History of Preble County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, Part 95

Author: H. Z. Williams & Brothers
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 559

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In October preceding this occurrence, Arthur St. Clair

* Fort Harmar was built in 1785, by a detachment of United States soldiers, under the command of Major John Doughty. It was named in honor of Colonel Josiah Harmar, to whose regiment Major Dough- ty was attached. It was the first military post erected by the Ameri- cans within the limits of Ohio, except Fort Laurens a temporary structure built in 1778. When Marietta was founded it was the mili- tary post of that part of the country, and was for many years an important station.

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had been appointed governor of the territory by Con- gress, which body also appointed Winthrop Sargent, secretary, and Samuel H. Parsons, James M. Varnum, and John Armstrong, judges. Subsequently Mr. Arm- strong declined the appointment, and Mr. Symmes was given the vacancy. None of these were on the ground when the first settlement was made, though the judges came soon after. One of the first things the colony found necessary to do was to organize some form of government, whereby difficulties might be settled, though to the credit of the colony it may be said, that during the first three months of its existence but one difference arose, and that was settled by a compromise .* Indeed, hardly a better set of men for the purpose could have been selected. Washington wrote concerning this col- ony:

" No colony in America was ever settled under such favorable aus- pices as that which has commenced at the Muskingum. Information, property, and strength will be its characteristics. I know many of the settlers personally, and there never were men better calculated to pro- mote the welfare of such a community."

On the second of July a meeting of the directors and agents was held on the banks of the Muskingum for the purpose of naming the new born city and its squares. As yet, the city had been merely "the Muskingum;" but the name Marietta was now formally given it, in honor of Marie Antoinette. The square upon which the block- houses stood was called Campus Martius; square num- ber nineteen, Capitolium; square number sixty-one, Ce- celia, and the great road running through the covert-way, Sacra Via .* Surely classical scholars were not scarce in the colony.

On the fourth, an oration was delivered by James M. Varnum, one of the judges, and a public demonstration held. Five days after the governor arrived, and the colony began to assume form. The ordinance of 1787 provided two distinct grades of government, under the first of which the whole power was under the gov- ernor and the three judges. This form was at once recognized on the arrival of St. Clair. The first law established by this court was passed on the twenty-fifth of July. It established and regulated the militia of the territory. The next day after its publication, appeared the governor's proclamation erecting all the country that had been ceded by the Indians east of the Scioto river, into the county of Washington. Marietta was, of course, the county seat, and, from that day, went on prosperously. On September 2, the first court was held with becoming ceremonies. It is thus related in the American Pioneer:

"The procession was formed at the Point (where the most of the settlers resided), in the following order : The high sheriff, with his drawn sword ; the citizens; the officers of the garrison at Fort Harmar ; the members of the bar ; the supreme judges ; the governor and clergy- man ; the newly appointed judges of the court of common pleas, Gen- erals Rufus Putnam and Benjamin Tupper.

"They marched up the path that had been cleared through the forest to Campus Martius Hall (stockade), where the whole countermarched, and the judges (Putnam and Tupper) took their seats. The clergy- man, Rev. Dr. Cutler, then invoked the divine blessing. The sheriff. Colonel Ebenezer Sproat, proclaimed with his solemn 'Oh, yes !' that a court is open for the administration of even-handed justice, to the poor

and to the rich, to the guilty and to the innocent, without respect of persons ; none to be punished without a trial of their peers, and then in pursuance of the laws and evidence of the case.

"Although the scene was exhibited thus early in the settlement of the west, few ever equaled it in the dignity and exalted character of its principal participators. Many of them belonged to the history of our country in the darkest, as well as the most splendid, period of the Revo" lutionary war."

Many Indians were gathered at the same time to wit- ness the (to them) strange spectacle, and for the purpose of forming a treaty, though how far they carried this out, the Pioneer does not relate.

The progress of the settlement was quite satisfactory during the year. Some one writing a letter from the town says :

"The progress of the settlement is sufficiently rapid for the first year. We are continually erecting houses, but arrivals are constantly coming faster than we can possibly provide convenient covering. Our first ball was opened about the middle of December, at which were fifteen ladies, as well accomplished in the manner of polite circles as any I have ever seen in the older States. I mention this to show the progress of soci- ety in this New World, where, I believe, we shall vie with, if not excel, the old States in every accomplishment necessary to render life agree- able and happy."

The emigration westward at this time was, indeed, ex- ceedingly large. The commander at Fort Harmar re- ported four thousand five hundred persons as having passed that post between February and June, 1788, many of whom would have stopped there, had the associates been prepared to receive them. The settlement was free from Indian depredations until January, 1791, dur- ing which interval it daily increased in numbers and strength.

Symmes and his friends were not idle during this time. He had secured his contract in October, 1787, and, soon after, issued a pamphlet stating the terms of his purchase and the mode he intended to follow in the disposal of the lands. His plan was, to issue warrants for not less than one-quarter section, which might be located any- where, save on reservations, or on land previously en- tered. The locater could enter an entire section should be desire to do so. The price was to be sixty and two- thirds cents per acre until May, 1788 ; then, until No- vember, one dollar; and after that time to be regulated by the demand for land. Each purchaser was bound to begin improvements within two years, or forfeit one-sixth of the land to whomsoever would settle thereon and remain seven years. Military bounties might be taken in this as in the purchase of the associates. For himself, Symmes reserved one township near the mouth of the Miami. On this he intended to build a great city, rival- ing any eastern port. He offered any one a lot on which to build a house, providing he would remain three years. Continental certificates were rising, owing to the demand for land created by these two purchases, and Congress found the burden of debt correspondingly lessened. Symmes soon began to experience difficulty in procuring enough to meet his payments. He had also some diffi- culty in arranging his boundary with the board of the treasury. These, and other causes, laid the foundation for another city, which is now what Symmes hoped his city would one day be.

In January, 1788, Matthias Denman, of New Jersey,

* Western Monthly Magazine.

* "Carey's Museum," volume 4.

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took an interest in Symmes' purchase, and located, among other tracts, the sections upon which Cincinnati has since been built. Retaining one-third of this pur- chase, he sold the balance to Robert Patterson and John Filson, each getting the same share. These three, about August, agreed to lay out a town on their land. It was designated as opposite the mouth of the Licking river, to which place it was intended to open a road from Lex- ington, Kentucky. These men little thought of the great emporium that now covers the modest site of this town they laid out that summer. Mr. Filson, who had been a schoolmaster, and was of a somewhat poetic na- ture, was appointed to name the town. In respect to its situation, and as if with a prophetic perception of the mixed races that were in after years to dwell there, he named it Losantiville,* "which, being interpreted," says the "Western Annals," "means ville, the town; anti, op- posite to; os, the mouth; L, of Licking. This may well put to the blush the Campus Martius of the Marietta scholars, and the Fort Solon of the Spaniards."

Meanwhile, Symmes was busy in the east, and, by . July, got thirty people and eight four-horse wagons under way for the west. These reached Limestone by Septem- ber, where they met Mr. Stiles, with several persons from Redstone. All came to Symmes' purchase, and began to look for homes.

Symmes' mind was, however, ill at rest. He could not meet his first payment on so vast a realm, and there also arose a difference of opinion between him and the treasury board regarding the Ohio boundary. Symmes wanted all the land between the two Miamis, bordering on the Ohio, while the board wished him confined to no more than twenty miles of the river. To this proposal he would not agree, as he had made sales all along the river. Leaving the bargain in an unsettled state, Congress considered itself released from all its obligations, and, but for the representations of many of Symmes' friends, he would have lost all his money and labor. His ap- pointment as judge was not favorably received by many, as they thought that by it he would acquire unlimited power. Some of his associates also complained of him, and, for awhile, it surely seemed that ruin only awaited him. But he was brave and hopeful, and determined to succeed. On a return from a visit to his purchase in September, 1788, he wrote Jonathan Dayton, of New Jersey, one of his best friends and associates, that he thought some of the land near the Great Miami "posi- tively worth a silver dollar the acre in its present state."

A good many changes were made in his original con- tract, growing out of his inability to meet his payments. At first he was not to have less than one million acres, under an act of Congress passed in October, 1787, au- thorizing the treasury board to contract with any one who could pay for such tracts, on the Ohio and Wabash rivers. whose fronts should not exceed one-third of their depth.

Dayton and Marsh, Symmes' agents, contracted with the board for one tract on the Ohio, beginning twenty miles up the Ohio from the mouth of the Great Miami, and to run back for quantity between the Miami and a line drawn from the Ohio parallel to the general course of that river. In 1791, three years after Dayton and Marsh made the contract, Symmes found that this would throw the purchase too far back from the Ohio, and ap- plied to Congress to let him have all between the Miamis, running back so as to include one million acres, which that body, on April 12, 1793, agreed to do. When the lands were surveyed, however, it was found that a line drawn from the head of the Little Miami due west to the Great Miami, would include south of it less than six hundred thousand acres. Even this Symmes could not pay for, and when his patent was is- sued in September, 1794, it gave him and his associates two hundred and forty-eight thousand five hundred and forty acres, exclusive of the reservations, which amounted to sixty-three thousand one hundred and forty-two acres. This tract was bounded by the Ohio, the two Miamis and a due east and west line run so as to include the desired quantity. Symmes, however, made no further payments, and the rest of his purchase re- verted to the United States, who gave those who had bought under him ample pre-emption rights.

The Government was able, also, to give him and his colonists but little aid, and as danger from hostile Indi- ans was, in a measure, imminent (though all the natives were friendly to Symmes), settlers were slow to come. However, the band led by Mr. Stiles arrived before the first of January, 1789, and locating themselves near the mouth of the Little Miami, on a tract of ten thousand acres which Mr. Stiles had purchased from Symmes, formed the second settlement in Ohio. They were soon afterward joined by a colony of twenty-six persons, who assisted them to erect a block-house, and gather their corn. The town was named Columbia. While here, the great flood of January, 1789, occurred, which did much to ensure the future growth of Losantiville, or more pro- perly, Cincinnati. Symmes city which was laid out near the mouth of the Great Miami, and which he vainly strove to make the city of the future, Marietta and Columbia, all suffered severely by this flood, the greatest, the Indians said, ever known. The site of Cincinnati was not overflowed, and hence attracted the attention of the settlers. Denman's warrants had designated his purchase as opposite the mouth of the Licking; and that point escaping the overflow, late in December the place was visited by Israel Ludlow, Symmes' surveyor, Mr. Patterson and Mr. Denman, and about fourteen others, who left Maysville to "form a station and lay off a town opposite the Licking." The river was filled with ice "from shore to shore;" but, says Symmes, in May, 1789, " Perseverance triumphed over difficulty, and they landed safe on a most delightful bank of the Ohio, where they founded the town of Losantiville, which pop- ulates considerably." The settlers of Losantiville built a few log huts and block-houses, and proceeded to im- prove the town. Symmes, noticing the location, says:

* Judge Burnett, in his notes, disputes the above account of the ori- gin of the city of Cincinnati. He says the name "Losantiville" was determined on, but not adopted, when the town was laid out. This version is probably the correct one, and will be found fully given in the detailed history of the settlements.

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"Though they placed their dwellings in the most marked position, yet they suffered nothing from the freshet." This would seem to give credence to Judge Burnett's notes regarding the origin of Cincinnati, who states the settlement was made at this time, and not at the time mentioned when Mr. Filson named the town. It is further to be noticed, that, before the town was located by Mr. Ludlow and Mr. Patterson, Mr. Filson had been killed by the Miami Indians, and, as he had not paid for his one-third of the site, the claim was sold to Mr. Ludlow, who thereby became one of the original owners of the place. Just when the town was laid out is not re- corded. All the evidence tends to show it must have been late in 1788, or early in 1789.

While the settlements on the north side of the Ohio were thus progressing, south of it fears of the Indians prevailed, and the separation sore was kept open. The country was, however, so torn by internal factions that no plan was likely to succeed, and to this fact, in a large measure, may be credited the reason it did not secede, or join the Spanish or French faction, both of which were intriguing to get the commonwealth. During this year the treasonable acts of James Wilkinson came into view. For a while he thought success was in his grasp, but the two governments were at peace with America, and discountenanced any such efforts. Wilkinson, like all traitors, relapsed into nonentity, and became mis- trusted by the government he attempted to befriend. Treason is always odious.

It will be borne in mind that in 1778 preparations had been made for a treaty with the Indians, to secure peace- ful possession of the lands owned in the west. Though the whites held these by purchase and treaty, yet many Indians especially the Wabash and some of the Miami Indians, objected to their occupation, claiming the Ohio boundary as the original division line. Clarke en- deavored to obtain by treaty at Fort Harmar, in 1778, a confirmation of these grants, but was not able to do so till January 9, 1789. Representatives of the Six Nations, and of the Wyandots. Delawares, Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawatomies and Sacs, met him at this date, and con- firmed and extended the treaties of Fort Stanwix and Fort McIntosh, the one in 1784, the other in 1785. This secured peace with most of them, save a few of the Wabash Indians, whom they were compelled to conquer by arms. When this was accomplished, the borders were thought safe, and Virginia proposed to withdraw her aid in support of Kentucky. This opened old troubles, and the separation dogma came out afresh. Virginia offered to allow the erection of a separate State, provid- ing Kentucky would assume part of the old debts. This the young commonwealth would not do, and sent a remonstrance. Virginia withdrew the proposal and ordered a ninth convention, which succeeded in evolving a plan whereby Kentucky took her place among the free States of the Union.

North of the Ohio, the prosperity continued. In 1789, Rev. Daniel Story, who had been appointed mis- sionary to the west, came out as a teacher of the youth and a preacher of the gospel. Dr. Cutler had preceded

him, not in the capacity of a minister, though he had preached; hence Mr. Story is truly the first missionary from the Protestant church who came to the Ohio val- ley in that capacity. When he came, in 1789, he found nine associations on the Ohio company's purchase, com- prising two hundred and fifty persons in all; and by the close of 1790, eight settlements had been made: two at Belpre (belle prairie), one at Newbury, one at Wolf creek, one at Duck creek, one at the mouth of Meigs' creek, one at Anderson's bottom, and one at Big bottom. An extended sketch of all these settlements will be found farther on in this volume.

Symmes had all this time strenuously endeavored to get his city-called Cleves city-favorably noticed, and filled with people. He saw a rival in Cincinnati. That place, if made military headquarters to protect the Miami valley, would outrival his town, situated near the bend of the Miami, near its mouth. On the fifteenth of June Judge Symmes received news that the Wabash In- dians threatened the Miami settlements, and as he had received only nineteen men for defence, he applied for more. Before July, Major Doughty arrived at the "Slaughter House"-as the Miami was sometimes called, owing to previous murders that had, at former times, occurred therein. Through the influence of Symmes, the detachment landed at the north bend, and, for awhile, it was thought the fort would be erected there. This was what Symmes wanted, as it would se- cure him the headquarters of the military, and aid in getting the headquarters of the civil government. The truth was, however, that neither the proposed city on the Miami-North Bend, as it afterward became known from its location-or South Bend, would compete, in point of natural advantages, with the plain on which Cincinnati is built. Had Fort Washington been built elsewhere, after the close of the Indian war, nature would have asserted her advantages, and insured the growth of a city, where even the ancient and mysterious dwellers of the Ohio had reared the earthen walls of one of their vast temples. Another fact is given in relation to the erection of Fort Washington at Losantville, which partakes somewhat of romance. The major, while wait- ing to decide at which place the fort should be built, happened to make the acquaintance of a black-eyed beauty, the wife of one of the residents. Her husband, noticing the affair, removed her to Losantiville. The major followed; he told Symmes he wished to see how a fort would do there, but promised to give his city the preference. He found the beauty there, and on his re- turn Symmes could not prevail on him to remain. If the story be true, then the importance of Cincinnati owes its existence to a trivial circumstance, and the old story of the ten years' war which terminated in the downfall of Troy, which is said to have originated owing to the beauty of a Spartan dame, was re-enacted here. Troy and North Bend fell because of the beauty of a woman; Cincinnati was the result of the downfall of the latter place.

About the first of January, 1790, Governor St. Clair, with his officers, descended the Ohio river from Marietta

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to Fort Washington. There he established the county of Hamilton; appointed a corps of civil and military of- ficers, and established a court of quarter sessions. Some state that at this time, he changed the name of the vil- lage of Losantiville to Cincinnati, in allusion to a soci- ety of that name which had recently been formed among the officers of the Revolutionary army, and established it as the seat of justice for Hamilton. This latter fact is certain; but as regards changing the name of the village, there is no good authority for it. With this importance attached to it, Cincinnati began at once an active growth, and from that day Cleves' city declined. The next sum- mer, frame houses began to appear in Cincinnati, while at the same time forty new log cabins appeared about the fort.

On the eighth of January, the governor arrived at the falls of the Ohio, on his way to establish a government at Vincennes and Kaskaskia. From Clarkesville he dis- patched a messenger to Major Hamtramck, commander at Vincennes, with speeches to the various Indian tribes in this part of the Northwest, who had not fully agreed to the treaties. St Clair and Sargent followed in a few days, along an Indian trail to Vincennes, where he or- ganized the county of Knox, comprising all the country along the Ohio, from the Miami to the Wabash, and made Vincennes the county seat. Then they proceeded across the lower part of Illinois to Kaskaskia, where he established the county of St. Clair (so named by Sargent), comprising all the country from the Wabash to the Missis- sippi. Thus the Northwest was divided into three coun- ties, and courts established therein. St. Clair called on the French inhabitants at Vincennes and in the Illinois coun- try, to show the titles to their lands, and also to defray the expense of a survey. To this latter demand they re- plied through their priest, Pierre Gibault, showing their poverty, and inability to comply. They were confirmed in their grants, and, as they had been good friends to the patriot cause, were relieved from the expense of the sur- vey.

While the governor was managing these affairs, Major Hamtramck was engaged in an effort to conciliate the Wabash Indians. For this purpose, he sent Antoine Gamelin, an intelligent French merchant, and a true friend of America, among them to carry messages sent by St. Clair and the government, and to learn their sen- timents and dispositions. Gamelin performed this im- portant mission in the spring of 1790 with much sagacity, and, as the French were good friends of the natives, he did much to conciliate these half-hostile tribes. He vis- ited the towns of these tribes along the Wabash and as far north and east as the Miami village, Ke-ki-ong-ga- St. Mary's- at the junction of the St. Mary's and St. Jo- seph's rivers (Fort Wayne).

Gamelin's report, and the intelligence brought by some traders from the upper Wabash, were conveyed to the governor at Kaskaskia. The reports convinced him that the Indians of that part of the Northwest were preparing for a war on the settlements north of the Ohio, intending, if possible, to drive them south of it-that river still being considered by them as the true boundary. St. Clair left

the administration of affairs in the western counties to Sargent, and returned at once to Fort Washington to provide for the defence of the frontier.

The Indians had begun their predatory incursions into the country settled by the whites, and had committed some depredations. The Kentuckians were enlisted in an attack against the Scioto Indians. April eighteenth, General Harmar, with one hundred regulars, and Gen- eral Scott, with two hundred and thirty volunteers, marched from Limestone, by a circuitous route, to the Scioto, accomplishing but little. The savages had fled.

CHAPTER VII.

THE INDIAN WAR OF 1795 -HARMAR'S, ST. CLAIR'S AND WAYNE'S CAMPAIGNS-CLOSE OF THE WAR.

A GREAT deal of the hostility at this period was di- rectly traceable to the British. They yet held Detroit and several posts on the lakes, in violation of the treaty of 1783. They alleged as a reason for not abandoning them, that the Americans had not fulfilled the condi- tions of the treaty regarding the collection of debts. Moreover, they did all they could to remain. at the frontier and enjoy the emoluments derived from the fur trade. That they aided the Indians in the conflict at this time, is undeniable. Just how, it is difficult to say. But it is well known the savages had all the ammunition and fire-arms they wanted, more than they could have ob- tained from American and French renegade traders. They were also well supplied with clothing, and were able to prolong the war for some time. A great confed- eration was on the eve of formation. The leading spir- its were Cornplanter, Brant, Little Turtle and other noted chiefs, and had not the British, as Brant said, "encouraged us to the war, and promised us aid, and then, when we were driven away by the Americans, shut the doors of their fortresses against us and refused us food, when they saw us nearly conquered, we would have effected our object."

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History of Preble County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, Part 95

Author: H. Z. Williams & Brothers Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages: 559

Author: H. Z. Williams & Brothers
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 559