Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/52

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��HISTORY OF OHIO.

��busily engaged erecting forts from the southern shores of Lake Erie to the Ohio, and on down in the Illinois Valley ; up at Detroit, and at all its posts, preparations were constantly going on for the crisis, now sure to come. The issue between the two governments was now fully made up. It ad- mitted of no compromise but the sword. To that, however, neither power desired an immediate ap- peal, and both sought rather to establish and fortify their interests, and to conciliate the Indian tribes. The English, through the Ohio Company, sent out Christoj)her Gist in the fall of 1750, to explore the regions west of the mountains. He was instructed to examine the passes, trace the courses of the rivers, mark the falls, seek for valuable lands, ob- serve the strength, and to conciliate the friendship of the Indian tribes. He was well fitted for such an enterprise. Hardy, sagacious, bold, an adept in Indian character, a hunter by occupation, no man was better qualified than he for such an undertak- ing. He visited Logstown, where he was jealously received, passed over to the Muskingum River and Valley in Ohio, where he found a village of Wyan- dots, divided in sentiment. At this village he met Crogau, another equally famous frontiersman, who had been sent out by Pennsylvania. Together they held a council with the chiefs, and received assurance of the friendship of the tribe. This done, they passed to the Shawnee towns on the Scioto, received their assurances of friendship, and went on to the Miami Valley, which they crossed, remarking in Crogan's journal of its great fertili- ty. They made a raft of logs on which they crossed the Grreat Miami, visited Piqua, the chief town of the Pickawillanies, and here made treaties with the Weas and Piankeshaws. While here, a deputation of the Ottawas visited the Miami Con- federacy to induce them to unite with the French. They were repulsed through the influence of the t]nglish agents, the Miamis sending Gist word that they would " stand like the mountains. " Crogan now returned and j)ublished an account of their wanderings. Gist followed the Miami to its mouth, passed down the Ohio till within fifteen miles of the falls, then returned by way of the Kentucky River, over the highlands of Kentucky to Virginia, arriving in May, 1751. He had visited the Mingoes, Delawares, Wyandots, Shawa- nees and Miamis, proposed a union among these tribes, and appointed a grand council to meet at Logstown to form an alliance among themselves and with Virginia. His journey was marvelous for the day. It was extremely hazardous, as he

��was part of the time among hostile tribes, who could have captured him and been well rewarded by the French Government. But Gist knew how to act, and was successful.

While Gist was doing this, some English traders established themselves at a place in what is now known as Shelby County, Ohio, and opened a store tor the purpose of trading with the Indians. This was clearly in the limits of the West, claimed by the French, and at once aroused them to action. The fort or stockade stood on the banks of Loramie's Creek, about sixteen miles northwest of the present city of Sydney. It received the name Loramie from the creek by the French, which received its name in turn from the French trader of that name, who had a trading-post on this creek. Loramie had fled to the Spanish country west of the Mississippi, and for many years was a trader there ; his store being at the junc- tion of the Kansas and Missouri, near the present city of Kansas City, Mo. When the English traders came to Loramie's Creek, and erected their trading-place, they gave it the name of Pick- awillany, from the tribe of Indians there. The Miami confederacy granted them this privilege as the result of the presents broughtby Crogan and Gist. It is also asserted that Andrew Montour, a half-breed, son of a Seneca chief and the famous Catharine Montour, who was an important fac- tor afterward in the English treaties with the Indians, was with them, and by his influence did much to aid in securing the privilege. Thus was established the first English trading-post in the Northwest Territory and in Ohio. It, however, enjoyed only a short duration. The French could not endure so clear an invasion of their country, and gathering a force of Ottawas and Chippewas, now their allies, they attacked the stockade in June, 1752. At first they demanded of the Miamis the surrender of the fort, as they were the real cause of its location, having granted the English the privilege. The Miamis not only refused, but aided the British in the* defense. In the battle that ensued, fourteen of the Miamis were slain, and all the traders captured. One account says they were burned, another, and probably the correct one, states that they were taken to Canada as prisoners of war. It is probable the traders were from Penn- sylvania, as that commonwealth made the Miamis presents as condolence for their warriors that were slain.

Blood had now been shed. The opening gun of the French and Indian war had been fired, and both

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