Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1, Part 16

Author: Greve, Charles Theodore, b. 1863. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1020

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at this time seem to have been directed to the prevention of settlements by these so-called "ban- ditti",-the original squatters,-rather than to the protection from the Indians of the bona-fide settlers on the southern side of the Ohio. Gen- eral Harmar had been directed, as has just been stated, to prevent the surveying and settling of the lands not within the limits of any par- ticular State and to employ such officers as he might judge necessary to drive off persons at- tempting to settle on the lands of the United States. On May 1, 1785, he transmitted to Congress the report of Ensign Armstrong who had marched down as far as opposite Wheeling and had executed his orders (excepting a few indulgences granted on account of the weather ). Armstrong's report showed that he dispossessed one family at Little Beaver, other families at Yellow creek, Mingo Bottom and Norris' town and another one at Mercer's town and still an- other at a place opposite Wheeling. He had arrested a man named Ross who seemed to be obstreperous and had sent him to Wheeling in irons. He had also been threatened by one Charles Norris with a party of armed men. Up- on showing his authority he had met with no further offensive demonstration. At Mercer's town he learned that Charles Norris and Joseph Carpenter had been elected as justices of the peace and had acted as such. This was prob- ably the first attempt at organized government in the Northwest Territory. Armstrong also transmitted the opinion "of some reputable in- habitants on the eastern side of the river." These reputable inhabitants were of the opinion that if Congress did not prevent the settlements "that country will soon be inhabited by a Ban- ditti whose actions are a disgrace to human na- ture." Armstrong states that he had distributed copies of the instructions in the settlements to the west of the Ohio and had posted them up at most public places on the east side of the river in the neighborhood through which the people passed but that in spite of these instruc- tions they were moving to the unsettled country by forties and fifties. There were already at the falls of the HawkHawkin ( HockHocking) up- wards of three hundred families and at the Mus- kingum "a number equal." At the Moravian town there were several families and more than fifteen hundred on the rivers Miami and Scioto. "From Wheeling to that place there is scarcely one bottom of the river but lias one or more families living thercon." He refers also to an advertisement by one "Jolin Amberson," whichi

was being complied with by the inhabitants. This advertisement is of interest as showing the capacity for self government inherent among the early settlers regardless of their quality or condition. It reads as follows :

"ADVERTISEMENT."

"March. 12, 1785.

"Notice is hereby given to the inhabitants of the west side of the Ohio River that there is to be an election for the choosing of members for the convention for the framing a constitution for the governing of the inhabitants, the election to be held on the Ioth day of April next ensuing, viz: One election to be held at the mouth of the Miami River and one to be held at the mouth of the Scioto River, and one on the Muskingum River, and one at the dwelling house of- Jonas Menzons; the members to be chosen to meet at the mouth of the Scioto on the 20th day of the same month.

"I do certify that all mankind, agreeable to every constitution formed in America, have an undoubted right to pass into every vacant coun- try, and there to form their constitution, and that from the confederation of the whole United States, Congress is not empowered to forbid them, neither is Congress empowered from that con- federation to make any sale of the uninhabited land to pay the public debts, which is to be by a tax levied and lifted by authority of the Legis- lature of each State.

"JOHN AMBERSON."

The plans of these original expansionists would have resulted in the foundation of a State at a somewhat carlier period than was contem- plated had they been left undisturbed. They certainly seem to have made every effort to es- tablish a law abiding community. From the points selected for the election, it is plain that there must have been a number of settlers in the neighborhood of the Miami River and in what is now Hamilton County almost four years before Stites landed at Columbia.

IIarmar received from sixty-six of the settlers a petition asking for a further indulgence of time and insisting that they desired "to act coll- sistent with our duty to our country and the commands of the Legislature," to which they had already appealed that is,-Congress. Har- mar gave them until the 21st of May to remove themselves at the expiration of which time he reports to the President of Congress that he expects to detach parties to drive off the settlers

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

within a distanee of one hundred and fifty miles from Fort McIntosh, "which in my present situ- ation is all that is practicable." He concluded with the statement that the "number of the set- tlers lower down the river is very considerable and from all accounts daily increasing."

General Butler on his way down the river to the conference at Fort Finney makes frequent reference to these early settlers. Just below Yellow creek near the present site of Wellsville he felt called upon to put in to warn off one Penniman and one Pry. This latter "appears to be a shrewd, sensible man. He assured me he would go off, that he would go to Kentucky, having been disappointed in a place he had for- merly purchased, it being taken from him by a law suit. I told him, as well as the others, that Congress was determined to put all the people off the lands, and that none would be allowed to settle but the legal purchasers, and that these and these only would be protected; that troops would be down next week, who have orders to destroy every house and improvement on the north side of the river, and that garrisons will be placed at Muskingum and other places, and that if any person or persons attempted to op- pose Government, they may depend on being treated with the greatest rigor. He seemed not well pleased, though he promised submission."

At the Mingo towns just below the present site of Steubenville "we found a number of people, among whom one Ross (Joseph) seems to be the principal man of the settlers on the north side of that place. I conversed with him, and warned him and the others away. He said he and his neighbors were misrepresented to Congress; that he was going to Congress to in- form them that himself and neighbors were de- termined to be obedient to their ordinances, and we have made it a point to assure them that Con- gress had no respect to persons, that the lands would be surveyed and sold to poor and rich, and that there would, or could be no more of prefer- ence given to one more than another, which seemed to give satisfaction."

In view of the regulations of Congress this statement does not seem quite candid. On the next day, October 2nd, at Cross creek eight miles below, he "called at the settlement of Chas. Nor- ris, whose house has been pulled down, and he has rebuilt it. At this place found one Wal- ter Kean, who seems but a middling character, and rather of the dissentions cast. Warned all these off, and requested, they would inform their

neighbors, which they promised to do. Col. Monroe (the future President) spoke to them also, which had weight, as I informed them of his eharaeter."

General Butler continued distributing procla- mations and giving warning all the way down the river. Of course these attempts to drive off the unauthorized settlers were not entirely success- ful but they had great influence in discouraging emigration to the Ohio country. The number of the people passing down the river at this time and subsequently was very great. Butler speaks of settlements along the river on both sides. A little later in December, 1787, General Harmar writes to the Secretary of War concern- ing the population of the Western world as fol- lows: "From the first June to this day, there have passed this garrison, bound for Ken- tueky, one hundred and forty-six boats, three thousand one hundred and ninety-six souls, one thousand three hundred and eighty-one horses, one hundred and sixty-five wagons, one hundred and seventy-one cattle, two hundred and forty- five sheep, and twenty-four hogs." In a letter of June 15th of the next year he again reports : "From the 9th of December to this day, three hundred and eight boats, six thousand three hun- dred and twenty souls, two thousand eight hun- dred and twenty-four horses, five hundred and fifteen cows, six hundred sheep, nine hogs, and one hundred and fifty wagons have passed this garrison (Fort Harmar) bound for Limestone and the Rapids. The emigration is almost in- credible." In other words in about a year al- most ten thousand people were noted by him as emigrating to Kentucky. It is not strange that Symmes subsequently complains that by reason of the lack of military protection and for other reasons the settlements in Kentucky were being favored at the expense of those in Ohio. We have no further account of the settlers on the northern bank of the Ohio. Mr. King in liis "Ohio" states that "the history of these squatters is hardly worth pursuing. The blood of the Moravians is the 'damned spot' upon their mem -- ory." This seems hardly justified as the Mo- ravian massacre took place a miumber of years before and there is 110 reason to connect all of this large number of people with that horrible outrage. The impression left by their own proclamations and proceedings as well as by the statements made by General Butler and others is that they were as law abiding a community as any pioneer settlement is likely to be. Their

CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF CINCINNATI

only offense seems to have been that they were not willing or were not able to pay the trifling sum demanded by Congress for the lands. This refusal to pay was probably due more to the lack of the knowledge of affairs and the lack of a promoter than to any desire to take advantage of the government.

To return to the negotiations with the Indians. During the summer the Wyandot and Delaware nations brought in their prisoners to the forts and professed great friendship. It was apparent however that the Indians were very much dis- satisfied. The Indians coming to trade would get drunk and become quarrelsome and in the affray that followed either a white man or In- dian would be killed; in cach case this led to great feeling. Cornplanter, the chief of the Senecas, came to Fort Pitt to tell Colonel Harmar that his people were dissatisfied with the treaty of Fort Stanwix and desired to revoke. The Cherokees killed and scalped seven people near the mouth of the Scioto and Harmar reported in his letter to General Knox on January 1, 1785, that the British including one Simon Girty were doing all that was possible to stir up feel- ings against the Americans. In a later letter (July 16, 1785) Harmar states: "It is reported that a Mr. Brant has lately arrived from Lon- don who (with the commanding officer of the British in that quarter) has informed the Six Nations that their lands were never ceded to the Americans by the King of Great Britain. In consequence of which these chiefs complain of being accused by their Nation of treachery and say they are in danger of their own people. They have left Fort Pitt highly satisfied to appearance with the answer to their speech ; but so long as the British keep possession of the posts, it is very evident that all treaties held by us with the Indians will have but little weight with them."

The Shawances made great professions of peace but had not been included in the treaty at Fort McIntosh. It was determined therefore to arrange a treaty with them at the mouth of the Great Miami where at Fort Finney, built for this purpose, Generals George Rogers Clark, Richard Butler and Samuel H. Parsons as com- missioners concluded in January, 1786, a treaty which confined the Shawanees to the territory between the Great Miami and the Wabash. This treaty for a time also afforded protection to the surveyors of the Western lands, although from time to time evidences of dissatisfaction on the part of the Indians were given by attacks in

which a number of the settlers were killed. This dissatisfaction was the cause of the efforts to negotiate further with the Indians which fin- ally led to the treaties concluded by General St. Clair at Fort Harmar in January, 1789. The first treaty was with the Six Nations (except the Mohawks who had withdrawn with Brant) and confirmed the cessions made at Fort Stanwix and the other was with the Wyandots and other Western tribes and confirm the treaties of Fort Mcintosh and Fort Finney. By these various treaties Congress assumed to have acquired the Indian title to all the Northwest country beyond the Ohio with the exception of the reservation in the northern part of Ohio mentioned, above.

SURVEYS.

The other important matter in connection with the opening up of the new country to settlement was the matter of surveys. Complaint had been made with regard to the Virginia habit of scrambling for allotments and setting up what were known as "tomahawk claims" such as pre- vailed in Kentucky and which proved a great in- centive to Indian attacks. Jefferson's entire plan with regard to the Western territory had been re- ferred to the grand committee and on April 12, 1785, this committee reported an ordinance pro- viding for a scheme of surveying and disposing of the public land west of the Ohio River. Ac- cording to this bill which was finally adopted May 20, 1785, the lands were to be divided into townships six miles square and five ranges of townships were to be surveyed between the Ohio and Lake Erie beginning west of the Pennsyl- vania line. A section of a square mile was to be reserved in each township for the support of schools. The district between the Scioto and Lit- tle Miami rivers was reserved for the Virginia military claims. The matter of States troubled the members of Congress considerably. Monroe felt that five States would be enough for a region to which Jefferson had accorded almost double that number and others thought that three would be sufficient. Jefferson objected to a small num- ber of States and thought that they should be of about thirty thousand square miles each and not one hundred and sixty thousand as he did not believe that people of such large States would be kept together but would be likely to break up their territory into parts some of which might join the British and others Spain.

In accordance however with the Ordinance of May 20, 1785, there was appointed as the first

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

geographer of the United States, Thomas Hutch- ins, who had been Bouquet's engineer and had served as a captain in the Sixtieth British In- fantry. He was directed to survey seven longi- tudinal ranges of townships north of the Ohio, west of Pennsylvania and south of the Reserve. This survey was the first systematic one west of the mountains and was known as the Seven Ranges. The initial point was established by Hutchins and Rittenhouse, the official geographer of Pennsylvania, at the point where the north bank of the Ohio River is intersected by the west line of Pennsylvania which line is that of the meridian at the west extremity of the celebrated Mason and Dixon's line. The line was run forty- two miles due west to a meridian that struck the Ohio a little above Marietta which formed the western bounds of the nineteenth township in the most westerly of the ranges. At cach mile was set a post and every six miles was marked as a township corner through which ran the meridian line to the Ohio and the line of the Reserve (419) which was cut by east and west lines at regular distances of six miles. This survey was accom- plished during the years of 1786 and 1787, de- spite the many hostile Indians who in spite of the cessions to the United States were wholly op- posed to the occupation of the land by white inen.

Thomas Hutchins the first and last geographer of the United States had made many explora- tions in the Western country and published in 1778 a topographical description which includes probably the first printed notices of the Miami rivers. As engineer of Bouquet's expedition he surveyed the route from day to day after it left Pittsburg. He kept a journal of the march and a map showing each encampment and while in the Ohio country he conceived the plan of settling military colonies in it which he thought would be the best method of securing peace with the In- dians. At the opening of the Revolution he was in London and being suspected of negotiating with Benjamin Franklin at Paris he was impris- oned and his fortune to the extent of forty thou- sand dollars was confiscated. He succeeded in reaching Savannah in Georgia in 1778. He be- came geographer of the Confederation. He it was who substituted in this country surveys on base lines from the parallels of latitude instead of those determined arbitrarily by roads, rivers, mountains and coasts. Hutchins did not live to complete his work but died in 1788 at Pittsburg and with him expired the office of geographer. Its duties were for a time assumed by the Treas-

ury Department and finally in 1796 the office of Surveyor-General of Public Lands was created. Gen. Rufus Putnam was the first man appointed to this office.

THE OHIO COMPANY AND THE ORDINANCE.

One of the surveyors who accompanied Hutch- ins was Benjamin Tupper of Massachusetts. Upon his return to the East he wrote to Wash- ington expressing his admiration for the country in which he had been working and afterwards met at his home in Rutland, Massachusetts, Gen. Rufus Putnam. Putnam had been a lieutenant- colonel of a militia regiment during the Revolu- tion and he it was that had devised the scheme of fortifications which led to the evacuation of Bos- ton. Senator Hoar in his eloquent oration de- livered at the centennial celebration of Marietta says: "We take no leaf from the pure chaplet of Washington's fame when we say that the success of the first great military operation of the Revo- lution was due to Rufus Putnam." Subsequently Putnam devised the fortifications of West Point and rendered valuable service throughout the war. At the conclusion of the war he retired to his farm at Rutland and acted in various official capacities for his neighbors. He kept in mind throughout the whole time however a scheme for the building of a new State westward of the Ohio. His old leader Washington had been interested in the Northwest and was a large land owner on the Ohio and Kanawha and to him there was sent in 1783 before the dissolution of the army a peti- tion of two hundred and eighty-eight officers pray- ing for the location and survey of lands north and northwest of the Ohio River for veterans of the army in redemption of the pledges of Con- gress. The year later he wrote again. Waslı- ington at all times took an active interest in his plan but stated that he had tried in vain to have Congress take action. In 1785 Congress ap- pointed Putnam one of the 'surveyors of the Northwestern lands. He was compelled by his engagements to remain at home but he sent Gen- eral Tupper as his substitute. On January 9. 1786, the two friends sat up all night framing a call to officers and soldiers of the war and other good citizens of Massachusetts . who might wish to become purchasers of land in the Ohio coun- try. This privilege was to extend afterwards to the inhabitants of other States as might be agreed upon. In accordance with this call, on March 1, 1786, a convention was held at the "Bunch of Grapes Tavern" in Boston at which on March 4.

CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF CINCINNATI

1786, was formed the Ohio Company. Putnam, Rev. Manasseh Cutler and Gen. Samuel H. Par- sons were made the directors.

General Parsons a Connecticut man was se- leeted to go to New York to secure a grant of lands and a passage of an act for government. He failcd but events of recent years seem to have raised the suspicion that his good faith not only in the Revolutionary cause but in the matter of the Ohio Company was not beyond question. Thereupon the other director Cutler, a minister of the Gospel in Ipswich, Massachusetts, a grad- uate of Yale, as Parsons was of Harvard, was selected to take up the task in which Parsons had failed. He left Boston on the evening of June 25, 1787, on which day he recorded in his diary that he had conversed with General Putnam and settled the principles upon which he was to con- tract with Congress for lands on account of the Ohio Company. To quote Senator Hoar again : "He was probably the fittest man on the eontin- ent, except Franklin, for a mission of delicate diplomacy. It was said just now that Putnam was a man after Washington's pattern, and after Washington's own heart. Cutler was a man after Franklin's pattern, and after Franklin's own heart. He was the most learned naturalist in America, as Franklin was the greatest master in physical science. Hc was a man of consummate prudence in speech and conduct ; of courtly man- ners; a favorite in the drawing-room and in the camp; with a wide eircle of friends and corre- spondents among the most famous men of his time. During his brief serviee in Congress he made a specch on the judicial system, in 1803, which shows his profound mastery of constitu- tional principics.

"It now fell to his lot to conduct a negotiation seeond only in importance in the history of his country to that which Franklin conducted with France in 1778. Never was ambassador crowned with success more rapid or more complete."

On April 26, 1787, the committee reported an ordinance for the government of the Western ter- ritory. This ordinance was intended to supplant Jefferson's Ordinance of 1784. The bill eame up for second reading on May 9th, at which time General Parsons was present for the Ohio Com- pany and put in a memorial for a grant of land within the jurisdiction of the proposed ordinance. Something in the manner of Parsons excited the suspicions of both Cutler and Putnam as to his honesty but as there was no quorum on the fol- lowing day the business was laid over. On July 9th, Congress being dissatisfied with the report of

the committee referred it back to a new eommit- tee consisting of Mr. Nathan Dane of Massachu- setts, Mr. Richard Henry Lee and Edward Car- rington of Virginia, Mr. John Kean of South Carolina and Melancthon Smith of New York. Dane and Smith were the only members of the older committee retained. Cutler had arrived in New York on July 5th, with his application on behalf of the Ohio Company representing two hundred and fifty shares of one thousand dollars each. His proposition to Congress came before the original committee on July 6th, and included a payment for the land of 66 2/3 eents an acre in soldiers' certifieates which was equivalent to eight or ten cents specie. At the same time he is sup- posed to have insisted that there should be reeog- nition of the principles of freedom formulated in the constitution of his own State. This propo- sition appealed to Congress by reason of the financial relief it involved and when it was re- committed to the new committce Cutler was ealled in to make remarks and amendments. Cutler's conditions and demands changed the whole situ- ation. The new proposals opened a way to pay off about one-tenth of the national debt but on the other hand seemed to afford an opportunity of formulating into a definite code the principles of freedom which had been so many times adverted to in the diseussions of Congress. Some of these principles of course were dangerous from the standpoint of some of the members of the com- mittee. This was particularly true with regard to the matter of forbidding slavery. "Cutler was in his element in standing as the champion of freedom, and he was politician enough to know how the Virginia opposition could be quieted by showing to the representatives of the Southern States the better chance they had of compacting their interests south of the Ohio, if they eoneeded something on the other side of that river to the principles of the North, sinee such concessions might strengthen the obligations of the North to protect the products of slave labor in the South and to stand by that section of the country in an inevitable contest with Spain over the free navi- gation of the Mississippi. This was to be the chief victory of Cutler in paving the way for the later motion of Dane. The other points upon which Cutler insisted were more easily carried. Such were reservations of land for the support of religion and education. The latter object re- ceived a double recognition. Five seetions in cach township were set aside for the benefit of schools, and two whole townships were devoted

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Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1, Part 16

Author: Greve, Charles Theodore, b. 1863. cn Publication date: 1904 Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1020

Author: Greve, Charles Theodore, b. 1863. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1020