HISTORICAL


CHAPTER I.


RELATED STATE HISTORY.


The first white men to set foot upon the Northwest Territory were French traders and missionaries under the leadership of La Salle. This was about the year 1670 and subsequent discoveries and explorations in this region by the French gave that nation practically undisputed possession of all the territory organized in 1787 as the Northwest Territory. It is true that the English colonies of Virginia, Connecticut and Massachusetts claimed that their charters extended their grants westward to the Mississippi river. However, France claimed this territory and successfully maintained possession of it until the close of the French and Indian War in 1763. At that time the treaty of Paris transferred all of the French claims east of the Mississippi river to England, as well as all claims of France to territory on the mainland of North America. For the next twenty years the Northwest Territory was under the undisputed control of England, but became a part of the United States by the treaty which terminated the Revolutionary War in 1783. Thus the flags of three nations have floated over the territory now comprehended within the present state of Ohio—the tricolor of France, the union jack of England and the stars and stripes of the United States.


History will record the fact that there was another nation, however, which claimed possession of this territory and, while the Indians can hardly be called a nation, yet they made a gallant fight to retain their hunting grounds. The real owners of this territory struggled against heavy odds to maintain their supremacy and it was not until the battle of Tippecanoe, in the fall of 1811, that the Indians gave up the unequal struggle. Tecumseh, the Washington of his race, fought fiercely to save this territory for his people, but the white man finally overwhelmed him, and "Lo, the poor Indian" was pushed westward across the Mississippi. The history of the Northwest Territory is full of the bitter fights which the Indian waged in trying to drive


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the white man out and the defeat which the Indians inflicted on General St. Clair on November 4, 1792, will go down in the annals of American history as the worst defeat which an American army ever suffered at the hands of the Indians. The greatest battle which has ever been fought in the United States against the Indians occurred in the state of Ohio. This was the battle of Fallen Timbers and occurred August 20, 1794, the scene of the battle being within the present county of Defiance. After the close of the Revolutionary War the Indians, urged on by the British, caused the settlers in the Northwest Territory continual trouble and defeated every detachment sent against them previous to their defeat by Gen. Anthony Wayne at the battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. Although there was some trouble with the Indians after this time, they never offered serious resistance after this memorable defeat until the fall of 181 t, when Gen. William Henry Harrison completely routed them at the battle of Tippecanoe.


NORTHWEST TERRITORY ( I 670-1754).


Ohio was as the first state created out of the old Northwest Territory, although Indiana had been previously organized as a territory. When the land comprehended within the Northwest Territory was discovered by the French under La Salle about 1670, it was a battle ground of various Indian tribes, although the Eries, who were located along the shores of Lake Erie, were the only ones with a more or less definite territory. From 1670 to 1763, the close of the French and Indian War, the French were in possession of this territory and established their claims in a positive manner by extensive exploration and scattered settlements. The chief centers of French settlement were at Detroit, Vincennes, Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Fort Crevecour and at several missionary stations around the shores of the great lakes. The French did not succeed in doing this without incurring the hostility of the Iroquois Indians, a bitter enemity which was brought about chiefly because the French helped the Shawnees, Wyandots and Miamis to drive the Iroquois out of the territory west of the Muskingum river in Ohio.


It must not be forgotten that the English also laid claim to the Northwest Territory, basing their claim on the discoveries of the Cabots and the subsequent charters of Virginia, Massachusetts and Connecticut. These charters extended the limits of these three colonies westward to the Pacific ocean, although, as a matter of fact, none of the three colonies made a settlement west of the Alleghanies until after the Revolutionary War. New York sought to strengthen her claim to territory west of the Alleghanies in 1701,


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by getting from the Iroquois, the bitter enemies of the French, a grant to the territory from which the French and their Indian allies had previously expelled them. Although this grant was renewed in 1726 and again confirmed in 1744, it gave New York only a nominal claim and one which was never recognized by the French in any way.


English traders from Pennsylvania and Virginia began in 1730 to pay more attention to the claims of their country west of the Alleghanies and north of the Ohio river. When their activities reached the ears of the French the governor of French Canada sent. Celeron de Bienville up and down the Ohio and the rivers and streams running into it from the north and took formal possession of the territory by planting lead plates at the mouth of every river and stream of any importance. This peculiar method of the French in seeking to establish their claims occurred in the year 1749 and opened the eyes of England to the necessity of taking some immediate action. George II, the king of England at the time, at once granted a charter for the first Ohio Company (there were two others by the same name later organized), composed of London merchants and enterprising Virginians, and the company at once proceeded to formulate plans to secure possession of the territory north of 'the Ohio and west of the Mississippi. Christopher Gist was sent down the Ohio river in 1750 to explore the country as far west as the mouth of the Scioto river, and made several treaties with the Indians. Things were now rapidly approaching a crisis and it was soon evident that there would be a struggle of arms between England and France for the disputed region. In 1754 the English started to build a fort at the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers, on the site of the present city of Pittsburgh, but before the fort was completed the French appeared on the scene, drove the English away and finished the fort which had been begun.


FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR (1754-63).


The crisis had finally come. The struggle which followed between the two nations ultimately resulted in the expulsion of the French from the mainland of America as well as from the immediate territory in dispute. The war is known in America as the French and Indian War and in the history of the world as the Seven Years' War, the latter designation being due to the fact that it lasted that length of time. The struggle developed into a world-wide conflict and the two nations fought over three continents, America, Europe and Asia. It is not within the province of this resume of the history of Ohio to go into the details of this memorable struggle. It is


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sufficient for the purpose at hand to state that the treaty of Paris, which terminated the war in 1763, left France without any of her former possessions on the mainland of America.


PONTIAC'S CONSPIRACY (1763-64).


With the English in control of America east of the Mississippi river and the French regime forever ended, the Indians next command the attention of the historian who deals with the Northwest Territory. The French were undoubtedly responsible for stirring up their former Indian allies and Pontiac's conspiracy must be credited to the influence of that nation. This formidable uprising was successfully overthrown by Henry Bouquet, who led an expedition in 1764 into the present state of Ohio and compelled the Wyandots, Delawares and Shawnees to sue for peace.


NORTHWEST TERRITORY AND QUEBEC ACT.


From 1764- to 1774, no events of particular importance occurred within the territory north of the Ohio river, but in the latter year ( June 22, 1774), England, then at the breaking point with the colonies, passed the Quebec act, which attached this territory to the province of Quebec for administrative purposes. This intensified the feeling of resentment which the colonies bore against their mother country and is given specific mention in their list of grievances which they enumerated in their Declaration of Independence. The Revolutionary War came on at once and this act, of course, was never put into execution.


REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD (1775-83).


During the War for independence (1775-1783), the various states with claims to western lands agreed with the Continental Congress to surrender their claims to the national government. In fact, the Articles of Confederation were not signed until all of the states had agreed to do this and Maryland withheld her assent to the articles until March I, 1780, on this account. In accordance with this agreement New York ceded her claim to the United States in 1780, Virginia in 1784, Massachusetts in 1785 and Connecticut in 1786, although the latter state excepted a one-hundred-and-twenty-mile strip of three million five hundred thousand acres bordering on Lake Erie. This strip was formally relinquished in 1800, with the understanding that the


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"United States would guarantee the titles already issued by that state. Virginia was also allowed a reservation, known as the Virginia Military District, which lay between the Little Miami and Scioto rivers, the same being for distribution among her Revolutionary veterans. There is one other fact which should be mentioned in connection with the territory north of the Ohio in the Revolutionary period. This was the memorable conquest of the territory by Gen. George Rogers Clark. During the years 1778 and 1779, this redoubtable leader captured Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Vincennes and thereby drove the English out of the Northwest Territory. It is probable that this notable campaign secured this territory for the Americans and that without it we would not have had it included in our possessions in the treaty which closed the Revolutionary War.


FIRST SURVEYS AND EARLY SETTLERS.


The next period in the history of the territory north of the Ohio begins with the passage of a congressional act (May 20, 1785), which provided for the present system of land surveys into townships six miles square. As soon as this was put into operation, settlers—and mostly Revolutionary soldiers—began to pour into the newly surveyed territory. A second Ohio Company was organized in the spring of 1786, made up chiefly of Revolutionary officers and soldiers from New England, and this company proposed to establish a state somewhere between Lake Erie and the Ohio river. At this juncture Congress realized that definite steps should be made at once for some kind of government over this extensive territory, a territory which now includes the present states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and about a third of Minnesota. Various plans were proposed in Congress and most of the sessions of 1786 and the first half of 1787 were consumed in trying to formulate a suitable form of government for the extensive territory. The result of all these deliberations resulted in the famous Ordinance of 1787, which was finally passed on July 13, 1787.


ORDINANCE OF 1787.


There have been many volumes written about this instrument of government and to this day there is a difference of opinion as to who was its author. The present article can do no more than merely sketch its outline and set forth the main provisions. It was intended to provide only a temporary government and to serve until such a time as the population of the


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territory would warrant the creation of states with the same rights and privileges which the thirteen original states enjoyed. It stipulated that not less than three nor more than five states should ever be created out of the whole territory and the maximum number was finally organized, although it was not until 1848 that the last state, Wisconsin, was admitted to the Union. The third article, "Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged," has given these five states the basis for their excellent system of public schools, state normals, colleges and universities. Probably the most widely discussed article was the sixth, which provided that slavery and involuntary servitude should never be permitted within the territory and by the use of the word "forever" made the territory free for all time. It is interesting to note in this connection that both Indiana and Illinois before their admission to the Union sought to have this provision set aside, but every petition from the two states was refused by Congress in accordance with the provision of the Ordinance.


FIRST STAGE OF GOVERNMENT UNDER THE ORDINANCE.


The ordinance contemplated two grades of territorial government. During the operation of the first grade of government the governor, his secretary and the three judges provided by the ordinance were to be appointed by Congress and the governor in turn was to appoint "such magistrates and other civil officers in each county and township as he shall deem necessary for the preservation of the peace and good will of the same." After the federal government was organized a statutory provision took the appointment of these officers out of the hands of Congress and placed it in the hands of the President of the United States. All executive authority was given to the governor, all judicial authority to the three judges, while the governor and judges, in joint session, constituted the legislative body. This means that during the first stage of territorial government the people had absolutely no voice in the affairs of government and this state of affairs lasted until 1799, a period of twelve years.


SECOND STAGE OF GOVERNMENT UNDER THE ORDINANCE.


The second stage of government in the territory was to begin whenever the governor was satisfied that there were at least five thousand free male inhabitants of the age of twenty-one and above. The main difference be-


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tween the first and second stages of territorial government lay in the fact that the legislative functions were taken from the governor and judges and given to a "general assembly or legislature." The ordinance provided for the election of one representative for each five hundred free male inhabitants, the tenure of the office to be two years. While the members of the lower house were to be elected by the qualified voters of the territory,. the upper house, to consist of five members, were to be appointed by Congress in a somewhat complicated manner. The house of representatives were to select ten men and these ten names were to be sent to Congress and out of this number five were to be selected by Congress. This provision, like the appointment of the governor, was later changed so as to make the upper house the appointees of the President of the United States. The five men so selected were called councilors and held office for five years.


ORGANIZATION OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.


The first governor of the newly organized territory was Gen. Arthur St. Clair, a gallant soldier of the Revolution, who was appointed on October 5, 1787, and ordered to report for duty on the first of the following February. He held the office until November 22, 1802, when he was dismissed by President Jefferson "for the disorganizing spirit, and tendency of every example, violating the rules of conduct enjoined by his public station, as displayed in his address to the convention." The governor's duties were performed by his secretary, Charles W. Byrd, until March I, 1803, when the state officials took their office. The first judges appointed were Samuel Holden Parsons, James Mitchell Varnum and John Armstrong. Before the time came for the judges to qualify, Armstrong resigned and John Cleves Symmes was appointed in his place. The first secretary was Winthrop Sargent, who held the position until he was appointed governor of Mississippi Territory by the President on May 2, 1798. Sargent was succeeded by William Henry Harrison, who was appointed by the President on June 26, 1798, and confirmed by the Senate two days later. Harrison was later elected as the first delegate of the organized Northwest Territory to Congress and the President then appointed Charles Willing Byrd as secretary of the Territory, Byrd's appointment being confirmed by the Senate on December 31, 1799.


REPRESENTATIVE STAGE OF GOVERNMENT (1700-1803).


The Northwest Territory remained under the government of the first stage until September 16, 1799, when it formally advanced to the second or


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representative stage. In the summer of 1798 Governor St. Clair had ascertained that the territory had a population of at least five thousand free male inhabitants and, in accordance with the provisions of the Ordinance of 1787, was ready to make the change in its form of government. On October 29, 1798, the governor issued a proclamation to the qualified voters of the Territory directing them to choose members for the lower house of the Territorial Legislature at an election to be held on the third Monday of the following December. The twenty-two members so elected met on January 16, 1799, and, pursuant to the provisions of the ordinance, selected the ten men from whom the President of the United States later chose five for the Legislative Council. They then adjourned to meet on September 16, 1799, but since there was not a quorum on that day they held adjourned sessions until the 23rd, at which time a quorum was present.


At the time the change in the form of government went into effect there were only nine counties in the whole territory. These counties had been organized either by the governor or his secretary. The following table gives the nine counties organized before 1799 with the dates of their organization and the number of legislators proportioned to each by the governor :



County.

Date of

organization.

Number of

representatives

Washington

Hamilton

St. Clair

Knox

Randolph

Wayne

Adams

Jefferson

Ross

July 27, 1788

January 4, 1790

April 27, 1790

June 20, 1790

October 5, 1795

August 6, 1796

July 10, 1797

July 29, 1797

August 20, 1798

2

7

1

1

1

3

2

1

4





FIRST TERRITORIAL LEGISLATURE OF NORTHWEST TERRITORY.


The twenty-two representatives and five councilors were the first representative body to meet in the Northwest Territory and they represented a constituency scattered over a territory of more than two hundred and sixty-five thousand square miles, an area greater than Germany or France, or even Austria-Hungary. It would be interesting to tell something of the deliberations of these twenty-seven sterling pioneers, but the limits of the present article forbids. It is necessary, however, to make mention of one important


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thing which they (lid in view of the fact that it throws much light on the subsequent history of the Northwest Territory.


DIVISION OF 1800.


The Legislature was authorized to elect a delegate to Congress and two candidates for the honor presented their names to the Legislature, William Henry Harrison and Arthur St. Clair, Jr., the son of the governor. The Legislature, by a joint ballot on October 3, 1799, elected Harrison by a vote of eleven to ten. The defeat of his son undoubtedly had considerable to do with the subsequent estrangement which arose between the governor and his legislature and incidentally hastened the division of the Northwest Territory. Within two years from the time the territory had advanced to the second stage of government the division had taken place. On May 7, 1800, Congress passed an act dividing the Northwest Territory by a line drawn from the mouth of the Kentucky river to Fort Recovery, in Mercer county, Ohio, and thence due north to the boundary line between the United States and Canada. Governor St. Clair favored the division because he thought it would delay the organization of a state and thus give him a longer lease on his position, but he did not favor the division as finally determined. He was constantly growing in disfavor with the people on account of his overbearing manner and he felt that he would get rid of some of his bitterest enemies if the western inhabitants were set off into a new territory. However, the most of the credit for the division must be given to Harrison, who, as a delegate to Congress, was in a position to have the most influence. Harrison also was satisfied that in case a new territory should be formed he would be appointed its first governor and he was not disappointed. The territory west of the line above mentioned was immediately organized and designated as Indiana Territory, while the eastern portion retained the existing government and the old name—Northwest Territory. It is frequently overlooked that the Northwest Territory existed in fact and in name up until March 1,

I 803.


CENSUS OF NORTH WEST TERRITORY IN 1800.


The division of 1800 left the Northwest Territory with only about one-third of its original area. The census of the territory taken by the United States government in 1800 showed it to have a total population of forty-five thousand three hundred and sixty-five, which fell short by about fifteen thou-


(3)


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sand of being sufficient for the creation of a state as provided by the Ordinance of 1787, which fixed the minimum population at sixty thousand. The counties, left in the Northwest Territory, with their respective population, are set forth in the appended table, all of which were within the present state of Ohio, except Wayne :



Adams

Hamilton

Jefferson

Ross

Trumbull

Washington

Wayne

3,432

14,632

8,766

8,540

1.302

5,427

3,206

Total

45,365





The population as classified by the census with respect to age and sex is interesting and particularly so in showing that considerably more than 0ne-third of the total population were children under ten years of age.



 

Males.

Females

Whites up to ten years 0f age

Whites from ten to sixteen

Whites from sixteen to twenty-six.

Whites from twenty-six to forty-five

Whites forty-five and upward

9,362

3,647

4,636

4,833

1,955

8,644

3,353

3,861

3,342

1,395

Total

24,433

20,595

Total of both sexes

 

45,028

Total of other persons, not Indians

 

337

Grand total

 

45,365





A digressi0n is necessary at this point in order to trace the growth of settlement of the territory now within the present state of Ohio up to 1803. when it was admitted to the Union as a state. Marietta, founded in July, 1788, by the Ohio Company, is the oldest permanent settlement in the state. A number of New Jersey settlers were organized by John Cleves Symmes, and Symmes succeeded in securing a grant of land from Congress (17881792) containing two hundred forty-eight thousand five hundred and forty


FAYETTE COUNTY, OHIO - 35


acres, located between the Great Miami and Little Miami rivers. This grant of land is known in Ohio history as the Symmes purchase and contained the settlements of Columbia (1788) and Cincinnati (1789), although the fatter place was first christened Losantiville. The man wh0 devised this name exercised no small amount of ingenuity in its manufacture. The proposed settlement happened to he located at the mouth of the Licking river and this circumstance, with a little knowledge of Latin and a vivid imagination, was responsible for this hybrid w0rd. The Latin word for town is "villa," which is Anglicized into "ville;" the Latin for opposite is "anti" and for mouth "os." These three Latin words account for the completed word, with the exception of the "L," and this letter is the initial letter of Licking, To make the word clear it must be read backward, syllable at a time—thus L-os-antivuille, which being interpreted means the town opposite the m0uth of the Licking.


The Virginia Military District, to which reference has been made, was settled largely by people from that state. The Connecticut Reserve, along Lake Erie, attracted many settlers from that state, among whom should be mentioned Moses Cleaveland, who, in 1796, founded the city which bears his name. The northern part of the state did not begin to fill up rapidly until after 1832, when the Ohio-Erie canal was opened for traffic. There have been estimates running from fifteen to twenty thousand as to the number of people who floated down the Ohio river within a year after the Ordinance of 1787 went into effect.


COUNTY ORGANIZATION (1788-1810).


It has already been stated that there were nine counties within the Northwest Territory in 1799, when it advanced to the second stage of territorial government. According to the provisions of the ordinance, the creation of new counties was in the hands 0f the governor, although after the federal constitution went into effect the secretary was also given the same power. Knox and Wayne counties were started by Secretary Winthrop Sargent according to this provision. The state of Ohio is now divided into eighty-eight counties, ten of which were created before the state was admitted to the Union on March 1, 1803. The counties organized by Governor St. Clair, or his secretary, from 1788, when Washington county was organized. up to 1803, when the state was admitted t0 the Union, are ten in number : Washington, Hamilton, Wayne, Adams, Jefferson, Ross, Trumbull, Clermont, Fairfield and Belmont. The dates of the creation of the first six


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have already been given. Trumbull county was organized on July 10, 1800; Clermont and Fairfield, December 9, 1800; Belmont, September 7, 1801. Between the years 1803 and 1810, when Fayette county was organized, there were no less than twenty-four counties organized within the state of Ohio. The first session of the General Assembly of the state organized eight counties, as follows: Franklin, Gallia, Greene, Scioto, Warren, Butler, Montgomery and Columbiana. Muskingum started its independent existence on the first day of March, 1804. In 1805 there were four counties created, Champaign, Athens, Geauga and Highland. The session of 1807 added four more to the rapidly growing state, Miami, Ashtabula, Cuyahoga and Portage. The following year saw six new counties opened for entry, Delaware, Stark, Tuscarawas, Preble, Knox and Licking. One county, Huron, was created in 1809. The five counties organized in 1810 include Fayette. the history of which is the main theme of this volume. The other counties created in this year are Pickaway, Guernsey, Clinton and Madison. This makes a total of thirty-nine counties up to and including the year 1810. In this year Cincinnati, the largest city of the state, boasted of a population of two thousand three hundred and twenty, while Fayette, which had been made out of parts of Highland and Ross counties, started out with a total population of one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.


INDIAN WARS ( 1787-1803).


The period from 1787 to 1803 in the Northwest Territory was marked by several bitter conflicts with the Indians. Just as at the close of the French and Indian War had the French stirred up the Indians against the Americans, so at the close of the Revolutionary War did the English do the same thing. This inciting of the Indians by the British was one of the causes of the War of 1812, a struggle which has very appropriately been called the second War for Independence. The various uprisings of the Indians up to 1794 retarded the influx of settlers and was a constant menace to those who did venture into the territory. Three distinct campaigns were waged against the Indians during this period before they were finally subdued. The first campaign was under the command of Gen. Josiah Harmar, 1790, and resulted in a decisive defeat for the whites. The second expedition was under the leadership of Gen. Arthur St. Clair, the governor of the Territory, and was marked by one of the worst defeats ever suffered by an American army at the hands of the Indians. A lack of knowledge of Indian methods of warfare, combined with reckless mismanagement, sufficiently accounts for


FAYETTE COUNTY, OHIO -37


both disasters. It remained for Gen. Anthony Wayne, the "Mad Anthony" of Revolutionary fame, to bring the Indians to terms. The battle which closed his campaign against the Indians is known as the battle of Fallen Timbers and was fought on August 20, 1794. The scene of the battle lies along the Maumee river within the limits of the present county of Defiance. This crushing defeat of the Indians, a rout in which they had lost twelve out of thirteen chiefs, was so complete that the Indians were glad to sue for peace. On June 10, 1795, delegates from the various Indian tribes, headed by their chiefs, met at Greenville, Ohio, to formulate a treaty. The United States government appointed General Wayne as commissioner plenipotentiary to draft the treaty and, after nearly two months of bickering, a treaty was drawn up on August 3, 1795. It was signed by General Wayne on behalf of the United States and by ninety chiefs and the delegates of twelve interested tribes. The treaty was faithfully kept by the Indians and ever afterward Little Turtle, the real leader of the Indians, was a true friend of the whites. It may be said that this battle of Fallen Timbers was the most important battle fought in America between the close of the War for Independence and the battle of Tippecanoe in the fall of 1811. To Gen. Anthony Wayne will remain the honor of opening the way for the permanent settlement of the Northwest Territory.


THE FORMATION OF A NEW STATE.


The three years intervening between the creation of Indian Territory (May 7, 1800), and the admission of Ohio to the Union (March 1, 1803), are marked by an acrimonious struggle during which Governor St. Clair was constantly growing in disfavor with his Legislature and the great mass of the people of the Territory. The Legislature wanted a state formed as soon as possible and succeeded in getting Congress to pass an act, April 30, 1802, authorizing the calling of a constitutional convention. This act established the limits of the proposed new state as follows : 'That part of the Northwest Territory hounded east by Pennsylvania. south by the Ohio river, west by a line drawn from the mouth of the Big Miami river due north to an east and west line passing through the south extremity of Lake Michigan, and by this line and the Canada line through Lake Erie to the west line of Pennsylvania." Since these boundaries omitted the eastern half of the present state of Michigan which had been left a part of the Northwest Territory by the division of May 7, 1800, it was denounced as a fraud by the Federalists in the omitted territory. However, it is very plain that Congress carried out


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the intent of the Ordinance of 1787 by their act and the charge of political trickery fails of substantiation in the light of the specific provisions therein set forth regarding the creation of states out of the Northwest Territory. The enabling act provided for an election for delegates to the constitutional convention to be held in September of the same year ( 1802), the delegates to meet at Chillicothe on the first Monday of the following. November. The thirty-five delegates met at the appointed time and by a vote of thirty-four to one, the negative vote being cast by Ephraim Cutler, decided to proceed at once to the organization of a state government and the formation of a constitution. The convention was in session until November 29th, at which time it had completed the first constitution for the state and the one which lasted until 1851, when a second constitution was adopted.


WHEN WAS OHIO ADMITTED TO THE UNION ?


It is interesting to note the difficulty which Ohio historians have had in trying to fix upon the date which marks the formal admission of the state to the Union.


The natal day of Ohio has given rise to more dispute than the natal clay of any other state in the Union. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that Congress never passed an act formally admitting it to the Union. There have been no less than five dates assigned by as many different authorities and each group of historians substantiate their claim by the citation of facts. These five dates are as follows : April 30, 1802 ; November 29, 1802; February 19, 1803; March 1, 1803; March 3, 1803.


The first date (April 30, 1802) has for its chief sponsor the editor of the "United States Statutes at Large." This date is not tenable at all, since the territorial judges were in office for several months after this date and were, by the congressional act of February 21, 1806, paid their full salaries up to March I, 1803. The second date (November 29, 1802) is advanced by Hickey in his volume, "The Constitution," on the ground that the constitution was adopted on that day. The third date (February 19, 1803) has been held by several good authorities, notably, Caleb Atwater, in his "Political Manual;" G. W. Pascal, in his "Annotated Constitution," and the late president of Marietta College, I. W. Andrews. It was upon this date that Congress passed an act to "provide for the due execution of the laws of the United States within the state of Ohio." This would seem to indicate that Congress recognized February 19, 1803, as the date of the admission of Ohio to the Union, but when it is recalled that Congress had not vet appointed the


FAYETTE COUNTY, OHIO - 39


necessary judicial officers it must be concluded that this is not the proper date. The fourth date (March 1, 1803) is now recognized officially as the actual day on which Ohio formally entered the Union, although it was an act of Congress passed nearly three years later which definitely settled this fact. The question arose in 1806 in Congress regarding the payment of the territorial officers and the act of February 21st of that year ordered that the governor and judges be paid for their services up to March 1, 1803. There can be no question but that Congress placed its official approval on this date as being the first day of Ohio's existence as a separate state. The fifth and last date (March 3, 1803) was advanced as the real date of the admission of the state, for the reason that on this date Congress gave its approval to certain changes in the constitution of the state which had been adopted on November 29, 1802. These changes related to the disposition of certain school lands within the state and were of minor importance and in no sense advocated any radical changes in the constitution of the state. However, on March 3, 1803, the state had been in full operation for a space of three days and exercising all the rights and privileges of a state; the governor had been installed; the Legislature was in session and the various state officials were discharging their duties in accordance with the constitution. Thus it must be concluded from all available evidence that Ohio was admitted to the Union on March 1, 1803.


CAPITALS OF NORTHWEST TERRITORY AND OHIO.


The capital of the Northwest Territory was located within the present limits of Ohio during the whole existence of the Territory both before and after the division of the Territory in 1800. When the Ordinance of 1787 was formally put into operation, on July 17, 1788, the capital was established at Marietta, the name being chosen by the directors of the Ohio Company on July 2, 1788. The name of Marietta was selected in honor of the French Queen Marie Antoinette, compounded by a curious combination of the first and last syllables of her name.


The capital remained at Marietta until 1800, when it was moved by the congressional act of May 7th of that year to Chillicothe and by the constitution adopted in 1802 the capital was to remain there at least until 1808. The Legislature of 1809 moved the capital to Zanesville until such time as a permanent site should be selected. The Legislature at the same time that it moved the capital to Zanesville appointed commissioners to report at the following sessions "the most eligible and central spot for permanently establish-


40 - FAYETTE COUNTY, OHIO.


ing it." The approaching War of 1812 made it necessary to take the capital back to Chillicothe, where there was less danger from attack by the Indians and British. The commissioners appointed by the Legislature of 1809 selected a small village by the name of Dublin, on the Scioto, about fourteen miles north of Columbus, but the Legislature refused to abide by their choice.


The capital was permanently located at Columbus by the legislative act of February 14, 1812, although no less than nine different sites were under consideration before the final decision was made. The act selecting the site did not choose a name for the proposed city and this honor belongs to Joseph Foos; the senator from Franklin county, who had been largely instrumental in the selection of the Legislature. At that time there was a solitary log cabin on the site and the whole tract was covered with a dense forest. The act of February 17, 1816, formally designated Columbus as the capital "from and after the second Tuesday of October, 1816." During the War of 1812, and until the buildings were ready at Columbus, the capital remained at Chillicothe.


CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF OHIO.


The state of Ohio has had four constitutional conventions : 1802, 1850-51, 1873-74 and 1912. The constitution of 1802, it is interesting to note, was never submitted to the people for ratification. Between the adoption of the first and second constitution there was an effort to hold a constitutional convention. A resolution, passed December 25, 1818, authorized a vote on the question of holding a constitutional convention, but at the election which was subsequently held it was decided adversely by a vote of 29,315 to 6,987.


The main facts concerning the second constitutional convention may be briefly summed up as follows: The Legislature on October 9, 1849, authorized a vote on the question of holding a convention and the voters of the state cast a majority of 94,531 in favor of the constitutional convention. The vote stood 145,698 for and 51,167 against the convention. On April 1, 1850, the one hundred and eight delegates were elected and on the 6th of the following May they met at Columbus. The convention was in continuous session until July 9, 1850, and then, not having yet completed their deliberations, adjourned to meet again on December 2, 1850. The second session continued to hold daily meetings until March Jo, 1851, when it finally concluded its labors after having spent a total of one hundred and sixty-three days. The constitution was submitted to the people of the state on June 17, 1851, and adopted by a vote of 125,564 to 109,276.


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An attempt to adopt a new constitution was made in 1874, but failed. On March 30, 1871, the Legislature provided for a vote on the question of holding a constitutional convention and at an election held October to, 1871, it was decided, by a vote of 267,618 to 104,231, to hold such a convention. On April 6, 1873, the one hundred and five delegates to the convention were elected and on the 13th of the following month they met and organized. The convention continued in session from that date until August 8th, and, after a recess, met on December 2d and remained in continuous session until May 15th of the following year. The convention held daily sessions for one hundred and eighty days, one of the longest constitutional conventions ever held in the United States. With all this deliberation it would seem that a satisfactory constitution could have been framed, but the voters of the state, on August 18, 1874, rejected it by a vote of 250,169 to 102,885. This expensive attempt to make a new constitution was sufficient to thwart all efforts along this line for several years. However, the changes in economic, social and industrial conditions became more pronounced year by year, and on March 9, 1909, the Legislature submitted the question of holding a constitutional convention. At an election held on November 8, 1910, it was decided. by a vote of 693,263 to 67,718, to select delegates to a constitutional convention. The convention met on the second Tuesday of January, 1912, and remained in session until June 8, 1912, when it finally concluded its labors. This convention submitted forty-two changes in the existing constitution and on September 3d of the same year the qualified voters of the state accepted all but eight of the proposed amendments. The eight amendments lost are as follows : Suffrage, good roads, advertising, injunctions, capital punishment, voting machines, eligibility of women and elimination of word "white" from the constitution. The amendments which carried by various majorities concerned the following subjects : Jury system, depositions, suits, wrongful death, initiative and referendum, investigations, limiting veto, mechanics' lien, welfare, compensations, conservation of natural resources, eight-hour day, removal of officials, expert testimony, land titles, prison contracts, extra sessions, reform of the judiciary, county judges, justices, school boards, school commissioners, insurance, abolishing of board of public works, taxation, corporations, double liability, state printing, civil service, submission of amendments, home rule for cities, schedule and license. The fight was the most hitter on woman's suffrage and the initiative and referendum. The vote on the first proposition was 249,420 to 336,875 and was defeated largely on account of the activity of the liquor interests. The initiative and referen-


42 - FAYETTE COUNTY, OHIO.


dum carried by a vote of 312,592 to 231,312, despite the fact that every ruse and trick known to professional politicians was used to compass its defeat.


On November 3, 1914, there were four constitutional amendments submitted to the voters of the state and the two which caused the most discussion, viz., woman's suffrage and prohibition, were defeated. The other two amendments related to home rule for cities and the regulation of the liquor traffic.


MILITARY RECORD.


The state of Ohio has had its citizens in four wars in which the United States has engaged since 1803: the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Civil War and the Spanish-American War. It is very unfortunate that the public records of Ohio contain no list of the soldiers of the state who fought in the War of 1812, although large numbers of the citizens served in the field under various commanders. The records as regards the Mexican War are fairly complete and show that a total of 5,536 men were sent to the front by the state. When the call was first issued for troops, Ohio was called upon to furnish three thousand men and within a short time forty companies reported at Camp Washington, near Cincinnati. Thirty companies were formed into three regiments, commanded by Cols. Alexander M. Mitchell, George W. Morgan and Samuel R. Curtis. These troops were sent down the Ohio in July, 1846, and joined General Taylor on the Rio Grande. In 1847 additional troops were sent from Ohio, but none of them saw any active service. The regiment under the command of Mitchell was the only one to take part in a battle. and it distinguished itself in the storming of Monterey. The state of Ohio suffered a severe loss in the death of Brig.-Gen. Thomas L. Hamer, one of the most prominent men of the state at that time. He was a member of Congress at the time of the opening of the war, but left Congress, enlisted as a private and soon after received a commission as brigadier-general. He was in the operations around Monterey and shortly afterward was stricken with a fatal disease and died on December 30, 1846.


The part which Ohio played in the Civil War can be only briefly noticed in this resume of the history of the state. That Ohio did her full duty as a loyal member of the Union is a fact which is known to everyone. Within twenty-four hours from the time the President issued his first call for troops on April 16, 1860, the Legislature had passed a bill appropriating one million dollars for military purposes. Two days later (April 19) two regiments of Ohio troops left by rail for Washington. The ease and quickness with which


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this was accomplished is an indication of the intense loyalty of the state. It is a glowing tribute to the state of Ohio that although there were only thirteen regiments assigned to the state under the first call, enough men presented themselves to make more than seventy regiments. This outburst of loyalty was such that the Legislature authorized the governor to accept ten more regiments, and the state itself equipped and paid these additional men and enrolled them for the defense of the state. By October 1, 1862, the state had enrolled militia to the number of 425,147 and the state sent out for duty outside of its own limits 319.659 men, although their quota was only 306,322. This gives the state the honor of furnishing more than one-tenth of the total enlistment of men in the Northern army. The soldiers were a part of every army, participated in every campaign, fought in every important battle from Bull Run to Bentonville, from Sabine Cross Roads to Gettysburg. No less than forty-three Ohio regiments of infantry were present at the sanguinary engagement at Missionary Ridge and they were in like proportion at the other battles. Twelve thousand brave Ohio men were killed or mortally wounded and at least forty thousand received wounds of some kind. Thirteen thousand died of disease in the service and twenty thousand were discharged for disability arising from wounds or disease. These figures give some idea of the prominent part which the soldiers of Ohio played in the great struggle.


It is pertinent to say something of the activity of the anti-war party in the state during the time the struggle was going on. In the summer of 1863 the Democrats of the state nominated Vallandigham for governor, a man who was very outspoken in his denunciation of the war, but John Brough, a stanch Union man, had no difficulty in defeating him for the governorship. The part which Vallandigham subsequently played in the history of his state is sufficient proof that it was for the best interests of the state that he was defeated.


The Spanish-American War of 1898 has been the last one in which troops from Ohio have taken any part. Following the call of President McKinley for seventy-five thousand volunteers, Ohio had no difficulty in filling their quota. This war opened officially on April 25th and formally came to an end by the signing of a protocol on August 12th. The battles of Manila Bay, Santiago, El Caney and San Juan Hill were the only engagements of importance. According to the treaty of Paris, which was signed December 12, 1898, Spain relinquished her sovereignty over Cuba, ceded to the United States Porto Rico and her other West India possessions and the


44 - FAYETTE COUNTY, OHIO.


Island of Guam, and transferred her rights in the Philippines for a sum of twenty million dollars paid to her for public works and improvements which belonged to the Spanish government.


THE LAND GRANTS OF OHIO.


Ohio was the first state organized out of the territory north of the Ohio river and east of the Mississippi river and was divided into several grants, reservations and military districts of one kind and another. These various divisions have led to an endless amount of confusion in the surveying of lands in the state and in many cases in expensive litigation. A brief summary of each one of these divisions is here presented.


THE OHIO LAND COMPANY PURCHASE.


This company was organized March 3, 1786, at Boston and on October 27, 1787, bought from the government 1,500,000 acres and received, outside of the portions reserved by Congress, 1,064,285 acres. Congress set aside the sixteenth section of each township for school purposes, the twenty-ninth section for religious purposes and the eighth, eleventh and twenty-sixth for such purposes as Congress might determine in the future. This tract included what was known as the "Donation Tract" of 100,000 acres, the same now being the northern part of Washington county. For this immense tract the Ohio Company paid the government sixty-six and two-thirds cents an acre.


THE FRENCH GRANT.


The secretary of the United Board of Treasury, William Duer, was instrumental in helping the Ohio Company to secure from Congress the option on 3,000,000 acres lying west and north of the original purchase of this company. The title to this tract remained in the government and out of this peculiar arrangement arose the Scioto Company, which was organized in France. Hundreds of deluded Frenchmen invested their money in this tract and received cloudy titles which caused no little trouble in later years. A large number of these French settlers landed on the banks of the Ohio on October 20, 1790, on the site of the present city of Gallipolis, which they founded and named. The Scioto Company was incompetently managed, became insolvent and the land on which the unfortunate Frenchmen had settled reverted to the United States government. While the most of them remained,


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there were many of them who went on farther west and located where other French settlers had previously established themselves. The United States treated the remaining French settlers in a very generous manner and by the act of March 3, 1795, granted them 24,000 acres on the Ohio river within the present limits of Scioto county.


THE SYMMES PURCHASE.


In 1788 John Cleves Symmes and other men of New Jersey organized the Miami Company and bought from the United States 1,000,000 acres, for which the company agreed to pay sixty-six and two-thirds cents an acre. As in the case of the purchase of the Ohio Company, the government made reservations of school and church sections, as well as three additional sections for general purposes. The Miami Company later found out that they had contracted for more than they could pay and the records show that they received and paid for only 311,682 acres in the southern part of the tract. It is interesting to note that the present site of Cincinnati was sold by the company to one Matthias Denman for the sum of five hundred dollars. The city of Cincinnati was founded the following year and the monument in that city on Third street, between Broadway and Ludlow streets, marks the location of Fort Washington, which was erected to protect the infant city from the Indians.


CONNECTICUT RESERVE.


In the year 1786 the state of Connecticut relinquished all her claims to lands in the Northwest Territory with the exception of a strip of 3,500,000 acres bordering Lake Erie. This immense tract became an integral part of Ohio as the result of two separate acts on the part of Connecticut. The state granted 500,000 acres in the western part of the reserve in 1792 to those citizens of Connecticut whose homes had been burned by the British during the Revolutionary War. The towns of Norwalk, Greenwich, Fairfield, New Haven and New London furnished the greater part of the eighteen hundred who took advantage of the generous offer of their state. The land was surveyed into townships of five miles square and divided among the settlers in proportion to their losses. In 1795 the Connecticut Land Company purchased the rest of the reserve, amounting to 3,000,000 acres, and on April 28, 1800, the United States government passed an act which paved the way for the final absorption of the tract by the state of Ohio. In May, T800, the Connect-


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icut Legislature accepted the offer of the United States and formally renounced all claims to the territory in favor of the state of Ohio.


THE VIRGINIA MILITARY DISTRICT.


The reservation was retained by Virginia when the state relinquished her claim to Congress in 1784, being retained by the state for the use of the Revolutionary soldiers who had enlisted from Virginia. It comprised the territory between the Little Miami and Scioto rivers, but was not to be used unless the lands claimed by Virginia south of the Ohio river proved insufficient to pay all of the bounties promised by Virginia to her soldiers. By the year 1790 it was seen that Virginia would not have enough territory south of the Ohio to satisfy all of her needs and accordingly, in August of that year, Congress passed an act allowing the state to use the optional territory north of the Ohio river. Owing to the fact that the territory was not surveyed according to any definite plan, the various allotments assigned to the Virginia soldiers frequently overlapped and in many instances confusion and litigation resulted.


THE UNITED STATES MILITARY LANDS.


The Continental Congress (luring the Revolutionary War offered bounties of Western lands in order to increase enlistments. and soldiers so secured were given land warrants hich they later presented to Congress and exchanged for land. On June I, 1796, Congress passed an act which called upon the surveyor-general of the United States to locate a tract in the Northwest Territory for the purpose of enabling the government to have land to take up the land warrants which it had issued during the late war. The limits of this particular tract began "at the northwest corner of the Seven Ranges, thence south fifty miles, thence west to the Scioto river and along that river to the Greenville treaty line, thence along that line and east to the place of beginning." These lands were surveyed into townships five miles square and each owner received a patent for his land signed by the President of the United States.


THE REFUGEE TRACT.


This tract was set aside by the Continental Congress in April, 1783, for the benefit of such people as left Canada and Nova Scotia to help the American colonies in their fight against England during the Revolution. The subsequent congressional act of 1798 confirmed the act of the Continental


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Congress and on February 18, 1801, Congress definitely selected "those fractional townships of the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, twentieth, twenty-first and twenty-second ranges of townships joining the southern boundary line of the military lands." This tract of four and a half miles in width, and extending forty-two miles east of the Scioto river, contained more than twice as much as was needed to satisfy the claims of the refugees. The part unclaimed by those for whom it was set aside was attached to the Chillicothe land district and sold as Congress lands. It so happened that the future capital of the state, Columbus, is in the extreme western side of this tract.


CONGRESS LANDS.


Some of the tracts of land already described were Congress lands, viz., the French Grant, the Seven Ranges and the Refugee Tract. Congress retained and sold all lands not specifically relinquished to land companies and established land offices for the purpose at different times at Marietta, Cincinnati, Steubenville, Chillicothe, Zanesville, Canton, Wooster, Piqua, Delaware, Wapakoneta, Lima and Upper. Sandusky.


THE MORAVIAN GRANT.


The congressional grant to the Ohio Company in 1787 reserved ten thousand acres in what is now Tuscarawas county for the use of the Moravians and Christian Indians who had previously settled there, the title being vested in the Moravian Brethren at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania: A few years later two thousand acres were added to the original grant and in 1823 the territory reverted to the United States, with the exception of the cemeteries. church yards and a few special leases.


DOHRMAN'S GRANT.


Congress granted all of township 13, range 7, in Tuscarawas county to one Henry Dohrman, a Portuguese citizen, who rendered valuable services to the colonies during the Revolutionary War.


THE MAUMEE ROAD LANDS.


In 1823 Congress granted to the state of Ohio about sixty thousand acres for the purpose of constructing a road from the lower rapids of the Maumee river to the western limits of the Western Reserve of Connecticut.

 

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THE TURNPIKE LANDS.

 

In 1827 Congress granted to the state of Ohio forty-nine sections of land in Seneca, Crawford and Marion counties for the construction of a road from Columbus to Sandusky.

 

CANAL GRANTS.

 

Between 1825 and 1845 Congress at different times made special grants of land to the state of Ohio for canal purposes, and a total of about one million acres were thus secured by the state. By the year 1842 the state had completed six hundred and fifty-eight miles of canals, at the staggering cost to the state of $14,688,666.97, although before they were all completed the railroads were in operation in the state.

 

SALT SECTIONS.

 

In the early history of the Northwest Territory salt was a commodity hard to secure and necessarily high in price. Congress reserved every place where it was thought salt could be obtained and in this way helped the settlers to get salt at the least expense. In Ohio an entire township within the present county of Jackson was reserved, as well as about four thousand acres in Delaware county. In 1824 Congress relinquished its claim in favor of Ohio.

 

THE ZANE SECTIONS.

 

Ebenezer Zane, one of the most prominent of the men in the early history of the state, was granted three sections by Congress in 1796 in return for his services in opening a road from Wheeling to Maysville. These three sections were located at Zanesville, Chillicothe and Lancaster. Isaac Zane was granted three sections in Champaign county by Congress for valuable services to the colonies during the Revolution. Isaac Zane had been captured by the Indians when a small boy and spent the major portion of his life with them, and his influence with the Indians was such that he proved to he of great assistance to the colonies in handling them.

 

THE MINISTERIAL LANDS.

 

These lands have been previously mentioned and were reserved only in two grants, those of the Ohio Land Company and the Symmes Purchase.

 

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The grants to both set aside section twenty-nine of each township for religious purposes.

 

SCHOOL SECTIONS.

 

Provisions for public schools were made in all states created by the United States after the adoption of the constitution. The Ordinance of 1787 had made specific mention of the value of schools and a wise Congress set aside section sixteen of every township, which was surveyed into townships six miles square. The United States military lands were surveyed into township five miles square, but Congress reserved one thirty-sixth of the whole area for school purposes. There are no reservations in the Connecticut Reserve and Virginia Military District for school purposes, but Congress made up for this by setting aside an amount equivalent to one thirty-sixth of the area in each tract from other lands belonging to the United States. As a matter of fact, one thirty-sixth of the whole state was reserved for school purposes as well as three townships for universities.

 

OHIO POLITICS.

 

The politics of Ohio presents many interesting features, but this brief summary can do little more than indicate the more important landmarks in the political history of the state. The first governor of the Northwest Territory, Arthur St. Clair, was an ardent Federalist and undoubtedly his pronounced political views had something to do with his removal from the office on November 22, 1802. From that time until 1836 the Democratic party, or the Republican or Democratic-Republican, as it was at first called, controlled the state, and it was not until William Henry Harrison, a "favorite son,” became a candidate for the presidency, that the Whigs were able to break the strength of the Democratic party in the state. In 1836, 1840 and 1844 the Whigs carried the state for the President. The panic of 1837, the popularity of Harrison and the Texas question were largely determining factors in the success of the Whigs. The Democrats regained sufficient power in 1848 to carry the state again and repeated their victory in 1852. In 1856 John C. Fremont carried the state for the newly organized Republican party and since that year there has been only one Democratic electoral vote in the state of Ohio. In 1892 Grover Cleveland received one of Ohio's twenty-three electoral votes, but with this exception the state has cast a solid Republican vote for President every year since 1856. Ohio has fur-

 

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