USA > Ohio > History of Ohio; the rise and progress of an American state, Volume Two > Part 30
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486
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
just as the rumblings of the approaching French revolution were beginning to reverberate through the land.
But Barlow had been given "more to do than he alone was capable of," and he proved to be unequa in shrewdness and boldness, to the stupendous under- taking. For ten months he labored only to find him- self, "out his time, his trouble and five hundred pounds sterling," and no lands worth mentioning having been sold. When about to give up and return to America, Barlow "fell in with" one William Playfair an Englishman, unscrupulous, venturesome and wel versed in the customs of Paris and the French language Barlow accepted the services of Playfair and jointly in the summer of 1789, they organized the Compagnie du Scioto, of Paris. Among the members of this Company were many distinguished Parisians; Marquis Gouy D'Arsy, lieutenant-general and member of the National Assembly; Jean Francois Noel Maheas comptroller of the royal pay office; Messieurs Louis Marthe, Claude Odille Joseph Barond, Guillaume Louis Joseph, Antoine St. Didier, prominent Paris merchants; Chevalier de Coquelin and the Messieurs Jean Antoine Chais de Soisson, the Englishman Playfair, and the American, Barlow. We cannot go into the numerous and devious details of the subsequent proceedings. These will be found in the monograph of Belote and the publications of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society.
To this Compagnie du Scioto, Barlow, by his power of attorney, contracted to transfer the rights of his principals to the Scioto tract, save that part directly
LAND GRANTS AND SURVEYS
Map of the chief land grant and survey divisions of early Ohio, showing the Congress Lands, Virginia Military District, Symmes Purchase, Ohio Company Lands, Seven Ranges, Western Reserve and other smaller divisions.
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486
THE RISE AND PROGRES
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alone was capable of," and he proved to be unequ in shrewdness and boldness, to the stupendous unde taking. For ten months he labored only to find hi self, "out his time, his trouble and five hundred pour sterling," and no lands worth mentioning havi been sold. When about to give up and return America, Barlow "fell in with" one William Playf an Englishman, unscrupulous, venturesome and versed in the customs of Paris and the French langua Barlow accepted the services of Playfair and joint in the summer of 1789, they organized the Compa du Scioto. of Paris. Among the members of Company were many distinguished Parisians ; Man Gouy D'Arsy, lieutenant-general and member of National Assembly: Jean Francois Noel Mal comptroller of the royal pay office; Messieurs Marthe, Claude Odille Joseph Barond, Guille Louis Joseph, Antoine St. Didier, prominent 1 merchant: Checalier de Coquelin and the Mer Jean Antoine Chair de Soisson, the English Playfair, and the American, Barlow. We ca go into the numerous and devious details subsequent proceedings. These will be found monograph of Belote and the publications of th State Archaeological and Historical Society.
To this Compagnie du Scioto, Barlow, by his of attorney, contracted ro transfer the right principals to the Scioto tract, save that part
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487
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
north of the Ohio Company's purchase, unless some portion of the latter might be needed to complete the full amount of three million acres. The price was six livres tournois-one dollar and twenty cents- per acre. Payments were to be made in installments, commencing December 31, 1789, and ending April 30, 1794. In making this contract Barlow exhibited his powers of attorney, etc., thus fully apprising his French associates of his exact authority, viz, that he held power of attorney from William Duer, to which was attached a certified copy of the contract of Cutler and Sargent with the Board of Treasury and their assignment and power to William Duer. In all these papers the lands were recognized as held only by right of preemption. Throughout this transaction therefore Barlow exercised no deception. The French Society appointed as its attorneys to sell the Scioto lands, Playfair, Barlow and Soisson, and delegated to them "powers to resell all or part of 3,000,000 acres at the best price, terms," etc. Playfair was given the office of keeping a register of control over the company's funds, which resulting from the sales were to be de- posited with M. Saline, a Paris banker. Belote remarks the whole scheme of the formation of the French Company was largely a "paper proceeding." As a matter of fact the original principals remained the same and the Paris company was but a "blind to deceive the public." Duer still retained charge of the preemption; Cutler and Sargent looked on as ''silent partners"; while Barlow and Playfair planned to throw the lands upon the French market.
488
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
The French Company now proceeded to do business. A land office was opened at Paris and the 3,000,000 acres offered at a French crown per acre. Plats and maps, the latter highly colored, were exhibited, representing the country on the Ohio and the Scioto. On the plan of the tract, a town, called Gallipolis was designated nearly opposite the mouth of the Great Kanawha. Nor was the feature of an alluring prospectus omitted. The main document holding forth, in glowing terms, the natural resources of the Scioto El Dorado, though published anonymously, was attributed to Manasseh Cutler and first printed in English in Salem, Mass., under date of 1787. The French edition was issued in Paris in 1789, under the title, Prospectus pour l'establissment sur les rivieres d'Ohio et de Scioto en Amerique. The fluent extrav- agance and unconscious humor of this advertisement merit full reproduction, but space forbids. No real estate prospectus ever surpassed it in plausible in- ducements. After describing the situation of the lands of the Scioto, they and the surrounding country are painted with the brush of a landscape artist; the rivers, hills, valleys and plains constitute a veritable Arcadia: "The Scioto has a gentle current, which is interrupted by no cataracts and for an extent of 2
two hundred miles large vessels can navigate it. Some times in the spring it overflows its banks, which are! ; covered by vast fields of rice, which nature here produces spontaneously ; for the rest, we find in abundance in the country which borders upon this river, salt springs, coal mines, deposits of white and blue clay and free stone." The prospectus proceeds
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
489
to say that geographers, surveyors and travellers all agree that no part of the United States offers so many advantages as the Scioto Valley, "whether of salubrity, fertility or variety of productions." On the "plains" of this country "one can cultivate an acre of land per day and prepare it for the plow; there is no undergrowth on them and the trees which grow very high and become very large only need to be deprived of their bark in order to become fit for use." All kinds of timber grow abundantly; the sugar-maple "furnishes enough sugar for the use of a large number of people;" one maple will produce three ten pounds of sugar per year, "the sap flows freely and becomes crystallized after being boiled, and the sugar is equal in flavor and whiteness to the best Muscavado. On the hills and plains quantities of grapes grow wild, from which a wine may be made, preferable to the many wines of Europe." "There is very little bad land in this territory and no marsh;" * * * "the labor of the agriculturist will here be rewarded by productions as useful as and more varied than in any part of America;" * "'in all parts the soil is deep, rich, producing in abundance wheat, rye, corn, buck- wheat, barley, oats, flax, hemp, tobacco, indigo, the tree that furnishes food for the silk worm, the grape-vine, cotton;" "the tobacco is superior :o that of Virginia;" * "the crops of wheat nore abundant than in any other part of America; the ordinary crop of corn is sixty to eighty English bushels per acre;" * "hops are produced spon- aneously in this territory and there are also the same peaches, plums, pears, melons, etc. There is no
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS
country more abounding in game than this; the stag, fallow deer, elk, buffalo and bear fill the woods and are nourished on these great and beautiful plains; wild turkeys, geese, ducks, swans, teal, pheasants, partridges, and so forth are found in greater abundance than our domestic fowls in all the older settlements of America; hogs would be so productive here on uncultivated lands, that if a start were made with three thousand sows, the company might export thirty thousand barrels of pork the first season; the rivers are well stocked with fish of different kinds and several are of an exquisite quality; they are large, the catfish weighs from twenty to eighty pounds ;" * "when inhabitants come here from all parts of the world, nature will have provided for them, at least for one year, all they need, without the neces- sity of making any purchases."
The prospectus filling many pages, quotes copiously from the accounts of travellers as to the commercial opportunities, the lumber for ship building, the prod- ucts of the mines, the river facilities for shipping and travel, the accessibility of eastern sea-water ports, the river routes to the south, etc. This Scioto land was moreover to be the center of a great population and industrial enterprise; the United States Govern- ment would probably "establish itself [Capital] upon the banks of the Ohio," for "this country is at the center of the whole nation; is a place the most con- venient for all, the most agreeable and probably the most healthy." " Thomas Hutchins, geographer of the United States, with his signature, "certified" that the "facts" contained in this circular "concerning
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491
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
the fertility of the soil, abundant productions and other advantages for the husbandman, are true and reliable, and that they correspond perfectly with the observations I have made during the years which I have spent in that country."
Amid the bloody and terrific turmoil of the French Revolution the sales of this very much "promised" land were inaugurated. It was a propitious time. The Parisians, rich and poor, eagerly sought the op- portunity to flee a country torn with the dangers of an impending overthrow. New and quiet homes with rare advantages in the land where liberty, equality and fraternity were already established, beckoned them on. American land speculation became quite the rage. Volney, author of the "Ruins of Empires" and the celebrated literateur of that period, said, "nothing was talked of in every circle but the paradise that was opened for Frenchmen in the western wilder- ness, and the free and happy life to be led on the blissful banks of the Scioto." The offices of the Scioto Company in Paris were crowded by eager purchasers, mostly artisans of skilled vocations, totally incapacitated for the backwoods life in the American interior, who received, in return for their money, worthless documents purporting to be deeds issued by Playfair and Soisson. For neither they nor any one else-save Congress-had title in the lands to sell or transfer.
The Parisians were being treated, on a small scale, to another Mississippi scheme. Playfair was the John Law of the latest American Bubble, for he and Soisson seem to have taken charge of affairs,
492
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
they making out and signing the "deeds" and receiving the money, while Barlow remained an inactive if not silent spectator. On the last of December (1789) he wrote Colonel Duer "everything is progressing well," that he soon expected to make the first payment so that Colonel Duer could pay Congress when the first payment for the Scioto lands became due; "don't fail," he said, "to put the people in possession of their lands." By the middle of February (1790) over 100,000 acres had been sold and several hundred emigrants had started for their American homes. But the clouds began to gather and the storm was soon to break. In early spring of 1790 French furor for investments in Scioto lots suddenly subsided. The Parisians began to distrust the French Company and its schemes. Belote states "caricatures of crowds struggling frenziedly for the privilege of buying rocky deserts and imaginray acres on the Scioto began to be exhibited in the shops of Paris, and pamphlets and newspaper articles appeared denouncing the Scioto Associates as swindlers of the worst sort." Sales of land ceased and the Paris offices of the company were even threatened with assaults. No money came into Barlow's hands by which he could pay Duer and his partners so they in turn could meet their obli- gations to Congress. Moreover it became known that the survey of the tracts allotted respectively to the Ohio and Scioto companies would locate the western boundary of the seventeenth range some distance west of the mouth of the Great Kanawha instead of at the mouth of that river as was at first supposed. This would throw the site of Gallipolis-lots for which
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493
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
Barlow had sold the Parisians-within the limits of the Ohio Company's purchase and not within the tract of the Scioto Company.
Meanwhile in order to carry out in good faith their contract with the French Company, the American Scioto Associates, agreed with Colonel Duer to form a trust to secure to each one interested his proper share of the profit and to aid Colonel Duer in managing the conduct of the sale. Royal Flint and Andrew Craigie were named as co-trustees with Colonel Duer, who was to act as "superintendent of the concerns of the proprietors," and in view of the expected French settlement at the mouth of the Kanawha and in preparation for the arrival of the emigrants, Barlow had written Duer (December, 1789) that huts must be built on the site named. The matter was placed in charge of Rufus Putnam, who as agent for the trustees of the Scioto Associates (American) employed Major John Burnham and a company of forty young men, expert woodmen, to erect said cabins. In the spring of 1790 this party reached the spot designated opposite the Kanawha mouth, but finding the land low and liable to overflow, Major Burnham moved his workmen to a point some four miles below, near the mouth of Chickamauga Creek, "where the high banks could well withstand the rising waters." Here the town was laid out and the rude buildings put up. But this was on the land of the Ohio Company, which was having troubles of its own, being unable to meet its obligation with Congress. So confusion was to become worse confounded. All the while Barlow, in Paris, was making a desperate struggle to rescue his
494
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
project from utter ruin. The Compagnie du Scioto was declared dissolved and a new French company was formed. Its main leaders were Francois M. J. de Barth and his father, the Count de Barth, at that time in America, Marc Anthony Coquet, Louis Phillipe Douvalette and the irrepressible William Playfair, "who was a genius for rascality." It, too, was formally known as the "Company of the Scioto," but from the name of its principals it was generally called the "De Barth-Coquet Company." To this company, Barlow made a new sale of his preëmption. This was without the acquiescence of Duer and the Scioto Associates in America, who on learning of the new deal of Barlow denounced him and sent Colonel Benjamin Walker to Paris to examine affairs and if possible untangle the complications. Walker arrived in Paris in December (1790) and upon investigation he abandoned all hope of extricating the Scioto Com- pany from utter failure, exonerated Barlow from any intentional wrong doing, and warned the French public by advertisements not to buy lands from Playfair, who meantime had disappeared. Such was the end of the Scioto speculation in France. "Barlow," says Belote, "seems to have taken no further part in the affair after the arrival in Paris of Walker." It was a disastrous venture for many concerned. Colonel Duer failed in the spring of 1792 and was imprisoned for debt. Royal Flint, Andrew Craigie and Colonel Platt also went down in the financial depression that prevailed in the United States at that time. General Rufus Putnam was a heavy loser
495
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
in the Scioto project, the crisis of which affected, in no small degree, the credit and success of the Ohio Company.
And now we follow the fate of the French emigrants who, with worthless deeds in their pockets, and all their earthly possessions as baggage, had set sail in February, 1790, from Havre de Grace, and one or two other ports, for their western investments. They numbered in all some six hundred, and five ships had been chartered to take them to their American desti- nation. "Behind them," says Colonel John L. Vance, in his address at the Gallipolis Centennial, "was stormy France, its peace, that was, having been swept from it, with little hope of its return in the near future; about them the stormy waves of old ocean threatening to engulf them, and thus violently end their new- born hopes. Before them-what?" This French mi- gration was composed mainly of the upper middle class, the professions, lawyers, doctors and at least one priest, skilled artisans, artists, wood carvers and gilders, some of them "to his Majesty," coach makers, watch and clock makers, shoe and hat makers, tailors, milliners, hair dressers, wig makers, dancing masters, confectioners, valets, bartenders, shopkeepers and clerks. Almost every variety of skilled vocations was represented except those fitted for the transforming of a wilderness into the abode of civilization. Scarcely a dozen common laborers were in the number though there was one penniless and illiterate stowaway, Francis Valodin, who, however, "by adroitness and untiring industry accumulated wealth, finally becoming the richest man" of the colony. There were no out-
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS
laws or felons among them, and the majority both women and men, "were possessed of fine education and courtly manners." The aristocracy, titled and rich was well represented by such as the Marquis Francis D'Hebecourt, the Count Marlatie, the Count de Barth, the Marquis Marnesia and members of the so- called "Company of the Twenty-Four," an association of French "gentlemen," each one of whom "agreed to purchase from the Scioto Company one thousand acres of land and to provide four laborers whom he was to employ in cultivating the land in America."
William G. Sibley in his interesting history of the "French Five Hundred" is authority for the statement that (Marquis) Francis D'Hebecourt was the military school-mate and friend of Napoleon and after their graduation, "the story runs," the two decided to found an empire in America. D'Hebecourt, as just noted, emigrated with the colonists "but Napoleon was persuaded by his family to remain in Europe." A pretty bit of historical gossip. Another item by Sibley, this one "a noteworthy fact," is to the effect that Gallipolis, at the time of its settlement, was seriously considered, at Rome, as the seat of the Roman Catholic Episcopal authority for America, outranking both Baltimore and Philadelphia, in the estimation of Pope Pius VI and his advisers, as a suitable locality for so great an ecclesiastical dignity, and the Abbe Boisnautier, a canon of St. Deny's in Paris, was actually appointed Bishop of Gallipolis, but these plans of the papal government were abandoned soon after, probably because of the collapse of the French Scioto Company.
CINCINNATI IN 1800
Sketch made from an old print, showing the settlement of Cincinnati as it appeared in the year 1800. Most of the houses at that date were made of logs or of lumber, in the latter case brought down the Ohio River.
THE RISE AND PROGRE.
laws or felons among them, and the majority women and men0081 KEITAMMONIOd of fine educat and thatoltise odni gnivores, thinq blones moit sbarralotsdetitled
Francis D'Heladito ont awob styloid bebo tests! 9at the Con de Barth, the Marquis Mamnesia and members of the called "Company of the Twenty-Four, " an associar of French ''gentlemen," each one of whom "agree purchase from the Scioto Company one thous acres of land and to provide four laborers whom he w to employ in cultivating the land in America."
William G. Sibley in his interesting history of "French Five Hundred" is authority for the stateme that (Marquis) Francis D'Hebecourt was the milit school-mate and friend of Napoleon and after Il graduation, "The story runs," the two decided found an empire in America. D'Hebecourt, as notod, emigrated with the colonists "but Napol Wie porimaded by his family to remain in Euror A pretty bit of historical gossip. Another item Sibley, this one ''s noteworthy fact," is to the cf thái Gallipolis, at the time of its settlement, imnuly considered, at Ronte, as the seat of the Ron Custodie Episcopal authority for America, outranl both Bulomore and Philadelphia, in the estinu of Pope Ique 11 and his advisers, as a suitable food for so great an ecclesiagrical dignity, and the Boisgautier, a canon of St. Deny's in Paris actually appointed Bishop of Gallipolis, but plans of the papal government were aban soon after, probably because of the collapse of du French Scioto Company.
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OF AN AMERICAN STATE
After from two to three months of monotonous and tempestuous tossing upon the waves of the sea, the five ships straggled, one after another, into the port of Alexandria, Virginia, the first arriving in May (1790). The troubles of the new arrivals began upon their disem- barkation for there were no agents to meet them and no provisions at hand for the continuation of their journey. Their chief greeting was the rumor that their titles to the Ohio estates they were seeking, were null and void. At great expense and discomfort they were delayed for weeks at Alexandria and the mirage of that promised paradise in America began to be a dissolving view. Finally representatives of the Scioto Associates piloted them in "clumsy conveyances that jarred and jolted over the primitive roads" to Pitts- burg, whence they were provided with flatboat river passage to the site of the "City of Gauls," on the high banks of that sweeping stream their countrymen had discovered centuries before and had named, because of its beauty, La Belle Riviere.
It was not until Sunday, October 17 (1790), more than eight months after their departure from France, that the first boat load of the French Five Hundred, scrambled ashore to their rude dwellings in the "rec- tangular clearing." The families were assigned cabins which they must have entered with mingled feelings of amazement and dejection. What a contrast were these poverty and hardship suggesting log structures to the social drawing rooms and literary salons of the brilliant and artistic Paris. The "city" that welcomed them comprised eighty log cabins, twenty in a row forming a public square, at each of the corners of which
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS
were blockhouses two stories in height. In front of the cabins, close by the river, was a small log breast- work. Above the cabins on the square were two other parallel rows of cabins, which with high stockade fence and blockhouses at each of the upper corners formed a sufficient fortification in times of danger. The cabins were mostly a story and a half high, with puncheon slab floors, the doors were hung on wooden hinges and the chimneys were of dried clay, held in place by split timbers.
Within these primeval abodes the newcomers were to revel in that Elysian life, the prospectus of the Scioto Company had foretold, while the land adjacent was to provide almost spontaneously for their necessi- ties as free from all effort on their part, as were the children of Israel when fed by the falling manna. Back of the clearing, dotted with its huts, was the expanse of the "lofty trees of the virgin forest, mute and impressive sentinels of unviolated creation." But as one writer notes, the French are nothing if not cheer- ful and gay. The first evening of their arrival was celebrated by a "French ball" a dancing place being of selected for the festivities. When evening came, "rouge, curling irons, powder, patches, satin slippers" and other niceties of society attire were brought into action and by "seven o'clock," says Sibley, "the scraping of the bows inaugurated the social courtesies and gallantries for which Gallipolis has' ever since been famous."
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