USA > Ohio > The history of the state of Ohio; from the discovery of the great valley, to the present time > Part 3
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The French kept a vigilant eye upon this movement. It was much easier, as we have said, for them to penetrate the great valley by the lakes and by the streams flowing down from the north, than for the English to enter the valley by clambering the rocky heights, and toiling through the rugged defiles of the Alle- ghany ridges. Secretly they organized a strong force at a place on Lake Erie, which they called " Presque Isle " or Almost an Island. With ample supplies of stores and munitions of war, they were soon in a condition to penetrate the Valley of the Ohio at any point. Between the mouths of the Monongahela and Alle- ghany Rivers there was a beautiful plain. In a stratgeic point of view, it was one of the most favorable localities for the site of a fort, and also presented remarkable attractions for a trading and industrial colony.
The Governors of Pennsylvania and Virginia sent a commis- sioner across the mountains to descend the Ohio River until he should come to some military post, and there, in the name of the British Government, to warn the French that war would be the inevitable result of their continued encroachments. The envoy set out upon his journey, but soon became alarmed for his per- sonal safety. The Indians were generally in sympathy with the French. If the French should see fit to take him a prisoner and send him to Canada, or should they judge it expedient to secure his assassination by the Indians, either could be done without the slightest difficulty. Intimidated by these reflections he turned upon his steps, without fulfilling his instructions.
In this emergency, a young man by the name of George Wash- ington, nineteen years of age, came forward and offered his ser- vices as a messenger to the French garrisons. The heroism of this extraordinary young man had already attracted attention, and secured for him, in an unusual degree, the confidence of the com- munity. The following brief sketch of the previous history of this remarkable man, who now entered upon his arduous embassy, will be read with interest.
Two centuries ago, two brothers, young gentlemen of wealth
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and culture, emigrated to America from England. One of these: brothers, Lawrence Washington, was a lawyer, a graduate from. Oxford University. The other, John, was an accomplished man. of business. It was lovely summer weather when the ship which bore them passed through that majestic inland sea, Chesapeake Bay, and ascended the Potomac River. The primeval forest spread in all directions with its silence and solitude. Here and there were to be seen, in the sheltered coves, a little cluster of Indian wigwams, with naked children playing upon the beach, and birch canoes, paddled by plumed warriors, floating like bubbles on the wave.
The two brothers purchased an extensive tract of land on the western bank of the Potomac, about fifty miles above its mouth. John built a house, married Miss Pope, and after a few years of life's tragic drama died. His second son, Augustine, remained in the paternal home. He inherited the peaceful virtues of his father, and, like him, drank of life's mingled cup of joy and grief. His wife, Jane Butler, as lovely in character as she was beautiful in person, died, leaving a broken-hearted husband and three little orphan children to weep over her grave. Their bereaved father eventually found another mother for his orphans.
Mary Ball, who thus became Mary Washington, was a lady of rare merit. She was beautiful, intelligent, accomplished and a warm-hearted Christian. Augustine and Mary were married on the sixth of March, 1730. On the twenty-second of February they received to their arms their first-born child, to whom they gave the name of George. Little could they then imagine that their babe was to render the name of George Washington one of the most illustrious in the annals of time.
George was highly blessed in both of his parents. The pre- cepts were enforced by the example of blameless lives. Blessed. with competence, their home, replete with every comfort, was. reared upon one of the most lovely spots on the banks of the Potomac. It was a spacious one-story cottage, with a deep ver- anda in front. A well-kept lawn spread in gentle descent to the pebbly shore. The river in front of the house was nearly ten miles broad, decorated with a few enchanting islands, while beyond the interminable forest spread, in all its grandeur, over hills and vales. In those days the smoke of Indian fires curled up through the forest, while the flash from the paddle of the red.
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man's canoe glanced over the waves, and occasionally the sails of the white man's ship were seen ascending the majestic stream.
George, from earliest childhood, developed a noble character. He was a handsome boy, of commanding figure and great strength. His frankness, fearlessness, moral courage and sense of justice, attracted the attention and admiration of his companions. The story of his trying the keen edge of his hatchet upon the cherry tree is known to every child. It alike illustrates the character of the father and the son.
When George was but twelve years of age his father died. The grief-stricken widow was left with six fatherless children. But Mary Washington was equal to the task. The confidence which Augustine reposed in his wife is shown by the fact, that he left the entire income of his property to her until the children should become of age. Nobly she discharged her task. A nation's homage now gathers around the memory of Mary, the mother of Washington.
George never ceased to revere his mother. She was to him as a guardian angel. She formed his character. To the principles of probity and religion which she instilled into his mind, he ever attributed his success in life. In the final division of the estate, the eldest son, Lawrence, the child of Jane Butler, inherited Mount Vernon, including twenty-five acres of land. George received, as his share, the paternal mansion, with its broad and fertile acres, which was situated several miles farther down the river.
Lady Washington, before her marriage, was deemed one of the most beautiful girls in Virginia. Through life's severe discipline she had developed a remarkably sincere, well-balanced and lovely character. The influence which she thus acquired over her noble son continued unabated until the hour of her death. The first families in Virginia took much pride in splendid horses. Lady Washington had a span of iron grays remarkable for their spirit and beauty. One of these colts, though accustomed to the car- riage, had never been broken to the saddle. It was said that no one could mount him. George, then a lad of thirteen, approached the colt, soothed him with caresses, and watching his opportunity leaped upon his back. The spirited animal, half terrified, half indignant, after a few desperate but vain attempts to throw his rider, dashed over the fields with the speed of the wind.
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The inconsiderate boy, fearless and ardent, gave him the rein, and when the breathless steed began to flag urged him on, una- ware of the injury be was doing, until the nervous, high-blooded animal burst a blood vessel and dropped dead beneath him. George, greatly agitated, hastened to his mother and informed her of what he had done. Her characteristic reply was -
" My son, I forgive you because you have had the courage to tell me the truth at once. Had you skulked away I should have despised you."
In a common school George was a diligent scholar, though he did not develop any brilliance of genius. He had simply a good, well-balanced mind. There is now extant a manuscript book, in which he carefully copied out promissory notes, bills of sale, land warrants, leases, wills and other such business papers, that he might be ready, at any time, to draw up such documents. Another manuscript book he had collated with great care, entitled " Rules for Behavior in Company." Thus was this boy of thir- teen preparing for the future by the careful culture of his mind, his manners and his heart. He could hardly have made better preparations for the illustrious career before him had some good angel informed him of the responsibilities he was to brave and the renown he was to attain.
At sixteen years of age, George, then a man in maturity of character, left school. He was fond of mathematical studies and excelled in them. His tastes led him to enter upon the profes- sion of a civil engineer. In a new country, increasing rapidly in population, there was great demand for such services, there were but few men capable of performing them, and consequently the employment was highly remunerative.
George Washington was even then an accomplished man. Whatever he undertook he did well. His handwriting was plain as print. Every document which came from his pen was perfect in spelling, punctuation and capitals. These excellent habits thus early formed, he retained through life. Upon leaving school he visited his brother at Mount Vernon. It was then, as now, a lovely spot, commanding an enchanting view. Mr. William Fair- fax, an English gentleman of education and refinement, resided about eight miles from Mount Vernon. Lawrence had married one of his daughters. Lord Fairfax, a brother of William, had purchased an immense estate in Virginia, extending over unex-
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plored regions of mountains, rivers and valleys. Lord Fairfax met George Washington at his brother William's. He was charmed with his intelligence, energy and manliness -a boy in years, a man in maturity of character.
He engaged this lad, then but one month over sixteen years of age, to survey these pathless wilds, ranged then by ferocious beasts and savage men. It may be doubted whether a boy of his age ever before undertook a task so arduous. It was thus that George Washington entered upon the stern duties of his eventful life.
It was the month of March, 1748, when young Washington commenced the survey for Lord Fairfax. The cold blasts of winter were still sweeping the ridges of the mountains which were crested with ice and snow. The mountain streams were swollen by the spring rains into foaming torrents. The Indians, however, inhabiting the regions he was to traverse, were generally supposed to be friendly. There were also to be found, scattered here and there through the wilderness, the huts of rude and fearless frontiersmen.
Through almost pathless solitudes, this heroic boy undertook to thread his way. It was a journey full of toil, romance and peril. There were no paths through the wilderness but the narrow trail of the savage. He floated down the silent rivers in the frail birch canoe. There were towering mountains to be climbed, and morasses to be penetrated, which had never been traversed by the foot of a white man. Generally, at night, he slept in the open air, or in such a rude shelter as he could in a few moments construct. Sometimes he would find a resting place in the log cabin of a settler, and again an Indian would give him hospitable welcome to the fire in his wigwam.
This must have been a strange experience for this quiet, thoughtful boy, who had been so tenderly nurtured in his Chris- tian home. We can but faintly imagine his feelings, as at mid- night, wrapped in his cloak, with his feet to the fire, in the wig- wam, with slumbering savages all around him, men, women and children, he listened to the storm as it breathed its requiem through the surging forest, blending with the cry of wild beasts. The following extract from his journal under date of the 15th of March, 1748, gives us a little insight into some of his experiences. It is describing a night in a settler's log hut.
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"Worked hard till night and then returned. After supper we were lighted into a room. I, not being so good a woodman as the rest, stripped myself very orderly and went into bed, as they call it, when, to my surprise, I found it to be nothing but a little straw matted together, without sheet or anything else but one thread-bare blanket, with double its weight of vermin. I was glad to get up and put on my clothes, and lie as my companions did. Had we not been very tired, I am sure we should not have slept much that night. I made a promise to sleep no more in a bed, choosing rather to sleep in the open air before a fire."
Again he wrote, on the 2d of April : "A blowing, rainy night. Our straw upon which we were lying took fire. But I was luckily preserved by one of our men awaking when it was in a flame. We have run off four lots this day."
Again he wrote in terms characteristic of this noble man : "The receipt of your kind letter of the 2d instant, offered me unspeak- able pleasure. It convinces me that I am still in the memory of so worthy a friend - a friendship I shall ever be proud of increasing.
" Yours gave me the more pleasure as I received it among bar- barians and an uncouth set of people. Since you received my letter of October last, I have not slept above three or four nights in a bed. But after walking a good deal all the day, I have lain down before the fire, on a little hay, straw, fodder or bear skin, whichever was to be had, with man, wife and children, like dogs and cats, and happy is he who gets the berth nearest the fire. I have never had my clothes off, but have lain and slept on them, except the few nights I have been in Fredericksburg."
Washington gained so much reputation on this tour that he was employed by the State of Virginia as state surveyor. For three years he was employed in these arduous and responsible duties. We can hardly conceive of anything more attractive than such a life to a young man in all the vigor of youth and health, and with a soul capable of appreciating the beauties and sublimities of nature and the romance of wild adventure.
The Indian paddled him in his fairy-like canoe, along the river or over the lake. Now he stood in the bright morning sunlight upon the brow of the mountain, gazing over an interminable expanse of majestic forests, where lakes slept, and streams glided, and valleys opened in Eden-like beauty.
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Lord Fairfax, who had become the warm friend of George Washington, had reared for himself quite an imposing mansion of stone, in a lovely valley of the Alleghanies, beyond the Blue Ridge. He was living there in baronial splendor, and in his spacious saloons George Washington was ever a welcome guest.
The tide of emigration was slowly working its way over the mountains, into the vast valleys beyond, which had then no recognized boundaries or limits. Though the French in Canada were far more favorably situated to enter this region, through their lakes and rivers, than were the English on the Atlantic coast, who had the mountain barriers to climb, still the English colonies, in ·population, exceeded the French eight or ten to one.
Unprincipled desperadoes, from the English frontiers, armed with the deadly rifle, were continually exciting the vengeance of the peacefully-inclined Indians, by the most atrocious crimes. The war whoop echoed through the forest. At midnight merciless savages, with hideous yells, assailed the lonely hut of the settler. Speedily his whole household fell beneath the tomahawk, and around the burning dwelling the maddened Indians indulged in their horrid orgies. No pen can describe the horrors which then ensued. Tragedies were enacted, in the solitudes of the wilder- ness, which the revelations of the judgment-day can alone bring to light. The whole military force of Virginia was called into requisition to protect the frontier. The ignorant savages could make no discrimination between the innocent and the guilty. The state was divided into districts, over which a military com- mander was appointed with the title of major.
George Washington was one of the majors. With tireless energies he devoted himself to the study of military art, with especial reference to the peculiar warfare essential in a conflict with savages in the depths of the wilderness. He saw clearly that the tactics of European armies would be of little avail under these novel circumstances.
The State of Virginia was then, as now, bounded, according to the claim of the English, for a distance of several hundred miles by the waters of the Ohio River.
When Washington, a young man not yet twenty-one years of age, volunteered his services to convey the remonstrance of the governors against the French, it was universally regarded as an act of great heroism. The sobriety and dignity of his character
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were such that no one could ever accuse him of boyish fool- hardiness. He knew perfectly well what he had undertaken, for he had already experienced and triumphed over the perils and hardships of the wilderness.
Lord Dinwiddie, the Governor of Virginia, a sturdy old Scotch- man, as he accepted the proffered aid of this heroic young man, said to him:
" Truly you are a brave lad, and if you play your cards well, you shall have no cause to repent your bargain."
It was the 14th of November when Washington left Williams- burg on this difficult and arduous enterprise. The following nar- ration of his adventures by the way is given mainly in the words to be found in Abbott's "Lives of the Presidents." There is some- thing sublime in the calm courage with which he set out, well knowing that he was to pass through the region of hostile Indian tribes, and that it was their practice not merely to kill their prisoners, but to prolong their sufferings as far as possible, through the most exquisite and diabolical tortures.
He took with him but eight men, two of them being Indians. They soon passed the few sparse settlements which were springing up near the Atlantic coast, and plunged into the pathless forest. Winter was fast approaching, and its dismal gales wailed through the tree tops. The early snow crowned the summits of the mountains, and the autumnal rains had swollen the brooks and the rivers.
Guided by the sagacity of the Indians, they threaded the forest until they reached the Monongahela River, whch, as we have said, flowing from the south, unites with the Alleghany from the north and forms the Ohio. Here they took a birch canoe, and in eight days paddled down that river a distance of nearly three hundred miles, to the mouth of the Alleghany, where Pittsburgh now stands. The sublime solitudes of these realms was then broken only by the occasional cluster of a few Indian wigwams upon the bank, and now and then the shouts of children playing in the water. No blows of the settler's ax reverberated through the forest. No report of the hunter's gun was heard. The birch canoe glided noiselessly by over the waves, and the arrow of the hunter gave forth no sound in its flight through the air - this dead silence of the wilderness !
At the junction of the two rivers Washington commenced
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descending the Ohio, a distance of one hundred and twenty miles, to the principal post of the French commandant. It was neces- sary for him to practice the utmost caution, as the Indians were proverbial for their treachery, and he was liable at any time to drift into an ambush. He at length reached the French fort in safety and delivered his message.
The French commander, St. Pierre, received Washington at Fort Le Boeuf with much courtesy. He respectfully read his remonstrance, and gave him a written reply, in which he stated that he must obey the commands of his government; and that he could not vacate his post until his government should give him orders to that effect. Washington saw very clearly that force alone could drive the French from the Valley of the Ohio. He was also surprised to see how strongly they were intrenching themselves there.
Having accomplished this much of his mission, and fearing that the Indians, of their own will or instigated by the French, might intercept his return, as he should paddle up slowly against the current of the Ohio, he decided to leave the river, and with one only companion, to make their way back through the wilder- ness on foot. They would be compelled to construct their lodgings with their hatchets for the stormy day or the tempestuous night, and to live upon such game as they might take by the way. It was a very weary journey to take, with the rifle upon the shoulder and the pack upon the back.
Washington's suspicions that he might be waylaid by French jeal- ousy were not unfounded. Some Indians were put upon his trail; but even Indian sagacity could not follow two pair of mocassined feet over pathless wastes. Washington was familiar with wilder- ness life, and with all the Indian arts of cunning. He succeeded in eluding his pursuers. Still he came very near losing his life through savage treachery. One Indian, employed, it is supposed, by the French, met him as it were accidentally, and offered his services as a guide through a very intricate part of the way. He could lead through a narrow defile which would save many leagues of toilsome journeying.
At night this Indian of iron sinews, seeing his companions so much fatigued by their day's tramp that he supposed they could not possibly pursue him, fired at Washington, at a distance of not more than fifteen paces, and missed his aim. Instantly he sprang
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into the woods. Fleet of foot as he was, his indignant pursuers were more fleet, and he was soon caught. Washington's com- panion urged that the would-be assassin should instantly be put to death.
But Washington shrunk from thus taking life in cold blood, and having disarmed the wretch, let him go. Still, thinking it not impossible that he might have some confederates near, he thought it expedient to push on as fast as possible through the long December night, taking especial care to leave no trace of his path behind him.
They followed up the south side of the Ohio River, a few miles from its banks. When they reached the Alleghany River, nearly opposite where Pittsburgh now stands, there were no signs of civilized or even of savage life anywhere in sight. The banks of the river were fringed with ice, and immense solid blocks were floating down the middle of the stream. It took them all day with one hatchet to construct a frail raft. It was bound together with flexible vines and boughs. Upon this they endeavored to cross the rapid stream, encumbered as it was with the swiftly drifting ice.
When about half way across, Washington's setting-pole became entangled, the raft whirled round, and he was thrown into the river where it was ten feet deep. For a moment he was entirely submerged in the icy waves. He, however, by the aid of his companion, succeeded in clambering again upon the icy-coated. logs, and at length they reached, not the opposite side of the river, but a small island in the stream.
Half-frozen as they both were, and drenched as was Washing- ton, they hastily found some slight shelter, built a roaring fire, and, with the wintry blast sweeping by them, found such warmth and comfort as the circumstances could afford. Their situation, however, was not so very uncomfortable as many sitting by their own warm fireside might imagine. Experienced woodmen will, very expeditiously, construct a camp, enclosed on three sides and open on one, which, with sheathing of overlapping bark, will afford a very effectual shelter against the wind. A few boughs of the hemlock make a very soft and fragrant mattrass. Then, wrapped in blankets, with a crackling fire which illumines the whole forest blazing at one's feet, a degree of real comfort can often be enjoyed which is sought for in vain in ceiled chambers.
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The night was so cold that in the morning the river was frozen over, and they crossed upon the ice. The remainder of the jour- ney home was uneventful. Williamsburg was then the capital of Virginia. Washington made his report to the Governor. It was published, and was extensively read in this country, and by statesmen in England. The one prominent fact which it estab- lished, and which arrested universal attention, was that France would resist, with all her military force, any attempts on the part of the English to establish settlements in the valley of the Ohio.
The Legislature of Virginia happened to be in session, at Williamsburgh, when Washington returned. This modest young man seemed entirely unconscious that he had accomplished any feat which would give him renown. A few days after his return he went into the gallery of the House, to witness the proceedings of the Legislature. The speaker chanced to see him, and rising from his chair, addressed the assembly, saying :
" I propose that the thanks of this house be given to Major George Washington, who now sits in the gallery, for the gallant manner in which he has executed the important trust lately reposed in him by his Excellency the Governor."
The homage thus called forth was instantaneous and unanimous. Every member rose to his feet. There was a burst of applause which almost shook the rafters of the ceiling. Washington was immediately conducted to the speaker's chair. Every eye was fixed upon him. He was quite overwhelmed by this enthusiastic greet- ing. Being entirely unaccustomed to public speaking, he knew not what to say. The speaker perceived his embarrassment, and very happily relieved him by saying :
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