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222 - CARROLL AND HARRISON COUNTIES CHAPTER II DISCOVERY AND OCCUPANCY BY WHITE MEN THIS DOMAIN WAS ONCE OWNED BY FRANCE-THEN OWNED BY ENGLAND-STATE HISTORY-NORTHWEST TERRITORY-CLAIM OF ENGLISH TO THE TERRITORY. Before entering into the task of recording the local annals of what is now known as Harrison County, it will be well to acquaint the reader, briefly, with the first explorations by Europeans in what is now the State of Ohio, carved out of the great Northwest Territory. The first explorations were made by the French, LaSalle's discovery dating frotn 1667. Its territory was in dispute between the French and English until by the treaty of 1763 the French assigned the "Great West" to the English. In the spring of 1779 George Rogers Clark in behalf of Virginia wrested control of the region afterward known as the Northwest Territory, from the English by the defeat and unconditional surrender of Governor Hamilton at Fort Vincennes, Indiana. By the treaty of 1783 Great Britain relinquished her right in the Northwest Territory, and the United States assumed control, acknowledging the claim made by Virginia to 3,709,848 acres, near the rapids of Ohio, and a similar claim by Connecticut, to 3,666,000 acres, near Lake Erie, which became known as the "Western Reserve." These claims were admitted as to ownership, but in no way as to jurisdiction. In 1787 Congress passed the ordmance creating the Northwest Territory, the first commonwealth in the world whose organic law recognized every man as FREE AND EQUAL. The first permanent settlement made under the ordinance was effected at Marietta, in 1788, by officers of the Revolutionary army. Gen. Arthur St. Clair was appointed by Congress the first governor of the Northwest Territory. The early years of the Northwest Territory were harassed by Indian warfare until, in 1794, when Gen. Anthony Wayne, at the "battle of Fallen Timbers" defeated them with terrible loss. The first Territorial Legislature was organized in 1797 and chose William Henry Harrison delegate to Congress. In 1800 Congress divided the Northwest Territory into two governments, the seat of the eastern government being fixed at Chillicothe. November 29, 1802, a constitution of State government was ratified and signed by the members of a convention authorized by an act of Congress. February, 19, 1803 the constitution was approved by Congress and Ohio recognized as a State, the seventeenth in order of admission. Edward Tiffin was elected the first governor of Ohio. The seat of government was at Chillicothe until 1810, in Zanesville until 1812 and again in Chillicothe till 1816, when Columbus was made the permanent capital. CARROLL AND HARRISON COUNTIES- 223 But to give more on the occupancy of this country by other nations, before Ohio was cut up into counties, let it be said that, the claims of the different European monarchs to large portions of the western continent were based upon the first discoveries made by their subjects. In 1609, the English monarch granted to the London company, all the territories extending along the coast for 200 miles north and south of Point Comfort and "up into the land throughout, from sea to sea, west and northwest." In 1662 Charles II granted to certain settlers on the Connecticut, all the territory between the parallels of latitude which include the present State of Connecticut, from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. The claims which Massachusetts advanced, during the Revolution, to an interest in the western lands, were founded on a similar charter, granted thirty years afterward. When the King of France had dominions in North America, the whole of the late territory of the United States, northwest of the river Ohio, was included in the Province of Louisiana, the north boundary of which, by the treaty between France and England in 1713, was fixed at the forty-ninth parallel of latitude north of the equator. After the conquest of the French possessions in North America by Great Britain, this tract was ceded by France to Great Britain, by the treaty of Paris, in 1763. The principal ground whereon the English claimed dominion beyond the Alleghenies was, that the Six Nations owned the Ohio Valley and had placed it with their other lands under the protection of England. Some of the western lands were also claimed by the British as having been actually purchased, at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1844, at a treaty between the Colonists and the Six Nations at that place. In 1748 the "Ohio Company," for the purpose of securing the Indian trade was formed. In 1749 it appears that the English built a trading house upon the Great Miami at a spot since called Loramie's store. Early in 1752 the French having heard of the trading house on the Miami, sent a party of soldiers to the Twigtwees and demanded the traders as intruders on French lands. The Twigtwees refused to deliver up their friends. The French, assisted by the Ottawas and Chippewas then attacked the trading house, which was probably a block-house, and after a severe battle m which fourteen of the natives were killed and others wounded, took and destroyed it, carrying away the traders to Canada. This fort or trading house, was called by the English Pickawillany. Such was the first British settlement in the Ohio Valley, of which there is any record. The Colonies having m 1776 renounced their allegiance to the British King and assumed rank as free, sovereign and independent states, each state claimed the right of soil and jurisdiction over the district of country embraced within its charter. The charters of several of the states embraced large portions of western unappropriated lands. Those states which had no such charters, insisted that these lands ought to be appropriated for the benefit of all the States, according to their population, as the title to them, if secured at all, would be by the blood and treasure of all the States. Congress repeat- 224 - CARROLL AND HARRISON COUNTIES edly urged upon those states owning western unappropriated lands to make liberal cessions of them for the common benefit of all. The claim of the English monarch to the late Northwestern Territory was ceded to the United States by the treaty of peace, signed at Paris, September 3, 1783. The provisional articles which formed the basis of that treaty, more especially as related, to the boundary, were signed at Paris, November 30, 1782. After the English had secured the domain as shown above and the colonies had then taken it over, by reason of the Revolutionary War, all that was needed to bring about a settlement was to purchase, or in some other manner extinguish the Indian titles to lands in what is now Ohio. This was speedily brought about, when the proper time arrived. Then came an era of building canals from 1823 on to 1845, after which railroads were agitating the minds of the people of this and other western States. After the establishing of the United States Land Offrce at Steubenville in 1800 lands in what is now Harrison County (then Jefferson) speedily came into market and the country was well settled in another decade. |