USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Extracts from the history of Cincinnati and the territory of Ohio, showing the trials and hardships of the pioneers in the early settlement of Cincinnati and the West > Part 2
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"WHEREAS, Congress, by the resolutions of the 22d day of October, 1787, directed the Commission of the Treasury Board to contract with John
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C. Symmes for all the lands lying between the two Miami Rivers to a certain line which forms the north bend thereof, these may certify that if Captain Benjamin Stites shall raise certificates to pay for 20,000 acres of the same, or any larger quantity, he shall have it at the price agreed with the Treasury Board, which is five shillings per acre, making payment therefor, and in all things conforming to the conditions of the contract, with the Treasury Board, and also with the articles or conditions of the sale and settlement of the land, which will be published by John C. Symmes. On Captain Stites purchasing 20,000 acres, or any larger quantity, he shall have the privilege of appoint- ing one surveyor to assist in running out the country, so far as the propor_ tion he purchases shall be to the whole contract.
"This surveyor shall be entitled to receive the same fees for his services as the other surveyors employed in that survey shall receive, as soon as credit or time of payment can be given, agreeable to the contract. Captain Stites shall have the benefit thereof as all other purchasers shall have, but this is not till after the two first payments.
[Signed. ]
"JOHN CLEVES SYMMES, "New York, 9th of November, 1787."
This was followed by another contract made at Brunswick, N. J., on December 7, 1787 :
"Captain Benjamin Stites enters 10,000 acres and the fraction on the Ohio and Little Miami Rivers, and is to take in Mr. John Carpenter as one of his company, to be on line or sections on the Ohio and Little Miami from the point, and 10,000 acres on equal lines and sections at the mill stream falling into the Ohio between the Little and Great Miamis, which, when the certificates therefor are paid and the record book open, shall be recorded to him and to such of his company as join therefor.
[Signed. ]
"JOHN C. SYMMES, "New Brunswick, 7th of December, 1787."
Then there seems to have been a supplement without date or signature :
"The last ten (10,000) thousand acres is to be taken in the following manner : Two sections at the mouth of Mill Creek, and the residue to begin four (4) miles from the Ohio up Mill Creek. Captain Stites takes four (4) sections on the Little Miami, with the fraction adjoining the ten (10,000) thousand acres where it comes to the Little Miami, and four sections with the section next above the range of township taken by Daniel -, Esq., on the Little Miami."
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On the 8th of February, 1793, Captain Stites paid in full for his land, as will appear from the following receipt :
"CINCINNATI, February the 8th, 1793.
" Received of Benjamin Stites, Esq., at different payments, certificates of debts due by the United States, to the amount of ten thousand six hundred and fifty-two dollars and twenty-three one-hundredths of a dollar, in payment for different parts of the Miami purchase lying, as may appear by location of Mr. Stites, ten thousand acres round Columbia, seven sections on the waters of Mill Creek for different people, as will appear by the Miami records, and about three or four sections in the neighborhood of Covalt's Station, and in cash orders and other articles to the amount of one hundred and fifty- eight pounds, eight shillings and eight pence, for which lands, accommo- dated to the several locations, I promise to make a deed in fee simple, as soon as I am enabled by receiving my deed from the United States.
[Signed. ] "JOHN C. SYMMES.
" Attest: JOHN S. GANO."
In the summer of 1788 Captain Stites and his party launched their broad- horn boats on the waters of the Monongahela, and started on their journey to their future homes at the mouth of the Little Miami, and arrived in July at Limestone, now Maysville, Kentucky.
There he made clap-boards for roofs of their cabins, and drew up an article of agreement (which we have not been able to find), signed by thirty persons, agreeing to form a settlement at the mouth of the Little Miami. Some of them, however, backed out on account of reports circulated, as was said by Kentuckians interested in settlements in that territory, to the effect that a large party of hostile Indians were encamped at the Miami Those who remained faithful to their contract started from Limestone on the 16th day of November, 1788, and landed below the mouth of the Miami on the 18th.
Before arriving at the mouth of the Miami they sent forward three men in a canoe as scouts to ascertain if there were any Indians there encamped ; if there were, they were to signal those in the flatboats to keep near the Ken- tucky shore and pass on without landing, and if there were no Indians found those in the canoes were to land and the flatboats were to land also. One of the three in the canoe was Hezekiah Stites, brother of Captain Benjamin Stites, who, when the canoe struck the shore, immediately jumped on the land and therefore claimed to be the first settler who landed on the site of
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Columbia. The boats all having landed and been fastened to the shore, they all joined in prayer, returning devout thanks for the safety of their perilous journey and arrival at their future home. After taking the necessary pre- cautions to prevent surprise by the Indians, they proceeded to erect a " block house" on the 19th of November in front of the present residence of Athen Stites, Esq., which is said to be the spot where they landed.
A part of the men stood guard while the others worked on the block house. On the 24th of November it was about completed, and the women and children with their goods were moved into it. In the first directory of the city of Cincinnati, published in October, 1819, the names of the "First Settlers of Columbia " are given as " Major Benjamin Stites, James H. Bailey, Hezekiah Stites, Daniel Shoemaker, Elijah Stites, Owen Owens, John S. Gano, three women, a number of small children, and several other persons whose names are forgotten.". In a work published by Robert Clarke, Esq., of Cincinnati, in 1872, and kindly furnished me by that gentlemen, the following appears as the names of "The Early Settlers of Columbia :"
James H. Bailey, Zephu Ball, Jonas Ball, James Bowman, Edward Bux- ton, W. Coleman, Benjamin Davis, David Davis, Owen Davis, Samuel Davis, Francis Dunlavy, Hugh Dunn, Isaac Ferris, John Ferris, James Flinn, Gabriel Foster, Luke Foster, John S. Gano, Mr. Newell, John Phillips, Jonathan Pitman, Benjamin F. Randolph, James Seward, William Goforth, Daniel Griffin, Joseph Grove, John Hardin, Cornelius Hurley, David Jennings, Henry Jennings, Levi Jennings, Ezekial Larned, John Mccullough, John Manning, James Mathews, Aaron Mercer, Elijah Mills, Ichabod Miller, Patrick Moore, William Moore, John Morris, Benjamin Stites, Thomas C. Wade, John Web, Wickersham.
Some of these, no doubt, made up the number of those who came down with Captain Stites. They found no Indians on their arrival; there was, however, an encampment of Indians some six miles back from the Ohio River, who soon discovered the boats of Captain Stites. They had with them a white man called "George," who had been taken prisoner twelve years before, when a boy. They sent "George" near the block house to have a talk with their white brothers. He called in English to some men at work, but they, supposing him to be one of their own party, gave him a rough answer, when he and the Indians with him fled to their encampment. In a few days afterward several engineers went out hunting, and, when some
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distance from the block house, a party of Indians on horseback discovered their trail and soon came up with them.
The engineers thought they were hostile, and prepared for defense. John Hamson and Mr. Cox leveled their guns at them, and one of the Indians trailed his gun, took off his cap, and extended his hand in a friendly manner, "George" telling Hamson not to shoot, they were friendly, and wanted to be taken to the block house. Becoming satisfied that they had no hostile intentions, they took them to the block house, and the whites and Indians soon became very friendly, the hunters lodging fre- quently in their camps when out hunting, and the Indians spending days and nights in the block house and cabins of the settlers, with their squaws and papooses, regaling themselves on "old Monongahela whiskey."
The pioneers had already suffered many hardships, to be followed by still greater trials and sufferings; of this hereafter.
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CHAPTER V.
THE PURCHASE AND SETTLEMENT OF CINCINNATI.
IN January, 1788, Mathias Denman, of Essex County, New Jersey, pur- chased of John Cleves Symmes, fractional No. 17, and section No. 18, in the fourth township, and first fractional range east of the Great Miami River, lying on the northwest side of the Ohio, opposite the mouth of the Licking River. Denman, it appears, claimed to have warrants for the section, but failed to enter them until after Judge Symmes had made his Miami Purchase of Congress, in which they were included. He paid Judge Symmes five shillings, New Jersey currency, or sixty-six and two- thirds cents, per acre, in Continental certificates for the land.
Fractional section No. 17 laid along the Ohio River, extending from the present gas works property to a point on the river south of the corner of Front and Broadway ; thence to said corner ; thence west crossing Second, Third, and Fourth Streets diagonally, to a point near the middle of the square bounded by Smith, Park, Fourth, and Fifth Streets, near the south- west corner of the Holy Trinity church and school property, which fronts on Fifth, between Smith and Park Streets; thence south through the gas works property to the Ohio River, two thousand feet west of Central Avenue.
Section No. 18 laid immediately north, and adjoining fractional No. 17, and extended north to Liberty Street.
These two sections composed the territory upon which Denman proposed to lay off a town, and from which he also proposed to establish a ferry across the Ohio to the mouth of the Licking River, in Kentucky-the latter, probably, the greater inducement to make the purchase, for the reason that the old Indian trail from Detroit to Kentucky struck the Ohio at this point; it was also where the troops under General George Rogers Clark crossed the Ohio on their raids against the Indians on the Miamis, and would, in all probability, be on the line of communication between settle- ments that would be made on the Miamis, and those already established at Lexington, Boonesboro, and other places in Kentucky, there being at that
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time no other prominent crossing between it and Limestone, now Maysville, Kentucky.
In the summer of 1788 Denman, with several other parties, left New Jersey and New York for the purpose of settling his purchase and laying off the town, arriving at Limestone in the early part of August. On the 25th of August Denman sold the undivided two-thirds interest in his purchase to Colonel Robert Patterson and John Filson, both then residing in Lexington, Kentucky, for the price, and on the terms and conditions contained in the following covenant and article of agreement :
"A covenant and agreement made and concluded this 25th day of August, 1788, between Mathias Denman, of Essex County, New Jersey State, of the one part, and Robert Patterson and John Filson, of Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky, of the other part, witnesseth: That the aforesaid Mathias Denman having made entry of a tract of land on the northwest side of the Ohio, opposite the mouth of the Licking River, in that district in which Judge Symmes has purchased from Congress, and being seized thereof by right of entry, to contain six hundred and forty acres, and the fractional parts that may pertain, does grant, bargain and sell the full two- thirds interest thereof, by an equal, undivided right, in partnership unto the said Robert Patterson and John Filson, their heirs and assigns; and upon producing indisputable testimony of his, the said Denman's indisputable right and title to the said premises, they, the said Patterson and Filson, shall pay the sum of £20, Virginia money, to the said Denman, or his heirs, or assigns, as a full remittance of money by him advanced in payment of said lands; every other institution, determination and regulation respecting the laying off of the town and establishing a ferry at and upon the premises to the result of the united advice and consent of the parties in the covenant. aforesaid, and by these presents the parties bind themselves to the perform- ance of these covenants to each other in the penal sum of £1000, specie, hereunto affixing their hands and seals, the day and year above mentioned. Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of Henry Owen, Abe McConnell.
" MATHIAS DENMAN,
" R. PATTERSON, " JOHN FILSON."
The boundaries of the purchase were as follows: Beginning at the Ohio River at the foot of Broadway, thence north to the intersection of Hunt and Liberty Streets, at the northeast corner of the property and late homestead of Hon. George H. Pendleton ; thence west along Liberty Street to a point two
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hundred feet west of Central Avenue; thence south on a parallel line to the eastern boundary to the Ohio River at the southwest corner of fractional section No. 17; thence east along the Ohio River to the place of beginning, at the foot of Broadway.
According to the land warrants held by Denman and entered in his behalf by Colonel Ludlow in 1790 and 1791, fractional No. 17 contained 107 8-10 of an acre, and section No. 18, being a complete section, contained 640 acres. The records of Hamilton County show these entries to have been made as follows :
"May 22, 1790, Israel Ludlow, on behalf of Mathias Denman, of New Jersey, presented for entry and location a warrant for 640 acres of land, by . virtue of which he locates the eighteenth section in the fourth township east of the Great Miami, in the first fractional range, being the first mile from the Ohio River, number of warrant 538."
" 1791, April 4th, Captain Israel Ludlow, on behalf of Mr. Mathias Denman, of New Jersey, presented for entry a warrant for one fraction of a section of 107 8-10 acres of land, by virtue of which he locates the seven- teenth fractional section in the fourth township east of the Great Miami, in the first fractional range of townships on the Ohio River, number of warrant 192."
Appended to this last entry on the records is the following significant note :
" Cincinnati stands partly on this fraction. There is a great deal more in this fraction than 107 8-10 acres, and nearer 160 acres, and which has not been paid for all over 107 8-10 acres."
If these warrants represent the correct number of acres in fractional No. 17 and section No. 18, there were in the purchase and original town plat 747 8-10 acres, instead of 740 acres as has been stated, making the aggre- gate cost, at five shillings, or sixty-six and two-thirds cents per acre, New Jersey currency, $498.5312. But as the payment was made in Continental certificates, worth at that time only five shillings to the pound, the actual cost in specie was $124.63, or sixteen and two-thirds cents per acre ; but the cost to Denman may have been, and probably was, much less, as he no doubt purchased these certificates at a heavy discount.
On the 6th day of September, 1788, the proprietor of the Denman tract
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issued the following notice in the Kentucky Gazette, published at that time at Lexington :
NOTICE.
The subscribers being proprietors of a tract of land opposite the mouth of the Licking River, on the northwest of the Ohio, have determined to lay off a town on that excellent situation.
The local and natural advantages speak its future prosperity, being equal, if not superior, to any on the banks of the Ohio between the Miamis.
The in-lots to be each half an acre, and the out-lots four acres, thirty of each to be given to settlers upon paying $1.50 for survey and deed of each lot. The 15th day of September is appointed for a large company to meet at Lexington and make out a road from there to the mouth of the Licking, provided Judge Symmes arrives, being daily expected. When the town is laid off lots will be given to such as may become residents before the Ist of April next.
MATHIAS DENMAN, R. PATTERSON, JOHN FILSON.
LEXINGTON, September 6, 1788.
John Filson, one of the proprietors, was a surveyor and schoolmaster, and made some pretensions to classical knowledge. He suggested that the name be Losantiville, as significant of its location. This word he com- posed of the French "ville," town or village, the Latin "anti," opposite, and the "os" mouth, L for Licking. Putting these together in a peculiar manner he formed the word " L-os-anti-ville," to signify the town or village opposite the mouth of the Licking. Although composed of words from three different languages it was, as a whole, original, and very clearly an Ameri- canism. His suggestion was accepted by the other proprietors, and Los- antiville adopted as the name of the proposed town, by which it was known until changed by General Arthur St. Clair, January 2d, 1790.
Upon this point, however, there has been considerable controversy, it having been asserted that subsequent to the death of John Filson, which occurred before the settlement was made, it was not called by that name. This assertion is evidently erroneous, for we find in the articles of agreement made between Denman, Patterson and Ludlow (proprietors after Filson's death) and those proposing to become settlers, it is called Losantiburg and Losantiville; and in the report of the drawing of the thirty in and out dona- tion lots on the 7th day of January, 1789, it is called Losantiville by the proprietors. Judge Symmes, the original purchaser of the territory between
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the Miamis, in his letters to Jonathan Dayton, of New Jersey, one of his associates, dated North Bend, May 18th, 19th and 20th, 1789, mentions the town frequently, and in every instance calls it Losantiville.
Dr. Daniel Drake, a very early settler, and one of the most learned, influential and reliable citizens, in a letter to Mr. Charles Cist, dated January 2d, 1841, says "that from the date of settlement until the 2d day of January, 1790, the place bore the name of Losantiville, and no other. It was then changed to Cincinnati by Governor St. Clair." With such testimony it can scarcely be doubted that the town bore the name invented by Filson, and adopted by the other proprietors until changed, as suggested by General Arthur St. Clair, then Governor of the Northwest Territory, as stated by Dr. Drake.
Judge Symmes did not arrive on the 15th, and it was therefore postponed to September 22d, 1788. John C. Symmes, Israel Ludlow, Colonel Robert Patterson, Mathias Denman, John Filson, Benjamin Stites, with some sixty other persons, met at the mouth of the Licking and embarked for the Great Miami, where they landed and spent several days exploring the country in that vicinity.
One party, led by Colonel Ludlow and Denman, proceeded to explore and survey the meanderings of the Ohio between the two Miamis. While Judge Symmes and others, John Filson among them, went back from the Ohio to examine the country on the Great Miami.
By some means John Filson got separated from the party. Judge Symmes states that he feared the Indians and started alone to return to the mouth of the Licking, that he got lost and was murdered by the Indians.
Whatever may have been the cause of separation, or his fate, it is certain that he never was heard of afterward.
Whether killed by savages immediately 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, indeed, a remarkable fact, that although the settlers had intercourse with all the tribes of Ohio and the Northwest, from the time of the first settlement until their final removal from the State, no tidings could ever be gained of the fate of Filson; 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, per-
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haps, 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 Patterson. His loss, therefore, was a serious impediment to the enterprise, and necessitated the employment of another surveyor.
Colonel Patterson, in the case between Joel Williams and 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 relin- quish 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."
This arrangement having been entered into, preparations were made to begin the settlement, and the proprietors before leaving Limestone proposed the following agreement to be entered into between themselves and the parties proposing to settle on the land :
ARTICLE OF AGREEMENT.
" The conditions for settling the town of Losantiburg are as follows, viz. : That the thirty in and out lots of said town to as many of the most early adventurers shall be given by the proprietors, Messrs. Ludlow, Denman and Patterson, who, for their part, do agree to make a deed in fee simple, clear of all charge and incumbrances, except the expense of surveying and deed- ing the same, as soon as Judge Symmes can obtain a deed from Congress.
"The lot-holders, for their part, do agree to become actual settlers on the premises. They shall plant and attend two crops successively, and not less than an acre shall be cultivated for each crop; and within two years of the date hereof, each person who receives a donation lot or lots, shall build a house equal to twenty-five feet square, one and one-half stories high, with brick, stone or clay chimneys; which house shall stand on the front parts of their respective lots, and shall be put in tenable repair, all within a term of two years. These requirements shall be minutely complied with on penalty of forfeiture, unless it be found impracticable on account of savage depredations."
Although not signed at Limestone, these conditions appear to have been tacitly agreed to by both parties; and, assured by frequent messages from
.
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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI.
Major Stites to Judge Symmes that the settlement at Columbia was success- ful and not molested by Indians, the proprietors resolved to begin the settlement " opposite the mouth of the Licking," and on the 24th of Decem- ber, 1788, Colonel Robert Patterson, Israel Ludlow, William McMillan, Wm. Connell, Francis Hardesty, Matthew Fowler, Isaac Tuttle, Captain Henry, Evan Shelby, Luther Kitchell, Elijah Martin, James Carpenter, John Vance, Noah Badgely, Thomas Gizzle, Joel Williams, Sylvester White, Matthew Campbell, Samuel Mooney, Henry Lindsey, Joseph Thornton, Samuel Blackburn, Scott Traverse, John Porter, Daniel Shoemaker and Ephraim Kibby embarked on their "broad-horn" boats, cut the grapevine cables and fearlessly pushed out into the current, amid heavy floating ice which filled the river from shore to shore, and were borne down the Ohio to their place of destination, after many perilous escapes from the heavy floating ice, where they landed in a cove on the northwestern shore on the 28th day of December, 1788. The place where the landing was made, for many years afterwards, was known as "Yeatman's Cove," at the foot of Sycamore Street, because Yeatman's Tavern was situated there. Then and there, in the chilling winds of December,
"Amid the sea-like solitude,"
these hardy pioneers began the settlement and founded the village of Losantiville-the town opposite the mouth of the Licking-now the great and beautiful City of Cincinnati, the "Paris of America."
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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI.
CHAPTER VI.
CHARACTER OF SETTLERS-FIRST HOUSE BUILT.
C HEERLESS indeed was the prospect before these brave men; the earth covered with snow, the river full of heavy floating ice, the fierce winter blasts whistling through the unbroken wilderness, that on every side seemed impenetrable, the night made more hideous in its winter solitude by the growl of the bear, the scream of the panther, or the howl of the hungry wolf, made their situation unpleasant in the extreme. Men less courageous, less determined, would have shrank from the dangers and hardships they knew must be met and endured for months, perhaps years, in this, their far- off land, before they could enjoy the most ordinary necessaries of life, much less its comforts and luxuries. But with danger, deprivation, and fatigue they were familiar.
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