50 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO most valuable little book by Mr. Milo M. Quaife, entitled "The Capture of Old Vincennes.") Clark directed his expedition of two hundred men, mostly Virginia backwoodsmen, down the Ohio to Fort Massac, fifty miles from the river mouth. From Fort Massac they traveled overland through the Illinois country to the little French outpost of Kaskaskia, which they captured without a blow on the night of July 4, 1778. The next day Clark sent a detail on to Cahokia, which was also a bloodless conquest, the Frenchmen in both places quite willingly, in nearly every instance, taking the oath of allegiance to the United States. Clark then sent emissaries overland to Vincennes on the Wabash. At this point the English had a post, Fort Sack-vine, but for the moment it was unoccupied, and Clark garrisoned it with a few men. The next few months he spent in receiving the submission of the Indians around Kaskaskia. But in the meanwhile, the British governor, Hamilton, retook Fort Sackville, and in February of 1779 Clark planned his counter attack. How he and his little army forded the drowned lands along the Wabash, breaking thin ice in places, swimming, wading, half frozen and half starved, until one evening they besieged the fort; how they maintained the siege till the garrison surrendered, how they then found their prisoners were more in number than themselves, how they sent the prisoners overland to Charlottesville, Virginia, with a skeleton guard, is an epic worthy the pen of some great poet. Clark maintained his hold on the western country until the end of the war, and his conquest was the best argument Franklin, Adams and Jay had for demanding the Mississippi as the western boundary of the infant republic. Clark had good reason, however, to complain of the ingratitude of republics. He died hopelessly in debt, neglected, crippled and almost alone. The multitude of monuments which have lately sprung up here and there in his honor are but tardy recogni- HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 51 tion of his great service to the nation, and it is hard to see how it can benefit him now. The remainder of the western battles before Yorktown; the defeat and death of Colonel William Crawford at Upper Sandusky, preceded by the massacres of Gnadenhutten and Schoenbrun are not important in this history. The war did not end in the west with the signing of the peace. A subsequent chapter will tell of the final taking of Ohio from the Indians. BOOK TWO The Northwest Territory CHAPTER I MAKING THE TERRITORY The masterly diplomacy of Franklin, Adams and Jay fixed the boundaries of the infant United States of America at the Mississippi in the West, the Great Lakes on the North. But the question as to the jurisdiction of the states over the Western Territory was still unsettled, and proved to be one of the most vexing problems of the "critical period." As we have seen, four states had conflicting claims to the territory north of the Ohio: Virginia, Connecticut and Massachusetts from their royal charters, New York from a sequence of treaties with the Iroquois. New York's claim was regarded as little more than shadowy for two reasons: first, because it was a treaty with Indians, and therefore not of effect; second, because the Iroquois had never been admitted to be the lawful possessors of any of this territory. Connecticut's charter of 1662, the most liberal charter ever granted any colony, authorized almost complete self government over a strip as wide as the state and extending west to the "South Sea," or Pacific Ocean. After the war, Connecticut found it, of course, impossible to enforce a claim to that portion of the strip which covered southern New York and northern - 53 - 54 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO Pennsylvania, but she clung tenaciously to the portion from the western Pennsylvania line to the Mississippi. Virginia's claim was strengthened by Clark's conquest. Massachusetts and New York were in controversy over the part of New York south of Lake Erie, but Massachusetts never made any serious effort to hold the rest of her western strip, which is now southern Michigan and Wisconsin. The situation was serious enough to threaten the dissolution of the confederacy, loosely held together as it was by the Articles of Confederation. An added complication was the fact that five of the thirteen states had no western claims and no hope of western expansion at all : New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. It was from one of these, Maryland, that the proposition came that finally settled the argument and created the Northwest Territory. Never on very good terms with either her northern or her southern neighbor, Maryland after the Revolution felt her situation so keenly that she refused to join in the Articles of Confederation except on one condition : that all the states give up their western claims, and that the resultant expanse of territory be turned over to the Federal government as a national domain, out of which new states were to be carved as the settlements therein justified such action. This act on the part of Maryland should always be remembered as the germ from which grew the territorial policy of the United States, a policy which has carried us from sea to sea, and has dotted both eastern and western oceans with our possessions. One by one the claimants to the Ohio country surrendered, New York and Massachusetts quite willingly; Virginia and Connecticut slowly, reluctantly and with reservations. As both these states had an important part to play in settling Northeastern Ohio it will be necessary to discuss the nature of their final cessions. HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 55 Virginia, as was natural, looked toward that portion of the new territory nearest to her for an opportunity of settlement for her citizens of pioneer spirit. The permanent fixing of the western line of Pennsylvania left a narrow strip between that line and the Ohio : The famous West Virginia Panhandle. Settlers of the more adventurous type were moving into this strip by the end of the Revolution, with a little nucleus at the mouth of Wheeling Creek which grew into the city of Wheeling. The mountain country south of the strip was less inviting, and the Virginia Mountaineers looked with longing eyes across the river to the rolling hills of southern Ohio. Virginia finally decided to reserve the land between the Scioto and the Little Miami to be distributed among her needy veterans of the war. The territory just across the Ohio from the Panhandle was to be surveyed into townships and offered for sale. This, as we shall see, became the Seven Ranges : the first Ohio survey. Columbiana and part of Stark and Mahoning counties came out of this survey. By act of the General Assembly of Connecticut in May, 1786, Connecticut ceded all her western claims except a strip of land bounded on the east by the Pennsylvania state line, on the south by the forty-first parallel of latitude, on the north by Lake Erie, and extending west on the forty-first parallel for one hundred and twenty miles. This strip has ever since been known as the Connecticut Western Reserve Out of it were created the Ohio counties of Ashtabula, Trumbull, Lake, Geauga, Portage, Cuyahoga, Medina, Lorain, Erie, Huron, ten townships of Mahoning, fourteen townships of Summit and three townships of Ashland. Over the Reserve, Connecticut retained jurisdiction until 1800, when the Northwest Territory was in full organization and the State of Ohio was waiting to be born. No settlement was made in the Reserve until 1796, but its position in the Territory was a source of trouble and a problem in government until Connecti- 56 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO cut, having sold the whole to the Connecticut Land Company, finally relinquished jurisdiction. This peculiar situation had a profound influence on the history of Ohio, and the development of this country is one of the principal subjects of this history. As to whether Connecticut is to be censured for retaining the Reserve is a question largely to be decided by the sympathies of the judge; certainly it was a shrewd piece of business. But Connecticut and her citizens have always had a reputation for shrewdness. With the Connecticut session the title of the United States to the Northwest Territory was complete. The next step was to formulate a plan of government. This was the last act of the Continental Congress before it surrendered its sovereignty to the greater government of the Constitution. The Continental Congress in spite of its inherent weaknesses did at least four great things : it appointed George Washington to the command of the Continental Army; it enacted the Declaration of Independence; it formed the Articles of Confederation; and it created the Northwest Territory. On the fifth of July, 1787, the Continental Congress was in session in the city of New York. At this time the Constitutional Convention had been in session in Philadelphia for more than a month. The group of men gathered in Philadelphia have been universally conceded to be the greatest galaxy of American genius ever gathered anywhere. In contrast, the Continental Congress was made up of obscure men, scarcely any of whom has ever had his name printed in a book—except in connection with the great Ordinance. What men were the authors of the Ordinance is a question no historian has ever decided even to his own satisfaction. Jefferson and other Virginians who were not there had undoubtedly laid the ground plans years before. One man stands out who was not a member of the Congress. On this fifth day of July the Rev. Dr. Manasseh Cutler arrived in New York. Dr. HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 57 Cutler came as the representative of a group of Massachusetts men who had organized the previous spring for the purpose of buying, if possible, a tract of land north of the Ohio for settlement. Dr. Cutler had full authority to negotiate the purchase, which task he accomplished, but there is no doubt that he suggested or perhaps wrote a large portion of that part of the Ordinance which deals with human rights. It seems to me that no great political document has been so much discussed and so little read as the Ordinance of 1787. Briefly explained, it consists of two parts; a form of government for the Territory and a statement of the rights of individual citizens. The original government of the Territory consisted of a governor, three judges and a secretary, all to be appointed by the Continental Congress, the governor to serve for a term of three years, the secretary four and the judges during good behaviour. All five were required to become freeholders in the Territory. The governor and the judges were to "adopt and publish in the district such laws of the original states, civil and criminal, as may be necessary, and best suited to the circumstances in the district and report them to Congress, from time to time, which shall be in force in the district until the organization of the General Assembly therein unless disapproved by Congress." The governor was commander in chief of the militia, and appointed all magistrates and civil officers in counties and townships. He was to divide the Territory into counties as he saw fit. It was provided that as soon as there were "five thousand free male inhabitants of full age" in the Territory they were to elect a General Assembly, or legislature. Each five hundred such inhabitants were to have one representive in the House of Representatives, as the larger legislative house was called, until the total number reached twenty-five. Additional representation above this amount were to be arranged 58 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO by the House itself. The House was to nominate and report to the Continental Congress ten names, from which the Congress was to select five, who were to serve as a Legislative Council. Laws were to be passed by the two houses by a majority vote, and the Governor had the absolute veto. The governor was to call and dissolve the General Assembly at will. The House and Council were to elect a delegate to Congress, who should have a voice but no vote. The student of American forms of territorial government will see that this plan has practically followed ever since. If the student of British Constitutional Law sees an analogy to the system of Commons, Lords and Crown, it must be remembered that the British Constitution was the foundation of American governmental forms. The Ordinance closed with six articles which constitute a bill of rights and a plan for organization of states from the Territory. These six articles are entitled to a paragraph apiece. Article I provides that "No person demeaning himself in a peaceable and orderly manner, shall never be molested on account of his mode of worship, or religious sentiments, in the said territories." This article certainly was interpreted liberally in Ohio. Probably no other section of the planet has seen such a multitude of extraordinary religious sects as the state of Ohio: Mormons, Shakers, Zoarites, Millerites and a myriad of other sects have risen and waned since the state was born. Article II guarantees the writ of habeas corpus, trial by jury, proportionate representation, the common law, bail except for capital offenses, forbids cruel and unusual punishments, deprivation of liberty or property except by the judgment of one's peers, and guarantees the sanctity of contracts. The first sentence of Article III reads "Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 59 happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." The remainder of the article guarantees good faith toward the Indians and their lands. Article IV binds the Territory to the United States forever, and provides that the inhabitants shall bear their just share of the national taxes. Article V provides for the division of the Territory into not more than five nor less than three states. Article VI abolishes slavery in the Territory. Thus that great domain was organized, out of which has grown five great states : Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin, with a portion of a sixth, Minnesota. At that time the total white population was certainly less than one thousand; now it is some twenty million. From a trackless wilderness it has changed in a century and a half to the most prosperous industrial and agricultural empire in the world ; and no one knows what it shall be. CHAPTER II BUILDING THE TERRITORY The adoption of the Ordinance of 1787 was followed as a matter of course by the appointment of the first officers of the Territory. These were : Governor, General Arthur St. Clair, then President of the Continental Congress; Secretary, Winthrop Sargent; Judges, Samuel Holden Parsons, James Mitchell Varnum and John Armstrong. Armstrong declined the appointment and John Cleves Symmes was appointed to the vacant position. When Arthur St. Clair assued his duties as Governor of the Northwest Territory he was fifty-four years old. He was a Lowland Scot of Norman ancestry, educated at the University of Edinburg, who early forsook the practice of medicine for a military career. He made his first appearance on the American scene at the siege of Louisburg in 1758. He was with Wolfe at Quebec the following year and achieved some distinction on the Plains of Abraham. After the close of the Seven Years War he retired from the army, married a Boston girl and finally settled in Pennsylvania. He served in the Continental Army throughout the Revolution, rising to the rank of Major General. He was at Quebec with Arnold and Montgomery, with Washington at Trenton and Princeton, he went through the Saratoga campaign, returned to Washington's official family before the Brandywine, and remained near Washington until the end of the war. As a soldier he was intelligent without genius; brave without - 60 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 61 daring. He had the friendship of Washington and Lafayette, and the respect of the army in general. After the war he returned to Pennsylvania, and spent the years from 1783 to 1788 in mingled efforts to rebuild his fortune and to rise in politics. St. Clair was aristocratic, conservative and stubborn. His chief weakness seems to have been a lack of ability to move with the times. His prejudices swayed his judgment. He was never a genius either in war or peace. A Federalist in politics, the young Democrats who swarmed into Ohio and formed the new state became so repugnant to him that he finally became an easy prey to their political machinations. Ohio owes a large debt to Arthur St. Clair, but it is unlikely that she will ever acknowledge it fully. The Ohio Company of Associates floated down the Ohio in the spring of 1788, in a barge or galley which they named the Mayflower, a title which needs no explanation. General Rufus Putnam, a Massachusetts hero of the Revolution, headed the expedition, which landed at the mouth of the Muskingum River on the seventh of April, 1788. On the right bank of the Muskingum stood Fort Harmar; then the outpost against the Indians. On the left bank Putnam and his pioneers laid out their little city, which they named Marietta, in honor of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France—about the last honor she ever received. Thus was launched the first permanent settlement on Ohio soil. Governor St. Clair arrived in Marietta on July 9th. On the 15th he made his formal entrance, accompanied by Secretary Sargent and Judges Parsons and Varnum. Speeches were made, Secretary Sargent read the Ordinance, and the government went into operation. The next few months the governor spent in visiting the various points of importance in the Territory, reaching as far as the old French settlements of Kaskaskia and Cahokia in the Illinois country. 62 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO Although organized as a territorial government, nearly all the land was still actually in possession of the Indians. St. Clair proceeded to negotiate treaties with the various tribes in order to clarify the title and establish permanent peace. Two treaties were made, one with the Iroquois and one with the Ohio Indians. On January 9th, 1789, the Iroquois agreed to relinquish all their claims to lands lying west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania line. Joseph Brant and his Mohawks were not party to this treaty, and we shall see later how they got an additional remuneration from the Connecticut Land Company commissioners. The Iroquois, as a matter of fact, were not interested in this country after the Revolution, except in so far as it gave them an excuse for argument. With the Ohio tribes St. Clair reached an agreement on the same date. A line was fixed beginning at the mouth of the Cuyahoga, extending along that river to the Great Portage, thence down the Tuscarawas to the forks of the Muskingum, thence west to the Big Miami, to the Maumee, and down the Maumee to its mouth. The Indians agreed to allow settlements east, south and west of this line. However, Indian treaties seem generally to have been of the "scrap of paper" variety. It soon became evident that some display of force would be necessary to keep the boundaries free from trouble. It took a total of three campaigns to settle the title to Ohio lands. In October, 1790, General Josiah Harmar led a motley army against the Indians, starting his expedition from Fort Washington, which was located at Cincinnati. General Harmar's army met the enemy on the St. Mary's River. The Indians were commanded by Little Turtle of the Miamis, for long a leading figure in Ohio affairs. The result of the battle was the complete rout of General Harmar's forces; some of his green recruits never halting their precipitate retreat until safely across the Ohio. HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 63 After this disconcerting repulse Governor St. Clair determined to take the field in person. President Washington had added to St. Clair's dignity by appointing him commander-in-chief of the western forces, which in fact constituted the entire American army. St. Clair began his mobilization at Fort Washington. On October, 1791, St. Clair moved north with an army of about two thousand men. More than half were militia, poorly equipped and poorly trained. On November 4th they were drawn into an Indian ambuscade. The result of the battle was complete destruction. General Butler, second in command, was killed, and nearly half the force besides was killed or wounded. The bodies of the dead lay scalped and mutilated on the field for years. St. Clair himself barely escaped. Little Turtle commanded the Indian forces, and Blue Jacket, Brant and other distinguished Indian chiefs were there. It is said that the young Tecumseh, afterwards to become the greatest Indian patriot, began his career here. Dismay spread over the western settlements. No one felt safe in all the Ohio country. Washington, when he heard the news, gave way to one of his rare displays of temper. St. Clair lost immensely in prestige over the defeat, but the truth seems to be that he was simply outgeneraled. The investigation which followed resulted in his official exoneration. But something had to be done. As what seemed almost a last resort Washington turned to Anthony Wayne. "Mad Anthony" he was called. The name was given him after the storming of Stony Point. But there was nothing of madness in that assault, which was so carefully planned that not a dog was allowed to live and bark within four miles of the fortress. Wayne had a career which curiously paralleled that of St. Clair. Battle by battle they moved together through the Revolution, and before and after they lived in Pennsylvania. But Wayne had in his character as 64 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO a soldier a combination of caution and daring which no soldier of history has excelled. After the Revolution he spent years in clearing up the Indian and other troubles in the far South. In 1792 he was forty-seven years of age, and seeking employment. The world had not been kind to him; about all he had left was his reputation as a hero. Wayne arrived in Pittsburgh in June, 1892. He spent the fall and winter in mobilization and training, making his headquarters at old Fort McIntosh, at the junction of the Beaver and Ohio rivers. When spring came he had a well organized and drilled little army of two thousand five hundred. In April, 1793, he moved down the river. His encampment was made at Fort Washington in a field which he designated "Hobson's Choice," as it was the only available spot. Wayne spent the summer of 1793 in strengthening the outposts to the north of Fort Washington. In September he moved forward and established a new and well-fortified camp on a branch of the Stillwater River. This camp he named Fort Greene Ville, in honor of his old Revolutionary comrade-in-arms, General Nathaniel Greene. The site of this fort is now occupied by the business district of the pleasant little Ohio city of Greenville, the county seat of Darke County. During the winter Wayne established an outpost on the site of St. Clair's defeat, which he named Fort Recovery. The winter was quiet, but with the coming of spring the Indians began to gather. On June 30th, 1794, Fort Recovery was attacked. After a bitter struggle the Indians were repulsed. But it was evident that the time had come for Wayne to move. Major General Scott of Kentucky, reinforced Wayne on July 26 with one thousand six hundred mounted volunteers. On the 28th the army advanced. Wayne used the utmost caution in his march, making about twelve miles a day. On HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 65 August 9th he reached the junction of the Auglaize and the Maumee. Here he established Fort Defiance. The army moved forward and on August 20th came in sight of the main body of the enemy. Back of the Indians stood Fort Miami, a British outpost which had stood here since the Revolution in defiance of the Treaty of 1783. Between the opposing forces, near the bank of the great river, a hurricane had at some time blown down a multitude of the great forest trees, making a natural fortification. In this maze the battle joined. Little Turtle, the great Miami chief, was not in favor of fighting. "This is a chief who never sleeps," he said. Only the accusation of cowardice compelled him to fight, and even then he refused the command. Blue Jacket, the Shawanoe, led the Indians. The result was a complete victory for Wayne. His strategy was perfect. He attacked the Indians on three sides, using their own tactics. The Indians fled, and Wayne carried his bold defiance to the doors of the British outpost. The Battle of Fallen Timbers, as it has been called, broke forever the Indian power in Ohio. Wayne's next move was to consolidate his victory. Moving up the Maumee he built Fort Wayne. At the end of October he was again in winter quarters at Fort Greene Ville. The remaining business was to establish a permanent peace. As the spring of 1795 advanced, the chiefs began to gather, this time for the purpose of council. Wayne's position was immensely strengthened by the fact that John Jay had completed a treaty with Great Britain which included an agreement by the British to abandon their post on the American side of the Great Lakes. By June he was ready for the great council. The greatest of the Indian chiefs came to the council : among others, Little Turtle the Miami, Blue Jacket the Shawanoe and Tarhe, or The Crane, the Wyandot. Wayne's 66 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO diplomacy led the Indians to an argument among themselves which enabled him to bring them all to his terms. The treaty established a boundary line between Indians and Whites as follows: "The general boundary line, between the lands of the United States and the lands of the said Indian tribes, shall begin at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, and run thence up the same, to the portage between that and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum; thence, down that branch to the crossing place, above Fort Lawrence; thence westerly, to a fork of that branch of the Great Miami River running into the Ohio, at or near which fork stood Laramie's store, and where commences the portage between the Miami of the Ohio, and St. Mary's River, which is a branch of the Miami, which runs into Lake Erie; thence, a westerly course to Fort Recovery, which stands on a branch of the Wabash; thence, southwesterly in a direct line to the Ohio, so as to intersect that river, opposite the mouth of the Kentucke, or Cuttawa River." ( Note.—Treaty of Greeneville, Art. 3.) Beyond this line sixteen posts were reserved for American occupation. The Indians agreed to withdraw from all the land within the line, and the United States agreed to allow the Indian occupation of all the land beyond it. The United States paid the Indians goods to the value of $20,000, and agreed to pay to the various tribes $9,500 yearly "forever." The treaty was signed by Wayne and a number of his officers for the United States, and by eighty-nine Indian chiefs; (each making the symbol which designated his name), representing the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawanoes, Miamis, Weeas, Piankeshaws, Kickapoos, Putawatames, Chippewas and Ottawas, in fact, all the tribes of the Ohio and Michigan country. The effect of the treaty was far reaching and tremendous. It claimed the way for all the Ohio settlements, and made pos- HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 67 sible the establishment of the state. Never again did the Indians and Whites meet in battle on Ohio soil. Wayne went home to Pennsylvania, but the next spring he returned, by orders of President Washington, to receive the surrender of the British outposts, in accordance with the terms of the Jay Treaty. This work accomplished, he set sail from Sandusky for Fort Presqu' Isle. He was ill when he embarked ; when he disembarked he was dying. "Bury me on the parade ground, at the foot of the flagstaff," he said, and there Mad Anthony Wayne ended his great career. One of the fairest counties in Ohio, a fine Indiana city and two beautiful Pennsylvania towns bear his name. He should be remembered by all citizens of Ohio as one of the most important of the founders of our state : a great soldier, a great diplomat, a great man. Surely there was nothing mad about Anthony but his name. (Note.—It would have been fitting that his mortal remains might have slept in peace at the foot of the flagstaff. But it was not to be so. Nine years after his death his son came over the mountains with a horse and cart to take his father's body home. He found the remains so perfectly preserved that it was necessary to adopt a method of dismemberment to accomplish his purpose, which included certain operations in a kettle. The result is that Mad Anthony's bones lie in the old family graveyard near Valley Forge, while the rest of him—and the kettle—are proudly guarded by the citizens of Erie, Pennsylvania.) CHAPTER III THE CONNECTICUT LAND COMPANY We are now ready to turn to those events which brought about the formation and settlement of the Connecticut Western Reserve. We have noted the fact that the State of Connecticut, in the Act of Session of May, 1786, reserved a tract of land bounded on the east by the Pennsylvania state line, on the north by Lake Erie, on the south by the forty-first parallel of latitude, and extending west one hundred and twenty miles. This reservation created a most curious and difficult problem of government. Lying within the boundaries of the Northwest Territory by the terms of the Ordinance of 1787, it was thereby subject to the government df the Territory, but inasmuch as Connecticut had not surrendered her jurisdiction a conflict of sovereignties existed which was a constant potentiality for trouble. For eight years after the passage of the Ordinance, however, the problem was dormant. During this time no settler from any source attempted to invade the Reserve. Here and there a wandering Indian or two, in a temporary clearing, may have settled for a time, to grow a little patch of Indian corn. Such little clearings are known to have existed here and there, especially in the valley of the Mahoning. One of these requires special notice. "Mahoning" means "the place of the salt licks." The origin of the name is the existence of a salt spring in the present township of Weathersfield, Trumbull County. To this spring came the beasts of the forest, and the Indians for - 68 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 69 many miles around. During the summer months there was usually a little camp or two near the spring, where Delaware or Mingo squaws boiled down the water to get the residuum of salt, the most difficult to obtain of the necessaries in the Indian scheme of life. The antiquarian who seeks the Salt Spring now must meet with disappointment. The right of way of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway passes directly over the spot. One little outlet only remains, to show the quality of this important site in our early history. The flavor of the water remaining suggests a rather strong sulphurous element, as well as the much desired salt. The original springs, of course, may have had a different savor. The reports of early settlers, however, seem to indicate that the quantity of salt in the springs was too meagre, and the quality too poor, to make it worth while to attempt the commercial evaporation of the water. These salt springs were the occasion for the first contract of sale made by the State of Connecticut in the Reserve. In 1786 the Connecticut Legislature passed an act authorizing the survey of the Reserve into townships six miles square, and the sale of land to settlers. This survey, however, was never begun, and only one sale under the act was accomplished. In 1788 Samuel Holden Parsons, one of the three original judges of the Territory, purchased 24,000 acres surrounding the salt springs of the Mahoning. No survey of Judge Parsons' purchase was ever made, but he at times sold portions of it, and after the Connecticut Land Company was formed, a reservation of this purchase was established. The Judge was drowned in the Beaver River in 1789, and a final settlement of this claim was made with his heirs early in the eighteenth century. In the year 1795 the Connecticut legislature took the first steps for disposing of the Reserve. The western 500,000 acres had been set aside in 1792 as a donation to the citizens 70 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO of Connecticut who had suffered from the depredations of the British during the Revolution. This tract has since been known as the "Fire Lands," and includes approximately the present counties of Huron and Erie. Now, by act of the legislature of May, 1795, a committee of eight was appointed, whose duty it was to obtain bids for the remainder of the Reserve east of the Fire Lands. The committee was authorized to contract for the sale of the lands "and to make and execute under their hands and seals to the purchaser or purchasers a deed or deeds duly authenticated, quitting in behalf of the state all right, title and interest juridicial and Territorial in and to the said lands, to him and them, and to his or their heirs forever." The committee was authorized to sell on credit, the term of payment to be five years, and the purchasers to furnish sufficient bond. The price was to be not less than one million dollars, with interest at six per cent. The legislature chose as members of the committee John Treadwell, James Wadsworth, Marvin Wait, William Edmonds, Thomas Grosvenor, Aaron Austin, Elijah Hubbard and Sylvester Gilbert. The committee met in Hartford, Connecticut, on June 5, 1795. Bids for the land immediately began to come in, and the bidding continued until August. The highest bid, $1,255,000, was made by John Livingston, representing a body of men mostly resident in the State of New York. Opposition to the alien character of these bidders resulted in the withdrawal of their proposal, and the substitution of an alternative offer for the surplus in the Reserve over 3,000,000 acres. An error in the minds of the persons concerned as to the direction of the Lake Erie shore led them to believe that the Reserve, exclusive of the Fire Lands, containd considerably more than 3,000,000 acres, but when the survey was made it was found that instead of more it was less. Livingston thus became possessed of the title to non-existent HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 71 land. Livingston afterwards sold his non-existent excess to William Hull of Newton, Massachusetts, who seemed to be holding the bag, but who was finally admitted by the proprietors to an appropriate share in the Reserve, thus closing an incident which might have been unpleasant. The withdrawal of the Livingston bid left the matter of the sale open again. An offer of $1,150,000 was the highest remaining. The committee asked these bidders to raise their offer by the sum of $50,000. This was agreed to, and on August 12, 1795, the sale was closed, the final contract reading as follows: "Hartford, 12th of August, 1795. "We the subscribers, for ourselves and our associates, will give for the Western Reserve, so called, the sum of twelve hundred thousand dollars, payable in five years, with interest annually, after the expiration of two years from the signing the deed, and give security agreeably to the Act of the Legislature. Oliver Phelps, William Hart, Ebenezer Huntington, Samuel Mather, Jr., Elisha Hyde, Matthew Nicoll, Moses Cleaveland, Gideon Granger, Jr." On August 13th, the contractors posted a bond for $100,000. On the 7th, 8th and 9th of September thirty-six bonds were given amounting in all to the total of the purchase money, $1,200,000, and the sale was complete. The money received by the State of Connecticut for the Western Reserve was used to establish a common school fund, which became the basis on which was established the public school system of the state. This fund continues today, so 72 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO that the inheritors of the Reserve may be said to have a continuing interest in the schools of Connecticut. It is pleasant to know that this system has always ranked among the highest in the nation. The next step was the organization of the purchasers into some kind of working system. Accordingly, on September 5, 1795, the purchasers in meeting at Hartford adopted articles of agreement creating the Connecticut Land Company. The Company as formed was not a corporation. It was a form of joint stock company, placing the title to the land in three trustees, who were to distribute the property to purchasers as the articles of agreement directed. A board of seven directors was authorized, who were to organize and conduct the affairs of the company. The directors were to have the Reserve surveyed into townships five miles square, each township to be subdivided according to the plan of the proprietors thereof (which accounts for the varieties of surveys into sections, great lots, etc., etc., in the Reserve). A method of voting was provided for, giving each proprietor voting power, but distributing the votes in such a way as to give the larger proprietors a larger number of votes. A plan was established whereby proprietors who wished contiguous property could obtain it. John Caldwell, Jonathan Brace and John Morgan were the original trustees; none of them were proprietors or stockholders. The original directors were Oliver Phelps, Henry Champion, Moses Cleaveland, Samuel W. Johnson, Ephraim Kirby, Samuel Mather, Jr., and Roger Newbury. (Note.—The Articles of Agreement of the Connecticut Land Company, the names of the original proprietors, the number of shares and the bonds posted by each will be found in Appendix B. It is interesting to note that about one-half of the original proprietors have had their names preserved in the various towns and townships of the Reserve.) HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 73 The company was organized, the bonds were posted, the deed of trust was executed—but not one of the proprietors had ever set eye on one inch of his property. It is doubtful if ever such a transaction was completed sight unseen before or since. The next step was the location of the property. For this purpose an expedition set out in the spring of 1796. General Moses Cleaveland was the head of the exploring party, and we must pause to introduce him. The Cleaveland family settled in Connecticut in the seventeenth century. They were English Puritan gentry. Moses was born in Canterbury, Connecticut, January 29, 1754, and died there November 16, 1806. He graduated from Yale College in 1777, and immediately entered the Continental Army. He was a captain in 1779, and served with honor to the end of the war. After his discharge, he entered upon the practice of the law. In 1794 he married Esther Champion. In the early part of 1796 he received a commission as brigadier general of the Connecticut Militia. On May 12, 1796, he received his appointment as Superintendent of Survey of the Western Reserve, and early in June he started with his party. (Note.—The first "a" in Cleaveland seems to have been dropped by the compositor of a Cleveland newspaper some time in the '30s, to solve a problem of arrangement of a title head. There is some dispute on the subject. The name was spelled both ways in Connecticut in the eighteenth century. It must be remembered that there was no exactitude in English spelling before Samuel Johnson's Dictionary. General Moses himself always spelled his name "Cleaveland.") There were fifty persons in the Cleaveland party, including two women, wives of members. The names of the leaders are: Augustus Porter, Principal Surveyor; Seth Pease, Astronomer and Surveyor; Moses Warren, Amos Spofford, John M. Holley and Richard M. Stoddard, Assistant Surveyors; Joshua Stow, Commissary; Theodore Shepard, Physician; 74 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO Joseph Tinker, Boatman; Seth Hart, Chaplain. There were thirty-seven employes, some of whom planned to settle in the new country. As a matter of fact, most of them stayed. The party took the water trail, making their official start from Schenectady early in June. They traveled up the Mohawk River to the Oswego portage, then down the Oswego to Lake Ontario. Before they reached Ontario they had virtually parted from civilization. The western part of New York was still Iroquois country. The portage around Niagara Falls brought them to the foot of Lake Erie, where Buffalo now stands. At this point the first work of the party was done. Among the other instructions of General Cleaveland he had orders to quiet the Indian title, "if any," to the Reserve. At Buffalo two representatives of the Iroquois met the General in solemn conference. One of these, Red Jacket, is of minor importance; the others, Joseph Brant, or, to give him his Indian name, Thayendenegea, fills a large page in Indian history. The most intelligent and valuable citizen among the left-handed Indian wives of Sir William Johnson was a Mohawk girl, Mollie Brant, who attracted the old baronet's attention first by her daring horsemanship and beauty, so that he married her Mohawk fashion. She bore him several children, and remained his faithful wife until his death parted them. She had a younger brother, who was christened Joseph Brant on his conversion to the Church of England, and who received a good education along with Sir William's own boys. Brant was the chief leader of the British backwoods forces during the Revolution, and after the Peace of 1783 was in turn instigator of trouble and peacemaker until he died, well into the nineteenth century. He was a genius both in war and statesmanship, and was equally at home in the British Court and the savage tents of the western Indians. Intellectually, he undoubtedly was the equal of any American, white or