USA > Ohio > Historical collections of Ohio, containing a collection of the most interesting facts, traditions, biographical sketches, anecdotes, etc., relating to its general and local history : with descriptions of its counties, principal towns, and villages > Part 26
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With the proposals, a map was shown at Paris by the agents of the Scioto company, Joel Barlow, from the United States, an Englishman by the name of Playfair, and a Frenchman, named De Saisson. An impression of this map is in the possession of Mons. J. P. R. Bureau, of Gallipolis, one of the original settlers. From it the annexed engraving was taken, omitting some non-essentials. The original is sixteen inches long and twelve wide.
It is in French, handsomely engraved and colored, with the lands of the two companies and the tract east of them, all divided into townships of six miles square. It represents the Scioto com- pany's tract as extending about one hundred miles north of the mouth of the Kanawha, and including more or less of the present counties of Meigs, Athens, Muskingum, Licking, Franklin, Picka- way, Ross, Pike, Scioto, Gallia, Lawrence, Perry, Jackson, Hocking, and Fairfield. This tract, on the map, is divided into 142 townships and 32 fractions. The north line of the Ohio land company's tract is 18 miles south of the other, and included the present county of Morgan, and parts of Washington, Meigs, Athens, Muskingum, Guernsey and Monroe, there divided into 91 townships and 16 frac- tions. The tract east of that of the Ohio company, extends 48 miles farther north. Upon the original, are the words "Sept rangs de municipalite acquis par des individues et occupes depuis, 1786 ;"
* Volney here refers to the travels of Brissot de Warville. Brissot published several vol- umes relating to America, as we infer from his preface to his " New Travels in America," a work issued in the spring of 1791, and consisting in part of a series of letters written from this country, in 1788. In his preface to the last, he says: " the third volume was published in 1787, by Mr. Claviere and me." In the last, he refers to the charges against the Scioto company, in this wise. " This company has been much calumniated. It has been accused of selling lands which it does not possess, of giving exaggerated accounts of its fertility, of deceiving the emigrants, of robbing France of her inhabitants, and of send- ing them to be butchered by the savages. But the title of this association is incontestable ; the proprietors are reputable men ; the description which they have given of the lands is taken from the public and authentic reports of Mr. Hutchins, geographer of congress. No person can dispute their prodigious fertility." He elsewhere speaks, in this volume, in high terms of the company.
-
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GALLIA COUNTY.
i. e. Seven ranges of townships acquired by individuals, and occu- pied since 1786.
LAKE ERIE:
Omie R.
CONNECTICUT Lands
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Huron. R.
Fortage® & m.
Portage 4 m.
Portage
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Inhabited and Cleared
RIVER
River.
Lead Mines
Tract acquired by the
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Free stone Quarry
Salt Mine
Cleared & Settled
River
Land of the
Village
SCIOTO
COMPANY
the
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OHIO
Army Lands
First town o
Creat Kanawha
ART OF
Lit Kanawha R.
FAY ETTE.Co.
KENTUCKY
" Plan of the Purchase of the Ohio and Scioto Land Companies."
The map is inaccurate in its geography, and fraudulent in its state- ments. It represents the country as "cleared and inhabited," when it was a wilderness, the only settlement being at Marietta, with per- haps some offshoots from it on the Ohio and Muskingum.
The glowing representations made by the agents of the company, were well-timed for their enterprise. It was about the beginning of the French revolution, and the "flattering delusion" took strong
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Cuyahoga R.
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180
GALLIA COUNTY.
hold. The terms to induce emigration, were as follows : the com- pany proposed to take the emigrant to their lands and pay the cost, and the latter bound himself to work three years for the company, for which he was to receive fifty acres, a house and a cow .* Printed deeds, executed at Paris, with all due formality, were given to some of the purchasers, by Playfair and De Saisson. About five hundred Frenchmen left their native country, landed mostly at Alexandria, and made their way to the promised land. They were persons ill-
Gallipolis in 1791.
fitted for such an enterprise. Among them were not a few carvers and gilders to his majesty, coach and peruke makers, friseurs and other artistes, about equally well fitted for a backwoods life, with only ten or twelve farmers and laborers.
On the map is shown the "first town," i. e. " Premiere Ville," lying opposite the mouth of the Kanawha. It was laid out by the Ohio company, under the name of Fair Haven; but as the ground there is low and liable to overflow, Gallipolis was located four miles be- low, upon a high bank, ten feet above the flood of 1832.t
This location was made just before the arrival of the French. Col. Rufus Putnam sent Major Burnham, with about forty men, for that purpose, who made the clearing and erected block-houses and cabins. Col. Robert Safford, now living near Gallipolis, was of this party, and cut the first tree. From his description, we give the view of the place at that time, the greater part of which stood on the site of the public square.
On the public square stood 80 log cabins, 20 in each row. At each of the corners were block-houses, two stories in height. In front of the cabins, close by the river bank, was a small log breast- work, erected for a defence while building the cabins. Above the
* J. P. R. Bureau. t Ibid.
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GALLIA COUNTY.
cabins, on the square, were two other parallel rows of cabins, which, with a high stockade fence and block-houses at each of the upper corners, formed a sufficient fortification in times of danger. These upper cabins were a story and a half in height, built of hewed logs, and finished in better style than those below, being intended for the richer class. In the upper cabins was a room used for a council chamber and a ball room.
The Scioto company contracted with Putnam to erect these build ings and furnish the settlers with provisions ; but failed of payment, by which he lost a large amount.
We continue the history of Gallipolis, in the annexed extract from a communication in the Pioneer, by Waldeurard Meulette, one of the colonists.
At an early meeting of the colonists, the town was named Gallipolis, (town of the French.) I did not arrive till nearly all the colonists were there. I descended the river in 1791, in flat boats, loaded with troops, commanded by Gen. St. Clair, destined for an expedition against the Indians. Some of my countrymen joined that expedition ; among others was Count Malartie, a captain in the French guard of Louis XVI. General St. Clair made him one of his aid-de-camps in the battle, in which he was severely wounded. He went back to Philadelphia, from whence he returned to France. The Indians were encouraged to greater depredations and murders, by their success in this expedition, but most especially against the American settlements. From their intercourse with the French in Canada, or some other cause, they seemed less disposed to trouble us. Immediately after St. Clair's defeat, Col. Sproat, commandant at Marietta, appointed four spies for Gallipolis-two Americans and two French, of which I was one, and it was not until after the treaty at Greenville, in 1795, that we were released.
Notwithstanding the great difficulties, the difference of tempers, education and profes- sions, the inhabitants lived in harmony, and having little or nothing to do, made themselves agreeable and useful to each other. The Americans and hunters, employed by the com- pany, performed the first labors of clearing the township, which was divided into lots.
Although the French were willing to work, yet the clearing of an American wilderness and its heavy timber, was far more than they could perform. To migrate from the eastern states to the " far west," is painful enough now-a-days, but how much more so it must be for a citizen of a large European town ! even a farmer of the old countries would find it very hard, if not impossible, to clear land in the wilderness. Those hunters were paid by the colonists to prepare their garden ground, which was to receive the seeds brought from France ; few of the colonists knew how to make a garden, but they were guided by a few books on that subject, which they had brought likewise from France. The colony then began to improve in its appearance and comfort. The fresh provisions were supplied by the company's hunters, the others came from their magazines. When, of the expeditions of General St. Clair and Wayne, many of the troops stopped at Gallipolis to take provi- sions, which had been deposited there for that purpose by government ; the Indians, who, no doubt, often came there in the night, at last saw the regulars going morning and eve- ning round the town in order to ascertain if there were any Indian traces, and attacked them, killing and wounding several-a soldier, besides other wounds, was tomahawked, but recovered. A French colonist, who had tried to raise corn at some distance from the town, seeing an Indian rising from behind some brushwood against a tree, shot him in the shoulder ; the Indian hearing an American patrole, must have thought that the French- man made a part of it ; and sometime afterward a Frenchman was killed, and a man and woman made prisoners, as they were going to collect ashes to make soap, at some dis. tance from town.
After this, although the Indians committed depredations on the Americans on both sides of the river, the French had suffered only by the loss of some cattle carried away, until the murder of the man above related. The Scioto company, in the mean time, had nearly fulfilled all their engagements during six months, after which time they ceased their supply of provisions to the colonists, and one of their agents gave as a reason for it, that the com- pany had been cheated by one or two of their agents in France, who, having received the funds in France for the purchased lands, had kept the money for themselves and run off with it to England, without having purchased or possessing any of the tract which the
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GALLIA COUNTY.
had sold to the deceived colonists. This intelligence exasperated them, and was the more sensibly felt, as a scarcity of provisions added to their disappointment. The winter was uncommonly severe ; the creek and the Ohio were frozen ; the hunters had no longer any ,meat to sell ; flat boats could not come down with flour to furnish as they had done be- fore. This produced almost a famine in the settlement, and a family of eight persons, father, mother and children, was obliged to subsist for eight or ten days on dry beans, boiled . in water, without either salt, grease or bread, and those had never known, before that time, what it was to want for any thing. On the other hand, the dangers from the Indians seemed to augment every day.
The colonists were by this time weary of being confined to a few acres of land ; their industry and their labor was lost ; the money and clothes which they had brought were nearly gone. They knew not to whom they were to apply to get their lands ; they hoped that if Wayne's campaign forced the Indians to make a lasting peace, the Scioto company would send immediately, either to recover or to purchase those promised lands; but they soon found out their mistake. After the treaty of Greenville, many Indians passing through Gallipolis, on their way to the seat of government, and several travellers, revealed the whole transaction, from which it was ascertained that the pretended Scioto company was composed of New Englanders, the names of very few only being known to the French, who, being themselves ignorant of the English language, and at such a distance from the place of residence of their defrauders, and without means for prosecuting them, could get no redress. Far in a distant land, separated forever from their friends and relations-with exhausted mneans, was it surprising that they were disheartened, and that every social tie should have been loosened, nearly broken, and a great portion of the deceived colonists should have become reckless ? May the happy of this day, never feel as they did, when all hope was blasted, and they were left so destitute! Many of the colonists went off and settled elsewhere with the means that remained to them, and resumed their trades in more populous parts of the country ; others led a half-savage life, as hunters for skins: the greater part, however, resolved, in a general assembly, to make a memorial of their griev- ances, and send it to congress. The memorial claimed no rights from that body, but it was a detail of their wrongs and sufferings, together with an appeal to the generosity and feelings of congress ; and they did not appeal in vain. One of the colonists proposed to
carry the petition ; he only stipulated that his expenses should be paid by a contribution of the colonists, whether he succeeded or not in their object ; but, he added, that if he ob- tained for himself the quantity of land which he had paid for, and the rest had none, he should be repaid by their gratitude for his efforts .* At Philadelphia, he met with a French lawyer, M. Duponceau, and through his means he obtained from congress a grant of 24,000 acres of land, known by the name of the French grant, opposite to Little Sandy, for the French, who were still resident at Gallipolis. The act annexed the condition of settling on the lands three years before reviewing the deed of gift. The bearer of the petition had his 4000 acres ; the rest was divided among the remaining French, amounting to ninety-two persons, married and single.
Each inhabitant had thus a lot of 2173 acres of land ; but before the surveys and other arrangements could be made, some time was necessary, during which, those who had re- claimed the wilderness and improved Gallipolis being reluctant to lose all their labor, and finding that a company, owning the lands of Marietta, and where there was a settlement previous to that of the French colony, had met to divide lands which they had purchased in a common stock, the colonists sent a deputation for the purpose of proposing to the company to sell them the spot where Gallipolis was and is situated, and to be paid in pro- portion to what was improved, which was accepted. When at last the distribution of the lots of the French grant was achieved, some sold their share, others went to settle on it, or put tenants, and either remained at Gallipolis, or went elsewhere ; but how few entered again heartily into a new kind of life, after having lost many of their lives and much of their health, amid hardships, excess of labor, or the indolence which follows discourage- ment and hopeless efforts! Few of the original settlers remain at Gallipolis: not many at the French grant.
Breckenridge, in his Recollections, gives some reminiscences of Gallipolis, related in a style of charming simplicity and humor. He
* Our contributor is not clear here ; we presume he meant to say : " But he added, that if he obtained as much, he would expect for himself the quantity of land he had paid for, viz : 4000 acres ; and if the rest who had no land got some, he would be repaid by their gratitude for his efforts."-Ed.
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GALLIA COUNTY.
was at Gallipolis in 1795, at which time he was a boy of nine year of age.
Behold me once more in port, and domicilated at the house, or the inn, of Monsieur, or rather, Dr. Saugrain, a cheerful, sprightly little Frenchman, four feet six, English measure and a chemist, natural philosopher, and physician, both in the English and French signi fication of the word. This singular village was settled by people from Paris and Lyons, chiefly artisans and artists, peculiarly unfitted to sit down in the wilderness and clear away forests. I have seen half a dozen at work in taking down a tree, some pull- ing ropes fastened to the brar ches, while others were cutting around it like beavers. Some- times serious accidents occurred in consequence of their awkwardness. Their former em- ployment had been only calculated to administer to the luxury of highly polished and wealthy societies. There were carvers and gilders to the king, coach makers, freizurs and peruke makers, and a variety of others who might have found some employment in our larger towns, but who were entirely out of their place in the wilds of Ohio. Their means by this time had been exhausted, and they were beginning to suffer from the want of the comforts, and even the necessaries of life. The country back from the river was still a wilderness, and the Gallipotians did not pretend to cultivate any thing more than small gar- 'den spots, depending for their supply of provisions, on the boats which now began to de- scend the river ; but they had to pay in cash and that was become scarce. They still as- sembled at the ball-room twice a week; it was evident, however, that they felt disap- pointment, and were no longer happy. The predilections of the best among them, being on the side of the Bourbons, the honors of the French revolution, even in their remote sit- uation, mingled with their private misfortunes, which had at this time nearly reached their acme, in consequence of the discovery that they had no title to their lands, having been cruelly deceived by those from whom they had purchased. It is well known that congress generously made them a grant of twenty thousand acres, from which, however, but few of them ever derived any advantage.
As the Ohio was now more frequented, the house was occasionally resorted to, and es- pecially by persons looking out for land to purchase. The doctor had a small apartment which contained his chemical apparatus, and I used to sit by him, as often as I could watching the curious operation of his blow-pipe and crucible. I loved the cheerful little man, and he became very fond of me in return. Many of my countrymen used to come and stare at his doings, which they were half inclined to think, had a too near resemblance to the black art. The doctors little phosphoric matches, ignixing spontaneously when the glass tube was broken, and from which he derived some emolument, were thought by some, to be rather beyond mere human power. His barometer and thermometer, with the scale neatly painted with the pen, and the frames richly carved, were objects of wonder, and probably some of them are yet extant in the west. But what most astonished some of our visitors, was a large peach in a glass bottle, the neck of which would only admit a common cork ; this was accomplished by tying the bottle to the limb of a tree, with the peach when young inserted into it. His swans which swam around basins of water amused me more than any wonders exhibited by the wonderful man.
The doctor was a great favorite with the Americans, as well for his vivacity and sweetness of temper, which nothing could sour, as on account of a circumstance which gave him high claim to the esteem of the backwoodsmen. He had shown himself, notwithstanding his small stature and great good nature, a very hero in combat with the Indians. He had descended the Ohio in company with two French philosophers, who were believers in the primitive in- nocence and goodness of the children of the forest. They could not be persuaded, that any danger was to be apprehended from the Indians; as they had no intentions to injure that people, they supposed no harm could be meditated on their part. Dr. Saugrain was not altogether so well convinced of their good intentions, and accordingly kept his pistols loaded. Near the mouth of the Sandy, a canoe with a party of warriors approached the boat ; the philosophers invited them on board by signs, when they came rather too will- ingly. The first thing they did on coming on board of the boat, was to salute the two philosophers with the tomahawk ; and they would have treated the doctor in the same way but that he used his pistols with good effect-killed two of the savages, and then leaped into the water, diving like a dipper at the flash of the guns of the others, and succeeded in swimming to the shore with several severe wounds whose scars were conspicuous.
The doctor was married to an amiable young woman, but not possessing as much viva- city as himself. As Madam Saugrain had no maid to assist her, her brother, a boy of my age, and myself, were her principal helps in the kitchen. We brought water and wood, and washed the dishes. I used to go in the morning about two miles for a little milk,
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sometimes on the frozen ground, barefooted. I tried a pair of savots, or wooden shoes, but was unable to make any use of them, although they had been made by the carver to the king. Little perquisites, too, sometimes fell to our share from blacking boots and shoes ; my companion generally saved his, while mine would have burned a hole in my pocket, if it had remained there. In the spring and summer, a good deal of my time was passed in the garden, weeding the beds. While thus engaged, I formed an acquaintance with a young lady, of eighteen or twenty, on the other side of the palings, who was often similarly occupied. Our friendship, which was purely Platonic, commenced with the story of Blue Beard, recounted by her, and with the novelty and pathos of which I was much interested. This incident may perhaps remind the reader of the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, or perhaps of the hortical ecologue of Dean Swift, " Dermot and Shela "
Connected with this lady, is an incident which I feel a pleasure in relating. One day while standing alone on the bank of the river, I saw a man who had gone in to bathe, and who had got beyond his depth, without being able to swim. He had began to struggle for life, and in a few seconds would have sunk to rise no more. I shot down the bank like an arrow, leaped into a canoe, which fortunately happened to be close by, pushed the end to him, and as he rose, perhaps for the last time, he seized it with a deadly convulsive grasp, and held so firmly that the skin afterward came off the parts of his arms which pressed against the wood. I screamed for help ; several persons came and took him out, perfectly insensible. He afterwards married the young lady, and raised a numerous and respectable family. One of his daughters married a young lawyer, who now represents that district in congress.
Toward the latter part of summer, the inhabitants suffered severely from sickness and want of provisions. Their situation was truly wretched. The swamp in the rear, now exposed by the clearing between it and the river, became the cause of a frightful epidemic, from which few escaped, and many became its victims. I had recovered from the ague, and was among the few exempted from the disease: but our family, as well as the rest, suffered much from absolute hunger, a most painful sensation, as I had before experienced. To show the extremity of our distress, on one occasion the brother of Madam Saugrain and myself pushed a light canoe to an island above town, where we pulled some corn, took it to mill, and excepting some of the raw grains, had nothing to eat from the day before, until we carried home the flour and made some bread, but had neither milk nor meat. I have learned to be thankful when I had a sufficiency of wholesome food, how- ever plain, and was blessed with health; and I could put up with humble fare, without a nurmur, although accustomed to luxuries, when I have seen those who have never experi- enced absolute starvation, turn up their noses at that, which was a very little worse than the best they had ever known.
I had been nearly a year at Gallipolis, when Capt. Smith, of the United States army came along in advance of the barge of Gen. Wilkinson, and according to the request of my father, took me into his custody, for the purpose of bringing me once more to my native place. He remained two or three days waiting for the general, and in the meanwhile procured me hat, shoes and clothes befitting a gentleman's son, and then took me on board his boat. Shortly after the general overtook us, I was transferred on board his barge, as a playmate for his son Biddle, a boy of my own age. The general's lady, and several ladies and gentlemen, were on board his boat, which was fitted up in a style of convenience, and even magnificence, scarcely surpassed even by the present steamboats. It was propelled against the stream by twenty five or thirty men, sometimes by the pole, the cordelle, and often by the oar. There was also a band of musicians on board, and the whole had the appearance of a mere party of pleasure. My senses were overpowered-it seemed an Ely- sium ! The splendor of the furniture-the elegance of the dresses-and then, the luxuries of the table, to a half-starved creature like me, produced an effect which can scarce be easily described. Every repast was a royal banquet, and such delicacies were placed be- fore me, as I had never seen before, and in sufficient abundance to satiate my insatiable appetite. I was no more like what I had been, than the cast-off skin of the black snake resembles the new dress in which he glistens in the sunbeam. The general's countenance was continually lighted up with smiles, and he seemed faire le bonheur, of all around him,-it seemed his business to make cvery one happy about him. His countenance and manners were such as I have rarely seen, and now that I can form a more just estimate of them, were such as better fitted him for a court than a republic. His lady was truly an es- timable person, of the mildest and softest manners. She gave her son and myself a re- proof one day, which I never forgot. She saw us catching minnows with pin-hooks, made us desist, and then explained in the sweetest manner, the cruelty of taking away life wantonly from the humblest thing in creation.
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