USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume I > Part 7
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At the table hot drinks were made with sassafras-root, spicewood, or sycamore bark. In rare instances genuine tea or coffee was to be had; but, to be sure of the one or the other, it was necessary for travelers to carry it with them. Parched grains of corn or rye were often pounded up as a substi- tute for coffee. Of corn-meal, bread was prepared in various ways. The simplest method, perhaps, was to mix the meal with salt and water into a stiff dough, and to bake it on the hot stones of the fire-place, swept clean-in which case it was called "Johnny-cake." If thinly spread on a board or in an iron pan, and set upright before the fire to bake, it was "hoe-cake;" and if mixed with eggs and baked in a Dutch oven, it was "pone." "Corn-dodgers " were thick cakes, like wheaten rolls, in which hog's-fat or lard had been mixed with the meal. Hominy was prepared by soaking the corn in a strong lye of . wood-ashes to remove the outside bran, and then washing it thoroughly in clean water. The meal was often made into mush, and eaten with milk from wooden bowls or noggins. If fried with the jelly of meat-liquor, it was called by the Pennsylvania Dutch "suppawn," and was regarded as a toothsome and nourishing diet.
Swine were after a while introduced among the pioneers, and were fattened chiefly on wild mast. The whole Ohio Valley was covered with forests, and the oak, hickory, and bitter-nut furnished all that the swine needed in the fall. In Spring and Summer there was sufficient grazing, with other fodder, so that there was no necessity of feeding. In Winter the shoats were slaughtered, and the meat not needed for present consumption was cured for use in the hot weather, when venison was not in condition. The heads and feet of the hogs were used to make "souse," or "head-cheese ," and the jelly obtained from the water in which they were boiled was sometimes used in cooking.
The pioneers did not find it necessary to provide much fodder for their cattle, as the Winters were never severe, the snow rarely lay longer than three days at a time, and the river bottoms were covered with an excellent quality of grass. Nearly all Winter long there was good grazing in the prairies and the open bottoms, where the grass was long and clean. A record of the weather kept at Ludlow Sta- tion, now included within the corporate limits of Cincinnati, shows the average temperature of the Win- ters from 1804 to 181I at that point to be about 40°; while the lowest temperature was 8° below zero. Our later experiences in Southern Ohio have disclosed a decided variation in the limit of greatest cold. The cutting away of the forests and the draining of the swamps has served to increase the heat in Summer and the cold in Winter.
The Ohio Company, in laying out their land, had wisely reserved a certain portion for the benefit of education, and this plan was subsequently followed by the United States Government in all the sur- veys of the Northwest, as the country was opened for settlement under the treaty of Greenville. As immigrants arrived at Marietta, General Putnam directed their attention to the purchase of land in the two townships, watered by the Hocking River, that had been set apart to establish a college, and in 1797 a company of immigrants settled in one of these townships, and gave their settlement the classic name of Athens. Thus it was that the settlements at Marietta, Athens, and in the Miami country, by which name the land lying between the two Miami Rivers was designated, were the pioneer settlements of the Territory; but, the Indians being no longer feared, immigrants in large companies and single families began to arrive and take up their abodes wherever, in the wilderness, communication might be had with each other by means of water-courses. Enterprising young men left their Eastern and North- ern homes, bought lands from some one of the different land companies which, under the then very
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SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF OHIO.
unwise Congress land laws, had purchased most of the more attractive portions of the Territory, indus- triously cleared and planted their fields, and built their log-houses, and then went back home for the young women whom they had selected as their helpmates. Men of middle age who had been unfortu- nate in business sought, with their families, homes on these cheap and fertile lands, again to begin life, with the prospect, eventually obtained by many of them, if not during their own lives winning those com- forts they once had enjoyed, of their children being at least provided for. Friends and neighbors came in companies from the barren hills of New England, and settling where they could aid each other, estab- lished the beginning of many a thriving village along the Ohio and its tributaries. In most of these set- tlements soon appeared the school-house and the church, at first but humble edifices, but which became enlarged and beautified with the village growth and prosperity. The settlement of Ohio, after the treaty of Greenville, was indeed wonderfully rapid, when we consider the then population of the United States, and the long and painful journey the immigrants had to make.
One of the first public acts of Governor St. Clair, after his introduction to the people of Marietta, in 1788, was to proclaim the establishment and boundaries of Washington County, the latter being de- fined as follows, to-wit: "Beginning on the bank of the Ohio River where the western boundary-line of Pennsylvania crosses it, and running with that line to Lake Erie; thence along the southern shore of said lake to the mouth of Cuyahoga River; thence up said river to the portage between it and the Tus- carawas branch of the Muskingum; thence down that branch to the forks, at the crossing-place above Fort Laurens; thence with a line to be drawn westwardly to the portage of that branch of the Big Miami on which the fort stood that was taken and destroyed by the French in 1752, until it meets the road from the lower Shawanesetown to the Sandusky; thence south to the Scioto River, down that to its mouth, and thence up the Ohio River to the place of beginning." With its boundaries thus defined, Washington County contained nearly one-half of the present State. The next county of which the boundaries were in like manner defined was Hamilton, January 2d, 1790. After that, the impropriety of simply proclaiming the boundaries of counties, instead of surveying them, became so apparent, and the impossibility of surveying them, not to speak of the uselessness of attempting to do so in the face of hostile Indians, was so self-evident that not until 1797 were there any more counties named. In that, however, and the four succeeding years, Adams, Jefferson, Ross, Trumbull (comprising all of the West- ern Reserve), Clermont, Fairfield, and Belmont Counties were surveyed, and these nine counties were all that had been named or their boundaries defined when, in 1803, Ohio became a State.
The form of government adopted by the last Congress under the old " Articles of Confederation" for the Northwestern Territory vested the executive, legislative, and judicial powers thereof in the Gov- ernor and Judges appointed by the President. When the Territory contained a population of five thou- sand free white males of lawful age, then the people had a right to demand the second form of govern- ment secured to them by the Ordinance of 1787, and to receive in name, if not in fact, the right of making and administering, through their representatives, their own laws. Each voter had to be pos- sessed of a freehold of fifty acres of land ; each person elected a member of the Legislature was to have a property qualification of two hundred acres, and must have been a citizen of the Territory at least three years at the time of his election.
The condition required for the second grade of territorial government having, by the census of 1798, been proven, Governor St. Clair proclaimed an election, to take place on the third Monday of December of that year, to return twenty representatives to serve as a territorial House of Assembly ; and the elec- tion accordingly took place. In those days the people made few mistakes in choosing their best men ; and hence it was that among those elected were to be found the very best the several counties con- tained. They met at Cincinnati on the first Monday of February, 1799, and nominated ten men to serve as a Legislative Council. The names of those men having been then forwarded to the President of the United States, the assembly adjourned, and again met on the 16th of the following September, to con- tinue in session about three months. Edward Tiffin, a representative of. Ross County, and the first Governor subsequently elected by the people of the State, was chosen Speaker; and Captain William H. Harrison, who had served under General Wayne in the battle at Fallen Timbers, as a lieutenant, in August, 1794, was elected the first delegate to Congress. Forty-one years afterward he was elected President of the United States.
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SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF OHIO.
The following persons constituted the popular branch of the territorial legislature for the two years 1799-1800: From Washington County, Return Jonathan Meigs and Paul Fearing; Hamilton County, William Goforth, William McMillan, John Smith, John Ludlow, Robert Benham, Aaron Caldwell, Isaac Martin ; St. Clair County, Shadrach Bond; Knox County, John Small; Randolph County, John Edgar ; Wayne County, Solomon Sibley, Jacob Visgar, Charles F. Chabert de Joncaire; Adams County, Joseph Darlinton, Nathaniel Massie; Jefferson County, James Pritchard ; and Ross County, Thomas Worthington, Elias Langham, Samuel Findlay, Edward Tiffin. The gentlemen chosen by the proper authorities to constitute the Legislative Council, whose term of office was to continue five years, were Jacob Burnet, Cincinnati; Henry Vandenburg, Vincennes; Robert Oliver, Marietta; James Findlay, Cincinnati; and David Vance, of Jefferson County. When the Council and House of Representatives met at Cincinnati, each body perfected its organization by the election of the following officers: For the Council, Henry Vandenburg, President; William C. Schenck, Secretary ; George Howard, Door-keeper ; Abraham Cary, Sergeant-at-arms. For the House of Representatives, Edward Tiffin, Speaker; John Riley, Clerk ; Joshua Rowland, Door-keeper; Abraham Cary, Sergeant-at-arms. Thirty bills were passed at the first session of the Legislature, but the Governor vetoed eleven of them.
The selection of the delegate to which the Territory was entitled in Congress proved highly advan- tageous to the more immediate settlement of the State. On the promotion of Winthrop Sargent to be Governor of the Territory of Mississippi, Captain Harrison had been appointed Lieutenant-governor and Secretary of the Northwestern Territory, General St. Clair being continued as Governor. This gave Captain Harrison opportunity to observe the bad working of the laws then extant regulating the sale of the public lands. These laws had been passed with the intention of favoring the settlement by compa- nies of the officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary army. Hence the land was ordered to be surveyed in townships of 16,000 acres each, and then divided by survey into four parts of 4,000 acres each, and less than the latter area could not be purchased at Government prices. The settlers being usually men of small means, the purchase of so great a body of land as that which would cost them $4, 250 was beyond their ability, and this fact caused the formation of companies, who purchased at Government prices extensive tracts, and held the same for future sale at such prices as they pleased to charge for it. About the first business Captain Harrison engaged in, on taking his seat in Congress, was to offer a bill to repeal this law; and, though strenuously opposed by the men of capital who had intended to profit by it, he succeeded in obtaining such a modification of the law as caused those large tracts of land yet owned by the Government to be surveyed into alternate sections of 640 and half-sections of 320 acres each, thus allowing men of small means to purchase their farms at Government prices. Subsequently the great advantages of this arrangement becoming apparent, the public lands were divided into quarters, eighths, and sixteenths of sections, comprising respectively 160, 80, and 40 acres, and bounty-land war- rants, granted for service in the wars, were prepared to correspond.
The first session of the territorial legislature was prorogued by the Governor, December 19th, 1799, until the first Monday in November, 1800; at which time the members reassembled, and held their second session at Chillicothe, which had been established by Congress as the seat of government for the Territory. This session was of short duration, continuing only until December 9th, 1800. On May 9th, 1800, Congress passed an act establishing the Indiana Territory, with boundaries including the present States of Indiana and Illinois. William H. Harrison, having accepted the office of Governor, it devolved upon this Legislature to elect a delegate to fill the vacancy occasioned by his resignation ; and also to elect a delegate to serve during the succeeding Congress. William McMillan, of Cincinnati, was chosen to fill the vacancy, and Paul Fearing, of Marietta, was elected to serve from the 4th of March, 1801, to the 4th of March, 1803.
By a provision of the Ordinance of 1787 the Northwestern Territory might be divided into not less than three nor more than five States, and the boundaries were therein given. When any division should have 60,000 inhabitants it might form a State constitution. In the session of Congress for the year 1800 the whole Territory was divided into two parts. The eastern portion, that still retained the name of Northwestern Territory, embraced the region now included in the States of Ohio and Michigan, containing eighty thousand square miles. The western part, called the Indiana Territory, comprised all the country west of a line running due north from the mouth of the Great Miami River to intersect a
39
SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF OHIO. .
line run due west from Sandusky, and westward of the first line of the Mississippi River. The census of the year 1800 showed a population of 42,000 in the eastern portion, and, after the adjournment of the Legislature in January, 1802, another census giving 45,028, an effort was made to have Ohio ad- mitted into the Union. Washington County strenuously opposed this effort. As early as June, 1801, a convention called for that purpose met at Marietta, and gave expression to the following: "That, in our opinion, it would be highly impolitic and very injurious to the inhabitants of this Territory to enter into a State government at this time." In December of the same year the territorial Legislature re- quested Congress to change the western boundary of the eastern division from the Great Miami River to the Scioto. Such a change was proposed in the interest of those unfavorable to the formation of a State Government ; but Congress, having favored such a change, refused to alter the boundary.
Governor St. Clair had become, since his defeat by the Indians, very unpopular. His assumptions of dictatorial power were offensive. Thomas Worthington, afterward Governor of Ohio, and then a Representative from Ross County in the territorial Legislature, held him in great aversion. In a letter to Colonel R. J. Meigs he spoke of the Governor as "Arthur the First," as an aristocrat, a tyrant that should be curbed; but he did not regard the change from territorial to State government as in itself desirable. He said : "I am by no means an advocate for a State government, if we can by any means have tolerable harmony under the present; but, although there are many reasons against going into a State government, no situation can be more disagreeable than the past has been and the present is." This sentiment was not generally entertained. General Darlinton, a member of the territorial Legisla- ture from Adams County, in a letter to Mr. Fearing, also a member from Washington County, in March, 1802, remarked that the people of his county (Adams) were unanimous for admission into the Union, "and congratulate themselves on the prospect of having it soon in their power to shake off the iron fetters of aristocracy, and, in the downfall of the Tory party in this Territory, hope for the day when they shall be free from the control of an arbitrary chief." On the other hand, Judge Woodbridge had, in letters written to Mr. Fearing a few weeks previously, mentioned the "foolish talk about aristocrats and tories," and expressed his opinion that " scarcely a citizen of this county would wish to come into a State government." Mr. Gilman, of Marietta, regarded the change as only favored by those who wished the good will of the administration. Hon. Solomon Sibley, who had been returned from Wash- ington County to the first territorial legislature, then a resident of Marietta, but in 1802, writing from De- troit to Judge Jacob Burnet, one of the most prominent members of the territorial government, and an earnest opponent of the proposed change to a State government, said: "I did expect that Congress would not readily have interfered in the petty political squabbles of the Territory." From these short citations it may be believed that the proposition to form a State government was by its advocates and opponents suffi- ciently discussed when, April 30th, 1802, an act of Congress was passed authorizing the call of a convention to form a constitution. The delegates were elected October 12th, and the convention met November
Ist, at Chillicothe, the county seat of Ross County, and which subsequently became the first seat of the State government. In population it then ranked third. By November 20th, 1802, the State constitution was adopted and signed by the thirty-four members of the convention. It was not submitted to the people, as the proposition to submit it was lost by a vote of 27 to 7. Those who voted in favor of submission were four of the delegates from Washington, two of those from Jefferson, and one from Hamilton counties.
The convention adjourned November 29th, and copies of the constitution were forwarded to Con- gress by Edward Tiffin, president of the convention, whose letter therewith is dated "Chillicothe, N. W. Territory, December 4th, 1802." January 7th, 1803, the Senate appointed a committee to "inquire whether any, and, if any, what legislative measures may be necessary for admitting the State of Ohio into the Union, and extending to that State the laws of the United States." This committee reported, twelve days afterward, "that the constitution and State government were republican and conformed to the requirements of the Ordinance of 1787, and that it was necessary to establish a district court within the State to carry into effect the laws of the United States." A bill to meet the requirements of the report of the committee passed the Senate February 7th, the House February 12th, and was approved by the President February 19th, 1803, from which may properly be dated the admission of Ohio into the Union.
40
SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF OHIO.
The growth of the Territory had been so rapid that it became necessary to establish new seats of justice for holding the courts and organizing new counties for the better administration of the laws. By the time Ohio was ready to be admitted into the Union, the following counties had been proclaimed within the Northwestern Territory :
NUMBER.
COUNTIES.
WHEN PROCLAIMED.
COUNTY SEATS.
I
Washington.
July 27, 1788
Marietta.
2
Hamilton
January 2, 1790.
Cincinnati.
3
St. Clair.
February, 1790.
Cahokia.
4
Knox ...
1790
Vincennes.
5
Randolph
1795.
Kaskaskia.
6
Wayne ..
August 15, 1795.
Detroit.
7
Adams.
July 10, 1797
Manchester.
8
Jefferson
July 29, 1797 ..
Steubenville.
9
Ross
August 20, 1797
Chillicothe.
IC
Trumbull
July 10, 1800 ...
Warren.
II
Clermont.
December 6, 1800.
Williamsburg.
12
Fairfield
December 9, 1800.
New Lancaster.
13
Belmont
September 7, 1801
St. Clairsville.
From the foregoing table it will be observed how large was the territory contained within the county limits. Thus, the third, fourth, and fifth counties proclaimed, lying outside of the present limits of Ohio, extended as far west as the Mississippi, while Wayne County covered a large part of Michigan. Courts were held at stated times in the several counties, and justice was meted out to offenders with no sparing hand. It is curious to note the punishments inflicted upon criminals convicted under the territorial laws. In every court-house yard, a pillory, with stocks and a whipping-post, was erected, and all of them were used when occasion required. The first law for flogging, as a penalty for crime, was made by Governor St. Clair and Judges Parsons and Varnum, at Marietta, September 6th, 1789, entitled : " A Law respecting Crimes and Punishments." It was provided, among other things, that when three or more persons, constituting a mob, should commit unlawful acts and fail to disperse when ordered to do so, each offender upon conviction should be "fined in any sum not exceeding three hundred dollars, and be whipped not exceeding thirty-nine stripes, and find security for good behavior for a term not exceeding one year." For a second offense, the whipping was to be repeated, as well as the fine and the security, and the offender committed to jail until the sentence should be fully performed. For simple house-breaking the penalty was thirty-nine stripes and security for good behavior ; if articles were stolen, a fine treble in amount of their value was assessed against the burglar, one-third of which was to go to the Territory, and two-thirds to the party suffering the loss. And if, in the commission of the crime, personal violence was used or threatened, the entire estate, personal and real, was escheated to the Territory, out of which the injured party was to be compensated; and the offender was subject to imprisonment in any jail of the Territory for a term not exceeding forty years.
For perjury or refusing to swear to a fact, or denying it, knowing it to be true, the penalty was a fine of sixty dollars, or the infliction of not more than thirty-nine stripes and an exposure in the pillory not exceeding two hours. Forgery was punishable by the convict being made to pay double the amount forged, one-half of which was to go to the party injured, and being placed in the pillory not longer than three hours. For arson, the penalty was whipping, the pillory, and imprisonment for not more than three years, besides forfeiture of all the estate, real and personal, owned by the offender. Undutiful conduct, or disobedience on the part of children, servants, and apprentices, was punishable with a public flogging-the number of stripes not to exceed ten-and imprisonment until the party complained of should be willing to submit to the master's or parent's commands. Any justice of the peace had jurisdiction in cases of this nature.
Larceny and drunkenness were also punishable-the former by a two-fold restitution of the value of the article stolen, and flogging, or being bound out to service for a term not to exceed seven years ; and the latter by the drunkard being fined and placed in the stocks. And in every court-yard, after the court-house and jail were erected, an act directed the establishing of a pillory, whipping-post, and
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SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF OHIO. .
stocks for the punishments above-mentioned. There were also penalties imposed for other crimes and misdemeanors, such as imprisonment or servitude for debt ; fines, corporal punishment, or imprisonment for aiding a prisoner to escape; heavy fines for maliciously setting fire to woods, prairies, and lands; and punishment in the stocks and payment of costs for tearing down or defacing any public proclamation, copy of law, banns of marriage, or notices of strays.
As all good government rests upon the virtue and intelligence of its subjects, and especially the sanctions of religion, the territorial criminal code recognized their importance to society, and enjoined, in sections 21 and 22, as follows :
"WHEREAS, Idle, vain, and obscene conversation, profane cursing and swearing, and more espe- cially the irreverently mentioning, calling upon, or invoking the sacred and Supreme Being by any of the divine characters in which he hath graciously condescended to reveal his infinitely beneficent pur- poses to mankind, are repugnant to every moral sentiment, subversive of every civil obligation, incon- sistent with the ornaments of polished life, and abhorrent to the principles of the most benevolent relig- ion ; it is expected, therefore, if crimes of this kind should exist, they will not find encouragement, countenance, or approbation in this Territory. It is strictly enjoined upon all officers and ministers of justice, upon parents and others, heads of families, and upon others of every description, that they abstain from practices so vile and irrational, and that by example and precept, to the utmost of their power, they prevent the necessity of adopting and publishing laws with penalties on this head; and it is hereby declared that government will consider as unworthy of its confidence all those who may obsti- nately violate these injunctions.
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