USA > Ohio > Brown County > History of Clermont and Brown Counties, Ohio, from the earliest historical times down to the present, V. 1 > Part 24
USA > Ohio > Clermont County > History of Clermont and Brown Counties, Ohio, from the earliest historical times down to the present, V. 1 > Part 24
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39
With such examples, the Territory was a field for many imitators, who would have carved counties and fixed county towns to fit every sale. Such greed was opposed by the in- flexible integrity of not a vote watching politician, but of a patriotic general trained to an exact performance of duty through not less than fourteen years on the battle line of actual war. Because of that opposition the resolute Governor was denounced as an obstruction to the growth of the country, and blamed for anything that malice chose to invent. In the end, no other American of note has suffered more from such vindic- tive attack while living, and no other has been so completely vindicated after death, and restored to the respect of posterity. The formation of Old Clermont county was the event that tested his quality to rule, and also marked the ebb of his po- litical fortunes. Therefore, it is fitting for the people of that region to consider what manner of man he was.
The magnificent services of Major General Arthur St. Clair adorn the most brilliant pages of American history. A stu- dent of the University of Edinburgh, well grounded in medi- cal science, an officer in His Majesty's army, promoted for gal- lant conduct at the capture of Louisburg, and again distin-
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guished upon the Plains of Abraham, a citizen of Pennsyl- vania, a man of princely fortune for that time, all ventured for the cause of freedom, with a military training that was worth a dozen regiments in the field of war, a bold leader in battle, a man brave in retreat, a master of strategy, who could lose a fortress to gain a State, rash in the crashing fire but wise in the cautious council, he was the chosen confident of Washing- ton and the brother of Lafayette.
The list of his glorious fields is the battle story of the Con- quest of Canada, and the Revolution. His troops marched to the rescue of Arnold at Quebec, from Champlain and Crown Point, to Trenton and Princeton, and back to Ticonderoga, where his retreat enticed Burgoyne to his destruction; and then to Brandywine and Valley Forge, where his fortune melted to keep his soldiers from freezing. Every student of war perceives that Burgoyne's Surrender would have been a British victory but for St. Clair's skillful retreat, for which some, who believed in nothing but fighting any odds, would have had him disgraced. It is well proved that his sugges- tions to Washington produced the brilliant victory of Prince- ton, which won the fayor of France. Trusted with the com- mand of West Point, after Arnold's treason, and present at Yorktown, he was made the President of Congress, and pro- moted the action that resulted in the second Declaration of Liberty, the Ordinance of '87. Next to Washington, he was the most manifold character among the celebrities of the Rev- olution. Though fitted in every respect to cope with the brightest wits of Europe, and though accustomed to obse- quious obedience by long years of military command, this noble gentleman was rewarded for his losses by an ironic fate that sent him to spend his old age amid a wilderness in curb- ing the importunity of men whose life in the woods had taught them absolute independence, with little or none of the finesse acquired in long settled communities. The governorship of the Northwest Territory, justly regarded as the most impor- tant office that Congress could give, was thrust upon St. Clair by his friends, as an opportunity to restore his fortune.
He declared the acceptance the most imprudent act of his life, and · so it proved, for in his own phrase. he had neither the taste nor the genius for speculation in lands, nor did he con-
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sider it consistent with the office. After all his noble service, he went back to the hills of Pennsylvania at the age of sixty- eight, a proud but poor man. That his more than fifteen years' service as Governor of the Northwest was performed in a spirit of lofty patriotism is admitted by all whose opinion is valuable. But some said otherwise at the time, and that con- tention should be remembered at home, so that gratitude may be rendered to whom it is due.
The year 1798 brought much satisfaction to the inhabitants of the Ohio Valley, who were beginning to realize the fruits of Wayne's victory and the prospective advantage of possess- ing Detroit. Spain at last consented to the free navigation of the Mississippi, and, on October 5, General Wilkinson occu- pied Loftus' Heights, on the east bank of the river, and at once built Fort Adams, six miles north of the thirty-first parallel of north latitude. It was also found in that year that the Territory Northwest held the five thousand white male inhabi- tants required by the Ordinance of '87 as the base for a de- veloping change in the mode of government. Governor St. Clair gladly proclaimed the fact and called upon the people to elect representatives to take part in the founding of States yet to be named. Upon a basis of one for each five hundred or large fractional surplus, twenty-three representatives were elected, who met in Cincinnati, February 4, 1799, for the pur- pose of selecting ten names from which the President of the United States was to appoint five persons to form the Legisla- tive Council, whose duty was that of an Upper House or Sen- ate. The qualifications, without which no one could vote, were a white skin, actual residence, absolute possession of fifty acres of land, and an unconquerable hostility to Great Britain. The clause against Great Britain was not written in the law, but it was in force and well understood. The one elected must own two hundred acres of land, or he could not serve. The voting was viva voce, meaning that each voter must stand before the judges and call aloud the name of his choice.
After making nominations for the Council, the Representa- tives adjourned until the appointments selected and made by the President could be returned and proclaimed by the Gov- ernor. In this way the first Territorial Legislature was con-
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vened at Cincinnati, on September 16, to conclude their or- ganization, but, for lack of a quorum, that purpose was not accomplished until September 23, 1799. From the records, profound respect was shown to the Governor, whose stately dignity was considered very appropriate to the ceremonies of founding a great State. Beneath it all were rivalries and as- pirations enough for any political mess ever set astew in Ohio. The temporary success of some of the actors, the disappoint- ment of many, and the humiliation of others, so dazzled or confused the beholders of the scene that it was a mystery for three generations. At last, the dust has been shaken from un- suspected and forgotten documents and manuscripts that tell a pitiful tale of both State and National ingratitude, for which only tardy and inadequate requittal has been made. While St. Clair was lured from his high position in Eastern society by a worthy ambition to be known as the founder of future States, others came to found immense personal estates in the cheap lands from which they expected immeasurable profit. The chance to hasten this profit, through the power to lay out counties, fix the county seats, and locate other points of vantage, was so obvious and tempting, and so easily warped to suit every locality, that discussion ended in bitter dissen- sion.
The condition had been sharply defined by the Governor in a letter from Cincinnati, where he was living, to Massie and others, under date of June 29, 1798. The proclamation of Adams county was highly pleasing to Massie, who also de- sired that the county seat should be Manchester, which he had founded and fostered with incredible courage, which was the largest settlement, and where he held much of the land that would be made more desirable. If this were all, sympathy for the founder would be complete. But Manchester was far from central. During the Governor's absence on an Eastern trip, Secretary Sargent, as acting Governor, as provided in the Ordinance of '87, appointed a commission which reported the mouth of Brush Creek, where a town was laid out and called Adamsville, as the county seat. Under Massie's masterful leadership, the judges for the county refused to go to "Scant," as Adamsville was nicknamed, and held their court at Man- chester. To St. Clair, this was a violation of law by those
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sworn to administer the law; and, therefore, he wrote: "Your transaction .. .. has, indeed, astonished me .. .. as con- trary to every principle of good order. .. .. Where there are conflicting opinions on the subject, investigation and delibera- tion, are necessary." Massie did not accept the reproof kindly and planned with other large landholders to rule or ruin those who stood in their way.
No open hostility marked the first session of that General Assembly, which proceeded on the lines set forth in the Gov- ernor's Message. No man can write a better exposition of the purpose of his eventful life than St. Clair has unconsciously placed in the conclusion of that message. After the brilliant service, the high honor, the great wrong, and the cold neglect, that make his fame, no one can point to an act that is beneath the lofty ideal for which he gave life and fortune:
"The providing for and the regulating the lives and morals of the present and the rising generations, for the repression of vice and inmorality, for the protection of virtue and innocence, for the security of property and the punishment of crime, is a sublime employment. Every aid in my power will be afford- ed, and I hope we shall bear in mind that the character and de- portment of the people and their happiness, both here and hereafter, depend very much upon the genius and spirit of their laws."
The formation of counties was tested by passing six bills each to establish a county of which that between the Little Miami River and Adams county was named "Henry," with the seat of justice at "Denham's Town." The name for the orator, Patrick Henry, fixes the origin of that scheme at Chillicothe which was as largely from Virginia as Marietta from New England or Cincinnati from about New York. The Territory was sometimes divided into "Upper," "Middle" and "Lower" districts, and some said "The Eastern, Middle and Western Settlements." Among these a strife for the state house was taking form. The people everywhere were dividing on party lines, with many uncertain which way to start. William Henry Harrison was chosen delegate to Congress by one vote over Arthur St. Clair, Jr. Then, on December 19, 1799, the first session of the Assembly closed. The Governor vetoed the six county bills. The designation of Denhamstown for the county
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seat proves that Lytle was not promoting "Henry" county, but that he was with the Cincinnati faction, as the defenders of the Governor were styled.
The land owners grew less and less punctilious and soon omitted no chance in their frequent meeting with the people to calumniate the "Old Tyrant" as they termed the venerable patriot whose chief offense was a steadfast purpose to protect the public from their rapacity. For the time, that rapacity was artfully hidden by the old, and ever new, but always plau- sible device of noble zeal for the individual welfare of the people, of whom some came to believe that they were wrong- fully restrained in their growth and grossly deprived of jus- tice. It all seems trivial now, since the actors have ceased from troubling to establish a landed aristocracy, that crumbled at the will of the people they sought to delude. But it was very serious then, and criticism pro and con was loud and long in the log taverns to which every traveler brought a newer tale colored by the fancy of the speaker, and strength- ened by the spirits from the bar. The discussion was almost entirely oral ; for a newspaper came so seldom and lasted so long that it could be read backwards by those who knew it so well, that it made no odds whether they held the paper up or down.
The Virginians holding undisputed sway through the Scioto settlements were led by Massie and Worthington. After the adjournment of the Legislature in December, 1799, Worth- ington went as their agent to lobby Congress, against St. Clair, who had written on May 28 advising the division of the Territory into three parts, having Marietta as the seat of government for all east of the Scioto, Cincinnati for all be- tween the Scioto and a line due north from the mouth of the Kentucky River, and Vincennes for all farther west, until the increase of population should determine a better plan. This hastened the Statehood of Ohio, for Worthington, through political favor, pulled both ways to Chillicothe, while Harri- son obtained all west of the line due north from the mouth of the Great Miami, to be known as the Territory of Indiana, of which he was named Governor. Flushed with partial but great success, Massie filed charges against St. Clair, of which the active part was hatred, and Worthington worked his might
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to prevent the reappointment of St. Clair, whose term was to expire December 9. 1800. In accordance with the change, all the government people "went up" from Cincinnati and else- where to Chillicothe on November 2 for the second session of the Legislature.
The all absorbing question of new counties was the pivot around which all other intrigues revolved. The legislators in terms revealing their zeal insisted on their authority. The Governor, with perfect punctilio, interposed his prerogative. The region best entitled to recognition, as a county, was east of the Little Miami. Massie's junto conspired to delay legis- lation till the Governor's term should be done, when, as they planned, Secretary Byrd, a sympathetic Virginian, would be- come the Acting Governor. St. Clair discovered the plot and blasted it, as if by a stroke of lightning, with a message on Tuesday, December 2, announcing to the legislators that their work would cease on December 9, for, on that day his term would expire, and it was a case not provided for by law that Mr. Byrd could be his successor.
Mere words hardly sufficed the baffled intrignants in ex- pressing their wrath, upon which St. Clair poured no balm on the following Saturday, the 6th, by proclaiming the new county of Clermont, with Williamsburg as the seat of justice, in spite of their threats to fill every court with their protest, which so intimidated the brave old General that. on the fol- lowing Tuesday, he instituted the county of Fairfield by a proclamation that the legislators could read on their way home.
The boundary of Clermont was from the mouth of Eagle Creek down the Ohio to the mouth of Nine Mile, thence straight to the mouth of the East Fork on the Little Miami, then up the Little Miami to the mouth of O'Bannon Creek, thence due east to the intersection of a line due north from the mouth of Eagle Creek, including all of the county of Cler- mont and much the larger part of the county of Brown, as they are now known.
In a letter still preserved, dated at Williamsburg, December 3, 1800, addressed to William Lytle, and carried by horse to Chillicothe, William Perry reports: "Result of Enumeration : Number of Male Inhabitants between the Little Miami and
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Eagle Creek, between 16 and 26 is 217 ; and all above 26 is 313, making 530; not counting those above the mouth of the East Fork up the Miami. They must be 150." The report of a male population of 680 "above 16" was no doubt the basis of the Governor's proclamation of the county three days later. That this enumeration, a strictly personal enterprise, was fairly taken, is proved by subsequent official reports.
The county of Old Clermont thus came to life in the midst of an almost hand-to-hand struggle for supremacy between the gray-haired dignity of Revolutionary patriotism, and the young spirit of aggression that would have dug down the an- tique mountains of precedent to fill the harbors of conserva- tism, as ruthlessly as it turned the forests to ashes on the field of progress. No sterner conflict of ideas has ever surged through the official circles of Ohio than that which marked the dawn of its Statehood. This turmoil was all the more per- sonal because the aggressive faction was not trammeled by the unwritten laws that, however intangible or inperceptible, still certainly control the strategy of a long established po- · litical party. Without regard to the future alignment of the actors with the Federalists or the Jeffersonian Republicans, the issue then was intensely local and personal on the part of those who made the uproar.
It is idle to assert that St. Clair did not understand the fam- ous Ordinance of '87, that was enacted by the Congress of which he was President, and thereby the Presiding Citizen of the Continent. The same Congress elected him to administer the sacred behests of that celebrated constitution. Not a line of proof has survived to show that the great Governor either magnified or belittled a jot or tittle of its provisions, which he executed under Washington for eight years, and for four years more under John Adams, by whom he was re-appointed, Feb- ruary 3, 1801, for three years longer.
While the affair has had only little attention, there is ample proof that his proclamation of Clermont county was the event that marked the total divergence between St. Clair and those who drove him with righteous claims unpaid into unjust poverty beyond the State that will be a monument to his vir- tues long after the names of his detractors shall have other- wise ceased to provoke the curiosity of the most bookish anti-
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quary. But, however deep the regret for the misfortunes of the noble Governor, the gallant General, and the most suave gentleman of the Revolution, every true son of her hills must rejoice that something hindered the misplaced name of Henry. Although the record is lost, the origin of the fittest name pos- sible is not hard to find.
His names for counties before had been chosen to compli- ment his brother patriots, until he may have had a thought that frequent repetition might grow stale, or he may have been reluctant to throw the name of a friend into the doubtful strife. But whatever the motive, his choice was one of such fitness as warrants the belief that it was suggested by personal observa- tion. St. Clair was proud of his martial Norman name, and with voice or pen easily used the French tongue with a skill and sweetness that proved he felt its song and romance. He had often seen the waving hills of green through dripping oars, or mounted their dim blue crest with bridle rein in hand, and he knew the fact, all but forgotten now, that, per- haps a hundred years before, the trading voyageurs, gone as he would go, had drifted after the retreating sun or urged the toil- some return to the dawn, lulling their rest and cheering the task with genial songs of La Belle Revere and Clairmont. It is regretful that he did not follow the old French spelling which would have linked his own name with the genius of Grant.
Thus the first steps in the political life of the county were taken in the first days of the Nineteenth Century, amid the angry protests of a raging faction: but when the dismissed legislators returned home, the people accepted the new privi- leges and were governed accordingly. The part performed by William Lytle was found not in words, but in results. His affiliations were with the Cincinnatians, generally friendly to the Governor ; and his reward was the control of Clermont, of which he was appointed to the chief office of Prothonotary or Clerk, to or from whom all writs came or went, and by whom all records were made or kept. His agent, or in the style of this day, his private secretary, William Perry, was appointed sheriff. Owen Todd, a brother of Colonel Robert Todd, Lytle's much loved brother-in-law, was appointed the senior justice of the peace, and thereby became the presiding judge of the
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court of quarter sessions, before which the Governor's son, Arthur St. Clair, Jr., and a soon to be brother-in-law of Lytle, had the honor, as what we call prosecuting attorney, in Au- gust, 1801, of addressing the first petit jury in the county. This patriarchal administration of government by families has had several repetitions in Brown and Clermont counties, but none that show such a close communion of interest. Lytle plainly knew what he wanted and how it should be got. How- ever perplexing the formation of the county may have been to the old Governor, the event was full of satisfaction for the sur- veyor thus placed in his thirty-first year in the position that fulfilled his designs and promised abundant wealth from the honorable enterprise of promoting the settlement of his chosen portion of the Land of the Blue Limestone and the Home of the Blue Grass.
The newly found county, shortly before, had become the residence of two men, of whom one came to begin and the - other to continue a most superior influence over affairs, both at home and abroad.
Thomas Morris, born in Pennsylvania. January 3. 1776, was the fifth of the twelve children of Isaac and Ruth Henton Mor- ris. When the father died, in 1830, at the age of ninety-one, after sixty years' service as a Baptist preacher, their descend- ants had reached the number of three hundred. The family has trended westward, with many marks of hardy ancestry, and many states have been thereby benefited. The most il- lustrious of the connection was, and is. Thomas, who came to Columbia in 1795, and began as a clerk for Rev. John Smith, another Baptist preacher of much note, an active member of the Territorial Legislatures, and the first United States. Sena- tor from Ohio. Among Smith's activities was a general store, where young Morris probably learned that he, too, could aspire to political honors. On November 29, 1797, Morris married Rachel, a daughter of Benjamin and Mary Davis, who were two of the nine members that started the Columbia Bap- tist church, the first church organized in the Northwest Ter- ritory. With such training towards the Baptist faith. Morris moved to Williamsburg in June, 1800, to keep tavern in a row of cabins fronting on Broadway, on Lots 275, 277 and 279. He was a tall, strong, fine looking man, with swarthy cheeks, dark,
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searching eyes, and a noble mind, that then, in his twenty-fifth year, was meditating the course that finally made him a link from which depends a stupendous chain of events in the story of Liberty.
During his second visit to the East, which was made in 1797-8, William Lytle, having fond the "one to keep him at home" all that his fancy had painted, was married in Phila- delphia, on February 28. 1798. to Miss Elizabeth Stall, whom he formerly described in a letter of that time to his brother, John, as "A young lady of good family and respectability in this city." The same letter gives a rather gloomy view of his long absence, still to be extended, because of the "raskality" with which he had to contend. Upon his return, in the summer of that year, his affairs were complicated by the death of his father, so that he had little chance and probably less inclina- tion for looking after the first Ohio election. The father's death decided the removal of the family to Williamsburg. The "Public Vendue" of the estate lasted seven days. A letter shows that the removal to Ohio had been accomplished before August 10, 1800. The people who came with himself and wife were his mother, brother John, and sister Elizabeth. Well preserved receipts, given on a settlement of accounts Febru- ary 12, 1801, show that William Campbell, James Arthur, Thornton Moss and George Galbreath, were paid $30 each, "for hauling four loads of goods from Lexington, Ky., to Williamsburg, O." Each of these four so liked the country that he came to stay. But Peter Oitzel charged $31 and 5 shillings for ferriage, and was heard of no more. This pay- ment of $151.00 for moving five loads a bird's flight of seventy- five miles, was not looked upon at that time as a subject for historic remark, yet no unusual imagination is needed to con- struct a comparison between then and now.
Some of the work in the saw mill, early in 1799, was to get out the material for a frame house that was built somewhat up the hill, southwest from the foot of Front street, which was the first frame house in the new county, and was occupied by John, Elizabeth and their mother. The site of the Lytle home, still standing, was named "Harmony Hill." upon which work was immediately begun. The brothers, Daniel and John Kain, were paid $48 for clearing four and three-fourth acres
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