PIQUA

city, Miami county, western Ohio, U.S., on the Great Miami River, 28 miles (45 km) north of Dayton. The original Indian village of Piqua (the name of a Shawnee tribal group), near present-day Springfield, was destroyed by George Rogers Clark and his Kentucky volunteers in 1780. The Indians then moved to the present site, where they established two settlements, Upper and Lower Piqua. In 1794 General Mad Anthony Wayne built Fort Piqua near Upper Piqua, and from there the Indian chief Tecumseh departed in 1796 for the headwaters of the Whitewater in Indiana. A town called Washington was subsequently laid out on the site in 1807. Renamed Piqua in 1816, it developed as a flatboat river port trading in corn (maize), flour, bacon, and flax and was incorporated in 1823. The completion of the Miami and Erie Canal (1836) and the arrival of the railroads (1850s) gave impetus to its growth as an industrial community (manufactures include vehicle bodies, felt, oil-milling machinery, sportswear, and air vents). The Piqua Historical Area (174 acres [70 hectares]) includes the John Johnston Farmhouse (181015), a restored section of the canal, and the Historic Indian Museum. Piqua is the seat of Edison Community College (1973). Inc. city, 1850. Pop. (1990) 20,612; (1994 est.) 20,781.