Old Fort Sandoski of Z745. 369
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
.f_ ____,.......,~·--------------------------: ' i --------------•------=------~--r-• £ i . i I rr •I t t ' '.! ( " I l ~ l I . l ~ ! I ! I 1 ' l • i! I • l I i l 11 f i Bvr Lr'!~..,v rr r 10,T ·-:rr r:--..- 1--n ! l • i ~ u ,,_,. .. _c ,4 ..., "" ;_"-\__ ~.. t LJ..!.."'- i , 1 ~ .. I 11 :.: R.liPP.Il'iTE/J FRO.'J.i C,liJO All.Cl-lA.. 10LOGIC..Jl . .- . '1· l1 I ..-!iVD HIST0.1/C.1.L SOCIETY PUBUC.-tTIOliS- ! ; YOLUiHE ·XJ'Jf._ OCTOBER. rno8 -1 ! I• :..-i -----------~ __ __,l:i s ,ffe ·~~ M : ~ /////~/!#'~ N I I( ----.-......._ ~ ~f/t//11 I B 27 OLD FORT SANDOSKI OF 1745 AND THE "SANDUSKY COUNTRY.'' LUCY ELLIOT KEELER. l\.1y story ,vill be confined to the sixteen miles ,vhich separate Fort Stephenson at the Lo,ver Falls of the Sandusky river, (now Fremont)~ f ron1 the banks of Lake Erie, at the mouth of the Portage river, (Port Clinton), the point visited by all Indians and French in coming from or going to Detroit and the north \Vest ; and later the point ,.. -:•i.,•• - ... ••, ■ .,,: :.::: :~-, •,'" -?-: :· \:J from which General Harri ·<.-..-.'.;_:·./ ~! '. ,., .. son's army left American soil ··.:r,: -:.:: "••" •• ·•i . -1 to · pursue the British in Can ~! ....,, ada in his successful cam ~ _,... ':o1 . ,, paign terminating at the Bat ,;:' ~ tle of the Thames, October S, 1813. Although the distance by land over this trail is only six teen miles, nevertheless by the windings and turnings of the Sandusky river the distance to old Fort Sandoski on the north side of the bay is some forty miles. vVi thin this short distance we shall hope to show you old Fort Sandoski, the RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. first fort built by white men in Ohio, in 1745; diagonally opposite to it the French Fort Junundat, built in 1754, where the first white child was born in Ohio, of French parentage; thence up the river twenty miles to the home of Jan:ies Whitaker and Elizabeth Foulks W1-iitaker, his wife, the first permanent ·white settlers in Ohio, who were brought to the Sandusky country as prisoners by the \Vyandots in I 77 4 and 1776 respectively, adopted as Indians and married at Detroit in (~5i) 358 0 hio Arch. and Hist. S ocietv Publica•tions. - w 1781, and immediately settled .on ,vhat has since been known as the vVhitaker Reservation; Fort Stephenson, here in Fremont, the place first brought into prcminence in .A.. merican history by the presence of the famous Revolutionary patriot, Israel Put nam, ,vho commanded the Colonial troops from Connecticut in the Br_adstreet expe.dition of 1764; the place to ,vhich General Washington sent Captain Brady to_ ascertain the ,var-like inten tions of the Indians in 1780; ~-here the British established a tem porary fort in 1782 during the Revolutionary ,var; ,vhere General Wayne promised to build _an ..A.merican fort in 1795 to protect the friendly Indians against the encroachments of the British Indians; ,vhere finally the youthful 1Iajor George Croghan on the 2d of -August, 1813, defeated the combined forces of the British under P~octor and the Indians under Tecumseh in· the famous battle of Fort Stephenson; and to Spiegel Grove, the home of Rutherford Birchard Hayes and Lucy \Vebb Hayes, the typical American home of the last half of the 19th century. J\'I y desire is to sho,v ho,v this Sanduskv., countrv., ,vas one of the great natural runways of the Indians in their migrations between the St. Lawrence and the Great_ Lakes, to the Ohio and the l\'1ississippi Rivers; of the French, \vho cannily imitated the In dian in his method of travel and ,voodland life; of the English, coming in from the east t(! possess the land; and of the Ameri cans, in e:?{:pelling the English from the country. The term Sandusky, in all military and frontier history is broadly used, having been applied by the Indians not only to the river but to the valley and the Indian villages situated at the upper and lower rapids (Upper and Lo,ver Sandusky), and the bay, or "little lake.~' This ubiquitous nomenclature has not unnaturally led many persons of the present day to suppose that · the flourishing neighboring city of Sandusky ,vas one of the vil lages bearing. that name; ,vhereas the Sandusky city of today ,vas unkno,vn until vears., after the "\Var of 1812 and \vas called Ogontz's Place, later Portlan9, and not until a decade after the glorious defence of Ft. Stephenson ( or "Sandusky" as the name is inscribed on the gold medal a \Varded to Croghan by the Congress of the United States), ,vas the name "Sandusky City" formally adopted by our neighbor on the Lake. Old Fort Sandoski of Ii45• 859 The Sandusky country in Indian history possesses a peculiar charm and fascinating interest. During that period of years ,vhich fills ,vestern annals ,vith the story of bloody conflict, the valley of the Sandusky river and the Indian village at the lo,ver falls of the Sandusky, (no,v Fremont) ,vere the home of the most po,verful and ,var-like of the savage nations. Bet,veen the period of the old French ,var of li55 and the war of 1812, this place presented the varied scenes of Indian life-primitive agri culture, rude cabins, canoe building, amusements, the council ~----.-, .. __--------... fire, prisoners running the ~ '• ~··:"• - . ~ . - .. - .. · ··:-._;_:-.·. gauntlet and burning at the stake. Let us go back, however, for some hvo centuries. In 1534 Cartier found on the present sites of Quebec ~nd l\Iontreal, Indian tribes who ~!~:~~~·-., ... ~ . ,vere in fierce combat .,.Nith II. · · ··:·: r ·,-.: the peoples to the south of t.:\~\:\,•···, · them - the Senecas and kin- I~ I . ..-, . .. · ~<d:~.\::_·· --. dred Iroquois nations. Be- L .• ~ft;.:·_:· ..'··.~~-:~:.::; . _) tween Cartier·s last voyage to -~--- ... .;.~-:- _···~·:;-\ · ·t-· the St. Lawrence in 1543 and ·:·.:.. • .: ..... :~-~:.,:.:::-~:,:,; . .. _... ..__ ..- .·- .· ,:•:--1 t h e arr1va. 1 o f Champ I a1n . 1n. f~~1:~}I;·~~\:·:~·.-: ·: ___ 1 16o3 · but little is · definitely ' ,, • ''~~ ,j, i,,'", t ' •, f"'I'"':' l,' .. •.,, " '·',:- _:~t:.~.--~~~~••,;:lf-i:.=-- · known of these tribes and .. ,,••. ' . -~!:.. '"!"'"'" ... ( their ,vars. .A.ccording to the LUCY WEBB HAYES. _ Jesuit Relation for 1639 a con- federacy of iour highly organized Huron tribes, doubtless the remnants, with additions, of Cartier's Indians who had been driven westward, d,velt in the vicinity of Lake Simcoe and Georg ian Bay, and \Vere kno\vn as Wendats. This tel11?- the English later corrupted to Wy3.ndot, ,vhile the French continued to use the term Huron. · In 1615 Champlain found all these northern tribes· ,vaging fierce ,var against the Iroquois tribes in New York. \Vhen the French established trading posts on _the St. Law rence the Hurons made annual trips to the posts, and in 1615 the Jesuits established a mission for them about fifty miles b~low 360 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Public(lttions. Montreal. Father Sagard ·was the first historian of the mission, and is authority for the statement that the Hurons were in the habit of sending large \var parties to ravage the country of the Iroquois. The hostility behveen them dated from prehistoric times, s~ that the invasion and destruction of the Huron country in 1648-50 by the Iroquois ,vas but the final blo\v in a struggle of almqst 100 years. The acquisition of firearms by the Iroq_uois from .the Dutch \vhile the Hurons had almost none, was an important factor in the success of the Iroquois. Hundreds of Hurons were carried captive to th~ Iroquois country; others escaped to their kindred the Neutrals and the Eries-; and others took refuge at Green Bay- w_here the Otta,vas joined them; later on the south shore of Lake Superior, and again at 1Iackinac island. In 1670 ,ve find a remnant of them in the palisaded village of St. Ignace. Later some of the Hurons moved to Detroit, and thence to the San dusky country, in Ohio. 11 ention was made of a kindred tribe of the Hurons, the Neutral Nation. Tradition has it that long be£ ore the settlement in the San COL. WEBB C. HAYES. dusky valley of the fugitive Hurons, the Neutral Nation had at Lower Sandusky (Fremont) two fortified neutral to\vns, on opposite sides of the Sandusky river, ,vhich in the shape of earth,vorks were observed by the pioneer residents of Fremont. Major B. F. Stickney, for many years an indian agent in this locality and familiar with its history and traditions, in a lecture 1n Toledo in 1845, speaking of these to\vns, said: "The Wyandots have given -me this account qf thetl].. At a period of two and a half centuries ago all the Indians west of this point were at war with those east. T,vo ,valled to,vns ·were built near each other, inhabited by those of \Vyandot origin. They assumed a neutral character. ..A.11 of the ,vest might enter the ,vestern city and all of the east the eastern. The inhabitants of one city might Old Fort Sandoski of I745. 361 inform th9se of the other that ,var parties ,vere there ; but ,vho they wer~ or ,vhence they came or anything more must not be mentioned." Gen. Lewis Cass, in an address in 1829 be£ ore the Historical society of l\1:ichigan, alluding to these neutral to,vns, said : "During the long and disastrous contest ,vhich preceded and f ollo,ved the arrival of the Europeans, in which the Iroquois contended for victory, and their enemy for existence, this little band preserved the integrity of their tribe and the sacred character of peace makers.