Editing Ashtabula County, Ohio (section)

==History==
At the time of contact, Ashtabula County appears to have been divided between the [[Erie people]] in the east and the [[Whittlesey culture]] in the west.<ref>"Whittlesey Culture - Ohio History Central". ohiohistorycentral.org. Retrieved January 29, 2020</ref> The Erie were an Iroquoian people, who were organized like the Iroquois, believed in a similar religion and lived in longhouses in palisaded villages and may have had a burial ground at what is now Erie, PA, whereas the uncontacted Whittlesey are mostly believed to have been Algonquians, who also lived in longhouses at the time of contact (after having gone through prior periods of living in wigwams and Fort Ancient style houses) in villages surrounded by earthen berm walls and had smaller, local burial grounds near each settlement. The French were the first to explore the Great Lakes by ship and, having never met the inhabitants, saw the continuation of longhouses and mistakenly assumed the entire region had belonged to the Erie.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Early Exploration of Lake Erie and Lake Huron – Spring 1968 – National Museum of the Great Lakes |url=https://nmgl.org/early-exploration-of-lake-erie-and-lake-huron-spring-1968/}}</ref> Both tribes were likely eradicated by the Iroquois Confederacy during the [[Beaver Wars]] (approx. 1630–1701), which later bled into the first of the myriad conflicts collectively called the French-Indian Wars, probably specifically some time during the 1650s. The [[The Jesuit Relations|Jesuit Relations]] claim rumors of infighting between the Erie and an unknown nation to the west of them who were similar to other Algonquian peoples the French had already encountered in the years prior to both tribes' eradication. Three known village sites have been documented by archaeologists from this period in Windsor <ref>{{Cite web |title=Prehistoric Earthworks / The Prehistoric Erie Historical Marker |url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=213829}}</ref> (located inside what is now a private children's Summer Camp) and two at Conneaut.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Whittlesey |first=Charles |title=Fortified Hill Near Conneaut |url=https://pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu/early-history-of-cleveland-ohio/chapter/fortified-hill-near-conneaut/}}</ref> Following the Beaver Wars, and the first conflict of the French-Indian Wars coming to an end in 1701, an official border between England and France was established at what is now the Ohio-PA border, leading to English forts being erected all along the Pennsylvania side that became crucial in the later conflicts of the French-Indian Wars over the next 50 years.

After Europeans arrived in the Americas, the land that became Ashtabula County was originally part of the French colony of [[Illinois Country]], which was ceded in 1764 to [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]], along with the rest of Canada (New France) and incorporated into the [[Province of Quebec (1763–1791)|Province of Quebec]], though generally came to be referred to as Ohio Country. The Iroquois placed a vassal tribe of mostly captured Hurons in the region, who later broke free of their control when the French pushed Iroquois and English influence from the area in the 1690s. This group, known as the [[Wyandot people|Wyandot]],<ref>Clarke, Peter Dooyentate (1870). Origin and Traditional History of the Wyandotts: And Sketches of Other Indian Tribes of North America. Toronto: Hunter, Rose & Co.</ref> later ceded settlement of most of the territory roughly between what is now Cleveland, Akron, the Mahoning River and the Ohio-PA border to be a common hunting ground, shared by themselves, the Seneca, Shawnee, Lenape and even the Ottawa, or Mississauga, who lived at the western end of Lake Erie, at the time. The Ottawa were the only residents, who maintained two known hunting camps in Ashtabula County- one at Conneaut, and the other at Andover.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Port of Conneaut |url=http://www.worldportsource.com/ports/review/USA_OH_Port_of_Conneaut_2942.php}}</ref> The Lenape maintained a handful of villages in western Pennsylvania and one at Youngstown, in Mahoning County. After the end of the [[Northwest Indian War]], (a conflict which erupted shortly after the American Revolution between the fledgling United States and all the remaining tribes of the Great Lakes region in territory the US claimed) in the 1790s, the Natives were made to turn over ownership of the area to the US via the [[Treaty of Greenville]], and the remaining Ottawa residents were evicted.<ref>{{Cite web |date=July 27, 2023 |title=Treaty of Greenville &#124; United States-Northwest Indian Confederation &#91;1795&#93; &#124; Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Treaty-of-Greenville}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=History of Conneaut, Ohio |url=http://www.conneautohio.us/conneauthist.htm}}</ref> That being said, early settlers recalled that some of the Ottawa remained in the region for an additional thirty years, having been sighted all over Trumbull, Geauga and Portage Counties until sometime around the War of 1812, along with Senecas who lived around Streetsboro. Those in Trumbull County usually had three men who normally spoke interchangeably for them as chief- Kiogg, Paqua and Cadashaway,<ref>History of Trumbull and Mahoning Counties, Vol. 3; H. Z. Williams</ref> whereas the Seneca were under a man named Bigson, and later a relative of his named Nickashaw. The area was traversed several times during the period of the French-Indian Wars by the English, including the group led by [[Robert Rogers (British Army officer)|Major Robert Rodgers]], who ultimately convinced Chief [[Pontiac (Ottawa leader)|Pontiac]] to switch sides from the French to the English.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Whittlesey |first=Charles |title=Expeditions of Major Rogers, Major Wilkins and Col. Bradstreet 1760, 1763, 1764 |url=https://pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu/early-history-of-cleveland-ohio/chapter/expeditions-of-rogers-wilkens-and-bradstreet/}}</ref>

In the late 18th century, the land became part of the [[Connecticut Western Reserve]] in the [[Northwest Territory]], then was purchased by the [[Connecticut Land Company]] in 1795, culminating in the settlement of the first American residents in the region. It was created from [[Geauga County]] and a small portion of northern [[Trumbull County]].

During the pre-[[American Civil War|Civil War]] period, the entire [[Western Reserve]] area of Ohio was anti-slavery, but Ashtabula County was at the center of the resistance. [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]]'s eldest son, [[John Brown Junior|John Jr.]], lived in the county for years, and his brother [[Owen Brown (abolitionist, born 1824)|Owen]] took refuge with him when Virginia was seeking to extradite him for his role in [[John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry|the raid on Harpers Ferry]]. An armed group of 200 made them safer than anywhere in the U.S., they said, or even Canada.<ref>{{Cite news |date=May 5, 1860 |title=Armed Rebellion in Ohio |url=https://virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=SR18600505.1.1 |work=[[Shepherdstown Register]] |location=[[Shepherdstown, West Virginia]] |page=1 |via=[[VirginiaChronicle]]}}</ref> [[Dangerfield Newby]] met John Brown in Ashtabula County.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Terry |first=Shelley |date=December 15, 2019 |title=Dangerfield Newby a blacksmith from Ashtabula County who participated in John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry |url=https://www.starbeacon.com/news/dangerfield-newby-a-blacksmith-from-ashtabula-county-who-participated-in-john-browns-raid-on-harpers/article_ab50fe5e-1857-11ea-a493-6b738de83619.html |work=[[Star Beacon]] |location=[[Ashtabula, Ohio]]}}</ref>