The Ohio Valley in Colonial Days

Preface

. A reviewer of "The Family: An Historical and Social Study," published a few years ago, criticised this volume in the following words: " Perhaps the greatest lack of this book is a preface, for the merit of a compilation of this sort depends upon the end aimed at and the method followed." The writer of the following pages desires to obvi ate such criticisms and to assist the above reviewer in what is evidently his practice of reviewing, namely to depend on the preface for his idea of the book. The history of all ages and of all nations offers the most abundant sources for romancing, and many an historian has paid more attention to the picturesque and romantic sides of the questions be fore him, than to the bare matter of fact. Prescott's " Conquest of Mexico," Abbot's " History of Napo leon," are delightful reading for everybody, but also most unfaithful guides to the earnest historian.

Another stumbling block for the historical writer is to look upon events, occurred in past ages, with the eyes of to-day, and thus to impute to the actors in these events motives, which must remain hidden Preface. and cannot be understood, unless brought to cotem poraneous light by the actors themselves. The writer of this volume has tried to avoid both, Scylla and Charybdis, and has at the same time taken care, not to become a mere annalist. How far he has succeeded, the reader must judge. It is perhaps proper, that a citizen of New York should write of the Ohio Valley, because by the trea ties of 1 701, 1726 and 1768, made on New York territory and by New York influences, the former owners of the Ohio territory, the aboriginal rulers of the eastern half of this continent, placed the largest share of their country under the protection of New York, and because the latter State made a union of the Colonies possible, by ceding to New England claimants — claimants under Royal paper titles — so much of the territory, derived from the original owners.

The student of American history will find some hitherto unpublished and unknown material in this volume; beyond that it is only an arrangement of already known facts, scattered through a library of books on the subject. CONTENTS. PAGE. Chapter I. Discovery 9 II. Geographical Knowledge 17 III. The Indians of the Ohio Valley 30 IV. The Beginning of the Struggle for Supremacy 60 V. The Contest Transferred to the Ohio Valley 83 VI. The French Masters of the Ohio Valley 134 VII. The Flag of St. George Floats again over the Valley 150 VIII. Indian Wars 165 IX. North and West of the Ohio 173 X. South of the Ohio 185 Appendix

Chapter I. Discovery

Who was the first man of European race, to see the waters of the Ohio Valley? Was it Ferdinand de Soto, the Adelantado of Cuba, upon whom Emperor Charles V, had conferred the title of Marquis of all the lands, which he should conquer on his expedition to Florida in 1539? Luis Hernandez de Biedma, who accompanied this expe dition, tells us, that after marching about in what are now the States of Florida, Georgia and Alabama, for eighteen months, the explorers found themselves in November, 1540, in the Province of Chicaza, or Chicaca, where they suffered extremely from the cold, and where " more snow falls than in Spain." According to a map of Carolana,* Chicazas was an Indian village on the Casqui or Cusates river, and if the Indian tribe of the Chickasaws had not moved their habitations since De Soto's visit, we must assume, that this expeditionary force of 1539 were the first Europeans, who entered the valley of Ohio, as they were the first to see the Mississippi.

In the same account we find a river mentioned under * In Daniel Coxe's Description of the English Province of Carolana, London, 1722. the name of Sasquechana ; is the Susquehannah meant ? De Witt Clinton said, in a paper on the Ohio In dians, that De Soto and his army built forts at the mouth of the Muskingum. What was his authority for this statement ? In 1568, Sir John Hawkins left England with a squadron of ships on an errand, which to-day might be considered piracy and high-handed robbery. He expected, to make himself a rich man by pillaging Spanish settlements in Central America. Occur rences, which it is not necessary to detail here, com pelled him to put part of his crew ashore, probably within the limits of modern Nicaragua. Some of these sailors made their way across the North Ameri can continent to within fifty miles of Cape Breton, where a French fishing vessel picked them up and carried them home to England.

Did they enter the valley of the Ohio? We may suppose so. The story of their wanderings, as told to " Sir Francis Walsingham, one of her Majesty's (Queen Elizabeth) principal Secretaries, Sir George Peckham and others of good judgment" in 1582, hardly mentions any locality, by the peculiarities of which their route might be traced, except the Crystal mountain, now Mount Washington, in New Hampshire, until they came to Ochala and the Saganas.* Of the few Indian words, given in the recital, it is possible to identify only one. Ingram, one of the * Probably Hochelaga, now Montreal, and the Saguanah or Saguenais river. sailors, tells, that the Indians called the sun — Kerucca; the Onondaga Dictionary of Father Bruyas,* missionary among this tribe about 1688, gives the Onondaga word for sun as " Garrakoua."

Garricona, Ingram's Indian word for king, may be the same as the Iroquois Corachkoo, great chief, but it is also similar to the Quappas Indians (Arkan sas) word Karikeh, king. An essay on the tale of this tramps says: "It would appear, that he (Ingram and his two compan ions), left the border of Texas and started for the Atlantic coast (presumably due east), where he hoped, to find some English vessel. He appears to have reached or have heard of, the Altamaha, in Georgia and kept on north-easterly, passing through the present territory of New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts." If the travellers had reached the shores of the Atlantic ocean as far south as Georgia or even farther north, why then should they have again gone inland as far as Hochelaga and the Saguenay? The mention of these Indian names, already known since the middle of the sixteenth century, seem to indicate, that Ingram had some idea, of where on the continent, with the dimensions of which he had probably become acquainted during his life at sea, a chance for a return to England might be found ; that therefore these men started on their weary tramp in a direction north-east by east * Published by J. G. Shea, 1859. \ Mag. of Am.

History, March, 1883. and thus crossed somewhere the waters of the Ohio Valley. Domine Johannis Megapolensis, the first Christian minister at Albany, N. Y, wrote to his ecclesiastical superiors, the Classis of Amsterdam in Holland, on the 28th of September, 1658:* "Le Moynef told me that during his residence among the Indians, he had found a salt spring about 100 (Dutch) miles from the sea.J * * * Also another spring, from which oil issued, at least water, upon which oily matter floats, used by the Indians to grease their hair." Was this the first discovery of Oil creek in Alle gany county, N. Y., which makes its way into the Ohio, passing through one or two Pennsylvania counties, and must we allow the honor of having also discovered the waters of the Ohio Valley to Le Moyne, or did the Jesuit refer to oil, found on the waters of Seneca lake ?

Champlain gave to the world the first positive information concerning the great inland sea, which though not belonging to the Ohio Valley, borders it on the north. He saw its neighbor, Lake Ontario, and received, in 161 5, his knowledge of Lake Erie from Etienne Brule, a traveller on its waters or along its shores. But Champlain's map of 1632 has nothing to say of the Ohio river, of which neither Etienne Brule nor any of the coureurs des bois *Amsterdam Correspondence, MSS. in the possession of the Genl. Synod of the Reformed Church. fA French Jesuit, a missionary among the Onondaga and Seneca Indians. ■(Onondaga Co., N. Y. after him seemed to have heard any thing, although like the Jesuits they penetrated west beyond Lake Erie. Here we recognize the fingers of the Five Nations in the pie of colonial Indian policy.

French men, knowing of the tribes south of the lakes, had to go, if they wanted to trade with them, by the so-called Ottawa route, because the Iroquois hated the French and would only in exceptional cases allow them to enter into, but not pass through their territory. Nearly half a century had passed after Brule's discovery of Lake Erie, when a French missionary was told, in 1663, of a river nearly as large as the St. Lawrence, taking its course south west and west. A few years later Dallier, another missionary, received also some vague information concerning this western river, which, after having followed it for seven to eight months, would bring the traveller to a place where the land was cut off, that is, where the river fell into the sea. Dallier's inform ants called this river the " Ohio."* The Delawares called it Alliwegi Sipee, that is the river of the Alliwegi, hence our modern Allegany.

Many Indian tribes were said to live on this river, none of whom had ever been seen in Canada, and some of them were so numerous, that they had twenty villages. These reports inflamed the adventurous spirit of Robert Cavelier de la Salle and inspired him with a desire to discover a new route to the South sea or *According to Bruyas this is a Mohawk word and means " Beautiful River;" Bruyas says lo in composition expresses the beauty of the object. the Pacific ocean. He obtained from the governor of Canada not only liberty to go on this venturesome journey, but also a patent authorizing him, to make all kinds of discoveries and soldiers to assist him. Fathers Dallier and Gallinee were sent with him, and on the 7th of July, 1669, the travellers started from La Salle's seigneurie of La Chine.

After thirty days of toiling up the St. Lawrence and breasting the waves of Lake Ontario, they reached the Seneca village on the Genesee river, where they hoped to obtain guides, who could lead them to the Ohio. They learned, that the head-waters of the river were not far, but instigated, it is suspected, by the Jesuit, Pere Fremin, stationed there, the Senecas tried to dissuade La Salle and his companions, the missionaries of the Sulpitian order, from the journey because, they said, "if you go to the Ohio, the In dians there will kill you." After a tedious delay of a whole month, a Ganastogue Indian from near the head of Lake Ontario, offered to help them and con ducted the party to his village, where they were given two Indian slaves as guides. La Salle received a Chaouanon (Shawanoe), the other, who fell to the Sulpitians, was a Nez Perce.

These guides told, that it would take a march of one and a half months to reach the first tribe on the Ohio. While preparing to start, a countryman of the travellers arrived at the same village. It was Joliet, a native of Canada, who had originally been destined for the church, but who driven by a restless spirit to adopt the life of a coureur des bois and Indian trader was now returning from a western journey, made to discover the copper mines on Lake Superior. He told of a tribe of Poutaouatamies, living on the great river, leading to the Chaouanons, and this induced the Sulpitians, who probably mistook them for Out aouacs, to decide that they would go there and try to convert them. After spending the fall and winter at Long Point, during which time, in October, 1669, they took formal possession, in the name of Louis XIV, of the lands on Lake Erie, they continued their journey along the north side of the lake, but while camping at Point Pelee, the lake robbed them of their altar service, and they decided to make their way home, via Detroit and the Ottawa river and to leave the Potawatomies to wallow in spiritual darkness a little longer.

La Salle, who had been ill or feigned illness, when the Sulpitian brothers left him, continued his journey to Onondaga, New York., and finding a guide there soon after, embarked with his party on the Allegany branch of the Ohio, which river he descended as far as the falls at Louisville. Here his men deserted him and he was compelled to make his way back to Canada all by himself. A biped of the genus tramp of to-day would perhaps not consider such a march a very great undertaking, but as may be imagined, it was a very different thing two hun dred years ago, when there were no roads or rail way tracks to follow, no hen-roosts to visit, no farm- In Colonial Days. 16 er's wife to frighten into the dispensation of a boun tiful meal. We derive very little information through La Salle, concerning the river Ohio or the country, through which he travelled, beyond the fact that he discovered the river and was the first white man who undoubtedly traversed the present State of Ohio.

(See Appendix A.) Two years later, in 1671, Gen eral Wood of Virginia was attacked by the discovering fever. Not that he went himself and like La Salle braved the terrors of an unknown wilderness ; the dignity of his exalted position as Major-General probably forbade that, — but he sent others to do the discovering for him, whose journal and remarks are given in the Appendix B.* These adventurers, sent out by General Wood, did not reach the Ohio, but came to several of its tributaries and were thus the first white men to visit Eastern Kentucky and Ten nessee. *This paper and the one in App. C, are in the Sparks Collection of Har vard College Library; copies of them were kindly furnished by J. Winsor, Esq.

Chapter II. Geographical Knowledge

These were the first information of and explora tions into the valley of the Ohio. Notwithstanding the claim made by Dr. Mitchell (see Appendix C*), we must apparently concede the honor of first discovery to a Frenchman, although Wytfliet's map of "Florida et Apalche,"f shows us a river starting under 400 North Latitude and 2930 East Longitude, which after a mainly south-west course, empties into the Santo Spirito or Mississippi, under 35° North Lati tude and 2840 East Longitude, with two branches, while a third branch goes directly into the Gulf of Mexico. This nameless river receives a tributary from the south-east. Is the main stream meant for the Ohio and the tributary for the Great Kanawha? Then we must ask, whence did Wytfliet derive his information ? From Biedmas' account ? Another Frenchman, Joliet, is the first to give us the name on his map of 1673-4; he tells us that the Ohio was then called Ouabouskigon, whence prob ably is derived the name later given to it, of Wabash. * See note on preceeding page concerning Appendix B. fAcosta, Cologne Edition of 1598.

On his larger map of 1674, he describes the river as " la route du Sieur de la Salle pour aller dans le Mexique" (the route taken by Sieur de la Salle to go to Mexico), without giving it a name. A map without title or maker's name, number three in Mr. Parkman's collection and probably belonging to the time, when little was as yet known of the newly dis covered river and territory, calls it " la Riviere Ohio, ainsi appellee par les Iroquois k cause de sa beaute, par ou le Sr. de la Salle est descendu," but places it in some parts almost parallel to and within a short distance of Lake Erie. The jealousy with which the various discoverers and their friends looked upon each other, is well shown by a map, entitled "Carte de la nouvelle de couverte que les Peres Jesuites ont fait en l'annee 1672," etc., which shows us nearly the whole course of the " Mitchisipi," of its tributaries, the Illinois, the Wisconsin on the east side and several large rivers on the west side, as the Missouri and the Arkansas, but not the faintest indication of the Ohio river.

The next cartographer, probably Franquelin, in his " Carte de l'Amerique Septentrionale et partie de la Meridionale" of 1682 restores the Ohio to its place, but again too near Lake Erie. On his map of 1684 the river is not only in a fairly correct place, but is also given various tributaries without names. Some of these he had learned when he made his map of 1688, for by that he tells us of the Ohio or Belle Riviere and calls a tributary coming from the east the Ohoio, while the Riviere Ouabache has for its tributary the R. Oiapigaming ( ). Father Raffeix, S. J., has not yet learned in 1688, that other streams empty into the Ohio, but he gives us the first carto graphical information of the " Petit Sault," the rapids near Louisville, Kentucky. A map of the same year, 1688, called " Partie occidentale du Canada ou de la Nouvelle F ranee , oil sont les Nations des Ilinois, de Tracy, les Iroquois, etc., avec la Louisiane, nouvellement decouverte * * * par le P. Coro nelli, Cosmographe de la Serme Republic de Venise," has the Riviere Ouabache without tributaries.

Raudin, Frontenac's engineer, again ignores the Ohio, while a map made three years before in 1685 by Minet, "la Carte de la Louisiane" has the river in its full length, though without most of its tribu taries and calling it in its middle course Ouabache, which name is changed in the lower to "le Chou cagoua." The Hennepin map of 1697 has again the Ohio or Ouye without tributaries, running almost completely in the direction of its degree of latitude and parallel to and between two ranges of mountains, the Mons Apalach on the south and an unnamed range on the north. A map in the Parkman collection, without date or title, of which we find a sketch in Mr. Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. IV, p. 206, and which Mr. Parkman considers the work of the Jesuits and " the earliest representation of the upper Mississippi, based perhaps on the reports of the Indians" shows in a fairly correct location for the Ohio river a stream, called Chaboussioua.

Mr. Bellin, Ingenieur du Roi et de la Marine, published, also in 1755, two maps, which must find a place here. The "Carte de l'Amerique Septentrio nale " informs us of the location of Joncaire's fort a little below Venango, near the mouth of French creek. Another French post is on the Chiningu6 R. A settlement, called "le Baril" is mentioned as at the mouth of White Woman's creek and La Da moiselle, another settlement or Indian village, is on the creek of that name. Ouitanon, a French fort, is on the Ouabache or S' Jerome about midway from its mouth, and at its mouth we have Fort Anne or Fort Vincene. The embouchure of the Cherakee R. is guarded by another Frencrr fort, " commence depuis longtemps " and at its head we find Quanese, an Eng lish post. Walker's settlement at the head of the "Old Chaouanon " is marked as destroyed.

His other map of the same year, " Partie Occidentale de la Nouvelle France " is here mentioned only because according to it, the south shore of Lake Erie " is al most unknown." The dedication to " Monseigneur le Comte d'Ar genson, Secretaire pour le Departement de la Guerre," which position he filled from 1743 to 1757, gives us an approximate date of a map by Robert de Vau gondy fils, Geographer to the King up to 1 760, en titled " Carte des Pays connus sous le nom de Canada au Nouvelle France." It adds nothing that we do not find upon other French maps. Two other maps must be mentioned on behalf of French geographical knowledge, although it is pos sible that English maps or information, derived from English sources, guided the cartographer. Both were published at Amsterdam in Holland without date.

The first one has the title : " Carte de la Nouvelle France, etc., etc., Amsterdam chez la veuve de Jo. Van Keulen et Fils." The river Ouabache, Orabac, ' autrement nommee Ohio ou belle Riviere (other wise called the Ohio or Beautiful river) comes from the Onondaga country. It has an affluent, rising not many miles south of its own source and running almost parallel to it, until the two rivers join, which is called Riviere d'Oubache or Akansea Septentrio nale. This is stated as being on the route taken by the French, when they go to Carolina. On the Coskinampo branch of this tributary live the Chic achas, Taogarias, Coskinampos and Chaouanons. The upper course of this Akansea is called Riviere d'Ohio or Acansea Sipi. Some fifty miles from its junction with the Mississippi we find the legend : Chaouanon Mines of Iron in English and at the mouth of a tributary coming from the north, the R. Wabashe, is a fort.

The second of these undated maps is the " Carte Nouvelle de l'Am6rique Angloise * * * par le Sieur S., Amsterdam chez Pierre Mortier. According to it the Ohio, which is not named, rises in the longitude of the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. A tributary coming from the south-east is called Sabsquigs and it mentions the mines of iron of the preceding map. Several legends show the English origin in their Anglicized French, as Perres San guines, Fort des mi Amis. William Smith, the historian of New York, de plores in his work the ignorance of his countrymen, the English, in regard to American geography. A recent writer, Charles Dudley Warner, says of it in a happy, terse way : " Ignorance of America is taught in English schools." Apparently the earliest English map, which gives information to the geographical student in Great Britain, of Lake Erie is " A New Map of the English Plantations in America," etc., by Robert Morden, London, without date.

The same Morden published a map of Carolina in 1687 and a map, which will be mentioned hereafter, with Herman Moll about 1 71 5. This gives us an approximate date for his above-named production, of which nothing more need be said, than that Felis Lake (Lake Erie) would be divided according to it by the extension, due west, of the boundary line between Maryland and Virginia. The same geographer published a " Geography of the World." The copy which the writer of this chapter has consulted, is without title page, but a passage in the account of New York, reading " presented by the late King to the present King James the Second," tells us, that the book in question must have been published before 1689. A map of Florida shows the Ohio, without name, and the Illinovik rivers entering the Mississippi.

The Ohio rises not far from the head of a river, going into Lake Michi gan from the south-east. In the account accompany ing this map nothing is said about the rivers emptying into the Mississippi, which is called the Holy Ghost river. Morden and Moll's map of 1 715 " The Seat of War in the West Indies, etc., together with the adjacent Dominions " represents only the lower half of the " Ochio or Belle R., which empties into the Miss issippi in two branches. Near the mouth of the northern branch we find the " Port des Anguilles." Edward Wells, M. A. and Student at Christ Church, Oxford, attempted in 1701 to enlighten his countrymen by a " New Set of Maps * * * ," one of which is a map of North America. The Hotico river, as he calls the Ohio, runs almost parallel to its degree of latitude, breaking through the chain of the Apalachia Mountains, which extend from the south-western end of Lake Erie to the mouth of the Illinois river and thence into unknown regions.

"A New Map of the most Considerable Plantations of the English in America" in the same "Set of Maps" does not go far enough west to give the Ohio. Christophori Cellarii, Smalcaldensis, Geographia Antiqua is the work of a German scholar, but hav ing been published at Londonin 1731, it must be classed among the English geographical sources of information. A map in it of the whole American Continent has the course of the Ohio fairly correct, without giving its name. ""A New Map of America according to the Best and Latest Observations" by Henry Overton, with out date, belongs to the period, when the English evidently had but little knowledge of this Continent. It is dedicated to Queen Caroline, wife of George I, who died in 1 738, and this dedication gives us a clue to the time of its production.

Lakes Huron, Ontarius and Erius are placed one south of the other, the Ohio is not known and the Mississippi empties into the Gulf of Mexico, after having traversed about 60 miles. H. O. dedicates his " New and Correct Map of the Trading Part of the West Indies, including the Seat of War between Great Britain and Spain, likewise the British Empire in America " etc. etc. to the Honble Edward Vernon, Vice Admiral of the Blue and Commander in the West Indies, which post the Admiral held in 1740. An advertisement on this map, concerning some other publications by H. O., is dated March 25, 1741. The Nation of Chat lives still on the south shore of Lake Erie, and the Salt river, as the Ohio is called, rises in their territory. It receives the Ou bach from the north-east and the Hogohegee with an affluent, called the Illinos R., from the south east.

" The Modern Gazetteer " by Mr. Salmon, LoYidon, 1746, says, the " Hohio is a river in North America, which rises in the Apalachian Mts. near the confines of Carolina and Virginia and running south-west falls into the Mississippi and is by some reckoned the principal stream, which forms the Mississippi." When we consider the frequent intercourse be tween the two capitals, London and Paris, which must have made the English familiar not only with French fashions, but also with French literary and scientific works, we cannot help wondering at the slowness, with which the English grasped French geographical information. They waited until 1752. In the said year appeared "North America, per formed under the patronage of Louis, Duke of Orleans, first Prince of the Blood, by the Sieur d'Anville,* greatly improved by Mr. Bolton."

We learn from it, that the Oyo or Bell or Allegany river has as tributaries the S' Jerome or Ouabach, the Old Chaouanon, the Cherakee and several smaller ones. The Monongahela and Great Kan awha are unknown. An English fort is located on the Cherakee, where the Pelesipi enters from the north-east, an "ancient fort" at the mouth of the Ohio. A "Map of the British Empire in America" by Henry Popple, 1756, demonstrates a most lamenta- *Jean B. d'Anville was Royal Geographer of France in 1718; he died 1782. ble confusion in British geographical knowledge of America. The Cat Nation, destroyed about one hundred years before, is still existing. La Riviere aux Boeufs, now French Creek, enters the Ohio from the east-south-east coming out of a nameless lake. The Monongahela and Kanawha are not known.

The Cherakee is called, as on an English edition of d'Anville, the Hogohegee. Near the mouth of the Pelesipi we read, that there is "a fit place for an English factory," and we find again the " Old Fort" at the mouth of the Ohio. Dr. Edmund Halley, Professor of Astronomy at Oxford, published a new edition of Popple's map under the title of " Nouvelle Carte Particuliere de l'Amerique " without date. His " improvements " on Popple are, that he shortens the Ohio, which rises in the present State of that name, and that the sources of the Hogohegee are "little known." The " New and Accurate Map of the English Em pire in North America," by a Society of Anti-Galli cans, 1755, tells us, that "Walkers, an English settlement" had existence in the forks at the head of the Cumberland river in 1750 and that the mouths of the Ohio and of the Ouabache were guarded by French forts.

The French and Indian war, which ended the French claims to the Ohio valley, was productive of a number of maps on both sides, of which only a few English prints will be mentioned here. John Huske's " New and Accurate Map of North America (wherein the errors of all preceding British, French and Dutch maps respecting the rights of Great Britain * * * are corrected), London, 1755, gives us the names of the French trading posts and stations. Of "A Map of the British Colonies in North America, with the roads * * * " by Dr. John Mitchell, F. R. S., London, 1755, the New York his torian, Smith, says: " Dr. Mitchell's map is the only authentic one extant. None of the rest concerning America have passed under the examination or received the sanction of any public board and they generally copy the French."