Welcome to
MIDDLETOWN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
"Linking the Past with the Present for the Future"
Miami Valley Vignettes
by George C. Crout
Tomahawks and Peace Pipes
Valley of Ice
Geologists have discovered that four glaciers
once moved southward across the Miami Valley. The first one covered the
valley some 500,000 years ago, and the last one began melting 50,000
years ago. The time of the glaciers is known as the Ice Age.
The last trace of the Ice Age in the Miami Valley is found at Cedar Bog
State Memorial Park, southwest of Urbana in Champaign County. This bog
was formed over 10,000 years ago, as the Ice Age was ending. A lake fed
by spring water developed in an old river valley filled with limestone
gravel.
Vegetation grew over the shallow lake's surface and some of the plants
of the Ice Age continued to grow. Unusual natural factors kept Cedar Bog
alive. Cool, alkaline springs provided the bog with an even temperature
throughout the year. The cool water supported the brook trout, the
spotted turtle and the swamp rattlesnake.
Rare plants may be studied at Cedar Bog including yellow lady slippers,
star flowers, alder-leaf buckhorn, bellwort, small native orchids and
others. The sun dew and the pitcher plant feed on the insects of the
bog. Unusual wild fowl are found there such as the ring-neck pheasant,
the American bittern, the marsh owl and the yellow rail.
In pioneer days Cedar Bog covered about 7,000 acres, but the settlers
burned off the vegetation, cleared and drained the rich land for
agriculture. By 1910 only 600 acres remained, and this was reduced to 50
acres before the State of Ohio realized it was losing a great natural
resource. In 1942 the state purchased 100 acres of bog and forest land,
and in 1971 added another 100 acres. A board walk trail has been built
over the bog so that visitors may view this last, small piece of Ice-Age
Ohio that is still with us.
Mammoths and Mastodons
His kind has been extinct for 8,000 years, yet
he once roamed the hills and dales of the Miami VaHey - he was called a
mastodon, an ancestor of today's elephant. It is believed that the
mastodon replaced the mammoth, an even larger animal, which weighed as
much as 20 tons. Remains of the mastodons have been found in various
parts of the vafley, the latest in a farm field near Urbana. A few years
ago the partial remains of another one was discovered in Darke County.
Earlier a mastodon's tooth was found near Franklin, which is on display
at the headquarters of the Conservancy District at Dayton.
A study of the mastodon's skeleton reveals that he was a gigantic animal
about 10 feet tall and 15 feet from tusk to tail, weighing 5 to 6 tons.
Long, brown hair protected his body against the cold of the Ice Age.
The mastodon's family tree probably goes back to the Middle East when
the animals migrated to the New World across the ancient land bridge
that existed between Asia and Alaska. The mastodon lived along the edge
of the glaciers that moved down over the Miami Valley, finally coming to
a stop at what is now the Ohio River.
The mastodons were hunted by the ancient people who first inhabited the
Miami Valley. Indian legends tell of the great beasts which once roamed
the valley. Early pioneers finding the giant teeth of the mastodons
thought that the molars belonged to a race of giants, as one 4-pound
tooth had a cavity which held a pint of water. Enough bones have been
found to reconstruct some of their skeletons in museums - proof of their
existence.
Archaeologists should be notified when ancient bones are found, for they
can discover the story the bones tell of another era in our valley.
Mound Builders
Southwestern Ohio is the land of the long past.
People have lived among the shadows of its forests for thousands of
years. The first of the ancient peoples to inhabit the Miami Valley came
during the Ice Age, and very likely lived in caves. After these people
came the Mound Builders, an apt description of them as they left behind
thousands of mounds rising skyward, some of which have survived the
ravages of time.
Butler County is said to have contained over 250 mounds and 17
enclosures, which puts the county second in the state, next to Ross, for
the number of earthworks discovered. The Great Butler Mound overlooks
Middletown, rising some 45 feet on a 500-foot circular base. From it
ancient people could have communicated by smoke signals with groups
around the Kinder Mound, atop Pennyroyal Hill at Franklin as well as
with those around the great Miamisburg Mound in Montgomery County.
The great Adena Mound at Miamisburg reaches almost 70 feet into the sky,
covering about 3 acres at the base. It is considered the second most
important example of the Mound Builders' art in the nation.
But the largest of all the earthworks is in Warren County. Fort Ancient
is now a state park. Students from all over the world come to study it
and unravel its mysteries. It has intrigued American archaeologists
since it was first mapped in 1810. High above the east bank of the
Little Miami River, it commands a view of the surrounding area. It
includes, besides a fort, a village site, and also served as a
ceremonial center. While built by the Hopewell people, it later became
the home of the Fort Ancient Culture.
Thousands of years ago these people lived in the Miami Valley. They
worked without beasts of burden, building their mounds with their own
muscles. They communicated without a written language. They lived by the
hunt - nomads of the forests.
The state of Ohio, west of the Scioto River,
all of Indiana, a large part of Illinois, and southern Michigan were
all, at one time, the land of the Miami Indians. The Miami tribe was
part of the Algonquin Confederacy, as were the Delaware and Shawnee. The
Miamis were among the first to settle in the Ohio country, and became
the most powerful tribe in the region. Since even their story tellers
had forgotten their origin, it is assumed that the Miami Indians had
lived for many generations in the old Northwest, and were the oldest
tribe to live in the Miami Valley.
Their main town was near the banks of the Great Miami River, near the
present site of Piqua. The Indian name for the town was Pickawillany.
Other clans of the Miami tribe were found in the Maumee Valley, which on
old maps is identified as the Miami River of the North. Another major
group was found around what became Fort Wayne in Indiana.
The Miamis living in a rich land that produced good yields of Indian
maize (corn) and other food were under almost constant attack. They
developed a strong fighting force and could put 2,000 warriors on the
field. The Miami Indians were very intelligent, a generous and kind
people, who fought only to preserve their way of life. Outside the Miami
Valley, there were other Ohio Indian tribes, and all of these taken
together are estimated to represent no more than 15,000 natives.
The Miamis left their name on the valley in which we live. In it one can
find Miami County, Miamisburg, Miamitown, and of course, Miami
University. Many business and industrial firms use Miami in their
corporate names. The Miami Indians have long gone from their valley and
now the tribe and its leaders can be found at Miami, Oklahoma. Rare
artifacts of the valley's Indian culture can be found at the Piqua
Historical Area.
Where Buffalo Roam
While not a giant like the prehistoric animals
that once roamed the Miami Valley, the buffalo lived in this valley and
was very important to the Indians. The first account of buffalo in the
valley was reported in 1687 by a French trader. In 1751 Christopher
Gist, an English trader, traveling through the Miami country, noted its
beautiful meadows with all kinds of game. Gist wrote in his diary that
he "went southwestward down the Little Miami River where I had fine
traveling through rich land and beautiful meadows in which I could
sometimes see 40 or 50 buffaloes feeding at once." Gist killed a buffalo
cow and took her tongue and some of the best meat to eat.
Buffaloes ranged in weight from 1200 to 2000 pounds, so traveling from
one salt lick to another, their being fond of salt, they pounded out a
wide path, called a trace. The big animals sought the easiest path and
wound their way around hills and along streams. The Indians followed
these traces which made walking much easier. The buffalo trace was wide
enough for a wagon to travel, so the pioneers followed it. Some of the
winding roads of the Miami Valley today were made by buffalo herds. When
the buffaloes stopped to rest and graze they left behind big rings.
Fighting off flies, the huge animals cut deep hollows into the ground
called buffalo stamps or stamping grounds.
By 1800 the buffalo disappeared from the Miami Valley, and the last
buffalo in Ohio was reported in Jackson County in 1802. The white
hunters had destroyed the buffalo herds, some boasting of killing
hundreds just for sport or for robes. With this destruction also went a
major Indian resource, for the Indians ate the buffalo meat, and tanned
the skins for many purposes such as covers for wigwams and pieces of
clothing. Within a 50 year period the frontiersmen had hunted the
buffalo to extinction.
Five Flags Over the Valley
Five flags have flown over the Miami Valley.
During the Age of Exploration, Spain and Portugal finally agreed to a
division of the lands of the newly discovered American continents
proposed by the Pope. Under this agreement, Spain was given the vast
lands of North America, which included the Ohio and Miami Valleys. So
the Spanish flag once flew over the Miami Valley.
France objected to the Pope's division of the land, and staked out her
own claims by reason of exploration. The first French settlements were
made in Canada, but brave French Voyeurs moved southward. As early as
1615 Etienne Brule explored the Great Lakes region and probably was the
first European to set foot on the soil of what became Ohio. However, not
until 1669 did La Salle put his canoe into the Ohio River and take the
French flag down the beautiful river, past the mouths of the two Miami
Rivers. Whether he explored the Miami Valley is not known, but it, along
with the rest of Ohio, was incorporated into the French province of
Quebec. The French under Celoron did explore the valley in 1749.
The English objected to the French flag flying over the Ohio Valley and
in 1751 sent Christopher Gist to challenge their claims, resulting in
raising the English flag over the Indian villages of the Miami Valley.
The English also gained wide support.
As Virginia fought to hold its claim on the Ohio Country, the
frontiersmen fought under the flags of the American Revolution. These
emblems of freedom floated over pioneer settlements in the Miami Valley.
The flags of the Revolution were replaced by one standard flag, the
Stars and Stripes, which was adopted as the national emblem. The Miami
Valley became part of the Territory of the Northwest, and the Ordinance
of 1787 set up an orderly procedure for the creation of new states, the
first of which was Ohio, born March 1, 1803.
Peter and Fort Loramie
The first map showing the Ohio country was
drawn in 1650 by a French geographer, but not until 1774 did a French
cartographer, J.N. Bellin, show a yet unnamed river, that is today
called the Great Miami. While French explorers and fur traders traveled
across the land between Lake Erie and the Ohio River, Pierre, or Peter,
Loramie, a French Canadian, established the first trading post in the
Miami Valley.
He located it on a large creek, 15 miles upstream from where it emptied
into the Great Miami River, and thus wrote his name on a stream that
still is known as Loramie's Creek. In Shelby County there is also Fort
Loramie and Lake Loramie. Loramie's trading post was strategically
located on the main portage trail between the headwaters of two rivers -
the Great Miami and the Maumee. During times of high water, it was only
a six-mile portage. Sometimes the boats were carried, while often large
ones were taken across the trail on wheels. Peter Loramie established
his post in 1769 and it became the center of French power in the valley.
Loramie, an enemy of the Americans, encouraged his Indian allies to
resist the invasion of both them and the English.
In 1782 Gen. George Rogers Clark led over 1,000 mounted Kentucky
volunteers into western Ohio. They destroyed Loramie's trading post. The
contents of his store were auctioned off to the soldiers. Later in 1794
during the Indian wars a fort was erected near the site, named Fort
Loramie. The store was never rebuilt, but its original site is now at
Hardin.
Disgusted with frontier wars, Peter Loramie along with some of his
Shawnee Indian allies, accepted an offer of land in the Spanish
territories west of the Mississippi River.
Go Home, White Man
The Indians could never understand the English
or Americans. They preferred the French, who wished only to trade with
them. They came into the valley as single men, and didn't attempt to
settle the land. If they did marry, they took Indian women as brides,
which pleased the chiefs. One old Indian Chief complained to William
Henry Harrison, "Why do you not make us happy as our fathers the French
did? They never took from us our lands; indeed they were common between
us. They planted where they pleased and cut wood where they pleased, and
so did we. But now if a poor Indian attempts to take a little bark from
a tree to cover him from rain, up comes a white man and threatens to
shoot him, claiming the tree as his own." The Indians could never
understand the English law and private ownership, as they held the land
in common.
When the Indian Chiefs and the U.S. Commissioners met in 1793, the U.S.
proposed paying for ceded lands in money and goods, including a yearly
supply of needed items. The Indians replied that money was of no value
to them and offered this counter proprosal.
One Chief noted that the white men who came to Ohio must have been very
poor to have taken such a risk and to have worked so hard clearing land.
So, why not, the Indian reasoned, divide the money you offer the Indians
among your poor settlers and give to them what you would give us each
year. Then instead of spending money fighting the Indians and paying
armies, the white people could return home and the Indians would again
have their lands, and from them make their own living.
The Chief promised that once the land was vacated and the white man
returned home, they would no longer be the enemy. However, the U.S.
could not accept this simple solution, for the poor, white settler did
indeed, have no place else to go. He had been pushed out of Europe, and
the best land of the original colonies was already settled.
French and Indian War
Historians call it the first of the great
global wars, eventually involving half the world. Its fighting took
place in the Ohio wilderness, of which the Miami Valley was a part. It
is remembered as the French and Indian War, with the dates, 1754 to
1763. It started over the conflicting land claims between the French and
Indians; and the English and the American Colonists.
The French struck first and captured the strategic site at the forks of
the Ohio, building Fort Duquesne. Trying to stop them, Colonel George
Washington in 1754 met his first defeat in war. The French claimed the
whole Ohio Valley and refused to divide its control with the English,
who demanded all lands west to the Great Miami River.
After Braddock's defeat, even the pro-English Indians joined the French.
The Indians plundered, killed and scalped.
William Pitt became the English Prime Minister and was convinced that
his nation must secure the Ohio country. He equipped a large army both
of regular English troops and Colonials, and won over some of the Indian
tribes, including the Miamis and Shawnees. Other Indians soon came over
to the English side with the aid of George Croghan and a Moravian
missionary, Christian F. Post.
The campaign against the French was successful. Fort Duquesne became
Fort Pitt, and later Pittsburgh. When the Treaty of Paris was signed in
1763, France was forced to give up all of Canada, and the English flag
flew over that great country as well as over the Ohio Country and the
Miami Valley.
The Indians returned to hunting and fur trading, but soon discovered the
English and the Colonists were after the land itself. The English and
Americans were soon to learn that it took more than a treaty to make the
Miami Valley safe for settlement.
The White Indian
He was called the "White Indian", the most
hated and feared man to ever stalk the trails of the Miami Valley. His
name was Simon Girty. Most of the atrocities of the Ohio frontier during
the dark period of the Indian wars centered around him, some fact, some
fiction.
It was most confusing, for there were three Girty Brothers engaged in
treason and treachery, and all were rugged fighters on the side of the
English and the Indians. There was a fourth brother, who lived the
normal life of a quiet farmer. Simon was the best known and often
received credit for all his brothers' infamous deeds.
Life had dealt the Girty boys a hard blow. Their Irish immigrant father
was an Indian trader in western Pennsylvania, who was killed by a
warrior during a drunken brawl. His mother remarried, and the boys had
to sit by while the Indians burned their stepfather at the stake. Then
they were divided up, each adopted by a different Indian tribe. They
were reared as Indians, treated well, and became life-long friends of
their kidnappers. All were fluent in the Indian languages.
It was Simon Girty who became the most hated. Before the American
Revolution, he was hired by the British as an Indian interpreter.
Eventually his brothers joined the same side and worked as scouts and
interpreters for the British. They were called traitors to the Colonial
cause. Simon Girty was not all bad. He saved his friend, Simon Kenton's
life, purchased the freedom of several white boys and befriended some
white prisoners. But he remained faithful to the British cause, and
during the War of 1812 served again as an interpreter.
The British rewarded Simon Girty's loyalty by giving him a 160-acre
tract of land in Canada where he made his home. He died on his farm in
1818 at the age of 77, and was buried with full British military honors.
Chief Logan Spoke
A wise old Indian Chief once roamed the hills
of southern Ohio hoping to make peace with the white man. He urged his
fellow tribesmen to accept the inevitable fact that they were
outnumbered. But Chief Logan found that the coming savage wars would not
pass him by. Before it was all over, his father, brother, sister and
other relatives were all murdered by a white scouting party.
Only then did this friend of the white man go on the warpath, and in
anger and grief took thirty scalps in the summer of 1774. After the
Battle of Point Pleasant, which followed, Lord Dunmore, the English
commander, offered the Ohio Indians a peace treaty assuring them that
the Ohio River would be the boundary line between the two races. All of
the leading chiefs assembled at Camp Charlotte to ratify the Treaty,
that is all except one - Chief Logan of the Mingoes to whom the white
man's word had lost all meaning.
Knowing his approval was needed, John Gibson, a scout, was sent to find
the old Chief. Logan was discovered sitting under a young elm tree.
Although he spoke English, Chief Logan could not write it, so he
dictated his reply to Gibson, In less than 200 words, he eloquently
expressed his feelings, ending with the pathetic questions, "Who is
there to mourn Logan? Not one."
Upon reading the reply, Thomas Jefferson, who had written the
Declaration of Independence, praised the short message as one of the
world's greatest speeches and generations of Ohio school children
memorized it. The young elm grew into a massive tree, and became the
state's most famous one - the Logan Elm. It stood until 1964. Although
the original tree is gone, many of its children five on. Thousands of
seeds were taken from the Logan Elm, raised into seedlings and
distributed throughout Ohio. Some were planted in school yards and are
now full-grown trees.
Captain Bird's Hostages
On May 25, 1780 Capt. Henry Bird led a British
military expedition out of Detroit. Using a water pathway, the
expedition floated down the Maumee River, then over the portage to the
Great Miami River. Capt. Bird, had a party of 150 soldiers, both
regulars and volunteers, plus several hundred Indians, who joined along
the way. Capt. Bird headed for Kentucky to avenge the military campaign
of Gen. George Rogers Clark. Clark had humiliated and outguessed the
English in the western campaign against their forts in the Northwest,
during the last years of the Revolutionary War.
Capt. Bird's mission was to attack and plunder the frontier Kentucky
settlements. His expedition ascended the Ohio River to the mouth of
Licking River, where the soldiers debarked near Ruddell's Station.
Before the Kentuckians knew what was happening, the Station was
surrounded, and Simon Girty, who was with Capt. Bird, went in under a
Rag of truce, demanding surrender. It was agreed to accept the defeat if
the prisoners were promised protection of the British soldiers against
abuse by the Indians. However, as soon as the stockade gates opened the
savages rushed in plundering and killing. Some 300 pioneers were marched
away as prisoners. Next the Bird expedition attacked Martin's Station
under similar circumstances with the same results.
Realizing he was in dangerous territory and that as soon as Gen. Clark
heard of the expedition, he would be pursued, Capt. Bird wisely headed
back to the Ohio River with the hostages. Many of the women and children
became ill, and after the Indian custom were tomahawked and left to die
by the trail. It was a sad, hungry group that went up the Great Miami
River valley, with only about 100 hostages surviving the trip to
Detroit.
Clark's Long Knives
In retaliation of Capt. Henry Bird's
expedition, Gen. George Rogers Clark raised a army of 1,000 Kentuckians.
Since many carried shining bright swords the Indians gave them the
nickname of "Long Knives."
The Miami Valley was the American frontier from 1770 to 1795, and during
this period there was much bloodshed on both sides. The Indians were
trying to stop English settlement, which they knew meant the end of
their way of life, based largely on trapping and hunting. Before Capt.
Bird's expedition, Gen. Clark through several campaigns against the
Shawnee Indians largely held them under control. He had burned their
villages and laid waste to their fields. The Miami Indians tired of the
struggle moved north and westward away from the white invader.
Gen. Clark tried immmediately to restore his control over the Miami
Valley. He led the Long Knives northward along the east bank of the
Great Miami River up to the site of what became Dayton, then stopped
about four miles south of Piqua. Here they encountered a party of
Indians on the way to a powwow at Piqua, their headquarters. The
surprised Indian braves escaped in time to warn other Indians, who fled
the area at the first alarm.
The Indian braves left their squaws and children at the mercy of the
Long Knives, who destroyed the villages and burned the Indian's crops,
leaving the enemy destitute, and without food. This done, the Long
Knives marched back to Kentucky. Some consider this the last real battle
of the American Revolution, for in 1783 the Treaty of Paris was signed,
which ended the long war for independence.
Although the Treaty gave the Miami Valley to the new U.S. government,
the Indians refused to accept peacefully the settlement of the new
Americans.
Boone's Escape
Daniel Boone, the most famous of all
frontiersmen and Indian fighters was once held prisoner at an Indian
village in the Miami Valley. Early in January, 1778, Boonesboro was
running low on salt, an essential item. Daniel Boone led a party of 30
men to the salt springs along the Licking River. All was going well at
the salt camp, until one day, the pioneers found themselves surrounded
by an Indian war party, led by Black Fish, a Shawnee Chief. Along with
Black Fish were some scouts in the service of the British, who allied
with the Indians, were trying to hold control of the land west of the
Appalachian Mountains. The British at Detroit paid a $100 reward for any
American prisoner-of-war.
Black Fish marched his hostages to the Ohio River and ferried them
across on a buffalo hide boat. They were taken to an Indian village near
the present site of Xenia, to wait until Spring to complete the
hazardous trip to Fort Detroit. Boone advised his men to offer no
resistance and do as the Indians commanded. Thinking they had won the
cooperation of the prisoners, some were adopted into the tribe,
including Boone.
When the captives arrived at Detroit, Chief Black Fish who had adopted
Boone as his own son, refused to sell him for even $500. So Boone
returned with the Chief to the Indian village. They trusted him so much
that they gave him a gun and ammunition and permitted him to hunt wild
game for them. Boone carefully saved some powder from each shot. Boone
spent the spring in the wild Miami Valley. One day he overheard the
warriors planning an attack on Boonesboro. The clever Boone made his
escape. In a record for endurance, he ran 160 miles stopping only long
enough for one meal. Due to Boone's bravery, when the Indians arrived,
Boonesboro was prepared. The small garrison held out against the seige,
and the Indians finally returned to the Miami Valley.
Kenton Runs the Gauntlet
While Daniel Boone is remembered as Kentucky's
most famous frontiersman, Simon Kenton is Ohio's own legendary hero.
After a vicious fight for a girl's affection, Kenton left his home in
Virginia in a hurry, believing, incorrectly, that he had killed his
rival suitor.
Arriving in the western wilderness at the age of 16, he lived in the
forests, getting his food with his gun and learning the ways of the
Indians. He was hired by both the British and Americans as a spy and
ranger, for no one knew Indian strategy better than he.
Kenton also knew Indian cruelty, being compelled to run the gauntlet
eight different times to satisfy their savagery. To run the gauntlet
meant that a man was placed at the head of two lines of warriors, armed
with clubs and sticks. At a given signal the man made a dash for the
other end, running down the center taking the blows or dodging them if
possible. Some died before ever reaching the other end.
Once caught stealing Indian horses, Kenton was tied to stakes, in spread
eagle fashion with his limbs secured by leather thongs. After surviving
this torture, he was tied to a wild horse, which was turned loose. On
another occasion he was almost beaten to death, and would have died, had
not Simon Girty pleaded with the Shawnees to spare the life of his
friend. Kenton's savage punishment by the Indians earned him the respect
of all frontiersmen.
Turning to peaceable pursuits after the Indian wars, Kenton proved to be
a poor businessman, and was convicted in a Champaign County Court as a
debtor. So great was the citizens respect for him that they elected him
jailer, so he could serve his sentence under himself. His tombstone is
at Urbana, and the Inscription reads: "Full of Honors, Full of Years."
But an ever-present reminder on the Ohio map is the town of Kenton.
When a group of Indian boys in a Miami tribe
were old enough to start wandering about in the forests, a council
meeting was held by their elders to choose a leader. How the Indian
warriors chose a young leader is illustrated in this legend handed down
by the Miami tribe.
In a very dark part of the forest, one of the Miami tribesmen would hide
a real skeleton in a haunted spot. Then they would choose a very dark
night for the test of the young boys. Various braves would hide along
the path to make scary noises to frighten the Indian boys. The bravest
boy was the one who cut down the skeleton and returned it to the
campfire.
On one such occasion all was made ready. The old Chief rose from his
honored place at the campfire and with a knife in his hand, asked who
wanted to go first. A tall boy volunteered and started off with knife in
hand. Down the path he traveled, but on hearing the mysterious and
chilling sounds, he turned and ran back to the fire.
A second boy made it a little farther into the black forest, but hearing
more sounds, he returned. A third boy was so frightened that he rushed
back to the campfire and fell exhausted before the fire. When the old
chief asked for other volunteers, he heard no answer. Finally, the
littlest Indian boy of them all spoke up, "I will go." Seizing the
knife, with brave determination he kept going on. No sounds or fear
could overcome him, and he returned to the campfire with the skeleton.
The wise old Chief pointed to the smallest boy of them all, and said,
"He is your leader!"
This is only one of hundreds of Miami Indian stories told by their late
Chief, Clarence Godfroy, and compiled in a remarkable book.
Tomahawk Rights
No one knows their names, and no monuments
stand over their dead. They searched out the new land west of the
Appalachians, and they built crude, log cabins in the valleys of the
Great and Little Miami Rivers and along the Scioto. They were the first
white people to dwell in the Miami Valley.
Historians estimated that as many as 1500 white settlers lived along the
frontier in Southwestern Ohio before and during the American Revolution.
Uninvited, they came against the wishes of the British King, who had
ordered the Colonists to remain along the Atlantic seaboard. The
frontiersmen disputed the right of King George to draw the Proclamation
Line of 1763 reserving all the land west of the mountains to the
natives. They argued that man had a natural right to pass into every
vacant country and build a home and set up his own government.
The frontiersmen spotted the best farm land and with their tomahawks
they cut their marks into big trees on the four corners of the property
they claimed. The name given these people was that of "Squatters."
The Squatters built a cabin, erected rough fences from brush to keep in
their cattle, horses and pigs. They cultivated a few acres of land,
after clearing it, or perhaps farmed land already cleared by the Indians
before them. There were many areas of vacant Indian old lands, as they
were called, as the Indians deserted the small garden sites after the
soil had been stripped of its virgin elements. They merely moved their
villages when the garbage and refuge piled up. But time restored the
soil and cleansed the land.
When the U.S. government surveyed and sold the land, the Squatters when
shown the legal deeds by the pioneers usually moved on. Some were given
a small cash gift for their improvements.
Yeatman's Cove
Griffin Yeatman's tavern was the center of
community life in Cincinnati. The large frame structure, two and
one-half stories high, at Front and Sycamore Streets served as a hotel,
restaurant, theater, and even the Courthouse. Yeatman built his tavern
on an inlet in the river, where the first boat load of pioneers landed
near the end of December, 1788. It became known as Yeatman's Cove, and
here was the beginning of the city of Cincinnati. Yeatman's Cove Park
and Serpentine Wall can still be visited.
The tavern was in the front room of the house in which Yeatman presided
over the affairs of the young, frontier town. His pump must have been
the main water supply of the town, for he requested the users to give
him 25 cents each Monday morning for the privilege. Being right in the
center of the village, Yeatman's Tavern was a town meeting place. After
a glorious all-day celebration of the 4th of July in 1799, it is
recorded that the festivities ended with a dance at Yeatman's Tavern.
Yeatman became County Recorder, and in the fall of 1801 an important
meeting was held at Yeatman's Tavern to consider the question of the
incorporation of Cincinnati. While enjoying good rye whiskey, the vote
was affirmative, and the town's plat was officially recorded in 1802.
Inside the tavern the deliberations of the Northwest Territory's Supreme
Court were held.
From Yeatman's punchbowl, -which could hold ten gallons of liquor, was
served such historical figures as Aaron Burr, Gen. Andrew Jackson, Gen.
George Rogers Clark, Gen. William Henry Harrison, Gov. Arthur St. Clair
and Gen. Anthony Wayne.
Losantiville and Venice
The two largest towns in the Miami Valley could
well have been Losantiville and Venice. John Filson, a schoolteacher and
scholar, was one of the founders of Cincinnati. Since he was the
surveyor of the group, and laid out the first plans for the city, it was
agreed that he, a student of language and history, should pick the name.
Filson decided to create a name for the town, located on the Ohio River,
across from the mouth of the Licking River. So he began the town's name
with a L, standing for the river, then added an os, which was the Greek
word for mouth, throwing in the Latin word, anti, meaning opposite, and
adding the French word for city-ville. So the name of the town came out
meaning the city opposite the mouth of the Licking River. It was
christened Losantiville.
Settlers used the name a few years, until Gen. Arthur St. Clair, the
Governor of the Northwest Territory, moved his headquarters there. When
asked the name of the little town where he had landed, he was informed
that he was in Losantiville. Those standing near him, heard him remark,
"What an awful name! ... We'll call it Cincinnati." One word from Gov.
St. Clair was all that was needed. Thus Losantiville became Cincinnati,
the only city with that name in the U.S. It honored the Society of
Cincinnatus, a group of Revolutionary War officers, of which St. Clair
was a member.
The three men who first surveyed the site for Dayton, seeing the swampy
area where the Mad River joins the Great Miami, decided a good name
would be Venice. They wanted the Mad River renamed the Tiber. Better
judgment won and the town was named to honor Gen. Jonathan Dayton, a
Revolutionary soldier, a member of the Constitutional Convention, and
later a member of Congress.
Symmes Purchase
Capt. Fig was the first Indian to greet John
Cleves Symmes when he arrived at North Bend in February 1789. The Symmes
party had left New Jersey with eight, four-horse wagons carrying 30
people westward to the Miami Valley. He had purchased about 250,000
acres of rich land between the two Miami Rivers, an area extending from
the Ohio River northward to the present site of Monroe, just south of
Middletown. He planned to re-sell the land to emigrants.
The Shawnee Chief's first question was, "Did the 13 fires send you?" To
the Indian, the 13 fires represented the 13 states of the nation. Symmes
took out his new American flag, with the 13 stripes to satisfy the
Chief. Symmes then pointed to the troops on parade, telling the Indians
the soldiers would uphold the rights of the settlers.
John Cleves Symmes
Symmes then walked over the another Shawnee
Chief, Capt. Blackbird, and showed him the seal of the U.S. with the
eagle holding a tree branch as an emblem of peace. Chief Blackbird
studied the emblem, and remarked that the eagle's outspread wings did
not denote peace to the Indian nor did the bough in its mouth, which
looked more like a rod for correction. The Chief said the eagle appeared
to be carrying a long whip in one claw and arrows in the other, and to
be in full flight, bent on war or mischief. Finally the Chief accepted
Symmes' peaceful explanation.
Capt. Blackbird said the North Bend settlers need not fear the Shawnee
nation. The Indians then traded furs and skins they had brought with
them, stripping the settlers of everything they had with them. Symmes
was successful in selling the land, but ran into many legal problems. He
lost money, and finally died in poverty in 1814.
Fort Hamilton on the Miami
Although the government had made a treaty with
the Indians, which ceded the land of the Miami Valley to the white man,
most of the Indians continued their attacks on the pioneers. In 1790 the
U.S. authorities ordered Gen. Josiah Harmar to organize a military unit
and drive the Indians off the land. Some 1400 frontiersmen drilled under
Gen. Harmar and then met the enemy. They left the field with 300
soldiers dead. The following year, Gen. Arthur St. Clair, one of
Washington's best generals in the American Revolution was sent out to
build up a new army of 3,000 soldiers. They were to be drilled and
equipped so that they could carry out a successful campaign. Gen. St.
Clair decided that a chain of forts would be needed up the Miami Valley,
both as protection against the Indians and as supply depots.
Early in September 1791, about 2300 soldiers left Fort Washington,
marched northward. Men arriving late were ordered to join St. Clair's
army at the proposed new fort along the Great Miami.
On September 17th, Gen. St. Clair and his officers picked out the site
for the first in a chain of forts. It was in the midst of a great
prairie of about 300 acres, covered by grass and wild oats, along the
east bank of the Great Miami River, 25 miles north of Fort Washington.
The fort area was about 150-foot square. A trench was dug three feet
deep in which the pickets were set. Since 2,000 were needed the men had
to scour the woods to find enough tall, straight trees, with trunks
between 9 and 13 inches in diameter.
Each had to be cut, trimmed and sawed off to at 20 feet. These pickets
were dragged by oxen to the site. Here they were butted and placed
upright in a trench. A thin piece of lumber at the top of the pickets
was used to pin them together. The trench was then packed with earth.
The new post was named Fort Hamilton in honor of the man then Secretary
of the Treasury.
The Greatest Massacre
The legend of how Gen. George Custer, an Ohio
native, met his death at the Battle of Little Big Horn is known to all.
Custer and his 250 soldiers were massacred by the Indians. Most
Americans consider this to have been the U.S. army's worst defeat by the
Red Man, but it wasn't. The Indian's greatest military triumph was
achieved along the northern edge of the Miami Valley.
Led by Chief Little Turtle, the most outstanding Miami Indian in both
war and peace, his warriors were well disciplined and trained. In 1790
Chief Little Turtle's forces defeated Gen. Josiah Harmar. President
Washington replaced the General with another one, Gen. Arthur St. Clair.
Washington ordered St. Clair to build a frontier army strong enough to
drive the Indians out of the Miami Valley.
In 1791 Gen. St. Clair left Fort Washington, proceded north to Fort
Hamilton. Here he ordered the building of Fort Jefferson. By Nov. 3,
1791 Gen. St. Clair and his army were camped along a branch of the
Wabash River, near the Indiana line, almost 100 miles north of
Cincinnati.
On the morning of Nov. 4th, the soldiers were called into formation and
then dismissed. Just at that moment the Indians attacked. The surprise
was so great that the whole camp was in confusion. Gov. St. Clair's
troops tried to regroup, and they continued firing for about three
hours. It was hopeless, so retreat was ordered. What was left of the
frontier army, arrived back at Fort Jefferson, disorganized and
defeated.
Roll call revealed that ahnost 600 soldiers were killed in action along
with 37 officers, including Gen. Richard Butler, second in command.
Another 300 men had been wounded. Such was the white man's greatest
defeat at the hands of the Indians. On the site of the massacre, Fort
Recovery was later erected. The Fort Recovery State Memorial now marks
the scene of the massacre.
Fort St. Clair and Others
Just west of Eaton is St. Clair State Memorial
Park, where four stone markers designate the area enclosed by the old
fort. It was a stockade much like other forts along the Indian border.
The enclosed area was protected by pickets set in the earth, within
which stood the blockhouses and officers' quarters. To prevent a
surprise attack, a space of about 40 acres around the fort was cleared.
It was constructed by men under the command of Major John Gano, and in
charge of the guard detail was a 20-year old ensign, William Henry
Harrison, who was to write his name large upon the pages of history.
However, Fort St. Clair did sustain one surprise attack. Chief Little
Turtle discovered that a company of 100 riflemen was in Indian
territory. He scouted them, waiting for the right time to attack. It
came on Nov. 6, 1792. A unit of the Kentucky militia under command of
Major John Adair stopped for the night and set up camp a short distance
from Fort St. Clair.
Just before dawn, amid shrieks, war whoops and the shooting of guns,
Little Turtle with 250 warriors opened the attack. At first the
Americans were in great confusion, but they grouped and began to fight
back. The Indians grabbed the horses and some supplies, which had
probably been their object in the first place, and ran off. Major Adair
seeing the Indians had a head start, ordered his men back, and they
regrouped at Fort St. Clair.
Rofl call. revealed that six soldiers had been kiRed, five wounded and
four missing. It was thought that the Indians had lost about the same
number. Chief Little Turtle's warriors had stolen aR but eight horses.
Fort St. Clair continued to serve as a supply fort, one of the chain
from Fort Washington, to Fort Hamilton, then St. Clair, northward to
Forts Jefferson, Greenville, Recovery and Fort Wayne. Each was about one
day's journey apart, that is for marching troops.
The Ranger's Captive
When they were quite young, two brothers, Christopher and Henry
Miller while out playing at their Kentucky home, were captured by
Shawnee warriors. They were taken to a Miami Valley village and adopted
by a tribe.
Henry, remembering his old life, wanted to return to the world of the
white man. When he was 24 years old, he told his brother of his plans to
escape, asking him to go along. But Christopher loved the life of the
Indians. Having no desire to leave, he refused to go with his brother.
There are many similar stories on record, for the Indians treated their
adopted sons well.
Henry returned to his old home. When Gen. Mad Anthony Wayne led a
campaign against the Indians of the Miami Valley, he joined the Rangers,
a scouting outfit. In June 1794 the Rangers were ordered to take an
Indian prisoner in order to obtain information of the enemy. They found
three Indians along a stream, preparing a meal. Attempting to escape,
two of the Indians were killed, and then Henry Miller and Robert
McClelland tried to capture the third. The fleet-footed warrior gave
them a hard chase, but when he saw the two Rangers gaining on him, he
leaped down a river bank, landing in shallow water in the mud.
McClelland caught him just as the warrior drew a knife. Seeing he was
outnumbered, he dropped it, and Miller and the others washed off the mud
and paint on their besplattered captive only to discover he was a white
man. They mounted their horses and started back to headquarters at Fort
Greenville. Henry Miller rode up to the captive's side, and already
noting a resemblance to his brother, spoke his Indian name. Indeed it
was Christopher Miller. The soldiers persuaded him to abandon his wild
Indian way of life. He was given his liberty by Gen. Wayne, and acted as
an interpreter at the signing of the Treaty of Greenville.
Peace Pipe and
Greenville
After suffering two disastrous defeats at the
hands of the Indians in the Miami Valley, President Washington was
determined that it should not happen again. He appointed one of his most
trusted generals of the Revolutionary War, "Mad Anthony" Wayne to the
command. Under Chief Blue Jacket, the Indians fought bravely, but were
defeated at the decisive Battle of Fallen Timbers by the American
troops.
Gen. Wayne, who had erected Fort Greenville as his major base of
operations, invited the Indians to gather at the Fort to make peace.
Almost 1200 came. They began to arrive in June of 1795, and the peace
proceedings took around 50 days. Each tribe presented its point of view,
they smoked the peace pipe, feasted, and listened to days of oratory.
Finally on Aug. 3, 1795, Gen. Wayne read for the third time the revised
draft of the peace treaty. The Indians approved it, and then the
document was signed by the chief of each tribe. An interpreter wrote out
the name of each chief, and the Indian then drew opposite his name the
totem or special sign of his tribe. The treaty had about 90 signatures
with the last one's being that of President Washington.
The Greenville Treaty defined the land that was open to white
settlement, which included the Miami Valley. It ended the border warfare
for a time, with peace between the pioneers and Indians until Tecumseh
organized the Confederacy.
Upon the signing of the Treaty of Greenville, the white settlers began
to rush into the Miami Valley. In 1795 several villages were laid out,
although often not officially platted and recorded until a few years
later. These included Fairfield, Dayton, Middletown, Lebanon, South
Lebanon and Franklin, followed in 1797 by Waynesville, and two years
later by Springfield. During the following decade Trenton, Xenia,
Greenville, Urbana, Troy and Piqua and many others appeared on the map.
Chief Little Turtle
Little Turtle, the most famous chief of the
Miami Indians, was more than a great warrior. He was as humane as he was
brave. He gained the respect of the white man, for his word was his
bond. After leading two successful campaigns against the white man, he
realized that the Indians were outnumbered, and could not stop the
inevitable white settlement of his beloved homeland. He also understood
that the white soldiers were better equipped and had the advantage of
fire power. He refused to take part in the last major battle, which as
he predicted, was lost by the Indians.
When the Indian wars were over, Little Turtle became a reformer, seeking
to improve the living conditions of his people. His first crusade was
directed against alcohol. It had been the practice of some traders to
exchange liquor for pelts, and often got the Indians drunk before making
the deal, thus robbing them of their furs.
In 1802 he appeared before the Kentucky legislature asking that it
forbid the sale of whiskey to Indians, and such a law was passed. Then
he begged the Ohio General Assembly for similar protection, pleading
that traders "stripped the poor Indians of skins, gun, blanket,
everything - while his squaw and children dependent on him lay starving
and shivering in his wigwam." The Ohio legislators did nothing.
Another scourge of the Indians, second only to alcoholism, was the
dreaded disease, smallpox. While a trip to Washington, President
Jefferson told Little Turtle that the Great Spirit had given the white
man a way to prevent smallpox. The Chief's confidence in the President
was so great that he asked to be inoculated. He then took some of the
vaccine home and vaccinated many of his tribesmen.
Just before his death in 1812, Chief Little Turtle assisted the
Americans in the war against the English. He was buried with full
military honors by American army officers.
Shooting Star -
Tecumseh
His Shawnee tribesmen called him "Shooting
Star" but the Americans knew him as Chief Tecumseh. He was the greatest
Chief his tribe produced, and along with his brother, The Prophet, whom
the Indians thought could foresee the future, built a great Confederacy
against the Americans.
Chief Tecumseh refused to sign the Treaty of Greenville, and organized
those warriors who agreed with him. Tecumseh was born at an Indian
village along the Mad River, near what is now Xenia. He knew the white
man well, his father, also a Chief, was killed at the Battle of Point
Pleasant in 1774. His oldest brother had also lost his life in battle.
Tecumseh had grown to hate all white people, that is, until he met
Rebecca Galloway, daughter of a Judge and a popular young lady. Rebecca
decided to open a school at the Galloway home to teach the Indian Chiefs
the English language. While the class began with several chiefs in
attendance, it wasn't long until Chief Tecumseh was the lone student. He
had made it clear to the others that they were to stay away, for
Tecumseh had other plans in mind. He had decided to make the beautiful
Rebecca an Indian princess and his wife.
Rebecca was courted by the handsome Chief, and soon fell in love with
him. Their marriage announcement was met with opposition by both white
people of the Miami Valley, and the Indians, who threatened to disavow
Tecumseh as their Chief. Then both Tecumseh and Rebecca realized that
their love affair was at an end.
Tecumseh went on to head the Confederacy against the Americans, and
joined the British during the War of 1812. Despite Chief Tecumseh's
brave exploits in battle, the British and Indians were finally driven
across Lake Erie into Canada. Along the Thames River on Oct. 5, 1813
Chief Tecumseh led the final assault against the invading Americans. He
was among the last to fall in battle.