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WASHINGTON COUNTY CHAPTER XIV THE BIRTH OF WASHINGTON COUNTY CREATED BY GOVERNOR ST. CLAIR'S PROCLAMATION JULY 26, 1788-OCCUPIED NEARLY HALF THE PRESENT STATE OF OHIO-FIRST COUNTY COURT, HELD IN FAMOUS COMPUS MARTIUS, A CEREMONY OF GREAT DIGNITY-"MEN IN GOOD SPIRITS" WROTE PUTNAM TO CUTLER MONTH AFTER ARRIVAL -BUT CRITICS CITED SICKNESS, SAVAGES AND HOOP SNAKES. The reader who has followed the preceding pages is prepared for the history of Washington County, whose formal organization, however, was not effected until July 26, 1788. The story of the Mayflower's arrival at Marietta April 7 of that year and of the early activities of the colonists has been told by many writers each of whom has been inspired to do his best by the high character of the first settlers, the lofty purposes they came to work out, the steadfastness with which they encountered danger and difficulty and the Ordinance which armed them with enlightened law. The present writer cannot hope to do as well with the subject as has been done by those of other days, some of whom were men of genius and renown, nor has he space for that wealth of detail which is expected in the average county history. Here an effort will be made to deal adequately with the high points, so that those of our readers who are not conversant with particulars may be moved to search for them in the county histories, the Centennial addresses and other rich and varied records. If what is said here prompts any reader to enter pon that search it will have accomplished an important part of the writer's purpose. ST. CLAIR CREATES WASHINGTON COUNTY As every reader of Ohio history knows, Washington County when organized occupied about half the territory within Ohio's - 155 - 156 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO present limits. Gov. Arthur St. Clair established it by proclamation. Following is its text, which contains a full description of boundaries : "By his Excellency, Arthur St. Clair, esq., governor and commander-in-chief of the territory of all the United States northwest of the river Ohio. "A Proclamation "To all persons to whom these presents shall come, greeting : "Whereas, by the Ordinance of Congress of the thirteenth of July, 1787, for the government of the territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio, it is directed that for the due execution of process, civil and criminal, the governor shall make proper divisions of the said territory, and proceed from time to time, as circumstances may require, to lay out the part of the same where the Indian title has been extinguished into counties and townships, subject to future alterations as therein specified. Now, know ye, that it appearing to me to be necessary, for the purpose above mentioned, that a county should immediately be laid out, I have ordained and ordered, and by these presents do ordain and order, that all and singular the lands lying and being within the following boundaries, viz. : "Beginning on the bank of the Ohio River where the western boundary line of Pennsylvania crosses it, and running with that line to Lake Erie ; thence along the shore of said lake to the north of the Cuyahoga ; thence up said river to the portage between that and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum ; thence down the branch to the forks, at the crossing place above Fort Laurens; thence with a line to be drawn westerly to the portage of that branch of the Big Miami on which the fort stood that was taken by the French in 1742, until it meets the road from the lower Shawneestown to the Sandusky; thence south to the Scioto River; thence with that river to its mouth, and thence up the Ohio to the place of beginning : shall be a county, and the same is hereby erected into a county named and to be called hereafter the County of Washington ; and the said County of Washington shall have and enjoy all and singular the jurisdiction rights, liberties, privileges and immunities whatever, to a county belonging and appertaining, and which any other county that may hereafter be erected and ]aid out, shall or ought to enjoy, conformably to the ordinance
SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 159 of Congress before mentioned. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the Territory to be affixed this twenty-sixth day of July, in the thirteenth year of Independence of the United States of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight. " (Signed) "A. St. Clair." EARLIEST COURTS ASSEMBLED On September 2, 1788, the county's first court of common pleas assembled at Campus Martius in the hall of the northwest blockhouse. Gen. Rufus Putnam, Gen. Benjamin Tupper and Col. A. Crary were the judges. On the ninth of the same month the first court of the general quarter sessions of the peace was held in the southwest blockhouse. Generals Putnam and Tupper were justices of the Quorum and Isaac Pearce, Thomas Lord and R. J. Meigs, Jr., were assistant justices. The grand jurors were William Stacey, foreman, Nathaniel Cushing, Nathan Goodale, Charles Knowles, Anselm Tupper, Jonathan Stone, Oliver Rice, Ezra Lunt, John Mathews, George Ingersoll, Jonathan Devol, Samuel Stebbins, Jethro Putnam and Jabez True. The occasion was one of marked dignity. In Doctor Andrew's Centennial address we find this excellent word picture of the opening of the county's first court : "The first court held in the territory was that of the Court of Common Pleas at Campus Martius, September 2, 1788. A procession was formed at the Point, where most of the settlers resided, in the following order : The high sheriff with his drawn sword; the citizens; the officers of the garrison at Fort Harmar ; the members of the bar ; the supreme judges ; the governor and clergymen; the newly-appointed judges of the court, Generals Rufus Putnam and Benjamin Tupper. Rev. Dr. Manasseh Cutler, one of the directors of the Ohio Company, then here on a visit, opened the court with prayer; and Col. Ebenezer Sproat, the sheriff, made official proclamation that a court is opened for the administration of even-handed justice, to the poor and the rich, to the guilty and the innocent, without respect of persons.' General Putnam alluding to this first court says : 'Happily for the credit 160 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO of the people, there was no suit, either civil or criminal, br before the court.' " FOES CITED SICKNESS, SAVAGES AND HOOP SNAKES But the Ohio Company's critics, and they were many and active, had abundant materials to use when various troubles set in and were added to and few opportunities were neglected which enabled them to cry "I told you so." One writer has said that they "caricatured and exaggerated editions of the stories of the first adventures : that there were springs of brandy, flax that bore little pieces of cloth on the stems, enormous pumpkins, and melons and the like." "Hoop snakes of such deadly malignity that a sting which they bore in their tails, when it punctured the bark of a green tree, instantly caused its leaves to become sear and the tree to die," were mentioned. Massacres and barbarities by Indians received detailed attention. The soil's fertility was conceded but sickness and other evils were set off against it. At about the end of the first month, however, General Putnam was in good spirits for he wrote to Doctor Cutler : "The men are generally in good health, and I believe much pleased with the country; that I am so myself you may rest assured. I can only add, the situation of the city plat is the most delightful of any I ever saw." One of his associates went further : "This country, for fertility of soil and pleasantness of situation, not only exceeds my expectations, but exceeds any part of Europe or America I ever was in." CHAPTER XV SOME OF THE SETTLERS SHORT OF FOOD WINTER OF 1788-89 ONE OF HARDSHIP AND TROUBLE-INDIANS HAVING KILLED AND DRIVEN AWAY GAME EVEN WILD MEAT WAS SCARCE-CORN WENT UP TO $2 A BUSHEL-ISAAC WILLIAMS SOLD HIS AT A LIVING PRICE AND WAS THE SETTLEMENT'S BENEFACTOR-PESTILENCE SET IN AND CAUSED MANY DEATHS-MILLIONS OF PIGEONS WERE DESTRUCTIVE - FIRST TOWNSHIP ORGANIZED 1790 - FIRST COURTHOUSE BUILT OF LOGS. Evils far worse than criticism and ridicule soon followed ; the winter of 1788-89 brought the pioneers at Marietta and vicinity who lacked stores of food or money wherewith to buy, hardships which taxed their power to endure. White bread became fairly unknown. Corn remained, but little else, for the river was closed by ice and even those who had money could not obtain flour until the spring restored navigation. Even game, the most plentiful of all the food supplies when the colony reached Marietta, had been wantonly killed and driven away by the savages. Conditions were even worse in the winter of 1789-90, for much of the corn gathered during the fall had been damaged by frost and was rejected not only by the palate but by the stomach which resorted to vomiting in the effort to be rid of it. Corn "fit to eat" rose to the price of $2 a bushel and salt reached $8 a bushel. But for the fish in the streams many settlers would have starved. When the new crops emerged from the ground and approached maturity their half-starved owners plucked such half-ripe vegetables as beans, peas, corn, squashes and boiled them with meagre cupfuls of corn meal. This gave them a soup welcomed as a partial variation from a diet which had made life seem hardly worth living. ISAAC WILLIAMS, BENEFACTOR In most histories of pioneer suffering and peril some human gure has revealed himself as the possessor of deep and simple - 161 - 11—Vol. 1 162 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO nobility. Such a man is described by an old writer. We quote in full : "During the terrible season of famine, Isaac Williams, the Virginia frontiersman who had settled opposite the mouth of the Muskingum, exhibited the nobleness of his nature in many acts of generosity. He had raised a very large quantity of corn, which, planted much earlier than that of the Belpre and Marietta settlers, who had first to clear and fence their lands, was so matured when frost came as to be uninjured. WAS TEMPTED BUT STOOD FAST "He was beset by speculators who wished to buy his entire crop at the large price of one dollar and a quarter per bushel, but uniformly refused to have anything to do with them, and sold his corn to those who needed it for food, at the usual price in years of plenty, fifty cents per bushel. Nor would he sell to any man more than was .necessary for the subsistence of his family. It was his usual custom to inquire of an applicant the number of persons in his household, and sell him a proportionate number of bushels. "To those who had not money to buy even at his moderate price, he readily gave credit, and in not a few cases made actual donations. The settlers very generally availed themselves of his benevolence, and the good old man, denying himself riches, had the noble satisfaction of having relieved distress and perhaps warding off absolute starvation." PESTILENCE AT MARIETTA IN 1790 A disease vastly more dreaded then than after Doctor Jenner's discovery of vaccination came to bless mankind, smallpox, set in against the Point settlers at Marietta in January of the year named. A man named Welsh had been put ashore from a Kentucky boat and on being removed to the home of James Owen he was found to be suffering from the disease. Fear and excitement followed. At a meeting of the settlers it was decided that a house for the sick man must be built and when it was erected he was taken to it and died there. Mrs. Owen was attacked by the disease but lived through it. Inoculation was used but the disease spread. SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 163 Other "sick" houses were erected. The death toll was eight, two of the cases in spite of inoculation. SCARLET FEVER FOLLOWS SMALLPOX Scarlet fever in epidemic form appeared at the Point in August, 1793. Infected persons were removed to Devol's Island, but several deaths ensued. Smallpox also returned. Belpre no more escaped than Marietta. In 1792 scarlet fever set in at Farmer's Castle and about fifteen children died as a result. In September, 1793, Benjamin Patterson, who had been inoculated at Marietta, was the source of infection. Doctor True came from Marietta and there was a wholesale inoculation with the result that but five of the 100 affected died. Although further away in time, there was another visitation of trouble for some of the pioneers and we describe it here because it fits into the present chapter. A PLAGUE OF MILLIONS OF PIGEONS This source of property loss seems to have reached unbelievable proportions early in the nineteenth century. One flight of these creatures was thus described by Thaddeus Mason Harris, who made a tour of the territory northwest of the Ohio River. In his journal he wrote as follows, from Marietta : "The vast flight of pigeons in this country seems incredible. But there is a large forest in Waterford, containing several hundred acres, which has been killed in consequence of their lighting upon it during the autumn of 1801. Such numbers lodged upon the trees that they broke off large limbs; and the ground below is covered, and in some places a foot thick, with their dung, which has not only killed all the undergrowth, but all the trees are dead as if they had been girdled." Rev. Daniel Story wrote on this subject, his letter being dated Marietta, June 3, 1803: "I have visited two pigeon roosts and have heard of a third. Those I have seen are astonishing. One is supposed to cover a thousand acres; the other is still larger. The destruction of timber and brush on such large tracts of land by these small animals is almost incredible. Many millions of them must have assem- 164 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO bled to effect it, especially as it was done in the course of a few weeks !" TOWNSHIPS IN THE MAKING Although Washington County was created by proclamation dated July 26, 1788, no townships were struck off until December, 1790, when the Court of Quarter Sessions established Marietta, Waterford and Belpre. Marietta extended from the seventh range to the western boundary of the ninth range (twelve miles) and extended south so as to include township No. 2 in the ninth range. Belpre and Waterford townships were of correspondingly large size. Gallipolis was bounded upon the north by a line drawn westward from the north line of township No. 3 in the eleventh range; upon the west by the Scioto and on the south by the Ohio River. Two townships in the county's north end were Warren and Middletown and these went into Jefferson County when it was established in 1797. It was in December of the last named year that Adams and Salem townships were erected, the latter being five miles in width. A new Middletown, embracing nearly all of what became Athens County, was established in December, 1798. Newtown and Newport townships were also created in 1798. The county had nine townships in 1800—Marietta, Belpre, Waterford, Salem, Adams Newtown, Gallipolis, Middletown, Newport. The full township list, with the year of establishment, is, Marietta, Belpre and Waterford, 1790 ; Adams and Salem, 1792 ; Newport, 1798 ; Grandview, 1802; Watertown and Roxbury, 1806; Fearing, 1808; Wesley and Warren, 1810 ; Union, 1812 ; Lawrence, 1815; Aurelius and Barlow, 1818 ; Ludlow, 1819 ; Decatur, 1820; Liberty, 1832; Jolly and Independence, 1840; Fairfield and Palmer, 1851; Dunham, 1856; Muskingum, 1861. WASHINGTON COUNTY'S FIRST COURTHOUSE This was erected in 1798-99, a two story 45 by 39 foot log structure with walls three feet thick. The courtroom on the upper story in front, was lighted by seven windows and heated by two large fireplaces. S. P. Hildreth, the historian, has told us something about the lawyers who practiced there. "Here Paul Fearing, R. J. Meigs and Jacob Burnet, the ear- SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 165 liest attorneys northwest of the river Ohio, displayed their youthful powers and unfolded talents that few in this day excel. Here Charles Hammond and Philemon Beecher for many years attended as barristers, especially the latter. Here also Thomas Ewing, Esq. (the elder), first essayed his mighty powers and began that bright career of popular fame which elevated him to some of the first stations of the Government. A host of others have also here commenced their careers in the early days of the law." The jailer and his family lived in the two lower rooms of the courthouse. The jail was in the rear and over it were the jury rooms. There was a cupola and the bell which hung in it tolled for many years in cases of death and rang at 9 A. M., noon and 9 P. M. CHAPTER XVI THE TOMAHAWK AND SCALPING KNIFE INDIAN ATTACKS BREAK OUT IN OHIO COMPANY'S LANDS-WATERFORD BUILDS BLOCKHOUSE-BIG BOTTOM MASSACRE-WOLF CREEK MILLS IN DANGER-AN ANXIOUS NIGHT AT BELPRE-PUTNAM APPEALS TO WASHINGTON-FORT FRYE ATTACKED-CAPTAIN RODGERS AND HURL-• BUT KILLED-ST. CLAIR MEETS DISASTER-FOUR SLAIN AT NEWBURY -PUTNAM HOST TO 14 CHIEFS-WAYNE'S VICTORY BRINGS PEACE. Indian hostilities began on and near the Ohio Company's purchase in May, 1789, when Captain Zebulon King was killed by the savages at Belpre. While busy clearing his land a shot laid him low, whereupon two murderous Indians scalped him and made off. The act terrified the Belpre pioneers and warned them too : the Fort Harmar treaty was not to be depended upon—nor were the peaceful protestations of the tribes. At Belpre, Marietta and the other settlements Indian signs became numerous in the woods. Evidently the foes were waiting to ambush the unwary. The axe was wielded in fear and trembling and those who remained in the cabins put in hours of dreadful suspense. `As a matter of fact," says one historian, "there were but few Indians in the immediate vicinity of the Ohio Company's settlements, even at the time the greatest outrages were perpetrated and they were roving bands who came down from what is now the interior of the state. But the terror of the pioneers was none the less deep and intense if it was very often vague and the product of excited fancy. Any sound, however common, echoing through the forest—the cry of a bird, the snapping of a dry twig—caused man or woman to start with fright, such was the tension of their nerves and to listen with anxious and troubled looks for any further breaking of silence that might possibly indicate the proximity or the approach of a stealthy enemy." In August the Belpre settlers had a second shock. At Meigs' Station, on the Little Kanawha, the bodies of two boys who had - 167 - 168 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO left the family cabin to go to the blockhouse, were found at the edge of the woods. The Indians had tomahawked them. WATERFORD BUILDS A BLOCKHOUSE When General Putnam notified the settlers at Waterford of the murder of Captain King they organized a company of defenders and took steps to build a blockhouse, which structure was completed in July. In September the Indians captured John Gardner, at Waterford, and led him away past the Wolf Creek mills, then in course of construction. He could have called out to his fellow pioneers but knowing that meant his instant destruction he determined to await opportunity for escape. This came at night when by straining at the thongs which bound him he was enabled to steal away from his captors and presently to run at full speed. On the second day of his flight he reached the Wolf Creek mills in safety. In June, 1790, Major Doughty, commanding 150 men from Fort Harmar, descended the Ohio to Cincinnati and began the construction of Fort Washington. He was presently followed by General Harmar in command of 300 soldiers. On being reinforced by nearly one thousand militiamen, he marched northward to the Maumee and destroyed several Indian villages. BRITISH FURNISH AID TO THE HOSTILES Two defeats were suffered in October by Harmar's command and his responsibility for them was investigated by a court of inquiry which resulted in exoneration. The campaign revived Indian hopes and pioneer fears and both effects were emphasized when it was found that the British at Detroit were furnishing the hostile Indians with military stores. Meanwhile the Ohio Company had put Campus Martius in a good state of defense and guards were organized for the settlements. Colonel Sproat, in command of the militia, enlisted scouts and sent them out daily to watch for signs of the foe. Evidences of the Indians' nearness to the settlements were found but beyond the theft of horses and minor offences they had not gone. THE MASSACRE AT BIG BOTTOM Again the pioneers became careless and overconfident. An association of thirty-six of them settled at Big Bottom in the fall SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 169 of 1790 and on that beautiful spot on the Muskingum the settlers erected a blockhouse and proceeded to clear the land. Big Bottom became in due time a part of Morgan County and the story of the massacre which occurred there January 2, 1791, is fully told on pages in this work devoted to Morgan County history. It is in order to say here, however, that twenty-five or more Delawares and Wyandots surprised the whites in Big Bottom blockhouse, killed twelve of them, including a woman and two children and carried away five in captivity, of whom one died, while four were enabled to return to their homes after much delay. ON THE DEFENSIVE AT THE MILLS Two of the Big Bottom settlers, Asa and Eleazer Ballard, were in their own cabin near the blockhouse when the latter was surprised and succeeded in dashing away to safety, guns in hand. Reaching a hunting camp four miles distant they found that able frontiersman, Capt. Joseph Rodgers and a friendly Mohican asleep. When they were awakened the little party at once left for Wolf Creek mills. Here Captain Rodgers organized the defense, assembled all the settlers in Colonel Robert Oliver's cabin, the largest there, and filled tubs, buckets and other vessels with water from the creek for the quenching of any flames that the savages might start. Among the thirty persons assembled in the Oliver cabin but seven were men ; most of the heads of families had gone to Marietta, to attend the court of quarter sessions. It was a long, anxious night but daylight came without an attack. WATERFORD WARNED IN THE NIGHT We quote from the Washington history of 1881 the following vivid story of what followed at Waterford when the news reached that settlement : "The people of Waterford had been made acquainted with the news of the attack on Big Bottom in the night by Samuel Mitchell from the Mills. The settlement extended nearly two miles along the river but every cabin was visited either by Mitchell or by James and Daniel Conyers whom he had aroused first to spread the alarm. As the news was carried from door to door, terrified people, aroused from their sleep, came hurrying to the blockhouse, 170 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO carrying little else than such arms as they could command. Seventy persons passed the night in a room about fifteen feet square. The blockhouse was considered a good defense. The people nevertheless passed a night which was full of apprehension and suspense." AWFUL SPECTACLE AT BIG BOTTOM This was revealed two clays after the massacre when Captain Rodgers and Anselm Tupper each led a company of men to the blockhouse. The savages had sought to burn the bodies of their victims by taking up the blockhouse floor, piling it upon the bodies and setting the boards afire. The wood was green and did not burn freely but the flames reinforced the tomahawk in placing most of the dead beyond identification. The ground being frozen too hard for grave-digging outside, the pioneers dug a grave inside the cabin and laid the bodies in it side by side. Not until after the Greenville treaty of 1795 was an attempt made to form a new settlement at Big Bottom. ANXIOUS NIGHT AT BELPRE The news of the massacre reached Marietta the next forenoon, when the court of quarter sessions had just opened. Court was adjourned and those in attendance from the nearby settlements at once left for their homes, filled with the terrible fear that they would find their dear ones slain. Those who remained at Marietta could contemplate the situation with greater composure in the knowledge of their superior numbers and of the defense which could be conducted at Campus Martius and Fort Harmar. When Belpre heard the news hours of apprehension followed through the night only to be lifted when the heads of families returned next day. OHIO COMPANY TAKES PROMPT ACTION With immediate and heavy responsibilities resting upon them the Ohio Company took a speedy and well-considered course. Meetings were held daily during ten days and on the fifth day resolutions were passed which covered the ground thoroughly. The "whereas" expressed the company's fears that their outsettlements might be "swallowed up" unless these could be immediately drawn in. SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 171 Resolution No. 1 advised that all women and children in the outsettlements be removed to Marietta where houses must be provided for them, the reasonable expenses to be paid out of company funds. Other resolutions requested the company's directors to strengthen the several defenses; authorized application to the command at Fort Harmar for military protection ; authorized Lieutenant Colonel Commander Sproat to organize garrisons for the Marietta, Belpre and Wolf Creek settlements and the company provided compensation for those assigned to duty. EARNEST APPEALS FOR AID The resolutions were transmitted to the judges of the court of quarter sessions, who were appealed to to seek aid from the National Government. This section of the communication tells of the anxiety of the company in face of the danger which seemed to threaten : "We cannot now be silent when we find ourselves after an ineffectual campaign exposed unprotected to the fury of an irritated enemy. It is with pain we have heard the cruel insinuation of those who have been disaffected to the settlement of this county. It is not possible that those men who have pursued into these woods that path to an humble competence which was pointed out to us by the commander-in-chief of the American armies should be doomed the victims of jealous policy to see the mangled bodies exposed a spectacle to prevent emigration." It remains to be noted in this connection that the eleven thousand dollars expended for defense by the Ohio Company was never refunded by Congress. The famous appeal made for military aid by General Rufus Putnam to President George Washington is here given in part : "Our situation is truly critical ; the governor and secretary both being absent, no assistance from Virginia or Pennsylvania can be had. The garrison at Fort Harmar, consisting at this time of little more than twenty men, can afford no protection to our settlements, and the whole number of men in our settlements capable of bearing arms, including all civil and military officers, does not exceed two hundred and eighty-seven, many of them badly armed. "We are in the utmost danger of being swallowed up, should the enemy push the war with rigor during the winter ; this, I be- 172 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO lieve will fully appear by taking a short view of our several settlements, and I hope justify the extraordinary measures we have adopted for want of legal authority to apply for aid in the business. The situation of our people is nearly as follows : "At Marietta are about eighty houses in the distance of one mile, with scattering houses about three miles up the Ohio. A set of mills at Duck Creek, four miles distant, and another mill two miles up the Muskingum. Twenty-two miles up this river is a settlement, consisting of about twenty families (Waterford) ; about two miles from them on Wolf Creek are five families and a set of mills. "Down the Ohio, and opposite the Little Kanawha, commences the settlement called Belle Prairie, which extends down the river with little interruption about twelve miles and contains between thirty and forty houses. Before the late disaster we had several other settlements, which are already broken up. I have taken the liberty to enclose the proceedings of the Ohio Company and justices of the sessions on this occasion, and beg leave, with the greatest deference, to observe that unless Government speedily sends a body of troops for our protection we are a ruined people." MARIETTA AND BELPRE AWAKE But the Company, depending not on words of appeal, went steadfastly to work. Campus Martius was strengthened; the Point was protected ; four blockhouses were built, and Colonel Ebenezer Sproat was placed in command. At Belpre, where Colonel Battelle and Colonel Cushing had built two blockhouses for their families, eleven more such houses were built and palisades extended around them. The- fortifications were occupied by the families of the upper and lower settlements and the garrison became known as Farmer's Castle. The garrison consisted of about seventy sturdy men and besides these were about 150 persons.. GATHERED AT WATERFORD The settlers at Waterford and at Wolf Creek mills were not less prompt and resourceful. On the day after the Big Bottom massacre men from the two points met and decided to abandon the mills and concentrate at Waterford. The families were removed; SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 173 Fort Frye was built on the east side of the Muskingum about half a mile below where Beverly stands; palisades were set up to enclose about three-quarters of an acre of land ; blockhouses occupied the fort's corners; a well was dug within the enclosure. Six weeks later, early in March, the gates being hung, the fort was in a reasonably defensive state. Within it were about forty men capable of bearing arms, under the command of Capt. William Gray. To watch over the settlers' health was Dr. Thomas Early; to act as surgeon's mate was Dr. Nathan McIntosh; the rangers were Neal McGuffey, Andrew McClure, William McCullock and William Neal. SAVAGES ATTACK FORT FRYE The settlers were now concentrated at Marietta, Belpre and Waterford. Anxious to resume their attacks on the wilderness and friendly contact with the soil they faced the possibility of great shortage of food and the perils of ill health. But they had life, they could reasonably expect not to share the fate which had overtaken their Big Bottom brethren. And for these they were doubtless duly thankful. But Fort Frye was not to escape attack for any length of time. Early in March a party of Wyandots and Delawares came down into the Muskingum valley from the Sandusky country and camped at the Falls of the Muskingum, now known as Duncan Falls, their object being to attack the Waterford settlement. In their party was an Indian of King Philip's tribe, John Miller, who had been among the settlers at Marietta and Waterford, coming there from Rhode Island. JOHN MILLER, THE "GOOD INDIAN" Having learned the object of the warriors' journey he planned to break away from them and warn his white friends at Waterford. It was a difficult undertaking for he was suspected and carefully watched. The story of his success and arrival at Waterford is long and interesting but must be curtailed here. On reaching Fort Frye he was admitted and his story listened to and profited by. The fort was not quite in shape for defense but in two days the gates were hung. The attack came on the morning of March 11. Wilbur Sprague as shot in the hip while coming from a 174 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO cabin where he had milked a cow. He ran toward the fort and was carried inside by his brothers. William McCullock, emerging to see what the shot meant, was fired on, but running a zigzag course toward the gate, he passed safely into it. The Indians withdrew and separating into minor parties went to Marietta and Belpre to lay in wait for the unwary. SAD DEATH OF CAPTAIN RODGERS The next attack occurred the day after that made on Fort Frye. It was launched against Waldo Putnam and Nathaniel Little, who had left Farmer's Castle to milk and feed the cows half a mile away. An Indian shot at Putnam, who upon Little's warning cry had sprung out of the way. The young men ran toward the "Castle" pursued by three savages until settlers came out from the garrison. A day later Captain Joseph Rodgers and Edward Henderson, Campus Martius rangers, left that fort on a scouting trip up the Muskingum. During a day's tramp they had seen no evidence of the presence of Indians but at night when but a mile from the fort two of the redskins arose from behind a log and opened fire. A ball penetrated Rodgers breast and he fell into Henderson's arms. "I am a dead man," he said ; "you must save yourself." A SCOUT'S NARROW ESCAPE As Henderson fled a ball cut through a silk handkerchief which was around his head ; another passed through the collar of his hunting shirt. Four Indians now being in the chase Henderson escaped by running up a ravine and crossing the hills to Duck Creek. The death of Rodgers brought great sorrow to the settlers who esteemed him for many reasons. He had served in the Revolution. Matthew Kerr was the victim of Indian savagery when four. redskins fired upon him as he was about to leave his canoe for the shore. Three balls did their work. One of the savages scalped Kerr and was the canoe adrift in the stream. Henderson Was eager for a chance to avenge the death of his friend Rodgers, as was Hamilton Kerr to avenge that of his father, Matthew Kerr, and they took advantage of an opportunity to do so in July of this anxious year while leading about forty men, made up of Fort Harmar soldiers and Marietta volunteers, SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 175 toward the abandoned mill on Duck Creek, at which point it had been reported Indians had been seen. Coming upon the savages Kerr shot one of them, rushed upon him and plunged his knife into his body with repeated strokes. The other red men escaped. HURLBUT, THE TRAPPER, SLAIN AND SCALPED Another murder occurred at Belpre, September 28, when Benoni Hurlbut, a hunter and trapper, a bold and venturesome man, went down the Ohio to the mouth of the Little Hocking, accompanied by Joshua Fleehart, a fellow-hunter. Hurlbut went into the woods while Fleehart remained in the canoe. The sound of a rifle shot which Fleehart knew was not from his partner's gun convinced him that Hurlbut had fallen. He returned to Belpre and next day when a party went to the spot with Fleehart they found Hurlbut's lifeless body. He had been scalped. Putnam and Little were again attacked by the redskins and had reached safety at the fort with much difficulty. "Much cattle had also been driven away and horses were dispensed with as sure to be ridden away by the Indians and as offering the savages an incentive to hang around the settlement." OLD MAN AND LITTLE BOY SLAIN In October a considerable party of Indians who had been on the Little Kanawha came upon the trail of Nicholas Carpenter, his ten-year-old son, and five men who were helping to drive some cattle from Clarksburg to Marietta. They reached the whites in the morning where they had camped on a small stream emptying into the Ohio about six miles above Marietta. The war whoops and rifle shots broke upon the morning air and a bloody massacre followed. Two of the whites escaped. Carpenter and his son were taken a little distance away and killed. At Waterford no Indian attacks were made after the March attempt but young Daniel Conyers was captured there and carried off to Sandusky and later to Detroit. An extended account of his adventures among the Indians appears in the history of Muskingum County which is a part of this work. Conyers made his way back to his Connecticut home and then to Marietta, later becoming the first carrier of mail between the latter place and Zanesville. 176 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO THEN CAME ST. CLAIR'S TRAGIC DEFEAT On December 5, 1791, Major Denny, journeying from Fort Washington to Philadelphia, stopped at Marietta and gave the settlers the first news they had received of the disaster which in November had overwhelmed General Arthur St. Clair's army in Darke County. The loss of 600 men, killed; the wounding of 200 more; the terrible butchery of 56 women camp-followers; the unspeakable atrocities committed by the victors constituted a supremely tragic tale and the Ohio Company's settlements were again plunged into deepest dread. But the leaders in the Ohio Company's settlements were not cravens nor sloths. They improved old defenses and at a point near Harmar on the shore of the Muskingum Judge Joseph Gilman and his son, Benjamin Ives Gilman, built a new blockhouse. When a company of soldiers for Fort Harmar came early in 1792 they brought to the settlement a sense of greater safety and when more soldiers for Fort Frye and Farmer's Castle arrived confidence grew. In the summer Colonel Sproat received from an arms factory a supply of muskets equipped with bayonets. The winter came and went in peace and settlers made gains along lines of improvement and preparation for tilling the soil. BOLD MURDER OF FOUR AT NEWBURY At Newbury, six miles below Farmer's Castle, in the spring of 1792, the Indians murdered the wife of a man named Brown and two of their daughters. A babe in Mrs. Brown's arms at the time of the attack received a gash on its forehead but recovered. Persis Dunham, a young girl who was with Mrs. Brown and the children in the field near the blockhouse, was also tomahawked. It was a bold onslaught and so affected the Newbury settlers that they abandoned operations and took refuge in Farmer's Castle. On a June day in 1792 Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr., afterwards Ohio's governor, Joseph Symonds and a negro boy were attacked by two Indians at a point on the Muskingum between Fort Harmar and Campus Martius, while about to enter a boat. Symonds escaped by swimming the river, the boy was tomahawked at the shore and Meigs escaped by leaping across a run. SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 177 His pursuer threw his tomahawk at Meigs but it missed the mark. FOURTEEN CHIEFS DINED AT PUTNAM'S HOUSE An entertainment of Indian chiefs took place at Campus Martius and General Putnam's house on November 17, 1792, which was something of a comedy in some of its aspects but enjoyable, to the whites, at least, after so long a period of warfare with the Indians. In September General Putnam had been on the Wabash, under appointment by President Washington, to treat with the Indians there and had urged the chiefs to send a delegation to Philadelphia for a talk with the Great Father. It was this delegation, fourteen in number, which reached Marietta on its way up the Ohio and in charge of an army officer. Landing at the Point the chiefs were welcomed and entertained there. In Colonel Parker's reminiscences it is related that "Colonel Oliver went down with some of the men from Campus Martius and led them (the chiefs) through the mud. On their entering, the drums struck a salute, the guards presented arms, the cannon was fired in the northeast bastion, whereat the Indians dodged and looked surprised. General Putnam and Doctor Stacey received them and they marched to the General's to dine." MAJOR GOODALE TAKEN PRISONER One of the severest losses sustained by the Belpre settlement occurred March 1, 1793, when .Maj. Nathan Goodale was captured while at work in a field "not more than forty rods from the little stockade and in plain view of it." It was at first thought that the savages must have slain him but searching parties could find no evidence to that effect and the conclusion that he was a prisoner was accepted. Major Goodale never returned nor was he ever heard of. The citizens of the beautiful prairie drew up a petition in which it was stated to General Washington that six of their people had been killed; that Major Goodale had been carried off; that a third of their cattle and crops had been destroyed and that a total breaking up of the settlement might follow "unless the Government should afford them the protection of a large number of men." 12—Vol. 1 178 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO A NEW COLONY AT OLIVE GREEN In the spring of 1794 the Waterford settlers felt it would be safe to establish a colony and they erected a blockhouse at the mouth of the Olive Green Creek, four miles up the Muskingum, enclosing within the stockade several cabins. An old writer says of this venture : "The settlers here were Able Sherman and wife, their son Ezra and his wife and two unmarried sons of the former, but grown men ; Ezekiel Hoyt, wife and children; Aaron Delairy, wife, son and two daughters; Mathew Gallant and George Ewing, wife and children. The last named became the pioneer settler of Ames Township, Athens County. Among his children at Olive Green was one in his fifth year destined to be eminent in the counsels of the nation—Thomas Ewing." The little settlement was destined soon to have brought home to it the dangers of their situation. When Able Sherman was returning to Olive Green from a tramp to Waterford the Indians shot and scalped him within a quarter of a mile of his home. His son Ezra found the body, which was laid away next day "near the mouth of the run by which he had fallen, which to this day," says the writer of the early '80s "is known as Dead Man's Run." ROBERT WARTH AND JONAS DAVIS SLAIN Robert Warth was slain by the redskins on May 10, quite near Fort Harmar. While at work in a field Warth was fired upon by two Indians from behind a brush pile. Benjamin Ives Gilman was at work a few rods away, unseen by the savages, who, having emptied their rifles were unable to prevent him dashing toward the fort. Warth was killed and scalped. One more tragedy horrified the Belpre settlement when Jonas Davis was slain in February, 1795, while drawing nails from an old boat by the river side. The evening came and .he was missing at the garrison. Searchers found his body next morning. His scalp and clothing were gone. He and a daughter of Isaac Barker of the settlement, were betrothed, and the time for their marriage was at hand. WAYNE'S TREATY USHERS IN PEACE The last white victim of the Indian war was Sherman Waterman, whose death occurred May 21, 1795, on the south branch of SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 179 Wolf's Creek about four miles from Fort "Frye, when he left a cabin to cut hemlock boughs for a sleeping berth. The Indians fired on him and pursued him as he ran toward the cabin. Companions ran out and took him into it but he died in great agony that night. Gen. Anthony Wayne's treaty was signed at Greenville, Darke County, Ohio, August 10, 1795. Thirty-eight white persons had been killed in the Ohio Company's land and ten were taken captive, two of whom died of sickness or were killed. PRICELESS PEACE FOLLOWS An early writer has said that General Wayne's treaty with the Indians in 1795 gladdened hearts on the frontier to an extent that had not been equaled "since the golden age of the poets" and none could have been made happier than the pioneers at Marietta, Waterford and Belpre, who had been subjected to a garrison life that invited disease, imposed discomfort and interdicted the open air activities which settlers were so anxious to begin or resume. Never perhaps were men more happy to engage in toil than were those in the Ohio Company's territory who had for years feared to shoulder the axe, hew the logs, raise a cabin, enlarge a patch in the wilderness and plant it in vegetables and grain. They went forth when peace came with joy in their hearts and songs on their lips. To see life-giving plants rise from that rich soil, to cultivate them with the rude tools of the day and to gather the increase yielded happiness beyond the power of words to express. CHAPTER XVII RISE AND EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF MARIETTA CUTLER PROPOSED THE NAME ADELPHIA BUT OHIO COMPANY PREFERRED TO HONOR MARIE ANTOINETTE-INDIAN CHIEFS AT VARNUM'S FUNERAL-FAMILIES CAME FROM EAST AND THE LADIES HELD A RECEPTION NEXT DAY-DR. .CUTLER AN EARLY VISITOR-POPULATION 550 IN 1803 AND THE TOWN HAD NINETY-ONE DWELLING HOUSES AND EIGHT STORES-SHIPBUILDING AN EARLY INDUSTRY- GROWTH BEGAN IN 1880 AND CENTENNIAL GAVE IT MOMENTUM- GREAT PROGRESS IN THE '90s-POPULATION OVER 13,000 IN 1920. Here swift Muskingum rolls his rapid waves; There fruitful valleys fair Ohio laves ; On its smooth surface gentle zephyrs play, The sunbeams tremble with a placid ray. What future harvests on his bosom glide And loads of commerce swell the downward tide, Where Mississippi joins in length'ning sweep And rolls majestic to the Atlantic deep. —Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr., July 4, 1789. The settlement was not at first formally named but was generally known as Muskingum. Dr. Manasseh Cutler would have called it Adelphia and so advised Rufus Putnam in a letter dated December 3, 1787. His wishes were carried out to the extent that Adelphia was used until July '2, 1788, when at the first meeting of the Ohio Company held west of the mountains the following resolution was adopted : "Resolved—That the city near the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum be called Marietta; that the directors write to his excellency, Count Moustiers [who was the French Minister] informing him of their motive in naming the city and request his opinion whether it will be advisable to present to her majesty of France a public square." - 181 - 182 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO HONORING MARIE ANTOINETTE An old historian wrote on this subject : "It was very natural that the pioneers should have chosen the name they did. They had a great respect and love for France. Many of them were personally 'acquainted with, and warmly attached to, Lafayette and his brother officers who had lent their valuable aid to the colonies in the Revolution. "Marie Antoinette had ever been the friend of the infant nation and these New England patriots assembled upon the banks of the Ohio appreciated her constant and uniform kindliness as they did the brave self-sacrifice of the sons of France." One of the squares of the city was named after her. Death's first stroke fell in the family of Maj. Nathaniel Cushing August 25, 1788, taking the life of his 13-year-old daughter, Nabby. An older mark was struck when Gen. James Mitchell Varnum passed away January 10. This was a mournful event for the little settlement, General (or Judge) Varnum, occupying a high place in the esteem of his fellow citizens. Although but forty years of age he had had a brilliant career, had served as a Revolutionary officer and had become a judge at Marietta. INDIAN CHIEFS AT VARNUM'S FUNERAL His body was laid away January 13 in connection with ceremonies attended by substantially everybody in the settlement and by "a large number of Indian chiefs who had been present at the treaty of Fort Harmar, concluded on the 9th." The first wedding was one of note because Gen. Rufus Putnam, judge of the court of common pleas Of Washington County, conducted the ceremony and because it united Rowena, daughter of Gen. Benjamin Tupper, to Hon. Winthrop Sargent, secretary of the Northwest Territory. In the summer of 1794 Marietta had its first postmaster. Timothy Pickering, the postmaster general, wrote about the matter to General Putnam as follows : "Marietta will be a station for the (mail) boats to stop at as they pass and doubtless it will be convenient to have a post office there. Herewith I send a packet to you to be put into the hands of the person you judge most suitable for postmaster." General SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 183 Putnam thought Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr., that person. Twenty years later Meigs became postmaster general. MAIL ROUTE MARIETTA TO ZANESVILLE These mail boats that passed Marietta while plying between Wheeling and Cincinnati gave the settlement mail connection with New England "every two or three weeks," says an old writer. Then came Marietta's first mail route by land. This connected the settlement with Zanesville and was opened in 1798 when Daniel Conyers became the carrier. His leaving time was at 1 o'clock P. M., every Thursday, and he was scheduled to reach Zanesville the following Monday at 8 o'clock A. M. His Zanesville leaving-time was at 6 P. M. on Tuesday. Conyers had had a history, he having been captured by the Indians in Washington County, taken to the Great Lakes and there escaped. The story is told in both the Washington and Muskingum County sections of this work. ADOPT POLICE "SYSTEM" That General Putnam and his associates saw the necessity of exerting police powers before the settlement had concluded the first year of its existence is seen in the following communication addressed to Governor St. Clair under date of February 4, 1789, when Marietta's first town meeting was held : "We must lament with all the feelings of men anxious to live under the precepts of legal authority the absence of your excellency and the judges of the territory, more particularly at this time, ere the system of laws has been completed. Nothing but the most absolute necessity can exculpate us in assuming even the private police of our settlement. But the necessity and propriety of some system which may tend to health, the preservation of our fields and gardens, with other essential regulations will, we flatter ourselves, apologize for our adopting it." The "system" referred to was reported upon March 17 and it served for several years. Rufus Putnam, Archibald Crary, Griffin Greene, Robert Oliver and Nathaniel Goodale were the settlement's first police commissioners. LADIES LOST LITTLE TIME We learn from Doctor Cutler that a social function occurred in Marietta almost immediately after the arrival of its first 184 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO ladies. These had come as members of the families which reached Marietta from New England August 19, 1788. On the twentieth the governor and the officers and their ladies at Fort Harmar were entertained in the hall at Campus Martius. Doctor Cutler, who had come the day before, wrote of the affair that there was "a handsome dinner, with punch and wine" and he added : "The governor and the ladies from the garrison were very sociable. Mrs. Rowena Tupper and the two Mrs. Goodales dined and fifty-five gentlemen." POPULATION 550 IN 1803 Marietta grew very slowly but it did grow. The nucleus of forty-seven persons on which was built the later growth had been added to at the end of fifteen years. Rev. Thaddeus Mason Harris, while touring "the territory northwest of the Alleghany Mountains" reached Marietta April 23, 1803, and has left us a delightful and most enlightening story of the village as it then was: "There are now within the town plat 550 inhabitants and ninety-one dwelling houses, sixty-five of which are frame or plank, eleven of brick and three of stone. It contains also eight merchants' stores, nineteen buildings occupied by public officers and mechanics, three rope walks 850 feet long, a gaol and courthouse under the same roof and an academy which is used at present as a place of worship. "Marietta is a place of much business and is rapidly increasing in population. Shipbuilding is already carried on to a considerable extent. A spirit of industry and enterprise prevails. Add to all, the remarkable healthiness of the place, the benefit it receives from the growing settlements on the Muskingum and the extensive navigation of that river and it is easy to foresee that it will maintain a character as the most respectable and thriving town in the state. LAUDING THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE "The situation of this town is extremely well chosen and is truly delightful. The appearance of the rivers, banks and distant hills is remarkably picturesque. Trees of different form and foliage give a vast variety to the beauty and coloring of the pros- SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 185 pect, while the high hills that rise like a rampart all around add magnificence and grandeur to the scene. Back of the town is a ridge finely clothed with trees." Anticipating figures on population increase it is to be said in this connection that by 1880 Marietta, although ten times as large as in 1803, still numbered but 5,444 inhabitants. Her growth in many aspects began in 1880. SOME OF THE EARLY TAVERNS Writing in 1880 or 1881 an early Washington County historian listed Marietta's earliest taverns in words of which the following is a condensed reproduction : Gen. Joseph Buell built the first tavern at the corner of Green and Front streets. It is said to have been the first frame house "north of the Ohio River." Levi Munsell was for several years the landlord. The Shepard House stood on Ohio Street until 1882 when it was replaced by a two-story brick block. The McFarlan House was built in 1797. It was the boatmen's favorite tavern. The Brophy House was farther up the street. It had been opened by Casper Smith, a German whose widow John Brophy had married. The hotel known in 1881 as the Brown House was built early in the nineteenth century by Col. Abner Lord for a residence. Tanning was an early industry at Marietta and in the '60s the Skinner-Rolston tannery was one of the West's largest. A cotton factory was built in Marietta in 1813. The town's population was 2,689 in 1840. WHEN MARIETTA BEGAN TO GAIN Marietta's growth up to 1880 had been slow, but in the decade beginning that year the increase was marked. The population of 5,444 in 1880 was swelled by the annexation, May 14, 1890, of Harmar, with her population of 1,571. The far greater portion of the gain in this decade came from accessions through economic sources, a wave of confidence, public spirit and concerted "boosting" being largely responsible. The Centennial celebration of April 7, 1888, did a great deal to inspire the city to new endeavors. Orators of national fame 186 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO came to help celebrate the founding of Marietta. Following that event, July 15-19 of the same year, the city celebrated the establishment of civil government in the Northwest Territory and for nearly a week it was host to some of the nation's most distinguished men and orators. AWAKENED IN THE '80s These two celebrations gave new impetus to Marietta's forward march. Her visitors had praised the city's beauty and had recognized and confirmed the fame which her position in history had rightfully brought. This and kindred influences arising from the two centennials added momentum to the forward movement already under way. The advance movement went on during the '90s and added not only to the city's inhabitants but to her commercial, industrial and institutional possessions. Modern waterworks were established 1891-92, and street paving began in the last named year; a paid fire department was installed in 1894 ; the process of sewering the city followed and in April, 1896, the city granted a franchise which resulted in street car service; in 1902 the city line was connected with the Marietta-Parkersburg interurban road (Marietta-Lowell line). A PERIOD OF ALL AROUND PROGRESS The gain in railroad service was of marked value. In 1880 the Marietta and Cincinnati and the Cleveland and Marietta lines alone served the city. But in July, 1888, the Zanesville and Ohio River road entered Marietta. This road being acquired by the B. & O. Company in 1902 and connection thus being established with that corporation's trunk lines at Parkersburg and at Zanesville, the city was favored with excellent transportation facilities. Connection with the natural gas fields followed in 1893 and this quickened industrial development, while affording economical domestic fuel. "Handsome residences sprang up like magic, at the rate of 300 to 400 a year," wrote Andrews, the historian; "costly and elegant business blocks and office buildings replaced the old-fashioned frame structures that for years had been land-marks; iron and glass industries were added to the diversity of lines of woodworking which had long been profitably followed and SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 187 the manufacturing interests soon became predominant; many beautiful suburban tracts were laid out and homes erected on them." BRIDGED THE BROAD OHIO In 1902 the handsome courthouse of the present day was completed, an addition to the city's architectural charms which had come about through the efforts of Marietta's Board of Trade (organized 1887) which body had in 1889 led a movement in behalf of a new temple of justice. Voters sanctioned the project at the polls. The high and Marion school buildings were erected in 1900-01 and about the same time the old bridge spanning the Muskingum gave way to a fine steel structure. A number of handsome new churches were also built. In 1901 the bridge spanning the Ohio between Marietta and Williamstown was begun. It is an imposing structure, with a channel span of 650 feet. Its value to Marietta is very great. Marietta began the twentieth century with a population of 13,348 but suffered a slight loss during its first decade. Her inhabitants totaled 12,923 in 1910, but in 1920 considerably more than this loss was found to have been made up, the population having reached 15,140. According to a survey estimate submit. ted by F. M. Paul, managing secretary of the Marietta Chamber of Commerce, the 1927 population is 17,713. CHAPTER XVIII THE CITY OF MARIETTA TODAY PRESENT POPULATION ESTIMATED AT OVER 17,000-CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS MANY AND EXCELLENT-MARIETTA COLLEGE OCCUPIES A HIGH PLACE-OIL AND GAS FIELDS SURROUND THE CITY-NEARLY FOUR-SCORE INDUSTRIES-POINTS OF INTEREST OF GREAT HISTORIC VALUE INDICATED TO ASSIST THE VISITOR-"BEST MARKED CITY IN AMERICA." Prefacing his statement of the city's present conditions with the estimate that Marietta's 1927 population is 17,713, F. M. Paul, managing secretary of her Chamber of Commerce, favors us with the following valuable information : "The City of Williamstown, W. Va., which is just across the Ohio River from Marietta, is really considered as Marietta trade territory and has a population of 3,500. The birth rite of Marietta is in excess of death rate of 480 since 1920. Marietta's school enrollment is as follows: 1919, 2,876; 1925, 3,161; 1926, 3,297, with an increase of 421, or 15%. Our school-age enrollment (5 to 18 years) is 3,177 for 1924 and 1925; 3,099 for 1925 and 1926. Marietta is a city where the native population runs high and the schedule is as follows : Native white, 80.8%;. native white (foreign or mixed parentage), 14.5% ; negro, 1.6%; foreign born, 3.1 %." EDUCATION WELL CARED FOR The allusion to school enumerations is a reminder of Marietta's excellent educational facilities. Says the Chamber of Commerce report on this score : "People move here from other sections to take advantage of them. A boy or girl may start in a kindergarten and go right on through the grade, Junior High and Senior High schools and then through Marietta College and finish with a postgraduate degree. "There are eight first class grade schools with 1,875 pupils; - 189 - 190 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO a Junior High with 700 ; and a Senior High with 400. There are also one parochial school, two commercial schools and some good private schools of music, art, etc. Then comes Marietta College with a student body representing several states; with campus, buildings and equipment that could not be duplicated today for three-quarters of a million dollars and with invested endowment funds of over a million, one hundred thousand dollars. A $450,000 bond issue has recently been voted, by the people for a new high school." A modern boulevard street lighting system has been provided for. The city has thirty miles of paved streets, sixty miles of paved sidewalks and thirty-eight miles of sewer lines. A modern filtering plant insures pure and clear water. MARIETTA'S MANY CHURCHES "Marietta has no less than twenty churches of practically all Protestant and Catholic denominations. Most of them have exceptionally nice buildings. This is a churchgoing community and every church can rightfully claim a large and loyal membership. Some of the oldest church organizations and buildings in Ohio are to be found here. In fact the first religious body in the Northwest Territory was organized by the pioneers almost immediately upon their landing and a church building was soon erected near the spot where they landed." MARKED INDUSTRIAL GROWTH Regarding Marietta's present industries we quote from a recent Chamber of Commerce survey : "Marietta is one of the most diversified cities in the country. There are no less than seventy-five plants, large and small, in and near the city, manufacturing about as many different products. "These statistics prove Marietta's industrial growth : In 1920 the census showed that 1,671 people were employed; that the total payroll was $1,927,405 and that the total output was valued at $5,917,40. The factory survey for 1923 showed that there are 2,254 employees, with a total payroll of $2,788,034, and a total output estimated at $12,213,000 in value. "Excellent facilities have been provided for the advantageous location of new industries. In addition to the thriving 'Norwood' SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 191 Industrial District, along the Pennsylvania Railroad, a comparatively new addition known as `Westview' was purchased by a non-profit-seeking holding company and opened up along the B. & O. Railway. This addition is one and one-half miles from the center of the city and is provided with natural gas, city water, paved roads, etc. Very attractive sites are available for substantial new concerns on an unusually reasonable basis. The addition is located along the navigable Muskingum River, but out of all high water. The B. & O. Railway Company has invested more than $20,000 in building industrial tracks through the property. "With no one industry predominating Marietta's labor conditions are good. Our plants draw their skilled and unskilled labor from a number of nearby small towns and to almost 100 per cent it is of the native-born class. "While Marietta is located close to the coal fields of West Virginia and Southeastern Ohio, and has the advantage of the 'short haul' per ton price, practically all of our plants use natural gas and electricity for power, heat and light. "Here is practically the complete list of products manufactured here : Art Pottery, Auto Bodies and Wagons, Automotive Chemicals, Advertising Materials, Bakery Products, Barrels, Baskets, Battery Boxes, Boilers, Boxes, Brick, Building Materials (wood), Candies, Castings, Cement Blocks, Chairs, Chemicals, Cigars and Stogies, Confections, Crates, Crayon Products, Creamery Products, Dining Room Furniture, Drugs, Dyes, Filing Equipment, Oil Well Fishing Tools, Gas Engines, Gasoline, Gray Iron Castings, Grindstones, Harness, Horse Collars, Ice, Iridescent Glassware, Kerosene, Liquid Soap, Soap Dispensers, Lubricating Oils and Greases, Metal Ventilators, Nitro-Glycerine, Oils, Oil Well Supplies, Oil Well Tools and Machinery, Overalls, Organs, Paints, Pants and Knickerbockers, Paper Boxes, Paraffine Wax, Plumbers' Supplies, Printing, Proprietary Medicines, Pumps, Office Safes, Saddles, Sand and Gravel, Silos, Soft Drinks, Stains, Sweeping Compounds, Tanks, Tools, Underreamers, Varnishes, Valve Cups, Window Glass. "This is the center of one of the oldest oil producing fields in the Ohio Valley, with over a million and a quarter barrels annual production. Many large producing and refining companies and firms manufacturing and wholesaling all kinds of oil and gas field equipment are located here. 192 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO "Thousands of tons of grindstones are shipped annually from the quarries of Washington County to all parts of the country. Paving and building brick and sand and gravel are shipped by the hundreds of carloads annually. Marietta has about twenty wholesale houses and her retail stores are above the average of those in cities of similar size. WELL SERVED BY BANKS "During the past five years Marietta's bank assets have gained nearly $5,000,000. We have five strong banks. Marietta is one of the wealthiest towns of its size in the country. The total bank deposits are over $11,200,000, with total assets of $15,125,000. There are also three Building Loan Associations with assets of $1,375,000. "Of our five banks three are national, one state and one strictly savings." THE MARIETTA COLLEGE In 1797 the pioneers of Marietta organized Muskingum Academy and in 1800 a building was erected for it. Three changes in name and policy succeeded and the old academy grew into the Marietta College which was chartered in 1835. From a modest beginning it has advanced to an important place in the field of higher learning. Of the college library the Marietta Chamber of Commerce says : "The students of the college and the people of the city prize highly the library of Marietta College. This library building houses collections of unusual size and value, including approximately 100,000 bound volumes and pamphlets especially rich in Americana and in original historical manuscripts. It is the depository of the documents of the company of Ohio Associates, including the Rufus Putnam papers, many letters of Washington and other distinguished men of America's pioneer days. "These rare collections are of such value and interest as to attract people from various parts of the country to Marietta to view them: "That Marietta is a city of cultured people is again demonstrated in the fact that a city library with a modern building and several thousand books, is supported."
SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 195 WHAT THERE IS TO SEE "Among Marietta's points of interest are : The site of Fort Harmar, 1786; landing place of the forty-eight pioneers, April 17, 1788; landing place of the first families, August 14, 1788; picketed point; Ohio Company's Land Office; Campus Martius. House; landing place of Lafayette; site of the first church in Ohio; site of Muskingum Academy; home of the 1812 war governor, Return Jonathan Meigs; site of the inauguration of Gen. Arthur St. Clair as the first governor of the Northwest Territory; ancient works of the Mound Builders and Flat Iron Square, the first business block. "Marietta—the Pioneer City—is situated at the spot where the picturesque Muskingum River flows into the broad Ohio, half way between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati; the place chosen first and above all others in the great Northwest Territory by the little band of pioneers who founded this 'inland empire.' "One of the very interesting things to see in Marietta is the mound in the center of the historic Mound Cemetery. It is a perfect specimen of the pre-historic mound builders' art. "Mound Cemetery is also of great interest to tourists and students of American history as it is said that there are more Revolutionary war officers buried there than in any other cemetery. "Among the men who helped make American history, who were buried here, are Commodore Whipple, Gen. Rufus Putnam, and Return Jonathan Meigs, the 1812 war governor." MODERNLY MARKED MARIETTA Marietta's altitude is 630 to 800 feet. Her average temperature for spring is 52.8 and for summer 72. Two hospitals, a splendid county Children's Home, a well equipped Y. M. C. A., a Girls' Monday Club, Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops, playgrounds, etc., add to the city's other valued possessions and offerings. Three steamers pass down the Ohio each week and five steamers make up-the-river trips each week. Marietta claims to be one of the best marked cities in the world. Her Kiwanis Club took this matter in hand and with the able cooperation of Mr. Edwin Hawes of the Sewah Studios 196 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO worked out a remarkably effective system of ornamental plaques, the plates being home-made, the product of the Marietta Casting Company. The markers served an admirable purpose not only at street corners but also to indicate points of interest. An instance of the latter is the marker at the historic mound in historic Mound Cemetery, which shows a plat of the cemetery indicating the graves of the many Revolutionary soldiers who were laid away there. THE INCORPORATION OF MARIETTA This did not come to pass until the settlement was twelve years old, but Marietta was nevertheless the Northwest Territory's first incorporated town. Athens came within a hair's breadth of being first, for her incorporation occurred December 6, 1800, while Governor St. Clair's approval of the act incorporating Marietta was dated December 2. Marietta was incorporated along lines following those of Massachusetts towns. A town meeting was provided for, at which were to be elected a chairman, town clerk, treasurer, three or five able and discreet persons of good moral character to be styled the town council, assessors, overseers of the poor, supervisors of highways, fence viewer and collector. In 1812 and again in 1825 changes were made which resulted in the creation of three wards, the election of nine councilmen on March 1 of each year, and the appointment by these, from their own membership, of a mayor, recorder and treasurer; under the law they chose also the marshal, surveyor, clerk of the market and all other town officers. Other changes in government followed. CHAPTER XIX EARLIEST CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS OHIO COMPANY PROVIDED FOR BOTH IN MASSACHUSETTS AND EMPLOYED REV. DANIEL STORY TO PREACH AND TEACH--SECOND SERMON PREACHED IN MARIETTA BY DOCTOR CUTLER-FIRST SUNDAY SCHOOL IN NORTHWEST TERRITORY ORGANIZED IN THE STOCKADE-SCHOOL TEACHING BEGAN 1788 WITH DOCTOR JABEZ TRUE AS AN EARLY TEACHER-FIRST CHILDREN'S HOME WAS ORGANIZED IN MARIETTA. "That the directors be requested to pay as early attention as possible to the education of youth and the promotion of public worship among the first settlers; and that, for these important services, they employ, if practicable, an instructor eminent for literary accomplishments and the virtue of his character, who shall also superintend the first scholastic institutions, and direct the manner of instruction ; and to enable the directors to carry into execution the intentions expressed in this resolution, the proprietors and others of benevolent and liberal minds are earnestly requeSted to contribute, by voluntary donation, to the formation of a fund to be solely appropriated thereto." We can think of no better way to introduce the early religious history of the Marietta settlement than is offered by the foregoing resolution which the agents of the Ohio Company passed at the last meeting they held in Massachusetts. Dr. Manasseh Cutler put the resolutions into action by employing Rev. Daniel Story to proceed to Marietta where he was to teach as well as preach. MARIETTA'S FIRST SERMON But Rev. William Beck delivered the first sermon at Marietta, July 20, 1788, taking for his text the words : "Now, therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation." This sermon was listened to by the settlers in the - 197 - 198 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO hall of the northwest blockhouse. Doctor Cutler himself preached the second sermon, and in the same auditorium, August 24. Twice later, on the last day of August and in September, he expounded the Gospel. Rev. Daniel Story did not arrive until the spring of 1789, but Gen. Benjamin Tupper prepared the way for him by organizing social worship in the northwest blockhouse. He had been a deacon in the Congregational Church at Chesterfield, Massachusetts. With characteristic care for the spiritual welfare of all three of the earliest settlements it was planned that regular worship was to be held in each, with the new minister-teacher giving about one-third of his time to Belpre and Waterford. This program was set at naught when the Indian war broke out in 1791 and necessitated suspension of the services at the two settlements named. OHIO'S FIRST SUNDAY SCHOOL But the northwest blockhouse was supplied with seats capable of accommodating about 175 worshippers and there services were regularly held. Occasional meetings also wee e held "in the large room in the upper story of the frame house in the garrison at the Point." The Washington County history of 1881 is authority for the statement that "in 1791, soon after the settlers had been gath ered within the garrison in consequence of the Indian war, the first Sunday school north of the Ohio and the second in America was organized by Mrs. Mary Lake, in the stockade." Every Sunday she taught the Westminster catechism, the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer and read Bible stories. CHURCH ORGANIZED 1796 But there was apparently no haste toward the goal of formal church organization. Not until December 4, 1796, were steps taken in that behalf. A Marietta meeting of that date resulted in the appointment of Rev. Daniel Story, Benjamin Miles and John Pratt as a committee to consider the question of organization and these gentlemen were very prompt, reporting the next day "a confession of faith and covenant which was unanimously adopted." And it was "unanimously voted" also that "anyone who had been a member in regular standing of any regular Congregational Church or Presbyterian Church, or of one of the dissenting SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 199 churches of England whose sentiments in the fundamental principles of religion and discipline are agreeable to the Gospel" would be acceptable as signers of the covenant and confession. Thirty-two persons signed these December 6, of which seventeen were women and fifteen were men. All three settlements were represented and the body became known as the Congregational Church. METHODISTS NEXT IN THE FIELD The first Methodist sermon was preached in Marietta June 20, 1799, by Rev. Robert Manley. Receiving little or no encouragement from the Congregationalists and Presbyterians of Marietta, Belpre or Waterford he cast longing eyes upon the rural regions around them. In the family of Solomon Goss, on Duck Creek, there were two Methodists. These formed the nucleus of a few small classes and a circuit. A camp meeting was arranged for and the tents were pitched near the Marietta stockade in 1804. Faithful ones from the country came in but Marietta was "shy" and the Methodists were chilled. At length a class was formed in Marietta, but it did not receive those evidences of religious toleration which were to have been expected from those exponents of justice and freedom who had founded the place. The class or church was supplied by a circuit preacher. In 1806 the third camp meeting was held and in 1809-10 a stirring revival added many members. In the beginning, services were held in private houses and the academy, but at length a brick schoolhouse in Harmar was used. In 1815 the Second Street church was built. ST. MARY'S ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH The writer of a history of this body points out that holy sacrifice of the Mass was celebrated at the mouth of the Muskingum as early as August 16, 1749, by Father Bonnecamps, Celoron's chaplain, and the historian proceeds to say that the little flock of Catholics at that point were favored with occasional services until 1830 when Father Russell came from Wheeling and lectured in the courthouse ; that Rev. James McCaffery became the first Catholic pastor in 1838, and turned a storeroom into a church; that he was succeeded in 1849 by Rev. Robert I. Lawrence, whose successor, Rev. Peter Perry, came in 1850, and a |
