USA > Ohio > Ross County > Pioneer record and reminiscences of the early settlers and settlement of Ross County, Ohio > Part 12
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No. 4. McBrides Pioneer Biographies. Sketches of the lives of some of the Early settlers of Butler County, Ohio, with por- trait of the author. 2 vols. 8vo. cloth. uncut or gilt top, $6.50. Large paper, Imp. 8vo. $13.00.
Ohio Valley Historical Series.
No. 5. Colonel James Smith's Account of his Captivity with the Indians in Ohio, in 1755-59, and subsequent adventures ; with a sketch of his Life; and Illustrated Notes by W. M. Darlington, Esq., of Pittsburgh. 8vo. cloth, uncut or gilt top, $2.50. Large paper, Imp. 8vo., $5.00.
No. 6. Dr. Daniel Drake's Pioneer Life in Kentucky, in a Series of Reminiscential Letters addressed to his children. Edited with Notes and a Biographical Sketch by his son, Hon. Charles D. Drake, of St. Louis 8vo. cloth, uncut or gilt top, $3.00. Large paper, Imp. 8vo., $6.00.
No. 7. Miscellanies. I. Tour in the States of Ohio, and Kentucky, and Indiana Territory, in 1805. By Josiah Espy. II. Two Western Campaigns in the War of 1812-13. By Samuel Wil- liams. III. The Leatherwood God. An account of the ap- pearance and pretensions of Joseph C. Dilks in Eastern Ohio in 1828. By R. H. Taneyhill. In one volume, 8vo. cloth, uncut or gilt top, $2.50. Large paper, Imp. 8vo. $5.00.
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ROBERT CLARKE & Co. also publish the following Works :
Legends of the West; Sketches Illustrative of the Habits, Occupa- tions, Privations, Adventures and Sports of the Pioneers of the West. By JAMES HALL, Author of "The Wilderness and War Path," "Tales of the Border," etc. 12mo. cloth, gilt top, or entirely uncut. Price, $2.00.
By the same author.
Romance of Western History; or, Sketches of History, Life and Manners in the West. 12mo. cloth, gilt top, or entirely uncut. Price, $2.00.
Historical Collections of Ohio; Containing a Collection of the most Interesting Facts, Traditions, Biographical Sketches, Anecdotes, etc., relating to its Local and General History, with descriptions of its Counties, Cities, Towns and Villages. Illustrated with 177 Engravings. By HENRY HOWE. 8vo. 620 pages. Price, $6.00. One hundred copies printed on tinted paper and bound in cloth, gilt top, or entirely uncut, uniform with the Ohio Valley Historical Series.
Robert Clarke & Co.
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OHIO'S FIRST CAPITAL.
T TWO hours' railroad ride southward takes the traveller from the present capital of Ohio, the local seat of govern- ment for over three millions of people, to the quaint, conservative old town which was the birth-place and cradle of the State -its capital at the beginning of the cen- tury, when it contained only a few thousand scattered settlers.
Chillicothe presents at this
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OLD STATE-HOUSE.
day an appearance which is suggestive of its age and early importance. Modern architecture has done but, little to bright- en the sombre aspect of the dignified, sub- stantial old residences which line the quiet, deeply shaded streets, or to modify the an- tiquated and somewhat grimy appearance of the long lines of business blocks which many years ago formed the busy mart of "the ancient metropolis." One of the ear- liest settlements within the present bound- aries of Ohio, Chillicothe, from a combina- tion of natural advantages, as well as from the energy and ability of its leading men, came suddenly into prominence, and for many years occupied a position which made it the envy of all the other embryo cities of the West. It did not fulfill, how- ever, the golden promise of its yonth, and was eclipsed in a few decades by towns which had no existence until a score of years after the date of its own origin. It
was the adopted home of a class of men who were as judicious and as enterprising as any who came into the territory north- west of the Ohio, and as the residence of quite a coterie of eminent men and the capital of the infant common wealth of the West, it was widely and favorably known throughout the East- ern States. Located in the heart of as richi OF THE S ' a region as could be STA found from ocean to ocean, and favora- bly established at the start, there was a pros- pect that the prosper- ity of its early days would only be the forerunner of a long career of constantly increasing strength ; but there was disappointment in store for those who had high expectations, even if they were founded upon the best of reasons. The great Ohio canal, of which De Witt Clinton was project- or, gave the busy little town a powerful impetus of growth, and for many years its life was fed by this active artery of commerce. As the usefulness of this really vast internal improvement was superseded, however, by other means of transit, the stream of traffic upon the canal became rather venous than arterial in its flow, and Chillicothe lost its richest source of nourishment. Losing at an early day its political pres tige as the State capital, it still continued to thrive in business; but losing the ca- nal commerce, and being slow to secure the benefit of railroad stimulus, the old town which had proudly led all of its ri- vals, and passed through a period of phe- nomenal progression, arrived at almost a stand-still condition.
Chillicothe is classic ground. It was here that the first State northwest of the Ohio was ushered into organic being; and upon the heights of Cemetery Hill re- pose the mortal remains of four famous men who have been its Chief Executives. Two historie honses, rich in associations which recall the bravest of pioneers, men who were among the founders of the State, stand stately and sentinel-like upon a high plateau overlooking the old town. The academy, which was the alma mater of
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NATHANIEL MASSIE.
a generation of men who have grown gray since they passed over its threshold, is still a place of learning for the youth of the town. Famous Ohio statesmen, men who have made their mark in high places, have been school-boys here. Not far away, in a quiet street, is a plain old house which is pointed out as the birth-place of the wife of an Ohio President, and scattered through the town are several humble places which have been the homes of men whose names were widely known in literature, politics, and law.
Chillicothe is charmingly environed. The broad valley through which the Scio- to flows southward to the Ohio is border- ed by high bluff banks upon the west, and by a chain of mountain-like hills upon the east, the highest of whichi lifts its tim- bered crest six hundred feet above the river which washes its base. The lover of the beautiful can here find elements of the rugged, wild, and picturesque in precipi- tous heights and rocky formations; or if he more admire the gentler aspects of na- ture, his eye may be guided along the far- sweeping slopes of green pasture-land, or from the crest of the valley wall he may let his vision wander from one fair fea- ture of the landscape to another, through an infinite variety of form and wealth of color, to the dim blue hills miles away, or the valley fading to the horizon. This valley was the centre of densest popula- tion of the prehistoric race, and perhaps
the seat of empire, for nowhere else do memorial mounds exist in such numbers as upon its bottoms and uplands ; no- where else do so many defensive works appear, or such a number and variety of sacred inclosures. The Indians, too, re- garded this as a favored land, and it was undoubtedly for centuries the abode of either the Delaware or Shawanese na- tion. The river was the war-way down which the braves of these tribes floated silently and stealthily to strike their im- placable enemy the Creeks, and in later years the isolated stations of the whites in Kentucky. Logan, tlie Mingo, whose pa- thetic eloquence and sad story have stirred the hearts of so many modern sympathiz- ers with his woe, delivered the impassion- ed speech upon which his fame rests, be- fore Lord Dunmore's interpreter, only a few miles north of the site of Chillicothe, and his name has been honored, not by the rearing of any memorial, but by its ap- plication to the grandest of nature's mon- uments upon the Scioto-Mount Logan. The country is rich in legend of the dusky race, and history has preserved the an- nals of many a battle and skirmish in which the Indian sought to preserve a favorite hunting ground from the en- croachments of lis pale-faced brother.
Virginia, it is a notable fact, was the second one of the original colonies to cede to the United States its claim upon the ter-
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ritory northwest of the Ohio, doing so in 1784, preceded only by New York, while Connecticut was the latest, consummating a similar measure in 1786, "the last tardy and reluctant sacrifice of State pretensions to the common good." Virginia's act of cession contained a clause, reserving upon certain conditions a tract of land lying north of the Ohio, and between the Scioto and Little Miami rivers, for the payment of the bounty awards due her Revolution- ary soldiers of the Continental line. This reservation, known as the Virginia Mili- tary District, was ahnost entirely settled 'by families from the Old Dominion, and thus a Virginia was formed in the North- western Territory. Chillicothe soon aft- er it was founded became the place of lo- cation for the land-office of this district. and situated near the centre, north and south, of the enormous territorial county of Ross, which included nearly the whole of the reservation, it became its seat. It thus occupied a position which entitled it to the name (if it did not receive it) of the capital of New Virginia. As Marietta (more properly than Conneaut) may be called the Plymouth of the West, so can Chillicothe be termed the Jamestown of this New Virginia; and as the daughter of the Mother of Presidents, Chillicothe nobly maintained the family prominence and honor by becoming the Mother of Governors.
Of the five men elected Governors of Ohio whose homes were in Chillicothe, one, Nathaniel Massie, never served. Three others, Edward Tiffin, Thomas Worthington, and Duncan McArthur, were pioneer statesmen, and have long since passed away. The fifth, William Allen, only recently died, and his long life linked the past with the present, po- litically and socially.
The very earliest history of Central Southern Ohio brings before the reader Nathaniel Massie, the foremost pioneer of this region. Massie was a native of Vir- ginia, and was a boy soldier in the Revo- lutionary war. When only twenty years of age, in 1783, he went out alone to seek his fortune in Kentucky. Employed by the Surveyor-General of the Virginia Mil- itary Reservations in that State and the Northwestern Territory, he soon became expert in the then useful and lucrative though dangerous calling of a surveyor, and as early as 1790 was the leader of an adventurous party locating land-warrants
north of the Ohio. Previous to Wayne's treaty in 1795, every survey in the Virginia Military District was made by stealth. In 1791, Massie formed the first settlement in the reservation, and from that time on-
THOMAS WORTHINGTON.
ward was almost constantly engaged in locating and surveying the best land along the streams northward, each year pushing further into the wilderness. In the midst of the most appalling dangers, suffering in the winter from the severe cold, some- times almost starving, always subject to the sudden fierce attack of a wily, watch- ful, jealous foe, and sometimes having a sharp battle with the Indians, Massie and his men toiled on, the valiant van-guard of an army of peace.
Duncan McArthur, also destined to take a prominent part in the affairs of the State which was to develop from the wil- derness, was with Massie in.most of his ex- peditions, and was the hero of several dar- ing adventures and hair-breadth escapes.
By the year 1794, such an enthusiasm had been created in Kentucky by the glowing descriptions of the beauty of the scenery and the fertility of the soil in the Scioto country, which were circulated by Massie's followers, that portions of two Presbyterian congregations in Bourbon County determined to emigrate thither in a body. Their dislike of slavery was also an inducement to them to make a change; and being both impelled and attracted. they were eager to emigrate as early as
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possible. Accordingly in the spring of 1795 we find a company of about sixty men met by appointment to penetrate the romantic wilds north of the Ohio. They reached a point near the site of Chilli- cothe, and there their progress was check- ed by a party of hostile Indians. As it was impossible to retreat with safety, they gave them battle, and the Indians, on be- ing attacked, fled, leaving two of their number dead, and several wounded. Only one man of the Kentucky company was killed, and a white man who had long been a prisoner among the Indians made his escape to his own people. After gath- ering up all of the peltries left by the In- dians, and plundering their camp, the whites retreated toward the Ohio, and, as they apprehended, were attacked the next morning by the pursuing and re- enforced party of Shawanese. In the spring of 1796, Massie rendezvoused the same or essentially the same company
THE MASSIE MONUMENT, IN THE CHILLICOTHE CEMETERY.
of men, and dividing them into two equal parties, again sought the favored locality in which he hoped to see a great town grow up. One division of the colony went by land, and the other up the Sci- oto in pirogues, carrying implements of husbandry, and those few articles which were indispensable to the pioneer. They landed at the moutli of Paint Creek (Olo- mon Sepung), below the site of Chillicothe, at what has since been known as "the Station Prairie," and soon thirty ploughis had turned up three hundred acres of the fertile bottom-land, and it was planted in corn. Massie proceeded to lay out the town which a few years later became the scene of so many events important to the scattered settlers of the West. He was the owner of the tract on which the town was laid out, and he gave to each of the first settlers a lot within the plot, and a hundred acres of land near by. The town was laid out after the plan of Philadelphia, and in fact the situation also resembles much that of the city which it was sought to imitate, the Scioto River and Paint Creek representing the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. The name, Chillicothe, chosen by Massie, was the generic name among the Shawanese for town, and although they had no vil- lage upon the site chosen, there was one not many miles distant-one of the sev- eral old Chillicothes celebrated in Indian narratives. The settlement thus estab- lished, the one furthest advanced toward the in- terior, increased very rap- idly in population, and the surrounding country soon received large num- bers of settlers. The in- flux of immigrants was something wonderful for those days of slow travel and slow growth. Men of great ability, energy, and foresight were attracted to Massie's settlement by the fame of lis exploits and the éclat with which the pioneer village sprang into existence, as well as by the flattering prospect which the richness of the region warranted. In 1798, there came among the immigrants from Vir- ginia three men who were
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to be notable in State his- tory-Worthington, his brother-in-law Tiffin, and Robert Lucas-all three afterward Governors. The last-named located a few miles south ward, but still in the valley, and the oth- ers in Chillicothe. But with the reputable ele- ment came also a rabble of rakes, gamblers, adven- turers, and outlaws, worth- less to the community in every sense-a heteroge- neous herd, ready to defy decency and trample order and law under foot. Vir- ginia vices were imported as well as Virginia virtues. A pioneer says: "When the settlers first came, whiskey was $4 50 per gallon, but in the spring of 1797, when the keel-boats began to run, and the Monongahela whis- key-makers having found a good market for their fire-water, rushed it in in such quantities that the cabins were crowded with it, it soon fell to fifty cents; men, women, and children, with some excep- tions, drank it freely, and many who had been respectable became inebriates. Many of Wayne's soldiers and camp-women set- tled in the town, so that for a time it be- came a town of drunkards and a sink of corruption. There was a little leaven, which in a few months began to develop itself." In 1800, Congress, recognizing the growing importance of Massie's settle- ment, and doubtless, too, influenced by its central location as to population, made it the capital of the North western Territory. Worthington and Tiffin had met with the first session of the Territorial Legislature at Cincinnati, and they retained their places, meeting with the second at Chilli- cothe, and also with the third, in 1801. Here then came Arthur St. Clair, Govern- or of the Territory, clothed in the august robes of state, and already disliked because of his haughty bearing, his arbitrary rul- ings, and more than all else because there still elung to him the odium of his unfor- tunate military defeat. During the ses- sion of 1801, "the Governor and several of the legislators having been insulted at Chillicothe," a law was passed removing the capital to Cincinnati again. But the Territorial Legislature was not to meet again anywhere.
ADENA, RESIDENCE OF GOVERNOR WORTHINGTON. Adjoining Fatties famine
The unpopularity of St. Clair was causing many to long for a State govern- ment. The Federal Governor, to defeat the consummation of a plan which he foresaw would leave him without an oc- cupation or an office, advanced a scheme for changing the ordinance of 1787 in such manner as to effect a division of the Territory, making the Seioto river the boundary line. This measure, had it been carried, would have long postponed the organization, as neither of the divi- sions of territory would have had for many years a sufficient population to have entitled it to a change in the ad- ministration of its civil affairs. Massic, Worthington, and Tiffin labored zealous- ly against the change which was urged by St. Clair, and Worthington left late in the fall to lay before Congress a statement of the evils that must arise from a re-ar-
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FRUIT HILL, THE RESIDENCE OF DUNCAN MCARTHUR.
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Alles adjoining Fallers Farm
rangement of the boundaries of the pros- pective North western States, and if possible to procure permission to call a convention for the formation of a State from the east- ern portion of the Territory, having the boundaries originally provided by the or- dinance, and to effect that organization " which, terminating the influence of tyr- anny, should meliorate the circumstances of thousands by freeing them from the domination of a despotic chief." In April, 1802, Congress passed an act to enable the people within the present boundaries of Ohio to form a Constitution, organize a State government, and to obtain admission into the Union on an equal footing with the original States. The people, eager to avail themselves of their new privileges, order- ed and held an election, and chose dele- gates to represent them in a Constitutional Convention. This Convention assembled in Chillicothe on the first of November, 1802, and held its session in the "old stone State-house," in which the Territori- al Legislature had assembled in 1801. The building was commenced in 1800, and fin- ished in the following year. It was gen- erally devoted to State purposes, and also served as the place for holding the local courts. Many years after the removal of the capital to Columbus, this first State- house of Ohio remained as a reminder of Chillicothe's proud early days; but about fifty years from the time it was built it was found that the plain, simple little struc-
ture, which was once thought amply com- modious for the use of the State, was too small to serve the needs of the county. and it was destroyed to make room for a finer structure.
The Constitutional Convention brought to Chillicothe an assemblage of the ablest men in the Territory-such men as Charles Willing Byrd, William Goforth, and Jer- emiah Morrow, of Cincinnati, Rufus Put- nam and Judge Ephraim Cutler, from Ma- rietta, and Samuel Huntington, from tlie Connecticut Reserve; but no locality had a stronger or more brilliant representation than Chillicothe. Among her delegates were Massie, Worthington, Tiffin, and Michael Baldwin, an erratic genius, who, previous to tliat time enjoying a local ce- lebrity as the ablest and most brilliant member of the bar in the infant settle- ment, then first came before the people in a broader capacity. The Convention closed its labors after a session so short as to be worthy of the emulation of mod- ern legislators, and it gave to the people a Constitution " which bore in every provi- sion the marks of democratic feeling, of full faith in the people." And it may be added that the Constitution was never submitted to the people in whom it pro- fessed such full faith. Thomas Wortlı- ington is known to have been the mem- ber by whom was introduced the clause which secured to Ohio the mouth of the Maumee, tlie site of Toledo, and a valu-
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able strip of territory, and he also was the originator of one or two other provisions ; but Michael Baldwin, there is reason to believe, was the author of the greater part of the Constitution. No other man in the Convention possessed at the same time so large a legal knowledge and so great lit- erary ability as he. He was one of that vast number of men to whom the world, or some part of it, has been indebted for most valuable services ; but his great strength was handicapped by elements of weakness and venal faults-follies which impaired his usefulness, but did not de- stroy it. His ability, eccentricity, and prominence among the pioneer . public men of the West entitle him to more than passing notice. He was both famous and notorious at an early day, and though his career in Chillicothe was short, and he left no monument or relic of his residence there, he was one of the marked charac- ters of the town and State. He had lo- cated in the village as early as the last year of the last century, for the records show that he was in that year admitted to practice in the courts. Although he em- igrated to the West from Connecticut, he was in all probability an Irishman, as his name would imply, and his character too, for that matter, for it was made up of all the incongruities, contrarieties, and con- tradictions that are popularly supposed to belong to the typical Irishman. He was strong mentally and physically, able to cope successfully with the best minds he met with, and equally well pro- vided with that physical prowess which was neces- sary to the winning of respect from the roughs, and which brought victory in personal encounter. Well read in law, and familiar with general literature, he was, when he had a mind to be, as winning and grace- ful in private con- versation as he was fluent and forcible in public oratory. These qualities won
for him many admirers, but other qualities which he possessed repelled the better ele- ment of the community ; and thus losing the universal respect which he might have commanded, poor Baldwin suffered many falls in public favor, was only for brief periods successful, and led a sorry ca- reer, full of vicissitudes. He was kind- hearted and generous when he had means to be generous with, as he seldom did. Full of rollicking humor, and fond of wild fun, he developed a strong love for liquor, which was very naturally in- dulged in the unsettled town, until the once brilliant man sank from a high po- sition into obscurity. Unrest or unhap- py recollections of past life probably made him an easy prey to demoralizing influ- ences, or at least such was the indication afforded by his actions. He became, very soon after his settlement in the West, reck- lessly dissipated, abandoning himself to the wildest orgies and protracted sprees, from which he would emerge into a con- dition of clear-headedness and temporary respectability to perform the most arduous legal labor, or to take a leading part in some political movement. The tavern of one William Keys was his favorite resort, and it is traditionally asserted that it was at this pioneer of pot-houses thathe wrote the larger part of the Consti-
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tution of Ohio, using a whiskey barrel for a table and a wine keg for a seat. It is a matter of record that the landlord sued Baldwin for the sum of £25 13s. 10d., which amount, with the exception of three items, was aggregated from a long list of charges for "toddy," "rum," "plain spirits," "brandy sling, " and "drinks for the club." The exceptional items were three suppers at 6d. each, but with every one of these charges there was one of "3s. for 1} pints of brandy," which was certainly quite a Falstaffian proportion of meat to drink. Baldwin was the captain of the "Blood- hounds," an organization of the roughs and fighting men of the town, who did his electioneering for him, championed him in his quarrels, and occasionally liberated him from jail. The "Bloodhounds" un- doubtedly constituted the club for which Baldwin ordered treats. Their captain was in the custom of drilling the "Blood- hounds" in mock military manner. Draw- ing the motley crowd up in line, Baldwin with great dignity would command, "At- tention-Bloodhounds !" And then after the orders to "uncase gourds" and to "case gourds" had been complied with, the company was put through the manu-
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