USA > Ohio > History of Ohio; the rise and progress of an American state, Volume Two > Part 37
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37
591
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
happily solved, mainly through the legal acumen and logical common sense of the Virginia Congressman, John Marshall, who a few months later was to become the Chief Justice of the United States.
On July 10, 1800, St. Clair made proclamation con- stituting the whole Reserve, including the Firelands, a county with the name of Trumbull, in honor of Jonathan Trumbull, then Governor of Connecticut, and son of the original "Brother Jonathan." The county government was promptly organized and its seat located at Warren. At this time (1800) the population of the Reserve was 1300, but now that civil law was assured and the land title clouds had rolled by, a new and powerful impetus was given to immi- gration and Trumbull County was rapidly dotted with thriving settlements of incomers from New England. Indeed, says Hinsdale, "No other five thousand square miles [the size of the Reserve] of territory in the United States, lying in a body outside of New England ever had, to begin with, so pure a New Engand population," and he adds: "No similar territory west of the Allegheny Mountains has so impressed the brain and conscience of the country." Of the host of great national leaders in thought and action that the Western Reserve was to produce, it is not our province to speak. That is all a well-known portion of our country's history. The unusual character of the early colonial settlers of the Western Reserve and the forceful influence they and their descendants have exerted in the field of our nation's affairs, has given an enviable prominence to the Western Reserve which has not inaptly been styled "the Attica of Ohio."
592
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
While the Western Reserve was passing through its sea of troubles, other sections of the State were being settled by diverse streams of immigration. We have already mentioned how shortly after Wayne's Treaty, Arthur St. Clair, James Wilkinson, Jonathan Dayton and Isaac Ludlow made settlements in the territory of the intended Symmes' Purchase.
Another group of Ohio settlements of a distinctive character was that of the Virginians. The leader in this stream of immigration was Nathaniel Massie, born in 1763, in Goochland County, (Va.). He came of distinguished ancestry and according to his biographer, John McDonald, served in the Revolution- ary War from his native State at the age of seventeen, and at nineteen started to Kentucky to pursue his vocation of surveying the public lands and placing warrants for the soldiers of the Revolution. David Meade Massie in his life of his illustrious grandfather, Nathaniel Massie, says the latter "did not go as a penniless soldier of fortune," but at the outset was the recipient of lands already located in Kentucky, by Daniel Boone, for Nathaniel Massie, Senior, father of our subject. Massie developed much talent for successful enterprises, not only in land locating but fur and salt trading, being associated in the latter business with General James Wilkinson. Colonel Rich- ard C. Anderson, who was the principal surveyor of the (Ohio) Virginia military lands, opened his office at Louisville in 1784, and in 1790 appointed Nathaniel Massie one of his deputy surveyors. The latter had already penetrated the Virginia military district of Ohio and was familiar with the extent and value of
NATHANIEL MASSIE
Born, Goochland County, Va., in 1763. Served in Ameri- can Revolution and then located in Kentucky on lands bought from Daniel Boone. One of the Deputy Surveyors of the Miami and Scioto country. Founder of the settle- ments at Manchester and Chillicothe. Died and buried at Chillicothe, 1813. Engraving from an oil portrait in the City Library, Chillicothe, Ohio.
592
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
While the W HIZZAM THIZAHTAT passing through
its sea of trouby f she State were beinghist de coloninsMI hi batsool dort bre inditulovefratson. We
territory of ended Symmes Purchase.
Another group of Ohio settlements of a distinctive character was that of the Virginians. The leader in this stream of immigration was Nathaniel Massie, born in 1701. 10 Goochbland County, (Va.). He came of Minealahed ancestry and according to his biographer. foke Melronald, served in the Revolution- ary War from his nutwee State at the age of seventeen, and at nineteen started to Kentucky to pursue his vocation of surveykus the public lands and placing warrants for the soldiers of the Revolution. David Meade Muwic in his De af his Illustrious grandfather. Nathaniel Masnie, says the latter "did not go as a penniless soldier of fortune," bur ar the outset was the recipient of faudi already located in Kentucky, by Daniel Buone, tor Nathaniel Massie, Senior, father of our wuljeg. Msseje developed much talent for successful enterprises, not only in land locating but fur and søl trading, bilng associated in the latter business with General James Wilkinson. Colonel Rich- ard C. Andenyou, who was the principal surveyor of the (Ohio) Vipmia military lands, opened his office at Louisville in 1784, and in 1790 appointed Nathaniel Massie one of his deputy surveyors. The latter had already penetrated the Virginia military district of Olio and was familias with the extent and value of
you are tutte Nath Mafie
593
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
that locality. In 1791, Massie established a post "on the bottom along the Ohio River opposite the lower one of the three islands, some twelve miles above the present town of Maysville [Kentucky], then called Limestone." It was the first settlement in the Ohio Virginia Military District and was at first known as "Massie's Station," later as Manchester. It was the fourth settlement in Ohio, following Marietta, Cincinnati and Gallipolis. To induce settlers in his proposed Station, Massie offered each of the first twenty-five families, as a donation, one in-lot, one out-lot and one hundred acres of land. Upwards of thirty families quickly responded to this alluring offer. Massie made many surveying incursions into the region of the Scioto Valley, becoming the owner of much land along the Scioto River and Paint Creek, in which picturesque and fertile location he determined to found a town. He advertised his proposition in Kentucky, offering an in-lot and an out-lot of four acres in the prospective town to the first one hundred permanent settlers. This brought together, early in 1795, at Manchester, a "party of respectable citizens of Kentucky," who under the guidance of Massie, the city founder, entered upon their journey to the Paint Creek region. They reached Brush Creek, Scioto branch, where they unexpectedly encountered a body of seventy hostile Shawnees, under the chief Pucksekaw, the same vagrant band that soon after reported to Wayne at Greenville, in great contrition, desiring to come under the terms of the Treaty. A battle between the pioneers and the savages, ensued in which the pioneers without loss of life were worsted and were compelled to yield
594
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
the field, making good their return to Massie's Station. This ended the exploitation of the Scioto Valley for that year. "It was," says McDonald, "the last Indian fight on the waters of the Scioto River," occurring at the very moment Wayne was treating with the tribesmen at Greenville.
Nothing daunted by this failure, Massie revived the enterprise early in 1796. The proposed settlers again assembled at Manchester and on April I, reached the selected site and began to build cabins and plow the open prairie, "so as to plant corn, three hundred acres being soon turned by thirty plows." It was the founding of historic Chillicothe, so named by Massie, the proprietor, "on consultation with his friends," for it was an Indian word meaning a town. Its popu- lation increased rapidly and before the winter of 1796 had "several stores, taverns, and shops for mechanics." It became the attractive center for a rush of Virginians and Kentuckians, the latter in nearly all cases being natives of the Old Dominion.
Thus closed the year 1796, a most memorable year, marking the settlements of Cleveland, Dayton, Chilli- cothe and other minor towns; the year of the evacuation of the British posts, including the forts on the Maumee and at the mouth of the Sandusky; this same year, the President was authorized by Congress to contract with Ebenezer Zane to build his "Trace" through Ohio, at first only a bridle path, later a stately wagon road.
In this Centennial year (1912) of the Ohio State Capital, the origin of one little settlement must not go unmentioned. Colonel Richard C. Anderson, official surveyor of the Virginia Military District, appointed as
LUCAS SULLIVANT
Born in Virginia, 1765. Early settled in Kentucky where he became a surveyor. He was appointed one of the Deputies to Richard Anderson, official surveyor of the Virginia Military District. Sullivant's first expedition to the Scioto country was in 1792. He visited the site of Columbus in 1795, and two years later laid out the town of Franklinton, now a part of Columbus.
594
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
the field, making good thes- return to Massie's Station. IsinighiV hi ffod This an derdiothe aex pH |twotweets orthod Stiftdw Valley for that Tererque Isiifto noziebirA bisdif os apitugedi pdt "the last goitibaque faint a fasviffu2 .torffaid vistiliM siniguV ons
with the tribesmen at Greenvi
Nothing daunted by this failure, Massie revived the enterprise early in 1796. The proposed settlers again assembled at Manchester and on April I. reached the selected rite and began to build cabins and plow the open prairie, "so as to plant corn, three hundred acres being soun tamed by thirty plows." It was the founding od historic Chillicothe, so named by Massie, the proprietor, "on consultation with his friends," for it was an Indian word meaning a town. Its popu- lation increased rapidly and before the winter of 1796 had "several itores, taverns, and shops for mechanics. " It became the attractive center for a rush of Virginians and Kentuckians, the latter in nearly all cases being natives of the Old Dominion.
Thus closed the year 1796, a most memorable year, marking the sertlements of Cleveland, Dayton, Chilli- cothe and other mittor towns, the year of the evacuation of the British posts, including the forts on the Maumee and at the mouth of the Sandusky; this same year, the President was authorized by Congress to contract with Ebenezer Zane to lualld his "Trace" through Ohio, at first only a bridle path, later a stately wagon road
In this Centermial year (1912) of the Ohio State Capital, the origin of one little settlement must oot go unmentioned. Colonel Richard C. Anderson, official surveyor of the Virginia Mibrary District, appointed as
595
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
one of his deputies, Lucas Sullivant. He was a typical gentleman of those early days in Virginia of which he was a native. He became an expert surveyor, brave backwoodsman, and versed in Indian warfare. While the savages were assembling at Greenville to treat with Wayne, in the spring of 1795, Sullivant, then thirty years of age, with a party of twenty, comprising chain- carriers, markers, scouts, and helpers, proceeded into the valley of the Scioto. The adventures, encounters and escapes of the members of this party, as recorded in their journals, read like the tales of a yellow back novelette. At one time their provisions ran so low that the cook surreptitiously served them with soup made from "the bodies of two young skunks which he had captured without damage to himself in a hollow log." The surveying operations of Mr. Sullivant led him to the banks of the Scioto and the Whetstone (now Olentangy). The juncture of these two rivers was then known as "The Forks of the Scioto." It was on the main water route, as we have seen, from Lake Erie to the Ohio River. Mr. Sullivant, with the prophetic eye," saw the advantage of the location, the fertility of the soil and the luxuriance of the forest. It had long been a favorite field for the villages of the Mingoes, Delawares, Shawnees, Wyandots and other tribes. The river afforded them transportation and the rich bottom lands easily produced their maize. And here on the bend of the Scioto on the west bank just north of the forks, "in a grove of stately walnut trees," in August, 1797, Lucas Sullivant located the town he called Franklinton, in honor of Benjamin Franklin. There he settled and slowly the pioneers
596
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
crept in and built their humble log huts, Chillicothe being their mart and source of supplies. It was on the east "High Bank" of the Scioto, opposite the town of Franklinton that the legislature, on Valentine Day, 1812, chose the site for the state capital and called it Columbus after the discoverer of this country.
In 1798 the Northwest Territory had acquired the five thousand free male inhabitants that the Ordinance had made the condition of the second stage of govern- ment, and accordingly the Territorial Legislature was instituted. The General Assembly first met at Cincinnati, September 24, 1799. The lower house consisted of twenty-two members, representing nine counties. Seven of these members came from four counties containing the old French settlements in Michigan, Indiana and Illinois, fifteen from the five Ohio counties; the Western Reserve had no delegates. The five members of the legislative council, or senate, nominated by the representatives and appointed by the President, were Jacob Burnet and James Findley of Hamilton, Robert Oliver of Washington, David Vance of Jefferson, and Henry Vanderberg of Knox. The transfer of the seat of government from Cincinnati to Chillicothe was made without any formal legislation on the subject. But the political beginning of the territory and State of Ohio it is not our task to recount. Suffice it to say, William Henry Harrison, who had succeeded Winthrop Sargent in the territorial secretary- ship, was chosen delegate from Ohio territory to Con- gress, which body, on May 7, 1800, passed an act, constituting all that part of the Northwest Territory, lying west of the treaty line of 1795, from the Ohio
597
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
to Fort Recovery, and a line drawn from the fort to the international boundary, a separate territory, to be called Indiana Territory, of which William Henry Harrison was to be the Territorial Governor, with Vincennes as its capital. The easterly section was to be the Ohio Territory, still known as the Northwest Territory, Eastern Division, with its capital at Chilli- cothe, until otherwise ordained by the legislature. This new (Ohio) Northwest Territory, duly organized as above stated became a State and a member of the Union on March 1, 1803, the date of the birth of Ohio, officially established as such by the act of Congress (Laws of the United States, Volume 4, page 4) which determined that the salaries of the retiring territorial officers ended on the day before "the first Tuesday in March," which day before was February 28th, that day being the last of their territorial functions, the State machinery going into operation the next day, when the legislature first met and two days thereafter Edward Tiffin was inaugurated Governor.
Judge James G. Johnson of the Ohio Supreme Court, in a public address, made note that the State of Ohio was not only the first state carved from the Northwest Territory but was really the first addition to the United States, for although Vermont (1791), Kentucky (1792) and Tennessee (1796) were admitted before Ohio, the first was cut off from New York and the two
latter from Virginia. Ohio came in by virtue of her rights under the Articles of 1787 and "there is a great fact that Ohio was the first political state ever formed in the world which never had been governed by a king and the Ordinance of 1787 dedicated it forever to freedom."
598
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
And from the date of its admission we leave the con- tinuation of Ohio History to the pen of another, a history which shall reveal the greatness of a state due in no small measure to the mingling of racial roots and elemental characteristics which is scarcely equalled in the annals of any other of the American common- wealths. We have shown how the sections of the State were settled by streams from the original colonies, by strains of blood from different stocks, a theme worthy an ample chapter. As numerous writers have pointed out, and our own pages have narrated, there were five principal nerve centers of the nascent state: I. The Ohio Company, on the Ohio River, mainly from Connecticut and Massachusetts, representing perhaps the more liberal element of the New England Puritanic stock; 2. The Symmes Purchase, between the Miamis, whose immigrants were designated as a band of New Jersians, with a mixture of Scotch-Irish and Hollanders; 3. The Virginia Military District, between the Scioto and the Little Miami Rivers, in which the racial inflow was partly Marylandic, but mostly Virginian, the hardy, rollicking, fighting Anglo-Saxon stock, whose venturesome representatives brought with them the flavor of the old world aristocracy with its dignity, luxury and courtesy; 4. The Western Reserve, with its distinctively austere indomitable Puritan type, a colony, "whose foundations were hewn from the gran- itic rock of New England Calvanism"; 5. The "Seven Ranges," consisting of the tract extending west from the Pennsylvania line between the Ohio Company on the south and the Western Reserve on the north. The settlers in this section were not a few native born
599
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
Quakers; a few settlers from the German Palatinate; many Germans, of the stock which has produced the variety known as "Pennsylvania Dutch," and many Scotch-Irish, the people that prevailed in Western Pennsylvania; Swede and French colonists located west of the Seven Ranges. The five chief centers of settlement were long separated by intervening forests, but slowly the paths of travel and channels of commerce brought them into closer and closer contact; gradually the ties of a common purpose and a similar effort began to unite them. Natively they differed widely in customs, training, religious faith and forms of worship, and in modes of living and thinking. But they were to be merged into a collective and concordant genus. In the melting process of struggle and sacrifice and cooperative endeavor, the racial traits were to be commingled until "all were ultimately subdued to a predominate type."
"And here," said General Benjamin R. Cowen, "upon the Ohio territory was a fit place for the experi- ment of constructing society upon a new basis; here theories hitherto unknown or deemed impracticable were to exhibit a spectacle for which the previous history of the world had furnished no example; Ohio being the most westerly of the eastern states and the most easterly of the western states, the abundance and variety of her natural resources were such as to fix the choice of the most desirable emigrants on this soil, so that we had a selection of the best from the oncoming tide that swept athwart the continent. A common danger and a common purpose brought about the fusion and they were no longer Virginians,
600 RISE AND PROGRESS OF AN AMERICAN STATE
Pennsylvanians or New Englanders, but Ohioans. Thus, Cavalier and Roundhead, Huguenot, Catho- lic and Prostestant, Puritan, Baptist and Quaker, Scotch-Irish, Anglo-Saxon, Teuton and Celt coalesced, strongly welded by the common interests."
And truly is it too much to assert that not until the amalgamation, on the Ohio soil, of the variant, migrant nationalities, with the political, mental, moral, social and religious characteristics, peculiar to each, was there produced the strictly ethnological type known as the American?
" What heroism, what perils, then ;
How true of heart and strong of hand, How earnest, resolute, those pioneer men ? "
BOUND TO APR 15 1942
PLEASE
ND
u
ER
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.