Copus was instructed to persuade the tribes to relocate to the Piqua Reservation[1] before the United States would force them to do so.

[3] In the 18th century, European colonists arrived in what is today Pennsylvania and New York - i.e., the land of the Lenape, Wyandots, and Mohawks.

Occasional white missionaries and trappers would visit the forests of Ohio, but the territory was considered Indian country.

[7] Colonel Samuel Kratzer received orders to remove the Native Americans, who were mostly from the Delaware tribe, to the Piqua Reservation as a precautionary measure, and he assigned Captain Douglas to the task.

[8] Local reverend James Copus was originally from Greene County, Pennsylvania and moved into the valley of the Black Fork in 1809 with his wife and seven children (his name is listed in the 1811 tax records of the area).

Thus, when the Delaware told Captain Douglas that they would not leave, he tried to convince Copus to persuade the Native Americans.

After several days, Copus decided that there was no longer any danger, so on September 14, 1812, nine militia soldiers (Captain Absalom Martin's Company of Guernsey County, Ohio) were detailed to accompany him and his family to their home.

[9] The only soldier who regained the cabin was George Dye, who fought alongside John Shambaugh a neighbor to the Copus family.

The soldiers tore up the planks of the floor and placed them against the door to prevent the balls from penetrating to the interior of the cabin.

But he and his soldiers, having been scouting all day and finding no signs of Native Americans, concluded that there was no real danger.

The unveiling of the monument, on September 15, 1882, was attended by 10,000 people including Copus daughter, Sarah Vail.

[17] In 1902, Ohio genealogist Henry Howe described the 1882 event:Early in the day the people began to arrive at the Copus Hill from every direction; a-foot, on horseback and in every imaginable kind of conveyance, until fully 6,000 had assembled in the forest overlooking the scene of the Copus battle.

... Mrs. Sarah VAIL, daughter of James COPUS, who was present at the time her father and the three soldiers were killed, and who now resides hard by at the age of eighty-four years, was introduced to the multitude.

[17]Per the suggestion of local author and poet Rosella Rice, a cenotaph to John "Johnny Appleseed" Chapman was prominently added to the monument.