WAYNE COUNTY OHIO - "Arise Wild Land" by Lindsey Williams [Page 4]
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Beverly
bevwayne@gte.net
April 26, 1999
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This information is from a copy of "Arise Wild Land" by Lindsey Williams, 
as related to Rittman and Sterling.   Lindsey Williams was the newspaper 
editor/owner of the Rittman paper and he was President of the Historical 
Society there as well.  All proceeds from the book went to the Historical 
Society.  The publisher is Atkinson Printing in Wooster Oh.
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    Though northern Ohio had been briefly depopulated by 
Indian wars, it continued a cross-roads of important Indian 
trails.
   The wilderness was laced with a network of foot paths to 
accommodate the Indian needs of hunting, trade and war.  
Whenever possible these primitive thoroughfares kept to high 
ground.  Elevations were less obstructed by underbrush, 
drained quickly after rain, were wind-sept of snow in 
winter, had fewer insects and gave trabellers a better view 
of the surroundings.  
   So efficient were these woodland trails in following the 
easiest passages they were used extensively by settlers.  
Many of our roads today are laid over the old Indian paths.
   The two principal trails of north-east Ohio intersected 
at what is now Wooster.  The Great Trail ran from Fort Pitt 
(Pittsburgh) to Sandusky and thence around the lake to De 
Troit (Detroit).
   The War Path ran from the principal Delaware town, still 
so named, to the Iroquois town at Ashtabula.  It was trod by 
numerous raiding parties after the Delaware threw off the 
Iroquois petticoat and took up the tomahawk.
   The original survey of Milton Township was laid out by 
order of Congress and shows sections of the War Path.  It 
coursed near the old Mennonite rest home, south of Rittman, 
and thence through Doylestown to the portage between the 
Tuscarawas and Cuyahoga rivers (now Akron).  The route was 
called Portage Path by early settlers.
   The first settlers in Milton Township were Michael and 
Jacob Kiefer who bought large tracts of land in November 
1813 near what is now Crown Hill Mennonite Church.  Their 
descendents said in an old newspaper interview that, "Awell 
travelled Indian trail through the farm was the only road to 
their little world beyond the forest."
   That road today is Route 585.  Its importance is 
indicated by the Ohio legislature which in 1807 appropriated 
$800. "for a road from the Portage on Cuyahoga, (now Akron) 
in the county of Trumbull, to town of Franklinton (now 
Columbus) in Franklin County."  From the small amount of 
money involved, the improvement could not have consisted of 
much more than marking a path for horsemen.  Cyrus Spink 
cleared a wagon road on the path from Wooster to Akron in 
1817.