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 28
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There were four relays between Wheeling and Cincin- nati. The mail was carried by land from Pittsburgh to Wheeling The stations where the boats met and ex- changed their mails, were Marietta, Gallipolis and Lime- stone, the distance between which was accomplished in seven days, both up and down ; thus requiring about twelve days from Cincinnati to Wheeling, and half that time from Wheeling to Cincinnati. The transport by land required only one day, and two post riders, who exchanged their mails at Washington' Pennsylvania.
Postmasters were appointed at each of these towns, so that the citizens could have the advantage of the establish-
343
ATTACK ON THE MAIL BOAT.
ment, as well as the military. The postmaster at Marietta was Captain Josiah Munro, an old officer in the conti- nental line, during the war.
This mode of carrying the mail, was kept up until 1798. After the treaty with the Indians in 1795, the mail was landed at Graham's station, a few miles above Limestone, and transported on horseback to Cincinnati. So cautious were the conductors of these boats generally, that only one attack was made on them by the Indians. This happened in November, 1794, to a boat commanded by Captain Du- gan ; but at that time under the care of another man, em- ployed for that trip. The packet was ascending the Ohio, and happened to have several passengers on board, as they sometimes did, and had reached within a few miles of the mouth of the Scioto, on the Indian shore. The man at the helm saw, as he thought, a deer in the bushes, and heard it rustling among the leaves. With the intention of killing it the boat had approached within a few rods of the land, and the man in the bow had risen up with his gun to fire, when they received a whole volley, from a party of Indians who lay in ambush, and had made these signs to entice them to the shore. One man was killed, and an other des- perately wounded. Several of "the row locks" were shot off, and their oars for the time rendered useless. The Indians rushed down the bank and into the water, endeav- oring to get hold of the boat and drag it to the shore. The steersman, however, turned the bow into the current, and one or two oars soon forced her into the stream, beyond the reach of their shot. One of the hands, whohad been a drummer in St. Clair's army, and had probably witnessed the appalling effect of the Indian yell, became so alarmed that he jumped into the river, as the boat was turning from the shore. A stout Indian dashed into the water and swam after him, with his drawn knife in his teeth. Wilber's pantaloons, being thick and heavy, impeded his motions so much in swimming, that the Indian gained rapidly on him.
344
ATTACK ON THE MAIL BOAT.
He made an attempt to pull them off, and got one leg free, but sank under the water while doing it.
He was now worse off than before, as they dragged behind and nearly paralysed all his efforts. The Indian was within a few yards of him, and escape seemed hopeless; when making another desperate effort he succeeded in freeing himself from the incumbrance. In accomplishing this last struggle he again sank entirely beneath the surface, and came up greatly exhausted, with the Indian within striking distance of him. As his enemy slackened his exertions, to draw the knife from his teeth and give the fatal stab, Wilbur having his legs now free, and quickened by the sight of the gleaming blade, upraised in the hand of the Indian, threw all his remaining strength into one convulsive effort, and forced himself beyond the reach of the descending knife, which plunged harmless into the water, within a few inches of his body. Before his enemy could repeat the blow he was several feet ahead of him, and nearly in the middle of the river. The Indian now gave up the pursuit, and retreated to the shore.
Nearly exhausted by fear and fatigue, and chilled with the coldness of the water, Wilbur reached the opposite bank with great difficulty. In the meantime the boatmen, think- ing him drowned or killed, pushed down stream, and did not land until they came to the station, about thirty miles below. Wilbur however made himself a raft, and descended the river to Graham's in safety. By this disaster the line of communication was interrupted for a trip or two, but was soon after resumed, and not broken again, except by the ice in winter, when the boats were laid up for a few weeks, until the system was abandoned in the year 1798, for the more feasible one by land.
Doings of the Ohio company.
In January, 1795, a party of surveyors was sent out with a guard of fifteen men, on account of the war, not yet closed,
345
EMIGRATION RESUMED.
to run the line between the fourteenth and fifteenth ranges. They proceeded up the Hockhocking in canoes, which shows that it was an open winter. At this time the two townships reserved for the benefit of a university were reconnoitered. In November, at a meeting of the agents and proprietors, it was decided that the number of shares actually paid for amounted to eight hundred and seventeen. In December, on a petition from the French emigrants at Gallipolis, to purchase the lands on which their town was located, it was resolved that they should have it at one dollar and twenty- five cents an acre, which sum was far below its value, and was a generous act in the company.
In December, the two townships of land appropriated for the benefit of a university, were selected by the agents as the best in the purchase, and were numbers eight and nine, in the fourteenth range. They now constitute the township of Athens and the township of Alexander, in Athens county.
In January, 1796, the company made a further appropria- tion of one hundred and forty-seven dollars, to Rev. D. Story, for services as a religious teacher, so that he was in their pay from 1789 to 1796.
After the close of the Indian war, and peace was restored to the harrassed settlements, few events of an interesting character transpired. The inhabitants who had been for five years confined to the walls of their garrisons, and only went abroad, with the fear of death from the lurking savage continually in their minds, now gladly went forth to their labors free of restraint. Each man took possession of his lands, and commenced clearing and cultivating his farm. Mills were erected, roads opened, and bridges built, as rapidly as the sparse population of the country would allow. Many new inhabitants moved into the country from the eastern and middle states, induced by, the rich soil and temperate climate of the valley of the Ohio; while the Vir- ginia and military lands of the United States called many
346
FIRST LEGISLATURE.
more who had earned an interest in the bounty lands, by their services in the continental armies.
Nevertheless, it was not until the year 1798, that the whole Northwestern territory contained five thousand free male inhabitants, the number required to entitle it to a ter- ritorial legislature, although it embraced the present states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. Under the ordi- nance for the government of the territory, one representa- tive was allowed to every five hundred male inhabitants. No man was eligible to this office who had not been a citi- zen of the United States three years, and a resident in the district, or else have resided in the district three years. He must also possess in his own right a fee simple of two hun- dred acres of land within it. An elector must have a free- hold of fifty acres, and be a citizen and resident in the district two years, to entitle him to vote for a representative.
Washington county then embraced within its limits a territory that now constitutes many counties, among which arc Athens, Gallia, Meigs, Morgan, Muskingum, Coshocton Belmont, Guernsey and Monroe; and was entitled to two representatives. By a proclamation of Governor St. Clair, this election took place on the third Monday in December, 1798, and was a memorable day in the annals of the terri- tory as that in which the elective franchise was first exer- cised north-west of the river Ohio.
Colonel R. J. Meigs and Paul Fearing, Esq., were chosen by the inhabitants of Washington county as their represen- tatives, for the term of two years. Soon after the election the governor directed the representatives to meet at Cin- cinnati on the 22d day of January, 1799, for the purpose of nominating ten persons, residents in the territory, and each possessed of a freehold of five hundred acres of land ; from whom the president might select five, and commission them to act as a legislative council, for five years. This meeting, at an inclement season of the year, required no little labor
347
FIRST VETOES.
and privation, on the part of the representatives to accom- plish. The distance they had to travel, on horseback, was from two to four hundred miles, through a wilderness; carrying their provisions and blankets; camping in the woods at night, a part of the time; swimming their horses across the streams, and getting along through the forest by the blazed trees, or the compass as they best could. There were no roads but bridle paths, or the old trails of the hunters. After leaving Belpre, the representatives from Marietta found no settlements until they reached the Scioto salt works, the present county seat of Jackson. The next habitation of man was at Chillicothe, where a town had been commenced two years before. From thence to Cin- cinnati there was no settlement, until they reached the waters of the Little Miami.
When the object of the assembly was accomplished, the governor prorogued the meeting, and directed them to assemble on the 16th of September following, and the members returned to their homes by the same laborious routes, to be again traveled over at a more temperate sea- son of the year, and when the streams of water were at a lower stage.
The general assembly was composed of a governor, legislative council, and house of representatives. The first house of representatives contained twenty members. Colonel Robert Oliver, from Washington county, was a member of the council. All the acts passed by the house and legislative council were to be approved by the governor before they became laws; and without his assent were nugatory.
The governor vetoed a number of the bills passed at this session, which greatly offended the republican spirit of the house, and was doubtless the cause of the very limited powers delegated to the governors of Ohio, under the con- stitution of the state, which was formed soon after. The political parties of federalist and republican were then
348
FORMATION OF CONSTITUTION.
unknown, and did not enter into the elections of the territory until the year 1800, or about the period of the reign of Thomas Jefferson. During this session of the legislature, a delegate was elected to represent the territory in Congress. The choice fell on W. H. Harrison, Esq., afterwards gov- ernor of Indiana, and President of the United States. The delegate had the liberty of debating on any question, but not the right to vote.
In the year 1800 a census of the United States was taken, and the territory was found to contain forty-two thousand inhabitants. On a petition of the people, Congress, on the 30th of April, 1802, granted them the liberty of forming a constitution, and becoming a member of the confederacy. The law provided that every twelve hundred inhabitants should have one representative in the convention for form- ing a constitution. The election took place on the second Tuesday of October, and Washington county was entitled to four delegates, who met in convention at Chillicothe the Ist of November, 1802. The delegates from this county were Rufus Putnam, Benjamin Ives Gilman, Ephraim Cut- ler and John McIntire. After a session of twenty-nine days, they framed our present constitution, which was approved by Congress, but was never submitted to the voice of the people.
349
SETTLEMENT OF BELPRE.
CHAPTER XVI.
Settlement of Belpre. - Topography and description of the settlements. - Upper, middle and lower .- Captain King killed by the Indians .- Crops of 1789, destroyed by frost. - Famine of 1790. - Liberality of Isaac Williams. -Shifts of the settlers for food .- Abundance of wild game, and crop in the autumn .- Boys killed at "Neil's Station." - Mill on Little Hock- hocking.
IN the winter following the landing of the first pioneer corps at Marietta, the directors of the Ohio company sent out exploring parties to examine their purchase, which was as yet a "terra incognita." The main object of these com- mittees was to select suitable places for the formation of their first settlements. Among the earliest and most desira- ble locations reported, was a tract on the right bank of the Ohio river, commencing a short distance above the mouth of the Little Kenawha, and extending down the Ohio four or five miles, terminating at the narrows, two miles above the Little Hockhocking. About a mile below the outlet of the latter stream, the river again bent to the south, inclos- ing a rich alluvion, extending two or three miles in length and a mile in width, where was formed another settlement, called Newbury, or the lower settlement; but included within the boundaries of Belpre. The main body of the new colony tract was divided into two portions, and known as the " upper and middle " settlements. The lands on the river were of the richest quality; rising as they receded from the Ohio on to an elevated plain, thirty or forty feet higher than the low bottoms, and extending back to the base of the hills. This plain was in some places more than half a mile in width, forming with the bottoms alluvious of
350
SETTLEMENT OF BELPRE.
nearly a mile in extent. The soil on the plain was in some places a fertile, loamy sand ; in others inclined to gravel, but every where covered with a rich growth of forest trees, and producing fine crops of small grain. About a mile below the Little Kenawha, this plain came into the river, presenting a lofty mural front of eighty or a hundred feet above the surface of the water. This precipitous bank is continued for half a mile, and on its brow, and for some distance back, is clothed with evergreens, being chiefly dif- ferent varieties of the cedar. That portion of the plain is known by the name of " the bluff," and is located near the head of Blannerhasset's island, close by the landing and crossing place to the mansion erected a few years after by this celebrated man. "The bluff" divided the upper settle- ment from those below. The upper lay in a beautiful curve of the river, which formed nearly a semicircle, the peri- phery of which was about a mile and a half, and rose gra- dually from the bank of the river on to the second bottom by a natural glacis, the grade and beauty of which no art . of man could excel. From the lower end of " the bluff," the plain gradually receded from the river, leaving a strip of rich bottom land, about three miles in length, and from a quarter to a third of a mile in width. This distance, like that portion above, was laid off into farms, about forty rods wide and extending back to the hills, which rose by a moderate slope, to an elevation of an hundred feet above the surface of the plain, and were clothed with oak and hickory, to their tops. This charming location was well named " Belle-prairie," or beautiful meadow, but is now generally written Belpre.
The settlement was composed of about forty associates, who formed themselves into a company, and drew their lots after they were surveyed and platted, in the winters of 1788-9. The larger portion of the individuals who formed this association had served as officers in the late war, and when the army was disbanded, retired with a brevet
351
SETTLEMENT OF BELPRE.
promotion. To a stranger it seemed very curious that every house he passed should be occupied by a commissioned officer. No settlement ever formed west of the mountains contained so many men of real merit, sound, practical sense, and refined manners. They had been in the school of Washington, and were nearly or quite all of them perso- nally acquainted with that great and good man.
" In this little community were found those sterling quali- ties which should ever form the base of the social and civil edifice, and are best calculated to perpetuate and cherish our republican institutions. Some of them had been libe- rally educated, and all had received the advantages of the common New England schools in early life. They were habituated to industry and economy, and brought up under the influence of morality and religion. These men had been selected to lead their countrymen to battle and to defend their rights, not for their physical strength, as of old, but for their moral standing and superior intellect. In addition to these advantages they had also received a second education in the army of the revolution, where they heard the pre- cepts of wisdom and witnessed the examples of bravery and fortitude; learning at the same time the necessity of subordination to law and good order, in promoting the hap- piness and prosperity of mankind." (MSS notes of Judge Barker.)
The Belpre associates had passed the winter in Marietta, and commenced moving on to their farms early in April, 1789; several families however did not occupy their lands until the following year. Log houses, generally of small dimensions, were built on or near the bank of the river, for the convenience of water and a more free circulation of air, into which their families were moved. Then commenced the cutting down and girdling the immense forest trees which covered the rich bottoms, and lifted their lofty heads toward the clouds. A fence of rails and timber was built on the backside of their fields, next the woods, to protect
352
FAMINE AT BELPRE.
their crops from the cattle, but left open on the river bank. The paths between the neighboring houses, ran through their fields, or on the outside of the fence in the margin of the woods. In several places springs of pure, cool water gushed out under the banks of the river, and ran in gentle rills to the Ohio, affording a rich treat to the fortunate neighbors in the heat of summer, when compared with the warm and often turbid water of the river, the beverage of most of the early settlers on the borders of the " belle riviere."
Captain Zebulon King killed by the Indians.
Soon after the pioneers had commenced laboring on their lands, their ardor was for a while paralyzed, and their hopes of an undisturbed and quiet possession of their new homes greatly marred, by the murder of Captain King by the In- dians. His land lay in the middle settlement, and while he was busily engaged in chopping, on the 1st day of May, he was shot and scalped by two Indians, it was thought at the time, who had escaped from confinement at Fort Har- mer, where they had been detained since the outrage at Duncan's falls, the summer previous. Captain King was from Rhode Island, where his family yet remained; he intending to move them out after he had prepared a house, and raised a crop for their support. He had been an officer in the United States army, and was a most excellent man. His loss was deeply felt and lamented by all his fellow pioneers.
Famine at Belpre.
Owing to the great and laborious task each man had to perform in preparing and fencing his land for the reception of the seed, it was past the middle of June before all their corn was planted. Late as it was, if the sun could have penetrated the thick branches of the girdled trees, and thoroughly warmed the earth, pushing forward the growth
353
FAMINE AT BELPRE.
of the corn as it does in an open sunny exposure, there might yet have been a tolerable crop ; but while the tender ears were yet in the milk, a frost early in October nipped and destroyed the hopes and the labors of the husbandman, leaving him with a scanty allowance for the winter, and the prospect of great suffering before another crop could be raised ; and although two or three hundred acres had been planted in the settlement, the amount fit for use was very small.
The calamity was general throughout the region west of the mountains, and was the more severely felt, as Indian corn was their only resource for bread. In the older settle- ments at head waters, there was a tolerable crop of wheat, and on the old and early planted fields, the corn had ripened before the appearance of the frost, so that those who had money could purchase bread for their families. But few, however, of the new settlers had the means of doing this ; their cash being spent on the journey out, and for provisions since their arrival. By the middle of February the scarcity of bread stuff began to be seriously felt. Many families had no other meal for their bread than that which was made from the moldy corn, and were sometimes destitute even of this for several days in succession. Such portions of the damaged grain as could be selected, hard enough for meal, sold for nine shillings, or a dollar and fifty cents a bushel ; and when ground in the hand mill and made into bread, few stomachs were able to digest it, or even retain it for a few minutes; it produced sickness and vomiting. The late Charles Devoll, Esq., one of the early settlers, but then a small boy, used to relate with much feeling his gas- tronomic trials with this moldy meal, made into a dish, called "sap porridge," which, when composed of sound corn meal, and the fresh saccharine juice of the maple, afforded both a nourishing and a savory food.
The family had been without bread for two days, when his father returned from Marietta, just at evening, with a
23
354
LIBERALITY OF ISAAC WILLIAMS.
scanty supply of moldy corn. The hand mill was put into immediate operation, and the meal cooked into " sap porridge," as it was then the season of sugar making. The famished children swallowed eagerly the unsavory mess, which was almost as instantly rejected ; reminding us of the deadly pottage of the children of the prophet, but lack- ing the healing power of an Elijah to render it salutary and nutritious. Disappointed of expected relief, the poor children went supperless to bed, to dream of savory food and plen- teous meals, unrealized in their waking hours.
It was during this period of want that Isaac Williams, a plain hearted, honest backwoodsman, who had been brought up on the frontiers, and lived on the Virginia shore, opposite the mouth of the Muskingum, displayed his benevolent feelings for the suffering colonists. He had opened an extensive tract of corn land three years before, and being enabled to plant early, had raised, in 1789, a large crop of several hundred bushels of sound corn. With a liberality which should ever make his name dear to the descendants of the pioneers, and to all who admire generous deeds, he now in their most pressing necessity, distributed this corn among the inhabitants, at the low rate of three shillings, or fifty cents, a bushel, the common price in plenteous years ; when at the same time he was offered and urged to take a dollar and a quarter, by speculators, for his whole crop ; for man has ever been disposed to fatten on the distresses of his fellow man. Turning from them with a blunt but decided refusal, he not only parted with his corn at this moderate rate, but also prudently proportioned the number of bushels, according to the number of individuals in a family. An empty purse was no bar to his generosity or the wants of the needy applicant, but he was equally sup- plied with him who had money, and a credit given until a more favorable season should enable him to pay the debt. Such deeds are rare in a highly civilized community, and were more common in the early settlement of the conntry
355
SHIFTS FOR FOOD.
than since. The coarse hunting shirt, and rough bear skin cap, often inclosed a tender benevolent heart, and covered a wise, thoughtful head.
Hospitality was one of the cardinal virtues with the early settlers, and no people ever practiced it more heartily and constantly than the pioneers along the borders of the Ohio. The corn of this good man supplied their wants for a season, but was all expended long before the crop of 1790 was fit for use. Articles of food were found in the natural productions of the earth, which necessity alone could have discovered. A portion of the inhabitants only had salted any meat in the preceding autumn ; there being but a few hogs or cattle in the country, except here and there a cow, or a yoke of oxen, brought on by the colonists from New England. Their animal food, therefore, was mainly pro- cured from the woods, and consisted of venison, with now and then that of the bear. The wild animals were scarce in all this region of country ; having been killed or driven away by the Indians in the preceding year.
The new settlers were but little skilled in hunting, and their venison was chiefly procured from the old border set- tlers at Bellville, a station distant twelve or fourteen miles below, on the Virginia shore; who had been brought up in the woods. A few of the more able families hired one of these men by the month to hunt for them during the spring and summer; but their success was small, barely supplying their daily wants.
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