50 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY importation, having been introduced into these waters about 1880. Their increase has been phenomenal, until the river is literally alive with them. In the, spring of the year as many as seven tons of carp have been taken out in a single haul with a seine covering a sweep of three-eighths of a mile, and not to exceed twenty pounds of other fish would be found in the seine. During the year of 1902 from 800 to 1,000 tons of carp were taken out of Sandusky River and marshes. One crew of seine fishermen on Reach Island paid tonnage tax to the state on 125 tons of carp caught in one season. The catch each year since, while it may vary owing to the stages of the water and the market price of the fish, has been equally as large. While the muskrat have been trapped and hunted in the Sandusky Bay marshes for more than one hundred years, yet seasons of low water and severe winters seem to have depleted their numbers more than has the work of the trappers. The mink and the marsh raccoon are being rapidly exterminated during the past few years. During the winter of 1908-1909, the water being very low, from twenty to twenty-five thousand muskrats were caught, for which the trappers .realized twenty-four to thirty-two cents per skin. The following fishes are native to these waters: White, black and calico bass, rock bass, catfish, bullhead, stickers, chub, sunfish, perch, sturgeon, muscallonge, eel and pike or pickerel, but they are becoming scarcer each year as the carp become more plentiful, and fears are entertained that eventually all other fish may be displaced by the carp. CHAPTER IV. COMING OF THE WHITE MAN AND PASSING OF THE RED. The Sandusky Valley—Present View—Geography and Geology—River, Islands and Noted Places Along Same—Distribution of I ndians—Algonquins and Iroquois—Neutrals, Wyandots, and Ottawas Dispersed and Eries Destroyed by the Five Nations—Indian, French and English Occupancy—Return of Wyandots and Ottawas With Remnants of Other Dispersed Tribes and Their Settlements—Wyandots Dominant in the Valley— Stronghold of the Rebel Wyandot Chief Nicolas Along the Bay and Marshes—His Intrigues With English Colonial Traders—His Plot to Destroy the French Discovered and Defeated—Pickawillany a Center of Disturbance—Its Destruction and Death of Chief, Old Britain—French and Indian War—British Ascendancy— Treaty of Paris, 1763 —Indian Depredations—Pontiac's Conspiracy—Fort Sandusky Taken and Garrison Massacred— Revolutionary War—Northwest Conquered by George Rogers Clark— County of Illinois Formed—Independence of Colonies—Treaty of Paris, 1783—Virginia's Chartered Rights—Counties of Orange, Augusta and Illinois Formed by Virginia Embracing Sandusky Valley—Indian. Depredations Continue—Crawford's Disastrous Campaign—N. W. Territory Organized—Harmar's and St. Clair's Campaigns and Defeats—Waynes' Victory at Fallen Timbers—Treaty of Greenville, 1795—Tecumseh and his Designs— Sandusky County Territory Embraced Within Counties of Hamilton, Wayne, Franklin, Delaware and Huron, Respectively, Also in Radnor Township, Delaware County and in Lower Sandusky Township, Huron County, and All Its Territory East of the Sandusky River in Croghan Township, in Huron County—Sandusky County Erected With Village of Croghansville the Temporary Seat of Justice. A view of the country comprising the county, with its broad, fertile fields, productive orchards, and sightly woodlands; its fair capitol city, with its great factories and successful merchants ; its thriving villages ; its churches and school houses, steam and electric railways, telegraphs and telephones, improved roads, rural mail delivery and beautiful homes in city, village and country, with its prosperous and happy thousands of population, would scarcely allow the thought, that but little over a century ago all this region was in reality a "howling wilderness" without the presence of a white man ; yet such is veritable history. - 51 - And geologists inform us of what is still more wonderful : That all this country of which we are writing was once the bottom of a sea, believed to have been the Gulf of Mexico extending thus far northward; that it finally emerged from the depths of this sea and after it thus appeared above the waters, many thousands of years ago, there came down upon it from the north a mighty ice flood or glacier, which completely enveloped it to a very great depth. That this great ice flood or glacier brought with it hard and soft rocks, which in its tremendous onmoving course, it crushed and pulverized, between the bed rocks and 52 - HISTORY OF SAN DUSKY COUNTY those held in its frozen embrace, thereby creating what is known by geologists as till or boulder clay, but which is commonly called ground or earth, which the glacier, when it finally disappeared left distributed upon the bed rock throughout the region over which it passed forming the basis of the rich and productive soil for which the valley is noted. The county when first erected (1820) included all of the congressional townships, beginning with number four, north of the base line, or forty-first degree north latitude, contained within north ranges thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen and seventeen; and extending northerly to Lake Erie. Its eastern boundary was the western boundary line of the Connecticut Reserve. And as now bounded is mainly within what is known as the Lower Sandusky Valley, being the district of country drained by the Sandusky River and Bay, although some of the northwest part of the same drains through the Portage River direct into Lake Erie. THE RIVER. The beautiful Sandusky rises in Richland County and from thence passing through the counties of Crawford, Wyandot and Seneca enters the present Sandusky County from the south, about midway of its south boundary line, and flows entirely across the county in a general northeasterly direction, but with many graceful bends, some of which embrace nearly, if not quite, all points of the compass as it meanders its course amid alternating picturesque slopes and flowering plains to where it mingles its waters with those of the bay of the same name, and which bay was designated by early geographers as "lake" Sandusky, and lake Junandat, the latter name probably being derived from that of the Wyandot Tribes of Indians sometimes called Owendets or Yendats, inhabiting its shores since about 1700. The river, after entering the county, passes scenes along its banks and encircles islands in its course, of great interest ; among them may be mentioned the site of Ball's Battle ( 1813). near where now stands the residence of Birch-land Havens, a little way west of Ballville village, where the squadron, sent from Fort Seneca by Gen. Harrison to bring Major Croghan before him, to be tried for disobeying orders to abandon Fort Stephenson, were attacked by Indians on their way, and nearly all of the attacking Indians were killed in that skirmish ; next appears the Blue Banks, noted for their interesting geological formation; then the lower rapids, the site of the once noted Indian village Junque in dundeh, or "place of the hanging haze," with Fort Stephenson on the west side and remains of an ancient Indian fortification on the east side and Brady Island just below the rapids where Samuel Brady. the celebrated borderer, sent by Gen. Washington (luring the Revolutionary War, to observe the movements of the hostile tribes, secreted himself while taking observations; and Spiegel Grove. the home of President Hayes, all within the present city of Fremont, once known as Lower Sandusky. Passing Fremont the peninsula known as Negro Point on the east bank is reached, so named from the fact that the Indians in 1780 captured a number of negro slaves in Virginia and placed them on this point where they were detained as slaves by their captors, and where they died and were buried ; the site of the Indian town or village (Munsee) on the east bank near Negro Point is seen where the noted chief and warrior Tecumseh (1809) planned hostilities against the whites, and from whence an expedition for plunder of the Virginia frontiers was started ; further down we pass. 00 the west bank, the home of the white captives. Mr. and Mrs. James Whittaker, who married at Detroit and settled here about 1785, and who are believed to have been the first white settlers in Ohio; just above the mouth of the river are Cherry, Peach and Graveyard Islands where the rebel Wyandot Chief Orontony known as Nicolas. with his fellow conspirators, had his stronghold and villages, where he plotted the destruction of the French garrisons at Detroit and other points. And after entering the bay, are passed the supposed sites of forts, both English and French. on both sides of the same, erected about the middle of the eighteenth century, and whose precise spots have been the theme of interesting and animated discussion by Judge Rush R. Sloane. Col. Webb C. Haves and other prominent antiquarians. AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 53 The name of the river, from which that of the country is derived, according to the bureau of American Ethnology, is from the word or term Tsaendosti, pronounced San doos tee, and is the proper Wyandot form of the expression. "It is cold, fresh (water)," and may have been originally an Erie term adopted by the Wyandots for the same waters, as we know the Eries were the first occupants here known to authentic history, preceding the Wyandots. They were both of the some lingual stock, and most likely had the same name for these waters, and which seems to have been applied first to the bay or lake and is found in history in different forms, as to its orthography as early as about the year 1700. (In another chapter more will be given concerning the river.) CONTENDING POWERS. Spain, France and England as we know contended for dominion over the country, embracing the Sandusky Valley, basing their respective claims upon discovery and settlement ; but as it would seem the principal ground of contention was more that of occupancy than discovery. According to the principle maintained by civilized nations regarding territoriol acquisition by discovery, it was not sufficient as among themselves, to discover alone, but such discovery must be followed by actual settlement or occupancy. Discovery gave only the right initiate occupancy must follow to consummate it. Spain, while apparently entitled to priority of discovery, yet not having occupied or made settlements, based thereon, her claim was not regarded as valid by the other contending nations, nor indeed by herself it would seem, as to the region under consideration. The real contention therefore narrowed to France and England, both claiming by the application of the principal mentioned, to have the paramount right. But there was an additional power asserting rights to sovereignty, whose claims could not he entirely ignored by the contending powers mentioned. This consisted of the native inhabitants. the North American Indians, whose rights, if occupancy had been allowed to govern, were paramount to all others. But according to the rule maintained by civilized nations, occupancy by savage people gave only a qualified right, as against discovery by civilized powers ; complete sovereignty with the right of disposition was denied them ; and their rights acquired by occupancy might be superseded or destroyed by conquest or forced purchase. Discovery by the civilized was superior to occupancy by the savage, upon the ground, it has been claimed, that the Creator could never have designed that a comparatively few savages should monopolize for hunting grounds an extent of territory capable of supporting many millions of civilized people. Our own American doctrine maintained that the Indians had originally no fee in the lands occupied by them, but did have however a qualified vested right by occupancy, which could only be invaded in just wars or extinguished by treaty, but like the other civilized powers, our government denied to them unrestricted dominion, and in its dealings and treaties with them, these principles were applied, and no complete title to lands was recognized in the savage, unless by express grant from the government. Thus it appears that civilized governments claimed, and when opportunity offered exercised the right of eminent domain over all lands occupied by savage or uncivilized people. THE ABORIGINES. We know that when European discoverers first came they found all these northern parts of the continent in the exclusive possession of an uncivilized or savage people called Indians, divided in language into two great races, namely : the Algonquins and the Iroquois. The country of the Algonquins extended from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, and from Hudson Bay to the Carolinas, and "like a great island in this vast expanse of Algonquin population" were the homes of the Iroquois tribes or nations, distributed as follows : the confederacy known as the Five Nations, comprising the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondaiguas, Cayugas and Senecas extended through what is now central New York from the Hudson River to the Genesee ; the Neutral Nation occupied the country around the upper end of Lake Ontario and between that and the north shore of the lower 54 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY end of Lake Erie and probably extending some distance into the country across and eastward of the Niagara River; the Wyandots, or Hurons as they were called by the French, held the country eastward of Lake Huron, named from them, and northward of Lake Erie; and the Eries were seated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, from whom it took its name. "The name it bears is that of an Indian nation of the Huron (Wyandot) language, which was formerly seated on its banks and who have become entirely destroyed by the Iroquois., `Erie' in that language, signifies 'Cat', and in some accounts this nation is called the Cat Nation. The name probably comes from the large number of that animal (lynx) formerly found in this country." (Charlevoix in 1721.) Of the Algonquins, who in later times became incidentally connected with the history of our valley and adjacent country, were the Ottawas, Miamis, Delawares and Shawnees. But it is mainly with the Iroquois, whose people were dominant therein, first the Five Nations by conquest, and afterwards the Wyandots, by settlement, and occupancy, that our history of this region is more directly associated. The Five Nations (later the Six Nations by the Incorporation in 1713 of the Tuscarawas) waged relentless wars, during the first half of the seventeenth century, against their kindred, the Neutrals, Wyandots and Eries, and also against the Ottawas and some others of the western Algonquins, and by about the middle of the seventeenth century, had conquered these nations and driven them into exile westward to and around Lake Michigan. The Eries were completely exterminated as a nation and their seats including our valley left a mere solitude. The conquerors, subject to their treaty relations with England, mentioned below, asserted dominion over the conquered regions which were but little more than hunting grounds for a period of half a century or more, until reinhabited by the refugee Wyandots, Ottawas and remnants of other dispersed tribes. It seems that the Six Nations had lost ascendency over the country formerly conquered by them from the nations mentioned, and the Wyandots from their places of exile, having rallied their own scattered tribes, and collecting with them the bands of the dispersed Ottawas and other refugees of their fellow sufferers at the hands of the Five Nations, about 1700 returned to the vicinity of their ancient seats. The Wyandots settled about Detroit, extending thence their settlements along Lake Erie to and upon the shores of the Sandusky Bay or lake and along the Sandusky River to its sources. The Ottawas located on the islands of the Lake, the Sandusky peninsula and up the Portage River. They were on friendly terms with the Wyandots, to whom they, with other tribes, yielded sovereignty as among themselves over all the region mentioned, over which our Wyandots also exercised their limited sovereignty as between themselves and the United States "to live and to hunt on" until by the treaty of September 29th, 1817, at the foot of the rapids of the Maumee, they ceded all their rights therein to the United States. They had previously, in 1785, ceded to the United States the two-mile square tract on which the city of Fremont is built and in 1808 the Maumee and Western Reserve Turnpike lands, being a tract 120 feet wide for a road, and all the land within one mile of the road on each side for settlement, from the Maumee to the west line of the Connecticut Reserve; also a tract for a road only, 120 feet in width to run southwardly from Lower Sandusky to the Greenville treaty line. THE FRENCH. France not only claimed, but exercised actual sovereignty over all the region of the St. Lawrence Basin for a period of about 150 years prior to 1763. As we know, her claim to dominion rested upon the discovery of the St. Lawrence by Cartier in 1534, and upon later explorations and occupation of its basin by Champlain and others as early as the year 1608. She maintained that to discover a river established the right to all the territory drained by that river and its tributaries. The waters of the Sandusky Valley being tributary to the St. Lawrence, the valley would therefore belong to France as a part of her domain, known as New France, with Quebec as its capitol. France subsequently greatly enlarged her asserted domain by the discovery of the Missis- AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 55 sippi by Joliet and Marquette, in 1673, and the later explorations by La Salle and by his act of taking formal possession at the mouth of the river in 1682 in the name of Louis XIV, King of France, whereby the Mississippi Valley, which of course embraced that of the Ohio, was added to the possessions already claimed by France. These discoveries and explorations were followed by settlements and the erection and occupation of military forts and trading posts at points on the Mississippi and along the Lakes, including Sandusky Bay or Lake, as it was called. In 1749 formal possession of the Ohio Valley was taken in the name of Louis XV, King of France, by Celoron De Bienville, who buried inscribed leaden plates at the mouths of the greater rivers emptying into the Ohio, as evidence of possession, thus reasserting the claims of La Salle made in 1682 at the mouth of the Mississippi. On a map of M. Bellin, Royal French Geographer, Paris, in 1755, a "Fr. Fort Sandusky" is placed on the west side of the mouth of the river and noted as an "Ancient Fort abandoned" and in remarks published with the Atlas describing the Lake Erie country states that, "Where the river flows into the end of the bay we have a fort and habitation." John Pattin, a captive English trader, taken in 1750 to Detroit, in his narrative writes : "The French go in three days from the Fort Detroit to Fort Sandusky, which is a small palisaded fort with about twenty men, situated on the south side of Lake Erie and was built in the latter end of the year 1750." The name Sandusky as applied to forts either French or British had no reference to the name of any town or village, because none was then nor for more than sixty years thereafter in existence, when (1816) Sandusky City was first laid out and named. These forts took their names from the waters near which they stood. The English fort on the bay, occupied by Ensign Paully and his garrison was, on May 22nd, 1763, taken by a band of Wyandots living in the neighborhood, assisted by a detachment of Wyandots sent by Pontiac from Detroit, in furtherance of his conspiracy to unite all the Indian tribes in a confederacy, and to destroy all the whites in the Northwest Territory. The garrison were all slaughtered, the fort burned, and Ensign Paully taken to Detroit as a prisoner, with the prospect of being burned at the stake; but a somewhat less sad fate awaited him, which was that of becoming the husband of an Indian widow, at her request. From this forced connubial relation, however, he soon found opportunity to escape, which he gladly embraced, as we are informed. THE BRITISH. Notwithstanding the dominion thus actually exercised by France, England was during all the time disputing the right of France to such dominion, and claiming title in herself. England's claim so far as discovery went rested upon that of the Cabots in 1498; which antedated that of France by Cartier (1534) but she did not follow her discoveries by attempts of actual settlement in the northwest, until about the middle of the eighteenth century, confining her settlements to the region back of the Alleghenies along the seaboard. She claimed however, that this occupation of the region mentioned in connection with her discoveries entitled her to dominion from the Atlantic to the Pacific. She also made the further claim to the northwest by reason of transactions and treaties with the Iroquois or Six Nations of Indians, who claimed dominion over this territory by conquest from the Eries and other In- dians who previously occupied the same, as we have seen. England therefore claimed for herself and colonies not only the right by discovery, and seaboard settlements, but all the rights belonging originally or by conquest to the Six Nations. English traders from the colonies had as early as 1700 penetrated the Sandusky Valley and from that time on they are frequently found in the neighborhood and finally about 1745 they built a blockhouse or stockade on the Sandusky Bay or Lake, which the French believed to be a part of a scheme to come into friendly relations with the Wyandots, who were generally allies of the French, and if possible alienate them from the French and attach them to the English cause. The fears of the French seemed to have been 56 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY justified by the movements of the powerful Wyandot Chief Orontony, whose baptized name was Nicolas, who as early as 1745, had settled in the region, with the villages of his followers along the islands and marshes of the Sandusky waters as before mentioned. He intrigued with the English Colonial authorities of Pennsylvania and New York and encouraged traders from those colonies to come and permitted them to erect the block house on the bay mentioned. About this time a conspiracy was formed by Wyandots and some Miami tribes of which he was the leader, for a general overthrow of the French power. Detroit and the upper French posts were to be burned and the white inhabitants massacred. The general work of destruction was parcelled out to the various tribes of Wyandots and Miamis, engaged in the plot, in their respective localities. The plot was however discovered by the French in time to prevent its consumation. Nicolas sued for pardon, which was granted him and the Sandusky Wyandots engaged with him in the plot, under a pledge of loyalty to the French authorities. In 1748 he and his fellow conspirators numbering over 100 warriors and their families abandoned the Sandusky for the White River country, but previous to their departure they burnt the cabins of their villages, and Nicolas' fort Avonotout, also called Junondat, was destroyed by Nicolas (N. Y. Colonial Documents). Darlington in his "Gists' Journal" expresses the opinion that the villages of Nicolas were on Peach and Graveyard Islands at the mouth of the Sandusky River on the east side, and that probably he may have, at first, settled on Cherry Island about two miles above the mouth of the river and between that and Green Creek. We know that the events just mentioned happened within the Sandusky Valley in our immediate vicinity, and really contributed in no small degree toward the causes which hastened the impending conflict of arms between the contending powers. About the same time and having relation to these events were disturbances farther south within. the Ohio Valley, the center of which was the Indian town of Piqua or Pickawillany as it was called by the English, at the mouth of what was afterward called Loramies Creek, on the Miami River. This was the principal town of the Miami Confederacy of tribes. and then their capitol. The Miamis were not then friendly to the French, some of whose tribes were in the conspiracy of Nicolas as we have seen, and like Nicolas' tribes, with whom they were in full sympathy against the French, intrigued with the English traders from Virginia, and suffered them to make Pickawillanv their headquarters as did Nicolas his Sandusky fort. Here in 1750 traders erected a stockade or fort at which the English flag was displayed not only by the traders but also by the Chief of the Miami confederacy known as Old Britain. This occurring by the authority of the Colony of Virginia sanctioned as it was by England in authorizing the grant to the Ohio Company, an association of English Merchants and Virginia planters, was regarded by France as a hostile invasion of her domain. As we have seen, formal possession of the Ohio Valley had been taken in the name of Kings of France, first in 1682 and again in 1749. In 1752 Pickawillany was surprised and taken, by an expedition under French authority. composed mostly of Indians of the Ottawa and Chippawa tribes. One white trader was killed and the others in the fort at the time were plundered and taken captive to Canada. Several Indians were killed, among whom was the Chief, Old Britain, who was roasted and eaten by the enemy ! The town was completely destroyed and never again occupied. Thus were begun hostilities which have been regarded as the inauguration of the war between France and England known here as the "French and Indian War," which finally resulted in the complete overthrow of France in the new world, and the transfer to England by the treaty of Paris which followed in 1763, of all her claims to dominion in Canada and the northwest to the Mississippi, which of course, embraced the Sandusky Valley. Claims of the Colonies under charters from England were not disposed of by the treaty nor were the rights, whatever they were, of the Indians passed upon. England however at once by proclamation (1763) reserved for the use of AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 57 the Indians, who by former treaties, had placed themselves under her protection, all of the Northwest to the Mississippi, forbade further colonial grants of lands within the reserved country and demanded the abandonment of previous grants. This was regarded by Virginia as a violation of her rights under her charter of 1609 from the British crown, being as it was, prior in date to such treaties, and which as to extent, was as follows : "Situate, lying and being in that part of America called Virginia from the point of land called Cape or Point Comfort all along the sea coast to the northward two hundred miles, and from the said Point of Cape Comfort all along the sea coast to the southward two hundred miles, and all that space and circuit of land lying from sea to sea, west and northwest." The claims of other colonies are here omitted for the reason that no actual jurisdic tion over our valley was ever exercised by them. It may be proper, however, to state that the charters of some of them overlapped in area that of Virginia, notably Connecticut, whose charter of 1662 nominally embraced all the present state of Ohio north of the 41st parallel of north latitude ; but in 1786 she ceded to the general government all of the same west of the west lines of what are now Huron and Erie Counties. Virginia's statesmen and jurists interpreted her charter of 1609 as granting all that vast bounded south by a line running west from the south point in the sea coast line named in domain, between the Atlantic and Pacific, said charter, and on the north by a line running northwest from the north point in said sea coast line. This interpretation was acted upon by Virginia and jurisdiction exercised by her from the beginning, and until modified as to western limits to the Mississippi, by the treaty of 1763 and subsequently until her cession in 1784 to the general government of her western territory. These lines as claimed by Virginia would be about at right angles to the trend of the coast lines described in the charter ; an argument it is believed supporting the Virginia interpretation as to territorial extent. Immigrants refused to obey the proclamation, ordering them to abandon their over mountain settlements ; while at the same time others were encouraged to follow them over the prohibited line. Virginia insisted upon her charter rights and continued to assert jurisdiction west of the mountains by creating counties, as we shall see, and by other acts. England's restrictive policy was also insisted upon by her and further emphasized by what was known as the Quebec Act in 1774, by which the province of Quebec was extended south to the Ohio River and west to the Mississippi, trial by jury in civil cases was abolished, and the French system of laws restored. Thus the region embracing our valley became subject to the jurisdiction of a government under English dominion, with the same capitol as when under that of France. England's unwise and oppressive policy toward the colonies brought on the Revolutionary War ; the Quebec Act became inoperative during that struggle as did 58 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY all other claims of England to dominion, in the territory of the northwest, and resulted, as we all rejoice to know in England's loss, not only of the disputed territory west of the mountains, but also of all her American Colonies. By the Paris treaty of peace, September, 1783, which followed, thirteen colonies were acknowledged to be free, sovereign and independent states, and "all claim to government, proprietary and territorial right of the same and every part thereof" was relinquished by England to them. The long existing disputes among the colonies as to boundaries and extent of territory granted to certain of them by their respective charters now became acute and for a time threatened the peace of the country ; but they were all finally settled by cessions to the general government, upon satisfactory conditions, or such as were acquiesced in by all the states ; and thus, except the Connecticut -Western Reserve and the Virginia Military Lands, all the territory bounded by the lakes, the Ohio and the Mississippi became the public domain, and by the ordinance enacted by Congress, July 13, 1787, was organized as the Northwest Territory. UNDER VIRGINIA. In the dispute between England and France the chartered rights of the English Colonies, as between the Colonies and the Mother Country, were not directly involved ; indeed the war which resulted in favor of England may be claimed as waged by her mainly in behalf of her Colonies. Virginia had in the meantime pushed her settlements westward, but had not till early in the eighteenth century crossed the Alleghanv mountains. SPOTTSYLVANIA COUNTY. The first official exercise of jurisdiction by Virginia over the region west of the Alleghanies was the Act of her Colonial Assembly (4 Henning 450) creating the county of Orange in 1734, taking the same, in part, from that of Spottsylvania, which had been formed in 1720. but whose western limits were indefinite and did not extend beyond the Alleghanies. It was, however, the first county organization to extend west of the Blue Ridge. The first passage over this range, by the white man, was claimed to be that of the romantic adventure of Governor Spottswood in August and September of 1716, when he and a party of gentlemen, including members of his staff, numbering in all fifty persons, journeyed on horseback by way of the Upper Rappahannock River, with packhorses laden with provisions for the expedition. After thirty-six days they had "topped the mountain" and reached the famous valley later named the Shenandoah, and crossing to the west bank of the river, the governor named it "Euphrates," and there took formal possession in the name of King George First, then of England, by burying a bottle containing a written inscription to that effect. The occasion was there celebrated with much conviviality in drinking and banqueting by the governor and his gay party. Eight weeks were consumed and 440 miles traveled, in going and returning. The governor commemorated the journey by creating the "Knights of the Golden Horse Shoe," having reference to the careful shoeing of the horses required to enable them to climb the mountain. He caused small golden horse shoes, set with jewels, to be made, in London, inscribed with the legend sic jurat transcendere montes, which he distributed to his companions of the expedition. ORANGE COUNTY. In the Act of the Assembly creating the county of Orange and defining its boundaries, westward, are found these words : "Westerly by the utmost limits of Virginia," which, of course, according to Virginia's construction of her charter of 1609, embraced all Of the present state of Ohio and much more. It was claimed by Virginia as including all west of the Blue Ridge, extending southward to Tennessee and covering what is now Kentucky. AUGUSTA COUNTY. The immense domain of Orange County was on November 10, 1738 (5 Henning 79) divided by the Assembly, and the portion west of the mountains formed into the two counties of Augusta and Frederick. The latter embraced comparatively a small territory extending from the Potomac River to the northern boundary of the present county of Rock- AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 61 ingham, and a little further westward. The remainder formed a part of Augusta, which County extended south to the borders of Virginia west and northwest to the utmost limits of the territory of Virginia, and contained what is now Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and consequently embraced our Sandusky Valley, and brought it within the nominal jurisdiction of Augusta County. Staunton became the county seat, and courts were held there before the Revolutionary War, and also as Pittsburg which was in Augusta County as claimed. BOTETOURT COUNTY. On November 19, 1769 (8 Henning 396), Botetourt County was formed by Act of the House of Burgesses by cutting off from Augusta all that part lying south and west of the North River, by a line west, bearing north 55 degrees, beginning at the Blue Ridge where that river flows through the same near the site of Lexington in the present county of Rockbridge, Virginia, and running to the confluence of the South River with the north branch of the James and up the James to the mouth of Kerr's Creek and up that creek to the mountain; which line of separation was by the provisions of the act mentioned, authorized to be continued westward as far as the courts of the two counties might thereafter order. The records of the court of Augusta, April 20, 1770, and of Botetourt, June 3, 1770, show an extention of this line westward bearing north 55 degrees, to a point described as the "west side of Anthony's Creek Mountain," which is in what is now the northeast part of Greenbrier County. West Virginia, There seems to be no records of legislative enactments or of court orders further extending this line to be found. That the Act of the Assembly creating the county of Botetourt contemplated its extension to the "waters of the Mississippi," is apparent from its exemption from the payment of certain levies, the people situated on the "waters of the Mississippi in said County of Botetourt." It is further apparent from the two acts of the Virginia Assembly in forming Fincastle County from Botetourt (8 Henning 600) in 1772, and in dividing Fincastle into the three counties of Kentucky, Washington and Montgomery in 1776 (9 Henning 257), that at the dates of those enactments, the legislature must have considered that Botetourt did, in fact, embrace the territory described in those acts. While the boundaries of Fincastle are somewhat vague, as defined in the act forming the same, yet if studied in connection with the act dividing the same, as before mentioned, into the counties of Kentucky, Washington and. Montgomery, it will be found, in addition to the southeastern portions thereof comprising the counties of Washington and Montgomery, to have embraced territory west and south of the "west side of Anthony's Creek Mountain" and bounded west and northwest by the Ohio River, to the Mississippi and south by the state of Tennessee, as it will be seen that this county of Kentucky as then bounded was nearly identical with the state of Kentucky as finally formed and admitted into the union. The counties of Ohio, Yohogania and Monongalia were formed from that part of Augusta lying between the Alleghanies and the Ohio River, thus cutting off from Augusta County and embraced territory west and south of the "west side of Anthony's Creek Mountain," leaving the same outside of any county organization, all that vast extent of country northwest of the Ohio River, south of the lakes and east of the Mississippi, a "great and terrible wilderness" roamed over and dominated by savage tribes of the west in their murderous incursions against the Virginia and Pennsylvania frontier. Rightfully, as she claimed, it was within the jurisdiction of Virginia but this was disputed by the mother country, whose government as we have seen, claimed it for the benefit of the Indians, since the treaty of Paris (1763), and prior to. that France had taught the Indians that their title to this region was valid to the Ohio River. ILLINOIS COUNTY. In 1778 all the region just described was conquered from England by Virginia under General George Rogers Clark, and in October, 1778, the legislature of Virginia established from it the county of Illinois with Kaskaskia on the Mississippi as the chief seat of justice and Cohokia and Vincennes, 62 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY subordinates. Thus the present state of Ohio with our Sandusky Valley was again brought within a county organization and subject territorially considered at least to the jurisdiction of the county of Illinois, which embraced all the chartered limits of Virginia northwest of the Ohio River east of the Mississippi, and so remained in so far as governmental relations existed, until March, 1784, when Virginia ceded to the General Government, subject to certain conditions, all her rights to dominion northwest of the Ohio River. INDIAN HOSTILITIES. Notwithstanding the conquest from Great Britain by General Clark, and the organization of the county of Illinois by Virginia, from the conquered territory, the Indians still dominated the Ohio country as its chief occupants, and would listen to no terms of settlement which did not grant them valid title, extending to the Ohio River. In the several attempted peace negociations with them, their ultimatum was title as thus claimed. This demand not being granted, hostilities against the frontiers continued with unabated fury. Murderous incursions by the Miamis and their confederated tribes from the Maumee, and western country, and. by the Wyandots and their immediate allies from the Sandusky Valley, were frequent, attended with characteristic savage cruelties. In the meantime a number of ineffectual attempts to conduct offensive expeditions into the enemies' country were made. CRAWFORD'S CAMPAIGN. Finally, in 1782, an expedition from the frontiers, commanded by Colonel William Crawford, was organized. and four hundred strong moved against the Wyandots and allies of the Sandusky Country. It started from Mingo Bottoms the 25th day of May, and on the 4th of June came upon the enemy near the present site of Upper Sandusky, Wyandot County, where a battle ensued in and around an island of timber in the plains, since known as "Battle Island." The first day's conflict seemed to result in favor of Colonel Crawford's force. Preparations were made by him for a renewal of the engagement the next day, with confident expectations of a victory, but the enemy being reinforced on the second day, by the arrival of about two hundred Shawnees from the south, and British troops known as Butler's. Rangers from Detroit, coming by way of the Sandusky Bay and river to Lower Sandusky and thence to the scene of conflict, so greatly increased the force of the enemy that the intended renewal of attack was deemed too hazardous, and a retreat instead was decided upon, which commenced on the night of June 5th, Crawford's men being greatly harassed by the pursuing savages until the site of the present town of Crestline was reached, June 6th, where pursuit ceased. Space will not permit a narration of the thrilling incidents of this disastrous retreat connected as it was with the capture of the brave Colonel Crawford, who had become separated from the main force, and his inhuman torture and tragic death by burning at the stake, June 11, 1782. A monument stands where his torture and death occurred, near Carey on the east bank of the Tymochtee. John Sherrard, great grandfather of Robert Sherrard of Fremont. was in that battle and rendered conspicuous service as a soldier in the fight, and in aiding the wounded 1w carrying them water in his hat from a pool caused by an upturned tree. UNDER FEDERAL DOMINION. As we have seen, after the close of the Revolutionary War, and the cessions by the Colonies to the General Government of their respective claims in the northwest, our valley became subject to the jurisdiction of the Northwest Territorial Government. Indian depredations, however, still continued, founded upon their claim of title, extending to the Ohio, as before asserted by them. Notwithstanding the stipulations in the treaty of Paris, 1783, by Great Britain, to surrender all military posts within the territory ceded by that treaty, those at Mackinac, Detroit. and the Ohio posts on the Maumee, and on the Sandusky Bay, were still garrisoned by the British, under the pretense, as claimed, of regarding them as a guarantee by the Americans to carry out a stipulation in the treaty to pay certain debts owing by them AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 63 to the British. It was believed, however, that their real motive was to keep on friendly terms with the Indians by carrying on trade, especially in furs, with them, exaggerate their grievances, and goad them on to hostile depredations against the western colonists, with assurance of British sympathy and support, in the hope that the western country might finally be lost .to the United States and restored to Great Britain as a colonial dependency. British aid subsequently given the savages in their repeated aggressions against the settlers, leave no doubt as to the real purpose of Great Britain in thus wrongfully occupying these posts. HARMAR'S EXPEDITION. The United States at first, as the Colonies had done previously, resorted to amicable negotiations with the savages, which proving unavailing, General Harmar, under directions of General Washington, President, in the fall of 1790, with an army of 1,300 men marched from Cincinnati into the Indian country to subdue the hostile tribes and, at the confluence of the rivers St. Joseph and St. Mary (Fort Wayne), a large detachment of his forces under command of Colonel Harding encountered- a large body of savages led by the famous chief, Little Turtle; a severe engagement ensued, resulting in the defeat of the Americans with great loss in killed and wounded. Tile expedition was an utter failure. ST. CLAIR'S DEFEAT. President Washington, inspired with great anxiety for an effective prosecution of the Indian War, caused a new army to be organized in every' way superior to the former, under the command of Governor St. Clair; it was composed of three regiments of infantry, two companies' of artillery, one of cavalry, and 666 militiamen. With this force St. Clair invaded the enemies' country, and on November 4, 1791, at the present site of For Recovery, in Mercer County, was suddenly attacked by the whole force of .the Northwestern tribes and disastrously defeated, with a loss of 600. men and thirty-five officers killed; while 200 men and twenty-five officers were wounded. So St. Clair's expedition was also a complete failure. FALLEN TIMBERS. The next year General Anthony Wayne was appointed to the command of the Army of the Northwest. In the spring of 1793, unsuccessful negotiations for peace were held with the tribes at the rapid's of Maumee, pursuant to offered mediation of Great Britain, now believed to have been insincere. In the meantime, General Wayne was perfecting his plans for a decisive campaign against the combined tribes, which, when fully organized, was conducted by him along practically the same route as that of St. Clair in 1781. On August 20, 1794, his forces, about one thousand strong, met the enemy at the rapids of the Maumee, at a place known as "Fallen Timbers," where a severe engagement took place, resulting in an overwhelming victory for the Americans. The enemy, about sixteen hundred strong, including, perhaps, two hundred British volunteers and regulars, was under the general command of Blue Jacket. Tecumseh led the Shawnees ; Little Turtle, the Miamis. Who led the Wyandots does not appear, but several of their chiefs were in the engagement, among whom was the great chief, Tarhe, the Crane, of Lower Sandusky, who was severely wounded in that engagement. TREATY OF GREENVILLE. Wayne's victory and events succeeding it, led to the treaty known as the Treaty of Greenville of August 3, 1795, signed by Anthony Wayne and by the several Sachems and war chiefs of the Northwestern tribes of Indians. The signature of Tarhe, the Crane, of the Wyandots is the first to appear, next under that of General Wayne. Indian hostilities ceased from the time of this treaty for a period of ten years, or until the uprising of the tribes under Tecumseh, immediately preceding the War of 1812, with Great Britain, in which he was also a conspicuous ally of the British, and a general in their army. The Wyandots of the Sandusky Valley did not join Tecumseh, nor take part' against the Americans in the War of 1812, but on the contrary were friendly and adhered to us throughout that war, as shown by the report of General Harrison to the secretary of War, March 22, 1814. The Detroit Wyandots, however, under the leadership .of 64 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY their chief, "Walk-in-the-Water," sided with Tecumseh, and allied themselves with the British. The Wyandots were admitted to be the leading-nation among the Indian tribes of the northwest, not because of numbers, but for the reason that they were more intelligent and more civilized in their manner of life. They were generally not so cruel toward their enemies in war, and were more humane in their treatment of captives than any of the other savages known to this region. To them was entrusted the Grand Calumet, which united all the Indians in that territory in a Confederacy for Mutual Protection and to assemble the tribes in council and to kindle the council fires. The Sandusky Valley, dominated by them, as we have seen, was an ideal Indian place of abode. Its waters and marshes were at certain seasons alive with wild fowl, the river teemed with fish and large game abounded in the forests on every hand. It was, indeed, suggestive to them of the "Happy Hunting Ground," in their hoped for "Land of the Hereafter." As to the name Wyandot, we have the authority of the American Bureau of Ethnology for saying, that it is the Anglicized form of their name, applied by themselves to the confederation of their four peoples, the Bear, Cord, Rock and Deer peoples of the nation of Owendots, Yendats or Wyandots, as Anglicized from their language or dialect ; and that the name Huron is of French derivation, and signifies, in the singular, a bristly savage, a wretch or lout—a ruffian and was probably applied to the confederation mentioned, with reference to the manner in which the hair and head ornament of these Indians were worn, and was therefore a nickname. The names Wyandot and Huron are quite frequently employed interchangeably by historians, in writing of this nation. But since their occupancy of this region the name Wyandot is generally used to designate them. The first treaty made with the Indians, affecting title to our valley, was that with the Wyandots, Delawares and Ottawas at Fort McIntosh, January 21, 1785, by which the boundary line between the United States and the Wyandot and Delaware Nations was to begin at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River (Cleveland) and run thence up that river to the portage between that and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum, then down the same to the forks at the crossing place above Fort Laurens; then westerly to the portage of the Big Miami, which runs into the Ohio, then along said portage to the Maumee River and northerly down the southeast side of the same to its mouth (Toledo), thence along the south shore of Lake Erie to the mouth of the Cuyahoga River where it began (Cleveland). All the land contained within these lines was allotted to the Wyandot and Delaware Nations, "to live and to hunt on," and to such of the Ottawa Nation as then lived thereon. There were certain reservations for the use and under the government of the United States for trading posts. Among these were a six-mile square tract on the Sandusky Bay, "where a fort formerly stood," and a two-mile square tract on each side of the lower rapids of Sandusky River (Fremont). All the lands east, south and west of the described line, were to belong to the United States. This treaty in substance was renewed, or reaffirmed, on the 9th day of January, 1789, at Fort Harmar, the Chippewa, Patawatima Nations joining therein. These treaties, however, were never fully carried into effect, on account of the continued Indian hostilities, instigated by the principal western tribes, who claimed that to make a treaty binding, all the tribes interested must join therein, and that inasmuch as they had not taken any part in these treaties and were interested they were not bound by them. As we have seen, the treaty of Greenville was finally signed by all of the warring tribes and brought peace between the settlers and Indians. HAMILTON COUNTY. The first county organization under federal government embracing our valley was that of Hamilton County, which came into existence by the proclamation of the territorial governor, Arthur St. Clair, January 2. 1790. It did not, however, at first extend this far north, but on February I 1, 1792, the boundaries of Hamilton County were extended to the then north boundary line of the territory, and included the AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 65 territory which is now Sandusky County. On the west it was bounded by Knox County, in northwest territory, now parts of Indiana and Michigan, and on the east side by a line which would be the west line of Huron and Erie Counties prolonged to the north boundary of Ohio (Vol. 2, page 31o, The St. Clair Papers). WAYNE COUNTY. "In 1796 Captain Porter with a detachment of troops from General Wayne's army took possession of Detroit and flung to the breeze the first American banner that ever floated over Detroit." On August 15, 1796, Winthrop Sargent, secretary of the Northwest Territory, the governor being, as he supposed, absent from the territory, by proclamation formed the county of Wayne, with Detroit as the seat of justice. The absence of the governor Would confer authority upon the secretary to so act. This county as formed embraced all the northwestern part of Ohio, west of the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas Rivers to Fort Laurens, a large tract in the northwestern part of Indiana, including Fort Wayne, a part of Illinois, including the site of Chicago, and the whole of the territory of Michigan. It was larger in extent than the present states of Ohio and Michigan. Peter Audrian was judge of probate, register of deeds, and justice of the peace of this vast county, which of course, included the Sandusky Valley. All lawsuits between inhabitants of our valley, within the jurisdiction of a justice's court, would have been required, by law, to be in the court of Peter Audrian as such justice. Probate of wills and settlement of estates were also within his exclusive jurisdiction. NORTHWEST TERRITORY DIVIDED. An Act of Congress, May 7, 1800, to take effect July 4th, following, divided the Northwest Territory, and created the territory of Indiana, making Vincennes the capital thereof. The dividing line began at the Ohio, opposite the mouth of the Kentucky River, thence to Fort Recovery, and thence north to the north boundary line of the United States. This division still left our region, with Detroit, in Wayne County. By Act of Congress, April 30, 1802, known as the "Enabling Act," authorizing the Ohio division of the Northwest Territory to form a Constitution, preparatory to admission as a state, the region including Detroit was attached to Indiana territory. No delegates from Wayne County to the Ohio Constitutional Convention were admitted, notwithstanding its inhabitants were counted to make up the required population. Our valley thereby once more became outside of any county organization, FRANKLIN COUNTY was formed by Act of the Legislature, March 30, 1803 (Vol. 1, p. 26), with the seat of justice at Franklinton (Columbus) and would seem to have embraced the Sandusky Valley; but there is a question whether its north boundary line was intended to be the "Indian boundary" line or the state line. In the Act referred to, after defining the west line, we find these words : "thence north with the said line until it intersects the state line" and then reads as follows : "thence eastwardly with the said line 66 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY to the northwest corner of Fairfield County," Now it is apparent that this last described line must have been a diagonal one to reach the point mentioned and could not have been the state line. So it would seem that the Legislature must have confused the state line with the Indian boundary line; and further, when the county of Delaware was subsequently formed by being taken from the north part of Franklin (1808) its northern boundary was defined to be the Indian boundary line. It is hardly supposeable that any portion of Franklin would have been purposely left detached from the main part, with Delaware lying between the main and detached portions. It seems, however, that there was some uncertainty, with reference to the question of boundary, for in 1809 the Legislature annexed to Delaware "all that part of Franklin County lying north of Delaware." Did this annexed AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 67 territory extend to the north boundary line of the state? DELAWARE COUNTY. was formed, as we have seen, in 1808 (Vol. 6, p. 29) and unless our valley was embraced in Franklin County, when first formed, it remained outside of any county organization from April 30, 1802, until 1809, when the addition to Delaware, which is believed to have embraced it, was made as before shown. RADNOR TOWNSHIP. That this annexed territory was intended to, and did, include our region, would appear from the fact that the county commissioners. of Delaware County on April 29, 1811, as recorded in their journal (Vol. 1, p. 35), passed the following resolutions : "Resolved by the Board of Commissioners of Delaware County in conformity to a petition from the white inhabitants of Sandusky and by the verbal request of some of the inhabitants of Radnor Township, that all that part of country, commonly known and called by the name of Upper and Lower Sandusky, shall be and now is attached to Radnor Township, enjoying township privileges so far as is agreeable to law.” HURON COUNTY was organized January 31, 1815 ( Vol. 13, P. 113). Section 3 of the Act organizing the same, attached to Huron County for judicial purposes, "all that part of the state of Ohio lying westwardly of Huron County, northwardly of the south line of the 'Connecticut Reserve extended westwardly and eastwardly of the east line of Champaign County, extended due north to the north line of the state." This included our valley. That the same had been regarded as being within Delaware County, as before stated, is evident from the further provision of Section 3, "that all suits and actions which shall have been commenced with the above described territory shall be prosecuted to final judgment and execution in Deleware County as though the territory had not been attached to Huron County." Avery was then the county seat of Huron 'County. In 1818 Norwalk became the seat of justice of that county. LOWER SANDUSKY TOWNSHIP was formed by County Commissioners Caleb Palmer, Charles Parker, and Eli Barnum of Huron County, at their first meeting for the county which was held at the house of David Abbot, August 1, 1815 ( Journal 1, p. 1). This township organized, as it was before the organization of Sandusky County, em-namely : All lands between the west line of Huron and the east lines of what are now Hancock, Wood and Lucas Counties, including Oregon and Jerusalem Townships, now in Lucas, and all north of the south boundary line of Seneca County to Lake Erie. The first election for township officers of this immense township was held in Lower Sandusky August 15, 1815, at the house of Israel Harrington on the west side of the river. The officers elected were, Israel Harrington, Randall Jerome and Jeremiah Everett (father of Homer Everett) trustees; Isaac Lee, clerk; Morris A. Newman and William Ford, overseers of the poor, and Charles B. Fitch and Henry Dubrow appraisers. CROGHAN TOWNSHIP. In Huron County Commissioners' Journal No. 1 of their proceedings is the following: "May 18, 1819, Commissioners met, to-wit : Joseph Strong and Bildad Adams. A petition was presented for a new township, therefore ordered that all that tract lying west of the "fire lands" (Huron County) and east of the Sandusky River is hereby set off and made a saparate township by the name of Croghan." Croghan Township, as will be observed, was formed after the treaty at the foot of the rapids of the Maumee was made, by which the title of the Indians was extinguished to all lands within the state of Ohio, then claimed by them, east of the west line thereof, and north of the Greenville treaty line, This treaty was in the nature of a purchase, and the lands included were known as "The New Purchase." The consideration passing from the United States, was as follows: To the Wvandots, who were the chief Indian parties concerned as to the Sandusky Valley, a perpetual annuity of $4,000, a tract of land twelve miles square at Upper Sandusky.and a tract one mile square on Broken Sword Creek (a tributary of the Sandusky River) ; to the Senecas, $500; to the Shawanees, $2,000; to the Pattawatimies an- 68 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY nually for fifteen years, $1,300; to the Ottawas annually for fifteen years, $1,000; to the Chippewas annually for fifteen years, $1,000, and to the Delawares, $500, but no annuity; to the Senecas, 30,000 acres on the east side of the Sandusky Rived, in what is now Sandusky and Seneca Counties, about one-third of which was in Sandusky, beginning at a point opposite the mouth of Wolf Creek, running thence east through the north parts of Sections 29, 28, 27, 26 and 25 in Ballville, and Sections 30, 29, 28, and into the west- part of Section 27 of Green Creek Townships, thence south to the Seneca County line. It also contains the 1280-acre tract reserved to Elizabeth Whitaker "on the west side of the Sandusky River below Croghansville," and the 160-acre tract reserved to Sarah Williams, Joseph Williams and Rachel Williams Nugent "on the east side of the Sandusky River below Croghansville, and to include their improvements at a place called Negro Point." By a subsequent treaty at St. Mary's, September 17, 1818 (7 Stat., p. 179), there was added to the Senecas, on the south side of the above reservation a tract of 10,000 acres, and to the Wyandots was ceded a tract about twelve miles square in northeast corner of Seneca County. On February 12, 1820, "The New Purchase" was carved into fourteen new counties. Sandusky was one of the fourteen to thus appear among the sisterhood of counties of the great state of Ohio. Croghansville was the temporary seat of justice, where public matters were conducted for a little more than two years, or until May 23, 1822, when the permanent county seat was located in the "Town of Sandusky," where, by the names successively of Sandusky, Lower Sandusky and Fremont, it has remained. CHAPTER V. LOWER SANDUSKY IN THE OLDEN TIME; SOME INTERESTING AFFAIRS. Innque-in-dundeh, or "Place of the Hanging Haze"—War Seat of Wyandots—Waterway From Lake Erie to Ohio River—French and English Military Expeditions—Major Israel Putnam— Dalyell Destroys Wyandot Villages—English Traders, Arundel and Robbins—Moravian Refugees—Running the Gantlet—British Post Here During Revolution—Remains of an Indian, Fort—Exploits of Captain Brady—Rescue of Peggy Fleming—Captives James Whitaker and Elizabeth Foulks and Their Marriage and Settlement —Virginia Slaves Taken to Negro Point—Indian Council Here Attended by Brant the Noted Chief of the Six Nations—Places of Refuge—Chief Joseph Brant—Letter From General Wayne to Tarhe. Among the many interesting events connected with this romantic and historic region in the days of the "long ago," the following are related, taken principally from the Editor's Historical Address at the Ninety-Third Anniversary of the Battle of Fort Stephenson, and in part published by the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society (Vol, XVI). At Lower Sandusky was one of the most important Wyandot villages named Junque-indundeh, which in the Wyandot language, noted for its descriptive character, as to the names of persons and places, signifies "At the place of the hanging haze or mist (smoke)," a name applicable and rather poetic when its site, with the surrounding forests, prairies and marshes, and the burning leaves and grass, are considered. Through this village passed one of the main Indian trails from Detroit and points west, through the wilderness to the upper Ohio River country; this place being 240 miles, by its zigzag course, from the Ohio River. There was also good navigation from here to Detroit and the Upper Lakes and a good waterway for canoes, with but a short portage between the Sandusky River and the Scioto, to the Ohio River. The streams then presented an almost even stage of water throughout the year, The timber was not cut, swamps were not drained, there were no dams, no canals, no utilization of water power. Innumerable small pools and swamps in the woods also held water, These discharged into sluggish creeks and rivers, and they in turn into the great waterways, It was possible to go in large canoes to the lake or come from thence to the Ohio at any season of the year. Entering the river from the bay the Indian, and later the white man, paddled his canoe up this stream to the falls at Lower Sandusky, where a haul around the lower rapids was made and the journey continued to a point about six miles from Bucyrus, Ohio, where there was a portage of four miles to the Scioto River; thence they pursued their course southward down the Scioto to the Ohio. The first written description we have of this route is by Col. Jas. Smith, who in 1755 was taken captive by the Indians, and passed from the mouth of the Sandusky River to the carrying place described, and from there with his captors to the southwest, and returning by this route in 1757 and thence by way of Sandusky River through Lower Sandusky to Lake Erie and thence to Detroit. 70 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY PLACES OF REFUGE. Here centuries ago, according to tradition, there were two fortified neutral towns. One on the east and one on the west bank of the river, remains of which, in the shape of earthworks were visible within the remembrance of inhabitants now living. Major B. F. Stickney, for many years Indian agent in this locality and familiar with its history and traditions, in a lecture in Toledo in 1845, speaking of these towns, said : "The Wyandots have given me this account of them. At a- periodof two and a half centuries ago all the Indians west of this point were at war with those east. Two walled towns were built near each other, inhabited by those of Wyandot origin. They assumed a neutral character. All of the west might enter the western city and all of the east the eastern. The inhabitants of one city might inform those of the other that war parties were there ; but who they were or whence they came or anything more must not be mentioned." Gen. Lewis Cass, in an address in 1829 before the Historical Society of Michigan, alluding to these neutral towns, said : "During the long and disastrous contest which preceded and followed the arrival of the Europeans, in which the Iroquois contended for vexistence, their enemies for existence,. this little band (Wyandots) preserved the integrity of their tribe and the sacred character of peacemakers.. All who met upon their threshold met as friends. This neutral nation was still in existence when the French missionaries reached the upper lakes two centuries ago. The details of their history and of their character and privileges are meager and unsatisfactory, and this is the more to be regretted as such a sanctuary among the barbarous tribes is not only a singular institution but altogether at variance with that reckless spirit of cruelty with which their wars are usually prosecuted." Internal feuds finally arose, as the tradition goes, and the villages were destroyed. Lower Sandusky was the principal war seat of the Wyandots, as the principal chief, Tarhe, the Crane, as we have seen, lived here. Upper Sandusky was their chief seat of government, their great Half King living there. Colonel Bouquet in the report of his expedition, made in 1764, mentioned the name of the village Junque-in-dundeh, which, however, he did not reach, but which was the southernmost point reached by Colonel Bradstreet and Israel Putnam, in their expeditions to and military service there. This spot was on the route pursued by military expeditions of France, England and our forefathers, and by the savage red man from the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi. Many Indian war parties brought their captives to Lower Sandusky, and from thence most of them were taken by water to Detroit and Canada. In the year 1778 Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton, then held captive by the In dians, passed through Lower Sandusky en route to Detroit. While the two-mile square tract, ceded to the Government of the United States by the Indians. as before mentioned, which has been within its jurisdiction military and civil now for 125 years, was the center of movements military and civil of this region, yet the term "Lower Sandusky" had a wider signification and included more territory than merely the two-mile square tract, which afterwards became the town or village of that name, the boundaries of which, as a village and city, have never been enlarged. The term or name was applied to all that region within the Sandusky River Valley north of the 41st parallel north latitude. In support of this conclusion reference is made to the action of the Delaware County Commissioners in annexing the region to Radnor Township, and the organization by the Huron County Commissioners of Lower Sandusky Township, as mentioned in a former chapter of this work ; also the case of the state of Ohio vs. Ne-go-sheek, Ne-gon-e-ba and Ne-gossum, three Ottawa Indians, indicted in Huron County for the murder of John Wood and George Bishop, white men, at a hunter's and trapper's camp on the Portage River at a point about twelve miles from its mouth near what is now Oak Harbor, in Ottawa County, April 21, 1819. The indictment was drawn and the prosecution conducted by Ebenezer Lane, assisted by Peter Hitchcock, both very AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 71 able lawyers and not likely to be mistaken in the averments as to the venue or place where the crime was committed, which, though known to have been several miles distant from the two-mile square tract, was nevertheless charged in the indictment as having been committed "At the county of Huron in Lower Sandusky." This was while this region was within the civil jurisdiction of Huron County prior to the erection of Sandusky County. EXPEDITION AGAINST NICOLAS. The first military expedition of white men to this place of which we have a record at the present time, was that of the French sent out by DeLongueuil, commandant at Detroit in 1748, during the conspiracy of Nicolas, the Wyandot chief who resided at Sandosket, on the south side of the bay of that name, and who had permitted English traders from Pennsylvania to erect a large blockhouse at his principal town in 1745. After the failure of his conspiracy, Nicolas resolved to abandon his towns on Sandusky Bay, and on April 7, 1748, destroyed his villages and forts, and with his warriors and their families moved to the Illinois country, as we have seen before. Soon after Major Rogers took possession of the western forts for the British, Ensign Paully was placed in command of Fort Sandusky and so remained until his capture and the massacre of his garrison and the destruction of the fort, May 16, 1763. As soon as the news of the capture of nine British forts reached the British authorities—Detroit and Fort Pitt alone escaping capture— expeditions were sent to relieve the latter and to reestablish British supremacy in the northwest. Captain Dalyell arrived at the ruins of Old Fort Sandusky in the fall of 1763 and then proceeded up the Sandusky River to the villages of the Hurons (Wyandots), at the lower rapids of the Sandusky River, and utterly destroyed the Indian villages located there. EXPEDITIONS OF BRADSTREET AND BOUQUET. In the following year (1764) the different expeditions of Bradstreet and Bouquet were sent out, Colonel Bradstreet's from Albany and Colonel Bouquet's from Fort Pitt. Brad-street's army consisted of 1,18o men, over half of whom, namely 766, were provincial troops from New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, under command of Major Israel Putnam. Bradstreet's army came in large, specially constructed water crafts and skirted along the south border of Lake Erie, on to Detroit ; from whence Bradstreet returned to treat with the Indians, who had agreed to meet him at the site of Old Fort Sandusky. His troops entered Sandusky Lake or Bay on September 18, 1764, and then encamped on a good clay bank one-half mile west of the spot where sixteen months before Pontiac had destroyed the fort, The Indians failing to appear, Colonel Bradstreet proceeded up the Sandusky River to the site of the villages of the Hurons Wyandots) and encamped on the west side of the river a mile below the lower rapids. It will, of course, be remembered that Israel Putnam, here at the time with Bradstreet, afterwards was one of the heroes at Bunker Hill and became a conspicuous soldier and general in the War of the Revolution. AN OLD INDIAN FORT. With Bradstreet's expedition was Capt. John Montresor, engineer, who kept a journal of the same, which we find published in the New York Historical Collection of 1881. At page 296, under date of September 22, 1764, he writes : "I went to the Huron village ( Junque-indundeh) and took a sketch of the bearings of that advantageous and beautiful situation and the meanderings of the river. Remarked, that the left of our encampment is contiguous to the remains of an old fort, where the Delawares and some western Indians took post to shelter themselves against the Iroquois nearly one hundred years ago—this constructed in the form of a circle 300 yards in circumference, one-half defended by the river and a remarkable hollow or gully which covers the left and parts of the front of our encampments." BUTLER'S RANGERS. The next military expedition of which we have knowledge which stopped at or passed through this place was the British contingent from Detroit known as Butler's Rangers, which served with the Indians in repelling Crawford's expedition, which culminated in the terrible scene of the execution of Craw- 72 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY ford by burning at the stake. This followed about two months after the passage of the Moravians through this place on their removal to Detroit, These Moravians were the noted missionaries to the Indians, Rev. David Zeisberger and Rev, John Heckewelder, who, with their wives and children and teachers, were driven from their peaceful mission villages in the Tuscarawas Valley in 1782, by order of the British commandant at Detroit, on the accusation of violating their neutrality as missionaries, by sending runners to the American commandant at Fort Pitt with information of hostile movements toward the Virginia border. The notorious Simon Girty with the Half King at Upper Sandusky were directed to remove them to Detroit, but having arranged an expedition to the Ohio, they appointed a French trader from Lower Sandusky, named Francis Lavelle, to accompany the refuges, with orders from Girty to him to drive them on foot around the head of the lake without even halting for the mothers to give nurse to their children. Lavelle, however, proved himself too humane to obey this brutal order, and instead of urging the party through the dreary wilderness, tarried at Lower Sandusky, sending a messenger to Detroit for further instructions; and in due time vessels were sent to transport the refuges to Detroit via the Bay and Lake. They embarked on April 14, 1782, for their destination. While at Lower Sandusky the Moravians were hospitably received into the homes of two English 'traders there by the name of Arundel and Robbins (Taylor, Ohio). The missionary band at Lower Sandusky consisted of the senior missionary, David Zeisberger, and his wife ; John Heckewelder, wife and child ; Senseman, wife, and babe but a few weeks old ; Youngman and wife, and Edwards and Michael Young, unmarried. The two latter were, while in Lower Sandusky, lodged in the house of Mr. Robbins. The other four missionaries with their families were guests of Mr. Arundel. RUNNING THE GANTLET. Heckewelder in his "History of Indian Nations" describes the ordeal of running the gantlet as follows : "In the month of April, 1782, when I was myself a prisoner at Lower Sandusky, waiting for an opportunity to proceed with a trader to Detroit, three American prisoners were brought in by fourteen warriors from the garrison of Fort McIntosh. As soon as they had crossed the Sandusky River to which the village lay adjacent, they were told by the captain of the party to run as hard as they could to a painted post which was shown to them. The youngest of the three without a moment's hesitation immediately started for it, and reached it fortunately without receiving a single blow ; the second hesitated for a moment, but recollecting himself, he also ran as fast as he could and likewise reached the post unhurt. The third, frightened at seeing so many men, women and children with weapons in their hands ready to strike him, kept begging the captain to spare him, saying that he was a mason and would build him a fine large stone house or do any work for him that would please him. "Run for your life," cried the chief to him, "and don't talk now of building houses !" But the poor fellow still insisted, begging and praying to the captain, who at last finding his exhortations vain and fearing the consequences turned his back upon him and would not hear him any longer. Our mason now began to run, but received many a hard blow, one of which nearly brought him to the ground, which, if he had fallen would have decided his fate, He, however, reached the goal, and not without being sadly bruised, and he was besides bitterly reproached and scoffed at all round as a vile coward, while the others were hailed as brave men and received tokens of universal approbation." "In the year 1782," says Heckewelder, "the war chief of the Wyandot tribe of Indians of Lower Sandusky sent a young white man whom he had taken as prisoner as a present to another chief who was called the Half King of Upper Sandusky, for the purpose of being adopted into his family in the place of one of his sons who had been killed the preceding year. The prisoner arrived and was presented to the Half King's wife, but she refused to receive him ; which according to the Indian rule was in fact a sentence of death. The young man was AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 73 therefore taken away for the purpose of being tortured and burnt on the pile. While the dreadful preparations were making and the unhappy victim was already tied to the stake, two English traders, moved by feelings of pity and humanity, resolved to unite their exertions to endeavor to save the prisoner's life by offering a ransom to the war chief ; which however he refused, saying it was an established rule among them to sacrifice a prisoner when refused adoption; and besides the numerous war captains were on the spot to see the sentence carried into execution. The two generous Englishmen, were, however, not discouraged, and determined to try another effort. They appealed to the well-known high-minded pride of an Indian. 'But,' said they, 'among all these chiefs whom you have mentioned there is none who equals you in greatness ; you are considered not only as the greatest and bravest, but as the best man in the nation.' Do you really believe what you say ?' said the Indian looking them full in the face. 'Indeed we do.' Then without speaking another word he blackened himself, and taking his knife and his tomahawk in his hand, made his way through the crowd to the unhappy victim, crying out with a loud voice, 'what have you to do with my prisoner?' and at once cutting the cords with which he was tied, took him to his house, which was near that of Mr. Arundel, whence he was secured and carried off by safe hands to Detroit, where the commandant sent him by water to Niagara, where he was soon after liberated. The Indians who witnessed this act said it was truly heroic ; they were so confounded by the unexpected conduct of this chief and by his manly and resolute appearance that they had not time to reflect upon what they should do, and before their astonishment was well over the prisoner was out of their reach." Another description of the same ordeal is related by Jeremiah Armstrong, who with an older brother and sister, was captured by the Indians in 1794 opposite Blennerhassett's Island and brought to this place. He says : "On arriving at Lower Sandusky, before entering the town, they halted and formed a procession for Cox (a fellow prisoner), my sister and myself to run the gauntlet. They pointed to the home of their chief, Old Crane (Tarhe), about a hundred yards distant, signifying that we should run into it. We did so and were received very kindly by the old chief ; he was a very mild man, beloved by all," CAPTAIN BRADY, During the war of the Revolution Capt. Samuel Brady was sent here by direction of General Washington to learn if possible the strength of the Indians in this quarter. He approached the village under cover of night and, fording the river, secreted himself on the island just below the falls. When morning dawned a fog rested over the valley, which completely cut off from view the shore from either side. About 11 o'clock a bright sun quickly dispelled the mist and the celebrated borderer became the witness from his concealment of a series of interesting horse races by the Indians during the time he remained on the island, from which he concluded that they were not then preparing for any hostile movements, and started to return and, after a perilous tramp of several days, reached the fort from which he had been sent out. This island where Brady secreted himself was known among the early settlers as Brady Island, though not in later times generally so designated. it contained about fifteen acres of land. It is suggested that it will now be in order to revive permanently the name. The Lake Erie and Western Railroad passes along the southern part of this island. Capt, Brady subsequently started on a scout towards the Sandusky villages as before and had arrived in the neighborhood, when he was made a prisoner and taken to one of the villages, most likely the one here. There was great rejoicing at the capture of Brady, and great preparation and parade were made for torturing him. The Indians collected in a large body, old and young, on the day set for his execution. Among them was Simon Girty, whom he knew, they having been boys together. Girty refused to recognie or aid him in any way, The time for execution arrived, the fires were lighted, the circle around him was drawing closer and he began sensibly to feel the effects of the fire. The wither Which confined 74 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY his arms and legs were getting loose and he soon found he could free himself. A fine looking squaw of one of the chiefs ventured a little too near for her own safety and entirely within his reach. By one powerful exertion he cleared himself from everything by which he was confined, caught the squaw by the head and shoulders, and threw her on the top of the burning pile, and in the confusion that followed made his escape. The Indians pursued, but he made good his escape, the crowning feat being his celebrated leap across the Cuyahoga River at the present site of Kent known as "Brady's Leap." (Tract 21, Western Reserve Historical Society.) NEGRO POINT. About the year 1780 a party of negroes were captured in Virginia and brought to the Sandusky River by the Indians, where they were held as slaves. They were placed in charge of a peninsular tract of land down the river from Lower Sandusky about four miles, which they cultivated for the Indians, no doubt to the great satisfaction of the squaws upon whom depended the menial labor. This place is known as "Nigger Bend," or sometimes more politely called "Negro Point." RESCUE OF PEGGY FLEMING. Charles Johnston, a Virginian of some prominence, was made a prisoner by the Indians on the Ohio River in 1790 and with a female prisoner named Peggy Fleming, was brought here, In a narrative by him published by J. & J. Harper, New York, in 1827, he says : "When we reached Lower Sandusky a great degree of consternation prevailed there, produced by the incidents of the preceding day and the morning then recently passed. The three Cherokees who had possession of Peggy Fleming had conducted her to a place where they encamped, within a quarter of a mile from the town. It was immediately rumored that they were there with a white female captive. The traders residing in the town instantly determined to visit the camp of the Cherokees to see her. Among them was a man whose name was Whitaker, and who had been carried into captivity from the white settlements on Fish Creek in Pennsylvania by the Wyandots in his early life and though naturalized by his captors retained some predilection for the whites. The influence which he had acquired with his tribe was such that they had promoted him to the rank of a chief and his standing with them was high. His business had led him frequently to Pittsburg, where the father of Peggy Fleming then kept a tavern in which Whitaker had been accustomed to lodge and board. As soon as he appeared he was recognized by the daughter of his old landlord and she addressed him by name and earnestly supplicated him to save her from the grasp of her savage proprietors. Without hesitation he acceded. Whitaker had won the sympathy and friendly cooperation of Tarhe, the principal chief, by the ruse that Peggy was his sister. Tarhe went immediately to the camp of the Cherokees and informed them that their prisoner was the sister of a friend of his and desired as a favor that they would make a present to him of Peggy Fleming, whom he wished to restore to her brother, but they rejected his request. He then proposed to purchase her; this they also refused with bitterness, telling him that he was no better than the white people and that he was as mean as dirt. He was greatly exasperated and went back to the town and told Whitaker what had been his reception and declared his intention to take her from the Cherokees by force, but fearing such an act might be productive of war between his nation and theirs, he urged Whitaker to raise the necessary sum for her redemption. Whitaker, with the assistance of other traders at the town, immediately made up the requisite amount in silver brooches. Early next morning, attended by eight or ten warriors, Tarhe marched out to the camp of the Cherokees, where they were found asleep, while their forlorn captive was securely fastened, ifi a state of utter nakedness, to a stake and her body painted black, an indication always decisive that death is the doom of the captive. Tarhe, with his knife, cut the cords by which she was hound, delivered to her her clothing, and after she was dressed awakened them and throwing down the silver brooches, the value of her ransom. they bore off the terrified girl to his town and delivered her to Whitaker. who after a few days sent her disguised to her home at Pittsburg under the care of two trusty Wyandots." The narrative proceeds to state that the Cherokees were so incensed at her rescue that they entered the town, threatened vengeance, walking painted as for war. All the whites except 'Whitaker, who was considered as one of the Wyandots, assembled at night in the same house, provided with weapons of defense, continuing together until the next morning, when the Cherokees disappeared. The narrator, Johnston, further says : "Lower Sandusky was to me distinguished by another circumstance. It was the residence of an Indian widow whose former husband I had been destined to succeed if the Mingo (in whose custody he had for a time been) had been permitted to retain and dispose of me according to his intentions. I felt an irresistible curiosity to have a view of this female, and it was my determination to find her dwelling and see her there, if no other opportunity should occur. She was at last pointed out to me as she walked about the village, and I could not help chuckling at my escape from the fate which had been intended for me. She was old, ugly and disgusting." It is further stated in the narrative that "Whitaker fought against the Americans when Gen. Wayne defeated the Indians at the Rapids of the Miami of the Lakes.' AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 75 FIRST WHITE SETTLERS HERE. James Whitaker, the rescuer of Peggy Fleming as before mentioned, was a trader at this post, and settled here on the river about two and a half miles below the rapids, where he lived and where he was buried. His tombstone, erected in the family burying ground, is still in existence and from the inscription thereon it is shown that he died December 17, 1804, in the 48th year of his age, which of course, would make the date of his birth in the year 1756. His wife was Elizabeth Foulks, who, like himself, was a captive and had been adopted by the Wyandots. They went from here to Detroit to be married but the fact and exact date do not appear of record. The fact, however, of their marriage and settlement on the river just below Lower Sandusky, and the births of the children in the order thereafter named, together with their names is shown by highly credible family traditions. Some of their descendants are at this time living in this vicinity, who are not further removed in kinship then grandchildren, to whom the facts mentioned have been related in their families. Mr. John P. Moore, now living on a part of the "Whitaker Reserve," says he was well acquainted with several persons who personally knew Whitaker and his family, from whom he learned the history of the marriage and names and order of births of the children. Hildreth, in his "Pioneer History," gives an account of the capture of Daniel Conyers in April, 1791, who on May 9th following was taken to "Lower Sandusky," where there was a large Indian village, and his captors moved down the river and stopped a short time at Mr, Whitaker's, an Indian trader. He had a white wife who, like himself, was taken prisoner in childhood from western Virginia and adopted into the tribe (Wyandots.) The trader made them a present of a loaf of maple sugar, Whitaker said but little to the prisoner lest he should excite the jealousy of the warriors. The marriage of Whitaker and his wife, however, must have been prior to 1790, the date when the rescue of Peggy Fleming occurred, for, their fourth child, Mary, who became the wife of George Shannon, was born in 1791, as is shown from the inscription on her tombstone in the same family burying-ground here. This inscription reads : "In memory of Mary, wife of George Shannon, who died August 15, 1827, in the 36th year of her age." Mary being the fourth child in order of birth, and born as we have seen in the next year after the rescue of Peggy Fleming, proves that James Whitaker was married before 1790 long enough to have born to him by Elizabeth, his wife, the three older children, which in all human probability would bring the date of his marriage at least five years prior to 1790. This is assuming that six years elapsed between his marriage and the birth of Mary, which, as we have seen, was in the year 1791, she being his fourth child. The names of the three children older than Mary were Isaac, Elizabeth and James. Those born after Mary were Charlotte, Rachel, Nancy and George Whitaker. There is no record to be found of the dates of the births of the children named except the inscription on Mary's tombstone. James Whitaker and his wife were permanent settlers here as early as 1785. Elizabeth Whitaker survived her husband many years, living on the same lands on which she and her husband first settled after their marriage. Her will, dated February 15, 1833, was admitted to probate in this county September 13, 1833, in which are mentioned the names of several of her children, including Isaac and James, the latter being her executor. In her will among other things mentioned as her property is "A chest containing valuable articles." And from the inventory of her estate as recorded, the following articles of silver were 'found in a chest : Silver castor, cruets, table spoons, sugar tongs, Indian arm-band and shoe-buckles. In the treaty with the Indians, September 29, 1817, at the foot of the rapids of the Maumee is the following among other reservations by the Indians : "To Elizabeth Whitaker, who was taken prisoner by Wyandots and has ever since lived among them, twelve hundred and eighty acres of land on the west side of the Sandusky River below Croghansville, to be laid off in a square form as nearly as the meanders of the said river will admit and to run an equal distance above and below the house in which the said Elizabeth Whit- 76 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY aker now lives." A deed was made to her by the Government in 1822 for these lands containing the restriction that she should not convey the same to others without permission from the President of the United States. This permission she obtained from President Monroe and in 1823 for the consideration named in the deed of $1,200 conveyed the whole tract to her son, George Whitaker, A BRITISH POST HERE IN 1782. During the Revolutionary War the British established a post here, as is evidenced by the following extract from an order issued by Brig. Gen. Irvine, dated at Fort Pitt, November, I1, 1782, to Major Isaac Craig: "Sir I have received intelligence from various channels that the British have established a post at Lower Sandusky," etc. (Washington-Irvine Correspondence, p. 138.) CHIEF JOSEPH BRANT. This famous Indian war chief of the Six Nations was here in 1793, according to Drake's Indians of North America." At a great council held at Niagara in April, 1793, by the chiefs of most of the Western Nations, Brant was appointed to call a grand council to meet the Americans upon the "south side of Lake Erie," to consider the boundary question, upon which peace or war depended. This council, according to Drake, was held at Sandusky in July following. The "Sandusky" referred to by Drake doubtless was Lower Sandusky, this being as before mentioned, the Indian War seat. Before attending this council, Brant had given it as his opinion, that no peace could take place until the Ohio and Muskingum should be made the boundary between the Americans and the redmen. It was, of course, not agreed to, and hostilities followed with the results already mentioned, the overthrow by General Wayne of the hostile nations involved. GENERAL WAYNE TO TARHE. "To Tarhe and all the other Sachems and War Chiefs at Sandusky : "Brothers :—You express some apprehension of injury from some of the hostile tribes on account of the part you have lately taken. Your father General Washington, the President of the fifteen Fires of America, will take you under his protection and has ordered me to defend his dutiful children from any injury that may be attempted against them on account of their peaceable disposition towards the United States, and for which purpose he will order a fort or fortification to be built at the foot of the rapids of Sandusky on the reserved lands as soon as the season and circumstances will permit. "ANTY. WAYNE. " Major General and Commander in Chief of the Legion of the U. S. Commissioner Plenipotentiary of the said United States for settling a permanent peace with all Indian Tribes and Nations northwest of the Ohio. "Greenville, 1st January, 1795." (Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society.) INTERESTING OLD LETTERS. Further glimpses into Lower Sandusky life during the Revolutionary period, may be had from the following letters by English traders at this post to their agents at Detroit. .These, with other letters, have been but recently obtained by Mr. C. M. Burton of Detroit, who kindly furnished them for use in this chapter, Abbreviations, capitals, spelling and punctuation are given as in the originals. The name of the famous Chief Brant, and the infamous Girty, McKee, Elliott and other white renegades will be observed. Also that of James Whitaker and his marriage at this place to a white prisoner girl, and his provisions for her comfort and pleasure. Sandusky, 25th July, 1772. Sir. We have sent you by Mr. Mercer one pack of Beaver in which we think there is 93 lb of Good and 16 lb not so Good also 9 Good others the prices are as follows the Good Beaver 9/ the other 6/ others 22/ if you please to Take the Pack at those Rates its yours otherwise Mr. Mercer has orders to stow it up Till we Come up to Detroit which we expect will be in Latter end of Sept the value of the Pack is fifty five Pounds eleven shillings which you will Cr our acct for if you Take it. We are Sir your Hble. Servt. Boyle & Williams" "To Mr. Thos Williams." Arundel to _____ Detroit. "In a letter dated "Lower Sandusky 19th July 1779" quite badly mutilated can be gathered that Wm. Arundel wrote to a Detroit party informing them that he had arrived at Lower Sandusky the 17th July; that Six Indians belonging to this village had gone to war from the Upper Town. Arundal to Thos. Williams, Detroit. "Lower Sandusky 14th April 1782 "Sir I was favored with yrs pr the Sergt and with regard to the Horses, will Make it known to Mr Dawson pr the first oppty altho I have heard they are not to be Purchased from S. Gerty whose Comrade is the Proprietor AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 77 The Horse Cantuc I have never Rec'd from Whitaker as he lost him. But I have heard of him and sent an Indian for him who is not yet returned You'l in Case he'd not yet take Notice as they May take him to Detroit I am Yr hble Servt. W. Arundel." Arundal to Thos. Williams, Detroit. "Sandusky 24th April 1782 Sir You'l please Receive the Packs as Mentioned I Could not head the two Boats in at prest as we are under the necessity of Keeping one here in Case of Danger from the enemy to cut and Run upon the first Notice of their approach, the Peltry has not come from the Shawnee country nor will be all here until the Latter end Next Month Its thought there will be a quantity, the reason its not here is the roads was impractible this Winter and the woods all Burnt in the fall so thers no food for the horses Whitaker begs you'll be so good as to send him 8 Galls of Rum & Charge it to him as he expects to he in he'll pay you then You'l please send the two Hd flour and two pounds Boheatea The News of the Place here is pr the Prisnrs Brot in the Spring & from Different parts is that great preparations are making to Come against the Indian Country * * * The Defeat of Lord Cornwallis to the Southwd by the F & A has given them a notion & its resolved on the French Fleet to Come round Quebec and the A by way of Lake Champlain. * * * I have got this of the Prisoners they seem to be Stanch Americans and Cannot Bear to hear anything by any of the rest here but in their favor a Sund'y last they adopted two of them Brot in by Coone & party one was Re'cd & and the other was to be in the place of the 1/2 Kings Son killed last fall who was refused and ordd by the half King to be given over to the Munceys to be Burnt of killed to be in revenge for his son, but was prevented by a belt I gave him & is now with the People that Brot him in Coone acted very well in this affair * * * Wm. Arundel" "You'l please send a Good Oyl'd Cloth for if we have to run we will want it" From Arundal & Dawson. "May 23 1782 Sir Inclosed you have a Draft on Mr. Macomb for 32„ 11„ 3 which when paid please place to our Credit and oblige Yr. Hble Srvt A & Dawson." "Jas Whitaker would be Much obliged to Mr. Williams to send him the Kegg full of Rum & One HundFlour for which he'll pay him the first time he goes to the Fort. Sandusky 23rd May 1782." "Sandusky 17th June 1782— Sir Inclosed you have the Late Frans Le Vellie's Private acct amounting to ____ and 8 Livers & Likewise an account of Sundrys for the use of the Indians as Stated in the Acct amt 244 Livers and a small acct against Govt of 19" 10" 6 furnished as per Do the Wampum was for to save the life of the Boy sent in our Boat. There is here a Cow & three Horses belonging to the Late Le Vallie which I cannot get from the Woman he kept, Capt Caldwell seems to decline having any- * The blank above was unintelligible. thing to do in regard of Getting them from her for reason as he does not Chuse to affront any of them the present times will not admit of it In the meantime I shall do all in my Power to get the Horses & Cow from the Indian Woman" W. Arundel" William Dawson to Thos. Williams, Detroit, under date of 17th July, 1782, writes : "Pleas excuse haste, the hurry at present of Capt Brandt is to join Capt Calwell at the Upper Sandusky is the reason the Boat just now going from the vessell." I am &c Wm Dawson" Robins to ______ Sandusky 23rd July 1782 "Sir I suppose you have the affair of Mr Kays to Transact send you in care of James Snowden twenty-six packs of Peltry the Quality you will see by the Inclosed Invoice and I think they are of Tolerable good kind for Sandusky We should be glad to know Wheth'r you will have up a Large Quantity of Indian goods this Summer and if Agreeable to you we would take one out-fitt from you this Fall as you have Some Connections here and we are Connected at the Upper Town and the Shawnee Town so that all the Trade from this place would come into your hand, this makes 130 packs we have sent on this Summer. Mr. McCormick is in the Campaign of Captn Caldwell. I have no more to trouble you with from this quarter I remain Sir your most obedient humble Servant Obediah Robins-" To Thos Williams Lower Sandusky 20th Aug 1782 Sir : I Recd from Wm Dawson the other day a small Horse Load Peltry with an order for Goods & Silver Works Sugar &c he says there's a great deal of it made at the Chauney Town he has not seen the Captn McKee Caldwell or Elliott since his arrival there as they with 20 Riflemen Indian officers and 100 Indians were gone to Cantuc Town Capt Brant told him that Elliott said he'd stand to his bargain. W. Arundel." In a letter August 31, 1782, Arundal orders things sent forward to Elliott and says : "add 4 ps Good Stroud extraordinary 4 Doz Scalp'g Knives 2 Doz pr Scissors, the Rangers by Captn Caldwells Letter will be here in 6 or 7 days as this party of Indians are arrived from them at whose request I lend the Boat and send Jno. Dumford in her" Arundel to Thos. Williams and _____ "Gentlemen Please send 4 Galls Rum & let me know the price as its for Dawson Whitaker would be obliged to you if you'd please send him the same Quantity and Charge to his acct- Directing the Kegg for him he has married a white prisoner Girl lately with the above intends to get her entirely clear from the Indians Mr Robins married them 78 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY I am with Compts to Mrs Wms Gentlemen your Hble Servt  Wm Arundel." Whitaker to Thos. Williams, Detroit. "Sandusky 20 May 1783 Sir I shall be glad you will send 1 Kegg of Rum 4 Gallons and 1 of 2 Gallons 1 White Beaver Hatt for my Wife and 2 Black Beaver Hatts 1 lb Bohea Tea the Tea you sent Mr. Dawson to the Shawney Town Rec Y4 only the tea please Charge Mr Dawson & C I am Sir your humble Servt J. Whitaker." Dawson to Thos. Williams, Detroit. "Sandusky 7th June 1783 Sir I shall be glad you would send 50.00 of Bal on Bar Lead I have been under the necessity of Borrowing a trifle of Simon Girty as he is a Man that I should not want to disappoint in Paying Please send it if possible this Day and herewith Goods and interest for the Money. My Compls to Mrs Williams William Dawson." CHAPTER VI. LOWER SANDUSKY IN THE WAR OF 1812. Peace of Greenville Broken—British Intrigue With Tecumseh and Blue Jacket—Battle of Tippecanoe—England's Offensive Acts—Hull Appointed to Command of Troops—War With England Declared—Hull's Surrender of Detroit—Battle of the Peninsula—Post at Lower Sandusky abandoned----Protection of the Frontiers—Movements of Troops Under Gen. Harrison in the Sandusky and Maumee Valleys—Stockade at Lower Sandusky Repaired and Gen. Perkin's Brigade Sent There—Harrison's Plan for Invasion of Canada—Gen. Winchester's Disaster at River Raisin—Fortifying Position at, Camp Meigs—Langham's Desperate Expedition—Colonel Johnson's Mounted Regiment— Fourth of July at Lower Sandusky—Siege of Fort Meigs Abandoned—Preparation to Attack Fort Stephenson—Order to Major Croghan to Abandon the Fort and his Reply - Croghan. Relieved of and Restored to his Command—Ball's Battle Ground—Defense of Fort Stephenson—Names of Defenders.—Description of the Fort and its Site and Origin of Name—Perry's Victory—Invasion of Canada—Success of Our Army—Defeat of Proctor at the Thames and Death of Tecumseh. Prior to and following the defense of Fort Stephenson by Major George Croghan, Lower Sandusky was the theater of important and interesting events closely related to the War of 1812. The peace which followed the treaty of Greenville was not as permanent as had been hoped for, The British continued their intercourse with the Indians, and schemed to excite and keep alive in them hostile feelings against the Americans. The chiefs, Little Turtle and Blue Jacket were the leaders among the Northwestern tribes. After the treaty of Greenville, however, Little Turtle had continued friendly, but his influence was not sufficient to induce these tribes to follow him in his friendly attitude. Blue Jacket was hostile in his feelings and thirsted for revenge against the Whites, and hoped by the promised aid of the British, to regain the lands which had been ceded by the treaty of Greenville. His influence increased while that of Little Turtle decreased. He associated with him the noted Shawnee chief, Tecumseh. Their leading principles and policy were to combine all the tribes together in one confederacy ; to prevent the sale of their lands by any single tribe, and to join the British in the event of the then expected war with the United States, with a view to revenge and the recovery of their ceded lands. They claimed that the United States had, by the Greenville Treaty, acknowledged title jointly, in all the tribes, and therefore had no right to purchase lands from any single tribe, without consent of the other joint owners. Blue Jacket having died, Tecumseh pursued their schemes with great industry and ability. He visited all the tribes west of the Mississippi, and on Lakes Superior, Huron and Erie, in his effort to induce them to join his conspiracy against the Americans. It is believed upon a well-founded tradition, that he visited Lower Sandusky in his itinerary, and endeavored to induce the Wyandots here to join him, but without success. His operations at first were confined mostly within the Wabash country, and culminated there as to that part of the country in the battle of Tippecanoe, Indiana, in 1811, where - 79 - 80 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY the Indians met defeat. Tecumseh was not present at this engagement, but absent on his mission of conspiracy among the tribes, While this defeat quieted generally the hostile tribes in that region, it did not have the effect of changing the purposes of Tecumseh and his followers among the savages, In the spring of 1812, they began to put their threats into execution; and depredations were committed against the frontiers of Indiana Territory and Ohio. Settlers were massacred and a general feeling of alarm and insecurity of life and property prevailed. In the meantime, our relations with Great Britain were becoming more critical. England, as we know, was then engaged in a war with France, and it was with difficulty she could get her own people to enter her navy; it was customary to send gangs of sailors ashore in England in the night time to seize and force men into her service. She would stop our ships and take American seamen out of them and force them to fight her battles. Her excuse was that they were British subjects who had deserted and entered our service, which was probably the fact in some cases, but England made no discrimination, and took any able-bodied sailor she chose. England denied that a British subject could become an American citizen. Thousands of our citizens had been thus kidnaped, and England refusing to desist from these outrages, Congress, in the summer of 1812, declared war against her, It was the purpose of the government in the event of war, to attack Canada, and if we were successful, to annex it to the United States. General William Hull, governor of Michigan Territory, had been ordered to proceed to Urbana, Ohio, and with the troops which were provided and to be placed at his command, to march to Detroit. This was before the actual declaration of war by Congress. Hull had served in the Revolution, and Washington had spoken of him as an officer of great merit. In order to reach Detroit, it was necessary for Hull to accomplish the tremendous work of opening through forests and swamps, 200 miles of road, over which 'to march his army. He did it, however, and reached Detroit before he had received news that war had been declared. The enemy, however, had heard it and had cut off most of the supplies of provisions and powder that he was expecting to secure on his arrival. This made his situation a serious one. The forests back of Detroit were full of hostile savages; in front was the English general, Brock, with a force of Canadians and Indians. Brock demanded a surrender, which was granted by Hull without the firing of a gun, and thus Detroit and the whole territory of Michigan capitulated to the British. It is not within the scope of this work, to go into further particulars concerning this disgraceful affair. Hull was court-martialed, tried, convicted of cowardice, and sentenced to be shot, but President Madison, April 26, 1814, pardoned him on account of his services in the Revolutionary War, and on that day his name was stricken from the military rolls at Washington. Hull's surrender left the frontiers of northwestern Ohio at every point exposed to the depredations of the merciless savages, and consternation prevailed everywhere in all the settlements. Among 'the first hostile demonstrations of the Indians in our region, was on the peninsula near the site of Port Clinton, where a severe skirmish occurred, an interesting account of which we give from Hardesty's Atlas of Ottawa County. BATTLE OF THE PENINSULA. E. W. Bull died in the city of Cleveland in the autumn of 1812 from fever which he brought on by exposure and over-exertion in fleeing before the Indians when they attacked the peninsula after Hull's surrender.. Prior to this event—Hull's surrender—the inhabitants of this peninsula, although suffering many privations and enduring hardships peculiar to life in the wilderness, nevertheless succeeded well, all things considered, and were looking forward hopefully, even sometimes joyfully, to the better days and brighter prospects which fortunately are always just before us. But when this barrier which stood up to protect them from the foe (the savage, merciless Indian, goaded on by the British authorities) fell, they saw nothing left them but in flight. While thinking of this and counseling together they saw vessels loaded with men nearing the shore, and supposing them to be British and Indians, they were filled with consternation and resolved upon a speedy exit from the peninsula. There were in all thirteen families, who, seizing boats, canoes and anything upon which they could float, started for Sandusky, then known as Ogontz Place, where there was but one log trading house, the only building then erected where the city now stands. AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 81 The names of the parties thus fleeing to Ogontz Place, as given by Dr. A. H. Agard, to whom we are indebted for these facts and to whom we desire here to express our obligations, were Benajah Wolcott and family, Charles Peck, E. W. Bull. H. Patch, Saunders, with wife and two babies—twins ; Major Parsons, George Bishop, Joseph Ramsdell, Abiathar Sherley, Dr. Parks. Col. Peter P. Ferry, Ezra Lee, and Messrs. Herrick, Cooper and Woolsey. The next day they learned that the men whom they had seen approaching the shore in vessels were our own soldiers who had been surendered by Hull and had been paroled by the British and were on their way to their homes. But this news only postponed the event for a few days, for the Indians, as soon as the surrender was known to them, began to prepare for hostile operations in this direction. The settlers returned with their boats to carry away or conceal their property as best they could, knowing that all would be destroyed or carried off by the enemy if not speedily secured. A volunteer company under Capt. Joshua Cotton came on to the peninsula in September, 1812. He was ordered by General Perkins early in September to proceed in boats with a number of soldiers across the bay and to land on the peninsula and proceed from thence to the "Two Harbors" on the opposite side to look after some wheat and other property there. On landing, a guard was detached by Captain Cotton to take care of the boats. On his march back toward the boats he was attacked by the Indians who were concealed in the high grass. On reaching the Bay the guard, believing that "distance would lend enchantment to the view," had fled with the boats, leaving their companions to the uncertain chances of battle and the mercies of a wild and savage foe. The survivors took possession of a log house (not the blockhouse, for it had been destroyed) and resisted as best they could during the night. The cowardly creatures who had escaped with the boats related the peril of their comrades and John S. Read and Captain Quigley, who had heard the news the next morning, at once started to the field of battle, calling upon every man they met to join them, and on the entire route not a man refused the call. At the mouth of Huron River they met Amos Spafford moving his family to Cleveland. At their request Mr. Spafford unloaded his boats and they all started for the peninsula, where they arrived at midnight, and concealed themselves until morning. when they made for the log-house and found, to their joy, thirty-seven of our brave boys alive but nearly starved, having had nothing to eat for over three days. In this skirmish Valentine Ramsdell. Daniel Mingus, Alexander Mason and a man named Simmons were killed. Those wounded were Judge Eldred, severely; Mr. Mandham, slightly; and Captain Ramsdell, a Revolutionary soldier. Horace Ramsdell gathered up all the bones of these slain heroes that he could find, two years after they had fallen, and buried them at a point near Fox's- Dock. The place is marked by a stone bearing their names, erected to their memory by Hon. Joshua R. Giddings, who participated in this battle, being then but 19 years of age. Mr. Giddings will long be remembered as a prominent anti-slavery leader in Congress. He and the survivors of this battle agreed to meet on the tragic spot fifty years from that day, if alive. Just fifty years from the date of the battle Mr. Giddings alone appeared on the ground, the balance of the little company having stacked their arms on the eternal camping ground on the other shore, where the great soul of Mr. Giddings has since joined them. Peace to their ashes ! He visited Danbury Township in 1862 and erected the stone which bears the names of the killed in the battle, at the time of this visit. After the declarations of peace, the settlers, many of them, returned to their homes on the peninsula, or rather, to the sites of their former homes, for everything of value was either carried off or destroyed by fire. Hon. Joshua R. Giddings, in an article published in "The Firelands Pioneers," May, 1859, on this skirmish has the following reference to Lower Sandusky: "About the 25th of September, Major Frazier with about one hundred and fifty men, was detached with orders to proceed as far as Lower Sandusky. At that place there had been a stockade erected for the defense of those who resided there. This post was deserted upon the surrender of General Hull at Detroit and remained unoccupied until Major Frazier took possession. This stockade was extended during the winter following and dignified by the name of Fort Stephenson. From this point Major Frazier sent forward Captain Parker with about twenty volunteers as far as the mouth of Portage River. After the declaration of war, and while Hull was in possession of Detroit, provisions to a small amount had been collected at Sandusky, to be forwarded on for the support of his army. These provisions had been left when the fort was abandoned." To do justice to the history of Lower Sandusky, relative to events military in character, would require more space than can be allotted to that subject in our volume, considering the other important matters requiring space. We are therefore giving only the more important 'facts and incidents connected with that part of our history; and for these which follow, where not otherwise noted, we are indebted largely to the pages of a rare and reliable work entitled, "History of the Late War in the Western Country," by Robert B. McAfee, Lexington, Kentucky, published in 1816. The author was an officer in the War of 1812-15 with Col. Richard M. Johnson's regiment of mounted men. He was therefore qualified from. personal knowledge and association with Colonel Johnson and General Harrison and others to write an accurate history of the events narrated by him in his history. DIVISIONS AND MOVEMENTS OF TROOPS. The troops moving on the line of operations which passed from Delaware by Upper to Lower Sandusky, composed of the brigades from Virginia and Pennsylvania, and that of Perkins from Ohio, were now designated in 82 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY general orders and, commonly known as the Right Wing of the army. General Harrison continued his headquarters at Franklinton and Delaware. Early in October, 1812, he ordered all the recruits of the regular army in the Western States to be marshaled to the frontiers, Those in Ohio were to be commanded by Colonel Campbell; the Tennessee recruits by Colonel Anderson, or some field officer of his regiment. Harrison was informed by Generals Perkins and Beall, belonging to a detachment of Ohio Militia under General Wadsworth in the northwestern parts of the state, that the opening of a road from a point near Mansfield to Lower Sandusky, in which they had been engaged by orders of Governor Meigs, was forbidden by General Wadsworth, and that a road from Sandusky to the Rapids would be impassable unless causewaved for a distance of fifteen miles. This information induced General Harrison to set out immediately to make a personal examination into the state of affairs in that quarter. He found Wadsworth commanding B00 men near the mouth of Huron River and 500 more under Beall, near Mansfield. The two corps were consolidated under Perkins, with orders to proceed to Lower Sandusky and open a road thence to the Rapids, making the causeways required. Harrison, writing to the War Department, November 15th, says : "An idea can scarcely be formed of the difficulties with which land transportation is effected north of the 40th degree of latitude in this country. The country beyond that is almost a continual swamp to the Lake. Where the streams run favorable to your course a small strip of better ground is generally found, but in crossing from one river to another the greater part of the way at this season is covered with water. Such is actually the situation of that space between the Sandusky and the Miami Rapids, and from the best information that I could acquire whilst I was at Huron the road over it must be causewayed at least one-half of the way." STOCKADE AT LOWER SANDUSKY REPAIRED IN 1812. Early in December, 1812, a detachment of Perkins' Brigade arrived at Lower Sandusky and repaired an old stockade which had been erected to protect an Indian store, formerly established at that place by the Government. Soon afterwards the whole of the brigade arrived at that post, General Harrison, under dates of January 4 and 8, 1813, writes : "Considering the Miami Rapids as the first point of destination, provisions were ordered to be accumulated along a concave base, extending from St. Mary's on the left to the mouth of the Huron and afterward Lower Sandusky on the right. From this base the Rapids could be approached by three routes or lines of operation, two of which were partly effectually secured by posts which were established and the positions taken upon the third. My plan of operation has been and now is to occupy the Miami Rapids and to deposit there as much provisions as possible ; to move from thence with a choice detachment of the army—make a demonstration toward Detroit, and by a sudden passage of the strait upon the ice an actual investiture of Malden." This plan of operations was not carried out owing to bad roads and unfavorable weather conditions. On January loth, General Winchester arrived with his army at the Rapids and estate• lished his camp, of which he informed General Harrison by express sent to Lower Sandusky, but the message was delayed before reaching Harrison who was then at Upper Sandusky and was not received till the 14th of January. General Winchester on the 17th detached Colonel Lewis with 300 men for the River Raisin. A few hours afterward Lewis was followed by Colonel Allen with 110 more, who came up with him late in the evening, when he had encamped at Presque Isle. Information was received from Colonel Lewis. at Presque Isle a distance of twenty miles in advance, that there were 400 Indians at the River Raisin, and that Colonel Elliott was expected at Malden with a detachment to attack the camp at the Rapids. A dispatch to General Harrison by the way of Lower Sandusky was forwarded concerning these matters. January 16th, General Harrison received a letter from General Perkins from Lower Sandusky, enclosing one he had received from Winchester of the 15th wanting Perkins to send him a battalion from the Lower Sandusky. This intelligence alarmed Harrison and he immediately gave orders for the artillery to advance by the way of the Portage River, accompanied by a guard of 300 men commanded by Major Orr. An express was dispatched to the Rapids by General Harrison for information with orders to return and meet him at Lower Sandusky, for which AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 83 place he set out the next morning- himself, and arrived there on the following night. He found that Perkins had prepared a battalion with a piece of artillery to be commanded by Major Cotgrove, which was ordered to march on the 18th. General Harrison now determined to follow it himself and have a personal consultation with General Winchester, At 4 o'clock on the morning of the 19th he received the letter in which Winchester informed him of the advance to the river Raisin. He immediately ordered the remaining regiment of Perkins' brigade to march to the Rapids and proceeded there himself. He arrived on the morning of the 20th at the Rapids and found there that General Winchester had proceeded the evening before to the river Raisin. "Cotgrove was so retarded by a swamp on the road and other obstacles to his progress, that he reached no farther than the Maumee Bay on the night of the 21st. By marching early next morning he arrived within fifteen miles of the river Raisin where he was met by the fugitives from the massacre ; at that terrible disaster our loss was about three hundred killed; massacred and missing. Only thirty-three escaped to the Rapids. The British took 547 prisoners and the Indians about forty-five. The loss of the enemy is believed to have been in killed and wounded between three and four hundred." Movements against Malden were in consequence of Winchester's defeat abandoned for the season. "The attention of Harrison was now directed to the fortifying of his position at the fort of the Rapids ; to the distribution of the troops which would remain after discharge of the Kentucky and Ohio Corps; and to the accumulation of provisions at his present post for the next campaign. It was necessary to wait for the opening of the river the next spring to bring down by water the immense stores accumulated at St. Mary's and Auglaize. From Lower Sandusky there was some progress made in transportation by going round on the ice of Sandusky and Maumee Bays and border of the lake. At Upper Sandusky a company of regulars was placed, and another at Lower Sandusky. The balance of all the troops, except those mentioned, and troops at St. Mary's and Auglaize and on the Hull Road, were placed at the Rapids, when they amounted to fifteen hundred or eighteen hundred men, which General Harrison deemed not sufficient for such an important post. Instructions for putting up picketing and building block houses were given, which being done it was named Camp Meigs. * * * * * * * "A sham battle by the enemy occurred near Fort Meigs having for its object to draw out the force from the fort, but it failed of its purpose and on the 28th the British and Indians raised the siege and embarked for the Sandusky Bay." LANGHAM'S DESPERATE EXPEDITION. General Harrison while at Fort Meigs, considering the destruction of the enemies' vessels at Malden as an object of great importance, and one that might be accomplished by an expedition over the ice, prepared for such an expedition. The force was placed under the command of Captain Langham, consisting of regulars, Virginia and Pennsylvania militia, and a few Indians, making with the officers, 242 men, who had volunteered, not knowing the nature of the expedition, only that it was perilous. On the 26th of February, General Harrison addressed them and informed them that they when had got a sufficient distance from the fort they would be informed of the errand they were upon, and then that all who wished to return might do so, but not afterwards. The corps took up their line of march and concentrated at the site of Lower Sandusky, where there was then a blockhouse, garrison by two companies of militia. On March 2, they left the blockhouse with six days' provisions, and when they had proceeded about half a mile Captain Langham ordered -a halt, and informed them of the object of the expedition, which was to move down to Lake Erie, cross over to Malden on the ice and in the darkness of the night to destroy with combustibles the British Fleet and the public stores on the bank of the river. This done, they were to retreat in their sleighs to the point of the Maumee Bay, where their retreat was to be covered by a force under Harrison. Captain Langham gave liberty for all who 84 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY judged it too hazardous to withdraw, Twenty of the militia and six or seven of the Indians availed themselves of the privilege.. The force moved down the river in sleighs, and took the land on the west side of the bay, passing through and across the peninsula to the lake. The party encamped near the lake and being without tents, were thoroughly wet by the snow and rain which was falling. On March 3d they proceeded on the ice to Middle Bass and seventeen miles from their encampment ; just before they left the lake shore, an ensign, thirteen militia, several Indians, a chief being one of them, deserted. During their progress to the island the weather was stormy, wind blowing and snowing. They arrived at the northwest side of the island early in the afternoon, when the weather moderated. In the course of the afternoon sled tracks were discovered on the ice, going in the direction of Malden, presumed to have been made by two Frenchmen who left Lower Sandusky the clay before the corps of Langham. They had then stated they were going to the river Huron, which being in an opposite direction, the officers now- felt assured that they were enemies on their way to give notice to the British of Langham's approach. It being the intended route to go by the Western Sister Island to elude the spies of the enemy, the guides gave it as their opinion that it was now totally impossible to go to Malden ; that the Detroit River, and the lake from the Middle Sister were doubtless broken up, and the distance from the Middle Sister, even if that could be reached, to the river, was too great to be accomplished after night, and the probabilities were that the lake would entirely break tip and leave them on one of the islands. This caused Captain Langham to hold a council at which it was the unanimous opinion that it would be improper to proceed and that they should return. A return was accordingly decided upon, which was accomplished by the way of Presque Isle, at which point they met General Harrison with a body of troops and from thence they proceeded to Fort Meigs in safety. In the course of their journey back they found the lake open near the Western Sister Island. (See Howe's Historical Collection of Ohio, Vol. p. 862.) "In the latter part of June, 1813, while General Harrison was at Franklinton, news came that Fort Meigs was again to be attacked. He set out on the next morning for Lower Sandusky and immediately addressed letters to the War Department and Governor Meigs, expressing it as his blief that it was not Fort Meigs that was to be attacked, but Lower Sandusky, Cleveland or Erie, and ordered the Twenty-fourth Regiment, United States Infantry, under command of Col. Samuel Anderson to proceed immediately to Lower Sandusky. Major Croghan with a part of the Seventeenth was ordered to the same place, and also Colonel Ball with his squadron of Cavalry who had been at Franklinton. General Harrison followed and on the evening of the 26th overtook the Twenty-fourth Regiment on its way and immediately selected 300 of its strongest men for a forced march to Fort Meigs under Colonel Anderson. General Harrison arrived at Fort Meigs on the evening of the 28th and in a few hours afterwards the detachment under Anderson also made its appearance. On July 1st, General Harrison deeming it unnecessary for him to remain any longer at Fort Meigs, proceeded to Lower Sandusky with an escort of seventy mounted men commanded by Captain McAfee, where they arrived by dark, although the road was a continual swamp. * * * * * * * * On the evening of the 2d, Colonel Ball's squadron arrived at Lower Sandusky and on the next day proceeded with General Harrison to Cleveland, where he went to make arrangements for the better security of the provisions and of the boats which were constructing there. * * * * * * * * * * * "The mounted regiment, Col. Richard M. Johnson commanding, had been ordered to proceed by way of Lower Sandusky to the river Huron to rest and recruit their horses. They marched from Fort Meigs on the 2d, but did not arrive at Lower Sandusky until the evening of the 3d. The Fourth of July (1813) was celebrated by the soldiers in the fort in a patriotic manner. Colonel Johnson delivered an eloquent address, toasts were drank and cheered, small arms were fired to- AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 85 gether with a six-pounder from the fort (which latter doubtless was our "Old Betsy"). Considerable exertions were now being made to finish the works of the fort, which had been planned and commenced in April of this year (1813) by Major Wood. They were soon after completed so as to contain a large garrison and make a more formidable resistance." * * * * * * * * Colonel Johnson from here wrote to General Harrison a letter from which the following extract is made : "Camp at Lower Sandusky, July 4, 1813. "Dear Sir: I arrived at this place last evening with a part of the mounted regiment after two days' march from Camp Meigs, leaving two companies four miles in the rear who were unable to reach this place; besides about twenty horses left on the way, which I am in hopes will be able to get back in Camp Meigs or come to this place in a few days where we can keep them together and recruit them. Having been in the most active service for upwards of forty days and having traveled upwards of 700 miles, much of it forced marching, it is natural to conclude that most of the horses are weak; and we feel great pleasure and obligations to you in finding your arrangements such as to enable us to recruit the horses of the regiment. To be ready to move with you to Detroit and Canada against the enemies of our country is the first wish of our hearts. Two great objects induced us to come—first, to be at the regaining of our own territory and Detroit and at the taking of Malden. and secondly to serve under an officer in whom we have such confidence.” * * * * * * * * * * * "General Harrison had returned from Cleveland several days before the arrival of the enemy, and received at that place, from the express, the information that Camp Meigs was again invested. He then immediately removed his headquarters to Seneca Town, about nine miles up the Sandusky River, where he constructed a fortified camp, having left Major Croghan with 16o regulars in Fort Stephenson, and taken with him to Seneca 140 more under the immediate command of Colonel Wells. A few days afterwards he was reinforced by the arrival of 300 regulars under Paul and Colonel Ball's Corps of 150 dragoons, which made his whole force at that place upward of 600 strong. He was soon joined also by Generals McArthur and Cass, and Colonel Owings with a regiment of 500 regulars from Kentucky was also advancing to the frontiers. "It was ascertained that the forces of Proctor and Tecumseh brought against the Ameri cans, were about five thousand strong, and included the greatest force of Indians ever before brought against us at any one time during the whole war. "The British sailed around the Bay, while a competent force of savage allies marched across through the swamps of Portage River to co-operate in a combined attack on Lower Sandusky, expecting no doubt that Harrison's attention would be directed toward Winchester and Meigs. "On the evening of the 29th of July, 1813, General Harrison received intelligence by express from General Clay that the enemy had abandoned the siege of Fort Meigs; and as the Indians on that day had swarmed in the woods around his camp, he entertained no doubt but that an immediate attack was intended either on Sandusky or Seneca. Harrison immediately called a council of war with Mc Arthur, Cass, Ball. Paul, Wood, Hukill, Holmes and Graham, who were unanimously of the opinion that Fort Stephenson was untenable against heavy artillery, and that as the enemy could bring with facility any quantity of battering cannon against it, by which it must inevitably fall, and as it contained nothing the loss of which would be felt by us that the garrison should therefore not be reinforced, but withdrawn and the place destroyed." The following order to Major Croghan was by General Harrison immediately dispatched from Seneca : "Sir: Immediately on receiving this letter you will abandon Fort Stephenson, set fire to it, and repair with your command this night to headquarters. Cross the river and come up on the opposite side. If you should deem and find it impracticable to make good your march to this place, take the road to Huron, and pursue it with the utmost circumspection and dispatch." This order was sent by Mr. Conner and two Indians who lost their way in the dark and did not reach Fort Stephenson before o'clock the next day. When Major Croghan received it, he was of the opinion that he could not then retreat with safety, as the Indians were hovering around the fort in considerable force. He called a council of his officers, a majority of whom coincided with him in opinion that a retreat would be unsafe, and that the post 86 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY could be maintained against the enemy, at least till further instructions could be received from headquarters, Major Croghan therefore immediately returned the following answer : Major Croghan to General Harrison, July 3o, 1813 : "I have just received yours of yesterday, 10 o'clock p. m., ordering me to destroy this place and make good my retreat, which was received too late to be carried into execution. We have determined to maintain this place and, by Heaven, we can." It is believed that Major Croghan in writing this note, had in view the probability of its falling into the hands of the enemy, and therefore used stronger language than would otherwise have been consistent with propriety. CROGHAN RELIEVED OF HIS COMMAND. This letter reached the Commanding General the same day, and the apparent disobedience of orders by Major Croghan, was the cause of the following order from General Harrison : "July 30, 1513. "Sir : The General has received your letter of this date, informing him that you had thought proper to disobey the order issued from this office and delivered to you this morning. It appears that the information which dictated the order was incorrect ; and as you did not receive it in the night as was expected, it might have been proper that you should have reported the circumstance and your situation, before you proceeded to its execution. This might have been passed over, but I am directed to say to you, that an officer who presumes to aver that he has made his resolution and that he will act in direct opposition to the orders of his General, can no longer be entrusted with a separate command. "Colonel Wells is sent to relieve you. You will deliver the command to him and repair with Colonel Ball's squadron to this place (Seneca). By command, etc., A. H. Holmes, Adjutant General." "The squadron of dragoons consisting of about one hundred horses, under Colonel Ball on their way to Lower Sandusky, fell in with a body of Indians and fought what has since been called Ball's Battle. Israel Harrington, a resident of Lower Sandusky at the time of the battle and one of the first associate judges of Sandusky County, said that 'three days after he passed the ground and counted thereon thirteen dead Indians awfully cut and mangled by the horsemen, None of the squadron were killed and but one slightly wounded. The scene of this battle is about one and a half miles southwest of Fremont on the west bank of the river, near what is now the residence of Birchard Havens. There was an oak tree on the site of the action within the memory of persons still living, with seventeen hacks in it to indicate the number of Indians killed; but this tree has unfortunately disappeared as have many 'other monuments of those stirring times. Howe says : 'The squadron were moving toward the fort when they were suddenly fired upon by the Indians from the west side of the road, whereupon Colonel Ball ordered a charge and he and suite and the right flank being in advance first came into action. The colonel struck the first blow,. He dashed in between two savages and cut down the one on the right ; the other being slightly in the rear, made a blow with a tomahawk at his back, when, by a sudden spring of his horse, it fell short and buried deep in the cantel and pad of his saddle. Before the savage could repeat the blow he was shot by Corporal Ryan. Lieutenant Hedges (General Hedges of Mansfield) following in the rear, mounted on a small horse and pursued a big Indian and just as he had come up to him his stirrup broke, and he fell headfirst off his horse, knocking the Indian down. Both sprang to their feet, when Hedges struck the Indian across his head, and as he was falling buried his sword up to its hilt in his body. At this time Captain Hopkins was seen on the left side in pursuit of a powerful savage, when the latter turned and made a blow at the captain with a tomahawk, at which the horse sprang to one side. Cornet Hayes then came up, and the Indian struck at him, his horse in like manner evading the blow. Sergeant Anderson now arriving, the Indian was soon dispatched. By this time the skirmish was over, the Indians who were only about twenty in number, being nearly all cut down ; and orders were given to retreat to the main squadron. Colonel Ball dressed his men ready for a charge, should the Indians appear in force, and moved down without further molestation to the fort, where they arrived about 4 p, m. Among Colonel Ball's troopers was a private, James Webb, the father of Lucy Webb Hayes, whose old flint-lock rifle and hunting-horn are among the treasures of Spiegel Grove. AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 87 "Major Croghan returned with the squadron, Colonel Wells being left in command of Fort Stephenson. Croghan remained over .night and having made satisfactory explanation of his actions was permitted to return to to his command the following mornin with written orders similar to those before given him, but the proximity of the enemy prevented their execution." General Harrison's opinion of Major Croghan may best be shown by his letter of August 2, 1813, to Governor Meigs while the sound of the cannon at Fort Stephenson was reaching him at Fort Seneca. "Headquarters, Seneca Town, August 2, 1813. "Dear Sir: The enemy have been since last evening before Lower Sandusky and are battering it with all their might. Come on, my friend, as quickly as possible, that we may relieve the brave fellows who are defending it. I had ordered it to be abandoned ; the order was not obeyed. I know it will he defended to the last extremity, for earth does not hold a set of finer fellows than Croghan and his officers. I shall expect you tomorrow, certainly. Yours, etc., Wm. H. Harrison." "On the evening of July 31st, a reconnoitering party from the fort discovered about twenty miles distant from the same the approach of the enemy by water. The enemy reached Lower Sandusky in the afternoon of August 1st. The Indians first showed themselves on the hill over the river. They were saluted from the fort by a 6-pounder, the only piece of artillery in the fort, which soon caused them to retire. In half an hour the British gunboats came in sight, and the Indian forces displayed themselves in every direction with a view to intercept the garrison should a retreat be attempted. The 6-pounder was fired a few times at the gunboats, which was returned by the artillery of the enemy. A landing of their troops with a 5 1/2-inch howitzer was effected about a mile below the fort, and Major Chambers, accompanied by Dickson, was dispatched toward the fort with a white flag and was met on the part of Major Croghan by Ensign Shipp of the Seventeenth Regiment. After the usual ceremonies Major Chambers observed to Ensign Shipp that he was instructed by General Proctor to demand the surrender of the fort as he was anxious to spare the effusion of blood, which he could not do, should he be under the necessity of reducing it by the powerful force of artillery, regulars and Indians under his command, Shipp replied that the commandant of the fort and its garrison were determined to defend it to the last extremity; that no force, however great, could induce them to surrender as they were resolved to maintain their post or to bury themselves in its ruins. Dickson then said, that their immense body of Indians could not be restrained from massacreing the whole garrison in case of success—"of which we have no doubt," rejoined Chambers, "as we are amply prepared." Dickson then proceeded to remark, that it was a great pity so fine a young man should fall into the hands of the savages : "Sir, for God's sake surrender and prevent the dreadful massacre that will be caused by your resistance." Mr, Shipp replied that when the fort was taken there would be none to massacre. It will not be given up while, a man is able to resist. An Indian at this moment came out of an adjoining ravine, and advancing to the ensign took hold of his sword and attempted to twist it from him. Dickson interfered, and having restrained the Indian affected great anxiety to get Shipp safe into the fort. The enemy now opened their fire from their 6-pounders in the gunboats, and the howitzer on shore, which they continued through the night with but little intermission and with very little effect. The forces of the enemy consisted of 500 regulars and about eight hundred Indians commanded by Dickson, the whole being commanded by General Proctor in person. Tecumseh was stationed on the road to Fort Meigs with a body of 2,000 Indians, expecting to intercept any reinforcement on that route. Major Croghan through the evening occasionally fired his 6-pounder, at the same time changing its place occasionally to induce a belief that he had more than one piece. As it produced very little execution on the enemy, and he was desirous of saving his ammunition he soon discontinued his fire. The enemy had leveled their fire against the northwestern angle of the fort, which induced the corn- 88 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY mandant to believe that an attempt to storm his works would be made at that point. In the night Captain Hunter was directed to remove the 6-pounder to a block house from which it would rake the angle. By great industry and personal exertions Captain Hunter soon accomplished this object in secrecy. The embrasure was masked and the piece loaded with a half charge of powder and double charge of slugs and grape shot. Early in the morning of the 2d the enemy opened their fire from their howitzer and three 6-pounders, which they had landed in the night and planted in a point of woods about two hundred and fifty yards from the 'fort. In the evening about 4 o'clock they concentrated the fire of all their guns on the northwest angle, which convinced. Major Croghan that they would endeavor to make a breach and storm the works at that point ; he therefore immediately had that place strengthened as much as possible with bags of flour and sand, which were so effectual that the picketing in that place sustained no material injury. Sergeant Weaver with five or six gentlemen of the Petersburg Volunteers and Pittsburg Blues who happened to be in the fort; was intrusted with the management of the 6-pounder. Late in the evening when the smoke of the firing had completely enveloped the fort, the enemy proceeded to make the assault. Two feints were made toward the southern angle, where Captain Hunter's lines were formed ; and at this same time a column of 350 men were discovered advancing through the smoke within twenty paces of the northwestern angle. A heavy galling fire of musketry was now opened upon them from the fort, which threw them into some confusion. Colonel Shortt, who headed the principal column, soon rallied his men and led them with great bravery to the brink of the ditch. After a momentary pause he leaped into the ditch, calling to his men to follow him, and in a few minutes it was full. The masked port-hole was now opened and the. 6-pounder at the distance of thirty feet poured such destruction among them, that but few who had entered the ditch were fortunate enough to escape. A precipitate and confused retreat was the immediate consequence, although some of the officers attempted to rally their men. The other column which was led by Colonel Warburton and Major Chambers was also routed in confusion by a destructive fire from the line commanded by Captain Hunter. The whole of them fled into the adjoining wood, beyond the reach of our small arms. During the assault, which lasted half an hour, the enemy kept up an incessant fire from their howitzer and five 6--pounders. They left Colonel Short, a lientenant (Gordon) and twenty-five privates dead in the ditch ; and the total number of prisoners taken was twenty-six, most of them badly wounded. Major Muir was knocked down in the ditch and lay among the dead till the darkness of the night enabled him to escape in safety. The loss of the garrison was one killed and seven slightly wounded. The total loss of the enemy could not be less than 150 killed and wounded. "When night came on, which was soon after the assault, the wounded in the ditch were in a desperate situation. Complete relief could not be brought to them by either side with any degree of safety. Major Croghan however relieved them as much as possible—he contrived to convey them water over the picketing in buckets, and a ditch was opened under the pickets through which those who were able and willing were encouraged to crawl into the fort. All who were able preferred of course to follow their defeated comrades, and many others were carried from the vicinity of the fort by the Indians, particularly their own killed and wounded ; and in the night about 3 o'clock the whole British and Indian force commenced a disorderly retreat. So great was their precipitation, that they left a sail boat containing some clothing and a considerable quantity of military stores ; and on the next day seventy stand of arms and some braces of pistols were picked up round the fort. Their hurry and confusion were caused by the apprehension of an attack from General Harrison, of whose position and force they had probably received an exaggerated account. "It was the intention of General Harrison. should the enemy succeed against Fort Stephenson, or should they endeavor to turn his left and fall back on Upper Sandusky, to leave his camp AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 91 at Seneca and fall back for the protection of that place. But he discovered by the firing on the evening of the 1st inst. that the enemy had nothing but light artillery, which could make no impression on the fort; and he knew that an attempt to storm it without making a breach could be successfully repelled by the garrison; he therefore determined to wait for the arrival of 250 mounted volunteers under Rennick, being the advance of 700 who were approaching by the way of Upper Sandusky, and then to march against the enemy and raise the siege, if their force was not still too great for his. On the 2d inst. he sent several scouts to ascertain their situation and force; but the woods were so infested with Indians that none of them could proceed sufficiently near the fort to make the necessary discoveries. In the night a messenger arrived at headquarters with intelligence that the enemy were preparing to retreat. About 9 o'clock Major Croghan had ascertained from their collecting about their boats that they were preparing to embark. and immediately sent an express to the commander-in-chief with this information. The general now determined to wait no longer for reinforcements, and immediately set out with the dragoons, with which he reached the fort early in the morning, having ordered Generals McArthur and Cass, who had arrived at Seneca several days before, to follow him with all disposable infantry at that place, and which at this time was about seven hundred men, after the numerous sick, and the force necessary to maintain the position were left behind. Finding that the enemy had fled entirely from the fort so as not to be reached by him, and learning that Tecumseh was somewhere in the direction of Fort Meigs with 2,000 warriors, he immediately ordered the infantry to fall hack to Seneca, lest Tecumseh should make an attack on that place, or intercept the small reinforcements advancing from the Ohio. "In his official report of this affair, General Harrison observes that, 'It will not be among the least of General Proctor's mortifications to find that he has been baffled by a youth who has just passed his twenty-first year. He is, however, a hero worthy of his gallant uncle, Gen. George R. Clarke.' "Captain Hunter, of the Seventeenth Regiment, the second in command, conducted himself with great propriety; and never was there a set of finer young fellows than the subalterns, viz., Lieutenants Johnson and Baylor, of the Seventeenth; Anthony, of the Twenty-fourth ; Meeks, of the Seventh, and Ensigns Shipp and Duncan, of the Seventeenth. "Lieutenant Anderson, of the Twenty-fourth, was also mentioned for his good conduct. Being without a command, he solicited Major Croghan for a musket, and a post to fight at, which he did with the greatest bravery. " 'Too much praise,' says Major Croghan, `cannot be bestowed on the officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates under my command for their gallantry and good conduct during the siege.' "The brevet rank of lieutenant colonel was immediately conferred on Major Croghan by the President of the United States for his gallant conduct on this occasion. The ladies of Chillicothe also presented him an elegant sword accompanied by a suitable address. "On the 9th of August, at Lower Sandusky, a British boat was discovered coming up the river with a flag. When it landed below the fort, Captain Hunter was sent to meet the commander, who proved to be Lieut. LeBreton, accompanied by Dr. Banner, with a letter from General Proctor to the commandant at Lower Sandusky, their object being to ascertain the situation of the British wounded and afford them surgical aid. Captain Hunter invited them to the fort. LeBreton seemed to hesitate, as if he expected first to be blindfolded, as usual in such cases ; but Captain Hunter told him to come on, that there was nothing in the fort which there was any reason to conceal ; and when he introduced him to Major Croghan as the commandant of the fort, he appeared to be astonished at the youthful appearance of the hero, who had defeated the combined forces of his master," DEFENDERS OF FORT STEPHENSON. We are indebted to Col, Webb C. Hayes for the following list of officers and men in the fort when the assault was made, The list is not complete, containing only 92 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY seventy-eight names out of the 16o in the fort at the time, The war records at Washington do not show the names of the volunteers, who were detached and assigned to this service; hence it was impossible for him to obtain their names : Major George Croghan, Seventeenth U. S. Infantry, commanding. Captain James Hunter. First lieutenant, Benjamin Johnson; second lieutenant, Cyrus A. Baylor; ensign, Edmund Shipp ; ensign, Joseph Duncan, all of the Seventeenth U. S. Infantry. First lieutenant, Joseph Anthony, Twenty-fourth U. S. Infantry. Second lieutenant, John Meek, Seventh U. S. Infantry. Petersburg Volunteers. Pittsburg Blues. Greensburg Riflemen. Captain Hunter's Company—Captain James Hunter, commanding. Sergeants, Wayne Case, James Huston, Obadiah Norton. Corporals, Mathew Burns, William Ewing, John Maxwell. Privates, Pleasant Bailey, Samuel Brown, Elisha Condiff, Thomas Crickman, Ambrose Dean, Leonard George, Nathaniel Gill, John Harley, Jonathan Hartley, William McDonald, Joseph McKey, Frederick Metts, Rice Millender, John Mumman, Samuel Pearsall, Daniel Perry, William Ralph, John Rankin, Elisha Rathbun, Aaron Ray, Robert Row, John Salley, John Savage, John Smith, Thomas Striplin, William Sutherland, Martin Tanner, John Zett, David Perry. Captain Duncan's Company—First lieutenant, Benjamin Johnson commanding. Second lieutenant, Cyrus A. Baylor. Sergeants—Henry Lowall, Thomas McCaul, John M. Stotts, Natley Williams. Privates—Henry L. Bethers, Cornelius S. Bevins, Joseph Blamer, Jonathan C. Bowling, Nicholas Bryant, Robert Campbell, Samuel Campbell. Joseph Klinkenbeard, Joseph Childers, Ambrose Dine, Jacob Downs, James Harris, James Heartly, William Johnson, Elisha Jones, Thomas Linchard, William McClelland, Joseph McKee, John Martin, Ezekiel Mitchell, William Rogers, David Sudderfield, Thomas Taylor, John Williams. Detachment Twenty-fourth U. S. Infantry—First lieutenant, Joseph Anthony, commanding. Privates—William Gaines, John Foster, — Jones, Samuel Riggs, Samuel Thurman. Greensburg Riflemen—Sergeant, Abraham Weaver. Petersburg Volunteers—Private, Edmund Brown. FROM AN ENGLISH VIEWPOINT. In the "Gentleman's Magazine," an English publication, the following extract of a dispatch from Sir C, Provost, appears : "St. Davids, Niagara Frontier, August 25 (1813)—Major General Proctor having given away to the clamor of our Indian allies to act offensively, moved forward on the l0th ult, with about three hundred and fifty of the Forty-first Regiment, and between three thousand and four thousand Indians, and on the 2d inst. attempted to carry by assault the blockhouses and works at Sandusky where the enemy had concentrated a considerable force. The Indians, however, previous to the assault, withdrew themselves out of reach of the enemy's fire. The handful of His Majesty's troops employed on this occasion, displayed the greatest bravery ; nearly the whole of them having reached the fort and made every effort to enter it; but a galling and destructive fire being kept up by the enemy from within the blockhouses and from behind the picketing which completely protected them and which we had not the means to force, the major general thought it most prudent not to continue longer so unavailing a combat; he accordingly drew off the assailants and returned to Sandwich with the loss of twenty-five killed, as many missing, and about forty wounded. Amongst the killed are Brevet Lieutenant Shortt and Lieut. J. C. Gordon, of the Forty-first Regiment." In the published plan of the environs of Fort Sandusky, the spot where the British officers, Lieutenant Colonel Shortt and Lieutenant Gordon, were buried, is marked. The high school building now covers this spot ; and in 1891, while excavations for the building were being made, graves and bones of two soldiers were found. Metallic buttons were also found in these graves, bearing the number of the regiment, 41, stamped on them, which appeared to be buttoms usually belonging to the uniform of British officers. Mr. H. S. Dorr, of Fremont, has in his possession these buttons. Colonel Shortt was the commanding officer of the Forty-first Regiment of British Regulars, and Lieutenant Gordon was an officer in the regiment, Further indications that these bodies were those of officers appeared in the fact that they had been buried in caskets, remains of which were also found in the graves. Mr. Dorr, soon after finding these buttons, was showing them to President Hayes, who informed Mr. Dorr that he had read in some book of a foreign bishop named Gordon, who was reported as saying that the sorrow of his AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 93 life was the loss of a son in a battle in an obscure point in North America, called Fort Sandusky, by which name the British designated the fort. From an English work, the "Dictionary of National Biography," the following facts are gathered : The father of Lieutenant Gordon was James Bentley Gordon (1750-1819), of Londonderry, Ireland, who graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1773, took Holy Orders, and subsequently was presented with the living, first of Cannaway on Cork and finally that of Killegney in Wexford, which he retained till his death in April, 1819. He was a zealous student of history and geography and a voluminous writer of books on such topics, among which were "Terraquea, or a New System of Geography and Modern History," "A History of the Rebellion in Ireland in 1798," "A History of the British Islands," "An Historical and Commercial Memoir of the North American Continent." He married in 1779, a daughter of Richard Bookey, of Wicklow, by whom he had several children. His eldest son, James Geo. Gordon, entered the army and was killed at Fort Sandusky in August, 1813. SITE AND NAME OF FORT. The fort was erected on what became River Lot No, 9, fifty-seven acres, according to the plat by the United States Government, of the historic two-mile square tract made in 1816, accompanying this chapter. The body of the fort was about three hundred feet long east and west and 150 feet in width north and south, and situated on that part of the Park ground nearest to what is now Croghan Street, and lengthwise covered more ground than now lies between Arch and High Streets, which is only 264 feet. It will be remembered that when the fort was erected, and when the battle occurred, there were no Streets there. The fort projected into what is now High Street, about two rods, its northwestern angle, where the assault was made, reaching a point near the ra- vine which passed in a northeasterly direction through what is known as the Dr. Wilson property, lately purchased for a high school building, and thence along what is now Croghan Street, and being the ravine between the ris ing ground of the fort and that immediately north of Croghan Street. In 1881, when 'the west retaining wall of the Park ground was built indications of the locality of the water well of the fort were found, which would support the above statement as to its western extremity. As to the name Fort Stephenson, it appears from the military records that Colonel Stevenson at one time commanded the post, for, on May 14, 1813, the following order was issued : "Headquarters, Lower Sandusky, May 14, 1813. "The troops which form the garrison at Lower Sandusky will be relieved today by a detachment furnished by his excellency, General Meigs, to the senior officer of which Colonel Stevenson will deliver the post and public property in his possession. R. GRAHAM, Adjutant." And in the report of the adjutant to Governor Meigs, furnished under the preceding order, we find the name Fort Stephenson first appearing officially : "Fort Stephenson, May 22, 1813. "May it Please Your Excellency : "Sir : Agreeably to your orders I have forwarded all the articles specified therein. Considerable manual labor has been done on the garrison since you left this place and improvements are daily making. One person has been buried since you left this place. He came from Fort Meigs with a part of the baggage of Major Tod. R. E. POST, Adjutant." DESCRIPTION OF FORT STEPHENSON AND "OLD BETSY." The following interesting recollections of the fort and reference 'to the cannon, are taken from proceedings of the "Ninety-third Anniversary of the Battle of Fort Stephenson," published in Vol, XVII, Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society Publications and contributed by J. P. Moore : "James Kirk and a man named Figley, both of whom worked on the old fort before the battle of August 2, 1813, have visited me here in Fremont and while visiting the fort and going over the ground in its vicinity have graphically described to me the location and construction of the fort and many incidents connected with its building and its defense against the British and Indians, * * * * * * * * * * * "The old soldier Figley, of Columbiana County, came here early in February, 1813, 94 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY and worked on the fort until mustered out at Cleveland on June 1st of that year, He related to me how the pickets were drawn by oxen from the vicinity of Stony Prairie to the fort and points sharpened and the posts set in the ground close up one against the other. Many of the oxen engaged in drawing them died of starvation or were devoured by the wolves howling around the fort. "The company to which James Kirk belonged came to the fort June 1, 1813, and worked here until the arrival of the British and Indians the day before the battle, James Kirk himself had been detailed to carry dispatches to Fort Seneca the day before the battle so that he was not present but came down early on the morning of August 3d and helped bury the British dead. He distinctly heard the firing of the British cannon and howitzers and noticed that some discharges were louder than others. "Kirk was 25 years old at that time and after his discharge opened a blacksmith shop in Lower Sandusky in 1818 and in 1828 went to Port Clinton. He said that the well in the fort was not a good one, so that the garrison got their water from a spring at the foot of Garrison Street, bringing it through a small gate on the east side of the fort, for which gate Kirk made the hinges. "I sent my son Theodore to visit James Kirk in 188—and get a description of the fort. Kirk said, "Mark off a square plat of ground containing half an acre with a blockhouse on the northeast corner and one in the northwest corner: this was the original fort. In June, 1813, when we came here the fort was found to be too small. He said, "mark off another square on the west side of the old square and this you will see will place the northwest blockhouse in the center of the north line of the enlarged fort. This was the blockhouse from which "Old Betsy" cleared the ditch when it was filled with Colonel Shortt's men. There was a sealed log house in the new part filled with biscuit for Perry's fleet, This house was knocked down level with the pickets by the British cannon balls. The northeast blockhouse was in the center of Croghan and Arch Streets. The center blockhouse was about opposite the monument. The northwest angle of the fort extended out about 15 feet into High Street. There were many extra guns in the fort, as a company of Pennsylvania soldiers had deposited their guns there a few days before the British brought their cannon up this ravine. They would load their cannon and then run them up out of the ravine and after discharging them, back them down again to reload out of range of the guns of the fort. The next ravine south of this ran up Croghan Street, turning to the southwest at High Street, thence northwest through the northwest corner of the Presbyterian church lot. This ravine formed the north boundary of the plateau or ridge on which Fort Stephenson was located and on which ridge ran the Harrison trail to the southwest up through Spiegel Grove and on to Fort Seneca. The next ravine south of this extended between Birchard Avenue and Garrison Street, one branch ran towards the Methodist church through the Dorr and McCulloch property. It was from this last named ravine that the British Grenadiers made a feint against Captain Hunter's company just before Colonel Shortt made his assault on the northwest corner of the fort. "Lieutenant Colonel Shortt and Lieut. J. G. Gordon, Of the Forty-first Regiment, were buried near the south entrance of the high school building. "Our first knowledge of the gun is upon the occasion of the first Fourth of July celebration ever held in this place, which occurred in 1813. On the 3d, a mounted regiment under Col. Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, "the man who killed Tecumseh" and the future vice president, marched from Fort Meigs to Lower Sandusky to recruit their horses here. * * * * * * * * * * "After the war in which the gun did such valiant service it was removed to the Pittsburg arsenal. Later Congress ordered its return to Lower Sandusky. The ingenious Thomas L. Hawkins, commissary officer at Fort Stephenson during the campaign, identified the gun in Pittsburg, recognizing it by the scar on its breach which he believed was made by a cannon ball while in action, during the old French and Indian war. Owing to the duplication of the name Sandusky the cannon AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 95 was sent to Sandusky City, which for many years after the battle was called Ogontz's Place, and of course had no claim to the gun. The authorities there tried to keep it, and for better concealment buried it under a barn. Mayor B, J. Bartlett, of Lower Sandusky, traced the gun and sent men and a wagon to bring it home. This home-coming of Old Betsy was just prior to the 2d of August celebration of 1852, when the Tiffin Fire Department came down to join in the festivities. William H, Gibson, clad in the red shirt and white trousers of the fire brigade uniform, delivered the stirring address of the day, in the woods back of the Rawson House on State Street." PREPARING FOR THE INVASION OF CANADA, COLONEL JOHNSON'S REGIMENT. "About the first of September, the troops were enabled to proceed in the business of transportation, about thirty wagons and a brigade of pack horses having arrived for that purpose. The greater part of the regiment had arrived at Fort Winchester on the 9th of September, a day which had been appointed by the President as a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer. Those who chose to observe it in 'that manner, were encouraged to do so. * * * On the evening of this day a number of little parties were seen in different parts of the lines, paying their devotion to the God of armies, and chanting his praises with plainness, sincerity and zeal ; whilst their less pious, but moral and orderly compatriots, preserved around them the strictest order and decorum. A pleasing tranquility pervaded the ranks, and the patriot soldier seemed to feel a cheering confidence that the God of battles would shield him in the hour of danger * * * while nobly fighting in the cause of justice and humanity. Such were the harmony and good order constantly prevailing in this regiment, and such the mutual confidence and good will between the officers and men, that 'there is scarcely an individual among them who does not look back to those days as the happiest of his life, and who did not love and respect his commandant as an elder brother. "The next day, the loth of September, an important and memorable day in the present campaign (Perry's victory), was spent by the regiment in training and in fighting sham battles, the exact miniature of that which they were soon to fight in reality, A line of infantry was formed and the horses were practiced to charge through it at full speed; and such was the tractability and force of custom of this noble animal, that in a little time there was scarcely a horse in the regiment that would flinch at a line of infantry enveloped in a blaze of fire and smoke. Those who are unacquainted with the docility of this animal would scracely believe that he could be brought to have so much contempt for danger, to understand so well the different sounds of the trumpet, and seemingly to participate in the sentiments and views of his rider. The beautiful description of the horse, which is given in holy writ, was fully verified in our trainings 'He paweth in the valley and rejoiceth in his strength ; he goeth to meet the armed men. He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither turneth he back from the sword. The quiver rattleth against him, and the glittering spear, and the shield. He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage ; neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet.' "Headquarters. Seneca, 12th September, 1813. "You will find arms at Upper Sandusky; also considerable quantity at Lower Sandusky. I set out from this place in an hour. Our fleet has beyond all doubt met that of the enemy. The day before yesterday an incessant and tremendous cannonading was heard in the direction of Malden, by a detachment of troops coming from Fort Meigs. It lasted two hours. I am all anxiety for the event. There will be no occasion for your halting here. Lower Sandusky affords fine grazing. With respect to a station for your horse, there is the best in the world immediately at the place of embarkation. The Sandusky Bay, Lake Erie and Portage River form a peninsula, the isthmus of which is only one mile and a half across. A fence of that length and a sufficient guard left there, would make all the horses of the army safe. It would enclose fifty or sixty thousand acres, in which are many cultivated fields, which having been abandoned, are now grown up with the finest grass. "Your sick had better be left at Upper Sandusky. Harrison." To Governor Shelby. Within half an hour after the above letter was written, the general received the following laconic note from the commodore, by express from Lower Sandusky : 96 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY "U. S. Brig. Niagara, off the Western Sister, etc. September 10, 1813, 4 p. m. "Dear General : We have met the enemy and they are ours—two ships, two brigs, one schooner and a sloop. "Yours with great respect and esteem, Oliver Hazzard Perry." "This exhilarating news set Lower Sandusky and Camp Seneca in an uproar of tumultuous joy. The general immediately proceeded to Lower Sandusky and issued his orders for the movement of the troops and transportation of provisions, military stores, etc., 'to the margin of the lake preparatory to their embarkation for Canada," Governor Shelby on receipt of the letter from Harrison, had proceeded with his suite from Upper Sandusky in advance of his troops and met the news of the naval victory at Fort Ball (Tiffin). PERRY'S VICTORY ON LAKE ERIE. "After remaining a few days at Put-in-Bay, Commodore Perry had returned in full view of Malden, and offered battle again to the British fleet, which they again declined ; but they now appeared to be making great exertions to get ready for a contest. The commodore then withdrew, and came down to the lake off San-dusky Bay, in hopes that the enemy would follow him, or at least come out on the lake. While at this station three American citizens, who had made 'their escape from Detroit, arrived at the fleet in an open boat, from whom it was ascertained that the enemy had been greatly straitened for provisions, since our fleet had been on the lake, They had previously brought up a considerable portion of their supplies on the lake from Long Point, By the same persons the force of the enemy was Stated to he 800 regulars, 1,000 militia, and nearly two thousand Indians. On the 5th of September. the commodore informed General Harrison in a letter from Sandusky Bay, that his men were suffering very much by sickness, and that his fleet could not transport more than 3,000 men, with which number he would be so crowded as to he unable to use any of his guns. A few days afterwards he returned to Put-in-Bay to wait for the sailing of the British fleet. "At sunrise on Friday morning, the Toth of September, the enemy were discovered standing out from Malden. The American squadron immediately weighed anchor and proceeded to meet them. It was the intention of Commodore Barclay to engage his opponent before he could clear the islands near the head of the lake; and the wind, being in 'the southwest, was favorable to this plan ; but before 10 o'clock the American fleet had gained the open lake, between the islands and the mouth of the river Detroit, About the same time the wind changed to the southeast, and thus brought the American squadron to the windward. Our commodore then formed his line of battle, and bore up against the enemy. An hour of awful suspension ensued. All hands stood ready, as soon as the winds could bring the hostile fleets together, to commence the desperate conflict, which was to decide the command of the Upper Lakes, and sink or save a British province. The fleets were new, and traversed a new theatre of war. The British commodore, however, was old in experience and well advanced in years. He had bled in the battle of Trafalgar, and had imbibed the naval tactics of Nelson. The American was young, and had never heard the thunder of a hostile ship; but skilled in the 'theory of naval war, and teeming with the courage and enterprise of an American freeman, he was ready for the contest with a foe superior in force and experience. At fifteen minutes before twelve, the enemy opened his fire; but it was not returned for ten minutes by the American fleet, which was much inferior in long guns. The battle then commenced on both sides ; but owing to the superiority of the British long guns, their fire was found to be the most destructive, and being chiefly directed against the Lawrence, the foremost ship, in which the commodore sailed, he was induced to make every exertion to close with the enemy, directing the other vessels to follow his example. In a short time every brace and bowline of the Lawrence was shot away, and she became unmanageable, notwithstanding the great exertions of her sailing master. In this situation she sustained the conflict with the Detroit and Queen Charlotte, upwards of two hours within cannister distance, until every gull. was rendered useless, and the greater part of her crew either killed AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 97 or wounded. The commodore now finding that she could no longer annoy the enemy, conceived the bold design of leaving her, and passing in an open boat to the Niagara, which the lowness of the wind had long prevented, with the lighter vessels, from coming into close action. At 2:30 the wind increased and enabled Captain Elliott to bring up the Niagara in gallant style. The commodore then consigned the Lawrence to the command of Lieutenant Yarnall, whose bravery already displayed was a sure pledge that he would do everything in his power for the honor of the flag; and proceeded toward the Niagara, standing erect in an open boat, a fair mark for the musketry of the enemy, within the range of which he had to pass, bearing his flag with the motto, "Don't give up the ship." His men, more careful of his life, pulled him down by force from the dangers of an incessant fire, directed at him by the enemy. When safe on board the Niagara the remnant of his crew in the Lawrence gave three cheers for joy at his success. He then expressed his fears to Captain Elliott that the victory was lost, by the lighter vessels remaining at so great a distance in the rear. The captain replied that he hoped not, and immediately tendered his services to bring them up 'to a position, where they could render effectual service, The Niagara was now at the head of the line and Captain Elliott had to proceed on this service, down the whole line of 'the enemy, in a small boat exposed to their incessant fire ; yet he accomplished the perilous enterprise uninjured, though completely soaked with the water thrown upon him by the balls which struck around him. He brought up the remotest gun boats and placed them under the sterns of the heaviest vessels of the enemy, where they were enabled to do much execution. In the meantime the commodore in the Niagara, which had been but little injured, made the signal for close action and determined to pass through the enemy's line. He bore up and ran ahead of their two ships and a brig, giving a raking fire to them from his starboard guns, and to their large schooner and sloop on the larboard side, at half pistol shot distance. By this bold project of breaking through the line of the enemy all the guns of the Niagara were brought, at the same moment, to bear on his vessels in the most effectual manner ; and at the same time the gunboats were brought by Captain Elliott, to pour destruction into the sterns of his large ships, and 'the other small vessels to play upon them within grape and cannister distance, Such a galling destructive fire could not be long sustained by the British—their two ships, a brig and a schooner quickly surrendered. The sloop and the other schooner attempted 'to escape by flight ; but the American schooners soon compelled them to strike. The whole squadron was thus captured, not a vessel having escaped to carry the dismal news to Malden. "The loss on board the Lawrence was twenty-two killed and sixty-one wounded. The loss in the whole fleet was 'twenty-seven killed and ninety-six wounded. The loss of the enemy was seventy-two killed and about double that number wounded, and upwards of three hundred prisoners." Perry's victory opened the way for the invasion by the Americans of Upper Sandusky, which soon occurred, succeeded by the defeat of the British and Indians at 'the battle of the Thames. Proctor escaped in flight, and Tecumseh was killed. The power of the enemies in the northwest, British and Indian, was broken and permanent peace to the harassed frontier inhabitants was at last assured. CHAPTER VII. PIONEER DAYS AND SETTLEMENTS: THE MAKERS OF SANDUSKY COUNTY. The First Settlers and Their Struggles With N ature—Subduing the Wilderness—Trials and Discouragement s—Pioneer Sketches—Experiences, as Related by the Pioneers— Indians of Seneca Reserve—Judge Welch's Narrative—Wyandots' Farewell. FIRST SETTLERS. The first settlers of Sandusky County, outside of the old military reservation of Lower Sandusky, and excepting the French and captive settlers on the Sandusky prairies, penetrated 'the forest near the eastern border, and were mostly eastern people, who had temporarily located in the fire lands. Land east of the reserve line was selling at prices ranging from two to four dollars per acre. Preferable land on this side was surveyed and platted in 1819 and 1820 preliminary to being placed on the market at one dollar and a quarter an acre. Emigrants, when on the ground, with their goods packed in large covered wagons, sought out a dry spot in the trackless wilderness, cut out roads just wide enough to pass through and erected temporary cabins. Two or three families usually came together, and gave each other such assistance as was needed in raising a house, which was made of small logs, Notches were cut in on each side at the ends, so that the hastily built structure might stand more firmly. Mud, plentifully mixed with leaves, was used to fill the cracks, and a chimney of Sticks was built outside. These cabins were little better than Indian huts, but the lone pioneer was unable to erect a hewed-log house such as he heard his eastern parents talk about. He was almost a solitary adventurer in an inhospitable forest. Having provided a shelter for his family, this advance guard of the pioneer army next set to work to prepare a spot of ground for corn, which in new settlements then was the staff of life. He did not cut down all the trees, as is done in modern clearing, but only the underbrush and saplings, the larger trees were girdled to prevent them from leafing. These advance settlers often planted considerable corn, without even clearing away the water-soaked logs, which covered more than half the surface. Skirmishers of 'the pioneer army made their appearance in Townsend in 1818, and about the same time in Green Creek and York. This year also the incipient village of Lower Sandusky extended up the river, as far as the second rapids, and a few openings were made in the forest adjoining the bottoms below town. Sandusky County did not present the true picture of pioneer life until after the public lands were platted and placed upon the market, Huron County was by that time well advanced in settlement and general improvement under rapid way. The fame of the exhaustless fertility of Sandusky's fertile vegetable soil had reached New York, and a stream of emigration turned westward. Some came in large covered wagons all the way, but by far a larger proportion utilized lake transportation from Buffalo 'to Huron, and thence in wagons. Many Huron settlers abandoned unfinished improvements, and began anew in the adjoining forest of Sandusky. York. Townsend and Green Creek Townships received their immigration mostly from New York. Below the falls of the Sandusky the dry - 98 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY - 99 river hills were entered early, and a French colony gathered about the head of the bay, where some of their descendants are yet living. The Black Swamp west of the river was for many years viewed with an eye of despair, and abandoned to wolves, frogs and mud hens. This dismal region was first penetrated for purposes of settlement in 1826. Its rapid development did not begin until near the close of 1830. The Black Swamp was a subject of conversation in nearly every country house in Perry County, Ohio. The settlers, there then nearly all of sturdy Pennsylvania stock, inured to rugged work, looked with favor upon this region which concealed its fertility beneath vegetation and water. Men with their families abandoned the homes they had made 'to seek fortune in the new country here. Farther west, in Scott and Madison Townships, the pioneers came from the "Seven Ranges," many of them from Columbiana County, Ohio. They trace their genealogies back to New England. The people of Pennsylvania German descent, who came to this county from Central Ohio—Perry, Guernsey,• Columbiana. and Wayne Counties—have contributed more to the settlement of the Black Swamp than to any other part of the country. Pioneer life, particularly in such a wilderness as primitive Sandusky County, is almost the thorough test of strength of character, the test from which only the fittest survive. Sandusky County's forest taxed not only the spirit but the bodies of the pioneers. It is believed that less than two-thirds of all who joined the advanced settlers endured the conflict. Some who had purchased land sickened at the sight, and, if they were able, either turned back to the homes of their childhood, or pushed westward to fairer lands. A crop almost ready for the harvest became the plunder of animals and birds. Reserved capital was soon exhausted, and nothing remained to supply the necessities of life. Disease and distressing sickness completed the desolation of the spirit. All the past was lost, and nothing in the future seemed attainable. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that many of the early emigrants deserted improvements commenced and lands partly paid for. Only those excelling in bravery, sturdiness and determination, continued the battle of the wilderness to a successful issue. The survivors of that trying period have a right 'to recite the story of their hardships, and younger generations would be ungrateful to refuse to listen. Their lives were those of stern reality and work —disinterested work—having for its affectionate inspiration a desire to leave their children the heritage of an estate. The most distinguishing characteristic of the pioneers was their generous, social disposition to give each other assistance in every time of need. Sincere, welcoming generosity shone from every fire-place, and a new corner into a community was received with his family into a cabin, and entertained with the best its scanty accommodations could furnish. The site of a house being selected, neighbors for miles around welcomed their new neighbor by building a cabin for him. Such a company was always in the best of humor, for a raising was one of those holiday occasions which break in on the dull monotony of life, dispelling doubt and gloom, and leaving only jollity. After a general handshaking with their new neighbor the company organized for work, by appointing a captain whose business it was to direct the work of the day. The trees about the chosen site of the cabin were cut down, the large straight-grained trunks being split into puncheons for the floor and door. The ground once cleared, the raising commenced. A skilled axman stood at each corner, and when, with many a "heave, oh, heave !" a log tumbled into position, it was notched near the ends so that the next, crossing at right-angles, would rest more firmly. Thus log by log the cabin was raised, while another party of men, better skilled in woodcraft, was dressing puncheons and splitting shakes or clapboards for the roof. The first houses were rarely more than one low story high, so 'that by means of skids logs were easily placed in position. The logs which built up the gable were smaller and Were secured by heavy poles running the whole length of the building, at intervals of about three feet. On these clapboards were laid in such a way as to make' a tight roof. The roof was weighed