History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley, Part 56

Author: Caldwell, J. A. (John Alexander) 1n; Newton, J. H., ed; Ohio Genealogical Society. 1n
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Wheeling, W. Va. : Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 728

USA > Ohio > Jefferson County > History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley > Part 56
USA > Ohio > Belmont County > History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley > Part 56

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TRADING POSTS.

The first trading posts attempted by the whites, (French,) within the present limits of Ohio, were near the mouth of the Cuyahoga river, and on the peninsula between Sandusky bay and the mouth of Portage river, at a place called St. Dusky, or Sandusquet. This was prior to 1750. As early as the fall of 1750, the English began the erection of a stoskade at a trading post then called Pickawillany, now known as horamie's Store, in Shelby county.

THE MORAVIAN MISSIONS.

The first missionary sent to the Ohio country by the Mora- vians came to the valley of the Tuscarawas in 1761. Not long 20-B.& J. Cos.

after the missions were established in the Tuscarawas valley known as Shænbrun, Gnadenhutten, and Salem.

FORTS.

The first military post built by the whites in that part of the Northwest Territory now embraced in Ohio, was that of Fort Laurens, constructed in 1778, by a detachment sent out from Fort Pitt under General MeIntosh. The second was that of Fort Harmar, at the mouth of the Muskingum, in 1785. The third was Fort Steuben, built by Captain Hamtramck. in 1786.

CESSION BY VIRGINIA TO THE UNITED STATES.

In 1793 "the General Assembly of Virginia passed an act an- thorizing the Virginia delegates in Congress to convey to the United States all the right of that Commonwealth to the terri- tory north-westward of the river Ohio.">

. Pursuant to the foregoing action of the General Assembly of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Hardy, Arthur Lee, and James Monroe, Virginia's delegates in Congress, did, as per deed of cession, on the first day of March, 1784, it being the eighth year of American Independence, "convey (in the name and for, and on behalf of, the said Commonwealth), transfer, assign, and make over unto the United States in Congress assembled, for the benefit of said States, Virginia inclusive, all right, title, and claim, as well of soil as of jurisdiction, to the territory of said State, lying and being to the north-west of the river Ohio." Upon the presentation of said deed of cession, Congress resolved, on the same day, "that it be accepted, and the same be recorded and enrolled among the acts of the United States Congress as- sembled."

RELINQUISHMENT OF THE INDIAN TITLES IN OHIO.

The conveyances known by the name of treaties in the early period of American history are based upon conquest. The pos- session of the country, acquired by war and force against the will and resistance of the occupants, was the substantial title. The treaty was the evidence of its extent ; procured by the snc- cessful from the defeated party, upon such conditions as the vie- torious nation deemed it necessary to impose, or politie to accept. By the peace of 1783. England assigned all her rights to the United Colonies, whether derived from the Indians or the French. At the close of the Revolution, the Indian nations, having entered into a war-alliance with Great Britain, naturally suffered in common with the mother country the effects of law- ful conquest.

By the terms of the treaty of Fort Stanwix, conelnded by the United States with the Iroquois, or Six Nations, on the 22d of October, 1784, the indefinite title or claim of said confederacy to the greater part of the valley of Ohio was extinguished. The treaty was concluded by three commissioners appointed by Con- gress, whose names were Oliver Wolcott, Richard Butler and Arthur Lee. Cornplanter and Red Jacket represented the In- dians.

This was followed in January, 1785, by the treaty of Fort Me- Intosh, by which the Delawares, Wyandots, Ottawas, and Chip- pewas relinquished all claim to the Ohio valley and established the boundary line between them and the United States to be the Cuyahoga River, and along the main branch of the Tuscarawas, to the forks of said river near Fort. banrens, then westwardly to the portage between the head waters of the Great Miami and the Maumee or Miami of the Lakes, thence down said river to Lake Erie, and along said lake to the mouth of the Cuyahoga river. The treaty was negotiated by George Rogers Clark, Richard Butler, and Arthur Lee for the United States, and by the chief's of the aforenamed tribes.

A similar relinquishment was effected by the treaty of Fort Finney (at the month of the Great Miami), concluded with the Shawanese Jannary 31, 1786, the United States commissioners

"Virginia based her right to the north-west territory both on her claims under the origi- nal charters, and the emquest by Colonel Goorge Rogers Clark in the year 1778.

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HISTORY OF BELMONT AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES.

being the same as the foregoing, except the substitution of Sam- uel H. Parsons for Arthur Lee.

The treaty of Fort Harmar, held by General St. Clair, January 9, 1780. was mainly confirmatory of the treaties previously made. So also was the treaty of Greenville, of Angust 3, 1795, made by General Wayne on the part of the United States, and the chiefs of eleven of the most powerful tribes of the north-western In- dians, which re-established the Indian boundary line through the present State of Ohio, and extended it from Loramie to Fort Re- covery, and from thence to the mouth of the Ohio river, opposite the mouth of the Kentucky river.

The rights and titles acquired by the Indian tribes under the foregoing treaties were extinguished by the General Govern- ment, by purchase, in pursuance of treaties subsequently made. The Western Reserve tract west of the Cuyahoga river was se- cured by a treaty formed at Fort Industry in 1805. The lands west of Richland and Huron counties and north of the boundary line to the western limits of Ohio were purchased by the United States in 1818. The last possession of the Delawares was pur- chased in 1829; and by a treaty made at Upper Sandusky, March 17, 1842, by Colonel John Johnston and the Wyandot chiefs. that last remnant of the Indian tribes in Ohio sold the last acre they owned within the limits of our State to the General Gov- ernment, and retired, the next year, to the Far West, settling at and near the mouth of Kansas river.

FIRST WHITE BIRTHS IN OHIO.

Considerable discussion has arisen in regard to the birth of the first white child within the limits of Ohio, and a number of persons have devoted much research to the subject. Several claims have been presented, though some are mere fiction, and others are not sufficiently authentic to be entitled to entire credit. It is said that the white wife of a French officer gave birth to a child at Fort Junandat, on the Sandusky, as early as 1754, and while Ohio was French territory, but nothing very definite is known in regard to it. There may have been some births among the prisoners in the hands of the Indians prior to 1764, and also among the traders with the Ohio Indians prior to that time who were married to white women, but in the ab- sence of definite and conclusive evidence, all such statements must remain mere conjecture.

In April, 1764, a white woman whose husband was a white man, was captured in Virginia, by some Delaware Indians, and taken to one of their towns at or near Wakatomika, now Dres- den, Muskingum county. In July of said year, she, while yet in captivity at the above named place, gave birth to a male child. She and her child were among the captives restored to their friends November 9, 1764, under an arrangement made by Bou- quet, her husband being present and receiving them. It was the first known white child born upon the soil of Ohio, but the exact time and place of its birth, and its name, are alike un- known.

In 1770, an Indian trader named Conner, married a white woman who was a captive among the Shawanese, at or near the Scioto. During the next year she gave birth to a male child, probably at the above named point. Mrs. Conner, in 1774, with her husband, removed to Shoenbrun, one of the Moravian villages on the Tuscarawas, and there they had other children born to them.

In April, 1773, Rev. John Roth and wife arrived at Gnaden- huten, on the Tuscarawas, and there, on the 4th day of July, 1774, she gave birth to a child, and which, the next day, at his baptism, by Rev. David Zeisberger, was named John Lewis Roth. He died at Bath, Pennsylvania, September 25, 1841. It is clear that John Lewis Roth is the first white child born within the limits of our State, whose name, sex, time, place of birth and death, and biography, are known with certainty.

Howe in his "Ohio Historical Collections," states upon the authority of a Mr. Dinsmore, of Kentucky, that a Mr. Mille- homme, in 1835, (who then lived in the parish of Terre-Bonne, Louisiana), informed him that he was born of French-Cana- dian parents, on or near the Loramie portage, about the year 1774, while his parents were moving from Canada to Louisiana ; but there is nothing definite or authentic in this case either as to time or place.

Joanna Maria Heckewelder, daughter of Rev, John Hecke- welder, was born at Salem, one of the Moravian villages on the Tuscarawas, April 16, 1781, and she was the first white female child born upon Ohio territory, as to whose time and place of birth, death, and subsequent history, there is positive certainty. Her death took place at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, September 19, 1868, in the eighty-eighth year of her age,

THE FIRST WHITE CHILD BORN IN WHAT IS NOW JEFFERSON COUNTY.

This honor had been principally accorded. hitherto. to Eph- raim Cable, born in 1794, but after diligent investigation we have gleaned the following chain of facts that antedate Mr. Ca- ble some ten years. We find that so early as 1784-5, there squatted in Mingo Bottom, one Joseph Ross, his wife and son Jake, then quite a child. Being a man of resolute will, and probably up to the standard of shrewdness marking the laboring men of those days, conceived no good reason why he should not, (amid such verdant pastures) take up his solitary abode, and assert himself, as it were. "monarch of all he surveyed." Casting around, he fortunately espied the hollow trunk of what was once a large sycamore tree -- in fact it was of comparative levia- thai, proportions- and therein he promptly improvised a tem- porary shelter for himselfand family. It was located on the farm at present in the possession of a Mr. Jump, and we have the anthority of Mrs. Theodore Clifton and others, still living, that they saw the said decayed stump. or a portion of it, with a limb' projecting that had been hollowed ont and used as a stove pipe, black and charred-so late as 1814. It was during their temporary abode therein, and while the father was constructing a log hut, that Mrs. Ross gave birth to the veritable first white child born in Jefferson county-afterwards christened Absalom. Now to substantiate the residence of Ross in that locality, at the period in question-and that he must have been there some time previous to the date about to be quoted-he being found subsequently with other squatters around him-it will be seen by "The Report of Ensign Armstrong," under the head of "Premature attempts at Settlement in Ohio." (found in another portion of this chapter) that in April, 1785, that officer writes- " We arrived at Mingo Bottom, or 'Oldtown," I read my in- structions to the prisoner Ross, who declared they never came from Congress, for he had later accounts from that body, and that they gave no such instructions to the commissioners. He cast many reflections npon the commissioners and the command- ing officers. I conceived him to be a dangerous man, and sent him under guard to Wheeling." But the inimitable Ross ap- pears "not to have scared worth a cent," for, obtaining his liber- ty he was soon back to Mingo, where he was next found in the fall of the same year by General Butler, one of the commission- ers appointed by Congress to treat with the Western Indians, and in his journal, under date of October, 1785, he says: "We passed on to the Mingo town, where'we found a number of people among whom, one Ross seems to be the principal man of the settlers on the south side of that place. I conversed with him and warned him and the others away." From this on-as to the subsequent career of Ross, we have little or no information beyond the fact that in 1806 he met with his death by falling over a rock or embankment near the iate residence of Bazeleel Wells, as he was on his way home from Steubenville, late at night. He is said to have been probably eighty years of age at his death. Young Absalom, by that time had grown to a fine young man. He is said to have stood six feet threc, weighed probably 240 or 250 pounds, and was a very moral and chris- tian citizen. As an evidence of his exceptional strength, it he- ing his custom to work among the farmers in the neighborhood, we are told that he often-in fact almost regularly-walked two and three miles to and from his work, and split so many as two hundred rails per day. His brother Jake was not so lusty, but an active man, more inclined to a rough and tumble life, and is said to have engaged the Indians under VanBuskirk, in the fight at which the latter fell, on which occasion Jake gave chase to an Indian, shot him in the back, but failed to secure his scalp as the redskin dived beneath some drift wood and the roots of a large tree and the body was never recovered. Absalom and Jake both moved to Fishing creek and resided for some years after the father's death, and the last tidings we have of "Ab.," as he was familiarly termed, is from Mrs. James Hill, who states that he and Mrs. Hill visited him in December, 1866, at Hart- ford, Mason county, W. Va., where they found the old man par- alized and very infirm. He married Annie Edsell, whose father lived on an elevated point near Cross creek depot, on the Pitts- burgh, Wheeling and Kentucky Railway, whom they also found living to comfort the old man in his declining years. The venerable lady was, at that time, walking six miles every Sunday to attend her place of worship. "Ab." spoke to them cheerfully of olden times, but preferred it should be understood that while his parents did originally live in the sycamore tree, yet they had just moved into the log hut a day or two ere he breathed the pure air of the "Buckeye State." The popular

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faith is, however, centered in the theory propounded by those who would have somewhat clearer memories than he at the time of that interesting event, and it may fairly be imputed to his sensitive feelings on the subject that he desired to date his nativity from the interior of a primitive hut rather than the abode of owls and other forest rangers. The good old man- for he certainly was entitled to that distinction-died the follow- ing spring-1867-but we are not aware of the fact as to whether his worthy spouse still survives him.

PREMATURE ATTEMPTS AT SETTLEMENT IN OHIO, 1779.

In 1779, General Brodhead commanded the American troops in the Western Department, of which Fort Pitt was the head- quarters, and wrote the following letter to General Washington :

"PITTSBURGH, Oct, 26th, 1779. "DEAR GEN'L,

"Immediately after I had closed my last (of the 19th of this Instant,) I rec'd a letter from Col. Shepherd, Lieut. of Ohio County, informing me that a certain Decker, Cox & Comp'y with others had crossed the Ohio River, and committed tres- passes on the Indians' lands, wherefore I ordered sixty Rank and File to be equipped, & Capt. Clarke of the Sth Pen' Reg't, proceeded with this party to Wheeling, with orders to cross the River at that part, & to apprehend some of the principal Tres- passers and destroy the Hutts-He returned without finding any of the Trespassers, but destroyed some Hutts. He writes me the inhabitants have made small improvements all the way from the Muskingum River to Fort McIntosh & thirty miles up some of the Branches. I sent a runner to the Delaware Conn. cil at Coochoching to inform them of the trespass, & assure them it was committed by some foolish people, & requesting them to rely on my doing them justice & punishing the offenders, but as yet have not received an answer. * * *%

"I have the honor to be with perfeet regard and esteem, your Excellency's most

"Obed't IInmble Serv't,

"D. BRODHEAD.

" Directed,

"His Excellency GEN'L WASHINGTON.

On the same day General Brodhead wrote a letter to his Ex- celleney John Jay, Esq., which is as follows :

"PITTSBURGH, Oct. 26th, 1779.

"Sir

"Since I did myself the honor to address yon by a former let- ter some of the Inhabitants from Yonghagenia and Ohio Coun- ties have been hardy enough to cross the Ohio River and make small improvements on the Indian lands from the River Mns- kingum to Fort McIntosh and thirty miles up some of the Branches of the Ohio River. As soon as I received information of the trespass, I Detached a party of Sixty men under command of Capt. Clarke, to apprehend the trespassers and destroy their hnts, which they have in a great measure effected, and likewise dispatched a runner to the Chiefs of the Delawares at Cooshock- ing to prevent their attacking the innocent Inhabitants, but as yet have received no answer from them. Capt. Clarke informs me that the Trespassers had returned and that the trespass ap- peared to have been committed upwards of a month ago.

"It is hard to determine what effect this imprudent conduct may have on the minds of the Delaware Chiefs and Warriors, but I hope a favorable answer to the speech Isent them. I pre- sume a line from your Excellency to the Governor and Council of Virg'a will tend to prevent a future prespass and the murder of many innocent families on this frontier.

"I have the honor to be with perfect respect .

"Your Excellency's most obed't and most "II'ble Serv't,

"D. BRODHEAD, "Col. command'y W. D.

" Directed.,

"Ilis Excellency JNO. JAY, EsQ."

Captain Clarke was stationed at Fort McIntosh, and descend- ed the river with his detachment from that point. On the 22d of October, General Brodhead wrote to Captain Clarke stating: " I am glad to hear you are safely returned and I sincerely wish yon had found some of the trespassers on the Indians' land, that a proper example inight have been made."

These may be considered the first attempts.at settlement by the whites on the west side of the Ohio, which was then called the Indian side of the river. But the colonists being then in the midst of the war of the Revolution, the policy of the Continental

Congress was to maintain peace if possible with the Delawares and other Indian tribes then occupying the northwest territory, and deemed any attempts at settlement by the whites at that time inexpedient and injurious to the American cause.

ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENTS PREVENTED IN 1785-86.

After the cession of the Northwest Territory by Virginia to the United States, Congress continued to pursue the policy of discouraging and preventing settlements within its limits until the Indian titles had been extinguished, and the lands were reg- nlarly surveyed and ready for sale. As early as 1785, a number of settlements were again attempted to be made on the west side of the Ohio, especially along the river front of Behnont and Jef- ferson counties. The government at once took action in the matter to prevent them, and finally resorted to force to expel the squatters, and destroyed their improvements.

The extent and location of these attempts at settlement at that carly period within the present limits of Belmont and Jefferson counties are shown by the report of Ensign Armstrong, who was sent down the river with a detachment of soldiers for the purpose of enforcing the government's orders, and the journal of General Richard Butler, one of the Commissioners appointed by Congress to treat with the western Indians.

REPORT OF ENSIGN ARMSTRONG.

In consequence of the refusal of the settlers along the west bank of the Ohio to remove in obedience to the orders issued by Congress, Colonel Harmar was instructed to send a detachment of troops down the river trom Fort MeIntosh in the Spring of 1785 to eject them by force and destroy their improvements. This detachment was under the command of Ensign Armstrong, whose report to Colonel Harmar is herewith appended in con- sequence of its historical interest and the evidence it contains of the extent and location of these settlements. Armstrong's re- port is as follows :

"FORT MCINTOSH, 12th April, 1785.

"SIR-Agreeable to your orders, I proceeded with my party, on the 31st of March, down the river. On the 1st inst. we cross- ed Little Beaver and dispossessed a family. Four miles from there we found three families living in sheds, but they having no raft to transport their effects, I thought it proper to give them until the 31st inst., at which time they promised to demol- ish their sheds and remove to the east side of the river.

At Yellow Creek, I dispossessed two families and destroyed their building. The 2d inst. being stormy, nothing was done. The 3d we dispossessed eight families. The 4th we arrived at Mingo Bottom, or Old Town. I read my instructions to the prisoner Ross, who declared they never came from Congress, for he had late accounts from that honorable body, who, he was con- vinced, gave no such instructions to the Commissioners. Neither did he care from whom they came, for he was determined to hold possession, and if I destroyed his house he would build six more within a week. He also cast many reflections on the honorable, the Congress, the Commissioners and the commanding officer. I conceived him to be a dangerous man, and sent him under guard to Wheeling. Finding that most of the settlers at this place were tenants under the prisoner. I gave them a few days, at which time they promised to move to the east side of the Ohio river and to demolish their buildings. On the evening of the the 4th, Charles Norris, with a party of armed men, came to my quarters in a hostile manner, and demanded my instructions. After conversing with them some time, and showing my instruc- tions, the warmth with which they first expressed themselves began to abate, and for some motive lodged their arms with ine till morning. I learned from the conversation of the party that at Norris' Town (by them so called), eleven miles further down the river, a party of seventy or eighty men were assembled with a determination to oppose me. Finding Norris to be a man of influence in that country, I conceived it to my interest to make use of him as an instrument, which I effected by informing him that it was my intention to treat any armed parties I met as en- emies to my country, and would fire on them if they did not dis- perse.

On the 5th, when I arrived within two miles of the town, or place where I expected to meet with opposition, I ordered my men to load their arms in the presence of Norris, and then de- sired him to go to the party and inform them of my intentions. I then proceeded on with cantion, but had not got far when pa- per No. 1 was handed me by one of the party, to which I replied

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HISTORY OF BELMONT AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES.

that I would treat with no party, but intended to execute my orders. When I arrived at the town there were about forty men assembled, who had deposited their arms, After I had read to them my instructions they agreed to move off by the 19th inst. This indulgence I thought proper to grant, the weather being too severe to turn them out of doors. The 6th, I proceeded to Hoglin's or Mercer's Town, (Martin's Ferry) where I was pre- sented with paper No. 2, and from the humble disposition of the people, and the impossibility of their moving, I gave them to the 19th, and I believe they generally left the settlement at that time. At that place I was informed that Charles Norris and John Carpenter had been elected Justices of the Peace ; that they had, I found, precepts and had decided thereon, I then proceeded on till opposite Wheeling where I dispossessed one family and destroyed their buildings. I hope, sir, that the in- dulgences granted some of the inhabitants will meet your appro- bation. The paper No. 2, is a copy of an advertisement which is posted up in almost every settlement on the western side of the Ohio. Three of my party being landed, I left them about torty miles from this place, under care of a corporal. The re- mainder I have ordered to their respective companies, and the prisoner I have delivered to the prison guard. I am, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant,

"JOHN ARMSTRONG, "Ensign."

"To Col, Harmar.

This record shows that a number of white settlements existed on the west side of the river in 1785; that some of them were quite populous, over sixty names of the principal settlers at Mer- certown alone being attached thereto; and that they had so far advanced in law and order as to have elected two Justices of the Peace, who had already decided cases tried before them. Arm- strong failed to break up the settlement, and met with such bit- ter opposition that he compromised with them, giving them a certain length of time, at the expiration of which they agreed to leave, if the Government did not rescind the order. General Butler's Journal shows the subsequent action of the government in the matter.

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History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley, Part 56

Author: Caldwell, J. A. (John Alexander) 1n; Newton, J. H., ed; Ohio Genealogical Society. 1n Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Wheeling, W. Va. : Historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 728

Author: Caldwell, J. A. (John Alexander) 1n; Newton, J. H., ed; Ohio Genealogical Society. 1n
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Wheeling, W. Va. : Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 728