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Later cessions of Indian lands. Later treaties made during the period from 1805 to 1817 released nearly all the remainder of the state, as one by one the Indian tribes exchanged their lands for reservations west of the Mississippi River. The Wyandots were the last to go; and in 1843 the remnant of this once powerful tribe, reduced to about eight hundred members,
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gave up its reservation lying near Upper Sandusky and moved to a reservation west of the Mississippi River.
Surrender of the northwestern forts. At the time of Wayne's victory, British garrisons still held Detroit, Oswego, Niagara, and other northwestern posts which under the IntyWayne treaty of 1783 belonged to the United States. Great Britain's excuse for hold- Jar- hi (a Crane) ing the posts was that the debts due to British sub- William Sur Soy-yagh-tow RT jects before the war had not been paid as the treaty required. The officers in command of these posts aided the Indians in their Ha.ra en. you . los half King's for efforts to drive the Ameri- cans beyond the Ohio by Je haar to rens supplying them with arms and ammunition. In 1794 Aw-me-yeray the lieutenant-governor of Canada even built a fort layer tak on the Maumee where Perrysburg now stands. The frontiersmen talked of FIG. 16. The Greenville Treaty another war with Great This shows the first section of the Greenville Treaty, which bears the signature of Anthony Wayne and the Wyandot chiefs. Each Indian who signed drew opposite his name the totem of his tribe or clan. The original of this treaty is in the Library of Congress; a duplicate copy is in the Museum of the Greenville Historical Society. (Illustration from Randall and Ryan's "History of Ohio") Britain, but wiser counsel prevailed. By a new treaty signed in 1794, Great Britain agreed to surren- der the northwestern posts. In return, the United States promised to pay the debts due to British subjects at the beginning of the Revolution. On July 11, 1796, the British garrison evacuated Detroit, and a small force of American troops marched in and took possession. The Stars and Stripes now floated for the first time over the entire Northwest Territory.
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The Mound Builders in Ohio. The Indians who contended with the early pioneers were not the original inhabitants of the state. Scattered over the southern part of Ohio, and throughout the entire Mississippi Valley, are thousands of peculiar mounds and earthworks. These ancient remains indicate that an intel- ligent and numerous race occupied the region for thousands of years before the Indians were found there. The mounds were sometimes raised embankments, sometimes square or circular
FIG. 17. Serpent Mound in Adams County
This remarkable work of the Mound Builders is built in the form of a great serpent extending 1350 feet in length, with a large oval mound representing an egg lying be- tween its distended jaws. The worship of the serpent has been characteristic of many primitive peoples, and this was evidently true of the Mound Builders. (Illustration from Randall and Ryan's "History of Ohio")
inclosures, and sometimes earthworks made to resemble some animal, like the immense Serpent Mound in Adams County (Fig. 17). Apparently they were intended for different pur- poses : some were fortifications (Fig. 19) and observation points (Fig. 18), some were burying-places, and others may have served as places of worship. The people who built these mounds were farther advanced in civilization than the Indians. They had better methods of agriculture, they dug canals, they opened the ground and discovered metals which were shaped into tools, vessels, and ornaments.
Some writers have thought that the Mound Builders must have been a race distinct from the more warlike Indians, by whom they were afterwards defeated and overwhelmed. The more recent opinion is that the Mound Builders were not a
FIG. 18. Old Indian Mound, Miamisburg, Montgomery County
This old Indian mound is one of the largest of its kind in the world. It is 100 feet in height and 250 feet in diameter at the base. Excavations show that it was not a burial mound but that it was probably used as a signal station. It is located on a high hill, from which one can see for miles in every direction
FIG. 19. Fort Ancient, Warren County
Fort Ancient is the largest fortification built by the Mound Builders in North America. This fort, or group of three forts, is located on a high bluff overlooking the valley of the Little Miami River. The area of land inclosed is 130 acres. It is thought that this fortification protected an ancient village, since excavators have found here thou- sands of relics of a primitive race, including stone graves, skulls, bits of pottery, hammer and grinding stones, flint knives, spear and arrow heads. (After an illustra- tion in Randall and Ryan's "History of Ohio")
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distinct race, but were the ancestors of the Indians themselves. The red man whom the pioneers found in Ohio had no record or tradition of an earlier race, and so the real story of the mounds remains as much of a mystery as ever.
· Problem IX. Why the westward movement steadily increased
How the first settlers came to Ohio. Wayne's victory over the Indians meant peace on the northwestern frontier ; it meant also a rapid increase in the number of immigrants to Ohio, especially from New England and Virginia. Settlers from the East usually built arks or flatboats at Pittsburgh, in which they floated down the Ohio to their destination. At the end of the voyage the boat was broken up, and the lumber used in building the cabin or barn. The newcomer was always certain of a hos- pitable welcome from the older settlers. No cabin was too small to shelter the guest ; a quilt would be hung at night so as to divide the single cabin room, while the children were tucked away in the loft overhead.
Early pioneer life. As soon as the new settler had located his farm, a day was set by his future neighbors for the house- raising. On the day appointed all the men from the surround- ing country came to help build the log cabin. The first day was spent in felling trees and splitting the logs, the second was devoted to the house-raising, and on the third day the owner for whom all this was done gave a "house-warming." So while pioneer life was filled with privation and toil, this spirit of mutual helpfulness and good will gave it a charm of its own. At the harvestings, the huskings, and the quiltings, as at the house-raising, the neighbors came in to help. Or if any settler was sick, or short-handed when his crops needed care, his neighbors promptly came to his aid.
Public land sales. The peopling of Ohio was aided by a new land policy. At first the public lands were sold only in large tracts to companies or speculators, from whom the pioneers had to purchase their farms. William Henry Harrison, delegate from the Northwest Territory in the House of Representatives,
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persuaded Congress to adopt a better method. Beginning in 1795, the government sold public lands direct to settlers in smaller tracts, and in a short time 200,000 acres of Ohio land were sold at the government land office in Pittsburgh. Soon afterwards public land offices were opened at Cincinnati, Chillicothe, Marietta, and Steubenville (Fig. 20). Here the
FIG. 20. Office of the Ohio Company, Marietta, Ohio
This is the oldest building in the state. It was erected in 1788 and served as a land office for the sale of thousands of acres of Ohio land
settler could purchase a section (six hundred and forty acres) or a half-section, paying two dollars an acre, only one fourth of which had to be paid in cash.
Old Ohio towns. The result was a constant swelling of the tide of migration which was pouring into Ohio. Several new towns were formed north of the first settlements at Marietta and Cincinnati. The earliest of these were Dayton and Chilli- cothe, both established in 1796. Dayton was laid out by a trio
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of Revolutionary generals-St. Clair, Wilkinson, and Dayton, the last of whom was honored by having the site named for him.
In the same year Nathaniel Massie led a party of Kentucky emigrants, seeking for new homes on free soil, into the interior of the Virginia Military Dis- trict. They selected a beau- tiful site near the junction of Paint Creek with the Scioto, and laid out the town of Chillicothe. Many Virgin- ians came to this settlement, including Edward Tiffin, Thomas Worthington, and Robert Lucas, each of whom later served as governor of Ohio. Zanesville on the Muskingum was founded in 1799, and named for an en- terprising pioneer, Colonel Ebenezer Zane. New Lan- caster on the Hocking was settled in 1800 by thrifty FIG. 21. Moses Cleaveland German settlers from Penn- sylvania.
Moses Cleaveland was born in Connecticut. He graduated from Yale University, and served in the Continental Army as a captain of engineers. When the Connecticut Land Company purchased Connecticut's share of the Western Reserve, Cleaveland was ap- pointed to make the survey. On July 22, 1796, he decided upon the site for the city of Cleveland on the shore of Lake Erie, at
the mouth of the Cuyahoga River
The first settlement within the limits of the Western Reserve was made when Moses Cleaveland (Fig. 21), a Connecticut lawyer, led a company of fifty settlers to the mouth of Conneaut
Creek (July 4, 1796). From this point the surveyors in his party went up the lake shore to the Cuyahoga River, reaching a site which had long served as a depot for Detroit and Pittsburgh traders. Here Cleaveland's surveyors laid out the town des- tined to become Ohio's largest city. It was named in honor of its founder, and it is said that the dropping of the letter "a"
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from the name was necessary to fit the headline of the little sheet on which the first Cleveland newspaper was printed.
First legislature in the Northwest Territory. A census of the Northwest Territory taken in 1798 gave a population of 5000 white male inhabitants of full age. Under the terms of the Ordinance of 1787, the territory was therefore entitled to elect members of a legislature. By this time nine counties
FIG. 22. The first State House at Chillicothe
This was the first public edifice built of stone in the Northwest Territory. Here the ter- ritorial legislature met in 1801, and the first Constitutional Convention in 1802. The state legislature held its sessions here from 1802 until 1810, while Chillicothe was the capital of Ohio. (After an illustration in Randall and Ryan's "History of Ohio")
had been created, and the voters were called upon to elect repre- sentatives. In all, twenty-two representatives were chosen to form the lower house of the legislature, which met at Cincinnati in 1790. One of its first acts was to elect William Henry Harri- son as delegate to the House of Representatives at Washington. The assembly rejected a petition from several Virginians who asked permission to bring slaves with them into the Virginia Military District. It was voted that this request was contrary to the Ordinance of 1787, which forbade slavery in the territory or in the states formed from it.
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Congress divides the Northwest Territory. In 1800 Congress passed an act dividing the Northwest Territory into two parts. A line was drawn from a point on the Ohio River opposite the mouth of the Kentucky to Fort Recovery in Mercer County, thence due north to the Canadian boundary. The region west of this line was to be Indiana Territory, with its capital at Vin- cennes, while the eastern section continued to be called the Northwest Territory, with its capital changed to Chillicothe.
TOPICS FOR SPECIAL REPORTS
I. La Salle and his Explorations. CHANNING, E., and LANSING, M. F., Story of the Great Lakes, ch. VI ; FISKE, JOHN, Discovery of America, II, pp. 532-537 ; GORDY, W. F., Stories of Early American History, ch. XIX ; HALSEY, F. W. Great Epochs in American History, I, pp. 199-206; PARK- MAN, FRANCIS, Struggle for a Continent, pp. 186-222; RANDALL and RYAN, History of Ohio, I, pp. 109-132.
2. The Struggle between France and Great Britain. BALDWIN, J., Con- quest of the Old Northwest, pp. 1-149; GORDY, W. F., Stories of Early American History, ch. XXII; HART, A. B., Editor, American Patriots and Statesmen, I, pp. 224-226; JOHNSON, W. H., French Pathfinders in North America, chs. VIII-IX; LONG, A. W., American Patriotic Prose, pp. 30-33; PARKMAN, FRANCIS, Struggle for a Continent, pp. 301-459; RANDALL and RYAN, History of Ohio, I, pp. 278-378.
3. Washington's Journey on the Ohio River. RANDALL and RYAN, His- tory of Ohio, I, pp. 479-495.
4. How the Northwest was won by George Rogers Clark. BALDWIN, JAMES, Conquest of the Old Northwest, pp. 145-178; BARSTOW, C. L., The Westward Movement (Century Readings), pp. 61-68; DRAKE, S. A., The Making of the Ohio Valley States, pp. 116-121 ; HALSEY, F. W., Great Epochs in American History, III, pp. 188-195; RANDALL and RYAN, History of Ohio, II, pp. 189-214.
5. How the Northwest Territory was Organized. BALDWIN, JAMES, Con- quest of the Old Northwest, pp. 179-186; RANDALL and RYAN, History of Ohio, II, pp. 403-424 ; SPARKS, E. E., Expansion of the American People, chs. III, X.
6. The Ordinance of 1787. RANDALL and RYAN, History of Ohio, II, pp. 425-438.
7. What was accomplished by the Ohio Company of Associates. RANDALL and RYAN, History of Ohio, II, pp. 439-470.
8. Pioneer Life in the Ohio Country. BALDWIN, JAMES, Conquest of the Old Northwest, pp. 187-194; SPARKS, E. E., Expansion of the American People, chs. XI-XIII.
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9. Indian Tribes of Ohio. RANDALL and RYAN, History of Ohio, I, pp. 155-182.
IO. Daniel Boone. BARSTOW, C. L., The Westward Movement (Century. Readings), pp. 75-80; BRUCE, H. A., Daniel Boone and the Wilderness Road; BRUCE, H. A., Romance of American Expansion, ch. I.
II. Simon Kenton. RANDALL and RYAN, History of Ohio, II, pp. 231-252.
12. Battle of Fallen Timbers, and the Greenville Treaty. RANDALL and RYAN, History of Ohio, II, pp. 537-572.
13. Settlement of the Western Reserve. RANDALL and RYAN, History of Ohio, II, pp. 573-600.
CHAPTER II THE MAKING OF A GREAT STATE (1803-1850)
Problem I. How Ohio became a state in the Union
Ohio becomes a state. The Northwest Territory now had 60,000 inhabitants and was therefore entitled to statehood according to the promise made in the Ordinance of 1787. Moreover, President Jefferson was eager to have this region be- come a state, for he believed that he could count on receiving its vote in the coming presidential election. So in 1802 Con- gress authorized the voters in that part of the Northwest Terri- tory south of Michigan to elect delegates to a convention for the purpose of forming a state constitution. The convention met at Chillicothe on November 1, 1802 (Fig. 22), and prepared a constitution within the month. Congress passed an act recogniz- ing the existence of the new state of Ohio, which entered the Union as the seventeenth state on March 1, 1803.
The first state constitution. This first Ohio constitution was patterned after the constitutions of the older states. There was a bill of rights, intended to safeguard the liberties of the indi- vidual. For example, the bill of rights guarantees freedom of speech and of the press, provides for the impartial trial of per- sons accused of crime, and prohibits any law interfering with religious freedom. The constitution established the usual three departments of government. The legislature, or General As- sembly, was to consist of two houses, executive power was vested in a governor, and judicial power was exercised by a supreme court and certain lower courts.
The powers of the General Assembly were large. It ap- pointed most of the state officers, including the judges, and the measures which it passed could not be vetoed by the governor. This situation was the result of the disputes which had taken
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place between Governor St. Clair and the legislature of the ter- ritory. During the fourteen years of his governorship, St. Clair proved himself an upright and capable executive, but he was sometimes arbitrary and inclined to rule with a high hand. So the delegates who drew up the state constitution were determined that the state governor should not be able to defeat the popular will. By making the gov- ernor a mere figurehead, the constitution made him almost as powerless for good as for ill. But in spite of its defects, this first constitution served the state for nearly fifty years.
Organizing the state government. The first Gen- eral Assembly under the new constitution met at FIG. 23. Edward Tiffin Chillicothe on March I, Edward Tiffin was a graduate of the Univer- sity of Pennsylvania. He was trained both in medicine and in law. In 1798 he came to the Chillicothe settlement from Virginia, and probably no other man played so large a part in molding the destiny of early Ohio. Tiffin served as representative in the territorial leg- islature, and as president of the first Consti- tutional Convention. He was elected the first governor of Ohio in 1803, and reëlected in 1805. Afterwards he represented Ohio in the United States Senate 1803. On counting the votes for governor, it was found that Edward Tiffin had been elected to that office (Fig. 23). For judges of the supreme court of the state, the Gen- eral Assembly elected Re- turn J. Meigs, Samuel Huntington, and William Spriggs. Ohio's first United States Senators were Thomas Worthington and John Smith ; her first member of the House of Representatives was Jeremiah Morrow.
The great seal of Ohio. One of the first laws passed by the General Assembly prescribed the duties of the secretary of state and made provision for a state seal in these words: "The
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secretary of state shall procure a seal, one inch and a half in diameter, for the use of each and every county now or hereafter to be created, on which shall appear the following device: on the right side, near the bottom, a sheaf of wheat, and on the left a bundle of seventeen arrows, both standing erect in the
FIG. 24. The oldest house in Dayton, Ohio
This house was built in 1796, and first served as a residence. It afterwards served at various times as a church, tavern, store, courthouse, and jail. It is now in the charge of the Dayton Historical Society, and is used as a museum for the historical relics of Montgomery County
foreground, and rising above the sheaf and arrows a mountain, over which shall appear a rising sun. The State Seal to be surrounded by these words: The Great Seal of the State of Ohio." It is said that the mountains depicted on the seal represent the Mount Logan range, opposite Chillicothe.
Problem II. How the steamboat helped develop the West
Ohio and the Louisiana Purchase. In the same year that Ohio became a state, the United States purchased the territory of Louisiana, including New Orleans and all the region between
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THE MAKING OF A GREAT STATE
the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. This purchase was of great benefit to the settlers in Ohio and to the western pioneers in general. The only outlet for the products of the western farms was by means of barges down the Mississippi to New Orleans, and if this port continued to be owned by a foreign power it might be closed to this trade at any time. So the men of the frontier rejoiced when they learned that the whole Mississippi Valley had come under the American flag. Henceforth the great waterway, with its natural outlet to the Gulf, would be a free channel for the transportation of their products.
River trade with New Orleans. This transportation was slow and costly. It took six months for the heavy barges and keel boats to make the round trip from the Ohio River to New Orleans, so that the value of the cargo was eaten up by the cost of transporting it. But in 1803 sail barges were built for the New Orleans trade, carrying from fifty to one hundred tons each, and this improvement reduced the charges for freight.
First steamboat on the Ohio River. Soon afterwards came an invention which proved of utmost importance in promoting the growth of the West (Fig. 25). In 1807 Robert Fulton's steam- boat, the Clermont, made its successful voyage on the Hudson River. Four years later the first steamboat appeared on the Ohio. This was the New Orleans, a side-wheeler built at Pitts- burgh to navigate the western waters. When the New Orleans reached Cincinnati, several visitors came on board. They told the captain, Nicholas J. Roosevelt : "Your boat may go down to New Orleans, but it is absurd to think that it can ever come up the river, moving against the current." To show his visitors what the steamboat could do, Captain Roosevelt ran his boat up the river for several miles, then continued on his voyage to New Orleans.
The growth of western trade. Other steamboats were soon constructed, the first on Lake Erie being the Walk-in-the- Water, which made the voyage from Buffalo to Detroit in 1818. The great network of western rivers and lakes was soon cov- ered with steam-driven craft that could defy wind and current.
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The cumbersome flatboat made the trip from Louisville to New Orleans in from thirty to forty days, while the return trip against the swift current took at least ninety days. The steamboat with its powerful paddle wheels made the trip down the river in seven days, the return trip in sixteen days.
Even in the days of the flatboat the trade on the Mississippi and its tributaries was large; with the coming of the steamboat
FIG. 25. One of the early river steamboats
that trade increased by leaps and bounds. Towns like Pitts- burgh, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and above all New Orleans, grew steadily in population. By 1825 the steamboat had passed all competitors and was carrying sixty per cent of the freight to New Orleans. The spread of the cotton region in the South- west increased the demand for food products just at the time when the steamboat made it possible for the West to supply this demand. Thus by giving the frontier settlers access to the markets of the South and the East, the steamboat aided the development of the entire western country.
The state capitals. Chillicothe had been chosen as the capital of the Northwest Territory in 1800, and the capital remained there until 1810, seven years after Ohio became a state. Zanes- ville then became the seat of the state government. In this same year the legislature accepted a proposition made by the
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owners of lands on the east bank of the Scioto River, opposite the town of Franklinton. These men offered to donate lands for a State House Square and a penitentiary on condition that the capital should be moved to this site not later than 1817,
FIG. 26. The first state buildings at Columbus, Ohio
The State House, at the right, was a brick building. The legislature met here until the building was destroyed by fire in 1852. At the left is the building which was occupied by the Secretary of State, the State Auditor, and the Treasurer of State until 1857, when it was torn down to make room for the present State House. (After an illustration from Randall and Ryan's "History of Ohio")
and that it should not be changed before 1840. The offer was accepted, and in 1816 the city of Columbus-named in honor of the discoverer of America-became the permanent capital of Ohio (Fig. 26).
Problem III. Why Ohio was an important theater of the War of 1812
The War of 1812. The year 1812 found the United States again at war with Great Britain. This war was the direct out- come of Great Britain's struggle against Napoleon, then ruler of France. In enforcing the blockade against French ports, British warships captured hundreds of American merchantmen.
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Even worse than the capture of our ships was the seizure of American sailors. The British navy made a practice of search- ing our merchant vessels on the high seas, and seizing men claimed as deserters or as British subjects. These were real grievances, but there was also an imaginary one which in- creased the bitter feeling toward Great Britain. The Indians were attacking the settlers on our northwestern frontier, and the frontiersmen declared that the British government was urging them on. This accusation was not true, but the country believed it.
In response to the popular demand, Congress finally declared war against Great Britain (June 18, 1812). In most respects the United States was unprepared for the struggle. Our regular army numbered less than 7000 men, scattered along the frontier posts. The chief officers were Revolutionary veterans, old men no longer competent to lead armies. In our favor was the fact that Great Britain was engaged in a mighty combat with Napoleon, which would prevent her from sending large armies to America.
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