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     Few persons have a proper conception of the labor, research and perplexities attendant upon the resurrection of moldy facts and ethereal traditions which have so long slept in the matrix of obscurity, and writing a history, based upon these facts and traditions, which has its genesis with the aboriginal tribes who roamed unmolested throughout the winding labyrinths of their own primeval forests, beneath whose sylvan shades the timid deer lay down in peace, in whose branches the wild-birds built their nests, and caroled their matin songs, with angelic, soft and trembling voices, gently warbling with the rustling leaves and low murmur of the waters falling beneath; whose native giants knew not the ravages of the white man’s ax.  These patriarchs of the forest had not waved their shaggy boughs above the white man’s cabin.  The wigwam alone of the painted savage was nestled within their somber fastnesses, beneath whose folds the dusky maiden, with nature’s modesty, gave ear to the impassioned tones of her savage lover, while he recounted his heroic deeds in war and in the chase, displayed the gory scalps that embellished his girdle—that ever prerequisite and successful avenue to the heart of the forest belle—and pressed his suit with equally as much ardor as he would have evinced in relieving an enemy of his back hair, or roasting a victim at the stake.

OWNERS OF THE SOIL

     While it is not our purpose to trace beyond pre-historic ages the owners of the soil of what is now called Miami County, yet we deem it essential to a proper elucidation of its complete history that we make use of all the facts within our grasp, and trace them until the line fades out in myth.  Therefore, so nearly as can be ascertained from the chaotic mass of tradition, we are to infer that the first inhabitants belonged to the great Algonquin family, the most numerous, perhaps, of any other in the United States, and whose language was comparatively uniform throughout the tribes and subdivisions; and it would seem peculiarly adapted to oratorical flights and beautiful figures.  Though there appears to be a great amount of conflicting testimony in regard to the tribes comprehended in the Algonquin family, we are inclined to the opinion that the ancient Tewightewees or Twigtwees, more recently called Miamis, belonged to this family.  The origin, as well as name and number of this tribe, or confederation seems to be surrounded with as great a degree of mysticism and conjecture as the founding of Rome, or the siege of Troy.  Divesting them of their own tradition, the offspring of superstition, that they were created by Manitou, out of the dust of the Miami Valley,

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and that they had been there from the beginning of time, we shall enter the dawn of their authentic history.
     According to the account of Christopher Grist, the English agent for the Ohio Company, they were a powerful confederacy, superior incumbers and strength to the Iroquois, with whom, it appears from other authority, they were at deadly enmity. In 1750, they were living in amity with the French.  Grist places their towns one hundred and fifty miles up the Great Miami, which we presume would locate them near the site of Loramie’s store; but since the storehouse, said to be on the same spot, built in 1749, was called Pickawillany, which by some is translated into Piqua, these towns might have been located near the present site fo Piqua, and subsequent pages will confirm this opinion.  One author confounds them with the Ottawas, and another “as many different tribes under the same form of government.”  The French seem to have given them the name of Miamis.  By some they are called Piankeshaws, a tribe of the Twigtwees, and again the Miamis, or Twigtwees.  In the minutes of the Provincial Council of Penn, they are called Tweechtwese, and described as those Indians called by the French, Miamis; also by some, Tawixtwi, and classed as one of the Western confederated nations.
     From these various data we feel, safe in asserting that the tribe or confederation above described, were the owners of the soil embraced within the present limits of Miami County.  We find them in possession up to 1763, at which time they had their towns (see supra) here, which were designated on the old French maps, Tewightewee towns, which they fortified, and with their allies, the Wyandots.  Ottawas and French, fought a bloody battle with the English, aided by the Cherokees, Catawbas, Munseys, Senecas, Shawanoes, and Delawares, lasting over a week.  After this battle, the Miamis or Twightwees, being continually harassed by the English and neighboring tribes, removed to the Maumee, and the country was left to the Shawanoes, who converted the names of the towns into their own language; and we have authority for saying that the present city of Piqua was by them called Chillicothe in honor of a tribe of that name; however, our authority traces the etymology to “chilled coffee.”  Upper Piqua, was called after the tribe of that name’ which according to tradition means “a man formed out of the ashes.” It appears that during one of their annual feasts, the Shawanoese tribes were seated around the fire, smoking and indulging in all the usual convivialities incident to such occasions, when, to their dismay, a great puffing sound was heard, the dying embers were thrown aside, and lo! a full-formed man emerged from the ashes, like Milton’s lion in Creation, pawing the earth to free his nether parts; and this, they say, was the first man of the Piqua tribe.  Upper and Lower Piqua seem to have possessed peculiar attractions for the Shawanese nation, from the fact that for a long time they made their headquarters here from which to radiate on their continual war excursions.  The Shawanoese nation seems to have been very nomadic, evidently having formerly come from the South, as the word implies.  They were, it is believed, natives of Florida.  Blackhoof, one of their principal chiefs, has stated that his tribe believed, from various traces and signs, washed over by the sands, that Florida had been visited many ages previous to their existence by strangers from other countries; that he, himself, at the date of the statement one hundred and five years old, remembered bathing in the waters of the ocean on the Florida beach.

EXTINCTION OF THE INDIAN TITLE.

     Inasmuch as the ownership and occupancy of the soil resided first in the Miamis, and subsequently in the Shawanoese, it is difficult to ascertain with accuracy the exact date at which the Indian title was extinguished.  Through various treaties of Ft. Stanwix, McIntosh, Brown, Logstown and Greenville, ranging from 1784 to 1794, the title of the Indians was gradually vested in the United States, and, to some extent, by purchase, in private corporations.

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     It appears that on the 29th of August, John Cleves Symmes petitioned Congress for a purchase of one million acres of land to be bounded on the north, east, south and west by the extension of the Ohio Company’s line.  Little Miami, Ohio and Great Miami, that, failing to comply with the contract, the northern portion, evidently including a part of the present limits of Miami County and adjoining lands probably including the remainder, were ordered sunned and subject to preemption.  Thus we have endeavored, in so far as we were able, to extract from the heterogeneous mass of uncertainty, the original owners, the extinction of the aboriginal title, and the final vesting of the same in such a shape as to lay it open for individual purchase and settlement.
      The spirit of adventure with which nature has endowed the human species, nowhere manifests itself so conspicuously as in those men of iron muscle and resolute will who forever left the abode of peace and plenty and braved the dangers and endured the privations incident to the opening of new homes in the solitudes of the untrodden wilderness.
     A strange infatuation seems to urge on mankind to seek out new fields of adventure, and the greater the danger the stronger the impulse to meet and conquer it.
     This, in conjunction with seductive hope, though so often realizing the words of Pope, “that man never is, but always to be blest,” conduces very materially to the advancement of civilization; and, when we take into consideration the cosmopolitan nature of man, we need not wonder that no part of the world, how wild and uninviting soever, remains inviolate.
     It was this, coupled with cupidity, that led the cruel Pizarro to the subjugation of the Incas of Peru, Cortez to the bloody struggles with the Aztecs, the conquest of Mexico and the extinction of the Montezumas.

SETTLEMENT OF THE OHIO VALLEY.

     The evidences of the marks of edged tools on trees in the Ohio Valley, calculating from the subsequent growth of rings, extends as far back as 1660.  Tradition is also handed down, leading to show that in 1742, one John Howard sailed down the Ohio in a canoe made of a buffalo skin.  It appears however, that the French, as far back as 1749, controlled the trade of this country, and we are informed that Grallisonier, Governor of Canada, in the summer of 1849, caused plates of lead, on which were engraved the claims of the French Government, to be placed in the mounds, and at the mouths of the rivers running into the Ohio, as evidences of their ownership of the lands on both sides of that river.  One of these plates was found near the mouth of the Muskingum, bearing date Aug. 16, 1749, a particular account of which, by De Witt Clinton, may be seen in American Autobiographical Society, 535.  But this puerile attempt utterly failed of its object.  During the same year, the English built a trading-house on the Great Miami, on a spot since called Loramie’s store.  The French, jealous of the intrusions of the English upon what they considered their lands, and apprehensive of danger, began the erection of a line of fortifications along the Ohio, and toward the lakes; and early in 1752, demanded of the Tewightewees the surrender of the trading-house above mentioned; which being refused, they, in conjunction with the Ottawas and Cliippewas, attacked, captured, and destroyed it, killed fourteen Indians, and carried the English to Canada; and it is even stated by historians, that some were burned at the stake.  These traders were supposed to have been from Pennsylvania, from the tact that in Franklin’s history of the same, he mentioned that the above State sent the Twigtwees a gift of condolence for those slain in the defense of Pickawillany, the English name of the trading-house.  Although this battle was participated in by two nationalities, no more serious results bowed from it than a series of diplomatic maneuverings, with a view to securing the permanent possession of the debatable lands.
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was Benjamin Franklin, were sent, at which the attack on the trading-houses at the mouth of Loramie’s Creek, was discussed and a treaty was concluded, which evidently included our present county.  As the population increased, the feeling intensified, until the French and Indian wars, when open hostilities began, which only ended with the fall of Quebec in 1763.  With a fear of repetition, which is almost wholly unavoidable, we have endeavored to place before our readers a concise statement of the condition of the country, from its earliest known history, until it approaches the dawn of civilization.  To do this we have been compelled to begin with a very wide scope of country, and, as the antiquity of its history wore away, and thereby assumed a greater degree of certainty, the horizon of its territory also would grow less, until now we shall begin with history and landmarks within the memory of many now living.

INSTITUTION AND BOUNDARY OF MIAMI COUNTY.

     In January, 1790, Hamilton County was organized, beginning on the banks of the Ohio River, at the confluence of the Little Miami, and down the Ohio to the mouth of the Big Miami; and up the same to the Standing Stone Fork, or branch of the Big Miami; and thence, with a line to be drawn due east to the Little Miami, and down the same to the place of beginning.  June 22, 1793, the western boundary line of Hamilton was so altered as to begin at the spot on the Ohio where the Greenville treaty line intersects the bank of that river, and run with the line to Fort Recovery; thence due north to the south line of Wayne County.
     In March, 1803, Montgomery County was laid off, composed of a part of Hamilton; beginning at the State line, at the northwest corner of Butler; thence east with the lines of Butler and Warren, to the east line of Section 16, Township 3, Range 5; thence north eighteen miles; thence east two miles; thence north to the State line; thence with the same, to the west line of the State; thence with the said line to the beginning.
     January 16, "1807, took effect March 1."
     "All that part of Montgomery County be, and the same is hereby laid off and erected, into a separate and distinct county, which shall be called and known by the name of Miami, to wit:  Beginning t the southwest corner of Champaign County and southeast corner of Section 1, Township 2, and Range 9; thence west with the line between Ranges 9 and 10 to the Great Miami River, crossing the same in such direction as to take the line on the bank of the said river, between Townships 3 and 4 in Range 6, west of the said river; thence west with the said line to the State line; thence north with the same to the Indian boundary line; thence east with the same to the Champaign County line, thence south with the said county line to the place of beginning.
     "From and after the 1st day of April, 1807, said county of Miami shall be vested with all the powers, privileges and immunities of a separate and distinct county.  Jan. 7, 1812, all that part of the county of Montgomery lying north of the county of Miami shall be, and teh same is hereby, attached to the said county of Miami; and all that part lying north of the county of Darke shall be, and the same is hereby, attached to the said county of Darke."
     Jan. 3, 1809.  So much of the county of Miami as lies west of the middle of the fourth range of townships, east of the meridian drawn from the mouth of the Great Miami, be and the same is hereby erected into the county of Darke.  Jan. 7, 1819, a part of Miami was taken in the formation of Shelby, which left it as it now is.

EXPEDITION OF GEN. G. R. CLARKE.

     Inasmuch as there were Piqua or Pickawa villages situated on Mad River, about five miles west of Springfield, near the present site of West Boston, noted as the birthplace of the celebrated Shawanoe chieftain Tecumseh, or, perhaps more property, Tecumthe, which may possibly be confounded with the city of

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Piqua, in this county, it may be well to state, for the purpose of a more lucid discrimination, that, in the summer of 1780, Gen. G. R. Clarke, after a long and severe contest with the savages, utterly destroyed all the Piqua towns on Mad River, and laid waste about five-hundred acres of growing corn, together with every vegetable production convertible into food.  The Shawanoes were so discouraged, with their ignominious defeat, and the total destruction of all means of subsistence, that they abandoned the blackened ruins of their once beautiful and flourishing villages, and removed to the Great Miami, on whose banks they built another town and named it Piqua, perhaps in commemoration of the ashes of the old.  Two years after their removal, having recovered from the terrible chastisement inflicted upon them by Gen. Clarke, their fiendish propensity again evinced itself in many depredations in Kentucky and Ohio.  Especially at the battle of Blue Licks, in Kentucky, were they successful; and, maddened by brooding over their wrongs, and the taste of blood, the destruction of the infant colonies seemed inevitable.  At this critical juncture, that second Wayne, Gen. G. R. Clarke, foreseeing the ultimate annihilation of all the settlements along the Ohio, determined to lead another expedition against the sanguinary Shawanoes, and wreak destruction upon them and their corn-fields.  To this end, therefore, in 1782, two years after his first expedition to their towns on Mad River, and about eighteen years prior to the first permanent settlement in this county, he raised an army of about one thousand men in Kentucky, and, after organizing his little army at the mouth of the Licking, crossed the Ohio at a little village, since called Cincinnati, then consisting of a few miserable log huts, surrounded by posts and logs driven into the ground, called a stockade.  Throwing out scouts in advance, to guard against surprises from his wily and treacherous foes, and directed by guides, he began his march through the dreary wilderness.  Fording Mad River, near Dayton, he marched to the Great Miami, crossing about four miles below the Piqua towns.  Flushed with recent victories, the Indians were ravaging the country.  The unprotected settlers retired at night, expecting every moment to hear the blood-curdling whoop of the savage, or awake to see their humble homes in flames; in whose lurid blaze the blood-thirsty demons of the woods stood ready to revel in scenes of butchery, carnage and torture.
     Shortly prior to this, the Indians, in one of their incursions in Kentucky, possibly at Boonsboro, had captured several prisoners, among whom was a white woman named McFall, who had been dragged from her home, compelled to follow her captors, and perform all the drudgeries incident to Indian female life.  It was approaching the time when a grand pow-wow was to be held at the Piqua towns, in which all the Indians of the tribe were expected to participate.  They were therefore flocking in from all parts of the country, and, among others, were a party of warriors on horseback, coming from their villages in the western part of the country.  In company with them were a number of squaws, and one white woman (the Mrs. McFall previously mentioned).  Just as they emerged from the forest, and came in full view of the river, they perceived the army of Gen. Clarke, whose vanguard had already landed.  Struck with terror, they beat so hasty a retreat, that they forgot their squaws, not deigning even to throw a parting tomahawk at their white prisoner, or secure a lock of her hair.  The squaws, as well as the white woman, were taken with the army to the Piqua towns, but, it seems that such was the terror produced by the name of Clarke, that the Indians fled at his approach.  When he reached the Piqua villages, lie found them deserted, the Indians not even taking time to pack up their household furniture. Passing Lower Piqua, he continued up the river to Upper Piqua, which he found also deserted.  Halting his army here, he made preparations to rest overnight; and at length, as the sun set in a flood of glory, and his beams trembled into twilight, the noise of the camp grew less, the lights were extinguished, the trees shot out their dark shadows into the river, and silence settled down over the camp, and deep sleep fell upon the weary soldiers.  In the dead of the night, the Indians crept through the hazel thickets, and fired upon the guards; this aroused the whole army, and

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skirmishing was kept up till morning; but, owing to the darkness, very little injury was done; five Indians were found dead in the bushes next morning after their comrades had retreated.
     The previous evening, Gen. Clarke had sent a detachment of men to destroy a French store (Loramie’s) situated about miles from Piqua, from which the Indians were supplied with arms and ammunition.  Having caught a Frenchman, they tied him on a horse, covered him with their guns, and directed him to guide them to the store.  Some time during the night they arrived; but found neither Indians nor Frenchman.  They however burned the store, helped themselves to its contents, and destroyed what they could not carry off; rejoining the army early in the morning, they assisted Gen. Clarke in burning and laying waste the villages and corn-fields of the Indians in and around Piqua.  The only fatal results from this expedition was the death of Capt. McCracken, and a man whose name is unknown.
     During the skirmishing in the night, their horses strayed off into the woods, and, while hunting them, they were fired upon and mortally wounded.  One died shortly after, and was buried at Coe’s Ford, where the army crossed the Miami on its return march.  Capt. McCracken lived till the army reached the present site of Cincinnati, where he was buried.  Through the aid of Gen. Clarke, the white woman, Mrs. McFall, was restored to her friends in Kentucky.  Thus ended the second expedition of the veteran Clarke, which resulted in destroying this pernicious nest of Indians, which had continually harassed, murdered and kept in mortal fear, the weak settlements of the Miami Valley.  Killing a few of their warriors only increased their ferocity, and stung them to revenge, but when their corn-fields were destroyed, and their villages burned, it sapped their vitals, crippled their power, and compelled them to hunt for a living.  Among the worthies who aided in this enterprise, Miami County claims two esteemed citizens, Abraham Thomas and Capt. Barbee, the latter of whom the county afterward honored with the judicial ermine.  In consideration of the great services rendered by Gen. G. R. Clarke in protecting the early inhabitants of the Ohio and Miami Vallejo, and his many severe encounters with the Indians within the limits of this county, and of various other services rendered, of vital importance to the settlement of this county, we deem it not inappropriate to reproduce here an anecdotal reminiscence.  At the treaty held on Jan. 31, 1786, at the mouth of the Great Miami, between Gen. G. R. Clarke, Bichard Butler and Samuel H. Parsons as Commissioners, and the Delawares, Wyandots and Shawanoes, the Indians, it appears, came with treacherous designs, and, had it not been for the perfect knowledge of Indian character possessed by Gen. Clarke, and the terror his name inspired among the savages, the council would have ended in murder.  From a work of Judge Hall, we append the following description of the scene: The Indians had entered in a blustering and defiant manner.  The Commissioners, without noticing the disorderly conduct of the other party, or appearing to have discovered their meditated treachery, opened the council in due form.  They lighted the peace pipe, and, after drawing a few whiffs, passed it to the chiefs, who received it.  Gen. Clarke then rose to explain the purpose for which the treaty was ordered.  With an unembarrassed air, with the tone of one accustomed to command, an easy assurance of perfect security and self-possession, he stated that the Commissioners had been sent to offer peace to the Shawanoes; that the President had no wish to continue the war; he had no resentment to gratify; and if the red men desired peace, they could have it on reasonable terms. “If such be the will of the Shawanoes,” he concluded, “let some of their wise men speak.”
     A chief arose, drew up his tall person to its full height, and, assuming a haughty attitude, threw his eye contemptuously over the Commissioners and their small retinue, as if to measure their insignificance, in comparison with his own numerous train, and then, stalking to the table, threw upon it two belts of wampum of different colors—the war and the peace belt.  “We come here,” he exclaimed, to offer you two pieces of wampum; they are of different colors; you know what they mean; you can take which you like!” and, turning upon his heel, he resumed his seat.

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The chiefs drew themselves up in the consciousness of having hurled defiance in the teeth of the white men.  They offered an insult to the renowned leader of the “Long Knives,” to which they knew it would be hard for him to submit, while they did not suppose he dare resent it.  The council pipe was laid aside.  Those fierce, wild men gazed intently at Clarke.  The Americans saw that the crisis had arrived.  They could no longer doubt that the Indians understood the advantage they possessed, and were disposed to use it, and a common sense of danger caused each eye to be turned on the leading Commissioner.  He sat undisturbed, and apparently careless, until the chief who had thrown the belts upon the table had taken his seat; then with a small cane which he held in his hand, he reached, as if playfully, toward the war belt, entangled the end of the stick in it, drew it toward him, and then with a switch of the cane, threw the belt into the midst of the chiefs.  The effect was electric.  Every man in the council of each party, sprang to his feet, the savages with a loud exclamation of astonishment, “ Ugh !” the Americans in expectation of a hopeless conflict against overwhelming numbers.  Every hand grasped a weapon.  Clarke alone was unawed.  The expression of his countenance changed to a ferocious sternness, and his eye flashed, but otherwise he was unmoved.  A bitter smile was perceptible upon his compressed lips, as he gazed upon that savage band, whose hungry eyes were bent fiercely, and in horrid exultation upon him, as they stood like a pack of wolves at bay, thirsting for blood, and ready to rush upon him whenever one bolder than the rest should commence the attack.  It was one of those moments of indecision, when the slightest weight thrown into either scale will make it preponderate; a moment, in which a bold man, conversant with the secret springs of human action, may seize upon the minds of all around him,- and sway them at his will.  Such a man was the intrepid Clarke.  He spoke, and there was no man bold enough to gainsay him, none that could return the fierce glance of his eye.  Raising his arm, and waving his hand toward the door, he exclaimed; “Dogs! You may go! ”  The Indians hesitated for a moment, and then rushed tumultuously out of the council-room.  They lingered around in the bushes all night, debating the question of peace or war, and, finally, in the morning, they sued for peace.  To this intrepid Indian fighter, perhaps, more than to any other individual, the Northwest Territory owed its immunity from Indian massacres during the infancy of its colonization.

EARLIEST SETTLEMENT

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EARLY SETTLEMENT

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HINDRANCES TO EARLY SETTLEMENT.

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LITTLE COPPER DISTILLERY,

which furnished the stimulating fluid deemed essential on all these occasions, and without which no one could have obtained the required aid, and the general use of which was common, but the excessive use was not more common, and the fatal effects far less, than at the present day