A Less than 2,000 Word

Brief History of the Ohio Country

By John Merrill

Archeological evidence suggests people were in the Ohio Country dating back to the melting ice of the last Ice Age. We know there were people here because archeologists have found stone tools made from a particular type flint that is only found in one place: Flint Ridge, just northeast of Newark, and carbon dated their campsites.

These people were nomadic with temporary campsites. They left few clues to their existence other than some of their tools and a few burial sites accidentally discovered during construction projects. Large intact mastodons that have been partially butchered with razor sharp flint knives and stored for future use in ice-cold bogs have also been found.

Then came dramatic changes. A cultural invasion, about the same time the pyramids were built. This was a fully formed civilization appearing throughout the area from the Ohio River to Lake Erie. Today we call this organized culture the Mound Builders because of the extensive engineered earthworks they built.

Over the centuries their culture thrived, developing a sophisticated system of communities with large population centers connected by straight-line roads that would be almost impossible today.

They were here until about 800 years ago and then disappeared. For several centuries Ohio Country was void of humans. Large dense forests grew to incredible sizes. Immense herds of buffalo, deer and elk roamed open prairies. Predatory animals thrived.

When Europeans began arriving along the coast, they found small clans they called American Indians. At the time they thought they were just that, small clans clustered along the coast with the interior mostly uninhabited-- this mind-set created the idea North America was uninhabited.

Today these groups are known as Native Americans. Some clans were peaceful, others warlike and territorial. Eventually Europeans would learn these were large indigenous Nations that populated most of North America east of the Allegheny Mountains. By then the European mind-set had been formed: they were inferior. While wars between the Nations divided and separated these groups, real conflicts began when Europeans began establishing beachheads along the coast. Some Native Americans fleeing the European invasion and some fleeing the larger Native American groups intent on domination or destruction, began filtering into the Ohio Country. While the wars among the Nations continued, some found refuse by joining forces.

There were some clans in the Ohio Country when the first European explorers began exploring its waterways. Most were just temporary inhabitants, that were beginning to establish small villages, moving with the seasons, hunting, fishing, salt gathering and extracting high-quality flint from the flint pits that had been used for centuries.

With more Europeans exploring the Ohio Country, Native Americans began establishing larger villages. Farming began to supplement their hunting. Some people welcomed the new explorers, finding the explorers willing to trade for animal skins. The French, whose culture was in tune with fashion fads, appreciated the qualities of Native American animal skins. This demand opened up the Ohio Country to increased trapping and trading.

The English were less interested in fashion and more interested in land acquisition. To do this the English made treaties with those they thought owned the land. For Native Americans, land ownership was just not in their vocabulary. It would be like someone asking you:

"I would like to use your air. Will you sign this document saying I can buy your air? If you do I'll give you these supplies and of course you can still use your own air all you want; all you have to do is stand over there. Just make your mark right here. Ok?"

Some Native Americans understood the English, but if the whites wanted to buy something that had been around since the beginning like air and water, why not sign their documents and accept their payments? What happened though, was that some groups made promises to the English King for ALL Native Americans, even though they had no such authority. This caused hostilities between the English and the Native Americans-- hostilities that would never heal.

The French saw this English expansion as a threat to their fur trade. They began whispering to the Native Americans how dangerous the English could be, eventually fomenting hostilities. In response, the English attacked French trading settlements. In North America this became the French and Indian War. In the rest of the civilized world it was the Seven Years War. It was in fact a world war involving Europe, Russia and North America.

During this war some Native Americans sided with the French, others with the British. In the end England won, forced France out of North America east of the Mississippi River. Native Americans siding with the French remained at war with the English. About 12 years later, with France no longer a potential threat, a small faction of American colonists began urging rebellion against the English Crown-- demanding liberty and independence. A long war was fought between the colonists and the British, with some of that fighting happening in Ohio.

They now saw the American colonist as their biggest threat. Once their enemy, the British now appeared to be their only hope against the colonists. After the American Revolution was over and Great Britain gave up interest in their one-time colonies, Native Americans remained hostile toward the Americans and the English continued to secretly supplying the Native Americans.

Not long after the American Revolution, the new United States began planning expansion. Treaties negotiated with Native Americans were renegotiated with a few minor changes. The Ohio Country, once out of bounds for settlement, now was opened for legal settlement north of the Ohio River, enraging many Native Americans. Not content to wait and be overrun by a flood of American pioneers, Native Americans began a guerrilla war against all Americans, north and south of the Ohio River. It was a bloody campaign and settlers demanded action.

The federal government had disbanded the Continental Army after the Revolution, but now had to re-constitute a new army made up of retired military, and ill-trained frontier militiamen. This army slowly moved down the Ohio River, building forts and demanding new treaties be signed. The further down the river they went, the more intense the Native American response became. Several American campaigns were launched from Fort Washington, where Cincinnati is now located. The first a failure. The second an even worse failure. Frustrated President Washington began calling in favors of old generals to take over the new army. His charge: get them trained, and settle the Ohio Country uprising. This led to a third campaign into the Ohio Country.

This third expedition into the Ohio Country resulted in a resounding defeat of the Native Americans. As a result of this defeat, many Native Americans accepted the new treaty terms (Treaty of Greene Ville). Once again, some Native Americans refused to sign.

Up until 1803, the year Ohio became a state, lands west of the Mississippi had been claimed by France and Spain. During that year President Thomas Jefferson made a bold move and offered to purchase the land claimed by France. This land acquisition became known as the Louisiana Purchase which gave the United States legal control of wide swath of the interior.

Less than 10 years after signing the Treaty of Greene Ville some Native Americans encouraged by the British, once again began warring against the Americans. Shortly, that conflict would be wrapped into an open declaration of war between the United States and Great Britain and it became known as the War of 1812. This war, which was fought throughout the country and included the British burning down the White House, would be over rather quickly in Ohio. During that war, almost half of the Wyandots living in Ohio refused to take up arms against the Americans.

Just a few weeks after war was declare, British forces captured Fort Detroit in the Michigan Territory. From here they supplied a large Native American force under the leadership of Tecumseh and began a series of incursions into northern Ohio. This drew a quick military response that resulted in the construction of a series of defensive forts from the Ohio River to Lake Erie.

One of those fortifications was Fort Meigs along the Maumee River. Here the British led a combined British and Tecumseh-led Native American attack which included artillery bombardment of the fort. When this failed to dislodge the Americans the British tried a rear attack by flanking the American fort from the Sandusky River. Here to the British met stiff resistance and thanks to a small military force stationed where Fremont is today, they repulsed the larger British force. After this failure the British retreated back to Fort Detroit. With this withdrawal from Ohio, a combined army / naval attack began that resulted in the Battle of Lake Erie. In the late summer of 1813, Commodore Perry defeated the British Navy and General Harrison recaptured Fort Detroit.

This fight on the western frontier culminated at Fort Detroit. Here the British and Native Americans had massed to defend the fort. The resulting one day battle led to the British completely withdrawing from the area and the death of Tecumseh and the end of the Native American uprising in Ohio.

Thirty years after the War of 1812, the federal government removed all Native Americans from Ohio, including those Wyandots that sided with the Americans-- resettling them on lands west of the Mississippi.

As the last Native Americans were leaving by steamboat from Cincinnati, construction of 2 canal systems connecting Lake Erie with the Ohio River was being completed. And a new road was being built east to west across the middle of the state. The frontier state of Ohio was ready to be connected by mass transportation with the rest of the country. Within 20 years, this transport would be outdated and replaced with railroads. By 1860 there were more railroad tracks laid in Ohio than any other state with almost 3000 miles of track connecting every major community in Ohio.

As the railroads were being built, another secret railway was being taken through the state that led to freedom for slaves that risked everything, including their lives. It was a dangerous journey and just because they crossed into Ohio did not mean they were safe. Ohio was not a safe place for slaves. More than half the state supported slavery and a large portion of the rest who felt it was unjust, did not want to get involved. Only a small number, mostly Quakers, made the decision to risk all that they had, to help make their way north-- to freedom.

When the War of Rebellion broke out in 1861, Ohio would become the third largest supplier of men participating in the war. There would be two prisoner of war camps in Ohio and more than 10,000 Ohio men would die in that war from combat.

After the war and for the next half century Ohio would migrate from an agricultural state to an industrial empire. We embraced the Industrial Revolution enthusiastically. With industrial shipping and a vast supply of raw materials, manufacturers found Ohio ideally suited for large scale manufacturing. Ohio's massive coal fields fueled factories and industries. Later Ohio's oil fields fueled industrial centers and the automobile revolution.

Another revolution was quietly being developed in Dayton. Two brothers' extensive research and testing had solved the mystery of powered flight. In Ohio the aviation age had begun. Not many years later, one of Ohio's native sons would be the first American to orbit the Earth and within a decade of John Glenn's ticker-tape achievement, another Ohioan, Neil Armstrong, became the first man on the moon.

This marked the beginning of a new Ohio, an industrial Ohio and the influx of a new people. Ohio had long been cherished for its rich and varied farmland. Now industrial centers were being developed and after World War I, that development exploded to such a point that there were not enough workers to fill the demands of factories. Companies began scouring neighbor states to the south looking for men and their families to come to Ohio for good-paying jobs. The larger the factories, the more employees they needed. Ohio once again was a state of immigrants, immigrants now coming from the coal fields of Kentucky, West Virginia and Tennessee.

From those first foot prints across the snow of the last ice age to the first footprints on the moon, the Ohio Country has indeed come a long way.