History of Clinton County, Ohio Its People, Industries, and Institutions, with Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families, Part 3

Author: Albert J. Brown (A.M.)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : W.H. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1108

USA > Ohio > Clinton County > History of Clinton County, Ohio Its People, Industries, and Institutions, with Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families > Part 3

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THE FORMATION OF A NEW STATE

The three years Intervening between the creation of Indiana Territory (May 7, 1800), and the admission of Ohio to the Union (March 1, 1803), are marked by an acrimonious struggle, during which Governor St. Clair was constantly growing in disfavor with his Legislature and the great mass of the people of the territory. The Legislature wanted a state formed as soon as possible, and succeeded in getting Congress to pass an

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act, April 30, 1802, authorizing the calling of a constitutional convention. This act established the limits of the proposed new state, as follow : "That part of the North- west Territory bounded east by Pennsylvania, south by the Ohio river, west by a line drawu from the mouth of the Big Miami river due north to an east and west line passing through the south extremity of Lake Michigan, aud by this line and the Canada line through Lake Erie to the west line of Pennsylvania." Since these boundaries omitted the enstern half of the present state of Michigan, which had been left a part of the North- west Territory by the division of May 7, 1800, It was denounced as a fraud by the Federalists in the omitted territory. However, it is very plain that Congress carried out the intent of the Ordinance of 1757 by their act and the charge of political trickery falls of substantiation in the light of the specific provisions therein set forth regarding the crention of states out of the Northwest Territory. The enabling act provided for an election of delegates to the constitutional convention to be held in September, of the same year (1502), the delegates to meet at Chillicothe on the first Monday of the following November. The thirty-five delegates met at the appointed time and by a vote of thirty- four to one, the negative vote being cast by Ephraim Cutler, decided to proceed at once to the organization of a state government and the formation of a constitution. The convention was in session until November 20th, at which time it had completed the first constitution for the state and the one which lasted until 1851. when a second constitution was adopted.

WHEN WAS OHIO ADMITTED TO THE UNION?

It is interesting to note the difficulty which Ohio historians have had in trying to fix upon the date which marks the formal admission of the state to the Union.

The natal day of Ohlo has given rise to more dispute than the natal day of any other state in the Union. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that Congress never passed an act formally admitting it to the I'nion. There have been no less than five dates assigned by as many different authorities, and each group of historians substantinte their claim by the citation of facts. These five dates are as follow: April 30, 1802; November 20, 1802; February 10. 1803; March 1, 1803; March 3. 1803.

The first date (April 30, 1802), hns for Its chief sponsor the editor of the "I'nited States Statutes at Large." This date is not tenable at all, since the territorial judges were in office for several months after this date and were, by congressional act of February 21, 1806, paid their full salaries up to March 1. 1803. The second date ( November 29, 1802), is advanced by Hickey, in his volume, "The Constitution." on the ground that the constitution was adopted on that day. The third date ( February 10, 1803), has been held by several good authorities, notably. Caleb Atwater, in bis "Political Manual;" G. W. Pascal, in his "Annotated Constitution," and the late president of Marietta College, I. W. Andrews, It was upon this date that Congress passed an act to "provide for the due execution of the laws of the I'nited States within the state of Ohio." This would seem to Indicate that Congress recognized February 19. 1803. as the date of the admission of Ohlo to the Union, but when it is recalled that Congress had not yet appointed the necessary judicial officers, it must be concluded that this is not the proper date. The fourth date (March 1. 1803), is now recognized officially as the actual day on which Ohio formally entered the Union, although It was an act of Congress passed nearly three years later which definitely settled this fact. The question arose in 1806 in Congress regarding the payment of the territorial officers, and the act of February 21st of that year ordered that the governor and judges be paid for their services up to March 1, 1803. There can be no question but that Congress placed ita official approval on this date as being the first day of Ohio's existence as a separate state. The fifth and last date (March 3, 1903), was advanced as the real date of the admission of the state, for the reason that on this date Congress gave its approval to certain changes in the constitution of the state which had been adopted on November 29.

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1802. These changes related to the disposition of certain school lands within the state and were of minor importance and in no sense advocated any radical changes in the constitution of the state. However, on March 3, 1803, the state bad been in full operation for a space of three days and exercising all the rights and privileges of a state; the governor had been installed ; the Legislature was in session and the various state officials were discharging their duties in accordance with the constitution. Thus it must be concluded from all available evidence that Ohio was admitted to the Union on March 1. 1803.

CAPITALS OF NORTHWEST TERRITORY AND OHIO.

The capital of the Northwest Territory was located within the present limits of Ohio during the whole existence of the Territory both before and after the division of the Territory in 1800. When the Ordinance of 1787 was formally put into operation, on July 17. 1758. the capital was established at Marletta, the name being chosen by the directors of the Oblo Company on-July 2, 1758. The name of Marietta was selected in honor of the French Queen Marie Antoinette, compounded by a curious combination of the first and last syllables of her name.

The capital remained at Marietta until 1800, when It was moved by the congressional act of May 7th of that year to Chillleothe and by the constitution adopted in 1x2 the capital was to remain there at least until 1508. The Legislaure of 1809 moved the capital to Zanesville until such time as a permanent site should be selected. The Legislature at the same time that it moved the capital to Zanesville appointed commissioners to report at the following sessions "the most eligible and central spot for permanently establishing it." The approaching War of 1512 made it necessary to take the capital bark to Chillicothe, where there was less danger from attack by the Indians and British. The connuissioners appointed by the Legislature of 1809 selected a small village by the name of Dublin, on the Scioto, about fourteen miles north of Columbus, but the Legislature refused to abide by their choice.

The capital was permanently located at Columbus by the legislative act of February 14. 1×12, although no less than nine different sites were under consideration before the final decision was made. The act selecting the site did not choose a name for the proposed city and this honor belongs to Joseph Foos, the senator from Franklin county. who had been largely Instrumental In the selection of the Legislature. At that time there was a solitary log cabin on the site and the whole tract was covered with a dense forest, The act of February 17. 1816, formally designated Columbus as the capital "from and after the second Tuesday of October, 1816." During the War of 1>12, and until the bufklings were ready at Columbus, the capital remained at Chillicothe.

CONSTITUTIONAL. HISTORY OF OHIO.

The state of Obio has had four constitutional conventions: 1802. 1850-51, 1573-74 and 1012. The constitution of 1802, it Is interesting to note, was never submitted to the people for ratification. Between the adoption of the first and second constitutions there was an effort to hold a constitutional convention. A resolution, passed December 25. 1818, authorized a vote on the question of holding a constitutional convention, but at the election which was subsequently held it was decided adversely by a vote of 20.315 to 6.987.

The main facts concerning the second constitutional convention may be briefly summed up, as follow : The Legislature on October 9, 1449, authorized a vote on the question of holding a convention and the voters of the state east a majority of 94.531 in favor of the constitutional convention. The vote stood 145.698 for and 51,167 against the convention. On April 1, 1850, the one hundred and eight delegates were elected and on the 6th of the following May they met at Columbus The convention was In continous session until July 9, 1850, and then, not having yet completed their deliberations.

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adjourned to meet again on December 2, 1850. The second session continued to hold daily meetings until March 10, 1851, when it Alually concluded Its labors after having spent a total of one hundred and sixty-three days. The constitution was submitted to the people of the state on June 17, 1851, and adopted by a vote of 125,564 to 100.276.

An attempt to adopt a new constitution was made in 1874, but failed. On March 30, 1871. the Legislature provided for a vote on the question of holding a constitutional convention and at an election held October 10, 1871, it was decided, by a vote of 287.618 to 104.231, to hold such a convention. On April 6. 1873, the one hundred and five dele- gates to the convention were elected and on the 13th of the following month they met and organized. The convention continued in session from that date until August 8th, and, after a recess, met on December 2d and remained in continuous session until May 15th of the following year. The convention held daily sessions for one hundred and eighty days, one of the longest constitutional conventions ever held in the United States. With all this deliberation it would seem that a satisfactory constitution could have been framed, but the voters of the state, on August 18, 1874. rejected it by a vote of 250,169 to 102.855. This expensive attempt to make a new constitution was sufficient to thwart all efforts along this line for several years. However, the changes in economic, social and industrial conditions became more pronounced year by year, and on March 9, 1909. the Legislature submitted the question of holling a constitutional convention. At an election held on November S. 1910. it was decided, by a vote of 693.263 to 67.718, to select delegates to a constitutional convention. The convention met on the second Tuesday of January. 1912, and remained in session until June 8, 1912, when it finally concluded its Inbors. This convention submitted forty-two changes in the existing constitution and on September 3rd of the same year the qualified voters of the state accepted all but eight of the proposed amendments. The eight amendments lost are as follow : Suffrage, good roads, advertising, injunctions, capital punishment, voting machines, eligibility of women and elimination of word "white" from the constitution. The amendments which carrled by various majorities concerned the following subjects: Jury system, depositions, suits, wrongful death, initiative and referendum, Investigations, limiting veto, mechanies' lien, welfare, compensations, conservation of natural resources, eight-hour day, removal of officials, expert testimony, land titles, prison contracts, extra sessions, reform of the judiciary, county judges, justices, school boards, school commissioners, insurance, abolish- ing of board of public works, taxation, corporations, double liability, state printing. civil service, submission of amendments, home rule for eltles, schedule and license. The fight was the most bitter on woman's suffrage and the initiative and referendum. The vote on the first proposition was 249.420 to 336.875, and was defeated largely on account of the activity of the liquor interests. The initiative and referendum carried by a vote of 312.502 to 231,312. despite the fact that every ruse and trick known to professional politicians was used to compass its defeat.

On November 3. 1914. there were four constitutional amendments submitted to the voters of the state and the two which caused the most discussion. viz., woman's suffrage and prohibition, were defeated. The other two amendments related to home rule for cities and the regulation of the liquor traffic.

MILITARY RECORD.

The state of Ohio has had its citizens in four wars in which the United States has engaged since 1803 : the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Civil War and the Spanish- American War. It Is very unfortunate that the public records of Ohlo contain no list of the soldiers of the state who fought in the War of 1812, although large numbers of the citizens served in the field under various commanders. The records as regards the Mexican War are fairly complete and show that a total of 5,536 men were sent to the front by the state. When the call was first issued for troops, Oblo was called upon to furnish three thousand men, and within a short time forty companies reported at Camp

CLINTON COUNTY, OHIO.

Washington, near Cincinnati. Thirty companies were formed into three regiments, commanded by Cols. Alexander M. Mitchell, George W. Morgan and Samuel R. Curtis. These troops were sent down the Ohio in July, 1846, and joined General Taylor on the Rio Grande. In 1847 additional troops were sent from Ohio, but none of them saw any active service. The regiment under the command of Mitchell was the only one to take part in a battle, and it distinguished itself in the storming of Monterey. The state of Oblo suffered a severe loss in the death of Brig .- Gen. Thomas L. Hammer, one of the most prominent men of the state at that time. He was a member of Congress at the time of the opening of the war, but left Congress, enlisted as a private and soon after received a commission as brigadier general. He was in the operations around Monterey and shortly afterward was stricken with a fatal disease and died on December 30, 1846.

The part which Ohio played in the (Ivil War can be only briefly noticed in this resume of the history of the state. That Oblo did her full duty as a loyal member of the I'nion is a fact which is known to everyone. Within twenty-four hours from the time the President issued his first call for troops on April 16, 1860, the Legislature had passed a bill appropriating one million dollars for military purposes. Two days Inter (April 19th) two regiments of Ohio troops left by rail for Washington. The ease and quickness with which this was accomplished is an Indication of the intense loyalty of the state. It is a glowing tribute to the state of Ohio that although there were only thirteen regiments assigned to the state under the first call, enough men presented themselves to make more than seventy regiments. This outburst of loyalty was such that the Legisla- ture authorized the governor to accept ten more regiments, and the state itself equipped and paid these additional men and enrolled them for the defense of the state, Ry October 1, 1862, the state had enrolled militia to the number of 425.147 and the state sent out for duty outside of Its own limits 319.659 men, although their quota was only 306.322. This gives the state the honor of furnishing more than one-tenth of the total enlistment of men in the Northern army. In number of troops furnished. Obio was third among all the state and in losses was second. The soldiers were a part of every army, participated In every campaign, fought In every important battle from Bull Run to Bentonville, from Sabine Cross Roads to Gettysburg. No less than forty-three Ohio regiments of infantry were present at the sanguinary engagement at Missionary Ridge and they were in like proportion at the other battles Twelve thousand brave Oblo men were killed or mortally wounded and at least forty thousand received wounds of some kind. Thirteen thousand died of disease in the service and twenty thousand were dis- charged for disability arising from wounds or disease. These figures give some iden of the prominent part which the soldiers of Ohio played in the great struggle.

It is pertinent to say something of the activity of the anti-war party in the state during the time the struggle was going on. In the summer of 1863 the Democrats of the state nominated Vallandigham for governor, a man who was very outspoken in his denunciation of the war, but John Brough, a stanch Union man, had no difficulty in defeating him for the governorship. The part which Vallandigham subsequently played in the history of this state is sufficient proof that it was for the best interests of the state that he was defeated.

The Spanish-American War of 1898 has been he last one in which troops from Ohio have taken any part. Following the call of President Mckinley for seventy-five thousand volunteers, Ohio bad no difficulty in filling their quota. This war opened officially"on April 25th and formally came to an end by the signing of a protocol on August 12th. The battles of Manila Bay. Santiago, El Caney and San Juan Hill were the only engage- ments of importance. According to the treaty of Paris, which was signed on December 12. 1898, Spain relinquished her sovereignty over Cuba, ceded to the United States Porto Rico and her other West India possessions and the Island of Guam, and transferred her rights in the Philippines for a sum of twenty million dollars paid to her for public works and ituprovements which belonged to the Spanish government.

CLINTON COUNTY, OHIO.

THE LAND GRANTS OF OHIO.

Ohlo was the first state organized out of the territory north of the Oblo river and enst of the Mississippi river and was divided into several grants, reservations and military districts of one kind or another. These various divisions have led to an endless amount of confusion in the surveying of lands in the state and in many cases to expensive litigation. A brief summary of each one of these divisions is here presented.

THE OHIO LAND COMPANY PURCHASE

This company was organized March 3, 1786, at Boston and on October 27, 1787, bought from the government 1,500,000 acres of land and received, outside of the portions reserved by Congress, 1,004,285 acres. Congress set aside the sixteenth section of each township for school purposes, the twenty-ninth section for religious purposes and the eighth, eleventh and twenty-sixth for such purposes as Congress might determine In the future. This tract included what was known as the "Donation Tract" of 100,000 acres, the same now being the northern part of Washington county. For this immense tract the Oblo Company paid the government sixty-six and two-thirds cents an acre.

THE FRENCH OBANT.

The secretary of the United Board of Treasury, William Duer, was instrumental in helping the Ohio Company to secure from Congress the option on 3,000,000 acres lying west and north of the original purchase of this company. The title to this tract remained in the government and out of this peculiar arrangement arose the Scioto Company, which was organized in France. Hundreds of deluded Frenchmen Invested their money in this tract and received cloudy titles which caused no little trouble in later years. A large number of these French settlers landed on the banks of the Oblo on October 20, 1790, on the site of the present city of Gallipolis, which they founded and named. The Scloto Company was incompetently managed, became insolvent and the land on which the unfortunate Frenchmen had settled reverted to the United States government. While the most of them remained, there were many of them who went on farther west and located where other French settlers had previously established themselves. The C'uited States treated the remaining French settlers in a very generous manner and by the act of March 3, 1795, granted them 24,000 acres on the Oblo river within the present limits of Scioto county.

THE SYMMES PURCHASE.

In 1788 John Cleves Symmes and other men of New Jersey organized the Minmf Company and bought from the United States 1,000,000 acres, for which the company agreed to pay sixty-six cents an acre. As in the case of the purchase of the Ohio Com- pany, the government made reservations of school and church sections, as well as three additional sections for general purposes. The Miami Company later found out that they had contracted for more than they could pay and the records show that they received and paid for only 311,682 acres in the southern part of the tract. It is Interesting to note that the present site of Cincinnati was sold by the company to one Matthias Denman for the sum of five hundred dollars The city of Cincinnati was founded the following year and the monument in that city on Third street, between Broadway and Ludlow streets, marks the location of Fort Washington, which was erected to protect the infant city from the Indians.

CONNECTICUT RESERVE.

In the year 1756 the state of Connecticut relinquished all her claims to lands In the Northwest Territory with the exception of a strip of 3.500,000 acres bordering Lake Erie. This immense tract became an Integral part of Ohio as the result of two separate acts on the part of Connecticut. The state granted 500.000 acres in the western part of the reserve in 1792 to those citizens of Connecticut whose homes bad been burued by the

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British during the Revolutionary War. The towns of Norwalk, Greenwich, Fairfield, New Haven and New London furnished the greater part of the eighteen hundred who took advantage of the generous offer of their state. The land was surveyed into town- ships of five miles square and divided among the settlers in proportion to their losses. In 1795 the Connecticut Land Company purchased the rest of the reserve, amounting to 3,000,000 acres, and on April 28, 1800, the I'nited States government passed an act which paved the way for the finnl absorption of the tract by the state of Ohio. In May, 1800. the Connecticut Legislature accepted the offer of the U'nited States and formally renounced all claims to the territory in favor of the state of Ohle.

THE VIRGINIA MILITARY DISTRICT.

The reservation was retained by Virginin when the state relinquished her claim to Congress in 1784, being retained by the state for the use of the Revolutionary soldiers who had enlisted from Virginia. It comprised the territory between the Little Miami and Seloto rivers, but was not to be sold unless the lands elnimed by Virginia south of the Obio river proved insufficient to pay all of the bounties promised by Virginia to her soldiers. By the year 1790 it was seen that Virginia would not have enough territory south of the Ohio to satisfy all of her needs and accordingly, in August of that year. Congress passed an act allowing the state to use the optional territory north of the Obio river. Owing to the fact that the territory was not surveyed according to any definite plau, the various allotments assigned to the Virginia soldiers frequently overlapped and in many Instances confusion and litigation resulted.

THE UNITED STATES MILITARY LANDS.

The Continental Congress during the Revolutionary War offered bounties of Western lands in order to increase enlistmentu, and soldiers so secured were given land warrants which they later presented to Congress and exchanged for land. On June 1. 1706, Con- gress passed an act which called upon the surveyor-general of the I'nited States to locate a tract in the Northwest Territory for the purpose of enabling the government to have land to take up the land warrants which it had Issued during the late war. The limits of this particular tract began "at the northwest corner of the Seven Ranges, thence south Atty miles. thence west to the Scioto river and along that river to the Greenville treaty line. thence along that line and east to the place of beginning." These lands were sur- veyed Into townships five miles square and euch owner received a patent for bis land signed by the President of the United States.

THE BEFL'AFF TRACT.

This traet was set ashle by the Continental Congress in April, 1783, for the benefit of such people as left Canada and Nova Scotia to help the American colonies in their fight against England during the Revolution. The subsequent congressional act of 1798 confirmed the act of the Continental Congress, and on February 15, 1501. Congress definitely selected "those fractional townships of the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth. nineteenth, twentieth, twenty-first and twenty-second ranges of townships joining the southern boundary line of the military lands." This traet of four and a half miles in width, and extending forty-two miles east of the Scioto river, contained more than twice as much as was needed to satisfy the claims of the refugees. The part unelaimed by Those for whom it was set aside was attached to the Chillleethe land district and sold as Congress lands. It so happened that the future capital of the state, Columbus, is in the extreme western side of this tract.

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History of Clinton County, Ohio Its People, Industries, and Institutions, with Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families, Part 3

Author: Albert J. Brown (A.M.) Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Chicago : W.H. Beers & Co. Number of Pages: 1108

Author: Albert J. Brown (A.M.)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : W.H. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1108