History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I, Part 17

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1202

USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I > Part 17

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Stimulated by their success in this affair, the Indians carried on their preda- tory war more actively than ever. "To describe the bloody scenes that ensued for twelve months," says one writer, " would require a volume for that alone."9 The settlers along the Muskingum and the Miamis were obliged to seek refuge within the forts. St. Clair, though acquitted of all blame by a committee of Congress, re- signed his commission in the army, and devoted himself exclusively to his civil functions as Governor of the Northwest. President Washington asked for author- ity to recruit three additional regiments of infantry and one of cavalry for a term of three years, unless peace with the Indians should sooner be made. This request, moderate and reasonable as it was, provoked great opposition. The infant republic was poor, and the States, already heavily in debt, were averse to being further taxed for the protection of new settlements. Even the abandonment of the country west of the Ohio was seriously proposed. Finally the military establishment was inereas- ed to four regiments of infantry, one of the cavalry, and a proportionate equip- ment of artillery, making an aggregate of five thousand men. The leader appoint- ed for this little army - an army in himself - was the hero of Stony Point, Gen- eral Anthony Wayne. Commissioners to negotiate peace were sent out from Wash- ington, but accomplished nothing. General Rufus Putnam, aided by the Moravian Heckewelder, concluded a treaty with the Wabash and Illinois tribes only. The others demanded, as an ultimatum, that the whites should recede beyond the Ohio.

General Wayne, with Wilkinson second in command, pushed his preparations. With a force three thousand strong he quitted Fort Washington October 7, 1793, and advanced six miles beyond Fort Jefferson. Here he established a fortified camp, near the present site of Greenville, Darke County, and called it Fort Green- ville. A detachment under Wilkinson gathered up the bones of the slain on the field of St. Clair's defeat, and erected there Fort Recovery. A band of Indians under Little Turtle, assisted by officers in British uniform, attacked this fort June

116

HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

30, 1794, but was repulsed after a stubborn fight in which the officer commanding the fort, Major McMahon, and twentyone of his men, were slain. On the eighth of August General Wayne resumed his advance. Quitting Fort Defiance on the fifteenth, he moved down the Maumee, with his right brushing the river, and on the nineteenth arrived at the head of the Rapids. Here he reconnoitered his front and found the Indians strongly posted amid fallen timber, behind a thick wood. They were drawn up in three mutually supporting lines, covering a front of two miles, and forming a right angle with the river. Behind them was the British fort.

Early on the twentieth General Wayne moved to the attack. His force com- prised about two thousand regulars, and eleven hundred Kentucky cavalry under General Scott. The Indians, two thousand strong, were led by Little Turtle. As Wayne advanced, they undertook to turn his right, but he foiled them in this by precipitating Scott's cavalry upon their right. At the same time, General Wayne brought forward his reserves, and ordered a charge, with trailed arms, to dislodge the Indians from their covert. This charge was delivered with great impetuosity, and was entirely successful. Within the space of an hour the enemy was driven from the windfall and thicket and pursned two miles. The cornfields of the In- dians were then laid waste, and their lodges hurned, even to within pistolshot of the British garrison. After a peppery correspondence with the British command- ant, General Wayne returned by easy marches to Defiance, but continued the work of destruction until all the Indian villages within fifty miles of the Maumee were blotted out. Wayne's loss in the battle was only one hundred and seven.

This brilliant campaign tranquilized the entire frontier, from the Lakes to Florida, and culminated in a treaty concluded at Fort Greenville Angust 3, 1795, by which the Indians released to the Americans all their lands in the Northwest, except a few specified reservations. The reserved tracts comprised about onefifth of the present territory of Ohio, lying in its northwestern corner. In considera- tion of the lands given up, the Indians were paid twenty thousand dollars in merchandise, and guaranteed a personal annuity of nine thousand dollars, to be apportioned among the contracting tribes. The signatory chiefs agreed to deliver up all captives, and to keep the peace forever.

After the Treaty of Greenville the tide of emigration to the Northwest set in with renewed energy. In Ohio, new settlements rapidly followed one another along the valleys of the Miami, Scioto, Cuyahoga, Muskingum and Mahoning. In 1790 the white population within the present area of the State numbered about three thousand ; in 1787 it fulfilled the prerequisite of " five thousand free male in - habitants of full age," fixed by the Ordinance of 1787 for the choice of a general assembly. The Governor therefore ordered an election of territorial representa- tives, to take place on the third Monday in December, 1798. Wayne County, with its seat of government at Detroit, was proclaimed August 15, 1795. It included the territories now constituting the northern half of Ohio, Northern Indiana, and all of Michigan. Adams County was proclaimed July 10, Jefferson July 29, and Ross August 20, 1797.

The representatives to the first General Assembly of the Northwest Territory convened at Cincinnati, February 4, 1799. The Ordinance of 1787 required that they should be freeholders owning not less than two hundred acres each, and should be chosen by freeholders owning not less than fifty acres each. It was their

117

FOUNDING OF OHIO.

first duty to nominate ten residents of the Territory, each possessing a freehold of not less than five hundred acres, from whom a Legislative Council of five members could be chosen by Congress. These nominations being made, the first session ad- journed without other transactions of importance, until September 16. The mem- bers of the first Council, selected by President Adams from the legislative nomi- nees, were Robert Oliver, of Washington County ; Jacob Burnett and James Find- lay, of Hamilton County ; David Vance of Jefferson ; and Henry Vandenburg of Knox. The first General Assembly of the Territory, comprising the Governor, the Council and twentytwo Representatives, convened at Cincinnati, September 16, 1799, and adjourned from day to day, for lack of quorum, until September 23, when Henry Vandenburg, of Knox, was elected President of the Council and Ed- ward Tiffin of Ross, Speaker of the House. Governor St. Clair addressed the two houses in joint meeting September 25. Jacob Burnett was appointed to prepare a respectful response to the Governor's speech. The response was agreed to by both houses and was replied to by the Governor. On September 30 Joseph Carpenter was elected Public Printer, and on October 3 the two houses in joint session elected William Henry Harrison to represent the Territory as Delegate in Congress. Governor St. Clair created the office of Attorney-General, and appointed his son, Arthur St. Clair, to that position. A petition from Virginia settlers, asking per- mission to bring their slaves into the Virginia military lands in the Territory, was unanimously refused.

During its first session the General Assembly passed about thirty public aets, from eleven of which the Governor, pursuant to the authority vested in him, with - held his approval. Its rules were prepared by Jacob Burnett, who was also the author of much of its most important legislation. Acts regulating marriages and taverns. creating new counties and changing the boundaries of counties already existing were among those vetoed. These vetoes produced dissatisfaction with Governor St. Clair's administration which he afterwards found inconvenient. On December 19, 1799, he prorogued the General Assembly until the first Monday in November, 1800. In his prorogation speech, he gave reasons for his vetoes.

At the time of his election as Territorial Delegate to Congress, Mr. Harrison was serving as Secretary of the Territory, in which office he had succeeded Winthrop Sargent, the first Secretary, who had been appointed Governor of the new Territory of Mississippi. The candidate for delegate against Harrison was Arthur St. Clair, the Governor's son, who was defeated by a majority of one.10 Agitation for a division of the Territory, and admission of the eastern portion as a State, had already begun, and Delegate Harrison, who had been elected as an advocate of both projects, was made chairman of the committee on division. St. Clair favored a temporary organization of the Territory in three districts, the eastern, with Marietta as its capital, to be bounded on the west by the Scioto and a line from thence to the western extremity of the Connecticut Reserve; the central, with its seat of government at Cincinnati, to have its western limits at a line drawn northward from the Kentucky River; and the western, with Vincennes as its capital, to em- brace all the territory west of the middle district. Congress finally determined the matter by an act passed May 7, 1800, making the division upon a line drawn from the mouth of the Kentucky River to Fort Recovery, and thence northward to the Canada boundary. From the region west of that line the Territory of Indiana

118

HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

was organized, with William H. Harrison as Governor, and Colonel Jobn Gibson, of Pennsylvania, as Secretary. The jurisdiction of the Northwest was thenceforth limited to the territorial area east of the dividing line, and its seat of government was fixed at Chillicothe. The county of Knox falling wholly within the Territory of Indiana, Henry Vandenburg, who resided in that county, ceased to be a mem- ber of the Legislative Council for the Northwest, and was succeeded by Solomon Sibley, of Detroit, Wayne County.

The transfer of the territorial capital from Cincinnati to Chillicothe was brought about by the settlers who had poured into the Scioto Valley. These were almost exclusively Virginians and Kentuckians. The settlements in the Muskin- gum Valley, and along the Ohio, except the French colony at Gallipolis, had thus far been derived mainly from New England. Cincinnati and the valleys of the two Miamis attracted the Pennsylvanians and later the Irish and German immi- grants. The Western Reserve colony called itself New Connecticut, and persisted in retaining its allegiance to the State of its origin. The civil jurisdiction of Washington County, within which it was included by Governor St. Clair, was ignored. After the colony had suffered much loss and embarrassinent from the lack of civil government, the Connecticut Land Company asked the State to abate the interest due on its payments. This precipitated action by which Connecticut, on May 30, 1800, relinquished all jurisdiction over the Western Reserve, and all claim to lands therein conveyed by her authority. On July 10, Governor St. Clair reorganized the district, including the entire Reserve, as Trumbull County, with its seat of government at Warren. At its first election for Representatives this county cast only fortytwo votes.

The first Territorial General Assembly held its second session at Chillicothe beginning November 3, and ending December 9, 1800. It elected William McMil- lan, of Cincinnati, as Territorial Delegate to Congress, in lieu of Mr. Harrison, who had resigned. Not much other business of importance was transacted. The session was prorogned by Governor St. Clair. At the third and last session, which began November 24, 1801, acts were passed to incorporate the towns of Cincinnati, Chillicothe and Detroit; to establish a university at Athens on land granted by Congress for that purpose ; and to remove the seat of government from Chillicothe back to Cincinnati. The removal of the capital aroused so much feeling in Chilli- cothe, that for a time the members who voted for it were threatened with mob violence. It also accelerated the movement already begun, for admission of the Territory as a State in the Union. On January 23, 1802, the Territorial General Assembly adjourned to meet on the fourth Monday in November, 1803, but it never reassembled.

The politics of the Territory had, at this time, reached an acute stage. The struggle by which Thomas Jefferson had gained the Presidency, finally by choice of the House of Representatives, had been hotly contested. Mr. Jefferson's partisans were known as Republicans; those of his antagonist, Mr. Adams, took the party name of Federalists. The closeness of the contest produced the temptation which has appeared at various times since, to widen the electoral mar- gin between the predominant parties by the admission of new States. Party spirit was at high tide in all parts of the country, and nowhere more so than in the Northwest Territory. Such was the intensity of political feeling that in 1801 the two parties in Hamilton County held separate celebrations of the Fourth of July.

119

FOUNDING OF OHIO.

The Federalists of the Territory were led by Governor St. Clair, Jacob Burnet, Rufus Putnam and Benjamin Stites; the Republicans by Thomas Worthington, Nathaniel Massie, John Cleves Symmes and Doctor Edward Tiffin. Parallel with the issnes between the parties ran the differences which had arisen between Gover- nor St. Clair and the Territorial General Assembly. These differences related chiefly to the right of establishing new counties and determining their boundaries. The Governor stoutly maintained that these functions belonged to himself ex- clnsively ; the General Assembly maintained with equal positiveness that " after the Governor had laid out the country into counties and townships," it was com- petent for the legislative body to pass laws "altering, dividing and multiplying them," subject to executive approval.

Owing to this and other disputes, Governor St. Clair's retention in office was strongly opposed. He was reappointed by President Adams, but this only changed the form of the intrigues for his displacement. Personal and political enmities were alike marshaled for bis overthrow. On the other hand, a strong party rallied around him, and proposed to make him the first Governor of the new State. In pursuance of this ambition the St. Clair party brought forward in the Legislative Council a scheme to procure such an amendment of the Ordinance of 1787 as would make the Scioto River the western boundary of the most eastern State to be formed from the Northwest Territory. This scheme was vigorously opposed by the Re- publican leaders, who determined to send one of their number to Washington to labor there for its defeat. Thomas Worthington was chosen for this purpose, and was ably seconded by Nathaniel Massie and Edward Tiffin. It was Worthington's mission not only to defeat the St. Clair scheme, but to obtain such legislation by Congress as would enable the Territory as it then was to gain admission to the Union. Incidentally he sought also St. Clair's deposition from the territorial gov. ernorship. The change which took place in the national administration favored him in all bis endeavors, and he was in all successful.

The Ordinance of 1787 required as a condition to the admission of the Territory as a State that it should contain sixty thousand free inhabitants. According to the census of 1800 it actually contained only 45,365. This difficulty was re- moved by an act of Congress passed April 30, 1802, enabling the people of the Eastern District to frame a constitution and organize a State government. This, it was hoped, would add another State to the Republican phalanx.

In pursuance of the enabling act, a constitutional convention assembled at Chillicothe November 1, 1802. It was discreetly chosen, and accomplished its work in twentyfive days. Early in its deliberations it was addressed by Governor St. Clair, whose speech on that occasion has been differently reported. According to Judge Burnet, it was " sensible and conciliatory;" others assert that it opposed the formation of a State government, and criticised the administration of President Jefferson. The Governor's removal from office followed directly. Mr. Madison, the Secretary of State, notified him of it by letter dated November 22, 1802. Charles W. Byrd, Secretary of the Territory, thenceforward served as its Governor until the first state executive was installed.

The Constitution of 1802 defined the boundaries of the State, provisionally, and established the seat of governmet at Chillicothe until 1808. It was never sub- mitted for popular acceptance at the polls. Congress approved it by act of Feb- ruary 19, 1803, and from that act dates the birth of Ohio as a State in the Union.

120

HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS,

NOTES.

1. It provided for a rectangular system of surveys, dividing the public domain into ranges, townships and sections, the boundaries being all in the direction of the cardinal points of the compass, so that a locality is designated by its distance east or west from a given meridian, and north or south of a given parallel, as a ship's place at sea by its longi- tude and latitude. The starting-point was at the place of intersection of the west line of Pennsylvania with the north bank of the Ohio River. From this point a line drawn west fortytwo miles was to form the base for the first seven ranges, from which at the six-mile points lines were to be run south to the Ohio River. The great system of surveys thus inaugurated has been applied to all the public domain, and through its simplicity and exact- ness of description has proved of incalculable value to all who have become owners of the soil .- President Israel Ward Andrews, LL. D., of Marietta College.

2. Ibid.

3. Among the eminent members of the Company were Governors James Bowdoin, Caleb Strong and Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts, the latter also at one time Vice-President of the United States; Governor William Greene, of Rhode Island; Governor Jonathan Trumbull, of Connecticut ; Samuel Dexter, United States Senator from Massachusetts and Secretary of the Treasury ; Uriah Tracy, United States Senator from Connecticut ; Ebenezer Hazzard, Postmaster-General under the Continental Congress; Brockholst Livingston, Asso- ciate Justice of the United States Supreme Court ; Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury ; Henry Knox, the first Secretary of War; and President Joseph Willard, of Harvard College.

4. Colonel E. C. Dawes, in the Magazine of American History for December, 1889.

5. Fort Harmar was built by Major John Doughty in the autumn of 1785, at the mouth (right bank) of the Muskingum River. The detachment of United States troops under com- mand of Major Doughty were part of Josiah Harmar's regiment, and hence the fort was named in his honor. The outlines of the fort formed a regular pentagon, including about three quarters of an acre. Its walls were formed of large horizontal timbers, the bastions being about fourteen feet high, set firmly in the earth. In the rear of the fort Major Doughty laid out fine gardens, in which were many peach trees, originating the familiar "Donghty peach." The fort was occupied by a United States garrison until September, 1790, when they were ordered to Fort Washington (Cincinnati). A company under Captain Haskell continued to make the fort headquarters during the Indian war of 1790-95. From the date of the settlement at Marietta, across the Muskingum, in the spring of 1788, the fort was constantly occupied by settlers, then rapidly filling the country .- Military Posts in Ohio ; by A. A. Graham. Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.

6. Life and Public Services of Arthur St. Clair ; by William H. Smith.

7. Rev. Ezra Ferris.

8. Atwater, with his usual defiance of syntactical rules, narrates the following dubious story : "There were in the army, at the commencement of the action, abont two hun- dred and fifty women, of whom fiftysix were killed in the battle, and the remainder were made prisoners hy the enemy, except a small number who reached Fort Washington. One of the survivors lived until recently in Cincinnati; a Mrs. Catharine Miller. This woman ran ahead of the whole army in their flight from the field of battle. Her large quantity of long red hair floated in the breeze, which the soldiers followed through the woods, as their fore- runner that moved rapidly onward to the place of their ultimate destination."-History of Ohio.

9. Smith's Life of St. Clair.

10. The votes stood, eleven for Harrison to ten for St. Clair.

121

FOUNDING OF OHIO.

THE TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT.1

Governor-General Arthur St. Clair, from 1788 to 1802; Charles W. Byrd (acting), 1802-1803.

Secretaries-Major Winthrop Sargent, from 1788 to 1798 ; William H. Harrison, from 1798 to 1799; Charles Willing Byrd, 1799 to 1803.

Attorney-General-Arthur St. Clair, Junior, appointed in 1796.

Treasurer-John Armstrong, from 1792 to 1803.

Auditors of Public Accounts-Rice Bullock, December 18, 1799; Thomas Gibson, in 1800.

Territorial Judges-James M. Varnum, October 16, 1787, January, 1789; Samuel H. Parsons, October 16, 1787, November 10, 1789 ; John Armstrong, October 16, 1787, declined to accept ; John Cleves Symmes, from February 19, 1788, to March 3, 1803; William Barton, August 20, 1789, refused to serve: George Turner, September 12, 1789, resigned in 1797 : Rufus Putnam, March 31, 1790, served until 1796 ; Joseph Gilman, from December 22, 1796, to March 3, 1803 ; Return J. Meigs, Junior, from February 12, 1798, to March 3, 1803.

Clerks of Gorernor and of Territorial Court-William Collis, appointed in September, 1788 ; Armistead Churchill, appointed May 29, 1795; Daniel Symmes, time of service unknown.

Delegates in Congress-William H. Harrison, from 1799 to 1800; William McMillan, from 1800 to 1801 ; Paul Fearing, from 1801 to 1803.

The following is a list of Territorial C'onnties with dates of proclamation and names of county seats :

Washington, July 27, 1788, Marietta ; Hamilton, January 2, 1790, Cincinnati ; St. Clair, February, 1790, Cahokia ; Knox, in the year 1790, Vincennes ; Randolph, in the year 1795, Kaskaskia; Wayne, August 15, 1795, Detroit: Adams, July 10, 1797, Manchester; Jefferson, July 29, 1797, Steubenville; Ross, August 20, 1797, Chillicothe; Trumbull, July 10, 1800, Warren; Clermont, December 6, 1800, Williamsburg ; Fairfield, December 9, 1800, New Lancaster ; Belmont, September 7, 1801, St. Clairsville.

When the State of Ohio was organized in 1803, four of the counties above named fell outside of its limits. St. Clair and Randolph formed a part of the present area of Illinois, Knox of Indiana, and Wayne of Michigan.

Following is a list of the early territorial towns, with the names of their pro- prietors and dates of foundation :

Marietta, 1788, Rufus Putnam, for the Ohio Land Company.

Columbia, 1788, Benjamin Stites, Major Gano, and others.

Cincinnati, 1789, Robert Patterson, Matthias Denman and Israel Ludlow.

Manchester, 1791. Nathaniel Massie.

Gallipolis, 1791, a French colony.

Hamilton, 1794, Israel Ludlow.

Dayton, 1795, Israel Ludlow and Generals Dayton and Wilkinson.

Franklin, 1795, W. C. Schenck and Daniel C. Cooper.

Chillicothe, 1796, Nathaniel Massie.

Cleveland, 1796, Job V. Styles.

122

HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

Franklinton, 1797, Lucas Sullivant.

Steubenville, 1798, Bazaliel Wells and James Ross.

Williamsburg, 1799, General William Lytle.

Zanesville, 1799, Jonathan Zane and John McIntire.

New Lancaster, 1800, Ebenezer Zane.

Warren, 1801, Ephraim Quinby.

St. Clairsville, 1801, David Newell.

Springfield, 1801, James Demint.

Newark, 1802, W. C. Schenck, G. W. Burnett, and J. N. Cummings.

TERRITORIAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY, 1799-1800.

Legislative Council-Jacob Burnet and James Findlay of Hamilton County ; Robert Oliver of Washington County; David Vance of Jefferson County and Henry Vandenburg of Knox County.

Representatives-Joseph Darlington, Nathaniel Massie, Adams County ; Wil- liam Goforth, William McMillan, John Smith, John Ludlow, Robert Benham, Aaron Caldwell, Isaac Martin, Hamilton County; James Pritchard, Jefferson County ; John Small, Knox County; John Edgar, Randolph County; Thomas Worthington, Elias Langham, Samuel Findlay, Edward Tiffin, Ross County ; Shadrack Bond, St. Clair County ; Return Jonathan Meigs, Paul Fearing, Wash- ington County ; Solomon Sibley, Jacob Visgar, Charles F. Chabart de Joncaire, Wayne County:

Officers of the Council - President, Henry Vandenburg ; Secretary, William C. Schenck ; Doorkeeper. George Howard ; Sergeant-at-Arms, Abraham Cary.

Officers of the House-Speaker, Edward Tiffin ; Clerk, John Riley ; Doorkeeper, Joshua Rowland ; Sergeant-at-Arms, Abraham Cary.

TERRITORIAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY, 1801-1803.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I, Part 17

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co Publication date: 1892 Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co. Number of Pages: 1202

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1202