THe Shawnee Claim Upper Piqua

Upper Piqua  Part 4

We have three more flags to add from the text below…. The flag of the Shawnee, the flag of George Rogers Clark, and the flag of General Anthony Wayne.  

When the Pickawillany village was destroyed, the Miami Indians began to abandon the area. Even though the Shawnee’s two main villages were on the Mad (Pequaw) and Little Miami (Old Chillicothe) Rivers, some Shawnee Indians soon began to occupy the lands abandoned by the Miami tribe.  
 

From 1763 through 1780, the Shawnee organized several raids into Kentucky. In 1780, Virginia’s Governor, Thomas Jefferson asked George Rogers Clark for help in subduing the Ohio country Indians. Clark and his troops were sent into the Little Miami River Valley. Clark’s troops destroyed Old Chillicothe (Oldtown) village and the Piqua (Pequaw) village on the Mad River, about four miles west of Springfield. At that time, Clark also destroyed about 500 acres of Shawnee cornfields. 

After this battle, Clark then returned to Kentucky. The surviving Shawnee moved to the Great Miami River… just north of modern Piqua. They named their new village Piqua to commemorate the village that Clark destroyed. 

By 1782, the Shawnee were such a threat to the Kentucky settlers, that another large expedition was organized under General Clark. Troops crossed into Ohio at Cincinnati and marched up to Dayton. From Dayton, they marched north to modern Piqua by following the Miami River. 

When Clark’s men got to Lower Piqua, they found it nearly abandoned so they marched farther north to Upper Piqua where they established an encampment. After destroying what they could at Pierre-Louis de Loramier’s (Peter Loramie’s) Trading Station, Upper Piqua, and Lower Piqua, Clark and his troops again withdrew to Kentucky. However, a few years later, the Shawnee resumed raids on the Kentucky settlements.

In November of 1791, General St. Clair, along with both federal and militia troops, were defeated by an Indian confederation at Fort Recovery, OH. More than one third of the federal U.S. forces were wiped out. While this occurred outside the boundaries of modern Miami County, it had far reaching effects. After Sinclair’s defeat, General “Mad” Anthony Wayne assumed leadership of the United States Army. 

According to a 1790 government report, 1500 Kentucky settlers had been killed in Indian raids since the Revolutionary War. So in the early 1790’s, George Washington sent a message through General Wilkinson to Colonel John Hardin. 

Hardin was known for his ferocity in battle and had earned the nickname “Indian Killer”. Washington wanted Hardin to serve as a peace emissary to the tribes in northwest Ohio country.  (Maybe he was not the best choice for this peace mission.)

Piqua Historian Leonard Hill states that Hardin’s group carried a flag of truce. If Colonel Hardin was recognized by the Shawnee, his well known nickname did not lend well to the task he had been assigned. He was intercepted by Shawnee warriors just past of Miami County’s current northern border and killed. The message he was directed to deliver to the Indian tribes was:

“Brothers -The President of the United States (George Washington) entertains the opinion, that the war which exists is founded in error and mistake on your part. That you believe that the United States wants to deprive you of your lands and drive you out of the country. Be assured that this is not so; on the contrary, that we should be greatly gratified with the opportunity of imparting to you all the blessings of civilized life, of teaching you to cultivate corn, to raise oxen, sheep and other domestic animals; to build comfortable houses; so as ever to dwell upon the land.”

While his death happened outside of Upper Piqua, I have included the event within this writing because it shows the sentiment of the local Shawnee tribe. He was buried near the Shelby County village that now bears his name. 

In 1794, General “Mad” Anthony Wayne led a retaliatory battle occurred to avenge St. Clair’s defeat. The Indian Confederation, which included the Shawnee, was thoroughly defeated. 

The Greenville Treaty was signed by tribal leaders the following year. The Greenville Treaty line passed thru the confines of modern Miami County and was intended to secure peace by ceding a large amount of land to American settlers while reserving the northwest portion of land for native tribes, including the Shawnee, Miami, and Wyandot. Shortly thereafter the treaty was signed, settlers began establishing farms throughout the area, including the area next to the treaty line (The treaty line is known today as Rangeline Rd). 

In the spring of 1796 that Tecumseh and his followers moved from Deer Creek, south of Urbana to the banks of the Miami near Piqua. Then in autumn of the same year, they moved to the headwaters of the Whitewater River in present day Preble County. They maintained a village there until 1808, when Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet, established Prophetstown in Tippecanoe County Indiana. In the next few years, Miami County settlers would continue to hear of Tecumseh. 

General Anthony Wayne established two forts in Miami County.  One fort was on the Stillwater River at Covington Ohio. It was known as Fort Rowdy. The other fort that Wayne established was known as Fort Piqua. Fort Piqua was at Upper Piqua, 400 yards northeast of the Johnston house. A detachment of soldiers remained stationed there from early 1794 to late 1795. After the treaty of Greenville was signed, the fort was soon abandoned. Prospective settlers became very interested in Upper Piqua.

After Wayne’s troops at Greenville disbanded, a man named Job Gard, who had been a army sutler (a civilian merchant licensed to sell to troops), came to the abandoned fort at Upper Piqua during the winter of 1796-97. Gard began dismantling the old fort in 1797. He picked out the best materials and floated them down river so he could build a cabin near what is now Harrison and Water Streets. The cabin stood on the edge of a hill just east of Harrison Street. He eventually sold out to John Manning and it is believed Gard moved east into present day Champaign County.

A "Factor" was a manager that were responsible for overseeing operations at a trading post, managing trade with Indigenous peoples, negotiating exchanges of furs for goods, and maintaining records of transaction. John Johnston began working as the U.S. Factor at Fort Wayne in 1802… just a year before Ohio became a state. 

While working at Fort Wayne, Johnston approached Captain James Flinn concerning the possibility of purchasing of Upper Piqua. Captain Flinn claimed ownership of the land, but had never filed a deed. Flinn eventually defaulted on the taxes and Johnston purchased the land in 1804. 

In 1809, John Johnston became the Federal Indian Agent at Fort Wayne. In 1810, he resigned from the position, giving a year’s notice. In 1811 he and his family moved from Fort Wayne to a log home at Upper Piqua. 

The log home was located in the field across from the brick home that he began building at that time. The brick home was considered completed by May of 1812.

Sources for this information were: Rayner's First Century of Piqua, Ohio, The History of Miami County -1953, Archaeological and Historical Publications Volume XVI, Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly Volume XXVII, and a 2025 Interview with Marla Fair ("Interpreter 1") at the Johnston Farm and Indian Agency.