USA > Ohio > Defiance County > History of Defiance County, Ohio. Containing a history of the county; its townships, towns, etc.; military record; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; farm views, personal reminiscences, etc > Part 2
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THE ORDINANCE FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF THE TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES NORTHWEST OF THE OHIO RIVER.
This ordinance was passed on the 13th day of July, 1787. As this ordinance is spoken of so often, and has so often been eulogized, it is well for us to know exactly what it is, and what part of it is entitled to eulogy.
For we will find that parts of it became exceedingly distasteful to the early settlers of Ohio, and were bitterly denounced by them very early in our history. This ordinance first provides certain temporary rules of property, which were subject to future legisla- tion, regulating descents, dowers, wills and deeds. It provides for the rights of the inhabitants of Kas- kaskia and Vincennes, or Port Vincents, as it is therein called, which were to be subject to the laws of. Virginia at the time. Then it provides for a temporary government. This was to consist at first of a Governor, Secretary and three Judges, to be appointed by Con- gress. The Governor and Judges were to have the power to adopt and publish in the district such laws of the original States, criminal and civil, that might be necessary and best suited to the circumstances of the district, and not disapproved by Congress. All officers were required to be residents for certain peri- ods of time, and all to be land owners; the Governor to own 1,000 acres; the Secretary and Judges each 500 acres. When the district should contain 5,000 free male inhabitants of full age, they were to elect a House of Representatives. Its members were to own each 200 acres of land, and those only could vote for representatives who owned 50 acres of land. These Representatives were elected for two years. They were to select ten names of citizens of the ter- ritory, each owning 500 acres of land, out of which Congress selected five persons who composed the coun- cil, and whose term was five years. The Governor, Council and Representatives formed the Legislature. This Legislature had power to make laws in all cases for the good government of the district, not repug- nant to the principles and articles of the ordinance de- clared and established, and to repeal and alter those made by the Governor and Judges. All bills passed by a majority of the Council and the House had to have the assent of the Governor. He also had power to convene, prorogue and dissolve the assembly, when in his opinion it should be expedient. He also had power to form counties, appoint all magistrates and other officers, not otherwise directed by the ordi- nance, during the temporary government. The third division of this ordinance contains a declaration of certain fundamental principles of government and the rights of man. Among these are the rights to worship and to religious opinions. It also declares that no law ought ever to be made that shall in any manner interfere with or effect private contracts, en- gagements bona fide, and without fraud, previously made. It declares that "religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." It further declares that "the utmost good faith shall always
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HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
be observed toward the Indians, their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent; and in their property, rights and liberty they shall never be invaded, or disturbed unless in just and lawful wars authorized by Congress, but laws founded in justice and humanity shall, from time to time, be made for preventing wrongs being done to them and for preserving peace and friendship with them."
Article 6 declares that " there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in said territory otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted," to which a proviso was attached that fugitives from labor or service could be reclaimed. It is to this third part of the ordinance that the eulogies of many of our statesmen and citizens have been given, and to-day, in the light of almost a century of Ohio's history, can- not we unite in those eulogies? Mr. Webster, in his celebrated controversy with Hayne says, that this ordinance was drawn by Nathan Dow, of Massachu- setts. "It was adopted, as I think I have understood, without the slightest alteration, and certainly it has happened to few men to be the author of a political measure of more large and enduring consequence. It fixes forever the character of the population north- west of the Ohio, by excluding from them involuntary servitude. It impresses upon the soil itself, while it was yet a wilderness, an incapacity to bear up any other than free men. It laid the interdict against personal servitude not only deeper than all local law, but deeper also than all local constitutions. Under the circumstances then existing, I look upon this original and reasonable provision as a real good at- tained. We see its consequences at this moment, and shall never cease to see them perhaps while the Ohio shall flow." In another part of this discussion, he said of this ordinance: "It need hardly be said that that paper expresses just sentiments on the great sub- ject of civil and religious liberty. Such sentiments were common and abound in all our State papers of that day. But the ordinance did that which was not so common, and which is not even now universal; that is, it set forth and declared, as a high and binding duty of government itself, to encourage schools and advance the means of education, on the plain reason that religion, morality and knowledge are necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind."
"One observation further. The important provis- ion incorporated in the Constitution of the United States, restraining legislative power in questions of private right, and from impairing the obligations of contracts, is first introduced and established, as far as I am informed, as matters of expressed written con- stitutional law in the ordinance of 1787."
In the sketches of the history of Ohio prefixed to Chase's Statutes, and published in 1833, Gov. Chase says:
"After establishing the freedom of conscience, the sacredness of personal liberty, the inviolability of private contracts, and the security of private prop- erty; after recognizing the duty of the Government to foster schools and diffuse knowledge; and after en- joining the observauce of good faith toward the un- fortunate and ignorant Indian, and the performance toward them of these offices of kindness and peace which so adorn and grace the intercourse of the mighty with the weak, as if resolved to omit nothing which might be thought justly to belong to an instru- ment providing for the erection of free States, the framers of the ordinance, in the last article, declare 'there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servi- tude within the territory otherwise than in the pun- ishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.' Well might he say of this ordi- nance, never probably in the history of the world did a measure of legislation so accurately fulfill and yet so mightily exceed the anticipation of legislators. The law has been described as having been a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night in the settlement and government of the Northwestern States. When the settlers went into the wilderness, they found the law already there. It was impressed upon the soil itself while it yet bore up nothing but the forest. The purchaser of land became by that act a party to the compact, and bound by its perpetual covenants so far as its provisions did not conflict with the terms of the cession of the States."
"This remarkable instrument," he says again, "was the last gift of the old confederation of the country, and was a fit consummation of their glorious labors." At the time of its promulgation the federal constitu- tion was under discussion in the convention and in a few months. upon the organization of the new national Government, that Congress was dissolved, never again to re-assemble.
Some, and indeed most of the principles estab- lished by the articles of compact are to be found in the plan of 1784, and in the various English and American bills of rights. Others, however, and those not the least importaut, are original. Of this number are the clauses in relation to contracts, to slavery and to the Indians. On the whole, the arti- cles contain what they profess to contain, the true theory of American liberty. The great principles promulgated by it are wholly and purely American. They are, indeed, the general principles of freedom, unadulterated by compromise with circumstances, the effect of which are visible in the Constitution and history of the Union."
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HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
While Congress had under consideration the measure for the organization of a territorial govern- ment northwest of the Ohio River, the preliminary steps were taken in Massachusetts toward the forma- tion of the Ohio Land Company, for the purpose of making a purchase of a large tract of land in said Territory and settling upon it. On the passage of the ordinance by Congress, the aforesaid land com. pany perfected its organization, and by its agents, Rev. Manasseh Cutler and Maj. Winthrop Sargent, made application to the Board of Treasury, July 27, 1787, to become purchasers, said board having been authorized four days before to make sales. The pur- chase, which was perfected October 27, 1787, em- braced a tract of land containing about a million and a half of acres, situated within the present counties of Washington, Athens, Meigs and Gallia, subject to the reservation of two townships of land six miles square, for the endowment of a college, since known as Ohio University, at Athens; also every sixteenth section, set apart for the use of schools, as well also every twenty-ninth section, dedicated to the support of religious institutions; also Sections 8, 11 and 26, which were reserved by the United States for future sale. After these deductions were made, and that of donation lands, there remained only 964,285 acres to be paid for by the Ohio Land Company, and for which patents were issued.
At a meeting of the directors of the company, held November 23, 1787, Gen. Rufus Putnam was chosen Superintendent of the company, and he ac- cepted the position. Early in December, six boat builders and a number of other mechanics were sent forward to Simrall's Ferry (now West Newton), on the Youghiogheny River, under the command of Maj. Haffield White, where they arrived in January, and at once proceeded to build a boat for the use of the company. Col. Ebenezer Sproat, of Rhode Island, Anselm Tupper, and John Matthews, of Massachu- setts, and Col. Return J. Meigs, of Connecticut, were appointed surveyors. Preliminary steps were also taken at this meeting to secure a teacher and chap- lain, which resulted in the appointment of Rev. Dan- iel Story, who some time during the next year arrived at the mouth of the Muskingum, in the capacity of the first missonary and teacher from New England.
Early in the winter the remainder of the pioneers, with the surveyors, left their New England homes and started on their toilsome journey to the Western wilderness. They passed on over the Alleghanies, and reached the Youghioghemy about the middle of February, where they found their companions who had preceded them. The boat, called the " May- flower," that was to transport the pioneers to their destination, was forty-five feet long, twelve feet wide
and of fifty tons burden, and was placed under the command of Capt. Devol. "Her bows were raking, or curved like a galley, and strongly timbered; her sides were made bullet proof, and she was covered with a deck roof," so as to afford better protection against the hostile savages while floating down to- ward their Western home, and during its occupancy there, before the completion of their cabins. All things being ready, they embarked at Simrall's Ferry, April 2, 1788, and passed down the Youghio- ghemy into the Monongahela, and thence into the Ohio, and down said river to the mouth of the Musk ingum, where they arrived April 7, and then and there made the first permanent settlement of civilized men within the present limits of Ohio. These bold adventurers were re-enforced by another company from Massachusetts, who, after a nine weeks' jour- ney, arrived early in July, 1788.
Many of these Yankee colonists had been officers and soldiers in the Revolutionary urmy, and were, for the most part, men of intelligence and character, and of sound judgment and ability. In short, they were just the kind of men to found a State in the wilder- ness. They possessed great energy of character, were enterprising, fond of adventure and daring, and were not to be intimidated by the formidable forests nor by the ferocious beasts sheltered therein, nor by the still more to be dreaded savages, who stealthily and with murderous intent roamed throughout their length and breadth. Their army experience had taught them what hardships and privations were, and they were quite willing to encounter them. A better set of men could not have been selected for pioneer settlers than were these New England colonists- those brave-hearted, courageous, hero-emigrants to the great Northwest, who, having triumphantly passed the fiery ordeal of the Revolution, volunteered to found a State and to establish American laws, Ameri- can institutions and American civilization in this, the wilderness of the uncivilized West. If any State in onr American Union ever had a better start in its incipient settlement than Ohio, I am not aware of it. Gen. Washington, writing of the bold pioneers, said that " no colony in America was ever settled under such favorable auspices as that which has just com- menced at the Muskingum. Information, property and strength will be its characteristics. I know many of the settlers personally, and there never were men better calculated to promote the welfare of such a community." Having had a personal army acquaint- ance with Gens. Putnam and Parsons, and with Col. Return Jonathan Meigs, and probably with many other leading members of this pioneer colony, his favorable opinion of them is entitled to great weight.
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HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
THE FIRST SETTLEMENT UNDER THE ORDINANCE OF 1787.
Of course, no time was lost by the colonists in erecting their habitations, as well as in building a stockade fort, and clearing land for the production of vegetables and grain for their subsistence, fifty acres of corn having been planted the first year. Their settlement was established upon the point of land between the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers, just oppo- site and across the Muskingum from Fort Harmar, built in 1786, and at this time garrisoned by a small military force under command of Maj. Doughty. At a meeting held on the banks of the Muskingum, July 2, 1788, it was voted that Marietta should be the name of their town, it being thus named in honor of Marie Antionette, Queen of France.
SURVEYS AND GRANTS OF THE PUBLIC LANDS.
The first survey of the public lands northwest of the Ohio River was the seven ranges of Congress lands, and was done pursuant to an act of Congress, of May 20, 1785. This tract of the seven ranges is bounded by a line of forty-two miles in length, run- ning due west from the point where the western bound- ary line of Pennsylvania crosses the Ohio River; thence due south to the Ohio River, at the southeast corner of Marietta Township, in Wash- ington County; thence up said river to the place of beginning. The present counties of Jefferson, Co- lumbiana, Carroll, Tuscarawas, Harrison, Guernsey, Belmont, Noble, Monroe and Washington are, in whole or in part, within the seven ranges.
The second survey was that of the Ohio Company's purchase, made in pursuance of an act of Congress, of July 13, 1785, though the contract was not com- pleted with the Ohio Company until October 27, 1787. Mention of its extent, also the conditions, reserva- tions, and circumstances attending the purchase, have already been given; 100,000 acres of this tract, called donation lands, were reserved upon certain con- ditions as a free gift to actual settlers. Portions of the counties of Washington, Athens and Gallia are within this tract, also the entire county of Meigs. The donation lands were in Washington County.
The next survey was the " Symmes Purchase " and contiguous lands, situated to the north and west of it, and was made soon after the foregoing. The " Symmes purchase " embraced the entire Ohio River front between the Big Miami and Little Miami Rivers, a distance of twenty-seven miles, and reach- ing northward a sufficient distance to include an area of 1,000,000 acres. The contract with Judge Symmes, made in October, 1787, was subsequently modified by act of Congress bearing date of May 5, 1792, and by an authorized act of the President of the United States, of September 30, 1794, as to amount to
only 311,682 acres, exclusive of a reservation of fif- teen acres around Fort Washington, of a square mile at the mouth of the Great Miami, of Sections 16 and 29 in each township, the former of which Congress had reserved for educational and the latter for relig- ious purposes, exclusive also of a township dedicated to the interests of a college; and Sections 8, 11 and 26, which Congress reserved for future sale.
The tract of land situated between the Little Miami and Scioto Rivers, known as the Virginia Military Lands, was never regularly surveyed into townships, but patents were issued by the President of the Unit- ed States to such persons (Virginian) as had rendered service on the continental establishment in the army of the United States (hence the name), and in the quanti- ties to which they were entitled, according to the pro- visions of an act of Congress of August 10, 1790. " It embraces a body of 6,570 square miles, or 4,204- 800 acres of land. The following counties are situat- ed in this tract, namely: Adams, Brown, Clermont, Clinton, Fayette, Highland, Madison, and Union entirely; the greater or less portions of the following, to wit: Marion, Delaware, Franklin, Pickaway, Ross, Pike, Scioto, Warren, Greene, Clark, Champaign, Logan and Hardin."
Connecticut ceded all lands in the Northwest to which she claimed title to the United States (except the tract which has been known as the " Western Re- aserve"), by deed of cession bearing date of Septem- ber 14, 1786; and in May, 1800, by act of Legisla- ture of said State, renounced all jurisdiction or claim to the "territory called the Western Reserve of Con- necticut." That tract of land was surveyed in 1796, and later into townships of five miles square; and in the aggregate contained about 3,800,000 acres, being 120 miles long, and lying west of the Pennsylvania State line, all situated between 41° of north latitude and 42º 2'. Half a million acres of the forego- ing lands were set apart by the State of Connecticut in 1792 as a donation to the sufferers of fire (during the Revolutionary war) of the residents of Greenwich New London, Norwalk, Fairfield, Danbury, New Ha- ven, and other Connecticut villages whose property was burned by the British; hence the name "Firelands" by which this tract taken from the western portion of the reserve has been known. It is situated chiefly in Huron and Erie Counties, a small portion only being in Ottawa County. The entire Western Re- serve embraces the present counties of Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Erie, Geauga, Huron, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Portage and Trumbull; also the greater portion of Mahoning and Summit, and very limited portions of Ashland and Ottawa.
French grant, is a tract of 24,000 acres of land bordering on the Ohio River, within the present limits
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HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
of Scioto County, granted by Congress iu March, 1795, to certain French settlers of Gallipolis, who, through invalid titles, had lost their lands there. Twelve hundred acres were added to this grant in 1798, making a total of 25,200 acres. The United States Military Lands were surveyed under the pro- visions of an act of Congress of June 1, 1796, and contained 2,500,000 acres. This tract was set apart to satisfy certain claims of the officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary war, hence the title by which it is known. It is bounded by the seven ranges on the east, by the Greenville treaty line on the north, by the Congress and refugee lands on the south, and by the Scioto River on the west, including the county of Coshocton entire, and portions of the counties of Tuscarawas, Guernsey, Muskingum, Licking, Frank- lin, Delaware, Marion, Morrow, Knox and Holmes.
The Moravian Lands are three several tracts of 4,000 acres each, situated, respectively, at Shoenbrun, Gnadenhutten and Salem, all on the Tuscarawas River, now in Tuscarawas County. These lands were originally dedicated by an ordinance of Con- gress dated September 3, 1788, to the use of the Christianized Indians at those points, and by act of Congress of June 1, 1796, were surveyed and patents issued to the society of the United Brethren, for the purposes above specified.
The Refugee Tract is a body of land containing 100,000 acres, granted by Congress February 18, 1801, to persons who fled from the British provinces during the Revolutionary war and took up arms against the mother country and in behalf of the Col- onies, and thereby lost their property by confiscation. This tract is four and one-half miles wide, and ex- tends forty-eight miles eastward from the Scioto River at Columbus into Muskingum County. It in- cludes portions of the counties of Franklin, Fairfield, Perry, Licking and Muskingum.
Dohrman's grant is a township of land six milee square, containing 23,040 acres, situated in the south- eastern part of Tuscarawas County. It was given to Arnold Henry Dohrman, a Portuguese merchant, of Lisbon, by act of Congress of February 27, 1801,“ in consideration of his having, during the Rovolutionary war, given shelter and aid to the American cruisers and vessels of war." The foregoing is a list of the principal land grants and surveys during our Terri- torial history, in that portion of the Northwest that now constitutes the State of Ohio. There were canal land grants, Maumee road grants, and various others, but they belong to our State, and not to our Territo- rial history.
TREATIES MADE WITH THE INDIANS.
By the means of the treaty of Fort Stanwix, con-
cluded with the Iroquois or Six Nations (Mohawks, Onondagas, Senecas, Cayugas, Tuscaroras, and Onei- das), October 22, 1784, the indefinite claim of said confederacy to the greater part of the valley of the Ohio was extinguished. The Commissioners of Con- gress were Oliver Wolcott, Richard Butler and Ar- thur Lee. Cornplanter and Red Jacket represented the Indians.
This was followed in January, 1785, by the treaty of Fort McIntosh, by which the Delawares, Wyan- dots, Ottawas and Chippewas relinquished all claim to the Ohio Valley, and established the boundary line between them and the United States to be the Cuya - hoga River, and along the main branch of the Tus- carawas to the forks of said river near Fort Laurens, thence westwardly to the portage between the head- waters of the Great Miami and the Maumee or Mi- ami of the Lakes, thence down said river to Lake Erie, and along said lake to the mouth of the Cuya- hoga River. This treaty was negotiated by George Rogers Clark, Richard Butler and Arthur Lee for the United States, and by the chiefs of the aforenamed tribes.
A similar relinquishment was effected by the treaty of Fort Finney (at the mouth of the Great Miami) concluded with the Shawnees January 31. 1786, the United States Commissioners being the same as the foregoing except the substitution of Sam- uel H. Parsons for Arthur Lee.
The treaty of Fort Harmar, held by Gen. St. Clair January 9, 1789, was mainly confirmatory of the treaties previously made. So also was the treaty of Greenville, of August 3, 1795, made by Gen. Wayne on the part of the United States, and the chiefs of eleven of the most powerful tribes of the Northwest- ern Indians, which re-established the Indian boundary line through the present State of Ohio, and extended. it from Loramie to Fort Recovery, and from thence to 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 Government, by purchase, in pursuance of treaties subsequently made. The Western Reserve tract west of the Cuyahoga River was secured 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 purchased in 1829; and by a treaty made at Upper Sandusky, March 17, 1832, 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 Government, and retired,
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