USA > Ohio > The picturesque Ohio : a historical monograph > Part 17
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The Inter-state Law did awaken a rippling ebb and flow of trade upon the river ; and if the "Line" autocrats and the "Old- timers" will "pull together" the trade will swell into an "Ohio flood." For a well-ordered "Line" of "Passenger and Light Freight Steamers," running as DAY-BOATS, con- necting at proper distances from Pitts- burgh to Cairo, would open the river to a new traveling public. Tourists, lovers of beautiful scenery, people who travel for pleasure and who take pleasure in travel, would seek the lux- urious motion and the lovely outlook, to be found under a canvas awning, in a reclining-chair, upon the "hurricane- deck " of a light- draught “side-wheel- er " in MID-RIVER.
APPENDIX.
APPENDIX A, No. I .- PAGE 42.
THE fact here admitted, that " these people had lived with La Salle for some months," refutes the statement made immediately after by M. Galli- née, that "La Salle did not understand the Iroquois language." To accent properly the contradictory "fact" and "statement," an excerpt from the rec- ords is added. "If M. de la Salle had not preferred glory to gain, he had only to stay quietly in his fort and accumulate at least twenty-five thousand livres a year through the trade that lie had drawn there. One can say with truth that he is the only man who could conduct the enterprise with which he has been charged. He is irreproachable in manners, discreet in his con- duct, and he maintains order among his people. . He understands civil, military, and naval architecture ; he is a good agriculturist; he speaks or understands four or five of the Indian dialects, and has a great facility for acquiring languages ; he knows Indian customs and manners, and turns them as he will through his address and eloquence, as well as through their esteem for him. In his journeys he lives no better than his people, and is willing to suffer any hardship to encourage then, and there is reason to believe that with the protection of the ministries he will found colonies of more value to France than any that have yet been established."
APPENDIX A, No. II .- PAGE 53.
THE original Ohio Company was organized to secure to the English the Ohio, and to check the progress southward of tlie "New France," appar- ently so firmly planted in Canada, by establishing trading-posts, protected by small forts west of the Alleghenies. In 1848, a petition to the crown was sent over, in which Thomas Lee, Lawrence and Augustus Washington, Robert Dinwiddie, surveyor-general for the Southern Colonies, and their associates, among whoin was John Hanbury-an influential citizen, as well
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as a leading merchant of London-asked for a grant of "500,000 acres of land between the Monongahela and the Kanawha, or on the northern mar- gin of the Ohio." In March, 1749, the king instructed the governor of Vir- ginia, to who111 all this vast territory belonged, to make the grant. Before 1748, when the Ohio Company was forined, there were 110 settlements west of the mountains.
Hitherto the Indian trade had been, so far as the English were concerned, almost entirely confined to Western Pennsylvania. For, owing to the con- stant and relentless conflicts between the Indians and the early settlers in Kentucky, trade there meant the spoil of the victor.
The original "Ohio Company" won favor with influential personages in England and in all the Southern Colonies, yet the constant troubles in which the whole country was involved retarded its progress. Its one great success was the promotion of emigration westward, and the stability of the settlements effected by its efforts ; which, although interrupted by the con- dition of affairs, were constantly resumed, until the success of the Revo- lution rendered its existence unnecessary.
As early as 1751 their agent visited the tribes upon the Great Miani River, and established a trading-post in one of the Twigtwee towns, belong- ing to the Miami Confederacy. The trail opened by this trade was fron the Miami towns to the inouth of the Scioto, down the Oliio to the Falls, and back by way of the Kentucky River and the Cumberland Gap to Vir- ginia, which was then much the safest route, as the Southern Indians were less inimical to the English than were the Lake tribes.
In1 1760, nearly a century after the discovery of the Ohio by La Salle, the Virginia "Ohio Company " resumed the surveys which were interrupted by the French and English war.
One singular fact connected with the history of the time deserves notice : "Mr. Lawrence Washington, upon whom fell the chief management of the affairs of this company after the death of Mr. Lee, conceived the very plausible plan of inviting the "Pennsylvania Dutch " and their breth- ren from Germany to colonize this region. Their only objection was the parish taxes they would have to pay to support the Episcopal Church. Mr. Washington exerted himself to get this difficulty removed, but High Church Episcopacy was too strong for him, and so his scheme failed; and a large portion of Western Pennsylvania and Virginia was kept open for a differ- ent race-mainly for Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. . Mr. Washington,
APPENDIX. 233
in a letter to Mr. Hanbury, of London, wrote: 'I conversed with all the Pennsyvania Dutch whom I met, and much recommended their settling. The chief reason against it was the payment of an English clergyman, whom few understood, while none made use of him. It has been my opinion, and I hope ever will be, that restraints on conscience are cruel in regard to those on whom they are imposed, and injurious to the country imposing them. As the ministry have thus far shown the true spirit of patriotism by encouraging the extending of our dominions in America, I doubt not, by an application, they would go still further and complete what they have begun, by procuring some kind of charter to pre- vent the residents on the Ohio and its branches from being subject to parish taxes. They all assured me that they might have from Germany any 11uin- ber of settlers, could they but obtain their favorite exemption. I have promised to endeavor for it, and now do my utmost by this letter.'" (History of "The Old Redstone Presbytery.")
APPENDIX A, No. III .- PAGE 64.
In 1774 the first Continental Congress, in its second session, had ap- pointed commissioners to reoccupy Fort Pitt, and make treaties with the I11- dians on behalf of the new government. The British had garrisons in the Lake forts. In Kentucky, Walker, Boone, Bullit, Kenton, Harrod, the Mc- Afees, the Taylors, and others, were building stockades for defense against the Indians, who were supplied with arms and ammunition by the English.
The master-spirit of the time, George Rogers Clark, of Albemarle County, Virginia, was in Philadelphia perfecting his plans for an offensive campaign into the Illinois country, which was to overawe the disaffected. tribes, and win the wavering for the new government. On the 2d of June, 1774, the British Parliament had passed an act which included in the bounds of Canada all the country between the Ohio River and the Lakes. It had already become evident that it was to be defended by their Indian allies. Clark secured the cordial co-operation of Patrick Henry, then governor of Virginia. After many vexatious delays this force was finally assembled at Fort Pitt, and went down the Ohio, arriving at Louisville the 24th of June, 1778, where he was joined by the Kentucky volunteers. On the 4th of July they entered Kaskaskia after nightfall, and the first intimation the inhab-
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itants had of their presence was the startling cry, "If any one comes into the streets he shall be shot."
On the 6th of February, 1778, France had recognized the independence of the United States. Clark heard the news on the Mississippi, and imme- diately began recruiting a company made up of the French settlers, and through them influenced the Indians to make common cause with the Long Knives and the French against the English. Through Grand Door, the leading chief of the Piankeshaws, this was accomplished. The news spread through the Illinois tribes. A council of representative chiefs met at Kahokia, and the alliance Clark proposed was ratified.
Captain Helm, with a fighting contingent of one soldier, represented the Americans at Vincennes when it was captured by a force of nearly five hundred British and Indians. Helm had ordered a "halt" when they were within hearing distance, and Colonel Hamilton stopped, but demanded the surrender of the garrison. "On what terms?" asked Helm. "The honors of war," replied Hamilton. And on those terms Vincennes was surrendered.
A Spanish trader, named Francis Vigo, carried the news to Clark, who decided at once to recapture the place, and with sturdy determination and daring started across the flooded country in February. When they ap- proached the Wabash it took three days wading through the flooded shal- lows to gain the bank. Again there were flooded wastes to cross before reaching the town.
On the 24th Hamilton surrendered Vincennes, and the entire North- west, except the Lake posts, was held by the Americans. A convoy of stores and provisions on its way from Detroit to the British at Vin- cennes was captured a few days after the surrender by Captain Helm, who was released at the capitulation. Hamilton was sent a prisoner to Virginia, where he was put in irons and treated with great severity for having offered the Indians premiums for "white scalps."
Among the great leaders of the pioneers, the men who marched in the forefront of battle and of civilization, there is no more martial figure than that of George Rogers Clark. He was one of those "born fighters " who always reach their place in the world at the opportune moment. Because of his Virginian birth he was all the more the Kentuckian of the Ken- tuckians. In the logic of that time a war of defense was a war of extermi- nation, and raids into the Indian country were always raids of reprisal. Such a fighter "cared little for gain, and still less for his hide ;" but Dame For-
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APPENDIX.
tune, who loves men of his mettle, kept putting into his hands the forsaken opportunities and the dropped threads of less lucky adventurers. But one man has ever stood above Clark in the estimation of the State and the hearts of the people; and to be second to that man was a patent of princely rank; for HENRY CLAY was the flower of his race, and the uncrowned king of Kentucky.
APPENDIX A, No. IV .- PAGE 65. SETTLEMENT OF GALLIPOLIS.
IN 1791 a French colony settled at Gallipolis. It was largely made up of the better middle class, anxious to escape the opening horrors of the French Revolution. They had purchased lands of "The Scioto Company," which Judge Hall says, in his "Statistics of the West," "was formed from, or was an offshoot of, the Ohio Company.
"This company should not be confounded with the original ' Ohio Com- pany,' organized by the Washingtons, the Lees, other Maryland and Virginia gentlemen, and the Hanburys of London in, 1748. The original Ohio Coni- pany, after having achieved the objects for which they were organized, the settlement of families upon the lands granted them by the king, and 'the establishment of trading-posts and frontier-posts to protect these settlers from the French and the Indians,' had dissolved, and left the unoccupied lands free to all comers. The new 'Ohio Company,' organized by the Put- nains and other New Englanders in 1786, took the title of the old company, without any distinguishing prefix to show that there was not the slightest connection or interest which warranted the revival of the name."
"The Scioto Company," a branch of the new "Ohio Company," sent in June of 1788, one Joel Barlow to France to distribute " Proposals to Colo- nists," and sell them lands.
We give a quotation from their " Proposals," which is, of itself, evidence of the intended fraud :
"The climate is wholesome and delightful. Frost, even in winter, is almost entirely unknown. A river called, for its eminence, 'The Beau- tiful River,' abounds in excellent fish of vast size. There are noble for- ests, consisting of trees that spontaneously produce sugar, and a plant that yields ready-made candles. There is venison in plenty ; no dangerous wild animals, but swine which multiply from a pair to two hundred in
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THE PICTURESQUE OHIO.
two or three years without the trouble or expense of caring for them. There are no taxes and no military service." Howe, from whom we are quoting, continues: "A handsomely engraved colored map repre- sented the Scioto Company's tract as extending one hundred miles northı of the mouth of the Kanawha. The lands of the Ohio Company to the east, next to which was the plat of an inhabited and cleared country, had upon the plat these words : 'Sept rangs de municipalité acquis par des individues et occupés depuis, 1786.' The map is as inaccurate in geog- raphy as it is fraudulent in its statements, for it represents the country as cleared and inhabited, when it was, in fact, a wilderness."
The agent seems to have happily timed his enterprise. The darkest days of the French Revolution were dawning, and doubtful of what would be the ending, people caught at this offer of an unoccupied paradise. Deeds were executed and recorded at Paris, and five hundred victims of the fraud-for there was neither grant nor tract, no Scioto Company legally existing-sailed for America, landing at Alexandria. There had been par- tial arrangements made for the reception of the emigrants from France before they left France. The first town planned, "Fair Haven," was so unfair a haven that it was submerged as soon it was laid out ; then "Colonel Rufus Putnam made a clearing and erected block-houses and cabins at Gallipolis, four miles below, which was ten feet above high-water mark." Among the five hundred who came to Gallipolis there were twelve farmers and laborers. After six months the "company," which had agreed to supply provisions, stopped the supply. The only excuse given was that " their agent in France had run away with the money paid for the lands."
The winter was unusually severe, and the Kanawha and the Ohio were frozen over. The hunters brought no meat, and the colonists had no flour. The "Ohio Company" disavowed the sales, and the poor, de- luded French people learned from the Indians that the pretended "Scioto Company" was composed of "New Englanders who resided at a great distance from Gallipolis. Their names even were unknown to the French, who spoke no English." After suffering the extreme of want, many died of the privations and the heart-breaking disappointment. A swamp in the rear of the village caused a frightful epidemic, and, although a French lawyer living in Philadelphia finally got them a special grant from the government, very few of the five hundred colonists brought from France settled on these lands.
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APPENDIX.
APPENDIX A, No. V .- PAGE 182.
THE Iroquois Indians, who guided La Salle to the Falls of the OHIO, borrowed the name which they gave the RIVER from the Delaware lan- guage. In the varied dialects of the Confederation it was indifferently called Ohio or Allegheny, both signifying "fine," "fair," or "shining river." In the Canadian Records it is given, "Ohio ou Olighisipon que veut dire en Iroquois et en Outaouac La Belle Rivière." [Ohio or Olighisipon which, in the Iroquois and Ottawa language, means The Beautiful River.] How- ever, in the different dialects, the name was so changed by elisions and additions that the original meaning is but imperfectly preserved.
Among the varied names we find "OHIOPÉCHEN," "OHIOPHANNE," "OHIOPÉCKHANNE ;" and by different translators the names are given as "VERY WHITE STREAM," "VERY DEEP WHITE RIVER," "THE SHINING RIVER," " THE WHITE SHINING RIVER," and " THE DEEP BROKEN SHINING RIVER." The last gives a key to the meaning, as it was evidently sug- gested by the wind-capped undulations in the long river-reaches ; particu- larly is this noticeable in the wide stretches between low-lying shores, after the large Southern affluents have poured in the waters they collected in the Allegheny and Cumberland Mountains. Besides, the reader should not forget that, through its northern and southern affluents conjoined, the Ohio drains an area of 190,464 square miles.
BEFORE closing this last page the Editor wishes to give such brief mention as the space permits, to authors and authorities that have been particularly helpful in this work. First, to M. MARGRY; for only since the publication of the records in the French Archives could the outline history of the Discoverer and the Discovery of the Ohio be given as authen- tic beyond cavil. Before that valuable work was given to the public- Découvertes et Établissements des Français dans l'Amérique Septentrionale, par Pierre Margry-there were, here and there, brief allusions to the discoveries of LA SALLE in the writings of his contemporaries. But these were so uncertain in character, and apparently so unadvised in statement, that they seemed rather broken echoes running through the centuries- vague sounds suggestive of some hidden history-than definite or con- nected data upon which to found belief. Next to these records of the
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Canadian Reports, nothing could have been more suggestive than PARK- MAN'S admirably written Histories. From Parkman long extracts have been given, which told the story of Pontiac so well that any change in the wording would have been a loss to the reader. In addition to what is bor- rowed from these two unique authorities, the Editor wishes to acknowl- edge an indebtedness for local coloring to JUDGE HALL, HOWE, and the legion of writers who have sketched the salient points of Western adven- tures and adventurers.
C. M. C.
4832
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