CHAPTER IV. TROUBLES OF THE NEW GOVERNMENT- INDIANS DISPUTE ITS RIGHT TO SETTLE ON LANDS NORTH OF THE OHIO-TREATY WITH THE IROQUOIS, OR Six NATIONS, 1784, AT FORT STANWIX, N. Y.-SAVAGE AGGREGATION OF DISCONTENTED TRIBES AND NOTED WARRIORS ABOUT DETROIT-ENGLISH TRADERS HELP TO FAN THE DISCONTENT- UNITED STATES MAKES A SECOND TREATY AT FT. MCINTOSH, 1785, AND A THIRD AT FT. FINNEY, 1786- U. S. GOVERNMENT PLANTS ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT IN THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY AT MARIETTA, 1788- RAPID INFLUX OF SETTLERS- INDIANS STILL OBJECT- FOURTH TREATY, FT. HARMAR, 1789- MASSACRE AT BIG BOTTOM, 1791- DEFEAT OF GEN. HARMAR- GEN. ST. CLAIR LEADS A NEW ARMY TOWARD THE MAUMEE, AND IS ROUTED WITH GREAT LOSS GEN. ANTHONY WAYNE DEFEATS THE TRIBES ON THE MAUMEE, 1794- TREATY OF GREENVILLE, 1795. THESE were some of the vexatious problems that confronted the New Government at the very outset. In the meantime persevering efforts had been going on to clear up the claims of some of the tribes. The first and most greedy of the claimants were the Iroquois. They had, as previously mentioned, been practically at one time masters of the country to Lake Michigan on the west, and south into Tennessee. In fact they went on war expeditions wherever they could hear of any tribe to fight with, and nearly all the tribes in the territory mentioned held title at one time or another by Iroquois sufferance. They had latterly, however, probably under old treaties with the French, confined themselves mostly to New York, Pennsylvania and that part of Ohio south of Lake Erie, but east of the Cuyahoga (Cleveland). Hardly a treaty was made, or sale of land, but they were on hand to claim some spoils. Hardly a battle was fought but some of their tribes were represented among the hostiles. They were not, however, in high favor with the Americans because of their joining the British in the Revolution, and under Brant, Cornplanter and Butler (not Richard) committing some horrible atrocities in the Mohawk and Cherry Valleys. The Americans finally got after them before the war closed, and inflicted savage punishment, devastating their villages and decimating their 18 - WOOD COUNTY, OHIO tribes fearfully. So enraged were the New York people at the close of the Revolution that they proposed driving them out, and did drive off the Mohawks to Canada; but Gen. Washington and others urged more liberal treatment. At the final wind up of the Indian wars the Senecas, and some other bands of the Six Nations, were allotted lands on the Sandusky river, not far from where Tiffin is. Others remained in New York and in Canada, and some went west. First Treaty.-At a treaty at Fort Stanwix (now Rome, N. Y.), October, 1784, the Six Nations (Iroquois) ceded to the Americans all their claims to land west of Pennsylvania. This was the first Indian treaty made by the United States. It would seem to have disposed of the claims of the Iroquois to lands in the West; but not so. There is scarcely a subsequent battle, or treaty, that has not had representatives of some tribe of the Six Nations in it. The United States thus early adopted the just policy of procuring the Indian title to land before offering it for sale, or encouraging settlers to go upon it. This, notwithstanding they had already acquired the title of both England and France. Two of the chief causes of all the trouble the government has had with the Indians are, first, the lawless intrusion of some of the border settlers on lands claimed by the Indians before the government authorized settlement there. Second, the nomadic tenure of some of the tribes and the consequent indefiniteness of boundaries; notably the Shawnees, which made it difficult to fix their claims to any certain territory, for they were in one location one year and somewhere else the next. Again, if a tribe were fixed on a location by treaty, it would sometimes occur that another tribe would find, at a later day, that they had prior squatter rights on the lands. This was the case, for instance, with the Delawares and Wyandots against the Shawnees. The latter claimed title to lands previously ceded to the government by the former tribes. When we add to this the mischief-making efforts of renegade white men, living among the tribes, and the evil influence' of English traders and agents, whose selfish interests it was to keep back settlements, we can readily see why the Kentucky and Virginia border, and the territory now embraced in Ohio, was a bloody battle ground for years, in spite of the humane efforts of Washington and other leading men in the government. Second Treaty.- Below Pittsburg, on the Ohio, opposite the mouth of the Beaver, was Ft. McIntosh; there, in 1785, the United States made its second treaty, and for the same land it had just got by treaty from the Iroquois. There the Delawares, Chippewas, Ottawas and Wyandots, ceded their claims to all lands east and south of the Cuyahoga river, defined in the treaty line as beginning at the mouth of said liver (now Cleveland), up said river (south) to the Portage path, across on said path to the head waters of the Muskingum to Ft. Laurens (now Bolivar, Tuscarawas county), thence west to Loramie's ford (Shelby county), on the Miami; thence, by the Portage path, to the head waters of the Maumee (St. Mary's branch), and down the Maumee to Lake Erie, and along its south shore, back to the mouth of the Cuyahoga. All north and west of this line should belong to the Indians, except some reservations made by the government. All east and south of that line, about two-thirds of the present State of. Ohio, the government was to have peaceable possession of. It will be noticed that no treaty mention is made, thus far, with the quarrelsome Shawnees. They held squatter rights on a fine location along the Scioto, about old Chilicothe, and north to Mad river, which the Delaware and Wyandots refused to recognize, and claimed the right to sell the land, and did cede it to the United States. Here was an opening for trouble. Third Treaty.-The government met the Shawnees, in treaty, at Ft. Finney, at the mouth of the Miami, January, 1786, and besides money and presents given, they were allotted, and agreed to accept, land at the head of the Mad river (Little Miami), and north, between the Delawares and Miamis, central in what is now Auglaize county. This was the third Indian treaty the United States had made in as many years: First, with the Iroquois at Ft. Stanwix for their claim on lands north of the Ohio, 1784; second, the treaty with the western tribes at Ft. McIntosh, 1785; and third, at Ft. Finney, with the Shawnees, in 1786. It is well to be thus particular, respecting these treaties, for two reasons: It is of interest to the owners and occupants of the soil today, and in all subsequent years, to know just how the title to our homes was acquired. We hold our title deeds from the President of the United States, the head officer of our government, and seldom stop to inquire how the government acquired the title. Again it is a satisfaction to know that, instead of resorting to force to expel the Indians, pacific measures were invariably taken by the government and treaties held, from time to time, with these native claimants, to secure title to land, for which the government had already waged an eight-years' war with another claimant. It should also be noted WOOD COUNTY, OHIO - 19 that the Indians always received a consideration for their lands from the United States. We may, as a Christian people, feel a prickling conscience, at times, when we glance over those old land patents, bearing the President's name and the great seal of the United States, and reflect that the title was, really, only made clear and perfect when the native chieftians, and their warriors, borne down amid the roar of cannon and clash of arms, were forced to throw down their bloody hatchets and put their mark on the treaty deed. That was the court of last resort. It was the decree of well, call it Fate. There was no appeal. Still it is well for us to know and feel that humane endeavor was exhausted in trying to do what at last was wrought by force. This is not offered as a justification of all that has been done, but mentioned rather in mitigation of some of the things that were done. After this treaty with the Shawnees, in January, the government, with the understanding that a peaceful conclusion with the Indian claimants had been reached, began active work to plant settlements north of the Ohio. Hitherto it had not only discouraged, but had forbidden, settlers from locating there, and those who had done so did it at their own peril, and usually paid the penalty with their lives, unless lucky enough to get out in time. Here we will leave our old guardians, France and England, for a time, as well as the savage tribes who hold the Maumee Country, and turn to the New Government, just starting into life. With it is involved the future of this wilderness. From its new energies, new agencies of growth, progress and strength, must come deliverance. There are many critical stages to pass; many obstructions to be cleared away; long '`marches made; battles fought; treaties negotiated; and the patience and wisdom of statesmanship exhausted before the hardy band of pioneers who came later with axe, plow and spade, to reclaim and subdue this waste place, could begin with a clear title deed and an assurance of protection to life and property. It is not designed to give here a history of Ohio, or of the Northwest, but only to present, in chronological order, an account of such events as have affected the history of Wood county. An inspiration of pride swells in every American bosom when contemplating the herculean work of those sturdy, devoted patriots and statesmen, who stood at the front, in the long struggle for a new nation. Now that it was born and christened, they were, for a time, to take charge of its destiny. Out of chaos and confusion they brought order and system. Out of thirteen colonies, with diverse claims and interests, they established the Union, and that Greater Charter, the Constitution. Out of poverty and distress they brought prosperity and contentment. Out of the wilderness they carved and founded great States, where communities and cities sprung up as if by magic. When England gave up the contest, she simply made a quit-claim deed; that is, the new nation took possession, subject to all claims and encumbrances. Included in the treaty, and which more directly concerns this story, was the vast stretch of country from the Ohio to the Canada border, on the north, and from Pennsylvania west to the Mississippi, since cut up into the States of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and that part of Minnesota east of the Mississippi. When the United States took possession, this was a nameless waste, the greater part under the general term, Province of Quebec, and the smaller part of it, Louisiana, and occupied by about twenty-two tribes and clans of Indians, and a sparse population of whites about the military posts, mostly French. Besides being poor, the government was heavily in debt, and had in addition many soldiers who had been promised bounty in land. This public territory, or domain, seemed to be about the only resource she had. It was known to be the finest body of land in the world; adapted to all the wants of man. Its vast inland fresh-water seas were the wonder of all travelers. Its great rivers and broad fertile valleys were unexcelled in any country, and its fame was known in all the great centers of Europe. That it could readily be disposed of and would sustain a vast population there was not a doubt. It was in the light of all these facts that Congress set to work to clear up the title and open the land to settlement. First to be dealt with was four members of the Confederate sisterhood: Virginia, Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut. Each claimed a slice of the New Territory. All claimed under their original Colonial charters from the King of England,. and Virginia made the additional claim of conquest, and New York of purchase from the Iroquois. No reader of history but has admired the feats of the redoubtable Virginian, Col. George Rogers Clark, who, during the Revolutionary war, when he saw that Congress was neglecting the Illinois Country, next the Mississippi, sallied forth from Kentucky with a small force and captured the British garrisons at Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Vincennes, freed the country from British rule, drove away Lieut. Henry Hamilton, and held it in spite of all efforts of the enemy to drive him off. Kentucky 20 - WOOD COUNTY, OHIO was at that time a part of Virginia, and the latter State at her own expense equipped Clark for the expedition. But for the enterprise and success of that gallant officer Illinois and Indiana might, today, belong to Canada, possibly all the country north of the Ohio. Virginia compromised her claim by taking 3,800,000 acres of land bordering the Ohio on the north, between the Scioto and Miami, known since as the Virginia Military Tract. New York and Massachusetts conflicted somewhat with each other in jurisdiction, and finally relinquished their claims. Connecticut was more stubborn and reluctant. She claimed a belt of land clear to the Pacific, but finally, after much vexatious delay, compromised, in 1786, by taking a strip of land about fifty miles average width, on the south side of Lake Erie, and extending west from Pennsylvania, 120 miles, containing 3,700,000 acres, known, sometimes, as " New Connecticut, or "Connecticut Reserve," but usually as the" Western Reserve." Five hundred thousand acres of this land at the west end, now comprising Huron and Erie counties, known as the "Fire Lands," were given by Connecticut to those of her citizens, whose property, at New London, Stonington and other coast towns, was destroyed by fire in the Revolutionary, war. This peaceable settlement of those claims required patient' and careful statesmanship. The Union of the States had not yet been perfected, and the least bit of friction might have done great mischief at such a critical time. All breathed easier when it was finally consummated. This brings us to the most interesting period in the early history of our country the laying of the foundations of five of the great States in the Union. The fate of the Maumee Country is so directly linked and connected with the history of that period,. and the country was itself the arena of so many historic events, that a brief outline of the story, though national in its scope, will not only be of interest, but necessary to the ground-work of our local history. Among the most urgent agencies in hastening the efforts of the government to plant settlements north of the Ohio, were the bounty claims for land, of the Revolutionary soldiers. Many of these men had served eight years for but little pay, and that in depreciated currency. The promise to them of land in the different grades of the service was as follows: Major-general, 1,100 acres; brigadier-general, 850 acres; colonel, 550 acres; major, 400 acres; captain, 300 acres; lieutenant, 200 acres; ensign, 150 acres; non-commissioned officers and privates, 100 acres each. The survey of this vast public domain, and the manner in which it should be done, had already been arranged for by Congress, and the surveyors began work in July, 1786, following the treaty with the Shawnees in January of the same year. The first stake was driven on the, north bank of the Ohio, at the Pennsylvania line.. The surveys were under the direction of Capt. Thomas Hutchins, United States Geographer. This was the beginning of a work so important. then, and to all future generations, that a sketch of it in this volume, based on official authority, is given a separate chapter. The best statesmen in the land had, meantime, been laboring to perfect a plan of provisional civil government for the new territory, which resulted in the enactment by Congress. July 13, of the celebrated Ordinance of 1787, the Magna Charta of the Northwest a document more talked about, and which has received more encomiums from statesmen, past and present, at home and abroad, than any other, the Constitution only excepted. It is the fundamental law of five great States. Salmon P. Chase said of it: Never probably in the history of the world did a measure of legislation so accurately fulfill, yet so mightily exceed, the anticipations of legislators. When the settlers went into the wilderness they found the law already there. It was impressed upon the soil itself, while it yet bore up nothing but the forest. * * * This remarkable document," he says again, "was the last gift of the old Confederation to the country, and was a fit consummation of their glorious labors." At the time of its promulgation the Federal constitution was under discussion in the convention, and in a few months-upon the organization of the new national government that Congress was dissolved never again to reassemble. Its essential propositions were: (1), Freedom of conscience and right of worship. (2) Free people and no slavery. (3) Free schools. and encouragement of education and religion. (4) Inviolability of private contracts and the greatest personal liberty. What a debt of gratitude later generations have acknowledged to the wise statesmen of that day for the single provision in .the Ordinance of 1785, of a section of land, in each township, for school purposes. That alone immortalized their legislation. That Ordinance organized the whole domain north of the Ohio into a single division, called the Territory northwest of the Ohio, but which will be referred to for greater convenience in the succeeding pages as the Northwest Territory. A governor, secretary and three judges constituted_ WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. - 21 the corps of officials, who were to go on the ground and put the Ordinance into operation. All that seemed necessary now to make a great State was people. These were soon forthcoming. On the 7th of April, 1788, Gen. Rufus Putnam, superintendent of the Ohio Company, with a party of forty-seven New England colonists, crossed the Alleghany mountains, and by boat passed down the Ohio, landing at a point where the Muskingum unites with it, and there planted the first settlement, which they named Marietta. In June another installment of New England pioneers arrived, and afterward they came faster than shelter could be provided for them. By the 15th of July the government officials had arrived: Arthur St. Clair, governor; Winthrop -Sargent, secretary; John Cleves Symmes, James M. Varnum and Samuel H. Parsons, judges. These officials, appointed by Congress and the ,Ordinance of 1787, were the Government. A day was appointed for a public meeting; addresses were made; the commissions of the new officials were read; the governor duly inaugurated; three rousing cheers given, and the people dispersed in a happy mood. In this summary way the Northwest Territory was organized, Marietta was its temporary capital, and the wheels of government were in motion; the proceedings had occupied no more time in those wild woods than the opening of a country school lyceum by the reading of its constitution and by-laws. That was a unique sort of government those first settlers had. The governor was the executive branch; the three judges the judicial, and the governor and judges together, the legislative. They adopted from the statutes of the different States, subject to the approval of Congress, such laws as were deemed necessary to their condition. These were mostly derived from Pennsylvania, Virginia and Massachusetts. This government, in the scope of its legislative authority, greatly resembled the municipal corporations of to-day. The judiciary had more extended powers--original, appellate and final-but as they confined themselves closely to the well established precedents of the older States, the pioneers, too busy to indulge in law, the luxury of more wealthy societies, had little cause of complaint in that direction. Gov. St. Clair issued a proclamation establishing and defining the limits of Washington county, the first county of the Northwest Territory, and the oldest, of course, in Ohio. In extent of territory that county was a vast one. It took in all eastern Ohio, from the point where the boundary line of Pennsylvania crosses the Ohio river, west by south, following the river, to the mouth of the Scioto, thence thirty miles north of Columbus, then east to a point on the Tuscarawas river, then north to Lake Erie, where Cleveland now is. If a man living on the shore of Lake Erie had wished to have a deed recorded, or procure a marriage license, he would have to go to Marietta, the county seat, on the Ohio. There were no mail routes to send letters by, nor roads either, for that matter. But it was unavoidable, for people were scarce and territory abundant. In the fall of the same year (1788), a settlement was started near where Cincinnati now is, in what is known as the Symmes Purchase. Judge Symmes and his chief associates in the colony enterprise, were Jerseymen, and this settlement was composed largely of people from New Jersey, mingled with others from various parts. As the settlements grew and prospered, others took courage to make a 'beginning. In the winter of 1790-91 Gen. Nathaniel Massie located a colony of Virginians on the river, above Symmes Colony, at Manchester (now Adams county), which was in the tract reserved and known as the Virginia Military Tract. Great inducements were offered by Massie, and this settlement soon had a permanent foothold. There were now three centers of settlement on the Ohio river, besides the "Seven Range" settlement, next to Pennsylvania, and a pretty fair start had been made for future growth. In these three, or we may say four central settlements, were four almost distinct types of civilization which then began to exert their influence on the future of the land occupied. Most prominent were the two leading colonies, one from Virginia, the other from Massachusetts; the first, descendants of the proud Cavaliers, and their aristocratic associates back to Sir Walter Raleigh; the other the descendants of the Puritans, whose faith, devotion and religious zeal had made them, for freedom's sake, content to live on the bleak, rocky shores of New England. Today we find, in a degree, the impress and characteristics of those early settlers in the Scioto valley, about Chillicothe; in the valley of the Muskingum around Zanesville, between the two Miamis, north to Hamilton, Dayton and Troy, and in the cosmopolitan, but energetic, inhabitants of the seven ranges. And if we anticipate dates a little, and go over to the south shore of Lake Erie, where the Connecticut Reserve is dotted over with towns and settlements, churches and schools of the enterprising thrifty New Englanders, we shall find the characteristics of their late homes still more strongly impressed there. 22 - WOOD COUNTY, OHIO We have passed now, in chronological order, to the third year, 1991, in the life of the new Territorial Government; its settlements have expanded; the original. one, at Marietta, had multiplied into eight minor communities. But while this extension north of the Ohio was going on; gradually, portentous clouds had been gathering. The powerful tribes of Indians to the northwest, whose fine hunting grounds the whites were approaching, had been showing much uneasiness. They hovered about the settlements, and regarded the whites with restless, jealous looks and menacing gestures. The aspect was too threatening to longer admit of doubt. They claimed they had been cheated in the purchase; that some tribe, or tribes, got better bargains than others; they wanted a new treaty; they wanted to sell over again. Fourth Treaty.-To meet this disaffection a meeting of the tribes was called, at Ft. Harmar, opposite Marietta, January 9, 1789, and, as usual, the Iroquois were on hand to sell again; also the Delawares, Chippewas, Ottawas, Wyandots, Sauks and Pottawatamies were there, though it is noticeable that the Shawanees were not present. A new peace talk was had, presents made, and the former treaty at Ft. McIntosh confirmed with the assent of all present. This was the fourth Indian treaty the United States had made. It was hoped this would end the dissatisfaction, but it did not. There were some implacable chiefs, with bad advisers, who claimed the treaty had been made without authority, and further that the whites had no right north of the Ohio. With all this effort of the government to pacify the savages, it was still evident that there was trouble coming. Those Indians who came about the settlements were sullen and uncommunicative, and their actions were so significant that the old border men knew what it meant, and took the precaution to put the forts and block-houses in a state of security from surprise. This state of suspense was ended one winter night, in 1791, when fourteen settlers were found, inhumanly butchered, at a place called Big Bottom, on the Muskingum. One of the murderers was a Mohawk warrior, so it was known that the Iroquois were mixed in the massacre. The whites then saw they were in for a war, and hurried to their forts for safety. Gen. Harmar, who had conducted the last treaty, took his regulars and such volunteer troops as were at hand, and marched to the head of the Maumee, where the Miami villages were. Here he was outgeneraled and defeated; showing that he had become too old to successfully make either peace or war. This victory gave the Indians great encouragement, and there was, of course, no use trying to treat with them. Gov. St. Clair now took the field and, as soon as he had an army organized, led his column in the direction of the Maumee Country, whither the Indians were retreating in force. Much hope was centered in that army. The whole frontier* the nation was looking for St. Clair to strike a blow that would humble the savages. But it was not to be so. Soon the messengers from the wilderness, northward, brought the startling news of an overwhelming, appalling disaster to St. Clair's army. One morning at daylight, near the line of Darke and Mercer counties, at what has since been Ft. Recovery, the Indians, under the lead of Blue Jacket and Little Turtle, made a savage attack, in which they cut the American army to pieces, inflicting a loss of six hundred men, and taking all its baggage and cannon. The wounded and prisoners were treated with unexampled barbarity. Even the mouths of the dead were filled with earth, as if in derision of the whites' desire for more land. The Indians were now "insolent with triumph," and demanded that the whites must go south of the Ohio. All efforts to make peace on any other basis failed. All immigration had ceased north of the Ohio, in fact on either side, and the settlers were cooped up in forts and block-houses. Many felt doubts as to what the final result would be. , Even the government authorities seemed, for the moment, paralyzed. The settlers were clamorous for vigorous measures and a war of extermination. Four treaties had been made with the savages, and yet peace seemed further off than at any time since the New Government had come into power. Gen. Washington, who was now President, sent an army associate of his, Gen. Anthony Wayne, the "Mad Anthony" of the Revolution, west to organize a new army. Wayne was a man of audacious courage, yet prudent and skillful in generalship. He was rough and sententious in speech, and, with his well-known reckless fighting record, was just such a man as would draw about him the best class of border fighters. When at last, in the spring of 1794, he turned the head of his column in the direction of the dreaded Maumee Country, the prayers of the Nation followed him. Night and day the savages hung on his flanks, laid ambuscades and planned surprises for "Mad Anthony" and his gallant followers; but this time they were the only ones who met with surprises. At last, in the sul- WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. - 23 try days of August, the suspense was broken by the arrival of a messenger at Ft. Washington, on the Ohio, that Wayne had met and overwhelmed the combined tribes, in battle, on the banks of the Maumee, wander the very guns of the British Fort Miami; and later, that he had destroyed every shanty, wigwam, cornfield, and truck patch, from the source of the Maumee to the lake, and built and garrisoned Forts Defiance and Wayne. A glad, shout went up, and benedictions and thanks followed from the whole people. The border settlers were fairly mad with joy. "Mad Anthony" had overcome the ague, the swamps, the British and Indians. This battle, known in history, as "Wayne's Battle," or battle of the "Fallen Timbers," because of the down timber from the effects of a recent tornado, began on the north side of the river, about three miles above Maumee, near a sharp hill, known as Presque Isle hill, and ended just below Maumee, at Ft. Miami. In the language of the missionary, J. B. Finley, this was ''the last united effort of barbarism to check the swelling tide of civilization." Like many other decisive battles, the importance of this one is not to be measured so much by the numbers killed as by the results, or the vital issues involved and decided. While the tribes lost heavily in this battle, the Wyandot nation losing eleven chiefs, this was not its most decisive feature. Gen. Wayne, in his campaign and fight, had demonstrated to the tribes that a white chief had come among them whom they could not surprise or whip, and fully impressed the savages with the hollowness of the promises of the lying, hypocritical British agents and traders, "that their Great Father, the King of England, would help the Indians when the time of need came." The warriors in their flight, to escape from Wayne's victorious soldiers, had seen the King's officers skulk into the fort like ground hogs, and close the gates against the Indians, while the Americans continued the slaughter, even under the very muzzles of the British cannon. [This was a critical juncture. The relations of England and the United States had been on a strain for some time. Ft. Miami with its British garrison was on American soil, and while Gen. Wayne, at the time was acting under very guarded instructions from President Washington, there was no doubt that had the English officers shown the least disposition to shelter or protect the savages on that day, that Wayne would have stormed the fort. He was an impetuous, fiery man in battle, and this the English knew, and doubtless the officers in command, in the fort, had a wholesome respect for him. It was well it was so, for had the flame of war been started there, it might, at that time, have led to serious complications. No doubt President Washington had more anxiety on this point than he had as to the outcome of Wayne's campaign against the Indians.] Again Wayne had destroyed all their cornfields and truck patches, and all manner of shelter for winter protection. The pinching hunger and cold could not be quieted with British promises. All these things were arguments that appealed stronger to the savages than the logic of words. It is recorded, too, that the superstitious Indians got an idea that Gen. Wayne was a great medicine man, as well as a warrior, and that through some charm, or conjury, he was endowed with supernatural power that made him invincible in war. They thought the British were afraid of him, or they would have turned their cannon upon him when they saw his men destroying the shanties and out-buildings about the fort.. It had, too, in some way, become impressed upon them that Wayne loved to drink firewater, fight, kill and destroy, and that he was only held in check, from day to day, by the commands of his Great Father at Washington. All these stories were afloat years afterward; but this much is known certainly of Indian character, and it is true to a great extent among whites, too, that an Indian has great _respect for a fellow who he knows can whip him. Fifth Treaty.-In the summer of 1795 the Indians assembled at Ft. Greenville, in what is now Darke county, and after many talks and speeches, and where, in skillful diplomacy, Gen. Wayne found a pretty good match in some of the unlettered chieftains, a treaty, which is famous in history as the Greenville Treaty, was signed by twelve tribes, as follows: Delawares, Wyandots, Ottawas, Pottawatamies, Chippewas. Miamis, Piankashaws, Eel Rivers, Weeas, Kickapoos, Shawnees and Kaskaskias. The boundary lines, as defined by this treaty, are best illustrated, so far as Ohio is affected, by the accompanying map, but are nearly the same as those made at Ft. McIntosh, beginning at the mouth of the Cuyahoga; thence up that river to the present north line of Tuscarawas county; thence west, by a little south, to the southwest corner of Mercer county, and thence south to the Ohio. All north and west of this line was given over to the savages, under certain conditions, except sixteen blocks, or reservations, and connecting roadways, reserved by the United States. Of these blocks six were on the Maumee river and its tributaries; one at Fort Wayne; one at Defiance; one on 24 - WOOD COUNTY, OHIO the Auglaize; and one at the mouth of the Maumee river, each six miles square; one on the St. Mary's, two miles square; and one at the Maumee Rapids, twelve miles square. There were also reservations at Sandusky, Fremont, Detroit, Chicago, Mackinaw and other points. The one at the Rapids of the Maumee, of about 92, 160 acres of land, was about half on the south, or Wood county, side of the river, and was the first land to which the government acquired unencumbered title in what is now Wood county. Further, the Indians stipulated that in case they sold all, or any portion, of this land, they would sell to no one except the United States, and that no one should come among them to trade unless such person had a license from the United States. This ' clause shut out the mischievous English agents and traders. This treaty, the fifth one the United States had made for the same territory with the Indians, annulled any other treaty that conflicted with its stipulations. Thus virtually closed the Indian war, which had desolated the Pennsylvania and Virginia border, and, latterly, the land between the Ohio and Lake Erie, more or less, for over forty years, and in which more than five thousand whites had been murdered or taken captive. This does not include the loss in war, or the various military expeditions and skirmishes. RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE