History of Hamilton County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 12

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp; Williams, L.A. & co., Cleveland, O., pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio, L. A. Williams
Number of Pages: 590

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THE MIAMI COUNTRY.

It was a beautiful land to which the Miami immigra- tion was invited-

A wilderness of sweets ; for Nature here Wantoned as in her prime, and played at will Her virgin fancies, pouring forth more sweet, Wild above rule or art ; the gentle gales,

Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole Those balmy spoils.

Judge Symmes had called it, with tolerably clear pre- science, "a country that may one day prove the brightest jewel in the regalia of the nation." The forest was lux- uriant, and fertile in native fruit products. The fine bot- tom lands in the valleys had been cultivated by the sav- ages, and by the Mound Builders before them, for untold centuries, and were found by the early settlers as mellow as ash heaps, and with their fertility unimpaired by long culture, much less exhausted. Said Symmes to Dayton, in a letter from North Bend, May 27, 1789: "The coun-

try is healthy, and looks like a mere meadow for many miles together in some places." The "Turkey Bottom," still so-called, a clearing of about six hundred and forty acres, or a "section," made ready to the hand of civiliza- tion, a mile and a half above the mouth of the Little Miami, on the east side of the Purchase, with the produce of some smaller lots near Columbia, furnished the entire supply of corn for that hamlet and for Cincinnati during their first year. This tract, like many others in the val- leys, was extremely fertile. Benjamin Randolph, one of the occupants, planted a single acre of corn upon it, which he had no time to hoe, hastening back to New Jersey upon some errand of affection or business; and when he came back in the fall, he found that his neglect- ed acre had one hundred bushels of excellent maize ready for him to husk. From nine acres of this tract, the tra- dition goes, the enormous crop of nine hundred and sixty-three bushels was gathered the very first season.

Oliver M. Spencer, one of the earliest residents at this corner of the Purchase, thus pleasantly records his im- pressions of the Miami country in the primitive time:

The winter of 1791-92 was followed by an early and delightful spring ; indeed, I have often thought that our first Western winters were much milder, our springs earlier, and our autumns longer than they now are. On the last of February some of the trees were putting forth their foliage; in March the redbud, the hawthorn, and the dog- wood, in full bloom, checkered the hills, displaying their beautiful col- ors of rose and lily ; and in April the ground was covered with May- apple, bloodroot, ginseng, violets, and a great variety of herbs and flowers. Flocks of paroquets were seen, decked in their rich plumage of green and gold. Birds of various species and every hue, were flit- ting from tree to tree, and the beautiful redbird and the untaught song- ster of the west made the woods vocal with their melody. Now might be heard the plaintive wail of the dove, and now the rumbling drum of the partridge or the loud gobble of the turkey. Here might be seen the clumsy bear, doggedly moving off; or, urged by pursuit into a la- boring gallop, retreating to his citadel in the top of some lofty tree ; or, approached suddenly, raising himself erect in the attitude of defence, facing his enemy and waiting his approach ;- there the timid deer, watchfully resting or cautiously feeding, or, aroused from his thicket, gracefully bounding off, then stopping, erecting his stately head for a moment, gazing around, or snuffing the air to ascertain his enemy, in- stantly springing off, clearing logs and bushes at a bound, and soon distancing his pursuers, It seemed an earthly paradise; and, but for apprehension of the wily copperhead, which lay silently coiled among the leaves or beneath the plants, waiting to strike his victim ; the hor- rid rattlesnake, which, more chivalrous, however, with head erect amidst its ample folds, prepared to dart upon his foe, generously with the loud noise of his rattle apprised him of danger ; and the still more fearful and insidious savage, who, crawling upon the ground or noise- lessly approaching behind trees or thickets, sped the deadly shaft or fatal bullet, you might have fancied you were in the confines of Eden or the borders of Elysium.

Many, notwithstanding these drawbacks, were the charms, attractions, and delights of the Miami country. The immigration thereto, as we shall now see, was every way worthy of it.

HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.

CHAPTER VII. THE MIAMESE.

I hear the tread of pioneers, Of nations yet to be ; The first low wash of waves, where soon Shall roll a human sea. The elements of empire here Are plastic yet and warm, And the chaos of a mighty world Is rounding into formn.

-J. G. WHITTIER.

"THE Miamese (so we call ourselves)," wrote Symmes to Dayton in 1789. They were the noble men and women of the earliest Miami immigration. Very fortun- ate was the Purchase, from the beginning, in the charac- ter of its settlers. The general expression of those who met them personally, or have known them as represented in their descendants, concurs with thetestimony of Mr. F. W. Miller, in his valuable work on Cincinnati's Beginnings:

Whoever traces his lineage up to the early emigrants to the Miami Purchase comes of a stock which may be extolled on grounds that will bear scrutiny. Of course, those who were the first to seek homes in this section of the country, while yet in its primitive condition, were not so self-sacrificing as to suppose they were coming to a field which was likely to prove ungrateful to the laborer's toil. On the contrary, the idea was universally entertained that the field was one of great promise. Still, the promise was not of a nature to attract, to any considerable extent, a kind of adventurers who abound in some of our new settle- ments nowadays-people who come merely with a view of making a sudden impact on some oleaginous deposit, and, in the pursuit of their object, are usually more or less affected with an apprehension of con_ tingencies which may render an expeditions change of their location desirable or necessary within a brief period, and such like carpet-bag- gers of the worst description. The early emigrant hither sought here a permanent abode, looking forward to a time when he might expect to repose in peace and plenty under his own vine and fig-tree, yet well aware that there was a great preliminary work to be performed-the work of reclaiming a wilderness, and naturally a goodly portion of the first-comer's were such as came with characters and capacities adapted to the task which they saw before them. Moreover, those who pro- jected and managed the commencement of the civilizing process in this quarter were persons who could have given, as well as any Sir Wise- acre, the answer to the question, "What constitutes a State?"

The late E. D. Mansfield, in his Life of his brother-in- law, Dr. Daniel Drake, published in 1855, gives yet more glowing and eloquent testimony to the valor and virtues of the Ohio pioneers :

The settlement of the Ohio valley was attended by many circum- stances which gave it peculiar interest. Its beginning was the first fruit of the Revolution. Its growth has been more rapid than that of any modern colony. In a period of little more than half a century, its strength and magnitude exceed the limits of many distinguished nations. Such results could not have been produced without efficient causes. It is not enough to account for them by referring to a mild climate, fer- tile soil, flowing rivers, or even good government. These are important. But a more direct one is found in the character and labors of its early citizens ; for in man, at least, consists the life and glory of every State.

This is strikingly true of the States and institutions which have gone up on the banks of the Ohio. The first settlers had no such doubtful origin as the fabled Romulus, and imbibed no such savage spirit as he received from the sucklings of a wolf. They were civilized-derived from a race historically bold and energetic; had naturally received an elementary, and in some instances a superior, education; and were bred to free thought and brave actions in the great and memorable school of the American Revolution. If not actors, they were the chil- dren of those who were actors in its dangers and sufferings. These settlers came to a country magnificent in extent and opulent in all the wealth of nature. But it was nature in her ruggedness. All was wild and savage. The wilderness before them presented only a field of bat- tle or of labor. The Indian must be subdued, the mighty forest leveled, the soil in its wide extent upturned, and from every quarter of the globe

must be transplanted the seeds, the plants, and all the contrivances o life which, in other lands, had required ages to obtain. In the midst of these physical necessities and of that progress which consists in con- quest and culture, there were other and higher works to be performed. Social institutions must be founded, laws must be adapted to the new society, schools established, churches built up, science culti- vated, and, as the structure of the State arose upon these solid columns, it must receive the finish of the fine arts and the polish of letters. The largest part of this mighty fabric was the work of the first settlers on the Ohio-a work accomplished within the period of time allotted by Providence to the life of man. If, in after ages, history shall seek a suitable acknowledgment of their merits, it will be found in the sim- ple record that their characters and labors were equal to the task they had to perform. Theirs was a noble work, nobly done.

It is true that the lives of these men were attended by all the common motives and common passions of human nature ; but these motives and passions were humbled by the greatness of the result, and even com- mon pursuits rendered interesting by the air of wildness and adventure which is found in all the paths of the pioneer. There were among them, too, men of great strength and intellect, of acute powers, and of a freshness and originality of genius which we seek in vain among the members of conventional society.

These men were as varied in their characters and pursuits as the parts they had to perform in the great action before them. Some were sol- diers in the long battle against the Indians ; some were huntsmen, like . Boone and Kenton, thirsting for fresh adventures; some were plain farmers, who came with wives and children, sharing fully in their toils and dangers; some lawyers and jurists, who early participated in coun- cil and legislation ; and with them all, the doctor, the clergyman, and even the schoolmaster, was found in the earliest settlements .. In a few years others came, whose names will long be remembered in any true account (if any such shall ever be written) of the science and literature of America. They gave to the strong but rude body of society here its earliest culture, in a higher knowledge and purer spirit.

THE ELEMENTS.

It was a hopeful mixture of elements and stocks in this part of the valley of the Ohio. Various States and nationalities had their representatives here, and some of the "crosses" of blood were fortunate for the history of their succeeding generations. New Jersey, at first and later, contributed such representative men as Judges Symmes and Burnet; New England appeared by her dis- tinguished son, Jared Mansfield, and by others before and after him; Pennsylvania sent citizens of the mental and moral stature of Jeremiah Morrow, Judge Dunlavy, and Major Stites; the Old Dominion had worthy sons among the pioneers in the persons of William H. Harri- son, William McMillan, and others; while Kentucky spared to the rising young empire beyond its borders a few noted and useful citizens like Colonel Robert Patter- son, one of the original proprietors of Cincinnati for a time, and later and more permanently, the Rev. James Kemper, one of the founders of Lane seminary. In the one settlement of Columbia, among its founders or very early settlers were not only Stites and Dunlavy, but the Rev. John Smith, afterwards United States Senator, Col- onels Spencer and Brown, Judges Goforth and Foster, Majors Kibby and Gam, Captain Flinn, Messrs. Jacob White and John Reiley, and others equally worthy of mention-all of them men of energy and enterprise, and most of whom were then or subsequently distinguished. The letters interchanged by Symmes and his associates of the East Jersey Company show that many people of the best class, as Senator Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, the Rev. Dr. David Jones, of Pennsylvania, and others, were inquiring with a view to purchase or settlement in the new country. Those who actually did so, as the

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HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.

event has proved, were the very sort of persons, in the words of Judge Symmes himself, already quoted, "to re- claim from savage men and beasts a country that may one day prove the brightest jewel in the regalia of the nation." In much of the material of the succeeding immigration the purchase was equally fortunate. Dr. Drake, a care- ful and conscientious writer, was able to say in 1815: "The people of the Miami country may in particular be characterized as industrious, frugal, temperate, patriotic, and religious; with as much intelligence as, and more enterprise than, the families from which they were de- tached."

Such were the "Miamese," the pioneers of one of the grandest armies the earth ever knew, an army whose hosts are still sweeping irresistibly on, and which now, after more than ninety years, has hardly yet fully occupied the country it has won. It was the army of peace and civiliza- tion, that came, not to conquer an enemy with blood and carnage and ruin, but to subdue a wilderness by patient toil, to make the wild valleys and hills to blossom as the rose, to sweep away the forest, till the prairie's pregnant soil, make fertile fields, and hew out homes, which were to become the abodes of happiness and plenty. The pioneers were the valiant vanguard of such an army as this. They came not, as has already been suggested, to enjoy a life of lotus-eating and ease. They could admire the pristine beauty of the scenes that unveiled before them; they could enjoy the vernal green of the great forest and the loveliness of all the works of nature spread so lav- ishly and beautifully about them ; they could look forward with happy anticipation to the life they were to lead in hte midst of all this beauty, and to the rich reward that would be theirs from the cultivation of the mellow, fer- tile soil-but they had, first of all things, to work. The seed-time comes before the harvest, in other fields than that of agriculture.

THE DANGERS

to which these pioneers were exposed were serious. The Indians, notwithstanding their peaceful attitude at first, could not be trusted, and, as will be detailed in the next chapter, often visited the early settlements with devasta- tion and slaughter. The larger wild beasts were often a cause of dread, and the smaller were a source of constant and great annoyance. Added to these was the liability, always great in a new country, to sickness. In the midst of all the loveliness of the surroundings, there was a sense of loneliness that could not be dispelled; and this was a far greater trial to the men and women who first dwelt in the western country than is generally imagined. The deep-seated, constantly recurring feeling of isolation made many stout hearts turn back to the older settle- ments and to the abodes of comfort, the companionship and sociability they had left in the Atlantic States or in the Old World.

PRIMITIVE POVERTY.

Many of the Miamese arrived at their new homes with but little with which to begin the battle of life. They had brave hearts and strong arms, however; and they were possessed of invincible determination. Frequently

they came on alone, to make a beginning; and, this hav- ing been accomplished, would return to their old homes for their wives and children. It was hard work, too, get- ting into the country. On this side of Redstone and Wheeling there were for a long time no roads westward, and the flat- or keel-boats used in floating down the Ohio were so crowded with wagons, horses, cows, pigs, and other live stock, with provisions, and with the emigrant's "plunder," that there was scarcely room for a human being to sit, stand, or sleep. There was much inevitable exposure to the weather and many dangers from ice, snags, and other perils of the stream.

THE BEGINNINGS.

The first thing to be done, after a temporary shelter from the rain or snow had been provided, was to prepare a little spot of ground for some crop, usually corn. This was done by girdling the trees, clearing away the underbrush, if there chanced to be any, and sweeping the surface with fire. Ten, fifteen, twenty, or even thirty acres of land, by a vigorous arm, might thus be prepared and planted the first season. In autumn the crop would be gathered carefully and garnered with the least possible waste, for it was the food supply of the pioneer and his family, and life itself depended, in part, upon its preserva- tion. Their table was still largely furnished, however, from the products of the chase, and supplies of the minor articles of food, of salt, etc., were often only to be obtained at a distance. In this respect the settlers in the southern part of the Purchase were more favored than those in the interior, since merchants were in all their towns almost from the beginning, and with stocks pretty well supplied. By January, 1796, Judge Symmes wrote, "we have twenty or more merchants in Cincinnati." At first there was much difficulty in getting grain ground, as it had to be done often at a great distance, and in a clumsy and rude way by floating mills, whose wheels were turned by the current of a stream or by horse-power. Some had . hominy hand-mills at home, or grated the grain or pounded it into the semblance of meal or flour with an extemporized pestle. In default of cultivated breadstuffs, as sometimes happened, certain roots of wild grasses and plants served for food. This was particularly true of the beargrass, which grew abundantly on the Turkey bottom and elsewhere in similar places. Its bulbous roots were gathered by the women, washed, dried on smooth boards, and pounded into a kind of flour, from which bread and other preparations were made. Many families at Colum- bia, at one time of scarcity, lived on this food. Some- times even this was wanting. One person, who was a boy in the first days of Columbia, long afterward averred that he had subsisted for three days together upon noth- ing more than a pint of parched corn. Crops were liable to be damaged or destroyed, if near a stream, by its over- flow; and sometimes serious inconvenience to the settler and his family resulted. It was hard to keep one's horses, and most other portable property, from being stolen by the Indians; and from this fact, as late as 1792, according to a note in one of Judge Symmes' letters, "more than half the inhabitants were obliged to raise

HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.

their corn by the hoe, without the aid of ploughs." The redskins commonly refused, however, to meddle with the slow ox.

While the first crop was growing, the settler busied himself with the building of his cabin, which must serve as shelter from the coming storms of winter and from the ravages of wild animals, and, possibly, as a place of refuge from the savage. If he was completely isolated from his fellows, his lot in this was apt to be hard, for without assistance he could construct only a poor sort of habitation. In such cases the cabin was generally made of light logs or poles, and was laid up roughly, only to answer the temporary purpose of shelter, until others had come into the neighborhood, by whose help a more solid structure could be built. In the Miami country, how- ever, as has been observed, the plan at first was to gather in small clusters of population at fortified stations, where sufficient help was always available. Assistance was readily given one pioneer by others, whether near or far removed, within a radius of many miles. The usual plan of erecting a log cabin was through such union of labor. The site of a cabin home was generally selected with reference to a good water supply, often by a stream or never-failing spring, or, if such could not be found, it was not uncommon first to dig a well. When the cabin was to be built, the few neighbors gathered at the site, and first cut down, within as close proximity as possible, a number of trees as nearly of the same size as could be found, but ranging from a foot to twenty inches in diame- ter. Logs were chopped from these, and rolled to a cominon centre. This work, and that of preparing the foundation, would consume the greater part of the day in most cases, and the entire labor would very likely -oc- cupy two or three days, and sometimes four. The logs were raised to their places with handspikes and skid-poles, and men standing at the corners notched them with axes as fast as they were laid in position. Soon the cabin · would be built several logs high, and the work would be- come more difficult. The gables were formed by bevel- ing the logs, and making them shorter and shorter as each additional one was laid in place. These logs in the gables were held in position by poles, which extended across the cabin from end to end, and served also as rafters, upon which to lay the rived clapboard or "shake" roof. The so-called "shakes" were three to six feet in length, split from oak or ash logs, and made as smooth and flat as possible. They were laid side by side, and other pieces of split stuff laid over the cracks so as to keep out the rain effectually. Upon these logs were laid to hold them in place, and these in turn were held by blocks of wood placed between them. The chimney was an important part of the building, and sometimes more difficult to construct, from the absence of suitable tools and material. In the river valleys, and wherever loose stone was accessible, neat stone chimneys were fre- quently built. Quite commonly the chimney was made of sticks, and laid up in a manner very similar to the walls of the cabin. It was, in nearly all cases, built out- side of the cabin, and at its base a huge opening was cut through the wall to answer as a fireplace. The stakes in

the chimney were held in place, and protected from fire by mortar, formed by kneading and working clay and straw. Flat stones were procured for back and jambs of the fireplace, and an opening was sawed or chopped in the logs on one side the cabin for a doorway. Pieces of hewed timber, three or four inches thick, were fastened on each side by wooden pins to the ends of the logs, and the door, if there were any, was fastened to one of these by wooden hinges. The door itself was apt to be a rude piece of woodwork. It was made of boards, rived from an oak log, and held together by heavy cross-pieces. There was a wooden latch upon the inside, raised by a string which passed through a gimlet-hole, and hung upon the outside. From this mode of construction arose the old and familiar hospitable saying, "You will find the latch-string always out." It was pulled in only at night, and the door was thus easily and simply fastened. Many of the pioneer cabins had no doors of this kind, and no protection for the entrance except such as a blanket or skin of some wild beast afforded. The begin- ners on the banks of the Ohio frequently enjoyed the luxury of heavy boat-planks and other sawed material obtained from the breaking up of the boats in which they came (a quite customary procedure), from which floors, doors, or roofs, and perhaps other parts of the cabin, were constructed. The window was a small opening, often devoid of anything resembling a sash, and seldom glazed. Greased paper was not infrequently. used in lieu of the latter, but more usually some old garment consti- tuted a curtain, which was the only protection at the window from sun, rain, or snow. The floor of the cabin was made of "puncheons"-pieces of timber split from trees about eighteen inches in diameter, and hewed toler- ably smooth on the upper surface with a broadaxe. They were made half the length of the floor. Some of the cabins first erected in this part of the country had nothing but the earthen floor which Nature provided. At times they had cellars, which were simply small excavations for the storage of a few articles of food or, it may be, of cooking utensils. Access to the cellar was readily gained by lifting a loose puncheon. There was generally a small loft, used for various purposes, among others as the guest-chamber of the house. This was reached by a ladder, the sides of which were split pieces of sapling, put together, like everything else in the house, without nails. It is worthy of note that Judge Symmes, writing from North Bend New Year's day, 1790, some descrip- tion of his new houses at that place, took pains to mention those that were "well-shingled with nails," and the "good stone chimney" and "sash-windows of glass" that several of them had.

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History of Hamilton County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 12

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp; Williams, L.A. & co., Cleveland, O., pub Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio, L. A. Williams Number of Pages: 590

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp; Williams, L.A. & co., Cleveland, O., pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio, L. A. Williams
Number of Pages: 590