The treaty line predates establishment of the State of Ohio, but the present boundaries of the State envelop the historical events leading to the treaty between the Indians and the whites. The Northwest Territory was afflicted by Indian warfare until the 1794 Battle of Fallen Timbers near Maumee, Ohio.

General Wayne and the Indians agreed to the treaty line in 1795 (surveyed several years later); the Indians were to occupy the land north and west of it. That line, running diagonally across Shelby County, opened to whites the 25,000 square miles east and south of it and between it and the Ohio River. "In return for giving up more than two-thirds of present Ohio, the natives were promised that the United States would give each of the twelve tribes $1,666 in trade goods plus $825 in cash once every year" (Howe, Ohio: Our State).

The line contained white encroachment north of the line for a few years. "Partly because of Wayne’s frank and fair methods of treatment, the Indians remained true to their agreement. Indian warfare was now at a close in Ohio, and in the Northwest peace reigned until Tecumseh took the warpath again sixteen years later" (Roseboom and Weisenburger, A History of Ohio).

The meeting at which the Treaty was negotiated was held in Greenville. General Wayne closed the meeting with the Indians with the following words describing the route of the treaty line "The general boundary line between the lands of the United States and the lands of the said Indian tribes shall begin at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River and run thence up the same to the Portage between the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum, thence down the branch to the crossing place above Fort Laurens, thence westwardly to a fork of that branch of the Great Miami running into the Ohio at or near which stood Loramie’s Store and where commenced the portage between the Miami of the Ohio and St. Mary’s River, which runs into Lake Erie (Maumee River); thence a westerly course to Fort Recovery, which stands on a branch of the Wabash; thence southerly in a direct line to the Ohio, so as to intersect that river (in present Indiana) opposite the mouth of the Kentucke or Cuttawa River."

"A four-mile stretch of road about a mile north of Maplewood designates the location of the Treaty Line as it enters Shelby County at the eastern line," wrote the late Miami County historian Leonard Hill. "The place where it crosses Dixie Highway (25-A) is pointed out by a side road (Harmon Road) to the east about six miles north of Sidney and one-half mile south of Anna. The Anthony Wayne Parkway Board J. Oliver Amos, as its president, would be glad to have some organization sponsor markers at any of the above locations" (Hill, "Tells How Greene Ville Treaty Line Was Surveyed," Local and Regional History, p. 49, 1970).

Two historical markers commemorate the Greene Ville Treaty Line in our area: a metal roadside plaque on SR 235 two miles south of Indian Lake High School in Logan County and an aging, weather-worn metal plaque in the central park area of Ft. Loramie along SR 66. Another roadside plaque just north of Ft. Loramie describes Gen. Wayne’s defeat of the Indians, but does not mention the treaty line.

SR 235 Plaque. This marker, titled Greene Ville Treaty Line, actually says very little about the treaty line, focusing more on land given to Blue Jacket’s daughter in 1813. The marker, in excellent shape and easy to read, was erected by the Logan County Archaeological and Historical Society, apparently in 1949.