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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY 79
lieved to possess medicinal properties, AA'hich it no doubt does in an
equal degree with many others that have built and supported magnificent
sanitariums, while Milan has neglected her many natural advantages..
The mound-builders ha,ve left their traces in this toAvnship. There
were three clearly defined fortifications Avhen the first settlers came here.
All tfiree Avere upon the high banks of the Huron; the first in the second
section, near the north line, and on the AA'est side of the river: the second
in the first section, on the east side, and the third in the fourth section,
on the place occupied by Mrs. Morrill. F. W. FoAvler, one of the
pioneers, described these earth-Avorks as from tAvo to four feet above the
surface of the ground. Large trees Avere groAving upon some of these
embankments. Near these forts Avere mounds or hillocks, Avhich were
found to contain human bones, promiscuously throAvn together, as if
a large number of bodies had been buried at one time. The skull bones,
Avhen found entire, Avere shoAvn by measurement to be larger, upon the
average, than those of the present race, and all exhibited marks that
AA'ould indicate that life had been taken in deadly combat. Scattered
among the skulls and vertebra?, and arm and leg bones, Avert* stone pipes
and fragments of burnt clay. Othenvise there Avas nothing to testify
of the nature of the A'anisbed race.
Long before the coming of the Avhite men the fertile lands along the
Huron AA'ere a favorite camping ground for the Indians. The early
settlers found the fields free from timber all along the -river, and the
underbrush so cleared from the forests that the deer, as they bounded
along, could be seen sometimes for half a mile. The principal Indian
village stood Avhere Milan Village is IIOAV located, but there Avere smaller
settlements extending from the north line of the toAvnship as far as
Ridgefield. There Avere probably a thousand red men in this group,
principally of the DelaAvares and Ottawas—the latter commonly called
TiiAvas. Here to a greater extent than in most localities AA'here the Indians
have been knoAvn to have had permanent villages they followed in a
rude way the arts of peace during the intervals betAA'een their extended
bunting journeys. Here AA'ere cherished the rites and customs of a race
that, is IIOAV scarcely knoAvn, except through scanty historical savings, and
the often unreliable traditions of the pioneers, transmitted through their
descendants.
Before the coming of the settlers Moravian missionaries Avorked
among the Indians in this vicinity. As early as 1787, Zeisberger, a
Moravian, took refuge from hostile Indians Avith his tribe near Fries'
Landing. He built a toAvn there and called it NCAV Salem, but remained
only about six years, Avhen he AA'as* compelled to remove further south,
Avhere be died a feAV years later. In 1804 Rev. ,C. F. Dencke, a Moravian
missionary from Canada, established the Indian Village of Paynothing
or Pcquotting. on the ground Avliere Milan noAV stands. They remained
here until about 1810, Avhen, on account of Avhite immigration, they
removed' to Canada, never again to return to the banks of the Huron, on
Avhose borders their huts once stretched in a broken line to a point
some three or four miles below Milan.