USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County : together with historic notes on the Northwest, and the state of Ohio, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and all other authentic sources > Part 13
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Gov. Henry soon received intelligence of the successful progress of the expedition under the command of Clark. The French inhabitants of the villages of Kaskaskias, Cahokia and Post Vincennes took the oath of allegiance to the State of Virginia.
In October, 1778, the General Assembly of the State of Virginia passed an act which contained the following provisions, viz : All the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia "who are already settled or shall hereafter settle on the western side of the Ohio, shall be included in a distinct county, which shall be called Illinois county; and the governor of this commonwealth, with the advice of the coun- cil, may appoint a county lieutenant, or commandant-in-chief, in that county, during pleasure, who shall appoint and commission so many deputy commandants, militia officers and commissaries as he shall think proper in the different districts, during pleasure ; all of whom, before they enter into office, shall take the oath of fidelity to this common- wealth and the oath of office, according to the form of their own religion. And all civil officers to which the inhabitants have been accustomed, necessary for the preservation of the peace and the admin- istration of justice, shall be chosen by a majority of the citizens in their respective districts, to be convened for that purpose by the county lieutenant, or commandant, or his deputy, and shall be commissioned by the said county lieutenant or commandant-in-chief."
Before the provisions of the law were carried into effect, Henry Hamilton, the British lieutenant-governor of Detroit, collected an army, consisting of about thirty regulars, fifty French volunteers, and four hundred Indians. With this force he passed down the River
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HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
Wabash, and took possession of Post Vincennes on the 15th of Decem- ber, 1778. No attempt was made by the population to defend the town. Capt. Helm was taken and detained as a prisoner, and a num- ber of the French inhabitants disarmed.
Clark was aware that Gov. Hamilton, now that he had regained possession of Vincennes, would undertake the capture of his forces, and realizing his danger, he determined to forestall Hamilton and capture the latter. His plans were at once formed. He sent a por- tion of his available force by boat, called The Willing, with instruc- tions to Capt. Rogers, the commander, to proceed down the Mississippi and up the Ohio and Wabash, and secrete himself a few miles below Vincennes, and prohibit any persons from passing either up or down. With another part of his force he marched across the country, through prairies, swamps and marshes, crossing swollen streams-for it was in the month of February, and the whole country was flooded from con- tinuous rains-and arriving at the banks of the Wabash near St. Francisville, he pushed across the river and brought his forces in the rear of Vincennes before daybreak. So secret and rapid were his movements that Gov. Hamilton had no notice that Clark had left Kaskaskia. Clark issued a notice requiring the people of the town to keep within their houses, and declaring that all persons found else- where would be treated as enemies. Tobacco's Son tendered one hundred of his Piankashaw braves, himself at their head. Clark declined their services with thanks, saying his own force was sufficient. Gov. Hamilton had just completed the fort, consisting of strong block- houses at each angle, with the cannon placed on the upper floors, at an elevation of eleven feet from the surface. The works were at once closely invested. The ports were so badly cut, the men on the inside could not stand to their cannon for the bullets that would whiz from the rifles of Clark's sharp-shooters through the embrasures whenever they were suffered for an instant to remain open.
The town immediately surrendered with joy, and assisted at the siege. After the first offer to surrender upon terms was declined, Hamilton and Clark, with attendants, met in a conference at the Catholic church, situated some eighty rods from the fort, and in the afternoon of the same day, the 24th of February, 1779, the fort and garrison, consisting of seventy-five men, surrendered at discretion. The result was that Hamilton and his whole force were made prison- ers of war. Clark held military possession of the northwest until the close of the war, and in that way it was secured to our country. At the treaty of peace, held at Paris at the close of the Revolutionary
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THE LAKES THE BOUNDARY.
war, the British insisted that the Ohio River should be the northern boundary of the United States. The correspondence relative to that treaty shows that the only ground on which "the American commis- sioners relied to sustain their claim that the lakes should be the boundary was the fact that General Clark had conquered the country, and was in the undisputed military possession of it at the time of the negotiation. This fact was affirmed and admitted, and was the chief ground on which British commissioners reluctantly abandoned their claim."
CHAPTER XII.
A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF OHIO, AFTER SMUCKER, WITH ADDITIONS.
THE TITLE OF VIRGINIA AND HER DEED OF CESSION.
" Virginia acquired title to the great Northwest by its several char- ters, granted by James I., bearing dates respectively April 10, 1606; May 23, 1609; March 12, 1611. The Colony of Virginia first attempted to exercise authority in, or jurisdiction over, that portion of its extensive domains that was organized by the ordinance of '87 into 'the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio,' when in 1769, the House of Burgess of said Colony passed an act establishing the county of Botetourt, with the Mississippi River as its western boundary. The aforesaid act recited that, ' Whereas, the people situated on the Mississippi, in said county of Botetourt, will be very remote from the court-house, and must necessarily become a separate county, as soon as their numbers are sufficient, which, probably, will happen in a short time, be it therefore enacted, by the authority aforesaid, that the inhabitants of that part of the said county of Botetourt which lies on said waters shall be exempted from the payment of any levies to be laid by said county court for the purpose of building a court-house and prison for the said county.'
"Civil government, however, between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers was more in name than reality, until in 1778, after the conquest of the country by General George Rogers Clark, when the Virginia Legislature organized the county of Illinois, embracing within its limits all the territory owned by Virginia west of the Ohio River. Colonel John Todd served, under appointment received from the Governor of Virginia, as civil commandant, and lieutenant of the county, until his death, at the battle of Blue Licks, in 1782, less than two years before Virginia ceded the country to the United States. Timothy de Montbrun was his successor.
"In 1783 ' the General Assembly of Virginia passed an act author- izing the Virginia delegates in Congress to convey to the United
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A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF OHIO. 131
States all the right of that Commonwealth to the territory northwest- ward of the River Ohio.'
" Pursuant to the foregoing action of the General Assembly of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Hardy, Arthur Lee and James Monroe, Virginia's delegates in Congress, did, as per deed of session, on the first day of March, 1784, it being the eighth year of American independence, 'convey (in the name and for, and on behalf of, the said Commonwealth), transfer, assign, and make over unto the United States in Congress assembled, for the benefit of said States, Virginia inclusive, all right, title and claim, as well of soil as of jurisdiction, to the territory of said State lying and being to the northwest of the river Ohio.' Upon the presentation of said deed of cession, Congress resolved, on the same day, 'that it be accepted, and the same be recorded and enrolled among the acts of the United States in Con- gress assembled.'
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" The United States having thus secured title to the 'Great North- west,' Congress soon decmed it advisable to take the preliminary steps looking to the permanent establishment of civil government in the new and extensive territory of which that body had just become the legal custodian. Accordingly, after much mature deliberation and careful consideration of the subject, as well as prolonged discussion of the important questions involved, they, on the 13th of July, 1787, gave to the world the results of their deliberations in 'An ordinance for the government of the Territory of the United States North- west of the river Ohio,' which has come to be best known as 'The Ordinance of '87,' sometimes also called 'The Ordinance of Free- dom.' Said ordinance was the fundamental law, the Constitution, so to speak, of the great Northwest, upon which were based, and with which harmonized, all our territorial enactments, as well as all our subsequent State legislation, and, moreover, it is to that wise, states- manlike document that we are indebted for much of our prosperity and greatness.
PROBABLE NUMBER AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE POPULATION IN 1787.
" Up to the time of the passage of the above ordinance there had been no permanent settlements by white men established upon terri- tory embraced within the boundaries given to the Northwest Territory, except the few French villages and their immediate vicinities, in the western and northwestern portions of it. If any such existed within the present limits of Ohio, they must have been situated along the
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Maumee River, and were of small extent. The Government had hitherto, for the sake of peace, discouraged, and by military force prevented, all attempts of white settlers to occupy lands belonging to the Indians. The chief of those French villages were Detroit, on the Detroit River; St. Vincents, on the Wabash; Cahokia, five miles below St. Louis ; St. Philip, forty-eight miles below St. Louis, on the Mississippi ; Kaskaskia, on Kaskaskia River, six miles above its mouth, which empties into the Mississippi seventy-five miles below St Louis ; Prairie-du-Rocher, near Fort Chartres; and Fort Chartres, fifteen miles northwest from Kaskaskia. These were all small settlements or villages, whose aggregate inhabitants probably did not exceed three thousand.
" The inhabitants of these remote settlements in the wilderness and on the prairies, says a late writer, 'were of a peculiar character. Their intercourse with the Indians, and their seclusion from the world, developed among them peculiar characteristics. They assimilated themselves with the Indians, adopted their habits, and almost uni- formly lived in harmony with them. They were illiterate, careless, contented, but without much industry, energy, or foresight. Some were hunters, trappers, and anglers, while others run birch-bark canoes by way of carrying on a small internal trade, and still others cultivated the soil. The traders, or voyageurs, were men fond of adventure, and of a wild, unrestrained, Indian sort of life, and would ascend many of the long rivers of the West almost to their sources in their birch-bark canoes, and load them with furs bought of the Indians. The canoes were light, and could easily be carried across the portages between streams.'
" There was attached to these French villages a 'common field,' for the free use of the villagers, every family, in proportion to the num- ber of its members, being entitled to share in it. It was a large inclosed tract for farming purposes. There was also at each village a ' common,' or large inclosed tract, for pasturage and fuel purposes, and timber for building. If a head of a family was sick, or by any casualty was unable to labor, his portion of the 'common field' was cultivated by his neighbors, and the crop gathered for the use of his family. 'The French villagers,' says the author of Western Annals, ' were devout Catholics, who, under the guidance of their priests, attended punctually upon all holidays and festivals, and performed faithfully all the outward duties and ceremonies of the church. Aside from this, their religion was blended with their social feelings. Sun- day, after mass, was the especial occasion for their games and assem-
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
blies. The dance was the popular amusement with them, and all classes, ages, sexes, and conditions, united by a common love of enjoy- ment, met together to participate in the exciting pleasure. They were indifferent about the acquisition of property for themselves or their children. Living in a fruitful country, which, moreover, abounded in fish and game, and where the necessaries of life could be procured with little labor, they were content to live in unambitious peace, and comfortable poverty .. Their agriculture was rude, their houses were humble, and they cultivated grain, also fruits and flowers ; bur they lived on from generation to generation without much change or improvement. In some instances they intermarried with the sur- rounding Indian tribes.'
" Most of these far-off western villages were protected by military posts, and some of them (notably Detroit, which for months had suc- cessfully resisted, in 1763, when in possession of the English, the attacks of the great Pontiac) had realized something of the ‘pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war.' The morning guns of these forts had sounded the merry reveille upon the early breeze, waking the slumbering echoes of the forests, daily, for a century or more ; the boom of their loud mid-day cannon across the broad prairies, and its reverberations from the cliffs beyond, had been heard for genera- tions ; and their evening bugle had wailed plaintively its long-drawn, melancholy notes along the shores of the 'Father of Waters'-the mighty river of the West-for more than a hundred years before the adoption of 'freedom's ordinance.'
ORGANIZATION OF THE OHIO LAND COMPANY.
" While Congress had under consideration the measure for the organization of a territorial government north-west of the Ohio River, the preliminary steps were taken in Massachusetts towards the forma- tion of the Ohio Land Company, for the purpose of making a pur- chase of a large tract of land in said Territory, and settling upon it.
1 Upon the passage of the ordinance by Congress, the aforesaid land company perfected its organization, and by its agents, Rev. Manas- seh Cutler and Major Winthrop Sargent, made application to the Board of Treasury, July 27, 1787, to become purchasers, said board having been authorized four days defore to make sales. The pur- chase, which was perfected October 27, 1787, embraced 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
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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 as every twenty-ninth section, dedicated to the support of religious institutions ; also sections eight, eleven and twenty-six, which were reserved for the United States, for future sale. After these deduc- tions were made, and that for donation lands, there remained only nine hundred and sixty-four thousand two hundred and eighty-five acres to be paid for by the Ohio Land Company, and for which pat- ents were issued.
"At a meeting of the directors of the company, held November 23, 1787, General Rufus Putnam was chosen superintendent of the company, and he accepted the position. Early in December six boat builders and a number of other mechanics were sent forward to Sim- rall's Ferry (now West Newton), on the Youghiogheny River, under the command of Major Haffield White, where they arrived in Jan- uary, and at once proceeded to build a boat for the use of the com- pany. Colonel Ebenezer Sproat, of Rhode Island, Anselm Tupper and John Matthews, of Massachusetts, and Colonel Return J. Meigs, of Connecticut, were appointed surveyors. Preliminary steps were also taken at this meeting to secure a teacher and chaplain, which resulted in the appointment of Rev. Daniel Story, who some time during the next year arrived at the mouth of the Muskingum, in the capacity of the first missionary and teacher from New England.
" Early in the winter the remainder of the pioneers, with the sur- veyors, left their New England homes and started on their toilsome journey to the western wilderness. They passed on over the Alleghanies, and reached the Youghiogheny about the middle of February, where they rejoined their companions who had preceded them.
" The boat, called the ' Mayflower,' that was to transport the pioneers to their destination, was forty-five feet long, twelve feet wide, and fifty tons burden, and was placed under the command of Captain 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 sav- ages while floating down towards 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 Youghiogheny into the Monongahela, and thence into the Ohio, and down said river to the mouth of the Muskingum,
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
where they arrived April 7, and then and there made the first perma- nent settlement of civilized men within the present limits of Ohio. These bold adventurers were reinforced by another company from Massachusetts, who, after a nine weeks' journey, arrived early in July, 1788.
" Many of these Yankee colonists had been officers and soldiers in the Revolutionary army, and were, for the most part, men of intelli- gence and character, and of sound judgment and ability. In short, they were just the kind of men to found a State in the wilderness. They posssessed great energy of character, were enterprising, fond of adventure and daring, and were not to be intimidated by the formid- able 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 expe- rience 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 establishi American laws, American institutions, and American civilization in this wilderness of the uncivilized west. If any State in our American Union ever had a better start in its incipient settlement than Olio, I am not aware of it. General Washington, writing of these bold pioneers, said that 'no colony in America was ever settled under such favorable auspices as that which has just commenced at the Musk- ingum. 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 acquaintance with Generals Putnam and Parsons, and with Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs, and probably with many other leading members of this pioneer colony, his favorable opinion of them is entitled to great weight.
THE FIRST SETTLEMENT UNDER THE ORDINANCE OF 1787.
Of course no time was lost by the colonists in erecting their habita- tations, as well as in building a stockade fort, and in 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 Musk-
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A SKETCH OF THE
ingum rivers, just opposite and across the Muskingum from Fort Harmar, built in 1786, and at this time garrisoned by a small military force under command of Major 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 Antoinette, Queen of France.
SURVEYS AND GRANTS OF THE PUBLIC LANDS.
" The first survey of 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, running due west from the point where the western boundary line of Pennsylvania crosses the Ohio river; thence due south to the Ohio river, at the southeast corner of Marietta township, in Washington county ; thence up said river to the place of beginning. The present counties of Jefferson, Columbiana, 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 23, 1785, though the contract was not completed with the Ohio Company until October 27, 1787. Mention of its extent, also the conditions, reservations, and circumstances attending the purchase, have already been given. One hundred thousand acres of this tract, called donation lands, were reserved upon certain conditions as a free gift to actual settlers. Por- tions 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 on the north and west of it, and was made soon after the fore- going. The 'Symmes purchase' embraced the entire Ohio River front between the Big Miami and Little Miami Rivers, a distance of twenty-seven miles, and reaching northwards a sufficient distance to include an area of one million of acres. The contract with Judge Symmes, made in October, 1785, 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, so as to amount to only 311,682 acres, exclusive of a reservation of fifteen arres around Fort Washington, of a square mile at the mouth of the
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
Great Miami, of sections 16 and 29 in each township, the former of which Congress had reserved for educational and the latter for religious 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 United States to such persons (Virginians) as had rendered service on the continental establishment in the army of the United States (hence the name), and in the quantities to which they were entitled, according to the provisions of an act of Congress of August 10, 1790. ' It embraces a body of 6,750 square miles, or 4,204,000 acres of land. The following counties are situated in this tract, namely: Adams, Brown, Clermont, Clinton, Fayette, Highland, Madison, and Union entirely ; and greater or less portions of the following, to wit : Marion, Delaware, Franklin, Pickaway, Ross, Pike, Scioto, Warren, Greene, Clarke, 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 Reserve'), by deed of cession bearing date of September 14, 1786 ; and in May, 1800, by act of the Legislature of said State, renounced all jurisdictional claim to the 'territory called the Western Reserve of Connecticut.' 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 one hundred and twenty miles long, and lying west of the Pennsylvania State line, all situated between forty-one degrees of north latitude and forty-two degrees and two minutes. Half a million of acres of the foregoing lands were set apart by the State of Connecticut in 1792 as a donation to the sufferers by fire (during the revolutionary war) of the residents of Greenwich, New London, Norwalk, Fairfield, Danbury, New Haven, 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 Reserve 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.
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