USA > Ohio > The history of Ohio, from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 5
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SOON after the peace of 1788, while the title to the North-west or Ohio Territory was yet in dispute between the United States, on the one hand, and Virginia and Connecticut on the other, General Rufus Putnam, a meritorious of- ficer of the Revolution, forwarded to Washington the memorial of certain persons claiming land bounties, under the resolutions adopted by Con- gress in 1776 and 1780. This memorial, with
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PROJECTED SETTLEMENTS.
1785.]
the accompanying letter of Putnam, Washington transmitted to Congress, but the latter body de- clared itself unable to appropriate the lands claimed, as they were yet held by the states of Virginia and Connecticut.
The following year Virginia relinquished to the United States her right and title to all lands north-west of the Ohio, with the exception of a reservation between the Scioto and Little Miami Rivers, with which she designed rewarding her soldiers of the Revolution. Connecticut, how- ever, still adhered to her claim, which included nearly all of the present state of Ohio north of the forty-first degree of latitude.
Shortly subsequent to the cession of her Ohio lands by Virginia, Congress appointed one sur- veyor from each of the states, to survey and lay out such tracts as had already been purchased from the Indians. From Massachusetts, Putnam was first chosen ; but he being otherwise employ- ed, his place was filled by Benjamin Tupper, likewise an officer of the Revolution. Tupper, during the year 1785, went as far west as Pitts- burg. Returning home, he and Putnam, desiring to settle in the west, with which they were ! highly delighted, conferred together with regard to once more memorializing Congress upon the subject of their bounty claims.
The result of their conference was a notice in the public prints, answered by a convention com-
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
[1787.
posed of eleven delegates from nine counties of Massachusetts, which met at Boston, on the 1st of March, 1786, to form an association for the purchase and settlement of lands in the west. By the 3d of March, articles of association, under the name of the "Ohio Company," were drawn up and agreed to, and subscriptions begun. The plan adopted was, in substance, as follows.
One million dollars, chiefly in continental cer- tificates, was to be raised, in one thousand shares, of a thousand dollars each. Upon each share ten dollars was to be paid in specie, for defray- ing the expenses of agents, and other contingent charges. Every twenty shareholders were titled to an agent or representative, and these agents were to choose the directors of the com- pany. One year's interest, due on the conti- nental certificates, was to be used in establish- ing a settlement, and aiding such persons as had not sufficient means of their own to remove thither.
On the 8th of March, 1787, the company held a second meeting at Boston. Generals Parsons and Putnam, and the Rev. Dr. Cutler, were chosen directors. During the year two hundred and fifty shares had been subscribed to the stock of the association. Connecticut had also ceded to the general government all her Ohio lands, with the exception of a tract now known as the western reserve ; so that the last obstacle in the way of
1787.]
LOCATION OF OHIO COMPANY.
- a congressional grant was removed. By his two associates, Dr. Cutler was appointed to negotiate a contract with Congress for lands in the " Great Western Territory." With considerable difficulty and management, he succeeded in obtaining for the Ohio company, and for a number of private speculators, a grant of nearly five millions of acres, at two-thirds of a dollar the acre. Of this the company were to have one million five hundred thousand acres ; but remissness in the payments of stockholders, and other causes, re- duced their final possessions to something less than a million. A similar contract was soon after concluded by Congress with John Clove Symmes, of New Jersey, for the sale of the rich country lying between the two Miamies, and ex- tending northerly from the Ohio, so as to include six hundred thousand acres.
To locate their grant was the next step of the Ohio company. By the advice of Thomas Hutchins, the United States geographer, who was well acquainted with the country, they se- lected lands lying along the Ohio, and including the lower waters of the Hockhocking and Mus- kingum Rivers. Others, far more fertile, and casier of cultivation might have been chosen ; but as most of the purchase was intended for im- mediate settlement, its vicinity to Fort Harmar, and to the frontier posts of Virginia and Penn-
HISTORY OF OHIO.
[1787.
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sylvania, as well as its comparative remoteness from the Indian towns, were advantages too favourable to be overlooked.
During the fall of 1787, active preparations were made for sending out, carly in the follow- ing year, a company of forty-eight persons, con- sisting of surveyors, mechanics, and labourers, under the superintendence of General Putnam. These were to commence an actual settlement upon a large tract of land, at the mouth of the Muskingum, and opposite to Fort Harmar, which had been selected as the site of an extensive city.
While the first steps were thus taken toward the settlement of the north-west, Congress drew up and passed an ordinance for its government, which was to be entrusted to a governor, secre- tary, and three judges. These officers, together with all others of an executive or military cha- racter, were to be appointed by Congress ; and accordingly that body presently elected its then president, General Arthur St. Clair, governor ; Winthrop Sergeant, secretary ; and Samuel HI. Parsons, James M. Varnum, and John Cleve Symmes, judges. Authority was given to the governor and judges to compile and publish local laws suitable to the wants of the territory, until, by the increase of its white male inhabitants to five thousand, it should be entitled to a repre- sentative assembly and legislative council, the
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1788.] ARRIVAL OF THE SETTLERS.
latter to be chosen by Congress. Provision was also made for the future division of the territory into three or five states, cach to be admitted into the Union with the same privileges and respon- sibilities as the old thirteen states, so soon as it should contain sixty thousand free inhabitants. Slavery and involuntary servitude were expressly prohibited.
January was closing, in 1788, when the ad- vance party of the Ohio pioneers, composed of twenty-two boat-builders and mechanics, after & laborious march through the wintry wilderness of the Allegheny mountains, reached the Youghi- ogany River, at a point some thirty miles above Pittsburg. Here they were soon joined by the remainder of the expedition, with whom came Putnam, their energetic leader. Infusing the activity of his own spirit into that of his little company, by the 2d of April they had finished their boats, and on the afternoon of that day were hastening toward the scene of their future labours.
About sunrise, on the 5th morning following, they discerned Fort Harmar, which dimly ap- peared through the mists of a drizzling rain. Hidden by the dense foliage, the mouth of the Muskingum, on the upper bank of which was their landing-place, had been passed without notice, and it was not until noon that they were safely on shore. Here they were warmly wel- 8
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
- [1788.
comed by Captain Pipes, the renowned Delaware chief, so successful against Crawford, who, with seventy of his tribe, was trafficking with the tra- ders at Fort Harmar. The emigrants were de- lighted with the appearance of their new lands, already clothed with luxurious vegetation. Cheer- ed by the songs of birds, and with a brightening sky above them, they set immediately to work. Boards for temporary huts were landed, and the broad marquee of Putnam was soon erected.
Meanwhile, the last meeting of the directors and agents, east of the Alleghenies, was held at Providence, Rhode Island. One of the promi- nent subjects under consideration related to the encouragement of religion and education in the settlement. The directors were requested to pay as early attention as possible to the education of youth and the promotion of public worship. For these important purposes, " the proprietors, and others of benevolent and liberal minds," were appealed to, " to contribute to the formation of a fund, to be solely appropriated thereto." At a former meeting, extensive tracts had been re- served for the benefit of a university, and for the support of religion. Authorized by the di- rectors, Dr. Cutler presently engaged the services of Daniel Story, a young minister of eminent piety and fine abilities, who arrived in the settle- ment during the following year.
On the 2d of July the associates met for the
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PROGRESS OF THE SETTLEMENT.
1788.]
first time west of the mountains, to decide upon a name for their new city, which, in the mean time, had been laid out handsomely, and with great regularity. In honour of Marie Antoinette, the beautiful but ill-starred queen of Louis XVI., whose efforts in behalf of American independ- ence were still gratefully remembered, it was de- termined to called the settlement Marietta. While laying out the city, extensive reserves were made for public squares. Included within these were many interesting remains of an an- cient fortified town, which are, by this means, still in good preservation. A square was like- wise reserved upon which to build an extensive block-house, the erection of which was already begun. To this the directors, who were mostly men of classical attainments, gave the appro- priate name of " Campus Martius."
On the 4th of July, which was celebrated in grand style, a temporary code of laws, previously prepared by the directors, was posted up on & beech tree. So far, however, laws had seemed unnecessary ; but one slight difference, which was soon compromised, having taken place during the three months existence of the settlement. Indeed, in this and other respects, to use the words of Washington, "no colony in America was ever settled under such favourable au- spices."
Five days afterward, on Wednesday, the 9th
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HISTORY OF OHIO. [1788,
of July, St. Clair arrived at Fort Harmar, and immediately, in conjunction with the judges, be- gan to put the colony into shape. On the 25th, a law was published for the organization of the militia ; and the next day the governor's procla- mation appeared, erecting all the country cast of the Scioto River, or nearly one-half of the present state of Ohio, into the county of Wash- ington. On the 2d of September following, the first court was organized.
For some time past efforts had been made to secure a definite treaty with the Indians. Ar- rangements were completed for holding a coun- cil on the 13th of July, at Duncan's Falls, on the Muskingum River, about sixty miles from its mouth. But on the night before the council was to assemble, a party of aband- oned Chippewas, designing to rob the Ame- rican encampment, fired on the sentries. Re- turning the fire, the sentries killed one of their assailants, and wounded a second. Although most of the Indians who had assembled, denied any connivance in this attack, it led to their de- laying the proposed treaty for several months.
Notwithstanding this doubtful attitude of the red men, coupled as it was with the fact that many of them still lingered about the settlement, killing off the game, " to keep it from the white hunter," and grumbling their dissatisfaction at the clearing of lands and building of houses,
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CAMPUS MARTIUS.
1788.]
affairs at Marietta went on prosperously and pleasantly. Houses were being erected con- stantly yet not fast enough to supply the wants of new-comers, who had increased the original number of settlers to one hundred and thirty-two. Considerable advance was made in clearing lands, and the harvest of the year was abundant and highly satisfactory. By winter, the works at Campus Martius began to assume a formidable appearance. This fortification, designed to be one of the strongest in the west, was laid out in a perfect square, with a block-house, surmounted by a watch-tower, at each angle. Uniting with the block-houses, and forming the curtains of the fortress, were four rows of dwellings, two stories high, calculated to lodge, if necessary, nearly nine hundred persons. All this was covered by one roof. Within the square thus formed was a large open space, in the centre of which a well was dug. In 1791, outer works were added, consisting of a row of palisades running from corner to corner of the block-houses, outside of which was a very large and strong picket fence. An additional defence, or abatis, made of the tops and branches of trees, sharp- ened and pointing outward, rendered it next to impossible for an Indian enemy to gain admis- sion, even within the outworks.
While the Ohio company were thus planting their little colony, Symmes, whose purchase has
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
- [1788.
been noticed previously, was busily endeavour- ing to establish settlements in the more exposed valley between the two Miamies, which, with the Kentuckians, was known by the somewhat re- pulsive title of "the slaughter-house." Pro- posing to build a great city at the North Bend," near the mouth of the Great Miami, in July, 1788, he started for the west with thirty per- sons and eight four-horse wagons. Maysville, Kentucky, was reached in September. Here they were joined by a party of emigrants led by Major Stites, of Pennsylvania, who had pur- chased a portion of Symmes' tract. While the emigrants waited for troops to protect their farther advance, Symmes visited the site of his proposed city. The view of it greatly revived his spirits, which had of late been considerably depressed, in consequence of a dispute between himself and Congress, which threatened the annulment of his contract. Returning to Maysville, in December, all were prepared to start down the river, when their boats were crushed in by the ice, and their cattle and pro- visions lost. Symmes' elastic spirits had scarce- ly recovered from this shock, when a rise in the Ohio deluged the point where his city was to have been with fifteen feet of water.
Meanwhile, Stites, with a little party of twenty-six persons, had erected a block-house and laid out a town, which he called Columbia,
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1789.]
CINCINNATI FOUNDED.
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at the mouth of the Little Miami, where the fertile soil had induced even the Indians to make a partial clearing. From the red men this humble settlement received no injury ; but, by the freshet above alluded to, every house in the town save one was deluged, and the soldiers had to escape from the roof of their block-house in a boat.
This flood, which occurred in January, 1789, by showing the danger to which Marietta, Co- lumbia, and North Bend were exposed, led to the rapid settlement of Losantiville, now Cin- cinnati, which, in the previous August, had been laid out by Matthias Denman, Robert Pat- terson, and John Kilson, on the elevated plain immediately opposite the mouth of Licking River. On the 24th or 25th of December, an actual settlement was commenced, a few log huts and a block-house being erected. Though placed in the most exposed situation, these buildings sus- tained no damage from the freshet.
Returning to the mouth of the Muskingum, we find, on the 2d of January, the great log coun- cil-house near Fort HIarmar, the scene of an important treaty with the western tribes, which is now being concluded after but little less than a thirty days' "talk." Much difficulty had been experienced in bringing the Indians to agree to distinct terms. Received with uniform kindness and hospitality by the Marietta colo-
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HISTORY OF OHIO. [1789.
nists, whom they had frequently visited during the summer and fall, they were at last induced to consent to an amicable arrangement of diffi- culties. Two separate treaties were made,-one with the Iroquois, and another with the Dela- wares, Ottawas, Wyandots, Chippewas, Pottawa- tamies, and Sacs.
Winter had set in earlier and with greater se- verity than common. The river could not be navigated on account of the ice. Flour was not to be had, and its only substitute was boiled corn, or coarse meal. The deer and bears, upon which the settlers wholly relied for animal food, had been well nigh exterminated by the red hunters, who, for the last six months, had ranged the neighbouring woods. Yet, scarce as suitable provisions were, so entirely had the termination of the late treaty freed the colonists from their fears of an Indian war, that a grand banquet was prepared in the Campus Martius, to which the principal chiefs were invited. " They be- haved themselves with very great decorum, and an admirable harmony prevailed throughout the day." This was on the 12th of January. On the 13th the Indians began to disperse and re- turn to their homes, apparently well satisfied.
In the midst of their rejoicings at the con- clusion of this treaty, the settlers were called upon to mourn the death of Judge Varnum. He was a native of Rhode Island, and an active
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INDIAN WAR.
1789.]
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projector of the Ohio company. Amiable and refined in his manners, liberally educated, and possessed of sound legal attainments, he enjoyed the love and esteem of all who knew him, and his death was universally regretted.
CHAPTER VII.
A desultory Indian war-Surveying party attacked-Capture of Gardner near Waterford-His escape-St. Clair calls upon Congress for assistance-Is authorized to call out the frontier militia-Death of Judge Parsons-Increase of settlements in Ohio -- Belpré, Waterford, and Millsborough founded- Fort Washington commenced at Losantiville --- Cincinnati named by St. Clair-Famishing condition of the Ohio set- tlers-Isaac Williams-His noble and disinterested benevo- lence-Indian outrages-Harmar's expedition against the Maumee towns-Defeat of Colonel Hardin -- Second defeat of Colonel Hardin- Return of the army to For' Washing- ton-Strictures on the conduct of Harmar and Hardin -- Massacre at Big Bottom-Millsborough threatened-Indian declaration of war.
BEFORE the close of the year it became evi- dent, that however sincere might have been the determination of those Indians who had signed the late treaty, the quiet and security it pro- mised would be of brief duration. Parties of the Wabash tribes, chiefly Shawanesc, who had not agreed to the treaty, and Miamies, who had repudiated it, still continued to wage a predatory
94 [1789 HISTORY OF OHIO.
warfare, as barbarous as it was annoying, against their old enemies, the " Long Knives" of Ken- tucky. Nor was the revenge of the Kentuckians slow to follow-bloody and fearful-and blindly striking friend as well as foe.
North of the Ohio, especially in Symmes' tract, the alarm was much greater than the actual injury. Yet, even in the Ohio company's purchase, murders were committed. On the 7th of August, a band of Indians, supposed to be Shawanese, made an attack upon a surveying party, consist- ing of the surveyor, Mr. Mathews, and four as- sistants, with seven soldiers acting as guards. It was in the morning, while they were yet in camp, and they had just sat down to breakfast. The first notice given of the enemy was the dis- charge of two guns, by which one man was in- stantly killed. The other ball, intended for Mathews, passed through his shirt, grazing his skin. As the rest of the party started up in alarm, the Indians, with fierce yells, poured in a volley. All the soldiers fell dead but one. Of the whole party but five remained. These, fly- ing in various directions, after undergoing nu- merous and distressing hardships, finally gained places of safety.
A little later in the year, a marauding party of Shawanese, while hovering about the new set- tlement of Waterford, some twenty miles up the Muskingum, fell in with one of the colonists, a
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MISSISSIPPI COMPANY.
1789.]
young man named Gardner, and took him pri- soner. On the second night after his capture, Gardner was enabled, by persevering efforts, to slip off the thongs with which he was bound, without disturbing the Indians. All that night and the following day, he walked rapidly in the direction of the settlements, scarcely stopping even to drink. At night he crept into a hollow log, where he slept well and safely. Almost worn down by hunger and fatigue, about dusk of the next evening he reached home, where he was welcomed as one returned from the dead.
The fact of these outrages, together with nu- merous instances of petty but annoying depre- dations, was laid before Congress by St. Clair. Moved by his representations, and by the long succession of sanguinary attacks upon the settle- ments of Kentucky, Congress authorized the president to call out the militia. Washington himseif had doubted the justice of a war against the Indians of the Wabash. In October, how- ever, he was compelled to empower St. Clair, if he should find it absolutely necessary, to draw fifteen hundred men from western Virginia and Pennsylvania. At the same time he desired the governor to send some experienced person to find out, if he could, the real sentiments of the north-western tribes.
Meanwhile, the colony on the Muskingum had been slowly but steadily progressing. Fifty-
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HISTORY OF OHIO. [1789.
seven families, and one hundred and fifty-two men were added to the number of inhabitants. Few deaths had taken place, and these mostly of children. The most unfortunate event of the year was the death of Judge Parsons, who was drowned by the oversetting of his canoe while descending the rapids of Big Beaver Creek.
During the year nine associations were formed for the establishment of settlements at various points in the purchase. Of these, two were al- ready begun at Belpré, or " Belle-prairie," a fer- tile tract of land near the mouth of the Little Hockbocking ; and two others at Waterford and Millsborough, some twenty miles above Marietta, on the Muskingum. At the latter place a mill was in successful operation-the first in Ohio.
The rich valley between the Miamies, notwith- standing its proximity to the hostile tribes, was fast filling up. During the summer Major Doughty arrived at Losantiville with one hun- dred and forty soldiers, and immediately began the building of Fort Washington, on the ground since occupied by Mrs. Trollope's bazaar. His opportune appearance was a great relief to the settlers, who, protected by but nineteen soldiers, had been sadly alarmed by rumours of a pro- jected incursion of the Indians. Toward the close of December, General Harmar came down with three hundred additional troops, and en- camped at the mouth of Licking River, on the
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1790.] SCARCITY OF PROVISIONS.
Kentucky shore. He was followed in a few days by St. Clair, who proceeded to organize the set- tlement into the county of Hamilton. He also changed the name of Losantiville to Cincinnati, in honour of the society so called. From this time until near the middle of the ensuing sum- mer, all went on well in the Miami valley.
But a severe trial awaited the settlements of the Ohio company. Scarcely had the inhabitants recovered from the alarm created by the ravages of small-pox, which broke out in January, and carried off several of their number, when they began to suffer from a scarcity of provisions amounting almost to famine. An early frost had prevented a full harvest of corn, and game was not to be found, except in small quantities. By the middle of May, 1700, the scarcity was felt in all parts of the settlement, and by all classes. Many persons were reduced to the necessity of eating nettle and potato tops. Most of the corn gathered had been touched by frost, and became mouldy in the granaries. When ground and made into bread, it produced in many people sickness and vomiting; yet even this sold at a price far beyond the means of the ordinary class of settlers. As the season advanced, their fears of future scarcity were dissipated by the rich promise of the fields, from which they greedily gathered the half-grown corn and beans. But before they were enabled to do this, actual star-
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HISTORY OF OHIO. [1790.
vation had approached so nigh that, in some in- stances, the smaller children were compelled to draw their subsistence from half a potato a day.
An instance of practical benevolence was pro- duced by this season of want, which the pioneers of the Marietta settlement long and gratefully remembered. On the Virginia shore, fronting the Muskingum, dwelt Isaac Williams, a plain, blunt backwoods farmer, whose coarse hunting- shirt and rough bearskin cap covered a heart that prompted to deeds of kindness, and a head that knew how to carry out the suggestions of sympathy. Being enabled to plant carly, he had secured an abundant harvest of corn. When the scarcity became apparent, & company of specu- lators urged him to sell them his whole crop, offering as high as a dollar and a quarter the bushel for it. His refusal was prompt and de- cided. But when the need became pressing, he called the settlers together, and distributed among them the contents of his granary, at the lowest price of the most plenteous years, taking money where it was offered, and giving .credit where the applicant was penniless, until a favour- able season should enable him to pay the debt. By this liberality of the rude frontiersman, much of the asperity of the famine was removed, and probably the extreme of starvation prevented.
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