Clark County, Ohio

Ohio Counties

Historical Collections of Ohio

By Henry Howe

Vol. I

©1888

Clark County

Page 387

CLARK COUNTY was formed March 1, 1817, from Champaign, Madison and Greene, and named in honor of Gen. George Rogers CLARK. The first settlement was at Chribb’s Station, in the forks of Mad river, in the spring of 1796. The inhabitants of Moorefield Pleasant, Madison, German and Pike are principally of Virginia extraction; Mad river, of New Jersey; Harmony, of New England, and English; and Greene, of Pennsylvania origin. This county is very fertile and highly cultivated, and well watered by Mad river, Buck and Beaver creeks and their tributaries, which furnish a large amount of water power. Its area, is 300 square miles. In 1885 the acres cultivated were 108,953; in pasture, 38,601; woodland, 26,931; lying waste, 2,238; produced in wheat, 363,668; corn, 1,870,152; tobacco, 106,400 pounds; flax, 117,580; wool, 248,549. School census 1886, 15,050; teachers, 226. It has 113 miles of railroad.

Township And Census	1840	1880	Township And Census	1840	1880
Bethel	2,033	3,131	Moorefield	1,073	1,345
German	1,667	2,100	Pike	1,437	1,758
Greene	1,059	1,524	Pleasant	1,092	1,581
Harmony	1,645	1,846	Springfield	4,443	24,455
Madison	1,115	2,396	Mad River	1,339	1,812

Population in 1820 was 9,553; in 1840, 16,882; 1860, 25,300; 1880, 41,948, of whom 29,336 were Ohio-born.

The old Indian town of Piqua, the ancient Piqua of the Shawnees, and the birthplace of TECUMSEH, situated on the north side of Mad river, about five miles west of Springfield, and occupied the site on which a small town called West Boston was later built. The principal part of Piqua stood upon a plain, rising fifteen or twenty feet above the river. At the period of its destruction, it was quite populous. There was a rude lob hut within its limits, surrounded by pickets. The town was never after rebuilt. Its inhabitants removed to the Great Miami river, and erected another town, which they called Piqua. The account appended of its destruction by Gen. George Rogers Clark was published in Bradford’s “Notes on Kentucky:”

On the 2d of August, 1780, Gen. Clark took up the line of march from where Cincinnati now stands, for the Indian towns. The line of march was as follows: the first division, commanded by Clark, took the front position; the centre was occupied by artillery, military stores and baggage; the second, commanded by Col. Logan, was placed in the rear. The men were ordered to march in four lines, at about forty yards distance from each other, and a line of flankers on each side, about the same distance from the right and left line. There was also a front and a rear guard, who only kept in sight of the main army. In order to prevent confusion, in case of an attack of the enemy, on the

Page 388

march of the army, a general order was issued, that in the event of an attack in front, the front was to stand fast, and the two right lines to wheel to the right, and the two left hand lines to the left, and form a complete line, while the artillery was to advance forwards to the centre of the line. In case of an attack on either of the flanks or side lines, these lines were to stand fast, and likewise the artillery, while the opposite lines wheeled and formed on the two extremes of those lines. In the event of an attack being made on the rear, similar order was to be observed as in an attack in front.

In this manner the army moved on without encountering anything worthy of notice until they arrived at Chillicothe (situated on the little Miami river, in Greene county), about 2 o’clock in the afternoon, on the 6th day of August. They found the town not only abandoned, but most of the houses burnt down and burning, having been set on fire that morning. The army encamped on the ground that night, and on the following day cut down several hundred acres of corn; and about 4 o’clock in the evening took up their line of march for the Piqua towns, which were about twelve miles from Chillicothe (in Clark county). They had not marched more than a mile from Chillicothe, before there came on a very heavy rain, with thunder and lightning and considerable wind. Without tents or any other shelter from the rain, which fell in torrents, the men were as wet as if they had been plunged into the river, nor had they it in their power to keep their guns dry. It was nearly dark before the rain ceased, when they were ordered to encamp in a hollow square, with the baggage and horses in the centre, and as soon as fires could be made, to dry their clothes, etc. They were ordered to examine their guns, and, to be sure they were in good order, to discharge them in the following manner. One company was to fire, and time given to reload, when a company at the most remote part of the camp from that which had fired was to discharge theirs, and so on alternately, until all the guns were fired. On the morning of the 8th, the army marched by sunrise, and having a level, open way, arrived in sight of Piqua, situated on the west aide of the Mad river, about 2 o’clock P. M. The Indian road from Chillicothe to Piqua, which the army followed, crossed the Mad river about a quarter of a mile below the town, and as soon as the advanced guard crossed into a prairie of high weeds, they were attacked by the Indians, who had concealed themselves in the weeds. The ground on which this attack, as well as the manner in which it was done, left no doubt but that a general engagement was intended. Col. Logan was therefore ordered, with about four hundred men, to file off to the right, and march up the river on the east side, and to continue to the upper end of the town, so as to prevent the Indians from escaping in that direction, while the remainder of the men, under Cols. Lynn, Floyd and Harrod, were ordered to cross the river and encompass the town on the west side, while Gen. Clark, with the troops under Col. Slaughter, and such as were attached to the artillery, marched directly towards the town. The prairie in which the Indians were concealed, who commenced the attack, was only about two hundred yards across to the timbered land, and the division of the army destined to encompass the town on the west side found it necessary to cross the prairie, to avoid the fire of a concealed enemy. The Indians evinced great military skill and judgment, and to prevent the western division from executing the duties assigned them, they made a powerful effort to turn their left wing. This was discovered by Floyd and, Lynn, and to prevent being outflanked, extended the line of battle west, more than a mile from the town, and which continued warmly contested on both sides until about 5 o’clock, when the Indians disappeared everywhere unperceived, except a few m the town. The field piece, which had been entirely useless before, was now brought to bear upon the houses, when a few shots dislodged the Indians which were in them.

A nephew of Gen. Clark, who had been many years a prisoner among the Indians, and who attempted to come to the whites just before the close of the action, was supposed to be an Indian, and received a mortal wound; but be lived several hours after he arrive among them.

The morning after the battle a Frenchman, who had been taken to the Indians a short time before, on the Wabash, and who had stolen away from them during the action, was found in the loft of one of the Indian cabins. He gave the information, that the Indians did not expect that the Kentuckians would reach their town on that day, and if they did not, it was their intention to have attacked them in the night, in their camp, with the tomahawk and knife, and not to fire a gun. They had intended to have made an attack the night before but were prevented by the rain, and also the vigilance evinced by the Kentuckians, in firing off their guns and reloading them, the reasons for which they comprehended: when they heard the firing. Another circumstance showed that the Indians were disappointed in the time of their arriving; they had not dined. When the men got into the town, they found a considerable quantity of provisions ready cooked, in large kettles and other vessels, almost untouched. The loss on each side was about equal-each having about 20 killed.

The Piqua town was built in the manner of the French villages. It extended along the margin of the river for more than three miles; the houses, in many places, were more than twenty poles apart. Col. Logan, therefore, in order to surround the town on the east, as was his orders, marched fully three miles, while the Indians turned their whole force against those on the opposite side of the town; and Logan’s party never saw an Indian during the whole action. The action was so severe a short time before the close,

Page 389

that Simon Girty, a white man, who had joined the Indians, and who was made a chief among the Mingoes, drew off three hundred of his men, declaring to them, it was folly in the extreme to continue the action against men who acted so much like madmen, as Gen. Clark’s men, for they rushed in the extreme of danger, with a seeming disregard of the consequences. This opinion of Girty, and the withdrawal of the three hundred Mingoes, so disconcerted the rest, that the whole body soon after dispersed.

It is a maxim among the Indians never to encounter a fool or a madman (in which terms they include a desperate man), for they say, with a man who has not sense enough to take a prudent care of his own life, the life of his antagonist is in much greater danger than with a prudent man.

It was estimated that at the two Indian towns, Chillicothe and Piqua, more than five hundred acres of corn were destroyed, as well as every species of eatable vegetables. In consequence of this, the Indians were obliged, for the support of their women and. children, to employ their whole time in hunting, which gave quiet to Kentucky for a considerable time. The day after the battle, the 9th, was occupied in cutting down the growing corn, and destroying the cabins and fort, etc., and collecting horses. On the 10th of August, the army began their march homeward, and encamped in Chillicothe that night, and on the 11th, cut a field of corn, which had been left for the benefit of the men and horses, on their return. At the mouth of the Licking, the army dispersed, and each individual made his best way home.

Thus ended a campaign, in which most of the men had no other provisions for twenty-five days, than six quarts of Indian corn each, except the green corn and vegetables found at the Indian towns, and one gill of salt; and yet not a single complaint was heard to escape the lips of a solitary individual. All appeared to be impressed with the belief, that if this army should be defeated, that few would be able to escape, and that the Indians then would fall on the defenceless women and children in Kentucky, and destroy the whole. From this view of the subject, every man was determined to conquer or die.

The late Abraham Thomas, of Miami county, was in this campaign against Piqua. His reminiscences, published in 1839, in the Troy Times, give some interesting facts omitted in the preceding. It also differs in some respects from the other, and is probably the most accurate:

In the summer of 1780 Gen. Clark was getting up an expedition, with the object of destroying some Indian villages on Mad river. One division of the expedition, under Col. Logan, was to approach the Ohio by the way of Licking river; the other, to which I was attached ascended the Ohio from the falls in boats, with provisions and a six-pound cannon. The plan of the expedition was for the two divisions to meet at a point in the Indian country opposite the month of Licking, and thence march in a body to the interior. In descending the Ohio Daniel Boone and myself acted as spies on the Kentucky side of the river, and a large party, on the Indian side, was on the same duty; the latter were surprised by the Indians, and several killed and wounded. It was then a toilsome task to get the boats up the river, under constant expectation of attacks from the savages, and we were much rejoiced in making our destination. Before the boats crossed over to the Indian side Boone and myself were taken into the foremost boat and myself above a small cut in the bank, opposite the mouth of Licking. We were desired to spy through the woods for Indian signs. I was much younger than Boone, ran up the bank in great glee, and cut into a beech tree with my tomahawk, which I verily believe was the first tree cut into by a white man on the present site of Cincinnati. We were soon joined by other rangers, and hunted over the other bottom; the forest everywhere was thick set with heavy beech and scattering underbrush of spice-wood and pawpaw. We started several deer, but seeing no signs of Indians returned to the landing. By this time the men had all landed, and were busy in cutting timber for stockades and cabins. The division, under Col. Logan shortly crossed over from the mouth of Licking, and after erecting a stockade, fort and cabin for a small garrison and stores the army started for Mad river. Our way lay over the uplands of an untracked, primitive forest, through which, with great labor, we cut and bridged a road for the accommodation of our pack horses and cannon. My duty, in the march, was to spy some two miles in advance of the main body. Our progress was slow, but the weather was pleasant, the country abounded in game; and we saw no Indians that I recollect until we approached the waters^, of the Mad river. In the campaigns of these days none but the officers thought of tents—each man had to provide for his own comfort. Our meat was cooked upon sticks set up before the fire; our beds were sought upon the ground, and he was the most fortunate man that could gather small branches, leaves and bark to shield him from the ground, in moist places. After the lapse of so many years it is difficult to recollect the details or dates, so as to mark the precise time or duration of our movements. But in gaining the open country of Mad river we came in sight of the Indian villages. We had been kept all the night before on the march, and pushed rapidly towards the points of attack, and surprised

Page 390

three hundred Indian warriors that had collected at the town, with the view of surprising and attacking us the next morning. At this place a stockade fort had been reared near the village on the side we were approaching it, but the Indians feared to enter it and took post in their houses.

The village was situated on a low prairie bottom of Mad river, between the second bank and a bushy swamp piece of ground on the margin of the river; it could be approached only from three points—the one our troops occupied, and from up and down the river. Gen. Clark detached two divisions to secure the two last named points, while he extended his line to cover the first. By this arrangement the whole body of Indians would have been surrounded and captured, but Col. Logan, who had charge of the lower division, became entangled m the swamp, and did not reach his assigned position before the attack commenced. The party I had joined was about entering the town with great impetuosity, when Gen. Clark sent orders for us to stop, as the Indians were making port holes in their cabins and we should be in great danger, but added he would soon make port holes for us both; on that he brought his six-pounder to bear on the village, and a discharge of frail shot scattered the materials of their frail dwellings in every direction. The Indians poured out of their cabins in great consternation, while our party, and those on the bank, rushed into the village, took possession of all the squaws and pappooses, and killed a great many warriors, but most of them at the lower part of the bottom. In this skirmish, a nephew of Gen. Clark, who had some time before run away from the Monongahela settlements and joined the Indians, was severely wounded. He was a great reprobate, and, as said, was to have led the Indians in the next morning’s attack; before he expired he asked forgiveness of his uncle and countrymen. During the day the village was burned, the corn cut down; and the next morning took up the line of march for the Ohio. It was a bloodless victory to our expedition, and the return march was attended with no unpleasant occurrence, save a great scarcity of provisions. On reaching the fort, on the Ohio, a party of us immediately crossed the river for our homes, for which we felt an extreme anxiety. We depended chiefly on rifles for sustenance; but game not being within reach, without giving to it more time than our anxiety and rapid progress permitted, we tried every expedient to hasten our journey without hunting, even to boiling green plums and nettles. These at first under sharp appetites, were quite palatable, but soon became bitter and offensive. At last, in traversing the head waters of Licking, we espied several buffaloes directly in our track. We killed one, which supplied us bountifully with meat until we reached our homes.