History of Knox County, Ohio, its past and present, Part 12

Author: Hill, N. N. (Norman Newell), comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A.A. & Co., Mt. Vernon, Ohio
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Mt. Vernon, Ohio : A. A. Graham & Co.
Number of Pages: 1096

USA > Ohio > Knox County > History of Knox County, Ohio, its past and present > Part 12

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The Indians were watching this outgrowth of affairs, and felt, from what they could learn in Ken- tucky, that they would be gradually surrounded by the whites. This they did not relish, by any means, and gave the settlements south of the Ohio no little uneasiness. It was thought best to hold another treaty with them. In the mean time, to insure peace, the Governor of Virginia, and Con- gress, placed troops at Venango, Forts Pitt and McIntosh, and at Miami, Vincennes, Louisville, and Muskingum, and the militia of Kentucky were held in readiness should a sudden outbreak occur. These measures produced no results, save insuring the safety of the whites, and not until January, 1789, was Clarke able to carry out his plans. During that month, he held a meeting at Fort Harmar,* at the mouth of the Muskingum, where the New England Colony expected to locate.

The hostile character of the Indians did not deter the Ohio Company from carrying out its plans. In the winter of 1787, Gen. Rufus Put-

* Fort Harmar was built in 1785, by a detachment of United States soldiers, under command of Maj. John Doughty. It was named in honor of Col. Josiah Harmar, to whose regiment Maj. Doughty was attached. It was the first military post erected by the Americans within the limits of Ohio, except Fort Laurens, a temporary struct- ure built in 1778. When Marietta was founded it was the military post of that part of the country, and was for many years an impor- tant station.

nam and forty-seven pioneers advanced to the mouth of the Youghiogheny River, and began building a boat for transportation down the Ohio in the spring. The boat was the largest craft that had ever descended the river, and, in allusion to their Pilgrim Fathers, it was called the Mayflower. It was 45 feet long and 12 feet wide, and esti- mated at 50 tons burden. Truly a formidable affair for the time. The bows were raking and curved like a galley, and were strongly timbered. The sides were made bullet-proof, and it was covered with a deck roof. Capt. Devol, the first ship- builder in the West, was placed in command. On the 2d of April, the Mayflower was launched, and for five days the little band of pioneers sailed down the Monongahela and the Ohio, and, on the 7th, landed at the mouth of the Muskingum. There, opposite Fort Harmar, they chose a loca- tion, moored their boat for a temporary shelter, and began to erect houses for their occupation.

Thus was begun the first English settlement in the Ohio Valley. About the 1st of July, they were re-enforced by the arrival of a colony from Massachusetts. It had been nine weeks on the way. It had hauled its wagons and driven its stock to Wheeling, where, constructing flat-boats, it had floated down the river to the settlement.

In October preceding this occurrence, Arthur St. Clair had been appointed Governor of the Ter- ritory by Congress, which body also appointed Winthrop Sargent, Secretary, and Samuel H. Parsons, James M. Varnum and John Armstrong Judges. Subsequently Mr. Armstrong declined the appointment, and Mr. Symmes was given the vacancy. None of these were on the ground when the first settlement was made, though the Judges came soon after. One of the first things the colony found necessary to do was to organize some form of government, whereby difficulties might be settled, though to the credit of the colony it may be said, that during the first three months of its existence but one difference arose, and that was settled by a compromise .* Indeed, hardly a better set of men for the purpose could have been selected. Washington wrote concerning this colony :

"No colony in America was ever settled under such favorable auspices as that which has com- menced at the Muskingum. Information, prop- erty and strength will be its characteristics. I know many of the settlers personally, and there

*" Western Monthly Magazine."

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never were men better calculated to promote the welfare of such a community."

On the 2d of July, a meeting of the Directors and agents was held on the banks of the Mus- kingum for the purpose of naming the newborn city and its squares. As yet, the settlement had been merely "The Muskingum ;" but the name Marietta was now formally given it, in honor of Marie Antoinette. The square upon which the blockhouses stood was called Campus Martius ; Square No. 19, Capitolium; Square No. 61, Ce- cilia, and the great road running through the covert-way, Sacra Via .* Surely, classical scholars were not scarce in the colony.

On the Fourth, an oration was delivered by James M. Varnum, one of the Judges, and a public demonstration held. Five days after, the Governor arrived, and the colony began to assume form. The ordinance of 1787 provided two dis- tinct grades of government, under the first of which the whole power was under the Governor and the three Judges. This form was at once recognized on the arrival of St. Clair. The first law established by this court was passed on the 25th of July. It established and regulated the militia of the Territory. The next day after its publication, appeared the Governor's proclamation erecting all the country that had been ceded by the Indians east of the Scioto River, into the county of Washington. Marietta was, of course, the county seat, and, from that day, went on prosperously. On September 2, the first court was held with becoming ceremonies. It is thus related in the American Pioneer :

"The procession was formed at the Point (where the most of the settlers resided), in the following order: The High Sheriff, with his drawn sword; the citizens; the officers of the garrison at Fort Harmar; the members of the bar; the Supreme Judges; the Governor and clergyman ; the newly appointed Judges of the Court of Common Pleas, Gens. Rufus Putnam and Benjamin Tupper.

"They marched up the path that had been cleared through the forest to Campus Martius Hall (stockade), where the whole countermarched, and the Judges (Putnam and Tupper) took their seats. The clergyman, Rev. Dr. Cutler, then invoked the divine blessing. The Sheriff, Col. Ebenezer Sproat, proclaimed with his solemn 'Oh yes!' that a court is open for the administration of

even-handed justice, to the poor and to the rich, to the guilty and to the innocent, without respect of persons; none to be punished without a trial of their peers, and then in pursuance of the laws and evidence in the case.

" Although this scene was exhibited thus early in the settlement of the West, few ever equaled it in the dignity and exalted character of its princi- pal participators. Many of them belonged to the history of our country in the darkest, as well as the most splendid, period of the Revolutionary war "

Many Indians were gathered at the same time to witness the (to them) strange spectacle, and for the purpose of forming a treaty, though how far they carried this out, the Pioneer does not relate.

The progress of the settlement was quite satis- factory during the year. Some one writing a letter from the town says:

"The progress of the settlement is sufficiently rapid for the first year. We are continually erect- ing houses, but arrivals are constantly coming faster than we can possibly provide convenient covering. Our first ball was opened about the middle of December, at which were fifteen ladies, as well accomplished in the manner of polite circles as any I have ever seen in the older States. I mention this to show the progress of society in this new world, where, I believe, we shall vie with, if not excel, the old States in every accom- plishment necessary to render life agreeable and happy."

The emigration westward at this time was, indeed, exceedingly large. The commander at Fort Harmar reported 4,500 persons as having passed that post between February and June, 1788, many of whom would have stopped there, had the associates been prepared to receive them. The settlement was free from Indian depredations until January, 1791, during which interval it daily increased in numbers and strength.

Symmes and his friends were not idle during this time. He had secured his contract in October, 1787, and, soon after, issued a pamphlet stating the terms of his purchase and the mode he intended to follow in the disposal of the lands. His plan was, to issue warrants for not less than one-quarter section, which might be located anywhere, save on reservations, or on land previously entered. The locator could enter an entire section should he de- sire to do so. The price was to be 603 cents per acre till May, 1788 ; then, till November, $1; and

* " Carey's Museum," Vol. 4.

HISTORY OF OHIO.

after that time to be regulated by the demand for land. Each purchaser was bound to begin im- provements within two years, or forfeit one-sixth of the land to whoever would settle thereon and remain seven years. Military bounties might be taken in this, as in the purchase of the associates. For himself, Symmes reserved one township near the mouth of the Miami. On this he intended to build a great city, rivaling any Eastern port. He offered any one a lot on which to build a house, providing he would remain three years. Conti- neutal certificates were rising, owing to the demand for land created by these two purchases, and Con- gress found the burden of debt correspondingly lessened. Symmes soon began to experience diffi- culty in procuring enough to meet his payments. He had also some trouble in arranging his boundary with the Board of the Treasury. These, and other causes, laid the foundation for another city, which is now what Symmes hoped his city would one day be.

In January, 1788, Mathias Denman, of New Jersey, took an interest in Symmes' purchase, and located, among other tracts, the sections upon which Cincinnati has since been built. Retaining one-third of this purchase, he sold the balance to Robert Patterson and John Filson, each getting the same share. These three, about August, agreed to lay out a town on their land. It was designated as opposite the mouth of the Licking River, to which place it was intended to open a road from Lexington, Ky. These men little thought of the great emporium that now covers the modest site of this town they laid out that summer. Mr. Filson, who had been a schoolmaster, and was of a some- what poetic nature, was appointed to name the town. In respect to its situation, and as if with a prophetic perception of the mixed races that were in after years to dwell there, he named it Los- antiville,* "which, being interpreted," says the " Western Annals," " means ville, the town ; anti, opposite to; os, the mouth ; L, of Licking. This may well put to the blush the Campus Martius of the Marietta scholars, and the Fort Solon of the Spaniards."

Meanwhile, Symmes was busy in the East, and, by July, got thirty people and eight four-horse wagons under way for the West. These reached Limestone by September, where they met Mr. Stites, with several persons from Redstone. . All

came to Symmes' purchase, and began to look for homes.

Symmes' mind was, however, ill at rest. He could not meet his first payment on so vast a realm, and there also arose a difference of opinion be- tween him and the Treasury Board regarding the Ohio boundary. Symmes wanted all the land be- tween the two Miamis, bordering on the Ohio, while the Board wished him confined to no more than twenty miles of the river. To this proposal he would not agree, as he had made sales all along the river. Leaving the bargain in an unsettled state, Congress considered itself released from all its obligations, and, but for the representations of many of Symmes' friends, he would have lost all his money and labor. His appointment as Judge was not favorably received by many, as they thought that by it he would acquire unlimited power. Some of his associates also complained of him, and, for awhile, it surely seemed that ruin only awaited him. But he was brave and hope- ful, and determined to succeed. On his return from a visit to his purchase in September, 1788, he wrote Jonathan Dayton, of New Jersey, one of his best friends and associates, that he thought some of the land near the Great Miami "positively worth a silver dollar the acre in its present state."

A good many changes were made in his original contract, growing out of his inability to meet his payments. At first, he was to have not less than a million acres, under an act of Congress passed in October, 1787, authorizing the Treasury Board to contract with any one who could pay for such tracts, on the Ohio and Wabash Rivers, whose fronts should not exceed one-third of their depth.

Dayton and Marsh, Symmes' agents, contracted with the Board for one tract on the Ohio, begin- ning twenty miles up the Ohio from the mouth of the Great Miami, and to run back for quantity be- tween the Miami and a line drawn from the Ohio, parallel to the general course of that river. In 1791, three years after Dayton and Marsh made the contract, Symmes found this would throw the purchase too far back from the Ohio, and applied to Congress to let him have all between the Mi- amies, running back so as to include 1,000,000 acres, which that body, on April 12, 1792, agreed to do. When the lands were surveyed, however, it was found that a line drawn from the head of the Little Miami due west to the Great Miami, would include south of it less than six hundred thousand acres. Even this Symmes could not pay for, and when his patent was issued in September, 1794, it

* Judge Burnett, in his notes, disputes the above account of the origin of the city of Cincinnati. He says the name "Losantiville " was determined on, but not adopted, when the town was laid cut. This version is probably the correct one, and will be found fully given in the detailed history of the settlemente.

HISTORY OF OHIO.

gave him and his associates 248,540 acres, exclu sive of reservations which amounted to 63,142 acres. This tract was bounded by the Ohio, the two Miamis and a due east and west line run so as to include the desired quantity. Symmes, how- ever, made no further payments, and the rest of his purchase reverted to the United States, who gave those who had bought under him ample pre- emption rights.

The Government was able, also, to give him and his colonists but little aid, and as danger from hos- tile Indians was in a measure imminent (though all the natives were friendly to Symmes), settlers were slow to come. However, the band led by Mr Stites arrived before the 1st of January, 1789, and locating themselves near the mouth of the Little Miami, on a tract of 10,000 acres which Mr. Stites had purchased from Symmes, formed the second settlement in Ohio. They were soon afterward joined by a colony of twenty-six persons, who assisted them to erect a block-house, and gather their corn. The town was named Columbia. While here, the great flood of January, 1789, oc- curred, which did much to ensure the future growth of Losantiville, or more properly, Cincin- nati. Symmes City, which was laid out near the mouth of the Great Miami, and which he vainly strove to make the city of the future, Marietta and Columbia, all suffered severely by this flood, the greatest, the Indians said, ever known. The site of Cincinnati was not overflowed, and hence attracted the attention of the settlers. Denman's warrants had designated his purchase as opposite the mouth of the Licking; and that point escap- ing the overflow, late in December the place was visited by Israel Ludlow, Symmes' surveyor, Mr. Patterson and Mr. Denman, and about fourteen oth- ers, who left Maysville to "form a station and lay off a town opposite the Licking." The river was filled with ice "from shore to shore ;" but, says Symmes in May, 1789, " Perseverance triumphing over difficulty, and they landed safe on a most de- lightful bank of the Ohio, where they founded the town of Losantiville, which populates consid- erably." The settlers of Losantiville built a few log huts and block-houses, and proceeded to im- prove the town. Symmes, noticing the location, says: "Though they placed their dwellings in the most marked position, yet they suffered nothing from the freshet." This would seem to give cre- dence to Judge Burnett's notes regarding the origin of Cincinnati, who states the settlement was made at this time, and not at the time mentioned when

Mr. Filson named the town. It is further to be noticed, that, before the town was located by Mr. Ludlow and Mr. Patterson, Mr. Filson had been killed by the Miami Indians, and, as he had not paid for his one-third of the site, the claim was sold to Mr. Ludlow, who thereby became one of the origi- nal owners of the place. Just what day the town was laid out is not recorded. All the evidence tends to show it must have been late in 1788, or early in 1789.

While the settlements on the north side of the Ohio were thus progressing, south of it fears of the Indians prevailed, and the separation sore was kept open. The country was, however, so torn by internal factions that no plan was likely to suc- ceed, and to this fact, in a large measure, may be credited the reason it did not secede, or join the Spanish or French faction, both of which were intriguing to get the commonwealth. During this year the treasonable acts of James Wilkinson came into view. For a while he thought success was in his grasp, but the two governments were at peace with America, and discountenanced any such efforts. Wilkinson, like all traitors, relapsed into nonentity, and became mistrusted by the govern- ments he attempted to befriend. Treason is al- ways odious.

It will be borne in mind, that in 1778 prepa- rations had been made for a treaty with the Indi- ans, to secure peaceful possession of the lands owned in the West. Though the whites held these by purchase and treaty, yet many Indians, especially the Wabash and some of the Miami In- dians, objected to their occupation, claiming the Ohio boundary as the original division line. Clarke endeavored to obtain, by treaty at Fort Harmar, in 1778, a confirmation of these grants, but was not able to do so till January, 9, 1789. Rep- resentatives of the Six Nations, and of the Wyan- dots, Delawares, Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawato- mies and Sacs, met him at this date, and confirmed and extended the treaties of Fort Stanwix and Fort McIntosh, the one in 1784, the other in 1785. This secured peace with the most of them, save a few of the Wabash Indians, whom they were compelled to conquer by arms. When this was accomplished, the borders were thought safe, and Virginia proposed to withdraw her aid in sup- port of Kentucky. This opened old troubles, and the separation dogma came out afresh. Virginia offered to allow the erection of a separate State, providing Kentucky would assume part of the old debts. This the young commonwealth would not

HISTORY OF OHIO.

do, and sent a remonstrance. Virginia withdrew the proposal, and ordered a ninth convention, which succeeded in evolving a plan whereby Ken- tucky took her place among the free States of the Union.

North of the Ohio, the prosperity continued. In 1789, Rev. Daniel Story, who had been ap- pointed missionary to the West, came out as a teacher of the youth and a preacher of the Gospel. Dr. Cutler had preceded him, not in the capacity of a minister, though he had preached ; hence Mr. Story is truly. the first missionary from the Prot- estant Church who came to the Ohio Valley in that capacity. When he came, in 1789, he found nine associations on the Ohio Company's purchase, comprising two hundred and fifty persons in all ; and, by the close of 1790, eight settlements had been made: two at Belpre (belle prairie), one at Newbury, one at Wolf Creek, one at Duck Creek, one at the mouth of Meigs' Creek, one at Ander- son's Bottom, and one at Big Bottom. An ex- tended sketch of all these settlements will be found farther on in this volume.

Symmes had, all this time, strenuously endeav- ored to get his city-called Cleves City-favorably noticed, and filled with people. He saw a rival in Cincinnati. That place, if made military head- quarters to protect the Miami Valley, would out- rival his town, situated near the bend of the Miami, near its mouth. On the 15th of June, Judge Symmes received news that the Wabash Indians threatened the Miami settlements, and as he had received only nineteen men for defense, he applied for more. Before July, Maj. Doughty arrived at the "Slaughter House "-as the Miami was sometimes called, owing to previous murders that had, at former times, occurred therein. Through the influence of Symmes, the detach- ment landed at the North Bend, and, for awhile, it was thought the fort would be erected there. This was what Symmes wanted, as it would secure him the headquarters of the military, and aid in getting the headquarters of the civil gov- ernment. The truth was, however, that neither the proposed city on the Miami-North Bend, as it afterward became known, from its location-or South Bend, could compete, in point of natural advantages, with the plain on which Cincinnati is built. Had Fort Washington been built elsewhere, after the close of the Indian war, nature would have asserted her advantages, and insured the growth of a city, where even the ancient and mys- terious dwellers of the Ohio had reared the earthen

walls of one of their vast temples. Another fact is given in relation to the erection of Fort Wash- ington at Losantiville, which partakes somewhat of romance. The Major, while waiting to decide at which place the fort should be built, happened to make the acquaintance of a black-eyed beauty, the wife of one of the residents. Her husband, notic- ing the affair, removed her to Losantiville. The Major followed; he told Symmes he wished to see how a fort would do there, but promised to give his city the preference. He found the beauty there, and on his return Symmes could not prevail on him to remain. If the story be true, then the importance of Cincinnati owes its existence to a trivial circum- stance, and the old story of the ten years' war which terminated in the downfall of Troy, which is said to have originated owing to the beauty of a Spartan dame, was re-enacted here. Troy and North Bend fell because of the beauty of a wo- man; Cincinnati was the result of the downfall of the latter place.

About the first of January, 1790, Governor St. Clair, with his officers, descended the Ohio River from Marietta to Fort Washington. There he es- tablished the county of Hamilton, comprising the immense region of country contiguous to the Ohio, from the Hocking River to the Great Miami; appointed a corps of civil and military officers, and established a Court of Quarter Ses- sions. Some state that at this time, he changed the name of the village of Losantiville to Cin- cinnati, in allusion to a society of that name which had recently been formed among the officers of the Revolutionary army, and established it as the seat of justice for Hamilton. This latter fact is certain; but as regards changing the name of the village, there is no good authority for it. With this importance attached to it, Cincinnati began at once an active growth, and from that day Cleves' city declined. The next summer, frame houses began to appear in Cincinnati, while at the same time forty new log cabins appeared about the fort.

On the 8th of January, the Governor arrived at the falls of the Ohio, on his way to establish a government at Vincennes and Kaskaskia. From Clarkesville, he dispatched a messenger to Major Hamtramck, commander at Vincennes, with speeches to the various Indian tribes in this part of the Northwest, who had not fully agreed to the treaties. St. Clair and Sargent followed in a few days, along an Indian trail to Vincennes, where he organized the county of Knox, comprising all the

HISTORY OF OHIO.

country along the Ohio, from the Miami to the Wabash, and made Vincennes the county seat. Then they proceeded across the lower part of Illi- nois to Kaskaskia, where he established the county of St. Clair (so named by Sargent), comprising all the country from the Wabash to the Mississippi. Thus the Northwest was divided into three coun- ties, and courts established therein. St. Clair called upon the French inhabitants at Vincennes and in the Illinois country, to show the titles to their lands, and also to defray the expense of a survey. To this latter demand they replied through their priest, Pierre Gibault, showing their poverty, and inability to comply. They were confirmed in their grants, and, as they had been good friends to the patriot cause, were relieved from the expense of the survey.

While the Governor was managing these affairs, Major Hamtramck was engaged in an effort to con- ciliate the Wabash Indians. For this purpose, he sent Antoine Gamelin, an intelligent French mer- chant, and a true friend of America, among them to carry messages sent by St. Clair and the Govern- ment, and to learn their sentiments and dispositions. Gamelin performed this important mission in the spring of 1790 with much sagacity, and, as the

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History of Knox County, Ohio, its past and present, Part 12

Author: Hill, N. N. (Norman Newell), comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A.A. & Co., Mt. Vernon, Ohio Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Mt. Vernon, Ohio : A. A. Graham & Co. Number of Pages: 1096

Author: Hill, N. N. (Norman Newell), comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A.A. & Co., Mt. Vernon, Ohio
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Mt. Vernon, Ohio : A. A. Graham & Co.
Number of Pages: 1096