Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1, Part 26

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

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Armed with these assurances of good faith, Symmes on July 14, 1788, presented to the board his answer to their letter of June 16th, as fol- lows :

"Having been honored by the receipt of your letter of the 16th ultimo, beg leave in answer thereto to observe that my ardent wish is to ad- here to the banks of both the Miamis in the boundaries of the one million of acres, as great inconveniences will arise to many of my asso- ciates if we are excluded the banks of the Little Miami, but if this shall be deemed by you inad- missible, the geography of the country between the two Miamis is too little known to afford suf- ficient information on the subject to enable me to say at this time what line could, with propriety, be drawn from the river Ohio to an imaginary point, to be fixed somewhere between the two Miamis so as to include one million of acres ad- joining the Great Miami. I am, however, willing to be governed by reasonable principles, and, in order to treat with your honors on the question of boundary with that understanding which is so necessary, I beg the permission of your hon- orable Board to enter the premises with a num- ber of settlers, and survey the land, which I will attempt to effect in the course of this season. that an accurate map of the country may be spread on your table on which you may delineate your pleasure. In the first instance I will defray

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the expense of such survey, but shall expect a reimbursement of my expeditures from the United States, as the exterior lines of all their grants are to be run by them. In this I shall be much obliged if the geographer general may be instructed to appoint the surveyor to do this business. I am content that, for the present, any further progress on my second application be suspended. I have paid what I consider a suf- ficiency, both in money and army rights, to ful- fill the first payment, and until we have better knowledge, I conceive any further stipulations of boundaries would be rather premature."

This obvious attempt at aggressive expansion did not meet the views of the commissioners. It was realized fully by them that the possession would probably be nine points of the law, and if Judge Symmes should enter upon the land for the ostensible purpose of surveying the same, he would be in a much better position to enforce his claims for the grant as he desired it. There was endorsed thereafter upon his letter, the fol- lowing minute :

"On a conference on the subject of this letter, delivered by Mr. Symmes in person, the Board informed him that they could not recede from their proposition of the 16th of June, nor author- ize him to enter on the premises previou's to a payment on those conditions.

"WM. DUER."

Of course Symmes could not accede to the conditions referred to, by reason of his pro- ceedings in selling warrants for locations to Stites and others whose payments he had used in payment of his obligations to the Treasury. He was further moved by the fact that these peo- ple had already begun preparations to take charge of the land and commence their settle- inents, and that his own force was assembling. One-half of it in fact had already crossed the Delaware, and the rest were ready to start, and looking to him for supplies. He discusses the situation in a letter to Elias Boudinot, one of his associates, under date of July 18, 1788, as follows :

"Last Tuesday I left New York despairing. of settling my business to my mind with the Com- missioners of the Treasury Board. I cannot com- prehend the grounds of their extreme hesitation to close on my ternis, as I conceive no possible detrinient could accrue to the United States. Four thousand dollars and upwards are paid

more than the cash part of the first payment, and the Hon. Capt. Dayton has lodged almost double the army rights that was required. On doing this and producing the Treasurer's re- ceipt for the certificates and General Knox's certificate for the bounty rights paid in, I ap- plied to the Board for leave to enter and survey the exterior lines and take the traverse of the Ohio and the two Miamis and lay before the Board a map of the country, that we might the better govern ourselves with regard to the line between the first million and the residue of my first purchase .. This seemed to be agreed the first day when the three commisioners only were present, but the secretary to the Board raised so many objections the second day that nothing was done. The gentlemen insisted that I should be explicit in my answer to their letter on the subject of boundary to the one million, which I was for that time obliged to decline. 1f I was confident that the East Jersey Company would succeed, I should be quite indifferent where the line was drawn between the first and second million, so that Capt. Benjamin Stites and others who have located on that side towards the Little Miami were indemnified and saved in their locations. But I fear the success of the East Jersey Company is not quite certain. I

suspect others have their views upon the residue as well as your Company. I fear also a failure of raising the certificates necessary for the first payment before accounts are transmitted by the first emigrants of the quality and geography of the country. These reasons induced me to aim at making a lodgment before any express bound- ary was stipulated. I still mean to attempt this. I have General Knox's letter to General Harmar, to furnish me with a small detachment of troops. If my progress is not arrested by the Board. I shall soon make a lodgment on the land. In the meantime I shall confide in you and the other gentlemen composing the East Jersey Company, to ward off from me every measure that may tend to impede my establishing a settlement. rely most confidently on the kind interposition of Capt. Dayton and our other Jersey Delegates, and I am much deceived if there be not many other gentlemen in Congress who wish to see a settlement established at Miami."

SYM MES STARTS WESTWARD.

In accordance with the statement in the letter to Boudinot, Symmes concluded to start west- ward. Stites had already preceded him and had

VIEW FROM MOUNT ADAMS.

THE SUSPENSION BRIDGE.

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arrived at Limestone in July, some time before Judge Symmes, where he had joined the party of Rev. Stephen Gano, there since June 5th. The Judge kft New Jersey in July, with a train of 14 four-horse wagons and accompanying the wagons were a number of persons on horseback. The party included sixty people, among whom were his own family. Ile traveled in a very leisurely manner across the country to Pittsburg, and thence to Wheeling, to which point he had sent his horses by land from Devou's Ferry, thirty-five miles up the Monongahela River; he himself with his people traveled down the Mo- nongahela and Ohio on boats. lle regretted afterwards that he had not used oxen in his teams instead of horses, as he would have saved much money by it, and recommended to his Eastern friends, who thought of coming to his country, that they should use oxen. "They are cheaper by one-half in the first purchase, not so much exposed to accidents .- the Indians have never disturbed them in any instance (except in the attack on Colerain, when the enemy took ail the cattle for the supply of their small army) and after long service they are still of their original value." The road lay through a region which was not regarded in any sense as hostile, and his principal obstacles were rain and bad roads. Seven broken axle-trees represent his damage, by the time he had reached Pittsburg, which was August zoth. The members of his party were received with great hospitality by the people of this Western settlement. and the ladies of his party found the ladies of Pittsburg ex- ceedingly polite and agreeable and felt much regret that they must leave them so soon.

Judge Burnet says that Congress upon learning of his departure had become alarmed and feared that his object was to get possession and then set that body at defiance. "Under that impres- sion a resolution was offered, ordering Colonel Harmar, who was stationed with his regiment below Pittsburg, to dispossess him, and directing the expense to be paid out of the money de- posited and the residue to, be returned. For- tunately Dr. Boudinot and General Dayton, two of his associates, were in Congress at the time, and were able to make such explanations, as in- duced a withdrawal of the resolution, on their assurance that the contract should be executed, in due form without unnecessary delay. To com- ply with that engagement, they despatched Daniel Marsh, one of the associates, to go in pursuit of the Judge and induce him to return,

or to execute a power of attorney, authorizing some of his friends to complete the contract for him. Mr. Marsh overtook him at Pittsburg, pre- paring to descend the river. Without any hesita- tion he gave a letter of attorney, authorizing his associates, Jonathan Dayton and Daniel Marsh, to execute the contract in such form as they might see proper. Mr. Marsh then returned. and the Judge proceeded to the Miami country.

"As soon as the power of attorney was re- . ceived, the agents consulted with their associates. and on their advice executed a contract of three parts on the 15th of October, 1788, between the Commissioners of the Board of Treasury, of the first part, Jonathan Dayton and Daniel Marsh, of the second part, and John C. Symmes and his associates of the third part. By that contract the quantity of land named in his proposition to the Board of Treasury, was reduced to one mil- lion of acres; and the south boundary instead of running from one Miami to the other, accord- ing to the first proposition, terminated at a point on the Ohio River, twenty miles above the mouth of the Big Miami, which on survey was found to be within the limits of Cincinnati-thence north- wardly, parallel with the general course of the Big Miami for quantity." ( Burnet's Notes on Northwestern Territory. p. 414.)

Symmes undoubtedly was much annoyed at the reports he received at Pittsburg. In writing back from this point, he says :

"I shall now, sir, attempt a brief answer to your letters, but can do it much better after 1 have been on the Miami lands, as I shall then De master of the subject, which, at present, 1 do not pretend to be, so far as relates to the boundary line to be drawn. Hegives me pain that any of my good friends should be uneasy and discontented that I should venture on the lands before every minutia of the business was settled with the honorable commissioners of the Treas- ury Board. I have their express terms and proposed boundary, and while I keep myself within their proposed limits no exception can possibly be taken by them. It is I. sir, that will have cause of complaint. if I confine myself to the twenty miles front, and not the honorable commissioners. Surely, therefore, they will never think of dislodging me from the ground which themselves have proposed for our settlement.

"I shall always have the caution not to ex- ceed what I have their concurrence to. The land they grant, I accept. I think I ought to have

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more, but still I confine myself till that question is settled. I thank you, sir; for your kind inter- position with the two honorable gentlemen of the Board. I am sure, however, that those two gentlemen could not justly charge me with im- propriety of conduct, when I told them express- ly that I could not give a full and definite an- swer to their letter to me on the subject of bound- ary, but that I would answer it, conclusively, as soon as I was able to inform myself and them of the meanders and courses of the Ohio and Great Miami. This, I expect, a very short time will do."

The party staid at Pittsburg for two days and then started on their voyage down the Ohio with a fine stream of water as a result of heavy rain. They reached Fort Harmar at the mouth of the Muskingum, August 24th, at which point Lieut. Ebenezer Denny met them. He comments upon them in his "Military Journal" as follows. "Judge Symmes with several boats and families arrived on their way to his new purchase on the Miami. Has a daughter ( Polly ) along. They lodge with General and Mrs. Harmar. Stay three days and depart. If not mistaken, Miss 'Symmes will make a fine woman, an amiable disposition and highly cultivated mind about to be buried in the wilderness." The young woman who impressed Major Denny, who was thor- oughly familiar with the wilderness to which she was bound, as he had spent the winter two years before at Fort Finney, at the lower end of Symmes' lands, subsequently became the wife of Peyton Short, and is said to have justified all that Major Denny said of her. The party left Marietta, August 27th, and proceeded to Lime- stone.

Stites was already at Limestone, having ar- rived there in July, after descending the waters of the Monongahela and Ohio, on a broadhorn boat. He and his party had been for some time engaged in cutting out clapboards to roof their new homes.

MATTHIAS DENMAN.

In the meantime another party was collecting to join with Symmes and Stites in their ven- ture. The man who gave his name to this com- pany. was Matthias Denman, a Jersey man, re- siding at Springfield, Essex County, where he practically made his home until the time of his death. Denman is called by many the founder of Cincinnati, because of the fact that he it was that made the purchase upon which subsequently

was located the city. This title, however, does not seem to be entirely justified as he was in no sense a pioneer, but simply a speculator in lands in the new country, and a member of the Jersey Company. He never lived on his pur- chase and contributed little if anything to the life of this community. After his early visits to this neighborhood, he returned to New Jersey, and so far as is known remained there until the day of his death. He sold his interests in Cincinnati in 1795. Francis W. Miller, the author of "Cin- einnati's Beginnings," is said to have visited him in 1830, and. Mr. Ford, in his history, says :

"That he was a man of some intelligence, en- terprise and energy, may be inferred from the incidents of his connection with this enterprise in the then wilderness west; but we do not learn that he attained to any special distinction in his own State, or even where he was born or when he died."

D. F. Denman of Coshocton, Ohio, a grand- son of Matthias Denman, has furnished for this work a sketch of the life of Matthias Denman which has been placed in the collection of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio. From this sketch it is learned that Denman came of an oid English family, one of whom landed in Boston in 1635.

Matthias Denman was born at Springfield, New Jersey, February 13, 1751. The greater part of his carly life was spent upon his father's farm. He learned the trade of making. buck- skin breeches, a very important one in those days, but he never followed this vocation but gave the greater part of his life to agricultural pursuits. He was a noted horseman and until the year of his death he was devoted to horse- back riding. In September, 1770, he married Phoebe Baldwin, the daughter of Capt. Ennis Baldwin, who afterwards was a Revolutionary officer. Matthias Denman was one of the "Min- ute Men" during the Revolution. At the close of the war he bought a number of land warrants which were issued by Congress to soldiers and foreseeing to some extent the future of the West- ern country he determined to locate his warrants in what is now the State of Ohio. He thus be- came the owner of many thousands of aeres in Coshocton, Lieking and other counties in Ohio and in the northern part of Kentucky.

In the winters of 1787 and 1788 he became in- terested in the Symmes contemplated purchase and located the tract opposite the month of the Licking. Ile first associated with him in this

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undertaking Robert Patterson and afterwards Jolin Filson who selected the name Losantiville.

Mr. Denman in the sketch of his grandfather, says: "Judge Burnet in his .Notes' disputes this and asserts the name of Losantiville was proposed but was not adopted. I think Judge Burnet mistaken as I know positively that Mat- thias Denman said that the town was so called until the coming of Governor St. Clair in 1790." This matter has been discussed at length in an- other chapter.

After the settlement Denman returned to his home in New Jersey. He never became a resi- dent of Ohio although he naturally watched its development and growth with great interest un- til the infirmities of age prevented him. He made at least biennial and often annual trips to the West. These trips were made on horseback his favorite mode of travel. He visited Cincin- nati in 1798, 1801, 1811 and 1824.

He died January 24, 1841, lacking but a few days of having completed his goth year. Dur- ing the last ten years of his life he became blind. He was buried in the Springfield Cemetery near the old Presbyterian Church which stands on the site of the one built before the Revolution and burned by the British soldiers in revenge for the part taken in the war by its minister, Caldwell, who had supplied the lack of wadding with the church hymn books and the statement "Now give them Watts, boys."

The portrait of Matthias Denman given in this work is from an old family painting owned by D. F. Denman.

THE DENMAN PURCHASE.

In January, 1788, Matthias Denman purchased of Symmes, the entire section 18 and fractional section 17, lying between the former section and the river, on the northwest side of the Ohio, opposite the mouth of the Licking.

The purpose of Denman in making this pur- chase was not only to form a station and lay out a town but to establish a ferry opposite the mouth of the Licking River. The last named object in fact was probably the most important of the three, strange as this may seem to the present inhabitants of the city. As has already been said, the old Indian war-path from the British garrison at Detroit crossed at this point. This too was the usual route which the savages at the head waters of the Miamis and the Wabash took in their attacks on the Kentucky stations. It was along this line too that Gen. George

Rogers Clark with his troops crossed the Ohio on his raids against the Indians and this would naturally be on the line of communication be- tween settlements to be made on the Miamis and those established in Kentucky as there was at that time no other crossing nearer than the one at Limestone, now Maysville, Kentucky.

The boundaries of this purchase in a general way are as follows: Beginning at a point on the Ohio River almost due south of the junction of Broadway with Front street which would be almost at the point where the west line of Broad- way continued would strike the river, thence north on the section line to a point a little west of the intersection of Hunt and Liberty streets at the point where Burnet avenue continued south would intersect Liberty street (this was about the northeast corner of the property known for so long a time as the homestead of Hon. George H. Pendieton) ; thence due west a mile along Liberty street to a point two hundred feet west of Central avenue, thence south to the river to a point south of the gas works and a little cast of the point where Park street continued would strike the river, thence east along the river to the place of beginning. The eastern line euts Third street a trifle west of the intersection with Ludlow, and Fourth street at the intersection with Lawrence, and Fifth street just, west of Pike, Sixth at the Eggleston avenue intersection and Court a little east of its intersection with Gil- bert avenue. The western line crosses John street between Clark and Hopkins, Court street a little east of Mound and runs a little cast of Mound until at its junction with Fifth street the line passes through Hughes High School. The section line between section 18 and fractional section 17 begins at a point a little north of the intersection of Front and Broadway and runs due west cutting Sycamore south of Second street and Main at Second street, Walnut above Second, Pearl at Race. Central avenue below MeFarland, Fourth at Smith, and striking the western line a little north of Fourth just south of Ilughes High School.

This territory contains all of section 18 which would be a square mile or 640 acres and the number of acres in the fractional section 17 which in the warrant presented on behalf of Denman was estimated as 107.8 acres, while in fact it is claimed it contained nearer 160 or even more.

The records of Hamilton County show the entries relating to this location, as follows :

"May 22, 1790 Israel Ludlow in behalf of

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Matthias Demman of New Jersey, Assignee of Joseph 'Halsey Junr presents for entry and loca- tion a warrant for one section of 640 acres of land by virtue of which he locates the eight- eenth section in the fourth township East of the Great Miami in the first fractional range, being the first mile north from the Ohio River. No. of the warrant 538." (Hamilton County Recorder's Office, Mortgage Book 20, p. 36.)

"1791, April 4th. Captain Israel Ludlow, in behalf of Mr. Matthias Denman, of New Jersey, presents for entry and location a warrant for one fraction of a section or one hundred and seven & 8/10 of an acre of land, by virtue of which he locates the seventeenth fractional section in the fourth township cast of the Great Miami River, in the first fractional range of townships on the Ohio River. No. of the warrant 192." ( Mortgage Book 20, p. 49.)

There is appended to this record the follow- ing entry :

"Cincinnati stands partly on this fraction. There is a great deal more in this fraction than 107 8/10 acres, & nearcr 160 acres, which has not been paid for all over 107 8/10 acres." ( Mortgage Book 20, p. 49.)

Warrants, numbers 192 and 538, referred to are recorded in Book II, page 203, in the Hamil- ton County Recorder's Office.

Dr. A. E. Jones comments on these entries as follows :

"If these warrants represent the correct num- ber of acres in fractional No. 17 and section No. 18, there were in the purchase and original town plat 747 8/10 acres, instead of 740 acres as has been stated, making the aggregate .cost, at five shillings, or sixty-six and two-thirds cents per acre, New Jersey currency, $498.531/2. But as the payment was made in Continental certificates, worth at that time only five shillings to the pound, the actual cost in specie was $124.63, or sixteen and two-thirds cents per acre; but the cost to Denman may have been, and probably was, much iess, as he no doubt purchased these certificates at a heavy discount." ( Early Days of Cincin- nați, p. 22.)

Judge Burnet in speaking on this subject in his "Notes" says: "A misapprehension has pre- vailed as appears from some recent publications in regard to the price paid by the proprietors for

the land on which the city stands. The original purchase by Mr. Denman, inchided a section and a fractional section, containing eight hundred acres, for which he paid five shillings per acre, 111 Continental Certificates which were then worth, in specie, five shillings on the pound -- so that the specie price per acre was fifteen peuce. That sum multiplied by the number of acres, will give the original cost of the plat of Cin- cinnati." ( Notes on the Northwestern Terri- tory, p. 49.)

Mr. Cist states that :

"It has been repeatedly asserted in print that the purchase cost $49.00 only, but the sum actually paid for it was almost $500.00; the price being five shillings -- 66 2/3 cts. per acre." (Cincinnati in 1859, p. 10.)

Mr. Cist's statement is undoubtedly correct. but when viewed in the light of the suggestions made by Dr. Jones and Judge Burnet it is not hard to understand the grounds of the asser- tion often made that the original site of Cin- cinnati cost less than fifty dollars, or a little over sixteen cents an acre. Jonathan Dayton. one of the Jersey Company, writing to Symmes. March 20, 1790, seems to have been inclined to believe that Denman was making too much ont of his bargain. He says :

"It seems that Denman has never yet covered with any warrant the section on which they are building Losantiville. 1 hear that he has been buying from Halsey and others two or three of your warrants on cheaper terms than he can get them from you or me' intending to lay one of them on that section. As he, neither by this nor any other means, has aided our second pay- ment in the least, 1 think you would do rightly to prevent his covering the Losantiville section with any warrant but what he shall now buy from yon, or me as your agent, and pay your pricc of s6/3 or $7/6 for, in certificates to be applied toward the next payment. You had bet- ter inform both him and me by letter of your determination in this matter, but not to men- tion from whom yon gained your information."

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Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1, Part 26

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