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MIAMI COUNTY - Continued

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A recent acquisition of Piqua is in a beautiful library building. It was the gift of Mr. J. M. Schmidlapp, a prosperous merchant of Cincinnati, who wished the citizens of this his native town to remember him by what would prove of lasting benefit.

 

The following historical matter respecting this region is taken from our first edition.

 

"The word Piqua is the name of one of the Shawanese tribes, and signifies, 'a man formed out of the ashes.' The tradition is, that the whole Shawanese tribe, a long time ago, were assembled at their annual feast and thanksgiving. They were all seated around a large fire, which, having burned down, a great puffing was observed in the ashes, when, behold! a full-formed man came up out of the coals and ashes; and this was the first man of the Piqua tribe. After the peace of 1763, the Miamis having removed from the Big Miami river, a body of Shawanese established themselves at Lower and Upper Piqua, which became their great headquarters in Ohio. Here they remained until driven off by the Kentuckians, when they crossed over to St. Mary's and to Wapaghkonetta.

 

"The upper Piqua is said to have contained, at one period, near 4,000 Shawanese. The Shawanese were formerly a numerous people, and very warlike. We can trace their history to the time of their residence on the tide-waters of Florida, and, as well as the Delawares, they aver that they originally came from west of the Mississippi. BLACK HOOF, who died at Wapaghkonetta, at the advanced age of 105 years, told me [Col. John JOHNSTON] that he remembered, when a boy, bathing in the salt waters of Florida; that his people firmly believed white or civilized people had been in the country before them - having found, in many instances, the marks of iron tools, axes, upon trees and stumps, over which the sand had blown. Shawanese means the south, or 'people from the south.' "

 

Upper Piqua, three miles north of Piqua, on the canal and Miami river, is a locality of much historic interest. It is at present (1846) the residence of Col. John JOHNSTON - shown in the view - and was once a favorite dwelling-place of the Piqua tribe of the Shawanese. Col. JOHNSTON, now at an advanced age, has for the greater part of his life resided at the West as an agent of the United States Government over the Indians. His mild and parental care of their interests gave him great influence over them, winning their strongest affections and causing them to regard him in the light of a father. To him we are indebted for many valuable facts scattered through this volume, as well as those which follow respecting this place.

 

Battle at Piqua. - In the French war, which ended with the peace of 1763, a bloody battle was fought on the present farm of Col. JOHNSTON at Upper Piqua. At that time the Miamis had their towns here, which are marked on ancient maps, "Tewightewee towns." The Miamis, Wyandots, Ottawas and other Northern tribes adhered to the French, made a stand here and fortified - the Canadian traders and French assisting. The Delawares, Shawanese, Munseys, part of the Senecas residing in Pennsylvania, Cherokees, Catawbas, etc., adhering to the English interest with the English traders, attacked the French and Indians. The siege continued for more than a week; the fort stood out and could not be taken. Many were slain, the assailants suffering most severely. The besieged lost a number and all their exposed property was burned and destroyed. The Shawanese chief, BLACKHOOF, one of the besiegers, informed Col. JOHNSTON that the ground around it was strewn with bullets, so that basketfuls could have been gathered.

 

Soon after this contest the Miamis and their allies left this part of the country and retired to the Miami of the Lake, at and near Fort Wayne, and never returned. The Shawanese took their place and gave names to the towns in this vicinity. Col. JOHNSTON'S place "and the now large and flourishing town of Piqua was called Chillicothe, after the tribe of that name; the site of his farm after the Piqua tribe."

 

 

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and the lake. Sometimes in very high water, loaded boats from the Ohio approached within six miles of St. Mary's. Before the settlement of the country a large proportion of the army supplies were conveyed up this river. When mill dams were erected the navigation was destroyed and boating ceased.

 

A massacre. - In 1794 Capt. J. N. VISCHER, the last commandant of Fort Piqua, was stationed here. During that year two freighted boats guarded by an officer and twenty-three men were attacked by the Indians near the fort and the men all massacred. Capt. VISCHER heard the firing, but from the weakness of his command could render no assistance. The plan of the Indians doubtless was to make the attack in hearing of the fort and thereby induce them to sally out in aid of their countrymen, defeat all and take the fort. The commander was a discreet officer and, aware of the subtleness of the enemy, had the firmness to save the fort.

 

The family of Col. JOHNSTON, settled at Upper Piqua in 1811, the previous eleven years having been spent at Fort Wayne. Years after the destruction of the boats and party on the river, fragments of muskets, bayonets and other remains of that disaster were found at low water imbedded in the sand. The track of the pickets, the form of the river bastion, the foundation of chimneys in the block-houses still mark the site of Fort Piqua. The plow has leveled the graves of the brave men - for many sleep here - who fell in the service. At this place, Fort Loramie, St. Mary's and Fort Wayne, large numbers of the regulars and militia of volunteers were buried in the wars of WAYNE, as well as in the last war.

 

Friendly Indians. - In the late war the far greater number of Indians who remained friendly and claimed and received protection from the United States were placed under the care of Col. JOHNSTON at Piqua. These were the Shawanese, Delawares, Wyandots in part, Ottawas in part, part of the Senecas, all the Munseys and Mohicans; a small number remained at Zanesfield, and some at Upper Sandusky, under Major B. F. STICKNEY, now (1846) of Toledo. The number here amounted, at one period, to six thousand, and were doubtless the best protection to the frontier. With a view of detaching the Indians here from American interest and taking them off to the enemy, and knowing that so long as Col. JOHNSTON lived this could not be accomplished, several plots were contrived to assassinate him. His life was in the utmost danger. He arose many mornings with but little hope of living until night, and the friendly chiefs often warned him of his danger, but he was planted at the post; duty, honor and the safety of the frontier forbade his abandoning it. His faithful wife stayed by him; the rest of his family, papers and valuable facts were removed to a place of greater security.

 

Escape from Assassins. - On one occasion his escape seemed miraculous. Near the house, at the roadside, by which he daily several times passed in visiting the Indian camp was a cluster of wild plum bushes. No one would have suspected hostile Indians to secrete themselves there; yet, there the intended assassins waited to murder him, which they must have soon accomplished had they not been discovered by some Delaware women, who gave the alarm. The Indians-three in number - fled; a party pursued, but lost the trail. It afterwards appeared that they went up the river some distance, crossed to the east side, and passing down nearly opposite his residence, determined in being foiled of their chief prize not to return empty-handed. They killed Mr. DILBONE and his wife, who were in a field pulling flax; their children, who were with them, escaped by secreting themselves in the weeds. From thence, the Indians went lower down, three miles, to Loss Creek, where they killed David GARRARD, who was at work a short distance from his house. The leader of the party, POSH-E-TOWA, was noted for his cold-blooded cruelty, and a short time previous was the chief actor in destroying upwards of twenty persons - mostly women and children - at a place called Pigeon Roost, Indiana. He was killed after the war by one his own people, in satisfaction for the numerous cruelties he had committed on unoffending persons.

 

Management of Indians. - In the war of 1812 nothing was more embarrassing to the public agents than the management of the Indians on the frontier. President Madison, from a noble principle, which does his memory high honor, positively refused to employ them in the war, and this was a cause of all the losses in the country adjacent to the upper lakes. Having their families in possession, the agents could have placed implicit confidence in the fidelity of the warriors. As it was, they had to manage them as they best could. Col. JOHNSTON frequently furnished them with white flags with suitable mottoes, to enable them to pass out-posts and scouts in safety. On one occasion the militia basely fired on one of these parties bearing a flag hoisted in full view. They killed two Indians, wounded a third, took the survivors prisoners, and after robbing them of all they possessed conveyed them to the garrison at Greenville, to which post the party belonged.

 

On reflection, they were convinced they had committed an unjustifiable act and became alarmed for the consequences. They brought the prisoners to Upper Piqua and delivered them to Col. JOHNSTON. He took them, wishing to do the best in his power for the Indians, and on deliberation decided to conduct them back to Greenville and restore them, with their property, to their people.

 

 

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five miles, the road entirely uninhabited and known to be infested with the Indians, who had recently killed two girls near Greenville. But he alike refused. All his appeals to the pride and patriotism of officers and men proving unavailing he decided to go alone, it being a case that required the promised action to prevent evil impressions spreading among the Indians. He got his horse ready, bade farewell to his wife, scarcely ever expecting to see her again, and reached Greenville in safety; procured nearly all the articles taken from the Indians and delivered them back, made them a speech, dismissed them, and then springing on his horse started back alone, and reached his home in safety, to the surprise of all, particularly the militia, who, dastardly fellows, scarce expected to see him alive, and made many apologies for their cowardice.

 

Indian Faithfulness. - During the war Col. JOHNSTON had many proofs of the fidelity of some of the friendly Indians. After the surrender of Detroit the frontier of Ohio was thrown into the greatest terror and confusion. A large body of Indians still resided within its limits accessible to the British. In the garrison of Fort Wayne, which was threatened, were many women and children, who, in case of attack, would have been detrimental to its defense, and it therefore became necessary to have them speedily removed. Col. JOHNSTON assembled the Shawanese chiefs, and stating the case requested volunteers to bring the women and children at Fort Wayne to Piqua. LOGAN (see page 352) immediately rose and offered his services and soon started with a party of mounted Indians, all volunteers. They reached the post, received their interesting and helpless charge and safely brought them to the settlements, through a country infested with marauding bands of hostile savages. The women spoke in the highest terms of the vigilance, care and delicacy of their faithful conductors.

 

TRAVELING NOTES

 

On my arrival at Piqua I had the gratification of being taken in charge of by the oldest born resident, and to him I am under "ever so many" obligations. This was Major Stephen JOHNSTON, so named from his father, a brother of Col. John JOHNSTON. He is by profession a lawyer, and although I met many of his profession in this tour, he is the only one that I know of whose father was killed and scalped by the Indians and his scalp sold to the British. This happened near Fort Wayne, where he was a factory agent. A month later, September 29, 1812, the Major was born. This was in a farm-house just south of Piqua.

The stock is historic and heroic. The Major's mother's maiden name was Mary CALDWELL, and she was born in Bryant's Station, a fort near Lexington, Ky., in 1788, in the pristine days of BOONE, KENTON and Simon GIRTY and his red-skinned confreres, the hair lifting war-whoops. When the Major was thirteen years of age he put on a knapsack, trudged through the wilderness to Urbana, learned to make saddles, and then for fourteen years worked as a journeyman saddler in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Pennsylvania. In the meanwhile he studied as he stitched until in 1850, when 38 years old, he launched as a lawyer with six children, as he says, "tugging at his coat tail." Prior to this he had been county sheriff and in the Ohio Legislature; since been an officer in the Union army, in the Legislature, President of the Board of Trustees of the Ohio State University, Greenback candidate for Governor, etc., everywhere a leading spirit, and being such took me in his cheery charge.

 

Piqua's Social Exchange. - After dusk of a fine April day he introduced me to the social exchange of Piqua, located on the pavement in front of the tobacco and cigars store of Mr. Charles T. WILTHEISS. There I found a knot of antediluvians - old gentleman of the town lolling in chairs smoking and chatting over the affairs of the universe, Jupiter and its moons inclusive, which they often do there, amid the chirping of crickets and the amiable disputes of the katydids. Taking a chair and a cigar with them they answered my questions. One happened to be: "Have you any curious trees about here?" "Oh, yes! Something very remarkable. About two miles north between the river and canal, which are but a few rods apart, an elm and a sycamore start out from the ground together, go up with embracing bodies and intermingled branches." The next day I walked thither with Mr. WILTHEISS, and found it such a great curiosity that I had it photographed for the engraving that is given and named it "Wedded Trees of the Great Miami."

 

 

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mounds, making explorations. He has in his cigar store a fine cabinet of relics, and has made valuable contributions to various archeological museums. He told me that he was unlettered. But I found his hobby had educated him, added interest to his life and made him an interesting man. He had been a close observer of nature, and this is all in all. Nature is God's College for Humanity, where old Sol sits in the presidential chair and lights up things. No one that closely observes and carefully reflects from his facts can be called ignorant.

 

A Sad Incident. - It was on Saturday morning, April 17, that Mr. WILTHEISS and myself turned our backs on the old upper covered bridge for a walk to the wedded trees, the canal on our left and the Big Miami on our right. We walked on the towing path. My companion talked all the way, making the walk highly enjoyable. We give some details.

 

We had gone but a few hundred yards when he said: "The river at this spot is very dangerous; many boys have been drowned here. On the 12th of July, 1858, a Mr. JONES, who was going to his work in a threshing machine shop, saw two boys struggling for their lives in the water, where upon he rushed to their rescue. He waded across the canal, ran down the river bank into the water and saved them. Both are now living, men about 40 years of age, Dr. M'DONALD and E. B. BUTTERFIELD. But JONES lost his own life, sank through exhaustion and perished, leaving a widow, and three children fatherless."

 

Island Formation. - The tremendous freshets late in the Miami, consequent upon forest destruction, make great changes. We soon passed an island made by a freshet only two years before. It was like a flat iron in shape, point downstream, and at its upper part, where it was separated by a rivulet from other land, it was about 200 feet across. Its total length with some 600 feet. It was some two feet high, and in places overgrown with young sycamore and willow bushes some five or six feet high. These, my companion said, had sprung up in the intervening two years: the willows from broken twigs and the sycamores from the seed balls, commonly called button balls, that had floated down and lodged in the rich alluvium.

 

Thorns. - We passed some locust bushes, with thorns full five inches in length, whereupon he said: "This is what we call the sweet locust, because it bears a bean sweet to the taste, which children often eat. Some suppose this to be the identical species grown in Palestine, which John the Baptist, when crying in the wilderness, ate when he partook of "locusts and wild honey;" those thorns also may be the identical kind from which came the crown of thorns that Christ wore at his crucifixion." How this may be I can't say, but doubtless the thorns were like those sometimes used in lieu of pins by the pioneer women. Chief Justice MARSHALL somewhere speaks of his mother and the old time Virginia women using such. This was probably as far back as the time when murderers were hung on chains by the roadside in Virginia, a ghastly sight for travelers in that then wilderness region. Elkanah WATSON, who traveled through Virginia in the revolutionary war, speaks of seeing such.

 

Presently Mr. WILTHEISS pointed out a field where were the relics of a large circular mound. It had been an Indian burial place, and proved for him a rich spot for relics.

 

Sites, songs and sounds. - Pursuing our walk along the beautiful river, I found myself involved in the delights of nature. It was the breeding season among the birds, and they gave us their sweetest love notes. Among the cries were those of a pair of red birds, the cardinal, from the opposite side of the Miami. We stopped and listened. The female is red on the breast, and the back and wings gray. The male is everywhere red, excepting a black ring around the bill, which is also red. He has a red top-knot which he raises while singing, and lays down when silent. "Wait," said WILTHEISS, "I will call them over." Starting a peculiar whistle, in a twinkling over they came in all their feathery beauty, and flying around followed us with their song.

 

The Indians of the Pacific slope to this day while hunting call various animals, even squirrels, within the range of their rifles. How they do it is a secret, for if a white man is along they will hide their mouths with their hands. This may be called the Art of the Woods, to be a lost art with the extinction of the Indians.

 

Moving on we were soon saluted by the cackling of hens, the crowing of roosters, the bellowing of a cow, and the hammering of a man driving nails in a fence from an old brown farm cottage nearby, and then the voices of two men paddling upstream in a skiff with fish rod's along, going for black bass, it being just the biting season. Vegetable felicity finally arrested us: we had reached the wedded trees.

 

 

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Gale, Photo, 1886.

 

 

 

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Top Picture

COL. JOHN JOHNSTON.

 

Bottom Picture

Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.

 

UPPER PIQUA.

 

 

 

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as one would put a board through an upright slat fence. My feet sank a foot or so lower than the ground outside. I then stood upright, and the top of the split came up to about my waist; but little light came in through it. Above me the hole went up indefinitely. The walls were covered with pendent decaying wood. The place was gloomy and musty. I could see but little, and was glad to quickly get out, feeling as though I could not command it for any permanent habitation.

 

Aged trees, like the sycamore here, are apt to be hollow within. This seems to make no difference with their duration of life. The famous Charter Oak lived about 150 years after the secretion of the charter within, and in its last years it held all the members of two fire companies at once. When it was blown down in a gale about 1854, the bells of Hartford tolled and a military band played a dirge over its remains.

 

The sustaining life of trees appears to be within a few inches of their bark. I once saw an aged oak that had been destroyed by fire, and all that was left of it was less than half of its outer shell, and this had within a surface of charcoal; yet the shell had sufficient vim to carry up the sap for its few remaining branches that had put forth leaves. That tree, however, was on its last legs. I've visited the spot a year later and it was gone. The old sycamore I was slipped into may yet live a century. The Charter Oak was perhaps 1,000 years of age.

 

Colonel John JOHNSTON. - From near the wedded trees I had a view of Upper Piqua, shown in our sketch of 1846. He was the largest contributor to my original edition. He was of Scotch-Irish and Huguenot stock, was born in Ballyshannon, Ireland, in 1775, and died in Washington, D.C., in 1861. When a lad he came to Pennsylvania with his father's family; at 17 years was in the quartermaster's department in Wayne's Army; was later clerk in the War Department; participated as an officer at the funeral services of WASHINGTON; was Indian agent, appointed by MADISON, at Upper Piqua for 30 years, having control of the affairs of 10,000 Indians, comprising many tribes, and giving great satisfaction; negotiated for a treaty of cession of the Wyandots, last of the native tribes of Ohio. In 1844, as a delegate to the Whig convention in Baltimore, he rode on horseback the whole way from Piqua, and made speeches for Henry Clay along the route. He established with his wife the first Sunday-school in Miami county; was one of the founders of Kenyon College; a trustee of Miami; a member of the Visiting Board at West Point; president of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, etc., etc. His "Account of the Indian Tribes of Ohio" is in the 5th volume of the "Collections of the American Society Antiquarian." Three of his sons were valued officers: one, Stephen, was in the Navy, another, A. R., was killed in the Mexican war, and a third, James A., was killed in the civil war.

 

I remember as of yesterday by first interview with Col. JOHNSTON at Upper Piqua. He was a tall, dignified man, and of the blonde type, then 71 years of age. He was at the time plainly clad, but impressive, seeming as one born to command. It was a warm summer's day, and he took me to his well and gave me a drink of pure cold water, the quality of which he praised with the air of a prince. No man had the power and influence with the Western Indians that he possessed, and it arose from his weight of character and his high sense of justice. After leaving Upper Piqua, he resided for years with his daughter, Mrs. John D. JONES, at Cincinnati. He was indeed a sterling man every way, and Ohio should never forget him.

 

Tippecanoe is six miles south of Troy, on the Miami & Erie Canal and D. & M. R. R. City officers, 1888: Ellis H. KERR, Mayor; E. A. JACKSON, Clerk; John K. HERR, Treasurer; Thos. HARTLEY, Marshall. Newspaper: Herald, Republican; Harry HORTON, editor and publisher. Churches: 1 Methodist, 1 Baptist, 1 Lutheran and 1 other. Bank: Tippecanoe National, Samuel SULLIVAN, president, A. W. MILES, cashier.

 

Manufacturers and Employees. - J. L. NORRIS, Excelsior, 5; TRUPP, WEAKLY & Co., builders' wood-work, 25: FORD & Co., wheels, 51; DIETRICH Milling Co., flour, etc., 5; the Tipp Paper Co., straw boards, 34. - State Reports, 1887.

 

Population, 1880, 1,401. School census, 1888, 444; J. T. BARTMESS, school superintendent. Capital invested in manufacturing establishments, $75,000. Value of annual product, $75,000. - Ohio Labor Statistics, 1888.

 

 

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A. C. CABLE, cashier. Population, 1880, 1,458. School census, 1888, 504. R. F. BENNETT, school superintendent.

 

Casstown is four miles northeast of Troy. It has 1 Methodist, 1 Baptist and 1 Lutheran church. Population, 1880, 331. School census, 1888, 121.

 

Bradford is thirteen miles northwest of Troy, on the I. & C. Div. of the P. C. & St. L. R. R. It is part in Darke and part in Miami counties. City officers, 1888: Enos YOUNT, Mayor; John S. MOORE, Clerk; David ARNOLD, Treasurer; Ruben ENOCHS, Marshall. Newspaper: Sentinel, Independent, A. F. LITTLE, editor and publisher. Churches: 1 Catholic, 1 Cumberland Presbyterian, 1 Methodist, 1 German Baptist, 1 Baptist, 1 German Reformed. Manufacturers: Railroad repair shops, lumber, tile and furniture. Population, 1880, 1,373. School census, 1888, 281. Capital invested in manufacturing establishments, $75,000 value of annual product, $75,000. - Ohio Labor Statistics, 1888.

 

West Milton is eight miles southwest of Troy, on the D. Ft. W. & C. R. R. Newspaper: Buckeye, Republican, H. J. PEARSON, editor and publisher. Bank: West Milton, Robert W. DOUGLAS, president, D. F. DOUGLAS, cashier. Population, 1880, 688. School census, 1888, 301, W. W. EVANS, school superintendent.

 

Fletcher is ten miles northeast of Troy, on the P. C. & St. L. R. R. Population, 1880, 384. School census, 1888, 166.

 

Lena is twelve miles northeast of Troy, on the P. C. & St. L. R. R. School census, 1888, 120.