Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 4

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

USA > Ohio > Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I > Part 4

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).

The above were not the only claims which had to be made prior to the commencement of settlements within the limits of Ohio. Numerous tribes of Indian savages, by virtue of prior possession, asserted their respective claims, which also had to be extinguished. A treaty for this purpose was accordingly made at Fort Stanwix, October 27, 1784, with the Sachems and warriors of the Mohawks, Onondagas, Senecas, Cayugas, Oneidas, and Tuscaroras ; by the third article of which treaty, the said Six Nations ceded to the United States all claims to the country west of a line extend- ing along the west boundary of Pennsylvania, from the mouth of the Oyounayea to the river Ohio.

OUTLINE HISTORY.

A treaty was also concluded at Fort McIntosh, January 21, 1785, with the Wyandot, Delaware, Chippewa, and Ottawa nations, by which the boundary line between the United States and the Wyandot and Delaware nations was declared to begin " at the mouth of the river Cuyahoga, and to extend up said river to the Portage, between that and the Tuscaroras branch of the Muskin- gum, thence down that branch to the crossing place above Fort Laurens, then westerly to the Portage of the Big Miami, which runs into the Ohio, at the mouth of which branch the fort stood which was taken by the French, in 1752; then along said Portage to the Great Miami, or Omee river, and down the south side of the same to its mouth; then along the south shore of Lake Erie to the mouth of the Cuyahoga river, where it began." The United States allotted all the lands contained within said lines to the Wyandot and Delaware nations, to live and hunt on, and to such of the Ottawa nation as lived thereon ; saving and reserving for the establishment of trading posts, six miles square at the mouth of the Miami, or Omee river, and the same at the Portage, on that branch of the Big Miami which runs into the Ohio, and the same on the Lake of Sandusky where the fort formerly stood, and also two miles square on each side of the Lower Rapids of Sandusky river.

The Indian title to a large part of the territory within the limits of Ohio having been extinguished, legislative action on the part of Congress became necessary before settlements were commenced; as in the treaties made with the Indians, and in the acts of Congress, all citizens of the United States were pro- hibited settling on the lands of the Indians, as well as on those of the United States. Ordinances were accordingly made by Congress for the government of the Northwestern Territory, and for the survey and sale of portions of lands to which the Indian title had been extinguished.

In May, 1785, Congress passed an ordinance for ascertaining the mode of disposing of these lands. Under that ordinance, the first seven ranges, bounded on the east by Pennsylvania, and on the south by the Ohio river, were surveyed. Sales of parts of these were made at New York, in 1787, the avails of which amounted to $72,974, and sales of other parts of said range were made at Pitts- burg and Philadelphia, in 1796. The avails of sales made at the former place amounted to $43,446, and at the latter, $5,120. A portion of these lands were located under United States military land warrants. No further sales were made in that district until the Land Office was opened at Steubenville, July I, 1801.

On the 27th of October, 1787, a contract in writing was entered into between the Board of Treasury for the United States of America, of the one part, and Manassah Cutler and Winthrop Sargeant, as agents for the directors of the New England Ohio Company of associates, of the other part, for the purchase of the tract of land bounded by the Ohio, from the mouth of the Scioto to the intersection of the western boundary of the seventh range of townships then surveying ; thence by said boundary to the northern boundary of the tenth township from the Ohio; thence by a due west line to Scioto; thence by the Scioto to the beginning. The bounds of that contract were afterwards altered in 1792. The settlement of this purchase commenced at Marietta, at the mouth of the Muskingum river, in the spring of 1788, and was the first settlement formed within the limits of Ohio. An attempt at settlement within the bounds of Ohio had been made in April, 1785, at the mouth of the Scioto, on the site of Portsmouth, by four families from Redstone, Pa .; but difficulties with the Indians compelled its abandonment.

In October, 1787, Congress appointed Gen. Arthur St. Clair, an officer of the Revolution, Governor ; Winthrop Sargeant, Secretary; and the Hon. Samuel Holden Parsons, James Mitchell Varnum, Judges, in, and over the Territory. The territorial government was organized, and sundry laws were made, or adopted, by the Governor and Judges Parsons and Varnum. In 1788 John

OUTLINE HISTORY.

Cleves Symmes was also appointed judge. The county of Washington, having its limits extended westward to the Scioto, and northward to Lake Erie, em- bracing about half the territory within the present limits of the State, was estab- lished by the proclamation of the Governor.

On the 15th of October, 1788, John Cleves Symmes, in behalf of himself and his associates, contracted with the Board of Treasury for the purchase of a large tract of land situated between the Great and Little Miami river, and the first settlement within the limits of that purchase, and second in Ohio, was com- menced in November of that year, at Columbia, at the mouth of the Little Miami, five miles above the site of Cincinnati.

" A short time after the settlement at Marietta had commenced, an association was formed under the name of the Scioto Land Company. A contract was made for the purchase of a part of the lands included in the Ohio Company's pur- chases. Plats and descriptions of the land contracted for, were, however, made out, and Joel Barlow was sent as an agent to Europe to make sales of the lands for the benefit of the company; and sales were effected of parts thereof to com- panies and individuals in France. On February 19, 1791, two hundred and eighteen of these purchasers left Havre de Grace, in France, and arrived in Al- exandria, D. C., on the 3d of May following. During their passage, two were added to their number. On their arrival, they were told that the Scioto Com- pany owned no land: The agent insisted that they did, and promised to secure to them good titles thereto, which he did, at Winchester, Brownsville, and Charleston (now Wellsburg.) When they arrived at Marietta, about fifty of them landed. The rest of the company proceeded to Gallipolis, which was laid out about that time, and were assured by the agent that the place lay within their purchase. Every effort to secure titles to the lands they had purchased having failed, an application was made to Congress, and in June, 1798, a grant was made to them of a tract of land on the Ohio, above the mouth of the Scioto river, which is called the 'French Grant.'"

The Legislature of Connecticut, in May, 1795, appointed a committee to receive proposals and make sale of the lands she had reserved in Ohio. This committee sold the lands to sundry citizens of Connecticut and other States, and, in September of the same year, executed to several purchasers deeds of conveyance therefor. The purchasers proceeded to survey into townships of five miles square the whole of said tract lying east of the Cuyahoga; they made divisions thereof according to their respective proportions, and com- menced settlements in many of the townships, and there were actually settled therein, by the 21st of March, 1800, about one thousand inhabitants. A num- ber of mills had been built, and roads cut in various directions to the extent of about 700 miles,

The location of the lands appropriate for satisfying military land bounty warrants in the district appropriated for that purpose, granted for services in the Revolutionary war, commenced on March 13, 1800; and the location of the lands granted to the Canadian and Nova Scotia refugees commenced February 13, 1802. The lands east of the Scioto, south of the military bounty lands, and west of the fifteenth range of townships, were first brought into market, and offered for sale by the United States on the first Monday of May, 1801.

The State of Virginia, at an early period of the Revolutionary war, raised two description of troops, State and Continental, to each of which bounties in land were promised. The lands within the limits of her charter, situate to the northwest of Ohio river, were withdrawn from appropriation on treasury war- rants, and the lands on Cumberland river, and between the Green and Tennes- see rivers on the southeasterly side of the Ohio, were appropriated for these military bounties. Upon the recommendation of Congress, Virginia ceded her lands north of the Ohio, upon certain conditions; one of which was, that in case the lands south of Ohio should be insufficient for their legal bounties to

OUTLINE HISTORY.

their troops, the deficiency should be made up from lands north of the Ohio, between the rivers Scioto and Little Miami.

In 1783, the Legislature of Virginia authorized the officers of their respective lines to appoint superintendents to regulate the survey of the bounty lands promised. Richard C. Anderson was appointed principal surveyor of the lands of the troops of the continental establishment. An office for the reception of locations and surveys was opened at Louisville, Kentucky, August 1, 1784, and on the Ist of August, 1787, the said office was open for the reception of surveys and locations on the north side of the Ohio.

In the year 1789, January 9th, a treaty was made at Fort Harmar, between Governor St. Clair and the Sachems and warriors of the Wyandot, Chippewa, Potawatomie, and Sac nations, in which the treaty at Fort McIntosh was re- newed and confirmed. It did not, however, produce the favorable results anti- cipated. The Indians, the same year, assuming a hostile appearance, were seen hovering round the infant settlements near the mouth of the Muskingum and between the Miamies, and nine persons were killed within the bounds of Symmes' purchase. The new settlers became alarmed and erected block-houses in each of the new settlements. In June, 1789, Major Doughty, with 140 men, from Fort Harmar, commenced the building of Fort Washington, on a spot now within the present limits of Cincinnati. A few months afterwards, Gen. Har- mar arrived, with 300 men, and took command of the fort.

Negotiations with the Indians proving unavailing, Gen. Harmar was directed to attack their towns. In pursuance of his instructions he marched from Cin- cinnati, in September, 1790, with 1,300 men, of whom less than one-fourth were regulars. When near the Indian villages, on the Miami of the lake in the vicinity of what is now Fort Wayne, an advanced detachment of 310, consisting chiefly of militia, fell into an ambush and was defeated with severe loss. Gen. Harmar, however, succeeded in burning the Indian villages and in destroying their standing corn, and having effected this service, the army commenced its march homeward. They had not proceeded far when Harmar received intelli- gence that the Indians had returned to their ruined towns. He immediately detached about one-third of his remaining force, under the command of Col. Hardin, with orders to bring them to an engagement. He succeeded in this early the next morning ; the Indians fought with great fury, and the militia and the regulars alike behaved with gallantry. More than one hundred of the militia, and all the regulars except nine, were killed, and the rest were driven back to the main body. Dispirited by this severe misfortune, Harmar immc- diately marched to Cincinnati, and the object of the expedition in intimidating the Indians was entirely unsuccessful.

As the Indians continued hostile, a new army, superior to the former, was assembled at Cincinnati, under the command of Gov. St. Clair. The regular force amounted to 2,300 men; the militia numbered about 600. With this army, St. Clair commenced his march towards the Indian towns on the Maumee. Two forts, Hamilton and Jefferson, were established and garrisoned on the route, about forty miles from each other. Misfortune attended the expedition almost from its commencement. Soon after leaving Fort Jefferson, a considerable party of the militia deserted in a body. The first regiment, under Major Hamtramck, was ordered to pursue them and to secure the advancing convoys of provisions, which it was feared they designed to plunder. Thus weakened by desertion and division, St. Clair approached the Indian villages. On the 3d of November, 1791, when at what is now the line of Darke and Mercer counties, he halted, intending to throw up some slight fortification for the pro- tection of baggage, and to await the return of the absent regiment. On the following morning, however, about half an hour before sunrise, the American army was attacked with great fury, as there is good reason to believe, by the whole disposable force of the northwest tribes. The Americans were totally

OUTLINE HISTORY.

defeated. Gen. Butler and upwards of six hundred men were killed. Indian outrages of every kind were now multiplied, and emigration was almost entirely suspended.

President Washington now urged forward the vigorous prosecution of the war for the protection of the Northwest Territory; but various obstacles re- tarded the enlistment and organization of a new army. In the spring of 1794 the American army assembled at Greenville, in Darke county, under the com- mand of Gen. Anthony Wayne, a bold, energetic and experienced officer of the Revolution. His force consisted of about two thousand regular troops, and fifteen hundred mounted volunteers from Kentucky. The Indians had collected their whole force, amounting to about two thousand men, near a British fort, erected since the treaty of 1783, in violation of its obligations, at the foot of the rapids of the Maumee. On the 20th of August, 1794, Gen. Wayne en- countered the enemy, and after a short and deadly conflict, the Indians fled in the greatest confusion, and were pursued under the guns of the British fort. After destroying all the houses and corn-fields above and below the British fort, on the Maumee, the victorious army returned to the mouth of Au Glaize, where Wayne erected Fort Defiance. Previous to this action, various fruitless attempts had been made to bring the Indians to peace. Some of the messen- gers sent among the Indians for that object were murdered.

The victory of Wayne did not at first reduce the savages to submission. Their country was laid waste, and forts were erected in the heart of their ter- ritory before they could be entirely subdued. At length, however, they became thoroughly convinced of their inability to resist the American arms and sued for peace. A grand council was held at Greenville, where eleven of the most powerful northwestern tribes were represented, to whom Gen. Wayne dictated the terms of pacification. The boundary established by the treaty at Fort McIntosh was confirmed and extended westward from Loramie's to Fort Re- covery, and thence southwest to the mouth of the Kentucky river. The Indians agreed to acknowledge the United States as their sole protector, and never to sell their lands to any other power. Upon these and other conditions, the United States received the Indian nations into their protection. A large quan- tity of goods was delivered to them on the spot, and perpetual annuities, pay- able in merchandise, etc., were promised to each tribe who became a party to the treaty.

While the war with the Indians continued, of course but little progress was made in the settlement in the west. The next county that was established after that of Washington, in 1788, was Hamilton, erected in 1790. Its bounds in- cluded the country between the Miamies, extending northward from the Ohio river to a line drawn due east from the Standing Stone forks of the Great Miami. The name of the settlement opposite the Licking was, at this time, called Cincinnati.

At this period there was no fixed seat of government. The laws were passed whenever they seemed to be needed, and promulgated at any place where the territorial legislators happened to be assembled. In 1789 the first Congress passed an act recognizing the binding force of the ordinance of 1787, and adapting its provisions to the federal constitution. At this period, the judges appointed by the national executive constituted the supreme court of the territory. Inferior to this court were the county court, courts of common pleas, and the general quarter sessions of the peace. Single judges of the common pleas, and single justices of the quarter sessions were also clothed with certain civil and criminal powers to be exercised out of court.

In 1795 the governor an ! judges undertook to revise the territorial laws, and to establish a system of statutory jurisprudence, by adoptions from the laws of the original States, in conformity to the ordinance. For this purpose they assembled in Cincinnati in June and continued in session until the latter

OUTLINE HISTORY.

part of August. The general court was fixed at Cincinnati and Marietta; other courts were established, and laws and regulations were adopted for various purposes.

The population of the territory now continued to increase and extend. From Marietta, settlers spread into the adjoining country. The Virginia military reservation drew a considerable number of revolutionary veterans, and others, from that State. The region between the Miamies, from the Ohio far up toward the sources of Mad river, became chequered with farms, and abounded in indications of the presence of an active and prosperous population. The neighborhood of Detroit became populous, and Connecticut, by grants of land within the tract, reserved in her deed of cession, induced many of her hardy citizens to seek a home on the borders of Lake Erie. In 1796 Wayne county was established, including all the northwestern part of Ohio, a large tract in the northeastern part of Indiana, and the whole territory of Michigan. In July, 1797, Adams county was erected, comprehending a large tract lying on both sides of the Scioto, and extending northward to Wayne. Other counties were afterwards formed out of those already established. Before the end of the year 1798 the Northwest Territory contained a population of five thousand free male inhabitants, of full age, and eight organized counties.

The people were now entitled, under the ordinance of 1787, to a change in their form of government. That instrument provided that whenever there were five thousand free males, of full age, in the territory, the people should be au- thorized to elect representatives to a territorial legislature. These, when chosen, were to nominate ten freeholders of 500 acres, of whom the president was to appoint five, who were to constitute the legislative council. Representatives were to serve two, and councilmen five years. The first meeting of the terri- torial legislature was appointed on the 16th of September, 1799, but it was not till the 24th of the same month that the two houses were organized for busi- ness ; at which time they were addressed by Gov. St. Clair. An act was passed to confirm and give force to those laws enacted by the governor and judges, whose validity had been doubted. This act, as well as every other which originated in the council, was prepared and brought forward by Jacob Burnet, afterwards a distinguished judge and senator, to whose labors, at this session, the territory was indebted for some of its most beneficial laws. The whole number of acts passed and approved by the governor was thirty-seven. Wil- liam H. Harrison, then secretary of the Territory, was elected as delegate to Congress, having eleven of twenty-one votes.

Within a few months after the close of this session, Connecticut ceded to the United States her claim of jurisdiction over the northeastern part of the ter- ritory; upon which the president conveyed, by patent, the fee of the soil to the governor of the State, for the use of grantees and purchasers claiming under her. This tract, in the summer of the same year, was erected into a new county by the name of Trumbull. The same congress which made a final arrangement with Connecticut, passed an act dividing the Northwestern Territory into two governments, by a line drawn from the mouth of the Kentucky to Fort Re- covery, and thence northward to the territorial line. East of this line, the government, already established, was continued; while west of it another, sub- stantially similar, was established. This act fixed the seat of the eastern gov- ernment at Chillicothe; subject, however, to be removed at the pleasure of the legislature.

On the 30th of April, 1802, Congress passed an act authorizing the call of a convention to form a State constitution. This convention assembled at Chil- licothe, November Ist, and on the 29th of the same month a constitution of State government was ratified and signed by the members of the convention. It was never referred to the people for their approbation, but became the fun- damental law of the State by the act of the convention alone; and, by this act, Ohio became one of the States of the Federal Union.

OUTLINE HISTORY.

Besides framing the constitution, the convention had another duty to per- form. The act of Congress, providing for the admission of the new State into the Union, offered certain propositions to the people. These were, first, that section sixteen in each township, or, where that section had been disposed of, other contiguous and equivalent lands, should be granted to the inhabitants for the use of schools ; second, that thirty-eight sections of land, where salt-springs had been found, of which one township was situated on the Scioto, one section on the Muskingum, and one section in the United States military tract, should be granted to the State, never, however, to be sold or leased for a longer term than ten years; and third, that one-twentieth of the proceeds of public lands sold within the State, should be applied to the construction of roads from the Atlantic, to and through the same. These propositions were offered on the condition that the convention should provide, by ordinance, that all lands sold by the United States after the 30th day of June, 1802, should be exempt from taxation, by the State, for five years after sale.

The ordinance of 1785 had already provided for the appropriation of section sixteen to the support of schools in every township sold by the United States ; and this appropriation thus became a condition of the sale and settlement of the western country. It was a consideration offered to induce purchases of public lands, at a time when the treasury was well-nigh empty, and this source of revenue was much relied upon. It extended to every township of land within the territory, except those in the Virginia military reservation, and wherever the reserved section had been disposed of, after the passage of the ordinance, Congress was bound to make other equivalent provision for the same object. The reservation of section sixteen, therefore, could not, in 1802, be properly made the object of a new bargain between the United States and the State ; and many thought that the salt reservations and the twentieth of the proceeds of the public lands were very inadequate equivalents for the pro- posed surrender of the right to tax. The convention, however, determined to accept the propositions of Congress, on their being so far enlarged and modified as to vest in the State, for the use of schools, section sixteen in each township sold by the United States, and three other tracts of land, equal in quantity, respectively, to one thirty-sixth of the Virginia reservation, of the United States military tract, and of the Connecticut reserve, and to give three per centum of the proceeds of the public lands sold within the State, to be applied under the direction of the legislature, to roads in Ohio. Congress assented to the pro- posed modifications, and thus completed the compact.

The first General Assembly under the State constitution met at Chillicothe, March 1, 1803. The legislature enacted such laws as were deemed necessary for the new order of things, and created eight new counties, namely: Gallia, Scioto, Franklin, Columbiana, Butler, Warren, Greene and Montgomery. The first State officers elected by the assembly were as follows, viz .: Michael Bald- win, Speaker of the House of Representatives; Nathaniel Massie, Speaker of the Senate ; William Creighton, Jr., Secretary of State; Col. Thomas Gibson, Auditor ; William McFarland, Treasurer; Return J. Meigs, Jr., Samuel Hun- tington and William Sprigg, Judges of the Supreme Court; Francis Dunlavy, Wyllys Silliman and Calvin Pease, Judges of the District Courts.

The second General Assembly convened in December, 1803. At this ses- sion, the militia law was thoroughly revised and a law was passed to enable aliens to enjoy the same proprietary rights in Ohio as native citizens. At this session, also, the revenue system of the State was simplified and improved. Acts were passed providing for the incorporation of townships, and for the establishment of boards of commissioners of counties.

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.

Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 4

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