USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > The Cincinnati pioneer > Part 5
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No. 1.
CONSTITUTION and List of Members ; Date of Birth ; also Year of Arrival.
No. 2.
REUNION of Pioneers of the Miami Valley at National Soldiers' Home, Dayton, O., Ioth September, 1873 ; Addresses by Judge Joseph Cox, Governor Noyes, Judge R. S. Hart, Judge D. K. Este, and Elder William P. Stratton.
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PRICE-Twenty-five Cents each. No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3, in one cover, Fifty Cents.
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7th of Speil, 1874.
Celebration of the Eighty-Sixth Anniversary
OF THE
SETTLEMENT OF OHIO.
BY THE CINCINNATI PIONEER ASSOCIATION.
AGREEABLY to previous resolution to honor the day in memory of the first settlers at the mouth of the Muskingum River, on the 7th of April, 1788, the members of the Pioneer Association-aged men and women-met at ten o'clock A. M., in the First Congre- gational Church, north-east corner of Eighth and Plum Streets ; President S. S. L'Hommedieu presiding. Conspicuously seated, also, were the following Ex-Presidents, namely: Eden B. Reeder, Robert Buchanan, Rees E. Price, Thomas H. Yeatman, and Joseph S. Ross. The venerable Roman Catholic Archbishop, John Baptist Purcell, and Elder James Challen, were seated on either side of the President. In attendance, also, were John Shoebridge Williams ; Col- onel Thomas Morrison, of Dayton ; General James Sampson, Nathaniel Wright, Hon. Bellamy Storer ; Hon. David Fisher, of Clermont; Hon. Wm. S. Groesbeck, Hon. George H. Pendleton, and numerous mem- `bers of the Constitutional Convention of Ohio; Hon. James Williams, Auditor of State, and several members of the General Assembly of Ohio.
Governor William Allen had arranged to be present, but sent a message that he was prevented from attending by urgent official business.
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The exercises were opened by Elder W. P. Stratton reading this favorite poern, which was sung by Professor Stevens:
SIXTY YEARS AGO.
Composed by WILLIAM D. GALLAGHER, ESQ., and dedicated to the descendants of Israel Ludlow.
A song of the early times out West, and our green old forest home, Whose pleasant mem'ries freshly yet across the bosom come ! A song for the free and gladsome life in those early days we led, With a teeming soil beneath our feet, and a smiling heav'n o'erhead ! O, the waves of life danced merrily, and had a joyous flow, In the days when we were pioneers, sixty years ago !
The hunt, the shot, the glorious chase, the captured elk or deer ! The camp, the big bright fire, and then the rich and wholesome cheer ! The sweet sound sleep at dead of night by our camp-fire, blazing high, Unbroken by the wolf's long howl, and the panther springing by ! O, merrily passed the time, despite our wily Indian foe, In the days when we were pioneers, sixty years ago !
We shunn'd not labor ; when 't was due, we wrought with right good-will ; And for the homes we won for them, our children bless us still. We lived not hermit lives, but oft in social converse met ; And fires of love were kindled then that burn on warmly yet. O, pleasantly the stream of life pursued its constant flow, In the days when we were pioneers, sixty years ago !
We felt that we were fellow-men, we felt we were a band, Sustain'd here in the wilderness by Heaven's upholding hand ; And when the solemn Sabbath came, we gather'd in the wood, And lifted up our hearts in prayer to God, the only good. Our tempies then were earth and sky ; none others did we know, In the days when we were pioneers, sixty years ago !
Our forest-life was rough and rude, and dangers closed us round ; But here, amid the green old trees, we freedom sought and found. Oft through our dwellings wintry blasts would rush with shriek and moan : We cared not, though they were but frail ; we felt they were our own. O, free and manly lives we led, 'mid verdure or 'mid snow, In the days when we were pioneers, sixty years ago !
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But now our course of life is short ; and as, from day to day, We're walking on with halting step, and fainting by the way, Another land, more bright than this, to our dim sight appears, And on our way to it we'll soon again be pioneers ! Yet, while we linger, we may all a backward glance still throw, To the days when we were pioneers, sixty years ago !
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THE CINCINNATI PIONEER.
Prayer by the Chaplain.
INVOCATION.
UNTO Thee, thou Father of lights, in whom is no variableness, not even a shadow of turning, and from whom cometh every good and perfect gift, to Thee we come with thankful hearts that our surroundings are as favor- able as they are ; that Thou hast truly given us our lines in pleasant places ; that so goodly a heritage is ours. We truly thank Thee that the men and women who were pioneers in settling the "Great West" were so much of nature's noble men and noble women ; so willing to brave all the dangers and suffer the privations of pioneer life ; to so thoroughly convert the howl- ing wilderness to a rose ; to inaugurate and establish so many institutions, civil and religious, for the success and happiness of their posterity. We thank Thee that they were so successful in making our great State a desirable habitation for true men and women, who came across the mighty deep : that so many such have helped to develop our country, and are now with us enjoying so fully the results of well-spent labor. And now we thank Thee anew for the Government our fathers have handed down to us, so ample for our success and perpetuity as a nation. Bless, we pray Thee, the Chief Magistrate, all associated with him in the legislative and executive departments of our nation. May we, to whom all these blessings are so invaluable a legacy, properly appreciate these trusts, sacredly guard them, and hand them down to our children unimpaired ! Bless our Association as a means of bringing us nearer together, in doing good, in right living, in making our last days our best days. May we all so live that when we come to give our account to Thee, we may do it with joy, and not with grief ! And to Thy great name be all the praise, world without end. Amen !
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
BY JOHN D. CALDWELL, SECRETARY.
WHAT is it that makes the seventh day of April so interesting to natives and residents of the " Bonnie Buckeye State?" Thirteen col- onies broke their allegiance to the British Crown in 1776, and spent seven years of war to secure the rights of man. In 1783, by the treaty of peace with Great Britain, the boundaries of the United States were determined. General Washington, in parting with the Revolu- tionary officers, received from General Rufus Putnam a petition from two hundred and forty-three officers of the army, mostly those of New England, asking his influence with Congress to secure them lands
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between the Ohio and Lake Erie. Putnam recommended a plan of military posts and of survey of these uninhabited wilds. He promised to be an adventurer, and would remove to that country.
This was his prophecy, in 1783, "that the country between the Ohio and Lake Erie would be filled with inhabitants, and thereby free the Western territory from falling under the dominion of a foreign power."
Coming out of the war heavily in debt, Congress was weak. En- glish ministers presumed upon our helplessness, there being no central power to enforce the voluntary engagements of the Confederated States, and their emissaries among the Indians in the West encour- aged. the British commanders to keep defiant possession of forts on the very soil now Ohio.
The war closed by a nominal peace, but was renewed with the red- men north-west of the Ohio River. Up to the year 1781, there were but six States that had well-defined boundaries, namely: New Hamp- shire, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Mary- land. The other seven States laid claim to Western lands running to the Pacific Ocean. A few years' delay was the result, until the States made common stock of the West for public lands. Virginia and Con- necticut partially relinquished their claims, and Congress, appreciating the exposure of this frontier, on the 13th of July, 1787, organized the North-west Territory.
The first company of settlers, formed under a grant of Congress, was the Ohio Company, led by General Rufus Putnam, from Massa- chusetts and Connecticut. Its advance reached the' mouth of the M iskingum, 7th of April, 1788. laying the foundation of the State of Ohio, which was followed up with a settlement of cultivated people. To the noble leaders and their worthy families we this day renew our tribute of thankfulness for the labors and sufferings they endured, and the rich heritage they have left us.
The name of Judge John Cleves Symmes, founder of the settle- ment between the two Miamis, and his associates, are enrolled on the pages of history. They are worthy to be remembered on this Anni- versary-day, as three settlements were made on his purchase,-at Columbia, by Benjamin Stites and John S. Gano, November, 1788; . by Patterson and Israel Ludlow, at Cincinnati, December 28, 1788 ; and by Judge Symmes, at North Bend, in January, 1789.
Cincinnati was started. on the west bank of the Ohio River, January, 1789, the same year of the adoption of the Constitution of the a United States. Then all the lands from the Ohio River to
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the Pacific were uninhabited, save by savages and wild beasts, or the few French and Spanish who clustered around the missions of the Cross.
Then there were less than four millions of people in the whole United States. Now there are nearly forty millions. Ohio has a population to-day nearly as great as had the thirteen States when the War of the Revolution broke out ; and in these eighty-six years past, there have accumulated in the territory between the Ohio River and the Pacific Ocean over twenty-two millions of people. Every State and Territory west of this contains a large number of native-born citizens of Ohio. By the census of 1870, I find there are in them 736,000 persons of Buckeye birth-natives of Ohio, namely: -
Arizona,
235
West Virginia, 13,364
New Mexico,
274
Pennsylvania,
19,275
Wyoming,
547
Kentucky,
19,722
Idaho,
550
Wisconsin,
23,163
Dakotah,
635
Missouri,
34,996
Washington,
866
Kansas,
38.315
Montana,
1,127
Michigan,
62,204
Utah,
1,133
Iowa, .
126,253
Oregon. .
4,041
Illinois, .
163, 112
Nebraska,
10,722
Indiana,
189,860
California,
12,645
Minnesota,
12,759
735,798
It is with pride that, at Cincinnati, those who had been pioneers, and loved their native State, formed a society, in 1856, to promote a social feeling favorable to the early emigrants, and organized this Cincinnati Pioneer Association of those who had resided here as early as the 4th of July, 1812 (modified subsequently to admit those of 1815). The memorable first meeting at the Dennison House was a concourse of representatives of all the old families, distinguished, as Cincinnati and vicinity have been, for men and women of worth and service in building up business and manufactures.
During these many intervening years, the Cincinnati Pioneer Asso- ciation has annually observed the 28th of December, the birthday of Cincinnati ; 7th of April, the birthday of Ohio; and 4th of July, the birthday of the independent United States. We had an excursion to . Columbus, at the dedication of the new State-house ; to Cleveland by facilities furnished by the railroads, and a formal reception and entertainment by the Forest City municipal authorities.
Through the courtesies of Messrs. Sherwood and Pearce, the Asso- ciation was conveyed on the magnificent steamer United States, and were most hospitably feted at Louisville, Kentucky, by its citizens and
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Council. We were, by the courtesy of our public-spirited citizen, Hon. George H. Pendleton, in control of the Kentucky Central Rail- road, conveyed to Lexington, Kentucky, where truc Southern hospi- tality was extended to us. We were royally provided for in a railroad excursion to Marietta, the pilgrim home of the Buckeye Pioneers, and there we renewed our earnest devotion to the memory of the brave and good of Auld Lang Syne days, who made Washington County a brilliant example as the pioneer county of the Territory and State. Courtesies were extended to the Association in a visit to the State Fair, at Springfield; and the trip we made to the 'Soldiers' Home, near Dayton, will long be remembered as the reunion of the Mont- gomery, Butler, and Hamilton County Pioneers.
On our lists of the living or dead are names of the worthiest in war or peace --- Territorial, State, and National-who have been iden- tified with the Miami Valley. We buried the daughter of John Cleve Symmes, the patentee of the whole Miami Purchase, and wife of General William Henry Harrison, whose name as defender of the homes of the West is dearer to us than even his national fame as President of the United States. We still have on our rolls the name of Hon. John Scott Harrison, son of these sainted worthies.
The name of the father of General Grant is inscribed on the roll of our deceased members. Our list included those of the family of Benjamin Stites, also of General John Stites Gano, who were pioneer settlers and proprietors of Columbia; and of the Pattersons and Israel Ludlow, proprietors of the town-site of Cincinnati. We had enrolled with us the names of Governor Tod, Governor Thomas Corwin, Governor Brownlow, of Tennessee, and some of the families of Governor Tiffin, Trimble, Looker, Brown, and Dennison.
Governors Hayes and Noyes have been hearty co-operators with us in several meetings, and only imperative public business prevented Governor William Allen from being with us to-day.
The early newspapers have all been represented; the first paper in the Northwest Territory (the Centinel) by the son of William Max- well ; by Joseph Carpenter, of the Spy and Freeman's Journal; Sam- uel J. Browne, of the old Liberty Hall, also of the Emporium; Wm. J. Ferris, S. S. L'Hommedieu, Sacket Reynolds, Wm. P. Stratton, E. D. Mansfield, and Wm. D. Gallagher, of the Cincinnati Gazette; and S. S. Smith, of the Independent Press.
Of the five hundred and forty members enrolled, one-third have passed away; three hundred and sixty survive, many of them aged
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and feeble. The kindest remembrances and cordial sympathies are extended to those unable to be present.
Six of the Presidents of this Association are numbered with the one hundred and eighty members dead, namely: William Perry, Nicholas Longworth, Colonel John Johnston (a pioneer Indian factor and agent, one of the noble in fidelity of public men), Stephen Wheeler, Samuel J. Browne, and Daniel Gano.
Ten of our past presiding officers still survive,-the venerable John Whetstone, very feeble ; Wm. B. Dodson, blind for several years ; Jacob Hoffner, Eden B. Reeder, John Ludlow, Robert Buchanan, Thomas Henry Yeatman, Joseph S. Ross, Rees E. Price, Judge D. K. Este.
President S. S. L'Hommedieu will now, in an Inaugural Address, give you reminiscences of Cincinnati from. the stand-point of an observer for sixty years.
Ballad --- " The Old Man Dreaming "-was sung by Professor Stevens.
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
BY S. S. L'HOMMEDIEU, ESQ., PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION.
MY FELLOW PIONEERS, -- We have met this day to celebrate the Eighty-sixth Anniversary of the first settlement of our State, one that is now the third in the Union, and which stands pre-eminent for its progress in all that gives value to this life, and prepares for that to come-a State that has, in the last twelve years, furnished more than an ordinary proportion of the great minds of the Cabinet, for the highest Court, as well as great captains for the army, who were able to direct men of stout hearts and strong arms in the late Rebellion.
We of Ohio have a right to feel proud, and should we be a little . boastful, equally patriotic citizens of other States must not be cen- sorious.
It has been customary for your presiding officer, on the occasion of his first appearance in that capacity, to state some of his recollec- tions of pioneer life, and for members to rise from their seats and speak of the wonderful things they have witnessed since they left their homes near the sea-shore, away east, from Maryland, Pennsyl-
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vania, New Jersey, New York, and New England -- farther from Cin- cinnati then than California and China are now, in point of time to reach.
I will not fatigue my friends by relating all I have witnessed since I came to Cincinnati, sixty-four years ago, from "Old Long Island's sea-girt shore;" for it seems to me I have seen more of change and progress than is ordinarily witnessed in centuries. Besides, were I to undertake it, many of you would be very weary before I could get half-way through my story.
I propose, however, to submit some reminiscences of the past sixty years, connected principally with Cincinnati, and I trust you will not be too critical ; for those who depend on memory for their statements concerning the long past, are apt to fall into errors. My friends must excuse me if I should be somewhat personal; for it is difficult to avoid it, when one has been a witness of, and to some extent a participant in, the events which he describes.
I will commence with 1810. In the Summer of that year, three families-the Fosdicks, L'Hommedieus, and Rogers-bade adieu to the little whaling village of Sagg Harbor, Long Island, New York; their relatives and friends assembled on the dock, many of whom believed they were going to encounter the Indian savages and the wild animals of the far Western forests, and would be seen no more. Then it was considered about as dangerous an undertaking, as it is now to visit the benighted regions of Africa.
Our first point reached was New York City, without encountering any thing special, unless the falling overboard of my brother, and of my then young cousin, Samuel Fosdick, may be considered an. inci- dent worth naming.
From New York we sailed to Philadelphia, and there secured four of the old-time Conestoga wagons-not so large as Noah's ark, but still very capacious-into which our household goods and families were packed away. The sight of the large horses, their heavy and strong harness, with the music of the jingling bells, the sharp crack of the whips, and the merry voices of the drivers, are fresh in my memory. We were bound for the Ohio River, over the lofty Alle- ghanies, counting on dangers and hardships in the unsettled country between Philadelphia and Pittsburg. We had no turnpikes or Mac- adam roads, but had to make our way up the steep ascents over a narrow track, barely of sufficient width for a wagon, with an occa- sional turnout.
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A little incident, afterward told me by my mother, I will mention. We had taken Jude-an old, pious colored servant of the family-with us. The night we reached the top of the Alleghany Mountains, my father called on Jude for her opinion of the mountainous country we were in. After some hesitation, she said: " Massa L'Hommedicu, me ben tinking on dat subject all de blessed day long, and de 'clusion of my mind is, not to wonder any more dat de good Lord made de world in six days, case he throw so much all into heaps."
We reached Pittsburg with no accident but a broken arm from an upset of our Conestoga wagon. Here the party secured a keel- boat, and reached Cincinnati, their point of destination, on the 21st of October, sixty-three days on the journey from New York, having made all practicable speed. Now the same distance is made in less than thirty hours.
Cincinnati was then a village, containing about two thousand peo- ple. The houses were mostly frame or log-cabins, located generally on the lower level, below what is now Third Street. The principal street was Main, and was pretty well built upon as high as Sixth or Seventh Streets, the latter being the northern boundary of the village. If had its Presbyterian meeting-house, a frame building on the square between Fourth and Fifth, Main and Walnut Streets; its grave-yard, court-house, jail, and public whipping-post, all on the same square. Upon this same ground, between the court-house and meeting-house, bands of- friendly Indians would occasionally have war-dances, much to the amusement of the villagers; after which, the hat would be handed around for the benefit, it may be, of the papooses.
And here I may mention the fact that the pews and pulpit sound- ing-board of that same old pioneer meeting-house, built in the years 1792 -- 3, whose pulpit was, in 1810, occupied by that able, fine-looking, hospitable, brave old Kentucky preacher, Dr. Joshua L. Wilson, are still in use in a small German Lutheran Church, on the river road, within the present corporate limits of our city.
The village also had its stone Methodist meeting-house, built in 1805-6, situated on East Fifth Street, a little west of Eastern Row, then the eastern boundary of the village, now Broadway. It also had its post-office, on the corner of Lawrence and Front Streets, and its Davis Embree Brewery, on the river bank, below Race Street.
Between 1810 and 1820, many important events took place affect- ing Cincinnati. Among them may be named the great earthquake; and, next, the landing, at our river bank (we had no wharf), of the first
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steamboat of the Western rivers-both in the year 1811. I remember that one was about as astounding as the other, and took as many out of doors, though with somewhat different feelings. From this year, barges, keel-boats, and broadhorns, with their melodious long tin horns, began to be seen and heard less frequently, and finally to disappear, and "the last of the boatmen" have been honored in poetry and painting.
During the year 1811, the people of Cincinnati, and all those living south and west of us, were in constant apprehension of serious troubles with the Indians. Councils were held with the chiefs of various tribes at Fort Wayne, Vincennes, at Urbana, Ohio, and at other places. But little, if any, reliance was placed in their good faith, and the murders on our borders produced great alarm and distress.
The battle of Tippecanoe was fought with the Indians, late in the Autumn of this year, by our brave General Harrison. The Fourth United States Regiment of Infantry, commanded by Colonel Boyd, was highly honored for the part it took in the battle. The following Spring this regiment was ordered to Newport Barracks. It reached Newport early in June, and on the second day afterward crossed the Ohio River on its march to join the Army of the North, under Gen- eral Hull. The military companies of Cincinnati met them at the landing, and escorted them up Main Street. A grand triumphal arch, which many present will remember, was erected on Main Street, extending from the north-east to the north-west intersection of Main and Fifth Streets, dedicated in large letters, "To the Heroes of Tippe- canoe," under which three hundred passed-all that remained of the regiment. They had with them, as a prisoner, a somewhat prominent person, who had either deserted or shown the white feather in the time of battle, who was not allowed to march under the arch, but was compelled to go round it.
The Fourth Regiment marched the first day to a place about five miles north of Cincinnati, where they were bountifully supplied by our citizens with provisions. On the. 8th of June, General Hull's army was encamped near Urbana. On the roth, Lieutenant Colonel James Miller, with the Fourth United States Regiment, was escorted into camp at Urbana by the Ohio troops. Here, also, had been erected an arch in honor of the regiment, on which was inscribed :
"TIPPECANOE-THE EAGLE-GLORY."
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The same regiment was afterward surrendered by Hull at Detroit. But subsequently to that, in the battle of Chippewa, when Colonel Miller was asked by his superior officer. "Can you take that battery from the enemy?" he replied, "I will try, sir;" and success crowned the efforts of the hero. The words, " I will try," were afterward worn on the buttons of his regiment.
On the 18th of June, 1812, war was declared with Great Britain. Recruiting stations, one at Newport and one at Cincinnati, were soon in active operation, and the music of the fife and drum was heard in our principal streets. Volunteering and drafting was the order of the day, and business for a while languished, only to become more active as the war progressed. Every thing wore a military aspect: United States troops from the Newport Barracks were marched under arms, on Sunday, to the pioneer Presbyterian meeting-house, to hear the stirring words of our good and brave Dr. Wilson.
Kentucky sent her thousands of volunteers on their march to join the Army of the North (soon to be commanded by General Harrison), to give battle to the British and their savage allies. It was a glorious sight to see these brave men pass up Main Street ; and what glory they earned in the second war for independence !
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