At the end of August I had a chance to do some riding in Shelby County, Ohio. (Greenville Treaty Line to Loramie’s Store)
At that time I had not yet looked at any of the atlases or county histories from Shelby County. Today I had chance to spend a few hours at the Library of Michigan where I spent some time with the Shelby County history that was published in 1883.
The above image is from a county map in that book. It shows Jackson Township, in the northeast corner of the county.
I’ve drawn a green line to show my route on August 31. I rode south to the Greenville Treaty line, then turned east and rode on the treaty line in places where modern roads still follow it.
One thing I was completely unaware of at the time was that if I had instead turned east, I would have come to something called the McPherson Reservation. There is still a road that follows the east edge of that reservation — now called Tawawa Maplewood Road. I’ve circled it in red.
It shares a boundary with the Lewistown Reservation line. I also saw from this map that there are places where the survey of the Reservation and the survey outside it didn’t exactly match up, with the result that there are slight inflections in the east-west roads. I’ve circled places where there were inflections in 1883 that still show up on a google map of the area, plus one location where there was no road in 1883, but where the modern road takes a slight bend.
I’m planning another few days in Ohio in which I’m going to concentrate mostly on Shelby County history. I’ll have to go see those then.
Here is where I turned west to follow a short segment of the line of the Greenville Treaty of 1795. The area on the left was ceded to the United States by that treaty. The area on the right was not ceded to the U.S. until a a couple of decades later.
Here is a googlemap of the area, showing where I was when I took the above photo.
What is the McPherson Reservation, you might ask? It was an area set aside by the 1817 Treaty of Maumee Rapids. The entire treaty can be read here. The relevant paragraph is this:
To James McPherson, who was taken prisoner by the Indians, and has ever since lived among them, one section of land, to contain six hundred and forty acres, in a square form, adjoining the northern or western line of the grant for forty-eight miles at Lewistown, at such place as he may think proper to locate the same.
I presume it’s the same James McPherson who is described as follows in Memoirs of the Miami Valley, Volume One:
James McPherson was the fourth white man definitely known to be a resident of Logan county in 1800. McPherson was a native of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and while fighting with the colonists was taken prisoner by the British and Indians at the defeat of Longhry at the mouth of Big Miami. During the years of his captivity he was employed in the British-Indian department, with Elliott and McKee. He married a white woman who was, like himself, a captive.With the Indians, McPherson was on good terms, and their name for him was “Squa-la-ka-ke” (the red faced man). After the treaty of 1795 McPherson was released and re-entered the service of the United States, being appointed Indian agent for the Shawnees and Senecas at the Lewistown reservation, a position which he retained until 1830. He is said to have become temporarily very wealthy through shrewd land investments and through trading but at one time he applied, not for a pension, but for three years’ back pay from the government for his services in the Revolution, which he claimed were owing him at the time of his capture by the British.
That isn’t the greatest link, but unfortunately, volume one of Memoirs of the Miami Valley doesn’t seem to be on-line.
It was interesting to me to see that McPherson was called Squa-la-ka-ke by the Shawnee. There seems to be a pattern here with Shawnee and other Algonquian languages.
The word “Black” as in Black Hawk’s name might be something like “Makatai.” In the Fox language it might be more like Makathai — with the “th” replacing the “t”. But a very similar word seems to be the word for “black” in a lot of the Algonquian languages of the Great Lakes region. Except in Shawnee the initial syllable “Ma” seems to get dropped. The name for Black Hoof, as seen on most treaties, is “Catahecassa” rather than “Macatahecassa.”
The new thing for me to have learned here is that the same thing happens to the word for red. Mesquakie is the word for the Fox people. It means “People of the Red Earth.” And a word something like Mesqua seems to be the word for red in other related languages. Except it seems that Shawnee again drops the “Ma”. Thus, “Squa-la-ka-ke” rather than “Ma-squa-la-ka-ke.” I suppose it’s also possible that the sound for “Ma” tended to get swallowed when speaking and just wasn’t noticed by the persons recording the treaties. But when I start to see repeated examples like this, I start to think I’m on to a pattern, even if my knowledge is very limited and imperfect.
Hi!
I grew up in Sidney but have lived in the Columbus area these past 40 years. I’m retired and reside in Hilliard. I collect metal trade tomahawks and enjoy reading extensively about Indian history. I’d like to learn more about Shelby Ct. pioneer/Indians to include reading research and/or a road trip to sites of interest. In my collection I do have a pipe tomahawk from the Peter Loramie site (1782 destroyed by the British). Thank you.
Hi, Jeff.
For my next outing I’m trying to find out if the sites of the old blockhouses from the War of 1812 can be identified. Some of them are near Sidney, I think. I restrict myself to what can be seen from public roads, but I try to find something to see that connects the past to the present. Do you know anything about them?
Is there a story behind that pipe tomahawk from the Peter Loramie site? How do you identify the age and source of it, for example? (I’ve spent some time studying manuscript lists of trade goods from that era, but wouldn’t know how to match an actual artifact with anything else.)
John,
I recall you talking about your portable copy setup on the phred list several years back.
What are you using these days for things like the county map at the top of this entry?
Ken,
The setup I use now is not nearly as compact as what I was using 5 years ago, but it still goes with me wherever I go on my bicycle. I use a Slik Compact-XL tripod with a Canon Powershot G6 camera hung underneath. I also have some clip-on LED lights with flexible necks that I should have used at the library this time. But this library’s lighting was good enough to get working copies, or so I thought.
The camera doesn’t have an aspherical lens, and it shows when I’m photographing whole pages. Sometimes I wish I had something better with me.
Ken,
One other thing I meant to mention. The camera I use now has an articulating LCD viewer, as did the little Nikon Coolpix that I used to use. Very important when I’m doing copywork in a library. I can sit in my chair and see what I’m photographing without having to get up and stand on a chair to look down on the camera.
John
I’d been using a Canon with the adjustable viewer until my kid gave me a Nikon D40 for a retirement gift.
The D40 has brought back the joy of photography that I thought I had lost, but I DO miss the ability to move that viewer around.
Hi. I was very interested to see this article. Concerning the lack of the first syllable “MA” in the Shawnee language –When Professor Charles (Carl)Voeglin was interveiwing Shawnee from Oklahoma trying to record and disect the Shawnee language, he commented that there were several sounds that WERE present but he had had to crank up the volumn to actually hear them. They seemed to ahve been said extremely softly and emphasised the rest of the sylables. Sometimes it was an ending sound that seemed to have been dropped until he cranked up the volume. I am sure many recorders of the Shawnee language simply didn’t hear the whole word. Those records are found at Indiana university Library-Archives of Traditional music. Strange place for language tapes except he had 3 or 4 songs on one of the last recordings.they were first done on huge reel to reel—some of his work was from his wife Erminie Wheeler Voeglin who lived among the Shawnee off and on but mostly on–over 40 years with the Oklahoma Shawnee and she recorded on old WAX cylinders. ID transcribed it to reel to reel, then to small tapes and now you can get them on cd’s. Good luck. Hope to read more of your experiences along these lines.
drt
[...] couple of posts ago, Dark Rain called attention to the work of Carl Voegelin and Erminie Wheeler-Voeglin on the Shawnee language. Her post prompted [...]
Hi Dan.
The pipe axe was pictured in Howe’s vol. on Ohio history. I don’t recall which volume, but it had to do with Pickawillany and Pickawillany Creek which was later renamed Loramie Creek (Peter Loramie’s station or trading post now on the edge of town–Ft. Loramie, Ohio). The tomahawk is circa 1800 and is of English manufacture for trade to the Indians. There is a historic marker on Rt. 47 just east of the Miami R. bridge before going to the stop sign where if you turn right you’d go to Degraff. I forget the name of this little berg. But the marker makes reference to the Vance block house which was 1 mile from the marker. I’ve been interested in finding where exactly it was located. Regarding block houses near Sidney, I’m not aware of any so info you have would be appreciated. I’d be glad to meet you and puruse for some of these sites if you’d like. Could we use a car?!!
This note I received from an expert on the Shawnee Language regarding the dropping of the Ma.
Very interesting stuff, Hal.
Actually the “m” was heard as “ma” by whites. It is a single sound, but it is voiceless in initial position. So often the whites did not hear it since in English we do not have voiceless nasal consonants (or any other ones unless you are whispering). So it was always there, just not heard by whites. The same is true of all words with an initial silent “m” and I collected black with the silent m myself (being forewarned that it was silent I listened for it and sure enough, not “missing”, just “missed” — ha, ha!
Thanks for this information and your on the spot reporting. Look forward to more of the same.
Cheers, Noel
Hal,
Thanks for coming up with that information. I suspected something of the sort when I saw that that initial “m” sound is spelled in English versions without a vowel. It would be nice to hear an actual speaker of the language someday.
John
[...] Jeff told about a historic marker for a War of 1812 blockhouse at Logansville, north of DeGraff. I figured out that I had once ridden through Logansville, but this time wanted to go there and pay more attention. Unfortunately, that meant a little more riding into the north-northeast wind. I crossed the Great Miami River at Quincy, and decided to ride along the west side of the river, where I hadn’t ever been before. [...]
[...] Jim McPherson who was with Kenton is the same James McPherson I told about here, which led to a discussion of Shawnee pronunciation. One of my destinations on a ride a few days [...]
Hi John.
I am a third great – grandson of Col. James McPherson.
The McPherson Reservation you mentioned was actually a section of land which was granted to my great great – grandfather Henry Hoffman McPherson in two separate parcels at two different treaties ( 1821 and 1831 ). They were 320 acres each combined to form one 640 acre tract. The same thing was done with James, but his land was East of Henry’s near Lewistown in the southeast corner of the Lewistown Reservation. I have the original land grant for James’ section signed by President James Monroe. In reference to your pieces about James on the Mad River there are several bits of misinformation which I will attempt to help clear up for you later on.
Hi, John.
I’m glad you found this. I always get a kick out of meeting descendants of the people in these stories.
At the time I first wrote about the McPherson reservation in this photo I did not even know about Henry McPherson. Since then I’ve learned a bit about him and realized I need to learn to keep the McPhersons straight.
I made another ride to the border of that reservation in early late September. I haven’t written about that one yet.
I’d be glad to learn more about James McPherson at the Mad River, and to get more accurate information than what I’ve had so far.
Thanks again for stopping by.
I took a canoe trip from Sidney to Degraff, Ohio and back on the Great Miami River. At Degraff I went up Stony Creek and calculated the location of Tecumseh’s thousand warrior encampment. The location of which described by Alan Eckert, very interesting. The Shawnee were located at this site when they sided with the British in war against the United states negating all treaties made with the Shawnee who were newcomers to the Ohio land just like everyone else.
Hi, Tony. That sounds like a good canoe trip. Did you do it in the spring? And what do you mean by “calculated”?