Our Old Bookcase
Mercer County was given its name in 1820, 9,000 years after the first people’s settlement in this land. The earliest documentation that people were living in this area was in November 1981 when employees of Cy Schwieterman Inc. were excavating a drainage pipe on the Ron Stucke farm, southwest of the village of Cranberry Prairie. They found elk antlers and took them to Joyce Alig, director of the Mercer County Historical Museum and she contacted James Murphy of the Ohio State University libraries and David Dyer of the Ohio Historical Society, who led the excavation of the bones. They identified the site as from the Pleistocene Period, and the radiocarbon date as 9,370 years old, plus or minus 70 years. They identified the hole in the elk’s scapula as being wounded by an early archaic Indian, and the elk ran into the preglacial lake, became mired in the mud and died. This was the earliest evidence of man living in this area. The prehistoric Native American artifacts also document early settlers in what is now Mercer County.
The earliest known map of this site of Mercer County by the Mercer County Historical Society, I found at the Clements Library at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. During the French and Indian Wars, with Europeans wanting to trade fur in the vast area of the Great Lakes, they wanted maps. John Mitchell’s 1755 map, illustrated what is now Ohio and Indiana, whereby at the St. Marys River Crossing, was noted as “Half-Way Cross,” because it was about halfway between the Native American villages of Pickawillany on the Great Miami River and Kekionga, at the confluence of the St. Marys and Saint Joseph rivers, where Fort Wayne, Indiana sits today. “Half-Way Cross” was the site of Rockford at the St. Marys river crossing. Thus, Native Americans were living near this site, in 1755, which became Rockford.
On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Second Continental Congress. A series of ordinances were passed by the U.S. government. The time period, known as “The Indian Wars,” in the 1790s, followed. Under Gen. Harmar, the U.S. Army was defeated at the present site of Fort Wayne. Under Gov. Arthur St. Clair, the U.S. Army was defeated at the site of Fort Recovery. Gen. Anthony Wayne constructed a series of forts, including Fort Adams and Fort Recovery, along western Ohio in 1794. Wayne was victorious at the battle of Fallen Timbers and the 1795 Treaty at Fort Greene Ville was signed.
The boundary line, known as the Indian Trail Road (now Fort Recovery Minster Road) was drawn, separating what is now known as northwest Ohio, as Indian territory. At that time, the land south of the village of Recovery, was a part of Darke County and settlers built homes there as early as 1795. That area was designated as a part of Mercer County in 1848 when Auglaize County was formed, taking St. Marys, Minster and New Bremen into Auglaize County. One last war, the War of 1812, resulted in President James Monroe passing the Feb. 26, 1815 Act of granting Anthony Shane a tract of land on the St. Marys River, which is now Rockford for his assistance to the U.S. military during that time period. During that time period, people were also migrating from European countries, across what is now northern Ohio, and into the state of Ohio. Don’t forget, that people from southeastern states were also settling in northwest Ohio, including Mercer County.
After the state of Ohio was established in 1803, the area of northwest Ohio was still Native American territory.
Next week, the topic of the settlement of northwest Ohio Counties will be addressed. An Ohio history student at Wright State University – Lake Campus contacted me about migration patterns in Mercer County. The variety of cultures in northwest Ohio will be addressed next week.
Mercer County Historical Society President Joyce Alig may be contacted at 3054 Burk-St. Henry Road, St. Henry, OH 45883, histalig@ bright.net or 419-678-2614.