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218 - HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY. CHAPTER II. THE INDIAN OWNERS. THE territory composing Warren County was uninhabited on its discovery and exploration by white men. So far as is known, no tribe of Indiana ever lived upon its soil. There is no historic proof that any people ever had permanent habitations within its limits after the pre-historic race, the Mound Builders, had passed away, until English-speaking white men took possession of the land and began the work of clearing away the forests which had been growing for centuries over the earthworks of a people whose history is enveloped in obscurity. When the Ohio Valley was first explored by white men, the Miami Indians laid claim to nearly all of Western Ohio, and a vast region extending through Indiana to Illinois and northward to the Maumee. This powerful tribe, or rather confederacy of tribes, had villages on the Scioto, the headwaters of the Miamis, the Maumee and the Wabash. But of their vast territory, much that was then the most beautiful and is now the most valuable was entirely unoccupied. The Ohio, from the mouth of the Scioto, was without evidence of human habitations on either side. The region of the two Miamis from their union with the Ohio well up to their sources was an unbroken solitude. Why a region so inviting as Kentucky and Southwestern Ohio should have remained uninhabited for so long a period, while the inhospitable regions of the lakes were peopled, has, perhaps, not been satisfactorily explained. The theory that Kentucky was a common hunting-ground, and purposely kept bare of inhabitants, has been advanced. That it was a disputed ground and battle-field between the tribes of the South and those from the Northwest has been suggested. Perhaps the lack of human habitations may be explained with the simple facts that sufficient time had not elapsed since the advent of the Indian races upon the continent to people the whole territory; and that savage tribes, as well as civilized races, are not always successful in first selecting and occupy-. ing the best and most pleasing regions. But whatever may be the explanation, the fact that the region referred to was destitute of all traces of recent settlement is established by the testimony of the first explorers and emigrants. Mr. Butler, in his history of Kentucky, says that " no Indian towns within recent times were known to exist within this territory, either in Kentucky or the Lower Tennessee." Gen. Harrison, whose long acquaintance with the Miami Valley before its settlement by white men, and his familiarity with Indian history and traditions, entitle his opinion to the greatest weight, was emphatic in denying the occupation of the country for centuries before its discovery by the Europeans, although he thought there was evidence, from the remains of pottery, pipes, stone hatchets, and other articles of inferior workmanship to those of the Mound-Builders, of its being inhabited by some race inferior to that people. At the threshold of this history, then, we are to conceive of the territory of Warren County during the generations preceding the approach of white men, not as thickly populated with dusky braves, whose villages dotted the shores of its streams, but as a wilderness inhabited only by the beasts of the forest. There was not a town or settlement upon its soil. The smoke curled up from no scat" tered wigwams; no council fires were lighted; no fields of maize were tilled by squaws within its limits. The Little Miami, from the northern boundary of the -county, rolled its blue waters to the Ohio between forest-covered hills, which HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY - 219 knew not the busy haunts of men. Fort Ancient, then, as now, stood covered with its forest growth of centuries, and no Indian visitor knew aught of its builders. “Nothing appeared but nature unsubdued, One endless, noiseless, woodland solitude." But while there were no Indian residents, there were Indian owners. We have said that the Miami Indians claimed the territory. They were, doubtless, the rightful owners of the soil when the first white men visited the Miami Rivers. This tribe had important towns on the head-waters of the Great Miami in 051. It was then probably the most powerful of the North American tribes. Little Turtle, the famous Miami chief, a few days before he agreed to the treaty at Greenville and ceded his right to these lands, spoke with pride, and yet with sadness, of the former greatness and dominion of his tribe. His words are preserved in the American State Papers: I hope you will pay attention to what I now say to you. You have pointed out to us the boundary line between the Indians and the United States; but I now take the liberty to inform you, that that line cuts off from the Indians a large portion of country which has been enjoyed by my forefathers time immemorial, without molestation or dispute. The prints of my ancestor's houses are everywhere to be seen in this portion. It is well known to all my brothers present that my forefather kindled the first fire at Detroit; from thence he extended his lines to the head-waters of Scioto; from thence to its mouth; from thence down the Ohio to the mouth of the Wabash; from thence to Chicago on Lake Michigan. At this place I first saw my elder brothers, the Shawnees. I have now informed you of the boundaries of the Miami nation, where the Great Spirit placed my forefather a long time ago and charged him not to sell or part with his lands, but to preserve them for his posterity. This charge has been handed down to me. I was surprised to find my other brothers differed so much from me on this subject; for their conduct would lead one to suppose that the Great Spirit and their forefathers had not given them the charge that was given to me; but on the contrary had directed them to sell their lands to any white man who wore a hat, as soon as he should ask it of them. Little Turtle took pride in the antiquity of his race, as well as in the extent of territory controlled by his ancestors. In 179'7, this Maimi chief met Volney in Philadelphia. The French philosopher explained to the savage orator the theory that the Indian race had descended from the dark-skinned Tartars, and, by a, map, showed the supposed communication between Asia and America. Little Turtle replied; " Why should not these Tartars, who resemble us, have descended from the Indians? " While the Miami Indians were the rightful owners of the soil when the Miami country was first visited by white men, they were not the only nor the principal tribe which resisted the settlement of the country by the white men. About ten years before the beginning of the Revolutionary war, the Miami tribes abandoned their towns on the Great Miami and removed to the region of the Maumee. The Shawnees, a warlike and numerous tribe, then established themselves on the head-waters of the two Miami Rivers. It was the Shawnees that the first settlers of the Miami country most frequently came in contact with. They came from the South, and first appeared in Ohio under the protection of the Miamis. The tribes which in Ohio resisted the encroachments of the whites were the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawnees, Chippewas, Ottawas, Pottawatomies, them a larger share of the money which was stipulated to be paid by the United at the treaty of Greenville, Gen. Wayne recognized this division, so as to allow Miamis, Weas and Eel Rivers. The last three were in fact but one tribe, but Gen. Wayne thought it just that the Miami Indians should receive more of the annuities promised by the Government than they would be entitled to as a single tribe, because he recognized the fact that the country ceded by the treaty was in reality their property. It was the opinion of Gen. Harrison that all the Indian tribes of Ohio and Indiana which were united in the war 220 - HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY. against the whites could not at any time during the ten years which preceded the treaty of peace in 1795 have brought into the field more than three thousand warriors, although a few years before, the Miamis alone could have furnished more than that number. The ravages of the small-pox was the principal cause of the great decrease of their numbers. They composed, however, a body of the finest light infantry troops in the world. They delayed the settlement of the country now forming Warren County and adjoining counties for more than seven years, and, if they had been under an efficient system of discipline, their conqueror at Tippecanoe admits that the settlement of the country might have been attended with much greater difficulty. INDIAN MODE OF LIFE. The Indians who roamed over the territory now forming Warren County, and retarded its settlement, lived in villages along the upper waters of the two Miamis The nearest of these was the Shawnee town, Old Chillicothe, on the Little Miami, about three miles north of the site of Xenia. Here Daniel Boone was a prisoner in 1778 for some months, and rngratiated himself into the favor of his captors by mingling in their sports, hunting, fishing, shooting and swimming. Boone names five towns on the Miami Rivers which were destroyed by Gen. George Rogers Clark—Old Chillicothe, Pickaway, New Chillicothe, Will's Town and Chillicothe. Their huts were generally built .of small round logs, and covered with bark or skins Old Chillicothe was built somewhat after the manner of a Kentucky station—that is, a hollow square. A long council house extended the entire length of the town, in which embassies were received and the chiefs met to consult on grave questions. Some of the houses are said to have been covered with shingles or clapboards. Many Indian huts were made by setting up a pole on forks and placing bark against it; there being no chimney, the smoke passed through an opening at the top. Long before the first settlement of the Miami country by the whites, the habits of the Indians had been modified by their contact with Europeans. The French and English traders had supplied them with fire-arms, scalping-knives and tomahawks. They had iron pots and brass kettles for cooking and sugar-making. They had learned to love strong drink, and were given to great excesses in eating and thinking. Some of their own arts showed great skill and ingenuity. According to James Smith, a captive among the Delawares in Ohio, the Indian squaws in the sugar- making season of 1756 made vessels for collecting sugar-water in a very curious manner, from freshly peeled elm bark. The manner of construction he does not describe. They raised gourds and used them for cups and dishes. The agriculture of the Indians was confined chiefly to the growing of corn and beans, to which potatoes were afterward added. The extent of their corn-fields was much greater than is generally supposed. A journal of Wayne's campaign, kept by George Will, under the date of August 8, 1794, says: We have marched four or five miles in corn fields down the Auglaize, and there are not less than one thousand acres of corn around the town." The same journal describes the immense corn-fields, numerous vegetable patches and old apple-trees found along the banks of the Maumee from its mouth to Fort Wayne. It also discloses the fact that the army obtained its bread and vegetables for eight days, while building Fort Defiance, from the surrounding corn and potato fields. Four years before, Gen. Harmar, in his expedition, burnt and destroyed at least twenty thousand bushels of corn. In the cultivation of these large fields, nearly all the work was performed by the women. In addition to field work, the Indian women procured water and fire-wood, dressed skins, made garments and woe' casins, and were little more than mere slaves of the men. The men went to war, procured game, manufactured such arms and implements as were not ob- HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY - 221 tained from the whites, and kept them in repair. They disdained ordinary labor, except upon an object of such dignity and importance as a canoe or a dwelling. Their hunting-grounds were often a great distance from their villages. Thus, while the Indian squaw was cultivating these fields or gathering the corn, her warrior lord may have been hunting in the valley of Turtle Creek, and have shot the arrow whose flint head the Warren County farmer today turns up with his plow. CHARACTER OF THE INDIANS. Gen. William Henry Harrison thus speaks of the intellectual and moral qualities of the Indians who roamed over this region, in his discourse before the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, on the Aborigines of the Ohio “The Wyandots, Delawares, Shawnees and Miamis were much superior to the other members of the confederacy. The Little Turtle of the Miami tribe was one of this description, as was the Blue Jacket, a Shawnee chief. I think it probable that Tecumseh possessed more integrity than any other of the chiefs who attained to much distinction; but he violated a solemn engagement, which he had freely contracted, and there are strong suspicions of his having formed a treacherous design, which an accident only prevented him from accomplishing. Similar instances are, however, to be found in the conduct of great men in the history of almost all civilized nations. But these instances are more than counterbalanced by the number of individuals of high moral character which were to be found amongst the principal and secondary chiefs of the four tribes above mentioned. This was particularly the case with Tarhe, or the Crane, the great sachem of the Wyandots, and Black Hoof, the chief of the Shawnees. Many instances might be adduced to show the possession on the part of these men of an uncommon degree of disinterestedness and magnanimity, and strict performance of their engagements under circumstances which would be considered by many as justifying evasion. “By many they are supposed to be stoics, who willingly encounter deprivations. The very reverse is the fact. If they belong to either of the classes of philosophers which prevailed in the declining ages of Greece and Rome, it is to that of the Epicureans. For no Indian will forego an enjoyment or suffer an inconvenience if he can avoid it, but under peculiar circumstances, when, for instance, he is stimulated by some strong passion. But even the gratification of this he is ready to postpone whenever its accomplishment is attended with unlooked-for danger or unexpected hardshrps. Hence their military operations were always feeble, their expeditions few and far between, and much the greater number abandoned without an efficient stroke, from whim, caprice, or an aversion to encounter difficulties." He adds: " When, however, evil comes which he cannot avoid, then he will call up all the spirit of the man and meet his fate, however hard, like the best Roman of them all." EXTINGUISHMENT OF INDIAN TITLES. The Indian titles to the lands in Warren County were extinguished by the treaties of Fort McIntosh in 1785, Fort Harmar in 1789, and Greenville in 1795- The first stipulated for the distribution of goods among the different tribes for their use and comfort, but their value is not specified. The last provided that the United States should deliver to the tribes goods to the value of $20,000, and a perpetual annuity of $9,500, payable in goods reckoned at first cost in the city or place where they should be procured. By these three treaties, the Indians relinquished forever all their claims to two-thirds of the State of Ohio. The great councils of the Northwestern tribes, however, refused to rec- 222 - HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY ognize the validity of the two former treaties, because they were made with only a few of the tribes, and had not been sanctioned by the united voice of the Indian confederacy. The Indians could have obtained a much larger sum for the: lands had they accepted the offers of the United States Government made pr: vious to Wayne's victorious campaign against them. In 1793, President Washington instructed the Commissioners appointed by him to negotiate a treaty of peace with the Northwestern Indians, to use every effort to obtain a confirmation of the boundary line established at Fort Harmar, and to offer in payment $59,000 in hand, and an annuity of $10,000 forever. The Indians refused the money, claimed that the treaties already made were void because not sanctioned by all the tribes, demanded that the Ohio River should be considered the boundary, and that every white settlement should be removed from the Northwest Territory. The Commissioners explained to them that the United States white ernment had sold large tracts of land northwest of the Ohio, and that the te settlements and improvements were numerous, and had cost much money and labor, and could not be given up; but the Government was willing to pay a larger sum in money and goods than had been given at any one time for Indian lands since the whites first set their feet on this continent. The Indians gave as their final reply: " Money is of no value to us, and to most of us is unknown. As no consideration whatever can induce us to sell the lands on which we get sustenance for our women and children, we hope we may be allowed to point out a mode by which your settlers may be easily removed, and peace thereby obtained. " We know these settlers are poor, of they never would have ventured to live in a country which has been in continual trouble since they crossed the Ohio. Divide, therefore, this large sum of money which you have offered to us among these people. Give to each, also, a proportion of what you say you will give to us annually over and above this large sum of money, and, we are persuaded, they will most readily accept it in lieu of the land you sold them. If you add, also, the great sums you must expend in raising and paying armies with a view to force us to yield you our country, you will certainly have more than sufficient for the purpose of repaying these settlers for all their labor and their improvements. " We shall be persuaded that you mean to do us justice if you agree that the Ohio shall remain the boundary line between us. If you will not consent thereto, our further meeting will be altogether unnecessary." The Commissioners on the part of the Government said: " That they had already explicitly declared to them that it was now impossible to make the Ohio giver the line between their lands and the lands of the United States. Your answer amounts to a declaration that you will agree to no other boundary than the Ohio. The negotiation is therefore at an end." Nothing remained for the Government but a vigorous prosecution of the war. The Indians were defeated by Gem Wayne in August, 1794, and in August, 1795, a treaty of peace was ratified by all the tribes. Who was in the wrong in the long and bloody war which attended the early settlement of Ohio Are we placed in the dilemma of believing either that our pioneer fathers were rapacious invaders of the lands of the Indians, or that the red men were regardless of their solemn engagements? Fortunately, we are not compelled to adopt either alternative. Enough has already been said to show that the war was net one in which all the wrong was on one side and all the right on the other. An honest effort was made by the Government of the United States to observe good faith toward the Indians, and to prevent their lands from being taken from them without their consent in treaties duly ratified, but in the earlier treaties for the purchase of lands in Ohio, all the tribes who had just claims were not represented. |