Prehistory of Ashtabula

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="02c285a1erlcgo.gif"> <div> <B>Ashtabula Bicentennial Celebration</B><FONT SIZE="6" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Century Schoolbook" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Arial" ><B>   </B></FONT></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT><B>    </B><A HREF="Home.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ashtabula Bicentennial Celebration"><U><B>Home</B></U></A><B>                    </B><A HREF="History.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE=" History "><U><B>History</B></U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="02ad2c00dkelyh.gif"> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Prehistory of Ashtabula</I><I> of Ashtabula</I></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="572" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 1287 WIDTH="566"><div> <B>PREHISTORY OF ASHTABULA</B></div> <div> <B>by</B></div> <div> <B>Darrell E. Hamilton</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>    Mound  builders  were probably the first human inhabitants in</B></div> <div> <B>Ashtabula.  Even  though the  Hopewell mound builders of South Central  Ohio  were  better  known, the mound builders of  Ashta-</B></div> <div> <B>bula  County  left  earth   works all over  Ashtabula  County. The</B></div> <div> <B>mound builders of  Ashtabula   County  built  mounds for several</B></div> <div> <B>different reasons.  Not  only  just  for burial,  the mound builders</B></div> <div> <B>of  Ashtabula built earthworks for  defensive fortifications,  food</B></div> <div> <B>storage and fortification against nature. Most mounds  in Ashta-</B></div> <div> <B>bula County were built near streams or near a river gorge. Edge-</B></div> <div> <B>wood  and  Chestnut  Grove  Cemeteries are two locations where</B></div> <div> <B>mounds  were  built.   Chestnut  Grove  mounds  were apparently</B></div> <div> <B>built   for   defensive   purposes,   however;   Edgewood  Cemetery</B></div> <div> <B>mounds were apparently built as burial  mounds.  When  pioneer</B></div> <div> <B>Peleg  Sweet  gave land  to  the township for the Edgewood  Cem-</B></div> <div> <B>etery,   nearly a thousand  graves  were found when the land was</B></div> <div> <B>cleared. </B></div> <div> <B>      The mound builders of  Ashtabula  were probably fairly peace</B></div> <div> <B>living inhabitants.   No  one knows exactly who the mound build-</B></div> <div> <B>ers of Ashtabula were or what happened to them.   It's been  theo-rized that with the advent of modern Woodland Indians into the</B></div> <div> <B>area in the late 1500's, the Mound Builders were either killed off,</B></div> <div> <B>ran off or absorbed into the Woodland Indians tribes. More than likely it was a combination of all three. </B></div> <div> <B>   The Erie Indians, (also know as the Cat Nation), were probably </B></div> <div> <B>the  first  Woodland  Indian s to inhabit the Ashtabula area. The  Erie  lived  more  like the modern Indians that the early settlers knew.   They   have  been  said  to  have  numbered  nearly 15,000  stretching  from  Northern   Ohio  to   nearly  Buffalo,   New York.</B></div> <div> <B>However,  the Erie  meet the same fate  that  the  mound builders</B></div> <div> <B>of   Ashtabula  meet.  By 1635 the Erie  Indians were being forced  eastward  and inland from Lake Erie by the Iroquois Indians. By 1650,  the  Erie Indian  territory  had  shrunk  to  an  area  east of  </B></div> <div> <B>the  Cuyahoga  River.  From  1653  to  1657,  the two Indian tribes were  engaged  in  a war  in which the ferocious Iroquois Indians annihilated the Erie Indians.The Iroquois Indians were supplied muskets  and  other  supplies  by the  Dutch and  English settlers  and  later  on  by  the  French. By the time the war had ended, be-tween  500-600   Erie  Indians  remained.  The  ones who remained were  mostly  women  and  children  that  were  absorbed into the Iroquois tribes. </B></div> <div> <B>    For over a hundred years no Indian settlements were in Ashta-</B></div> <div> <B>bula County. Ashtabula became a hunting ground for various In-dian tribes.  French  explores  were  known  to have explored the area  but  no  attempt  was  made  to  settle  the  area.  In  the  late 1700's, a few Indian tribes would settle  in   Ashtabula   County as temporary settlements or camps. The  Massasaugas Indians were</B></div> <div> <B>of  Delaware origin that  were subdued by the ferocious  Iroquois Indians.  The   Massasaugas   were  said  to   be   harmless  people, wandering hunters who never aspired to be warriors.  They were  said to be very religious,  observing rituals which included danc-</B></div> <div> <B>ing  and feasting. This would be a plus for the early settlement of   Ashtabula by settlers from the East.</B></div> <div> <B>     Many different explores would touch the shores of  Lake   Erie</B></div> <div> <B>and   sometimes venture into the river gorges.   Most  of  these ex-plores were  Dutch,  English  or  French.  None of these explorers made  any  attempt  or  at  least  any  great  attempt  to  settle the area. The earliest explorers to the area were probably Norsemen. Some experts had believed that  Norsemen  may have made their  way down   through  the  Great  Lakes and  quite  possibly  to the shores of  Lake  Erie of  Ashtabula.  Remnants of  tools and weap-</B></div> <div> <B>ons  were  found  by  early  settlers  of  that  time that would have been used by earlier explorers.</B></div> <bR> <bR> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>