Treaties and Wayne County
Treaties that forced Indigenous people off of their lands impacted those living, trading, hunting, or farming in Wayne County.
The map above shows how Ohio was split up and taken in pieces by treaties made by the United States. The first map shows the lands that fell under the Treaty of Greeneville (1795). The second map shows the land taken by The Treaty of Greenville (orange) as well as the Treaty of Fort Industry (dark yellow) in 1805, which includes Wayne County.
Treaty of Greeneville
August 3rd, 1795
“…it is now explicitly declared, that the meaning of that relinquishment is this: the Indian tribes who have a right to those lands, are quietly to enjoy them, hunting, planting, and dwelling thereon, so long as they please, without any molestation from the United States; but when those tribes, or any of them, shall be disposed to sell their lands, or any part of them, they are to be sold only to the United States; and until such sale, the United States will protect all the said Indian tribes in the quiet enjoyment of their lands against all citizens of the United States, and against all other white persons who intrude upon the same.
Treaty of Greeneville, 1795.
In 1795, the U.S. took the southern and eastern portions of Ohio with the Treaty of Greeneville, opening southern Ohio for settlement while reserving northern Ohio for Indigenous settlement.1 Stockwell, The Other Trail of Tears, 18. After this treaty was signed, the US promised to “relinquish their claims to all other Indian lands northward of the river Ohio.” This promise would not hold true for long: the US had plans to expand beyond the Greenville line.2 Hurt, The Ohio Frontier, 142. While this treaty was supposed to prevent violence, it ultimately did not.3 Hurt, The Ohio Frontier, 141.
The first page of the Treaty of Greenville, 1795. National Archives and Records Administration. Public Domain.
Treaty of Fort Industry
July 4th, 1805
If you look closely at the map below, you can see that Wooster is part of Secession 54, which, along with Secession 53, was part of the Treaty of Fort Industry. Pappellond, who was the leader of Beaver Hat Town, a settlement located near Wooster, signed this document on behalf of local Delawares. In 1805, the federal government took lands where Wooster, Ashland, and Mansfield stand today and added them to the New Purchase as white settlers flooded in.4Wilger Williams, Old Paths in the New Purchase, 9; Stockwell, 51.
An important part of this treaty was that Indigenous inhabitants were still allowed to hunt and fish on these lands, which would allow them to continue to trade with the United States. However, this treaty would not be the final land cession in Ohio, and as farmers began to clear more land, it became harder for Indigenous people to hunt and trap fur to sustain themselves.5 Stockwell, The Other Trail of Tears, 54. Locally, Indigenous settlements like Beaver Hat Town and the Chippewa Lake settlement would continue into the early 1800s.
“Article I: The said Indian nations do again acknowledge themselves and all their tribes, to be in friendship with, and under the protection of the United States.
Article II: The boundary line between the United States, and the nations aforesaid, shall in future be a meridian line drawn north and south, through a boundary to be erected on the south shore of lake Erie, one hundred and twenty miles due west of the west boundary line of the state of Pennsylvania, extending north until it intersects the boundary line of the United States, and extending south it intersects a line heretofore established by the treaty of [sic] Grenville.”
Treaty of Fort Industry, 1805.
In the treaty, you will see mentions of the Connecticut Western Reserve. This is because the Connecticut Land Company held claim to this land until 1800 when the state of Connecticut allowed the US to set up a territorial government if they could still have the rights to the land. Congressional records show that the U.S. purchased these lands for about one cent per acre. Lands were then available for purchase for about $2 per acre.6 Wilger Williams, Old Paths in the New Purchase, 10.
Shortly after Greenville and Fort Industry, Ohio became an even more popular destination for settlers, though settlement to the Connecticut Western Reserve was slower in the early nineteenth century.7 Hurt, 165. In 1807, the first American surveyors arrived on what is now Wooster, hoping to start a town. Shortly after the Treaty of Fort Industry, Joseph Larwill got a contract from Col. Mansfield to survey the Wayne County area.8Wilger Williams, Old Paths in the New Purchase, 11. The first parcel purchased in Wayne County included Pappellond’s apple orchard in East Union township.9Wilger Williams, Old Paths in the New Purchase, 12. In 1807, Greenville and Jeromesville were made into reservations, while Delawares and Wyandottes especially continued to hunt in these lands.10 Schutt, “Delawares in Eastern Ohio after the Treaty of Greenville,” 113.
Later treaties uprooted the Delaware, Shawnee, and Wyandotte as white settlement coerced them into moving further and further westward.