Remarkable Ohio

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Below is a complete listing of all Ohio Historical Markers. To find a detailed marker listing including text, photographs, and locations, click on a county below. Our listing is updated by the markers program as new markers are installed and older markers are reported damaged or missing.

3-29 Birthplace of Tecumseh

Side A: The great Native American Shawnee leader, Tecumseh, was born on the bank of a large spring at this site in 1768, at the very instant that a great meteor seared across the skies. The birth occurred while his parents, Shawnee war chief, Pucksinwah, and his wife, Methotasa, were en route from their village of Kispoko Town, on the Scioto River, to a major tribal council at the Shawnee tribal capital village of Chalahgawth (Chillicothe – now Oldtown), which was located “two arrow flights” northwest of this site. Though prohibited by tribal tradition from becoming chief of the Shawnees, Tecumseh rose to become one of the greatest warriors, orators, and military strategists of any tribe in America.
Side B: To oppose the grave threat of rapidly encroaching white settlement on Native American lands, Tecumseh successfully molded and became the leader of a confederation of tribes numbering some 50,000 warriors. This opposition might well have succeeded had it not been for his jealous younger brother, Tenskwatawa, The Prophet, whose rash acts precipitated the Battle of Tippecanoe and undermined all Tecumseh’s efforts. Forced by circumstance to ally himself and his remaining followers with the British in the War of 1812, Tecumseh was killed at the Battle of the Thames near present Chatham, Canada on October 5, 1813.
Sponsors: The Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Ohio and The Ohio Historical Society November 1992
Address: Near intersection of Old Springfield Pike and US 68, 
Xenia, 
OH, 
45385
Location: Behind parking area at Old Town Reserve Park
Latitude: 39.7229290
Longitude: -83.9344410