USA > Ohio > Washington County > Marietta > The ninety-fifth anniversary of the settlement of Ohio, at Marietta. Historical address > Part 4
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"The Pioneer Association of Washington county send greeting to their friends in Cincinnati, and ask them to unite with us in making arrange- ments for a Centennial Celebration in Marrietta five years from this day. DOUGLAS PUTNAM, President.
In a short time the following reply was received :
"CINCINNATI, April 7, 1883.
Pioneer Association, Marietta: Your greeting received. We return ours, and will co-operate with you in Centennial arrangements. JOHN S. PERKINS, Pres."
The Pioneers of Franklin county sent the following : "COLUMBUS, April 7, 1883.
The Pioneer Association of Franklin county send greeting and good will to the Pioneers assembled at Marietta.
G. S. INNES, Sec'y."
To which response was made as follows:
"MARIETTA, April 7, 1883.
Pioneer Association, Columbus: The Washington County Association return your kindly greeting, and invite you to join with us in the Cen- tenial Celebration at Marietta, April 7th, 1888.
DOUGLAS PUTNAM, Pres.
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SPEECH OF HON. WILLIAM P. CUTLER.
The Ohio Company Purchase .- What Was It? Where Was It Located ? What Has Been Done With It ? Has It Paid ?
The history of the occupation of the North American con- tinent by civilized men is mainly a record of individual en- terprise, danger and daring. Organized settlements were effected upon the seaboard, but they were the hives from which the brave and adventurous pioneers went forth, de- pending on their own strong arms for support and success.
The event we celebrate to-day is marked with the peculiar characteristic of having been the fruit of a well organized, systematic and pre-arranged effort, conceived and executed by a company of associates. These associates had earned the con- fidence of the.r country and of each other when they had to stand and dia stand shoulder to shoulder in the grand strug- gle for independence and nationality. At the close of that strnggle they met no paymasters with well replenished stocks of greenbacks, but their accounts were settled with certifi- aates of indebtedness issued by a bankrupt government. The government was powerless to levy or collect tariffs or taxes, and possessed but one article of property that it could fairly call its own. 'That was western lands.
Instead of clamoring for place or position around the por- tals of a government of their own creation, they said give us lands for our certificates and we will conquer the wilderness for homes. But they asked for law as well as land.
In urging upon Congress their application for a large tract of land, their agent said-"It is our intention to secure a large and immediate settlement of the most robust and in- dustrious people in America, and that it would be done sys- tematically.".
The principal financial officer of the government-Mr. Os- good-admitted that "system had never before been attempt- ed," but also said that with system "it would prove one of the greatest undertakings ever yet attempted in America."
But these "most robust and industrious people in America"
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demanded an organic law in the form of a compact, "to forever remain unalterable unless by common consent of the original States and the people of the States in said territory."
Hence the ordinance for civil government and the purchase of the lands were parts of the same transaction, dictated and accepted by the same parties, twins of the same parentage. The very fact that these associates insisted upon law, order, security, and thorough system in this great enterprise, con tributed largely to their success in securing those funda- mental principles of civil and religious liberty which are now the secure foundations of our prosperity and greatness.
A brief statement of historical facts will give the most in- telligent explanation of the causes which led to this organ- ized, systematic settlement of the great Northwest as distin- guished from the usual and more common efforts of individ- ual pioneer enterprise.
" In June, 1783, before the final reduction of the army took place at New Windsor ; the officers of the army to the number of 283, belonging chiefly to the Northern States, petitioned Congress for a grant of land in the western country, and Gen. Rufus Putnam, on their behalf, addressed a letter to Gen. Washington on the subject, requesting his influence with Congress in the matter." In this letter Gen. Putnam presents an elaborate plan of military posts, one feature of which was a "chain of forts" on the banks of the Scioto river about twenty miles apart, by which, "the frontiers of the old States will be effectually secured from savage alarms ; and the new will have little to fear from their insults."
Again, on April 5th, 1784, Gen. Putnam addressed another letter to Washington in which he says : "The settlement of the Ohio country, sir, engrosses many of my thoughts ; and much of my time, since I left the camp, has been employed in informing myself and others, with respect to the nature, situation, and circumstances of that country, and the prac- ticability of removing ourselves there." To this letter Gen. Washington replies under date of June 2d, 1784: "I wish it was in my power to give you a more favorable account of the
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officers' petition for lands on the Ohio and its waters, than I am about to do." * * For surely if justice and gratitude to the army, and general policy of the Union were to govern in this case, there would not be the smallest interrup- tion in granting its request."
We have in this most interesting and important corre- spondence between Washington and his personal friend, as well as intimate companion in arms, the controlling motives of "removing ourselves there," as actuating "the officers"; and of a thorough system of defence, by which "the frontiers of the old States will be effectually secured from savage alarms," as an inducement "in granting the request." Wash- ington had located lands in the Ohio Valley before the war, and "the officers" derived their first impressions of that country from him.
On the 20th of May, 1785, Congress passed a Land Ordi- nance for a systematic survey of the Western lands, into ranges, towns, and sections, and for offering them for sale. Next, in the order of time, was the Circular or "Information" dated Jan. 25th, 1787, addressed by Generals Putnam and Tupper to the officers and soldiers of the army, requesting them to meet at the " Bunch of Grapes Tavern," Boston, to organize an " Ohio Company."
This Company was organized with "Articles of Association" on the 3d of March, 1786. Then, in June, 1787, their agent was sent to the Continental Congress, then in session in New York, who there negotiated for the lands known as the "Ohio Company's Purchase," upon which to found a large and immediate settlement ; fixing the price, terms of pay- ments, location, and all necessary conditions. All these pre- liminary steps had their influence in keeping alive, and giving vigor to the plans and purposes of the officers and soldiers of the army.
A most interesting incident in connection with this business is found in the fact that the decision, both of the Purchase of the lands, and the enactment of the Ordinance of Govern- ment rested in the hands of men who represented, Slave
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States. There were eight States represented in the Conti- nental Congress on the 13th of July, 1787; of these only three, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey, were north- ern or free States. But the vote of these eight States was unanimous for that Ordinance, which did more than any public act to kill slavery. The only no, was Yates of New York. The same relative influence of the Southern States was conclusive to the purchase of the lands. An explana- tion of this situation of affairs is found in Gen. Putnam's let- ter to Washington under date of April 5th, 1784. He says : "I should have hinted these things to some member of Con- gress, but the delegates from Massachusetts, although exceed- ingly worthy men, and in general would wish to promote the Ohio scheme, yet, if it should militate against the particular interest of this State by draining her of inhabitants, espec- ially when she is forming the plan of selling the eastern country, I thought they would not be warm advocates in our favor ; and I dare not trust myself with any of the New York delegates with whom I was acquainted, because that government is wisely advising the eastern people to settle in that State." He also says : " The Commonwealth of Massachusetts have come to a resolution to sell the Eastern Country for public securities." By the Eastern Country, he refers to the Province of Maine.
It was in view of this state of facts that the agent of the Ohio Company in making his application to Congress, went directly to the Southern members. Massachusetts had de- cided to sell her Province of Maine, for "public securities," and was in 1787 making her surveys. New York was "wisely inviting castern people to settle in that State." But the case was different, especially with Virginia. Her western border was exposed to almost daily incursions of the savages. The Ordinance for Government was a mere abstraction, without a population upon which it could operate. The Ohio Company said : "Give us acceptable terms, and we are pre- pared to throw into the very heart of that western wilderness, enough of the most robust and industrious people in Ameri-
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ca to protect your scattered and defenceless frontier settlers from the tomahawk and scalping knife. We shall do this systematically, thoroughly organized, and fully determined to make homes for ourselves and our children."
The Purchase, as agreed upon, stretched 150 miles along the most exposed flank of Virginia's population, with an option of further purchase extending to the mouth of the Scioto, with that river for a western boundary. At the same time Symmes' Purchase of a million acres between the Miami rivers, presented another wall of defence to the Kentucky settlements. This latter Purchase was virtually concluded by the other, as Symmes made his application, immediately, on the same terms; excepting, only, that he asked for one town- ship for an academy, instead of two for a college. Symmes represented revolutionary patriots from New Jersey ; the Ohio Company those from more northern States, but both acted in harmony.
Another consideration of great importance, at that time, especially to Virginia, arose from the threatened revolt of the western people, from the authority of the United States. The " uneasy civilization," then prevailing in the Mississippi valley, afforded a fertile field for schemes and combinations looking to an empire not founded on Freedom, Religion, Morality and Knowledge; but looking, rather, to the com- mercial advantages of a control of ocean outlets, by way of New Orleans and the St. Lawrence. This impending danger was met by the presence of a "systematic settlement in that country conducted by men strongly attached to the Federal Government, and composed of young, robust, hardy and active laborers, who had no idea of any other than the Federal Government."
Another most important inducement to all the States in effecting a large sale of the western lands for cash or its equivalent was found in the support that would be given to government credit, a subject at that time of most vital im- portance ; and one that occupied the most careful attention of all patriots.
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These historical incidents explain the peculiar relations then existing with reference to the Western Country. The Northern States, especially Massachusetts and New York, were comparatively indifferent or adverse ; while Virginia was particularly interested in securing peace and quietness, and positive protection, not only from savages, but from the machinations of adventurers, who, like Burr, were ready to involve the western border in perpetual broils ;- while she shared with all others in expectations of a credit resulting from a positive sale of a large amount of the only property or resource then at their command.
Thus we find full equivalents for her cessions and conces- sions. All these were made of practical value, by the actual occupation of a portion of her territory by robust, industri- ous and loyal people in charge of " officers " who had re- deemed their early pledge of life, fortune, and sacred honor in founding a government that they were willing to extend- but were incapable of betraying to wild and reckless ad- venturers.
Such were the motives and considerations that had their weight in the Congress, which, as one party, laid the founda- tions, first, of civil government; and second, of organized, sys- tematic, permanent settlement, which was to be made by the well winnowed wheat of an advanced christian civilization.
Now what was the prevailing consideration with the party of the other part-the men who faced a second war, of four years duration, with western savages, as a result of their en- terprise? An impartial and most intelligent observer has re- corded his views upon the actual condition-the real situation -in which the revolutionary officers and soldiers were placed, at the close of the great struggle.
Judge Burnet in his Notes on the Western Territory, says :
" The early adventurers of the North-Western Territory, were gener- erally men who had spent the prime of their lives in the War of Inde- pendence. Many of them had exhausted their fortunes in maintaining the desperate struggle; and retired to the wilderness to conceal their poverty, and avoid comparisons mortifying to their pride while struggling to maintain their families, and improve their condition.
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" Nothing can better establish the fact, that the officers of the revolu- tion were illy compensated for their services and sufferings, in the long and distressing struggle for national liberty, than the destitute, dependent condition in which they found themselves at the close of the war.
' " After having spent the most valuable period of their lives in the Army-enduring every species of exposure, fatigue and suffering-they were dismissed, and sent to their homes, if they were so fortunate as to have any, with nothing but empty promises, which have never been re- alized-and most of them with broken or impaired constitutions.
"The certificates they received as evidences of the sums due them from the country, were almost valueless; they were bought and sold in the market at two shillings and six pence for twenty shillings; and so late as 1788 they were worth only five shillings in the pound ; at which ruinous rates these meritorious men were driven by necessity, to sell them, or to starve.
" These circumstances are here introduced chiefly to account for the fact, that a large proportion of the early adventurers to the western wild- erness had been officers and soldiers in the revolutionary war. They were honorable, high-minded men ; whose feelings rebelled at the thought of living in poverty among people of comparative wealth, for the protec- tion of which their own poverty had been incurred.
"Under the influence of that noble feeling, hundreds of these brave men left their friends, and sought retirement on the frontiers where no invidious comparisons could be drawn between wealth and poverty ; and where they became involved in the hazardous conflicts of another war."
Judge Burnet also says, that "three fourths of the persons who formed the Miami Company and advanced the first in- stallment of the purchase money, had served in the Revolu- tionary War."
As an illustration of the hard fate of these patriotic veter- ans, Commodore Whipple "served the United States from the 15th of June, 1775, to December, 1782, without receiving a farthing of wages or subsistence since December, 1776." Hle had also advanced $7,000 in specie to his government. He was paid in " final settlement certificates," for which he could get only two shillings and six pence on the pound, or at a discount of SO per cent.
The prevailing motive then of the other party, the associ- ates, was not speculation in any improper sense, not land- grabbing, but the presure of a porerty, forced upon them by a bankrupt government, and the honorable purpose of personal independence ; though it had to be earned by a most perilous and arduous adventure.
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It is not my object, however, to dwell further upon prelim- inary incidents, but rather to trace the fortunes of the Pio- neers in the selection and location of the land which, through the agency of the Ohio Company, they had obtained by a contract with the Honorable Board of Treasury under date of October 27th, 1787.
As the selection itself-although supported by the most conclusive reasons at the time it was made-has been the subject of much adverse criticism, it is proper now to look over the transaction and measure its value by actual results.
Has it proved itself a success, or a failure, in the great ob- jects for which it was chosen ?
Its boundaries, translated into familiar language, were as follows :- Beginning on the Ohio river about 7 miles north- east of Marietta, thence following that stream to a point about opposite Ashland, Ky., thence north nearly 90 miles to a point about S miles northwest of Logan in Hocking county, thence east 60 miles to 14 miles south of the northeast corner of Salem township in Washington county, thence south on west line of 7th range to the place of beginning. containing 1,500,000 acres besides certain reserves. The contract price was $1,000,000, of which one half was paid down, the other half on a deferred payment. On final settlement this quan- tity was reduced and no deferred payment made.
These reserves consisted of one section in each surveyed township for schools, one for the support of religion, and three for the future disposition of Congress, also two entire townships for a college.
On final settlement, however, no deferred payment was made and the company received a deed for 750,000 acres, also for 100,000 acres to be used as homesteads for actual settlers over 18 years of age. This grant was obtained by the direct- ors, and was the first application to the public domain of the homestead principle of settlement, now the sole landed policy of the government. Also 214,285 acres was secured for bounty warrants and the two townships for a college.
The remaining portion of the original contract of purchase,
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consisting mainly of the 17th range of townships on the west, reverted to the government.
But looking at the original selection as made at that time and marked out by Israel Ludlow for the United States, we find embraced 150 miles of the Ohio river border and 100 miles of valley along the Muskingum and Hocking rivers. This extent of river valley lands is now brought under the highest cultivation, with gool improvements, and stands in valuation as well as production among the highest priced and most desirable lands of the whole northwest. Allowing an average of one mile in available width to each mile in length of valley, and we have in river farms, 160,000 acres.
In addition to these main valleys we find the smaller streams of Little Muskingum, Duck Creek, Little Hocking, Wolf, Federal, Sunday, Monday, Leading, Shade, Raccoon and Symmes Creeks, all affording along their borders farm- ing lands as fertile and valuable as those on the rivers. Prob- ably as many more acres, or 320,000 in all of this class, of first rate farming lands may be found, now ranking in value of im- provements and capacity for production with the best in the State of Ohio.
Recent efforts in the intelligent application of fertilizers have demonstrated that the remaining uplands of the pur- chase may be made as productive as any in the west.
We find its population by the census of 1880 to be 176,781. In the first half century the increase of population in the pur- chase was not up to other portions of the State, as the tide of emigration swept past it to the more fertile agricultural dis- tricts of the west; but from 1850 to 1880 the increase has slightly exceeded that of the entire State of Ohio, so that it is now holding its population in spite of the strong tenden- cies to western emigration.
The total valuation of real and personal property for tax- ation in 1SSO was $46,581,292. As the original contract price was $1,000,000, this shows an annual increase on that price of 50 per cent.
Since 1850 the total increased value of all property in the
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State of Ohio has been less than 100 per cent. Within the limits of the Purchase the increase in valuation in the same time has been 250.per cent.
The gross value of all products of the labors and industries of the people, agricultural, manufacturing and manual, for the census year was about $20,000,000.
The number of farms, 16,211, with 1,133,187 acres redeem- ed from the wilderness and converted into homes. Over 200 miles of railroads have been built within its limits, showing $1,500,000 gross earnings from their several stations per an- num.
There is a school house door open and a free seat provided for every child of suitable age. High schools and academies are within reach of a large proportion of the population, while there are two colleges designed to impart the highest intellectual culture, having sent forth 829 graduates with an annual attendance of about 250 students.
Church sittings are well provided for all who choose to worship God, according to their own convictions of duty, with none to molest or make afraid. Thus the organic pledge that " schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged " has been fairly met.
There is a voting force of 36,618 voters who gave in 1880 a majority of 6,348 votes for Garfield for President and a simi- lar majority for Foster for Governor in 1879. In the great struggle to maintain the life and integrity of our National Government, one of the counties-Athens-wholly within the Purchase, sent to the front one-half her men subject to military service, while a full proportion of loyal defenders went forward from other portions.
The west line of the Original Purchase runs very nearly along the western outcrop of the great mineral belt, while the northern boundary encloses the larger and more valuable portion of what is known as the Hocking Valley coal and iron fields.
Geologists tell us that there are 14 veins of iron ore and that the aggregate thickness of all the coal seams where fully
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developed will reach 40 feet, while successful operations have demonstrated resources of salt, oil and quarry products be- yond known limits. These vast mineral deposits sweep southeasterly in their geological dip under the whole of the Ohio Company's Original Purchase and at available depths below the surface.
The great Newcastle coal and iron belt in England contains by estimation 5,000,000,000 tons of iron ore and 10,000,000,- 000 tons of coal. That is England's Bonanza. This territory will yield as much iron ore and twice as much coal, and this is our Bonanza.
The total value of all the farms in the United States, in- cluding fences and buildings, is set down in the census of 1880 at $10,107,006,776.
There is mineral wealth enough in the old Purchase to buy up the "whole business " and have plenty left for domestic purposes. Has it been or will it be a failure ?
Now as the twilight shades of the first century are gather- ing around the footsteps of the third generation of that cen- tury, when the eye grows dim, the feet falter, and native forces abate, we pass this inheritance over to the first genera- tion of the second century.
We ask you to remember that the consideration for its pur- chase was the blood and service of the founders of the great republic. We bid-you remember that hitherto its soil has never "turned pale under the footsteps of a slave."
We ask you to remember the broad and weighty declara- tion in that immortal compact, which was contemporaneous in its origin with the Purchase, " that Religion, Morality and Knowledge are essential to good government and the happi- ness of mankind," and that the obligation was then imposed to " forever encourage schools and the means of education."
Upon that granite foundation you may build an empire that shall have dominion from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth.
NEWBERRY LIE: ARY CHICASO
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REMARKS OF MR. E. M. P. BRISTER.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen :
Coming, as I have, merely as a visitor to this pioneer cele- bration at Marietta ; and not being appointed on the regular programme for a " set speech," of course I cannot be expected, in the few remarks that I may make, to offer anything worthy of the day or the occason. Indeed, Mr. President, I find my- self in about the same situation in which a certain young lawyer was involved on another occasion similar to this .- Having been invited to speak at a large pioneer celebration, and being possessed of a sufficient amount of self esteem, he concluded that there was no necessity for him to prepare him- self especially for the occasion, as he thought that he could depend for what he should say upon "the inspiration of the moment." The auspicious day arrived ; the audience also arrived, in large numbers, eager to hear what the young ora- tor would say. He was there, too, though perhaps not feeling quite so certain of his "inspiration " as he had previously felt. He mounted the rostrum, and striking an attitude, be- gan in most grandiloquent manner : "Fellow citizens, four and forty years ago, this beautiful spot where we now stand was part and parcel of the howling wilderness ! Just here his "inspiration" gave out, and he stopped short. "Good ! Good ! Go on !" shouted the audience , but, alas ! to " go on" was the rub! "At last, with a desperate effort, he began again : " Fellow citizens, four and forty years ago, this beau- tiful spot where we now stand was part and parcel of the howling wilderness ! And-and-I'll be confounded if I don't wish it was yet !"
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