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Erie Indians
The recorded history of the Black River dates back to the mid 1650’s
when Jesuit missionaries and explorers began recording their
experiences in the area. The first definite records appear around
1626 when Father LaCrouce Davillion documented preaching to a small
group of Huron Indians on the north shore of Lake Erie. According to
reports from the Hurons, the French claimed that the Erie Indians,
or “Cat Nation,” occupied the southern shore of Lake Erie from
New York to Sandusky Bay. The French used the title “Cat Nation or
Cat People” to describe the Eries because they supposedly wore cat
skins for clothing. Most likely, the skins actually came from
raccoons; the missionaries were unable to distinguish raccoons from
cats.
Archeologists debate today about exactly where the Erie lived. There is a lack of
strong evidence to support the possibility that they inhabited Ohio.
Most likely, they lived no further west than Erie, Pennsylvania. During the 17th century, conflicts between the Eries and the
Iroquois (also known as the Five Nations) deterred the French and
other Europeans from traveling through the south shore of Lake Erie.
The Iroquois were a confederation of five tribes from northern New
York (Seneca, Cayuga, Onodaga, Oneida, and Mohawk) pulled together
to expel the war-like Eries from the region. In 1655, the Iroquois
completely annihilated the Eries and they confiscated the southern
shore of Lake Erie. By the time LaSalle arrived along the Niagara
River in 1679, the memory and history of the Eries was mere legend
amongst the tribes that he encountered. The sole legacy of the Eries
is their name for the Great Lake upon whose shores they lived.
After 1655, the shore of Lake Erie remained relatively uninhabited. The
region was primarily used as a common hunting and fishing ground for
several of the tribes comprising the Five Nations. Besides the
preventative measures the Iroquois took to keep explorers,
missionaries, and fur traders out of northern Ohio, the isolation and flooded topography of the
area also delayed Spanish, Dutch, and English penetration. Accounts
from 1650-1740 refer to northern Ohio as no man’s land. Little
archaeological material dates back to this time period. By the time
Europeans reached the abandoned area, much of the land had reverted
back to its former forests. One exception is the Colorado Road site,
first discovered in the late 1800’s by archeologist David C.
Baldwin. Located on a river bluff just north of the Eiden Road site,
Baldwin excavated and documented his findings from this village.
Artifacts included four triangular brass points and many flint
objects. The brass points indicate that the inhabitants used
European materials, dating the site later than White Fort and Eiden.
Baldwin’s collection of artifacts and reports of his findings are
contained within the Baldwin Collection at the Western Reserve
Historical Society Museum in Cleveland, Ohio. Like the Eiden site,
no discernible features of this village are visible above ground.
Both the Eiden site and the Colorado Road site are currently
protected on property owned by the Lorain County Metropolitan Park
District.
The third site in the Eiden Prehistoric
District is located on private property just outside the Lorain
County Metropolitan Park District lands. Stormy Acres Village is a
significant site that measures 125 meters by 40 meters. There is at
least one historical pipe from this site that dates between the
1700’s and 1800’s. Other artifacts include flint pieces and two
slate gorgets. There may also be some Archaic and possibly
Middle/Late Woodland artifacts at Stormy Acres. There is no
published material available on this or the Colorado Road site.
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Huron and Wyandot Indians
Eventually
the Wyandot Indians and small bands of Hurons (who also had been
defeated by the Five Nations), began to inhabit the south shore of
Lake Erie during the 1600’s. In order to escape the Dutch fur
business, the Hurons, who were not killed or enslaved by the
Iroquois, fled into northern Ohio. The Wyandot Indians are the most
familiar of Ohio natives, in part because they were the last tribe
to reside in Ohio. The Black River is often referred to as the
Canesadooharie which is believed to be Wyandot in origin. There are
three possible meanings of the word:
black river,” “river of black pearls,” or “stream
of freshwater pearls”. Although many people believe Canesadooharie
is the native name for the Black, there are some skeptics. Dr. David
Brose, former chief curator of archaeology at the Cleveland Museum
of Natural History, noted that French maps of the 1700’s did not
use the Wyandot word but referred to the river as the Renithua
River. (The meaning of that word is not known.) It wasn’t until
the early 1800’s that the name Black River started being used.
Brose’s theory is that because French trappers called all rivers
“eau blanc” or “eau blanche,” literally meaning “white
water or “light water,” early settlers misread blanc as black
and the name stuck.
The Wyandots and to a lesser extent, the Hurons were
the inhabitants of the Black River watershed during the period of
European settlement. The Wyandots were eventually relocated to
reservations in Seneca and Sandusky Counties during the early
1800’s and then moved out of Ohio around 1830. There are no active
Wyandot historic sites on the Black River, although a number of
interesting stories can be found in such regional historical
literature as Mary Beebe Hall’s Reminiscences
of Elyria, Ohio, published by the Lorain County Historical
Society in 1900. Copies are available for review at the Elyria
Public Library’s Reference Desk and at Mudd Library at Oberlin
College.
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European Settlement
There is speculation as to the first white settler to set foot in the
Black River Watershed. In 1533, it is believed that a French man
named Louis Vagard was the first white man to set foot in Lorain
County. He signed a piece of sandstone shaped like an Indian idol:
“Louis Vagard, La France, 1533”. This stone was later found by a
farmer. Vagard claimed the territory in the customary French manner
of signing and leaving a stone marker. Because no reliable method
exists for dating the stone, it is also possible that it was a
forgery made in the 1850’s or 60’s to add a little mystery to
local history.
The first actual recorded European inhabitant in the Black River region
was a less than willing participant. In 1754, James Smith and a
companion were working on a military road to help General
Braddock’s army reach Fort Dusquense safely. A band of Wyandots
killed Smith’s partner in an ambush and kidnapped Smith. They took
Smith to an Indian village on the Muskingum River where he was
forced to run the gauntlet before being adopted as a member of the
tribe.
Following his induction into the Wyandots, Smith and a young Indian brave set
out on a hunting trip along the shores of Lake Erie. Stopping
briefly at a Wyandot settlement on the “Canesadooharie,”
they traveled to a winter destination in 1755-56 which was near the
west branch falls of the Black River. Historians have little doubt
that Smith spent that winter at the site now occupied by Cascade
Park in Elyria. Smith eventually escaped and boarded a French ship
after five years of captivity with the Wyandots in April of 1759.
Smith’s life with the Wyandots was later published in his book An
Account of the Remarkable Occurrences in the Life and Travels of
Col. James Smith and the first recorded history of the Black River region was complete.
Prior to the next European settler reaching the area, Connecticut signed a
Deed of Cession in 1786 enabling it to retain a strip of land
extending 120 miles west of the Pennsylvania-Ohio line. Lake Erie
comprised the northern border and the 41st degree of North latitude
the southern border. Called the Western Reserve, this was the only
western land Connecticut kept after turning over the majority of its
western lands to the Federal government. The area of the Black River
watershed was a part of this reserve.
One of the first settlers of this part of the Reserve was the Moravian
minister, David Zeisberger. He led a band of Moravian missionaries
and Christian Indians from a Delaware tribe to the mouth of the
Black River where the present city of Lorain is located. According
to missionary John Heckewelder, they arrived on April 24, 1787 to
“a fine fertile spot much resembling an orchard, it being
interspersed with crab apple and plum trees: wild potatoes were
likewise found here in abundance. In short, there was nothing
wanting to encourage them to form a regular settlement at this
place, which they intended to should they be permitted to
remain”. Three days after their arrival at this paradise, they
were told by a Delaware chief that they were not permitted to stay
and had to make camp in the Sandusky River region. It would not be until 1807 that permanent settlement of the mouth of the
Black was attempted again, this time with success. Three New
Englanders, Azariah Beebe, his wife and Nathan Perry, Junior, made
camp in the area, beginning the history of Lorain, the International
City. According to William Duff, “until about 1807, when Nathan
Perry established himself in a trading post at the mouth of Black
River, the Indians continued to have everything their own way in
that immediate portion of the country. The Indians, preferring
barter to religion let Perry stay.”
Connecticut eventually sold the Western Reserve to the Connecticut Land Company
for $1,200,000. Justin Ely, a member of the company, became the
owner of a large chunk of the land
in northeastern Ohio.  Early in 1817,
Ely traveled from Massachusetts to his land with a party of
six and established a small settlement in the forest a short
distance above the east falls of the Black River. This settlement
would later grow into what is now Elyria, Ohio. In 1796,
the Connecticut Land Company sent out surveyors to begin to
partition the land into 5 square mile townships. The Native
Americans in the region were displaced and re-located so that the
survey work could be completed in 1805, two years after Ohio became
a state. On July 4th of this year the Ottawas, Wyandots, Chippewas,
Shawnees, Delawares and Pottawatamies signed the Treaty of Fort
Industry, where they turned over their homelands west of the
Cuyahoga River for $20,000 worth of goods. In 1817, surveyors mapped
the Black River township containing the City of Lorain followed by
the formation of the Elyria township in 1819. Lorain County was
officially established in 1822. Elyria’s central location, in
addition to Ely’s promise to furnish a jail and donate $2000 towards a permanent courthouse, led to
its establishment as the county seat. Ely named the county after the
Province of Lorraine, France, an area that he remembered fondly. The
county was officially organized two years later when records of the
County Recorder began.
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