PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY CHAPTER I. (RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE) THE ANTE - STATE PERIOD, COMPRISING THE MOUND BUILDERS, INDIAN HISTORY, THE SURVEY OF THE PUBLIC LANDS, THE ORGANIZATION OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY, AND THE TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT, There is indisputable testimony that the mysterious, prehistoric people, whom we term Mound Builders, inhabited not only the county of Muskingum but had a settlement within the present limits of the city of Zanesville ; the evidence consists not in the magnitude but in the number of these prehistoric remains, and while entirely circumstantial, is as conclusive and abundant as exists elsewhere. Numerous small mounds have been found in and about the county and the whipping post, which the law once required each county to maintain, was erected upon a small mound which stood upon the site of the present courthouse. A terrace originally ran from about Main and First streets diagonally to Fifth and Center and continued through to the existing high ground along the river at Seventh Street ; aS laid out, the town limits on the north were at North street, and when the outlaying fields north of that treet, where the High School and the McIntire Academy now stand, were cultivated, the plow turned up spalls of flint, arrOW and spear heads, and stone hammers and axes. Flint is not found. nearer than Flint Ridge, a distance of sixteen miles, and the granite from which the tools were made must have been brought from an even greater distance ; the presence of spans indicates the manufacture of the implements on the spot from minerals received from distant points, and the quantity of the refuse suggests a permanent residence as temporary manufacture would have been conducted nearer the source of the supply of the raw materia!. This work, however, is not designed to consider theoretical subjects ; all that may be alleged respecting the Mound Builders is conjecture and this reference is made that the reader may not conclude that the absence of a chapter on these people is an oversight, and to give assurance the omission is intentional, as matter irrelevant to a narrative of historical facts. Unfortunately, much of the early history of the county will ever remain unwritten, as a full century has elapsed since it began its political existence, and of those who conquered the wilderness and whose recollections were the only record, it must be written Their swords are rust ; Their bones are dust ; Their souls arc with the Lord, we trust. However difficult the task is to ascertain what occurred a century or less ago, the historian of a hundred years to come will experience even greater difficulties in selecting his material from the multiplicity of records the books and newspapers of the period are creating for him. INDIAN HISTORY. Indian records in Muskingum county are very meagre and the reason is very succinctly and truthfully stated in an article on The Ohio Indians in Ohio Archaelogical and Historical Society Publications, volume vi, page 82 : "As illustrating the fierce nature of the conflicts between the tribes north of the Ohio and those south of it in times past, it is an important fact that no tribes lived along the banks of that river or permanently occupied the contiguous territory. The Ohio as it flowed through the wilderness was and has always been considered one of the most beautiful rivers on the globe and its banks pre- 6 - PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY. sented every allurement to, and advantage of permanent occupation. Yet, there was not on it from its source to its mouth, a distance of more than a thousand miles, a single wigwam or structure in the nature of a permanent abode. General William Henry Harrison, in his address before the Historical Society of Ohio, says : " Of all this immense territory, the most beautiful portion was unoccupied. Numerous villages were to be found on the Scioto and the headwaters of the two Miamis of the Ohio ; on the Miami of the Lake (the Maumee) and its southern tributaries and throughout the whole course of the Wabash, at least as low as the present town of Vincennes; but the beautiful Ohio rolled its amber tide until it paid its tribute to the father of waters through an unbroken solitude. At and before that time and for a century after its banks were without a town or single village or even a single cottage, the curling Smoke of whose chimneys would give the promise of comfort and refreshment to the weary traveler.’” This was the result of the long and fierce struggle which was waged between the Indians north of the Ohio and those south of it. Its banks were not safe for permanent occupation by any of the Indian tribes. Even the vast and fertile territory of Kentucky was not, so far as known or as tradition informs us, the permanent abode of any considerable number of red men. Tt was indeed a dark and bloody ground long before its occupancy by the white men. To that territory there were great numbers of buffalo and wild deer and other game which made it a most desirable hunting ground, and hither came the Cherokees and Chickasaws of the south as also the tribes north of the Ohio to hunt and to obtain salt, and to wage war with each other ; but it was not the permanent abode of any considerable number of any of these tribes. It was rather a battle ground and seat of conflict between the northern and southern tribes which had been waged for a long period of time. Muskingum county was sparsely. occupied by Wyandottes, Delawares and a few Senecas and Shawanese, and years before the arrival of the white man an Indian village existed in the vicinity of Duncan's Falls, and because of its antiquity, was referred to as "Old Town." A large Shawanese .town called Wakatomaca was located upon ground now partially included within the corporate limits of Dresden ; the cemetery was quite extensive and when the white man first came remains of the Indian cabins were in existence. The depredations of the Indians upon the Pennsylvania and Virginia frontiers caused Earl Dunmore, governor of Virginia, to order men from the western part of Virginia to rendezvous at Wheeling, in June, 1774, and four hundred responded under Michael Cresap ; Jonathan Zane, Thomas Nicholson and Tady Kelley were pilots and the party descended the Ohio in the boats to the mouth of Captina Creek, in Belmont county, Ohio, and started in the most direct route to Wakatomaca, carrying seven days' rations. They were overtaken by Col. Angus McDonald who had been commissioned by Dunmore as commander and he ordered a halt of three days, which greatly incensed the men who complained they were consuming their provisions in idleness. When about six miles from Wakatomaca, late in the afternoon, the body had just crossed a small stream and waS marching along the first bottom in three parallel lines, in Indian file, and some distance apart, when the scouts discovered traces of Indians. The heads, of the columns were at once thrown together and when the bank was reached some fifty Indians in ambush opened on them. The contemplated surprise was a failure and the whites deployed to the right and left and began he ascent of the bank ; the skirmish became general and lasted about half an. hour, when the Indians gave way in every direction; two white men were killed and eight or ten wounded ; one Indian was killed and several were wounded and it was supposed others were among the killed and wounded, but were carried off according- to the Indian custom. The Indians were pursued by a company on each flank and one in the rear, but when the town was reached it was found deserted. During the battle McDonald was Seen lying behind a lop. and the intelligence was soon in possession of the men ; somewhat after the manner of modern political shouting one man would inquire, in a loud voice, "Who got behind the log?" and a hundred voices would yell in concert, "The Colonel." The nominal commander became furious and threatened the man who started the statement, and the man who had seen him walked to him and declared he had seen hint ; handing his rifle to a comrade he cut some hickory withes and stood on the defensive; the company roared and the colonel walked away. Anticipating pursuit across the river the Indians formed an ambush but scouts had been sent up and down the stream and located the enemy ; a sentinel saw an Indian behind a screen, across the river, who occasionally raised his head for a survey over the river ; the soldier placed a second ball in his rifle, took deliberate aim at the blind and when the head again appeared placed both balls through the savage’s neck, and when the whites crossed the next day the body- was found and scalped. About two hours before daylight Cresap formed his men and led them across the stream, surrounded the Indians but failed to capture them as they scattered in the thicket ; they soon asked a parley and were offered peace on condition that the chiefs be sent as hostages. Fire came and PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY - 7 were placed under guard and marched in front of the white column to the Indian camp. The captives then represented that they could not conclude a treaty without the presence of the chiefs of other tribes, and one was sent to bring them in; he failed to return at the designated time and another was sent on the same mission with similar results. The whites then marched to the next a mile or so away, and had a slight skirmish in which one Indian was killed and one white man was wounded, and upon reaching the town discovered that during the parley the Indians had removed the women, children, infirm and affects, and the town was burned. The whites then returned with the hostages who were sent to confined at Williamsburg until a peace was effected. Years before the government secured any nominal sovereignty to the land north of the Ohio and before any surveys and sales had been made a contriband population came from Pennsylvania and Virginia. encouraged by the traders and land speculators, and formed scattered settlements as far south as the Muskingum, but the land was held by what was termed tomahawk title. The result was the Indians' wrongs were multiplied and the troubles of the peaceful settlers were increased. In 1778 Col. Broadhead reported to Washington that he had sent troops to drive off trespassers on Indian lands and the report caused additional troops to be sent to expel squatters. The Indian raids continued and spasmodic dashes were made against the perpetrators, but the methods were wild and aimless and the results temporary and uncertain. Independent of the actions of the individual members of the white and red races, the governments of both races had good reason to doubt each other's sincerity, and much of the trouble which existed was occassioned by the inability of each contracting party to understand the motives, customs and aspirations of the other : the commingling of the two degrees of human development did not present an illustration of the scriptural text of "how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." The Indians of the northwest were united, in a measure, in a Confederacy, controlled by a Great Council to be binding on all the tribes an agreement required the sanction of this body. When the Federal officers came to the west they erred in ignoring the Great Council and lost its friendship by dealing with the separate tribes, who really had no title and could bind no other tribe. In effect the practice was similar to the binding force of a treaty made by a foreign power with the state of Ohio instead of the general government. Tribal treaties had been concluded by which all the territory south and east of a line up the Cuyahoga river, across the portage to the Tuscarawas and Fort Laurens ; thence west to the portage between the Big Miami and the Auglaize, and thence to the Lake, had been released to the general government, and its authorities labored under the delusion that all the Indian titles had been extinguished ; the opinion became current that the Indians recognized the authority and sovereignty of the United States, and it was some time before it dawned upon the government that the cunning of the Indian had been exercised in taking advantage of the ignorance of the white man respecting the tribal relations. The ravages and murders continued, notwithstanding treaties, the punishments inflicted did no permanent good, and in December, 1786, the Indians sent a remonstrance to Congress in which they declared that all treaties "should be with the general voice of the whole confederation and in the most open manner, without any restraint on either side" and it was held to be "indispensably necessary that any cession of our lands should be made in the most public manner and by the united voice of the confederacy, holding all partial treaties as void and of no effect." A conference was asked and Congress was warned that their property would be defended, but the government returned an evasive reply. Upon the authority of Hildreath it is stated that Col. Harmar desired to prepare the Indians for a favorable consideration of the treaties he knew Gen. St. Clair would propose upon his arrival as Governor of the Northwest Territory, and during the latter part of June, 1788, sent Lieutenant McDowell and thirty men from Fort Harmar with supplies for themselves and presents for the Indians, with instructions to erect a council house and build huts for the men and security of the goods ; the present site of the town of Taylorsville was selected, because of its proximity to the Indian village at Duncan's Falls and its remoteness from the influence of the military post at Marietta. Large numbers of Indians from various tribes had arrived by July 12, among them about twenty pariahs of various nations, and during the night these ruffians stealthily approached the tent containing the goods and attacked the guard of ten men, killing two and wounding one or two others ; the white men returned the fire and their comrades coming to their support the thieves were thwarted, one of the number being killed and one wounded. The Delawares pronounced the dead man a Chippewa and denied all knowledge and collusion, and fearlessly came into the white camp with their women and children ; as further evidence of innocence they seized and bound six of the offenders and delivered them to the troops, who sent them to the fort, where they were kept in irons for a long time. ' "I he incident closed the effort to deal with the Indians at the 8 - PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY. time and the men and stores were returned to Fort Harmar. Gen. St. Clair was averse to trustmg the savages, and they objected to holding a convention to adjust peace measures under the guns of the fort, and both parties prepared for peace or war. Young Brant, son of the famous chief of that name, came down the Tuscarawas and Muskingum trail with two hundred warriors and camped at Duncan's Falls, and sent runners to Governor St. Clair to inform him that it was desired to complete the preliminaries at the Falls, and although nothing had transpired to warrant the conclusion, the Governor suspected a plot to abduct him, and the runners were told that an answer would be sent by a ranger. The remainder of the narrative is so tinctured with romance that the fact cannot be separated from the fiction, and it is repeated as related. Hamilton Kerr was a trusted scout at the fort, and the governor's daughter Louisa was well acquainted with him and was herself noted for her equestrian skill and fearlessness, often riding off into the wilderness alone and returning with large game. Kerr was dispatched to deliver St. Clair's answer and reconnoitre, and when a short distance above Waterford discovered traces of Indians ; while scouting on a bluff he raised to his feet and was astonished to hear a woman's laugh and coming down the bank met the Governor's daughter, on a pony dressed in Indian style, with a short rifle slung to her body ; the ranger was speechless with the vision of the young woman so far from home, and she added to his embarrassment by laughing at his costume, which consisted of a red turban and hunting shirt, no trousers and a breech cloth in their place. Calling him familiarly "Hamm" she told him she had left the fort without any one's knowledge and was going to the Falls to see young Brant, and demanded the letter her father had sent ; Kerr's expostulations were unavailing and they continued their journey, their supper consisting of dried deer and water, and she slept against a tree while he stood guard with rifle in hand. Next day they came in sight of the Indian camp and directing Kerr to conceal himself she rode off with the letter and was soon taken prisoner ; she asked for Brant who soon appeared in full war costume and she handed him the letter, remarking that she had met him when he was attending college, at Philadelphia ; he was much embarrassed and when he had read the letter she remarked she had risked her life to see him, and asked a guard back to Marietta. He replied he guarded the brave and would accompany her in person, and having found Kerr the trio arrived at Marietta the third day, and Brant was introduced to her father. Upon his return to the Falls he conducted his warriors home without a treaty, and in love with the Governor's daughter. He attended the treaty meeting in January, 1789, but took no part in the deliberations, feasted at the fort and in vain asked the hand of his inamorata. In 1791 he led the Chippewas in the battle which resulted in. St. Clair's defeat, and gave orders to shoot the general's horse but to do him no harm ; St. Clair lost four horses in that engagement and several bullets passed through his clothing but he was unhurt. After the whites had made strong settlements in the Muskingum valley the Indians were friendly, their depredations being confined to thieving and drunkenness ; the squaws were very kind, especially in cases of sickness and gathered herbs and roots, prepared teas for colds and fevers, concocted lotions for rheumatism and were generally very successful in their treatment, and instructed the whites in the potency of the vegetable, remedies which they employed. SURVEY OF PUBLIC LAND. A letter from President Washington, respecting the surveys of the public lands, is interesting, not only on account of its historical value and relevancy, but as indicating the care with which public officials were chosen in that clay. The letter is autograph and covers both sides of the sheet, and is remarkably well preserved. "PHILADELPHIA 12th Septr. 1796. "DEAR SIR—By a recurrence to the acts of the last session of Congress, you will find one for disposing of the ungranted lands No. Wt. of the Ohio ; and for appointing a Surveyor General for the purpose therein mentioned ; and you may have heard, that Mr. DeWitt who was Geographer to the army at the close of the war, after the decease of Mr. Erskine, and at present the Surveyor General of the state of New York (a man of profound knowledge in mathematics, and sufficiently skilled in astronomy) was nominated to that office, and has declined the acceptance of it. It is yet vacant ; and you have been mentioned to me as a Gentleman to whom it might be acceptable. "Without taking then a circuitous route to ascertain this fact, I shall apply immediately to yourself for information ; and will frankly ask, because I am sure you will candidly answer (if the appointment should meet your wishes) whether your knowledge in mathematics, practical Surveying, and so much of astronomy as is useful to a skillful exercise of the latter, for discovering the Latitude, Meridian, &c., now are or easily could be made familiar to you. These questions are propounded because affirmative qualifications are essential. "As the season and circumstances befit now to PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY - 9 press for an appointment and as my continuance here, and the road I shall travel back to Virginia (for the purpose of returning with my family for the winter) are somewhat uncertain, I request the favor of you to put your answer to this letter under cover to the Secretary of State, who will be directed to open it, and to fill up the blank .commission which I shall deposit in his office with your name, if you are disposed to accept it ; or with that of another Gentleman who is held in contemplation if you do not. You may if it is not too troublesome, address a duplicate to me at Mount Vernon, to remain in the Post Office at Alexandria until called for. "With great esteem & regard, "I am Dear Sir "Your Very Hble. Servant "Go. WASHINGTON." “The Honble. "James Jewett." THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY. The exclusion of French and British authority from the territory northwest of the Ohio river did not end the contest for national supremacy over the tract there was no general government in fact and several states claimed ownership none of these claims were based on evidence which an outside power would have respected, but when the states bargained among themselves each possessed value, although Virginia only could claim land which was occupied. This vast and first public domain of the United States was the creation, by voluntary cession, of the states themselves, and when the cessions had all been made the Federal government had title to 169,959,680 acres northwest of the Ohio river. The first actual movement to cede the western land to the United States came from New York, whose claims were the least defensible, as no citizen of that commonwealth lived in the region alleged be owned. It claimed the territory as the heir of the Iroquois tribes, under treaties with the Six Nations and their conquered tributaries, and for land extending from the lakes to the Cumberland mountains, including Kentucky which was also claimed by Virginia under charter rights and conquest. February 19, 1780, the legislature of New York ye proof of its national sentiments by authorizing the cession of all its claims to the United States on certain conditions, and March 1, 1781, Congress accepted the proposition. Further, the western limits were voluntarily fixed on the meridian of the extreme western end of Lake Ontario, which left the "Erie Triangle" at the northwest of Pennsylvania : this small portion was also claimed by Massachusetts and included in its later cession, and 1792 the United States sold it to Pennsylvania to give that state a frontage on Lake Erie. September 6, 1780, a committee of Congress expressed the opinion, which was adopted, that "It appears more advisable to press upon these states which can relieve the embarrassments respecting the western country, a liberal surrender of a portion of their territorial claims since they cannot be preserved entire without endangering the stability of the general confederacy" and October To it was determined, as the first step in the administration of the public domain, that all western land ceded to the general government should be disposed of for the common advantage, saving only that the reasonable expense of any state thus ceding her rights might be allowed her, in case she had been at the cost of defending the ceded parts during the war. July 31, 1782, Congress took steps for a survey and disposition of vacant lands, and a committee reported September 5 "that it is their opinion that the western land, if ceded to the United States, might contribute towards a fund for paying the debts of the states," and on motion of Mr. Witherspoon it was amended to read, "for the discharge of the national debt." July 3, 1783, the first draft of an ordinance for the government of the Northwest Territory was presented by Theodorick Bland, in which it was proposed to accept the land from Virginia conditionally, and ultimately divide it into states as soon as such sections of it should contain 20,000 people. Virginia made the largest claim of any of the states to western land based on chartered rights and conquest, and her assertion of title had early, in the Revolutionary war, been questioned by those states which had no chartered extensions to the west ; the disputants alleged that common cause was being made for independence and that unsettled land should be shared in common by all the states, and Maryland had blocked the formation of the Confederation by refusing to join unless the question was settled. Maryland's protest was laid before Congress, May 21. 1779, when Virginia rather arrogantly told the remonstrants that she could manage her own affairs, and, disregarding the growing conviction that all western land should belong to the nation as a whole, proceeded to arrange to open an office for the sale of lands south of the Ohio, although New York, under treaties with the Indians, and Massachusetts and Connecticut under charters, disputed her claims. Certain. land companies, holding tracts in the territory, memorialized Congress to arrest the sale of all land until Virginia and the companies could be heard and October 30, 1779, Congress passed a resolution, for which all but Virginia and North Carolina voted, which earnestly recommended to 10 - PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY. "the said state, and all other states similarly circumstanced, to forbear selling or issuing warrants for such unappropriated lands, or granting the same during the continuance of the present war." Virginia replied December 14, 1779, and stated she desired to give every satisfaction in her power, consistent with her rights, and had enacted a law to prevent settlements north of the Ohio but protested against any claims by the contending companies ; she argued her title and expressed her willingness to furnish land north of the Ohio, without money, as bounty to the sol diers of such states as had no lands for the purpose. In 1780 Thomas Paine attacked Virginia's claim in a pamphlet styled "Public Good" and urged that a new state be formed of the western land and the proceeds of the land sales be used to pay the debts of the war, and September 6, 178o, Congress recommended to the several states having claims to western laids to cede the same to the United States. January 2, 1781, Virginia yielded to Congress the lands north of the Ohio on condition that Congress would guarantee to Virginia all her other claims south of that stream, but the price was regarded too great and Congress declined, and Virginia lost the opportunity of taking the lead in the movement which began March I, 178i, when New York ceded its claims to the general government. September 13, 1783, Congress prescribed the conditions upon which it would accept a cession from Virginia, which was agreed to by all the states excepting Maryland and New Jersey, and December 20, 1783, Virginia authorized her delegates in Congress to convey to the United States all rights to the territory northwest of the Ohio, which cession was signed March I, 1784, by Thomas Jefferson, Arthur Lee, James Monroe and Samuel Hardy. The cession contained a reservation that in case the quantity of good land in Virginia's territory south of the Ohio was insufficient for the bounties to Virginia's soldiers, the deficiency should be made in good land lying between the Scioto and Little Miami rivers in Ohio, and 4,204,80o acres were so reserved and known as the Virginia Military Lands. The Federal Government was also to confirm the possession and title of the French Canadians and other villager citizens of Virginia, and satisfy the land bounty claim of George Rogers Clarke and soldiers to an aggregate of 150,000 acres. The cession stipulated that all land within the territory ceded, and not reserved for an appropriation to any specific purpose or disposed of in bounties to the officers and soldiers of the American army, should be considered as a common fund for the use and benefit of such of the United States as have become or may become members of the Confederation, or federal alliance of the said states, Virginia inclusive, according to the respective proportion in the general charge and expenditure, and for no other purpose or use whatsoever. April 5, 1784, a committee of Congress reported that "Congress still considers vacant territory as a capital resource," and the Virginia cession having been made, on April 23, 1784, the act, known as the Ordinance of 1784, was passed for the temporary government of the ceded territory, and it was provided that ten small states should be created to be known as Sylvania, Michigania, Chersoneus, Illinoia, Assenisipia, Metropotamia, Saratoga, Washington, Polypotamia and Pelesipia. This Ordinance was inoperative and nothing was done under it. Massachusetts claimed charter rights to a strip of territory between Lakes Huron and Erie, bounded on the east by the St. Clair and Detroit rivers and Lake St. Clair, and extending westward, in parallel lines, across Michigan, Lake Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin, to the Mississippi river ; this territory was beyond the country in which her title had been extinguished by later grants, was a wilderness occupied by the British and Indians, and in which no citizen of Massachusetts resided or could go April io, 1785, it was ceded to the United States without reserve. May 20, 1785, Congress passd the first Ordinance respecting the method of disposing of western lands, and while the final cessions were pending the future of the vast domain was discussed, at intervals, but little progress was made until May To, 1786, when a committee reported that the number of states should not be less than two nor more than five, but the question of slavery in them was left open nothing further was done until April 26, 1787, when another committee reported "An Ordinance for the government of the western Territory" which, after various amendments, was marked, May To, for a third reading, and further consideration was deferred until July 9. In the light of experience, every plan proposed from September 6, 1780, when the resolution was passed asking the states to cede land, until July 6, 1787, when the Ohio proposition was made, would have been harmful had it been carried out. At the beginning of the Revolutionary war, Connecticut claimed a strip of land lying between her charter limits, 41 degrees and 42 degrees and 2 minutes north latitude, extending from the Delaware river to the Mississippi river ; Pennsylvania also claimed the strip lying within her charter limits and the bitter controversy was decided by the federal court sitting at Trenton, New Jersey, in 1782, in favor of Pennsylvania, which left Connecticut claiming that part west of the western boundary of Pennsylvania, and which lay south of PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY - 11 the Massachusetts claim across Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin to the Mississippi. In October, 1780, Connecticut agreed to cede the territory to the United States with retained jurisdiction which Congress declined, and in January, 1783, Connecticut instructed her delegates to proceed no further ; May 20, 1786, the legislature authorized the delegates in Congress to cede the western lands, after New York, Virginia and Massachusetts had ceded theirs, but shrewdly retained a proprietary right in 4,300,000 acres in Ohio, along the shore of Lake Erie. September 13, 1786, the cession was made of all the land claimed except that portion lying between the western boundary of Pennsylvania and a meridian 120 miles west thereof, which reservation was known as the Western Reserve of Connecticut, and sometime as New Connecticut, the soil and jurisdiction being reserved. This concession was strongly opposed and Washington was not in favor of accepting it, but Congress was extremely anxious to obliterate all claims by the states to the western lands, and acceded to the agreement. The title to the land was not so good as in the other portion of the territory, where Federal warrants were given, and April 28, 1800, Congress passed an act agreeing to issue Federal warrants for the western reserve land on condition that Connecticut would quit claim its title to the United States : the legislature having authorized this, on May 30, 1800, the Governor executed the document. In October, 1786, one month after the cession. the legislature of Connecticut resolved to put the reserve land on the market, at not less than three shillings per acre, and $27 per township of six miles square was paid in specie for the survey. May 10, 1792, the legislature donated 500,000 acres in the reserve for the citizens of Connecticut whose property and homes had been destroyed by the British during the war the aggregate number of such persons was 1,870 and their losses amounted to 161,548 pounds sterling this reservation was known as the Fire or Sufferer's lands. In May, 1793, the legislature appointed a committee to sell the land, and in October they reported an act to sell the land to establish a fund for the support of the ministry and public schools, which was adopted, but the ecclesiastical feature gave such dissatisfaction it was repealed. In May, 1795, another enactment was agreed on for the sale of the land and a committee appointed to carry it into execution. Propositions for the purchase were advertised in June, and in August a meeting was held to consider the bids, which ran from $1,000,000 to $1,250,000, the highest being from a citizen of New York ; this aroused the people of Connecticut and the bidder proposed to give them a -half interest in the tract ; a counter proposition caused the withdrawal of the New York proposition ; as nearly every person in Connecticut was interested in one or more of the numerous land companies, a proposition was finally accepted to sell the tract for $1,200,000, payable in five years. The sale was made August 12, and September 2, 1795, the deeds were made but no money was paid, and the purchasers had considerable difficulty in giving security, and later had to give the land as collateral. The school fund of Connecticut amounts to more than $2,000,000, and yields the state annually about $120,000 from the sale of the western reserve lands. July 9, 1787, Congress referred the Ordinance to a new committee, which reported on the 11th; on the 12th the anti-slavery clause was added and July 13, 1787, the famous Ordinance became a law with only one dissenting vote and July 27, 1787, the terms of sale to the Ohio company passed the Congress. The Ordinance of 1787 has been pronounced "the Ordinance of Freedom" and "Next to the Federal Constitution, the greatest of all legislative acts." Daniel Webster declared that no single law, or any law giver, ancient or modern, has produced effects of more distinct and lasting character. In his address at the Centennial celebration, of the landing of the Pilgrims at Marietta, Senator George F. Hoar said : "Here was the first human government under which absolute civil and religious liberty has always prevailed. Here no witch was ever hanged or burned. No heretic was ever molested. Here no slave was ever born or dwelt. When older states or nations, where the chains of human bondage have been broken, shall utter the proud boast, siWith a great sum obtained I this freedom, each sister of this imperial group-Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin-may lift her queenly head, with the yet prouder answer, 'But I was free born.' TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT. In November, 1785, a detachment of United States' troops, under Major Doughty, was sent to the mouth of the Muskingum river, where they erected Fort Harmar on the west bank ; July 13, 1787, the famous ordinance creating the Territory Northwest of the river Ohio was adopted by the Congress of the Confederation, and October 5, 1787, Gen. Arthur St. Clair was appointed Governor, but did not proceed to his post until the succeeding summer. April 7, 1788, the first settlement in the Territory was established at Marietta, and as there was no government the settlers, on the next day, voluntarily adopted a code of regulations and nailed a copy to a tree on the river bank. These rules were to govern 12 - PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY. the dealings of the people with each other and meet the exigencies of the community until the officers of the Territory should arrive and institute regular government. The Governor and party arrived July 9, 1788, and rested until the 15th when the Governor publicly appeared before the assembled settlers, read the commissions of himself and colleagues, delivered his inaugural and began the government. His first official act for the establishment of local government was the erection of Washington County, which was proclaimed July 27, 1788, and embraced all that portion of the present state of Ohio lying east of Cuyahoga river and its portage to the Tuscarawas, and the course of the latter to Fort Laurens (or Lawrence) ; thence west to the Scioto river and by its course to the Ohio, the area embracing nearly one half the present state. The ordinance of 1787 provided for a governor to serve three years, to be appointed by the Congress, as the government of the United States under the Constitution had not yet been formed ; a secretary to be likewise appointed to serve four years, and a court of three judges to serve during good behavior, two of whom should constitute a court and have common law jurisdiction. The governor and judges, or a majority of them, had authority to adopt and publish "such laws of the original states, criminal and civil, as may be necessary and best suited to the circumstances in the -district, and report them to Congress ;" and such enactments were to remain in force until the organization of a general assembly and their repeal, unless disapproved by the Congress. The only participation the people had in the government was to yield a blind obedience to the directions of the governor and judges, and Nathan Dane, the reputed author of the Ordinance of 1787, said it was "made unfriendly to liberty" in order to induce the early formation of states to become a part of the Federal union. The first assumption of local government, by the people, occurred at Marietta. February 4, 1789, during the absence of the governor and judges, when a town meeting was held to make some police regulations for the village, and apologies were made to the Territorial authorities for the action on the plea of urgent necessity. The first local government was established by publication, November 6, 1790, which directed "the justices of the court of general quarter sessions of the peace" in the several counties "to divide the counties into townships" and creating the offices of constable, overseer of the poor and township clerk, who were to be appointed by the justices and not elected by the people. The judges in each county were empowered to appoint assessors and June 19, 1795, the first power conferred on the people was given by an act providing that the assessors should be chosen by the electors in each township, and the first officers chosen by them were the ones that imposed the tax. Town meetings were established January 18, 1802, and persons elected to office were required to serve or pay a fine of $5.00, but were not obliged to serve two consecutive years. It was stipulated in the Ordinance that when there should be 5,000 free male inhabitants in the Territory they should have authority to elect representatives from their counties or townships to a General Assembly, to serve two years, on the basis of one representative for every 500 free male inhabitants, until there were 25 representatives, after which the ratio should be fixed by the legislature, but every representative was required to be a citizen of the United States for three years and a resident of the district, or a resident of the district for three years, and in either case must own, in his own right, 200 acres of land in the same ; a voter was required to have fifty acres of land in the district and be a citizen and resident, or a like freehold and two years' residence. The General Assembly consisted of the Governor, Legislative Council and a House of Representatives. The Legislative Council consisted of five members to serve five years, unless sooner removed by Congress, and three of whom should be a quorum, to be chosen in the following manner : When the representative had been elected the Governor was to name a time and place for them to meet and nominate ten persons, resident in the district, and each possessed of a freehold in 50o acres of land, and return their names to the Congress, five of whom the Congress was to select and commission as such Council ; when a vacancy occurred the House of Representatives was to name two persons, one of whom the Congress was to select and commission for the remainder of the term ; and every five years the House was to nominate ten persons from whom the Congress was to choose five. The Governor, Legislative Council and House of Representatives had authority to make laws in all cases for the government of the Territory not repugnant to the principles and articles of the Ordinance, and when a legislature had been formed the Council and House, by joint ballot, were permitted to choose a Delegate to the Congress, with a voice but no vote. Preceding the formation of a Territorial Legislature the following counties had been formed by proclamation of the Governor : Hamilton, in Ohio, January 2, 1790; enlarged February 11, 1792 ; again enlarged June 22, 1798, by a part of Knox. St. Clair, in Illinois, April 27, 1790. Knox, in Indiana, June 20, 1790. Randolph, in Illinois, October 15, 1795. Wayne, PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY - 13 in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, August 5, 1796. Adams, in Ohio, taken from Hamilton, July 1o, 1797. Jefferson, in Ohio, taken from Washington, July 09, 1797. Ross, in Ohio, taken from Adams, August 20, 1798 and a strip taken off the east side of Hamilton and added to Adams. Nine counties therefore existed, in the Northwest Territory when, in 1798 it was ascertained there were enough male inhabitants to entitle them to enter upon the second grade of territorial government, and Governor St. Clair issued a proclamation directing the electors to choose Representatives to the first General Assembly ; the election was held in December, 1798, and as the legislature could not convene until the Legislative Council was commissioned the Representatives elect were directed to assemble at Cincinnati, February 4, 1799, to nominate ten persons from whom the selection by the Congress should be made. The original Ordinance was enacted by the Congress of the Confederation but the government of the United States, under the Constitution, had meantime been formed and at the first session of the first Congress an act had been passed directing that "in order that the Ordinance of the United States, in Congress assembled, for the government of the Territory Northwest of the river Ohio, may continue to have full effect, it is requisite that certain provisions should be made to adapt the same to the present Constitution of the United States" and it was provided that in all cases wherein the Governor of the Territory was directed to report to the Congress of the Confederation he should communicate with the President of the United States, who would nominate, and by and with the consent of the Senate, appoint all officers which the Ordinance stipulated should be appointed by the Congress. Of the ten men selected by the Representatives the President commissioned two from Hamilton county, and one each from Washington and Jefferson counties in Ohio and Indiana. The First General Assembly of the Territory convened at Cincinnati, September 16, 1799, and adjourned December 19. An idea of the population of the territory now covered by the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan, may be had by considering the representation to this body : Hamilton county had 7 ; Ross, 4 ; Adams and Washington, 2 each ; Jefferson, I ; or 16 in all from the Ohio counties ; St. Clair and Randolph, each, or 2 from Illinois ; Knox, 1 from Indiana ; and Wayne, 1, from the combined Ohio, Indiana and Michigan counties ; a total of 22 members. From the beginning of the Territorial government, differences of opinions had prevailed between the Executive and the judges respecting the scope of their legislative authority. In "Winning of the West," Theodore Roosevelt says of St. Clair : "He was an autocrat both by military traimng arid by political principles. He was a man of rigid honor, and he guarded the interests of the Territory with jealous integrity, but he exercised such a vigorous supervision over the acts of his subordinate colleagues, the judges, that he became involved in wrangles at the very beginning of his administration." The Governor contended that he and the judges could adopt only such laws as were in force in some state, but the judges outvoted him, and when the question was referred to the Congress the Governor was sustained. Other causes of friction had arisen while the Governor had considerable influence and a large following the opposition was powerful as was manifested when the General Assembly selected a Delegate to Congress. Although the Governor was a part of the legislature he was excluded from participating in the selection of the Delegate, and Captain W. H. Harrison, Secretary of the Territory, was named in opposition to Arthur St. Clair, Jr., son of the Governor, and Attorney General of the Territory, and October 3, 1799, Harrison received one majority as a Delegate. When Harrison resigned the secretaryship to go to Congress, the office remained vacant a couple of months and a young Virginian, Charles Willing Byrd, an earnest Jeffersonian Republican, was appointed, and as he was ex-officio Governor, in the absence of that officer, he exercised his ad interim authority to advance his party interests, a practice as common in those days as the present. The greater part of the Representatives were Federalists and as they had the selection of the Legislative Council that body was entirely of that political faith, and had been appointed by President Adams. The pioneers of the Northwest Territory were not all poor men seeking food and shelter in the forest, and content with that small share of this worldls goods. The Ohio and Scioto Companies were crude and primitive forms of syndicates and trusts, and the only difference between them and the powerful combinations of the present day is the more subtle methods, refinement and finesse of the current period. Speculation was rife and infected everything, and the Governor was severely criticised by those whose schemes he would not promote by official authority ; counties were created as rapidly as his judgment dictated they were demanded, but he resisted the clamors of numerous localities for the creation of counties where the only benefit would accrue to the land speculators, and when the Territorial legislature met the subject became a disturbing element between it and the Executive. Several acts were passed creating new counties, or changing the boundaries of existing ones, six 14 - PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY. of which he vetoed ; the legislature insisted that when the Governor had laid out the country into counties and townships, as he had done, his exclusive authority ceased and the General Assembly had authority to alter, divide or multiply at pleasure, subject to his approval. He would not agree to change or alter, and contended that in some of the proposed counties the number of inhabitants was inadequate to sustain the expense of such a government, as there were not to exceed one hundred male inhabitants. His biographer says : "The greed which characterized the transactions in lands actuated those who were speculators to seek to control the establishment of new county towns ; they hoped to increase the value of their lands, as the public improvements in the way of buildings and roads, and superior advantages incidental to a county seat would attract the better class of settlers to such neighborhoods." An illustration of the speculative methods is given in Howe's Historical Collections, volume I, page 228, under head of Adams County : "The first court in this county was held in Manchester. Winthrop Sargent, the Secretary of the Territory, acting in the absence of the Governor. appointed commissioners, who located the county seat at an out of the way place a few miles above the mouth of Brush Creek, which they called Adamsville. The location was soon named, in derision. 'Scant.' At the next session of the court its members were divided and part sat at Adamsville and part at Manchester ; the Governor, on his return to the Territory, finding the people in great confusion, and much bickering between them, removed the seat of justice to the mouth of Brush Creek, where the first court was held in 1798. Here a town was laid out, by Noble Grimes, under the name of Washington. A large courthouse was built, with a jail in the lower story, and the Governor appointed two more of the 'Scant' party judges, which gave them the majority. In i800, Charles Willing Byrd, Secretary of the Territory, in the absence of the Governor, appointed two more of the Manchester party judges, which balanced the parties, and the contest was maintained until West Union became the county seat." Before the adjournment of the first session of the legislature the Governor addressed the members: "I am truly sensible, gentlemen, of the inconveniences that follow from a great extension being given to counties ; they cannot, however, be constructed while the settlements are otherwise, and the inconveniences are not lessened, but rather increased, by being made very small, with respect to the number of inhabitants: "The expenses which necessarily attend the establishment of counties, fall light when divided amongst a number, but become a heavy burden when they must be borne by a few, and the inconveniences of attending the courts as jurors and witnesses, which are sometimes complained of, are increased nearly in the same ratio as the counties are multiplied within the same bounds. "There is yet another reason, gentlemen, why these acts were not assented to. It appears to me that the erecting of new counties is the proper business of the Executive. It is indeed provided that the boundaries of counties may be altered by the legislature but that is quite a different thing from originally establishing them. They must exist before they can be altered, and the provision is expressed that the Governor shall proceed, from time to time, as it may become necessary, to lay them out. While I shall most studiolisly avoid encroaching on any of the rights of the legislature, you will naturally expect, gentlemen, that I should guard with equal care, those of the Executive." St. Clair's opponents insisted that he was unwilling to erect new counties because of fear that with a larger number in the legislature his political influence would be diminished and the sentiment against him was so strong that steps were taken to curtail his authority, and before the second session of the legislature assembled Congress had been induced to pass an act, which was approved May 7, i800, to take effect July 4. I800, by which the Northwest Territory was divided by a line drawn from the mouth of the Kentucky river to Fort Recovery, and thence due north to the territorial line. The portion west was erected into the Territory of Indiana, with St. Vincennes, on the Wabash, as the seat of government, and the eastern part was continued as the Territory Northwest of the river Ohio, with practically the area afterwards organized as the state of Ohio, with the seat of government at Chillicothe, on the Scioto. This had the effect of cutting down the representation, and when the second session met at Chillicothe, November 3, 180o, and remained in session until December 9, 1800, there were the former counties of Washington, Hamilton, Wayne, Adams, Jefferson and Ross, with the new county of Trumbull, which the Governor had formed by proclamation July 10, 1800. The Ordinance required that electors should own land in fee simple and the surveys contemplated the sale by government in larger tracts than actual settlers of small means could secure. Delegate Harrison's first act in Congress was to offer a resolution to subdivide the surveys and permit the sale of small tracts ; this was vigorously opposed by the large landowners but the measure passed over their protests and every in- PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY - 15 dustrious man was enabled to secure his own home, on easy terms, and liberal extensions were made in the payments for those who had preemption rights. The census of 1800 revealed that the Ohio territory had a population of 42,000, and although the number was insufficient to establish a state under the Ordinance, the people were ambitious form a state government, and made application to the Federal authority for the purpose. Both Federalists and Anti-Federalists schemed for the advantage and to have the boundaries coincide with their political majority. St. Clair was a Federalist and advocated a state extending only to the Scioto river on the west, as the majority of the voters in that territory were Federalists. Jefferson had become President after a severe struggle by a narrow margin and by the personal interposition in his favor of his old enemy, Alexander Hamilton, and the party knew it was essential to have a new Republican (Democratic) state before the election in 1804. In the boundaries, as proposed by the Ordinance of 1787, the majority was Anti-Federalist and as Congress was of that political school the action taken by the Ohio legislature consenting to a reduction of area was not approved, and the daries named in the Ordinance were left intact. The second legislature, first session, convened at Chillicothe, November 23, 1801, and remained session until January 23. 1802 : the second session was never held as the action taken to form a state rendered it unnecessary. Three additional counties had been formed since the preceding session : Clermont, by proclamation dated December 6, 1800, and taken off Hamilton : FairfieId, formed from about equal portions of Washington and Ross and proclaimed December 9, 1800; and Belmont, made from the northern part of Washington and the southern part of Jefferson, September 7, 1801. None of these three counties sent representatives to the session, which contained 21 members : 7 from Hamilton, 4 from Ross, 3 each from Jefferson and Wayne, 2 from Washington, and 1 each from Adams and Trumbull. January, 1802, a census was taken of the eastern territory and 45.028 persons, of both sexes, were enumerated : application was made to Congress for leave to call a convention to establish a state government, which was referred to a committee which reported to the House of Representatives on March 4, 1802, that while the number of inhabitants, by census, was insufficient to comply with the statute, the immense sales of land in the limits of the territory, and the progressive increase of population since the census would give the necessary population "before all the measures necessary for the formation of a constitution, putting into operation a state government and its admission into the Union can be effected." April 30, 1802, an act was approved prescribing the present limits and directing that all male citizens of the United States, of full age and who had resided in the Territory for at least one year and had paid county or territorial tax, and all who were otherwise qualified to vote for representatives in the Territorial legislature, should be qualified to vote for representatives to a convention to meet at Chillicothe, on the first Monday in November, to determine, first, whether it was expedient to form a state government and if a majority should so declare the convention had authority to frame a constitution and form a state government. Representation was fixed : Trumbull, Belmont, Fairfield and Clermont, 2 each Adams, 3 ; -Washington, 4 ; Jefferson and Ross, 5 each ; Hamilton, 10; in all 35. November 1, 1802, the convention met at Chillicothe, John McIntire, of Zanesville, being a delegate from Washington county, and a resolution, "That it is the opinion of the convention that it is expedient, at this time, to form a constitution and state government,- was adopted by a vote of 32 to 1, the negative being cast by Ephraim Cutler, of Washington county. The convention remained in session until November 29. and on the question of submitting the constitution to the people for approval, Washington and Jefferson counties voted solidly, with 7 votes, for submission. but the remaining 27 were cast against. Ohio was selected as the name for the new state and on the last day the constitution was signed 1w the members and became the law by that act. The struggle for political supremacy was strenuous. St. Clair was 65 years of age and the Federalist leader, and his supporters were mostly men of mature age with a few active, young men, while the opposition was mostly young, active. shrewd, irrepressible men. The scheming was far reaching on both sides, and was often deep and treacherous, so that personal violence was not infrequent : efforts were made. by filing charges, to secure the removal of St. Clair, but even President Jefferson, the reputed father of the spoils system, would not act until the latter part of 1802. Howe, in Historical Collections of Ohio, in chapter on Warren county, quotes from a series of articles in the Western Star, at Lebanon. to the effect that St. Clair was removed and Gen. Harrison appointed in his stead: as Harrison did not succeed St. Clair and the other alleged facts are not well sustained the entire statement must be accepted with some distrust. The venerable 16 - PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY. contributor stated that a mob assembled one night in the streets of Chillicothe, and next morning Gen. St. Clair, in the presence of three prominent gentlemen, expressed contempt for the weakness of the theory upon which the government was being conducted, and declared that a stronger form, such as had made England the model of nations, would have to be adopted. Gen. St. Clair's strong Federalist principles were well known, and one of the party's most prominent theories was a strong central government, so that a declaration of this character was not an unknown or unfamiliar utterance, and the Governor had made similar ones many times before. A more probable reason for the removal of the Governor is found in the statement that in an ill-advised speech, made in a private capacity before the constitutional convention, November 3, 1802, he expressed opinions which caused the following frigid letter to be written : "WASHINGTON, November 22, 1802. "Arthur St. Clair, Esq. "SIR—The President Observing, in an address lately delivered by you to the convention held at Chillicothe, an intemperance and indecorum of language toward the Legislature of the United States, and a disorganizing spirit and tendency of very evil example, and grossly violating the rules and conduct enjoined by your public station, determines that your commission as Governor of the Northwest Territory shall cease on the receipt of this communication. I am, etc., The letter was signed simply "James Madison," and its decidedly low temperature recalls a similar letter written a century later to an old soldier who had fallen under the disfavor of the administration. Secretary Byrd became acting Governor until Edward Tiffin assumed the office upon the erection of the state. February 19, 1803, an act was approved which stated that the people of Ohio had, on the 29th day of November, 1802, formed a state government and provision was made for the operation of the United States' courts therein. When the Federalists had been defeated in the effort to have a small state, they opposed the proposed one; not having secured what they desired they preferred none; when the act passed calling a convention and leaving it to the body to determine whether there should be a state, it became important for each side to secure as many delegates as possible. Political excitement ran high, the Federalists claiming that the number of representatives from the several counties adverse to them was unfair, and that Wayne county was omitted because it was opposed to the new state, but this was not a true representation of the facts as the portion of Wayne in Ohio was an Indian reservation and was unsettled by whites.