Ohio History Journal

THE INDIAN THOROUGHFARES OF OHIO.*

BY ARCHER BUTLER HULBERT.

History tells of two Ohios—the old and the new. The old

Ohio was that portion of the American Hinterland drained by
the Ohio and Allegheny rivers which, together, formed la Belle
Riviere of New France. It included the territory between the
Alleghenies, the Mississippi and the great lakes, save as we ex-
cept the country of Illinois, which early in history became a ter-
ritory distinct by itself, as the meadow lands of Kan-ta-kee be-
came distinct later. As late as the Revolutionary war an English
map printed "Ohio" south, as well as north, of the Ohio river.'

Of this old Ohio (including the Illinois country) only that

part which lay north of the Ohio river contained a resident In-
dian population. That portion south of the river was the Korea
of the central west–the "dark and bloody" battle ground of
surrounding nations half a century before the white man gave
it that name.

North of the Ohio river, in the valleys of the Alleghany,

Beaver, Muskingum, Scioto, Sandusky, Miami, Maumee, Wa-
bash and Illinois, more white men knew the redman intimately
than perhaps anywhere in the United States in the eighteenth
century. This knowledge of the Indian in his own home-land
resulted in giving to the world a mass of material respecting
his country, customs and character. Among other things this
knowledge of the northern division of the old Ohio during the
Indian regime made it possible to map it, and some of these
maps are essentially correct.

The dismemberment of the great old Ohio was rapid, and

in some instances spectacular. The extension of Virginian do-
minion by George Rogers Clark and the evolution 'of the state
of Kentucky, and especially the passage of the great Ordinance

*Copyrighted 1900, by Archer Butler Hulbert.

1 Map with Pownall's "Middle British Colonies in North America 1776,"

(London, 1776).

(264)


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The Indian Thoroughfares of Ohio.              265

 

which once and forever divided the territory by the Ohio river

-all combined to narrow down "Ohio," until now the present

imperial commonwealth is but the core of the great empire once

embraced under its name.

This new Ohio, or the portion of the northern division of

the old Ohio contained between the Beaver and Miami rivers,

offers special inducements to prosecute the study of the branch

of Indian archaeology herewith presented, that of Indian thor-

oughfares. Perhaps the more important conditions are not an-

swered better in any portion of the continent than in what is

now the state of Ohio: it contained a resident Indian popula-

tion; it was extensively visited during Indian occupation by ex-

plorers, traders, spies, armies, missionaries, surveyors and

geographers, who studied and knew the land as it then was;

and, finally, a last and imperative condition is answered, it is in

part a hilly country.

It is possible to believe that in the earliest times the In-

dians travelled only on rivers and lakes. When they turned in-

land we can be practically sure that they found, ready-made and

deeply-worn, the very routes of travel which have since borne

their name. For the beginning of the history of roadmaking

in this central west, we must go back two centuries, when the

buffalo, urged by his need of change of climate, newer feeding

grounds and fresher salt licks, first found his way through the

forests. Even if the first thoroughfares were made by the mas-

todon and the moundbuilder, they first came to white man's

knowledge as buffalo "traces," and later became Indian trails.¹

 

1 A vivid description of the trails of Darkest Africa as seen by Du

Chaillu and Stanley has come recently from the pen of Julian Hawthorne

and may be interesting in this connection:

"These trails, but two or three feet in width, traverse the vast ex-

panse from one side to another; you walk in them single-file; if you

step aside for a few rods, you may spend the rest of your life trying to

find the route again. Around you on every side are the gigantic columns

of the forest-trees; overhead, two hundred feet aloft, their boughs and

dense foliage make a roof through which no sunshine ever falls; all is

as nature made it, except that single narrow thread of thoroughfare,

created by human footsteps, none can tell how many thousand years ago.

For days, weeks, months, you follow such trails, over thousands of miles;

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266        Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

In Kentucky, which we have already noted as unoccupied by

resident Indians, the word "trace" has come down from last

century rather than "trail," which is the word generally used by

the oldest inhabitants of Ohio.l

The routes of the plunging buffalo, weighing a thousand

pounds and capable of covering two hundred miles a day,

were well suited to the needs of the Indian. One who

has any conception of the west as it was a century and a half

ago, who can see the river valleys filled with the immemorial

plunder of the river floods, can realize that there was but one

practicable passage-way across the land for either beast or man,

and that, on the summits of the hills. Here on the hilltops,

mounting on the longest ascending ridges, lay the tawny paths

of the buffalo and Indian. They were not only highways, they

were the highest ways, and chosen for the best of reasons:2

1. The hilltops offered the driest courses; from them

water was shed most quickly and least damage was caused

by erosion.

2. The hilltops were windswept; the snow of winter

and the leaves of summer were alike driven away, leaving

little or nothing to block or obscure the pathway.

3. The hilltops were coigns of vantage for outlook

and signalling.

they were laid out without a compass, by the unaided instinct of the savage;

but they bring you by the shortest route from distant sea to sea." - Cos-

mopolitan, November 1899, p. 127.

1 The two great thoroughfares in Kentucky were on buffalo traces.

Boone's road led to the Blue Grass country where Lexington was built.

Logan's road left Boone's at Rockcastle Creek and led to Crab Orchard,

Bardstown, Bullittt's Lick and Louisville. - Speed's "Wilderness Road,"

p. 27.

2 In such a study as the present nothing could be of more value than

the testimony offered by the Catholic missionaries to New France during

the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Citations will constantly be

made to this great volume of testimony, sometimes as proof, sometimes

in contrast, but always to depict the Indian custom and practice in refer-

ence to our subject. Our quotations will be from "Jesuit Relations and

Allied Documents" edited by Mr. Reuben Gold Thwaites.

The great snow falls of Canada were not experienced south of Lake

Erie. It is interesting to note the effect of much snow on the use of

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MAP

 

OF

INDIAN TRAILS ON WATERSHEDS.

 

[The evolution of our American highways is described elsewhere.

And while noticing the fact that our roads have been coming down hill

for a century, it is interesting to recall that this is true of our civilization.

Our first towns were on the hilltops, as well as our first roads, and like

the roads have come down into the valleys. The need of the motive

power furnished by the streams led to the building of mills in the val-

leys. About the mills sprang up small settlements. The coming of the

railway era was the doom of thousands of proud towns and villages, and

and the shrill scream of the locomotive sounded the passing of the old

thoroughfares on the hills.

Another interesting matter comes up in this conneection. After a

lecture by the author at Adebert College, Cleveland, a well known Ohio

legislator and champion of good roads, took exception to a state-

ment made that the first clearings and farms were along the old high-

ways on the hilltops. There is much evidence that the statement as made

was true, and it is an interesting question for discussion. The question

refers to the first clearings and farms, not the location of the first set-

tlements and towns. Several writers speak of the early clearing of

the hilltops, De Hass, for instance, and the burden of testimony of

the pioneers with whom I have talked is that the first farms were on

the hills. In such a question there can be no rule to hold true in all

cases, but there is a middle ground to take, which, we believe, will in-

cline toward our original view of the matter.]

(267 )

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268        Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

The following chart gives the names, destinations and routes

of the main Indian thoroughfares of Ohio. Of a great number

of trails only a few became prominent. The establishment of

forts, as at Detroit and Pittsburg, and of trading stations, ren-

dered certain trails especially important.1 Of these the follow-

ing were well known:

Indian trails: "There was everywhere 3 feet of snow; and no paths

had yet been made" (Jes. Rel. and Doc. Vol. XII, p. 261). "We departed

therefore, on the 13th and reached home very late at night, after con-

siderable trouble - for the paths were only. about half a foot wide where

the snow would sustain one, and if you turned ever so little to the right

or left you were in it half way up to your thighs" (do. Vol. XV, p. 267).

It is quite evident from the records of the Jesuit missionaries that

the trails of Canada were not of such importance as routes of travel as

were those south of the lakes. The long winters and deep snows rendered

them, for the greater part of the year seemingly, well nigh impassible.

The rivers were the main routes of travel and the missionaries call both

water and land routes "roads" indiscriminately: "the whole length of

the road (from the Huron country to Quebec) is full of rapids and

precipices." (Do. Vol. XXII, p. 307).

1 But the Indian trails had much to do with the location of the forts

and trading stations. Detroit, Sandusky, Pittsburg, Marietta and Cin-

cinnati were the earliest stragetic points for the whites, for both trade

and war, and these were located in naturally stragetic positions. But

for the location of the scores of inland forts and trading houses the In-

dian thoroughfares must have been responsible to a large degree; as we

shall see later they were responsible in a measure for the distribution of

the early population.

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The Indian Thoroughfares of Ohio.           269

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270       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

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The Indian Thoroughfares of Ohio.          271

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272      Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

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The Indian Thoroughfares of Ohio.            273

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274        Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

Advancing civilization has made the valley and hillside blos-

som as the rose; the rivers are dredged until they look little

as they did in the old days; great chasms have been hewn

through hill and mountain by the railways--but the rough

summits of the hills are left much as they were. And here on

the highlands, which were to the trade and travel of the olden

time what our through trunk railways are to us, one may still

follow the serpentine highways of the buffalo and Indian with

as perfect assurance, in many cases, as he may follow the rail-

way, turnpike or tow-path in the valley below. The writer's

sources of information have been, then; 1: a bibliography cov-

ering the many narratives, diaries and memoirs, and the works

written upon them, which have come down to us from last cen-

tury; 2: Personal exploration and interviews with many of that

race of pioneers who knew this west when the Indian thorough-

fares were its main routes of travel.¹

Compare any good geological or topographical map of Ohio

with one of the old maps of last century, Hutchin's, Heckewel-

der's or Evan's, and it will not be difficult to determine, theo-

retically, the courses of the old highways.² Among the several

guiding principles one is of very great help, and that, the general

rule that the trails kept faithfully on the summit of the water-

sheds - for even what may be termed valley trails, as distinct

from cross-country trails, kept well away from the river courses,

often a mile or more back on the highlands.³    Having once de-

1 Among many the author owes a special debt of thanks, greater or

less as the case may be, to the following gentlemen: Rev. David Yant

of Bolivar; Mr. J. C. Zutavern of Zoar; Mr. Obadiah Brokaw of Stock-

port; Bishop Van Vleck of Gnadenhutten; Mr. F. C. Kinsey, Tus-

carawas Co.; Mr. John Hovey of Akron; also J. Hope Sutor, Esq. of

Zanesville; and the Hon. R. M. Stimson of Marietta.

²For early maps see Baldwin's "Early Maps of Ohio and the West,"

tract twenty-five, Vol. 1. "Western Reserve and Northern Ohio His-

torical Society Publications" (April, 1875). Also appended list of maps in

possession of same society.

3 Le Jeune wrote "The road to the Savages' cabins was very bad; it

was necessary to ascend a very steep mountain." (Jes. Rel. and Doc. Vol.

XI, p. 91). "Steep rugged hills were to be clomb," wrote one who fol-

lowed Braddock's army through the Alleghanies on the Indian road;

"headlong declivities to be descended, down which the cannon and wagons

• 11
 

The Indian Thoroughfares of Ohio.        275

 

termined the course of a given trail it is ordinarily an easy

task, by inquiring in the region through which it passed, to

prove by living witnesses its actual course. There is not an

Indian thoroughfare in Ohio which it is not possible to identify,

in portions at least, by means of the testimony of living men.

Trails (7), (2) and (4) are especially interesting to locate, be-

cause they are cross-country trails and follow so faithfully the

highland ranges. The author has never attempted to follow

trail (6), but has as little doubt of its being capable of easy

identification as of its former existence.

It may be valuable to give a detailed description of some

of the important trails, if only to show what information it is

yet possible to obtain of them:

MONONGAHELA TRAIL (7).

(VIRGINIAN DIVISION.)

Left Old Chillicothe - met Muskingum trail north of Stock-

port, Morgan Co., O.- left Muskingum valley at Big Rock -

crossed Ohio river at Belpre, Washington Co., O.- passed

Neal's Station (now Baltimore and Ohio station Ewing's) to

Turtle Run - went north of Kanawha Station - over Eaton's

Tunnel, B. & 0. R'y.- on Dry Ridge northeast into Dodridge

Co., W. Va. - through Martin's woods - north of Greenwood

to Center Station - east to West Union tunnel ("No. 6" or

Gorham's) - thence to headwaters of Middle Island creek - up

Middle Island creek to Tom's Fork--on into Harrison county

to headwaters of Ten Mile creek - down creek to Mononga-

hela river. The course of this trail was described to the writer

by an old Virginian mountaineer who lived near it and who

hunted upon it when it was what the Baltimore and Ohio rail-

way is in this day to that rugged country. The testimony of

Dr. Hildreth in his chapter on "Carpenter's Bar" in "Pioneer

Sketches" proves the correctness of the description, so far as it

goes. The trail may be identified above the tunnels mentioned,

or by striking south to Dry Ridge from the station Petroleum

on the Baltimore and Ohio railway.

were lowered with blocks and tackle." (Journal in "History of Brad-

dock's Expedition," p. 203).

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276      Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

 

THE GREAT TRAIL (2).

The great trail from Fort Pitt to Detroit descended the Ohio

river from Fort Pitt to the mouth of the Big Beaver - struck

northwest to headwaters of Yellow Creek - passed north of New

Lisbon on highlands between headwaters of Big Beaver streams

and Yellow Creek - came down into Big Sandy valley- passed

near Bayard, Columbiana Co., Pekin (now Minerva), Stark Co.,

Waynesburg and Sandyville, crossing Nimishillen creek half mile

above Sandyville--crossed Muskingum (now Tuscarawas) at

the "Crossing Place of the Muskingum" at the new mouth of

Big Sandy - struck northwest, passing through old Baptist bury-

ing ground one-half mile south of Wooster-crossed the Killbuck

north of the bridge on the Ashland road - westward near pre-

sent site of Reedsburg to the Indian town, Mohican John's town

-thence northwest near the present Castalia, Erie Co., to

Fort Sandusky on Sandusky Bay--thence by River Raisin

and Detroit river to Fort Detroit. Two living men, Mr. J. C.

Zutavern, of Zoar, and the venerable Rev. David Yant, of Bol-

ivar, described the course of the Great Trail from Fort Pitt to

the Muskingum to the writer without contradictions. Mr. Zu-

tavern came to Ohio from Fort Pitt in 1819, but crossed the Ohio

river at Wellsville, Columbiana Co., met the Great Trail near

Bayard and followed it thence to the "Crossing Place of the

Muskingum" (Bolivar).

 

MUSKINGUM TRAIL (9).

 

[IN TUSCARAWAS COUNTY.]

Take for instance this, the Muskingum trail, in Tuscarawas

county, to show how fully men yet living may be able to de-

scribe the course of the old time highway. The writer learns

that descending the Muskingum (now Tuscarawas) on the west-

ern bank, it crossed Sugar Creek near the present site of Canal

Dover - crossed Stone creek at its mouth - crossed Old Town

creek at its mouth--thence on the highland farms of A. W.

Patrick, A. Rupert, David Anderson, Elia Mathias, Chas. Kin-

sey (who was the writer's guide), P. F. Kinsey, Sweitzer heirs

- crossed Frye's creek - farms of B. Gross and Wyant - fol-

• 13
 

MAP

 

OF

TUSCARAWAS COUNTY.

 

[The map of Tuscarawas County will show that it may be possible

to map the whole State of Ohio if all the ground were covered care-

fully. On the northern line is the famous "Crossing Place of the

Muskingum," on the Great Trail from Fort Pitt to Fort Detroit. This

ford is one of the most famous in the west. Its exact site has been

pointed out to the writer by the venerable David Yant. It was exactly

at the spot where the Big Sandy now enters the Tuscarawas, having

broken from its ancient course and reaching the river some distance

from the old time estuary. Half a mile south of the site of the old

ford may be seen the site of Fort Laurens, the first fort built in Ohio.

Colonel Boquet followed the Great Trail from Fort Pitt, but turned

south after crossing the river, following the route indicated toward the

Delaware capitol at Gosh-gos-hing (Coshocton). The river trail (Mus-

kingum) came down the river and illustrates what has been said con-

cerning river trails keeping away from the river itself in order to follow

the most practicable course. The author has also mapped this trail by

townships, showing its course through each farm. Every inch of this

county is worthy of the most searching investigation. Near the old-

time highway lies the dust of the heroic Zeisberger. From it are seen the

quiet hamlets of Gnadenhutten and Shoenbrunn, and the rise of ground

which marks the site of Fort Laurens. It is the most historic of all our

interior counties, indeed, with the exception of Washington, the most

historic county in the State.]

(277)

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278      Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

lowed Tuscarawas to site of Moravian town, Salem (now Port

Washington) - thence turned westward onto hills toward Chili,

Coshocton county.

 

MONONGAHELA TRAIL (7).

 

(OHIO DIVISION.)

Crossed Fairfield and Perry counties coming from the Scioto

valley - descended Wolf creek in Morgan county to Mills Hall

farm--thence over the highland and down ridge thirty rods

east of Eve's schoolhouse - Little Wolf creek on farm formerly

owned by Jeremiah Stevens on old Harmar and Lancaster

road - thence over ridge to William Pickett farm on branch of

Bald Eagle creek--down creek to hills behind Stockport--

thence onto Wallace Ridge between Stockport and Roxbury

stations of the Zanesville and Ohio River R'y. (where picture

was taken as shown in frontispiece, opposite site of Big Bottom

Blockhouse) - left Muskingum at Big Rock, one-half mile above

railway station Luke Chute - crossed over the ridge and crossed

the west branch of Wolf Creek at the mouth of Turkey Run -

through farm of George Conner--through Quigley flats--

crossed south branch of Wolf creek about two miles above its

junction with the west branch-thence due southeast on high-

lands to a point opposite the mouth of the Little Kanawha--

thence to Monongahela as described under Virginian division

 

The historical side of our subject is capable of indefinite

expansion. The Indian trails of the old Ohio were the keys

to the central west. They opened a way for men to come

to know and exploit it. The story of the first adventurers who

followed these trails beyond "the Great Mountains" is of in-

tense interest. To Walker and Boone and Gist and Washing-

ton, men who lived on and beside the winding trails of the

west, we owe our first knowledge of the land and the first en-

deavors to awaken a desire to reclaim it from savage hands.1

1 In "Extracts from 'An Analysis of a General Map of the Middle

British Colonies'" in Darlington's "Journals of Cristopher Gist" (p.

271), we find this tribute to the trader in informing the world of the

West: "The Map of Ohio, and its Branches, as well as the Passes through

• 15
 

HECKEWELDER'S MANUSCRIPT MAP.

It is unnecessary to state who John Heckewelder was or why the map from his pen is of great value and interest. Several trails are here given. which are not to be found on any other maps; the branching trail from the Mahoning to Great Trail, and the Lake Shore Trail; also the trail from the Crossing Place of the Muskingum to the Portage Path in Sum- mit County. No map gives the trail up the Walhounding and Vernon rivers, which was travelled by a portion of the Moravian pilgrims when driven from the Muskingum. It would be expected that Heckewelder would give it, but he does not.] (279)

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280       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

Christopher Gist employed trails 2,1 12, 11, 1, and 14, while

exploring the west for the first Ohio Company. George Wash-

ington knew every mile of Nemacolin's Path from Fort Cum-

berland, Md., to the "Forks of the Ohio." In his mission to

Fort la Boeuf he traversed No. 13 from the present site of Pitts-

burg.

In addition to the explorers and spies, the brave mission-

aries came westward on the Indian trails. In some instances

they  were   the  first white  men to travel certain trails.

"Why does the pale-face travel so unknown a road," called an

old Seneca chieftain from the door of his lodge to the heroic

Zeisberger, pushing westward, "this is no road for white people

and no white man has come this trail before." One of the

most interesting maps made of early Ohio is in the handwriting

of John Heckewelder, so long a faithful Moravian missionary

in the Muskingum valley. This gives several trails not given

on other maps. The knowledge gained by the first mission-

aries to the central west of the Indian nations and the geog-

raphy of the land, was often of greatest value to the United

States in peace and in war. The men who came into the cen-

tral west in the hope of Christianizing the redman were fit suc-

cessors to the brave "black robes" of the St. Lawrence and

Huron country, whose heroism stands unparalleled in the an-

nals of missionary endeavor.

If the Indian trails were useful to explorers in the west,

they were indispensable to the first armies. Single men could,

in time, push their way through pathless forests. For bodies

of men hastening to a certain goal, carrying on their backs a

limited supply of food, this was out of the question. Conse-

quently, when the Indian thoroughfares of the west are once

 

the Mountains Westward, is laid down by the Information of Traders

and others, who have resided there, and travelled them for many years

together."

1 Monday (Nov.) 26 (1750); "From this Place (Logg's Town) We

left the River Ohio to the S E & travelled across the Country." (Gist's

Journals, p. 35). Mr. Gist on this trail- 2 -  gave his courses "N 45

W 10 M, & N 45 W 8 M," which Mr. Darlington corrected to "W 8 M and

N 45 W 6 M. Do., p. 36.)

• 17
 

The Indian Thoroughfares of Ohio.       281

outlined, an interesting introduction to the "winning of the

west" is gained. These routes show at once the availability

of certain rivers as highways for the transportation of troops and

supplies; they show at a glance the strategic military points,

where, in many cases, fort or stockade arose; and they indi-

cate the distribution and the centers of Indian population. The

rivers, save the Ohio, ran north and south. The Indian trails

ran, largely, east and west. The conquest was westward; and

it is to be noted that it was made river valley by river valley

until at last the conquest, begun on the Monongahela and little

Bushy Run, was ended in triumph at Tippecanoe on the Wa-

bash. First the Alleghany and Monongahela rivers were re-

claimed and held by Boquet, who avenged Braddock's Ford at

Bushy Run (1762). In the year following Boquet advanced to

the Muskingum, where he firmly brought the Delaware and

Shawanese contingent of Pontiac's host to terms. A decade later

Lewis won the decisive battle of Point Pleasant at the mouth

of the Great Kanawha and secured all the benefits for Ken-

tucky settlers formerly granted by the Stanwix treaty, but

which had been repudiated by the arrogant Shanwanese of the

Scioto Valley. Half a decade later General McIntosh pushed

through to the Muskingum and built Fort Laurens "to serve

as a bridle upon the savages in the heart of their own coun-

try" (1778). At this time we may consider the Muskingum

valley to have been reclaimed, for the next step westward was

Crawford's campaign directed toward the Sandusky valley. It

resulted in failure, but the conquest of the Scioto and San-

dusky valleys was achieved by the Kentuckians in the border

wars waged from 1780 to 1785. Another determined step was

made in 1790 and was toward the Maumee and Wabash, which

were finally reclaimed by the treaty of Greenville, wrung by

Wayne from the disconcerted allied nations under Little Tur-

tle in 1795. Thus the conquest of the central west was by

river valleys, on Indian trails. For, to restate the story of this

conquest in the terms suggested by our present study, we should

say: The first military movement in the central west was the

building of the French military road from Presqu'ile to Fort

La Boeuf, on French Creek, in 1753. This road was twenty

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282       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

miles in length and followed the alignment of the Venango

trail, or 1₃. This road was used in bringing forward the for-

tification for the line of French forts between Lake Erie and

the Ohio river.¹

Two years later Braddock was sent westward to capture

Fort Duquesne.  His advance corps of six hundred choppers

cleared the way for the army following Nemacolin's Path, at

least as far as the present site of Upiontown, Pa., whence

the road swung northward to the memorable ford.² In 1762

Boquet was sent westward from Philadelphia to annihilate Pon-

tiac's allies who were doggedly beleaguring Fort Pitt. At

Bushy Run, in a terrible three days' battle, he confirmed the dying

Braddock's words, "We shall do better next time," and soon after

raised the siege of Fort Pitt. In the year following, consequent

upon orders, Boquet began a further westward conquest, across

the Ohio river. His was the first military expedition into the

present state of Ohio, and it followed the course of the Great Trail

from  Fort Pitt to the "Crossing Place of the Muskingum."³

In Dunmore's war Lewis was sent over the Sandusky-Rich-

mond trail from Virginia to compel the Shawnese to acknow-

ledge the Fort Stanwix treaty.  In 1778 General McIntosh was

sent with an expedition toward Detroit. He built a road straight

 

1 Hist. Erie Co. Penn.

2 "The truth is, that Sir John (St. Clair) implicitly followed the

path that Nemacolin, a Delaware Indian, had marked out or blazed for

the Ohio Company some years before, and which, a very little widened,

had served the transient purposes of that association and of Washing-

ton's party in 1754." Journals in "History of Braddock's Expedition," p.

200. Of Braddock's battlefield we read in the same volume (p. 355), "The

place of action was covered with large trees, and much underbrush upon

the left, without any opening but the road, which was about twelve foot

wide." Warfare along the trails of Canada is often noted by the Jesuit

missionaries: "These murders are imputed to the enemies who throughout

the summer and autumn are in ambushes along the roads." (Jes. Rel. and

Doc. Vol. XX. p. 75); "As for the war their (Huron) losses have been

greater than their enemies; for the whole matter consisting of a few

broken heads along the highways" (do. XIX, p. 81). Also see "Sketches

*of Pioneer History, pp. 205, 206.

3 See map accompanying "Boquets Expedition Against the Ohio In-

dians," pp. 149-152.

• 19
 

MAP

OF

WAYNE'S ROUTE ALONG THE MAUMEE.

 

[This map is a copy from the original by Dr. Belknap, now in the

library at Harvard, and the only map of Wayne's campaign. It is to be

regretted that it does not comprehend the army's entire route from Fort

Washington (Cincinnati). It will be noticed that the Miami Trail de-

scending the Auglaize is given, also diverging paths from Fort Wayne,

by which General Wayne came from the south. From    Fort Wayne

a dotted line is given as the route of the portage path, between the

Maumee and Wabash. This portage path was one of the most import-

ant in the northern half of the old Ohio, being one of the original

French routes from the lakes to the Mississippi. The course of the

path is today practically the route of the Wabash Railway. In many

instances the old routes of travel, which followed the path of least re-

sistance, have become the route of railway beds today.¹ This is true

here; it is also true of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, through the

passes in the Allegheny Mountains, which followed the portage path.

between the New and Great Kanawha rivers.]

 

1 Ohio in 1788 p. 75; Howe II, 831.

(283)

• 20
 

284      Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

west from Fort Pitt to the Ohio, built Fort McIntosh at the

mouth of Beaver river, and then marched over the Great Trail

to the "Crossing Place of the Muskingum" where Fort Laurens

was erected, "in the heart of the enemies' country."  Although

he intended to avoid all Indian trails,l Colonel Crawford's ill-

starred expedition did follow an Indian trail even before reach-

ing the Muskingum;2 and, later, the battle was fought in the

forks of the two trails and the retreat was conducted along a

trail³ to the Muskingum and "Williamson's trace"⁴ from the Mus-

kingum to the Ohio.

In 1790 Harmar was sent northward, building his road

from Fort Washington (Cincinnati) to Fort Jefferson on

the  general alignment, probably, of                              a     northward   trail.

St. Clair was annihilated   in attempting                              to retrieve Har-

mar's mistakes, but the wily Wayne pushed on, now         by

Indian trail, now through pathless swamps (meriting the name

given him by the savages, "Black Snake"⁵) and settled forever

the question of white man's conquest at Fallen Timbers. Dr.

Belknap's map, appended, is not only valuable in giving Wayne's

route, but also for giving the general course of the diverging

trails from Maumee southward. A chart giving Indian trails

with their use to the armies which completed the conquest of

Ohio from the savages may be in place:

 

1Letter of Rose to Irving 13th June, 1782 (In State Department,

Washington). Cf. Crawford's Campaign against Sandusky, p. 138.

2  Do., p. 202.

3 Do., p. 221.

4A blazed trace from Ohio river, Mingo Bottom, straight west to

Muskingum river. Followed by Williamson's band of murderers who

committed the Gnadenhutten outrage.

5 Wayne built Fort Recovery on St. Clair's battlefield, June 1794. To

deceive Little Turtle he then turned west to St. Mary's River and built

Fort Adams. In July, he doubled his track and built Fort Defiance at the

confluence of the Auglaize and Maumee.

• 21
 

The Indian Thoroughfares of Ohio.               285

 

 

 

Trails         Military Roads             Remarks

 

Venango (13)  French road Ft. Presq'- Furnished armament and sup-

isle-Ft. LeBoeuf (1753)  plies for French forts in Ohio.

 

Nemacolin's   Braddock's Road (1755) Departed from path near pres-

Path (See 2)                                                                                      ent Uniontown, Pa.

 

Great Trail (2)  Boquet's Road (1763)                                         Expedition  ended  Pontiac's

war in Ohio.

 

Sandusky-                  Lewis' route to Point Expedition secured freedom

Richmond (10)               Pleasant              for Kentucky settlers.

 

Great Trail (2)                 Mclntosh's route to Expedition erected Forts Lau-

Muskingum                                          rens and McIntosh.

 

Miami (5) (?)  Harmar's Road N. from                                         Opened way for Wayne.

Ft. Washington

 

Ft. Miami (1)  Wayne's route to Fallen Resulted in Treaty of Green-

Timbers               ville and peace.

 

Mingo (6)       "Federal Trail" 1

 

 

After spies, explorers, missionaries and armies came

the deluge - of pioneers. History furnishes no parallel to this

instantaneous filling of an imperial domain with a free popula-

tion, achieving almost on the instant of occupation a large mea-

sure of the blessings of liberty. The population of Kentucky

increased 300 per cent. in a decade and Ohio and Indiana al-

most equalled this. Thousands of immigrants to Kentucky

and Ohio came by the Ohio river, after compassing the diffi-

cult journey over Braddock's Road. But more came by land

 

1 History of Morgan County, p. 126.

• 22
 

286        Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

over Warrior's Path through Cumberland Gap.¹ This was the

second most famous continental thoroughfare, being somewhat

lessened in importance by the building of the National Road

over Braddock's Road and through Ohio to Kentucky. But

the Cumberland Gap route never lost its importance and offers

to-day, perhaps more than any road in the central west,

a journey of surpassing interest to the tourist who dares under-

take it. The route early became known as the "Wilderness Road."

It was marked out by the sturdy hand of Daniel Boone.        In

1775 the Transylvania Company, with Colonel Richard Hen-

derson as head, engaged Boone to mark out a road from Fort

Wataga, on a branch of the Holston, to the Kentucky river,

where the company's newly-purchased lands lay. "This I ac-

cepted," wrote Boone, "and undertook to mark out a road in

the best passage through the wilderness to Kentucky with such

assistance as I thought necessary to employ for such an im-

portant undertaking."² Boone's road went through Cumber-

land Gap over the course of the "Warrior's Path," but at some

distance from the gap left the Indian trail and followed a buffalo

trace toward the desired destination, the mouth of Otter creek

on the Kentucky river. Here Fort Boonesborough was erected.

As clearly shown by Mr. Speed in his most valuable mono-

 

1 Two publications, one a monograph and the other a magazine article,

comprise all the previous work in the study of old highways so far

as the author knows. The monogram, Speed's "Wilderness Road" is

one, and R. G. Thwaite's article in the New England Magazine (Novem-

ber 1896) on Braddock's Road is the other. To the Wilderness Road

the author owes a great debt for information and inspiration. On Mr.

Speed's authority we make the startling assertion above; "Wilderness

Road," pp. 11, 22, 23 and 42.

Among the many references in many books to Indian trails the

author cannot refrain from quoting one which is out of the ordinary.

It is from Douglass' History of Wayne Co. O., p. 166: "These brigands

and vagrants, no doubt like other birds of passage, had their chosen

and well understood courses of travel, but to assume to trace or define

them would be playing spendthrift with time and a culpable distortion

of the legitimate bent of investigation. Nor is it important to indulge

what must be bald fancy and gratuitous speculation on a matter so sterile

of historical uses and so profitless to the public."

2 Boone's Autobiography; also Wilderness Road, pp. 25, 26.

• 23
 

The Indian Thoroughfares of Ohio.         287

 

graph, Boone's route became a momentous factor in the early

history of Kentucky. To be sure the Ohio river was the great

highway thither, but it was not until near the beginning of this

century that that river became the customary route, for pre-

vious to that time river traveling was exceedingly dangerous

and boat building and the hazardous risks to be encountered

in sailing decided many thousands to undertake the longer but

surer land route over the "Wilderness Road." When, however,

the National Road was built from Cumberland to the Ohio river,

1823, and shipping facilities were available, the Wilderness Road

became, comparatively, forgotten. Yet it had been used long

enough to influence decidedly the distribution of population in

the southern half of the old Ohio, tomahawk claims along its

course becoming thriving villages, villages becoming cities and

the meadow lands at its destination becoming the home of the har-

diest race of men, according to the most ingenious of our scholars,

in all our republic.

But not only did the great continental routes, Braddock's

Road and the Wilderness Road, serve the pioneer; the maze

of minor trails leading into every portion of the land invited

him onward into the perennial twilight of the woods. It is a

fair question, and introduces an interesting theme, to ask, "What

proportion of Ohio's early interior population made its way by

water and what proportion by land routes ?"

The testimony of all with whom the writer has conversed and

who knew whereof they spoke, renders it possible to believe that

the more careful the investigation the clearlier it will be proved

that the Indian trails and not the rivers were the routes of

the early settlers into the interior.  The following sentence

from one of the histories of an interior (but on a navigable

river) county is pertinent:  "James Oglesby was a very

early settler in the township, some say the earliest. He also

came from Virginia and is said to have travelled up the

Muskingum and Walhounding rivers, in true Indian style,

in a canoe.^"1 This occurs in a twenty-five page account of

the early settlements in the county, and of few settlers is it

1 Hunt's Historical Collections of Coshocton County, p. 37.

• 24
 

288        Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

suggested that they came by a water route. In this connec-

tion, however, it is well to remember that the very vanguard of

the pioneer host did not usually settle anywhere permanently.

There was a familiar expression, "following the emigration,"

which reveals the adventurous spirit of the times. Pioneers came

and settled in what was an unbroken wilderness. In a few years

the district began to fill and the first comers would pull up stakes

and advance westward another stage. Thus the first settlers in

any given district of Ohio and Indiana often hailed from only a

short distance away, and it is not possible to believe that they came

by a long, difficult water-route.  This was usually the case,

with notable exceptions of course, and quite precludes the argu-

ment that water routes were chosen by the first of the emigrant

army. And those who came in the wake of others who had "fol-

lowed the emigration," came by the same routes.

An interesting proof of the use made of Indian trails by the

white man is found in the blazed trees which line them. There is

not an important trail in Ohio which is not blazed, and it is

wellknown that the redmen were not in the habit of blazing

their trails.¹  The writer has been over Indian trails in other

parts of the country (Northern Michigan and Canada) where

the trees were not blazed. Why the white man found it neces-

sary to blaze the well worn paths along their whole extent, and

in spots where there was not the remotest possibility of one's

losing his way, does not appear to the writer. But such is the

case, and upon the high summit of the long ranges of hills one

may to-day see upon the aged tree trunks savage gashes made

 

The author has been surprised to find that it is the popular opinion

that Indians blazed their paths. To those interested a study of the fol-

lowing references will prove that no such custom existed among the

Indians: Jes. Rel. and Doc. Vol. VII: 109; Vol. XIX: 45, 129. The

Wilderness Road, p. 15. The borderers of Kentucky were drawn into

the fatal battle of Blue Licks because they followed headlong the route

of the wily Indians, who by blazing the trees and leaving garments on

the ground made it seem that they were in full retreat. These un-Indian

signs rendered Daniel Boone suspicious, but his advice was unheeded

and a massacre was the result. For similar incident see History of

the Maumee Valley, pp. 86 and 107; cf. History of Hamilton County, p.

221; History of Muskingum County, p. 67.

• 25
 

The Indian Thoroughfares of Ohio.        289

not less than a century ago, as the writer has ascertained by

a study of the blazes made in Washington county on roads laid

out by the surveyors of the Ohio Company, 1279-1800.

In one instance, on the Monongahela trail on Wallace Ridge,

Morgan county, as one passes northward along the ridge, a line of

blazed trees is found running from the trail at right angles, to a

mass of rocks, distant about a hundred yards, wherein a cave of-

fered a night's protection, or a spring, no sign of which exists to-

day, may have refreshed the wayfarer. Everyone from whom

information has been acquired testifies that the Indian trails

were common blazed routes of travel for the pioneers. The

Muskingum trail in Tuscarawas county has every appearance

of having been carefully built. At one place on a hillside the

embankment on the lower side is three feet high and seem-

ingly as strong as ever. An old man living on the line of this

trail affirmed that he could recall early in the century, when

the trail was commonly used, and he remembered with the vivid

recollections of youth the coming of the travelling Punch and

Judy shows that way. Yet a study of the records in the Re-

corder's office at the county seat, New Philadelphia, fail to throw

any light on the subject, although the record of road building

goes back to 1797. Mr. Zutavern, already quoted, traversed the

old highway from Pittsburg to Laurenceville, as the "Crossing

Place of the Muskingum" was known early in the century, in

1819. He came over the roadway built from Fort Pitt straight

west to the Ohio river by General McIntosh, crossing the

Ohio at Wellsville and striking northwest until the Great Trail

was met near Bayard. This was perhaps the general route of

pioneer travel from Pittsburg to central Ohio. It was then. in

181₉, a rough, wide Indian trail and unimproved. The trail from

Ft. Presqu 'ile to French Creek, the line of Marin's military road

of 1753, became a notable thoroughfare early in the century.

This "Watertown turnpike" was really a portage path between

Lake Erie and the Alleghany. Over it great quantities of salt

were forwarded by water to Pittsburg and Louisville, and, in

return, glass and flour came up from the Monongahela country

and bacon from Kentucky en route to the east.¹ Travellers

1 Egle's History of Pennsylvania, p. 271.

Vol. VIII-19

• 26
 

290      Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

leave record of the strange appearance of this old roadway. In the expectation of making it a military road in the European sense, the course had been grubbed by hauling out the stumps of the felled trees. Great cavities were left and never filled.1 However it served for hauling cannon toward Forts La Boeuf, Venango and Duquesne. Not only were the Indian trails used largely by the pio- neers, opening the way to a distribution of population over the face of the land, but they became the course of our first roads. The day of the ridge road is not long passed and in most in- stances the ridge road was only the trail of the buffalo, Indian and pioneer, widened and improved. The first road upon which Kentucky spent money was the old trail, blazed by Boone, through Cumberland Gap. The National Road from Cumber- land, Md., to Wheeling, W. Va., Zanesville, Ohio, Maysville, Ky., and Lexington, Ky., followed the famous Braddock Road, as already stated, at least as far as Uniontown, Pa. From Wheeling to Zanesville and on to the Ohio river again it fol- lowed Zane's trace, which did not, probably, follow an Indian trail2. The money behind this epoch-making enterprise made it possible to push this road straight through. While climbing a country road in West Virginia the writer noted the trees which were blazed by the first surveyors, the gashes of which are still yawning. As the road reached the summit it met and crossed the Monongahela trail, not far from the spot where Tecumseh's murderous banditti opened fire upon Nicholas Car- penter, Jesse Hughes and party, just as Carpenter began his morning devotions and was singing the old West End Baptist hymn, "Awake our souls, away our fears." At the junction of the two thoroughfares stands an aged tree. On the side toward the country road was the fresh, ugly blaze of the road sur- veyors. On the side toward the trail was the deep, partly- healed blaze of the Long Knives - two trade marks of the two centuries. In one instance the writer, while following the Mus- 1 History Erie County (Penn.) 2 But vide History of Muskingum County, p. 67, which affirms that Zane's trace ran nearly with a trail; perhaps general alignment of Mingo trail for a distance.

• 27
 

MAP

OF PORTAGE PATH.   [No oldtime highway in Ohio is of more historic interest than the Portage Path in Summit County, at least in proportion to its length. It is probably one of the oldest highways in the west, having been the route of the buffaloes across the summit of the State. In later years it became the portage for the Indians from the lake country to the streams flowing south to the country of their enemies, the Creeks and Cherokees and Mobilians. It may have been traversed by La Salle on his trip to the Ohio, but he probably followed the Lake Chau- tauqua-Allegheny route. Some hold that he came through Ohio, and he argument, at least, suggests the importance of this portage path. It is said in the text that it is possible to know the exact course of this path for the entire distance of eight miles. Maps of Summit County are still to be seen bearing a faint line which marks its course. The author, after several visits, has become acquainted with the ground. From two men, Mr. John Hovey, of Akron, and Rev. David Yant, of Bolivar, he has obtained descriptions of the path in early days of this century. Merchandise from Cleveland was brought up the Cuyahoga river, over the portage and down the Tuscarawas to the inland set- tlements. Mr. Hovey remembers, particularly, the bewildering circuit- ousness of the trail as it came from the hills and approached the Cuya- hoga. In the city of Akron the writer found the original survey of this path, made in 1797 by Moses Warren. It is an interesting and highly amusing document. The length of the path was found to be eight miles, four chains and 55 links.] (291)

• 28
 

292      Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

kingum trail in Tuscarawas county, was informed by an old

resident that if he continued a certain number of miles he would

find himself in a good travelled road. This proved to be true

- the old highway has never been closed up and one may drive,

if on horseback, freely from the best of county roads into the

old-time Indian highway without hindrance, as shown in the ac-

companying photograph. The old Portage Path between the

Tuscarawas and Cuyahoga rivers in Summit county, was one

of the most important trails for its length (eight miles) in the

state. Having been defined as a portion of the western boundary

of the United States in the treaties of Fort McIntosh (1785)

and Fort Harmar (1789), this narrow trail became a signifi-

cant landmark. In studying this subject the writer found that

all the surveys made east of this trail were of a different kind

from those made on the western side at a later date, and that

the course of this trail was indicated much of the way by a

line fence. The course of this trail has always been marked by

a faint line on the maps of Summit county. A new road has

been building between these self-same streams, and in August,

'98, it had crossed the old path seven times in seven miles and

for some distances the two courses are identical. Thus the

tripod has been as successful in finding the path of least re-

sistance as was the instinct of the buffalo! Another chart may

be useful in bringing out distinctly the further historical de-

velopment of certain trails:

• 29
 

The Indian Thoroughfares of Ohio.              293

 

 

Trails                                Military Roads           Public Roads

 

 

Nemacolin's Path                        Braddock's Road    National Road as far as Union-

town, Pa.

 

 

Warriors' Path                       Blazed by Boone from Ft. Wa-

taga, Tenn., to Boonesboro,

Ky. (200 miles). Great pion-

eer route through Cumber-

land Gap.

 

Venango     French military road, General course of Watertown

Lake Erie to Alleghe-  (Pa.) Pike.

ny River.

 

Miami (?)    Harmar's Road north Old "Hamilton" and "Eaton"

from  Fort Washing-   Roads.

ton (Cincinnati)

 

Muskingum     Possibly route of Broad- Public Road in Tuscarawas

head's army in Co-                              County in early years of the

shocton campaign.                              century.

 

Mahoning                                                                                       Early traders' route from Pitts-

burg to Detroit (by water

from Cleveland) described by

Col. James Hilman.

 

Portage Paths  Tuscarawas- Cuyahoga, Practically route of present

0.                                                              road.1

Maumee-Wabash, Ind.                           General course of Wabash

Railway.

New-Kanawha, W. Va.   General course of Chesapeake

& Ohio Railway.

 

Ft. Miami         Wayne's route     Road from Napoleon, Henry

County, down Maumee prac-

tically identical with Wayne's

route.

 

1 See Note on map of Portage Path.

• 30
 

294       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

To one to whom such things appeal, nothing in cabinet

or museum will create a more living interest in our past than

to find one of the old-time thoroughfares and walk upon it-

to see the valley and meadow from the Indian's points of van-

tage. To one who is imaginative, the old century comes back,

and trail and forest are peopled. Border armies will hurry by

carrying weapons strange to our eyes and dressed in fashions

not in vogue to-day. The stream of immigrants will pass, the

hard lines of rough faces speaking of the toil and suffering which

made our present civilization possible. The subject, again, is

the more interesting because of the sources of information which

one must consult, the narratives and journals written in the

olden time and living witnesses, too many of whom by far are

carrying to the grave each day precious facts which can never

afterward be revealed. The field work required, demanding no

great expense, is not without pleasure and romance. It is safe

travelling the Indian trails to-day; the poll tax once required on

the old highways by redskin highwaymen is not collected in

these days. Not a lone Indian will be found overlooking the

spot "where he used to be born." Those who once pushed their

horses along historic Harmar Hill with scalps dangling from

the manes, or went whooping down the Mahoning and Scioto

or toyed with the gate of Wolf Creek mill are now hunting

the souls of the moose and beaver in the Land of the Souls,

"walking on the souls of their snowshoes on the soul of the

snow." But they have left their trails behind them-and

nothing else, perhaps, so interesting, so pregnant with varied

memories, so rich in historical suggestion.

"The ports ye shall not enter

The roads ye shall not tread

Go, make them with your living

And mark them with your dead."

 

And yet this has been our mission for a century. We have

waited in heavy harness on "fluttered folk and wild." We have

made our roads with our living and marked them all the way

from Plymouth Rock to the Golden Gate with our dead. In

more than one Ohio valley may be found an Indian trail on

• 31
 

The Indian Thoroughfares of Ohio.        295

the hilltop, a pioneer road winding along hillside and on sum-

mit, and a good pike in the valley, well built, scientifically

drained. Each type of road speaks of the civilization which built

it and between these three faint lines one may read the story of

the hard-earned century now passing away.

• 32
 

THE INDIAN THOROUGHFARES OF OHIO.*

BY ARCHER BUTLER HULBERT.

History tells of two Ohios—the old and the new. The old

Ohio was that portion of the American Hinterland drained by
the Ohio and Allegheny rivers which, together, formed la Belle
Riviere of New France. It included the territory between the
Alleghenies, the Mississippi and the great lakes, save as we ex-
cept the country of Illinois, which early in history became a ter-
ritory distinct by itself, as the meadow lands of Kan-ta-kee be-
came distinct later. As late as the Revolutionary war an English
map printed "Ohio" south, as well as north, of the Ohio river.'

Of this old Ohio (including the Illinois country) only that

part which lay north of the Ohio river contained a resident In-
dian population. That portion south of the river was the Korea
of the central west–the "dark and bloody" battle ground of
surrounding nations half a century before the white man gave
it that name.

North of the Ohio river, in the valleys of the Alleghany,

Beaver, Muskingum, Scioto, Sandusky, Miami, Maumee, Wa-
bash and Illinois, more white men knew the redman intimately
than perhaps anywhere in the United States in the eighteenth
century. This knowledge of the Indian in his own home-land
resulted in giving to the world a mass of material respecting
his country, customs and character. Among other things this
knowledge of the northern division of the old Ohio during the
Indian regime made it possible to map it, and some of these
maps are essentially correct.

The dismemberment of the great old Ohio was rapid, and

in some instances spectacular. The extension of Virginian do-
minion by George Rogers Clark and the evolution 'of the state
of Kentucky, and especially the passage of the great Ordinance

*Copyrighted 1900, by Archer Butler Hulbert.

1 Map with Pownall's "Middle British Colonies in North America 1776,"

(London, 1776).

(264)

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