NORTHWESTERN OHIO.
THE historic material of Northwestern Ohio is too voluminous to be given in detail in a work of this kind. Rather than present a dry chronologic table, we prefer to briefly review and discuss the causes which have made the country what it is.
To understand more clearly its physical characteristics, we first consider some of the facts and theories of the science of geology, which teaches us that " the sea is the mother of continents," that " what we know as terra firma is a type of instability, that all lands are constantly undergoing changes of level," that " over all the continents the sea has rolled, not once, but many times." Geology teaches us that during each period of submergence the primitive rocks were overlaid with a series of stratified rocks composed mainly of the sediment of the ocean. As the southeastern part of North. America emerged the second time from the great Silurian Sea, which had extended west to the Rocky Mountains, and north to the primitive hills of British America, the retiring flood left immense rock-bound lakes of salt water, covering a large portion of the continent. As those "dead seas " evaporated, their mineral and organic matter solidified, and formed a thick stratum of rock, which geologists have named the " water-line " stratum. This is now the topmost layer of rock underlying a large portion of the west half of Ohio. It is the " bed-rock " of Northwestern Ohio, excepting only a narrow strip along its eastern boundary, where an older stratum is exposed, and the northwestern corner, where the edges of the strata of a later formation appear.
After the water-lime rock was deposited, the continent was again repeatedly deluged, but it is supposed that the subsequent formations in this region were comparatively thin, for an upheaval of the crust of the earth had occurred, forming a low mountain range stretching from the highlands of Canada to the southern boundary of Tennessee. This bulge was caused by the contraction attending the cooling of the earth, and the pressure of the oceans on either side of the continent.. This ancient ridge is known among geologists as the " Cincinnati Arch," the " anti-clinal " which separates the coal-beds of the Alleghanies from those of Illinois. The axis of the Cincinnati Arch was over Sandusky County, or a little east of Wood County, from -Which the rocky strata sloped to the east and west.
Passing the age of fishes, the age of amphibians (during which the coal-beds was formed), the age of reptiles, and the first period of the age of mammals, we come to the "glacial" epoch, the beginning of a geological period in which the topography of the continent, especially of this region, was materially modified.. Geologically, this period is one of the latest; but, compared with human history, it is immeasurably remote.
Many theories are advanced, but geologists do not yet agree as to the causes of this remarkable change of climate, from the tropical heat which had previously prevailed over nearly the whole of the northern hemisphere, to the constant cold of an Arctic winter. Gradually the temperature of the frigid zone crept southward until the entire continent, from the north pole to the latitude of Cincinnati, was wrapped in one vast field of ice, hundreds, perhaps thousands of feet deep. As the continental glacier came southward, it stopped the flow of the St. Lawrence River, and turned the surplus water of the great lake basin into the Ohio and Mississippi, and even after attaining its most southern limits it was not stationary. Like the alpine glaciers of the present epoch, which move forward ten or twelve inches every day, it had some of the properties of both a fluid and a solid. In its slow, but constant and irresistible motion toward the equator, it ground mountains to powder, and scooped out great basins and valleys. Its southern margin was not a straight line, but, becoming thinner a s it advanced southward, it was modified by the ancient topography, and presented a scolloped edge. Separating into distinct streams, one glacier, striking the watershed north of the Ohio River, moved westerly, scooping out the basin of Lake Erie, and grinding down the apex of the Cincinnati Arch, which at this point was never much elevated above the general level. Thence, turning southward again, it swept, with a regular curve, through the Maumee and Miami Valleys to the Ohio River. As the southern edge melted and flowed toward the Gulf of Mexico, the vast field was pressed forward by the accumulations of ice in more northern latitudes. Thus this stupendous agent was constantly at work, during thousands of years, slowly but surely performing its task toward fitting the earth for the habitation of man. The surface rocks were planed down, and the loose material broken into boulders, rolled into pebbles, or ground to sand, or the impalpable powder of the finest clay. In the bottom of the glacier this debris was imbedded, the sharp rocks and frozen sand forming the face of a huge rasp, which has left its marks on the face of the bed-rock in almost every part of the continent north of the fortieth degree of latitude.
One of the effects of the action of glaciers, is the formation of ridges and hills of debris, known as " moraines." As the ice thaws, the imbedded boulders, gravel and sand is freed, and the lighter portions are carried off by the glacial streams, while the coarser material remains where it fell. As this process goes on, the glacier moves forward to supply the place of the melted ice. Should these opposing forces be in equilibrium, the edge of the glacier remains stationary, and in the course of time a ridge is deposited called by geologists a "terminal moraine." Such a ridge now forms the western and southwestern boundary of the " Black Swamp," and ever since its deposit, has exercised an important influence on the physical character of the Maumee Valley.
At the close of the Great Winter and the beginning of the Great Spring, the margin of the glacier of the Miami and Maumee Valleys moved slowly northward, until it rested at the points now occupied by Hudson, Mich., Fort Wayne, Ind., and Kenton, 0., extending farther south than Lima and Van Wert. The edge of the glacier corresponded in general outline with the present shore of the western end of Lake Erie, and parallel with it. During an extended period, the climatic influences were so nearly in equilibrium, that the margin of the glacier remained nearly stationary, the glaciers during the same period grinding and leveling the Maumee Valley, and depositing a "terminal moraine," which is now recognized as the boundary of the " Black Swamp." Just outside of this moraine, and parallel with it, are the St. Joseph and St. Mary. Rivers —the former rising in Michigan and flowing southwest; the latter flowing from Ohio in a northwest direction— which rivers meet at Fort Wayne, and their united waters forming the Maumee, thence turn northeast, and cutting through a gap in the ridge, flow in the same direction to the head of Lake Erie. The height of this moraine above the present general level, is from twenty-five to fifty feet, and its width from four to eight miles. It is composed of coarse gravel and loose boulders, and undoubtedly marks the edge of the ancient ice-field, which, during a long period, lingered in the Maumee Valley.
Another expansion of the Torrid Zone drove the ice farther north, leaving the great lake basin, which it had excavated or deepened, filled and overflowing with water, forming one vast inland sea of fresh water, and covering the peninsula of Upper Canada and the two peninsulas of Michigan.
Still the ancient outlet of this system of drainage, through the lower valley of the St. Lawrence, was completely dammed by mountains of solid ice, and during another long period the surplus water of the great fresh water sea flowed into the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. This theory is sustained by the appearance of certain gaps or gorges through the present watershed, separating the lake basin from the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys. One of these gorges connects the valley of Grand River, in the eastern part of the State, with the Beaver Valley, through the Mahoning: another connects the headwaters of the Cuyahoga with the valley of the Muskingum; the third lies between the St. Mary and the Big Miami. Lake Michigan was drained into the Mississippi by two routes—through the valleys of the Illinois and the Wisconsin. The water then stood at least 850 feet higher than the present lake level.
Another depression of the southern half of the continent—another deluge—and we have the iceberg era. Enormous masses of ice broke off from the great northern glacier, and floated with the winds and currents into more temperate latitudes, where, slowly melting, their imprisoned rocks and pebbles were deposited upon the surface of the glacial debris, which in turn rests upon the face of the solid rock, planed down by the ice-fields of the, preceding period. The interstices of each of these strata of coarse material are partially filled with sediment precipitated from the water above it, and the entire stratum is designated "Erie Clay." This deposit occasionally appears in the form of detached hills or mounds, and irregular ridges caused by the stranding of an iceberg in shallow water, and the consequent deposition of its entire burden in one place. Many of the ridges and knolls of Northwestern Ohio may thus be accounted for.
Succeeding the deposit of the iceberg drift, next came the final, and as yet, permanent elevation of the continent above the ocean level; and again we find the great lake basin full to the brim, the water standing from 300 to 500 feet higher than at present. At just what period the drainage of the lakes was again turned into the lower St. Lawrence can not now be determined. Referring to this subject, Professor Gilbert suggests that the withdrawal of the waters of the ocean was attended with "considerable vertical movements of the land," and attempts to account for various subsequent phenomena on the same hypothesis. Speaking of these supposed local elevations and depressions, he says: " They did not cease with that event, but have continued, either at intervals or perpetually, to the present time. Their effect on the lake basin. has been to so elevate and depress its rim at various points, that, not only has the elevation of the outlet been frequently changed, but it has even been transferred from point to point of the low rim. * * * In the intervals of repose, the waves have marked beach lines on the shores at the successive water stages, some of which have been above and others below the present levels of the various lakes." Many of the ancient lake beaches were partially or wholly obliterated by subsequent temporary elevations of the lake level; but between the head of the lake and the great terminal moraine above referred to, at least four distinct shore-lines may now be easily traced. These old lake beaches appear as low gravelly ridges traversing the Black Swamp in regular concentric curves, approximately parallel with the present lake shore.
Professor Gilbert says: "The Maumee .Valley is well adapted to the display of these beaches, since in its easy slopes they-are so broadly separated that they can be traced without confusion, and in its soft drift they were inevitably modeled at every stage of the water's lingering. The first, or highest beach,. marks a water level at least 220 feet above Lake Erie. It is within, and nearly parallel with, the moraine inclosing the Maumee Valley. We find that it. enters the northwest corner of the State, from Michigan, and traversing diagonally the Counties of Fulton, Williams, and Defiance, in a southwest direction, enters Indiana and crosses the Maumee River near Fort Wayne. Thence, curving to the south and east, it traverses Van Wert, Allen, Hancock, and Seneca Counties, and thence on around the entire south shore of the lake to. the high land of western New York." Mr. Klippart says of this ridge: "From the western portion of Cuyahoga County, one may travel on this ancient beach—for it is a good road throughout almost its entire length-250 miles, by way of Tiffin, Findlay, and Fort Wayne, and through the Counties of Defiance,. Williams, and Fulton, to the State of Michigan, and not be subject to am extreme range of seventy-five feet of variation in elevation in the entire distance," and as much may be said of the same ridge east of Cleveland. From Fort Findlay to Fort Wayne, in the early settlement of the Black Swamp, a wagon road was laid out on this old lake beach, passing through Columbus. Grove, Delphos, and Van Wert, and it is stilt one of the best roads in the Country.
At the time this beach was formed, although our great inland sea was approximating its present divisions into separate lakes, Erie and Huron were one, and undoubtedly discharged their surplus water through the Wabash Valley into the Ohio River. “After flowing thus for ages, this river—which never had a name and no man ever saw—ran dry and ceased to be, for by the cutting down of some other outlet, or the warping of the crust of the earth, the surplus water of the lakes was drained in another direction."
Next in importance is the ridge north of the Blanchard Fork of Auglaize. West of the Maumee its general course is parallel with the first beach. Crossing the river at Defiance, it curves eastward in at least three separate ridges, one of which gives direction to the flow of the Blanchard and forms the watershed between that stream and the several branches of the Portage. (The nucleus of this ridge is probably a moraine. One of these ridges traverses a. part of Wood County, crosses the south part, and thence in a northeast direction through the center.) Another branch of this ridge leaves the principal ridge east of Defiance, and passing. southeast around the headwaters of Turkey Foot and Beaver Creeks, turns northwest, separating the drainage of those streams from that of the Portage, and giving direction to the north branch of the Portage, passes diagonally across Wood County.
Wood County hat other superficial ridges, knolls, mounds, etc., the origin of which may be easily accounted for by any one familiar with the effects of winds, currents, and waves in our lakes.
But, comparatively, these accumulations of sand and gravel are recent. Underlying them, and above the coarse gravel resting upon the bed-rock, is a thick stratum of fine clay, which is the foundation of the agricultural resources of the Black Swamp region. Immediately following the iceberg deposits, and when the waters of Lake Erie extended over the entire Maumee Valley, to the depth of two hundred feet, this bed of clay began to accumulate in the form of fine sediment.
The great glacier, which "flowed" downward (now upward) through the basin of Lake Erie and the Valley of the Maumee, rasped down the topmost layers of the solid rock, exposing on the eastern edge of Wood County and in the western part of Seneca and Sandusky Counties, a stratum of " Niagara" limestone. This exposure lies under the axis of the Cincinnati Arch. Wood County is on the westward slope of the arch or ridge, and is, therefore, on the cut ridge—the beveled edge—of the next higher stratum, the waterline rock. In the western part of Wood County is left exposed the edge of the next stratum, called the Oriskany sandstone, which at this point is thin. This stratum crosses the Maumee above Perrysburg, and after a southerly course towards the center of the county, turns southwest between the Portage and Beacon Creek, and leaves the county at the southwest corner. Between this and the Maumee is the broad edge, or "outcrop," of the corniferous stratum of
182 - NORTHWESTERN OHIO— Continued.
limestone, and along the river is the thin edge of the Hamilton limestone and shale. All these strata "dip," or slope, northwest.
But the glacier did not leave the Maumee Valley as we now see it—with a plane surface, gently inclined toward the northeast. The sheet of Ice occasionally came in contact with an obdurate point or strip of rock harder than that surrounding it. Bearing in mind that glaciers possess some of the properties of both fluid and solid substances, it is readily understood how such obstacles produced temporary digressions of the principal current, cross currents, and even counter currents and eddies. Were the superincumbent " drift " removed, we would behold the bed-rock—the surface as moulded by glacial action—presenting a very irregular, and fantastic aspect. We would see broad plateaus as smooth as a floor, with occasional valleys into which the descent, from one side, would be gentle and easy, and on the other would be bounded by a perpendicular or overhanging cliff. Projecting high above the general level are ragged. knobs, pinnacles, and irregular ridges.
These inequalities of the surface were partially " leveled up " with glacial debris and iceberg drift; but the work was finished during the succeeding period by the deposit of clay from the deep and quiet waters of the great inland sea. Slowly and gently it settled in the form of sediment, impalpably fine, but none the less substantial, gathering at the bottom, at first as slimy ooze, but gradually compressed, by constant accumulations of the same material, into a compact bed of clay. Year after year, ages, centuries, millennium succeeding millennium, the work went slowly on to perfect completion; and when, like a deep and gentle fall of snow, all inequalities of surface were leveled, all rough and forbidding features hidden as with the mantle of charity, the waters retired to other tasks.
It is to this bed of clay, then, that the topography of Northwestern Ohio owes its chief characteristic—its plain, almost level surface.
After the peace between France and England, which lasted nearly thirty years, " King George's War" began in 1744, and terminated in 1748 by the treaty at Aix-la-Chapelle, which still left undecided the boundary between the Amen-can possessions of those two great nations. But, whether the parent nations were at war or peace, appeared to matter little to their colonies in this contest, which continued with varying success in the form of petty campaigns on the frontiers, instigated on either side by those engaged in trading with the savages. The various tribes were arrayed on one side or the other. Sometimes the conflict would be among the Indians almost exclusively, at other times the Indians, in sympathy with the French, would make a raid on the frontier English settlements, and occasionally the pioneers and English traders would retaliate by advancing into the Indian territory.
The English colonies, which at first had been struggling for bare existence with the surrounding savages, and which had joined in England's campaigns against Canada on compulsion or in self-defense, had by this time increased in population and wealth, and began to look westward, with some concern, upon the encroachments of the French. The emigration from Europe to the English colonies had greatly exceeded that to Canada; and this population was concentrated, with the consequent advantages of education, religious culture and wealth. The French colonists were widely distributed, fewer in number, and being almost exclusively devoted to commerce with the Indians, had given but little attention to popular education, had few towns, or centers of opinion, and had, in fact, been rapidly deteriorating under their peculiar surroundings. The very circumstances and peculiarities of character which had enabled them so readily to adapt themselves to the Indian customs, and thereby to gain their friendship and co-operation in preceding wars, were now to prove of doubtful advantage. They had lost much of their European civilization, by long contact and .familiar affiliation with the savages. The colonial power was concentrated at the center of the circle, while the Canadians were compelled to keep up and defend a long line of fortified posts on the circumference.
The petty warfare in the region between the Upper Ohio and Lake Erie continued—a constant succession of irresponsible massacres and murders committed almost indiscriminately by the heterogeneous, floating population, a large percentage of which was composed of desperate criminals—renegades from justice in the colonies and the European states. Many of these had joined the Indian tribes, and by their superior intelligence, became dangerous agents of reckless, mercenary traders.
As the inevitable, final conflict approached, every trading post, fortification or settlement started by either party on the ground between the Alleghenies and Maumee, was soon destroyed by the other, or by Indians instigated by the opposite party. This constant turmoil and strife for possession of the disputed territory, served as a school for the hardy frontiersmen, preparing them for the terrible war which soon followed. The topography of the country was well understood. The French laid out a road from Detroit to the Ohio River by the way of the foot of the lower rapids of the Maumee, and the foot of the lower rapids of the Sandusky—fifty years before Anthony Wayne exacted from the conquered Indians the right of way over the same route for a military road.
The Ohio Company, composed of influential men of London and Virginia, obtained a charter from the English Government, with a grant of 6,000 acres of land on the Ohio River, to carry on the fur trade with the Indians. By virtue of the discoveries of the Cabots, the English Government claimed all the land between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, limited only by the parallels of latitude bounding their colonies on the Atlantic coast. France claimed all west of the Allegheny Mountains—all the region drained by the Mississippi, which stream they had first explored, and all the territory drained by the -upper lakes, for the same reason.
When the Ohio Company began its preliminary surveys, the Governor of Canada protested, and commenced the construction of a line of military posts from the south shore of Lake Erie to the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers,—beginning at Erie and terminating at Pittsburgh. The names of these forts were Presque Isle, Le Boeuf, Venango, Kittaning, and Du Quesne. The last named had been commenced by the Ohio Company, but beforeit was finished a party of French and Indians took possession, completed and occupied it.
The French, now in possession of the entire territory north and west of the Ohio River, and all negotiations failing, the French and Indian war began late in the year 1753. Until May, 1756, it was confined to America, and although assisted by their respective home governments, it was conducted mainly by and between the French and English colonies. During the first four years of the war, the French were generally successful; but, when, in 1758, the elder Pitt was placed at the head of the English administration, under his wise and vigorous management of the war, the tide of success immediately turned, the English achieving one victory after another, until the whole of Canada fell into their possession. The war closed in 1763, when, by the treaty of peace, made at Paris, France ceded to England all her American possessions east of the Mississippi. By this treaty, the beautiful Maumee, which had been so profitable to her subjects in time of peace, and such a source of strength in war, passed forever from her dominion. Thus ended French jurisdiction in Western ohio.
During the French and Indian War the Maumee River, in connection with the Wabash, was an important military route for the French. These rivers, with the Lower Ohio, formed a short, safe, and easy passage from the Mississippi to Lake Erie. The route by the Upper Ohio River and the Allegheny to Presque Isle (Erie) was longer, more difficult, and too near the frontier settlements of Pennsylvania and Virginia to be safe at all times. The land route between the two important forts, Detroit and Du Quesne (Pittsburgh), was in almost constant use. That crossed the Maumee at the foot of the lower rapids, thence through the swamp, on the dryest land, to the Portage at several convenient points below Woodville, thence to the ford at the foot of the lower rapids of the Sandusky, whence the trail led on the high land near the headwaters of the small streams to the headwaters of the Muskingum. Another route followed the Portage or the Sandusky River to the rocky point of the peninsula north of Sandusky Bay, crossed the narrow strait between the bay and Lake Erie, and followed the lake shore to the Cuyahoga. There is a tradition that the entrance to Sandusky Bay was formerly fordable. The Maumee and Western Reserve Road is therefore a natural highway around the head of Lake Erie, between the north and the south, the east and the west, and before the age of canals and railroads, and especially before the streams were bridged and the roads improved, it was of great importance as a military and commercial route. That this was the best, and almost the only practicable military and commercial route at that tune, is seen by a glance at the map. The head of Lake Erie extends so far southward as to compel a detour from the general course; but the closer the road hugs the lake shore the less deflection from a straight line. Between the Maumee and Sandusky, however, the ground near the lake is low and wet, and the numerous small streams, as they near the lake, expand into wide marshy estuaries. The object, therefore, was to find a route far enough from the lake to avoid the marshes, and yet to cross the Maumee and Sandusky at their lowest fordable points. Both these advantages were gained by the Maumee and Western Reserve Road. General Wayne, it is readily perceived, does not deserve all the credit usually accorded him for locating the military posts and connecting rights of way within the Indian territory. They had already been located by the French and Indians, or dur- ing the border raids of the Revolution.
During the latter half of the eighteenth century, and even until the successful defence of Fort Meigs, " Maumee" was a dreadful word to our frontiersmen.. Especially was this true during the English occupation of Detroit, and after the beginning of the Revolution. The Maumee River was a delightful home and a secure retreat for our savage enemies. Its banks were studded with their villages,. its rich bottom lands were covered with their corn, while their light. canoes glided over a beautiful current, which was at once a convenient highway and an exhaustless reservoir of food. Forest, stream, and prairie produced; spontaneously and in superabundance, game, fish, fruits, nuts—all things necessary to supply their simple wants. Here their wise men, without fear of molestation, gravely convened about their council fires, and deliberated on the means of checking and rolling back the tide of white immigration—a tide which they dimly foresaw would ultimately sweep their race from the face of the earth. From here their young warriors crept forth, and stealthily approaching the homes of their natural enemies, the pale faces, :spread ruin and desolation far and wide. Here their booty and savage trophies were exhibited with the exulta- tions and boasts of the returned " braves:" Behind an impenetrable swamp, their women, children, and property were safe during the absence of their men. Exempt from attack or pursuit, the savage here enjoyed perfect freedom, and lived in accordance with his rude instincts and the habits and customs of his tribe. Amid the scenes of his childhood, in the presence of his ancestors' graves, the red warrior, with his squaw and pappoose, surrounded. by all the essentials to the enjoyment of his simple wants, here lived out the character which nature had given him. In war, this valley was his base line of attack, his source of supplies, and his secure refuge; in peace, his home.
Fort Miami was described as a " regular military work of great strength, the front covered by a wide river, with five guns mounted. The rear, which is most susceptible of approach, has two regular bastions furnished with eight. pieces of artillery, the whole surrounded by a deep ditch, with horizontal pickets projecting from the parapet over the ditch. From the bottom of the ditch to the top of the parapet is about twenty-five feet perpendicular. The works are surrounded by an abatis, and furnished with a numerous garrison."
It was erected by the British at the most commanding point within the Indians' great stronghold, and was designed as an encouragement to the savages in their warfare on the Americans, and, if a convenient pretext offered, to be used in their assistance. Wayne was instructed to capture the fort, if he should consider it necessary to secure peace with the Indians, and it is supposed that had that bold commander been furnished with the necessary artillery, he would have made the attempt. In their retreat, the Indians fled toward the fort, near which their battle-field had been selected, as if they expected assistance from the garrison, but Major Campbell, the British commander, prudently closed his gates, and, from the parapet, with apparent composure, viewed their rout,
Colonel McKee, the British Indian agent, and Captain Elliott, his assistant, were Pennsylvanians. Being tories, that State became too warm for them during the Revolutionary war, and they fled to the Indians. Joining the, Shawnee tribe, and marrying Indian wives, they soon obtained so much influence with the savages, that they were appointed agents for Indian affairs by the British Government, and continued as such until their death. McKee's residence and official post was, for a time, at the foot of the Rapids, and that point was often designated " McKee's," or " McKee's Station." It has been established beyond dispute, that while the Indians were gathering on the Maumee. River and awaiting. the onslaught of Wayne's army, they were regularly supplied with ammunition and subsistence from the English fort, and McKee, from the government stores in his charge. McKee's residence and store-houses were destroyed by Wayne in the general devastation which he made along the river after the battle of the Fallen Timber.
A few days after the battle Wayne leisurely marched back to Grand Glaise (Fort Defiance), "laying waste on his route the villages and cornfields of the enemy for about fifty miles, on both sides of the river." The crops in the immediate vicinity of the post were preserved. Fort Defiance was strengthened, after which the army proceeded to the upper fork, and on the site of the old Miami villages, erected another fort, which was named " Fort Wayne." In November, the army arrived at Camp Greenville, and went into winter quarters.
This old Indian boundary line has always been a prominent land-mark in the history of Ohio, and may yet be traced on the map of the State, forming a part of the southern boundary of the counties of Stark, Ashland, Richland, and Marion, and part of the northern boundary of Tuscarawas and Knox. Fort Recovery was in Mercer County, near the Indiana line. Loromie's store was within the present limits of Shelby County. Within the Indian territory, which included all north and west of the boundary above described, the United States, by this treaty, obtained sixteen distinct cessions of small tracts of land for military posts, with the necessary rights-of-way through the Indian country to reach the posts. Of these cessions, two lie within the present limits of Lucas and Wood Counties, namely: " One piece twelve miles square at the British fort on the Miami of the lake, at the foot of the Rapids," and " One piece six miles square, at the mouth of said river, where it empties into the lake." The tract twelve miles square has ever since been an important subject in the histories of Lucas and Wood Counties, and until the organization of
NORTHWESTERN OHIO—Continued - 183
Lucas, was wholly within the limits of Wood County. The tract was laid out " square with compass," its northeast corner being in the heart of the city of Toledo, and its southeast corner corresponding with the present southeast corner of Perrysburg Township. The other tract was surveyed parallel with the river near the bay, the most southerly corner of the tract cutting into the northeast corner of Wood County. The military right-of-way, between the posts thus obtained, at the foot of the rapids of the Maumee and at the lower rapids of the Sandusky River, is now the Maumee and Western Reserve Road.
Early in 1796, Jay's treaty having been ratified by our government, England surrendered to the United States certain military posts within our territory, of which she had to that time unjustly retained possession. Among them were .Fort Mackinaw, on the strait connecting Lakes Michigan and Huron; Fort :Miami, on Maumee River, and the fortified town of Detroit, The posts were delivered to General Wayne, as the authorized representative of the United. States. General Arthur St. Clair accompanied General Wayne to Detroit, and immediately after the possession of the posts was obtained, established a new county, to which he gave the name of Wayne, and made Detroit its seat of .justice. Wayne was the fifth county erected in the Northwest Territory, in all the region north of the Ohio River. Of these, only two lay wholly within the State of Ohio. Washington County was the first organized, with Marietta as the seat of justice. Next, Hamilton County, with Cincinnati as its county seat. Washington included all the eastern part of the State as far west as the Scioto River, or so much of it as the Indians had ceded by the treaty of Fort McIntosh. Hamilton County at first included only the tract between the two Miamis (of the Ohio), as far up from the Ohio as an east and west line drawn through the Standing Stone fork of the Big Miami. The boundaries of Wayne County were as follows: " Beginning at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, upon Lake Erie, and with the said river to the Portage between it and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum; thence down the said branch to the forks at the carrying place above Fort Lawrence [Laurens]; thence by a west line to the eastern boundary of Hamilton County (which is a due north line from the lower Shawnees town upon the Sciota River); thence by a line west, northerly 'to the southern part of the portage between the Miamis of the Ohio, and the St. Mary's River; thence by a line, also west, northerly to the southwestern part of the portage between the Wabash and the Miamis of Lake Erie, where Fort Wayne now stands; thence by a line west, northerly to the most southern part of Lake Michigan; thence along the Western shores of the same to the northwest part thereof (including the lands upon the streams emptying into the said lake); thence by a due north line to the territorial boundary in Lake superior, and, with the said boundary, through Lakes Huron, Sinclair and Erie, to the mouth of Cuyahoga River, the place of beginning."
It would appear from this, that at some time between 1790 and 1796, the 'eastern limit of Hamilton County was extended from the Little Miami to the Scioto River, and that (although the southern boundaries do not entirely coincide) so much of the territorial county of Wayne as is now included within the limits of Ohio was at that time. Indian territory, or all that part of -the incipient State in which the Indian title had not been extinguished by the treaty of Greenville.
Wayne County, as organized in 1796, under the first form of our territorial government, may be briefly described as including about twenty-six of the present counties in the northwest quarter of Ohio (about one-fourth of the State), the northern part of Indiana, and all of the southern peninsula of Michigan. What is now this county, was then comparatively a very small part of Wayne County, and Detroit was our first county seat.
We find, then, that eight years after the settlement at the mouth of the Muskingum, and the establishment of a government north of the Ohio, that .government extended its jurisdiction over this county. It was entirely natural .and proper to include the Maumee country in Wayne County, and make the old town of Detroit the seat of justice. The few white inhabitants in this region were, like those in and about Detroit, Canadian French, Indian traders, or renegade tories. For more than a hundred years Detroit had been the center and headquarters of all military and commercial affairs about the head of Lake Erie and the foot of Lake Huron. The Maumee River was merely an outpost or province of Detroit. Communication with the civilized world was by the way of Detroit and Canada. A majority of the whites in the lake region were French, of Canadian origin, and still holding Canadian prejudices, and retaining their Canadian connections in all matters of religion, politics, friendship and commerce. Between the Detroit settlements and the settlements on the Ohio River there existed no bond of sympathy; in fact, until 1796. they had always been the bitterest enemies. and both retained much of the old prejudice engendered during the French and the Revolutionary wars. Between the Maumee and the Ohio lay an almost trackless wilderness—" over the whole vast extent there stretched a mighty and unbroken forest yet 'ignorant of the woodman's steel," effectually preventing communication between the two regions.
Detroit was a garrisoned town, completely enclosed by strong pickets, and defended by a fort on the north, and by batteries on the bank of the river. The " citadel," for the accommodation of the commandant and his suite, was a spacious edifice within the pickets, with an esplanade in front of sufficient dimensions to manoeuver a regiment of troops." The town was compactly built, on very narrow streets, most of them not exceeding one rod in width. It was entirety 'destroyed by fire in 1805, and is rebuilt on a more convenient plan. Detroit is the oldest town on the lakes above Niagara Falls, and until 1796 was the capital of Upper Canada.
When General Wayne took possession for the United States, of Detroit, Mackinaw, and Fort Miami, he constructed Fort Industry, on the left bank of the Maumee, just below the Mouth of Swan Creek, and very near the northeast corner of the cession of twelve miles square. It was garrisoned for ten or twelve years, and is distinguished as the location of an important treaty with the Indians, in 1805.
The ordinance of 1787 provided for a change in the form of territorial government when the number of free white male inhabitants, of full age, should reach five thousand. Accordingly, in the fall of 1799, the first. territorial legislature convened at Cincinnati. The representatives from Wayne county were Solomon Sibley, Jacob Visgar, and Charles F. Chobart de Joncaire.
In 1800 the North-Western Territory was divided into two governments, by a line drawn from the mouth of Kentucky River to Fort Recovery, and thence northward to the territorial line, leaving the Detroit settlement in the eastern division, under the old government. This created a vacancy in the Council—the "upper house" of the territorial legislature—to which vacancy Mr. Sibley was appointed; and Mr. Sibley's seat in the lower house was filled by the election of Mr. Scheifflein, of Detroit.
Early in 1802 a census was taken in the Eastern Division, which was found to contain over 45,000 persons. By authority of an act of Congress, a convention was elected to fey in a constitution for the proposed new State, to be composed of the southern part of the Eastern Division. The convention assembled November 1, 1802, and agreed upon the first constitution of the State of Ohio, before the end of the same month. Wayne county was excluded from representation in this convention which caused great dissatisfaction at the time. Besides this exclusion from the constitutional convention the act of Congress, above referred to, reserved the right to attach the northern part of the Eastern Division to Indiana territory; whereas the ordinance of 1787 contemplated its continuance as a part of the new State (Ohio) until it (Michigan) should have sufficient population of its own to entitle it to admission as a State. This increased the dissatisfaction, for it was the desire of the better class of the people of Wayne county to remain attached to the new State. It was suggested that this county elect delegates to the convention and demand the right of -representation therein. To this suggestion, in a letter to a friend at Cincinnati, Mr. Sibley replied:
"But, sir, supposing the county of Wayne should elect delegates and send them forward to the convention, what security would they have of a bare protection? Would they not feel the mortification of personal insults ? From the temper of a majority of the citizens of that place [Chillicothe] last winter, I really believe that their persons would be in danger. At all events I am not personally disposed to make the experiment. Yet I will do everything in my power to stir up the citizens of Wayne, to claim their violated rights. I have conversed with a number of leading characters, most of whom disapprove of the law, and are desirous of becoming a part of the new State, if possible. But nothing frightens the Canadians like taxes: They would prefer to be treated like dogs, and kennelled under the whip of a tyrant, than contribute to the support of a free government."
One reason of the objection of Detroit to becoming a part of Indiana territory was the erroneous opinion that the northern boundary of Ohio, as proposed by the law of Congress, would pass north of the rich settlement at the River Raisin, and thus cut off one of the best portions of Wayne county.
At a public meeting held at Dayton, a series of resolutions was adopted, one of which we append:-
"We feel for our fellow citizens in the county of Wayne, who have relinquished their allegiance to the crown of Great Britain, and become American citizens, firmly attached to the interests of this territory; and we hope they may not be transferred against their wishes to the Indiana territory, at the moment they had expected with us to enter into an independent State government, and to enjoy the privileges of a free people."
But expostulations and petitions were in vain. The Detroit settlements were attached to Indiana territory until 1805, when Michigan territory was organized. Nor did Wayne county lose her cherished province on the Raisin, for it was afterward found that the northern boundary of Ohio passed considerably south of the mouth of that river. Two years before the organization of our State government, Trumbull County was set up. Its original boundaries coincided with the boundaries of the Connecticut Reserve, and of course took a part of Wayne County—that part lying west of the Cuyahoga River and within the Reserve.
Nor had the Maumee County any voice in the election of the first State Legislature, which convened at Chillicothe on the 1st day of March, 1803. During the same month, however, the Legislature created a number of new counties, to which was apportioned alt that part of the territorial County of Wayne lying within the State. Montgomery, Green, 'and Franklin at first extended " north to the State line," and Montgomery extended west to the State line. What was afterwards Wood County, then lay partly in Greene, and the remainder in Franklin.
The first constitution placed the Supreme Court of the State " on wheels,"—or rather on horseback—by Section 10, of the Third Article: "The Supreme Court shall be held once a year in each county," etc. This provision originated in the local rivalries of the time, and the opposition to Chillicothe as the capital of the State. A contemporary writer, a prominent lawyer of those days, thus refers to this feature of the old judiciary: " One evil arising from that scheme is that the Supreme Judges are required to be on horseback half the year, and are compelled to decide important questions of law, in great haste; and often in frontier counties, where access to law books can not be had; and, as the same judges are not always present, it sometimes happens that the same point is decided differently in different counties." The first session of the Supreme Court in Greene County was held in October, 1803; the first session in Franklin County was held in November, 1803. There were three common pleas circuits in the State, each having one president and three associate judges. The first term of the Court of Common Pleas in Greene County was held in August, 1803; in Franklin County in May, 1803. The former was in the First Circuit; the latter in the Second. The State was at first entitled to but one representative in Congress, who was elected in October, 1804. In the State Legislature, Ross and Franklin had four representatives and: two senators. Greene had one representative; and, with Warren, Butler, and Montgomery, two senators.
March 1, 1805, Champaign County was organized. It was made up of all the northern part of Greene County, and a part of Franklin, and included the territory afterwards occupied by Wood County. Urbana was the seat of justice.
By the treaty of Fort Industry, made in July of the same year, the Indians ceded all their lands within 120 miles west of the western boundary of the State of Pennsylvania. In other words, all their lands in this State lying east of the meridian which forms the eastern boundary of Sandusky and Seneca Counties. The principal object of this treaty was to obtain the title of the land in the Connecticut Reserve, sometimes called the Western Reserve; but as that alone would have left a narrow, wedge-shaped strip south of the Reserve still in the possession of the Indians, the western boundary of the Reserve was produced, southward until it intersected the old Indian boundary, and all the land east of that line was purchased. The Commissioners of the United States had much trouble in making this treaty, as Canadian emissaries were again at work among the Indians, exciting their hatred, jealousy, and fear of the " Yankees." This treaty reduced the Indian possessions in this State to a square tract in the northwest corner, bounded on the west by Indiana Territory, on the north by Michigan Territory, on the east by the western line of the Connecticut Reserve, and on the south by the boundary established by the treaty of Greenville, still known as the " old Indian boundary." This tract, including the entire Maumee Valley, was for many years known as the Indian Territory—about twenty counties, as at present organized.
In November, 1807, General William Hull, the first governor of Michigan Territory—he, who, five years later, ingloriously surrendered Detroit—by a treaty at Detroit, secured to the United States the title to a large tract of land lying partly in Michigan Territory and partly in Ohio. It included all the land in this State north of the Maumee and east of a line extended north from the mouth of the Auglaize River, excepting the following tracts reserved by the Indians: " One tract of land six miles square, on the Miami of Lake Erie, above Roche de Boeuf, to include the village where Tondaganie (or the Dog) now lives. Also, three miles square on the said river (above the twelve miles square ceded to the United States by the treaty of Greenville), including what is called Presque Isle; also, four miles square on the Miami bay, including the villages where Meshkeman and Waugan now live."
One year later, by the treaty of Brownstown (Mich.), made by Governor Hull, the United States acquired: "A tract of land for a road, of 120 feet in width, from the foot of the rapids of the River Miami of Lake Erie to the western line of the Connecticut Reserve, and all the land within one mile of the said road
184 - NORTHWESTERN OHIO—Concluded.
on each side thereof, for the purpose of establishing settlements along the same; " also, the right-of-way for a road to run southwardly from Lower Sandusky to the Indian boundary. This was the second step toward the establishing of the Maumee and Western Reserve road.
By this time. the British violations of our national rights—by impressing our seamen into the English navy and seizing American vessels engaged in commerce with France—had excited feelings of indignation and hostility through: out the country, and intelligent men in Canada and the United States predicted another war between England and America. In June, .1807, the United States frigate Chesapeake had been captured by a British ship, killing three and wounding eighteen. The crew of the frigate was then mustered, and four of them forcibly carried off, on the pretense that they were British deserters. Both nations had for some time been drifting towards unfriendly relations; but from this time the enmity was rapidly aggravated, until ?n 1812 it culminated in open war During this period, preceding the war of 1812, the Canadians were not idle. The Indians of the Maumee and Wabash Valleys were again visited by British agents, who encouraged the Indians to begin another war upon the western settlements smith of the lakes, by pledging, semi-officially, the assistance of their old ally. The old idea, of compelling the Americans to abandon the territorynorth of the Ohio River—of making that river forever the boundary between the whites and the Indians—was secretly revived. Canadians still held almost a monopoly of the Indian trade in this vicinity, and as a means of retaining their friendship, furnished them whisky in unlimited quantities. Under the old French regime this had been prohibited, and during the British occupation of this territory it had been disapproved: but now the Canadians were under no restraint. Although our Territorial and State Legislature had enacted stringent laws forbidding the sale of liquor to the savages, it was almost wholly disregarded, especially by the Canadians. It is undeniable that the free use of intoxicating liquors by the Indians, which began here soon after the Revolutionary war, caused a rapid deterioration of the best traits of Indian character. Another cause of the increasing unfriendliness of the savages was the numerous crimes committed against them by bad white men on the frontiers—the most atrocious crimes committed with apparent impunity; for such was the prejudice against the Indians, that no white man could be convicted in the courts, of any crime committed against them, no matter how clearly proved. So notorious had this state of affairs become that, in 1800, Governor St. Clair called the attention of the Territorial Legislature thereto, and said that, " the number of these unfortunate people who have been murdered and plundered since the treaty of Greenville, is sufficient to produce serious alarm for the consequences." During the same year the Legislature passed an act "providing for the trial of homicide committed on Indians," with the following- preamble: "Whereas, his excellency the governor, bath stated that difficulties have arisen in prosecuting and bringing to punishment persons charged with homicide committed on certain Indians within this territory, that similar dIfficulties may be expected in future, and that serious evils are likely to arise therefrom, unless a remedy be provided therefor by law; therefore, to remove those difficulties, and the more effectually to insure justice to the Indian tribes in such cases, Be it enacted," etc. One provision of this law authorized the governor to order special courts of Oyer and Terminer for such cases; and, if necessary, to grant a change of venue. But the most powerful influence operating among the Indians—exciting their hatred and organizing them for another war upon the whites—was that of Tecumseh and • "The Prophet," two Shawnee brothers. The former, by his eloquence and really noble qualities as a man, and the latter by his " miracles," acquired a remarkable ascendancy over all the tribes along the frontier—from Lake Superior to the Gulf of Mexico. In 1808 they established themselves on the Wabash River, at the mouth of the Tippecanoe, where, during the next three years, they collected a large force of warriors from a number of tribes. A large part of their force was drawn from the Maumee River, the Ottawas, located at the mouth of tile river, furnishing about three hundred. But Tecumseh's power was temporarily impaired, and the Indians dispersed, by the battle of 'Lippe- canoe, in November, 1811.
From the summer of 1812 till the spring of 1815, this part of the State was of national import. During the first eighteen months of the war Fort Meigs was the center of an important series.. of military movements, an account of which may be read in any standard history of the United States. From the declaration. of war till the treaty of peace —from the time the American settlers fled from the foot of the rapids till they began to return—the only white inhabitants of this county, besides the soldiers, were a few French families at Maumee and near the lake. As a pleasant introduction to the study of the history of this period, we .recommend to our young readers " Lossing's Pictorial Field Book of the War of 1812."
Although defeated in the battle of Tippecanoe, in the fall of 1811, the Indians were not subdued, but began to plot with the English for an invasion of Ohio and Michigan, from Canada, in case of war between Great Britain and the United States. As a defense of the northern frontier against the Indians, and as a precautionary measure in case of war with England, an army was raised in Kentucky,- Ohio, Indiana Territory and Michigan Territory. As soon as it was organized and equipped, this army, under command of General William Hull, marched from its rendezvous in the southwestern part of this State, directly north through Champaign County to the foot of the rapids of Maumee River, traversing the present counties of Champaign, Logan, Hardin, Hancock and Wood, cutting a road through the wilderness and establishing a number of military posts along the route, which route was for many years afterward known as " Hull's Trace." Crossing the Maumee on the 1st of July, 1812, Hull marched to Detroit, which had been selected as the strategetic point of the campaign. After a disgraceful inactivity of a few weeks, on the 26th of August Hull surrendered Detroit, with all the military force under his command, to General Brock, the British commander.
Another army was promptly raised, and placed under the command of General William H. Harrison, which advanoed by three routes to the foot of the rapids, with the design of making that a base for the recovery of Michigan and the conquest of Canada. General Harrison, with the right wing, marched by the way of Upper Sandusky, which he made his depot of supplies. General Tupper had command of the center, with Fort. McArthur, in Hardin County, as a base, and was to advance by Hull's route. General Winchester marched from Fort Defiance down the Maumee to the foot of the rapids. Without waiting to be joined by Harrison, Winchester moved on to the River Raisin, where he was defeated, January 22, 1813, and where the Indians were permitted to massacre the settlers and American prisoners. Harrison had crossed the Maumee with a part of his force, but, on learning of Winchester's defeat, fell back to the foot of the rapids, and the next day, after destroying his stores in a small stockade on the north side, retreated to the forks of the Portage, opposite the site of the village of Pemberville, in this county, where he remained a few days, and on the 1st of February again advanced to the foot of the Maumee rapids and began the construction of Fort Meigs. It was an " open winter," unfavorable to military movements in this region, and but little was accomplished.
On the 27th of April, the British and Indians, under Proctor and Tecumseh, invested the fort, and on the 9th of May raised the siege. It was during this siege that a regiment of Kentuckians, under Colonel Dudley, was terribly defeated on the north side of the river. Harrison left the fort under command of General Green Clay, and went to the interior of the State to organize new levies of troops. On the 20th of July, the enemy again laid siege to Fort Meigs, but on the 29th again decamped and proceeded to Fort Stephenson (Fremont), and began an attack on the 1st of August. But there they were repulsed by the gallant Croghan. On the 10th of September, Commodore Perry. captured the British fleet at Put-in-Bay, on Lake Erie, soon after which Harrison's army was transported to Malden by Perry's vessels. On the 5th of October the British and Indians were defeated in the battle on the Thames, where Tecumseh was killed. The territory and posts surrendered by Hull were speedily recovered, and the war in the Northwest was virtually ended.
Soon after this, General Harrison entered into an armistice with the hostile. Indians, followed by the second treaty of Greenville. Still, few ventured to. settle on. the Maumee until after the treaty of Ghent and the battle of New Orleans. Those who returned built temporary cabins out of the " arks " which. had been used as transports by the army, and of the pickets and block-houses. of Fort Meigs. Congress made an appropriation for the partial reimbursement of those whose property had been destroyed during the war.
At first the settlement of this side of the river was confined to the immediate vicinity of Fort Meigs, or the foot of the rapids, on the twelve miles square, the center of which was on the large island in front of Perrysburg; and even after the Indian title was extinguished in all northwestern Ohio, the improvements for many years were limited to a narrow strip along the river bank up to the head of the rapids.
In 1815 a town was started near the fort, which was at first called Fort Meigs, afterwards Orleans. At the same time Maumee was started. In the summer of 1815 three large vessels came up to Fort Meigs after the government stores left here at the close of the war. Of these Mr. Homer says: "With the exception of a few light vessels used by the British as transports during the war, these were the first vessels of ordinary draft that ever ascended to the foot of the rapids."'
"Upon the close of the war of 1812 the foot of the rapids became an important point in the commercial business of the country. Large quantities of the produce of the western part of Ohio and Northeastern Indiana was brought down the river in flatboats and' transferred to the shipping of the lakes. The Indian trade was large. The quantity of furs and peltry collected here by the Indian traders, and that of the sugar made by the Indians from the sap of the sugar maple, and put up by them in cases made of bark, each weighing sixty or eighty pounds, and called " mococks "—these and other like objects of trade and commerce made up a considerable business. The fisheries of the river also constituted a large item in the then business of the place. The quantity of corn even then raised on the Maumee, was very large, and was exported in large quantities to Detroit and other parts of the upper lakes. This was so much the case that it was called " coming to Egypt for corn." These objects, and other minor subjects of commerce and traffic, rendered the business of the place far larger than that which would be indicated by the population of the place, and the amount of lake shipping that came up there to meet this commercial demand was quite considerable."
In September, 1817, at the foot of the rapids, Lewis Cass and Duncan McArthur, Commissioners of the United States, made a treaty with the Wyandotte, Seneca, Delaware, Shawnee, Pottawottamie Ottawa and Chippewa, tribes of Indians, by which the United States purchased all the lands of those tribes in the State, excepting certain small reservations to individuals named therein. The reservations in this county were described as follows: " To Sawendebans, or the Yellow Hair, or Peter Minor, an adopted son of Tondaganie, or the Dog, and at the special request of the Ottawas, out of the tract reserved by the treaty of Detroit, in 1807, above Roche de Boeuf, at the village of the said Dog, a section of land, to contain 640 acres, to be located in-a square form, on the north side of the Miami, at the Wolf Rapids."
"The United States also agree to grant, by patent, to the Chiefs of the Ottawa tribe of Indians, for the use of the said tribe, a tract of land, to con—. twin thirty-four square miles, to be laid out as nearly in a square form as practicable, not interfering with the lines of the tracts reserved by the treaty of Greenville, on the south side of the Miami River of Lake Erie, and to include Tushquegan, or McCarty's village."
In 1816 an agent, appointed by the government, selected the site and sur- veyed the town of Perrysburg, and the next year the lots were offered for sale., at the land office at Wooster.
"From Wooster I traveled on horseback, by way of the place where Ashland now is, New Haven, Lower Sandusky, to the Maumee. The country throng which I passed was very new —here and there a settlement. From Lower Sandusky to the Maumee, it was an entire wilderness (1820), and known as the Black Swamp, through which there was no road, except a mere trail through the woods.. I arrived at Perrysburg in the afternoon of a fine day, about the middle of September, and upon arriving on the high bank near Fort Meigs, I was most favorably struck with the magnificent scenery and beauty of the valley. Along the rapids, the intervals from hill to hill were originally prairies, and even these were mostly covered with the finest fields of corn."
The Indians still lingered in their old homes, retaining almost undisturbed possession of their sugar camps and hunting grounds; although the whites were rapidly appropriating the sites of their villages and their favorite fishing grounds. The following description of the Indians of the vicinity, as they were from 1825 to 1840, was written by the late Colistor Haskins:
"Some four or five hundred friendly Indians of the Ottawa tribe, camped in the vicinity of Portage, until their removal by the Government; they were kind neighbors and punctual to pay debts when trusted; they subsisted mostly on flesh; they were fond of venison, turkeys, bear's meat, and blue crane; they also ate porcupines, polecats, and musk rats; they were fond also of hominy, which they obtained by pounding corn in a wooden mortar with a pestle attached to a spring pole; they also made bean soup as a special luxury; they had fields on the Maumee bottoms, where they raised corn and beans in the summer; they would hunt for game in the fall on the Portage and about the neighboring prairies, and in the winter they would camp further south in the heavy timber, both on account of their own comfort and their horses, which subsisted in the winter upon browse and the winter bunch grass, which is found only in the sheltered forest lands where the land is rather swampy; the Indian ponies would come out in the spring in good condition.
"The spring work of the Indians was the manufacture of maple sugar, which they generally made in considerable quantities, and it was of a tolerable good quality. As they had no other means of conveying it to market, they manufactured a kind of box made of elm bark about eighteen inches in length, and ten or twelve in width, and sixteen or eighteen in height. The bark was bent in proper shape and fastened with a thread of the same material. This was called a mowkon or mococks, holding from fifty to one hundred pounds each. The Indians conveyed these boxes upon their ponies, each pony packing two boxes, one upon each side.
"The dress of the Indians was, for the most part, of their own manufacture. They dressed deer skins in the best manner. These they used for moccasins, .leggings, mittens and shirts; and in cold weather they wore woolen blankets . which they received as presents from the, British Government."
