Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1, Part 37

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

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About the same time he writes to another friend, Daniel Clymer, at Reading, Pennsyl- vania, inviting him to visit him :

"We can afford you buffalo and venison in „abundance. * *

* We are most beautifully situated where we are at present on the hand- some river Ohio and directly opposite Licking in Kentucky. I have heard no news of disturbance lately from our yellow bretliren. From Fort Pitt you can easily glide down the current to see me. It is about five hundred miles. This month I expect we shall have great plenty of fish ; such as pike, perch, bass, buffalo, sturgeon and cat ;

the latter of an enormous size. What do you think of being regaled of one of one hundred weight? There are some actually caught at that weight."

TILE LIFE AT THIE FORT.

Fort Washington naturally became the center of life in the little community gathered about this point. The population of the town when the fort was first erected consisted of 11 families and 24 unmarried men together with the officers and soldiers of the garrison. About twenty small log cabins were built chiefly on the lower bank. The upper part of the trees on the Bot- tom between Walnut street and Broadway were cut down but not entirely removed for several years. As late as 1795, Judge Burnet records that Cincinnati was a small village of log cab- ins including about fifteen rough unfinished frame houses with stone chimneys. Not a brick had then been seen in the place. In consequence of the fact that the surface of the ground at the base of the upper level was lower than on the margin of the river, there extended the entire length of the town along the river front a narrow swamp or morass. This subjected the inhabit- ants during the summer and fall to ague and in- termittent fevers. One of these attacks came up- on the Judge in September, 1796, while at the chief hotel of the village owned and kept by Griffin Yeatman, an carly emigrant from Vir- ginia. The Judge's bed stood in a large room neither lathed nor plastered which was originally intended and occasionally used for the ball room. It was ordinarily occupied as the common dor- mitory of the establishment and at this time there were fifteen or sixteen others lying sick in the same room which gave it much the appearance of a hospital. In spite of this fact the invalids, who were conscious that they were as well pro- vided for as circumstances would permit, made but murmurs or complaints. (Burnet's Notes, p. 32.)

General Harmar, as has already been quoted. commented upon the lack of any society except- ing such as conld be found among the soldiers. A similar complaint is made by Judge Burnet, who speaks from an altogether different point of view. According to him there were but "few individuals and still fewer families who had been accustomed to mingle in the circles of polished society. That fact put it in the power of the military to give character to the manners and customs of the people. Such a school it must be admitted was by no means intended to make the

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most favorable impression on the morals and so- briety of any community as was abundantly proved by the result. Idleness, drinking and gambling prevailed in the army to a greater ex- tent than it has at any subsequent period. This may be attributed to the fact that they had been several years in the wilderness cut off from all society but their own with but few comforts and conveniences at hand and no amusements but such as their own ingenuity could invent. Libraries were not to be found,-men of liberal minds or polished manners were rarely to be met with; and they had long been deprived of the advantage of modest and accomplished female society which always produces a salutary influ- ence on the feelings and moral habits of men. Thus situated the officers were urged by an ir- resistible impulse to tax their wits for expedients to fill up the chasms of leisure which were left on their hands after a full discharge of their military duties ; and as is too frequently the case in such circumstances the bottle, the dice-box and the card table were among the expedients resorted to because they were the nearest had and the most easily procured. It is a disastrous fact that a very large proportion of the officers under General Wayne and subsequently under General Wilkinson were hard drinkers. Harri- son, Clark, Shomberg, Ford, Strong and a 'few others were the only exceptions. Such were the habits of the army when they began to associate with the inhabitants of Cincinnati and of the Western settlements generally and to give tone to public sentiment. As a natural consequence the citizens indulged in the same practices and formed the same habits." (Burnet's Notes, p. 36.)

In proof of this the Judge cites the fact that when he came to the bar there were nine resi- dent lawyers engaged in the practice. He for many years had been the only survivor ; the rest with the exception of his brother, who died of consumption in 1801, had all become confirmed sots and descended to premature graves.

Mr. Cist quotes the following "Instructive Record," which describes the habits of the offi- cers already referred to by Judge Burnet.

"In August, 1793, a court martial was con- vened on the spot where Cincinnati now stands, by order of General St. Clair, for the trial of one ensign Morgan; who was found guilty and cashiered. Three years thereafter, the late Gen. Wm. Eaton (a member of the court), then consul to Tunis, thus recorded the fate of his associates :

Brig. Gen. Posey

Resigned and dead.

Major D.

Major H.

Resigned and dead. Damned by brandy. Dead per do.

Capt. P.

Dead. .

Capt. Eaton

At Tunis.

Capt. P.

Damned by brandy.

Capt. M.

Dead.

Capt. F.

Dead.

Capt. P.

Dead.

Capt. J.

Damned by brandy.

Capt. C. Killed.

"Eaton's own fate, although delayed, was sealed by the same habits. He died in 1811, confirmed in intemperance.

"Among orders- filed away in 1792, by a mer- chant of that period, and now lying on my table, the whole number being twelve, ten are for spirituous liquors, as follows: 'Twenty gal- lons whiskey-halt a gallon cogneac-ten gal- lons whiskey-three gallons whiskey-one gal-' lon madeira-two gallons cogneac-whiskey- whiskey-whiskey-whiskey.' These were all for officers in the United States Army, some of whose initials correspond with Eaton's list." (Cist's Miscellany, Vol. II, p. 69.)

The entries in Smith & Findlay's books of account, preserved among

the "Findlay Papers," in the Historical and Philosophical So- ciety of Ohio tell much the same tale.

Judge Goforth's docket of August +12, 1790, gives evidence of the serious character of the sales of liquor. The Judge, who lived at Column- bia, records that on that day he was visited by Esq. Wells and Mr. Sedam, an officer in the army, and that as he was walking with them to the boat towards evening the conversation turned on the pernicious practice of retail- ing spirituous liquors to the troops. General Harmar desired that the court should take some action to break up this practice. According to this suggestion, a session was called for the 14th of August at which time Goforth records that he arrived at Cincinnati with Esq. Gano and "waited upon Esq. McMillan who was in a low state of health but gave me encouragement that he would be able to sit in session."

A letter was sent by Judge Goforth to General Harmar asking evidence with regard to the sale of liquors by the persons sanctioned in the previous May term to keep public houses of entertainment. Thereupon "the court being opened, present William Goforth, William Wells, William McMillan, John S. Gano.

"Captain Ferguson, Captain Pratt, Captain Strong, and several other officers appeared agrecable to Gen. Harmar's orders, and informed

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the court, that in consequence of the troops be- ing debauched by spirituous liquors, punish- ment had become frequent in the army, and that the men were sickening fast, and that the sickness in the opinion of the Doctors was in a great degree brought on by excessive hard drinking, and the officers complained of three houses which had retailed to the troops, to-wit : Thomas Cochran, Mathew Winton and John Scott. These charges were supported by evi- dence, and Thomas Cochran, and Mathew Win- ton, each with a security were bound by their recognizance at the next General Quarter Ses- sions of the Peace, to be holden at Cincinnati, for the county of Hamilton on the first Tues- day in November next, in the sum of two hun- dred dollars, and in the mean time to refrain from retailing spirituous liquors to the troops without a written permission from their officers. And John Scott, in the sum of thirty dollars. The Court being adjourned without day." (Cist's Miscellany, Vol. I, p. 187.)

THE ARRIVAL OF GOVERNOR ST. CLAIR.

Arthur St. Clair, the Governor of the Terri- tory, arrived at Fort Washington on January 2, 1790, and staid until the 5th at which time he departed for the Illinois country, accompanied by an escort of fifty chosen men selected from the garrison under the immediate command of Lieutenant Doyle. Major Wyllys accompanied him. General St. Clair came down on a flat- boat and was met at the landing and escorted to Fort Washington by the military and citizens, during which time a salute of 14 guns was fired from the fort. It is said that when he arrived near the village, while standing on the roof of the boat looking at the town he asked, "What in the hell is the name of this town anyhow?" Whether that anecdote be true or not it is cer- tain that during his stay the name was changed from Losantiville to Cincinnati, in honor of the society of that name which had just been formed by the ex-officers of the Revolutionary Army. This society had been so called in honor of the Roman patriot, Cincinnatus, who at the calling of his country had left his plow to take up arms in her defense, and after the conclusion of his work had returned to his farin again. This had been the usual history of the officers of the Revolutionary Army and when they formed their society to keep in remembrance the scenes and events of their long struggle for indepen- dence, to keep alive the friendship thus formed and also to care for the widows and orphans

of their deceased fellow officers, they selected this name as the most appropriate one, each feeling himself to be a Cincinnatus of modern time. As the Ohio settlements were the first fruits of the victory with which the Revolution- ary soldiers had any special connection, the name seemed an appropriate one for the town in which was located its principal fort.

During this visit General St. Clair erected the county of Hamilton, which he named in honor of the Secretary of the Treasury upon the sug- gestion of Judge Symmes. Various officers of the county were appointed by the Governor and on the 5th he left for Fort Vincennes for the purpose of conciliating the savages if possible and to organize the territory west of Hamilton County.

The history of Fort Washington from this time was in the main the history of Cincinnati. It was the central point in the community as well as in the Territory. The expeditions against the Western Indians all set out from this fort and their history is a part of the his- tory of the community. In the correspondence between the officers and in the official reports are found many of the most valuable authorities upon which the history must be based. 'The letters of General Harmar, written from the fort during his residence there, give much informa- tion as to the life of not only the soldiers and of the people in the neighborhood but fore- shadow the expeditions against the Indians. In a letter to Richard Graham, in March, 1790, he refers to the murder of some people at a small station above Limestone by the savages who "will continue their carnages and depre- dations until government raise a proper force to sweep them off the face of the earth." In a letter in the same month to General Knox, he says: "The Indians still continue to murder and plunder the inhabitants; especially the boats going up and down the Ohio River. About the middle of this month they broke up Kenton Sta- tion, a small settlement fifteen miles above Lime- stone, killing and capturing the whole of the peo- ple supposed to be ten or twelve in number. Buck- ner Thruston, Esq., has just arrived here who informs me of a capital stroke of plunder which they made from the .boats, one of which he was on board a small distance above Scioto River. This gentleman is a member of the Virginia Legislature and has given me the enclosed writ- ten report of the attack by which you will be pleased to observe that the property captured by the savages was estimated at £4,000. He

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supposed them to have been Shawanees. No cal- culation will answer but raising a sufficient force to effectually chastise the whole of those nations who are known to be hostile."

In a letter to Captain Ziegler, who was after- wards the first mayor of Cincinnati, but at that time celebrating his honeymoon, in command at Fort Harmar, he commends him for sending a guard with the contractors' boats, as the In- dians begin already to be very troublesome on the river near Scioto. "We have a delightful situation here and an excellent garrison; no danger as there is with you of an inundation."

To Dr. Wistar, he writes concerning some bones which he is forwarding to him. "We are at present stationed opposite the mouth of the Licking River not above twenty miles by land from the Big Bone Lick creek. I intend shortly to let Dr. Allison, the surgeon of the regiment, proceed to that place and stay there for about a week. Upon his return I am in hopes to be able to send you a proper collection of the bones, and worthy of your acceptance, as the Doctor is curious in these matters." In this letter he speaks also of the subject which seems to be uppermost in his mind. "The savages begin al- ready to be very troublesome with the boats descending the Ohio River; nothing will cure them but an effectual chastisement."

In a letter of June 8th, to William Govett, after the discussion of purchasing an encyclo- pedia "the most elegant edition that can be pro- cured" and a thermometer he says "the Indians have been and still are troublesome. I am in full hopes that the new government will give mne the materials to work with and the next year be prepared for a general war with them." About the same time he writes to the paymaster general, complaining as follows : "There has been a Major J. - here for the avowed de- sign of speculating upon the necessities of the soldiers and some others but I have prevented them. It is in my opinion a most dishonorable traffic; by God my hands are clear of it and if I find that any officer is concerned in it he shall be called to a strict and severe account for such unmilitary proceedings. The Indians are exceedingly troublesome. I know of notli- · ing that will cure the disorder but government raising an army to effectually chastise them. All treaties are in vain."

THE OFFICERS OF THE FORT.

In a letter to Lieut. Matthew Ernst, com- manding officer at Fort Pitt, announcing that

he will surely be selected as the paymaster at Fort Washington, General Harmar gives a list of officers at Fort Washington on June 9, 1790. They were: Gen. Josiah Harmar, Capt. Wil- liam Ferguson, Capt. David Strong. Capt. Wil- liam McCurdy, Capt. Erkuries Beatty, Lieut. John Armstrong, Lieut. William Kerney (Kear- sey), Lieut. Mahlon Forde, Lieut. John Pratt, Lieut. Ebenezer Denny, Ensign Cornelius Ryker Sedam, Ensign Asa Hartshorn, Ensign Robert Thompson, and Dr. Richard Allison. With but few exceptions the officers of this First United . States Infantry, whose names are given, had served during the Revolutionary War and served in the campaigns about to begin.

General Harmar had served from October 27, 1775, to November 3, 1783, when he retired with the rank of brevet colonel. During the follow- . ing year he conveyed dispatches to Paris from Congress, announcing the formal ratification of peace. August 12, 1784, he was appointed lieu- tenant-colonel commandant of the United States Infantry Regiment, and remained at the head of the army until he was superseded by Arthur St. Clair in 1791. He retired from the service January 1, 1792, owing to the criticisms con- cerning his management of the campaign which bears his name. He returned to Pennsylvania and there served six years as adjutant-general and died on August 20, 1813, in Philadelphia, where he was buried with military honors.

William Ferguson was from Pennsylvania and had served in the Artillery Corps during the Revolution. He was appointed captain in the United States Army in 1785 and as already stat- ed was the principal constructor of Fort Wash- ington, associated in that duty with Lieutenant Pratt. He married Susanna, daughter of Mas- kell Ewing, secretary of the Masonic Grand Lodge of New Jersey. (Ewing's name appears as secretary on the original charter granted to the Nova Caesarca Harmony Lodge of Cincin- nati, dated September 8, 1791.) Shortly before lie set out for tlie St. Clair campaign, in which he was killed, November 4, 1791, Major Fer- guson purchased the lot on the southwest cor- ner of Broadway and Fourth street, opposite the upper end of the military reservation.

Captain (afterwards Lieutenant-Colonel ) David Strong was from Connecticut, and retired from service in the Continental Army with the rank of captain. He entered the army of the United States and served in it until the time of his

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death at Fort Wilkinson, Illinois, August 19, 1801. He took part in the preliminary work at least in the building of Fort Washington and subsequently constructed Fort Wilkinson twelve miles below Metropolis, and was in command at Fort Jefferson in 1792, and Detroit in 1799.

Erkuries Beatty was born in Pennsylvania, October 9, 1759, and served as lieutenant throughout the Revolutionary War. At its con- clusion he became clerk in the War Department until commissioned lieutenant of infantry in 1784. He was afterwards promoted to be cap- tain and major and resigned from the army in 1792. For several years, including the time at Fort Washington, he was paymaster. He died at Princeton, February 23, 1823.

Lieutenant (afterwards Colonel) John Arm- strong, in 1776 entered the Continental Army from Pennsylvania as a non-commissioned offi- cer. He served throughout the war and at its conclusion was a captain. He became an en- sign in the newly organized army and retired in 1793 with the rank of major. He served in the Harmar campaign, concerning which he left a journal. In this fight he lost 22 out of a command of 30, while falling back from the position to which he had been assigned. He had held command at Fort Pitt, Fort Finney at Jeffersonville and Fort Hamilton. After his retirement from the regular army, he served as colonel of militia, treasurer of the Territory and judge of the courts in Hamilton County. He died in 1816, on his farm in Clark County, Indiana.

Lieutenant (afterwards Major) William Kearsey was from New Jersey and had served seven years in the Continental Army of the United States. He was ensign and subsequently lieutenant, captain, and at the time of his death in service, March 21, 1800, he had attained the rank of major. He it was who was in com- mand of the party that accompanied Judge Symmes to the mouth of the Great Miami and left him there because of the dissatisfaction at Symmes' selection of his city site.

Lieutenant (afterwards Captain) John Pratt entered the Continental Army from Connecticut and retired with the rank of lieutenant, which rank he took in the army of the United States in 1785. He resigned in September, 1793. He was regimental quartermaster at Fort Washing- ton in 1789 and was carried on the army lists as acting quartermaster general at this time.

Lieutenant Denny is already well known. He was a special favorite of General Harmar, to

whom he was much devoted and after whom he named one of his sons. He was born March II, 1761, at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. At the age of 13 years he carried dispatches to the com- manding officers at Fort Pitt. He served in the early part of the Revolutionary War on a privateer and afterwards entered the Conti- nental Army as ensign serving to the close of the war, having then the rank of lieutenant. At the surrender of Yorktown, General Butler as- signed to him the duty of planting the first American flag upon the British parapet. As Denny in the presence of the three armies was in the act of planting the flagstaff, Baron Steu- ben rode out of the lines, dismounted and took the flag and planted it himself. This almost resulted in a duel between Butler and Steuben which was only averted by the influence of Gen- eral Washington and Count Rochambeau. He was with General Butler at Fort Finney, having been appointed an ensign in the army in 1784. He resigned from the army in the spring of 1792 with the rank of captain, having served through both the campaigns of Harmar and St. Clair as an aide. He was the bearer of the dis- patches from both of these generals, announc- ing their defeats to the War Department. At a later time he served for a time under a com- mission from the Governor of Pennsylvania to protect the frontier at Venango and Presqu Isle. He built a new work at the former near the site of the old French and English forts. His "Military Journal," from which so much has already been quoted, is one of the most valuable of contemporary documents. He sub- sequently became a very prominent merchant at Pittsburg. He was the first treasurer of Alle- gheny County and the first mayor of the city of Pittsburg. For many years prior to his death he was a director of the Bank of the United States. He died July 21, 1822.

Asa Hartshorn entered the army in 1787 and performed much service on details for protect- ing the surveyors and the government geogra- phers. He was killed during the Wayne cam- paign, June 30, 1794, under the walls of Fort Recovery.

.Dr. Robert Allison served five years in the Revolutionary Army, having enlisted from Pennsylvania. He was appointed surgeon's mate in the United States Infantry in 1784 and became a surgeon in 1788, continuing in the army until his honorable discharge in 1796. He lived on the east side of Lawrence street just above Third street, at the place where afterwards

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in 1814 was erected the home of General Lytle, which is still standing and known as the Foster place.

Ensign Cornelius Sedam became a celebrated character in Cincinnati history. It was from him and his son that the village of Scdamsville takes its name.

Major Doughty whose name will be always connected with Fort Washington had long since, at the conclusion of his work, returned to Fort Harmar where he was particularly devoted to the cultivation of peaches. He resigned from the service in 1791 but afterwards reentered it in 1798. In 1800 he retired permanently and died September 16, 1826.

Capt. Jonathan Heart, who drew the cele- bratcd picture of the fort, was born in 1744 in Connecticut and graduated at Yale. He was a volunteer at Lexington, a private at Bunker Hill and ensign at the siege of Boston. He served cight and a half years in the Continental Army, retiring with the rank of brigade major. He be- came a captain in one of the companies fur- nished by Connecticut in 1785 and was finally lo- cated at Fort McIntosh. He arrived at Fort Washington on the 20th of April and was killed at St. Clair's defeat.

Maj. John P. Wyllys was killed in the Har- mar expedition. He was born in 1754, gradu- ated at Yale in 1773 and served during the Rev- olutionary War at Boston, about New York, at Valley Forge and in Virginia. He was ap- pointed major of the First Regiment in 1785 and was in command at Fort Finney for part of the next year.

Lieut .- Col. George Gibson, who served on the Harmar "Court of Inquiry," was from Pennsyl- vania and served through the Revolutionary War. He was mortally wounded on November 4, 1791, when he commanded the Second Regi- ment. He died at Fort Jefferson on December II, 1791.

Another member of this court, Lieut .- Col. Wil- liam Darke was also from Pennsylvania, born in 1736. He served through the French and In- dian War and was at Braddock's defeat. He served through the War of the Revolution, al- though a prisoner in the hands of the British for a time. He lost his son in the battle of No- vember 4th. He was a man of grcat bravery but very illiterate and seemed to have an unpleas- ant habit of criticising his associates. He died November 20, 1801.

Capt. Edward Miller, who afterwards com- manded the fort, was from Connecticut and

served throughout the Revolutionary War. Hc became 2nd lieutenant of the Second Regiment of Infantry in 1793. Hc brought his family to Fort Washington in 1798. He subsequently re- tired from the army and resided for some years in Clermont County, dying in Columbia town- ship, Hamilton County, July 6, 1823.

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Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1, Part 37

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