Century history of Youngstown and Mahoning County, Ohio, and representative citizens, 20th, Part 10

Author: Sanderson, Thomas W., comp
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1074

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"On this Creek (Conneaut) in New Con- necticut land. July 4. 1796, under General Moses Cleaveland, the surveyors and men sent by the Connecticut Land Company to survey and settle the Connecticut Reserve, were the first English people who took possession of it. The day, memorable as the birthday of American Independence and freedom from British tyranny, and commemorated by all good freeborn sons of America, and memorable as the dav on which the settlement of this new country was commenced, and in time may raise her head amongst the most enlightened and improved States. And after many difficulties, perplexities, and hardships were surmounted. and we were on the good and promised land. felt that a just tribute of respect to the day

ought to be paid. There were in all, including men, women, and children, fifty in number. The men, under Captain Tinker, ranged them- selves on the beach, and fired a Federal salute of fifteen rounds, and then the sixteenth in honor of New Connecticut. We gave three cheers and christened the place Fort Indepen- dence. Drank several toasts, viz :

Ist. The President of the United States.

2nd. The State of New Connecticut.

3rd. The Connecticut Land Company.

4th. May the Port of Independence and the fifty sons and daughters who have entered it this day be successful and prosperous.

5th. May these sons and daughters multiply in sixteen years sixteen times fifty.

6th. May every person have his bowsprit trimmed and ready to enter every port that opens.

Closed with three cheers. Drank several pails of grog, supped, and retired in remarkably good order.

On the next day two boats were dispatched under the direction of Tinker to Fort Erie to fetch the remainder of the stores. On the 7th an interview was had with a deputation of the Massasagoes Indians, under chief Paqua, who wished to ascertain the settlers' intentions with respect to themselves, they being the occupants of the land in the vicinity of Conneaut. Gen- eral Cleaveland reassured them as to the inten- tions of the party, and gave them some pres- ents, including the inevitable whisky, at the same time warning them against indolence and drunkeness, "which checked their begging for more whisky."

The surveyors then began the main work of the expedition. Proceeding to the south line of the Reserve, they first "ascertained the point where the forty-first degree of north lat- tude intersects the western line of Pennsyl- vania, and from this line of latitude as a base, meridian lines five miles apart were run north to the lake. Lines of latitude were then run five miles apart, thus dividing the Reserve into townships five miles square. As the lands ly- ing west of the Cuyahoga remained in pos- session of the Indians until the treaty of Fort Industry, in 1805 the Reserve was not sur- veyed at this time further west than to the

HISTORY OF MAHONING COUNTY

Cuyahoga and the portage between it and the Tuscarawas, a distance west from the western line of Pennsylvania of fifty-six miles. The remainder of the Reserve was surveyed in 1806. The surveyors began, as we have seen, at the southeast corner of the Reserve, and ran par- allel lines north from the base line and parallel lines west from the Pennsylvania line five miles apart. The meridian lines formed the ranges, and the lines of latitude the townships."

The said beginning point is the southeast corner of Poland township in Mahoning county.

QUANTITY OF LAND IN THE RESERVE.

Land east of the Cuyahoga, exclu-

sive of the Parsons tract in acres 2,002,970 Land west of the Cuyahoga, exclu- sive of surplus land, islands, and sufferers' lands. 827,29I

Surplus land, so-called

5,286

Islands

5,924

Parsons', or Salt Spring Tract 25,450

Sufferers, or Fire Lands

500,000

Total acres in Connecticut Western

Reserve

3,366,92I

THE EQUALIZING COMMITTEE.

The method in which the land was divided is so clearly and succinctly described in the History of Trumbull and Mahoning Counties (Cleveland, 1882), that we shall close this chapter with a partial transcription of the account of that work.

"After this survey was completed the Land Company, in order that the share holders might share equitably as nearly as possible the lands of the Reserve, or to avoid the likelihood of a part of the shareholders drawing the best, and others the medium, and again others the poor- est of the lands, appointed an equalizing com- mittee, whose duties we shall explain.

"The amount of the purchase money, $1,- 200,000, was divided into four hundred shares, each share value being $3,000. The holder of

one share, therefore, had one four-hundredth undivided interest in the whole tract, and he who held four or five or twenty shares had four or five or twenty times as much interest undivided in the whole Reserve as he who held but one. As some townships would bemoreval- uable than others, the company adopted, at a meeting of shareholders, at Hartford, Conn., in April, 1796, a mode of making partition, and appointed a committee of equalization to divide the Reserve in accordance with the Company's plan. The committee appointed were Daniel Holbrook, William Sheppard, Jr., Moses Warren, Jr., Seth Pease, and Amos Spafford.

"The Directors of the Company

selected six townships to be offered for sale to actual settlers alone, and in which the first improvements were designed to be made. The townships thus selected were numbers eleven in the sixth range; ten, in the ninth range; nine in the tenth range; eight, in the eleventh range; seven, in the twelfth range; and two, in the second range. These townships are now known as Madison, Mentor, and Willoughby, in Lake County ; Euclid and Newburg, in Cuyahoga County; and Youngstown, in Mahoning. Number three, in the third range, or Weathers- field, in Trumbull County, was omitted from the first draft made by the company, owing to the uncertainty of the boundaries of Mr. Par- sons' claim. This township has sometimes been called the Salt Spring township. The six townships above named were offered for sale before partition was made and parts of them were sold. Excepting the Parsons claim and the seven townships above named, the remain- der of the Reserve east of Cuyahoga was di- vided among the members of the company as follows :

MODE OF PARTITION.

"The four best townships in the eastern part of the Reserve were selected and surveyed into lots, an average of one hundred lots to the township. As there were four hundred shares, the four townships would yield one lot for

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

each holder or holders of one or more shares every share. When these lots were drawn, participated in the draft. The committee se- lected township eleven in range seven, and townships five, six, and seven, in range eleven, for the four best townships. These are Perry, in Lake County, Northfield, in Summit County, Bedford and Warrenville, in Cuya- hoga County.

"Then the committee proceeded to select from the remaining townships certain other townships that should be next in value to the four already selected, which were to be used for equalizing purposes. The tracts thus se- lected, being whole townships and parts of townships are now known as Au- burn, Newbury, Munson, Cardon, Bainbridge, Russell and Chester townships, in Geauga County; Concord and Kirtland, in Lake County ; Springfield and Twinsburg, in Sum- mit County ; Solon, Orange and Mayfield, in Cuyahoga County. The fractional townships are Conneaut gore, Ashtabula gore, Saybrook gore, Geneva, Madison gore, Painesville, Wil- loughby gore, Independence, Coventry and Portage.

"After this selection had been made they selected the average townships, to the value of each of which each of the others should be brought by the equalizing process of annexa- tion. The eight best of the remaining town- ships were taken. *

* * They are now known as Poland, in Mahoning County ; Hart- ford, in Trumbull County ; Pierpont, Monroe, Conneaut, Saybrook and Harpersfield, in Ash- tabula County; and Parkman, in Geagua County. These were the standard townships, and all the other townships of inferior value to these eight, which would include all the others not mentioned above, were to be raised to the standard value of the average townships by annexations from the equalizing townships. These last named were cut up into parcels of various sizes and values, and annexed to the inferior townships in such a way as to make them all of equal value, in the opinion of the committee. When the committee had per- formed this task it was found that, with the

exception of the four townships first selected. the Parsons tract, and the townships that had been previously set aside to be sold, the whole tract would amount to an equivalent of ninety- three shares. There were, therefore, ninety- three equalized townships or parcels to be drawn for east of the Cuyahoga.

THE DRAFTS.

"To entitle a shareholder to the ownership of an equalized township, it was necessary for him to be the proprietor of $12,903.23 of the original purchase of the company, or, in other words, he must possess about three and three- tenth shares of the original purchase. The division by draft took place on the 29th of January, 1798. The townships were numbered from one to ninety-three, and the numbers, on slips of paper, placed in a box. The names of shareholders were arranged alphabetically, and in those instances in which an original invest- ment was insufficient to entitle such investor to an equalized township, he formed a com- bination with others, in like situation, and the name of that person of this combination that took alphabetic precedence was used in the draft. If the small proprietors were, from dis- agreement among themselves, unable to unite, a committee was appointed to select and classify them, and those selected were compelled to sub- mit to this arrangement. If. after they had drawn a township, they could not agree in dividing it between them, this committee, or another one appointed for that purpose, divided it for them. That township designated by the first number drawn belonged to the first man on the list, and the second drawn belonged to the second man, and so on until all were drawn. Thus was the ownership in common served, and each individual secured his interest in severalty. John Morgan, John Caldwell. and Jonathn Brace, the trustees, as rapidly as partition was effected, conveyed by deed to the several purchasers the land they had drawn.

"The second draft was made in 1802, and was for such portions of the seven townships omitted in the first draft as remained at that time unsold. This draft was divided into

HISTORY OF MAHONING COUNTY

ninety shares, representing $13,333.33 of the purchase money.

"The third draft was made in 1807, and was for the lands lying west of the Cuyahoga, and was divided into forty-six parts, each rep- resenting $26.687.

"The fourth draft was made in 1809, at which time the surplus land, so-called, was di- vided, including sundry notes and claims aris- ing from sales that had been effected of the seven townships omitted in the first draw- ing."

CHAPTER XII

THE SETTLEMENT OF OHIO

Land Bounties-The Ohio Company-Founding of Marietta-Abundance of Game-The Moravian Settlements-Founding of Columbia, Cincinnati, and North Bend-Floods Damage the Settlements-The Scioto Land Swindle-The Virginia Military District.

At the time the Connecticut Land Company were engaged in surveying their purchase, there were several other settlements in a more or less satisfactory condition of progress along the banks of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers. Immediately on the close of the Revolutionary War, thousands of the disbanded soldiers and officers who had been reduced to poverty in the long and arduous struggle for independence looked anxiously to the Western lands for new homes, or as a means of repairing their shat- ered fortunes. Their thoughts had been turned in this direction by the several acts passed by Congress in 1776, and subsequently during the war, providing for land bounties to the Con- tinental soldiers, in quantities proportional to their rank in the service. Thus, a major-gen- eral was entitled to eleven hundred acres, a brigadier-general to eight hundred and fifty, a colonel to five hundred, a lieutenant-colonel to four hundred and fifty, a major four hun- dred, a captain three hundred, a lieutenant two hundred, an ensign one hundred and fifty, and privates and non-commissioned officers one hundred acres each. Those who lived in the South were fortunate in having ready access to the lands of Kentucky, Tennessee, and the back parts of Georgia; but owing to the dis- putes in Congress over the lands of the North-

west, which long delayed the surveys and bounties, the Northern soldiers almost lost hope. A strong memorial was presented to Congress in June, 1783, asking for a grant of the lands between the Ohioand Lake Erie. An ordinance for the survey of the public lands west of the Ohio River was passed by Congress two years later, and provided for the system of rectangular surveys by sections, townships, and ranges. The first surveyor-general was Thomas Hutchins, a man of high scientific at- tainments, who had served in the West as an officer of engineers in the Sixtieth British In- fantry. Assisted by Rittenhause, the official geographer of Pennsylvania, he established a base line extending due west from the point where the north bank of the Ohio River is intersected by the west line of Pennsylvania, and upon this laid out the Seven Ranges which were the beginning of the land system of the United States. General Rufus Putnam of Massachusetts, who had taken a leading part in preparing the memorial, to which reference has been made, was appointed by that body one of the surveyors; but having work of a similar nature to do in Maine for the state of Massachusetts, he obtained the appointment of General Benjamin Tupper temporarily in his place. From Tupper General Putnam subse-

HISTORY OF MAHONING COUNTY

quently received so favorable an account of the country as to cause him to enter with great earnestness into a plan of western colonization.

THE OHIO COMPANY.

A meeting of officers and soldiers, chiefly of the Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Con- necticut lines, was held at Boston on March Ist, 1786, at which a new Ohio Company was formed, in shares of $1,000, for the purchase and settlement of Western lands. The direc- tors, General Putnam, General Samuel H. Par- sons, and Rev. Manasseh Cutler, selected for their purchase the lands on the Ohio River situated on both sides of the Muskingum and just west of the Seven Ranges. It had been provided by Congress that the Continental currency in which the soldiers had received their pay, and which had greatly depreciated during the war, should be accepted at its par value in payment for public lands. There were many delays before the grant was finally rati- fied by Congress. Some months were spent in waiting for a quorum of that body to assemble, and even after Congress had passed the ordin- ance, a long and tedious game of politics had to be played before the contract for the pur- chase was finally signed. The chief question at issue was the appointment of officers for the territory. The company wanted General Par- sons for Governor, while there was a strong counter influence in favor of General St. Clair, who was then president of Congress, but who seems to have taken no active part in advanc- ing his own interests. Dr. Cutler, who repre- sented the company, had also to contend against the influence of several rival companies of speculators in Western lands, one of which, composed of a number of prominent New York citizens, was represented by Colonel William Duer, then Secretary of the Treasury Board. A secret arrangement was at last effected whereby St. Clair was made governor of the territory and the domain of the Ohio Company was enlarged by an addition of land on the west side for the benefit of the New York as- sociates. After some further delay on the part of Congress the contract for the purchase was

finally signed October 27, 1787, by the Treas- ury Board, with Dr. Cutler and Winthrop Sar- gent as agents of the Ohio Company.

THE FOUNDING OF MARIETTA.

In the following months of December and January, two companies, including surveyors, boat-builders, farmers, carpenters, and labor- ers, were sent forward under the leadership of General Putnam. Uniting on the Youghio- gheny River, they constructed boats, in which after having embarked their stores, they de- scended the Ohio River, and on the 7th of April, 1788, landed at the Muskingum. On the upper point, opposite Fort Harmar, they founded their town, which in July following received the name of Marietta, in honor of the French Queen, Marie Antoinette, the word being a compound of the first and last syllables of the Queen's name. On the arrival of Gov- ernor St. Clair, which took place on July 17th, the government of the Northwest territory was formally installed, Washington County, with its courts and officers, was established, and by the end of the year the little capital had a popu- lation of one hundred and thirty-two men, be- sides women and children. To these were ad- ded in the following year one hundred and fifty-two men, fifty-seven of them with families. Major Denny, one of the army of- ficers stationed at Fort Harmar, thus describes these settlers in his diary :

"These men from New England, many of whom are of the first respectability, old Revo- lutionary officers, erected and are now living in huts immediately opposite us. A consider- able number of industrious farmers purchased shares in the company, and more or less arrive every week. * These people appear the most happy folk in the world, greatly satis- fied with their new purchase. They certainly are the best informed, most courteous and civil strangers of any I have yet met with. The order and regularity observed by all, their sober deportment, and perfect submission to the constituted authorities, must tend much to promote their settlements.

The population of Marietta was still furth-

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

er increased in 1790, owing to the survey and distribution of the Ohio Company's lands, so that the place could now boast of eighty houses. Settlements were extended to Belpre, to New- bury, twelve or fifteen miles down the Ohio, and to Big Bottom, about thirty miles up the Muskingum. In January, 1791, there were in all these settlements some 280 men capable of bearing arms. The danger from Indians was proved by the destruction in that month of the settlement at Big Bottom by a party of Dela- wares and Wyandots. Strong block houses were erected at each of these points and all pos- sible measures were adopted to ensure the safety of these infant communities.

THE ABUNDANCE OF GAME.

The settlers werein no danger from hunger. . The land in which they had cast their lot was veritably a land flowing with milk and honey. The soil was rich, and produced abundant crops ; fruit was soon successfully cultivated. and fish, flesh and fowl were to be had in incon- ceivable quantities. Buffalo, deer and bear were numerous ; geese, ducks and pigeons were everywhere in immense flocks, and the rivers fairly swarmed with fish. A story is told by Captain May of a pike weighing 100 pounds that was served up at the Fourth of July bar- becue, and it was no uncommon thing to catch catfish sixty to eighty pounds in weight.

THE MORAVIAN SETTLEMENTS.

Marietta was the first permanent settlement on the soil of Ohio. Other white settlements, however, which it is necessary to mention, had been previously made by the Moravian mission- aries, who in 1772, planted villages on the banks of the Tuscarawas river, and devoted themselves to the conversion of the Indians, , in which work they were remarkably success- ful; their earnest, true, and simple character, with their sweet devotional music, made a great impression on many of the savages. The population of their villages on the Tuscarawas and Muskingum rivers at the close of 1775, numbered over four hundred persons. That

they were peculiarly adapted to the work in which they were engaged is shown, not only by the number of their converts, which was large, but by the conduct of the Christianized Indians, who repeatedly, in spite of great provocations, refused to go upon the war path, refrained from drunkenness, showed hospital- ity to their enemies, and cheerfully cultivated other Christian virtues. They included in their ranks a number of distinguished chiefs.

Lord Dunmore's war, and, above all, the Revolutionary War, proved disastrous to the Moravian missions. Situated on a line be- tween Pittsburg and Detroit, they lay directly in the path of hostilities. Marauding parties were constantly passing that way. In the death of White Eyes, head war-chief of the Dela- wares, they lost a powerful and influential friend, and their misfortunes were increased by the arrival at Goschocking (or Coshocton ), one of their settlements on the Muskingum, of the frontier desperadoes McKee. Elliott and Simon Girty. These men, who had escaped from imprisonment at Pittsburg as spies and secret agents of the Tory cause, spread false re- ports among the Indians against the Moravians and instigated two attempts to assassinate Zeis- berger, the leader of the missionaries.

In 1780, some American militia, part of a force that had been sent out under Col. Broad- head from Pittsburg to surpress a hostile rising on the Muskingum, attempted to destroy the Moravian missions, under the impression, which seemed to be general among the lower class of whites on the frontier, that the mission- aries were secretly their foes, and were with difficulty prevented from doing so by a detach- ment of their comrades under Colonel Shepard of Wheeling.

In the following year the missionaries were made to feel the hostility of the British com- mandant at Detroit, who had ascertained that they were friendly to the American cause, and were even in correspondence with American officials to the prejudice of British interests. Through the agency of the Six Nations, who delegated their task to the Wyandots (the work having been first declined by the Ottawas and Chippewas), and assisted by Elliott, Girty

HISTORY OF MAHONING COUNTY

and McKee, the missionaries were seized early in September, their houses pillaged, their fam- ilies turned out of doors and their books and papers destroyed. The Christian Indians were also robbed, and a famous Delaware chief among them-Glickhican-arrested. Though no blood was spilled on this occasion, the Wyan- dots having accepted their task reluctantly, the people suffered greatly during the following winter from exposure and famine. In the spring of the next year, 1782, a party of ninety- six Christian Delawares-men and women- while on a peaceable errand, were treacherously decoyed into two houses, shut up and merci- lessly slaughtered, by a force of ninety men from the Ohio under one David Williamson, who passed for Colonel. About two months later another expedition under Colonel William Crawford, a worthy man who, without any de- sire or effort on his part, had been elected to command over Williamson, was sent out for the purpose of destroying what was left of the Moravian Indians at Sandusky, and also to lay waste the Wyandot towns. This force was ambushed and utterly routed by a party of Wyandots. Williamson, who had accompanied the expedition in a subordinate capacity, es- caped with a part of the force. Colonel Craw- ford was taken prisoner and fell into the hands of Chief Pipe, who in rage for the massacre of the Christian Indians, whom he had for some time protected, caused him to be tortured and burned at the stake. This was the end of the Moravian missions on the Muskingum. Though the pious founders lingered for some time about the scenes of their early labors and successes, their triumphs were over ; the partly civilized Indian communities which they had built up were forever scattered and gone. But in spite of their failure, their work at any rate "was unexcelled as an attempt to bring the Indian and white races on this continent into just co-ordination." Says Rufus King (Ohio: American Commonwealth Series), "That these missions, though not enduring, as sometimes imputed, were none the less the primordial establishment of Ohio, is as true as that Plym- outh was the beginning of Massachusetts. Neither lasted long, but that was no fault of

the Moravians. Plymouth, though equally obso- lete, is proudly commemorated by the sons of Missachusetts. The Moravians may justly be remembered and honored as the pilgrims of Ohio."

FOUNDING OF COLUMBIA, CINCINNATI AND NORTH BEND.

The settlements by the Ohio Land Com- pany on the Ohio and Muskingum rivers were followed by others along the Ohio, the Scioto and the Miamis, but by a different class of set- tlers from the sturdy, sober, New England pioneers who had begun the work of civiliza- tion in the southeastern part of the territory. These latter were of substantially the same stock as those on the Reserve, and founded a very similar society, identical in all its leading fea- tures and having as a mutual goal the same moral politicalideals. Thefirst settlers on the Miamis came, as it chanced, from New Jersey. Benjamin Stites, or Stiles, a trader from that State, who had joined a party of Kentuckians in a chase after some thieving Indians, after the party had given up the pursuit, crossed over with them to the Big Miami, and obtained a view of the rich valleys formed by these rivers. On his return home he immediately confided his discovery to Mr. John Cleves Symmes and other men of influence. Symmes, after himself making a trip down the Ohio to personally in- vestigate the truth of Stites' story, organized a company of associates somewhat similar to the Ohio company, which included General Jonathan Dayton, Elias Boudinot, and Dr. Witherspoon, as well as Stites. On August 29, 1787, Congress was petitioned for a grant to the association of all the lands on the Ohio, between the Miamis, to be bounded on the north by an extension of the north line of the Ohio Company. In October this petition was referred to the Treasury Board, but without waiting for the result Symmes proceeded as though the bargain were closed. After giving Stites a covenant for 10,000 acres, at five shill- ings an acre, he issued, November 26th, a lengthy and high-sounding prospectus in which he depicted the advantages of settlement in the

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Century history of Youngstown and Mahoning County, Ohio, and representative citizens, 20th, Part 10

Author: Sanderson, Thomas W., comp Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1074

Author: Sanderson, Thomas W., comp
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1074