USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, together with historic notes on the northwest and the state of Ohio > Part 15
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Governor-General Arthur St. Clair, served from 1788 to 1802.
Secretaries-Winthrop Sargent, served from 1788 to 1798; William H. Harrison, served from 1798 to 1799; Charles Willing Byrd, served from 1799 to 1803.
"The latter gentleman was also acting Governor during the closing months of the Territorial government, Governor St. Clair having been removed from office, in 1802, by President Jefferson.
' Treasurer-John Armstrong, served from 1792 to 1803.
Territorial Delegates in Congress-William H. Harrison, served from 1799 to 1800; William McMillan, served from 1800 to 1801; Paul Fearing, served from 1801 to 1803.
"Territorial Judges .- James Mitchell Varnum, Samuel Holden Parsons, and John Armstrong were appointed Judges for the North- west Territory, by Congress, in October, 1787; the latter, however, declined, and John Cleves Symmes was appointed to the vacancy in February, 1788, and he accepted.
"Judge Varnum died in January, 1789, and William Barton was appointed his successor, but declined the appointment ; George Turner, however, in 1789, accepted it. On the 10th of November, 1789, Judge Parsons was drowned in attempting to cross Big Beaver Creek, and Rufus Putnam became his successor, March 31, 1790. In 1796 he resigned, and Joseph Gilman succeeded him. The Territorial court was composed of three judges, two of whom constituted a quorum for judicial purposes, and also for the exercise of legislative functions, in co-operation with the Governor.
Names.
When appointed.
End of service.
·
James M. Varnum ..
October, 1787
January, 1789.
Samuel H. Parsons.
October, 1787
November 10, 1789. Refused to serve.
John .Armstrong.
October, 1787.
John C. Symmes
February, 1788.
William Barton
1789
Refused to serve.
George Turner.
1789
Rufus Putnam
March 81, 1790.
Served until 1796.
Joseph Gilman.
1796.
"Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr., was appointed (says Judge Burnet) after the first session of the Territorial Legislature, of which he was
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a member, and probably continued in office to the close of the Terri- torial government, but I have not been able to verify said conjecture.
THE INDIAN TRIBES OF THE UPPER OHIO.
" Nothing reliable or authentic is known of the various Indian tribes that occupied the territory that now constitutes the State of Ohio from the time of the departure or disappearance of the Mound- Builders until the closing years of the first half of the eighteenth century. Their history, therefore, anterior to the year 1750, is meager indeed. They had no annalist-no historian-and perhaps had made but little history worthy of record during many recurring generations, centuries, and ages. It is true that we have traditions running back to the year 1656, relating to the destruction by the Iroquois of the once powerful Eries, who inhabited the southern shores of Lake Erie, except a small remnant which ultimately intermingled with the Sene- cas; but I look upon them simply as unverified traditions, and nothing more. And equally unreliable and unauthenticated are many of the other numerous traditions of the Indian tribes which bear date before the middle of the last century.
" About the year A.D. 1750, or a little earlier, some accurate know- ledge of the Ohio Indians began to be acquired through the Indian traders operating among them, and from explorers; but little compar- atively, however, was known of them with the certainty of authentic history until after Colonel Bouquet's expedition to their towns on the Tuscarawas and Muskingum Rivers, in 1764. The intermediate period between those dates may therefore be regarded as the time of the inauguration of the historic epoch of the Ohio Indians, the principal tribes being the Wyandots (called Hurons by the French), the Dela- wares and the Shawanese (both of the Algonquin group), the Miamis (also called Twigtwees), the Mingos (an offshoot from the Iroquois or a fragment of the Six Nations), and the Ottawas and Chippewas.
"The Wyandots occupied the valleys and plains bordering on the Sandusky River, and some other points; the Delawares occupied the valleys of the Tuscarawas and Muskingum Rivers, and a few other places between the Ohio River and Lake Erie ; the Shawanese were found chiefly in the valleys of the Scioto and Mad Rivers, and at a few points on the Ohio River and elsewhere in small numbers ; the Miamis were the chief occupants of the valleys of the Little and Great Miami Rivers; the Mingos were in greatest force on the Ohio River about Mingo Bottom, below Steubenville, and at other points
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on said river-also on the Scioto River, and at a few places between the Ohio River and Lake Erie; the Ottawas occupied the valleys of the Maumee and Sandusky Rivers; and the Chippewas, small in numbers, were chiefly confined to the southern shores of Lake Erie. By the treaty of .Fort McIntosh, formed in 1785, the Otta- was, with the Wyandots and Delawares, were assigned to the northern section of what is now the State of Ohio, and west of the Cuyahoga River, having relinquished by the terms of said treaty whatever of claims they had to other portions of the territory that now constitutes our State.
TITLES TO OHIO-BY WHOM HELD-WHEN AND HOW ACQUIRED AND RELINQUISHED.
"The territory that now constitutes Ohio was first of all, so far as we can judge, in the full possession of the race of Mound-Builders; afterwards, (but still in pre-historic times,) its sole occupants and owners for some centuries were unquestionably those Indian tribes or nations already named, and probably the Eries and others that had been subjected to expulsion or extermination. They, as well as the Mound-Builders, held titles acquired probably by priority of discovery -by conquest-by occupancy, or possession. Possessory titles they might be appropriately styled.
"It is stated by. Parkman, and probably by other accredited his- torians, that the adventurous La Salle in 1670, accompanied by a few heroic followers, passed from Lake Erie south, over the portage into the Allegheny River, perhaps by the way of one of its numerous tributaries, and from thence down into the Ohio, which they descended as far as the "Falls" of said river (at Louisville) ; and that they were therefore the first white men-the first of European birth-to enter upon the soil of Ohio; the first civilized men to discover and explore the territory that constitutes our now populous State. It must be admitted that some shades of doubt rest upon the foregoing proble- matical expedition of the distinguished Frenchman (Robert Cavelier La Salle), but whether he voyaged down the Ohio or not at the time named, his name must ever be identified with our State as one of its earliest explorers, if not its discoverer, so far as the white race is con- cerned, as will be made apparent in the following paragraphs. In 1679, the intrepid explorer, La Salle, accompanied by thirty. four Frenchmen, sailed along the entire length of the southern shore of Lake Erie in the "Griffin," a vessel of about sixty tons burthen, which
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he had built in the Niagara River above the "Falls," and which was the first vessel that ever unfurled a sail on said lake, or upon any waters within the present limits of Ohio.
" Again, in 1682, La Salle descended the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers to the mouth of the latter; and in' 1684 he sailed past the mouth of the Mississippi (which he intended to enter, but failed), and along the Gulf of Mexico to some point on the coast of Texas, and landing there, became its discoverer. And it is upon these three last named voyages, and upon the provisions of some European treaties, more than upon the somewhat doubtful and uncertain voyage of dis- covery by La Salle down the Ohio River to the 'Falls' in 1670, that France rested her title, claiming that the Upper Valley of the Ohio (at least the portion northwest of the Ohio River) was a part of Louisiana, thus acquired by La Salle for France, and held by said power by right of discovery and possession. There was, of course, little controversy between Great Britain and France as to title north- west of the Ohio River, before the formation of the Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, when and by which certain matters in dispute between those governments were adjusted. And France not only asserted ownership and held possession of the territory that now constitutes Ohio, from the time of the Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, until the Treaty of Paris, in 1763, by which peace was established between France and England, but also exercised authority therein and maintained control over it by military force. And this, too, in defiance of titles set up by Great Britain, one of which being based upon treaties with the Iroquois or Six Nations of Indians, who claimed to have conquered the whole country from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, and from the lakes to Carolina, and hence were its owners and authorized to dispose of it.
"By conquest and treaty stipulations, Great Britain came into pos- session in 1763, and substantially retained it until the close of our Revolutionary war, when, by the treaty of peace concluded at Paris in 1783, and ratified by the American Congress in January, 1784, ownership was vested in the government of the United States, which, in October, 1784, by the terms of the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, extin- guished the title of the Six Nations to the Ohio Valley, and which, from time to time, by treaties concluded at various times and places, as given in my paper of last year, extinguished all other Indian titles, and thus acquired full right to the soil, and complete and undisputed territorial jurisdiction. By the treaties of Forts McIntosh and Finney alone, held respectively in January, 1785 and 1786, all Indian titles to Ohio territory were extinguished, except that portion situated
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chiefly between the Cuyahoga and Maumee Rivers, as will be seen by reference to my paper in last year's volume of 'Ohio Statistics,' and which also gives the dates of the subsequent relinquishment of Indian titles.
"New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, after the ratification of the treaty of peace, in 1784, between Great Britain and the United States, and for some time before, had asserted claims to portions of the territory now composing the State of Ohio, and Virginia claimed title to the whole of it and much more, even to the entire extent of the 'territory northwest of the river Ohio,' organized four years thereafter. Virginia had asserted ownership, and exercised a nominal jurisdiction over the territory of our State, by establishing the county of Botetourt, in 1769, whose western boundary was the Mississippi River. That State's claim was founded, as heretofore stated, upon certain charters granted to the Colony of Virginia by James the First, bearing dates respectively, April 10, 1606; May 23, 1609; and March 12, 1611 ; also, upon the conquest of the country, between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and the northern lakes, by General George Rogers Clark, in 1778-79. But whatever the claim was founded upon, the State Legislature waived all title and ownership to it (except to the Virginia Military District), and all authority over it, by direct- ing the Representatives of said State (Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Hardy, Arthur Lee, and James Monroe) to cede to the United States all right, title, and claim, as well of soil as of jurisdiction, with the exception named, 'to the territory of said State lying and being to the northwest of the River Ohio;' which was accordingly done, March 1, 1784.
" The charter of Massachusetts, upon which that State's title was based, was granted within less than twenty-five years after the arrival of the Mayflower; and that of Connecticut, bearing date March 19' 1631, both embracing territory extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific; and that of New York, obtained from Charles the Second, on March 2, 1664, included territory that had been previously granted to Massachusetts and Connecticut ; hence, the conflict of claims between those States, their several charters covering, to some extent, the same territory ; and hence, also, their contest with Virginia as to a portion of the soil of Ohio. Probably the titles of some or all of the aforesaid contesting States were in some way affected by the pro. visions of treaties with the Iroquois, or by the fact of their recognition by them, as appendants of the government of New York.
"New York's deed of cession was favorably reported upon by a
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committee of Congress, May 1, 1782; and by like acts of patriotism, magnanimity, and generosity to those of New York and Virginia, Massachusetts and Connecticut soon followed by similar acts of relin- quishment of title, or by corresponding deeds of cession to the United States. The Legislature of Massachusetts, on the 13th day of Novem- ber, 1784, authorized her delegates in Congress to cede the title of that State to all the territory west of the western boundary of the State of New York, to the United States, and the measure was con- summated in 1785.
" Connecticut, in September, 1786, ceded all her claim to soil and jurisdiction west of what is now known as the Western Reserve, to the United States. Five hundred thousand acres of the western por- tion of the Western Reserve was set apart for the relief of the Con- necticut sufferers by fire during the Revolution, since known as the 'Firelands,' the Indian title to which was extinguished by the treaty of Fort Industry (now Toledo), in 1805, Charles Jouett being the United States Commissioner, and the Chiefs of the Shawnees, Dela- wares, Wyandots, Chippewas, Ottawas, and some minor tribes repre- senting the interests of the Indians. The remainder of the Western Reserve tract, amounting to about three millions of acres, was sold, and the proceeds dedicated to educational purposes, and has served as the basis of Connecticut's common school fund, now aggregating upwards of two millions of dollars. Jurisdictional claim to the Western Reserve was ceded by Connecticut to the United States, May 30, 1801.
EARLY-TIME WHITE MEN IN OHIO.
" As early as 1680 the French had a trading station on the Maumee River, a few miles above the present city of Toledo, near where Fort Miami was erected in 1794; and Bancroft, the historian, asserts that a route from Canada to the Mississippi River, by way of the Maumee, Wabash, and Ohio Rivers, was established by the French in 1716. A little later a route was established from Presque Isle, now Erie, on Lake Erie, to French Creek, and thence down the Alleghany and Ohio Rivers. Vague traditions have been handed down of the establish- ment of trading posts upon the Ohio, by Englishmen, as early as 1730. In 1742 John Howard crossed the mountains from Virginia, and descending the Ohio in a canoe, was captured, somewhere on his voy- age by the French. In 1748 Conrad Weiser, a German of Heren- berg, who (says the author of 'Western Annals') had in early life
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acquired a knowledge of the Mohawk tongue, was sent to the Shaw- nees on the Ohio as an ambassador, and held a conference with them at Logstown, on the Ohio River, seventeen miles below the 'Forks of the Ohio" (now Pittsburgh), but it is not quite certain that he came within the present limits of Ohio, though it is probable.
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"In 1750, Christopher Gist, an agent of the 'Ohio Land Company,' which had been organized in 1748 by the Washingtons, one or two of the Lees, and other Virginians, and some Englishmen, came over the mountains from Virginia, and crossing the Ohio at or below the ' Forks' (now Pittsburgh), passed over to the Tuscarawas River, which he descended to its junction with the Walhonding. From thence he traveled down the Muskingum, following an Indian trail, to the mouth of the Wakatomika (now Dresden, Muskingum county), where there was an Indian town. He then followed the Indian trail across the Licking River to King Beaver's town, situated on the head waters of the Hockhocking River, about equi-distant from the present cities of Lancaster and Columbus. The trail he followed must have led him near the 'Big Lake,' as the Indians called it, now the 'Reservoir,' a famous fishing resort, situated in the counties of Licking, Fairfield, and Perry. In this exploring expedition Gist was joined at the Wal- honding by George Croghan, and probably by Andrew Montour, a half-breed, son of a Seneca chief, who often acted as an interpreter between the whites and Indians. They crossed the Scioto and trav- eled on to the Great Miami, which Gist descended to the Ohio, and voyaged down said stream to a point fifteen miles above the 'Falls,' from whence he traveled through Kentucky to his home in Virginia, where he arrived in May, 1751.
"Croghan and Montour were the bearers of liberal presents from Pennsylvania to the Miamis, who, in return, granted the right to. the English to build a strong trading-house or stockade on the Miami River, at the entrance of Loramie's Creek into said stream, in the present county of Miami, and which was accordingly erected and called Pickawillany, and has been called by some historians 'the first point of English settlement ir. Ohio,' and 'a place of historic interest.' The presents were made on behalf of Pennsylvania, and the reciprocal favor secured, it was believed, would largely benefit the Indian traders there and in 'the regions round about,' who' were principally Pennsylvanians. The Pickawillany stockade was doubtless the first edifice erected upon Ohio's territory by English-speaking people; but it was of brief duration, for in June, 1752, a force of French, Cana- dians, and Indians (Chippewas and Ottawas) attacked and destroyed
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it, capturing or killing all the traders but two-fourteen of its defend- ers, chiefly Miamis, being killed in the action; a number also being wounded. I transcribe, from a long list of names in Captain Trent's journal, a few of those who traded at this post with the Indians between the years 1745 and 1753, as follows: Peter Chartier, Conrad Weiser, Thomas McGee, George Croghan, James Denny, Robert Callender, George Gibson, James Lowry, Michael Cresap, Sr., Chris- topher Gist, Jacob Piatt, William Trent, John Findlay, David Hen- dricks, John Trotter, William Campbell, Thomas Mitchell, William West, and others.
" Before 1745 the traders among the Ohio Indians were principally Frenchmen, but about this time Pennsylvanians and Virginians entered into that business in augmented numbers, and continued in it persistently, while the French gradually relinquished it ; and after the capture of Fort Du Quesne, in 1758, the English also acquired a foot- hold as traders in the Upper Ohio Valley, and retained it until the peace of 1783-4.
" George Croghan, with a retinne of deputies of the Senecas, Shaw- anese, and Delawares, passed down the Ohio River. in two bateaux from Fort Pitt to the mouth of the Wabash in 1765.
"It is also well known to persons familiar with our history, that George Washington came to Fort Pitt in 1770, and, with William Crawford, Dr. Craik, and a few other chosen friends, and two Indians, three servants, some boatmen, and an interpreter, voyaged down the Ohio River to the mouth of the Kanawha, and fourteen miles up said stream, and, after some buffalo shooting and hunting generally, but mainly after extensive explorations with a view to the selection and ultimate location of lands, returned by way of the Ohio to Fort Pitt. From the journal of Washington, a copy of which is now before me, it appears that they lodged one night in the camp of Kiashuta, an Indian chief of the Six Nations, near the mouth of the Hockhock- ing River. Washington and Crawford also took a short walk of eight miles across the 'Big Bend,' now in Meigs county, while their canoes were being paddled around the bend, on their return voyage.
" Rev. David Jones (the Chaplain Jones of revolutionary fame) also made a voyage down the Ohio and up the Scioto to the " Old Chillicothe " Indian towns, thence across the Licking to the missionary stations on the Tuscarawas, and from thence to Fort Pitt and home, in 1772-3, making the journey from the Indian towns on the Scioto on horseback, in company with a Pennsylvania Indian trader named David Duncan.
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" And, lastly, I mention a voyage made down the Ohio River in the autumn of 1785, from Fort Pitt to the mouth of the Great Miami, by Gen. Richard Butler, Gen. S. H. Parsons, Col. James Monroe, Major Finney, Isaac Zane, Col. Lewis, and others, who were then, or subse- quently became, men of note.
THE EARLIEST ENGLISH MILITARY EXPEDITIONS ON LAKE ERIE.
"After the conquest of Canada by the English, in 1759-60, General Amherst, with a view to the establishment of English authority over the uncivilized regions of the west, organized an expedition under command of Major Rogers, who, on the 12th of September, 1760, received orders 'to ascend the lakes and take possession of the French forts in the northwest.' This expedition, consisting of about two hundred men, coasted along the southern shore of Lake Erie, arrived at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River on the 7th of November, and were probably the first English-speaking people that, in any consider- able numbers, sailed upon it. The expedition sailed up the lake and on to Detroit, and there, on the 20th of said month, 'took down the colors of France and raised the royal standard of England.' In December, Major Rogers left the Maumee, and after reaching San- dusky Bay, (now Sandusky City,) he decided to cross the Huron River and travel to ' Fort Pitt' by way of the north branch of the White- woman's River (now called Walhonding), which he did, arriving there January 23, 1761.
"The second expedition that came within Ohio territory, was organ- ized at Albany, on the Hudson River, in 1763, by General Amherst, and consisted of six hundred British regulars placed under the imme- diate command of Major Wilkins. In ascending Lake Erie a violent : storm was encountered, and a number of the vessels of the expedition were wrecked, losing fifty barrels of provisions, some field pieces, all their ammunition, and seventy-three men, including two lieutenants and a surgeon. The remnant returned to Albany without a further attempt to reach Detroit, the objective point of the expedition.
MORAVIAN MISSIONARY STATIONS.
"In 1761, Rev. Christian Frederick Post visited the Delaware Indians, living on the Upper Muskingum River, and took the prelim- inary steps to establish a Moravian missionary station among them. After building a cabin he went to Pennsylvania to find a suitable associate, one qualified to teach the Indian children to read and write,
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and thus assist him in his missionary labors. This companion he found in John Heckewelder, of Bethlehem, who was then engaged at some mechanical employment. In March, 1762, they started for their western mission, Heckewelder being then a youth of only nineteen years. After thirty-three days of weary horse-back travel, they arrived at the Muskingum, (now called the Tuscarawas) and with expressions of gratitude for their protection during their long and perilous journey, they at once took possession of the cabin built by the self-sacrificing missionary the preceding year. Other appropriate devotional exercises signalized their safe arrival in the wilderness of the Muskingum, which, however, was then to be the scene of their missionary operations for a very brief period. They cleared some ground around their cabin and cultivated corn and vegetables for their subsistence, but before the autumn months had gone by, the jealousy and hostility of the Indians rendered their condition not only unpleas- ant but unsafe, and the mission had to be abandoned, the missionaries returning to Pennsylvania.
"Ten years later (1772), Rev. David Zeisberger renewed the attempt to establish missions on the Upper Muskingum. The first settlement, station, or village, that he founded was called Shönbrun, meaning a 'beautiful, clear spring,' and was situated on the west side of the Muskingum, two or three miles from the present town of New Philadelphia, the county seat of Tuscarawas county. The second mission station was established later in the year 1772, and was called Gnadenhütten, that is, 'tents of grace,' and was situated on the east bank of the Muskingum, seven miles below Shonbrun. In this year Rev. John George Jungman located as a missionary at Shönbrun, and in 1773 Rev. John Roth, also a missionary, commenced his labors at Gnadenhütten.
" In 1776, the Moravians, under the lead of Rev. David Zeisberger, established the town and mission station of Lichtenau, within two miles of the 'Forks of the Muskingum' (now Coshocton); and in 1780, Salem, situated on the west bank of the Muskingum, about five miles below Gnadenhütten, was established under the leadership of the same indefatigable missionary. Rev. John Heckewelder was its early minister, and it was here where, in July, 1780, he entered into the married relation with Sarah Ohneberg, a teacher at the Muskingum mission stations. Revs. Adam Grube, Edwards, Sense- man, and others, were missionaries at the above named villages at various times.
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