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GLAIZE, THE

GLAIZE, THE. An old buffalo wallow on the Maumee River at the mouth of the Auglaize River (at what later became Defiance, Ohio, fifty miles southwest of Toledo), the Glaize emerged as a multicultural settlement during the late eighteenth century. Although the area was a hunting ground for the Ottawas and other native groups, it did not become a place of permanent residence until the period of the American Revolution, when French and English traders established a fort and trading post, around which were founded at least seven Indian villages inhabited primarily by Shawnees, Delawares, and Miamis. The combined population of these towns at its peak in 1792 was about two thousand persons. In that year, the Glaize became headquarters for a multitribal confederacy that, armed and fed by British trading agents, resisted American expansion in the Northwest Territory.

As the area's economic and diplomatic center, the Glaize became a natural target for the American forces as they pushed forward in 1794. Troops under General Anthony Wayne scattered the population and razed most of the community's permanent buildings in August of that year and the American general established his headquarters nearby. Final defeat of the Northwest Confederacy occurred at the Battle of Fallen Timbers on 20 August 1794. Subsequently, the Glaize ceased to be a vital community. Prominent individuals associated with the Glaize include Blue Jacket, Little Turtle, Big Cat, James and Simon Girty, John Kinzie, George Ironside, and Billy Caldwell.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Tanner, Helen Hornbeck. "T he Glaize in 1792: A Composite Indian Community." Ethnohistory 25 (1978): 15–39.

Michael Sherfy

See also Fallen Timbers, Battle of; Greenville Treaty.