Twentieth Century History of Findlay and Hancock County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, Part 2

Author: Jacob Anthony Kimmell
Publication date: 1910
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1189

USA > Ohio > Hancock County > Findlay > Twentieth Century History of Findlay and Hancock County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens > Part 2

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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY

within the disputed territory. When the sur- veys for the lands of the Ohio Company were begun, the Governor of Canada entered a vig- orous protest by establishing the line of forts to which we have before alluded. The dispute over this territory between the French and English was finally settled by the treaty fol- lowing what is familiarly known in history as the French and Indian War. By the terms of that treaty, made in Paris in 1763, the British Crown came into undisputed possession of all the vast territory northwest of the Ohio.

The territory included within the present limits of Ohio, together with the entire do- main northwest of the Ohio River of unknown extent, was originally claimed by Virginia. Her title rested upon three grants from the British Crown. The first charter was granted in 1606 by James I. to Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers and others, authorizing them to establish two colonies, the first being known in history as the "London Company," and the second as the "Plymouth Company." The grant to the London Company covered a strip of sea coast fifty miles broad between the 34th and 4Ist parallels. In 1606 King James granted a second charter to the London Com- pany. The territorial limits of the first charter were extended to embrace the whole sea-coast, north and south, within two hundred miles of Old Point Comfort, extending "from sea to sea, west and northwest." A third charter, granted in 1612, annexed to Virginia all the islands within three hundred leagues of the coast.

Virginia, however, was not undisputed in her assertion of title to the whole of this ex- tensive region. Both Connecticut and Massa- chusetts claimed portions of the territory. In 1662 Charles II. granted to certain settlers

upon the Connecticut all the territory between the parallels of latitude which include the pres- ent State of Connecticut, from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. The claims of Massachu- setts were founded on a similar charter granted thirty years later. New York also had claims which she asserted.

A glance at the map will show the territories thus loosely defined in these different charters, overlapped each other, which subsequently gave rise to serious disputes between the States concerned.

ACHIEVEMENT OF GEORGE ROGERS CLARK.

By the treaty of peace, signed at Paris, Sep- tember 3, 1783, the claims of the English mon- arch to the whole of the northwest territory were ceded to the United States. "The provi- sional articles which formed the basis of the treaty, more especially as related to boundary, were signed at Paris, November 30, 1872. Dur- ing the pendency of the negotiation of these preliminary articles, Mr. Oswald, the British commissioner, proposed the River Ohio as the western boundary of the United States, and but for the indomitable perseverance of the Revo- lutionary patriot, John Adams, one of the American commissioners, who opposed the proposition, and insisted upon the Mississippi as the boundary, the probability is that the proposition of Mr. Oswald would have been acceded to by the United States Commission- ers." That the British were prevented from making a reasonable claim to the territory northwest of the Ohio was due, in large meas- ure, to the fact that this extensive domain was wrested from their hands during the Revolutionary war through the valor and foresight of General George Rogers Clark. On the outbreak of the Revolution he saw

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through the whole plan of the British who held all the outpost, Kaskaskia, De- troit, Vincennes and Niagara. It was the hope of the British that by means of these outposts they might encircle the Ameri- cans and also unite the Indians in a common war against them. Clark knew that many of the Indian tribes were divided in their feeling or but indifferent in their support of the Brit- ish. He conceived the idea that if the British could be driven from their outpost, the Indians could be easily awed into submission or bribed into neutrality or friendship. Acting upon this theory, and first enlisting the support of Patrick Henry, then governor of Virginia, he organized an expedition which was entirely successful in wresting control of the country west of the Ohio from the British. To him, as well as to John Adams, is due unlimited credit for the fact that the Ohio River was not made the boundary between Canada and the United States.

STATE CESSIONS AND INDIAN TREATIES.

At the close of the Revolutionary war, the title to the British possessions having passed to the several colonies, each one, as a sovereign and independent state, claimed the right of soil and jurisdiction over the lands which had been originally granted it in its charter. As we have already observed, several states laid claim to portions of the vast, unappropriated tracts northwest of the Ohio. It was insisted by those States whose charters gave them no claims to any portion of this territory that inasmuch as the entire domain had been won from the Brit- ish by the united efforts of all the colonies, the lands themselves should be appropriated for the benefit of all the states. It was repeatedly urged upon the states themselves which claimed

ownership in these lands, that they should cede them for the common benefit of all. Respond- ing to this demand the State of Virginia, on March 1, 1784, ceded to the United States her claims to ownership and jurisdiction over the entire part of the country embraced in her char- ter lying northwest of the Ohio. She made a condition, however, that in case the lands lying south of the Cumberland River were not suf- ficient to satisfy the bounties in land which she had issued to her soldiers during the Revolu- tionary War, then this deficiency was to be made up out of lands in this territory, lying be- tween the rivers Miami and Scioto. The juris- diction over all the land, however, passed to the United States. Likewise Connecticut, on September 13, 1786, relinquished to the United States all her claims to lands lying within this same territory, with the exception of the tract known as the Western Reserve. This she deeded to the United States May 30, 1800. The president, however, immediately conveyed the fee of the soil to the governor of the State for the use of grantees and purchasers coming un- der her, similar to the manner in which Vir- ginia had also been allowed the fee of the soil in a certain portion to satisfy her military war- rants. Massachusetts and New York also gave up their claims, thus giving to the United States a clear title to the whole of this vast re- gion in so far as it had been claimed by Euro- pean powers.

There still remained, however, the claims of the Indians to the lands as the original posses- sors of the soil. It was necessary that these should be disposed of before the white settlers could rightfully take possession. Accordingly a treaty was made with the Six Nations, em- bracing the Mohawks, Onondagas, Senecas, Cayugas, Oneidas and Tuscaroras, at Fort

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Stanwix, October 27, 1784. By the terms of dusky where the fort formerly stood, and also this treaty, all the lands west of a line drawn two miles square on each side of the Lower Rapids of the Sandusky River." This treaty was afterwards renewed and confirmed by Governor St. Clair, and the Wyandot, Chip- pewa, Pottawatomie, and Sac Nations at Fort Harmar in 1789. from the mouth of Oswego Creek, about four miles east of Virginia, to the mouth of Buffalo Creek and on to the northern boundary of Pennsylvania, thence west along that boundary to its western extremity, thence south to the Ohio River, were ceded to the United States. On the 3rd of August, 1795, a treaty. was made with the Delawares, Ottawas, Pottawat- omies and Eel River Indians by General Wayne after the close of his succesful cam- paign against them, terminating in the Battle of Fallen Timbers. The basis of this treaty was the previous one at Fort Harmar, the boundaries made at that time being reaffirmed, and the whites secured on the lands now occu- pied by them or granted by former treaties. This treaty marked the close of the Indian wars. There were other Indian nations, however, be- sides those mentioned, who also asserted own- ership over this territory. They included the Wyandot, Chippewa, Delaware and Ottawa Nations. With these also the United States made a treaty at Fort McIntosh on the 21st day of January, 1785. By this treaty the boundary line between the United States and the Wyandot and Delaware Nations was de- clared to begin "at the mouth of the river Cuyahoga and to extend up said river to the Portage, between that and the Tuscaroras branch of the Muskingum, thence down that branch to the crossing-place above Fort Laur- ens, then westerly to the Portage of the Big Miami, which runs into the Ohio, at the mouth of which branch the fort stood which was taken by the French in 1752; then along said Portage to the Great Miami, or Omee River, and down the south side of the same to its mouth; then along the south shore of Lake Erie to the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, where it began." "The United States allotted all the lands contained within said lines to the Wyandot and Delaware Nations, to live and hunt on, together with such of the Ottawa Nations as lived thereon, saving and reserving for the establishment of trading posts, six miles square at the mouth of the Miami or Omee River, and the same at the Portage, on that branch of the Big Miami which runs into the Ohio, and the same on the Lake of San-

A treaty was made with the Indians at Fort Industry, on the present site of Toledo, in 1805, by which the United States acquired, for the use of the grantees of Connecticut, all that part of the Western Reserve which lies west of the Cuyahoga. The lands west of Huron and Richland Counties, and north of the In- dian boundary line fixed by Wayne's treaty at Greenville, to the western limits of Ohio, were purchased by the United States in 1818 by a treaty made at St. Mary's. The lands ceded at this time were called the New Purchase. Cer- tain reservations were made within the pur- chased tracts to the Delawares, Wyandots, Sen- ecas, etc., which were subsequently ceded to the United States, the last by the Wyandots in 1842, they then being the only Indian tribe left within the State. Thus through a long se- ries of explorations, wars, cessions and trea- ties has the title of the United States to lands of Ohio been derived. The organization of

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the Northwest into a territorial subdivision and the subsequent formation and admission to the Union, of the State of Ohio, has been re -. served for later consideration.

SETTLEMENT.

The first English attempt at settlement of which we have any record, within the present limits of the State of Ohio, was at a point in Shelby County on Loramie Creek, about six- teen miles northwest of the present city of Sid- ney, and since known by the name of Lora- mie's Store. Here some English traders estab- lished themselves about the year 1749, and gave it the name of Pickawillany from the tribe of Indians there. The settlement however, was doomed to be of short duration. As we have heretofore seen, this location was clearly within the limits claimed by the French, and immediately aroused them to action. They could not endure so evident an invasion of their country, and gathering a force of the Ottawas, and Chippewas, their allies, they attacked the fort in June, 1752, having first demanded its surrender of the Miamis, who had granted the English the privilege of its erection. In the battle that ensued, fourteen of the Miamis were slain and all of the traders captured. They were either burned or taken to Canada as pris- oners.

Most historians have regarded the settle- ment at Marietta, on April 7, 1788, as the first permanent white settlement in Ohio, but a closer investigation would seem to confer that honor upon Steubenville in Jefferson County, which was previously the site of Fort Steuben. This fort was visited by Major Ekuries Beatty in February, 1787, it being then guarded by Captain Hamtramck's and Mercer's compa- nies. Although the garrison was removed in

1787, the fort continued to be a refuge for set- tlers until 1790, when it was accidentally de- stroyed by fire. Quite an account of life within its palisades was given by John Matthews, a nephew of. General Putnam, who was one of the surveyors. According to Mr. Matthews' journal, this fort was not merely a small mili- tary garrison, but a busy center of frontier life, where people were coming and going, and where the foundations of a permanent and prosperous community were being laid. All this was in the year preceding the settlement of Marietta and that settlement was made pos- sible by the work done here. It is very likely that the Marietta Argonauts landed at Steu- benville on the way down, where the fort and settlement had already stood for a year and a half, and where there were already more peo- ple than in the visiting party. However this may be, a brief sketch of the Marietta settle- ment will be of interest as being an important part of the early history of the State, and the following facts, therefore, are worthy of atten- tion.

We have already traced the various steps by which the title to the lands became vested in the United States, and through which alone the settlers could be secure in their possession. The final cession by the various states claiming rights in the northwest territory, to the Central Government, was the occasion for the forma- tion of various land companies in the East, hav- ing for their purpose the settlement of this western country. The Ohio Company, before mentioned, emerged from the past and again became active. In the year 1786 Benjamin Tupper, a Revolutionary soldier, and General Rufus Putnam, circulated a pamphlet propos- ing the formation of a company for the pur- pose of settling the Ohio lands. It invited all

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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY

those interested to meet in February in their respective counties and choose delegates to a convention to be held at the "Bunch of Grapes" Tavern in Boston on March 1, 1786. The purpose was to be the formation of a company and the adoption of definite plans for establish- ing a settlement in the Ohio Valley. On the day appointed eleven persons appeared, an out- line was drawn up, and subscriptions began at once. The principal features of the plan were as follows: "A fund of $1,000,000, mainly in continental certificates, was to be raised for the purpose of purchasing lands in the western country; there were to be 1,000 shares of $1,- 000 each, and upon each share $10 in specie were to be paid for contingent expenses. One year's interest was to be appropriated for the charges of making a settlement and assisting those unable to move without aid. The own- ers of every twenty shares were to choose an agent to represent them and attend to their in- terests, and the agents were to choose the di- rectors. The plan was approved, and in a years' time from that date the company was organized."

On the 8th of March, 1787, a meeting of the agents chose General Parsons, General Rufus Putnam and Rev. Manassah Cutler, directors for the Company. The selection of Manassah Cutler was extremely fortunate for the success of the enterprise, as few men could have been better fitted, both in character and ability, to conceive and execute a project of such impor- tance as this would prove to be. A contract was made with the Treasury Board by Cutler and Winthrop Sargent, as agents for the Board of Directors of the Ohio Company, on October 27, 1787, by which there was conveyed to the company a vast region bounded on the south by the Ohio River, west by the Scioto, east by

the seventh range of townships then surveying, and north by a due west line drawn from the north boundary of the tenth township from the Ohio direct to the Scioto, for the consideration of $I per acre. Later, in 1792, the boundaries of the purchase were fixed as follows: The Ohio on the south, the seventh range of town- ships on the east, the sixteenth range on the west, and a line on the north so drawn as to make the grant 750,000 acres, besides reser- vations, this grant being the portion which it was originally agreed the company might en- ter into at once. In addition 214,285 acres were granted as army bounties, and 100,000 acres as bounties to actual settlers. While these preliminary arrangements for the occupa- tion of the new territory were being carried out, Congress was likewise providing a plan for its government. The famous instrument known as the Ordinance of 1787, under which the first organization of the territory was ef- fected, was passed on July 13th of that year, but of it we shall speak more in detail later on.

In the winter of 1787 General Rufus Put- nam and forty-seven pioneers proceeded as far as the mouth of the Youghiogheny River, and, having built a boat for transportation down the Ohio, proceeded in the spring to the mouth of the Muskingum, where they landed on the 7th of April, 1788. Fort Harmar had previously been built at the mouth of the Muskingum, and it was on the opposite side of this river that the pioneers established their settlement which they later called Marietta, in honor of Marie Anto- inette. With regard to this settlement of Ohio, George Washington wrote: "No colony in America was ever settled under such favorable auspices as that which has commenced at the Muskingum. Information, property, and strength will be its characteristics. I know

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many of the settlers personally and there never River, and, in company with Robert Patterson were men better calculated to promote the wel- fare of such a community."

Soon after their arrival the settlers began the erection of a stockade fort, which occupied their time until the winter of 1791. During the early years of the settlement, however, the In- dians were friendly, no hostilities being expe- rienced. One of the pioneers describes the progress of the colony during its first year as being all that could be expected, arrivals com- ing faster than provision could be made for them. By the close of the year 1790 eight set- tlements had been made within the Ohio Com- pany's purchase, two at Belpre, one at New- bury, one at Wolf Creek, one at Duck Creek, one at the mouth of Meigs' Creek, one at An- derson's Bottom, and one at Big Bottom.

Not long after the grant of lands was made to the Ohio Company, John Cleves Symmes, of New Jersey, contracted with the Treasury Board for the purchase of a large tract of land lying between the Great and Lit- tle Miami Rivers. The terms of this purchase were similar to those of the Ohio Company. In July, 1788, he got together thirty people and eight four-horse wagons who started for the West. After meeting with Mr. Stites and a company from Redstone, Pa., they pro- ceeded, under his leadership, to the mouth of the Little Miami, where they arrived before the Ist of January, 1789, and located on a tract of 10,000 acres which Stites had pur- chased from Symmes. This settlement, which they named Columbia and which was located about five miles above the site of Cincinanti, was the second settlement within Ohio terri- tory.

In 1788 Mathias Denman purchased of Symmes a tract of land opposite the Licking

and John Filson, to each of whom he sold a third interest in his purchase, projected the lo- cation of a town on the present site of Cincin- nati. There is some uncertainty as to the exact time when a settlement was first made here, but it seems to have been late in 1788 or early in 1789. Symmes himself had contemplated building his main town at North Bend, near the mouth of the Great Miami. The fact, however, that this point, as well as Columbia, suffered severely during a great flood which occurred in 1789, while Losantiville, as Cin- cinnati was then called, escaped, had much to do with the fact that the latter soon out- stripped the others in its growth. Ensign Luce, who had been commissioned by General Harmar to establish a fort, decided that North Bend was not a suitable location for that pur- pose, and, contrary to the wishes of Symmes, selected Losantiville. Fort Washington was thus established here. About the Ist of Janu- ary, Governor St. Clair organized the county of Hamilton and constituted Cincinnati its seat of justice. The settlement at once began an active growth, outstripping that of all the others in the Ohio Valley.

At the time Dr. Cutler secured the grant of lands for the Ohio Company, he likewise se- cured a large additional tract, as he himself writes, "for private speculation, in which many of the prominent characters in America are concerned; without connecting this specula- tion, similar terms and advantages could not have been obtained for the Ohio Company." A company was at once formed known by the name of The Scioto Land Company, which contracted with Cutler and Sargent on behalf of the Ohio Company for a tract of land west and north of the Ohio Company's purchase.

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Joel Barlow was sent to Europe, as the agent of the company, to make sales of the lands thus contracted for. He sold parts of the land to companies and individuals in France. It devel- oped, however, that the lands which Barlow had presumed to sell were included within the Ohio Company's purchase, and that the pur- chasers were without title. In ignorance of this fact, however, two hundred and eighteen of these purchasers sailed from Havre de Grace, in France, on the 19th day of February, 1791, and arrived in Alexandria, D. C., on the 3rd of May following. On their arrival they proceeded to Marietta, where fifty of them landed, the remainder going to the present site of Gallipolis, which the agent of the company assured them was within their purchase. Prior to their arrival General Putnam had had the site cleared and buildings erected for their re- ception. As before stated, however, the lands to which alone they could lay any claim, were still farther to the West. Moreover, the Scioto Land Company, by having failed to make good the payments on its contract, forfeited its title to the land which it had purchased, thus leav- ing the settlers themselves without any vestige of title. These settlers, unlike the hardy pio- neers who came from New England, were lit- tle accustomed to toil or to the privations of frontier life. Their condition was pitiable in the extreme and many gave up in despair, some seeking homes in the East and a few re- turning to France. Every effort to secure ti- tles to the lands on which they had settled hav- ing failed, they petitioned Congress for assist- ance and in June, 1787, a grant was made them of land on the Ohio above the mouth of the Scioto River. The tract included 24,000 acres and is known as the French Grant.

During the progress of the various cam-

paigns against the Indians, conducted succes- sively by General Harmar, General St. Clair, and General Wayne, the settlement of Ohio was interrupted to a large extent. Prior to the treaty made with the Indians by General Wayne in 1795, however, a start had been made in several counties, in addition to those in Washington and Hamilton counties already mentioned. The settlement at Gallipolis has already been described. There were also small settlements in Adams, Belmont and Morgan Counties. They were block-house settlements and were in a continual state of defense. The first was settled in the winter of 1790-91 by General Nathaniel Massie, near where the town of Manchester now is. This was the first settlement within the bounds of the Vir- ginia Military District and the fourth in the State. In spite of the dangers due to the hos- tility of the Indians, it continued to grow and, in two years after peace was declared, Adams County was constituted by order of Governor St. Clair.

During the Indian war a settlement was commenced near the present town of Bridge- port in Belmont County, by Captain Joseph Belmont, a noted officer of the Revolutionary War. Shortly afterwards a fort, called Dil- lie's Fort, was built on the Ohio, opposite the mouth of Grave Creek. In 1794 a company of 'men located on the present site of Hamilton in Butler County. The town was first laid out under the name of Fairfield. These were about all the settlements begun prior to the close of the Indian War and they were, for the most part, of a temporary character and main- tained only at constant risk and great loss of life. With the termination of the war, how- ever, and the cessation of Indian hostility emi- gration took a new impetus, and from that

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time the growth of the State's population was State in the vast region northwest of the Ohio constant and vigorous.

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Twentieth Century History of Findlay and Hancock County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, Part 2

Author: Jacob Anthony Kimmell Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1189

Author: Jacob Anthony Kimmell
Publication date: 1910
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1189