The Western Reserve
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Q y, < ui > u -1 u THE WESTERN RESERVE AND EARLY OHIO By v. \\ CHKRRY Author of The Grave Creek Mound, Porta'JE Path, Pioneer HuNTiNd Stories, aiitl MiNrjo The .Scout M Pnblitheil bii R. L. FOUSE FIRICSTONE I'AKK, AKRONi OHIO 1921 Copyright IBgO CHERRY & FOUSE CASLON printers WOOSTER. OHIO RUSSELL L. FOUSE This book is due solely to the ambition, enthusiasm and persistence of Russell L. Fouse, superintendent of the Kemnore schools. He, knowing of the Cherry manuscripts and of the sixty long years of patient, painstaking investigation and study which gave them birth, induced the author to publish them. It was Supt. Fouse's money and force which brought this volume into existence by generously financing the proposition, thereby making it possible for the author to lay before the students of tomorrow the strenuous but golden days of the past. The author's grati tude to the gentleman can not be expressed in words. The Author. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introductory Ohio ^Foem. Ohio. The Pre-Historic Races of America 9 The Eriea U The Firat Naval Battle on Lake Erie 29 The French in Ohio 31 Pre-Terrttorial Military Expeditions 38 The Western Reserve 66 Organization and Early Boundaries of the Western Reserve. 68 The Pioneers of the Western Reserve 76 Early Schools of the Western Reserve 96 The Common School Fund 109 Early Spelling School Ill Pioneer Colleges of the Western Reserve 116 The Home of Iilonnonism 118 Colonial Activities of the Western Reserve 120 Colonial Resources 140 Early Outfits .146 The Old Man of the Woods 147 WiU'o Wsp 149 First Post Masters and Early Post Routes 163 Indians of fhe Cuyahoga Valley and Portage Lakes 163 Indian Trails 176 Noted Indian Chiefs on the Reserve 198 TecumsehThe Last of Ohio's* Great Chieftains 202 Indian Eloquence 212 Indian Religious Festivals 218 Moravian Missions on the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas 220 Smith's Captivity on the Reserve 230 Indian Holmes 242 strange Adventures of Christian Fasit 246 Hunters of Indians 260 Brady's Fight and Leap! 263 Adventures of Capt. Delaun Mills 266 Adam and Andrew Poe's Famous Fight 268 Boundary Lines of The Mcintosh Treaty 274 Military Expeditions Into the North-West Territory 276 Gen. Wadsworth's Army of Occupation 284 Troubles of Early Constables 289 EJarly Counterfeiters of the Cuyahoga Valley 293 Building Perry's Vessels 808 New Portage as an Early Port 306 The Ui derground Railway 309 John Brown of Ossawatomie 322 Hunters of Indians 260 DEDICATION This volume is dedicated to the hop and girls of today, that ihey may ever keep the traditions and hrave deeds of our forefathers as sacrea memories. UST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Cleveland in 1796 Frontispiece Fort Island 8 Engraved Battle Ax 12. Group of Implements 14 Stone Head 16 Retreat of Eries 21 Pre-IIisloric H''orks in Ashland County 23 Group of Implements 25 Stone Implements 26 Erie Crockery 27 From the Great Lakes to the Gull' 32 Fort Hill 36 Inscription Kock 40 Fort Whittlesey 57 Fort Weymouth 60 Fort Conneaut 64 Cuyahoga River 69 Pioneer Cabfn 77 A Stockade 87 The Old Schooliiouse 97 An Early Clearing 121 Shining Deer 127 Camping Scene 128 Fort D. T. Wolbach 150 A Quiet Sti etek on the Cuyahoga 164 Black Hawk 171 Beginning of Portage Path 177 Path Crossing Old Clearing 180 Center of Indian Communication 184 Pictured Tree on Path 187 Indian Statue on Portage Path 190 Capt. Pipe Warning Seoul 194 Pontiac Taking Up Hatchet 198 .Scioto War Trail Statue 236 Standing Reek in the Cuyahoga River S64 Upper Headquarters of Original Surveyors 285 Covered Bridge 287 fohn Brown 323 fohn Brojvn's .4rsenal 326 John Brown's Monument 330 THE PRIMITIVE CUYAHOGA VALLEY There are very many vallies, vallies of renown. But the Cuyahoga valley .was fairer than these. And greener its grasses and taller its trees 'Ere tl^e sound of the ax in the forest had rung. Or the mower his scythe in the meadows had swung. In their sheltered repose looking out from the wood. The bark-builded wigwams' of the Ottawas stood; There glided the corn dance, the council-fire shone, And against the red war-post the hatchet was thrown. There the old smoked in silence, their pipe, and the young To the pike and the white perch their baited lines flung! There the boy shaped his arrows, and there the shy maid Wove her meny^hued baskets and bright wampum braid;' 'O stream of Hopocan! if answer of thine Could raise from thy waters to question of mine, Methinks through the din of thy thronged banks a moan Of sorrow would swell for the days that are gone. Not for^thee, dull jar of the loom and the wheel, The gliding of shuttles,^ the ringing of steel; But that old voice of water, of bird and of breeze, The dip of the wild fowI,i the rustling of trees. Whittier. INTRODUCTORY Like the strains of some long forgotten music the memory of the days of olden time come knocking at our door. There is no life so bleak or drear, but what fancy can call back from out the shadowy past memories that make us forget the care and the worries of our present while the reveling among the brighter joys of past. ^ I have no excuse to oner in inflicting upon the world another book. It has been to me a labor of love, and if it shall prove as much comfort to any who reads as it has been a joy to the author in the labor of com piling this work, he will feel amply paid. The true history of the world i but the history of individuals and communities. The historian of today, and of communities, has but degenerated into a mere compiler of facts and statements from lips that have long since crumbled into dust; echoes from that mystic shore from whence none ever return. The writer has tried to present a true picture of the Pioneer days of the Reserve. The matter given is truth, not fiction, and whatever may have been his failings, he has endeavored to do his best. He. is well aware that there were many men far more capable of performing this task, but they did not, and ..the spirit of the past came upon him and he did his best^what more can a man do? > ^ ^ it is the story of the struggles,* privations and triumphs, not of a race, but of a- Class as distinctive as a race. No other p'eople cast in the same mould could have brought about the same results, or brought forth a people who would in such a near future (Urept the policy of the whole American J^ation. Where is there a section containing but 8,500,000 acres that could in a period of time covering but lilrfcle more tlkan fifty years, from a dense and frowning wil- demesa produce such men as Benjamin F. Wade, Joshua 'R. Giddings, Rufus P. Spalding, David Todd, James R. Garfield, and William McKinley; sounding from high places soleinn words of warning and a^dvice or directing the ship of State in troublous waters with breakers looming just ahead ? The fires of the Indians have long since gone out upon the shores of our lakes, and upon the banks of rushing streams. As a race they have withered from our land. The war-whoop no longer sounds in the forest; the toma hawk and scalping are seen no more. The midnight conflagration, massacre, outrage and torture no longer cries to high heaven for its bl<^y vengeance. The for est itself has disappeared and in its place stand lovely homesteads, pleasant villages and teeming cities; the rush and roar of thousands of engines and pulleys and belts; the whirring of countless wheels and spindles and looms ; the rattle and clatter of hurr^ng multi tudes, who if not happier are not in danger of midnight attack, burning homes and the shrieks of the tortured. The Athens of America still stands, but hei* pion eers, the cubal cains, who have broken her solitudes and fashioned her destinies and made the beginnings of a class of people, the like of which the world has never seen equaled ; they have passed away, their names are being forgotten, and their deeds have but become tradi tions, dim, far away and misty. Let us then do honor to our noble forefathers, so brave, so patient, so trust worthy, so true to their conceptions of Gfod and Home and Country. OHIO "The sun never shone on a country more fair Than beautiful, peerless Ohio. There's life in a kiss of her rarefied air, Ohio, prolific Ohio. Her sons are all valiant and noble and bright, Her beautiful daughters are just about right. And her babies, God bless them, are clear out of sight ; That crop never fails in Ohio. "Our homes are alight with a halo of love, Ohio, contented Ohio ; We bask in the light of the heavens above. No cloud ever darkens Ohio. Our grain waves as billows of gold in the sun ; The fruits of our orchards are equaled by none ; And our pumpkins, some of them weigh most a ton ! We challenge the world in Ohio! "Our girls are sweet models of maidenly grace. In this modem Eden Ohio. They're perfect in figure and lovely in face. That's what they are in Ohio. Their smiles are bewitching and winning and sweet ; Their dresses are modest, stylish and neat; A Trilby would envy their cute little feet In beautiful peerless Ohio.