USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, together with historic notes on the northwest and the state of Ohio > Part 19
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In 1S22 the subject was referred to a committee of the House, and its feasibility having been strongly urged, James Geddes, of New York, a skilful and experienced engineer, was employed to make the preliminary examination and surveys.
After all the routes had been surveyed, and the proper estimates laid before the legislature, that body passed an act, February, 1825, providing "for the internal improvement of the State by navigable canals." Immediately after, the State carried out the provisions of the act, in excavating the present canal, which has been of so great value to her commercial interests.
On the 4th of February, also, in 1825, the same act authorized the making of a canal from Cincinnati to Dayton, and the creation of a canal fund; the vote in the House being fifty-eight to thirteen; in
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the Senate, thirty-four to two. On the following day, an act was passed providing for a system of Common Schools.
During the previous year, the Miami University was established at Oxford, Butler county, Ohio, deriving its endowment from a township of land six miles square in the northwest corner of Butler county, which had been located there in lieu of a township originally granted by the United States, for the endowment of an institution of learning, in Symmes's purchase between the Miamis.
The Black Hawk war of 1832, being local in nature, caused no serious perturbation in the State worthy of note.
During the years 1836 and 1837, serious apprehensions of a civil war were felt, arising out of the disputed southern boundary of Michi- gan. The ordinance of 1787 provided that three States should be formed out of the northwest territory, also giving Congress the power `to form one or two others north of an east and west line through the head or southern extremity of Lake Michigan. This, at the time Ohio was admitted, was construed to mean that the two said States were not to extend south of the east and west line thus specified, which would include Maumee Bay in Ohio.
Michigan disputed this construction, and when Ohio sent surveyors to fix the line as thus defined, the Michigan territorial authorities organizea an armed force, and drove them out, and stationed a military party on the ground.
Commissioners were sent by the President to the disaffected parties, urging them to await a decision by the proper tribunal; and when Michigan sought admission into the Union, she was required to recognize the boundary as claimed by Ohio, which she finally did.
In 1837 and 1838, a rupture between the United States and Great Britain was threatened by a revolutionary movement in Canada. Among the States that gave aid and sympathy to this movement, was Ohio, who sent a regiment under the command of Lucius V. Bierce, of Akron, which engaged the provincial militia in a severe fight, and eventually cut their way through Windsor, and escaped to Detroit.
In 1839, W. II. Harrison was nominated on the whig ticket, and in the summer and autumn of 1840, a very exciting canvass ensued. It was assumed that inasmuch as Gen. Harrison was an old pioneer, and lived in a pioneer structure, that his latch string was always hanging out, and that a perennial stream of hard cider flowed for all who might apply. As a natural result there was a lively log cabin and hard cider emigration to his home, and much consumption of spir- ituous liquors, dissipation and drunkenness.
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POLITICAL HISTORY OF OHIO.
No important events in the history of the State occurred till the second constitutional convention in 1850 and 1851, which, among other things, provided for the election of a lieutenant-governor.
At about this time Ohio had assumed the third rank in the Union. Her population in 1830, numbered 937,903; in 1850, 1,980,329; in 1860, nothwithstanding a vast emigration to the west and Oregon, it was 2,343,739. Agriculture and manufacturing industries were in the highest state of prosperity; free schools gave to every child the means of an education, and this was the prosperous condition of Ohio when Abraham Lincoln was elected President.
In 1861, the seeds of rebellion sown by John C. Calhoun, sprang up and deluged our country with a civil war the most devastating that had ever torn through the entrails of any nation on earth. Through the . almost prophetic foresight of Gov. S. P. Chase, the militia of Ohio, which had long previously been neglected, were reorganized, and the old rusty cannon only used for Fourth of July celebrations, was brought into requisition, and the small arms were brightened up, and in the face of jeering opposition, companies were recruited and drilled in the cities and towns; and before his second term expired, he had the pleasure of reviewing at Dayton, about thirty companies from different parts of the State, which maintained their organization until consoli- dated into the First regiment in 1861, participating in the war which followed. As a natural sequence, the militia of Ohio were superior to that of all other States.
Prior to the fall of Sumpter and the insult offered to our country's flag, much political difference existed ; but the blood of Sumpter dis solved all factions, and with few exceptions connected all in patriotism. On April 18, 1861, a bill was passed by a unanimous vote of ninety- nine, appropriating $500,000 to carry into effect the requisition of the President. Said sum to be borrowed, and the bonds of the State free from tax and drawing ten per cent interest to be given therefor. Varions bills were passed, viz : Declaring the property of volunteers free from execution for debt during their term of service. Any resi- dent of the State giving aid and comfort to the enemy, guilty of treason, to be punished by imprisonment for life, etc. The whole State militia was organized. Arms or munitions of war were prohibi- ted from passing through Ohio to any of the disaffected States. The legislature of 1861 nobly met the extraordinary exigencies imposed upon it, and for patriotism, zeal, and cool judgment, proved itself fully the equal of its successors.
In summing up the part taken by Ohio in the war, we can substi-
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tute nothing better than the language of Whitelaw Reid : When Lee surrendered at Appomatox Ohio had two hundred regiments of all arms in the national service.
In the course of the war she had furnished two hundred and thirty reg- iments, besides twenty-six independent batteries of artillery, five inde- pendent companies of cavalry, several companies of sharpshooters, large parts of five regiments credited to the West Virginia contingent, two regiments credited to the Kentucky contingent, two transferred to the United States colored troops, and a large portion of the rank and file of the Fifty-fourth and Sixty-fifth Massachusetts colored. Of these, twenty-three were infantry regiments, furnished on the first call of the President, being an excess of nearly one-half over the State's quota. One hundred and ninety-one were infantry regiments, fur- nished to subsequent calls of the President, one hundred and seven- . teen of them for three years, twenty-seven for one year, two for six months, two for three months, and forty-two for one hundred days; thirteen were cavalry, and three artillery regiments for three years; and of these, over 20,000 re-enlisted as veterans at the end of their long term of service to fight till the close of the war. As original mem- bers of, or recruits for, these organizations, Ohio furnished for the National service the magnificent army of 310,654 soldiers. As com- parison, we may say that the older State of Pennsylvania gave only 28,000 more, Illinois 48,000 less, Indiana 116,000 less, and Kentucky 235,000, while Massachusetts was 164,000 less.
Al through the war Ohio responded in excess to every call, and we may repeat with pride the words of her war governor: "If Ken- tucky refuses to fill her quota, Ohio will fill it for her."
Of these troops, 11,237 were killed or mortally wounded in action, 6,563 of whom were left dead on the field of battle. Within forty-eight hours after the telegraphic call of the President in April, 1861, two Ohio regiments were on their way to Washington. An Ohio brigade, in good order, covered the retreat from the first battle of Bull Run. Ohio troops formed the bulk of the army that saved to the Union what subsequently became West Virginia. Also she took the same active part in preventing the secession of Kentucky, the same at Fort Donaldson, Island No. 10, Stone River, Chickamauga, Mission Ridge, Atlanta, Fort McAllister, to the sea, and through the Carolinas and Virginia. They fought at Pea Ridge, charged at Wag- ner, helped to redeem North Carolina; laid siege to Vicksburg, Charleston, Richmond and Mobile; at Pittsburg Landing, Antietam, Gettysburg, in the Wilderness, Five Forks, in front of Nashville and
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Appomattox Court House, and Corinth ; " their bones reposing on the fields they won, are a perpetual pledge that no flag shall ever wave over their graves but the flag they died to maintain." Their sufferings, their death, will ever be cherished and remembered by their grateful countrymen ; and, as evidences of the veneration in which they are held, we behold the beautiful Home, near Dayton, and the Asylum near Xenia.
Since the war Ohio has steadily advanced in agriculture, manufac- turing, and in all commercial directions. Politically she stands in the front ranks, and in the production of Presidents, her soil seems as prolific as the Old Dominion. The Mediterranean State in geograph- ical position, her advantages are fast making her the leading State in our glorious Union.
EARLY LAWS IN OHIO.
To those who complain of the rigidity of the present law of our State, a glance at some of the punishments inflicted in "ye olden times " for petty offenses will soon dispel any such idea.
In those times, when the present State was governed by the Terri- torial laws, the court house yards were invariably ornamented with the pillory, stocks and whipping-post. The first law for whipping was made by Governor St. Clair and Judges Parsons and Varnum at Marietta, September 6, 1787, which provided that in case a mob were ordered to disperse, and refused so to do, each person, upon convic- tion, should be fined in a sum not exceeding three hundred dollars, and whipped not exceeding thirty-nine stripes, etc.
The same penalty was inflicted for burglary, and, where violence was used, forty years imprisonment and forfeiture of goods and realty.
For perjury, or refusing to be sworn, sixty dollars fine, thirty-nine stripes, and sitting in the pillory two hours.
For forgery, sitting in the pillory three hours.
For arson, thirty-nine stripes, put in the pillory, confinement in the jail three years, and forfeiture of property, and in case death was caused by such crime the offender was punished with death.
If a child refuse to obey his or her parents, or master, on complaint shall be sent to the jail or house of correction until he or she, or they "shall humble themselves to the parent's or master's satisfaction ; and if any child shall strike his parent, he shall be whipped not exceeding ten stripes.
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For larceny, two-fold restitution, thirty-nine stripes, or seven years labor.
For drunkenness, first offense, five dimes, and one dollar for each " additional drunk," 'or sitting in the stocks one hour.
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HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
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This county, occupying a portion of the Virginia military reser- vation, reaches back in its political history into early colonial times, before the organization of the general government of the United States, and when all the territory northwest of the River Ohio, ex- tending west to the Mississippi, was claimed by Virginia.
In the years 1774 and 1775, before the Revolutionary War began, the thirteen colonies then existing, so far as their relations to one another were concerned, were separate, independent communities, having, to a considerable extent, different political organizations and different municipal laws; but their various population spoke, almost universally, the English language, and, as descendants from a common English stock, had a common interest and a common sympathy.
In the year 1773, on the 7th day of July, Dr. Benjamin Frank- lin, then in England, wrote an official letter to the Massachusetts Assembly, strongly urging a general assembly of the representa- tives of the people of all the colonies, that they might make such a declaration and assertion of their rights as would be recognized by the king and parliament of Great Britain. Pursuant to this advice a congress, called the First Continental Congress, assembled at Carpenter's Hall, in Philadelphia, on the 5th day of September, 1774, and remained in session until the 26th day of October, fol- lowing. A second Continental Congress met on the 10th day of May, 1775. This congress, styled also the revolutionary govern- ment, on the 4th day of July, 1776, published to the world the Declaration of Independence, and on the 15th day of November, 1777, agreed to articles of confederation and perpetual union be- tween the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Caro- lina, South Carolina, and Georgia.
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Article I. recited that "The style of this confederacy shall be The United States of America;" and Article II. that "Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every pow- er, jurisdiction and right, which is not by this confederation ex- pressly delegated to the United States in congress assembled." These articles of confederation, thirteen in number, which defined the powers and privileges of congress, and the rights of the several states, after their adoption by each state, constituted the supreme law until the adoption of the constitution in 1788. It was under this confederacy that the great discussions arose concerning the disposition of the public lands.
VIRGINIA.
The territory of Virginia, granted by the charters of King James I., was very extensive. The first charter authorized a company to plant a colony in America, anywhere between 34° and 41º north latitude, embracing about 100 miles of coast line, and extending back from the coast 100 miles, embracing also the islands opposite to the coast, and within 100 miles of it. The second charter grant- ed to the Virginia Company a much larger territory, extending from Old Point Comfort (a point of land extending into Chesa- peake Bay, a little to the north of the mouth of James River,) 200 miles north and 200 miles south, along the coast, and thence with a breadth of 400 miles, to the west and northwest, through the continent to the Pacific Ocean. The third charter added to this immense territory all the islands in both the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans, within 300 leagues of either coast. By the treaty of peace between France and Great Britain, in 1763, the Mississippi River was made the western boundary of the British provinces. Thus restricted, the territory of Virginia included all that territory now occupied by Pennsylvania, North and South Carolina, Kentucky, and all the land northwest of the River Ohio.
On the 29th day of June, 1776, just five days before the Declara- tion of Independence by the United States in congress assembled, Virginia adopted her constitution or form of government, in Arti- cle XXI of which she ceded the territories contained within the charters creating the colonies of Maryland, Pennsylvania, North and South Carolina, to those respective colonies, relinquishing all her rights to the same, except the right to the navigation of certain
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VIRGINIA.
rivers, and all improvements that had been or might be made along their shores. But this article affirms that "the western and north- ern extent of Virginia shall in other respects stand as fixed by the charter of King James I, in the year 1609, and by the published treaty of peace between the court of Great Britain and France, in the year 1763, unless, by act of legislature, one or more territories shall be laid off, and governments established west of the Alleg- heny mountains." The charter of King James I, referred to in this article, was the second charter, so that now, on the sea coast, Virginia was restricted to her present limits, but her western boundaries were unchanged. She claimed Kentucky, and all the northwestern territory.
Concerning this northwestern territory there were conflicting claims. New York claimed a portion of it. Massachusetts also asserted a separate claim, and Connecticut, by her grant from the council of Plymouth, in 1630, was to extend westward from the Atlantic Ocean to " the South Sea," or Pacific Ocean. This would take a large portion of the territory included under the Virginia charter. These conflicting claims were never adjusted between the states, but were finally settled, as will soon appear, by cession to the United States, in congress assembled.
In 1779 Virginia opened an office for the sale of her western lands. This attracted the attention of the other states, several of which regarded the vacant region in the west as a common fund for the future payment of the expenses of the war for independ- ence, in which the colonies had been engaged. This claim in be- half of the United States was asserted on the ground that the western lands had been the property of the crown. By the treaty of 1763, France had ceded to Great Britain all her possessions in North America, east of the Mississippi, and naturally these lands would fall, on the declaration of independence, to the oppo- nent of the crown, that is, to the United States in congress assem- bled, and not to individual states. It was contended, therefore, that it was manifestly unjust that a vast tract of unoccupied country, ac- quired by the common efforts and the common expense of the whole union, should be appropriated for the exclusive benefit of particular states, while others would be left to bear the unmitigated burdens of debt, contracted in securing that independence by which this immense acquisition was wrested from Great Britain. These sepa- rate claims by the several states were opposed by those states that
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made no pretentions to claims, and they served, in a great measure, for a time, to prevent the union under the articles of confederation.
On the 25th day of June, 1778, nearly one year before the open- ing of the Virginia land office, New Jersey made objection to the confederation, on the ground that the public lands now claimed by Virginia and other states, under ancient charters, should belong to the United States in common, that each separate state might de- rive a proportionate benefit therefrom.
Maryland instructed her delegates in congress not to sign the articles of confederation, unless an article or articles were added thereto, looking to a cession of the public lands.
The Council of the State of Delaware, on the 23d day of Janu- ary, 1779, before passing a law instructing their delegates in con- gress to sign the articles of confederation, resolved, that the state was justly entitled to a right in common with the other members of the union to that extensive tract of country westward of the frontier of the United States, which was acquired by the blood and trea- sure of all, and that it ought to be a common estate, to be granted out on terms beneficial to the United States.
Such were the vigorous protests against the union under the articles of confederation, while Virginia was left a vast empire . within the confederacy, a power as many supposed, dangerous to the liberties of the smaller states; and when Virginia opened her land office for the sale of her western lands the excitement became more intense. Congress, in opposition to the pretensions of all the states claiming lands, as the common head of the United States maintained its title to the western lands upon the solid ground, that a vacant territory, wrested from the com- mon enemy, by the united arms, and at the joint expense of all the states, ought of right to belong to congress, in trust for the common use and benefit of the whole union; hence she earnestly recommended to Virginia, and to all the states claiming vacant lands, to adopt no measures that would obstruct the final cession of such lands to congress. New York was the first to listen to the appeals of the complaining states, and to congress. On the 29th of February, 1780, she authorized her delegates in congress to restrict her western border by such lines as they should deem expedient, and on the 20th day of December, 1783, Virginia passed an act, authorizing her del- egates in congress to convey to the United States in Congress as- sembled, "all the right of this commonwealth to the territory
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VIRGINIA MILITARY SURVEY.
northwest of the River Ohio." In this act of cession she made the following reservation, viz .:
VIRGINIA MILITARY SURVEY.
"That a quantity not exceeding one hundred and fifty thousand acres of land, promised by this state, shall be allowed and granted to Gen. George Rodgers Clark, and to the officers and soldiers of his regiment to be laid off in such place on the northwest side of the Ohio as a majority of the officers shall choose, and to be afterwards divided among the said officers and soldiers in due proportion ac- cording to the laws of Virginia. That in case the quantity of good lands, on the south side of the Ohio, upon the waters of the Cum- berland River, and between the Green River and the Tennessee, which have been reserved by law for the Virginia troops, upon con- tinental establishment, should prove insufficient for their legal boun- ties, the deficiency should be made up to said troops in good lands, to be laid off between the Rivers Scioto and Little Miami, on the northwest side of the River Ohio, in such proportions as have been engaged to them by the laws of Virginia."
The land embraced in this reservation, between the Scioto and Little Miami Rivers, constitutes the Virginia Military District in Ohio. The district comprehends the entire counties of Adams, Brown, Clermont, Clinton, Highland, Fayette, Madison and Union; and a portion of the counties of Scioto, Pike, Ross, Pickaway, Franklin, Delaware, Marion, Hardin, Logan, Champaign, Clarke, Greene, Warren and Hamilton.
Although this cession and reservation was made in 1783, its defin- ite boundary was not determined until a decision of the Supreme Court was made in reference to it some time in 1824. The Scioto was the eastern line, and Virginia claimed the right to run the west- ern line of the tract direct from the source of the Scioto to the mouth of the Little Miami. Such a line would run considerably west of some parts of the Little Miami." The source of the Scioto is in the western part of Auglaize county, and a straight line drawn from this point to the mouth of the Little Miami would have run entire- ly west of Greene County, and would have included in the Military District, a portion of Auglaize, Shelby, Miami and Montgomery counties.
The Indian line established by the treaty of Greenville, between
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HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
the United States and certain Indian tribes, being a part of the boundary of this military district, it is quite important that it be described here. It begins at the mouth of the Cuyahoga and runs south, up that river through the portage between it and the Tusca- rawas, down the Tuscarawas to the northern line of Tuscarawas county at its middle point; thence west, bearing a little south, forming the northwestern line of this county to Holmes, passing through Holmes county, it forms the eastern part of the northern boundary of Knox. It then passes through the northwestern part of Knox, through the middle part of Morrow, the southern part of Marion, through Logan, forming the northern line of Lake and Har- rison townships, through Shelby county, forming the northern bound- ary of Salem township. From a point in the western part of Shelby county the line bears a little to the north of west, and extends through the southern part of Mercer county to Fort Recovery, in the west- ern part of the county; thence it extends in a straight line south, bearing west through the southeastern part of Indiana, to the Ohio River, at a point in Indiana opposite the mouth of the Kentucky river.
In May 1800, congress passed a law for the sale of lands in the western territory which were not included in the Virginia Military District, and in the execution of this law the Surveyor General caused a line to be run from the source of the Little Miami toward what he supposed to be the mouth of the Scioto, which is denominated Ludlow's line, and surveyed the lands west of that line into sec- tions as prescribed in the act of congress.
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