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HISTOEY "m-^

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CRAWFORD COUNTY

OFIIO.

Containing a History of the State of Ohio, from its earliest settlement to the present time, embracing its topography, geological, physical and climatic features; its agricultural, stock-growing, rail- road interests, etc.; a History of Crawford County, giving an account of its aboriginal inhabitants, early settlement by the whites, pioneer incidents, its growth, its improvements, organization of the County, its Judicial and political history, its business and industries, churches, schools, etc.; Biographical Sketches ; Portraits of some of the Early Settlers afid Prominent Men, etc. , etc.

ii:irjUsa?K.^TEiD.

CHICAGO :

BASKIN & BATTEY, HISTORICAL PUBLISHERS,

1 86 Dearborn Street.

1881.

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PREFACE

rr HE work is now closed, which for the past three months, has engaged the efforts of our T™ torians W. H. Pemn, J. H. Battle and W. A. Goodspeed. Upon these pages they have~th; jonmey of the pioneer from ho.es of con,.rt and -------

„nd, of the West- they have noticed the rearing of cabins, the feUmg of the forests, the : tion ofThe :^^^^^ '^-ic fortitnde with which the pioneer surn^onnted

t s oblc es, and the patient toil that has "made the wilderness to rejoice and blossonr as the ose They have maLd the coming of the schoolmaster, and that greater teacher, the minuet of the Gospel , the rise of the schoolhouse and chnrch. and their rnauence ,o mold-

"' "to work we have undertaken in the belief that there is a demand that the events which relate t The early times shonld «nd a permanent record, and with what MeUty te. facts and r, at patienc^ of research the task has been accomplished, we shall leave - «- of onr patrons, in whose keeping the traditions of that day rema.n, and for whom the work was undertaken Our historians have availed themselves of such manuscripts and pubhca- : s as"but the chief source of information has been the traditions which have come doTn f om the original pioneers. These have generally been verified from other sources, ut Isle non-essential particulars, their dependence has been upon tradition alone, and some

errors may thus have been sanctioned.

Before closing our work, we desire to thank the citizens everywhere in the countj «ho have so cordially^ided our historians in gathering the materials for ^^^^ express our special indebtedness to the public spirit of the county press. To then interest n the eX u'tory of the county, and to their Judgment and enterprise in securing a perma- nent 1" of tte ioneer days, is due much of the matter which will be found in these pages, hs Aspect, w desire to express our obligations to Mr. Job. Hop..v of the Jo.n,„,^ he editor o'f the For.., .n, to the other gentlemen of the county press. f°' ^l^- -J*^; in this direction. In this connection, we would express our '"-^ " *^ f;~ who have been associated with our historians in the various parts of the woik .<-^^ ABAMS. Esq., to Dr. GEoaoK K.l.ek. and to others whose names appear with

contributions. ^^ PUBLISHERS.

January, 1881.

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HISTORY OF OHIO.

CHAPTER I,

INTRODUCTORY -TOPOGRArHY -GEOLOGY -PRIMITIVE -RACES -ANTIQUITIES -INDIAN

TRIBES.

THE present State of Ohio, comprising an extent of country 210 miles north and south, 220 miles east and west, in length and breadth — 25,576,969 acres — is a part of the Old Northwest Ten-itory. This Territory embraced all of the present States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and so much of Minnesota as lies east of the Mississippi River. It became a corporate existence soon after the formation of the Virginia Colony, and when that colony took on the dignity of State government it became a county thereof, whose exact outline was unknown. The county embraced in its limits more territory than is com- prised in all the New England and jMiddle States, and wa.s the largest county ever known in the United States. It is watered by the finest system of rivers on the glolie ; while its inland seas are without a parallel. Its entire southern boundary is traversed by the beautifid Ohio, its western by the majestic Mississippi, and its northern and a part of its eastern are bounded by the fresh-water lakes, whose clear waters preserve an even temper- ature over its entire surface. Into these reservoirs of commerce flow innumerable streams of limpid water, which come from glen and dale, from mountain and valley, from forest and prairie — all avenues of health, commerce and prosperity. ( )hio is in the best part of this territory — south of its river arc tropical heats ; north of Lake Erie are polar snows and a polar climate.

The territory comprised in Ohio has always re- mained the same. Ohio's history differs somewhat i'rom other States, in that it was nin'cr under Ter- ritorial government. When it was created, it was made a State, and did not pass through the stage incident to the most of other States, i. e., exist as a Territory before being advanced to the powers of

a Stato. Such was not the case with the other States of the West ; all were Territories, with Terri- torial forms of government, ere they became States.

Ohio's boundaries are, on the north. Lakes Erie and IMichigan ; on the west, Indiana ; on the south, the Ohio'^River, separating it from Kentucky; and, on the east, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. It is situated between 38° 25' and 42° north latitude ; and 80° 30' and 84° 50' west longitude from Greenwich, or 3° 30' and 7° 50' west from Washington. Its greatest length, from north to south, is 210 miles; the extreme width, from east to west, 220 miles. Were this an exact out- line, the area of the State would be 46,200 square miles, or 29,568,000 acres ; as the outlines of the State are, however, rather in-egular, the area is estimated at 39,964 square miles, or 25,576,960 acres. In the last census— 1870— the total num- ber of acres in Ohio is given as 21,712.420, of which 14,469,132 acres are improved, and 6,883,- 575 acres are woodland. By the last statistical report of the State Auditor, 20,965,3711 acres are reported as taxable lands. This omits many acres untaxable for various reasons, which would make the estimate, 25,576,960, nearly con-ect.

The face of the country, in Ohio, taken a.s a whole, presents the appearance of an extensive monotonous plain. It is moderately undulating but not mountainous, and is excavated in places by the streams coursing over its surfixce, whose waters have forced a way for themselves through cliffs of sandstone rock, leaving abutments of this material in bold outline. There are no mountain ranges, geological uplifts or peaks. A low ridge enters the Stated near the northeast corner, and cros.ses it in a southwesterly direction, emerging near the inter- section of tlie 40th degree of north latitude with

12

HISTORY OF OHIO.

the western boundary of the State. This " divide " separates the lake and Ohio River waters, and main- tains an elevation of a little more than thirteen hundred feet above the level of the ocean. The highest part is iu Logan County, where the eleva- tion is 1,550 feet.

North of this ridge the surface is generally level, with a gentle inclination toward the lake, the ine- (jualities of the surface being caused by the streams which empty into the lake. The central part of Ohio is almost, in general, a level plain, about one thousand feet above the level of the sea, slightly inclining southward. The Southern part of the State is rather hilly, the valleys growing deeper as they incline toward the gi'eat valley of the Ohio, which is several hundred feet below the general level of the State. In the southern counties, the surface is generally diversified by the inequalities produced by the excavating power of the Ohio River and its tributaries, exercised through long periods of time. There are a few pi'airies, or plains, in the central and northwestern parts of the State, but over its greater portion originally existed im- mense growths of timber.

The " divide," or water-shed, referred to, between the waters of Lake Erie and the Ohio River, is less elevated in Ohio than in New York and Penn- sylvania, though the difierence is small. To a per- son passing over the State in a balloon, its surface presents an unvarying plain, while, to one sailing down the Ohio River, it appears mountainous. On this river are bluffs ranging from two hundred and fifty to six hundred feet iu height. As one ascends the tributaries of the river, these bluffs diminish in height until they become gentle undu- lations, while toward the sources of the streams, in the central part of the State, the banks often become low and marshy.

The principal rivers are the Ohio, Muskingum, Scioto and Miami, ou the southern slope, emptying into the Ohio ; on the northern, the Maumee, Sandusky, Huron and Cuyahoga, emptying into Lake Erie, and, all but the first named, entirely in Ohio.

The Ohio, the chief river of the State, and from which it derives its name, with its tributaries, drains a country whose area is over two hundred thousand square miles in extent, and extending from the water-shed to Alabama. The river was first dis- covered by La Salle in 1GG9, and was by him nav- igated as far as the Falls, at Louisville, Ky. It is formed by the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela rivers, in Pennsylvania, whose waters

unite at Pittsburgh. The entire length of the river, from its source to its mouth, is 950 miles, though by a straight line from Pittsburgh to Cairo, it is only (515 miles. Its current is very gentle, hardly three miles per hour, the descent being only five inches per mile. At high stages, the rate of the current increases, and at low stages decreases. Sometimes it is barely two miles per hour. The average range between high and low water mark is fifty feet, although several times the river has risen more than sixty feet above low water mark. At the lowest stage of the river, it is fordable many places between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. The river abounds in islands, some of which are exceed- ingly fertile, and noted in the history of the West. Others, known as " tow-heads," are simjjly deposits of sand.

The Scioto is one of the largest inland streams in the State, and is one of the most beautiful riv- ers. It rises in Hardin County, flows southeast- erly to Columbus, whei'e it receives its largest affluent, the Olentangy or Whetstone, after which its direction is southerly until it enters the Ohio at Portsmouth. It flows through one of the rich- est valleys in the State, and has for its compan- ion the Ohio and Erie Canal, for a distance of ninety miles. Its tributaries are, besides the Whet- stone, the Darby, Walnut and Paint Creeks.

The IMuskingum River is formed by the junc- tion of the Tuscarawas and Waldhouing Rivers, which rise in the northern part of the State and unite at Coshocton. From the junction, the river flows in a southeastern course about one hundred miles, through a rich and populous valley, to the Ohio, at Marietta, the oldest settlement in the State. At its outlet, the Muskingum is over two hundred yards wide. By improvements, it has been made navigable ninety-five miles above Mari- etta, as far as Dresden, where a side cut, three miles long, unites its waters with tho.se of the Ohio Canal. AH along this stream exist, in abundant profusion, the remains of an ancient civiliza- tion, whose history is lost in the twilight of antiq- uity. Extensive mounds, earthworks and various fortifications, are everywhere to be found, inclosing a mute history as silent as the race that dwelt here and left these traces of their evistence. The same may be said of all the other valleys in Ohio.

The IMiami River — the scenes of many exploits in pioneer days — rises in Hardin County, near the headwaters of the Scioto, and runs southwesterly, to the Ohio, passing Troy, Dayton and Hamilton. It is a beautiful and rajiid stream, fluwing through

7"

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HISTOPtY OF OHIO.

13

a highly prochictive and populous valley, in whieh limestone and hard timber are abundant. Its total length is about one hunared and fifty miles.

The Maumee is the largest river in the northern part of Ohio. It rises in Indiana and flows north- easterly, into Lake Ene. About eighty miles of its course are in Ohio. It is navigable ao far as Perrysburg, eighteen miles from its mouth. The other rivers north of the divide are all small, rapid-running streams, affoi'ding a large amount of good water-power, much utilized by mills aud man- ufactories.

A remarkable feature of the topography of Ohio is its almost total absence of natural lakes or ponds. A few very small ones are found near the water-shed, but all too small to be of any practical value save as watering-places for stock.

Lake Erie, which forms nearly all the northern boundary of the State, is next to the last or lowest of America's " inland seas." It is 290 miles long, and 57 miles wide at its greatest part. There are no islands, except in the shallow water at the west end, and veiy few bays. The greatest depth of the lake is off Long Point, where the water is 312 feet deep. The shores are principally drift-clay or hard-pan, upon which the waves are continually encroaching. At Cleveland, from the first sur- vey, in 1796, to 1842, the encroachment was 218 feet along the entire city front. The entire coast is low, seldom rising above fifty feet at the water's edge.

Lake Erie, like the others, has a variable sur- face, rising and falling with the seasons, like great rivei-s, called the "annual fluctuation," and a gen- eral one, embracing a series of years, due to mete- orological causes, known as the " secular fluctua- tion." Its lowest known level was in February, 1819, rising more or less each year, until June, 1838, in the extreme, to six feet eight inches.

Lake Erie has several excellent harbors in Ohio, among which are Cleveland, Toledo, Sandusky, Port Clinton and Ashtabula. Valuable improve- ments have been made in some of these, at the expense of the General Government. In 1818, the first steamboat was launched on the lake. Owing to the Falls of Niagara, it could go no farther east than the outlet of Niagara Kiver. Since then, however, the opening of the "Welland Canal, in Canada, allows vessels drawing nut more than ten feet of water to pass from one lake to the other, greatly facilitating navigation.

As early as 183(5, Dr. S.l\ Ilildreth, Dr. John Locke, Prof J. H. Riddle and Mr. I. A. Lapluan,

were ajipointed a committee by the Legislature of Ohio to report the " best method of obtaining a complete geological survey of the State, and an estimate of the probable cost of the same." In the preparation of their report, Dr. Hildreth examined the coal-measures in the southeastern jiart of the State, Prof Kiddle and Mr. Lapham made exam- inations in the western and northern counties, while Dr. Locke devoted his attention to chemical analyses. These investigations resulted in the presentation of much valuable information con- cerning the mineral resources of the State and in a plan ft)r a geological survey. In accordance with the recommendation of this Committee, the Legislature, in 1837, passed a bill appropriating $12,000 for the prosecution of the work during the next year. The Geological Cor]is appointed consisted of W. W. Mather, State Geolodst, with Dr. Hildreth, Dr. Locke, Prof J. P. Kirtland, J. W. Foster, Charles Whittlesey and Charles Briggs, Jr., Assistants. The results of the first year's work appeared in 1838, in an octavo volume of 134 pages, with contributions from JMather, Hildreth, Briggs, Kirtland and Whittlesey. In 1838, the Legislature ordered the continuance of the work, and, at the close of the year, a second report, of 286 pages, octavo, was issued, containing contribu- tions from all the members of the survey.

Succeeding Legislatures failed to provide for a continuance of the work, and, save that done by private means, nothing was accomplished till 1869, when the Legislature again took up the work. In the interim, individual enterprise had done much. In 1841, Prof James Hall passed through the State, and, by his indentification of several of the formations with those of New York, for the first time fixed their geological age. The next year, he issued the first map of the geology of the State, in common with the geological maps of all the region between the Alleghanies and the jNIississippi. Similar maps were publi^^hed by Sir Charles Lyell, in 1845; Prof. Edward Hitchcock, in 1853, and by J. Mareon, in 1856. The first individual map of tlie geology of Ohio was a very small one, published by Col. Whittlesey, in 1848, in Howe's History. In 1856, he published a larger map, and, in 1865, another was issued by Prof. Nels(m Sayler. In 1867, Dr. J. S. Newberry published a geological map and sketch of Ohio in the Atlas of the State issued by H. S. Stebbins. Up to this time, the geological knowledge was very genei'al in its character, and, consequently, errone- ous in many of i:s details. Other States had been

J^i

14

HISTORY OF OHIO.

accurately surveyed, yet Ohio remained a kind of terra iiicoffiiita, of whicli the geology was less known than any part of the surrounding area.

In 1809, the Legislature appropriated, for a new survey, 813,900 for its support during one year, and appointed Pr. Ne\vl)erry Chief (geologist ; E. B. Andrews, Edward Orton and J. II. Klippart were appointed Assistants, and T. G. Wormley, Chemist. The result of the first year's work was a volume of 164 pages, octavo, published in 1870.

This report, accompanied by maps and charts, for the first time acL-urately defined the geological formations as to age and area. Evidence was given which set at rest (questions of nearly thirty years' standing, and established the fact that Ohio in- cludes nearly double the number of formations be- fore supposed to exist. Since that date, the sur- vey's have been regularly made. Each county is being surveyed by itself, and its formation ac- curately determined. Elsewhere in these pages, these results are given, and to them the reader is referred for the specific geology of the county. Only general results can be noted here.

On the general geological map of the State, are two sections of the State, taken at each northern and southern extremity. These show, with the map, the general outline of the geological features of Ohio, and are all that can be given here. Both sections show the general arrangements of the formation, and prove that they lie in sheets resting one upon another, but not horizontally, as a great arch traverses the State from Cincinnati to the lake shore, between Toledo and Sandusky. Along this line, which extends southward to Nashville, Tenn., all the rocks are raised in a ridge or fold, once a low mountain chain. In the lapse of ages, it has, however, been extensively worn away, and n(jw, along a large part of its course, the strata which once arched over it are re- moved from its summit, and are found ri'sting in regular order on either side, dipping away from its axis. Where the ridge was highest, the erosion has been greatest, that being the reason why the oldest rocks are exposed in the region about Cin- cinnati. By following the line of this great arch from Cincinnati northward, it will be seen that the Ilclderberg limestone (No. 4), midway of the State, is still unbroken, and stretches from side to side ; while the Oriskany, the Corniferous, the Hamilton and the Huron fonuations, though generally re- moved from the crown of the arch, still remain over a limited area near Bcllefontaine, where they

form an island, which proves the former continuity of the strata which compose it.

On the east side of the great anticlinal axis, the rocks dip down into a basin, which, for several hundred miles north and south, occupies the inter- val between the Nashville and Cincinnati ridge and the first fold of the Alleghany Mountains. In this basin, all the strata form trough-like layers, their edges outcropping eastward on the flanks of the Aileghanies, and westward along the anti- clinal axis. As they dip from this margin east- ward toward the center of the trough, near its middle, on the eastern border of the State, the older rocks are deeply buried, and the surface is here underlaid by the highest and most recent of our rock formations, the coal measures. In the northwestern corner of the State, the strata dip northwest from the anticlinal and pass under the Michigan coal basin, precisely as the same forma- tions east of the anticlinal dip beneath the Alle- ghany coal-field, of which Ohio's coal area forms a part.

The rocks underlying the State all belong to three of the great groups which geologists have termed " systems," namely, the Silurian, Devonian and Carboniferous. Each of these are again sub- divided, for convenience, and numbered. Thus the Silurian system includes the Cincinnati group, the Medina and Clinton groups, the Niagara group, and' the Salina and Water-Line groups. The Devonian system includes the Oriskany sand- stone, the Carboniferous limestone, the Hamilton group, the Huron shale and the Erie shales. The Carboniferous system includes the Waverly group, the Carboniferous Conglomerate, the Coal ]Meas- ures and the Drift. This last includes the surface, and has been divided into six parts, numbering from the lowest, viz.: A glacialed surface, the Gla- cial Drif^, the Erie Clays, the Forest Bed, the Ice- berg Drift and the Terraces or Beaches, which mark intervals of stability in the gradual recession of the water surface to its present level.

" The history we may learn from these forma- tions," says the geologist, '' is something as Ibl- lows :

" First. Subsequent to the Tertiary was a period of continual elevation, during which the topog- raphy of the country was much the same as now, the draining streams following the lines they now do, but cutting down their beds until they flowed sometimes two hundred feet lower than they do at present. In the latter part of this period of ele- vation, glaciers, descending from the Canadian

HISTORY OF OHIO.

15

islands, excavated and occupied the valleys of the great lakes, and covered the lowlands down nearly to the Ohio.

"Second. By a depression of the land and ele- vation of temperature, the glaciers retreated north- ward, leaving, in the interior of the continent, a great basin of fresh water, in which the Erie clays were deposited.

'■^ Third. This water was drained away until a broad land surface was exposed within the drift area. Upon this surface grew forests, largely of red and white cedar, inhabited by the elephant, mastodon, giant beaver and other large, now ex- tinct, animals.

"Fourth. The submergence of this ancient land and the spreading over it, by iceberg agency, of gravel, sand and bowlders, distributed just as ice- bergs now spread their loads broadcast over the sea bottom on the banks of Newfoundland.

"Fifth. The gradual draining-ofF of the waters, leaving the land now as we find it, smoothly cov- ered with all the layers of the drift, and well pre- pared for human occupation."

" In six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and rested the seventh day," records the Scriptures, and, when all was done. He looked upon the work of His own hands and pronounced it "good." Surely none but a divine, omnipotent hand could have done all this, and none can study the ''work of His hands" and not marvel at its completeness.

The ancient dwellers of the Mississippi Valley will always be a subject of great interest to the antiquarian. Who they were, and whence they came, are still unanswered questions, and may remain so for ages. All over this valley, and, in fact, in all parts of the New World, evidences of an ancient civilization exist, whose remains are now a wonder to all. The aboriginal races could throw no light on these questions. They had always seen the remains, and knew not whence they came. Explorations aid but little in the solu- tion of the problem, and only conjecture can be entertained. The remains found in Ohio ecjual any in the Valley. Indeed, some of them are vast in extent, and consist of forts, fortifications, moats, ditches, elevations and mounds, embracing many acres in extent.

"It is not yet determined," says Col. Charles Whittlesey, "whether we have discovered the first or the original people who occupied the soil of Ohio. Modern investigations are bringing to light evidences of earlier races. Since the presence of

man has been established in Europe as a cotempor- ary of the fassil elephant, mastodon, rhinoceros and the horse, of the later drift or glacial period, we may rea.sonably anticipate the presence of man in America in that era. Such proofs are already known, but they are not of that conclusive charac- ter which amounts to a demonstration. It is, how- ever, known that an ancient people inhabited Ohio in advance of the red men who were found here, three centuries since, by the Spanish and French explorers.

" Five and six hundred years before the amval of Columbus," says Col. Charles Whittlesey, "the Northmen sailed from Norway, Iceland and Green- land along the Atlantic coast as far a.s Long Island. They found Indian tribes, in what is now New En- gland, closely resembling those who lived upon the coast and the St. Lawrence when the French and English came to possess these regions.

" These red Indians had no traditions of a prior people ; but over a large part of the lake country and the valley of the Mississippi, earth-works, mounds, pyramids, ditches and forts were discov- ered— the work of a more ancient race, and a peo- ple far in advance of the Indian. If they were not civilized, they were not barbarians. They were not mere hunters, but had fixed habitations, cultivated the soil and were possessed of consider- able mechanical skill. We know them as the Mound-Builders, because they erected over the mortal remains of their principal men and women memorial mounds of earth or unhewn stone — of which hundreds remain to our own day, so large and high that they give rise to an impression of the numbers and energy of their builders, such as we receive from the pyramids of Egypt."

Might they not have been of the same race and the same civilization ? Many competent authori- ties conjecture they are the work of the lost tribes of Israel ; but the best they or any one can do is only conjecture.

" In the burial-mounds," continues Col. Whit- tlesey, " there are always portions of one or more human skeletons, generally partly consumed by fire, with ornaments of stone, bone, shells, mica and copper. The largest mound in Ohio is near jMiamisburg, Montgomery County. It is the second largest in the West, being nearly seventy feet high, originally, and about eight hundred feet in circumference. This would give a supei-ficial area of nearly four acres. In 1864, the citizens of ]\Iiamisburg sunk a shaft from the summit to the natural surface, without finding the bones

16

HISTORY or OHIO.

or ashes of the great man for wIkuu it was intended. Tlie exploration lias considerably lowered the mound, it being now about sixty feet iu height.

" Fort Ancient, on the Little IMiami, is a good specimen of the military defenses of the Mound- liuildei-s. It is well located on a long, high, nar- row, precipitous ridge. The parapets are now from ten to eighteen feet high, and its perimeter is sufficient to hold twenty thousand fighting men. Another prominent example of their works exists near Newark, Licking County. This collection presents a great variety of figures, circles, rectan- gles, octagons and parallel banks, or highways, covering more than a thousand acres. The county fair-ground is permanently located within an ancient circle, a (juarter of a mile in diameter, with an embankment and interior ditch. Its high- est place was over twenty feet from the top of the moat to the bottom of the ditch."

One of the most curious-shaped works in this county is known as the "Alligator," from its sup- posed resemblance to that creature. When meas- ured, several years ago, while in a good state of preservation, its dimensions were two hundred and ten feet in length, average width over sixty feet, and height, at the highest point, seven feet. It appears to be mainly composed of clay, and is overgrown with grass.

Speaking of the writing of these people, Col. Whittlesey says : " There is uo evidence that they luid alphabetical characters, picture-writing or hieroglyphics, though they must have had some mode of recording events. Neither is there any proof that they used domestic animals for tilling the soil, or for the purpose of erecting the imposing earth- works they have left. A very coarse cloth of liemp, flax or nettles has been found on their burial-heartlis and around skeletons not consumed by fire.

" The most extensive earthworks occupy many of the sites of modern towns, and are always in the vicinity of excellent land. Those about the lakes are generally irregular earth forts, while those about the rivers in the southern part of the State are generally altars, pyramids, circ;les, cones and rectangles of earth, among which fortresses or strongholds are exceptions.

" Those on the north may not have been cotem- porary or liave been built by the same people. They are far less prominent or extensive, which indicates a people less in numbers as well as indus- try, and whose principal occupation was war among

themselves or against their neighbors. This style of works extends eastward along the south shore of Lake Ontario, through New York. In Ohio, there is a space along the water-shed, between the lake and the Ohio, where there are few, if any, ancient earthworks. It appears to have been a vacant or neutral ground between different nations.

" The Indians of the North, dressed in skins, cultivated the soil very sparingly, and numufactured no woven cloth. On Lake Superior, there are ancient copper mines wrought by the Mound- Builders over fifteen hundred years ago." Copper tools are occasionally found tempered sufficiently hard to cut the hardest rocks. No knowledge of such tempering exists now. The Indians can give no more knowledge of the ancient mines than they can of the mounds on the river bottoms.

" The Indians did not occupy the ancient earth- works, nor did they construct such. They were found as they are now — a hunter race, wholly averse to labor. Their abodes were in rock shel- ters, in caves, or in tempoi'ary sheds of bark and boughs, or skins, easily moved from place to place. Like most savage races, their habits are unchange- able ; at least, the example of white men, and their cffijrts during three centuries, have made little, if any, impression."

When white men came to the territory now em- braced in the State of Ohio, they found dwelling here the Iroquois, Delawares, Shawanees, Miamis, Wyandots and Ottawas. Each nation was com- posed of several tribes or clans, and each was often at war with the others. The first mentioned of these occupied that part of the State whose northern boundary was Lake Erie, as far west as the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, where the city of Cleveland now is ; thence the boundary turned southward in an iiTCgular line, until it touched the Ohio Iliver, up which stream it continued to the Pennsylvania State line, and thence northward to the lake. This nation were the implacable foes of the French, owing to the fact that Champlain, in 1G09, made war against them. They occupied a large part of New York and Pennsylvania, and were the most insatiate conquerors among the aborigines. When the French first came to the lakes, these monsters of the wilderness were engaged in a war against their neighbors, a war that ended in their con(|uering them, possessing their terri- tory, and absorbing the remnants of the tribes into their own nation. At the date of Champlain's visit, the southern shore of Lake Erie was occupied by the Eries, or, as the orthography of the word is

HISTORY OF OHIO.

17

sometimes given, Erigos, or Errienous.* About forty years afterward, the Iroquois (Five Nations) fell upon them with such fury and in such force that the nation was annihilated. Those who escaped the slaughter were absorbed among their conquerors, but allowed to hve on their own lands, paying a sort of tribute to the Iroquois. This was the policy of that nation in all its conquests. A few years after the conquest of the Eries, the Iroquois again took to the war-path, and swept through Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, even attacking the Mississippi tribes. But for the intervention and aid of the French, these tribes would have shared the fate of the Hurons and Eries. Until the year 1700, the Iroquois held the south shore of Lake Erie so firmly that the French dared not trade or travel along that side of the lake. Their missionaries and traders penetrated this part of Ohio as early as 1650, but generally suffered death for their zeal.

Having completed the conquest of the Hurons or Wyandots, about Lake Huron, and murdered the Jesuit missionaries by modes of torture which only they could devise, they permitted the residue of the Hurons to settle around the west end of Lake Erie. Here, with the Ottawas, they resided when the whites came to the State. Their country was bounded on the south by a line running through the central part of Wayne, Ashland, Richland, Crawford and Wyandot Counties. At the western boundary of this county, the line di- verged northwesterly, leaving the State near the noi'thwest corner of Fulton County. Their north- ern boundary was the lake ; the eastern, the Iro- quois.

The Delawares, or " Lenni Lenapes," whom the Iroquois had subjugated on the Susquehanna, were assigned by their conquerors hunting-grounds on the Muskingum. Their eastern boundary was the country of the Iroquois (before defined), and their northern, that of the Hurons. On the west, they

* Father Louis Hennepin, in his work published in 1684, thus alludes to the Eries: ''These good fathers," referring to the priests, " were great friends of the Hurons, who told them that the Iroquois went to war beyond Virginia, or New Sweden, near a lake which they called ' Erige,' or 'Erie,'' which signifies 'the cai,' or ' nation of the cat,' and because these savages brought captives from this nation in returning to their cantons along this lake, the Hurons named it, in their language, ' Erige,' or ' Erike,' 'the lake of the €01,' and which our Canadians, in softening the word, have called ' Lake Erie.' "

Charlevoix, writing in 1721, says: "The name it bf^ars is that of an Indian nation of the Huron (Wyandot) language, which was formerly seated on its banks, and who have been entirely destroyed by the Iroquois. Erie, in that language, signifies ' cat,' and, in Bome acounts, this nation is called the ' cat nation.' This name, probably, comes from the large numbers of that animal found in this region."

extended as far as a line drawn from the central part of Richland County, in a semi-circular direc- tion, south to the mouth of Leading Creek. Their southern boundary was the Ohio River.

West of the Delawares, dwelt the Shawanees, a troublesome people as neighbors, whether to whites or Indians. Their country was bounded on the north by the Hurons, on the east, by the Dela- wares ; on the south, by the Ohio River. On the west, their boundary was determined by a line drawn southwesterly, and again southeasterly — semi-circular — from a point on the southern boundary of the Hurons, near the southwest corner of Wyandot County, till it intersected the Ohio River.

All the remainder of the State — all its western part from the Ohio River to the Michigan line — was occupied by the Miamis, Mineamis, Twigtwees, or Tawixtawes, a powerful nation, whom the Iro- quois were never fully able to subdue.

These nations occupied the State, partly by per- mit of the Five Nations, and partly by inheritance, and, though composed of many tribes, were about all the savages to be found in this part of the Northwest.

No sooner had the Americans obtained control of this country, than they began, by treaty and purchase, to acquire the lands of the natives. They could not stem the tide of emigration ; peo- ple, then as now, would go West, and hence the necessity of peaceflilly and rightfully acquiring the land. " The true basis of title to Indian territory is the right of civilized men to the soil for pur- poses of cultivation." The same maxim may be applied to all uncivilized nations. When acquired by such a right, either by treaty, purchase or con- quest, the right to hold the same rests with the power and development of the nation thus possess- ing the land.

The English derived title to the territory between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi partly by the claim that, in discovering the Atlantic coast, they had possession of the land from "ocean to ocean," and partly by the treaty of Paris, in Feb- ruary, 1763. Long before this treaty took place, however, she had granted, to individuals and colo- nies, extensive tracts of land in that part of Amer- ica, based on the right of discovery. The French had done better, and had ac(juired title to the land by discovering the land itself and by consent of the Indians dwelling thereon. The right to pos- sess this country led to the French and Indian war, ending in the supremacy of the English.

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HISTORY OF OHIO.

The Five Nations claimed the territory in ques- tion by right of cou(iuest, and, though professing friendship to the EngUsh, watched them with jeal- ous eyes. In 1G84, and again in 172G, that con- federacy made cessions of lands to the English, and these treaties and cessions of lands were re- garded as sufficient title by the English, and were insisted on in all subse(iuent treaties with the Western Nations. The following statements were collected by Col. Charles Whittlesey, which show the principal treaties made with the red men wherein land in Ohio was ceded by them to the whites :

In September, 1726, the Iroquois, or Six Na- tions, at Albany, ceded all their claims west of Lake Erie and sixty miles in width along the south shore of Lakes Erie and Ontario, from the Cuyahoga to the Oswego River.

In 1744, this same nation made a treaty at Lancaster, Penn., and ceded to the English all their lands "that may be within the colony of Virginia."

In 1752, this nation and other Western tribes made a treaty at Logstown, Penn., wherein they confirmed the Lancaster treaty and consented to the settlements south of the Ohio River.

February 13, 1763, a treaty was made at Paris, France, between the French and English, when Canada and the eastern half of the Mississippi Valley were ceded to the English.

In 1783, all the territory south of the Lakes, and east of the Mississippi, was ceded by England to America — the latter country then obtaining its independence — by which means the country was gained by America.

October 24, 1784, the Six Nations made a treaty, at Fort Stanwix, N. Y., with the Ameri- cans, and ceded to them all the country claimed by the tribe, west of Pennsylvania.

In 178.5, the Chippewas, Delawares, Ottawas, and Wyandots ceded to the United States, at Fort Mcintosh, at the mouth of the Big Beaver, all their claims east and south of the " Cayahaga," the Portage Path, and the Tuscarawas, to Fort Laurens (Bolivar), thence to Loramie's Fort (in Shelby County ) ; thence along the Poi'tage Path to the St. Mary's River and down it to the "Omee," or jNIaumee, and along the lake shore to the "Cayahaga."

January 3, 1786, the Shawanees, at Fort Fin- ney, near the mouth of the Great Miami (not owning the land on the Scioto occupied by them), were allotted a tract at the heads of the two

Miamis and the Wabash, west of the Chippewas, Delawares and Wyandots.

February 9, 1789, the Iroquois made a treaty at Fort Harmar, wherein they confirmed the Fort Stanwix treaty. At the same time, the Chippewas, Ottawas, Delawares, and Wyandots — to which the Sauks and Pottawatomies assented — confirmed the treaty made at Fort Mcintosh.

Period of war now existed till 1795.

August 3, 1795, Gen. Anthony Wayne, on behalf of the United States, made a treaty with twelve tribes, confirming the boundaries estab- lished by the Fort Harmar and Fort Mcintosh treaties, and extended the boundary to Fort Re- covery and the mouth of the Kentucky River.

In June, 1796, the Senecas, represented by Brant, ceded to the Connecticut Land Company their rights east