USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Cincinnati in 1841 : its early annals and future prospects > Part 15
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25
200
PIONEER SKETCHES.
they made a stop, intending to proceed to the old fort without much loss of time. But the floating ice which they had run clear of while they kept under weigh, soon came down upon them, and forced their boats from the shore, first carrying away the broadside of one of them; with much difficulty it was that any of the stock of the settlers in that boat was saved. Many creatures were drowned, and most of the pro- visions of the settlers who had undertaken to supply the par- ty were lost entirely. This broke up the intended lodgement at the old fort.
In the mean time, I had several expresses sent me from Mr. Stites, informing me that the Indians came frequently in at his block-houses, expressing great desires to see me, who, they understood, was coming to live in the Miami coun- try; and they wished to live in peace and friendship with their new white brothers. This the Indians had done previ- ous to any pacific conclusions come into at the treaty of Mus- kingum. The measures which the Indians took to introduce themselves at the block-house were a little dangerous and sin- gular. They had first espied captain Stites's boats lying at the bank of the river, opposite the block-house, as they have since informed me. On holding a council at their hunting camp, which was about six miles north-west of the Ohio, they concluded to introduce themselves to our acquaintance rather as friends than as enemies, To this they were wholly en- couraged by the lenity which had been shown by me to one of their camps on the Great Miami, in September last, which adventure I have already communicated. They had with them a white man, by the name of George, who was a good inter- preter of their language ; he had been ten or twelve years a prisoner with them, yet spoke the English language very well. George was therefore sent down to the block-house, as near as he and one Indian dare to go, and hallooed to our peo- ple, who were at work at their fortifications. George called out, in English, for some of them to come to him; but those who heard him supposed him to be one of their own party,
201
PIONEER SKETCHES.
and paid no regard to George's call. At length, one answer- ed, in a blackguarding manner, asking him why he did not come to them, if he had any thing to say? This induced George and his companion to retreat again to their camp. The next step was in this sort: six of them, armed and mounted on horseback, made towards the block-house, in or- der to take a prisoner. They soon fell in with the fresh trace of three of the surveyors' hands, who were out a hunting. They rode down the trail, and came up with the three men, who first fled at the sight of the Indians, but soon found it impossible to escape ; when they prepared to make resistance. Robert Hamson and Joseph Cox, of Sussex county, New Jer -. . sey, were two of them. On Hamson's presenting his rifle at the foremost Indian, the Indian took off his cap, trailing his gun, and holding out his right hand : while George called to the white men not to fire upon them, for they were friends, and did not wish to hurt them; begging to be led by them to the block-house. This was agreed to, and the whole nine came in together to captain Stites. This was so unexpected a visit from the Indians that the people at the block-house were much at a loss in what point of view to consider it. Some thought the Indians came in only as spies, to view their strength ; others thought more favorably, and believed the Indians sincere in their peaceable professions. A few days' acquaintance discarded the fears of the former, and the white and red people began to form a sociable neighborhood: our hunters frequently taking shelter for the night at the Indian camps; and the Indians, with their squaws, spending whole days and nights at the block-house, regaling themselves with whiskey. This important piece of information captain Stites communicated, as I before observed, to me at Limestone, by two messengers sent on foot up the banks of the Ohio.
The want of supplies, both for myself and captain Kear- sey, prevented my falling down the river, as my only resource was, what I could draw in small quantities, at an enormous price, from the small country round Limestone, and now and
202
PIONEER SKETCHES.
then a barrel or so of flour out of some boat which came down with settlers and landed at that place. I waited in this disa- greeable situation, every day expecting the arrival of a boat loaded with flour, purposely for me, which I had engaged to be delivered by Christmas ; or for a boat of supplies which I expected would be sent down from general Harmer, or the contractors, on Mr. Williams' arrival at Muskingum.
On the 24th of December last, colonel Patterson, of Lex- ington, who is concerned with Mr. Denman in the section at the mouth of Licking river, sailed from Limestone, in compa- ny with Mr. Tuttle, captain Henry, Mr. Ludlow, and about twelve others, in order to form a station and lay out a town opposite Licking. They suffered much from the inclemency of the weather and floating ice, which filled the Ohio from shore to shore. Perseverance, however, triumphing over dif- ficulty, they landed safe on a most delightful high bank of the Ohio, where they founded the town of Losantiville, which populates considerably ; but would have been much more im- portant by this time, if colonel Patterson or Mr. Denman had resided in the town. Colonel Patterson tarried about one month at Losantiville, and returned to Lexington.
Mean time, I got fresh information from captain Stites, of the impatience of the Indians to see me; they beginning to upbraid him with amusing them with falsehoods, in telling them that I should soon be there, and would supply them with the articles of trade which they wanted. Fearing the Indians would go off in disgust, I was determined to put all . at stake, destitute as I was of provisions for my own people and captain Kearsey's company. And, after collecting with much difficulty a small supply of flour and salt, on the 29th of January, I embarked with my family and furniture-cap- tain Kearsey and the remainder of his men going along with me. This season was remarkable for the amazing high fresh which was in the Ohio, being several feet higher than had · been known since the white people had introduced themselves into Kentucky.
203
PIONEER SKETCHES.
I embarked with the bow of my boat even with the high bank on which my house, at that place, is built. When we arrived at Columbia, I found the place deluged in water; but one house on a higher spot of ground escaped. The soldiers had been driven from the ground-floor of their block-house into the loft, and from the loft into a boat which they had wisely preserved from the destruction of the previous ice, and the then raging torrent of the Ohio ; we tarried but one night, and proceeded to Losantiville ; there the water began to ebb,- though the town had suffered nothing from the fresh. On the second of February, I fell down to this place, whence I now write. From the time of my first arrival in September last, I had remained in a great degree ignorant of the plot of ground at the old fort. I had been but once on the spot; and then expecting so soon to return to Miami, did not inform myself fully of the ground proposed for the city. Through the win- ter, I had been frequently told that the point overflowed.
Finding Columbia under water, I did not think it proper to go as far down as the old fort, before I had informed myself whether the ground was eligible for a town or not. This, to- gether with two other considerations, viz .: first, that of being more in the way of the surveyors, who could not have access to me, but at the trouble of walking ten miles farther, in going down into the neck of land on which the old fort stands, and returning to the body of their work, than they otherwise would have occasion to do, if I landed here : the other, which in re- ality was the principal, was this; from the river, elevated as I was in my boat, by the height of the water, I could observe that the river hills appeared to fall away, in such a manner, that no considerable rise appeared between the Ohio and the Great Miami. I knew the distance across the neck did not much, if any, exceed a mile to the Great Miami, and flattered myself with the prospect of finding a good tract of ground, extending from river to river, on which the city might be built with more propriety, than it would be to crowd it so far down in the point, from the body of the country round it. I was,
204
PIONEER SKETCHES.
for these reasons, determined to make my first lodgement in the most northerly bend of the river, where the distance is the least, and the lands the lowest, over to the Miami; when I ar- rived at the place, the banks were inviting from their secure appearance from the then fresh in the Ohio. We landed about three of the clock in the afternoon, with captain Kearsey and his whole company, which had joined him at Columbia. That afternoon, we raised what in this country is called a camp, by setting two forks of saplings in the ground, a ridge- pole across, and leaning boat-boards, which I had brought from Limestone, one end on the ground and the other against the ridge-pole: enclosing one end of the camp, and leaving the other open to the weather for a door, where our fire was made to fence against the cold, which was now very intense. In this hut I lived six weeks, before I was able to erect myself a log-house, and cover it, so as to get into the same with my family and property. Captain Kearsey and his company land- ed with me at this place, though he urged to go to the old fort ; and ever afterwards seemed displeased that I would go no fur- ther down the river. The next day after I landed, I sent cap- tain Henry and Daniel Symmes, to examine the ground over to the Great Miami; they reported, that the neck of land was considerably broken with hills and small streams of water, in such a manner as to forbid the laying out of the city from the Ohio to that river. A few days after, captain Kearsey, captain Henry and myself, went down in a small boat to the old fort, about four miles below, in order to explore the point on which it had been proposed to lay off the city. The river by this time had fallen about fifteen feet ; but the cold had spread a mantle of ice, six inches thick, over all the back waters while at their height, which had closed so firmly round the trees on the low bottoms of the country along the river side, as to hang like canopies projecting from the trees, for four or five feet distance. These exact marks pointed out to me, without any possible mistake, the degrees to which the lowlands had been overflowed at that point. I found that the fine large bottom
205
PIONEER SKETCHES.
of land lying quite down in the point, had been all covered to the depth of many feet, as a great part thereof was still under water. I went over from the old fort to the pond on Miami, and examined the whole point downwards ; but am obliged to own that I was exceedingly disappointed in the plat which we had intended for a city. I enclose you a map, particularly of that part, that the proprietors may be made the more sensible of the quality of the ground, which to me appeared beyond dispute, altogether ineligible. Being now quite at a loss where to lay out the city, as I had been twice disappointed, I resolv- ed, therefore, without more loss of time, to lay out a number of house-lots in order to form a village on the spot where we were ; the ground being very proper for a project of that kind on a small scale. Forty-eight lots of one acre each were ac- cordingly laid off, every other one of which I proposed to give away, retaining one for each proprietor, upon condition only of the donees building immediately thereon. These twenty- four donation lots were soon taken up, and further applications being made, I have extended the village up and down the Ohio, until it forms a front one mile and an half on the river ; in which are more than one hundred lots ; on forty of which, observing the order of every other lot, there is a comfortable log-cabin built and covered with shingles or clapboards, and other houses are still on hand, so that there remain not three donation lots unappropriated. This village I have called Northbend, from its being situated in the most northerly bend of the Ohio, that there is between the Muskingum and the Mississipi. Northbend being so well improved by the build- ings already erected and making, and fresh applications every few days, being made to me for house-lots, I was induced to lay off another village, about seven miles up the Ohio from Northbend, being one mile in front on the river. The ground was very eligible for the purpose, and I would have continued farther up and down the river, but was confined between two reserved sections. This village I call Southbend, from its being contiguous to the most southerly point of land in the
S
206
PIONEER SKETCHIES.
purchase. In this village several houses are almost finished, and others begun; and I make no doubt that the whole of the donation lots will soon be occupied, if we remain in safety.
I have not as yet been able to make a decisive choice of a plat for the city, though I have found two pieces of ground, both eligible for a city ; but not upon the present plan of a re- gular square : on both a town must, if built, be thrown into an oblong of six blocks or squares by four. One of these plats lies east of this about three miles, on the Ohio, a little above Muddy creek; the other lies north about the same dis- tance, on the bank of the Great Miami, in a large bend of the river, which you will observe on the map, about twelve miles up the Miami from its mouth. It is a question of no little moment and difficulty to determine which of these spots are preferable, in point of local situation. I know that, at first thought, most men will decide in favor of that on the Ohio; from the supposition that the Ohio will command more trade and business than the Miami. I will readily grant that more trade will be passing up and down the Ohio, and many more boats constantly plying on a river which is eleven hundred miles in length. But some objections arise to this spot, not- withstanding. You must know, sir, that a number of towns are building on the banks of the Ohio, from Pittsburg to Louis- ville, and even further down the river; every one of these will be aiming at some importance. When a boat is freighted at any of the upper towns on the Ohio, unless the merchants in our city will give the Orleans price, or near it, for their produce or cargo, the merchants of the upper towns will not fail to proceed down the river to the highest market. And as merchants will be strewed all along the Ohio, they will have the same advantage of navigation in all respects with ours. But a more important objection lies to this spot on the Ohio, from its distance from the Great Miami. The extent of country spreading for many miles on both sides of the Great Miami, is, beyond all dispute, equal, I believe superior, in point of soil, water and timber, to any tract of equal contents to be found
207
PIONEER SKETCHES.
in the United States. From this Egypt on Miami, in a very few years, will be poured down its stream to the Ohio, the products of the country from two hundred miles above the mouth of the Great Miami, which may be principally col- lected at a trading town low down the banks of that river; here, no rival city or town can divide the trade of the river. The body of the Miami settlers will have their communica- tions up and down the Great Miami, both for imports and ex- ports. They cannot work their corn and flour boats eight or nine miles up the Ohio, from the mouth of the Great Miami, should the city be built above Muddy creek. But were it built on the Miami, the settlers throughout the purchase would find it very convenient. At Northbend a sufficient number of merchants may, and no doubt will settle, so as to command all the share of trade on the Ohio; half an hour's gallop of three miles brings you to the city plat on the Miami. One mile's portage is all the space that lies between the Miami and Northbend ; and I have already marked out a road across, which is not only tolerable, but exceedingly good, if you make allowance for the hills which it winds through; then two miles by water up the Miami brings heavy articles from the Ohio to the city. The farmers, to come only down the Great Miami to the city plat on that river, and return with their boats freighted, will save them each trip several days, which they must lose if they have to double the point and climb the Ohio to Muddy creek. I know well that the point itself would do best of all, with regard to trade, were there to be found an eligible spot for the city; but this I pronounce very impracticable, unless you raise her, like Venice, out of the water, or get on the hills with the town. There is only ground for one street between the hill and wet land, and this is hardly half a mile in length. A small village is all that I can flatter myself with at the point, if we allow more of a lot than barely to set a house on. It is true, a few industrious families there situated may do much business in the trading line, when they have stock; and perhaps it will do well to
208
PIONEER SKETCHES.
lay out a village there of about forty-eight or fifty lots ; but this I submit to the proprietors' pleasure, begging leave to make one observation only on the subject. Broken and hilly as the neck of land is, from the Northbend to the point, it beggars all description in point of excellence of soil and the wild grass with which it is so luxuriantly clothed. The con- tents of the neck I suppose to be about three thousand acres ; one mile of fence secures it against all manner of tame stock ; of this three thousand acres not less than one thousand is first rate meadow land ; about another third is quite capable of til- lage, and level enough for plowing ; the remainder is heavily timbered, but of the richer growths, not so proper for rails as fuel ; yet even this least valuable third part is now, and forever will be, clad with the richest pastures of wild and tame grass ; the latter is gaining very fast at the point round the old fort ; the genuine spear grass stood there last September as high as a man's waist.
These favorable properties attending the neck induces me to wish that the whole may be reserved as a common manor for the proprietors, under such regulations as shall be liberal for the encouragement of strangers who come to settle in the re- served township. Montauk point, on Long Island, invaluable as it has always been to the inhabitants of East Hampton, may be in a few years rivalled, in many respects, by Miami point. As a pasture for feeding cattle and horses, as a com- mon field either for mowing or plowing, its worth to those who may hereafter purchase shares therein will be great in- deed, as one mile of fence will be their whole expense of se- curing its products. My voice is, therefore, loud for its being converted into a manor for the general good ; but I submit it to the proprietors, and shall obey their pleasure. The quality of the lands throughout the reserved township is exceeding good; and though they are, (excepting a few bottoms,) gene- rally more or less hilly, yet I have not seen fifty acres togeth- er, of the most broken of this township, on which an indus- trious man could not get a comfortable living. I have caused
209
PIONEER SKETCHES.
the whole of the township and fraction to be surveyed; and again split the sections east of the path from this to Miami into half miles, and caused a stake to be well set in the ground every forty poles at every corner. This prepares the work for a division of lots into ten, thirty and sixty acres, to each proprie- tor and purchaser, in proportion as he makes himself interested.
The suspense I am in touching the city plat embarrasses me a little, with regard to the laying out of the one hundred acre lots, for so I call (though not properly) the ten, thirty, and sixty acre lots. The ten acres I shall throw round the villages and city in the nearest manner I can; they are al- ready laid out round Northbend, the thirty comes next, and the sixty farthest off. I shall not be too impatient to lay off the thirty acre lots, unless they may be more wanted than at present. The house lots and the ten acre lots are as much as any of the settlers can cultivate this season ; and I shall wait in hopes that some of the proprietors ere long will come out to my assistance, with fresh instructions for me. As it is un- certain where the city will be built, and whether the point may be reserved for the purpose of a manor or not, I shall be cautious how I set apart particular lots of land until these matters are settled by the proprietors.
There is another question relative to the villages which I have laid out that I would be glad to have resolved: this is, whether I may sell the proprietors' every other lot or not? If my advice may have any weight with the gentlemen pro- prietors, when they meet, it is this : let the owner of each propriety empower some person to elect one lot in each vil- lage for the proprietor, and suffer the other lots to be sold at a certain moderate price. It will encourage emigrants to settle among us. Many come here who had rather pay for a lot in the middle of the village, than accept of one gratis at either of the extremities of the town. I have been prevailed upon already to sell one, at half a joe, to a valuable citizen, rather than lose him; and there are several others who propose pur- - chasing, if I will sell at that price. I know that three pounds $ 2
210
PIONEER SKETCHES.
is too small a sum to sell these acre lots at; but I am obliged to be all things, on the score of indulgence, lest I may dis- courage the settlement, which would be truly grasping at the shadow and losing the substance.
Amazing has been the pains which many in Kentucky have taken to prejudice strangers against the Miami settlement. The cause has principally been owing to the piques of disap- pointment.
Last September many land jobbers from Kentucky, came into the purchase and applied for lands, and actually pointed out on paper where they wished to take them. I gave them time to the first of November to make payment for one half ; and to the present month of May for the other half. The sur- veying and registering fees were to be paid at the time of the first half. Some of them agreed to give an advanced price in consideration that I would wait till May, come twelve months, for the purchase money. This I was content to do on their paying the surveying fees by the first of November, and allow- ing interest on the principal sum until paid. 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 diso- bliged me that I have been very indifferent ever since, whether one of them came into the purchase or not, as I found them very ungovernable and seditious ; not to be awed or persua- ded. 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. These pretending purchasers, neglecting to pay me one farthing until January, and the surveying business suffer- ing greatly by the want of the fees, I was induced to publish an advertisement in the Lexington Gazette, requiring of all those purchasers, payment of the surveying fees by the first of February, and of one half of the purchase money by the first of March, and the residue-by the first of May, ensuing ;
211
PIONEER SKETCHES.
or I should consider all negotiations for land void, wherein they did not comply herewith, or give the advanced price on a longer credit. Very few, indeed, have complied ; the others have endeavored to asperse my character, and throw the rea- sons of their noncompliance on me. But, let the world judge whether it is even probable that they had either intention or ability to accomplish the payment for seventeen townships, the contents of what they had dexterously located, as they called it, in the space of a very few days. The truth is, mak- ing a few exceptions of very worthy characters from the dis- - trict of Kentucky, the most of them had no other views than speculation, as appeared soon after their return home ; from their selling to their neighbors the privilege of taking a part of what they had located, and becoming accountable to me for the purchase money. Finding themselves disappointed in their views, and no longer able to prosecute their plans of sel- ling what they never had an intention of making their own, and driving the same game they have long followed in Ken- tucky, many have vented their spleen in abuses and calum- nies, both of me and of the country within the purchase ; en- deavoring to prevent every person they can from coming to Miami. At Limestone they assert with an air of assurance, that the Miami country is despicable, that many of the inhabi- tants are killed, the settlers all fled who have escaped the tomahawk, adjuring those bound to the falls of Ohio, not to call at the Miamis, for that they would certainly be destroyed . by the Indians. With these falsehoods, they have terrified about thirty families, who had come down the river with a design of settling at Miami, and prevailed with them to land at Limestone, and go into Kentucky. But, however, they are not able to frustrate the settlement altogether. Every week, almost every day, some people arrive at one or other of our towns, and become purchasers and settlers. And I trust that the effect of their malevolence will very soon vanish like a fog. Many persons who have been with us, made pur- chases, built houses, and are fully satisfied and much pleased
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.