Perrysburg High School - Black and Gold Yearbook (Perrysburg, OH)

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1929 5 BLACK AND GOLD Q 1929 of Fallen Timbers. It was in this battle that Turkey Foot was mortally wound- ed. He was standing on Turkey Foot Rock, encouraging his people, when he was shot. Long afterwards the Indians would carve turkey's feet on the rock, in memory of the chief who died there. The British at Fort Miami would not support the Indians after their defeat, and Wayne followed the tribes, burning their villages. After this battle the Indians signed a Treaty of Peace with the United States. Soon after 1807, settlers began to gather at the foot of the Rapids of the Maumee. By a Treaty with the Indians in 1808, a road was created, runnfing from the settlement on the Maumee, to Lower Sandusky, or Fremont. In 1826 the road was completed. With the coming of the War of 1812, Wm, Hull was placed in command of the Ohio forces. After his cowardly surrender at Detroit, William Henry Harrison was put in his place. The Indians were gathering on the north shore of the Maumee Bay in 1813 when Harrison wrote: I am erecting here a pretty strong fort fMeigsj , capable of resisting field artillery at least. The troops will be placed in a fortified camp covered on one flank by the fort. This is the best position that can be taken to cover the frontier, and the small posts in the rear of it, and those above it on the Maumee and its tributaries. The force placed here ought, however, to be strong enough to encounter any that the enemy may detach against the fort above. About March 1, 1813, word came that General Proctor, aided by the Indians was to attack Fort Meigs. The British were to take the Miami side of the river, while the Indians were to attack from the Fort Meigs side. The attack began Seven x

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1929 H BLACK AND GOLD X 1929 HISTORY OF PERRYSBURG EFORE the coming of the white man, the Maumee Valley, due to poor drainage, was a low, marshy region, known as the Black Swamp. It was a route of travel frequented by the Delawares, A A Miarnis and other Indians on their trips to the Southern hunting grounds. p This region was first explored by the French. The famous LaSalle was one of its earliest explorers. One of the first settlements near here was a small stockade, built near the present site of Maumee, in 1680. This was important for several years as a trading post, but finally it was abandoned. The river banks were the scenes of battles between the English, French and Indians. Finally the English gained control of the region. The Maumee Valley, as a part of the Northwest Territory, was under the rule of the cornmandanti of the military post at Detroit. When the Revolutionary War came, the Indians became hostile to the Americans because of the secret encouragement they received from the British. Long after the Revolution had formally ended, the British were agitating the Indians to trouble the Americans. q The Indians refused to let the Americans come north of the Ohio River, and it was to open this territory that Anthony Wayne came into Ohio. In April 1794, Fort Miami was built by the British at the present site of Maumee. Wayne met the Indians and defeated them near Maumee in the Battle S ix

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i929 Q BLACK AND GOLD, 5 1929 about May 1, while Proctor was rebuilding Port Miami. Proctor's forces out- numbered I-Iarrison's, and they had more ammunition. Word came to Harrison that General Clay was sending aid from Fort Defiance. Harrison gave directions as to the plan these forces were to take, but Col. Dudley, in command, after spiking the British guns, disregarded orders and pursued the Indians into an ambuscade prepared for him, where all but 170 of his 866 men perished. After several days, t-he Indians deserted the British, and on May 9, Proctor gave up the seige and returned to Canada. In July, he again attacked Fort Meigs. Again a two days attempt to take the Fort by strategy, he gave it up. In 1810, Amos Spafford was given a commission as deputy postmaster of Miami in Erie District. In 1816, the post office at Fort Meigs was the only one between the River Raisin and Fremont and between Maumee Bay and Chicago. In 1816, the Federal Government sent Alexander Bourne to select a townsite at the foot of the Maumee Rapids. Deputy United States surveyors then laid out the town. Mayor Spafford named it Perrysburg at the suggestion of the following letter, written by Josiah Meigs: As you will have a town on the Miami of the Erie, it will be well to think of the name it is to bear,The act does not give it a name. Who to christen it? I wish you would think on the subject, and let me have your wishes. For my part, I will barely suggest to you Eight