Ohio History Journal

Old Fort Sandoski of 1745 and The Sandusky Forts. 375

 

hoga River is a mere assertion without any foundation in fact.

Neither Colonel Whittlesey, Mr. A. T. Goodman nor Judge Bald-

win, long officers of the Western Reserve Historical Society at

Cleveland, on the Cuyahoga River, and all extremely anxious to

prove the importance of their own locality, ever thought of

claiming the Cuyahoga River for the White River.

From the foregoing, it appears that Mr. Hanna's criticism

betrays such carelessness in the use of data which were plainly

before his eyes that no confidence can be placed in his general

statements when unsupported by definite references and that,

when definite references are made, it is not likely that he has

considered them carefully enough to give them proper interpre-

tation.

The experiences of Secretary Randall in his "History of

Ohio," in dealing with the sophistries of Mr. Hanna in trying

to prove that LaSalle did not discover the Ohio, brings out Mr.

Hanna's defects of historical judgment. Reviewing Hanna's

argument in the case of LaSalle, Randall says, "they are mainly

negative and leave LaSalle's claim still unrefuted with the pre-

ponderance of evidence decidedly in his favor, and the judgment

of Parkman still unreversed that LaSalle discovered the Ohio."

A critic who can in a nonchalant manner dismiss the con-

clusions of Parkman, discredit the conversations published by

Margry, doubt the correctness of LaSalle's "Memorial to Fron-

tenac," think that Joliet's map was a species of forgery, and

that the opinion of Whittlesey, Goodman and Baldwin of the

Western Reserve Historical Society, are of no value in the

history of the regions to which they each give their close atten-

tion, is not one whose opinions are to be taken without investiga-

tion.

 

 

 

STATEMENT BY THE EDITOR OF THE QUARTERLY.

The Editor is responsible for the publication, without cor-

rection, or comment, in the last QUARTERLY of the article

by Charles A. Hanna making severe reflection on the Presi-

dent and Trustees of the Ohio State Archaeological and His-

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376      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

torical Society, and criticising in unmeasured terms the culmination of one of the most fruitful re- searches ever made by the Society, the discovery of the DeLery Jour- nals and their partial publication under the title of "Old Fort San- doski of 1745 and the Sandusky Country" in the QUARTERLY of October, 1908, and "Old Fort Sandusky and the De Lery Por- tage" in October, 1912. It would have been but proper to have submitted Mr. Hanna's ar- ticle to the author of this series and to the speakers at the dedica- tion of the tablets, before publish- ing it; to have given them an op- portunity to reply. The Editor also regrets the typographical error in the article on the De Lery Portage, giving a wrong date to Evan's map-it should have been 1755 and not 1775; and also the inscriptions placed under the fac-simile of the four tablets, pages 363, 365, 367, and 369, Vol XXI, all of which were tablets on the Fort Sandoski monument.    They    were erron- eously ascribed to the Harrison Perry Embarkation Monument on the shore of Lake Erie. Unfor- tunately there were no illustrations of the tablets on the latter monu- ment, erected by the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Ohio Daughters of the War of 1812.

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Old Fort Sandoski of 1745 and The Sandusky Forts. 377

 

In view of the action of the members of the Ohio State

Archaeological and Historical Society at the last annual meet-

ing in May, that the secretary be authorized to have prepared

a formal correction of Mr. Hanna's communication on the San-

dusky Forts, it is perhaps only necessary to refresh the minds

of the members by quoting again the authorities used in the

article on "Old Fort Sandoski of 1745" published five years

ago. I therefore reproduce a part of Evans' and of Mitchell's

maps, both of 1755, and beg to call attention to the following:

First-The late A. T. Goodman, for many years secretary

of the Western Reserve Historical Society, in Tract No. 4, pub-

lished Jan. 1871, has the following references to Fort Sandusky:

"English traders first made their appearance in the Ohio coun-

try in 1699-1700.  From that time until 1745 we frequently

hear of them at various towns and stations. In 1745 they built

a small fort or blockhouse among the Hurons on the north side

of Sandusky Bay. In 1748 they were driven off by a party of

French soldiers from Detroit. Prior to 1763 the English in

Ohio were very few in comparison to the French."

Second-In Tract No. 6, in "Papers Relating to the First

White Settlers in Ohio," also by Mr. Goodman, published in

July, 1871, occurs the following reference to Fort Sandusky.

"As early as the year 1745 English traders penetrated as far as

Sandusky, or 'St. Dusky,' and established a post on the north

side of the bay near the carrying place or portage from the

Portage River across the peninsula. They were driven away

by the French probably in 1748 or 1749."

Third-Canadian Archives: Nov. 14, 1747, M. de Longueuil

wrote: "Nicolas's band at Sandoske are as insolent as ever, the

chief never ceasing his work to get allies-Nicolas will draw the

English to him and facilitate their establishments all along Lake

Erie." March 20, 1748. "The conduct of Nicolas is suspicious.

The English in Philadelphia came there twice during the winter

and were well received. The scalps of the Frenchmen killed

near the fort of the Miamis (now Ft. Wayne) have been car-

ried there (Sandoske)." May 28, 1748. M. de Longueuil re-

ports that a faithful Indian who had gone to gather up the

Indians who had deserted from the village of Otsandoske (Nic-

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378       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

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Old Fort Sandoski of 1745 and The Sandusky Forts. 379

 

olas's village near the mouth of the river) reported that Nicolas

with 119 warriors of his nation, women and children and bag-

gage, after having burned the fort and the cabins of the village,

had taken the route for White River.

Fourth-Col. Charles Whittlesey, the learned president of

the Western Reserve Historical Society of Cleveland wrote in

Tract No. 13, published in 1873, as follows on the Fort at San-

dusky:

On Mitchell's Map, London, 1755, and on that of Evans,

Philadelphia, same date, there is a "fort" laid down on the north

side of the bay, near the mouth. It is much more probable that

this fort, house, or post, was situated where the trail or portage

path came out on the bay, across the neck from the Portage or

Carrying River, at Ottawa. The English government had no

fortifications there at that time. Mitchell states that the fort

on the north side, meaning post, was "usurped by the French

in 1751." Fort "Juendat," on Evan's map, is placed south of

the bay and east of Sandusky River, "built in 1754." This was

a French establishment for trade, perhaps with a stockade for

defense against the English, and their Indian allies.  When

the English got possession of Lake Erie and its tributaries in

1760, a military post was planted somewhere on Sandusky Bay.

Ensign Paully and a squad were captured there in 1763, at the

uprising of Pontiac's conspiracy, and most of them murdered

on the spot. The natural point for a fort or a trading post, is

on the north side of the bay, west of the plaster beds, where

the trail from Portage River touched the shore. This was the

route from Detroit into the Ohio country, and commanded the

mouth of Sandusky River. Bradstreet's camp was here. It is

also probable that Ensign Paully's blockhouse, or stockade, was

at the same place. It was only about two miles along the trail

northward to Lake Erie, from where all parties moving in

canoes could be observed, and intercepted at the mouth of the

bay. To the west, around the bay, the ground is low, swampy,

and very difficult of passage, even by Indians, in its primitive

condition, which gave importance to the carrying place in a

military point of view. It would add much to the historical

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380       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

interest of the region if we could determine the blood stained

point where Paully's little command was butchered.

Fifth-Tract No. 25 is a 25-page description of the early

maps of America, by Judge C. C. Baldwin for many years Sec-

retary of the Western Reserve Historical Society and later its

president. It was published in April, 1875, and especially com-

mends the accuracy of the Evans and Mitchell maps of 1755,

and Pownall's map of 1777. "Lewis Evans was an American

geographer and surveyor, born about 1700 and died 1756. He

published a map of the Middle Colonies in 1755 with an analysis.

The map itself is an epitome of history and geography. It was

engraved by James Turner, and printed by B. Franklin and D.

Hall, in Philadelphia. It was dedicated to Gov. Pownall, who

in 1766 published a folio with an enlarged analysis, but the same

map, in which the Governor stood stoutly by his deceased friend

against other maps pirated. The advance in local knowledge in

this map is large.-A map which was repeatedly printed, much

used and of long authority was Mitchell's. John Mitchell, M. D.,

F. R. S., came to Virginia early in the 18th century as a botanist.

He lived long in America and died in England in 1768. His

large and elaborate map has a certificate from John Pownall,

secretary of the Board of Trade, and brother of Governor

Thomas Pownall, that it was undertaken at his request, com-

posed from drafts, charts, and actual surveys, transmitted from

the different Colonies by the Governors thereof. This certificate

is dated July 1st, 1755. * * * This map was used by the

commissioners in making the treaty of peace in 1783, by which

our country became a nation."

The inscriptions on the six tablets placed on the Fort San-

doski and the Harrison-Perry Embarkation monuments, on the.

banks of Sandusky Bay and Lake Erie respectively, at opposite

ends of the portage at Port Clinton, are excerpts, verbatim

et literatim, from the Canadian Archives De Lery's Journal,

Major Robert Rogers's Journal and Capt. Robert McAfee's

History of the War of 1812, sources of incontestable value and

authority.

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