USA > Ohio > Pioneer history : being an account of the first examinations of the Ohio valley, and the early settlement of the Northwest territory ; chiefly from original manuscripts > Part 1
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02521 3882
Gc 977 H54p Hildreth, Samuel P. 1783- 1863. Pioneer history
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PIONEER HISTORY:
BEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST EXAMINATIONS OF THE 1
OHIO VALLEY,
-
AND THE EARLY SETTLEMENT OF
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
CHIEFLY FROM ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS; CONTAINING THE PAPERS OF COL. GEORGE MORGAN; THOSE OF JUDGE BARKER; THE DIARIES OF JOSEPH BUELL AND JOHN MATHEWS; THE RECORDS OF THE OHIO COMPANY, &c., &c., &c.
BLACK GOLD
BY S. P. HILDRETH.
CINCINNATI: H. W. DERBY & CO., PUBLISHERS. NEW-YORK : A. S. BARNES & CO. 1848.
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PIONEER HISTORY:
BEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST EXAMINATIONS OF THE 1
OHIO VALLEY,
-
AND THE EARLY SETTLEMENT OF
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
CHIEFLY FROM ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS; CONTAINING THE PAPERS OF COL. GEORGE MORGAN; THOSE OF JUDGE BARKER; THE DIARIES OF JOSEPH BUELL AND JOHN MATHEWS; THE RECORDS OF THE OHIO COMPANY, &c., &c., &c.
BLACK GOLD
BY S. P. HILDRETH.
CINCINNATI: H. W. DERBY & CO., PUBLISHERS. NEW-YORK : A. S. BARNES & CO. 1848.
906 H 673 PI v.1
Allen County Public Library 900 Webster Street PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270
Entered according to act of Congress, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, by H. W. DERBY & Co., in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Ohio.
1
MORGAN & OVEREND, PRINTERS, CINCINNATI.
PUBLISHERS' ADVERTISEMENT. 815722
This work is published under the superintendence of the Historical Society of Cincinnati, and forms the first volume of its transactions. It contains a full account of all that took place in Washington county, where the first settlement in the present state of Ohio took place, from 1788 to 1803; or during the existence of the Territorial Government. It also presents an outline of the leading events in the Ohio Valley, before 1788. The materials of this book are almost wholly original, comprising the papers of Colonel George Morgan; those of Judge Barker; the diaries of Joseph Buell and John Mathews; the records of the Ohio Company, &c., &c.
The high character of the author for integrity, his long residence in the country, his attainments, and laborious habits, afford such assurance of the accuracy of the work, as to justify the Society in commending it to the public.
The Society has in its possession the manuscript of a work, containing ample biographies of the first settlers of Marietta and its vicinity, prepared by the author of the present volume. Should the sale of this be as large as its merit leads the Society to hope it will be, the volume of Biography will follow it in a short time, as the second volume of the transactions.
35-83-
0
30.00 m
INTRODUCTION.
There having been no historical account published of the first set- tlement of the Ohio Company at Marietta, but the brief one by the Rev. Thaddeus M. Harris, and the materials on which it was to be founded becoming annually more and more scarce, from the death of the early inhabitants, the author, in the year 1841, was led to com- mence this difficult, but, to him, pleasant labor. Having himself lived in the county more than forty years, he was personally acquainted with a large number of the first pioneers, and heard them relate many of the scenes described in these pages. No regular journal, or diary, of the progress of the settlements having been kept, to which he could have access, it has been a tedious work to collect all the dates of events with the accuracy desired. Many were ascertained from old letters; some by a journal kept by Simeon Wright, which was lost soon after his death; but an abstract of the most important things in which, was obtained several years previous. General Rufus Putnam's journal furnished the dates for many facts, but more were obtained from his letters. The files of old newspapers in the Antiquarian Library, at Worcester, Massachusetts, supplied numerous authentic documents, from the letters of the pioneers to their friends, and to Isaiah Thomas, the editor of the "Massachusetts Spy." The diaries of John Mathews, Esq., and General Joseph Buell, of events on the Ohio river, before the settlement of the Ohio Company, afford many valuable facts in the early history of the country, deemed worthy of preservation, and are inserted previous to the account of that event. The journal of the trans- actions of the Ohio Company has been very freely quoted, and goes hand in hand with the historical events that transpired among the colonists. One mode of collecting materials for the history, was to employ some of the few that remained of the first settlers to write down their recollections of the events as they occurred in the settlement to which they belonged, in Marietta, Waterford or
vi
INTRODUCTION.
Belpre; and by collating these several sketches, the truth could be very nearly ascertained. The larger portion of these men are now dead, and many of the events would have perished with them, had they not been preserved in this manner.
The late Judge Barker furnished the most copious notes, sufficient for quite a good sized volume, on which is founded a large portion of this history. He was a man of a clear, sound mind, retentive memory, and correct observation. His character will be found in the volume of biographical sketches of the Ohio company settlers .* Colonel Ichabod Nye, and Mr. Horace Nye, of Putnam, and the late Charles Devoll, Esq., also supplied valuable materials for Marietta and Belpre. Many events are detailed with a minuteness not usual in ordinary history, but will be interesting to the descendants of the early settlers, and afford matter for the future historian. The period embraced extends only to the termination of the territorial government under Governor St. Clair. A preliminary account of the discoveries by La Salle, with the occupancy of the country on the Ohio river by the French, and the events about Pittsburgh, especially the campaign of Colonel Bouquet, in 1764, are matters of history but little known to the community, and very properly precede the account of the settle- ments of the Ohio company. The closing chapter, on the early and present climate of Ohio, with the natural productions of the country, will be interesting to the student of natural history. In the Appendix will be found the address of Governor St. Clair, on taking possession of the territory under his charge; the 4th of July oration of General Varnum, 1788, delivered at Marietta; the yet unpublished eulogy of Dr. Drown, on his death, in January, 1789; and an oration on the settlement of Marietta, April 7th, 1789; documents long out of print and now rarely found. For these, the author is indebted to the Hono- rable Wilkins Updike, of Rhode Island, who has preserved them with great care, and had them transcribed for this history. The labor bestowed on the work now offered to the public, through the Historical Society of Cincinnati, has been accomplished in such periods of time as could be found in the intervals of the regular practice of medicine, which must apologize for its many imperfections.
MARIETTA, January 1, 1848.
* See Advertisement.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
The shores of the Ohio river without inhabitants. - Watch towers. - Jesuit Missionaries on the Lakes in 1668. - Mississippi river discovered in 1673. - La Salle's discoveries. - Iroquois Indians. - Lake and river of the Illinois, - Iroquois invade the Illinois. - La Salle embarks on the Mississippi in February, 1682. - Arrives at the mouth 7th of April. - Returns to Michil- limackinac in September. - Returns to France and sails with men to take possession of the country. - His death. 1
CHAPTER II.
Country on the Ohio but little known to the English until the year 1740 .- Indian traders .- Colonial Ohio land company. - The French take formal possession of the country 1749 .- Forbid English traders. - Leaden plates buried at the mouths of the rivers. - Copies and translation. - French erect forts. - Journal of Christopher Gist, on a visit to the Indian tribes. - Block house sacked at Logstown. - George Washington sent a commissioner to the French posts. - Fort Du Quesne built. - Battle at Great Meadows. - Copy of the capitulation in the original French .- Pontiac's Indian confederacy. 17
CHAPTER III.
Ancient map, with a plan of Colonel Bouquet's march to Muskingum. - Indian depredations in Western Pennsylvania. - Extracts from Colonel Bouquet's expedition in the Indian country on the Muskingum river in 1764, with various incidents connected therewith. - Indian treaty at Fort Pitt in 1765. 45
CHAPTER IV.
Journal of George Croghan, deputy Indian agent, while on a friendly visit to the western tribes in 1765. - He arrives at the mouth of the Scioto river. -
viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
The Shawanees deliver up seven French traders. - Arrives at the mouth of the Ouabache. - Encamps seven miles below, and is attacked in the night by the Kickapoos. - Arrives at Post Vincent. - Reaches the Kickapoo town and meets an assembly of the western tribes, with the chief Pontiac, at Weotonan. - Proceeds to Detroit. - The Indians give up English prisoners. - A treaty held with the Indians at Detroit, and speech made. - Intrigues of the French with the Indians .- Fort Chartres occupied by Captain Sterling, with part of the forty-second regiment .- The Indians of the St. Joseph's river, make speeches to Croghan and Campbell. - Close of the journal. - Croghan arrives at Fort Stanwix. - His letter to Sir William Johnson, with his views of the policy toward the Indians, best to be pursued by the English. 68
CHAPTER V.
Period of settlements on the Monongahela, and at Wheeling, Virginia. - Trade with the Indians. - Hostile attitude of the whites. - Indian depredations. - Expedition planned for invading the Indian country, called "Dunmore's war."- Battle at the mouth of the Kenawha. - Dunmore lands at the mouth of the Big Hockhocking .- Marches to the Indian towns. - They sue for peace .- Eloquence of Cornstalk the Shawanee chief. - Dunmore returns to Fort Pitt. - Arrives in Williamsburgh. - Congratulatory addresses to him. -- The people oppose his measures. - Leaves the colony and goes to Florida. 86
CHAPTER VI.
Transactions at Pittsburgh, in 1776-'77 and '78, during the Revolutionary war. -Colonel Morgan Indian agent. - His character. - Moravian Indians friendly to the United States. - Commissioners meet to treat with the wes- tern tribes. - Difficulties. - Report of Mr. Wilson, the messenger sent to visit their towns .- Letter of Colonel Morgan to John Hancock, President of Congress .- Indian murder near Washington, Pennsylvania. - Transac- tions at Fort Pitt. - Letter of Captain Arbuckle. - Speech of Colonel Mor- gan to the Shawanecs. - Delawares arrive at Fort Pitt. - Thirty large boats built for the transport of troops, &c. - Indian banditti. --- Letter of Captain Morehead. - Indian letter. - Proceedings at Fort Pitt. - Price of provisions. - Letter of the Governor of Detroit to the tories. - Strength of the western tribes. - Fort McIntosh built. - Boundary of the territory of the Dela- wares, &c., &c .- Extracts from Col. George Morgan's Journal, 95
CHAPTER VII.
Journal of Joseph Buell while stationed at Fort McIntosh, Fort Harmer and Post Vincent, from 1785 to 1788. - Also the journal of John Mathews, on the frontiers, during the same period, while surveying the Seven Ranges. - Cession of the Northwest territory, &c., &c. - 140 -
ix
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VIII.
First notice for formation of the Ohio company .- First meeting, March, 1786, ·
at Boston, Massachusetts. - Names of the delegates. - Committee appointed to draft association .- Articles adopted. - Second meeting of the company, 1787 .- Three directors chosen. - Doctor Cutler employed to contract with Congress for land ; one and a half million acres at sixty-seven cents per acre .- Location of the purchase. - Boundaries - Reservations .- Winthrop Sargent aids Doctor Cutler în the purchase .- Meeting of the company .- Doctor Cutler's report. - A city to be laid out at Muskingum. - Four sur- veyors appointed, and a company of men to go out and take possession. - General Putnam the superintendent .- Early provision for schools and reli- gious instruction .- Rev. Daniel Story employed. - The pioneer party leave Massachusetts, December, 1787. - Boats built at Sumrill's ferry .- Embark on the river. - Downward voyage. - Land at Muskingum, 7th of April, 1788. - Names of the first pioneers. - - 193
CHAPTER IX.
The Indians welcome the pioneers to the shores of the Muskingum. - Early vegetation. - Surveyors commence works. - Letter of one of the settlers. - Reasons for selecting the mouth of the Muskingum for the settlement. - Letter of General Parsons. - Thomas Hutchins. - Description of lands. - Topography .- Salt licks .- Crops of corn. - Plan of the city .- Ancient works reserved. - First ineeting of the agents and directors of the company at 'the mouth of the Muskingum. - New city named Marietta. - Reasons for it .- Classical names for the ancient earth works. - Police officers and regulations for the government of the settlement. - Fourth of July .- Gen- eral Varnum delivers an oration. - Governor St. Clair arrives. - Address to the citizens .- Commission .- Names of the United States Judges. - Laws · promulgated. - Titles of the territorial courts .- Excellence of the laws. 207
CHAPTER X.
Preparation for a treaty at Duncan's falls. - Indians attack and kill some of the guard. - Treaty postponed. - Great destruction of the wild game by the Indians. - First sermon ever preached in Marietta .- County of Washing- ton established. - Boundaries. - Proposal to give lands to actual settlers. -- Address to share-holders. - Progress of the colony in 1788. -- Great crop of corn .- Description of Campus Martins, with a plate .- Public dinner to Governor St. Clair .- Rev. M. Cutler preaches in Campus Martius. - Char- acter. - First court held in the territory. - Names of the Judges .- Second court of quarter sessions held .- Judges. - Names of grand jurors. - Griffin Green, Jos. Gilman and R. Oliver, judges. - First death .- Number of set- tlers in 1788. - Progress of the Indian treaty. - Good feeling of the colonists. - Articles of the treaty. - Indians invited to a feast. - Transactions of the Ohio company. - Section twenty-nine. - Donation lands. - Regulations
X
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
concerning them .- Early winter. - Inhabitants suffer for provisions. - New road from Alexandria in Virginia, to the mouth of Muskingum river. - 220
CHAPTER XI.
Death of General Varnum. - Oration of Dr. Drown. - Police laws passed at Marietta. - Address of the inhabitants to Governor St. Clair. - First mar- riage at Marietta. - Doings of the Ohio company. - The 7th of April, di- rected to be perpetually kept as a public festival. - Encouragement to build mills. - Hostility of the Indians. - Attack on John Mathews, when survey- ing the sixteenth Range .- Seven men killed. - Mathews escapes to the river .- Colonel Meigs builds a block house. - Returns to Marietta. - Arrival of Rev. D. Story. - Early frost. - Destroys the corn .- Sickness among the settlers. - Number of inhabitants. - Death of General Parsons by drowning . 246
CHAPTER XII.
Doings of the Ohio company .- A mill built. - Rev. D. Story to preach at Marietta, Belpre and Waterford. - Company lands explored. - Salt springs. - Funds for schools. - Money loaned to the settlers. - Prospect of Indian war .- Guards of soldiers raised by the directors. - Spies or rangers .- Family of Governor St. Clair described. - Small-pox breaks out at Marietta. -- Famine of 1790. - Sufferings of the settlers. - Relief afforded by the di- rectors. - Indian hostilities. -- Letter of Governor St. Clair .- Colonel Vigo. -R. J. Meigs, Jr., sent on a mission to Detroit .- French emigrants arrive. - Settle Gallipolis .- Grant of land to them by Congress .- First townships organized. - 259
CHAPTER XIII.
Indian war begins. - Massacre at Big Bottom. - Action of the court of quarter session on the news. - Spirited resolutions of directors for the defense of the colony .- Letter to Governor St. Clair, who is absent. - Soldiers raised .- Garrisons built. - Eleven thousand dollars expended by Ohio company .- Improvement of the public squares .- To be ornamented with trees. - Trus- tees appointed to take charge of them .- Letter of General Putnam to Gen- eral Washington on the state of the colony .- Remarks on the war. - Com- pany of United States rangers. - Dress of these men .- Captain Rogers killed .- Escape of Henderson. - Alarm of the inhabitants at the event .- Mathew Kerr killed .- Discipline at Campus Martins .- Cattle shot by the Indians. - Attack on a party of Indians. - Alarm at the news. - Indians killed at Little Muskingum .- Incidents attending that event .- Ohio company raise more troops. - Wisdom of their transactions. - Funds for religious in- struction. - Surgeons appointed .- News of the defeat of the army under Governor St. Clair .- Emigrants from Nova Scotia. - Providential escape of W. R. Putnam. - Nicholas Carpenter and four others killed. - - 274
xi
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIV.
The Ohio company fail to pay for their lands. - Amount of acres reduced. - Petition to Congress for one hundred thousand acres as donation lands. - Trustees of the land. - General R. Putnam treats with the Wabash tribes. - Cedar barge. - Dinner given to the Indian chiefs at Marietta .- Strength of the colony. - Rangers. - R. J. Meigs, Jr., attacked by Indians. - Names of the heads of families in Campus Martius. - Fort Harmer .- Names of fami- lies there. - Anecdotes of the French emigrants. - - 305
CHAPTER XV.
Plate and description of the Marietta garrison at " the Point." -Night adven- ture. - Names of families and persons, with the houses in which they lived .- Anecdotes. - Schools. - Ohio company in 1793. - Donation lands. - Scarlet fever. - Small Pox. - Indian adventure. - Bird Lockhart. - Crops of corn. -1794. - R. Warth killed. - Packet mail boats established on the Ohio. - Adventure with the Indians. - 1795. - Ohio company acts .- College lands surveyed. - Fund for support of gospel. - Colonists go on to their farms after the peace. -- Rapid improvements. - First legislature under the terri- tory .- Difficulties of traveling. - Delegate to Congress. - Constitution adopted and the state of Ohio formed. 325
CHAPTER XVI.
Settlement of Belpre .- Topography and description of the settlement. -- Upper, middle, and lower. - Captain King killed by the Indians. - Crops of 1789 destroyed by frost. - Famine of 1790. - Liberality of Isaac Williams. - Expedients of the settlers for food. - Abundance of wild game and crop in the autum. - Boys killed at Neal's station. - Mill on Little Hock- hocking. 349
CHAPTER XVII.
Indian war breaks out. - Garrison built, and called "Farmers' Castle." - Description and plate. - Howitz. - " Place d'armes."- New defenses built. - Loss of provision by fire .- Send for a supply to Red stone .- John L. Shaw .- Hostility of the Indians. - Narrow escape of A. W. Putnam. - B. Hurlburt, one of the spies, killed. 361
CHAPTER XVIII.
Transactions at Belpre. - Trials of the settlers .- Female dread of the savages. - Mutual insurance society. - Floating mill. - Indian murders at the lower settlement. - Scarlet fever; fatal effects .- Intermittent fevers. - Schools. - Names of teachers- Religious services. - Names of families in Farmers' Castle. - Spies or rangers. - Small' pox. - Domestic manufactures; cotton; rice; silk .- Sheep. 373
xii
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIX.
Captivity of Major Goodale; his death. - Amusements in Farmers' Castle .- Perpetual motion .- First wheat in Ohio .- Adventure of Joshua Fleehart. - Value of salt .- Scioto salines discovered .- Griffin Greene .- Caution of Ohio company, as to salt lands. - Progress of the settlement .- Murder of Armstrong's family .- Jonas Davis killed .- Pursuit of the Indians .- John James .- Peace .- Leave their garrisons .- First orchards .- Character of the settlers. - 395
CHAPTER XX.
Settlement of Plainfield, 1789 .- Number of associates. - Manning the lots .- Topography .- Novel mode of clearing new lands .- Large cornfield. - Wolf creek mills, and plate. - Manner of milling during the war. - First sermon .- John Garder, a prisoner; adventures and escape, 1790 .- Wild game .- Intercourse with the Indians. - Settlement at Big bottom .- Mas- sacre of settlers .- Treatment of prisoners .- Alarm at Millsburgh .- Captain Rogers .- Alarm at Waterford. - Indian usages. - Shaw and Choate re- deemed at the rapids of Maumee. - Brandt, the chief .- Humane usage. 419
CHAPTER XXI.
Affairs at Waterford. - Garrison built .- Description and plate of Fort Frye .- Names of families .- Attack on the new garrison. - Anecdotes of that affair. -John Miller, a young Mohican, gives notice .- Particulars of the event .--- Jabez Barlow's adventure .- Captivity of Daniel Convers. - History of the event .- Taken to Sandusky .- Events by the way. - Sold to an Indian .- Adopted into the family .- Kind usage of his Indian mother .- Escapes at Detroit .- J. Van Sheik Riley .- Passage down the lake .- Gentlemanly treatment of the British officers. - Return home. 440
CHAPTER XXII.
Strength of the garrison. - Watchfulness of the settlers. - Hamilton Kerr .- Spies at Waterford. - 1793. - Adventure of Judge Devoll. - Abundance of wild game .- Schools. - Religious worship. - 1794 .- Increase of the settlement. - Amusements. - Abel Sherman killed .- Condition of the set- tlement. - 1795. - Sherman Waterman killed. - Settlers leave their garri- sons. - Salt springs. - Value of salt. - Company formed to manufacture salt. - Description of the works .- Two of the salt makers lost in the woods. - Sufferings by cold and hunger. - Great change in the condition of the country. - 463
CHAPTER XXIII.
Topography and primitive aspect of the country, within the Ohio company's purchase. - Character of the climate .- Excessive cold in February, 1818. -
xiii
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Deep snow .- Table of temperature for twenty-seven years. - Amount of rain annually .- Late frosts .- Blooming of fruit trees .- Changes in the seasons in the last fifty years .- Range of barometer. - Wild animals .- Early abundance of game .- Bears .- Panthers .- Wolves .- Variety and abundance of fish .- Manner of taking them. 484
APPENDIX.
Oration of General Varnum. - Of Dr. Drown. - Address of Governor St. Clair, &c. - - - 505
PIONEER HISTORY.
CHAPTER I.
The shores of the Ohio river without inhabitants. - Watch towers. - Jesuit Missionaries on the Lakes in 1668 .- Mississippi discovered in 1673 .- La Salle's discoveries. - Iroquois Indians. - Lake and river of the Illinois. - Iroquois invade the Illinois .. - La Salle embarks on the Mississippi, February, 1682. - Arrives at the mouth, 7th April. - Returns to Michillimackinac in September. Returns to France, and sails with men to take possession of the country. - His Death.
FOR many years before the white man had any know- ledge of that beautiful region of country which borders the Ohio river from Pittsburgh to the mouth of the Big Miami, and perhaps still lower down, it was destitute of any fixed inhabitants-a belt of country from forty to sixty miles in width, on both the north and south banks of the river, seems to have been appropriated by the tribes who laid claim to the territory, almost exclusively, as hunting grounds. Few villages were built near its shores,* nor were many of its rich alluvions planted with cornfields; although a country affording more bountifully all the articles needed for the well being of savage life, could not be found. The rivers teemed with fish, and the valleys and hill sides abounded in animals of the chase. A soil more produc-
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