Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1, Part 27

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

USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1 > Part 27

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Denman, as we have seen by the entries quoted above, presented warrants for the location of the sections mentioned covering the ground in the original plat of the town. These warrants were not both originally issued to him, but he obtained one of them at least by an assignment from Halsey, at a discount of course.

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Symmes and Demman seem to have been in a continuous controversy with regard to the purchase of these sections. In his letter of Au- gust 15, 1789, Dayton writes Symmes: "It is proper to acquaint you that neither Stelle, Witham, Downer, Halsey, nor Denman has com- plied with the contracts entered into with you.

Denman refused to pay a single cer- tificate, because as he informs me, you have been selling to others all the lands he located. If this be untrue, and any of Denman's locations are reserved for him, I wish you to acquaint me. Thus circumstanced as we are, you will readily perceive that we have made but little progress and derived little or no benefit from your different contracts towards making the next payment."

Symmes answers this charge in his letter of January 9. 1700: "The insidious reports which have been spread abroad of my selling the same lands several times over, while no failure ap- peared on the part of the first purchasers, are really vexations to me. Mr. Denman, it seems, affects to avail himself of this pretext in order to excuse himself from the payment of those certificates which he assured me he would imme- diately pay to you on his return from this coun- try. . I shall not now say how true or false his allegations are of my selling to others the lands which he had located, but instead thereof 1 en- close to you the original locations, as he calls them, which in plain speaking are only applica- tions, for indeed no man had a right to locate one foot after my arrival in this country, unless he produced a warrant to cover the same."

He states in this letter that the locations en- tered by Demman and Ludlow were about two hundred and forty thousand acres and that Den- man had paid for two or three sections at most from which the two sections, 17 and 18, were to be taken out.

"Mr. Denman had paid me to the amount of about fifteen hundred dollars in certificates, but even part of these he had again drawn out of my hands by orders on me in favor of other people, and his section opposite Licking is to be paid for, out of these. By Mr. Denman's let- ters it does not appear that he ever wished to take any steps toward making payment for the vast tracts which he had applied for-suppose it could have been reduced to certainty in what quarter of the purchase they lay-but no mortal knew, or yet knows, where more than one acre

in twenty lay of what he had pointed out in his applications."

Symmes' difficulties with prospective settlers are told in the same letter. He complains that many people applied to him for land and that the alternative was left to him cither to con- sider the locations made by Demman for which he had not paid and for which there was no certainty that he would pay as void or to reject indiscriminately all applications until it should suit Mr. Denman to tell him whether he intended to make any further payments for the land or not. This latter course would have stopped all sales in the purchase until it suited the conveni- ence of Mr. Denman to make payments for his own locations.

It was but shortly after this that Dayton sent Symmes the warning of March 20th, already re- ferred to; however, in May, Deiman, as has already been seen, presented a warrant which had been assigned to him by Halsey and which under the privilege claimed by him as one of the company he used to cover the Losantiville sec- tion.

Denman in the summer of 1788 made a visit to the West and probably to the site of his pur- chase, and on his way back he stopped at Line- stone where he met Col. Robert Patterson, and afterwards, at Lexington, the schoolmaster, John Filson. He succeeded in interesting them in his project and finally entered into a partnership with then, the purpose of which was to obtain the services of Filson in surveying and staking off the tract and superintending the sale of the lots. Patterson was to obtain purchasers and settlers, and Denman was the capitalist of the partnership, who was to be responsible for all matters relating to the purchase from the com- pany.

Filson was probably as well acquainted with Mfe neighborhood as any other man, and Patter- son was a man of very great influence. The agreement of partnership upon which so much of future wealth depended, was signed probably at Lexington, Kentucky, and as acknowledged by Patterson, was entered upon the records of Hamilton County, Ohio, October 6, 1803. H reads as follows :

"A covenant and agreement made and con- cluded this twenty fifth day of August, 1788. Between Matthias Denman of Essex County, New Jersey State, of the one part, and Robert Patterson and John Filson of Lexington Fayette

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County Kentucky of the other part, Witnesseth, That the aforesaid Matthias Denman having made entry of a traet of land on the northwest side of Ohio River, opposite the mouth of the Licking river in that district which Judge Symmes has purchased from Congress, and be- ing seized thereof by right of entry to contain six hundred and forty acres and . the fractional parts that may pertain, Do graift bargain and sell the full two-thirds thereof by an equal un- divided right in partnership unto the af. said Robert Patterson and John Filson their heirs or assigns and upon producing indisputable tes- timony of his the said Denmans indisputable right and title to the said premises they the said Patterson & Filson shall pay the sum of twenty pounds Virginia currency to the said Denman or to his heirs or assigns, as a full remittance for monies by him advanced in pay of sd land, every other institution, determination and regu- lation respecting the laying off a town and es- tablishing a Ferry at and upon the premises to be the result of the united advice & consent of the parties in covenant as aforesaid and by these presents the parties bind themselves for the true performance of these covenants to each other in the penal sum of one thousand pounds Specie, hercunto affixing their hands and seals the day and year above written.

"Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of Henry Owen, Abn. McConnall.

"MATTIHAS DENMAN, {SEAL] "R. PATTERSON, SEAL]

"JOHN FILSON." [SEAL ]

Recorded October 6, 1803 in Book D-1, page 65.

Immediately after the execution of this agree- ment, it was arranged for Filson to proceed as soon as possible with the planning of the prem- ises and arranging generally for the donation of lots to first settlers and for religious and pub- lic uses. The first thing entered upon was the construction of a road from Lexington to the mouth of the Licking and the establishment of the ferry across the river. The interest of the publie was sought in the following advertise- ment published in the Kentucky Gasette, at Lexington, on September 6, 1788.

"Notice .- The subscribers, being proprietors of a tract of land opposite the mouth of the Licking river, on the northwest side of the Ohio, have determined to lay off a town upon that excellent situation. The local and natural

advantages speak its future prosperity, being equal, if not superior, to any on the bank of the Ohio between the Miamis. The in-lots to be each, half an acre, the out-lots, four acres, thirty of cach to be given to settlers upon payment of one dollar and fifty cents for the survey and deed of each lot. The 15th day of September is appointed for a large company to meet in Lex- ington and mark a road from there to the mouth of the Licking, provided Judge Symmes arrives, being daily expected. When the town is laid off lots will be given to such as may become residents before the first day of April next. "MATTHIAS DENMAN, "ROBERT PATTERSON, "JOHN FILSON."

COL. ROBERT PATTERSON.

To Denman's partners and particularly to Pat- terson belongs, more than to Denman himself, the title of pioncer in the Cincinnati enterprise. Col. Robert Patterson had been a gallant soldier of the Indian wars. He was born March 23, 1753, and was in the service of his State, defend- ing it against the savages before he was 21 years of age. In 1774 he with six other young men settled at Royal Spring, near Georgetown, Ken- tucky, from which point, in April, 1776, they removed to a city where afterwards was the city of Lexington. Patterson was wounded shortly afterwards in a fight with the Indians, while on his way to Pittsburg to procure supplies, and was under the care of a surgeon for about a year. He joined the expedition of George Rog- ers Clark against the Illinois country in April, 1778, and returned to Kentucky in September. He settled for a time at Harrodsburg. During the next year, being then an ensign in the Ken- tucky militia, he proceeded to his former resi- dence, and built and garrisoned a fort, and in April laid off the town of Lexington. The next month he was with Bowman, in his expedition against the Shawance towns on the Little Miami. It is suggested that while on this expedition he passed over, for the first time, the country which he subsequently settled. In August, 1780. lie took part in Colonel Clark's expedition against the Indian towns on the Little Miami and Mad rivers, and again two years later he marched with Clark in his expedition of vengeance after the defeat at Lower Blue Licks. On both these expeditions he must have passed over the ground where now stands the city of Cincinnati. In the latter expedition he served as a colonel. He

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was second in command to Boone and narrowly escaped capture. In 1786 he was in another ex- pedition under General Logan, against the Sha- wanees, and again passed over the same ground. By reason of these numerous visits, he probably was as well acquainted with the Miami country as any man then living, and in addition was known far and wide for his courage, intelligence, and affability.

He never lived at Losantiville, but returned to Lexington after a month's stay, from which point, in 1804, he removed to a farm in Day- ton, Ohio, where he died at the age of 74, on August 5, 1827. He was described as being tall and handsome in person, and gifted with a fine mind, but he "like Boone, Kenton, and many others of his simple hunter and pioncer com- panions, was indulgent and negligent in business matters, and, like them, lost most of his ex- tensive landed property by shrewder rascals." The description seems a little misleading, as there is no evidence of any rascality on the part of Colonel Patterson at any time in his life.

JOHN FILSON.

The other member of the trio has long been celebrated in legend as well as in history. The mystery which has always surrounded his disap- pearance, almost at the moment of his landing on the site of his proposed settlement, has never been cleared up and this fact together with his well known abilities has always contributed much towards keeping alive his name in the annals of Losantiville.

His life written by Col. R. T. Durrett, and published in a small volume put forth by the Filson Club of Louisville, which takes its name from the first historian of Kentucky.

John Filson was born near the Brandywine in Pennsylvania, about the year 1747, and came to Kentucky, probably in 1783, at the age of 36. He became acquainted with Daniel Boone and many other pioneers and obtained from them much in- formation.

"The adventures of Boone were related by that hero directly to the enterprising schoolmaster, speculator, and verse-maker, Filson, who pub- lished them, and who is therefore not only the first historian of Kentucky, but the original biographer of the typical backwoodsman of liter- ature. The narrative of Filson furnished the basis of Bryan's 'Mountain Muse,' one of the carly attempts to put Western scenery and pio- neer romance into verse."

In 1784, at Wilmington, he published his book on Kentucky, very few copies of which are now in existence. The complete title of this book was as follows :

"The Discovery, Settlement, and Present state of Kentucky ; and an Essay towards the Topog- raphy and Natural History of that Important Country; by John Filson. To which is added an Appendix containing: I. The Adventures of Col. Daniel Boone, one of the First Settlers, comprehending every important Occurence in the Political History of that Province. II. The Minutes of the Piankashaw Council, held at Post St. Vincent's, April 15, 1784. III. An account of the Indian Nations inhabiting within the Lim- its of the Thirteen United States; their Man- ners and Customs; and Reflections on their Origin. IV. The Stages and Distances between Philadelphia and the Falls of Ohio; from Pitts- burg to Pensacola, and several other Places. The whole illustrated by a new and accurate Map of Kentucky, and the Country adjoining, drawn from actual surveys. Wilmington, printed by John Adams, 1784.

These articles were afterwards published in London as an appendix to Imlay's book about North America.

Filson's "Adventures of Boone" are supposed to have been written at the dictation of Boone himself, and the following document was printed as an advertisement in Filson's book on Ken- tucky :

"ADVERTISEMENT .- We, the subscribers, in- habitants of Kentucky, and well acquainted with the country from its first settlement, at the re- quest of the author of this book have carefully revised it, and recommend it to the public as an exceeding good performance, containing as ac- curate a description of our country as we think can possibly be given, much preferable to any in our knowledge extant ; and think it will be of great utility to the public. Witness our hands this twelfth of May, Anno Domini 1784.

"DANIEL BOONE, "LEVI TODD, "JAMES HARROD." Part of Filson's preface reads as follows :

"When I visited Kentucky. I found it so far to exceed my expectations, though great. that 1 concluded it was a pity that the workl has not adequate information of it. I conceived that a proper description of it was an object highly in-

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teresting to the United States; and, therefore. incredible as it may appear to some, I must de- clare that this performance is not published from lucrative motives, but solely to inform the world of the happy climate and plentiful soil of this favored region. And I imagine the reader will believe me the more easily when I inform him that I am not an inhabitant of Kentucky, but having been there some time, by my acquaint- ance in it am sufficiently able to publish the truth, and from principle have cautiously endeavored to avoid every species of falsehood. The conscious- ness of this encourages me to hope for the public candour, where errors may possibly be found."

In 1785. Filson proceeded from his home to Pittsburg, whence, after he had prepared his mammscript and map, he returned to the East and had them published there. In the next year he proceeded to Pittsburg in a Jersey wagon, and thence in a flat-boat down the Ohio, to the mouth of Beargrass creek, where Louisville now is; occupying some two months in the journey. Later in the same year, he went in a canoe to Vincennes, on the Wabash, and walked back through the woods to Beargrass. He repeated this journey of four hundred and fifty miles in the autumn. These exenrsions were undertaken for the purpose of collecting materials for a his- tory of the Illinois country.

"On the first day of June, 1786, he set out from Vincennes for the Falls of the Ohio in a 'perogne,' accompanied by three men. The party was attacked hy Indians, and compelled to land and take to the woods for safety. Filson, after many perils and sufferings, found his way back to Vincennes, exhausted by famine and sore with wounds. After this adventure, he returned safe to Kentucky, and against traveled over the long road to Philadelphia on horseback. In 1787 he once more appeared in the land of Boone, and advertised proposals in the Kentucky Gazette to start a classical academy in Lexington, the sylvan 'Athens of the West.' The project seems not to have been realized ; hut Filson was fertile in expedients, and soon he engaged in the import- ant enterprise which fixed his name in history. In August, 1788, he went into partnership with Mathias Denman and Robert Patterson in the purchase of a tract of land on the north side of the Ohio River, opposite the mouth of the Lick- ing, on which it was proposed to lay out the town of Losantiville, now Cincinnati. Filson invented the name Losantiville, which has been much. ridienled, but it is doubtful whether the

word Cincinnati, which is either a genitive sing- ular or a nominative plural, is not as absurd as the euphonious name compounded- by the Lex- ington schoolmaster. Filson, who was a sur- veyor, marked out a road from Lexington to the mouth of the Licking, and, with his partners, ar- rived at the site of their town in September, and began to lay out streets, at least on paper. One of these was to be called Filson Avenue, but the name was changed to Plum street after Filson's tragic disappearance from the stage of affairs. The circumstances of his exit are shrouded in mystery. The supposition is that he fell a victim to the tomahawk and scalping-knife of some prowling savage. All that we know is he set out alone to explore the solitudes of the Big Miami woods, and was seen no more by his white comrades. Nor was any trace of his body ever found." (Venable's Beginnings of Literary ('ulture in the Ohio Valley.)

Professor Venable, from whose invaluable work the foregoing paragraph is quoted, him- self one of the most charming writers, both of prose and verse, of the Miami country, has per- petuated the name of Filson in a poem, in which he incorporates the names and hopes of the pio- neers, as follows :

John Filson was a pedagogue- A pioneer was he ; I know not what bis nation was Nor what his pedigree.

John Filson and companions bokdl A frontier village planned In forest wild. on sloping hills, By fair Ohio's strand.

John Filson from three languages With pedant skill did frame The novel word Losantiville, To be the new town's name.

Deep in the wild and solemn woods. Unknown to white man's track, Jolm Filson went one antumn day, But nevermore came back.

Hle struggled through the solitude The inland to explore, And with romantic pleasure traced Miami's winding shore.

Across his path the startled deer Bounds to its shelter green ; Ile enters every lonely vale And cavernons ravine.

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Too soon the murky twilight comes, The night-wind 'gins to moan ;

Bewildered wanders Filson, lost, Exhausted and alone.

By lurking foes his steps are dogged. A yell his ear appalls ! A ghastly corpse upon the ground, A murdered man he falls.

The Indian, with instinctive hate, In him a herald saw Of coming hosts of pioneers, The friends of light and law ;

In him beheld the champion Of industries and arts,

The founder of encroaching roads And great commercial marts ; .

The spoiler of the hunting-ground, The plower of the sod, The builder of the Christian school And of the house of God.

And so the vengeful tomahawk John Filson's blood did spill,- The spirit of the pedagogue No tomahawk could kill.

John Filson had no sepulchre, Except the wildwood dim ;

. The mournful voices of the air Made requiem for him.

The druid trees their waving arms Uplifted o'er his head ; .

The moon a pallid veil of light Upon his visage spread.

The rain and sun of many years Have worn his bones away. And what he vaguely prophesied We realize to-day.

Losantiville, the prophet's work, The poet's hope fulfills- She sits a stately Queen to-day Amid her royal hills!

The matter of the name Losantiville will be discussed at a later point, but in connection with Filson it may not be amiss to quote the comment of Judge Collins in his history of Kentucky.

"His fanciful name for the intended town was adopted-Losantiville, which he designed to mean 'the village opposite the month,' Le-os- ante-ville, but which more really signifies, the mouth opposite the village;'-who, or what in- duced the change from such a pedagogical and nonsensical a name to the cuphonious one of Cincinnati is unknown; but in the name of mil- lions of people who live in or within reach of it. or visit it or do business with it, we now thank the man and the opportunity; The invention of such a name was positively cruel in Mr. Filson ; we hope it had no connection with his early death. Perhaps that is reason enough why no street in Cincinnati is named after him."

It may not be improper to comment on this quotation, that Professor Venable. as well as many others, evidently differs from Judge Col- lins as to the matter of taste concerning the name Cincinnati, that it is well known that on the first map of Cincinnati, Plum street was called Filson street, and that among the streets of the city to-day there is one-a very short one, it is true-to which the name of Filson is at- tached ( Filson place on Mount Adams). In all other respects no exception can be taken to Judge Collins' comment.

CHAPTER XI.

THE LANDING BETWEEN THE MIAMIS.

THE LANDING OF SEPTEMBER 22, 1788-THE DEATH OF FILSON-ISRAEL LUDLOW-THE CONTRACT OF OCTOBER 15, 1788-SYMMES' TROUBLES WITH CONGRESS-THE CONTROVERSY WITH ST. CLAIR-THE PATENT OF 1794-THE "COLLEGE TOWNSHIP."

After the execution of the agreement with Patterson and Filson, Denman went back to Limestone to meet Symmes, intending to go down the river with him to join Filson and Pat- terson with their party, as announced in the ad- vertisement, at the mouth of the Licking. As Judge Symmes did not arrive at the expected time, Colonel Patterson made a further an- nouncement in the paper, postponing the date of the departure of the company to September 18th, in order to meet Judge Symmes, at this place on Monday 22nd. "The business will then go on as proposed."

THE LANDING OF SEPTEMBER 22, 1788.

On September 22, 1788, a large company of Kentuckians with Colonel Patterson and Filson at their head arrived on the ground and were there met by Judge Symines, who with Israel Ludlow (who had been selected as chief sur- veyor for the Jersey Company ) Denman and Stites, came down from Limestone. The exact date is stated by Judge Symmes himself, in his letter to Dayton, written from Limestone, Ken- tucky, October 12, 1788, in which he says: "On the 22d ult. 1 landed at Miami and explored the country as high as the upper side of the 5th range of townships."

The spot on which the two parties, now num- bering some sixty people, are supposed to have met, is reported to have been where now is the Public Landing of Cincinnati. There took place the public dedication of the lands in accordance

with Filson's plat. The 22nd day of September, 1788, therefore, can be accepted as the first definitely fixed historic date in the history of Cincinnati.

The immediate platting of the lots could not be proceeded with and the survey and the dona- tion of lots was postponed until the first of the next year. The survey could not be commenced, nor Denman's section fixed, until the twenty- mile point of the river referred to in the agree- ment with Congress was ascertained.

Ludlow immediately entered upon the deter- mination of this point and in a few days he and Denman "took the meanders of the Ohio from the mouth of the Little to the mouth of the Great Miami and also up the Great Miami about ten miles from the Ohio," showing by his meas- urement that Denman was within the line. He with Denman and a number of the party re- turned on the third day and camped on the ground, where possibly the old blockhouse erected by Col. George Rogers Clark, in 1780, was still standing. (Denman's Deposition of August, 1833.)

Filson is said to have spent a day or two in running the lines of the streets, marking the courses with notches in the trees. After this. Judge Symmes, accompanied by Patterson and Filson, and a large number of Kentuckians, rode up the country for the purpose of acquainting themselves with the topography and appearance of the lands, which he was endeavoring so hard to obtain from Congress. Ilis purpose was,

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starting from the front on the Ohio, opposite the Licking, to go north through the central por- tions pretty well back towards what by calcula- tion was supposed to be the limit at the north of the area of the grant, and then go over to the Great Miami and take its meanders to the mouth. Others were to go down to the same point, tak- ing the courses of the Ohio. He reached a point variously stated at from twenty to forty miles inland. On the banks of the Great Miami, they came upon an encampment of Shawances, and the Kentuckians without any hesitation proposed to attack. Symmes was most anxious to pre- serve peace with the Indians, and had sent out every possible assurance to that effect, and there- fore he restrained the disorderly company with him; as a result many of them in disgust de- serted the party and went off homeward to the camp. Symmes relates the incident in his letter to Dayton, of May 18, 1789:

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Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1, Part 27

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