Indian/Early Pioneers Room
Logan County has a rich American Indian history from prehistoric peoples who hunted here to the historic tribes that called the area home from the mid-1700s to the early 1830s. The Shawnee were the most prevalent tribe in the area with Blue Jacket’s Town, Mackachack, Moluntha’s Town, Wapatomica and others. The Wyandot and Delaware also had villages here. Benjamin Logan led a force of Kentucky mounted militia against many of these Indian towns in 1786 and burned them. Most of the villages were rebuilt. After Gen. Wayne’s defeat of the Northwest Indian Confederation under Blue Jacket at Fallen Timbers (near Toledo) in 1794 the Indians were forced to sign the Greenville Treaty. The treaty line ran through Logan County with the land south of the line becoming U.S. land. Old Town near DeGraff was the site of one of Tecumseh’s first councils championing a united Indian amalgamation. The council was discovered by Simon Kenton & James McPherson. The Indians had to sign other treaties that gave away more land and put them on reservations, including the Lewistown Reservation in the northwest part of Logan County. Eventually the Indians were forced to reservations in Oklahoma and Kansas in the early 1830s.
This room contains some collections from Logan County Indian enthusiasts, ranging from the Paleo Indians c. 9500 B.C. through the 1830s including:
Items of Interest:
· Indian & pioneer history timeline on wall outside of the Indian and Pioneer Room.
· Tools/utensils
· Projectile points
· Weapons - tomahawks, axes, atlatls, bows and arrows
· Kentucky Long Rifle
· Shawnee war club donated by Allan W. Eckert
· Map on the floor showing the Indian towns in Logan County
· Mortar and pestle
· Tools found near where Alexander McKee’s Trading Post stood at south end of Bellefontaine
· Artwork of Hal Sherman, including “Death of Chief Moluntha”
· Re-creations of Indian tools and weapons by Michael Brinkman
· Stones from Simon Kenton’s barn near Zanesfield
· Mastodon’s tooth found in 1888 by Eugene Grimes in Mac-O-Chee Creek near West Liberty.
Mastodon jawbone and femur bone
A mastodon was a hairy, elephant-type animal that died out a few thousand years ago. It’s extinction,
as well as other Ice Age mammals in North America, has been attributed by some researchers to
the hunting techniques of early cultures and/or climatic changes.
