USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1 > Part 25
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Symmes returned to the East fully as deter- mined as Stites had been to secure his share of this fair land. Whatever may be the fact with regard to his thought of establishing a settle- ment on the Wabash, his final determination pointed to the lands between the Miamis. The time was 'ripe for such a settlement. Congress
had passed on May 20, 1785, the act declaratory of the mode in which these possessions in the territory northwest of the Ohio would be dis- posed of by the government. This act was fol- lowed by the famous Ordinance of July 17, 1787, dedicating forever the land northwest of the Ohio to freedom. The reports of travelers, nota- bly of Rev. William Wood of Kentucky and others, confirmed the accounts given by Stites of the Western country.
Wood had some few years before emigrated from some part of the Atlantic States to Wash- ington in Mason County, Kentucky, just back of Limestone and had afterwards paid visits to the East. Dr. Drake mentions his visit at Scotch Plains, three miles from Plainfield, New Jersey, where Drake's father lived. Scotch Plains was the birth place of Stites and in the same county, Union, in which was located Springfield, where Matthias Denman lived. Wood was a Baptist minister, to which persuasion the Stites family and many of the carly settlers, particularly those of Columbia, belonged.
Brownsville which was Stites' ostensible home at this time was simply the head of navigation down the Monongahela and Ohio and had been for some years the usual starting point for boats carrying emigrants down the Ohio to Kentucky. Around this landing place there had grown up a settlement of boat builders and traders in sup- plies. Stites was one of these and in his fre- quent trips to Washington he had met Wood who was well acquainted with the people of his own town. Wood gave such glowing accounts of Kentucky and the Western country that all in that section of New Jersey became interested, as is indicated by the personality of the settlers who finally left that neighborhood.
Another Baptist minister, Rev. Stephen Gano, had also visited Kentucky and the West and to quote Dr. Drake "his breath of praise still further fanned the flame; till at length the iron ties of affection for home and friends were melted, and a departure was determined upon." Gano it will be seen was one of those who took his family to the West. His son, John S. Gano, and his brother-in-law, Dr. William Goforth, after halting first at Washington, finally came to Cin- cinnati of which both became very prominent citizens. John S. Gano was in the first landing party at Columbia. ( Drake, Pioneer Life in Ken- tucky.)
The interest aronsed by the reports of these travelers was added to by the fact that before
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the expiration of the year 1787, the terms offered by Congress had been accepted by the association of New Englanders calling themselves the Ohio Company, who under the leadership of Rufus Putnam shortly afterwards effected the settle- ment at the mouth of the Muskingum.
Symmes upon his return to the East organ- ized a company of 24 men, among whom were Jonathan Dayton, Elias Boudinot, Dr. Wither- spoon and Benjamin Stites, and in his own name on August 29, 1787, presented the following memorial to Congress :
"To HIS EXCELLENCY, THE PRESIDENT OF CON- GRESS-The petition of John Cleves Symmes, of New Jersey showeth : That your petitioner, en- couraged by the resolutions of Congress of the 23rd and 27th of July last, stipulating the condi- tion of a transfer of Federal lands on the Scioto and Muskingum rivers unto Winthrop Sargent and Manasseh Cutler, Esqrs., and their associates, of New England, is induced on behalf of the citizens of the United States, westward of Con- necticut, who also wish to become purchasers of Federal lands to pray that the honorable, the Congress, will be pleased to direct that a contract be made by the honorable, the Commissioners of the Treasury Board, with your petitioner, for himself and his associates, in all respects similar in form and matter to the said grant made to Messrs. Sargent and Cutler, differing only in quantity, and place where, and instead of two townships for the use of a university, that one only be assigned for the benefit of an academy ; that by such transfer to your petitioner and his associates, on their complying with the terms of sale, the fee may pass of all the lands lying with- in the following limits, viz .: Beginning at the mouth of the Great Miami River, thence running up the Ohio to the mouth of the Little Miami River, thence up the main stream of the Little Miamii River to the place where a due west line, to be continued from the western termina- tion of the northern boundary line of the grant to Messrs. Sargent, Cutler & Company, shall intersect the said Little Miami River, thence due west, continuing the said western line, to the place where the said line shall intersect the main branch or stream of the Great Miami River, thence down the Great Miami to the place of beginning.
"JOHN C. SYMMES."
"NEW YORK, August 29, 1787."
There was endorsed thereon on October 2, 1787, the following :
"Ordered, that the above petition be referred to the Board of Treasury to take order."
On the day that this letter was written, Con- gress passed another act with relation to the contracts for public lands, and on October 23rd, an act authorizing the Board of Treasury to con- tract with any one for tracts of not less than one million acres of Western lands in a single purchase; the front of each on the Ohio, the Wabash or other river, should not exceed one- third the depth.
Symmes was much aided in his negotiations by Capt. Jonathan Dayton, at that time a dele- gate in Congress from New Jersey, and subse- quently Speaker of the House of Representatives. The city of Dayton, Ohio, receives its name from this prominent Revolutionary character. Dayton carried on a correspondence throughout the negotiations with Symmes, and on many occa- sions was able to ward off unfavorable action. For some reason that has never become entirely clear, Symmes' proposals were viewed with con- siderable jealousy and there was a great deal of annoying delay and numerous objections which required the utmost tact to overcome. The orig- inal scheme contemplated the purchase of two millions of acres and this extent of territory was supposed to be included within the designated limits, although as a matter of fact the survey ultimately showed that the tract did not exceed six hundred thousand acres. The Board of Treasury, to whom the endorsement states that the petition was referred to take order, were the representatives of the Treasury Department, who were entrusted with the regulation of sales of public iands. This power was afterwards vested in the Secretary of the Treasury, and eventually in the General Land Office. The reference to the board "to take order," giving them discre- tionary power, was soon followed by negotia- tions with Symmes.
THIE TRENTON PROSPECTUS.
Symmes at this time did not seem to be con- scious of any serious objections to his plans and he began immediately to advertise the lands and to make grants conditioned upon a satisfactory conclusion of his negotiations with Congress. On November 26, 1787, he issued at Trenton his celebrated circular in pamphlet form, ad- dressed "To The Respectable Public." This was
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entitled "Terms of Sale and Settlement of Miami Lands." ‹
The circular recites the negotiations with Congress and the conditions of the accepted grant. The tract was to be surveyed and the purchaser or purchasers within seven years of the com- pletion of the survey. "unless the frequencies of Indian interruptions may render the same in a measure impracticable" shall lay off the whole tract at their own expense into townships and frational parts of townships, and divide the same into lots. The lot No. 16 in each township or fractional township was to be given perpetually for the purposes mentioned in the land ordinance of May 20, 1785. "Lot No. 29 to be perpetually given for purposes of religion." Lots 8, II, and 26 were to be reserved for the future disposition of Congress. "One complete town- ship to be given perpetually for the purposes of an Academy or College, to be laid off by the pur- chaser or purchasers, as nearly opposite to the mouth of Licking River as an entire township may be found eligible in point of soil and situa- tion, to be applied to the intended object by the Legislature of the State.". The price of the lands was fixed for the time at one dollar an acre, subject to a reduction for bad. lands and incidental charges of one- third of a dollar per acre. Bounty rights in an amount not to exceed one-seventh of the entire purchase price were to be accepted in lieu of cash. For the purpose of raising money for the first payment, Symmes offered to issue land warrants for any number of acres not less than 160, permitting the purchaser to select his loca- tion from a map in Symmes' possession. The terms of payment were at the rate of 66 2-3 cents an acre but "after the first day of May next, the price of the land will be one dollar per , acre, and after the first day of November next, the price will rise still higher if the country is settled as fast as is expected." This increased purchase price was to be applied to the making of roads and bridges. The purchasers were given two years in which to settle upon their location. In default of compliance with the con- ditions of settlement, forfeitures under certain conditions were provided for. The following is the comment upon this provision: "Perhaps some may think that two years is too short a time for making the settlement required; but if gen- tlemen will reflect on the danger from the In- dians attending the first settlers, the great dif- ficulties which those meet, who first occupied the
desert, the extent of the Federal territory open in every quarter to emigrants, and that the value of land depends almost entirely on the number of its inhabitants, the subscriber believes that two years will be thought time sufficient for the pur- pose. The subscriber having been in the West- ern country is so fully persuaded of the great benefit that will result from this regulation, that he must cheerfully submit to it himself, and per- haps few will be more affected thereby." Min- isters of the Gospel were cordially invited into the country to enjoy the use of lot No. 29 in each township. Schoolmasters "capable of dis- charging with propriety the duties of such in- structors" were promised the free use and benefit of lot No. 16. "The subscriber hopes that the respectable public will not think it unreasonable in him, when he informs them that the only priv- ilege which he reserves for himself, as a small reward for his trouble in this business, is the exclusive right of selecting or locating that en- tire township, which will be lowest down in the point of land formed by the Ohio and Great Miami Rivers, and those three fractional parts of townships which may lie north, west, and south, between such entire township and the waters of the Ohio and Great Miami. This point of land. the subscriber intends paying for himself, and thereon to lay out a handsome town-plat, with eligible streets, and lots of sixty feet wide in front and rear, and one hundred and twenty feet deep, every other lot of which shall be given freely to any person who shall first apply for the same, lot No. I being retained, lot No. 2 given away, and thus alternately throughout the town -upon conditions always, that the person so applying for, and accepting of, a given lot or lots, without evasion, build a house or cabin on each lot so given, within two years after the date of the first payment made to the Treasury Board, and occupy the same by keeping some family therein for the first three years after building. Every person who would accept of a town lot first, as aforesaid, shall have the privilege of cutting, on the subscriber's adjacent land, as much timber for building as donce shall need during the term of three years from the time when he first begins to build on his lot." Such was the scheme which was to build the great city that Symmes had in mind, as the emporium of the Miami Valley.
, His prospectus, not unlike those of later date, continues with encouraging comments upon the land offered for settlement. "The subscriber
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begs leave to add for the information of those who are unacquainted with the country that from his own view of this land, bordering on the River Ohio, and the unanimous report of all those who have traveled over the tract in almost every direction, it is supposed to be equal to any part of the Federal territory in point of quality of soil and excellence of climate, it lying in the latitude of about 38º north, where the winters are moderate and no extreme heats in sum- mer. Its situation is such as to command the navigation of several fine rivers, as may be seen on the maps of that country ; boats are frequently passing by this land as they ply up and down the Ohio." Other attractions offered are the absence of mountains, the level character of the country, stone quarries, the springs and rivulets and fine mill streams, the fact that the two Miamis were supposed to be navigable beyond the northern extent of the purchase, the accessibility of salt on the banks of the Licking River, and the easy means of transportation for provisions from the Pittsburg, Red Stone and Wheeling settlements or from Kentucky. Another alluring incident is the certainty of a clear title, which is supposed to be an advantage over the purchase of Ken- tucky lands. As title without the ability to de- fend one's occupancy is not of the greatest value, the circular continues: "The Honorable, 'the Secretary at War, General Knox, having assured the subscriber of his friendly disposition to sup- port the settlers against the Indians, by replac- ing a garrison of Federal troops in the fort, which is still remaining on the land at the mouth of the Great Miami, must greatly facilitate the settlement and in some measure render safety to the first adventurers." The promise of good government and wholesome laws and the wisest regulations for promoting emigration, protect- ing and rendering happy those who become peaceable settlers therein, and the assurances that the subscriber will give his personal super- intendence to the settlement, conclude this inter- esting document.
It is not strange that so promising an invita- tion to share in the location of the future metrop- olis of the West should find acceptors. It was most fitting, too, that the first warrant should have been issued to the man to whose far-seeing enterprise the credit of the undertaking is due. Without awaiting the conclusion of the negotia- tions with Congress, Symmes proceeded to issue certificates, the first of which reads as follows :
No. I MIAMI LAND-WARRANT.
This entitles Benjamin Stites
his Heirs or Assigns, to locate one
Section, in which the Fee of 640 Acres shall pass, subject to the Terms of settle- ment. Dated the sevent teenth Day of December A. D. 1787. Signed by JOHN CLEVES SYMMES.
Countersigned by
BENJAMIN STITES
Speshel At the point betwixt the mouth
of the little miame and the ohio in the pint.
Stites obtained this warrant by virtue of his contract with Symmes, of November 9, 1787, which appears upon the records of Hamilton County ( Book A, p. 3), as follows :
"WHEREAS, Congress, by their resolution of the 22d day of October, 1787, directed the Com- missioners of the Treasury Board to contract with John Cleves Symmes for all the lands lying between the two Miami Rivers to a certain line which forms the northern boundary thereof, These may certify that if Captain Benjamin Stites shall raise certificates to pay for twenty thousand acres of the same, or any larger quan- tity, he shall have it at the price agreed with the Treasury board, which is five shillings in liqui- dated certificates per acre, making payment there- for, and in all things conforming to the condi- tions of the contract, with the Treasury Board and also with the articles or conditions of the sale and settlement of the land, which will be published by John C. Symmes. On Captain Stites purchasing 20,000 acres, of the land or any larger quantity, he shall have the privilege of appointing one Surveyor to assist in runing [ sic] out the Country, so far. as the proportion he purchases shall be to the whole Tract. which Surveyor shall be intitled to receive the same fees for his service as the other surveyor as the other Surveyor [sic] employed on that service shall receive. As soon as Credit or time of pay- ment can be given, agreeable to the Contract, Capt Stites shall have the benefit thereof as all other purchasers shall have, but this is not till after the two first payments.
"JOHN CLEVES SYM MES." "NEW YORK, 9th November, 1787."
This contract was followed by another con- tract, made at Brunswick, New Jersey, on De- cember 17, 1787 :
"Captain Benjamin Stites enters ten thousand acres and the fractions on the Ohio and little miami and is to take in Mr. John Carpenter as
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one of his Company, to be on lines or sections on the Ohio and little Miami from the point. And ten thousand acres on equal lines or Sec- tions at. the Mill Stream falling in to the Ohio between the little and great Miami, which, when the Certificates therefor are paid and the record book opened shall be recorded to him and to such of his Company as join therefor.
JOHN C. SYMMES."
"NEW BRUNSWICK the 17th December, 1787."
After this there was added, without date of record, the following :
"The last ten thousand acres is to be taken in the following manner two Sections at the mouth of Mill Creek & the residue to begin four miles from the Ohio up mill creek, Captain Stites takes four Sections on the little Miami with the frac- tions next adjoining the ten thousand acres where it comes to the little Miami. And four Sections with the fractions next above the range of Townships taken by Daniel Esqr, on the little Miami." (Book A, p. 3, Hamilton County Recorder's Office. )
By the 8th of February, 1793, Captain Stites had paid in full for his land, as will appear from the following receipt :
"CINCINNATI, February the 8th, 1793.
"Received of Benjamin Stites, Esqr. at differ- ent payments Certificates of debts due by the United States to the amount of ten thousand six hundred and fifty-two dollars and twenty-three ninetieths of a dollar in payment for different parts of the Miami purchase lying, as may ap- pear by location of Mr. Stites, ten thousand acres round Columbi, Seven Sections on the waters of Mill Creek for different people as will appear by the Miami records, and about three or four sections in the neighborhood of Coovlts Station, and in cash, orders and other articles to the amount of one hundred and fifty-eight pounds eight shillings and eight pence, for which lands, accommodate to the several locations I promise to make a Deed in fee simple as soon as I am inabled by receiving my deed from the United States.
"JOHN C. SYMMES."
"JOIIN GANNO."
(Hamilton County Recorder's Office, Deed Book A, p. 3.)
The moneys and certificates received from Stites were used of course by Symmes in mak- ing his first payment. It was this fact which made the effort to compel Synimes to fix his eastern boundary upon a line twenty miles east of the mouth of the Great Miami, so embarrass- ing, as of course Stites' location was entirely out- side this tract.
Symmes had supposed that the amount of land included in his first purchase would reach two millions of acres, and he soon became conscious of the fact that this was a larger undertaking than he had expected to engage in. For this reason, on the- 11th of June, 1788, he addressed to the Treasury Board, the following communi- cation :
"Gentlemen-Meeting with some difficulties which attend obtaining the general pleasure of the late Jersey line with regard to their bounty lands, so as to procure that credit therefor, in the discharge of my first payment in my late contract, which I had premised to myself, I beg leave to relinquish my former purchase, upon condition, however, that your honors be pleased to enter into a new contract with me for a part of the same lands, of 1,000,000 of acres front- ing on the Ohio and extending inland from the Ohio between the Great Miami River and the Little Miami River, the whole breadth of the country from river to river, so far as to include on an east and west rear line, 1,000,000 acres, ex- clusive of the five reserved sections in every township, as directed in the ordinance of the 20th of May, 1785, and that the present grant be made on the principles laid down by the resolu- tion of Congress of the 23d of October last."
Upon delivery of the foregoing by him to the commissioners, he received from them a state- ment showing how his account stood. He was charged with a million acres of land at two- thirds of a dollar an acre, and a calculation was then made showing the amount of cash and the amount of army rights that he would be obliged to turn in. His first payment was calculated to amount to $83,333 1/3. A few days later the board replied to his new proposition in the fol- lowing letter :
"BOARD OF TREASURY, June 16, 1788.
"Sir-We are favored with your letter of the rith instant relinquishing your pretensions to a contract for 2,000,000 acres of land, agreeably to the act of Congress of 20th of August, 1787, and proposing one for a million of acres to be
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entered into on the principles laid down by the act of Congress of the 23d of October last. We can not agree to the boundaries as you have pro- posed, but are willing to contract with you for a million of acres within a tract bounded as fol- lows: Beginning at a certain point on the north side of the river Ohio, that shall be found to be twenty miles distant along the courses thereof, from the mouth of the Great Miami River, thence extending down the said river Ohio, along the several courses thereof to the Great Miami River, thence up the Miami along the different courses of the same to such distance that a certain point shall be fixed due east from the same, from whence a direct line running nearly parallel with the general direction of the Miami, terminating in the aforesaid point on the Ohio at the place of beginning, shall include 1,000,000 of acres. We request an early answer to this letter, and are, sir, your most obedient humble servants,
"WALTER LIVINGSTON, "ARTIIUR LEE."
"JOHN CLEVES SYMMES, ESQ."
This boundary would leave Stites and a num- ber of other purchasers entirely outside the Miami purchase. The controversy started at this time threatened for years to involve the Miami purchase in continual litigation. Three years later, July 19, 1791. Governor Arthur St. Clair issued a proclamation warning against pur- chases outside this land and defining the bound- aries of the purchases very much as in this letter. The complications growing out of this matter were endless, and for many years Judge Symmes' life was embittered by them. At this time, how- ever, he felt it wise to let the matter drift, al- though many conferences were had with the commissioners. He endeavored to convince them of the unreasonable character of their demand, especially in view of the lack of knowledge of the geography of the country which would make the settlement on an imaginary point of the river. There seemed to be no yielding, however, at that time on the part of .the representatives of the government. Without any definite accept- ance, he continued to temporize, by making pay- ments as per vouchers, as follows :
"NEW YORK, July 12, 1788.
"This is to certify that the several payments paid into my hands by John Cleves Symmes, . Esq., in public securities, up to this date, amount to upwards of seventy-two thousand dollars on
account of the lands in the Western Territory which he purchased of the Honorable the Com- missioners of the Board of Treasury.
"M. HILLEGAS, Treas."
"The Honorable Jonathan Dayton, Esq., has lodged in this office applications of individuals, who formerly belonged to the New York and New Jersey lines of the late army, amounting to 29,600 acres, to be received in the purchase of John Cleves Symmes, Esq., but that the said applications have not been critically examined, either as to the validity of the assignments or the rights of the claimants, although it is probable from a cursory examination that most of the claims are well founded. A particular examina- tion will be made into this subject in a few days. Signed "J. KNOX." "WAR OFFICE, this 12th of July, 1788."
"This is to certify that the foregoing is a copy of the original lodged in the Treasurer's Office. "M. HILLEGAS, Treas." "NEW YORK, July 14, 1788."
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