THE GREENVILLE TREATY LINE--

If you take a peek at the border line of Richland County down in the southeast corner below Butler, you will see a chunk of the county was sliced off by a gentle bevel.

If you explore a little further on an Ohio map you will see the same bevel across southern Ashland County and along part of the border between Stark and Tuscarawas counties.

Here's what that is all about:

The Battle of Fallen Timbers took place in August 1794 just south of present day Toledo and was a decisive battle between US forces and Indians for control of the Northwest Territory.

Shawnee war chief Blue Jacket with 3,000 braves had chosen the defensive position along the Maumee River because a large stand of trees had been blown down by a heavy storm (Fallen Timbers) and were believed they would help hinder the advance of the army.

Peace negotiations had been going on with Indian tribes as US authorities sought to confirm possession of the lands north of the Ohio River they had claimed from Great Britian after victory in the American Revolutionary War.

The Indians wanted to maintain control of those lands as established by a previous treaty with the British, and, in fact, which had been the birthright of their people--forever.

The negotiations gave General "Mad" Anthony Wayne time to train his 4,600 plus troops during 1794 and the August battle did not last long.  The defeat of the Indians led to the signing of the Treaty of Greenville in 1795 which led to the ever-increasing settlement of Ohio and finally statehood in 1803.

The Greenville Treaty Line began at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River in present-day Cleveland and ran south between Akron and Canton and on down the Tuscarawas River to near present day Bolivar.  From there the line stretched straight across present day Ohio in a west, southwest direction to a branch of the Great Miami River near present-day Fort Loramie, Ohio as shown in the large map above.  Richland County is shown in blue.

From there the treaty line zig-zaged west-northwest to the Wabash River near the present Ohio-Indiana border then south-southwest to the Ohio River and a point opposite the mouth of the Kentucky River.

The portion of that line shown in red on the map to the right is along the southeast border of Richland County to this day.  That is the result of the 1795 treaty.

Another nearby reminder of this historic period is a marker on Yankee Rd. (Co Rd 55) in Knox County which runs west from Ankenytown and crosses State Route 13 just south of Palmyra.  The marker is located just east of SR 13.

So, everytime we pass north and south across the Richland-Knox County line in that general area we are also crossing the historic border between US territory and Indian territory as it was established more than 216 years ago.

Knox County was in the growing US territory.

Richland County was in Indian territory.

This treaty, like most with the Indians, was largely ignored. however.

Just 47 years later the Wyandots gave up their claim to their reservation at Upper Sandusky and in 1843 the United States government sent the Indians off to another reservation in Kansas.

They were the last Indian tribe to leave Ohio.