Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/45

HISTORY or OHIO. 33 of the French court, their neglect of the true basis of wealth, agriculture, and the repressive tendencies laid on the colonists, led the latter to adopt a hunter's life, and leave the country undeveloped and ready for the people who claimed the country from "sea to sea." Their explorers were now at work. The change was at hand.

Occasional mention has been made in the history of the State, in preceding pages, of settlements and trading-posts of the French traders, explorers and missionaries, within the limits of Ohio. The French were the first white men to occupy the northwestern part of the New World, and though their stay was brief, yet it opened the way to a sinewy race, living on the shores of the Atlantic, who in time came, saw, and conquered that part of America, making it what the people of to-day enjoy.

As early as 1669, four years before the discovery of the Mississippi by Joliet and Marquette, La Salle, the famous explorer, discovered the Ohio River, and paddled down its gentle current as far as the falls at the present city of Louisville, but he, like others of the day, made no settlement on its hanks, only claiming the country for his King by virtue of this discovery.

Early in the beginning of the eighteenth century, French traders and voyagers passed along the southern shores of Lake Erie, to the mouth of the Maumee, up whose waters they rowed their bark canoes, on their way to their outposts in the Wabash and Illinois Valleys, established between 1675 and 1700. As soon as they could, without danger from their inveterate enemies, the Iroquois, masters of all the lower lake country, erect a trading-post at the mouth of this river, they did so. It was made a depot of considerable note, and was, probably, the first permanent habitation of white men in Ohio. It remained until after the peace of 1763, the termination of the French and Indian war, and the occupancy of this country by the English. On the site of the French trading-post, the British, in 1794, erected Fort Miami, which they garrisoned until the country came under the control of Americans. Now, Maumee City covers the ground.

The French had a trading-post at the mouth of the Huron River, in what is now Erie County. When it was built is not now known. It was, however, probably one of their early outposts, and may have been built before 1750. They had another on the shore of the bay, on or near the site of Sandusky City. Both this and the one at the mouth of the Huron River were abandoned before the war of the Revolution. On Lewis Evan's map of the British Middle Colonies, published in 1755, a French fort, called "Fort Junandat, built in 1754," is marked on the east bank of the Sandusky River, several miles below its mouth. Fort Sandusky, on the western bank, is also noted. Several Wyandot towns are likewise marked. But very little is known concerning any of these trading-posts. They were, evidently, only temporary, and were abandoned when the English came into possession of the country.

The mouth of the Cuyahoga River was another important place. On Evan's map there is marked on the west bank of the Cuyahoga, some distance from its mouth, the words "French House," doubt- less, the station of a French trader. The ruins of a house, found about five miles from the mouth of the river, on the west bank, are supposed to be those of the trader's station.

In 1786, the Moravian missionary, Zeisberger, with his Indian converts, left Detroit in a vessel called the Mackinaw, and sailed to the mouth of the Cuyahoga. From there they went up the river about ten miles, and settled in an abandoned Ottawa village, where Independence now is, which place they called "Saint's Rest." Their stay was brief, for the following April, they left for the Huron River, and settled near the site of Milan, Erie County, at a locality they called New Salem.

There are but few records of settlements made by the French until after 1750. Even these can hardly be called settlements, as they were simply trading-posts. The French easily affiliated with the Indians, and had little energy beyond trading. They never cultivated fields, laid low forests, and subjugated the country. They were a half-Indian race, so to speak, and hence did little if anything in developing the West.

About 1749, some English traders came to a place in what is now Shelby County, on the banks of a creek since known as Loramie's Creek, and established a trading-station with the Indians. This was the first English trading-place or attempt at settlement in the State. It was here but a short time, however, when the French, hearing of its existence, sent a party of soldiers to the Twigtwees, among whom it was founded, and demanded the traders as intruders upon French territory. The Twigtwees refusing to deliver up their friends, the French, assisted by a large party of Ottawas and Chippewas, attacked the trading-house, probably a block-house, and, after a severe