CHAPTER XII. A. SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF OHIO, AFTER SMUCKER, WITH THE TITLE OF VIRGINIA AND HER DEED OF CESSION. "Virginia acquired title to the great Northwest by its several charters, granted by James I., bearing dates respectively April 10, 1606; May 23, 1609 ; March 12, 1611. The Colony of Virginia first attempted to exercise authority in, or jurisdiction over, that portion of its extensive domains that was organized by the ordinance of '87 into `the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio,' when in 1769, the House of Burgess of said Colony passed an act establishing the county of Botetourt, with the Mississippi River as its western boundary. The aforesaid act recited that, ' Whereas, the people situated on the Mississippi, in said county of Botetourt, will be very remote from the court-house, and must necessarily become a separate county, as soon as their numbers are sufficient, which, probably, will happen in a short time, be it therefore enacted, by the authority aforesaid, that the inhabitants of that part of the said county of Botetourt which lies on said waters shall be exempted from the payment of any levies to be laid by said county court for the purpose of building a court-house and prison for the said county.' "Civil government, however, between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers was more in name than reality, until in 1778, after the conquest of the country by General George Rogers Clark, when the Virginia Legislature organized the county of Illinois, embracing within its limits all the territory owned by Virginia west of the Ohio River. Colonel John Todd served, under appointment received from the Governor of Virginia, as civil commandant, and lieutenant of the county, until his death, at the battle of Blue Licks, in 1782, less than two years before Virginia ceded the country to the United States. Timothy de Montbrun was his successor. "In 1783 the General Assembly of Virginia passed an act authorizing the Virginia delegates in Congress to convey to the United A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF OHIO - 131 States all the right of that Commonwealth to the territory northwest-ward of the River Ohio.' "Pursuant to the foregoing action of the General Assembly of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Hardy, Arthur Lee and James Monroe, Virginia's delegates in Congress, did, as per deed of session, on the first day of March, 1784, it being the eighth year of American independence, `convey (in the name and for, and on behalf of, the said Commonwealth), transfer, assign, and make over unto the United States in Congress assembled, for the benefit of said States, Virginia inclusive, all right, title and claim, as well of soil as of jurisdiction, to the territory of said State lying and being to the northwest of the river Ohio.' Upon the presentation of said deed of cession, Congress resolved, on the same day, ' that it be accepted, and the same be recorded and enrolled among the acts of the United States in Congress assembled.' " The United States having thus secured title to the `Great Northwest,' Congress soon deemed it advisable to take the preliminary steps looking to the permanent establishment of civil government in the new and extensive territory of which that body had just become the legal custodian. Accordingly, after much mature deliberation and careful consideration of the subject, as well as prolonged discussion of the important questions involved, they, on the 13th of July, 1787, gave to the world the results of their deliberations in 'An ordinance for the government of the Territory of the United States North-west of the river Ohio,' which has come to be best known as ` The Ordinance of '87,' sometimes also called ' The Ordinance of Free-dom.' Said ordinance was the fundamental law, the Constitution, so to speak, of the great Northwest, upon which were based, and. with which harmonized, all our territorial enactments, as well as ail our subsequent State legislation, and, moreover, it is to that wise, states-manlike document that we are indebted for much of our prosperity and greatness. PROBABLE NUMBER AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE POPULATION IN 1787. " Up to the time of the passage of the above ordinance there had been no permanent settlements by white men established upon territory embraced within the boundaries given to the Northwest Territory, except the few French villages and their immediate vicinities, in the western and northwestern portions of it. If any such existed within the present limits of Ohio, they must have been situated along the 132 - A SKETCH OF THE Maumee River, and were of small extent. The Government had hitherto, for the sake of peace, discouraged, and by military force prevented, all attempts of white settlers to occupy lands belonging to the Indians. The chief of those French villages were Detroit, on the Detroit River; St. Vincents, on the Wabash; Cahokia, five miles below St. Louis; St. Philip, forty-eight miles below St. Louis, on the Mississippi; Kaskaskia, on Kaskaskia River, six miles above its mouth, which empties into the Mississippi seventy-five miles below St Louis ; Prairie-du-Rocker, near Fort Chartres; and Fort Chartres, fifteen miles northwest from Kaskaskia. These were all small settlements or villages, whose aggregate inhabitants probably did not exceed three thousand. " The inhabitants of these remote settlements in the wilderness and on the prairies, says a late writer, ' were of a peculiar character. Their intercourse with the Indians, and their seclusion from the world, developed among them peculiar characteristics. They assimilated themselves with the Indians, adopted their habits, and almost uniformly lived in harmony with them. They were illiterate, careless, contented, but without much industry, energy, or foresight. Some were hunters, trappers, and anglers, while others run birch-bark canoes by way of carrying on a small internal trade, and still others cultivated the soil. The traders, or voyageurs, were men fond of adventure, and of a wild, unrestrained, Indian sort of life, and would ascend many of the long rivers of the West almost to their sources in their birch-bark canoes, and load them with furs bought of the Indians. The canoes were light, and could easily be carried across the portages between streams.' " There was attached to these French villages a ' common field,' for the free use of the villagers, every family, in proportion to the number of its members, being entitled to share in it. It was a large inclosed tract for farming purposes. There was also at each village a `common,' or large inclosed tract, for pasturage and fuel purposes, and timber for building. If a head of a family was sick, or by any casualty was unable to labor, his portion of the ' common field' was cultivated by his neighbors, and the crop gathered for the use of his ' family. ' The French villagers,' says the author of Western Annals, ' were devout Catholics, who, under the guidance of their priests, attended punctually upon all holidays and festivals, and performed faithfully all the outward duties and ceremonies of the church. Aside from this, their religion was blended with their social feelings. Sun-day, after mass, was the especial occasion for their games and assem- HISTORY OF OHIO - 133 blies. The dance was the popular amusement with them, and all classes, ages, sexes, and conditions, united by a common love of enjoyment, met together to participate in the exciting pleasure. They were indifferent about the acquisition of property for themselves or their children. Living in a fruitful country, which, moreover, abounded in fish and game, and where the necessaries of life could be procured with little labor, they were content to live in unambitious peace, and comfortable poverty.. Their agriculture was rude, their houses were humble, and they cultivated grain, also fruits and flowers; but they lived on from generation to generation without much change or improvement. In some instances they intermarried with the surrounding Indian tribes.' " Most of these far-off western villages were protected by military posts, and some of them (notably Detroit, which for months had sue cessfully resisted, in 1763, when in possession of the English, the attacks of the great Pontiac) had realized something of the `pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war.' The morning guns of these forts had sounded the merry reveille upon the early breeze, waking the slumbering echoes of the forests, daily, for a century or more ; the boom of their loud mid-day cannon across the broad prairies, and its reverberations from the cliffs beyond, had been heard for generations; and their evening bugle had wailed plaintively its long-drawn, melancholy notes along the shores of the `Father of Waters '—the mighty river of the West—for more than a hundred years before the adoption of ' freedom's ordinance.' ORGANIZATION OF THE OHIO LAND COMPANY. " While Congress had under consideration the measure for the organization of a territorial government northwest of the Ohio River, the preliminary steps were taken in Massachusetts towards the formation of the Ohio Land Company, for the purpose of making a purchase of a large tract of land in said Territory, and settling upon it. Upon the passage of the ordinance by Congress, the aforesaid land company perfected its organization, and by its agents, Rev. Manasseh Cutler and Major Winthrop Sargent, made application to the Board of Treasury, July 27, 1787, to become purchasers, said board having been authorized four days before to make sales. The purchase, which was perfected October 27, 1787, embraced a tract of land containing about a million and a half of acres, situated within the present counties of Washington, Athens, Meigs and Gallia, subject 134 - A SKETCH OF THE to the reservation of two townships of land six miles square, for the endowment of a college, since known as Ohio University, at Athens; also every sixteenth section, set apart for the use of schools, as well as every twenty-ninth section, dedicated to the support of religious institutions ; also sections eight, eleven and twenty-six, which were reserved for the United States, for future sale. After these deductions were made, and that for donation lands, there remained only nine hundred and sixty-four thousand two hundred and eighty-five acres to be paid for by the Ohio Land Company, and for which patents were issued. "At a meeting of the directors of the company, held November 23, 1787, General Rufus Putnam was chosen superintendent of the company, and he accepted the position. Early in December six boat builders and a number of other mechanics were sent forward to Simrall's Ferry (now West Newton), on the Youghiogheny River, under the command of Major Haffield White, where they arrived in January, and at once proceeded to build a boat for the use of the company. Colonel Ebenezer Sproat, of Rhode Island, Anselm Tupper and John Matthews, of Massachusetts, and Colonel Return J. Meigs, of Connecticut, were appointed surveyors. Preliminary steps were also taken at this meeting to secure a teacher and chaplain, which resulted in the appointment of Rev. Daniel Story, who some time during the next year arrived at the mouth of the Muskingum, in the capacity of the first missionary and teacher from New England. " Early in the winter the remainder of the pioneers, with the surveyors, left their New England homes and started on their toilsome journey to the western wilderness. They passed on over the Alleghanies, and reached the Youghiogheny about the middle of February, where they rejoined their companions who had preceded them. " The boat, called the ' Mayflower,' that was to transport the pioneers to their destination, was forty-five feet long, twelve feet wide, and fifty tons burden, and was placed under the command of Captain Devol. ` Her bows were raking, or curved like a galley, and strongly timbered ; her sides were made bullet-proof, and she was covered with a deck roof,' so as to afford better protection against the hostile savages while floating down towards their western home, and during its occupancy there, before the completion of their cabins. All things being ready, they embarked at Simrall's Ferry, April 2, 1788, and passed down the Youghiogheny into the Monongahela, and thence into the Ohio, and down said river to the mouth of the Muskingum, HISTORY OF OHIO - 135 where they arrived April 7, and then and there made the first permanent settlement of civilized men within the present limits of Ohio. These bold adventurers were reinforced by another company from Massachusetts, who, after a nine weeks' journey, arrived early in July, 1788. " Many of these Yankee colonists had been officers and soldiers in the Revolutionary army, and were, for the most part, men of intelligence and character, and of sound judgment and ability. In short, they were just the kind of men to found a State in the wilderness. They posssessed great energy of character, were enterprising, fond of adventure and daring, and were not to be intimidated by the formidable forests nor by the ferocious beasts sheltered therein, nor by the still more to be dreaded savages, who stealthily and with murderous intent roamed throughout their length and breadth. Their army experience had taught them what hardships and privations were, and they were quite willing to encounter them. A better set of men could not have been selected for pioneer settlers than were these New England colonists—those brave-hearted, courageous hero-emigrants to the great Northwest, who, having triumphantly passed the fiery ordeal of the Revolution, volunteered to found a State and to establish American laws, American institutions, and American civilization in this wilderness of the uncivilized west. If any State in our American Union ever had a better start in its incipient settlement than Ohio, I am not aware of it. General Washington, writing of these bold pioneers, said that `no colony in America was ever settled under such favorable auspices as that which has just commenced at the Muskingum. Information, property and strength, will be its characteristics. I know many of the settlers personally, and there never were men better calculated to promote the welfare of such a. community.' Having had a personal army acquaintance with Generals Putnam and Parsons, and with Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs, and probably with many other leading members of this pioneer colony, his favorable opinion of them is entitled to great weight. THE FIRST SETTLEMENT UNDER THE ORDINANCE OF 1787. Of course no time was lost by the colonists in erecting their habitatations, as well as in building a stockade fort, and in clearing land for the production of vegetables and grain for their subsistence, fifty acres of corn having been planted the first year. Their settlement was established upon the point of land between the Ohio and Musk- 136 - A SKETCH OF THE ingum rivers, just opposite and across the Muskingum from Fort Harmar, built in 1786, and at this time garrisoned by a small military force under command of Major Doughty. At a meeting held on the banks of the Muskingum, July 2, 1788, it was voted that Marietta should be the name of their town, it being thus named in honor of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France. SURVEYS AND GRANTS OF THE PUBLIC LANDS. "The first survey of public lands northwest of the Ohio river was the seven ranges of Congress lands, and was done pursuant to an act of Congress of May 20, 1785. This tract of the seven ranges is bounded by a line of forty-two miles in length, running due west from the point where the western boundary line of Pennsylvania crosses the Ohio river; thence due south to the Ohio river, at the southeast corner of Marietta township, in Washington county ; thence up said river to the place of beginning. The present counties of Jefferson, Columbiana, Carroll, Tuscarawas, Harrison, Guernsey, Belmont, Noble, Monroe, and Washington are, in whole or in part, within the seven ranges. "The second survey was that of the Ohio Company's purchase, made in pursuance of an act of Congress of July 23, 1785, though the contract was not completed with the Ohio Company until October 27, 1787. Mention of its extent, also the conditions, reservations, and circumstances attending the purchase, have already been given. One hundred thousand acres of this tract, calleddonation lands, were reserved upon certain conditions as a free gift to actual settlers. For- tions of the counties of Washington, Athens, and Gallia are within this tract, also the entire county of Meigs. The donation lands were in Washington county. "The next survey was the 'Symmes purchase' and contiguous lands, situated on the north and west of it, and was made soon after the foregoing. The `Symmes purchase' embraced the entire Ohio River front between the Big Miami and Little Miami Rivers, a distance of twenty-seven miles, and reaching northwards a sufficient distance to include an area of one million of acres. The contract with Judge Symmes, made in October, 1785, was subsequently modified by act of Congress bearing date of May 5, 1792, and by an authorized act of the President of the United States of September 30, 1794, so as to amount to only 311,682 acres, exclusive of a reservation of fifteen acres around Fort Washington, of a square mile at the mouth of the HISTORY OF OHIO - 137 Great Miami, of sections 16 and 29 in each township, the former of which Congress had reserved for educational and the latter for religious purposes, exclusive also of a township dedicated to the interests of a college; and sections 8, 11, and 26 which Congress reserved for future sale. "The tract of land situated between the Little Miami and Scioto rivers, known as the Virginia military lands, was never regularly surveyed into townships, but patents were issued by the President of the United States to such persons (Virginians) as had rendered service on the continental establishment in the army of the United States (hence the name), and in the quantities to which they were entitled, according to the provisions of an act of Congress of August 10, 1790. 'It embraces a body of 6,750 square miles, or 4,204,000 acres of land. The following counties are situated in this tract, namely: Adams, Brown, Clermont, Clinton, Fayette, Highland, Madison, and Union entirely ; and greater or less portions of the following, to wit : Marion, Delaware, Franklin, Pickaway, Ross, Pike, Scioto, Warren, Greene, Clarke, Champaign, Logan, and Hardin.' "Connecticut ceded all lands in the Northwest to which she claimed title to the United States (except the tract which has been known as the ' Western Reserve'), by deed of cession bearing date of September 14, 1786; and in May, 1800, by act of the Legislature of said State, renounced all jurisdictional claim to the `territory called the Western Reserve of Connecticut.' That tract of land was surveyed in 1796, and later into townships of five miles square, and in the aggregate contained about 3,800,000 acres, being one hundred and twenty miles long, and lying west of the Pennsylvania State line, all situated between forty-one degrees of north latitude and forty-two degrees and two minutes. Half a million of acres of the foregoing lands were set apart by the State of Connecticut in 1792 as a donation to the sufferers by fire (during the revolutionary war) of the residents of Greenwich, New London, Norwalk, Fairfield, Danbury, New Haven, and other Connecticut villages whose property was burned by the British ; hence the name 'Firelands' by which this tract taken from the western portion of the Reserve has been known. It is situated chiefly in Huron and Erie counties, a small portion only being in Ottawa county. The entire Western Reserve embraces the present counties of Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Erie, Geauga, Huron, Lake, Lorain, Medina, .Portage, and Trumbull ; also the greater portion of Mahoning and Summit, and very limited portions of Ashland and Ottawa. "French grant is a tract of 24,000 acres of land bordering on the 138 - A SKETCH ON THE Ohio River, within the present limits of Scioto county, granted by Congress in March, 1795, to certain French settlers of Gallipolis, who, through invalid titles, had lost their lands there. Twelve hundred acres were added to this grant in 1798, making a total of 25,200 acres. " The United States military lands were surveyed under the pro_ visions of an act of Congress of June 1, 1796, and contained 2,560,000 acres. This tract was set apart to satisfy certain claims of the officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary war, hence the title by which it is known. It is bounded by the seven ranges on the east, by the Greenville treaty line on the north, by theCongress and refugee lands on the south, and by the Scioto River on the west, including the county of Coshocton entire, and portions of the counties of Tuscarawas, Guernsey, Muskingum, Licking, Franklin, Delaware, Marion, Morrow, Knox, and Holmes. "The Moravian lands are three several tracts of 4,000 acres each, situated, respectively, at Shoenbrun, Gnadenhutten, and Salem, all on the Tuscarawas River, now in Tuscarawas county. These lands were originally dedicated by an ordinance of Congress dated September 3, 1788, to the use of the Christianized Indians at those points, and by act of Congress of June 1, 1796, were surveyed and patents issued to the Society of the United Brethren, for the purposes above specified. "The refugee tract is a body of land containing 100,000 acres, granted by Congress February 18, 1801, to persons who fled from the British provinces during the Revolutionary war and took up arms against the mother country and in behalf of the Colonies, and thereby lost their property by confiscation. This tract is four and one-half miles wide, and extends forty-eight miles eastward from the Scioto River at Columbus into Muskingum county. It includes portions of the counties of Franklin, Fairfield, Perry, Licking, and Muskingum. "Dohrman's grant is a township of land six miles square, containing 23,040 acres, situated in the south-eastern part of Tuscarawas county. It was given to Arnold Henry Dohrman, a Portuguese merchant of Lisbon, by act of Congress of February 27, 1801, ' in consideration of his having, during the Revolutionary war, given shelter and aid to the American cruisers and vessels of war.' " The foregoing is a list of the principal land grants and surveys during our Territorial history, in that portion of the Northwest that now constitutes the State of Ohio. There were canal land grants, Maumee Road grants, and various others, but they belong to our. State, and not to ourTerritorial, history. HISTORY OF OHIO - 139 TREATIES MADE WITH THE INDIANS. " By the terms of the treaty of Fort Stanwix, concluded with the Iroquois or Six Nations(Mohawks, Onondagas, Senecas, Cayugas, Tuscaroras and Oneidas), October 22, 1784, the indefinite claim of said confederacy to the greater part of the valley of the Ohio was extinguished. The commissioners of Congress were Oliver Wolcott, Richard Butler, and Arthur Lee. Cornplanter and Red Jacket represented the Indians. " This was followed in January, 1785, by the treaty of Fort McIntosh by which the Delawares, Wyandots, Ottawas, and Chippewas relinquished all claim to the Ohio Valley, and established the boundary line between them and the United States to be the Cuyahoga River, and along the main branch of the Tuscarawas to the forks of said river near Fort Laurens, thence westwardly to the portage between the head waters of the Great Miami and the Maumee or Miami of the Lakes, thence down said river to Lake Erie, and along said lake to the mouth of the Cuyahoga River. This treaty was negotiated by George Rogers Clark, Richard Butler, and Arthur Lee for the United States, and by the chiefs of the aforenamed tribes. "A similar relinquishment was effected by the treaty of Fort Finney (at the mouth of the Great Miami), concluded with the Shawnees January 31, 1786, the United States commissioners being the same as the foregoing, except the substitution of Samuel H. Parsons for Arthur Lee. " The treaty of Fort Harmer, held by General St. Clair January 9, 1779, was mainly confirmatory of the treaties previously made. So also was the treaty of Greenville, of August 3, 1795, made by General Wayne on the part of the United States, and the chiefs of eleven of the most powerful tribes of the northwestern Indians, which re-established the Indian boundary line through the present State of Ohio, and extended it from Loramie to Fort Recovery, and from thence to the Ohio River, opposite the mouth of the Kentucky River. " The rights and titles acquired by the Indian tribes under the foregoing treaties were extinguished by the General Government, by purchase, in pursuance of treaties subsequently made. The Western Reserve tract west of the Cuyahoga River was secured by a treaty formed at Fort Industry, in 1805. The lands west of Richland and Huron counties and north of the boundary line to the western limits of Ohio were purchased by the United States in 1818. The last possession of the Delawares was purchased in 1829 ; and by a treaty 140 - A SKETCH OF THE made at Upper Sandusky, March 17, 1842, by Colonel John Johnston and the Wyandot chiefs, that last remnant of the Indian tribes in Ohio sold the last acre they owned within the limits of our State to the General Government, and retired, the next year, to the Far West, settling at and near the mouth of Kansas River. FIRST OFFICERS OF THE TERRITORY. " Congress, in October, 1787, appointed General Arthur St. Clair Governor, Major Winthrop Sargent Secretary, and James M. Varnum, Samuel H. Parsons, and John Armstrong Judges of the Territory, the latter of whom, however, having declined the appointment, John Cleve Symmes was appointed in his stead in February, 1788. On the 9th of July, 1788, Governor St. Clair arrived at Marietta, and finding the Secretary and a majority of the Judges present, proceeded to organize the Territory. The Governor and Judges (or a majority of them) were the sole legislative power during the existence of the first grade of Territorial government. Such laws as were in force in any of the States, and were deemed applicable to the condition of the people of the Territory, could be adopted by the Governor and Judges, and, after publication, became operative, unless disapproved of by Congress, to which body certified copies of all laws thus adopted had to be forwarded by the Secretary of the Territory. " The further duty of the Judges, who were appointed to serve during good behavior, was to hold court four times a year, whenever the business of the Territory required it, but not more than once a year in any one county. THE SECOND GRADE OF TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT. "After it shall have been ascertained that five thousand free male inhabitants actually resided within the Territory, the second grade of Territorial government could, of right, be established, which provided for a legislative council, and also an elective House of Representatives, the two composing the law-making power of the Territory, provided always that the Governor's assent to their acts was had. He possessed the absolute veto power, and no act of the two houses of the Legislature, even if passed by a unanimous vote in each branch, could become a law without his consent, The conditions that authorized the second grade of Territorial government, however, did not exist until 1798, and it was not really put into operation until Sep- HISTORY OF OHIO - 141 tember, 1799, after the first grade of government had existed for eleven years. EARLY LAWS OF THE TERRITORY. "The first law was proclaimed July 25, 1788, and was entitled `An act for regulating and establishing the militia." Two days thereafter the Governor issued a proclamation establishing the county of Washington, which included all of the territory east of the Scioto River to which the Indian title had been extinguished, reaching northward to Lake Erie, the Ohio River and the Pennsylvania line being its eastern boundary ; Marietta, the seat of the Territorial government, also becoming the county seat of Washington county. 'Quite a number of laws were necessarily adopted and published during 1788 and the following year. From 1790 to 1795 they published sixty-four, thirty-four of them having been adopted at Cincinnati during the months of June, July and August of the last named year, by the Governor and Judges Symmes and Turner. They are known as the `Maxwell Code,' from the name of the publisher, and were intended, says the author of ' Western Annals," to form a pretty complete body of statutory provisions.' In 1798 eleven more were adopted. It was the published opinion of the late Chief Justice Chase, ` that it may be doubted whether any colony, at so early a period after its first establishment, ever had so good a code of laws.' Among them was that ` which provided that the common law of England, and all statutes in aid thereof, made previous to the fourth year of James I., should be in full force within the Territory.' Probably four-fifths of the laws adopted were selected from those in force in Pennsylvania ; the others were mainly taken from the statutes of Virginia and Massachusetts. LOCAL COURTS AND COURT OFFICERS. "Among the earliest laws adopted was one which provided for the institution of a county court of common pleas, to be composed of not less than three nor more than five Judges, commissioned by the Governor, who were to hold two sessions in each year. Pursuant to its provisions, the first session of said court was held in and for Washington county, September 2, 1788. The Judges of the court were General Rufus Putnam, General Benjamin Tupper, and Colonel Archibald Crary. Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs was Clerk, and Colonel Ebenezer Sproat was Sheriff. Elaborate details of the open- 142 - A SKETCH OF THE ing of this, the first court held in the Northwest Territory, have come down to us, showing it to have been a stylish, dignified proceeding. Briefly, ' a procession was formed at the Point (the junction of the Muskingum with the Ohio River) of the inhabitants and the officers from Fort Harmar, who escorted the Judge of the court, the Governor of the Territory, and the Territorial Judges to the hall appropriated for that purpose, in the northwest block house in ' Campus Martins.' `The procession,' says Mitchener, ' was headed by the Sheriff, with drawn sword and baton of office.' `After prayer by Rev. Manasseh Cutler, the court was organized by reading the commissions of the Judges, Clerk and Sheriff ; after which the Sheriff proclaimed that the court was open for the administration of even-handed justice to the poor and the rich, to the guilty and the innocent, without respect of persons; none to be punished without a trial by their peers, and then in pursuance of the laws and evidence in the case.' " On the 23d day of August, 1788, a law was promulgated for establishing ' general courts of quarter sessions of the peace.' This court was composed of not less than three nor more than five Justices of the Peace, appointed by the Governor, who were to hold four sessions in each year. The first session of this court was held at 'Campus Martius' September 9, 1788. The commission appointing the Judges thereof was read. General Rufus Putnam and General Benjamin Tupper,' says Mitchener, constituted the Justices of the quorum, and Isaac Pearce, Thomas Lord, and Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr., the assistant Justices; Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs, Sr., was Clerk. Colonel Ebenezer Sproat was Sheriff of Washington county fourteen years. The first grand jury of the Northwest Territory was impaneled by this court, and consisted of the following gentlemen : William Stacey (foreman), Nathaniel Cushing, Nathan Goodale, Charles Knowles, Anselm Tupper, Jonathan Stone, Oliver Rice, Ezra Lunt, John Matthews, George Ingersoll, Jonathan Devol, Jethro Putnam, Samuel Stebbins and Jabez True. ORGANIZATION OF COUNTIES. " Washington county, embracing the eastern half of the present State of Ohio, was the only organized county of the Northwest Territory until early in 1790, when the Governor proclaimed Hamilton county, which included all the territory between the Big and Little Miami Rivers, and extended north to the ` Standing Stone Forks,' on the first named stream. HISTORY OF OHIO - 143 "The following is a list of all the Territorial counties organized; also the date of organization, with their respective county seats : |
Counties |
When proclaimed |
County seats |
1. Washington |
July 27, 1788 |
Marietta |
2. Hamilton |
January 2, 1790 |
Cincinnati |
3. St. Clair |
February, 1790 |
Cahokia |
4. Knox |
In 1790 |
Vincennes |
5. Randolph |
In 1795 |
Kaskaskia |
6. Wayne |
August 15, 1795 |
Detroit |
7. Adams |
July 10, 1797 |
Manchester |
8. Jefferson |
July 29, 1797 |
Steubenville |
9. Ross |
August 20, 1797 |
Chillicothe |
10. Trumbull |
July 10, 1800 |
Warren |
11. Clermont |
December 6, 1800 |
Williamsburg |
12. Fairfield |
December 9, 1800 |
New Lancaster |
13. Belmont |
September 7, 1801 |
St. Clairsville |
"It will be observed that Hamilton was the second county organized. There were situated within its limits, when organized, several flourishing villages, that had their origin during the closing months of 1788 and early in 1789. Columbia, situated at the mouth of the Little Miami, was the first of these laid out, its early settlers being Colonel Benjamin Stites, of ' Redstone Old Fort' (proprietor) ; William Goforth, John S. Gano, John Smith (a Baptist minister, who afterward became one of Ohio's first United States Senators), and others, numbering in all twenty-five persons or more, though some of them arrived a little later. "Cincinnati was the next in order of time, having been laid out early in 1789, by Colonel Robert Patterson, Matthias Denman and Israel Ludlow. Several not very successful attempts had also been made at various points between Cincinnati and the mouth of the Great Miami by Judge Symmes. " The early settlers of Hamilton county were principally from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky. Judges Symmes and Burnet were representative men in the Miami Valley from New Jersey; Jeremiah Morrow and Judge Dunlavy from Pennsylvania ; William H. Harrison and William McMillan from Virginia; and Colonel Robert Patterson and Rev. James Kemper from Kentucky. " The Scioto Valley, the next in order of time, was settled chiefly by Virginians and Kentuckians, represented by Colonel Thomas Worthington and General Nathaniel Massie, two of its prominent settlers. " And the early settlements along Lake Erie, during the closing 144 - A SKETCH OF THE years of the eighteenth century, whose representative men were Governor Samuel Huntington and Hon. Benjamin Tappan, were established by men not a whit inferior to those above named. And the good that General Washington said of the New England Colony that settled Marietta could, with very slight modifications, be said of most of the settlers and pioneers of the aforesaid settlements. EARLY TERRITORIAL VILLAGES AND TOWNS. "The following is a list of the principal villages and towns of the Northwest Territory, started and built up during Territorial rule, with the time of the first survey of lots, together with the names of their proprietors : Marietta—laid out in 1788 by Rufus Putnam and the Ohio Land Company. Columbia—laid out in 1788 by Benjamin Stites, Major Gano, and others. Cincinnati—laid out in 1789 by Robert Patterson, Matthias Denman and Israel Ludlow. Gallipolis—laid out in 1791 by the French settlers. Manchester—laid out in 1791 by Nathaniel Massie. Hamilton—laid out in 1794 by Israel Ludlow. Dayton—laid out in 1795 by Israel Ludlow, and Generals Dayton and Wilkinson. Franklin—laid out in 1795 by William C. Schenck and Daniel C. Cooper. Chillicothe—laid out in 1796 by Nathaniel Massie. Cleveland—laid out in 1796 by Job V. Styles. Franklinton—laid out in 1797 by Lucas Sullivant. Steubenville—laid out in 1798 by Bazaliel Wells and James Ross. Williamsburg—laid out in 1799. Zanesville—laid out in 1799 by Jonathan Zane and John McIntire. New Lancaster—laid out in 1800 by Ebenezer Zane. Warren—laid out in 1801 by Ephraim Quinby. St. Clairsville—laid out in 1801 by David Newell. Springfield—laid out in 1801 by James Demint. Newark—laid out in 1802 by Wm. C. Schenck, G. W. Burnet, and John N. Cummings. " Cincinnati at the close of the Territorial government was the largest town in the Territory, containing about one thousand inhabitants. It was incorporated in 1802, with the following as its first officers. President—David Zeigler. Recorder—Jacob Burnet. Trustees—Wm. Ramsay, David E. Wade, Charles Avery, Wm. Stanley, John Reily, Samuel Dick, Wm. Ruffner, Assessor—Joseph Prince. Collector—Abram Cary. Town Marshal—James Smith, HISTORY OF OHIO - 145 TERRITORIAL OFFICERS. "The following exhibit gives a full list of the officers of the Territory, with the date of service, including the delegates to Congress : Governor—General Arthur St. Clair, served from 1788 to 1802. Secretaries—Winthrop Sargent, served from 1788 to 1798; William H. Harrison, served from 1798 to 1799; Charles Willing Byrd, served from 1799 to 1803. "The latter gentleman was also acting Governor during the closing months of the Territorial government, Governor St. Clair having been removed from office, in 1802, by President Jefferson. Treasurer—John Armstrong, served from 1792 to 1803. Territorial Delegates in Congress--William H. Harrison, served from 1799 to 1800; William McMillan, served from 1800 to 1801; Paul Fearing, served from 1801 to 1803. "Territorial Judges.—James Mitchell Varnum, Samuel Holden Parsons, and John Armstrong were appointed Judges for the Northwest Territory, by Congress, in October, 1787; the latter, however, declined, and John Cleves Symmes was appointed to the vacancy in February, 1788, and he accepted. "Judge Varnum died in January, 1789, and William Barton was appointed his successor, but declined the appointment ; George Turner, however, in 1789, accepted it. On the 10th of November, 1789, Judge Parsons was drowned in attempting to cross Big Beaver Creek, and Rufus Putnam became his successor, March 31, 1790. In 1796 he resigned, and Joseph Gilman succeeded him. The Territorial court was composed of three judges, two of whom constituted a quorum for judicial purposes, and also for the exercise of legislative functions, in co-operation with the Governor. ' |
Names |
When appointed |
End of service |
James M. Varnum |
October, 1787 |
January, 1789 |
Samuel H. Parsons |
October, 1787 |
November 10, 1789 |
John Armstrong |
October, 1787 |
Refused to serve |
John C. Symmes |
February, 1788 |
|
William Barton |
1789 |
Refused to serve |
George Turner |
1789 |
|
Rufus Putnam |
March 31, 1790 |
Served until 1796. |
Joseph Gilman |
1796 |
|
"Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr., was appointed (says Judge Burnet) after the first session of the Territorial Legislature, of which he was 146 - A SKETCH OF THE a member, and probably continued in office to the close of the Territorial government, but I have not been able to verify said conjecture. THE INDIAN TRIBES OF THE UPPER OHIO. "Nothing reliable or authentic is known of the various Indian tribes that occupied the territory that now constitutes the State of Ohio from the time of the departure or disappearance of the Mound-Builders until the closing years of the first half of the eighteenth century. Their history, therefore, anterior to the year 1750, is meager indeed. They had no annalist—no historian—and perhaps had made but little history worthy of record during many recurring generations, centuries, and ages. It is true that we have traditions running back to the year 1656, relating to the destruction by the Iroquois of the once powerful Eries, who inhabited the southern shores of Lake Erie, except a small remnant which ultimately intermingled with the Senecas ; but I look upon them simply as unverified traditions, and nothing more. And equally unreliable and unauthenticated are many of the other numerous traditions of the Indian tribes which bear date before the middle of the last century. "About the year A.D. 1750, or a little earlier, some accurate knowledge of the Ohio Indians began to be acquired through the Indian traders operating among them, and from explorers ; but little comparatively, however, was known of them with the certainty of authentic history until after Colonel Bouquet's expedition to their towns on the Tuscarawas and Muskingum Rivers, in 1764. The intermediate period between those dates may therefore be regarded as the time of the inauguration of the historic epoeh of the Ohio Indians, the principal tribes being the Wyandots (called Hurons by the French), the Delawares and the Shawanese (both of the Algonquin group), the Miamis (also called Twigtwees), the Mingos (an offshoot from the Iroquois or a fragment of the Six Nations), and the Ottawas and Chippewas. "The Wyandots occupied the valleys and plains bordering on the Sandusky River, and some other points; the Delawares occupied the valleys of the Tuscarawas and Muskingum Rivers, and a few other places between the Ohio River and Lake Erie ; the Shawanese were found chiefly in the valleys of the Scioto and Mad Rivers, and at a few points on the Ohio River and elsewhere in small numbers ; the Miamis were the chief occupants of the valleys of the Little and Great Miami Rivers; the Mingos were in greatest force on the Ohio River about Mingo Bottom, below Steubenville, and at other points HISTORY OF OHIO - 147 on said river—also on the Scioto River, and at a few places between the Ohio River and Lake Erie ; the Ottawas occupied the valleys of the Maumee and Sandusky Rivers; and the Chippewas, small numbers, were chiefly confined to the southern shores of Lake Erie. By the treaty of Fort McIntosh, formed in 1785, the Ottawas, with the Wyandots and Delawares, were assigned to thenorthern section of what is now the State of Ohio, and west of the Cuyahoga River, having relinquished by the terms of said treaty whatever of claims they had to other portions of the territory that now constitutes our State. TITLES TO OHIO-BY WHOM HELD-WHEN AND HOW ACQUIRED AND "The territory that now constitutes Ohio was first of all, so far as we can judge, in the full possession of the race of Mound-Builders; afterwards, (but still in prehistoric times,) its sole occupants and owners for some centuries were unquestionably those Indian tribes or nations already named, and probably the Eries and others that had been subjected to expulsion or extermination. They, as well as the Mound-Builders, held titles acquired probably by priority of discovery —by conquest—by occupancy, or possession. Possessory titles they might be appropriately styled. "It is stated by Parkman, and probably by other accredited historians, that the adventurous La Salle in 1670, accompanied by a few heroic followers, passed from Lake Erie south, over the portage into the Allegheny River, perhaps by the way of one of its numerous tributaries, and from thence down into the Ohio, which they descended as far as the "Falls" of said river (at Louisville); and that they were therefore the first white men—the first of European birth—to enter upon the soil of Ohio; the first civilized men to discover and explore the territory that constitutes our now populous State. It must be admitted that some shades of doubt rest upon the foregoing problematical expedition of the distinguished Frenchman (Robert Cavelier La Salle), but whether he voyaged down the Ohio or not at the time named, his name must ever be identified with our State as one of its earliest explorers, if not its discoverer, so far as the white race is concerned, as will be made apparent in the following paragraphs. In 1679, the intrepid explorer, La Salle, accompanied by thirty-four Frenchmen, sailed along the entire length of the southern shore of Lake Erie in the " Griffin," a vessel of about sixty tons burthen, which 148 - A SKETCH OF THE he had built in the Niagara River above the "Falls," and which was the first vessel that ever unfurled a sail on said lake, or upon any waters within the present limits of Ohio. "Again, in 1682, La Salle descended the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers to the mouth of the latter; and in 1684 he sailed past the mouth of the Mississippi (which he intended to enter, but failed), and along the Gulf of Mexico to some point on the coast of Texas, and landing there, became its discoverer. And it is upon these three last named voyages, and upon the provisions of some European treaties, more than upon the somewhat doubtful and uncertain voyage of discovery by La Salle down the Ohio River to the ' Falls' in 1670, that France rested her title, claiming that the Upper Valley of the Ohio (at least the portion northwest of the Ohio River) was a part of Louisiana, thus acquired by La Salle for France, and held by said power by right of discovery and possession. There was, of course, little controversy between Great Britain and France as to title northwest of the Ohio River, before the formation of the Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, when and by which certain matters in dispute between those governments were adjusted. And France not only asserted ownership and held possession of the territory that now constitutes Ohio, from the time of the Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, until the Treaty of Paris, in 1763, by which peace was established between France and England, but also exercised authority therein and maintained control over it by military force. And this, too, in defiance of titles set up by Great Britain, one of which being based upon treaties with the Iroquois or Six Nations of Indians, who claimed to have conquered the whole country from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, and from the lakes to Carolina, and hence were its owners and authorized to dispose of it. "By conquest and treaty stipulations, Great Britain came into possession in 1763, and substantially retained it until the close of our Revolutionary war, when, by the treaty of peace concluded at Paris in 1783, and ratified by the American Congress in January, 1784, ownership was vested in the government of the United States, which, in October, 1784, by the terms of the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, extinguished the title of the Six Nations to the Ohio Valley, and which, from time to time, by treaties concluded at various times and places, as given in my paper of last year, extinguished all other Indian titles, and thus acquired full right to the soil, and complete and undisputed territorial jurisdiction. By the treaties of Forts McIntosh and Finney alone, held respectively in January, 1785 and 1786, all Indian titles to Ohio territory were extinguished, except that portion situated VICTORY OF OHIO - 149 chiefly between the Cuyahoga and Maumee Rivers, as will be seen by reference to my paper in last year's, volume of ' Ohio Statistics,' and which also gives the dates of the subsequent relinquishment of Indian titles. "New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, after the ratification of the treaty of peace, in 1784, between Great Britain and the United States, and for some time before, had asserted claims toportions of the territory now composing the State of Ohio, and Virginia claimed title to the whole of it and much more, even to the entire extent of the `territory northwest of the river Ohio,' organized four years thereafter. Virginia had asserted ownership, and exercised a nominal jurisdiction over the territory of our State, by establishing the county of Botetourt, in 1769, whose western boundary was the Mississippi River. That State's claim was founded, as heretofore stated, upon certain charters granted to the Colony of Virginia by James the First, bearing dates respectively, April 10, 1606 ; May 23, 1609 ; and March 12, 1611; also, upon the conquest of the country, between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and the northern lakes, by General George Rogers Clark, in 1778-79. But whatever the claim was founded upon, the State Legislature waived all title and ownership to it (except to the Virginia Military District), and all authority over it, by directing the Representatives of said State (Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Hardy, Arthur Lee, and James Monroe) to cede to the United States all right, title, and claim, as well of soil as of jurisdiction, with the exception named, ' to the territory of said State lying and being to the northwest of the River Ohio;' which was accordingly done, March 1, 1784. "The charter of Massachusetts, upon which that State's title was based, was granted within less than twenty-five years after the arrival of the Mayflower; and that of Connecticut) bearing date March 19, 1631, both embracing territory extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific; and that of New York, obtained from Charles the Second, on March 2, 1664, included territory that had been previously granted to Massachusetts and Connecticut; hence, the conflict of claims between those States, their several charters covering, to some extent, the same territory ; and hence, also, their contest with Virginia as to a portion of the soil of Ohio. Probably the titles of some or all of the aforesaid contesting States were in some way affected by the pro_ visions of treaties with the Iroquois, or by the fact of their recognition by them, as appendants of the government of New York. " New York's deed of cession was favorably reported upon by a 150 - A SKETCH OF THE committee of Congress, May 1, 1782; and by like acts of patriotism, magnanimity, and generosity to, those of New York and Virginia, Massachusetts and Connecticut soon followed by similar acts of relinquishment of title, or by corresponding deeds of cession to the United States. The Legislature of Massachusetts, on the 13th day of November, 1784, authorized her delegates in Congress to cede the title of that State to all the territory west of the western boundary of the State of New York, to the United States, and the measure was con-summated in 1785. " Connecticut, in September, 1786, ceded all her claim to soil and jurisdiction west of what is now known as the Western Reserve, to the United States. Five hundred thousand acres of the western portion of the Western Reserve was set apart for the relief of the Connecticut sufferers by fire during the Revolution, since known as the ‘Firelands,' the Indian title to which was extinguished by the treaty of Fort Industry (now Toledo), in 1805, Charles Jouett being the United States Commissioner, and the Chiefs of the Shawnees, Delawares, Wyandots, Chippewas, Ottawas, and some minor tribes representing the interests of the Indians. The remainder of the Western Reserve tract, amounting to about three millions of acres, was sold, and the proceeds dedicated to educational purposes, and has served as the basis of Connecticut's common school fund, now aggregating upwards of two millions of dollars. Jurisdictional claim to the Western Reserve was ceded by Connecticut to the United States, May 30, 1801. EARLY-TIME WHITE MEN IN OHIO. "As early as 1680 the French had a trading station on the Maumee River, a few miles above the present city of Toledo, near where Fort Miami was erected in 1794; and Bancroft, the historian, asserts that a route from Canada to the Mississippi River, by way of the Maumee, Wabash, and Ohio Rivers, was established by the French in 1716. A little later a route was established from Presque Isle, now Erie, on Lake Erie, to French Creek, and thence down the Alleghany and Ohio Rivers. Vague traditions have been handed down of the establishment of trading posts upon the Ohio, by Englishmen, as early as 1730. In 1742 John Howard crossed the mountains from Virginia, and descending the Ohio in a canoe, was captured, somewhere on his voyage by the French. In 1748 Conrad Weiser, a German of Herenberg, who (says the author of ' Western Annals') had in early life HISTORY OF OHIO - 151 acquired a knowledge of the Mohawk tongue, was sent to the Shawnees on the Ohio as an ambassador, and held a conference with them at Logstown, on the Ohio River, seventeen miles below the `Forks of the Ohio" (now Pittsburgh), but it is not quite certain that he came within the present limits of Ohio, though it is probable. "In 1750, Christopher Gist, an agent of the ' Ohio Land Company,' which had been organized in 174S by the Washingtons, one or two of the Lees, and other Virginians; and some Englishmen, came over the mountains from Virginia, and crossing the Ohio at or below the `Forks' (now Pittsburgh), passed over to the Tuscarawas River, which he descended to its junction with the Walhonding. From thence he traveled down the Muskingum, following an Indian trail, to the mouth of the Wakatomika (now Dresden, Muskingum county), where there was an Indian town. He then followed the Indian trail across the Licking River to King Beaver's town, situated on the head waters of the Hockhocking River, about equidistant from the present cities of Lancaster and Columbus. The trail he followed must have led him near the `Big Lake,' as the Indians called it, now the `Reservoir,' a famous fishing resort, situated in the counties of Licking, Fairfield, and Perry. In this exploring expedition Gist was joined at the Walhonding by George Croghan, and probably by Andrew Montour, a half-breed, son of a Seneca chief, who often acted as an interpreter between the whites and Indians. They crossed the Scioto and traveled on to the Great Miami, which Gist descended to the Ohio, and voyaged down said stream to a. point fifteen miles above the `Falls,' from whence he traveled through Kentucky to his home in Virginia, where he arrived in May, 1751. " Croghan and Montour were the bearers of liberal presents from Pennsylvania to the Miamis, who, in return, granted the right to the English to build a strong trading-house or stockade on the Miami River, at the entrance of Loramie's Creek into said stream, in the present county of Miami, and which was accordingly erected and called Pickawillany, and has been called by some historians ' the first point of English settlement in Ohio,' and ' a place of historic interest.' The presents were made on behalf of Pennsylvania, and the reciprocal favor secured, it was believed, would largely benefit the Indian traders there and in ' the regions round about,' who were principally Pennsylvanians. The Pickawillany stockade was doubtless the first edifice erected upon Ohio's territory by English-speaking people; but it was of brief duration, for in June, 1752, a force of French, Canadians, and Indians (Chippewas and Ottawas) attacked and destroyed 152 - A SKETCH OF THE it, capturing or killing all the traders but two—fourteen of its defenders, chiefly Miamis, being killed in the action; a number also being wounded. I transcribe, from a long list of names in Captain Trent's journal, a few of those who traded at this post with the Indians between the years 1745 and 1753, as follows : Peter Chartier, Conrad Weiser, Thomas McGee, George Croghan, James Denny, Robert Callender, George Gibson, James Lowry, Michael Cresap, Sr., Christopher Gist, Jacob Piatt, William Trent, John Findlay, David Hendricks, John Trotter, William Campbell, Thomas Mitchell, William West, and others. "Before 1745 the traders among the Ohio Indians were principally Frenchmen, but about this time Pennsylvanians and Virginians entered into that business in augmented numbers, and continued in it persistently, while the French gradually relinquished it ; and after the capture of Fort Du Quesne, in 1758, the English also acquired a foot-hold as traders in the Upper Ohio Valley, and retained it until the peace of 1783-4. " George Croghan, with a retinue of deputies of the Senecas, Shawanese, and Delawares, passed down the Ohio River in two bateaux from Fort Pitt to the mouth of the Wabash in 1765. " It is also well known to persons familiar with our history, that George Washington came to Fort Pitt in 1770, and, with William Crawford, Dr. Craik, and a few other chosen friends, and two Indians, three servants, some boatmen, and an interpreter, voyaged down the Ohio River to the mouth of the Kanawha, and fourteen miles up said stream, and, after some buffalo shooting and hunting generally, but mainly after extensive explorations with a view to the selection and ultimate location of lands, returned by way of the Ohio to Fort Pitt. From the journal of Washington, a copy of which is now before me, it appears that they lodged one night in the camp of Kiashuta, an Indian chief of the Six Nations, near the mouth of the Hockhocking River. Washington and Crawford also took a short walk of eight miles across the `Big Bend,' now in Meigs county, while their canoes were being paddled around the bend, on their return voyage. "Rev. David Jones (the Chaplain Jones of revolutionary fame) also made a voyage down the Ohio and up the Scioto to the " Old Chillicothe" Indian towns, thence across the Licking to the missionary stations on the Tuscarawas, and from thence to Fort Pitt and home, in 1772-3, making the journey from the Indian towns on the Scioto on horseback, in company with a Pennsylvania Indian trader named David Duncan. HISTORY OF OHIO - 153 "And, lastly, I mention a voyage made down the Ohio River in the autumn of 1785, from Fort Pitt to the mouth of the Great Miami, by Gen. Richard Butler, Gen. S. H. Parsons, Col. James Monroe, Major Finney, Isaac Zane, Col. Lewis, and others, who were then, or subsequently became, men of note. THE EARLIEST ENGLISH MILITARY EXPEDITIONS ON LAKE ERIE. "After the conquest of Canada by the English, in 1759-60, General Amherst, with a view to the establishment of English authority over the uncivilized regions of the west, organized an expedition under command of Major Rogers, who, on the 12th of September, 1760, received orders ' to ascend the lakes and take possession of the French forts in the northwest.' This expedition, consisting of about two hundred men, coasted along the southern shore of Lake Erie, arrived at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River on the 7th of November, and were probably the firstEnglish-speaking people that, in any consider-able numbers, sailed upon it. The expedition sailed up the lake and on to Detroit, and there, on the 20th of said month, ' took down the colors of France and raised the royal standard of England.' In December, Major Rogers left the Maumee, and after reaching Sandusky Bay, (now Sandusky City,) he decided to cross the Huron River and travel to ` Fort Pitt' by way of the north branch of the White-woman's River (now called Walhonding), which he did, arriving there January 23, 1761. "The second expedition that came within Ohio territory, was organized at Albany, on the Hudson. River, in 1763, by General Amherst, and consisted of six hundred British regulars placed under the immediate command of Major Wilkins. In ascending Lake Erie a violent storm was encountered, and a number of the vessels of the expedition were wrecked, losing fifty barrels of provisions, some field pieces, all their ammunition, and seventy-three men, including two lieutenants and a surgeon. The remnant returned to Albany without a further attempt to reach Detroit, the objective point of the expedition. MORAVIAN MISSIONARY STATIONS. "In 1761, Rev. Christian Frederick Post visited the Delaware Indians, living on the Upper Muskingum River, and took the preliminary steps to establish a Moravian missionary station among them. After building a cabin he went to Pennsylvania to find a suitable associate, one qualified to teach the Indian children to read and write, 154 - A SKETCH OF THE and thus assist him in his missionary labors. This companion he found in John Heckewelder, of Bethlehem, who was then engaged at some mechanical employment. In March, 1762, they started for their western mission, Heckewelder being then a youth of only nineteen years. After thirty-three days of weary horse-back travel, they arrived at the Muskingum, (now called the Tuscarawas) and with expressions of gratitude for their protection during their long and perilous journey, they at once took possession of. the cabin built by the self-sacrificing missionary the preceding year. Other appropriate devotional exercises signalized their safe arrival in the wilderness of the Muskingum, which, however, was then to be the scene of their missionary operations for a very brief period. They cleared some ground around their cabin and cultivated corn and vegetables for their subsistence, but before the autumn months had gone by, the jealousy and hostility of the Indians rendered their condition not only unpleasant but unsafe, and the mission had to be abandoned, the missionaries returning to Pennsylvania. " Ten years later (1772), Rev. David Zeisberger renewed the attempt to establish missions on the Upper Muskingum. The first settlement, station, or village, that he founded was called Shonbrun, meaning a `beautiful, clear spring,' and was situated on the west side of the Muskingum, two or three miles from the present town of New Philadelphia, the county seat of Tuscarawas county. The second mission station was established later in the year 1772, and was called Gnadenhutten, that is, ' tents of grace,' and was situated on the east bank of the Muskingum, seven miles below Shonbrun. In this year Rev. John George Jungman located as a missionary at Shunbrun, and in 1773 Rev. John Roth, also a missionary, commenced his labors at Gnadenhutten. " In 1776, the Moravians, under the lead of Rev. David Zeisberger, established the town and mission station of Lichtenau, within two miles of the 'Forks of the Muskingum' (now Coshocton); and in 1780, Salem, situated on the west bank of the Muskingum, about five miles below Gnadenhutten, was established under the leadership of the same indefatigable missionary. Rev. John Heckewelder was its early minister, and it was here where, in July, 1780, he entered into the married relation with Sarah Ohneberg, a teacher at the Muskingum mission stations. Revs. Adam Grube, Edwards, Sense_ man, and others, were missionaries at the above named villages at various times. "The forcible removal of the missionaries and of the Moravian HISTORY OF OHIO - 155 Indians from the Muskingum to the Sandusky by Elliott, an emissary of the British, in September, 1781, and the murder of ninety-four of them, who, in February, 17S2, had returned to gather the corn they had raised the previous season, terminated Moravian missions for many years on the Upper Muskingum. Until 1786 there were none within the present limits of Ohio. During said year Rev. John Heckewelder, and others, established a mission on the Cuyahoga River, twelve miles from its mouth, which was composed. mainly of those who had formerly lived on the Muskingum, and who spent the past few years at Gnadenhutten, on Huron River, thirty miles north of Detroit. This mission station on the Cuyahoga, known in Moravian history as `Pilgrim's Rest,' was abandoned in 1790, the members returning to the vicinity of Detroit, and ultimately locating near the river Thames, where they built the town of Fairfield. " The subsequent history of Moravian missionary effort in Ohio belongs to territorial and later times, but I may be permitted to say that Revs. Heckewelder and Edwards, in 1798, again established a mission at the Muskingum, upon the site of Gnadenhutten ; and in the autumn of said year their fellow-laborers, Revs. Zeisberger and Mortimer, established another upon the Shonbrun tract, and named it Goshen. It was situated seven miles from Gnadenhutten, where the venerated Zeisberger labored until his death, in 1808, and where he and Edwards are buried. The Muskingum Moravian mission stations were finally brought to a close in the year 1823, the general government having purchased at that time all the interests previously acquired by the Moravians. " Rev. John Heckewelder was conspicuously identified with our Pre-territorial, our Territorial and State history, and has been called one of the founders of Ohio. He was a man of talents, of character and integrity, and was one of the Associate Judges of Tuscarawas county in 1808, 1809, 1810, when he finally left Ohio, and returned to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he died January 31, 1823, having passed into the closing months of his eightieth year. His influence as a philanthropist, philosopher, pioneer, teacher, author, diplomatist, statesman, ambassador, jurist, and as a Christian missionary, was invaluable. SUBSEQUENT MILITARY MOVEMENTS UPON OHIO SOIL. "For the purpose of subjugating the hostile Wyandots, Delawares and Shawanese, who were unreconciled to English rule, and who had 156 - A SKETCh OF THE outraged humanity by their brutality toward the frontier settlers, having barbarously murdered many of them and carried their wives and children into captivity, General Gage, commander-in-chief of the British troops in North America, decided, in 1764, to organize two armies, to be commanded respectively by Colonels Bradstreet and Bouquet. COLONEL BRADSTREET'S EXPEDITION. . "In pursuance of this purpose, Colonel Bradstreet, with a force of twelve hundred men, in August sailed up Lake Erie, by way of Sandusky Bay, to Detroit, which had been besieged by Pontiac for many months, confining the garrison to their ramparts. After relieving Detroit, he returned by way of Sandusky Bay to Niagara. Israel Putnam, who figures in our Revolutionary history as a Major-General, and as one of the most distinguished men of those `stirring times,' served as Major, commanding a battalion of provincial troops in the Bradstreet expedition. COLONEL BOUQUET'S EXPEDITION. Colonel Bouquet's army of fifteen hundred men, composed of two hundred Virginians, seven hundred Pennsylvanians and six hundred English regulars belonging to the Forty-second and Sixtieth regiments, was organized at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, arrived at ' Fort Pitt' September 17, and marched from thence for the Upper Muskingum River (now called Tuscarawas) October 3, reaching said stream on the 15th of said month, at a point within the present limits of Tuscarawas county, and proceeded at once to erect a temporary fort. ' Here,' (says the historian of the expedition) 'Indian chiefs and warriors of the Senecas, Delawares; Shawanese, and others, numbering in all nearly fifty, met Colonel Bouquet, October 17, and sued for peace in the most abject manner. Turtle-Heart, Custaloga, Beaver, and another chief or two, were the speakers, who, in their harangues, vehemently accompanied with wild gesticulations, asserted that they had been unable to restrain their young men, who had participated with those of other tribes in the acts of barbarity charged, and generally palliated the conduct of the Indians towards the white settlers.' They pledged themselves, however, in conclusion, to restore all captives, which had been previously demanded of them by Colonel Bouquet, who had doubtless authoritatively charged home upon them their perfidy and cruel barbarities, their violated engagements, their treachery and HISTORY OF OHIO - 157 brutal murders of traders and frontiersmen, their unfaithfulness to all promises they had made, their untrustworthiness, their baseness generally, concluding with the affirmation that their crimes merited the severest punishment. " We also learn from the official account of the expedition that, by arrangement, Colonel Bouquet met them again on the 20th of October, when, after reiterating the charges, against them, he notified them that many of the friends and relatives of those that had been massacred or captured by them accompanied the expedition, and that they would not consent to a peace with them until full satisfaction was rendered, by the restoration of all captives under their control, or by making satisfactory arrangements for their return to their homes and friends at the earliest practical period. Moreover, he emphatically impressed upon them that his army would not leave their country until they had fully complied with every condition contained in any treaty or arrangement he would make with them, because their oft-time violated obligations, their repeated acts of perfidy, their general faithlessness, their oft-told falsehoods, their forfeited honor in numerous cases, had rendered them so infamous as to be wholly untrustworthy. "`The temper of the foregoing address;' says a writer in the Historical Record, ` was such as to extort a promise from those chiefs to secure the restoration promptly of all whites held in captivity by their people.' And it was then and there agreed that they would meet again in twelve days, at the junction of the Tuscarawas and White-woman (now called Walhonding) Rivers, when and where the Indians were to `surrender all the prisoners now held by them, whether they were men, women or children ; whether they were English, French, African or American ; or whether they were adopted, or married, or living in any other condition among them.' " In pursuance of the above agreement, Colonel Bouquet, on the 25th of October, reached the `Forks of the Muskingum' (now Coshocton), and then and there made preparation for the reception of the prisoners. The Indians, realizing the necessity of keeping faith with the stern and determined commander of such a large army, brought in, from day to day, numerous captives, so that when the general meeting was held, on the 9th of November (being some days later than the time first agreed upon), two hundred and six captives were delivered, and pledges given that about one hundred more, still held by the Shawanese, and whom it was impracticable to have present on so short a notice, would be surrendered during the next spring. Hos- 158 - A SKETCH OF THE tages were taken for the fulfillment of this part of the arrangement (for it was not a formal treaty), which (although some of the hostages escaped) secured the delivery of the additional captives, numbering about one hundred, at ' Fort Pitt,' on the 9th of the following May. " The scene at the surrender of the prisoners, in the midst of this far-off, western wilderness, far beyond the limits of the white settlements, was one that human language is too feeble to portray—which the pen of the historian and of the ready writer could not adequately describe—which the genius of the painter would utterly fail to present on canvas—which the skill of the renowned sculptor would be unable fully to exhibit in marble, and which could not fail to have stimulated into the most lively exercise all the variety of human passions, and, exceptionally, all the tender and sympathetic feelings of the human heart ! "' There were seen,' said the aforenamed authority, `fathers and mothers recognizing and clasping their once captive little ones, husbands hung around the newly-recovered wives ; brothers and sisters met, after long separation, scarcely able to speak the same language, or to realize that they were children of the same parents ! In those interviews there was inexpressible joy and rapture, while, in some cases, feelings of a very different character were manifested by looks or language. Many were flying from place to place, making eager inquiries after relatives not found, trembling to receive answers to their questions, distracted with doubts, hopes and fears ; distressed and grieved on obtaining no information about the friends they sought, and, in some cases, petrified into living monuments of horror and woe on learning their unhappy fate ! " Among the captives brought into camp was a woman with a babe, a few months old, at her breast. One of the Virginia Volunteers soon recognized her as his wife who had been taken by the Indians about six months before. She was immediately delivered to her happy husband. He flew with her to his tent and clothed her and his child with proper apparel. But their joy, after their first transports, was soon checked by the reflection that another dear child, about two years old, taken captive at the same time with the mother, and separated from her, was still missing, although many children had been brought in. A few days afterwards a number of other prisoners were brought to the camp, among whom were several more children. The woman was sent for, and one, supposed to be hers, was presented to her. At first sight she was uncertain, but, viewing the child with HISTORY OF OHIO - 159 great earnestness, she soon recollected its features, and was so overcome with joy that, literally forgetting her nursing babe, she dropped it from her arms, and, catching up the new-found child, in an ecstacy pressed it to her bosom, and, bursting into tears, carried it off, unable to speak for joy, while the father, taking up the infant its mother had dropped, followed her in no less transport of affection and gratitude. "Albach says that ' in many cases strong attachments had grown up between the savages and their captives, so that they were reluctantly surrendered, some even not without tears, accompanied with some token of remembrance.' " Colonel Bouquet, having accomplished his purpose, broke up his camp at the `Forks of the Muskingum' on the 18th of November, and, after a march of ten days, arrived at ' Fort Pitt.' His expedition was generally regarded as pre-eminently successful. His large army of well-equipped soldiers, led by a determined commander, struck terror into the hearts of the savages. They saw that resistance would be vain, and hence readily yielded to the conditions submitted to them. The results secured were the restoration to their friends of more than three hundred captives, a treaty of peace the next year, made with Sir William Johnson at the German Flats, and comparative exemption in the entire northwest, for about ten years, from the horrors of Indian warfare. "The success of Colonel Bouquet's expedition secured him immediate promotion to a Brigadier-Generalship, and he was also highly complimented by the Legislative Assembly of Pennsylvania ; also by the House of Burgesses of Virginia, and by his Majesty's Council of the same Colony, as well as by Governor Fauquier. "General Henry Bouquet was a native of Rolle, a small town in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland, near the borders of Lake Geneva. He was born in 1719, and died at Pensacola, Florida, late in the year 1765. He was a man of sense and of science, of education, of ability and talents. He was subordinate in the Forbes expedition against Fort Du Quesne, in 175S. General Bouquet had a command while yet a very young man, in the army of the King of Sardinia, and passed through several of ' the memorable and ably conducted campaigns' that monarch sustained against the combined forces of France and Spain.' AN ACT OF THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT. "It may not be generally known, and yet be a fact worth recording, that the British Parliament, in the year 1774, passed an act making 160 - A SKETCH OF THE the Ohio River the southwestern boundary of Canada, and the Mississippi River its western boundary, thereby attaching the northwest to the province of Quebec, as it was called, thus placing the territory that now constitutes the State of Ohio under the local administration of said province. Some historians have 1766 as the time of the aforesaid parliamentary enactment, but I think they are in error as to date. " For ten years after the celebrated Bouquet expedition, the settlers on the western frontiers of the colonies of Virginia and Pennsylvania enjoyed comparative immunity from the marauding excursions and murderous raids of the western savages, and from the barbarities previously and subsequently practiced by the Ohio Indians. That decade of peace, however, may be fairly judged to have been more the wholesome result of the instructive lessons taught by Colonel Bouquet and of his large, well-equipped and formidable army than of the action of the English Parliament above named (even if said act was passed in 1766), or of any other cause or combination of causes whatever. When the army of the gallant Bouquet started on its long western march ' the wilderness was ringing with the war-whoop of the savage, and the frontiers were red with blood'—when the return march was ordered the signs of the times were auspicious, promising a long season of peace and quietude to the courageous frontiersmen of those ' heroic times,' and those hopeful indications were, in a good degree, realized during the halcyon years of the succeeding decade. COLONEL M'DONALD's EXPEDITION. "As has been already intimated, the ten years that immediately followed the Bouquet expedition (from 1764 to 1774), was a period of comparative peace on both sides of the Ohio river. What might be appropriately called ' a state of war' between the Ohio Indians and the Western frontiersmen did not exist at any time during that decade. It is true some outrages were perpetrated by the Indians that provoked some acts of retaliation on the part of the whites during ' those piping times of peace;' but, taken all in all, those ten years may be properly styled the halcyon decade of the latter half of the eighteenth century, as between the civilized white men east of the Ohio and the savage red men west of it. " While, however, it was yet early spring-time, in 1774, rumors of threatened horse-stealing raids, and of contemplated hostile visits by the Indians into the frontier settlements, were rife. The border set- HISTORY OF OHIO - 161 tlers were in a painful state of distrust, of doubt, uncertainty and apprehension, which culminated in fully arousing the partially smothered hostility mutually cherished by the two hostile races towards each other. " On the 16th of April, 1774, a large canoe, owned by William Butler, a well-known and leading merchant or trader of Pittsburgh, with a number of white men in it, was attacked by three Indians (supposed Cherokees), while it was floating down the Ohio River, near Wheeling, and one of the men was killed. This outrage soon became known, and was followed at once by wild, but generally believed rumors of further contemplated Indian atrocities. It will readily be seen how news of such an outrage, with the accompanying and prob. ably exaggerated reports, would fall upon the ears of the already highly excited and inflammable frontiersmen, many of whom had, probably, for good cause, been long nursing their hatred of the Indian. The outrage, as might have been expected, was promptly succeeded by retaliaticn, for it was only a few days thereafter when a number of Indians that were going down the Ohio river in a boat were killed by some white men who alleged the murder of one of Butler's men as the provocation and their justification. It has been often asserted and extensively published, that Captain Michael Cresap, of border and revolutionary fame, had command of the murderers of these friendly Indians. I do not think the charge clearly established, but whatever may be the fact on that point, it is probable that the atrocity was perpetrated at the instigation of Dr. John Connolly, who was at this time commandant, under Virginia authority, at the ' Forks of the Ohio;' the fort at that time being called Fort Dunmore, in honor of the usurping Governor of Virginia. The frontiersmen about Wheeling being generally Virginians and Marylanders, naturally and easily became victims of the malign influence of the artful, designing Connolly, a tool of Dunmore's, who was always ready to do his bidding. Captain Cresap recognized Connolly's authority, and was in correspondence with him. Connolly sent an express to Cresap, which reached him April 21st, informing him ' that war was inevitable ; that the savages would strike as soon as the season permitted.' This message, says Brantz Mayer, was the ' signal for open hostilities against the Indians, and resulted in a solemn and forma] declaration of war on the 26th of April, and that very night two scalps were brought into camp.' Upon the receipt of the letter from Connolly, on the 21st, ' a council was called at Wheeling, of not only the military there then, 162 - A SKETCH OF THE but all the neighboring Indian traders were also summoned for consultation on the important occasion, resulting as above indicated.' " The settlers at and in the vicinity of Wheeling, and along the Ohio River, were doubtless inveigled into the commission of hostile acts towards the Indians by the inflammatory appeals to them by Connolly, whose influence over them was of vicious tendency. He was an ambitious intriguer, a mere instrument in the hands of Dunmore ; and the war of 1774 is fairly traceable, to a large extent, to his intrigues, exciting appeals and machinations. "Brantz Mayer says that ' the day after the declaration of war by Cresap and his men, under the warning authority of Connolly's message, some canoes filled with Indians were descried on the river, keeping under cover of the island, to screen themselves from view. They were immediately pursued and overtaken fifteen miles below, at or near the mouth of Captina creek, where a battle ensued, in which an Indian was taken prisoner, a few were wounded on both sides, and perhaps, one slain. On examination, the canoes were found to contain a considerable quantity of ammunition and warlike stores, showing that they were "on the war-path" in earnest.' Captain Cresap is generally supposed to have commanded the pursuing party, but his biographer, Rev. John J. Jacob, emphatically declares that he was not present. This affair occurred April 27th. " On the 30th of April, a force of twenty or thirty men, led by Captain Daniel Greathouse, went up the Ohio river to the mouth of Yellow creek, above the present city of Steubenville, and there, accompanied by circumstances of great perfidy and atrocity, murdered ten Indians, some of whom were the kindred of Logan, the celebrated Mingo Chief. This act was the more dastardly because committed against men, women and children who were known to cherish no hostile purposes toward the whites ! After these occurrences, it was manifest to the most hopeful friends of peace that an Indian war was inevitable ! As might have been anticipated, the savages at once furiously took the war-path ! Parties of them, with murder in their hearts, scoured the country east of the Ohio river, and made hostile raids into the settlements and laid them waste ! Men, women and children were murdered, and scalped; the brains of infants were dashed out against the trees, and their bodies were left exposed, to be devoured by birds of prey and by the wild beasts of the forest ! Terror, gloom, excitement, consternation pervaded all the border settlements ! "Upon the representations made to Governor Dunmore of out- HISTORY OF OHIO - 163 rages that clearly indicated a hostile disposition of the Indians toward the whites and a determination to make war upon them, that functionary promptly commissioned Colonel Angus McDonald, and authorized him to organize the settlers on the Youghiogheny and Monongahela rivers for the defense of the frontiers. "Lord Dunmore, knowing Michael Cresap to be a man of courage, energy, and force of character, personally tendered him a captain's commission, with a view to the immediate enlistment of a force for co-operation with the troops rapidly organizing by McDonald, west of the Alleghenies. Captain Cresap accepted the commission, and entered upon his duties promptly. Such was his popularity, that more than the required complement of men were recruited in a very short time, and at once marched to join the command of McDonald, the ranking officer of the expedition. The combined forces, numbering four hundred men, after a dreary march through the wilderness, rendezvoused at Wheeling, some time in June. The invasion of the country of the Ohio Indians was their purpose. In pursuance of their object, they went down the Ohio in boats and canoes to the mouth of the Captina creek, and from thence they pursued their march to the Indian towns at and near the mouth of the Wakatomika creek (now Dresden), a ' point about equidistant from the present city of Zanesville and the town of Coshocton, both on the Muskingum River, Jonathan Zane being the chief pilot of the expedition. "About six miles from Wakatomika a force of forty or fifty Indians, lying in ambush, gave a skirmish, in which two of McDonald's men were killed and eight or nine wounded, while the Indians lost one or more killed and several wounded. When McDonald arrived at the chief Wakatomika town he found it evacuated, and the whole Indian force were in ambuscade a short distance from it, which, being discovered, the Indians sued for peace. A march to the next village, a mile above the first, was effected, and a small skirmish ensued, in which some blood was shed on both sides. The result was the burning of the town and the destruction of their corn fields. There was the usual perfidy on the part of the Indians, and really nothing substantial was accomplished, when the expedition returned to Wheeling, taking with them three chiefs as captives, or hostages, who were sent to Williamsburg, the seat of the colonial government of Virginia. This expedition was designed only to give temporary protection to the frontier settlers, and was preliminary to the Dunmore expedition to 164 - A SKETCH OF THE the Pickaway Plains, or ` Old Chillicothe,' towns, near the Scioto, later in the year. " Colonel Angus McDonald was of Scotch parentage, if he was not himself a native of the Highlands of Scotland. He lived near Winchester, Frederick county, Virginia, upon, or near to the possessions early acquired in ' the valley,' and which was then, and is still, known as ` Glengary,' named in honor of the ancestral clan to which the ancient McDonalds belonged in the Highlands of Scot-land. Some of Colonel McDonald's descendants, in the fourth generation, are still living near to, or upon, these domains of the earlier McDonalds. LORD DUNMORE'S WAR. "The summer and early autumn of 1774 resounded with the din of preparation for war in various portions of Virginia, having in view the raising of armies, ostensibly for the purpose of subjugating the hostile Ohio Indians. Governor Dunmore organized an army numbering about fifteen hundred men, in the northern counties, principally in Frederick, Hampshire, Berkley and Dunmore (now Shenandoah), which assembled on the banks of the Ohio River, above Wheeling ; while, at the same time, by arrangement, General Andrew Lewis raised over a thousand men in the southern counties for the same purpose, which rendezvoused at Camp Union, on the Greenbriar River. The two armies were to form a junction at the mouth of the Kanawha. Bancroft says ' these armies were composed of noble Virginians, who braved danger at the call of a royal governor, and poured out their blood to win the victory for western civilization' Three companies that served in the McDonald expedition to the Muskingum, immediately upon their return in July entered the army of Lord Dunmore, and formed a part of the right wing thereof, which was directly under his immediate command. They were commanded respectively by Captain Michael Cresap, Captain James Wood, and by Captain Daniel Morgan, who all subsequently figured as officers in our Revolutionary war, the last named being the distinguished General Morgan of heroic fame, while Captain James Wood reached high military and civil positions, having served as Governor of Virginia from 1796 to 1799. Among others of the Dunmore army who afterwards attained to more or less distinction as military commanders, and whose names, to the present time, are ' household words' in the West, were Colonel William Crawford, General Simon Kenton, General John Gibson, and General George Rogers Clark. Among those HISTORY OF OHIO - 165 Connected with the left wing of the Dunmore army, who were then, or subsequently became, honorably identified with the history of our country, were its gallant commander, General Andrew Lewis; General Isaac Shelby, a lieutenant then, afterwards the ' hero of King's `Mountain;' Colonel Charles Lewis, who gave up his life for his ''country on the battlefield of Point Pleasant, also, Hon. Andrew Moore, who served Virginia many years in both branches of our national legislature with honor to himself and credit to his State. " The right wing of the Dunmore army reached the Ohio River by way of ` Potomac Gap,' about the first of October; and the left wing, under command of General Lewis, encamped at the mouth of the Kanawha River near the same time, where he soon received a dispatch from Lord Dunmore, changing the place of the junction of the two wings of his army to the vicinity of the Indian towns on the Scioto, near the `Pickaway Plains.' Meanwhile Dunmore, with his command, went down the Ohio to the mouth of the Hock-Hocking River, and there built ' Fort Gower.' From thence he marched his army up said river through the territory that now constitutes the counties of Athens, Hocking, Fairfield, and portions of Pickaway, and encamped on Sippo Creek, a tributary of the Scioto, within a few miles of the Shawanese towns, where he erected some entrenchments, naming his encampment 'Camp Charlotte.' "General Lewis intended to start with his command towards the Indian towns on the Scioto on the 10th of October, to join Governor Dunmore, but at sunrise on that day he was unexpectedly attacked by about one thousand chosen warriors, under the command of Cornstalk, the celebrated Shawanese chief, who had rallied them at the Old Chillicothe town, on the Scioto, near the `Pickaway Plains,' to meet the army of General Lewis, and give them battle before the two corps could effect a union. The battle lasted all day, and terminated with the repulse of Cornstalk's warriors, with great slaughter on both sides. It has been generally characterized by historians as ' one of the most sanguinary and best fought battles in the annals of Indian warfare in the west.' Seventy-five officers and men of Lewis's army were killed, and one hundred and forty were wounded. The loss was, probably, equally as great on the part of the Indians, who retreated during the night. "General Lewis was reinforced to the extent of three hundred men, soon after the battle, and then started upon his march of eighty miles, through the wilderness, for the Indian towns on the Scioto, 'arriving within four miles of 'Camp Charlotte' on the twenty-fourth of Octo- 166 - A SKETCH OF THE ben His encampment, which was named Camp Lewis, was situated on Congo Creek, a tributary of Sippo Creek, near the southern termination of the `Pickaway Plains,' and within a short distance of the Old Chillicothe town. "The principal chiefs of the Indians on the Scioto met Lord Dunmore at 'Camp Charlotte,' and agreed with him upon the terms of a treaty. Cornstalk, who had been defeated by General Lewis, was present, and, being satisfied of the futility of any further struggle, was especially anxious to make peace, and readily obtained the assent of the chiefs present to it. The Mingoes were not a party to the treaty, but remained rebellious; whereupon Captain Crawford was sent, with a small force, against one of their towns on the Scioto, which they destroyed, and took a number of prisoners, who were not released until the next year. And it is a. noteworthy fact, too, that Logan, the great Mingo Chief, would not attend the council at 'Camp Charlotte.' He could not be prevailed upon to appear, and in any way make himself a party to the treaty. Dunmore greatly desired his presence and acquiescence, at least, if he could not secure his approval of the terms of the treaty. To this end, he sent Colonel John Gibson as a messenger to the Old Chillicothe town, across the Scioto, where Logan usually spent his time when not `on the war-path,' to ascertain the reasons for his absence, and, if possible, to secure his presence. "Logan was found, but he was in a sullen mood. At length, becoming somewhat mollified under the gentle and persuasive manipulations of Gibson, and from the effects of freely administered `fire-water,' he moved from the wigwam in which this preliminary interview was held, and, beckoning Dunmore's messenger to follow, 'he went into a solitary thicket near by, where, sitting down on a log, he burst into tears, and uttered some sentences of impassioned eloquence, charging the murder of his kindred upon Captain Michael Cresap.' Those utterances of Logan were committed to paper by Colonel Gibson immediately on his return to ` Camp Charlotte,' and probably read in the council and in the presence of the army. And this is substantially the history of the famous speech of Logan, until it appeared in the Virginia Gazette, of date February 4, 1775, which was published in the city of Williamsburg, the then seat of government of the colony of Virginia. Its publication was, doubtless, procured by Dunmore himself. It was neither a speech, an address, a message, nor a promise to assent to, or comply with, the provisions of a treaty, but simply the wild, excited, passionate utterances of a blood-stained sav- HISTORY OF OHIO - 167 age, given, as near as remembered by Colonel Gibson, and which consisted, in part, of slanderous allegations, based on misinformation, against Captain Michael Cresap—charges known by every officer at 'Camp Charlotte' to be unfounded—allegations that have been persistently propagated to the present time, to the detriment of the fair fame and memory of an injured patriot, a valuable, enterprising:' adventurous pioneer on the western frontiers, and a brave soldier and gallant officer in the Revolutionary army, who died a patriot's death while in the service of his country ! "Colonel Gibson, knowing that Captain Cresap had not participated in any way in the murder of Logan's kindred at Yellow Creek, immediately after the close of the very spirited recital of his injuries, corrected Logan's impressions as to Cresap's guilt, but the half-frantic savage persisted in the false charge he had made, or at least declined to withdraw it, and Colonel Gibson felt bound to put Logan's words on paper, as near as he could, just as they were spoken. Soon after Logan's speech, as it was called, was published in Williamsburg, it was republished in New York and elsewhere, and its further republication by Thomas Jefferson, in his ' Notes on Virginia,' in 1784, as a specimen of aboriginal eloquence, gave it still greater currency, and, tacitly, an apparent indorsement of the charge it contained against Captain Cresap. But Mr. Jefferson published it without any reference to the truth or falsity of said charge, but to disprove the statements of Buffon and Raynal, who alleged the inferiority of Americans, and charged that there was a natural tendency to physical, mental, and moral degeneracy in America ! " Colonel (afterwards General) Gibson was a man of talents, and abundantly capable of executing the agency attributed to him in this matter. He enjoyed the confidence of General Washington, who, in 1781, intrusted him with the command of the ` Western Military Department.' General Gibson was Secretary of Indiana Territory, and sometimes acting Governor, from. 1800 to 1813, and held other positions of honor. He died near Pittsburgh, in 1822. Most of the foregoing facts are obtained from the sworn deposition of General Gibson himself, and from the corroborative statements of General George Rogers Clark, Colonel Benjamin Wilson, Luther Martin, Esq., Judge John B. Gibson, and other gentlemen distinguished for talents and veracity. " During the summer of 1774 Logan acted the part of a murderous demon ! He was a cruel, vindictive, bloody-handed savage ! He took thirty scalps and some prisoners during the six months that intervened 168 - A. SKETCH OF THE between the time of the unjustifiable, wanton, unprovoked murder of his friends at Yellow Creek, and his interview with Colonel Gibson ! He had had his revenge! To quote his own vigorous language, 'he had fully glutted his vengeance!' And nothwithstanding he had indulged his savage propensities even to satiety, one would suppose, he nevertheless subsequently engaged in other hostile crusades against the frontiersmen, one of these being the murderous expedition into Kentucky which resulted in the capture of Ruddell's and Martin's Stations, and the taking of many prisoners ! He also went on a similar mission to the Holston River settlements, in 1779. Logan was a savage, but had been friendly to the whites. After the brutal murder of his friends, the frontiersmen east of the Ohio River, and the red men west of it, assumed an attitude of intense hostility towards each other, the latter embracing every opportunity to rob, capture, and murder the former, and those outrages were met by the white settlers in a determined spirit of retaliation and revenge ! The conduct of Logan, therefore, was not surprising ! The fact that he was a savage is the best plea that can be offered in mitigation of his enormities ! And he had great provocation, too ! "Logan, after the murder of his kindred and friends, in 1774, gave way, in a great measure, to intemperance and vindictiveness, and became a sullen, harsh, cruel, drunken vagabond. His acts of barbarity finally brought him to a violent death on the southern shore of Lake Erie, between Sandusky Bay and Detroit, in 1780, at the hands of one of his own race ! " Colonel Michael Cresap, upon the breaking out of the Revolutionary war, in 1775, raised a company of volunteers at the call of the Maryland Delegates in Congress, and became their commander. He promptly marched to Boston, where he joined the Continental army of General Washington. His health, however, soon failed, and he attempted to return to his home in Maryland, but when, on the 12th of October, he reached New York, he found himself too feeble to proceed further. Daily declining, he died October 18, 1775, in the thirty-third year of his age, and was buried the day after his death, with military honors, in Trinity churchyard. A widowed wife and four children survived him. Thus died, in early manhood, the gallant soldier, the pure patriot, the cruelly defamed pioneer, the meritorious Revolutionary officer, the greatly maligned and unjustly assailed Captain Michael Cresap ! "Lord Dunmore, after negotiating with the Indians for peace, and for the restoration of prisoners and stolen property, returned to Vir- HISTORY OF OHIO - 169 ginia, pursuing very nearly the route by which he came, leaving a hundred men at the mouth of the Kanawha, and a small force at `Fort Fincastle,' afterwards called `Fort Henry' (now Wheeling); also a limited number of men at the ' Forks of the Ohio,' for the protection ' of the frontier settlements. Fort Henry was named in honor of Patrick Henry, who became Governor of the colony of Virginia as the successor of Lord Dunmore, immediately after the latter's espousal of the cause of the mother country against the colonies, and of his igominious flight from Williamsburg, in June, 1775, and taking refuge on board of a British man-of-war. "It may be recorded to the honor of Dunmore's officers that they were loyal to the colonies and patriotic to the core, which they made ' manifest when, at ' Fort Gowar,' at the mouth of the Hock-Hocking, while on their homeward march, they resolved, in view of the approaching rupture with England, ` that they would exert every power within them for the defense of American liberty, and for the support of America's just rights and privileges.' ORGANIZATION OF ILLINOIS COUNTY. "For the purpose of more effectually organizing civil government northwest of the Ohio River, after the conquest of the country by Colonel George Rogers Clark, the House of Burgesses of Virginia, in October, 1778, erected the county of Illinois out of the western part of Botecourt county, which had been established in 1769. Illinois county was bounded on the east by Pennsylvania, on the southeast and south by the Ohio River, on the west by the Mississippi River, and on the north by the northern lakes, thus making the territory that now constitutes the State of Ohio an integral portion of it. John Todd, Esq., was appointed County Lieutenant and Civil Commandant of Illinois county. He was killed in the battle of Blue Licks, August 18, 1782, and was succeeded by Timothy de Montbrun. The Moravian missionaries on the Tuscarawas, a few scores of Indian traders, and a small number of French settlers on the Maumee, made the sum total of white men at that time in what is now Ohio. EXPEDITION OF GENERAL M'INTOSH. "General Lachlin McIntosh, commander of the Western Military Department, made an expedition in 1778, with discretionary powers, from ' Fort Pitt to the Tuscarawas, with about one thousand men, and there erected Fort Laurens, near the present town of Bolivar, in 170 - A SKETCH OF THE Tuscarawas county. He garrisoned it with one hundred and fifty men, under command of Colonel John Gibson, and then returned to ' Fort Pitt.' "The original purpose was to march his army to Detroit, or at least as far as the Sandusky Indian towns, but various causes prevented, and the campaign was comparatively fruitless. Not receiving reinforcements as expected, and probably lacking in energy, and having no special capacity for Indian warfare, his expedition was a failure, and he resigned his. command of the ' Western Military Department in February, 1779. " General McIntosh was a Scotchman, born in 1727. His father's family, himself included, came with General Oglethorpe to Georgia in 1736 ; became Colonel of the First Georgia Regiment in the early part of the Revolutionary war ; was soon made a Brigadier-General ; killed Hon. Button Gwinnett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, in a duel fought in 1777 ; commanded the Western army in 1778-9 ; was captured at Charleston, South Carolina, May 12, 1780 ; became a member of Congress in 1784, and an Indian commissioner in 1785, and died in Savannah, Georgia, in 1806. ERECTION OF FORT LAURENS IN 1778. "Fort Laurens (named in honor of the then President of the Continental Congress, Henry Laurens), was the first parapet and stockade fort built within the present limits of Ohio—Fort Gowar, and others previously constructed, being of a less substantial character. Disasters attended it from the beginning. The Indians stole their horses, and drew the garrison into several ambuscades, killing fourteen men at one time and eleven at another, besides capturing a number also. Eight hundred warriors invested it at one time, and kept up the siege for six weeks. The provisions grew short, and when supplies from ' Fort Pitt' had arrived within a hundred yards of the fort the garrison, in their joyousness, fired a general salute with musketry, which so frightened the loaded pack-horses as to produce a general stampede through the woods, scattering the provisions in every direction, so that most of the much-needed supplies were lost ! Although it was regarded very desirable, for various military reasons, to have a garrisoned fort and depot of supplies at a point about equidistant from the forts on the Ohio River and the hostile Indians on the Sandusky Plains. yet so disastrous had been the fate of Fort Laurens, on the Tuscawaras River, that it was abandoned in August, 1779. Fifty HISTORY OF OHIO - 171 years ago the Ohio canal was cut through it, and but little remains to show where this, the first of our military earthworks erected by the white race, stood. Though this stockade was constructed less than a hundred years ago, it is now numbered among ' the things that were, but are not !' GENERAL DANIEL BRODHEAD'S EXPEDITION. "To guard against the recurrence of predatory incursions into the frontier settlements east of the Ohio River, and to avenge the cruelties and atrocious barbarities of the savages, General Daniel Brodhead, in April, 1781, organized a force of about three hundred effective men, at Wheeling, with which he marched to the Muskingum River. The result of this campaign was the taking of the Indian town situated at the ' Forks' of said river (now Coshocton), with all its inhabitants, and the capture of some prisoners at other villages. Among the prisoners taken were sixteen warriors who were doomed to death by a council of war, and accordingly dispatched, says Doddridge, with spears and tomahawks, and afterwards scalped ! A strong determination was manifested by the soldiers to march up the Tuscarawas to the Moravian towns and destroy them, but General Brodhead and Colonel Shepherd (the second officer in rank), prevented this contemplated outrage. The famous Lewis Wetzel. killed, in cold blood, a chief who was held as a hostage by General Brodhead ! Other atrocities were committed by the infuriated men on their return march, who were resolved to adopt the most sanguinary measures, if necessary, to prevent in the future the murderous incursions of the savages into the frontier settlements! " The border wars of this period were prosecuted on both sides as wars of extermination, and the cruelties and barbarities perpetrated by the Indians had produced such a malignant spirit of revenge among the whites as to make them but little less brutal and remorseless than the savages themselves ! Some of their expeditions against the Indians were. mere murdering parties, held together only by the common thirst for revenge; and it is not likely that any discipline calculated to restrain that pervading feeling, or that would be efficient in preventing or even checking it, could in all cases have been enforced. It is certainly unfortunate for the reputation of General Brodhead that his name is thus associated with the murder of prisoners; but it is highly probable that he never sanctioned it, and could not have prevented it ! 172 - A SKETCH OF THE "General Daniel Brodhead's home was in Berks county, Pennsylvania. He entered the Revolutionary army as a Lieutenant-Colonel, his commission bearing date July 4, 1776 ; was engaged in most of the battles fought by "General Washington's army until early in 1779, when, on receiving a Colonel's commission, he was placed in command of the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment. On March 5, 1779, he was appointed to the command of the ` Western Military Department' (succeeding General McIntosh), with headquarters at 'Fort Pitt.' This position he retained until 1781, when he was succeeded by General John Gibson, who was himself succeeded by General William Irvine, September 24, 1781. "In 1789, General Brodhead was elected Surveyor-General of Pennsylvania, an office which he continued to hold until 1799, when he retired to private life. His death occurred at Milford, Pennsylvania, November 15, 1809. He was one of four brothers, who all rendered essential services during our Revolutionary struggle. COLONEL ARCHIDALD LOOHRY'S EXPEDITION. "In the early summer of 1781, Colonel Lochry, the County Lieutenant of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, was requested by Colonel George Rogers Clark to raise a military force, and join him in his then contemplated military movement against Detroit, and the Indian tribes of the Northwest generally. The month of the Big Miami river was first named as the place of general rendezvous, but was, subsequently, changed to the ` Falls of the Ohio.' Colonel Lochry raised a force of one hundred and six men, who, on the 25th of July, 'set out for Fort Henry (Wheeling), where they embarked in boats for their destination.' They passed down the Ohio river to a point a few miles below the mouth of the Big Miami, where, having landed. they ' were suddenly and unexpectedly assailed by a volley of rifle-balls, from an overhanging bluff, covered with large trees, on which the Indians had taken position in great force.' The result was, the death of Colonel Lochry and forty-one of his command, and the capture of the remainder, many of whom were wounded—some of the captured being killed and scalped, while prisoners! This occurred August 25, 1781, and such of the captured as were not murdered, died, or escaped, did not reach their homes again until after the peace of 1783, when they were exchanged at Montreal, and sent home, arriving there in May, 1783. The murder of prisoners was alleged to be in retaliation for the outrages committed by Brodhead's men a HISTORY OF OHIO - 173 few months before ; and it has been said that this treatment of Lochry's men was one of the provocations for the brutal murder of the Moravian Indians, on the Tuscarawas, in 1782 ! COLONEL WILLIAMSON'S EXPEDITION. " The wife of William Wallace, and three of her children, also John Carpenter, all of Washington county, Pennsylvania, were captured by the Indians in 1782, and carried off. Mrs. Wallace and her infant were found, after having been tomahawked and scalped! The frontiersmen were greatly exasperated, and at once organized an expedition of nearly a hundred men to pursue and chastise the murderers. On arriving at the Tuscarawas River, and finding the Moravian Indians there, in considerable force, gathering corn at the villages from which they had been forcibly removed, by British authority, the preceding autumn, to the Sandusky Plains, for alleged favoritism to the American cause, the conclusion was soon reached that they had found the murderers of Mrs. Wallace and her child, and at once made prisoners of those at Gnadenhutten and Salem, to the number of ninety-six. The Indians at Shunbrun made their escape, on hearing of the capture of those at work at the other villages. It has been stated that some clothing was found with those Indians that was identified as that of the murdered friends of some of Williamson's men; but even if that were so, it did not prove that these Indians were the murderers, or had even aided or abetted the murderers. " Colonel Williamson, on March 8, 1782, submitted the fate of his helpless captives to his excited men. The alternative was whether they should take them to ` Fort Pitt,' as prisoners, orkill them, ! Eighteen only voted to take them to ` Fort Pit,' the others voted to butcher them, and ' they were then and there murdered in cold blood, with gun and spear, and tomahawk and scalping-knife, and bludgeon and maul !' Two only escaped ! There are many details of this atrocious massacre—this infamous butchery of an innocent people—but I omit them. History characterizes it as an atrocious and unqualified wholesale murder—as a terrible tragedy—a horrid deed ! Would that it could be blotted from our history ! Colonel Williamson opposed the massacre, but could not control his men ! COLONEL CRAWFORD'S SANDUSKY CAMPAIGN. " Soon after the return of the murderous expedition of Colonel Williamson, an expedition against the Wyandot villages, on the San- 174 - A SKETCH OF THE dusky Plains, was determined upon, their destruction being deemed essential to the protection of the frontier settlements east of the Ohio. Nearly all of Colonel Williamson's men volunteered, and recruiting went on so rapidly that by the 25th of May, four hundred and eighty men rendezvoused at the Mingo Bottoms, three miles below the present city of Steubenville. An election for commander of the expedition was held there, when it was found that Colonel William Crawford was elected, having received 235 votes, while 230 were cast for Colonel David Williamson. The latter gentleman was then promptly and unanimously chosen the second officer in rank. The entire force was composed of mounted men, who, following the ` Williamson trail' to the Tuscarawas, passed rapidly on to the Sandusky. On reaching a point three miles north of Upper Sankusky, and a mile west of the Sandusky River, within the present limits of Wyandot county, a battle ensued (known as the battle of Sandusky, fought June 4-5, 1782), followed by the defeat of Colonel Crawford and the loss of over a hundred men in killed and prisoners. Colonel Crawford was captured and tortured to death in a slow fire, accompanied by circumstances of barbarity unparalelled in the annals of Indian warfare. Some historians have misapprehended the purpose of the Crawford campaign think it clearly established that the design was not the pursuit and chastisement of the Moravian Indians, but the destruction of the Wyandot villages of the Sandusky Plains, and for the seasons above stated. The details of this disastrous expedition are so well known to the general reader that I omit them. " Colonel Crawford was born in Orange county, Virginia, in 1732 (now Berkley county, West Virginia). He and General Washington were of the same age and were intimate friends from early life until Crawford's death, both being engaged while young men in the same pursuit, that of land surveyors. Both were officers in Braddock's disastrous campaign in 1755—both were officers in General Forbes' army in 1758, which successfully marched against Fort Duquesne. Colonel Crawford served as a captain in Dunmore's war, in 1774—recruited a regiment for continental service—became Colonel of the Seventh Virginia Regiment—was in the Long Island campaign, also in the retreat through New Jersey, and participated in the battles of Trenton and Princeton. In 1778 he had command of a Virginia regiment in the vicinity of `Fort Pitt,' and built Fort Crawford, sixteen miles above the ' Forks of the Ohio.' He also participated in the erection of Fort McIntosh and Fort. Laurens, and rendered other valuable services. He removed to ` Stewart's crossings' (now Connelsville) in HISTORY OF OHIO - 175 1769, it being the point where Braddock's army crossed the Youghiogheny River in 1755, and where he frequently received the visits of his old friend, General Washington, whose land agent he was.. An here he lived when he took command of the ill-fated Sandusky expedition. Colonel William Crawford possessed the highest qualities of true manhood, and justly ranked as a hero among the heroes of those heroic times.
“Colonel David Williamson, the ranking officer after the capture of Colonel Crawford, took command of the defeated, demoralized, retreating forces, who were pursued by the victors at least thirty miles, and displayed considerable ability as such, particularly at the Battle of Olentangy, which was fought June 6th, during the retreat, at a point now in Whetstone township, Crawford county, about five miles southeasterly from Bucyrus. Colonel Williamson lived in Washington county, Pennsylvania, and died there, after having served it in the capacity of sheriff. I repeat the statement to his credit that he was personally opposed to the murder of the Christian Indians, but could not prevent it.
GENERAL GEORGE ROGERS CLARK'S EXPEDITION.
"In the autumn of 1782, soon after the battle of Blue Licks, and in retaliation upon the Ohio Indians, for that and other marauding and murderous incursions into Kentucky, General George Rogers Clark, with a force of over one thousand men, marched against the Indian towns on the Miami River. One division of the army was under command of Colonel Logan, and the other was commanded by Colonel Floyd. the two divisions marched together from the mouth of the Licking to a point near the head waters of the Miami River, now in Miami county, and there destroyed some Shawanese towns and other property, including Loramie's store, which was at the mouth of Loramie's Creek, within the present limits of Shelby county. Ten Indians were killed and a number of prisoners taken.
"General George Rogers Clark was born in Albemarle county, Virginia, November 19, 1752. He commanded a company in the right wing of Dunmore's army in 1774, and settled in Kentucky in 1776. 1776. In 1778 he led an army into the Northwest and conquered it. He served under Baron Steuben in 1780, during Arnold's invasion of Virginia, and rendered other valuable military services. He was also a legislator, and served as a commissioner in making treaties with the
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Indians at Fort McIntosh, in 1785, and at Fort Finney In 1786. General Clark was a man of ability, of skill, energy, enterprise, and of wonderful resources. He died at Locust Grove, near the Falls of the Ohio, in February, 1818.
COLONEL LOGAN'S EXPEDITION.
" In 1786 Colonel Benjamin Logan crossed the Ohio River at Limestone (now Maysville), with four hundred men or more, and marched to the Mack-a-cheek towns on Mad River, to chastise the Shawanese there, who were intensely hostile to the Kentuckians. Time result of the campaign was the burning of eight of their towns, all of which were situated within the present limits of Logan county ; also the destruction of much corn. Twenty warriors were also killed, including a prominent chief of the nation, and about seventy-five prisoners were taken. Colonel Daniel Boone, General Simon Kenton and Colonel Trotter were officers in this expedition. The two first named rendered valuable services In Dunmore's expedition, and afterwards, and the latter also made a good pioneer and war record.
"Several minor expeditions, accompanied by comparatively unimportant results leave unnoticed, as details would add unnecessarily to the length of this paper. Those of Colonel Edwards to the Big Miami in 1787, and of Colonel Todd to the Scioto Valley in 1788, before the organization of the ` Territory northwest of the River Ohio,' were of this class.
FIRST TREATIES ESTABLISHING BOUNDARIES.
"The first treaty establishing boundaries in Ohio between our Government and the Ohio Indianswas formed at Fort McIntosh, in January, 1785. Its provisions were given in last year's volume of `Ohio Statistics.'
" This treaty was followed on May 20, 1785, by an ordinance of Congress which provided for the first survey and sale of the public lands within the present limits of Ohio. Under that ordinance the tract known as the Seven Rainges, whose boundaries were also given in last year's volume, was surveyed, and sales effected at New York, in 1787, to the amount of $72,974. The tract of the Ohio Land Company was surveyed and sold, pursuant to the provisions of an ordinance of July 23, 1785 ; and Fort Harmar, situated at the mouth of the Muskingum River, was built during this and the next year, for
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''the protection of the immigrants that might settle upon it. The title to the Ohio Laud Company's purchase was not perfected until October 23, 1787, and until then, settling upon the public lands was discouraged and indeed forbidden by the Government; but, notwithstanding a number of settlements were made between the time of the treaty of Fort McIntosh, in January, 1785, and the perfecting of the title of the Ohio Land Company in October, 1787. These were chiefly along the Hock-Hocking and the Ohio Rivers, and were broken up by military force, and the settlers dispersed or driven east of the Ohio River. Settlements that were attempted at the mouth of the • Scioto, and other places, were prevented. Proclamations by Congress were issued against settling upon the public domain as early as 1785, and enforced by the military power when disregarded. Hundreds of families probably had attempted to settle permanently west of the Ohio River, previous to the arrival of the colony of New Englanders, at the mouth of the Muskingum, in April, 1788, but were not permitted to do so. The fact, therefore, remains that the settlement was the first permanent one within the present limits of Ohio—all others being but temporary, by reason of the compulsory dispersion, previously, of the settlers elsewhere, and the destruction of their huts.
THE FIRST WHITE CHILD BORN IN OHIO.
"Considerable effort has been made by various persons, to ascertain, if possible, who was the first white child born within the present limits of Ohio, also when and where born, and the name as well. The following claims to that distinction have been presented, and I give them in chronological order, with the remark that some Indian traders who resided among the Ohio Indians, before the Bouquet expedition, in l764, were married to white women, who probably had children born unto them, but the evidence to establish it is lacking.
"In April, 1764, a white woman whose husband was a white man, was captured in Virginia, by some Delaware Indians, and taken to one of their towns at or near Wakatomika, now Dresden, Muskingum county. In July of said year, she, while yet in captivity at the above named place, gave birth to a male child. She and her child were among the captives restored to their friends November 9, 1764, under an arrangement made by Bouquet, her husband being present and receiving them. It was, as far as I am informed, the first known white child born upon the soil of Ohio, but the exact time and place of its birth, and its name, are alike unknown.
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"In 1770, an Indian trader named Conner, married a white woman who was a captive among the Shawanese, at or near the Scioto. During the next year she gave birth to a male child, probably at the above named point. Mrs. Conner, in 1774, with her husband, removed to Shonbrun, one of the Moravian villages on the Tuscarawas, and there they had other children born to them.
"In April, 1773, Rev. John Roth and wife arrived at Gnadenhutten, on the Tuscarawas, and there, on the 4th day of July, 1773, she gave birth to child, at which, the next day, at his baptism, by Rev. David Zeisberger, was named John Lewis Roth. He died at Bath, Pennsylvania, September 25, 1841. It is clear to my mind that John Levi Roth is the first white child born within the limits of our State, whose name, sex, time, place of birth and death, and biography, are known with certainty.
"Howe in his ' Ohio Historial Collections,' states upon the authority of a Mr. Dinsmore, of Kentucky, that a Mr. Millehomnne, in 1835, (who then lived in the parish of Terre-Bonne, Louisiana), informed him that he was born of French-Canadian parents, on or near the Loramie portage, about the year 1774, while his parents were moving from Canada to Louisiana; but there is nothing definite or authentic in this case either as to time or place.
"Joanna Maria Heckewelder, daughter of Rev. John Heckewelder, was born at Salem, one of the Moravian pillages on the Tuscarawas, April 16, 1781, and she was the first white female child born upon Ohio territory, as to whose time and place of birth, and death, and subsequent history, there is positive certainty. Her death took place at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, September 19, 1868, in the eighty-eighth year of her age.
"I believe it is generally conceded that the first white child born within our State, after the permanent settlement at the mouth of the Muskingum, was Leicester G. Converse, whose birth took place at Marietta, February, 7, 1789, and who died near said river, in Morgan county, February 14, 1859.
ORGANIZATION OF THE SECOND GRADE OF TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT.
"The Governor having satisfactorily ascertained that the conditions existed entitling the territory to the second grade of government, that is, that there were ' five thousand free male inhabitants, of full age,' within the territory, he, on the 29th day of October, 1798, took the preliminary steps to effect that object, by issuing his proclamation,
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directing the qualified voters to hold elections for Territorial Representatives on the third Monday of December, 1798. The election was held in pursuance of said proclamation, which resulted in the following gentlemen being chosen to constitute the popular branch of the Territorial Legislature for the ensuing two years :
MEMBERS OF TERRITORIAL LEGISLATURE OF 1799-1800. |
Return Jonathan Meigs, Washington county |
John Edgar, Randolph county |
|
Solomon Sibley, Wayne County |
Paul Fearing, Washington county |
Jacob Visgar. Wayne County |
William Goforth, Hamilton County |
Charles F. Chabert de Joncaire, Wayne County |
William McMillan, Hamilton County |
|
John Smith, Hamilton County |
Joseph Darlinton, Adams county |
John Ludlow, Hamilton County |
Nathaniel Massie, Adams County |
Robert Benham, Hamilton County |
James Pritchard, Jefferson County |
Aaron Caldwell, Hamilton County |
Thomas Worthington, Ross County |
Isaac Martin, Hamilton County |
Elias Langham, Ross County |
Shadrack Bond, St. Clair County |
Samuel Findlay, Ross County |
John Small, Knox County |
Edward Tiffin, Ross County |
"The above named gentlemen met at Cincinnati on the 22d of January, 1799 and nominated ten men, whose names they forwarded to the United States Congress, five of whom were to be selected by that body to constitute the Legislative Council of the Territory. They then adjourned to meet on the 16th of September, 1799.
" On the 22d of March, 1799, either the United States Senate, the United States House of Representatives, or the President of the United States (authorities are not agreed), chose from among those whose names had been suggested to them the following gentlemen, to compose the first Legislative Council of the Northwest Territory, their term of office to continue five years, any three of whom to form a quorum :
Jacob Burnet, of Cincinnati, Hamilton county. Henry Vandenburg, of Vincennes, Knox county. Robert Oliver, of Marietta, Washington county. James Findlay, of Cincinnati, Hamilton county. David Vance, of Vanceville, Jefferson county.
"The ordinance of 1787 named Congress as the authority in whom was vested the right to select five from the list of ten persons to constitute the Territorial Council. But it will be borne in mind that said ordinance was passed by a Congress that legislated in pursuance of the Articles of Confederation, while yet we had neither President nor United States Senate, hence authority was given to Congress to make
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the selection. But it is highly probable that the aforesaid authority was subsequently transferred to the President, or to the Senate, or to them jointly.
FIRST COUNCIL AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
" Both the Council and House of Representatives met at Cincinnati, September 16, 1799, and effected a permanent organization. The Council perfected its organization by the election of the following officers :
President—Henry Vandenburg. Secretary—William C. Schenck Doorkeeper—George Howard. Sergeant-at-Arms—Abraham Cary.
"The House of Representatives completed its organization by electing as its officers the following gentlemen :
Speaker of the House-Edward Tiffin. Clerk—John Riley. Doorkeeper—Joshua Rowland. Sergeant-at-Arms—Abraham Cary.
"Thirty bills were passed at the first session of the Territorial Legislature, but the Governor vetoed eleven of them. They also elected William H. Harrison, then Secretary of the Territory, a delegate to Congress, by a vote of 11 to 10 that were cast for Arthur St. Clair, Jr., son of the Governor, then a promising young lawyer of Cincinnati, and who then held the office of Attorney-General of the Territory. The first session of the Territorial Legislature was prorogued by the Governor December 19, 1799, until the first Monday of November, 1800, at which time they reassembled and held the second session at Chillicothe, which, by an act of Congress of May 7, 1800, was made the seat of the Territorial Government until otherwise ordered by the Legislature. This, the second session of the Territorial Legislature, was of short duration, continuing only until December 9, 1800.
"On May 9, 1800, Congress passed an act establishing the Indian Territory, with boundaries including the present States of Indiana and Illinois, and William H. Harrison, having accepted the office of Governor of said Territory, it devolved upon the Territorial Legislature, at its second session, not only to elect a delegate to fill the vacancy occasioned by his resignation, but also to elect a delegate to
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serve during the succeeding Congress. William McMillan, of Cincinnati, was elected to fill the vacancy, and Paul Fearing, of Marietta, was elected to serve from the 4th of March, 1801, to the 4th of March, 1803. They were both reputed to be men of ability.
"By the organization of the Indiana Territory, the counties of St. Clair, Knox and Randolph were taken out of the jurisdiction of the Northwest Territory, and with them, of course, Henry Vandenburg, of Knox county, President of the Council; also Shadrack Bond, of St. Clair county ; John Small, of Knox county, and John Edgar, of Randolph county, members of this popular branch of the Legislature.
"On the 23d of November, 1801, the third session of the Territorial Legislature was commenced at Chillicothe, pursuant to adjournment. The time for which the members of the House of Representatives were elected having expired, and an election having been held, quite a number of new members appeared. The Council remained nearly as it was at the previous session, there being not more than two changes, perhaps only one, that of Solomon Sibley, of Detroit, Wayne county, who took the place of Henry Vandenburg, thrown into the new Territory. Robert Oliver, of Marietta, Washington county, was chosen President of the Council in place of Henry Vandenburg.
"The House of Representatives at the third session of the Territorial Legislature was composed of the following gentlemen : |
Ephraim Cutler, of Washington county |
Zenas Kimberly, of Jefferson county |
William Rufus Putnam County |
John Milligan of Jefferson county |
Moses Miller, of Hamilton county |
Thomas McCune of Jefferson county |
Francis Dunlavy, of Hamilton county |
Edward Tiffin, of Ross County |
Jeremiah Morrow, Hamilton county |
Elias Longhorn, of Ross County |
John Ludlow, Hamilton county |
Thomas Worthington, of Ross county |
John Smith, Hamilton county |
Francois Joncaire Chabert, of Wayne county |
Jacob White, Hamilton county |
George McDougal, of Wayne county |
Daniel Reeder, Hamilton county |
|
Joseph Darlinton, of Adams county |
Jonathan Schieffelin, of Wayne county |
Nathaniel Massie, of Adams county |
Edward Paine, of Trumbull county |
" The officers of the House during its third session were as follows :
Speaker of the House—Edward Tiffin. Clerk—John Reily. Door-keeper—Edward Sherlock.
" The third session of the Legislature continued from the 24th of November, 1801, until the 23d of January, 1802, when it adjourned
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to meet at Cincinnati on the fourth Monday of November following, but that fourth session was never held, for reasons made obvious by subsequent events.
" Congress, on the 30th of April, 1802, had passed an ' act to enable the people of the eastern division of the Territory northwest of the river Ohio to form a constitution and State government, and for the admission of such state into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, and for other purposes.' In pursuance of the aforesaid enactment, an election had been ordered and held throughout the eastern portion of the Territory, and members of a Constitutional Convention chosen, who met at Chillicothe on the first day of November, 1802, to perform the duty assigned them. When the time had arrived for commencing the fourth session of the Territorial Legislature, the aforesaid Constitutional Convention was in session, and had evidently nearly completed its labors, as it adjourned on the 29th of said month. The members of the Legislature (eight of whom being also members of the Convention), therefore, seeing that a speedy termination of the Territorial government was inevitable, deemed it inexpedient and unnecessary to hold the proposed session.
" The Territorial government was ended by the organization of the State government, March 3, 1803, pursuant to the provisions of a constitution formed at Chillicothe, November 29, 1802, by the following named gentlemen : Joseph Darlinton, Israel Donalson, and Thomas Kirker, of Adams county; James Caldwell and Elijah Woods, of Belmont county; Philip Gatch and James Sargent, of Clermont county; Henry Abrams and Emanuel Carpenter, of Fairfield county ; John W. Browne, Charles Willing Byrd, Francis Dunlavy, William Goforth, John Kitchel, Jeremiah Morrow, John Paul, John Belly, John Smith, and John Wilson, of Hamilton county; Rudolph Bair, George Humphrey, John Milligan, Nathan Updegraff, and Bazaliel Wells, of Jefferson county; Michael Baldwin, Edward Tiffin, James Grubb, Thomas Worthington, and Nathaniel Massie, of Ross county; David Abbot and Samuel Huntington, of Trumbull county; Ephraim Cutler, Benjamin Ives Gilman, Rufus Putnam, and John McIntire, of Washington county.
"Joseph Darlinton, of Adams county; Francis Dunlavy, Jeremiah Morrow, and John Smith, of Hamilton county ; John Milligan, of Jefferson county ; Edward Tiffin and Thomas Worthington, of Ross county; and Ephraim Cutler, of Washington county, were the eight gentlemen of the last Territorial Legislature that were also elected members of the Constitutional Convention." |