Description: A plaque commemorating Fort Seneca. In the 1820s a general store and grist mill were established on this site, where the famous Scioto-Sandusky Indian trail neared the Sandusky River. The settlement was first known as McNutt's, later as Swope's Corners. The village of Fort Seneca was surveyed January 14, 1836. Its name was derived from Gen. Harrison's War of 1812 fort, which was located a few miles downstream. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06824
Subjects: Seneca County (Ohio); United States--History--War of 1812; Harrison, William Henry, 1773-1841
Places: Fort Seneca (Ohio); Seneca County (Ohio); Ohio
 

Description: Soldier's Monument at Fort Ball, Tiffin, Seneca County, Ohio, ca. 1960-1969. Fort Ball was built in 1813. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL00453
Subjects: Fort Ball (Ohio); Ohio History--Military Ohio; Soldiers; Monuments & memorials
Places: Tiffin (Ohio); Seneca County (Ohio)
 

Description: Reproduction of an illustration depicting Pontiac, an Ottawa chief. This portrait appears as a print in SC 208, the Chief Pontiac Collection, and in publication in "The Lives of Famous Indian Chiefs" by Norman B. Wood (1906). Chief Pontiac was born ca. 1720. By 1755, he was a chief of the Ottawas. Pontiac subscribed to the religious beliefs of Neolin, a prophet of the Delaware people, who encouraged native people to forsake English goods and customs. When the French and Indian War ended in 1763, all French lands in North America were turned over to the English. American Indians lost their long-time French ally and worried that more British settlers would come to the Ohio Country. Pontiac and the Ottawas, in the interest of protecting their lands, encouraged tribes in the Ohio Country to rise up in 1763. The Ottawa attacked Fort Detroit in May 1763; the Shawnee, Munsee, Wyandot, Seneca and Delaware people also raided English settlements in the Ohio Country and in western Pennsylvania during 1763. The English military invaded the Ohio Country from Pennsylvania in the fall of 1764 and subdued the area's American Indian tribes. Pontiac's Rebellion ended in the fall of 1764, and Pontiac formally surrendered to the English in July 1766. In 1769, he was murdered by a member of the Peoria Tribe. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL02991
Subjects: Pontiac, d. 1769; American Indians; Ohio History--Settlement and Early Statehood; Ottawa Tribe; American Indian tribal leaders
 

Description: Illustration of Simon Girty, Ohio Country frontiersman, printed in Volume 6 of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Publications by the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society. Girty was born in Chambers Mill, Pennsylvania, in 1741. During the French and Indian War, his family sought refuge in Fort Granville, which was captured in 1755 by an army of French soldiers and native Indians. Girty eventually found himself in the hands of the Seneca Indians who took him to the Ohio Country and adopted him. His knowledge of Indian culture and language was highly sought after during the American Revolutionary War as both the British and Americans hoped to secure alliances with various local tribes. Girty first aligned himself with the Americans. However, he was discharged from the American military in 1777 and afterwards offered his help to the British. After the war, Girty continued to aid the Indians of the Ohio Country in resisting further settlement of the Ohio Country, participating in the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. He eventually moved to Canada, where he died in 1818. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SC2697_Girty_001
Subjects: American Revolutionary War, 1775-1783; American Indians in Ohio; Fallen Timbers, Battle of, Ohio, 1794; Forts & fortifications; American Indian history; American Indians--Warfare; American Indians; Ohio History; Ohio History--Settlement and Early Statehood
Places: Ohio
 

Description: Photograph showing an historic train depot in Tiffin, Ohio. The depot is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the "Fort Ball-Railroad Area Historic District," along with five other nearby depots. The earliest of these, located behind the one pictured, was built in 1862 by the Sandusky Dayton Cincinnati Railroad Company. The railroad line changed ownership multiple times until services on the line ended in 1938. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06789
Subjects: Trains; Transportation--Ohio--History; Railroads--Buildings and structures
Places: Tiffin (Ohio); Seneca County (Ohio)
 

Description: This photograph of a hand-drawn military map shows the encampment and disposition of forces during St. Clair's Defeat on November 4, 1791, near the future Fort Recovery, Ohio. St. Clair's Defeat is also known as the Battle of the Wabash and the Battle of Kekionga. The sketch shows the battle lines and location of battalions, artillery, the American Indian forces, and line of retreat. A handwritten caption reads: "The light I am in will not give me time fully to explain this plan of the action of the [indecipherable]." In November 1791, Arthur St. Clair, the governor of the Northwest Territory, led a U.S. military force against the Miami tribe in the area of the Wabash River in western Ohio, near several Miami villages. On the morning of November 4, under the leadership of Shawnee chief Weyapiersenwah (Blue Jacket) and Miami chief Mishikinakwa (Little Turtle), a large alliance of seasoned volunteer warriors moved against the attacking forces. The American Indians engaged in the battle came primarily from nine different tribes, including the Wyandots, Seneca, Cherokee, Ojibwe, Ottawa, Potawatomi, Shawnee, Delaware, and Miami. Many of the militiamen under St. Clair immediately fled as the American Indians surrounded their’ camp. After three hours of fighting, the remaining U.S. soldiers fought their way out and began a lengthy retreat. The survivors reached Fort Jefferson late that afternoon and evening. Facing limited quantities of food and supplies at Fort Jefferson, St. Clair ordered his forces to Fort Washington. Of the 1,400 men who served under St. Clair, 623 soldiers were killed and another 258 wounded. One of the survivors stated, "The ground was literally covered with the dead." The American Indians had soundly defeated St. Clair's army; this loss, one of the worst defeats of the American military at the hands of the American Indians, would come to be known as "St. Clair’s Defeat." View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06996
Subjects: Military maps; Military encampments; Kekionga, Battle of, Ohio, 1791; St. Clair, Arthur, 1734-1818; Little Turtle, 1747?-1812; Miami Indians; Fort Recovery (Ohio);
Places: Fort Recovery (Ohio); Mercer County (Ohio)
 

Description: The caption reads: "Pontiac The great chief of the Ottawas, leader of the Indians of the Middle West in the Seven Year War." Chief Pontiac was born circa 1720. By 1755, he was a chief of the Ottawa Tribe. Pontiac subscribed to the religious beliefs of Neolin, a prophet of the Delaware people, who encouraged native people to forsake English goods and customs. When the French and Indian War ended in 1763, all French lands in North America were turned over to the English. American Indians lost their long-time French ally and worried that more British settlers would come to the Ohio Country. Pontiac and the Ottawas, in the interest of protecting their lands, encouraged tribes in the Ohio Country to rise up in 1763. The Ottawa attacked Fort Detroit in May 1763; the Shawnee, Munsee, Wyandot, Seneca and Delaware people also raided English settlements in the Ohio Country and in western Pennsylvania during 1763. The English military invaded the Ohio Country from Pennsylvania in the fall of 1764 and subdued the area's American Indian tribes. Pontiac's Rebellion ended in the fall of 1764, and Pontiac formally surrendered to the English in July 1766. In 1769, he was murdered by a member of the Peoria Tribe. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL07606
Subjects: Pontiac, d. 1769; American Indian history and society; American Indians in Ohio; Ottawa Tribe; American Indian tribal leaders
 

Description: Illustration of Simon Girty, Ohio Country frontiersman, from "History of Ohio in Words of One Syllable" by Anne Cole Cady, printed in "An Ohio Portrait" by George W. Knepper. Girty was born in Chambers Mill, Pennsylvania, in 1741. During the French and Indian War, his family sought refuge in Fort Granville, which was captured in 1755 by an army of French soldiers and native Indians. Girty eventually found himself in the hands of the Seneca Indians who took him to the Ohio Country and adopted him. His knowledge of Indian culture and language was highly sought after during the American Revolutionary War as both the British and Americans hoped to secure alliances with various local tribes. Girty first aligned himself with the Americans. However, he was discharged from the American military in 1777 and afterwards offered his help to the British. After the war, Girty continued to aid the Indians of the Ohio Country in resisting further settlement of the Ohio Country, participating in the Ba View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SC2697_Girty_002
Subjects: American Revolutionary War, 1775-1783; American Indians in Ohio; Fallen Timbers, Battle of, Ohio, 1794; Forts & fortifications; American Indian history; American Indians--Warfare; American Indians; Ohio History; Ohio History--Settlement and Early Statehood
Places: Ohio
 

Description: This is a lithograph of an oil painting of Kiontwogky, also called Cornplanter or John O'Bail III (alternate spellings include O'Beel or Abeel), chief of the Seneca Tribe, published in volume one of "History of the Indian Tribes of North America" by Thomas Loraine McKenney and James Hall. Around 1732, Cornplanter was born to a Gah-hon-no-nah, a Seneca woman, and Johannes Abeel Jr., a Dutch fur trader. Cornplanter fought in alliance with the British during the French and Indian War (1754-1763) and the Revolutionary War (1775-1783). He also served as a diplomat between the United States and American Indian nations after the Revolutionary War, participated in post-war negotiations, and signed the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1784. He replaced Red Jacket as chief in 1791. Thomas McKenny served as the United States Superintendent of Indian Trade in 1821 and commissioned portraits of American Indian leaders who visited Washington D.C. to negotiate treaties with the United States federal government in order to to preserve the memory and history of America's native peoples. After the paintings were completed, he commissioned lithographs of the 300 paintings and compiled them into three volumes of "History of the Indian Tribes of North America" where a short biography accompanied each portrait. The paintings were housed at the Smithsonian Institution Building, commonly referred to as the Castle, and in 1868 all but five were destroyed in a devastating fire. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: V970_97M199h_v1_p174_KiOnTwogKy
Subjects: Seneca Tribe; Iroquois Confederacy; American Indian history; American Indians--Portraits; American Indian tribal leaders; American Revolutionary War (1775-1783)
Places: Washington D.C.