120 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
tablets, in the city of Greenville,
Ohio, commemorating the establishment
of the fort there in 1793, the first
treaty with the Indians August 3, 1795,
and the second treaty July 22, 1814,
together with statues of General St.
Clair, General Anthony Wayne and General
William H. Harrison, the hero
of the victory of the battle of the
river Thames, which resulted in the death
of Tecumseh and the restoration of a
permanent peace with the Indians.
This society has a work to perform, and
as you have done for us, so do
likewise for others who also need your
kind assistance.
May you always have ready hands and
willing minds to labor suc-
cessfully in his great work.
HISTORIC ADDRESS.
HON. JAMES I. ALLREAD.
JUDGE COMMON PLEAS COURT, DARKE COUNTY.
The county historical society and the
citizens of this community are
to be congratulated upon the building of
this boulder monument and the
placing of this historic tablet marking
the ancient site of Fort Jefferson.
The building of this fort by General
Arthur St. Clair was an import-
ant historical event-important not only
in the history of this county,
but of the whole Northwest Territory.
Here was built the first permanent
structure within the limits of
what is now Darke county. And from here
the army of volunteers
and regulars under St. Clair marched
forth to meet the most crushing
defeat in all the history of Indian
warfare.
The intimate connection of Fort
Jefferson with St. Clair's defeat has
marked it for obscurity. The illfated
expedition is never dignified as
St. Clair's campaign nor the engagement
as St. Clair's battle, but is
designated in all the histories as
"St. Clair's Defeat".
It must be remembered, however, that the
historical importance of
a battle or engagement does not depend
wholly upon success.
Bunker Hill was a great defeat for the
colonists, yet, historically,
it marked the beginning of the struggle
for independence.
The defeat of the Union forces at Bull
Run aroused the North and
made Appomattox possible.
The defeat of St. Clair aroused the
national government, inspired the
preparation and reorganization of an
army which, under General Anthony
Wayne, achieved brilliant and complete
victory in the battle of the Mau-
mee wilderness and brought the Indian
chieftains, humiliated, to the
council ending in the Greenville treaty.
The Ohio valley and the Lake Erie region
was the scene of the
most formidable and sanguinary of all
the Indian conflicts. They began
with the struggles between the French
and English traders; they devel-
oped into the French and Indian war;
broke out again after the treaty
of peace between the French and English,
in Pontiac's conspiracy; in
Monument at Fort Jefferson. 121
the raids leading to Lord Dunmore's war
and a long list of less notable
but bloody conflicts up to the outbreak
of the War of the Revolution.
At this time the British secured the
Indians as their allies, and from
Canadian forts inspired and directed a
mercenary warfare against their
own kindred.
From the time of French dominion the
Ohio territory was a part of
Canada. And even after the cession of
the French possession to the
English in 1763 the Ohio river was still
the Canadian boundary.
To the achievements of George Rogers
Clarke, in surprising and
reducing the English posts upon the
Wabash; the foresight of Wash-
ington, who had himself crossed the Ohio
country; and the persistence
of John Adams, one of the American
commissioners, is due the cession
of the Northwest Territory at the close
of the Revolutionary War. Then
for the first time the Canadian border
extended only to the Great Lakes.
The Ohio country passed thereby under the dominion of the
United
States, subject only to the Indian
title.
To obtain a cession of the Indian titles
immediately became the aim
of the national government.
In 1784 the treaty of Fort Stanwix was
signed by the Six Nations, or
Iroquois, ceding title to all lands east
of the present western boundary
of Pennsylvania.
In the following year the treaty of Fort
McIntosh was made with
the chiefs of the Delawares, Wyandots,
Chippewas and Ottawas, ceding
all lands east and south of the Cuyahoga
and Great Miami rivers and
a line extending from the Indian
portages upon the head waters of
these streams over a certain defined
course, comprising in extent a large
part of the present territory of Ohio.
Upon the faith of this treaty Congress
provided for the opening up
of the lands for settlement.
Some of the Indians, notably the
Shawnees and Miamis, were not
represented, and all the tribes for one pretext or another became dis-
satisfied and repudiated the treaty.
In 1789 another treaty was made at Fort
Harmar with the Wyan-
dots, Chippewas, Pottawatomie and Sac
nations, confirming the treaty
of Fort McIntosh. But the very same year
this treaty was violated and
hostilities resumed.
In the meantime several expeditions had
been made into the Indian
country, resulting for most part in
failure.
In 1778 an expedition under General
McIntosh was planned against
the Detroit villages. The expedition
moved as far as the Tuscarawas,
built and garrisoned Fort Laurens, and
then returned. The fort itself
was abandoned the following year.
Shortly after the evacuation of the
fort an expedition was sent against the
Shawnee villages, but resulted
in defeat.
In 1780 the Coshocton campaign under
General Broadhead against
122 Ohio
Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
the Indian villages at the Muskingum
forks was unimportant in results.
While in the same summer General Clarke
led a body of 970 Ken-
tuckians against the Shawnees on the
Little Miami and Mad rivers,
burned their villages and defeated them
in battle.
In September, 1782, General Clarke led a
second expedition against
the Shawnees, burning their villages and
destroying their corn.
There were other minor expeditions to
the Indian country, but with-
out any permanent results.
In March, 1782, occurred the Moravian
massacre, and in June fol-
lowing the unsuccessful expedition of
Colonel Crawford.
In June, 1789, Major Dowty with 140 men
from Fort Harmar com-
menced the building of Fort Washington,
on the present site of Cincin-
nati. A few months later General Harmar
with 300 men arrived and
took command of the fort.
In September, 1799, General Harmar, with
a force of 1,300 men, led
an expedition against the Indian
villages on the Miamis and Maumee.
While near the villages on the Maumee,
an advance detachment of 300
militia fell into an ambush and met with
severe loss. Later a detach-
ment under Colonel Hardin was repulsed
with great loss and driven back
to the main army. Dispirited by these
reverses, General Harmar returned
to Fort Washington, his expedition a
failure.
In May, 1791, General Scott with 800 men
penetrated into the Wabash
country and destroyed several Indian
villages. In August of the same
year General Wilkinson with 500 men
destroyed the Kickapoo villages
upon the lower Wabash. The only effect
of these expeditions was to
exasperate and inflame the Indians.
The time had now come for more
determined action by the national
government. The sturdy pioneers from the older colonies had three
years before planted civilization at
Marietta, and were rapidly pushing
their settlements along the Ohio and
into the interior. Israel Ludlow
and others had planned a permanent
settlement at Fort Washington, and
government surveyors had extended
government lines between the two
Miamis almost to the Indian villages.
The Indians fully realized that town
building and pioneer settlement
meant the ultimate destruction of their
hunting grounds, and that the
forest fellers and farm builder would
gradually but surely drive them
toward the open prairies of the west and
the frozen lakes of the north.
Impressed with this belief and goaded by
instances of wrongs, imagin-
ary and real, they inaugurated a border
warfare of the most intense and
deadly character.
The chieftains of the Six Nations, with
all the fire of Indian oratory,
told the story of their being driven
from their rich hunting grounds and
the graves of their ancestors in the
Mohawk valley. The Delawares, with
equal eloquence, told how their council
fires on the banks of the Delaware
and Susquehanna had been extinguished
before the onrushing tide of
Monument at Fort Jefferson. 123
the white man's civilization. And the
Shawnees, noted for the eloquence
of their chieftains, told the story of
twenty-five years of border warfare.
The Ohio river, from time immemorial,
had been an open highway;
separating the territory of the hostile
tribes north and south. It was the
Mason and Dixon line. And no Indian
tribe had the hardihood or daring
to plant its villages upon its banks.
The villages of the northern tribes were
built upon the upper waters
of its tributaries and upon those of the
Great Lakes, while the southern
tribes found security in the fastnesses
of the mountains of Tennessee
and in the plains beyond.
This natural and traditional boundary
the Indians fondly hoped to
establish as the permanent boundary
between them and the whites. And
this hope furnished the inspiration for
their quick and ready repudiation
of the treaties ceding portions of the
Ohio territory.
The chieftains proclaimed the
re-establishment of the Ohio river
boundary as their purpose. This
declaration found ready response among
the savages and became the slogan under
which all the tribes were now
united. Their hostility threatened every
settler. Indian bands roamed
the forests from river to lake. The
conflict was constant. It was a duel
to the death. The shooting down of men
and the massacre of women
and children were of almost daily
occurrence. The passing of boats
upon the rivers was interrupted; the
blockhouses themselves attacked,
and tradition has it that Indian spies
were seen skulking in the streets of
Cincinnati by night with a view to its
attack.
It must not be supposed that the
confederacy of Indian tribes con-
fronting the Ohio river settlements at
this time were weak numerically
or lacking in martial spirit. On the
contrary, they were the most power-
ful, determined and warlike ever
encountered in the onward march of
civilization.
Chief among all the tribes was the
Wyandot, whose villages were
near the present site of Detroit and
along the Sandusky river, the islands
of Lake Erie forming a line of
communication.
Their youths were taught that flight or
surrender even to a superior
force was disgraceful. This trait is
exemplified in the incident related
of General Wayne requesting the capture
of an Indian from Sandusky.
The scout of whom this request was made
replied that it was impossible,
as the Indians there were Wyandots, and
could not be taken alive. In
the battle of the Fallen Timber it is
reported that of the thirteen Wyan-
dot chiefs present but one survived the
battle, and he was badly wounded.
They were indeed the Spartans of the
Indian tribes.
To the warlike Wyandots was intrusted
the Grand Calumet, the sym-
bol of union and of power. By this
emblem they had the power to call all
the tribes and nations together and to
kindle the council fires.
Next in importance were the Shawnees.
They came originally from
south of the Ohio river and established
their villages on the banks of
124 Ohio
Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
the Scioto, near its midwaters. From
their central location they radiated
in every direction. Their neighbors were
the fierce Wyandots. The
Shawnees were restless and aggressive.
They were conspicuous in every
Indian conflict from the times of the
French and Indian wars down to
the last Indian treaty. They were in the
direct front of immigration, and
beat an ugly and reluctant retreat. They
were the special object of the
war of Lord Dunmore and of the
expeditions of General Clarke and
others, and were conspicuous in the
campaigns of Harmar, St. Clair
and Wayne.
They produced the greatest
chieftains: Cornstalk, who led the
Indian forces at Point Pleasant; Blue
Jacket, prominent in the battles
of the Miami country, and who spoke for
war in the great council of
all the Indian nations and tribes at the
Auglaize; Black Hoof, the old
man eloquent, who was with the victors
at Braddock's defeat, was in
all the wars of the Ohio country, and
was famed far and wide as a war-
rior of great sagacity and energy and
daring; and Tecumseh, the George
Washington of the Indians, who later
united all the tribes north and south
for final defense against the whites.
The Delawares were originally from east
of the Blue Ridge and were
driven west, settling first in the
Muskingum valley and later on in the
Auglaize. They were formerly said to be
peaceful, but finally assimil-
ated the spirit of their more warlike
neighbors. They marked Colonel
Crawford for the stake and carried the
sentence into execution.
Their chieftain was Buck-on-gehelas.
Some idea of his character
may be formed by an incident occurring
the day after Wayne's victory
at Fort Defiance, fought under the guns
of the British fort. Buck-on-
gehelas had assembled his tribe in
canoes and was passing up the stream
to make terms with the victors. Upon
approaching the British fort an
officer hailed the chieftain and said
that the commander wished to speak
to him. The chieftain, disgusted with
the false promises of the British,
said, "In that case, let him come
to me." "That will never do," was the
reply, "and he will not allow you
to pass the fort unless you comply with
his wishes."
"What shall prevent my passing?"
the chieftain responded.
"These guns," answered the
officer, pointing to those commanding
the stream.
"I fear not your cannon," the
chief replied. "After suffering the
Americans to insult your flag without
firing upon them, you must not
expect to frighten
Buck-on-gehelas."
With this scornful reply the canoes
passed the fort without moles-
tation.
The Ottawas formerly occupied the valley
of the Ottawa river of
Canada; they were driven westward,
beyond Lake Michigan, thence from
place to place until a fragment settled
in the Maumee country. Although
held among the Indians to be a cowardly
tribe, yet they produced the
Monument at Fort Jefferson. 125
great Pontiac, who is acknowledged to
have been one of the foremost
chiefs and warriors of Indian history.
Like the Delawares, they were
ready pupils in the school of the fierce
Wyandots and the aggressive
Shawnees.
The Miamis were the original inhabitants
of all the section north of
the Ohio and between the Scioto and
Wabash rivers. Their principal vil-
lages were upon the two Miamis and the
Miami of the Lake (now Mau-
mee).
To this tribe belonged Little Turtle,
who commanded the Indian
forces in the campaigns of Harmar, St.
Clair and Wayne, and was con-
spicuous at the signing of the treaty of
Greenville where he plead ele-
quently for the domain of his ancestors.
In addition to these tribes specially
prominent in the frontier history
of Ohio, the confederacy included the
Kickapoos, Pottawatomie and
Chippewas of the Michigan and upper lake
regions.
The aggressive chieftains at the time of
St. Clair's campaign were
Little Turtle, chief of the Miamis; Blue
Jacket, chief of the Shawnees;
Buck-on-gehelas, chief of the Delawares;
and also Simon Girty, the rene-
gade who had attained the rank of chief
among the Mingo, and whose
atrocities made him the terror and dread
of all the frontier settlements.
And it has been reported that Joseph
Brant, the Mohawk chief, with
150 of his warriors were present at the
battle.
The extent of the confederacy at this
time was not definitely known,
but may be inferred from the gathering
of the next year at the council
of the Auglaize, of which Corn Planter,
the Iroquois chieftain, said,
"There were so many nations we
could not tell the names of them."
This was to be their last desperate
stand and their rendezvous was to be
in the Miami and Maumee country. Such
was the situation which con-
fronted Washington when Congress
authorized him to act. Washington
was himself an Indian fighter. He was in
the defeat of Braddock and
later on led the English forces to
decisive victories against the combined
forces of French and Indians.
Washington planned the compaign. General
St. Clair, an officer in
the old French wars, a major-general of
the war of the revolution, presi-
dent of the Continental Congress and at
that time governor of the North-
west Territory, was chosen to command.
The object was to build a strong
military post at the junction of the
St. Mary's and St. Joseph with the
Maumee, near the Miami villages, to
be connected with Fort Washington by an
intermediate chain of forts.
The purpose was to overawe the Indians
and enforce submission.
From January, 1791, St. Clair was
engaged in collecting men and
supplies. On May 15 he arrived at Fort
Washington. By September
he had 2,300 available men, of whom 600
were militia. The main army
on September 17 moved forward
twenty-five miles to a point on the bank of
the Great Miami, where Fort Hamilton was
built.
126 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
The country was then reconnoitered, and
on October 12 this point,
forty-four miles from Fort Hamilton, was
selected for the second fort,
and named in honor of Jefferson. Two
hundred men under Major Fergu-
son began the work of constructing the
fort, block houses and stockade.
Leaving a strong garrison here, the main
army, on the morning of
the 24th, again took up the march. They
followed an old Indian trail
to the present site of Greenville and
thence into the unbroken woods.
From the hour the army left this fort
misfortune beset it at every turn.
On the day before leaving Fort Jefferson
three men-two deserters and
one mutineer-were drawn up before the
army and shot. Notwithstand-
ing this, desertions occurred almost
daily, and on October 31 sixty militia-
men deserted in a body. Fearing they
would capture and plunder the
wagon trains, St. Clair dispatched the
first regiment of regulars to pursue
them, save the wagon convoy, if
possible, capture the deserters. Thus
weakened the remnant of the army pursued
its toilsome journey.
Indian scouts "hawkeyed and
wolf-hearted," peered from the hills
overlooking this fort, and skulked along
the line of march. They saw every
defection and knew every division. They
counted the remnant of the
army that on November 3 encamped on the
spot of dry ground made
famous by the following dawn.
They saw the tired men lie down without
a ditch or wall of logs
to protect them from attack. The Indian
chieftians knew this was the
time to strike. Tomorrow the defenses
would be put up, and soon the
regulars would return. The whole
available force of the Indians were
now ready for the attack. At the
opportune moment, upon the early
dawn, it opened with great fury. The
onset was terrific. The militia-
men, who occupied a position a quarter
of a mile in advance, were swept
back upon the main army before they
could scarcely fire a shot, and the
whole army was in consternation. The
men, after recovering from the
surprise,
fought most valiantly. St. Clair, although
suffering from the
gout, behaved splendidly. He and General
Butler, who was second in
command, rode up and down the line
encouraging the men.
The Indians maintained an advantageous
position and kept up a
galling crossfire upon our troops who
were in the open. They picked
off the officers in uniform. Almost all
the officers and half the army
had been killed or wounded and the
remnant was surrounded. The
only hope was to cut through the Indian
lines. An advance was made,
the Indian lines gave way, the retreat
began, and soon developed into an
utter rout, which continued until Fort
Jefferson,-29 miles from the field
of action,-was reached. The scene
following the beginning of this re-
treat beggars discription. No parallel
is found in the annuals of history.
The Indians were indeed savages. Their
brutality and fiendishness knew
no bounds. They revelled in human blood.
They followed the fleeing
army for several miles, putting to
torture and to death the wounded and
the exhausted.
Monument at Fort Jefferson. 127
Upon reaching Fort Jefferson, General
St. Clair ordered the retreat
continued to Fort Washington. The sick
and wounded were quartered
and cared for at Fort Jerfferson. The
available army, however, left the
same night and arrived at Fort Hamilton
on the afternoon of the 6th
and at Fort Washington on the 8th.
Thus ended, in dreadful disaster, the
campaign so carefully planned.
The army was disheartened and almost
destroyed, the settlers alarmed
and panic-stricken, and the Indians
encouraged and emboldened.
General Butler, second in command, Major
Ferguson, whose de-
tachment built this fort, and upwards of
900 men were left upon the
field of battle.
The country was alarmed, congress
aroused, and a new army was
raised, which under Wayne the
"Sleepless Chief," struck terror into the
hearts of the Indians and made them sue
for peace.
The reputation of St. Clair never
emerged from the clouds of his
defeat. He retained the governorship of
the Territory, but his prestige
and influence were gone. Under the
creation of the new state, he re-
turned to his native state of
Pennsylvania and there, within sight of the
estates he had sacrificed to the cause
of the revolution, spent his last
days in poverty.
In January, following the battle of St.
Clair's defeat, General Wil-
kinson accompanied a detachment to the
battlefield for the purpose of
burying the dead. The bodies showed most
cruel torture. They were
collected and there, amid the snows and
blasts of winter and in the
wilderness they sought to recover for
civilization, were consigned to
earth.
One hundred and sixteen years have
passed since the white man's ax
rang out in the unbroken wilderness in
the construction of this fortifica-
tion. A transformation has occured
beyond the wildest dreams of the men
then living. The Indians have been
extirpated, the forests cleared, the
lands drained and improved to the
highest state of cultivation, homes built
and every convenience and comfort installed.
Wayne, upon his arrival here, considered
this fort unsafe because
of the hills overlooking it, and because
of the ease with which it might
be attacked, and marched five miles
further and built Fort Greenville,
where his army was established for the
winter.
From this new fort, after thorough
preparation, Wayne moved into
the wilderness, and to the new fort in
triumph he brought the Indians,
thoroughly subdued, for final treaty.
Every great event has its influence The Great Miami was the
natural boundary of the first state to
be carved out of the Northwest
Territory. The early Indian treaties
extended to this line. Congress, in
providing for the opening up of the
lands for settlement, and St. Clair, in
fixing the limits of Hamilton county,
made the Great Miami the western
boundary. But in the mind of Wayne, Fort
Recovery-within whose shad-
128 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
ows slept the heroic dead of two
armies-stood forth as the more ap-
propriate and fitting monument. Fort
Recovery, therefore, became the
future landmark for treaties and state
lines.
Every age has its peculiar problem. The
pioneers dealt with the
problems of poverty. They struggled for
the future. They laid the
foundations of a new state. And as we
look about in this day of plenty,
we should remember the sacrifices and
suffering of those who rescued
the country from the wilderness and
built deep and strong the foundation
of our present prosperity.
A WORD FROM THE RED MEN.
L. E. WILLS.
No doubt after hearing of the many
depredations by the Indians
towards the whites, you wonder why the
Little Turtle Tribe of Red Men,
an order which was named after the red
man, have been invited to assist
and participate upon this occasion. And
indeed you have cause to wonder,
from the fact, as I have said, that we were
named after the red men of the
forest, and at the time this fort was
built the red man and the whites were
engaged in a frightful war.
If this was a debate I assure you that I
could quote you some history
in defense of the red men that would
cause many of you to change your
minds and your opinions, but as this is
not a debate I will just call to
mind a few instances that might correct
some of your minds in regard
to why you are here.
When Columbus discovered and landed on
our Eastern shores,
his report upon his return was that he
had discovered a country inhabited
by a copper colored race of people, who,
upon the first sight of the white
man, became frightened and ran away; but
upon repeated efforts became
more friendly and showed them much hospitality.
That is the first in-
stance in history that we have of the
red man. History also teaches us
that the primitive red men of the forest
were a people who loved their
freedom above all things. They were a
people who considered their word
and promise as sacred as their lives.
They were a people to whom vice
and treachery were perfect strangers.
They were also a God-fearing
people, who, history tells us, never
entered upon any important duty
without offering up an invocation and
prayer asking The Great Spirit for
his protecting power. When rain failed
to descend and the buffalo had
forsaken their hunting grounds they
gathered together and for days offered
up incantation and prayer and smoked the
pipe of peace, believing that
their words would ascend to Him in the
smoke and cause the rain to fall
and the buffalo to return. That society
at that time was not named the
Red Men's Order, but the same people-the
same society descended on
down until it became the Improved Order
of Red Men. And we were