WOOD COUNTY
Page 858
WOOD COUNTY was formed from old Indian Territory, and named from the brave and chivalrous Col. WOOD, a distinguished officer of engineers in the war of 1812. The surface is level, and covered by the black swamp, the soil of which is a rich, black loam, and very fertile, and peculiarly well adapted to grazing. The population are mainly of New England descent, with some Germans. The principal crops are corn, hay, potatoes, oats and wheat.
Area, about 620 square miles. In 1887 the acres cultivated were 167,492; in pasture, 26,485; woodland, 65,055; lying waste, 1,059; produced in wheat, 661,013 bushels; rye, 104,379 (largest in the State); buckwheat, 1,560; oats, 815,896; barley, 27,080; corn, 1,884,832; meadow hay, 21,000 tons; clover, 6,095; flaxseed, 84 bushels; potatoes, 88,656; tobacco, 70 lbs.; butter, 635,765; sorghum, 2,274 gallons; maple syrup, 4,873; honey, 21,140 lbs.; eggs, 749,213 dozen; grapes, 56,220 lbs.; wine, 962 gallons; sweet potatoes, 21 bushels; apples, 39,660; peaches, 1,383; pears, 1,537; wool, 83,799 lbs.; milch cows owned, 8,481. Ohio Mining Statistics, 1888: Limestone, 36,565 tons burned for lime; 81,000 cubic feet of dimension stone; 57,199 cubic yards of building stone; 8,892 cubic feet of ballast or macadam. School census, 1888, 12,763; teachers, 410. Miles of railroad track, 196.
Township And Census |
1840 |
1880 |
|
Township And Census |
1840 |
1880 |
Bloom, |
437 |
2,022 |
|
Montgomery, |
609 |
2,283 |
Center, |
97 |
2,023 |
|
Perry, |
559 |
1,474 |
Freedom, |
238 |
1,667 |
|
Perrysburg, |
1,041 |
4,112 |
Henry, |
213 |
1,688 |
|
Plain, |
272 |
1,985 |
Jackson, |
26 |
1,028 |
|
Portage, |
199 |
1,434 |
Lake, |
|
2,207 |
|
Ross, |
|
639 |
Liberty, |
215 |
1,282 |
|
Troy, |
383 |
1,407 |
Middleton, |
193 |
1,606 |
|
Washington, |
244 |
1,426 |
Milton & Weston, |
539 |
|
|
Webster, |
|
1,197 |
Milton, |
|
2,181 |
|
Weston, |
|
2,351 |
Population of Wood in 1830, 1,096; 1840, 5,458; 1850, 9,165; 1860, 17,886; 1880, 34,022: of whom 25,808 were born in Ohio; 1,569, Pennsylvania; 1204, New York; 169, Virginia; 158 Indiana; 38, Kentucky; 2092, German Empire; 626 England and Wales; 321, British America; 274 Ireland; 118, France; 110, Scotland; and 21, Norway and Sweden. Census, 1890, 44,392.
DRAINAGE.
Since our original edition of 1847 few counties of the State have been so surprisingly transformed as Wood. It was then an almost unbroken forest, covering the black swamp, and with few inhabitants. This advance has been owning to the very extensive system of draining and clearing off the forest, which has brought a large body of agriculturalists to settle up the country, three-fourths of whom are, to-day, within a radius of about 2 ½ miles of some line of railway: hence there has been a steady and uniform advance in agricultural development. It is now fast becoming one of the great garden spots of the country.
What drainage is doing for this entire region is told in the article, “The Black Swamp,” under the head of Putnam County. One single ditch in Wood county, the “Jackson Cut-off,” drains 30,000 acres, and cost $110,000. It is therein stated that, counting in the railway ditches with the public and private ditches of the farmers, there are in Wood county alone 16,000 miles of ditches, at an aggre-
Page 859
gate cost of millions of dollars. These are the basis of the great agricultural prosperity of the county in connection with the richness of the soil. And later, comes the discovery and use of its great gas and oil resources to further enhance its prosperity.
EARLY HISTORY.
The following sketch of the early history of this region was communicated to our original edition by HEZEKIAH L. HOSMER, then a young lawyer of Perrysburg. He eventually removed to the Pacific Slope, and held there a high judicial position.
The
Military
Expeditions
against the Indian tribes
in the West, commenced under the colonial government about the middle
of the
last century, were finally terminated on this river by the decisive
victory of
Gen. Wayne in 1794. Previous
to that
event no portion of the West was more beloved by the Indians than the
valleys
of the Maumee and it tributaries.
In the
daily journal of Wayne’s campaign, kept by George WILL, under
date of Aug. 6,
1794, when the army was encamped fifty-six miles in advance of Fort
Recovery,
the writer says: “We are within six miles of the Auglaize river,
and I expect to eat green corn to-morrow.” On the 8th of the
same
month, after the arrival of the army at the Camp Grand Auglaize (the
site of
Fort Defiance), he continues: “We have marched four or five
miles in
corn-fields down the Auglaize, and there is not less than 1,000 acres
of corn
around the town.” This
journal, kept
from that time until the return of the army to Fort Greenville, is full
of descriptions
of the immense corn-fields, large vegetable patches, and old apple
trees, found
along the banks of the Maumee from its mouth to Fort Wayne. It discloses the
astonishing fact that for a
period of eight days while building Fort Defiance, the army obtained
their
bread and vegetables from the corn-fields and potato patches
surrounding the
fort. In their
march from Fort Defiance
to the foot of the rapids the army passed through a number of Indian
towns
composed of huts, constructed of bark and skins, which afforded
evidence that
the people who had once inhabited them were composed, not only of
Indians, but
of Canadian French and renegade Englishmen.
The
Maumee
Valley After Wayne’s Victory.—What
the condition of the valley was for some years after Wayne’s
campaign may be
gathered from the following extracts from one of Judge
BURNET’S letters,
published by the Ohio Historical Society.
After assigning some reasons for the downfall of the
Indians, he says:
“My yearly trips to Detroit, from 1796 to 1802, made it
necessary to pass
through some of their towns, and convenient to visit many of them. Of course I had frequent
opportunities of
seeing thousands of them, in their villages and at their hunting camps,
and of
forming a personal acquaintance with some of their distinguished chiefs. I have eat and slept
in their towns, and partaken of their hospitality, which had no limit
but that
of their contracted means. In
journeying
more recently through the State, in discharging my judicial duties, I
sometimes
passed over the ground on which I had seen towns filled with happy
families of
that devoted race without perceiving the smallest trace of what had
once been
there. All their
ancient settlements on
the route to Fort Defiance, and from thence to the foot of the rapids,
had been
broken up and deserted.
“The battle-ground of
Gen. WAYNE, which I had often
seen in the rude state in which it was when the decisive action of 1794
was
fought, was so altered and changed that I could not recognize it, and
not an
indication remained of the very extensive Indian settlements which I
had
formerly seen there. It
seemed almost
impossible that in so short a period such an astonishing change could
have
taken place.”
These extracts prove that even
after the battle of
Presque Isle, although crushed and humbled, the Indian refused to be
divorced
from the favorite home and numerous graves of his race.
A chain of causes which followed this battle
finally wrested from him the last foothold of his soil.
These may be said to have commenced with the
treaty of Greenville, made on the 3rd of August, 1795, with the Wyandots, Ottawas, and other
tribes located in this region. By
this
treaty, among various other cessions of territory, a tract of land
twelve miles
square at the foot of the rapids, and one of six miles square at the
mouth of
the river, were given to the United States.
This treaty was followed by the establishment of the
boundaries of the
county of Wayne, which included a part of the States of Ohio, Indiana
and the
whole of Michigan.
The
First
White Settler.—Notwithstanding
this actual declaration of ownership by the government, few only of the
whites
of the country were willing to penetrate and reside in this yet unforsaken abode of the Indian. Col. John ANDERSON was the
first white trader
of any notoriety on the Maumee. He
settled at Fort Miami as early as 1800.
Peter MANOR, a Frenchman, was here previous to that time,
and was
adopted by the chief Fontogany,
by the name of Sawendebans,
or
“the Yellow Hair.”
MANOR, however, did
not come here to reside until 1808.
Indeed, I cannot learn the names of any of the settlers
prior to 1810
except the two above mentioned. We
may
mention among those who came during the year 1810.
Maj. Amos SPAFFORD, Andrew RACE, Thomas
LEAMING, Halsey W. LEAMING, James CARLIN, Wm. CARTER, George BLA-
Page 860
LOCK, James SLASON, Samuel H.
EWING, Jesse SKINNER,
David HULL, Thomas DICK, Wm.
PETERS, Ambrose HICKOX,
Richard GIFFORD. All
these individuals
were settled within a circumference of ten miles, embracing the
amphitheatre of
the foot of the rapids, as early as 1810.
Maj. Amos SPAFFORD came here to perform the duties of
collector of the
port of Miami. He
was also appointed
deputy postmaster. A
copy of his return
to the government as collector for the first quarter of his service,
ending on
the 30th June, 1810, shows the aggregate amount of exports to have
been $5,640.85. This
was, for skins and
furs, $5,610.85, and for twenty gallons of bear’s oil, $30.
When
War Broke out in 1812
there were sixty-seven families residing at the foot of the rapids. MANOR—or MINARD,
the Frenchman above alluded
to—states that the first intimation that the settlers had of
Hull’s surrender
at Detroit manifested itself by the appearance of a party of British
and
Indians at the foot of the rapids a few days after it took place. The Indians plundered the
settlers on both
sides of the river, and departed for Detroit in canoes.
Three of their number remained with the
intention of going into the interior of the State.
One of these was a Delaware chief by the name
of Sac-a-manc.
MANOR won his confidence, under the pretence of friendship
for the
British, and was by him informed that in a few days a grand assemblage
of all
the northwestern tribes was contemplated at Fort Malden, and that in
about two
days after the assemblage a large number of British and Indians would
be at the
foot of the rapids, on their march to relieve Fort Wayne, then under
investment
by the American army, as was supposed.
He also informed him that, when they came again, they
would massacre all
the Yankees found in the Valley. Sac-a-manc left for the interior of
the State, after remaining a
day at the foot of the rapids.
Flight
of the
Settlers.—The
day after his departure MINARD called upon Maj. SPAFFORD, and warned
him of the
hostile intentions of the Indians, as he had received them from Sac-a-manc.
The major
placed no confidence in them, and expressed a determination to remain
until our
army from the interior should reach this frontier.
A few days after this
conversation a man by the name of GORDON was seen approaching the
residence of
Maj. SPAFFORD in great haste.
This individual had been reared among the Indians, but
had, previous to
this time, received some favors of a trifling character from Maj.
SPAFFORD. The major
met him in his
corn-field, and was informed that a party of about fifty Pottawatomies,
on their way to Malden, had taken this route, and in less than two
hours would
be at the foot of the rapids. He
also
urged the major to make good his escape immediately.
Most of the families at the foot of the
rapids had left the village after receiving intelligence of
Hull’s
surrender. The
major assembled those
that were left on the bank of the river, where they put in tolerable
sailing
condition an old barge, in which some officers had descended the river
from
Fort Wayne the year previous. They
had
barely time to get such of their effects as were portable on board, and
row
down into the bend below the town, before they heard the shouts of the
Indians
above. Finding no
Americans here, the Indians passed on to Malden. The major and his
companions sailed in their
crazy vessel down the lake to the Quaker settlement at Milan, on Huron river, where they remained until
the close of the war.
Sac-a-manc,
on his return
from the interior of the State, a few days after the event, showed
MANOR the
scalps of three persons that he had killed during his absence, on Owl
creek,
near Mount Vernon. At
the time mentioned
by him a detachment of the British army, under command of Col. ELLIOTT,
accompanied by about 500 Indians, came to the foot of the rapids. They were anxious to
obtain guides. MANOR
feigned lameness and ignorance of the
country above the head of the rapids, a distance of eighteen miles up
the river. By this
means he escaped being pressed into
their service above that point. He
accompanied them that far with his cart and pony, and was then
permitted to
return. On his
return, he met Col.
ELLIOTT, the commander of the detachment, at the foot of Presque Isle
Hill, who
stopped him, and, after learning of the services he had performed,
permitted
him, with a curse, to go on. A
mile
below him he met a party of about forty Pottawatomies,
who also desired to know where he was going.
MAOR escaped being compelled to return by telling them he
was returning
to the foot of the rapids after forage for the army.
The British and Indians pursued their march
up the river until they saw the American flag waving over
Winchester’s
encampment at Defiance, when they returned in double quick time to
Canada. On their
return they burned the dwellings,
stole the horses and destroyed the corn-fields of the settlers at the
foot of
the rapids.
MANOR, soon after his arrival at
the foot of the
rapids, went down the river to the British fleet, then lying at the
mouth of
Swan creek, under command of Capt. MILLS.
Here he reported himself, told what he had done for the
army, and
desired to leave to go to his family at the mouth of the river. Capt. MILLS, having no
evidence of his
loyalty beyond his own word, put him under the hatches as a prisoner of
war. Through the
aid of his friend,
BEAUGRAND, MINARD was released in a few days, joined his family, and
was
afterwards a scout for our army during the remainder of the war. He is now (1846) living at
the head of the
rapids, on a reservation of land granted him by the government, at the
request
of his Indian father, Ton-tog-sa-ny. [Another account of Peter
MANOR is in Lucas
County.]
After
Peace
was Declared,
most of the settlers that had lived here previous to the war returned
to their
old possessions. They
were partly
indemnified by government for their losses.
Many of them lived in the block-house on Fort Meigs,
and one or two
Page 861
of the citizens of our town were born
in one of
them. The
settlement of the valley was
at first slow, but the foot of the rapids and vicinity was settled long
before
any of the rest. In
1816 government sent
an agent to lay out a town at the pint best calculated for commercial
purposes. That
agent sounded the river
from its mouth, and fixed upon Perrysburg.
The town was laid out that year, and named after Com.
PERRY by Hon.
Josiah MEIGS, then Comptroller of the Treasury.
This county was then embraced in the county limits of
Logan county,
Bellefontaine being the county-seat.
When the limits of Wood county were first
determined, there was a great struggle between these three towns at the
foot of
the rapids—Orleans, Maumee and Perrysburg—for the
county-seat. The
decision in favor of Perrysburg was the
cause of the abandonment of the little town of Orleans, which soon
after fell
into decay.
The last remnant of the powerful
Ottawa tribe of
Indians removed from this valley west of the Mississippi in 1838. They numbered some
interesting men among
them. There was Nawash,
Ockquenoxy, Charloe, Ottoca,
Petonquet, men of
eloquence, remembered by many of our citizens.
Their burying-grounds and village-sites are scattered
along both banks
of the river, from its mouth to Fort Defiance.
This part of the Maumee valley has been noted for military operations. Wayne’s victory over the Indians (see Lucas County), Aug. 20, 1794, was gained within its borders. It was also the theatre of important operations in the war of 1812.
March
of Gen.
Hull.—About the middle of June, 1812, the army
of Hull left
Urbana, and passed through the present counties of Logan, Hardin,
Hancock and
Wood, into Michigan. They
cut a road
through the forest, and erected Forts M’Arthur
and
Findlay on the route, and arrived at the Maumee on the 30th of June,
which they crossed at or near the foot of the rapids.
Hull surrendered at Detroit on the 16th
of the August following.
Tupper’s
Expedition.—In the same summer, Gen.
Edward W. TUPPER, of Gallia county, raised about 1,000 men for six
months’
duty, mainly from Gallia, Lawrence and Jackson counties, who, under the
orders
of Gen. Winchester, marched from Urbana north by the route of Hull, and
reached
the foot of the Maumee rapids. The Indians appearing in force on the
opposite
bank, Tupper endeavored to cross the river with his troops in the
night; but
the rapidity of the current, and the feeble, half-starved condition of
his men
and horses were such, that the attempt failed.
The enemy soon after
collected a superior force, and
attacked TUPPER in his camp, but were driven off with
considerable
loss. They returned
to Detroit, and the
Americans marched back to Fort M’Arthur.
Winchester’s
Defeat.—On the 10th of January, 1813, Gen.
Winchester, whose troops had been stationed at Forts Wayne and
Defiance,
arrived at the rapids, having marched from the latter along the north
bank of
the Maumee. There
they encamped until
the 17th, when Winchester resumed his march north, and was defeated
with great loss on the 22d, on the river Raisin, near the site of
Monroe,
Michigan.
On receiving information of
Winchester’s defeat, Gen.
Harrison sent Dr. McKEEHAN
from Portage river with
medicines and money to Malden, for the relief of
the wounded and the prisoners. He
was
accompanied by a Frenchman and a militia-man, and was furnished with a
letter
from Harrison, addressed to any British officer whom he might meet,
describing
his errand. The
night after they left
they halted at the Maumee rapids to take a few hours’ sleep,
in a vacant cabin
upon the north bank of the river, about fifty rods north of the present
bridge. The cariole
in which they raveled
was left at the door, with a flag of truce set up in it. They were discovered in
the night by a party
of Indians, accompanied, it is said, by a British officer; one of the
men was
killed, and the others taken to Malden, where the doctor was thrown
into prison
by PROCTOR and loaded with irons.
THE BUILDING OF FORT MEIGS.
After the defeat of Winchester, Gen. Harrison, about the first of February, established his advanced posts at the foot of the rapids. He ordered Capt. WOOD, of the engineer corps, to fortify the position, as it was his intention to make this point his grand depot. The fort erected was afterwards named Meigs, in honor of Governor Meigs.
Harrison ordered all the troops in the rear to join him immediately. He was in hopes, by the middle of February, to advance upon Malden, and strike a blow that should in some measure retrieve the misfortunes that had befallen the American arms in this quarter.
On the 9th of February intelligence was brought of the encampment of about 600 Indians, twenty miles down, near the Bay shore. Harrison had with him
Page 862
at this time about 2,000 men at the post. The same night, or that following, 600 men left the fort under Harrison, and marched down the river on the ice twenty miles, when they discovered some fires on the north side of the river, which proved to have been that of the Indians who had fled the day before. Here the detachment, which had been joined by 500 men more from the post, waited a few minutes, without having time to warm themselves, it being intensely cold, when the object of the expedition was made known. This was to march after the Indians; and all those unable by fatigue to continue were ordered to follow the next day. On resuming the line of march the army had proceeded only about two miles when their only cannon, with the horses attached, broke through the ice. This was about two hours before morning, and the moon unfortunately was nearly down. In endeavoring to extricate the horse, Lieut. Joseph H. LARIWILL, who had charge of the piece, with two of his men, broke through the ice and narrowly escaped drowning. The army thereupon halted, and a company ordered to assist in recovering the cannon, which was not accomplished until daybreak. Some of the men gave out from being wet, cold and fatigued; but the lieutenant, with the remainder, proceeded with the cannon after the main army, which they overtook shortly after sunrise, on an island near the mouth of the bay. The spies were then arriving with the intelligence that the Indians had left the river Raisin for Malden. Upon this the troops, having exhausted their provisions, returned, arriving at Fort Meigs just as the evening gun had been fired, having performed a march of forty-five miles on the ice in less than twenty-four hours.
LANGHAM’S DESPARATE
ENTERPRISE.
A few hours after this, about 250 men volunteered to go on an enterprise of the most desperate nature. On Friday, the 26th, the volunteer corps destined for this duty were addressed on parade by Gen. Harrison, who informed them that when they had got a sufficient distance form the fort they were to be informed of the errand they were upon, and that all who then wished could return, but not afterwards. He represented the undertaking as in a high degree one of peril and privation; but he promised that those who deported themselves in a gallant and soldierlike manner should be rewarded, and their names forwarded to the general government.
The corps took up their line of march and concentrated at what is now Lower Sandusky, where was then a block-house, on the site of Fort Stephenson, at that time garrisoned by two companies of militia.
The force, which was under command of Capt. LANGHAM, consisted of 68 regulars, 120 Virginia and Pennsylvania militia, 32 men under Lieut. MADISS, and 22 Indians, making, with their officers, 242 men; besides these were 24 drivers of sleds and several pilots.
On the morning of the 2d of March they left the block-house with six days’ provisions, and had proceeded about half a mile when Capt. LANGHAM ordered a halt. He addressed the soldiers and informed them of the object of the expedition, which was to move down to Lake Erie and cross over the ice to Malden, and, in the darkness of night, to destroy with combustibles the British fleet and the public stores on the bank of the river. This being done, the men were to retreat in their sleighs to the point of the Maumee bay, when their retreat was to be covered by a large force under Harrison. At this time, independent of the garrison at Malden, in that vicinity was a large body of Indians, and it required a combination of circumstances to render the enterprise successful. Capt. LANGHAM gave liberty for all who judged it too hazardous to withdraw. Twenty of the militia and six or seven of the Indians availed themselves of the liberty. The rest moved down the river in sleighs, and took the land on the west side of the bay, passing through and across the peninsula, and crossed at the bay of the Portage river, and soon came in view of the lake and its embosoming islands. Some of the men
Page 863
walking out on the ice of the lake were alarmed by what was judged to be a body of men moving towards them. It was subsequently discovered to be the rays of the sun, reflecting on ice thrown up in ridges.
The party
encamped near the lake,
and being without any tents, were thoroughly wet by the
snow and
rain. After the
guards were stationed,
and all had retired to rest, the report of a musket was heard, and
every man
sprang to his post, ready for action.
It
proved to have been a false alarm—an accidental discharge
through the
carelessness of one of the men. Capt.
LANGHAM was almost determined to have the soldier shot for his
carelessness, as
it had now become particularly necessary for the utmost precaution; but
motives
of humanity prevailed, and he was suffered to go unpunished.
On the next morning, March 3d, they
proceeded on the
ice to Middle Bass island,
seventeen miles from their
encampment. Just
before they left the
lake shore an ensign and thirteen
militia, one of the
Indian chiefs and several of the Indians deserted them.
During their progress to the island the
weather was stormy, wind blowing and snowing, and in places it was
quite
slippery. They
arrived at the northwest
side of the island early in the afternoon, when the weather moderated.
In the course of the afternoon sled
tracks were
discovered on the ice, going in the direction of Malden. They were presumed to have
been made by two
Frenchmen, who left Sandusky the day before the corps of LANGHAM. They had then stated they
were going to the
river Huron, which was in an opposite direction: the officers now felt
assured
they were inimical to their designs, and were on their way to give the
British
notice of their intentions. Moreover,
to
the north of the island on which they were the ice was weak and the
lake
appeared to be broken up to the north.
It being the intended route to go
by the western
Sister island, to elude the spies of the enemy, the guides gave it as
their
opinion that it was totally impossible to go to Malden; that the river
Detroit
and the lake from the middle Sister were doubtless broken up, and that
there
was a possibility of getting as far north as the middle Sister; but as
the
distance from that to the Detroit river, eighteen miles, had to be
performed
after night, they could not attempt going, being fully satisfied that
they
could not arrive at the point of destination, and as the weather was
and had
been soft, that, should a southerly wind blow up, the lake would
inevitably
break up, and they might be caught on it or one of the islands. They then affirmed they
had gone as far as
they thought it either safe or prudent, and would not take the
responsibility
on them any farther. Capt.
LANGHAM
called the guides and officers together.
He stated that he had been instructed to go no farther
than the guides
thought safe, asked the opinions of the officers, who unanimously
decided that
it was improper to proceed, and that they should return.
The weather having slightly
improved, although still
unfavorable, a second council was called of the officers and guides,
but with
the same result. The
captain then called
the men and gave the opinion of their superiors, and presented the
importance
of the expedition to the government should they succeed; on the other
hand, he
represented that they might be lost on the lake by the breaking up of
the ice,
without rendering any service to their country, who would thus be
deprived of
the choice troops of the army. The
soldiers, on thus being called for their opinion, expressed themselves
as ready
to go wherever their officers would lead; at the same time said they
should
abide by the decision of their superiors, whose judgment was better
than their
own.
The party returned by way of
Presque Isle, at which
point they met Gen. Harrison with a body of troops.
From thence they proceeded to Fort Meigs
in safety. In
the course of their journey back they found the lake open near the
western
Sister island.
On the 9th of March, the day being
very
fine, several of the men went down as far as the old British fort. Some of them discovered a
party of Indians,
and gave the alarm. The
latter fired at them,
and one man, while running, was shot through the left skirt of his coat. Luckily, a hymn-book which
he carried there
received the ball, which was buried in its leaves.
The men escaped safely into the fort, but
Lieut. WALKER, who was out hunting for wild fowl, was killed. His body was found the
next day and brought
into the fort, where his grave is to be seen at the present day.
Harrison had determined, if
possible, to regain
Detroit, and in a measure atone for the disasters of the war in this
quarter;
but the weather had proved unfavorable for the transportation to Fort Meigs of a sufficient body of
troops for such an
object. His force
therefore was
diminished, soon after his arrival, by the expiration of the term of
service of
a part of those at the rapids, and nothing more was left for him but to
remain
on the defensive. Satisfied
that, in his
weakened condition, the enemy would make a descent from Malden upon the
fort as
soon as the ice broke up in the lake,
he left in March
for the interior, to hasten on all the troops he could raise to its defence.
On the 12th
of April he returned at the head of a detachment of troops, and applied
himself
with great assiduity to completing the defences.
About this time a Canadian
Frenchman, with about a
dozen of his own countrymen, all volunteers, had a desperate boat-fight
with an
equal number of Indians in the river, near the north side of the large
island
below the fort, and defeated them.
The
whites were all either killed or wounded, except the captain and two of
his
men. As they were
Page 864
returning to the fort they saw a solitary
Indian, the sole
survivor of his party, rise up in one of their two canoes and paddle to
the
shore.
All the foregoing is from the
Journal of Lieut.
LARWILL, who was one of Capt. LANGHAM’S party.
PLAN OF FORT MEIGS.
The annexed plan of Fort Meigs with its environs is from the survey of Lieut. Joseph H. LARWILL, made between the two sieges. It was obtained directly from him for our first edition. He was one of the original proprietors of Mansfield and also of Wooster. He showed me some of his field books with entries of surveys of wild lands, with remarks upon soil timber. If the woods were beech and sugar maple, it was certain it was first-class soil for wheat. He was an old-style Jackson Democrat of positive convictions and declarations, and hated the British and Indians. In the history of Wooster (see page 531) is told what a narrow escape my old friend LARWILL had from being blown up. Luckily he lived to fight and help whip the British and their red-skinned allies and then made notes to show how they did it.
[Explanations.—a, grand battery, commanded by Capt. Daniel CUSHING; b, mortar battery; e, I, o, minor batteries; g, battery commanded at the second siege by Col. (now
FORT MEIGS AND ITS ENVIRONS.
Gen.) GAINES; e, magazines. The black squares on the lines of the fort represent the position of the block-houses. The dotted lines show the traverses, or walls of earth, thrown up. The longest, the grand traverse, had a base of 20 feet, was 12 in height, and about 900 in length. The traverses running lengthwise of the fort were raised as a protection against the batteries on the opposite side of the river, and those running crosswise were to defend them from the British batteries on this side. The British batteries on the north side of the river were named as follows: a, queen’s; b, sailors’; d, kings’, and c, mortar. The fort stood upon high ground, on the margin of a bank, elevated about sixty
Page 865
feet above the Maumee. The surface is nearly level, and is covered by a green sward. The outline of the fort is now (1846) well defined, and the grand traverse yet rises six or eight feet from the surrounding ground. The work originally covered ten acres, but was reduced in area between the two sieges, to accommodate a smaller number of troops. Just above, a large number of sunken graves indicate the locality of the soldiers’ burying-ground. The graves of Lieut. WALKER and Lieut. McCULLOUGH—the last of whom was shot while conversing with Gen. Harrison—are within the fort. The first is surmounted by a small stone, with an inscription—the last is enclosed by a fence. (See view of Maumee City, in Lucas County.) To understand the position of Fort Meigs, with reference to the British fort and surrounding country, see map in Lucas County illustrating the battles of the Maumee country.
THE SIEGE OF FORT MEIGS.
“On the breaking up of the ice in Lake Erie, General PROCTOR, with all his disposable force, consisting of regulars and Canadian militia from Malden, and a large body of Indians under their celebrated chief, Tecumseh, amounting in the whole to two thousand men, laid siege to Fort Meigs. To encourage the Indians, he had promised them an easy conquest, and assured them that General Harrison should be delivered up to Tecumseh. On the 26th of April the British columns appeared on the opposite bank of the river, and established their principal batteries on a commanding eminence opposite the fort. On the 27th the Indians crossed the river, and established themselves in the rear of the American lines. The garrison, not having completed their wells, had no water except what they obtained from the river, under a constant firing of the enemy. On the first, second and third of May their batteries kept up an incessant shower of balls and shells upon the fort. On the night of the third the British erected a gun and mortar battery on the left bank of the river, within two hundred and fifty yards of the American lines. The Indians climbed the trees in the neighborhood of the fort, and poured in a galling fire upon the garrison. In this situation General Harrison received a summons from PROCTOR for a surrender of the garrison, greatly magnifying his means of annoyance; this was answered by a prompt refusal, assuring the British general that if he obtained possession of the fort, it would not be by capitulation.* Apprehensive of such an attack, General Harrison had made the governors of Kentucky and Ohio minutely acquainted with his situation, and stated to them the necessity of reinforcements for the relief of Fort Meigs. His requisitions had been zealously anticipated, and General CLAY was at this moment descending the Miami with twelve hundred Kentuckians for his relief.
“At twelve o’clock in the night of the fourth an officer+ arrived from General
__________________
*”The conversation which
took place between General
Harrison and Major Chambers, of the British army, was, as nearly as can
be
recollected, as follows:--
“Major
Chambers.—General
Proctor has directed me to demand the surrender of this post. He wishes to spare the
effusion of blood.
“General
Harrison.—The
demand, under present circumstances,
is a most extraordinary one. As
General
Proctor did not send me a summons to surrender on his first arrival, I
had
supposed that he believed me determined to do my duty.
His present message indicates an opinion of
me that I am at a loss to account for.
“Major
Chambers.—General
Proctor could never think of saying anything to wound your feelings,
sir. The character
of General Harrison, as an
officer, is well known. General
Proctor’s force is very respectable, and there is with him a
larger body of
Indians than has ever before been embodied.
“General
Harrison.—I
believe I have a very correct idea of General Proctor’s
force; it is not such
as to create the least apprehension for the result of the contest,
whatever
shape he may be pleased hereafter to give to it.
Assure the general, however, that he will never
have this post surrendered to him
on
any terms. Should
it fall into his
hands, it will be in a manner calculated to do him more honor, and to
give him
larger claims upon the gratitude of his government, than any
capitulation could
possibly do.”
+ This messenger was Capt. William
Oliver. now (1846) of
Cincinnati, then a young man,
Page 866
Clay, with the welcome intelligence of his approach, stating that he was just above the rapids, and could reach him in two hours, and requesting his orders. Harrison determined on a general sally, and directed Clay to land eight hundred men on the right bank, take possession of the British batteries, spike their cannon, immediately return to their boats, and cross over to the American fort. The remainder of Clay’s forces were ordered to land on the left bank, and fight their way to the fort, while sorties were to be made from the garrison in aid of these operations. Captain Hamilton was directed to proceed up the river in a periauger, land a subaltern on the left bank, who should be a pilot to conduct General Clay to the fort; and then cross over and station his periauger at the place designated for the other division to land. General Clay, having received these orders, descended the river in order of battle in solid columns, each officer taking position according to his rank. Colonel Dudley, being the eldest in command, led the van, and was ordered to take the men in the twelve front boats, and execute General Harrison’s orders on the right bank. He effected his landing at the place designated, without difficulty. General Clay kept close along the left bank until he came opposite the place of Colonel Dudley’s landing, but not finding the subaltern there, he attempted to cross over and join Col. Dudley; this was prevented by the violence of the current on the rapids, and he again attempted to land on the left bank, and effected it with only fifty men amid a brisk fire from the enemy on shore, and made his way to the fort, receiving their fire until within the protection of its guns. The other boats, under the command of Colonel Boswell, were driven farther down the current, and landed on the right to join Colonel Dudley. Here they were ordered to re-embark, land on the left bank, and proceed to the fort. In the meantime two sorties were made from the garrison, one on the left, in aid of Colonel Boswell, by which the Canadian militia and the Indians were defeated, and he enabled to reach the fort in safety, and one on the right against the British batteries, which was also successful.*
“Colonel Dudley, with his detachment of eight hundred Kentucky militia,
______________________
+noted for his heroic bravery. He had previously been
sent from the fort at
a time when it was surrounded by Indians, through the wilderness, with
instructions to General Clay. His
return
to the fort was extremely dangerous.
Captain Leslie Coombs, now of Lexington, Ky., had been
sent by Colonel
Dudley to communicate with Harrison.
He
approached the fort, and when within about a mile was attacked by the
Indians,
and after a gallant resistance was foiled in his object and obliged to
retreat
with the loss of nearly all of his companions.
Oliver managed to get into the fort through the cover of
the darkness of
the night, by which he eluded the vigilance of Tecumseh and his
Indians, who
were very watchful and had closely invested it.—H.H.
*”The troops in this
attack on the British battery were
commanded by Col. John Miller, of the 19th United States regiment,
and consisted of about 250 of the 17th and 19th
Regiments, 100 twelve-month volunteers, and Captain Seebre’s
company of Kentucky militia. They
were
drawn up in a ravine under the east curtain of the fort, out of reach
of the
enemy’s fire; but to approach the batteries it was necessary,
after having
ascended from the ravine, to pass a plain of 200 yards in width, in the
woods
beyond which were the batteries protected by a company of grenadiers,
and
another of light infantry, upwards of 200 strong.
These troops were flanked on the right by two
or three companies of Canadian militia, and on the left by a large body
of
Indians under Tecumseh. After
passing
along the ranks and encouraging the men to do their duty, the general
placed
himself upon the battery of the right rear angle, to witness the
contest. The troops
advanced with loaded but trailed
arms. They had
scarcely reached the
summit of the hill when they received the fire of the British infantry. It did them little harm;
but the Indians
being placed in position, and taking sight or aim, did great execution. They had not advanced more
than fifty yards
on the plain before it became necessary to halt and close the ranks. This was done with as much
order by word of
command from the officers as if they had been on parade. The charge was then made,
and the enemy fled
with so much precipitation that although many were killed none were
taken. The general, from his
position on the battery, seeing the direction that a part of them had
taken, despatched Major
Todd with the reserve of about fifty
regulars, who quickly returned with two officers and forty-three
non-commissioned officers and privates.
In this action the volunteers and militia suffered less
than the
regulars, because from their position the latter were much sooner
unmasked by the
hill, and received the first fire of the enemy.
It was impossible that troops could have behaved better
than they did
upon this sortie.”
Page 867
completely succeeded in driving the British from their batteries, and spiking the cannon. Having accomplished this object, his orders were peremptory to return immediately to his boats and cross over to the fort; but the blind confidence which generally attends militia when successful proved their ruin. Although repeatedly ordered by Colonel Dudley, and warned of their danger, and called upon from the fort to leave the ground; and although there was abundant time for that purpose before the British reinforcements arrived, yet they commenced a pursuit of the Indians, and suffered themselves to be drawn into an ambuscade by some feint skirmishing, while the British troops and large bodies of Indians were brought up and intercepted their return to the river. * Elated with their first success, they considered the victory as already gained, and pursued the enemy nearly two miles into the woods and swamps, where they were suddenly caught in a defile and surrounded by double their numbers. Finding themselves in this situation, consternation prevailed; their line became broken and disordered, and huddled together in unresisting crowds, they were obliged to surrender to the mercy of the savages. Fortunately for these unhappy victims of their own rashness, General Tecumseh commanded at this ambuscade and had imbibed since his appointment more humane feelings than his brother Proctor. After the surrender and all resistance had ceased, the Indians, finding five hundred prisoners at their mercy, began the work of massacre with the most savage delight. Tecumseh sternly forbade it, and buried his tomahawk in the head of one of his chiefs who refused obedience. This order, accompanied with this decisive manner of enforcing it, put an end to the massacre. Of eight hundred men only one hundred and fifty escaped. The residue were slain or made prisoners. Colonel Dudley was severely wounded in the action, and afterwards tomahawked and scalped.
“Proctor, seeing no prospect of taking the fort, and finding his Indians fast leaving him, raised the siege on the 9th of May, and returned with precipitation to Malden. Tecumseh and a considerable portion of the Indians remained in service; but large numbers left it in disgust, and were ready to join the Americans. On the left bank, in the several sorties of the 5th of May, and during the siege the American loss was eighty-one killed and one hundred and eighty-nine wounded.”
When the enemy raised the siege they gave a parting salute, which killed ten or twelve, and wounded double that number. “However,” says one who was present, “we were glad enough to see them off on any terms. The next morning found us something more tranquil; we could leave the ditches, and walk about with something more of an air of freedom than we had done for the last fourteen days; and here I wish I could present to the reader a picture of the condition we found ourselves in when the withdrawal of the enemy gave us time to look at each other’s outward appearance. The scarcity of water had put the washing of our hands and faces, much less our linen, out of the question. Many had scarcely any clothing left, and that which they wore was so begrimed and torn by our
*After Dudley had spiked the
batteries, which had but a
few defenders, some of his men loitered about the banks and filled the
air with
cheers. Harrison
and a group of officers
who were anxiously watching them from the grand
battery (a) with a presentiment of
the horrible fate that awaited them, earnestly beckoned them to return. Supposing they were
returning their cheers,
they reiterated their shouts of triumph.
Harrison seeing this,
exclaimed in tones of
anguish: “They are lost! they are lost!
Can
I never get men to obey my orders?”
He
then offered a reward of a thousand dollars to any man who would cross
the
river and apprize Colonel Dudley of his danger.
This was undertaken by an officer. Upon
arriving at the beach he attempted to
launch a large perogue
which was drawn up there, but
before this could be effected,
and he with the
assistance of some men could reach the middle of the river, the enemy
had
already arrived in force from below.
This defeat of Dudley was occasioned
by the impetuous
valor of his men. In
one of the general
orders after the 5th of May, Harrison takes occasion to warn his men
against that rash bravery which he says “is characteristic of
the Kentucky
troops, and if persisted in is as fatal in its results as
cowardice.”
Page 868
residence in the ditch and other means, that we presented the appearance of so many scarecrows.
The British force under Proctor during the siege amounted, as nearly as could be ascertained, to 3,200 men, of whom 600 were British regulars, 800 Canadian militia, and 1,800 Indians. Those under Harrison, including the troops who arrived on the morning of the 5th, under General Clay, were about 1,200. The number of his men fit for duty was, perhaps, less than 1,100.
LORRAINE’S NARRATIVE OF
INCIDENTS OF THE SIEGE.
We give below extracts from an article on the siege of Fort Meigs, by Rev. A. M. LORRAINE, originally published in the Ladies’ Repository for March, 1845:
One afternoon, as numbers were gathered together on the “parade,” two strangers, finely mounted, appeared on western bank of the river, and seemed to be taking a very calm and deliberate survey of our works. It was a strange thing to see travellers in that wild country, and we commonly held such to be enemies, until they proved themselves to be friends. So one of our batteries was cleared forthwith, and the gentlemen were saluted with a shot that tore up the earth about them, and put them to a hasty flight. If that ball had struck its mark, much bloodshed might have been prevented; for we learned subsequently that our illustrious visitors were Proctor and Tecumseh. The garrison was immediately employed in cutting deep traverses through the fort, taking down the tents and preparing for a siege. The work accomplished in a few hours, under the excitement of the occasion, was prodigious.
The grand traverse being completed, each mess was ordered to excavate, under the embankment, suitable lodgings, as substitutes for our tents. Those rooms were shot-proof and bomb-proof, except in the event of a shell falling in the traverse and at the mouth of a cave.
The above works were scarcely completed before it was discovered that the enemy, under cover of night, had constructed batteries on a commanding hill north of the river. There their artillery men were posted; but the principal part of their army occupied the old English fort below. Their Indian allies appeared to have a roving commission, for they beset us on every side. The cannonading commenced in good earnest on both sides. It was, however, more constant on the British side, because they had a more extensive mark to batter. We had nothing to fire at but their batteries, but they were coolly and deliberately attended to; and it was believed that more than one of their guns were dismounted during the siege.
One of our militia-men took his station on the embankment, and gratuitously forewarned us of every shot. In this he became so skilful, that he could, in almost every case, predict the destination of the ball. As soon as the smoke issued from the muzzle of the gun, he would cry out “shot,” or “bomb,” as the case might be. Sometimes he would exclaim, “block-house No. 1,” or “look out, main battery;” “now for the meat-house;” “good-by, if you will pass.” In spite of all the expostulations of his friends, he maintained his post. One day there came a shot that seemed to defy all his calculations. He stood silent—motionless—perplexed. In that same instant he was swept into eternity. Poor man! he should have considered, that when there was no obliquity in the issue of the smoke, either to the right or left, above or below, the fatal messenger would travel in the direct line of his vision. He reminded me of the peasant, in the siege of Jerusalem, who cried out, “Woe to the city! woe to the temple! woe to myself!” On the most active day of the investment there were as many as five hundred cannon balls and bombs* thrown at our fort.
*A large number of cannon balls were
thrown into the
fort, from the batteries on the opposite side of the river. Being short of a supply,
Harrison offered a
gill of whiskey for (continued bottom of page 869)
Page 869
Meanwhile the Indians, climbing up into the trees, fired incessantly upon us. Such was their distance, that many of their balls barely reached us, and fell harmless to the ground. Occasionally they inflicted dangerous and even fatal wounds. The number killed in the fort was small, considering the profusion of powder and ball expended on us. About eighty were slain, many wounded, and several had to suffer the amputation of limbs. The most dangerous duty which we performed within the precincts of the fort was on covering the magazine. Previous to this, the powder had been deposited in wagons, and these stationed in the traverse. Here there was no security against bombs; it was therefore thought to be prudent to remove the powder into a small block-house, and cover it with earth. The enemy, judging our designs from our movements, now directed all their shot to this point. Many of their balls were red-hot. Wherever they struck, they raised a cloud of smoke, and made a frightful hissing. An officer, passing our quarters, said, “Boys, who will volunteer to cover the magazine?” Fool-like, away several of us went. As soon as we reached the spot, there came a ball and took off one man’s head. The spades and dirt flew faster than any of us had before witnessed. In the midst of our job, a bomb-shell fell on the roof, and lodging on one of the braces it spun round for a moment. Every soldier fell prostrate on his face, and with breathless horror awaited the vast explosion which we expected would crown all our earthly sufferings. Only one of all the gang presumed to reason on the case. He silently argued that, as the shell had not bursted as quick as usual, there might be something wrong in its arrangement. If it bursted where it was, and the magazine exploded, there could be no escape: it was death anyhow; so he sprung to his feet, seized a boat-hook, and pulling the hissing missile to the ground, and jerking the smoking match from its socket, discovered that the shell was filled with inflammable matter, which, if once ignited, would have wrapped the whole building in a sheet of flame. This circumstance added wings to our shovels; and we were right glad when the officer said, “That will do: go to your lines.”
UNDERWOOD’S NARRATIVE OF
DUDLEY’S DEFEAT AND MASSACRE.
The following particulars of the defeat of Colonel Dudley were published in a public print many years since by Joseph R. UNDERWOOD, who was present on the occasion, in the capacity of lieutenant in a volunteer company of Kentuckians, commanded by Captain John C. MORRISON.
After a fatiguing march of more than a month, General Clay’s brigade found itself, on the night of the 4th of May, on board of open boats, lashed to left bank of Miami of the Lakes, near the head of the rapids, and within hearing of the cannon at Fort Meigs, which was then besieged by the British and Indians.
every cannon ball delivered to the
magazine keeper, Mr.
Thomas L. HAWKINS, now residing at Lower Sandusky.
Over 1000 gills of whiskey were thus earned
by the soldiers.
For safety against bombs, each man
had a hole dug under
ground in rear of the grand traverse, which, being covered over with
plank, and
earth on top, fully protected them.
When
the cry bomb was heard, the
soldiers
either threw themselves upon the ground, or ran to the holes for safety. A bomb is most destructive
when it bursts in
the air, but it rarely explodes in that way: it usually falls with so
much
force as to penetrate the earth, and, when it explodes, flies upwards
and in an
angular direction, in consequence of the pressure of the earth beneath
and at
its sides; consequently, a person lying on the ground is comparatively
safe.
A heavy rain at last filled up the
holes, rendering
them uninhabitable, and the men were obliged to temporarily sleep in
their
tents. Then every
once in a while, the
startling cry,
“BOMB!” aroused them from their
slumbers. Rushing
from the tents, they
watched the course of the fiery messenger of death, as it winged its
way
through the midnight sky, and if it fell near, fall flat upon the
ground;
otherwise, returned to their tents, only to be aroused again and again
by the
startling cry. So
harassing was this, so
accustomed had the men become to the danger,
and so
overpowering the desire for sleep, that many of the soldiers remained n
their
tents locked in the embrace of sleep, determined as one said, not to be
disturbed in their slumbers “if ten thousand bombs burst all
around them.”—H. H.
Page 870
Very early on the morning of the 5th we set off, and soon began to pass the rapids. We were hailed by a man from the right bank, who proved to be Captain Hamilton, of the Ohio troops, with orders from General Harrison, then commanding at the fort. He was taken to the boat of General Clay, and from that to Colonel Dudley’s, this last being in advance of the whole line. Captain Morrison’s company occupied the boat in which the colonel descended. It being a damp, unpleasant morning, I was lying in the stern, wrapped in my blanket, not having entirely recovered from a severe attack of the measles. I learned that we were to land on the left bank, storm the British batteries erected for the purpose of annoying the fort; but what further orders were given I did not ascertain. Hearing that we were certainly to fight, I began to look upon all surrounding objects as things which to me might soon disappear forever, and my mind reverted to my friends at home, to bid them a final farewell. These reflections produced a calm melancholy, but nothing like trepidation or alarm.
My reveries were dissipated by the landing of the boat, about a mile or two above the point of attack. Shortly before we landed we were fired upon by some Indians from the right bank of the river, and I understood that Captain Clarke was wounded in the head. The fire was returned from our boats, and the Indians fled, as if to give intelligence of our approach. Captain Price and Lieutenant Sanders, of the regular army, landed with us and partook in the engagement, having under command a few regular soldiers, but I think not a full company. The whole number of troops that landed amounted probably to 700 men. We were formed on the shore in three parallel lines, and ordered to march for the battery at right angles with the river; and so far as I understood the plan of attack, one line was to form the line of battle in the rear of the battery, parallel with the river; the other two lines to form one above and one below the battery, at right angles to the river. The lines thus formed were ordered to advance, and did so, making as little noise as possible—the object being to surprise the enemy at their battery. Before we reached the battery, however, we were discovered by some straggling Indians, who fired upon us and then retreated. Our men pleased at seeing them run, and perceiving that we were discovered, no longer deemed silence necessary, and raised a tremendous shout. This was the first intimation that the enemy received of our approach, and it so alarmed them that they abandoned the battery without making any resistance.
In effectuating the plan of attack, Captain J. C. Morrison’s company were thrown upon the river, above the battery. While passing through a thicket of hazel, toward the river, in forming the line of battle, I saw Colonel Dudley for the last time. He was greatly excited; he railed at me for not keeping my men better dressed. I replied that he must perceive from the situation of the ground, and the obstacles that we had to encounter, that it was impossible. When we came within a small distance from the river, we halted. The enemy at this place had gotten in the rear of our line, formed parallel with the river, and were firing upon our troops. Captain J. C. Morrison’s company did not long remain in this situation. Having nothing to do, and being without orders, we determined to march our company out and join the combatants. We did so accordingly. In passing out, we fell on the left of the whole regiment, and were soon engaged in a severe conflict. The Indians endeavored to flank and surround us. We drove them between one and two miles, directly back from the river. They hid behind trees and logs, and poured upon us, as we advanced, a most destructive fire. We were from time to time ordered to charge. The orders were passed along the lines, our field officers being on foot. . . . . . Shortly after this, Captain J. C. Morrison was shot through the temples. The ball passing behind the eyes and cutting the optic nerve, deprived him of his sight. . . . . Having made the best arrangement for the safety of my much esteemed captain that circumstances allowed, I took charge of the company and continued the battle. We made several charges afterwards, and drove the enemy a considerable distance. . . . .
Page 871
At length orders were passed along the line directing us to fall back and keep up a retreating fire. As soon as this movement was made, the Indians were greatly encouraged, and advanced upon us with the most horrid yells. Once or twice the officers succeeded in producing a temporary halt and a fire on the Indians, but the soldiers of the different companies soon became mixed—confusion ensued—and a general rout took place.
The retreating army made its way towards the batteries, where I supposed we should be able to form and repel the pursing Indians. They were now so close in the rear as to frequently shoot down those who were before me. About this time I received a ball in my back which yet remains in my body. It struck me with a stunning, deadening force, and I fell on my hands and knees. I rose and threw my waistcoat open to see whether it had passed through me; finding it had not, I ran on, and had not proceeded more than a hundred or two yards before I was made a prisoner. In emerging from the woods into an open piece of ground near the battery we had taken, and before I knew what had happened, a soldier seized my sword and said to me, “Sir, you are my prisoner!” I looked before me and saw, with astonishment, the ground covered with muskets. The soldier, observing my astonishment, said, “Your army has surrendered,” and received my sword. He ordered me to go forward and join the prisoners. I did so. The first man I met whom I recognized was Daniel SMITH, of our company. With eyes full of tears he exclaimed, “Good Lord, lieutenant, what does all this mean?” I told him we were prisoners of war. . . .
On our march to the garrison the Indians began to strip us of our valuable clothing and other articles. One took my hat, another my hunting-shirt, and a third my waistcoat, so that I was soon left with nothing but my shirt and pantaloons. I saved my watch by concealing the chain, and it proved of great service to me afterwards. Having read, when a boy, Smith’s narrative of his residence among the Indians, my idea of their character was that they treated those best who appeared the most fearless. Under this impression, as we marched down to the old garrison, I looked at those whom we met with all the sternness of countenance I could command. I soon caught the eye of a stout warrior painted red. He gazed at me with as much sternness as I did at him, until I came within striking distance, when he gave me a severe blow over the nose and cheek-bone with his wiping stick. I abandoned the notion acquired from Smith, and went on afterwards with as little display of hauteur and defiance as possible.
On our approach to the old garrison the Indians formed a line to the left of the road, there being a perpendicular bank to the right, on the margin of which the road passed. I perceived that the prisoners were running the gauntlet, and that the Indians were whipping, shooting and tomahawking the men as they ran by their line. When I reached the starting place I dashed off as fast as I was able, and ran near the muzzles of their guns, knowing that they would have to shoot me while I was immediately in front, or let me pass, for to have turned their guns up or down the lines to shoot me would have endangered themselves as there was a curve in their line. In this way I passed without injury, except some strokes over the shoulders with their gun-sticks. As I entered the ditch around the garrison the man before me was shot and fell, and I fell over him. The passage for a while was stopped by those who fell over the dead man and myself. How many lives were lost at this place I cannot tell—probably between twenty and forty. The brave Capt. Lewis was among the number.
When we got within the walls we were ordered to sit down. I lay in the lap of Mr. Gilpin, a soldier of Capt. Henry’s company from Woodford. A new scene commenced. An Indian, painted black, mounted the dilapidated wall, and shot one of the prisoners next to him. He reloaded and shot a second, the ball passing through him into the hip of another, who afterwards died, I was informed, at Cleveland, of the wound. The savage then laid down his gun and drew his tomahawk, with which he killed two others. When he drew his toma-
Page 872
hawk and jumped down among the men, they endeavored to escape from him by leaping over the heads of each other, and thereby to place others between themselves and danger. Thus they were heaped upon one another, and as I did not rise they trampled upon me so that I could see nothing that was going on. The confusion and uproar of this moment cannot be adequately described. There was an excitement among the Indians, and a fierceness in their conversation, which betokened on the part of some a strong disposition to massacre the whole of us. The British officers and soldiers seemed to interpose to prevent the further effusion of blood. Their expression was, “Oh, nichee wah!” meaning, “Oh! brother, quit!” After the Indian who had occasioned this horrible scene had scalped and stripped his victims he left us, and a comparative calm ensued. The prisoners resumed their seats on the ground. While thus situated, a tall, stout Indian walked into the midst of us, drew a long butcher knife from his belt, and commenced whetting it. As he did so he looked around among the prisoners, apparently selecting one for the gratification of his vengeance. I viewed his conduct, and thought it probable that he was to give the signal for a general massacre; but, after exciting our fears sufficiently for his satisfaction, he gave a contemptuous grunt and went out from among us.
About this time, but whether before of after I do not distinctly recollect, Col. Elliott and Tecumseh, the celebrated Indian chief, rode into the garrison. When Elliott came to where Thomas Moore, of Clarke county, stood, the latter addressed him, and inquired, “If it was compatible with the honor of a civilized nation, such as the British claimed to be, to suffer defenceless prisoners to be murdered by savages?” Elliott desired to know who he was. Moore replied that he was nothing but a private in Capt. Morrison’s company; and the conversation ended. . . . . Elliott was an old man; his hair might have been termed, with more propriety, white than gray, and to my view he had more if the savage in his countenance than Tecumseh. This celebrated chief was a noble, dignified personage. He wore an elegant broadsword, and was dressed in the Indian costume. His face was finely proportioned, his nose inclined to be aquiline, and his eye displayed none of that savage and ferocious triumph common to the other Indians on that occasion. He seemed to regard us with unmoved composure, and I thought a beam of mercy shone in his countenance, tempering the spirit of vengeance inherent in his race against the American people. I saw him only on horseback. . . . .
Shortly after the massacre in the old garrison I was the subject of a generous act. A soldier, with whom I had no acquaintance, feeling compassion for my situation, stripped off my clothes, muddy and bleeding, and offered me his hunting-shirt, which the Indians had not taken from him. At first I declined receiving it, but he pressed it upon me with an earnestness that indicated great magnanimity. I inquired his name and residence. He said that his name was James Boston, that he lived in Clarke county, and belonged to Capt. Clarke’s company. I have never since seen him, and regret that I should never be able to recall his features if I were to see him.
Upon the arrival of Elliott and Tecumseh, we were directed to stand up and form in lines, I think four deep, in order to be counted. After we were thus arranged a scene transpired scarcely less affecting than that which I have before attempted to describe. The Indians began to select the young men whom they intended to take with them to their towns. Numbers were carried off. I saw Corporal Smith, of our company, bidding farewell to his friends, and pointing to the Indian with whom he was to go. I never heard of his return. The young men, learning their danger, endeavored to avoid it by crowding into the centre, where they could not be so readily reached. I was told that a quizzical youth, of diminutive size, near the outside, seeing what was going on, threw himself upon his hands and knees, and rushed through the legs of his comrades, exclaiming, “Root, little hog, or die!”
Page 873
Such is the impulse of self-preservation, and such the levity with which men inured to danger will regard it. Owing to my wound I could not scuffle, and was thus thrust to the outside. An Indian came up to me and gave me a piece of meat. I took this for proof that he intended carrying me off with him. Thinking it the best policy to act with confidence, I made a sign to him to give me his butcher knife—which he did. I divided the meat with those who stood near me, reserving a small piece for myself—more as a show of politeness to the savage than to gratify any appetite I had for it. After I had eaten it and returned the knife, he turned and left me. When it was near night we were taken in open boats about nine miles down the river, to the British shipping. On the day after, we were visited by the Indians in their bark canoes in order to make a display of their scalps. These they strung on a pole, perhaps two inches in diameter, and about eight feet high. The pole was set up perpendicularly in the bow of their canoes, and near the top the scalps were fastened. On some poles I saw four or five. Each scalp was drawn closely over a hoop about four inches in diameter, and the flesh sides, I thought, were painted red.
Thus their canoes were decorated with the flag-staff of a most appropriate character, bearing human scalps, the horrid ensigns of savage warfare. We remained six days on board the vessel—those of us, I mean, who were sick and wounded. The whole of us were discharged on parole. The officers signed an instrument in writing, pledging their honors not to serve against the king of Great Britain and his allies during the war, unless regularly exchanged. It was inquired whether the Indians were included in the term “allies.” The only answer was, “that his majesty’s allies were known.” The wounded and sick were taken in a vessel commanded by Capt. Stewart, a prisoner of war at Frankfort, Kentucky, together with a midshipman who played “Yankee Doodle” on a flute, by way of derision, when we were first taken on board his vessel. Such is the fortune of war. They were captured by Commodore Perry in the battle of lake Eire. I visited Capt. Stewart to requite his kindness to me when, like him, I was a prisoner.
THE BRITISH ACCOUNT OF THE
SIEGE OF FORT MEIGS.
The following is a British account of the siege of Fort Meigs, from the London New Monthly Magazine for December, 1826, written by an officer in their army:
Far from being discouraged by the discomfiture of their armies under Generals Hull and Winchester, the Americans despatched a third and more formidable one under their most experience commanders, Gen. Harrison, who, on reaching Fort Meigs, shortly subsequent to the affair at Frenchtown, directed his attention to the erection of works, which in some measure rendered his position impregnable. Determined, if possible, to thwart the movements of the enemy, and give the finishing stroke to his movements in that quarter, Gen. Proctor (lately promoted) ordered an expedition to be in readiness to move for the Miami. Accordingly towards the close of April a detachment of 41st, some militia and 1,500 Indians, accompanied by a train of battering artillery, and attended by two gun-boats, proceeded up that river and established themselves on the left bank, at the distance of a mile, and selected the site for our batteries.
The season was unusually wet, yet in defiance of every obstacle they were erected in the same night, in front of the American fortress, and the guns transported along the road in which the axle-trees of the carriages were frequently buried in mud. Among other battering pieces were two twenty-four pounders, in the transportation of which 200 men, with several oxen, were employed from 9 o’clock at night until daylight in the morning. At length, every precaution having been made, a gun fired from one of the boats was the signal fro their opening, and early on the morning of the 1st of May a heavy fire was commenced, and con-
Page 874
tinued for four days without intermission, during which period every one of the enemies’ batteries were silenced and dismantled. The fire of the twenty-four pound battery was principally directed against the powder magazine, which the besieged were busily occupied in covering and protecting from our hot shot. It was impossible to have artillery better served: every shot that was fired sank into the roof of the magazine, scattering the earth to a considerable distance and burying many of the workmen in its bed, from which we could distinctly see their survivors dragging forth the bodies of their slaughtered companions. Meanwhile the flank companies of the 41st, with a few Indians, had been despatched to the opposite shore, within a few hundred yards of the enemy’s works, and had constructed a battery, from which a galling cross-fire was sustained.
Dismayed at the success of our exertions, Gen. Harrison, before our arrival, already appraised of the approach of a reinforcement of 1,500 men, then descending the Miami, under Gen. Clay, contrived to despatch a courier on the evening of the 4th, with an order to that officer to land immediately and possess himself of our batteries on the left bank, while he (Gen. Harrison) sallied forth to carry those on the right. Accordingly, early on the morning of the 5th, Gen. Clay pushed forward the whole of his force, and meeting with no opposition at the batteries, which were entirely unsupported, proceeded to spike the guns, in conformity with his instructions; but elated with his success, and disobeying the positive orders of his chief, which was to retire the instant the object was effected, continued to occupy the position. In the meantime, the flying artillerymen had given the alarm, and three companies of the 41st, several of the militia, and a body of Indians, the latter under command of their celebrated chieftain, Tecumseh, were ordered to immediately move and repossess themselves of the works. The rain, which had commenced falling in the morning, continued to fall with violence, and the road, as has already been described, was knee-deep in mud; yet the men advanced to the assault with the utmost alacrity and determination.
The enemy, on our approach, had sheltered themselves behind the batteries, affording them every facility of defence. Yet they were driven at the point of the bayonet from each in succession, until eventually not a man was left in the plain. Flying to the woods, the murderous fire of the Indians drove them back upon their pursuers, so that they had no possibility of escape. A vast number were killed, and independently of the prisoners taken by the Indians, 450, with their second in command, fell into our hands. Every man of the detachment, on this occasion, acquitted himself to the entire satisfaction of his superiors. Among the most conspicuous for gallantry was Major Chambers, of the 41st, acting deputy quarter-general to the division. Supported by merely four or five followers, this meritorious officer advanced under a shower of bullets from the enemy, and carried one of the batteries, sword in hand. A private of the same regiment being opposed, in an isolated condition, to three Americans, contrived to disarm them and render them his prisoners. On joining his company at the close of the affair, he excited much mirth among his comrades, in consequence of the singular manner in which he appeared, sweating beneath the weight of arms he had secured as trophies of victory, and driving his captives before him with an indifference and carelessness which contrasted admirably with the occasion. Of the whole of the division under Gen. Clay, scare 200 men effected their escape. Among the fugitives was that officer himself. The sortie made by Gen. Harrison, at the head of the principal part of the garrison, had a different result. The detachment supporting the battery already described were driven from their position, and two officers, Lieutenants M’Intyre and Hailes, and thirty men were made prisoners. Meanwhile, it had been discovered that the guns on the left bank, owing to some error on the part of the enemy, had been spiked with the ramrods of the muskets, instead of the usual instruments: they were speedily rendered serviceable, and the fire from the batteries renewed. At this moment a white flag was observed waving on the ramparts of the fort, and the courage and perseverance of
Page 875
the troops appeared about to be crowned with a surrender of the fortress, the siege of which had cost them so much toil and privation. Such, however, was far from being the intention of Gen. Harrison. Availing himself of the cessation of hostilities which necessarily ensued, he caused the officers and men just captured to be sent across the river for the purpose of being exchanged; but this was only a feint for the accomplishment of a more important object.
Drawing up his whole force, cavalry and infantry, on the plain beneath the fortress, he caused such of the boats of General Clay’s division as were laden with ammunition, in which the garrison stood in much need, to be dropped under the works, and the stores immediately disembarked. All this took place in the period occupied for the exchange of prisoners. The remaining boats, containing the private bagged and stores of the division, fell into the hands of the Indians still engaged in pursuit of the fugitives, and the plunder they acquired was immense. General Harrison having secured his stores, and received the officers and men exchanged for his captives, withdrew into the garrison, and the bombardment was recommenced.
The victory obtained at the Miami was such as to reflect credit on every branch of the service; but the satisfaction arising from the conviction was deeply embittered by an act of cruelty, which as the writer of an impartial memoir, it becomes my painful duty to record. In the heat of the action, a strong corps of the enemy, which had thrown down their arms and surrendered prisoners of war, were immediately despatched under an escort of 50 men, for the purpose of being embarked in the gun-boats, where it was presumed they would be safe from the attacks of the Indians. This measure, although dictated by the purest humanity, and apparently offering the most probable means of security, proved of fatal import to several of the prisoners.
On reaching our encampment, then entirely deserted by the troops, they were met by a band of cowardly and treacherous Indians, who had borne no share in the action, yet who now, guided by the savage instinct of their nature, approached the column, and selecting their victims commenced the work of blood. In vain did the harassed and indignant escort endeavor to save them from the fury of their destroyers. The frenzy of these wretches knew no bounds, and an old and excellent soldier named Russell, of the 41st, was shot through the heart, while endeavoring to wrest a victim from the grasp of his murderer. Forty of these unhappy men had already fallen beneath the steel of the infuriated party, when Tecumseh, apprised on what was doing, rode up at full speed, and raising his tomahawk, threatened to destroy the first man who refused to desist. Even on those lawless people, to whom the language of coercion had hitherto been unknown, the threats and tone of the exasperated chieftain produced an instantaneous effect, and they retired at once humiliated and confounded.*
The survivors of this melancholy catastrophe were immediately conveyed on
*Drake, in his life of Tecumseh, in
quoting a letter
from Wm. G. Ewing to John H. James, Esq., of Urbana, gives full
particulars of
Tecumseh’s interference on this occasion, which we here copy.
“While this bloodthirsty
carnage was raging, a
thundering voice was heard in the rear, in the Indian tongue, when
turning
round, he saw Tecumseh coming with all the rapidity his horse could
carry him,
until he drew near to where two Indians had an American, and were in
the act of
killing him. He
sprang from his horse,
caught one by the throat and the other by the breast, and threw them to
the
ground; drawing his tomahawk and scalping knife, he ran in between the
Americans and the Indians, brandishing them with the fury of a madman,
and
daring any one of the hundreds that surrounded him to attempt to murder
another
American. They all
appeared confounded,
and immediately desisted. His
mind
appeared rent with passion, and he exclaimed almost with tears in his
eyes,
“Oh! what will
become of my Indians?” He
then demanded in an authoritarian tone
where Proctor was; but casting his eye upon him at a small distance,
sternly
inquired why he had not put a stop to the inhuman massacre. “Sir,”
said Proctor, “your Indians cannot be
commanded.” “Begone,”
retorted Tecumseh, with the greatest disdain, “you are unfit
to command; go and
put on petticoats.”
Page 876
board the gun-boats, moored in the river, and every precaution having been taken to prevent a renewal of the scene, the escorting party proceeded to the interment of the victims, to whom the rites of sepulture were afforded, even before those of our own men who had fallen in the action. Col. Dudley, second in command of Gen. Clay’s division, was among the number of the slain.
On the evening of the second day after this event I accompanied Maj. Muir, of the 41st, in a ramble throughout the encampment of the Indians, distant some few hundred yards from our own. The spectacle there offered to our view was at once of the most ludicrous and revolting nature. In the various directions were lying the trunks and boxes taken in the boats of the American division, and the plunderers were busily occupied in displaying their riches, carefully examining each article, and attempting to define its use. Several were decked out in the uniforms of the officers; and although embarrassed in the last degree in their movements, and dragging with difficulty the heavy military boots with which their legs were for the first time covered, strutted forth much to the admiration of their less fortunate comrades. Some were habited in plain clothes; others had their bodies clad with clean white shirts, contrasting in no ordinary manner with the swarthiness of their skins; all wore some articles of decoration, and their tents were ornamented with saddles, bridles, rifles, daggers, swords and pistols, many of which were handsomely mounted and of curious workmanship. Such was the ridiculous part of the picture; but mingled with these, and in various directions, were to be seen the scalps of the slain drying in the sun, stained on the fleshy side with vermilion dyes, and dangling in air, as they hung suspended from the poles to which they were attached, together with hoops of various sizes, on which were stretched potions of human skin, taken from various parts of the human body, principally the hand and foot, and yet covered with the nails of those parts; while scattered along the ground were visible the members from which they had been separated, and serving as nutriment to the wolf-dogs by which the savages were accompanied.
As we continued to advance into the heart of the encampment a scene of a more disgusting nature arrested our attention. Stopping at the entrance of a tent occupied by the Minoumini tribe we observed them seated around a large fire, over which was suspended a kettle containing their meal. Each warrior had a piece of string hanging over the edge of the vessel, and to this was suspended a food which it will be presumed we heard not without loathing, consisted of a part of an American; any expression of our feelings, as we declined the invitation they gave us to join in their repast, would have been resented by the Indians without much ceremony. We had, therefore, the prudence to excuse ourselves under the plea that we had already taken our food, and we hastened to remove from a sight so revolting to humanity.
Since the affair of the 5th the enemy continued to keep themselves shut up within their works, and the bombardment, although carried on with vigor, had effected no practicable breach. From the account given by the officers captured during the sortie it appears that, with a perseverance and toil peculiar to themselves, the Americans had constructed subterranean passages to protect them from the annoyance of our shells, which sinking into the clay, softened by the incessant rains that had fallen, instead of exploding were speedily extinguished. Impatient of longer privations, and anxious to return to their families and occupations, numbers of the militia withdrew themselves in small bodies, and under cover of the night; while the majority of Indians, enriched by plunder and languishing under the tediousness of a mode of warfare so different from their own, with less ceremony and caution, left us to prosecute the siege as we could.
Tecumseh, at the head of his own tribe (the Shawnees), and a few others, amounting in all to about 400 warriors, continued to remain. The troops also were worn down with constant fatigue; for here, as in every other expedition against the enemy, few even of the officers had tents to shield them from the
Page 877
weather. A few pieces of bark torn from the trees and covering the skeleton of a hut was their only habitation, and they were merely separated from the damp earth on which they lay by a few scattered leaves, on which was generally spread a blanket by the men and a cloak by the officers. Hence, frequently arose dysentery, ague, and the various ills to which an army encamped on a wet and unhealthy ground is inevitably subject; and fortunate was he who possessed the skin of a bear or buffalo, on which he could repose his wearied limbs, after a period of suffering and privation, which those who have never served in the wilds of America can with difficulty comprehend. Such was the position of the contending parties towards the middle of May, when Gen. Proctor, despairing to effect the reduction of the fort, caused preparations to be made for the raising of the siege. Accordingly the gun-boats ascended the river, and anchored under the batteries, the guns of which were conveyed on board under a heavy fire from the enemy. The whole being secured, the expedition returned to Amherstburg; the Americans remained tranquil within their works, and suffered us to depart unmolested.
THE SECOND SIEGE OF FORT
MEIGS.
Gen. Harrison having repaired the fort from the damage occasioned by the siege, left for the interior of the State to organize new levies, and entrusted command to Gen. Green Clay. The enemy returned to Malden, where the Canadian militia were disbanded. Shortly after commenced the second siege of Fort Meigs.
ON the 20th
of July the boats of the enemy
were discovered ascending the Miami to Fort Meigs,
and the following morning a party of
ten men were
surprised by the Indians, and only three escaped death or capture. The force which the enemy
had now before the
post was 5,000 men under Proctor and Tecumseh, and the number of
Indians
greater than any ever before assembled on any occasion during the war,
while
the defenders of the fort amounted to but a few hundred.
The night of their arrival Gen.
Green Clay dispatched
Capt. McCune, of the Ohio militia, to Gen. Harrison, at Lower Sandusky,
to
notify him of the presence of the enemy.
Capt. M’Cune
was ordered to return and inform
Gen. Clay to be particularly cautious against surprise, and that every
effort
would be made to relieve the fort.
It was Gen. Harrison’s
intention, should the enemy lay
regular siege to the fort, to reach select 400 men, and by an
unfrequented
route reach there in the night, and at any hazard break through the
lines of
the enemy.
Capt. M’cune
was sent out a
second time with the intelligence to Harrison that about 800 Indians
had been
seen from the fort, passing up the Miami, designing, it was supposed,
to attack
Fort Winchester at Defiance. The
general, however, believed it was a ruse of the enemy to cover their
design
upon Upper or Lower Sandusky, or Cleveland, and kept out a
reconnoitering party
to watch.
On the afternoon of the 25th Capt. M’Cune was ordered by
Harrison to return to the fort, and
inform Gen. Clay of his situation and intentions.
He arrived near the fort about daybreak on
the following morning, having lost his way in the night, accompanied by
James Doolan, a French
Canadian.
They were just upon the point of leaving the forest and
entering upon
the cleared ground around the fort when they were intercepted by a
party of
Indians. They
immediately took to the
high bank with their horses, and retreated at full gallop up the river
for
several miles, pursued by the Indians, also mounted, until they came to
a deep
ravine, putting up from the river in a southerly direction, when they
turned
upon the river bottom and continued a short distance, until they found
their
further progress in that direction stopped by an impassable swamp. The Indians foreseeing
their dilemma, from
their knowledge of the country, and expecting that they would naturally
follow
up the ravine, galloped thither to head them off.
M’Cune
guessed
their intentions, and he and his companion turned back upon their own
track for
the fort, gaining, by this manoeuvre,
several hundred
yards upon their pursuers. The
Indians
gave a yell of chagrin, and followed at their utmost speed. Just as they neared the
fort M’Cune
dashed into a thicket across his course, on the
opposite side of which other Indians were huddled, awaiting their prey. When this body of Indians
had thought them
all but in their possession, again was the presence of mind of M’Cune signally
displayed.
He wheeled his horse, followed by Doolan,
made
his way out of the thicket by the passage he had entered, and galloped
round
into the open space between them and the river, where the pursuers were
checked
by the fire from the block-house at the western angle of the fort. In a few minutes after
their arrival their
horses dropped from fatigue. The
Indians
probably had orders to take them alive, as they had not fired until
just as they
entered the fort; but in the chase M’Cune
had great
difficulty in persuading
Page 878
Doolan to reserve his fire until the last
extremity,
and they therefore brought in their pieces loaded.
The opportune arrival of M’Cune
no doubt saved the fort, as the intelligence he brought was the means
of
preserving them from an ingeniously devised stratagem of Tecumseh,
which was
put into execution that day, and which we have to relate.
Towards evening the British
infantry were secreted in
the ravine below the fort, and the cavalry in the woods above, while
the
Indians were stationed in the forest, on the Sandusky road, not far
from the
fort. About an hour
before dark they
commenced a sham battle among themselves, to deceive the Americans into
a
belief that a battle was going on between them and a
reinforcement for the fort, in the hopes of enticing the
garrison to the
aid of their comrades. It
was managed
with so much skill that the garrison instantly flew to arms, impressed
by the
Indians yells, intermingled with the roar of musketry, that a severe
battle was
being fought. The
officers even of the
highest grades were of that opinion, and some of them insisted upon
being
suffered to march out to the rescue.
Gen. Clay, although unable to account for the firing,
could not believe
that the general had so soon altered his intention, as expressed to
Capt. M’Cune,
not to send or come with any troops to Fort Meigs,
until there should appear further necessity for
it. The
intelligence in a great measure
satisfied the officers, but not the men, who were extremely indignant
at being
prevented from going to share the dangers of their commander-in-chief
and
brother soldiers, and perhaps had it not been for the interposition of
a shower
of rain, which soon put an end to the battle, the general might have
been
persuaded to march out, when a terrible massacre of the troops would
have
ensued.
The enemy remained around the fort
but one day after
this, and on the 28th, embarked with their stores and proceeded down
the lake, and a few days after met with a severe repulse in their
attempt to
storm Fort Stephenson.
We are informed by a volunteer aid
of Gen. Clay, who
was in the fort at the second siege, that preparations were made to
fire the
magazine incase the enemy succeeded in an attempt to storm the fort,
and thus
involve all, friend and foe, in one common fate.
This terrible alternative was deemed better
than to perish under the tomahawks and scalping knives of the savages.
The soldiers of the northwestern army, while at Fort Meigs and elsewhere on duty, frequently beguiled their time by singing patriotic songs. A verse from one of them sufficiently indicates their general character:
Freemen, no longer bear such slaughter,
Avenge your country’s cruel woe,
Arouse and save your wives and daughters,
Arouse, and expel the faithless foe.
Chorus—Scalps are
bought at stated prices,
Malden pays the price in gold.
Perrysburg in 1816.—Perrysburg, the [former] county-seat, named from Com. Perry, is 123 miles northwest of Columbus, on the Maumee river, just below Fort Meigs. It was laid out in 1816, at the head of navigation on the river. It contains 1 Presbyterian, 1 Methodist and 1 Universalist church, 2 newspaper printing offices, 8 mercantile stores, and had, by the census of 1840, 1,041 inhabitants. The building of steamers and sail vessels has been carried on here to a considerable extent. A canal for hydraulic purposes has been constructed here. It commences in the rapids of the Maumee, five miles above, and has eighteen feet fall, affording power sufficient to carry forty runs of stone.—Old Edition.
A correspondent, residing in Perrysburg, has communicated to us a sketch of the speculations which attracted so much attention to the Maumee valley at an early date.
The
notable era of speculation,
embracing 1834-6, and part of 1837, first attracted public attention to
the
Maumee valley as a commercial mart.
From the mouth of the river to the foot of
the rapids the country swarmed with adventurers.
Those that did not regard any of the
settlements (for neither of the beautiful villages of Toledo, Maumee or
Perrysburg were more than settlements at that time) as the points
designated by
nature and legislation for the great emporium, purchased tracts of land
lying
between and below these towns, and laid out cities.
It would amuse one to take the recorded maps
of some of these embryo cities, with the designated squares, parks and
public
buildings, and walk over the desolate sites of the cities themselves. Manhattan,
at the mouth of the river; Oregon,
five miles above; Austerlitz, six miles, and Marengo,
nine miles, were
Page 879
joint contenders, with the villages that
have grown up, for
the great prize. They
all had their
particular advantages. Manhattan
based
her claim upon the location at the exact debouchure
of the river. Oregon,
in addition to all
the advantages claimed by the other towns, added the facilities of the
location
for engaging in the pork business,
and her leading proprietor, in a placard posted up publicly in 1836,
professed
his belief that these particular advantages were greater even than
those
enjoyed by the city of Cincinnati.
Marengo based her claims upon the fact that her location
was at the foot
of the rock bar, and therefore at the virtual head of navigation. The result of all this was
that hundreds of
young men, from the east and south, flocked to this valley during the
years
above named with the hope of speedily amassing a fortune; and of this
number it
is not too much to say that full three-quarters, having no means at the
commencement, and depending upon some bold stroke for success, left the
valley
before the close of the year 1837 hopelessly involved.
All these towns, some eleven, if I recollect
rightly, in number, still form a part of the primeval forests of the
Maumee,
most of them, after ruining their proprietors, have been vacated, and
the
sounding names by which they were known are a by-word, a reproach, or
the butt
end of the coarse jokes of the more recent and fortunate adventurers in
the
valley.—Old Edition.
PERRYSBURG is thirteen miles north of Bowling Green, nine miles southwest of Toledo, at the head of navigation, on the Maumee river and D. & M. R. R. It has 8 churches: 2 Presbyterian, 2 Lutheran, 2 Methodist, 1 Catholic, 1 Evangelical. City Officers, 1888: J. H. PIERCE, mayor; T. B. OBLINGER, clerk; J. H. RHEINFRANK, treasurer; L. L. FINK, Marshal. Newspaper: Journal, Independent, James TIMMONS, editor and publisher. Bank: Citizens’ (N. L. Hanson & Co.), N. L. HANSON, cashier.
Manufactures and Employees.—Perrysburg Mill and Elevator, 3 hands; S. P. TOLMAN, baskets, etc., 6; H. M. HOOVER, hoops, 7.—State Report, 1888.
Population, in 1890, 1,747. School census, 1888, 710; S. M. DICK, superintendent schools. Capital invested in manufacturing establishments, $20,535. Value of annual product, $23,700.—Ohio Labor Statistics, 1888.
This is a pleasant, well-shaded village. The Maumee at this point is greatly expanded, embosoming an island in its centre. The site is well shown by the old view taken in 1846. It has a good public library, founded by a bequest of $15,000 from Willard D. WAY Esq., who died in 1875, and by various benefactions will long be remembered pleasantly by the citizens. One of the curiosities of the place is the old hotel built in 1825 by Samuel SPAFFORD, and later called the Norton Exchange. Many amusing scenes occurred in the early days of its history, when in court time the bench and bar for a large area of the country were accustomed to make it their social headquarters.
There is an interesting story told of a bell which once did good service for the proprietor. The history of it is thus given in a late publication:
THE STORY OF A BELL.
At the top of the little hotel at Elmore, in the adjoining county of Ottawa, is a bell with a peculiar history. It is now the property of Mr. D. B. DAY, the proprietor of the house, who takes a pride in reciting its origin and subsequent tribulations. In 1825 Mr. SPAFFORD built a tavern in Perrysburg, once the site of old Fort Meigs, of the war of 1812 fame.
In those days a hotel was not complete without a bell to call the guests to their meals, swung on the top of the building. Bell foundries were not so plentiful then as now, but after considerable inquiry Mr. SPAFFORD heard of a man in Detroit who cast bells. Detroit, then in the Territory of Michigan, was quite a
Page 880
remote point, as distance was then calculated; but SPAFFORD had to have a bell, and he finally made his way thither to have it cast. The bellman was found and the job undertaken, but when the foundry endeavored to make the cast, it was discovered that there was not metal enough. Here was a dilemma, but SPAFFORD was equal to the emergency. He took thirty-six Spanish dollars and threw them into the molten mass, and the bell was his.
With his treasure, worth almost its weight in gold, SPAFFORD returned to Perrysburg and hung the bell up in a tree in his yard, so that it might be investigated by the curious. The Indians, who were then quite plentiful in and about Perrysburg, were caught by the novel attraction. They climbed the tee where the bell was hung, and kept it ringing day and night until the thing became an intolerable nuisance, and SPAFFORD had about concluded to take it down when the Indians relieved him by stealing the bell and carrying it away.
This act made SPAFFORD furious, and he determined to recover it if it cost him his life. Securing the services of Sam BRADY, an old scout who had killed a score or more of Indians, and Frank McCALLISTER, the first white man who had settled at Perrysburg, they started toward Upper Sandusky. They traveled three days and nights, and on the morning of the fourth day, while they were eating breakfast, they heard the bell in the distance.
Hastily finishing their meal they hurried in the direction from whence the sound came, and soon beheld a sight that was laughable in the extreme. The Indians had tied the bell around the neck of a pony, and the whole tribe, bucks, squaws, and youngsters armed with hickory switches, were running the poor animal around an open space at the top of its speed, meanwhile yelling like demons as an accompaniment to the furious ringing of the bell.
SPAFFORD and his companions made a charge on the crowd, and soon succeeded in driving the pony away from the village, where they could secure the bell without trouble, which they did, and got safely home without being pursued or having any fight with the Indians. The bell was taken back to Perrysburg, where it remained for many years, performing the mission for which it was cast. When Mr. SPAFFORD died, it became the property of his daughter, Mrs. DAY, whose husband is the hotel man at Elmore, and it still rings out as clearly, each meal time, as it did when it first came to Ohio.
BOWLING GREEN, county-seat of Wood, about 100 miles northwest of Columbus, twenty-one miles south of Toledo, is at the eastern terminus of the Bowling Green R. R. and on the T. C. & S. R. R. Natural gas wells here have a flow of more than 25,000,000 cubic feet per day. County officers, 18888: Auditor, John B. WILSON; Clerk, Alanson L. MUIR; Commissioners, Frank M. THOMPSON, Jacob STAHL, Edward B. BEVERSTOCK; Coroner, Andrew J. ORME; Infirmary Directors, Michael AMOS, Jr., Wilson PATTERSON, John ISCH, Jr.; Probate Judge, Frank M. YOUNG; Prosecuting Attorney, Robert S. PARKER; Recorder, Christopher FINKBEINER; Sheriff, Milton F. MILES; Surveyor, Ferdinand WENZ; Treasurer, William R. NOYES. City officers, 1888: B. L. ABBOTT, Mayor; Ira C. TABER, Clerk; W. H. SMITH, Treasurer; Richard BIGGS, Marshal; Newspapers: Wood County Democrat, Democratic, W. B. & R. T. DOBSON, editors; Wood County Gazette, Republican, A. W. RUDOLPH, editor; Wood County Sentinel, Republican, M. P. BREWER, editor. Churches: 1 Presbyterian, 1 United Brethren, 1 Methodist, 1 Baptist, 1 Catholic, and 1 Christian. Banks: Commercial (Royce, Smith & Coon), W. H. SMITH, cashier. Exchange (Reed & Merry), M. L. CASE, cashier.
Manufactures and Employees.—Crystal
City
Glass Co., bottles, etc., 95 hands; Buckeye Novelty Glass Co., flint
glass
goods, 74; J. R. HANKEY, sash, doors, etc., 20; J. H. BIGELOW, planing mill, 5; The Lythgoe
Glass Co., glass hollow-ware, 109; Bowling Green Window Glass Co.,
window
glass, 104; CRAMER & REIDER, flour, etc., 4; Bowling Green
Machine Co.,
general machine work, 3; ROYCE & COON, grain elevator, etc., 5;
ROYCE &
COON, feed mill, 3.—State Report,
1888
Page 881
Population, 1880, 1,539. School census, 1888, 774; D. E. NIVER, school superintendent. Capital invested in manufacturing establishments, $100,000. Value of annual product, $100,000.—Ohio Labor Statistics, 1888. Census, 1890, 3,521.
GAS, OIL, LIME, ETC.
The city of Bowling Green is situated upon a slightly elevated plateau, in the centre of one of the best of agricultural regions. Wood county, of which it is the county-seat, ranks as one of the most fertile in the State. At the Centennial Exposition, held in Columbus in 1888, this county was awarded a prize of $500 for the finest exhibition of agricultural products. As a result of the development of the oil and gas interests in Bowling Green and its vicinity, and the consequent location of manufacturing and other enterprises, the city had a phenomenal increase in population in a very short period of time. Within two years more than 300 residences and business houses were built, and so rapidly filled with merchants, professional men and artisans, that the demand for homes and business locations remained larger than the supply. Hotels, banks and schools were increased in capacity and number, and then were taxed to their utmost limits. Within a few weeks, from having been a trading centre for an outlying farming district, the city became a commercial and manufacturing centre of great importance.
The principal Ohio gas measures begin at Bowling Green, and extend south for thirty miles or more, Findlay and Bowling Green being the two principal centres. A straight line between these two points would intersect the oil and gas fields; to the west of this line the drilling of a well would be quite certain to produce oil, while east of this line gas is almost sure to be struck.
Tributary to Bowling Green, and within Wood county, is the great North Baltimore oil field. The first great flowing well in this field was struck in December, 1886, two miles north of North Baltimore. It was known as the “Fulton well.” Oil shot a hundred feet into the air, and flooded the land round about before provision could be made for storing it. The output was a hundred barrels an hour. The “Royce Gusher” was the next great well, and its first production was two hundred and forty barrels in fifty minutes. Great excitement followed these discoveries, and all available lands were soon taken up by oil leases of prospectors and speculators. Other wells of large capacity were rapidly developed, and a large part of the territory passed into the control of the Standard Oil Company, whose policy it is to limit supply.
The natural gas development in the central and southern townships of Wood county was as remarkable as those in oil. Its abundance and cheapness brought to Bowling Green and also to North Baltimore a large number of manufacturing and other enterprises, notably glass factories, which were enabled to produce their goods from what was almost free raw material and free fuel. Mines of valuable sand for glass manufacturing are located in Lucas county, near at hand. The sand is of a superior quality and can be procured at a lower price than is paid in other localities. The glass manufactories constitute the most important interest in Bowling Green. They are five in number, employing more than five hundred workmen. The most extensive of these establishments is a branch of the Canistota Glass Works of New York.
Another industry which has received a great impetus through the use of natural gas for fuel is that of lime burning. A large part of Wood county is underlaid with magnesium limestone of a rich quality, and Bowling Green is fast becoming one of the greatest lime-producing centres of the West. The stone and gas used to make the lime are both found within a few feet of the kilns.
With all the advantages accruing from the abundant supply of fuel and raw material in the vicinity of Bowling Green, its growth would not have reached such large proportions were it not for the enterprise and liberality of its citizens.
Page 882
Top
Picture
Drawn
by Henry Howe in 1846.
PERRYSBURG FROM MAUMEE CITY.
Bottom
Picture
.R.
P.
Morrison, Photo., 1887
STREET
VIEW IN BOWLING GREEN.
Page 883
In bringing these advantages to the notice of manufacturers, and in offering liberal inducements to such to locate in their community, the citizens acted with wisdom and foresight. The people raised a large fund for this purpose, and the bureau for giving information to investors was overwhelmed with letters of inquiry; Mr. BREWER, of the Sentinel, personally answered more than five hundred. While many of the towns of northwest Ohio lying within the natural gas and oil regions had a wonderfully rapid development in population, manufacturing and commercial interests as a result of the discoveries in oil and gas, probably in no other city was this more striking than in Bowling Green.
NORTH BALTIMORE is fifteen miles south of Bowling Green, on the B. & O., near the crossing of the T. C. & St. L. R. R. It is in the great oil and gas centre of the State, and is a very prosperous, growing little city. Newspapers: Beacon, Independent, G. W. WILKINSON, editor and publisher; Wood County News, A. B. SMITH, editor and publisher. Churches: 1 Presbyterian, 1 United Brethren, 1 Methodist Episcopal. Bank: Peoples’, M. B. WALDS, cashier.
Manufactures and Employees.—The Dewey Stave Co., 27 hands; Enterprise Window Glass Co., 67; James HARDY & Co., general machine work, 6; ROCKWELL Brothers, flour, etc., 4; North Baltimore Bottle Glass Co., 94; A BARND, sash, doors, etc., 11.—State Report, 1888.
Population, 1880, 701. School census, 1888, 362. Capital invested in manufacturing establishments, $20,000. Value of annual product, $21,000.—Ohio Labor Statistics, 1888. Census, 1890, 2,857.
GRAND RAPIDS is twelve miles west of Bowling Green, on the Maumee river, the Miami & Erie Canal, and on the T. St. L. & K. C. R. R., which crosses the river by a fine iron bridge 900 feet long. Newspaper: Triumph, CROSBY & FREISS, editors and publishers. Bank: George P. HINSDALE. Churches: 1 Presbyterian, 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Catholic. It was laid out in 1837, under the name of Gilead, at the head of the first or Grand Rapids of the Maumee.
Population, 1880, 332. School census, 1888, 163.
FREEPORT P. O., Prairie Depot, is ten miles southeast of Bowling Green, on the O. C. R. R.
Population, 1880, 216. School census, 1888, 204.
TONTOGANY is six miles northwest of Bowling Green, on the D. & M. and B. G. & T. R. R. It has 1 Presbyterian, 1 Methodist Episcopal, and one Evangelical church. School census, 1888, 114.
BRADNER is twelve miles southeast of Bowling Green, on the C. H. V. & T. R. R. School census, 1888, 144.
PEMBERVILLE is nine miles east of Bowling Green, on the Portage river, and on the C. H. V. & T. & O. C. R. R. Newspaper: Wood County Index, neutral, C. R. F. BERRY, editor.
Population, 1880, 644. School census in 1888, 341. John S. HOYMAN, superintendent of schools. Capital invested in manufacturing establishments, $25,000. Value of annual product, $26,000.—Ohio Labor Statistics, 1888.
WESTON is eight miles southwest of Bowling Green, on the C. H. & D. R. R. Newspaper: Wood County Herald, Republican, S. E. BURSON, editor and publisher. Churches: 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Presbyterian, 1 Catholic, 1 German Reformed. Bank: Exchange (A. J. Munn & Co.), J. V. BEVERSTOCK, cashier.
Population, 1890, 845. School census, 1888, 275. A correspondent writes: “The rural district surrounding our village is specially adapted to agriculture, gardening being one of the chief pursuits. Soil very fertile, and our county contains one of the largest oil and gas wells in the State. Is bound to become the wealthiest in every respect of any county also in the State.”
HASKINS is on the right bank of the Maumee river, eight miles northwest of Bowling Green.
Population,
1880, 381. School
census, 188, 121. I. N. VAN
TASSEL, superintendent of schools.
Page 884
BAIRDSTOWN is sixteen miles southeast of Bowling Green, on the B. & O. R. R. Newspapers: Times, independent, G. G. GRIMES, editor and publisher.
Population, about 350.
MILLBURY is eighteen miles northeast of Bowling Green, and eight miles southeast of Toledo, on the L. S. & M. S. R. R.
Population, 1880, 483. School census, 1888, 106. Census, 1890, 609.
JERRY CITY is ten miles southeast of Bowling Green.
Population, 1880, 234. School census, 1888, 121.
RISING
SUN is
fourteen miles southeast of Bowling
Green, on the C.
H. V. & T. R. R.
Population, 1880, 344.