USA > Ohio > History of Ohio; the rise and progress of an American state, Volume Two > Part 28
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The flotilla bearing this heroic and historic compan. glided with the current down the Youghiogheny int the Monongahela and then passing under the shadow of Fort Pitt swung into the "broad bosom of th Ohio." The story of that journey is an oft repeater tale. "For several days and nights," says Walker the historian of Athens county, "they pursued thei
THE GALLEY ADVENTURE
The main boat in which the first emigrants of the Ohio Company from New England traveled (1788) from Sum- rill's Ferry to Marietta. It was also called the "Second Mayflower." This boat was forty-five feet long and twelve feet wide. The picture herewith produced is that of a miniature model of the boat now preserved at Marietta.
THE CAMPUS MARTIUS
Fortress and stockade built by the first settlers at Marietta. The smaller, wall-enclosed, square was called the "Capitolium," the larger one the "Quadranaou." A broad, graded road leading from the Quadranaou to the river was called the "Via Sacra."
458
THE RISE AND PROGRES
panying this auTravailse HT The families broringtons to afassim pauheds dofdw hitsod pisu driving mm -MU2 MOTI (8851) bolest basignH woVi mont vasqmoO the
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sttorisIA fs bo71929iq won tsod pdfs to lsbom sutsinims to were the best of New England culture; they Revolutionary eurTHAM QuaMEOfHor George F. Hun his marimba sand orf tit Midt oblbof ubnd rechthofannive.
".JosASTbSUQ" ont 9no ogist off " , muilotiqso did the
he planted Ohio; I donne siebie wellecheswstrive num of persons fitted for the highest duties and remy sibilities of war and peace could ever have been lu in a community of the same size as were amone men who founded Marietta in the spring of or who joined them within twelve months thereal "No colony in America," said Washington, settled under such favorable auspices as that w has just commenced at the Muskingum; inform property, and strength will be its characteristics ; 1 many phil written yonewilly, and there never mas kurier Milmalate 5w pronote the welfare of muumiry:" "I knew them all, " said Lafayette, "I them ad; I +as them at Brandywine, Yorktowo Rhode Island, they were the bravest of the brave
The flotilla bearing this heroic and historic con glided with the current down the Youghioghens the Monongahela and then passing under the of Fort Pitt swung into the "broad borom Ohio. " ' The story of that journey is an oft Net tale. "For several days and nights," says W the historian of Athens county, "they pursue
:
459
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
solitary travel, urged along only by the current of the beautiful river, whose banks gave no signs of civilized life, nor of welcome to the pioneers; occasion- ally, a flock of wild turkeys in the underbrush, or a startled deer, drinking at the water's edge, would draw the fire of the riflemen from the boats; and now and then the dusky form of an Indian could be seen darting into the forest." A little after sunrise on the morning of the seventh, they came in sight of Fort Harmar, just below which amid fog and rain, they hauled to about noon. The current had carried them beyond their intended landing point. The com- mandant of the fort, Major Doughty, sending some soldiers to their aid, Putnam's little band towed the boats up stream, and crossing the Muskingum, landed upon the site of Marietta. The "adventurers" were welcomed by a party of about seventy Wyandot and Delaware Indians, warriors, women and children, of whom the famous Captain Pipe was the principal character. The landing of the stores and baggage was begun at once as well as the erection of General Putnam's large tent, known as a "marquee," a portion of the plunder taken by General Putnam's regiment 'rom the British at the surrender of Burgoyne's army n the Revolution. Thus was planted the Marietta settlement, the first purely colonial one in the North- west Territory after its organization. There were nany white settlers in various localities, traders' tations, missionary posts, etc., west of the Alleghenies previous to the arrival of the Ohio Company immi- grants, but the latter was the first distinct permanent American western settlement.
460
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
"Under the broad roof," says Hildreth, "of his hempen house," Putnam resided and "transacted the business of the colony for several months, until the blockhouses of Campus Martius, as their new garrison was called, were finished." The site selected for their town was a level plain, thirty feet above the Mus- kingum, on its eastern side, "where once the Mound Builders had made a resting place, setting up an arrow factory and heaping up piles of dirt for the scientists to battle over to this day." It was spring time and nature was in her bright and cheery garb. The place was picturesque; the soil rich; the climate "exceedingly healthy"; there were buffaloes in droves, plenty of deer and "turkies innumerable"; and "corn grew nine inches in twenty-four hours." Certainly it was a land of promise. Of this locality Washington wrote Richard Henderson, under date of June 19; 1788, in a letter from which we quoted his views of the settlers: "If I was a young man, just preparing to begin the world, or if advanced in life, and had a family to make provision for, I know of no country where I should rather fix my habitation than in some part of the region [mouth of Muskingum]-for which the writer of the queries seems to have a predilection."
That Washington had intelligent faith in the pros- pects of the Ohio country is evidenced by the fact that he had purchased, several years before, from Revolutionary veterans, warrants for three thou- sand acres and more of bounty lands in the Virginia Military District of Ohio, and had them located ir. what are now Clermont and Hamilton counties. The tracts covered by these warrants were being surveyec
461
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
at the time (spring of 1788) that Washington was writing this endorsement of the Ohio country. He held his Ohio lands until his death, invoicing them in the appraisal of his estate attached to his will, at fifteen thousand dollars and regarding them as among the most valuable pieces of his realty. The subsequent loss to Washington's estate of these Miami lands, through non-compliance as to technical records by the surveyor, and the interminable legislation of Congress, extending even to the present day, touching the same, forms a most curious recital, which the writer has fully set forth in the publications of the Ohio State Archeological and Historical Society.
The delighted pioneers began at once to survey the eight-acre lots and "lay out the town," which they at first called, at the suggestion of Dr. Cutler, "Adel- phia," city of "brothers," but a few weeks later formally resolved to name Marietta, an abbreviation of Marie Antoinette, the "fair queen of France, a lady who had treated the minister of the Young Ameri- can Republic, the venerable Franklin, when at the Court of Louis XVI, with all the respect and kindness due to her own father." Roosevelt, that singular embodiment of the Rough Rider and the cultured collegiate, curiously enough jeers at the Marietta settlers for the "dreadful pseudo-classic cult" bestowed in their names on some of the most prominent objects in the ruins-Mound Builders' remains-of the ancient town. The smaller, wall-enclosed, square was called the "Capitolium," the larger one the "'Quadranaou," and the broad graded road with high embankments on each side leading up from the river to Quadranaou,
462
THE RISE AND PROGRES
was called "Sacra Via." But Roosevelt should hav remembered that many of these Marietta settlers wer college graduates bearing degrees from Harvard an Yale and representing the best culture of New England and the wild west could not eradicate the literar flavor engrafted in their nature. The capital city of the Northwest Territory, for such Marietta was had temporary rules and regulations of government which "were written out and posted up on the smoot trunk of a large beech tree," on July 4th, on which day a patriotic celebration was held; a sumptuou dinner provided, says Hildreth, and "eaten under bowery which stretched along on the bank of th Muskingum." The table was supplied with venison bear meat, buffalo, roast pig and a variety of fish The officers of Fort Harmar sat at this feast with th pioneers and regular toasts were responded to; Genera James Mitchell Varnum delivered an oration; which for rhetorical flights, ornate expression, patrioti sentiments and poetical thought is hardly to be sur passed. From General Varnum's oration we cite on paragraph with the accompanying poetical quotation "The fertility of the soil-the temperature and salu brity of the air-beautifully diversified prospects- innumerable streams, through a variety of channel communicating with the ocean, and the opening pros pects of a prodigious trade and commerce, are among the advantages which welcome the admiring stranger.'
"Sweet is the breath of early morn, her rising sweet With charm of earliest birds; pleasant the sun, When first, on this delightful land, he spreads His orient beams on herb, tree, fruit, and flower Glist'ning with dew; fertile the fragrant earth,
FORT HARMAR
Erected in 1785 by Major John Doughty. Its walls were formed of large horizontal timbers, the bastions being fourteen feet high, set firmly in the earth. Back of the Fort Major Doughty laid out an orchard in which he raised the familiar "Doughty Peach." This picture represents the fort in 1790.
462
THE RISE AND PROGR
ЯАМЯАН ТЯОТ
was called, "Sacra Via. But. Roosevelt should
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Yale Attsig aidT Presenting the best culture ew Ehr and the wild west could get nichtditatorsthe flavor engrafted in their nature. The capital of the Northwest Territory, for such Marietta had temporary rules and regulations of governi which "were written out and posted up on the Pro trunk of a large becch free, " on July 4th, oni day a mutnotic celebration was held; a sumph dinner provided, says Hildreth, and "eaten und bowery which stretched along on the bank of Muskingum." The table was supplied with ven bear meat, buffalo, roast pig and a variety of The officers of Fort Harmar sat at this feast with pioneers and regular toasts were responded to; Ge James Mitchell Varnum delivered an oration; for rhetorical flights, omate expression, pam lentiments and poetical thought is hardly to be Med From General Varnum's oration we cile paragraph with the accompanying poetical quota "The bertilier of ile mul -- the temperature and hring of los wir beautifully diversified prosp tomumeradie mnieams, through a variety of ch communicating with the ocean, and the opening pecta of a prodigious trade and commerce, are the advantages which welcome the admiring stra
"Sweet is the breath of early morn, her rising sweel With charm of earliest birds; pleasant the sun, When first, on this delightful land, he spreads His orient beams on herb, tree, fruit, and flower Glist 'ning with dew, fertile the fragrant earth,
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463
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
After mild showers, and sweet the coming on Of grateful evening mild; the silent nights, With this her solemn bird, and this fair moon, And these the gems of heaven, her starry train."
Congress had appointed Arthur St. Clair governor of the new territory; James M. Varnum, Samuel H. Parsons and John Armstrong, judges; and Winthrop Sargent, secretary. These distinguished names were typical of the New England stock which comprised the pioneer officials and statesmen of the Northwest. Of Arthur St. Clair we shall learn much in subsequent pages. Varnum was from Massachusetts, a grad- uate of Brown University, a general in the Revolu- tionary Army and a member of the Continental Congress. Parsons was from Connecticut, a graduate of Harvard, for eighteen sessions a member of the Connecticut Assembly and a general in the Revolu- ion. Armstrong was a Pennsylvanian, a student it Princeton when he enlisted in the Revolutionary Army, in which he became a major; he was the author of the "Newburgh Addresses, " written at the end of the var to induce the army to demand its just dues from Congress. Sargent was a Massachusetts man, a graduate of Harvard and served as a major in the Revolutionary Army. Subsequently John Cleve ymmes was substituted for Mr. Armstrong who de- lined the appointment.
The good people of Marietta, says Charles Moore, 'had reason to be proud of their new officials, and articularly of their governor." St. Clair was a cotch-American soldier, born at Thurso, Caithness- hire, Scotland, educated at the University of Edin- urgh, emigrating to America in 1758, at the age
466
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
Secretary Sargent." The interesting details of the initial proceedings, military, civil and judicial, of the new government, are amply related by William Henry Smith, in his sketch of Arthur St. Clair, prefa- tory to the publication of the "St. Clair Papers."
The first laws for the government of the territory were published by the governor and judges at Marietta. They embraced acts regulating and establishing the militia; for creating general courts of quarter session of the peace and for establishing county courts of common pleas, and the offices of sheriff, justices, etc .; the time of convening courts and the rules regulating their procedure. These are set forth in the historical preface to Chase's Statutes of Ohio.
The laws respecting crimes quite remind one of the penal codes of the New England colonies. There were laws for the suppression and prevention of pro- fanity, irreverent and obscene language, and compelling the observance of the Sabbath. The "punishments for theft and minor offenses consisted of fines, whipping, confinement in the stocks and binding out to hard labor for a limited time." Pillories, whipping posts and stocks, in addition to the jail, were "emblems of justice that were continued in Marietta as late as the year 1812." Governor St. Clair at once proceeded to create the boundaries of the first county in the new territory; it was named Washington. Its boundaries were practically all of eastern and southern Ohio which had been reserved to the government in the treaties setting aside the northwestern portion of the state (to be) for the Indian reservation, viz .:
WASHINGTON'S OHIO LAND WARRANT
Photographic reproduction of the land warrant issued to George Washington, for 3,000 acres of land in Ohio-Vir- ginia Military District. This land was located by Wash- ington's surveyor in what is now Clermont and Hamilton counties. Washington bought the original land warrant in 1774 from one John Rootes, to whom the warrant was issued in 1763 for services in the French and Indian War. Washington owned this land at the time of his death.
WARRANTONDO
T
WARRANT
THE RISE AND PROGRE
-dasW vd bofsool asw bast aidT Honderd vistitil sinrg Herrnother Bad Indatelo wort a few of this vine te morgan,
2SW JISTIEW 9ft modw of ,2900 dol ano moit, AFFI Ni
were publish andlig triedto bankens bad vou bygnings M. They embraced www regulating and establishing militia: for ervaring general courts of quarter ar of tlie peace and for establishing county court commony pleas. and the offices of sheriff, justicea, the time of convening courty and the rules regulus their procedure. These are set forth in the hialo preface to Chase's Statutes of Ohio.
The laws respecting crimes quite remind on the penal codes of the New England colonies, T Were laws for the suppression and prevention of fanity, Irreverent and obscene language, and compro the oberyance of the Sabbath The "punishm for thefi and minor offenses consisted of fines, whip confirmomi in the stocks and binding oul to lilior ka - limited xine," Pillories, whipping and vinsko. wo adilitheo do the jail, were "emblev justice chiar pure rowinged in Marietta as late year 1812." Gowinor St. Clair at once pro to create the boundaries of the first county in th Territory; it was named Washington. Its bous were practically all of eastern and southen which had been reserved to the government treaties setting aside the northwestern portion state (to be) for the Indian reservation, viz. :
Land Office Military WARRANT, No. 3755
To the principal SU RV EVO R of the Land's fet apart for the Officers and Soldiers of the Commonwealth of VIRGINIA.
T *HIS fhall be your W A R R A N T to furvey and Jay S off in one or more Surveys, for George Mashing ton /2 afserof, Lehn Roots
his Heits or Affigns, the Quantity of Three Hoursand
Acres of Land, due unto the faid George Washington for a i military Warrant of 3000 acres of Lana granted to Lohn (Roots by Low Dunmore the The Day of Drum 1993 fabiano by the said los Roots To confidenation of his forvices for unico George santos Underherington Bet thethe town Weby 174 and exchange by Resolution of afin finally
Aday of Rer 1784, agreeable to a Certificate from the Governor and Canneil received in the Land Office. GAVEN under my Hand, and the Seal of the faid Office this 1412
in the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred and 25 .?
467
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
"Beginning on the bank of the Ohio River, where the western boundary line of Pennsylvania crosses it, and running with that line to Lake Erie; thence along the southern shore of said lake to the mouth of Cuyahoga River; thence up said river to the portage between that and the Tuscarawas branch of the Mus- kingum; thence adown the branch to the forks, at the crossing place above Fort Laurens; thence with a line to be drawn westerly to the portage of that branch of the Big Miami, on which the fort stood that was taken by the French in 1752, until it meets the road from the lower Shawanese town to the San- dusky; thence south to the Scioto River; down that to its mouth; and thence up the Ohio River to the place of beginning."
On Monday, July 21, 1788, Dr. Cutler's diary reads : "Set out from Ipswich on a journey to the Ohio and Muskingum." He started in that well-worn sulky and kept a daily journal in which he described his experiences with great minutiae. His versatility was in full play duing this journey for he preached at points on the way and administered emetic and cathartics to some bilious companions with whom he fell in. He passed through Pennsylvania, touching at Harrisburg; ascended the Blue Mountain, "long and steep"; came to Horse Valley where he left his sulky ; and thence continued on horseback, for thus he could proceed faster. In mid-August he reached Coxe's Fort, on the Ohio, and there embarked on a big flatboat; "assisted by a number of people, we went to work and constructed a machine in the form of a screw with short blades and placed it in the stern of the boat, which
468 RISE AND PROGRESS OF AN AMERICAN STATE
we turned with a crank." In this "propeller" they proceeded to Marietta which they reached August 19th, "being very politely received by the Honorable Judges, General Putnam and friends." During his stay, he was the guest at General Putnam's "marquee." His sojourn of three weeks was a continuous round of interesting incidents. He was the guest not only of the leading citizens, but the Indian camps nearby, in which he met several of the chiefs of note, Guy- asutha, Cornplanter, and others. He made close observations in all fields of study to which he was inclined. It was Dr. Cutler's first care on his return to Massachusetts to secure the services of a gospel minister for the Marietta settlement. He obtained the Rev. Daniel Story, "a tall, slender, cultivated young man," a graduate of Dartmouth, who reached his new pastorate on the Muskingum in the spring of 1789.
CHAPTER XXII.
SYMMES PURCHASE AND THE FRENCH COLONY
١
عـ
A T the date which we have now reached, west- ern immigration progressed with accelerated speed; a stream of eastern colonists poured into the great West; as John Bach McMaster observes, in New England, "every small farmer whose barren acres were covered with mortgages, whose debts pressed heavily upon him or whose roving spirit gave him no peace, was eager to sell his homestead for what it would bring, save what he could from the general wreck and begin life anew on the banks of the Muskingum or the Ohio." The Ohio was alive with the descending flatboats and their migrating passengers. One observer notes that in April, 1787, fifty flatboats left Fort Pitt; another at Fort Finney saw thirty-four pass in thirty-nine days; and a chron- icler at Fort Harmar recorded that from October, 1786, to May, 1787, one hundred and seventy-seven boats, "carrying upwards of 2,700" people passed the garri- son. But in New England this increasing exodus became a serious problem; as McMaster notices, it was taking the best brain, blood and sinew from the old colonies to the new country and efforts were made to check the trans-Allegheny schemes. The induce- ments of their promoters were denounced in the colonial coffee houses and in the public prints, "the poor fools," it was said, "were being enticed from comfortable homes under the promise that they were going to a land of more tropical richness, to a land where they would reap without having sown and gather without having ploughed, but in truth," declared the detractors, "the climate was cold, the land sterile and sickly, and the woods full of Indians, panthers and hoop-snakes."
472
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
Penny pamphlets were issued, embellished with car- toons, intended to ridicule the western movement. But the tide ceased not to flow. In the year (1788) of its settlement, ten thousand westward movers passed Marietta, which grew apace and by 1790 it had a hundred cabins, and branch settlements were planted at Belpre on the Ohio and at Big Bottom, thirty miles up the Muskingum.
Meanwhile the Miami country, though neglected by the Ohio Company, was falling into other enterprising hands. In the spring of 1786 Major Benjamin Stites, then a resident of Redstone, on the Monongahela, embarked upon a trading trip down the Ohio, in one of the typical flatboats, "loaded with flour, whiskey and other warres. " He landed at the Kentucky port, then called Limestone, (now Maysville). At the time of his arrival the section thereabouts had just been raided by a daring band of Shawnees, from across the Ohio. Stites, fond of adventure, readily accepted the leadership of a Kentucky retaliatory party, which at once started in pursuit of the marauders. After cross- ing the Ohio the pursuers followed the Indian trail some sixty miles, through the so-called "Miami Slaughter House," a name given the locality because it had been the scene of constant bloody encounters- many of which we have related-between the Indians and pioneers. Stites' party reached Old Town or Old Chillicothe and unable to recover the stolen prop- erty or punish the Shawnee raiders, they crossed over to the Great Miami, twenty miles farther west and followed its course back to the Ohio. This detour, fruitless as to warfare results, brought to the notice
JOHN CLEVES SYMMES
Native of Long Island (1742). Teacher and surveyor; Colonel in the American Revolution; lawyer and jurist; judge of Northwest Territory (1787). Projected the Symmes Purchase of land between the Big and Little Miamis. He died in Cincinnati, February 26, 1814.
-
479
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
Penny pamphlets were issued, embellished with RAMMY2 24VAIOHOL toons, intended to ridicule the western moyeniene
rasca not LOW ; fandt bas Tovwsl ;norfulovo rissromiA ont ni fonolo
Marieeltil hoisin odt moovitod bast to sasom sopgave
hundred cabins, and branch settlements were plano
.aimsiM
at Belpre on the Ohio and at Big Bottom, thirty mill up the Muskingum.
Meanwhile the Miami country, though neglected the Ohio Company, was falling into other enterprixuy hands. To the spring of 1786 Major Benjamin Stiren then a resident of Redstone, on the Monongahela embarked upon a trading trip down the Ohio, in of the typical flatboats, "loaded with flour, whisky and other warres." He landed at the Kentucky port then called Limestone, (now Maysville). Ar the tie of his arrival the section thereabouts had just Loo raided by a daring band of Shawnees, from across the Ohio, Stites, fond of adventure, readily accepted the leadership of a Kentucky retaliatory party, which al once started in pursuit of the maranders. After cmore ing the Ohio the pursuers followed the Indian und some diary miles, through the so-called "Mind Slxoghier Him," = name given the locality bosque it had been the traue of constant bloody encounter many of which we have related-between the Indians and pioneere. Stilge" party reached Old Town of Old Chillicothe and unable to recover the stolen prop- erty or punish the Shawnee raiders, they crossod over to the Great Miami, twenty miles farther well and followed its course back to the Ohio. This detour, Fruitless as to warfare results, brought to the notice
473
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
of Stites the value of the rich country he had traversed, every acre of which he declared was "worth a silver dollar." He resolved to form a colony, get possession of this land and settle thereon. He hastened to New York, where Congress was then in session, the story being that the hardy Stites walked the entire distance. In New York Stites met with one of the congressmen from New Jersey, John Cleves Symmes, a native of Long Island (born 1742) and in early life a teacher and surveyor, later a colonel in the Revolution, an eminent jurist, married to the daughter of Governor Livingston (New Jersey), and as previously noted, appointed (1787) one of the judges of the Northwest Territory. Symmes impressed with the reports of Stites, visited, in the summer of 1787, the Miami country, the glories of which he found had not half been told. On his return to the East, Symmes, at once organized a com- any of twenty-four, among whom were Benjamin Stites, General Jonathan Dayton, a member of Con- gress, Elias Boudinot, Dr. John Witherspoon, president of Princeton College, and others. A petition was presented, by Symmes, to Congress, August 29, 1787, on behalf of himself and associates, that the Treasury Board be authorized to make them a grant, on the same erms that had been conceded to the Ohio Company, for 11 the lands between the two Miami rivers, from the Ohio south to a north line, which should be a continua- ion of the "western termination of the northern bound- ry line of the grant to Messrs. Sargent and Cutler Company." The acreage embraced was then un- nown. Congress referred the matter to the Treasury board, and without awaiting its decision, and "in
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