30 - WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. CHAPTER VII. TREATY OF FT. INDUSTRY (TOLEDO NOW)- TRADERS ATTRACTED TO THE MAUMEE-FIRST SURVEY, 1805-MAJOR AMOS SPAFFORD, WOOD COUNTY'S FIRST PERMANENT SETTLER PIONEER CIVIL OFFICER IN MAUMEE COUNTRY-TREATIES OF DETROIT AND BROWNSTOWN THE rapid advancement of civilization in the new country now warranted the United States Government in making fresh acquisitions, especially as the State of Connecticut desired to secure possession of that part of her lands lying west of the Cuyahoga river. Accordingly, on July 11, 1805, a treaty, the sixth relating to Ohio,* was made at Ft. Industry (now Toledo), with the Wyandot, Ottawa, Chippewa, Munsee, Delaware, Shawnee and Pottawatamie tribes, for the purchase of the remainder of the Connecticut Reserve. It will be remembered that this tract extended west 120 miles from the Pennsylvania line to what is now the west line of Huron and Erie counties, but the Indian title, by the Greenville Treaty, had only been acquired as far west as the Cuyahoga river (Cleveland). Beyond that river the Connecticut people could not go. That State had bargained away some of this fine tract, and was very anxious to buy out the Indian's rights. So *This treaty is known as the Treaty of Ft. Industry. the United States made the treaty, and Connecticut and her land companies furnished the money to pay the Indians, and had the proceeds arising from the subsequent sales, but no jurisdiction over the territory. There was considerable opposition among the Indians as there would naturally be where there are so many partners in a large transaction. But after much wrangling, many talks, much persuasion, many promises and presents, the deal was made and the treaty duly signed up. The treaty, while it did not directly affect it, was of great advantage to the Maumee Country, which, with some superior advantages along with its drawbacks, was being held back while other parts of the State were being settled; still these gradual advances of the lines of settlement gave hope for the future. Renewed life sprung up now in the Western Reserve, and emigrants began to pour in along the lake, west of Cleveland. Ship builders began to find occupation in constructing boats, at the WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. - 31 different towns, for the increasing lake commerce. Lockport, Erie, Black Rock and Buffalo, soon had boats visiting Detroit, Cleveland, Huron, Sandusky Bay, Maumee Bay, Conneaut and other lake points. The Maumee Bay. or the country about the Rapids of the Maumee, was one of the most attractive points because of its large fur trade. The Maumee was at this time occupied, especially in winter, by Indians from its head-waters to the lake. The Foot of the Rapids was the head of navigation. To this point the traders shipped their goods. From here they were hauled, or packed, to the head of the 'Rapids and thence by pirogues or canoes taken to Ft. Wayne. That was a great distributing point for a large scope of country, even to the Wabash and White rivers. The Fort was, as late as 1822, in charge of an army officer, with a' small garrison; and collected about it were the log huts of the traders, and a motley population of Indians and Canadians, half-breeds or "Canucks." These Canucks, who could speak the Indian tongue, were employed by the traders to transport goods on pack-ponies to distant points. Two boxes, or parcels, of goods, about equally balanced, were placed on the pack-saddle, like a sack with a jug in each end. In the center between the two packs was a keg of whiskey, some bags of shot, pigs of lead fox making bullets, or a batch of steel traps. When this stuff was traded out the Canadian voyageur would return to the trader with a load of furs, which in turn found its way down the Maumee in the returning boats. The goods supplied by these traders consisted of red cloth and blankets, guns, hatchets, tobacco, whiskey, paint, hawk's bells, powder, lead, shot, beads, ribbons, rings, brooches, kettles, leather, blades, etc. The subordinate traders and Canucks who conducted these pack trains from the post were generally a rough, uncouth, intractable lot, sometimes but little in advance of the savages. A coat made of a blanket, or smoked deer-skin, a skin cap, if they wore any head covering, with deer leather leggins and moccasins, comprised their dress, and a rifle, hatchet and knife, their equipment for guarding the goods and getting their meat in the forest, as they traveled from place to place. While wholly unschooled in the politer forms of civilized society or customs, these rough, swarthy men were brave and nearly always trustworthy. The per cent of peculation was less than under the more polished surroundings of later years. The demands of this extensive traffic and the provisions, and other supplies of the traders, and their clerks, required a transportation line along the Maumee, long before the land came into market or the axe of the pioneer was heard in the bordering forests and fertile valleys. Another thing occurred this same year, 1805, which we should, in speaking of the actual first coming of the white men to the present territory of Wood county, make a note of. In that year Elias Glover, United States Deputy Surveyor, arrived with his corps of assistants, and run out and marked the exterior subdivision and meander lines of the U. S. Reserve of twelve miles square. [Resurveyed between 1816 and 1824 by Joseph Wampler and William Brookfield, as is more fully explained in the chapter on Public Lands, Surveys, etc.] It will be remembered that among the blocks or reservations of land, kept for the United States, by Gen. Wayne, when he made the Greenville Treaty with the Indians, there was one large one, twelve miles square, at the Rapids of the Maumee; also the proviso was made that when the United States got ready to survey the boundary lines of any of these reservations, that the chiefs and head-men of the tribes should be notified so that they could be present and see that it was properly done, etc. The northeast corner of this reserve, as surveyed by Glover, stands in the city of Toledo; the southeast corner is identical with the present southeast corner of Perrysburg township; thence west on the section line, passing a little north of the village of Hull Prairie, and crossing the lower half of Station Island, in the Maumee, the southwest corner is a few rods west of the river, in Lucas county. Twelve miles north of that is the northwest corner, thence east to the place of beginning in the city of Toledo, completes the boundary. Of this tract of 92,160 acres, a trifle less than half is within the present bounds of Wood. It was, as previously noticed, the first land the United States acquired title to here, and one of the direct results of Wayne's battle and treaty. The title to this reserve was one of the conditions of that treaty, and the size of the reserve, and the tenacity with which Wayne insisted on having this block of land, shows the important views he had concerning the Maumee Rapids and vicinity. The field notes of these surveys are interesting in two ways; first, in showing the important mill sites, and the estimate the surveyors gave of the country, its forests, soil, water, etc. ; second, in being the first official, undeniable evidence left on record of a white man making in what is now Wood county any permanent improvement. In fact there is no evidence that, previous to that date, a white man had even camped on Wood county 32 - WOOD COUNTY, OHIO soil. When the surveyors began to drive stakes and blaze lines there was an actual beginning. This was not nearly all. Among those who came in that pioneer work was a man to whose memory belongs the honor of being the first permanent settler of what is now Wood county; who acquired the first title to land and built his cabin on it. In the party of New Englanders who came down the south shore of Lake Erie, in 1796, and landed at Conneaut, was Amos Spafford. Later we hear of his being at Cleveland, when the survey was made. In 1805 he came with the surveyors to the Maumee Rapids. He did not become a resident at that time, but was favorably impressed with the country, and doubtless then chose the location where he afterward settled with his family. [For account of the Spafford Farm, refer to Index.] On the north side of the river, above the site of old Fort Miami, Col. John Anderson, a Scotch trader, had a small establishment, and there were two or three transient French traders along the Rapids. At Fort Industry, Toledo, there was a trader, or a sort of garrison sutler at the fort. It will be remembered that, under the treaty, no one could establish themselves in trade, among the Indians, without a license, or permit, from the United States. The British traders at Detroit, when Wayne came to take possession, in 1796, very adroitly shifted their establishments to Malden, on the Canada side of the river, and, by every possible inducement, tried to get the Indians to bring their furs across the river to trade. In this way they held a good share of the trade for a long time; but the American traders were pretty enterprising, and kept sub-agents and traders traveling among the Indians, during the buying season, or, as was often the case, located in their midst, and who lived almost as the savages did. Before we make note of the little column of white settlers, now timidly advancing in the distance, let us make note, in their order, of two other events that brought a rift of light in the dark cloud so long hanging heavily over the Maumee Country. Detroit Treaty. -At Detroit, in 1807, Gov. William Hull, of Michigan Territory, acting for the United States, made a treaty with the Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawatamies and Wyandots, for a large tract of land, which fortunately included the territory in Ohio, lying north of the Maumee, as far west as the mouth of the Auglaize. This was not much, to be sure, but it began to let daylight into the long benighted Maumee Country. Treaty of Brownstown. One year later, on November 25, 1808, another treaty, at Brownstown, with the same tribes, and the Shawnees in addition, laid the basis for the Maumee and Western Reserve road, for years the most important, most traveled, and, we might add, the worst highway in this part of Ohio, if not in the world. This cession from the tribes gave a roadway 120 feet wide, direct from the Foot of the Rapids, through what is now Fremont, to the east side of Sandusky county (the west line of the Connecticut Reserve), and one mile of land, each side of the roadway, to help pay for building the road. This route is nearly in the same course of the old trail, formerly used by the French, and afterward by the English, in their expeditions, by land, between Detroit and the Ohio; only their trail kept. on the higher ground along the route, thus often deviating from a straight course. This liberal provision assured a public highway, virtually, from Detroit to the growing settlements of the Reserve, and farther east, by the south shore of Lake Erie; also a path for the eastern emigrants to the fine lands of southern Michigan, northern Indiana, and to the southern end of Lake Michigan, where Chicago has since grown up. The Foot of the Rapids, then recognized as the head of navigation on the Maumee, stood in high estimation as a point of future commercial importance. It gave most promise of all locations in the wilderness at the head of Lake Erie. Following the treaties just mentioned, occasional white squatters began to locate at the Foot of the Rapids. And now arises the troublesome query of who was the first white settler on the Maumee? There are no records by which to answer this question, and all who could tell have long since passed off the stage of life. Furthermore, it is difficult to determine what constitutes a settler in this sense. If building a cabin, cultivating the soil and trafficking with the Indians made a man a settler, some of the traders might be entitled to the honor. When Wayne swooped down on the Maumee Indians, in 1794, Col. John Anderson, British Indian agent, at the time, had a little trading establishment, and a garden and corn field above Fort Miami. Wayne's followers devoured the Colonel's roasting ears, and destroyed everything outside the fort. Old Andy Race, with the victorious army, and later a settler, and who believed that "Mad Anthony" could do anything, not actually forbidden by Omnipotent Power, used to say that Wayne would have stormed the fort, and destroyed that, too, only that he ran out of whiskey that morning. However this may have been, Anderson seems, for WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. - 33 some reason, not to have been seriously interfered with when the United States took possession. The Missionary, David Bacon, says (year 1802): "Mr. Anderson, a respectable trader, was at Fort Miami, and was opposed to selling whiskey to the Indians." This would indicate that Anderson, who was at Miami at the time of the battle, 1794, and was yet there in 1802, had been a permanent resident for at least eight years. Mr. Anderson afterward lived at Monroe, Mich. J. B. Beaugrand, Gabriel Godfrey, and one or two other Frenchmen, were traders on the north side, in 1805, when the United States surveyors were at the Rapids. But the French settlement proper was down opposite Manhattan. Another early trader, by the name of Courtmanche, made transient trips through the valley. It looks as though Col. Anderson, with his cornfield, garden and store, was best entitled to the honor of being the first settler. The first comers were in fact all squatters, and in a sense transient occupants. The title to the honor, however, is not so clear as to bar other claimants. Among the first Americans was James Carlin, Government blacksmith to the Indians, who came from the River Raisin in November, 1807. He moved first from Auburn, N. Y., to Erie, Penn. ; then came up the lake to Detroit. The Ewings, Races, Carters, David Hull, Daniel Purdy, and some others came in the year 1807. Several French families, the Mominees, Peltiers, La Points and others were there in 1807. The years 1808 and 1809 brought a number more families, Americans and French, the latter mostly from Detroit and the Raisin. They were the avant-couriers of the great population which has since taken possession of every acre of this vast domain. Like the scouts and skirmishers in the advance of a great army, they cautiously felt their way ahead, and the main army followed and took up the burden of the battle. Gradually the settlement increased. In 1810, Amos Spafford, previously mentioned, with his family, settled on the south side of the river. He held a commission as collector of the Port of Miami, Erie District. In June, of the same year, he was appointed postmaster, and the settlement had the convenience of mail every two weeks. Benoni Adams was carrier from Cleveland to the Rapids, the round trip, made usually on foot, because there was no road through the swamp, occupying sometimes two weeks. Miami was the only post office on the route, between Cleveland and Chicago, then Fort Dearborn, except River Raisin (Monroe). Major Spafford's first quarterly report, as collect or, showed the export value of goods, furs, skins and bear's oil, to be $5,640.85. Here was the beginning of civil government on the Maumee. Amos Spafford was the pioneer officer, in the exercise of civil authority; date 1810. He was, too, the first pioneer to build his cabin, and begin a permanent abode, in what is now Wood county. The land he first squatted upon, and made improvements on, he afterward paid for, and there he died in 1817. He was the first man who possessed title, from the United States Government, to Wood county soil, his patent being signed by James Monroe, as related in the chapter on Land Titles. In this same year, 1810, some New Yorkers and Pennsylvanians came from Buffalo, and a party of them landed from the schooner, where Port Clinton is, to take a look at the country. Andrew Race, who was with them, on his return to the Maumee, with his brothers Bob and Dave, piloted the party through. Beside the Races were Jesse Skinner, Cyrus Hitchcock, Daniel Murray, Samuel Merritt, and some others. Most of the party selected locations, and then some went hack east. Skinner selected what is since River Tract 50, * at and below the south end of the present Waterville bridge. One of the Ewings had previously located three miles below, on the same side of the river, and a Frenchman, a sort of trader, named Peter Lumbar, had a squatter's shanty near the mouth of Tontogany creek, nearly opposite the Ottawa Indian village. By these gradual accretions the settlement grew, numbering in the spring of 1812 about seventy families. All were along the river on both sides, except one of the Ewings, Samuel H., Daniel Murray, and one other family, who located at Monclova, where Ewing built a dam on Swan creek, and had commenced constructing a sawmill. The settlers had already begun to test the productiveness of the soil by planting islands, and rich bottoms, in grain and vegetables. After the first crop, there were no longer doubts as to the quality of the soil. The yield was enormous; none had ever seen better. Another great yield, not so gratifying, came in the fall season-the Maumee fever and ague. This misery came right from the start, but was not considered dangerous after the first year and a season of acclimation. Still, with hardships, exposure and the prevailing fever, a number of those first settlers lost their lives. The spring of 1812 was an eventful one, not * The river tracts were not surveyed as such by Glover in 1805, but at the resurvey, in 1816, by Wampler. 34 - WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. only on the Maumee, but in the world's history. Europe was trembling beneath the tread of the gigantic armies of Napoleon, marching to the Russian frontier. Ominous war clouds darkened the horizon of all Europe, and lowered threateningly over the United States. The hopeful, embryo settlement at the Maumee had planted their crops, and the islands and bottoms were verdant with the promise of a bountiful harvest, when all their hopes were blasted by events, which will be described in the next succeeding chapters. RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE