History of Summit County, with an outline sketch of Ohio, Part 11

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1104

USA > Ohio > Summit County > History of Summit County, with an outline sketch of Ohio > Part 11

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" By this grant we obtained near five millions of acres of land, amounting to $3,500,000; 1,500,- 000 acres for the Ohio Company, and the remainder for a private speculation, in which many of the principal characters of America are concerned. Without connecting this peculation, similar terms and advantages for the Ohio Company could not have been obtained."

Messrs. Cutler and Sargent at once closed a ver- bal contract with the Treasury Board, which was executed in form on the 27th of the next Octo- ber .*

By this contract, the vast region bounded on the south by the Ohio, west by the Scioto, east by the seventh range of townships then surveying, and north by a due west line, drawn from the north

boundary of the tenth township from the Ohio, direct to the Scioto, was sold to the Ohio associ- ates and their secret copartners, for $1 per acre, subject to a deduction of one-third for bad lands and other contingencies.

The whole tract was not, however, paid for nor taken by the Company-even their own portion of a million and a half acres, and extending west to the eighteenth range of townships, was not taken; and in 1792, the boundaries of the purchase proper were fixed as follows: the Ohio on the south, the seventh range of townships on the east, the six- teenth range on the west, and a line on the north so drawn as to make the grant 750,000 acres, be- sides reservations ; this grant being the portion which it was originally agreed the Company might enter into at once. In addition to this. 214,285 acres were granted as army bounties, under the resolutions of 1779 and 1780, and 100,000 acres as bounties to actual settlers; both of the latter tracts being within the original grant of 1787, and adjoining the purchase as before mentioned.

While these things were progressing, Congress was bringing into form an ordinance for the gov- ernment and social organization of the North- west Territory. Virginia made her cession in March, 1784, and during the month following the plan for the temporary government of the newly acquired territory came under discussion. On the 19th of April, Mr. Spaight, of North Carolina, moved to strike from the plan reported by Mr. Jefferson, the emancipationist of his day, a provis- ion for the prohibition of slavery north of the Ohio after the year 1800. The motion prevailed. From that day till the 23d, the plan was discussed and altered, and finally passed unanimously with the ex-

ception of South Carolina. The South would have slavery, or defeat every measure. Thus this hide- ous monster early began to assert himself. By the proposed plan, the Territory was to have been divided into States by parallels of latitude and merid- ian lines. This division, it was thought, would make ten States, whose names were as follows, beginning at the northwest corner, and going southwardly : Sylvania, Michigania, Cheresonisus, Assenispia, Metropotamia, Illinoia, Saratoga, Washington, Polypotamia and Pelisipia .*

A more serious difficulty existed, however, to this plan, than its catalogue of names-the number of States and their boundaries. The root of the evil was in the resolution passed by Congress in October,

* Spark's Washington.

* Land Laws.

HISTORY OF OHIO.

1780, which fixed the size of the States to be formed from the ceded lands, at one hundred to one hundred and fifty miles square. The terms of that resolu- tion being called up both by Virginia and Massa- chusetts, further legislation was deemed necessary to change them. July 7, 1786, this subject came up in Congress, and a resolution passed in favor of a division into not less than three nor more than five States. Virginia, at the close of 1788, assented to this proposition, which became the basis upon which the division should be made. On the 29th of September, Congress having thus changed the plan for dividing the Northwestern Territory into ten States, proceeded again to consider the terms of an ordinance for the government of that region. At this juncture, the genius of Dr. Cutler displayed itself. A graduate in medicine, law and divinity ; an ardent lover of liberty ; a celebrated scientist, and an accomplished, portly gentleman, of whom the Southern senators said they had never before seen so fine a specimen from the New England colo- nies, no man was better prepared to form a govern- ment for the new Territory, than he. The Ohio Company was his real object. He was backed by them, and enough Continental money to purchase more than a million acres of land. This was aug- mented by other parties until, as has been noticed, he represented over five million acres. This would largely reduce the public debt. Jefferson and Vir- ginia were regarded as authority concerning the land Virginia had just ceded to the General Gov- ernment. Jefferson's policy was to provide for the national credit, and still check the growth of slavery. Here was a good opportunity. Massachusetts owned the Territory of Maine, which she was crowd- ing into market. She opposed the opening of the Northwest. This stirred Virginia. The South caught the inspiration and rallied around the Old Dominion and Dr. Cutler. Thereby he gained the credit and good will of the South, an auxiliary he used to good purpose. Massachusetts could not vote against him, because many of the constituents of her members were interested in the Ohio Com- pany. Thus the Doctor, using all the arts of the lobbyist, was enabled to hold the situation. True to deeper convictions, he dictated one of the most com- pact and finished documents of wise statesmanship that has ever adorned any statute-book. Jefferson gave it the term, "Articles of Compact," and rendered him valuable aid in its construction. This " Compact" preceded the Federal Constitution, in both of which are seen Jefferson's master-mind.

sachusetts, adopted three years before. The prom- inent features were : The exclusion of slavery from the Territory forever. Provision for public schools, giving one township for a seminary, and every six- teenth section. (That gave one thirty-sixth of all the land for public education.) A provision pro- hibiting the adoption of any constitution or the enactment of any law that would nullify pre-exist- ing contracts.

The compact further declared that "Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall always be en- couraged."

The Doctor planted himself firmly on this plat- form, and would not yield. It was that or nothing. Unless they could make the land desirable, it was not wanted, and, taking his horse and buggy, he started for the Constitutional Convention in Phil- adelphia. His influence succeeded. On the 13th of July, 1787, the bill was put upon its passage and was unanimously adopted. Every member from the South voted for it; only one man, Mr. Yates, of New York, voted against the measure ; but as the vote was made by States, his vote was lost, and the " Compact of 1787" was beyond re- peal. Thus the great States of the Northwest Territory were consecrated to freedom, intelligence and morality. This act was the opening step for freedom in America. Soon the South saw their blunder, and endeavored, by all their power, to re- peal the compact. In 1803, Congress referred it to a committee, of which John Randolph was chairman. He reported the ordinance was a com- pact and could not be repealed. Thus it stood, like a rock, in the way of slavery, which still, in spite of these provisions, endeavored to plant that infernal institution in the West. Witness the early days of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. But the compact could not be violated ; New England ideas could not be put down, and her sons stood ready to defend the soil of the West from that curse.

The passage of the ordinance and the grant of land to Dr. Cutler and his associates, were soon fol- lowed by a request from John Cleve Symmes, of New Jersey, for the country between the Miamis. Symmes had visited that part of the West in 1786, and, being pleased with the valleys of the Miamis, had applied to the Board of the Treasury for their purchase, as soon as they were open to set- tlement. The Board was empowered to act by Congress, and, in 1788, a contract was signed, giv- Dr. Cutler followed closely the constitution of Mas- | ing him the country he desired. The terms of his

HISTORY OF OHIO.

purchase were similar to those of the Ohio Com- pany. His application was followed by others, whose success or failure will appear in the narrative.

The New England or Ohio Company was all this time busily engaged perfecting its arrange- ments to occupy its lands. The Directors agreed to reserve 5,760 acres near the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum for a city and commons, for the old ideas of the English plan of settling a country yet prevailed. A meeting of the Direct- ors was held at Bracket's tavern, in Boston, No- vember 23, 1787, when four surveyors, and twen- ty-two attendants, boat-builders, carpenters, black- smiths and common workmen, numbering in all forty persons, were engaged. Their tools were purchased, and wagons were obtained to transport them across the mountains. Gen. Rufus Putnam was made superintendent of the company, and Ebenezer Sproat, of Rhode Island, Anselm Tup- per and John Matthews, from Massachusetts, and R. J. Meigs, from Connecticut, as surveyors. At the same meeting, a suitable person to instruct them in religion, and prepare the way to open a school when needed, was selected. This was Rev. Daniel Storey, who became the first New England minis- ter in the Northwest.

The Indians were watching this outgrowth of affairs, and felt, from what they could learn in Ken- tucky, that they would be gradually surrounded by the whites. This they did not relish, by any means, and gave the settlements south of the Ohio no little uneasiness. It was thought best to hold another treaty with them. In the mean time, to insure peace, the Governor of Virginia, and Con- gress, placed troops at Venango, Forts Pitt and McIntosh, and at Miami, Vincennes, Louisville, and Muskingum, and the militia of Kentucky were held in readiness should a sudden outbreak occur. These measures produced no results, save insuring the safety of the whites, and not until January, 1789, was Clarke able to carry out his plans. During that month, he held a meeting at Fort Harmar,* at the mouth of the Muskingum, where the New England Colony expected to locate.

The hostile character of the Indians did not deter the Ohio Company from carrying out its plans. In the winter of 1787, Gen. Rufus Put-

* Fort Harmar was built in 1785, by a detachment of United States soldiers, under command of Maj. John Doughty. It was named in honor of Col. Josiah Harmar, to whose regiment Maj. Doughty was attached. It was the first military post erected by the Americans within the limits of Ohio, except Fort Laurens, a temporary struct- ure built in 1778. When Marietta was founded it was the military post of that part of the country, and was for many years an impor- tant station.

nam and forty-seven pioneers advanced to the mouth of the Youghiogheny River, and began building a boat for transportation down the Ohio in the spring. The boat was the largest craft that had ever descended the river, and, in allusion to their Pilgrim Fathers, it was called the Mayflower. It was 45 feet long and 12 feet wide, and esti- mated at 50 tons burden. Truly a formidable affair for the time. The bows were raking and curved like a galley, and were strongly timbered. The sides were made bullet-proof, and it was covered with a deck roof. Capt. Devol, the first ship- builder in the West, was placed in command. On the 2d of April, the Mayflower was launched, and for five days the little band of pioneers sailed down the Monongahela and the Ohio, and, on the 7th, landed at the mouth of the Muskingum. There, opposite Fort Harmar, they chose a loca- tion, moored their boat for a temporary shelter, and began to erect houses for their occupation.

Thus was begun the first English settlement in the Ohio Valley. About the 1st of July, they were re-enforced by the arrival of a colony from Massachusetts. It had been nine weeks on the way. It had hauled its wagons and driven its stock to Wheeling, where, constructing flat-boats, it had floated down the river to the settlement.

In October preceding this occurrence, Arthur St. Clair had been appointed Governor of the Ter- ritory by Congress, which body also appointed Winthrop Sargent, Secretary, and Samuel H. Parsons, James M. Varnum and John Armstrong Judges. Subsequently Mr. Armstrong 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 colony :

"No colony in America was ever settled under such favorable auspices as that which has com- menced at the Muskingum. Information, prop- erty and strength will be its characteristics. I know many of the settlers personally, and there

*" Western Monthly Magazine."

HISTORY OF OHIO.

never were men better calculated to promote the welfare of such a community."

On the 2d of July, a meeting of the Directors and agents was held on the banks of the Mus- kingum for the purpose of naming the newborn city and its squares. As yet, the settlement had been merely "The Muskingum ;" but the name Marietta was now formally given it, in honor of Marie Antoinette. The square upon which the blockhouses stood was called Campus Martius ; Square No. 19, Capitolium; Square No. 61, Ce- cilia, 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 dis- tinct grades of government, under the first of which the whole power was under the Governor 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 25th 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 clergyman ; the newly appointed Judges of the Court of Common Pleas, Gens. 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 clergyman, Rev. Dr. Cutler, then invoked the divine blessing. The Sheriff, Col. 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 in the case.

" Although this scene was exhibited thus early in the settlement of the West, few ever equaled it in the dignity and exalted character of its princi- pal participators. Many of them belonged to the history of our country in the darkest, as well as the most splendid, period of the Revolutionary war."

Many Indians were gathered at the same time to witness 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 satis- factory 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 erect- ing 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 society in this new world, where, I believe, we shall vie with, if not excel, the old States in every accom- plishment necessary to render life agreeable and happy."

The emigration westward at this time was, indeed, exceedingly large. The commander at Fort Harmar reported 4,500 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, during 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 anywhere, save on reservations, or on land previously entered. The locator could enter an entire section should he de- sire to do so. The price was to be 603 cents per acre till May, 1788 ; then, till November, $1; and

*"Carey's Museum," Vol. 4.

HISTORY OF OHIO.

after that time to be regulated by the demand for land. Each purchaser was bound to begin im- provements within two years, or forfeit one-sixth of the land to whoever 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, rivaling any Eastern port. He offered any one a lot on which to build a house, providing he would remain three years. Conti- nental certificates were rising, owing to the demand for land created by these two purchases, and Con- gress found the burden of debt correspondingly lessened. Symmes soon began to experience diffi- culty in procuring enough to meet his payments. He had also some trouble 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, Mathias Denman, of New Jersey, 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 purchase, 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 Lexington, Ky. 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 some- what poetie nature, 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 Los- antiville,* " which, being interpreted," says the " Western Annals," " means ville, the town; anti, opposite 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 September, where they met Mr. Stites, with several persons from Redstone. All

* Judge Burnett, in his notes, disputes the above account of the origin 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.

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 be- tween him and the Treasury Board regarding the Ohio boundary. Symmes wanted all the land be- tween 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 appointment 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 rnin only awaited him. But he was brave and hope- ful, and determined to succeed. On his 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 " positively worth a silver dollar the acre in its present state."

A good many changes were made in his original contract, growing out of his inability to meet his payments. At first, he was to have not less than a million acres, under an act of Congress passed in October, 1787, authorizing 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, begin- ning twenty miles up the Ohio from the mouth of the Great Miami, and to run back for quantity be- tween 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 this would throw the purchase too far back from the Ohio, and applied to Congress to let him have all between the Mi- amies, running back so as to include 1,000,000 acres, which that body, on April 12, 1792, 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 issued in September, 1794, it

HISTORY OF OHIO.

gave him and his associates 248,540 acres, exclu- sive of reservations which amounted to 63,142 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, how- ever, made no further payments, and the rest of his purchase reverted 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 hos- tile Indians was in a measure imminent (though all the natives were friendly to Symmes), settlers were slow to come. However, the band led by Mr. Stites arrived before the 1st of January, 1789, and locating themselves near the mouth of the Little Miami, on a tract of 10,000 acres which Mr. Stites 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, oc- curred, which did much to ensure the future growth of Losantiville, or more properly, Cincin- nati. 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 escap- ing the overflow, late in December the place was visited by Israel Ludlow, Symmes' surveyor, Mr. Patterson and Mr. Denman, and about fourteen oth- ers, 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 triumphing over difficulty, and they landed safe on a most de- lightful bank of the Ohio, where they founded the town of Losantiville, which populates consid- erably." The settlers of Losantiville built a few log huts and block-houses, and proceeded to im- prove the town. Symmes, noticing the location, says: "Though they placed their dwellings in the most marked position, yet they suffered nothing from the freshet." This would seem to give cre- dence 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

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History of Summit County, with an outline sketch of Ohio, Part 11

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848- Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey Number of Pages: 1104

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1104