USA > Ohio > Seneca County > History of Seneca County, Ohio; a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Vo. I > Part 37
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"The matron's age seemed to be
Tween twenty-one and twenty-three;
Her constitution firm and sound,
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IIer stature, graceful, tall and round,
Her visage through much weather tanned, Was open, generous and bland, Her eye with kind effection beamed, And time had been when she was deemed
A rural belle, and did obtain, The praise of many a rustic swain."
And the young lady captive is described :
"The nymph was beautiful as light, Her skin was almost alabaster white.
Save to her cheeks was lent
The damask roses richest tint,
Her lips when parted did disclose.
Two fair and perfect pearly rows,
Her silky ringlets. jetty hue O'er her fair neck their contrast threw;
Her raven brow in arch surprise,
Lent grace and lustre to her eyes ;
Those sparkling orbs of purest blue,
Evinced a kindly heart and true ;
Proportions of the fairest mould."
Oft repeated efforts at winning the hand and heart of this beautiful captive were made by Girty, and by intimidation and the persuasive powers of the matron were, as Girty thought in the same direction, but without avail.
The matron was claimed by a high and honorable-minded chief who saw only in her redemption money. The maiden had a his- tory. We give it briefly, eptitomizing the poem.
"Her father's name was Henry Gray
And dwelt on Chesapeake Bay."
She was sent to college and just a short time before her graduation her parents died, her uncle being executor and he dying his son came into possession of the estate and business. This cousin became infatuated with her. She had, however, fallen in love with George Vernon, a fellow student. Her cousin, by intercepting letters and interpolating, secured an estrangement between the young lady and George.
Her cousin selling out all the possessions, with his mother, sister and Julia started for New Orleans, by the way of Wheeling, promising the latter to set her off in Kentucky, so she might live with an unele. This promise he did not propose keeping and his sister told Julia all about his designs. These she communicated to George by letter and pleaded with him to rescue her. This he did by intercepting the flat boat and getting aboard, he induced the cousin of Julia to tie the boat up until he could confer with
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her, which was done on the Ohio side. When ashore George and Julia were captured, by the Indians and carried by different captors into the wilderness. The story is told in verse and often well, although much of it is rhyming prose.
Julia ends the narrative saying :
"I saw not but as if entranced.
I felt myself with force advanced,
Far up the rugged crowned hill.
By painted ruffians at their will."
The next division has to do with the marching of Wayne's Army.
The inroads of the Indians and their triumph over General Harmon's and Wayne's armies made them insolent and aggressive :
"And a nation's tears and wrongs,
Roused to her aid heroic throngs.
To quell her border strife- Into the forest depths they go, And fight where lurks the foe, Or cease with ceasing life."
Wayne's army assembled "Where the St. Joseph swept along- And the St. Mary's poured her purling tide."
And here the backwoodsmen
"Each with his saek beneath his head, Lay on simple greensward bed."
Which was more comfortable
"Than midst a sultry August air, In a narrow crowded tent."
With the morning
"The doubling sounds of drum and fife, Awoke a scene of busy life,
And did for the stern march prepare
Along with Miami's banks where
They hoped to meet the lurking foe. In steady combat, blow to blow."
While the descriptions of the make-up of the army, its com- missary, clothing. military drill. marching, amusements, etc., are often entertaining and instructive, we cannot use the space to transfer them into this article.
The army under way plodded through swamps and forests, planted a fort at Defiance, and soon sought and found the massed Indian prows under Turkeyfoot at the foot of the Rapids. The
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
results are known. The poem at length described all. During this time the captives were with Girty's band. The stranger and Gibbs the hunter, saw the captives bound to the stake, and the light- ing of the fires about them. and slipping in the darkness nearer from the river, filled their caps with water and with vells and great noise rushed to their rescues and quenched the lighted fires and their persecutors panie stricken fled; and the captives, in the night, no one speaking a word, with their deliverers reached Wayne's army, which was then only a few miles distant.
The Forest Rangers turned over their captives. Next morning Gibbs called to see the captives, and to his great astonishment and joy, found Nancy, the matron, as one raised from the dead, and his beautiful boy whom he had not before seen.
George Vernon, calling a few minutes later, recognized Julia, his affianced and
"Julia all blushing in her charms,
Was given to her lovers arms. And thus ended all the toils and dangers,
Of these praiseworthy 'Forest Rangers.' "
Simon Girty fought in the battle of the "Fallen Timber" and, wounded and branded by white men and red. fled to Canada.
Here ends this early epic poem of the Maumee Valley. It is worthy a place in the library of all who delight in the pioneer literature of Seneca county, which gives correct and graphic views of this heroic period of 1794.
While a hundred years ago, there were those in the north- west who wrote verses, most of which were the crudest doggerels, yet an occasional gem fell upon their pens; but one only wrote an epic-Count Coffinberry. Critically, there is little to be said of the poem. It has faults and blemishes, but is correct in rhythm, accent and rhyme, and flows as gracefully along as the Miami of the lakes in the leafy month of June.
PIONEER POET AND PREACHER.
Rev. L. B. Gurley, pioneer poet and preacher, was the author of the first poem published in northwestern Ohio. We take the following from an interesting sketch written by the Rev. N. B. C. Love, which appeared some years since in a state historical publica- tion. In an apostrophe to the plains of Seneca, he wrote :
"Thy plains, Sandusky, and thy green retreats,
Thy perfumed flowers and their opening sweets;
How bright the scene to fancy's richest glow,
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As years shall roll and ages onward flow, And lofty groves in sweet suffusion grow."
From his poem of the "Fair Fugitive," we take the following : "Minnie was the lovely daughter,
Of a mother doomed to toil ;
Where the white magnolia blossoms,
And the orange shades the soil."
Minnie was a.fugitive slave, and her father was her master. She had been favored with a home in the planter's family, and her. mind finely cultured in all that art and science could bestow. She had
"Auburn hair and lips of coral. Afric's blood no eye could trace.
Sixteen summers had passed o'er her, Girlhood's ripening charms were seen,
Passing lovely was the maiden, Graceful form and gentle mien."
"Minnie's master was her father." A lordly slaveholder with plenty of money bought her, and when the bill of her purchase was given her, she for the first time realized her sad fate. That she was a slave
"As she read, a deathlike pallor, Blanched her fair and virgin cheek.
Then one mighty soul-born struggle,
And she smiled submissive meek."
When the night came she sought the fields and river, and on its brink she left her jewels and her best clothing, and hastened on northward. The father, seeing her clothes next day supposed she was drowned, and filled with remorse, threw the money at the rich lordling's feet. For many nights she traveled onward and rested through the day,
"Till her weary limbs had borne her
From her native home afar."
"As she lay concealed one morning A young sportsman passed that way.
And he spied the tall reeds waving
Where the trembling Minnie lay."
He fired into the "Wild Beasts' lair" and wounded the maiden. He carried her to his father's house and after weeks of careful nursing by mother and sisters of the young man, Minnie was well again, and became his bride. Her father, hear- ing of her, and of her marriage. sent her freedom, and made her his only heir. She was with him in his dying hour, and all her father's slaves were given her, and then she freed them. Afterward
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"Happy Horace and his Minnie Far from slavery, in their home;
Blest with children, wealth and honor, Brightening joys around them bloom."
No doubt during the first half of the century Dr. Gurley had seen and aided many slaves onward to the land of freedom, on the "underground railroad."
Perhaps the best descriptive poem is "Wapavana." This maiden was the daughter of a chieftain who dwelt on the Sandusky. She was
"The fairest of the forest maidens, With her tresses dark and long,
Peerless in her maiden beauty,
Child of genius and of song." She would
"Sing the wild strains by minstrels taught her, Sing of deeds brave warriors wrought,
Sing of prairie flowers and forests, Sing as whispering fancy taught,
And her tones were wild and witching, Such as in sweet dreams we hear,
From the fairy isles of fancy Softly floating on the ear."
A pioneer, formerly a man of wealth, with his wife and only daughter moved to Sandusky, in Seneca county. The daughter was of rare culture and excelled in singing and playing the guitar. The music of the guitar and the singing of Orpha attracted the attention of the Indian maiden as she wandered along the banks of the Sandusky river. The two met and became fast friends, and "Orpha taught the Indian maiden How to touch the light guitar, How to strike its sounding wires,
How to sing of love and war."
After a while the Indian maiden, Wapayana, became the wife of a western chieftain. He took her to his far off home, in his bark canoe, to
"Rugged peaks where hemlocks tower, Caverns vast and forests wild,
Where the eagle feeds his nestlings, Where calm beauty never smiled."
Two or three years had passed, and Orpha, alone on a summer evening with her guitar,
"Sought a lonely vineclad hawthorn,
Such as might have made the bower,
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
When the sinless pair of Eden
Lived their first and happiest hour."
Then she sang the pioneer song :
"What though I have left the sweet home of my childhood Yet dear to my heart is its memory still."
Ere she had completed this song there sprang upon her two warriors, and took her captive. They captured her father also, while her mother, left behind. died of grief.
Reaching the far Indian settlement, the father was doomed to die, and as he laid his head on the log, the daughter, wild with despair, fell on her father's neck and wept. Her father asked her not to weep but to play and sing once again for him. This she did, the Indians meanwhile gathering around :
"While she sang a grand procession
Came to join the sacred dance,
Came to see the pale face tortured -:
All with solemn step advance."
The chieftain and his fair bride were in the company, when the latter recognized Orpha and her father, and sprang to the rescue. With tears she pleaded for the pale faces, but the chieftain urged that they die. They rehearsed the wrongs the Indians had suffered. While the council was proceeding. the Indian bride took the guitar from Orpha, and
"Sang of deed renowned in story When the tribe triumphant stood;
· Sang of trophies won and glory,
Rousing all their martial blood."
Then she sang of the "Great Spirit" who "Loves the braves whose hearts can pity helpless captives doomed to die."
The braves were moved. They were filled with wonder, they thought that the "Great Spirit" had inspired her. A pardon was granted ;
"So the tones of Wapayana,
Hushed man's raging wrath to rest."
"Thus Orpha's death-doomed father, Rescued by her light guitar."
CHAPTER XVI
THE CITY OF TIFFIN
GENERAL DESCRIPTION-CITY OFFICERS-WARD BOUNDARIES- OTHER GENERAL FACTS-ORIGINAL SURVEYS AND ADDITIONS- GOVERNOR TIFFIN, FOR WHOM THE CITY WAS NAMED-PIONEER HOTELS OF TIFFIN-"GERMAN INN" AND THE NEW THEATER- EARLY BRIDGES OF TIFFIN-STREET RAILWAYS-PUBLIC LIBRARY- FIRE DEPARTMENT-BIG FIRE OF 1872-WATER WORKS-BANKS OF TIFFIN-SUICIDE OF A TIFFIN BANKER-INDUSTRIES OF TIFFIN- FIRST SAW MILLS AND GRIST MILLS-NATIONAL MACHINERY COM- PANY-STERLING EMERY WHEEL COMPANY-TIFFIN MANUFACTUR- ING COMPANY-STERLING LUMBER AND SUPPLY COMPANY-TIFFIN LIME AND STONE COMPANY-THE SENECA COMPANY-TIFFIN BOILER WORKS-HOPPLE'S HANDLE FACTORY -- TIFFIN ELECTRIC COMPANY -SNEATH & CUNNINGHAM COMPANY-LEASE & COLLIER-TIFFIN MALLEABLE IRON & CHAIN COMPANY-OHIO LANTERN COMPANY- WEBSTER ELECTRIC COMPANY-FLOUR MILLS, ETC.
Something less than a century ago, the spot where the beanti- ful city of Tiffin now stands was covered by a mighty forest. whose shady depths were known only to the dusky savage as he pursued the panting deer or lured the wily turkey to its doom. The San- dusky river threaded its way like a silver thread woven into a mantle of green, between its banks of verdure, on its never-ceasing journey to the sea. its waters free from the litter of civilization and its mighty force unharnessed to the use of man. But time has wrought a change. The beauties of nature have been supplanted by those of man. and where once all was quiet and peaceful is now heard the hum of machinery and the never ceasing tumult of a thriving and progressing manufacturing center.
Tiffin is truly a city of destiny. Beautifully, almost romantic- ally situated nearly in the center of Seneca county, surrounded by one of the richest agricultural districts in the state and peopled . by a thrifty class of energetic and progressive citizens, she is destined to become at no far distant day one of the leading and most important manufacturing and industrial trade centers in
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
the great state of Ohio. Three great railway systems enter the city, thus making her shipping facilities ample for reaching all sections of the country, north, south, east and west. Besides the steam railways mentioned there is also an interurban electric road which carries not only passengers but also freight and express.
Tiffin has wide, well-kept streets and alleys, many of which are brick paved. an excellent water works and sewer system, five fine public school buildings, and it is also the home of Heidelberg University, which derives its name from the world renowned uni- versity in Germany. Several handsome churches, a business
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COLUMBIAN HIGH SCHOOL, TIFFIN.
college, four banks, three building associations, many large manu- facturing plants and business houses, together with innumerable fine residences and dwelling houses, comprise a city with advantages more diversified than are to be found in many cities four times her size.
Tiffin is also the county seat of Seneca county, and here is located the magnificent stone court house which occupies a con- spicuous and commanding position. in the very heart of the city. Tiffin has many points of interest in the immediate vicinity, notably Riverview park, and also the beautiful Meadowbrook park, which is located on the T .. F. & E. Electric line at Bascom, six miles west of the city. This and many other features of interest, which for lack of space we are unable to describe, go to make Tiffin one of
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
the most attractive and widely known cities in the country. It has a population of fifteen thousand and its growth is steadily on the increase.
It is with deep interest that the loyal citizens of Tiffin view the rapid stride their city has taken within the past few years, and then contemplate its most promising future. The opening of the twentieth century has proven the most prosperous period of Tiffin's history. It has witnessed a healthy increase in build- ing, more of which has been done than for several years previous- ly. The business men have also enjoyed a largely increased trade. A number of new stores have been opened and the city has gradu- ally, but surely, forged to the front as one of the prominent manu- facturing and mercantile centers of northwestern Ohio. The most
WASHINGTON STREET, LOOKING NORTH, TIFFIN, OHIO.
.
positive proof of the condition of any city is a fair representation of the standing of the leading business establishments. The com- mercial trade of Tiffin is typified by large and progressive houses, handling complete stocks and supplying a widespread territory. The interests are remarkable for their extent and variety. Every line is well represented and that, too, in a full and a most credita- ble manner.
Its present municipal officers are as follows:
Mayor-Joseph C. Arnold.
President City Council-Thomas J. Kintz.
Auditor-John E. Diemer.
Solicitor-R. L. DeRan.
Treasurer-A. J. Hafley.
Director of Public Safety-Edward C. May.
Public Library-Trustees: Mrs. S. B. Sneath, Mrs. George
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
.
Schroth, J. F. Bunn, P. J. Wilson, C. J. Yingling. The library is on the corner of Jefferson and Market streets.
Ward Boundaries: First-Beginning at Sandusky river on Market, east on Market to Jefferson, south on Jefferson to Main. east on Main to Schonhart, south on Schonart to Walker, east on Walker to Greenfield, east on Greenfield to corporation line, north- ward along corporation line to river, southwesterly along river to Market street bridge.
Second-All territory north and east of Miami, from the river along Miami to the corporation line.
Third-All territory south and west of Miami, from the river along Miami to the corporation line.
Fourth-All territory east of the river and south and west of the boundary lines of the First ward.
OTHER GENERAL FACTS.
Area of City-Five square miles.
Miles of Paving-Brick. eleven and three-fourths.
Miles of Paving-Macadam, ten and one-half.
Miles of Sanitary Sewers-Brick, three and one-fourth.
Miles of Sanitary Sewers-Tile, sixteen and three-fourths.
Miles of Water Mains-Twenty-seven.
Number of Fire Hydrants-One hundred and eighty-three.
Fire Alarm System-Gamewell.
Number of Fire Alarm Boxes-Twenty-six.
Railroads-Baltimore & Ohio, Pennsylvania, Big Four.
Electric Lines-Tiffin, Fostoria & Eastern, Tiffin Electric Rail- way & Power Company.
Telegraph-Western Union, Postal.
Telephones-Home. Central Union.
ORIGINAL SURVEYS AND ADDITIONS.
Town of Tiffin. fractional section 19. town 2 north, range 15 east, containing 118 lots 60x180 feet each, streets sixty-six feet wide and alleys sixteen and a half feet wide, with publie grounds equal to three lots at the corner of Market and Washington streets, extending to Rose alley (later Virgin alley). now Court alley or Court street, was platted November 28. 1821. for Josiah Hedges by his brother. General James Hedges. The northern addition was made May 27. 1831. and the southern addition May 27. 1831, by Josiah Hedges. At this time the Catholic church lot was on East Market street, adjoining the old cemetery. Norris & Gist's addition, lots one to twelve, fronting on Jefferson street, was recorded June 15. 1832, by Eli Norris and George W. Gist. Keller Vol. I-23
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
& Gist's was made January 29, 1834, for Levi Keller and George W. Gist, on out-lots No. 2 and No. 5, known as lots 3 to 12 Jefferson street, in southern addition.
Rawson's addition was made by David Risdon for Abel Raw- son, May 30, 1833. Sneath & Graff's out-lots No. 3 and part of out-look No. 4, known as lots 1 to 10 on Jefferson street, in southern addition, was made January 29, 1834. Jennings', a fractional part of out-lot No. 3, and a fraction south of that lot extending to the Mansfield road, was surveyed by D. Risdon, November 13, 1834, for Milton Jennings. George W. Gist's plat of lots on the east half of southeast quarter of section 20, township 2 north, range 15 east, Nos. 1 to 10, was made in 1835.
Reuben Williams' addition, in-lots Nos. 1 to 12 and fractional in-lots 13 to 18, on Monroe street, was platted in April, 1835. Samuel Waggoner's southwest addition on Monroe, south of Char- lotte street, was recorded in January, 1836. Sheldon's was sur- veyed September 11, 1838, by James Durbin for H. O. Sheldon. Jacob Ronk's addition to New Fort Ball was surveyed by G. H. Heming in November. 1849. Josiah Hedges' second addition was surveyed June 4, 1851. by G. H. Heming, extending south of San- dusky river and east of Rock run to the college grounds. A part of this addition. situate in the Second ward, comprised twenty-one in-lots No. 620 to 640, with the extension of certain streets. Hedges' addition of out-lots 1 to 6, Second ward, was surveyed April 2. 1849, by G. H. Heming. Davis' addition including parts of lots 2 and 3 of McCulloch's section in township 2, range 15 east, was surveyed in May. 1854. by Hiram McClelland. Springdale was surveyed by G. H. Heming in May, 1854, for William H. Gibson. This well-located addition is on the west half of the southeast quar- ter and north part of southwest quarter of fractional section 30, township 2, range 15. Hedges' quarry lots. embracing five and one-half acres of the east part of lot No. 7, McCulloch's section, were surveyed by Hiram McClelland. May 6, 1854. for Josiah Hedges. Denzler's was platted in October, 1855. by N. R. Kuntz, between Portland and Scipio streets.
Josiah Hedges' second southern addition to the First ward was surveyed in June, 1855. This addition was located south of the Catholic church, east and west of Washington street. Al- brecht's was surveyed by Lewis E. Holtz, deputy surveyor, in March, 1856. The town of New Oakley, south of Tiffin, in sections 29, 30, 31 and 32, was surveyed in June. 1856, by G. H. Heming, for D. Cunningham, guardian of John Zimmerman. George E. Seney's addition. north of Portland street, was surveyed by Lewis E. Holtz, November 28, 1856. The western addition was sur- veyed by G. IT. Heming, for H. M. Avery, T. R. Butler, J. R. Cecil and Josiah Hedges, July 13, 1857.
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
The boundaries of Sheldon's were agreed to April 7, 1858, by the proprietors, R. and F. M. Crum, Patrick H. and Mary M. Ryan, John and Eliza Walker and John Bougher. Jacob Heil- man's subdivision of south part of lot 4, together with thirty-two and three-fourth links wide south of said lot, was surveyed January 14. 1858. Hedges' lots Nos. 1 and 2, in B. D., were subdivided in July, 1862, for Josiah Hedges. Noble's addition was surveyed in March, 1863, by G. H. Heming, for Harrison and Minerva Noble. This is situated in the northeast part of the Armstrong reservation.
M. P. Skinner's lands, known as in-lots 443, 444, 445, 446 and 447, fronting on High street, were added to the town March 5, 1864. Graham & Emich's subdivision of Levi Davis' addition, in McCul- loch's township, angle of Plumb road and Davis street, Tiffin, was platted in March, 1864. Franklin's subdivision to Oakley was surveyed June 14, 1864, for Caroline M. Franklin and Freeman E. Franklin. Franklin's addition to Oakley was surveyed by Hiram MeClelland, January 16, 1866. for Caroline M. and Freeman E. Franklin. Frost's addition was surveyed February 15, 1870, by Denis Maloy, for Josiah B. and Meshach Frost. Noble's second addition to the Second ward was surveyed by Heming, in Novem- ber, 1866, for Harrison and Minerva Noble. Other additions have since been made to the original plat of Tiffin with which all are familiar.
Governor Edward Tiffin, in whose honor the city was named, was born in Carlisle. England, June 19, 1766. His parents were in but moderate circumstances, and his uncle. Edward Parker, after whom he was named. assumed the care of his education. He was fitted for the study of medicine, upon which he entered at an early age; but before lie had completed the course he came to America with his parents and family, and landed in New York. He was then eighteen years of age, and proceeded to Philadelphia, where he followed a course of medical lectures in the University of Pennsylvania. He then rejoined his father's family, who had settled in Berkley county, Virginia. and began the practice of medicine when but twenty years of age. In 1789 he married Mary. daughter of Robert Worthington, a sister of Governor Worthington and a woman of fine culture, with whom he lived happily until her death.
Removing to Ohio, Dr. Tiffin took an active part in public affairs and in January, 1803, was elected governor of Ohio, and in 1805 re-elected, but declined to be a candidate for a third term. At the expiration of his second term in 1807, Governor Tiffin was elected United States senator, in December of that year. Dr. Tiffin was a lay reader of the Protestant Episcopal churchi.
The most notable feature of Governor Tiffin's gubernatorial career was the arrest of the Burr-Blennerhasset expedition. In
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
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THIRD WARD SCHOOL, TIFFIN.
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
the latter part of 1806, Aaron Burr collected numerous boats and quantities of stores in the neighborhood of Blennerhasset Island, below Marietta. £ Governor Tiffin. learning that the expedition was ready to sail. dispatched a courier to the commandant at Marietta, and directed him to occupy a position below the island, where, with a field battery, they could command the channel. Burr, seeing that his plans were discovered and knowing the impossibility of running the blockkade, abandoned the expedition and fled. Tiffin's career as governor of Ohio was characterized by wise states- manship and great efforts in developing the vast resources of the young state. So were his efforts in the senate of the United States marked by his tireless energy and wonderful perseverance. In this enlarged sphere of power he did very much to promote the in- terests of Ohio. Public lands were surveyed, new measures for the transportation of the mails were organized, and the navigation of the Ohio river was much improved.
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