USA > Ohio > Pioneer history : being an account of the first examinations of the Ohio valley, and the early settlement of the Northwest territory ; chiefly from original manuscripts > Part 20
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Art. 4th. Grants to the Indians liberty to hunt on the lands ceded to the United States, while they conduct peaceably.
239
ARTICLES OF THE TREATY.
Art. 5th. Stipulates to give up murderers, mutually. Art. 6th. Relates in the same way to horse thieves.
Art. 7th. Relates to trade with the Indians; no one to be allowed to trade without a license from the governor of the north-west territory, or his deputy.
Art. 8th. The parties agree to give notice to each other of any hostile intentions, or movements of their enemies.
Art. 9th. Forbids any white man to settle on the lands of the Indians; if so, they may punish them.
Art. 10th. Enumerates the reserves of lands in the In- dian territories, for trading posts.
Art. 11th. A strip six miles wide, from Detroit to Lake St. Clair, reserved for the use of the United States.
Art. 12th. Michillimackinac, and twelve miles square around it, is reserved for the United States.
Art. 13th. Renews the treaty and friendship made at Fort McIntosh ; and the tribes acknowledge themselves un- der the protection of the United States, and no other power whatever.
Art. 14th. Includes the Pottawatemies and Sacs, in the privileges and agreements of the present treaty.
Art. 15th. Defines more definitely the boundaries across the portage of the head of the Big Miami.
This treaty was signed by the sachems and warriors of the Sacs, Chippewa, Ottawa, Pottawatemie, Delaware, and Wyandot tribes of Indians.
Memorandum.
" Be it remembered, that the Wyandots have laid claim to the lands that were granted to the Shawanees at the treaty held at Miami, and have declared that as the Shaw- anees have been so restless, and caused so much trouble, both to them and to the United States, if they will not now be at peace, they will dispossess them, and take the coun- try into their own hands; for the country is theirs of right, and the Shawanees are only living on it by their permission.
240
INDIANS INVITED TO A TREATY.
They further lay claim to all the country west of the Mi- ami boundary, from the village to the Lake Erie, and declare it is now under their management and direction."
N. B. The Wyandots have two villages in the reserve above Detroit, which they are to retain without being dis- turbed by the United States.
In proof of the fact that the western tribes generally were opposed to the treaty, and, especially, the Shawanees, it may be stated that, in April, the following year, or 1790, Antoine Gamelin was sent from Fort Knox, at Vincennes, by Major Hamtramck, to the tribes on the Wabash and Miami, with a speech from Governor St. Clair. While at the Miami village, Le Gris, the principal chief of that tribe, in a private conversation, asked Gamelin, " what chief had made a treaty with the Americans at Muskingum? I an- swered him that their names were mentioned in the treaty. He said he had heard of it some time ago ; but they are not chiefs, neither delegates, who made that treaty. They are only young men who, without authority and instruction from their chiefs, have concluded that treaty, which will not be approved. They went to that treaty clandestinely, and they intend to make mention of it in the next council to be held." (1 Vol. U. S. Indian Affairs.)
How often has that thing been acted over again since that time ! and the Indians defrauded out of their lands by the unauthorized act of a few worthless men of the tribe, who would sell their birthright for a mess of pottage.
This treaty was closed on the 9th, and ratified by a mu- tual exchange on the 12th. The inhabitants of the new colony had been a long time in anxious suspense as to its results, and felt a great load taken from their minds at its favorable conclusion. They now thought there was no danger of a war, and that they could go on with their settle- ments in safety. On this occasion, a feast or great dinner was provided in the hall at Campus Martius, to which the principal chiefs were invited, with the officers of the fort
241
SPEECH OF CORNPLANTER.
and gentlemen of the Ohio company. The following is a copy of the letter of invitation, as preserved in the Massa- chusetts Spy : 1
" To Messrs. Nicholson, Williams and La Chappelle, In- dian interpreters at Fort Harmer.
" You are requested to inform the Wyandots, Delawares, Chippewas, Ottawas, Miamis, Pottewatamies and Sacs, with the Senecas and such of the Five Nations as are pre- sent, that we are desirous of celebrating the good work which the Great Spirit has permitted our father, the gover- nor, with our brother, General Butler, and their sachems and chiefs, so happily to accomplish; for which purpose we will prepare an entertainment on Monday next, at two o'clock; and our brothers, the sachems and chiefs, to whom we now send tokens, are requested to attend at that time; that we may in friendship, and as true brothers, eat and drink together, and smoke the pipe of everlasting peace; and evince to the whole world how bright and strong is the chain which the thirteen United States hold fast at one end, and the Wyandots, &c., at the other. We are very sorry that we cannot entertain all our brethren together, with their wives and children; but as we have come into this country a very long way, some of us forty or fifty days' journey toward the rising sun, and could not bring much provision along with us, it is now out of our power. We trust the Great Spirit will permit us to plant and gather our corn, and increase our stores, and their children and child- ren's children may be told how much we shall all rejoice to make glad their hearts when they come to see us."
At this feast, the writer says, " the Indian chiefs behaved with very great decorum, and an admirable harmony pre- vailed throughout the day. After dinner we were served with good wine, and Cornplanter, one of the first chiefs of the Five Nations, took up his glass and said :
" I thank the Great Spirit for this opportunity of smoking the pipe of friendship and love. May we plant our own
16
242
TRANSACTIONS AT MARIETTA.
vines, be the fathers of our own children, and maintain them."
The day following the feast, the Indians began to disperse and return to their towns, apparently well satisfied with the treaty and their new friends.
Transactions of the Ohio company, to the close of the year 1788, from their manuscript journal.
To accommodate the settlers with land for cultivation until they could occupy their own, and also to have the city grounds cleared for buildings, the agents and proprietors voted to lease the commons, and portions of section num- ber twenty-nine, for a term of ten years. A tract for the convenience of the officers was reserved around Fort Harmer, and fifteen acres given to Governor St. Clair. Lots in the market square were leased to individuals for gardens. This square was near the Muskingum, and had been reserved for the benefit of the city as public ground ; but as the section, or mile square number twenty-nine, de- voted to the support of the gospel, happened to fall at the mouth of the Muskingum, so as to cover a large portion of the land selected for the city, it was given up, as were all the city lots within this section, and others laid out for the proprietors at the mouth of the Great Hockhocking, and at a place opposite the mouth of the Big Kenawha, greatly to the disappointment of the share holders. An exchange for other lands was proposed to Congress, but could not be ef- fected. The reserved squares, Quadranaou, Capitolium, and Sacra via, fell north of section twenty-nine. The great mound was reserved by the ministerial trustees of Marietta at an early day, and leased to the town, with about four acres of ground as a public burying ground. This ancient relic has thus far been carefully preserved, a monument of the good taste of its builders, and an ornament to the city.
To encourage the building of mills, a lot was offered for twenty years to any one who would build a wind mill, near
243
TRANSACTIONS AT MARIETTA.
the mouth of the Muskingum. Preparation was made for this object but none completed, probably from the varying and vacillating state of the winds at this place. Boards for the floors in the block houses, and private dwelling houses, were made by the whip saw, in a pit erected by Captain Jonathan Devol, near the bank of the river, op- posite the garrison. The yellow poplar, which grew in the greatest abundance on the plain, furnished a fine mate- rial for boards, and also for the walls of buildings. Conve- nient lots for gardens were laid out for the owners of houses, in Campus Martius, and between that and the Muskin- gum. Section number sixteen for schools, which fell near the mouth of Duck creek, was leased in lots to individuals, to clear and have the use of for ten years.
After the 20th of September, the surveys of the pur- chase were discontinued, by the advice of the governor, probably on account of the dislike of the Indians, until the treaty then in train could be accomplished. In making all the surveys of the Ohio company, the surveyors were di- rected to govern themselves by the ordinance of Congress, passed in 1785, for the survey of lands in the North-Western territory, as to observations on the needle, meridian, &c., so that their surveys for accuracy may be safely compared with those done by the United States. In December, com- mittees were appointed and sent out to reconnoitre the lands in the purchase, of which they as yet knew but little. The immediate object was to point out and decide on suit- able spots for making settlements. One was reported at the forks of Duck creek, about fifteen miles from Marietta, and two thousand acres advised to be given in one hundred acre lots to twenty settlers. Also, a tract of six hundred and forty acres to encourage the erection of mills at a rapid on Duck creek, about three miles north of the town.
1
244
DONATION LANDS.
Donation lands.
In donating their lands the directors required a strict ad- herence to the following rules and regulations :
First. The settler to furnish lands for highways when needed.
Second. To build a dwelling-house within five years, of the size of twenty-four by eighteen feet, eight feet between the floors, and a cellar of ten feet square; a chimney of stone or brick.
Third. To put out not less than fifty apple trees, and twenty peach trees, within three years.
Fourth. To clear and put into meadow or pasture fifteen acres, and into tillage not less than five acres, within five years.
Fifth. To be constantly provided with arms, and be sub- ject to the militia law.
Sixth. Proper defenses or block-houses to be kept upon the donation lands, of such strength as shall be approved by the committee.
The expenses of surveying the lots to be paid by the grantees.
Any settler who complied with the above rules, and kept on the land a man able to bear arms for five years, was entitled to a deed from the directors. They were allowed to issue these donation lots until the 1st day of October, 1789, to any number of persons not exceeding two hundred, making in all twenty thousand acres. They were to settle in companies or associations, of not less than twenty men, so as to be able, when assembled in their block houses, to defend themselves against small parties of the enemy.
This mode of settling the new lands of the purchase was one of the most admirable that could be devised, and show- ed the men who planned it were familiar with the cultiva- tion of the soil as well as with military affairs. These donation settlements were generally located on the frontiers of the purchase, and served as out-posts to guard the more
245
EARLY WINTER -NEW ROAD.
central parts. They formed a military as well as an agri- cultural people-just such as the condition of the country needed. Their requirements as to the character of the im- provements on the land, were such as would be most bene- ficial to the settler, and ultimately useful to the community. The regulation as to the fruit trees made a permanent im- pression on the people generally; so that no part of the state of Ohio has paid that attention to the culture of fruit that is to be seen in the county of Washington.
The winter of 1788 commenced early in December, and the Ohio filled with ice so that no boat moved either up or down until March. The inhabitants were hard pressed for provisions ; no meat but venison or bear, and these very scarce from the destruction made among them by the In- dians in the summer and autumn previous, while waiting to attend the treaty, so that few could be found within ten or twelve miles of Marietta.
Before the river opened, many of the people lived for weeks without bread, eating boiled corn, or coarse meal ground in the hand mill, with little or no meat of any kind. When the river opened, those who had money could pur- chase flour from the boats that traded in provisions from Red Stone and the country about Pittsburgh.
The new settlement at the mouth of the Muskingum had attracted the attention of the house of burgesses in Virginia, and an appropriation of money was made to survey a route for a road from Alexandria on the Potomac to the Ohio river opposite Marietta. The commissioners found a very fea- sible course, and the estimated distance only three hundred miles. A road was cut out; and for many years before the building of the national turnpike from Cumberland to the Ohio, merchandize was brought in wagons to the stores in Marietta, from the port of Alexandria.
246
DEATH OF GENERAL VARNUM.
CHAPTER XI.
Death of General Varnum. -- Oration of Dr. Drowne on that occasion. - Police laws passed at Marietta. - Address to Governor St. Clair. - First marriage at Marietta. - Doings of the Ohio company. - The 7th of April ordered to be kept as a public festival. - Provision for building mills. - Hos- tility of the Indians. - Attack on John Mathews when surveying the six- teenth range. - Seven men killed. - Mathews escapes to the river. - Colonel Meigs builds a block house. - Returns to Marietta. - Arrival of Rev. D. Story .- Early frost .- Destroys the corn. - Measles break out among the settlers. - Numbers of new settlers. - Death of General Parsons.
THE year of 1789 opened with the death of the Hon. James Mitchell Varnum, which took place the day after the completion of the treaty at Fort Harmer, on the 10th of January. He landed at the mouth of the Muskingum in June, 1788, and lived only seven months in the new pur- chase. His health was feeble for some time previous, his disease being consumption. He was a native of Rhode Island, and an active man in forming the Ohio company, of liberal education, refined manners, and superior abilities. In 1787, he was elected by Congress as one of the judges of the Northwest territory, and assisted Governor St. Clair in drafting the laws published in 1788. This code of early laws was in many respects fully equal or superior to those adopted since we became a state. They were formed at a time before political party spirit had biased the mind, and made for the sole good of the people they were to govern. Although the ordinance of Congress restricted them to the mere copying of those already in use in the states, yet the code adopted was chiefly original, and as they thought, better suited to the condition of a new settled country than those of the older settlements. He was also
247
ADDRESS TO GOVERNOR ST. CLAIR.
one of the directors of the Ohio company. His untimely death was much regretted by the inhabitants of Marietta. The obsequies took place on the 13th, when an oration was pronounced by Doctor Drowne.
During the winter, several associations were formed for settlements on the donation lands, which had been surveyed, or were in progress of survey, at the forks of Duck creek, Wolf creek, Plainfield, and Belpre ; notices of which will be given in the separate history of the three last of these places.
On the 4th of February, 1789, during the absence of Governor St. Clair, the inhabitants of Marietta held a town meeting to determine on the propriety of forming a system of police, and to adopt a code of laws, for the regulation of the inhabitants of the city. This was the first town meeting ever held in the territory. Colonel Archibald Crary was chosen chairman, and Colonel E. Battelle, clerk. It was voted that Colonel Crary, Colonel Robert Oliver, Mr. Backus, Major Sargent, and Major White, be a committee to form a system of police, and to draft an address to his excellency, Governor St. Clair, and to report at the ad- journed meeting.
The address to the governor was accepted and forwarded, to him in a letter, as follows :
"To his excellency, Arthur St. Clair, Esq., governor and commander in chief of the territory of the United States north west of the river Ohio.
" We, the citizens of Marietta, assembled at Campus Martius, beg leave to address your excellency with the most cordial congratulations upon the happy issue of Indian affairs. For this event, so interesting to the United States at large, and to this settlement in particular, we hold our- selves indebted, under God, to your excellency's wisdom and unremitted exertions, displayed during the long and tedious negotiation of the treaty. It was with pain and very affectionate sympathy that we beheld this business spun out by the Indian nations through so many tedious
248
REPORT OF COMMITTEE.
months, and to a season of the year which, from its incle- mency, must have endangered and perhaps impaired the health and constitution of a character, under whose aus- pices and wise administration of government, we hope to be a good and happy people: We must lament with all the feelings of men, anxious to live under the precepts of legal authority, the absence of your excellency, and the judges of the territory more particularly at this time, ere the system of laws has been completed. We feel most sen- sibly the want of them, and the privilege of establishing such city regulations as we are conscious should be derived alone from the sanction of your excellency's authority ; and that nothing but the most absolute necessity can exculpate us in assuming even the private police of our settlement. But the necessity and propriety of some system, which may tend to health, the preservation of our fields and gardens, with other essential regulations, will, we flatter ourselves, apologize for our adopting it; and convince your excel- lency, that we could not ever be guilty of an interference with, or encroachment upon, any of the prerogatives of government.
" With the most sincere and affectionate respect for your excellency in the character of governor and parent of our settlement, wishing you a safe and pleasant passage, and anxiously anticipating your speedy return, we subscribe ourselves, in behalf of the citizens of Marietta, your most obedient and humble servants." (Signed by the committee.)
The system of police was not ready for report until the 17th March, when a code of by-laws for the government of the inhabitants was adopted, well suited to the condition and wants of the people. Men who had always been ac- customed to law and good order were not content to live without any regulations, although they dwelt in the wilder- ness, and their city was yet covered with the trees of the forest. They were governed by this code, so far as related
249
FIRST MARRIAGE.
to the police of a city until after the war. The first board of police was Rufus Putnam, Archibald Crary, Griffin Greene, Robert Oliver and Nathaniel Goodale. They also appointed a sealer of weights and measures, and a register of births and deaths, with fence viewers, &c.
First marriage.
The first marriage took place on the 6th of February, 1789, between the Hon. Winthrop Sargent, secretary of the Northwest territory, and Miss Rowena Tupper, daughter of General B. Tupper, by General Rufus Putnam, judge of the court of common pleas for Washington county. The certi- ficate is now on the files of the court.
Doings of the Ohio company.
Soon after the death of General Varnum, in January, Griffin Greene, Esq., was chosen a director to fill his place, and continued to occupy that post until the lands of the company were divided, in 1796. In February, the agents and proprietors passed the following resolution :
"Resolved, That the 7th day of April be forever consi- dered as a day of public festival in the territory of the Ohio company, as their settlements in this country commenced on that day ; and that the directors request some gentle- man to prepare an oration to be delivered on the next anniversary."
This festival was observed with all due regard for many years thereafter, by the first inhabitants and their children, until there came in so many strangers, who knew nothing of the trials and hardships of the forefathers in the early days of the colony. It is now kept as a kind of holiday, or May-day, by the young people, with " pic-nic parties" upon Devoll's island, excursions into the hills, or social intercourse at each other's houses. The half-century celebration, in the year 1838, was observed by an oration and dinner at
,
250
PROVISIONS FOR BUILDING MILLS.
Marietta, and also at Cincinnati, and has been occasionally observed since by the historical society of Washington county. During the Indian war, the inhabitants celebrated the day by a public dinner, and spent the afternoon in ath- letic amusements, such as games of ball, wrestling, and foot races, in which all took a part, from the oldest to the young- est. These were healthy exercises, and fitted them the bet- ter to contend with their Indian enemies in any personal contest that might ensue.
In February, further provision was made for the erection of water mills, at the nearest suitable point on Duck creek, and lands granted Captain Enoch Shepherd amounting to nearly a thousand acres, who took in as partners in this ex- pensive speculation Colonel E. Sproat and Thomas Stanley, enterprising and active men. The mills were to be com- pleted by the 1st of September, 1790; suitable defenses for their protection erected, and a guard of eight men kept on the ground. The dam and mills were put up in that and the ensuing year, and were nearly ready to go into opera- tion, when the war broke out and put a stop to further work. The saw mill was finished in September, and had sawed some boards, when a sudden flood in the creek tore away a part of the dam. The cost of their erection proved a dead loss to their owners, as the articles of the contract were not fully complied with. A grant of lands was also made for the building of mills at Wolf creek, about a mile from its junction with the Muskingum. Donation lots to settlers were also surveyed, around it. A more full account of this mill, as the first built in the territory, will be given in the history of the settlement at Waterford.
Not regarding the recent treaty at Fort Harmer, parties of Indians still continued to harrass the settlements in west- ern Virginia, from April to October, probably not consider- ing their old enemies as included in the compact ; killing the people, stealing their horses, and burning their houses.
251
ATTACK ON JOHN MATHEWS.
Not less than twenty persons were killed or taken prison- ers, as appears from the memorial of the house of burgesses to General Washington, in December.
Their depredations extended from Kentucky to Pittsburgh. The settlements of the Ohio company remained unmolested, with the exception of one man killed at Belpre. They felt a special dislike to surveyors, whom they saw traversing their hunting grounds with the chain and compass. In August, they made an attack on a surveying party in the employ of the Ohio company, engaged in running the west- ern line of the purchase. The following is a history of that event, taken chiefly from the manuscript notes of Mr. Mathews.
Attack on John Mathews.
Early in the summer of 1789, Mr. Mathews was employed by the superintendent of the Ohio company to survey the lands in the lower part of the purchase. James Backus was engaged with him in the survey. During the first week he was so unfortunate as to lose two of his pack horses, which strayed away in the woods and could not be found. This weakened their force so much that a portion of their provi- sions was left behind, stored in a hut near the river.
By the 10th of July their flour was exhausted, and the party lived for nine or ten days on meat alone, and that of a poor quality; that part of the country having been re- cently hunted over by the Indians, as they discovered by the number of fresh hunting camps, and the deer killed or dispersed, so that their hunter could furnish but a scanty supply.
On the 22d of July, he had nearly completed the survey as far south as the northern boundary line of township three, in range number sixteen; but by that time their stores were so much exhausted that the party was forced to quit the work, and set out on their return to the mouth of the Muskingum.
252
ATTACK ON JOHN MATHEWS.
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