History of Knox County, Ohio, its past and present, Part 15

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

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Before the Assembly adjourned, they issued a congratulatory address to the people, enjoining them to "Inculcate the principles of humanity, benevolence. honesty and punctuality in dealing, sincerity and charity, and all the social affections.' At the same time, they issued an address to the President, expressing entire confidence in the wis- dom and purity of his government, and their warm attachment to the American Constitution.

HISTORY OF OHIO.

The vote on this address proved, however, that the differences of opinion agitating the Eastern States had penetrated the West. Eleven Representatives voted for it, and five against it.

One of the important duties that devolved on this Legislature, was the election of a delegate to Congress. As soon as the Governor's proclama- tion made its appearance, the election of a person to fill that position excited general attention. Be- fore the meeting of the Legislature public opinion had settled down on William Henry Harrison, and Arthur St. Clair, Jr., who eventually were the only candidates. On the 3d of October, the two houses met and proceeded to a choice. Eleven votes were cast for Harrison, and ten for St. Clair. The Leg- islature prescribed the form of a certificate of the election, which was given to Harrison, who at once resigned his office as Secretary of the Territory, proceeded to. Philadelphia, and took his seat, Con- gress being then in session.

"Though he represented the Territory but one year, " says Judge Burnett, in his notes, " he ob- tained some important advantages for his constitu- ents. He introduced a resolution to sub-divide the surveys of the public lands, and to offer them for sale in smaller tracts; he succeeded in getting that measure through both houses, in opposition to the interest of speculators, who were, and who wished to be, the retailers of the land to the poorer classes of the community. His proposition be- came a law, and was hailed as the most beneficent act that Congress had ever done for the Territory. It put in the power of every industrious man, how- ever poor, to become a freeholder, and to lay a foundation for the future support and comfort of his family. At the same session, he obtained a liberal extension of time for the pre-emptioners in the northern part of the Miami purchase, which enabled them to secure their farms, and eventually to become independent, and even wealthy."

The first session, as has been noticed, closed December 19. Gov. St. Clair took occasion to enumerate in his speech at the close of the session, eleven acts, to which he saw fit to apply his veto. These he had not, however, returned to the Assem- bly, and thereby saved a long struggle between the executive and legislative branches of the Territory. Of the eleven acts enumerated, six related to the formation of new counties. These were mainly disproved by St Clair, as he always sturdily main- tained that the power to erect new counties was vested alone in the Executive. This free exercise of the veto power, especially in relation to new

counties, and his controversy with the Legislature, tended only to strengthen the popular discontent regarding the Governor, who was never fully able to regain the standing he held before his in- glorious defeat in his campaign against the Indians.

While this was being agitated, another question came into prominence. Ultimately, it settled the powers of the two branches of the government, and caused the removal of St. Clair, then very distasteful to the people. The opening of the present century brought it fully before the people, who began to agitate it in all their assemblies.

The great extent of the Territory made the operations of government extremely uncertain, and the power of the courts practically worthless. Its division was, therefore, deemed best, and a committee was appointed by Congress to inquire into the matter. This committee, the 3d of March, 1800, reported upon the subject that, "In the three western counties, there has been but one court having cognizance of crimes in five years. The immunity which offenders experience, attracts, as to an asylum, the most vile and aban- doned criminals, and, at the same time, deters useful and virtuous citizens from making settle- ments in such society. The extreme necessity of judiciary attention and assistance is experienced in civil as well as criminal cases. The supplying to vacant places such necessary officers as may be wanted, such as clerks, recorders and others of like kind, is, from the impossibility of correct notice and information, utterly neglected. This Territory is exposed as a frontier to foreign nations, whose agents can find sufficient interest in exciting or fomenting insurrection and discontent, as thereby they can more easily divert a valuable trade in furs from the United States, and also have a part thereof on which they border, which feels so little the cherishing hand of their proper gov- ernment, or so little dreads its energy, as to render their attachment perfectly uncertain and am- biguous.

" The committee would further suggest, that the law of the 3d of March, 1791, granting land to certain persons in the western part of said Ter- ritory, and directing the laying-out of the same, remains unexecuted; that great discontent, in consequence of such neglect, is excited in those who are interested in the provisions of said laws, which require the immediate attention of this Legislature. To minister a remedy to these evils, it occurs to this committee, that it is expedient

HISTORY OF OHIO.

that a division of said Territory into two distinct and separate governments should be made; and that such division be made by a line beginning at the mouth of the great Miami River, running directly north until it intersects the boundary between the United States and Canada." *

The recommendations of the committee were favorably received by Congress, and, the 7th of May, an act was passed dividing the Ter- ritory. The main provisions of the act are as follows:

"That, from and after the 4th of July next, all that part of the territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio River, which lies to the westward of a line beginning at the Ohio, opposite to the mouth of the Kentucky River, and running thence to Fort Recovery, and thence north until it intersects the territorial line between the United States and Canada, shall, for the purpose of tem- porary government, constitute a separate Territory, and be called the Indiana Territory.

"There shall be established within the said Ter- ritory a government, in all respects similar to that provided by the ordinance of Congress passed July 13, 1797."+

The act further provided for representatives, and for the establishment of an assembly, on the same plan as that in force in the Northwest, stipulating that until the number of inhabitants reached five thousand, the whole number of representatives to the General Assembly should not be less than seven, nor more than nine; apportioned by the Governor among the several counties in the new Terri- tory.

The act further provided that "nothing in the act should be so construed, so as in any manner to affect the government now in force in the terri- tory of the United States northwest of the Ohio River, further than to prohibit the exercise thereof within the Indiana Territory, from and after the aforesaid 4th of July next.

" Whenever that part of the territory of the United States, which lies to the eastward of a line beginning at the mouth of the Great Miami River, and running thence due north to the territorial line between the United States and Canada, shall be erected into an independent State, and admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the orig- inal States; thenceforth said line shall become and remain permanently, the boundary line between such State and the Indiana Territory."

* American State Papers.

+ Land Laws.

It was further enacted, "that, until it shall be otherwise enacted by the legislatures of the said territories, respectively, Chillicothe, on the Scioto River, shall be the seat of government of the ter- ritory of the United States northwest of the Ohio River; and that St. Vincent's, on the Wabash River, shall be the seat of government for the Indiana Territory." *

St. Clair was continued as Governor of the old Territory, and William Henry Harrison appointed Governor of the new.

Connecticut, in ceding her territory in the West to the General Government, reserved a portion, known as the Connecticut Reserve. When she afterward disposed of her claim in the manner narrated, the citizens found themselves without any government on which to lean for support. At that time, settlements had begun in thirty-five of the townships into which the Reserve had been divided ; one thousand persons had established homes there ; mills had been built, and over seven hundred miles of roads opened. In 1800, the settlers petitioned for acceptance into the Union, as a part of the Northwest; and, the mother State releasing her judi- ciary claims, Congress accepted the trust, and granted the request. In December, of that year, the population had so increased that the county of Trumbull was erected, including the Reserve. Soon after, a large number of settlers came from Pennsylvania, from which State they had been driven by the dispute concerning land titles in its western part. Unwilling to cultivate land to which they could only get a doubtful deed, they abandoned it, and came where the titles were sure.

Congress having made Chillicothe the capital of the Northwest Territory, as it now existed, on the 3d of November the General Assembly met at that place. Gov. St. Clair had been made to feel the odium cast upon his previous acts, and, at the open- ing of this session, expressed, in strong terms, his disapprobation of the censure cast upon him. He had endeavored to do his duty in all cases, he said, and yet held the confidence of the President and Congress. He still held the office, notwithstanding the strong dislike against him.

At the second session of the Assembly, at Chil- licothe, held in the autumn of 1801, so much out- spoken enmity was expressed, and so much abuse heaped upon the Governor and the Assembly, that a law was passed, removing the capital to Cincinnati

* Land Laws.

HISTORY OF OHIO.

again. It was not destined, however, that the Territorial Assembly should meet again anywhere. The unpopularity of the Governor caused many to long for a State government, where they could choose their own rulers. The unpopularity of St. Clair arose partly from the feeling connected with his defeat ; in part from his being connected with the Federal party, fast falling into disrepute; and, in part, from his assuming powers which most thought he had no right to exercise, especially the power of subdividing the counties of the Terri- tory.

The opposition, though powerful out of the Assembly, was in the minority there. During the month of December, 1801, it was forced to protest against a measure brought forward in the Council, for changing the ordinance of 1787 in such a man- ner as to make the Scioto, and a line drawn from the intersection of that river and the Indian boundary to the western extremity of the Reserve, the limits of the most eastern State, to be formed from the Territory. Had this change been made, the formation of a State government beyond the Ohio would have been long delayed. Against it, Representatives Worthington, Langham, Darlington, Massie, Dunlavy and Morrow, recorded their pro- test. Not content with this, they sent Thomas Worthington, who obtained a leave of absence, to the seat of government, on behalf of the objectors, there to protest, before Congress, against the pro- posed bonudary. While Worthington was on his way, Massie presented, the 4th of January, 1802, a resolution for choosing a committee to address Congress in respect to the proposed State govern- ment. This, the next day, the House refused to do, by a vote of twelve to five. An attempt was next made to proeure a census of the Ter- ritory, and an act for that purpose passed the House, but the Council postponed the considera- tion of it until the next session, which would com- mence at Cincinnati, the fourth Monday of No- vember.

Meanwhile, Worthington pursued the ends of his mission, using his influence to effect that organ- ization, "which, terminating the influence of tyr- anny," was to "meliorate the circumstances of thou- sands, by freeing them from the domination of a despotic chief." His efforts were successful, and, the 4th of March, a report was made to the House in favor of authorizing a State convention. This report was based on the assumption that there were now over sixty thousand inhabitants in the proposed boundaries, estimating that emigration had

increased the census of 1800, which gave the Ter- ritory forty-five thousand inhabitants, to that num- ber. The convention was to ascertain whether it were expedient to form such a government, and to prepare a constitution if such organization were deemed best. In the formation of the State, a change in the boundaries was proposed, by which all the territory north of a line drawn due east from the head of Lake Michigan to Lake Erie was to be excluded from the new government about to be ealled into existence.

The committee appointed by Congress to report upon the feasibility of forming the State, suggested that Congress reserve out of every township sections numbered 8, 11, 26 and 29, for their own use, and that Seetion 16 be reserved for the maintenance of schools. The committee also suggested, that, "religion, education and morality being necessary to the good government and happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall be forever encouraged."

Various other recommendations were given by the committee, in accordance with which, Congress, April 30, passed the resolution authorizing the calling of a convention. As this accorded with the feelings of the majority of the inhabitants of the Northwest, no opposition was experienced; even the Legislature giving way to this embryo gov- ernment, and failing to assemble according to ad- journment.

The convention met the 1st of November. Its members were generally Jeffersonian in their na- tional polities, and had been opposed to the change of boundaries proposed the year before. Before proceeding to business, Gov. St. Clair proposed to address them in his official character. This propo- sition was resisted by several of the members; but, after a motion, it was agreed to allow him to speak to them as a citizen. St. Clair did so, advising the postponement of a State government until the people of the original eastern division were plainly entitled to demand it, and were not subject to be bound by conditions. This advice, given as it was, eaused Jefferson instantly to remove St. Clair, at which time his office ceased .* "When the vote was taken," says Judge Burnet, "upon doing what

* After this, St. Clair returned to his old home in the Ligonier Valley, Pennsylvania, where he lived with his children in almost abject poverty. He had lost money in his public life, as he gave close attention to public affairs, to the detriment of his own business. He presented a claim to Congress, afterward, for supplies furnished to the army, but the claim was outlawed. After trying in vain to get the claim allowed, he returned to his home. Pennsylvania, learning of his distress, granted him an annuity of $350, afterward raised to $600. He lived to enjoy this but a short time, his death occurring August 31, 1818. He was eighty-four years of age.

HISTORY OF OHIO.

he advised them not to do, but one of thirty-three (Ephraim Cutler, of Washington County) voted with the Governor."

On one point only were thé proposed boundaries" of the new State altered.

" To every person who has attended to this sub- ject, and who has consulted the maps of the West- ern country extant at the time the ordinance of 1787 was passed, Lake Michigan was believed to be, and was represented by all the maps of that day as being, very far north of the position which it has since been ascertained to occupy. I have seen the map in the Department of State which was before the committee of Congress who framed and reported the ordinance for the government of the Territory. On that map, the southern bound- ary of Michigan was represented as being above the forty-second degree of north latitude. And there was a pencil line, said to have been made by the committee, passing through the southern bend of the lake to the Canada line, which struck the strait not far below the town of Detroit. The line was manifestly intended by the committee and by Congress to be the northern boundary of our State; and, on the principles by which courts of chancery construe contracts, accompanied by plats, it would seem that the map, and the line referred to, should be conclusive evidence of our boundary, without reference to the real position of the lakes.

" When the convention sat, in 1802, the under- derstanding was, that the old maps were nearly correct, and that the line, as defined in the ordi- nance, would terminate at some point on the strait above the Maumee Bay. While the convention was in session, a man who had hunted many years on Lake Michigan, and was well acquainted with its position, happened to be in Chillicothe, and, in conversation with one of the members, told him that the lake extended much farther south than was generally supposed, and that a map of the country which he had seen, placed its southern bend many miles north of its true position. This information excited some uneasiness, and induced the convention to modify the clause describing the north boundary of the new State, so as to guard against its being depressed below the most north- ern cape of the Maumee Bay."*

With this change and some extension of the school and road donations, the convention agreed to the proposal of Congress, and, November 29,

their agreement was ratified and signed, as was also the constitution of the State of Ohio-so named from its river, called by the Shawanees Ohio, meaning beautiful-forming its southern bound- ary. Of. this nothing need be said, save that it bore the marks of true democratic feeling-of full faith in the people. By them, however, it was never voted for. It stood firm until 1852, when it was superseded by the present one, made neces- sary by the advance of time.

The General Assembly was required to meet at Chillicothe, the first Tuesday of March, 1803. This change left the territory northwest of the Ohio River, not included in the new State, in the Territories of Indiana and Michigan. Subse- quently, in 1816, Indiana was made a State, and confined to her present limits. Illinois was made a Territory then, including Wisconsin. In 1818, it became a State, and Wisconsin a Territory at- tached to Michigan. This latter was made a State in 1837, and Wisconsin a separate Territory, which, in 1847, was made a State. Minnesota was made a Territory the same year, and a State in 1857, and the five contemplated States of the territory were complete.

Preceding pages have shown how the territory north of the Ohio River was peopled by the French and English, and how it came under the rule of the American people. The war of the Revolution closed iu 1783, and left all America in the hands of a new nation. That nation brought a change. Before the war, various attempts had been made by residents in New England to people the country west of the Alleghanies. Land com- panies were formed, principal among which were the Ohio Company, and the company of which John Cleves Symmes was the agent and chief owner. Large tracts of land on the Scioto and on the Ohio were entered. The Ohio Company were the first to make a settlement. It was or- ganized in the autumn of 1787, November 27. They made arrangements for a party of forty-seven men to set out for the West under the supervision of Gen. Rufus Putnam, Superintendent of the Com- pany. Early in the winter they advanced to the Youghiogheny River, and there built a strong boat, which they named " Mayflower." It was built by Capt. Jonathan Devol, the first ship-builder in the West, and, when completed, was placed under his command. The boat was launched April 2, 1788, and the band of pioneers, like the Pilgrim Fathers, began their voyage. The 7th of the month, they arrived at the mouth of the Muskingum,

* Historical Transactions of Ohio .- JUDGE BURNETT.

HISTORY OF OHIO.

their destination, opposite Fort Harmar,* erected in the autumn of 1785, by a detachment of United States troops, under command of Maj. John Doughty, and, at the date of the Mayflower's arrival in possession of a company of soldiers. Under the protection of these troops, the little band of men began their labor of laying out a town, and commenced to erect houses for their own and subsequent emigrants' occupation. The names of these pioneers of Ohio, as far as can now be learned, are as follows:

Gen. Putnam, Return Jonathan Meigs, Win- throp Sargeant (Secretary of the Territory ), Judges Parsons and Varnum, Capt. Dana, Capt. Jonathan Devol, Joseph Barker, Col. Battelle, Maj. Tyler, Dr. True, Capt. Wm. Gray, Capt. Lunt, the Bridges, Ebenezer and Thomas Cory, Andrew Mc- Clure, Wm. Mason, Thomas Lord, Wm. Gridley, Gilbert Devol, Moody Russels, Deavens, Oakes, Wright, Clough, Green, Shipman, Dorance, the Masons, and others, whose- names are now be- yond recall.

On the 19th of July, the first boat of families arrived, after a nine-weeks journey on the way. They had traveled in their wagons as far as Wheel- ing, where they built large flat-boats, into which they loaded their effects, including their cattle, and thence passed down the Ohio to their destination. The families were those of Gen. Tupper, Col. Ichabod Nye, Col. Cushing, Maj. Coburn, and Maj. Goodale. In these titles the reader will ob- serve the preponderance of military distinction. Many of the founders of the colony had served with much valor in the war for freedom, and were well prepared for a life in the wilderness.

They began at once the construction of houses from the forests about the confluence of the rivers, guarding their stock by day and penning it by night. Wolves, bears and Indians were all about them, and, here in the remote wilderness, they were obliged to always be on their guard. From the ground where they obtained the timber to erect their houses, they soon produced a few vegetables, and when the families arrived in August, they were able to set before them food raised for the

* The outlines of Fort Harmar formed a regular pentagon, embracing within the area about three-fourths of an acre. 1ts walls were formed of large horizontal timbers, and the bastione of large upright timbers about fourteen feet in height, fastened to each other by strips of timber, tree-nailed into each picket. In the rear of the fort Maj. Doughty laid out fine gardens. It continued to be occupied by United States troops until September 1790, when they were ordered to Cincinnati. A company, under Capt. Haskell, continued to make the fort their headquarters during the Indian war, occasionally assisting the colonists at Marietta, Belpre and Waterford against the Iudiane. When not needed by the troops, the fort was used by the people of Marietta.

first time by the hand of American citizens in the Ohio Valley. One of those who came in August, was Mr. Thomas Guthrie, a settler in one of the western counties of Pennsylvania, who brought a bushel of wheat, which he sowed on a plat of ground cleared by himself, and from which that fall he procured a small crop of wheat, the first grown in the State of Ohio.

The Marietta settlement was the only one made that summer in the Territory. From their arrival until October, when Governor St. Clair came, they were busily employed making houses, and prepar- ing for the winter. The little colony, of which Washington wrote so favorably, met on the 2d day of July, to name their newborn city and its pub- lic sqares. Until now it had been known as "The Muskingum" simply, but on that day the name Marietta was formally given to it, in honor of Ma- rie Antoinette. The 4th of July, an ovation was held, and an oration delivered by James M. Var- num, who, with S. H. Parsons and John Arm- strong, had been appointed Judges of the Terri- tory. Thus, in the heart of the wilderness, miles away from any kindred post, in the forests of the Great West, was the Tree of Liberty watered and given a hearty growth.

On the morning of the 9th of July, Governor St. Clair arrived, and the colony began to assume form. The ordinance of 1787 had provided for a form of government under the Governor and the three Judges, and this form was at once put into force. The 25th, the first law relating to the militia was published, and the next day the Gov- ernor's proclamation appeared, creating all the country that had been ceded by the Indians, east of the Scioto River, into the county of Washing- ton, and the civil machinery was in motion. From that time forward, this, the pioneer settlement in Ohio, went on prosperously. The 2d of Septem- ber, the first court in the Territory was held, but as it related to the Territory, a narrative of its pro- ceedings will be found in the history of that part of the country, and need not be repeated here.

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History of Knox County, Ohio, its past and present, Part 15

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