OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Gen. Simon Perkins [7] *********************************************************************** OHGENWEB NOTICE: All distribution rights to this electronic data are reserved by the submitter. Reproduction or re-presentation of copyrighted material will require the permission of the copyright owner. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. *********************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 June 17, 1999 *********************************************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio The Kelley Family Collections Newspaper article, Plains Dealer compiled by S.J. Kelley-- 1925 And Then They Went West by Darlene E. Kelley 1998 *********************************************************************** Seventh in Series-- On March 11, 1805, Simon wrote the Major that they were the proud parents of four to five week old baby boy. They named him Simon Junior and was said to look like his father. Then again on Jan.24,1807, there was born a daughter, who they named Anna Maria. A second daughter, was born in 1809, who they named Olive Douglass, after Simon's mother, who had died in 1806. Of his growing family, Simon said, " We think of them as do all parents, that they are all fine children." As far as the Western Reserve expanson was concerned, Cleaveland's treaty or contract created Indian friction at the very beginning of white settlment in the area. In 1801, Samuel Huntington observed that the Indians looked with wistful eye on the lands they had given up, and in 1805, when the surrender of the lands west of Cuyahoga River was being negotiated, the Indians withdrew from Cleveland meetings and had to be followed to Fort Industry [Toledo] before they agreed to part with the land. When the treaty was signed, it is said that many of them wept; and on July 5, 1805, Simon heard that the whole town of Detroit had been burned to the ground. Between 1795 and 1812 this same thrust into Indian lands was repeated all along the frontier. Between 1795 and 1809, the Federal govenment acquired by treaty from the Indians more than 48,000,000 acres of lands in the Ohio valley alone. And finally, the Indians had organized uner leadership of Tecumseh and his brother, The Prophet. Then, although Tecumseh camped peacefully in the West Union Shaker colony near Wabash on the eve of the Battle of Tippecanoe and expressed his people's desire to live peacefully with the white man, the cry all about, was for War! War! War!. When Teecumseh withdrew to his settlement at Tippecanoe, Harrison's forces, doing irreparable damage to the Shaker's buildings and pilfering freely of Shaker supplies and equipment, followed the Indian Chief and his people and burned the Indians' town and stores of provisions to the ground. By Jan.,1812, fear of the Indians was so strong on the Reserve that Calvin Pease, remarked that the few straggling old Indians and squaws that hunted about the Cuyahoga were magnified into an army of 12,000 men. On June 24,1812 , only four days before the news of the declaration of war reached Cleveland, the citizens of that town gathered in the public square to watch the hanging of O'Mic, an Indian who had lived peacefully among them for several years, for his presumed participation in the murder of two trappers at Sandusky. All the appeals from the Indians to give O'Mic to them for justice had been ignored; and so too was the fact that after the hanging and burial, Dr.David Long and his friends dug up O'Mic's body for dissection, a desecration the settlers would never have permitted on a white man. After that, the newspapers reported that the Indians were growing more troublesome; and by April,1813, there were stories of grisly Indian atrocities that the settlers did not seem to see they had in any way provoked. Confusion and official blundering also had to be contended with before Simon was able to get his Militia forces organized and established at the war front. There were, first of all, conflicting orders from Washington about the number of men needed, and how they were to be raised, whose command they would be under, and when and where they were to march. Wadsworth also found that some companies had not elected their officers, and one company commander reported that one-half his men were Quakers and would not go if called. Then those who volunteered or were drafted during the early summer were dismissed, even after the declaration of war, for it was found they could not be equipped for battle. Although it was known that only one out of five men reporting for muster might have a gun, it was not until July that Return Jonathan Meigs, then Governor of Ohio, ordered 350 muskets for Wadsworth's forces. When these guns arrived in August, they were found to need repairs before they could be used. Inquiries in Washington, only brought the answer that the government had no arms available for men on the Reserve who were being asked to fight. Even notifying Hull of the long expected declaration of war was mishandled. In December, 1807, Simon had recieved a letter from Gideon Granger, still Postmaster General, saying; " You cannot be ignorant of the unpleasant aspect of public affairs between this Nation and Great Britain, nor of the vigorous preparations making for War in Upper Canada. In this state of things it has become necessary to establish a line of expresses through your Country to Detroit--- I have to Solict you ( And even more to express my opinion that it is your duty ) to depart immediately for Detroit-- to proceed as far on your way as Cleveland, where you can plan the general arrangements and where --- you will pass the Cuyahoga, and proceed Westward on the line making the best possible arrangements and particularly providing by every possible means for passage of the Water-- Tho' well acquainted in your village, I know of no other person whose exertions would at this time be as satisfactory to the Government.------ Simon left Warren on Dec. 12-- Granger's express letter from Washngton having reached him in the unpreedanted time of three days--and after arrainging for carriers at Cleveland he proceeded through almost uninhabited country to the western line of the State. There were no roads or brdges in this area, for it had but that year been partitioned among the proprietors. Simon traveled by what paths he could make for himself, and crossed streams and rivers by canoe with his horse swimming alongside. He made the arrangements for the mail Granger had requested. This express service from Washington to Detroit was not used however, to send Hull notice of the declaration of war. The notice to Hull was placed in the ordinary mail, and was not until June 28, that Cleveland Postmaster John Walworth received communication from the Post Office Department requesting him to forward dispatches which would be found in the mail to General Hull by express. Walworth then called in Charles Shaler, a Cleveland settler, to take the dispatches to Hull, who was thought to be near the rapids of the Maumee. Shaler and Walworh searched for the dispatches first in the Cleveland mail and then--although Walworth was reluctant to open the mail pouch of another office and consented to do so only because he had recieved a private letter with news of the declaration of war--in the Detroit mail. Here the dispatches were finally found, and Shaler started his 150 mile ride to the front. *********************************************** To be continued--