Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1, Part 28

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

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"After this, the greater part of them deserted me when about forty miles up the Miami, where I had ventured on their promises to escort me down that river, meandering its courses; which so disobliged me that I have been very indiffer- ent ever since whether one of them came into the purchase or not, as I found them very un- governable and seditious; and not to be awed or persuaded. To the disobedience of these men, I impute the death of poor Filson, who had no rest afterwards while with me, for fear of the Indians, and at length attempting to escape to the body of men I had left on the Ohio, he was destroyed by the savages."

THE DEATH OF FILSON.

As a matter of fact nothing definite is known with relation to the actual fate of Filson, except that on the reassembling of the parties, he could not be found. To this day no man knows where or how he met his death.

Mr. Miller, in a somewhat fanciful sketch of an encounter between Filson and a solitary red- skin, locates the probable place of Filson's death at a point not far from the northern boundary line of Hamilton County at the northeast cor- ner of Colerain township. but there seems to be little authority for more than a guess on the subject.

Dr. Jones speaks of his fate as follows :

"Whether killed by savages inimmediately or carried far away into the interior to suffer all the tortures of savage barbarity, or bewildered and lost, and perished in the wilderness, can now never be known. It is, however, a singular, in-

deed, a remarkable fact, that although the set- tlers had intercourse with all the tribes of Ohio and the Northwest, from the time of the first set- tlement until their final removal from the State, no tidings could ever be gained of the fate of Fil- son ; and from this fact it might be conjectured that he was not murdered by the Indians, but lost in the wilderness, and perished from hunger and exposure, and his body devoured by wild beasts, or, perhaps, may have been drowned in the Great Miami. Filson was a surveyor, and was to lay off the projected town, as well as act as a general agent for Denman and Patter- son. His loss, therefore, was a serious impedi- ment to the enterprise, and necessitated the em- ployment of another surveyor." (Early Days of Cincinnati, p. 24.)

There is an especially sad feature about Fil- son's fate that has not been generally noticed. In the Clarke collection, now in the Ohio His- torical and Philosophical Society of Cincinnati. there is an original letter written by Filson from Lexington, May 27, 1788, to his brother Robert in which after discussing his affairs at some length and the advisability of his brother's.com- ing to Kentucky he says: "I have supported a good credit here, and have enough to support me. I renewed my studies last winter and greatly advanced my latin and this spring have begun to study Physic with Doctr Slater in this place, an eminent Physician who came here from Lon- con last year, two years 1 study, as soon as my Study is finished, I am to be married which will be greatly to our advantage. Stand it out 2 years my dear brother. You shall have negroes to wait of you."

This letter may serve to explain Filson's en- thusiasin about land speculations. The practice of medicine involving as it did at least two years' delay may have seemed not sufficiently promising for the fruition of his hopes. History does not record the name of the young woman who was to bring so much happiness to Filson and his brother, including negroes to "wait of" them. The same letter throws a side light on the conditions in Kentucky at that time :

"The Indians are very troublesome, a few days ago Col' Joseph Mitchell who lived at the foul- ing (?) Springs on Potowmack & his eldest son fell a prey to the savages near the falls of Ohio. We are all warriors here. when 1 troubles will end I know not. four boats are taken this spring by the Indians."

The same brother wrote on the last page of a. book owned by him the following words: "This

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Book was given to me by my Brother John Fil- son who was killed by an Indian on the North Side of the Ohio October The first 1788 about five miles from the Great Miami River and 20 or 25 from the Ohio." This was a copy of Dil- worth's "Arithmetic," owned by the late Robert Clarke, an enthusiastic collector and a leader among the historical workers of the West.

Colonel Patterson, in the case between Joel Williams and the city of Cincinnati, in 1807, testified that-

"When it became certain that John Filson would never return, they found it necessary to secure the services of another surveyor, and as Filson's brother and heir had said to him that he was satisfied his brother had been killed, and had paid nothing on his interest, he the brother would relinquish all claims to any interest in the land as Filson's heir, they, therefore, took Colonel Israel Ludlow as a partner, on the same conditions they had Filson, as a surveyor and general agent ; and in this way Colonel Ludlow, who had come out as a surveyor for Judge Symmes, became a joint and equal owner with himself and Denman in the land purchased by Denman.

Previous to this time in testimony given De- cember 27. 1803. Patterson was even more spe- cific with regard to this matter. He says: "! was acquainted with the Brother of the said Fil- son who was heir at law to the said Filson and he informed me that as the said John Filson had paid nothing for the said land he did not set up any claim to the said town or consider himself as having any interest or concern therein." (Hamilton County Recorder's Office, Book D-I, page 74.)

Denman in August, 1833, testified that "the party then returned to Limestone where this de- ponent entered into an agreement with Robert Patterson and Israel Ludlow which agreement was substantially the same as that to which Filson was a party substituting Ludlow for Filson, and empowering Ludlow to act for deponent and said Patterson in all things relat- ing to the said town. That this agreement was made in writing and signed by the parties, and was left with the said Ludlow at the time it was executed which was in the month of October A. D. 1788, at which time a plat of the proposed town was made by the said Ludlow and agreed upon by the said Patterson, Ludlow, and de- ponent at Limestone aforesaid." Denman re- ceived a copy of this plat from Indlow which

he handed over to Williams when years after- wards he sold his interest to him. (Deposition taken in Denman's residence in Springfield. N. J., for use in the ejectment case of City of Cincinnati versus The First Presbyterian Society of Cincinnati.)

Colonel Durrett in his life of Filson takes issue with the inference usually drawn from Colonel Patterson's testimony that Filson's brother was present and consented to the transfer of his in- terest to Ludlow. He states that Filson's brother at this time was not in the country and that not only did he never give a written consent (and in this the records of Hamilton County bear him out ) to the transfer of Filson's interest but that he always regarded the transaction as an unjust one. Colonel Durrett quotes a report of a con- Versation with him in which he is made to say that "no matter how it might be regarded in the Northwest Territory it would be 'counted dinged nigh robbing in Pennsilvany?' " At any rate there was much dissatisfaction and much con- troversy growing out of this affair which re- sulted in the chancery case already referred to.

Strangely enough, the sale bond covering the transfer of Patterson's one-third to Samuel Freeman, executed November 26, 1794, with Israel Ludlow as a witness, recites that "Mathias Denman, Robert Patterson and John Filson are partners in common tenentry." ( Recorded Dec. 29, 18II.)

I lowever the legal merits of the case may have been determined, the historic facts remain clear. Of the three original owners who dedicated the land opposite the Licking to posterity as a city, Patterson alone was with the landing party in December and he staid but a short time. lle was, however, regarded as the leader of the party.

The real founders of Cincinnati, those who set- tled the town afterwards known by that name. and by their industry and perseverance made the settlement a reality, were Colonel Ludlow and William McMillan ( who were in the sur- veying party that laid out the town as it finally was established ) and Joel Williams, who as- sisted in the Landlow survey, in building the sur- veyors' cabin and built the first private house. Hle was the actual agent of the proprietors on the ground, as Colonel Ludlow was away much of the time engaged in his surveys, and kept the plat of the town. Williams was here within ten days of the landing as he drew a lot on January 7. 1780.

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ISRAEL LUDLOW.

Israel Ludlow was the only one of the original proprietors who remained in the neighborhood of Cincinnati. Ile was originally from New Jer- sey, as were so many of the others among the first settlers, and was born at Little Head farm, near Morristown, in 1765. About twenty years later he came to the valley of the Ohio to act as a surveyor and was appointed by the United States Geographer to survey the Miami pur- chase, and also the purchases of the Ohio Com- pany. Fle accomplished this task by the spring of 1792, which as finally recorded came to be re- garded as the authoritative location of the lots of the early settlers. In 1790 he established Lud- low's Station, upon a spot within the present limits of Cumminsville, building a blockhouse as a defense against the savages. This was at a point now at the intersection of Knowlton street with the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Rail- way. lle afterwards as a proprietor laid out the town of Hamilton in 1794, and in 1795, to- gether with Governor St. Clair. Dayton and Wil- lian McMillan. he planned the town of Dayton. In 1796, he married Charlotte Chambers, of . Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Ile died after a brief illness, in January, 1804, and was buried with Masonic honors in the First Presbyterian Church Graveyard on Fourth street, near Main street, in Cincinnati. An oration upon this oc- casion was pronounced by Judge Symmes.

Symmes returned to Limestone most disheart- ened by the death of Filson, but on the other hand very much impressed with the land that he had seen. He wrote to Dayton that he thought some of the land near the Great Miami "positively worth a silver dollar an acre in its present state." At Limestone he received letters from Dayton, which gave him the news of the negotiation with the Commissioners of the Treasury Board, and mformed him of the terms which had finally been agreed upon.

In a letter of September 12, 1788, written at New York, Dayton said to him : "Since my last lo you, your whole contract and project for the purchase and settlement of Western lands, has been on the point of being annihilated. On the 18th of August, a motion was made in Congress by Mr. Williamson in the words following, viz. "'Resolved : That the several acts of Congress of October 2, 22 and 23, 1787, whereby the Board of Treasury are authorized to contract with individuals or companies for the sale of Western territory, be and the same are hereby

repealed, provided that nothing contained in this act be understood to invalidate any contracts which the Board may have already made. Re- ferred to

". MR. - WADSWORTH, ". MR. WILLIAMSON, "'MR. TUCKER, "'MR. IRVINE, "'MR. HAMILTON, " 'A Committee to Report.'

"This Committee called upon the Board of Treasury for their information how far they had proceeded in the execution of the several acts of the 20, 22d and 23d of October, and for their opinion relative to the repeal of these acts. The following is an extract of so much of the answer of the Commissioners as relates to you, viz :

"'With respect to the resolve of Congress of the 2d which relates to Mr. Symmes' grant, the Board beg leave to lay before the Committee copies of sundry correspondence which has passed betwixt that gentleman and the Board on that subject. After a conference with him a minute of which is endorsed on Mr. Symines' letter of the 14th of July last the Board ex- pected that he would have closed the contract agreeably to the conditions proposed to him in their letter of the 16th of June last, so as to en- title him to a right of occupancy. But contrary to our expectation, Mr. Symmes, after deposit- ing with the Treasurer upwards of $72,000, left town without concluding any agreement, and, we since learn, has gone to the Western country. The certificates deposited are. we presume, a sufficient security to the public for any injury which may at present be sustained by any oc- cupancy of any part of the land in question, should the same be attempted : but we' submit it to the consideration of the Committee whether means ought not forthwith to be adopted to pre- vent such an event till Mr. Symmes has de- rived a right of occupancy on the terms pre- scribed by Congress,'

"And in the concluding part they say :

"'Tlow far it may be advisable to continue the operation of the foregoing resolves on the principles on which they stand, the Committee, from the above statement, will be best able to determine. Certain it is, that except in the case of the Ohio Company, no regular payment has been made nor any agreement executed.'

"I called upon the committee, with Mr. Marslı and Mr. Boudinot, just as they were meeting to

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draft their report, which would have been if approved in Congress, which 1 very much ap- prehended, fatal to your purchase. 1 stated to them that it was not your intention to settle but upon the limits prescribed by the Board for 1,000,000-that instead of barely depositing $72,- 000, as the Board in their report had loosely ex- pressed it, you had regularly paid in certificates and military rights to the whole amount of the first payment for that quantity, and that the ig- norance of both parties with respect to the course of the rivers bounding your purchase, had been the reason of your declining to agree to any pre- cise limits before that necessary information could be obtained: We acquainted them in short, that we considered and held the United States firmly bound by the contract, and, that their receipt of the first payment on account of it was sufficient evidence. The committee, after consulting with the Board, informed us that even if the first pay- ment had been made for a million, your proposed contract was for two-that although in the course of making your payments you had withdrawn your proposals for tivo, and given in others for one million, yet the Board, disliking the bound- aries prescribed for the smaller quantity had not closed with them, but had proposed in their turn what they thought reasonable limits which you had not signified your acceptance of-that, there- fore, in strict or legal construction they con- sidered Congress as absolved from every engage- ment with you, but they would nevertheless agree if we would come forward and subscribe to the limits offered by the Board in their letter to you of the 16th of June, to waive their report to Congress and stay further proceeding until we had concluded it.

"Thus circumstanced, a choice was hardly left us, and we agreed to close with and subscribe to their proposals as soon as the writings could be prepared. Since that time the Board has started another objection, which I believe, neither yon nor we had apprehended or foreseen. They say that a late letter of the Geographer to them, states, that there are but about three millions of acres in the New England purchase, if so, that the sum deposited by you is but half the amount of the first payment for. a million. Al- though I referred them to the map and pointed out the New England tract thereon as delineated and painted by Hutchins himself, and proved to them by measurement that it was six times as large as the million bounding upon it, which was reserved for the army, they, notwithstanding, refuse to execute the writings until the sense

of Congress shall be had. I know not what will be the event of the business, but I trust the objection is too ill-founded and unreasonable to meet with the approbation of that body. Be- fore the departure of the next Pittsburgh post, I trust, it will be decided, when you shall hear from me again. Your letter of agency arrived at a lucky instant to enable us to prevent meas- ures being taken to declare that no contract ex- isted with you on the part of the Union, which would have been followed by orders to the Gov- ernor to prohibit any settlement upon any other than the New England lands. It was by no ineans my wish to have my name inserted in your letter of agency, but, since it is there, I shall endeavor to conduct the business entrusted, to the best possible advantage of yourself and the others concerned. We have already, in the com- mencement of its prosecution, met with numerous embarrassments. We hope they will not con- tinue ; if they should. we will take the best meas- ures to face and overcome them.

"This morning Mr. Marsh came over, agree- ably to my appointment to execute and subscribe to the contract we had drawn up. The Board receded from the objection as to quantity men- tioned, but raised a new difficulty as to our power of attorney, which, they said, was very imperfect and insufficient. It recites in its be- ginning that a contract had been entered into between you and the Board, and refers to that written agreement which the Board says never had existence. They say it is true Congress authorized them to contract with you for two millions on certain terms, but that you never came forward and contracted. They say. also, that you proposed to purchase . instead thereof, but one million, with certain boundaries to which they disagreed; that they, in their turn, offered to sell you a million with other boundaries, which you, by letter, declined. From all . this, they infer that there is not only no written as you express, but not even a verbal contract between you, and also that there never has been either. They add, that all the powers you have vested ns with, refer to and are founded upon this sup- posed contract which, you suggest, actually exists between you and them, and which they know nothing about and consequently cannot acknowl- edge. They have gone to the expense of em- ploying and consulting counsel on the occasion. by whom our power is declared to be altogether defective.

"They offered to contract with us for the land in our own names and right, which we have

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refused; and they have, at length, consented to accept our signatures as agents for you upon our agreeing to annex a proviso that we will pro- cure from you a more ample and sufficient power of attorney, or, failing to do that, that we will, individually and in our proper characters, con- sider and acknowledge ourselves bound to per- form the conditions and stipulations. It will be necessary, or, at least, desirable, that you make out this power immediately, acknowledge it be- fore one of the other two judges of the West- ern territory, and forward it by the first oppor- tunity."

Symmcs had been elected by Congress, Feb- ruary 19, 1788, one of the judges of the North- west Territory. This appointment was in ac- cordance with the provision of the celebrated "Ordinance of 1787." Section 4 of this ordi- nance provided that there should be "appointed a court to consist of three judges, any two of whom to form a court, who shall have a common law jurisdiction and reside in the district, and have therein a free hold estate in five hundred acres of land while in the exercise of their offices ; their commission shall continue in force during good behavior." These judges with the Gover- nor were to select, from the civil and criminal laws of the original States, such laws as they deemed suitable for the Territory, and were given the power to promulgate such laws and to en- force them until they should be amended or re- pealed by a General Assembly, to be later or- ganized according to the provision of the ordi- nance. The salary provided by a special act of Congress for the judges was the magnificent sum of $800 per annum.

This appointment to the judgeship had al- ready given offense to some persons, and many of the settlers in the Western country became a little envious of the great fortune which it was thought Symmes was about to make. Some of his associates and also some of those to whom he had sold lots, complained bitterly because they thought he had endangered his contract and their rights.

Mr. King, in his history of Ohio, speaks very slightingly of his business qualifications, as shown by his negotiations with Congress. There does not seem to be any real justification for this feeling, as an examination of the correspondence already printed here shows that Symines was hampered at every turn by the unwillingness of government officials to make what certainly were not unreasonable concessions and conditions.

The new country was almost entirely unknown

to the Treasury Board, and in fact to the people in the East generally. The reluctance to make reasonable concessions arose from ignorance rather than from any real desire to protect the public interest. The Miami purchase in quan- tity was not an unusually large one, and there was no real reason that possessed any merit why Symmes should not have been given the contract he desired. . The very slightest knowledge of the territory makes this apparent. Symmes was making the best of conditions, which he could not control. What might seem unbusinesslike with relation to real estate transactions in a set- tled country, where the boundaries are exact and well understood, might be well considered very excellent management with relation to transac- tions involving absolutely unknown territory. The history of the Miami purchase compares very favorably with that of other settlements of like character in Kentucky, and the West. He was careless, we are told by Judge Burnet, in his custody of valuable papers.

However, on October 22, 1788, Dayton was able to write to Symes from New York, as follows :

"After long altercation and many difficulties and disputes with the Board of Treasury, alto- gether unforeseen and unexpected by us, we have at length mutually entered into and executed an instrument of writing closing with and binding the contract for your purchase on the Miami. This did not finally take place until the 15th in- stant."

Symmes' own feelings at this time are indi- cated by his letter, written in reply to the two just quoted, dated Limestone, November 25, 1788:

"I have had the honor of receiving your favor of the 12th of September, which embarrassed me much for a few days ; but yours of the 22d ultimo followed so soon after, that my apprehensions of misfortime raised by the former were dispersed in a great measure by the latter. It is not yet a week since 1 received the first, and had not prepared an answer thereto when that of the 22d of October appeared and seems to render any remarks on the extraordinary part acted by the Ilonorable, the Treasury Board, unavailing and ummiccessary, not to add that though I wished to dwell ever so long on that disagreeable sub- ject, 1 have not the time, not having had the least intimation of this opportunity till Captain Beatty called on me this evening on his way up the Ohio, mtending for New York. I shall therefore pass the whole in silence till I come

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to that paragraph where you intimate that a more full power of attorney is necessary. This 1 shall certainly do as soon as I meet again with one of the judges you mention, before whom I shall acknowledge it. I thank you for the copy of the one I sent you by General Ogden, and beg leave to observe that I have the highest confidence in your friendship and integrity to serve me, and I am sure it will be with ability. Whatever you do, together with Mr. Marsh, I should confirm and ratify had I any choice left, but in your negotiations with the Treasury Board it seems . that I have none."

THE CONTRACT OF OCTOBER 15, 1788,

Was finally entered on the records of Hamilton County, March 17, 1821, and is a contract for a million acres, in which the commissioners ad- here to the eastern boundary line of the pur- chase, dividing the tract between the two Miamis. The grant is described as follows :

"All that certain 'tract or parcel of land sit- nate, lying and being in the Western Country, adjoining to the river Ohio. Beginning on the bank of the same river at a spot exactly twenty miles distant along the several courses of the same from the place where the Great River Miami empties itself into the said river Ohio. From thence extending down the said river Ohio the several courses thereof, to the said Great miami river. Thence up the said River Miami along the several courses thereof, to a place from whence a line drawn due cast, will intersect a line drawn from the place of beginning afore- said parallel with the general course of the miami river, so as to include one million of acres within those lines and the said rivers, and from that place upon the said great river miami, extending aiong such hines to the said place of beginning, containing, as aforesaid one million of acres," etc. ( Book U-2, page 58.)

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Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1, Part 28

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