The Harrison Table Rock and Ball's
Battlefield. 363
No other county in the state is so rich
in early history as Sandusky.
A British post was established here
during the Revolutionary War. Here
the first permanent white settlers
located and the first marriage between
whites was performed. Especially during
the War of 1812 was it a
famous battleground.
In marking, one by one, these historical
places, we, as an organi-
zation, are not only showing patriotism
in one of the truest forms--
reverencing the memory and brave deeds
of our heroes--but we are
reminding the present and future
generations of our dearly won liberties,
for very truly has some one said:
"Every spot in a land that marks
the achievement of an heroic deed is to
that land a perpetual fountain
from which flows influences to
strengthen the patriotism of its people."
In imagination we can see Major Ball's
dragons gallantly riding
down this road. They obeyed the order to
charge with bayonets when-
ever smoke was seen and thus in a
hand-to-hand encounter killed
seventeen of the eighteen Indians.
Bravery in battle requires the same
courage, whether the fighting
is on Ball's battlefield with a small
squadron, at Fort Stephenson with
160 men defending the fort, or with the
thousands at Gettysburg. So
today we honor the memory of the men who
won the battle which pre-
ceded Croghan's victory by two days.
From here we will go on to the Harrison
Mess Rock located on
Harrison Trail. It is well known in this
part of the state on account
of its great size and because the
general and his staff lunched from its
spacious board.
As your state regent, I am delighted to
congratulate you on the
placing of these markers, for as the
Fort Kearney Chapter in Nebraska
was the first to erect a tablet on the
Old Oregon Trail in that state,
so you, members of my own chapter, are
the first to place markers on the
General Harrison Military Trail in Ohio.
Mrs. John T. Mack, of Sandusky, state
chairman of the his-
torical sites committee, was next
introduced by the local regent
and gave an interesting account of what
has been done through-
out the state in the marking and
commemoration of historic sites.
A part of her paper was as follows:
ADDRESS OF MRS. MACK.
The committee on historic sites of the
Daughters of the American
Revolution of Ohio wish to congratulate
the Colonel Croghan Chapter
upon the unveiling of two more tablets,
thus adding more laurels to the
wreath you have won in the marking of
historic spots. It was in the year
of 1901-02, under the state regency of
Mrs. John A. Murphy that the
committee on marking Revolutionary
soldiers' graves was formed. A
364 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Publications.
little later, locating and marking
historic sites was added to the work of
this committee. At that time we were
uncertain just how to proceed to
locate such graves. The committee
realized that absolute accuracy was
essential and our early historic sites
seemed few. We did not know how
rich Ohio is in historic associations.
We know now that this beloved
commonwealth, dear to us all, is
exceedingly rich in her history, not only
of the mound builders, her Indian wars,
Revolutionary War and the
War of 1812, in her portages and trails,
but also is she rich in her colonial
history brought forcibly to mind by old
Fort Sandusky, but recently
located, which was built in 1745 on the
northern bank of Sandusky Bay
and destroyed in 1764, long before Fort
Laurens was built in 1778.
It is said that Lord Dunmore's war was
the first struggle in the
War of the Revolution. Lord Dunmore with
his army came from
Fort Pitt down the Ohio to the mouth of
the Hock-Hocking River,
where he built Fort Gower. From thence
he came to the Scioto River
to an Indian camp called Camp Charlotte,
now in Pickaway County near
Circleville. It was about this time that
the battle of Point Pleasant was
fought and the Indians were defeated by
General Andrew Lewis. A
peace conference followed, the Indians
surrendering their claims to
the lands south of the Ohio River. It
was this event which inspired
Chief Logan's famous speech and the elm
tree still stands under which
he uttered those eloquent words that
will be read while American history
is written. The conflicts under General
George Rogers Clark in 1780-82,
against the Shawnees were successful. To
commemorate Clark's victory,
Simon Kenton, having successfully run
the gauntlet there, the Catherine
Green Chapter of Xenia on June 14, 1906,
unveiled a granite boulder on
the site of that old Indian village. One
of the first chapters to mark
a historic site in Ohio was the
Nathaniel Massie Chapter, of Chillicothe,
which joined with the women's clubs and
placed upon a pilaster of the
court house in Chillicothe a bronze
tablet commemorative of the fact
that upon this site stood the first state
house of Ohio, wherein was
adopted the original constitution of the
commonwealth. This tablet
was unveiled on the 100th anniversary of
the settlement of Chillicothe.
The D. A. R. of Cincinnati with other
patriotic societies, erected a mon-
ument to mark the location of Fort
Washington, one of the earliest
historic spots in the Northwest
Territory.
Twenty-five miles up the Miami River
General St. Clair built a
fort which he named after Alexander
Hamilton. A powder magazine
was erected at the south end of the
fort. The building on the fort
was presented by the estate of John
Milliken to the John Reily Chapter,
D. A. R.
The Columbus Chapter has celebrated the
marking of a historic
spot by placing a boulder in Martin
Avenue, on which a bronze tablet
tells its own story: "Near this
spot, June 21, 1813, was held a council
between General William Henry Harrison
and the Indian tribes com-
The Harrison Table Rock and Ball's
Battlefield. 365
prising the Wyandots, Delawares,
Shawnees and Senecas, with Tarhe,
the Crane, as spokesman, resulting in
the permanent peace with the
Indians of Ohio."
The Dolly Todd Madison Chapter of
Tiffin, on October 21, 1906,
placed a tablet commemorative of Fort
Ball which was built by General
Harrison in 1812, as a small stockade
and was used as a depot for
supplies.
In 1899 the Piqua Chapter bought a
triangle of ground on which
they erected a monument in commemoration
of one of the French and
Indian wars. On Flag day, 1906, the
Piqua Chapter unveiled a tablet of
bronze on the house, known as the
Colonel Johnston Indian Agency
House.
On June 25, 1909, the New Connecticut
Chapter of Painesville
unveiled two bronze tablets on the new
court house there. One to the
memory of President James A. Garfield,
who was a citizen of Lake
County, and one to Samuel Huntington,
Governor of Ohio in 1808,
whose early home in Painesville Township
is still standing.
The Old Northwest Chapter at Ravenna has
marked the spot
where Captain Samuel Brady immortalized
the little lake which bears
his name, by erecting a granite marker
there.
Last fall at the conference, when it was
suggested that the D. A. R.
of Ohio, mark historic trails through
the state, especially the old Indian
trail along the Sandusky and Scioto
Rivers from the lake to the Ohio,
and that they place a tablet on a
monument to be erected at Port Clinton
on the north side of the peninsula on
the shore of Lake Erie, to
commemorate the embarkation of General
Harrison and his army for
Maiden and Detroit, and the battle of
the Thames, the Daughters were
enthusiastic over the suggestion and the
money for such a tablet was
pledged then and there. And now,
Daughters of the Colonel George
Croghan Chapter, you have the
satisfaction and the high honor of erecting
the first monument and the first tablet
on this famous trail. I indeed
congratulate you for having accomplished
the most work of any of our
chapters in this direction.
Following the formal presentation of the
tablet to the
county by Mrs. Dickinson, the flag
veiling the tablet was re-
moved by several children under the
direction of Miss Char-
lotte Dillon, secretary of the local
chapter, and Miss Nelle
Gast, state secretary of the D. A. R.,
and the firing of the
national salute by the Co. K squad
completed the formal un-
veiling exercises.
Capt. E. C. Sayles, in behalf of the
county, accepted the
tablet and his remarks were most
appropriate. He congratu-
lated especially the D. A. R. in
their efforts to perpetuate the