Note: This series of posts deals extensively with the historical animosity between Native Americans and white settlers. Although the point of view of the Native Americans is underrepresented and deserves better recognition, my ancestors happened to be white settlers. Unfortunately, they participated in the historical travesties perpetrated against Native Americans. However, since this is a genealogical blog, it is primarily told from my ancestors' point of view, with an attempt to be sympathetic to both sides. The term "Indian" is used in reference to the indigenous peoples (when the nation or tribe is unknown) because it was the term most often used at the time, and because I have recently been informed that it is still the preferred term in many native cultures. I am not an expert in the subject, and humbly apologize if anyone finds it offensive.
Nathaniel Massie, destined to become an important figure in the lives of the Wade family, had been making expeditions into the Virginia Military District north of the Ohio River (now part of the state of Ohio) to locate and survey lands since the year 1788. This land, part of the Northwest Territory, had been reserved by the state of Virginia to disperse among veterans of the Revolutionary War. The recipients of land warrants employed locators and surveyors like Massie to identify and claim the property for them. These lands were deep in the territory of the Shawnee, who had already experienced the injustice of misrepresented treaties and were determined, under the leadership of Tecumseh, to fight back. The white settlers and the American government, however, considered the treaties binding, and the explorations of surveyors perfectly legal. Because of the danger inherent in these expeditions, the surveyors were often rewarded liberally by their clients, often with a portion of the land itself. In this way, Nathaniel Massie stood to amass substantial land holdings.
On 10 Aug 1790, an Act of Congress passed “An Act to enable the officers and soldiers of the Virginia Line on Continental Establishment to obtain titles to certain lands lying northwest of the River Ohio, between the Little Miami and Sciota,” which opened up the Virginia Military District. Massie recognized opportunity. He knew that there would soon be high demand for his skills, but he also recognized that he and his crew could easily be annihilated by the Shawnee as they explored. He resolved to build a fort and settlement on the north side of the river as a base for his survey crews. "A settlement on the north bank would not only serve as a haven for the survey crews, it would also be a show of force to the Shawnee," Stephen Kelley explains in his article "The Founding of Manchester... Massie's Station."
After much deliberation and discussion, Massie decided to build his fort at a well known landmark of the Ohio River, known as Three Islands. These islands were located about ten miles upriver from Limestone and Washington, and the area was notorious for Indian ambush. "The river channels were narrow around the islands and proved a perfect place for the Shawnee to strike out into the river in their rapid-moving bark canoes and overtake the slower flatboats of the whites," says Kelley. Therefore the location would be ideal not only in its nearness to the lands needing surveying, but also in preventing further depredations on settlers traveling down the river.
To this end, Massie began advertising in Kentucky for families to join him. He offered one in-lot, one out-lot, and one hundred acres of land near the new town to each of the first twenty-five families to sign on with him. In return, they had to agree to help build a fort and man it for a period of two years. The contract was written and signed in the town of Washington, and four of the Wade men signed it. The patriarch of the family, William Wade, along with his sons Josiah, Zephaniah, and George all put their names to the paper.
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Manchester Island 1 as seen from Manchester Island 2, the two islands that remain today of "Three Islands"
Photographed by Michael Schramm, USFWS
Public domain
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Work on the new town apparently began by November of 1790, because the contract stipulated that the men make it their "permanent seat of residence" by December first. Beginning the station in the winter was strategic; Massie knew that the Indians seldom attacked during the coldest months, being much more occupied with simply surviving.
John McDonald, who actually lived in the fort as a child, says that Massie's group "went to work with spirit. Cabins were raised, and by the middle of March 1791, the whole town was enclosed with strong pickets, firmly fixed in the ground, with block houses at each angle for defence." The place was dubbed Massie's station, and is the site of present-day Manchester, Ohio. It was the first permanent white settlement anywhere in the Virginia Military District, and the fourth in what would later become the state of Ohio.
Building the station was only the beginning of the work to be done. Once the fort was defensible, "the whole population went to work, and cleared the lower of the Three Islands, and planted it in corn. The island was very rich, and produced heavy crops," remembers McDonald.
Nor did Massie forget his purpose in establishing the station. He continued to venture into the lands within a reasonable distance of the fort in order to survey them. On these expeditions, he was accompanied by a company of men. McDonald describes the process:
Three assistant surveyors, with himself making the fourth, were generally engaged at the same time in making surveys. To each surveyor was attached six men, which made a mess of seven. Every man had his prescribed duty to perform. Their operations were conducted in this manner:--In front went the hunter, who kept in advance of the surveyor two or three hundred yards, looking for game, and prepared to give notice should any danger from Indians threaten. Then following after the surveyor, the two chain-men, marker, and pack-horse men with the baggage, who always kept near each other, to be prepared for defence in case of attack. Lastly, two or three hundred yards in the rear, came a man, called the spy, whose duty it was to keep on the back trail, and look out lest the party in advance might be pursued and attacked by surprise. Each man (the surveyor not excepted) carried his rifle, his blanket, and such other articles as he might stand in need of. On the pack-horse was carried the cooking utensils, and such provisions as could be conveniently taken. Nothing like bread was thought of. Some salt was taken, to be used sparingly. For subsistence, they depended alone on the game which the woods afforded, procured by their unerring rifles. (pp. 44-45)
Despite the precautions, these expeditions did not always go as planned. In April 1791, one group was surprised by some Indians arriving in a pair of bark canoes. The surveying crew fled, but one of them, by the name of Israel Donalson, tripped and was captured. Although he managed to escape after about a month and make his way back to the white settlements, and later penned an account of his adventure, such a conclusion was not the norm.
This incident did not deter Massie in his efforts to survey the district. He enlisted help from many of the men at the station, including at least three of the Wades. The History of Warren County, Ohio records that a certain property in Hamilton Township was "Surveyed October 6, 1792, by Nathaniel Massie; Josiah Wade and Matthew Hart, chain carriers; Thomas Massie, marker."
Shortly thereafter, "During the winter of 1792-3, Massie ... employed two men, Joseph Williams and one of the Wades, to accompany him to explore the valley of Paint creek, and part of the Scioto country," stated John McDonald in his Biographical Sketches. Unfortunately, I have thus far been unable to determine which Wade accompanied Massie on this exploration. The survey mentioned above, in Hamilton Township, cannot have been part of this expedition. That was located in present-day Warren County, which is not near Paint creek or the Scioto country. Of course, this does not necessarily mean that Josiah Wade was not the Wade in question; only that the Hamilton Township survey does not prove that it was him.
Alternatively, the mystery Wade could potentially be Zephaniah, the subject of my first post on this family. In Portrait and Biographical Record of the Scioto Valley, Ohio, it is reported that Zephaniah "bought 100 acres or more from Massie, paying Massie by assisting him in surveying lands in various parts of Adams, Highland and Ross counties, as chain carrier and marker." It is a vague statement, but at least it confirms that Zephaniah was present on some of the surveys. Perhaps the Paint creek trip was one of them.
Finally, Jean Wallis records in her article "Putting ‘Hillsborough’ on the map" that Lot number 2513 in Highland County "was surveyed April-May 1795 by Nathaniel Massie, deputy surveyor. Chain carriers were Benjamin Massie and Joseph Wade, the marker was George Edgington." This brings a third Wade brother into the mix.
Therefore, we know from these sources that Josiah, Zephaniah, and Joseph all took part in Massie's surveying expeditions. Josiah and Zephaniah were two of those who had initially signed Massie's contract, and Joseph was a younger brother. He would have been only about fourteen years old when settlement at Massie's Station was begun, but, since his father and three of his older brothers had all joined up, it seems likely that Joseph would have been there from the beginning as well--or at least from when the men felt that their station was secure enough to bring their families.
Sources:
Morten Carlisle, "Buckeye Station: Built by Nathaniel Massie in 1797," Ohio History Journal 40 (Jan 1931); digital images, Ohio History Connection (www.ohiohistory.org/ : accessed 8 Apr 2021) 1-22.
Curran, A. F., "Israel Donalson, Maysville's First School Teacher: His Thrilling Escape From the Indians," The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 15 (May 1917); digital images, JSTOR (https://www.jstor.org/ : accessed 24 Jan 2021) 51-62.
Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers, A History of Adams County, Ohio From its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time Including Character Sketches of the Prominent Persons Identified with the First Century of the County's Growth and Containing Numerous Engravings and Illustrations (West Union, Ohio: E. B. Stivers, 1900).
Stephen Kelley, "The Founding of Manchester... Massie's Station," Ohio Southland 3 (Issue #2 1991); digital images, Adams County Public Library, Biblioboard Open Access (https://library.biblioboard.com/anthology/e552f221-42f0-4b9b-963d-32739ee859fd : accessed 24 Jan 2021) 19-25.
John McDonald, Biographical Sketches of General Nathaniel Massie, General Duncan McArthur, Captain William Wells, and General Simon Kenton: Who Were Early Settlers in the Western Country (Dayton, Ohio: D. Osborn & Son, 1852).
Portrait and Biographical Record of the Scioto Valley, Ohio (Chicago, Illinois: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1894), 346.
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