|
HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 39 CHAPTER IV THE HISTORIC BACKGROUND GREAT HISTORIC WATERWAYS-FRENCH SCHEME OF COLONIZATION- FRENCH NORTHWEST TERRITORY-FORMALLY CLAIM LOUISIANA- ENGLISH SERVE NOTICE OF POSSESSION-FIRST OHIO COMPANY AND AGENT GIST-GEORGE CROGHAN-IN THE LAND OF THE DELAWARES FRENCH AND ENGLISH CLASH-THE DELAWARES MOVE WESTWARDLY —BOUQUET'S EXPEDITION—SHAWNEES LAST TO SURRENDER-A NORTHWEST TERRITORY ASSURED—LIFTING OF INDIAN AND STATE TITLES-LORD DUNMORE 'S SQUATTERS-AMERICAN SYSTEM OF LAND SURVEYS-ORDINANCE OF 1787—FIRST SURVEYS OF WESTERN LANDS -OHIO COMPANY'S PURCHASE-MILITARY AND CIVIL FRICTION- WASHINGTON COUNTY ORGANIZED-FIRST JUDICIARY-INDIANS AT LAST SUBDUED-PART OF JEFFERSON COUNTY-UNDER COLUMBIANA COUNTY-OLD LAKE AND CANTON TOWNSHIPS CREATED-FIRST JUSTICES OF THE PEACE-FIRST PERMANENT TOWN AND HIGHWAY. Stark County falls just outside the southern boundary line of the historic Western Reserve of Connecticut, the forty-first parallel of latitude cutting Congress Lake whose northern waters are in Portage County. The county lies chiefly in the upper Muskingum Valley, or in the basin of its main branch, the Tuscarawas, and is therefore included in the vast meshes of the Ohio River. Whatever relates historically to the Beautiful River bears upon the life and growth of Eastern Ohio and Stark County. During the forty years preceding the close of the Revolutionary war, the Valley of the Ohio was the great battleground between the French, English and Americans, with their respective Indian allies. Although the French claimed the land by virtue of discovery and exploration, and seventy years of loose occupancy, the English, as later adventurers, laid claim to the rich and beautiful valley through their powerful red allies, the Six Nations. This claim was of rather dubious strength, considering that the Ohio Valley and the vast domain included within its meshes were never in undisputed possession of the Iroquois. But the English 40 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY point of contention was finally pressed home through force of English arms and diplomacy. The second distinct phase of the international contentions over the Ohio Valley and the territory to the northwest of it, hinged on the conflict between Great Britain and her American colonies, with the result which is world's history. The writer will therefore first enter into certain essential details regarding the discovery, clashes at arms and uncertain occupancy of the country broadly designated as the Valley of the Ohio previous to the establishment of a ghostly civic body over the vast territory northwest of the Ohio River by the Ordinance of 1787. GREAT HISTORIC WATERWAYS The explorations of Marquette, Joliet and LaSalle from New France to the Mississippi Valley and gradually to its mouth, were conducted for nearly a decade from 1673, but their routes from the Great Lakes to the Valley of the Great River were by way of the Wisconsin, the Illinois and the Wabash—almost continuous waterways. There were no such feasible, fairly continuous and inviting courses through the interior of Ohio. Actual settlements and even the appearance of the French voyageurs and fur traders were therefore of a later date than like occurrences in regions further to the west. But the discoveries and explorations of these fearless French pioneers placed upon the map of the world the stupendous Territory of Louisiana, in which was included the smaller region included in the Valley of the Ohio. FRENCH SCHEME OF COLONIZATION After the tour of exploration by Marquette and Joliet and the unsuccessful effort at colonization by LaSalle, the French, still ardent in their purpose of securing possession of the fertile lands east of the Mississippi, finally had the satisfaction of seeing a comprehensive scheme of colonization established by M. D'Iberville, who is considered the founder of French authority in Louisiana. He was sent with an expedition comprising four ships and 200 settlers to explore the mouth of the Mississippi. This he did, erecting a fort on what is now the southern shore of the State of Mississippi and which was afterward abandoned for one on the west bank of the Mobile River. Later, he built fortifications at a point corresponding to the City of Natchez, protected the settlers from the incursions of the English, and in other ways strengthened the French claim to the Valley of the Mississippi. HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 41 FRENCH NORTHWEST TERRITORY Previous to the year 1725 the Colony of Louisiana had been divided into quarters, each having its local government, but all subject to the council general of Louisiana at Quebec. One of these quarters included the territory northwest of the Ohio River. At this time the French had erected forts on the Upper Mississippi, on the Illinois, on the Maumee and on the lakes. Communication with Canada was chiefly through Lake Michigan, but before 1750 a French post had been fortified at the mouth of the Wabash, and a route to New France was established through that river and the Maumee of the Lakes. The French had now established a chain of forts from the mouth of the Mississippi up the valley and its chief connecting waterways with the Great Lakes, along the shores of the lakes and up the Ohio Valley to the English settlements of the Allegheny region. FORMALLY CLAIM LOUISIANA The English became alarmed at this systematic occupancy of interior America, especially as the French took formal possession of Louisiana in 1749. This was done by the burial of leaden plates by the royal emissaries sent from New France, in command of Celoron de Bienville, their locations in the Ohio country being at the junction of the river by that name with the Mississippi, and at the mouths of the main tributary streams of the Oho. That found at the mouth of the Kanawha in March, 1846, nearly a century after it was placed there by the French commandant, has been translated as follows : "In the year 1749 of the reign of Louis XV of France, we, Celoron, commandant of a detachment sent by the Marquis de la Galissoniere, Captain General of New France, in order to re-establish tranquility among some villages of savages of these parts, have buried this plate at the mouth of the river Chi-no-da-hich-e-tha, the 18th August, near the River Ohio, otherwise Beautiful River, as a monument of renewal of possession, which we have taken of the said river Ohio, and of all those which empty themselves into it, and of all the lands of both sides even to the sources of said rivers ; as have enjoyed, or ought to have enjoyed the preceding kings of France, and that they have maintained themselves there by force of arms and by treaties, especially by those of Riswick, of Utrecht and of Aix-la-Chapelle." Altogether Celoron planted six plates at the mouths of the various Ohio tributaries, as of the Kanawha, Muskingum and the Great Miami, signifying a renewal of possession of the country. This was done as 42 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY follows : His men were drawn up in order ; Louis XV was proclaimed lord of all that region; the arms were stamped on a sheet of tin nailed to a tree; the plate of lead was buried at the foot, and the notary of the expedition drew up a formal act of the entire proceeding. ENGLISH SERVE NOTICE OF POSSESSION For several years previously the English had served notices on their rivals that they would dispute possession of the Ohio Valley ; in fact, that the Six Nations owned it by right of conquest and had placed it under their protection. Some of the western lands were claimed by the British as having been actually purchased at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1744, by a treaty between the colonists and the Six Nations. About the time the French gave the world notice that they claimed Louisiana, the English formed the Ohio Company for the purpose of establishing trading posts among the Indians. FIRST OHIO COMPANY AND AGENT GIST From October, 1750, to May, 1751, Christopher Gist, a land surveyor and agent of the Ohio Company (an association of Maryland and Virginia gentlemen organized to buy lands in the Ohio Valley), explored the country adjacent to the main river and at various points some distance inland. As he kept a journal of his travels, it is evident that he found a number of traders on the ground, both French and English, the whole region being in the throes of the conflict between the people of the rival nations. In December, 1750, he reached an Indian town a few miles above the mouth of the Muskingum, inhabited by Wyandots, who, he says, were divided in their allegiance between the French and the English. The village consisted of about 100 families. GEORGE CROGHAN George Croghan was the leading English trader of that region, and had hoisted the English colors at the post. While Mr. Gist lingered there, stories came in of the capture of Mr. Croghan's men by Frenchmen and their Indian allies. He was invited to marry into the tribe, but delicately declined. In January an Indian trader came to town and informed the English traders that the Wyandots of the Lake Erie region had advised him that the region around the Great Lakes was claimed by the French, but that all the branches of the Ohio belonged to them and their brothers, the English ; that the French had no business there, and it HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 43 was expected that the southern branch of the Wyandots would desert the French and come over bodily to the English. IN THE LAND OF THE DELAWARES Mr. Croghan was afterward appointed deputy Indian agent. On the 15th of January, 1751, he and Andrew Montour, an influential man among the Delawares and Shawnees, accompanied Mr. Gist in his visit to an Indian town at the mouth of the Scioto and to the towns on the Big Miami. Their trip to the Valley of the Scioto and down the river to its mouth is described in Mr. Gist's journal. Under date of January 15, 1751, he says: "We left Muskingum and went west five miles to the White Woman's creek, on which is a small town. This white woman was taken away from New England when she was not above ten years old by the French Indians. She is now upwards of fifty; has an Indian husband and several children. Her name is Mary Harris. She still remembers they used to be very religious in New England, and wonders how the white men can be so wicked as she has seen them in the woods." "Wednesday, 16th : Set out southwest twenty-five miles to Licking creek. The land from Muskingum is rich and broken. Upon the north side of Licking creek about six miles from its mouth, were several salt licks or ponds, formed by little streams or drains of water, clear, but of bluish color and salty taste. The traders and Indians boil their meats in this water, which, if proper care is not taken, will sometimes make it too salty to eat." The course was west and southwest from Licking Creek to Hock- hocking, a small Delaware town, and thence to the Upper Scioto, which was descended for about twenty miles to Salt Lick Creek. On the 25th he traveled twenty-eight miles, all the way through a country occupied by the Delaware Indians, and on Sunday arrived at one of their towns on the southeast side of the Scioto, about five miles from its mouth. This, Mr. Gist says, was the last of the Delaware towns to the westward. He remained a few days at that locality, held a council with the friendly Indians who made several speeches. He continues : "The Delaware Indians, by the best accounts I could gather, consist of about five hundred fighting men, all firmly attached to the English interest. They are not properly a part of the Six Nations, but are scattered about among most of the Indians on the Ohio, and some of them among the Six Nations, from whom they have leave to hunt upon their land." At the time of Gist's visit the Delawares had commenced to come into notice as an expanding tribe, or Indian nation, in much of the territory now embraced in Eastern Ohio. They were an eastern people, had been 44 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY traditional enemies of the Iroquois, by whom they were crowded beyond the Alleghenies, but in their western home rose into power with the permanent decline of their old-time rivals and conquerors. By the commencement of the eighteenth century, the Delawares were a densely settled nation whose territory virtually stretched from the Ohio to Lake Erie, with the center of their power in the Upper Muskingum and Tuscarawas. FRENCH AND ENGLISH CLASH After the return of Mr. Gist the Ohio Company proceeded to take possession of the lands they claimed on the Ohio and established a trading house on the Big Miami about a hundred miles from its mouth. Early in 1752 the French heard of this proceeding and sent military expedition to the Indians demanding the surrender of the English traders as intruders upon the French lands. As the demand was refused, the post was attacked by the French, assisted by the Ottawas and Chippewas. After a fierce engagement, during which fourteen Indians were killed, the trading house was captured and destroyed and the Englishmen carried as prisoners to Canada. This was considered the first settlement in the Ohio Valley which approached permanency. In the following year Washington, with Gist as his guide, recommended the erection of an English fort upon the present side of Pittsburgh, and the fiercest conflicts between the rivals for the possession of the Ohio Valley were waged in that vicinity for the capture of Fort DuQuesne, the military headquarters of the French. THE DELAWARES MOVE WESTWARDLY The Delawares, by the middle of the eighteenth century, or at the commencement of the French and Indian war, were most numerous in the Valley of the Tuscarawas, Eastern Ohio, but thirty years later the center of their strength was near the present center of the state, in the region of the county which bears their name. By the beginning of the nineteenth century the several tribes, whose territories were quite clearly defined fifty years previously, had commingled as a means of defense against the common white enemy, and as the Valley of the Ohio became fringed with the cabins and villages of the pale faces, the tribal lines of the red man became and more obliterated. In Eastern and Central Ohio, where the Delawares and Shawnees once held almost undisputed sway, there were now to be found also Wyandots, Mingoes and even Miamis from the western border. HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 45 This commingling and union of the Ohio Indians resulted largely from their experiences in the French and Indian war of 1755-64. The prompt action of the French in destroying the English trading post on the Big Miami and taking its occupants to Canada as prisoners of war brought counter-action from the British government. Early in the spring of 1755 General Braddock, with a considerable force, was sent to take possession of the Ohio country. His terrible defeat near Fort DuQuesne was followed by a fruitless expedition, the year after, which was directed against the Indian towns on the Ohio. Finally, in 1758, the French were expelled from Fort DuQuesne, and in 1763 France ceded to Great Britain all her North American settlements. The British then gave their attention to the defiant Indians. In 1764 General Bradstreet, having dispersed the Indian forces besieging Detroit, passed down into the Wyandot country by way of Sandusky Bay. Having ascended the bay and river as far as possible in boats, the party encamped and concluded a treaty of peace with the representatives of many of the Indian tribes. BOUQUET'S EXPEDITION But the Shawnees of the Scioto River and the Delawares of the Muskingum continued hostile. For the purpose of subduing or placating them, Colonel Bouquet was sent from Fort Pitt into the heart of the Ohio country on the Muskingum River. This expedition was conducted with great prudence and skill ; but few lives were lost, a treaty of peace was effected with the Indians about a mile from the forks of the Muskingum, but not before all the white prisoners, amounting to some 300, had been delivered to the colonel and his force, as has already been noted. Accompanying Colonel Bouquet as an engineer was Thomas Hutchins, who afterward became geographer of the United States. Mr. Hutchins drew a map of the country through which the expedition passed. It was published in London two years after the return of the expedition and covers much of the territory now embraced in Stark County. Various expeditions were sent against the Delawares, Wyandots, and Iroquois of Western Pennsylvania, Virginia and Eastern Ohio, in 1774, and as they were chiefly under the direction of Lord Dunmore, governor of Virginia, they are usually designated as "Dunmore's War." These actions did not spread into Ohio, although Lord Dunmore's march took him up the Hocking Valley and over into what is now Pickaway County, where in the fall of 1774, he made a treaty with all the hostile Indians at Camp Charlotte, near the present site of Circleville. 46 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY SHAWNEES LAST TO SURRENDER During and after the Revolutionary war, various American expeditions were sent against the warlike Shawnees, but the scenes of these forays and conflicts were in the Upper Valley of the Scioto. In 1779 Colonel Bowman headed an expedition against them, and their Village of Chillicothe was burned; but the Shawnee warriors showed an undaunted front and the whites were forced to retreat. In the summer of the following year General Clarke led a body of Kentuckians against the Shawnees. On their approach the Indians burned Chillicothe and retreated to their Town of Piqua, six miles below the present site of Springfield. There they gave battle and were defeated. In September, 1782, this officer led a second expedition against them and destroyed their towns of Upper and Lower Piqua, in what is now Miami County. Other expeditions from Kentucky were directed against the stubborn Shawnees of the Upper Scioto Valley and along the Miami rivers further west, these conflicts covering 1786-8. A NORTHWEST TERRITORY ASSURED In the meantime, by the Treaty of Paris, concluded between Great Britain and the United States in 1783, the western boundary of the United States was declared to be the Mississippi instead of the Ohio River. The British commissioner stoutly contended that the Ohio was its legitimate limits ; but sturdy John Adams, the American representative, carried the day for the Mississippi River, thus saving for his countrymen the splendid Northwest Territory. LIFTING OF INDIAN AND STATE TITLES The next great step in the building of the nation was to satisfy the land claims of the original occupants of the soil. The first negotiations were with the Six Nations of the East. Finally, at Fort Stanwix, in October, 1784, the Mohawks, Onondagas, Senecas, Cayugas, Oneidas and Tuscaroras ceded all their claims to the western lands to the Government of the United States. But citizens could not settle in that great domain until every other Indian title was lifted, and the individual states also relinquished their claims. By the year 1786 all the commonwealths of the Union had ceded their claims to the general Government ; then remained the task of extinguishing the Indian claims other than those ceded by the Six Nations. Efforts had been continuous since the conclusion of peace with Great Britain. But the problem was a difficult one. HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 47 The Indian tribes were allies of the English, with such minor exceptions as the Moravian Indians, or Christian Delawares of the Muskingum and Tuscarawas valleys, and did not surrender their homes without a struggle. For several years there was a series of hostile movements and numerous acts of revenge, but about 1786, when the general Government had adjusted all the state claims, a conciliatory policy was adopted toward the Indians, and by a series of purchases and treaties, made at various dates, their titles were peaceably extinguished. It is a fact worthy of note and pride, that the title to every foot of Ohio soil was honorably acquired from the Indians. LORD DUNMORE'S SQUATTERS But for more than a decade "squatters" had planted themselves in the fertile soil of the Ohio Valley. When Lord Dunmore's army of 1,200 men was disbanded at the mouth of the Hocking River in 1774, there is much evidence that not a few of them saw that the land was good to look upon and decided to occupy it. At least, in January, 1785, when the commissioners appointed by the Government to treat with the Delawares and Wyandots arrived in the Ohio country they found white settlements at Hocking Falls, at the Muskingum, the Scioto and Miami, and along the north bank of the Ohio. The largest appeared to have been Hocking, and there was quite a town on the Mingo Bottoms oppo-- site what is now Wheeling. The Indian commissioners, George Rogers, Richard Butler and Arthur Lee, were compelled to cease negotiations with the Delawares and Wyandots until all the lands west of the Ohio were dispossessed of the whites. Ensign John Armstrong was sent by Colonel Harmer to drive the white invaders from Indian soil, and by March most of them had left the country, although some failed to leave and kept hiding until the titles to the lands were made clear. In 1784, ten years after the disbandment of Dunmore's army at the mouth of the Hocking River, Congress passed an ordinance for the government of the Northwest Territory, all claim to which had been relinquished by Great Britain. So far as the organization of any civil government under it is concerned, it was a dead letter, but under its general provisions one very important step was taken toward the realization of the white man's order and the security of property rights. On May 20, 1785, a supplementary ordinance was passed for the survey of the western lands. 48 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY AMERICAN SYSTEM OF LAND SURVEYS A surveyor was chosen from each state which originally laid claim to the domain west of the Alleghenies, who was to act under the geographer of the United States, Thomas Hutchins, in laying off the land into townships of six miles square. The geographer was instructed to designate the townships by numbers, from south to north, and the ranges were to be numbered from east to west. It is this simple system of describing land that has been followed by the Government and private surveyors ever since, and may be called the American System. The survey of the western lands was well under way at the time of the passage of the permanent and living ordinance of 1787, which has been described as "the last gift of the Congress of the old Confederation of the people of the States.'' ORDINANCE OF 1787 As to the author of the famous ordinance of 1787, credit is now generally accorded to Dr. Manasseh Cutler, whose depth of scholarship, grace of diction and breadth of practical ability, as well as loftiness of purpose, endowed him with all the qualities which breathe through that noble document. Undoubtedly, he embodied the views of Thomas Jefferson, as expressed in the ordinance of 1784, with his own commanding personality. Doctor Cutler had come before Congress to purchase for a company composed chiefly of Massachusetts men, a large body of public lands. In the opinion of the associates of the Ohio Company, the purpose would be virtually useless if uncovered by the guarantee of civil law and order. The ordinance of 1787 was the answer, and the necessary predecessor of the first substantial colonization to the Northwest Territory. Congress wisely considered that such a colony would form a barrier against the British and Indians, and that the initial movement would be speedily followed by other purchases and extending settlements. The southern states had even a greater interest in the West than New England, and Virginia especially was eager for the development of the country beyond the Ohio. The South in general warmly supported the planting of colonies of men in the West whose energy and patriotism were well known ; and this, notwithstanding the anti-slavery provision. The ordinance provided that there should be formed from the territory between the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers and the Canadian boundary, not less than three and not more than five states. If only HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 49 three states were erected, the westernmost was to be bounded by the Mississippi, the Ohio and the Wabash rivers; a direct line drawn from the Wabash River and Port Vincent (Vincennes) north to the international boundary, and westward along the Canadian line to the Lake of the Woods and the Mississippi River. Thus Illinois. The middle state was to be blocked off between the Ohio and the international boundary, Illinois, and a line drawn due north from the mouth of the Great Miami to Canada. That was Indiana. The easternmost state was to be Ohio, whose southern and eastern boundaries were to be the Ohio River and Pennsylvania, and its northern limits the Dominion of Canada. But, as is well known, advantage was eventually taken of the proviso that Congress might form two other states from the territory between the Ohio, the Mississippi and the international boundary, north of a line drawn east and west from the southernmost bend to Lake Michigan. Under that proviso were created Michigan and Wisconsin, and the establishment of the boundaries of Ohio, as we know them today. FIRST SURVEYS OF WESTERN LANDS As has been noted, a survey of the western lands had been commenced under authority of an ordinance passed by Congress in 1785. Thus authorized, the Government surveyors laid out the first seven ranges bounded by Pennsylvania on the east and the Ohio River on the south. OHIO COMPANY'S PURCHASE On the 27th of October, 1787, a contract was made between the treasury of the United States and the New England Ohio Company of Associates for the purchase of a tract of land north of the Ohio River from the mouth of the Scioto to the western boundary of the survey mentioned, thence by a line north to the northern boundary of the tenth township from the Ohio River, thence by a due west line to the Scioto River, and down that stream to its mouth, or, point of beginning. The settlement of this purchase commenced at Marietta in the spring of 1788, and constituted the first permanent colony planted within the limits of Ohio. MILITARY AND CIVIL FRICTION Under the provisions of the ordinance, Gen. Arthur St. Clair was appointed governor of the Northwest Territory, Winthrop Sargent, sec- Vol. 1-4 50 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY retary, and Samuel H. Parsons, James H. Varnum and John Armstrong, judges. Judge Armstrong declined the judiciary and John Cleves Symmes was appointed in his place. With the exception of Judge Symmes, the territorial officers reached Marietta on the 9th of July, 1788. The former joined his associates soon after. At first there appears to have been some friction between the governor and the judiciary. The chief executive, a man of long military training and experience, called the attention of the judges to the efficiency of the militia in the conduct of affairs in a new country, but they paid no attention to his suggestions. Instead, they formulated a land-law for dividing and transferring real estate, which was rejected by Congress because of its general crudities and especially because, under its provisions, non-resident land holders would have been deprived of their property rights. WASHINGTON COUNTY ORGANIZED On the 26th of July, 1788, the County of Washington was organized by proclamation of Governor St. Clair, who appointed Rufus Putnam, Benjamin Tupper and Winthrop Sargent, justices of the peace. As will be seen by the following description of the bounds of the new county, all of the present Stark County east of the Tuscarawas was under its political and civil jurisdiction, but, with the exception of perhaps half a dozen missionaries and traders there were none within its borders or in the Valley of the Tuscarawas, who were, even theoretically, under the protection of the American Government. To return to Washington County-its boundaries were described as follows : "Beginning on the bank of the Ohio River where the western line of Pennsylvania crosses it and running with that line to Lake Erie ; thence along the southern shore of said lake to the north of Cuyahoga River ; thence up said river to the portage between it and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum ; thence down that branch to the forks, at the crossing-place above Fort Laurens ; thence with a line to be drawn westwardly to the portage of that branch of the Big Miami upon which the fort stood that was taken and destroyed by the French in 1752, until it meets the road from the Lower Shawanese Town to the Sandusky ; thence south to the Scioto River down to its mouth, and thence up the Ohio River to the place of beginning." FIRST JUDICIARY Governor St. Clair erected a Court of Probate, established a Court of Quarter Sessions, divided the militia into Seniors and Juniors, and HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 51 in August, 1788, added three justices of the peace to the three whom he had appointed during the previous month ; the new appointees were Archibald Cary, Isaac Pierce and Thomas Lord, and they were authorized to hold the Court of Quarter Sessions. Return Jonathan Meigs was clerk of the court. INDIANS AT LAST SUBDUED Thus did the Governor endeavor to maintain a nice balance between the military, civil and judicial authorities of Washington County and the Northwest Territory. But the Indians of the Northwest, encouraged and supported by the British, were still to be reckoned with before white settlers felt at all secure in their possessions or lives. It required nearly five years of warfare between the American troops and the Indian warriors, with bloody disaster on both sides, the defeat of St. Clair and the crushing campaign of Mad Anthony Wayne, before the peacc of 1795 was effected. In that year the twelve tribes who had given the most trouble signed the treaty at Greenville. This was soon followed by the British evacuation of all western military posts. Thereafter neither the Indians nor the British seriously interfered with the spread of American settlement and civilization in the Ohio Valley, Eastern Ohio, or Stark County. PART OF JEFFERSON COUNTY In July, 1797, Governor St. Clair, of the Northwest Territory, created Jefferson, the fifth county in the great country between the Ohio River and the Mississippi. Its original limits included that portion of the territory west of Pennsylvania and the Ohio River, east of a line drawn from the mouth of the Cuyahoga River (Cleveland) southwardly to the Muskingum River, and north of a line extended from that point eastward to the Ohio River. Within these bounds are Cleveland, Canton, Warren Steubenville and other large towns and populous counties of Eastern Ohio. In 1798 Steubenville, on the west bank of the Ohio, was laid out as the county seat by Bezaleel Wells and Hon. James Ross, of Pittsburgh ; it was after the latter that Ross County, Ohio, derived its name. It was at Steubenville that the first land office for the sale of Government lands in the Northwest Territory was established, and through it the first community of permanent settlers in Stark County was to be established. UNDER COLUMBIANA COUNTY But Stark County was to lie another decade in embryo, and for the sccond half of that period was to he under the jurisdiction of Columbiana 52 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY County, which was formed from Jefferson and Washington in March. 1803. Columbiana was one of the Original eight counties created by the first General Assembly of the state, and the territory now embraced in Stark County, as well as portions of Summit and Carroll (or old Stark County), was attached to it for election purposes. OLD LAKE AND CANTON TOWNSHIPS CREATED When speaking of the Stark County of the early years, not only its present territory is designated, but Franklin and Green townships, Summit County, and Brown, Rose and Harrison, Carroll County. While under the jurisdiction of Columbiana County, from 1803 to 1808, it was divided into two townships by a line passing east and west corresponding to the northern boundary of Canton Township extended in either direction. The territory north of the line was called Lake Township ; that south of it, Canton Township. FIRST JUSTICES OF THE PEACE Soon after the Indian title to the land west of the Tuscarawas was extinguished, the present Wayne County and portions of the townships of Lawrence, Tuscarawas and Sugar Creek lying west of the river, were attached to Lake and Canton for election and judicial purposes. In 1806 an election for the necessary township officers was ordered. The result is not a matter of record ; it is only known that Jacob Loutzenheiser was commissioned justice of the peace for Lake Township and James F. Leonard, for Canton Township. This seems to have been the extent of the political history having any relation to Stark County, and that it was not of striking importance is evident when it is remembered that its first real settlers had only been filtering in through the Steubenville land office for about a year. FIRST PERMANENT TOWN AND HIGHWAY Canton was laid out in 1806 by the same Bezaleel Wells, who was one of the founders of Steubenville. He had previously entered the land upon which he located his town at the forks of the Nimishillen, as well as various tracts west of that plat and along the shores of the pretty body of water now known as Meyer's Lake. Wells opened the first road from the Ohio River to Canton. It passed through Sandy and Canton townships, and was the first "white van's trail" from the Ohio River that crossed the old Indian or Tus- HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 53 carawas Trail. These were the first permanent towns and highway in what is now Stark County. But we are getting slightly ahead of our story, and must reserve a special chapter for an account of the pioneer white settlements of Stark County. |