[84]. This stream drains Medina and Lorain counties, Ohio, entering Lake Erie about thirty miles west of Cleveland.—Ed.
[85]. For the Vermillion River, see Croghan’s Journals, volume i of our series, note 76.—Ed.
[86]. The Huron River rises in northern Ohio, and flowing north-westward empties into Lake Erie about nine miles east of Sandusky.—Ed.
[87]. The Black Swamp, extending from the Sandusky to the Maumee River, and covering an area of over one hundred and twenty miles in length and an average of forty in width, was entirely avoided by early settlers in northern Ohio. By the Indian treaty signed at Brownstown (1808), the United States government acquired a strip of land to make a road through the swamp; but nothing further than the preliminary surveys being accomplished, the land was later transferred to the State, and the first road completed in 1827. It was very little settled before 1830. In accordance with a state law passed in 1859, a system of public ditches was introduced, which rapidly drained the swamp and transformed it into a fertile agricultural region.—Ed.
[88]. These rapids of the Sandusky River were located about eighteen miles from where the river empties into Sandusky Bay, Lake Erie.—Ed.
[89]. Upper Sandusky was formerly the seat of a Wyandot settlement. Near there, Crawford was defeated by the Indians (June, 1782) and subsequently tortured to death. General Harrison built a temporary fort at that point during the War of 1812–15. For the Wyandot villages on the Sandusky, see Weiser’s Journal, volume i of our series, note 26.—Ed.
[90]. For the events leading up to the treaty, see ante, note 11. It was signed (August 3, 1795) by ninety chiefs and delegates from twelve tribes, and established the following Indian boundary line: up the Cuyahoga River and across the Tuscarawas portage to a point near Fort Laurens, thence south-west to Laramie’s Station, thence north-west to Fort Recovery, and thence south-west to the Ohio, opposite the mouth of the Kentucky River.—Ed.
[91]. This stockade, better known as Fort Stephenson, was constructed in the spring of 1813. In August following, it was attacked by General Proctor as here related. The British troops stormed it fiercely for two hours, all their officers and a fifth of their men being killed or wounded.
George Croghan, a nephew of George Rogers Clark, was born at Locust Grove, near Louisville, Kentucky, November, 1791. Graduating from William and Mary’s College (1810) he entered the army and took part in the battle of Tippecanoe. He so distinguished himself at the siege of Fort Meigs that he was promoted to the rank of major, and placed in charge of Fort Stephenson. For his gallant defense of this post, he was voted a medal by Congress. After an unsuccessful attack on Fort Mackinac (1814), he left the army for a short time and acted as postmaster at New-Orleans. In 1823 he re-entered the army, was made inspector-general with the rank of colonel, and later served with distinction in the Mexican War. See Williams, “George Croghan,” in Ohio Archæological and Historical Society Publications, xii, pp. 375–409.—Ed.
[92]. Portage River, entering into Sandusky Bay from Wood County.—Ed.