OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Gen. Simon Perkins [5]
***********************************************************************
OHGENWEB NOTICE:  All distribution rights to this electronic data are
reserved by the submitter.  Reproduction or re-presentation of copyrighted
material will require the permission of the copyright owner.  The submitter 
has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently 
for free access.
***********************************************************************
File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Darlene E. Kelley
http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374
June 13, 1999
***********************************************************************
Historical Collections of Ohio
The Kelley Family Collections
Newspaper article, Plains Dealer
compiled by S.J. Kelley-- 1925
And Then They Went West
by Darlene E. Kelley  1998
***********************************************************************

Fifth in Series--

     After that, the report for the incident spread like wildfire.
Kirtland heard that 
"Joseph McMahon and the people of Warren had killed two Indians in hasty
and inconsiderate manner."Huntington heard about the affair only a few
days later when he was thirty miles below Youngstown, on his way to the
Reserve. He writes;  " We were informed it might be dangerous to come on
to the Reserve, as the settlers had been killing Indians and the whole
settlement was in a state of confusion.  Upon inquiry it appeared that
the mischief had been done by a Vagabond Irishman from Pennsylvania,
with little or no provocation from the Indians."
     " By 3 or 4 o'clock of the same day," said Case, the Killing "had
brought Hillman, John Young, and some others to Warren."  Simon, who
boarded again that summer with Young, was no doubt in the group.
     That night, the settlers. supposing that the Indians would be upon
them for vengeance, gathered in squads for safety.  They mostly met at
Quinby's. All kept guard and look-out.
     The following day McMahon was arrested and put in jail at
Pittsburgh.
     Some of the inhabitants [ said Case ] thought that Storer ought to
be arrested also. The gathering was at his place--- He quietly observed
what was going on around him. He concluded from what he saw and heard,
that perhaps he too might be arrested and put on trial and upon
reflection believeing that he would be. He walked into his cabin, put on
a hat, took down his rifle from its place on the hooks and quietly
walked off, saying  he must go to look for his cows and went to the
woods.  No one stopped him or tried to hinder him in any way. 
      Simon, for the Erie Company, bore the expense of the Conferance
Hllmann had arranged with the Indians for July 30 at John Youngs house.
On July 29 the Indians began to gather. An interpreter had been sent for
and he arrived with one Indian Chief and Squaw on horseback.  By the
following day, about 300 people and 10 Indians had assembled at
Youngstown.
     Huntington got to Youngstown in time to wittness the affair with
Simon and the crowd of settlers. Mr.Young, on behalf of the settlers,
addressed the Indians, assuring them that the conduct of the Murderer's
was highly diapproved of by all the white people, that McMahon would be
tried by our courts and that the Treaty provided that mode, as the only
one that could be adopted.  He concluded by assuring them that it was
the sincere wish of the White people to live in perfect friendship and
harmony with their brethern the Red people.
     The Indian chief then spoke and the interpeter conveyed the message
to the settlers that the Indians were perfectly satisfied to wait for
the ordinary way of Justice and that they considered it a quarrel in
which indiviuals only were concerned and not the mass of either people.
     Following the conference the settlers gave up their nightly watches
and returned to their own homes. Then the newly appointed officers of
Trumbel county proceeded with the business of establishing a government.
      Town 4, Range 4, [Warren] having been decided upon for the county
seat, it next had to be decided where the Public buildings should be
located. The original proprietors of Warren were as follows;
Ashbell King, Simon Kendall, John Leavitt, Erastus Granger, Oliver
Sheldon, Sylvanus Griswald, Matthew Thomson, and Reuben Bardwell. Like
the Erie Company proprietors, these men had pooled their land to form
the Cuyahoga and Big River Land Company.  a considerable amount of the
southeastern portion of the township, along the banks of the Mahoning,
where the lands, especially the bottoms, were generally good and where
the settlers were convenient to the transportation and communication
afforded by the Mahoning River and the Salt Springs road. This had been
sold to Quinby, Storer, and their friends who had followed them from
Pennsylvania.  But the proprietors of Warren township ignored this
concentration of population and laid out a town plot in the center of
the township. According to Simon,in the township, it would be desirous
that the public buildings should be there.
      Simon was well aware that the money for public buildings must
either be contributed by the proprietors or raised by public
subscription. He was quick to see and point out to Joseph Howland, who
owned the township adjacent on the east to Warren township, that
locating the buildings for the convenience and benefit of two townships
could be expected to increase contributions to the cause.
     The county officers evidently agreed with, and overruled the
Warren's proprietor's orginal plan.
     Choosing the site of the public buildings was not, however, the
only business that concerned Simon duing the court's five day session.
Simon was also one of the committee that estalished areas of legal
jurisdiction by dividing Trumbull County,or that part of the Western
Reserve lying east of the Cuyahoga River, into eight townships that each
encompassed several of the five mile square townships surveyed by the
Connecticut Land Company.  The Court then appointed a Constable over
each of the eight townships.
     And Simon was, in addition, named foreman of the Grand Jury that
was summoned to hear the information lodged by the State Attorney
against Joseph McMahon and Richard Storer.  The Grand Jury met at once
and found bills against each of them for the Murder of two Indians at
the Salt Springs and processes were ordered to be issued against them to
be apprehended and held in close custody until the Government should
order to try them.
     On Sept.11, Simon went to Pittsburgh to attend to McMahon's return
to the Reserve for trial.
***********************************************  
To be continued--