USA > Ohio > Noble County > History of Noble County, Ohio: With Portraits and Biographical Sketches of some of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 6
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"This fort was erected on the right bank of the Muskingum, at its junc- tion with the Ohio, by a detachment of United States troops under the command of Major John Doughty, in the autumn of the year 1785, but was not completed until the follow- ing year. The position was judicious- ly chosen, as it commanded not only the mouth of the Muskingum, but swept the waters of the Ohio, from a curve in the river, for a considerable distance both above and below the fort. It was the first military post built within the limits of the present state of Ohio, excepting Fort Lau- rens, which was built in 1778. The fort stood on what is called the second bottom, being elevated above the ordinary floods of the Ohio, while between it and the banks of the river was a lower or first bottom, depressed about six feet, to which the descent was by a natural slope. This regular or natural glacis was continued for a quarter of a mile up the Muskingum and for a considerable distance below on the Ohio, adding greatly to the unrivaled beauty of the spot.
"The outlines of the fort formed a regular pentagon, and the area em- braced within its walls was about three-fourths of an acre. The cur- tains or main walls of the fort were constructed of large timbers placed horizontally to the height of twelve or fourteen feet, and were one hun- dred and twenty feet in length, as was recently ascertained by measure-
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ment, as the outlines of two of the bastions can still (1848) be traced in the earth. The bastions were con- structed of large timbers set upright in the ground, fourteen feet in height, fastened together by strips of timber tree-nailed into each picket. The outlines of these were also pentag- onal; the fifth side, or that opening into the area of the fort, being occu- pied by blockhouses used as quarters for the officers.
" The barracks or dwellings for the private soldiers were built along the sides of the curtains with their roofs sloping inward. They were divided into four rooms of thirty feet each, with convenient fireplaces, and af- forded ample space for a regiment of men. The officers houses were made of hewed logs two stories high, two rooms on a floor, with chimneys on each end. The large house in the southeast bastion was used for a storehouse. From the roof of the bastion which stood in the curtain facing the Ohio there arose a square tower, like a cupola, surmounted by a flagstaff, in which was stationed the sentinel. The room beneath was the guardhouse. An arsenal, built of timber and covered with earth, stood in the area of the fort near the guard- house and answered as a magazine or bomb-proof for their powder. The main gate was next the river, with a sally-port on the site toward the hills which arise abruptly from the level ground at the distance of a quarter of a mile.
" Near the center of the fort was a well for the supply of the garrison in case of a siege, though for ordinary
purposes water was brought from the river. In the rear and to the left of the fort, on the ground which had supplied the materials for building, Major Doughty had laid out fine gardens. These were cultivated by the soldiers, and in the virgin soil of the rich alluvions produced an abun- dant crop of culinary vegetables for the use of the garrison. To the bravery and pride of a soldier the major added a refined taste for hor- ticulture. Peaches were planted as soon as the ground was cleared, and in the second or third year produced fruit. A variety of his originating is still cultivated in Marietta and known as the Doughty peach."
Fort Harmer continued to be occu- pied by United States troops until September, 1790, when they were ordered to Fort Washington. Dur- ing the Indian war the barracks and houses of the fort were chiefly occu- pied by the Ohio Company's settlers, only a small detachment of National troops being stationed there.
Joseph Buell, a native of Connec- ticut, who was afterward a settler at Marietta, was in the service of the United States in the Northwest from 1785 to 1788, and kept a diary which affords many interesting glimpses of pioneer and military life at that period. His journal may be found in the seventh chapter of Hildreth's "Pioneer History." From it we learn that the treatment of private soldiers, was so rigorous as to be almost despotic. They were fre- quently punished by flogging, some- times receiving two hundred lashes. The chief offenses were drunkenness
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and desertion. The men were idle, dissolute and depraved. As there wages were but three dollars a month, it is not surprising that few industri- ous, sober men were to be found among them.
Buell left West Point, N. Y., No- vember 20, 1785, in one of the com- panies which had been ordered to the western frontier. Major Wyllis, who shortly afterward became command- ant at Fort McIntosh, commanded the troops. They arrived at Fort McIntosh on the 26th of December. Shortly afterward three men de- serted, were captured, and shot by order of Major Wyllis, without even the formality of a court-martial. Buell describes the act as the most inhuman he ever saw. On the 12th of March, 1786, Buell writes that Generals Parsons and Butler arrived from the treaty-meeting at the Miami. On the 3d of April Major Wyllis and Captain Hamtramck with his company went down the river to disperse the frontier settlers on the right bank of the Ohio. May 4th, Captain Zeigler and Captain Strong embarked with their compa- nies for the Muskingum. (Buell was orderly sergeant in Captain Strong's company.) They arrived on the 8th, and two days later Captain Zeigler and his company departed for the Miami, and Captain Strong's com- pany moved into the garrison.
In the month of June, Major Fish arrived from New York, and on the return of Major Wyllis from the Miami, arrested him for shooting the three men at Fort McIntosh without trial. Subsequently he was tried by
a court-martial at Fort Pitt and ac- quitted. During the same month news was received of murders by the Indians in the vicinity of the Miami, and at Fish Creek, thirty miles from Fort Harmar. On the 4th of July Buell made this significant entry : "The great day of American Inde- pendence was commemorated by the discharge of thirteen guns; after which the troops were served with extra rations of liquor and allowed to get as drunk as they pleased."
During the summer and fall In- dians were frequently seen in the neighborhood of the garrison, and the troops were constantly expecting an attack. The savages, however, did nothing more serious than to steal some of the officers' horses. The soldiers were kept a great part of the time on short rations. Pro- visions were exceedingly scarce, and though hunters were employed to bring in all the game they could, there was frequently a lack of suffi- cient food. An Indian known as Captain Tunis frequently visited the garrison, and was on friendly terms with the soldiers, often warning them of hostile warriors being in the vicin- ity. In August a portion of the troops, under the command of Cap- tain Hart, left for Wheeling to escort and protect the surveyors of the seven ranges. November 25, "Cap- tains Hart's and McCurd's companies came in from the survey of the seven ranges. They had a cold, wearisome time-their clothes and shoes worn out, and some of their feet badly frozen."
The beginning of the year 1787
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was without important incident at the garrison. On the 15th of March a sargeant and a party of men was sent out to assist some inhabitants (probably from Fish or Grave Creek) to move their families and settle near the fort. In the latter part of the same month, some of the hunters brought in a buffalo that was eighteen hands high and weighed a thousand pounds. April 1st the Indians came within twelve miles of the garrison, killed an old man and took a young boy prisoner.
April 9th, a party was sent out to bring in the hunters of the garrison, then fifty miles up the Muskingum, on account of rumored hostility of the Indians.
April 17th Major Hamtramck ar- rived and took command of the post. May 6th thirteen boats passed down the river, loaded with families, cattle, .goods, etc., bound for Kentucky; and on the next day twenty-one boats passed, on their way to the lower country, having on board five hun- dred and nine persons, with wagons, goods, etc. The entry for May 21st is as follows : "This evening I sent a young man, who cooked for me, to Kerr's Island (so called from Hamil- ton Kerr, a noted scout, who settled there early in the year 1787), about half a mile above the fort, after some milk. He was seen to jump into the river near the shore when about a third of a mile from the garrison. We supposed some of the people were playing in the water. Ile did not return that evening, which led me to fear he had lost his canoe. In the morning a party was sent after him. [ the work is afforded by the journal
They discovered fresh signs of In- dians and found his hat. They fol- lowed the trail, but did not find them. We afterward heard that they killed and scalped him. The Indians were a party of Ottawas."
On the 26th of May, Buell, with the rest of Captain Strong's com- pany, embarked for the Falls of the Ohio, and did not return to Fort Harmar until the 21st of the follow- ing November. The remainder of his journal contains little that would interest our readers.
While the events recorded by Buell in his diary were transpiring the survey of the seven ranges of town- ships, as ordered by Congress in the ordinance of 1785, was in progress, under the direction of Captain Thomas Hutchins, geographer of the United States. The surveyors pro- ceeded to the Ohio River, at the place designated in the ordinance in in the fall of 1785 and made a begin- ning of the survey. General Butler, on his way to the Miami, met the surveyors at the western boundary of Pennsylvania, and dined with them on the 30th of September. They were then apprehensive of trouble from the Indians, who, dis- satisfied with the provisions of the treaty of Fort McIntosh, were strongly opposed to the survey. Their hostile attitude soon caused the abandonment of the work. In Jan- uary, 1786, a treaty was held at Fort Finney, which promised to se- cure peace, and in the following sum- mer the survey was resumed. A very full account of the progress of
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of John Mathews, also published in Hildreth's history along with Buell's diary. Mathews was a young man from New Braintree, Mass., the nephew of General Rufus Putnam. He came to the western country, led by a desire of adventure with the hope of obtaining employment in the survey, in which he was successful. He was afterward one of the Ohio Company's surveyors, and a pioneer of Muskingum county, where he set- tled in 1796.
Mathews arrived at Pittsburg July 29, 1786, and, finding that the sur- veyors had already proceeded down the Ohio to Little Beaver Creek, im- mediately started to overtake them, accompanied by Colonel Sherman. On the 31st they arrived at the camp of the surveyors, on the eastern bank of the Ohio, and found them awaiting the arrival of troops from Mingo (Fort Steuben) to act as their escort in the survey. The troops arrived on the 5th of August, and from the middle of that month to the 1st of September Mathews was employed under Adam Hoops, of Pennsylvania, in the survey of the second range. On the 7th of September he started with General Tupper to assist in the survey of the seventh range. On Sunday, the 17th, he records a visit made to an Indian camp on Sandy Creek. The Indians, eight in number, and includ- ing both men and women, were re- turning from Fort McIntosh to their town. "They had rum with them, and had had a drunken frolic the i night before, but they appeared decent and friendly." The next day
General Tupper began his range, lo- cating his camp on "Nine Shilling Creek " (Nimishillen.) IIere an express came to them from Major Hamtramck's camp, at Little Beaver, bringing the word that the Shawnees were preparing to make an attack on the surveyors. Deeming it unsafe to proceed further, they suspended work and retreated toward Little Beaver. On the 21st they met Major Hamtramck and his command advancing to meet them, and all re- turned to Hamtramck's station. Early in October it was determined to continue the survey, the troops of Major Hamtramck acting as their guard.
On the 11th they crossed the Ohio one mile below the old Mingo town, and started west on Crawford's trail, which they followed until the 13th. On the 30th of October, at their camp in the fifth range, they dis- coverered that all the packhorses of the escort except one had been stolen by the Indians. Captain Hart, com- manding the troops, at once set about erecting a blockhouse. From the 1st to the 7th of November the party to which Mathews belonged were on what is now the south boundary of the seventh township in the third range of the United States Military District. Mathews and Major Sar- gent then started down Wheeling Creek, crossed the Ohio, and stopped at Colonel Zane's. They there found Captain Hutchins, and in his com- pany Matthews started for Esquire McMahan's, sixteen miles above. On the 9th he was at the house of Wil- liam Greathouse, on the Virginia
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side. The next day he listened to a sermon delivered by a Methodist preacher, and on the 11th witnessed exercises of a far different character, as will be seen by the following entry :
"Saturday, November 11. Being disappointed in my expectation of teaching a school this winter, I went to Harman Greathouse, the father of my friend William. Here I found a number of the neighbors seated in social glee around a heap of corn. The inspiring juice of rye had enliven- ed their imaginations and given their tongues such an exact balance that they moved with the greatest alac- rity, amid scenes of boxing, wrest- ling, hunting, etc. At dusk of even- ing the corn was finished, and the company retired to the house, where many of them took such hearty draughts of the generous liquor as quite deprived them of the use of their limbs. Some quarreled, some sang, and others laughed ; while the whole displayed a scene more diverting than edifying. At ten o'clock all that could walk went home, but left three or four round the fire, hugging the whisky bottle and arguing very obstinately on religion ; at which I left them and went to bed."
The surveying party disbanded for the winter early in December, and most of its members left for their eastern homes. Mathews, however, remained at the home of the Great- houses and pursued his studies. In February he went to Fort Steuben, at the request of Major Hamtramck, to take charge of the commissary de- partment. February 10, 1787, Cap-
tain Martin and Mr. Ludlow left the fort for the woods to continue and complete the survey of the ranges, and were soon after followed by other surveyors. On the 8th of May three surveyors returned to the fort, having received information of Indi. an outrages at Fish Creek, on the 25th of April, when three persons were killed and three taken prison- ers. On the 11th a family was at- tacked about fifteen miles from the fort; one man and two children were killed, a woman wounded, and two children taken prisoners.
In June Mathews was at Wheel- ing, opposite which the surveyors were then encamped, awaiting the arrival of troops to act as their escort. The troops came from Fort Harmar on the 6th, and two days later the surveyors started for their work. About this time other Indian outrages were reported in the vicin- ity of Wheeling. In August Math- ews visited Fort Harmar, and sub- sequently he again assisted the sur- veyors. In February, 1788, having been appointed one of the Ohio Company's surveyors, he joined the advance party of New Eng- landers en route for the West at Sumrill's Ferry, on the Yough- iogheny river, and on the 7th of April he arrived at the mouth of the Muskingum with the rest of the pioneers composing the first colony in Ohio.
We have devoted thus much space to Mathews' diary, not because it contains much of local interest, but because it shows the condition of the Ohio wilderness one hundred
.
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years ago, and affords such glimpses of life on the borders of civilization that from them the reader can, in imagination at least, picture what were the hardships and perils which the surveyors and adventurers of that day had to encounter.
By a provision of the ordinance of May 20, 1785, it was ordained that " the towns of Gnadenhutten, Schoen- brunn and Salem, on the Muskingum (Tuscarawas), and so much of the lands adjoining to the said towns, with the buildings and improvements thereon, shall be reserved for the sole use of the Christian Indians who were formerly settled there, or the remains of that society, as may, in the judgment of the geographer, be sufficient for them to cultivate." The construction is involved, but .the meaning is apparent. By a resolu- tion passed July 27, 1787, Congress declared that tracts of land surround- ing the towns mentioned, amounting in the whole to ten thousand acres, should be reserved and held in trust by the Moravians, or United Breth- ren, of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, " for civilizing the Indians and pro- moting Christianity," and for the uses specified in the ordinance.
The first sale of a tract of public lands of the United States to an asso- ciation was made October 27, 1787, when the Board of Treasury agreed with the agents of the Ohio Company to sell to the latter a million and a half acres, lying on the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers. The lands known as the Ohio Company's purchase, were to be surveyed by the company within seven years without expense
to the government, and laid off into townships, fractional parts of town- ships, and lots, as provided in the ordinance of 1785. The history of this purchase will be found in another chapter.
In May, 1788, a contract was made between the Board of Treasury and John Cleves Symmes for a tract lying on the Ohio River between the Great and Little Miami Rivers.
The unsettled state of Indian af- fairs in the territory from 1788 until the establishment of peace in 1795 prevented the government from con- tinuing the surveys of congressional lands, and there was but little fur- ther legislation in relation to the same during this period. By an act of Congress of March 3, 1795, the President was authorized and em- powered to cause twenty-four thou- sand acres to be surveyed, which were to be granted under certain regulations to the French settlers at Gallipolis.
A donation, small in itself, but important in its relation to the his- tory of the Muskingum Valley, was made to Ebenezer Zane, of Wheeling, in accordance with the provisions of an act passed May 17, 1796. This act provided that there should be granted to Zane "three tracts of land, not exceeding one mile square each, one on the Muskingum, one on Hocking River, and one other on the north bank of Scioto River, and in such situations as shall best promote the utility of a road to be opened by him on the most eligible route be- tween Wheeling and Limestone (Maysville, Ky.), to be approved by
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the President of the United States or such other person as he shall appoint for that purpose." Besides opening the road, Zane was required to main- tain ferries across the rivers during the pleasure of Congress. These tracts were located where the cities of Zanesville and Lancaster now stand, and on the Scioto opposite Chillicothe. For assisting him in opening the road Ebenezer Zane gave to his brother Jonathan and John McIntire the tract on the Musking- um, and they in 1799 laid out the vil- lage of Westbourn, now the city of Zanesville.
May 18, 1796, Congress passed an act providing for the survey and sale of the lands northwest of the Ohio, the substance of which will be given further on. This was followed by the act of June 1, 1796, establishing the United States Military District, the boundaries of which were as fol- lows: Beginning at the northwest corner of the seven ranges of town- ships, and running thence fifty miles due south, along the western bound- ary of the seventh range; thence due west to the main branch of the Sci- oto River; thence up the main branch of that river to the place where the Indian boundary line crosses the same (northwestern part of Delaware County); thence along the said boundary line to the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum River at the crossing-place above Fort Lau- rens; thence up that stream to the point where a line run due west from the place of beginning will intersect said river; thence along the line so run to the place of beginning. The
act provided that this tract should be surveyed into townships five miles square; the lands to be granted for military services to the holders of registered warrants. One section provided that so much of the tract as should remain unlocated on the 1st of January, 1800, should be released from the reservation and be at the free disposition of the United States. March 2, 1799, this section was re- pealed and the time extended to Jan- uary 1, 1802. The time was extended afterward by various acts and amend- ments passed at different dates be- tween 1802 and 1825.
The act of May 18, 1796, provided that a surveyor-general should be ap- pointed; that he should engage a suf- ficient number of skillful surveyors as his deputies, whom he should cause, "without delay, to survey and mark the unascertained outlines of the lands lying northwest of the River Ohio and above the mouth of the River Kentucky, in which the titles of the Indian tribes have been ex- tinguished." Such part of the lands as had not already been conveyed by letters patent, or divided according to the terms of the ordinance of 1785, or which had not already been ap- propriated for satisfying military land bounties, and which might not be so appropriated by Congress dur- ing that session, was to be surveyed into ranges, townships and sections -the manner of the survey to be very nearly according to the rules of the act of 1785, already given. Salt- springs were to be reserved, with the sections in which they were found, and also the four central sections of
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each township, for the future disposal of the United States. One-half of the townships, taken alternately, were to be subdivided into thirty-six sections, each containing six hundred and forty acres.
Section 4 provided that whenever seven ranges of townships had been surveyed, and the plats transmitted to the Secretary of the Treasury, the lands should be offered for sale at public vendue, under the direction of the governor or secretary of the Ter- ritory and the surveyor-general, in sections; lands below the Great Mi- ami to be sold at Cincinnati, and those between the Scioto and the seven ranges, and north of the Ohio Company's purchase, at Pittsburgh. The townships remaining undivided were to be offered for sale in like manner at the seat of government of the United States, under the di- rection of the Secretary of the Treas- ury, in tracts of one-quarter of a township, excluding the four central sections and the other reserves before mentioned. It was further provided that none of the lands to be offered for sale under this act should be sold at a price less than two dollars per acre. The time of the sale was to be advertised in the newspapers of the different States and Territories, and the sales at the different places must not commence within less than a month of each other.
Immediately after the passage of this act the Secretary of the Treas- ury was to advertise for sale the lands which remained unsold in the seven ranges, including the lands drawn for the army by the Secretary
of War; also those lands before sold but not paid for. The townships which, by the ordinance of 1785, were to be sold entire, should be sold at Philadelphia in quarter-townships, the four central sections being re- served; the townships to be sold in sections were to be sold in Pitts- burgh.
The highest bidder for any tract was required to deposit one-twen- tieth of the purchase money at the time of sale, and to pay one-half of the sum bid within thirty days; this being done he was entitled to a credit of one year on the balance, patents to be issued on the final pay- ment being made. Any purchaser paying in full at the time the first moiety was due should be entitled to a deduction of ten per cent.
The compensation of the surveyor- general was fixed at $2,000 per an- num, and the expense of the survey was limited to three dollars per mile for each mile surveyed.
The fees for each certificate were as follows: For a tract of a quarter of a township, $20; for a section, $6, and for each patent the same sums.
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