History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 8

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666

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CONDITIONS

on which the donation lots in the town Losantiville are held and settled.

The first Thirty town and out lots to so many of the most early ad- venturers shall be given by the proprietors, Messrs. Denman, Patterson, & Ludlow, who for their part do agree to make a deed free and clear of all charges and incumbrances excepting that of surveying and deeding the same, so soon as a deed is procured from Congress by Judge Symmes.

The lot-holders for their part do agree to become actual settlers on the premises; plant & attend two crops successively & not less than One Acre shall be cultivated for each crop & that within the term of two years-each person receiving a donation lot or lots shall build an house equal to Twenty feet square, One Storey & half high, with a brick, stone, or clay Chimney, which shall stand in front of their respective in lots and shall be put in tenantable repair within the term of two years from the date hereof.

The above requisitions shall be minutely complyed with under pen- alty of forfeiture, unless Indian depredations render it impracticable. Done this seventh day of January One thousand seven hundred & Eighty Nine.

ISRAEL LUDLOW.

The lottery for the distribution of the lots was held the same day, under the personal direction of Patterson and Ludlow, with the result indicated below. The original proprietors of some of the most valuable lots in the city are thus shown. The orthography of the original record, now in the possession of the Ohio His- torical and Philosophical society, has been followed, there being no difficulty in recognizing the names:

Out- In- Out- In-

lots. lots. lots. lots.

Joel Williams 3 79 Ephraim Kibby 4 59 John Porter 2 77 John Vance 24

4 David McClure 6 26 Jesse Fulton 23 6

Samuel Mooney 14 33 Henry Bechtel. IG

56 Sylvester White. 15

2 Isaac Freeman 20 51 Joseph Thornton 28

I James Carpenter. I

Matthew Cammel. 8 28 Elijah Martin. 26

Noah Badgeley.

31 Archibald Stewart 12

Luthar Kitchel

58 James McConnel 5 30

James Cammel. 21

Davison 19

Jesse Stewart 30

54 James Dument II

Benjamin Dument. 25

53 Jonas Menser IO

Isaac Van Meter.

8 Thomas Gizzel .. 17

Daniel Shoemaker.

79 Harry Lindsay. 7 76

William McMillan.

31 James Campbell. 154

By this record thirty-one out-lots and thirty in-lots were given away. There are thirty-two names of donees, but Mr. McMilllan drew no in-lot, and in-lot number seventy-nine seems to have been drawn by both Joel Wil- liams and Daniel Shoemaker. The latter, however, ob- tained lot seventy-eight, as appears by the diagram below, so that the record, as originally made, is probably erroneous, and thirty-one lots each, of in-lots and out-lots, were donated, which would just comprise the four dona- tion blocks of in-lots, save only the one lot presently to be noted. The in-lots given embraced the entire blocks be- tween Front and Second, Main and Broadway, Second and Third, Broadway and Sycamore, and the east half of the block bounded by Second and Third, Main and Sycamore, except lot fifty-five, on the northwest corner of Second and Sycamore, which was then reckoned of little value, on account of the position of part of it in the swamp which was for years about the intersection of Sycamore and Second streets. The lots which faced or adjoined the Public Landing were accounted the most valuable. Some of the settlers preferred not to be limited to these blocks in their selections, and declined to receive as donees, preferring to have a free range for purchase, which could then be effected at an exceedingly low rate. The original price of either class of lots is not certainly known, but is supposed to have been two dollars for an in-lot on the "Bottom," and four dollars for one on the "Hill." All evidence goes to show that prices were very cheap. Colonel Ludlow, for example, having one hundred dollars due him on his bill of surveying, chose to take a tract of one hundred and twenty acres seven miles from the village, rather than accept the offer made him instead, of four out-lots and a square through which now runs Pearl street, and which is worth millions of dollars. Several years afterwards, though prices had much advanced, lots in the principal streets could yet be had for less than one hundred dollars. About 1805 town property rose rapidly, from the large influx of popu- lation, but advanced more slowly till 1811, when another rapid appreciation set in, continuing until 1815, when some lots on Main street, between Front and Third, com- manded as much as two hundred dollars per front foot, and one hundred dollars from Third to Sixth. Property on lower Broadway, Front, and Market streets, could then be had for eighty dollars to one hundred and twenty dollars per foot; elsewhere in the business quarter, ten dollars to fifty dollars, according to situation and local advantages for trade. Out-lots still adjoining the town, and neighboring tracts of country property, commanded five hundred dollars to one thousand dollars an acre in 1815.

Settlement in Losantiville still needed stimulating; and a large number of additional lots were given away by

3 Samuel Blackburn. 29

32 Scott Traverse 9 52

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

the proprietors, mostly in May, 1789, to other newcom- ers. The following list has been preserved of lots given away by the proprietors on the same conditions as the first thirty donation lots :

No. of Lot. No. of Lot.

Robert Caldwell 83, 84

Robert Benham 17, 62

John Cutter 92

Joshua Findlar 37

Seth Cutter 89 Henry Bechtle, jr., 57

James Millan 94 Robert Benham 63

Levi Woodward. 33, 34

Joseph Kelly. II3

Thaddeus Bruen . 32

Isaac Bates. . 60

Nathaniel Rolstein. 30

James Campbell 154

William Rolstein. 65

Dr. John Hole. 227

Jonathan Fitts.

Jabith Philips. 91

William Cammel. 85

John Cummings 106

Abraham Garrison 86

Captain Furguson. 13

Francis Kennedy. 151

Lutner Kitehel. 80

Elijah Martin. 82

David Logan .263

Samuel Kennedy II2

Mr. Wick Malign Baker I38

John Covert. 85

Cobus Lindsicourt II4

Enoch McHendry. 67

Richard Benham.

James Dument. 108

William McMillan, esq. 27

John Terry, sr. II6

Joel Williams. . 126

Henry Reed. 88 Joseph McHendry 79

John Ellis

.129

James Cunningham.

128

Captain [before Lieut. ] Ford. . 9, 11 Samuel Kitchel. 209 or 205 Levi Woodard 34 Colonel Robert Patterson .. .. 127

We have corrected the orthography of this list in many places, to correspond with known spelling. These lots seem all to have been in-lots, save one of those noted as a grant to Mr. McMillan.

The following is a diagram of one of the blocks in the first donation parcel, with memoranda of actual settlers who drew the several lots, January 7, 1789:

JOEL WILLIAMS.

JESSE STEWART.

D. SHOEMAKER.

BENJAMIN DUMONT.

MAIN.

061

PORTER.

LINDSAY.

. TRAVERSE.

99 ft.

LANDING.

PURCHASERS.

Many other names appear on Ludlow's record as the original purchasers of lots in Losantiville, mostly dur- ing 1789. They have been collected by the industry of Mr. Robert Clarke, in his privately printed pamphlet on Losantiville, and we subjoin the list, striking there- from only the names already given as those of proprie- tors of donation lots:

Dr. Adams, George Adams, John Adams, Henry Atehison, Stephen" Barns, Daniel Bates, William Beazley, William Bedell, Thomas Black James Blackburn, John Blanchard, Truman Bostwick, Thomas Brown, Brunton & Dougherty, Moses Burd, James Burns, Garret Cavender,

John Cheek, Thomas Cochran, Ephraim Coleman, James Colwell, Peyton Cook, Daniel C. Cooper, John Coulson, Joseph Cutter, Mat- thew Danalds, Edward Darling, Jonathan Davis, Elijah Davis, William Devin, William Dillan, William Dorrough, Russel Farnum, Elijah Finley, Benjamin Flinn, Jacob Fowler, Samuel Freeman, Adam Funk, John Gaston, Uriah Gates, James Goald, William Gowen, Archibald Gray, George Greves, John Griffin, Joel Hamblin, Hezekiah Hardesty, Uriah Hardesty, William Harris, James Harway, William Hedger, - Heooleson, Robert Hinds, Daniel Hole, Darius Hole, William Hole, Zachariah Hole, Edward Holland, Jerum Holt, Israel Hunt, Nehemiah Hunt, Nicholas Johnson, David Joice, Nicholas Jones, John Kearsey (or Kearney), William Kelley, Rev. James Kemper, Lieuten- ant Kingsbury, Bethuel Kitchell, Daniel Kitchell, John Love, James Lowrey, John Ludlow, James Lyon, Daniel McClure, George McClure, John McClure, Mary McClure, William McClure, William McCoy, James McKnight, Henry Mclaughlin, John Mclaughlin, James Mar- shall, Isaac Martin, Margaret Martin, Samuel Martin, Luke Mellon, Jonathan Mercer, James Miller, Moses Miller, Jacob Mills, Alexander Moore, Robert Moore, Dr. Morrel, Jesse Mott, Captain John Munn, George Murfey, John Murfey, Mr. Neelson, George Niece, Christopher Noon, Darius C. Orcutt, Andrew Parks, Culbertson Parks, Presley Peck, Thomas Persons, Matthew Pierson, Samuel Pierson, Enos Potter, Cap- tain Piatt, James Pursley, Jacob Reeder, Stephen Reeder, Thomas Rich- ards, John Riddle, Abraham Ritchison, Reuben Rood, Asa Root, Jona- than Ross, John Ross, John Ross, jr., Moses Ross, William Ross, Wil- liam Rusk, Colonel Winthrop Sargent, Levi Sayre, David Scott, James Scott, Obediah Scott, John Seaman, Jonas Seaman, Niles Shaw, Casper Sheets, Ziba Stibbins, Captain Strong, Dennis Sullivan, Jacob Tapping, Henry Taylor, Enos Terry, Robert Terry, John Tharp, Judge George Turner, Benjamin Valentine, Benjamin Van Cleve, John Van Cleve, Jacob Van Doran, John Van Eton, Cornelius Van Nuys, James Wal- lacc, Jacob Warwick, David Welch, Samuel Whiteside, John Wiant, ---- Winters, Amos Wood.

All deeds had still to be given by Symmes, as the pro- prietors of the town had yet no valid title from him; and he himself, for that matter, had not been able to obtain his patent from the Government.

ANNALS OF LOSANTIVILLE. 815715

January was spent mainly in surveying and in laying off in-lots. Improvements were begun on the out-lots, and continued as the weather permitted, in order to get them ready for crops in spring, and some were pretty well cleared in the course of the year, especially on the "Bot- tom," between Walnut street and Broadway. A great many trees were cut down this year, but they mostly re- mained on the ground, where some of them were to be seen for years afterwards. Still, the main reliance for food the next fall and winter was upon the settlers at Co- lumbia, who had much of the fertile Turkey bottom under cultivation, without whose aid there would have been pos- itive suffering at Losantiville, and perhaps abandonment of the fort by the garrison. The Indians did not come in and manifest friendship; but did no great amount of harm the first year. About twenty log cabins and one frame dwelling were built during the year, principally on lots adjacent to the Public Landing .* There were but one or two stone chimneys among them all. They were, in general, surrounded by standing timber, stumps, and great butts of timber too difficult to split, and so left to decay or be burned.

It is not certainly known when the first family came. As early as the eighth of February Francis Kennedy was on the ground with his wife Rebecca and children to the perfect number of seven; but his may or may not have been the first entire family. It is known that he found

* Major Fowler, however, thought there were forty or fifty cabins by the close of 1789.

SYCAMORE.

I. FREEMAN.

Same (out-lot) 53

Lieutenant Mahlon Ford. IO

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

three women already here-Miss Dement, daughter of James Dement; Mrs. Constance Zenes, afterwards Mrs. William McMillan; and Mrs. Pesthal, a German woman, with some small children. He said he found but three little cabins when he came, all without floors. On the tenth of April Mr. McHenry came, with two grandsons and as many granddaughters; also Mrs. Ross with a small family. Kennedy's family lived in the boat in which it came, until the ice in the river began to run, when he built a cabin right in the middle of Water street, which was not yet opened. He established the first ferry to the Kentucky shore at this point, Thomas Kennedy attending it upon the other side, and had a great deal to do, especially during the campaigns against the Indians. He was drowned near the close of the Indian wars, while ferrying over cattle for the army, and Joel Williams next obtained the ferry license.

Thomas Kennedy, the ferryman beyond the flood, was a Scotchman who came first to Losantiville in the spring, and then removed to the other shore, where Covington now stands, which from him and his vocation long bore the name of "Kennedy's Ferry."

In April of this year arrived Thomas Irwin and James Burns, two young men from Pennsylvania, who had come to push their fortunes in the Miami country. They stopped first at Columbia. Mr. McBride, in his Pioneer Biography, sketch of Mr. Irwin's life, thus narrates their further movements and observations:

Messrs. Irwin and Burns remained at Columbia during the day, ex- amining the place. Mr. Irwin said there were quite a number of fami- lies residing there at the time, scattered over the bottom lands, and, as he thought, very much exposed. They offered great inducements to the young adventurers to locate themselves at Columbia; and, though they informed them of another small settlement eight miles further down the river, opposite the mouth of the Licking river, they gave them no encouragement to go there.

They remained in their boat during the night, and the next morning left it in the care of the man opposite whose house they had landed, and taking their guns, started down the river-bank in quest of the set- tlement below. The bank was narrow, and there was no road or traces; the woods were thick, and the way much obstructed by under- brush and vincs ;- so that the travelling was very tedious. Opposite the mouth of the Licking river, they came to a double shanty occupied by seven men. These men, all but two of them, had been employed with the surveyors in surveying Symmes' Purchase during the preceding winter. Their names were David Logan, Caleb Reeves, Robert [James?] McConnell, Francis Hardesty, Mr. Van Eaton, William Mc- Millan and John Vance. Joel Williams was also there, and had been with the surveyors a part of the time, and was with Israel Ludlow when he surveyed and laid out the town in February [January] previ- ous [1789], marking the lines of the streets and corners of lots on the trees. This shanty had been built by these persons for their accom- modation, immediately after they laid out the town. It was the first improvement made in the place, and these persons were the first set- tlers of Cincinnati. Joel Williams assisted them to build the shanty, and remained with them some time, until, with their assistance, he built a cabin on his own lot near the foot of Main street. He had the plat of the town, was an agent for the proprietors, and encouraged Irwin and Burns to settle themselves at that place.

In the evening of the same day they returned to Columbia, remain- ing on board their boat all right. The next day they floated down the river, and landed at the shanty opposite to the mouth of Licking river. This was about the tenth day of April. The next day was spent in examining the place, and, being pleased with the situation, they con- cluded to remain. Mr. Burns located one town-lot and one out-lot. The out-lot contained four acres. Irwin also obtained a town-lot. They cleared one acre of ground, which they planted with corn. .

The double shanty, before mentioned, occupied by Logan, McMillan, and others, was situated about the head of Front street. Irwin and

Burns located themselves near to it, and put up a temporary shanty, which they occupied during their stay that summer. The other settlers were scattered principally between Sycamore and Main streets.

According to Irwin's recollections, the first hewed log house in the place was put up by Robert Benham about the first of June on a lot below Main, and between Front street and the river. All the settlers of the village helped him at the raising.

Mr. Irwin did not settle permanently in Cincinnati. He was an ensign in Harinar's unfortunate campaign, re- mained at the village the next winter and summer, went out as a wagoner in St. Clair's expedition, and remained in Cincinnati a few years longer, in January, 1793, mar- rying Miss Ann Larimore, and settling finally about four miles east of Middletown, Butler county. He was a major in the War of 1812, and afterwards represented his county repeatedly in both branches of the State legis- lature, and was a colonel in the militia. He lived to the age of eighty-one, dying on his farm October 3, 1847.

Another notable arrival of that spring was James Cun- ningham, from Beargrass creek, now Louisville. The latter part of May, however, he pushed out beyond the present site of Reading, where he established Cunningham's Sta- tion or settlement, and was the first white man to settle in Sycamore township. The names of some others, re- corded in the list of purchasers of lots, are undoubtedly those of actual settlers this year.

In December came Colonel John Bartle, one of the earliest and best known merchants in the place, who spent the remainder of his days here, dying December 9, 1839, aged ninety-five.

By the close of 1789 eleven families and twenty-four unmarried men were residents of the village. Among the men of family were Drs. Morrell and Hoel, Stephen and Jacob Reeder, Daniel Kitchell, Samuel Dick, Messrs. Garrison, Blackburn, and others. There were also the troops of the garrison, which were numerous after the arrival of General Harmar with his reinforcement. An account of the building of the fort, which occurred this year, and of the fort itself, with its subsequent history, will be given in the next chapter.

A TRAGEDY.

The tragedy of the year was the drowning of Noah Badgeley, an immigrant from Westfield, New Jersey, who was one of the surveyors employed by Judge Symmes. He had been up the Licking river, in a time of high water, for a supply of bread-corn, had been successful in his mission, and was returning when his canoe was overturned, he drowned, and three other men of Losantiville placed in imminent danger of drowning. They fortunately se- cured a refuge in a tree-top, but in the midst of the rag- ing waters, where they remained for many hours before relief came.

FORT WASHINGTON,

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

CHAPTER VI. FORT WASHINGTON.

A LITTLE ROMANCE.

Judge Burnet, in his Notes on the Northwestern Ter- ritory, has put on record an entertaining but probably apocryphal tradition concerning the establishment of Fort Washington at Losantiville, rather than North Bend; upon which, in some small measure, it is rea- sonable to believe, turned the subsequent and widely dif- ferent fortunes of the two villages. Ensign Luce (Gen- eral Harmar spelled this Luse), the officer dispatched, after most urgent and repeated solicitations by Judge Symmes, from the garrison at Louisville to North Bend, for the protection of the settlers, had no definite instruc- tions as to the spot he should fortify. It was expected by the judge that he would build a permanent work at the place he had come to occupy; instead of which he erected but a single, and not very strong, blockhouse, and presently moved on with his force of twelve soldiers to Losantiville, where he joined Major Doughty in the construction of the more elaborate works that were after- wards named Fort Washington. Now, says Judge Bur- net :

About that time there was a rumor prevailing in the settlement, said to have been endorsed by the Judge [Syinmes] himself, which goes far to unravel the mystery in which the removal of the troops from the Bend was involved. It was said, and believed, that while the officer in command was looking out very leisurely for a suitable site on which to build the block-house, he formed an acquaintance with a beautiful black-eyed female, who called forth his most assiduous and tender attentions. She was the wife of one of the settlers at the Bend. Her husband saw the danger to which he would be exposed if he remained where he was. He therefore resolved at once to remove to Cincinnati, and very promptly executed his resolution. As soon as the gallant commandant discovered that the object of his admiration had changed her residence, he began to think that the Bend was not an advanta- geous situation for a military work, and communicated that opinion to Judge Symmes, who strenuously opposed it. His reasoning, however, was not as persuasive as the sparkling eyes of the fair Dulcinea now at Cincinnati. The result was a determination to visit that place and examine its advantages for a military post; which he communicated to the Judge, with an assurance that if, on examination, it did not prove to be the most cligible, he would return and erect the fort at the Bend. The visit was quickly made, and resulted in a conviction that the Bend could not be compared with Cincinnati as a military position. The troops were accordingly removed to that place, and the building of a block-house commenced. Whether this structure was on the ground on which Fort Washington was erected by Major Doughty, can not now be decided. That movement, produced by a cause whimsical and apparently trivial in itself, was attended with results of incalculable im- portance. It settled the question whether North Bend or Cincinnati was to be the great commercial town of the Miami country.

Thus we see what unexpected results are sometimes produced by circumstances apparently trivial. The incomparable beauty of a Spar- tan dame produced a ten years' war, which terminated in the destruc- tion of Troy; and the irresistible charms of another female transferred the commercial emporium of Ohio from the place where it had been commenced to the place where it now is. If this captivating American Helen had continued at the Bend, the garrison would have been erected there; population, capital, and business would have centred there; and there would have been the Queen City of the West.

This is a very pretty story, and its narration gives a beautiful tinge of romance to the local coloring of these annals. But the well-ascertained and authenticated facts are against it. There is no other evidence than this gos- sipy tradition that Ensign Luce built anything at Losanti- ville, prior to the beginnings of Fort Washington, or that

he had any voice in the selection of a site for the fort. On the other side, it is perfectly well known that he did build a work of some permanence and strength (though Symmes, in a letter of July 17, 1789, calls it a "little block-house, badly constructed ") at North Bend, and re- mained there for several months, perhaps until after Major Doughty had begun the work at Losantiville; and that his transfer to that station was determined, not by an affaire de cœur, but by military considerations solely. The check which the progress of North Bend received in 1789 was the result of previous Indian murders and scares, and not merely of the transfer of a handful of troops. The pretty story, as veritable history, must be given up. The genesis of Fort Washington, as we shall presently show, is now perfectly well known; and Ensign Luce (or Luse) had nothing whatever to do with it. Luce, it may be added, resigned in March of the follow- ing year, and Harmar, in forwarding his resignation to the Secretary of War, seemed particularly anxious that it should be accepted.

THE REAL BEGINNINGS.

The determination to plant a fort opposite the mouth of the Licking, and the commencement of work upon it, are usually set down for June or July of 1789. We first hear of the project, however, in Major Denny's Military Journal, under a date later than either of these. Writing in his quarters at Fort Harmar, he records :

Aug. 9th [1789] .- Captain Strong, with his two subalterns, Lieuten- ant Kingsbury and Ensign Hartshorn, and a complete company of seventy men, embark for the Miamis.

11th .- Captain Ferguson joined us with his recruits. Major Doughty follows Captain Strong for the purpose of choosing ground and laying out a new route intended for the protection of persons who have settled within the limits of Symmes' Purchase.

Sept. 4th .- Ferguson with his company ordered to join Strong in erecting a fort near the Miami. Lieutenant Pratt, the quartermaster, ordered to the same place.

Major Doughty, the senior officer of the troops thus dispatched to the Miami country, had evidently dis- cretionary powers as to the location of the fort; for a letter from General Harmar, written from Fort Harmar September 12, 1789, to General Knox, Secretary of War, contains the following :

Major Doughty informs me, in his letter dated the twenty-first ulti- mo, that he arrived at the Little Miami on the sixteenth, and after reconnoitring for three days from thence to the Big Miami, for an cligi- ble situation whereon to erect the works for headquarters, he had at length determined to fix upon a spot opposite Licking river, which he represents as high and healthy, abounding with never-failing springs, etc., and the most proper position he could find for the purpose.

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History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 8

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co. Number of Pages: 666

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666