A HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY,
OHIO
Until
the first of the 19th century, essentially nobody lived in what is now
Monroe County, Ohio -- not even Indians.
Why this is so is a story that began over 200 years earlier before the
French and British began to come to America to stay.
American
Indians inhabited the North American continent long before the Europeans began
to arrive. However, their population
was sparse consisting of a number of tribes distributed over an otherwise vast
wilderness. They subsisted on meat that
they hunted with bows and arrows, spears, and traps. They also planted corn, beans, and squash. They lived in small villages of usually no
more than a few hundred individuals.
Being surrounded by vast areas of wilderness, they had no concept of the
owning land as the Europeans knew it.
Then
came the British and French who had been fighting each other in Europe and on
the seas for centuries. Through early
contact with the Indians of the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes area the
French had discovered a rich resource in the form of animal pelts that was
available by trading with the Indians.
So, the primary interest of the French was to establish a partnership
and trade with the Indians. For this
purpose, they cultivated the friendship of the six tribes who lived in what is
now upper New York State. These tribes
became known as the six nations or the Iroquois League. The French built trading posts and provided
the Indians with blankets, guns, gunpowder, cooking utensils, axes and
tomahawks, whisky, cloth, and other European commodities. In exchange they took animal pelts and skins
for leather that were in great demand in Europe.
The
French encouraged more and more trapping and exploitation of the animal
population for furs and leather. The
Indians of the Iroquois League were only too glad to comply because animal
pelts were the money with which they could buy the white man's goods that over
the decades had gradually become necessities for their newer way of life. Trade was the only source of such
commodities as metals, guns, gunpowder and whisky.
Eventually,
the population of animals diminished to the point that they were insufficient
for the Indians of the Iroquois League to meet their trading requirements. Again, the French came to their Indian
partners' "rescue" by encouraging and helping them to become aggressors
of their neighboring tribes as they moved westward into new hunting and
trapping areas along the Great Lakes.
In this process, the Iroquois League eradicated the Erie Indian Tribe
and under the tutorage of the French, appointed themselves as the leading tribe
over all other tribes in what would become known as the Northwest
Territory. Several of the tribes
submitted to the administrative domination by the Iroquois League, but a number
of others such as the Shawnee and Miami did not.
Farther
south on the North American continent the British were interested in settling
and farming the land. While the British
also traded with the Indians for animal pelts, the larger income from their
colonies came from food, tobacco and taxes imposed on the expanding
population. This policy encouraged the
expansion of settlements and the colonies grew ever westward as more settlers
came and the demand for land increased.
For nearly a century the land east of the Allegheny Mountains was
sufficient for the growing population.
The King of England had established the Allegheny Mountains as the
dividing line between settlers and the Indian lands, a boundary that was
honored by the settlers for several decades.
By
the middle of the 1700s the relationship between France and England on the
American continent had deteriorated even further. To support the French trading enterprises to the north in 1749
the French sent a military expedition claimed most of the area that we now call
the Northwest Territory. In so doing their
claim included the lands of the Shawnee, Cherokee, Miami, Mingo, and other
tribes. The British viewed these claims
as a trespass on their Pennsylvania and Virginia colonies. In addition, the British had established
trading posts among the Shawnee and other Indian tribes in this area. When the French arrived these British
traders were told to leave.
These
new claims of the French to the Ohio country fanned the flames of antagonism
that led to the French and Indian War.
The Indians viewed the squabble between the French and British as being
between two white tribes from across the ocean. Most of the Indian tribes
preferred to remain neutral in the squabble. However, the French were the
trading partners of the Iroquois League who had become dependent on trade for
their survival and prosperity. So,
eventually they agreed to join with the French.
France
did a poor job supporting their colonial forces in America both militarily and
in terms of providing supplies the trade with the Indians. As the sources of trade supplies dried up
for the French, caused in no small part by the British, the French traders
began gouging the Indians. Deliberately
playing to this French weakness, the British offered better deals and in effect
bought much of the Indians' allegiance to the French. This had the effect of reducing military pressure on the British
although the hostility over the encroachment by settlers still existed. Eventually the British prevailed in the
French and Indian War and in 1760 they were victorious in forcing the French to
withdraw from North American. As a result, the Indians found themselves
trading with the British instead of the French. Having won the French and
Indian War, the British laid claim to all the Northwest Territory that was one of
the terms of the Treaty of Paris of 1763. With the French expelled from
North America, the King of England, in an effort to appease the Indians,
ordered that all of the land between the Great Lakes and the Ohio River would
be Indian land and was not to be settled.
By
this time the land east of the Allegany Mountains had become filled with farms
and new land was needed for settlement.
Settlers began to spill across the Allegheny Mountains from Pennsylvania
and Virginia. In addition, surveyors
were being hired to survey land in the upper Ohio Valley with an eye to future
settlement. This encroachment of the
whites into the Indian hunting land cause justifiable concern among the Indians
that the lands of the Ohio Valley would soon be settled as the land east of the
Allegheny Mountains had been.
Having
defeated the French, in an effort to accommodate the need for new land, in 1768
the British convened a council at Fort Stanwix with the Iroquois League. They did not invite the tribes who inhabited
the Ohio Valley. From the Iroquois
League they "bought," for £10,000 worth of goods, the
area to the west of the Allegheny Mountains and south and east of the Ohio
River. In retrospect, it seems clear
that this negotiation with the Iroquois League was a ruse to claim that the
land had been bought, as opposed to being taken by force. Needless to say, the Indian tribes such as
the Shawnee, Cherokees, and Miami who claimed the area as their homes and
hunting grounds did not recognize the transaction.
For
the Indians who lived on and used the lands "purchased" by the
British of the Stanwix Treaty, the problem was the continuing encroachment of
settlers. To some of these tribes the
conflict between the French and British had been an opportunity to push the
settlers back across the Allegheny Mountains.
Indeed, the French had encouraged this goal to help enlist the Indian
forces to their side during the French and Indian War. But with the British the winning side in the
war, the problem of encroachment of settlers took on a more serious and
sinister complexion.
The King's order to reserve the land north of the Ohio River as Indian land
stood for only a short period. The ruse
of the British buying land from Indians who did not own it was repeated several
times. Over the next two decades, the
situation went from bad to worse with both the whites and Indians becoming
increasingly suspicious of the other. Before long, this led to a state of
open but undeclared war between the white settlers and the Indians. The Indians' objective remained that of
forcing the whites to return east of the Allegheny Mountains. Attacks were mostly relatively small
hit-and-run skirmishes in which both the whites and Indians committed
horrendous atrocities. Several times the whites were nearly driven from
the lands west of the Allegheny Mountains where they were settling.
To make matters worse for the settlers, in 1776 the Americans declared their
independence from England. This
precipitated the American Revolutionary War that involved several years of war
between England and the eastern colonies. The new American government
that was formed was weak. It had no
money and was ill prepared to provide protection to the settlers on the western
frontier. As a result, the undeclared war between the whites moving into
the Ohio Valley and the Indians who felt that they owned the land continued
with disastrous results for both sides, but mostly for the whites. [Capt.
John Baker, John Wetzel,]
As
the war between England and the future United States, reached a conclusion
attention could be focused on the Indian problems at the western frontier. The problem was that the new American
government was broke and tired of war.
The result was a period of about a decade of aggressive Indian attacks
on the settlers. The new Federal
Government built forts and staffed them with minimal troops but at best these
were shelters for settlers if they had advanced notice of Indian raids.
Even though the Revolutionary War had been concluded in the east with the surrender of British Major General Charles Cornwallis to George Washington at Yorktown, the British still held key forts in places like Fort Detroit, Fort Niagara, and Fort Miami. They also continued to operate trading posts with the Indians. And while there was at least a pretence of observing the surrender as terms of the peace treaty were being worked out, these Canadian and fort commanders continued the war by sponsoring the Indians as their surrogate armies. From these positions they continued to serve as military suppliers and advisors to the Indians and encouraged them to continue attacks on the settlers in the Ohio Valley. Several futile efforts were made by the white settlers to muster an effective resistance. However, the armies used for these efforts were largely collections of unorganized and untrained militia from among the settlers. The Indians with the help of the British effectively repelled most of these missions, frequently with great loss of life among the whites. The Indians took refuge in what is now Central Ohio and were essentially immune from attacks by the whites. [Maj. Gen. Arthur St. Clair]
During
this long and bloody period war parties of Indians would leave their villages
and follow established trails to the Ohio River or canoe down one of the rivers
leading into the Ohio River. There they
lay in wait for boats to come down river with passengers and stores for
settlements or forts. They would attack
the boats, kill or capture the crew, confiscate the cargo, and return to their
villages. This became a profitable
activity for the marauding Indians although it was not without risk for the
warriors. The fate of prisoners could
range from being adopted into the Indian tribe, to being sold to the British,
to being killed and scalped, or to be horribly tortured to death for reasons
known only to the captors.
Many
of the war parties would cross the Ohio River and set upon settlers'
cabins. The outcome would likely be
about the same as for the boats that they attacked on the river. They would loot the cabins of anything that
they found of value and could carry.
They would usually kill all the livestock and destroy the crops. An objective was to terrorize other settlers
into returning east of the Allegheny Mountains.
The
horrendous, inhuman acts were not confined to the Indians. Whites frequently engaged in similar
activities, some motivated by revenge, others perhaps intended to dissuade the
Indians from their terrorist ways. The
result became almost a one-upmanship contest of who could be the more cruel.
Most
people who were killed by an enemy on the frontier were scalped. A major factor in this practice was to
collect a bounty that had been placed on victims. The British, for example, paid the Indians a bounty for each scalp
taken. These were bought by the British
and stored. In these wanton acts of
murder even the unborn was not exempt. [Scalp
shipment]
The
land that would eventually become Monroe County was on one of the main routes followed
by Indian war parties intent on waylaying boats or crossing into Virginia. Trails that ran along Sunfish and Captina
Creeks were used for these purposes.
Finally,
after years of terrorist activities that resulted in white settlers and Indians
alike being massacred, the Federal Government mustered the resources to
assemble, equip and train an effective army on the western frontier. Under professional military leadership for
the first time, General Anthony Wayne marched an army of 2,500 trained men
north to do battle with the Indian tribes.
When the encounter between the Indians and whites finally occurred at
Fallen Timber, the effectiveness of St. Clair's army was hardly tested. It served its purpose, however. The Indians were sufficiently impressed that
they capitulated and most sued for peace.
The conclusion of this last major confrontation resulted in the Treaty
of Greenville in 1795. [Gen.
Anthony Wayne]
All
of the Indian tribes had not signed the Greenville Treaty, however, so even
after the Treaty, attacks on some white settlements continued but they were
sporadic and claimed fewer casualties.
Effective organized resistance by the Indians was never again achieved
even though they tried; particularly, through the efforts of Tecumseh.
Many details of the history of this period have been omitted in the brief
narrative above. But, it is not the purpose of this discussion to detail
the history of the Northwestern Territory. Suffice it to say that
following the Greenville Treaty of 1795 the flow of settlers increased
dramatically, particularly into the region north of the Ohio River. The Greenville Treaty had established a new
boundary between the settlers and Indian lands. The Indian lands were reduced to what is now the northern half of
the State of Ohio. The Indians moved farther north and west making way for the
new wave of settlers.
On
March 1, 1803 Ohio became the seventeenth state in the United States. The Territorial Government was ended by the
organization of the State Government on that date, as called for by the
provisions of the constitution framed at Chillicothe.
Ten years before the Greenville Treaty,
and 28 years before it became a county, Monroe County was part of a block of
land that became known as The Seven Ranges. The new American Government
established the Seven Ranges to provide land to pay soldiers and officers who
had fought in the Revolutionary War. The Government also intended to sell
this land to individuals as a way of raising money. The Seven Ranges included all or major parts of what are now the
counties of Carroll, Jefferson, Harrison, Belmont, and Monroe. It also included small parts of the counties
of Columbiana, Tuscarawa, Guernsey, Nobel, and Washington. In order to have a
method to identify and locate the individual land parcels, a method of
surveying was established in 1785 that became known as the Federal Survey
System. The Seven Ranges were the first
public lands to be surveyed using this system.
This method is essentially a grid of squares, six miles on each side,
that could be overlaid on a map of the region much like the system of latitude
and longitude that is used on a worldwide basis. The system is still in
use today. [Federal Survey System]
Using the Federal Survey System, soldiers of the Revolutionary War could be
given acreage in the form of "warrants." The owner of a warrant
could either settle on the land described by his warrant or sell the warrant if
he could find a buyer. The difficulty for the warrant holder, however,
was that at the time these warrants were issued in the late 1700s, the Indians
still thought that all the land north of the Ohio River belonged to them.
And since the war between the settlers and Indians was raging, it was
frequently worth their life to try to claim and settle on land covered by the
warrant.
Another
consideration was that most of the land in the southern part of The Seven
Ranges is hilly and on average a lot less desirable for farming than much of
the other land found in Ohio. As a result, the land sold slowly and
settlement of Monroe County lagged behind the settlement of some of the
choicest farmlands farther down-river and in the center and northern part of
the State.
Some of the lands in the "Seven Ranges were offered for sale in New York in
1787-9 and some in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in 1796. Some of the land sold at these sales, but
not much. It was not until the land
offices were established in July 1, 1800 that sales picked up.
Monroe
County was organized as a county of Ohio by an act of the Ohio legislature on
January 29, 1813. Although established in 1813, its borders were modified
several times through 1851. It was
named for James Monroe who was then the United States Secretary of State (1811
- 1817) and later became the fifth president of the United States (1817 -
1825). The greatest extent of the
county, east and west, is twenty-six and a half miles, by twenty-two miles
north and south. It contains 470 square
miles.
By
the time that Monroe County became an Ohio county, it was beginning to be
actively settled. From a relatively slow start during the first decade of
1800 the population increased rapidly during the years between 1820s and
1850s.
By
the late 1820s Monroe County began to see a rush of settlers eager to buy land
and begin farming. Many came directly
from Europe enticed by the opportunity to own their own land in an environment
largely free of the politics and demands of government. They came with their own religious biases
but in most cases, not because of them.
Both the Protestant and Catholic settlers brought their respective
churches' customs and organizations and it is to these systems of record
keeping that we are indebted as major resources of data and information to help
reconstruct much of what we know about these settlers, our ancestors.
Many
of our ancestors arrived in the decades between 1830 - 1850. Most bought farms and began their
families. It was the settlers of this
period that established the familial tone of the County with many of the
current residents being descendants of these early families. Many of the farms where they settled were
bought from holders of those early deeds or warrants. In some cases,
these farms already had houses and other improvements on them, but most did not.
In
1850 Monroe County reached it peak in population. Over the next 60 years the population remained about constant at
around 25,000 people or slightly higher.
This undoubtedly reflected the facts that the available farms had become
saturated with large, stable families that limited further growth. Then, after about two generations the
original families began to age and with no more land available and the coming
of the automobile and railroad that made travel easy, the younger population
began to move elsewhere to seek their future.
Over the decades of 1910 through the 1940s the population of the County
steadily declined to about the present level of around 15,000. This new stabilized population level
reflects the relatively older community and the fact that the County offers
little opportunity other than farming as careers to younger people.
It
would be a serious oversight not to take note of the oil boom that occurred in
Monroe County at the turn of the century.
Oil had been discovered in the late 1890s near the Ohio River on both
sides of the River attracting developers, speculators, wildcatters and many
others to Monroe County. Villages such
as Lewisville, Graysville, Rinard Mills, and elsewhere nearly burst at their
seams as they tried to accommodate the sudden burgeoning, albeit temporary
populations. Oil brought jobs and money
and unprecedented requirements for hotels, restaurants, general stores, saw
mills, saloons, livery stables and many other supply and service oriented
businesses. Farmers became able to
supplement their incomes by working in the oil fields. Many of the young men entering the work
force for the first time had another option besides farming. All these factors combined to maintain the
higher population level through the decade of 1900. But as the oil boom fever passed and the industry converted from
exploration and drilling to production and maintenance, most of which was done
by the indigenous population, the County began to resume much of its original
familial flavor. The difference was
that the industry of the County had experienced a change. Families who had settled as farmers were now
farmers and oil field workers. Some of
this vocational flavor can still be seen today in Monroe County. But, it is more likely to be seen by those
doing genealogy and peering into the past 100 years.
In the pages that follow, we
will look at several lines of families who make up our ancestors. The main focus, however, will be on the
Frank line and related families who combined with and branched from the Frank
line to make a family tree that now numbers well over 1,000 members. In these pages we hope to tell the stories
of as many of these family members as possible. And, we hope to tell their stories in a way that as many members
as possible can become more familiar to the reader whether they are
contemporary or progeny not yet born.
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