Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/216

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��HISTORY OF KICHLAND COUNTY.

��locality was a very sickly one, and that, in his ca- pacity of a })hysiciaii, he often visited the Indians who lived there. He has often placed silver in the water to note the tarnish which is quickly im- parted to it. The water is a gentle cathartic, and, since the advent of the whites, the place has been improved, and accommodations made for visitors and those desirous of benefits ft'om the spring water. The Indians, doubtless, an- nually' came here during their occupancy of the country. They were well acquainted with all such localities, and often placed great confi- dence in the waters, whose effects they could perceive, but which they could not explain.

A small village, hardly worth the name, also existed in Troy Township, a history of which is given in connection with that of the township. There were several such •' camps " in all parts of Richland County. They were really hunt- ing-places, and were not considered as vil- lages. The county was rather a good hunting- place, and as such, especially along its streams, was much traversed by wandering tribes of In- dians from all the nations dwelling in this part of Ohio. In the histories of the townships these various camps are more fully noticed.

The northern portion of Richland County be- longed in ancient times to the Eries, who were exterminated by the Five Nations in some of their wars. The Wyandots, who, at the time the French missionaries came to America, were dwelling in the peninsula of Michigan, were al- lowed by the Five Nations to occupy the land of the Eries, and thus came to dwell in this county. The Ottawas, another conquered tribe, and one allowed existence only by paying a kind of tribute to their conquerors, the Iro- quois, were also part occupants of this same part of Ohio. This nation produced the re- nowned chief Pontiac, who was the cause of such widespread desolation in the West, an ac- count of which is given in the history of the Northwest in preceding pages. The Ottawas were often known as " Canada Indians " amona;

��the early settlers. Their principal settlements were on the Maumee, along the lake shore, on the Huron and Black Rivers, and on the streams flowing into them. The nation were distin- guished for cunning and artifice, and were de- void of the attributes of true warriors. The}- were often employed as emissaries, their known diplomacy and artifice l)eing well adapted to such iKisiness. The Wyandots, on the other hand, were a bold, warlike people. Gren. Har- rison says of them: "They were true war- riors, and neither fatigue, famine, loss, nor any of the ills of war could daunt their courage. They were our most formidable and stubborn enemies among the aborigines in the war of 1812."' They, like all tribes in the West, were often influenced by British rum and British gold, and found in the end, as their chiefs so aptly expressed it, that they were " only tools in the hands of a superior power, who cared nothing for them, only to further their own sel- fish ends."

Many of the Indians of all these tribes were friendly to all whites until the breaking-out of the war with Great Britain, when they left the country to join the forces of the king, and destroy the whites who occupied their country. They considered them then their enemies, and acted accordingly on all occasions, save where personal friendship, so strong in the Indian, developed itself and, in many instances, saVed the lives of those in danger. Instances of this kind are frequently given, which appear in the narrative as they occurred.

The manners, customs, feasts, war parties and daily life of these sons of the forest, form in- teresting chapters in aboriginal history. It will be well to notice such in these pages, as far as space permits. The character of the Indians was largely the result of their lives. They judged and lived by what the senses dictated. They had names and words for what they could, hear, see, feel, taste and smell. They had no conceptions of abstract ideas until they learned

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