USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Historical Sketches and Eary Reminiscences of Hamilton County, Ohio > Part 2
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
Digitized by Google
23
ANTIQUITIES.
There are many mounds of different sizes, and numerous indications that the country for miles around had once been very thickly populated.
These relics are located principally on the Stites and Ferris farms. The grave yard is quite extensive, and is supposed, by Judge Cox and others, to have been a regularly laid out cemetery, with roads and walks.
They have organized a society at Madisonville, and are pursuing an investigation of these ruins in something like systematic order. They have al- ready collected a great number of human remains. The bones of the head are in many instances well preserved; the teeth and the skulls especially being perfect. The bones of the body show greater decay, some far advanced in decomposition.
In the lower portion of the spinal column of one of these skeletons was found a small flint arrow head, which no doubt caused the death of the indivi- dual. It had evidently passed through the bowels, and, lodging in the spine, left the point protruding outward. Another one of these arrow heads was found lodged in a thigh bone.
They have also found many articles of pottery or earthen vessels, most of them having four handles each. Numerous stone implements have been col- lected, such as spears, arrow heads, hatchets, etc., and among them a sort of rapier, made of flint
Digitized by Google
24
ANTIQUITIES.
stone, and ingeniously wrought into a formidable weapon .*
One peculiar feature of these ancient graves is, that in many instances they are found in tiers, one above the other. There are also many pits, about three feet in diameter by six feet deep, with alternate layers of ashes and earth. Interspersed through all are various shaped and finely worked bone implements, heads of bone, flint arrow heads, pieces of pottery and mussel shell. They seem to have never been disturbed before, and their purpose can only be conjectured. One of these graves was found beneath an oak tree fourteen feet in circum- ference.
These discoveries are attracting great attention in the neighborhood, and many persons anxiously await the further investigation of the society.
The mounds and other earth works found in Hamilton county, though some are of considerable magnitude, considering the manner and simple means employed in their erection, are made to
* It is a singular fact that the arrow heads, spears, battle axes, and other ancient relics found in England, and supposed to have belonged to the Old Briton and Caledonian Races, are almost identical in shape and appearance to those belonging to the North American Indian.
This may prove nothing more, however, than a general simili- tude of the human races under the same degree of development or progress in civilization.
Digitized by Google
25
ANTIQUITIES.
appear unimportant when compared with those found in other parts of the country. The mound, situate a short distance east of Miamisburg, Ohio, is sixty- eight feet high, and about two hundred and eighty feet in diameter. Fort Ancient, on the Little Miami river, in Warren county, Ohio, is an extensive and formidable military work, extending about one mile in a direct line, but the angles, retreating and salient, measure perhaps five and a half to six miles. The walls in many places are twenty feet high.
The fortification, at Circleville, in Pickaway county, Ohio, consisted of two distinct forts, adjoining and communicating, the one a complete circle, sixty-nine feet in diameter, and the other an exact square, each side measuring fifty-five rods. The former was sur- rounded by two walls or embankments, raised ten feet above the level of the ground, having a ditch or trench between, and also on the outer and inner sides, about ten feet deep, making the walls twenty feet high, measuring from the bottom of the trenches.
The latter, or square fort, had a single wall or embankment, raised ten feet high, without entrench- ments. The circular fort had but one entrance on the east and at the point of communication with the square one. The latter had seven openings or gate- ways, one at each angle, and one on each of its sides, equi-distant from the angles, besides a gate- way entering the circular fort. Guarding each of
Digitized by Google
26
ANTIQUITIES.
these openings, and on the inside of the fortification, and a few feet from each entrance, a mound was erected, about five feet high. In the center of the circular fort was a mound somewhat larger than the others, on the east of which, and fronting the gate- way, was a semi-circular pavement, made of stone. These works are now almost entirely obliterated.
The ancient works at Marietta, Washington county, are also quite extensive. The two enclo- sures contain sixty acres, with well constructed road- ways leading down to the former bed of the Musk- ingum river. On the southern side of the smaller fort is a mound of singular and imposing beauty, it is a regular circle at the base, one hundred and fifteen feet in diameter, and raised in conical shape to a height of thirty-five feet. It has an entrench- ment surrounding it four feet deep and fifteen feet wide, which is also defended by a parapet, four feet high, through which is a gateway twenty feet wide, leading towards the fort.
A short distance south-west of Newark, Licking county, Ohio, in the forks of the Raccoon creek and Licking river, is a series of ancient works, con- sisting of mounds, walls, ditches, etc., the whole covering an area of two miles square. The walls or embankments are from two to twenty feet high, and will aggregate perhaps twelve miles in length. From their construction and general outline it is
Digitized by Google
-
27
ANTIQUITIES.
supposed they were not intended as works of defense, but were of sacred origin, in some way connected with the religious worship of their authors. The ditches are inside of the walls, one feature distin- guishing the religious from the military works.
Three miles below Hamilton, on the Great Miami, in Butler county, there are ancient works, consist- ing of an enclosure of sixteen acres or more. The walls are of earth and stone, with several mounds, which seem to be connected with or pertaining to the fortification, if it be such.
Four miles above Hamilton, on the same river, upon the summit of a steep hill, there are works which have the appearance of a military fort. On three sides of the hill there are high and steep natural banks, but the remaining side is defended by a wall four to five feet high, with an exterior ditch. There is also a similar work six miles west of Hamilton, which is supposed to have been erected for defensive purposes.
The works, at the North Fork of Paint creek, in Ross county, consists of earthen embankments, enclosing over one hundred acres, measuring two thousand eight hundred by one thousand eight hun- dred feet, with an exterior ditch. The wall is six feet high and thirty-five feet base, and the ditch of cor- responding dimensions. These are the most extensive works in the Scioto valley, and are generally supposed
Digitized by Google
-
28
ANTIQUITIES.
to be of religious origin. Within this are two smaller enclosures, one a perfect circle, three hundred and fifty feet in diameter, the other, a semi-circle, two thousand feet in circumference. The wall of the latter enclosure is bounded by a slight ditch, and within this are several mounds, three of which are joined together, and form a continuous eleva- tion, thirty feet high by five hundred feet long, and one hundred and eight feet broad at the base. The ground within the works is elevated somewhat above the general level of the plane.
At Booneville, Ohio, in Ross county, on Flint creek, twelve miles west of Chillicothe, is a rough stone enclosure. The wall is carried around the hill a little below the brow, and is two and a quarter miles in length, enclosing an area of one hundred and forty acres. At Fort Hill, in Highland county, on the summit of a hill, five hundred feet above the bed of Brush creek, are works enclosing forty-eight acres. The wall is a mile and a half or more in length.
Newark, Portsmouth, Chillicothe, and many other points in Ohio, afford specimens of these ancient monuments, curious and interesting to the anti- quarian. But the largest of these ancient works is the great mound on the Kahokia plane, in Illinois, opposite St. Louis. Its altitude is ninety feet, and is seven hundred feet long and five hundred feet
Digitized by Google
29'
ANTIQUITIES.
broad, covers eight acres of land, and contains over twenty million cubic feet of earth.
Many theories have been suggested as to the ob- ject and uses of these ancient remains. Some sup- pose them to have been merely depositories of the dead, or monuments erected over the remains of distinguished persons, which theory is based upon the fact that in most instances, where these mounds have been opened, one and sometimes two human re- mains have been found, and generally presenting the appearance of having been partly consumed by fire, simulating the ancient custom of the funeral pyer of the eastern races. Ornaments made from stones, shells, mica, silver, and copper, and also earthen and copper vessels, have been frequently found lying with or near these remains, some of which were curiously and ingeniously wrought.
These mounds were built generally upon the sum- mit of a hill, or some high and commanding ground, for the most part with a circular or square base, but some were hexagonal, and others octagonal, and a few triangular and pyramidal in shape. They were often terraced, and in many cases had graded ways. or spiral paths ascending to the summit.
Doubtless many of these mounds were used as tumuli or sepulchers. But are we to believe that the largest and most formidable of these works were erected solely for that purpose? Is it not more
Digitized by Google
:30
ANTIQUITIES.
probable that primarily they were connected in some way with the religious worship of the people who erected them? May they not have been temples upon which holy altars were erected, and where the assembled worshipers offered up their sacrifices, and paid their adoration to the God of their religion? Such a theory is quite consistent with the religious worship of the primative races of the eastern world, as we read their history. The hills and mountains were held in great veneration by them, some even regarding them as the habitation of the gods; and, by all, they were revered as sacred places, most fit and appropriate for the invocation of the Deity. It was upon the hill tops and in the mountains that they offered up their sacrifices; there they built their holy temples and altars; and there their holy men repaired to commune with God and gather inspiration.
In such holy reverence were these great elevations of the earth held, that in the flat countries, such as the valleys of the Nile, they erected artificial hills, pyramids, and temples, and dedicated them to the worship of God.
Again, it has been supposed that some of these artificial mounds were constructed as objects of divinity, to which an idolatrous people paid their homage. There is a class of these works that, from their contour, leaves little doubt that they were
Digitized by Google
1
31.
ANTIQUITIES.
intended either as objects of worships, or as sym- bolical of great events. Great numbers of this class are found in Michigan, Iowa, and Wisconsin, espe- cially in the latter State, where structures of earth,. bearing the form of birds, beasts, reptiles, and even men, are in great numbers. Some, says Dr. Lapham, "of gigantic dimensions," constituting "huge basso- relievoes upon the face of the country." One of this class, very striking in character and perfect in out- line, was discovered on Brush creek, in Adams county, Ohio, a number of years ago. It is supposed to represent a serpent, and is over a thousand feet long. "The embankment, forming the effigy," says a writer, "being over five feet high, with a base in the center of the body thirty feet wide, and diminishing towards the head and tail, the whole figure having a serpentine coil. The neck is stretched out and curved, and the mouth opened wide as if in the act of swallowing or ejecting an oval figure, which rests partly within the distended jaws. This oval figure is formed by an embankment, four feet high, and is perfectly regular in outline; its transverse and con- jugate diameters being one hundred and sixty and eighty feet respectively. The combined figure has been regarded as symbolical," in illustration of the serpent and the egg. .
Another of the same character has been discovered near Newark, Ohio, on the Grandville road. The
Digitized by Google
:32
ANTIQUITIES.
works there consist of numerous mounds and sym- bolical figures. One of the latter, called the Alli- gator, is two hundred and ten feet long, raised about seven feet high, and in breadth is one hundred feet across the shoulders, ninety-two across the hips, and thirty-two across the body. It is overgrown with grass and large trees.
But the different theories as to the object of these various ancient works are mere conjectures, their real purpose is involved in as much mystery and doubt as that pertaining to the Egyptian pyramids. A brief mention of them and their authors is all that was intended to be given here: the reader who would pursue the subject further is referred to the works of Squier and Davis, Stephens, Catherwood, C. C. Abbott, Joseph Jones, I. A. Lapham, and Caleb Atwater.
-
Digitized by Google
EARLY WHITE SETTLEMENTS.
CHAPTER IV.
IN collecting material for history the ordinary and peaceful pursuits of life are generally passed over, only those events that produce discord and create commotion in society are deemed worthy of record. For this reason it has been said that that country is most fortunate that has no history. In this sense the early settlers of the Millcreek valley may be regarded as a fortunate people, for they have left us but few startling events to relate. They were not great in the ordinary sense of the word; few indeed were distinguished for aught beyond their humble occupations, yet we look back upon their achieve- ments as being very great, and wonder at their powers of endurance.
Having passed through the revolutionary war they were accustomed to the clash of arms, yet few of them were soldiers. They were farmers, generally, who came to redeem and improve the country; and, though they settled and lived surrounded by hostile
Digitized by Google
34
EARLY WHITE SETTLEMENTS.
bands of Indians, they had indeed but few encounters with them. The dreaded tomahawk and scalping knife seldom invaded their homes; and yet enough of those murderous assaults and deeds of violence were committed in their midst, and in the neighbor- ing settlements, to keep their minds in constant fear. This perpetual dread, their toils and privations, and their lonely, monotonous life, constitute their his- tory, and make their names worthy of perpetuation.
The question may arise, why did this people venture upon these trials and court such dangers, while cheap, rich, and fertile lands were to be had in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Virginia, and even Kentucky, where the white settlements had been established for more than eighteen years, they were offered perhaps equal inducements in lands, and comparative security from savage aggressions ? The answer is, slavery was there, and the people, especi- ally of the Northern States, their minds fresh in the lessons of the revolution, were endeavoring to rid themselves of that blighting curse, and therefore the land that promised perpetual and universal free- dom was the talisman that led them into the soli- tudes of the Miami valley.
The laws enacted by Congress for the government of the North West Territory had much to do in molding the character and shaping the destiny of these pioneer settlers. It infused them with a spirit
Digitized by Google
PART II.
Price, 50 Cents.
HISTORICAL SKETCHES
AND
EARLY REMINISCENCES
OF
HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO
INCLUDING
A BRIEF HISTORY OF A FEW OF THE EARLY CHURCHES AND OF THE SETTLEMENT
OF THE TOWNS
READING, MONTGOMERY, CARTHAGE, SPRINGDALE, SHARON, MOUNT HEALTHY, AND LOCKLAND.
TOGETHER WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF SOME OF THE EARLY SETTLERS OF THE
MILLCREEK VALLEY.
BY
J. G. OLDEN
TATE
ST
RI
S
TJ
1883
0
N IN
CINCINNATI, O.
H. WATKIN, PRINTER, 119 FIFTH STREET, BET. VINE AND RACE, 1882.
Digitized by Google
Digitized by
35
EARLY WHITE SETTLEMENTS.
of freedom, a self-reliance and industry, that has since characterized the people of Ohio, and has given the State the proud position it now occupies in the Nation.
The ordinance of 1787 passed Congress on the 13th of July of that year; by its provisions it guaranteed the people freedom in their religious sen- timents and modes of worship. It secured also the writ of habeas corpus, and trial by jury. Schools and the means of education were to be forever en- couraged; private contracts were to be held inviolate, and secure from legislative interference. The powers of legislation were conferred upon the Governor and three Judges of the territory, who were authorized to adopt and publish such laws of the original States, civil and criminal, as might be necessary, and best suited to the circumstances. And the Governor was authorized to appoint justices of the peace, and other civil officers, in each county and township, as might be found necessary for the preservation of peace and good order. Such were some of the principal fea- tures of the ordinance; but by far the most impor- tant was the Sixth Article, which declared, "There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the territory otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the offending party shall have been duly convicted."
This was the charter of freedom, and determined
.
Digitized by Google
36
EARLY WHITE SETTLEMENTS.
the future political and social life of the people of this vast territory. But while this clause secured to the people the blessings of freedom, there was added a proviso, which was soon afterwards em- bodied in the Constitution of the United States, and which proved to be the source of those serious conflicts of legislation between the North and the South, known as the fugitive slave laws, and the counteracting personal liberty bills. It provided, "That any person escaping into the territory from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any of the original states, such fugitive may be lawfully re- claimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor as aforesaid."
Notwithstanding this objectionable feature, freedom was secured, and slavery forever prohibited from the territory. And under the inspiring genius of FREE LABOR, came those brave men and women, known as the pioneer settlers, and, braving the dangers of a savage foe and the toils and privations of a frontier life, planted their homes in the trackless wilderness.
The first settlement in the territory was made at the mouth of the Muskingum river, in the spring of 1788, by emigrants from the New England States, under an organization known as the Ohio Company, the leading spirits of which were General Rufus l'utnam, Dr. Manasseh Cutler, Robert Oliver, and Winthrop Sargent. They immediately built a fort
Digitized by Google
37
EARLY WHITE SETTLEMENTS.
and laid out a town, which at first they called Delphi, but soon afterwards changed to Marietta.
In October of the same year, John Cleves Symmes and his associates contracted with Congress for a million acres of land, lying between the Miami rivers, and bordering on the Ohio. They failed in making the required payments, and the greater part of the tract reverted to the government. Symmes, however, obtained a patent, in Septem- ber, 1794, for 248,540 acres; and, soon after this government purchase, Benjamin Stites, from New Jersey, contracted with Judge Symmes for 10,000 acres, lying in the south-east corner of the tract, at the mouth of the Little Miami river, and in November following, with eighteen or twenty families, entered upon it, and proceeded to built a block house, and lay out the town of Columbia.
Sometime during the spring of 1788, Mathias Denman, of Springfield, New Jersey, made entry and purchase of the site of what is now Cincinnati, and on the 25th day of August following, sold the undivided two-thirds of the same to Robert Patterson and John Filson, upon the conditions and terms con- tained in the following agreement :-
" A covenant and agreement, made and concluded this 25th day of August, 1788, between Mathias Denman, of Essex county, State of New Jersey, of the one part, and Robert Pat- terson and John Filson, of Lexington, Fayette county, Kentucky,
-
Digitized by Google
38
EARLY WHITE SETTLEMENTS.
of the other part, witnesseth : That the aforesaid Mathias Denman, having made entry of a tract of land on the north- west side of the Ohio river, 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 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, 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 for moneys by him advanced in payment of said lands, every other institution, determination, and regulation respecting the laying off of a town, and establishing a ferry at and upon the premises, to the result of the united advice and consent of the parties in covenant, as aforesaid; and by these presents the parties bind themselves, for the true performance of these covenants, to each other, in the penal sum of £1,000, specie, hereunto affixing their hands and seals, the day and year above mentioned.
" Signed, scaled, and delivered in the presence of-
" HENRY OWEN, "ABR. MCCONNELL.
" MATHIAS DENMAN, " R. PATTERSON,
" JOHN FILSON."
Col. Patterson was the principal founder of the city of Lexington, and John Filson was a prominent citizen of that place, then a small village. These proprietors had proceeded to make a rough draft or plat of the contemplated town, which they named Losantiville, when Filson, who was a surveyor, while engaged in his profession under the employ-
Digitized by Google
39
EARLY WHITE SETTLEMENTS.
ment of Judge Symmes, got separated from his company, and was never heard of afterwards: it was generally supposed he was killed by the Indians.
This loss of one of the proprietors delayed for a time the settlement of the town. It was not long, how- ever, until Denman and Patterson made terms with Israel Ludlow (who came to the North-West Terri- tory as government surveyor), whereby he obtained the proprietary interest formerly held by Filson.
On the 28th day of December, 1788, twenty-six men landed opposite the mouth of the Licking river, in a flatboat, which they had fitted out at Limestone, and proceeded to make the final survey, and com- mence the sale of lots and settle the town of Losantiville, by which name it was known until the 2d day of January, 1790, when it was changed to Cincinnati, at the suggestion of Gov. St. Clair.
The following are the names of these founders of Losantiville, including two of the proprietors, viz .: 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 Gissel, Joel Williams, Sylvester White, Matthew Campbell, Samuel Mooney, Henry Lindsey, Joseph Thornton, Samuel Blackburn, Scott Traverse, John Porter, Daniel Shoemaker, and Ephraim Kirby.
.
Digitized by Google
40
EARLY WHITE SETTLEMENTS.
In February, 1789, John Cleve Symmes, with a party of citizens and a squad of soldiers, settled at North Bend, and there laid out a town.
On the 1st day of June following, Major Doughty, with one hundred and forty men, arrived at Cincin- nati, and commenced building Fort Washington ; and in the fall of the same year General Josiah Harmar arrived with three hundred men, and took command of the Fort.
During this time many of the western adventurers had penetrated the wilderness, selected and entered lands where they intended to establish their future homes. But the Indians, becoming hostile, they were prevented from making improvements, or set- tling with their families, amid such impending dan- gers. They lived about the stations on the Ohio, at Columbia, Cincinnati, and North Bend, until their means were about exhausted, and they were placed in the desperate alternative of starvation if they remained, or death at the hands of savages if they ventured out upon their lands. In their despera- tion they "banded together in companies of from three to five families each," and determined at all hazard to settle upon their lands.
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.