History of Wayne County, Ohio, Volume I, Part 3

Author:
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1162

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WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.

It was in 1762 that the Moravian missionaries, Post and Heckwelder, had established a station upon the Muskingum river. One year later the French ceded their possessions in the Northwest and, indeed, in North America, to Great Britain, and from that time forward the English had only the natives with whom to contend. After many conflicts had ensued and much blood and precious life had been lost, the English became masters of the soil. In 1774, by act of Parliament of the English government, the whole of the Northwest Territory was annexed to and made a part of the province of Quebec.

July 4, 1776, the colonists declared their independence and renounced further allegiance to the British crown, and each colony then claimed juris- diction over the soil embraced within its charter. The Revolutionary war terminating favorably to the American colonies, the King of England, Sep- tember 3, 1783,. ceded all claim to the Northwest Territory of the United States. By charter, Virginia claimed that portion of the territory which was situated northwest of the river Ohio, but in 1784 she ceded all claim to the territory to the United States. By virtue of this act or deed of cession the General Assembly of Virginia did, through her delegates in Congress March I, 1784, "convey (in the name of and for and on behalf of the said com- monwealth), transfer, assign and make over unto the United States, in Congress assembled, for the benefit of said states, Virginia included, all right and title and claim, as well of soil as of jurisdiction, to the territory of said state lying and being to the northwest of the river Ohio."

After this great northwestern domain had been secured to the United States, Congress directed measures toward the permanent organization of civil government in the same, it now being within the legitimate province of its legislation. July 13, 1787, Congress passed "An Ordinance for the Gov- ernment of the Territory of the United States, Northwest of the Ohio river," the same being styled "the Ordinance of 1787." This was made the supreme law of the territory, and from its principles grew all further legislation.

The ordinance referred to provided that the territory should be divided into not less than three nor more than five states, as soon as Virginia should alter her acts of cession and the proper bounds should be fixed. The west- ern state in such territory should be bounded by the Ohio, Mississippi and Wabash rivers; a direct line from the Wabash at Port Vincent due north to the territorial line between the United States and Canada, and by said line direct to the Lake of the Woods and the Mississippi. The middle state was fixed by a direct line from the Wabash at Port Vincent, to the Ohio, by the Ohio, by a direct line drawn due north from the mouth of the Miami to

WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.

the said territorial line. The eastern state was fixed as by the last named . direct line, the Ohio and Pennsylvania, and to the said territorial line. Pro- vision was, however, made that two other states might be made from the territory by Congress; further that when any one of these states has sixty thousand people that it might be admitted into the Union as a state and no longer be under a territorial government.

Article six of the ordinance provided that "There shall be neither slav- ery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; provided, always, that any person escaping into the same from whom labor and service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original states, such fugi- tive may be lawfully reclaimed, and conveyed to the person claiming his labor and services aforesaid."

POPULATION.

It is estimated that at the date of the passage of the Ordinance of 1787 the entire population of all the villages and settlements of the territory in question did not exceed three thousand souls. These settlements were chiefly made in the northwest and western portion of it. The French were the occupants of the villages and environments, chief among which was Detroit, on the Detroit river; St. Vincent, on the Wabash; Cahokia, a few miles below St. Louis; St. Philip, forty-five miles below St. Louis, on the Mississippi river; Kaskaskia, six miles above the mouth of the stream by the same name; Prairie du Rocher, near Fort Chartres; and Fort Chartres, fifteen miles northwest of Kaskaskia.

ORIGINAL SQUATTERS.

One who was well informed wrote of these people, many years ago, as follows: "Their intercourse with the Indians and their seclusion from the world developed among them peculiar characteristics. They assimilated themselves with the Indians, adopted their habits, and almost uniformly lived in harmony with them. They were illiterate, careless, contented, but without much industry, energy and forethought. Some were hunters, trap- pers and anglers, while others run birch bark canoes by way of carrying on a small internal trade, and still others cultivated the soil. The traders or voyageurs were men fond of adventure, and of a wild, unrestrained Indian sort of life, and would ascend many of the long rivers of the West, almost to

WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.

their sources, in their little birch-bark canoes and load them with furs bought from the Indians. The canoes were light and could be easily carried across the portages between the streams."

There was attached to these French villages a "common field" for the free use of the villagers, every family, in proportion to the number of its mem- bers, being entitled to a share of it. It was a large, enclosed tract for farm- ing purposes. There was also at each village a "common," or large enclosed tract, for pasturage and feed purposes, and timber for building.

CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE.

The Western Annals had this to say concerning the inhabitants of this territory : "They were devout Catholics, who, under the guidance of their priests, attended punctually upon the holidays and festivals and performed faithfully all the outward duties and ceremonies of the church. Aside from this, their religion was blended with their social feelings. Sundays, after mass, was their special occasion for their games and assemblies. The dance was the popular amusement with them, and all classes, ages, sexes and conditions, united by a common love of enjoyment, met together to partici- pate in the exciting pleasure. They were indifferent about the acquisition of property for themselves or their children. Living in a fruitful country, which, moreover, abounded in fish and game, and where the necessaries of life could be procured with little labor, they were content to live in unambi- tious peace and comfortable poverty. Their agriculture was rude, their houses were humble, and they cultivated grain, also fruits and flowers; but they lived on, from generation to generation, without much change or im- provement. In some instances they married and intermarried with sur- rounding Indiana tribes."

These remote villages and settlements were usually protected by mili- tary posts-Detroit especially, which in 1763, when held by the English, had resisted the assaults of the great Pontiac-and had witnessed the wrin- kled front of grim-visaged war a century before the adoption of the Ordi- nance of 1787.

ORGANIZATION OF THE OHIO LAND COMPANY.

The best description of this great company is found in the secretary of state's reports of 1876, and is from the pen of that most accurate writer and gatherer of statistics, Hon. Isaac Smucker, of Licking county :

WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.

While Congress had under consideration the measure for the organiza- tion of a territorial government northwest of the Ohio river, the preliminary steps were taken in Massachusetts toward the formation of the Ohio Land Company, for the purpose of making a purchase of a large tract of land in said territory and settling upon it. Upon the passage of the ordinance by Congress, the aforesaid land company perfected its organization and by its agents, Rev. Manasseh Cutler and Maj. Winthrop Sargent, made applica- tion to the board of treasury July 27, 1787, to become purchasers, said board having been authorized four days before to make sales. The purchase, which was perfected October 27, 1787, embraced a tract of land containing about a million and a half acres situated within the counties (as now known) of Washington, Athens, Meigs and Gallia, subject to the reservation of two townships of land six miles square, for the endowment of a college, since known as the Ohio University, at Athens; also every sixteenth section, set apart for the use of schools, as well as every twenty-ninth section, dedicated to the support of religious institutions; also sections 8, II and 26, which were reserved by the United States for future sale. After these deductions were made, and that for donation lands, there remained only nine hundred and sixty-four thousand acres to be paid for by the Ohio Land Company, and for which patents were issued.

At a meeting of the directors of the company, held in November, 1787, Gen. Rufus Putnam was chosen superintendent of the company, and he ac- cepted the position. Early in December six boat builders and a number of other mechanics were sent forward to Simrall's Ferry (now West Newton), on the Youghiogheny river, under the command of Maj. Haffield White, where they arrived in January, and at once proceeded to build a boat for the use of the company. Col. Ebenezer Sproat, of Rhode Island, Anselm Tupper and John Matthews, of Massachusetts, and Col. Return J. Meigs, of Con- necticut, were appointed surveyors. Preliminary steps were also taken at this meeting to secure a teacher and chaplain, which resulted in the appoint- ment of Rev. Daniel Story, who sometime during the next year arrived at the mouth of the Muskingum in the capacity of the first missionary and teacher from New England.

Early in the winter the remainder of the pioneers, with the surveyors, left their New England homes and started on their toilsome journey to the western wilderness. They passed on over the Alleghany mountains, and reached the Youghiogheny about the middle of February, where they rejoined their companions who had preceded them.

WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.

The boat, called the "Mayflower," that was to transport the pioneers to their destination, was forty-five feet long, twelve feet wide and fifty tons burden, and was placed under the command of Captain Devol. Her bows were raking, or curved like a galley, and strongly timbered; her sides were made bullet proof, and she was covered with a deck roof, so as to afford better protection against the hostile savages while floating down towards their western home, and during its occupancy there before the completion of their cabins. All things being ready, they embarked at Simrall's Ferry, April 2, 1788, and passed down the Youghiogheny into the Monongahela, and thence into the Ohio, and down said river to the mouth of the Muskingum, where they arrived April 7th, and then and there made the first permanent settle- ment of civilized men within the present limits of Ohio.

Many of the Yankee colonists had been officers and soldiers in the Rev- olutionary war, and were, for the most part, men of intelligence and char- acter and of sound judgment and much ability. In short, they were just the kind of men to found a state in the wilderness. They possessed great energy of character, were enterprising, fond of adventure and daring and were not to be intimidated by the formidable forests, nor by the ferocious beasts sheltered therein, nor by the still more to be dreaded savages, who stealthily and with murderous intent roamed throughout their length and breadth. Their army experiences had taught them what hardships and pri- vations were, and they were quite willing to encounter them. A better set of men could not have been selected for pioneer settlers than were these New England colonists-those brave-hearted, courageous hero-emigrants to the great northwest, who, having triumphantly passed the fiery ordeal of the Revolution, volunteered to found a state and to establish American laws, American institutions and American civilization in the wilderness of the uncivilized West.

FIRST SETTLEMENT UNDER THE ORDINANCE OF 1787.

Of course, no time was lost by the colonists in erecting their habita- tions, as well as in building a stockade fort and in clearing land for the pro- duction of vegetables and grain for their subsistence, fifty acres of corn having been planted the first year. Their settlement was established upon the point of land between the Ohio and Muskingum rivers, just opposite and across the Muskingum from Fort Harmer, built in 1786 and at this time garrisoned by a small military force under command of Major Doughty.

WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.

At a meeting held on the banks of the Muskingum, July 2, 1788, it was voted that Marietta should be the name of their town, it being thus named in honor of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France.

SURVEYS AND PUBLIC LAND GRANTS.

The first survey of the public lands northwest of the Ohio river was the seven ranges of congressional lands, and was executed pursuant to an act of Congress of May 20, 1785. This tract of "the seven ranges" is bounded by a line of forty-two miles in length, running due west from the point where the western boundary line of Pennsylvania crosses the Ohio river ; thence due south to the Ohio river, at the southeast corner of Marietta township, in Washington county; thence up the said river to the place of beginning. The present counties of Jefferson, Columbiana, Carroll, Tus- carawas, Harrison, Guernsey, Belmont, Noble, Monroe and Washington are, in whole or in part, within the seven ranges.

The second survey was that of the Ohio Company's purchase, made in pursuance of an act of Congress of July 23, 1785, though the contract was not completed with the Ohio Company until October 27, 1787. One hundred thousand acres of this tract, called donation lands, were received on conditions as a free gift to actual settlers. Portions of the counties of Washington, Athens and Gallia are within this tract, also the entire county of Meigs. The donation lands were in Washington county.

The next survey was the Symmes Purchase and contiguous lands, situ- ated to the north and west of it, and was made soon after the foregoing. The Symmes Purchase embraced the entire Ohio river front between the Big Miami and Little Miami rivers, a distance of twenty-seven miles, and reaching northward a sufficient distance to include an area of one million acres. The contract with Judge Symmes, made in October, 1787, was later modified by act of Congress bearing date of May 5, 1792, and by an author- ized act of the President of the United States, of September 30, 1794, so as to amount to only three hundred eleven thousand six hundred eighty-two acres, exclusive of a reservation of fifteen acres around Fort Washington, of a square mile at the mouth of the Great Miami, of sections 16 and 29 in each township, the former of which Congress had reserved for educational pur- poses and religious affairs; exclusive also of a township dedicated to the in- terests of a college; and sections 8, II and 26, which Congress reserved for future sale.

WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.

The tract of land situated between the Little Miami and Scioto rivers, known as the Virginia military lands, was never regularly surveyed into townships, but patents were issued by the President of the United States to such persons (Virginians) as had rendered service on the continental establishment in the army of the United States (hence the name), and in the quantities to which they were entitled, according to the previous acts of Congress of August 10, 1790. It embraces a body of six thousand five hun- dred and seventy square miles, or four million two hundred and four thou- sand eight hundred acres. The following counties are situated in the tract : Adams, Brown, Clermont, Clinton, Fayette, Highland, Madison and Union entirely, and greater or less portions of Marion, Delaware, Franklin, Pick- away, Ross, Pike, Scioto, Warren, Greene, Clarke, Champaign, Logan and Hardin.

Connecticut ceded all lands in the Northwest to which she claimed title to the United States (except the tract which has been known as the West- ern Reserve), by deed of cession bearing date September 14, 1786, and in May, 1800, by the act of the Legislature of said state, renounced all juris- diction and claim to the "territory of the Western Reserve of Connecticut." The tract of land was surveyed in 1796 and later into townships of five miles square, and in the aggregate contained about three million eight hundred thousand acres, being one hundred and twenty miles long and lying west of the Pennsylvania state line, all situated between forty-one degrees and forty-two degrees and two minutes of north latitude. Half a million of acres of the foregoing lands were set apart by the state of Connecticut, in 1792, as a donation to the sufferers by fire (during the Revolutionary war) of the residents of Greenwich, New London, Norwalk, Fairfield, Danbury, New Haven and other Connecticut villages whose property was burned by the British; hence the name "firelands," by which this tract taken from the western portion of the Reserve has been known. It is situated chiefly in Huron and Erie counties, a small portion only being in Ottawa county. The entire Western Reserve embraces the present counties of Ashtabula, Cuya- hoga, Erie, Geauga, Huron, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Portage and Trumbull; also the greater portion of Mahoning and Summit and very limited portions of Ashland and Ottawa.

THE FRENCH GRANT

is a tract of twenty-four thousand acres of land bordering on the Ohio river within the present limits of Scioto county, granted by Congress in

WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.

March, 1795, to certain French settlers of Gallipolis who, through invalid titles, had lost their lands there. Twelve hundred acres were added to this grant in 1798, making a total of twenty-five thousand two hundred acres.

THE UNITED STATES MILITARY LANDS

were surveyed under the provisions of the act of Congress of June 1, 1796, and contained two million five hundred and sixty thousand acres. This tract was set apart to satisfy certain claims of the officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary war, hence the title by which it is known. It is bounded by the "seventh range" on the east, by the Greenville treaty line on the north, by the congressional and refugee lands on the south, and by the Scioto river on the west, including the county of Coshocton entire, and portions of the counties of Tuscarawas, Guernsey, Muskingum, Licking, Franklin, Delaware, Marion, Morrow, Knox and Holmes.

THE MORAVIAN LANDS

are three several tracts of four thousand acres each, situated respectively at Shoenbrun, Gnadenhutten and Salem, all on the Tuscarawas river. These lands were originally dedicated by an ordinance of Congress of June 1, 1796, and were surveyed and patents issued to the Society of the United Brethren, for the purpose above specified.

THE REFUGEE TRACT

is a body of land containing one hundred thousand acres, granted by Con- gress February 18, 1801, to persons who fled from the British provinces during the Revolutionary war and took up arms against the mother country and in behalf of the colonies, and thereby lost their property by confiscation This tract is four and one-half miles wide and extends forty-eight miles eastward from the Scioto river, at Columbus, into Muskingum county. It includes portions of the counties of Franklin, Fairfield, Perry, Licking and Muskingum.

DOHRMAN'S GRANT

is a township of land six miles square, containing thirteen thousand acres, situated in the southeastern part of Tuscarawas county. It was given to

WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.

Arnold Henry Dohrman, a Portuguese merchant of Lisbon, by act of Con- gress of February 27, 1801, "in consideration of his having during the Revolutionary war given shelter and aid to the American cruisers and vessels of war."

INDIAN TREATIES.

By the terms of the treaty of Fort Stanwix, concluded with the Iroquois or Six Nations (Mohawks, Onondagas, Senecas, Cayugas, Tuscaroras and Oneidas) October 23, 1784, the indefinite claim of said confederacy to the greater part of the valley of the Ohio was extinguished. The commissioners of Congress were Oliver Wolcott, Richard Butler and Arthur Lee. Corn- planter and Red Jacket represented the Indians.

This was followed in January, 1785, by the treaty of Fort McIntosh, by which the Delawares, Wyandots, Ottawas and Chippewas relinquished all claim to the Ohio valley and established the boundary line between them and the United States to be the Cuyahoga river, and along the main branch of the Tuscarawas to the forks of said river, near Fort Laurens, thence westwardly to the portage between the headwaters of the Great Miami and the Maumee or Maumee of the lakes, thence down said river to Lake Erie, and along said lake to the mouth of the Cuyahoga river. This treaty was negotiated by George Rogers Clark, Richard Butler and Arthur Lee, for the United States, and by the chiefs of the aforesaid tribes.

A similar relinquishment was effected by the treaty of Fort Finney (at the mouth of the Great Miami), concluded with the Shawnees January 31. 1786, the United States commissioners being the same as the foregoing, ex- cept the substitution of Samuel H. Parsons for Arthur Lee.

THE TREATY OF FORT HARMAR,

held by General St. Clair January 9, 1789, was mainly confirmatory of the treaties previously made. So was also the treaty of Greenville, of August 3, 1705, made by General Wayne, on the part of the United States, and the chiefs of eleven of the most powerful tribes of the northwestern Indians, which re-established the Indian boundary line through the present state of Ohio and extended it from Loramie to Fort Recovery, and from thence to the Ohio river, opposite the mouth of the Kentucky river.

The rights and titles acquired by the Indian tribes under the foregoing treaties were extinguished by the general government by purchase or subse-

WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.

quent treaties. The Western Reserve tract west of the Cuyahoga river was secured by a treaty formed at Fort Industry, in 1805. The lands west of Richland and Huron counties and north of the boundary line to the western limits of Ohio were purchased in 1818. The last possession of the Dela- wares was purchased in 1829, and by a treaty made at Upper Sandusky, March 17, 1842, by Col. John Johnston and the Wyandot chiefs, the last remnant of the Indian tribes in Ohio sold the last acre of land they owned within the limits of the state to the general government, and retired the next year to the far West, settling at and near the mouth of the Kansas river.

FIRST TERRITORIAL OFFICERS.

In the month of October, 1787, Congress appointed Gen. Arthur St. Clair, governor; Maj. Winthrop Sargent, secretary, and James M. Varnum, Samuel H. Parsons and John Armstrong, judges of the territory; the latter, however, declining, John Cleves was appointed in his place. July 9, 1788, Governor St. Clair arrived at Marietta and, finding the secretary and a majority of the judges present, proceeded to organize the territory. The Governor and judges were the sole legislative power during the existence of the first grade of territorial government. Such laws were in force as were in other states, and were such as applied to the people of the territory.

THE SECOND TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT.

The Ordinance of 1787 provided that after it should be ascertained that five thousand free male inhabitants actually resided within the territory the second grade of government could, of right, be established, which pro- vided for a legislative council, and also an elective house of representatives, the two composing the law-making power of the territory, provided always that the governor's assent to their acts was had. He possessed the abso- lute veto power in each branch, and nothing could become a law without his sanction. The conditions that authorized the second grade of territorial government, however, did not exist until 1798, and it was not really put into operation until September, 1799, after the first grade of government had been in operation eleven years.

EARLY TERRITORIAL LAWS.

The first law was proclaimed July 25, 1788, and was entitled "An Act for Regulating and Establishing the Militia." Two days thereafter the Governor issued a proclamation establishing the county of Washington,

WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.

which included all the territory east of the Scioto river to which the Indian title had been extinguished, reaching northward to Lake Erie, the Ohio river and the Pennsylvania line being its eastern boundary; Marietta, the seat of the territorial government, also became the county seat of Washing- ton county.

Quite a number of laws were necessarily adopted and published during 1788 and the following year. From 1790 to 1795 they published sixty-four, forty-four of them being adopted at Cincinnati during the months of June, July and August of the year last named, by the Governor and Judges Symmes and Turner. They are known as the "Maxwell Code," from the name of the publisher, and were intended, says the author of Western An- nals, "to form a pretty complete body of statutory provisions." In 1798 eleven more were adopted. It was the published opinion of Chief Justice Chase "that it may be doubted whether any colony, at so early a period after its first establishment, ever had so good a code of laws." Among them was that which provided that the common law of England, and all statutes in aid thereof made previous to the fourth year of James I, should be in full force within the territory. Probably four-fifths of the laws adopted were selected from those in force in Pennsylvania, and others were mainly taken from the statutes of Virginia and Massachusetts.

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History of Wayne County, Ohio, Volume I, Part 3

Author: Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen Number of Pages: 1162

Author:
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1162