USA > Ohio > Hardin County > The history of Hardin county, Ohio > Part 27
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The French erected a trading-post near the mouth of the Maumee early in the eighteenth century, which became a depot of considerable note, and was, probably, the first permanent habitation of white men in Ohio. It remained until after the peace of 1763, the termination of the French and Indian war, and the occupancy of the country by the English. On the site of this trading-post the latter erected Fort Miami in 1794, which they gar- risoned until the country came under the control of the Americans, encour- aging and assisting the Indians in their hostility toward the young nation. As soon as the French learned the true source of the Ohio and Wabash Rivers, they began to establish trading-posts or depots at accessible points, generally at the mouths of rivers emptying into the Ohio. One of these old forts stood about a mile and a half southwest of the outlet of the Scioto. When it was erected is not known, but it was there in 1740.
Some English traders and Indians built a fort or station in 1749, which they called Pickawillany. It stood on the west side of Loramie's Creek, and about two miles north of the mouth of that branch, in what is now Shelby County. In 1752, the French captured the post, and subsequently a Cana- dian Frenchman named Loramie established a store at that point. He be- came very prominent among the Indians, gained great influence over them, and their attachment always remained unabated for their " French father," as they called him, often shedding tears at the mere mention of his name. He opposed the Americans in the struggle for possession of Ohio, and in retaliation Gen. Clark destroyed the station in 1782, Loramie escaping
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with the Indians to the West, where he lived and died. In 1794, a fort was erected on the site of Loramie's store, by Gen. Wayne, and named Fort Loramie, which became an important point in the Greenville treaty line.
The French had a trading post at the mouth of Huron River, in what is now Erie County, but when it was established is unknown. It was, how- ever, one of their early outposts, and may have been built before 1750. They had a similar station on the shore of Sandusky Bay, on or near the site of Sandusky City. Both were abandoned previous to the Revolutionary war. On Lewis Evans' map, published in 1755, a French fort called "Fort Junandat, built in 1754," is located on the east bank of the Sandusky River, several miles above its mouth, while Fort Sandusky, on the western bank, is also noted. Very little is known of any of these trading-posts, as they were evidently only temporary, and abandoned when the English came into possession. The mouth of the Cuyahoga River was another important trading point, for we find on Evans' map, on the west bank of that stream, some distance from its mouth, the words, "French House," doubtless the station of a trader. The ruins of a house found about five miles from the mouth of the Cuyahoga, on the west bank of that river, are supposed to be those of the station. There are few records of settlements made by the French prior to 1750, and even these were merely trading-posts, and could hardly be called settlements. These French traders easily affiliated with the Indians, treated them in a brotherly, friendly manner, but did little toward developing the country. They never laid low the forest or cultivated the fields, but passed their time in hunting and trading.
A short time prior to the Indian war, a settlement of traders was estab- lished at the junction of the Auglaize and Maumee Rivers, where Gen. Wayne built Fort Defiance in 1794. O. M. Spencer, in speaking of this post says : " On the high ground extending from the Maumee a quarter of a mile up the Auglaize, about two hundred yards in width, was an open space, on the west and south of which were oak woods with hazel under- growth. Within this opening, a few hundred yards above the point, on the steep bank of the Auglaize, were five or six cabins and log houses, inhabited principally by Indian traders. The most northerly, a large hewed log house, divided below into three apartments, was occupied as a warehouse, store and dwelling by George Ironside, the most wealthy and influential of the traders at the point. Next to his were the houses of Pirault (Pero), a French baker, and Mckenzie, a Scot, who, in addition to merchandising, followed the occupation of a silversmith, exchanging with the Indians his brooches, car-drops and other silver ornaments at an enormous profit for skins and furs.
" Still further up were several other families of French and English ; and two American prisoners, Henry Ball, a soldier taken at St. Clair's defeat, and his wife, Polly Meadows, captured at the same time, were allowed to live here and pay their masters the price of their ransom, he by boating to the rapids of the Maumee, and she by washing and sewing. Fronting the house of Ironside, and about fifty yards from the bank, was a small stockade inclosing two hewed log houses, one of which was occupied by James Girty (a brother of Simon), the other occasionally by Elliott and McKee, English Indian agents living at Detroit." The post, cabins and all they contained fell under the control of the Americans when the English evacuated the lake
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shores, but during its existence it was a constant source of trouble to the whites by encouraging and abetting Indian discontent.
About 1761, the Moravian missionaries, Revs. Frederick Post and John Heckewelder, established permanent stations among the Ohio Indians, chiefly on the Tuscarawas River, in Tuscarawas County. The first one, however, was on the north side of the Muskingum, at the junction of the Sandy and Tuscarawas, in what is now Stark County. The missions in Tuscarawas County, known as Shoenbrun, Gnadenhutten and Salem, were not established until 1771-72. In 1776, Zeisberger, a Moravian missionary, with a band of Indian converts, came from Detroit to an abandoned Ottawa village, on the site of Independence, Cuyahoga County, which they called
" Pilgrims' Rest." Their stay was brief, as the following April they removed to the vicinity of where Milan, Erie County, now stands, and this they named New Salem. The account of the massacre of friendly Indians at the missions in Tuscarawas County, by Col. Williamson in 1782, appears in the former chapter. The principal part of those remaining finally removed to the Moravian missionary station, on the River Thames, in Canada, while others scattered among the hostile tribes of the Northwest.
It may be proper to remark here that Mary Heckewelder, daughter of the missionary, is generally believed to have been the first white child born in Ohio, but this is largely conjecture. It has been established beyond doubt that captive white women among the Indians are known to have borne children during their captivity, who, with their mothers, were subsequently restored to their friends. Some of these cases occurred previous to the birth of Mary Heckewelder, April 16, 1781, but as no record was kept of them, and hers being the first recorded, thus obtained priority.
In 1778, Gen. McIntosh, with a detachment of 1,000 men from Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh) built Fort Laurens, in the northwestern part of what is now Tuscarawas County. It was vacated in August, 1779, as it was deemed untenable at such a distance from the frontier.
The locality around the mouth of the Scioto River must have been pretty well known to the whites, for in April, 1785, three years before the settlement at Marietta, four families made an ineffectual attempt to settle in that vicinity. They came from the Redstone country in Pennsylvania, and floating down the Ohio, moored their boat under the high bank where Ports- mouth now stands, and commenced clearing the ground to plant seeds for a crop to support their families, hoping that the red man would suffer them to remain in peace. Soon afterward the four men, heads of families, started up the west bank of the Scioto for the purpose of exploring the country. Encamping near the site of Piketon, Pike County, they were surprised by a party of Indians, and two of them killed as they lay by their fires. The remaining two escaped to the Ohio, and getting the families and goods on a passing flat-boat, arrived safely at Maysville, Ky. Thus was misery and disaster brought upon those peaceful families, their hopes blasted, and the attempt to settle north of the Ohio defeated.
The old " Scioto Salt Works," in Jackson County, was a spot early known to the whites, through prisoners being brought there by the Indians. The location is laid down on Evans' map of 1755, and although the works were occupied by the French and Americans as early as 1780, no settle- ment was made there until after the close of the Indian war and the treaty
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of 1795. These outposts and attempted settlements are about all that are known to have existed on Ohio soil prior to the settlement at Marietta.
No sooner had the Americans obtained control of this country, than they began, by treaty and purchase, to acquire the lands of the natives. They could not stem the tide of emigration ; people, then as now, would go West, and hence the necessity of peacefully and rightfully acquiring the land. "The true basis of title to Indian territory is the right of civilized men to the soil for purposes of cultivation." The same maxim may be ap- plied to all uncivilized nations. When obtained by such a right, either by treaty, purchase, or conquest, the right to hold the same rests with the pow- er and development of the nation thus possessing the land, but there is no moral or Divine justice in an individual, people or nation acquiring land or territory, unless it is lying undeveloped, or uncultivated, by the original possessors thereof and that they fully intend to cultivate and develop the same. Thus the Americans were justified in acquiring by treaty, purchase and conquest the territory now embraced in Ohio.
The French had acquired title to the territory between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi by discovery and by consent of the Indians dwelling there- on, while the claims of the English were based upon the absurd theory that in discovering the Atlantic coast, they had possession of the land from " ocean to ocean," and partly by the treaty of Paris, in 1763, long before which, however, they had granted to individuals and colonies extensive tracts of land within the disputed territory. These conflicting claims led to the French and Indian war against the English, ending in the supremacy of the latter.
As early as 1730, English traders began in earnest to cross the Alle- ghanies, and gather from the Indians the stores beyond. In 1742, John Howard descended the Ohio River in a canoe, and on the Mississippi was taken prisoner by the French. In 1748, Conrad Weiser, a German em- ploye of the English, who had acquired a knowledge of the Indian tongue, visited Logstown, the Indian village on the Ohio, below Pittsburgh, where he met the chiefs in Council and secured their promise of aid against the French. In the same year the Ohio Company was formed and a grant of 5,000,000 acres of land obtained.
In the fall of 1750, Virginia, through the Ohio Company, sent Chris- topher Gist to explore the region west of the mountains. He was well fitted for such an enterprise ; hardy, sagacious, bold, an adept in Indian charac- ter, a hunter by occupation, no man was better qualified than he for such an undertaking. He visited Logstown, where he was not received in a friendly manner, passed over to the Muskingum River, and at a Wyandot village here, met Crogan, another famous frontiersman, who had been sent out by Pennsylvania. Together they traveled to the Shawnee towns on the Scioto River, and thence to the Indian villages on the Miamis and Mad River. They made treaties with all these tribes, and Crogan returned to Pennsyl- vania, where he published an account of their wanderings, while Gist fol- lowed the Miami River to its mouth, passed down the Ohio, to within fifteen miles of the falls, returning to Virginia, by way of the Kentucky River, and over the Highlands of Kentucky.
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By the treaty at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1744, with the Six Na- tions, and the Logstown treaty, in 1752, with these and some of the West- ern tribes confirming the previous one, the English claim to the territory em- braced in Ohio was founded. While the French and English were fighting for the possession of the West, the Indians were used as a cat's-paw by each, and wavered in their friendship from one nation to the other according to circumstances. To Frederick Post, a Moravian preacher, who was sent on a mission to the Indians by the English, in 1758, they bitterly complained of both nations, saying: "Why did you not fight your battles at home or on the sea, instead of coming into our country to fight them ?" The strug- gle between the French and English finally closed, and was ratified by the treaty of Paris, in 1763.
The continued resistance of the Indians to the encroachments of the whites has been related in the previous chapter, and with the breaking-out of the Revolutionary war this resistance was redoubled through the treachery and encouragement of the English Government. During the bitter struggle for American independence, white settlement north of the Ohio River was retarded for years, but soon after its successful ending, the eyes of pioneers were turned longingly in this direction. On the 20th of May, 1785, Con- gress passed an act for disposing of the lands in the Northwest Territory, and for this purpose surveyors were appointed to survey the country into townships, six miles square. Without waiting for the action of Congress, settlers began coming into the country, and when ordered by Congress to leave undisturbed Indian lands, refused to do so. They went, however, at their own peril, and could get no redress from the Government, even when life was lost. These hardy pioneers knew not fear, and continued the move- ment which resulted in a bitter Indian war, the triumphs of the white race, and their ultimate possession of the beautiful valleys and rich lands of Ohio,
The cession of the claims of New York, Massachusetts, Virginia and Connecticut to the United States was the signal for the formation of land companies in the East whose object was to settle the Western country, and at the same time enrich the founders of said companies. Some had been organized prior to the Revolutionary war, but that battle for human rights retarded these speculations, which were now, again, springing into life. Thus the Ohio Company was organized in March, 1787, taking the same name as one which existed in the old colonial days, Congress refusing to recognize the claims of the old companies. Dr. Manasseh Cutler, Gen. Rufus Putnam, Gen. Parsons, Benjamin Tupper and Winthrop Sargent, were the leading spirits in this enterprise. Beside the names which history gives as the Ohio Company, there were secret co-partners comprising many of the lead- ing characters of America. The company purchased the vast region bounded on the south by the Ohio, west by the Scioto, east by the seventh range of townships then surveying, and north by a due west line drawn from the north boundary of the tenth township from the Ohio River, direct to the Scioto. This comprised a tract of nearly 5,000,000 acres of land, for which they were to pay $1 per acre, subject to a deduction of one-third for bad lands and other contingencies. The whole tract was not, however, taken by the company, and in 1792 the boundaries were so changed as to include 750,000 acres, besides reservations, this grant being the portion which it was originally agreed the company might enter into at once. In addition to this,
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214,285 acres were granted as army bounties under the resolutions of 1779 and 1780, and 100,000 acres as bounties to actual settlers, both of the latter tracts being within the original grant of 1787, and adjoining the Ohio Company's lands.
The celebrated ordinance erecting the Northwest into a Territory, was passed July 13, 1787. It emanated from the brain of Dr. Manasseh Cutler, who was an accomplished scholar and a firm believer in freedom. He was ably assisted by Thomas Jefferson, to whose wise statesmanship is due much of the success which attended Dr. Cutler's efforts in having passed such an ordinance as would make Ohio a free land-free from the blighting curse of slavery, where religion, morality and education would forever be fostered and encouraged.
These events were soon followed by the grant of the lands between the Miamis to John Cleve Symmes, of New Jersey, who had visited that por- tion of Ohio in 1786. The sale was accomplished and contract signed in 1788, the terms being similar to those of the Ohio Company.
In 1785, Fort Harmar was built on the right bank of the Muskingum River, at its junction with the Ohio, by a detachment of soldiers under com- mand of Maj. John Doughty, and named in honor of his old commander, ' Col. Josiah Harmar. It was the first military post erected by the Americans within the limits of Ohio, except Fort Laurens, which was but a temporary structure and soon abandoned. During the following winter, a part of the garrison floated down the Ohio in flat-boats and erected Fort Finney, im- mediately below the mouth of the Big Miami, subsequently known as North Bend. The troops did not remain permanently at this point but soon de- scended to the falls.
On the 7th of April, 1788, the first permanent pioneer settlement was made at the mouth of the Muskingum, opposite Fort Harmar. It con- sisted of forty-seven pioneers from the New England States, under the leadership of Gen. Rufus Putnam, who, building a boat at the mouth of the Youghiogheny River, in the winter of 1787, and placing the same under the command of Capt. Devol, the first shipbuilder in the West, floated down the Ohio to the lands previously obtained by the Ohio Company, where 5,760 acres, near the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio Rivers, had been set off for a city and commons. They immediately began erecting cabins, and July 1, were joined by a colony from Massachusetts. Washing- ton wrote the following lines concerning this settlement: "No colony in America was ever settled under such favorable auspices as that which has commenced at the Muskingum. Information, property and strength will be its characteristics. I know many of the settlers personally, and there never were men better calculated to promote the welfare of such a community."
In October, 1787, Arthur St. Clair had been appointed by Congress Governor of the Northwest Territory, which body also appointed Winthrop Sargent, Secretary, Samuel H. Parsons, James M. Varnum and John Armstrong, Judges. Subsequently, Mr. Armstrong resigned and John Cleve Symmes was appointed to fill the vacancy. This body constituted the Territorial government with full judicial powers under the ordinance of 1787, and, although none of those were on the ground when the first settlement was made, the Judges came soon after. The first law was passed July 25, 1788, and two days afterwards the county of Washington was erected
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by the proclamation of Gov. St. Clair, Marrietta being established as the seat of justice, it having previously been laid out and named in honor of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France. The emigration westward at this time was very large, 4,500 persons having passed Fort Harmar between February and June, 1788.
The second settlement in Ohio was made near the mouth of the Little Miami River, on the Symmes purchase, in the winter of 1788-89, but pre- vious to the latter year. Benjamin Stites had bought 10,000 acres of Symmes at that point, and with a band of pioneers, whose numbers were soon after- ward increased, erected a blockhouse, built cabins and laid out a town which was named Columbia.
In the mean time, Symmes laid out a town near the mouth of the Big Miami River, which he called Cleves City, but the place has been better known as North Bend. He offered special inducements to settlers locating at this point, hoping thereby to make it the future city of the West, but the great flood of January, 1789, overflowed the place so badly that the hopes of its projector were considerably weakened. A few families, however, erected cabins here, and upon the outbreak of hostilities with the Indians, Symmes succeeded in getting Maj. Doughty, with a detachment of soldiers, stationed at his town, hoping by that means to make it a military headquarters. The Major, it seems, did not view the position with a favor- able eye, and in the summer of 1789 removed to the Losantiville settle- ment, where he erected and garrisoned Fort Washington, to which point most of the settlers soon followed, thus destroying forever the growth and prosperity of Cleves City.
In January, 1788, Mathias Denman, of New Jersey, purchased of Symmes a tract of land opposite the mouth of the Licking River, and the following summer sold a two-thirds interest to Robert Patterson and John Filson, each holding a one-third interest in the land. These three agreed, about August, 1788, to lay off a town at this point, and in September vis- ited the proposed location. They kept on up the Miami Valley on a pros- pecting tour, but Filson on attempting to return alone to the Ohio was probably killed by the Indians, as he was never seen again. His interest was sold to Israel Ludlow, Symmes' surveyor, and in December, 1788, he, with Mr. Patterson, Mr. Denman and fourteen others, came to "form a station and lay off a town opposite the Licking." This was accordingly done, block-houses built, cabins erected, and the settlement established on a permanent foundation. When the location was first selected, Mr. Filson, who had been a schoolmaster and was something of a poet, was appointed to name the town. In respect to its situation, and as if with a prophetic perception of the mixed races that were in after years to dwell there, he named it Losantiville, which, says the Western Annals, means ville, the town ; anti, opposite to; os, the mouth; L, of Licking. Judge Burnett, in his notes, says : "The name 'Losantiville' was determined on but not adopted when the town was laid out." Throughout the summer of 1789 this settlement increased rapidly, and the erection of Fort Washington that year gave it an impetus which decided its future. In December of that year, Gov. St. Clair came down the Ohio from Marietta to the settlement opposite the Licking, and on the 2d of January, 1790, he proclaimed the erection of Hamilton County, and about the same time named the town
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Cincinnati, which appellation it has ever since borne. From that day, Cleves City declined, while Cincinnati steadily advanced in size and prosperity.
As early as 1787, the lands in the Virginia Military District, lying between the Scioto and Little Miami Rivers, were examined, and in August of that year entries were made ; but as no good title could be obtained from Congress at this time, the settlement practically ceased until 1790, when the prohibition to enter them was withdrawn, and so soon as that was done surveying began. This body of land was appropriated by the State of Virginia, to satisfy the claims of her troops employed in the Continental line, during the Revolutionary war. It is not surveyed into townships, and a Virginia military land warrant could be located wherever, and in whatever shape the holder desired. In consequence of this the irregularity of the surveys has been the cause of much trouble and litigation, while it destroyed forever the convenience of straight roads and regular township or farm lines.
In the winter of 1790, Gen. Nathaniel Massie determined to make a settlement in the Scioto Valley, which now comprises Adams, Delaware, Fayette, Franklin, Hardin, Highland, Jackson, Madison, Marion, Morrow, Pickaway, Pike, Ross, Scioto and Union Counties. Gen. Massie was among the foremost men in surveying and locating lands in this tract of country ; and in order to effect his object he sent notices throughout Ken- tucky, offering to the first twenty-five families who would join him, one in- lot and one outlot, also 100 acres of land, provided, however, they would settle in a town which he intended laying off at his settlement. His gener- ous offer met with a ready response, and he was joined by more than thirty families. The present site of Manchester, Adams County, was the point selected by Massie for the new town ; here he fixed his station and laid off the land into town lots. The settlers, with the indomitable Massie, as leader, went to work and by the middle of March, 1791, many cabins to- gether with a block-house, were erected, and the whole village inclosed by a strong stockade. Thus was the first permanent settlement in the Virginia Military District, and the fourth in Ohio, an accomplished fact.
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