Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 119

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 1006

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The hill at Red Bank, just north from the railway station, has an elevation of about 300

eight handles and a flat, long dish with two . feet, and is terraced on its eastern and southern slopes. The terraces are five in The pre-historic cemetery, near Madison- ville, occupies an area of about fifteen acres covered with vast forest trees. Many of the skeletons and pits are found beneath the roots of large oak, walnut or maple trees. number, and are undoubtedly the work of human hands. This hill is surmounted by a small mound. The ancient road-way in Section 11, Columbia Township, near Madisonville, is cut along the face of a steep hill extending from the creek in a south- westwardly direction to the top of the hill ending near the Darling homestead. The road-way is upward of 1,600 feet in length, having an average width of twenty-five feet, and is overgrown with large forest trees.

Implements of Preglacial Men .- Evidences of preglacial men having existed in Ohio have been given by the finding of rudely chipped pointed implements at Madisonville and at Loveland in the glacial deposits as before stated. The discovery of the altar mounds in the Little Miami Valley similar to those discovered and explored by Squire and Davis in the Scioto Valley, near Chilli- cothe, would indicate that the territory that is now known as Ross and Hamilton counties was once the great centre of the pre-historic population of Southern Ohio.

THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS.

Hamilton county was the second settled in Ohio. Washington, the first, had its first settlement at Marietta, April 7, 1788. The country between the Great and Little Miamis had been the scene of so many fierce conflicts between the Ken- tuekians and Indians in their raids to and fro that it was termed the " Miami Slaughter House." In June, 1780, the period of the Revolutionary war, Captain Byrd, in commaud of 600 British and Indians with artillery from Detroit, came down the Big Miami and ascended the Licking opposite Cincinnati on his noted expedition into Kentucky, when he destroyed several stations and did great mis- chief. And in the August following Gen. Rogers Clark, with his Kentuckians, took up his line of march from the site of Cincinnati for the Shawnee towns on Little Miami and Mad rivers, which he destroyed. On this campaign he erected two blockhouses on the north side of the Ohio. These were the first structures known to have been built on the site of the city.

The beautiful country between the Miamis had been so infested by the Indians that it was avoided by the whites, and its settlement might have been procrasti- nated for years, but for the discovery and enterprise of Major Benjamin Stites, a trader from New Jersey. In the summer of 1786 Stites happened to be at Wash- ington, just back of Limestone, now Maysville, where he headed a party of Ken- tuckians in pursuit of some Indians who had stolen some horses. They followed for some days; the latter escaped, but Stites gained by it a view of the rich val- leys of the Great and Little Miami as far up as the site of Xenia. With this knowledge, and charmed by the beauty of the country, he hurried back to New Jersey, and revealed his discovery to Judge John Cleves Symmes, of Trenton, at that time a member of Congress and a man of great influence. The result was the formation of a company of twenty-four gentlemen of the State, similar to that of the Ohio Company, as proprietors of the proposed purchase. Among these were General Jonathan Dayton, Elias Boudinot and Dr. Witherspoon, as well as Symmes and Stites. Symmes, in August of next year, 1787, petitioned Con- gress for a grant of the land, but before the bargain was closed he made arrange- ments with Stites to sell him 10,000 acres of the best land.

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SETTLEMENT OF COLUMBIA.

Under the contract with Symmes, Stites, with a party of eighteen or twenty, landed on the 18th of November, 1788, and laid out the village of Columbia below the mouth of the Little Miami ; it is now within the limits of the city, five miles east of Fountain Square.

The settlers were superior men. Among them were Col. Spencer, Major Gano, Judge Goforth, Franeis Dunlavy, Major Kibbey, Rev. John Smith, Judge Foster, Col. Brown, Mr. Hubbell, Capt. Flinn, Jacob White and John Riley, and for several years the settle- ment was the most populous and successful.

Two or three blockhouses were first ereeted for the protection of the women and ehil- dren, and then log-cabins for the families. The boats in which they had come from Maysville, then Limestone, were broken up and used for the doors, floors, ete., to these rude buildings. They had at that time no trouble from the Indians, which arose from the fact that they were then gathered at Fort Harmar to make a treaty with the whites. Wild game was plenty, but their breadstuffs and salt soon gave out, and as a substitute they occasionally used various roots, taken from native plants, the bear grass especialiy. When the spring of 1789 opened their pros- pects grew brighter. The fine bottoms on the Little Miami had long been cultivated by the savages, and were found mellow as ash

heaps. The men worked in divisions, one- half keeping guard with their rifles while the others worked, ehanging their employments morning and afternoon.

Turkey Bottom, on the Little Miami, one and a half miles above Columbia, was a clearing in area of a square mile, and had been cultivated by the Indians for a long while, and supplied both Columbia and the garrison at Fort Washington at Cincinnati with corn for that season. From nine acres of Turkey Bottom, the tradition goes, the enormous crop of 963 bushels were gathered the very first season.

Before this the women and children from Columbia early visited Turkey Bottom to ser teh up the bulbous roots of the bear gr. is. These they boiled, washed, dried on smooth boards, and finally pounded into a species of flour, which served as a tolerable substitute for making various baking opera- tions. Many of the families subsisted for a time entirely on the roots of the bear grass ; and there was great suffering for provisions until they could grow corn.

SETTLEMENT OF CINCINNATI.

The facts connected with the settlement of Cincinnati are these : In the win- ter of 1787-1788 Matthias Denman, of Springfield, New Jersey, purchased of John Cleves Symmes, a tract of land comprising 740 acres, now but a small part of the city, his object being to form a station, lay out a town on the Ohio side opposite the month of the Licking river, and establish a ferry, which last was especially important. The old Indian war-path from the British garrison at De- troit here crossed the Ohio, and here was the usual avenue by which savages from the north had invaded Kentucky. Denman paid five shillings per acre in Con- tinental scrip, or about fifteen pence per acre in specie, or less than $125 in specie for the entire plot.

Denman the next summer associated with him two gentlemen of Lexington, Ky., each having one-third interest, Col. Robert Patterson and Jolin Filson. The first was a gallant soldier of the Indian wars, and John Filson a school- master and surveyor, and author of various works upon the West, of which he had been an explorer, one of them " The Discovery, Settlement and Present State of Kentucky," published in 1784; also a map of the same. Filson was to survey the site and lay it out into lots, thirty in-lots of half an acre and thirty out-lots of four acres to be given thirty settlers on their paying $1.50 for deed and sur- vey. He called the proposed town Losantiville, a name formed by him from the Latin "os," month, the Greek "anti," opposite, and the French " ville," eity, from its position opposite the mouth of the Licking river. And this name it retained until the advent of Gov. St. Clair, January 2, 1790, who, being a member of the old Revolutionary army Society of Cincinnatus, expressed a desire the name should be changed to Cincinnati, when his wish was complied with.

Preliminary Exploration .- In September, 1788, a large party, embracing Symmes, Stites, Denman, Patterson, Filson, Ludlow, with others, in all about sixty men, left Limestone to visit the new Miami Purchase

of Symmes. They landed at the mouth of the Great Miami, and explored the country for some distance back from that and North Bend, at which point Symmes then decided to make a settlement. The party surveyed

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HAMILTON COUNTY.

the distance between the two Miamis, follow- ing the meanders of the Ohio, and returned to Limestone.

On this trip Filson became separated from his companions while in the rear of North Bend, and was never more heard of, having doubtless been killed by the Indians, a fate of which he always seemed to have a present- iment. Israel Ludlow, who had intended to act as surveyor for Symmes, now accepted Filson's interest, and assumed his duties in laying out Losantiville.

Landing at Cincinnati .- On the 24th of December, 1788, Denman and Patterson, with twenty-six others, left Limestone in a boat to found Losantiville. After much dif- ficulty and danger from floating ice in the river, they arrived at the spot on or about the 28th, the exact date being in dispute. The precise spot of their landing was an inlet at the foot of Sycamore street, later known as Yeatman's Cove.

Ludlow laid out the town. On the 7th of January ensuing the settlers by lottery de- cided on their choice of donation lots, he

same being given to each in fee simple on condition : 1. Raising two crops succes- sively, and not less than an acre for each crop. 2. Building within two years a house equal to twenty-five feet square, one and a half stories high, with brick, stone or clay chimney, each house to stand in front of their lots. The following is a list of the set- tlers who so agreed, thirty in number : Sam- uel Blackburn, Sylvester White, Joseph Thornton, John Vance, James Dumont, - Fulton, Elijah Martin, Isaac Van Me- ter, Thomas Gissel, David McClever, - Davidson, Matthew Campbell, James Men- son, James McConnell, Noah Badgely, James Carpenter, Samuel Mooney, James Campbell, Isaac Freeman, Scott Traverse, Benjamin Dumont, Jesse Stewart. Henry Bechtle, Richard Stewart, Luther Kitchell, Ephraim Kibbey, Henry Lindsey, John Porter, Daniel Shoemaker, Joel Williams.

The thirty in-lots in general terms com- prised the space back from the landing be- tween Main street and Broadway, and there was the town began.

The North Bend settlement was the third within the Symmes Purchase, and was made under the immediate care of Judge Symmes. He called it North Bend because it is the most northerly bend on the Ohio west of the Kanawha. The . Judge with his party of adventurers left Limestone January 29, 1789, only about a month after that of Denman at Cincinnati, and two months after that of Stites at Columbia. The history of this with other connecting historical items we ex- tract from Burnet's Notes :

The party, on their passage down the river, were obstructed, delayed and exposed to imminent danger from floating ice, which covered the river. They, however, reached the Bend, the place of their destination, in safety, early in February. The first object of the Judge was to found a city at that place, which had received the name of North Bend, from the fact that it was the most northern bend in the Ohio river below the mouth of the Great Kanawha.

The water-craft used in descending the Ohio, in those primitive times, were flat- boats made of green oak plank, fastened by wooden pins to a frame of timber, and caulked with tow, or any other pliant substance that could be procured. Boats similarly con- structed on the northern waters were then called arks, but on the western rivers they were denominated Kentucky boats. The ma- terials of which they were composed were found to be of great utility in the construc- tion of temporary buildings for safety, and for protection from the inclemency of the weather, after they had arrived at their destination.

At the earnest solicitation of the Judge, General Harmar sent Captain Kearsey with forty-eight rank and file, to protect the im- provements just commencing in the Miami country. This detachment reached Lime- stone in December, 1788, and in a few days after, Captain Kearsey sent a part of his command in advance, as a guard to protect the pioneers under Major Stites, at the Little Miami, where they arrived soon after. Mr.

Symmes and his party, accompanied by Cap- tain Kearsey, landed at Columbia, on their passage down the river, and the detachment previously sent to that place joined their company. They then proceeded to the Bend, and landed about the first or second of Feb- ruary. When they left Limestone, it was the purpose of Captain Kearsey to occupy the fort built at the mouth of the Miami, by a detachment of United States troops, who afterwards descended the river to the falls.

That purpose was defeated by the flood in the river, which had spread over the low grounds and rendered it difficult to reach the fort. Captain Kearsey, however, was anx- ious to make the attempt, but the Judge would not consent to it; he was, of course, much disappointed, and greatly displeased. When he set out on the expedition, expecting to find a fort ready built to receive him, he did not provide the implements necessary to construct one. Thus disappointed and dis- pleased, he resolved that he would not build a new work, but would leave the Bend and join the garrison at Louisville.

In pursuance of that resolution, he em- barked early in March, and descended the river with his command. The Judge imme- diately wrote to Major Willis, commandant of the garrison at the Falls, complaining of the conduct of Captain Kearsey, representing the exposed situation of the Miami settle- ment, stating the indications of hostility manifested by the Indians, and requesting a guard to be sent to the Bend. This request

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was promptly granted, and before the close of the month, Ensign Luce arrived with seventeen or eighteen soldiers, which, for the time, removed the apprehensions of the pioneers at that place. It was not long, however, before the Indians made an attack on them, in which they killed one soldier, and wounded four or five other persons, in- cluding Major J. R. Mills, an emigrant from Elizabethtown, New Jersey, who was a sur- veyor, and an intelligent and highly respected citizen. Although he recovered from his wounds, he felt their disabling effects to the day of his death.

Symmes City Laid Out .- The surface of the ground where the Judge and his party had landed was above the reach of the water, and sufficiently level to admit of a convenient settlement. He therefore deter- mined, for the immediate accommodation of his party, to lay out a village at that place, and to suspend, for the present, the execu- tion of his purpose, as to the city, of which he had given notice, until satisfactory infor- mation could be obtained in regard to the comparative advantages of different places in the vicinity. The determination, however, of laying out such a city, was not abandoned, but was executed in the succeeding year on a magnificent scale. It included the village, and extended from the Ohio across the pen- insula to the Miami river. This city, which was certainly a beautiful one, on paper, was called Symmes, and for a time was a subject of conversation and of criticism ; but it soon ceased to be remembered-even its name was forgotten, and the settlement continued to be called North Bend. Since then, that village has been distinguished as the residence and the home of the soldier and statesman, William Henry Harrison, whose remains now repose in an humble vault on one of its beau- tiful hills.

In conformity with a stipulation made at Limestone, every individual belonging to the party received a donation lot, which he was required to improve, as the condition of ob- taining a title. As the number of these ad- venturers increased in consequence of the protection afforded by the military, the Judge was indneed to lay out another village, six or seven miles higher up the river, which he called South Bend, where he disposed of some donation lots ; but that project failed, and in a few years the village was deserted and converted into a farm.

Indian Interviews .- During these transac- tions, the Judge was visited by a number of Indians from a camp in the neighborhood of Stites' settlement. One of them, a Shawnee chief, had many complaints to make of frauds practised on them by white traders, who for- tunately had no connection with the pioneers. After several conversations, and some small presents, he professed to be satisfied with the explanation he had received, and gave assur- ances that the Indians would trade with the white men as friends.

In one of their interviews, the Judge told him he had been commissioned and sent out

to their country, by the thirteen fires, in the spirit of friendship and kindness ; and that he was instructed to treat them as friends and brothers. In proof of this he showed them the flag of the Union, with its stars and stripes, and also his commission, having the great seal of the United States attached to it ; exhibiting the American eagle, with the olive branch in one claw, emblematical of peace, and the instrument of war and death in the other. He explained the meaning of those symbols to their satisfaction, though at first the chief seemed to think they were not very striking emblems either of peace or friend- ship ; but before he departed from the Bend, he gave assurances of the most friendly char- acter. Yet, when they left their camp to return to their towns, they carried off a num- ber of horses belonging to the Columbia set- tlement, to compensate for the injuries done them by wandering traders, who had no part or lot with the pioneers. These depredations having been repeated, a party was sent ont in pursuit, who followed the trail of the In- dians a considerable distance, when they dis- covered fresh signs, and sent Captain Flinn, one of their party, in advance, to reconnoitre. He had not proceeded far before he was sur- prised, taken prisoner, and carried to the Indian camp. Not liking the movements he saw going on, which seemed to indicate per- sonal violence, in regard to himself, and hav- ing great confidence in his activity and strength, at a favorable moment he sprang from the camp, made his escape, and joined his party. The Indians, fearing an ambus- cade, did not pursue. The party possessed themselves of some horses belonging to the Indians, and returned to Columbia. In a few days, the Indians brought in Captain Flinn's rifle, and begged Major Stites to re- store their horses-alleging that they were innocent of the depredations laid to their charge. After some further explanations, the matter was amicably settled, and the horses were given up.

The three principal settlements of the Miami country, although they had one gen- eral object, and were threatened by one com- mon danger, yet there existed a strong spirit of rivalry between them-each feeling a pride in the prosperity of the little colony to which he belonged. That spirit produced a strong influence on the feelings of the pioneers of the different villages, and produced an esprit du corps, scarcely to be expected under circumstances so critical and dangerous as those which threatened them. At first it was a matter of doubt which of the rivals, Columbia, Cincinnati or North Bend, would eventually become the chief seat of business.

That, however, lasted but a short time. The garrison having been established at Cin- cinnati, made it the headquarters and the depot of the army. In addition to this, as soon as the county courts of the territory were organized, it was made the seat of jus- tice of Hamilton county. These advantages convinced everybody that it was destined to become the emporium of the Miami country

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HAMILTON COUNTY.

Privations of the Settlers .- A large number of the original adventurers to the Miami pur- chase had exhausted their means by paying for their land, and removing their families to the country. Others were wholly destitute of property, and came out as volunteers, un- der the expectation of obtaining, gratuitously, such small tracts of land as might be forfeited by the purchasers, under Judge Symmes, for not making the improvements required by the conditions stipulated in the terms of sale and settlement of Miami lands, published by the Judge, in 1787. The class of adventurers first named was comparatively numerous, and had come out under an expectation of taking immediate possession of their lands, and of commencing the cultivation of them for sub- sistence. Their situation, therefore, was dis- tressing. To go out into the wilderness to till the soil appeared to be certain death ; to remain in the settlements threatened them with starvation. The best provided of the pioneers found it difficult to obtain subsist- ence ; and, of course, the class now spoken of were not far from total destitution. They depended on game, fish, and such products of the earth as could be raised on small patches of ground in the immediate vicinity of the settlements.

Occasionally, small lots of provision were brought down the river by emigrants, and sometimes were transported on pack-horses, from Lexington, at a heavy expense, and not without danger. But supplies, thus procured, were beyond the reach of those destitute persons now referred to.

Stations Established .- Having endured these privations as long as they could be borne, the more resolute of them determined to brave the consequences of moving on to their lands. To accomplish the object with the least exposure, those whose lands were in the same neighborhood united as one family ; and on that principle, a number of associations were formed, amounting to a dozen or more who went out resolved to maintain their positions.

Each party erected a strong block-house, near to which their cabins were put up, and the whole was enclosed by strong log pickets. This being done, they commenced clearing their lands, and preparing for planting their crops. During the day, while they were at work, one person was placed as a sentinel, to warn them of approaching danger. At sun- set they retired to the block-house and their cabins, taking everything of value within the pickets. In this manner they proceeded from day to day, and week to week, till their im- provements were sufficiently extensive to support their families. During this time, they depended for subsistence on wild game, obtained at some hazard, more than on the scanty supplies they were able to procure from the settlements on the river.

In a short time these stations gave pro- tection and food to a large number of destitute families. After they were established, the Indians became less annoying to the settle- ments on the Ohio, as part of their time was

employed in watching the stations. The farmer, however, did not escape, but endured their share of the fruits of savage hostility. In fact, no place or situation was exempt from danger. The safety of the pioneer de- pended on his means of defence, and on per- petual vigilance.

The Indians viewed those stations with great jealousy, as they had the appearance of permanent military establishments, intended to retain possession of their country. In that view they were correct ; and it was fortunate for the settlers that the Indiaus wanted either the skill or the means of demolishing them.

The truth of the matter is, their great error consisted in permitting those works to be constructed at all. They might have pre- vented it with great ease, but they appeared not to be aware of the serious consequences which were to result, until it was too late to act with effect. Several attacks were, however, made at different times, with an apparent determination to destroy them ; but they failed in every instance. The assault made on the station erected by Captain Jacob White, a pioneer of much energy and enterprise, at the third crossing of Mill creek from Cincinnati, on the old Hamilton road, was resolute and daring ; but it was gallantly met and successfully repelled. During the attack, which was in the night, Captain White shot and killed a warrior, who fell so near the block-house, that his companions could not remove his body. The next morn- ing it was brought in, and judging from his stature, as reported by the inmates, he might have claimed descent from a race of giants. On examining the ground in the vicinity of the block-house, the appearances of blood indicated that the assailants had suffered severely.

Dunlap's Station Attacked .- In the winter of 1790-1, an attack was made, with a strong party, amounting, probably, to four or five hundred, on Dunlap's station, at Colerain. The block-house at that place was occupied by a small number of United States troops, commanded by Col. Kingsbury, then a subal- tern in the army. The fort was furnished with a piece of artillery, which was an object of terror to the Indians ; yet that did not de- ter them from an attempt to effect their pur- pose. The attack was violent, and for some time the station was in imminent danger.

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 119

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893 Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio Number of Pages: 1006

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 1006