50 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO Company, purchasers of 1,500,000 of those acres and promoter of the Northwest Territory's first colony. WASHINGTON AT THE MOUTH OF THE MUSKINGUM The story of Washington's journey down the Ohio in October, 1770, continues to interest the student of history. Leaving Fort Pitt in the company of Doctor Craik, Capt. (afterward Colonel) William Crawford who in 1782 was burned at the stake by Indians in territory now a part of Wyandot County, Ohio, and several other white men and a party of Indians the Virginian descended the Ohio. On the night of the 26th they camped at the mouth of the Little Muskingum and reached the mouth of the Muskingum next day. We now quote from the journal Washington kept while on the Ohio because his observations had much to do with the later selection of land by the Ohio Company and because of its intrinsic value in a Southeastern Ohio history. The journey began at Fort Pitt October 20 and camp was made on the night of the 25th about half-way down the Long Reach (Grandview). Next day Washington wrote : "October 26th. * * * At the lower end of the Long Reach, and for some distance up it, on the east side, is a large bottom, but low and covered with beech near the river shore, which is no indication of good land. "The Long Reach is a straight course of the river for about eighteen to twenty miles, which appears more extraordinary as the Ohio in general is remarkably crooked. There are several islands in the Reach, some containing a hundred or more acres of land, but all, I apprehend, liable to be overflowed." On the night of October 26th Washington encamped "at a creek about twelve miles below the Three Islands," which was "pretty large at the mouth and just above an island." This was the Little Muskingum. Under the date of October 27th occurs the following entry: "Left our encampment a quarter before seven, and after passing the creek near which we lay and another of much the same size, and on the same side [this was Duck Creek], also one island about two miles in length, but not wide, we came to the mouth of the Muskingum, distant from our encampment about four SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 51 miles. This river is about a hundred and fifty yards wide at the mouth; it runs out in a gentle current and clear stream, and is navigable a great way into the country for canoes. From Muskingum to Little Kanawha is about thirteen miles. This is about as wide as the mouth of the Muskingum, but the water much deeper. * * * About six or seven miles below the mouth of the Little Kanawha we came to a small creek on the west side which the Indians call Little Hockhocking, but before we did this we passed another small creek on the same side near the mouth of the river, and a cluster of islands afterward. The land for two or three miles below the Little Kanawha appears broken, and indifferent, but opposite to the Little Hockhocking there is a bottom of good land." During the dark days of the war which began six years after Washington's journey down the Ohio the commander-in-chief remembered its revelations and was enabled to tell his fellow officers about that great country beyond the Ohio as a refuge for them in case of defeat or a home in case of victory, a field for the recovery of losses which they were sustaining as soldiers of the Revolution. England lost the war but America had won at a heavy cost. Mourning went with rejoicing when peace came. Poverty stared many a survivor in the face. LANDS FOR IMPOVERISHED PATRIOTS But on the edge of the cloud there was the gleam of a silver lining. Congress had provided in 1776 that Revolutionary soldiers whose service should last through the war were to receive government lands as partial compensation—a colonel 500 acres; a lieutenant colonel 450 acres and so on down the line to the private, whose reward would be 100 acres. In 1780 the act was extended so as to reward the major general with 1,100 acres and the brigadier with 850 acres. ASKING CONGRESS TO PAY In the summer of 1783, 288 prospective beneficiaries of the proposed bounty petitioned Congress to locate the lands they had earned in the region bounded on the north by Lake Erie, on the east by Pennsylvania, on the southeast and south by the Ohio River and on the west by a line beginning on the Ohio twenty- 52 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO four miles west of the mouth of the Scioto, thence running north to the Miami of the Lakes (Maumee) and down that stream to its mouth. "This tract," said the petitioners, "would be sufficient in extent and the land of such quantity and situation as may induce Congress to assign and mark it out as a tract of territory suitable to form a district government in time to be admitted as one of the Confederate States of America." RUFUS PUTNAM APPEALS TO WASHINGTON One of the men deeply interested in this movement had rendered faithful and distinguished military service under George Washington, by whom he was greatly esteemed and trusted. This was General Rufus Putnam, whose fortunes had been reduced by the war. He wrote to his old commander to enlist his support in behalf of the petition for land allotment and Washington promised to give it. The great length of Putnam's letter precludes its use here but it reveals a lofty spirit, clear foresight and strong common sense. It fully accounts for his commanding place in the councils of the Ohio Company and for the title which history has conferred upon him, "Father of Ohio." ASKED FOR A CHANCE TO BUY But in spite of Washington's support of the company's project Congress halted so long, in part over questions concerning the title to the lands desired, that General Putnam and his associates resolved to buy what they had vainly tried to beg in fulfillment of a promise officially given. This plan assumed definite shape in 1786, upon the return to Massachusetts of General Benjamin Tupper who had been surveying in the wilderness west of the upper Ohio. Full of enthusiasm over the country's soil, climate and topography and fired further by reports given by men who had journeyed down the Beautiful River, Tupper visited his friend Putnam at his Rutland, Vermont, home in January, 1786, and the two talked all night about the Ohio Country's merits. By dawn they had laid foundations for action. SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 53 PUTNAM AND TUPPER LAUNCH THEIR PLAN And the firstlings of their hearts and minds were the firstlings of their hands for on January 25, there was newspaper publication of the following : "The subscribers take this method to inform all officers and soldiers who have served in the late war and who are by a late ordinance of the honorable Congress to receive certain tracts of land in the Ohio country—and also all other good citizens who wish to become adventurers in that delightful region—that from personal inspection together with other incontestable evidences, they are fully satisfied that the lands in that quarter are of a much better quality than any other known to New England people; that the climate, seasons, products, etc., etc., are in fact equal to the most flattering accounts that have ever been published of them ; that being determined to become purchasers and to prosecute a settlement in this country and desirous of forming a general association with those who entertain the same ideas, they beg leave to propose the following plan, viz. : That an association by the name of 'The Ohio Company' be formed of all such as wish to become purchasers, etc., in that country who reside in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, only, or to extend to the inhabitants of other states as shall be agreed on. In order to bring such a company into existence the subscribers propose that all persons who wish to promote the scheme shall meet in their respective counties at 10 o'clock A. M., on Wednesday, the 15th day of February next, and that each county meeting then assembled choose a delegate or delegates to meet at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern in Boston on Wednesday, the first day of March next, at 10 o'clock A. M., then and there to consider and determine on a general plan of association for said company; which plan, covenant or agreement being published any person (under conditions therein to be provided) may, by subscribing his name become a member of the company. "Rufus Putnam, "Benjamin Tupper." MET AT THE BUNCH OF GRAPES Delegates were elected as suggested and they assembled at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern, in Boston, March 1—Manasseh Cutler, 54 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO Winthrop Sargent, John Mills, John Brooks, Thomas Cushing, Benjamin Tupper, Crocker Sampson, Rufus Putnam, Jelaliel Woodridge, John Patterson, Abraham Williams. General Putnam was made chairman and Major Sargent, secretary. Having received from Generals Putnam and Tupper an exceedingly pleasing description of the "Western country" the delegates decided to appoint a committee of five to draft articles of agreement for an association in behalf of a settlement there. General Putnam, Manasseh Cutler, Colonel Brooks, Major Sargent and Captain Cushing were members of the committee. BOOKS OPENED, 250 SHARES SUBSCRIBED The committee drew up articles of agreement and at a meeting of the delegates held March 3, they were unanimously adopted. The articles adopted followed this preamble : "The desire of this association is to raise a fund in continental certificates for the sole purpose and to be appropriated to the entire use of purchasing lands in the western territory belonging to the United States for the benefit of the company and to promote a settlement in that country." Subscription books were opened and other preparations followed, but a year elapsed before another meeting was held and then the subscriptions were disappointing, covering as they did but 250 shares. However, it was decided to negotiate with Congress for a purchase of lands. Subsequently the directors employed Doctor Cutler to purchase land on the Muskingum. WHICH OF THE ZANES WAS SO CRAFTY? The considerations which prevailed in this choice of territory have often been discussed and are of particular interest to Southeastern Ohio readers of this history. We quote from a very discriminating opinion to be found in the history of Washington County, Ohio, which was published in 1881: "General Butler and General Parsons, who had descended the Ohio to the Miamis, were deeply impressed with the desirableness of the tract of country now designated as southeastern Ohio, and the latter, writing on the twentieth of December, 1785, from SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 55 Fort Finney (mouth of the Little Miami), to Captain Jonathan Hart, at Fort Harmar, said : 'I have seen no place since I left you that pleases me so well for settlement as Muskingum.’ Gen. Benjamin Tupper doubtless added important testimony supporting that of Hutchins, Parsons, Butler, and others. General Parsons, it has been asserted, became most strongly possessed of the belief that the Muskingum region was the best part of the territory, because one of the Zanes who had been many years in the West told him that the Scioto or Miami regions offered superior attractions, and he suspected that the old frontiersman artfully designed to divert attention from the Muskingum that he might have the first choice of purchase himself when the lands were put on sale. It is probable, too, that the prospect of establishing a system of communication and commerce between the Ohio and Lake Erie, by way of the Muskingum and Tuscarawas and Cuyahoga, and between the Ohio and the seaboard, by way of the Great Kanawha and the Potomac, (a plan which Washington had thought feasible before the Revolutionary war), had its weight. It is not probable that the New Englanders, interested in emigration were ignorant of the existence of minerals in the Muskingum region, and they may have been far-seeing enough to have appreciatively estimated the value of their presence." CHAPTER IV FRANKLIN AND CUTLER PRAISE OHIO COUNTRY REVOLUTIONARY OFFICERS BUY A MILLION AND A HALF OF ITS ACRES-COLONY LEAVES NEW ENGLAND FOR THE NEW HOME IN TWO SECTIONS-BITTER WINTER WEATHER CHECKS PUTNAM'S PARTY IN THE ALLEGHANIES-"MAYFLOWER" AND OTHER BOATS BUILT ON THE "YOH"-FLOTILLA FLOATS DOWN THE OHIO AND REACHES MOUTH OF THE MUSKINGUM APRIL 7, 1788. MANASSEH CUTLER, PROPHET That Manasseh Cutler was a man of rare vision is shown by the following opinion he wrote about the Ohio River : "The current down the Ohio and the Mississippi, for heavy articles that suit the Florida and West Indian markets, such as Indian corn, flour, beef, lumber, etc., will be more loaded than any streams on earth. The distance from the Muskingum to the Mississippi is one thousand miles, from thence to the sea is nine hundred miles. The whole course is run in eighteen days, and the passage up these rivers is not so difficult as has been represented. It is found by late experiments that sails are used to great advantage against the current of the Ohio; and it is worthy of observation, that in all probability, steamboats will be found to do infinite service in all our river navigation." Benjamin Franklin knew something of their value for in his suggestion that two colonies be established in the Ohio country, one on the Scioto and the other on the Cuyahoga he declared that "for forty miles each side of it and quite up to its head is a body of all rich land, the finest spot of its bigness in all North America, and has the peculiar advantage of sea coal in plenty (even above ground in two places) for fuel when the wood shall have been destroyed." LAW AND LAND YOKED TOGETHER We shall not dwell here upon the details of the negotiations between the Ohio Company and the Board of Treasury nor with - 57 - 58 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO those connected with the evolution of the ordinance of 1787, which Congress enacted so that the company might have law as well as land in the Ohio country. Suffice it to say that the bargain was struck and the law enacted and the time was at hand for the company's "adventurers" to betake themselves to the new home in the wilderness. THE OHIO COMPANY'S PURCHASES Having referred to the contract entered into by and between the Ohio Company and the Board of Treasury it is now in order to indicate the boundaries within which the purchases lay. The story is completed here, thus anticipating some of the results. The contract called for 1,500,000 acres of land, besides the parcels, lots and townships to be appropriated or reserved for the benefit of certain special purposes and which were to come from the south ends of ranges 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17, of the Ohio River Survey. The sum of $500,000 was paid down and a like amount was to be paid when the tract had been surveyed. The first payment entitled the company to take possession of 750,000 acres of the purchase, besides the tracts reserved or appropriated. The lands thus deeded, known as the Ohio Company's First Purchase, are located in the counties of Lawrence, Gallia, Meigs, Vinton, Hocking, Athens, Morgan and Washington. The company's Second Purchase consisted of a tract of land located in Washington, Morgan, Athens, Hocking and Vinton counties and situated west of the First Purchase. It consisted of 214,285 acres. The Donation Tract was located north of the First Purchase and east of the Second Purchase. It is in Morgan and Washington counties. OHIO COMPANY FACED RUIN In February, 1792, a majority of the company's directors—Putnam, Cutler and Oliver—met in Philadelphia, where Congress was in session, and petitioned that body for a deed to the entire 1,500,000 acres contracted for and for a grant of 100,000 additional acres in compensation for the lands they had donated to actual settlers, to performers of military duties and for expenses they were incurring in maintaining troops. Congress was SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 59 appealed to thus in order to "retrieve this unfortunate company from inevitable ruin." Among the concluding words of the petition are some which graphically show the plight of the company: "A very considerable part of the military strength of the settlement depends upon the non-proprietors to whom lands have been promised on condition of performance of military duty to the end of the present war and should the closing of this present contract be postponed until a future session of Congress the company cannot fulfill their engagements to them and if not done the directors are confidently assured that these people will desert the settlement, the inevitable consequence of which must be that a great part if not the whole of the settlements will be abandoned." It was added that resident proprietors must be relieved from suspense as to the titles to their lands to keep them from giving up the defense of possessions from which they might be driven. There was opposition to the petition in Congress and matters grew worse, with the second payment of $500,000 falling due. The company could not make the payment and thus .Congress alone could avert the impending ruin. Congress did this by an act passed April 21, 1792. The bill directed that a deed be made to the Ohio Company for 750,000 acres by fixed boundaries for the $500,000 in securities which had already been paid; another for 200,285 acres additional, or about one-seventh of the original contract to be paid for in land warrants and a third for 100,000 acres in trust, to be given in tracts of 100 acres each to actual settlers. On May 10, President Washington issued patents according to the act of Congress and thus the Ohio Company came into possession of 964,285 acres, including the Donation Tract, and escaped ruin. FINAL DIVISION OF LOTS The company's last meeting west of the Alleghanies was called at Marietta, November 23, 1795, and it lasted until January 29, 1796, during which a last division of lands was effected. It set off to each share in the company's stock these lands : first division, one eight-acre lot ; second division, one three-acre lot; third division, one city lot; fourth division, one 160-acre lot ; fifth division, one 100-acre lot; sixth division, one 640-acre lot and one 262-acre lot—total 1,173 acres. 60 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO In "Ohio Lands and Their Subdivisions," by William E. Peters, there are maps and descriptions of the Ohio Company's purchases which give a remarkably clear showing of their location and proportions. The reader who is curious as to these will do well to consult Mr. Peters' admirable work. We now return to the running story of events, taking up the memorable movement of the Ohio Company toward the Ohio River. WESTWARD HO! The departure was made in two sections. On December 1, 1787, a company of twenty-two boatbuilders, mechanics, etc., left Danvers for the Youghiogheny River; a second party, numbering twenty-five, left Hartford in January of the following year, under Col. Ebenezer Sproat. General Putnam, who had been elected superintendent of the company, was detained in New York but succeeded in overtaking the second party at Lincoln's Inn, on Lanterdale Creek, January 24. DEEP SNOW ON THE MOUNTAIN TRAILS General Putnam's autobiography acquaints us with some of the obstacles encountered and the hardships endured on the way over the mountains. They were enough to try the stoutest heart but the hearts they tried met the test. The foot of the Tuscarawas Mountains (now Strawsburg) was reached on the 29th. "Nothing had crossed the mountains since the great snow," wrote Putnam, "and in the old snow, twelve inches deep, nothing but pack horses." Nothing daunted, these strong, hardy, resolute New Englanders toiled onward. Having built four sleds they pushed ahead, slowly following narrow trails over the mountains and breaking paths through the deep snow so that their fagged horses might a little more successfully tug away at the sleds which, heavy in their own right, bore great weights of provisions and baggage. By tremendous exertion man and beast covered a few miles each day. Wearied and spent these heroic men slept around fires at night whose heat, great as it was, did not suffice to keep them warm. SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 61 GLOOM STRIKES PUTNAM AT THE YOUGHIOGHENY Deep was their disappointment on February 14th when they joined the first company on the "Yoh." "No boats built," wrote Putnam, "no boards or planks in readiness, or person capable of building a canoe, much less a boat, in the party—mill froze up and no boards to be had. He (Major White) had three canoes, such as they were, on the stocks; and five of his men were sick with the smallpox, which they took by inoculation." At length, however, the craft which were to carry the colonists and their belongings to Marietta were placed upon the Youghiogheny at Simrill's Ferry, manned and laden with their freights. the Mayflower was 45 by 12 feet. It was roofed and had a capacity of fifty tons. A flatboat and three canoes completed the flotilla which on April 1, descended to the Monongahela and down that river to the Ohio. DOWN THE MAJESTIC OHIO The descent of the river which was to mean so much to the colonists was uneventful but its effects upon their minds and hearts they could never forget. The strange sights by day and the deep silence of the nights prepared them to expect still stranger things and sobered their moods. John Mathews, the surveyor, whom the reader will meet in the history of Muskingum County, and Major Tupper were the only men on board who had personal knowledge of the lay of the land at the mouth of the Muskingum and this was depended upon by their companions when the little flotilla approached its destination on the fifth day after the departure from Simrill's Ferry. Arriving at what was to be the new home on the morning of April 7, in the midst of a rain and with the giant overhanging sycamores obscuring the mouth of the Muskingum, there was some uncertainty as to just where that river lay. A brief account of the landing will be found in our Washington County history. NAMES OF THE FORTY-SEVEN COLONISTS Historians no doubt will long continue to include in the story of this journey and the landing at Marietta the names of the 62 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO forty-seven colonists who stepped on shore. The work those men came west to do and the work they did to transform the wilderness into farms and a seat of government is alone enough to justify the preservation of their names; and there are minor reasons for it in the character both of the Christian and family elements of the names, the scriptural features of the former and the English syllables of the latter : General Rufus Putnam, superintendent of the colony. Col. Ebenezer Sproat; Maj. Anselm Tupper and John Mathews, surveyors; Maj. Haffield White, steward and quartermaster ; Captains Jonathan Devol, Josiah Munroe, Daniel Davis, Peregrine Foster, Jethro Putnam, William Gray, Ezekiel Cooper. Phineas Coburn, David Wallace, Gilbert Devol junior, Jonas Davis, Hezekiah Flint, Josiah Whitridge, Benjamin Griswold, Meophilus Leonard, William Miller, Josiah White, Henry Maxon, William Moulton, Benjamin Shaw, Jervis Cutler, Samuel Cushing, Daniel Bushnell, Ebenezer Corry, Oliver Dodge, Isaac Dodge, Jabez Barlow, Allen Putnam, Joseph Wells, Israel Dan-ton, Samuel Felshaw, Amos Porter, Jr., John Gardner, Elizur Kirtland, Joseph Lincoln, Earl Sproat, Allen Devol, William Mason, Simeon Martin, Peletiah White. It was of these men that George Washington wrote : "No colony in America was ever settled under more favorable auspices than that which has just commenced at the Muskingum. Information, property, strength, will be its characteristics. I know many of the settlers, personally, and there never were men better calculated to promote the welfare of such a community. If I was a young man, just preparing to begin the world, or if in advanced life and had a family to make a provision for, I know of no country where I should rather fix my habitation than in some part of the region for which the writer of the queries seems to have a predilection." CHAPTER V LAW AND LAND YOKED TOGETHER WEBSTER, HOAR AND CHASE LAUD ORDINANCE-GOVERNOR ST. CLAIR REACHED MARIETTA AND TOOK COMMAND-TERRITORIAL COURTS ORGANIZED-ST. CLAIR'S DEFEAT USHERED IN NEW INDIAN HOSTILITIES BUT WAYNE'S VICTORY AT FALLEN TIMBERS BEGAN 17 YEARS OF PEACE. THE ORDINANCE OF 1787 There is an old saying that "too many cooks spoil the broth" but although a very considerable number had a hand in preparing the ordinance of '87 its character and service prove that the large collective participation was not too much for it. The average legislator has the average human tendency to go wrong in cases of hasty action, but this measure was over four years in the making and the process of benevolent evolution had time in which to do work as nearly perfect as the imperfect human machine is capable of producing in legislative halls. HIGH PRAISE FROM CHASE AND WEBSTER As Salmon P. Chase so wisely said of the settlers who entered the Northwest Territory after the Ordinance had been passed : "They found the law already there * * * impressed upon the soil while yet it bore nothing but the forest. * * * The Ordinance has been well described as having been 'a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night' in the settlement and government of the Northwest Territory." What Daniel Webster said of it cannot be too often repeated: "We are accustomed to praise the lawgivers of antiquity; we help to perpetuate the fame of Solon and Lycurgus; but I doubt whether one single lawgiver, ancient or modern, has produced - 63 - 64 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO effects of more distinct, marked or lasting character than the Ordinance of 1787. We see its consequences at this moment and we shall never cease to see them perhaps while the Ohio shall flow." NOBLE PURPOSES SENSIBLY PROVIDED FOR The Ordinance provided for high and noble causes—freedom, education, religion—which proves that its makers had their eyes "upon the stars"; but it also dealt wisely with the practical problems of settlement, government and material development, which proves that Congress and its advisors kept their feet upon the ground. The aim was high, but the scheme proved to be workable with the result that the development of the Territory had back of it a rare combination of uplifting sentiment and hard sense. What the late George F. Hoar said about the former element should always be preserved along with the eulogy pronounced by Webster : "Here was the first human government under which absolute civil and religious liberty has always prevailed. Here no witch was ever burned, no heretic was ever molested. Here no slave was ever born or dwelt. When older states or nations, where the claims of bondage have been broken, shall utter the proud boast, `With a great sum I obtained this freedom,' each sister of this imperial group—Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin—may lift her queenly head with yet prouder answer, Tut I was born free'." GOVERNMENT AND COURTS The Ordinance of 1787 provided first for a temporary territorial government under a governor and three judges to be appointed by the President of the United States, the judges to constitute a supreme court of common law jurisdiction, styled the general court. Under this temporary government the judges, conjointly with the governor, exercised legislative functions. After the arrival of General Putnam and his associates Colonel Meigs drew up the first municipal regulations and posted them on a tree on the river bank. SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 65 THE ARRIVAL OF GOVERNOR ST. CLAIR This official's appointment was pleasing to the Marietta colony. He was a federalist as they were; he had fought gallantly against the French at Quebec and against the British in the Revolution; he had been president of Congress; the war had impoverished him as it had many of those whom he was to meet at Marietta. He and the colony had many things in common. When he came, July 9, 1788, cannon announced his arrival. He took quarters at Fort Harmar. A more formal reception was set for the fifteenth. After noon on that date he passed over to the Marietta side on a Fort Harmar barge, escorted by officers and men of the garrison and by the territory's secretary, Maj. Winthrop Sargent. General Putnam, the territorial judges and many of the colonists received him. The inauguration ceremonies began when Secretary Sargent read the Ordinance of 1787 and the commissions of the judges and the governor. St. Clair listened to brief words of welcome and received three cheers. Good humor prevailed. An officer who witnessed the ceremony wrote of it: "These people appear the most happy folks in the world, greatly satisfied with their new purchase and they certainly are the best informed, most courteous and civil to strangers of any people I have yet met with." AN IMPRESSIVE CEREMONY Later in the month of July the territory's first laws were published. The opening of the first territorial court followed September 2, 1788, when the colonists and Fort Harmar's officers proceeded from the Point to Campus Martius, escorting the governor, territorial judges and the common pleas judges. The towering sheriff, Col. Ebenezer Sproat, was in the lead, marching with drawn sword. The procession entered the great hall in the northwest corner of the blockhouse. The scene was solemn and impressive. Rev. Manasseh Cutler invoked the Divine blessing and the commissions of the judges, clerk and sheriff were duly read. The latter's "Oyez, oyez, oyez" proclaimed the opening of the court but as there were no cases up for trial the court at once adjourned. The judges were Rufus Putnam, Benjamin Tupper and Archibald Crary and the clerk was Col. R. J. Meigs. 66 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO SOFT SPEECH AND THE BIG STICK Territorial government had not gone far when the Indians, emboldened by their victories over Harmar and St. Clair (campaigns referred to in the Washington County section) renewed their hostilities. St. Clair's defeat encouraged the Indians to prosecute their deeply cherished purpose to drive the white settlers back across the Ohio at every point while it threw the pioneers into such a panic that many retreated eastward of their own accord while others sought refuge in the nearest forts. The general government began preparations for a new campaign, convinced that lost ground must be recovered, that white prestige must be restored and that the frontiersmen must be reassured. Meanwhile, however, efforts were made to secure these objects through treaties with the Indians. Chiefs of the Six Nations were invited to visit President Washington at Philadelphia and fifty of their number arrived there March 13, 1792, who pledged themselves to send a delegaon among the hostile tribes in an effort to establish an armistice between them and the government. PUTNAM HEARS BAD NEWS Rufus Putnam was commissioned brigadier general and sent on a peace errand to the hostiles. Reaching Pittsburgh, June 6, 1792, he sent messages to the Indians and followed them up with a journey to Ft. Wayne, which he reached July 2. There he heard of the murder of sixteen whites at Fort Jefferson and of the slaying of peace messengers, notwithstanding they carried a flag of truce. While the government and its representatives were trying to treat with the Indians General Anthony Wayne was hard at work on a new army. Leaving Philadelphia for Pittsburgh in June, 1792, he spent the summer in the work of organization and moved the troops down to Legionville, twenty-two miles below Pittsburgh, to get them "out of reach of whiskey." Intensive training followed there. Wayne knew that he must have a "disciplined, sober army" to avoid the disasters which had overtaken SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 67 Harmar and St. Clair. In April, 1793, he descended the Ohio with his "Legion" and reached Ft. Washington. HUNGER MADE THE CHIEFS HUMBLE By destroying great quantities of the Indians' corn, vegetables and fruit after the battle of Fallen Timbers Wayne gave the redskins some problems of subsistence which they found it difficult to solve and by burning many of their huts he reduced the comforts of shelter. The winter in the Maumee country was a hard one for the half-starved savages. Their leaders knew it would be such and began soon after the battle of Fallen Timbers, August, 1794, to make overtures for peace to General Wayne. But he did not assemble the council at Greenville until July 15, 1795. It was an impressive affair, with one thousand one hundred and thirty Indians present. Wayne presided and William Henry Harrison was his "young aide." Twelve tribes signed the treaty, which was concluded August 10, and was followed by seventeen years of peace on the constantly advancing frontier. The rapidity of the conquests of peace which followed may be judged from the fact that whereas the entire Northwest Territory's white population was but about 5,000 in 1798 Ohio's population alone had reached 45,028 in 1810. Other accounts of Indian hostilities will be found in the county histories which follow and as the establishment of territorial government has been recorded on preceding pages we next take up the movement which resulted in the constitutional convention and Ohio Statehood. CHAPTER VI TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT AND STATEHOOD ST. CLAIR WAS IN NO HURRY FOR THE LATTER BUT HIS POLITICAL FOES WERE-THEY USED IT TO DEFEAT AND DETHRONE HIM-POLITICAL FEELING RAN HIGH AND THERE WAS A MOB AT CHILLICOTHE-FEDERALISTS WANTED A STATE HALF THE SIZE OF TODAY'S OHIO-STATEHOOD CAME MARCH 1, 1803. It was inevitable that Governor St. Clair and the Virginians and Kentuckians in Western and Southern Ohio should drift apart. The governor was a conservative, a Federalist and developed arbitrary tendencies. The southerners were Jeffersonian democrats of more free and easy methods. It followed that they should oppose his political views and resent his stern methods of government. St. Clair's foes tried to induce President Adams to retire the governor, but on December 22, 1800, the President reappointed him and the Senate confirmed the appointment February 3, 1801. Blocked thus in their effort to throw off St. Clair's iron rule, his foes seized upon renewed discussion of statehood as offering means for the accomplishment of their object. The Ordinance of 1787, under which the Northwest Territory was organized, provided that when the inhabitants of the territory numbered 5,000 free male inhabitants, a Territorial Legislature should be elected. The election was held and twenty-two men composed this first legislative body. They met in Cincinnati, February 4, 1799. The ordinance imposed a limited suffrage. A voter was required to be a freeholder of fifty or more acres of territorial land and a citizen who had resided within the territory for two or more years. An officeholder was required to be a freeholder of two hundred or more acres of territorial land. - 69 - 70 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO WANTED SCIOTO TO DIVIDE The Legislature wanted a more democratic suffrage than this and passed an act abolishing property qualifications, thereby seeking to extend the ballot to "all free male inhabitants over twenty-one years of age." The federalists of the territory were not ready for statehood at the beginning of the nineteenth century. At Marietta they held a mass meeting and resolved that the erection of a state should await needed improvements, better schools and a greater treasury surplus. Some of the federalists would have yielded could they have set up a state about half the size of the Buckeye State of today. They had learned that from the Scioto to the Ohio River and Pennsylvania boundary line the territory was federalist. West of the Scioto it was Jeffersonian. At this time nine counties had been organized in the territory which soon was to form the State of Ohio—Trumbull, Fairfield, Ross, Hamilton, Clermont, Adams, Washington, Belmont and Jefferson. Muskingum then was part of Washington. Political agitation stirred the Ohio settlements to their depths in 1800, partly for the reason that it was a presidential year and partly because it was realized that statehood was about to become a paramount issue. SECOND MEETING Members of the second Territorial Legislature were elected in October, 1801, and they met at Chillicothe on the 24th of the following month. Edward Tiffin was made president and John Riley secretary of the Assembly. The legislation which soon followed gave the pro-statehood men a bitter disappointment. It included an act to establish the boundaries of the first three states to be formed out of the Northwest Territory. The measure was calculated to delay statehood and the divisions proposed were practically the same as those advocated by Governor St. Clair. It would have meant a half-sized Ohio, with the Scioto as the western boundary line. The vote on the measure was twelve to eight. Ruhl Jacob Bartlett tells what happened : MOB AT CHILLICOTHE "The passage of this act produced great excitement in Chillicothe. When the provisions of the bill became known mobs broke SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 71 out and the riotings lasted for two days. Such a mob gathered and threatened to enter the house of Captain Gregg, in which the governor and several of his friends lodged, and had it not been for the timely interference of Mr. Worthington serious violence might have been done. It seems that the idea of attacking the house developed when someone had overheard Mr. Putnam give this toast : 'May the Sciota lave the borders of two great and flourishing states.' "The feeling in the territory over the question of statehood and the conduct of the governor was at fever heat. The anti-federalists put all persons who could possibly act upon requisition to ride throughout the territory with petitions praying Congress to admit Ohio as a state. Benjamin Van Cleve characterized the whole country as being 'in ferment'."—"The Struggle for Statehood in Ohio," by Ruhl Jacob Bartlett, Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, July, 1923. WOULDN'T WIELD THE AX Thomas Worthington tried to pry St. Clair out of his place with the President as a lever. He went East with another tale of woes chargeable to the governor and a warm plea for statehood. He must have felt confident of moving the President, for by this time it was Thomas Jefferson who did the listening and not John Adams, from whom not much had been expected. Imagine the chagrin and disappointment of the worthy Thomas and his colleagues when their new chief, Virginian and democratic-republican, refused to cut off the head of St. Clair, federalist and aristocrat. But Worthington moved some of the congressmen if he failed to budge the President. His points in favor of a new state and a sizable one sank into the legislative mind, and they were driven home by floods of petitions, praying Congress to take a hand. Meanwhile, some of St. Clair's political friends saw what he could not or would not see—that statehood could not long be held off. JOHN M'INTIRE, DELEGATE When Congress responded in the spring of 1802 by passing an enabling act, there was much discussion of details by residents of the territory and much preparation for the election of dele- 72 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO gates to the constitutional convention which the act provided for. The convention met at Chillicothe, November 1, 1802. There were thirty-five members and they were in session at Chillicothe until November 29. They spent twenty-five days in framing a constitution and decided on November 13, not to submit their work to the voters for approval or disapproval. John McIntire, who was one of the Washington County delegates, voted to submit the instrument. He had been selected at Marietta on August 4, 1802, by a county convention whose delegates from Marietta, Zanesville, Gallipolis, Belpre, Waterford and Athens, all then in Washington County, had been called together to elect delegates to the constitutional convention. The county convention nominated Rufus Putnam, Ephraim Cutler, Benjamin Ives Gilman and John McIntire. Another ticket was prepared by the Jeffersonian party, but the ticket headed by Putnam was victorious in the September election by a vote of two to one. OVER THE TRACES As a glance at the names will show, John McIntire went to the constitutional convention in good company. Such colleagues as Rufus Putnam, "Father of Ohio," and Ephraim Cutler, that sage and forceful man, were fellow delegates to be proud of. Elected as a federalist on the successful ticket, he voted with Putnam and Cutler on most of the issues as they arose. Twice, however, at least, he voted with the Jeffersonians on questions relating to the black residents of the state-to-be. The Jeffersonians were opposed to the propositions to give certain of such residents the suffrage and they wanted to deprive them of certain other civil rights. On these questions the Muskingum delegate was found in the "Southern" camp. In this connection it is to be remembered that McIntire was a Southern man himself. But that Cutler thought well of his colleague is shown by the following from "Ephraim Cutler and His Times." "John McIntire was a man of good sense and sound judgment. He was a member of the constitutional convention of 1802. He, with Jonathan Zane, owned the section of the land upon which the town of Zanesville was laid out. He kept the first tav- SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 73 ern in that place. Mr. McIntire * * *   became wealthy. After making ample provision for his wife and daughter, at his death, in 1815, he gave, for the education of the poor children of Zanesville, a sum which yields annually the sum of $8,000 for that purpose." A STATE SINCE MARCH 1, 1803 When did Ohio become a state? Was statehood completed when Congress passed the enabling act, April 9, 1802 ; when the constitutional convention closed its labors, November 29, 1802; when Congress provided for the execution of national laws within the "State of Ohio," February 19, 1803, or when the first General Assembly met, March 1, 1803? The question is one for lawyers to settle if they think it requires attention. The weight of opinion is to the effect that Ohio's statehood began March 1, 1803. Friends of human freedom have always rejoiced that slavery was rendered impossible in the Northwest Territory by the Ordinance of 1787, yet that inhibition was but one of many far-reaching elements of the great charter. "0 eldest son of old Northwest, Freeborn thy sons and daughters, From Belle Riviere's majestic flow To Erie's rolling waters. Sage Cutler, Putnam and St. Clair God-fathered thy rude childhood, While pioneers of brawn and brain Tamed virgin soil and wildwood." This completes the running story of our introduction to the county histories. Varying details thereof are taken up in the proper connections on pages covering the twelve histories. Remaining features of the introduction have to do with the Muskingum River and Valley, the Ohio River, Zane's Trace, the National Road and discovery and development of coal, oil, gas and salt in Southeastern Ohio and statistics covering some of this section's other important activities. CHAPTER VII EBENEZER ZANE PETITIONS CONGRESS ASKS RIGHT TO CONNECT WHEELING AND MAYSVILLE WITH A ROAD THROUGH OHIO'S WILDERNESS-TRACE MAKERS STARTED IN SUMMER OF 1796 AND COMPLETED WORK THE FOLLOWING YEAR-GREAT IMPETUS GIVEN TO SETTLEMENTS ALONG THE WAY-TRAIL RAN WESTWARD TO ZANESVILLE THENCE TURNED TO THE SOUTHWEST. HISTORIC ZANE'S TRACE Inhabitants of the northern row of Southeastern Ohio's counties will long find in the story of this early pathway elements of peculiar interest, due in part to the fact that the Trace quickened the process of settlement in these counties and also because of its marked historic character. The references to it which follow deal chiefly with the blazing of the trail between Wheeling and Zanesville. Other references to it will be found in the Perry, Belmont and Guernsey County sections of this work. TRACE PROPOSED TO CONGRESS Early in the year 1796 Ebenezer Zane addressed a memorial to Congress setting forth plans he had made to connect the Ohio at Wheeling with the Ohio at Limestone, Ky. The committee to which it was referred reported in part as follows : "The petitioner sets forth that he hath at considerable expense, explored and in part opened a road, northwest of the Ohio River, between Wheeling and Limestone (Ky.) , which, when completed, will contribute to the accommodation of the public as well as individuals, but that, several rivers intervening, the road proposed cannot be used with safety until ferries shall be established thereon. "That the petitioner will engage to have such ferries erected provided he can obtain a right to the land which is now the property of the United States. And therefore prays that he may be - 75 - 76 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO authorized to locate and survey—at his own expense—military bounty warrants upon as much land at Muskingum, Hockhocking and Scioto rivers as may be sufficient to support the necessary establishments. And that the same be granted to him by the United States." The committee further reported that the proposed road would be "of general utility," that the petitioner "merited encouragement" and that his petition ought to be granted. An act carrying out this report was passed May 11, 1796. It granted to Ebenezer Zane not to exceed one mile square of land at the crossing of each of the three rivers named. JOHN M'INTIRE THERE Colonel Zane appears to have depended largely upon his brother Jonathan to decide upon the location of the line and that expert woodsman, guide and trailfinder was peculiarly qualified for the task. Among others of the party were John McIntire, John Green, William McCulloch, and Ebenezer Ryan. The route followed Wheeling Creek for about seven miles, and then mounted to the ridge between that stream and McMahon's Creek. Prefacing his detailed story of the route, Clement L. Martzolff observes that "the National Road from Wheeling to Zanesville is located approximately upon Zane's Trace." BUFFALO, INDIAN, PALEFACE The first trail-maker was the buffalo, as he moved westward in search of new salt-licks and feeding-grounds. Avoiding swamps and other low, wet lands he climbed to the ridges and made his paths over hard, dry ground. The Indian found these and learned that for human use they were as well chosen as for the huge brutes that had tramped them clown. When the pioneer turned his face westward he profited by them again and again. The Zane's Trace party chose the ridges too. JONATHAN A HANDY MAN Jonathan Zane's knowledge of the country between Wheeling and the Muskingum Valley and of the valley itself appears to have been considerable. In 1774 he had guided McDonald's little army of 400 on their march from the mouth of Captina Creek SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 77 below Wheeling, on the Ohio, across country to the Indian villages on the Muskingum at what is now Dresden. We find also that in 1785 he was at "Salt Lick" on the Muskingum, ten miles south of the mouth of the Licking, making salt. Doubtless he knew the Indian paths heading toward the Muskingum. That he favored the Muskingum country is proven by the advice which he gave to General Parsons, of the Marietta colony, when the general saw him at the Salt Lick (Duncan Falls) in 1785. He advised the establishment of settlements on the Muskingum, north of the Licking. There is some question as to whether it was Colonel Zane or his brother Jonathan who gave this advice. Both may have done so. THREE FALLS BETTER THAN ONE It is said that the original plan was to follow the old "Mingo Trail" westward from the site of Cambridge, which would have brought the trailmakers to the Muskingum at the site of Duncan Falls. On reaching Salt Creek, however, a few miles east of the mouth of the Licking, they made straight for the latter "because of the superior water power there." Jonathan Zane, at least, must have known that in the bend of the Muskingum, within a few hundred feet, just above and just below the confluence of the two streams, there were three falls in the river. What the party "passed up" at Duncan Falls in the form of water facilities is utilized now, by a great Eastern corporation, for one of the country's most extensive electric power plants. The tracemakers could not know that in forty-six years a great dam and mile-long canal would exist there and they could not have dreamed that within a century and a quarter expert power producers would find at this spot unsurpassed conditions for generating electrical energy at a minimum cost. AT THE LICKING'S MOUTH Having chosen to cross the Muskingum where nature had provided three falls instead of one, Jonathan Zane ran his course north of the National Road, after leaving Salt Creek. The Shaffer meeting house, near Zanesville, on the Adamsville Road, marks the line of the trace in that section. A writer in an old 78 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO Zanesville newspaper wrote as follows concerning the rest of the route through the county : "So they (the Zane party), started from the Shaffer Meeting House in a Southwest course until they came out by the Evans and Erwin place on the National Road, then to Mill Run, up Mill Run Hill south, then nearly due west, then down the steep hill where the machine house now stands, known as Cochran (Blandy) Hill. Then they crossed over to Sullivan (Silliman) Street, between Dr. Brown's late residence and the German Catholic Church ; down Main Street to the foot, crossed the Muskingum South of Licking ( just above the Y-Bridge) then southeast of the stone quarry through the Springer Farm and then south along the Maysville Pike." TRAIL CROSSED TO LICKING ISLAND "The Old Indian Trail crossed the Muskingum River at the foot of Market Street, at the head of the upper falls, near where the old dam was built; then into West Zanesville, over Licking Island to South Zanesville ; up Chap's Run ; through the fair ground to the Maysville Pike. This Indian trail went from Wheeling through Zanesville to Chillicothe and the Ohio River. It was a well-beaten path, several inches deep. I have seen it many times as it went through my father's farm in Washington Township." This has sometimes been called the Moxahala Trail. In 1805 a road was cut from Springfield (Putnam) to intercept Zane's Trace in Perry County. It passed through Newton Township (Muskingum County) from northeast to southwest. THE TRACE A TOWN MAKER In timeliness and breadth of conception, in choice of route and in benefits conferred upon the Ohio country and the nation Zane's Trace will always have a conspicuous place in American history. It would not be easy to exaggerate the impetus it gave to the settlement of Muskingum County and Zanesville. Located at a point on the trace where three streams of travelers met—streams from the East, via the trace, from the Southwest via the trace, from Marietta via the river—Zanesville became an important stopping point. Many a pioneer remained SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 79 here who had planned to go beyond toward Maysville or toward Western Ohio; many another returned and settled here after having found no spot on his Westward march that offered Zanesville's equal in opportunity. When actual work began on Zane's Trace thorough steps were taken to make it safe. At night a blazing fire held off the prowling beasts. A guard was always on the watch for an attack by Indians, but on that side the undertaking was well timed for safety. General Wayne's victory at Fallen Timbers carried weight against savage plans for aggression. BLAZING THE WAY Pack horses bore tent and provisions and the latter were added to from day to day by game brought down by the hunter's rifle. The work was mainly one of blazing trees with the ax, cutting out undergrowth and removing fallen timbers. Begun in the summer of 1796, it is not clear just when the party reached the Muskingum. There is a record to the effect that in the next year what is now the Eastern part of the county, was reached. Another record bears evidence that in 1797 the work was completed to the Ohio River at Limestone, Ky.—"well into the summer of 1797," says Martzolff. After the party began work on the trace between Zanesville and Chillicothe, McIntire was the victim of an accident which made his right hand lame for life ; by an untimely discharge of his gun, the contents of the barrel penetrated the palm of his hand. A HUNTER'S PARADISE The huntsmen of the party could have wide choice as to game. A writer who visited the Ohio, Muskingum and Scioto valleys about the year 1790, grew eloquent when describing the oppor- tunities they presented to the man with a rifle. Thus he wrote : "There is no country more abounding in game than this. The stag, fallow deer, buffalo and bears fill the woods and are nourished on these great and beautiful plains which are encountered in all parts of these countries, an unanswerable proof of the fertility of the soil ; wild turkeys, geese, ducks, swans, teal, pheas- 80 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO ants, partridges and so forth, are here found in greater abundance than our domestic fowls in all the older settlements of America. The rivers are well stocked with fish of different kinds and several of these fish are of exquisite quality. In general, they are large, the catfish (poissonchat) has excellent flavor and weighs from 20 to 80 pounds." THROUGH ENGLISH EYES An Englishman writing at about the same period and of the same territory, had this to say : "The country is excellent, climate, temperature ; grapes grow without cultivation ; silk worms and mulberry trees abound everywhere; hemp, hops and rice grow wild in the valleys and lowlands; lead and iron abound in the hills, salt springs are innumerable." Swamps, creeks and rivers offered many a check to rapid progress in the making of the trace. A contributor to the Ohio Archeological and Historical Society's publications has shown what these were at the close of the eighteenth century. Thus he wrote: "The streams of Ohio presented an almost even stage of water throughout the year. The timber was not cut, swamps were not drained, there were no dams, no canals, no utilization of water power. The streams were half choked (save in the deepest part of the channel) by logs, trees and drift. Innumerable small pools and swamps in the woods also held water. These discharged into sluggish creeks and rivers and they in turn into the great waterways. It was possible to go in large canoes to the lake or to come thence to the Ohio." The fame and promise of Zane's Trace were known abroad as early as 1808 when a description of it was printed in a London book entitled "Ashe's Travels in America," the author of which was Thomas Ashe, who saw and wrote about the trace in 1806, while at Wheeling. He called it a great road and thus spoke of it: "There is a very beautiful island directly opposite Wheeling to which there is a ferry and another ferry to the Ohio shore, where commences a road leading to Chillicothe and the interior of the state of which that town is the capital. The road for the most part is mountainous and swampy, notwithstanding which SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 81 a mail coach is established on it from Philadelphia to Lexington, Ky., through Pittsburgh, Wheeling and Chillicothe, a distance of upward of 700 miles, to be performed by contract in 15 days. Small inns are to be found every 10 or 12 miles of the route. "They are generally log huts of one apartment and the entertainment consists of bacon, whiskey and Indian bread. Let those who despise this bill of fare remember that seven years since this road was called the wilderness, and travelers had to encamp, find their own provisions and with great difficulty secure their horses from panthers and wolves." PUTNAM ORDERS SURVEY Gen. Rufus Putnam, head of the Ohio Company, at Marietta, ordered a survey of Ebenezer Zane's Muskingum mile-square tract and this was made in October, 1797, but President John Adams did not convey the land until February 14, 1800. The new owner did not hold the title long. On December 19, 1800, he deeded the tract to Jonathan Zane and John McIntire "for the consideration of $100." Thus did these two receive payment for their work on the trace. In due time Ebenezer Zane held title to his mile-square tracts at the Hockhocking and the Scioto, according to official promise, but he gave to relatives power of attorney to dispose of the first and deeded the second to Humphrey Fullerton. The plat of Zanesville was filed for record at Marietta on April 28, 1802. COLONEL ZANE'S PLACE IN HISTORY His name holds high place among American pioneers. Put to the test many times by difficulty and danger, he always met them with strength and courage. Briefly and with a simplicity worthy of its subject the inscription on the stone slab at the Zane family burying grounds, Martins Ferry, Ohio, leaves to posterity this record: "In memory of Ebenezer Zane, who died 19th November, 1812, in the 66th year of his age. He was the first permanent inhabitant of this part of the western world, having begun to reside here in 1769. He died as he lived, an honest man." 6—Vol. 1 82 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO JONATHAN TARRIES AWHILE Jonathan Zane remains in our history for a longer time than does his brother. He and McIntire laid out Zanesville, but later he returned to Wheeling. We shall find that John McIntire, who remained in Zanesville during the rest of his days, was her greatest and best early friend. He had honesty, energy, ability, public spirit and sound judgment. CHAPTER VIII GREAT NATIONAL ROAD LAUNCHED, 1811 FINISHED FIRST TO WHEELING AND BEGUN AT ST. CLAIRSVILLE JULY 4, 1825- PLAYED A VITAL PART IN POPULATING THE STATE AND BINDING EAST AND WEST TOGETHER-BUILT TO ZANESVILLE BY 1829-RAILROADS TAKE ITS TRAFFIC AND GLORIES FADE-"COMES BACK" WITH AUTO AND WORLD WAR. It is noteworthy that two Southeastern Ohio counties distinguished the same Independence Day by inaugurating thereon twin enterprises of great "pith and moment," one of a state-wide scope which gave to Ohio's agriculture and industry a tremendous impetus; the other of National scope which also contributed a corresponding share in the state's growth and prosperity. These two memorable events occurred July 4, 1825, the first at Licking Summit, Licking County, where work began on the Ohio Canal. The second, at St. Clairsville, Belmont County, celebrated the same day by beginning there the construction of the Ohio extension of the National Road. It is with the latter that this chapter deals. OHIO RIVER THE FIRST OBJECTIVE As early as December 19, 1805, a committee of the United States Senate reported consideration of five routes for a highway to connect the eastern seaboard with the Ohio River, naming the four different eastern terminals which had received consideration—Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington and Richmond, Va.and some point on the Ohio between Wheeling and Steubenville as the Ohio River crossing-point. The distance from Philadelphia was reported to be 317 miles; from Baltimore 218 miles; from Richmond 341 miles. It was recommended that construction begin at Cumberland, Md., and the sum of nearly thirteen million dollars was reported to be available for the first work of construction. Congress empowered - 83 - 84 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO President Jefferson to appoint three commissioners to survey a road four rods wide from Cumberland westward and appropriated $30,000 for the purpose. PRESIDENT JEFFERSON MAKES PROGRESS The President chose Thomas Moore and Eli Williams of Maryland and Joseph Kerr of Ohio and these commissioners reported December 30, 1806. The report was submitted to Congress January 31, 1807, the President stating that he had asked the authorities of the states through which the road would pass to consent to its construction. By April 9, 1807, Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania had complied with the request. Rival communities west of Cumberland were contentious and importunate as to the choice of a route. The commissioners passed upon claims and counter-claims involving upward of two thousand square miles. The main problem was encountered between Brownsville, Pennsylvania, and the Ohio River and in that connection Albert Gallatin, secretary of the United States Treasury and owner of a large tract of land in western Pennsylvania, was accused of seeking a decision which would add most to its value, whereupon that official wrote to the superintendent to employ a surveyor to select the best route and report distances, topography, etc., to President Jefferson, so that the latter might decide. WORK BEGAN IN 1811 The commissioners' second report went to the President February 15, 1808, and was submitted to Congress on the 19th, with the announcement that the President had approved the route decided upon as far as Brownsville. West of that point, he added, his decision would depend upon what route would best conserve the interests of the populous points in Ohio and the sections westward to St. Louis. Actual work began in 1811 and by September, 1812, a ten-mile section just west of Cumberland had been completed. Construction went steadily forward and during 1818 the road between Cumberland and Wheeling was built. In that year mail coaches were making trips between the latter place and Washing- SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 85 ton City. The road cost $9,745 a mile to Uniontown and $13,000 a mile thence to Wheeling. WHEELING WON GREAT PRIZE In the face of fierce rivalry between the partizans of Steubenville and Wheeling the latter won the Ohio River terminal prize, having the powerful assistance of Henry Clay. The vast new activity which the highway was immediately responsible for east of Wheeling is a matter of history. New settlements and new enterprises multiplied along the line and in 1822 one alone of Wheeling's commission houses unloaded 1,081 National Road wagons and paid out $90,000 in freights. BELMONT, GUERNSEY, MUSKINGUM AND LICKING ALSO WON The residents of Belmont, Guernsey, Muskingum and Licking counties had followed the Steubenville-Wheeling contest with intense interest, believing that if the latter became the great highway's Ohio River crossing-point the road would follow, substantially, Zane's Trace all the way from that stream to Zanesville and run almost due west from Muskingum's county seat. What that would mean to the development of these counties was enthusiastically recognized by their wideawake people and what it did mean to them is told in the histories of the said counties which appear elsewhere in this work. As we have stated, work on the highway west of Wheeling began July 4, 1825. The importance of this event was widely recognized. THE NATIONAL ASPECTS Thus began in Ohio an enterprise destined not merely to build up a great state but also to weld together the Eastern and Western sections of the republic, to avert forever a danger that had threatened—the absorption of sections of the Mississippi basin by England, France or Spain—a basin containing 4,000,000 square miles of territory unsurpassed in those qualities of soil, climate and minerals upon which empires are builded. Nearly one hundred years have passed since the National Road west of Wheeling was finished as far as Zanesville. Southeastern Ohio profited quickly and enormously from its construe- 86 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO tion. Merchants sold their wares in increasing quantities; tavern-keepers took heavy tolls from the fast-multiplying stream of travelers and settlers, coach-makers became busy in the manufacture of vehicles; a new demand sprang up for good horses; droves of live stock lined the highway, bound for Eastern markets. And there was great enrichment on non-material sides. Citizens came in contact with the men of mark who went back and forth over the road. They saw if they did not meet the Henry Clays of the day. They read the Eastern newspapers which came daily by the stage and were in constant touch with the great outside world. Local life became richer and more colorful. Mental bounds were enlarged. After the traffic's modest beginning there was rapid growth until at times twenty coaches were to be seen rolling along sections of the road in a single line. Often a hotel would entertain as many as seventy transient guests over night. The coaches were attractive objects, with their profusely decorated bodies and rich, plush-lined interiors. Bells jingled from where they hung in arches over the hames of the harness; the blowing of stagehorns announced the coach's arrival ; with a speed often averaging ten miles an hour, there was movement enough on the stage's part to quicken the pulse of observers. And the freight traffic and its accompaniments were little less attractive. MAILS ON THE NATIONAL ROAD The most important official function of the National Road was to furnish means of transporting the United States mails. The great mails that passed over the National Road were the Great Eastern and Great Western mails out of Washington and St. Louis. A thousand less important mail lines connected with the road. There were through and way mails, also mails which carried letters only, newspapers going by separate stage. There was also an "express mail" corresponding to the present "fast mail." The old time stage coach was a long, covered conveyance comfortably upholstered. On the rear of the coaches was a leather covered attachment in the shape of an inverted V. This attachment was used for the carrying of baggage. It was called a "boot." In front was an elevated seat for the driver. A rocking motion SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 89 to the coach while moving was effected by the use of two broad heavy leather straps which were used to swing the inverted V conveyance. Even compared with the fast trains of today, the express mails of the early days when conditions were favorable made record time. In 1837 the Post Office Department required in their contract for carrying the Great Western Express Mail from Washington over the National Road to Columbus and St. Louis, the following schedule : To Wheeling, 30 hours ; Columbus, 45 hours; to Indianapolis, 65 hours; Vandalia, 85 hours; and to St. Louis, 94 hours. The ordinary mail coaches which also served as passenger coaches ran on a two-day eleven-hour schedule to Wheeling from Washington. In 1876 Ohio authorized commissioners of the several counties to take so much of the road as lay in each county under their control. It was stipulated that toll gates should not average more than one to ten miles. The county commissioners were to complete unfinished portions of the road. It was estimated that the yearly expense of repairing the Ohio division of the National Road was $100,000 while the greatest amount of tolls collected in a very prosperous year, 1839, was hardly half that amount. As early as 1832, the Governor of Ohio was authorized to borrow money to repair the road in his state. Veech has well said : "It is a monument of a past age ; but like all other monuments, it is interesting as well as venerable. It carried thousands of population and millions of wealth into the West; and more than any other material structure in the land, served to harmonize and strengthen, if not to save the Union." THE GLORY OF THE ROAD DECLINED The iron horse and its trail of freight and passenger cars sounded the doom of the great highway and its surface was permitted to go without repair. The decline was gradual but none the less complete. The toll-gates disappeared when the highway became little better than country roads and to charge for its use was unjust and senseless. Then came the automobile and the World war and out of the influence of owners of the former and the Government, which required a highway that would supplement overburdened railroads in supplying transportation, came 90 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO restoration. On at least one section of the road (in 1915) the Belmont County section, that restoration was celebrated by a parade and other demonstrations, and all along the line in Ohio there was corresponding rejoicing in quieter ways. The pleasure and freight traffic which followed the hard-surfacing of the old highway has increased vastly every year since then until now it is beyond the early dreams of the friends of good roads of twelve years ago. CHAPTER IX THE BROAD AND MAJESTIC OHIO FRENCH FORCE DESCENDED THE STREAM IN 1749 AND WASHINGTON FOLLOWED 21 YEARS LATER-ITS EARLY SHORES A TANGLE OF SNAGS, TREES AND DEBRIS-WAS THE PIONEER'S FRIENDLY HIGHWAY -FIRST STEAMBOAT LEFT PITTSBURGH. IN 1811-APPROPRIATION OF $50,000 IN 1835 USED TO BEGIN ITS IMPROVEMENT-OVER $131,000,000 HAS SINCE BEEN SPENT-FORTY LOCKS AND DAMS GIVE A NINE FOOT CHANNEL, PITTSBURGH TO LOUISVILLE. Although the Alleghany was spoken of in Celoron's time as part of the Ohio River, in this work the Ohio that is formed at Pittsburgh by the Alleghany and the Monongahela will be dealt with; and as we are including in these volumes the history of five Ohio counties whose shores are on the Ohio River—Belmont, Monroe, Washington, Athens and Meigs—the greater part of our story of Ohio River activities will deal with those carried on along the shores of these counties. We shall not dwell upon the river's early names—the "Oyo," the "River of Many White Caps," the "Belle Riviere." The English-speaking pioneer called this stream the Ohio, the acceptability of which name is proven by the fact that it survives. CELORON ON THE OHIO IN 1749 If La Salle descended the Ohio in 1670 and left behind any record of the journey it has not been found; but in 1749 another Frenchman, Celoron, certainly did pass down the stream and his records of the journey are matters of history. As they are referred to in some detail in this work's general introduction it is unnecessary to present them here. Celoron had little to say about the appearance of what was called the Beautiful River but his chaplain, Bonnecamps, instead of adopting the title wrote of the valley as being "buried" between what he called "mountains." "The somber and dismal valley" were words he applied; the - 91 - 92 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO "mountains" did not permit a sight of the sun "before 9 or 10 o'clock in the morning" or after "two or three in the afternoon." WASHINGTON FOLLOWED IN 1770 Washington's journey down the Ohio and back to Pittsburgh, in 1770, very fully described in his journal, is referred to on another page of this work but we reproduce here his enlightening description of certain features of the stream : "There is very little difference in the general width of the river from Fort Pitt to Kenawha ; but in the depths I believe the odds are constantly in favor of the lower parts, as we found no shallows below the Mingo Town, except in one or two places where the river was broad. Every here and there are islands some larger and some smaller, which operating in the nature of locks or steps occasion pretty still water above, but for the most part strong and rapid water below them. However, none of these is so swift but that a vessel may be rowed or set up with poles. When the river is in its natural state large canoes that will carry five or six thousand weight or more may be worked against the stream by four hands twenty or twenty-five miles a day and down a good deal more." RIVER'S SHORES WERE CLUTTERED UP One serious drawback to the early navigation of the Ohio was the tangled condition of the shores, which at many points were dangerous. On dark nights this was especially true because then the sawyers, snags, ripples, rocks, islands and channels were invisible. .Archie Butler Hulburt, in his remarkably interesting and enlightening book, "The Ohio River," shows the extent of the causes of the dangers mentioned when writing about the movement of 1828 to improve the stream. We quote :. "The matter was left, however, as one of the duties of the National Government and in 1825 a feeble beginning seems to have been made in the way of clearing out some of the snags and drift piles. Ten years later $50,000 was appropriated and until 1844 the work went on; it was confined almost wholly to removing the most dangerous obstructions. "In the report of Captain Sanders, dated November 4, 1837 we find that a steam snag boat began ascending the Ohio fro SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 95 Louisville August 1, and reached Letart's Falls by September 30; it had removed 415 snags, seven branches or tree tops, two sunken flat boats and four piles of drift. The most of these snags were very large, many of them having a diameter of six feet at the butt and being over a hundred feet long. "Another boat started at Marietta in June and removed 317 snags, 85 logs, 20 stumps, 10 rocks, 793 branches and six sunken boats before reaching Letart's Falls on September 30. Up to that date, since the beginning of work, 3,303 obstructions had been taken from the Ohio." MUCH USED BY THE HARDY PIONEER But these early conditions of the great river did little to check the vast tide of pioneers which followed the stream to the points upon it which had been selected as spots to be occupied and developed. The Ohio amazingly lent itself to "the winning of the West." The means by which this was done is well suggested in these words from Hulburt's book : "What pen can describe adequately the vast pageant enacted on that river in the years of the great emigration as thousands of canoes, pirogues, skiffs, dugouts, galleys, arks, keelboats, flatboats, broadhorns, 'sneak-boxes' and rafts bore westward their marvelous cargoes." A great epoch in the history of the valley began at Marietta in 1800 where the brig St. Clair was built for the ocean trade and at Elizabeth, Pa., in 1801, when the schooner Monongahela Farmer was built for the same purpose. Some idea of the character and extent of this industry will be gathered from those pages of this work which record the history of Washington County. THE FIRST STEAMBOAT Another history-making event was the launching of the steamer New Orleans at Pittsburgh in 1811 and her journey down the Ohio, past "wondering crowds" at many points. The boat was delayed a month at Louisville but reached Natchez in December, contrary to predictions of pessimistic prophets. Some of these conceded that such a boat might safely descend the Ohio 96 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO and Mississippi but declared it could never go up stream. Other Pittsburgh-built steamers made the downward passage. Says Hulburt of the great success : "It was the Washington, which was built at Brownsville, Pa., and at Wheeling, that quieted all doubts as to successful upstream navigation. Leaving the upper Ohio in 1816, and passing over the Louisville falls September 24 of that year, the Washington reached New Orleans and steamed back to Louisville, from which point she made her second trip to New Orleans. This was on March 12, 1817, and the time consumed by the trip to New Orleans and back was 41 days. This settled many mooted questions and started that navigation of Western rivers which was to play so tremendous a part in the settlement of the Mississippi basin. In 1819 sixty-three steamers were afloat on the Ohio; by 1842 the ship building industry had been well established on the river, in which year Cincinnati built 45, St. Louis 35, and Pittsburgh 25 steamboats." APPROPRIATED $50,000 IN 1835 With such progress and in view of the vast possibilities it was inevitable that the Government should begin improvement of the Ohio. But the beginnings were modest. In 1835 $50,000 was appropriated. Larger appropriations followed until in the decade ending 1906 the appropriation reached $20,000,000. At length the United States Engineers and the powerful friends of the river's improvement established as the Government's goal sufficient locks and dams between Pittsburgh and the mouth of the Ohio to render practicable a channel of nine feet. This work has been completed to Louisville with seven locks and dams between Pittsburgh and East Liverpool ; five between East Liverpool and Wheeling ; five between Wheeling and Marietta; eight between Marietta and Point Pleasant; five between Point Pleasant and Portsmouth ; six between Portsmouth and Cincinnati and four between Cincinnati and Louisville. LOCKS AND DAMS ON THE OHIO To give the reader an accurate and comprehensive knowledge of the improvements made and proposed we here submit an extract from the report made October 5, 1926, by the chief engineer to the secretary of war, which reads in part as follows : SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 97 "The Ohio River is formed by the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela rivers at Pittsburgh, Pa. It flows in a general southwesterly direction and empties into the Mississippi River at Cairo, Ill. The total length of the river is 968.5 miles. (See map published by the United States Engineer Department from the United States engineer office, Louisville, Ky., based on survey of 1911-1914 ; scale 1:7,200.) The drainage area of the Ohio River is 203,900 square miles. At the head of the river the estimated low-water discharge is 1,600 cubic feet per second, and the highest measured flood discharge is 440,000 cubic feet per second. At the mouth of the river the estimated low-water discharge is 27,500 cubic feet per second and the estimated maximum discharge 1,500,000 cubic feet per second. Low-water stage prevails generally for a period of about five months each year between the months of July and November, inclusive. High-water stage occurs usually during spring floods, but moderate freshets may occur at any season of the year, being of infrequent occurrence, however, during summer and fall months. The river is nontidal; the flow is quite rapid on the upper reaches and perceptibly less rapid as it approaches the mouth. The average fall per mile at low-water stage between Pittsburgh and Wheeling, ninety miles, is 11 1/2, inches; between Wheeling and Cincinnati, 378 1/2, miles, 5 1/2 inches; between Cincinnati and the mouth of the river, 500 miles, 4 inches. At low water the drop at the Falls of the Ohio, Louisville, Ky., is 26 feet in a distance of 2 miles. The width between banks varies from about 890 feet at a point 105 miles below Pittsburgh to about 5,910 feet at a point 946 miles below Pittsburgh, or 22.5 miles above the mouth of the river. THE EARLY CONDITIONS "In its original condition the Ohio River was much obstructed throughout its entire length by snags, rocks, and gravel and sand bars, rendering navigation difficult and hazardous. The width of channel was exceeding variable. The depth available for navigation over the worst shoals at extreme low water varied from a minimum of one foot between Pittsburgh, Pa., and Cincinnati, 0. (468.5 miles), to 2 feet between Cincinnati and the mouth of the river (500 miles). Between shoals are pools, some of which 7—Vol. 1 98 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO possess depths of 30 feet even at extreme low water. When the depth on the worst shoals was 3 feet or more the river was navigable throughout its entire length for steamboats and other craft, except when floods or ice occurred. "The first lock and dam on the Ohio River was provided by the river and harbor act of March 3, 1879, which made appropriation for a lock and movable dam at Davis Island, 4.7 miles below the head of the river. The construction of additional dams was provided for by the river and harbor acts, as follows : Dam No. 6, September 19, 1890; Dams Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 5, June 3, 1896; Nos. 13 and 18, March 3, 1899 ; Nos. 8, 11, 19 and 37, June 13, 1902; No. 26, March 2, 1907. The amount expended on original and subsequent projects prior to commencement of operations under the existing project, adopted 1910, including amount expended for purchase, etc., of Louisville and Portland Canal, was $17,657,273.78. GOVERNMENT'S EXISTING PROJECT "This contemplates the improvement of the entire Ohio River by the construction of locks and dams so as to provide a minimum channel depth of 9 feet in the pools formed thereby and the widening of the Louisville and Portland Canal at Louisville, Ky. The total number of dams now included in the project, exclusive of Dams 1 and 2, which were abandoned upon completion of the Emsworth Dam, is 52 or less. The project provides for one lock with usable dimensions of 110 by 600 feet at each dam, and in addition thereto a second lock at the Emsworth Dam with usable dimensions of 56 by 360 feet and a flight of two locks at No. 41 with usable dimensions of 80 by 312 feet. Except at Emsworth, Pa., all the dams are movable type with navigable passes varying in length from 600 to 1,248 feet, closed by wickets of the Chanoine type. In addition to the navigable pass each dam (except at Emsworth) is provided with one or more regulating weirs. In connection with Dam No. 41 there is a canal (Louisville and Portland) 2 miles long and 200 feet wide at the narrowest section, the dam being at the upper end and the locks at the lower end of the canal. "The existing project was adopted by the river and harbor act of June 25, 1910 (H. Doc. No. 492, 60th Cong., 1st sess. This provided for 54 locks and movable dams; for a minimum