foot of the hill, south of the pike, east of Thompson's; and the other owned by Sanford Main, at the Tyler spring. The merchants generally sold their goods for corn, and sold the corn for whiskey, which they shipped to Buffalo and New York. For clothing, broadcloths, Kentucky jeans, and linsey woolsey goods were generally in use. The Indians bought fine blue cloth, Mackinaw blankets, beads and powder and lead. "Mr. Birchard received the Indian trade to a large extent, by refusing to sell them liquor. He was in trade three or four years, and having accumulated ten thousand dollars, considered himself rich enough to retire. About 1831, however, he formed his first partnership with Rodolphus Dickinson, and Esbon Husted—Mr. Birchard furnishing the capital. The firm name was R. Dickinson & Co.; and they soon had in operation one of the largest retail stores north of Columbus, and west of Cleveland, their yearly sales amounting to fifty thousand dollars. Sales were largely on credit. He bought the first vessel with Richard Sears, each owning an equal interest. The vessel was named John Richards, a schooner worth then four thousand dollars, and about one hundred tons burden. "The first shipment of wheat, out of Lower Sandusky, accord- 892 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY ing to the best of Mr. Birchard's recollection, was made on this schooner; and this shipment was probably the first sent eastward from any lake port west of Cleveland. The wheat from the ridges of Seneca County was then much sought after for starch manufacture. Wheat was then worth about fifty cents a bushel. "The Indians, with whom Mr. Birchard traded chiefly, were the Senecas. They drew an annuity from the State of New York, payable at Albany, amounting to $1,700 ; and among Mr. Birchard's customers, whom he trusted, during the year, were Tall Chief, Hard-Hickory, Seneca John, Curley-Eye, Good-Hunter, and others ; and before the annuity was paid, he would get authority to draw the money, signed by the chiefs, and go to Albany after it. This he did three times, and once had trouble in obtaining it--the agent refusing to pay money, and offering barter. This was in Silas Wright's time. The agent belonged to the Albany Regency, and Mr. Birchard called upon Comptroller Wright, to ask him to interpose in his favor ; but the Comptroller treated his application rather coolly. * * * Horace Meacham, a friend of Birchard's, and a forwarding merchant at Albany, went with him to the Comptroller again. Wright was quite a different man ; and soon after Mr. Birchard's return home, his friend Meacham forwarded him the cash. "Besides the Seneca tribe, Mr. Birchard traded somewhat with the Wyandots, and Ottawas. Among the Wyandots were a few Delawares. The Senecas owned a reservation, containing perhaps thirty thousand acres, east of the Sandusky River, on the line of Sandusky and Seneca counties. Their principal settlement was near Green Springs. They had a mill near where Stoner's mill now stands. Their Council-House was near the same place. "Mr. Birchard attended several of their dances in the daytime, and at night. He was present at the ceremony of burning of the white dogs. The Indians danced in the Council-House, in the centre of which was a fire, over which was boiling a pot of corn and meat. Their musicians had in their hands bundles of deer hoofs, which they rattled and pounded on a skin stretched over a hoop. Mr. Birchard, Rodolphus Dickinson, Judge Justice, Mr. Fifield, and others, joined in the Indian dance. Mr. Birchard was the guest, at night, of Hard-Hickory—They called him Ansequago, and told him that it meant 'the man who owns most of the land'—the significance of which Mr. Birchard could not understand, as, at that time, he was not the owner of much land. The Wyandots, and a few Delawares, were at Upper Sandusky, TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 893 where they had twelve miles square. The Ottawas—`Tawas were on the Maumee, near the mouth of that river, and occasionally visited Lower Sandusky, in small squads. "He remembers well the death of Seneca John. Seneca John was a tall, noble looking man, said to look very much like Henry Clay. He was always a pleasant, cheerful man, and almost always wore a smile. He was called the most eloquent speaker of his tribe. If there was anger, or ill-feeling in the council, he could MARKING HISTORIC GROUND Between Fremont and Green Springs will be seen this marker to the memory of Seneca John, Indian chief, executed by his tribe in 1828 for witchcraft. The old Seneca reservation is nearby. always restore harmony. He was particularly admired by the squaws, and fond of buying gifts for them. He traded much with Mr. Birchard, and on the evening before the morning of his death, was at Mr. Birchard's store. The whole tribe seemed to be in town. Steel and Coonstick, half brothers of Seneca John, were jealous of his power. Mr. Birchard knew all the parties, and remembers well, when, on the last evening of his life, and above referred to, he bade Mr. Birchard good-bye. They stood together on the platform, in front of Mr. Birchard's store, as the Indians went off south on their horses. He looked at them, as 894 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY they moved off, with such sadness in his face that it attracted Mr. Birchard's attention, who wondered at his letting them all go off without him. Then he turned to Mr. Birchard, and inquired the amount of his indebtedness. They went back together into the store, and passed behind the counter to the desk. The account was figured up, and the amount stated to John. Saying something about paying it, he bade Mr. Birchard good-bye, and went off—making no reference to his trouble. "Hard-Hickory lived about a mile below Green Springs, in a cabin yet standing in 1872, and Seneca John, the night before his execution, slept under Hard-Hickory's porch.' Steel and Coonstick, at sunrise, called and waked him. John told them to kill him quick. They tomahawked him. Mr. Birchard obtained this statement from Hard-Hickory, who came into town that day, or the next, with Tall Chief, and told about it. "Mr. Birchard found the Indians, in their business transactions, generally very honest. They would not steal as much as the same number of whites, with the same opportunities. He has had his store room full of Indians, sleeping all night on the floor, with no watch or guard, and sleeping in a cot near by them. Tall Chief always settled the debts of the Indians who died—believing that 'they couldn't enter the good hunting grounds of the spirit-land, until their debts were paid.' He settled the bills of Seneca John, after the death of the latter. The Indians paid for goods mostly in deer-skins, finely dressed, and in coon, muskrat, and sometimes in mink, otter and bear skins. The Indians dressed skins much better than white men. "On the first of January, 1851, Mr. Birchard, in partnership with Lucius B. Otis, established the first banking house in Fremont, under the name of Birchard & Otis. On the removal of Judge Otis to Chicago, in 1856, Mr. Birchard formed a partnership with Anson H. Miller, and Dr. James W. Wilson, under the name of Birchard, Miller & Co. In 1863, the First National Bank of Fremont was organized, and the banking house of Birchard, Miller & Co. was merged into it. It was the second National Bank organized in Ohio, and the fifth organized in the United States. Mr. Birchard was elected president of the bank, on its organization, and yet (1872) holds the position. "There were two lawyers in practice in Lower Sandusky, when Mr. Birchard came there to reside—Harvey J. Harmon, and Rodolphus Dickinson. They were opposite in politics—Harmon supporting Jackson, and Dickinson supporting Adams. Harmon TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 895 was honest and able, but indifferent to business, and fond of talking politics. He cultivated the island ; but his fences were often down, and hogs and cattle gathered his crops. Mr. Birchard used to, in jest, tell him that he never got but one basket of corn from the island, and that, as he passed the corner tavern, some one engaged him in a political debate, and the hogs ate up his corn. "No churches were in Lower Sandusky in 1827. Religious meetings were held in an old log schoolhouse, that stood nearly where the new high school building now is, on Croghan Street. Court was held in the same building, until the frame courthouse was finished, where Rev. H. Lang now lives. The preachers were, Rev. Mr. Harrington, a Presbyterian, who took up preaching in his old age. He generally put in two hours' time on each sermon. Rev. Mr. Montgomery, a Methodist missionary, lived with the Seneca Indians, near Fort Seneca. These men preached only occasionally—Rev. Mr. Bigelow, and other Methodists, also visited the town. Samuel Treat, John Bell, Thomas Gallagher, and Thomas L. Hawkins, and their wives, all Methodists, were the only church members, now recollected by Mr. Birchard, as living in Fremont, in 1827. Judge Jacob Nyce always led the singing, in the Presbyterian meetings, but was not a church member. "Among the farmers living near Lower Sandusky, were Mr. Moore, father of James and John, who owned the mill property near Ballsville ; Mr. Chamberlain, a short distance above Moore ; Mrs. Tindall and sons, Daniel, William, John and Edward ; Mr. Patterson, and his sons, Danforth and Julius. Mr. Birchard attended the sales of United States lands at Delaware, about 1820, by Platt Brush, Register of the Land Office. The sale included all of the lands from Delaware County north to the state line, except the Indian reservations. The lands were sold at public auction, the minimum price being fixed at $1.25 per acre. The sale continued, two or three weeks, and large crowds of people attended. On certain tracts, there was a brisk competition in the bidding, and some land sold as high as $10 per acre." Further material concerning the Sandusky region will be found in the chapter on Sandusky County, its organization and progress. But before passing to another feature of this story it is pertinent to mention something of the one piece of ordnance, the six-pounder, Colonel Croghan had mounted, in his gallant defense of Fort Stephenson, later given the appellation of "Old Betsy," and which still rests in Birchard Library Park as a grim 896 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY reminder of that historical event. The voice of Old Betsy was evidently heard at the first Fourth of July celebration ever held in Northwestern Ohio. Speaking of the occasion, McAfee in his "History of the Late War (1812) In the Western Country," which, by the way, has been republished in full by the editor of this work and which is so liberally quoted, says this : "The mounted regiment (of Col. R. M. Johnson) had been ordered to proceed by Lower Sandusky to the River Huron, where it was intended that they should remain a while to recruit their horses. They marched on the 2nd (July, 1813) from Fort Meigs, but did not arrive at Sandusky until the evening of the 3rd. The Fourth of July, the anniversary of independence, was celebrated by the garrison and mounted men together, in great harmony and enthusiasm. Colonel Johnson delivered an appropriate address and a number of toasts, breathing sentiment of the republican soldier were drank and cheered by the shouts of the men, the firing of small arms, and the discharge of a six-pounder from the fort." It was on August 2nd following this celebration that "Sargeant Weaver with five or six gentlemen of the Petersburg Volunteers and Pittsburg Blues, who happened to be in the fort, was entrusted with the management of the six-pounder," quoting again from McAfee, and the handling of which under Croghan's orders saved the day. General Harrison in his official report of the engagement says, "a young gentleman, a private in the Petersburg Volunteers, of the name of Brown (who) assisted by five or six of that company and the Pittsburg Blues * * * managed the six-pounder, which produced such destruction in the ranks of the enemy." Betsy was captured by the British in a naval engagement with the French during the French and Indian wars which terminated in 1763. It seems that she changed hands twice after that before coming into final American possession. The historian Meek says, that Betsy was removed to the Pittsburg arsenal after the defense of Fort Stephenson. Later Congress ordered its return to Lower Sandusky. The ingenious Thomas L. Hawkins, commissary officer at Fort Stephenson during the campaign, identified the gun in Pittsburg, recognizing it by the scar on its breach which he believed was made by a cannon ball, while in action during the old French and Indian war. Owing to the duplication of the name Sandusky, the cannon was sent to Sandusky City, which for many years after the battle was called Ogontz Place, and of TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 897 course had no claim on the prize. The authorities there attempted to keep it, and concealed the piece by burying it under a barn. Mayor B. J. Bartlett of Lower Sandusky traced the gun and sent men and a wagon to take it to its old resting place. "This homecoming of Old Betsy was just prior to the second of August celebration (at Fremont) 1852, when the Tiffin Fire Department came down to join in the festivities. William H. Gibson, clad in the red shirt and white trousers of the fire brigade uniform, delivered the stirring address of the day, in the woods back of the Rawson House on State Street." The old cannon figured later in several celebrations. In the political campaign of 1856, when John C. Fremont was the unsuccessful Republican candidate for president against James Buchanan, a large delegation of Fremont Republicans going to attend a gathering at Sandusky, took Old Betsy with them on the Island Queen down the Sandusky River. She gave several salutes for the occasion. At a celebration of the defense of Fort Stephenson, held at Fremont, August 2nd, 1860, a salute of thirteen rounds from Betsy was fired. In the political campaign of 1840, when Col. Richard M. Johnson was the Democratic candidate for reelection for Vice President on the ticket with Van Buren, evidently to offset the great General Harrison celebration at Fort Meigs, a rousing Democratic gathering was held at Fremont at which Johnson was introduced as the American officer who killed Tecumseh at the battle of the Canadian Thames. It is stated that the presiding officer who introduced Johnson, to make the occasion more dramatic, bared the Colonel's arm and displayed the scars he received when he was three times wounded at the Thames, once seriously. CHAPTER LVI REMINISCENCES OF NORTHWESTERN OHIO FORT MEIGS CELEBRATION 1840-PIONEER LIFE-TRIBUTE TO THE HON. JAMES M. ASHLEY-STORIES OF BEING LOST IN THE WILDERNESS-THE VENERABLE HISTORIAN HOWE-OTHER PIONEER SKETCHES Twenty-seven, years after General Harrison was in command of the Northwest Army at Fort Meigs, he visited the scenes of his triumphs again as the Whig candidate for president of the United States. The "1840 Harrison meeting at Fort Meigs," as it has always been referred to in history, considering the situation and the time of the event, has never been surpassed in magnitude and picturesqueness in American annals. One of the best descriptive reports of the two days' celebration appeared in the Buffalo Journal of June 15, 1840, four days after the closing scenes of the great demonstration. The account should be preserved and is appended in full without comment. "The sun never shown brighter than upon The Wave of Buffalo, as that boat swiftly ascended the Maumee the morning of June 10th. Arrived at Toledo, we found the United States, and the General Scott, both loaded so that their decks seemed one dense mass of human beings. We were joined, about 9 o'clock, by the Rochester and Star, filled to overflowing with delegates from Lake County, Ohio, and from Cleveland and towns adjacent. The fleet of boats was soon formed into line. The Wave taking the lead, and amid the huzzas of the people covering the decks and shores, the roar of cannon, and the inspiring strains of bands of music, the whole were again in rapid motion. The approach to Perrysburg is singularly beautiful. Its fine reaches, the graceful sweep of its curves, the hoary forests which crown its banks surpassing in depth and luxuriance of foliage anything we ever before beheld, the gala aspect of the whole enlivened by so many steamboats flaunting gorgeous banners and many a gay device, presented a scene which has rarely, if ever, been equalled. "A short hour brought us in view of Perrysburg, the high table-land about a mile above the village, the site of Fort Meigs, gleaming with the tents of the Buffalo military, and the City of - 898 - TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 899 Maumee overhanging the opposite side. We swept by a commanding bluff on the Maumee City side, and a salute announced in thunder tones that we were passing the site of the old French Fort Miami, and entering a region consecrated by the best blood and the most heroic achievements of the French, the British, the red men and the Americans. Just above and in sight, commenced, and directly opposite under the guns of what was then the British fort, ended the sanguinary conflict in which Anthony Wayne, aided by Harrison and the gallant spirits under his command, wiped out the disgrace of St. Clair's defeat, broke the Indian power in the Northwest Territory, and put a final termination to the war of the Revolution. Few localities in our country are richer in historic recollections of engrossing interest, and the grandeur and beauty of the scene were worthy the sentiments which it served to excite. We had no time, however, to indulge in reminiscences. The roar of artillery from the shore and the boats, the acclamation of the thousands who had preceded us, which rent the air as we neared the shore, and were echoed back