CHAPTER IV. FIRST WHITE MEN AND INDIAN WARS. The first white men to visit Preble county were probably Daniel Boone and his hunter companions, who made several hunting trips into the great Miami valley ; and Boone is reported to have made the statement that it came nearer being the hunters' paradise than any other portion of the country he had ever seen, and he appears to have been a most competent judge. And when it is remembered that those hunting trips sometimes occupied months, and that they were ever on the move to avoid being located and surprised by the Indians, making camp but a short time at any one place, it would seem probable that few, if any, counties in the valley but were visited by them. Simon Kenton became so in love with the country that, after the Indian wars were over, he Moved to Champaign county and settled there the balance of his life, and is buried at Urbana, and a number of the family relatives still reside in that county. In the Indian wars that followed the Revolution, several detachments of United States soldiers passed through this county, and this linked the history of the county with those wars. BIRDS OF A FEATHER. During the Revolutionary period, the Indians nearly all fought on the side of Great Britain, and at the treaty of peace of 1783, it was stipulated that the boundary between British possessions and the United States should be the Great Lakes, and the connecting rivers to the west end of Lak Superior, but no stipulation was made as to the rights of the Indian allies of Britain, hence the United States regarded the land as conquered land. The British had a large trading post at Detroit, and a number of smaller posts along Lake Erie, and in Ohio and Michigan which they continued to hold ; and as the United States authorities desired to define the rights of the Indians, and grant them lands in accordance with the sizes of the tribes, while the Indians claimed the right to all the lands north of the Ohio river, the chief British agents, McKee and Elliott, encouraged the Indians to refuse to cede any rights to the Americans north of that river, and they were PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO - 101 ably assisted by Brant and Girty, who led the Indians to believe that the Americans desired to drive them from the country, and that they would not and could not have honorable peace unless they drove the white men across the Ohio, and the British posts furnished the Indians with guns, ammunition, blankets and food, claiming to be their only friends. This led to small foray parties of Indians descending on the scattered settlers, whom they killed and scalped, burning their houses, and then disappearing in the trackless woods before any effective pursuit could be organized. And this continued until President Washington and Congress resolved to send such force as would permanently stop such depredations. The Six Nations, the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawnees, and other tribes had years before granted to the United States the right to settle the south half of Ohio, but the northern Indians and the British induced them to disregard their treaties, and refuse to be bound by them. The Northwest Territory was organized under the Ordinance of 1787, and in 1788 Arthur St. Clair was appointed as the first governor. He was a Scotchman who came to this country in 1755, and took a prominent part in the war of the Revolution, and as an officer, was a strict disciplinarian, which made him unpopular with many, but he was an able, conscientious and scrupulously honest official. About the beginning of 1790, he descended the Ohio river to Fort Washington at Losantiville, and changed its name to Cincinnati, as the seat of Hamilton county, comprising all of southern Ohio, from the Hocking river to the Great Miami. AN AGGRESSIVE EXPEDITION. During the first six months of that year, messengers had been sent north and visited the various Indian tribes as far as Detroit, but were unable to induce them to make peace. In the mean time, straggling parties of Indians had been committing depredations along the whole line of the Ohio river, and in the summer of 1790, St. Clair sent General Harmar with fourteen hundred and fifty-three men against the Indians on the Maumee river. They marched through the woods, and in October had two battles with the Indians. losing over a hundred men, and on account of dissensions between the militia and the regulars, the army returned to Fort Washington, and the Indians credited themselves with having defeated Harmar. Except the destruction of some villages and twenty or thirty thousand bushels of corn, the expedition was a failure, and the Indians, greatly encouraged by it, sent out numerous parties of warriors, whose presence in 102 - PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO. the woods spread terror among the settlements in Ohio, Kentucky and Virginia, as well as western Pennsylvania, and in January, 1791, Congress established a local board of five men, and gave them power to provide for the defense of the settlements. President Washington appointed St. Clair commander-in-chief, under whose recommendation the war board sent General Wilkinson with five hundred and twenty-five men in August against the Indians on the Wabash river. And keeping to the lands between the White river and the Great Miami, he probably passed through Preble county, because in his report he states that at seventy miles from Fort Washington the headwaters of the White river were at his left. He then march northwest and destroyed several Indian towns on Eel river and the Wabash river, and destroyed their corn crops with a loss of but a few men. The expeditions angered the Indians, and Little Turtle of the Miamis, Blue Jacket of the Shawnees and Buckongahelas of the Delawares set on foot a movement to form a confederacy of all the Indian tribes that would be strong enough to drive the white men beyond the Ohio. In the meantime St. Clair was organizing an expedition intending to establish a chain of forts from Fort Washington to the head of the Maumee, now Fort Wayne, and in that way to control the Indians by such a show of force. It took until September, 1791, for St. Clair to gather together twenty-three hundred men, and then he marched to the Great Miami river and built Fort Hamilton on the east bank of the river, a strong picket fort, built by the army in fourteen days, near the east end of Main street bridge. From Hamilton the army marched north, cutting out its road through the woods and keeping west of Seven Mile creek, and north across Preble county about a mile west of Eaton, and at forty-four miles from Hamilton, they built Fort Jefferson, about the middle of October. On October 24, 1791, the army took up its line of march for the north again, and on November 3 it reached a branch of the Wabash river at what is now know as Fort Recovery. At this time the army numbered one thousand four hundred and eighty-six men and officers. A DISPATCH FROM THE FRONT. It is but fair to state that for some time St. Clair had been suffering with over-work that affected his stomach, lungs and limbs, so much so, that only his determination to push on and carry out the orders given him by Washington kept him at the head of the army. Upon the banks PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO - 103 of the stream the army encamped in two lines, the ground being covered with a light snow. Of the battle, St. Clair reported to the secretary of war as follows : "The right wing, composed of Butler's, Clark's and Patterson's battalions, commanded by Major General Butler, formed the first line ; and the left wing, consisting of Bedinger's and Gaither's battalions, and the second regiment, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Darke, formed the second line, with an interval between them of about seventy yards, which was all that the ground would allow. The right flank was pretty well secured by the creek ; a steep bank, and Faulkner's corps, some of the cavalry and their pickets, covered the left flank. The militia were thrown over the creek, and advanced about a quarter of a mile, and encamped in the same order. There were a few Indians, who appeared on the opposite of the creek, but fled with the utmost precipitation on the advance of the militia. "At this place, which I judged to be about fifteen miles from the Miami village, I determined to throw up a slight work, the plan of which was concerted that evening with Major Ferguson, wherein to have deposited the men's knapsacks, and everything else that was not of absolute necessity, and to have moved on to attack the enemy as soon as the first regiment was come up. "But they did not permit me to execute either; for on the 4th, about half an hour before sunrise, and when the men had just been dismissed from parade (for it was a constant practice to have them all under arms a considerable time before daylight), an attack was made upon the militia. "These gave way in a very little time, and rushed into camp through Major Butler's battalion (which, together with a part of Clark's, they threw into considerable disorder, and which, notwithstanding the exertions of both those officers, was never altogether remedied), the Indians following close at their heels. "The fire, however, of the front line checked them; but almost instantly a very heavy attack began upon that line ; and a few minutes later it was extended to the second also. The great weight of it was directed against the center of each, where the artillery was placed, and from which the men were frequently driven with great slaughter. "Finding no great effect from our fire, and confusion beginning to spread from the great number of men who were falling in all quarters, it became necessary to try what could be done with the bayonet. Lieutenant-Colonel Darke was accordingly ordered to make a charge with a part of the second line, and to turn the left flank of the enemy. 104 - PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO. "The Indians instantly gave way, and were driven back three or four hundred yards; but for want of a sufficient number of riflemen to pursue this advantage, they soon returned, and the troops were obliged to give back in their turn. At this moment they had entered our camp by the left flank, having pushed back the troops that were posted there. "Another charge was here made by the second regiment, Butler's and Clark's battalions, with equal effect, and it was repeated several times, and ;always with success; but in all of them many men were lost, and particularly the officers, which, with so raw troops, was a loss altogether irremediable. "In that I just spoke of, made by the second regiment and Butler's battalion, Major Butler was dangerously wounded, and every officer of the second regiment fell, except three, one of which, Mr. Greaton, was shot through the body. "Our artillery now being silenced, and all the officers killed, except Captain Ford, who was very badly wounded, and more than half of the army fallen, being cut off from the .road, it became necessary to attempt the regaining it, and to make a retreat, if possible. To this purpose, the remains of the army was formed as well as circumstances would admit, toward the right of the encampment, from which, by the way of the second line, another charge was made upon the enemy, as if with the design to turn their right flank, but in fact to gain the road. "This was effected, and as soon as it was open the militia took along it, followed .by the troops, Major Clark, with his battalion, covering the rear. The retreat, in these circumstances, was as you may be sure, a very precipitate one. It was, in fact, a flight. The camp and the artillery were abandoned; but that was unavoidable, for not a horse was left alive to have drawn it off, had it otherwise been practicable." A RETREAT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. The flight was kept up until Fort Jefferson, twenty-nine miles distant, was reached after' sunset, with the Indians following, killing and scalping stragglers for several miles, a great many of the men throwing away their guns, and some even discarded their shoes, so as to be able to run faster. From Fort Jefferson, the retreat was continued along the cut out trail to Fort Washington, which place was reached in four days. But for a personal pique and jealousy of General Butler, the results PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO - 105 might have been different. Captain Slough, in command of a party of volunteers, had crossed the creek and pushed out about a mile and discovered many Indians, and about midnight reported to Colonel Oldham, his superior officer, that fact, and that he believed the Indians would attack next morning, and he was ordered to report to General Butler, in command. Then Oldham sent out scouts of his own, who soon returned with the same report, and Colonel Oldham then reported the matter also to General Butler, and Slough asked that he might report the matter to St. Clair, but Butler ordered him to go and lie down, which he did. On the march from Fort Washington, General Butler had changed St. Clair's order of march, and insisted on being permitted to take a thousand men and push north on an expedition by himself, and because of St. Clair's reprimand, became offended, and refused to go near St. Clair, except when compelled to do so by his official duties. St. Clair never heard of the discovery of the large body of Indians until reported by Slough after the battle. General Butler paid dearly for his obstinacy; for he was -killed in the battle, and his bones lie probably at the monument erected by Ohio at Fort Recovery. The defeat must be ascribed to the surprise, which threw the militia into confusion, and the woods afforded the Indians that shelter they most desired in their mode of warfare. The defeat of St. Clair was the most disastrous that was ever given the Americans by the Indians, before or since. From an army of one thousand four hundred and eighty-six men and officers, there were nine hundred and six killed or wounded. The Indians were led by Little Turtle, chief of the Miamis, and one of the greatest chieftains of the age, and he was also assisted by Joseph Brant with one-hundred and fifty Mohawks. The number of Indians engaged has been variously stated to have been one thousand to two thousand, but the best authority seems to concede that probably not more than one thousand Indians were in the battle. Their successes rendered the Indians bolder and carried consternation to the settlers, and the year 1792 opened a gloomy outlook for the settlers of the Ohio Valley. Congress immediately passed laws to raise a strong force to send against the Indians, and Washington sent several delegations among them to endeavor to make a peace, but without success. A Congressional committee was appointed, and after investigation, made a report to the House of Representatives exonerating St. Clair from all blame. 106 - PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO. "THE MAN WHO NEVER SLEEPS." Washington appointed General Anthony Wayne as the commander of the new army, whom the Indians called, "The Snake," because of the quickness of his movements and the silence with which he made his attacks, and also "The man who never sleeps," because they were never able to take him unprepared. In June of 1792, Wayne moved to Pittsburgh and began drilling and organizing the gathering army that was to make the last argument with the Indians. General Wilkinson was appointed as commander at Cincinnati, and during the winter of 1791-92, Captain John S. Gano was sent north with a detachment to erect another fort, and in December, 1791, and January, 1792, he erected Fort St. Clair about a mile west of Eaton, clearing off some eighty acres, or more around it to afford a clear way for the artillery. The fort was what is known as a stockade fort, with logs set endways in a ditch, which was filled in and well tamped ; and a blockhouse inside with puncheon upper floor, on which the cannon were mounted. From the site of the fort there is a short gulley or ravine coming down from the high land, north to the branch, and in this ravine there is a spring of fine water, that is still flowing; and it is claimed there was a covered way from the stockade down to the spring, from which the garrison got its supply of water. The hill on which the fort stood overlooks a stream or branch of considerable size, and for several years soldiers were kept at the fort, and from that fact the stream was named the Garrison branch, which name it still retains. The farm on which the fort stood is now owned by Clement R. Gilmore, of Dayton, Ohio. In October, 1792, Major Adair with a force of one hundred mounted Kentucky Infantry was sent as a convoy to a number of wagons and pack horses, carrying army munitions and supplies to Fort Jefferson, which they safely delivered. In the meantime Little Turtle, with some two hundred and fifty Indians, started on a foray towards Cincinnati, and when near Fort Hamilton, he learned from a prisoner of the proximity of the convoy and its expected return, when he decided to surprise them, and returned towards the southern part of this county, and secreted the Indians along the trail, so as to ambush the detachment on its return, but Adair did not leave Fort Jefferson until one day later than was expected, and on his return he reached Fort St. Clair on the evening of November 5, 1792, and camped with his men near the clearing and woods outside of the stockade. PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO - 107 Little Turtle, being apprised of the change by his runners, quietly surrounded Fort St. Clair on the southeast and north, and just before daylight,- on November 6th, attacked the detachment, and for some time, one of the two little battles fought in this county raged with considerable fury. The quaint report of the affair made by Adair to General Wilkinson, gives a better idea of the fight than any words of mine, and is copied : AN ORIGINAL REPORT ON A FRONTAL ATTACK. Dated November 6, 1792.—"This morning, about the first appearance of day, the enemy attacked my camp, within sight of this post. The attack was sudden, and the enemy came on with a degree of courage that bespoke them warriors indeed. Some of my men were hand in hand with them before we retreated, which, however, we did to a kind of stockade, intended for stables; we made a stand. I then ordered Lieutenant Madison to take a party and gain their right flank, if possible. I called for Lieutenant Hail to send to the left, but found he had been slain. I then led forward the men that stood near me, which, together with Ensigns Buchanan and Florin, amounted to about twenty-five, and pressed to the left of their center, thinking it absolutely necessary to assist Madison. We made a manly push, and the enemy retreated, taking all our horses, except five or six. We drove them about six hundred yards, through our camp, when they again made a stand, and we fought them some time ; two of my men were here shot dead. "At that moment I received information that the enemy were about to flank us on the right, and on turning that way, I saw about sixty of them running to that point. I had yet heard nothing of Madison. I then ordered my men to retreat, which they did with deliberation, heartily cursing the Indians, who pursued us close to our camp, where we again fought them until they gave way ; and when they retreated our ammunition was nearly expended, although we had been supplied from the garrison in the course of the action. I did not think it proper to follow them again, but ordered my men into the garrison to draw ammunition. I returned in a few minutes to a hill to which we had first driven them, where I found two of my men scalped, who were brought in. "Since I began to write this, a few of the enemy appeared in sight, and I pursued them with a party about a quarter of a mile, but could not overtake them, and did not think proper to go further. Madison, whom I had sent to the right, was, on his first attack, wounded and obliged to 108 - PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO. retreat into the garrison, having a man or two dead. To this, misfortune I think the enemy are indebted for the horses they got. Had he gained their right flank, and I once had possession of their left, I think we might have routed them at that stage of the action, as we had them on the retreat. "I had six men killed and five wounded; four men are missing. I think they went off early in the action on horseback and are, I suppose, by this time at Fort Hamilton. My officers and a number of my men distinguished themselves greatly. "Poor Hail died calling to his men to advance. Madison's bravery and conduct need no comment; they are well known. Florin and Buchanan acted with a coolness and courage that do them much honor; Buchanan, after firing his gun, knocked an Indian down with the barrel. They have killed and taken a great number of the pack horses. "I intend following them this evening, some distance, to ascertain their strength and route, if possible. I can, with propriety, say that about fifty of my men fought with a bravery equal to any men in the world; and had the garrison not been so nigh, as a place of safety for the bashful, I think many more would have fought well. The enemy have, no doubt, as many men killed as myself ; they left two dead on the ground, and I saw two carried off. The only advantage they have gained is our horses, which is a capital one, as it disables me from bringing the interview to a more certain and satisfactory conclusion." After the battle, rough coffins were made and the killed were buried about fifty steps west of the fort, in a row ; their names, beginning at the south, are : Lieut. John Hale, Sergt. Matthew English, Robert Bowling, Joseph Clinton, Isaac Jette and John Williams. There they slept in unmarked graves until 190o, when, through the efforts of the Grand Army Post of Eaton, headstones were placed at each grave with the name of the soldier thereon. A number of those engaged in the battle afterward settled in the Miami valley, and for many years they held reunions at the old fort. One man, Luke Voorhes, was shot through the body, but recovered, and afterward settled in Gratis township and died there and is buried in one of our cemeteries ; and John Goldsmith, who died west of Eaton, was one of the soldiers of the garrison at that time. PREPARING FOR THE FINAL STRUGGLE. In April, 1793, Wayne, with the army, arrived at Cincinnati, having come down the Ohio river mostly in flatboats from near Pittsburgh, and PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO - 109 he spent the spring and summer drilling and organizing his army, sending forward army munitions to the various posts, and also in cutting out a road from Fort Hamilton north toward Fort Wayne, Indiana, to which place it was at last completed; the road to be as straight as possible to keep it on the highest and best ground for wagons and horses. All measures of the road were made from Fort Hamilton, or, rather, from the point opposite Fort Hamilton, which was on the east bank of the Great Miami river. At about two miles the engineers crossed a stream, which they called Two Mile creek, and at about four miles they crossed Four Mile creek ; then, in order, came Nine Mile creek, Fourteen Mile creek, now a small stream flowing southeast across section 31, of Gratis township; then Seventeen Mile creek, a stream flowing northwest across the Eby and Prugh lands in sections 1 and 12 of Somers township, thence north to Rocky run, and passing about a mile east of Eaton, thence nearly straight to where the present Eaton and Greenville road crosses Banta creek, and is said to have wound up the side of the hill north of Banta creek, which, on account of its height and steepness was nicknamed the "Forty Foot Pitch," by which name it is yet known. Then the road ran west of north, passing near Ludlow's spring at its crossing of Lowry's run, which is some sixty or more rods northwesterly of Zion church, and on north past West Manchester to Greenville and Fort Recovery to Fort Wayne, at the head of the Maumee river, then also called the Miami of the Lakes. The cutting of this road and the forwarding of supplies greatly excited the Indians, who seem to have had no adequate idea of the strength and resources of the Americans, and who hoped and believed, and were encouraged to believe, that the British and Spanish would assist them to drive the white men south of the Ohio, and they finally, at Detroit, on August 16, 1793, formally rejected all offers of peace, unless the white men surrendered all rights north of the Ohio. FAILURE OF THE "OLIVE BRANCH." Wayne received word of the failure of the peace negotiations (which he personally expected) in September, 1793, and on October 7 he put the army in motion from Hobson's Choice, landing near Cincinnati, along the road he had been so industriously preparing. The army numbered about three thousand men, including officers, and was composed of regular troops, hunters, farmers, roustabouts, Indians, and some lawless elements as well. And it is doubtful if any but the pushing, energetic iron will and hand of Wayne could 110 - PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO. have controlled and made a conquering army of such a heterogeneous gathering of men. And the sequel shows that President Washington knew men, when, in the face of the opposition of his warmest friends in Virginia, he selected "Mad Anthony Wayne" as the one man who could wipe out and make the Indians forget the defeats of Harmar and St. Clair. The army reached a point six miles north of Fort Jefferson on October 13, and proceeded to erect Fort Greenville on the present site of the city of Greenville. The army supplies were hauled along the Old Traces road and guarded by companies of soldiers against attacks of the Indians. About the middle of October, Lieutenant Lowery, in command of ninety men, started from Fort Hamilton with twenty wagons of supplies for Wayne's army, and on the evening of October 16, 1793, he camped alongside of the road at Ludlows Spring and on the banks of a small stream since named in his honor as Lowery's run. The ever watchful Little Turtle had been prowling along the flanks of the army, endeavoring to find an opportunity to strike a blow at his wily foe, and his warriors soon discovered the camp of the detachment, and Little Turtle surrounded the camp during the night with some two hundred and fifty Indians. In the early morning of the 17th the camp was attacked as it was at Fort St. Clair by the same chief and a large part of the escort fled, some going north toward Fort Jefferson, after a short but fierce fight. Lieutenant Lowery and Ensign Boyd, with thirteen men, were killed and the balance scattered, and the Indians had full possession of the camp and wagon train. But they were so fearful that the soldiers fleeing north would warn Wayne of the presence of the Indians, and that he would instantly dispatch a force that would take full revenge for their foray, they, consequently, only took time to gather up the horses, guns and ammunition, and then fled through the woods, not even taking time to burn and destroy the wagons and provisions, but left them standing in the road, where the detachment sent back by Wayne found them and reported that only some trifling articles were missing, but that the Indians did get about seventy horses. This and the fight at Fort St. Clair were the only battles fought within the county. Lieutenant Lowery and his fellow comrades were brought to Fort St. Clair and buried, and on July 5, 1822, Lieutenant Lowery's remains were removed to the Eaton cemetery. In 1847 a public subscription having been taken for the purpose, the remains of Lieutenant Lowery and all his men who fell in that fight were removed from the Eaton cemetery to Mound Hill cemetery, and a grave prepared in the mound left by the Mound Builders and a shaft of Rutland marble erected over the grave, with a terse description PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO - 111 of the fight, the men and the purposes of the monument. And on every Decoration Day it is strewn with flowers in memory that they, having paid the "last full measure of devotion," are not forgotten by a grateful people. BLEACHED BONES RETURNED TO MOTHER EARTH. On December 23, 1793, Wayne sent a detachment to take possession of the field of St. Clair's defeat, and it reached the place on Christmas day. One of those present reported that they gathered up and buried six hundred skulls of the slain and that in many places they had to scrape together the bones of those who fell and remove them from the tents to make their beds. They built a fort on the south bank of the stream, which they named Fort Recovery, which name it still bears. The fort was garrisoned by a proper force under command of Capt. Alexander Gibson. During the winter Wayne kept up his preparations for the advance of the army in the spring, and kept himself well informed of the movements and plans of the Indians by means of his scouts and spies ; and the Indians, under the direction of Little Turtle, were ever on the alert to surprise Wayne's forces, but never once found the opportunity. From his spies, Wayne learned that the Indian warriors numbered from two thousand to three thousand, who were expected to be pitted against his force, and on June 30, 1794, Little Turtle, with about fifteen hundred or more Indians, attacked the forces at Fort Recovery and fought for a good part of two days, but were beaten off with a heavy loss and retreated toward Grand Glaze, now Defiance. After St. Clair's defeat the Indians were unable to take the captured cannon away, and hence turned logs over, dug a small trench, in which the cannon were placed, and then the logs were rolled back. But the white men had discovered the method and had recovered the cannon, which were mounted at the fort and helped to repel the attack ; and after the fight it was found the Indian had rolled over many of the logs in the hope they could secure the cannon to use against the fort. Wayne's spies reported that there were a number of British officers with the Indian force, thus confirming his belief that the Indians were incited to war by the British. TURTLE'S ADDRESS TO THE SENATE. Wayne, in order to deceive the Indians, had been cutting two roads through the woods from Fort Recovery, one toward what is now Fort Wayne and the other northeasterly toward the Maumee rapids, and on July 26, 1794, having been reinforced by sixteen hundred mounted men from Kentucky, he 112 - PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO. marched north through the woods between the two roads, straight to the Grand Glaze, and would have surprised the Indians, but they were warned by a deserter from the army and fled, leaving their towns. He reached the place on August 8, and proceeded to build a fort, which he named Fort Defiance. Wayne again offered the Indians peace, and at a council of the chiefs Little Turtle counseled them to accept the offer and make peace, and is said to have made the following speech : "Brothers, we have beaten the enemy twice, under separate commanders. We can not expect the same good fortune always to attend us. The Americans are now led by a chief who never sleeps ; the days and the nights are alike to him. And during all the time that he has been marching upon our villages, notwithstanding the watchfulness of our young men, we have never been able to surprise him. Think well of it. There is something whispers to me that it would be prudent to listen to his offers of peace." Another chief thereupon accused him of cowardice, which ended all efforts for peace, because no epithet was so distasteful to an Indian as to be called a coward, and Little Turtle ended the conference with the two words, "We fight." The sequel showed that the loud mouthed, smart-Aleck Indian was no safer adviser than the white men of the same class. The Indians returned answer, asking Wayne to wait ten days, and they would send him an answer. For answer, Wayne, on August 18, started his army on the march down the north bank of the Maumee river, and after marching forty miles built a small fort, called Fort Deposit, in which he left the army baggage, so as to lighten his men for the expected battle. On August 20 the army continued its course down the north bank of the river for about five miles, when they came to a strip of country that had been visited by a tornado for a distance of about two miles from the river and most of the timber was blown down, and in this the Indians, about two thousand strong, had secreted themselves to make a stand against the Americans. Some two or three miles below, the British had a trading post and a fort garrisoned by some two hundred, under Major Campbell. THE ENEMY ROUTED. In the advance of the army Major Price had a battalion of mounted men, who first struck the Indian line extending from the river north nearly two miles, and when the mounted men approached the line they were met with so severe a fire as to compel them to retreat. Wayne soon discovered PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO - 113 that the Indians were in full force and were trying to turn his left flank, when he ordered Gen. Charles Scott to gain and turn the right flank of the Indian line with the whole force of mounted men, and also ordered his second line of men to close up with the front line, which he ordered to charge the Indian line with the bayonet, which they did; and as the Indians fled they followed so fast, firing as they charged, that the Indians had not time to reload their guns. At the same time he had ordered the regular cavalry to charge along the river bank and gain the left flank of the Indians, which they did. The whole matter was so unexpected to the Indians, and the charge was delivered with such impetuosity, that both the Indians and the Canadian militia helping them retreated so rapidly that in one hour they were driven two miles by Wayne's army. The enemy then scattered and fled in every direction, terror-stricken at the rushing method of fighting adopted by Wayne, and left the Americans in peaceable possession of the battlefield. Wayne pursued the Indians until within range of the guns of the British fort. Wayne reported that he had nine hundred men actually engaged in the battle. The loss of the army was given as thirty-three killed and one hundred wounded, and that of the Indians and Canadians much greater. Wayne then proceeded to destroy the Indian villages and cornfields for fifty miles on each side of the river, even up to within a stone's throw of the British fort, and its garrison had to look on, although the British commander had written Wayne a letter threatening him if his army came within reach of his cannon. The army returned to Defiance on August 27, and from there it marched up the Maumee and reached the junction of the St. Joseph and St. Mary's rivers on the 17th of September, 1794, and proceeded immediately to build a fort, which. Major Hamtramck, the commandant of the garrison, named Fort Wayne, by which name it is yet called. General Wayne subsequently stated that the cornfields destroyed were the finest and most extensive he had ever seen. The names of the Indian tribes who were in the battle are : Delawares, Miamis, Shawnees, Tawas and Wyandots, and a few Chippewas and Pottawatomies from farther north and west. Wayne then marched the remainder of his army to Fort Greenville and sent the Kentucky volunteers on to Cincinnati, where they were discharged. Wayne, in October, re-established his headquarters at Greenville and waited, certain that the battle of the "Fallen Timbers" would discourage the Indians. (8) 114 - PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO WISE AFTER THE EVENT It is related that some time after the battle the Indians held a council to decide on whether to continue the war or make peace, arid as the different chiefs were called upon they either made a non-committal speech or shook their heads, and at last Little Turtle got up and stated that they had refused to listen to his advice for peace with Wayne until their women and children were starvfig, and that it was pstarvingt none of the tribes desired war, and that he would go and make peace. He then left the meeting and at once set about arranging for a meeting of the chiefs and Indians with Wayne in the Spring. In June, 1795, the council began gathering at Greenfield to make peace. There were Buckongehelas of the Delawares, Little Turtle of the Miamis, Tarhe the Crane of the Wyandots, Blue Jacket of the Shawnees, Masass of the Chippewas, each accompanied by a number of his tribe, and representatives of the Pottawattamies, Ottawas and Eel River Indians. The conference lasted untl, on August 7, 1795, the treaty known as the "Greenville Treaty" was signed by all, and for southern Ohio all fear of. Indian depredations was ended and the settlers' right to the land firmly established. The language giving the southern and eastern boundary of the Indian lands is as follows : "The general boundary lines between the lands of the United States and the lands of. said. Indian tribes, shall begin at the mouth of the Cuyahoga river, and run thence up the same to the portage between that and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum river ; thence down that branch to the crossing place above Fort Laurens ; thence westwardly to a fork of that branch of the Great Miami river, running into the Ohio, at or near which fork stood Lorame's store, and where commenced the portage between the Miami of the Ohio, and St. Mary's river, which is a branch of the Miami which runs into Lake Erie; thence a westerly course to Fort Recovery, which stands on a branch of the Wabash ; thence southwesterly, in a direct line to the Ohio, so as to intersect that river opposite the mouth of the Kentucky or Cuttawa river. * * * And the said Indian tribes do hereby cede, and relinquish forever, all their claims to the lands lying eastwardly and southwardly of the general boundary line now described." THE SPOILS TO THE CONQUERORS. And at the same time they ceded to the United States some sixteen other tracts, ranging in size from two miles square to twelve miles square, scat- PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO - 115 tered over northern. Ohio and Indiana and Illinois, and in Michigan as far north as Michilimackinac. This treaty was ratified by the Senate on December 22, 1795, and thus closed the Indian wars. Little Turtle was a chief of the Miamis, who had villages in the valleys of the two Miami rivers, and their largest settlements along the Maumee river; and there were several wigwams along the Whitewater near New Paris, and also some along Twin creek after white men began settling the county. Little Turtle was one of the ablest Indians of his time, wise in counsel and possessing considerable learning and considered resistance to the whites as useless and certain to bring destruction to the tribes, and whenever possible urged the Indians to peace and to adopt the agricultural pursuits of the white man. But when he went to war with his people, he was a warrior to be feared. He traveled pretty extensively, and is said to have had an account of his travels written out, and to have formed a vocabulary of the language of the Miami tribe. Some time after peace was made he traveled to Philadelphia to get the aid of Congress and the Friends, or Quakers, to assist in transforming his people from savages to a peaceful and agricultural people. While there he met the French philosopher Volney, who explained to him that because the Tartars in some respects resembled the Indians the European historians had conjectured that the Indians were, the descendants of Tartars, who by some means had crossed to America, and in reply he asked Volney three questions, which could not be answered, and no one since has been able to answer them. They were as follows : "Why should not Tartars, who resemble us, have come from America? Are there any reasons to the contrary? Why should we not both have been in our own country ?" "LOVE, HONOR AND TROOPS OF FRIENDS." Little Turtle lived near Fort Wayne until about 1825, and died of the gout, loved and respected by both white men and Indians for his earnest efforts to elevate his people and to keep peace between the races, and at his death his body was borne to the grave by white men, among them some who had held high rank in the United States army, and he was given a soldier's burial as befitted a great chief. A monument is erected at his grave and it is often visited by both Indians and white men. The forts constructed from Cincinnati to Fort Wayne were practically of one pattern, differing only in the size of the fort, and for those readers who are not familiar with those matters I quote St. Clair's report to the war department of the building of Fort Hamilton : 116 - PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO. "The circuit of that fort is about one thousand feet, through the whole extent of which a trench about three feet deep was dug, to set the pickets in, of which it required about two thousand to inclose it; and it is not trees taken promiscuously that will answer for pickets, they must be tall and straight and from nine to twelve inches in diameter, for those of larger size are too unmanageable. Of course few trees that are proper are to be found without going over a considerable space of woodland. They were then carried to the ground and butted, that they might be placed firm and upright in the trench, with the axe or crosscut saw. "Some hewing upon them was also necessary, for there are few trees so straight that the sides of them will come in contact when set upright. A thin piece of timber, called a ribbon, is run around the whole near the top of the pickets, to which every one of them is pinned with a strong pin, without which they would decline from the perpendicular with every blast of wind, some hanging outward and some inward, which would render them in a great measure useless. The earth thrown out of the trench is then returned and strongly rammed, to keep the pickets firmly in their places, and a shallower trench is dug outside, about three feet distant, to carry off the water and prevent their being removed by the rains. About two thousand pickets are set up on the inside, one between every two of the others ; the work is then enclosed. But, previously, the ground for the site of the fort had to be cleared, and two or three hundred yards around it. * * * A high platform was raised in one of the bastions on the land side to scour the second bend of the river with artillery. Another, made with the trunks of trees and covered with plank as that was, was raised in one of the bastions toward the river, in order to command the ford and the river for some distance up and down." The cannon were mounted on the raised platforms and holes were cut between the pickets, large enough to permit the men to see through, and for the muzzles of their guns in shooting at the enemy. Of course, such a fort would form but small protection against modern implements of war, but when it is remembered that the Indians had no cannon, only a part of them had guns, and the rest carried bow and arrow and tomahawk, it will be seen that, if manned by a proper force, they were well nigh impregnable. A FAMILY KIDNAPPED. The people living today in this Great Miami Valley that have never known the terrors of Indian war since Wayne's victory—and the story seems ancient—little realize the anxiety of the early settlers along the borders dur- PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO - 117 ing those troublous times. The father or son might start to his work and never return, or if he did he might find his home in ashes and the dead bodies of wife, children or mother. To illustrate, I can do no better than relate a little family history : During the Revolution my mother's ancestors lived in one of the moutain valleys of northwestern Connecticut and my great-greatgrandfather was absent in the Revolutionary army, and the oldest boy, about eighteen years old, one day started horseback with his grist to the mill, some five miles distant, and on his return in the evening found the home in ashes and the body, scalped, of his brother, and his mother and two brothers and two sisters missing, the youngest sister only about one year old and the other children ranging from seven to thirteen. The alarm was given and the trail followed for two days, only to find by the way the child, whose brains had been clashed out because it cried and might give the alarm, and the mother tomahawked because she could not travel faster, as was learned some three years later. But of one thing they were certain, that the deed was done by a small band of Indians, who had then fled north to Canada toward Quebec. As soon as peace came, the father went to Canada in search of his family and found the youngest son had been adopted by an Indian tribe and the eldest boy had been poisoned by an Indian woman because he was such a hearty eater, while the girl, then sixteen, had been sold to a French family, and he had to buy her back. They were brought back and afterward came to Ohio, arid my mother often heard the story from her great-aunt's lips, of the murders, flight through the woods, and her life among the Indians. Now that is not an isolated incident, but in a thousand homes along our then borderland occurred similar or worse scenes. We can not wonder that the white men of that time struck, and struck hard, to make the Indians understand that their homes must be left in peace. Among white men there are individuals who only respect other people's rights because they fear the force of public opinion, or the force of law and I believe the Indians in America, generally speaking, as a race, were only brought to accept civilization and the peaceful pursuits of the white men because they learned by experience the force and power of the white men when aroused. There may be, and I grant are, some notable and splendid exceptions, but, reading the history of our land, they must be set down as exceptions by every fair-minded critic. THE INDIAN MISTOOK HIS VOCATION. If the Indians had made an effort to adapt themselves to something besides the warpath, they might have taken a large part in the development of 118 - PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO. our country. In the last fifty years times have changed with them, and as I write this I am reminded that there are two full-blooded Indians in the United States Senate. Man the hunter had to give way to man the laborer. There is much sentimental writing about robbing the Indians of their lands, but it must be admitted, I think, by all fair-minded critics that Ohio is an exception. The Indian title to all the lands of Ohio were extinguished by fair and peaceful treaties. The Fort Harmar and Fort Stanwix treaties were peaceful treaties and established practically the same lines as the Greenville treaty, and the Indians who, with their chiefs, had made those treaties, refused to abide by them and, incited by the British, they waylaid and murdered the coming settlers and refused to desist, and the result was war ; and after the war the Indian titles to the various lands in northern Ohio were secured by treaty or purchase. So that it may be asserted that all the lands of Ohio were honorably acquired by the government and then sold to the settlers, and that there never has been any litigation over the titles, as against the claims of the Indians, or an appeal to the United States courts to settle the matter, as has been done in a number of our western states. CHAPTER V. LANDS, STREAMS AND ROADS. Preble county is bounded on the north by Darke county, on the east by Montgomery and Butler counties, the line between said counties- being one and one-half miles. north of the corner of Preble: county, on the south by Butler county, and on the west by Union and' Wayne .counties of Indiana, the line between said counties touching the west line of Dixon township, about forty rods south of the northwest corner of section 7 in said township. In writing the history of Preble county, and its townships, one of the most puzzling questions to the citizens of the county is why the townships are so numbered by the government surveyors and why: the section lines differ in passing from one township to another. The reasons are these: In 1796 Congress passed a law that a meridian. line should be drawn north from the mouth of the Great Miami river, and the government land east and west thereof should be surveyed into townships sis miles square, beginning at the mouth of said river, and numbered thence consecutively north. The land east of the Great Miami river was not at that time. government land, a large body between the Great Miami and tittle Miami rivers having been sold to John Cleves Symmes and his associates called the Symmes Purchase, hence the east line of the townships could not go further east than the Great Miami river. The first line of townships north was called range i east and the second line range 2 east, etc., and the ranges ran north to the Greenville treaty line. And as the Great Miami river flowed southwesterly in its general course, the townships touching it would have their eastern side slanting, or oblique with the course of the. river, and would not be square and full townships, hence are called fractional townships, but in the survey whenever they got six miles north of the starting point, the north line of the township was established. Owing to the trend of the Great Miami river to the west, at the end of twelve miles from its mouth, the north line of township 2 struck the river before it reached the east line of range east; and the third line of townships, or range 3 east, began on the river as township 1, range 3 east, opposite township 3, range 2 east, making a difference of two townships; 120 - PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO. and numbering north in the first two ranges, the first townships in the county are number 6, and in the third range the first township is number 4. As the Greenville treaty line, beginning at its east and slanted southwest to Loraine, thence northwest to Fort Recovery, the six-mile measures north did not run out just at that line and the north townships of each range were measured to the line only, and are also called fractional townships. The Congressional requirements were that each township should be surveyed, beginning at the southwest corner of the township, thence east six miles, thence north six miles, thence west six miles, thence south six miles to beginning, establishing a corner at the end of each mile surveyed. MIXED MEASUREMENTS. Now, to make it understandable why the section or mile lines do not coincide, let us take a case : say township 7, range 2 east, or Gasper township, counting it to Main street, Eaton. In the survey they began at southwest corner, or northwest corner of Somers township, and ran east six miles, and north six miles, and west six miles, -then south six miles, and placed a corner at each mile, measured regardless of the previous measure of the north line of Somers township, and the east line of Dixon township, on which lines mile corners were established by measuring west on north line of Somers, and north on east line of Dixon townships. Hence, the mile corners being established by measuring in opposite directions, it would be more remarkable if they agreed than if they differed. The four township corners always agree, of course. Our roads .being generally on section lines, in crossing township lines the jogs are very noticeable and are often commented upon. The least and greatest variations known to the writer are at the northwest corner .of section 2 of Gratis township, difference eight inches, and at southwest corner of section 6 of Twin township, difference sixty-seven rods. The townships were surveyed by the government surveyor, who for most of the county was Israel Ludlow then the section lines were run by the deputy surveyors, by running lines from the section corner on the south line of the township to the opposite corner on the north line, beginning at that corner one mile west of the southeast corner of the township, and at the end of each mile run they measured and ran east to that mile corner, correcting themselves, and setting corners at each half mile, and when north line was reached, beginning again at the south line of the township PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO - 121 at the next mile corner, and running north as before, and so repeating, until they reached the fourth line when they ran north and measured east as before, except after correcting their corner they measured and ran west two miles to the opposite corner on the west line, and set a corner at each mile and half mile, and when they reached the west line the last measure might be more or less than a half mile, and as we come north with the meridian lines, they slowly approach each other ; and the rule was made to throw the deficiency, if any, into the west side of the township, and into the northwest corner thereof. Hence we have the northwest quarter of Washington township containing only seventy acres, and being the smallest quarter of the county. The center corners of all sections were placed by county surveyors at various times, when called to survey for the land owners. This was the theory of the survey of the county, and it was fairly well carried out, most of it being done from 1798 to 1806. And when we remember that the county was covered with a dense forest, through which they must cut a sight road, and that most of the work was done with a heavy chain, and a Jacob staff compass and that the surveyors hired their own help, and that their pay was three dollars per mile for each mile run, thus inciting to haste instead of accuracy, we wonder that the work was so well and accurately done as it was. Each township is divided into thirty-six sections, number 1 being in the northeast corner, then numbering west to section 6, then east and west alternately, until number 36 is in the southeast corner of each township, and the same system of surveying and dividing public land is employed by the United States today. A BETTER PLAN. The United States surveyors' system of naming and reporting the sections, quarters thereof and the corners, is the shortest and simplest that has been devised, and is much used and taught in the western parts of the United States. Thus, the northeast quarter is marked as N. E. 1/4, and the northeast corner as N. E. cor., and since the half mile corners on the four sides of a section divide the section into quarters, they are marked N. 1/4 cor., and E. 1/4 cor., and so forth, and for all other corners and quarters around the section. The complete history of every line run by the United States surveyors, on both the township lines, and the lines dividing the same into sections, giving the crossing of every stream, a description of the country and tim- 122 - PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO. ber, and 7giving the distance that the corners on township lines miss the corners on the adjoining townships, has been made by the United States and a copy of same is deposited in the office of the auditor of state at Columbus, Ohio. While surveying the township lines Israel. Ludlow is said to have made his camp at a fine spring, west of Zion's church about four miles north of Eaton, for some weeks, which was by the early settlers called Ludlow's spring, by which name it is yet known. REWARDING THE SOLDIERS. In Ohio there are no less than twenty different surveys or systems of dividing the land, chief of which are the Congress lands just described, and the seven ranges surveyed at Marietta for the Ohio Company, and the Western Reserve in the northeastern part of the state, and the United States military land, reserved .for. United States soldiers of the Revolution and lying east of the Scioto river, and the Virginia military land, reserved for the Revolutionary soldiers of Virginia, and being west of the Scioto, and limited by Ludlow's line west, and Greenville treaty line north. In the last named tract, each soldier received scrip which entitled him to a certain number of acres, in accordance, with his time of service or his disability incurred in the service, and as the scrip was transferable by assignment, many soldiers sold their scrip, and the buyer of several scrips would locate the land by employing a surveyor, and having the full number of the acres called for by all his script surveyed in any shape he desired, so it did not overlap a previous survey, and having the lines run, if possible, so as to include good land and cut out the poor land, and then file the survey of location in the land office and receive a patent for that tract of land. Hence, in the Virginia military land, the lines being so various, the retracing of the old land lines is a most difficult task, and must ever so remain, because, as the country was divided in the beginning it will so continue. The western line of the Virginia military land, called Ludlow's line, begins at the head waters of the Little Miami river, and runs thence north twenty degrees west, across Green, Clark, Champaign, and Logan counties to the Greenville treaty lines. The Symmes Purchase was between the two Miami rivers, and measured north from the Ohio river until the land included was the number of acres paid for. PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO - 123 The other divisions of land in Ohio, French grant lands; Zane's township, etc., were of comparatively small tracts of less than. one hundred thousand acres each. The Fire lands were five hundred thousand acres off the west end of Western Reserve. This description of the methods of division of our land system is given because it is the most permanent of our institutions, and will probably remain unchanged .until our people . follow the mound builders into oblivion, or until some 14 at lord gains such an ascendancy that he can divide it up to suit his own notions of how it should be done to reward his flunkeys and retainers, which time we think will be so far distant that it ought not preclude our boys and girls from learning our' present system, and thus help them to avoid. long and bitter disputes with neighbors, because it is a fact known to all lawyers, that disputed land lines bring about the bitterest and most protracted litigations in our courts. The county, being about eighteen miles wide by twenty-four long, comprises four hundred and thirty-two square miles, and each township was intended to contain twenty-three thousand and forty acres of land, but because the surveyors were not perfect men, there is generally a variation of a few acres. NOMENCLATURE OF THE STREAMS. Many of the streams of our county were named after the names of prominent early settlers, who settled and owned land along those streams. The larger streams of the county so named are : Dixon's branch, Aukerman creek, Banta's fork, Price's creek, Miller's fork, Beasley's branch, Leslie's run, and a number of smaller streams were likewise similarly named, in the different townships, and the names still remain, and ought to be retained. And as I visited and learned them as county surveyor, I will give the names of the greater number that have been so designated : Paxton's branch, Harris's run, Kelly's branch, Nisbets's branch, Brinley fork or Little creek, Jacqua creek or Jocquewaw creek, Sheideler's run, William's branch or Big Cave run, Pottenger run, Tibbett's branch, Bulls' run, Owen's branch or Skunk run, Beall's run, Robert's branch, Elliott's branch, Fleisch ditch, Stubbs branch, Denny run, Boone's branch, Halderman branch, there are two, one flows into Twin and one into Aukerman, Sams run, Rapes run, Jims run, Lick run, Elkhorn creek, said to be so named because the early settlers thought its bending course resembled a deer's horn ; Lowry's run, named from Lieutenant Lowry's battle with Little Turtle, on its banks near Ludlow spring; Swamp creek, from the waters of the land 124 - PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO. along its upper course; Elk creek, the name brought by the early settlers from their eastern homes; Hopewell creek, the name given by the early Presbyterians who settled along its banks ; Goose creek, there are two of that name, one flowing past Antioch school into Seven Mile, and one flowing through the northeastern part of Washington township into Lowry's run, each getting its name, because on its banks in an early day lived a thrifty German couple, who each year for many years, raised large numbers of geese that were allowed to stray along the stream, and the young men of that day were as ready with nick names as they are today, hence the name. Pleasant run, there are two of this name, rising on the same farm, one flows north into Twin, and one flows south into Elk creek. Paint creek is said to have been so named because the Indians found a reddish yellow ochre along the stream, with which they painted themselves (probably small ochre deposits from the remains of interglacial forests). Whitewater, named after the larger stream in Indiana into which it flows ; Rush run, from the swift flowing rush of its waters; Garrison branch, because it flows past the site of old Fort St. Clair; Periwinkle creek, or West fork of Seven Mile, because along it were found many of the little curling shells of what they called periwinkles; while Rocky ford, Rocky run, Dry fork or Twin, Sugar run, Opossum run, and Morning Sun branch name themselves. The largest drainage stream of the county, Twin creek, had an Indian name that meant, a pair, or one of a pair, because the two streams joined like two fingers at Germantown, and the white man adopted the idea, and name one Little Twin, and the other Big Twin, according to their size ; Seven Mile, or St. Clair's creek, was named by Wayne's engineers, because it crossed seven miles from Fort Hamilton ; and Four Mile creek, and Fourteen Mile, and Seventeen Mile creeks, also because they crossed at those distances. But it seems as though the Indian names are often more fitting. The Indians named Four Mile, "Talawanda," meaning "clear water," which well describes it; and the College Corner springs have been named Talawanda springs, because the wells are on the banks of Little Four Mile creek. And the Miami Indians called Seven Mile creek, "Metatamanee," meaning "pebbly bottom," which will be recognized by all acquainted with the stream as a very correct description of the whole stream. It is a curious fact that the western drainage slope of all the main streams of the county is two or three times greater than the eastern drainage slope.