Hell Town, Ohio facts for kids

Hell Town was an old village of the Lenape people, also known as the Delaware Native Americans. It was located in the U.S. state of Ohio, near a stream called Clear Creek. The village was built on a high hill close to where Clear Creek meets the Black Fork of the Mohican River.

The Lenape People and Their New Home

After a peace agreement called the Treaty of Easton in 1758, the Lenape people had to move west. They left their original lands in places like Delaware, New Jersey, eastern New York, and eastern Pennsylvania. They moved into the area we now know as Ohio.

The spot where Hell Town was built had been used before. Another Native American group called the Mingo tribe lived there around 1755. But they left the area. The Lenape then settled there again in the 1770s. Some records say they moved in 1770, while others say 1776.

Why the Name "Hell Town"?

The Lenape originally called their village Clear Town. This was because of the clear stream that ran nearby. However, they later learned that the German word for "clear" was "hell." So, they decided to rename their village Hell Town.

The Village's End

Hell Town was abandoned in 1782. This happened because of many fights with American settlers and soldiers. Some members of the Lenape tribe had supported the British during the American Revolution. This made the American colonists angry.

The fighting became very bad. It led to a terrible event known as the Gnadenhutten massacre in 1782. During this event, American soldiers killed 96 Lenape people. Hell Town was also located along an important "war trail." This trail was used by Native Americans in the region. It stretched from south of Sandusky, Ohio, all the way to the Cuyahoga River valley.

What We Know About the Site

Later, in the late 1800s, people studied the old village site. They found that the village was on a high mound. This mound was mostly made of sandstone rocks held together with packed earth.

There were also Lenape graves at the site until 1881. But local farmers plowed over them in the next two years. When people dug at the site, they found several interesting items. These included two iron knives, an iron tomahawk, stone arrowheads, and a stone axe. They also found a gun flint and some brass parts from a musket.